My EPIC review / SpaSuite – {my thoughts and opinions, not necessarily
facts!} < disclaimer> long
Please excuse the caps issue. Copied from WORD and font / formatting
changed.
We booked this trip in May 2009. I started the roll call page for our
sailing (10/16/10) on may 25, 2009 !!
We looked at the photos from the shipyard of all the progress of her being
built. I tuned in to any and all webcasts, interviews, etc. that were about
the epic. I watched all the ncl epic moments on youtube. I joined the
n.e.s.s. group on cruisecritic. I followed the epic on her journey from
the shipyard in france (yay!) All the way to miami – via webcams, ship
finder maps, others' photos of webcams that i was unalbe to get to. I
twittered with gene sloan, cruisemaven & andy stuart about the epic. I
devoured every new thing released about the epic. I read each and every
review from those first on board. To say i was actively involved in epic
goings on, from start to finish, is an understatement!
I think i was too involved. I liken my experience to this : you know when
all of your friends have seen the latest hit movie, and talk it up about
how great it is…and when you finally get around to seeing it, it was just
okay? Well, even though there were as many negative reviews & threads about
the epic as there were positive ones, i still kinda felt that way at the
end of our trip. It was just a bit of a disappointment to me. But again,
it was probably because i was too involved for the past 1.5+ years.
We did have a fantastic vacation – and I am certainly glad that i did the
epic full circle – from beginning to end(being our trip). That alone was an
awesome experience!
A little background on us: we are a married couple, I'm 51, DH (mark) is
55. This is my 6th cruise (all NCL, first time silver!!), DH's 3rd (all
NCL). We have always booked balcony or mini-suites in past. This is our
first full suite, complete with perks. As i said, we booked in may 2009 –
when the spa suite pricing was within our budget. We later switched our
booking over to CAS (1st time doing this, unfortunately probably our last)
and got a very nice discount. It was an exceptional deal, which we doubt
will be repeated in future.
I will try to summarize first, AND THEN go into lengthier detail.
(apparently this plan isn't working..guess i'm too wordy!) Lol i will
highlight / underline some words so that you can skim to what interests
you.
(cc) = information found on these boards!
Pre/post-cruise – we arrived at FLL airport @ 10:40pm. We used 'GO
shuttle' (cc) for transportation to miami. (SAS transportation does not
pick up after 8pm (cc)) we were picked up in a white Lincoln 'signature'
– awesome car! Very easy – walk out of airport, go to the kiosk and car
was ready and waiting.
Not so easy with the return trip! We had Go Shuttle reserved for 4:45 am to
go from Hilton Marina to FLL airport – well, GO calls @ 4:30am that day and
says he's sending a yellow cab to take us – already paid, tip & all. Well!
There were several cabs that came up to us outside the hotel…we said we
were waiting on a certain onw. finally came.. the driver laughed when we
told him how much we were charged for this trip. - $25.00…actual fare was
$12.40 to the airport. Even with tip – we were WAY overcharged by GO
Shuttle!
We used SAS when leaving the EPIC to go to the Hilton Marina – van type –
nice, easy, no problem.
We arrived at the hotel about 11:15pm.
Booked thru last minute travel dot com for hotels before & after cruise.
(cc) i chose intercontinental miami for thursday & friday nights pre
cruise. Awesome!! Will definitely stay here again. I booked hilton
marina, fll for sat. After cruise. Not so impressed with this one. Not that
it was so bad, just after exceptional service on epic, it paled in
comparison.
Intercontinental miami was terrific. The room was great! Receptionist had
us on 23rd floor – but non-smoking. (yes, i smoke <sigh>) so we asked for a
smoking room. Turns out this was better!! We got an awesome room on the 8th
floor, with terrific view of the pom ! Yay!! We hit the beds (2 doubles)
shortly after arrival. It was a long day! ---only complaint - $46.00 for
lunch for 2 – we each had a cuban sandwich (panini) & drink. We thought it
was a little pricey! A hamburger was $15.00 – and that was at the poolside
grill (blue water café), not even room service. Oh well. We got great
price on room, so it really wasn't that bad.
Friday, October 15, 2010:
We had thought ahead and brought some breakfast snacks to get our day
started without having to rush out for breakfast. (dh has am medication
that is to be taken w/food) we got up, lazed around the room, showered,
dressed and headed out to walk over to the bayside mall. Was a nice walk.
