Just off Epic - Mediterranean West

[Meanee]

So me and my significant other (No, I am not using D-ABCDHEFG-Z thing) just got off NCL Epic and currently relaxing in Barcelona airport.

 

We decided not to do any excursions through the ship mostly due to a complete ripoff prices. We also flew into Barcelona a day early to enjoy the city. Did the usual touristy things, like eat paella, chasing it down with sangria in shadow of Sagrada Familia. We preferred not to take cabs, and used public transport as much as we could.

 

 

Embarkation

Embarcation in Barcelona was easy. We took a metro to port and 2 euro bus to the ship. We got to the ship at around noon. There were barely any people there. Dropped off our bags, went in to a very short (2 people) line to get our photo taken, and given boarding number (ours was 9). They were boarding 8 at the time already. Barely had time to use the restroom and they said that anyone waiting to board, regardless of group number, can go ahead. Total time at terminal = approximately 10 minutes. Like any warm blooded cruise passenger, we decided to go get food right away. Garden Cafe was NOT a mob scene. I was able to get a great seat, and there were plenty more available. When it was a mob scene was usually in mornings. It is difficult to find a seat.

 

Naples

Was not my favorite city. Hot, humid, uncomfortable. Hopped on a subway and then on Circumvisuviana train to get to Pompeii. Did a walking tour. It was 12 euros for the guide, and 11 euros for entrance. While guide is more or less a must, we left the group about half way. We had a ton of people in the group and it took forever for guide to lead us anywhere or enter any buildings. When we saw a gigantic line to see the brothels ruins, we just left. It's stone beds, nothing else, and there's a ton of waiting.

 

Encountered a nasty accordion player on the train back. They are very fast to spot tourists, and he wouldn't leave. We already gave him 2 euros coin on the way there, so he decided to get more cash out of us. I had to tell him NO in every language I can think of, so he would take a hint.

 

Rome

My brilliant plan of getting out of port, going to the right and reaching train station in Civitavecchia went out of the window when we realized that Fort Michelangelo is under renovation and cruise shuttle is going to the bus depot pretty far the other way. But at the bus area we found a round trip Civitavecchia-Rome bus for 17 euros per person, and took that instead. There was a bit of a traffic in Rome, but ride was pretty fast. Dropoff was 15 minute walk from Vatican and that's where we went.

 

Line to basilica was about 2 hours long. Sistine Chapel was about the same. We did not go into any, but there are tons of people who will do a very hard sell for you to do a line-free tour. We told one of them that we are not doing it, and he decided to promote his YouTube channel to us for some reason.

 

After Vatican, some pizza, and a subway ride to Trevi fountains. Which are under renovation... Bummber. Walked to Colosseum from there.

 

In Colosseum, you will get the usual "Skip the line" hagglers. Instead of doing that, go towards ticket line, and look for a poster with a QR code. Scan that, and you will be able to buy tickets online right away. Proceed to Reservations line after that (10 min max) and tell them you bought it through QR code and show them the email. They will print your actual tickets with barcodes.

 

After that, we took a subway back to Vatican area, got on a bus and back to the ship.

 

Livorno/Pisa/Florence

The idea was to visit all of the above. Well, in Livorno, there's not much to do. We took a bus to train station, bought the ticket to Pisa and in 18 minutes we were there. A quick cab ride later, we are at the tower, admiring all tourists propping up the tower. Photo with a comment "Everybody was kung-fu fighting" got a decent amount of likes on Facebook.

 

We decided against going to Florence, since the timing won't leave us with more than an hour or so there.

 

 

Cannes

I liked that town. We did not reserve the tender so we had to be a on a standby. Was not a very long wait (20 minutes or so) and we were off.

 

Cannes is very pleasant, but my goal was Eze. We went to Eze village, up to the castle. It was insanely beautiful. Keep in mind, the bus (83) that goes between train station and Eze village sometimes may take up to an hour to get there. Since it was pretty late for us, we opted to take a cab to Nice and got on a train there. Got back to the tender area 30 minutes before last tender.

 

Palma

Also a great port. Palma is beautiful place just to stroll through. We tried to go up to Soller on that little tram thing, but wait was too long. Instead we just remained in Palma, exploring Cathedral area.

 

Debarkation

We opted to do a walk-off. We have no problems carrying our own bags, and we did not have to sit around, waiting for your group to be called. There are no customs or passport check, like in USA. Just walk off. We went to the bus, subway, and then a regional train to airport (where we are right now)

 

Stateroom

We decided to go with inside stateroom. While I usually try to get balcony, we thought that on a port-intensive itinerary like this one, balcony won't make a lot of point since we will be out and about.

