To be honest, we chose this cruise for the itinerary and would have preferred not to sail with NCL in the first place. NCL’s anytime dining and lax dress code is just not for us. We can stay home and wait in line to eat at restaurants. We are very casual people but we like to dress for dinner on cruises and we enjoy having a set dining time with the same waiter every night. On this particular cruise, the lax dress code seemed to cause more relaxed behavior among the diners and some fellow cruisers were pretty loud and obnoxious.

The ports of call were good and tendering was efficient and painless. It was my first time visiting NCL’s private island and I was underwhelmed by it. The beach was beautiful but overcrowded so we returned to the ship and had a great time at the pool with no crowds.

We would never cruise on the Epic again and felt sorry for first time cruisers because the Epic is not representative of what quality cruising is all about. To begin with, the Epic itself is not a pretty ship. Everything is dark, brown, and depressing. There’s nothing bright and sunny unless you are outside. No beautiful windows with grand sea views. The casino was dark and very smokey and pretty unavoidable since it was right in a main walkway. The Taste restaurant was right below the casino and smelled so smokey that we couldn’t eat there. We splurged and got the spa package which was wonderful. The locker room facilities were very clean and bright and the aft balcony with loungers was awesome. We spent most of our time there, avoiding crowds and depressing decor. Well worth the extra money. The jogging track on deck 7 provided a peaceful and healthy escape from crowds as well. Read more