MITSUGIRLYS EPIC CRUISE--2nd time around-1st from Port Canaveral

[mitsugirly]

Yea!! I'm so excited for this review!! I'm trying to decide between 3 cruises next year (all European, all in the same time frame in September) and the one on the Epic I think is calling my name. Looking forward to pics of the ship. :)

 

Trix

 

Hi Trix and glad you are here for the review. I will be posting pictures of the ship itself some time this week. I hope you enjoy them. :)

 

Wow following can't wait to here all about the ship leaving on the 26th on the Epic and wanted to do this ship for a long time now.

 

 

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I hope you have a wonderful time on the Epic on the 26th and I hope they get a lot of the problems worked out by then. She's a beautiful ship. She's definitely "different" but if you know these things going in, you'll be ok. :)

[mitsugirly]

So excited to read this. We are leaving Saturday on the Epic and we have never sailed NCL before. Hoping you can answer some of my questions through your review. Thanks so much!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Well, since my reviews are extremely long and very detailed and picture heavy, it is probably very unlikely that I will even be a fourth of the way done with the review before you leave on Saturday. It takes a lot of time and preparation of the pictures, hosting and so on to do this type of review. I take thousands of pictures and this takes forever to sort them and pick what I want to use. I happy that you are here, but if you have any specific questions, please let me (or others in the thread) know and we will try to answer them as best as possible.

 

I hope you have a wonderful cruise! :)

 

Yeah! Another review! I go on her in less then 3mo and so excited, read your other Epic review since I will be in the Studio area and excited for it.

 

Following, because the way you write it is like I am along with you all! Hope the trip was Epic!

 

The studio area is very unique and we loved it! I hope you have a wonderful time on the Epic and especially in the studios. Of course this review of the Epic is a complete turnaround of the last Epic review. hehe. I have come a long way since then. :p

[Toola99709]

Loving the review so far and hoping that it got better after the weird embarkation experience.

[mitsugirly]

Hi all!

 

mitsugirly ~ I'm so glad to have found your review the same day you started!:D Looking forward to hearing what you thought of Epic 2nd time around. I was on for the 4th time last Christmas.

 

Sorry to hear of your problems so far, that sucks about the lack of welcoming & picture!

I flew into Orlando & cruised from there once & don't think I'd do it again. It's so busy with kids,strollers,so much luggage & long lines!:o

 

Do you still have your Escape reservation for next fall? I'm hoping you're going Oct 14.

 

Have a great week.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

 

Hi Jo and glad you found my review early on. I know they get pretty lengthy. Four times on the Epic, you must either really like her or like the itinerary or you live close to a cruising port. :p

 

Oh yes, cruising and flying in to Orlando has made me reconsider ever doing this again. It was a mad house and flying home was 100x worse!

 

We have only went out of PC once before and we drove that time. So no hassle at all...other than family hassles LOL

 

I do still have Escape booked for next year. It was a "dummy" booking that the cruise line booked while I was on a cruise. I haven't decided if I'm actually keeping that date or not. It's too far out for me to think about it yet. It's for the 21st sailing. I have always wanted to do a Halloween cruise and think this would be so much fun, so I was considering rebooking for a date that would cover Halloween. But, we'll see.

[lawnbowler48]

I love your reviews they are always so detailed and the pictures are great. I know I will get some helpful hints. Hope that the rest of the cruise has gone without a hitch. Can't wait till ours - 90 days now.

[mitsugirly]

Loving the review so far and hoping that it got better after the weird embarkation experience.

 

 

Thanks so much and glad to have you here. Much more to come.

[mitsugirly]

I love your reviews they are always so detailed and the pictures are great. I know I will get some helpful hints. Hope that the rest of the cruise has gone without a hitch. Can't wait till ours - 90 days now.

 

 

Thanks so much and hopefully you will be able to get some good information.

 

....If only it was the only problem... :(

[appletinine]

I have been a long time lurker! Been waiting for this! I am booked in a studio in March. First time NCL!

 

 

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Edited November 21, 2016 by appletinine

[retiring soon]

Hi again !

 

Mitsugirly - I live about as close to a port as you do, lol!

