Epic Review - Aug 14-21 Eastern Caribbean (LONG)

[SNL4]

Here’s my review of the Norwegian Epic, sailing August 14-21 Eastern Caribbean (St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Nassau). To give some background, I am 25 years old and this was my 20th cruise. I’ve sailing on all the major lines. Within the past five years I’ve been on Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Costa and Norwegian. This was my fourth NCL cruise.

 

Overall, I found the ship to be phenomenal - one of the best cruises I’ve taken. The service was outstanding, the entertainment was great and the food was actually a lot better than I had expected with a few exceptions. I’ll break down my thoughts on the cruise into a few different categories.

 

Embarkation:

A breeze. Pulled in, dropped off our luggage in about a minute and parked our car at the lot diagonal from the terminal. There are two entrances to the terminal, one for odd deck cabins and one for even deck cabins. Took a few minutes to get through security and get our boarding cards. This was also the only part of my cruise where I felt the staff was rude and disorganized. Anyway, we arrived at the terminal around 11 and were onboard by 11:30.

-Lifeboat Drill: One of the speediest simple I've ever experienced. I don't think it lasted more than 3 minutes. We went down to our assigned lounge (Cagney's) (no lifejackets required), had a seat, and within a few minutes were told the drill was over.

-Disembarkation was also really simple. Choose the time you want to get off. They actually announced our color about 30 minutes before the scheduled time but we took our time, got breakfast, collected our belongings and then headed off.

 

The Ship:

 

• I found the ship to be very well laid out for the most part. The main inside decks, Decks 5-7, had a good flow to them. Staircases and escalators provided access at the forward, mid and aft part of the ship. The pool deck was a little harder to navigate. I wish there had been a deck above the pool deck that circled around a little more fully. It basically makes a U-shape around the main pools, with a staircase at either end. The ship is nicely decorated, plenty of spots to sit and people watch. Lots of deck space with ample amounts of chairs.
  

 

• There was plenty of deck space on sea days and I was able to find a chair all the time. Maybe not right at the pool, but there are certainly spots along the deck 15 and the public area of deck 18 is practically empty.
  

 

• The slides are a lot of fun. They’re open basically 9a-7p everyday (11a-7p on St. Maarten and St. Thomas day). I waited until the port days to use them since we weren’t getting off the ship anyway. I would recommend doing the same. Even if you’re getting off the ship, maybe before you leave or right after you return, try the slides. The green and purple slides never had more than a 2 minute wait, and the most the orange plunge slide had was about 7-8 minutes, when compared to a wait well over 30 minutes on a sea day.
  

 

Entertainment: This is where Epic really shines. All of the shows and performers were fantastic. I attended basically every show onboard and listened to most of the musicians at some point. I’ll highlight each:

 

• Blue Man Group: Fantastic; however, if you’ve seen their land show, don’t expect anything different. I had seen their show in Boston multiple times and this was a carbon copy of that show aside from one very short segment. Still highly entertaining.
  

 

• Cirque Dreams: We paid for the preferred seating, and I’m not really sure what better seats it got us. I was able to see everything just fine from a table right near the door on the lower level. I had seen most of the acrobatics acts at some point or another (similar type, not necessarily the same performers) but it fits nicely into the show and the amount they do with the limited space is incredible. The story line / quips done in between acts is pretty funny. I didn’t really have an issue with the food here as it seems most people reviewing do. I thought it tasted just fine.
  

 

• Murder Mystery Lunch: Not sure this was worth the added cost. It was a preset menu again, although we spoke with the restaurant manager after Cirque and she provided us with special requests for food from another restaurant onboard so that was a nice touch. I’d probably recommend just going to see multiple showings of Second City shows during the week rather than this lunch. It was some improv around a set story line and there wasn’t really a way to solve the mystery; it seemed to be made up as the performance went along. The show wasn’t bad by any means; it was funny, I just don’t know if it was worth an additional $15/person.
  

