The Inevitable Comparison - NCL vs Disney

Norwegian Epic

                                                                              VS

Disney Fantasy

Inevitably I compared this cruise to our previous experiences on Disney Cruise Line.

Overall, in my opinion, Disney does it better in every category, but they do it at a very high premium which is not always an option. Here are the ways I think Disney does it better:


Dining: Disney has nicer restaurants, better food (to me) and much better service. They also offer free soft drinks at dinner (and all the time) so we don't have to pay for soda. I also believe they have better options for small bites and snacks, such as little wrap sandwiches and fruit plates and salads readily available.

Spa: The Rainforest on the Disney Dream and Fantasy is an excellent escape on the ship. When on the Epic we were wondering how we were bored during the sea days and realized that on the Dream/Fantasy we get Rainforest passes. We did not do this on the Epic as it was $400 for the week which is just ridiculous.

Outdoor space: The Disney Fantasy has excellent outdoor spaces for adults only as well as all four ships having a relaxing promenade deck with loungers. We missed this on the Epic.

Television: Disney offers more channels as well as free on-demand television and movies all day, every day.

Costs: While NCL is significantly less expensive than Disney, you do get what you pay for. Disney is overpriced, no matter what you think, and paying double for a cruise for free soda is stupid, but the little things add up. NCL has bowling on board, but you have to pay for it. You pay for soda, that is if you can get your server to go get you some. Pool towels are in your room on the Epic and you must exchange them at the pool deck for clean ones (if it happens to be open when you need it) while on Disney you can take as many towels as you want and there is no towel Nazi waiting to charge you for taking them. I also feel that they purposely keep the menus in the main dining on NCL minimal and the service mediocre to entice people to dine at the specialty restaurants, otherwise why would there be so many more pay restaurants than free ones?

Staff: It is undeniable that Disney is all about service. We have not had one single negative experience with crew on a Disney ship. We have had some slow service, and forgotten drink refills but it was always rectified and I never felt like it was on purpose on Disney while I did feel that on the Epic. Our room steward on the Epic was excellent, friendly and great at his job. The rest of the staff just left a little to be desired for us, including the Cruise Director who seemed just a little over the top and phony.

Disembarkation: When disembarking for shore excursions on Disney, you go to a specific spot on the ship to meet, not all passengers going to the same place, everyone is separated reducing confusion. Disney also offers a cast member who personally walks you off the ship to your local guide. When disembarking on the final day, Disney schedules breakfast so that only portions of the passengers are leaving during any given time, making it easier. We have never stood in a line to disembark off a Disney ship, while we waited over an hour in line on the Epic.


While Disney will always continue to be our number one choice for cruising, it is not always in the budget. Norwegian offers some itineraries that are not always available with Disney (Hawaii) and excellent entertainment that gives Disney a run for their money. We will definitely give Norwegian another chance in the future, after all, we did buy a future cruise certificate we won't want to waste!

Pros and Cons of the NCL Epic

When preparing to sail on the Epic, I was worried that I would compare everything to our previous Disney sailings. It was hard not to considering it was the only thing we had to compare it to. It was even harder not to considering the lackluster service we experienced. Overall we had a very good time on the Epic, and we would sail NCL again, it just would not be our first choice.

Pros:

Freestyle Dining: I love the concept, I like being able to choose when I want to eat based on how I feel at the time, not how I feel six months before when I book my cruise. However, I felt that there was very littler interaction with the serving staff that was positive and that may have something to do with it. On Disney, we get to know our servers and enjoy seeing them at each meal, this does not happen on NCL.

Staterooms: While smaller than we've experienced on Disney, they were very nicely appointed and clean. The bathrooms are just odd, but that is only on the Epic so we are not likely to experience them again.

Teppanyaki: Just a great restaurant. Great food, great service, great entertainment.

Cirque Dreams: The option to see a Cirque type show at sea, even at an additional cost was a selling point for us and we were not disappointed. We would sail other NCL ships to see another show.

