Trip Report - NCL Epic Mediterranean

Day 13 - Florence

Our hotel was really in a great location that allowed for easy bouncing off and venturing to the key landmarks. We booked a split tour for the Academia & Uffizi through Viator (#2428M1M2). If you want to visit either of these spots, definitely get a skip the line ticket or you will be waiting forever. The line at the Academia at 10am was 2 blocks long.

This tour was unique in that you met up with your first guide at the Academia at 10am, then had a huge gap in time before meeting up with guide #2 at the Uffizi at 4:30pm. For us, the big gap in time was good because our hotel was situated between the 2 spots. So we could go grab lunch, go back to the hotel to rest, and take our time getting to spot #2. Depending on where you are staying, that might not be as ideal.

The guide we had for the Academia was great. He was an art professor there and knew a lot of obscure tidbits, the best places to stand for photos, and a lot of interesting information I never would have known. There isn't a whole lot to see at the Academia, so the 90 mins you have with the guide is plenty. Of course you can wander on your own after the guide leaves you for as long as you like. I think what we found most amusing was the info he shared about Michelangelo vs DaVinci. Everyone knows about David and the La Pieta, but DaVinci was the true master. His works weren't in the town center for everyone to see daily though, which is was Mikey got more notoriety. But when you compare the 2, plus the fact that DaVinci was also an engineer, scientist, mathematician...... you can see who I'm more partial towards.

After the Academia we made a pit stop at the Queens Chips. http://www.queenschips.eu/index.php/en/ It's a chain restaurant, well, take-out spot, so there's several all over. We had missed our chance to visit in Rome so we definitely wanted to stop in while in Florence. It's just a block away from the Academia so it was a no-brainer. Essentially it's just a french fry shop, but they're awesome. They have a bunch of different sauces you can put on, and they're all amazing. Pro Tip: If sharing and sampling different flavors, go with the small. We got the medium in 3 flavors for the 3 of us, and it was excessive. They also have chicken nuggets and other deep fried bad for you but oh-so-tasty stuff. Reasonable prices for the size of what you get.

Walked back to the hotel with our chips and munched on lunch in our room while coming up with the plan for the rest of the afternoon. We had to be at the Uffizi at 4:30 for the second part of our tour, so hubby & I wanted to go wander the streets of Florence between now and then, but MIL was less excited. Our hotel was roughly a 10 - 15 minute walk to the Uffizi, but she was concerned that she wouldn't be able to find it on her own despite Florence streets being 100x easier to navigate than Venice ones. So she was going to wander on her own close to the hotel, while we ventured further away, with the potential of meeting up with her around 4pm at the Uffizi.

We walked to the Ponte Vecchio, across the other side and all over. Saw a bunch of people with humongous ice cream cones, and ended up stopping at a gelato shop across the bridge. Pro Tip: Ask what the prices are before you pick out your flavors and commit to buying a certain size. Our semi-small cup cost 10 euros. That was a sticker shock. When we started eating it though, we saw why. We had bought the 2nd smallest cup, but they stuffed it and packed it tight with our 2 flavor choices. There was easily 6 scoops of gelato stuffed in there. Again, for just the 2 of us, had we known this, the smallest cup at a cheaper price would have been more than sufficient without over indulging.

The David in the Academia is the original, kept indoors now to preserve and protect it. There is a second David statue outside which is a replica. This is located at Piazzale Michelangelo south of the river. Pro Tip: It is a very very very long walk up a huge hill to reach the statue. I gave up at the Centro Storico di Fiorenze, which is essentially a big castle wall outside the park area just before the big hill climb starts. Hubby went up to the top on his own while I sat on the curb and read a book. The views up top are amazing and he got some good photos, but I knew I didn't have the energy left in me for the climb.

When he made it back down we grabbed 2 bottles of water from a small cafe and made our way back across the river to head to the Uffizi. The river is gross. Like, baby poop brown-green gross. It's a shame really because there are so many bridge to stand on and get a good view of the water and city, but with the gross color you really don't want to look at it too long. Snagged a seat on a bench in the Uffizi courtyard and waited for our tour start time.

