My Epic thoughts. (24 Nov 2012 - 1 Dec 2012)

[rajones007]

My family and I just disembarked the Epic yesterday morning. Overall, we had a fantastic time. I miss the ship already :( .

 

The Epic is gorgeous, the staff is top-notch, and the food was great. I honestly cannot think of any more adjectives to properly describe the ship and her staff.

 

Now before I begin on what is my own type of review (a collection of random thoughts) I want to make sure everyone knows and understands that WE HAD A GREAT TIME. WE HAVE NO REGRETS. THE SHIP IS BEAUTIFUL AND THE CREW IS FANTASTIC. Anything negative I am about to say is not that big of a deal. Nothing ruined our cruise, nor did anything cause us to re-think our choice of cruise and cruiseline.

 

If it looks like the negatives outnumber the positives, just remember it's easier to remember the negatives. I'm sure if I took a couple weeks and typed out all the positives, they would far outweigh the negatives.

 

We are loyal to NCL because of the Freestyle concept. It suits my family and myself. It was designed with people like us in mind. This cruise was myself, 46, my 46 year old girlfriend, and her kids (16 yo girl and 14 yo boy). This is our second cruise as a family, and second on NCL. We did the Star last November out of Tampa and fell in love with NCL freestyle cruising. My GF and I are already booked on the Dawn 12-day repo from Tampa to Boston this coming April.

 

We had originally booked on the Carnival Liberty on the same dates, but after much discussion we decided to cancel that and go with the style we know and love - NCL.

 

To begin - I have to ask myself one question:

 

-- Would I cruise on the Epic again? The answer is No. Not purposely. I found the ship to be too big. I'm no engineer, but it's plain to me that the ship was built with the intention of cramming as many people as possible on board. The flow and movement of people being a distant 2nd thought of the designers.

 

There were people everywhere. There were never any quiet little cubby holes (with the exception of the Epic Lounge..more on that later.)

 

The positive spin I can put on our first Mega-ship experience would be: at least now I know I won't waste my time and money sailing on the Oasis or the Allure. I was considering sailing them in the future. Not any more.

 

--We stayed in a 2 bedroom family suite in The Haven on deck 16. Gorgeous room with an excellent location. My only complaint being the mattress, which was manufactured by the Portland Cement & Mattress Company.

 

The cabin itself was noticeably smaller than the same cabin on the Star, but there was still plenty of room to ballroom dance.

 

--Jeffrey, our butler, was a man with no other goal in life than to ensure we were all comfortable and happy. Garry, our room steward was the best steward we have ever had. He was a super friendly guy who was a pleasure to talk to. The concierge Adrian was very helpful. I inquired about getting an actual lounger on our balcony and before I could even finish my sentence he picked up his phone, called Jeffrey the butler and had one delivered within 5 minutes. Wow. What service.

 

--The back and forth motion on deck 16 forward is quite noticeable. Much more than I anticipated. I normally adapt well to the movement of the ship. I can handle the back and forth. It's the SIDE TO SIDE motion that I find more noticeable. I think a ship this high should be wider. Maybe the physics and math people said it will be fine, but in the real world it isn't.

 

Overall, I found the Epic to not be very stable for a ship of her size. Even on deck 5 we could feel a great amount of movement.

 

--The Courtyard in the Haven is really nice and relaxing. That is until a group of kids showed up. The pool and hot tubs were over run with about eight or ten kids, aged from 5 to 12, who thought they were at Disneyland. We dubbed them the Rug Rats. As the week went on, it was funny watching people pack up their stuff and move somewhere else once all the Rug Rats arrived (which was pretty much from 9am to 9pm, every day). They were doing cannonballs in the hot tub and having splash fights in the pool. The parents either weren't around or they were too busy talking to each other and didn't notice.

 

The parents of these kids, at least 2 (but probably 3) couples that I could tell, had formed a clique among themselves and were too busy drinking and talking over top of each other to even notice that everyone else in the vicinity wanted to strangle their children.

 

I think it was one of those situations where one set of parents is hesitant to discipline their own child for fear of 1) looking too strict in front of their (new?) friends, and 2) possibly looking like they're giving the other kids crap too, being guilty by association or whatever. Meanwhile, the other couples are thinking the same thing. So nobody says anything to their own kids and the cycle of hooliganism continues.

