Epic Questions.......

Long time cruiser......25+ with Carnival and Royal......my first NCL sailing will be on the Epic week of December 7th....some random questions I have:

1. will the ship be decorated for Xmas for this sailing?

2. with new changes to smoking policy, where can one still smoke?

3. what changes can we expect over the other 2 lines I have sailed?

Any and all input from NCL experts would be appreciated!!

I have not been on the Epic yet as I sail the week after you do, however, there are many holiday decorations on the ships. I am not sure when they start putting them up, but by the time we have typically gotten on a ship the week before Christmas there have been many decorations including wreaths on the windows, trees (large and small), and center pieces in the dining rooms. But they continue adding them the whole week. Similarly, I would imagine they will be adding them throughout your cruise.

Typically, there is a designated place to smoke on deck. It will be marked. You can smoke in the casino if you are playing, and there is usually a cigar lounge or such where you can smoke. We've often traveled with a smoker even though we don't smoke, but even before the rules changed there were few public areas when one could smoke. The main difference in the public space rules seems to be you can only smoke in the casino if you are playing.

I have only cruised NCL, so I can't really answer your last question. After reading these forums for years, I would imagine the differences will be in the freestyle dining and in the level of entertainment. These huge ships are also very different than the smaller NCL ships in terms of entertainment. There are probably several existing threads about the differences. If you search the NCL forums for CCL or RCCL you will probably find them.

I cruised on a different NCL ship the first week of December last year and it was decorated for Christmas.

We were on the Epic last December 7th and did not see Christmas decorations.

Even without the new smoking rules, the only public smoking areas were like on other NCL ships; usually one side of the pool deck (which provides some protection with the glass walls and the deck above) and the casino. People could smoke on the balconies at that time, which is now prohibited. I don't know if that will mean more people will be up in the public smoking areas. I do think they do a good job of accommodating smokers; if that area needs to be cleaned they would open the area on the other side of the ship.

The Epic does a pretty good job of clearing the air in the casino, and we didn't have any issues walking through it (you have to walk through the casino to get to public areas, unless you go out of your way). We did notice smoke smell during dinner in the mid-ship main dining room, which we found interesting because it wasn't as persistent where people were actually smoking (probably less air purifiers there). The midship MDR is below the casino deck, but with open areas up to the deck above.

The Epic cabins are unlike anything else NCL has. Just remember the bathroom situation isn't representative of NCL in general, and is my best guess as to why the Epic has been relegated to European waters soon (the Europeans evidently don't mind the toilet / shower in the room with translucent glass doors on them).

The Epic cabins are unlike anything else NCL has. Just remember the bathroom situation isn't representative of NCL in general, and is my best guess as to why the Epic has been relegated to European waters soon (the Europeans evidently don't mind the toilet / shower in the room with translucent glass doors on them).

It is a great ship. The washroom layout is a pretty minor issue. Excellent move to put such a nice ship year round in Europe where the ports are truly interesting.

The one thing they need to do is get rid of Blue Man Group. Once you have experience the show once not certain why you would want to do it again. I also don't think it goes over well with a European audience. They should get another Jazz group back in the Jazz club.

One tip for sailing the Epic. is the main pool deck gets pretty crowded. There is a much more quit sun deck one floor above the buffet area. Only one of the elevators will take you up their, most people don't know about it and its the simply nicer up there. The other elevator goes to a private area reserved for some of the suites.

NCL has a reputation for being much more casual and relaxed than other cruise lines. Makes for a nice vacation that way.

Long time cruiser......25+ with Carnival and Royal......my first NCL sailing will be on the Epic week of December 7th....some random questions I have:

 

1. will the ship be decorated for Xmas for this sailing?

2. with new changes to smoking policy, where can one still smoke?

3. what changes can we expect over the other 2 lines I have sailed?

 

 

Any and all input from NCL experts would be appreciated!!

We sailed on Epic 12/14/2013 and found some of the decorations already up plus more in progress. There were some trees and lights when we boarded but many more touches were being added throughout the week, such as gingerbread villages.