An Epic Cruise & Aft Balcony Review (with pics) - W. Caribbean - Feb. 8-15, 2015

[marciemi]

Epic Review - February 8-15th, 2015

 

Long time member of Cruise Critic but haven't done too many reviews so we'll see how this goes! D&H & I have each done 13 cruises before this one, over about twice as many years and a wide variety of cruiselines. Our last NCL cruise was on the Norway back in 1991, shortly after we both returned from the first Gulf War, so it's been awhile! We just got off the Epic on Sunday from a 7 Day Western Caribbean Cruise and wanted to share our many thoughts, experiences, and perceptions (and a few pictures - sorry, we didn't do a great job in this regard) - particularly since I'd read so many reviews here before we left, trying to learn all I could about the ship and assume others are the same way. I feel like I'm going to break the mold a little bit here though, since it seemed like so many of the reviews I read were mostly negative.

 

In short, we LOVED the cruise! Going in, we had no intentions of buying the $250 return offer but ended up doing it on the last day. We thought NCL was just echelons above Carnival (our last few cruises) in terms of the ship, dining, service, entertainment and everything. Obviously not everything was perfect but so many things were just incredible. I don't plan to break this down into an itinerary (do you really care what we did from day to day?) but just do some summary posts of some of the bad (yes, there was some), the good, the different ports, entertainment, dining, drinks, staff, etc.,etc. I'll throw in whatever pics I have but warn they may be more of us than the ship. I'll also try to compare what I was told or read in reviews with what we actually found. I'll also talk about the cabin and being in an aft balcony (8216), which most of our recent cruises (all since 2003) have been. Also, we had the free UBP as a perk and paid for the UDP as well so I'll touch on those too (along with most of the specialty restaurants).

 

Going in, I was more than a bit leery about the size of the ship. We'd never been on a ship nearly this large, the closest was the RCL Voyager back in 2004. But it turned out that we honestly we felt the Voyager felt WAY bigger and far more congested. We were aft on that one and hated having to go back to the cabin (and were 10+ years younger then!). Here it seemed like no big deal and we were about as far back as you could be with a nearly central aft balcony. I never felt like there were 4000 people - well, maybe getting off the last morning. :) But we're usually type A early people anyway so would normally be early for a show and probably as a result never had trouble getting seats (we always sat in the second row on an aisle in Headliners - went to the one Second City show we had tickets for and Howl at the Moon pretty much every night they performed).

 

I'll start with a couple pictures from the first day just to see how this goes and make sure I know what I'm doing.

 

Embarkation was one of the issues we had. We drove up from Orlando that morning so arrived at the port about 10:45. Knew we wouldn't be first on the ship but didn't have any particular rush other than wanting to get the party started! DH dropped me and all our luggage (too much since we were driving to a port for the first time!) off and went and parked and was back moments later. (Apparently a quick walk from the garage to check-in). We went through security and got our card and were in boarding group 19. Sat down to wait (it was about 11:15 my this time). About 1140, people started lining up. They didn't make any announcements and no one seemed to know what to do but we figured they must be VIP's (or one of the 18 groups ahead of us). We continued to wait and I finally sent DH over to ask people in line if they called groups (or we were missing flashing numbers somewhere like Carnival has). No one knew - basically they'd all gotten in line because people were in line. So we joined the line and boarded a few minutes later. No one asked our boarding number or for our card - apparently it was first come, first served. I've never read about anyone else with this issue so can only guess their announcement system wasn't working or something similar. In any case, waiting to board:

 

 

Embarkation Photo - it was nice that they did this before you actually started the boarding while you were just waiting around anyway. Made the actual getting on the ship go more quickly. A really crummy snap of our embarkation photo (I need to figure out scanning here soon):

 

 

 

I'll be back later with more, promise!

Edited February 18, 2015 by marciemi

[amydandrea]

I'm excited to hear more, I booked the cabin next to that and can't wait to see pics if u have any!!

 

 

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2015 Epic

2014 Breakaway

2013 Epic

2012 Gem

2011 Gem

2008 Explorer of the Seas

[Trynity]

We just booked our 2nd NCL cruise, and it happens to be the EPIC, so I am really looking forward to your review and photos.

 

Thanks so much for sharing with us !

[mickeysgal]

Looking forward to your review. Have an Epic cruise coming up myself and lately these negative reviews have me hesitant. Glad you had a good time.

