This was my 4th NCL cruise but first time on the Epic and first time not sailing to/from the continental US. Unfortunately the ship and staff did not live up to the hype. My mother and I were on a Western Mediterranean cruise from Rome in June 2017 and had NCL book the hotel before and after our cruise.

The Epic is laid out to favor only the Haven so if you simply go for a smaller suite (we had balcony mini-suite) then you do not have access to the better parts of the ship, we assume anyway since we never saw them but they were all the way forward and on the top decks of the ship. To upgrade would have cost us an additional $5000 each so we opted for the smaller room type which was about $1300 each. The restaurants are on the lower decks so views are limited. At the Aft/Mid section you cannot access the 5th floor via the elevator but have to get off in deck 6 and walk down to an escalator, passing through the casino, which appears to be quite the money-maker on-board. Again, with mobility issues this was not the best layout. There is no lounge on the upper decks for just sitting and looking out while enjoying a drink inside out of the sun, ie the Spinnaker on the Jewel is one of my favorite places on-board and I missed having such a place on the Epic. Except for the top pool/garden cafe area there were no comfortabel places to just sit and watch the water go by. There is an "adult" quite area on an upper deck with a pool terraced deck chairs but it is limited access if you have mobility issues (only a ladder to get in/out of the pool) and there is no shade at all so it gets too hot during the day, and no view of the water. The jogging track is also on deck 7 so the tenders block all views off the ship while you are jogging/strolling, eating at restaurants, etc. on that deck.

The mini-suite we had was OK but unimpressive. The bed mattresses were very uncomfortable to the point of being painful. The shower/tub is practically unusable unless you are a mountain climber: The tub sides are very high and my mother could not get into the shower without my assistance. We asked our housekeeping person for a stool or something but did not hear back. I finally just used a small table from the balcony in the shower for Mom to sit on while showering as we were afraid of her slipping in the tub. For modesty's sake that meant she also had to undress and dress in the tub/shower. We had to request coffee for the room since they gave us 2 packages the first day but did not replace them. As Latitude members we received a bottle of wine but the mini-bar was full so we had no way of cooling it. Ice was only put in the suite in the evening "turn down" so forget a cold glass of water in the afternoon before dinner. Read more