After some research we settled on this cruise with it being our first trip to Europe it gave us the most for the amount of time we had and the reviews for the Epic were very good and overall we were not disappointed! the ship was clean there may have been 4000 of our newest friends on board it never seem crowded! The cabin steward Ricardo was fantastic seemly always there when we needed him whether we had a question or just wanted something in the cabin. the Norwegian freestyle dining is great allowing us to have a romantic dinner for 2 in Cagney's Steakhouse one night to having a great time meeting new people at a shared table in the main dining room the next. The food quality was very good in all the outlets with Cagney's being a step above ! There was plenty of activity planned (Bingo, Deal or No Deal games) for those so inclined but the "Burn the Floor" or Prissila Queen of the Desert shows are ones not to be missed! The embarkment process in Barcelona was easy and efficient luggage was delivered in a timely manner as was the Dis-embarkment upon our return my advice if possible take advantage of the "Walkoff " process which makes it even faster which is great especially if you are in a time crunch. We did take advantage of a number of shore excursion Naples and Rome which were very nice particularly if you hadn't been to the ports before albeit they can be a bit expensive. All in all it was a great trip and we are already looking at booking our next vacation with the Epic and Norwegian being on the top of our list of choices