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Epic Med Review June 26th 2016

Feebs2015

By Feebs2015,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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Feebs2015

Feebs2015

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Background and pre cruise.

I am in a post cruise head spin trying to keep the memories alive for as long as possible. I also want to share those wonderful memories with you all and perhaps you might get some ideas/reassurance etc…. for your future cruises. I so enjoy reading all the posts here and this site has most definitely helped me immensely over the years. We just got back yesterday. This was my first ever NCL cruise, although it must be said I am no pro cruiser having only 2 other cruises under my belt and they were a long time ago.

 

I am in my late 40’s and my DD (21years old) was travelling with me and this would be her first cruise ever and one she was very excited about. More about DD in a little bit as our cruise proved very memorable for her. We live 2 hours south east of Dublin Ireland. I did not keep a journal whilst on board so I am trying to recall every day and anything that I think would be of interest to you. I am back to work tomorrow so this review will be piece meal but I promise to complete it! Feel free to ask any questions and I will comment if I can help. I am not a good photographer so there won’t be photos, but hopefully you will enjoy the review which is my first review on here. All my thoughts are my own opinions and I don’t expect everyone to agree with me and that’s fine too :)

 

I checked into the roll call on here probably last year sometime and our roll call was a fairly quiet roll call compared to some that I have been on in the past. That said, I felt I connected with a few fellow cruisers and it proved to be the case on the cruise. We met some fabulous, genuine people who really made our cruise the epic success that was. I also set up two tour sharing groups on CC and we filled two 8 seater minivans for tours of Rome and Florence/Pisa. I will go into more detail on these tours later on.

 

I also spent considerable time researching help/support from NCL for DD who is legally blind but does have a little sight. When she is in a familiar place she doesn’t always use her cane but the prospect of a massive ship with over 4K people was very daunting for both her and for me travelling alone with her. That said when she was very young a wise person told me that “the greatest gift you can give your child is independence” and I have made that my mission in life. Being independent doesn’t mean not reaching out for help, in fact it is that help and support that can support the independence and enhance the experience in life. And so I did reach out to NCL and provided them with relevant support documentation etc prior to the cruise and was told we would have help once we arrived at the pier. I will mention this a little later on when we cover off DAY 1, but suffice to say that I could not fault NCL and their approach to supporting DD and her disability. They were superb! DD told me that the support she got was similar to the support that Disney parks give their visitors with disabilities, and I believe that to be a gold standard ……so high praise for NCL and congratulations to their access team who were beyond brilliant. My DD feels that if she had to, she could and would cruise solo if she knew she could call on someone to help with certain situations (show seating arrangements/embarkation/disembarkation etc….That independent thinking in itself has come about, only because of the excellent support NCL gave us on this trip. I can’t thank them enough. Well done NCL!

 

Day 1 Barcelona

We left home on a coach at 2am the morning of the cruise. We had thought we would have a quiet and sleepy coach ride to the airport but shortly after we got on the coach a large bunch of 19 year old guys jumped on who had been out partying all night and were heading to the airport for flights to Santa Ponsa for their end of school….. trip to the sun! It was a noisy “interesting” coach ride and we obviously got no sleep, but hey we’re on holidays so no complaints. Once checked in we had time for a quick coffee and just about made our 0620am flight to Barcelona with Ryan Air. Had to have another coffee on board to try and boost the energy/lack of sleep!

 

I knew we were taking a risk flying and cruising on the same day but I was trying to keep costs down but in hindsight I wouldn’t do this again for a number of reasons. Firstly French air traffic controllers were operating weekly strikes for the last few weeks which not only interrupted or cancelled flights to France but it also caused cancellations to flights that used French airspace. In fact the Thursday before we left was one of those days where lots of flights were cancelled. The other reason I wouldn’t do this again is the lack of sleep…..I’m just too old for this anymore ;) It really had an effect on Day 1 as I had to go to bed fairly early which annoyed me!!!!!!

 

As I was travelling alone with DD I had booked private car transfer from the airport to the cruise port and return and it was the best spent money (77Euro total). When we arrived into Barcelona and got to the baggage claim area we had a lengthy wait. I don’t know what went wrong but the baggage carousels weren’t working. We waited about an hour for our bags to come through as did all flights that arrived in at that time! There were hundreds and hundreds of people. When it did start working all the bags came out and you can imagine that was a lot of people heading to the exit for taxis. When we came out our driver was there holding a sign with our name on it and it was a speedy drive to the cruise port.

