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Living life in a STUDIO room on the EPIC review

mitsugirly

By mitsugirly,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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mitsugirly Great Review Rare

mitsugirly

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Thank you, thank you for the first real review of a studio cabin. I've been waiting forever. Now I really know what to expect when its my turn next week. And it was a great review also.:) I'm going to link this thread on my roll call so all the singles can read your review.

 

You're very welcome. :)

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mitsugirly Great Review Rare

mitsugirly

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Thank you so much for the great review... loved it. Can't wait till I sail next month... were you eastern or western sailing? Haven't read your other review yet.

 

We were on the Eastern (St Maarten, St Thomas & Nassau)

 

Thanks for the great info on the STUDIOS, Mitsu!

 

Great pics, too!

 

You're welcome. :)

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buckirj1

buckirj1

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Thank you for the detailed review. You answered my big questions about the Epic studios: the shower and the bathroom. Your pictures helped a lot. It seems the shower is do-able, even for a fat ol' thing like me. And the bathroom looks a lot bigger than the Gem-type "toilet-in-a-cubbyhole." I'd like to take the Epic someday if it ever goes where I want to go. Thanks again.

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UK_Cruiser

UK_Cruiser

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Living life for a week in 2 studio rooms proved to be a GREAT decision for my husband and I.

 

The rooms were beautiful (small, but still very nice). For some reason, after everyone having concerns with only having 100 sq ft of space, I pictured the room to appear much smaller than it was. I believe the set up provided good functionality to the room. The only complaints I had would have to be the size of the shower stall and the bathroom could provide issues for someone of bigger “size”.

 

We had 2 adjoining studios. We put my things in one and my husband’s things in the other. There was MORE than enough storage space and we didn’t even use most of it. Very adequate for all your needs.

 

Here are a few items I wanted to touch base on:

 

1)SHOWER STALL:

a)There was absolutely NO splashing outside of it. There is a lip around it and the drainage was great. No problems at all. They did provide a bath towel rug to step out onto when you were done and we never once managed to get water on the wood floor. No problems.

b)When you had the light on to the shower (with it being clear glass with a frosted glass strip around the middle), you felt like you were the feature of some peep show. LOL Yes, my husband enjoyed that part. ;) If you are traveling with someone else (other than your spouse or partner), this shower would not work. There is NO curtain to pull. They would have to leave the room.

c)The shower is SMALL. There was NO WAY to be able to reach down and shave your legs ladies. I actually had to turn the shower off, lather up, shave, then stand back up to rinse off. Kind of a pain in the butt.

d)MAJOR ISSUE-You set the water to the desired temperature and the ENTIRE time you are taking a shower it would go from scalding hot water (approximately 7 seconds), to cold water (approximately 10 seconds), then back to your temperature for about 5 seconds. This was a pain in the butt!!!

e)There is a shampoo and body wash dispenser in the shower and in between it there are 2 small hooks that you can hang something small on. I used it to hang my pumice stone on by the rope. I didn’t use the shampoo (I’m hooked on a certain kind and will only use it), however, I did use the body wash and it was nice and smelled good IMO.

f)Another issue I had with the shower was the water line that went from the bottom of the part where it attached to the shower up to the faucet/sprayer (that could be removed to spray yourself off). It hung right where my tush was at and it kept getting hung up on me. LOL

g)The pull cord in the shower for hanging wet clothes on-hmmm, not sure about this. At first we couldn’t find how it attached (then about the 3rd day discovered the piece to attach it was over by the shower head. I never used it because I found it to be in a weird place. You would be hanging your items over top of the shampoo and body wash dispenser, which was just weird to me I guess. So, I hung my items on the grab bar.

h)Never once did our room in ANY way ever become steamed up (and I take hot showers-even in the summer).

