EPIC REVIEW FROM DEC 5TH

[TT1992]

I intended this to be a much more detailed review, but time keeps getting away from me, so I'm just going to post my notes as I wrote them at the them,  other wise nothing will get done! ha ha.

I'm missing the last couple of days, and there will be typos, and changes in thoughts as the days progress.

Happy to answer any questions.

Epic review 12/5/2019
I’m only going to write significant things as everything is covered here on CC. But please feel free to ask any questions.
Day 1.. Embarkation
Arrived at port Canaveral early. Check in was slow. I was in group 1 and got onboard at noon.
Decided to try my luck for a posh pass and got them..Me and hubby. $104.00 each for 10 days.
Intended to go to Manhattan for lunch as I don’t care for the chaos in the buffet, but a rocket was scheduled to launch at 1.16 pm, and so we headed  to garden café/buffet, we got a table next to the window. I had a salad and was disappointed with the choice of options. The deli selections were poor as well. Not a complaint, more an observation. My salad was ok… nothing wrong with it, but not enough choices, no croutons or seeds, blue cheese dressing was thin. Watching the rocket take off and land… the launch booster that is…. was an amazing way to start a cruise.
Next went to check out Posh! Very nice, quiet, very cold weather.
Back to room to get ready for dinner. I had a nice long soak in the bath tub… in our mini suite.
I have no idea why anyone is complaining about this suite… well aside from the bath room set up.  I can see how  that would affect some travelers.
It’s quite spacious. I’ve read about people not being able to pass each other,  but this room is better than all but one I’ve been in, and this is my 12th cruise. The only one better laid out was Seabourn…. Which us in an entirely different category so not comparable.
I don’t have a problem with the bath room set up, I love a bath tub, and I think it makes the room more spacious. I did bring 'poo pouri' and recommend it.

