An EPIC Cruise Review From A Carnival Cruiser

[jam19872016]

Sorry for being MIA. Work has been busy. I will finish this up tonight.

 

Day 6: At Sea

 

Today was our final sea day. Time also went back forward an hour this morning and I was tired enough that I slept in pretty late today. I ate a late breakfast at the Garden Cafe. It has became a routine now to grab my plate and eat downstairs in the Italian place. Much quieter and fantastic views of the ocean in front of me.

 

In addition to a late breakfast, I also had an early lunch. My mom was quite hungry already since she ate way before me. Taste did not open until noon so we went to O'Sheehans for the first time. It was odd as there was a line of people waiting to be seated and we were not seated until 11:30 when lunch hours began. Of course this many people starting their meal at once caused service to get off to a rough start, but they did improve as we all moved to different points in our meal.

 

YET ANOTHER FOOD COMPLAINT DISCLAIMER:

 

I was not hungry - at all. I had no business eating again so soon so I was a bit picky at lunch today.

 

I believe I ordered the Coney Island hot dog. Some sort of hot dog lol.

 

 

The dog was decent. I didn't eat the fries, I passed them off to my mom. She said there was nothing wrong with them I just wasn't hungry. I had them again later, and realized she was right.

 

My mom ordered the jerk chicken wings and said they were fantastic.

 

For dessert I had the brownie cheesecake.

 

 

I love cheesecake. Even the odd ones on Carnival's buffet that aren't so much a cheesecake as a cheesecake flavored gelatin. But I just did not care for this. I would be willing to give it another try when I am a little hungry, but I did not like it today. I think it was the marshmallows.

 

Overall although I was less than impressed today I like the concept of this place and it is a great alternative to the buffet. I am especially looking forward to having this option for late night cravings when I sail with M. Carnival's only late at night option is pizza. Or room service, and don't get me started on that.

 

After lunch it was back to the library for my mom and back to the casino for me. I'd given up on her and if she wanted to live in the library on her vacation so be it. Legends Live was in headliners again this afternoon with no reservations needed, but now she wasn't interested. Whatever.

 

One nice win to report today.

 

 

Notice my drink card is no longer flopped over onto the screen.

[jam19872016]

Tonight's dinner menu.

 

 

 

I had the slider as my starter.

 

 

For my main I ordered the fried flounder from the classic entree menu, and the meatballs and orecchiette pasta.

 

 

 

The fish was ok. The pasta dish looks unremarkable but was actually pretty good.

[jam19872016]

Dessert menu.

 

 

I had the lava cake and the mint chocolate mousse.

 

 

 

The mousse was alright but that lava cake...yum yumm yummy.

 

Service was quick again tonight. All the food was good tonight but I don't know, it just didn't knock my socks off it. I know food is subjective and I don't know how to explain it, but I always left Carnival's MDR with the uncomfortable full and satisfied feeling you get from eating too much of a really good meal. I just didn't get that here.

 

After dinner we had another towel friend in the room. I asked my mom to move over because she was in the shot, this was her response.

 

 

The one reservation we did make this week was for Burn The Floor. We were there for the 7pm showing in the Epic Theater. The show was entertaining. But.... it was a bit long to hold my interest. In fairness ballroom dancing will always struggle to hold my interest. It was an interesting mix of modern songs with classical ones. The classical tended to bore me while my mom was surprised there was so much modern music. I think we would both give the show a solid B- rating.

 

The seating was terribly uncomfortable.

 

That was the extent of the nightlife for my mom, which I guess for her is an improvement. My night consisted of more donations in the casino. Tomorrow would be our final day and we would be in Great Stirrup Cay. Or would we?

[jam19872016]

Day 7: Great Stirrup Cay

 

We had had pretty good weather for the whole cruise up until the sixth day. It was very windy and even a bit chilly especially for it to be March. I began to have my doubts about making it to GSC. When I awoke today, the weather situation was completly different and quite beautiful and we did successfully make it to GSC today. I am now 1 for 2 (was cancelled on my Sky cruise in 2012). According to the vendors on the island, we were the first ship all week to anchor at GSC.