 

2)BATHROOM:

a)This bathroom is SMALL. If you are a bigger person, I wonder if you are even able to close the door. The toilet sits kinda sideways.

b)I had a problem with the light. It was motion controlled and if you spent any amount of time in there (and you all know what I mean), the light would constantly go off and you’d have to wave your arms over and over to keep it on. By the 2nd day, my light in my room didn’t even work anymore. I left a note for the steward and it was fixed by the time I returned later that day. However, the light never turned off after that. But I was ok with that. It did have a real door on it, so you could close it and not see the light.

c)The trash can is located in the bathroom and it had to be the smallest trash can I’ve ever seen. Maybe a foot tall and very skinny. Not much fit in it. I always ended up taking it out of the bathroom and sitting on top of the sink counter in the corner. (The steward never did catch on that this is where I wanted it to stay because she always put it back in the bathroom).

 

3)STORAGE:

a)The storage in these rooms is unbelievable. We didn’t even use all of them. From what I can remember we had 4 cubbies down the side, 2 sliding doors under the sink with 2 shelves, 2 doors with storage behind them including a pull out drawer (all under the cubbie), over head shelf above the mirror, table for storage under the tv, square stool to sit on will open up to store items in it, 2 HUGE wall length sliding doors and behind them are places to hang clothes (we ask for additional hangers, it only had 6 in them) and a few shelves under that) and this is also where the safe is located. The safe is VERY EASY to work and we never had a bit of trouble with it. 2 HUGE wicker basket type storage bins under the beds.

b)The only problem I encountered with the plugs in one of the cubbies is that the outlet was installed upside down. If you had an appliance (like my hair dryer) that had the big square box on it at the plug, it was hard to plug in and there was no way you were plugging in anything else at the same time. My husband’s side of the room was not like this and installed correct. But there were plenty of other kinds of plugs for every need you can think of (see pics)

 

4)BEDS:

a)These beds were VERY comfy! Very. I loved the down comforter. I slept GOOD! ;o)

b)2 reading lights per bed above bed (the steward always turned one on when she turned down the bed for the night)

c)No there are no mints on this cruise. L

d)There are 4 nice comfy pillows on each bed along with 3 décor pillows

 

5)The a/c in this room was COLD! Too cold. We actually kept the thermostat up in the red zone because we were freezing. I don’t know if the air ever turned off when we were gone and the card was out of the slot, but it was always cold when we returned.

 

6)Phone was a touch screen and had everything you needed on there from ordering pizza, setting your alarm, making reservations, spa, guest services, shore excursions, room service, cruise consultant, medical center, gift shops, and housekeeping. I found the alarm EASY to use and worked great.

 

7)There is not a hairdryer or fridge in the studios (which I had read before going on the cruise)

 

8)WINDOWS:

a)There is a control by the door to control the blinds on this. When you look out the window, you don’t really see anything but a bright blue color (the lights from the hallway). You can’t really see people walking down the hall or anything…so no spying or people watching from your room. Darn!

b)When someone is outside you CAN NOT see in at all! I even had my husband press his face up against the window and he could not see in. We made a joke that we were going to go up to peoples rooms and press our faces up against their window to freak them out and with them not knowing that even when we did that we could not see in. HAHA

c)When you are ready to sleep, if you close just the blinds, you will still see some light. You have to pull the “shutters” as well for complete darkness.

 

9)LIGHTS:

a)The lighting in the studios are completely awesome. We loved them (as you will be able to tell by the many pictures I took of all the colors as they changed).

b)There is a control as you walk in to turn them on and we discover about the 2nd day that there is a switch right beside the bed that you could reach up and turn them off before going to bed at night instead of having to get up out of bed.

c)There were 4 different “mood” settings you could choose from as well that controlled just specific colors. Or you could just put it on the regular setting and it would show all the colors.

d)Weird thing was, when you were in the shower, its right up against the cabinets and they have round circles cut out in the cabinets which allowed the shower to glow the color of the room as well. Really cool.

 

10)TV AND SCREENS:

The following channels are on the tv:

Channel guide

Safety channel

Shopping info

Shore excursions-Thank goodness for this channel-They had someone on there telling about the excursions offered, with pictures and video and thanks to me watching this, we decided to do a sailboat snorkeling adventure that we LOVED in Nassau instead of just walking to the beach.