Found the cuban american café for breakfast (cc) and enjoyed a nice
breakfast/brunch at a reasonable price. The bill was under $20.00 for the 2
of us. Had a nice view of the small harbor. It was fun to watch the birds
hovering for scraps. (we had scrambled eggs, hasbrowns, pancakes, sausage &
drinks)
We then meandered around the mall and went into the hard rock café's gift
shop for our mandatory shot glass.
Talked with the girl working register about all the tents being set up that
we passed on the way. She told us that it was for the susan g. Koman 'walk
for the cure' that was scheduled for 8am saturday. She was running in it.
Had a nice chat with her. Found out via a phone message from the hotel,
that the streets all around us would be closed from 8am – 1pm on sat. Due
to the race. Great..oh well, worse case scenerio, we wouldn't be on the
ship until our cabins were ready @ 2pm. No big deal! (wireless internet
avail for $11.95 / 24hrs @ this hotel – mark decided to skip this – we
would rather pay a lot more on the ship for internet access..then leave 30
min on the account that we didn't even use!?!? Go figure. Lol )
We then strolled back over to hotel. We decided to check out pool before
going back to room. It was not very crowded at all. So, back to the room to
change and head down to pool. (5th floor)
This area is beautiful and would be worth the full price of the hotel (or
lunch!)! It is situated between 2 tall buildings, has a harbor view, pool
bar & resturant area that is air conditioned. There are tons of padded
loungers of every shape & size around and a garden type area with a walking
path. The loungers were equipped with a towel covering the pad, and a
rolled up towel for use on each one. There was about 8-10 people there
already. We took a swim, read books for awhile, had lunch, swam again,
read some more…just had a wonderful relaxing afternoon! Back to room, mark
went in search of cvs (cc) to get some diet coke for the ship. I suggested
he get some cherrios & milk for in room light supper (since we at late
lunch, and would be much cheaper than even sharing a $15 burger!) I decided
to write in journal while he was gone. He was not gone a long time, so the
store was close. He did get the cereal & milk! Lol we often have breakfast
suppers on the weekends at home. It was fun!
Relaxed, watched some tv, then to bed. I had difficulty sleeping, as i was
getting excited!
Saturday, october 16, 2010: boarding day!!! Finally here!!!
I awoke shortly after 5am…raced to the windows….saw nothing. Could not get
back to sleep. Up again at 5:30am…and low and behold!! There she was…only
to the left of my window – not to the right where the ncl docks are. Then
i remembered that she had to go down and turn around. I got my first views
of epic 'live'!!! I was so excited! My dh was laughing at me from bed. "my
ship has come in!" Lol i watched her slowly travel down to the ncl docks
and get settled in. Then i went back to bed! I only slept (i think??)
About another hour, as we started hearing announcements from the race area.
People were getting there early – by 6:30am. Was kinda neat to watch it on
the news channel, and see it - sorta – out the window!
We got showered, dressed – in our tee shirts and we called for the bellman
to collect our bags @ 10:45am. We checked out, went outside to get a cab,
nice chat with cab driver. Got to terminal c, where we were guided to line,
to check our print outs – just making sure we were in the correct terminal.
Entered building, received health form to fill out and led into vip lounge
on left.
Sat down at desk, got all logged in, health form handed in…waited just a
few minutes for next group to get signed in, then led up stairs to roped
off waiting area. Barely sat down, got up for drink of juice – didn't even
finish it and the whole group was herded onto the ship!
*past the photographers, who were only just getting set up..meaning no
boarding photo!!! Oh no! Dh & i had decided on our last cruise (2008)
that we wanted to wear green shirts (in front of green screen) for our next
boarding photos, and made them special with the 'i am epic / i am ness"
logo on them. Darn it! {we ended up seeing photographers set up around the
ship at different times, sometimes with green screens. So, a couple of
different times we carried our shirts in a bag around with us while
wandering the ship – figured we could just slip them on for the photo –
don't you know everytime we did this, we found no green screens?? Lol
guess it just was not meant to be. ) okay…this is a vip perk – no boarding
photo…not even if you wanted one.. Well, maybe if you show up later in the
afternoon – when photographers are set up you can get a photo. (they have
this new system on the epic now, that you have to use your key card to
'register your face' when getting your photo taken. This will then allow
you to access all your onboard photos thru the kiosk in the photography
place. Turns out we were not in the system, and there was a photo of other
people in our cabin # folder! How dare they invade our folder! Lol just
kidding!! The mgr helped us to locate our photos and we made our purchase.
