The not so Epic!

[Cruzinbabe06]

As I stated at the beginning of this thread, nothing I have mentioned "ruined" our vacation. The ports were amazing (although we personally did not care for Marseille) and until the construction is completed, this port should be skipped IMHO.

 

I found the buffet to have a lot of variety, and the wave-like character to our mid-ship balcony room (that some have voiced a dislike for) all worked fine for us. There was adequate storage, and having the sink in the room worked well for our purposes.

The things I did not enjoy, and found them to be sub-par (in comparision to other cruises we have been on) was some of the food, the attitude of the crew, and some of the entertainment.

 

Specifically, for instance: FOOD

MDR Food- Day 1 - went to The Manhatten Room-I had the lobster/Red Snapper - I don't expect Maine lobster, but the lobster that was served was like rubber (no butter was served). My DH (whom I have mentioned is allergic to shellfish) ordered the steak. His meal arrived with a lobster tail on his plate, along with the steak. We politely told the waitress that he could not eat shellfish, as he was allergic. She sort of gave us a blank stare, did not apologize, just took the plate, and brought back a steak (approx 10 mins later) that was well done...he ordered medium.

Cagney's - Day 2 - I ordered the petit filet (medium). It was fine, it tasted ok but, they butterflied it. I have never had a filet, ordered medium, that needed to be butterflied. It too was well done.

Taste - Cream of brocolli soup (very good), but was seated at a table for 6 right near the kitchen (or what we assumed to be the kitchen) which made for a noisy dinner.

La Cuisina - Ordered the seafood fettucine- I cannot describe what was wrong with it, other than it was just plain awful. My DH had the osso-bucco and said it was salty but ok. On the Crown Princess and The Oasis of the Seas their Italian restaurants are truly amazing. Some of the best Italian food we have eaten in restaurant (which is saying a lot) as my DH is Italian, and my MIL is an amazing cook.

 

As far as the crew is concerned....SERVICE

As mentioned, we still do not know the name of our room steward. Not a huge deal for us, just rather odd IMHO.

The general feeling of our party of 6, was that the crew had had a long season, and was just not very friendly. The casino dealers usually are cheerful and talkative, but not so on this sailing.

Being pushed for drinks by the pool is generally the norm, but you could not sit on deck for 10 mins without being asked 10 times if you wanted a drink. This was usually while we had a coffee in hand?

 

Entertainment:

We found Howl at the Moon quite entertaining (apart from one of the male vocalists)

Twice as Nice we also enjoyed.

Legends was ok. Madonna as mentioned previously, not good, as well as being crude. I personally do not blush easily, but there was no age restriction, and children were present as she was grinding up against an elderly male passenger.

The Beatlemannia Cover band was ok.

Also, as I have mentioned the entertainment was not terrible, it was just no better than any other cruise we have been on, and find it funny that NCL boasts about their superior entertainment.

 

We have been on 11 cruises in the past 10 years, and are not married to any one cruiseline. Although I would probably not cruise aboard the Epic again, as I have said, we did enjoy our trip overall. My objective was to share my experiences with fellow CC'ers. After discussing things with my DH, I think we have decided that we prefer the approx. 2000pax ships. Our favorite line to date has been Celebrity, but we did like the Crown Princess almost as much. I guess that's what is great about cruising, is the varied choices available.

 

DH and I love to cruise, and are looking at a Canada/New England cruise aboard Crystal for next fall, which I am told is a whole new type of cruising, so we will see...

 

You are abolutely right about no butter with the lobster. We had to ask for it. Go figure.

 

And, I completely forgot about the Legends Show. Our group loved it!. Rod Stewart, Madonna and Elvis. Loved all 3. I didn't know they were the ones singing. I thought they lip sing to the original tracks.

 

I loved the Madonna act. However, I had no kids with me.

 

She, to me added the excitement to the show. All that singing and dancing at the same time. Her dancers were awesome and I loved when they did Vogue!

 

Go see the Legends show everyone. I didn't think I would like it. I loved it!

[graphicguy]

If we avoided the restaurants that served shellfish...DH would not have eaten the entire cruise. I don't believe there was one restaurant on board that does not serve some sort of seafood...Do you????

 

I think you're going to be in trouble on any cruise line, on any ship.

 

To my knowledge, they all serve sea food. And, I can't imagine they have separate cooking facilities for beef/lamb/pork, etc that's different for seafood. Not saying they don't. I've not sailed on every ship on every cruise line. I know the tour I took of the Liberty of the Seas Galley showed them preparing seafood and beef dishes side by side in the same cooking area. I have to believe they're all about the same.

 

We have found the food on NCL to be as good, most times better (including "free" venues) than on any other cruise ship or cruise line.

 

In any case, best of luck with whichever cruise line you decided to go on next time. None of the cruise lines appeal to all of the people all of the time (although they try really hard to do just that).

[jdvmd]

In my Behind the Scenes tour on the Dawn, there is most definitely a separate area in the main galley for preparing dishes for those that have special needs like a shellfish/seafood allergy.

[TravelDiva88]

I think you're going to be in trouble on any cruise line, on any ship.

