This 7-night cruise from Port Canaveral was originally scheduled for Eastern Caribbean when we booked it - St. Thomas USVI, Tortola BVI and Grand Stirrup Cay until Hurricanes Irma & Maria caused major damage to St. Thomas & Tortola; Norwegian rescheduled virtually all eastern Caribbean to Western Caribbean. Ports were Nassau, Falmouth Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Great Stirrup Cay. We would classify ourselves as experienced cruisers (more than 25) and young seniors. The Epic is the largest ship we have sailed and we usually sail on small (150-350 pax & 25,000 gross tons or less) or medium-sized (up to 2,500 pax) and enjoy a ship about 70,000-115,000 gross tons).

We used Go Port Canaveral to book a hotel the night before sailing as it included all transfers between airport, hotel, and pier both before and after the cruise. We arrived at the port at 10:30 am and found embarkation (with check-in scheduled previously online) to be fairly smooth. We are Latitudes members, so that enabled us to use a shorter line for check-in (wait was about 15 minutes). After check-in for which we received a boarding pass number, we waited another 25 minutes including 15 for the ship to be cleared of previous cruise disembarking passengers (boarding was not scheduled to start until 11 am and started shortly after that) and were on board at 11:35 (cabins were not available until 2 pm). After finding the buffet for lunch and checking out the layout of the ship with our hand luggage in tow, we decided to see if cabins were ready early -- they were not, but our room steward let us leave the hand luggage there (about 1:35 pm). Muster Drill is conducted prior to sailing without life jackets which are of course in the cabin.

The Haven - This is a separate section on Norwegian's ships for larger, nicer cabins which also includes its own spa & fitness area, pool, sports complex, and restaurant and lounge. The entire area is securely accessed only via your key card if you have a Haven cabin. Read more