Onboard activities (you will find videos of the daily events that happens that the video men shot-like the white hot party, pool contest and so on would be on the tv that night)

Nick Jr

Nickelodeon

Navigational Info (only worked the first 3 days, then the channel was gone)

View from the bridge (pretty neat to see where you were in the morning when you woke up and we were already docked at 6:30am)

BBC world news

CNBC

NSNBC

Fox News

ESPN

E! Entertainment Network

Favorite shows

Window Channel (the same pictures they play on the tv in the Atrium)

 

The channels for your personal info included:

Stateroom steward information (name and phone number)

My vacation planner (which would show you everything you had booked-shows-restaurant)

Account review (for online expenses)

Spa info

Onboard services

Onboard shopping

Bars lounges

Entertainment

Movies

Dining

Port/tours ß-VERY INFORMATIONAL with prices, pictures and a description

Cruise rewards

 

 

We started getting the towel animals the 2nd night on board. Since our steward knew that we had 2 adjoining rooms, we got the same animal, but they were done differently. Pretty neat!

 

Our room steward had to be the BEST! We couldn’t walk out of the room without her coming in to clean it. I swear she must have cleaned at least 4-5 times a day. Everything was always put in place and fresh. She was very friendly and was always there if we needed anything.

 

Adjoining rooms: you can unlock both sides, but you have to have a master key in order to completely unlock them and open the door. The room steward had to have her supervisor do this for us, but it was done before we went to bed that night. The only thing is there is a step up and down to get into each room. I’m not sure why it’s like this. Maybe the plumbing going from the toilet room to the shower?? But we got use to stepping up and down from room to room by the 2nd day.

 

Vending machines down the hall: We did stop in once to grab a snack (hubby was craving some chips) and we went a few times to grab some soda (which we put in our ice buckets to keep cold for the next day). We found that the soda machine would ONLY take coins (card reader wasn’t working) and the snack machine would only take your room card. What a pain. Dollar bills weren’t working. By the 2nd time we tried it, nothing was working. Well, my husband decided to pull it away from the wall, unplug it and replug it in. IT WORKED!! He fixed it. Now it took the cards and any type of money. WOO HOO. I was a happy camper! LOL We did discover on the last day that there was another vending area down past the studio lounge. Darn, it had a better selection of snacks.

 

We did notice that there must have been a strip missing from under the door on one of the rooms because you could see the blue glow when all the lights were out. The other room didn’t have this problem.

 

That’s about all I can think of at the moment. I just wish I was back on the cruise again. I’m grateful that we were able to take advantage of getting the 2 rooms for the price of 1, however, if I had to do this cruise again and only get 1 room, it would still be adequate for our needs with the both of us. I guess we don’t require a lot of space and we were only in our rooms to get ready, change, shower and sleep. So it worked great for us. We had MORE than enough room (with the exception of the small shower). Being able to both take showers, use the restroom and our own little “areas” to get ready worked out great.

 

By far, this was the best cruise I’ve ever been on. I will be doing a review of what all we did and my experience on board in a different review. If there are any questions regarding the studio rooms that I didn’t touch base on, please feel free to ask. I probably missed something.

 

Happy sailing.

 

 

Here is a link to my pictures for the studio room:

http://kimbakerphotography.smugmug.com/Vacation/Studio/13875195_hmqFN#1017669567_ZsbgD

 

 

 

 

Interesting

 

Our shower provided us with hot water Morning, noon and night and never once fluctuated in temperature. Very good water pressure as well.

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coffeebean

coffeebean

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When I ask him last night, he said his shower did the same thing.

 

 

 

Yes, they are full size. I'm not sure what type of room you have to get in order to get bigger beds. I've heard a lot of people mention that their beds are full size and that they seem to be "shorter" than a normal bed. Make sure you do a lot of research before booking if you require a bigger size bed. I would also ask if the queen size beds seem shorter than normal queen size beds as well. :)

Just wondering why neither of you reported the water temperature fluctuation to maintenance. Scalding water, even for a few seconds, could be harmful. Then to fluctuate to cold water... that should have been repaired IMHO.

 

We are booked in an aft balcony stateroom. The description of the stateroom mentions this cabin has a queen size bed. I have read over and over on Cruise Critic that these queen size beds are shorter than a normal queen but pulling the bed out from under the headboard adds a few inches to the length. Folks have said they pull the bed out at night and push it back in the morning.

