Epic Jan 18 2015 review

[sublarry]

This review will take place in different posts here. I do not have time today to put it all in and will keep adding to it. I will try to get the pictures off of my disk to add as I go along. I hope you enjoy it and questions and comments are welcome.

 

To start with I will tell a little about us. We are around 50 and have been on several cruises all on Carnival. We have done the Glory, Valor, Holiday,and the Elation together. My last three trips had been on the Elation out of New Orleans. One with my wife, one with my Dad, and one with my Mom and Dad together. It seemed to me that Carnival had lost some of its magic. I don't know if it was because of doing the same cruise three times in a row, if it was due to this being one of the smallest ships in the fleet, or if it was part of the entertainment changes that have been taking place.

 

The now only had one live singing and dancing show on the Elation and even though I had seen it several times it was still a great show. Then they had the Hasbro show that was not very good in my opinion. The did have a piano bar that was hit or miss. The last cruise with my parents they had a player that was excellent. He had been in the London version of Broadway and was getting ready for a show in Las Vegas. Other than that there was not a lot of offer. The comedy club is hit or miss as well.

 

We were booked on the Carnival Breeze to see is maybe it was just the smaller older ship that was not as much fun as some of the larger ships. We really enjoyed our cruises on the Glory and Valor.

 

I had looked at the Epic when we were looking at the cruise and we were having a hard time deciding between the two. I had meetings in Miami in January so we decided to cancel the Breeze and get on the Epic after the meeting to save on airfare and hotels.

 

I will start with the two things I did not like about the Epic. Some of you may think they are not as important, but to us they were very important.

 

My wife had just finished working at a daycare and we thought this would be a safe time to travel without there being a herd of kids on the ship. It turns out this was a Jewish school holiday and there were around 1000 kids on the ship. On Carnival the kids are rarely seen in our experiences, but the kids on the ship were everywhere and most of them were not even close to behaving.

 

I know I may get flamed for this opinion, but we have 4 children and 10 grandchildren. I know people say kids will be kids, but these were no unattended kids and when their parents would tell them to stop doing things that were upsetting other cruisers some of them would look straight into the eyes of the other cruisers and do it more just because they knew there were no consequences. I can handle kids playing and having fun, but misbehaving after the parents told them no is a little much. They would come up and move silverware on our table when they were eating at other tables and some of the kids were playing with their dolls in the ice buckets for wine bottles in the dining room.

 

The last sea day was rainy and we were looking for a place to be quiet and read so we picked the Bliss lounge which had nothing going on there. It started off quiet then a herd of 8 kids with moms came in. They were running on the furniture and actually hanging from the curtains at the front of the lounge before you get to the big horses as you leave. The moms kept trying to get them to stop but they were out of control. I am not saying these were all Jewish kids, they were just really misbehaving kids no matter where they were from. My kids know better after being told to stop.

 

More later, have to make a Costco run.

[TEXASMIMI]

We were also on this cruise in the Haven and experienced the same unruly unsupervised kids EVERYWHERE. To the point of us UNABLE and not wanting to use and enjoy the Haven pool area, Haven bar area and Haven restaurant. Kids were running and climbing over bar stools, lounge seating and restaurant tables. Running, running, running, (did I say running) around pool! It was worse than daycare because there were no parents supervising. If this had been my first cruise in the Haven I would NEVER return. But i know this is not the norm.

[ronandannette]

We were also on this cruise in the Haven and experienced the same unruly unsupervised kids EVERYWHERE. To the point of us UNABLE and not wanting to use and enjoy the Haven pool area, Haven bar area and Haven restaurant. Kids were running and climbing over bar stools, lounge seating and restaurant tables. Running, running, running, (did I say running) around pool! It was worse than daycare because there were no parents supervising. If this had been my first cruise in the Haven I would NEVER return. But i know this is not the norm.

 

Given the very high price of a Haven suite and all the hype about the exclusive atmosphere, wasn't there anyone amongst the crew that was prepared to step in and set things right? What happened when you complained to your personal Butler and Concierge?

[TEXASMIMI]

The crew seemed to just "smile" and bear it. We were friendly with the crew and would "comment" how could parents just let their kids run around unsupervised (ages 5-10) night and day?? It was like the crews hands were tied. Maybe they reported it to their supervisor but nothing changed throughout the week.

 

On two different days in the AM I was in the Epic gym and watched the parents of these kids SMOKING and having coffee in the Haven pool area. On the second day there was a crew member in the gym cleaning and I pointed it out to him. He said that he couldn't say anything to the PAX because he could get in trouble if they complained. So he called his supervisor to handle it. But supervisor instructed him to politely tell PAX it was not allowed. So you can see it is not their job to correct.

 

We did complain to concierge at the end of the week and he also agreed about our complaints and informed us he had made a "report" to his superior. Looking back on the week, we should have complained until something was done.

[WaldosPepper]

I have to agree that the behavior we witnessed was disgraceful. The Haven Complex became a circus, and the crew were pushed to the last limit of their patience.

 

In the Haven Restaurant children were running full speed through the dining room, knocking into other guests and their tables, throwing food, dropping food all over the floor and generally creating an atmosphere that was nowhere near enjoyable. I watched the faces of the staff grow more grim by the day, as there was literally nothing they could do.

 

In the courtyard area, it was a three-ring circus with children monopolizing the pool and both hot tubs day and night. My son and daughter-in-law attempted to use one of the hot tubs and lasted less than 5 minutes before fleeing the area. While they were in the tub two of these kids cannonballed into it simply to see what my son and DIL would do about it. They politely asked them not to jump into the tub at which point one of the kids belly-laughed and said "Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it?" After a few minutes of pondering whether it was worth fussing over it, my son decided it was best to just shut his mouth and leave.

