Top-Down Review of Epic July 24-31 (will be continued this thread)

[jaylb31]

Part 1:

Review of the parts of the Epic as experienced on July 24-31 sailing in some particular order:

 

Early thirties married couple with one kid <2 yrs left at home (he would have had fun but we wouldn’t have had as much fun) we have cruised on the Dawn and Sun before.

 

Pre-cruise and Embarkation: embarkation easy, 30 mins or less. The day before we flew into FLL and stayed at the Springhill Suites FLL. There was a great Cuban restaurant (chain) a block away called Las Vegas. There was a shopping center and movie theater also walking distance. We saw Inception at 10:20 and since it wasn’t over until 1 am we took a cab back with fare under $5. Cruise day we took SAS to port in Miami for $15 pp (less if you have more people).

 

Our cabin, an inside room 10th deck: personally had no problem with it. There have been many complaints I have read but it is a cruise what do you expect some spacious room? The sink did not splash unless you have it at full blast and are waving your hands all over the place. Sure it could have been better designed but just something to gripe about for those who have nothing better to say. The frosted doors on bathroom and shower weren’t so noticeable to me as the sound of the bathroom. It sounds like you are in there with the other person and also you can hear the neighbors flush. There may be nothing you can do about that designing a room of this size, I have similar observations about most hotel bathrooms. No DVD player in our room. TV channels rather limited I thought. The only things we tended to watch were MSNBC and Fox News. With those you get tired of the same network promos over and over and over because they don’t show commercials. There were 2 nickelodeon channels for kids. Did not try to order movies in room.

 

Starting from the top of the ship for non-exclusive guests (Deck 15)

 

Buffet: standard, I think we only ate here for breakfast and maybe one lunch. I had almost the same breakfast every day—grits, hash browns, crisp bacon, scrambled eggs, cinnamon roll. Also have good omelets to order, waffles, pancakes, cereal, toast, oatmeal, pretty much anything. Juices were orange, apple, and cranberry cocktail.

 

Buffet Lunch was ok, only had once but I think the same stuff for dinner and lunch, I liked the Indian station and the pizza was only good on the last night, the other two times it was not good at all. Did not try the $5 pizza delivery.

 

Waterslides: Tried all 3, the tube slide you first line up to get a tube down by the end of the slide and then go line up behind all the other people who already got tubes. Guaranteed wait of 10 minutes but usually much longer. Worth the wait at least once I think.

 

The green slide and the purple slide you line up on opposite sides of the stairs and they let groups of ten go to the line at the actual slide above. The green is like a long version of the purple and the green has a portion that is open whereas the purple you are in the dark the whole time.

 

The pools were small but we could always get in there when wanted. The adult pool and hot tubs in Spice H20 were usually not too crowded. One day the hot tub in Spice was not hot at all.

 

Spice H20 itself was less than I expected, basically just a round area with lots of chairs and the pool under a big tv screen. At night they covered the pool to create a stage.

 

Waves bar on pool deck: as always on ncl if you don’t specify you will get the souvenir glass with extra cost. Almost always a table to sit and eat or drink but sometimes on sea days a struggle to find a chair.

 

The sports area is technically on Deck 16 I guess with bball court and ice skating and such but I don’t think you can get there except for from the stairs from the pool deck. Didn’t ice skate or rock climb.

 

The best open air views from the ship for non-exclusive guests besides a balcony if you had one are from the two decks on the sides of the ship that overlook the pool area. You take stairs by the pool bar on either side to get there but they do not connect to each other. There are chairs there during the day but not at night.

 

Deck 13 bridge viewing room: kind of interesting I guess but a long walk to get there if you start from the back of the ship. If you don’t know what the bridge is maybe you should watch those old star trek episodes.

 

Deck 12

 

Sadly we only went to use the fitness center once but it was very nice. Seemed to be enough machines for everyone. You might want to bring a container for water though because I did not see any cups for the drinking fountain. Maybe they wanted you to buy the $2 water bottles in the vending machine.

