Epic review Feb 9-16 -Valentines Day week

Hello all,

It has been sometime since I did a full review here. Just back from the Epic for our second time. Now I feel like a real Epic veteran. Not sure how to start this review and I cannot remember day by day so I will probably go back and forth. Most important than just me sharing my experieince but also pointing out a few tips along the way, especially for those traveling in the Haven and using the concierge. I will also include very specific information that few include at the end detailing exactly how much we paid for what, etc. Will also try to give some tips for saving money. But MOST important will be my objective review of my experiences on Epic. This will be my first reivew with pictures so hopfully I get this thing right. I have nothing but my first experience on Epic in 2010 so there will be lots of comparing back and forth. But let me be clear...... there wont be any complaining or whining. If I describe something in detail that did not live up to my expectations, it did not impact our cruise so much. I just want to point out some noticible differences.... that's all.

Ok now to the review........

When I first booked Epic in January 2010, the Epic was still in dock in France and under constuction. I booked a Penthouse in the Villas (there was no Haven back then). We sailed December 18, 2010. It was Epic's first Christmas and it was a nearly full sailing. We enjoyed our cruise very much and since everything was new, we liked to do all the exploring on the ship. Our cabin was nice but we felt too small for the price we paid. I think we paid over $7,000 for the penthouse back then :eek:. I knew I would sail the Epic again but never thought I would book another Haven suite. That was until January 2012. I noticed how much Epic prices had come down. I could get a 2 bedroom suite for $5800. Not only was the price cheaper than 2010 but the cabin had so much more to offer....... another bedroom, a dining area, living room, separate tub and shower, etc. I was looking for a cruise week that would not be so crowded. I wont sail in March due to spring break. I had heard the best time to sail was the first 2 weeks in February when the prices were down and the kids were in school. So I picked Feb 9, 2013. Valentines day was during the week, so hey now I can surprise my wife ;). But we have extra space. Do we invite anyone? I was keeping the option open. Do we invite some of our friends? Do we dare bring family? Or do we keep it all to ourselves? Well after I mentioned it to my wife like........ your parents can come for only $400 more. My wife thought it was the total of everyone (not EACH) so surely she mentioned to her parents in Argentina. They quickly accepted. Her parents were also keeping an eye on for her brother, age 28 who just got out of rehab. He is living with them. Good kid but loves the electronic music, and alcohol and drugs that come with that sort of crowd. So suddenly the valentines day week cruise filled up to 5 of us . Everyone told me I was nuts to sail with inlaws. But hey, if things did not work out, me and my wife had a plan. We would just throw them overboard :D.

I had heard of this thing called the pre concierge. Sounds great! Since the inlaws dont speak English, thought it was a good idea to request a spanish speaking butler, empty the fridge to not tempt the brother in law from the goodies inside (alcohol) and book our entertainment around the captains cocktail party. Here is a lesson. You will always get better information here on cruise critic than dealing with some NCL people. Afer reading the captians party was Monday night here on CC, I was told by the pre-concierge that it was Sunday night. When I called back to check again, I was placed on hold and they said, it is definately sunday night. Ok fine. As it turned out it was Monday night and NCL pre concierge was wrong. None of use went to the party anyway. But there is a reason I tell this story. When we boarded, all the welcome material in the room was in spanish. The fridge was emptied out. But the lesson here for myself is not to over plan a vacation. It is much easier to order things onboard than trying to correct things onboard. The pre-concierge actually made things more confusing for us. Just FYI

Ok now for boarding and the cruise!!!!!!!

Quickly took the super shuttle to the port and got there about 11:30. Dropped off our bags and got in line for the screeners. In no time we were in the suite check in area. We had brought lots of water and coke products with us (I remember this because I got stuck carrying all of it). The suite check in was crowded and there were not chairs for all the people in the room. Some water and juice was available. But no snacks or pasteries that others have mentioned before. How will those suite guests survive without a snack prior to boarding :eek: First sign of the NCL cut backs !!!!!!!!

