I Tried a Cruise Ship So Unusual It Was Never Repeated

ad – This content was created on a press trip (similar to those travel agents and journalists take). All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I’ve just disembarked a cruise on a cruise ship that divides opinion like no other.

Some people describe her as the world’s ugliest cruise ship, but what she looks like from the outside is just the start of why she’s so controversial.

From the layout to the entertainment, this ship is completely unique.

The cruise line that built her never used the same design again, and even though two more were planned, they were cancelled.

I cruised on this ship with my family back in 2015, when she was only a few years old, and although I had a good time overall, I do remember us having a few issues.

I wasn’t planning to sail on the ship again, but when I saw that she was in Europe, on an itinerary that suited me, I knew I had to give her another go.

I was optimistic that the problems would have been fixed over time, but I also knew that there was a real possibility that this cruise ship was just a mistake.

I knew that they used this ship to test out features, some of which they never repeated, like the quirky open-concept bathroom layouts.

I didn’t know if I’d miss the things I’m used to on the newer ships, and I was a little worried that the ship might feel overly crowded or be too big.

I didn’t know how the ship would feel given that she was launched in 2010, but I hoped that the ship would have been well looked after.

I decided to bring my family and a friend on this cruise with me, so the stakes were high. I really wanted them to have a good time. 

We all flew to Italy to board Norwegian Epic in Civitavecchia, which is the cruise port for Rome.

When I checked in online, I was given the boarding time of between 11 and 11:30, which I was so happy about.

That was the best-case scenario, and I always like to make the most out of embarkation day. I hoped that I would be onboard in time for lunch. 

We dropped off our bags, headed through security, and in total, the process took less than 15 minutes, which was incredible.

It was such a great start to the cruise, and seeing the ship there made me realise just how big the ship is.

In total, Norwegian Epic is 19 decks high, which is around 61 metres.

That’s roughly the same as 15 double-decker buses stacked on top of each other.

At the time of her launch, Norwegian Epic was one of the largest cruise ships in the world.

As soon as I entered the ship, I could see that she was very different to the more modern cruise ships that I’ve cruised on lately.

Everything was colourful and sparkly, very 2010, yes, but that just made me more excited to explore.

I loved all of the carpets, and it really felt as though the ship had a quirky but bold personality. Even though I hadn’t been onboard in over a decade, it felt familiar to me in a way. 

We walked through deck 6 to complete our safety drill and found this amazing light in the middle of one of the atrium areas.

This chandelier weighs more than two metric tons and it’s made up of over 10,000 LEDs, which means that it can change colour.

I was looking forward to seeing it change, but I don’t envy whoever has to clean it!

The strange thing about this open area was that we could see that the main dining room was at the bottom, with the casino in the middle, and on the top level there were bars.

I’ve never been on any other cruise ship where you can watch people eat in the main dining room from above like this.

This was one of the design quirks that as far as I know, wasn’t ever repeated.

I was hopeful that Norwegian would have changed the casino into a non-smoking casino since I was onboard last.

It’s common to be able to smoke in cruise ship casinos, but this one does stretch across a big part of the ship and I’ve seen a lot of complaints about that in the past.

I do remember it being annoying on my first cruise, but I needed to wait for the casino to open before I could tell if smoking was allowed here.

I made a note to come back later in the cruise. I would also get to do a behind-the-scenes tour later too, which would tell us a little bit about how the ship has changed.

I could see loads of bars, lounges and signs for different venues. I wanted to see them all and I was very happy that I would have 7 days to try to see everything.

On this cruise, we were cruising from Rome to Barcelona and would have stops in Italy, France and Spain.

We had long days in most of the ports, but for me, this cruise was almost entirely about the ship, and I had so many questions I wanted to find out the answers to. 

We headed to the stairs at the back of the ship and decided to head up and out to have a look around.

I wanted to see the big toilet bowl slide and I hoped that I’d be able to try that during the cruise when it wasn’t too busy. 

I noticed that the decor on the stairs here was very blue and as the cruise went on, I realised that one side of the ship was blue and one was red.

