Our Epic review Jan 20-27

[Pappion]

Here is a quick review on our recent Epic sailing. January 20-27

 

I booked through CAS with a land based casino certificateand upgraded to the Haven Spa Suite. Weliked the spa suite we got with the bidding process last year, and the Havenwas wonderful on the Getaway and heard the Epic Haven was even bigger. The price was right, so we decided to go forit, upgrade ourself and not have to wait and wonder with the bidding process for an upgrade.

 

A little side note, a few weeks before our trip I found outI have a tear in the labrum of my hip, making me much less mobile than usual,so instead of our usual excursions to explore ruins, zip line or whatnot, wewould have to tame them down.

 

Fast forward to our trip. We live in snowy Detroit , so we always fly down the night before. We arrived in Orlando, their airport seemsmuch more disorganized and chaotic than Detroit Metro or even Miami. Got our luggage after an hour and went towait for our shuttle to the hotel. I pickedBest Western Airport Inn and Suites, because it was really cheap and advertiseda free shuttle. I called the hotel andthey said the shuttle would be in slot B6 shortly. We went and waited, and waited, andwaited. Several other hotel shuttles hadcome twice, and ours still had not. After an hour we gave up and took a cab. It cost about $20 to go 4 miles. Not happy, but really didn’t feel like sitting there waiting any longer.

 

It was dinner time and we didn’t feel like exploring so wentto a waffle house next door. We orderedand the waitress told us to follow her outside, that a rocket launch wasscheduled and we should be able to see it. She was right. We went out onto the sidewalk and the rocket lit up thesky. I had only seen one on tv and inmovies, so it was pretty cool to see that. I tried to take pictures, but they didn’t turn out very well.

 

After dinner we went back to the room to watch tv and sleep. Got up and went to wait for our 10am shuttle. I had arranged travel with AAA for$14/pp. They came with a large bus, andit dropped off the passengers for Disney first (probably because the kids werescreaming and the bus driver seemed really annoyed.) We were then dropped off at the NCL terminaland holy crap what a cluster… Comparedto Miami, this port needs help with organization. We waited in a line outside that stretched tothe street and about an hour later finally got up the escalator to security. Once we got through that mess, we located theHaven check in and made our way down there. There was no line, and we were checked in and escorted onto the ship bya staff member. I was impressed thatthis time the concierge had a sheet where you could check off what shows andrestaurants you wanted him to get for you each day. I had made our dining reservations alreadyahead of time , but did want to see some comedy shows, so filled out the formaccordingly.

 

When we got upstairs, we were given a tour of the Haven,which was larger than Getaway’s. We thenwent to the Haven dining room for lunch. It was wonderful and by the time we finished, our room was ready.

 

We had Hanno as the concierge. He was nice and very patient with the amountof people he always had at his desk. Ourbutler was Rex. He was friendly andalways present every day to see if we needed anything.

 

As for the Haven area itself, it was big and wellmaintained. The one thing we noticeddifferent on this ship was that there was no bar service in the pool/hot tubarea of the courtyard. Every time wewere out there, not one server to beseen. Also there were no snacks, orflavored water left out like Getaway had last year. Not sure if this is fleetwide now, but itseems odd that you would have to go inside to the lounge , or up to posh everytime you want a drink by the pool.

 

We had Haven Spa Suite room 14145. There was more storageand cabinets than any ship in the NCL fleet that we have been on. That part was nice. However finding a plug to charge a phone wasnot easy (it was under the vanity in the bathroom area, or one next to thecoffee maker) The room itself feltsmaller than the one on Getaway, but the balcony was much larger, and held twoloungers, two chairs and a table. Whenlooking down, the people below us had no privacy, and you couldn’t see into thewater due to the lifeboats blocking your view. The round bed wasn’t an issue, my husband who is over 6 feet tall had noissues with it being too short. Thebathroom setup wasn’t bad, except the rounded sliding doors were kind ofannoying, and the motion sensor light in toilet cube would get annoying if youdidn’t close the door all the way. We didn’t have a problem with the shower,until the last day at sea when it was a little rocky, and the water went allthe way from the shower to the other end of the cabin. The drain should have been on the door sideof the shower, not the wall, so it sloshes out when the waves get a littlerougher. There are 2 LED light switches on each side of the bed, which glowbright blue all night. One is for thereading lamp and one for the floor light if you need a night light. We ended up putting a hand towel over thatpart of the bed, because the switches glowed so bright they lit up theroom.