Entertainment: Blue Man Group, Howl at the Moon and Second City were all great. We enjoyed everything we saw, but we wish there were more options. It sounds so greedy for us to want more when they do offer so much but there were some nights where we felt we had limited options as we had already been to the available entertainment the previous night.

Price: The price of this cruise for two of us was cheaper than the cost for one of us to sail a similar itinerary on the Disney Fantasy. The price makes it a nice option for when we cannot justify the cost of Disney.

Cons:

Dining/Food: We found the options in the main dining and buffet to be repetitive and a little boring. The service, being as poor as it was in most of the venues we visited did not help. We were excited to try Carlos Bakery (Cake Boss) on the ship but the cupcakes we had were still partially frozen and stale. We also felt that there was a lack of "snacks" available, or smaller options when you didn't want an entire meal.

Television: The TV had very few channels and the movies cost money to rent. We did not spend a ton of time in the room but during inclement weather or at night before bed we like to watch TV for a bit but there were very limited choices.

Outside Space: We found this ship had very limited outside space. There was no promenade deck to stroll and we felt that when you were in the stuffier areas, such as the casino, there was no way to just "go outside" without getting on an elevator and going all the way up. The ship could do with some more exterior options.

Motion: We could feel the motion of the ship all the time. We felt that maybe the ship did not have stabilizers (does it?) because we always felt like we were swaying. One day my husband felt ill all day due to the motion and the seas were completely calm. It has been many cruises since he's had an adverse reaction to the ship's motion and for the first time in a dozen cruises, I too felt a little green.

Disembarkation: Just horrible. They do this every seven days. Every seven days they have 4,000 people get off the ship and they still can't make it work better. The whole process just made us angry and feeling very negative getting off the ship. This left a very poor last impression on our first vacation with NCL.

Days at Sea and Caveat Emptor

This cruise had three days at sea which were great times to explore the ship and enjoy what they had to offer. We received a daily newsletter telling us what was scheduled, which we would highlight with our highlighter to make sure we didn't miss anything.

Freestyle Daily

On the sea days the pools looked very busy, so we skipped them, only swimming once, in the H20 pool on our Cozumel day when the ship was pretty empty. We instead spent our time visiting the shops, bowling, watching game shows, playing bingo and hanging out on our balcony.

Bowling seemed like a great idea, but it was expensive and awkward playing on a moving ship. We also learned of a ship's tour that took you inside the crew areas (galley, laundry, etc) but when we went to sign up we learned that it was $80 per person! Something else we have done cheaper (free) on Disney. We did enjoy watching the game shows going on, like Family Feud and Deal or No Deal.

Rock Climbing Walls

We did have a negative experience in the jewelry shop that we didn't know was negative until after we returned home.

The store was having a sale on Invicta watches, my husband fell in love with one but we weren't sure if we wanted to buy it or not. They told us on more than one occasion about their price match guarantee and how if we found it cheaper "anywhere" when we got home that they would automatically refund the difference to our credit card. They told us this personally and during every raffle they had in the shop. Since we did not have internet access* on the ship we could not price check but the price seemed reasonable and heck, with the price match guarantee it would be ok, right? My husband bought his watch and we also got one for our son for his upcoming birthday.

After returning home, I checked the price of the watches online. I found them to be selling for less than HALF the price we paid. So I called NCL customer service, who told me they had nothing to do with the store on board and gave me a number to call. That number resulted in a recording saying you needed to fill out paperwork for your refund, but that they did NOT accept prices from internet stores. This completely contradicts what they said on board, what happened to "anywhere"? I finally got a human to talk to who explained that I was completely S.O.L. Caveat Emptor

* Internet access on any ship comes at a premium, this we are used to, however, NCL not only charges more than Disney for internet access, they also charge an initial "fee" to connect. The $5 fee turned us off, however, it could have saved me hundreds of dollars on watches. Hindsight.

