An EPIC adventure - Eastern Caribbean

[CJDepew]

My head is still a bit fuzzy from the trip so I'm posting this review in chunks. We sailed the Feb 25 - March 4 Eastern Caribbean itinerary, and experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly that the Epic offers, but overall had a great time.

 

We drove from the Radisson at the Port to the port later than expected, because we were informed embarkation would be delayed since the Epic had returned to port two hours late that morning, due to fog. In this age of technology I'm not sure why that would happen, but maybe someone here will have an answer. Since there were three ships late to port that morning, traffic was snarled. This was our first view of the ship.

 

After sitting 45 minutes on the exit ramp alone, we were met by the porters who unloaded our luggage and hustled up the escalator, only to be stopped in what I called zig-zag hell. The room where the first load of passengers were processed sat full because they were not permitted on the ship yet, so the rest of us stood/sat in the room where you zig-zag through the line for nearly two hours. I hit the floor for a while, as it got really warm in there.

While folks were getting angry and frustrated, I also saw one of the kindest things I'd ever seen. A gentleman in a wheelchair noticed a man who was older than he starting to go into distress. He got out of his wheelchair and used his cane, even though it obviously was not easy for him, because he said the other man needed to sit more.

 

Once we made it through the metal detectors, we had our photos taken and received our key cards within ten minutes...but had to go through the process again for my husband because his newly issued key card did not work at the scanning port to leave that area. It was frustrating, but things could have been much worse. Once the newest, working card was in hand, we walked right on to the ship. Even though rooms weren't available yet, we took the elevator to our floor to find our way around and actually found the cabin cleaned and empty, so took a look. I have to hand it to the staff...they sure got things ready in a hurry and everyone we saw had a smile and a warm greeting.

[Petitbotcottage]

We only found good in the Epic, no bad or ugly :)

[CJDepew]

After checking out our balcony cabin (more about that later), we quickly went up to Deck 15, where our friends, and all the good stuff was.

 

 

At this point it wasn't too crowded yet, and it was pretty easy to move around and get drinks at the bar. We settled in to the smoking area, as several of our group are pretty attached to their smokes. We had a great bar waiter who stopped by in plenty of time to keep the UBP living up to its name. All the grumbling from the embarkation process was quickly left behind. It didn't take long for things to get pretty crowded though.

 

Drinks were flowing and we headed out for our adventure just a few hours late.

[Oakman58]

I'm looking forward to the rest of your report.

[CJDepew]

Sorry for the delay...work beckons. Will post more from home tonight.

[JennyM75407]

Sorry for the delay...work beckons. Will post more from home tonight.

 

 

:*

 

Finally meeting you and the rest of "Our People" was such a blessing!

 

From our perspective, it was great to experience the Epic firsthand to be able to dispel so many of the things we had read about on CC. But then again, I'm pretty easy to please for the most part. Have a great day at work, hah! XOXOXO!

[CJDepew]

:*

 

Finally meeting you and the rest of "Our People" was such a blessing!

 

From our perspective, it was great to experience the Epic firsthand to be able to dispel so many of the things we had read about on CC. But then again, I'm pretty easy to please for the most part. Have a great day at work, hah! XOXOXO!

 

Hahahaha! Yes, it was pretty darn awesome to finally meet.

[CJDepew]

Okay, I've got a few minutes free at work and didn't take any food photos so I'm going to discuss it here. To put it simply, the food was pretty darn good.

 

The Garden Cafe had just about anything you would possibly want in a buffet at every meal. The food was plentiful, the selection was wide, and the quality was wonderful. I'm almost crying now that I don't have unlimited bacon and fruit salad at home. I think my favorite item was from lunch during one of our early at sea days. The hand carved beef with horseradish sauce was delicious. The staff was friendly and polite, from the washy-washy sanitizer spritzer/greeter to the folks who were busing tables.

 

Our first night's dinner was in the Manhattan Room, where attire was still casual because some folks still had not had their bags delivered. They went out of their way to accommodate our group of 18. Again, service was fantastic and the food was delicious. The French Onion soup served on the ship was so good, my husband ordered two cups before each meal we ate at Taste later in the week.

 

Taste had the same quality of service and food we experienced in the Manhattan Room, but the attire was more relaxed. My only complaint was that on the last evening my prime rib was done way more than I'd asked for. But hey, I didn't have to cook it or do the dishes, so it was just fine with me.

 

Sorry I didn't take any dining pics, but if anyone has questions about what was served I'd be happy to answer the best I can.

[CJDepew]

Our days at sea were full of fun, adult beverages and good food, but I was anxious to see Tortola. I sure wasn't disappointed!

The port at Road Town was very easy to navigate, and our group was promptly met by the taxi driver that had been arranged by Myett's, in Cane Garden Bay, which was our destination for the day. We arrived before most of the crowds.

Myett's has a nice section of the beach and we had arranged for chairs and umbrellas to be set up, which happened as soon as we arrived. Food and drinks were available, reasonably priced and tasty. The music selection being played on the beach was entertaining.

The homes there are impressive.

[CJDepew]

More random shots of Cane Garden Bay:

 

 

[Linda the Book Lover]

Nice pictures

[ship_insider]

We drove from the Radisson at the Port to the port later than expected, because we were informed embarkation would be delayed since the Epic had returned to port two hours late that morning, due to fog. In this age of technology I'm not sure why that would happen, but maybe someone here will have an answer. Since there were three ships late to port that morning, traffic was snarled.

