Epic failure 3/3-3/7

[happy cruzin]

Heaven forbid that the person drinking is held responsible...:rolleyes:

 

 

 

Touché!

 

 

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[chefchick]

Their were many families impacted by Spring Break. Obviously NCL is choosing clientele that doesn’t fit my style so another cruise line will get my future business.

 

No one likes to see any group “take over” a ship that should be enjoyed by all, but unless you are willing to pony up for a much more expensive cruise (luxury ie, Seabourn, or perhaps Disney) you will find that all lines have Spring Breakers and all lines have potential drunks. Good luck.

[Shidah]

Was it a 7 day last year or a 3 or 4 day? I don't remember those shorter cruises last year but I do recall a few on Epic being posted this year.

 

It was a 4 day. We had never cruised before so chose a shorter one intentionally just to try it out.

[chefchick]

I agree with the OP's review about the Norwegian Epic. Similarly, the Norwegian Breakaway is the worst experience I have had in my life for similar issues last month. Drunk people, cold and tasteless food, poor design of the Breakaway, no room at the theatre for entertainment unless you arrived 1 hour early, the NCL employees weren't genuinely friendly and were overworked for the 4000 people onboard, etc.

 

By the way Norwegian apologists, people are entitled to their opinions. If you don't agree, please move along.

 

Okay, this thread is like beating a dead horse, but really, the worst experience of your life?!? You’ve had a pretty amazing life my friend if a cruise, ANY CRUISE is the worse thing that ever happens to you.

 

But I also have an upcoming cruise booked on the BA...should I be worried? 😜😁🙄

[DarkJedi]

Actually the 5,074 passengers is based on double occupancy for each room. There are 2,537 rooms available. The actual number of passengers can be significantly more, especially during spring break and the summer. At no point though, can there be more people onboard than the lifeboats can safely handle.

 

Double occupancy for the Epic is 4,100. Total capacity for passengers is 5,074. Which is the maximum they are allowed to cruise with due to the amount of safety equipment they have on board, including lifeboats.

[Moby0215]

So 12 elevators on a ship like the Jade with 2400 passengers but the larger ships have only 4 more elevators for an additional 1700 or so passengers. I agree don't cruise on the newer ships, especially if you have bad hips or knees.

 

 

 

I’ve never had any issues waiting for an elevator on the breakaway.

 

 

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[MrMan]

until these threads I had no idea spring break had moved from Daytona and Cancun to NCL. Thanks to everyone for making me aware.

 

 

 

It’s any cruise line on short cruises during a spring, not just

NCL. I have been on a short Princes spring cruise with the same in the spring. And there is nothing wrong with that. Unless you lived in a bubble in college we were all there in our lives. Travel on a cruise, AI resort or ski resort in the spring there will be partiers. This thread is a little “Stay off my lawn””

 

 

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[WisconsinGirl16]

how do you know which rooms have the bed closer to the balcony? I will have room 11051 - and I don't have a clue how to tell..

 

 

 

The wide part of the angled wall has the bed. I checked the Epic deck plan for you and confirmed the bed is by the balcony in your room. I prefer the bed by the balcony because the room has a better flow and I like to wake up to a view of the ocean :) have a wonderful trip!

 

 

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[C cruise]

The wide part of the angled wall has the bed. I checked the Epic deck plan for you and confirmed the bed is by the balcony in your room. I prefer the bed by the balcony because the room has a better flow and I like to wake up to a view of the ocean :) have a wonderful trip!

 

 

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thanks - its getting closer and I am excited!

[cruiser1955a]

It sounds like there were just too many people on the ship, and that's one thing that NCL does have control over. By limiting the number of cabins that can be sold with four people, they could reduce the crowds significantly. Would a policy that said "No four adult cabins during Spring Break" be that bad of an idea?

 

No 4 (adult) person cabins would strip the profit, and would negate the need to market "spring break cruises". They purposely cut the 7 day cruises to 3-4 day cruises, and market to spring breakers because it's VERY profitable, even after paying for the damages caused by the drunken students.