 

The Rug Rats also liked to run around decks 16 & 17 playing hide & seek or tag or something. One of their favourite games was running out of the Haven area and locking themselves out. Then they wait for a Haven resident to swipe their card so they can barge in without any sort of acknowledgement or consideration to whoever opened the door. A well placed hip and "oh, excuse me - I didn't see you there - that's why you shouldn't run in the hallways - that's how accidents happen - I hope your shoulder feels better tomorrow" ended that game pretty quick when they seen me coming. They never did it to me again.

 

Okay, seriously now. It sounds like I'm exaggerating. And I am. But just a little bit.

 

--The Courtyard is a lovely place to be. Simply lovely.

 

--I think they should have kid-free times for the Haven Courtyard area. Like, let the kids in from 9am to 1pm, boot them out and make it a quiet area from 1pm to 5pm. Let the kids back in from 5pm to 7pm, and then let the adults have it for the rest of the night. That would be a fair compromise in my opinion.

 

--The Epic Club Restaurant was awesome. The restaurant was not, however, the quiet elegant place I was told it would be. Not that I cared. I'm not the quiet elegant type anyways! The only complaint I would have is they have the same menu every day. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner, every single night, it's the same. They have a daily special of 1 or 2 additional items, but it was never anything worth remembering.

 

--The Harlem Globetrotters had the cabin directly above us. They held practices every day from 9am to noon, and again from 10pm to 1am. Every day.

 

--The Epic lounge was a waste of good space, in my opinion. Hey, it's nice to have a lounge at my disposal, but 23 hours a day it was empty of any life form. I spent an afternoon in there reading all by myself after the Rug Rats chased most everybody else out of the Courtyard. I really don't have any idea on how to better utilize the space, though. I am most certainly NOT going to suggest they could put another cabin or two in that area because the last thing the Epic needs is more passengers.

 

--Posh had to be the most under-utilized part of the ship. It was never busy, with the exception of the group of 20-somethings who hung around the bar every day. They only spoke in high volume and appeared to always be discussing which of their woman had the trampiest tramp stamp.

 

The noise from the main pool desk just below was easily heard at Posh. Therefore I would never consider Posh to be a quiet zone.

 

--For the first time ever I actually liked the buffet on a cruise ship. It was busy at times, but overall it wasn't too bad. I hate to admit this, and most of you won't believe me, but I had a slab of prime rib that easily ranks with the best I've ever had.

 

I absolutely hated the food at the buffet on the Crown Princess (although it was the nicest buffet, design-wise, I've seen on a cruise ship), and the NCL Star's buffet was kind of bland, both in taste and design. The Epic buffet was something I actually looked forward to.

 

--We went to La Cucina...twice! I don't know why people often ignore La Cucina, or bash it for having poor quality food. It's our favourite specialty restaurant. And for 10 bucks a head it's a damn good deal. La Cucina was never busy on the Star, and Epic was the same. Empty tables everywhere. A 14 ounce Ribeye for $10? Yeah, try finding that on land.

 

--Moderno's was a lot of fun. But the salad bar was a let-down. I don't know what all the fuss was about. It wasn't that big, and the salad items (you know, items that actually have something to do with salad) were few in number.

 

The meat, however, was awesome. Once they get going it all gets confusing and you have to flip the card over to tell them to "STOP BRINGING ME FOOD!!!!!" I never thought the day would ever come that I would utter those words. And I never did have to say it. I just flipped the card over to the red side. Whew. That was close.

 

--We never made it to any of the free MDRs, or Tepanyaki, or Cagneys, or Le Bistro. There were just to many choices and we can only eat 12 hours a day. 13 hours a day is just too much for me.

 

--Blue Man Group was just okay. Entertaining, for sure. But they did have some skits that needed speeding up. It started to get a little long and we were thankful when it ended. The drink they serve just prior to the show (only available in the Epic theater) was pretty damn tasty. They even had a non-alcoholic version.

 

Maybe BMG just isn't my cup of tea. Who knows. I enjoyed it. I'm glad to say I seen their show. But it wasn't the big awesome show I was expecting.

