Since a lot of people enjoyed my last Princess vs DCL review, I have also done one for my NCL Epic sailing. 
As an early Christmas or late birthday present, I convinced my wonderful husband to let me take a solo cruise. I was really limited to cruising the week of the 13th or 14th December out of Miami, since we were already embarking on the Disney Wonder on December 21st. On some of the newer Norwegian Cruise Line ships Epic, Breakaway, Getaway and the two still being built they offer solo cabins which they call studios. This can be a lot cheaper than paying the solo supplement on most lines, which is usually 200%. I decided on the Epic over the Getaway, mostly because the Epic is moving to Europe permanently in April 2015, but also because the cruise dates avoided a hotel stay.
Overview
I took a seven night cruise on the Norwegian Epic from December 14-21. It visited Falmouth, Grand Cayman and Cozumel (in that order) with three days at sea. For a studio cabin which sleeps one, I paid $389 plus tax. The promotion at the time was either 10% back in OBC ($38.90) or three free meals at Cagneys, Le Bistro and La Cucina ($65). I took the three free meals as I wanted to try out some of their specialty restaurants anyway! I booked a guarantee stateroom and was assigned my room around a week before I embarked.
Im not going to disclose what we paid for the Disney Wonder over Christmas, but it was a lot more than the Epic.
Although the Epic holds twice as many people as the Wonder, I thought that since I sailed them back to back I would compare the two ships in service, food and a few other things.
Embarkation / Disembarkation
Embarkation on Norwegian was a breeze. I was able to take a bus from Tampa and arrived at the terminal at around 12pm. 35 minutes later, I was on the ship and heading to the buffet. Thats right, THIRTY FIVE MINUTES from arrival to starting the vacation. I have never, ever embarked a Disney ship so fast, even when we have arrived at the terminal at a similar time. The Epic is so large it uses Terminals B and C at Miami; if you are staying on an even numbered deck you embark in Terminal C, and an odd numbered deck in Terminal B. The process was very smooth! Unlike all other lines I have sailed on, NCL only requires you to give them a credit card at check in to keep on file. Most want you to complete the form online before you sail. Disembarkation was not so easy. NCL allows you to pick your own disembarkation time (unless you are using NCL transfers). A list is left in your stateroom of the color tags for your luggage and what time you will be disembarking and you can pick whatever color tag you wish at guest services. It was incredibly simple, but disembarking almost 5,000 passengers from a ship took an incredibly long time. My walk off time was 9.30. They called my color tag (lavender) at 9.35, and I didnt clear customs until 10.45. That is just too long to be standing in a ridiculously long line. I understand that they want people off the ship, but they need more customs agents if they want that. I wouldnt pick the 9.30 tag again!
Embarkation on the Wonder was not surprisingly a mess. For a start, the parking lot for F is actually at G. We dropped our cases with the porters and then went to park the car, but its still a pretty far walk when you have a suitcase of water with you! Later we found out there was a shuttle to the parking lot, but the shuttle leaves from the end of Terminal F, which is about half the distance to the lot. I absolutely hate Terminal F in Miami, having sailed out of there in January 2013. I was hoping that things would have improved in those two years but sadly, they hadnt. We arrived at around 11.45pm, so similar to the Epic. The Silver and Gold Castaway check in line was incredibly fast, since there were very few repeat cruisers, but actually getting on the ship was not fun. Since the terminal in Miami is long and narrow, everyone crowds around the boarding area. Even though when we arrived our boarding number had been called, we couldnt make it through the maze of people and strollers until the next number and even that was tricky. Disney needs to have some kind of policy about not crowding that entrance. However, disembarkation was super easy and fast and we were off the ship and through customs in around 30 minutes. We left the ship at 8am and were on the way home by 8.45am.
Verdict: A tie. Disney embarkations out of Port Canaveral are usually better but since Im doing a direct comparison then its a tie.
Food
The most subjective of topics! My food mantra is that I will try everything once, and a cruise ship allows me to do that. Since this was our ninth sailing on Disney, I am used to their menus and generally have picked what I want to eat before the cruise even begins. I didnt have time to study the Norwegian menus so I was really thrown in blind! Their menus are more similar to Disney than Princess. They have a lot of basic items on them for the perpetually picky (like my husband) but also have some more interesting items. This just covers the included food, which on Norwegian is Taste and the Manhattan Room (the two MDRs), OSheehans (Irish style pub), Garden Cafe (buffet) and any of the pool area food, along with the trademark of NCL, Freestyle dining.
The two MDRs Taste and Manhattan have the same menu each night so the only reason to decide between the two would be the decor (Manhattan has a more formal, New York steak house feel where Taste is more modern) or the wait time. I dined in both during the week and Manhattan generally had a longer wait time than Taste. However, even though we had party sizes of between six and twelve throughout the week, our wait time was never more than fifteen minutes. I loved being able to eat when you were hungry and not when the cruise line said so. Mostly because it stopped me from that pre-dinner snack I indulge in on Disney. The dishes in the two MDRs were mainly hit but there were a few misses throughout the week too, such as the mushroom gnocchi on the last night of the cruise (probably the worst gnocchi I have ever tasted). However, there were also some standouts such as the salmon tartare, and the cheese and bean empanada which I could have eaten a whole tray of! One thing that was just super weird on Norwegian is that they have some dishes which are on the menu every night but these arent marked on the menu, so on night one you dont know if anything will repeat. I may have tried something different had I known a couple of things would be there every night. The desserts I tried (Im not a huge dessert person) were better than Disney. The chocolate volcano was a huge hit with the whole of our group.
OSheehans is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and late night snacks, with slightly varying menus for each. It is a table service venue but at breakfast the service was extremely quick. I only ate there for breakfast, which has a small but appetizing selection of hot food and pastries. The blueberry muffins were actually good (Im picky about my muffins) and the cooked breakfast was excellent, even the bacon (Im picky about that too!) OSheehans is open for breakfast on disembarkation morning too, and we sat and watched everyone else disembark while eating and waiting for our turn.
Garden Cafe was really the standout of the week for me. Norwegians buffet was truly excellent with many varied types of food and 90% of it was delicious. It is set up in stations. At breakfast there are a handful of omelet stations, where a chef will make you a freshly cooked omelet. There are some ingredients to pick from at the station (cheese, peppers, mushrooms, onions, spinach) or you can find other things on the buffet for them to add into it for you. I tried this one morning (peppers, onions and cheese) and it was a really good omelet! Even though there was more than one station for omelets, there was often a line. There was also a huge pastry selection, fresh fruit, cold cuts and cheese, bread, and then cooked items also which included french toast (yum), waffles, hash browns, sausages and sausage patties, bacon, mushrooms and tomatoes, and probably more I am forgetting. There was also an area where you could toast your own bread products. It was an excellent breakfast buffet and I definitely indulged in it during the week! Lunch was just as good. There was a huge selection of different food types including hot and cold sandwiches, Asian, Indian, make your own pasta, cold cuts, meat on the bone and various sides, and each day there would be a smaller themed section of a particular type of cuisine. The day we docked at Cozumel, the whole of the buffet was Mexican themed and I thought they did a great job with it. My favorite section was the Indian food. I love Indian food its almost the national cuisine of England now! and this didnt disappoint even though it was vegetarian. There were desserts a-plenty at lunch, but I only tried the real hand scooped ice cream that was included! I dont enjoy soft serve, so having real ice cream on a cruise was a treat. I didnt try Garden Cafe for dinner but each night had a different theme. The ones I remember were Asian, Seafood and Mediterranean.
