Epic 09/25/2011 Review :) And the Suitelife Review

[lovetoreview]

First off, I want to thank everyone who posts on Cruise Critic because that was so helpful to me!! I really do appreciate all of the help with this cruise. There are things that we did on the ship that I would have had no clue about if it were not for the posts on here.

 

 

We flew into Barcelona a day early just in case of travel mishaps. I am sure glad we did. We flew United Air and they lost our luggage. Well delayed it by 16 hours. So I spent the first part of our vacation figuring out how I would do the trip on what I had in my 2 carry on’s, what I was missing, etc. Not a great way to start!!. Oh yeah, it took us 1 ½ hours to go through customs at the airport. Not sure why, it was the big La Merce festival going on that weekend so maybe that’s why, lack of employees but it was a mess. It took us 3 hours total at the airport. We arrived at the W Barcelona at 10 am in the morning and checked in. They were able to get us into a room earlier than 3 thank goodness and help us call United to find out the status of the bags. The W is beautiful, amazing and modern. I loved it because I was not able to sleep that night due to the lost baggage so when the EPIC pulled in at 3:30 am into port, I was there to watch it as the W is located at the port. I was so excited then!! Our bags finally arrived, we checked out of the W and headed to the EPIC at 11:00 am.

 

 

We got to the port at 11:15 am, checked in which took 5 minutes and were whisked away to the priority lounge for suite passengers. We waited there (they have yummy sandwiches, drinks etc) for about 20 minutes until Ruth, the concierge came and got us. We were the first group to board the EPIC. How exciting that was!! We passed up the line of everyone else waiting and were on board in less than a minute. Once on board, we went straight up to the Epic Club Lounge and a butler gave us a tour of the suites and their amenities. Oh wow, we were in awe as to how beautiful and grandiose everything was. Upgraded everything let me tell you!! Our rooms were ready about 12:30 so meanwhile we ate in the EPIC Club. Oh so yummy. We sat there and watched the long line of taxi’s pulling up and dropping off passengers to board the ship. We then were taken to our Spa Suite #14151 where we saw the awesome room we had for the week. Everything I expected. I looked at the You Tube Video of the room online and it was still the same. I personally loved the vanity area, the shower ROCKED (besides it not draining and overflowing into the bathroom) and the balcony was the biggest I have ever had. Waiting for us was lots of treats from the Captain, our bottle of chilled wine and a huge WELCOME TO Vacation feel. We took a tour of the spa and unpacked our stuff. That night we watched Blue Man Group, which I have seen before but my husband had not. They were just as good, if not better than they were in Vegas. Since it’s a smaller venue than in Vegas, they were able to do things they cannot in Vegas. I loved it of course. Without giving it away, make sure lots of people sit around you and there are no open seats behind or in front of you. You will see why!!

 

 

I have been on several cruises before and I was really impressed with the EPIC. Not only the suite area, but the whole ship. The entertainment was top notch, the food never disappointed me, the design was stylish and the tv’s to book items on to the shopping were all a step above the other ships I have been on. There are a lot of things I can’t comment on as we spent most our time in the HAVEN, but overall I would love to sail on the EPIC again. The staff was A+ no matter where we went. Even when I had a minor problem and went to solve it myself before letting the Hotel Director know, it was taken care of in a professional manner.

Our meet & greet was one of the most attended the ships officers said and they thanked us all. They said they DO pay attention to what people say and from some of the improvements I have seen made to the EPIC since I booked our trip well over a year ago, I would say they do!

The ports were all amazing. We did private tours with Easitaly and LOVED them. I cannot say enough good things about them, they were amazing!!! Taking a Mercedes van with 6 passengers or less is the way to go if you want to maximize your time at port. All the ports were fabulous, we were so dead tired though that at night we were in bed pretty much by 10 pm. Since we are from California our time difference was 9 hours so between that and a full day in port, we were wiped. But with that being said, the Mandara Spa was wonderful to come home to after a full day of walking. I was bummed we didn’t get to go to the White Hot Party and we listed to the Beatles Tribute Band from our balcony, but hey, those are for our next EPIC adventure. We did get to see Howl at the Moon, The Spanish Ballet, Blue Man Group, Cirque Dreams, Ice Bar, all 3 waterslides and much more and ALL were awesome!! The EPIC is an incredible ship! 5+ stars in my book.