 

Deck 7

 

Bliss ultralounge was a nice purple area where they had various activities. One of two touch screen games at bars that we saw. $1 per game for most games which is 2-3 times more than you normally pay at a bar. They had the usual games like photo hunt, word dojo, wordster, lots of card games, etc. Try to beat our scores on word dojo you will probably get a bonus replay. The bar menu is the same in several bars including bliss, headliners, and fat cats. We liked the perfect maragarita (made w/patron) around $8.50 each and the long island ice tea ($6.25 I think). Bottle beers around $5-6 and drafts $5.95 where they had drafts (mainly OSheehans, Waves, and Maltings). Bliss had karaoke most nights around 730-10 pm though it was a lot of kids singing if you don’t like that sort of thing.

 

We also ended up having the cruise critic meet and greet in there, and NCL probably had more representation than our group did so hopefully future groups will do better. I know we had around 70 people check in on our roll call but I would say there were less than 15 attendees. Maybe because the location was changed to Bliss from Moderno but they had someone there telling people that so I don’t know if that was the problem. The captain even came to the M & G which was nice and he foreshadowed the weather problem that kept us from Costa Maya the next day without actually saying it would happen.

 

Bliss also had one of the two bowling alleys which we did not use, it seemed like it was usually available to use at least one lane. $5

 

Continuing on deck 7 was the shopping area, you have to walk through and around the makeup and perfume area but the other shops require you to actually want to go in there in order to shop. So it was obvious without being totally in your face. We did not buy anything in there. I would also say though that before you buy any Epic t-shirts or hats they had a sale on the last day on the pool deck 2 for $20 which I think was cheaper than the initial price. I don’t think the specific merch for stuff like Blue Man Group or Cirque Dreams was included in that sale though.

 

The ice bar was something that is probably worth doing for the experience but not someplace you want to spend a lot of time in even if you could, it is too cold and too small for that. But the drinks are strong and the experience is a good one to have. Most people who don’t like stronger drinks got the orange one I forgot what it is called. It was sweet and not as potent. I think I had the northern lights and the polaris but the names were kind of similar so I could be wrong about that first one. I made our reservation a few days into the cruise and it didn’t seem to be a problem but the reservation person is not always there so you might want to check around 530-10 pm to reserve. I don’t know if you could book through the restaurant reservation number. $20 pp.

 

The shakers martini and champagne bar was a favorite, at night they had piano music and this was the site of the two martini clinics. The first was on the first sea day and there were maybe 10-15 in attendance. The martinis were all made with top shelf liquor and Ed (who was great and funny as the “instructor”) gave trivia questions during the clinic/tasting. I cannot exactly remember the 5 martinis at the first clinic (I wonder why) but I know there was a cosmopolitan, creamy chocolate, melontini, lemon grove, and one other. At the end he said there would be two more clinics/tastings on the 2 remaining sea days but I think they only ended up having the second one for some reason. The middle sea day it was not mentioned in the daily and we didn’t go up there. The third one it was in the daily and of course we went. At this one maybe 15-20 attendees and some of the trivia was the same some different. The martinis were French kiss, beach bum, just peachy, French cosmopolitan, and one other one I can’t remember. The cost was $15 pp. (don’t forget they add 15% to anything with a beverage including this).

 

Moderno and Cagneys share a big restaurant space divided by the moderno salad bar and a big dome-like window above the dance floor of the manhattan room down on deck six. Moderno also had its own bar but I never saw anyone sitting there to drink so they should make it more obvious if it is ok to go in there just to drink or if it is for people waiting for a table only. I think the former. I don’t think anyone had to wait for a table at either place anyway. We were able to make same day reservations for any restaurant we tried although sometimes the time we asked for would be allegedly full so we would get one 15-30 minutes later, only to find that the place was half empty. Maybe they had a bunch of cancellations.

 

Moderno: Good enough, I would say not quite as good as Fogo de Chao which we like (same concept). We have never been to Brazzazz or Texas de Brazil. The filet mignon and the sirloin were best beef and the chicken leg was very good as well. The sides and salad bar were probably what were more disappointing than the meat but they were not bad or anything. The servers ask if there is any kind of meat you want them to bring around again which is nice. $18 pp

 

Cagneys: The best thing to me was the steak. We probably overdid it by ordering two starters each. I had the crab cakes and clam chowder and DW had shrimp cocktail and crab cakes. Then we had salad. By then I was getting full.

