Epic Western Med Review 5/26 -6/2

[BaseballMomof4]

After a little wandering and shopping in Positano, it was back in the van and on to Sorrento where we would be having lunch. This was Giovanni's home town and he chose a wonderful restaurant for us. The food was exquisite, the service was fast and the prices were very reasonable.

 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2013 by BaseballMomof4

[BaseballMomof4]

 

Check out all the alleys in Sorrento - we found some fantastic deals there! One of our suitcases got badly torn during our flights over and I found a fantastic replacement for only 25 euro! I also got a purse for me and a small purse for my DS's GF. :p

 

In Positano I got tons of lemon items from a lovely little shop that had good prices as well - you won't have to look very hard for it, just follow your nose!

 

And of course, in this region there is no excuse to not taste and go home with some Limoncello!

Edited June 9, 2013 by BaseballMomof4

[BaseballMomof4]

The rest of the day was spent in Pompeii with our guide, Linda. She was a wonderful guide and the area is HUGE and still being excavated. The way you feel walking down these streets is really indescribable. I will say that if you do choose to go to Pompeii, make sure you have a guide or if that is not an option at least have an audioguide. The area is immense and unless you know what you are looking at it won't have the same meaning.

 

 

 

[BaseballMomof4]

And we think we have lemons in the US - hah! Now THIS is a LEMON!

 

[BaseballMomof4]

a

 

That was one of my concerns for my Epic cruise was the lack of variety on the main dining room menu compared to other lines that I have been on. Planning to eat 3-4 nights in the main dining room and the rest in the pay restaurants. Looking forward to hearing your comments about the speciality restaurants.

 

We ate in the Manhattan Room one night and Taste three nights. They have the same menu with only a couple of additions for "local specialties". The dessets weren't even worth ordering in our opinion. We were completely unimpressed with the inclusive dining.

 

Teppanyaki was good but not great; however we HIGHLY recommend Moderno. Just make sure to go hungry. I did not personally experience Le Bistro, but my friend from Canada went and she said it was fabulous.

 

We also sampled O'Sheehans and the food there was terrible.

Edited June 9, 2013 by BaseballMomof4

[Chas2crews]

We really appreciate this objective review, pointing out the positives as well as the negatives. We will be doing our first free style cruise, and it looks like I will start saving money now in order to do more specialty dining than we normally would.

[anandaindonesia]

We ate in the Manhattan Room one night and Taste three nights. They have the same menu with only a couple of additions for "local specialties". The dessets weren't even worth ordering in our opinion. We were completely unimpressed with the inclusive dining.

 

Teppanyaki was good but not great; however we HIGHLY recommend Moderno. Just make sure to go hungry. I did not personally experience Le Bistro, but my friend from Canada went and she said it was fabulous.

 

We also sampled O'Sheehans and the food there was terrible.

 

Now you scare me.

We are vegetarians but we do love good food. If they cannot make "normal" food nicely, how bad will their veggetarian items be?

 

Going to specialty restaurants will not be a big options for vegetarians. Again they will have a limited menu item.

 

Shall we cancel our booking?

[mj]

We ate in the Manhattan Room one night and Taste three nights. They have the same menu with only a couple of additions for "local specialties". The dessets weren't even worth ordering in our opinion. We were completely unimpressed with the inclusive dining.

 

Teppanyaki was good but not great; however we HIGHLY recommend Moderno. Just make sure to go hungry. I did not personally experience Le Bistro, but my friend from Canada went and she said it was fabulous.

 

We also sampled O'Sheehans and the food there was terrible.

 

 

Thanks for the info. Moderno and LeBistro are on my list to try along with Cagneys.

 

Keep up these wonderful pictures. I still over a year away from my Epic cruise.

[Keith1010]

Enjoyed the room.

 

Keith

[KeithJenner]

Now you scare me.

We are vegetarians but we do love good food. If they cannot make "normal" food nicely, how bad will their veggetarian items be?

 

Going to specialty restaurants will not be a big options for vegetarians. Again they will have a limited menu item.

 

Shall we cancel our booking?

 

No.

 

I can't speak for vegetarian options, but remember that you are reading a review, which is subjective.