Costa Maya Mexico - NCL Epic Shore Excursion Review

We have previously visited Costa Maya while sailing on the Disney Fantasy, but on our last trip we just walked around the shopping area at the port and had a painting made on a tile by a local artist. 

Local artist in Costa Maya painting picture of The Fantasy with his finger (2012).

This time we wanted to see more of what the area had to offer and we really wanted to visit a Mayan Ruin as our last attempt at a ruin, Tulum, ended similar to our trip to Jamaica - ill. We chose again to book the excursion through the cruise line just based on ease of booking. This time, our day started much better than the previous excursion experience. Our meeting spot was actually off the ship, at the end of pier and it was easy-peasy. We found the line for the Chacchobben Mayan Ruins and were directed to a nice, air conditioned bus where we met our tour guide, Diana, who also happens to be the woman in the video on the NCL website describing the tour.

Diana our amazing guide.

The ride was about an hour, but Diana entertained us with Mayan history and information that was very interesting. She was a great speaker and made you really interested in what she was describing. Once at the site, we walked around and learned all about the area and the Mayan people. There is an area where you are allowed to climb the steps of one of the ruins and see more buildings above. The tour was just over an hour, with another hour ride home were we learned a little more and took a quick rest.

The Chicle Tree (Gum)

This tour is full of history but even for those who don't care about history, the architecture and area are wonderful. Almost the entire area is shaded, helping to keep you cool (unlike our previous experience in Tulum). We also were lucky enough to see a monkey in the tree tops with her baby. We really enjoyed this excursion and learned a lot about the Mayan people and their culture.

Ocho Rios Jamaica - NCL Epic Shore Excursion Review

The first port on our cruise was Ocho Rios Jamaica, a new port for us. We chose the Mystic Mountain Bobsled and Dunn's River Falls excursion through the cruise line. I know that you can do excursions cheaper on your own but since we've never been to Jamaica and we'd heard lots of bad things about the area, we decided to stick with a ship sponsored excursion.

We were to meet in the theater in the morning at a designated time. When we arrived we realized that all excursions go from that meeting point and it was a logistical nightmare. They would call out the excursion that was leaving and you just followed the crowd off the ship, no guidance from the staff, and walked to the pier and got your wrist bands and found your bus. The overall organization of this was pathetic. You'd think they would have better crowd control since they do this daily. Thankfully we found our way off the ship, no thanks to the staff telling us to go the opposite way of what the man calling out the tours in the theater told us.

Lining up for our excursion in Jamaica

Once on the bus we headed to Mystic Mountain which was just a few minutes away. You need to take a lift (think ski lift) up to the top of the mountain. I am severely afraid of heights but I thought it was time to face my fear, because, well, I'm an idiot. It is a long, slow, very very high climb to the top. I had to keep my eyes closed the entire way as I was scared to death. When we got to the top, I realized that this was also my only way back down which did dampen my excitement for the rest of the excursion. The bobsleds were awesome, like Space Mountain in the rainforest, I only wish we sprang for the extra cost to ride it again. There were also amazing views of the ship from the top of the mountain.

View from the top of Mystic Mountain

View while on the lift to the top of the mountain.

Scary Ski Lift

Once back on solid ground, we got back onto a bus and headed off to Dunn's River Falls. Our tour guide at the falls was very nice and helpful and brought us to the lockers to lock up our stuff. I was concerned about the locker situation when I was researching this excursion, but the lockers are good, no issues. At this point, I was not feeling very great, I was overheated and still very shaky from my experience on the lift and just was not into experiencing the falls. I chose to head towards the bottom of the falls and just stand in the water while my husband explored a little. We chose not to follow a guide and climb. We didn't last long at the falls at all, after maybe an hour or less we decided to head out and back to the ship.

