dolita22

We cruised with my parents, sister, brother-in-law and 8-month old nephew on the Epic in 2013. We were all in balconies. I can't help with what's in the Courtyard, but my mom arranged with our PCC to have a pack & play in the room on arrival. My sister said it was smaller than her pack & play at home, but my nephew slept just fine in it and had room to move around. There was a sheet, but I don't remember blankets. It was placed alongside their bed, and while it took up a bit of room it worked well. Since your DIL is in a suite, I imagine there will be more space.

Also, the dining room staff always had a high chair for him. Not sure if that's the kind of chair you're referring to, but there was always a chair for him.

The staff on the Epic - room stewards and dining room staff - really interacted with him well. You'll have a great family cruise!

Your pictures were fantastic! Sorry about the weather and missing GSC.

The Sky was my first NCL cruise and my parents' first-ever cruise three years ago. Yeah, that hooked them in to cruising, and they've been on a number of NCL cruises since!

Thanks for bringing back memories! I am hoping to get my husband on the Sky one of these days. it's a great ship with wonderful crew.

Thanks again for posting!

We had a regular BA balcony when we sailed the Epic in 2013 and my parents and sister had B6 balconies (one of them was in 12092, pisenor!). Their B6 balconies were much larger than our BA balcony. The BA balcony was fine for the two of us, but my nephew liked all the space to crawl around the B6 balcony and my mom liked having the extra seating (loungers and chairs) for when we did pre-dinner happy hours on their balcony.

So yes, agree with the previous posters that if you can get the B6 and would like a bit more space on your balcony, jump on it!

Haha, I was happy to be in the double digits and under 60 days away. Single digits are even better!! Have a great cruise!

I would LOVE to see an Epic Western Caribbean review! We don't sail until mid-January, but we've got some first-time cruiser friends sailing with us and I want to send them something recent to read. They're excited already; seeing pictures or a review would increase their excitement, I'm sure. :-)

10 days for you! Have a great cruise! We loved the Epic (got engaged on our balcony!) and can't wait to sail again.

If you lived somewhere nice, like Wisconsin, I'd switch with you in a heartbeat! :)

I live in Wisconsin! I'll switch places with you! :-) My husband and I were just in Florida (Clearwater Beach) this past weekend celebrating our first anniversary. Definitely windy and cool, but we took solace that it was warmer than in Wisconsin! We left snow on Friday morning...and left 80-degree weather in Florida to come home yesterday to 50s. Sigh. Thankfully, our cruise is 74 days away and we'll be back in Florida!

Hi there.

 

I have already called NCL and changed the room. I was lucky to be able to do so. I paid about $85 more and was upgraded to 12067, up to deck 12.

 

The reason that I changed my room was because I found out the balconys on deck 8 are all (or at least most of them) uncovered. This means that people above you can look down onto you, and I also suspect no shade. Or less shade.

 

The other issue I had with deck 8 was that your look down was onto lifeboats. I can't find the link, but I saw a video review on youtube and your look down is not at pretty water, its at lifeboats.

 

For me it was worth it for $85 to have a covered balcony AND a view down of water. Good luck to you!

You will like deck 12. Good move for a good price.

Search for reviews by sdmike. He has some helpful Epic balcony information in his signature.

We sailed the Epic in a balcony on deck 11 (11039) in 2013. Most balconies above deck 8 look down on deck 8, though some of the deck 8 balconies are partially covered by the larger, bump out balconies on higher decks. Many of the balconies on higher decks don't look directly down at the water - they look down on deck 8. You can see the water when you look out, but you may not look directly down to it. (The lifeboats jut out from just below deck 8.) There are small sections of balconies forward, mid and aft that do look directly down to the water, though.

Above all, enjoy your cruise on the Epic! We're sailing a second time in January and can't wait!

And for anyone sailing in the Haven, I'd love to know when the Captain's party is held. I need to mentally build my week!

