NCL Epic review - 23rd September Marseille, France 🇫🇷

[beckyboo1986]

 

NCL Epic 23^rd September Marseille.

 

I thought I’d share a thorough review of our week on NCL Epic. I’ve also shared lots more videos/pictures on Instagram and Tiktok, feel free to search Explorewithethan2021.

 

I’ll start by saying, I messed up. I thought Epic was a much newer ship than it is. I remember seeing her whilst we were away in St. Lucia and she looked so impressive out in the distance. It’s entirely my own fault not realising this and whilst this didn’t have a huge impact on our trip, it did result in noticeable wear and tear. Lots of maintenance was occurring during the trip which isn’t ideal. The kids splash area was closed every day apart from embarkment day. It was also impossible to reach the sports courts multiple times as that area was closed off.

 

Embarkment in Marseille: This was an absolute nightmare! It took over 2 hours to board. It would have taken much longer but we were kindly seen by priority after bag drop as my 2 year old was having a melt down due to being hungry/nap time. I’ve done several cruises and it’s never taken this long. Even those with mobility issues had to wait in line.

 

Cabin 8051: We booked a Club Balcony Cabin. Loved the location, close to the steps/lifts but not noisy. My cabin steward wasn’t great. No personal service and a very quick clean. They offer no turn down service, despite having the indication outside to request it. We received a few ‘perks’ for the cabin. This included one bag of laundry, a bottle of prosecco, three cookies and two chocolate covered strawberries.

 

I wasn’t fussed about the cabin lay out. I liked lots of space to hang clothes and storing things. I was concerned where the travel crib would be placed, but we set this up right next to the bed/balcony doors. No mattress is provided so I’d suggest bringing your own. We used another duvet to make it softer for my little one, but I do not recommend you do this for children younger than 2. The curtains did not fully block out the light as there was a gap at the end. We use a snoozeshade to cover the travel cot so that was fine, and I used an eye mask. I also realised you can turn the light off on the phone as it’s also quite bright.

 

The beds are very short. I’m 5’2” and my legs hung off the edge if I used both pillows. Loved having a bath in the cabin. Pro tip: if you’re travelling with little ones print a colour picture of their favourite characters and type ‘name’s cabin’ and laminate it. I took a couple of fridge magnets and my son loved finding ‘Iggly Piggly’ every time we returned to the cabin.

 

Food and drink: I won’t comment on individual bars but I found all drinks and service to be great. Special thanks to Gareth Hutchinson for the lovely kir royal. Service around the pool was also the best we’ve had on a ship.

 

Taste: We ate breakfast and dinner here a few times. Whilst the service was friendly, at times it was slow. We waited 10 minutes one morning for a highchair. I found the highchair issue in every restaurant. It baffles me how people can’t see he’s too little to sit on the normal chairs. The food was nice but nothing special. I expect this when they are having to cater for so many people, so this wasn’t an issue for me.

 

Garden café: I hate buffets! They’re busy, people push in front of you, it’s a nightmare to navigate solo with a toddler so my opinion won’t be great. However, the breakfast and lunches we had here were ok. Food as above but always something to eat. I enjoyed eating breakfast outside. We received great service from Jerome Yeo who tried to help me get my card back when it was left at the pool bar.

 

Shanghai’s: We really enjoyed our meals here, we visited twice. Good service and yummy food.

 

O’Sheehan’s: Loved having lunch here. Good selection of ‘pub’ food and very attentive service.

 

Room service: I ordered room service for breakfast one morning and this was delivery within the timeframe and had everything we wanted.

 

La Cucina: We had a wonderful meal here. Loved looking out over the front of the ship. Service and food were brilliant.

 

Cagney’s: The food was very good but service was a bit disappointing. I was ignored by two hosts for a good 5 minutes before they finally sat me. I requested a highchair and took a seat with little one on my lap. The waiter proceeded to try and place the napkin on my lap. I had to laugh as it just shows how they have zero concept if you’re travelling with kids. Turns out, he also has a 2-year-old. Anyways, the food was very good but I had to keep asking for things such as drinks and condiments. This really let down the experience.

 

Evening entertainment: I obviously didn’t stay up too late with little one, but we did manage to see a little of The Epic Beetles and The Ed Sheeran show. We loved Andy and often watched him Maltlings. He was so kind and often said hi to my little one. Other than live music there wasn’t that much entertainment onboard. No silent disco or things like that. I think there were some more parties but they didn’t start until 22:30.