On the Epic there are a couple of places to eat around the pool. There are two sections near the buffet entrance that had a build your own burger and hot dog bar. They had chicken and beef burgers and had a variety of toppings you could choose from that they had picked, such as mushroom and blue cheese, or you could build your own. The guacamole was excellent, but super spicy and I wasnt expecting it to be! They have a similar thing at the pool in SpiceH2O (the adult area) which at night also served a selection of cooked to order appetizers. The burgers were decent but a little overcooked for me but I liked the idea a lot.
Since we have sailed on Disney before I mostly stuck to my regular dishes. It was good, but not great, and not as good as the food has been on previous cruises. Our first night was in Parrot Cay and I had the grouper with jambalaya. The fish was good, but the rice was almost inedible as it was severely undercooked. The risotto in Animators Palate was the same. I can understand overcooking rice, but undercooking it so much on two different days is unacceptable. The pizza at Pinocchios was fine, but nothing outstanding (although it was hot, which always makes pizza excellent!), but the sandwiches at Goofys Galley were underwhelming. I know at one point Disney cooked the sandwiches as you ordered them, but now they have them pre-heated and it isnt a great idea. Beach Blanket Buffet was frustrating (I hate that cafeteria line!) but weirdly had better food than Cabanas did on recent cruises. They also had a Mexican themed buffet on Cozumel day (is this a thing now?) but it wasnt as good as NCL. One day for lunch they had gorgonzola, apple and walnut turnovers and I think they were my favorite thing on the whole cruise. So good!
Verdict: The MDRs are a tie, but Norwegian wins because of their amazing buffet and all night food options at OSheehans.
Specialty Dining
NCL has several upcharge dining restaurants to choose from. On the Epic, they range from $15-30 and included Cagneys (Steakhouse), La Cucina (Italian), Le Bistro (French), Moderno (Brazilian), Shanghais (Chinese), Teppanyaki (Japanese) along with the Noodle Bar (noodles and rice) and Wasabi (sushi) which are both a la carte. Children are half price or free if they dine from the kids menu. Even though my booking included a free meal at La Cucina, I never made it there and instead dined at Cagneys, Le Bistro, Teppanyaki and Wasabi. Your gratuities on NCL automatically include dining at the speciality restaurants so you dont have to leave an additional tip if you dont want to. Disney no longer includes a gratuity in the $25pp for Palo.
I started with Cagneys, which has the highest upcharge ($30pp). It was hands down the best steak I have ever had on a ship. I selected the bone in rib eye (my cut of choice) and it did not disappoint! It was cooked and seasoned to perfection and the garlic mash and steamed broccoli sides were perfect for the meal. There was actually too much food, but that could be because I started with the Baked Potato Soup (amazing) and Waygu Beef Sliders (heaven). I was too stuffed to even consider a dessert afterwards. Cagneys is well worth the $30pp upcharge. You would never get a meal on land of that quality for any price close to that. However, I discovered I dont like Southern Comfort when I ordered the Speakeasy Martini. Never again. It was awful!
Next on my list was Le Bistro, which has an upcharge of $20pp. I started with the Les Quatre Cornets, which were good but not outstanding, followed by the French Onion Soup, which was far better than the MDR version! I am a duck lover, so I selected the Duo de Canard which was one of the best duck dishes I have ever tasted. The duck was incredibly tender and delicious. For dessert I had the cheese plate which for a cheese lover was amazing. I absolutely love cheese and they had a great selection. I tried the French 75 cocktail at Le Bistro and would order it again it was very good. I would definitely dine at Le Bistro again but it would be wasted on someone who wasnt willing to try new things.
Teppanyaki was my third speciality dining experience. Its harder to get a reservation at Teppanyaki as they seat you in groups of 8 around a grill. The restaurant cant hold as many people as the other dining venues because of this. It carries an upcharge of $25pp. The meal is very simple and similar to what you would get at teppanyaki restaurants on land, but it is really the show you are there for. The chef makes it a lot of fun to watch him cook! There is unlimited miso soup and fried rice, and then you select from a menu which meat/fish/vegetarian items you would like with your rice. I chose the seafood which included lobster, scallops and calamari. The portions of the lobster and calamari were huge and well worth the money! The scallop portion was smaller but incredibly delicious cooked on the grill. The fried rice was the only thing I was not in love with, and that was mainly because its cooked before the meat so it sits on the grill cooking for too long. However, it was a lot of fun and worth the cost, especially with a group. I tried the Wasabi cocktail which was also delicious!
Wasabi is an a la carte sushi bar, which has a small selection of hot dishes along with sushi, sashimi and some rolls. I tried a few different rolls over the week and for the price (around $4 a roll) they were excellent value for something different for lunch or a quick late night snack.
On the Wonder we visited Palo for brunch and dinner. Since we have been so many times to both, I have tried most of the menu that I am interested in. I also like that we can skip the whole menu speech as I know what I like! As always, Palo was excellent. Oh, and mmmmmmm that chocolate souffle. My husbands steak was cooked incorrectly at dinner and to make up for it they made us two special dishes at brunch both were amazing and I wish I could request the pasta dish all of the time. I would definitely recommend Manuel from Italy as a Palo server. He was great and took very good care of us!
Verdict: As much as I love, worship and adore Palo (I would eat there every day if I could), this one goes to NCL because of the amount of choice there is for speciality dining. NCL also offers a dining package where you pay $119 for the whole week and you can eat in as many speciality dining restaurants as you want for no extra charge, including the Spiegel Tent on the first night (I will cover the Spiegel Tent later in the entertainment section).
Drinks
Soda is not included on NCL. For $6.50/day for adults, or $4.50/day for kids (plus that 15% gratuity!), you can drink as much soda as you like from anywhere on the ship. (Side note: NCL serves Pepsi products, not Coke. If you cant live without your Coke products, you can bring some onboard with you. The same goes for water.) If you drink three or more sodas per day, you will break even with the soda package. I believe each one is $2.25 each, but I dont drink soda so Im not 100% sure on the cost. When you have the card, soda is available from every bar on the ship, plus in the MDRs.There was a bar at the front of the buffet so you could get your own drink before you sat down. There are some included drinks on NCL, which differ depending on the meal. Breakfast: Apple juice, orange juice, cranberry mix. Lunch and dinner: Iced tea, lemonade, two kinds of flavored water. These are available in the restaurants as included drinks also. The flavored water was delicious, and that was my go-to drink for the cruise. At breakfast, there was also freshly squeezed juice available but to me the price was ridiculous (over $3) so I never tried it.
Alcohol was on the expensive side on NCL. Beers and ciders started at $5, mixed drinks started at $7 and some of the higher priced cocktails were $10. Drink of the day was $5.95, and had a lot of great options for me with my pineapple allergy. NCL had a slightly different menu in each bar. They have one page of the menu which is identical in each bar, and one page which is themed to the bar you are at. So the martini bar has a whole page of martinis (the one I tried was great) and the whiskey bar has a whole page of whiskey cocktails etc. It was a nice touch and I tried some interesting cocktails throughout the cruise. Each specialty restaurant also had one or a selection of themed cocktails to choose from. NCLs alcohol package (Ultimate Beverage Package) is $59/day plus the 15% gratuity, so you really need to be drinking around 7-8 drinks a day to make the package worth it (or book a cabin while they are offering the beverage package free). Despite the fact that it is called the ultimate package, it does not include freshly squeezed juices, or any drinks which are over $10. You are allowed to bring as many bottles of wine/champagne as you can carry on NCL, but they charge $15 corkage fee per bottle.