 

Once at the port I had a phone number of the pier supervisor and she found us and whisked us through priority check in and then asked us to sit and wait for someone from the ship to come and get us. Within 15 minutes one of the access team was there to walk us on to the ship and give us a ship tour. She was fantastic, nothing was an issue. She gave us her number and told us not to hesitate to call her if we needed anything. We were on board by 12md and post the ship tour we decided we couldn’t face the crowds at the Garden Café so we went to Taste and had a really nice chilled out lunch after all the travelling. Both of us had popcorn shrimp to start which was really good. I also had fish with fries for entrée and DD had Classic burger which incidentally wasn’t as good as the burger in O’Sheehans. We had the UDP and UBP so I started off as I meant to continue by having a chilled glass of Pinot Grigio. It was ok but I didn’t choose it again on the ship.

 

After lunch we finally got into our cabin which was a balcony cabin towards the aft. Ok, here’s my tuppence worth on these controversial rooms.

• It’s not wide at all…..the wave walls really eat into the space. Other cruise lines have much roomier rooms.

• The sofa is not inviting and certainly not comfortable to sit on – so if you are like us it just becomes a dumping ground for handbags, clothes etc…

• The balcony is small, but was enjoyable.

• There is plenty of storage in the cabin although two of the drawers were broken (not sliding properly and actually came off their runners).

• The shower and toilet set up didn’t really bother us at all, but I can see how it could annoy some folk.

• The sink is small and you need to be careful using it not to slop water out over the edge.

• The beds were in a twin set up which suited us fine. They were comfortable but not long enough for me as my feet went out over the end and I am only 5ft 8”

• The pillows didn’t look or feel comfortable but I slept really well with them. If I am brutally honest it could have been the UBP that helped the sleep and not the pillows 

• We had ordered the water package because the UBP does not cover water…..how mean is that? Crazy! I asked the cabin attendant to remove the contents of the fridge and replace them with our water. He did agree to this. It took a day or so for the water to chill but when it did get to temperature it was great to have cold water. We brought water with us on all our days out.

• The cabin attendant was so so. I am a bit of a clean freak but not OCD. However not once did he dust the room. He just did the basics of bathroom, sink, beds and towels. Nothing more than that. You know yourself, when you have sweaty hands or suncreamed limbs it can transfer onto wardrobe doors and surfaces etc….he never cleaned it….ever. I used one of the drinking glasses to store my make-up brushes in. I assumed when he saw that, he would give me a second drinking glass….nope. Now, I hear some of you say….you have a voice why didn’t you ask….I could have…..I just didn’t want to HAVE to ask….so I waited but it never came. It’s a small tiny thing; I didn’t let it bother me as it’s for sure a first world problem!

• If I go again and with my DH I know the the size of this room 10226 would bother him bigtime. So we would need to book a mini suite balcony or something like that. But for this cruise with DD, the room was just fine.

 

We had booked Cirque for 6.30pm on Day 1 but the Access Officer told us that had been rescheduled for 830pm and we got a letter in our cabin to inform us also. This really suited us better and gave us some chill out time. We were not obliged to go to the muster drill which was at 430pm. NCL had organised a 1:1Muster Drill that was held in a meeting room and given to us by the ships Safety Officer. This was absolutely perfect for a visually impaired passenger as she could see up close how to correctly put on the life jacket and it also meant we weren’t fighting the crowds during/after the muster drill. Again, a nice touch from NCL.

 

We then headed up to the pool deck to Waves Bar as we knew some of our roll call members were meeting at 5pm. Unfortunately due to our muster drill we were late and didn’t get to meet anyone at that point.

However, there began my real love of the UBP . I had a Rebellious Fish and a Bushwhacker! Yummy. On other days I also had more Rebellious Fish (favourite), Mango Meltdown, Toasted Almond, Bellini’s, Raspberry Martini’s, Sauvignon Blanc and a really nice Cabernet called I think Oberon (perhaps someone can correct me).