This was really helpful because I knew that my cabin was on the blue side and the carpet matched.

Down the cabin corridors they have fish carpets and the fish always swim forwards which really helped me to get around.

Epic doesn’t have midship lifts or stairs in the way that many other ships do, so it was important that we knew which way was forward and which was back or we’d risk taking a long detour.

Realistically walking to one of the ship and back again would take a good 10 minutes. She’s 329 metres long. 

I didn’t have any problems learning my way around this ship because every venue is so unique I wouldn’t ever mistake one for another.

I knew that there was only one piece of art like this onboard, for example, I really have no words to describe this. 

***********

The pool deck was absolutely massive and we wandered past the bar and the pools to the slides.

The ship has a couple of pools here and another small one at the back. I did go swimming later on in the cruise, which was really nice. I don’t think the pools are heated, but it was so hot on our cruise that the sun heated them up nicely. 

Because we boarded so early, we actually had a little bit of time before the dining room opened for lunch.

We decided to head to the back of the ship, passing by the rock climbing wall, to an area called Spice H2O where we would get a drink.

This is an adult-only venue during the day, and it fast became one of my favourite venues on the ship.

I loved the multiple levels of sun loungers, a bar and a pool. This was such a great place to watch sailaways from and it did have that traditional tiered aft feeling, even though the aft of Norwegian Epic is really quite flat.

I’d go as far as to say that Norwegian Epic has the flattest bum of any cruise ship.

I don’t think this is a particularly good-looking bum, but I really didn’t care. I was on the ship, not looking at it.

We had incredibly smooth, calm seas on our cruise and didn’t feel any ship movement at all, which is the most important thing to me. That’s way more important than the shape of the aft. 

In the evenings at SpiceH20, they would show sports games out here on the screen, it was the world cup during my sailing so it was a popular place to be in the evenings. 

On my cruise, I had a promotion that is called “Free at Sea”. That meant that I had a drinks package included, along with a few other things like some Wi-Fi minutes and meals in the speciality restaurants.

That meant that I could try lots of different drinks during the cruise, and I made sure that I did.

The frozen cocktails went down particularly easily because it was so hot. Mango Meltdown is my favourite. 

I did wonder if the heat would make it difficult for me to do all of the things that I wanted to do on this cruise, because it really was too hot for me to be outside for long, but only time would tell.

Most of the things I wanted to do were inside anyway, like going to see some game shows, the theatre entertainment, lots of eating, and I hoped that I’d get to do a behind-the-scenes tour too.

On the bar here and in other areas around the ship, there were lots of water with plastic cups. I was really happy to see this because I knew how important hydrating would be on this cruise. 

The main dining room opened for lunch at 12, and we headed straight there.

Norwegian Epic has two main dining rooms: one called Taste in the middle of the ship, which we went to this time, and another at the back called The Manhattan Room, where we’d go for dinner later in the cruise.

The Manhattan Room has live music playing, which was so cool, and both of these restaurants are included in the cruise fare.

It’s completely possible to come on a Norwegian cruise and not spend any extra on food.

I have done it in the past but on this cruise as I already had some speciality meals included in the cruise fare, I’d be trying those.

I also have a high loyalty status with Norwegian, so I am able to have a couple of extras speciality meals too.

I’ve cruised with Norwegian more than any other line, most recently on the newest ship, Norwegian Luna. That was what was most fresh in my mind during this cruise. 

I hadn’t booked any of the speciality meals before boarding, but as we sat at lunch in Taste, we decided to book them on the app.

It was really easy to do, and we managed to get a table for 5 in every restaurant when we wanted to. We usually ate at 5:30, 6 or 6:30, which was perfect for me.

The lunch was good, and we all enjoyed our food.

The decor reminded me of Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, if anybody else remembers that book series. It definitely looks the same. Quirky and very 2010, but nobody could accuse it of ever being boring. 

After our meal, we headed to the whiskey bar to meet with my friend Fraser. He was cruising solo on this ship, and Norwegian Epic was the first ship where Norwegian launched solo cabins with a solo lounge.

