Our Epic first time cruise- photo review- 3rd Jan Canaries/Spain

Hi all,

I've just returned from our first ever cruise on the Epic from the 3rd Jan-13th Jan. I've taken a lot of pictures so I'd love to share a photo review with you! I know that SwissLe has been doing a live post from the cruise, but I'm hoping my review will give you a different perspective on the cruise from a first timer (not to mention that he was in the Haven and we were in an inside!)

Some quick background info- my party was myself and my Fiance (hereby known as F), both 30 and currentley living in the South of England (but from Yorkshire really). Until recentley we have both been students so have never had the money for cruises and holidays- so this was definatley a treat for us! When we saw such a good deal on this cruise we really couldn't resist. I've been wanting to cruise for years and have certainly been lurking on these forums for a fair while.

We aren't party animals (any more... lol) gamblers or drinkers, so sadly I can't advise much on that side of the cruise. However we love to see new places, eat great food, and we also love shows and musicals! F loves the gym and to work out, so he definatley approved of the gym on the Epic.

If you have any questions please do fire away and I'll do my best!

Day 0- Home to Heathrow

I won't bore you with a lengthy tale of our not-so-lengthy trip to the airport, but for anyone who is passing this way and interested, I booked a park and stay package (through a broker website which I always find has the best deals) at the Rennaisance hotel Heathrow. We drove there fairly late after dinner and checked in no probs. You take a ticket when you arrive in the parking lot, and validate it upon your return.

Considering I chose it as the cheapest one right at the airport, the room was really nice!

The hotel is right next to the runway but we couldn't hear a thing through the windows. It was an early night as we had to be up at 5am for our 7.55am flight!

Day 1- Travel/Barcelona

After an easy transfer on the Heathrow Hoppa bus (buy your tickets online, at a machine in the hotel or just on the bus), we were at the airport. Check in was easy with the BA app, as we had checked in 24 hours before and chosen seats. I do like flying BA- Easyjet etc may be cheaper, but by the time you've added on luggage etc there's hardly any difference. BA also give you a snack and drink on the plane which is nice.

After check in we headed to the No1 Traveller Lounge. I have a free Priority Pass card with my bank account so like to take advantage and pop into an airport lounge when I can. We liked the No1 Heathrow (Terminal 3) a lot! Probably the best lounge we have been to. There's lots of choice of cold breakfast items and drinks:

And you can also order hot items like bacon sandwiches, cheese and beans on toast etc. There's lots of free booze but it was waaaaaay too early for that!

I should probably add here a note about my camera. It's not the best, as you can probably tell from the above pics. It's a Fuijifilm tough underwater type job- which we bought to use on holiday and take in the sea/pool etc. I don't like to flash my phone around when on holiday so I use the camera, but the pictures aren't the best. So sorry in advance about that! Must buy a better one for the Honeymoon.

Anyway, the lounge is really cool- there's this little 'snug' area thats all soft and cushioned with little hidey-holes and sleeping corners. If your flight was delayed you could get a great snooze in here.

They also have this cool cinema area, a games lounge, lots of nice seating, magazines, wifi etc. Was a great place to wait for our flight to board!

Next up: Boarding the Epic

Sounds wonderful so far! Subscribing and thanks!

Mary

Eager to read your review as we were on same cruise in a deck 13 balcony cabin. We hated the ship (and that is not an overstatement). Worst ship we have ever been on in 37 cruises. Too large, too many loud people, very badly designed cabins. However food and entertainment were excellent and the free drinks package was good. Staff and service were good with the exception of staff on reception. Our steward was great and provided nightly towel animals which was amusing. We enjoyed the cruise and itinerary but not the ship.

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Looking forward to following along! I'm on the March 6 sailing, so eager to hear about your experience. :D

Thanks for taking the time to write a review--much appreciated!