 

To my knowledge, they all serve sea food. And, I can't imagine they have separate cooking facilities for beef/lamb/pork, etc that's different for seafood. Not saying they don't. I've not sailed on every ship on every cruise line. I know the tour I took of the Liberty of the Seas Galley showed them preparing seafood and beef dishes side by side in the same cooking area. I have to believe they're all about the same.

.

 

Disney might be a suggestion. The entire company is fantastic about food allergies.

[graphicguy]

Disney might be a suggestion. The entire company is fantastic about food allergies.

 

Perhaps. I'm not sure exactly what the OP was looking for. I know all the cruise lines serve seafood. All cruise lines will accommodate food allergies to the best of their ability. I'm sure on occasion, someone may get something or another that they did not want. But, that's more the exception than the rule.

 

I'm wondering if Disney has two separate grills/griddles? One for meats, and another for sea food? The tours I've taken of the ships' kitchens made no allowance for that.

 

But, the OP can try Disney and I hope report back the findings. Personally, I've never been drawn into the whole Disney "thing". My kids were never drawn into it, either (boy and girl). I am silently grateful for that because any time I've had to deal with anything Disney (like staying at one of their properties when attending a conference in Orlando), I've felt ripped off.

[anniversay/grad trip]

Generally, when we have told our server on a cruise that DH has an allergy to shellfish, we are accomodated. Not sure how it is handled in the kitchen but, we have not had any allergic reactions to date (knock on wood). Dh carries an EPI-PEN but thankfully has not had to use it. His allergy has never posed a problem, as I am sure he is not the only passenger with this problem. My surprise was not that we have to be totally removed from where shellfish is being served (there is no escaping it on lobster night, the air is filled with the smell) it was the way it was handled in the Tapanaki venue. A little bit of customer service would have gone a long way.

 

Anyway, I think I have gotten my point across in terms of our experience aboard the Epic, and for those that love it, I'm sure you will continue to do so. For those of us, that didn't love it....we move on to find a cruise we do.

Happy Sailings!

[4774Papa]

Back from the September 30-October 7th sailing of the Epic in the Med. I have sailed Carnival, Princess, Royal Carribean and Celebrity and now NCL. Of all the cruises I have taken in the past, NCL is the worst. The food is marginal, the service terrible and frankly the entertainment was not even that good.

I have been on both smaller ships and on the Oasis (RCL) and both have good and bad points, but I just found that NCL does not go out of their way at all. I am generally the type of person that thinks that a vacation is what you make of it and although my vacation was not ruined by any stretch, my honest opinion was that NCL is lacking greatly where other lines exceed.

If anyone would like specifics, please feel free to ask.

We have done 3 NCL cruises, including one on Epic. Also, we have cruised twice on Celebrity.

The MDR food on Celebrity is excellent, as good as the specialty restaurants on NCL.

The MDR food on Epic is the best of NCL and just a little below Celebrity.

 

Entertainment on NCL is a little better than Celebrity and on Epic excellent.

We didn't care for BMG, but all other was great.

 

Both cruise lines have their advantages. We are cruising more on Celebrity since NCL doesn't go to Australia, Asia, South America, British Isles and Black Sea.

[slotaddict]

Complete opposite....my experience on the Epic was great...my room steward was the best I have ever had....I thought the entire crew went above and beyond. Looking forward to booking again.....

[graphicguy]

I really believe that provisions provided to all the cruise ships when they dock have a huge impact on the quality of the food.

 

My entire family cruised on the Celebrity Solstice last year. Food was a couple of steps below what we experienced on the Epic. The service on board was surprisingly poor. It was like the entire staff was really angry about something on board. As a result, the passengers were poorly served.

 

The GF and I sailed the RCCL Allure of the Seas in May. Any of the buffet or MDR food offerings were a couple of steps below what we experienced on the Epic. The only decent "free" restaurant was the Park Cafe. We ate a couple of times/day there. We found we had to eat at the "fee" restaurants to get decent food and service on the Allure (Giovanis being our favorite).

 

Clearly, the provisions they get aboard every week varies. No chef can cook well enough to make poor provisions taste good, no matter what ship you're on.

 

We never experienced any of that on the Epic. Food was fresh and flavorful, regardless of which venue we went to. Service was always top notch. Any special requests we made were greeted with a smile and their best accommodation.

 

I think the Teppanyaki restaurant there may be a language issue. Service was good there. Trying to understand what the issue was there? They didn't accommodate the sea food allergy issue?

 

I found the entertainment on the Epic to be the best out of all the cruises we've taken....bar none.

I can see where an oversight could happen with sea food being unwittingly provided if someone requested they not be served seafood. I don't know whether the issue was corrected. I would imagine if you asked them to correct it, they would....gladly.

 

All of this points to the reason we have booked the Breakaway for next June. We can't wait!

[kirsty_r]

In terms of food allergies we were told to meet the officer in charge on the day of boarding to discuss our requirements.... the ships was extremely accommodating but i think that was mainly because they knew in advance, and we picked the places we wanted to eat at.