 

Look how calm and beautiful the water is today.

 

 

 

I was up pretty early because I wanted to be up to tour the upper decks today before everyone was up in case we could not make GSC. Another breakfast at Garden Cafe followed by tender #4 to the island. We still had some time to kill before they called us so I stayed behind enjoying the weather while mom went back to the room. I told her I would come down when they called tender #3 and not to leave without me after the fiasco the other day.

 

For some reason, the announcements were not being broadcast outside and so I did not hear. I thought there were maybe no speakers outside, but I could hear the announcements later outside to remember to purchase my cruisenext certificate. Pretty irritated this was not broadcast outside. I happen to feel like things were taking too long so I headed down and sure enough she was waiting for an elevator as our tender had already been called. She left a message in the room for me to find this time so I would know where to find her.

 

In the rush to catch our tender, I forgot to bring the camera with me today. I took pictures on my mom's phone, but she is not the most technology savvy (plus her phone is buggy) and she somehow deleted all her photos when trying to delete one. I can't seem to figure out how to restore them.

 

Our only plan today was to do some shopping. And by we, I mean my mom I am just along for the ride. I did not bring any money so she was nice enough to buy me a shirt I just had to have. I'm pretty immune to souvenir purchases but this shirt reflected my attitude after a dozen or so cruises perfectly "Same $h!t Different Island" but without the silly censorship. It was $5 so I will probably only get to wear it once before it falls apart, but I will pick my island carefully when I wear it :).

 

She bought several shirts today and now owns more T-shirts than any one person ever has the need to own. This combined with all her shopping on the ship meant she needed to borrow space in my suitcase lol! The woman loves to shop.

 

It was a short day that served its purpose (shopping for my mom) but I would have to say this islands does not come close to comparing to Carnival's private island Half Moon Cay. I'm not really a beach person but could not help but be mesmerized by the beauty of HMC. This was an average looking beach (by caribbean standards, certainly better than anything back home) with an ugly industrial site at the entrance. I'm not sure what that was about, perhaps related to ongoing construction on the island?

[jam19872016]

Back on the ship I finished my tour and then we headed to O'Sheehans for lunch. Today I was much more hungry and enjoyed my meal better. My mom had the opposite experience with the wrong order (BBQ wings instead of jerk) and slower service today.

 

I started with the spinach & artichoke dip.

 

 

These were quite tasty.

 

I also ordered the Chicago style hot dog.

 

 

I'm not from Chicago and I don't know what a Chicago style hot dog is supposed to be, but this was a major hit! The fries tasted good today too.

 

It was walking through O'Sheehans I discovered something I didn't know. The casino remained open while at GSC. Guess where I ended up?

 

My mom went to the atrium to watch Beauty and the Beast. I stayed for a couple minutes but could not get comfortable so I didn't hang around. She said she wasn't sure if she was gonna like the modern interpretation and may not hang around. When I walked by later from the deck above she was still there so figured it must have been good. When she returned to the room later, I said it must have been good. She said not really. So why did you stay I asked? She said she fell asleep!

[jam19872016]

Tonight we were using our final dining credit. Tonight was the night I was most looking foward to, Teppanyaki.

 

I love this chandelier. Very mesmorizing.

 

 

The menu for the MDR.

 

 

 

[jam19872016]

Teppanyaki Porn!

 

 

 

 

The food was all good to excellent except the dessert. It was just ok, but looked very unappealing.

 

But.....

 

Yep, another complaint this time of a restaurant that gets almost universally favorable reviews. The food as I said was very good. The venue was odd with too many people crammed in the same table and a nice view of the jogging track. I may not have even noticed that if it weren't for the shirtless man running back and forth while I'm eating dinner. He had some serious stamina as his jog lasted for most of my dinner. The show was entertaining and served as a distraction though once it got started.