 

--We had a hell of a time finding a store on board that sold basic drugstore items. Finding jewelry and clothes was easy, but want to find some candy or a toothbrush or deodorant? It's behind the barber shop, off to the left, behind all the liquor and cigarettes. We didn't find that store until day 5.

 

Luckily we weren't in serious need of anything, it was just odd that no crew member could direct us to this store. Every crew member I asked would keep guiding us to the main store area with all the jewelry and clothing.

 

--NCL needs to do something with their elevators. Many, many times we were crammed into an elevator, only to continuously have it stop at every floor along the way up/down. I know it's possible to put a sensor in an elevator that will tell it "hey, I'm full of people...maybe I should start dropping them off at the floors they requested instead of stopping at every floor like a dumbass." Matter of fact, the elevators on the Star will refuse to move if they are overweight, so I know it's entirely possible for a system to be designed to bypass floors in order to drop people off first.

 

Speaking of the elevators - NCL really messed up with only going with 2 banks of 8 elevators on the Epic. They screwed up badly.

 

--It is very disheartening to see the amount of people who use the elevator to go up/down 1 floor. It happened all the time on this cruise. Of course I'm not talking about the elderly or handicapped. I'm talking about young able-bodied people who were just too damn lazy to climb a flight of stairs. And it wasn't just going UP. People also jumped on an elevator to go DOWN a single floor.

 

It seemed to be such a common annoyance that by the end of the cruise some passengers were beginning to confront others who would attempt to do this. I thought I was going to see a fight at one point. I personally don't say anything, although I am using my imagination to violently strangle the offender.

 

And we wonder why obesity is getting to be a serious problem in our society.

 

--I had to laugh at other Haven guests who continually thought that inserting their cruise cards into the slot in the elevator magically transformed it into a priority service elevator. Swiping your card did nothing. I did it for the first 2 days and it never made a difference. I asked Adrian and he just smiled and said it doesn't do anything.

 

--I'm an ex-smoker (about a year and a half) and I absolutely LOVE the smell of cigarette smoke. I'm not going to lie. I love it. My GF, a 10 year ex-smoker, is the same way. However, we could not stand being in the casino for more than 10 minutes. My eyes would burn and my throat would close up. The next day I noticed the clothes we were wearing at the casino were now stinking up our closet. I also had a good bout of smokers hack for most of the next day. Seriously.

 

I enjoyed it for years myself and would never ever put-down anybody else for smoking. So I'm not saying they should ban smoking in the casino because that would make me a hypocrite. But that Epic casino specifically.....UGH. That was awful. You smokers can have it with my sincere wishes of good luck. I'm not interested in gambling any more.

 

And those rinky-dink little air cleaners you see scattered throughout the casino? Ahahahaha. Yeah, I got news for you NCL - they do nothing. It doesn't take a college degree to see that they need something a little more robust than those cheap made-in-China Walmart specials. They need to be looking at industrial sized air cleaners if they want to put a dent into that thick cloud of cancer.

 

--I don't know what the official number was, but there was a LOT more kids on this cruise than I expected. Kids everywhere. Small kids.

 

--There was less selection on the in-room TV than there was on the NCL Star. I would have expected the complete opposite.

 

--The EPIC has the worst Navigation channel I have ever seen. I admit that I'm addicted to that station. The Epic's, however, was downright bad. Copyright 1996? Yup. I didn't make that up. 1996. This is 2012. Get in the 21st century, NCL.

 

NCL could easily provide us with interesting and helpful information...but they don't. With the high quality TV we had in our cabin, there is nothing (but money) stopping NCL from designing a nice interactive navigation channel that will be the envy of every other cruise line.

 

So please NCL, just do it.

 

--We met a wide variety of people on this cruise. Lots of nice people. Lots and lots of nice, fun, smiling, happy people. Those people are what made our cruise. Thank you!

 

...................................

 

I guess that's about it for now. If I think of more I'll post more. Remember, a lot of that is tongue in cheek. It's true, but I say everything with a smile on my face.

 

If you have any questions, please fire away.

