Tutontow

I was on the Epic four months ago. I could order Woodford Reserve for a $1.99 up charge. Needless to say it was quite a bargain because here in Tampa I pay anyway from $7.00 and up for a shot.

The reality of the internet sets in. You cannot unsee what you've seen, right? You are all so excited about the specifics. Truth is this is such an exciting time for a cruise line - announcing deck plans and new spaces on board their newest build! Yes, they are a huge corporation but could not exist without people -- and people make mistakes so I'd like to think that you all -- Cruise Critic members and Norwegian Cruise Line lovers would give them an opportunity to share this with you all in the way they intended. I know they are listening in, so continue your Norwegian Bliss chatter! Thanks for your cooperation, you all rock!

 

Laura

To Laura and NCL this thread speaks volumes. It shows how much we love cruising. It shows how much we love NCL and all that it has to offer. After many CCL trips I tried NCL (The Epic). Now that I see the layout of "The Bliss" it is apparent NCL listens to their customers.

I am a young 60 years old, at least I tell myself that, and I have never been involved in anything like this. I have never been so excited to see something being built / revealed to the public.

Laura thanks so much for the job you do, I love it here.

NCL thanks for the product you provide. My cruise on the Epic has provided me with many great memories and put many smiles on my face.....now if I could only recover some of the money I left in the casino, just kidding.

If you are not a drinker then it is not for you and just pick a different perk. For me... it is a huge benefit. $100 all you can drink for an entire week??? Heck yea! Sign me up anytime!

 

 

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Ditto. My wife and I took took a 7 night cruise on the Epic. It was amazing never having to pay for a drink unless you wanted a higher end beverage. I could drink Woodford for a couple of dollars more. Between the drink package and the dining package we were in hog heaven. Even on GSC we didn't have to pay for booze. As mentioned above, if you don't drink that much alcohol pick some other package.

I always cruise out of Florida (we live here) but I just booked balcony 17232 on the Bliss for a Mexican Riviera cruise out of Los Angeles. We have gotten to the point we don't even leave the ship unless it is a private island we have seen the Bahamas, Cancun and Cozumel so many times so we are ready for a change. My friends have a condo in Cabo so even if they can't join me on the cruise I should at least be able to visit them at their condo. Now to keep my fingers crossed and hope Casinos at Sea can change my cruise to a comped cruise.

we generally save seats by the pool at 6 am so we can go back to our room and smoke on the balcony and then when heading back to our reserved chairs around noon we stop at guest services to have our DSC removed because we like to tip only those who serve us ( we really don't tip anyone, please keep this part secret) yea we tip much more then they would have gotten, we are very generous ( we are really not, please don't tell anyone). During all this we let our kids run wild down the hallway ( actually we join them) and sometimes we have to take a rest and sit on the steps while blocking everyone from going up and down.

Let me add slamming my balcony door at all hour of the day and night. (Mostly applies to CCL)

I has a similar room in Niagara Falls Ontario except there was a curtain that could be pulled. The setup encourages romance.

Dtto for us but it had a Jacuzzi tub next to the bed. It was great you could hang out in the tub and see the falls. Truly one of my top five trips of all time.

I was on the Epic 4 weeks ago. We had a great time. A week after we got home I booked her again so I can experience the things we missed.

I just got off of the Epic on March 19th. We had such a good time we just booked her for another cruise. We had sailed Carnival 12 times prior to this cruise. We figured with the free drinks and specialty dining why not give it a try.

Carnival does many things right and they bend over backwards to show you a good time. Having said that the entertainment, including the audience participation games such as "Deal or No Deal" is stellar. Priscilla, Burn The Floor, Howl at The Moon and the Epic Beatles are light years ahead of anything Carnival has to offer. Jam Rock that plays up by the pool kept us entertained for hours.

We never had problems with our service at the bars or MDR. I don't doubt others had but maybe it is because we are a party of two but we always had good and sometimes great service.

The food in the MDR is so good the specialty restaurants almost seem like a waste. I will say we really looked forward to O'Sheehan's and we tried it three times and although the service was good the food never hit the spot.

Debarkation was totally painful. Getting 4000 people off the ship is miserable.

Go with an open mind and know there are a lot of people on the ship. Tip people a little extra money and you will be remembered the next time you see them. More than one bartender didn't make me wait in line when I wanted my "Mich Ultra".

I can't speak on anything except the balcony cabins but they are a joke compared to Carnivals. I am talking tiny. The bathroom never bothered us but if I was in bed my wife couldn't walk by without hitting my feet. If you ordered room service I don't know where you would eat it. There is no table in the room.

