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The NCL Epic was designed by the French, a first I think for NCL. I hope it is a last as even though this is my 15th NCL cruise and I was excited about being on the largest NCL ship....the balcony room could not have been smaller. The walls are "S" shaped to mimic waves but simply eat space. There is NO privacy for the toilet or shower. Both the toilet and shower are shaped like space pods or the devices used to rescue miner stranded deep in the earth. The toilet is one side of the cabin door and the shower on the other. In the morning you walk the halls to breakfast greeting by the smell of excrement and you will walk the halls as this huge ship has only two banks of elevators. You cannot walk around any deck but 15 and you have to compete with joggers there.
What is good? The Cirque Dreams show is fantastic and the number of specialty dining options is great. I recommend the Noodle Shop and Sushi bar but the Garden Cafe which is the general dining area is quite poor with overcooked, relatively unhealthy choices. Most NCL ships offer recent movies on the TV for free but the Epic has pay per view and the movies offered for free are not from this century: Grease (huh?); Rocky (are you kidding); Citizen Kane and Casablanca were welcomed but hey you could do much better. Iron Man 2 was on the "big screen" in the atrium but there was no audio on your cabin TV, no wonder they provided ENGLISH subtitles!!
Those bathrooms have to go; the cabins have to be bigger--the balcony was big but the microtable did not allow you to put a room service tray on it..the coffee pot barely fit; the air conditioner vent is midheight by the cabin door so the person sleeping by the door is frozen; you see repair men every day so something is wrong with this ship. I heard the original French engineering team was still on board fixing problems. A guest had a window blow out of their VIP suite and another guest had their studio door fall on them--they got free x-rays and a case of 6 one liter water bottles...the Epic is NOT generous.
This was my 15th NCL trip so I LOVE NCL but you can keep the Epic....forget about it.
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