 

Our super friendly Access Officer sorted us with seats for Cirque. DD was seated closest to the performers but the Access officer informed the performers that she wouldn’t be able to take part in the show. I had also paid for premium seats so the help here was just to get us in there early so that the most appropriate seat was chosen. I have to say guys, the standard of entertainment on the Epic is very high. Cirque was spectacular. I had to keep reminding myself that I was on a ship. Really, really worth going to. Kudos to those performers, you can see how much training and practice must go into their routine. The dinner that accompanied the show was only ok. Appetizer was prosciutto, tomatoes and mozzarella – tasted fine just nothing wonderful. Entrée was Surf and Turf and this was better just not amazing, but I enjoyed it. Neither DD nor I enjoyed the dessert, but then again I am not into dessert really. All in all though a really nice night, and we shared our table with a honeymoon couple from Florida who were good company. At this stage post the show we were exhausted and decided to go to bed.

 

I will be back for Day 2, just bear with me as time will be limited over the next few days.

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Feebs2015

Feebs2015

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Do you happen to remember who the Senior Hotel and Bridge Officers were?

 

Hi there, I did take the time to stop and look at the senior team's photos names and titles on the way into the Garden Buffet but I do not recall all their names.

I can tell you that the Master and Commander of the ship is Captain Frank Juliussen and I saw him around the ship a couple of times. Sometimes just doing a walkabout on his own.

I also saw another senior officer doing walkabout and fixing moved armchairs in bars, picking up an empty cigarette packet from the floor.

These guys were visible throughout the cruise.

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Feebs2015

Feebs2015

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s it true that there are no elevators mid-ship so these normally desirable rooms require very a long walk to the elevators on either end?

 

Yes, it is true that the elevators are aft and forward and indeed the aft elevators do not stop on deck 5 so you need to get off on 6 and use the escalators.

I didn't see this as a problem as I was glad of the walking for exercise to somewhat balance out the alcohol and food excess :):)

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Feebs2015

Feebs2015

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Day 2 At Sea

The ship was moving very fast and really powering through a fairly choppy sea. I was surprised at how rough the seas were (probably innocent ignorance on my behalf) but I hadn’t expected that. You didn’t feel it too rocky on board but if you are a regular sea sickness sufferer you would probably feel it more so. We didn’t get up too early and made it to the Garden Café Buffet for about 930am along with everyone else on the ship. Oh my goodness but it was bad, really bad. It was always going to be a challenge for DD and myself to get our food and then guide her with her cane to an empty seat….say what?.....empty seat? What’s that?

 

NCL do have designated disability seats in every area but of course they were all taken. Now whether all these people had disabilities is not for me to say, really. We walked around and around trying to avoid running children, senseless adults and wait staff cleaning tables. It was a total nightmare. I eventually asked one of the guys in charge to help us but whilst he did try his best…..his idea of help was to shout in Italian to an Italian passenger who was using a disability seat and who wasn’t disabled….It was one shouting over the other so I quietly told the NCL guy that this wasn’t helping and that we would keep moving. One of the wait staff overheard me and found me a table within minutes, bless him. It was not a nice experience, so much so that we never went back for our breakfast. On the other days we went to the outdoor café on the pool deck and you can get similar food if just a tad more limited. But this suited us way better.

 

Of course if there were no free chairs in the Garden Café there were also no free sun loungers on the pool deck. Oh yeah, there were tons with towels placed on them which I could have done myself at 7am when I first woke up We also need shade as DD does not have any melanin pigment at all. But, it was not to be. In desperation we went out the back to Spice H20 as I recalled there were sun umbrellas near the bar and I thought we could have a cool drink and chill. To my delight I bumped into one of our roll call members who I had missed the previous night and we immediately clicked and bonded. There began a journey of laughter and fun for the rest of the cruise as we hung out with her and another couple of ladies who were traveling solo. We also hung out with another lady travelling with her son and we too had a great connection and I look forward to keeping in contact with her and her son. We were blessed with the people that we met. Each and every one of them helped to make our cruise so much fun and so memorable. If any of you guys are reading this, you know who you are and thanks so much xx

 

On Day 2 we had lunch again in Taste with our new friend K. It was a fun lunch with popcorn shrimp again (it’s very good) and for entrée we all had a chicken Caesar salad which was nice. I had a Sauvignon Blanc which was nicer than the Pinot Grigio. In the afternoon we had a nap and then got ready for our night. Tonight we had dinner booked in Cagney’s followed by Burn The Floor show.

