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Trip Report - NCL Epic Mediterranean


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Just got back from our long 15 day and tiring trip around the Mediterranean and figured I'd jot down some commentary from our travels. I scoured these boards before our trip and learned a ton of great tips and tricks from all of you, so if anyone can learn from my mistakes on their own upcoming cruise, I'm more than glad to share our experiences. I have 1,000+ pictures from our journey (no exaggeration), so if there's something in particular you want to see a photo of, let me know.

 

TLDR version: We sailed out of Rome on May 9th, with 2 nights spent in Rome prior to boarding the cruise, followed by 2 nights in Venice and 3 nights in Florence post cruise. Overall I'd rate the cruise a 4/5 stars, we did thoroughly enjoy ourselves, but there were some hiccups and disappointments along the way. However, none big enough to stop us from taking advantage of the cruise next promotions and booking our next Epic sailing for 2020.

 

About us: 3 travelers, my husband and I in our mid-late 30's and my mother-in-law in her mid 60's. She had a double knee replacement a few months prior, and has metal plates and screws in her ankle - so mobility is an issue for her at times.

 

Day 1 - Rome: We flew into Rome 2 nights early so that we could spend some time there before hopping onto the Epic, and also to make sure we didn't miss the boat. We flew from JFK to FCO using Alitalia. Similar to NCL, they offer an upgrade bidding system to move from coach seats to either economy plus or business. Despite putting in strong bids, we were rejected for both upgrades. No problem, but by being in the bidding system, you are sometimes place on 'standby' for your bid and we weren't notified of being rejected until 8hrs prior to our flight departing. This meant we couldn't check in online or pre-print boarding passes and were forced to use the desk agent. Headed to Rome this wasn't a big deal, the lines were short and we were plenty early. Coming back home to NY was a different nightmare.

 

Our first time using Alitalia, and probably the last. We got the tickets dirt cheap by booking 5+ months in advance (~$500 pp), but after our experience I'd rather pay someone else a few hundred more for less hassles and more comfort. The particular plane we were on has metal rectangular boxes under the seats which house the entertainment system. So your already limited legroom is limited even further by the presence of this box. I'm only 5'2" and it was enough to bother me. We were sitting on the left side of the plane, and the box was to the right of the seat leg, meaning I couldn't put my left leg straight in front of me at all. So I spent 8+ hours on a flight sitting on an angle. My knee was not happy about that when I finally stood up to use it. On the flight there they gave us a small cup of something to drink, then ~15 mins later brought out dinner, and then about ~30 mins later one more small cup of something to drink. That was it, until 6 hours later when they were serving breakfast. We were dying of thirst. Kept asking for a glass of water and were only told "we're busy preparing breakfast, it will come soon". When they finally did come we didn't let them leave till we each slammed back 2 cups full of water. Flight home was much better with the drinks, not sure why the crew going into Rome was so stingy with a simple cup of water.

 

MIL had wheelchair assistance to get from the entrance to the boarding gate, but we were given zero information about how to get the wheelchair once we got off the plane. FCO is a very, unique, airport. I don't know what else to call it, but it is bizarre (to us). After the plane lands, I'm used to walking towards the jetway and the wheelchair assistants are usually lined up waiting for you. Not at FCO. You don't arrive at the airport terminal, but rather a large parking lot for jumbo jets. You have to walk down a large flight of stairs, then walk to a shuttle bus, which then takes you back to the terminal. We didn't know this, so my MIL had already gotten off the plane before realizing there was a large staircase and bus to navigate in front of her. We helped her get down and then she had no choice but to hang onto the bus pole for the ~5 min trip back to the terminal. Then the walk through the terminal to get through customs, then the walk from customs to baggage claim, then the walk to the car pick up area..... she was done by the time we made it to our hotel. If Alitalia made announcements about passengers needing assistance, it wasn't done in English, or not done in a clear manner where the 3 of us understood it. I had it registered on her name that she needed assistance too, so I would have thought they knew and could have reached out to us, but no. Pro tip #1: If you need wheelchair assistance and are flying into FCO, do not get off the plane until all other passengers have left. Then they will bring up a special wheelchair elevator to help you get off the plane. Pro tip #2: If you can wait, get onto the line for customs first before stopping to use the rest room. I didn't, and the line went from a simple 20 people deep to over 200 deep by the time I got out of the potty (and I was fast, I swear!).

 

We had arranged for a car to pick us up from the airport and bring us to the hotel, but this was through the hotel directly so I'm not sure which service they contract through. My original email from them said it would be 50 eu, then it became 55 eu with no explanation - cash only. Pro tip #3: confirm all costs in writing before you get there, and have a print out with you to show to avoid any confusion. Pro tip #4: Tipping in Europe is not like tipping in the USA. We rounded the bill to 60 eu and the driver acted like we were rich and famous - lesson learned.

 

Finally arrived at our hotel, http://www.treviromesuite.com/ around 9am. Room wasn't promised to be ready until 2pm, but within 30 minutes we were able to check in. They also gave us bottles of water or Coke while we waited, which was nice. Room was huge for the 3 of us, and the hotel location could not be beat (within 2 blocks of the Trevi fountain, a short 5 min walk, even for my MIL). Breakfast was served daily in your room after picking what you wanted from the menu the night before. They were able to accommodate us and delivery by 7:30 each day so we had time to eat before running out on tours. Very friendly staff, great room, decent price (~$250/day), great location. Pro tip #5: City tax is often not included in your room charge until after you have checked in. In Rome this was an additional 3.50 eu/pp/day - something to keep in mind, especially when most hotels requested this to be paid in cash. Pro tip #6: All of our hotel rooms in Italy had beautiful windows looking out at the city; however there are no window screens. So you have to decide if you want fresh air and flies/mosquitoes invading your room, or run the A/C but be bug free.

