We love the shows Mighty Ship and Mighty Cruise Ship. On one of their episodes, they featured Norwegian Cruise Line’s ship called the Norwegian Epic. At 4,100 passengers, it is the second biggest ship in their fleet and at the time of its build in 2009, it was the third largest in the world.

We’ve never cruised on large cruise ships bigger than 3,200 passengers but the TV show explored so many new things we had never seen before on a ship—such as a true ice bar (where you wear a parka), a water slide and bowl, a rock climbing wall and a circus show.

The eleven day cruise started in Port Canaveral, Florida. As we left the port, we could see poor Oasis of the Seas docked without passengers as it had returned early because of the Norovirus outbreak. Fortunately, with the constant “washy washy” sing-songed by the buffet greeter, everyone took time to disinfect their hands and we were able to complete the trip without any health issues. The Epic’s port of calls were in Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas (NCL’s own island), Ocho Rios (Jamaica), Georgetown (Cayman Islands), Harvest Caye (Belize), Roatan (Honduras), Costa Maya (Mexico), Cozumel (Mexico) with three sea days.

Let’s start with the ship itself. It is designed like no other ship we had ever sailed on and it’s the only one of its kind in the NCL fleet. There’s a description on Wikipedia of why it’s the only one of its kind but I think a light bulb went on finally in someone’s head and realized “Hey! That’s some f****d design. No one is going to like this!”

There’s a good video on You Tube called “What sucks about the Norwegian Epic cruise ship” that hits all of our stinkers we didn’t like. The cabin layout is the weirdest ever. Think how your master bathroom would look like if you put the sink near your night table, the toilet in a frosted glass surround on the left side of your entry door and the shower in another frosted glass surround on the right side of the door. Yeah, that’s right. No privacy. Who wants to see someone sitting on the toilet! On the upside, I only had to do one step getting out of bed at night to enter the bathroom!

Make sure if you call for anything to your cabin that one of you is not in the shower or toilet when that knock on the door arrives! Not sure who had the hair-brained idea to separate a bathroom into three parts! Not a woman for sure. The paltry light above the sink mirror didn’t cut it if you tried to do your makeup.

On the plus side, the room had much more storage places than any other ship we’ve been on. Also on the upside, the specialty restaurants were top notch. But if you didn’t get the four specialty restaurant for free as part of our cruise offer, be prepared to pay à la carte pricing  (Yikes) for that food. Yep, no cover charges like other cruise lines.

The entertainment on board was also top notch. We saw the Broadway show Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, great singers, comedians and magicians, an energetic dance show and of course their Epicurean Cirque dining show which was fantastic.

But again, the interior design of the ship was also funky. I don’t know how many times we forgot that there was no fifth floor listed on the elevator panel. You could go to six or four. To get to five which is where the lobby is, you had to get off on six, and then walk through the casino (they can smoke there) and then take an escalator or stairs down to five. All because they put a restaurant on five which extended out. Another pet peeve (more for my husband) is that there are many obstructions to taking photos of the sea or shore. Glass barriers form a ring around the ship leaving small gaps to put your hand through (pray not to lose your phone when it’s windy!). Also, we like to hang at the back of the ship and watch the wake it makes. No can do here. You can sort of see a bit if you are on deck 15 near the back pool but the large TV screen obstructs the back view.

Though the weather was mostly free of rain except for our first morning on their private island of Great Stirrup Cay, we did have to deal with some choppy seas throughout where several of our water based activities were cancelled. Fortunately, we were able to snorkel in Great Stirrup Cay, Grand Cayman, Belize and Honduras where the second largest barrier reef, called Mesoamerican, in the world exists! The coral reefs were amazing as were the fish we saw.

Our favorite surprise excursion was in Jamaica. Trying to avoid the throngs at Dunn’s River Falls, we had opted for something similar but different called “Blue Hole and River Tubing”. Now, in Mexico we had swum in Cenotes where you basically walk in the fresh water holes and leisurely swim. Thinking the Blue Hole in Jamaica would be similar, that sounded like a great refreshing and relaxing idea.

More like scary-ass-turning blue idea. Why scary-ass (the blue part comes later)? Nowhere did it say on the cruise ship description that we would walk up three cascades where you basically jump into each pool of water below before hitting the next one. A lot of elderly and not so in shape passengers were caught by surprise as you do walk over slippery rocks and running water! Now, if you are like my husband who likes the thrill of things, this is your thing too! But when you have a fear of heights, not so good.