Dunn's River Falls

I have a few regrets from the excursion; I wish I had stuck with my original plan and gone to the Green Grotto Caves, since the heights were just too much for me at the mountain, though the Bobsleds were great. Second, I wish we had brought our good camera with us. We brought only our water camera since we thought we'd be in water for most of the day and I didn't understand the locker situation. This caused us to miss out on some great shots from the mountain and at the falls because our water camera started misbehaving, leaving us with blurry pictures.

I would definitely go back to Jamaica and back to Dunn's River Falls for the whole experience in the future. I'd love to see where the falls end (we missed that) but I still don't think I would climb the entire falls, it looked too crowded for us.

After getting back on the ship we took a much needed nap in the cool room and headed to dinner. At dinner we learned that during the previous cruise, a group of people from the Epic were stuck on the lift for the mountain for over an hour. Just thinking about that, over a month later gives me anxiety. No more slow climbs up a mountain for me!

View of Mystic Mountain Lift from the ship.

The Epic - Entertainment

One thing that really sets the Epic apart from other ships is the entertainment. While I absolutely love the entertainment on a Disney ship, my husband is not as much of a Disneyphile as I am and after 12 sailings, we've seen it all, so we were very excited for new options. Just a word of warning, you need to book the main shows in advance or you could be out of luck.

Freestyle Daily and Towel Animal

Our favorite was the Cirque Dreams dinner show. While the food was standard dinner show fare, it was plenty good for us. The show was excellent! Set in a small, intimate venue, it feels like the acrobats will land in your lap. We both were 100% happy with this experience and would do it over and over again.

Blue Man Group was also superb. We've seen the BMG show in Orlando and Boston and this show was pretty much the same but it was highly entertaining. It was so funny in the beginning when they are running notes on the LED screens telling you different made up stories about audience members. To our surprise, they chose my name, and said that I was an Olympic Gold Medal winner in curling. This show is a great addition to the Epic and we had a wonderful time. Towards the end of the week they hold a Q&A session with the "Blue Men" which is not to be missed!

Second City was really fun. They had a few different shows during the week and we enjoyed them all. I would recommend getting there early so that you can sit closer up to get a better view of the action as there is a lot going on at times and sitting further back you can miss little things.

Howl at the Moon is a dueling piano bar that is awesome. We went to the show almost every time it was offered because the entertainment was excellent and very talented and we had a great time. Bring a few dollars with you to entice the pianists to play your request quickly.

We did not have the chance to experience the Legends show because we weren't sure where to fit it in before we left home and once on board we were so busy early in the week that once we decided to book it, we realized it was not offered the last couple nights.

We also experienced the Karaoke in the Bliss Lounge, which for us was just ok. We are used to a livelier bunch and it was mostly country music which we are not very familiar with. The Bingo was also a little boring for us as we are used to it being a little more entertaining and a little less expensive. I can't believe there is something on a Disney ship that is cheaper than their competition!

One of the things we were interested in experiencing was the casino. Sailing only with Disney previously we have not had this experience at sea before. We love Las Vegas and Biloxi so we thought a casino at sea would be great. We did have some fun playing Blackjack and Roulette and a few slot machines but overall the machines were very tight and the smoking in the casino was a total turn off. To clarify, it was not "smoky" but the smell, more of a musty old smoke smell was too much for me so we didn't spend too much time there. Our experiences in the casino made me realize that we aren't missing anything when we sail without a casino on Disney.

Dining on the Epic - Part Two Specialty Dining

Instead of the Good the Bad and the Ugly, we experienced the Amazing, the Exceptional, the Good and the Horrible.

The Amazing

This may be misleading because the most amazing meal we had was at the Cirque Dreams dinner show. I found the food to be good, loved the appetizer and the rest of the food was fine but the show made you not care whatsoever what you were eating. The show was so amazing that the food didn't matter, the show was enough. We have seen many Cirque type shows and this one, especially in such a small venue was excellent. The service was also excellent, our drinks always full. We had the premium seating and were seated up top looking down. This show is well worth the cost, it should not be missed.