 

After dropping off our bags we headed to the nearby Trevi fountain. It's huge, it's gorgeous, and there are a TON of people there. Just be mindful of your belongings and the people around you, and wait your turn to move closer for a better look. Once we got our obligatory photos, MIL went back to the room to rest and my hubby and I walked to the Coliseum. There were a lot of Indian people selling selfie sticks, annoying blobby toys that screech, and all sorts of other junk you don't want to buy. They are relentless, they will follow you if you make eye contact, and there are 10 more around every other corner. We ran into a man from Africa giving away 'free' bracelets. After putting the bracelet on your wrist, he then gives you a matching carved figurine and asks for money. I handed back everything to him and said I had no money, I was just there to take photos and didn't even have a wallet on me, and he took it back and walked away. Pro tip #7: Do not make eye contact, and if you do, just say "no grazie" and they will go away. Nothing in life is free, including African charm bracelets.

 

Once you get close to the Coliseum, you will know as the crowds get 10x bigger. When you get even closer, you will be hounded once again by people selling skip the line tickets to get into the Coliseum. If you have tickets, just tell them you already have tickets and keep walking. If you don't and just want to look at the outside like we did, simply ignore them and keep walking.

 

Went back to the hotel to grab MIL for late lunch/early dinner. Ended up at Abruzzi Sas Di Marco, located on Via Del Vaccaro. Food was amazing, pasta was fresh, house wine was top notch for just 4 eu/glass. When you look around you and see nothing but Italian businessmen on their lunch break, you know you're in a good place.

 

Our first night there we had a golf cart tour booked through Viator (#7377P1) for 8pm. It was fantastic and I highly recommend it. Our driver was Roberto, and it was just the 3 of us on the tour. He asked where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see, but other than the Pantheon we didn't have any special requests. He took us all over Rome, gave interesting information and stories throughout, took our photo for us so that I could finally be in some pictures instead of always being the photographer, and it was easy peasy for my MIL to just sit and be driven around to places.

 

Day 2 to follow....

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Day 2 - Rome: Had our breakfast delivered at 7:30am, and asked the hotel to call a taxi for us to get to the Vatican for an 8am tour. If it was just my hubby and I, we probably would have either walked or taken the subway, but with MIL she needed a taxi. If I remember correctly, it was ~8 eu to go ~2 miles. Lines are long at the Vatican - very long, and there are a lot of people and tour companies there - a LOT of them. There are also multiple tours from the same company at the same time. Pro tip #1: Read your trip voucher very carefully to determine your meeting point, and the tour company you are looking for. Pro tip #2: If doing a Vatican tour, book early in the morning when the large crowds are half as large as they get in the afternoon. A coworker took the 1pm tour and said that he was herded through the museum 1,000 people at a time and has at least 100 heads in every picture he took.

 

 

We booked this tour through Viator (#3731VATICAN) and it was for skip the line entrance to the Vatican museum, St. Peter's, and the Sistine chapel. Small groups are worth the extra cost on tours. I think there was only 11 of us on this one and it made sticking together and moving around much easier. The guide was also accommodating to my MIL and pointed out the elevator entrances whenever possible, and walked slow for her to keep up. There is a LOT of walking on this tour. It was fine for hubby and I, but with no place to rest or sit for my MIL, she was struggling to keep up. When you get close to the Sistine Chapel, there is a very large staircase to navigate. We went up ahead, and it took MIL close to 15 minutes to catch up with us. They have a few benches within the chapel along the side of the left wall, so we grabbed a seat when one opened up and saved it for MIL when she finally made the climb. Then you continue on to St. Peter's and again, no place to sit at all. MIL found a walk to lean against and was in bad shape by the time the tour officially ended. We found a bench outside of the chapel for her to sit on and rested there for about 20 mins before she could continue walking to the taxi area.

 

 

There is a taxi stand just outside of the Vatican walls, but it is a long walk to get there from the chapel (at least for someone with mobility issues who just walked for 3 hours). When we finally made it there, the taxi couldn't take us back to our hotel. They kept saying there was a bus strike, but we later learned this was just a communication and language misunderstanding. There had actually been a bus explosion in Rome city center, not far from our hotel. So the entire city center of Rome was on shut down while they did their investigation, and once opened back up the traffic was horrendous. We debated whether to walk to the subway instead, then opted to go for lunch and wait it out.

 

 

Ended up eating lunch here https://ristorantespaghetti.com/ based on a recommendation from my boss who had been in Rome just 2 weeks earlier. Again, the food was fantastic (there was only 1 meal I didn't care much for during the entire trip, so I'll stop saying that the food was fantastic) and even more important the staff were great and friendly. This place is just outside the Vatican walls, and you can actually see the enormous lines of people snaking around the walls waiting to get in for their own tours - so again, book early in the day if doing the Vatican tours. One of the waiters had actually spent 2 years in NY, and not just NY, but the same town that MIL lives in - small world. He looked on his phone and found out the correct information for us regarding the 'bus strike' and then also alerted us later on when the city was reopened. After we finished eating they told us to stay put and wait because the city was still on lock down, and they didn't even ask us to order anything additional. Hubby and I saw it as a great opportunity to kill off a bottle of wine, so it wasn't a problem anyway. They brought us complimentary biscotti and another bottle of sparkling water for MIL and let us sit there at the outdoor table for almost 2 hours telling us it was no trouble and to just sit and rest. Once the city opened up again, they called a taxi for us and saved us the walk back to the taxi stand down the street.

 

 

Taxi made it most of the way before we submitted to the traffic. Ended up having about a 10 min walk back to the hotel which isn't horrible, considering. We all crashed and took naps, then hubby and I were going to walk to the Pantheon but mother nature had other plans. The skies opened up and it was pouring rain. We had umbrellas, but I didn't feel up to a mile walk in the pouring rain for dinner. Looked around on our laptop for takeout or delivery service, but Italy isn't as keen on using Seamless or GrubHub as the states are. We found 3 similar delivery services, but by the time we all agreed on something it was past 8pm and we were just grumpy. Ended up walking next door to a pizza place for a quick bite (MIL stayed behind). It was.... ok.

 

http://www.micheleintheworld.com/ A far cry from NY pizza that we are used to. The margarita pizza was just bread, sauce and spices. No cheese. How is that even a pizza without any cheese? Mine at least had cheese, but there was no seasoning. The worst part though, it was so floppy that when you folded it and picked it up to take a bite, the triangle tip would fall down and all your sauce & cheese (if there was any to begin with) completely slid right off. The dessert was much better than the pizza. Don't eat the pizza here, sorry.

 

 

Called it an early night, gave up on seeing the inside of the Pantheon, and grumbled about the rainy weather.

