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Norwegian Epic Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern
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Sail date: January 26, 2013
Ship: Norwegian Epic
Cabin type: Balcony
Traveled as: Singles/Friends
Reviewed: 11 years ago
Review summary
This ship has some glaring weaknesses. It is a long (1086 feet) ship but there are elevators only near each end of the ship. There are no elevators in the center portion of the ship. This means you will get a lot of exercising as you go anywhere on the ship. Our cabin was midship. this meant if we were going to any activity that was also midship you had to walk to the forward or aft elevators and then back to where the activity was. Anyone that was handicapped was presented with this daunting obsticle. There were also no center stairway which meant you could not walk up or down either. Since this ship can haul 4000+ passengers at embarkation and debarkation you spend a great deal of time waiting for an elevator also sea days when everyone is on board. As another comment noted if you want a balcony cabin get a 10 or higher as deck 8 and 9 jutt out further than those above, which means you have no balcony above yours. This allows those above to look down on you, thus no privacy on your balcony. You also get debris thrown down on you from the balconies above. This was especially bad in Nassau when those above started to throw bread to the gulls. You get the bread debris and also wht comes out of the South end of a North flying gull! YUCH! And the extra charges! They charge extra for some of the entertainment, specialty resturants. and just about anything else they can think of! The cabins are small and lack an independant bathroom. The toilet is in a seperate alcove with a glass door enclosure the same for the shower and this design offers no privacy. One wall is curved, kind of an S shape but this actually reduces effective space and results in a short bed where in most cases your feet will be hanging over the end. The TV is located in such a way as you can only view it from the pillow or away end of the bed. Very akward! The room stewards need to get and use crevice tools on the vacuum as the corners were not clean! The food was slightly better than average with a good vararity in the buffet. The main dinning room did not score as well. The meats were poorly done and tasteless. We followed this cruise on an Carnival cruise and the food was just the opposite. The Blue Man Groupe was excellent but the rest of the entertainment was so-so. It is a shame that this ship falls below the mark in so many areas We have sailed Norwegian in the past and had great experiences. As an example I would sail on the Jewel or Pearl in a heartbeat but the Epic.....Ship experiences
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If you are getting a balcony ensure it is deck 10 or higher! If you can, find out before you book if the cabin bed is toward the outside wall or next to the toilet alcove. The outside works much better.