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I’m sailing on a short spring breaker, with RCL. I wish they were giving the obc. 

Water(from the pitcher), iced tea, coffee, hot tea are free. The will also bring you alcoholic beverages, if you’d like, with the package. 

Just saw this post, I was there 2 weeks ago and they’re both great. In fact, I was in St. Thomas last summer and couldn’t believe how desolate, devastated, and how everything was in disrepair. It is a total 180 now and everything is up and running, no affect on visitors. 

No that’s what I call great service! Enjoy. 

It is called guest services and it’s on deck 5

40 minutes ago, Pwrmaster7 said:

When you say guest services do you mean headliners? Can you give a bit more info as I am interested. I want to do the spa but 400 is just too much for us right now 😞

No you need to go to the main desk, I believe it’s call guest services, the place where you check your account. They only allow 20 per cruise. I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful, someone I met told me about it. Hopefully another poster can give more info. 

Wish I was there. GREAT Video!!, I love the one you made of GSC also. 

4 minutes ago, pehlibaar said:

This may be a stupid question, but if you pay for the spa pass, is it good for every day of your cruise? So $199 and I could use it as much as I wanted on all 7 days of my cruise?

Yes. Every single day, as much as you want. Enjoy!! It’s sooooo worth it!!

I did a 7 day cruise on the epic. My cruise was during spring break and I booked a last minute solo for solitude, to get more spiritually connected (ironically). I knew it would be a quiet more secluded area where I could totally relax. I don’t drink and I literally spent most of my time there, especially in the aft balcony, which only the EPIC has. It was definitely worth every cent. It was a great escape. I’ve never read anything negative about it. 

Im not sure if I’d book if I were with other people, however there were many couples there, and I always saw a family there with 2 young adult daughters. 

A few things for you to think about:

How much will you use it, what purpose will it serve for your vacation, what do you expect to get out of it?

They also have an aft balcony, so peaceful and quiet. Here’s a video:

They’re both only for adults. Sorry. But here’s what the spa includes, and you have unlimited use:

The Thermal Suite is a passage toward ultimate relaxation. Based on the concept of Turkish baths, where friends and family spent the day relaxing, the heat and cleansing therapies of our Thermal Suite experience include heated ceramic lounge chairs, a Thalasso Therapy Pool, hot tubs, steam room, sauna, and tropical rain showers. Different herbal steam and sauna grottos cleanse the body with gentle heat while a therapeutic heated-water pool bubbling effect will wash away stiff and sore joints. Take a dip in the Vitality Pool or enjoy a warm waterfall cascading onto your shoulders. Heated chaise lounges and tropical shower features make this both a relaxing and cleansing experience. A Salt Room is available on Breakaway, Getaway and Escape.

Thermal Suites are available on all ships except the Joy, Sky, Spirit, Sun, and Pride of America.

Thermal Suite amenities and pricing may vary by ship. Log in to see pricing and book your Thermal Suite pass.

Note: Must be 18 years or older. Passes only available to select ships and are full cruise only.

On 3/25/2019 at 1:46 PM, pehlibaar said:

We are sailing the Epic soon and I also am anxious regarding the bad reviews, plus with it being Spring Break I'm worried everything, especially the pools, will be super crowded. Following!

The second you get on the boat, go to guest services and book posh lounge, an exclusive less crowded area. They only sell 20. I didn’t do this but met someone who did. It was only $59, we were solo travelers. I booked the thermal spa pass, $199, unlimited use, and it was worth every cent. I cruised last week, also during spring break.

On 3/25/2019 at 12:01 PM, Allie322 said:

Hello All!  I'm a frequent reader but fairly infrequent poster.  I had read so many negative things about the Epic before our trip, I had such anxiety leading up to our vacation.  I had planned this trip for our group which was me and hubby, daughter and son-in-law, and daughter and boyfriend.  We were limited to this particular week due to school and work obligations.  I thought I'd contribute this review to allay anyone else's worries.  We had a GREAT WEEK!!!!  Here goes:

 

PreCruise:  Hubby and I flew in to Orlando 2 days prior to cruise.  We used Cocoa Beach Shuttle to transport us to the Residence Inn Cape Canaveral.  Seamless transport, highly recommend.  It was cheaper to transport with them and pick up a car rental at the Hertz location next to the hotel. We dropped our bags at hotel (room wasn't ready yet) and walked to pick up our car.  We then drove around the area for a while and once our room was ready, we went to Publix to pick up a few things.  We had a King Studio room (kids had a 2 bedroom suite) and it was very spacious and clean.  Hung around the lovely pool area for a couple of hours and then went to Kelsey's for dinner (decent pizza, awesome Sangria).   Kids flew in next morning and we spent a relaxing day by the pool. Jammed all six of us into our compact car and went to Grills for dinner.  Delicious!!  Great views, cold drinks, and good food. Watched one of the Disney ships sail away.  A military satellite rocket launch was delayed from 7ish to around 9 or so.  We were able to see the launch from the hotel parking lot.  Very cool.  

