20th October - 2nd November, 2013

This was my second cruise on the Epic, first ever transatlantic cruise. After my Western Mediterranean cruise on the Epic last August I gave the ship a very good review, mainly 5 stars for most aspects. This time I am not quite so generous. Last year it was my first cruise on a large ship for about 20 years. My most recent cruises were on easyCruise and Fred Olsen's Braemar. So the ship itself and all its facilities were very impressive and I found the food, in most instances, very good. This time I have to downgrade my ratings for the food. Not exactly sure why - might be the second time is never as good as the first time, maybe 13 nights tends to show up faults more than 7 nights or maybe the standard has dropped a wee bit.

However, let's start with the cruise itself. I was a bit worried about the weather but I needn't have. Perhaps we were lucky but, apart from day 2 when we moved out of the Med and into the Atlantic the weather was warm and sunny the whole way. And it was relatively smooth the whole way too. Day 2 had enough of a swell to close the main pool and the hydro pool in the spa. But the rest of the time the swell was barely noticeable or it was calm. The first few days the breeze meant sunbathing wasn't great (although many people were sunbathing) but after Madeira it did get hot. The pool deck was pretty busy, especially until after lunch, but up on deck 18 there was always plenty of space and beds. In the afternoons I usually managed to get one of the classy red loungers at the bow section of deck 18 - give it a try there if you go on the Epic. Read more