My epic review / spasuite – {my thoughts and opinions, not necessarily facts!} < disc

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(Please excuse the capitalization. It changed here when I copied from WORD)

EPIC W. Caribbean, October 16-23, 2010

We booked this trip in May 2009. I started the roll call page for our sailing (10/16/10) on may 25, 2009 !!

We looked at the photos from the shipyard of all the progress of her being built. I tuned in to any and all webcasts, interviews, etc.that were about the epic. I watched all the ncl epic moments on youtube. I joined the n.e.s.s. Group on cruisecritic. I followed the epic on her journey from the shipyard in france (yay!) All the way to miami – via webcams, ship finder maps, others’ photos of webcams that i was unalbe to get to. I twittered with gene sloan, cruisemaven & andy stuart about the epic. I devoured every new thing released about the epic. I read each and every review from those first on board. To say i was actively involved in epic goings on, from start to finish, is an understatement!

I think i was too involved. I liken my experience to this : you know when all of your friends have seen the latest hit movie, and talk it up about how great it is…and when you finally get around to seeing it, it was just okay? Well, even though there were as many negative reviews & threads about the epic as there were positive ones, i still kinda felt that way at the end of our trip. It was just a bit of a disappointment to me. But again, it was probably because i was too involved for the past 1.5+ years.

We didhave a fantastic vacation – and i am certainly glad that i did the epic full circle – from beginning to end(being our trip). That alone was an awesome experience!

A little background on us: we are a married couple, i’m 51, dh (mark) is 55. This is my 6th cruise (all ncl, first time silver!!), dh’s 3rd (all ncl). We have always booked balcony or min-suites in past. This is our first full suite, complete with perks. As i said, we booked in may 2009 – when the spa suite pricing was within our budget. We later switched our booking over to cas (1st time doing this, unfortunately probably our last) and got a very nice discount. It was an exceptional deal, which we doubt will be repeated in future.

I will try to summarize first, then go into lengthier detail. (apparently this plan isn’t working..guess i’m too wordy!) Lol i will highlight / underline some words so that you can skim to what interests you. J

(cc) = information found on these boards!

 

 

Pre/post-cruise – we arrived at fll airport @ 10:40pm. We used ‘go shuttle’ (cc) for transportation to miami. (sas transportation does not pick up after 8pm (cc)) we were picked up in a white lincoln ‘signature’ – awesome car! Very easy – walk out of airport, go to the kiosk and car was ready and waiting. We arrived at the hotel about 11:15pm.

Booked thru last minute travel dot com for hotels before & after cruise. (cc) i chose intercontinental miami for thursday & friday nights pre cruise. Awesome!! Will definitely stay here again. I booked hilton marina, fll for sat. After cruise. Not so impressed with this one. Not that it was so bad, just after exceptional service on epic, it paled in comparison.

Intercontinental miami was terrific. The room was great! Receptionist had us on 23rd floor – but non-smoking. (yes, i smoke <sigh>) so we asked for a smoking room. Turns out this was better!! We got an awesome room on the 8th floor, with terrific view of the pom ! Yay!! We hit the beds (2 doubles) shortly after arrival. It was a long day! ---only complaint - $46.00 for lunch for 2 – we each had a cuban sandwich (panini) & drink. We thought it was a little pricey! A hamburger was $15.00 – and that was at the poolside grill (blue water café), not even room service. Oh well. We got great price on room, so it really wasn’t that bad.

Friday, october 15, 2010:

We had thought ahead and brought some breakfast snacks to get our day started without having to rush out for breakfast. (dh has am medication that is to be taken w/food) we got up, lazed around the room, showered, dressed and headed out to walk over to the bayside mall. Was a nice walk. Found the cuban american café for breakfast (cc) and enjoyed a nice breakfast/brunch at a reasonable price. The bill was under $20.00 for the 2 of us. Had a nice view of the small harbor. It was fun to watch the birds hovering for scraps. (we had scrambled eggs, hasbrowns, pancakes, sausage & drinks)

We then meandered around the mall and went into the hard rock café’s gift shop for our mandatory shot glass.

Talked with the girl working register about all the tents being set up that we passed on the way. She told us that it was for the susan g. Koman ‘walk for the cure’ that was scheduled for 8am saturday. She was running in it. Had a nice chat with her. Found out via a phone message from the hotel, that the streets all around us would be closed from 8am – 1pm on sat. Due to the race. Great..oh well, worse case scenerio, we wouldn’t be on the ship until our cabins were ready @ 2pm. No big deal! (wireless internet avail for $11.95 / 24hrs @ this hotel – mark decided to skip this – we would rather pay a lot more on the ship for internet access..then leave 30 min on the account that we didn’t even use!?!? Go figure. Lol )

We then strolled back over to hotel. We decided to check out pool before going back to room. It was not very crowded at all. So, back to the room to change and head down to pool. (5th floor)

This area is beautiful and would be worth the full price of the hotel (or lunch!)! It is situated between 2 tall buildings, has a harbor view, pool bar & resturant area that is air conditioned. There are tons of padded loungers of every shape & size around and a garden type area with a walking path. The loungers were equipped with a towel covering the pad, and a rolled up towel for use on each one. There was about 8-10 people there already. We took a swim, read books for awhile, had lunch, swam again, read some more…just had a wonderful relaxing afternoon! Back to room, mark went in search of cvs (cc) to get some diet coke for the ship. I suggested he get some cherrios & milk for in room light supper (since we at late lunch, and would be much cheaper than even sharing a $15 burger!) I decided to write in journal while he was gone. He was not gone a long time, so the store was close. He did get the cereal & milk! Lol we often have breakfast suppers on the weekends at home. It was fun!