 

Again I had the dining package so there was no charge for me. But the price I would be expected to pay seems unreasonable to me. I do not expect to pay as much on a cruise for dinner as I would on land. I looked up the price at the local Japanese place near me, this same meal would cost me $24 plus tax and tip. Less if I had some cheaper ingredients than what I ordered (steak and shrimp). Only thing not included would have been dessert, which I would have not ordered. This is only my opinion, but I do not care for NCL's pricing model of charging comparable rates to a land based establishment.

 

Then, and again only my opinion, the food was not as good as my local restaurant with a slightly lower cost. And just in case I had one shred of credibility left I will blow it with my final comment which may not have ever been uttered by anyone in the history of forever - I did not leave full. The portions seemed very small to me. There I said it.

 

In summary, I enjoyed the food and the experience and would probably book it again with the dining credit. And if this pricing is the norm in NCL culture, I would even pay the full price without the credit if I was with someone who wanted to go. It is fun and the food was good, but I would not rate it as highly as most seem to.

 

For me, Moderno wins for best specialty meal of the three.

[jam19872016]

The remainder of my evening was spent donating a few last $'s in the casino. While playing this is what I was dealt.

 

 

This was a guarenteed $50 or a 2.13% chance at $8000. The decision to go for it was an easy one. Those are not great odds but not impossible odds by any means. I threw away the 2 and just hoped and prayed for that jack. I'd played more than I ever have before both in money wagered and certainly in money lost and what a fantastic ending to a horrible losing streak. This is what happened.

 

 

No happy ending to this casino trip. Just the bitter taste of defeat.

 

I wrapped it up early because debarkation morning always comes way too early. Tomorrow it was back to reality.

 

Day 8: Time to go home.

 

I was up fairly early and did my packing. Yep, I am packed for the ship weeks ahead of time but to go back home I wait till the absolute last second.

 

We headed to taste for a final breakfast. I sorta wanted to drag it out and be one of the last off the ship to avoid the typical mad rush of people getting of the ship. That was not happening though, they were very very quick this morning. I wanted an omelette but it was not on the menu. I ordered it anyway but was informed they don't have them. I wonder if I could have gotten them in the Garden Cafe? I suspect in an effort to be speedy, only quickly prepared items were available this morning.

 

Getting off the ship was very smooth. We seemed to be walking forever along the outside deck instead of just going out the way we came in, but that perhaps is what allowed it to seem so smooth instead of everyone bottelnecked into one exit point.

 

But this trip could not come to an end without one final mishap. My mom is "supposed" to be the responsible one and as such she carries all the important stuff in her purse. Well after a week of not carrying her purse, she went off and left it in Taste and did not realize it until we were in line for customs. This was not good because EVERYTHING important was in there. All my Mom's stuff including both our passports. Would I have to live in the cruise terminal in some sort of bad sequel to a Tom Hanks movie? After encountering several rude employees who seemed genuinely bothered by me we found someone to take an interest. She disappeared for a while and returned with her purse. Crisis avoided.

 

After that mishap we were through the line pretty fast. It seemed like it would take forever but the line moved very quickly. In fact, those who went through the porter line were still waiting even after lining up before me. That line was deceptively short, but was not moving. It might be worthwhile to save your money.

 

And this concludes our week on the Epic. I will conclude with a brief comparison between my experience on NCL and Carnival.

[jam19872016]

I had originally intended to write some big long comparison between NCL and Carnival. But I don't know if that would be fair. I have only sailed NCL twice now and just the once recently where I was paying attention to things. So instead I will just point out some observations of things that I noticed differently between the two lines. This is only my experience and is not meant to be construed as hard facts. Others have different opinions than mine, and you might also. This is simply a recall of I experienced things.

 

Dining:

 

Oh boy. I really opened a can of worms on this one didn't I? I hear people complain about the quality of food on the Carnival boards quite often. And I see it here on these boards as well as on Royal and MSC boards. I read these comments on the Carnival boards, and I honestly just don't get it. It has never been my experience that the food is anything less than excellent. I am very very easy to please when it comes to food.I live on fast food and stuff you can throw in the oven. Seriously, it does not take much for me to enjoy what I am eating.