Disney has free soda, although you are paying for it in the cruise fare and if you want to get the soda from a bar its not free anymore. Since I dont drink it, its a wasted perk for me. The cocktail selection on the Wonder was poor, but the drinks were more reasonably priced than NCL was. We had an issue one night in Wavebands with two drinks which didnt taste like they had any alcohol in them at all. Thankfully, this didnt repeat to any other nights throughout the cruise. Although you can bring as much alcohol as you can carry onto Disney, we always end up bringing most of it back off the boat with us because their rule is not to drink it outside of your stateroom. I would rather pay for every drink than run back to my stateroom between drinks and break the rules.
Verdict: If you could bring the alcohol menu to Disney from NCL, but charge Disney prices for it, that would totally be a win! Sadly, I cant do that. So Im going to make it a tie. If you really like your included soda and make the most of it, then Disney would probably get your vote but you could pay for the soda package on NCL and still get change from a Disney cruise fare.
Room
My room was pretty awesome for one person. I stayed in the studio rooms, which were unique to Norwegian until Royal Caribbean released Quantum of the Seas. They are approximately 100 sq ft each. The studio rooms also have access to the studio lounge, which has a free coffee machine, tea, and a bar (the bar is not free). There are TVs, board games and books in there also. The room itself is very modern looking, with white walls (some of them padded) and white closets. My favorite part of the room was the funky lighting which could be set to red, white, blue or color changing. There is a double (possibly king) bed, which is really two singles pushed together. Instead of a separate bathroom, one area of the room is designated as a bathroom. The shower is in the main room, along with the sink, and the toilet has a separate compartment in the room. The shower was larger than the one on Princess but it was still a shower, not a tub. NCL provides shampoo and shower gel in dispensers in the shower, and soap by the sink. For one person there was plenty of space for clothing and toiletries. My only complaint with the room is that there are not enough shelves in the room. There are two closest designated for hanging items it would make more sense if one of them was shelves instead. There was no mini-fridge in the studio rooms.
I was able to view an inside room on the Epic also. It also had a modern feel, although darker than the studio rooms, as the cabinets and closets were all in dark wood. The inside rooms were also darker than the studios as they didnt have anywhere near as many lights. For two people, the closet and storage areas in the room looked spacious and the room also had a mini-fridge which came stocked with alcohol. You can ask your stateroom attendant to remove the products at the start of the cruise if you wish to use it to cool your own drinks. However, the weirdest area of the room by far was the bathroom. And by that, I mean the separate shower and toilet with the semi-opaque glass. I have absolutely no idea what Norwegian was thinking with this design! The door to the room is in the center of the room, and the toilet is one side of the door and the shower the other. This would be a good idea if the walls were opaque, but they are not. (The bathrooms are the same in the oceanviews and the balconies also. Im not sure about higher categories.) Not only does it not allow full privacy from anyone you are sharing a room with, if that person opens the door to the cabin at the wrong time, anyone in the corridor could partially see you too. For one person, or a couple, it could work. Anyone else I cant see how it would. There is a curtain to separate the bathroom area from the main cabin area but it doesnt stop being able to see from the corridor with a mistimed door opening. The shower was larger than the studio shower though, which makes it a really good size shower. The sink was in the main room area in the same area as the mini-fridge. They have tried to go with the split bathroom and it does kind of work, but not with that glass!
I thought the rooms were in good condition for a four year old ship. I had a lumpy pillow the first night. The next day it was switched out by my room attendant when I mentioned it to him. Other than that, I didnt have any complaints about the room.
On the other hand, our room on the Disney Wonder was in definite need of some TLC. We stayed in room 6019, which was a sideways 11B. The first thing I noticed was that the door to the room stuck on the carpet, so you had to be really careful when leaving the room to pull the door behind you. This meant there was also a hole forming in the carpet where the door was rubbing against it. We had three problems in our bathroom over the week a tile was broken in the tub on day one, the sink stopper didnt work on day two, and the sink was leaking on day four (its possible it had always been leaking but we noticed it then). The couch was downright uncomfortable to sit on it felt like there was zero padding it in. And the steamer trunk needed some help to open and close. I really like the cupboard that the steamer trunk has replaced on the Magic its much better for storage. I hadnt sailed on the Wonder in almost two years and was surprised how tired the rooms looked. We really like the sideways 11B rooms because the layout makes the room feel larger than it really is. The bathroom felt tiny after being on NCL for a week, where the toilet alone had almost as much space as the whole bathroom on DCL. I also hate the tub and shower curtain because for me it feels too narrow.
Verdict: I personally preferred the rooms on NCL other than the weird bathroom setup (what is with that semi-opaque glass?!) in the non-studio cabins. However, the cabins on DCL are much larger. For one or two people, the storage was fine on NCL. For more people you may have to look for two rooms or upgrade to an oceanview or balcony room. There are family oceanviews on the newer ships which are similar sized to Disney, and the balconies are also a similar size. Only the Epic has the weird glass bathrooms. Your privacy is safe on any other ship.
Layout and Decor
Im going to start this by saying that the Epic had one of the weirdest ship layouts ever. In fact, the layout was so weird that I couldnt find some areas of the ship, and there were some areas that I didnt know existed until the last night. I should have known how weird it was going to be when I went to find the mid-ship elevators and there werent any. Yep, the Epic only has two sets of elevators one forward and one aft. My room was as far forward as you could get, so it didnt bother me, but if you have booked a mid-ship stateroom I would probably find it annoying! Norwegian also provides a map of the Epic on check in and this was badly needed for the first few days!
The main decks are 5, 6 and 7. Most of deck 6 is taken up by the casino. These decks are fairly well laid out. Deck 5 is home to the internet cafe, photos, guest services, shore excursions, future cruise desk, Taste and the least impressive atrium I have ever seen, along with a cafe and Le Bistro. The atrium is tiny and other than having the atrium cafe next to it, you wouldnt even be able to tell it was an atrium. Deck 6 is home to three main entertainment venues (Epic Theatre, Spiegel Tent and Headliners) at the forward part of the ship, followed by OSheehans which overlooks the atrium. Most of the rest of the deck is the casino, and aft is Manhattan Room. Deck 7 hosts a variety of walk through shops, bars and specialty dining, including Wasabi/Teppanyaki, Cagneys and Moderno. Taste has an open ceiling to decks 6 and 7, and there is a beautiful chandelier which hangs over part of the restaurant. I particularly liked the overlook of the atrium from OSheehans; there is bar style seating around the balcony so you can sit and have a drink and eat, and watch whatever is happening in the atrium at that time.
The one thing I did not like about NCLs public decks is that there are almost no windows. There are some like at the internet cafe and at guest services but the ship is very insular and its hard to see the ocean at any time! Even the outside walking track only has a view of lifeboats.
Deck 15 the pool deck and above are a mess though. There is a sports court on deck 16 which I NEVER found during the week. Ever! There are sundecks on 18 and 19 which I didnt know existed until the last night. I found out that the main set of elevators dont go there, and you have to take a separate set of elevators to those sundecks. We experienced heavy rain one day in Jamaica and the deck areas were flooded with at least an inch of water because the drains were not in places that made sense. Whoever designed this ship shouldnt be allowed to design another one. It made my brain hurt!
Verdict: Since we have sailed on Disney multiple times its not really a fair comparison, but at least the layout of the Wonder makes sense and its not impossible to find certain areas of the ship. The Epic was fine after you have been on the ship a few days, but its not newbie friendly.
