We had a great Caribbean cruise in late January, departing from Miami. Boarding was quick & easy, and by noon we were on board. The Epic is a big, beautiful ship and there are many things about her that we love. For example - all of the activities are concentrated on decks 5-6-7. That's convenient, and it's also a clue as to where to get your cabin - make sure you separate yourself from the heavy entertainment venues if you can. Food was very good in the standard venues, and we had excellent meals in Le Bistro and Moderno.

As for the peculiarities, it's mostly about the cabin; ours was a balcony. The layout is just not the best. It's hard to explain, but the room, the couch and the bed are curved. For a tall guy like me, that means my feet stick out off the end of the bed and extra 3-4 inches. Also, the bathroom and shower are separated and enclosed in frosted glass. There's a curtain to pull in front of the two facilities, but you better know your travel partner pretty well if one is in the shower while the other is in the bathroom. Then there's the sink - it's either across from the bed (terrible location), or across from the couch (better, though not great location), depending on how your cabin is laid out. My advice - for standard balcony cabins get one that has the bed near the balcony, not up front near the bathrooms. It makes it much better - we've had both and having the sink across from the bed is not a good thing.

The crew was nice, but our experience is that on a 7-day cruise you just don't get the quality of service that you do on longer voyages. Our cabin steward was great, but no one stood out for the rest of the staff. The best entertainment on the ship was the dueling pianos act called "Howl at the Moon" - they are talented and great entertainers with lots of audience interaction - but it can get R-rated late at night. Read more