[ilovetotravel1977]

How much do those photos cost?

[david_sobe]

Cant wait to read more :)

[marciemi]

Haven't had time for another segment yet but will at least answer questions and get to one tomorrow. We do have balcony pics but not great ones - hard to do since it's not huge and hard to get the right angle. It came with only 2 regular chairs and a tiny table but first thing we did was go over to the "secret" stairwell (on each corner) and there were several loungers there on various levels (I think people use it as kind of a secret balcony area as well). We just swapped out the chairs for loungers and two fit nicely on the balcony. When we were up at Spice H2O a bit later we grabbed another small table as well.

 

The pics ranged from $12.95 to $19.95 I think. We only got the one above and one formal one which were the $12.95/$19.95 respectively but I think there might have been a middle range one too. They had a deal where you could get 10 pics for $129 I think and something more for 20 pics if you wanted a lot (we had well over that number of pics and didn't really make an effort to get them taken but they came around at most of the specialty restaurants) but we just stuck with these.

[kenlyn]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. I was two decks directly above you! We had a fantastic time too!

[tomsuelaw]

So glad you enjoyed your trip! I am interested to get you POV!

[PathfinderEss]

Really enjoying your review, looking forward to more of it.

[Shayhooper]

We were on the same cruise. I'm looking forward to your review.

[baxter44]

I'm in 8216 on 3/15!! Can't wait to see pics and hear all the great information - I'm glad you had a great trip :)

[lbrandon]

30 day countdown to our cruise on Epic has started. It'll be our second time on this ship. Can't wait!

[BritChickBN1]

Looking forward to your review.

[Ali70]

I'm on the April 5th sailing. Thanks for taking the time to do a review.

[marciemi]

Okay, we'll start with the bad, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone unless they've never read an Epic review before. The cabin was crazy small. I totally agree with everyone there. We came home and I honestly think our master bathroom in this house is bigger than our cabin was. Really. (And we don't live in a mansion - just Florida where for some reason they feel everyone needs a huge master bath. And separate tub and clear glass shower. And no door to the bedroom. But I digress...). The cabin bathroom was fine for us (we've been married almost 27 years and see my last comment about our home bath) but I hated the sink outside the bathroom not for any of the reasons anyone else gave (splashing, etc.) but because I like to sleep in the darkness (used electric tape to cover all the stupid glowing red & green lights in the cabin) so without turning on a light (and couldn't use my phone since it was plugged in way on the other side of the cabin in the exactly one outlet - bring a power strip! - and couldn't run it by my bed without a cord going across the small amount of floor space) I couldn't see to get up and get a drink of water, take a pill, grab some mouthwash, etc. We kept a glow bracelet (bought a pack of 12 for $1 at Michaels) in the corner of the toilet room each night which worked fine for that but not for the sink. So although the bathroom for the most part worked for us, I wouldn't like the bathroom situation with say one of my college-aged boys or even my mom.

 

And we had the bed by the bathroom which was great for me in the middle of the night but really inconvenient for using the sink (DH pretty much had to be on my side of the bed) or the hair dryer/vanity (I pretty much had to be on his). And of course no one could get by. Also, although I think the bed is a normal size for starters, it's curved on both ends (all 4 corners) so unless you sleep in the exact middle (which of course is nearly impossible since it's really 2 beds), it's much shorter on the sides. I'm 5'9 and DH is 6'2. We found if we pulled the beds out from the wall about 6 inches at bedtime (and used a small/travel pillow) that we fit much better, but of course this cut into the minimal space you already had there. Honestly, he had to squeeze to get by the foot of my bed (probably only about 4-6" of space there then) to get to the bathroom during the night. Also, there was no chair or table in the cabin. When we got room service we just set it on the sofa and ate out on the balcony. There was a stool at the vanity but honestly no room to pull it out to sit on it unless you were very thin and squished up to the counter!

 

Finally, one more issue that I've never seen anyone else bring up so maybe we were just "lucky" was the room temperature. Given the choice, since it was 70's during the day and 60's at night for the most part, I would have just liked to turn off the thermostat. That wasn't an option, but it had up/down buttons with about 15 different choices, starting at the very top in red (hot - we'll call this #1), going down to the very bottom in blue (cold, we'll call this #15). We found if we kept it near the middle, it was FREEZING in the cabin. Tried gradually moving up a notch at a time and got all the way to #3 and it was still too cold. Put it on #2, went to dinner, and came back to a sauna (seriously probably over 100 degrees). Went back to 3 - cold. Seemed like it had to blow air all the time and your choices were 1 or 2 (hot air) or 3-15 (cold air). We finally kept it on 3 but took out the things they use on your bed to put your luggage on (and an extra pillowcase) and covered up all the vents so while it was still blowing cold air, most of it was blocked. And kept the balcony open most of the time to get warmer air in.

