I have cruised on 4 major lines, Princess, Royal Carribean, Carnival and Norwegian. All have the pluses and minuses but generally they are overall similar in the expectations, at least that is what I believed when booking my last trip with NCL leaving 4/29 out of Barcelona. The ship, the line, food and entertainment couldn't be more of a disappointment. I have always been very happy with cruising and am not typically one who has a lot of complaints. NCL shattered this and quickly.

Having never been to Europe we decided this was the year we would take the plunge and go for it. The ports of call were great, interesting and lots of fun. Wish I could say the same for the ship. Epic is not your typical ship. It is in my opinion poorly laid out. There is little to no quiet sitting areas to relax and just look out the window. Every place your able to find a seat is surrounding a bar. Don't try out on deck that gets no better. There is is limited section with normal railings where you can see over without looking thru glass walls. Most of the ships view is blocked with wall like railings throughout. Feels like NCL doesn't want you to see something. We decided to try walking on deck 7 to see the waves and most of that deck is also blocked by the lifeboats. When this ship was designed it was clearly for maximum people and profit, not enjoyment or relaxing.

The entertainment leaves a lot to be desired. Quality of shows is good. Types, options and how to see them is the problem. Some people may enjoy the ability to select what night you see what but dealing with sellouts and paying for some shows is not my idea of a stressfree vacation. This ship offered 5 shows from what I found. I personally had no desire to see a ballet performance so it got whittled down to 4 options. If you chose not to book one of the shows then alternatives are the same singers and bands playing all seven days. No variation, no special guests, no late night shows, no alternatives. Also if you are not a drinker then your pretty much out of all options because the repetitive bands play in small nightclub types of venues where being pounded to buy a drink is the normal. This is similar on most cruises but NCL just felt more pushy and driven to siphon your pockets than others. We were able to book 2 shows (out of the 4 we were interested in) while the other 2 were always sold out. 7 day cruise with 2 nights of entertainment = Boring!!!! Read more