Freestyle Doesn't Come "Free"

This was our 10th cruise and validated why we waited so long to go on NCL. Embarkation was painful. With a "reservation" for 1:30 quickly found it didn't matter. Just got us there later than we originally plan, reservation time never came into play and the process took forever.

EPIC was a beautiful ship and our room, a Mini Suite Balcony was the best thing on our trip.  I'd heard NCL's rooms were smaller than most, the design of the room was somewhat awkward, entering to a tub/shower and toilet on either side but the amount of storage was amazing, including a hamper and was a great buy for the money, with a great deal of time spent on the balcony as weather was a "10." 

The staff was not nearly as friendly or accommodating as other ships we have been on.

It was the "extras:" they charged that got to us.  We opted for main dining knowing the food wasn't great but didn't expect the menu (on the left) to be the same every night. On the right were more options but starting at $24.95 per person.  The Oriental dining was also disappointing.  O'Sheahan's "The"Pub" was open 24 hrs. and they ultimately had the best choices for food, with options to eat at the bar or in their restaurant. So we ate at the buffet most of the time finding that other than a few stations with "themed" dining, the rest was always the same.  Continental Breakfast in your room was free but anything else had a $7.95 service fee.  You can't bring water or soda and wine was a $15 corking fee, collected as you went through security.  

We heard entertainment was above par but found it somewhat disappointing. By the time I realized they required reservations, some were hard to get so missed out on them.  We saw "Priscilla: Queen of The Desert" a "spoof" on LGBT but I found the meaning intended got lost in the presentation/translation. Many walked out and most were not impressed.  A performance "Burn The Floor" was supposed to take you through the many years of dance but it didn't seem to be moving on through history as promoted. There was other entertainment but "oops" had to pay for it $29.95 or $39.95 depending on where you sat.

One stop was their private island but we only found out two days before that you had to have reservations for the tender.  By that time we were at the end of the list of those reserving and at 12:00 (for an 9:00 a.m. arrival) and 450 people on the tender we knew our fate.  We walked the beach, walked back to the tender, forgoing sitting on sand to go to the beach.  Living in FL so not imperative but happens to be one of my favorite stops.

So.... overall the cruise line was an EPIC failure but not the cruise itself. Having said that we've heard the EPIC is not the same as their other ships and also that this is what the mega ships are doing.  Thinking I'll stick to the smaller, older ones.