spenecer

There were 4400 on my Spring Break sailing out of San Juan compared to your 3825. I wonder if the MDR is more crowded because families with kids prefer the buffet to the MDR. There was always two short lines in front of the Manhattan room during my sailing: one to get a pager and one to turn in the pager and be seated.

Are you sure you have the name correct? NCL has a Lavender Patch cocktail.

Should you ever choose to walk from mid-ship to the front (fore?) on Deck 7, I would recommend not doing it. There is only a walkway on one side going past the Ice Bar and photographers hang out there to shoot photos (the paid ones) so it is very crowded and constantly blocked with people standing/posing, waiting to get into the ice bar, or getting coats for the ice bar. It is very difficult to walk that path with a martini in your hand and not pour it down someone's front (or back). I managed it on my cruise at the end of March, but I'm sure I looked super dangerous with my martini glass.

Reasonable speeds?

What site are you using for so many Epic camera views? I was only able to find the Forward/Bridge Camera.

I don't know why Spice H20 wasn't being used. It wasn't a question brought up during the meet and greet but January through May is the windy season in the Caribbean and the wind tended to blow from the port to the starboard side of the boat (or vice versa depending on whether we were sailing north or south), so there would definitely be one side of Spice H20 that would get rusty brown water 'misting' down. Also, they showed mostly kid and teen movies and Spice is the adults area, so I think this is why they chose the Atrium. It also rained twice overnight so probably easier not to deal with having to 'reschedule' movies as well due to weather. Spice H20 also had one of the few bars that I wasn't able to try because it was very difficult to reach being at the top of the stadium seating and the space in front of it was narrow so it wasn't possible to belly-up to the bar and was more of a line. So, I don't think Spice H20 is a good space for kids to be watching movies and they showed kids movies on this cruise.

I was on the Epic at the end of March and I found the network to be fast for live CC posting in the early morning (6AM) and in the evening (11pm+). You can get almost 2 Mb Up with no packet loss. Mid-day is terrible.

If you are all Android users, you should be able to communicate using Google Messages for SMS text messages only (no pictures or video).

I was just on the NCL Epic and there are no fountain soda machines on the ship. You can only get canned soda, but they won't give you the can. They open the can and pour it into a cup.

I'm amazed that people are still reading this 'live' review now that the cruise is over. I'm glad you are enjoying it. I did learn (unsurprisingly) that while I didn't have any issues with my teenage daughter seeing me naked, she had issues with me seeing her naked. All that teenage self-consciousness needs a few more years of maturity before she can reach either 'I don't care' or 'I look F* awesome.' I was required to draw the red curtain between the shower/toilet area and the rest of the room so that she could change in privacy. Also, she complained that the room was too cold and that all the interior spaces on the ship were too cold. She wore her 'boyfriend sweater' everywhere. I thought the interior temperature was just fine (and never pointed out the thermostat on my side of the room). I was never hot or cold. My daughter claims that the temperature is only perfect for women in menopause (Could that have marketting value? Sail NCL if you are in menopause. You finally have money, spend it with us.).

You can do it onboard or beforehand using the app or NCL website.

Not everyone in the cabin needs to get the Unlimited Starbucks Package but you have to be over 18 to get it. You are also limited to 1 order at a time on the Starbucks package (and you have to wait 15 min to get your next drink).

FYI, the price to upgrade a minor to the FAS+ is less than upgrading an adult. I did this recently for the wi-fi and the upgrade for my child was $100 less than mine. Also, if you get the FAS+, then you can get 2 drinks at Starbucks per visit whereas with the Unlimited drink package you can only get 1 drink. You can then give the second drink to the minor.

None of those are SMS apps. Clearly they have to leave SMS open to allow the NCL chat app to work which is why it works for iMessage and Google Messages. Both of those send SMS.

When I was on the Epic two weeks ago, the buffet had Lipton tea bags. It had the orange pekoe and then 6 different herbal flavors. One herbal flavor was apple.

Any two people with the same SMS texting app should be able to communicate on or off the ship. I would assume you could text anyone with the Google Messages app installed.

iMessage works while on ship's wi-fi and in airplane mode. You do not need to be logged in to your minutes. I tested with a passenger that I randomly met on my first cruise who had an iPhone and I could text him without him being logged in.

If you are a US citizen sailing on a closed loop cruise with Norwegian (meaning starting at a US port and ending at a US port), then your children (15y and 5y) do not need a birth certificate or a passport (card) to sail. I went last week out of PR with a 16y and she never had to show ID (just her cruise card) to get on/off the ship. For gov't issued ID, we actually used her school ID card. Minors get flagged getting on/off the ship, but the NCL security merely check to see if there is an adult there. When you check-in at the port, you have to show whatever proof of ID you used in the online checkin for the child. So, if you used a passport card number, then you will need that because the check-in person will match. If you used a birth certificate, then you need that.

I would argue that Epic does not have enough network hardware installed onboard to handle 'local' traffic on ship.

In other things that the Epic has totally failed to do, I didn't catch COVID while on my very first cruise. Sigh.

I was on Deck 12 and it was perfect for stairs!

The link to an actual Freestyle Daily and not just the general thread.

The Manhattan Main Dining room has Blues and Jazz band with a singer the night we dined there and space left open for people to dance but we didn’t see anyone get up at dance.

I posted all my Freestyle Dailies from the March 26-April 2 Epic trip in my recent live.

I just got off the Epic and had a room by the Fore Elevators which was really convenient because they go all the way to deck 4 for getting off at ports. There are no midship elevators or stairs on the Epic. I took the stairs to burn off food calories and found the stairs to be really shallow and easy to do 6 decks without realizing it.