MITSUGIRLYS EPIC CRUISE--2nd time around-1st from Port Canaveral

[cecil89]

Thank you so much for your review!!!

Your pics are wonderful and your daughter is adorable.

We have a cruise booked on the epic in January and have room 13043, directly below the room you were in. It looks like the same size room.

Can't wait to hear more.

This is our second cruise on the epic and the last time we had a haven spa balcony. I could not justify the cost f this room this time. I did not like it , it seemed cramped and there wasn't even a couch. We did not use the whirlpool to in the room and did not use the haven because the others we travelled with were not in the haven .

I hope you had a great time, thanks again.

Cecil

[mitsugirly]

I woke up at 8am and headed outside to check the temps. It was a little chilly and that made me nervous. There have been several cruises that ended up being a cold sail away and I just hate that (like Baltimore). I don't care if it's pouring down raining, as long as it's warm out. I'll dance in the rain and play in the rain and have fun, but the cold I just hate.

 

I checked the weather for the day and it said that it was going to warm up. I kept my fingers crossed and headed back inside only to find this munchkin wondering around the hotel and elevators.

 

 

He said he was looking for his mom and couldn't find her. I would later find out that Kendra left with Kolin and Courtney to try to find a place to get Kolins hair cut before the cruise. I had to order him back to the room to stay put until she returned. Billy, Kendra's fiance had been in the shower when Brayden, or "B" as we call him, decided to go momma-hunting. That kid....sigh.

 

I headed back to the room to check the PC webcam in hopes that we would see our Epic sitting in port. I was a little disappointed when I couldn't spot her.

 

 

We headed downstairs to get the hubby some coffee. He can't function in the mornings until he's had his coffee.

 

We found this in the sports/lobby/restaurant area:

 

 

Really? They are going to charge you $1.00 for coffee? Most hotels offer it for free that I have been to, but not this place. The hubby was willing to pay whatever it takes to get some coffee running through his veins. Then it happened....drip, drip, drip. Ugh! Coffee-go-empty=no-good for anyone around the husbands direct vicinity. We must find coffee.

 

I messaged Kendra to let her know that we were headed to breakfast and if they wanted to meet us there, to head over after Kolin's hair cut.

 

Off we went down the street to Dennys. It's not too far, but it felt like a bit of a haul. Man, I really need to lose some of this "cruise" weight. It really is affecting my mobility function these days. I seriously can not believe the amount of weight I have gained over the last 3-4 years and I do swear it's all from cruising. I gain a good 6-10 pounds every cruise and it never goes away. I never gain any while at home, so it's obviously cruise weight right?

 

Along the way, Sakari spots a bird and says "take a picture of the crane mommy" and so I did

 

 

Here we have made it to Dennys and you can see Doubletree off in the distance to give you some type of idea how far it is.

 

 

 

Kendra had messaged Billy and told him to head over to Dennys to meet us and he and B arrived as soon as we were seated.

 

As soon as we ordered, Kendra and Courtney started messaging me their breakfast order to put in and hopefully the timing would work out that they would arrive before the meal was served. They were first to arrive at the hair salon at 9am when they opened and Kolin put his name on the list for a haircut and they told him a 20 minute wait. HOW???? They were the first there and only 1 other person arrived after them and she said they had 4 people there working.

 

Our breakfast was arriving and Kendra showed up just as the food was coming out. You talk about good timing.

 

 

 

 

[sue402001]

Love your reviews you write mitsugirly, I can't wait to read more of this one!

[Cruisermom2nick]

Great review so far! :)

[k9trix]

Yea!! I'm so excited for this review!! I'm trying to decide between 3 cruises next year (all European, all in the same time frame in September) and the one on the Epic I think is calling my name. Looking forward to pics of the ship. :)

 

Trix

[nimiq]

Wow following can't wait to here all about the ship leaving on the 26th on the Epic and wanted to do this ship for a long time now.

