Live from the Caribbean: Another look at Norwegian Cruise Line's Epic

Wow, the deck can hold around 5,100 passengers?!  Well, they don't think it will reach that because it's off season.  But being off-season means you can get cheap vacation cruise packages.

Here's an excerpt from USATODAY:

ABOARD THE NORWEGIAN EPIC -- Good morning, Cruise Loggers, it's me, Gene, and I'm once again on board Norwegian Cruise Line's newest ship, the Norwegian Epic.

Regular readers will recall I wrote extensively about the much-awaited, 4,100-passenger vessel -- one of the largest cruise ships ever -- at the time of its debut in June, when I sailed on several short preview voyages for travel agents, but this is my first time on a full seven-night cruise on the ship.

What's the Epic like now that it's settled into a regular schedule of Caribbean sailings? Still fun and lively, as I noted earlier this year, and judging from the smiling faces on passengers around the vessel, definitely a crowd pleaser.

One big concern of travel agents and cruise writers who saw the ship at its debut was that its public decks would be overwhelmed by a passenger count that can go as high as 5,100. But that doesn't appear to be the issue many thought it would be. This is the off season, of course, and there are fewer children on board than during the summer months, lightening the passenger load. But the flow of the ship seems to be working well.

That's not to say the ship isn't bustling. Like Royal Caribbean's new, 5,400-passenger Oasis of the Seas, this is a vessel designed to appeal to people who like the kind of frenetic mega-resort experience found in Las Vegas or Orlando.