The Epic has sent me back to Carnival and RCI!

[AandBmom]

This was our first NCL cruise but our 8th cruise over all. Previously we have sailed 1x on Princess, 5x on Carnival and 1x on RCL. We have loved all of our past cruises. We were so excited to try a new cruise line and were optimistic about the Epic, but unfortunately the Epic just didn’t give us the cruise experience we’ve had on other lines. We won’t be back on the Epic and maybe not even on NCL. We have enjoyed the 3 other cruise lines and will stick to those in the future. Don’t get me wrong, we did enjoy ourselves and we believe a vacation with family is what you make it, but for the purpose of helping others plan I will point out the great, the good and the not so good.

 

THE SHORT REVIEW:

 

Great: O’Sheehans, ice cream, cabins quiet with comfortable beds, food always open, cirque show

Good: buffet, getting on/off the ship, kids program, blue man group

Not so good: staff seemed disinterested, ship appeared in poor shape (stained towels, rust spots, etc), ship layout weird, ship unappealing, cabin layout terrible, extra charges for a lot of stuff, activities closed a lot of the time,

 

THE DETAILED VERSION:

 

The Ship:

The Epic looks nice enough on the outside but the inside isn’t very impressive. Never once did I walk into a space and think “wow this is beautiful”. I’ve had that feeling on many other ships with beautiful atriums, beautiful promenades, etc, but not on the Epic. It’s rather dark and gloomy. Further this ship seemed run down. There were lots of rust spots, the pool towels were almost all stained.

The layout of it is poorly planned. With stairs/elevators only at the two far ends of the ship, you have to walk through tight cabin hallways, or through the pool deck where you can only walk single file or you’ll trip over pool chairs, or single file through the very narrow casino that goes on for ever. In most spaces I couldn’t even walk through hand in hand with one of my children. One of the main dining rooms opens up to the casino above which means increased noise and smoke in the dining room.

 

Further, the sports deck with the kids climbing and jumping activities is on top of the adults only quiet deck and the children have to walk past the adults only sign and through the bar area to get to the sports deck. I’m sure the people really wanting an adult’s only quiet space didn’t appreciate kids traipsing through regularly.

 

The running track is located on one of the decks on one side. I don’t think many people even found it and I really missed being able to walk around the ship on an upper deck like on other ships.

 

The kids’ splash area and waterslides are also poorly located as parents can’t really sit and watch their children. The waterslides all end at different places so you can’t keep track of more than 1 child at once and if your little one is in the splash pad you have to fight for the few chairs in the area to sit and watch them while you get dripped on from the above waterslides. On other ships I’ve really enjoyed being able to sit and watch all of my different aged children enjoy the water activities at the same time.

 

Certain things are so tucked away you have to go searching for them – ie the shops. I think they missed a huge opportunity to sell to guests by putting the shops in a place where people didn’t happen upon them very often.

 

Cabin:

What a weird layout. We had an inside and a family balcony. The family balcony was nice except that you had to walk around the bed to get anywhere. This meant only one person could stand at a time in the room. The inside cabin was way worse. We’ve done insides before but this one was tiny. Also, the bathroom experiment that they did clearly didn’t work very well. The sink is on the desk/table and it’s the size of a mixing bowl. It’s impossible to wash your hands/face, etc without splashing water on all your stuff. The electrical outlet is on this desk which means anything you’re charging is close enough to get wet. Also, you get out of the shower into the room. Awkward for those sharing rooms with anyone other than their spouse. If someone walks in your room when you get out of the shower you’re standing right at the door. Also it’s impossible to use the toilet or sink at night without waking up everyone in the cabin b/c there’s no bathroom door and the little toilet door and shower doors are very noisy. It’s like sleeping in a bathroom. Also the tv was placed in such a position that when the bunks were pulled down the tv was covered. We usually like to watch some tv after kids are in bed but this was impossible. Further, the tv was seriously lacking in variety. Not that we go on a cruise to sit and watch tv but it’s nice to be able to put a show on for the children while we’re getting ready for dinner. There was 1 channel for kids which played repeating episodes all week long. On a positive note, the cabin was very quiet and the beds were great!