Relaxed, watched some tv, then to bed. I had difficulty sleeping, as i was getting excited!

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Saturday, october 16, 2010: boarding day!!! Finally here!!!

I awoke shortly after 5am…raced to the windows….saw nothing. Could not get back to sleep. Up again at 5:30am…and low and behold!! There she was…only to the left of my window – not to the right where the ncl docks are. Then i remembered that she had to go down and turn around. I got my first views of epic ‘live’!!! I was so excited! My dh was laughing at me from bed. “my ship has come in!” Lol i watched her slowly travel down to the ncl docks and get settled in. Then i went back to bed! I only slept (i think??) About another hour, as we started hearing announcements from the race area. People were getting there early – by 6:30am. Was kinda neat to watch it on the news channel, and see it - sorta – out the window!

We got showered, dressed – in our tee shirts and we called for the bellman to collect our bags @ 10:45am. We checked out, went outside to get a cab, nice chat with cab driver. Got to terminal c, where we were guided to line, to check our print outs – just making sure we were in the correct terminal. Entered building, received health form to fill out and led into vip lounge on left.

Sat down at desk, got all logged in, health form handed in…waited just a few minutes for next group to get signed in, then led up stairs to roped off waiting area. Barely sat down, got up for drink of juice – didn’t even finish it and the whole group was herded onto the ship!

*past the photographers, who were only just getting set up..meaning no boarding photo!!! Oh no! Dh & i had decided on our last cruise (2008) that we wanted to wear green shirts (in front of green screen) for our next boarding photos, and made them special with the ‘i am epic / i am ness” logo on them. Darn it! {we ended up seeing photographers set up around the ship at different times, sometimes with green screens. So, a couple of different times we carried our shirts in a bag around with us while wandering the ship – figured we could just slip them on for the photo – don’t you know everytime we did this, we found no green screens?? Lol guess it just was not meant to be. ) okay…this is a vip perk – no boarding photo…not even if you wanted one.. Well, maybe if you show up later in the afternoon – when photographers are set up you can get a photo. (they have this new system on the epic now, that you have to use your key card to ‘register your face’ when getting your photo taken. This will then allow you to access all your onboard photos thru the kiosk in the photography place. Turns out we were not in the system, and there was a photo of other people in our cabin # folder! How dare they invade our folder! Lol just kidding!! The mgr helped us to locate our photos and we made our purchase. We know we had others taken, but they must have gotten lost in the shuffle. Maybe we had invaded someone else’s folder??! !)

our shirts did make great conversation starters all day! I was so excited, i got in elevator and you know how people are so quiet when full of strangers…i say “i am soooo excited to be here!!” Everyone laughed!

I was doing that all day, i think!

We were lead into the epic lounge, where the concierge (florintina) gave us a little speech, then gave us opportunity to go on a guided tour of the courtyard area and all that we have access to.

At 11:55am, we were standing in posh, overlooking the pool deck! We saw posh (hot), learned about those elevators, courtyard, fitness center, spa in courtyard, epic grill and epic club – where we ended up for lunch.

We both had the strip steak, asperagus & salad. Brownie w/ macadamia ice cream & carrot cake for desserts. Very nice meal – great way to start our epic adventure! Then about 1:30, we decided to go exploring and see if our cabin was ready. We ran into denise (from facebook & cc) during our courtyard tour – and again when looking for our cabins. Hi denise!! (she thought i was funny, because of being so excited!)

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Our cabin – spasuite #14149

We found our cabin 14149 and the welcome dial was showing! In we go for first look. We were not disappointed! Looked just like the photos!! Yay! The entire counter was full of papers…invites to this and that…information overload! We had papers about our spa access, complete with our black & goldspa wristbands. Welcome aboard from cas with our cas cards & free drink card attached. Welcome aboard from tracy – ship group coordinator and meeting time / place for our cc mtg on sunday. I called right away, as the paper said we were to meet in lebistro – while the email notice i had said bliss. She said no problem, we’ll do it in bliss!! It’s all good! Yay!

The appetizer plate had a card from denis – hotel director – with welcome aboard. It all felt very special! And there was notice / invitation about sailaway party in courtyard, vip cocktail party w/ captain, latitudes silver + wine & cheese party. Wow.. Lots going on already!

Took some photos of the room. Mark checked out the tv…we had bottle of sparkling wine & sparlkling water on ice, fruit bowl, appetizer plate, fresh flower arrangement – which lasted nicely all week! Large balcony, 2 chairs, small table & lounger with plenty of room to move around. Loved it!! This is my absolute favorite spot on any ship, and this proved to be no exception!

