Spring Break, Epic Revi

Howdy,

My spouse and I took a 4 night Epic cruise, last week for our honeymoon. Here are my thoughts. This was the first time being on NCL.

We were booked in two of the studios with connecting doors. Long story short, this cruise was planned for a getaway for me, then I asked him to join, then we got engaged and married; so instead of losing our deposits I keep these cabins.

We stayed the night prior at the Residence Inn by Marriott, and loved it.

We had a check in time of 1030 -1100. We got to the Port by 1000 and parked easily in the garage. Take your parking ticket with you, so you can pay.

We grabbed our luggage and zig zagged our way to the porters. It was quite congested as people were still disembarking from the previous trip.

After dropping off our luggage we took the escalators upstairs. We quickly got through security.

Check in was smooth, we only waited a couple of minutes. We were assigned boarding group 5. We took our seats and waited. We waited a little over an hour. It was very difficult to hear what boarding numbers they were calling where we were seated. After scanning our cards one more time, we proceeded to the gang plank and got the prerequisite washy washy lol

Once onboard it took a few minutes to get our barrings. We wanted to eat at Taste vs battling the buffet. The AFT elevators don't go to deck 5, so we made our way down the stairs then the escalator.

All in All a very smooth and pleasurable boarding.

Our cabin was perfect for us. We had the connecting door open the entire time, The steward was great and attentive. Towel animals and ice every night. The ship is showing it's age. For instance, the shower drained very slowly, to the point I thought it might over flow. My closets had no doors, they were completely missing. It didn't detract from my trip, just an observation. Finding our cabins on the first day was challenging, boy did we get our steps in. On another note, the Studio Lounge was excellent. The coffee maker alone was worth it. Macchiatto's and Latte's, no coffee bar for us this trip. They even had goodies and a set bar time.

We got the dining package, which in hind sight maybe was not the best idea, but it is what it is. We ate at Cagney's, La Cucina, Le Bistro and added on Moderno. We had terrific meals and service at all these places. My husband really enjoyed La Cucina the most. I thought the service was very slow here. as the waiter had no assistance. My favorite was Le Bistro. The salad bar at Moderno could be a meal alone, it was very very good.

We also had two meals at O'Sheehans....was pub like food. Took a bit to get food and on one occasion the waiter disappeared. Both otherwise was good and fit our need at the time.

Taste was fairly decent, good service and attentive.

We visited many of the bars on the ship, the service was touch and go. Our favorite bar was the Atrium bar...great drinks, not pre-mixed and strong. We frequented the Spice bar, as we spent many hours back there. That bar was slammed the majority of the time. It was nice to see a server going around; however, they could have use more than one. Granted unbeknownst to us, this was a Spring Break cruise...duh... lol

Man were the bars hoping...it was crazy, but we rolled with it.

Burn the floor was great, we didn't see Priscilla. Caught a portion of the Beatles show.

Escape was all booked so we didn't get to that, along with all the comedy shows.

We saw the Glow Party, my husband didn't think it was that glowy LOL

Great Stirrup Cay was awesome. We caught the first tender ashore. This was easy, as many were likely sleeping off their hangovers LOL

We did the paddle boarding. This was so fun. The staff was very informative and helped this novice a great deal.

Lunch on the island was good and plentiful. Jerk Chicken and salads were very good. We had a couple of drinks from the bar, didn't take too long.

On the sea day, we didn't have any difficulty finding a lounger in Spice H2O; likely again people were probably sleeping off their hang overs LOL

The photography staff were helping, we got a few photos.

Disembarkation was super easy. We picked a 0930 disembarkation time. We had a leisurely breakfast at Taste and then went to the outside decks to wait. Once called we walked off , grabbed our bags, went through customs and walked to our car. Super easy.

Overall, despite the craziness of Spring Break, we had a great first time on NCL. We would definitely cruise NCL again if the price was right!

Cheers

sounds like you really both enjoyed your trip!

Thanks for taking the time to write about your cruise!

Sounds like a great honeymoon! Congratulations!!