Finally finished up with all the check ins. The only nice part is you can sit down and check in. Other than that, I dont see a big difference. Once we were done, we were escorted to an elevator and then put directly on the walkway to the ship. But wait!!!!! No embarkation photo? Was this another NCL cutback? I normally HATE embarkation photos anyway. But this time I especially took 2 minutes to decide what to wear earlier since we would all be together! We were walking on the ship!!!!!! No music, no welcome just some people standing around. Where was our escort to the Haven? Please dont tell me we must walk alone now! So I asked someone if there was someone that takes us there or do we go it alone. The NCL person then instructed me to go to the guest services area. We took the escalator down and there was a line with 30 people in it. Not no, but HELL no am I going to stand in that line. Thankfully I knew where to go since we were on Epic before. We got off on deck 16 and got to place our carry on luggage there and wait for our tour. There we met our concierge Anoop. I could finally drop the 16 cans of coke and 24 bottles of water (horray) and take a mini tour of the Haven. After the tour, we got to drop things off at the room and then head off to the Epic Club for lunch. The main reason I picked 16001 was because the fine people here on cruise critic pointed out how nice the suite was and was a few feet wider than the typical 2 bedroom suite on Epic. But we were all impressed with the suite. The color, the size, and do I dare say the functionality of the suite! We had 7 pieces of luggage and found room for everything including the luggage and we STILL had empty drawers. My wife alone had one piece of luggage for all her potions, creams, soaps, hair stuff, etc and we still had room on the vanity and sink areas. You could play a trivia game to see who could find more hidden storage that we never saw before. The night stands had compartments. The end tables in the living room had compartments. The closets were very deep and could hold the large pieces of luggage. There were lights in the closet and wodden hangers. The shower was amazing too. The roses I had ordered for valentines day were right where I had told them to be.....right by the tub. Although not anyone was overly impressed because everyone thought they came with the room. It is pretty sad when you have to remind someone... Hey those roses over there... they are from ME...... NOT the cruise line!!!!!!!

Here are a vew videos of the suite and the Epic shower. A few things about the videos. Sorry, was in a rush on embarkation day and wanted to film the room before we made it messy. So I forgot to turn on all the lights. The bedroom is a little dark. Did not film all the storage either.

16001

The Epic Shower

The second bedroom is pretty big too and the bed is a good size. I will be posting photos of the second bedroom at the end of this post.

Now the Epic Club.

After viewing the room we went to the Epic Club to have lunch. We quickly learned that it is much easier to find seats for 2 (like our first Epic cruise) than a table for 5. The Epic Club was packed. They were seating people in the courtyard it was so busy. I was sort of surprised because our xmas week, there were not these many people in the Epic Club. We were in no rush but waited about a good 30 minutes for a table inside the Epic Club. This was a sign to come. The "slow" week in Feburary was foiled with 4,426 people on board :eek:. This was as many as the xmas sailing in 2010!

Once seated in the Epic club, the staff was running around like crazy. If you remember any of my posts about the Epic, I rave about the service in the Epic club. Totally impressed last time how we were greeted by name every morning. This week we were never greeted by name. The first class waiters who never wrote anything down and got your order exactly right seemed missing. Our waiter (very nice) seemed so confused. He had a tablet and everytime you would order, he would repeat it back to you 5 times. Then when the food came, he never knew who ordered what. We were bombarded with questions. Who ordered dessert? Who ordered the coke? What did you order again? While this type of service is fine and did not bother us, but it was a complete change from our last experience. The food was good but the bread was horrible. Each of us picked up a piece, took a bite, and then placed the bread back on the table. I got the chicken with polenta. Photo will be up shortly. Another change was the shrimp cocktail. My last experience was a martini glass with jumbo shrimp. We all ordered the shrimp cocktail but the shrimp were considerably smaller and they were served in a short dessert glass with a small teaspoon of cocktail sauce. I really like to dip my shrimp and smother it with cocktail sauce. Very stingy with the cocktail sauce! We each enjoyed our meal. My wife got the fettuchini and liked it and she is picky. A funny part about the waiter was he served us a few other times during the cruise. He always got things mixed up even though he would write things down. We got a kick out of it. For example, one morning I had cranberry juice and my wife orange juice. I left the table and came back and sure enough I had the orange juice and she had the cranberry juice. So we made a pact that if he served us again, I would order what she wanted and vice versa. We still tipped him. He worked his heart out but seemed to be still in the learning process. In fact, the Epic Club seemed to have few full time staff. We would see the waiters work every other restaurant or event. The Epic club was very busy all week and that was a difference from 2010. One night for dinner we had to wait for a table and then another 40 minutes for our food. I wish I had a video to show this but the staff was running around like crazy. They needed more help. They comped my drink, my wife's coffee, and 2 sodas because they said we had to wait too long. We never complained and I had to ask why they did that. The last day one of the staff told us they were not allowed to participate in the staff talent contest on the last night because the Epic club was so busy. That was unfortunate.

Quick shout out to the asst Maitre de Raluca. She is fantastic. And most of the staff there is excellent! My favorite meal of the cruise ironically was the busy night in the Epic Club.... wild mushroom ravioli. You must try if you go.

Next up.... sail away

The weather was PERFECT for sail away. It usually rains for my sail away cruises. The Haven guests had a sail away party in Posh. Very nice. They give away some watered down punch that people were paying extra for vodka shots to be thrown in and the cheap sparking wine. One pet peeve during sail away. I was asked by a waitress if I wanted anything to drink, so I said sure bring me a glass of the sparking wine. Well I waited and waited and kept seeing the Miami skyline get smaller and smaller. Well I wanted a drink before Miami disappeared so I was going to the bar to get the drink and there was the waitress behind the bar mixing martinis and drinks for other people. So I just took one from the bar and went back upstairs. I understand it is an inexpensive "free" drink but if you offer it to someone, just deliver it. I got the impression she was taken away or had a better offer making money on drinks that you had to pay for. But we all enjoyed sail away.