 

 

Now onto the suite life. We loved all the upgraded perks. From the POSH beach club with upgraded lush loungers and day beds to the EPIC Club for dinner. The EPIC club had such amazing breakfast, lunch and dinner. I miss it and I miss the awesome staff we encountered there. Ruth the Concierge was the best! So glad we had her. She escorted us via a employee only elevator to the shows before everyone else was let in to get the best seats as well as off the ship. The sail away party and the Captains Cocktail Party were both really fun and had complimentary cocktails. We had priority embarkation and debarkation which was really cool. The gummy bears and M&M’s at the Epic Courtyard Café were oh so yummy. I would say that POSH was 50% full on sea days while the rest of the sun decks had no chairs available. Getting our own elevator up to POSH was fun too. The Lavassa Machine (coffee, cappuccino and tea machine) in our room was very cool; I loved the fresh flowers and treats we got every night from our Butler, Charlie. He was so sweet and granted every wish I had. The circular bed we had was oh so comfy and I loved the pillows. Our iPad even got the internet (we got a package the first day we were there) in our room and on our balcony. They told us it might not so that was exciting.

 

 

Well so much to write, I have to go and do my other reviews now but all in all, the EPIC was awesome. A few things that Norwegian might improve upon (I know they read these as they told us at the Meet & Greet that they do) would be the shaking and vibration in our room was pretty bad, and the bathroom in the spa suite left nothing to the imagination, but with a quick “Hey, want to enjoy the balcony” that helped solve that for the most part. The noise from moving the deck chairs about a spa suite that is supposed to be soothing and relaxing was a bit over the top. Other than that, you nailed it NCL with the EPIC in my book!! Well done. Everyone enjoy your trip on her. She is amazing!

[fatty48]

Thank you Epicherewecome for your 5* review, we will be on The Epic Transatlantic in 2 weeks not in a suite but 2 balcony cabins.

I'm so glad you had a great cruise its made us all very excited about our coming adventure.

 

Smooth seas and a Fair wind

 

Regards

Roger

[Journey11]

Thanks for your interesting review. I am glad you had such a good cruise. We were on the Epic about a year ago and she was wonderful, and so was the suite life.

[Lido Lounger]

Thanks for the great post! We booked this cabin for the 10-16 cruise. Can't wait:)

[tinker 4]

We will be in that room in 2013. Why do you think they have not fixed the shower problems?

[gelo7]

Thanks for your review.

[NengEuis]

Thanks for that review! We will be in that S9 in 108 days! :) Glad you enjoyed it. We are looking forward to being close to the spa and being able to enjoy the Epic Club and courtyard and posh.

[TAXFREEMAN]

Thanks for the great post! We booked this cabin for the 10-16 cruise. Can't wait:)

 

I think I will go as a stowaway with you Lido Lounger..... Sounds like my kind of trip.:cool:

[lovetoreview]

Well I actually told Charlie, the butler that I needed more towels because of the issue and he said it was because there was no lip. Yes, this does cause the water that has not drained properly to flow out into the bathroom but I told him that it was not draining properly and that was why. We will see what he does about it and if NCL reads this, hopefully they take note and fix it. I either showered at the spa or turned off the water when it got to high, shampoo'd/conditioned our hair then turned it back on. My husband didn't really have a problem because his showers are shorter than mine, but my long blonde, thick hair takes forever to rinse out. A pain, but what can you do!?! Didn't ruin our trip though :)

[tinker 4]

Did you have a DVD player? The reason I ask is because I have read that they are taking them out if the ship has pay per view movies?

 

Wife likes rock concerts so was going to bring a few and CD's

 

thanks again

[JessLCH]

How early did disembarkation begin in Barcelona? We are doing this sailing next Aug and trying to decide if we can book a 10:15 am flight on disembarkation day.

[JessLCH]

How early did disembarkation begin in Barcelona? We are doing this sailing next Aug and trying to decide if we can book a 10:15 am flight on disembarkation day.

 

Forgot to add we will be in a suite/villa.

[Jimmy Geegitz]

Nice Review. We are thinking of trying the Epic. Have heard mixed reviews of NCL nickle and diming you..so still a little wary.

[tinker 4]

This will be our first cruise with Norwegian and after reading the reviews, I also was not sold. But then I remembered the first time I cruised with Princess and I heard the same thing (have sailed 11 times with Princess). I would not worry about bad reviews. If you let them all cruise ships will try and nickel and dime you. Take the plung and have fun (Epic seemed like a great ship to have fun on).:)

[lovetoreview]

There was a DVD player in our room under the Lavassa Machine. Did not try it though. I think people were allowed to leave around 5-6 am. We did the walk off method at 7 am and were off the ship in 5 minutes in the taxi line that took 5 minutes as well. The suites have their own luggage area if you decide to not do the walk off method and put your luggage out the night before. They are neatly lines up right when you disembark and easy to find it looked like. I know on our ship, LOTS of people had the 10:00 am flight time.