Eager to read your review as we were on same cruise in a deck 13 balcony cabin. We hated the ship (and that is not an overstatement). Worst ship we have ever been on in 37 cruises. Too large, too many loud people, very badly designed cabins. However food and entertainment were excellent and the free drinks package was good. Staff and service were good with the exception of staff on reception. Our steward was great and provided nightly towel animals which was amusing. We enjoyed the cruise and itinerary but not the ship.

 

I'll be on the Epic for the first time in March. I've never sailed a ship this size because of concern about things such as you mentioned. I'm going with low expectations about the ship (VERY excited about the itinerary) and fully anticipating I'll be going back to the smaller classes in future. Hopefully, my expectations will be exceeded! :o

We were on b2b over Xmas and new year and I too hated the ship, far too big and impersonal! I'm travelling solo in April and really not looking forward to it, I did try to change ship but nothing sailing that fit in with my dates

Eager to read your review as we were on same cruise in a deck 13 balcony cabin. We hated the ship (and that is not an overstatement). Worst ship we have ever been on in 37 cruises. Too large, too many loud people, very badly designed cabins. However food and entertainment were excellent and the free drinks package was good. Staff and service were good with the exception of staff on reception. Our steward was great and provided nightly towel animals which was amusing. We enjoyed the cruise and itinerary but not the ship.

 

 

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From what I can gather people who have cruised a lot don't tend to like the Epic- but those who don't know any better (like myself) quite like her! I wouldn't call her beautiful but we enjoyed the ship a lot. The 4000 odd people on board did grate on me after a while though, I have to admit! I hope you enjoyed the cruise overall even if you didn't enjoy the Epic.

Next update coming soon, F came home from work and demanded food and attention! (I have booked off work until Monday, which is much more sensible than going straight back to work!)

We were on b2b over Xmas and new year and I too hated the ship, far too big and impersonal! I'm travelling solo in April and really not looking forward to it, I did try to change ship but nothing sailing that fit in with my dates

It's a shame you hated the Epic! I hope that you can overlook it and enjoy your next cruise :) I don't mind big and impersonal, but the crowds and number of people on board could get a bit much.

Day 1- Barcelona/Embarkation

When I booked the cruise and flights, the thought didn't cross my over- excited little mind to fly in the day before the cruise. Then I started reading the forums here more regularly, and realised that I could have made a massive mistake. What if the flight was delayed? Cancelled? Snowed in? I was trying not to dissolve into panic in the days before the cruise (so it looked to F like I knew what I was doing as chief holiday booker), but I was pretty nervous about it all going wrong.

Well, it went as smooth as smooth can be! The flight took off bang on time, landed in Barcelona bang on time, and we were on the ship maybe an hour later. But to rewind a little, I had booked a transfer through Sun Transfers to take us from Barcelona El Prat airport to the Epic. Yes, I know, there's plenty of cabs- but the transfer was the same price as the fixed taxi fare, and I liked the idea of having someone meet us who knew where we needed to go.

I've seen differing reviews of Sun Transfers but from my personal experience I would use them again with no hestitation. The driver was waiting in arrivals with a sign for us, escorted us downstairs (wheeling my very over-packed suitcase for me), and led us to a large mini van (even though we only booked a normal car). A very smooth 20 minute drive later and we were dropped at the port. So I would reccomend them! Our plane landed at 10.40 and we were at the port by 11.20. On the way in we got our first look at our home for the next 10 days:

The terminal building was pretty busy and we got in the queue for the plebs without latitudes or Haven status. The queue was full to the end of the ropes and took maybe half an hour until we checked in. I expected to be given a boarding group and to sit around for an hour or so but nope, just walk straight onto the ship! Very nice. Once on the ship someone stopped me and told me I'd dropped my 'welcome aboard' leaflet. Well, I hadn't, because nobody had given me one. Sure would have been useful to get one as a first time cruiser, as it shows where everything is and what's open for lunch. But the owner of this one seemed long gone so I adopted it. Sorry 12045, I have your leaflet- let me know if you want it back!