 

• Legends: Probably the weakest of the shows on board. We saw Tina Turner and Elvis (I was under the impression that there was going to be a Madonna too – not sure what happened there). I guess this was better than random singers who are flown on the ship.
  

 

• Second City: We saw their R-rated show. I enjoyed it a lot. Lots of very short sketches, a little bit of improv and a handful of longer sketches. Pretty talented cast although a lot of the jokes were recycled throughout the show. I probably should have tried to get into another one of their shows to see if it varied much from our late night show (you can stand on a standby line to take any seats not reserved).
  

 

• Jeff Hobson: He is the comedy-magician you don’t need reservations for. He did 4 shows in the week. The shows are roughly the same; we saw him twice because he was really funny and unique. The second show had one additional trick and some different jokes. He’s very funny and a great performer.
  

 

• We stopped into the Slime Time Live show during a sea day. The kids seemed to have a great time and it wasn’t bad for adults either. If you’re not doing anything else, stop in for a chuckle.
  

 

Bars and Lounges / Performers:

There was a great synergy amongst the performers on board. Members of the Blue Man Group performed with the Blues band; Howl at the Moon performers performed with Blues band and they all seemed to have a lot of fun sharing the stage with each other. It really added to the entertainment.

 

• Howl at the Moon: Great, fun spot. Performed 4 nights on our cruise. It was never too full, always able to get a seat. One night was much more crowded than the other 3. They took requests of nearly any song and did a great job with it. The show was much better as the night got later. After 11pm, when its 18+ you probably shouldn’t attend if you’re easily offended. They performed 9p-1a on the four nights and since they rotate players they never took “breaks.”
  

 

• Slam Allen Band: Very intimate; jazz/blues club type setting. Slam is very sociable likes to walk around during his set, interact with the crowd. You can tell he really enjoys what he is doing. My only problem here was that the breaks between sets seemed very long (usually 20+ minutes). This room was never very crowded and probably was half full of NCL staff/performers most of the time but they performed with Slam too which added to the fun. I think they performed 4 or 5 nights, also 9p-1a.
  

 

• Ice bar. Most people only lasted about 20 minutes or so; I was in there about 35 minutes (want to get the full experience!). It seems pretty cramped when you have everyone there at first (about 20 people) but if you’re able to wait it out, you’ll have the whole place to yourself. Don’t wear open toed shoes, put on some pants and you’ll be fine. They give you a jacket and gloves.
  

 

• Atrium: There was a duo who played in the atrium on 4 or 5 nights. A guitar/keyboardist and an electric violinist. They were very good but seemed to have a limited repertoire since most times I stopped to watch them they were playing a song I had already heard (or were taking a break). Good to watch for a little while on a night or two after dinner, before a show or after a show.
  

 

Cruise Director and staff:

 

• The cruise director Silas tried to be visible, at least as much as one can be on a ship where you don’t introduce the main shows and people are spread out around the ship all the time. I did think he made a lot of announcements compared to other cruises I’ve been on. He made three a day (morning, afternoon, evening), along with an announcement by individual staff for Bingo, cruise consultant, art auctions. The captain also made an announcement around 11:30 on the sea days. It definitely felt like there were announcements going on all the time.
  

 

• The cruise staff puts on basically one big event each night of the cruise. There are some game shows (Newlywed Game, Dancing with the Stars, Minute to Win It) and some deck party events (White Hot party, ABBA dance party). The assistant cruise director (Mike) hosts a lot of these and I found him to be incredibly obnoxious.
  

 

Food:

Overall I found the food to be better than I expected. To me it seemed to be along the lines of meals I’ve eaten on other cruise ships. The one exception to this was the buffet. I generally eat lunch in the buffet but found the Epic to be completely lacking in variety and choice. There was a limited amount of options and they seemed to be the same thing each day. On the other hand, I found the breakfast buffet to be better than the selection in the dining room.

