We cruised on Epic in the med in 2018 and when we saw this itinerary and the airfare special we started planning. On to the Soot and stuff....When we embarked at 2:00 we headed up to the adult pool area for a drink and to enjoy the San Juan sunshine. I noted that the floors were pretty badly stained and littered with rust. We realized what it was and mentioned it to the bar staff (priorities dictated a drink first). The beer was delightfully cold and the barman's comment was, "don't worry it's normal." Later that evening, after having unpacked our bags into a fairly cleaned room, our group of four headed back to the aft bar for a cigar and a drink. Just as we reached to top of the stairs a rust shower erupted from one of the stacks hits us all. Barman says again its normal. I don't argue that it happens regularly on this ship but it is not normal in any way. We have the stains on our clothes to prove it.

The service aspect is just ok. The wait staff, bar staff, and room attendants are all visibly stretched. Bars that used to have four people working now only had two or sometimes three people working. This caused lines of 20 minutes or more for a drink at the pool bar. Dinner at Manhattan's was very good, the line to get in....ridiculous at any time. It seemed that dinner took a long time, longer than needed by far. The time to get a drink before dinner, then order, then service of the appetizer all took too long and thus making the dining experience overall not as good as the food.

The good stuff...The staff actually care and know that they cannot give the level of service that they should because there are not enough of them. Example, when did turn down service disappear? I thought it was an oversight but our attendant confirmed, its gone. Our attendant was stretched so far she couldn't do everything in every room everyday and it showed. Read more