This is something that Norwegian have done on every one of their cruise ships since, and it’s become a big part of the cruise line.

The solo cabins are small, designed for one person, and I stayed in one last year onboard Norwegian Breakaway.

You can have a look at that solo cabin here:

Breakaway was the ship that came next after Epic, but she did have a few big changes. I was curious as to which I’d prefer.

That’s was one of the most interesting things about Epic to me. The ship as a whole was never repeated, but some of the ideas onboard were clearly worth keeping. The solo cabins were one of those ideas.

My cabin was a standard balcony cabin, and this room holds up to three people.

The design is as unique as the rest of the ship, and each room has a toilet in a little cubicle on one side, the shower in a cubicle on the other side, and the sink in the main part of the bedroom.

It certainly is a bold choice, and one that some people love and others hate. 

Have a look at that more closely in my cabin video below:

At this point, I wasn’t expecting to love this cabin as much as the cabins on the newer ships, but I was curious if it would put me off sailing on this ship again or if the rest of the ship would be worth it.

After muster, I headed up to the top deck for the sailaway party. I was happy to see that the party was well attended and that there were lots of people on the dance floor.

I’m not somebody who usually likes to be in the middle of the action, but I do like to be around the action. 

This was a great cruise for that. Most nights, there would be a party up here, and always with a different theme.

The Glow Party was my favourite, even if it did mean I had to be very careful not to spill dinner on my white dress. 

We watched many sailaways from the top deck here and we learnt quickly where the shady spots were.

I felt as though this ship had a lot more top deck space than I was used to on other cruise ships, but I knew that this ship didn’t have the Waterfront promenade that the newer Norwegian ships have.

That is one of my favourite places on the newer ships, so I hoped that I wouldn’t miss it too much.

Norwegian Epic does have a promenade deck and we did see some amazing sights from here, but it isn’t the same as the Waterfronts on the newer ships where you can eat outside and sit on all these comfortable seats.

The running track on this ship did make me laugh though. Here’s a photo of that.

**********************??

We had our dinner at the noodle bar, which is an included option that I’ve never had on any cruise before.

I really enjoyed this meal, and being able to go to it still wearing my shorts and a T-shirt was amazing.

Norwegian are the most relaxed cruise line when it comes to dress codes, and even in the speciality restaurants, we could go in shorts.

Given how hot it was, that was perfect. The last thing we wanted to do was get changed for dinner when we’d be going outside again later into the warm weather. 

The food here was great. This was the more casual option, so we just ticked what we wanted, and then the food arrived. At the back of this restaurant is a speciality restaurant, and I had booked that for later in the cruise.

Speciality restaurants are the restaurants that usually cost extra and have a specific theme. I had 3 included as part of my Free at Sea package, and it seemed as though most people did have that package.

I wondered if that would make a difference to how busy the ship felt. Back in 2015, I cruised on the ship over Christmas and it definitely felt crowded in places.

Back then though, I didn’t go to any speciality restaurants and the Free at Sea promotion wasn’t really a thing, so I suspect more people were in the included options.

This cruise was in summer, so I was still expecting it to be quite busy and lively, but it definitely didn’t feel as busy as that 2015 cruise so far. 

I can see how this ship might feel very different depending on the weather and the itinerary.

If everybody is trying to be inside at once because the weather is bad, it would feel much busier.

On this cruise, because the weather was so hot and so many people were spread out between the outside decks, bars, restaurants and lounges.

I do think it’s really important to look at up-to-date reviews when considering a cruise.

A lot of the older reviews for this ship talk about the casino being smoky because people used to be able to smoke in here.

Norwegian have changed that by making the casino non-smoking and just including a smoking room now though so I’d hate for somebody to miss out on a cruise they’d otherwise enjoy because of a review from years ago that isn’t relevant anymore. 

The casino still takes up a big part of the central areas of the ship, but the smell of smoke wasn’t the problem that I remembered from last time, and that made a huge difference.

The only place where I saw big groups of people, other than the parties, was in the theatre where we would go next.

The theatre holds a little over 600 guests, and we went here on our first evening for a show called the Welcome Show.