 

 

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[mitsugirly]

My food was scrumptious, but a bit on the greasy side.

 

 

 

After breakfast we headed back to the hotel for some last minute packing and Kendra wanted some more yummy cookies, because she might get hungry on the long trip to the port ya know.

 

 

After getting everything back into the suitcases, we headed downstairs at 11:30am.

 

CRUISE PORT TRANSPORTATION COMPANY:

 

We checked the boards and it was suggested to use Goportcanaveral for our needs because they would pick us up at the hotel in Orlando and transport to the cruise port and then back to the airport and they had a fairly decent price for our group of 8. So, we booked and prepaid ahead of time.

 

I had to actually call them to book and couldn't do an online booking because their bookings only said from the airport to PC. I booked and they said I would receive a confirmation in my email in a few days.

 

When I received the confirmation, IT HAD THE WRONG DATES ON IT!!! GASP! They had me down for transportation from the hotel to the cruise port on Nov 11th and we needed the 12th.

 

I immediately called them and they looked in their system and said they indeed had me down for the 12th, but the people typing in the confirmations had typed it up wrong. They sent me out a new revised confirmation within the day and I printed it out. I might add that I also received another confirmation for another family, which resulted in yet another called to this company to let them know that I received a confirmation that didn't belong to me and they might want to make sure that this other family received their confirmation because they were probably waiting on it.

 

Now, after making this reservation, fast forward to the 11th. We were on our way to the airport when I received a "weird" number phone call that was long distance and I didn't recognize the number, so I didn't answer. About 20 minutes later the number called again. Again, I didn't answer and figured if it was important, they would leave a message. About 30 minutes later I received another weird number phone call, but this time it said "Florida". So, I decided to answer it. It was the hotel (Doubletree) asking if I needed picked up and taken to the cruise port and they said my transportation was there. GASP! I told them that I haven't even left my home town and don't arrive in Orlando until later in the day and our cruise wasn't until the following day. The guy on the phone from the hotel said "yes, that's what I figured because I told them that you hadn't even checked into our hotel yet but he's standing here in the lobby saying he's here to pick your family up. Don't worry, I'll straighten it out for you." At this point I'm a little perturbed to say the least. Did they or didn't they have the right day? Was I going to be stranded on the day that I actually needed the transportation? I was beginning to wish I had never booked with them if this was any indication as to what was to come.

 

So fast forward to today...cruise day. We headed down to the lobby at 11:30am. Our instructions on our booking said that pick up would be between 11:45 and noon. When I was on the phone with them booking, they told me to BE EARLY!! They said they were normally early for pick ups and they did not want to have to wait and we needed to be outside waiting on them before the 11:45am scheduled time. Ok, kinda rude, but whatever. It's later than we wanted to leave anyhow so earlier is better...considering we had about a 45 minute ride to the port. This would be the latest we had ever arrived to a port. But, we had no choice and we could not pick our time to be picked up.

 

As we were waiting outside, we discovered that Kendra didn't have her cruise papers...or luggage tags...or anything. GASP! Thinking back to the night before we left home, I had her paperwork and "packet" from our TA in my car when I went to visit her (we got our hair braided before the cruise by her friend) and I had intended on giving it to her that night. We switched cars and took Kendra's car and I completely forgot to give it to her or get it out of my car. That's where it would be at...still laying in the floor board of my car back home. Oh no!!!

 

She immediately ran inside to get on the internet to print out her boarding passes...only to find that NCL had no record of anything online. I guess 2 days prior to a cruise that information disappears. So now what? We are searching our emails and couldn't find anything. Probably because our TA had printed everything off himself and sent it to us in the mail.

 

I messaged our TA in a panic while Kendra called NCL about the situation. NCL informed her that she would be fine and they could print it off at the port...but you still had to get into the building and past security to do that and we couldn't figure out how this would happen. My TA said he was on the road and would be home in 10 minutes and email them to me.

