We only had a 1 week window of opportunity to holiday with friends and that was how we ended up on the NCL Epic. The ship itself is well looked after and everything is very clean. As a group of 4 adults we missed having somewhere to sit early evening before dinner or when we had come back from an excursion. Other ships we have been on (Celebrity and the NCL Jade) had a lovely lounge with floor to ceiling windows where you could sit in a comfy chair, chat and play cards with a great view of the sea outside the window. On the Epic through the chain mail curtains at the window all you could see were the metal walkway decks with no view at all. We went up a few times and once there was an Art exhibition on in there and the other times it was completely empty and freezing cold. There are bars around the ship with comfy chairs but we found they were near the Noodle/Teppanyaki bar and after sitting there for 5 or 10 minutes the smell of the cooking was over powering and not very pleasant.

Our other biggest disappointment was the main dining room. There were a huge amount of people who did not make any effort to dress for dinner. One evening we sat next to a table where they had baseball caps on and one of the men had trainers, white sports socks and past the knee nylon sports shorts. He looked scruffy and as if he had come straight from the gym. We were by no means dressed up. The men had chinos and shirts and us women a dress or smart trousers - no dinner jackets or anything fancy - but we had showered and changed for dinner which half of the Main dining room seemed to have omitted to do. When I queried the dress code with the ladies who book you in there answer was (in a nutshell) we have a lot of Americans on board and we can't/won't ask them to dress appropriately for the MDR. How difficult is it if someone turns up in gym gear to say "I'm sorry Sir/Madam its long trousers and shirts for men and dresses/skirts or smart trousers for women in the MDR as stated on the website/daily bulletin. Please feel free to use the buffet or O'Sheehans if you prefer not to change tonight"

O'Sheehans was a horrible place similar to a Wetherspoons. Always seemed to be queuing to get in when there were loads of empty tables. Read more