At this show, we met the cruise director and some other members of the team. We had a preview of the entertainment that would be coming up during the week.

This was great because it meant that we could decide what we wanted to come back to see later.

The main headline shows of the ship are Burn the Floor, which is a dance show, Red, White & British, which is my personal favourite, and The Epic Beatles also played a show in here.

We also had a magician perform on a couple of the nights of the cruise, and they’d host game shows in here. 

I loved the seats and there was lots of leg room. We had cup holders for the bar service, which would be available before each show, and later in the cruise I’d get to go behind the scenes to see what it was like for the performers.

The evening’s entertainment definitely wasn’t just in the theatre. The whole ship was full of events in the evenings.

We went next to have a quick look at a show called Howl at the Moon. This is an interactive piano sing-along kind of show, and these shows go on for hours. It’s a mix of comedy and music really.

Personally, I prefer to sit in the theatre and watch something, but the audience onboard all seemed to really love this kind of show, and I’m always grateful that other people do want to do the interactive bits.

This was in a venue called the Headliners Comedy Club and they would have comedy in here too.

When that happened, I sat right in the back row so I could run away at any point. I didn’t have to, but I’d always prefer to be back row. It helps me to be able to film these videos for you too.

Listening to the other guests in Headliners, it seemed to me as though we had a really interesting mix of Americans, Canadians, British people and Spanish speakers.

Our cruise did end in Barcelona, so that one made sense. The announcements would sometimes be made in Spanish as well, and when they had movies playing in the atrium, they would have Spanish subtitles, which I thought was a nice touch.

I went to bed very happy and excited on this first day. I knew that I had lots to see and do and that I would be waking up in a new port tomorrow.

Our first port on the list was Salerno, followed by Catania. We were docked in both of these ports and it was easy to just wander off.

I say easy, the heat didn’t make it easy, but with a sunhat, a fan and about 10 litres of suncream on, it was okay.

I was mostly interested in taking photos of Epic’s flat bum, but that was hard because my phone was getting so hot that it was struggling.

When we docked in Villefranche-sur-Mer, we tendered into port using a local boat and my phone struggled then too.

I am happy to have these clips to show you though, because Epic is such a unique-looking ship. 

Norwegian Epic was meant to have a sister ship, with an option for a third to be built . Some videos will tell you this didn’t happen because of the publics reaction to Epic – but that isn’t true.

The second ship was cancelled two years before any guest ever stepped foot on Epic. It was all to do with the shipyard. 

I think that Epic looks as though she’s wearing sunglasses, and that part up there is The Haven. That’s the luxury ship-within-a-ship area where the very best cabins are.

After a quick midday shower and a change of clothes, we headed to the main atrium for trivia. I was so grateful that the air conditioning around the ship was good and that my shower was powerful and big. 

In the atrium area, there is the reception desk on the lower level, a bar, a Starbucks and lots of seats with a big TV screen. It was here that they’d do future cruise presentations and a few game shows. 

My favourite thing about this area is that on the level above, there is O’Sheehan’s, which is a casual restaurant that is open 24 hours a day.

Here, you can get things like burgers, chicken wings and sandwiches. The seating stretches right the way around the ship and it really does feel pub-like to me.

We never had to wait for a table, but at popular times, like when everybody had come back from their time in port, I saw that they gave other people a little buzzer before seating you at a table.

The service in here was really good and we all enjoyed everything we ate.

The portion sizes were really big and the starter salad that I had was the size of a main. As I realised the portions were so big as the cruise went on I started to order less, I hate wasting food.

One night, we actually came back here at almost 1 am just because we wanted some chips. It was great to have this as the late-night option because the buffet closed most days around 9:30 pm. 

Even at 1 am, there were people all over the ship, plenty of families, teenagers and people of all ages. The age range was definitely younger than I’m used to on most cruises, and it was really nice to see. 

I cruised with Norwegian when I was a teenager, so I love to see teenagers enjoying cruising like I did.

Maybe they’ll start their own YouTube channels one day and will be telling people on the internet about how they were unexpectedly on the kiss cam in the theatre.

