A dispute between NCL and STX initially resulted in the construction of both ships being placed on hold until a new agreement was reached.

She represents the "third generation" of Freestyle cruising vessels and her size allows NCL to have ships in the "mega-class" of their competitors in Royal Caribbean International and Carnival Cruise Lines, though she is still 32% smaller by gross tonnage than Royal Caribbean's Oasis-class ships, the world's largest passenger vessels at the time of her construction.

[citation needed] On July 2, 2010, the ship was christened at a ceremony in New York by her godmother, American country music artist Reba McEntire.

[10] Norwegian Epic is powered by a diesel-electric plant, with the six long-stroke MaK engines providing a total of 79.8 MW for ship propulsion and on-board electricity supply.

In September 2008, a dispute over the price of the first F3 vessel (at the time approximately 25% complete) arose between Norwegian Cruise Line and STX France.

A dispute between NCL and STX initially resulted in the construction of both ships being placed on hold until a new agreement was reached.

[16][17] The conditions were found to be suspicious (there was no welding or other 'hot' work in the area, and the extinguishing system was non-operational), and the event was investigated by Saint-Nazaire police as arson.

It was suspected some workers may have deliberately set the fire in an act of payback for the price dispute between NCL and STX France.

[23] At the time of the incident, the Norwegian Epic was diverting to San Juan following power outages and mechanical problems.

[24] On June 8, 2019, a 63-year-old South Korean woman fell overboard from Norwegian Epic while she was travelling from Cannes, France, to Palma de Mallorca, Spain.