 

The better parts of the cabin - the shower was fine and larger than most cruise ships' and of course no stupid plastic curtain to stick to you. Once we figured out the temperature on it (kept turning the wrong knob - one did pressure and one did temp we finally figured out), it was fine as was the pressure. Same with the toilet - plenty of space and the opaque glass was fine for us except for the one time room service came while I was using the bathroom. Just kept the door closed and hoped they weren't staring at me (but you could definitely see the person's shape in there and what they were doing). You could use the curtain (which we did in port since we could usually see into other ships/dock) but obviously that wouldn't help for the room service part. Both the shower and toilet areas had fans if you had the light on and even after a couple long, hot showers, we never had any steam in the room (unlike our bathroom at home!).

 

There was also a TON of storage space. Plenty of room under the bed for our 3 duffles/garment bags, along with the life jackets already there and two wheeled carryon bags. 3 large drawers and 2 closets in the main area and a couple under the sink (one I found out later was for towel storage but we just used it for stuff and hung our towels). A big swing out area above the vanity with 3 more shelves and the safe. Lots of hangers and a second bar to split the large closet if you needed more hanging space. We drove to the port and brought WAY too much stuff and had no problems putting it all somewhere without it being in our way.

 

We also really didn't have any issues with noise. I found out after I booked this cabin that it's directly above the band in the Manhattan dining room a couple floors before (I'd assumed looking at Cagneys and Moderno below it that it would be the kitchen and not an issue late/early). I read some reviews of the similar floorplan on the Getaway and loud, late-night private or crew parties in Manhattan with blasting music but we never encountered that. Seemed like the Manhattan closed about 10:30 but there wasn't music after about 7:30. Similarly, I'd read of noise from Spice H2O parties - try as we might, we couldn't hear anything from up there (granted 7 decks up!) even when we'd just come down from the parties there blasting music and stood out on our balcony and tried (we had issues with this on Princess with the aft pool parties). I'd read the engine noise was really loud compared to other ships - I'd say it was a bit louder than the Princess and Carnival ships we've been aft on, but still way quieter than the Voyager. So yes, you can hear the engines, particularly if they're going fast but most of the time on this itinerary at least, there's no hurry between ports so it's a fairly slow pace and quiet engine noise - might be different on say a transatlantic. Finally, I'd heard that they used a different (older) kind of thruster for positioning at the ports so you would be awakened for sure, no matter what, with an aft balcony - especially the lowest level one. We were awake a couple of the ports (just because we didn't get to Cozumel until almost 11am and we were up early for a tour in Jamaica) and it didn't seem any louder or different than any other ship I've been on, although I'd guess noisier than in the front or middle of the ship. I slept through it completely docking in Miami. And incidentally, I'm definitely a whiny person about noise - if it's there, it would bother me! The only noise issue we had was on our balcony - on one side we were apparently next door to the LOUD FAMILY (any other 70's SNL fans?). It was a handicapped cabin but neither of the people we saw appeared handicapped or much older than us (50ish range) but it was like they were determined to yell as loud as they could any time they were out there. We could hear them clearly (and then some) even over the wake noise. Fortunately they weren't out all that often when we were (usually docking or leaving ports) so it was only really annoying a couple times when we were laying out relaxing.

 

The bed was comfortable - we'd requested the egg crate mattress pads for it but really seemed okay with or without them. I will say though we asked for individual (twin size) comforters (DH likes it much cooler than I do) and the ones we got (as opposed to the queen one which seemed pretty decent) were obviously VERY old. They had the squares but the stuffing (down?) inside them was all clumped up in each square. If you laid on top of it it was like laying on tennis balls. You could hold it up and see light coming through most of the area and then these big, dark clumps everywhere. Wasn't as bad on top of you (rather than laying on it) but we probably should have asked the steward to swap them out.