 

We impatiently waited for the email all while the shuttle did not show up and I was getting worried. I didn't dare call to see where they were at because we were having a crisis of our own at the moment and the last thing I wanted was for them to actually show up and us not have the email at that point. However, since it was now 12:15 and a half hour AFTER the time they told us we better be standing outside waiting on them and to not make them wait, I figured we had been waiting on them for a half hour and THEY were late so if they did arrive, they WOULD wait on us whether they liked it or not.

 

Meanwhile, the kids were entertaining themselves looking for lizards in the bushes. It's so nice to not have a care in the world other than what cruise you are going to go on next and not have any adult issues that we were currently dealing with at that moment.

 

 

At 12:15 I received the awaited email...we printed her documents and luggage tags and I immediately got on the phone with the shuttle service to inquire where our ride was. I was told "we had problems with the driver" and they would arrive in about 10 minutes. They showed up 30 minutes later.

 

We piled in and off we went, then the driver does a U-turn and heads in a different direction and says "I now need to pick up 3 more people" SAY WHAT???? WHERE THE HELL-O DO YOU THINK YOU ARE PUTTING THEM? The only seat available was the one in the front with the driver.

 

We arrived at another hotel where there was a lot of commotion going on with another driver that had a luggage trailer they pulled in the back of the van. I guess there were more people booked in that van that there was space. We couldn't hear what was going on but a lot of hands up in the air was going on while we sat there for at least 8-10 minutes while they figured out what to do. We ended up with 2 of their passengers with one sitting in the front seat and the other squeezed in the back after we had to do some switching of seats with the little ones.

 

The driver didn't have anything to say on the way there and was very quiet so we were forced to entertain ourselves between our clan. We played with snapchat and discovered a cool looking hair style and that would be our entertainment for the ride there.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

A few more snapchats between all of us girls as we giggled between us and then we would come to the big bridge that meant that we were getting close...time to get serious.

 

 

 

 

Then we could see the ships in the distance. But I didn't see the Epic.

 

I could tell there was a Carnival ship and a Disney ship, then some odd looking ship, but no Epic.

 

 

 

Ahhh, there she is... all the way down there by herself in all her glory.

 

 

 

 

She is a massive ship! The biggest in the fleet until they built the Escape.

 

[TNcrzr4life]

So excited to read this. We are leaving Saturday on the Epic and we have never sailed NCL before. Hoping you can answer some of my questions through your review. Thanks so much!!

 

 

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[tgirl25]

Yeah! Another review! I go on her in less then 3mo and so excited, read your other Epic review since I will be in the Studio area and excited for it.

 

Following, because the way you write it is like I am along with you all! Hope the trip was Epic!

[mitsugirly]

Now I have to say that I didn't really keep up with anything that was happening with the Epic or the port. I had no idea of any "new" buildings or anything. All I was aware of is that this was the first sailing for the Epic out of Port Canaveral after returning back to the US. I have since read things about building another terminal, building 1, the terminal not being finished, using another building and using RC's building. I honestly have NO IDEA...what building I was in, if it belonged to another cruise line, or what was going on. Since we shuttled in, the driver dropped us off where we belonged and we didn't really have to worry about "where" we were at, just that we were "at". LOL

 

 

I also wasn't too involved with our roll call. For some reason I just didn't feel too "connected" to the roll call since I wasn't able to post much due to schooling and trying to get that taken care of (plus a LONG August vacation/cruise with a review that needed to get done). So, maybe there was some talk of what was going on there and I just wasn't aware of it. It was definitely a different roll call experience than my previous Epic roll call that I'm still close friends with a lot of them.

 

 

I really don't remember what time we actually arrived now, but it was around 45 minutes to the port and I want to estimate it was around 1:45 when we arrived.

 

We dropped our luggage off at the porters and headed inside some type of covered parking lot it looked like. There were A LOT of people there, but I wouldn't realize just how many until we started trying to find the end of the line.