 

Food:

I loved that there was always somewhere to eat. I found on other lines there would be times of the day where nothing was open but on this ship there was always somewhere to eat which was nice with kids off their normal routine.

O-Sheehan’s pub is great. The food is good. The service is pretty good. Nice ambiance and it’s wonderful that there is no charge. We loved the wings, mozzarella sticks, cheesecake, burgers, pot pie, and banana bread/fruit plate.

The buffet is actually quite good. Lots of choice, clean, well stocked, never very busy, etc. Sometimes I thought the placement of things was odd and you had to go searching for stuff ie, pancakes in one area and syrup quite far away, etc. Great staff in the buffet!

 

The Dining rooms – The dining room menus were mediocre. Many nights not much seemed appealing. Food often came out the wrong temperature. The taste and quality of the food was just okay, not great. We experienced very slow service in the dining rooms every time we were there (dinner every night and breakfast 2x). The Manhatten room was better but not by much. The hostess that seated people seemed grumpy al l the time and sometimes gave attitude. The staff were hardly around, they didn’t say more than two words to the guests it was so different from our past dining room experiences (even when we’ve done the freestyle method). I’m used to the servers asking how our day was, where are we from, making menu suggestions, etc. On this ship this never happened. I heard the specialty restaurants were great but we never tried them. Also we had to specifically ask for children’s menus (our children are obviously of the age they’d want them) and despite the fact that the menus were activity sheets for kids, they didn’t have any colors to use. If they want happy, quiet kids in the dining room a few crayons would go a long way. We started bringing our own to dinner.

 

Activities:

While the ship had several neat activities for kids (spider climb, jumpy thing, rock wall, etc) they were closed a lot of the time. They would open for a few hours here and there. We had 3 seas days and lots of time to kill it would’ve been nice to have these open more.

 

The waterslides were fun. The pools were tiny, with so much weird open space around them.

 

The planned activities were pretty few and far between, especially on the first 2 sea days. I missed previous ships with planned scavenger hunts, general trivial rather than all American History trivia.

 

The kid’s club was pretty good although they were oddly strict about things like children having their own card to sign in. Once my son left his card in his cabin and they had to get a manager to let him in, even though I was signing him in, he was registered, I had my card and I could see that they punched his room number in and pulled him up on their computer.

 

Evening movies on spice deck were nice but they didn’t have any towels available for warmth, they often packed up the lounge chairs so it was hard to get comfy and the children themed movies started way too late for the children to stay and watch.

 

The bowling alley was a nice touch and it didn’t require any staff to run it, so why charge $7 for it?

 

Shows:

Cirque Dreams show was excellent and this was the best meal of the cruise!

Blue Man Group was interesting. A little slow at some parts, but over all very enjoyable.

I heard the hypnotist was quite entertaining.

I heard negative things about Second City.

I heard Howl at the Moon was a great time.

We didn’t make it to the other shows due to life with kids.

 

Service:

While we did encounter some wonderful staff, this crew had such a different vibe than we’re used to. They were quiet and kept to themselves. I can’t remember a single staff asking how our day was, where we were from, what we had planned that day, etc. They just didn’t interact. They were all about business and even that wasn’t very efficient. Usually when I come back from a cruise I feel like my children were treated special by the crew as were we. Also, I feel like tipping my cabin steward, dining staff, etc. This time the only staff that stood out were Ravi on the spice deck and the Nickelodeon coordinator from Toronto (name?). Also the staff spraying everyone with hand sanitizer before entering all eating spaces was great! "Washy Washy, Happy Happy". I felt better knowing pretty much everyone entered the restaurants with clean hands.

Embarking and Debarking were very smooth!

[sixesandeights]

I could not disagree with you more. The Epic is out favorite ship. The bathroom layout was VERY useful for us. The ship layout was very intuitive. The staff in all aspects was attentive and happy to be there. The food was amazing and the buffet was far better then other lines. The number of included activities was impressive. From your review you went to almost no shows, but based that review section on what you "heard" which is never a good idea. Additionally things like them having rules to ensure that the kids being signed in to the kids program are the proper age and approved to be their with their card is for the childrens protection. I dont understand how them requesting the card (which was told to you at sign up was required) could possibly be a negative. Happy quiet kids in a dining room are a result of GOOD PARENTS, not the availability of crayons. My wife and I used to sail exclusively on CCL and RCCL and found that NCL blows them out of the water in nearly every category. Sorry you had a bad time, but it almost sounds like you were looking for problems instead of simply enjoying your trip.

