Epic - Western Med review (From a British perspective)

This review is not interested to cover the many things that have already been said, but a few points that may be of interest generally and to those this side of the Atlantic. It is of the cruise that started on the 17th May in Barcelona.

Chapter One - Cabin

Much has been said of the design of the cabin, but I quite liked it.

Picking a cabin with the bed by the balcony was a good choice as it gave more room, but I never felt the cabin was cramped.

The cabin was an aft cabin at an end (11314). Plenty of space on the balcony for a lounger, two chairs and a couple of tables, and there would have been room to squeeze another lounger in. For those who like measurements it is 7' deep by 10' wide.

It was a good choice of cabin for those that like to sit an enjoy the wake, and good that on a couple of the stops the ship was backwards in to the port, so such as at Cannes, you could sit there and take in the view.

There was some noise and judder in the early morning berths, but nothing you couldn't roll over and ignore.

The 'secret' staircase next to the room only goes between the accommodation floors, with the door at deck 14 (spa) locked. I saw nobody use it all week.

Being at the end of the ship, and a dogleg dead end, meant that you had nobody walking past the cabin, but it wasn't a long way to the lifts.

The circular design of the bed avoids clouting shins or feet, and there was plenty of room to pass through to the balcony. Although I had asked for the beds to be made up as a double, a padded mattress cover to bridge the joint had not been added, but that was swiftly remedied on request. Yes the bed isn't hugely long due to the curved headboard, but as someone 6' tall it was perfectly acceptable to me.

Loads of storage space, everywhere.

Much talk has been made of the bathroom, but for a couple that have been together 30 years, it didn't cause any problem and was quite practical as it allowed both the shower and toilet to be used at the same time. I can see it might be more of a problem for those who are not as familiar, or have not experienced this glass door design that is not uncommon in European hotels. I also found that the extractor was sufficient to contain and remove any odours before they had a chance to spread.

The ship is showing its age. The shower had problems draining, but maintenance fixed that by almost taking the shower out one morning whilst we were out of the cabin.

There were also some suspicious brown stains in the carpet near the bathroom, and after housekeeping couldn't remove them after a couple of goes, they replaced the whole carpet in the room (at our convenience whilst we would be onshore).

To follow chapters on -

Entertainment

Food

Drink

The ship

Anything else I have forgotten.

Thank you for your review. You're off to great start!

I'll be sailing the same itinerary in August. Is it possible for you to post the complete dailies? I know somebody has already posted one recently but it's a condensed version. Would really like to see the full completed dailies of this itinerary.

Looking forward to read your complete review!

:)

Great start.

We're on the Epic for the first time at the end of Nov on the 10 day trip so looking forward to reading your updates. :)

I have a complete set of the dailies, which I will scan and upload when I get home (still enjoying Barcelona).

Thanks for posting, I will be on this sailing in July

Boarding in Rome.

I am interested in the shows like burn the floor, legends, comedian.

Are they 1st come 1st serve or do you prebook those like cirque.

Is there a nice beach close by docking in Palma it Cannes?

Thanks

Kerri

Chapter Two - Entertainment

I would estimate that the passengers on the ship were 80% American, 10% British, and the remainder Spanish, French, Italian and German. As a result all the shows were designed to be visual, so no shows such as comedians.

Thanks to this forum, I had booked the Cirque show on the first night as I had the UDP. It was an excellent show with the typical type of circus style acts I have seen before in speigletents. The best seating is certainly upstairs on the balcony on the right.

The funniest part for me was as the show opened, two 'French Maids' dressed in high heels and stockings came out, causing one guy below to almost have a heart attack as his eyes popped out on stalks. His wife seemed less amused. Mind you the three ladies next to me stopped paying attention to their chocolate desert during the bathing man scene.

I had only been able to book the Cirque show and Legends through MyNCL prior to the cruise, but as soon as I got on board I could book shows such as Burn the Floor, Soul Satisfaction, and The Spanish Rumba Kings. All the shows were sold out by day three, but there were always plenty of empty seats, so no problem getting in on standby by walking up as the show is due to start (the ship was sailing at capacity).

Burn the Floor was excellent and I went twice as a result.

Legends, okayish sort of show, but nothing to go out of your way for.