Manhattan for dinner, I was pleasantly surprised. Started with a gumbo, it wasn’t nice and I didn’t eat it.  No biggy. Hubby ordered ravioli in lobster sauce, it was so good I ordered one for myself. Hubby got sirloin medallions, I had ribs… that were ok but I liked to sirloin better so I ordered that. Delicious. Slow service on bread butter and water. Average  for everything else.
I hardly ever do desserts but intend to try more this cruise. We both ordered a salted caramel chocolate  tart  and it was very good. This is high praise from me as I was a pastry chef for years.
Ordered a Bailey’s but it wasn’t real Bailey's… a homemade variety heavy on the vodka, I couldn’t drink it.
Overall I was quite impressed with Manhattan.
day 2 Grand stirrup caye.. Cancelled too windy.
Didn’t mind at all, temp still cool .
Breakfast osheehans. Waiter was very good and helpful. Had country platter, nice sized portion, just enough!
Walk around ship and then to H20. Hot tub on starboard side is cold. Pool lovely and warm.
Weather is still on cool side. I can sit out in shorts t-shirt and zippy jacket tho. H20 food, fries hot dogs ribs (cold) chicken burgers.
Walked around buffet, the choices look very limited. Didn’t eat there,
Oshheehans 2 pm for lunch…. Busy 20 min wait
Bangers and mash, was ok but won’t order again.
Apple pie… didn’t eat it not great. Brownie was very good.
Bushwhacker cocktail was the same as a mudslide.
Dinner Shanghai, was awful, noodles fried rice, orange peel beef were so horrible and i didn't eat any. Red bean pastry was just a load of phyllo pastry very dry with a tiny amount of filling so small you couldn’t taste what it was. Very disappointing.
Cavern club to see the Beatles next. We arrive 1hr20minutes early and just managed to get a seat. Beatles were good. They played for about 50 minutes.
Martini Bar next had lavender patch, very good will order again.
Friday7th
Skipped breakfast and went to Taste for lunch…sea day.
Very good def recommend it.
Vietnamese chicken  pho. excellent
Grouper sandwich, okay.
Cheese cake good.
Up to Posh, we can’t order food here. I feel like we don't get  the same standard of service as the haven guests. This place needs some water, like a hot tub. I am beginning to wonder if this was a waste of money.
Dinner Moderno.
Service is slow at times, enough attention at other times.
The  appetizer bar is amazing and I wish I had just made this my meal. But I ate lightly because I thought I would be eating lots of meat. I don’t eat big portions of food and so I really only wanted to eat some fillet and lamb, the lamb was shank and leg, quite nice. I waited for some fillet, and waited and waited, after asking twice some arrived.  Dried and over cooked.  I talked to the waiter who said he would bring me freshly cooked fillet, I waited again, and when it arrived one small piece was over cooked and 2nd piece was very rare and sinewy. I complained, after another wait the the manager came over and said he wouldn’t charge us for our dinner.
Early night after, that  very disillusioned with this cruise so far That’s 2 bad eve meals on the trot.
Event places are way  too small for a ship of this size. Cavern club and headliners need to be way bigger. theater only holds 600 odd people.
Sat. Ochoa Rios
Stayed on ship and purchased thermal suite for 2 for rest of cruise…. $378.00
Bfast in Taste. nice, Service was good.
Spa am. Very relaxing. Spent 3 hours in there. They prorated the rate. Original Price for 10 days was $250 each.
Lunch at buffet bad. This is the worst lunch buffet I have ever seen on a ship… and this is my 12th cruise.
The deli section consists of 2 types of small sandwiches. Sliced Ham and a cheap looking deli meat. Cheese was provolone and mozzarella. Bread choices and butter…. That was it.
Salad again very limited choices. I think I will do room service if I don’t go ashore on next port day. Ate pizza… this was quite good…. then went to Posh for a drink, as buffet is like a cattle market.
Tried to get a drink at the pool bar on way down to my room. Waited for ages gave up and went to spice instead. Service is much quicker there. They  have some premixed drinks. Not sure what they all are.
One thing I have noticed is that walking from one end of the ship to the other is fine. It doesn’t feel any longer than other ships I’ve been on.  Our room is  aft behind elevator block so I’m sure that is cutting down on the walking. We've  not heard any noise at all from people / elevator area. Deck 11.
Priscilla queen of the desert was absolutely brilliant I loved it so much I might go and see it again. Be warned tho….. plenty of f’ bombs and raunchy lines. Some people left. Fyi, the line to get in is for standby seats. Go to the right side of the entrance if you have a reservation to be checked in.
Taste for dinner, very good. Ravioli appetizer is good, and I had that again. Belly pork was nice but I was too full.
Shakers next for another lavender patch…. Very good. Hubby has belvedere peach again.
Sunday.
Up early to get tender. We were in group 6 …booked  2 days ago… . The guy there said to go to Manhattan  and just get in line no matter what your group number, it seemed confusing, but we did as he said, and it seemed very organized. We got in line (which were seats,) waited about 10 minutes then we boarded a tender. Very easy and quick. However we went about 7.30 am and were in the 1st tender, I don’t know how long the wait became after that.
We had booked a tour with Native Way. Stingrays, snorkel in and lunch at rum point. We were the only 2 on the boat. Supposed to be 4 others but they cancelled. So we had personalized attention. Sting rays was great done it twice before. Snorkeling was amazing..... up there in my top 3 snorkel sites now.
We had catch of the day 'Sofia' for lunch, nice. Then 1 hour to spend on beach then back to boat for ride back to bus, back to port and we got there at 2.20pm last tender was 3 pm. Very good day out def recommend.
Back on ship to spice  hubby wanted to catch the end of the game. Quite busy but we still got drinks pretty quickly. I got sandwiches from the buffet, fyi look inside the sandwich and add more filling.  There was hardly any tuna, so I put that on one side and added a piece of chicken to the other side. Then to Posh, have met some lovely people here, no crowds good service.
The bed was a little on the hard side for me, so this morning I left our room steward a note to ask if he had a mattress topper. We later passed Augusto in the hallway and he said to let him know if everything was ok or not, got to room and he’d put a big thick topper on the bed. Now that’s what I call Service!  Hopefully we made his day too as we left him a nice tip😀  Very impressed with the room itself and Augusto. Lots of storage space makes it easier to keep the room tidy. 4 suitcases all fit under the bed. Hubby is not digging the toilet, he's big guy tho. I don’t have any problem with the bath room set up at all. It is  different tho. Again…. Don’t forget the poo pouri, this is a saver here.
Dinner in Taste again, service has been good every time here. Ravioli again… love it. I had an Asian dish with pork,is was okay but the ravioli fills me up. I think I just need 2 appetizers instead off app and entrée. Another leavender  patch and peach martini then an early night. Couldn’t stay awake…. Even to watch the Beatles.
Monday
Fyi. There is a machine at the bar in the buffet to make fresh orange juice. It's  $3.75 and not included in beverage package.
I take oranges from the buffet to my room, I brought a squeezer with me and make my own .
Breakfast in Taste, all very nice, service was good. Yogurt parfait wasn’t anything to shout about but nothing wrong with it either.  Belgian waffles is very good, loads of salmon on my bagel, but order it with extra cream cheeses it has the merest scraping and I’ve heard others ordering extra too.
Then to thermal spa, very relaxing, lunch in Taste, we had popcorn shrimp, the lady on the next table ordered a double portion, good idea as the regular portion size is small .shrimp pasta is good, steak and cheese was okay,  pasta was better. Dessert we shared the peanut butter cup cheese cake, although this is a stretch of the imagination as there is a broken piece of pb cup on top, so we got the choc mousse and poured this into the cheesecake with a side of ice cream.
We weren’t hungry for dinner  so just had a quick bite to eat from the buffet.  The buffet was better than the lunch time one.  Still no toppings for salad tho, not even a crouton.
Went it music trivia in the cavern and won!
Movies on TV are good.
Biggest gripe is having to walk thru the casino to get to the restaurants; you are routed thru like having to walk thru them in Vegas. And it can be smoky.