Entertainment / Activities
Norwegian is a cruise line that likes activities. If you want to keep busy, this is the cruise line for you at least on their larger ships. During the week I played on the Wii in the atrium (they even had this on sea days), bowled at sea (usually $7pp, but it was free while we were docked in Cozumel), spent a lot of time on their three waterslides (in order of preference; yellow, purple, green), had some fun at trivia and observed various people engaged in poolside games. Its not hard to keep busy on the Epic. There were several family orientated activities along with adult only activities (such as alcohol tastings) and overall I felt it was a good mix.
The pools on the Epic were on the small side for the 4,700 people aboard that week but I never saw them full. They never turned into kid soup like the pools on Disney do. There were several kids onboard but nowhere near as many as Disney. The following week (Christmas) we were told there would be 1,500 kids. I believe there were around 500 on our sailing. There were two family pools each one approximately the same size as the family pool on DCL with one of them having a shallow area. There were also fountains surrounding the pool which kids seemed to love playing in, and six hot tubs. The three waterslides take up a large amount of pool deck space, but this is mainly due to the yellow bowl slide which was so much fun! The line for that was no longer than ten minutes between rides, even on sea days, and the other two slides had much shorter lines. There is also an adult area on the pool deck Spice H20 which is all the way aft. It includes a pool, two hot tubs and a huge movie screen. It is also the host to the late night adult parties such as the White Hot Party, which was a LOT of fun! The cruise staff know how to have a good time. The pool deck is also host to a rock climbing and rapelling wall, but both seemed to have short hours.
Like Disney has, well, Disney characters, and Royal Caribbean has Dreamworks characters, Disney has Spongebob Squarepants characters. Spongebob and Patrick Star did come and visit at the sail away party and a few other times during the week and yes, I did meet them. (I have a soft spot for Spongebob.) Its a nice touch but it doesnt define the entertainment like the Disney theming really does on DCL.
Late night entertainment was also excellent on Epic. There are several main shows and I would recommend booking them before the cruise. They are: Blue Man Group, Legends in Concert, The Second City, Howl at the Moon (non-bookable) and Cirque Dreams (either $39.99 or $29.99pp). Blue Man Group was truly excellent. I had never seen the show before so to see it for free was a huge bonus! Sadly, Blue Man is leaving the Epic in March. Legends in Concert was okay but not amazing; I suspect it depends on the three performers. We say Jimmy Buffet, Adele and Aretha Franklin and I wasnt fond of the Adele performer at all. Her fake English accent really grated on me. The Second City is an improv comedy show with three showings per evening; one for everyone, one rated PG-13 and one 18+. I found some parts to be extremely funny and some parts just okay but its worth watching at least once. Each show has a different theme to it also. Howl at the Moon is dueling pianos and I absolutely loved it. It was so much fun (and amazing) to be able to watch them perform everything. After 11.30pm it became adult only and it got a little naughtier. And finally, Cirque Dreams is a dinner show at the Spiegel Tent. The food was very hit and miss (I had to go and eat sushi afterwards!) but the show was excellent and well worth the money. Its a Cirque du Soleil type spectacle and to see it on a moving ship made it even more spectacular.
Since we sailed on the Wonder over Christmas I expected it to be full of activities for all the first time cruisers that seemed to be sailing. Sadly, I was incredibly disappointed. We signed up for gingerbread house making which was a lot of fun, but it was filled with screaming children and we could barely hear the pastry chef. Other than that, there was very little for adults to do the whole cruise. There were a lot of families on board, but there wasnt the usual selection of trivia, mixology (one of my favorites), cooking demonstrations and it was even missing Mickey 200 which is one of our cruise staples. On the two sea days there was barely anything for adults before about 1pm. We have seen all of the shows before and skipped them, because other than Dreams I feel that the Wonder has the worst selection of shows. We did go and watch The Magic of Scott Pepper (I had seen him before) and he was excellent. Much, much better than Magic Dave! The adult entertainment at night was not well attended, and Quest and Match Your Mate was combined into the first night. We had an adult Scott Pepper show (also excellent), the 80s Party Night, karaoke and Michael DuBois who is a comedy juggler. I would be fine with never seeing Michael DuBois again because he just wasnt funny. It made the whole exercise tedious to sit through.
Verdict: NCL wins this easily. Even compared to past Disney cruises, NCL still wins. There were options every night of what to do and sometimes there were actually too many options. There was also late night activities which you never see on Disney!
Kids
NCL has kids. I heard several people on the cruise complain about how many kids there were on the cruise. I almost told them they should go on a Disney cruise and then come back and compare, but I didnt. There were not a lot of kids on the cruise, and it is a huge ship. There are kids clubs on NCL which are split into different age groups and they are (mostly) on deck 14. I heard several kids throughout the week ask to go back to the kids clubs so they must be doing something right! Spongebob also ended up with a large line the day I met him and kids seemed to love him. Older kids loved the waterslides. Apart from a few minor incidents (like a child running and screaming in the atrium with parents doing nothing), the kids were well behaved on the cruise.
Verdict: I dont think I can give once since I dont have kids but they seemed to be having fun on NCL.
Service
NCL really surprised me with the service. It wasnt as good as the best service I have received on Disney, but it was overall good to excellent. I had one person at guest services who was unhelpful early on in the cruise, but every other person I encountered at guest services was more than happy to help. The MDR waitstaff were good even though we saw different people each night. They were not as personable as most on DCL but they are unlikely to see you again throughout the week. They also didnt seem to speak as much English as servers on DCL do. The servers in the specialty restaurants were outstanding and I did tip extra in those restaurants. The cruise staff were really excellent over the whole week and loved to chat and get people to participate in events. Every single person who served me throughout the week called me Miss Holly which doesnt happen on DCL.
DCLs service has slipped over our last few cruises. We had problems with guest services this time on more than one occasion. The third time we had to call about the bathroom, they advised us someone would be there immediately. 45 minutes later we were still waiting. We called them back to advise them that we wanted to take a nap and they said that they would then send someone out in a few hours. 10 minutes later, the plumber knocks on our door. It was not appreciated! Our MDR staff were on the poor side also. One night it took us 35 minutes to get drinks and we were the last people in the dining room every night without fail. It wasnt the worst service team we had encountered (that was on the Dream, where we failed to get any service after the main course had arrived) but it was close to the bottom. For the last night, we pre-ordered our food and were still one of the last people out of the dining room. The head server didnt seem to want to listen, and our poor server was trying to to two jobs at once. Since everyone talks about the Disney Difference in service, I have experienced more than once that its not always like that.
Verdict: NCL surprised me. I really liked being called Miss Holly and not having the same servers every night didnt bother me at all. Comparing cruise to cruise, NCL wins, but the best Disney service we have received would beat the NCL service. So, another tie.
Overall
I absolutely fell in love with NCL over the week. The Epic really impressed me whereas the Wonder did not and the Wonder is my favorite Disney ship. I wouldnt ever hesitate to sail NCL again on their larger ships and we have actually booked a cruise with them for November 2015 on their newest ship, the Escape. NCL runs a lot of promotions so its booking at the right time so you get the best benefit. The cruise we have just booked is a seven night Eastern in an oceanview for just over $2000, but it includes the beverage package so we have unlimited alcohol during the week. The equivalent week on the Disney Fantasy in an oceanview would be $2700 not including anything. I think I just died. Even using an onboard booking it would still be more than the Escape. We have booked a seven night Western out of Tampa on a smaller ship for December 2015 also, which I am a little more concerned about since what I loved about the Epic was the amount of options available to me, and the entertainment each night.
I wouldnt hesitate to take kids on one of their newer ships (Epic, Breakaway, Getaway, Escape and Bliss is coming soon) but I am not 100% convinced about the older ships. Yet.