 

TO BE CONTINUED

[jaylb31]

OK as I was saying, Cagneys ($25 pp) was a lot of food and very good. I had the 10 oz filet mignon with baked potato and fries and DW had the 5 oz filet with lobster tail $10 upcharge for lobster). The lobster tail was very similar to the one served in Manhattan Room (and Taste I assume) on the one night it is available for dinner I think it was the Monday. The filet was great. I have to say this was a rare experience of poor service on the Epic. Maybe our waiter just had too many tables but we did not get our starter until a full 30 minutes after being seated. The amount of people in the restaurant did not justify this. All in all it was an 1:45 meal that should have been under an hour and fifteen minutes. We are not complainers and this was the exception on the Epic as service goes. Just for example after waiting for a very long time to place our order the waiter would say something like "I will be right back to take your order" and then attend to nearby tables for minor things like checking if they needed another napkin before taking our order. It did not seem like our table was a priority to him, but when he did come to the table he was very friendly and helpful. Overall we would probably just have moderno if doing it over again and skip Cagneys.

 

Wasabi: This sushi bar was a nice lunch option as not much else was open for lunch especially on port days other than buffet and the noodle bar which I will get to later. We only ate there once and I do not think anyone would ever have to wait for a seat. I believe most if not all seats are at a bar or counter. Complimentary miso soup and the sushi was a la carte pricing. The california roll ($2.50) was not so good to me but some maki I forget the name with shrimp tempura style was very good and I had the red hokkaido roll which was good as well. $3.50 each. Good prices for good sushi, I had a Sapporo (bottle-$5.95) with mine. Teppanyaki smelled great but we ended up skipping it. ($25 pp)

 

Deck 7 has stairs that take you down to deck 6 instead of going to either end of the ship for elevators or stairs there.

 

At one end of the ship on deck 6 is the Epic Theater, Spiegel Tent, and Headliners.

 

Epic Theater--largest venue, I doubt there is a bad seat in there.

 

Blue Man Group-we went on the first sea day and this was after the martini clinic. Also I had a few drinks after that. So....sorry lady sitting next to me in that dark theater waiting for the show to start I guess I was "falling asleep" in your personal space. If you are reading this...oops. But when the show started I was enjoying it with everyone else.

 

Legends--I thought it was an enjoyable show but maybe the era of the stars is getting a bit dated? I realized that the only one of the three (Madonna, Elvis, and Tina Turner) that was really on the radio during my formative years of the 80s and 90s was Madonna with the occasional late-period Tina. For people in their 20s or younger Madonna probably seems as much before their time as Elvis does to me. So the way they set it up with Elvis as the main event (TT, Madonna, then E) I thought was expecting more of an older audience and I don't know that that was the demographic there. I guess Elvis is the king though so you have to have him wrap it up. I think all three performers are great at what they do.

 

Comedian/magician Jeff Hobson did a couple shows in the Epic theater as well but we just saw his first one in the Spiegel Tent. Now that theater was not designed for his show per se but he made it work. Looking back that was the first show we saw (first night) and maybe the funniest thing. The Spiegel venue is beautiful but does cause sight problems at angles for somebody one way or the other. In this case it was people on one part of the upstairs balcony who could not see the stage below. I will not give away one of the best parts of the act but I can tell you one way that you will be sure not be picked to be part of the show if you dont like that sort of thing. I think he picked out 5-6 adults and one kid from the crowd during the show and everyone was a great sport. We did not see the Cirque show.

 

Headliners was also an amazing looking venue that shared time for Second City improv show and the Howl at the Moon dueling piano players. The piano players knew their stuff and seemed to always be mingling on the ship when they were not playing. The 2nd City had three levels of shows on most of their performance days I guess a PG at 7, a PG-13 at 9, and an R at 11. We saw the PG-13 not because we didnt want the R but just due to scheduling. It is an enjoyable show and I kind of wish I had been in the front row because the interactions they have with the 3-4 people they pick out during the show would be a fun memory and you dont have to stand up in front of the crowd but sit in your seat and have them use you for material. The seats are all on the same level but I dont think anyone would not be able to see the stage.