Remember: Cruise lines are PROFIT motivated. That's their first priority. They are far less concerned about the comfort of those who didn't know they were booking a spring break cruise.

 

I feel very sorry for the crew, especially cabin stewards, on these cruises. Low tips/extremely messy cabins.

[cruiser1955a]

The story I just read is that this woman was traveling with her parents, so it doesn't sound like she was with a large group of partiers or anything. Alas, people can get drunk and do stupid things on any ship, any time.

 

[/font][/color]

It'd be swell if we could all collectively decide what's an adult, I agree. We keep changing the rules. We're not going to solve it on this message board, of course, but it's something the US needs to address.

Thankfully, US "adulthood" laws aside, cruise ships have strict rules about what age you have to be to book cabins.

As for warning people about Spring Break, I mean, we've all been there--or could have been there, I guess. Spring break, summer break, winter holidays, 100,000-person conventions in Vegas, Golden Week in Japan...different places have different things at different times. It's always the responsibility of the traveler to check on these things (perhaps it was once something the travel agent checked on, but most of us are our own travel agents now :-)).

 

It's really more about "responsible behavior". Some adults behave responsibly, some don't. Some college age kids behave responsibly, some don't. Nobody will ever be able to determine an exact age when people behave responsibly. Everyone has a different idea of what constitutes "responsible behavior", except those who do actually behave responsibly.

[Carolyn11542]

We knew of the issues of the ship just check the number of post I have made on this website. But never in my wildest dreams did I expect to encounter kids out of it like zombies, vomit on elevators, and cold food to mention a few issues. No amount of research can prepare you for we encountered. This will be my last word on the issue of researching this cruise.

 

I sailed the same day (3/3) on the Escape and we had an AWESOME cruise. :cool: There were some young folks, as well as some crabby old goats too (ahem). If I found myself in a situation where I was amongst those with annoying behaviors or habits (smoking), I moved along! End of problem.

No one is sailing for free, so if they have the money to buy a ticket, they have every right to enjoy the ship just as you do.

BTW, Since you post often on this website, shame on you for not using it as a resource and doing your research.

[smeck]

I sailed the same day (3/3) on the Escape and we had an AWESOME cruise. :cool: There were some young folks, as well as some crabby old goats too (ahem). If I found myself in a situation where I was amongst those with annoying behaviors or habits (smoking), I moved along! End of problem.

No one is sailing for free, so if they have the money to buy a ticket, they have every right to enjoy the ship just as you do.

BTW, Since you post often on this website, shame on you for not using it as a resource and doing your research.

BTW I did my research didn’t figure Spring Break started so early in March. We had five couples going on this cruise and the date matched everyone’s schedule. Please don’t lecture me, don’t even know why I’m responding.

[smplybcause]

Well, your research was lacking because every Florida university has spring break in March for at least the last decade with most of them being at the beginning of March.

 

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[perspicacious.kae]

A cabin split four ways is what makes it affordable for college students.

As others have said, they cannot have too many on the ship - there are rules based on amount of safety equipment.

 

But even beyond that there are even limits on number people in a cabin because there is a limit on number of people per muster station. There are several threads on here where people were unable to add a 3rd or 4th person to their cabin because the assigned muster station was already at capacity.

 

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[Justmekaren918]

Helpful hint Never Ever book a 3 to 5 day over the weekend in March and not expect to see the ship teeming with drunk College kids on just about every line.

 

 

 

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[pattycakes]

I think part of the problem is the difference between college spring break and the elementary school level spring break schedule. I personally would not have thought to look for college breaks because until these multiple Epic threads I was unaware of selling cruises on campus. Also I don’t see this conversation taking place with regards to other lines or ships. Was this pretty much the only 4 day cruise going on at the time?