 

Speaking of whom, our steward (Ferdinand) was really great. He was always friends, always seemed happy to see us and responded to anything we asked quickly (an extra copy of the Dailies, more ice, etc.). He quickly figured out our schedule and usually even if we were gone for 1/2 hour in the morning or just for dinner in the evening, the cabin was always made up when we got back (unlike our Carnival cruises where we had set dining and they still never managed that during dinner and then were defensive and rude when we asked if they could possibly make up the room then). We also got towel animals most nights. We tipped him extra at the end and made sure to mention his name on the survey we got afterwards. Actually though as a whole, pretty much all the staff we met were friendly, cheerful, helpful, etc. Loved the Spice H2O bartenders and several of the entertainment (trivia, etc.) staff. This was not what I'd read going in so maybe we were just lucky here or just found the right places to hang out!

 

Some cabin (and towel animal) pics to finish up this post and I'll do the balcony separately next (sorry about the mess - this was on a morning we asked not to have the room made up) - these will probably carry over into the next post.

 

Looking from the cabin entrance. The sofa actually pulled out from the wall to make a very comfortable third bed with plenty of space (I'd say bigger than the regular beds!). The first section of sofa "back" also swung out for storage behind it (our steward put everything from the minibar there at our request along with spare pillows, blankets, etc. but there was still room) and there were two full-size drawers under the sofa. A couple of the top brown cabinets also swung open for some small storage - you can also see the small pillows there we used for sleeping (there were two in the room and we just put spare pillowcases from the storage area on them at night):

 

Vanity and shower area with all hooks shown - there was a retractable clothing rod inside the shower as well:

 

This is with the beds pushed back in as far as they go:

 

A few of the collected towel animals:

 

 

Looking out at the balcony and wake from inside. The balcony was frequently wet in the morning (no soot though) so we asked for an extra floor mat to put by the sliding doorwall so we didn't track water/muck back into the cabin:

 

With the curtain closed for the bathroom:

[marciemi]

Looking back at the door:

 

 

Towel stingray:

 

Closed toilet area:

 

Another towel animal and goodbye note:

 

One more towel animal:

 

I'll try to get the balcony writeup done as well today since it should be short and mostly pics!

[marciemi]

What, everyone stopped reading now? Well, I'll post the balcony pics just in case anyone is still following! I think I've covered most of this already in the last post - the balcony definitely wasn't huge by any standards, but was large enough for two loungers and a couple small tables, which is really all we needed. Our last two balconies were aft wraps on Carnival, with enough space for a couple loungers, tables, and several regular chairs and a view from the aft, corner, and side - I'm including a link to a couple pics if anyone wants to see them but not posting them directly here so as not to confuse people:

 

http://s7.photobucket.com/user/marciemi/media/Carnival%20Victory%202014/1781878_655117101192575_323731799_n1.jpg.html

 

http://s7.photobucket.com/user/marciemi/media/Carnival%20Victory%202014/1621958_655117314525887_2022435298_n.jpg.html

 

Anyway, this was much smaller, but still the nice aft view and wake view and sound. They were pretty much completely covered so almost totally private - no one from above or below could see into them at all unless you were in port. The only time we were in full sun was when we were either going pretty much due west in the morning (which didn't happen much since our first couple days weren't sunny) or due east in the afternoon (which happened the last couple days). You can see in one of the pics below that I just propped some pillows up so the sun was at my back in those cases (wouldn't have been space to turn the loungers around easily).

 

The cabin to the right (8214?) could only see if they stuck their head around the front of the balcony to look into ours (which we did to theirs a couple times when they'd left the light on just seeing if anyone was there). But the one on the left (8218? The handicapped one) had the door nearer the cabin (that could open between the balconies) and didn't cover all the way around so we could actually see those people (and hear them!) - and I assume they could see us - through about a 1/2 inch gap - similar to many public restroom doors. The balconies were very dark without the light (which we never used) which was nice - you really could see stars and just sit and enjoy the wake and the darkness. Carnival had the back of the ship so lit up that it always felt like there were floodlights above or near the cabin - quite blinding and annoying. On the Epic we'd seriously come back from dinner most nights and just sit out and enjoy the balcony for an hour or so before heading to a show.

 

As I'd mentioned, we really didn't have noise issues from Spice, the Engine, or the floor below, despite being on deck 8. It was also really convenient to run down to decks 5-7 to grab something from a bar, go to dining, or see many of the shows, atrium area, casino area, etc. We didn't feel isolated back there like on the Voyager aft, but also didn't have anyone running by our cabin - honestly, I don't think we saw anyone there more than once or twice during the whole cruise other than the steward. So overall, great location and no issues with being aft (and a whole lot of benefits!).