The Exceptional

Teppanyaki. Everyone has been to a Teppanyaki restaurant at some point and I thought this would just be mediocre, I was going for my husband who enjoys this type of food much more than I do, but it was so much more than I had expected. The service was above par and our chef, Orlando, was fantastic. The food was absolutely delicious and it just kept coming. Everything from the salted edamame to start through the green tea ice cream at the end and everything in between (oh that rice!) was perfect. We sat with a great group of people who kept the conversation flowing and we had a wonderful time.

When the meal was over, I wanted to give a tip to Orlando but he had already left. I asked our server if he could get him for me as I wanted to thank him again for such a wonderful meal. The server left and out came Orlando's supervisor, wanting to know if everything was alright. I explained how wonderful our meal was and how happy we were with Orlando and that we wanted to give him a tip, he acted like that had never happened before. They brought out Orlando and made a big deal of us giving him a tip. He was so sweet and come to find out, he had only been doing this for a month, he'd been in training up until that point for months. I was happy we took the time to speak with him after and we also filled out a comment card about him, they need to know when they have such a great employee!

The Good

We were most excited for our meal at Moderno. Here in Orlando we have Texas de Brazil, a similar concept to Moderno. Texas de Brazil is very expensive, more than double the price of Moderno so we were excited to have this option. The food was excellent, the salad bar made this girl super happy. The meat eater, my husband was fully satisfied. The issue? The service. Our service was so poor that the woman dining next to us (literally a foot from us, so we chatted often) commented on it. They never cleared our plates, we had no tongs to remove the meat (the gaucho had to ask our server to get us some) and our drinks were never refilled. Initially when we finished our salads, they came and took our plates but never brought us new ones so we had to wait for them to come back so we could have meat. Here we had a similar experience as in Taste. The table behind us, a party of 6 was ordering wine and our server was so busy over there pouring wine and chatting with them, he totally forgot about us. The lack of service would not prevent us from enjoying this restaurant again however; we were seated by the window which was beautiful at sunset and the food was excellent. They just need to work on their service skills (seeing a trend?).

The Horrible

On our last day we chose to eat at the Noodle Bar. We were seated at the bar, amongst a few other groups. We made our selections on the form provided, choosing pot stickers as our appetizer and two noodle bowls, along with ice tea. For my bowl, I asked for NO shrimp. As we were sitting at the bar, we could watch them most of the time preparing the food. We heard the chefs say, no shrimp when they were pulling out the ingredients for our food. While we were ordering, another couple came in and was seated behind us at a table. I noticed not long after that the server was over telling them that their appetizer would be a while and did they want their meal first. They didn't come to us so I assumed they ordered something different than us.

In the meantime, our drinks were empty, but our server walked by repeatedly to refill the wine of the group at the end of the bar. We tried to get his attention multiple times with no luck. After the people behind us were already eating, our food comes out. Not the appetizer, our meals. We asked him to get us drinks and he said he'd get our server. Our server comes to refill our drinks finally and I tell him there are shrimp in my bowl. The paper said NO SHRIMP and I heard them say NO SHRIMP so no clue why there are shrimp. He takes my bowl and walks away. We can see them start a new meal for me. This one comes out in like five minutes so no idea why the other one took over a half hour. We eat our bowls and once we are done, waiting for the server to come back so we can ask for our check, another server brings over our appetizer. I said, No, we are already done eating, this was supposed to come before our meal and he says, no sometimes it comes after the meal. Really? I think not. I said could you just have our server bring our check? I was hoping they would charge me for the appetizer because by that point, we'd been there for an hour, and I was ready to complain to someone, but they did not. The service was so far below acceptable that we were dumbfounded as to how people can keep eating there. Thankfully that was our last experience with the Epic's poor service, we choose to save ourselves the hassle and eat at the buffet for dinner.

In the future, if we were to sail again with NCL, which I believe we will at some point, I would buy the ultimate dining package and stick with the specialty dining restaurants for dinner, but I will lower my expectations when it comes to the level of service I have grown accustomed to sailing with Disney.