I will say NCL, IMHO offered us a better product than CCL. Of course it is hard to judge after only one cruise. We met a couple on our cruise. It was their first cruise and NCL made them cruising fans. They have already booked another cruise.

Having cruised on the Epic last September, I really cannot understand why you would take over 2 hours for dinner. We dined in the MDR's on four of our 7 nights and were in and out in under an hour with no rush. Service was excellent. Are you slow eaters ?:)

I was thinking they must have been a large group. My wife and I (a party of two) always got in and out in under an hour and that includes the notoriously slow O'Sheehans on the epic. Even in the specialty restaurants we in and out in close to an hour.

BTW we ate at all different hours so it wasn't the time of day affecting it.

Day 2 started out nicely. I had coffee delivered to the room and enjoyed sitting out on the balcony. I wanted to eat a good breakfast, so while dh slept, I went upstairs to the pool area dining. There were no "bacon police" like on CCL, and was able to get more than a couple of slices. I love bacon. ;p I decided to get a Bloody Mary, and again wasn't asked to sign anything. An hour later I checked my bill on the app, and it said that at that same bar, I had done a Tequila Tasting to the tune of over $40. Huh?! Back to Customer Service I went. To my surprise, my cousin was there too. He had noticed they were still charging his card for drinks. And taxes. Now when in an American port, you will pay taxes on drinks, even if you have the drink package. But there are no taxes while at sea. I noticed I was still being charged taxes as well. The very same CS rep that waited on us last night was there this am. Again he said it was a "glitch" in their system and the taxes would be removed. I said he needed to remove the Tequila tasting, and he said he couldn't and I would have to come back and speak with a bar manager. Huh?! I told him I didn't drink the tasting, and I am allergic to Tequila. In fact, I only drink vodka, beer or wine. I insisted on speaking with someone then and there. After waiting for over 30 minutes, a manager came and told me that "tastings" aren't on the drink packages and I needed to read the fine print. I told him that I didn't drink the tasting and he then asked me if I could prove that I hadn't done the tasting. :rolleyes: Ok, now I'm getting angry. Not only was this my SECOND time at CS in less than 24 hours about the same problem, but this guy wanted me to prove something I didn't do. I told him to prove I had done the tasting, and he immediately took off the charges. I suggested that maybe someone else had access to my and my cousin's cards, and again I was told there is a "glitch" in the system. He assured me it wouldn't happen again.

 

To be continued.....

I just got back from the "Epic" and also had a glitch on our bill. We both had the drink package from the get go as a perk. Considering the gratuity is $14.00 a day if you have two drinks a day you are ahead of the game. We checked our account on the TV and we kept seeing several charges for $11.00 that didn't make sense. A quick call to guest services fixed it. Come to find out they didn't have a code for Merlot in the computer as far as the UBP goes. It still doesn't make sense to us but all of the charges were back out of our bill so all is well.

After 12 Carnival cruises this was our first NCL cruise and we have already booked the Epic again. The food and entertainment IMHO was way better than CCL. Throw in the UBP and the specialty dining and it is hard to beat. I'm sorry you had problems.

I just got back from sailing on her over St. Patrick's day. We have cruised 13 times and this was our best cruise ever. I strongly urge you to book your specialty restaurants and shows online before you go. La Bistro and Cagney"s are very good. I don't recommend the prime rib in Cagney's. You might like it but to me it seemed more like a prime rib steak rather than a slow roasted prime rib. The filet mignon was over the top good. The food in the MDR is outstanding. The penne pasta with meatballs and the lamb shank were to die for. Lunch in the MDR on sea days was fantastic. When you go to any show, especially the Epic Beatles in the Cavern club show up an hour early. We would get a nice big drink and wait in line. Then we would get another when we went in. An extra five or ten dollar tip to your bartender early in the trip goes a long way. We did this the first day and they took great care of us the rest of the trip. I highly recommend excursions in every port except GSC. GSC is beautiful and has great snorkeling. If you can do it get a corner seat at the pool bar on the ship. That area stays the coolest. Jam Rock plays up there and they are great, for that matter all of the entertainment is some of the best we have seen on cruise ships. Make sure you check out "The Survey Says" and "Deal Or No Deal" it is a real hoot. We showed up at the port at 12:40 and basically walked right on. We were sitting at Matling's at 1 O'Clock having our first drink. On the last day make sure you go down to guest services and get your luggage tags. If you sleep late like us on Debarkation day you will regret it. We left our cabin at 9:15 and it took us forever to get off the ship. Search the forum for Epic tips, there is a bunch of good information here that really helped make our cruise special. I envy you, I wish I was going again today.