 

But lets put things into perspective because you don't know me, you don't that I am being honest when I say that. I had a little too much time on my hands, so I went back through my last five cruise reviews and focused on food reviews.

 

I made three categories.

 

Good - if I made a mention of food and said that it was good, great, fantastic, etc I put a notch in the good column.

 

Bad - if I made a mention of food and said it was bad, terrible, nasty, etc I put a notch in the bad column.

 

Indifferent - if I made a mention of food and said it was just ok, or I tried something new and didn't like it, wasn't as good as I remember, or was in anyway not rating it good or bad I put a notch in the indifferent column.

 

I then added up the good and the bad and divided it by the good and got an overall rating of how much of the food I ate I liked. Items in the indifferent did not impact the score in any way. Here are the totals that I came up with.

 

Liberty/Splendor 10 Day

 

Good: 40

Indifferent: 4

Bad: 5

Rating: 88.89%.

 

Splendor 8 Day

 

Good: 46

Indifferent: 5

Bad: 3

Rating: 93.88%

 

Splendor 4 Day

 

Good: 24

Indifferent: 2

Bad: 1

Rating: 96%

 

Glory 7 Day

 

Good: 27

Indifferent: 4

Bad: 3

Rating: 90%

 

Vista 6 Day

 

Good: 25

Indifferent: 1

Bad: 2

Rating: 92.59%

 

Epic 7 Day

 

Good: 27

Indifferent: 12

Bad: 8

Rating: 77.14%

 

Overall, my impression of the food that I ate on this trip was much much lower than my impression on most trips. How many can say that they consistently like 90% of everything they eat on a cruise? Probably not many people - but I am just not a fussy eater. I'll give a more detailed comparison in this department since although the quality is likely different ship to ship, the offerings are likely very similar.

[jam19872016]

Breakfast:

 

I am not a big breakfast person but I feel like Carnival wins in this department. NCL pretty much has your standard buffet fare and standard breakfast menu in the MDR and at O'sheehans. They also have made to order omelettes in multiple locations.

 

Carnival has those but in addition to that they have a sea day brunch menu that is very very good. The service at brunch seems to be consistently bad ship to ship, but the food it not to be missed. They also have a new MDR menu that is being rolled out but not fleet wide yet that looks pretty interesting. I will have my first chance to try it out on my next cruise.

 

But my favorite part of the Carnival breakfast, the breakfast burritos at the Blue Iguana. These are fantastic and are on almost all ships at this point. I would highly recommend these to anyone who tries out a Carnival cruise they are super yummy. Don't forget to get the crunchy potatoes I'm drooling just thinking about them.

 

There are two items on NCL's breakfast selection that do deserve an honorable mention. One is the hash browns. These were amazing. The other was the chocolate croissant. I am not a sweets for breakfast guy at all, but after I was followed from buffet to buffet by someone also looking for these - only to be scoffed at when I took the last three when I did find them (I was getting them for my mom who found and fell in love with them) I had to try them. They were so worth it and I can see why I was nearly attacked for them :P

 

Lunch was a mixed bag. For causal eats on the pool deck, Carnival wins. They have so many options from Guy's Burgers, Blue Iguana for tacos and burritos, BBQ, Mongolian Wok. Although not each ship is the same, there is a huge variety of offerings.

 

But if you want somewhere to sit and be served, NCL wins since Carnival has next to no options. They do have a sea day brunch on sea days but for me that is breakfast not lunch. They also have a few more options on a select few ships, but for the most part there are no real options on Carnival for sit down service at lunch. NCL has both O'Sheehans and their MDR open for lunch. That is a huge plus for me and I love having the option of going to the dining room on embarkation day.

 

For dinner, there are many specialty options that come with an extra charge. Just going on what I am used to, I don't feel like they were worth the surcharge attached to them. If you wish to frequent them, I would suggest choosing the dining plan or even purchasing a dining plan. It locks in a set price that is much more reasonable compared to the a la cart pricing. Be prepared to be told there is a limit on what you can order but there is no written policy that I can find that states that.