 

We walked past the building, the line wrapped around the building and weaved back and forth and then headed down the other side of this garage type building we were in and down to the end of that, then weaved back and forth again.

 

The workers there tried their best to direct people which way to go, but it was a mad house with people just everywhere. They tried pulling out the chains and making lines for people to stand in, but there were just so many people that it was hard to determine where the lines really were. The people kept coming and coming and the lines weren't getting any shorter.

 

 

We kept walking and walking, trying to determine the end of the line, but people were just coming from every direction.

 

At least Sakari was having fun with it and this seems to be a habit with her any time Billy comes along on the cruise...being carried while hanging on his arm until he can't take it no more.

 

 

 

When that no longer worked, she had B carry her. Such a princess she is.

 

 

We finally determined the end of what we thought was the line and jumped in, where it seemed like we were miles away from the terminal.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

The workers there did break out bottled water for everyone waiting in line, so I know they were at least trying to accommodate us and knew that the crowd wasn't pleased. The only comment I remember making was that I was so glad that it was not a HOT day out and it was pretty comfortable, even though we had shorts on.

 

 

 

Here is a short video of the lines after we had already been standing in it forever and had actually moved up quite a bit before I decided to take a video of it instead of pictures. We had already made it up and down the zig-zag lines in the parking area and almost to the zig-zag lines along the back of the building.

 

OKW7Qlvlurc

 

 

Hey we were making progress. Slow progress, but it was progress. We didn't really complain much and knew that even though the lines were extremely long, we had made it to the terminal and we would be getting on...even if it was hours later. The ship wouldn't be leaving without us!

 

We were in line outside for maybe 1 1/2 hours, then once inside, we encountered even more long lines of course. We waited in line inside to check in for another 45 minutes and people were definitely moaning and groaning and voicing their opinion. I heard the lady next to us checking in get rude with the check-in staff. When it was time to take her picture, they said "smile" and she went off on them about how she wasn't about to smile after waiting in line for this long and had never encountered such a ____ up embarkation process and so on...and smile she did not. Actually after all that, I'm almost positive she probably stuck her middle finger up in her photo and I probably just didn't see it. Just saying...

 

After such a long wait and them pumping us with that yummy hot water outside (everyone knows I DON'T drink water, but hey, this was all I had at the moment) that it was time for a potty break before getting on the ship.

 

We headed to the restrooms and low and behold there was this box with an angel halo glowing around it...yes, I'm talking about a pop machine. HEAVEN! Those of you that don't know it yet, NCL decided to stop allowing you to bring your own soda on board. This completely SUCKS for someone like me that lives and breathes pop. Even though I have always brought my pop limit, I also still buy the soda package...so at least with me, they aren't ever losing any money. But, it is what it is and about a week or so prior to boarding, someone mentioned on a thread that if you wanted to bring pop on board, grab some from the vending machine within the terminal. They don't check your bags after security and before getting on the ship....BINGO! Yes, this would cost a lot of money, but did someone like me care? Nope! I LOADED UP!! I shoved as many in my bag, Courtneys bag and Kendra's bag that I could. I was stocked up for at least a few days. :D

[mitsugirly]

We headed toward the ship, but wait, where do they take the pictures at? We stopped and asked and was told that the photographers took it down awhile ago and they are NO LONGER AVAILABLE! Ok, I have remained calm this entire 2+ hour wait, but now I'm pissed. They should not have taken down the embarkation pictures until EVERYONE is done and on board. That's just not fair to those of us that were forced to wait in lines this long. That is not our fault and now we don't get an embarkation picture???? Seriously? Now I'm a little steamed! I ALWAYS buy this picture for every cruise because I do a scrapbook for Sakari to have for once I'm gone from this world (long story short, my mom was 42 when she had me, I was 42 when I had Sakari, my mom passed away and was buried on my 18th birthday, I'm scared of history repeating itself and I do everything in my power to give Sakari memories we have together because she might still be a child if I die early like my mom did and I know what it's like. So, I make scrapbooks of all of our cruises...detailed just like these reviews with tons of pictures. The embarkation photo is one the most important photos because that is my cover photo in the book. So to me, this is not just another embarkation photo...it's a required photo...one that I won't have for this cruise...an important cruise to Sakari because she has waited so long to go on the Epic).

