Epic Transatlantic 21 Oct - 3 Nov

[Chester & Brewster]

Background: We are Lucie & Paul, late 30s/early 40s, no kids, Brits who live in Ireland.

This was our 4th cruise, first transatlantic & first with NCL. The 3 previous cruises were with RCCL, so comparisons are inevitable throughout this review.

 

Pre cruise: We flew to Barcelona Friday night before Sunday embarkation. We stayed at Hotel Rialto on Carrer de Ferran, not far from the Jaume 1 metro stop. Great location - plenty of eating, shopping & travel options close by. Our room overlooked a kind of central internal courtyard, so was pretty quiet.

Saturday we did touristy things - Park Guell, Barcelonetta & ate tapas. We also stopped at the supermarket in the basement of El Corte Ingles & bought a couple of bottles of wine to take on board.

 

 

 

Embarkation: pretty easy overall. Cab to the port at about 11am, small wait for x ray, then we were directed through into an entirely empty check in hall that people were reluctant to go into for some reason? We walked straight through, onto the escalator & up to the ship. Easy peasy.

There was no security check between the Duty Free shop & getting on board ;) I did see a desk tucked away to the left at the top of the escalator with notices about wine & liquor, but there was no staff there as we passed. We dropped our carry ons in Headliners for storage until rooms were ready & explored the ship. Lunch was from the Spice H2O buffet, then at 1pm we collected our bags & went to find our cabin.

[Chester & Brewster]

The cabin: 8207 - second to last cabin on deck 8 starboard side. Overall we liked it. The curvy, trendy styling, absolutely loads of storage & great to have a coffee machine. The separate shower/toilet thing was fine, probably meant a slightly bigger shower than RCCL which is good.

 

 

However, moving around the cabin was awkward, especially when getting dressed. On more than one occasion I found myself crawling across the bed as there was just no room to get past. On that score, the RCCL cabins win, they were just more roomy.

Room steward was probably the worst we've ever had; requests for simple things like pool towels, ice, room service breakfast order forms were a real chore & had to be repeated on more than one occasion. Some days the room was not serviced until late afternoon, or even not at all. The door latch was a bit stiff, and a couple of times we came back to find our room door was open. Not good. We reported it & it was fixed pretty quick, but I was still not impressed that the guy had left our room unsecured.

 

 

The ship: this is where the main RCCL comparison comes in. All 3 of the ships we have been on (Voyager, Freedom, Allure) were better. We really missed the promenade & the "separate-ness" of the bars & different areas on board. On the Epic it seems as if it all merges into one, and a couple of times we felt like we were sat in a corridor, not a bar.

Looking down on the bar on deck 6 outside The Manhattan Room

 

Plus, from the outside, the Epic is one ugly ship! We loved the slides though ;)

 

 

[Chester & Brewster]

Dining: this is a BIG area for us, and we were keen to try out the Freestyle dining concept. Previously we've done both traditional dining & my time dining; we preferred the flexibility of MTD.

 

Spring roll

 

Well it was a big FAIL from us. The two main dining rooms - Taste & Manhattan were just unable to cope with the number of people wanting to use them. If they can't accommodate you straight away you are given a voucher for 2 glasses of fizzy wine & a buzzer which "will go off in ten minutes max". That's fine, but half the time the buzzer didn't go off & people got wise to waiting. Several times we were told to wait whilst someone else just breezed straight in. Diabetes seemed to be a major excuse - strange that such a large population of diabetics should all be on the ship at one time? Having an electric scooter also meant you just rode over everyone else (sometimes quite literally) & were waved straight in.

 

Chimmi churri steak

 

The Manhattan room had a live band & a couple of times, a Motown tribute act. This seemed to encourage people to linger over dinner - not good when you've got a line of hungry people waiting for a table. One night the couple at the next table had finished eating when we sat down. They were still there (occupying a table for 4) when we left, oblivious to the evil stares from hungry passengers who'd been made to wait.

There did not seem to be a lot of table sharing opportunities; we did share one night & offered to on numerous occasions but to no avail. To me this seems a simple way to shorten the wait for those that are happy to share.

 

Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake

 

There are screens showing dining availability on a traffic light system, but frequently they were all on green when the reality was more like a 30 minute wait.

Food in both restaurants was excellent, and we enjoyed it immensely. The service was great too, once you actually got in there.

 

Overall the buffet was superb - we ate breakfast & lunch there most days. Great Indian food, custom omelettes, freshly made pizza & a wide choice. Again, the "lingerers" playing cards & board games after their meal made it difficult to find a table at times.

 

O'Sheehans - we only ate here once after our stop in the Azores. Fish & chips were awful, don't bother!

[Cruisecrazy20000]

Enjoying your review so far, this may be the next ship we go on. Thanks for posting!

