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Review: 1st time cruiser - NCL EPIC - Mediterranean Sept 17-24, 2017

marktwothousand

By marktwothousand,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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marktwothousand

marktwothousand

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Hey all. A little late, and LONG review so I hope y’all have patience. I’ll be happy to answer any questions... especially from any first time cruisers.

 

I want to first thank the lovely people from CC who answered so many questions before and during the cruise and were great company during the sailing. I am still keeping in touch and hoping to see some on future cruises.

 

My travel background...extensive travel background, always solo, male late 30s, but never done a cruise. Was EXTREMELY resistant to cruises but my family wanted to go on one and we aren’t getting any younger, so I thought I’d give it a try as a way to spend some time in our latter years together. You never know what is going to happen in life.

 

Overall, I had so much more fun than expected on the EPIC in The Mediterranean. The people I met, the staff and the delicious food and drink were great. I am already planning a January trip on the Escape now and hope to do another Mediterranean cruise this summer.

 

My review is QUITE long so I’ll proceed by posting what I have in the next post now... and more in the coming days.

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marktwothousand

marktwothousand

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Part 1 - rooms, logistics, communication

Part 2 (future post) - will have entertainment, food, staff review.

 

Part 1

 

Embarkation/Debarkation and movement within ship

 

No issues getting on and off the ship. Boarding was so fast and every port was the same quickness. The worst part was getting a taxi at Barcelona’s port. I’d give myself another 15 minutes for that next time.

 

I found that I couldn’t orient myself or get a Sense of direction on the ship. I didn’t know until the last day that there were colour codes for aft and port sides, this should be promoted more.

 

Also, the elevators are REALLY slow and often packed.

 

Room and housekeeping review

 

I stayed in a solo studio cabin. The rooms have adequate cleaning service but it was a bit inconsistent at times. For example, they don’t vacuum the rugs (ever, from what I saw) and several days, dirty/used glasses were not changed. One day I didn’t receive my Freestyle Daily and another day I received the previous day’s! I was pleased about the actual _frequency_ of cleanings however, and that made up for some of the inconsistencies in cleaning. I didn’t know you could get your room cleaned several times a day – depending on when I woke up, I had a morning clean done, and then the turn down cleanup which was a tidy-up, especially useful if I had wet towels and dirt from the swimming decks.

 

Now, on the other hand, responsiveness to complaints and maintenance was superb! My room had a (dangerously) broken closet door, not enough towels, and the voicemail service wasn’t working properly. Within an afternoon of putting in the requests, my room had double towels for the rest of the trip, the closet door was properly re-installed (like new) and my phone was fixed. I was also locked out of my suite once due to: battery failure on the locking system. At the beginning of my stay, the door lock light would blink yellow when entering – which meant it was failing. I would have liked the staff to report the yellow light to maintenance proactively so that I didn’t have to put in the call to fix it after the fact. Within 20 minutes, I had a technician replace the batteries, but really, cleaners should have reported the yellow light as soon as they saw it so I didn’t have to put in a call.

The room also has a TV to watch. the Epic Today channel is a good alternative to reading the daily; Interestingly, they played clips of guests partying around the ship from previous nights on that cruise, I saw a few people I recognized. There are a couple of (fairly new) movies and the navigation channels were always interesting to see what was going on. You could see how close you were to shore in the morning if you have an inside cabin.

Stateroom comparisons

 

I had the opportunity of seeing a variety of suites through people I met on the trip. Sadly, I did not get to see The Haven. I was able to see the following types of suites: Solo, Inside, 8th floor Balcony (no roof covering) and aft balcony. The solo suites I saw all appeared to the same; The inside stateroom was a little bigger, but I would not recommend it for a solo traveler simply looking for more space. The solo suites are laid out with tonnes of storage and feel more suitable for one person. The balcony suite I saw was on deck 8 and had no covering over top (it was one of the balconies that jutted out from the side of the ship). There are advantages to this and disadvantages: can get pure sun if you’re on the right side, however, if it is raining, its too wet to go out. Also, I found it extremely windy without the covering on top, almost chilly at times. In port, it is excellent for lounging with sun! I personally would not recommend a change if I was assigned this deck. Lastly, I also got to see an aft balcony. It is quite remarkable to see the wake behind as the ship moves and hear the sound of the water.