Rod Stewart looked and sounded like him, and was entertaining if a little stilted.

Sting, hmm, sort of looked like him and sort if sounded like him, but most of the sings were Police not Sting and was a bit dull.

Gloria Estefan, good entertainer but didn't look or sound like her.

On that weeks cruise there was a Beatles tribute act that was an awful lot more fun as they took themselves a little less seriously. It was also the only occasion that Americans were seriously outnumbered.

Soul Satisfaction and Rumba Kings were both enjoyable shows, but what on earth did the designer of Headliners think by making the seating dining chairs or bar stools, as it was not exactly comfortable for a 45 minute show.

The magician show was good, but particularly good if you are a big kid like me was the magic workshop in the penultimate day.

Overall the shows were pretty good.

In answer to the beach question.

In Cannes there is a public beach (all the rest are pay) at the far end of the sea front just past the yellow beach umbrellas. You can catch an open top bus (number 8) from outside where the tenders drop off, for €1.50 to save the 30 minute walk. Tickets from the driver, but they won't take anything larger than a €10 note.

Being British I rolled up my trousers and went for a paddle on the nice sandy beach.

Palma I didn't go to the beach, but I bumped into a couple of guys that did. The beach is the other side of the town from where the ship docks, but again you can get a bus most of the way. The number 1 from outside the cruise terminal as far as the cathedral (which is closed on Saturday afternoons). Again €1.50, and again no big notes.

Great to hear a persepctive from a fellow brit, we too are doing the Epic at the end of august with our two boys, so seeing the dailies would be fantastic, just so wil know how to keep them occupied, only difference for us is that we live in Majorca, so a quick 45 min flight from palma to barcelona. and of course we won't be getting off the ship in Palma as "been there done that", more like " live there, seen it all".....lol

We will be onboard in November and March 16 for the Canaries cruise. It will be after the refit so I am sure it will be smartened up as well as the the Cavern Club and new Priscilla show.

Looking forward to the rest of the review and dailies. Many thanks.

Chapter Three - Drinks

I had the UBP as part of the cruise deal. Although there had been rumours of VAT applying to a notional menu price, at no point did this occur, and the charge at the end of the week was zero.

Each bar had a slightly different menu to try and distinguish itself from the others, but in reality any bar would serve you anything you asked for.

A couple of bars, including O'Sheehans had beer on draught, other bars had bottles or cans. For interest for British readers, they had Boddingtons in cans, although it was too chilled for my taste (Americans feel free to insert a joke about British warm beer here).

Contrary to previous reports, there is a wide range of drinks, anything you could think of, but obviously mostly with an American slant.

Service at the bars was not bad at quiet times, but could fall off rapidly at busy times.

The main reason seemed to be a shortage of bar tenders rather than the attitude of the staff. It meant that waiters couldn't get their orders filled, so people went to the bar rather than using the waiters, so tying up the bar staff and so waiters had even more problems getting their orders filled...

The overworked bar tenders also meant that there was a huge variation in how drinks were made, with some turning out not quite right. In those cases I simply went to the next bar and ordered again, which since these were being ordered within minutes of the previous drink confirmed there is no time limit between drinks orders.

In the restaurants there was a wider, and quite good range, of wines by the glass. It also seemed there was a good turnover, so no stale glasses. The only issue in the restaurants was the waiters often needed to be reminded to bring a wine menu, and again due to staff shortages, you needed to plan ahead if you wanted a second glass.

Was the UBP good value if I had to pay for it? I am not sure. I understand it is around $59 per day, and with beers being aprox $8, a glass of wine $11 and a cocktail or spirit $12 (including the mandatory 18% gratuity), you need to be a reasonable drinker.

This was especially the case on this cruise with only one sea day, and the rest filled with busy port days with people off the ship first thing and not back until 6pm.

l was pleased to see a variety of free soft drinks available all day from the Garden Cafe, including a nice 'real' lemonade.

Tea and coffee, hmm.

The coffee was brown and warm, pretty much standard hotel coffee. Nothing you would ever choose, but not utterly undrinkable. The cafetiere provided in Le Bistro was much better *if* you asked them to not plunge it as soon as it was brought to the table, but waited a few minutes before doing so.

Tea was acceptable with the hot, but not boiling water available, if you used two bags per cup.