As an early Christmas or late birthday present, I convinced my wonderful husband to let me take a solo cruise. I was really limited to cruising the week of the 13th or 14th December out of Miami, since we were already embarking on the Disney Wonder on December 21st. On some of the newer Norwegian Cruise Line ships Epic, Breakaway, Getaway and the two still being built they offer solo cabins which they call studios. This can be a lot cheaper than paying the solo supplement on most lines, which is usually 200%. I decided on the Epic over the Getaway, mostly because the Epic is moving to Europe permanently in April 2015, but also because the cruise dates avoided a hotel stay.
Overview
I took a seven night cruise on the Norwegian Epic from December 14-21. It visited Falmouth, Grand Cayman and Cozumel (in that order) with three days at sea. For a studio cabin which sleeps one, I paid $389 plus tax. The promotion at the time was either 10% back in OBC ($38.90) or three free meals at Cagneys, Le Bistro and La Cucina ($65). I took the three free meals as I wanted to try out some of their specialty restaurants anyway! I booked a guarantee stateroom and was assigned my room around a week before I embarked.
Im not going to disclose what we paid for the Disney Wonder over Christmas, but it was a lot more than the Epic.
Although the Epic holds twice as many people as the Wonder, I thought that since I sailed them back to back I would compare the two ships in service, food and a few other things.Embarkation / Disembarkation
Embarkation on Norwegian was a breeze. I was able to take a bus from Tampa and arrived at the terminal at around 12pm. 35 minutes later, I was on the ship and heading to the buffet. Thats right, THIRTY FIVE MINUTES from arrival to starting the vacation. I have never, ever embarked a Disney ship so fast, even when we have arrived at the terminal at a similar time. The Epic is so large it uses Terminals B and C at Miami; if you are staying on an even numbered deck you embark in Terminal C, and an odd numbered deck in Terminal B. The process was very smooth! Unlike all other lines I have sailed on, NCL only requires you to give them a credit card at check in to keep on file. Most want you to complete the form online before you sail. Disembarkation was not so easy. NCL allows you to pick your own disembarkation time (unless you are using NCL transfers). A list is left in your stateroom of the color tags for your luggage and what time you will be disembarking and you can pick whatever color tag you wish at guest services. It was incredibly simple, but disembarking almost 5,000 passengers from a ship took an incredibly long time. My walk off time was 9.30. They called my color tag (lavender) at 9.35, and I didnt clear customs until 10.45. That is just too long to be standing in a ridiculously long line. I understand that they want people off the ship, but they need more customs agents if they want that. I wouldnt pick the 9.30 tag again!
Embarkation on the Wonder was not surprisingly a mess. For a start, the parking lot for F is actually at G. We dropped our cases with the porters and then went to park the car, but its still a pretty far walk when you have a suitcase of water with you! Later we found out there was a shuttle to the parking lot, but the shuttle leaves from the end of Terminal F, which is about half the distance to the lot. I absolutely hate Terminal F in Miami, having sailed out of there in January 2013. I was hoping that things would have improved in those two years but sadly, they hadnt. We arrived at around 11.45pm, so similar to the Epic. The Silver and Gold Castaway check in line was incredibly fast, since there were very few repeat cruisers, but actually getting on the ship was not fun. Since the terminal in Miami is long and narrow, everyone crowds around the boarding area. Even though when we arrived our boarding number had been called, we couldnt make it through the maze of people and strollers until the next number and even that was tricky. Disney needs to have some kind of policy about not crowding that entrance. However, disembarkation was super easy and fast and we were off the ship and through customs in around 30 minutes. We left the ship at 8am and were on the way home by 8.45am.
Verdict: A tie. Disney embarkations out of Port Canaveral are usually better but since Im doing a direct comparison then its a tie.
Food
The most subjective of topics! My food mantra is that I will try everything once, and a cruise ship allows me to do that. Since this was our ninth sailing on Disney, I am used to their menus and generally have picked what I want to eat before the cruise even begins. I didnt have time to study the Norwegian menus so I was really thrown in blind! Their menus are more similar to Disney than Princess. They have a lot of basic items on them for the perpetually picky (like my husband) but also have some more interesting items. This just covers the included food, which on Norwegian is Taste and the Manhattan Room (the two MDRs), OSheehans (Irish style pub), Garden Cafe (buffet) and any of the pool area food, along with the trademark of NCL, Freestyle dining.
The two MDRs Taste and Manhattan have the same menu each night so the only reason to decide between the two would be the decor (Manhattan has a more formal, New York steak house feel where Taste is more modern) or the wait time. I dined in both during the week and Manhattan generally had a longer wait time than Taste. However, even though we had party sizes of between six and twelve throughout the week, our wait time was never more than fifteen minutes. I loved being able to eat when you were hungry and not when the cruise line said so. Mostly because it stopped me from that pre-dinner snack I indulge in on Disney. The dishes in the two MDRs were mainly hit but there were a few misses throughout the week too, such as the mushroom gnocchi on the last night of the cruise (probably the worst gnocchi I have ever tasted). However, there were also some standouts such as the salmon tartare, and the cheese and bean empanada which I could have eaten a whole tray of! One thing that was just super weird on Norwegian is that they have some dishes which are on the menu every night but these arent marked on the menu, so on night one you dont know if anything will repeat. I may have tried something different had I known a couple of things would be there every night. The desserts I tried (Im not a huge dessert person) were better than Disney. The chocolate volcano was a huge hit with the whole of our group.
OSheehans is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and late night snacks, with slightly varying menus for each. It is a table service venue but at breakfast the service was extremely quick. I only ate there for breakfast, which has a small but appetizing selection of hot food and pastries. The blueberry muffins were actually good (Im picky about my muffins) and the cooked breakfast was excellent, even the bacon (Im picky about that too!) OSheehans is open for breakfast on disembarkation morning too, and we sat and watched everyone else disembark while eating and waiting for our turn.
Garden Cafe was really the standout of the week for me. Norwegians buffet was truly excellent with many varied types of food and 90% of it was delicious. It is set up in stations. At breakfast there are a handful of omelet stations, where a chef will make you a freshly cooked omelet. There are some ingredients to pick from at the station (cheese, peppers, mushrooms, onions, spinach) or you can find other things on the buffet for them to add into it for you. I tried this one morning (peppers, onions and cheese) and it was a really good omelet! Even though there was more than one station for omelets, there was often a line. There was also a huge pastry selection, fresh fruit, cold cuts and cheese, bread, and then cooked items also which included french toast (yum), waffles, hash browns, sausages and sausage patties, bacon, mushrooms and tomatoes, and probably more I am forgetting. There was also an area where you could toast your own bread products. It was an excellent breakfast buffet and I definitely indulged in it during the week! Lunch was just as good. There was a huge selection of different food types including hot and cold sandwiches, Asian, Indian, make your own pasta, cold cuts, meat on the bone and various sides, and each day there would be a smaller themed section of a particular type of cuisine. The day we docked at Cozumel, the whole of the buffet was Mexican themed and I thought they did a great job with it. My favorite section was the Indian food. I love Indian food its almost the national cuisine of England now! and this didnt disappoint even though it was vegetarian. There were desserts a-plenty at lunch, but I only tried the real hand scooped ice cream that was included! I dont enjoy soft serve, so having real ice cream on a cruise was a treat. I didnt try Garden Cafe for dinner but each night had a different theme. The ones I remember were Asian, Seafood and Mediterranean.