Here is a link for the tips and tricks http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2388683

Do you have to call or will they send you offer in Email and snail mail like CCL. We just sailed NCL for the first time and played a lot of $25.00 and $50.00 Blackjack.

Just disembarked the Breakaway today. The Tomahawk Steak is no longer on the Cagney's menu...at least on that ship.

Just got off the Epic 3/18/2017, they still had it and it was cooked to perfection and fantastic.

I know this is about the MDR so I will add the New York strip in the MDR was a surprise. Way bigger than I expected and cooked to perfection, great taste. Just a little tough but I sliced it thin and enjoyed every bite.

My perfect cruise would be if CCL would anchor off HMC for five nights and tender me back and forth each day. It is truly paradise.

Lamb shank in the MDR.

Ditto, ditto and ditto. All of the food is great but the lamb really shines.

Fortunately, I have never had a problem with the neighbors.

 

I did make a rookie mistake when booking our first NCL cruise on the Dawn. Spring Break Week!

Some of the kids were already "fried" before they got to check -in, and there were a lot of very drunk people in the public areas.

 

We did strike up a conversation with another couple while awaiting disembark. They told us that housekeeping had to shampoo the hall carpet near their cabin every morning.

 

Also listened to a young thing brag about how she had stiffed the room steward (before pre-paid gratuities) out of a tip.

 

I would loved to see some of the bar bills at the end of that trip.

My wife and I are both 60 years old. We just returned from a "spring break" cruise on the Epic. Even with the open bar we were amazed at how calm and subdued everyone was. I mean there were some drunk people but nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to cruising. BTW after 10 cruises on Carnival, all of them good, my first NCL cruise was definitely the best by at least two notches.

I was on the same cruise and found the crew of the Epic wonderful.

I will be on her in three days. I hope I get the same crew. Did any bartenders stand out?

Empathy is one thing, professionalism is another.

 

I completely agree with MizDemeanor.

 

We all have bad days at work but complaining about working conditions to the customers is unacceptable.

Ditto. We all have bad days. Those of us that cruise, cruise to get away from the negativity and we spend our cash for a positive experience. Personally I don't want to hear your problems whether you are a worker or a passenger. My wife and I go out of our way to be positive with our attitude and our wallet. I am on vacation and I want a positive experience. For that matter we always try to surround ourselves with positive people. I have reached a point in my life where I will be sympathetic but after a while enough is enough and I cut my losses.

My wife is more direct than me. She has told more than one person,, perhaps you should consider another line of work. She has also told more than one person perhaps you should consider a good divorce lawyer.

We like to book way in advance...best choice of cabins.....and sometimes the best prices....if the price does drop, and you are outside final payment time, you can cancel and rebook, but you will be held to whatever the specials are at rebooking time....so, if you are getting 2 choice freebies today, you could loose them if they are not offered when you rebook....

There is another advantage to booking way ahead of time. More than likely everything will be paid for before you sail. My wife was pleasantly surprised. She was paying bills and we leave on a cruise in five days. She goes how about excursions, paid for. How about parking, paid for. How about drinks, paid for. How about specialty dining, paid for. How about gratuity, paid for. How about money for gambling and incidentals, all paid for. Essentially when I come back from what should be a great vacation it is all paid for.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write a report. You two are truly an inspiration. No doubt I will be moving at a slower pace in a decade or so. Although you have a speed bump to deal with you and "Morgan" deal with it and still enjoy life rather than sit on the sidelines. As a retired firefighter I can tell you every moment you get to spend with loved ones should be cherished. Thanks again and happy sailing in the future.

Quicks of us at the muster drill and sunset on our aft balcony

Tired at drill

 

On balcony

 

 

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That sunset picture is what having a balcony is all about. Enjoying your review. Love the pics.

Following. It seems like once you finally get on the ship it is mostly good. I am taking my patience pills. I will be on her in seven days.

As mentioned port side carpet is red. Starboard is blue. I remember port wine is red, therefore red is port side.

As far as forward and aft is concerned, the cabin number start at with the last three numbers ending in 000 and 001 in the front or forward. They get higher as you head towards aft.

I have made a promise to my wife and myself to do by best to figure out my way around every ship we sail after cruising on the CCL Sunshine. They have the galley in the middle of the ship so only certain floor go all the way through from forward to aft. It pretty much drove everyone crazy the first couple of days.

Loved the Miami Vice! be careful tho, it sneaks up on you lol

One day on Grand Turk I was ordering them with a 151 floater. For some reason my wife says I am no longer allowed to do that :>). Yep they are mighty good.

The casino is on a ship, not a boat.

 

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My wife wears a shirt that says "we're on a boat" and when we cruise it drives me nuts. Oh well, what are you going to do.