One of the beauties of a Norwegian Cruise Line “Freestyle” cruise is that you can do what you want, when you want. Unless, of course, it is a scheduled activity or show. Then you have to plan ahead. NCL is now making it easy to pre-plan for passengers booked on its largest, most innovative Freestyle Cruising ship to date. Not only is Norwegian Epic is changing the face of cruise line entertainment with unprecedented and world-class on-board entertainment, including Blue Man Group, Cirque Dreams™ & Dinner, The Second City® Comedy Troupe, Legends in Concert, Howl at the Moon Dueling Pianos Show, and Nickelodeon™ at Sea, it will feature a pre-cruise online reservation system for select on-board entertainment.To book tickets for many of these stellar performances, Norwegian Epic guests can pre-book reservations prior to their cruise. Booked guests can go to the Norwegian website, NCL.com, log in to the “My NCL” section and visit a special entertainment page where they can select and reserve their desired performance. Pre-booking will be available for performances of Blue Man Group, Cirque Dreams & Dinner, Legends in Concert, The Second City Comedy Troupe, the Murder Mystery “Presumed Murdered,” and Nickelodeon™ Slime Time Live!, Breakfast with Nickelodeon™. Guests may make a reservation for each show once per sailing.
Online bookings open 45 days prior to sailing date. Reservations for entertainment events with no cover charge are valid until 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time. At that time, all unclaimed reservations with be released to guests on a first come first serve basis. Cancellations of reservations for entertainment events which have a cover charge must be made no later than 24 hours prior to the scheduled start time to receive a full refund. If cancellation occurs with less than 24 hours notice, the full price of the ticket will be charged. Once on board, guests may still make reservations for available shows through the ship's iTV system or by contacting the Box Office.
"Norwegian Epic will redefine cruise ship entertainment with its wide variety of world-class entertainment," said Kevin Sheehan, Norwegian Cruise Line's chief executive officer. "We believe there will be a huge demand for the on-board entertainment and to ensure that guests can see the performances of their choice, we created a special pre-booking mechanism. We feel that this will further the Freestyle Cruising experience, offering guests unsurpassed flexibility and convenience."
Guests will have many entertainment options and venues to choose from on board Norwegian Epic. Blue Man Group will perform eight shows per sailing; Legends in Concert, six performances; Legends Unplugged, three shows; Nickelodeon SlimeTime Live, three shows; Cirque Dreams & Dinner will be performed 12 shows per cruise; Second City, 14; Howl at the Moon, four shows; and there will be Breakfast with Nickelodeon on three mornings per sailing. Amongst the 13 entertainment venues is the first big top at sea, the Spiegel Tent, which will be home to Cirque Dreams & Dinner, created and directed by Neil Goldberg. A special Murder Mystery, called “Presumed Murdered,” presented by The Second City will also be featured in the Spiegel Tent one time per cruise.
Online reservations for entertainment are currently being accepted for Norwegian Epic’s June 24 transatlantic sailing. The ship begins alternating Eastern and Western Caribbean 7-day sailings from Miami on July 10. To book a cruise on Norwegian Epic, visit NCL.com; call 888-NCL-CRUISE (625-2784); or contact a travel professional.
This completely defeats the object of NCL, who are supposed to be freestyle cruising! I read a thread at http://www.cruises.co.uk that argued that it didn't matter as Royal Caribbean do exactly the same on Oasis of the Seas and therefore as the biggest competitor to Epic doing the same thing, it is ok. However, the unique selling point of NCL is that it is a freestyle cruise line. What is freestyle about having to pre-plan your cruise and being tied to specific times and date on the cruise?
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