 

Room was well designed. There are 2 110v and 2 220v plugs. Protip: Bring a power strip. I had no problem having all my gadgets charged.

 

Bathroom and shower had no locks. And frosted glass, while covering you up, does not leave a lot for imagination. But if you are privacy concerned, there's a curtain. Sink is not in the shower/bathroom and we did not have any issues using it. There's no "splashing all over once you turn it on" like others are claiming.

 

Food

I found food to be somewhat bland. Not a very large variety of main courses in dining rooms. We also did Chef's Table which was great. Met some wonderful people, ate some great food. Drank enough wine to make the rest of a day a blur ;). O'Sheehans was pretty meh. Fish was "creamy" and buffalo wings didn't have the kick I expected.

 

Garden Cafe was ok. Certainly not the best food, but not the worst. Staff could be a bit better with silverware. One night, I had to hunt down someone and ask him to bring me 2 sets of silverware. He disappears for 5 minutes, brings back 2 sets, and with amazing sense of accomplishment puts it on a different table, where eager occupant put them into immediate use. I had to send him on a second trip. Same goes for spoons next to ice cream. Plenty of ice cream, zero spoons. They are usually slow to refill, and told me few times to go to the other side of the buffet, where they have additional ice cream, to get spoons. I thought it would have to be a battle to the death over last spoon that was left over there, but thankfully, they brought out a bunch before blood spilled.

 

Also, unlike on Carnival, they do not ration out bacon there. Yay!

 

On second night, I came down with a bit of a cold. So I could not sleep and went hunting for some hot tea at around 4am. O'Sheehan's was the only place that could get me some tea, I set up my laptop, watched a movie, sipping tea. At the same time, a VERY drunk irish dude sat at my table with bunch of drunk talk. It all ended up with me convincing him that I am a secret agent (agency did not matter), and had to calm his paranoia that someone on the ship is out to kill him. When his wife finally came to collect him, I had to give him my personal guarantee as a secret agent that he is safe in his room from any of my minions. Fun night.

 

Lobster

Yep, I am giving it it's own section.

First, the news of lobster night demise were greatly exaggerated. 2nd night they served lobster in Garden Cafe. Or it could be just an overgrown shrimp... Lobster itself was tiny and tail was cut in half. But there were no issues getting as many as you want. They typically put 2, but if you ask them for 10, you will get 10.

 

Pools

More like human soup. Midship pools were jam-packed with kids, adults, etc. Pool in the back (Spice H2O) was a bit better, but it's also pretty small. And loungers were pretty much impossible to obtain in Spice H2O. So far, for a ship this size, there should be more or bigger pools. And pools are pretty shallow. On Royal Princess, there were pools with 9+ feet depth. Here, you won't get more than 4 and change.

 

Hot tubs were also packed like can of sardines.

 

Onboard entertainment

We did the usual Blue Man Group thing. Was great. Would I pay money for that? Nope. But since it was free, it was great. But I am unlikely to go again.

 

Due to feeling a bit under the weather, I opted to stay in the stateroom a bit more than usual and cannot give a better review on that. Howl At the Moon was ok. Skills of musicians were great, but I did not care much for songs.

 

 

Ship layout

Best layout I experienced was Allure/Oasis. Absolute worst was Carnival Dream (that ship tends to bring out homicidal maniac feelings that I've been suppressing since that cruise). Royal Princess was sitting in between. I found NCL Epic to be pretty close to Royal Princess, but I prefer RP if I had to pick. There are no big atriums. On bottom of 2nd atrium is a dining room. Decks 5, 6, 7 have all entertainment and public spaces.

 

I found the feedback that you do not see much of an ocean pretty accurate. Most venues do not give you a lot of ocean view.

 

I guess this is it for now. I will try to answer questions, if any come up.

[Steph27]

Thank you for your review. Glad you enjoyed the cruise. Agree completely that you can do most tours on your own and not have to purchase ship excursions. Appreciate the detailed descriptions of what you did in port. Good to read they still do lobster in the Garden Cafe. However being from New England I don't have high expectations. I also like grilled lobster tails so maybe I will be pleasantly surprised. Did you eat in any of the specialty restaurants? We sail on the Epic for the first time in spring 2015.

