Is this the end for karaoke on cruise ships?

Norwegian Cruise Line’s much-discussed new mega-ship, the Norwegian Epic, is chock full of just about every type of amusement ever conceived for an ocean-going vessel, from a spa to a rock climbing wall. It offers 20 eateries, 20 bars, multiple showrooms and three of the biggest water slides at sea.


But there’s at least one traditional element of big, mass-market cruise ships that the largest Norwegian vessel ever built is missing: A karaoke bar.


A mainstay of the 10 other Norwegian ships sailing from the Caribbean to Europe, karaoke won’t have a big presence — if any — on the line’s new, 4,100-passenger flagship, say Norwegian staffers (unlike on the line’s Jewel Class ships, where passengers’ karaoke crooning wafts into a main thoroughfare almost nightly from a prominently-placed lounge). Karaoke is, they hint, no longer the hot commodity it used to be.


A Norwegian spokeswoman tells USA TODAY passengers looking for an impromptu, karaoke-bar-type musical vibe on Epic have Headliners, a lively club on Norwegian Epic that is home to a Howl at the Moon dueling piano show (for more details on the venue and others on the ship, see the Cruise Log’s just-completed live report from Norwegian Epic).


Bigger than all but a handful of Royal Caribbean ships, Epic is scheduled to be christened Friday in New York City by country music’s Reba McEntire before heading to Miami to operate seven-night Caribbean cruises.


Source: Travel.usatoday.com


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