OH NO! Another Epic Trip Report w/pics

At the break of Dawn one January morning we were Sky high and in the Spirit to find a Gem of a cruise so we chose to Escape on the Epic hoping our Getaway would turn out to be pure Joy and a Pearl of a cruise.

We had never been to the Eastern Caribbean and had never experienced cruising on a large mega-ship so I began searching the Internet for a cruise that might meet both criteria.

I stumbled onto an excellent price for a balcony cabin on the Epic for a Dec 10th cruise and at the time NCL was also offering the choice of 2 of the “Free at Sea” promotions. I booked the cruise though an Internet TA and chose cabin 10075 because looking at the deck plans, I thought that cabin might have a bit larger balcony but without the price of the larger balconies. I also liked the fact that I didn’t have to put down a deposit.

Before I start this report I want you to know that both myself and my wife are senior citizens and at times I can be a grumpy old man. Keep in mind that the opinions expressed in this report are just that, opinions. I’m giving you a heads up, if you don’t want to read any negative comments about the Epic then stop reading this thread now. Besides, with all the recent reviews of the Epic mine is probably just going to be more of the same and very boring anyway. The only difference will be my viewpoint is that of a second-class passenger as opposed to those of the first-class passengers.

My sister and her husband, hereafter referred to as J & M, would be joining us on this cruise and had booked a mini-suite on deck 11.

DAY 1 December 8th

We started our trip two days early because anytime we cruise we always plan to arrive in the port city one day early and since this was December we decided to head to the St. Louis airport one day early too. December weather in St. Louis is always iffy and can range from snowy and cold enough to freeze fire to warm and balmy. It’s not unusual for the airport to close due to weather conditions.

We always choose to spend the night at the Marriott Hotel by the airport because they offer a free shuttle to the airport and they allow us leave our car on their lot without charge for the week we are gone. Soon after checking in at the hotel we met up with J & M and ate dinner at the hotel’s restaurant which was aptly named “The Restaurant.” After dinner we went to the hotel’s bar for an evening nightcap before retiring for the night.

DAY 2 December 9th

Our Southwest Airlines flight to Orlando had a scheduled 8:55 AM departure and the hotel’s shuttle dropped us off at terminal 2 just after 7 AM. I was surprised at the large crowd in the terminal building. We already had our boarding passes so we went to a kiosk to get luggage tags and then dropped our luggage off with one of the agents.

My wife and I had been TSA pre-checked but even so, the pre-check line for security actually looked as long as those without the pre-check. I zipped through security with any issues but my wife set off alarms when she passed through the x-ray machine. They pulled her aside and then she had to wait for a female TSA officer to show up to frisk her. Not satisfied with just frisking, the TSA now did the wanding thing over her body stopping at her knee. The wand sounded an alarm when it was passed over her knee. Oh my gosh, my wife forgot that her knee brace had metal stays in it which caused all the alarms. Now that that was settled I thought we would be moving on but no, now they wanted her to take off her shoe. Hey I thought, if you’re going to strip her and do a body cavity search you need to do it in a less public area. Fortunately they only wanted her one shoe and they took that over to the luggage scanner to a better examination. Finally the TSA determined this cute little older woman didn’t have a shoe bomb or an underwear bomb and wasn’t a threat to national security so we were finally allowed to head to the departure gates.

Our plan was to grab a breakfast at the airport, what a mistake. The restaurants were overwhelmed with patrons and the lines for the Burger King and Starbucks were so long it lookedt like a Black Friday sales event. Here’s a picture of the line for Starbucks.

Our flight boarded on time and we had an excellent crew for this flight. The only thing that always causes me to lose a bit of confidence in the crew is the fact that the flight deck is labeled. Shouldn’t the crew already know where the flight deck is? Just saying.

Although our departure was delayed about 15 minutes while the plane was sprayed with de-icer, we arrived in Orlando on time. During the planning stages of our trip my wife had found a deal with the Hampton Inn at Cocoa Beach that included transportation through Cocoa Beach Shuttle from the airport to the hotel, the hotel to the cruise terminal, and then transportation back to the airport when our cruise was over. This worked out really well for us.

The Hampton Inn was located just a few miles from the Port Canaveral cruise terminal and close to the beach so that too worked out well for us. They even had a stuffed astronaut in the lobby area of the hotel.

During check-in at the hotel they set up a 10:15 AM pickup time for us with the Cocoa Beach Shuttle. After getting settled in our room at the Hampton Inn I decided to check out the beach. It was a very short walk along a well-marked trail to the beach. It was a chilly and very windy afternoon but even so, I was surprised to find the beach deserted.

