EPIC Family Adventure 11.24.12

[Livabeth]

Livabeth, interesting you mention that about the kids club on Allure. We found that they always did what they said they were going to do. On this cruise, we found a lot of hoopla about certain things that sort of fizzled. For example, on the pirate night, I was under the impression they were doing some sort of scavenger hunt (we have seen that on other lines), but was concerned as even the youngest age group was included in that. However, it turned out to just be a pirate "parade" where they walked through the buffet looking for "stinky pete". The older kids thought it was pretty lame and not quite as cool as they made it out to be.

 

re: phones. we had the wave phones on disney dream and never used them (except when we went out and left the youngest in the nursery). same on royal - we got dect phones while the baby was in the nursery. otherwise, i don't like to be bound by a phone on vacation. however, i can understand if your child has special needs (or needs their diaper changed on NCL! they were still taking 2 year olds).

 

otherwise: looking forward to reading everyone's take on this cruise. i will have to write up my own review as well!

 

On the Allure they did do some of the activities that were scheduled, but my daughter was so looking forward to going to the science lab and the crayola center, but they never went as mentioned in the daily activities pages. The one time she didn't go to the kids club towards the end of the week, they finally went to the science lab.

 

I agree that every ship is different and it depends on the counsellors. Some are great .. others not.

[crusinmama06]

DAY 2 - Sea Day - Sunday

 

The day started off with a beautiful sunrise off the balcony. Sometimes the best part of the day is when the rest of the fam is sleeping.

 

 

Today is a busy, busy day packed full with planned activities.

 

11:00 a.m. Cruise Critic Meet N Greet

 

Norwegian does a great job with this for the CC members! They had a nice coffee/tea/juice/snack spread. And most importantly, the officers were there to hand out a pre-printed card with all of their direct numbers on it. ANY problems, give them a call. "You want tucked in at night - call the head of housekeeping - she will come tuck you in" lol It was a nice way to address issues while still on the ship.

 

12:00 p.m. Cruise Critic Slot Pull

 

So we all put $20 into the pot and head to the casino. While we were counting the money and some were going to "let it ride" - a gentleman slides into the slot machine we were using and wins over $1,000 on the 3rd pull. That's how "lucky" we were on the slot pull ; - )

 

1:00 p.m. Nickelodeon Slime Time Live

 

Nickeodeon had activities going on all over the ship and Slime Time Live was a very cool part of that. It was centered around two families (red team and blue team) who I had heard through the grapevine had auditioned on Day 1 to be chosen for the teams. But the families weren't the only ones involved in the show. Audience members - both kids and adults - had to jump up and down to be chosen before each game. My 8 year old jumped her little legs off while my husband slunk down in his seat and kept his eyes on the floor to avoid all eye contact with the Nick Host. GUESS WHO WAS CHOSEN FOR THE SHOW?

 

Video link below....

http://s46.photobucket.com/albums/f144/cruisinmama08/?action=view&current=IMG_09091.mp4

 

Yes, that's my husband - Wanda the Fairy.

 

Moving on...

2:00 p.m. Kids Photo Scavenger Hunt (We organized this)

 

We had a lot of kids sailing with us and we wanted to do a special activity just for them so we organized a Photo Scavenger Hunt with clues that would take them from Slime Time Live to the Climbing wall. The rules - no using the elevators (they wanted to kill us when it was over). All kids from the youngest to the oldest had to appear in the group pictures. And NO bothering crew members or passengers.

 

Here is a copy of the Photo Scavenger Hunt if anyone going on Epic wants to use it. We organized the kids into TWO teams.

 

 

Photo Scavenger Hunt

 

 

Stay in your group. Be safe! Don’t do anything to upset the passengers or crew. Take a picture at each location – must include EVERY member of your group (except picture taker). HAVE FUN!

 

1. Ewwwww, I got slimed here!

2. You won’t find any lions under this big top!

3. I see some Kung Pao Chicken and a side of Hot N Sour Soup in your future.

4. Two stories high – fulfill your sports dreams or go ahead and catch a movie here.

5. Feeling a little disconnected from the outside world? You can log back in here.

6. BRRRRRRRR – COLD! Everything here is Ice, Ice Baby! But you can’t go in until you turn 21!

7. The shoes are ugly. The balls are heavy. But it’s always fun to yell STRIKE!

8. This area is off limits to Adults! PlayStation, Dance Floor, Wii – what else could you ask for? Tweens and Under roam here.

