Background and pre cruise.
I am in a post cruise head spin trying to keep the memories alive for as long as possible. I also want to share those wonderful memories with you all and perhaps you might get some ideas/reassurance etc…. for your future cruises. I so enjoy reading all the posts here and this site has most definitely helped me immensely over the years. We just got back yesterday. This was my first ever NCL cruise, although it must be said I am no pro cruiser having only 2 other cruises under my belt and they were a long time ago.
I am in my late 40’s and my DD (21years old) was travelling with me and this would be her first cruise ever and one she was very excited about. More about DD in a little bit as our cruise proved very memorable for her. We live 2 hours south east of Dublin Ireland. I did not keep a journal whilst on board so I am trying to recall every day and anything that I think would be of interest to you. I am back to work tomorrow so this review will be piece meal but I promise to complete it! Feel free to ask any questions and I will comment if I can help. I am not a good photographer so there won’t be photos, but hopefully you will enjoy the review which is my first review on here. All my thoughts are my own opinions and I don’t expect everyone to agree with me and that’s fine too :)
I checked into the roll call on here probably last year sometime and our roll call was a fairly quiet roll call compared to some that I have been on in the past. That said, I felt I connected with a few fellow cruisers and it proved to be the case on the cruise. We met some fabulous, genuine people who really made our cruise the epic success that was. I also set up two tour sharing groups on CC and we filled two 8 seater minivans for tours of Rome and Florence/Pisa. I will go into more detail on these tours later on.
I also spent considerable time researching help/support from NCL for DD who is legally blind but does have a little sight. When she is in a familiar place she doesn’t always use her cane but the prospect of a massive ship with over 4K people was very daunting for both her and for me travelling alone with her. That said when she was very young a wise person told me that “the greatest gift you can give your child is independence” and I have made that my mission in life. Being independent doesn’t mean not reaching out for help, in fact it is that help and support that can support the independence and enhance the experience in life. And so I did reach out to NCL and provided them with relevant support documentation etc prior to the cruise and was told we would have help once we arrived at the pier. I will mention this a little later on when we cover off DAY 1, but suffice to say that I could not fault NCL and their approach to supporting DD and her disability. They were superb! DD told me that the support she got was similar to the support that Disney parks give their visitors with disabilities, and I believe that to be a gold standard ……so high praise for NCL and congratulations to their access team who were beyond brilliant. My DD feels that if she had to, she could and would cruise solo if she knew she could call on someone to help with certain situations (show seating arrangements/embarkation/disembarkation etc….That independent thinking in itself has come about, only because of the excellent support NCL gave us on this trip. I can’t thank them enough. Well done NCL!
Day 1 Barcelona
We left home on a coach at 2am the morning of the cruise. We had thought we would have a quiet and sleepy coach ride to the airport but shortly after we got on the coach a large bunch of 19 year old guys jumped on who had been out partying all night and were heading to the airport for flights to Santa Ponsa for their end of school….. trip to the sun! It was a noisy “interesting” coach ride and we obviously got no sleep, but hey we’re on holidays so no complaints. Once checked in we had time for a quick coffee and just about made our 0620am flight to Barcelona with Ryan Air. Had to have another coffee on board to try and boost the energy/lack of sleep!
I knew we were taking a risk flying and cruising on the same day but I was trying to keep costs down but in hindsight I wouldn’t do this again for a number of reasons. Firstly French air traffic controllers were operating weekly strikes for the last few weeks which not only interrupted or cancelled flights to France but it also caused cancellations to flights that used French airspace. In fact the Thursday before we left was one of those days where lots of flights were cancelled. The other reason I wouldn’t do this again is the lack of sleep…..I’m just too old for this anymore ;) It really had an effect on Day 1 as I had to go to bed fairly early which annoyed me!!!!!!
As I was travelling alone with DD I had booked private car transfer from the airport to the cruise port and return and it was the best spent money (77Euro total). When we arrived into Barcelona and got to the baggage claim area we had a lengthy wait. I don’t know what went wrong but the baggage carousels weren’t working. We waited about an hour for our bags to come through as did all flights that arrived in at that time! There were hundreds and hundreds of people. When it did start working all the bags came out and you can imagine that was a lot of people heading to the exit for taxis. When we came out our driver was there holding a sign with our name on it and it was a speedy drive to the cruise port.