While enjoying the ocean and the view I noticed a white speck on the horizon that looked like it might be a passenger ship. To try to ID what I was looking at I took a picture of it using my cameras very long optical zoom plus the maximum digital zoom of the camera. This produces a less than good quality photo but it’s good enough to get an idea of what I was looking at. It definitely looked like a passenger ship but an old passenger ship. Actually it made me think of a passenger ferry from some third world island nation.

It wasn’t until I got home and looked at my photos of the trip that I realized I had taken another photo of this ship as we were departing Port Canaveral on the Epic. Oh my goodness, it’s a casino cruise ship. Looking at the outward appearance of this ship there is no way I would voluntarily get on it and go out in the Atlantic Ocean unless of course I was addicted to gambling and drunk as a skunk. It looked like a rust bucket to me. My photo actually makes the ship look good.

That evening we went to at dinner with J & M at Brano’s Italian Grill. The food was very good and our waiter was quite the comedian. If you’re in the area I really recommend Brano’s Italian Grill. The restaurant was within walking distance of our hotel but across the street. We discovered it was better to walk a bit beyond the restaurant to an intersection that was protected by light signals to cross the street. The people who drive that stretch of A1A highway seem to speed up and aim for pedestrians.

After the short walk back to the hotel we enjoyed a nightcap at the hotel’s bar and then called it a night.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Will be following along. We will be on the Epic in November.

I'm cruising on the Epic in February and looking forward to reading more. I think a cruiser should post what they feel are good and bad about their cruise.

We are on this ship in May and I like your style of writing

Following along. NCL newbie, so needing as much info as possible!

Thanks for sharing

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I can't make up my mind. Is it a good sign or bad sign that a casino ship can't afford routine maintenance? They need a big banner that reads, "we can't afford cosmetic fixes because our slots are so loose!"

Enjoying your stuff, you grumpy old man. :)

Thanks for taking the time to write an extensive review. Waiting for the next chapter!

Thanks for the review with lots of photos, I will be on The Epic in 2 weeks!

Excited to read your review!

For those of you taking a future cruise on the Epic don’t let any negative remarks I make about this cruise worry you. The Epic was a good ship but just not my cup of tea. For many folks the Epic is their favorite ship.

I'm working on the next day of our trip tonight. I apologize for how long it takes me to update this thread but words don't come easily to me and my keyboarding skills aren't the best.

I can't make up my mind. Is it a good sign or bad sign that a casino ship can't afford routine maintenance? They need a big banner that reads, "we can't afford cosmetic fixes because our slots are so loose!"

 

Enjoying your stuff, you grumpy old man. :)

LOL, that would be a great banner for that ship. If you're not in sales or marketing you should be.

I'm cruising on the Epic in February and looking forward to reading more. I think a cruiser should post what they feel are good and bad about their cruise.

I'll be on the Epic in February as well. I'm starting to get excited!!

I thumbed through the pictures before reading and thought that you got scammed as it wasn't the Epic at all. [emoji925]

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I thumbed through the pictures before reading and thought that you got scammed as it wasn't the Epic at all. [emoji925]

 

 

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LOL, that gave me a chuckle.

Day 3 DECEMBER 10th EMBARKATION

The Hampton Inn offers a free hot breakfast which my wife and I enjoyed that morning. We met up with J & M in the lobby at 9:45 to wait for our shuttle to the cruise port. Our shuttle arrived on time and it was about a 15 minute drive to the port. Unfortunately there were three other cruise ships in the port and of course the Epic was the farthest away. I believe it took us 20 minutes of slow moving traffic before we finally arrived at the Epic. We had another delay of about 20 minutes as we sat in a line of busses that were waiting for baggage handlers to be available to take our luggage.

Finally we headed into the terminal and into the security lines. My wife made a point of not wearing her knee brace so we made through security as did our carry-on luggage without an issue. The same could not be said for J & M.

My brother-in-law always carries a flask of his favorite scotch when traveling and it was in his carry-on luggage. This flask didn’t go unnoticed by port security. They inspected his carry-on, removed his flask and took it off to parts unknown to empty it and then returned the empty flask to my brother-in-law. In case you’re wondering J & M had the Unlimited Beverage Package. I think in a previous life my brother-in-law must have been a notorious smuggler along the Barbary Coast and those urges to smuggle continued into this life.

They were already boarding passengers in the terminal and there wasn’t any line for Latitudes members so check-in was quick and simple. We were on board the Epic at deck 7 by 11:45. Since the cabins weren’t ready our plan was to take an elevator down to deck 6 and eat at O’Sheehan’s but getting an elevator was an exercise in futility so we took the stairs down to deck 6. Soon J & M joined us and we had a lunch of the appetizers. I also ordered one of my favorite frozen drinks, the Bushwacker. I really liked the look and feel of O’Sheehan’s.

I never did hear an announcement that the rooms were ready but it was very noisy in O’Sheehan’s so at 1:30 we headed up to our cabin on deck 10 to drop off our carry-on cases. Waiting on elevators would be a major issue on this sold out cruise.