 

So that didn't set me in a good mood at all...but the lady said "you'll have plenty of opportunities for other pictures on board and our photographers will be on board the entire week for other shots". She just didn't understand. I don't care about the other shots.

 

Ok, enough about that. You get the picture. I was upset. I needed a drink........from the "free-but-you-still-pay-over-$90" for the free drink package. Let's get on board!

 

Up the ramps we went

 

 

 

Sakari was super excited and led the way.

 

 

 

It looks like Kolin was super excited as well because him and Sakari were the first on the ship, way ahead of us.

 

 

 

We have arrived! Where's the welcome committee? There wasn't anyone there. There was no red carpet like always. There wasn't any balloons. There wasn't any kids club members welcoming the kids and wanting you to sign up. There was nothing! It was WEIRD! One of the worse embarkations I have ever experienced. It was like we didn't matter. We didn't exist. We were nobody. We had missed the party. Is this the part I'm supposed to jump up and down and stomp my feet and yell "but I'm platinum!"? (As I read plenty of people listing this in letters to this and other cruise companies because they seem to think it will give them more leverage).

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Since we were so late getting on the ship, we did not get our dailies until we made it back to the room later that evening...a little too late. But, I will be nice and give them to you now.

 

 

 

 

 

If you have a munchkin in the 6-9 age group, you are in luck. I have the schedule for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Also, we (the girls) had downloaded the iconceirge app on our phones so that we would be able to text each other and know where we all are at any given time and would be able to meet up. The guys...well, they were on their own. insertevilgrinhere I mean don't they say that guys never stop to ask for directions because they are never lost? Yea, we'll see about that right?

 

We have used this app several times before and usually had decent service with it and good experiences. The text works great, but the phone service, not so much. You can call someone elses phone on it, but you can barely understand what they are saying and it will cut in and out. So, I don't recommend it if you are someone who would rather talk to the other party versus texting. Texting-workie good. Phone-no workie good. Just saying...

 

It also has a lot of other functions as well.

 

 

 

 

This is everything that the app is supposed to do.

 

 

 

You could even book your excursions from your phone app as well.

 

 

 

 

If you didn't feel like carrying around the dailies, then you could just check your phone instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

You could make reservations from your phone and look up details and pricing along with even menus on the app.

 

 

The dining venues were all listed...but I would later discover there is a blooper in the app....it's missing Le Bistro on it!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Ok, I think I will stop for the evening. I'm still on "ship time" and although it's "early" for me right now, I am tired and ready for bed thanks to cruising.

 

I will continue again some time tomorrow either before or after work. :)

[mitsugirly]

Good start Kim!

 

Thanks so much and glad you're here. :D

 

Looking forward to this!... Going on the Epic 20 days from now!...

 

 

Thanks and hopefully I'll be able to get this done before you leave. It takes a long time, so be patient with me. :)

[retiring soon]

Hi all!

 

mitsugirly ~ I'm so glad to have found your review the same day you started!:D Looking forward to hearing what you thought of Epic 2nd time around. I was on for the 4th time last Christmas.

 

Sorry to hear of your problems so far, that sucks about the lack of welcoming & picture!

I flew into Orlando & cruised from there once & don't think I'd do it again. It's so busy with kids,strollers,so much luggage & long lines!:o

 

Do you still have your Escape reservation for next fall? I'm hoping you're going Oct 14.

 

Have a great week.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[mitsugirly]

subscribing love your reviews been on the epic once thinking about doing her again

 

Thanks so much and glad you love the reviews. Glad you are here. :)

 

 

I was also on a wave balcony on the 14th fl, room 14088 to be exact!! I'm pretty sure we ran into you on the elevator and in the halls but I was to shy to say "Hiiiiiiii! Aren't you Mitsugirly from CC?"