Goodness knows what chemical mix is in the 'half & half' tubs on the table, but the waiters would bring fresh milk if asked.

A very good refreshing review from a british point of view , looking forward to the rest x

Good to know you can get fresh milk instead of the half and half. One reason why when I go on holiday I tend not to drink tea even though when I am home I can be drinking a mug every couple of hours.

Looking forward to reading more as we will be on the Epic on March the 6th. Found it interesting the nationality split with majority of Americans for an European cruise.

On our one and only other cruise RCCL had to replace our whole carpet in our cabin when our cabin was flooded by the engineer who was trying fix our blockage from our toilet. He even tried to blame it on us. Suffice to say we ended up being treated like VIPs and guest relations did everything to keep us happy.

Chapter Four - Food

Well I knew we had left Europe and arrived in America when on boarding I ordered some food in O'Sheehan's and chose chips to go with my burger. I didn't get chips but crisps. Lesson learnt.

We had the UDP so made full use of it.

On the first night I had booked free tickets for the Cirque show, but as I had heard mixed reviews of the food in Cirque I also booked Cagneys for later. Therefore I asked to just be served the starter, and not bother with the remainder. That decision seemed a wise choice based on the quality of the starter. It was not terrible, but it wasn't brilliant, and from seeing the other courses served to my neighbours, it didn't seem to pick up.

Overall we ate at Cagney's twice, Le Bistro three times, Moderno once, La Cucina once and Teppanyaki once.

I spotted that Teppanyaki was listed in the Daily sheet as being open on day two, the sea day at lunch time between 12 and 1.30. As I only spotted it about 12.15, we wandered down, to be told that in fact they only had one sitting at 12.00. Hmm, perhaps the Daily sheet ought to have said that. Anyway the hostess had a quick conversation with the chef and as a result offered to sit us anyway at our own 'table'. Rather good of her I thought.

The show from the chef was good, but to be honest I thought the food was quite bland, and as a result cancelled a booking we had for one evening later in the week and rebooked that night for Le Bistro.

For the first three days of the cruise, none of the restaurants had any lobster. From a conversation with the Food & Beverage Manager, the quality of the lobster delivered in Barcelona was appalling so he rejected them, and so the restaurants only had lobster after the third day when they picked up more in Italy.

Cagney's - They do steak and they do it very well. Both times I had the fillet and it was excellent. The fries which everyone appears to rave about were just frozen french fries, but the other side dishes were much better.

Le Bistro - Not a bad copy of a French restaurant, with the food pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the real thing. A couple of the dishes were a little odd, for example Les Quatre Cornets, which had savoury fillings in sweet cones?

The first time we ate in Cagney's and Le Bistro, the service was pretty poor and sloppy. Both times nobody bringing a wine list until asked, a long gap between ordering and either the starters or drinks appearing, etc. However after a conversation with the Food & Beverage Manager things significantly improved for the rest of the cruise.

Moderno - Lots of meat, all pretty well done. You need to be careful to pace yourself, as it would be far too easy to take too much as each waiter comes around with their offering and not to have room for meats that follow. I had read great things about the salad bar, and although it was much better than what was on offer in the Garden Cafe, it was pretty standard and nothing to write home about.

La Cuchina - Very pleasantly surprised. My wife had the lobster fettuccine which was perfectly cooked, and the steak was equally as good as Cagney's or Le Bistro. Tiramisu was disappointingly bland due to the lack of alcohol in it, but the Affogato which is a favourite of my wife's was good.

Garden Cafe - I only went there for breakfast one morning, when I got caught out as I had not realised the MDR is only open for breakfast until 10.00 on sea days, otherwise it closes at 08.30 (too damn early). Far too busy, and not helped by not having any trays.

The buffet lunch in the Garden Cafe was the usual range of items you would expect, but the most interesting items were the Asian specialities and the vegetarian curries. Most of the desert items n the Garden Cafe were disappointing, and the ice cream was not great quality (think Tesco value range).

The Garden Cafe also does a sort of afternoon tea, with scones and cake in the late afternoon. Unfortunately whipped, not clotted cream.

O'Sheehan's - I tried this a couple of times at lunch when I couldn't be bother with fighting my way through the Garden Cafe. OK, not terrible, not great, just sort of average.