 

Our main purpose for this cruise was to have some get-a-way & relax time and that we did! The bed was great! Mark was worried about the ‘roundness’ and feet hanging off – however, we did not find this an issue at all. They say the bed is queensize, but we have a queensize at home and this was much roomier. The pillows were awesome! Really felt like your head was inbedded in a cloud! And the bed was soo comfortable – the best of any cruise or hotel we ever had!! (mark did have problem with late night pounding from above. Upon investigation the nextday, appears we were directly under where the green slide comes out. They were building a new end there? Anyway this went on for a couple of nights – late around midnight or after. I told him to call somebody if it bothered him..he couldn’t decide who he should call…so eventually he went to sleep. It didn’t bother me much, had no problem sleeping.

 

Lani , our butler, stopped in with another fruit bowl & appetizer plate. She introduced herself, gave us a quick run down on the room, explained the coffee maker, etc. She seemed very nice, but in a rush. Well, the safety training was going to begin in just a few minutes – perhaps that was the rush?

Okay – lani was awesome and i’m sure that the services she provides are what most folks in suites are paying extra for. That said, we thought the service was a bit over the top and certainly much more than we needed or wanted. So, this in no way reflects badly on the level of service provided – just that we needed much less. Lani brought our breakfast on sunday (we put the card out) am – called first, then arrived within moments. That was nice. She asked what our plans were for the day (umm..freestyle, we had no plans…? ) we had the m&g and ca[tain’s vip cocktail party in the evening. She asked what we were going to do for dinner…um…i haven’t eaten my breakfast yet, little too early to worry about dinner. So, she said we had to take our phone with us when leaving the room – and had to keep her updated on what we were doing. She said she would have to meet us at our room 30 min before we were doing any shows or dinners, and she would escort us. Umm.. Okay.. We ended up calling her and meeting her at the venue – or giving her the opportunity to help others instead, as we were okay with going it alone! Lol well, she was just more than helpful. I really think there wasn’t anything that would have been ‘too much’ for her to help with! People out there that want this kind of service, i doubt you will regret getting a suite and enjoying these perks!

Mark mentioned that we couldn’t seem to get the water hot in the sink. Were we doing it wrong??

She tried, and also tried the shower…no hot water. She immediately called the ‘plumber’. We got a call in the room about 10 min later, the plummer was in the hall, but since our sign was on ‘do not disturb’ he wasn’t ringing the bell (yep, had a door bell!) We laughed, and let him in. The only thing he did, that we didn’t try – was running the water in the jacuzzi for a few minutes. That seemed to get the hot water to our room! Awesome! Lani called us about 15 min. Later to see if it was all fixed, and if we were good. Great service!! J breakfast was cold by the time we got to finish it…but we had hot water!

 

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Safety drill: we went to our designated spot – some bar area (sorry, i don’t remember where exactly it was now. F3 was our spot) [we met & chatted with a nice woman, whose daughter is going to look at st. John fischer college – in our neck of the woods, so we talked about that quite a bit] safety drill short & sweet. J very nice to have inside, w/out lifejackets!!

On way to drill, we stopped in spa for our brief tour & drop off raffle ticket. Nice – can’t wait to soak!

Wandered a bit after drill. Back to cabin, our bags were there so we got busy unpacking. Wow – there was soo much storage space in this cabin, we forgot where we put stuff! Lol much more than we needed or used. Met our room steward – viviana – she is very nice! (incredibly discreet, however room was always neet & tidy – we felt like she knew everytime we left the room and ran in to straighten up! She got a style card! – and a nice tip)

We took a little rest – hung on the balcony. (we had invite to courtyard sailaway, but preferred to enjoy on our balcony – as is our normal custom)

went to fitness center for 6pm spa raffle. Didn’t win –darn! The woman who won the boot camp training looked disappointed! Lol think she was wanting to win a massage !

Casino experience:

Off to the casino! Stopped at the bar there and got first rum punch of the cruise – man, did that ever pack a punch! Only had one! (yeah, we don’t drink much at all.) Wandered around the casino and played some. Slots seemed very tight (throughout the whole cruise, as it turns out!). Casino was really spread out all over. A couple little rooms off the hallway, then it appears as though ‘they’ decided it wasn’t big enough and planted more slot machines down the hallway. Almost like it was an afterthought. We didn’t feel that it had a real good casino ‘feel’. Now, don’t get me wrong – we were there everyday, and spent a ton of $$. We spent more $$ out of pocket (not counting the little amounts won and put back in) than on any other cruise and received less for it than on any other cruise. Between the 2 of us, we had only earned 1600 points, and you needed 2500 points to even receive $25 obc. So…we were able to turn those points into free slot play . Big whoop. Not that we play to get perks – because we don’t - but since this was our first cas guest experience, we did think that we’d play enough to get a discount on the next cruise..but i don’t think we’ll be getting any kind of discount again. New program and all…i didn’t like that part! But, was still fun! Lol

