New to "freestyle" cruising, so I have some questions

[evitacruiser]

I am an NCL virgin :D and so have some questions that you old hands can help me with.

 

We have booked the Epic for Easter next year.

 

Do you just decide each lunchtime/evening which place you are going to eat at and just turn up?

 

Are there any "formal" evenings?

 

Do they have sports competitions such as Table tennis, football etc.

 

On deck 13 how is the bridge viewing section arranged? and who has access?

 

Are there shuttle buses in ports?

 

Is there an outside eating venue?

 

How do you get passes for the Posh beach club?

 

Do all the cabins have the separated out bathroom components?

 

What are the charges like for hairdressing?

 

Thanks to anyone who answers.

[Jenjer]

I can answer a few of them for you

 

You can just show up where you want to eat when you want to eat but if more people show up than they have tables you have to wait. You can also make reservations online at 90 days out for most people 100 days out for Haven guests.

 

If you don't get your reservation you can always try when you get onboard. They don't put every table up for reservations so they can allow for walk ups. IMO reservations are basically required for any specialty dinning but not so much in the MDR.

 

 

There are no formal nights they do have a dress up or not night but really it depends on your dinning reservations. We dress up more for our specialty meals.

 

I do remember most ships will have some tournaments no football as there is not enough space. You just have to look in the dailies they leave each night in your stateroom.

 

No idea about deck 13 can not remember sorry

 

What ports are you talking about?

 

The only outside dinning I can remember was in front of the garden café. I know they changed that on the away ship because people missed eating outside.

 

In order to get posh beach club passes you have to be one of the first to board and then go straight to guest services. They sell a very limited amount of them and they sell out quickly. Since kids are not allowed its not something we have ever done.

 

We stayed in a minisuite. On one side is a toilet on the other side of the entry way was a HUGE shower or shower tub combo. In the room was the sink.

 

 

No idea about hairdressing never use that service.

[nbsjcruiser]

For the MDR you can walk up and eat anytime. You may have a 5 or 10 minute wait depending on the time you choose to eat. For specialty restaurants you can try and walk up but you may have a long wait. We find the best thing to do for the specialty restaurants is to pre-book either before you board online or determine which ones you want to go to as soon as you board and book then, What you'll find once you board is that there will be monitors around the ship that will display the restaurants and their wait times. You can select which times you want to eat based on what you see on the monitors. For example, you might see 7-8PM as very busy but 6:30-7PM not so much.

Edited August 12, 2015 by nbsjcruiser

[LrgPizza]

Epic does not have a "Dress up or not" night. They have something called Norwegian's Night Out, when some decide to dress fancy. There is nothing printed to indicate that people should dress any differently that night than any other. You will see an equal percentage of people dressed up on any given night of the cruise, and that number is small.

 

Anyone can go to the bridge viewing room. Just take the forward elevator to deck 13, then walk as far forward as you can on the starboard side of the ship. There are some windows there for viewing the bridge, and some cool pictures on the walls.

Edited August 12, 2015 by LrgPizza

[Universe1]

I came across this on another thread as I was looking for Spa prices for my mother. I believe it be current (but can't be 100% sure) and should help you or at least give you an indication re hairdressing prices ..