Do you have any idea how hard it is to walk through a floating casino — especially the one on the Norwegian Epic — every day for a week?
Well, it’s not as hard as it used to be.
Let’s go back 20 years. We were on our first cruise, aboard a Carnival ship the name of which we can’t remember. Mom, Dad and three kids. The older two were off doing whatever teenagers did in those days when they were trapped at sea with their parents. Our daughter, Lisa, was 11 and out of place…too young to mingle with the teenagers, too old to be comfortable with a group that ranged from 6 to 12.
One day (okay, maybe more than once), Mom and Dad went to the casino. Lisa went, too, and was stopped at the door. No minors allowed. So there she sat, nose pressed against the glass, while her parents spent time and coins at slot machines. The guilt lingers today.
Fast forward.
One of the biggest, newest cruise ships in the world has a casino, because all cruise ships do, because it produces revenue. This is the largest casino at sea in our experience — 13,000 square feet. It has an attractive players club program, because you don’t have to be a high roller to be part of it. There’s even something for a novice, NCL says.
The casino also has smoke, since gamblers are often smokers, and Norwegian has heard complaints from customers, some of them in the restaurant on the deck below, as the two are connected by the largest chandelier on any cruise ship and a lot of open air. For temporary relief, air purifiers have been strategically positioned on the floor.
The Epic Casino is on Deck 6, mid-ship, so it cannot be avoided. All 3,800 passengers on board have at least walked through it. Some have even been pushed through it in strollers. That’s how much age matters for passersby.
Our daughter would have loved not having to press her nose against the glass.