 

Photos: We took advantage of a photo offer of $30 for two prints. We ordered the picture taken in La Cucina and then received a voucher for another print. I thought this was a good price.

 

Aqua Park kids pool: Sadly this was only open on embarkment day. The water was cold and it needed some TLC so I assume that’s why it was closed the remainder of the week. This was disappointing as little one was too small for the bigger slides.

 

Bowling: I was going to take Ethan bowling however the youngest age was 6. No idea as it’s not difficult to bowl with the runners up.

 

Splash academy/Guppies: Ethan’s aged 2.5 so he was too young for any drop off sessions. We visited the Guppies room, and this was a bit sorry. Barely any toys to play with. The ones that were there, were very young baby toys. We also went to an open play at Splash and no one else was there. They had a few toys out which seemed a bit off (how many kids play chess?) so we didn’t play for long and didn’t return. I appreciate it was a drop-in session but there was no interaction with the staff. With this is mind, I really wouldn’t recommend this cruise for young toddlers. There isn’t much to keep them entertained. No formal activities are arranged for their age in mind.

 

Pools/hot tub: The two pools seem incredibly small for the amount of guests (and I believe it was only 2/3 full). There were no rules for the pool it seemed. Babies of all ages were permitted, despite them saying no nappies. I saw children as young as 4 alone in the pool whilst their parents sat on sunbeds. I personally found this horrifying. I honestly don’t understand why you would allow non-swimmers in the pool without an adult in the pool too. I asked the lifeguard about this and he said it was fine so long as the parent is ‘close by’. I found both lifeguards to be utterly miserable. Whilst I say there were no rules, they seemed to be rules for some and not for others. Adults would jump into the pool, and nothing was said however when my son did it, I was told he can’t as he might hurt himself (I was right next to him!). I think I must have offended him when I asked why kids were allowed in the pool alone.

 

I’ll not mention too much about the additional taxes. I’m sure you’ve read all about it. This was very disappointing, and I have raised a dispute with Guest Services so it will be interesting to hear what they say.

 

Whilst Epic wasn’t the best ship for us, we still had a brilliant holiday. I purchased a $500 future cruise credit and opted for the $250 onboard spend. They nearly sold me the double up offer however you can only use $250pp on each cruise so that would have meant booking two different cruises to use the credit. I am still waiting for the credit to be emailed to me so hopefully that’ll come soon.

 

Hopefully you’ve found this useful and well done for getting this far reading 😊

Edited October 8, 2023 by beckyboo1986

[laudergayle]

Nice review. Great pictures, too.  Glad you enjoyed your holiday onboard the Epic.  Yeah…kids in nappies in pools bother me too.  
 

In the US they load your Cruise Next certificates right onto your Latitudes account. We never get any emails..they just show up.  Have fun picking out your next cruise.

Edited October 8, 2023 by laudergayle

[FLAHAM]

Additional perks of Club Balcony Suites include making dining reservations 5 days before Studios/Interiors/Ocean Views/Balconies and automatic qualification for first morning tender at port visits.  In-service year and year of latest refurb are easily accessed from the NCL home page by clicking on “Explore Cruise Ships.”

Edited October 8, 2023 by FLAHAM

[schmoopie17]

NCL often runs promos where you can use more than one Cruise Next certificate at a time. 

[clcizme]

Thanks for the review.  We are doing a cruise on Epic with families that have babies under two.  All in Club Balconies.  How did you request the cribs? This is the exact thing I was looking for on this board.  Also, you said that it didn’t have a mattress, is it a standard size pack and play? Just so we know what to bring. Thanks for your answer. 

[beckyboo1986]

9 hours ago, clcizme said:

Thanks for the review.  We are doing a cruise on Epic with families that have babies under two.  All in Club Balconies.  How did you request the cribs? This is the exact thing I was looking for on this board.  Also, you said that it didn’t have a mattress, is it a standard size pack and play? Just so we know what to bring. Thanks for your answer. 

Hi there, 

 

Sorry for the delay in replying. I requested a crib at the time of booking however it was not set up upon arrival. I simply asked my cabin attendant who set one up. Yes standard size so bring your own mattress if you can.