I went on this cruise with relatives who were celebrating a big anniversary and I was in a solo studio. This was my first time on the Epic and I had a great cruise but my experience was likely very different from others who sailed on this ship recently. Reasons for this may be because this cruise had fewer people on it than others recently and it seemed as though there was a lot of new staff. I did not get the drink package so no long lines there, I booked Burn the Floor and specialty restaurants online ahead of time so little waiting there and my latitude rewards allowed me some great perks. I also get up early due to my work related body clock pattern so I always had breakfast early with no waiting and plenty of open tables and staff. However if you don’t have a reservation for the specialty restaurants for dinner it is impossible to just walk right in. I visited Cagney’s and Moderno early at 5:30 pm and loved them both. Cagney’s is the only place that I saw that has creme brulee and the salad bar at Moderno is wonderful. I also ate twice at O’Sheehans and several times at Taste. I highly recommend going to Taste for breakfast right when they open. There are no lines yet and their banana waffles are wonderful.

For the first time on one of my many NCL cruises I purchased the thermal spa package for $299. I mainly did this so I would have a quiet place to hang out on sea days and if all the chairs on the sunny decks were covered with towels by chair hogs. Yes there were chair hogs but not as many as my Feb. 2023 cruise on the Escape. My relative thought that they were monitoring the chairs and removing towels after a while but I didn’t notice that. I sat down a few times and there were many open chairs but that could just be because our cruise didn’t seem horribly packed. Anyway, the warm and bubbly thermal spa is wonderful and relaxing but not worth $299. Maybe $100. The thermal spa staff is adorable and the spa is definitely quiet except for the spa motors. I probably won’t ever get it again though. I also did something different and on Dominican Republic day I skipped the port excursions and got off just long enough to check out the shops. So I came back and just did fun cruise stuff all day and really enjoyed it. There was always something fun going on in the atrium or the pool deck and nothing was crowded. The trivia and entertainment team do a great job and they give out fun prizes immediately after the games, no collecting signatures to collect prizes on the last day. Embarkation and debarkation went smooth and yes, you will likely wait until 3 pm to get into your room so you may want to leave your heavy bags down below with the porters.

We luckily made it to Great Stirrup Cay and I recommend getting the earliest tender you can. They seem to go fast though. I also recommend getting in the island food buffet line at 11:15. It officially opens at 11:30 am but they usually start a little early. The food line gets super long as soon as people figure it out. At St. Thomas I visited Sapphire beach which is beautiful and the loungers are free, unlike the $20 loungers at Megan’s Bay. In San Juan we did the rainforest excursion and it was nice. Read more