I will start this review with how horrible the disembarkation process was for this ship and that this ship was too large for Port Canaveral and Grand Cayman. Never in all of our years of cruising have we ever saw the disorganization that we saw on the Epic. We are seasoned cruisers (Platinum Plus with NCL) and picked this cruise purely because the dates worked to take our young grandchildren. As Platinum Plus we to be given expedited disbarcation and in Epic’s case this meant nothing and we like many other reviews posted on Cruise Critic saw 1 1/2 hours to get off the ship as walkoffs. I would encourage readers to read other reviews about the difficulty surrounding the disorganization and it was all true and maybe even worse. We knew that we are in for a rough start with the long line waiting to board outside the terminal.

Once aboard the cabin was nice, comfortable, clean, and well serviced by the steward. We quickly saw that the staff aboard the Epic is overwhelmed by the Drink and Dining Packages and many were simply going through the mentions. Long lines formed on the pool deck for drinks and often you were better off going to a lower deck bar to get a drink. On more then one occasion I saw bar staff take multiple orders that became problematic as they often would move onto a second or third customer without allowing the first customer to even finish giving the order. Then when the drink’ was delivered and the customer tried to explain that they also wanted xyz to my amazement the bar server would roll his eyes and mumble under his breath. Amazing thing to see on a cruise. The bars in general were under staffed and offered slow service with poor attitudes. Table service in the casino was often not possible given we often saw that they only had 1 overworked server trying to do an impossible job.

The steak house was below average with poor service, cool food, and all the sides were delivered well after the steaks arrived. Both Taste and tge Manhatten Room had excellent service and all the food arrived at the correct temps. Both the Itialian and Brazilian Restaurants provided excellent service and everything was well prepared and served at the correct temps. The pub was a long wait but decent food but reduced options from what we saw on past cruises. The buffet was clean and offered alot of options. The food was generally served at the right temps and the staff cleaning tables dod an excellent job. The only negative was it seemed to be a struggel to keep coffee and drinks glasses stocked.. We never ordered room service. Read more