However, as there are less days ahead of me than behind me, I thought I needed to conquer my fear for once in my life and would go for it. The jumping platform (see above pic) I selected was about 16 feet high. This may not sound high for anyone but for someone like me who freezes going up a ladder; it might as well be 100 feet. GoPro in hand, I edged my way over carefully but the guides held onto my arms to help me over. Quickly backing up and asking to be let go, I took a deep breath and went over the edge. See my video below (there may be a time delay as it loads).

Yeah, I know why things like this scare me. Because it can hurt if you don’t land it right! As soon as I hit the water, I felt the slapping of the water on my right thigh and arm and butt. Ouch! Here’s a pic of my nice “blue” bruise. The video isn’t that great because I was shaking so much and lost my sandal as I hit the water (stupid me for not wearing my water shoes!).

Chris’ video is way much cooler and his jump higher than mine. Though I carried my memento on my leg for a few weeks after, I’m still happy to have done it anyway.

Hanging on to the handle bars to slide and fall into the hole was pretty fun.

The river tubing afterwards was great. A few laughs going through rapids and a nice bar set up right in the middle of the river! In Ocho Rios, a little shopping turned Chris into Bob Marley (by the locals) and we received plenty of offers for some ganja. We explained that we can get that at home legally now so no thanks!

In Grand Cayman, we were all surprised that we needed to tender not in the downtown area but at another port called Spotts “due to weather”. I wouldn’t really describe it as a port but more of a cement dock that you get off within a fenced off area. There is nothing here except taxi buses to take you downtown which were a $6.00 ride each way (people were steaming about that!). Lo and behold as we walked downtown did we see a Royal Caribbean ship arrive an hour later after ours and anchor with three other ships! We didn’t experience long line ups tendering as we were the first off in the morning but others told us they were waiting up to an hour in the tenders as they waited for each tender to disembark others from our ship and another. We took it in stride and enjoyed shopping and eating downtown and then enjoyed the Spotts beach not far from our tendering area with the many chickens. Chickens I say? The tendering area and the beach were crawling with chickens! See my friend here who came to say hello as I lay down on my towel.

Harvest Caye in Belize is private island developed by NCL. Though it is very nice, we would have preferred docking right on the mainland to experience more of the local culture before our snorkeling tour.

Some cool things that you can do on the island is kayaking, paddle boarding, ziplining and peddle boarding where you use your feet to peddle and steer with handlebars which is actually easy to conquer.

In Costa Maya, we bused to the little town of Mahahual where we boarded our catamaran for our last snorkeling tour. The waters were very choppy but we managed to see some interesting sea life before heading back to the many shops around the port. We couldn’t resist having a lobster lunch right by shore. Bring your thirst if you order the big margaritas!

As our last excursion to Passion Island was cancelled in Cozumel, we grabbed a taxi and asked to go to a nice beach where there wouldn’t be too many people. We ended up at Playa Palancar about 20 minutes away from the port. Driving through a long dirt road, you suddenly arrive where quite a few buildings block the beach. Incredibly the beach has full facilities from bathrooms, showers, restaurants and chairs and umbrellas for $10.00 USD rental for the both of us. The beach had a bit of dead sea grass floating on shore but once you got passed it a few feet you were on soft sand where you could wade far out before the water went over your head. The best serendipitous find! We were kind of glad our original beach excursion was cancelled as this beach was not crowded. Great 70-80’s music and
Spanish songs played softly in the background. Didn’t bother with my headphones! There is also nothing better than eating scrumptious local food right on the beach food. The guys serving were pleasant and super fast and the prices very reasonable ($3.50 USD for a beer compared to $6.00 where the ship was). Try the fish tacos and quesadillas! Oh and don’t forget to look for the resident peacock that struts around the beach.

Shooting photography underwater is one of our favourite activities when we cruise the Caribbean. Here are a few photos of our snorkeling.

Overall, despite the shortcomings of the ship, there is still nothing better than waking up each morning to a new port and new adventures. Especially when back home, they are getting record cold temperatures and record snow. We’d rather be in the Caribbean than freezing and shoveling snow!

Signing off with a sunset view.