Summer 2010 Newsletter

I've just loaded our newest edition of our Summer 2010 Newsletter on to our www.posthastetravel.com website. This issue is dedicated to booking your holiday travel now. There are great articles from our consultants and clients about where they've been recently. some really great destinations with some really great ideas for travel. Make sure you get a chance to read it!

Norwegian Epic

Well, Sylvia and I are back from our 2 night sailing on the Norwegian Epic. There are some very nice things about the ship and some real problems, as I see it. Let's start with the good...

The food was surprisingly good....there are 21 restaurants on board, 11 that you must pay for, but our first night we ate in the Manhattan Room, which is one of the main dining rooms, and the food was excellent, as was the service. We also ate in the Chinese restaurant, Shanghai, and again the food and service was excellent. Breakfast and lunch are available all over the ship and serve nice breakfast food, hot dogs, hamburgers, salads, etc. The kids daycare area, Recess, is really nicely done. One of the features of the Epic are the single cabins, called Studios, that has its own private lounge area. These are going to be very popular with single travelers...the cabins are quite nice, and are only accessible to those staying in the Studios. The Courtyard Villa and suites are gorgeous. Again these are only accessible to those staying in the Courtyard part of the ship, and it has it's own pool, restaurant, and butlers. These are spacious and beautifully decorated and will be great for families traveling together. The spa is very nice as is the gym. The Ice Bar is small but fun, and the entertainment (we saw Blue Man Group) was fabulous.

Now for the problems...the biggest one being the design, or rather no design, of the "bathrooms" in ALL the cabins. When you walk into the balcony staterooms, there is a toilet"pod" on one side, enclosed only with a frosted glass door, that you can see through, and hear everything. On the other side is the shower "pod" with the same frosted glass door. If you are not traveling with someone you are really really comfortable with, going to the bathroom could be an embarrassing experience. We spoke with some other passengers that asked their room mate to leave the cabin so they could use the toilet privately. Same problem with the shower. There is a curtain that you can pull across that separates the area from the cabin, but does nothing for noise and really doesn't give you any privacy. And when you get out of the shower, you are standing in front of your cabin door, so potentially your traveling companion could come into the cabin and you'd just be standing there soaking wet...also, the sink is inside the cabin, and in the case of the balcony cabins it is just across from the couch or bed, leaving no room for anyone to pass if you are using the sink. Also, the faucet on the sink is very tall and curved, making it impossible to lean forward to wash your face or brush your teeth...you have to stand straight up, and the water splashed all over the place, making a big mess. ALL cabins have a similar "bathroom" layout, although the suites and penthouse toilets and shower "pods" have opaque glass instead of frosted glass enclosures, and the "bathroom" areas are separated from the bedroom areas. Also, the toilet "pods" are quite small, and larger people will have trouble using them...

Next big design problem...there are no pools on board. There are 3 "plunge" type pools that might hold up to 3o people standing up...2 in the main pool area, 1 at the rear of the ship in a semi-private area. These "pools" are 4.5 feet deep and are not suitable for any type of swimming. And there is no kids pool. There are a couple of hot tubs, and a huge water slide, but I can't figure out where teenagers are supposed to go to swim, never mind small children, although there is a cute area for small children to play in fountains. There are "misters" and fountains around the pool area, but that doesn't make up for the lack of any swimming. There is also only one bar on the pool deck and when the ship is full I can see that being a real service problem. The line to check out and return towels was very long, and the ship was only 1/2 full.

I felt very crowded throughout the ship. On decks 5 & 6 where the restaurants, shops and casino are located, you can only walk through the center hallway, and it really was crowded, especially when you have to walk through all the gaming machines the casino has placed right through the middle of the walkway.

All in all, the bathrooms are going to be a huge problem. We will have to be very careful who travels together in these cabins. And I don't understand how they could build a ship with no pools that can actually be used for swimming. There were so many nice things about the ship, but the topic of conversation we heard from everyone was only about the toilets....We will have to be very careful which cabins we will sell to our clients, and will stick to the suites, penthouses, Courtyard villas and Studios. We are very glad we went on board to see these things for ourselves, and our consultants will all get the opportunity to visit for themselves soon.