 

Day 3 coming up next....

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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.....

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thanks for starting this, I've been interested to read about a Med cruise on the Epic. Your comments on the Barcelona vs Rome embarkation are really interesting, I didn't know about the split cruise either (we are booked to start from Barca) but I noticed that someone posted a daily from their first day embarking in Rome and it said "Day 4".

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Day 4 - Port in Livorno: We booked 2 of our excursions directly through NCL, and the rest with outside companies. Our stop in Livorno was through NCL for 2 main reasons: 1) It was our first port of call on the cruise and we were unfamiliar with the process, how long things would take, etc and wanted our first stop to go smoothly without hiccups; 2) We couldn't find a similar excursion externally that fit exactly what we were looking to do as well as the one offered by NCL.

 

I was extremely organized at the start of our trip, with different colored folders for each of our trip segments (Rome, Cruise, Venice, Florence), with print outs of my confirmations, vouchers, train tickets, etc in each one. As we went along, I would save all our receipts in the folder as well to try and tally up our actual true cost of the trip at the end. But now that we have finally returned home, I've managed to lose some of my folders and documents. Better to lose it after you no longer really need it, then before I suppose. Needless to say, my folder from the cruise with all of our tour names and the daily newsletters is one of the missing ones, so I'll be guessing on specific names.

 

This excursion was called something to the effect of Pisa & Taste of Tuscany. It was quite expensive ($200/pp) and was a full day tour. I must say, the folks at NCL know what they're doing. When we got to our cabin the day prior, all of our excursion vouchers were waiting in our room for us with directions on specifically where to go and what time for each. It was very organized, and that helped take some of the anxiety out of the trip for us by not having to worry about every minor detail.

 

We ran to the buffet on deck 15 first for a quick bite to eat, then headed to the main theater area to wait for our tour to be called. Pro Tip: There are multiple stations serving the exact same food at the buffet. You do not need to get on the first bacon line you see, there is another one around the corner. If you are waiting more than 4 people deep, find another line. Despite being on a ship with 4000 other people, it never felt that way. Except when waiting for elevators.... Pro Tip: On port days, walk if you can. If you need the elevator like my MIL, sometimes it is better to go up in order to go back down. Hubby & I usually walked from deck 11 up to 15 while she waited for the elevator and then met up with us later. If you aren't catching the elevator at the top of the ship, 9/10 it will be full and you have to keep waiting. For some odd reason, there was always 2/4 elevators on our side of the ship permanently stuck and not in use on port days as well, adding to the frustration.

 

Back to breakfast.... Inside tables at the buffet are snatched up quickly, but there are plenty outdoors with better views anyway. Just have a game plan with your travel mates as to where to look for each other - we spent that first breakfast with my husband eating alone at one end of the deck and my MIL and I outside on the other end. The food is plentiful, varied, tasty, and we never had a problem with any of it. They even go so far as to separate out the bacon into crispy vs soft bins so you don't have to go digging for the piece that suits your fancy. The one thing I was never able to find was butter for my pancakes. I honestly didn't spend too much time looking, so it may have been right in front of me next to the pancake tub, but I found it odd.

 

After breakfast and refilling our water bottles, down to deck 6 for the theater meeting point. They call out the tours by both name and tour number, as multiple tours sound similar. Another thing I quickly learned and was a bit disappointed in was that there are 100x more excursions available then I was able to see online through the NCL website. Hearing the tour names announced made me go "oooh, that sounds good, why didn't I know about that one?" more times than not. I don't know if they are all not available online and you have to go to the excursion desk to see them all, but I found that quite odd. Especially considering we specifically didn't book excursions at all for some ports due to there only being 2-3 options listed and none suited us.

 

Pro Tip: If taking a NCL sponsored excursion, you do NOT need to be at your meeting point more than 5-10 minutes earlier than posted on your ticket. We had no idea, and were nervous, and MIL has trouble walking down all the steps in the theater, so we got there about 30 mins early. And sat there. And sat, and sat, and sat. If our meeting time said 7:45, they didn't call our group until 7:40 - and even then they were still making the announcements for the earlier tours at that point as well. So don't rush to get there and sit and wait, 5-10 mins depending on your mobility level is plenty.

 

Got our bus sticker number, then headed down to deck 4 to disembark. MIL mobility is somewhat ok where she can navigate stairs - albeit slowly. So finding out we were on 6 and had to head down to 4 with a herd of 40+ other people was a bit nerve wracking. I suppose we could have inquired about either an elevator option or starting down there early so she could take her time, but we were able to manage. Once you got off the ship, the buses were all lined up in number order so it was easy peasy to find the correct one on your sticker and get settled in.

 

First stop was Pisa. There was ~15 minute walk from the bus parking to the town center of Pisa. We knew this ahead of time, and the guide was very patient and walked slow so MIL could keep up. It honestly didn't matter, there were 100+ people all headed in the same direction. Pisa itself is very small, so an hour to take it all in is more than enough and get your obligatory photo holding up the tower. If you want to go inside the buildings there is an additional fee (I believe 5 euros) and that will take up more time. If you want to climb to the top of the tower, again an additional fee and you also need to have a scheduled time. If you're trying to combine this, plan ahead and book your tower climb tickets in advance. There's a lot of steps, so obviously we skipped that one.

 

Town center is filled with shops along the side. We got our first gelato and a bottle of lemoncello in a leaning tower bottle to bring back for a coworker, both reasonably priced. Again, there are tons of people trying to sell you "Rolex" watches, selfie sticks, and various other junk. "No grazie" and don't make eye contact and eventually they leave you alone. I found it more fun to just sit and people watch everyone taking their silly holding the tower photos. There is a restaurant at the end of the square that will let cruise ship people use the toilets for free. The line for the women's toilet was LONG. Like, 15-20 minutes wait long. Keep this in mind if you are going to use the potty and be at your meeting point in time.

 

The walk back to the bus was even longer as we were now at the back of the city square, so the tour guide was kind enough to call a taxi for MIL to bring her back to the bus parking, telling the driver specifically where to go and which bus to bring her to. She really went above and beyond to assist us, and we tipped her appropriately at the end. The rest of us had a lovely 20-25 min walk back to the bus. MIL was going to just walk back on her own ahead of us so she could take her time, and the guide said no. Too many gypsies and it wasn't safe to be alone, which was why she insisted on us taking the taxi. For 10 euros, it wasn't bad to ensure her safety back, but keep that in mind and stay with your group.

