Epic review 1/18

[debnjoe1438]

Thanks. And it is only for people in suites? We will check out Spice H20.

 

Posh - yes is only for those in suites and a few who purchase a posh pass.

[motleyfan]

I know I like to read feedback before booking, so here is my take on the Epic 1/18 cruise. I'll write a full review when I get the chance, but here's a quick summary for now.

 

FWIW we are a couple in their 20s/30s and we were booked in room 11264 (MA).

 

Visually, the ship is beautiful. Everything is in very good condition, LED lighting everywhere, colours are bright and the trim is really nice.

 

Nicest stateroom I’ve ever had. Felt large comparing to other rooms I’ve had before, again really nice trim and finish, larger than most balcony.

 

The public spaces are hit and miss. LOTS of layout problems: very narrow paths to get around decks 5-6-7 and 4000+ people who seem to have a fascination with congregating in narrow areas. Lots of congestion. Just bad layout decisions in many cases, you can’t even walk 2 people wide sometimes in the main walking paths. In one example, the line for the specialty coffee shop runs 90 degrees into a one 1m wide walking path to the bathrooms. Very poor planning.

 

The casino is very intrusive. It takes up more than half of deck 6 and is open air to the main dining room and several specialty restaurants, as well as being open to adjoining decks half the time. That means smoke everywhere. Really bad layout again.

 

The headliner entertainment was the best we’ve seen at see as far as the shows go: Blue Man Group was fantastic. (This replaces the nightly shows, so you only get one evening show instead of seven, but the quality was worth it) We did not see the Cirque show as pricing was very high ($30-40pp). Other entertainment was laughable at best. It’s like they asked the crew to fill in because they forgot to hire singers: all of them were terribly off-key (cringe-worthy). They also had a “hypnotist” that was just overdone and repetitive.

 

The food was just awful. Usually over or undercooked, very inconsistent — two plates of the same order will look completely different and have different portion sizes, missing garnish, etc. Most food is very bland, no seasoning. It’s to the point where we had to try two of the specialty restaurants because the food was so unappetizing. We tried the noodle bar and the sushi bar. Both were passable, but they were buffet quality at best.

 

The service was very underwhelming. Most people seemed like they really didn’t want to be there and barely spoke to us (think grumpy diner server). A few people were really great, but it wasn’t the norm. It was frequent to have different people give contradicting information, especially when trying to book restaurant reservations. Stateroom service was good.

 

The outdoor spaces were ok. You could typically find loungers if you weren’t picky about where they were.

 

NCL did tone down the annoying “washy-washy” songs we often heard on the Dawn.

 

The new digital screens everywhere were convenient for making reservations or booking tender times (yes, you could book them! That was a nice surprise).

 

Alcohol policy: Instead of delivering your purchases to your room on the last day, they now make everyone line up on the top deck outside in a queue to claim them. Unbelievable to make the entire ship wait in one line for so long for something they had a perfectly good system for. Thankfully we did not have to wait in that line.

 

The Ice Bar was great! The bartender was the best one on the ship. He made sure you had a good time and was very generous in keeping your drinks topped up.

 

The crowds: lots of children, not very classy overall. No excessive drunkenness or belligerence, but just a lack of common courtesy and self-awareness.

 

 

Overall: NCL really feels like a budget line. If I can get a week on a balcony for $500, I would possibly book again, but it is going to be far from my first choice.

 

You really missed out by not going to the Cirque show, it cost extra for a reason it was amazing. It's definitely more of an adult show no nudity or anything but very sexual.

 

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[TheWulf]

You really missed out by not going to the Cirque show, it cost extra for a reason it was amazing. It's definitely more of an adult show no nudity or anything but very sexual.

 

Sounds interesting, but the main reason we didn't go was that we heard several comments that the food served was sub-par. My gf is also not a big fan of these types of shows.

 

Thanks for the comments on why there were so many kids! Shall keep this in mind for next year, I never thought about jewish schools being on a different schedules but that explains a lot.

[Pailful in ohio]

Noted....I will never book a cruise that week again. Lesson learned the hard way.