 

Connectivity and iConcierge app

I was disappointed to learn that Cellular service was generally not available in inside cabins at ports. I had hoped to use my cell phone on local service from my room when we were in ports. Forget that idea...the signal just doesn’t penetrate the walls that Far into the ship.

 

One thing that made this trip so less stressful for me was the iconcierge app. I believe it was 9.99 for the week. It was amazing As it allowed me and my travel companion (we were staying in different rooms and decks, and our sleep schedules are very different) to text or phone each other anywhere on the ship. So, if we woke up at different times, or wanted to do our own thing, we would never have to worry about losing each other. One really cool aspect about the app is that it allows you to phone any room from your mobile phone or any house phone or ship department around the ship, and it also works the other way: people can call you from their rooms or from any house phone on the ship to your mobile. One night, I walked back to my room down from the bars at 3 AM, and ordered room service pizza - right from my mobile! While I was walking! So cool.

Edited by marktwothousand
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dlanza

dlanza

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Hey all. A little late, and LONG review so I hope y’all have patience. I’ll be happy to answer any questions... especially from any first time cruisers.

 

 

 

I want to first thank the lovely people from CC who answered so many questions before and during the cruise and were great company during the sailing. I am still keeping in touch and hoping to see some on future cruises.

 

 

 

My travel background...extensive travel background, always solo, male late 30s, but never done a cruise. Was EXTREMELY resistant to cruises but my family wanted to go on one and we aren’t getting any younger, so I thought I’d give it a try as a way to spend some time in our latter years together. You never know what is going to happen in life.

 

 

 

Overall, I had so much more fun than expected on the EPIC in The Mediterranean. The people I met, the staff and the delicious food and drink were great. I am already planning a January trip on the Escape now and hope to do another Mediterranean cruise this summer.

 

 

 

My review is QUITE long so I’ll proceed by posting what I have in the next post now... and more in the coming days.

 

 

 

Are you going on the Escape to the Southern Carribean in January?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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marktwothousand

marktwothousand

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Are you going on the Escape to the Southern Carribean in January?
aiming for the jan 20 sailing but nothing booked yet. Should Be within the next

Few Days.

 

I’d love to know how the epic compares to the Exscape if anyone on here knows? My travel companion was not pleased with the epic, she felt it wasn’t as classy as Royal Caribbean ships. I hope the escape will be good

Enuf for her.

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Rhea98

Rhea98

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Good point! And I heard that also, the colours of the carpets indicate port or starboard? Is that true?
Epic: Port side orange (elevator lights also share colors); starboard turquoise. I'm not sure the "fish" remained after the refurbishment. I recently spent 13 days on our second TA post refurb but honestly not sure about the carpet fish. Never been on Escape.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

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rebnme

rebnme

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great review...have to agree with you for the most part.... 2012 sailed in the studios....loved it... this time my friend and I did the 2 bdrm Haven .... now I'm spoiled! had a few issues but they were met with expediency.... used the Haven dining room for all meals except the 3 nights we did the specialty .... loved this.... I love kids, have my own but it was so nice not hav ing screaming kids who are left to their own devices same to the pool, Haven has their own pool... there was once that there were 2 kids jumping off the hot tub but we asked the concierge and they were told to swim or leave...no parents around and they were only 10-12...(that discussion for aNother time)....even though embarkation and disembarkation were relatively smooth, I like the Haven priority ....unfortunately won't be ble to afford it again lol....

as for the Escape, much better layout than the Epic... Epic felt enclosed to me, the Escape is bigger I think and the main deck has a nice walk round ND u can ear outside with some of the specialties.

I loved the Mediterranean! Next time will try a smaller ship though? Dawn or Jade ...cant remember which one

Happy Crusing!!!

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