For dinner, we ate two nights in Taste (main dining room, casual attire including shorts allowed), two nights in the Manhattan Room (main dining room, pants required), Le Bistro, La Cucina and the Cirque Dreams dinner. I found the food overall to be much better than expected. I thought there was enough choice in the main dining rooms for the four nights that I never ate the same thing twice. Three entrees changing daily and five or six remain the same the entire week. My only bad dining experience was in La Cucina. The food was ok, but weak compared to the other food I had. We also had very poor service at La Cucina which might influence my thoughts on it (it was the only place we experienced bad service all week!).

O’Sheehans is a great concept. Good choices of food, most of it delicious. You can eat it at a table, at a bar overlooking the atrium or take it to go. We would get some of the appetizers from O’Sheehans and bring them with us into Howl at the Moon, right next door, to snack on during the performance.

 

Cabin:

We were in a standard balcony stateroom, which held 3 people. (room 11295). The cabin is definitely noticeably smaller than other balcony staterooms we’ve had. I won’t go into the bathroom/sink situation since it’s been covered so many times on this board, but I will say we never had a problem with it all week. There is a ton of random storage space – the back of the couch opens up, there are 2 very large drawers under the couch, there is a small cabinet above the bed that opens. We had plenty of room for 3 people’s belongings and didn’t even use a lot of the storage space (or know it existed until late in the week!) Also our cabin attendant, Sydney, was excellent.

 

Random thoughts:

 

• NCL has gotten really cheap with certain things. They were very protective over pens and paper. None are provided in the stateroom, and I was practically yelled at when I almost forgot to return a pen I was using. They also would not provide us lotion in the stateroom (we were told it was not provided in our category).
  

 

• We stayed on the ship basically the entire week. Went to Maho Beach in St. Maarten for a few hours and just walked around by the pier in St. Thomas for an hour. Didn’t bother getting off at all in Nassau. Loved having the ship practically to ourselves. The ship definitely cleared out on St. Maarten and Nassau days (although still a good number of people on board) but was noticeably more full in St. Thomas.
  

 

• You never would know the ship had over 4,000 people on board. At no time did the ship ever feel crowded. Of course you noticed crowds in the buffet, or after a show let out, but this isn’t different than any other ship. We never waited for a table, never had problems finding seats. I would note however, that you should get to the shows about 30 minutes before it begins in order to get good seats (although the Epic Theater didn’t have a bad seat in the house, the comedy club had some terrible sightlines).
  

 

• They show a movie daily on the atrium screen and in Spice H2O which was nice. One afternoon I sat outside and watched The Blind Side. I wish they would have shown more movies on the outdoor screen, especially at night when they weren’t using it as the nightclub.
  

 

I know that covered a lot and I’m sure I missed a lot I would have wanted to mention. I’m happy to answer any questions I can about the ship. Like I said, overall we had a great time. I’m generally not a fan of NCL or freestyle but this ship definitely gets it right. I would certainly sail on the Epic again if given the opportunity. The staff was great, the service was great, the food was great and the entertainment was great.

 

Again, feel free to ask any questions. I hope the review was helpful.

[eroller]

Excellent review! Extremely well organized, easy to read, and you touched on a lot of good points. I'm glad you had such an excellent time. Any pictures?

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Ernie

[sdmike]

I agree with Ernie. Very well done, and glad you had a terrific time like we did!

[david_sobe]

Great review coming from such an experienced cruiser. You are so young and over 20 cruises? WOW

 

What a positive and great review of the ship. NCL should be proud but they also need to pay attention to your review.

I never heard of any hotel or cruise ship that would not provide lotion to a guest or passenger. That is just dirty cheap. Lets be real. The lotion in cabins and hotel rooms is not that great and find it amazing they would not provide such a simple request from a loyal NCL passenger. Isnt a bar soap, a tiny bottle of shampoo, and a tiny bottle of lotion a standard in even the cheapest hotels or cruise cabins?

Great review but c'mon NCL dont be so damn cheap!

[mistyPA]

That was an incredibly insightful review...thanks for taking the time to write such a well thought out and organized review. We are a party of 9 - 10 going in April and have been trying to get as much information as possible...you certainly took care of that. Thank you.