I was just on Vista for Hallowe'en & it was really neat. I was surprised at how many people dressed up & all the ship's decorations.

[perfect match]

I am experiencing post cruise depression, so I came here hoping you had started your review to get me through the blues. I'm so glad to find you already here, review under way.

 

We sailed out of Terminal1 about 6 months ago on Freedom Of The Seas and everything ran smoothly. Both embarkation and disembarkation were a breeze. We sailed Oasis the week before your Epic cruise and it was a whole different experience for sure! I don't know how the process got so messed up in the 6 months between our cruises. For our Oasis embarkation we has the same long line in the parking garage as you did, but once we finally got into the terminal, things did smooth out for us. We usually skip the embarkation picture since we never end up buying them, but they were still being taken when we went through. Our disembarkation started out really great all the way through customs, but the problems started once we hit that parking garage and the gridlock they seem to have created there. I know that there are different ships using the terminal now, but I don't think it should matter what ship is docked at the pier when you're having gridlock in the parking lot. I mean, Freedom is a pretty big ship, and we had no problems getting in and out on that cruise, so I just don't get the problems now.

 

OK, rant over. I just wanted you to know you weren't the only ones with problems in that garage. I can't wait to hear about the rest of your cruise, especially since we might decide to give Epic a try now that she is based in PC. :cool:

[elruth]

Kim, I so enjoy your pics and reviews. How do you pronounce your name ( which syllable is accented ) and what does your name mean? Mitsugirly Just curious. Your mini- me little girl is adorable. Do you have to check with her school to see if you can take her out of school during these cruises? Eager to read the rest of your review.

[jcruise20]

I was on the TA, can't believe I missed a CC Star by one sailing. :p

[Zippeedee]

Kim, thanks for starting your review so soon. I saw you a few times on the ship but it never seemed like a good time to say hello.

 

I too had trouble with the shuttle company, and won't use them again! I arrived at the port around 12:30, later than I would have liked, and waited in that line for almost 2 hours. Other than that my whole cruise was amazing. I can't wait to relive it through your review. Sorry to hear you had problems. I hope they were all worked out to your satisfaction!

 

Patti

[mitsugirly]

I have been a long time lurker! Been waiting for this! I am booked in a studio in March. First time NCL!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Hi and thanks for the comments. Did you happen to read my Epic studio review? It's short and sweet, but we loved the studios. You can find all the studio pictures HERE if you are interested. The review is listed HERE.

 

Hi again !

 

Mitsugirly - I live about as close to a port as you do, lol!

I was just on Vista for Hallowe'en & it was really neat. I was surprised at how many people dressed up & all the ship's decorations.

 

That's really cool. I would definitely dress up. I have always wanted to do a Halloween cruise. :D

[mitsugirly]

I am experiencing post cruise depression, so I came here hoping you had started your review to get me through the blues. I'm so glad to find you already here, review under way.

 

We sailed out of Terminal1 about 6 months ago on Freedom Of The Seas and everything ran smoothly. Both embarkation and disembarkation were a breeze. We sailed Oasis the week before your Epic cruise and it was a whole different experience for sure! I don't know how the process got so messed up in the 6 months between our cruises. For our Oasis embarkation we has the same long line in the parking garage as you did, but once we finally got into the terminal, things did smooth out for us. We usually skip the embarkation picture since we never end up buying them, but they were still being taken when we went through. Our disembarkation started out really great all the way through customs, but the problems started once we hit that parking garage and the gridlock they seem to have created there. I know that there are different ships using the terminal now, but I don't think it should matter what ship is docked at the pier when you're having gridlock in the parking lot. I mean, Freedom is a pretty big ship, and we had no problems getting in and out on that cruise, so I just don't get the problems now.

 

OK, rant over. I just wanted you to know you weren't the only ones with problems in that garage. I can't wait to hear about the rest of your cruise, especially since we might decide to give Epic a try now that she is based in PC. :cool:

 

Hi Nancy. Glad to have you here. It sounds like something has went wrong with this terminal over the last few months. I'm sure it didn't help that this was the Epic's first cruise back in the states. But honestly I just don't get it. Ships cruise from there all the time and this isn't the Epics first cruise ever. So what is the problem here? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

 

Kim, I so enjoy your pics and reviews. How do you pronounce your name ( which syllable is accented ) and what does your name mean? Mitsugirly Just curious. Your mini- me little girl is adorable. Do you have to check with her school to see if you can take her out of school during these cruises? Eager to read the rest of your review.