Thursday Cozumel

went to Xenses, if you like the idea of this from the description, then go for it, I won't say too much coz that will spoil it for you, but I loved it. There was time for shopping and lunch in PLaya del Carmen afterwards, but you do not actually go to port in Cozumel if you take this trip, as the ferry leaves the dock next to the cruise ship.

Cirque was very good, But I personally like Priscilla better.

Ice bar was very disappointing, the carvings have been there for years and all of the detail has eroded away. Cocktails were very  nice though.

 

I thought I had more notes than this, heres my impressions overall looking back at the cruise.

When the food was good, it was very good, don't be put off about me being negative about the bad food, theres always more food to be found, so it wasn't a problem, other than Shanghais, that was disgusting.

The ship has too many people for me.

Entertainment was excellent the best I've seen at sea.

Oh one IMPORTANT THING Don't rely on your TV in the room to make your bookings, quite often it said fully booked, but I called directly, and got reservations every time.

Guest services was very good, low wait times, efficient.

I don't think I would do Posh again, but then again I might think differently if I'd had to use the 2 pool bars during the day, especially Waves, the service was very bad there.

Thermal suite is def worth the money, and a saver if the weather is bad.

Overall quite impressed with NCL. I would choose a smaller ship tho.

Hope  this has helped some of you a little.

[bcvgirls]

Thanks for all the info especially the booking on the TV.  Do you remember what time you were allowed to leave the ship at the end of the cruise?  We are meeting some friends after the cruise and I would like to let them know about what time we can meet.  One place says 7 am and another said 8 am online.   We hope to be one of the first off the ship.  

[MarkMark]

Thank you for taking the time to share your review.  Any chance you have the Freestyle Dailies from your cruise?  Would appreciate seeing the day-to-day schedule.

[davidpariani]

Nice review. What is the posh pass though?