[smokinz51]

007 thanks for the write up. we are 2 weeks away from our sailing and cant wait, it will be our first. things i took away from this

1) stairs are good

2) bring water cannons filled with vinegar to discourage bad children

3) bring cigars to piss off the smokers in the casino, for some reason they get offended when i pull out my magnums

4) go nude if the quiet areas get out of hand

[ClaireAndMike]

hahahahahahaha. I appreciate number 2 especially with number 4 a close second.

 

007 thanks for the write up. we are 2 weeks away from our sailing and cant wait, it will be our first. things i took away from this

1) stairs are good

2) bring water cannons filled with vinegar to discourage bad children

3) bring cigars to piss off the smokers in the casino, for some reason they get offended when i pull out my magnums

4) go nude if the quiet areas get out of hand

[genealogyfan]

you never know a person's medical condition - they could have a heart problem, knee problems, balance and spatial problems - just because you can't see it doesn't mean a person is able enough to walk up or down stairs

 

I think it's rude for others to think people are just being lazy if they have to take an elevator one floor -never assume - you never know why someone can't take the stairs. Personally I can take the stairs, but I never think someone is just lazy because they take an elevator 1 floor - I have no idea what the reason is for

[rajones007]

you never know a person's medical condition - they could have a heart problem, knee problems, balance and spatial problems

 

I think it's rude for others to think people are just being lazy if they have to take an elevator one floor -never assume - you never know why someone can't take the stairs

I always consider that. Believe me, I'm not a mean person. It just happened far too often. Far, far too often to be always be a person with a hidden disability.

 

I have a bad hip. And arthritis in my feet. And high blood pressure. But that doesn't stop me from using the stairs. Heck, after the muster drill I did 9 flights of stairs without a rest (Bliss, on deck 7 up to our cabin on deck 16). I thought I was going to die near the end, but I'm alive to talk about it.

[david_sobe]

Welcome home and thanks for the review. What suite were you in on deck 16? You were on the Thanksgiving week? That would explain the kids. I sailed Epic during xmas week and the teenagers and kids did take over the courtyard. The Haven is not the quiet experience as other ships simply because of the huge number of 2 bedroom suites that are usually full of kids during the summer and holidays.

I love the Epic lounge and how beautiful it is but I also thought it was weird when I was the only one in the lounge. Posh on our cruise was packed. We could not get chairs and had to go all the way to the top near the smoke stack and it was so noisey there from the engines.

I dont think the Epic lounge is a waste of space though. The concierge lounge is a waste of space. 2 floors of just one desk.

[cruisin07family]

I'm glad for your disclaimer because that was a whole lot of negative! I'm glad to hear Posh was underutilized because I want to purchase Posh passes. I am really hopeful that we don't have too many kids. I have three and I do enjoy children, within reason, but we chose our week thinking it was likely to have few children since the holidays had just passed and the kids would be returning to school.

 

Would you care to share any info about the ports? What did you do? Did you stay onboard and if so, was it nearly empty?

 

Oh, since you did enjoy LaCucina and we have reservations for that one for the first time, what did you enjoy the most?

[mafig]

I really enjoyed your review. Thank you.

 

We keep toying with going on Epic, but then choose something else.

 

It would really bother us to spend all that money for a suite and then have the problems you had with kids.

 

BTW, we were on Oasis and it wasn't crowded at all. Well, maybe the buffet on embarkation day. :)

[jdvmd]

Thanks for your comments! Glad you had a great time despite the hiccups. I don't think I would have handled those "Rug Rats" as calmly as you did.

[boopsahoy]

I dont think a person taking an elevator for 1 floor on vacation says anything about the person. Its their vacation and their health and their choice. Maybe when they arent vacationing they are people that are on their feet all day and this is just bliss for them. I just think that people shouldnt be categaorized in that way. This is just MHO!

[minn55441]

I usually take the cruise recaps with several grains of salt, as it seems that people just want a forum to vent. I must say I enjoyed your recap and chuckled several times. I have had the same reaction on many a cruise.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post the write up. I'm sure, I'm not the only one to enjoy your humor and benefit from your experiences.

[BugsyCruiser]

007 I appreciate your honest review of Epic. I've never been on her so I can't comment on the crowds. I understand your concern over this but hope you won't rule out trying Oasis or Allure in the future. I was Oasis and never once felt crowded. They said we had 6200 passengers on my sailing but it always felt like there was half that number. I might even try Epic in the future just to see what she is like, though the post about the cigarette smoke in the casino would raise concern for me. I'm the exact opposite... can't stand the smell of it

 

Again, thanks for the review. Good job

[kerrytens]

Thanks for the review 007.