 

My point is...a full size bed is just too small for DH and myself to get a good night's sleep. Just not enough room to "spread out". A studio cabin would be out of the question for the two of us.

Edited by coffeebean
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UK_Cruiser

UK_Cruiser

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Just wondering why neither of you reported the water temperature fluctuation to maintenance. Scalding water, even for a few seconds, could be harmful. Then to fluctuate to cold water... that should have been repaired IMHO.

 

We are booked in an aft balcony stateroom. The description of the stateroom mentions this cabin has a queen size bed. I have read over and over on Cruise Critic that these queen size beds are shorter than a normal queen but pulling the bed out from under the headboard adds a few inches to the length. Folks have said they pull the bed out at night and push it back in the morning.

 

My point is...a full size bed is just too small for DH and myself to get a good night's sleep. Just not enough room to "spread out". A studio cabin would be out of the question for the two of us.

 

I'm 5'11" and I found the beds long enough but as you say we pulled the bed (which is on rollers) out from underneath the headboard as soon as we entered the room.

 

These beds are the most comfortable beds ever by the way. Bliss.

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mitsugirly Great Review Rare

mitsugirly

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Thank you for the detailed review. You answered my big questions about the Epic studios: the shower and the bathroom. Your pictures helped a lot. It seems the shower is do-able, even for a fat ol' thing like me. And the bathroom looks a lot bigger than the Gem-type "toilet-in-a-cubbyhole." I'd like to take the Epic someday if it ever goes where I want to go. Thanks again.

 

You're welcome. If you think of anything else, I'd be happy to try to answer. Where do you want it to go? Just wondering. :)

 

Interesting

 

Our shower provided us with hot water Morning, noon and night and never once fluctuated in temperature. Very good water pressure as well.

 

We had good pressure, it was just the water fluctuation was the issue.

 

Just wondering why neither of you reported the water temperature fluctuation to maintenance. Scalding water, even for a few seconds, could be harmful. Then to fluctuate to cold water... that should have been repaired IMHO.

 

We are booked in an aft balcony stateroom. The description of the stateroom mentions this cabin has a queen size bed. I have read over and over on Cruise Critic that these queen size beds are shorter than a normal queen but pulling the bed out from under the headboard adds a few inches to the length. Folks have said they pull the bed out at night and push it back in the morning.

 

My point is...a full size bed is just too small for DH and myself to get a good night's sleep. Just not enough room to "spread out". A studio cabin would be out of the question for the two of us.

 

 

I'm not sure why we didn't report. I had been on a cruise back in the 90's that did the same thing. I guess I thought it was normal and didn't think much about it...other than it was aggravating. I wonder if there's a way to report it now so that they are aware and can fix it. I guess there wasn't anyone on cc that had ever been in that room before to bring it up.

 

I did read about pulling the bed out from the headboard for more room in the larger rooms. Looks like you'll be good to go. :D

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mitsugirly Great Review Rare

mitsugirly

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Hi mitsugirly,

 

Thank you for your review of your recent cruise on board Norwegian Epic. We are glad you enjoyed your cruise! Your photos are amazing, thanks again for sharing.

 

Sincerely,

Norwegian Cruise Line

 

You are very welcome. It was the cruise of a life time. The best cruise, by far, that I had ever been on. My hats go off to NCL and all the hard, dedicated workers on board the Epic that made my cruise a very enjoyable one that I will continue to tell everyone about and recommend.

 

I'm glad you like the photos. :)

 

Thank you for your comment. It means a lot to me (especially considering you have been on cc for a little over a year and only have 13 post total in that time and I'm one of them. :D I feel special. :)

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AuntieBon

AuntieBon

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Thank you so much for the details. With all the pricing and deposit changes for group cruises on Carnival, I'm going to begin researching other cruise lines and reading your review makes me feel better about this choice.