[SMSACE6]

Thanks for your review! Im sailing on Epic, next November in the Caribbean. Im just soaking up every little morsel I can about the ship right now, and am sooo excited to finally get to cruise again, after what will be three years. Thanks again, for your review and love the photos!:)

[Chester & Brewster]

Pay for Dining: we ate at several of the "for fee" restaurants. Generally I didn't feel they were of a much higher standard than the dining room food-wise.

Le Bistro ($20 charge) - it was ok, no atmosphere. Food was good, well cooked & well presented, although the smallest scallops I've ever eaten!

 

4 Cornets

 

Noodle bar (a la carte) - we ate lunch here on the one rainy day & it was busy, so we were seated in the Chinese restaurant rather than at the bar. The food was superb, would definitely recommend it.

 

Shanghai Chinese Restaurant ($15 charge) - again, nice enough food but not massively better than the Asian food in the buffet.

 

Scallops

 

Moderno Churrascaria ($20 charge) - dreadful service in here, the servers seemed to completely ignore whether you were on 'red' or 'green' & just randomly arrive at your table whenever they felt like it. The Picana was excellent, as was the garlic sirloin.

 

Ceviche

 

Cagney's ($25 charge) - nice food, nice atmosphere, but the steak was no better than the one I had in The Manhattan Room.

 

Shrimp cocktail

 

I wouldn't rave about any of the speciality restaurants. They were great to break up the monotony of the main dining rooms on a 13 night cruise, but if I were only doing a 7 nighter I'm not sure I'd bother.

[Chester & Brewster]

Entertainment

Blue Man Group - 50:50 on this one, some bits were funny, other bits were downright weird.

 

 

Legends - we had Rod Stewart, Madonna & Elvis. Rod was quite good, but looked uncomfortable on stage, Madonna was awful & Elvis was pretty good but just far too young!

 

 

The Second City - a comedy improv group. We went to a couple of their shows & were impressed. Very funny but a lot of audience participation so I can imagine it depends on the interaction level.

 

Twice as nice - urgh. They were re-named 'Twice as bad' by us. Not my cup of tea at all.

 

Charlie Love & the Silky Smooth band - they played in Fat Cats most nights & were definitely the high point for us where the entertainment was concerned. There were some extremely talented passengers on board too, who Charlie welcomed to the stage. Absolutely brilliant, we could be found in Fat Cats most nights, mojito in hand, foot tapping along to the music.

 

 

 

According to the Freestyle Daily, the average age on the cruise was 57. Many people that we chatted to felt the entertainment was more aimed towards 27 than 57. They didn't seem to have made any concession to this at all.

 

[Chester & Brewster]

Port stops

Azores: we booked a trip with fellow cruise critic members through Lisa Ringelberg. I wouldn't recommend her services - her lack of organisation meant that the trip left without us & had to come back, which as you can imagine made us extremely popular with the other couples on the mini bus!

But, it gave us a taste of the island & we had a fabulous lunch.

 

 

 

 

St Thomas: by the time we made it through immigration it was after 11, so we just got a cab to town to shop, have lunch & mooch around. The immigration organisation was dire - obviously the logistics of getting a ship full of people cleared is a mammoth task, but I don't think it was handled well at all. Plus, when I asked about the procedure at Guest Services a few days prior, they clearly made it up.

 

 

 

[Chester & Brewster]

Bars, drinks & other stuff.

Didn't really like the Maltings bar, but they did have a 2 for 1 happy hour most days 4 til 6 which was popular.

The '6 for 5' beer bucket deal was available everyday, but only on the open decks.

Taking our own wine & paying $15 dollars corkage in the dining room was infinitely better than the prices of bottles on board, I would definitely do that again.

Drinks on deck were served in nasty disposable squishy plastic cups, which I'm not a fan of, meaning we didn't really have many, preferring to drink beers from the bucket deal instead.

 

Guest services dealt with a couple of issues we had with varying results. We did receive a plate of chocolates from them to apologise for the broken door latch which was nice & unexpected.

 

We found the adults only sun deck all the way forward on deck 18 very nice - big comfy padded loungers & double day beds, but you had to be there early to get a spot. Opening time varied anywhere between 9 & 11.

 

Disembarkation: another easy peasy experience. We carried our bags off at about 8am after a quick breakfast, there were no queues & the car rental shuttle pulled up within 30 seconds.

 

Overall it was a great trip, excellent weather, smooth seas & we enjoyed the whole transatlantic experience. For many of the crew on board this was the last sailing of their current contract & it showed, they were disinterested & apathetic. Overall there were some good aspects that Norwegian did better than RCCL, but I think, given an equal price point, I would choose Royal Caribbean over Norwegian in future.

 

Lunch in St Thomas

 

 

 

 

 

Entrance to Fat Cats

[SuiteCruiser]

I can't believe we were on the same cruise! This was my 22nd cruise and rank it #2, behind Tahiti to Hawaii, but mostly due to Bora Bora out shining any other place on earth.

 

Had great food and service three times in Le Bistro, once in Cagney's and once in Moderno.

 

Hope you have better luck next time.

