2 beautiful weeks

Epic review

This was our 3rd cruise with 3 different lines this past year. We have been on approx 14 cruises, 4 different lines.

I decided on this cruise mainly for the itinerary. We live in Minnesota so leaving from San Juan means warmth right from the start! We also had 2 cruise next certificates to use so NCL was our choice. 11 day Southern Caribbean, 9 islands.

I was a little concerned about the Epic and all the bad reviews but we are pretty easy going cruisers so we booked.

We stayed at the Hilton Caribe the night before and headed to the ship around 12:15. We had debated on spending the day at the Hilton and heading to ship at around 4 but in the end we just headed over.

They are starting to have staggered check ins which have obviously worked, because once we were through security we walked right up, registered, got our room keys, and then right on to ship. We are Platinum so we didn’t have to choose a checkin time but they did send letter and luggage tags out that recommended 1:00 arrival.

We had lunch at o’Sheehan’s (Excellent) and had a couple drinks before our room was ready. On our way to our room we saw our suitcases in the hallway so we grabbed them and took them with us.

We had balcony 10001, the most forward cabin that was a closed hull. We have never had a closed hull balcony before and i will not book one again. I love sitting and watching the ocean, I had to stand. Loved the forward cabin, we could look all the way forward. Cabin was tight but comfortable with tons of storage!!! There is a camouflaged drawer under sink, under couch and back of couch. The last day I even found storage above the bed. There were 2 closets and 4 drawers for the two of us. We are light packers so everything was 1/2 full or not used. I will go on record that I didn’t think we would mind the bathroom setup but we did in the end. I missed having an enclosed space to go to in the middle of the night that I could close the door and turn on the light. I was constantly trying to be quiet looking for cough drops and cold meds without turning on light. I had to be very prepared before bed! There is nowhere to store anything by toilet or shower area. Sink, counter and storage is on bedroom side of curtain. I had to retreat to the balcony during coughing spells, hopefully I didn’t wake up anyone else!

We had 4 specialty dining package plus the two platinum. We ate at Cagney, moderno, 2 Le Bistro, la cucina, teppanyaki, sushi, Shanghai (free), 1 Manhattan (free), 1 buffet for our evening meals and a Super Bowl buffet in h2o area.

We only had 1 meal that was not up to par. In the manhattan room I had a chicken pineapple skewer and the chicken was over marinated and had broken down to a tofu consistency. Yuck. The rest of my meal and my husbands steak was very good. Our last meal in Le Bistro was a little heavy on the salt which was not the case the first visit.

To all the people who say the pizza is bad I disagree!! We loved it. Crispy crust, great pepperoni and cheese that stays melted. Breakfasts is our favorite meal of the day. We had a couple in taste and the rest we ate in the great outdoors. Everything was delicious. We always timed our breakfast around docking. We either ate early or after everyone went ashore. We never had to wait for an omelet station.

I love NCL’s set up for freestyle dining. On celebrity and carnival a table for two is really only 3 inches away from the next table for two and so on!! So you rarely ever are not talking to the tables with you because that would be very uncomfortable or rude. On NCL, they are set up like regular restaurants that have tables staggered throughout the dinning room.

We had excellent service the whole trip the only crabby or whiny people were some guests. 1 lady was irate that she had to attend the safety drill. She announced that this is her 44th cruise. We went to the Cavern club the first night to hear the Beatles group and encountered a lady leaving upset because there were no seats available. She was mad and stated “ first night of the next 10 of not getting a chair”. Seriously she had made up her mind before even stepping on the ship that it wasn’t going to work for her! Sad. We found a spot to stand and had a great time. People started dancing and it was a great atmosphere. We met some amazing people during our week!

We love dueling pianos. They were very good and you could always find chairs if you waited a couple minutes. People come and go. Music around the ship was good but we usually find a bar that has music we cant miss. We did not find that on this ship. Had I been feeling better I might have a different opinion but we were in bed pretty early most nights!

We found loungers in the shade everyday. Only one day did we have to go aft of the pool next to rock climbing wall. We love the activity of the pool area. NCL is unique in that you cannot have your drink while you’re in the pool. Bummer! But after thinking about it further it makes sense. People come and go out of the pool area more frequently when they have to go to their drink , when they have it in the pool they stay there all day

We had balcony 10001, the most forward cabin that was a closed hull. We have never had a closed hull balcony before and i will not book one again. I love sitting and watching the ocean, I had to stand. Loved the forward cabin, we could look all the way forward. Cabin was tight but comfortable with tons of storage!!! There is a camouflaged drawer under sink, under couch and back of couch. The last day I even found storage above the bed. There were 2 closets and 4 drawers for the two of us. We are light packers so everything was 1/2 full or not used. I will go on record that I didn’t think we would mind the bathroom setup but we did in the end. I missed having an enclosed space to go to in the middle of the night that I could close the door and turn on the light. I was constantly trying to be quiet looking for cough drops and cold meds without turning on light. I had to be very prepared before bed! There is nowhere to store anything by toilet or shower area. Sink, counter and storage is on bedroom side of curtain. I had to retreat to the balcony during coughing spells, hopefully I didn’t wake up anyone else!