[Meanee]

Thank you for your review. Glad you enjoyed the cruise. Agree completely that you can do most tours on your own and not have to purchase ship excursions. Appreciate the detailed descriptions of what you did in port. Good to read they still do lobster in the Garden Cafe. However being from New England I don't have high expectations. I also like grilled lobster tails so maybe I will be pleasantly surprised. Did you eat in any of the specialty restaurants? We sail on the Epic for the first time in spring 2015.

 

I wanted to, but I was a bit under the weather for decent chunk of cruise. And to be it was more convenient just to go to MDR/Garden Cafe after long day out.

 

We wanted to do Moderno or Cagney's, but never made it there. I do recommend Chef's Table. It is pretty pricey, however, but food is more unique. Unfortunately, I felt like Chef's Table on Carnival had more creative dishes. And I did not get the whole "you will have to share your dessert" part of Chef's Table...

 

Lobster itself was not grilled. On Carnival, when they showed us how they make it, they pass tails under electric heating element on a conveyor belt. So, you should not get your hopes up for grilled or steamed lobster. If you are used to lobster for New England, this is more likely to disappoint you.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Meanee

[Sauer-kraut]

Naples

Was not my favorite city. Hot, humid, uncomfortable. Hopped on a subway and then on Circumvisuviana train to get to Pompeii. Did a walking tour. It was 12 euros for the guide, and 11 euros for entrance. While guide is more or less a must, we left the group about half way. We had a ton of people in the group and it took forever for guide to lead us anywhere or enter any building. When we saw a gigantic line to see the brothels ruins, we just left. It's stone beds, nothing else, and there's a ton of waiting.

 

This is why I always recommend Herculaneum instead of Pompeii. Beautiful mosaics, better preserved ruins, more shade AND no hordes of people. Its very easy to DYI and its on the same train line as Pompeii, just an earlier stop.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Sauer-kraut

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your well written report.

Keith

[Meanee]

[/b]

 

This is why I always recommend Herculaneum instead of Pompeii. Beautiful mosaics, better preserved ruins, more shade AND no hordes of people. Its very easy to DYI and its on the same train line as Pompeii, just an earlier stop.

 

Didn't realize that. Thank you for the tip!

[CoffeeGoddess]

That was certainly good times at the Chef's Table!

[Meanee]

That was certainly good times at the Chef's Table!

 

 

Ahhh!! STALKER!!!

 

LOL yes, it was certainly amazing. Sucks I couldn't connect with you and Brits on last day...

[PathfinderEss]

Welcome back, thanks for your nice report.

[CoffeeGoddess]

Ahhh!! STALKER!!!

 

LOL yes, it was certainly amazing. Sucks I couldn't connect with you and Brits on last day...

 

 

Ha! I know, I was going to call you two and see if you wanted to do a drink after I packed but by the time I finished I was shocked to see it was almost 10:30 and I didn't want to call and wake you up if you had been in bed.

[steilkurve]

So me and my significant other (No, I am not using D-ABCDHEFG-Z thing) just got off NCL Epic and currently relaxing in Barcelona airport.

 

We decided not to do any excursions through the ship mostly due to a complete ripoff prices. We also flew into Barcelona a day early to enjoy the city. Did the usual touristy things, like eat paella, chasing it down with sangria in shadow of Sagrada Familia. We preferred not to take cabs, and used public transport as much as we could.

 

 

Embarkation

Embarcation in Barcelona was easy. We took a metro to port and 2 euro bus to the ship. We got to the ship at around noon. There were barely any people there. Dropped off our bags, went in to a very short (2 people) line to get our photo taken, and given boarding number (ours was 9). They were boarding 8 at the time already. Barely had time to use the restroom and they said that anyone waiting to board, regardless of group number, can go ahead. Total time at terminal = approximately 10 minutes. Like any warm blooded cruise passenger, we decided to go get food right away. Garden Cafe was NOT a mob scene. I was able to get a great seat, and there were plenty more available. When it was a mob scene was usually in mornings. It is difficult to find a seat.

 

Naples

Was not my favorite city. Hot, humid, uncomfortable. Hopped on a subway and then on Circumvisuviana train to get to Pompeii. Did a walking tour. It was 12 euros for the guide, and 11 euros for entrance. While guide is more or less a must, we left the group about half way. We had a ton of people in the group and it took forever for guide to lead us anywhere or enter any buildings. When we saw a gigantic line to see the brothels ruins, we just left. It's stone beds, nothing else, and there's a ton of waiting.