 

Cagney’s was an enjoyable meal, but it didn’t blow me away. I had pork belly to start which was nice, DD had crab cake which she said was very good. I had fillet mignon 5oz which was nice and small. I hate too much meat on the plate (not a big red meat eater either – so this was perfect). I also had roast Brussel sprouts and parmesan truffle fries which were really really good. DD had the pork chop which she said was very good and followed that with an enormous 7 layer chocolate cake which she said was nice. I had a Kalypso coffee (Kahlua and coffee) for dessert.

 

We had after dinner drinks with our new friends in Maltings Bar. There was a Brazilian guy singing and playing. He had a great voice and was easy to listen to. With regards to bar service …………I found this to be very slow all over the ship, but again what’s our hurry? There was no hurry! The drinks eventually came.

We really enjoyed Burn the Floor. It was very well choreographed and level of dance expertise was admirable. We had great seats down the front so DD could see it all as best she could. We didn’t go any further that night as we had an early start for Day 3 which was a DIY to Sorrento for the day.

More to follow……..thanks for following - hope its reading ok!

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mal&jason

mal&jason

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Tigger,

 

If you look at the dailies you can find on an "Epic" search, you will be able to see the typical nights (there may be changes) for Howl at the Moon. Plus, it's just fun to look at the dailies!

 

:-)

Mallory

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Callimero

Callimero

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Ooh can you let me know if you remember which days howl at the moon was on please

 

 

As mentioned on my other thread, I have scanned the Dailies from our recent Epic cruise. See below:

 

 

 

Day 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9sefs7cjfgtkkyo/Day%201.pdf?dl=0

 

Day 2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lcaa4mxpdlzwebj/Day%202.pdf?dl=0

 

Day 3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yr79y07c84k0vif/Day%203.pdf?dl=0

 

Day 4: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tr8pchfmtc9s332/Day%204.pdf?dl=0

 

Day 5: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qgzefereozpamn6/Day%205.pdf?dl=0

 

Day 6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2ioy6pqleclk8n6/Day%206.pdf?dl=0

 

Day 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hwmgg6sfkqbqm9j/Day%207.pdf?dl=0

 

Disembarkation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xoc08sbwbnnngkw/Disembarkation.pdf?dl=0

 

Splash Academy: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y5d8icu3630wlog/Splash%20Academy.pdf?dl=0

 

 

 

If there are any problems with the links then let me know.

 

1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th day.

 

Hope this helps

Edited by Callimero
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Feebs2015

Feebs2015

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Day 3 Napoli

I awoke early from a great night’s sleep and headed out to the balcony as we were not far from the Napoli coastline. What a joy it was to be on the balcony heading towards this beautiful coastline. I enjoyed every minute of it. The sun was rising and its ray’s painted the coastline a lovely orangey hue….it really was spectacular. I should mention that I have never been to Italy! I know…..I hear you say……….but you live in Ireland…..a stone’s throw from mainland Europe…why not? The reason is that I fell in love with rural France many years ago and we spend 3 weeks there every year. So whilst my heart was given to France many years ago I was feeling slightly guilty at how excited I was about visiting Italy. Little did I know that you can intensely love more than one country

DD had insisted that she didn’t want to be part of an organised tour for Day 3. She wanted us to do our own thing. She also wanted to spend the day in Sorrento. I told her about Capri and how stunning it is but no, that was her one request. Thanks to some of you on here I learnt how to DIY this. We had our breakfast in the outdoor café which when the weather is as warm as it was last week is just gorgeous. We then headed off the ship and walked the short walk through the port out to the street. It takes all of 5 minutes but isn’t all that pleasant as you are pretty much harassed by taxi men and tour operators trying to get you hooked. I got sick of answering them so I just ignored them. I’m sure they called me every name under the sun but I didn’t care. I took the really good advice from here and headed over to Beverello Pier about 8.15 am so 45 mins before the first sailing. Luckily I had written down the name of the ferry company as seen on here as the electronic sign wasn’t working and there are a lot of ferry companies (Alilauro to Sorrento). So it was a quick check of my notes section on my iphone and we had our tickets in our hand. I also booked one way and I think it was €12.30. The trip to Sorrento takes about 40mins and again I was surprised at how rocky it was (again perhaps ignorance on my behalf as I thought it would be smoother). It was such a beautiful day and getting hotter. Now when you live in Ireland you are simply not used to heat, sun rays or humidity. It rains a lot in Ireland hence the reason we are called the Emerald Isle. So us Irish are pale skinned and to a certain extent have heat intolerance! So this past week was a struggle. I felt a bit better that my new friends from Canada, UK and USA also struggled with walking around in the heat. But again, I’m not complaining. It was stunning weather compared to what they were getting back home.