 

Next stop was a vineyard/farmhouse in Tuscany. It was amazing, and well worth the price we paid for the tour. They first bring you around the farm to see the grapes, some of the equipment they use for making the olive oils, and give you a lot of information about what they do there. MIL skipped the tour and stayed back by the lunch tables. Lunch was great, and truly a lunch - not just small squares of bread with a 1/4" of cheese. So take that into account when you look at the cost, as the lunch is included in that.

 

When you sit down there are already 3 different bottles of wine opened on the table, spaced out about every 4 people. We were sharing bottles left and right, and each time they were empty the staff would replace them. Pour yourself as much or as little as you want from all of the wines. The nice couple we sat across from (and ended up running into often on the ship) was lovely and we became quick friends. Between the 5 of us we easily killed off at least 3 full bottles of the wine and were feeling lovely by the time lunch was over. For lunch, they first bring everyone out their own bowl of pasta with bolognese sauce. We did have a group of vegetarians with us, and the staff was more than accommodating for bringing them veggie friendly dishes as well.

 

Pasta was amazing. Fresh, homemade, the sauce was delicious. That was honestly all I needed and I would have been content. Then they brought out bruschetta with olive oil, sun dried tomatoes (the best my MIL claims to have ever tried), olives, salami & prosciutto (the best my hubby has ever eaten), and I forget what else. Outside of the pasta, everything was served family style and there was always more than enough to go around. Then they brought out a dessert wine and plates of biscotti cookies to dunk in the wine. Truly awesome, definitely a good value for the money (despite the priciness), and a great tour guide certainly helped as well.

 

The only negative... the shop at the farm. We were definitely interested in buying a case of olive oil/wine to ship home, but not at those prices. The wine and oil itself were reasonable, but shipping was ludicrous. 90 euros for 6 bottles, and 120 euros to ship 12 bottles. No thanks, especially when the wine itself was only 10-20 euros each. Plus it was a madhouse in the tiny gift shop, with elderly people jumping in front of me in line and then smiling and offering to let me go BEHIND them. I eventually got pissed off and stormed out of there with nothing in my hands. Plenty of days left to buy things from other people.

 

On the ride back to the ship everyone was happy and singing, enjoying the Tuscan countryside views on the way back to the boat. I believe we had dinner at Taste that night when we got back on board. Again, outside of the poor excuse for pizza in Rome, we didn't ever have a bad meal. Wait staff was super kind and attentive, the views of that massive chandelier were amazing too.

 

I don't have my itinerary with me to remind me which days we did which shows, but I think this being our first full day on the boat we called it an early night.

 

Day 5 coming up next.....

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Day 5 – Cannes

Cannes is the only port of call on this trip with a tender. Having a NCL sponsored excursion made getting off the boat a piece of cake as you are automatically put into an early tender time suitable for making your tour. If I remember correctly, this was a much earlier meeting time (possibly due to the tender), so hubby & I ran to grab a quick breakfast and wrapped up a croissant for MIL to eat on the way and met her down in the theater. Tender boats were huge and comfy enough for the short trip to shore. We ended up finding our friends from the day before as they were on the same tour as us this day as well. Once you get off the tender, again the buses are right there clearly numbered and easy to find.

For this port we did the Nice & Little Train tour which was picked mostly with my MIL in mind. Bus ride over to Nice with the guide pointing out important scenic things along the way, and then we were in the city center of Nice. We had ~60 mins to wander around town before hopping onto our train ride. There was a semi-short walk from our meeting point to the central market area, and MIL was nervous so she just stayed behind at the meeting point and waited for everyone to return. The walk wasn’t too far and she would have probably been fine going at a slow pace, so I feel that she missed out on this from her own insecurities about her abilities.

The central marketplace was really neat. Guide walked us to the end and pointed out the public restrooms (0.50 euros each to use). We opted to sit at a café and have a cappuccino instead, and use the café’s restroom for the price of our cappuccino instead. Sat and people watched a bit, and then we wandered back through all the market stalls. Fresh fruits and veggies, handmade soaps and ceramics, fresh baked bread and pastries, roasted nuts…. You name it, they had it there, and it all looked and smelled wonderful.

We eavesdropped on another tour guide while standing in line at the bread merchant and overheard them refer to one particular style of loaf as the local bread for this region. So we ended up buying a small round loaf of the local bread, a true French croissant, and a beignet. Wow, just wow. Pro Tip: Buy a French croissant when in France, it is a must. It was soft and flakey, without being buttery and greasy like I’m used to here in the states. Hubby ate the entire beignet before I could try it, but since it was gone before I noticed I assume it was great as well. And the bread was fantastic too. Definitely head to the market and try something local.

We then took the long way back to the meeting point and walked along the upper boardwalk area next to the beach. I was surprised to see how rocky the beach was, it most certainly did not look comfortable to me but the locals were enjoying themselves. Be mindful, there is topless sunbathing on the beach so if you have little one that you’re concerned about seeing exposed boobies, don’t let them stare too long. Walked back to our meeting point at the central area and met back up with MIL (don’t worry, we saved her a bite of the croissant and bread). Then we all hopped onto our little train up the hillside of Nice.

Train ride was equivalent to the car trolleys they have at Disney to help get you back to your car in the miles long parking lot. Open on both sides with a small chain to keep you from falling out, and a roof to keep the hot sun off of you. There were headsets to put on so you could hear the narrated story of what you were driving past and to look out for along the way. The views were amazing of the beach and French Riviera right there on the right hand side. Train takes you all the way to the top (sort of, there’s still a bit of walking if you want the best views), but we passed a lot of neat things along the way that I wish we could have stopped at. The only stop is at the top, and then you only have ~10-15 minutes before having to get back onto the train. That was the only downside, there was a park and some ruins nearby that I wanted to go to, but simply didn’t have the time.

