EPIC mistale

By retdc

• February 1, 2011

This cruise was set to celebrate our 50th anniversary. The embarkation went quite smoothly. Once on board, we were informed that our rooms would not be ready until after 2:00 PM. There were no grand entries nor any type of expected atriums.

We did get a very good place to store our carry-ons until we could go to the room. The room was certainly a major mistake in design. On entering, there were two doors to your immediate right anf left. These were the shower and WC. Both had sliding obscured glass doors. The galss was almost see-thru. For a toilet !! Oh yes, no sinks in either. The sink was mounted on the vanity at the foot of the bed. You could get the bed wet when you tried to shave or wash your hands and face.

The dining rooms were rather small and plain. The buffet lunch was probably the better place to be other than the specialty $$$$ restaurants. The specialty eating venues were quite good, but not when considering the cost.

Any show we went to see was never crowded nor sold out. I guess becuse they were not really crowd attracting. The worst was the " Blue Man Group". OK OK I realize that many people like this kind of entertainmant, but it did not show on this cruise. The most fun wee had was on the night that they had an ABBA celebration and revue. It became an audience participation type on the aft deck area's stage. Sadly, the cruise director's appearance was that of boredom and disdain. It appeared that he did not want to be bothered to be there. This was not surprising since he was not seen very often around the ship. He became only a voice heard on the intercom.

One afternoon we were lounging poolside by the main pool which was located almost next to the kiddie pool. At the kiddie pool there was an accidental release of fecal matter into the pool. The crew was fast in clearing the pool , adding extra chemical and cleaning out the offending substance. They had an unusual type of implement to remove this substance. Later that day, we were speaking to our son and daughter-in-law who told us of going to a bar the night before and getting a snack there. They were impressed that the frenchfries and mozzerella sticks were served in the fry-baskets the were cooked in. As they described these mini fry baskets, we realized thet were describing the implement used earlier to take the fecal matter from the kidddie pool. Obviously, this was the last time any of our group went to "O Sheenan's " during the cruise.

Since this was our eighteenth cruise, we do feel that we know what a cruise should be and how a ship should be to make one's vacation memorable. The EPIC does not fit the bill.