Now I'll preface this next bit with the fact that I am not an art lover. I find certain paintings pretty or interesting, but people are generally math/science oriented, or art/history/humanities oriented. I'm math/science all the way. So brush strokes, shading techniques, all those technical things don't really mean much to me. Regardless, the Uffizi is impressive in its own right. It is filled with 4+ levels of floor to ceiling art everywhere you look. When you combine that with the knowledge that all of these priceless works were from a single family.... wow, just wow.

The tour itself.... I was not a fan of. The first part at the Academia was great, but the Uffizi not so much. They also failed to mention that after you get through security, you have a humongous 4 flights of stairs to climb. Thank goodness MIL never made it over there because there was no way she could do that. We found out afterwards that there was an elevator somewhere, but the guide never mentioned it. There are thousands of works of art to see, so naturally you can't see them all on a brief 90 min tour, but it definitely felt rushed. We would literally walk past entire rooms at a time to get to the next important piece. The Uffizi also closes at 6:30, so even after the tour ends you don't have a whole lot of time to wander on your own before it closes.

If you are a lover of art, get a skip the line ticket and do a full tour of the Uffizi itself. The split tour is not that great if you want a lot of time there. The group size was also too large IMO. There was about 20 of us, and it made it hard for everyone to see the paintings that she was talking about, plus there are 5+ other large groups around you at the same time as well. I would have preferred doing more research ahead of time to know where the pieces I wanted to see were located and go straight to those without the crowds on our own.

We walked back to the hotel and found MIL sitting out front in the courtyard, then came up with our game plan for dinner. Dinner didn't go so well..... more to come.

Here you go... Cagney's & Moderno are only open for dinner starting at 5:30. The only specialty restaurant open for lunch is Yakitori & Sushi. Besides the buffets, you can always go to Taste for breakfast & lunch too and that is included.

Thank you for posting that. Doesn't look promising for the Moderno Breakfast/Lunch sea day buffet. Having a problem walking a distance and we have an aft cabin.

Day 13 Continued - Florence

Pro Tip: If you have your heart set on a particular restaurant, and it happens to be located in a central area - ask your hotel to help make a reservation for you. Do NOT believe them when they say it is just a 30 minute wait.

We had asked the hotel for some dinner recommendations, then did some research on my laptop in the room to decide where we were going to go. I tried making reservations for some places online, but you need to provide 24-48hrs notice to do so at most. We figured we would just wing it and try our luck, and if it was too long of a wait go somewhere else. Ultimately we agreed on Trattoria dall'Oste which was a short ~5-10 min walk from the hotel. https://trattoriadalloste.com/en/

When we arrived there was about 12-15 people standing outside waiting - not a good sign. I went in to ask how long it would take for a table of 3 people, but the woman inside didn't understand me and got a different gentleman to speak with me. He said it would be about 30 minutes wait. I said that was ok and gave him my MIL's name (my name confuses people as it is traditionally a male name and I am female). Went back outside, and we waited, and waited, and waited.

The host came back out and opened up 3 bottles of sparkling wine and handed everyone who was waiting outside a glass to pass the time while we waited, and waited, and waited. We thought that was a nice touch, and even went so far to say that this is the best place we've ever been to. Then we waited, and waited, and waited.... (get the idea yet?).

I think part of the problem was that there were several large groups, and it's a fairly small place, and no one inside was getting up to leave. Food in general is very different in Italy than it is in the states. They take their time, the waiter only comes when you flag him down and ask him to, they will let you sit there for an hour with no food just chatting. Not good when there is now over 15 people outside waiting for a table.

I asked the host for an update on how many people were still ahead of us (we had now been waiting 40 minutes) and he assured me there was just 2 people ahead of us and it would be very soon. After we had been waiting for over an hour other people started complaining as well. At this point MIL couldn't stand anymore and was sitting on their flowerbox, hubby was wandering the streets checking out wait times at other places nearby (all in our immediate area were 30+ min waits). The host apologized and said there are 3 tables finished and they're just waiting for the people to leave.

However, the next group of names he called out did not include either myself or the other person who was promised a table next. So I stopped him and said the equivalent of ***, and when I told him MIL physically could not stand anymore he said "wait, I will not let you leave unhappy without eating anything". He came back 5 mins later and magically found a table for us. At this point we had been waiting over 90 minutes. Hubby was wandering other streets still looking for other options, so MIL and I went and sat down hoping he would eventually find us.