 

 

Aww, thanks so much. My name on the boards? It comes from owning a Mitsubishi years ago, when I met my husband. Actually that's how we met. He was in a Mitsubishi owner "car club" and he followed me and when I stopped at the grocery store, he pulled up behind me to talk "car talk" and the name of the local forum for the cars. I always used mitsugirly or mitsubishigirl on all the forums and just haven't ever changed it...we moved on to Audi's now. :p But it's pronounced MITSU-GIRLY. :)

 

Her school knows we cruise a lot and we always do a family cruise in either Oct, Nov, or Dec. That seems to be when the entire family can get away together. So, I always inform them ahead of time so that they can get her homework together to do on the cruise each time so that she doesn't miss anything. However, there's a new teacher and new principle this year and they didn't give her anything...which was very odd. She actually felt like she had a real vacation away from school this time around. Sakari never misses any school (knock on wood), so the 5 days she does miss during the fall/winter cruise is usually all she misses for the year. We take our other cruise at Spring Break and then one in the summer. This year was an exception because we also did one in February for my 50th birthday, but that probably won't happen again. :p

[mitsugirly]

I was on the TA, can't believe I missed a CC Star by one sailing. :p

 

Awww shucks! You are making me blush.

 

Kim, thanks for starting your review so soon. I saw you a few times on the ship but it never seemed like a good time to say hello.

 

I too had trouble with the shuttle company, and won't use them again! I arrived at the port around 12:30, later than I would have liked, and waited in that line for almost 2 hours. Other than that my whole cruise was amazing. I can't wait to relive it through your review. Sorry to hear you had problems. I hope they were all worked out to your satisfaction!

 

Patti

 

 

Aww Patti, any time is a good time to stop and say hello. I wish you would have.

 

Sorry to hear you had trouble with the shuttle company as well. They really need to get their act together. Coming back was a nightmare!!!

[mitsugirly]

So we had finally made it on the ship. Down the deck we went and into the ship. It was a mad house. Seriously so many people. I don't think I have ever experienced this before. Sometimes when you get on the ship there's a lot of people in the Atrium, but we got on (and off) on the 7th floor, so it wasn't even the Atrium. Then there's usually a lot of people at the buffet as well. However, by the time we made it on, you would have thought that people had cleared out a little.

 

It was IMPOSSIBLE to catch an elevator. They were jam-packed FULL! Seriously! Every elevator, every time. So, that forced us to walk up to the 14th floor to find our rooms via stairway. Now honestly, I'm not lazy and don't mind walking...it's all I do and especially on cruises. I can't sit still for more than a few minutes and always on the go. However, at my age, I have started to develop a little crepitus in my knees and they grind all the way up the steps. My knees also pop with each step, like the sound you hear when you crack your knuckles type of pop...each and every step. So walking up is never a good thing for me, walking down does not hurt. Add that I have become very fluffy over the last few years, I certainly wear out easier. I must do something about this weight soon!!

 

But up the stairs we went. The kids were acting like it was a race and I was acting like I was dying. I was out of breath, my knees were aching. But I finally made it to the 14th floor. Kendra headed to her room and we headed to ours with Kolin and Courtney following.

 

So now I will give you a tour of our balcony room-14049 with the extended balcony on the hump of the ship.

 

The room itself is what I pictured with the "wave" in the room. I honestly didn't find it too bad or compromising compared to any other room I have had. The couch is located in the bump out wave area and there's about as much space to walk around it as you would any other NCL room IMO. The bed is located in the bump in wave area of course. We picked the room with the bed beside the balcony. I kind of went back and forth between what I wanted and figured with the bed being closer to the balcony, the room might feel bigger when you walked in. So that's what we went with.