After getting out of the train at the top, there was a mild hill to climb, maybe a 5 minute walk, and the views up top are well worth it. MIL again stayed behind and saw the lower level views, but the top is where it is at. I’ll see if I remember my youtube password and post the video I took from the top. City to the right, beach to the left, and nothing but beauty in between. Then you hop back onto your train for the ride back down into central Nice where you started, then back onto the bus to get back into Cannes.

It was a good way to see the city overall, and mostly calm and relaxing for MIL to handle. When we got back to Cannes, MIL hopped right onto the tender to go back to the boat, hubby & I wandered around Cannes and headed to where the film festival was taking place. Saw the red carpet, but it was way too early to see any celebrities. Being there during the festival was interesting, but it would have been great to catch a screening or something related to the festival. However the time you need to be back onto the boat was very early, so prevented us from doing this even if we were able to somehow snag tickets. While admiring the red carpet area and all the photographers piling in, we bumped into another couple our age from the ship, who ironically live about 20 minutes away from us back home. Small world again!

The walk from the port to where the festival was taking place was about 15-20 minutes, so it was fine for us to manage. We eventually made our way back to the tender boats, quickly drained our water bottles only to find out that you didn’t have to dump them (d’oh!) and walked right onto a boat with less than a 5 minute wait. Back onto the ship again, and we met up with MIL in the atrium to decide on dinner before our Priscilla show that evening. We decided to try out the other sit down complementary restaurant that evening, the Manhattan Club.

I’ll just say it right now, I don’t understand the point of this place. They only serve dinner, and enforce a pants requirement, but for men only. Hubby had to run back to the room to put on pants (he had long shorts that went just past his knees) and meet up with us at the table. I was wearing shorts and was told that was fine. There was a young girl at the table next to us with shorts so short I would feel better calling them underwear, and a strappy tank top with her bra hanging out. That was totally fine with the restaurant, but hubby showing off his shins was a no-no. I don’t get it. We didn’t notice a difference in the service or ambiance from Taste, and the food was equally as good. Pro Tip: The menu for Taste and the “pants required for men” Manhattan Club are IDENTICAL. Word for word, meal option for meal option, identical. It wasn’t until a few days later when we went to compare the 2 menus and decide if we wanted to bother switching into pants that we noticed. IDENTICAL.

Well that was a huge disappointment to find out. I thought we would have 2 dining room choices for dinner, but it really is just one choice which is lame. We had mentioned to the waiter upon sitting that we had a show to catch at 7pm and it was no problem, our food was out in record time and we were able to get to the show with no problem. And now knowing what we did about the menu’s being identical, we stuck with Taste the rest of the cruise for our sit down dining.

The Priscilla show was very entertaining. We got in fairly early and took seats near the top of the theater so MIL didn’t have to walk too far. Pro Tip: Catch the eye of the small handful of waiters in there when you first sit to place your drink order. They’re only there for a few minutes before show time and will bring you anything you want to sip on during the show. If you’re not familiar with the show, google it before going to see it. Despite multiple warnings and announcements before the curtain went up, we still saw a lot of young (5-7 yr old) children in the audience which I found a bit odd. I don’t think there was anything too blatantly risqué, but it is not a show for the easily offended or narrow minded. Regardless, we thoroughly enjoyed it, the costumes were fantastic and how those boys dance in heels that high I will never know. I definitely give them much respect for being able to pull that off.

MIL went back to the room, while hubby & I wandered the ship for a bit afterwards. It was too cold and windy to stay outdoors for long though and we went back to the bars inside for some drinks then called it an early night.

Day 6 coming up next….

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Day 6 – Palma Mallorca: We had no excursions planned for this lovely little gem of an island. Figured we needed a day to sleep in from all the running around in the previous days, and nothing really caught our eye in the list of excursions available (at least at the price NCL was offering them). There is supposedly a really cool cave on the island that you can walk through (Dels Hams), but we saw lots of mixed reviews on Viator where people were promised the good cave, but actually brought to the smaller, lesser caves instead. We didn’t want to take the chance on a bait & switch, and the good cave is an hour east of the port. With a short port day, it wasn’t worth the risk to us to try getting there on our own.

 

Skipped the buffet that morning and went to Taste for a sit down breakfast. The food again was amazing. It was nice to sleep past 9am for a change and not have to wander looking for a table. The hash browns were awesome, and it wasn’t until a few days later that I found them up at the buffet as well (they’re outside near the pool area). We took our time and relaxed, then headed off the boat. The day prior we had purchased tickets from the excursion desk for the shuttle bus into town. $15/pp and they put a blue dot sticker on your cruise card to show that you’ve paid. Pro Tip: Buy your $15 transfer sticker the day before when lines are short, rather than waiting until after you get off the boat. When you get off the ship you can walk right onto the shuttle bus, and they drop you off into town ~10 minutes away. This was perfect for us, because it was cheap and let you do whatever you wanted in town for as long as you wanted. When you were ready to return, you just go back to where the bus dropped you off and get back on one headed to the port.

 

As soon as you get off the bus you can see the big giant cathedral right in front of you. MIL saw all the stairs to get to the top and left us on our own. The views up top were great because the water is right on one side, and the city on the other. You also don’t have to take the stairs, there were large ramps and other ways to get in and around. I went in without any expectations about Palma at all, and I think that was one of the reasons I walked away loving it as much as I did. The narrow streets, all the shops everywhere you look, everyone just smiling and happy, no grubby peddlers trying to get you buy their junk.

 

We wandered around for an hour or two, stopping for chocolate, chorizitos (small cone filled with mini chorizo sausages – OMG this was good), Lindt truffles (we have these at home, but they had some exotic flavors we’ve never seen and had to try like champagne – skip this one, it just tastes like alcohol and wasn’t good, cappuccino – awesome, mango – awesome…), and then found a small shop selling balsamic, oil and whiskey of all things.

 

Stopped in here of course, and they have tons of bottles open to try with spigots and small dixie cups. Don’t try to pour it yourself, they will help you and are generous in letting you try everything. I’m not a fan of balsamic, but the fig balsamic they made me try was out of this world. We bought a bottle of mango balsamic for hubby’s sister, and then turned our attention to the whiskey side. 10+ varieties of whiskey made with different fruits or spices for flavoring. Hubby loves anything cherry, and when we tasted the cherry whiskey I knew the big bottle was coming back home with us. We were discussing how to get it back onto the ship as we had heard that NCL confiscates everything from you until the end of the trip (not that we were going to open it and drink it, but I didn’t want the hassle of having to remember to get my stuff back). The shop woman said “no problem, I fix!”. She wiped the writing off the outside of the bottle where it said whiskey, and relabeled it to say balsamic vinegar. When we got back onto the boat that evening security saw it in my bag, but when I told them it was vinegar and not liquor they just let us walk on through without taking it. Yeah!

