EPIC 10/30 Sailing - My Thoughts

[Endaar]

My wife and I just got back from the 10/30 cruise on the EPIC. I had some time in the Miami airport, so I figured I'd start to put together a few thoughts about the cruise and the ship. I know others have already been extremely thorough in their write-ups, so I’m not going to try and outdo them, but rather just post what comes to mind. (Although as I’m typing this it’s getting rather lengthy!) Plus I’m happy to answer any questions I can.

 

I have to note that I stopped reading posts about the Epic shortly after it launched, because they were largely negative and I didn't want to board the ship with any predispositions. I therefore don't know much about any fixes NCL made post-launch to address early concerns. Hopefully then I'm going into this with a pretty open mind.

 

About Us: We're both 34 and do not have any children. This is our third cruise, but our first with NCL. We have been on RCL's Adventure of the Seas twice; once with family and once with friends. For this trip we were alone.

 

The Room: We’ve never been the type to look at a hotel room as just somewhere to sleep, so having a comfortable room was a big deal. And in that respect Epic was a mixed bag.

 

We were in BA 11314, which is the port-corner stern cabin on deck 11, with the bed next to the balcony. On our prior (RCL) cruises we had been in a junior-suite and a standard balcony, and as expected our room on the Epic was significantly smaller than the standard balcony on Adventure. I've spent a lot of time on pleasure boats however, so I wasn't bothered by the tight quarters. I do think that having the bed next to the balcony is the preferred configuration because it gives you the most room around the sink and means you only have to contend with squeezing past the bed to go to sleep or out to the balcony.

 

As others have noted, the room was rather functional with plenty of storage. The bed is very short; I’m 5’5” and my feet were off the end of the bed. The couch is totally useless and the biggest flaw in the design. You can’t use it to watch TV, it’s not setup well to have a conversation with another person, and there’s no table to use if you order room service.

 

The sink was shallow but not a problem. I'm not sure if NCL changed the faucets, but we didn't have any splashing issues. I would have preferred a proper bathroom but the split layout worked OK and we didn't have any real privacy issues. One tip: our curtain was originally able to only be closed from one end. I disconnected the curtain ring that locked it to one side and could then close off either the shower or toilet without pulling the whole thing closed.

 

The corner balcony was definitely larger than the "middle" balconies, although it really wasn't a big deal since there was way more room that needed for the two chairs and table that were out there. The partition to the next cabin over could be opened for someone who had reason to do so.

 

Overall we were relatively happy with the room. But we were not at all happy with the location. We had not sailed in an aft balcony before, and frankly after this trip I would not do so again. Even on deck 11, the vibration when the ship was using its thrusters was unbelievable. During normal cruising there was still a noticeable vibration, and the noise level on the balcony was unpleasant – think a white noise generator at a very high volume. I know these BA cabins are generally desirable, so I can only conclude that the Epic's mechanical layout is not the best. I cannot see anyone paying a premium for the view when it is offset so significantly by noise and vibration. We were originally booked in a BA on deck 8, and had we not moved to 11 when a room became available, we would definitely have relocated once we were onboard.

 

And we would have been able to do so because of something that adds a huge caveat to anything else I write: we were sailing with only 3300 passengers. I was worried going in about overcrowding, and although there were some issues at the pool, overall we had absolutely no problem getting in anything we wanted. We had booked BMG, Cirque and Legends ahead of time, however every indication was that some seats were available for most if not all shows.

 

During sea days, the pool deck was crowded and it was hard (but not impossible) to find lounge chairs. The actual pool wasn’t too bad though. The fountains and tiled pool-surround (for lack of a better term) provided more than enough water area to stay cool. The slides were a lot of fun and there were virtually no lines; bear in mind though that we had a minimal number of kids aboard.

 

Entertainment:

 

BMG: Fun, but disappointing. This must just not have been our thing, because I don't understood the rave reviews BMG always gets.

 

Legends: Excellent. The new lineup is Rod Stewart, Britney Spears, and Michael Jackson. Rod was the best of the three. MJ's dancing was great but his singing was lacking.

 

Cirque: We went with the standard seating and chose to be in the balcony. I liked the view from up top. Dinner was quite good although I didn't realize upfront it was a set menu. This was worth seeing, but I'm not sure I'd pay the surcharge if it were for the show only without dinner.

 

Howl: Lots of fun. This was probably my favorite “show,” and since it's mostly songs by request, it was different each night. I actually think it would have been better with more of a crowd though; the venue was never more than half-full.

 

Fat Cats: This really suffered from the lack of passengers. There were only about a dozen people listening when we went in, which meant the crowd was dead and the music was way too loud. The band was good though.

 

Other stuff: The large atrium screen was used for football and movies, which was a nice touch. The band at the pool was average, but to my ear the music when the band wasn’t playing was too quiet and very repetitive. It seemed they only had two CDs in rotation.

 

We did play a little blackjack and rarely had a problem getting a seat at a $5 table in the non-smoking section. But inexplicably, NCL allows smoking at the slots that are literally five feet away from the non-smoking table games. We left early as a result one night.

 

You also have to walk through a confined part of the casino that allows smoking in order to traverse the deck from fore to aft. The many plug-in ionic air purifiers sitting on the floor in this area pretty well indicated NCL screwed up the ventilation for that part of the deck; they ought to just make it the non-smoking section instead and fix a few problems at once.