 

The answer to this one is easy: PORT AUTHORITIES have closed the port! They declined access not only to EPIC but to other ships and then they SLOWLY let each ship come inside one by one as fog was dissipating.

 

 

Honestly, everyone gets upset with the cruise lines and in 99% of the cases, fault is not with them. Besides, I'm pretty sure your vacation would have far worse start if ship was grounded due to reckless behavior. Captain and the crew just followed orders for everyone's safety.

[noona23]

Our days at sea were full of fun, adult beverages and good food, but I was anxious to see Tortola. I sure wasn't disappointed!

The port at Road Town was very easy to navigate, and our group was promptly met by the taxi driver that had been arranged by Myett's, in Cane Garden Bay, which was our destination for the day. We arrived before most of the crowds.

 

Myett's has a nice section of the beach and we had arranged for chairs and umbrellas to be set up, which happened as soon as we arrived. Food and drinks were available, reasonably priced and tasty. The music selection being played on the beach was entertaining.

 

The homes there are impressive.

 

We are going on the Epic on March 18th...thanks for posting!!

Question...did you book this excursion through NCL?

We haven't decided on anything for Tortola just yet but this looks great...

 

If you didn't book through NCL can you let me know the details....thanks again!

[hhalliv]

Glad to hear you enjoyed your cruise!

[CJDepew]

The answer to this one is easy: PORT AUTHORITIES have closed the port! They declined access not only to EPIC but to other ships and then they SLOWLY let each ship come inside one by one as fog was dissipating.

 

 

Honestly, everyone gets upset with the cruise lines and in 99% of the cases, fault is not with them. Besides, I'm pretty sure your vacation would have far worse start if ship was grounded due to reckless behavior. Captain and the crew just followed orders for everyone's safety.

 

I understand all of that. My actual question is with all of the technology available, why is fog still an issue? I was not the only one asking and I'm genuinely curious, and not disparaging any of the cruise lines.

[CJDepew]

We are going on the Epic on March 18th...thanks for posting!!

Question...did you book this excursion through NCL?

We haven't decided on anything for Tortola just yet but this looks great...

 

If you didn't book through NCL can you let me know the details....thanks again!

 

I contacted Myett's directly via their website and made my own arrangements. Kimmy and Cheryl are wonderful to work with. Their email address is thebeatgoeson@myetts.com

[CJDepew]

Our taxi driver was kind enough to stop at a safe place on the side of the road so we could snap a few photos of Road Town. The roads on Tortola are the steepest and most windey that I've ever been on but the views were breathtaking.

 

 

The area around the pier was clean, and I didn't see any aggressive people trying to sell things.

[CJDepew]

From our balcony as we left Tortola:

 

 

[CJDepew]

The next stop in our itinerary was St. Thomas. It was a short day in port (7a-2p) so we didn't attempt to hit the beach. One couple in our group did go to Magen's Bay and said it was amazing. The husband and I did a little shopping and browsing at Havensight Mall. I hate to shop, but was impressed at how clean and nice everything was. Took these photos from our balcony.

 

 

 

This is a zoom of one of those yachts on the right side of the photo above.

 

And one last shot of the harbor.

[Carolina Girl 99]

Our taxi driver was kind enough to stop at a safe place on the side of the road so we could snap a few photos of Road Town. The roads on Tortola are the steepest and most windey that I've ever been on but the views were breathtaking.

 

If you think the roads on Tortola are steep and winding, you should have taken a drive on St. Thomas:o

 

Nice review so far, sounds like you had a great time!

[bakersdozen12]

Thanks for the review! Looking forward to reading more.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[cincicruisers]

Enjoying your review and pictures.

[CJDepew]

Our third stop was mostly a bust for us. When we arrived at Great Stirrup Cay it was announced that we were due for rainy weather, and that the winds would continue to increase to the point that they suspect we'd have to return from the island around 1:00pm. Even the rainbow didn't make me feel better about the weather.

 

The skies were gray as my husband and I headed towards the theater to get our tender and by the time we got on, it was pouring. We looked at each other and got off the tender. I didn't regret the decision when they started bringing everyone back to the ship. Below are photos I was able to get from the ship during a break in the rain.

 

 

You can see the cabanas in this photo, but I'm not sure if they were the large or small ones.

 

[CJDepew]

A little about the Epic itself...

We were in balcony cabin 10072. Balcony staterooms on this ship are narrow, with curved walls. My husband is only 5'8, and his feet were at the end of the bed. We had some men in our group who were over 6 feet tall, and one ended up sleeping diagonally across the bed and the other slept on the couch. The bathroom setup was not an issue for us.

 

This was my favorite photo of the interior of the ship. It didn't have an atrium, but this beautiful glass fixture hung down into The Manhattan Room.

 

I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember which bar this light hung over. All of my drinking was done topside, on Deck 15.

[johnnyrb]

We were on this sailing with you. We traveled in from Orlando in the late morning, after receiving a text from NCL to arrive later than our scheduled embarkation. It took us hours to get onto the island, drop off the rental car and then get to the port. Luckily, by chance we called the local cab company and the driver we had was pretty aggressive. She drove on the wrong side of the highway to bypass all the traffic entering the port, and got us there in around 20 minutes. Not sure if I would ever sail out of Port Canaveral ever again. It doesnt seem to be able to handle the traffic.

 

 

I must say it was entertaining to look at someone else's photos of my vacation. Hope you enjoyed the cruise as much as we did!