Panic about the Epic

Please tell me that my husband and I have not made a HUGE mistake by booking the Epic. We are book for a Western Med. cruise in May. I have never sailed with NCL before. We are frequent cruisers with RCI and Carnival. We love both for different reason, and feel that they ships and services are perfect. However, with that being said I have been reading the boards on here and so far in the last week I have seen a post about a couple having BED BUGS, another couple had a disgusting room with mold, and soiled bed clothes, and now I hear there is fees for room service. :eek: I am panic.

Please tell me that this is not a huge mistake!!!

Please relax. You should never be in a panic because of a vacation. That video was the exception and not the norm. And since it has posted, I am sure NCL has cracked the whip with housekeeping on the Epic.

I have been on Epic twice and think she still is one of the best cruise ships in the world..

If you ever experience any housekeeping issues, report them immediately and they will be taken care of pronto.

Make sure to come back and give us a full review.

7 cruises on NCL and I have yet to see a cabin with mold or soiled bed clothes. We are active in our Roll Call Meet and Greets and have done cabin crawls on most of the ships. No one had any complaints. There has been one more or less, sort of, confirmation of a bed bug incident on one ship, but it was apparently promptly handled by NCL as soon as the passenger (who may have carried them on board from a hotel himself) reported it.

Bed bugs can ( and probably have) been found in every hotel and cruise line. They are transported by people and luggage. Not very likely that you will run into them.

Read down the board and you will see some complaints, but not the sort you are asking about. Ask yourself if what the posters are complaining about would affect or bother you, and to what degree and would it affect greatly your cruise as a whole. The answer is probably not much at all.

Regarding the "fees for room service" - so far this is limited to Breakaway and Getaway... It's still in a testing phase... Will it be pushed out before your cruise... who knows... but it doesn't seem like its a big deal.

I would cruise Epic again in a skinny minute if given the chance!!! :D

My experience on the Epic was just that, "Epic"!

You will find many more positive reviews regarding the Epic than negative.

Go, relax and have a great time!

If the Epic was infested with bed bugs you wouldn't just read about it on here, it would be on the World News Headlines as the whole thing would need evacuating and fumigating (including the destruction of most of the furniture) :eek:

There are a couple of thousand rooms on the epic. If the rooms were like that as standard then there would be thousands of videos clogging up YouTube and taking over the cat videos. Although i still have my reservations about the whole "previous occupants hair" thing - maybe they should have housekeeping in haz-mat suits from now on :rolleyes:

There may or may not be a fee for room service. If it is implement on the Epic when you go it will cost you not much more than your normal tip i would expect. For us it works out that for about the cost of a cup of fancy coffee we could get a 3 course meal delivered to my balcony :D

My experience on the Epic was just that, "Epic"!

You will find many more positive reviews regarding the Epic than negative.

Go, relax and have a great time!

Great to read this as we are also sailing on Epic for the first time in May and all the negative posts really do start to make you just a little bit nervous. Have cruised previously with RCCL and celebrity.

I'm sure everything will be fine and they will be doing their best as no-one likes bad press.

If room service fees sends someone into a panic, they need more than a message board to calm them.

We cruised the Epic and loved it. We had a spa suite and I fell in love with their spa. I loved the Epic. Our room was clean. No bad experience at all.

Great to read this as we are also sailing on Epic for the first time in May and all the negative posts really do start to make you just a little bit nervous. Have cruised previously with RCCL and celebrity.

 

I'm sure everything will be fine and they will be doing their best as no-one likes bad press.

Just seconding the positives of the Epic other posters have mentioned. We've sailed the Epic twice, and my parents have sailed it three times. I'd sail once more if I could!

Have a great time! It's one of our favorite ships. :)

Please tell me that my husband and I have not made a HUGE mistake by booking the Epic. We are book for a Western Med. cruise in May. I have never sailed with NCL before. We are frequent cruisers with RCI and Carnival. We love both for different reason, and feel that they ships and services are perfect. However, with that being said I have been reading the boards on here and so far in the last week I have seen a post about a couple having BED BUGS, another couple had a disgusting room with mold, and soiled bed clothes, and now I hear there is fees for room service. :eek: I am panic.

 

Please tell me that this is not a huge mistake!!!

I was on the Maiden Voyage of the Epic and you could not pay me, to go back on this vessel!! :mad:

Please tell me that my husband and I have not made a HUGE mistake by booking the Epic. We are book for a Western Med. cruise in May. I have never sailed with NCL before. We are frequent cruisers with RCI and Carnival. We love both for different reason, and feel that they ships and services are perfect. However, with that being said I have been reading the boards on here and so far in the last week I have seen a post about a couple having BED BUGS, another couple had a disgusting room with mold, and soiled bed clothes, and now I hear there is fees for room service. :eek: I am panic.

 

Please tell me that this is not a huge mistake!!!

We were just on the Epic last month. Loved her! I would be hard pressed to find a complaint. The ONLY bad thing I could say is if you were traveling with children the bathroom configuration may be uncomfortable if modesty is an issue. That's it, the one and only bad thing I would have to say.

Please tell me that my husband and I have not made a HUGE mistake by booking the Epic. We are book for a Western Med. cruise in May. I have never sailed with NCL before. We are frequent cruisers with RCI and Carnival. We love both for different reason, and feel that they ships and services are perfect. However, with that being said I have been reading the boards on here and so far in the last week I have seen a post about a couple having BED BUGS, another couple had a disgusting room with mold, and soiled bed clothes, and now I hear there is fees for room service. :eek: I am panic.

 

Please tell me that this is not a huge mistake!!!