MDR - I only used this for breakfast. The menu is very American, which is not ideal first thing in the morning, but it was possible to concoct something reasonable and edible by taking bits from various parts of the menu (although I am sure the waiters thought I was mad when I asked for a plain yoghurt with the blueberry syrup from the pancakes).

Some of the items were weird, such as the pork sausages which were minced horribly fine, and had an odd texture. However given how they were devoured by the American passengers, I guess that it was just a cultural difference.

The main problem in the MDR at breakfast was that 50% of the dishes came out cold, so had to be sent back.

I was pleased that I had the UDP included in the cruise price, as generally the food served in those restaurants, whilst not the greatest meals I have ever had, was certainly better and more reliably served with less hassle than elsewhere. Overall I thought that it provided better value than the UBP.

However if someone had not booked all the speciality restaurants by day two, they would have been relegated to eating at either 5.30 or 10pm. Although some of the restaurants like Le Bistro were full, other restaurants such as La Cuchina which were also showing as fully booked were half empty all evening, so the limitation seemed to be a lack of staff.

Well I knew we had left Europe and arrived in America when on boarding I ordered some food in O'Sheehan's and chose chips to go with my burger. I didn't get chips but crisps. Lesson learnt.

No, you didn't leave Europe, you just left UK. ;) In most other European countries chips are chips and fries are fries (of course some servers can guess what you mean based on your accent etc).

I have never had any problems with the distinction anywhere else in Europe I've visited on my road and other trips (unfortunately I still haven't gotten the chance to visit UK properly, only on several layovers at Heathrow).

Ah, but in the UK, fries are fries, chips are chips, and crisps are crisps!

The menu had both fries and chips, which is not unusual on a UK menu.

Hi,

Teppanyaki lunch is not available to book online in advance. Do you know if they start accepting reservations on Day 1 onboard? Or is it just a walk in, first come first served scenario on sea day?

Thanks!

:)

Good review thanks

Chapter Five - The Ship (and anything else I can think of)

Epic, well it is not going to win any beauty awards is it.

From the outside you wonder what on earth they were thinking, and the Haven area just looks like an - "oh damn, we forgot about that, can we stick it there".

Inside the ship is pretty good. Not quite the 'wow' that you get with some, but pretty damn good.

The design of the restaurants is pretty good, for example although you know you are not sat in a French restaurant in Le Bistro, you don't feel like you are in a cruise ship restaurant.

There are some design flaws, such as only having lifts at the front and back, although to be fair, to get between deck 5 (Taste, Le Bistro, Guest Services, etc) and deck 6 there is an escalator up and down, and to get between deck 6 (Casino and Theatre) and deck 7 (bars, Cagneys, Moderno) there is a wide spiral staircase.

Deck 6 is one big casino all the way through, and for most of the time seemed to be wasted space as few people were using it. Even in the evening peak, 90% of the fruit machines were unused and 50% of the gaming tables.

I thought the design missed a trick with the bars, as they all seemed to be buried inside the ship, and there was nowhere of an evening to enjoy a drink and watch the world pass by outside. As mentioned before, they also seemed to cram together the two music bars so the music clashed. The other music venues, Fat Cats and Headliners were filled with only dining chairs and bar stools to sit on, almost a direct encouragement to make people go away and not linger.

The cabins, which are unique to the this class of ship, I have already commented on, and contrary to a lot of comments, I thought were a good design.

Water slides - Fun, even for those of us who last saw our teenage years a long long long time ago. I didn't see a single person using the bowling lanes the entire trip.

Smoking. As a non-smoker I can get irritated at the thoughtlessness of smokers, but I appreciate that they also feel put upon be having their freedom restricted. In the casino there seemed to be very few people smoking and you didn't feel like you were walking through a smoky room. The only areas it was obvious was a pen up near the pools where they were corralled the smokers and the side near the bar in Spice H2O.

Sunbeds. Even on sea days there was no problem getting a sunbed, although it might not quite be where you wanted one. There were always loads up on deck 18, and even in the section with the comfy chairs at the front I always found a space. Deck 19, the freestyle area had been emptied of sunbeds, and was just an empty space.