9. When the moon hits your eye like a big PIZZA pie – wow this game is making me hungry.

10. Capture an alien, win a car race or just play pinball here.

11. Round and round you go – don’t get flushed or you WILL be all wet!

12. Bubble, Bubble, Bubble – it sure is HOT in here.

13. Found splashing around – wonder if he is a relative of Patrick Star?

14. I like my eggs served sunny side up. And they are even better served outside facing the sun. So that would make them sunny side up facing a sunny outside.

15. Another area that is off limits to adults. For TEENS only. Whatever!

16. Head to a top deck and find a cage that would entertain Spiderman for hours!

17. You can climb Mt. Everest or just pretend you can!

[QTMichele]

Looking forward to reading more, Michele! Great start. :)

[teachnh]

Love the scavenger hunt! I will use this when we sail in February! Looking forward to the rest of your review! Thanks!:)

[crusinmama06]

Let's try to post some kids Dailies before I continue on - here are the 2 - 5's

 

 

 

 

And the 6 - 9's

 

 

 

[raylene5]

Great review! We have 4 kids ages 2, 4, 7 and 9 and they are begging to do the Epic :)

 

With regards to the kids club, I always wondered if maybe kids who are not used to being in daycare don't like it as much? My kids have only been on a Carnival cruise and they hated being in the kids club. I've always been a stay-at-home mom, fyi. From what I could tell, they offered fun activities but my kids just weren't used to being away from us on vacation like that, with a bunch of strangers.

 

Just a thought :)

[crusinmama06]

I was a work at home mom for over a decade and my kids couldn't wait to get into the kids clubs and play with people their own age ;) So I think it's all about personalities.

 

Here are the TWEEN pages - ages 10 - 12 and right now I don't have the teens (sorry) but I am going to ask a friend and see if he kept them.

 

 

 

[Twinkstarr]

DAY 2 - Sea Day - Sunday

 

The day started off with a beautiful sunrise off the balcony. Sometimes the best part of the day is when the rest of the fam is sleeping.

 

 

Today is a busy, busy day packed full with planned activities.

 

11:00 a.m. Cruise Critic Meet N Greet

 

Norwegian does a great job with this for the CC members! They had a nice coffee/tea/juice/snack spread. And most importantly, the officers were there to hand out a pre-printed card with all of their direct numbers on it. ANY problems, give them a call. "You want tucked in at night - call the head of housekeeping - she will come tuck you in" lol It was a nice way to address issues while still on the ship.

 

12:00 p.m. Cruise Critic Slot Pull

 

So we all put $20 into the pot and head to the casino. While we were counting the money and some were going to "let it ride" - a gentleman slides into the slot machine we were using and wins over $1,000 on the 3rd pull. That's how "lucky" we were on the slot pull ; - )

 

Glad you just told me about the slot pull and the guy with the big payout on our machine, I would have been more miffed last Sunday morning. :D

 

This was my first CC meet & greet(one on Princess last yr didn't get off the ground), very well done by NCL with the drinks/snacks and all the # of high level officiers who showed up.

[crusinmama06]

Oops - double post

[crusinmama06]

 

Glad you just told me about the slot pull and the guy with the big payout on our machine, I would have been more miffed last Sunday morning. :D

 

This was my first CC meet & greet(one on Princess last yr didn't get off the ground), very well done by NCL with the drinks/snacks and all the # of high level officiers who showed up.

 

Patsea was REALLY mad. That man is lucky he made it out of there alive ;)

[sdmike]

Patsea was REALLY mad. That man is lucky he made it out of there alive ;)

 

Time to walk the plank? ;)

[B_Mc]

Crusinmama where are you??? Looking forward to reading more!

[crusinmama06]

Crusinmama where are you??? Looking forward to reading more!

 

Sorry - I leave for one week and it will take me 3 to catch up with everything.

 

Moving on!

 

Day 2 - Sea Day - Continued

 

Time for the Aqua Park!

 

The girls meet up with some new friends and spend quality time in the hot tubs and hit the slides - including the Epic plunge.

 

 

 

And I know before we left I searched high and low for the "minimum height requirements for the slides". Soooo many posts said "there are none" - not quite. The minimum height requirement is 42" tall. And below we have a picture of that sign of the infamous "no diapers" sign which was IGNORED by EVERYONE. There is no enforcement onboard the Epic of the no babies in diapers rule - NONE!

 

This cruise we spent the majority of our time in the Aqua Park - at one point there were THREE BABIES IN EACH HOT TUB! I was sitting next to the hot tub while my kids rode the plunge and they wanted to jump into the hot tubs at this point and I yelled NOOOOOO!