We boarded on deck 6 I think (that or 5. Or 7. It was a long time ago, alright?) and there was pretty much a lack of anyone telling you where you go or what to do. So I took matters into my own (well researched on CC, thankfully) hands and directed us to O'Sheehans for lunch.

Sorry no menu pic, but it seems like it's same menu as on every other ship. I'd heard great things about the wings, so we got some to split to start:

They were pretty good wings, but not the melt-in-the-mouth taste sensations I'd heard about. I then had the beef hot dog, which was really good actually, very juicy. F had the burger which was OK, but he had a burger in the MDR at the end of the cruise which knocked its socks off.

No dessert- clearly not in the full swing of cruise gluttony yet! We then set off to explore the ship deck by deck which kept us amused until the cabin announcement was made as promised at 1.30 on the dot.

From what I can gather people who have cruised a lot don't tend to like the Epic- but those who don't know any better (like myself) quite like her! I wouldn't call her beautiful but we enjoyed the ship a lot. The 4000 odd people on board did grate on me after a while though, I have to admit! I hope you enjoyed the cruise overall even if you didn't enjoy the Epic.

 

Next update coming soon, F came home from work and demanded food and attention! (I have booked off work until Monday, which is much more sensible than going straight back to work!)

We love cruising and no cruise is all bad. We had a bonus on this cruise in that I met up for the first time with an Australian girl that I used to talk to on these boards and we have since become Facebook friends. She is still on Epic but is a Haven guest so her experience is a little different to ours 😀

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Loving this review, Squish!! Subscribed. Keep 'em coming!

Thanks for the review so far. Great read.

I think if this was your first cruise on Epic or you're used to smaller vessels in sunnier climbs it was an unfair introduction.

Epic is a fair-weather ship. It's designed for port intensive short looped cruises. It's not an ocean voyager. With the cancellation of Morocco and the bad weather it turned into one.

Too many people inside at once and not spread evenly outside on deck, onshore etc. Just this alone helps the flow.

I'll be quiet now as yes being in the haven means it feels completely different and I have somewhere to escape but I do want to jump to Epic's defence on this.

Thanks for the review so far. Great read.

 

I think if this was your first cruise on Epic or you're used to smaller vessels in sunnier climbs it was an unfair introduction.

 

Epic is a fair-weather ship. It's designed for port intensive short looped cruises. It's not an ocean voyager. With the cancellation of Morocco and the bad weather it turned into one.

 

Too many people inside at once and not spread evenly outside on deck, onshore etc. Just this alone helps the flow.

 

I'll be quiet now as yes being in the haven means it feels completely different and I have somewhere to escape but I do want to jump to Epic's defence on this.

Oh yes, the cancellation of Morocco definitely didn't help- I think everyone was getting cabin fever!

It certainly makes sense what you said about the type of cruise she is designed for. Overall I thought she was a great ship though- and I bet the Haven is even better! Hope you're enjoying your new room :)

Thank you squish for the review. CAnt wait for the next chapter. It's like a book you don't want to put down but just as u get hooked the pages run out[emoji33][emoji46]. Love the added pics. We're on epic in June so no pressure but I'm living vicariously through your posts right now. Lol

Thank you squish for the review. CAnt wait for the next chapter. It's like a book you don't want to put down but just as u get hooked the pages run out[emoji33][emoji46]. Love the added pics. We're on epic in June so no pressure but I'm living vicariously through your posts right now. Lol

Haha I better get on with it then!! I know exactly how you feel as I was doing the same thing in the run up to our cruise!

Why has morocco been cancelled?

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Day 1- continued!

So we were at the point where they made the 'cabins ready' announcement. Ours was a deck 10 aft inside. When booking I had ummed and ahhed about booking a Balcony, but as my justification to F for booking the trip was 'look how cheap the insides are!' I couldn't quite get away with it. This also meant we had no UBP, which was probably a good thing for my waistline as I have a soft spot for sweet and fruity cocktails!