We know we had others taken, but they must have gotten lost in the shuffle.
Maybe we had invaded someone else's folder??! !)
our shirts did make great conversation starters all day! I was so excited,
i got in elevator and you know how people are so quiet when full of
strangers…i say "i am soooo excited to be here!!" Everyone laughed!
I was doing that all day, i think!
We were lead into the epic lounge, where the concierge (florintina) gave us
a little speech, then gave us opportunity to go on a guided tour of the
courtyard area and all that we have access to.
At 11:55am, we were standing in posh, overlooking the pool deck! We saw
posh (hot), learned about those elevators, courtyard, fitness center, spa
in courtyard, epic grill and epic club – where we ended up for lunch.
We both had the strip steak, asperagus & salad. Brownie w/ macadamia ice
cream & carrot cake for desserts. Very nice meal – great way to start our
epic adventure! Then about 1:30, we decided to go exploring and see if our
cabin was ready. We ran into denise (from facebook & cc) during our
courtyard tour – and again when looking for our cabins. Hi denise!! (she
thought i was funny, because of being so excited!)
Our cabin – spasuite #14149
We found our cabin 14149 and the welcome dial was showing! In we go for
first look. We were not disappointed! Looked just like the photos!! Yay!
The entire counter was full of papers…invites to this and that…information
overload! We had papers about our spa access, complete with our black &
gold spa wristbands. Welcome aboard from cas with our cas cards & free
drink card attached. Welcome aboard from tracy – ship group coordinator and
meeting time / place for our cc mtg on sunday. I called right away, as the
paper said we were to meet in lebistro – while the email notice i had said
bliss. She said no problem, we'll do it in bliss!! It's all good! Yay!
The appetizer plate had a card from denis – hotel director – with welcome
aboard. It all felt very special! And there was notice / invitation about
sailaway party in courtyard, vip cocktail party w/ captain, latitudes
silver + wine & cheese party. Wow.. Lots going on already!
Took some photos of the room. Mark checked out the tv…we had bottle of
sparkling wine & sparlkling water on ice, fruit bowl, appetizer plate,
fresh flower arrangement – which lasted nicely all week! Large balcony, 2
chairs, small table & lounger with plenty of room to move around. Loved
it!! This is my absolute favorite spot on any ship, and this proved to be
no exception!
Our main purpose for this cruise was to have some get-a-way & relax time
and that we did! The bed was great! Mark was worried about the 'roundness'
and feet hanging off – however, we did not find this an issue at all. They
say the bed is queensize, but we have a queensize at home and this was much
roomier. The pillows were awesome! Really felt like your head was inbedded
in a cloud! And the bed was soo comfortable – the best of any cruise or
hotel we ever had!! (mark did have problem with late night pounding from
above. Upon investigation the next day, appears we were directly under
where the green slide comes out. They were building a new end there? Anyway
this went on for a couple of nights – late around midnight or after. I told
him to call somebody if it bothered him..he couldn't decide who he should
call…so eventually he went to sleep. It didn't bother me much, had no
problem sleeping.
Lani , our butler, stopped in with another fruit bowl & appetizer plate.
She introduced herself, gave us a quick run down on the room, explained the
coffee maker, etc. She seemed very nice, but in a rush. Well, the safety
training was going to begin in just a few minutes – perhaps that was the
rush?
Okay – lani was awesome and i'm sure that the services she provides are
what most folks in suites are paying extra for. That said, we thought the
service was a bit over the top and certainly much more than we needed or
wanted. So, this in no way reflects badly on the level of service provided
– just that we needed much less. Lani brought our breakfast on sunday (we
put the card out) am – called first, then arrived within moments. That was
nice. She asked what our plans were for the day (umm..freestyle, we had no
plans…? ) we had the m&g and ca[tain's vip cocktail party in the evening.