 

We really enjoyed the Epic earlier this year. When we decided to cruise again, we decided to sail her one more time in the Caribbean before she moves to Europe.

That was our reasoning, too - or the reasoning I used to convince my now-husband to sail again. ;-) We got engaged on the Epic and once he heard it was moving to Europe, we booked! Plus, he has not done the western Caribbean route. Worked out perfectly!

Have a great cruise!

Same here! It would be great once we start seeing some reviews for the Epic's Caribbean sailings for 2014/winter 2015. We sail on her for the second time in January 2015 and are bringing some first-time cruiser friends along. I'd like to send them a couple reviews to get them even more excited than they already are for the cruise. :)

Can you buy it in 12-pack cans and take it on with you? We've taken soda (not seltzer) on with us on previous cruises. Taped a room tag to it, did not tape the ends so they could see we had not opened it, and it appeared outside our room with luggage. Saves having to buy the soda package!

No... I didn't book guarantee....lol

Funny...I did originally, then I got scared that I would get a hull balcony (which is not what I want) so I changed to mid-ship. Then I noticed yesterday that the price dropped a bit, so I called and upgraded to a B6. Once I got off the phone I called DH...who informed me that I had upgraded to a HULL BALCONY!! :eek::eek:

I called and switched right out of that.......and was "awarded" this nice, overly large (for a b6) balcony cabin! lol

My parents had a B6 on deck 12 on our Epic cruise in 2013 and the balcony is definitely much larger than other balconies! We were in a B5 on deck 11 and, while it was a nice size, the B6s are big enough for loungers!

Have a good cruise! We're on the Epic again in January and can't wait!

We were on the Epic in a forward balcony on deck 11 in January 2013 and felt no rocking at all, with the exception of a couple hours one night when we were in the buffet. Otherwise, we had a very smooth sailing. I'd guess it all depends on weather and seas, but fingers are crossed we have smooth sailing next January!

Thank you both, garycarla and Starry Eyes! My husband's name will stay the same on our reservation; it will just be mine that's updated. I will definitely call NCL the day the new passport arrives. Would rather be proactive and get this done now, while there's still time before we leave, rather than stressing about it! Current turnaround time for passport renewals is listed at 4-6 weeks, so I'm thinking all should be well, but thank you for the reassurance!

Thank you! That's what I was hoping/thinking, but just wanted to double check.

I got married last year and am going through the process of updating my name. It has been legally changed with the Social Security Administration, on my driver's license, and in most all other places, except for on my passport. My current passport is good until 2020, but I don't feel comfortable traveling and having the passport name differ from all other places where it has been legally changed, so I am going through the process of applying for a new passport.

My DH and I have a reservation for a cruise in January 2015, and my maiden name is currently on that. Once I receive the new passport, I plan to call NCL to have them update my name on that reservation. It will be before final payment is due. Will NCL allow me to update my name on an existing reservation? Final payment is not due until early November, but if for some reason the passport processing center is really, really, really delayed and I don't receive the new passport before final payment, can I call NCL ahead of time to have them update the name on the reservation anyway?

I searched the NCL site and couldn't find anything about updating a name on an existing reservation, so thought I would check here. (Sorry for all the background info!)

Thanks much!

When we were docked in St. Thomas last year, we saw a couple sea turtles and a stingray from our balcony. Didn't see anything while sailing, but the sea turtles and stingray sightings were cool!

I love Diet Coke and always check some in with my luggage. One case of Diet Coke and one case of Caffeine Free Diet Coke (for the evenings). They require that you attach a luggage tag to each case and the porter can help you with this. My Cokes always arrive at my cabin safe and sound. I usually drink it in a nice travel mug.

We do exactly what you do with our case Diet Coke. We just tape our room tag to the case, leaving the end up-taped so porters know we haven't opened the case and put some other adult beverages in there. It always arrives in our stateroom, usually later in the evening on day of departure. Never had a problem!