Our cabin:

Thoughts on the cabin

My first reaction was that it was bigger than I feared and really cosy. There is tonnes of storage- I took an over the door hanger thing with me which never made it out of the packet as there was plenty of storage. There's several drawers under the sink unit, shelves and baskets inside the wardrobe and lots of hangers. We have large suitcases (overpacker, moi?) but they slid under the bed fine.

I thought the bed was super comfy, F thought it was too soft. The 'bathroom situation' as it's often referred to on the Epic worked out fine for us. We've shared tiny student rooms a third of the size with more awkward bathrooms in the past. I can see how it would be an issue for relatives or friends though rather than a couple. Along with being translucent, the bathroom and shower doors don't lock, and sometimes slide open a little with the movement of the ship. You could use the curtain thing but there wouldn't be much privacy in general.

I liked having the sink separate as I could brush my teeth or fill water bottles (we used Brita filter bottles which got rid of the funky taste) even if F was hogging the bathroom. I can't understand how people have managed to splash water everywhere from the sink- the flow of water shoots straight down the drain, you actually had to encourage it to swill around the sink to get rid of toothpaste etc. The shower was hot and powerful and never leaked into the cabin, although it did make an interesting howling sound when in use, so was dubbed the 'wolf shower'.

The interactive TV was useful for checking activities, menus and our account, but the remote was soooooo unresponsive and clunky. You'd have to press 'on' about 5 times before the TV would wake up, and so on for every choice. We also liked the bridge cam and the maps. Not much to watch except for a movie channel cycling the same movies over and over, but at least they were fairly new ones (things like Jurrasic World and Ant Man). There was 4 sockets under the TV unit, two European and 2 American. I bought adaptors for both but only used the European ones as they had the correct voltage for us.

Our room steward Ed was fine, he seemed to be constantly in the corridor every time we came and went! Didn't ask him to do anything special for us and he did a good job on the room.

Location wise deck 10 is a good choice as it's never more than 5 floors away from where you want to go. It's also a bad choice because it's rarely less than 5 floors away from where you want to go! Nice and convenient for the spa and gym though, and for the Aft dining areas. Bit of a trek to the buffet. We did experience a fair bit of vibration and creaking at night which kept F up a couple of nights. Docking woke us up every time as the cabin vibrated like crazy.

My main complaint with the cabin would be the lack of light and air. Kind of part and parcel with an inside I guess, but would it kill them to install some brighter lighting? It felt like we were living in some kind of perpetual twilight. Up until about 5 days in I was fine with the cabin, but then it started to grate on me. If we did a longish cruise again I'd book a balcony, just because I like natural light and air. However for 5 days or less I'd be fine with an inside again.

Why has morocco been cancelled?

 

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It was only cancelled on our sailing due to high winds meaning we couldn't dock. As far as I'm aware it's still on the itinerary for future sailings!

Exploring the Epic

After checking out the cabin and dumping our bags, we went off to explore the ship some more. On the way, I signed up for the unlimited soda package. They had desks offering this on the lower decks, or I think you can sign up at one of the bars. The cost was around $85 for 10 days, and I think I got pretty good value out of it. The only thing I drank was diet pepsi, as I'm a big diet cola drinker. I don't know if I only broke even or came out ahead, but it was nice to just get a pepsi whenever I wanted without having to justify the cost. I never had to sign a receipt for one, you just flash your card with the sticker on. If you buy at a bar, ask for 'no ice' or they will fill that glass to the brim with ice, and trickle a little bit of pepsi in between. If I'd been paying $3 a pop I'd have been pretty annoyed at that, but as I had unlimited I just drank my dribble of pepsi and asked for another with no ice. In the restaurants they only seemed to put a little ice in, it's just the bars they fill it to the brim. You also get a plastic beaker thing included in the package which I mainly used to fill with flavoured water in the buffet. Just to warn you, it's not water tight- my bag now smells like strawberry kiwi water :mad:

Anyway, after sorting out the soda package we took a walk around the ship and a few photos:

As you can tell it was pretty quiet on deck. It was a little chilly and I think everyone was either still boarding or in the buffet.