She asked what we were going to do for dinner…um…i haven't eaten my
breakfast yet, little too early to worry about dinner. So, she said we had
to take our phone with us when leaving the room – and had to keep her
updated on what we were doing. She said she would have to meet us at our
room 30 min before we were doing any shows or dinners, and she would escort
us. Umm.. Okay.. We ended up calling her and meeting her at the venue – or
giving her the opportunity to help others instead, as we were okay with
going it alone! Lol well, she was just more than helpful. I really think
there wasn't anything that would have been 'too much' for her to help with!
People out there that want this kind of service, i doubt you will regret
getting a suite and enjoying these perks!
Mark mentioned that we couldn't seem to get the water hot in the sink. Were
we doing it wrong??
She tried, and also tried the shower…no hot water. She immediately called
the 'plummer'. We got a call in the room about 10 min later, the plummer
was in the hall, but since our sign was on 'do not disturb' he wasn't
ringing the bell (yep, had a door bell!) We laughed, and let him in. The
only thing he did, that we didn't try – was running the water in the
jacuzzi for a few minutes. That seemed to get the hot water to our room!
Awesome! Lani called us about 15 min. Later to see if it was all fixed, and
if we were good. Great service!! breakfast was cold by the time we got
to finish it…but we had hot water!
Safety drill: we went to our designated spot – some bar area (sorry, i
don't remember where exactly it was now. F3 was our spot) [we met & chatted
with a nice woman, whose daughter is going to look at st. John fischer
college – in our neck of the woods, so we talked about that quite a bit]
safety drill short & sweet. very nice to have inside, w/out lifejackets!!
On way to drill, we stopped in spa for our brief tour & drop off raffle
ticket. Nice – can't wait to soak!
Wandered a bit after drill. Back to cabin, our bags were there so we got
busy unpacking. Wow – there was soo much storage space in this cabin, we
forgot where we put stuff! Lol much more than we needed or used. Met our
room steward – viviana – she is very nice! (incredibly discreet, however
room was always neet & tidy – we felt like she knew everytime we left the
room and ran in to straighten up! She got a style card! – and a nice tip)
We took a little rest – hung on the balcony. (we had invite to courtyard
sailaway, but preferred to enjoy on our balcony – as is our normal custom)
went to fitness center for 6pm spa raffle. Didn't win –darn! The woman who
won the boot camp training looked disappointed! Lol think she was wanting
to win a massage !
Casino experience:
Off to the casino! Stopped at the bar there and got first rum punch of the
cruise – man, did that ever pack a punch! Only had one! (yeah, we don't
drink much at all.) Wandered around the casino and played some. Slots
seemed very tight (throughout the whole cruise, as it turns out!). Casino
was really spread out all over. A couple little rooms off the hallway, then
it appears as though 'they' decided it wasn't big enough and planted more
slot machines down the hallway. Almost like it was an afterthought. We
didn't feel that it had a real good casino 'feel'. Now, don't get me wrong
– we were there everyday, and spent a ton of $$. We spent more $$ out of
pocket (not counting the little amounts won and put back in) than on any
other cruise and received less for it than on any other cruise. Between the
2 of us, we had only earned 1600 points, and you needed 2500 points to even
receive $25 obc. So…we were able to turn those points into free slot play .
Big whoop. Not that we play to get perks – because we don't - but since
this was our first cas guest experience, we did think that we'd play enough
to get a discount on the next cruise..but i don't think we'll be getting
any kind of discount again. New program and all…i didn't like that part!
But, was still fun! Lol
During our casino journey – we literally ran into tj walker, from roadside
louis & the dusters (they are playing in fatcats). He was walking out of
fatcats, and i recognized him from his facebook photo! He connected with
our facebook group and we had been chatting with him. So, mark & i chatted
with him awhile. Was really nice meeting you, tj!! We enjoyed tj's band
through the week while we were in casino. Nice to play the slots in the
hall outside fatcats – you could hear the band easily. (we thought it was a
little too loud for us inside the room. That room is small. My son always
said to me "mom, if it's too loud, you're too old!" Well, guess i have to
finally admit it then! ) lol
Dining:
Sat night , we went to o'sheehan's for dinner. Apparently we sat on the bar
side, and should have sat on the other side for dinner service. Who knew?
It was less crowded. (we didn't make that mistake again!) Asked the server
for a food menu. He came back and took my dinner order (cheese sticks
andchicken sand – both good!) And walked away. Mark was a bit "huh?"
