Written by Chillie Falls, AccessAdventure.net, February 23, 2024
I sailed on the Norwegian Epic January 28th, 2024 from Port Canaveral, Florida on a seven-night cruise. Norwegian Epic was built in 2010, carries 4,228 passengers at double occupancy plus a crew of 1724.
Embarkation and later disembarkation were both very smooth. The stages were well-organized, there seemed to be an adequate number of well-trained staff, and that kept the lines moving.
A nice feature on the Epic, I was allowed to go by my room to drop off carry on bags even though the cabins were not ready. That allowed me to discover my first accessibility issue. My cabin door was key activated and automatic for entry.
However from the inside to the hallway, there was not a touch plate activation or key activated switch. You had to touch the door handle, which activated the door. In a wheelchair, you had to slam it into reverse to keep the door from crashing into your foot. I realize that is a very minor issue, but still quite clumsy for me as a solo guest with a disability. This could be a very simple fix by adding a touch plate inside the cabin.
The public restrooms throughout the entire ship were all wheelchair accessible, all had touch plate entrances and exits, and all were in perfect working order. Most were in a “bank” of 3 restrooms, a men’s, a women’s, and a wheelchair accessible “co-ed” restroom.
I found no major issues on the physical layout of the ship that would cause me problems. There were even hidden ADA elevators to allow access to upper decks where normal access was via stairs.
The restaurants and bars we’re all easily accessible, the crew very accommodating and attuned to the needs of disabled guests. I had no problems anywhere despite a very full, and crowded ship.
One major problem area was like many other ships, the swimming pool and hot tubs were inaccessible and had no lift chairs. I was told near the end of the cruise that they have lifts but they’re store. I asked how a disable guest would know that or how to access one for use. There was not a good answer to that. My suggestion was that the lift chairs needed to be visable, with signage informing guest who to contact for assistance on using the facilities.
All in all, the Norwegian Epic accessibility rating is very high and very well done.