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sdmike

sdmike

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What Mitsu isn't telling you is that this was all just a conspiracy to get her friend sdmike on the ship. While she and her husband cuddled in that too small one-person room, I was hiding in the other one with their luggage. mwahahahahaha.;)

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mitsugirly Great Review Rare

mitsugirly

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What Mitsu isn't telling you is that this was all just a conspiracy to get her friend sdmike on the ship. While she and her husband cuddled in that too small one-person room, I was hiding in the other one with their luggage. mwahahahahaha.;)

 

LOL Mike. :D

 

Here's a review I did on Nassau and our excursion for those interested:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=26207746#post26207746

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Starrgazer50

Starrgazer50

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Last but not least, my favorite island so far: St Thomas review:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=26210037#post26210037

 

I'm glad you had a great time and thanks for your extensive review and pics.

 

But...My concern is the way couples like yourself use these rooms to hog space when the solo rooms were made to solo travelers. Solo travelers get bit really hard by the 200% single suppliment which NCL never waivers. Maybe you never had to always pay extra for a non-existing person or be offered an OBC which, two people would normally get, but because we are one and paying for two, we only get one. I think when couples do this and brag about the extra space is sickening. It's like someone booking a handicapped room just for the extra space when a handicapped person really needs it. I bet you and other couples who do this are part of the Lounge Chair Hog Group as well. If the ship is not filled and you're booking these rooms when other solo's need them, Shame on you..! I'm sorry if my words seem harsh, but this type of thing is very selfish.

Edited by Karaokelady
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2010_cruisers

2010_cruisers

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Posted

Karaokelady user_offline.gif

Cool Cruiser

 

Anyways, I find the rant-attack un-called for....and calling them chairs hogs on top of that.....wow....maybe you need more _______ in your diet.....

 

You want to apologize for the name calling and sling a lot of verbal abuse their way was rude - um did they effect your trip-voyage or next vacation no. ....take some happy pills now ok.

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sdmike

sdmike

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I'm glad you had a great time and thanks for your extensive review and pics.

 

But...My concern is the way couples like yourself use these rooms to hog space when the solo rooms were made to solo travelers. Solo travelers get bit really hard by the 200% single suppliment which NCL never waivers. Maybe you never had to always pay extra for a non-existing person or be offered an OBC which, two people would normally get, but because we are one and paying for two, we only get one. I think when couples do this and brag about the extra space is sickening. It's like someone booking a handicapped room just for the extra space when a handicapped person really needs it. I bet you and other couples who do this are part of the Lounge Chair Hog Group as well. If the ship is not filled and you're booking these rooms when other solo's need them, Shame on you..! I'm sorry if my words seem harsh, but this type of thing is very selfish.

 

So, you couldn't get a studio on the Epic because couples had them all booked? Good grief. The reason NCL discounted these so much is because they WERE NOT selling them all. I also can't believe you compared this to a handicap room. Really? Since when is being single a handicap. Shame on you for this post. It's mean, unnecessary and misguided, especially that chair hog comment. Let's see. You like Karaoke. I bet you're one of those drunk, untalented, chain smoking pathetic singers dying for attention. Wait. You're not? Well, I guess that wasn't nice of me to make that reach, huh?

Edited by sdmike
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Starrgazer50

Starrgazer50

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Karaokelady user_offline.gif

Cool Cruiser

 

Anyways, I find the rant-attack un-called for....and calling them chairs hogs on top of that.....wow....maybe you need more _______ in your diet.....

 

You want to apologize for the name calling and sling a lot of verbal abuse their way was rude - um did they effect your trip-voyage or next vacation no. ....take some happy pills now ok.

 

I didn't expect my comment to get rave reviews..the truth hurts.

Edited by Karaokelady
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Starrgazer50

Starrgazer50

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Posted (edited)
So, you couldn't get a studio on the Epic because couples had them all booked? Good grief. The reason NCL discounted these so much is because they WERE NOT selling them all. I also can't believe you compared this to a handicap room. Really? Since when is being single a handicap. Shame on you for this post. It's mean, unnecessary and misguided, especially that chair hog comment. Let's see. You like Karaoke. I bet you're one of those drunk, untalented, chain smoking pathetic singers dying for attention. Wait. You're not? Well, I guess that wasn't nice of me to make that reach, huh?

 

Sorry, I know the truth hurts but you'll be ok. They both are special purpose cabins..and you know that.

Edited by Karaokelady
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