Back from Epic

[Bracarense]

Hello everyone.

 

First of all: thank you all for the great tips we got around the forum before we went on our cruise. Great help.

 

It was our first NCL cruise and, looking back, it was a great choice with one or two bumps.

We got onboard in Marseille: simple, no hassle embarkation, due to the fact that it was a secondary embarkation port. The down side is that we realized a couple days later that it turns our cruise in a 2 part cruise (before and after the main embarkation day). The ship is huge so it never felt overcrowed (good for our 2 year old daughter "walks"), but like someone said, when we were not in our balcony it doesn't look much like a ship (more of a huge hotel). The balcony (our first balcony cruise) was very nice and the awkward bathroom was not an issue for us (though the water when we washed hands had a tendency to go everywhere). For the first two days we had a steward that has sick (not a good thing for our service): he forgot to leave a third set of towels; he forgot to change the lifejacket for a cild size; he forgot to leave de newsletter on the room;... fortunately, after the main embarkation day we got Maria Vivas to take care of our cabin (efficient, nice and always with a smile on her face).

We were warned, but only onboard we could confirm that Epic's entertainment is fantastic: Cirque Dreams, Blue Man, Legends, ... a great shows.

The freestyle thing is somenthing I'm still trying to decide if I like it or not. I love the fact that it's always casual dressing; I loved being able to disembark for my own; I didn't like so much the freestyle dinning - I thought that would be the best but after trying it I think that being able to have the same table, the same waiter (we get to "know" eachother) and not having to sometimes wait is still preferable.

Some other ups were the bowling and the pool area.

The major downs I found were two: one functional and one structural. The functional was the fact that they closed the Guppies room (0-2 years old) during main embarkation day. The structural one is that the kids pool area (very nice one) is located in a tunnel and its entrance that most of time is under shade and works like a wind tunnel - not good for the kids (very, very disappointing).

 

Finally, we had a lovely vacation.

 

PS - our balcony had 2 EU and 2 US power outlets plus 1 EU/US for razor; the hairdryer works, but if you turn it to 1600W instead of 800W it only works for 5 or 10 seconds (safety issue we were told).

[jdvmd]

Hello everyone.

 

First of all: thank you all for the great tips we got around the forum before we went on our cruise. Great help.

 

It was our first NCL cruise and, looking back, it was a great choice with one or two bumps.

We got onboard in Marseille: simple, no hassle embarkation, due to the fact that it was a secondary embarkation port. The down side is that we realized a couple days later that it turns our cruise in a 2 part cruise (before and after the main embarkation day). The ship is huge so it never felt overcrowed (good for our 2 year old daughter "walks"), but like someone said, when we were not in our balcony it doesn't look much like a ship (more of a huge hotel). The balcony (our first balcony cruise) was very nice and the awkward bathroom was not an issue for us (though the water when we washed hands had a tendency to go everywhere). For the first two days we had a steward that has sick (not a good thing for our service): he forgot to leave a third set of towels; he forgot to change the lifejacket for a cild size; he forgot to leave de newsletter on the room;... fortunately, after the main embarkation day we got Maria Vivas to take care of our cabin (efficient, nice and always with a smile on her face).

We were warned, but only onboard we could confirm that Epic's entertainment is fantastic: Cirque Dreams, Blue Man, Legends, ... a great shows.

The freestyle thing is somenthing I'm still trying to decide if I like it or not. I love the fact that it's always casual dressing; I loved being able to disembark for my own; I didn't like so much the freestyle dinning - I thought that would be the best but after trying it I think that being able to have the same table, the same waiter (we get to "know" eachother) and not having to sometimes wait is still preferable.

Some other ups were the bowling and the pool area.

The major downs I found were two: one functional and one structural. The functional was the fact that they closed the Guppies room (0-2 years old) during main embarkation day. The structural one is that the kids pool area (very nice one) is located in a tunnel and its entrance that most of time is under shade and works like a wind tunnel - not good for the kids (very, very disappointing).

 

Finally, we had a lovely vacation.

 

PS - our balcony had 2 EU and 2 US power outlets plus 1 EU/US for razor; the hairdryer works, but if you turn it to 1600W instead of 800W it only works for 5 or 10 seconds (safety issue we were told).

Glad you enjoyed!