 

These were SMALL 1 year old babies in the hot tubs. What made me cringe were that the parents were bobbing them up and down (yes - the fecal tea bag reference kept going through my mind) And the other adults in the hot tubs kept smiling and oohing all over the babies. Umm - ewwwww!

 

 

And this area below - there is a sign that says "no diapers" but then there is a sign that says "please take your children for frequent bathroom breaks" AND the entire area was filled with non-potty trained tots. During my week I saw many officers walk through the Aqua Park and stoop down to pick up a piece of blowing trash - but not one cast a glance toward the poop soup in the hot tubs.

 

[jdvmd]

Sorry - I leave for one week and it will take me 3 to catch up with everything.

 

Moving on!

 

Day 2 - Sea Day - Continued

 

Time for the Aqua Park!

 

The girls meet up with some new friends and spend quality time in the hot tubs and hit the slides - including the Epic plunge.

 

 

 

And I know before we left I searched high and low for the "minimum height requirements for the slides". Soooo many posts said "there are none" - not quite. The minimum height requirement is 42" tall. And below we have a picture of that sign of the infamous "no diapers" sign which was IGNORED by EVERYONE. There is no enforcement onboard the Epic of the no babies in diapers rule - NONE!

 

This cruise we spent the majority of our time in the Aqua Park - at one point there were THREE BABIES IN EACH HOT TUB! I was sitting next to the hot tub while my kids rode the plunge and they wanted to jump into the hot tubs at this point and I yelled NOOOOOO!

 

These were SMALL 1 year old babies in the hot tubs. What made me cringe were that the parents were bobbing them up and down (yes - the fecal tea bag reference kept going through my mind) And the other adults in the hot tubs kept smiling and oohing all over the babies. Umm - ewwwww!

 

 

And this area below - there is a sign that says "no diapers" but then there is a sign that says "please take your children for frequent bathroom breaks" AND the entire area was filled with non-potty trained tots. During my week I saw many officers walk through the Aqua Park and stoop down to pick up a piece of blowing trash - but not one cast a glance toward the poop soup in the hot tubs.

 

 

That is absolutely disgusting about the babies in diapers in the hot tubs.

[toledo]

For sanitary reasons, we don't use the pools, hot tubs, or the water slides. There are just too many people in too little water.

[Julienatul]

Hi Michelle,

Glad to see you are back from your Epic adventure! I am very anxious to hear about the new kids club program. They hadn't yet changed to the circus theme when we sailed it in March. We are going on the Dawn this March and they will have it. I usually cant keep my older one out of the kids program. My younger one is still afraid and stays with us mostly. Love your pictures and review! I cant believe how big the girls have gotten.

[sdmike]

Michelle - Did you talk to the hotel director about the diaper/baby issue? I would think that this would be a big issue for him if he were aware of it.

[crusinmama06]

Michelle - Did you talk to the hotel director about the diaper/baby issue? I would think that this would be a big issue for him if he were aware of it.

 

No I didn't. My husband ended up saying something to a bartender who he got to know during the week and he called someone over about it. We know they are aware of it. I discussed this after our Gem cruise - the pool crew told a mom with a baby to remove the baby to the "children's pool" where the baby in diapers can swim. (Totally incorrect info)

 

On Epic, the issue was 10x's worse because there were so many young children onboard. We didn't see anyone removing them from the hot tubs OR the pools. Literally at any given time of the day you could pick out at least 5 babies in the pools. It got to be a game of trying to avoid them.

 

Moving on - I finally got my photobucket working again so here is my oldest on the plunge...

 

http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f144/cruisinmama08/EA57DD96-1B8B-45A3-BF35-81FEC9AA8CBF-938-0000008782A7D350.mp4

 

For dinner tonight - MODERNO

 

Ten meats and they just keep on coming! If you have never been, the restaurant is a Churrascaria with everything from fillet mignon, sausage, chicken wrapped in bacon, ribs, lamb chops and more. You have a color card at your setting - Green for GO, Red for STOP. We laughed because no one was paying attention to the colors.

 

It was $20 for the adults - $10 for the kids. This is the restaurant for the serious meat eater.

 

And to top it off - Coconut Flan for dessert - YUM! There's always room for dessert :) no matter how much dead animal you have just consumed.

[crusinmama06]

Day 3 - Monday - Sea Day

 

Yes another beautiful sea day. We have been running so much that another day at sea is fine by us.

 

We slept in and started the day in our favorite buffet for lunch - the Garden Cafe. I never understood the appeal of the pretzel roll - until this cruise. We couldn't get enough of them. It didn't matter the shape - rolls, twists, sticks. We ate them by the dozens and searched for them at all hours of the day!