 

We kept wandering around the city, thinking that we were headed in the right direction to get back to the transfer bus. Apparently our sense of direction is horrible in those narrow streets, as we ended up a good 20 minutes east of where we thought we were. Had to ask a local woman coming out of her apartment for help in getting back to the sea. Knowing a key few Spanish phrases will get you a long way. She pointed us in the correct direction and we ended up back at the water, albeit a good 20 minutes walk away from the bus area. It wasn’t bad though and we had plenty of time to catch the bus back so it actually made the journey more memorable to get lost and sucked into the city the way that we did.

 

When we got back to the bus area, we bumped into our friends from the first 2 days on the cruise. They had taken a NCL excursion and hated it. Another woman on their tour agreed and said that she has taken 40 cruises in her life and this was by far the worst tour guide she’s ever had. Ouch, glad we decided to get lost on our own for the cost of $15 each rather than pay for a crappy tour like they had. Bus back to the port, and when we got off the bus there were a ton of staff members in a line for us to walk between as they sang and danced to us welcoming us back on board. Another nice touch that I forgot to mention earlier is the cups of water and juice that NCL has waiting for you as you go back on board, along with wet towels.

 

I think we checked out the menu for the complementary Chinese restaurant that evening, but I wasn’t impressed so we went upstairs to the buffet for the night. Spanish night! The food again was plentiful, extensive, covered a wide range of items, and was all delicious. I was tempted to get up and get more of my favorites, but knew I would regret it the following morning and we waddled out of there with full tasty bellies.

MIL went back to the room, hubby & I debated whether to catch the Howl at the Moon or Beatles cover band that evening. They were both playing at the same exact time so we had to pick. We opted for the Howl at the Moon dueling pianos, and regretted it. They weren't bad, it just wasn't what I was expecting. To me, dueling pianos means that they randomly pick a song request from the fishbowl and take turns playing parts of it, or alternate picking from the bowl as they play. Nope... They pre-screened all song requests and outright rejected most without knowing which ones they were or why. Pro Tip: If you really really want to ensure that your song choice is played, you have to tip them. And tip them a lot - $5 - 20 euros was what they were announcing to the crowd per song. I'm sorry, but that's a bit ludicrous. We were 2 songs away from being at a dive bar on karaoke night. The musicians were good, but the highlight of the night was when they finally agreed to play 'Baby Got Back' which was a lot of fun - until they demanded $2 euros to stop playing it incessantly. We left after about an hour when we didn't hear a single song we requested played and the price to hear your song kept rising.

One of the first nights that we wandered around we had caught a part of another entertainment group, the 3 amichi's or something to that affect, and decided to skip them when they butchered Billy Joel. Outside of the big shows and the Beatles cover band, the entertainment on the ship wasn't really for us. The most entertaining things were the game shows or any of the activities hosted by the cruise director. He was great and funny and had everyone rolling in laughter. Outside of those few things, we didn't really partake in any ship activities. Either we didn't find ourselves enjoying them, they took place in the atrium (Pro Tip: For any activity taking place in the atrium make sure you are in the first 2 rows, or on the floor above looking down or you will not see anything. The ceiling is low and cuts off the top of the screen if you're sitting towards the back.) and we got there too late to enjoy, or the 'fun' activities were all taking place at the same time and we had to pick just one.

We're not 'cruise people' per se, where we like to be on the boat stuffing our face and running from trivia to bingo to line dancing. We use it as a convenient way to jump from place to place and see a lot of things in a little bit of time. The places that stand out to us we then go back to and devote an entire week or more at. MIL on the other hand loved being on the boat and would prefer to sit there at each activity rather than walking miles at the ports of call - to each their own.

Day 7 Barcelona coming up next...

Edited by Sailing12Away
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Day 7 - Barcelona: Originally we were not going to book an official tour in Barcelona and just wander on our own through the city. Then I found a great company through these boards and we booked a tour with them. https://barcelonadaytours.com/barcelona-shore-excursion/ It was inexpensive (compared to the NCL city tours) and was a small group. Their website says max 12 people and I think we had 15, but it was fine and we had a great time.

 

Barcelona is the primary embarkation/disembarking point for this cruise. If you get on in Rome like we did and are trying to just get off the ship for an excursion and not leave completely - be prepared for excessively long lines on the elevators. Pro Tip: If you can physically take the stairs - take them. Avoid the elevators at all costs. They will be crowded with people and their luggage trying to get off the ship. MIL had to take the elevator up from our 11th deck just to go back down again and get off the boat. It was 100% filled with people and luggage every time it opened on our 11th floor.

 

One of my biggest complaints with the ship is the lack of good communication on port days. Some days we had to disembark from deck 4, some days from deck 6, some days you could not use the stairs on the right side of the ship to go lower than deck 6, other days you could. Maybe it was in the newsletter and we didn't see it, but a simple "Hey cruisers, tomorrow we will be disembarking from deck 4 which is only accessible from the left side of the ship. Please walk down those sets of stairs to exit the ship" would have been lovely and save us a lot of time and confusion. Imaging finally getting onto an elevator and pressing 4 only to get to floor 6 and see that 4 is no longer lit up and the elevator has started to climb again before you could jump off on floor 6. It was always a guessing game for us, and eventually we would just tell MIL to meet us on the lowest deck she could get to while we waked the flights down.

 

Barcelona port is quite hectic due to the large number of people leaving and coming. After you walk past the luggage area you eventually make it outside and that was where we found our guide. She was lovely and passionate about her hometown and the excitement wore off onto us immediately. After booking this excursion I had reached out to them to let them know of MIL mobility issues, and I received a rather off-putting email from them asking me to reconsider touring with them. They had received complaints in the past from other guests when they felt they were being slowed down by others, and the tour company did not want to be held liable for someone feeling they got a bad tour due to slow people.