 

 

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[smplybcause]

In the main state colleges in Florida you have over 250k students. It gets mind boggling once you add in smaller schools and community colleges. The two largest state schools are less than two hours from Canaveral and have over 100k students. There's also three large community/state colleges under an hour from port with another 100k.

 

I have no idea if the cruise lines market to local schools (I never saw them, but I was there last decade not this one), but I definitely heard of organizations at the school planning trips. Also, like someone said above, pretty much every short/ weekend cruise draws a lot of younger people to party. Hell, there's a local group that plans a weekend booze cruise every year that gets 300+ on the smaller ships and I know that's not the only group.

 

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[softl]

Sailed Sky in early April a couple years ago. There was a very large group from either Kennesaw or Valdosta from Georgia. They had fun, got a little more happy than most of the other passengers, but for the most part kept to themselves and were respectful of others. If you get upset the very minute you board and see the unexpected, you will ruin your trip and maybe the others in your group.

 

I've sailed on two High Seas Rallies, the second was the chartered one on Brilliance. The first one was about 3,000 motorcycle (bikers) enthusiasts. Met some wonderful non-biker people and there were a few upset as well.

 

Remember, other folks are on vacation as well. Ignore what you don't like and enjoy your vacation too!

[Tutontow]

Actually, those who DON'T like Norwegian as in "I'm never cruising NCL again" should be the ones to move on. Chalk it up to experience and, as the song says, "Let it go"... don't have a vendetta mentality under the guise of "helping others and protecting them from big bad NCL". Those of us who return to book NCL will continue on this board assisting others and maintain an ongoing conversation to share our experiences. Otherwise all newbies would hear is the spew of negativity and not the counter-point.

 

Guess what? Office Depot does not sell trains or have any you can catch. No royals own Burger King or Dairy Queen and nobody cares that NCL is not a norwegian company although you can take a NCL cruise to Norway if you wish.

 

I do not think NCL is perfect by any means but I will continue to try and be helpful and informative.

 

 

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Okay, next you will tell me Subway doesn't operate trains. LOL

[sarahc78]

I was on this sailing and agree with the OP in regards to the wait in line for drinks and the drunk spring breakers. I understand NCL can’t discriminate against young adults of age to drink but they most certainly can limit their drinking by cutting off passengers who were clearly waaaay over served. I’m all for drinking, getting tipsy, and having a good time but when you have guests who are being obnoxious, staggering, slurring their words, vomiting, etc...someone needs to step up and say enough is enough you’re cut off for the day/night whatever. Had they have done that I’m sure it would have been a lot more enjoyable for everyone.

 

 

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[DarkJedi]

I blame the few hundred lawyers and paralegals who were on the ship for a continuing education seminar.

[kitkat343]

I had the same dining experience on the Star. It took 40 minutes for the waiters to take our order, and then they forgot to give my husband a fork for his entree. His food was totally inedible when he tried it with my fork, so we didn't bother trying to get him silverware. Overall, we were happy with NCL and would sail with them again factoring in the cost of a specialty dining package if it isn't included, since the meals in the specialty restaurants were quite good (we just had problems with the free food like the OP).

[cruisin-m]

We just got off this ship today and it was very disappointing. We travelled with two kids who couldn't even swim in the pool because it was taken over by college students and spilling their drinks and empty cups in the pool. We waiting 25 mins for a poolside drink. How could NCL allow this?

 

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The same way they allow the pool to also be taken over by children on festive/holiday cruises and by seniors outside of holidays and on longer cruises :p

 

The cruise line isn't going to stop people coming to please one particular demographic!

[collie1228]

We were Epic the week prior to your cruise, and while I haven't posted by review yet, I agree with much of your post, with the exception of the food. We had good experience with the food, but were disappointed in the layout of the ship and the understaffed bars. I don't think we had the same spring break problem you had, although I did see many younger people there. I guess we were lucky in that regard. We had a good time overall, but bottom line for us, no more mega ships. A couple thousand passengers is enough.