 

Blackjack is 6:5 payout instead of the normal 3:2. Not a huge deal for that amounts we were playing with but still a significant extra edge for the house.

 

Dining:

 

We were disappointed with the food in the main dining rooms; they reminded us of average wedding food at best. The NY Strip I had one night was nowhere near on par with a place like Outback, and the roasted chicken on another was way overcooked. The RCL dining room food was significantly better.

 

We ate at Le Bistro twice and it was excellent both times. The dinner at Cirque Dreams was also quite good. We had intended to eat at La Cucina, but the menu was not what I would consider appropriate for a supposed high-end Italian restaurant. We weren’t going to pay a surcharge for Chicken Parm or basic pasta dishes.

 

We chose not to do Teppanyaki because for the $50 it would have cost us in surcharges, we can have the same meal at a great hibachi place two minutes from home. When the surcharge essentially is the entire cost of the meal, I think it’s too high. We skipped Cagney’s because between Le Bistro and Cirque we had already had enough steak. None of the other specialty restaurants interested us.

 

The breakfast buffet was great, and since we both sleep late it was a real help to have it open until 11AM or later. We mainly did pizza and fries for lunch so I can’t comment beyond that. O’Sheehan’s was really the highlight on the dining side of things since having real food available 24x7 is a nice plus, and the appetizers were great. It was tough getting decent coffee anywhere on the ship though, which was disappointing since RCL has good hot coffee readily available all the time.

 

Final thoughts:

 

We really enjoyed the whole freestyle concept, and it was nice to be able to arbitrarily change our plans, as we did a couple times. We did speak to a few fellow passengers who felt too much had to be reserved, but that didn’t bother us. We booked BMG, Legends and Cirque, plus one night at Le Bistro, but that really just gave us a bit of a loose framework around which to plan our days. Maybe freestyle on the other NCL ships works better; we have nothing to compare it to.

 

The atmosphere and dress-code (if there was one) on the ship was a lot more casual than on RCL, which I loved since it IS vacation after-all.

 

Overall, I would sail Epic again. That said, I think RCL’s Oasis will be our next cruise because the room design looks better – i.e. it’s normal – and they appear to be making more of an effort to allow you to eat at any time.

 

Lest anyone think otherwise, we had a great trip, and ultimately that’s the most important thing.

 

Endaar

[*Wink*]

Thanks for your thoughts! great info.

 

we're in the balcony cabin next to yours on the ship's stern. oy. i hope i don't regret not switching cabins. i'm a little stubborn and determined to cruise in this cabin we've had booked since may of '09.

 

I read one other reviewer with the same comments about the vibrations, but she thought it may have been because the ship wasn't able to operate at the appropriate knot speed that week.

 

thanks again.

[Tinkerbell]

I am in an AFT cabin on Deck 11 also and plan on keeping it.

[PorkChopKid]

My wife and I just got back from the 10/30 cruise on the EPIC.....

Endaar

Nice review. Thanks for the insite which will help in our decision process.

May I suggest that you add the review under Member Reviews for the Epic. Others looking for information will get a lot out of the review.

[cruiser oz]

We were on the same cruise in an aft penthouse. It was a nice cabin but lacked any accomodation for in cabin dining and the general seating was limited to two chairs that were not too comfortable. The balcony is larger and that was great though a bit noisy especially when returning to Miami at full throttle. I had just cruised on the Oaisis the month before and felt food was much better on the Epic, The entertainment on the Oasis was better with the exception of the Epic"s Cirque which was great. The cabins on the Oasis are rather small with little room at the end of the bed and the bed was 6 inches from the balcony door.

The Oasis embarkation and debarkation went much quicker than on the Epic even with us having priority debarkation status. We are also talking Miami for the Epic and Ft. Lauderdale for the Oasis so not really equal comparison.

The Oasis is a magnificent ship with the many "neighborhoods" but I would still prefer to sail the NCL ships as we enjoy the freestyle dining though some people interpret free style to mean you can wear whatever you like including shorts and jeans. We are not fans of the Western Carribean itinerary and enjoyed Roaatan the best. The overnight in Cozumel was an unexpected adventure and the high seas and winds kept many passengers in their cabins on the sea day. Would definitely recommend.

[Endaar]

I read one other reviewer with the same comments about the vibrations, but she thought it may have been because the ship wasn't able to operate at the appropriate knot speed that week.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think that's the case. We had great weather for the beginning of the trip, so presumably the ship was running as normal. We then got stuck in Cozumel overnight (with 50MPH winds broadside, the ship couldn't get off the pier), which meant the following day we were cruising much faster to make up time. The vibration was there at any speed. And my wife had a conversation with our cabin steward who confirmed it always vibrated at the back of the ship.

 

May I suggest that you add the review under Member Reviews for the Epic.

Will do, I hadn't thought of that. I want to add a couple of things and fix some of my late-night typos, but then I'll do so.

 

Endaar

[sugarcat]

I'm confused about the bathroom, and why you needed to close the curtain when using the toilet?! Aren't there doors???

[Endaar]

I'm confused about the bathroom, and why you needed to close the curtain when using the toilet?! Aren't there doors???

 

The doors are translucent, so they're not as private as many would like. We mainly used the curtain when showering since it closes off the bathroom area from the cabin, but partially closing the curtain does provide a little more privacy for using the facilities if you choose.

 

Endaar