During our casino journey – we literally ran into tj walker, from roadside louis & the dusters (they are playing in fatcats). He was walking out of fatcats, and i recognized him from his facebook photo! He connected with our facebook group and we had been chatting with him. So, mark & i chatted with him awhile. Was really nice meeting you, tj!! We enjoyed tj’s band through the week while we were in casino. Nice to play the slots in the hall outside fatcats – you could hear the band easily. (we thought it was a little too loud for us inside the room. That room is small. My son always said to me “mom, if it’s too loud, you’re too old!” Well, guess i have to finally admit it then! ) lol

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Dining:

Sat night , we went to o’sheehan’s for dinner. Apparently we sat on the bar side, and should have sat on the other side for dinner service. Who knew? It was less crowded. (we didn’t make that mistake again!) Asked the server for a food menu. He came back and took my dinner order (cheese sticks andchicken sand – both good!) And walked away. Mark was a bit “huh?” Another waiter walked by and took mark’s order. My order came, then mark’s a few minutes later. Service with food much better than in blue lagoon on the dawn! A waitress stopped by to ask if we had everything we needed, and mark asked for catsup. Well, the girl comes back with the catsup, and aims it over mark’s fries “you want it here?”, mark – looking very confused, says “no, over here” and points. She squeezes out some and then walks away – with the catsup! We are cracking up. Guess this is the level of service on this ship! You don’t even need to dirty your hands on the catsup bottle!! Lol lol very weird! Or…maybe we were going to steal it?? Lol too funny!

We ate here – on the correct side! – for breakfast a couple of times, lunch and another dinner/snack. Very nice. The chicken pot pie is to die for – very hot, tho…wonderful after cooled off a bit. Mark liked the chicken fingers.

We never had a wait for a seat and service was always timely. Just fun about the catsup!

Taste: we had breakfast in here once. Was very nice. This was on the day we were in costa maya and sat by windows and had a nice view. Food good, service good.

Manhattan room: we had 2 dinners here. Food service = great, nice décor, great music! Loved it!! First time was on a night that legends unplugged / motown night. That was a lot of fun! Our server – darlin was awesome! – delayed our dessert so that we could enjoy it during the show. Lani had to meet us outside the door this night – and then she scoped the entire resturant looking for the perfect table. Umm.. One that had room for food on it was good…? She wanted us to move after we were settled, and almost didn’t take no for an answer. Geesh! We had a good view of the show where we were. Sometimes, she just tried too hard. Lol the next dinner here was for lobster night. Amazingly enough, we forgot to call lani – and ventured out on our own. Guess what?? We got seated next to a window, perfect seat. Our wait was less than 5 minutes. Awesome service. Great dinner! We ran into lani after dinner – called her to tell her we weren’t going back to the room, we were just going to headliners for the second city show after dinner. She insisted on meeting us! So, we met her. She asked what we did for dinner, told her we went to manhattan for lobster, and she was aghast that we went on our own! We told her we might get dessert from buffet after the show, as we didn’t have dessert right after dinner. She said she would bring something to the room (she left us cheesecake – yummy). Anyway, there was only about ½ the room filled for this second city show…really didn’t’ need to be here 30 min . Before showtime…or needed an escort to make sure we got a seat! Lol

Garden café : we did breakfast here at least twice, maybe 3 times? Awesome selection – always found a table easily – ate inside 2 times and outside on last morning. Did lunch here at least twice – once inside / once outside. Very good. Chilled fruit soup – blueberry, and an mango/peach? Loved it!

Epic club: this is the resturant for suite guests. We had lunch here twice – saturday & sunday. No waiting, great service , food excellent! Sunday, we saw that andy stuart was here having lunch with a large group. Unfortunately, there were too many folks around him, i didn’t want to bother them, and didn’t have an opportunity to say hello. L very dissappointed that i didn’t get to meet him.

We had dinner here one night, as well. We came here for dinner after the captain’s cocktail party. We were really surpized at the turnout for this event! There were maybe only 4 other couples in attendance! It was very nice, set up in bliss, senior staff all here. Felt bad that more did not attend this, but we got a lot of attention from everyone. We dressed up a little bit for this. Got our photo with the captain. Paul scully (cd) chatted with us quite a bit. What a fun character he is! And very helpful! At the end of the cc m&g, i was looking for the sign in list, it was not on the bar, and tracy was gone..so i asked paul about it. He said he would call tracy and request the list for us. Well, he asked if we got the list, and we hadn’t yet. So, he went right then and printed it out and brought it to us. Now, wasn’t that the sweetest thing? J (turns out the other copy of this list was in our cabin when we returned that night!) Anyway – we left this and went up to epic club for dinner, and it was dead here , too! I mean really dead – there was 1 family there eating….that’s it, just one other table! Had a male waiter, went to spread my napkin and last moment, decided that the white napkin would not ‘do’ with my black dress! So, we went off to find a black napkin, to match my dress. Now i ask you, how on earth have i lived so long, and not realized that my napkin at dinner should be color coordinated with my clothes??!? Lol we had such a fun time in here this night!!

Room service: we had breakfast delivered twice (by lani!) And then on cozumel afternoon, we decided to do the pizza service to our cabin. You can order regular room serivce (milk, salad & dessert) and the pizza all at once. That was nice! We had a relaxing afternoon (after a very soggy morning shopping and then soaked in the spa, pizza & movie was the perfect lazy afternoon!)

