An Epic Review - Part Two

In the last blog, I covered the cabin and restaurants. If you haven't read that part yet, go ahead before moving on. It has a lot of background that will help as you read this part.

Epic Theatre

As I mentioned, the Epic is designed differently than other ships. Without the interior atrium, basically a huge hole in the middle of the ship from the bottom deck to the top, the Epic was able to utilize that space for content. There were more bars and theatre type venues on the Epic than other ships have. The casino was also the largest covering about half a deck. It was designed well with plenty of traffic areas. Some people have complained about a smoke problem in that area, but I never really noticed it. Yes, there was some, but it was nothing overpowering.

There are at least four major entertainment venues, with many other minor ones as well. The main theater is much smaller than other ships. It isn't designed to hold half of the passengers like many of them are, so it is a much more intimate venue. It was there that the Blue Man Group and Legends In Concert performed. Excellent shows. I love the Blue Man Group and would have gone more often, but there was too much to do.

The Spiegel Tent is where the Cirque Dreams show is held. It's amazing to think of what these performers can do on a moving ship. We got the premium seats and were right in the  middle of the action. We really enjoyed the show.

Headliners Comedy Club has the Howl at the Moon (dueling pianos) and Second City shows. Both are well worth the time. Get there early as some of the sight lines might be difficult.

The fourth area is Spice H2O the outside dance club, huge video wall, catch all fun venue. It is adults only and even has a pool during the day. It is here that all the parties happened on ship. The White Hot Party is one that is not to be missed.

Many of the bars, including Fat Cats, had excellent entertainment as well. Fat Cats had great Jazz playing and was a good place to just spend some down time between when looking for something to do.

One of the things we did on this cruise was purchase a pass to the Mandara Spa. Lisa really enjoys the heated loungers in the spa and with a ship as big as the Epic, we really wanted a place that would be less crowded. They say they limit the number of passes sold, and it did seem that there was never more than 20-25 people in the spa at a time. The spa has individual saunas/steam rooms in the locker rooms for men/women. There is also a coed steam room and 2 coed saunas in the common area. The therapy pool pictured here was bathwater warm and had jets all over at different levels. This was my favorite place in the spa.

I had planned on doing this in 2 posts, but once I got the part about the ports in place, it was really long. I'm going to save the ports and final thoughts for Part 3.