 

We seriously considered cancelling or trying to convince MIL to sit this one out because the email made us quite nervous. But in the end it all worked out fine. Maybe we had a good group of fellow travelers who were kind and understanding (and some nearly as immobile as MIL themselves), but it really makes you question how nasty and unpleasant some people can be in life for a tour company to even send an email like that in the first place.

 

We drove through the old Olympic village area, saw a bunch of Gaudi's architectural buildings, stopped at a church high up in the mountains with great panoramic views of the city, spent about an hour walking around Park Guell, and spent a good 40+ mins at La Sagrada Familia walking all around it. Our guide was great and knew so much information. At every place we went she was willing to take photos for everyone at each site and was extremely helpful and patient with my MIL who struggled a bit to keep up at the park with the long walks.

 

My only complaint, when we were outside of la sagrada familia we were near a bunch of little shops on the street. I was dying for some authentic Spanish food, but had no idea how much time we were spending there. If I had known that we had about 40 minutes and were continuing around the block to cover all sides of the massive church, I would have stopped and grabbed the empanada & churro that was calling to me and met back up with the group a few minutes later. There is no time for lunch worked into this tour, and hubby was sad that he never got to try authentic paella.

 

After we were done we had asked the guide for food recommendations, but there were no good places within waking distance of the port. She was willing to drop us off on the way someplace, but made it sound difficult to find our way back to the port so we were hesitant to try. Pro Tip: Be mindful of the day of the week that you will be visiting Barcelona. We were there on a Sunday, and all the shops & restaurants on la rambla were closed. The streets were nearly deserted and empty. This made it easy to take photos and look around, but I felt like we missed out on seeing the real Barcelona while we were there. Spain is on our list of places to return to in a future vacation, so we'll be sure to come back and see the real Barcelona on a non-family day.

 

When we got back to the port, it was chaotic. Huge difference between boarding in Barcelona vs Rome where there were no lines and not much people. Barcelona had very long lines and tons of people trying to get onto the ship. Pro Tip: If you already have your cruise card and got on in Rome like us, find a crew member and show them your card. They will skip you ahead to the front of the line ahead of everyone with suitcases so you can get on much faster. Also, avoid the elevators. They will be packed full of passengers with their luggage trying to find their cabins. Now it's your turn to roll your eyes at the newbies who don't know how to find their room or the closest bar.

 

We took one look at the lines of people waiting for elevators and walked right to the bar instead. The three of us went over the irish place, O'sheehans(?) and grabbed a quick lunch with some beers while waiting for the crowds to disperse. While sitting there, once again we saw our friends from the beginning of the cruise and invited them to join us at our large table. They had taken a tour to Monserrat that day and the pictures they shared were awesome. It will definitely be on our list of places to visit on our return to Spain in the future.

 

When the crowds finally thinned out and we made it back to our cabin, we heard the announcements about the mandatory safety drill. So after taking forever to make it up to deck 11, we had to turn right back around and head back down to deck 6 for our meeting place. Safety is important, and required, but the 'drill' was really pointless. They just showed you how to put on a life jacket. That was it. If there was truly an emergency, isn't it more important to know how to access the life boats? Hubby and I stumbled upon them one day while walking around the ship. They were near the whiskey bar on deck 6 I think, or possibly 7, wherever the whiskey bar is. We saw someone coming out of a door and decided to see what was behind it. To our surprise we found a big outdoor walkway along the side of the ship that ran practically the entire length of the ship. That is where you need to go to get into a life boat. I get it, there's too many passengers to take everyone on a tour of the life boat access point, but come on, at least mention which deck they are located on so I don't have to find it by accident myself when I wasn't even looking for it.

 

Seeing as how the next day was going to be a full day at sea, we were looking forward to having something to do that night since we could sleep in. To our big surprise and disappointment, there was nothing going on. There was the howl at the moon piano players again, but we didn't care for them. This may have been the night of the 'not so newlywed game' going on in the Headliners bar. We watched that, and it was hysterical. Our neighbors that we met in Cannes tried to get picked, but were passed over in favor of a different couple who was highly entertaining.

 

Again, the entertainment on the ship baffled me. Nights when we were going to have an early morning port of call the following day had tons of activities going on from 9pm - midnight. The night of the cruise where the next day we were stuck at sea with nothing to run to early in the morning, we found practically nothing to do. I'm sure there were things, but nothing that stood out to us that we hadn't already participated in.

 

So what does a person with UBP do in a situation like this? Head to the bar! We made a bunch of new friends (hubby makes friends everywhere he goes, I'm less social). One extremely kind and friendly gentleman was from Turkey, and we met a couple from the Bronx that naturally we took to as they were fellow NY'ers. Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the fellow passengers we met on board. With the exception of the few idiots who do not understand elevator etiquette (move out of the way, let me out before you try to push your way on), we had amazing and interesting conversations with nearly everyone we came across. One night, possibly this one, we took the elevator up to the pool deck just to walk around and look out at the ocean. Took the ride up with an elderly couple from Ireland and when we got off the elevator stood there talking with them for a solid 15 minutes. MIL thought we had met them previously based on how we were so friendly with each other, but nope, just met them right then and there in the elevator.

 

Next up, day 8 - day at sea....

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Hello OP enjoying review (we cruise in September out of Barcelona on Epic) we sailed her back in November, too. Question for you: we were advised to convert our US$ to Euros before we leave the States because of the valuation. Did you do so and if so did you at the airport or your bank? Glad to hear your excursions went well, we are also on small group excursions which we paid more but seems worth the extra. I know what you mean about the elevators, they are so annoying and we used the stairs most of the time.

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The muster drill (safety drill) is more than just how to put on your life jacket. It's to familiarize passengers with the location of their muster station so that in the event you have to get off the ship, you are accounted for by the staff. If there is a need to get on a lifeboat, it's in everyone's best interest that it's done in an orderly fashion where people aren't left behind in some sort of mad stampede to the nearest boat.

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Hi, Sailaway! Love this trip report.

 

Daughter has a question- on nights that Howl at the Moon wasn’t happening, what type of entertainment was in Headliners?

 

Thanks so much!