Once at the port I had a phone number of the pier supervisor and she found us and whisked us through priority check in and then asked us to sit and wait for someone from the ship to come and get us. Within 15 minutes one of the access team was there to walk us on to the ship and give us a ship tour. She was fantastic, nothing was an issue. She gave us her number and told us not to hesitate to call her if we needed anything. We were on board by 12md and post the ship tour we decided we couldn’t face the crowds at the Garden Café so we went to Taste and had a really nice chilled out lunch after all the travelling. Both of us had popcorn shrimp to start which was really good. I also had fish with fries for entrée and DD had Classic burger which incidentally wasn’t as good as the burger in O’Sheehans. We had the UDP and UBP so I started off as I meant to continue by having a chilled glass of Pinot Grigio. It was ok but I didn’t choose it again on the ship.
After lunch we finally got into our cabin which was a balcony cabin towards the aft. Ok, here’s my tuppence worth on these controversial rooms.
• It’s not wide at all…..the wave walls really eat into the space. Other cruise lines have much roomier rooms.
• The sofa is not inviting and certainly not comfortable to sit on – so if you are like us it just becomes a dumping ground for handbags, clothes etc…
• The balcony is small, but was enjoyable.
• There is plenty of storage in the cabin although two of the drawers were broken (not sliding properly and actually came off their runners).
• The shower and toilet set up didn’t really bother us at all, but I can see how it could annoy some folk.
• The sink is small and you need to be careful using it not to slop water out over the edge.
• The beds were in a twin set up which suited us fine. They were comfortable but not long enough for me as my feet went out over the end and I am only 5ft 8”
• The pillows didn’t look or feel comfortable but I slept really well with them. If I am brutally honest it could have been the UBP that helped the sleep and not the pillows
• We had ordered the water package because the UBP does not cover water…..how mean is that? Crazy! I asked the cabin attendant to remove the contents of the fridge and replace them with our water. He did agree to this. It took a day or so for the water to chill but when it did get to temperature it was great to have cold water. We brought water with us on all our days out.
• The cabin attendant was so so. I am a bit of a clean freak but not OCD. However not once did he dust the room. He just did the basics of bathroom, sink, beds and towels. Nothing more than that. You know yourself, when you have sweaty hands or suncreamed limbs it can transfer onto wardrobe doors and surfaces etc….he never cleaned it….ever. I used one of the drinking glasses to store my make-up brushes in. I assumed when he saw that, he would give me a second drinking glass….nope. Now, I hear some of you say….you have a voice why didn’t you ask….I could have…..I just didn’t want to HAVE to ask….so I waited but it never came. It’s a small tiny thing; I didn’t let it bother me as it’s for sure a first world problem!
• If I go again and with my DH I know the the size of this room 10226 would bother him bigtime. So we would need to book a mini suite balcony or something like that. But for this cruise with DD, the room was just fine.
We had booked Cirque for 6.30pm on Day 1 but the Access Officer told us that had been rescheduled for 830pm and we got a letter in our cabin to inform us also. This really suited us better and gave us some chill out time. We were not obliged to go to the muster drill which was at 430pm. NCL had organised a 1:1Muster Drill that was held in a meeting room and given to us by the ships Safety Officer. This was absolutely perfect for a visually impaired passenger as she could see up close how to correctly put on the life jacket and it also meant we weren’t fighting the crowds during/after the muster drill. Again, a nice touch from NCL.
We then headed up to the pool deck to Waves Bar as we knew some of our roll call members were meeting at 5pm. Unfortunately due to our muster drill we were late and didn’t get to meet anyone at that point.
However, there began my real love of the UBP . I had a Rebellious Fish and a Bushwhacker! Yummy. On other days I also had more Rebellious Fish (favourite), Mango Meltdown, Toasted Almond, Bellini’s, Raspberry Martini’s, Sauvignon Blanc and a really nice Cabernet called I think Oberon (perhaps someone can correct me).
Our super friendly Access Officer sorted us with seats for Cirque. DD was seated closest to the performers but the Access officer informed the performers that she wouldn’t be able to take part in the show. I had also paid for premium seats so the help here was just to get us in there early so that the most appropriate seat was chosen. I have to say guys, the standard of entertainment on the Epic is very high. Cirque was spectacular. I had to keep reminding myself that I was on a ship. Really, really worth going to. Kudos to those performers, you can see how much training and practice must go into their routine. The dinner that accompanied the show was only ok. Appetizer was prosciutto, tomatoes and mozzarella – tasted fine just nothing wonderful. Entrée was Surf and Turf and this was better just not amazing, but I enjoyed it. Neither DD nor I enjoyed the dessert, but then again I am not into dessert really. All in all though a really nice night, and we shared our table with a honeymoon couple from Florida who were good company. At this stage post the show we were exhausted and decided to go to bed.
I will be back for Day 2, just bear with me as time will be limited over the next few days.