Epic: Day 1

By Saint Greg

August 31, 2026

I just boarded Norwegian Epic in San Juan. It was very similar to embarking in Alaska or just at a port of call. We boarded on deck 0 and we’re heading upstairs.

Epic is the first cruise ship I’ve been on with a guest elevator.

The Cavern club is less like the real Cavern Club than Encore was. I’m guessing it was rebranded as The Cavern Club where on Encore it was built as The Cavern Club. But it has good standing room around the bar and the door which is probably where I’ll be.

Someone forgot their hat.

A weird thing about the atrium is there are no stairs going down to where guest services is at. You have to backtrack to the casino and take that escalator down.

We have multiple languages for the Freestyle but they’re out of English.

Taste is open for lunch until 2pm.

Roasted tomato soup

Wedge salad

Turkey cottage pie

Cream caramel

At 2pm they announced rooms are ready. This is the solo lounge. My room is above the bar area.

Epic is one of the few ships with a bar in the studio lounge. When I was on Getaway the bar didn’t have any barstools or mixers so people were just grabbing shots and leaving. They do have barstools here. We’ll see what they can make later. The bar is open 5-7pm.

Here is a look at the liquors.

This is up above the bar area. It’s a small hallway with just two rooms. This is my room on the left.

This is my room. It’s not my favorite studio setup but it’ll work.

Someone left me some extra hangers. I always welcome that.

This is the veteran’s package.

I’m just missing another Jewel from my first Norwegian cruise which was before I knew about their veterans program. The best part of the program is 10% off of cruises.

Here is today’s Freestyle Daily.

I believe Epic is the last ship that was made with the bridge viewing room which is a really cool feature.

Let’s check out lido deck.

We are right next to an airport. This is a small plane airport, it’s not the one I flew into.

They have a rock climbing wall.

Let’s check out their Spice H2O adults only area.

It’s big and it has a small pool.

We have a bar on the starboard side.

And a buffet on the port side.

That is a Ritz Carlton super yacht.

This is the Puerto Rician capitol building.

The San Agustin Parish church is a catholic church originally built in 1886 and reconstructed in 1915.

I stopped by the room and my luggage has been delivered.

Let’s check out the studio lounge bar.

Extra dirty Grey Goose martini

They have a couple of TVs on in here. One has sound on.

Espresso martini with fresh espresso from the machine in here.

Another dirty martini

I grabbed a double shot of grey goose to stash in the room so I can make a screwdriver in the morning.

I headed back to Spice for sail away. It’s dark out now.

They have sports on the big screen in Spice. That’s nice. I was on Escape during football season and they wouldn’t put games on that screen.

Those blue lights are the runway.

Castillo San Felipe del Morro

Upcoming NBA schedule on the sports channel.

Dueling pianos in the comedy club.

This is an odd setup but you can stand in the casino and watch people in the Taste restaurant.

I’m having dinner at the Shanghai noodle bar tonight.

They have Deal or No Deal going on in the atrium.

This is a circus tent themed venue across from the comedy club. Since they have pianos in the comedy club they’re having comedy in here.

I really like this venue with the second floor.

LA Harvey

They had a medical situation. It was kind of shocking how long it took for Norwegian personnel to be called. A couple of nurses on vacation ran down and helped before the Norwegian people were called.

Manny Acosta. He does Carnival as well.

The bowling alley is out of service but they have full size balls. The ones I’ve see on other ships had these mini bowling balls. There’s a rumor that they will be removing this.