 

6&8

Edited February 16, 2015 by sixesandeights

[dolita22]

Thanks for your review, OP. We sailed the Epic for the second time in January and had just as great of an experience as we had during our first cruise on that ship. It's our favorite ships (yes, even the bathrooms don't bother us) and holds sentimental value for us. I'm glad you had a fun time, despite the negatives you experienced.

 

The nice thing about cruising is that there's a line for everyone. Like you, my now-DH and I wanted to try something different last year for our honeymoon, so we sailed RCCL on a great itinerary. We didn't have a great experience at all (save for the itinerary) and spent double what we would have spent on an NCL cruise in a balcony, so came back to NCL this year and will stick with them until something else calls our name.

 

I'm sorry your trip wasn't what you'd hoped for, but happy to hear you didn't let the negatives spoil your fun.

[AandBmom]

I could not disagree with you more. The Epic is out favorite ship. The bathroom layout was VERY useful for us. The ship layout was very intuitive. The staff in all aspects was attentive and happy to be there. The food was amazing and the buffet was far better then other lines. The number of included activities was impressive. From your review you went to almost no shows, but based that review section on what you "heard" which is never a good idea. Additionally things like them having rules to ensure that the kids being signed in to the kids program are the proper age and approved to be their with their card is for the childrens protection. I dont understand how them requesting the card (which was told to you at sign up was required) could possibly be a negative. Happy quiet kids in a dining room are a result of GOOD PARENTS, not the availability of crayons. My wife and I used to sail exclusively on CCL and RCCL and found that NCL blows them out of the water in nearly every category. Sorry you had a bad time, but it almost sounds like you were looking for problems instead of simply enjoying your trip.

 

6&8

 

I don't want to come off as someone that didn't enjoy the cruise as I really did, but for the sake of a website like this and a review to put in there amongst the other positive and negative ones to help future cruisers, I'm going to share what I experienced. Actually I was really hoping/expecting to enjoy this cruise. We were so looking forward to having a new cruise line to enjoy. Last year we branched out and tried RCL after great experiences on Carnival and Princess and loved it too. I was starting to believe that we would just love any cruise but then this one happened. Don't get me wrong, we had fun, we made the most of it, but we just felt it was lacking in a lot of ways.

 

As for the crayons comment, we used great parenting to keep kids happy but with 4 little ones some of the little extras that the other cruise lines do at dinner to help out really makes more of an enjoyable experience for the children, the parents and the other diners I'm sure.

 

As for not going to the shows, the ones I "heard" about were from members of our party that gave me their feedback to share so while I personally didn't experience them, these were the feelings of my relatives.

 

I'm glad you had great staff interactions. We on the other hand did not. Maybe it was a rough week for them. I met several other people on board commenting on the same thing.

 

I agree that the buffet was great and better than others.

 

As for the kid's club rule, I just had trouble understanding the way they do things. It was not efficient for the parents or them I'm sure. Also, they seemed to be particular about little things like the card when it didn't really make sense. On other cruise lines the parent's card was the most important. Most of my children enjoyed the kid's club which is really what matters but I have had much smoother experiences on the other cruise lines.

[meggie711]

I hate to hear of anyone having a bad time on Epic, as our Epic cruise was hands down the best vacation I've ever had. We loved the layout, entertainment, food, and staff (some who we are still in contact with on a daily basis). Sorry to hear it wasn't a good experience for you!:(

[S.S.Oceanlover]

This was our first NCL cruise but our 8th cruise over all. Previously we have sailed 1x on Princess, 5x on Carnival and 1x on RCL. We have loved all of our past cruises. We were so excited to try a new cruise line and were optimistic about the Epic, but unfortunately the Epic just didn’t give us the cruise experience we’ve had on other lines. We won’t be back on the Epic and maybe not even on NCL. We have enjoyed the 3 other cruise lines and will stick to those in the future. Don’t get me wrong, we did enjoy ourselves and we believe a vacation with family is what you make it, but for the purpose of helping others plan I will point out the great, the good and the not so good.