 

The positive to so many dining options, is it does a great job of spreading people out if you wish to dine for free. The dining room was never so busy that there was a wait to be seated. They use tablecloths if that is something you care about. There are no formal nights and no assigned dining times, both of which I believe is the future. I love YTD and since that is all NCL offers, they seem to have it down to a science. There is less personal interaction with your waitstaff, but that has always been my experience with YTD. It also a much quicker experience which I also prefer. If I could have found the food more enjoyable, the experience would have been exactly to my preference.

 

As for the specialty dining, I never saw any openings except 5:30 and 9:30 all week. So I would recommend making reservations either before you board, or very soon after boarding or you will not be able to get your preferred dining time if you can get in at all.

 

As far as off hour dining, another win for NCL. O'Sheehans is open 24 with a limited menu all night. It is standard bar fare, but is a fantastic option to have where Carnival sends you to pizza or forces you to order room service. I have not used it since they implemented a fee after 10pm, but prior to that it was so overwhelmed with orders that sometimes they would not answer the phone. If they did, expect to wait an hour for your food. And if you order anything but what it comes with on the menu, don't expect the order to be correct. I did not use NCL room service to compare the two.

[jam19872016]

Public Spaces and Cabin:

 

Carnival has made a lot of cutbacks in staffing lately. This has resulted in the cleanliness in some areas to lack. Not really in public spaces, those are pretty immaculate on both lines. But in guest areas, the cutbacks are noticeable. I peeked at several of the stewards' carts on both lines and on average it seems the stewards on Carnival have around 37 rooms to service. By comparison, on average, the NCL stewards have just 17. Naturally, they do a much more thorough job in cabin service.

 

That said, I felt like despite the additional time I did not really get more personal service. I have had all levels of stewards before on Carnival and know they are not all built the same. I just didn't get a great one this time. He wasn't bad by any means, but the little touches were missing. He did not great me by name in the hall. I got three towel animals all week (my mom loves those, I don't really care) and he did not pay any attention to the "make room up" sign. He just sorta went down the row and that usually meant he didn't get to me until late and so I felt like I was putting him out by being in the room. He was perfectly adequate, but I did not benefit from him being less overburdened.

 

The ship was well cared for and well designed for a modern ship. I love the over the top tacky and wacky designs older Carnival ships are known for. I know that is not the modern taste in ship design and I feel like NCL has done a better job of designing an elegant modern interior that is not simply boring. Carnival's Vista class was simply put, completely uninspired and bland to the point of looking like a hospital instead of a cruise ship. Thumps up for NCL.

 

The cabin design was uniquely flawed on the Epic and thank goodness it was something they only tried once before they realized it does not work. Overall though, Carnival's rooms are bigger and seemed to make better use of storage space. NCL's beds were bigger and more comfortable, however.

 

Entertainment:

 

This is an area I'm really not qualified to compare to much on as I did not really do much. I will highlight a few things though.

 

You need reservations for any of the popular choices on NCL. I was unprepared for this, and personally find it off putting to have to plan for this. It is likely I will run into this problem when Carnival builds ships this large. I may not be a "mega ship" kind guy. Freestyle is nothing but an empty catchphrase at this point and should probably be retired, you absolutely must follow a schedule or go on standby and hope for the best.

 

The seating in the main theater was very uncomfortable.

 

The ship has many many bells and whistles. I felt like a lot of these were lost on me as I don't use them. Again this may be another case of mega ships not being for me, but I found no need for most of the things NCL offers that Carnival doesn't. It led to an overall feeling of being on a resort at sea, instead of a cruise ship. I'm all about the cruise experience.

 

Live music is not as big of a deal on NCL. It seemed to be only on the pool deck and in lounges and bars that you would only pass through if you were looking to hear the music. I love just strolling along and hearing live music even if I was not necessarily looking for it. It tends to be along the walkways and in the atrium on Carnival, not just off in the bars. Also, the music on the pool deck was pop music not island music. One day they featured what they called "Caribbean Vibes" which sounded like it would be island music. It was still pop music remixed with a steel drum beat. There was a live musician performing by the pool most days for a couple hours, and he was fantastic at getting the crowd going.

