Just back from Epic 11/23-30. Quick Review

[20165]

We just got off the Epic yesterday and were a little concerned about some of the negative reviews we read prior to the cruise so I wanted to post a quick review to let folks know our cruise was excellent! We have been on many cruise, at least 20+, and I would rank this in the top 5. We are a family of 4, DH 43, DW, 41, two sons, 10 and 7yo. We usually cruise over thanksgiving and since having kids, have only been cruising RCL and Carnival. Prior to kids, we loved Princess and HAL, but have been sticking to the more kid friendly lines. For whatever reason, we haven’t tried NCL until now and glad we did. Our comparison below is mostly to RCL and Carnival experiences.

 

Ship – Very well laid out. We were on Carnival Dream last year and always felt crowded and packed in the public areas. Not on Epic. Very well laid out and the crowds seemed to be well dispersed. Even over the thanksgiving holiday. The pool did get crowded on sea days, but we just went early and got chairs. I think having such a big adult only section in the back of the ship helped keep the pools less crowded.

 

Cabins and staff– This is the only negative thing I have to say about the cruise. I read they were odd cabins and we did not like not having a bathroom. We had 2 connecting balcony cabins, one family cabin and one regular balcony and they were small. I can’t imagine 4 people in that family balcony. We are not big people and were constantly having to crawl over each other to get around. The regular balcony cabin was really small, but ok for the kids. The staff seemed happy and very helpful. We didn’t experience anything but positive attitude from anyone. The kids club staff that we did run into during some of the activities such as balloon twisting and bandana coloring were very happy and energetic. I think the NIckeoldeon theme was also very unique.

 

Entertainment – Excellent – Our kids loved it all. Blue man group, Circus, Legends, and even second city. They were way better than the las vegas style shows on the other lines. Kids were glued to their seats. Made the evenings very enjoyable.

 

Restaurants and bars – We only ate at pay restaurants and they were all excellent. Sorry can’t remember the names of all of them off the top of my head, but we did Shanghai, hibachi, Italian, French, and the steak house. Service was excellent at all and we did most with the kids and they loved it. Keep in mind that there is no fire on the ship so hibachi was not the fire show they are use to, but still very good and they were entertained. Osheeans was also very good and a great place to watch the thanksgiving day games. We also loved the ice bar. We took the kids in which cost us $80 total ,but they loved it so I think it was worth it. Got some great pics. And its cold. We could only stand about 15 – 20 min even with the coats. Also, we only made reservations at 1 of the speciality restaurants. All of the other times we went, we just walked up and they seated us. No wait and we went during prime time. For the $15-30 per person, it was worth it for us to be able to eat whenever wherever we want.

 

Pools and Kids activities – Our kids didn’t use the kids club so I can’t comment on that, but they loved the game room, bungie jumping and of course the water slides which we also enjoyed. The tube slide did get crowded on the sea days, but the non tube ones lines stayed pretty short. The pools were also fresh water which was refreshing and keep my kids in them longer. The main pool deck area seemed to have more lounge chairs. Like I said, it did fill up during sea days, but felt more spread out than other ships. Also, the bowling was great. The kids and DH loved it. The movement of the ship did affect the ball, but who cares. Just more of a challenge. Neat idea.

 

Value – This cruise is definitely one of the better values from recent past cruises. The Cabins were less expensive than RCL and on par with Carnival. Our shipboard account was much less than RCL and about equal to Carnival. So, it cost about as much as our carnival cruise last year, possibly a little less, and we enjoyed it a lot more.

 

Summary – If you have read some of my past reviews, you will see that I’m a pretty tough grader and I give this cruise a solid A. Quite honestly, I’m surprised. I went into this cruise hoping it would be at least on par with Carnival and ended up being much better than carnival and possibly better than RCL, but we haven’t been on Oasis or Allure yet. We are definitely going to book another NCL next year and will hopefully have the same experience. Bravo NCL!!!

[abbo1963]

thanks for your review glad to hear some positive things and a fair review

[kcwingwalker]

Thanks for sharing your review and glad you had a great cruise:)

[Sauer-kraut]

Thanks for sharing your comparisons, glad you enjoyed your NCL cruise!:D

[xcell]

hi

 

our family is almost exactly the same age as yours except we have two girls...

 

did they charge less for the kids at the specialty restaurants?

 

did the kids try the rock climbing wall or the trampoline?