On the Epic there are a couple of places to eat around the pool. There are two sections near the buffet entrance that had a build your own burger and hot dog bar. They had chicken and beef burgers and had a variety of toppings you could choose from that they had picked, such as mushroom and blue cheese, or you could build your own. The guacamole was excellent, but super spicy and I wasnt expecting it to be! They have a similar thing at the pool in SpiceH2O (the adult area) which at night also served a selection of cooked to order appetizers. The burgers were decent but a little overcooked for me but I liked the idea a lot.
Since we have sailed on Disney before I mostly stuck to my regular dishes. It was good, but not great, and not as good as the food has been on previous cruises. Our first night was in Parrot Cay and I had the grouper with jambalaya. The fish was good, but the rice was almost inedible as it was severely undercooked. The risotto in Animators Palate was the same. I can understand overcooking rice, but undercooking it so much on two different days is unacceptable. The pizza at Pinocchios was fine, but nothing outstanding (although it was hot, which always makes pizza excellent!), but the sandwiches at Goofys Galley were underwhelming. I know at one point Disney cooked the sandwiches as you ordered them, but now they have them pre-heated and it isnt a great idea. Beach Blanket Buffet was frustrating (I hate that cafeteria line!) but weirdly had better food than Cabanas did on recent cruises. They also had a Mexican themed buffet on Cozumel day (is this a thing now?) but it wasnt as good as NCL. One day for lunch they had gorgonzola, apple and walnut turnovers and I think they were my favorite thing on the whole cruise. So good!
Verdict: The MDRs are a tie, but Norwegian wins because of their amazing buffet and all night food options at OSheehans.
Specialty Dining
NCL has several upcharge dining restaurants to choose from. On the Epic, they range from $15-30 and included Cagneys (Steakhouse), La Cucina (Italian), Le Bistro (French), Moderno (Brazilian), Shanghais (Chinese), Teppanyaki (Japanese) along with the Noodle Bar (noodles and rice) and Wasabi (sushi) which are both a la carte. Children are half price or free if they dine from the kids menu. Even though my booking included a free meal at La Cucina, I never made it there and instead dined at Cagneys, Le Bistro, Teppanyaki and Wasabi. Your gratuities on NCL automatically include dining at the speciality restaurants so you dont have to leave an additional tip if you dont want to. Disney no longer includes a gratuity in the $25pp for Palo.
I started with Cagneys, which has the highest upcharge ($30pp). It was hands down the best steak I have ever had on a ship. I selected the bone in rib eye (my cut of choice) and it did not disappoint! It was cooked and seasoned to perfection and the garlic mash and steamed broccoli sides were perfect for the meal. There was actually too much food, but that could be because I started with the Baked Potato Soup (amazing) and Waygu Beef Sliders (heaven). I was too stuffed to even consider a dessert afterwards. Cagneys is well worth the $30pp upcharge. You would never get a meal on land of that quality for any price close to that. However, I discovered I dont like Southern Comfort when I ordered the Speakeasy Martini. Never again. It was awful!
Next on my list was Le Bistro, which has an upcharge of $20pp. I started with the Les Quatre Cornets, which were good but not outstanding, followed by the French Onion Soup, which was far better than the MDR version! I am a duck lover, so I selected the Duo de Canard which was one of the best duck dishes I have ever tasted. The duck was incredibly tender and delicious. For dessert I had the cheese plate which for a cheese lover was amazing. I absolutely love cheese and they had a great selection. I tried the French 75 cocktail at Le Bistro and would order it again it was very good. I would definitely dine at Le Bistro again but it would be wasted on someone who wasnt willing to try new things.
Teppanyaki was my third speciality dining experience. Its harder to get a reservation at Teppanyaki as they seat you in groups of 8 around a grill. The restaurant cant hold as many people as the other dining venues because of this. It carries an upcharge of $25pp. The meal is very simple and similar to what you would get at teppanyaki restaurants on land, but it is really the show you are there for. The chef makes it a lot of fun to watch him cook! There is unlimited miso soup and fried rice, and then you select from a menu which meat/fish/vegetarian items you would like with your rice. I chose the seafood which included lobster, scallops and calamari. The portions of the lobster and calamari were huge and well worth the money! The scallop portion was smaller but incredibly delicious cooked on the grill. The fried rice was the only thing I was not in love with, and that was mainly because its cooked before the meat so it sits on the grill cooking for too long. However, it was a lot of fun and worth the cost, especially with a group. I tried the Wasabi cocktail which was also delicious!
Wasabi is an a la carte sushi bar, which has a small selection of hot dishes along with sushi, sashimi and some rolls. I tried a few different rolls over the week and for the price (around $4 a roll) they were excellent value for something different for lunch or a quick late night snack.
On the Wonder we visited Palo for brunch and dinner. Since we have been so many times to both, I have tried most of the menu that I am interested in. I also like that we can skip the whole menu speech as I know what I like! As always, Palo was excellent. Oh, and mmmmmmm that chocolate souffle. My husbands steak was cooked incorrectly at dinner and to make up for it they made us two special dishes at brunch both were amazing and I wish I could request the pasta dish all of the time. I would definitely recommend Manuel from Italy as a Palo server. He was great and took very good care of us!
Verdict: As much as I love, worship and adore Palo (I would eat there every day if I could), this one goes to NCL because of the amount of choice there is for speciality dining. NCL also offers a dining package where you pay $119 for the whole week and you can eat in as many speciality dining restaurants as you want for no extra charge, including the Spiegel Tent on the first night (I will cover the Spiegel Tent later in the entertainment section).
Drinks
Soda is not included on NCL. For $6.50/day for adults, or $4.50/day for kids (plus that 15% gratuity!), you can drink as much soda as you like from anywhere on the ship. (Side note: NCL serves Pepsi products, not Coke. If you cant live without your Coke products, you can bring some onboard with you. The same goes for water.) If you drink three or more sodas per day, you will break even with the soda package. I believe each one is $2.25 each, but I dont drink soda so Im not 100% sure on the cost. When you have the card, soda is available from every bar on the ship, plus in the MDRs.There was a bar at the front of the buffet so you could get your own drink before you sat down. There are some included drinks on NCL, which differ depending on the meal. Breakfast: Apple juice, orange juice, cranberry mix. Lunch and dinner: Iced tea, lemonade, two kinds of flavored water. These are available in the restaurants as included drinks also. The flavored water was delicious, and that was my go-to drink for the cruise. At breakfast, there was also freshly squeezed juice available but to me the price was ridiculous (over $3) so I never tried it.
Alcohol was on the expensive side on NCL. Beers and ciders started at $5, mixed drinks started at $7 and some of the higher priced cocktails were $10. Drink of the day was $5.95, and had a lot of great options for me with my pineapple allergy. NCL had a slightly different menu in each bar. They have one page of the menu which is identical in each bar, and one page which is themed to the bar you are at. So the martini bar has a whole page of martinis (the one I tried was great) and the whiskey bar has a whole page of whiskey cocktails etc. It was a nice touch and I tried some interesting cocktails throughout the cruise. Each specialty restaurant also had one or a selection of themed cocktails to choose from. NCLs alcohol package (Ultimate Beverage Package) is $59/day plus the 15% gratuity, so you really need to be drinking around 7-8 drinks a day to make the package worth it (or book a cabin while they are offering the beverage package free). Despite the fact that it is called the ultimate package, it does not include freshly squeezed juices, or any drinks which are over $10. You are allowed to bring as many bottles of wine/champagne as you can carry on NCL, but they charge $15 corkage fee per bottle.