 

Many thousands of people go on the Epic and enjoy the food. Personally, I find the food to be pretty good overall. I've had a couple of average meals but many more than that which I've thought we're excellent.

 

I will just clarify the situation with the main dining rooms, as there is actually more variety than a literal reading of the review above may lead people to believe.

 

Manhattan and Taste both have a different set menu. That doesn't change during the week, but is different between the two restaurants.

 

In addition, there is also a daily menu which is the same at both Taste and Manhattan but does change every day and includes about four new entrees each day as well as different starters and deserts.

 

On top of that there is a local special every day as well.

 

You could certainly start to tire of the Main Dining Room menus after a while, but I could certainly eat there every day on a seven day cruise and still have dishes I wish I'd had.

 

I'm not criticising the review, by the way, I just thought that the description of the variety in the MDRs made it sound a bit more limited than I found it.

[BaseballMomof4]

And as you have stated - everyone will come away from a cruise with a differing opinion. This is just ours. We dined in the Manhattan Room, Taste, O'Sheehans, Moderno, Teppanyaki, and the Buffet and the only restaurant we came away from "wowed" was Moderno.

 

Expectations relating to the food will also differ. When it comes to a direct comparison between CCL and NCL relating to the food, in our opinion, the point goes to CCL. They simply have more variety and you find very few dishes repeated on a daily basis. I think the only repetition is the flat iron steak. There are far more inclusive venues to choose from and with the exception of the lobster (which NCL did better) Carnival just does food better and you don't have to pay extra for it.

 

When we asked the staff about Manhattan and Taste, we were told the only difference in the menus was how the pork medallions were served. I didn't personally compare the menus each day - I just went with what we were told - that the menus were the same and Taste was just a bit more relaxed environment.

 

The evening we dined in Manhattan we did not enjoy because the music was so loud we had to shout at each other. That was probably due to where we were seated.

Edited June 9, 2013 by BaseballMomof4

[BaseballMomof4]

Enjoyed the room.

 

Keith

 

I am sure if our party was only 2, we would have enjoyed it. But as a party of 4 it was terribly cramped. I literally had to turn sideways and shuffle to the balcony when the upper bunk was down and we could not open the closet when the upper bunk was down.

 

I get that most don't cram 4 people into a balcony room, but this is advertised as a "family balcony" so this particular unit is intended for more than 2 but is not very functional for more than 2.

[BaseballMomof4]

We really appreciate this objective review, pointing out the positives as well as the negatives. We will be doing our first free style cruise, and it looks like I will start saving money now in order to do more specialty dining than we normally would.

 

I try to do that in all my reviews - what I would do again, what I would do differently. While I could rave about the ports and views and leave it at that, I would also be leaving out a large part of the experience. We have made enjoying the ship a big part of our cruise experience in the past, and this time we just didn't enjoy it as much - that was our experience. The weather didn't help matters since the pool deck was practically unusable for a large portion due to cold weather and high winds.

 

But there were other differences as well. For example, on CCL there is a piano bar. An actual venue. A room with a piano and a singer where folks go to have a cocktail, sit around the piano, sing along, there is banter between the piano player and the patrons. On NLC there is a piano bar - it is a piano and player along the passagway with seating and bar service. This is not conducive to participation and while it is lovely and soothing, it's not the "fun" experience it could be. This is just one example.

 

I think the biggest "tell" for me was the fact that my sons (22, 18 and 15) spent every evening after dinner in the cabin. Only twice did they find something to do. This has NEVER happened before.

 

And as Keith pointed out, everyone will have a different opinion. Everyone will have their own expectations, and this cruise included passengers from many different countries of origin as well. Americans may have different expectations than Europeans and so forth.

[ms.sunburn]

Just off the Epic today and I agree with some of your points on the dining experience Baseballmomof4. We had two fantastic meals at Taste and 1 not so good (both service & food sub-par). Manhattan was average at best in food & service. They were definitely having trouble maintaining consistency in the main dining rooms. We did Teppanyaki & Moderno but much preferred Teppanyaki. I'm not sure why we picked Moderno because I don't love meat that much..lol..and there was a LOT of meat! We loved the freestyle dining aspect but would also agree that the edge still goes to Carnival where the food is concerned.