F found the basketball court so that was that for the next half an hour...

The time we broke into the Spa

I'd heard about the 'secret' far aft staircase so wanted to check it out. It was only a couple of seconds from our cabin which was nice, and spanned a few decks. You could get some really nice views from there, and someone had put some chairs out. I think the crew sometimes use it for a cheeky break as we saw one out there.

Some pretty sweet yachts in the harbour:

We climbed up to the top of the stairs, and then accidently broke into the spa, which is where it eventually leads to. In my defence, there may be a 'crew only' sign on the spa side of the door, but there certainly isn't one on the staircase side. It comes out on the spa balcony:

I knew they were doing spa tours as it was embarkation day so I thought we'd just play it cool and blend in with the others checking out the spa. Unfortunately, there was only a couple of people around and they immediately asked us what we were doing and where we came from. Busted! :eek:

I admitted that we kind of broke in, which didn't go down particularly well. I then tried to make amends by gushing about how much we wanted to see the spa facilities, so we then had to put up with a 20 minute tour and hard sell of a spa pass. Phew. We escaped with our lives (and money) and exited through the changing rooms. I took a few sneaky snaps as there was nobody around:

Spa changing room

Womens sauna with cool floor to ceiling windows

Nice Elemis toiletries

Towels and robes

The spa was lovely but we couldn't justify the cost really. We resolved to try and get a day pass on a port day, as we weren't planning to get off the ship in Morocco. I'd also have liked to try a spa treatment but at 4x the cost of what I would pay at home, again I couldn't justify it. They did do some decent specials later in the week, but even then they were still 2x the usual price!

Thanks for posting some pictures if the spa! We are looking forward to that!

Have a great trip!

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Wow... I feel like I'm reliving my holiday all over again. Congrats on the spa break in. They're on you like hawks. Try going to do a work out and look halfway decent and they'll chase you down the hallway. I get their bored but geez... if they didn't charge so much it wouldn't be that much of a problem. I've only done the spa on one ship and that was the Jewel. It was a good time but that was because a large group of us did it together!

Looking forward to more of your review! I was on this itinerary in late November / early December. The first 10 day run of the season for Epic. :)

thanks for your review. We fly out next Friday for our turn on the Epic. What was the weather like? Looks overcast and a little cool on the day you left Barcelona. High winds in Morocco, probably means that the weather on the way to the Canary islands wasn't much better.

During your sea days did you ever spend any time up on deck?

We are still deciding what to pack.

thanks for your review. We fly out next Friday for our turn on the Epic. What was the weather like? Looks overcast and a little cool on the day you left Barcelona. High winds in Morocco, probably means that the weather on the way to the Canary islands wasn't much better.

 

During your sea days did you ever spend any time up on deck?

 

We are still deciding what to pack.

It was a bit on the chilly side in Barcelona! And pretty windy on deck when sailing to Morocco. However the weather in the canaries was beautiful. In Las Palmas we were in shorts and t-shirts, and people were swimming in the sea. In Tenerife it was also sunny and beautiful, however when we arrived and left it was cloudy. As we didn't hang around the port area during the day I don't know if it was cloudy all day near the port and only sunny where we were! On the sea day after Morocco it was lovely and we sunbathed on deck, but that was the only really nice sea day. But most days it was nice enough to sit out if you had a sweater on.

In Funchal it was lovely weather and hot when the sun was out- but we were told that it had been freezing and rainy the day before! Malaga was very nice and F spent most of the day with his shirt off so it must have been a good temperature. We did end up buying more suncream in port as we were using it most days!

Overall the weather was better than I expected, I packed for all weathers but we didn't use the rain coats! The ship air con was the coldest temps we encountered outside of Barcelona. But I think we were quite lucky not to see any rain. You'll probably just have to do what I did and overpack so you have something for all weathers!