Moderno: the brazillian steakhouse –nice. Not over the top. The food was great! The service - not so much.

This was the only time we called the concierge. We called moderno first to see if we could get reservation between 7:30 – 8pm. We were told they were booked. We called lani and she suggested we call florentina and request. She said she’d get back to us. Lani said to keep her updated! Lol we had latitudes, silver + wine & cheese @ 6:30pm. Later that afternoon we had a msg from florentina that we would have a table between 7:45 – 8pm. Called lani and informed her. She said to meet at the cabin 30 min prior. We told her we would be at the party, and would meet her outside moderno. Party was nice! More mingling with senior staff. Sat and chatted with a wonderful couple from uk. Had a great time! Also had nice chat with jennifer ( cruise consultant ). About 7:30, we made our excuses and got up to leave. The phone goes off…it’s lani (who else?) She was waiting for us – where were we??? Mark told her we were on our way – with a pitstop. When we got there, we were chastised because she had been trying to call us since 6:45 – that she was able to get us in to dinner earlier. Umm.. Gee, we didn’t want in earlier…as we were at a party….? We were perfectly content with the time we were given for dinner. Anyway…she handpicked us a table overlooking the manhattan room. Nice to watch others on the dance floor while we were eating. (saw adkmom & family enjoying the dance floor! J ) our main server left something to be desired. Perhaps he was kept waiting for us?? Who knows. The meat guy was awesome! Food was wonderful!

We were a bit surprised that we got french fries instead of the garlic mashed potatoes that was on the menu…but figured they must have run out? Was a great dinner!

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Cruise critic meet & greet:

Very nice turn out! We had about 50 folks show up. Loved getting to meet everyone that we had been chatting with on both cc & facebook! I had invited andy stuart (ncl vp of sales who was onboard) and tj walker to join us. Disappointed that Andy didn't make it - but TJ did! :-) Tracy (ships coordinator) did a fantastic job! We had large senior staff turn-out! Nice to meet and chat with most of them! Denis prguda, hotel director / richard janicki, asst. Hotel director / helmut spitzbard, f & b director / melca malana, executive housekeeper / julie valeriote, entertainment director / irma reyes, guest service manager / charles fernandes, executive chef / serhat kati, resturant manager / paul scally, cruise director. Their names & numbers were printed on cards for us. We had drinks & snacks provided.

***thank you, ncl! ****

We had a poker cabin crawl – to see other cabins. That was a lot of fun! (lot of walking, as well!) After we toured our spasuite, we were headed to the courtyard. Well, i had to use the bathroom first – then mark thought it was a shortcut across pool deck, instead of down cabin hall. Okay… well, i slipped on pool deck and twisted my ankle. By the time i hobbled up to courtyard, the group was nowhere to be found. So, we went to posh and chatted with lonely bartender, then to epic club for lunch.

Extra thoughts: (you really didn’t think i was finished, did you??)

Shows we saw:

Blue man group – was an experience!

Legends – both unplugged motown in manhatten & show in epic theater – loved it!

Second city – headliners, 45 min. Show – was really good & funny!

Fabba - @ spice h2o – great energy, loved it!

55 to stay alive – game show in bliss – great fun!

Trivia – once in fatcats, partnered up with a couple of women..we were ‘mensa team’ we got 12 of 15 – not bad. That was fun!

Shopping talk – fatcats – interesting, as always.

Dora & diego – bliss for photos & autographs. We promised our almost 3yr old triplet grandsons that we would see them! Lol

David williams – comedy magician – very funny! Very late night – show started at 11:15pm…but was good – or maybe we were just so tired anything would have been funny!??! Just kidding!! (while we were waiting for this show to start, michael jackson was running by us to go back stage (we were in balcony seating). I stopped him and asked for a photo…he said sure! Got a nice shot of the 2 of us!

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Ports:

Costa maya: mark went into port to hard rock to get a shot glass. They were out, but would have some delivered in a few hours. So, he decided to go back andsee. Yep, he got our glass, plus he went to diamond international for me to get my port charm. Nice hubby! There was a tolley type car that ran the length of the pier so you didn’t have to walkall that way back & forth. Was a very long pier! I opted for the spa & relaxing with my ankle up. This proved to be a wise choice, as by the end of today (monday) it was almost back to normal!

Roatan: we did the tabyana beach day. I’ve been here twice before and was mark’s first visit. I love this place! They have builte it up a bit since i was here last. Very good beach day! Had lunch with a nice couple from manhatten!

Cozumel: i’ve been here several times, mark’s first visit. We got to the malland went into a shop for tee shirts, it was pouring when we came out! So, we wandered a bit, then sat on a bench to wait for the rain to end. Yeah, that wasn’t happening anytime soon! I asked this guy running a stand, how far the hard rock café was … he said not far, go downstairs and to the right. I asked about taking a cab… he laughed and lead me over to the railing, pionted down and to the right – and right there it was! Duh, we practically walked right by it! We went down, got shotglass, and a cokeandsat there awhile. Back upstairs for tequila & vanilla and braved the rainall the way back to the ship. We were drowned rats by the time we arrived! Decided since we were already wet, changed into suites andhit the spa! Still pretty crowded in there. I don’t think there were less than 15 people around there anytime i was in there. (exactly why i wanted the 24 hr pass!)