 

We also had issues with reservations for Blue Man Group & ended up not seeing it. They should apply their Freestyle philosophy to their shows & just let people turn up & watch them when they feel like it.

[LittleMissMagic]

Ugh, I'd agree that four people in the wave-design cabin wouldn't be pleasant. We haven't been able to put four people in a standard cabin for years, now, but part of that is because three girls and one tiny bathroom is never a good situation. :D

 

Did you never see Howl at the Moon in the Headliner's Club? It totally meets your request for an interactive piano bar. They only had the show a few nights during the cruise, but it was such a fun experience - a favorite for our group.

 

I hate that your boys didn't have a fun time in the evening! I could see how Freestyle cruising, combined with having several different embarkation ports, isn't the best for meeting people to hang out with in the evenings.

Edited June 9, 2013 by LittleMissMagic

[KeithJenner]

And as you have stated - everyone will come away from a cruise with a differing opinion. This is just ours. We dined in the Manhattan Room, Taste, O'Sheehans, Moderno, Teppanyaki, and the Buffet and the only restaurant we came away from "wowed" was Moderno.

 

Expectations relating to the food will also differ. When it comes to a direct comparison between CCL and NCL relating to the food, in our opinion, the point goes to CCL. They simply have more variety and you find very few dishes repeated on a daily basis. I think the only repetition is the flat iron steak. There are far more inclusive venues to choose from and with the exception of the lobster (which NCL did better) Carnival just does food better and you don't have to pay extra for it.

 

When we asked the staff about Manhattan and Taste, we were told the only difference in the menus was how the pork medallions were served. I didn't personally compare the menus each day - I just went with what we were told - that the menus were the same and Taste was just a bit more relaxed environment.

 

The evening we dined in Manhattan we did not enjoy because the music was so loud we had to shout at each other. That was probably due to where we were seated.

 

Unfortunately, it seems that you hit what for me is the biggest problem with NCL, which is misinformation from the staff. It does seem that in many cases we on here know more than the NCL staff do.

 

In some ways, the menus are similar (steak in both, but it is Strip in Manhattan and Rib Eye in Taste, a pasta and salmon dish in both, although different). However, they were wrong about the pork medallions as Manhattan doesn't have pork at all, I think it's Lamb instead.

 

It's interesting that you say you enjoyed the Lobster, as that is probably the NCL dish I've seen the most complaints about. Again, opinions differ I suppose.

 

I'm enjoying the review, by the way. It's always good to read comparisons between lines, no matter which line is preferred.

[BaseballMomof4]

Ugh, I'd agree that four people in the wave-design cabin wouldn't be pleasant. We haven't been able to put four people in a standard cabin for years, now, but part of that is because three girls and one tiny bathroom is never a good situation. :D

 

Did you never see Howl at the Moon in the Headliner's Club? It totally meets your request for an interactive piano bar. They only had the show a few nights during the cruise, but it was such a fun experience - a favorite for our group.

 

I hate that your boys didn't have a fun time in the evening! I could see how Freestyle cruising, combined with having several different embarkation ports, isn't the best for meeting people to hang out with in the evenings.

 

Unfortunately no, it seemed as if every time we wanted to go see something we were too early, too late or smack dab in the middle. I suppose if we had cruised NCL before we might have been more prepared. We were used to shows every night - at 8 and at 10 and on certain nights again at 12. It is very different and as they say different strokes for different folks.

 

We had met several folks through our CC group, we just didn't find that many events to go and be a part of. For "freestyle" the entertainment seemed very structured.

Edited June 9, 2013 by BaseballMomof4

[LittleMissMagic]

Unfortunately no, it seemed as if every time we wanted to go see something we were too early, too late or smack dab in the middle. I suppose if we had cruised NCL before we might have been more prepared. We were used to shows every night - at 8 and at 10 and on certain nights again at 12. It is very different and as they say different strokes for different folks.

 

We had met several folks through our CC group, we just didn't find that many events to go and be a part of. For "freestyle" the entertainment seemed very structured.