 

how about the ports - were you eastern or western???

[20165]

hi

 

our family is almost exactly the same age as yours except we have two girls...

 

did they charge less for the kids at the specialty restaurants?

 

did the kids try the rock climbing wall or the trampoline?

 

how about the ports - were you eastern or western???

 

I think the price was the same, but the ones that were $30 may have been half price for the kids. Im looking at my cabin room charges and the la cucina restaurant charge was $57 for the 4 of us and im sure i left an additioanl tip. Teppanyaki was 80.61 but that probably included drinks and a tip. Cagneys was $102, but we ordered wine.

 

They didnt do rock climbing, but loved the trampoline. Did that multiple times.

 

We were eastern carib. We did mostly snorkeling at each port with the exception of Nassau because of weather. We have been to the ports many times so we pretty much had that down pat.

 

Thx

[20165]

BTW, for the last poster, you will want to bring your daughters iphones or ipods and download the iconcierge app. For $8 per day per device, it will allow you to unlimited call and txt them anywhere on the ship. That was huge for us if they wanted to go to the arcade or somewhere on their own. We would have them call in every 30 min or we would call them. Worked great on both iphones and ipod touches.

Thx

[xcell]

Call them from ship phones or your own iPhone/ipads or both?

 

In St Thomas did you ever venture out to st John's? ? Or were your excursions ship or on your own?

 

Thanks for the help. ...

 

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Forums mobile app

[starryeyz79]

BTW, for the last poster, you will want to bring your daughters iphones or ipods and download the iconcierge app. For $8 per day per device, it will allow you to unlimited call and txt them anywhere on the ship. That was huge for us if they wanted to go to the arcade or somewhere on their own. We would have them call in every 30 min or we would call them. Worked great on both iphones and ipod touches.

Thx

 

It's just a one time $8 per device. We used it and it was wonderful, although there were some connection issues at times ;)

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

[TracieABD]

Thanks for the review!

[Cubechick]

It's just a one time $8 per device. We used it and it was wonderful, although there were some connection issues at times ;)

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Forums mobile app

 

I thought $8 per device per day seemed very high!

[mj]

Thanks for the review.

[Keith1010]

Enjoyed your review and glad you were pleased with your cruise.

 

Keith

[dexddd]

hi

 

our family is almost exactly the same age as yours except we have two girls...

 

did they charge less for the kids at the specialty restaurants?

 

did the kids try the rock climbing wall or the trampoline?

 

how about the ports - were you eastern or western???

 

Kids 4-12 are half price at the pay restaurants.

[LISRAREF]

Just a couple questions based on some of the other recent reviews:

 

1) Did the ship seem understaffed at all? Many reviewers have been saying it seemed understaffed possibly due to the typhoon...

 

2) How was the ships movement? Reviewers seem to be all over the place on this one, some saying the ship moves like a roller coaster and some saying its the same as any other ship.....

 

3) How was the debarkation when you got home? Quick and Efficient?

 

Thanks and glad to hear you all enjoyed your cruise!

[Demonyte]

Kids 4-12 are half price at the pay restaurants.

 

And completely free when they eat off the regular kids menu (the same one in all restaurants).

[Coastal8]

We just got off the Epic yesterday and were a little concerned about some of the negative reviews we read prior to the cruise so I wanted to post a quick review to let folks know our cruise was excellent! We have been on many cruise, at least 20+, and I would rank this in the top 5. We are a family of 4, DH 43, DW, 41, two sons, 10 and 7yo. We usually cruise over thanksgiving and since having kids, have only been cruising RCL and Carnival. Prior to kids, we loved Princess and HAL, but have been sticking to the more kid friendly lines. For whatever reason, we haven’t tried NCL until now and glad we did. Our comparison below is mostly to RCL and Carnival experiences.

 

Ship – Very well laid out. We were on Carnival Dream last year and always felt crowded and packed in the public areas. Not on Epic. Very well laid out and the crowds seemed to be well dispersed. Even over the thanksgiving holiday. The pool did get crowded on sea days, but we just went early and got chairs. I think having such a big adult only section in the back of the ship helped keep the pools less crowded.