 

On two separate nights, a small band of these kids went through the ship turning notification wheels to "Do Not Disturb" the first time, and then to "Make up Cabin" the second time. The first time, it was one entire deck of the ship, and the poor cabin stewards were left with the unpleasant dilemma of literally waiting in the halls until guests either came out of their cabins, or returned to them, in order to know whether or not the DND was legitimate or a prank. They lost plenty of their own free time that day.

 

Elevators, hallways and all public spaces around the ship became racetracks and playgrounds for these unruly kids, and as the week went on it just got worse. I've never witnessed anything like it before, and I hope I never do again.

 

Although we enjoyed our cruise immensely and chose to ignore these behaviors as much as possible, we felt awful for the crew who had no choice but to handle whatever was thrown their way. They demonstrated remarkable patience and somehow managed to remain dignified despite being treated like indentured servants, being spoken down to and yelled at publicly. I can only imagine they were counting down the days until that voyage ended.

[brookie848]

We were on the Epic this same week last year and luckily the monsters were not there. So sorry you all had bad luck.

 

And to the original poster -- no Jewish holidays that week of January that I know of (my husband's family is Jewish). It is the week of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and some schools may have that week off or parents take the kids out of school that week because they are only missing four days instead of five.

[sublarry]

I am very glad to see it was not just me. One of the ship workers told us it was not necessarily a holiday, but a winter break for the schools.

 

I am surprised the high rent district was that bad as well.

 

On to #2 thing I did not like.

It seemed almost impossible to easily make a good salad at the buffet. You had to search thru a couple if not three different spots to get enough things that would be more than just eating romaine or spinach.

 

My wife has been ordered by our doctor to a strict 50 carbs or less a day diet. Salads have become a big part of our eating. It seems to me that on Carnival they have all the salad items in the same place in the middle area of the buffet behind some of the ice and drink counters.

 

Our waitress in the Taste dining room did a awesome job of swapping out the potatoes that seem to come with every meal to something else they had on the menu. On our fanciest dress up night we went to the Manhattan dining room and the waiter said they did not have one of the things she wanted (zucchini) even though it was plainly available on another plate. Carnival has never balked about letting us mix and match on the plates.

 

We did the best we could do and all in all I only gained one half a pound for the week. I think she gained a bit more than me. It was funny the first night in the main dining room when we told the waitress we could not have the bread or dessert. She acted like she had never heard that before, but was very nice about it.

 

Now to the good stuff.

 

Embarkation was a breeze. As I mentioned we were in town for a few days ahead of time. We got to the port at about 10:30 taking a cab from the Intercontinental. We stayed at the Blue Moon Autograph hotel on Collins Ave. in South Beach for the pre-stay, but my meetings were at the Intercontinental. On sail away day we were all packed up and the Intercontinental gladly let us check our bags even though we were not staying there since I was with a large convention there. My wife had a great breakfast while I was in the morning meetings. The ride to the pier was only about 10 minutes.

 

Once at the pier it only took about 10 minutes to get our bags with a porter and get thru security and find the waiting area. We were group 5 to get on the ship and we were at the pool before noon. This was the only time we could find a chair that easily. I guess there was a #3 to things we did not like.

 

Once on the ship we ran straight to the customer service desk to see if they had any posh passes left, but they were out.

 

Our room was ready as soon as we got on the ship, but they do say if your room is not ready you can still drop your things in there unlike Carnival where you still have to wait until they announce the rooms are ready.

 

Most of the outside grill items are similar to what we were used to on Carnival. The burgers, hot dogs, and chicken strips were good. Being on a low carb diet we made good use of these without the buns of course. I think I had a grand total of 13 French fries for the whole cruise.

 

The lifeboat drill was not too bad. Our muster station was in the steak house and we got to sit comfortably while waiting on the few idiots that are on every ship to finally figure out they can't stay in hot tubs or whatever they do to keep all the considerate people waiting.

 

The ship left port a little after 5:00. It was scheduled to leave at 4:00 and I never heard a reason why they left after that. Weather was great for sailaway. Our roll call group was having a meet somewhere, but we did not show up for that.

 

We did the buffet for dinner that night and had our first encounter with "washy washy, happy happy" lady as we entered the buffet. I had read about this but no one really explained it on the posts I was reading. It was nice to see how much they cared to make sure we were safe while eating the food there. I had not seen this on Carnival. It was a great touch and they had the perfect person for the job. She got a big tip from us on the last night for making us smile each time we entered.

 

Well, time for bed tonight, I have to get up and hit the gym in the morning. I have been off for a week due to bad weather and they are on a big hill. More to come tomorrow I hope.

[sublarry]

By the way, it is good to see you on here again Waldopepper!

[dolita22]

Thanks for your review, OP. We were also on that sailing; I wrote a review (in my signature), too. It's great to hear perspectives of others on the same cruise!

 

I completely agree that so many kids were out of control that week. We are like you and cruise during times of year when kids are back in school and thought that we would be a perfect week, given that holiday breaks were complete by then. Nope! Needless to say, our cruise in 2016 will not be that week.

 

Looking forward to more!

[dolita22]

The ship left port a little after 5:00. It was scheduled to leave at 4:00 and I never heard a reason why they left after that. Weather was great for sailaway. Our roll call group was having a meet somewhere, but we did not show up for that.

 

We left late because there was a medical emergency. I can't recall where, but I had gone back to our room to grab a sweatshirt (we were in Spice watching the sad Packer game, and it was cooling off) and heard the captain making the announcement that the person had to be taken off the ship before we left, then the US CBP requested a new manifest and that had take time. Hope the person was okay!

[sublarry]

Maybe that was one of the people they were trying to find for our muster station drill.

 

 

Sublarry