We have cruised quite a few times before including NCL but had never been on one of the mega ships before so we decided it was time to try.

The NCL freestyle cruising concept appeals, especially the range of dining options and in particular the specialty restaurants and full marks to the Epic on this point. Food quality , service and options on offer were excellent.

One area of poor design was the Garden Court buffet which was constantly overcrowded and finding a seat at a table was never easy. The buffet didn't seem to be that much bigger than those found on the mid range size of ship which have an average passenger count of 2000 but the passenger numbers were double that on Epic so trying to squeeze a quart into a pint pot often led to the resultant scrum. Noise levels were also noticeably higher than we had experienced on other ships. Read more