I forgot to mention that we all got spa passes. $720 !!!!!! OUCH :eek:

We could have got an inside cabin for that price! They no longer have spa couple passes that were $199. Everyone pays the same rate $145 each. The spa and gym are wonderful and more on that later.

Ok now the pictures..........(if I can do this)

Go on David......you know you can do it!!! ;)

Enjoying your review and looking forward to more! :)

Sail away

south beach (sail away)

Second bedroom

Second bathroom

16001

solarium 16001

Chicken with polenta - Epic Club lunch

fettucini - Epic Club lunch

shower

Tub

Great review so far! Love your pictures. I can't wait to be back on the Epic this summer! Can't wait to read the rest!

The suite is amazing as you can see by the pictures. I wish the second bathroom was not located inside the bedroom though. Because if you have someone sleeping on the sofa, they must enter the bedrooms at night to use the bathroom.

But other than that, everything was perfect. The shower could have used another drain too since there was always a puddle of water that could never find its way to the drain.

I really am impressed with the TV channel selectoins too. The only change I saw from 2010 was the Epic no longer has the E channel. So my wife was unable to keep up with the Kardashians this time around. But they have Fox news for you right wingers, MSNBC for you left wingers, BBC for you Euros too. The sad part (I am on my soap box now) is how news is no longer news and put through a politicial lens. There was lots of happening in the world and you can no longer find somone that just reports the news of the day quickly. It is all spin and political talk. Sad comment on the state of the USA. No wonder we are a divided nation. (ok now I am off the soap box). They also have ESPN, Nick for kids, a movie channel too. Airplane was on one night and we watched it and laughed. That movie is a cult classic and it NEVER gets old. They also had several other cable channels that escape my mind right now. They even had spanish channels. There is an Epic channel too that the cruise director keeps you updated with daily events.

The first day we never met the butler. Of the 3 suites I have stayed in, this is usually the first person you meet. It was suggested by the concierge that I call him. I wanted to introduce myself. Josu or Josa (I am terrible with names). I asked for a lounger for the solarium and he said he would check with house keeping. The first night we came home, bam, there was the lounger. We rarely used the butler. The butler no longer takes you to shows. The concierge has taken over that role on Epic. I know that is how it is normally done on other NCL ships, but the Epic is no typical ship! We had coffee delivered a few times during the cruise. But everytime I called, I could never reach our butler and somone else from house keeping would deliver the coffee. One time it was the guy I saw vacuuming the hall (no joke). Anoop is a fine concierge. He really helped us out on an unusual issue I wil describe shortly. But the concierge on Epic is not going to visit you or make a fuss over you (for you fussy folks). I quickly learned that the concierge cannot get you into sold out restaurants, sold out excursions, or sold out shows. Not saying it is not possible just informing what was told to us or experienced by us. We could not get on a St John sold out excurision. One night Cagneys was sold out by a large group and could not get in until they left.

The first night we ate at Cagneys. Because of the large group that sold out the place, we ate late after 9. We were seated near the kitchen and it was fine but the smoke from the kitchen burned my eyes. The food was good. It was not my favorite Cagneys meal ever but still good. The mashed potatoes were not runny but not as thick as I have experienced before. We all enjoyed our first dinner on the ship.

When we had lunch at the Epic Club, I had asked for spanish menus for the inlaws. It makes things alot easier so things dont have to be translated for 3 people. I was told they were looking for them and then was told they did not have any spanish menus. Hmmm strange! The first night at Cagneys, we asked for spanish menus. They kept looking for them but soon as it was translated, someone came over... we found them. But they said they had no dessert menus in spanish. I found this very odd. We had the same issue in La Cucina. I was floored. The Epic sails from Miami and Barcelona, two of the most spanish speaking cities in the world. How could they have problems locating spanish menus or not have them. It would be like if the Epic sailed from Montreal and Paris but they had no French menus or could not find them?

I would not have believed it, if I did not experience it.

My PCC gave us a bottle of the "free" sparking wine. So we had 2 bottles (that I had to find some way to get rid of). But we did drink one. But I have heard people ask the butler to trade them for red wine or house wine or something. I was going to do this until I heard a guy complain in the Epic lounge and was moving up the food chain because the butler said he was not allowed to do it. The EPic lounge supervisor had to make several phone calls and they finally agreed to do it. And this guy was in an OWNERS SUITE. So I kept my mouth shut after this.

Throwing in a few pictures of Epic Club then taking a break for awhile.

Stay tuned......lots more to come

Epic Club

Entrance to Epic Club lounge

Another photo of the beautiful Epic Club Lounge that nobody every uses. They no longer have the 2 for 1 special and I had a few drinks here and maybe 1 person was at the bar. This is where I met the guy from the owners suite trying to trade his sparking wine for red wine. But I highly recommend the Apple Manhattan (whiskey based martini)

Bar at Epic Club Lounge

Epic club restaurant

Concierge lounge