Best Vacation Ever!

We sailed aboard the Epic for a 7 day Western Carribean cruise, visiting Ocho Rios, Cozumel, and Costa Maya. This was our first cruise experience. We enjoyed it so much, we are planning another NCL cruise next year.

The crew of the Epic are so friendly, nice, and accomodating we felt like VIP's. We upgraded to a large balcony on deck 12. We were glad we upgraded because the balcony is quite large, and the views are worth the extra $$'s. The cabin has plenty of room to store luggage and clothes, and we found it to be quite comfortable. There were three "at sea" days and the Epic provided plenty of options for entertainment. Besides the huge pool and water slide complex, there was bingo, Deal or No Deal, trivia, beer tasting, wine tasting, martini tasting, name that song, a casino, blackjack and Texas Hold em tournaments, plus plenty of shows and dining options. There were so many options it was hard to decide which to choose from. Yes, some or most of these require a fee but so what? We had lots of fun playing games and enjoying adult beverages while doing so. The Epic offers several "specialty dining" restaurants so we purchased the Specialty Dining package and ate at a different specialty restaurant every night. My favorites were Cagney's Steakhouse and the Teppan Yaki. Where else can you get a full course, QUALITY steak dinner for $30? Answer is: nowhere. I had a 16 oz ribeye that was just fantastic. My wife had the 8 oz Filet Mignon and likewise enjoyed it.  I've read some complaints about the buffets. I ate at the buffett for breakfast, lunch, and snacks...and honestly found the buffet food to be very tasty and well presented. If we had just stayed with the buffet for dinner, I'm sure it would have been fine.

One tip to make your cruise more enjoyable: you can purchase a case of water for $3.99 and check it with your luggage. The ship sells bottled water for $2.50 a bottle....so if you want to save some money...this is a good way to do it. Same with soda...you can bring a case on board and save the soda package cost. We finished our case of water by the last day of our cruise so it was money well spent.  

All in all, NCL cruise aboard the Epic was a great vacation, and we can't wait to do it again.