It varied. There was another musical act of 3 singers, but we didn't care for them. One night they hosted the 'not so newlywed game' in there which was a lot of fun. I think there may have been a magician/illusionist one night, but we were never able to catch them for some reason. I wish I hadn't lost my daily newsletters, I wanted to see all the things that we missed so we could try better on our next go around.

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Hello OP enjoying review (we cruise in September out of Barcelona on Epic) we sailed her back in November, too. Question for you: we were advised to convert our US$ to Euros before we leave the States because of the valuation. Did you do so and if so did you at the airport or your bank? Glad to hear your excursions went well, we are also on small group excursions which we paid more but seems worth the extra. I know what you mean about the elevators, they are so annoying and we used the stairs most of the time.

 

Between the 3 of us we had converted roughly $400 into euros days before at either our bank, or at the currency exchange at the mall. We knew going in though that we had to pay 55 euros in cash to the driver picking us up at the airport, as well as the hotel city tax in Rome before getting onto the boat.

 

MIL found the best place to exchange money in Venice of all places, where they didn't charge any fees and the rate was decent. She was using more of the cash on souvenirs, I was able to charge 90% of what I bought and just used cash for taxis and tips. We both exchanged an extra $60 in Venice to make sure we had enough for taxi if needed and the room city tax when we got to Florence. She got back 46 euros at her 'no fee' location, we only got 33 euros for the same $60. We definitely got hosed at the place we stopped at. Bonus Pro Tip: If exchanging currency, ask what fees (if any) there will be and what you will physically get back in euros before agreeing to the exchange.

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Hello OP enjoying review (we cruise in September out of Barcelona on Epic) we sailed her back in November, too. Question for you: we were advised to convert our US$ to Euros before we leave the States because of the valuation. Did you do so and if so did you at the airport or your bank? Glad to hear your excursions went well, we are also on small group excursions which we paid more but seems worth the extra. I know what you mean about the elevators, they are so annoying and we used the stairs most of the time.

 

We are on this cruise in June and are taking a few days in Rome first. Our private tours and driver require payment in Euros - no credit cards- at the end of the tour . We don't want to take a chance on finding an open bank with an ATM ..have had issues in the past with our debit card not working despite having notified the bank that we would be traveling. Our tiny local bank got us a great exchange rate for a flat $19. they charge the same fee whether you get $400 or $4000 worth of Euros

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I found my infamous folder with all of my cruise information! I had buried it in an outer pocket of hubby's suitcase apparently. Main entertainment options in the evening were as follows:

 

Magician Christian Miro - We never had time to try and make reservations for this, or it was always happening at the same time we wanted to eat dinner and kept missing it. Took place in the Epic Theater at 7pm after leaving Civitavecchia; 8pm in Headliners after Livorno; 7pm Headliners on day at sea.

 

Impressionist Spencer Robson - Another one we never managed to catch. Took place in Headliners at 8pm after leaving Civitavecchia and Palma; 10:30pm at Headliners on day at sea.

 

Vocalist Lilly-Jane Young in Concert - Never heard of her, so we didn't seek out reservations. 9:30pm in the Epic Theater after leaving Civitavecchia, 8pm in Headliners after Cannes; 7pm in Headliners after Barcelona.

 

Classical Trio Tre Amici - Caught them butchering Piano Man as we walked past Headliners, and decided to skip seeing them. 10pm in Headliners after leaving Civitavecchia and Cannes; 8pm in Headliners after Naples.

 

Latin Fiesta with Burn the Floor - Salsa dance lessons with the cast from Burn the Floor. We can't dance, we suffer from a serious case of lack of any rhythm at all and didn't want to embarrass ourselves with this. 10pm Bliss Lounge after leaving Civitavecchia.

 

Epic Beatles - Beatles cover band, and they were very good. Pro Tip: If you plan on seeing them, get there at least 45 minutes early if you want a seat. It fills up very quickly and is a popular act. I didn't realize until now that each time they play they cover a different album. First night was Sgt Pepper, then Abbey Road. Takes place in the Cavern Club at 10:30pm after leaving Civitavecchia and Livorno and Palma and day at sea.

 

Cirque Dreams Epicurean - We didn't want to spend any more money than we already had and passed on this show. Took place in the Spiegel Tent at 6:30 & 9:30pm after leaving Livorno and Cannes and the day at sea; 8:30pm after leaving Palma and Barcelona and Naples.

 

Priscilla Queen of the Desert the Musical - Took place at 7 & 10pm in the Epic Theater after leaving Livorno and Naples.

 

Howl at the Moon - Dueling pianos starting at 10pm in Headliners after leaving Livorno and Palma and Barcelona and Naples.

 

Epic Variety Show - I had no idea this even took place. 7 & 9pm in the Epic Theater after leaving Cannes. I guess we need to do a better job of reading the newsletter on our next trip.

 

Burn the Floor - We saw this towards the end of our cruise. Those dancers do not stop moving for a full hour. I envy their calf muscles. 7 & 9pm in the Epic theater after leaving Palma and the day at sea.

 

Welcome Aboard Show - And now it makes sense... the one night we really wanted to catch the Beatles show was after leaving Barcelona because we had a full day at sea the following day. They weren't playing in the Cavern Club, and I'm just seeing it's because they were part of the welcome aboard show in the Epic Theater at 8pm that night. So Barcelona guests get a welcome aboard show, but Rome guests do not...

 

There was also a welcome reception at the art gallery where you were supposed to get a free glass of champagne and a "welcome aboard" gift pack. We went and saw no one and had no idea how to get our gift bag, so gave up and left. There was also "Paint, Mix, Mingle" that we were interested in, but had no idea where to go to sign up for it, nor how much of a fee it would have cost. Newsletter also mentioned daily the 'instant win pull tabs', 'paradise lotto', and 'scratch cards', but again we had no idea where to find any of these things and lines were typically long at guest services to make it not worth asking.

 

Main point is that there is a LOT of stuff going on, with a variety of things to suit just about everyone. Read your newsletter thoroughly so you don't miss anything that appeals to you like we did. But at the same time, also keep in mind that if your port excursions are long and strenuous, you may not be able to stay awake for that 10:30pm Beatlemania show afterall...

 

I'll get to the highlights from our day at sea next post.

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