 

The casino was huge. Like spanning almost the entire length of deck 6 huge. But it was a lot of older games that I have never heard of. Many of the newer and in demand slots were missing or so sparse it was next to impossible to get on them. They did install a lot of new machines midweek however so they may be in the process of updating their selection. I found every person I interacted with in the casino to be surly and in some cases rude. It reminded me of land based casinos I've been to in the Caribbean - very serious and not service oriented at all. It did not feel friendly and inviting like Carnival. I did not play tables, so perhaps the dealers were more friendly.

 

The 3% service charge to charge your room felt cheap. I understand why they need to do it, but frankly when you spend as much as I spent - that charge should be waived. I am obviously not trying to use your machine as an ATM. If I was, 3% is a pretty good bargain. Furthermore, I was given a free drinks card for "house drinks". I am not sure what that includes but it seemed like it was only for the cheap stuff. Again, I am dropping a lot of money in your casino and to tell me I can only order certain drinks just felt like a slap in the face. The servers did seem very friendly but I did not use them, I was just too turned off by the restriction on what I could order.

 

I did receive another comped cruise from NCL by calling and asking for one and will be using it in July on the Getaway. I can confirm what I have read on these boards. To be comped a room, NCL expects a loss of $2500. That is way way way out of my comfort zone. I do not expect to be comped any more from NCL unless they will combine my losses with M who I will be traveling with in July. Then it may at least be in the realm of possibility. Maybe.

[jam19872016]

Service:

 

As a general rule of thumb, I think the bigger the ship, the less you can expect from the service you receive. I felt like the Epic, when just comparing to the Vista which is the largest ship Carnival has, did a fantastic job. Everyone seemed happy to help (except in the casino) and to enjoy making your vacation fantastic. On the Vista I encountered one person all week who smiled. The entire crew seemed miserable and to hate their job. It was such a different experience than I have ever encountered with Carnival before. NCL has this service on a mega ship thing down to a science. Kudos to NCL.

 

Overall I had a great time still but I would not sail NCL with my mom again (or more specifically, such a large ship). I will be on the Getaway in July and I will be boarding with an open mind and perhaps a little better prepared as to what to expect. I hope that one day I can look back at this trip and refer to it as an anomaly after many many great cruises with NCL. Truthfully, if things don't go well on Getaway, I don't think NCL is the right product for me and this is okay, there are plenty of choices out there and I am glad I tried something different.

 

Urcomped:

 

So when I signed up for urcomped they asked me my average bankroll. How much I bring with me to the casino. Naturally I stretched the truth a little but only a little. That was enough for them to give me a free trip on NCL and I fully intended to live up to what I said I spend on average. Not only did I do that, I spend more than double what I have ever spent in a week. I was kinda expecting them to roll out the red carpet for me with offers so good I could not refuse.

 

Nothing.

 

I am not too proud to contact them and ask what I qualify for. They never responded to me and I attempted to reach out to them again, and still have not heard a response from them. I have many offers for reduced fare on Royal and MSC but at this time I am not interested in taking a non comp cruise from anyone but Carnival. I may feel differently later down the line.

 

It is humbling to say the least that I do not qualify for another comp from them (and just barely from NCL). It puts things into perspective and makes me realize what Carnival's players club is offering me is competitive with what other lines will offer me. The thing that bugs me is that Urcomped will not even respond with a courtesy "at this time you do not qualify blah blah blah" form letter. That would be the professional thing to do.

 

Looking Ahead:

 

My next cruise will be on the Carnival Magic on May 26. I will be again sailing with my mom and this will likely be her last cruise unless retirement boredom sets in. I just don't think cruising is for her but we will see. She loved her last cruise on Carnival and so maybe this will turn her opinion back around.

 

Thanks everyone for reading along and I will have another NCL review after my July trip on the Getaway. Hope to see you all then!