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.
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