 

 

 

Today was one of the Nickelodeon Live events at the pool. After jumping up and down for 4 games - my youngest finally gets chosen for the last game. Her fifteen minutes of fame - she gets to put cream pies on a stranger's butt. Lol

 

 

And so tonight is formal night - some of you may have read the last review from me and know that if something can go wrong on a cruise for my 8 year old - it WILL happen on formal night. I need to bubble wrap this child. The last cruise she was headbutted in the kids club (not NCL) and her cheek bone was almost broken and she had to wear sunglasses the rest of the cruise because she was so badly bruised.

 

THIS cruise - it was the green water slide. I guess that slide is a doosey. She went in- got tossed around and hit her head. So a small word of warning to the parents of smaller children. Your child may be taller than the recommended minimum - but you might want to avoid it on formal picture night. Lol

 

The slide...

 

 

The boo boo head...

 

 

And the resulting hairstyle that came about because she didn't want to show her boo boo head lol

 

[sdmike]

hahah! Love the "doo". You didn't introduce to the magic of coverup? ;)

[kerrytens]

Ahhhh, poor little thing but at least you all end up being very creative in fixing the issue:D

 

Loving your review, btw

[crusinmama06]

I will be posting many professional pictures from the ship. So I should address that now.

 

The most awesome part - the Epic has some sort of facial recognition going on that when you go into the Photo Center there is no need to look for your family on the wall. Simply go to your cabin number binder or use a kiosk and there you are. If you notice a missing picture - THEN you can look on the wall. AMAZING technology!!!

 

The prices are $19.99 for the 8x10s and when we went to our binder after the 2nd night we already had over 30 pictures we wanted {gulp} - (yes, I am a SUCKER who cannot walk away from a picture of her children - it's my one big expense on a cruise)

 

Unlimited Package to the rescue! For $249 you can take as many pictures as you like and walk away with them ALL on disk at the end of the cruise! If you want the prints and the disk - that was higher - in the 300's

 

So we bought the Unlimited Package. And we made it a point to get pictures taken everywhere.

 

There was another package for $149 - walk away with ten 8x10's

 

The disk does come with a photo release. So as soon as I got home - I sent them all to WalMart.

 

 

And yes - the ship is decorated for the holidays. And we took advantage of getting Christmas photos :)

 

[crusinmama06]

Blue Man Group! What can I say? This ship has the most incredible entertainment line up! My girls only vaguely knew what a blue man was before we left for the cruise. They were begging for t-shirts before we left the ship! Lol

 

(Note to Norwegian - get Blue Man shirts in KID SIZES please! Not all children want a Dora or Spongebob shirt)

 

So now we own Blue Man Group night shirt dresses ;)

 

We booked for Monday at 10pm and we arrived about 30 minutes in advance. And right up to the front row we went. We placed the raincoats (provided) over our formal wear and got ready to be covered in paint. And guess what? Not one spot!

 

But we did get to swim in a sea of toilet paper.

 

 

 

 

[crusinmama06]

Day 4 - Tuesday - St. Martin

 

Good morning to a glorious St. Martin! We arrived first and were soon joined by Grand Princess and RCI Vision OTS.

 

 

Our traditional "We are off the ship!" picture

 

 

We got off without a tour booked. We knew we wanted to go to Orient Beach and we knew we didn't want to pay the cruise line $63 pp to get there. And as always, it couldn't be easier to find our way. There were 4 taxi stands set up with the posted prices for every main attraction all over the island. Very easy!

 

The posted price was $8.00 per person. BUT the taxi driver dropped it down to $6.00 per person because we had a full van (BLESS HIM!)

 

We arrived at Orient and paid $20.00 for two "front row" cushioned umbrella chairs (it was $10 for back row lol).

 

And we spent the rest of the day in perfect relaxation mode

 

 

Well, some of us can't relax and spent the day doing what they do best - burning off pent up energy

 

 

 

 

***Note to parents*** Orient beach is on the French side of the island so topless sunbathing is allowed. On the far side is a clothing optional beach club - no one from that area comes down out of "Club Orient". But forewarn your children that they will see more than they may be accustomed to.

 

We had a beautiful day. And when we were ready to head back to the ship we simply packed up and walked back to a line of waiting taxies - again $6.00pp

 

A fabulous day - not a lot of money.

[crusinmama06]

Night 4 - Pirate Night

 

We had made the mistake of booking Legends before we got onboard and tonight is Pirate Night. The girls didn't want to miss taking over the ship ;)

 

 

 

The parade began in the Garden Cafe and walked through the shops. This is a "not to miss" for all families with younger children.