I get it, you're busy, we didn't have a reservation, it's a popular place - but don't tell me it's a 30 minute wait when it is really 90. Unless in Italy 30 minutes is too long for most people and he didn't think we would say 'ok'. To make matters even worse, the food wasn't even good. No apology from the staff, no special attention to make sure the food came out quick and good. We had to wait close to 10 minutes before a waitress even came and acknowledged us.

Ultimately hubby's steak came out raw. Like, purple raw. We like a good medium-rare steak, but parts of this thing were barely warm. I had the filet, and needed to saw through it with a steak knife to cut into it. I don't recall what MIL had, but the flatbread pizza we shared as an appetizer was good at least. Extremely pricey (compared to our other meals in Italy) without justification on the quality of food or how it was prepared (how does a steak place not know how to cook a steak??), and an hour and 45 minute wait? Pro Tip: Do NOT eat here. It is not worth the hype.

Made our way back to the hotel with MIL barely making it from standing so long, her legs were shot. Then went to bed grumpy.

Day 14 coming up next, last full day in Florence.

Accidental post

Thank you so much for the reviews!! Going in October from Rome!! 2 days precruise and 1 day post cruise

Thank you so much for the very detailed review and recommendations and pro-tips! We did Italy (Rome > Florence > Tuscany > CT > Venice) a few years ago and we are looking at this cruise for next year, so this is bringing me back!!!

Thanks for all the tips

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Thank you for the fantastic review. Reviews like yours are such a fantastic resource for new cruisers.

 

I was on the Epic for the final Med cruise of 2017 from Barcelona and booked for the same week this year. At this moment I might be tempted to sell my soul for some chicken wings (it's just after 1am uk time)

 

The public sundecks were easily accessed from the glass elevators (fantastic views) and were completely empty. Lovely padded loungers so an almost perfect place to read except they played almost but not quite inaudible distorted music through the loud speakers. I love music but this drove me nuts; I will listen to audio books this year or read on the balcony,

Hi just browsing here, and enjoyed the review. I am missing my Med Cruise (as I prepare for Alaska in a couple of days;)) so it was nice to hear about my favourite ship. I was on the same cruise as Amelia, my third on Epic but I have no idea where the glass elevators are!! We usually use the stairs unless we are coming back from a day out and want to go directly up to the buffet.

I will add a few other comments that may help fellow cruisers: I love the Epic, but I agree with the OP about the entertainment. There is little to tempt me, but I have a great cruise anyway.

The pools are really small. I seem to recall that this is a cruise ship norm. I think the only time we have had an adequate pool was when we were in the Baltic and we were on a smaller ship.

When we went on the Epic in July, we swam when we were in port - there are lots of opportunites: Palma, Cannes, Naples (Capri), Civitavecchia and Livorno (Cinque Terre).

The OP went at the best time of the year for sightseeing and avoiding too many children. I love children but too many on a cruise can be a bit annoying.

When you are booking it is easy to spot the cruises that have more than one embarkation port. I think I have been on three that did this. You have to know to look out for it though - look for all the cruises for the ship you want over the time period you want and you may notice that it starts in more than one port. The pricing may be different for different embarkation points. It makes sense for the cruise ships to attract folk from different areas. I am surprised that the OP did not actually get her muster drill until BCN. I think this was a mistake by NCL. If it is your first cruise, it may well be best to try and get the cruise from the main port.

When you know that you need to be alert to find out where the gangway is at each port you will find out that it is well signposted. Probably less easy for someone with mobility issues though. I know that you constantly have to think ahead and work out your route. We walk down and follow the signs.

Pro tip: If you are not going on a ship sponsored tour in Cannes, and you want to get off fairly early, book your tender ticket when you board. You can do it via the interactive TV. I think it is hidden under "entertainment". You still may need to wait a little - when we wanted to leave early the queues were the worst I have experienced. If you are not in a hurry, wait an hour or so for the crush to go down. Cannes is one of my favourite ports, you don't have to rush around and there is a Paul bakery that makes you wish that you had skipped breakfast and lunch.