Disney has free soda, although you are paying for it in the cruise fare and if you want to get the soda from a bar its not free anymore. Since I dont drink it, its a wasted perk for me. The cocktail selection on the Wonder was poor, but the drinks were more reasonably priced than NCL was. We had an issue one night in Wavebands with two drinks which didnt taste like they had any alcohol in them at all. Thankfully, this didnt repeat to any other nights throughout the cruise. Although you can bring as much alcohol as you can carry onto Disney, we always end up bringing most of it back off the boat with us because their rule is not to drink it outside of your stateroom. I would rather pay for every drink than run back to my stateroom between drinks and break the rules.
Verdict: If you could bring the alcohol menu to Disney from NCL, but charge Disney prices for it, that would totally be a win! Sadly, I cant do that. So Im going to make it a tie. If you really like your included soda and make the most of it, then Disney would probably get your vote but you could pay for the soda package on NCL and still get change from a Disney cruise fare.
Room
My room was pretty awesome for one person. I stayed in the studio rooms, which were unique to Norwegian until Royal Caribbean released Quantum of the Seas. They are approximately 100 sq ft each. The studio rooms also have access to the studio lounge, which has a free coffee machine, tea, and a bar (the bar is not free). There are TVs, board games and books in there also. The room itself is very modern looking, with white walls (some of them padded) and white closets. My favorite part of the room was the funky lighting which could be set to red, white, blue or color changing. There is a double (possibly king) bed, which is really two singles pushed together. Instead of a separate bathroom, one area of the room is designated as a bathroom. The shower is in the main room, along with the sink, and the toilet has a separate compartment in the room. The shower was larger than the one on Princess but it was still a shower, not a tub. NCL provides shampoo and shower gel in dispensers in the shower, and soap by the sink. For one person there was plenty of space for clothing and toiletries. My only complaint with the room is that there are not enough shelves in the room. There are two closest designated for hanging items it would make more sense if one of them was shelves instead. There was no mini-fridge in the studio rooms.
I was able to view an inside room on the Epic also. It also had a modern feel, although darker than the studio rooms, as the cabinets and closets were all in dark wood. The inside rooms were also darker than the studios as they didnt have anywhere near as many lights. For two people, the closet and storage areas in the room looked spacious and the room also had a mini-fridge which came stocked with alcohol. You can ask your stateroom attendant to remove the products at the start of the cruise if you wish to use it to cool your own drinks. However, the weirdest area of the room by far was the bathroom. And by that, I mean the separate shower and toilet with the semi-opaque glass. I have absolutely no idea what Norwegian was thinking with this design! The door to the room is in the center of the room, and the toilet is one side of the door and the shower the other. This would be a good idea if the walls were opaque, but they are not. (The bathrooms are the same in the oceanviews and the balconies also. Im not sure about higher categories.) Not only does it not allow full privacy from anyone you are sharing a room with, if that person opens the door to the cabin at the wrong time, anyone in the corridor could partially see you too. For one person, or a couple, it could work. Anyone else I cant see how it would. There is a curtain to separate the bathroom area from the main cabin area but it doesnt stop being able to see from the corridor with a mistimed door opening. The shower was larger than the studio shower though, which makes it a really good size shower. The sink was in the main room area in the same area as the mini-fridge. They have tried to go with the split bathroom and it does kind of work, but not with that glass!
I thought the rooms were in good condition for a four year old ship. I had a lumpy pillow the first night. The next day it was switched out by my room attendant when I mentioned it to him. Other than that, I didnt have any complaints about the room.
On the other hand, our room on the Disney Wonder was in definite need of some TLC. We stayed in room 6019, which was a sideways 11B. The first thing I noticed was that the door to the room stuck on the carpet, so you had to be really careful when leaving the room to pull the door behind you. This meant there was also a hole forming in the carpet where the door was rubbing against it. We had three problems in our bathroom over the week a tile was broken in the tub on day one, the sink stopper didnt work on day two, and the sink was leaking on day four (its possible it had always been leaking but we noticed it then). The couch was downright uncomfortable to sit on it felt like there was zero padding it in. And the steamer trunk needed some help to open and close. I really like the cupboard that the steamer trunk has replaced on the Magic its much better for storage. I hadnt sailed on the Wonder in almost two years and was surprised how tired the rooms looked. We really like the sideways 11B rooms because the layout makes the room feel larger than it really is. The bathroom felt tiny after being on NCL for a week, where the toilet alone had almost as much space as the whole bathroom on DCL. I also hate the tub and shower curtain because for me it feels too narrow.
Verdict: I personally preferred the rooms on NCL other than the weird bathroom setup (what is with that semi-opaque glass?!) in the non-studio cabins. However, the cabins on DCL are much larger. For one or two people, the storage was fine on NCL. For more people you may have to look for two rooms or upgrade to an oceanview or balcony room. There are family oceanviews on the newer ships which are similar sized to Disney, and the balconies are also a similar size. Only the Epic has the weird glass bathrooms. Your privacy is safe on any other ship.
Layout and Decor
Im going to start this by saying that the Epic had one of the weirdest ship layouts ever. In fact, the layout was so weird that I couldnt find some areas of the ship, and there were some areas that I didnt know existed until the last night. I should have known how weird it was going to be when I went to find the mid-ship elevators and there werent any. Yep, the Epic only has two sets of elevators one forward and one aft. My room was as far forward as you could get, so it didnt bother me, but if you have booked a mid-ship stateroom I would probably find it annoying! Norwegian also provides a map of the Epic on check in and this was badly needed for the first few days!
The main decks are 5, 6 and 7. Most of deck 6 is taken up by the casino. These decks are fairly well laid out. Deck 5 is home to the internet cafe, photos, guest services, shore excursions, future cruise desk, Taste and the least impressive atrium I have ever seen, along with a cafe and Le Bistro. The atrium is tiny and other than having the atrium cafe next to it, you wouldnt even be able to tell it was an atrium. Deck 6 is home to three main entertainment venues (Epic Theatre, Spiegel Tent and Headliners) at the forward part of the ship, followed by OSheehans which overlooks the atrium. Most of the rest of the deck is the casino, and aft is Manhattan Room. Deck 7 hosts a variety of walk through shops, bars and specialty dining, including Wasabi/Teppanyaki, Cagneys and Moderno. Taste has an open ceiling to decks 6 and 7, and there is a beautiful chandelier which hangs over part of the restaurant. I particularly liked the overlook of the atrium from OSheehans; there is bar style seating around the balcony so you can sit and have a drink and eat, and watch whatever is happening in the atrium at that time.
The one thing I did not like about NCLs public decks is that there are almost no windows. There are some like at the internet cafe and at guest services but the ship is very insular and its hard to see the ocean at any time! Even the outside walking track only has a view of lifeboats.
Deck 15 the pool deck and above are a mess though. There is a sports court on deck 16 which I NEVER found during the week. Ever! There are sundecks on 18 and 19 which I didnt know existed until the last night. I found out that the main set of elevators dont go there, and you have to take a separate set of elevators to those sundecks. We experienced heavy rain one day in Jamaica and the deck areas were flooded with at least an inch of water because the drains were not in places that made sense. Whoever designed this ship shouldnt be allowed to design another one. It made my brain hurt!
Verdict: Since we have sailed on Disney multiple times its not really a fair comparison, but at least the layout of the Wonder makes sense and its not impossible to find certain areas of the ship. The Epic was fine after you have been on the ship a few days, but its not newbie friendly.
