Epic Review- 3/16/2013 Sailing

Nick's EPIC Review by Topic.

Background: 2nd time Traveling the EPIC. This time, I went with my roomate (25), & Brother (23) in a B2 Balcony. Also cruising was my Grandfather (80) in a studio, my parents (50) in the balcony next door, and my sister (16), her friend (17), and my brother's fiancee (23) in an inside across the hall on Deck 13 right by the stairs AFT.

I am a Platinum NCL Member (a good accomplishment at 25 I'd say :) ) I have sailed most of the NCL ships, with the Breakaway TA coming up on 4/30/13. I am pretty loyal to NCL, although have cruised others as well.

Pre-Cruise: Flew down Friday morning, stayed at the Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove. Great hotel, great location. Had some amazing Stone Crab claws at Monty's right on the bay in the grove. Had an awesome breakfast at the Green Leaf (?-i forget the exact name).

The Epic: This is the first time where I think twice is enough with the Epic. Sometimes it felt boring because I saw everything before (although I LOVE Howl at the Moon). BMG/Legends/Cirque- all left something to be desired, but then again I saw it before, so to me it was a repeat. Also, the ship just felt PACKED. So much more so then last time I was on. I know we took on alot of the Carnival Dream's cancelled cruise guests, so that bumped our capacity alot.

CC M&G: Huge shout out to the roll call for some great pre-cruise conversation. The M&G and Slot Pull went awesome, and a bunch of the officers, minus the captain, attended.

Cruise Director Ken: Worst cruise director I think I have ever sailed with. Although the Epic is not really designed to have your typical CD role, I feel like he was just not visible enough. Also, he hosted little of the events minus the show intros. Isn't that what a cruise director should do? He did confirm that Julie will be taking out the Breakaway and then there will be a 4 CD rotation that will handle Epic/Breakaway/Getaway and one on vacation.

Cruise Staff: Why NCL chooses to put Filipinos in cruise staff roles is beyond me. Where are the American/Canadian/UK?

Crew: For the most part, very good. My only complaint was that my room guy spoke very little English. He worked very hard though, so that is all that really matters. Alot of the Epic crew is being transferred slowly to Breakaway right now- people are leaving every week to go over there. A few of the better staff members I interacted with said they were going over this weekend to Germany to join Breakaway.

Embark- a BREEZE. A little hiccup when my Mom's Dad (who is 80) realized he FORGOT his passport at home when he got to Miami. Luckily the shoreside staff was able to have my Aunt scan a copy of his birth certificate to NCL. He got on, which was good.

Sea-Days: Great lounging. Meet a good bar sever, Larry, who is coming on the Breakaway for the TA. So I'm excited to see him again. Epic needs to turn down there sound system though- blaring music- especially when you are just trying to enjoy a beer at the bar. Also- get your chair early! Spice H20 filled up by 8:30am. The pooldeck was packed by 10am.

Drinks: No Ultimate Beverage Package as expected. So my bar bill took a beating :) Also, when I would order a "Rum and Coke" at the bar, sometimes they would ask if I just wanted to buy a bottle of rum. This was a first! And yes, I did see people ordering full bottles of booze at the bar- very interesting. A bottle of Crown Royal was about $90 i think at the bar.

St. Maarten- Went into town for a bit, then took the family over to Maho. Had a blast there.

St. Thomas- Went into town, went for some lunch over by Allure OTS as we had a speedboat tour scheduled. Then the speedboat then took us back to Epic.

Nassau- Per usual my least favorite port. Was haggling with a guy to go fishing for a few hours, but I just walked around with my buddy then we stumbled upon a Filipino restaurant and had some amazing food.

Food-

Garden Cafe- Typical NCL breakfast fare. Scrambled eggs were undercooked everyday. They looked really gross. Like watery gross. So I just had come fried eggs made to order every morning. Tried O'Sheehans one morning- it was OK, nothing to special. Lunch was fine, no complaints. Never went for dinner here.

Italian- Went the first night. Meal took 3 hours total, which really aggravates me. I HATE LONG DINNERS. Like I said, alot of the crew have been transferred, so I don't know if these servers are new to the Epic or what.

Teppanyaki- It was great. Had too much food. But I love it here!

Sushi- Had a snack here with my friend. Got two rolls and was stuffed!

Noddle Bar- Portions are HUGE. Had a good "snack" here before my Cirque Dreams dinner at 9pm.

Moderno- Used my Platinum meal for 2 here, plus a free bottle of wine. In and out in under 1 hour. Good service. Great food.

Manhattan Room- Went twice. Meals were both OK. Nothing special, but not bad. Never had desert because to be honest NCL's desert menus have gotten supper lame. Never waited for a seat- we went around 6pm. It was packed with a wait by 7pm. They did not allow shorts.

Taste-Never went, no comment.

Cirque Dreams- Show was good. Food, just as I remembered it, sucked. Please change the menu NCL!

Cagney's- went the last night, great meal. No complaints at all. Great service and speed.

Casino- Paid off my bill playing the craps table every night. So that was nice :)

Cruise Director/Cruise staff lead shows- all horrible. First time I didn't like anything. Even the quest was bad. I think this is coming from Ken's lack of leadership.

"Norwegian's Night Out" Party &"White Hot Party"- PACKED at Spice H20. But this was good packed if you like a good time. Amazing parties. Then there had a few lame ones up there that were not so "hot".

Debark- Easy. Waited til about 9:30am to debark, was at the hotel by 10:15am and back to Bayside by 11am to eat lunch and hangout for the day with a few of my other friends that were attending the Ultra Music Festival.

Any Questions? :)

 

Cruise Staff: Why NCL chooses to put Filipinos in cruise staff roles is beyond me. Where are the American/Canadian/UK?

 

Kind of a strange thing to say. What do you mean exactly?

Americans, Canadians and British are too expensive.

Kind of a strange thing to say. What do you mean exactly?

 

Americans, Canadians and British are too expensive.

I love Filipinos don't get me wrong- but the people that deal with the entertainment/guest facing roles- I guess I have just noticed that you used to see alot of US/Canadians/UK workers in this positions and now they have all....disappeared.

Maybe it is a cost thing, haven't noticed this on Royal, Carnival, or Celebrity though.

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for the review.

Oustanding work with NCL staff and your family to scan a birth certificate so there was no issues with boarding.

Amazing story. Glad it all worked out!