 

 

Disembarkation:

We had a note to meet in concierge lounge at either 7:45 or 9am to be escorted off, andgold priority luggage tags. We had leisurly morning, went to great outdoors for breakfast and headed up about 8:30am. Once the next group arrived, we were escorted off the ship and into the customs line. <sigh> no express line here. This was the only line we waited in all week! J

 

We had SAS transportation from the Pier to Hilton in Fort Lauderdale. In our van, was a family of 5, Fran (californiaDreamer) Hi FRAN!! and another couple. All were dropped at airport, except Fran & Us. Had a nice visit comparing thoughts on cruise on the way to FLL. Hilton was okay.. not great.. Just a relax day, early to bed early to rise (o'dark thirty!) We were up by 3:00am for 4:45 am pick up by GO SHUTTLE. Well, they 'GO', called at 4:30, said he was sending a yellow cab for us. We went out to wait, 3 cabs pulled up..nobody knew anything about us.. Finally one of the cabbies gets on the phone, and is decided that he's taking us. Asked what was normal fare, he laughed when he found out how much we already paid for this ride! He turned on the meter - so we could see for ourself - and we were charged double by Go Shuttle. We could have taken a cab ourselves! Geesh. Now, we were very pleased with their service on the way to Miami, but not so much now!

 

Flights home uneventful - stopped at grocery and were home by 2pm on Sunday.

[pcreek]

Final thoughts; (yes, really!)

 

We had thought with such a big ship and soo many other cruisers, we would enjoy the extra attention of having a butler/concierge. However, we found that we never encountered a line for anything that we did – anywhere! Amazing! Also, we found that we spent much less time than anticiapted in the hat area, perhaps because that was all in the front of the ship, while our cabin & the spa were in the back. We visited posh a couple times – totally dead and very hot there and ate at the epic club 3 times. We were there for embarkation & for disembarkation.

 

We have decided that a regular balcony with a spapass will be just fine for us on future cruises. But, you never know until you try it out for yourself! I am very glad we had the opportunity to check out all the perks, and have an ‘allaccesspass’ to this awesome ship!

 

There were a few times that we only ate twice a day…gotbusy, late lunch, early dinner – snacks delivered every day to our cabin – sometimes twice a day. We did not get to try as many eating venues as we thought we would. Justgotbusy, i guess?!

 

Friday we planned our freestyle cruise day – left the phone in the cabin and wandered the ship allday! No shows scheduled, no dinner reservations, nothing! Loved it! J

 

Bottom line – great vacation!!!

[sjbdtz]

Great review. I'm surprised that your butler was offering to escort you to the various venues, that's usually something that the concierge does.

 

Maybe they were shorthanded on the concierge-side, and the butler was helping out. It might explain why she was a little more in-your-face....

 

Sorry to hear that you weren't as delighted as you had hoped to be, sometimes things are just anti-climactic when they actually happen. It's the genesis of being blasé. :)

[pcreek]

Great review. I'm surprised that your butler was offering to escort you to the various venues, that's usually something that the concierge does.

 

Maybe they were shorthanded on the concierge-side, and the butler was helping out. It might explain why she was a little more in-your-face....

 

Sorry to hear that you weren't as delighted as you had hoped to be, sometimes things are just anti-climactic when they actually happen. It's the genesis of being blasé. :)

 

That is what we thought about the Butler / Concierge thing. I had read on here that butler does inside cabin / concierge outside cabin. But that was truly not our experience. I thought maybe it was because the spa suites were so far away from the concierge lounge? (we did start telling her we were eating at the Epic Club...that way she was off the hook!)

Even the one time we ordered room service, we had regular delivery, it was not delivered by our butler.

 

We DID have a wonderful cruise and vacation! Just wasn't the "to die for" one. LOL

[sidders79]

Hi Pam,

 

Thanks for the great review. We are sailing next february and are staying in the exact same room as you. It is our belated honeymoon and as such, we are hoping for a bit of special treatment.

 

Did you book any of the restaurants or shows prior to sailing? Do you think we would need to? I don't mind booking a few shows in advance but want to choose dining options when I know what I want to eat.

 

My wife will also be pleased to know that there is a lounger on our balcony.

[pcreek]

Hi Pam,

 

Thanks for the great review. We are sailing next february and are staying in the exact same room as you. It is our belated honeymoon and as such, we are hoping for a bit of special treatment.

 

Did you book any of the restaurants or shows prior to sailing? Do you think we would need to? I don't mind booking a few shows in advance but want to choose dining options when I know what I want to eat.

 

My wife will also be pleased to know that there is a lounger on our balcony.

 

You will LOVE this Cabin!! The balcony was a great size and has the overhang as well. We were on it when it was raining and did not get wet!