 

THE SHORT REVIEW:

 

Great: O’Sheehans, ice cream, cabins quiet with comfortable beds, food always open, cirque show

Good: buffet, getting on/off the ship, kids program, blue man group

Not so good: staff seemed disinterested, ship appeared in poor shape (stained towels, rust spots, etc), ship layout weird, ship unappealing, cabin layout terrible, extra charges for a lot of stuff, activities closed a lot of the time,

 

 

When you say there were extra charges for a lot of stuff could you give some examples please?

 

TIA

 

Bill

[AandBmom]

I hate to hear of anyone having a bad time on Epic, as our Epic cruise was hands down the best vacation I've ever had. We loved the layout, entertainment, food, and staff (some who we are still in contact with on a daily basis). Sorry to hear it wasn't a good experience for you!:(

 

I'm glad to hear that so many others have loved the Epic. I wanted to love it so bad. I wonder if over time it's changed? The reviews on here seem to be turning more to the negative in the last while. I met some NCL regulars on our sailing that love NCL and were talking about their disappointment on this cruise as well.

 

I guess we all like different things on a cruise.

[AandBmom]

When you say there were extra charges for a lot of stuff could you give some examples please?

 

TIA

 

Bill

 

It was an overall feeling we got so I'm going to try to remember specifics....

- tea is $1.95 at one end of the ship for the same tea that's available for "free" at the other end

- ice bar was $20 just to look at it

- bowling which doesn't require staffing and doesn't go through any consumable materials is $7

- breakfast in the dining room is free, unless you can look at the Nickelodeon characters then you have to pay

- they feed the children the buffet in camp on port days but you have to pay that day

[Demonyte]

OP, thanks for the review. For your sake I hope that you don't let Epic scare you away from NCL if you liked the cruise for most parts. Epic is my least favourite of all NCL fleet and definitely wouldn't be my first choice when searching for a cruise. We're fine with the cabins but the overall Las Vegas style design where one can't see out really changes the experience a lot.

 

Epic is a failed experiment for NCL (NCL had already ordered another and had an option for third but Epic was only one built) and for example NCL's next megaships Breakaway and Getaway are based on Epic's plans but many things that were done "wrong" on Epic have been fixed.

 

Also older NCL ships like Dawn class (Dawn, Star) and Jewel class (Jewel, Pearl, Jade, Gem) are much more like ships on other cruise lines.

[LrgPizza]

Further, the sports deck with the kids climbing and jumping activities is on top of the adults only quiet deck and the children have to walk past the adults only sign and through the bar area to get to the sports deck. I’m sure the people really wanting an adult’s only quiet space didn’t appreciate kids traipsing through regularly.

THIS!! Although Spice H2O isn't billed as a quiet place, it is supposed to be an adults only area, and this was definitely a design flaw. At one point on our cruise, we took a picture of 6 kids approx. 10 years old lined up on stools at the bar waiting to be served drinks, filling it up, and sending us elsewhere. They had just come down from the sports deck. The bar at Spice H2O on Getaway was our favorite daytime hang out spot, and this poor setup on Epic really put a damper on that part of our experience.

The planned activities were pretty few and far between, especially on the first 2 sea days. I missed previous ships with planned scavenger hunts, general trivial rather than all American History trivia.

On our recent Epic cruise, it was general trivia, not American History. Maybe it depends which session you attend, or who the cruise staff member is that's doing it that day? I dunno.

 

Anyway...

Thanks for the review. Sorry this ship didn't work out for you. I hope you don't judge NCL entirely based on this one experience on one ship. Had I done that after my first NCL cruise (which was a less-than-impressive week on the Spirit) I never would have gone again. I now love it, and am glad I didn't let one experience/ship taint a whole cruise line.

