MalagaAnna

Hi, My husband and I along with our 3 year old daughter are considering a cruise this summer from Barcelona for 7 nights, possibly on the Norwegian Epic.

I can't find any information on what you would expect to pay for alcoholic drinks, wine, beer gin & tonic etc on board, only that I hear they are expensive.

Is it worth purchasing a drinks package? Does it work out any cheaper obviously depending on how much you drink, bearing in mind with a 3 year old in tow we are not planning on going crazy.

any additional info about the Norwegian Epic in particular appreciated like whether the kids facilities are good, food of a good standard etc.

Thanks in advance
Anna

Sassafrass

Epic is fantastic for kids. The kids program is outstanding! We did it last year with GD who was 4 years old at the time. She absolutely loved it. They had wonderful activities all the time. The staff was excellent, and best of all, they are perfectly organized and were strict about checking the children in and out. We felt totally confident that she was very safe and well cared for. You can also leave your child while you eat or take in a show.

We took GD on a different cruise ship and did not feel it was safe to leave her in the kid's area. We already liked Epic, but seeing the comparison made us really appreciate it.

I think you can sign your child up for their program online and be all ready when you board the ship. DD took care of signing her up, so not sure how she did it.

The whole staff is nice to children. Out cabin steward made the towel animals for our GD every day.

We have taken 7 cruises with 5 different cruise lines. Food in the buffet on the Epic was the best of any of the cruises. Food in the dining room was quite good also on the nights we ate there.

Are they doing Cirque on your cruise? If so, do get tickets. You must get them ahead. Our GD absolutely loved it. She also like Blue Man, which I do not like. Second City is lots of fun. Sign up for shows online so you are sure to get tickets.

If it gets crowded around the pool, there is a nice, very quiet, upper deck with lovely sun beds and clamshells. DD took GD up there to sit and read, etc.

You are in for a great cruise on Epic, a perfect ship for families.

Are you considering others? We have done Princess, Celebrity, NCL, RCCL and MSC.

di2315

We didn't sign up for a drinks package on our Norwegian cruise - I think you'd need to be consuming a reasonably heavy amount of alcohol for it to pay off.

Also, I think both of you need to sign up - they don't let just one of a pair do it, for obvious reasons! Di

di2315

I should also have added that you can sign up once on board, after you've had the chance to suss out prices etc. Di

Rhea58

You can all your info here:
https://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise...-more#ultimate

$54 per person per day if bought on-line and BOTH in cabin must purchase this as stated above.

jacketwatch

I think you can also buy booze for use in your cabin too and its less than the daily fee abov., way less.

di2315

On NCL, if you buy alcohol duty free in the ship's shop, it is stored for you until you leave the cruise.

If you buy alcohol on a shore trip, same thing happens - they want you out of your cabin, spending dollars, basically! Di

jacketwatch

True but there is another option too. You can buy booze or at least wine to use in your cabin only. Most other lines let you bring two bottles of wine per cabin upon embarkation only but NCL doesn't do that. You can buy it from them however to use in your cabin. From the list I saw the prices are a bit higher that Princess or Celebrity.

MalagaAnna

Thanks for the replies everyone, appreciate the time you've taken. Really useful to know that you can buy wine for your cabin as it doesn't sound like we would benefit from the drinks package.

Great to know that the Epic is great for kids, and yes there is Cirque on the ship we are considering so I will book in advance for that.

Thanks
Anna

MalagaAnna

Should add that we also considered the Disney cruise and also Allure of the seas but both far more expensive than NCL so based on that we ruled them both out.

jacketwatch

Disney cruises are a lot more usually and they also get them very high ratings and the Allure is one of those new ships that gets a lot of passengers as they want to see something so new and so different but I think you will be very happy with your choice

Sassafrass

I would love to take GD on a Disney cruise. It is just not in our budget.

While there where things I did not like for myself (there always are - like the pool areas were noisy), the Epic was so wonderful for our GD, we were happy with the choice. Do sign up for all the shows online, even the free ones, to be sure you get tickets and with Cirque, to be sure you get good seats.

For us anyway, Cirque was worth every penny and we booked the higher priced seats. GD was right up front where the performers could touch her. She stood with great excitement for the whole show. The food for the show was filet mignon, and was very good. Even with tickets, get to the show as early as possible so your dinner can get started.

Don't bother paying extra for things like the kid's pancake breakfasts - not worth it. They will see all the characters at other events.

doug_stallings

On the topic of drinks packages, I think it is difficult to say, but you have to be a pretty big drinker to come out on top. I drink mostly wine and maybe have other drink per day. And that's a lot of drinking for me.

I wouldn't choose an alcoholic drinks package because I'd have to stick with house wines, which are uniformly pretty mediocre. So I can't imagine ever getting my money's worth. I do sometimes buy the wine-by-the-bottle packages, but I find keeping track of the little slips of paper very annoying.

Regarding soda cards, some of my relatives drink a 20-ounce soda with every single meal (including breakfast), so a soft drinks package would be a good buy for them.

di2315

One more thing on drinks - the iced water served by NCL staff when you get back to the wharf / ship after excursions, and at all meals was just delightful and so refreshing . . . no real need for alcohol, as far as I was concerned! Di

MalagaAnna

Thanks again, invaluable information provided by everyone for a first time cruiser. I feel re-assured we have made a good choice with the epic, now need to part with the cash and book it.

Good point Doug about the choice of wine,I'd be very dissapointed if the house wine was only average on a drinks package when there were other options available.

Sassafrass - My daughter will love Cirque by the sounds of it too, we took her to her first panto last christmas and she wasn't quite 3 years old. she sat like a statue engrossed for 3 hours, we were amazed!

Thank you again
Anna

Cathinjoetown

I can only speak for Celebrity which has a variety of drinks packages one which includes premium wines but not access to everything on the list. It has never made sense for us to purchase the packages which in the case of Celebrity, add a 18.5% gratuity on top of the per person charge.

So, read the fine print. One premium water package, for example, doesn't include bottled water delivered to the cabin. Lots of little quirks.