 

I'm sorry about all of the issues that you had while onboard the Epic. I guess each sailing is different (well, I would expect it to be actually;) ). My sailing had none of the issues you had actually.

 

Elevators were a non-issue (except the final morning when they were a nightmare!). Smoke was a complete non-issue (heck, I walked my 10 year old through the casino on a regular basis). And kids - there were hardly any on my sailing.

 

I'm only saying the above to point out that it must have a lot to do with the timing of a cruise. I'm wondering if lots of folks decided to take an extended Thanksgiving vacation??

 

Again, I'm sorry that you had such problems. I do appreciate you taking the time to write your thoughts out for us.

[rajones007]

Would you care to share any info about the ports? What did you do? Did you stay onboard and if so, was it nearly empty?

 

Oh, since you did enjoy LaCucina and we have reservations for that one for the first time, what did you enjoy the most?

We made no prearrangement's for tours. We were just going to wing it.

 

We just did an island tour of St. Martin, booked through the ship. It was okay.

 

St Thomas, my GF and her daughter wanted to go snorkeling. So they did some snorkel, kayak, and hiking excursion. They absolutely loved it.

 

Me and the 14 yo son are "all about the ship". He and I can spend all-day every-day, on board a ship. We could do a 7 day cruise to nowhere and be entirely happy.

 

That being said, her son and myself just stayed on board. I was having trouble sleeping for the last couple nights and it finally caught up to me. I felt like crap and just wanted to sleep. But I couldn't. I ended up just dozing for a few hours late that morning and into the early afternoon.

 

We had planed to just walk to the port area, maybe take that cable car up to the top of the hill, but by that time I got my butt in gear it had started to rain. So we said forget it.

 

The ship wasn't quite barren during the day, but was definitely easier to get around.

 

Nassau was the 16 yo's daughter turn to take the day off. She was still sore and wore out from the previous excursion, 2 days prior. She really isn't a sporty-type, so I can see how she quickly discovered many unused muscles she never knew she had.

 

So the 3 of us just walked off the ship and checked out Nassau. We saw exactly what my Dad always said about Nassau - it's a dump. We headed back to the ship after 2 or 3 hours.

 

Regarding La Cucina. I liked the Caesar Salad. It's like one big wad of uncut romain lettuce that you have to chop yourselves. There's even a couple anchovies thrown on top. We also always order a pizza for us all the share.

 

The one-night I had the chicken parmesan, which was awesome. I can't remember what everybody else ordered, but it looked better than my boring order.

 

The 2nd night I got the 14 ounce Ribeye steak. I know it's not a traditional Italian dish, but I was ordering it anyways. And it was huge. It was grilled using just salt and pepper and then a dollop of garlic butter was thrown on top. It came with Polenta, which was also pretty good. (I'm not big on Polenta, it's kind of new to me.)

 

What my kids ordered on these nights is lost to me. I know they got something different than me for every course of the meal (except for the pizza course). The fact they wanted to go back so soon after our first visit tells me that they absolutely loved La Cucina.

[dlynn0366]

Maybe these "Rug Rats" live on the Epic as I'm sure they were the same one's living in the Haven Courtyard when I was there in March :p It was the jumping from the railing of the hot tub into the pool that did me in...waiting for one them to go splat on the pool deck :( The staff would tell them to stop which they did for Oh about 3 seconds.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!

[Twinkstarr]

I was on the same sailing as the OP. I didn't feel like the ship was crowded at all. Only took the elevator when we were with one of the other solo girls who liked to wear 6" heels in the evening.

 

Also an ex-smoker, and the casino didn't bother me, but I didn't spend extended periods there(no luck for me on this cruise).

 

 

As for food, I think Princess's food is a smidge better, especially pastries, pizza and hamburgers. The buffet was good and NCL does a great job with fish in the MDR.

 

Have to agree with OP on the BMG, okay I've seen them and now I can cross that off my list. Cirque dinner show was good and Slam Allen was amazing.