 

We booked Blue Man Group, Legends show & a Second City show online before cruising. Only because we could. You might want to book things in advance that you know you don't want to miss. You an always change them once you're onboard, if you need to.

[pcreek]

 

 

[Linda the Book Lover]

Thanks for the review! The DH and I are taking the cruise as a relax as well. Were there many people at night in the spa....I am thinking of relaxing there before going to bed.

[david_sobe]

Fantastic review

Loved it

Interesting as a suite guest you only ate at the Epic Club twice and did not hang out there more. Also interesting with all the suites on board that more did not come to the captain cocktail party. Ususally this is a hit on ships. When do you get free alcohol on board?

So in a nut shell, you were too overly prepared or to Epic'ed out to enjoy it more? Do you think too much obsession about Epic sort of ruined some surprises? Gosh could this happen to me too LOL :)

THANKS AGAIN

I learned some great things from your review. Cant wait to sail in December!!

[BeeeJay]

great report! is there a link I missed for pictures?

[jaw070701]

Thank you for putting together the M&G. Good review.

 

JW

[pcreek]

Thanks for the review! The DH and I are taking the cruise as a relax as well. Were there many people at night in the spa....I am thinking of relaxing there before going to bed.

 

Not so sure about later in the evening..might be less crowded then when people are at dinner / shows. We were there mostly in afternoon / late afternoon. Worth a try to go later in evening!

[pcreek]

Fantastic review

Loved it

Interesting as a suite guest you only ate at the Epic Club twice and did not hang out there more. Also interesting with all the suites on board that more did not come to the captain cocktail party. Ususally this is a hit on ships. When do you get free alcohol on board?

So in a nut shell, you were too overly prepared or to Epic'ed out to enjoy it more? Do you think too much obsession about Epic sort of ruined some surprises? Gosh could this happen to me too LOL :)

THANKS AGAIN

I learned some great things from your review. Cant wait to sail in December!!

 

Yeah, we thought we'd use the Hat area more than we did...including the Epic Club.

We got free drinks in the casino (for booking with CAS), and there was free drinks at the Captain's party & Latitude party. We were shocked nobody was at the Captain's party! So were the senior staff that we spoke with.

 

Yes, definitely more than prepared for our cruise! There really wasn't much left to discover on my own...and I do think that took some of the fun out of it. Live and learn, I guess! lol

 

I'll look forward to your review when you return! :D

[pcreek]

Thank you for putting together the M&G. Good review.

 

JW

 

You're welcome! and thanks!

Was nice to meet you onboard! :D

I assume you had a great time?!

[pcreek]

great report! is there a link I missed for pictures?

 

 

Thanks!

 

No, you didn't miss anything. I haven't gotten the pictures together/sorted out yet. And we really didn't take a whole lot, because I've kinda seen everything already! LOL

[khall]

Casino experience:

Off to the casino! Stopped at the bar there andgot first rum punch of the cruise – man, did that ever pack a punch! Only had one! (yeah, we don’t drink much at all.) Wandered around the casino and played some. Slots seemed very tight (throughout the whole cruise, as it turns out!). Casino was really spread out all over. A couple little rooms off the hallway, then it appears as though ‘they’ decided it wasn’t big enough and planted more slot machines down the hallway. Almost like it was an afterthought. We didn’t feel that it had a real good casino ‘feel’. Now, don’t get me wrong – we were there everyday, and spent a ton of $$. We spent more $$ out of pocket (not counting the little amounts wonand put back in) than on any other cruise and received less for it than on any other cruise. Between the 2 of us, we had only earned 1600 points, and you needed 2500 points to even receive $25 obc. So…we were able to turn those points into freeslot play . Big whoop. Not that we play to get perks – because we don’t - but since this was our first cas guest experience, we did think that we’d play enough to get a discount on the next cruise..but i don’t think we’ll be getting any kind of discount again. New program andall…i didn’t like that part! But, was still fun! Lol

lol

 

Make sure you still call and check on your discount cause on our last cruise we ended with about the same amount of points as you and still got a comped oceanview room for our next sailing...don't give up yet!! :D (Sky casino was TIGHT TIGHT TIGHT also!!)

 

Great review!! Can't wait to sail her in Europe next year!!

[coffeebean]

Hi Pam,

Great review and so detailed. Sorry to hear about your twisted ankle. Hope it didn't bother you too much during the week and how is it now?

 

Thanks for putting together the M&G. The young honeymooner won the Poker hand in the cabin crawl with four aces. I had the next best hand with a full house but I'm glad she won. Great way to start out a honeymoon cruise for her.

 

Your review was so comprehensive, I was hoping you would go into more detail about the spa. DH and I didn't get a spa pass because I was afraid we wouldn't have enough time to spend there. Did you have unlimited access being you were in a spa suite? I know you were upset prior to the cruise that you wouldn't have access at night or something like that.

 

Too bad you were a bit let down with EPIC. I would imagine it was because of the 1 1/2 years EPIC overload you experienced before boarding the ship. If you didn't say you were a bit disappointed in the ship at the beginning of your review, I would have never guessed you felt that way after reading what you had to say about your week. Prior to this cruise, I did read everything I could about EPIC, including Cruise Critic, but I would not look at any pictures of the interior of the ship. I wanted to be surprised when I got on board her. That was the best thing I could have done as I was very impressed with the ship.