 

Can't wait to read the rest of your review!!!

 

 

Awww, you should have said hello! I have people ask if I'm Mitsugirly (or Kim) on the boards all the time when cruising. No need to be shy. I'll talk to anyone. :p I love meeting people on cruises that I talk to here on the boards. :) Glad to have you here for my review and I hope you had a good cruise on the Epic.

[mitsugirly]

I hope you and your family had an overall enjoyable time . . . working around those unique challenges throughout the week (I'll be curious to see which adjectives you use ;))

I had a fun week back onboard Epic.

 

I really regret that our paths didn't cross, though perhaps they did and I didn't know it, as I'd hoped to say Hello.

 

Have a fun time posting your review.

I, too, will enjoy reading it like your others before it. :)

 

.

 

I just had to laugh at the "adjectives" comment. I could probably think of quite a few for this cruise. :p

 

You were the one person that I had hoped to meet on the cruise because I have talked to you several times on the boards over the years and I always remember you from your avatar. However, I don't know what you look like, so I didn't know who to look for. I didn't get as involved in this roll call the way I normally do, due to schooling and such...but when I did post, I just felt out of place for some reason. Maybe the roll call was so active that when I posted, it got lost in the conversation and when I came back, there would be so many pages after my post that I never did see anyone respond when scrolling the post. I couldn't keep caught up and just felt overwhelmed when I would come back to the roll call. I hate when that happens and I can't become "friends" with the roll call due to my inactivity...or sporadic activity I should say.

 

I hope you had a great cruise. It was so strange for me to be back on the Epic after 6 long years. But the memories came flowing back again and I quickly learned my way around.

 

Glad to have you here and would love to hear you side of how your cruise went compared to mine.

 

thank you for sharing your adventures!

 

Thanks so much for coming in and I hope you enjoy it. :)

[mitsugirly]

Thank you for taking the time to post this extremely detailed review. Looking forward to reading the rest

 

You are welcome and thanks for joining me. :)

 

Have you ever connected through Atlanta? That airport has a large subway system that connects all the terminals. Just a thought....

 

I'm pretty sure I have been to that airport in the far past. But I was thinking that there was another one like this as well.

[mitsugirly]

Really excited to see your review because we are on the epic next month! Great so far.

 

Thanks and glad to have you here. I hope you have a wonderful time on the Epic next month! :)

 

Yay! I'm so happy your last cruise was on the Epic. We are looking at sailing with some friends who are already booked on the Epic in January. Your review will probably make up my mind :)

 

Glad to have you here and thanks for joining. Oh gosh, I hope my review don't help you decide to go or not to go. Too much pressure. :p :D

[mitsugirly]

Excited to read your review!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Hiya fatcat...glad you are here. :)

 

Thank you so much for your review!!!

Your pics are wonderful and your daughter is adorable.

We have a cruise booked on the epic in January and have room 13043, directly below the room you were in. It looks like the same size room.

Can't wait to hear more.

This is our second cruise on the epic and the last time we had a haven spa balcony. I could not justify the cost f this room this time. I did not like it , it seemed cramped and there wasn't even a couch. We did not use the whirlpool to in the room and did not use the haven because the others we travelled with were not in the haven .

I hope you had a great time, thanks again.

Cecil

 

Hi and thanks for joining me and the nice comments. The balcony is definitely huge for sure and I hope you enjoy it.

 

I honestly don't know that I can ever justify the cost of a Haven. I barely spend any time in my room and it's hard for me to even justify the cost of a balcony. I honestly feel like I'm wasting money when I book a balcony, but it happens I guess.

[mitsugirly]

Love your reviews you write mitsugirly, I can't wait to read more of this one!

 

Aww thanks and I'm glad you found this one. Enjoy! :)

 

Great review so far! :)

 

Thank you very much. :)