Another waiter walked by and took mark's order. My order came, then mark's
a few minutes later. Service with food much better than in blue lagoon on
the dawn! A waitress stopped by to ask if we had everything we needed, and
mark asked for catsup. Well, the girl comes back with the catsup, and aims
it over mark's fries "you want it here?", mark – looking very confused,
says "no, over here" and points. She squeezes out some and then walks away
– with the catsup! We are cracking up. Guess this is the level of service
on this ship! You don't even need to dirty your hands on the catsup
bottle!! Lol lol very weird! Or…maybe we were going to steal it?? Lol too
funny!
We ate here – on the correct side! – for breakfast a couple of times, lunch
and another dinner/snack. Very nice. The chicken pot pie is to die for –
very hot, tho…wonderful after cooled off a bit. Mark liked the chicken
fingers.
We never had a wait for a seat and service was always timely. Just fun
about the catsup!
Taste: we had breakfast in here once. Was very nice. This was on the day we
were in costa maya and sat by windows and had a nice view. Food good,
service good.
Manhattan room: we had 2 dinners here. Food service = great, nice décor,
great music! Loved it!! First time was on a night that legends unplugged /
motown night. That was a lot of fun! Our server – darlin was awesome! –
delayed our dessert so that we could enjoy it during the show. Lani had to
meet us outside the door this night – and then she scoped the entire
resturant looking for the perfect table. Umm.. One that had room for food
on it was good…? She wanted us to move after we were settled, and almost
didn't take no for an answer. Geesh! We had a good view of the show where
we were. Sometimes, she just tried too hard. Lol the next dinner here was
for lobster night. Amazingly enough, we forgot to call lani – and ventured
out on our own. Guess what?? We got seated next to a window, perfect seat.
Our wait was less than 5 minutes. Awesome service. Great dinner! We ran
into lani after dinner – called her to tell her we weren't going back to
the room, we were just going to headliners for the second city show after
dinner. She insisted on meeting us! So, we met her. She asked what we did
for dinner, told her we went to manhattan for lobster, and she was aghast
that we went on our own! We told her we might get dessert from buffet after
the show, as we didn't have dessert right after dinner. She said she would
bring something to the room (she left us cheesecake – yummy). Anyway, there
was only about ½ the room filled for this second city show…really didn't'
need to be here 30 min . Before showtime…or needed an escort to make sure
we got a seat! Lol
Garden café : we did breakfast here at least twice, maybe 3 times? Awesome
selection – always found a table easily – ate inside 2 times and outside on
last morning. Did lunch here at least twice – once inside / once outside.
Very good. Chilled fruit soup – blueberry, and an mango/peach? Loved it!
Epic club: this is the resturant for suite guests. We had lunch here twice
– saturday & sunday. No waiting, great service , food excellent! Sunday,
we saw that andy stuart was here having lunch with a large group.
Unfortunately, there were too many folks around him, i didn't want to
bother them, and didn't have an opportunity to say hello. very
dissappointed that i didn't get to meet him.
We had dinner here one night, as well. We came here for dinner after the
captain's cocktail party. We were really surpized at the turnout for this
event! There were maybe only 4 other couples in attendance! It was very
nice, set up in bliss, senior staff all here. Felt bad that more did not
attend this, but we got a lot of attention from everyone. We dressed up a
little bit for this. Got our photo with the captain. Paul scully (cd)
chatted with us quite a bit. What a fun character he is! And very helpful!
At the end of the cc m&g, i was looking for the sign in list, it was not on
the bar, and tracy was gone..so i asked paul about it. He said he would
call tracy and request the list for us. Well, he asked if we got the list,
and we hadn't yet. So, he went right then and printed it out and brought it
to us. Now, wasn't that the sweetest thing? (turns out the other copy of
this list was in our cabin when we returned that night!) Anyway – we left
this and went up to epic club for dinner, and it was dead here , too! I
mean really dead – there was 1 family there eating….that's it, just one
other table! Had a male waiter, went to spread my napkin and last moment,
decided that the white napkin would not 'do' with my black dress! So, we
went off to find a black napkin, to match my dress. Now i ask you, how on
earth have i lived so long, and not realized that my napkin at dinner
should be color coordinated with my clothes??!? Lol we had such a fun time
in here this night!!