 

When we got to Sorrento, I bought my return ferry tickets for 2pm. That gave us four hours or so walking around this pretty town. By all accounts that would be more than adequate. I also stopped by the Information Kiosk and got a map and asked for directions to the lift up to the town. It was a pretty walk down by the water and also behind all the beach huts to get to the lift. It cost €1 each for the lift and within seconds we were up in a very picturesque square with the most amazing views of the coastline and ocean. There’s a little shop on a corner that sells coffee/pastries/icecream. DD got a lemon slushie which was very lemony and authentic tasting. It was however 50c more expensive there than further up the town. After that we strolled leisurely around the little streets. The little quaint streets have tiny little souvenir shops with more or less the same crap in all of them…..lol…I am not into tack, tat, garbage ornaments…..call them what you will. They sure love their lemons in Sorrento…..the place is covered in lemony things everywhere!

I had my first ever authentic Italian cappuchino in a café in Sorrento. It was so so good. We sat there in that café for some time just people watching and chatting. Then it was off for some wandering around before finally making our way back down to the marina where we had a lovely lunch literally on the water. Our table was on the exposed pier and if I moved my chair back even half a foot I would have been in the water. That said, I can tell you that the water looked very inviting…..it was so hot. I forgot to mention that on the way back to the ferry we passed by a church with a lot of people standing around outside including a number of photographers with extremely long lens and a drone! The beautiful floral displays and lanterns on the steps of the church told us that a bride was due very soon so we decided to hang about as nosy tourists in the shade of this big old church! The side entrance to the church was also decorated with lemon topiary trees, (told ya there was lemons everywhere). The guests were very glamorous and stylish. The atmosphere was exciting! The bride finally arrived and she was beautiful, if in my opinion a tad old fashioned, but it suited the surroundings. She thanked the crowd for waiting in English and curtsied deeply. It was a nice experience. The ferry back to Napoli was uneventful and once we were back on the ship it was back to the pool deck to cool down and have a medicinal iced cocktail or two!

If you are thinking about doing a DIY day in Sorrento or Capri then it is really easy to do, and I would highly recommend it. I would have preferred to go to Capri but that said I enjoyed our time in Sorrento and DD was happy 

Dinner was in La Cuchina at 715pm. I have to tell you that this dinner was the best of the entire cruise. So firstly, the location of La Cuchina is so perfect……right in the front of the ship with floor to ceiling windows. We got a window table and whilst we ate the sun was setting. The view was pretty spectacular. The ocean was also very calm and it seemed like we were just cruisin’ along (pardon the pun).

 

Both DD and I had the Calamari and it was really very good. The batter coating was light and crispy. The calamari was cooked to perfection….no chewiness. There was a marinara dip alongside which had a good kick to it. I then had Sea Bass with capers, roasted vegetables and parmesan fries. The Sea Bass was cooked really well, it was light and fluffy and went really well with the capers. The roasted veg was a mix of aubergine, courgette, peppers and mushroom. It was a very good dish. DD had lasagne which on the night she thought was very good….more about that anon. Our waiter on the night was called Gary (I think) and he was very good at his job. In fact he really made it our favourite meal of the cruise.

 

Following our meal we met our pals in Shakers Bar which became our firm favourite and I tried my first martini ever! I know!……..we live a very sheltered life in Ireland ;) Raspberry Martini’s….oh my!….who knew! And as “J” one of our new friends would say…..”they even give you one of your five a day”

Then it was Priscilla Queen of the Desert…..OMG….it was brilliant. We laughed all night and sang out loud with every number. What a fantastic performance by the entire company. The passion, the effort and the stamina was so impressive. I would highly recommend this show. We made sensible decision to go to bed after the show at 11.30pm as we had a busy day ahead in beautiful Roma.

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