 

Being solo, I did enjoy my solo cabin and the lounge was a good place to go and read(lighting in the cabin not great for reading). Met a lot of fun people and never had always had a big group to go to dinner with in the evening.

 

Had a lot of fun and would definately book another cruise on the Epic. Though I think I would wait until she moves to the Western route in 2014.

[davewnlindale]

thx for your comments/review of Epic. We're sailing in January and the SMOKE issue has been a concern since I first logged on to Cruise Critic to check out this ship. I learned, early on, there's nothing I can do about this so gave up on it and just hoping for the best. (those traveling with me are very sensitive to smoke)

I have a couple of questions. Did you do the Cirque dinner and if so did you make reservations prior to boarding or after? What is the cost?

What excursions were offered in Port at St Maarten? St Thomas? Nassau? I've done the Eastern cruise several times but never found that much to do other than shop. Would like to hear if there's something I've been missing.

Wondering if anybody here has taken the ferry over to other islands while in Port (St John?, Jost Van Dyke?)

[Twinkstarr]

I made the Cirque reservation Friday afternoon for the Friday 9pm show. The group that I joined made their reservations Wednesday am on the ship.

 

Since the box office was closed I made the reservation via the tv.

 

I did make my BMG one online pre cruise. Kicking myself for not making my St John snorkle excursion online as soon as the booking window opened, had to settle for the one to Buck Island instead.

 

For St. Maarten, a bunch of us hopped a cab to Maho Beach to watch the planes.

[NCruiser2012]

It is a shame that you spent all that money for a suite and had problems with the children in the pool. Did you ask your butler or anyone to do something? Someday I would like a suite and would hate to have the same problem.

 

I agree about LaCucina. It was cheap, uncrowded, and very relaxing. We ate there once when the Epic was leaving port. What a great view! My son loved the steak they serve.

[davewnlindale]

Twinkstarr,

how far from Port is Maho Beach?

[SuiteCruiser]

I did the recent transatlantic on the Epic and spent a lot of time in the casino. I didn't find the smoke to be an issue, unless I was sitting next to a smoker. If more than one person was smoking, I would move and ask for them to open a table in the non smoking area of the casino. Just walking through was not a problem at all.

 

I'm not saying this to imply the OP isn't telling the truth, as I'm sure he is, just to say that it really depends on the sailing. Some weeks there could be a lot more smokers, and if the weather is bad, they have far fewer options of where to go to smoke, so it will seem much worse in the casino. The two times I was onboard it was't a problem, so you can have good weeks as well.

[hsmcruise]

thanks for your review. I also said 2 years ago that I wouldn't be back on the

epic (hated the glass toilet) but here I am going on it in January. That being

said, we have also sailed the Oasis, and my husband said never again. I agree

with you about the smoke in the casino and the "crowded" feeling. (didn't have

this on the Oasis) but the Epic does have some wonderful features that many

other ships do not feature. I thought it had the best gym, spa, and waterslides.

I think that the "rugrat" problem should really be addressed. I have been on

Celebrity, and they have security and do not let the kids run around. Other

ships lines not so much. Your review was entertaining!

[iluvdoxies]

sorry the pool experience was ruined for you --- I would have gone straight to Adrian and then the hotel director

[punkincc]

thx for your comments/review of Epic. We're sailing in January and the SMOKE issue has been a concern since I first logged on to Cruise Critic to check out this ship. I learned, early on, there's nothing I can do about this so gave up on it and just hoping for the best. (those traveling with me are very sensitive to smoke)

I have a couple of questions. Did you do the Cirque dinner and if so did you make reservations prior to boarding or after? What is the cost?

What excursions were offered in Port at St Maarten? St Thomas? Nassau? I've done the Eastern cruise several times but never found that much to do other than shop. Would like to hear if there's something I've been missing.

Wondering if anybody here has taken the ferry over to other islands while in Port (St John?, Jost Van Dyke?)

 

We have done a snorkeling excursion to St John through the cruise line ( not Epic ). It was by boat over to St John and then open top bus to the bay. I wish I could remember the name of the bay. It is still our favorite. Crystal blue water. You can find all the tours for each ship on the NCL website, or check with others on the ports board for recommendations. St John is mostly designated as a national park. I highly recommend.