Room service: we had breakfast delivered twice (by lani!) And then on
cozumel afternoon, we decided to do the pizza service to our cabin. You can
order regular room serivce (milk, salad & dessert) and the pizza all at
once. That was nice! We had a relaxing afternoon (after a very soggy
morning shopping and then soaked in the spa, pizza & movie was the perfect
lazy afternoon!)
Moderno: the brazillian steakhouse –nice. Not over the top. The food was
great! The service - not so much.
This was the only time we called the concierge. We called moderno first to
see if we could get reservation between 7:30 – 8pm. We were told they were
booked. We called lani and she suggested we call florentina and request.
She said she'd get back to us. Lani said to keep her updated! Lol we had
latitudes, silver + wine & cheese @ 6:30pm. Later that afternoon we had a
msg from florentina that we would have a table between 7:45 – 8pm. Called
lani and informed her. She said to meet at the cabin 30 min prior. We told
her we would be at the party, and would meet her outside moderno. Party was
nice! More mingling with senior staff. Sat and chatted with a wonderful
couple from uk. Had a great time! Also had nice chat with jennifer ( cruise
consultant ). About 7:30, we made our excuses and got up to leave. The
phone goes off…it's lani (who else?) She was waiting for us – where were
we??? Mark told her we were on our way – with a pitstop. When we got there,
we were chastised because she had been trying to call us since 6:45 – that
she was able to get us in to dinner earlier. Umm.. Gee, we didn't want in
earlier…as we were at a party….? We were perfectly content with the time
we were given for dinner. Anyway…she handpicked us a table overlooking the
manhattan room. Nice to watch others on the dance floor while we were
eating. (saw adkmom & family enjoying the dance floor! ) our main server
left something to be desired. Perhaps he was kept waiting for us?? Who
knows. The meat guy was awesome! Food was wonderful!
We were a bit surprised that we got french fries instead of the garlic
mashed potatoes that was on the menu…but figured they must have run out?
Was a great dinner!
Cruise critic meet & greet:
Very nice turn out! We had about 50 folks show up. Loved getting to meet
everyone that we had been chatting with on both cc & facebook! I had
invited andy stuart (ncl vp of sales who was onboard) and tj walker to join
us. Tracy (ships coordinator) did a fantastic job! We had large senior
staff turn-out! Nice to meet and chat with most of them! Denis prguda,
hotel director / richard janicki, asst. Hotel director / helmut spitzbard,
f & b director / melca malana, executive housekeeper / julie valeriote,
entertainment director / irma reyes, guest service manager / charles
fernandes, executive chef / serhat kati, resturant manager / paul scally,
cruise director. Their names & numbers were printed on cards for us. We
had drinks & snacks provided.
***thank you, ncl! ****
We had a poker cabin crawl – to see other cabins. That was a lot of fun!
(lot of walking, as well!) After we toured our spasuite, we were headed to
the courtyard. Well, i had to use the bathroom first – then mark thought it
was a shortcut across pool deck, instead of down cabin hall. Okay… well, i
slipped on pool deck and twisted my ankle. By the time i hobbled up to
courtyard, the group was nowhere to be found. So, we went to posh and
chatted with lonely bartender, then to epic club for lunch.
Extra thoughts: (you really didn't think i was finished, did you??)
Shows we saw:
Blue man group – was an experience!
Legends – both unplugged motown in manhatten & show in epic theater – loved
it!
Second city – headliners, 45 min. Show – was really good & funny!
Fabba - @ spice h2o – great energy, loved it!
55 to stay alive – game show in bliss – great fun!
Trivia – once in fatcats, partnered up with a couple of women..we were
'mensa team' we got 12 of 15 – not bad. That was fun!
Shopping talk – fatcats – interesting, as always.
Dora & diego – bliss for photos & autographs. We promised our almost 3yr
old triplet grandsons that we would see them! Lol
David williams – comedy magician – very funny! Very late night – show
started at 11:15pm…but was good – or maybe we were just so tired anything
would have been funny!??! Just kidding!! (while we were waiting for this
show to start, michael jackson was running by us to go back stage (we were
in balcony seating). I stopped him and asked for a photo…he said sure! Got
a nice shot of the 2 of us!
