Norwegian Epic Review
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We've been on Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Princess, and Carnival cruises. Decided to try a Norwegian cruise over New Years because I thought it would be fun. Loved the itinerary (Tortola, St Thomas, and Norwegian's private island Coco Cay).
Ok, what I meant in my title. We're big Texas fans and were looking forward to watching them play in the Sugar Bowl on New Years Day. Do you know how long it's been since they've played in a decent bowl game!? Didn't have any problems watching sports on other cruises so assumed. We went tearing all over that ship looking for someplace that was playing ANY bowl games--nowhere. Staff didn't even know what we were talking about. PS: they weren't playing any sports games except for the occasional soccer or NFL game on TVs over the 2 bowling alley lanes (always the same game on both TVs). We could have paid $300 for an internet package to stream the game but wow. Disney had a cruise ship that did the exact same itinerary as us (except for Coco Cay) and I talked to people sailing on that. Disney played EVERY SINGLE BOWL GAME (for free), even played one on the giant screen by the pool. BTW, Texas upset Georgia in what looked like a freaking awesome game. This was strike one.
Strike two. The staff on this boat were the unfriendliest in all the cruise lines we've been on. Rarely get acknowledged going down hall, forget about a smile, bar staff was horrible all over the ship. Wait, there was one Chinese lady at the entrance to buffet with hand sanitizer that greeted everyone with a big smile and a "Washy, washy, happy, happy!" I know a lot of people got a kick out of her, probably because she was the only one that smiled. They looked like they would rather be somewhere else. I know it sucks having to deal with some of the cranks I saw on the ship, and you don't see your family for months, but people on other cruise lines have staff going through the same thing and they manage to be pleasant. This ship obviously has sucky morale, or maybe they didn't feel the need to be pleasant because they already added my mandatory 20% tip to every thing I purchased. Only cruise ship I've taken where there was nobody in the buffet eating areas asking if you wanted them to bring a drink. My son had a unlimited drink plan and it took us three days to figure out we could get sodas at the buffet restaurant.
Cabin Review
Inside
Port Reviews
Tortola
I think the island is still recovering somewhat from the last hurricane because saw a lot of debris and houses in repair. Went to Long Bay East beach and it was nice. Liked that they didn't gouge on umbrella and beach chair prices, I found them reasonable. Rented a tandem kayak for $30/hr. Not much to see but it was something to do. Walked to some marketplace about a 5-10 min walk from ship. Everyone pretty much had the same touristy stuff, some with better selection than others. Some vendors a little pushy.
St. Thomas
Went to Maegen's beach. Very beautiful, nice little beach bar and prices weren't outrageous. Even had a little shop with everything you may have forgotten. Taxi driver told us all sorts of interesting things about the island. Everyone seemed so friendly to each other. They had beach chairs to rent a little cheaper than BVI but you had to drag it to your spot and back yourself (BVI it was set in place already). An open spot was far away enough that we decided it wasn't worth the effort so we just sat on our towels. We did rent a tandem kayak for $30/hr so we didn't have to do that long. Great shopping, tons of jewelry shops (don't know why)! Roads and infrastructure in great shape, unlike BVI.
Great Stirrup Cay
I was pleasantly surprised by this island. From the ship it looked small and didn't look like it had much to do. But since we were there thought we'd try it for maybe an hour--ended staying 4. Lots of beach chairs (free), several beach bars (obviously not free), and several areas to get free food. I wasn't expecting that so it was a bonus. Even had about seven souvenir kiosks that looked like they were owned by different vendors. Some had more than others. I heard they live there for months at a time which they'd have to because I didn't see any other island for them to commute from daily. Pretty beach with shaded coconut tree areas as well as full sun areas. Plenty of bathrooms and outdoor showers to rinse off.
Only horrible part was the debarkation. From time I showed up to time we got there it was an hour. We were told there was a medical emergency that held up things but even after everyone was loaded on the transport they took another ten minutes to load about 20 coolers onto the boat. While we were waiting for this, another transport (there were 3 total) came in, picked up about 10 passengers from the rear of the boat (our boat had about 100) and left. What?! Why didn't they tell us we could catch a transport from the other area? Why couldn't they load the darn coolers on that transport since we'd already been waiting an hour! It was obvious those people just showed up at the place and got on a boat.