Epic Review 12/4-12/10 Eastern Caribbean

[Missourianluvscruising]

My Epic review 12-4 to 12-10 Eastern Caribbean. The cruise was fantastic. We have very few complaints. There is always something to do. Embarkation was super easy. We entered the boat right outside of Epic theater walked down the hall to Headliners and dropped our carry on off. Then set off to O’Sheenan’s for lunch then to explore the ship. Somehow we ended up on the suite sun deck and “accidentally” went down into the suite area. We saw the courtyard and gym then I felt like a sneak so we found an exit out. It seemed super nice. We stayed in an inside cabin on the 11th deck at the front of the ship. We had plenty of room for our stuff and had no issues with the bathroom layout. If one of us used the toilet we just pulled the curtain and ran the shower. The room steward was fine. She didn’t talk to us a lot but the room was always taken care of. My complaint of the room is the tv. It is placed two high and does not tilt downwards. Not a big deal the picture just looks funny. Yes we did watch tv. We “had” to watch sports and also liked watching the replay of the parties.

Dining:

We ate the buffet for breakfast most of the time. Food was ok at the buffet nothing to right home about. It seemed to either be Mexican or Caribbean food. We ate at Cagney’s. Loved the steak. We are from KC and eat steak a lot. It is by far the best steak we have ever had. Cagney’s still holds up to our expectations. The Moderno was ok.. about the same quality as at home. Service was excellent at both places. Loved O’Sheenan’s. We hung out here a lot. Loved the mozzarella sticks. All the food is pretty good. I really like the spicy mayo that comes with the chicken sandwich. We tried the pot pie, meatloaf, hot wings, apple crisp and brownie sundae. All very good. The hot wings are different, not typical hot wings but decent. We never at in the Manhattan room but did eat at Taste twice. The service both times in the main dining room was not too good. We left one night without ever being offered dessert. Which is fine because we prefer the ice cream at the buffet anyway. The banana is my favorite but like the strawberry and coconut and kiwi.

Entertainment:

We attended howl at the moon almost every night that they played as well as Second City. We enjoyed both. We also went to a late night Second City but really didn’t see that much of a difference. We really enjoyed the piano/singer duo in the atrium. We would sit and listen to them many nights. There was a large group of Asians that would ballroom dance to the music. It was so much fun to watch them dance. We also went to the magician/comedian show. He was pretty fun and entertaining as well. Our last night we went to the Blue Man Group. I have never seen their show and really enjoyed it. My hubby not so much. The last day at sea was the only day we started to get bored. The cruise director staff did not do as much entertaining we felt on this day but we were able to find things to do on our own.

Slides- Well, I can say that we did them. The plunge was the easiest one to enjoy. The purple one was fun until the end when you feel like you are going to drown because the water comes in you face so much. The green one was the most fun but very rough. I ended up banging my elbows a lot.

 

 

Ports:

St Martin – We went to Maho beach to watch the airplanes. We went around 1130 and stayed until 130. We saw a lot of planes land and a big one take off. It was a lot of fun. We bought bamboo sheets, (jury still out about the sheets) chocolates from the Belgium Chocolate place (loved them wished we would have bought more)

 

St. Thomas – didn’t do a lot here except call home. During our phone call home I was asked if I wanted to by weed. I have never been asked to by drugs before so I was really surprised. Oh and we bought Citizen watches as well. Got a pretty good deal on my husbands watch and saved a little bit of money on mine. Still cheaper then the ship’s 40% off.

 

Nassau – Getting off the boat was horrible. We were slightly delayed getting off the boat and it was a bottleneck getting off. We waited at least 30 minutes after they said we could get off and still stood in line for at least 15 minutes. We booked the ships segway tour. I had a blast. It rained for a little bit but they supplied us yellow rain coats. The tour was not exactly what I expected but I still enjoyed it. The tour really doesn’t go through the botanical gardens. We spent most of the time in the open field riding around. We had two people fall off and one smashed the guide between the wall. No one was hurt. The tour of Fort Charlotte really is a waste of time. By the way, you ride the scooter down steps in the gardens. Beware!