 

We have never had a suite and experienced the suite perks but after reading about your butler experience, I'm not sure I would want that type of experience. We are used to being free spirits on a cruise and I certainly would not want to "keep in touch" with anyone during the week and have to tell them of our where abouts and plans. Seems you had a bit of a problem with it too. I do understand the concept but still, a "smothering" butler would have been a bit too much for me.

 

Thanks for the great review.

[pcreek]

Make sure you still call and check on your discount cause on our last cruise we ended with about the same amount of points as you and still got a comped oceanview room for our next sailing...don't give up yet!! :D (Sky casino was TIGHT TIGHT TIGHT also!!)

 

Great review!! Can't wait to sail her in Europe next year!!

 

Seriously!?! WOW!! That's great news! Okay, now I'm a bit more excited about that news!

Thanks soo much!

I had planned on at least checking with CAS for our next booking...

 

Yeah, slots were very tight for us. My biggest hit was $150. on a $1 machine with a $2. bet.

Thanks for the info! :D

[pcreek]

Hi Pam,

Great review and so detailed. Sorry to hear about your twisted ankle. Hope it didn't bother you too much during the week and how is it now? It's fine now! Thanks. You know the funny part about this was, after reading Kim's review (mistugirly) and her experience with her hand..I totally made a mental note to pack an ace bandage - just in case. Well, that mental note never made it to paper, and as I was hobbling on the pool deck, she was the first thing to come to mind!

 

Thanks for putting together the M&G. The young honeymooner won the Poker hand in the cabin crawl with four aces. I had the next best hand with a full house but I'm glad she won. Great way to start out a honeymoon cruise for her. Doing the M&G was a blast! I got to meet so many folks because of this! We wouldn't have even come close to winning - our hand was either 2 pair, or 3 of a kind, as we had a joker. Good for the Honeymooner - is a great way to begin a cruise!

 

Your review was so comprehensive, I was hoping you would go into more detail about the spa. DH and I didn't get a spa pass because I was afraid we wouldn't have enough time to spend there. Did you have unlimited access being you were in a spa suite? I know you were upset prior to the cruise that you wouldn't have access at night or something like that. No 'unlimited' access. When we booked, the website touted "24hr access, private entrance" that later changed. I knew that going in that had changed and was not thrilled with it. The 24 hr part was the main reason we did the spa suite. The spa area was always 'busy'..but not full to capacity. We could always find a spot in the 'pool' and a lounger to rest on. The balcony was always pretty full - but that was ok with us, we had our own balcony. It's just that if we could have gone at 6am...we know there would be much less chance of a crowd. We did enjoy the times we spent in there.

Too bad you were a bit let down with EPIC. I would imagine it was because of the 1 1/2 years EPIC overload you experienced before boarding the ship. *Absolutely correct - my own damn fault! *If you didn't say you were a bit disappointed in the ship at the beginning of your review, I would have never guessed you felt that way after reading what you had to say about your week. WHEW! I didn't want it to come across as a negative review - We DID have a great vacation! Just wasn't "THE BEST VACATION I HAVE EVER BEEN ON" - which I thought it would be. LOL Prior to this cruise, I did read everything I could about EPIC, including Cruise Critic, but I would not look at any pictures of the interior of the ship. I wanted to be surprised when I got on board her. That was the best thing I could have done as I was very impressed with the ship. Now, THAT was a great idea! Wish I had thought of that! My DH only checked out bits and pieces prior to cruising, and I used to get so frustrated with him. LOL Maybe that was a good plan! Once I was onboard, it was sort of a deja vu feeling..LOL

 

We have never had a suite and experienced the suite perks but after reading about your butler experience, I'm not sure I would want that type of experience. Just because this was OUR experience, doesn't mean it would be the same for you. You will never know until you try it. We may try again in the future, but not the next cruise! We did think that we would enjoy the 'line skipping' more, but there were never any lines anywhere we went. It was just unnecessary for us. We also based that on our experiences on the Dawn, where sometimes a line skip would come in handy. I just think that EPIC is spread out so much with so many different venues for people to be in, the thousands on board were also spread out. Now, on a smaller / regular style ship it would be more handy! We are used to being free spirits on a cruise and I certainly would not want to "keep in touch" with anyone during the week and have to tell them of our where abouts and plans. Seems you had a bit of a problem with it too. I do understand the concept but still, a "smothering" butler would have been a bit too much for me.

I did chat with someone that was surprised that the butler was doing the 'concierge' stuff for us. I thought it was because the spa suites were in aft, while concierge lounge was in the HAT..but the person I chatted with thought maybe they were short handed, and our butler was just trying too hard to cover the responsibility. We didn't have to tell her EVERYTHING..she just didn't want us to 'miss any of our perks'. Another couple may have been upset if they didn't get that level of service. For us, it didn't matter! Lani was an awesome butler, just too much for US.

 

Thanks for the great review.

:D

 

It was really nice meeting you! Thanks for the feedback - it's appreciated! :D