We are back home from the two-night Inaugural of the Norwegian Epic. Thank you to NCL for the invitation and for your hospitality. We had a wonderful time on the ship and the Epic is absolutely beautiful.
To view my photos, click here.
There is so much to do while on the ship. For sports fun there is the Aqua Park, the Epic Plunge, bowling, bungee jumping, ice skating, rock climbing and rappelling, climbing in the Spider Web, volleyball, batting cage, squash court, basketball, hockey, soccer, and dodge ball on the multi-use sports deck. The Pulse fitness center is large and has yoga, stretch classes, total body conditioning, Gravity Blast, seminars, TRX (stretching with bands), and spinning. There are 18 bikes in the spin room and they are set up with Activio Heart Rate monitors. Each person chooses how hard they want their workout to be and the monitor will calculate their target heart rate. Each individual's heart rate will show up on the screen at the front of the room but it is shown as a percentage so only the student knows what their training level is.
For entertainment, don't miss the Blue Man Group, Second City, Cirque Dinner Show, Legends in Concert, Howl at the Moon (dueling pianos), and Slam Allen's Blues Band (playing at Fat Cats), and the Murder Mystery Lunch. For shows that require reserved tickets, make sure to get there about a half hour prior to get a good seat. Because they were setting up for NBC's coverage of the Macy's fireworks, we didn't get to go to Spice H2O's nightclub but that is where the Spice H2O beach club is by day and at night the pool is covered with a dance floor. Sounds like lots of fun! We did go to the Bliss Lounge late at night where they had a great DJ and lots of dancing.
The Spa is 34, 000 square feet with 24 treatment rooms. There are even Spa Suites available which gives quick access to the spa area along with other perks.
You could compare the entertainment onboard to Vegas, but the value is much better on the ship. In Vegas, you would pay $100 per person for the Blue Man Group; $68 per person for Cirque Dreams; $35 per person to go to a water park. You get all this on the ship and pay as low as $49.90 per person per day for your trip. That includes your food, accommodations, and fun! And don't forget, NCL offers union, military, teacher, and veteran discounts.
There is also the first Ice Bar at sea where you will put on a lined and hooded parka and gloves (provided by NCL) and go inside the ice bar for a maximum of 20 minutes. You will be provided with two drinks (more like shots than full size drinks).
There are twenty dining options onboard, including 24 hour room service. Many of these options are included at no charge while others do have a cover. Three are private for Villa occupants only. We ate at O'Sheehan's, which has an Irish pub atmosphere, at Taste, which is one of the main dining rooms, and at Moderno, which is a Brazilian steakhouse. If you have never eaten at a Brazilian steakhouse, don't miss this one! We loved the look of La Cucina, an Italian restaurant that looked like it was set outdoors in a courtyard. There is even "pizza anywhere" where you can order pizza from wherever you are and it will be delivered to you.
The casino is nice and roomy (I only hope that one day all cruise ships will go smoke free, at least indoors!), and the Garden Cafe, which is their indoor buffet, is also nicely set up where the stations are set apart and there are no long lines with which to contend. There are plenty of intimate lounges where you can sit and relax and listen to someone entertain you.
The kids program is great, with the breakdown as follows: ages 2-5, ages 6-9, ages 10-12, and ages 13-17. The programs are complimentary. Kids can get a backpack and soda package for $39.50. In the backpack are a T-shirt, baseball cap, sunglasses, and a wristband for the soda package. The Youth Counselors are well trained and your children will be in good hands. The ship has Nickelodeon at Sea, which is exclusive to NCL. The Aqua Park has lots of slides (too scary for me!) and the kids that were on the ship had a lot of fun there.
The villas are beautiful and come with special benefits. Courtyard villa occupants receive butler and concierge service; 24 hr room service from a special menu; access to a private Courtyard area complete with pool, sundeck, hot tub and their own fitness area; breakfast and lunch at a specialty restaurant; champagne, hors d'oeuvres, bottled water and soda; in room espresso/cappuccino machine; priority embarkation and disembarkation. In addition to all these, Garden Villa occupants also receive six bottles of liquor of choice and limo service from the pier to the airport.
We stayed in cabin 10171, which is a deluxe balcony. I liked the way the room was set up - the beds are rounded at the edges and there really are no straight lines in the room. The toilet has its own sliding door (opaque glass which some people commented that they didn't like, but it was fine with me) and the shower also had a sliding door with opaque glass. The shower was nice and strong, there was plenty of room, but I do wish they had a little place to put your foot when shaving your legs. The only amenities provided are shower gel and shampoo so bring your own conditioner, lotions, and shower cap if needed. One thing to note: if you are on the 8th deck the balconies do not have a cover over them, so we could look down on those balconies. You wouldn't be able to sit out on the balcony if it were raining or if you wanted privacy.
The whole look of the ship was elegant and open. There were beautiful paintings on the walls, mostly with a flower motif. The interior of the ship was not dark, but cheerful and very welcoming. The crew was wonderful. We met many of the team from Miami and the one thing we noticed among all of them was how happy they were with their jobs and how much they admired Kevin Sheehan, the CEO of NCL. Trivia - Kevin Sheehan was once a NYC cab driver.
We had a wonderful time on the ship, wished it could have been for a week. The food was great, the crew friendly, the cabin comfortable, the entertainment outstanding, and the decorations pretty. There are some promotions going on now, not just for the Epic, but for all of NCL's ships, such as their "Hello Balcony" promo where if you book an oceanview cabin you will be upgraded to a balcony. In the case of the Epic where there are no "oceanview" cabins, you would be upgraded from a balcony to a deluxe balcony. There is also a promotion for reduced air plus an onboard credit. These promos won't last long, so act now to avoid being disappointed.