Edited February 16, 2015 by LrgPizza

[S.S.Oceanlover]

It was an overall feeling we got so I'm going to try to remember specifics....

- tea is $1.95 at one end of the ship for the same tea that's available for "free" at the other end

- ice bar was $20 just to look at it

- bowling which doesn't require staffing and doesn't go through any consumable materials is $7

- breakfast in the dining room is free, unless you can look at the Nickelodeon characters then you have to pay

- they feed the children the buffet in camp on port days but you have to pay that day

 

Thanks for the reply. Luckily my kids are grown and flew the coup so I don't have to worry about the character breakfast or being fed in camp.

 

Can't bowl to an old injury and don't drink tea so i should be OK.

 

Thanks again as i was curious.:)

 

Bill

[Oldgoat61]

Having read several reviews on the Epic, it's a ship you either love or hate. We have yet to sail one NCL's mega ships, but someday we will.

 

Don't give up just because of the Epic....try the Getaway, or Breakaway, or even the Escape. As I'm sure you know, not all ships (crew) are the same. You might even consider the Pearl, Gem, Jewel, etc. They are smaller than the Epic, but fun to be on. :)

[bobg529]

I'm glad to hear that so many others have loved the Epic. I wanted to love it so bad. I wonder if over time it's changed? The reviews on here seem to be turning more to the negative in the last while. I met some NCL regulars on our sailing that love NCL and were talking about their disappointment on this cruise as well.

 

I guess we all like different things on a cruise.

 

 

Sorry you didn't love the Epic. Like many others here I have sailed on her and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Still, it's easy to see that she is unique and would not appeal to everyone. But the Epic does not truly represent the NCL experience. I think that she appeals more to European tastes which is why, I believe, that she is being moved there this year. If you should decide to give NCL another shot, try a Jewel class ship or maybe the Breakaway or Getaway. I think you'll find more of the features you're used to while retaining the things that you enjoyed on the Epic. Thanks for your honest posting.

[pengu1n]

We also did not enjoy the Epic, for most of the same reasons you listed. We have decided that the mega size ships are not for us. We enjoy going to the nightly shows, but these are not available on the Epic and the other activities, like Not so newly wed game or other games filled up the smaller venues and we were never able to get in them.

 

We did just get off the Jewel and loved that. The size and layout is better and there are the 2 nightly shows every night in addition to the traditional game shows. We enjoyed the entertainment and the ones that were not so great, we enjoyed critiquing them. The Sun and Spirit are even smaller, but we liked that size of ship.

 

While there were lots of activities going on all day, I do miss some of the things that used to be available (and maybe these were on different cruiselines): educational programs, like how to cook one of the meals from the restaurants, walking tours with the ship photographers and classes put on by them about taking better pictures, crafts like beaded bracelets, dollar bill folding, napkin folding (do it yourself instead of watching), etc.

[Rhea98]

To OP, as others have pointed out, Epic is different. I happen to like her, but couldn't disagree with most of your assessments--especially lack of a promenade. I've only sailed her twice (have 2 more coming up), and, fortunately, never experienced what you did with the staff. As others have also suggested, don't give up on NCL just yet. Our first cruise was on the Sun. She's totally different. We're scheduled for a 20 day cruise on Pearl. I've talked to many cruisers (while on Epic), who thought the Pearl was one of the nicest ships ever. I think your assessment was presented fairly and gives future cruisers some valuable info. Glad you had a nice vacation.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Edited February 16, 2015 by Rhea98

[bluesea777]

- ice bar was $20 just to look at it

 

Huh? The $20 includes 2 drinks.

[AandBmom]

Huh? The $20 includes 2 drinks.

 

My mistake. I didn't pick up on that piece. That makes it better. I know my kids wanted to see it and my hubby told me it was $20 each and they obviously can't have the drinks so I'm not sure what would happen in that case.

[LrgPizza]

My mistake. I didn't pick up on that piece. That makes it better. I know my kids wanted to see it and my hubby told me it was $20 each and they obviously can't have the drinks so I'm not sure what would happen in that case.

Technically you are correct that it costs $20 just to see it. Whether or not you are having the included drinks the cover is $20, so yeah, it does cost that to see it.