 

O'Sheehans: This was one of the restaurants/bars I was really looking forward to and in some ways it lived up to that and in others it did not. One suggestion that I think NCL really needs to fix is that the ESPN that the ship has is a European feed. Now I have nothing against cricket and F1 racing but neither I nor most American passengers are going to sit in a sports bar putting away a bunch of those beers watching a sport we dont care about. But put even a baseball game between two teams I dont care about and I can still sit there enjoying the flow of the game and it will feel like an American sports bar. OK, so it is supposed to be an Irish pub. But I think that should be an Irish-American pub to really cater to the clientele that is going to be on a cruise from Miami. Or have both European ESPN and US version. Maybe this is a leftover from the transatlantic. the look and feel of the bar itself is excellent. The pool tables and air hockey are on one side and the bowling alleys the other. They have another touch screen game on the end of the bar and I never saw anyone besides us playing it. Some seats look down on the big screen where they show movies and sometimes have the "wildfire duo" singing/performing pair.

 

The food at Osheehans looks great on the menu and for the most part it was. The fish and chips which I always love on NCL ships was great. I had it probably five times and you get two pieces per order. So out of 10 pieces I had one that was defective (tough, chewy, not flaky). A 90% flaky deliciousness rate is good enough for me. I tried the mozzarella sticks once and they were not quite cold but the cheese was just not all the way melty. That did not stop me from eating them all but I did not get them again so maybe that was a fluke. DW liked the chili dog and had that about every time. The only real miss here was the artichoke dip. I'm sorry NCL but if TGI Fridays can do it you can. The chips were actually very good but the dip was not good at all. Revisit that recipe please.

 

Finally, Osheehans was the site of the margarita tasting. Like the martini clinic it was $15 pp and you get 5 drinks. Unlike the martini tasting the host did not entertain us with trivia and they had the drinks coming so fast that most people had two full ones on the table when they brought the last one. I'm not saying it wasnt good because I enjoyed it but talk to Ed about how to space these drinks out and give the people something to do while they enjoy their beverages. The margaritas were all good but were made mainly from rail tequila unlike the premium martinis in the martini clinic. This event was at 3 pm on the second sea day and the martini clinics were at 4 pm on the other 2 sea days.

 

The casino is a big part of deck 6. I did not notice the smoke much but every now and then if a couple smokers were at a table together you would get a smoke pocket. We mainly played roulette and slots and lost. But it was fun anyway. Slots varied from penny to dollars and varied from traditional three spinning wheel variety to video poker, video blackjack, video keno, etc. The most crowded table was always the $5 min. blackjack table. Also the $5 min. roulette table was often full. Be sure you sign up for the gaming card so you get the coupon book full of bonuses. It is free and you can get at least $20 of game play value even if you just do roulette and slots.

 

Shanghai chinese restaurant ($15 pp) and the noodle bar were a good choice for specialty dining. I prefer the noodle bar in terms of value for money but Shanghai's main restaurant was good as well. The one thing that was just way off the mark was the kung pao chicken. That dish had nothing in common with kung pao chicken other than it had chicken and there were some peanuts in it. Panda express makes a better kung pao. Which is strange because all the other dishes I tried were excellent. Had the scallops and the beef & broccoli. The dessert I had here was maybe my fav as well, I had the green tea ice cream with chestnut and red bean pastries, so good! We ate at the noodle bar twice, again it is best for lunch because of the (relative) lack of other lunch choices, had the beef chow fun twice and the shrimp fried rice twice. ($3.50 and $3). One time had the seafood udon noodle and the other time had the singaore noodles. Both $3.50 and both great. The noodle bar was a favorite.

 

Fat Cats is the blues club and I think the best musical act on the ship. The Slam Allen band owns that venue. You would look around the crowd and see literally every person tapping a foot to the music. The would play 3 one hour sets and take a half hour break in between. They probably played 5 out of 7 nights and we went three times. So the show times would be 9-10, 1030-1130, and 12-1 although this was not something that was announced or posted. I think this was an underappreciated venue as the club was never full.