 

I'll agree with you on the bad times for entertainment. We ended up changing around some dining reservations for different shows we wanted to see on some evenings. We scheduled Cirque on the night that turned out to be the Norwegian Night Out, so we missed meeting the captain and other festivities we were looking forward to. And we missed seeing Graffiti Classics on both nights it was offered because we were at dinner. Howl at the Moon was 11PM and onward, though - and it's something you could just walk in at anytime and not miss anything. Definitely one of my favorite late night entertainment options.

[joyus]

We're from South Florida and wondering if you used a travel agent to book your cruise, hotel, etc. or did you go at it alone. I normally go at it alone since I greatly enjoy researching and planning trips.

 

I'm really enjoying your review.

[BaseballMomof4]

We're from South Florida and wondering if you used a travel agent to book your cruise, hotel, etc. or did you go at it alone. I normally go at it alone since I greatly enjoy researching and planning trips.

 

I'm really enjoying your review.

 

We used a TA to book the ship only and wound up regretting it. I would go it alone. Everything else I researched and did myself or did with the help of fellow cruise critic members.

[joyus]

Thank you so much, looks like I'm on the right track. I'm planning to use Costco to book the cruise since I've not found anyone else with better rates. Another question, did you exchange your dollars to euro here or in Barcelona?

[BaseballMomof4]

Thank you so much, looks like I'm on the right track. I'm planning to use Costco to book the cruise since I've not found anyone else with better rates. Another question, did you exchange your dollars to euro here or in Barcelona?

 

If you book directly with the cruise line and a lower price gets advertised (and it will) all you have to do is call NCL and they will adjust it for you.

 

If you book through any service or TA and a lower price is advertised, you have to call the TA or the service and then they in turn have to contact NCL.

 

I nearly lost a major discount because I was unable to reach my TA in time. You might want to consider booking directly with the line.

 

I did bring Euro with me. There is a Western Union on La Rambla where you can exchange dollars for euro without fees. We found several of the money exchanges in the cities on our route, but some of them charged fees and the ship charges a $10 fee to do the exchange. In addition, the ATM's on the ship give out dollars, not euro.

[conman]

Another question, did you exchange your dollars to euro here or in Barcelona?

 

Tell your bank that you are on your way to Europe. Do not convert your money in the U.S. Bank ATM's are the way to go in Europe. You are normally limited to $500 or $600 per day. You get your best rate on the ATM. There are ATM's in the Barcelona Airport and lots downtown near La Ramblas. We were on the same cruise as baseball mom and had a blast. Get the Rick Steves book on European Cruises. Lots of good info and tells you where the ATM's are in each port city.

[BaseballMomof4]

We're from South Florida and wondering if you used a travel agent to book your cruise, hotel, etc. or did you go at it alone. I normally go at it alone since I greatly enjoy researching and planning trips.

 

I'm really enjoying your review.

 

If you are a family, I highly recommend the apartments. They are a 3 night minimum and I booked the 1 bedroom that sleeps 5 for $450 euro. I got lucky and got the upgrade to the 2 bedroom at no additional cost, but having looked extensively at hotels I know that even in the 1 bedroom we would have been far more comfortable than we would have in a hotel room and 2 hotels rooms would have been very costly.

 

Passeig de Gracia is very central and Tendency Group has apartments there. We stayed on Dr. Letemendi Square in Splendom Suites and that was a short 3 blocks from Passeig de Gracia and still very central and cabs were super easy to get there if we didn't feel like walking.

[BaseballMomof4]

So I think I left off after Naples - the next day was Rome. I was once again up early and on my balcony at a little after 6 in the morning. I saw folks disembarking that early and heading for the train station.

 

We had booked the fast train to Rome through smart cruisers dot com. It costs a couple of extra dollars but is, in my opinion, well worth it. You are guaranteed a seat, you don't have to be at the train station until a little after 9 and you get to Rome in half the time. So we scored a little extra sleep, a relaxed trip to the train station, a guaranteed seat and got to Rome a little after 10:00 am. The train station is right near the Vatican and it was crazy crowded there when we got off the train.

 

After walking a couple of blocks we were right in front of the Vatican and it was wall to wall people. It took a couple of minutes but we finally realized why - the Pope was speaking! That was pretty amazing.

 

Edited June 10, 2013 by BaseballMomof4