 

Ship staff: We loved the waiters and waitresses at O’Sheenans. They were very attentive and never had trouble getting drinks or food. Rudy the shopping expert was great at his job. We bought sheets because of his review and chocolates. I wish we had money to buy diamonds or other jems. I saw him personally helping different people trying to get them the best possible deal. The cruise director staff was very visible. They run the games at night and the parties. Some of our parties were cancelled because of rain. Don’t waste your time going to Paul Scally’s comedian act. He’s not very funny. We left when he went up the opposite aisle and had his back turned. There was a mass exitidus at this time. I went to the spa around the second day to look at booking a service. I walked up to the desk where at least three staff members were standing talking to one another and not a one of them even said hello or asked if they could assist me in any way. I found the sheet with the prices my self, went to a chair to look at what was offered, still no one said anything so I left. It was way overpriced anyway but I found it strange that no one even said hello. Oh, the Shipndales show was a surprise. I had no idea they would actually strip. Uh hello! Surprise! I thought it was going to be a “joke” . There were a few of us women that were surprised. Never felt they were pushing drinks but there is plenty of staff checking on you to make sure you are taken care of. Which is there job.

 

The ship was beautiful. It is laid out differently then other Norwegian ships that we have been on but if you take the time it is easy to get used to. We did feel a disconnect with the ocean. You never really see it unless you are on the pool deck, Cagneys, Moderno or Manhattan Room. Also, I think the photos are overpriced. One 8x10 for 20 bucks seemed high. Plus, we didn’t want an 8x10 but could order a different size for $20 too. So, unfortunately we didn’t purchase any of our photos. Our last night we overheard some of the staff saying that over half the ship staff was leaving. So, the crew was going to be mostly new the following week. I was glad that we weren’t going to be the ones breaking in the newbie’s. Disembarkation was so easy. We had a 1055 flight out of Miami so I was a little worried. We walked off with our own luggage. We got in line at 0700. Off the ship in a taxi by 0735 at the airport within 15 minutes and had absolutely no trouble with the early flight.

Some tips/observations I can leave for anyone going on the Epic are as follows:

 

1: The bathrooms on the pool deck near the Garden Café can be seen from the outside so beware.

2: There are some comfy chairs on the pool deck back by the arcade. It was very quiet back there and super big comfy chairs. Wished we would have found them sooner.

3: Laundry bag special is on Tuesday, bag of laundry for 25 bucks clothes back by Thursday.

4: The orange elevators are always quicker.

5: The inside cabin needed a hook to hang my bag or shirts that were taken off for naps/relaxing (husband).

6: Bring cash for howl at the moon if you really want your song played.

7: You must buy some of the Belgium Chocolate at St. Martin. YUM!

8: Skip the art auctions I felt that they were not very nice people. We always buy art on the cruise and did not do so this time. During the Thomas Kincade/ Sports memorabilia auction they did not even display the Thomas Kincade work. It was in two piles on the floor and only had very few sports pieces up.

9: If you want seats for the game shows in Bliss show up early. Seating is very limited in this bar.

10: Try to make it to the observation deck of the bridge on the 13th deck. It was really neat to see.

11: The showers in the inside cabins are big enough for two people to shower at the same time. :D

12: Be prepared to get bombarded when walking through the shopping area on the ship. They handed out little papers constantly to promote “sales”. The ten dollar sale is crap. They make a big deal about it but really it is crap.

13: There is only one way in and out of the fitness area that we could find at least.

14: Always order your drink of the day in a normal glass and save your self some money.

15: Lots of chair hogging around the pool but it really wasn’t an issue for us. We are not big sun bathers.

16: The bar staff is not included in DSC. We didn’t realize this until late in the cruise. There is an additional tip included on drinks but still its not much. We started tipping a little extra on the last few days.

17: RELAX! You’re on vacation you have to relax to have fun. Go with the flow.

[sdmike]

Thanks for sharing your experience. Sounds like you had a nice time.

[PACRUISINNANA]

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed especially reading what you did at the different ports of call. My family and I leave 1/1 for the eastern cruise. I'm on the boards so much reading about the Epic my husbands says I won't have to go on the cruise because I will know everything there is knew about the ship.

[silkhair1]

Thanks for sharing! We ended up in the suite area on the Pearl ship and did not know it. LOL We figured it out and left feeling guilty and did not want to get questioned. Happy you had a great time!