[Chester & Brewster]

A few more pictures:

 

Sushi Bar

 

Nickelodeon meet & greet

 

Did I mention we played on the slides? :D

 

We had one night in Miami post cruise

 

I'll try to download some more pictures tonight. Anyone want to see more food porn?!

[Chester & Brewster]

I can't believe we were on the same cruise! This was my 22nd cruise and rank it #2, behind Tahiti to Hawaii, but mostly due to Bora Bora out shining any other place on earth.

 

Had great food and service three times in Le Bistro, once in Cagney's and once in Moderno.

 

Hope you have better luck next time.

 

Funny isn't it; how little things can skew your perceptions. I think maybe because we enjoyed all the food we ate in Taste & The Manhattan Room, it made the food in the speciality restaurants "not special" as it were (Not sure I'm explaining this clearly!). The food everywhere was great, I don't think I ate one thing I didn't like.

[Chester & Brewster]

Single Cruiser has also posted a much more detailed review - see here for more great pics!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1734823

[Chester & Brewster]

Bonus, I found a USB lead at work, so here are some more pictures...

 

The internal courtyard our room over looked in Barcelona

 

Barceloneta. It was a bit windy! That's the W hotel in the background

 

Parc Guell

 

Parc Guell

[Chester & Brewster]

Filet in Le Bistro

 

Scallops in Le Bistro

 

Mushroom Quesadilla in The Manhattan Room

 

Tiramisu in The Manhattan Room

 

Empanada in The Manhattan Room

 

Pecan Pie in Taste

[Chester & Brewster]

Azores Sunrise

 

Spice H20 during the afternoon classic movie - they suppy nifty wireless headphones for those who want to watch it.

 

Shrimp & mushroom risotto. This was a daily special, not on the regular menu.

[cruisin07family]

Funny isn't it; how little things can skew your perceptions. I think maybe because we enjoyed all the food we ate in Taste & The Manhattan Room, it made the food in the speciality restaurants "not special" as it were (Not sure I'm explaining this clearly!). The food everywhere was great, I don't think I ate one thing I didn't like.

 

Glad I read all the way through and saw this because that is not the impression I got at all, especially when you said that dining was a "big fail". I went back and reread and it seemed you were probably talking about the service and time spent waiting rather than the actual food quality which is a relief. Many people rave about O'Sheehans fish and chips but since you are british I imagine you have a different standard than us americans, lol.

 

Love all your pictures!

[Chester & Brewster]

 

Didn't see a lot of Ice Bar activity throughout the trip

 

 

Lunch in St Thomas. Excellent food, service & margaritas.

 

Allure of the seas was also docked in St Thomas

[Chester & Brewster]

Tuna nicoise

 

Coconut souffle with mango lime sauce

 

Banana pancakes in Shanghai's

 

Pistachio & choclate brulee. Probably the weakest thing to grace our table. Looks pretty though!

[Chester & Brewster]

Glad I read all the way through and saw this because that is not the impression I got at all, especially when you said that dining was a "big fail". I went back and reread and it seemed you were probably talking about the service and time spent waiting rather than the actual food quality which is a relief. Many people rave about O'Sheehans fish and chips but since you are british I imagine you have a different standard than us americans, lol.

 

Love all your pictures!

 

Yep, guess I wasn't clear enough on the Freestyle Dining concept being a big fail, not the actual EATING. Most people would just associate them as being one & the same thing (I probably would too).

The food was excellent - bar the fish & chips. The batter was soggy & nasty, rather than a nice crispy coating. All the rest of the stuff we had in O'Sheehans was fine - the spinach dip, the mozarella sticks & the wings were great snack food.

[SASA13]

Thanks for the review and the great pics :)

[meltingmoments]

Thanks for the review and the pics!! :)

Curious to know.........did you take all 10 of those bottles of wine that you checked would fit into your pull-along??? ;)

( we had this conversation on my August review of the Epic and it made me smile! )

[Chester & Brewster]

Thanks for the review and the pics!! :)

Curious to know.........did you take all 10 of those bottles of wine that you checked would fit into your pull-along??? ;)

( we had this conversation on my August review of the Epic and it made me smile! )

 

No. We took 20!!!! :D 10 bottles in each pull-along. You should have seen the taxi drivers face when he picked up what he thought would be a nice light case to put in the boot...

[4wksaintenough]

We were on the same transatlantic cruise and OMG I completely agree the scallops in the Bistro were the smallest I had ever seen and eaten too my daughter said you could see the dissapointment on my face,do you think they were trying to get into the world record book for the smallest scallops ever served at sea?

[Chester & Brewster]

We were on the same transatlantic cruise and OMG I completely agree the scallops in the Bistro were the smallest I had ever seen and eaten too my daughter said you could see the dissapointment on my face,do you think they were trying to get into the world record book for the smallest scallops ever served at sea?

 

Lol, the pine nuts were nearly as big as the scallops! The waiter did offer me another one; they must've had loads of people commenting about them.