DH (36), myself (37) and DD's (6 & 8) were on the December 8, 2012 sailing of the Norweigan Epic. We had originally booked the Jewel to the Eastern Caribbean but we were offered the choice of staying on the Jewel when it changed to Western or switching over to the Epic on the Eastern route when NCL made an itinerary change last year. Taking the change to Epic meant that we were bumped up from our oceanview cabin on Jewel to a balcony cabin on Epic -- a fantastic upgrade.

We had flown in a few days early to Orlando to take the girls to Magic Kingdom and then drove down to Hollywood to spend the night pre-cruise. We had a fantastic night at the Westin Diplomat Resort and Spa and would recommend this resort -- beautiful property right on the beach with a very nicely appointed pool area that our kids adored. We had a relatively easy half hour drive from the hotel to the Miami airport to return our rental and took the free shuttle offered by National/Alamo to the port. We arrived around 10:30 am and had a very short line to enter the terminal (less than 10 minutes) and then a 5 minute line through security. It took us less than 10 minutes to fill in the health questionnaire, queue up and check in. We were then sent to the boarding area for the obligatory photo and a half hour wait until they started boarding. We were in group number 6 and were called within 15 minutes.

We entered through the casino which unfortunately, was the worst first impression of a cruise ship I've had in my 9 cruises. It reeked of stale cigarette smoke and was very dark with no natural light but I had done my research and knew that the ship would really show herself off as we got to know her better. Read more