Ports:
Costa maya: mark went into port to hard rock to get a shot glass. They were
out, but would have some delivered in a few hours. So, he decided to go
back and see. Yep, he got our glass, plus he went to diamond international
for me to get my port charm. Nice hubby! There was a tolley type car that
ran the length of the pier so you didn't have to walk all that way back &
forth. Was a very long pier! I opted for the spa & relaxing with my ankle
up. This proved to be a wise choice, as by the end of today (monday) it was
almost back to normal!
Roatan: we did the tabyana beach day. I've been here twice before and was
mark's first visit. I love this place! They have builte it up a bit since i
was here last. Very good beach day! Had lunch with a nice couple from
manhatten!
Cozumel: i've been here several times, mark's first visit. We got to the
mall and went into a shop for tee shirts, it was pouring when we came out!
So, we wandered a bit, then sat on a bench to wait for the rain to end.
Yeah, that wasn't happening anytime soon! I asked this guy running a stand,
how far the hard rock café was … he said not far, go downstairs and to the
right. I asked about taking a cab… he laughed and lead me over to the
railing, pionted down and to the right – and right there it was! Duh, we
practically walked right by it! We went down, got shotglass, and a coke and
sat there awhile. Back upstairs for tequila & vanilla and braved the rain
all the way back to the ship. We were drowned rats by the time we arrived!
Decided since we were already wet, changed into suites and hit the spa!
Still pretty crowded in there. I don't think there were less than 15 people
around there anytime i was in there. (exactly why i wanted the 24 hr pass!)
Disembarkation:
We had a note to meet in concierge lounge at either 7:45 or 9am to be
escorted off, and gold priority luggage tags. We had leisurly morning, went
to great outdoors for breakfast and headed up about 8:30am. Once the next
group arrived, we were escorted off the ship and into the customs line.
<sigh> no express line here. This was the only line we waited in all week!
We used SAS when leaving the EPIC to go to the Hilton Marina – van type –
nice, easy, no problem.
Hilton Marina: We had nice ride over with others, including Fran from our
CC roll call board…and a family, and a couple of others. Fran, the dad from
family & I enjoyed comparing notes of our cruise experience on the way to
Fort Lauderdale. Amazing how everyone was same place all week, and have
very different views!
We got to hotel early, and the front desk clerk did find us a room for
early check-in! Yep… absolute LAST room in the left wing…nice room. LIttle
balcony area. Asked the cleaner in the hallway for an ashtray(as the
deskclerk assured us it wasa smoking room) she said she'd get one. This
was about 11 am. Never received ashtray – however, nice window box on top
of wall on balcony – served the purpose! We hung in the room watching tv.
Went to the pool bar / grill for lunch. Yep…another $50 for lunch! Service
was TERRIBLE!
There was gift shop type convenience store in the hotel. We found cups of
cereal and chocolate milk to have for lite supper! LOL thinking we have
begun a vacationing trend! LOL Could be fun!
Other than taxi / go shuttle mentioned earlier – trip home was uneventful.Except that both the airtran planes had no coffee – at 7am & 10am !??! We
were in business class on both. On way to FLA in the evening, I got coffee
served while other passengers were loading. BUT – not first thing in the
morning, when most people DO drink coffee?! Go figure!
Final thoughts; (yes, really!)
We had thought with such a big ship and soo many other cruisers, we would
enjoy the extra attention of having a butler/concierge. However, we found
that we never encountered a line for anything that we did – anywhere!
Amazing! Also, we found that we spent much less time than anticiapted in
the hat area, perhaps because that was all in the front of the ship, while
our cabin & the spa were in the back. We visited posh a couple times –
totally dead and very hot there and ate at the epic club 3 times. We were
there for embarkation & for disembarkation.
We have decided that a regular balcony with a spa pass will be just fine
for us on future cruises. But, you never know until you try it out for
yourself! I am very glad we had the opportunity to check out all the perks,
and have an 'all access pass' to this awesome ship!
There were a few times that we only ate twice a day…got busy, late lunch,
early dinner – snacks delivered every day to our cabin – sometimes twice a
day. We did not get to try as many eating venues as we thought we would.
Just got busy, i guess?!
Friday we planned our freestyle cruise day – left the phone in the cabin
and wandered the ship all day! No shows scheduled, no dinner reservations,
nothing! Loved it!
Bottom line – great vacation!!!
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