Epic Review 1/4/-1/11 2014

[shdixon]

Please ask me any questions you like. My review is all over the place. I wrote it yesterday while I waited 2 extra hours for my delayed flight.

 

Backround. Been cruising every year for past 12 years. Different cruise lines. 2nd with Norwegian. Started out cruising with family, now that Im married, I now go with my husband as family schedule does not offer same flexibility as ours.

 

 

Decided to use SAS transport to get from FLL airport to port of Miami. Glad I did. $15 each way. Great customer service. When I arrived to FLL before I even got off the plane Lawrence, one of their drivers called to say he was in the airport and told us where to meet him. The van was full by the time we left the airport but we were comfortable. He pointed out landmarks and filled us in on some history and cool facts.

Embarkation was quick and easy. The rooms were not going to be ready till 1:30 so they sent everyone to the Garden Café Buffet. I ate a ton.

Room

This was my first time with a balcony. Loved it. 8159 Won’t go back to inside cabins. I slept to the sound of the ocean. I thought to design was unique. Lots of storage everywhere. The sofa, over the bed, under bed. etc.

I did not like the bathroom and sink. You step out of the shower into the room. There is a curtain separating bathroom area and other areas. I think there should always be a sink NEXT TO a toilet. Ship designers obviously didn’t agree lol. After you do your business you have to touch your door handle before washing your hands this was awkward and I believe unsanitary, but not enough to affect my trip.

Cabin Stewart very nice. Room was always cleaned in good time and I never felt like I had to leave at an inconvenient time. He seemed to clean it just at the right time every day.

The roms have flat screen. You can make reservations via the TV, order pizza, and even play slots and video through your TV for real money. I did that once and only spent $5 just to try it

 

First couple of days if I didn’t feel high I felt sleepy. Dramamine and bonine. Best sleep ever but limited my activity. I stopped taking it day 3 because I no longer felt I needed it. Once I stopped taking it, I Felt normal again. Boat rocked occasionally but nothing outrageous. IMO we had calm waters overall

Meet and greet

Sunday we did meet and greet. Fun. Thanks to Tiffany and all who set it up. Met a lot of people who like me left snow back in their home towns.

Slot pull. Fun. We only lost $5. Because we got back 75% of what we put in. Would definitely do again

Entertainment

Blue man group. Loved it. Didn’t think I would. Lasts a little over an hour. They do not sell drinks during show. No flash photography

Didn’t see dueling pianos or howl at the moon but they always seemed packed and people seem to have a good time.

Karaoke- always entertaining. I never did a song but I enjoyed dancing in my seat to everyone else doing it.

Pool- very small pools for the amount of people on board. Luckily for me I’m more into beach than pool. My husband loves pools but he’s a big guy and didn’t want to be in such a small pool with so many kids in it. The adult pool in H2O is also small

Enjoyed the pool side shows. The band sang a lot of hits and had people dancing always.

As I walked through the ship I always heard some singing or instruments being played, all good.

Casino

I never had a problem with smoke but my husband spent more time there and came back smelling like it. He loved the casino because he won blackjack tournament and seemed to do good other times as well. The casino is big but based on past reviews I expected something crazy. I was pleased with the size. It only takes up half of deck 6 loll. They don’t have enough quarter Machines. A million penny, a million $1 very few quarter.

 

 

Dining

Manhattan room- ate there three times. Entertainment was good service not fast but we were in no rush. Servers all friendly

Garden Buffet- I always enjoyed the food. We had most breakfast there and I always got the same thing. Omelets and home fries lox. Omelet line always moved fast. They seem to be able to make regular omelets better than egg whites. Lunch Taste fresh. Always found a seat. I’m a huge fan of Asian food so I always made sure I visited the Asian station. Burgers are excellent. Good size, never overcooked

Cagney

Rib eye was delicious. Cooked the way I liked it. Took long to come out but I’m guessing that means its cooked right then so I don’t mind. Huge portion. 16 oz.

Crab salad was good. Salad had a little more mayo than I’d like but good. Small portion

Very small sides. I had 5 grains of rice and 3 tiny broccoli florets

Pea soup - not traditional thick split pea. It was semi raw slit peas in broth. I ate it but I wouldn’t order again. I was so impressed with my steak we at there a second time. The steak is the star of the show. Everything else is ok.