 

The Manhattan room supposedly has a stricter dress code but it didnt seem so different to me on the one night we went there. The live music was nice enough and the menu the same as the other main dining room Taste. As far as the menus go I noticed a difference between this and other NCL ships I have been on in that there was much less variety day to day. As some have said probably to get you to go to the pay restaurants and it worked in our case. On the impromptu sea day when Costa Maya was canceled they had lunch available in the manhattan room and the staff seemed unprepared for this (as they probably were--we felt bad they probably had time off canceled due to the port day not happening). On port days there was no sit down lunch just buffet, osheehans, noodle bar, or wasabi. On the days they did have a sit down lunch in one of the main dining rooms it would not start until 12:30 and it was the same menu throughout the cruise. Let me say one thing about that menu. I dont know if they got someone from philly working in that kitchen or what but the meat in the philly cheesesteaks actually tastes like it is supposed to taste like. Ok, so they serve it on a kind of hard roll. Please send this chef around the country to teach people what to do to make philly cheesesteaks because the rest of the US is not getting it as far as i can tell. So bravo to you chef in the main dining room you accomplished a feat as far as my tastes are concerned.

 

There are escalators mid ship to take you between decks 5 and 6.

 

Le Bistro is surrounded by the art gallery. Did not eat there as we have had Le Bistro on other ship.

 

Internet cafe is by the photo kiosks. The facial recognition is cool but we did have someone elses pics end up in our file twice. It is easy to correct on the touch screen.

 

The atrium has the big screen and a coffee bar. The information and guest services desks are here as well. The atrium screen had a movie on once in the early afternoon and repeated around 11 pm. Blindside, Star Trek, Princess and the Frog, Mamma Mia, Hitch I think were the choices thru the week. Finally on deck 5 is Taste the other main dining room and like manhattan a great looking room but I would have been disappointed eating in these all week with the menu selection as it was. Good thing they have those other restaurants!

 

Deck four was where you disembark on port days.

 

Costa Maya was canceled as you may have read elsewhere. We were sad as we had booked the maya chan resort well in advance. oh well, next time. People who booked excursions through the ship were told full refund and I can only assume they got it.

 

Roatan: I regret not booking prior to the trip. We were counting on the costa maya excursion as our highlight and thought we would just wing it at roatan. So when that fell through we just ended up getting a cab to the beach and probably spent similar $ to what we would have booking NCL excursion. We went to Infinity beach and enjoyed that. I suggest planning ahead you will save money. I think the island would be a fun place to rent a golf cart and putter around for the day but I think the roads are too hilly for that. Probably have to rent a moped or car.

 

Cozumel: we have been here before so we decided to do the NCL parasailing excursion for $89 pp. This is contracted out through sand dollar tours. Basically we walked to the end of the pier to meet up then they walked us right back toward the Epic to get on the boat for parasailing. Three man crew and there were four pairs including us that parasailed. We had never done it before it is great. So quiet up there. One of the pairs included a 12 yr old and he did fine so I think it is ok for almost any age that can fit the gear. They take pictures of you while you are up there and sell you the CD with the pics for $25.

 

After that we walked around the mall area attached to the pier and ended up at carlos and charlies which is not really our type of place with all the whistle blowing and beer chugging. Not to say that the people there werent having fun its just not our scene, man. We used the free wi-fi there and saved money vs. the ship internet rate. We got 110 minutes onboard for about $60. We mainly used it to video chat with little man at home and either gmail chat or skype worked 95% of the time with no problems on our wireless connection.

 

So that about covers what I can remember of the Epic. All things considered I would recommend it highly. Other reviews I have read say no "Wow factor" at first sight but I disagree. We came in at deck six by the epic theater and that little section of the ship is like nothing i have seen walking onto a ship. I do not think I would want to do a back to back on the Epic though and it is almost a victim of having too much to do. If there was a time when you werent doing anything you almost feel let down. Entertain me Epic! But it did. I dont think we were being frugal with onboard spending or anything and our room bill was around $1000 including $180 excursion, $24 a day in auto tips, and $60 in internet. If you are going to go on NCL the Epic is a good choice.

[dmwnc1959]

Great overview with a TON of useful information! Thanks for breaking down a lot of the pricing. Sounds like EPIC is turning out to be quite a winner! Also need to make sure to budget quite a bit to cover all the 'extras' onboard. Seems like the average is around $1000.

[hazeleyes]

Thanks for posting your review.

[scottyg]

Great review, Jay!! Question about Roatan: What it a short walking distance to the gangwayof the aship to the excursion staff??