 

DO NOT BOOK ANY OF THE HAVEN SPA SUITES IF YOU LIKE TOSLEEP. Whoever decided to put Haven rooms, or any rooms for that matter under abusy sun deck should be slapped. We are not early to bed by any means, but hereis why I say this. EVERY morning around4am, they powerwash the deck and loungers/chairs above the room, and then dragthem to where they need to be set out. This process usually started between 4-4:30 am and ended around 6, bywhich point you are already fully awake and crabby. Then begins the clomp clomp clomp of peopleabove you reserving and moving said loungers. The clomping and dragging happens during the day too, but we didn’t spendas much time in the room during the day. On the 4th morning of this,around 9am I called the concierge and asked if there were any empty suites wecould be moved to (I figured no one would be there at 4am when it started) andthe assistant got very snippy with me and said, “madam why did you wait untilday 4, now to bring this to my attention.” I told her that we thought maybe it was going to be a one time thing, and one morning it didn’t happen because itwas raining, and since we realized it was not a one time thing, that we decidedto call. Later on the concierge Hannocalled us back and told us that all suites were sold out, and he could give usa separate room to sleep in. It was 3decks down and on the other side of the ship closer to the front (our currentroom is more aft, as it is supposed to be near the spa). We never ended up using it because of thelocation, and by the time we would get done for the night we had no desire topack a bag and go down to the room provided. While a nice gesture, it was not practical to use it, especially with mymobility being pretty much nonexistent by the end of the evening.

 

Dining-

 

The Haven restaurantwas wonderful. We ate breakfasts,lunches, and 3 dinners in there. Thefood and service were great every time.

 

Cagneys- We used the 3 days of specialty we got with bookingthere. All the meals were served at agood pace, and the staff was friendly. We were sad to see no more tomahawk chops or lobster tail add ons. Also wondered how a steak house could have nocheesecake, but the food was still excellent and we never left hungry.

 

La Cuchina- We ate there once with our platinum coupon. The food was good,except for the rigatonithat came as a side dish. It tasted likechef Boyardee and had more sauce than pasta in the bowl.

 

O’Sheehans. We atethere twice. It was standard food to beexpected there, good for a quick bite. We may have ate there more often but there was usually a 20-30 minutewait. The service was better on Epicthan the O’Sheehans on Getaway last year.

 

Casino

 

Since we book through CAS we typically enjoy spending timeat the casino. We were surprised thatthere were zero $5 tables. We did playat the $10 tables, but often ended up leaving because people who don’t playblackjack often would sit down and make mistakes that ended up costing handafter hand. I get that some people don’tplay, but it doesn’t mean I have to spend my $ while they learn. A lot of the slots were old games or justgames that no one played, there was a whole section that was always empty. The newer slots were always full and hard toget a spot. We spent way less than wehad budgeted for in the casino this time. I felt the slot selection on Getaway and Escape were much better than onEpic. For those wondering, the smoke wasn’tthat bad this trip. There is a side of the casino that is nonsmoking and it waspretty well enforced.

 

Excursions

 

The only excursion we booked through NCL was the Jose Cuervotasting experience. It stated at 12:45 and They take you in small vans to theDiscover Mexico park. You are then takeninto an air conditioned room where they describe the tequila making process,the differences between the varieties and let you taste each one with littlesides (crackers, chocolates, fruit) to bring out the flavor of each one. They take you to try some margaritas and daiquiriflavors. They then allow you to purchasethe kinds you like, even ones that are not available in the US, such as the1800 in the diamond shaped bottle and hand painted bottles at a discount, andtake you for a home made all you can eat lunch. The tacos were wonderful. Theytake you back to the ship and you still have a few hours that you can exploreif you want on your own.

 

On our own in Jamaica, we hired a driver to take us for ashort tour. We opted to drive throughFern Gulley (we have been to Jamaica many times before, but never seen thisarea) and go do a little shopping.

