This was the first time that Epic was doing a 3 night cruise. Thankfully it was only 3 nights. The balcony in our room was pretty much not usable unless you enjoy smelling Chinese food cooking all the time. It didn't matter if we were moving or sitting still and even during hours when the Chinese Restaurant wasn't opened (which was most of the time). I did complain about the smell, but they offered no resolution or anything for not being able to use the balcony.

The room was a little weird with its curved shaped. Our bed was located next to the balcony, alternating rooms have the bed next to the door. The bed was rounded at the top and bottom which made it short if you slept on either side. I am 5'9" and my feet were hanging off with my head just about touching the headboard. There is plenty of storage room, pretty much every panel opens, including the back cushions on the couch. There is no dedicated bathroom, just opaque glass enclosures on both sides of the entrance, 1 for the toilet and 1 for the shower on the opposite side. The sink was right in the main cabin area and there was a curtain to separate those areas from the main area. Basically your bathroom was right inside the main cabin door, so if someone was using the shower or the toilet you wouldn't want to open the cabin door. This could be very interesting for people in a new relationship, you'd get to know each other pretty quickly, so don't expect any privacy from the people that you share the room with. We never met our room attendant and have no idea who it was. Even worse was the day that my wife went back to use the bathroom in our room and couldn't because she was surprised by NCL employees working out on our balcony. There was a rope across our door saying working in progress, no prior notice and I think all they were doing was painting, not like it was an emergency or something.

The main pool area was another problem. On sea days it was very crowded and noisy, you had to get seats very early or forget about it. There is one bar area on deck and with the free ultimate beverage package promotion it was very challenging to get a drink unless of course you were a pretty blond. I stood at the bar for close to a half hour while cute girl after cute girl squeezed in and got served. Now I'm not shy by any means, but I was totally ignored. We had 1 port day and that day the pool deck was much more accessible. That day we also found that there is an adult only area in the very back of the ship on deck 15, which is also where the outside video screen is. The slides were fun and again, could get very crowded on sea days. Read more