It surprised me the proportion of passengers that were American, given this was a European cruise. But on reflection, people get tied into a particular line, and for some, the ship seemed to provided a safe haven with no foreign strangeness to return to at the end of a day's excursion.

It is not a dressy ship. Not quite the putting on the best ripped jeans for the posh restaurant, but certainly not a black tie ship. I saw three or four people in dark suits, one man with a bow tie one night, and a few people in Le Bistro with jackets. In the evenings chinos or jeans and shirt was the standard clothing for 90% of men, with the remainder in even more casual clothing.

DSC. I don't want to make any comments on the rightness or wrongness, but just that I had prepaid it prior to the cruise to avoid the increase, but that fact had not made it as far as the ship, and they had to contact Miami for confirmation before it was taken off the room bill. A bit sloppy I thought.

In summary for British travellers - It is not a formal P&O or Cunard ship and Hyacinth Bucket would be most upset at 'standards'. It is not a European ship like Costa serving real Italian food. It is a fun, casual, American ship, entertaining Americans and serving American food to Americans.

I enjoyed it, and if that is what you are looking for, then you should as well.

Chapter Five - The Ship (and anything else I can think of)

 

Epic, well it is not going to win any beauty awards is it.

 

From the outside you wonder what on earth they were thinking, and the Haven area just looks like an - "oh damn, we forgot about that, can we stick it there".

 

Inside the ship is pretty good. Not quite the 'wow' that you get with some, but pretty damn good.

 

The design of the restaurants is pretty good, for example although you know you are not sat in a French restaurant in Le Bistro, you don't feel like you are in a cruise ship restaurant.

 

There are some design flaws, such as only having lifts at the front and back, although to be fair, to get between deck 5 (Taste, Le Bistro, Guest Services, etc) and deck 6 there is an escalator up and down, and to get between deck 6 (Casino and Theatre) and deck 7 (bars, Cagneys, Moderno) there is a wide spiral staircase.

 

Deck 6 is one big casino all the way through, and for most of the time seemed to be wasted space as few people were using it. Even in the evening peak, 90% of the fruit machines were unused and 50% of the gaming tables.

 

I thought the design missed a trick with the bars, as they all seemed to be buried inside the ship, and there was nowhere of an evening to enjoy a drink and watch the world pass by outside. As mentioned before, they also seemed to cram together the two music bars so the music clashed. The other music venues, Fat Cats and Headliners were filled with only dining chairs and bar stools to sit on, almost a direct encouragement to make people go away and not linger.

 

The cabins, which are unique to the this class of ship, I have already commented on, and contrary to a lot of comments, I thought were a good design.

 

Water slides - Fun, even for those of us who last saw our teenage years a long long long time ago. I didn't see a single person using the bowling lanes the entire trip.

 

Smoking. As a non-smoker I can get irritated at the thoughtlessness of smokers, but I appreciate that they also feel put upon be having their freedom restricted. In the casino there seemed to be very few people smoking and you didn't feel like you were walking through a smoky room. The only areas it was obvious was a pen up near the pools where they were corralled the smokers and the side near the bar in Spice H2O.

 

Sunbeds. Even on sea days there was no problem getting a sunbed, although it might not quite be where you wanted one. There were always loads up on deck 18, and even in the section with the comfy chairs at the front I always found a space. Deck 19, the freestyle area had been emptied of sunbeds, and was just an empty space.

 

It surprised me the proportion of passengers that were American, given this was a European cruise. But on reflection, people get tied into a particular line, and for some, the ship seemed to provided a safe haven with no foreign strangeness to return to at the end of a day's excursion.

 

It is not a dressy ship. Not quite the putting on the best ripped jeans for the posh restaurant, but certainly not a black tie ship. I saw three or four people in dark suits, one man with a bow tie one night, and a few people in Le Bistro with jackets. In the evenings chinos or jeans and shirt was the standard clothing for 90% of men, with the remainder in even more casual clothing.

 

DSC. I don't want to make any comments on the rightness or wrongness, but just that I had prepaid it prior to the cruise to avoid the increase, but that fact had not made it as far as the ship, and they had to contact Miami for confirmation before it was taken off the room bill. A bit sloppy I thought.