 

The decor is beautiful to me. We had a room with the blue trim (pillows and such) and it's the only color I had previously seen in pictures. However, several times walking down the hallway with the cabin stewards cleaning other rooms, I did notice that some people had red rooms instead. I wasn't even aware that any of the rooms had red decor until this cruise.

 

So here's the room area. I apologize ahead of time that I totally forgot to get pictures of the room before putting everything away. I was just too tired to think straight after waiting in line for over 2 hours, then walking up 7 flights of steps, and I wasn't thinking straight. So a lot of these pictures were taken at the end of the cruise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's plenty of lighting needs, which include on the walls, hidden lighting above the cabinets, a round circle light above the bed and evening reading lights on each side of the bed as well.

 

 

 

Tons of storage, including above the bed.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 21, 2016 by mitsugirly

[biker@sea]

Did you happen to get any Photo's of Kolin & Courtney's " sideways " cabin?

 

Did they like it?

.

[mitsugirly]

Directly in front of our bed was a storage cabinet. Now this is where things are different with this cabinet in my room compared to Kendras room with the bed by the shower area.

 

Here's my cabinet.

 

 

 

At the top of this cabinet was a bar. I assume that this was supposed to be additional places to hang clothes, but there were no hangers, so it was useless. Plus, you would only be able to fit a few things there to begin with because it was such a small shallow area with no depth to it.

 

 

 

This is at the bottom of this "box" that was useless...we put some clothes on it, but once again, it's just too shallow to really use and is a waste of space. They should just put shelves in this area. The drawers were so small, once again because it's so shallow.

 

Now in Kendras room, this was a HUGE cabinet with plenty of space in the drawers and to hang things up. I meant to get a picture of hers, but life got busy.

 

However, here's a picture of her room

 

 

 

Then the t.v. and more cabinets/storage is in front of the bed.

 

 

 

They do have a coffee maker in the room, but the hubby has become spoiled and would rather go get coffee already made than to take the time to make his own. (This applies to at home and his store as well even though we have coffee makers at both). LOL

 

 

 

Our cabin steward did fill our ice bucket every day and night.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Down below that was another storage area. We used this for our bathing suits and cover ups. It had some wire baskets on the side as well.

 

 

 

Beside that was additional storage and also the area with a hidden plug outlet.

 

 

 

To the right of this is another cabinet and GASP, I don't even have a picture of it for some reason. It was curved and opened up to shelves and one had the small safe in it. We just stored our snorkel stuff in it and didn't use it much other than the safe but it was a very deep cabinet.

 

On to the right of that was another huge closet and a big mirror.

 

 

 

 

Plenty of hangers to hang stuff up inside but that was pretty much it. There were no shelves, even though I seen an area that looked like shelves were supposed to be there. We used the bottom of it to put our various shoes in it and the dirty clothes hamper/bag I carry for each vacation.

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Next comes the sink area and an area that some people complain about because it's like this area sits inside your room instead of an actual bathroom like most ships.

 

I honestly didn't mind the area. Our studio we had previously had the same thing, so I already knew what to expect to a certain extent.

 

 

 

Above the sink was plenty of storage and glasses and you will also find the outlet for the shaver.

 

 

Below the sink is a drawer and then a huge drawer below that. I actually used this for some of my tee shirts since there really didn't seem to be any appropriate place to put clothes and the drawers and cabinet on the opposite side were just too small and shallow for all of our things.

 

 

 

As you can see from the above picture, they store your towels, hand towels and wash rags in this area, along the side, as well. So, when you take a shower, you will need to grab them before going in and hang them up in the shower area (there are hooks on the outside of the shower and by the door). Otherwise you will be moving the curtain that blocks this area for privacy when showering to grab towels.

 

Now I know in the past that there have been A LOT of complaints about the sinks. Yes, they are small, but the complaints were that when you turn the water on that the water splashes everywhere...due to the sink being small and the water pressure. I never had a problem AT ALL. I turned it on full blast and there was no splashing. Maybe they caught on to this and turned the water pressure down at some point?

 

Here's a video of the water running....no splashes, no issues.

 

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[mitsugirly]

On the opposite side of the room is the couch and what is considered the 3rd bed.