 

Cabins and staff– This is the only negative thing I have to say about the cruise. I read they were odd cabins and we did not like not having a bathroom. We had 2 connecting balcony cabins, one family cabin and one regular balcony and they were small. I can’t imagine 4 people in that family balcony. We are not big people and were constantly having to crawl over each other to get around. The regular balcony cabin was really small, but ok for the kids. The staff seemed happy and very helpful. We didn’t experience anything but positive attitude from anyone. The kids club staff that we did run into during some of the activities such as balloon twisting and bandana coloring were very happy and energetic. I think the NIckeoldeon theme was also very unique.

 

Entertainment – Excellent – Our kids loved it all. Blue man group, Circus, Legends, and even second city. They were way better than the las vegas style shows on the other lines. Kids were glued to their seats. Made the evenings very enjoyable.

 

Restaurants and bars – We only ate at pay restaurants and they were all excellent. Sorry can’t remember the names of all of them off the top of my head, but we did Shanghai, hibachi, Italian, French, and the steak house. Service was excellent at all and we did most with the kids and they loved it. Keep in mind that there is no fire on the ship so hibachi was not the fire show they are use to, but still very good and they were entertained. Osheeans was also very good and a great place to watch the thanksgiving day games. We also loved the ice bar. We took the kids in which cost us $80 total ,but they loved it so I think it was worth it. Got some great pics. And its cold. We could only stand about 15 – 20 min even with the coats. Also, we only made reservations at 1 of the speciality restaurants. All of the other times we went, we just walked up and they seated us. No wait and we went during prime time. For the $15-30 per person, it was worth it for us to be able to eat whenever wherever we want.

 

Pools and Kids activities – Our kids didn’t use the kids club so I can’t comment on that, but they loved the game room, bungie jumping and of course the water slides which we also enjoyed. The tube slide did get crowded on the sea days, but the non tube ones lines stayed pretty short. The pools were also fresh water which was refreshing and keep my kids in them longer. The main pool deck area seemed to have more lounge chairs. Like I said, it did fill up during sea days, but felt more spread out than other ships. Also, the bowling was great. The kids and DH loved it. The movement of the ship did affect the ball, but who cares. Just more of a challenge. Neat idea.

 

Value – This cruise is definitely one of the better values from recent past cruises. The Cabins were less expensive than RCL and on par with Carnival. Our shipboard account was much less than RCL and about equal to Carnival. So, it cost about as much as our carnival cruise last year, possibly a little less, and we enjoyed it a lot more.

 

Summary – If you have read some of my past reviews, you will see that I’m a pretty tough grader and I give this cruise a solid A. Quite honestly, I’m surprised. I went into this cruise hoping it would be at least on par with Carnival and ended up being much better than carnival and possibly better than RCL, but we haven’t been on Oasis or Allure yet. We are definitely going to book another NCL next year and will hopefully have the same experience. Bravo NCL!!!

 

We have cruised 18 times on virtually all the lines and were very very unhappy with the Epic. We had a group of nine family members with one balcony room and 3 insides. I have never, ever experienced such POOR service on ANY cruise line, especially in the dining rooms. We ate at both Taste and the Manhattan room, as well as Le Bistro. The waitstaff was rude and overworked with absolutely no personal service whatsoever. Our food was often cold, subpar, and incorrect. But is this any wonder with the institution of Any Time Dining? We sat in the dining room for HOURS--and that was only after a wait for a table of often an hour each and very evening. You will never get to know any wait staff since they change nightly. They have no reason to provide exemplary service since they have already been tipped and have no hope of earning tips above and beyond this pathetic amount, so they just don't care. Who can blame them? It is just SAD. We have always tipped our waiter and assistant above and beyond the specified grat amount, but we tipped out no one but our room steward this time. And mostly because we just simply felt sorry for him, not because he was super. We only received two sets of everything repeatedly for three people.

We missed one show at 9:30 even after leaving without desert or coffee. The staff in O'Sheehans was downright surly and offensive. They behaved as if you were ruining their day, and if you were not there to order alcohol (instead of using your soda card or just ordering food) they would rather you just leave and made that abundantly clear. I've never seen a collective group of employees who acted as if all they wanted to do was get off the boat at the next stop and go home. We were stunned to find that in Le Bistro, after already paying the extra $20/person, several of the best menu items had an added $10 charge. Really? And our waitress advised us that only one entree per person was allowed. We ordered the scallop appetizer and they arrived looking like overcooked pencil erasers. And that's exactly what they tasted like, too. The worst $180 we ever spent. We had bragged about this spot since we had eaten there on the Sun or the Dawn and found it terrific. It was supposed to be my son's engagement celebration. Awful food with service to match.

