10 chic treats on a Norwegian cruise

MANILA, Philippines - Kids these days use the word “epic” pretty much on a daily basis. I watch my nephews play basketball and if someone misses a basket, it’s an “epic fail” or if a play goes well, they high-five and say, “epic shot.” When they are about to tell me a story, they say, “This is epic,” when it’s really just mildly amusing, or quite pleasant. As a one-time English major, I respect the word epic, and know that it must be reserved for that which is truly grand and moving and seminal, and I am grateful that I have finally witnessed something worthy of the epithet.

As I stood on the Southampton pier, and saw the Norweigian Cruise Line Epic, the biggest commercial ship now sailing the seas, something deep within me stalled, and then was stirred. In his book The Art of Travel, philosopher/memoirist/best-selling author Alain de Botton recounted the poet Charles Baudelaire’s attraction to ocean liners:

“Baudelaire admired not only the places of departure and arrival, but also the machines of motion, in particular, ocean-going ships. He wrote of the ‘profound and mysterious charm that arises from looking at a ship.’ . . . He marveled at the technological achievements behind them, at how objects so heavy and multifarious could be made to move with elegance and cohesion across the seas. A great ship made him think of ‘a vast, immense, complicated but agile creature, an animal full of spirit, suffering and heaving all the sighs and ambitions of humanity.”

When I then boarded the ship, I could tell in an instant that this was not your average cruise. For one, the main lobby was sleek and minimal, and the giant screen featured Bono in concert. And when I saw our suite, I felt as if I had fallen into an issue of Wallpaper magazine and had the great good fortune of living within such stylish pages for three days and two nights.

10 Chic Treats Aboard the Epic

1. The Recess Kid’s Club:  Kids are just as important as their parents on this ship, and it shows in the design. Mini versions of Verner Panton’s iconic chair are all over the play areas. A mini-theater for budding thespians is worthy of the West End.  There are Wii stations, X-boxes, and an entire library of games for these consoles. The truth is, even adults would have a blast hanging out here.

2. The Garden Café: The buffet restaurant boasts pretty trellises and such delightful lighting fixtures that one is truly transported to a charming outdoor oasis, redefining alfresco dining.

3. The Chinese restaurant: The contemporary Chinese art in the ship’s Chinese restaurant makes one feel as though you are in the much-vaunted 798 Art Zone of Beijing’s Daozhanzi District. The selection of art is disciplined yet light-handed. Plus the Filipina manager will make you feel instantly at home. She revealed to us that of all the outlets in the ship, this restaurant cost them the most, and if you are abreast of the auction prices of Chinese art, you can easily imagine how exorbitant it must have been to acquire the art.  

4. Bliss Ultra Lounge: The anteroom boasts the horse lamp designed by Marcel Wanders of the Dutch studio Moooi and his extra-tall club chairs. And then you enter through a screen projection of the revelers within, so it seems as if you are penetrating a wall of dancing people when it’s really just ephemeral images suspended in air. A good way to start a fun evening! In fact, we entered and re-entered several times just to truly savor the sensation.

5. The Mandara spa: Heated mosaic tile beds and Dedon lounge furniture along wall-to-ceiling glass windows are the perfect setting to forget day-to-day cares.

6. The gym: A full-size rock-climbing wall and racquet ball court, hundreds and hundreds of treadmills and stationary bicycles, plus an extensive menu of classes ranging from yoga to spinning. The perfect place to burn off all those calories from the all-day eating! If you’re disciplined enough to make it there, that is.

7. The Studio Lounge:  If all the art-watching, video-game playing, and constant eating are just too exhausting, you can hie off to this cozy, intimate lounge, done up in tailored lines, and a monochromatic beige color scheme. It’s a minimalist’s heaven.

8. The Ice Bar: Just as exclusive as a hot London boite, you even have to don faux fur coats to enter this chill place.

9. The sushi bar.  Inspired by the purity and integrity of a tatami mat, Wasabi is all woven textures and subdued tones. But the food is to die for!

10. Free magazines:  In the holding area before you board the ship, there’s free iced tea, orange juice and four shelves of magazines, free for the taking. Most of them are travel titles, so you can plan your next holiday, but there are also golf and yachting magazines, general lifestyle magazines and a gossip rag or two.