I don’t even know where the camera was, but before the game show started, which was the Mr and Mrs game show, Fraser and I were up on the big screen.

It was very funny. Definitely something I’ll not forget anytime soon. Even being at the back didn’t save me from that camera. The other guests were so friendly and always having a good time. 

Speaking of being at the back, right at the back of the buffet I found something amazing.

The buffet itself was pretty great, with lots of seating and lights that looked like giraffes, but this area down here was something extra.

This is the La Cucina speciality Italian restaurant, and this was where I was having dinner.

I’ve never been to a speciality restaurant before that you have to access via the buffet, but that was exactly the kind of quirk of Norwegian Epic that I expected. I stopped asking myself “why?” and started asking myself “why not?”

Why not have a speciality restaurant under the buffet? Why not have a barber shop randomly in the middle of the bars? Why not have a main dining room under the casino? 

It definitely felt as though this ship was an experiment, but personally, I love that.

I’ve been on way too many ships that just feel the same and Epic didn’t. Without Norwegian testing things out on this ship, we wouldn’t have the newer ships and that would be very sad. 

The meal we had in here was probably my favourite of the whole cruise. Everything was so tasty and the views all the way around were amazing.

We also had a speciality meal in Cagney’s, the steakhouse, where I had the classic Cagney’s chocolate cake.

The menus on Epic are the same as other Norwegian ships, so I knew what I wanted before I went to most places.

I didn’t know that the wine glasses would be so huge at Cagneys on Epic though. This was at least double the size of normal, and this is how much Pepsi Max I’d like when I ask for a glass of it.

Norwegian are a Coke ship, not Pepsi but it was so hot on this cruise I didn’t mind at all. I even had ice in my drinks. I usually ask for it without, but the temperatures were between 33 and 38 degrees each day, so I needed it.

After dinner, I headed to a venue I hadn’t explored yet. It is called the Bliss Lounge and this is where we’d come to watch karaoke. It was very much the late-night venue of the ship and very dark and moody. It was comfortable and cool.

I felt very uncool in here one night though, when I accidentally was in the lounge at the same time as the 18-25 meet-up.

I love that Norwegian did this, but I didn’t pay enough attention to the daily schedule and we all of a sudden felt very old.

It probably didn’t help that at the time we realised, we were literally using a torch to look at the menu because it was dark.

Heading out around the ship, we saw lots of people shopping or spending their evening in the casino. I decided to do my usual $10 gamble, but unfortunately I didn’t win.

I headed to bed soon after because I knew that I had to get up early for the behind-the-scenes tour.

Because of my loyalty status with Norwegian, I have a behind-the-scenes tour included, but the included tour was at 7:55 am.

There is a longer paid behind-the-scenes tour if you don’t have the loyalty status or didn’t want to do the early morning. I definitely did, though. I’d have woken up at almost anytime to go to see the laundry. 

Our tour started behind the scenes at the theatre before taking us to the laundry. We got to see the theatre dressing rooms and were able to ask questions about the shows that were on the ship. 

In the laundry they have staff working 24/7 to make sure that everybody has bedding, towels and whatever else they may need. It is such an impressive operation.

The folding machines were really cool to see and it was nice to get to say thanks to the people who probably don’t normally get thanked. 

We were shown next to the fridge where the fruit was stored. It was a lovely break from the hot weather outside, and I took a photo of this because it made me laugh.

The rice was extra fancy and the melons were the best quality. It says so right on the box.

It’s easy to forget that there are thousands of people onboard the cruise eating every day and depending on who is on the cruise, the food consumed can vary a lot.

They might have a lot of people onboard who love eating cookies, and the next cruise they might have a lot of people who like eating watermelon. 

Wandering through the galley where they prepare and cook the food was so interesting and they even handed out freshly baked cookies to us.

I was happy to see that they had prepared enough bread for me for the week here. I am joking of course but I did have some really great bread on this cruise. 

In each part of the tour, we’d be shown around by a person working in the department, so we could ask any questions and get a good idea of what working there was like.

