My View: The Epic Beauty/Beast

[APDMOM]

A view of Majesty of the seas from Great Stirrup Cay (I never realized CocoCay is so close!):

 

Coco Cay (RCL private island) is undergoing major renovations, including a water park by June 2019. We will visit there in June 2018, and I really hope the pier will be done by then:

 

Following our failed attempt to swim and lounge on our cheap inflatable raft, I visited the market. TIP: Bring cash if you want to shop here. Your ship card can be used at the bars, but not at these shops. True to my cruise budget, I spent $0, but I got some pictures of the colorful area:

 

Edited March 25, 2018 by APDMOM
tip in red

[APDMOM]

On the way back, I asked someone at the excursion desk how to get to the lighthouse. His response, “There’s a lighthouse?” He asked another NCL employee, and he did not know either. They really need to work on their education of excursion employees. You would think they would know the island.

 

After a bit of looking around, I gave up and returned to the ship (DH and DS had deserted me when I ventured out to the shopping area).

 

Going back, I had a bit of a wait on the tender, as I was one of the first on again. I waited about 15 minutes for the tender to depart. I just hit it unlucky on this day, so you may have much more positive tender experiences.

 

A view of our Beautiful Beast:

 

I do love the hull art on Epic:

 

 

Aft view:

[APDMOM]

I returned to our room to find….not one, but two loungers! Our room steward came through!

 

 

Yeah!! Now, you may be concerned that we were hoarding loungers, but these were obviously rejects, as they both had some flaws (like a missing screw and worn out seat). This did not bother me at all - they were safe! We spent MANY hours on those loungers. I took several naps on them too!

 

We enjoyed lunch in O’Sheehan’s. I will post a menu later this week, with additional pictures of food. For now, here are 3 of the meals we enjoyed.

 

Steak Fajitas (Very Good):

 

Chipotle Chicken sandwich, DH’s favorite (Borrowed this picture from my Escape review):

 

BBQ burger (it was under-cooked, so DH did not end up eating a whole lot. We specifically asked for “well done” the next time, and it was perfect):

[APDMOM]

We enjoyed the quiet ship with several trips down the slides:

 

An afternoon view of Great Stirrup Cay… oh, look! A lighthouse (Sarcasm intended):

 

Early afternoon tenders were more empty:

 

We had a booking for “Burn the Floor” this evening. DS decided he just wanted to stay in the cabin, so DH and I went to the show. We enjoyed the first half of the show, but the second half consisted of music and dance styles I do not care for. RCL definitely wins in the “Shows” area. You can not top their Ice shows, and most of the entertainment is more family friendly on the RCL ships.

 

Epic Theater (I really enjoyed the pre-show antics by those two in the peanut gallery):

[APDMOM]

Before I close for day 2, here are some tips for the app:

 

Like stated before, be sure to download the app from the app store before you lose your cell service or wifi. That way, you will not need to buy any internet package. You can use the app with the free ship wifi. You can upgrade to do messaging, but we did not use this feature. From what I understand, the instant messaging only works while you use the app, so you will not get a notification.

 

This is what it looks like when you open the app:

 

I found a couple of useful features, especially “What’s going on?” It has the daily activities listed. You could even change the day to look at activities for the rest of the week.

 

Another handy tool, was the “Account Review”. You could keep track of your spending, including onboard credit, daily gratuities, and taxes on drinks (like the one splurge in Port Canaveral):

 

Not so helpful… spam. You get e-mails (Cabin messaging) within the app from onboard stores, but you can ignore them.

 

 

It would be more helpful if restaurant and bar times were listed in the app, but only the location and general information are available. If they want to make this a 5-star app, it would even include the menus. Wouldn’t that be a first for IT excellence in the cruising industry!? (A girl can dream)

Edited March 25, 2018 by APDMOM
tips in red

[APDMOM]

Day 2: The Daily for Great Stirrup Cay:

 

 

 

Edited March 25, 2018 by APDMOM
Better quality daily

[APDMOM]

Time change was announced by our first towel critter. “Set clocks back” for one hour. I feel sorry for the ship staff members who have to go through 2 time changes every week. I had not recovered from the previous "Daylight savings" time change in Florida, and had to change time twice again on the cruise. Fortunately, I had nowhere to be… Freestyle Cruising!

 

My View: Two loungers at the end of day 2!

[APDMOM]

Time to do some household chores (anyone familiar with post-cruise laundry?)

 

I will try to start day 3 later tonight. :)

[ceb65]

We are sailing on the Epic April 25th out of Civitavecchia, thank you for this great review and pics!

[adam_s_allen]

Smart idea taking a picture of the luggage. I've had luggage not make it one time and they were asking me to describe it, a picture would have been much easier.

[Lucky lola]

Thanks really enjoying your review. I sail on the Epic in 87 days!

 

 

We join the ship in 91 days, so we are shipmates for a portion of time! Smooth sailing!

[hrmkr]

Following.

 

Great review so far. We sail the Epic in 5 weeks in the Med.

[APDMOM]

Thanks for reading along! I hope we can do a Med cruise sometime in the future, but for now the budget fits Florida [emoji16]

 

Coming up next... Day 3!

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 3 - At Sea

 

[APDMOM]

I woke up early in the morning, and did my traditional stroll on the relatively quiet ship to take some pictures. Let’s visit the deck 15 pools and slides today:

 

Good morning, Epic!

 

 

[APDMOM]

We only used the pools and slides while in port, as the pools are small, and I know it can get crowded. They had two pools for everyone to use (small), the aft pool in Spice H2O for adults only (even smaller), and the Haven pool (which I could not access).

 

 

The main pools are a depth of 3’11” to 4’7”. They are much smaller than the pools on Royal Caribbean ships, but they were not crowded on sea days:

 

 

During the day, they ran these water fountains around the one pool, and it became the unofficial ‘kids’ pool:

 

[APDMOM]

There is also an official toddler/kids pool area, with a kid sized mini-golf course (5 holes):

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

There are about 5 hot tubs by the main pool, but they only accommodate 6 people at a time. On port days, I often found one empty. So, if you have been to these islands a lot, I would recommend enjoying the quiet ship on some port days:

 

Edited March 26, 2018 by APDMOM
tip

[APDMOM]

There are 3 water slides. The large yellow/orange slide (the toilet bowl/tornado) uses a tube. There are adult and kid-sized tubes. Remember to pick up the tube at the bottom of the slide:

 

Work off that yummy bread pudding by carrying the tube up the stairs:

 

Minimum height: 42"

 

The green slide is fairly slow if you sit up:

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

The tiny pool at Spice H2O:

 

 

I will post more views of this area later in the week.

[APDMOM]

Unfortunately, I am out of time for today. I will have to continue day 3 tomorrow.

 

I return to my day job in the morning, so I will be back tomorrow night with more about our sea day, including our Meet & Greet and our favorite live entertainment.

 

Cruise dreams! [emoji846]

[C cruise]

your pictures are so good..really appreciate you sharing

[Oakman58]

I'm looking forward to reading more and you take some great photos. Thanks for sharing.

[Lindys]

Thanks for all the good info and pics 13 days to go!!

 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Forums mobile app

[softl]

Enjoying your review. I too sailed Epic last week. I'm curious, I see you have a pre-teen/teenager with you. By any chance did he participate in the scavenger hunt set up by the other youngsters on Friday? I was asked to use my photo for it and agreed, but have not yet seen any results, if I ever will.