[bluesea777]

My mistake. I didn't pick up on that piece. That makes it better. I know my kids wanted to see it and my hubby told me it was $20 each and they obviously can't have the drinks so I'm not sure what would happen in that case.

 

They do offer non-alcoholic drinks in the Ice-Bar.

[1smudslide]

I've always been interested in the Epic? Does the bathroom really not have a door?

[david_sobe]

Welcome back and thanks for the review!

Just curious since the bathroom set up was a big deal to you why in the world would you book Epic? Not being sarcastic just curious since the bathroom set up on Epic is well known to everyone and is infamous LOL.

I don't understand how any Carnival ship is classier than Epic. But many like the neon and gold 80's look of most Carnival ships. Glad you had a good vacation and sorry to hear the Epic was sort of a let down.

I love the Epic. I still believe Epic has the largest spa and gym at sea. And the entertainment is better than any ship (including the new NCL ships) IMHO.

[bobg529]

I've always been interested in the Epic? Does the bathroom really not have a door?

 

 

Lol, no, the bathroom is a little round stall, WITH a door. The light inside goes on when you go in. The shower is in a different stall, with frosted glass. I will admit it could be kind of weird for a family, but for a couple, or a single it's OK. Take a look on You Tube, there are plenty of videos that show the "uniqueness" that is Epic.

[AandBmom]

Welcome back and thanks for the review!

Just curious since the bathroom set up was a big deal to you why in the world would you book Epic? Not being sarcastic just curious since the bathroom set up on Epic is well known to everyone and is infamous LOL.

I don't understand how any Carnival ship is classier than Epic. But many like the neon and gold 80's look of most Carnival ships. Glad you had a good vacation and sorry to hear the Epic was sort of a let down.

I love the Epic. I still believe Epic has the largest spa and gym at sea. And the entertainment is better than any ship (including the new NCL ships) IMHO.

 

I didn't really get ahead of time the logistics of the bathroom or how much of a pain it would be when kids are sleeping and I needed to use the toilet or get a drink of water at night. I also didn't realize that the sink would be right next to all my stuff. It worked and it was manageable, but I wouldn't choose it again.

 

As for the Carnival ship that is classier, if you haven't been on the Breeze then you haven't seen beautiful in my opinion. that ship is bright, all new colour scheme and just so lovely with atriums that go up forever. I've been on a few tacky Carnival ones too.

 

But yes for sure, great entertainment on the ship and the gym was nice according to hubby (I didn't make it). I also didn't make it to the spa. I find it so hard to use a spa on a cruise when our work benefits cover massages and other things like that when we're in Canada but not when we're at sea.

Edited February 17, 2015 by AandBmom

[IWORK2CRUISE]

My mistake. I didn't pick up on that piece. That makes it better. I know my kids wanted to see it and my hubby told me it was $20 each and they obviously can't have the drinks so I'm not sure what would happen in that case.

 

I don't recall the actual charge but there was a separate child fee with non alcoholic drinks.

There were families in our session.

[bradleyk]

I could not disagree with you more. The Epic is out favorite ship. The bathroom layout was VERY useful for us. The ship layout was very intuitive. The staff in all aspects was attentive and happy to be there. The food was amazing and the buffet was far better then other lines. The number of included activities was impressive. From your review you went to almost no shows, but based that review section on what you "heard" which is never a good idea. Additionally things like them having rules to ensure that the kids being signed in to the kids program are the proper age and approved to be their with their card is for the childrens protection. I dont understand how them requesting the card (which was told to you at sign up was required) could possibly be a negative. Happy quiet kids in a dining room are a result of GOOD PARENTS, not the availability of crayons. My wife and I used to sail exclusively on CCL and RCCL and found that NCL blows them out of the water in nearly every category. Sorry you had a bad time, but it almost sounds like you were looking for problems instead of simply enjoying your trip.

 

6&8

 

Thank you for saying what I was feeling as I read the review. I have yet to sail on NCL. But damn if this review didn't pick. Did they not see the cabin layout before they booked?

Also I work in a level one trauma hospital and even we find a stained towel now and then. Guess what we do... get another one.