Day 12 - Headed to Florence

 

The hotel gave us a few recommendations that were close by to walk to and kill an hour or so, but we struck out. The opera house had a large fee to go inside, plus an additional fee if you wanted to be allowed to take pictures inside (I had never seen that or heard of that before in any other location we visited. I think it was an extra 5 euros per group for the permission - not sure how they enforce it.).

 

 

Finally make it to Florence and we found the taxi stand. Hubby & I wanted to walk it to the hotel (~0.5 miles), but MIL just kept complaining. So we waited on the long taxi line. Spent more time waiting for the taxi than we did inside the actual taxi. Plus the taxi going to the hotel took the longest route possible (we had the maps out and opened on our phone and kept looking at each other saying 'where is he taking us??'). Took us almost 20 minutes and cost 15 euros. For comparison, after we did a wine tasting excursion that returned us next to the train station, that taxi took 8 minutes and 10 euros to bring us back to the hotel.

 

 

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Two comments:

I have seen places where you need to buy an extra "camera ticket" if you want to take photos. I can't recall where but I am pretty sure that this was the situation in St Petersburg.

About the taxi - we have frequently felt that we are being given the run around in a taxi, however you cannot compare your two journeys because in the first journey you had suitcases and they would definitely count as 'extras' and the second journey it was just passengers.

Hello ollienbertsmum We used the stairs as much as possible too. The glass elevators were just as you exited the garden cafe into the pool area - I think the right hand one (or maybe the left, it is obvious when you are there) was haven only but the other one took you up to the public sun decks, perhaps there were stairs but I never found them.

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this review. My spouse and I are sailing on the Epic in October from Barcelona; you have provided us with an entertaining narrative with great info and pro tips.

Cruisecritic is an amazing website especially when travelers such as you take the time to share with others.

This is so helpful! Love the pro tips!

Excellent Review! Thanks for all the details!

I don’t know when we will take a Med cruise but I have saved this for when we do! Thanks for all the tips, have enjoyed reading about your adventure. You guys had a great attitude through it all.

WOW, what an amazing, detailed and helpful review. Thank you so much for taking the time to share so much valuable information. I have copied and pasted a lot of information you shared into my own spreadsheet. We are doing a 14 day Italy and Greece out of Rome in Oct 2019 on the Jade.

Day 10 - Off the cruise and headed to Venice

 

We finally got on and settled in and hubby was still venting about how crazy it was to get onto the train. There was a couple in front of us who overheard and the gentleman turned around to chat with us. He was from Australia and his girlfriend/wife was from China. He had an amazing attitude. "Yeah mate that sucks, but let it go, don't let it spoil the rest of your trip. You're here now with us!" He disappeared and came back from the cafe car with 2 beers and a bag of chips for us, along with things for himself and his companions. We toasted to Italy and happier times, and again that small act of kindness helped turn the rest of the day around for us.

This actually choked me up. It restores my faith in humanity. I only wish that more people would take just a few moments to be kind. I'm glad you shared this.

It was chilly at night when the sun went down, and windy. During the day we were in the high 60's low 70's, at night it dropped below 60F and the wind made it feel even colder. Only had drizzly rain 2 days and while we were on land, but it wasn't warm summer weather just yet.

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Yes, we were probably a bit too ambitious with our plans. After suffering for many years, she had both knees replaced last year and has a new lease on life. But just because she's 100x better than she was, doesn't mean she can keep up with people half her age. But I was proud of her for doing as much as she did and glad that we were able to bring her along for this opportunity.

 

When we were looking at our vacation options we saw the Free at Sea promotion where a 3rd passenger could join us for free. We asked her if she had any interest in taking her new knees for a spin in Italy and she said absolutely, especially at the price. We were all in agreement going in that she would probably not be able to keep up and do everything, but she was fine with doing what she was comfortable with, and then meeting up with us later on. She viewed this as her first real vacation in many many years, and possibly the last she will take (of this magnitude).