 

Embarkation:  We returned our rental car and used the hotel transportation to the port.  It was $5 per person. Very organized and efficient.  Met in hotel conference room at 10 and were at the port at 10:30.  Absolutely no issues checking in. We were given a paper stating that we would be delayed leaving BOTH Port Canaveral AND Tortola when we checked in. The agent also verbally informed us of this. The reason given was 'planned maintenance'.   We were in group 11 and were on the ship at 11:30. First stop was at Headliners to deal with reservations. We made a reservation for the Escape the Big Top, inquired about our previously booked Large Cabana for GSC and change some dinner reservations. (I'll detail later)  We ate at Garden Cafe for lunch and had the first of many drinks.  Walked around the ship to get our bearings.  Cabins were ready around 2. Muster drill was painless and efficient.  We all met up at Teppanyaki for our 8:15 reservation.  I think we got underway around 9-9:30.  It would have been nice to see sailaway by daylight but we were too busy enjoying ourselves to worry about it.  

 

To be continued.....

Wow. I was on the same cruise and checked in around 12. However, I never received a letter about the maintenance delay. Makes a huge difference, when it’s communicated in advance. 

5 minutes ago, JokerABC said:

I now have 89 days left til our western Med cruise on the Epic and wanted to book a spa massage and specialty restaurants.   From recent cruisecritic searches, it showed I can book this stuff within 90 days. 

 

Do I need to book this stuff on the first day of the cruise?  I thought everything can be done online these days?

You can book it online thru my ncl, once you’ve created your account. 

15 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

Mariner does not have a dedicated comedy venue.  Usually at least one night's entertainment will be a headliner, and that can be a comedian, singer, tribute group, juggler, etc.

Thank you!!

4 hours ago, hrmkr said:

Good point with Hurricane season.  It would be early October.

 

The Horizon and Freedom itineraries have 2 same islands and 2 different.

Both visit Aruba and Curacao

On the Horizon, the different islands are Grand Turk and La Romana

On the FOS, it would be Bonaire and St. Maarten.

I did the Horizon itenerary a few summers ago and loved all of the ports. They are all very different. I’ve never been to Bonaire and I’d say make your decision based on what you want to see and do I’m each port. I’m an educator and loved La Romana because many of my students and colleagues are Dominican, so I was finally engulfed in their culture. Grand Turk will probably be a stop on a future cruise itenerary because it’s closer. It seems you’re into the beach and water activities; do FOS, so you can see Bonaire and the other truly southern ports. I guess my other question would be, have you ever been to Puerto Rico? And is that a place you’ve always wanted to visit. 

How is the nightlife on the Mariner OTS?

Doing a Spring Break Cruise with friends and family next year, and they like to party(dance). Are there comedy shows?  There will be about 30 of us ages range  from 25-50. 

I live in 30 minutes from the port. It wasn’t the same day as the launch, that was earlier in the week. Apparently the cruise that left this Saturday was also delayed, until around the same time. And it had nothing to do with NASA. Whatever the case, just would’ve liked to have been informed directly from the captain. The ship has had a few mechanical issues and a delay to fix an issue is perfectly fine, don’t want to be stranded in the middle of the ocean; communication leads to less anxiety.

The debarkation issue was all on NCL, there were absolutely no delays going thru customs and it took 2 minutes with that process. It’s very difficult to comment on, unless you were on that particular cruise. Initially, on the Epic, no staff were in sight, assisting with the line confusion. Then one crew member came and started yelling screaming and I literally heard her put a curse on people. A few brawls almost ensued because of the confusion. One man almost passed out, lines going everywhere, people exiting the elevator and cutting in or joining a never ending, non structured line. There were hundreds maybe even a thousand who were self assisting and trying to leave between 7:30-8. The person who got off without an issue obviously qued before an all call was made, fortunately for them. Throughout the cruise the a/c was always cranked up. This day, you couldn’t feel it and it was hot, making things worse. Once I made it off the boat, the line was continuously moving onto the the deck area, where the scanned the card that you’ve exited the ship. No one was testing any new face recognition equipment and there was absolutely no delay. It was all very mishandled inside. SMH. 

My advice; if you don’t have to catch a flight, and you’re not in a hurry. Go have breakfast and wait until the end to disembark. 

I just got back from a cruise yesterday, on the Epic, and we were supposed to leave Pt. Canaveral at 4, but left around 10:00pm, we also were delayed in Tortola and were never notified...never. 5 minutes before we were supposed to be at Great Stirrip Cay, we were told that it was too windy. It was a choppy ride the night before. However, that was a beautiful day and the ocean was very calm and smooth as glass. 

Debarkation...self assist, at 7:30, was a total nightmare and the most disorganized chaos I’ve ever experienced. So confusing and extremely frustrating. This was my 15th cruise...my first and last with ncl.