We also got to see the door where the pilot comes onto the cruise ship to help guide the ship into or out of port. The pilot climbs onboard the ship as it is moving. That sounds terrifying, but I’m sure they are used to it.

Find out more about the important jobs pilots do here:

The Cruise Ship Door Most Passengers Never See (Behind The Scenes Tour)

On some other tours, you are also able to visit the bridge, but Epic actually has a bridge viewing room where you can go and view the bridge at any time.

I haven’t seen that on a cruise ship for decades and I love it. You can’t film the bridge or the officers, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one. 

I don’t think I did this drawing when I was onboard last, but maybe I did. I was 21, but still, I’ve never been great at drawing.

After the tour, I was feeling snacky so we headed to the buffet for ice cream. There were always lots of ice cream options available here and they were available in a cone or a bowl.

I’m pretty sure I had some every day, along with the pound cake, which is a favourite of mine on Norwegian cruises.

I actually didn’t see a lot of cookies on this cruise, but the ones that I had were good and I was so full of all the other food. 

We ate our lunch in the buffet a couple of times and we’d usually take our food out to sit out here. There was shade on one side and great views of the ocean. The buffet had great views generally.

On my Christmas cruise back in 2015 I do remember the buffet being busier than we saw it here but I don’t imagine that the weather was as good, so maybe that’s why it felt busier. You can sit at La Cucina when it’s busy too.

A lot of things have changed since this ship launched too.

Originally, the ship had two bowling alleys, but now she has just one.

They added the Starbucks and also changed one of the venues into what is now The Cavern Club.

This is where The Epic Beatles tribute band play, and it is a small room. We didn’t try to go to see The Epic Beatles in here, but instead watched another band and just saw The Beatles in the theatre. That was the best of both worlds for me.

There was live music all around the ship and generally, the mood onboard was really good.

The cruise definitely felt more about the entertainment than sitting around with a book looking at the view, but I liked it.

I was on this cruise with a big group, and being able to all do our own thing, but then come back together to compare was perfect. This is exactly the kind of ship and cruise I’d take my friends on. 

One of my favourite parts of the whole cruise was going on the toilet bowl waterslide. I decided to do this on a day when we were in port, and because I did that, there weren’t any queues at all.

We picked up the rubber rings from down the bottom and carried them up the stairs. It was quite tricky to climb into the rubber ring and then scoot yourself into the start of the slide, but I managed it.

Rubber ring being your Britishism of the week, this is one I had no idea wasn’t a worldwide term, but it seems as though in many places you’d call this an inner tube or a floatie. It’s definitely a rubber ring here.

It was dark and fast in the first part, and I could see the light approaching. In total, I went around the toilet bowl three times.

I could have gone down earlier if I was happy going backwards, but I really wanted to go forwards, so I tried to encourage the ring to go around again.

It worked, and I very happily went forwards into the last part of the slide. The slide is something that is unique to Epic that I love.

I certainly don’t love everything unique to her, but none of the quirks like the layout or the cabins are a dealbreaker for me. I understand why they would be to some people though.

I did miss things like the waterfront promenade on the newer ships, but I certainly wouldn’t avoid a cruise on Epic. 

She’s quirky, but I like her. Like any ship, she isn’t for everybody, but our aim for this cruise was just to have fun, and we certainly did that. 

I’ve been on a lot of cruise ship waterslides, but the toilet bowl one is probably my favourite ever.

It was much less scary than the drop slides I tried onboard Norwegian Breakaway, where I was sliding around backwards in the dark and had to be rescued from the escape hatch, not once, but twice.

You can see that here:

I certainly preferred the older Epic’s slide options, even though I do love Breakaways’ waterfront promenade deck. 

I’ll show you what Breakaway was like (she was the ship built after Norwegian Epic) along with the other scary things I did onboard, in this video:

Before You Go

Norwegian Cruise Line have a very interesting history. Find out all about that, and look at some interesting old cruise brochures here:

Norwegian Cruise Line History (Including Interesting Brochures from the 1960s)

Often, the best time to cruise isn’t when most people think. Find out more about that here:

The Best Time To Cruise Isn’t When Most People Think