 

A lot of people think I'm crazy for inviting my MIL to join us, but she was much easier to get along with than my own mother would have been. We're taking another (much smaller) vacation in August with my side of the family, which will be very different. MIL knows her limits and is independent and didn't want to hold us back or prevent us from enjoying our trip because of her limits. My own mother, well, she's in denial about her limitations and manipulative where the only person who ends up doing what they want is her.

 

Hopefully we've shown MIL that she is much stronger and able bodied than she sees herself, and the travel bug we put in her stays there.

I am so glad that now that the trip is over, you can appreciate the fact that she was a trooper and I admire the fact that you and your dh even considered taking her along. You don't see many women taking the mil along. Being a mil, and experiencing a bit of this on a land trip to Belgium, Germany and France last year with my ds, dil, her parents and my dh, I can somewhat relate. I am second oldest, but my feet and ankles just swelled up to elephant size and was quite painful. We averaged 13,000 steps a day and except for one climb up to the bell tower in Cologne, (that I skipped to put my feet up) and a pretty tough hike up to a castle, I lived to have very treasured memories. I know that this too will be a memorable moment for all of you, especially as time goes on.

Thank you again for the wealth of information.

Wowww this is the perfect Information i needed for our cruise in October:) thank you so much! Just 1 question- do you by chance remember when is sea food at the Garden Caffee for dinner?

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Day 3 - Tivoli: We knew we didn't have a whole lot of time to spend before hopping on the ship, but ended up finding a company willing to pick us up from the hotel at 8am, bring us to Tivoli, and then drop us off at the pier when we were done. This was a win-win for us because it gave us the chance to see something else and not waste an entire day sitting on the boat waiting to leave, and also took care of 'how are we going to get ourselves and our luggage from Rome to the cruise ship'.

 

We booked through this company http://www.tiberlimo.com/ and they were fantastic - highly recommend using them. The price was $450 eu for the 3 of us (private tour, just us on the van), and it included pickup from our Rome hotel with luggage, driving us to Hadrian's Villa, Villa D'Este, stopping for lunch in Tivoli (cost of lunch not included), then dropping us off right next to the embarkation point at Civitavecchia. Our driver, Sergio, didn't speak much English (although his English was better than our Italian), so they also sent along an English translator for us, Julia. She entered Villa D'Este with us and helped translate while buying our entrance tickets at both locations as well. Both Sergio & Julia were lovely and fun to spend the day with.

 

If you have the time, it was well worth it. Hadrian's Villa (http://www.italia.it/en/travel-ideas/unesco-world-heritage-sites/the-emperors-abode-hadrians-villa.html) is mostly in ruins, but amazing to look at. Hubby and I spent an hour here walking around while MIL waited in the van, not sure she could do the walking. Then it was a short ride to Villa D'Este (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1025). There has to be close to 100 fountains on the grounds here. Everywhere you look is a gorgeous garden or fountain or multi-tiered waterfall/fountain. All on top of a hill, with beautiful views of the town in the distance. This was one of Julia's favorite places, so she joined us and came inside. She wasn't a tour guide per se, but did share any info she knew about the place and helped point us in the right direction at times. MIL came with us, but stayed on the top tier of the estate. You enter through a big house with painted walls & ceilings, then when you make your way outside and down a flight of stairs, you see the gorgeous gardens. The gardens themselves are about another 5 flights down, with nooks and crannies all along the way to stop and ogle at.

 

Julia left us to wander on our own and we met back up with her ~45 minutes later to find our driver back in town. We didn't get to all of the fountains, but I did manage to get pictures of most of them. Each one we saw hubby would say 'we need that for the backyard', and then change his mind at the next one and say 'no, this is the one we need'. This was all in jest, because although we are in the market for a water feature for our yard, our postage stamp sized backyard would not fit any of the magnificent fountains at Villa D'Este. Met back up with Sergio, and he took us to one of his favorite local restaurants nearby in Tivoli.

