Norwegian Epic Review
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OK, I believe some people need to lighten up. My DW and I have been on 26 cruises and we have yet to find the "perfect" cruise but I will have to say that our recent cruise (February 5 - 12, Western Caribbean) on the Norwegian Epic was one of our top five.
After reading some of the reviews here about the Epic, I was wondering, like many of you must be, if I had made a mistake. Our last cruise with Norwegian was back in 2000 before "free style" cruising. We were not sure we would like free style but can say now that we are sorry we didn't try it sooner. The freedom of eating wherever and whenever we wanted to was fantastic. And the choices on the Epic were outstanding but I am getting ahead of myself.
The Norwegian Epic is a beautiful ship and huge but not intimidating. There are plenty of maps, signs and interactive screens throughout the ship that will help you find anything you are looking for. We never felt we were on a "big" ship. Although you may have to wait occasionally for an elevator (right after shows, coming back from shore, etc.), we seldom had to wait for more than a minute. My DW and I were able to use any of the facilities anytime we wanted with little or no line. The longest line I saw was for the inner tubes for the one waterside. The lines at the other two slides were never uncomfortably long even on sea days. On a couple of occasions, the line at the Manhattan Club were longer than we were willing to wait but were able to walk down to Taste and get right in. Since we slept in most days, we were not the first to get off the ship during port calls but when we were ready to get off, we were able to walk right off and when we came back to the ship we were able to walk right on. On sea days, finding lounge chairs was a challenge but after walking around the deck for a few minutes (never longer then 20 minutes) we were able to find good chairs. Of course, as usual, there are always people that reserve the chairs and you never see them in the chairs. Please, if you're not going to use them or are finished with them, give someone else a chance.
Cabin Review
Mid-Ship Balcony
We were in a balcony room, mid ship (Cabin #8125). The actual layout of the bathroom area reminded me of several hotel bathrooms and modern home bathrooms in which the sink area, toilet and shower are separated. Both the shower and the toilet room have their own frosted glass doors. Its nice to be able to use the toilet facilities while the other person in the room is taking a shower. The shower is one of the largest I have seen on a cruise ship. No wet shower curtains sticking to you while you shower. No bumping into the walls with your knees or elbows. The water pressure, shower head and water temperature were fantastic. No complaints about the shower here. The toilet was loud as are all cruise ship toilets. Guess there's no way to get around that suction noise. We never experienced any sewer smell as has been reported in past reviews. The sink does take a little getting use to. The important thing to remember with it, is that you do not need full pressure to make it work. Too much pressure would occasionally allow water to escape the sink bowl but nothing ever disastrous. For my DW and I, the bathroom layout worked well.
Now the bed. Yes, my feet did hang over the edge when I fully stretched out (I'm 6 feet tall). Since I usually sleep in the fetal position, this was not a big concern of mine. Also, if I placed my head closer to the nicely padded headboard, my feet would stay within the confines of the bed. The bed was extremely comfortable and there were plenty of pillows available to make anyone happy.
The couch was also larger than most we have experienced on a cruise. And the storage, wow, the storage. If you fill up all the storage available in your cabin, then, you've brought way too many clothes. Even my DW, who is known to overpack, was unable to use all the storage. I believe even if there were more than two in the cabin, there would still be adequate storage.
The balcony was just above one of the lifeboats and did present a vision obstruction to the water below. Since most of the time we were sitting down in the deck chairs this did not pose much of a problem. But if you do not want to deal with the lifeboats you need to book a higher cabin or in the areas that do not have the lifeboats directly below them. We did not find it a problem but I can see why some people would.