OP, tell your daughter to enjoy her cruise!

We sailed the Epic last year, and my sister and her DH brought their 8-month-old son along. NCL sent a pack & play to their room and, if I recall, it went next to their bed, between the bed and the sofa. (They were in a bed-by-the-balcony cabin as well.) I don't have kids and don't know how big "normal" pack & plays are, but the one from NCL was compact enough that they had enough room to move around their cabin yet enough place for my nephew to sleep comfortably. With the cabin layout, you likely would not have enough room to set up a full-size crib in the cabin.

Hope that helps!

Ditto the previous posters that the bathroom setup did not deter us from booking a second cruise on the Epic. We loved the ship!

It's not exactly the same thing, but we stayed in a balcony on the Epic, and my 6'1" DH had no problems with the length of the bed. It was comfortable for both of us. He's not "built like a football player," but he's not a small guy either. :-) With the curvature of the walls in balcony cabins, I'm not sure if the beds in inside cabins are shorter/longer or if the beds are the same regardless of cabin. Someone who's stayed in an inside may be a better resource for that.

Hope that helps!

Definitely take the SAS or QLS shuttles! You can make reservations in advance by calling or emailing them and they will call you when they're at the pier to pick you up. Inexpensive and we've never had much of wait after getting off the ship. They do, however, circle around to other piers to pick up passengers that have disembarked from other ships and will do so until the van fills - at least that has been our experience. But the vans hold about 15 passengers vs. the busses at I don't know how many.

Also, if you take the SAS or QLS shuttle, be advised that there are no restrooms on board. Prior to leaving the ship, my DH made the mistake of drinking a few Diet Cokes we did not want to haul off the ship with us...and had to make a run for the restroom once we got to FLL! :eek:

Thanks to those who responded to the Latitudes question....seems as though the real answer is...it depends .... :p

Seems so. ;)

You might want to take into consideration that you get double Latitude reward points if you book more than 9 months ahead. However I'm not sure what happens in the event that you cancel then rebook to get a price drop - would you still get double points if it is within 9 months from sailing even though you originally booked further out?

 

Just also be aware that if you call in for a price drop, you do risk losing your cabin during those few minutes that the first booking is cancelled and then rebooked. It happened to me, someone else booked the original cabin that I had while we were going through the rebooking process, but we got same cabin on the opposite side of the ship and I wasn't too bothered.

To answer your first question, Freckles_51, we were able to keep our double Latitudes points when getting price drops for our cruise. Booked this past January for January 2015 and the price has dropped a couple times, OBC has been added, etc. The phone rep I spoke with one of the times we were requesting the price drop (just started using my PCC recently) said that as long as the original booking is not canceled, we would get the double Latitudes points. Each time the price drops, I check to make sure our original booking date is on the confirmation and it has stayed as the January date.

We had the same thing happen to us as you regarding the cabin in that we did loose our original cabin one time, but were able to get into a different one just down the hall.

Hope that helps!

I most look forward to relaxing on the balcony with my new hubby (we just got married last November) with a cool beverage in hand, listening to the sound of the ocean. He's cruised only 3 times, but luckily enjoys it as much as I do.

We have not sailed the Getaway yet, but would like to check it out soon! That said, we sailed the Epic last year and are sailing again next year. We liked the Epic! We were in a balcony, and while the bathroom setup took some getting used to, it didn't bother us at all. There were only 2 of us in the room; if there were more than 2, not sure we would have been fans. It was nice to have the sink outside the bathroom/shower, and there's a curtain for privacy. We had a bed by the door on our first Epic sailing, but on the advice of CCers, we have booked a room with a bed by the balcony for our next sailing.

I don't think you can go wrong with either, but if the price is equivalent, I'd pick the Getaway just to check out a new ship. :) However, if you don't mind a different bathroom setup, the price is less, and you like the itinerary, the Epic is a fun ship.