 

http://www.ristorantesibilla.com/index.php/en/home-en/ - wow. Just, wow. We ate out back outside under an awning of wisteria vines, with relics of Roman temples in the background. The website surprisingly doesn't even show you a picture of the view. It is situated at the bottom of hill with waterfalls and greenery all around you. Absolutely amazing. We invited Sergio and Julia to join us for lunch and covered their food and drinks as their tip for taking us to these amazing places. Again, the food was fantastic, but the views were even better. http://oi64.tinypic.com/zvegqc.jpg

 

 

With bellies full of pasta, wine and dessert, we headed to Civitavecchia. Traffic was especially kind to us, and we arrived to the dock around 4:15pm. There was no line to check in for the cruise. None. Granted, it was a bit late and we were within the final hour for boarding, but no lines on a 4,000 passenger cruise is good in my book. Check-in process was a breeze, and because we got there so late our bags actually made their way to our cabin before we did.

 

Pro Tip: I didn't learn about the special nuances with this particular cruise until reading through posts on these boards. For the NCL Mediterranean trips, Barcelona is the true embarkation point despite our group getting on outside of Rome. From what I've read it's roughly a 60-70% Barcelona embarkation vs 30-40% Rome embarkation. This is both good and bad, depending on how you look at it I suppose. Speaking with several other passengers who got on in Rome much earlier than we did, they too said the check-in process was a piece of cake and took less than 20 minutes - even at 12 noon. We preferred to extend our trip pre & post cruise in Italy rather than Spain, so being able to get on in Rome was convenient for us to do that. However, the ship caters more to the Barcelona guests rather than the Rome guests.

 

What I mean by that is when we got to our room, our itinerary only listed bookings up to Barcelona, and then it said we were to disembark. This was clearly not correct, but made life confusing. All the in-room newsletters also focused on Barcelona embarkation/disembarking information, with nothing for the Rome passengers. Our safety drill didn't occur until after we left Barcelona (unless there was another one in Rome that we missed due to getting on board so late in the day). So god forbid there actually was an emergency the 3 of us would have been clueless. It was also challenging making new friends because instead of being together for 7 nights, you were only with some of them for 3 and then they were gone. Plus the slightly cliquey feel of the Barcelona passengers who already knew where to find the soft pretzel sticks in the buffet line and would roll their eyes at us newbies oohing and aahhing over the gems we stumbled upon (this cattiness was actually rare, 99% of the fellow passengers we met and spoke with were quite lovely).

 

Overall, it was just odd I guess to have half the boat already settled in when we were still learning port from starboard and how to find each restaurant. Plus the bigger disadvantage - room upgrades. Not only are you competing with your fellow passengers on the specific sailing you booked, but you are competing with the sailing before yours (the back half of the Barcelona sailing = the front half of the Rome sailing), and also the people sailing from Barcelona after you (your back half = their front half). So despite putting in over $2500/pp bids to upgrade from our mini suite to a Haven level room, we were rejected I presume due to the sheer number of people competing with us who have already booked Haven outright. I guess I just wish NCL had made the specifics of this 'shared' sailing publicly known to us, rather than me finding out through cruise critic after we booked and paid in full. We will not be doing another split cruise like this in the future.

 

Back to happier things... we got onboard, tried to head to the top of the ship to wander and take photos but I was denied entry to anything above level 15 due to not being Haven. So I have photos of the exclusive doors to Posh and their outdoor area, but that's as far as my peasant self was permitted to go. We made our way out to deck 15, the pool deck, and I started immediately taking advantage of our free UBP with a cocktail. Wait time to get a drink at the nearly empty main pool bar area was close to 10 mins - not a great start, although I may have been impatient and not fully in relaxed vacation mode yet.

 

We found a comfortable spot at the end of the green water slide and watched the ship pull away from Civitavecchia with drinks in hand. Pro Tip: Don't get the 'drink of the day'. Or rather, if you do, get it made from scratch by the bartender and don't get the ones that come from the giant pre-made vats. The handmade versions are much stronger and better tasting without being over sugarified. Overall, the drinks were good and NCL lost a lot of money on us with the UBP.

 

When we booked we were entitled to 2 free at sea promotions - we chose the 3rd passenger free (hence why MIL came with us) and the UBP for hubby & I. This was his first cruise, and simply being able to drink anything he wanted, anytime he wanted without having to think and justify if he wanted to spend $12 to try out some crazy cocktail invention - that sucked him in to the cruising life and got him to agree to another one. Despite how it might seem throughout these postings, I assure you we are not alcoholics, nor were we even drunk most nights. The taxes and gratuities we paid on our "free" beverage package meant that we had to each drink $20 worth each day to pay for itself. When the drinks on average cost $10, that was easy to do. We spoke with another couple who did not have the UBP offered to them free, and they told us it would have cost them $90 each/day for the same package. At that price, 9 drinks a day is a lot harder to justify the cost. But 2 drinks.... we had our quota met by lunchtime most days without even thinking about it.