You have already booked your cruise and you leave in May. Since you are an experienced cruiser, I seriously doubt that you have made a huge mistake :)

Having never sailed the Epic, I can't speak about the ship specifically. I do believe that the issues you mentioned have already been addressed and are unlikely to continue.

Instead of worrying and panicking in the few weeks before you leave, concentrate on building excitement and planning your excursions. I believe that if your outlook on life is overall a positive one even before you step foot aboard the Epic, you will have an enjoyable cruise and vacation. Start moving yourself into vacation mode today and it will be a smooth sail until the real sail away day!

We were are the Epic and it was fine. You have to take what is posted on Cruise Critic forums with a grain of salt - remember, a lot of the posters use this forum just to air complaints. I try to sift thru the usual complainers because there is some good information to be had here and there about the ships even though it seems to be getting few and far between.

I remember when I booked the Epic, I was reading reviews and one reviewer was going on and on about what a horrible

time they had and their main grip was there was not soap in the form of bars and how long it took for their steward to locate a bar of soap. And how rude everyone was. Seriously !! If I'm on a beautiful ship I'm not going to worry about my soap type.. And I can imagine having these people as cruisemates. Just like someone just said we

Don't go on our long awaited costly vacation to be miserable and worrying that our demands are not expedited. RELAX !! ENJOY !!

I am booked for my 2nd cruise ever (and my first was on Carnival...ha!), on the Epic's June 14th sailing out of Barcelona, and I was getting a little freaked out reading some of the same threads.

However, I know that, even if the slightest bit true, those types of complaints/incidents are only an anomaly. Enjoy your cruise and leave a few cocktails for me!

I sailed Epic for the first time in December and had one of my all-time favorite cruises. I'm booked on her again in October to sail from Southampton to Barcelona. I expect to fall in love with Epic all over again, especially with all-new entertainment.

As was mentioned above, no ship or crew is perfect. If you run into difficulties, make contact with the hotel director. NCL is very motivated to fix problems while you are on board. Once you leave the ship, they are much less motivated as they are no longer in a position to fix anything.

Please tell me that my husband and I have not made a HUGE mistake by booking the Epic. We are book for a Western Med. cruise in May. I have never sailed with NCL before. We are frequent cruisers with RCI and Carnival. We love both for different reason, and feel that they ships and services are perfect. However, with that being said I have been reading the boards on here and so far in the last week I have seen a post about a couple having BED BUGS, another couple had a disgusting room with mold, and soiled bed clothes, and now I hear there is fees for room service. :eek: I am panic.

 

Please tell me that this is not a huge mistake!!!

Well, since Epic sails with about 15,000 or so guests every month, and you found a half dozen posters that make some pretty strange claims, I think your worrying about nothing. Bed bugs may or may not have been an issue for this cruiser, they may have brought them on with them, they stayed in a hotel the night before.

Mold in the room, bathroom I would guess. Probably could find some if you looked, same a some hotels. If you bring it to their attention it will be remedied.

Soiled bed cloths, not sure what that means.

No room service charges for Epic. If it comes it will be a few bucks and you don't have to use it. Most don't.

Go enjoy your cruise.

Please tell me that my husband and I have not made a HUGE mistake by booking the Epic. We are book for a Western Med. cruise in May. I have never sailed with NCL before. We are frequent cruisers with RCI and Carnival. We love both for different reason, and feel that they ships and services are perfect. However, with that being said I have been reading the boards on here and so far in the last week I have seen a post about a couple having BED BUGS, another couple had a disgusting room with mold, and soiled bed clothes, and now I hear there is fees for room service. :eek: I am panic.

 

Please tell me that this is not a huge mistake!!!

I don't get it! Being a seasoned cruiser why would you book a new cruise line with out doing your home work first.

Been there, done that.

Epic was our first ever cruise--we booked it for the European itinerary, and then I found this forum and started reading about it. I saw all the negative reviews, most coming from the initial season of Caribbean sailings. I had to decide if I was going to change my mind--but thinking critically, I saw that really, most of them were complaining about things that weren't going to affect my wife and me on our vacation. I looked for the things that folks had complained about during our sailing, and quickly realized that these people really seem to need to be unhappy about something to be truly happy, I guess. :rolleyes:

It was a great vacation--best we've had in our 30 years together so far.

Dug up our review from 2011 for you. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showp...85&postcount=1

I sailed on the Epic on her last west-bound transatlantic this past October. She's a great ship. There isn't a single ship out there that has 100% happy customers. If you let a few bad reviews tarnish the whole trip for you, that's on you. Just remember that the place and time to address any issues is while you are on the ship, not afterwards. If you have an issue, TELL THEM. I promise that they'll do their best to rectify whatever it is. This is where the Cruise Critic Meet & Greet comes in handy, since they give you a card that has the contact information of every department head that you might need to talk to.

I don't get it! Being a seasoned cruiser why would you book a new cruise line with out doing your home work

 

The trip was a surprise gift from my Dear Husband.... I did not book anything and did not know about it until after final payment.

 

I am feeling much better about this trip... I just needed to hear some positive things about the Ship... :D

Been there, done that.

 

Epic was our first ever cruise--we booked it for the European itinerary, and then I found this forum and started reading about it. I saw all the negative reviews, most coming from the initial season of Caribbean sailings. I had to decide if I was going to change my mind--but thinking critically, I saw that really, most of them were complaining about things that weren't going to affect my wife and me on our vacation. I looked for the things that folks had complained about during our sailing, and quickly realized that these people really seem to need to be unhappy about something to be truly happy, I guess. :rolleyes:

 

It was a great vacation--best we've had in our 30 years together so far.

 

Dug up our review from 2011 for you. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showp...85&postcount=1

Thank you for posting your review... I did not know about the VAT. I found it very helpful.