Our cabin, 10075, seemed smaller than those we had on the other NCL ships we had been on. On the plus side there was a lot more storage space, some of it useless, than the other ships. Had it not been for the Cruise Critic Forums I never would have known the back of the couch opened up for more storage and that there were pullout drawers in the bottom of the couch.

Many people complain about the bathroom layout on the Epic but didn’t bother us at all and I liked the fact that this layout provided more room in the toilet area. The one thing that bothered me the entire cruise was the little light over the wash basin was too small and too dim. My wife complained of the same issue. Again, had it not been for reading these forums on Cruise Critic I probably never would have found the hidden light switch for that light. It’s on the underside of the medicine cabinet which is a strange place for an on/off switch if you ask me. The red arrow points to the on/off switch.

The bed was rather strange too. The headboard was curved so that the longest/deepest part of the bed was in the middle with the sides the shortest part of the bed. At night my feet were always hanging off the bottom.

I’m a big coffee drinker so I didn’t like the fact that our cabin had a one cup coffee maker instead of the small pot coffee maker we had on other ships. My wife on the other hand, loved the one cup machine because she could make a cup of tea without getting the hint of a coffee taste in her tea.

When we booked this room I had guessed correctly that the balcony would be bigger. It was even bigger/deeper than I had hoped. Because our cabin was at the beginning of the first bumpout, one side of the balcony was deeper than the other. The balcony was the best part of our cabin.

Embarkation Day will be continued in my next post.

Enjoying your review!!!!

Thank you very much.

Can't wait for more!!!!

I love your writing style!

Looking forward to the rest of your review as your cabin is nearly identical to ours (11074, a deck up and on the other side).

Following along.

Loving your review thank you for your time writing it.

EMBARKATION DAY CONTINUED

Muster was at 3:30 PM and our station was in the theater, B5 if I remember correctly. We headed down early to avoid the mad rush for the elevators when the call to muster was sounded.

When muster ended we exited on deck 5 and once again, getting an elevator was a nightmare. As I remember we took the stairs up to deck 6 and into O’Sheehan’s for a drink while we waited for the other 4000 people to get where they wanted via the elevators.

In hindsight, I think it would have been smarter to skip the muster drill on the first day and attend the mandatory muster the next day. If I ever cruise a mega-ship again I’ll do exactly that.

Getting elevators on this sold out cruise was a major aggravation for me. Embarkation day and debarkation day were ridiculous. Also, the first two days at sea we experienced light rain and extremely strong winds and some of the upper decks were closed as were the pools, slides, and other water features because of the winds. So with most passengers inside, the elevators were slow and crowded. There were many times that even though the elevator stopped at your floor, there wasn’t any room for more passengers. There were always a lot of people using the stairs to get between decks on this cruise.

We were back in our cabin and sitting on our balcony in time for the sail away. From our balcony we had a view of the three other ships in port, the Disney Fantasy, the Carnival Magic, and the Carnival Sunshine. The Carnival Magic was the first ship to leave port and we followed soon after.

The sun was low in the sky and the skies were partly cloudy as we departed the pier. The wind was really starting to pick up as we left Port Canaveral.

Both the Sheriff’s Department and the Coast Guard followed our ship out to the ocean. Probably looking for my brother-in-law, the smuggler.

As planned, we met up with J & M a pre-dinner drink at O’Sheehan’s and then went to dinner at the complimentary Taste Restaurant. We had no trouble getting seated at Taste. Even though this was a sold out cruise we only had two occasions when we had to wait to be seated for dinner and as I remember the wait was less than 10 minutes both times. I ordered a shrimp pasta dish that night that was quite good. Overall I thought the food was good on the Epic but not great. In my opinion, the food we had on the Jade in January was much better. Sorry, no food pictures in this report.

At 9 PM the four of us went to Howl at the Moon Dueling Pianos in the Headliners Comedy Club. I was looking forward to this since I’ve been to other land based dueling piano bars and they are so much fun. This was a real disappointment for me. Instead of two very funny people interacting with the audience and each other, it was just two people alternately playing tunes that had been requested by the audience. Perhaps it was just an off night for them because they weren’t funny but they were very good piano players. After listening and waiting 45 minutes for some comedy we left the club and called it a night.

As we walked back to our cabin we could feel the motion of the ship going side to side but it wasn’t all that bad.

Enjoying your review.

I have a question: Is the small light in the bathroom that you mentioned you wanted to turn off bright enough to be a night light?

Enjoying your review.

 

I have a question: Is the small light in the bathroom that you mentioned you wanted to turn off bright enough to be a night light?

While that light wasn't bright enough for our liking, it might be too bright to use as a night light. Great question though.