Shanghai-Chinese restaurant. I enjoyed my food. We had combination fried rice, spareribs, lettuce wraps, shrimp and chicken lomein. All excellent. Didn’t order desert because nothing sound good to me

Wasabi-a la carte sushi bar. Fresh sushi. Tuna appropriate red color so I was not afraid to eat it. We got several roles. A Japanese martini (delicious) and beef skewers. Came to $26. Great price. Great Service

Oshehans. I thought food was ok but my husband liked it. Wish they had lighter options at night. At 1am I got hungry but they only had heavy food like burgers wings and hotdogs. Most would like that but I wanted a simple sandwich. The first couple of days there were hundreds of people watching the games and they seemed to be really excited.

Taste dining room. Not my preference. Seems like it’s too casual. More kids and strollers than Manhattan. Was really loud

Drinks- I am more of a cocktail gal but had a hard time finding a drink that I thought was really

Great. They were not skimpy with the liquor in my cosmos and martinis. Most would love that but I hate strong drinks. I like to taste the sweet. They were patient with me and modified when necessary.

Ports

I never pay for excursion so I won’t comment on those

St. Maartin. Took ferry $7 to the beach. Small beach just stayed a little while then walked along boardwalk to check out local bars. Only stayed off ship for a couple of hours. I never got to go to Sarafinas bakery like I hoped but still a nice time.

Best liquor prices of all ports.

St. Thomas. Went to Megan’s bay beach. Loved it. Blue water and weather was beautiful. Ordered a couple of drinks from bar on beach which were good. Had to take an open air shuttle there for $8 each way. Orient beach was closed due to "problems" as the locals put it but would not tell us what.

Nassau. Been a million times so I did not do much. This stop had the worse weather. No sun and it was rainy. I just went to a local eatery called Sharkies to get some conch fritters and came back on board.

Photos

Expensive as expected. $20 for 8×10 12.99 for smaller size. They have the option to get digital copies with your hard copies but you have to pay an extra $20 for a Usb drive. Even if you have your own. I couldn’t do it. I just got a usb drive and did not want to pay $20 for another. I just ordered hard prints. Last year I went on pearl. Image quality so much better this time. Also you don’t have to search for photos for each night. Each room gets their own binder. Easy to find. You also can just swipe your card in a kiosk and all your photos show up on screen. Very cool.

Tips

I purchased ONC gift certificates a month before on NCL site because we received a gift card and I wanted to use it towards our trip. Best idea ever (you don’t have to do it that far out). It was automatically applied to my account on day 2. I thought I would have to actually go to the guest services desk but not at all.

Unless you drink heavy unlimited beverage package my not be cost effective. Our drinks only came to $400 for the week. Unlimited beverage would have cost us $700

We had a great time. Staff was friendly, and very accommodating. We got fatter and loved leaving the winter back at home. We did not want to leave but all good things must come to an end. I like that when on a cruise I am in the middle of nowhere and for one week I can treat the outside world like it does not exist. Leave the stress back in NY. For the first time ever I did not use the internet station on board. I checked email in St. Maartin at a bar but that was it. After 2 or 3 emails I shut it down. I’m on vacation J I shut my phone off even in US ports. We have no kids so it’s a little easier to do that.

I would definitely do Norwegian again next year but maybe not Epic for a while. Nothing against the epic, I just don’t like going on any ship back to back as I always like to try something new and don’t want to get bored.

[3DBeach]

Very nice review! Thanks for sharing.

[Juliayn]

Great review! Thanks so much!!

[anandaindonesia]

Thank you for sharing.

[willoughbee]

Thanks for sharing. We leave on the Epic in 56 days. I am curious. Did you do the Ice Bar? I love martinis and a new experience. Hope your weather up north is better now. We are spoiled down here in Florida.

[willoughbee]

Thanks for sharing. We leave on the Epic in 56 days. Can't wait.

[Kylie]

Thanks for the upbeat review! Glad you had a good time - I'm sure we will too!