We hated that all traffic to anywhere was routed through the smoke filled casino. Two members of our party are allergic to smoke and suffered the entire cruise.

The low ceilings and casino open to the dining room did not help matters.

I won't even talk about the utterly stupid room design for a mom, dad, and a fifteen year old with the split bathroom and a curtain. And a fifteen year old six foot boy sleeping on that curved couch that was literally smaller than a twin bed with his feet hanging off?? Really? We could barely move in that room without turning sideways or having someone crawl up on the bed. Changing for dinner?? Forget about it.

The pools were the size of kiddie wading pools and that's exactly what they turned into. And adult could not even get cooled off without getting sprayed or splashed or run over. Add to that the POLKA BAND on deck for Thanksgiving. WHAT??

We will be sailing Celebrity or RCL from now on.

[20165]

I thought $8 per device per day seemed very high!

 

$8 per device total for the week. We connected 4 devices so $32 total for the week. Excellent value for us. I agree with an earlier posted that we did have a couple connectivity issues, mainly on the pool upper decks, but it didn't happen too often. Not enough for us to really notice.

thx

[20165]

Call them from ship phones or your own iPhone/ipads or both?

 

In St Thomas did you ever venture out to st John's? ? Or were your excursions ship or on your own?

 

Thanks for the help. ...

 

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Forums mobile app

 

we called from iPhone/ipod to iPhone/ipod. Not sure if you can do it from the ship phones to iPads or iPods. We never tried. You might be able to though because it looked like the system gave each device a 'phone number'

[20165]

Just a couple questions based on some of the other recent reviews:

 

1) Did the ship seem understaffed at all? Many reviewers have been saying it seemed understaffed possibly due to the typhoon...

 

2) How was the ships movement? Reviewers seem to be all over the place on this one, some saying the ship moves like a roller coaster and some saying its the same as any other ship.....

 

3) How was the debarkation when you got home? Quick and Efficient?

 

Thanks and glad to hear you all enjoyed your cruise!

 

1. Not in our opinion. Seemed to have more staff than Carnival Dream last year. we didn't have any problems finding someone to help us if needed.

2. We experienced horrible movement last year on the Dream, in fact i think that was in my review. There was movement, but not bad in our opinion and the seas were somewhat rough at time. White caps.

3.Unbelievable easy. We used the bags program and it was awesome. We basically woke up at 7, had breakfast, got the pictures, and walked right off the ship around 9-930. no lines at all. Maybe 10-15 people in front of us. From the time we walked out of our stateroom until we were standing in front of customs was maybe 10-15 minutes. Very easy. In fact, easiest one i can remember.

[tiffygirl]

We have cruised 18 times on virtually all the lines and were very very unhappy with the Epic. We had a group of nine family members with one balcony room and 3 insides. I have never, ever experienced such POOR service on ANY cruise line, especially in the dining rooms. We ate at both Taste and the Manhattan room, as well as Le Bistro. The waitstaff was rude and overworked with absolutely no personal service whatsoever. Our food was often cold, subpar, and incorrect. But is this any wonder with the institution of Any Time Dining? We sat in the dining room for HOURS--and that was only after a wait for a table of often an hour each and very evening. You will never get to know any wait staff since they change nightly. They have no reason to provide exemplary service since they have already been tipped and have no hope of earning tips above and beyond this pathetic amount, so they just don't care. Who can blame them? It is just SAD. We have always tipped our waiter and assistant above and beyond the specified grat amount, but we tipped out no one but our room steward this time. And mostly because we just simply felt sorry for him, not because he was super. We only received two sets of everything repeatedly for three people.

We missed one show at 9:30 even after leaving without desert or coffee. The staff in O'Sheehans was downright surly and offensive. They behaved as if you were ruining their day, and if you were not there to order alcohol (instead of using your soda card or just ordering food) they would rather you just leave and made that abundantly clear. I've never seen a collective group of employees who acted as if all they wanted to do was get off the boat at the next stop and go home. We were stunned to find that in Le Bistro, after already paying the extra $20/person, several of the best menu items had an added $10 charge. Really? And our waitress advised us that only one entree per person was allowed. We ordered the scallop appetizer and they arrived looking like overcooked pencil erasers. And that's exactly what they tasted like, too. The worst $180 we ever spent. We had bragged about this spot since we had eaten there on the Sun or the Dawn and found it terrific. It was supposed to be my son's engagement celebration. Awful food with service to match.