 

In summary for British travellers - It is not a formal P&O or Cunard ship and Hyacinth Bucket would be most upset at 'standards'. It is not a European ship like Costa serving real Italian food. It is a fun, casual, American ship, entertaining Americans and serving American food to Americans.

 

I enjoyed it, and if that is what you are looking for, then you should as well.

Thank you for your review, I was on the Epic 5/24-5/31. On our cruise there were less Americans & more Europeans from different countries...Italy, Spain, Brits, & France as well as many Canadians. I loved having the mix of different nationalities & it was one of the best things about the cruise. I really enjoyed your British perspective & thanks again for the great review.

Hi did any of the MDR serve lunch during the cruise? Or is garden cafe and o'sheehan the only choices?

Hi did any of the MDR serve lunch during the cruise? Or is garden cafe and o'sheehan the only choices?

On all NCL ships there is a MDR open for lunch, but on sea days only. On port days MDRs are closed for lunch with the exception of embarkation day.

Great review thanks for posting.

I sail on similar route in 2 days time. 7th June to 14th June 2015

Flying from Belfast to Barca then round the med.

I found the NCL website pretty rubbish for information regarding booking excursions. I've been on RCL twice (my only other cruises) and I'm not a fan boy by any means but their online experience was much more detailed.

With NCL I couldn't find out much about the excursions and what actually happens and how long things take.

Naples-get a tour round a nice farm and enjoy some free time etc.

Every stop on the holiday gave the same bland basic details.

I wasn't looking our guides name, I just wanted to know simply things like;

Are we getting a bus?

Are we getting a small boat tour?

How long does the bus/boat take?

It didn't even mention that in Cannes we have to tender which I only know from previous cruises.

I ended up not booking any excursions. I couldn't be bothered calling them up and asking what exactly happens on several excursions for the several stops as this would no doubt take ages.

I'm just hoping there will be shuttle buses for $15 to the local towns that we stop at the same way RCL has. As long as I get to Monaco and Pompeii I'll probably be happy enough but I deff feel I'm missing out on not pre-booking.

Sad but still looking forward to it.

Ah, but in the UK, fries are fries, chips are chips, and crisps are crisps!

 

The menu had both fries and chips, which is not unusual on a UK menu.

Same here, fries are fries ( those skinny little things I can't even be bothered eating and chips are chips, hot and fat - my favourite. Never found them in the US - if they were fat they'd batter them or over flavour them. Come to think of it I don't think I've eaten chips as I know them in Europe either. Crisps, not interested in them either. Hot chips, the best!

Great review thanks for posting.

 

I sail on similar route in 2 days time. 7th June to 14th June 2015

Flying from Belfast to Barca then round the med.

 

I found the NCL website pretty rubbish for information regarding booking excursions. I've been on RCL twice (my only other cruises) and I'm not a fan boy by any means but their online experience was much more detailed.

 

With NCL I couldn't find out much about the excursions and what actually happens and how long things take.

Naples-get a tour round a nice farm and enjoy some free time etc.

Every stop on the holiday gave the same bland basic details.

I wasn't looking our guides name, I just wanted to know simply things like;

Are we getting a bus?

Are we getting a small boat tour?

How long does the bus/boat take?

 

It didn't even mention that in Cannes we have to tender which I only know from previous cruises.

 

I ended up not booking any excursions. I couldn't be bothered calling them up and asking what exactly happens on several excursions for the several stops as this would no doubt take ages.

 

I'm just hoping there will be shuttle buses for $15 to the local towns that we stop at the same way RCL has. As long as I get to Monaco and Pompeii I'll probably be happy enough but I deff feel I'm missing out on not pre-booking.

 

Sad but still looking forward to it.

I agree. The NCL site for excursions is terrible.

I just returned on Wednesday from the 7 day out if Civitavecchia.

You were able to book excursions on the interactive TV in your stateroom.

It is robbery what NCL is charging passengers.

I was thankful I had booked through private tour companies in advance.

NCL did not provide any shuttle services into the towns.

In Naples you will easily be able to get to Pompeii for 15€ each. There were a many drivers offering there services to different tourist spots as soon as you got off the ship.

I am not sure about Monaco as it was a tender into Cannes and we were greeted by our driver at the pier. It was a long drive to Monaco so I cannot see being able to do that for so little euros.