Entertainment / Activities
Norwegian is a cruise line that likes activities. If you want to keep busy, this is the cruise line for you at least on their larger ships. During the week I played on the Wii in the atrium (they even had this on sea days), bowled at sea (usually $7pp, but it was free while we were docked in Cozumel), spent a lot of time on their three waterslides (in order of preference; yellow, purple, green), had some fun at trivia and observed various people engaged in poolside games. Its not hard to keep busy on the Epic. There were several family orientated activities along with adult only activities (such as alcohol tastings) and overall I felt it was a good mix.
The pools on the Epic were on the small side for the 4,700 people aboard that week but I never saw them full. They never turned into kid soup like the pools on Disney do. There were several kids onboard but nowhere near as many as Disney. The following week (Christmas) we were told there would be 1,500 kids. I believe there were around 500 on our sailing. There were two family pools each one approximately the same size as the family pool on DCL with one of them having a shallow area. There were also fountains surrounding the pool which kids seemed to love playing in, and six hot tubs. The three waterslides take up a large amount of pool deck space, but this is mainly due to the yellow bowl slide which was so much fun! The line for that was no longer than ten minutes between rides, even on sea days, and the other two slides had much shorter lines. There is also an adult area on the pool deck Spice H20 which is all the way aft. It includes a pool, two hot tubs and a huge movie screen. It is also the host to the late night adult parties such as the White Hot Party, which was a LOT of fun! The cruise staff know how to have a good time. The pool deck is also host to a rock climbing and rapelling wall, but both seemed to have short hours.
Like Disney has, well, Disney characters, and Royal Caribbean has Dreamworks characters, Disney has Spongebob Squarepants characters. Spongebob and Patrick Star did come and visit at the sail away party and a few other times during the week and yes, I did meet them. (I have a soft spot for Spongebob.) Its a nice touch but it doesnt define the entertainment like the Disney theming really does on DCL.
Late night entertainment was also excellent on Epic. There are several main shows and I would recommend booking them before the cruise. They are: Blue Man Group, Legends in Concert, The Second City, Howl at the Moon (non-bookable) and Cirque Dreams (either $39.99 or $29.99pp). Blue Man Group was truly excellent. I had never seen the show before so to see it for free was a huge bonus! Sadly, Blue Man is leaving the Epic in March. Legends in Concert was okay but not amazing; I suspect it depends on the three performers. We say Jimmy Buffet, Adele and Aretha Franklin and I wasnt fond of the Adele performer at all. Her fake English accent really grated on me. The Second City is an improv comedy show with three showings per evening; one for everyone, one rated PG-13 and one 18+. I found some parts to be extremely funny and some parts just okay but its worth watching at least once. Each show has a different theme to it also. Howl at the Moon is dueling pianos and I absolutely loved it. It was so much fun (and amazing) to be able to watch them perform everything. After 11.30pm it became adult only and it got a little naughtier. And finally, Cirque Dreams is a dinner show at the Spiegel Tent. The food was very hit and miss (I had to go and eat sushi afterwards!) but the show was excellent and well worth the money. Its a Cirque du Soleil type spectacle and to see it on a moving ship made it even more spectacular.
Since we sailed on the Wonder over Christmas I expected it to be full of activities for all the first time cruisers that seemed to be sailing. Sadly, I was incredibly disappointed. We signed up for gingerbread house making which was a lot of fun, but it was filled with screaming children and we could barely hear the pastry chef. Other than that, there was very little for adults to do the whole cruise. There were a lot of families on board, but there wasnt the usual selection of trivia, mixology (one of my favorites), cooking demonstrations and it was even missing Mickey 200 which is one of our cruise staples. On the two sea days there was barely anything for adults before about 1pm. We have seen all of the shows before and skipped them, because other than Dreams I feel that the Wonder has the worst selection of shows. We did go and watch The Magic of Scott Pepper (I had seen him before) and he was excellent. Much, much better than Magic Dave! The adult entertainment at night was not well attended, and Quest and Match Your Mate was combined into the first night. We had an adult Scott Pepper show (also excellent), the 80s Party Night, karaoke and Michael DuBois who is a comedy juggler. I would be fine with never seeing Michael DuBois again because he just wasnt funny. It made the whole exercise tedious to sit through.
Verdict: NCL wins this easily. Even compared to past Disney cruises, NCL still wins. There were options every night of what to do and sometimes there were actually too many options. There was also late night activities which you never see on Disney!
Kids
NCL has kids. I heard several people on the cruise complain about how many kids there were on the cruise. I almost told them they should go on a Disney cruise and then come back and compare, but I didnt. There were not a lot of kids on the cruise, and it is a huge ship. There are kids clubs on NCL which are split into different age groups and they are (mostly) on deck 14. I heard several kids throughout the week ask to go back to the kids clubs so they must be doing something right! Spongebob also ended up with a large line the day I met him and kids seemed to love him. Older kids loved the waterslides. Apart from a few minor incidents (like a child running and screaming in the atrium with parents doing nothing), the kids were well behaved on the cruise.
Verdict: I dont think I can give once since I dont have kids but they seemed to be having fun on NCL.
Service
NCL really surprised me with the service. It wasnt as good as the best service I have received on Disney, but it was overall good to excellent. I had one person at guest services who was unhelpful early on in the cruise, but every other person I encountered at guest services was more than happy to help. The MDR waitstaff were good even though we saw different people each night. They were not as personable as most on DCL but they are unlikely to see you again throughout the week. They also didnt seem to speak as much English as servers on DCL do. The servers in the specialty restaurants were outstanding and I did tip extra in those restaurants. The cruise staff were really excellent over the whole week and loved to chat and get people to participate in events. Every single person who served me throughout the week called me Miss Holly which doesnt happen on DCL.
DCLs service has slipped over our last few cruises. We had problems with guest services this time on more than one occasion. The third time we had to call about the bathroom, they advised us someone would be there immediately. 45 minutes later we were still waiting. We called them back to advise them that we wanted to take a nap and they said that they would then send someone out in a few hours. 10 minutes later, the plumber knocks on our door. It was not appreciated! Our MDR staff were on the poor side also. One night it took us 35 minutes to get drinks and we were the last people in the dining room every night without fail. It wasnt the worst service team we had encountered (that was on the Dream, where we failed to get any service after the main course had arrived) but it was close to the bottom. For the last night, we pre-ordered our food and were still one of the last people out of the dining room. The head server didnt seem to want to listen, and our poor server was trying to to two jobs at once. Since everyone talks about the Disney Difference in service, I have experienced more than once that its not always like that.
Verdict: NCL surprised me. I really liked being called Miss Holly and not having the same servers every night didnt bother me at all. Comparing cruise to cruise, NCL wins, but the best Disney service we have received would beat the NCL service. So, another tie.
Overall
I absolutely fell in love with NCL over the week. The Epic really impressed me whereas the Wonder did not and the Wonder is my favorite Disney ship. I wouldnt ever hesitate to sail NCL again on their larger ships and we have actually booked a cruise with them for November 2015 on their newest ship, the Escape. NCL runs a lot of promotions so its booking at the right time so you get the best benefit. The cruise we have just booked is a seven night Eastern in an oceanview for just over $2000, but it includes the beverage package so we have unlimited alcohol during the week. The equivalent week on the Disney Fantasy in an oceanview would be $2700 not including anything. I think I just died. Even using an onboard booking it would still be more than the Escape. We have booked a seven night Western out of Tampa on a smaller ship for December 2015 also, which I am a little more concerned about since what I loved about the Epic was the amount of options available to me, and the entertainment each night.
I wouldnt hesitate to take kids on one of their newer ships (Epic, Breakaway, Getaway, Escape and Bliss is coming soon) but I am not 100% convinced about the older ships. Yet.