 

Our first night on the boat we decided to use up some (almost all) of our onboard credits by eating at Teppanyaki. I wanted to eat at Moderno, but was overruled. The hibachi place was.... ok. Dinner for the 3 of us ended up using ~$120 of our $140 onboard credits. To me, I think Moderno would have been a better use, but we'll try it out next cruise. You go to Teppanyaki for the show, not the food. After hearing the exact same jokes and songs from both our chef and the ones on our left and right - identical jokes, word for word, every single one of them - the show aspect lost it's appeal to me. We were at a grill with a couple from South Africa, another from England, and a couple from Miami. The most amusing part of the night was teaching the brits and africans how to eat edamame - apparently they had never seen it or eaten it before, and attempting to make the origami seahorse out of the menu. I came pretty darn close to the picture, despite the instructions clearly missing several steps along the way. By the time we were done, it was past 10pm and we called it an early(ish) night.

 

Day 4 coming up next.....

Thank you for the great review of the Rome portion of your Mediterranean cruise. Is it customary to give extra tip to your tour guide/drivers.? How much tip do you recommend?

We are doing the same itinerary next Spring.

Wishing you happy cruising.

King

Of all the days you sailed, do you know if the Casino is open while in ports? Or what time it ever opened? Was it open on the sea day?

Thanks! love your posts.

On 6/29/2018 at 5:52 PM, Choozin Croozin said:

WOW, what an amazing, detailed and helpful review. Thank you so much for taking the time to share so much valuable information. I have copied and pasted a lot of information you shared into my own spreadsheet. We are doing a 14 day Italy and Greece out of Rome in Oct 2019 on the Jade.

 

 

I am so glad that now that the trip is over, you can appreciate the fact that she was a trooper and I admire the fact that you and your dh even considered taking her along. You don't see many women taking the mil along. Being a mil, and experiencing a bit of this on a land trip to Belgium, Germany and France last year with my ds, dil, her parents and my dh, I can somewhat relate. I am second oldest, but my feet and ankles just swelled up to elephant size and was quite painful. We averaged 13,000 steps a day and except for one climb up to the bell tower in Cologne, (that I skipped to put my feet up) and a pretty tough hike up to a castle, I lived to have very treasured memories. I know that this too will be a memorable moment for all of you, especially as time goes on.

Thank you again for the wealth of information.

I know it's been a while since I checked back in here, but life kind of caught up with us. My MIL was diagnosed with breast cancer a few months ago. The pathology came back negative in all the lymph node biopsies, so it hasn't spread anywhere, but the recovery has been quite a challenge for her from the surgery.

You never know what curve ball life is going to throw your way. This is even more reason why we choose to live our lives in the present and take advantage of any opportunity for adventure when it comes our way, and to encourage others to join us. Don't wait for 'later', or 'someday', or 'when I retire'.... take it now while you have the health to allow you. 

This wasn't the update I expected .  Sorry to hear that your MIL is struggling.  Best wishes for her recovery. 

Glad you were able to enjoy the Med with her ...... hopefully she'll be able to join you for another memorable trip.

(And thank you for this great trip report. It's a great resource for our planning our trip next yr. )

Loved your TR. So many helpful tips on the ports. We are sailing out of Rome on the Epic in July and then spending a few days in Rome after the cruise. My daughter will be celebrating her 16th birthday in Rome. We have sailed on the Epic before, out of Port Canaveral and wanted to sail on her again. 

Thank you so much for your trip report. Lots of great info that will come in handy when we take this cruise in July.

What a great review!  Happy to find this.  Am considering booking this cruise for June 2020 (looks like all will be embarking in Barcelona, perhaps they learned from your Rome and/or Barcelona embarkation experience).  Thanks for the tips, very helpful!