 

 

 

It is rounded due to the "wave" and when they "make the bed up for the night" all they do is pull this bottom couch area out a few inches. It's honestly a very small "bed" and is nothing like the normal 3rd and 4th beds you will find on the other ships. Thank goodness that Sakari is still small enough to sleep on something like this, but I don't think it would ever work for an adult. It would be quite small and uncomfortable.

 

Don't forget there's additional storage behind this back part of the couch as well.

 

 

 

There are also 2 steel boxes with drawers sitting under this couch as well. They were pretty hard to pull out, so we didn't use them. They normally stick the bedding to the couch under there, but I believe since they are so hard to pull in and out that the cabin steward has found it easier to store it in the back park of the couch instead.

 

There's a touch one phone in the room as well. It makes things easy and you don't have to look up numbers or dial.

 

 

 

 

[JillL]

Oh my goodness.. I was just wondering last week when you were going on your next cruise! Yea!

 

Ok... on to reading... It is really amazing that you take the time to do this!!

[mitsugirly]

On to those dreaded "bathrooms".

 

Here's the shower. It's rounded and sits at the corner of the room as you enter the room. It has the frosted glass doors.

 

 

The shower head had 3 different settings and 2 different places that you could actually put the head of it. Sakari always likes when they have that because when it's in the lower position, she can reach it better and it's like a pint sized shower for her.

 

 

 

I never bring my body wash from home and always use NCL's body wash. I find it sufficient to do the job and I personally think it smells nice. I do bring my own shampoo and conditioner though. I can't imagine trying to comb my hair after using a shampoo/conditioner mixture of some off brand. It would just never work with my long fine hair. I did discover there's a holder for your sponge though. I don't think I have ever noticed this before and they probably all have them...but I'm not sure. I have always just put my sponge around the handle instead.

 

 

 

I didn't really like the toilet area. It was the same as the shower area but seemed very small and confined. The opening to the area was also a sliding frosted glass door that was rounded and I would imagine for even heavier people than myself, it would be kinda challenging to get into with the door not opening up far.

 

 

 

Here's the door closed. You really can't see anyone in there and you can only see a shadow here and there.

 

 

 

The curtain goes from the bathroom enclosure to the shower enclosure and the sink area is not included in this area.

 

For the most part, this area really didn't bother us like it does some people. I would have to say that it kinda made me nervous about the room steward just walking in when someone was in the shower or bathroom because I have had room stewards knock really quick and walk right on in not giving anyone time to answer the door. Our room steward was very nice and always gave us plenty of time to answer the door this time around. Just remember to lock the deadbolt to the door and hopefully there won't be an issue.

 

[mitsugirly]

On to the large balcony we had. If you love your balconies, I would suggest you book one of these rooms.

 

I'm just going to be honest here. For us, it really didn't make a big difference. We like the balconies for being able to see when it's day light out or pulling into port. But that's about it. We really don't spend enough time out here to justify the added cost. I think we went out on the balcony maybe once or twice a day...in the morning to see what the weather was like or pulling into port. Then maybe once in the evening just to "see" if there was anything out there...like maybe a ship following us, which there was 2 other ships following us during this cruise. But other than that, it's really pointless for us most of the time.

 

The pictures I had previously seen online with these balconies showed a few regular chairs and some lounge chairs. We only had 2 regular chairs and no lounge chair. I think if we would have had a lounge chair, I might have spent a little more time out here. But we are on the go all the time and really don't care to just sit on the balcony and glaze at the water. Kendra had 3 regular chairs on her balcony. I really didn't ask her how much she used her balcony.

 

 

 

One side of us had a full wall and the other was the normal partition wall.

 

 

 

 

 

The balcony is covered, so it cuts down on any sun toward the back or bad weather. It almost felt like a cove balcony in a way and I like cove balconies better than the normal ones. It also cuts down on the wind as well, which is nice. It rained one day and we were able to come out on the balcony and not get wet.

 

Looking down from our balcony.

 

 

 

We were right at the end of the hump on the outside, so you couldn't see past our hump or toward the back of the ship.

 

 

 

Looking toward the front of the ship. You could see the Captain standing out there when we were pulling into port, which was kinda neat.