 

Now for the pics!

 

Facing backwards with some pillows in the sunshine:

 

A good view (besides of DH) of the gap and swinging door (which remained locked) between our balcony and the handicapped one next door:

 

Our flags and the swinging door on the other side, which you couldn't see through:

 

A view of the wake (and flags of course!):

 

Showing how little clearance there was if the loungers were flat:

 

Pretty aft view:

 

More to follow in the next post - at my pic limit!

[marciemi]

Balcony sunset:

 

DH while leaving Miami:

 

A view straight down. We said if anything happened, we could easily climb down to that bar below and then hang and do a nice slide right down into the water! Actually tempting in Jamaica since we could see the Margaritaville water toys/climbing items right from our balcony and thought we could just slide off and swim over there! (Getting back would have been much more challenging).

 

Looking to the right leaving Miami, and the platform they used for painting/repairs, etc. We saw them using it exactly once while in a port:

 

Most of the balcony and the small table:

 

Prettier blue water when the sun came out:

 

Just a couple more pics to follow in the next post!

[marciemi]

Miami in the distance:

 

One side of the balcony:

 

DH one more time (yes, we were out here a lot!):

 

Another look to the right but this time of the Carnival ship leaving port:

 

Pretty sunset looking right:

 

And straight out:

 

Okay, that's it for today - I'll start on a new topic (maybe ship layout?) tomorrow if anyone still is reading!

[amydandrea]

Great pictures!! I'm so excited that a lounger fits on the aft balcony

 

 

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[gwatson7]

Great review. We're going in a few weeks and I greatly appreciate all of the info!

[kenlyn]

Soooooo, you were the FLAG people!!!lol

My husband pointed them out grumbling about not being Able to get away from the Wolverines and cheese heads even on vacation! He is a Sparty Alum!

I am still enjoying your review and reliving my week through your words. Weird about your AC in cabin, ours worked perfect! Our bed was by the balcony and it did make the room feel larger. Carry on....

[6kitties]

Thanks for the review, and the pictures of the balcony on the Carnival ship. It and the room looked much bigger than what you had on the Epic. Was the price comparable? Thanks again!

 

Susan

[PorkChopKid]

Hi Guys, remember us? We met at the M&G. Anyway, finding your review interesting and detailed. We booked a balcony this time around and went with the GTY program. They assigned us a mid-ship deck 8 balcony over lifeboat #10. Took note of a few things as well from your review...

* electrical tape over red/green lights? Can't say that we saw (or noticed) any. The telephone screen seemed bright but we left it on as a kind of night light.

* Only one electrical outlet? We found 2 110v outlets under the counter. One had the coffee pot plugged into it. In fact, if we had brought adapters we used in Greece, we could have had a couple 220v outlets as well.

* Bed by the bathroom. We wondered about that because we lucked out and had the alternate arrangement with the bed by the balcony door. This arrangement did give us more space around the sink area.

* Having a third person in the cabin. We might be bringing a grandson along sometime and were talking about how this cabin was going to work for three. Not sure...

* Room temperature variation. Kathy was in total agreement with you on this one. We just couldn't get it right for both of us. In fact, it got so cool, suddenly, one evening that I found her sleeping with her coat on! I missed the photo op....

* Shower/toilet cubicles. Agreed, they were plenty big for us. We did wonder how a more "robust" person would do getting into the cubicles. :rolleyes:

* Storage space. Agreed, there was plenty of it. We especially liked having two separate hanging closets. That basket under the sink is a kind of hamper, you toss towels in there for replacement instead of leaving them on the floor. Your review mentions a couple storage locations we never found.

* Your balcony looks about the same size as the one we had. This was the largest balcony we've ever had. It came with 2 chairs and 1 table which gave us lots of move around space. We've had balconies where the chairs had to be positioned sideways to sit on them. Anyway, we wondered if a lounger would have fit and are so glad we didn't bother searching for on. We've all heard of "chair hogs" but going up to deck 15 and capturing an extra table for your balcony makes you guys "table hogs" :D:D I should mention that we had a covered balcony as there are some on deck 8 that are open. We lucked out here again by getting one of the covered ones.

* Like you guys, we had a very pleasant and efficient room steward who always greeted us by name.

 

Keep the review coming, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Edited February 20, 2015 by PorkChopKid