 

Scott

[samnewbie]

Great review Jay,

 

Glad you had a good time. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts, some great tips and info,

 

Sam :)

[jaylb31]

Great review, Jay!! Question about Roatan: What it a short walking distance to the gangwayof the aship to the excursion staff??

 

Scott

 

The Roatan pier was shorter than the one at Cozumel. Just a minute or two. Cozumel had guys offering to take you on a kind of bicycle rickshaw for the cost of their tip. But that pier takes a good 5 minutes to walk.

[AnnArbor_707]

Thanks for the review. We've got an inside state room and are also wondering if the negative reviews were just people who enjoy complaining. When I'm on vacation you'd have to REALLY screw with me to put me in a bad mood... Anyway,

 

5 Martinis for $15 ???

5 Margaritas for $15 ???

.

That's a steal, are you sure ?? WOW.

[dawnmariex]

Hi Jay!

Thanks for the review! We leave on Saturday and all of this information is super helpful.

 

And yes~margaritas and martinis for $15! Only at certain times though...

 

Dawn

[AnnArbor_707]

And yes~margaritas and martinis for $15! Only at certain times though...

 

Can you sign up for these early or is it more of a sign up once you board type of thing because the dates/times aren't set on a weekly basis ? Sounds pretty awesome....

[jaylb31]

Can you sign up for these early or is it more of a sign up once you board type of thing because the dates/times aren't set on a weekly basis ? Sounds pretty awesome....

 

Actually there was no reservation or anything I don't think they would have trouble with even more people than showed up at ours. It is definitely a good deal compared to the normal drink prices. Just look for it in the daily around 3 or 4 pm on sea days. They also have a beer tasting I didnt go to that but I assume you get 5 beers for $15 as well? I also didnt get why the pub crawl was $25 for 5 drinks while these tastings were $15. Didnt do the pub crawl but they had 2 of those as well I think they were later in the evening.

 

But by the way as you can tell from my review 5 drinks in under an hour esp. martinis you have to be careful how much you drink after or you might become THAT person. I did see one guy get ejected from Fat Cats around midnight after he was acting too drunk but it was unrelated to the martini clinic. That was one smooth whisking away of a person by a single security guy I might add.

[AnnArbor_707]

Thanks! So they force you to drink them within an hour ? That seems pretty strange - especially since most women in the 100-120lb range wouldn't be able to do it. For me 5 drinks isn't a problem in 1hr, but my gf would make me drink at least 3 of hers. 8 martinis in 1hr doesn't seem like a bargain anymore, lol..... if I was with my buddies and we were trying to tie one on maybe another story.....

[sjbdtz]

Thanks! So they force you to drink them within an hour ? That seems pretty strange - especially since most women in the 100-120lb range wouldn't be able to do it. For me 5 drinks isn't a problem in 1hr, but my gf would make me drink at least 3 of hers. 8 martinis in 1hr doesn't seem like a bargain anymore, lol..... if I was with my buddies and we were trying to tie one on maybe another story.....

 

 

I think that we're possibly seeing some of the Irish pub / Irish CEO influence here...

 

There's an old Irish toast, which reads:

 

"When we drink, we get drunk.

When we get drunk, we fall asleep.

When we fall asleep, we commit no sin.

When we commit no sin, we go to heaven.

So, let's all get drunk, and go to heaven!"

[AnnArbor_707]

I think that we're possibly seeing some of the Irish pub / Irish CEO influence here...

 

I want to make clear that I will NEVER complain to anyone that the 5 drinks have to be finished within an hour..... lol I'm still doing this, but it just seemed strange they'd force you to finish them, especially considering petite women are the ones who would be making their men go to this type of an event in the first place (most of the time!).....

[jaylb31]

I want to make clear that I will NEVER complain to anyone that the 5 drinks have to be finished within an hour..... lol I'm still doing this, but it just seemed strange they'd force you to finish them, especially considering petite women are the ones who would be making their men go to this type of an event in the first place (most of the time!).....

 

I suppose you could sit there and drink them in longer than an hour but they would be piled up on the table and you would be sitting there just during regular bar service. They were not served in traditional martini glasses so it was hard to judge if they were the same size as a regular martini but I would say they were usually as big if not bigger.