 

In Grand Cayman we only went ashore for a short amount oftime. We tried to get off the ship andseveral times around noon and were turned away. We then went up to the concierge and he was able to help us get onto atender. He wasn’t sure why they kepttelling us no earlier.

 

We did not get off the ship in Great Stirrup Cay. I didn’t feel like trying to trudge around inthe sand with my hip acting up that day, so we spent a great deal of time inthe spa and haven area.

 

 

Thermal Spa Area

 

This access came with our room. The thermal pools were veryrelaxing and warm. It was never very crowded and we had noproblem getting a tile lounger or even a lounger on the aft balcony of the spaitself. One day while still in port wewere looking over the back of the ship, and thought we saw a manta ray underwater, well it came up and happened to be one of the biggest sea turtles we hadever seen. It was so relaxing. One night we went around 7pm and happened tobe the only people in the spa.

 

Laundry

 

We are both platinum, so on Thursday we used the laundryservice. We set out our bag in the morning,and by 7pm we had our clothes back in a wicker basket on our bed. Everything was folded, and not one item wasmissing. They even got the chocolate outof DH’s white t-shirt.

 

Miscellaneous

 

There were more code alphas on this trip than I have everheard on any cruise. We did see agentleman being taken off on a stretcher in Grand Cayman. Hopefully he made it home alright.

 

We did have nice cruise in spite of our lack of sleep,however we would not book the Epic again. The bathroom was not a dealbreaker, but it didmake the room feel smaller and having it behind the headboard of the bed wassort of awkward. The lack of center elevators and the way theship was laid out was not as easy to navigate. I feel they learned from their mistakes on Epic, and made the changes onGetaway and Escape.

[Skubi]

Thanks for your review. 17 days and counting for me.

[Pappion]

I apologize for the spacing. I typed it as a word doc and then copied/pasted. Oops!

[FLcruisergrl]

We had Hanno as the concierge. He was nice and very patient with the amountof people he always had at his desk. Ourbutler was Rex. He was friendly andalways present every day to see if we needed anything.

We loved Hanno! So genuine and kind, and with the patience of a saint!

As for the Haven area itself, it was big and wellmaintained. The one thing we noticeddifferent on this ship was that there was no bar service in the pool/hot tubarea of the courtyard. Every time wewere out there, not one server to beseen. Also there were no snacks, orflavored water left out like Getaway had last year. Not sure if this is fleetwide now, but itseems odd that you would have to go inside to the lounge , or up to posh everytime you want a drink by the pool.

We found drink service by the pool hit or miss on our New Years cruise. The server was only out if the weather was nice and the area was full. We had fruit skewers on the first sea day, but that’s it. The water and snacks were inside the grill area, on the other side of the bar. They were tucked away, so you really had to look for them.

 

 

Dining-

 

The Haven restaurantwas wonderful. We ate breakfasts,lunches, and 3 dinners in there. Thefood and service were great every time.

I agree!

[BirdTravels]

Thank you for the review. When we were on the Epic, we spent most of the time up in the Posh where the bar staff was wonderful.

[Clarea]

Thank-you for the informative report.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review .

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review!

[Keith1010]

Terrific review.

 

Thank you.

 

Keith

[catdancer]

Thank you for your review... it was very helpful!!! I leave in 2 days on the Epic and will be buying the thermal spa pass after hearing how you liked it.

[Pappion]

I wanted to follow up with a positive. I had wrote a comment to customer service about the noise in our room every morning, and they actually replied.

 

They acknowledged that our concierge gave us a room to sleep in and that they tried to keep the noise to a minimum.

 

They also said they hoped the gestures on board had showed their concern and that they hoped we would choose to sail ncl again in the future.

 

It was good to see they actually took time to read the comments and respond with something that wasn’t a form letter.

 

Maybe my complaining about the deck noise will help future inhabitants of that suite.

 

While we may not book Epic again, we will probably take our next trip on ncl and maybe even another spa suite as we have enjoyed the thermal suite on both Getaway and Epic. (I will check deck plans more carefully as well)

 

 

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[AerynSun_JohnCrighton]

Thanks! I have been debating the thermal spa for a min and have now decided to get it! We leave in 19 days and I think I would love it.