We hated that all traffic to anywhere was routed through the smoke filled casino. Two members of our party are allergic to smoke and suffered the entire cruise.

The low ceilings and casino open to the dining room did not help matters.

I won't even talk about the utterly stupid room design for a mom, dad, and a fifteen year old with the split bathroom and a curtain. And a fifteen year old six foot boy sleeping on that curved couch that was literally smaller than a twin bed with his feet hanging off?? Really? We could barely move in that room without turning sideways or having someone crawl up on the bed. Changing for dinner?? Forget about it.

The pools were the size of kiddie wading pools and that's exactly what they turned into. And adult could not even get cooled off without getting sprayed or splashed or run over. Add to that the POLKA BAND on deck for Thanksgiving. WHAT??

We will be sailing Celebrity or RCL from now on.

 

Enjoy your RCL and Celebrity cruises:cool:

[mommom1]

We are going on Epic in Jan. and I was a little worried with some of the reviews, but feeling better now. Thanks again for review!

[xcell]

looking at costal8's cruises - they were all smaller ships...

 

i havent been on many smaller ones because i dont find much to do on them and prefer the bigger ones.

 

not sure how the epic will compare to rccl but willing to try and get back to everyone.

[jbtyler927]

Thanks for the review, made me excited for January!!:)

[emcelh]

We have cruised 18 times on virtually all the lines and were very very unhappy with the Epic. We had a group of nine family members with one balcony room and 3 insides. I have never, ever experienced such POOR service on ANY cruise line, especially in the dining rooms. We ate at both Taste and the Manhattan room, as well as Le Bistro. The waitstaff was rude and overworked with absolutely no personal service whatsoever. Our food was often cold, subpar, and incorrect. But is this any wonder with the institution of Any Time Dining? We sat in the dining room for HOURS--and that was only after a wait for a table of often an hour each and very evening. You will never get to know any wait staff since they change nightly. They have no reason to provide exemplary service since they have already been tipped and have no hope of earning tips above and beyond this pathetic amount, so they just don't care. Who can blame them? It is just SAD. We have always tipped our waiter and assistant above and beyond the specified grat amount, but we tipped out no one but our room steward this time. And mostly because we just simply felt sorry for him, not because he was super. We only received two sets of everything repeatedly for three people.

We missed one show at 9:30 even after leaving without desert or coffee. The staff in O'Sheehans was downright surly and offensive. They behaved as if you were ruining their day, and if you were not there to order alcohol (instead of using your soda card or just ordering food) they would rather you just leave and made that abundantly clear. I've never seen a collective group of employees who acted as if all they wanted to do was get off the boat at the next stop and go home. We were stunned to find that in Le Bistro, after already paying the extra $20/person, several of the best menu items had an added $10 charge. Really? And our waitress advised us that only one entree per person was allowed. We ordered the scallop appetizer and they arrived looking like overcooked pencil erasers. And that's exactly what they tasted like, too. The worst $180 we ever spent. We had bragged about this spot since we had eaten there on the Sun or the Dawn and found it terrific. It was supposed to be my son's engagement celebration. Awful food with service to match.

We hated that all traffic to anywhere was routed through the smoke filled casino. Two members of our party are allergic to smoke and suffered the entire cruise.

The low ceilings and casino open to the dining room did not help matters.

I won't even talk about the utterly stupid room design for a mom, dad, and a fifteen year old with the split bathroom and a curtain. And a fifteen year old six foot boy sleeping on that curved couch that was literally smaller than a twin bed with his feet hanging off?? Really? We could barely move in that room without turning sideways or having someone crawl up on the bed. Changing for dinner?? Forget about it.

The pools were the size of kiddie wading pools and that's exactly what they turned into. And adult could not even get cooled off without getting sprayed or splashed or run over. Add to that the POLKA BAND on deck for Thanksgiving. WHAT??

We will be sailing Celebrity or RCL from now on.

 

People can have completely different experiences and issues for one may not be a concern for someone else. Neither is right or wrong. I read reviews mostly for information (and sometimes entertainment) understanding that the review is just someone's opinion just as the ones that I've written are only my opinion.