[CruiseNut7]

SNL4 -

 

That was a phenomenal review - the best I've read in a long time. You were so thorough and detailed.

 

I don't have questions for you now, but appreciate your taking the time to organize your observations.

 

How fortunate to be 25 years of age and 20 cruises under your belt!

 

AWESOME! :)

[Arubamoose]

Very thoughtful, insightful and balanced.

Sounds like you had a great time. I am looking forward to my time soon.

Would love to see pictures!

[k9sar]

...

Legends: Probably the weakest of the shows on board. We saw Tina Turner and Elvis (I was under the impression that there was going to be a Madonna too – not sure what happened there). I guess this was better than random singers who are flown on the ship.

 

You didn't miss much without the Madonna impression. Of the three, I was least impressed with her.

 

Random thoughts:

 

• NCL has gotten really cheap with certain things. They were very protective over pens and paper. None are provided in the stateroom, and I was practically yelled at when I almost forgot to return a pen I was using. They also would not provide us lotion in the stateroom (we were told it was not provided in our category).
  

 

did you check the holder on the wall by the bed? That's where I found ours.

 

• You never would know the ship had over 4,000 people on board. At no time did the ship ever feel crowded. Of course you noticed crowds in the buffet, or after a show let out, but this isn’t different than any other ship. We never waited for a table, never had problems finding seats. I would note however, that you should get to the shows about 30 minutes before it begins in order to get good seats (although the Epic Theater didn’t have a bad seat in the house, the comedy club had some terrible sightlines).
  

 

Excellent point. I went expecting to feel very crowded with that meany people onboard. It was not the case. Sure, you had to wait in line at the pool for the slides or in the buffet for just a couple people in front of you to get a particular item but I was amazed with the availability of seats etc throughout the ship. The only time I really saw unexpected crowds (like, not waiting in line go get into the BMG show) was on one beautiful day, up on deck 15. Both the pools were PACKED with people. Basically, you could slip in and stand in the water. No room for anything else.

[SNL4]

 

did you check the holder on the wall by the bed? That's where I found ours.

 

Yes - we were actually told by the guest service desk that they stopped providing pens and paper. Maybe this wasn't the case though.

[k9sar]

guess they ran out after we all took ours. Guess there are benefits to being first.

[itslin561]

No one seems to post any info about where dancing is offered on the Epic. On other lines there is at least one lounge that offers traditional dancing : swing, cha-cha, rhumba and the like. Anything like that on the Epic at night ? We are leaving tomorrow a.m. on the Epic.

[S. S. Christopher Colombo]

I really appreciate the review - we are sailing on the the 28th and are really looking forward to it!

[Flying Solo]

NCL advertises The Manahatten Room as a place where you can dance, and it was mentioned in one of the reviews. As I remember, they said that it wasn't getting much use on their cruise though. Maybe you can get some dancing started in there on your trip.

[scottyg]

Awesome review...Kudos !!!

[nefcoadman]

Can anyone provide a comparison of the Epic to the Oasis of the seas?

[sinclaj]

I really appreciated reading your review. I'm glad you wrote about so many different aspects and especially being in a balcony stateroom and eating in the regular dining rooms and buffet.

 

I, too, miss the lotion that they use to have in the staterooms and in fact, still have a couple of partial bottles that I brought home with me.

Judy

[cherylroslyn]

Can anyone provide a comparison of the Epic to the Oasis of the seas?

I'd make a new thread if you want that one answered.....

[SNL4]

NCL advertises The Manahatten Room as a place where you can dance, and it was mentioned in one of the reviews. As I remember, they said that it wasn't getting much use on their cruise though. Maybe you can get some dancing started in there on your trip.

 

I agree, this would be the place where dancing is encouraged but we didn't see anyone using the dance floor during our two meals there. One day there was a live band, another day there was a DJ playing supper club-type music.

I did see some people dancing in the atrium while Wildfire (the guitar/keyboard + electric violinist duo) was playing but it was just a small floor in front of the large screen.