[AnnArbor_707]

I suppose you could sit there and drink them in longer than an hour but they would be piled up on the table and you would be sitting there just during regular bar service. They were not served in traditional martini glasses so it was hard to judge if they were the same size as a regular martini but I would say they were usually as big if not bigger.

 

Sorry to nit pick your great review and focus in on this martini outing - just hadn't heard of it from anyone else. Two questions:

 

1. What type of glass do they serve the martinis in ? I don't care, but I know my gf would...

 

2. I wonder if you could dump them into a glass and save the unfinished martinis for later. We don't get fridges in the inside state rooms do we ?

[jaylb31]

Sorry to nit pick your great review and focus in on this martini outing - just hadn't heard of it from anyone else. Two questions:

 

1. What type of glass do they serve the martinis in ? I don't care, but I know my gf would...

 

2. I wonder if you could dump them into a glass and save the unfinished martinis for later. We don't get fridges in the inside state rooms do we ?

 

It's ok the martini clinic is one of the most fun things to do. Actually I think the glasses were different on the two days. The second day one they were like this:

 

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.chinatraderonline.com/Files/Gifts-and-Crafts/Cup/Glass%2520Cup/Drinking-Glass-20402797430.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.chinatraderonline.com/Cup/Glass-Cup/Drinking-Glass-204031799.htm&h=360&w=360&sz=15&tbnid=PeKdj-wriN7FmM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=121&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddrinking%2Bglass&usg=__l4OG4rp9u0NuxZHASjx10DCgaq4=&sa=X&ei=T8tWTIC4BIuLnQe88ZzdAw&ved=0CDwQ9QEwAw

 

The first clinic they were in more of an angled glass but still not in traditional martini glasses. The bigger glasses were usually anywhere from 1/4 to 1/3 full.

 

You could definitely bring your own glass and take it with you. The inside room does have a little fridge it is full of mini bar stuff which you could take out and leave on the table or probably ask the staff to remove for you. The beers and liquor bottles in the fridge of the minibar were not even more expensive than the drink prices on the ship which I thought was different from prior cruises but we did not drink any (5-6 per drink)

[micheleg]

Sorry to nit pick your great review and focus in on this martini outing - just hadn't heard of it from anyone else. Two questions:

 

1. What type of glass do they serve the martinis in ? I don't care, but I know my gf would...

 

2. I wonder if you could dump them into a glass and save the unfinished martinis for later. We don't get fridges in the inside state rooms do we ?

 

The martini glasses for the tastings are just smaller versions of regular martini glasses. I've been to plenty of those tastings and no one rushes you out of there.

 

Typically they hope you stay and order more. :D

[Arubamoose]

You can also share.....my DH and I have done this 3 times - twice on the Dawn (where we got 7 - LOVE JOSE!!) and only once on the Sun because the host seemed like he wanted to be anywhere else than entertaining us.

 

I plan to do it on the EPIC shortly!

[jaylb31]

I forgot to mention one other thing I think could be changed is that there did not seem to be any Mexican or Tex-Mex food on the ship even on the buffet that I ever saw.

[wack001]

jaylb31;

You mentioned Lobster and filet in the MDR which I assume is "Manhattan", was that on a Monday for the Lobster? agree trying to get you to spend on specialty.

 

Did you get your Blue Moon tickets online and what were the show times?

Thanks

Bob

[jaylb31]

jaylb31;

You mentioned Lobster and filet in the MDR which I assume is "Manhattan", was that on a Monday for the Lobster? agree trying to get you to spend on specialty.

 

Did you get your Blue Moon tickets online and what were the show times?

Thanks

Bob

 

The lobster was in both manhattan and taste on the same day and it was combined with grouper. I think it was Monday. The steak that day was not a filet it was called "roast sirloin" and it was worse than what you would get at a cheap wedding reception.

 

We got the BMG reserved online a few weeks in advance of the cruise and we chose the Sunday later show. There are no paper tickets (as of now) and no reserved seats. The line before the doors open wasnt too bad and we got seats in the middle though all seats are good i think. On the days when they have BMG (some days they had Legends instead) I believe the times were 7 for the early show and 9:30 or 10 for the later show.