 

Encountered a nasty accordion player on the train back. They are very fast to spot tourists, and he wouldn't leave. We already gave him 2 euros coin on the way there, so he decided to get more cash out of us. I had to tell him NO in every language I can think of, so he would take a hint.

 

Rome

My brilliant plan of getting out of port, going to the right and reaching train station in Civitavecchia went out of the window when we realized that Fort Michelangelo is under renovation and cruise shuttle is going to the bus depot pretty far the other way. But at the bus area we found a round trip Civitavecchia-Rome bus for 17 euros per person, and took that instead. There was a bit of a traffic in Rome, but ride was pretty fast. Dropoff was 15 minute walk from Vatican and that's where we went.

 

Line to basilica was about 2 hours long. Sistine Chapel was about the same. We did not go into any, but there are tons of people who will do a very hard sell for you to do a line-free tour. We told one of them that we are not doing it, and he decided to promote his YouTube channel to us for some reason.

 

After Vatican, some pizza, and a subway ride to Trevi fountains. Which are under renovation... Bummber. Walked to Colosseum from there.

 

In Colosseum, you will get the usual "Skip the line" hagglers. Instead of doing that, go towards ticket line, and look for a poster with a QR code. Scan that, and you will be able to buy tickets online right away. Proceed to Reservations line after that (10 min max) and tell them you bought it through QR code and show them the email. They will print your actual tickets with barcodes.

 

After that, we took a subway back to Vatican area, got on a bus and back to the ship.

 

Livorno/Pisa/Florence

The idea was to visit all of the above. Well, in Livorno, there's not much to do. We took a bus to train station, bought the ticket to Pisa and in 18 minutes we were there. A quick cab ride later, we are at the tower, admiring all tourists propping up the tower. Photo with a comment "Everybody was kung-fu fighting" got a decent amount of likes on Facebook.

 

We decided against going to Florence, since the timing won't leave us with more than an hour or so there.

 

 

Cannes

I liked that town. We did not reserve the tender so we had to be a on a standby. Was not a very long wait (20 minutes or so) and we were off.

 

Cannes is very pleasant, but my goal was Eze. We went to Eze village, up to the castle. It was insanely beautiful. Keep in mind, the bus (83) that goes between train station and Eze village sometimes may take up to an hour to get there. Since it was pretty late for us, we opted to take a cab to Nice and got on a train there. Got back to the tender area 30 minutes before last tender.

 

Palma

Also a great port. Palma is beautiful place just to stroll through. We tried to go up to Soller on that little tram thing, but wait was too long. Instead we just remained in Palma, exploring Cathedral area.

 

Debarkation

We opted to do a walk-off. We have no problems carrying our own bags, and we did not have to sit around, waiting for your group to be called. There are no customs or passport check, like in USA. Just walk off. We went to the bus, subway, and then a regional train to airport (where we are right now)

 

Stateroom

We decided to go with inside stateroom. While I usually try to get balcony, we thought that on a port-intensive itinerary like this one, balcony won't make a lot of point since we will be out and about.

 

Room was well designed. There are 2 110v and 2 220v plugs. Protip: Bring a power strip. I had no problem having all my gadgets charged.

 

Bathroom and shower had no locks. And frosted glass, while covering you up, does not leave a lot for imagination. But if you are privacy concerned, there's a curtain. Sink is not in the shower/bathroom and we did not have any issues using it. There's no "splashing all over once you turn it on" like others are claiming.

 

Food

I found food to be somewhat bland. Not a very large variety of main courses in dining rooms. We also did Chef's Table which was great. Met some wonderful people, ate some great food. Drank enough wine to make the rest of a day a blur ;). O'Sheehans was pretty meh. Fish was "creamy" and buffalo wings didn't have the kick I expected.

 

Garden Cafe was ok. Certainly not the best food, but not the worst. Staff could be a bit better with silverware. One night, I had to hunt down someone and ask him to bring me 2 sets of silverware. He disappears for 5 minutes, brings back 2 sets, and with amazing sense of accomplishment puts it on a different table, where eager occupant put them into immediate use. I had to send him on a second trip. Same goes for spoons next to ice cream. Plenty of ice cream, zero spoons. They are usually slow to refill, and told me few times to go to the other side of the buffet, where they have additional ice cream, to get spoons. I thought it would have to be a battle to the death over last spoon that was left over there, but thankfully, they brought out a bunch before blood spilled.

 

Also, unlike on Carnival, they do not ration out bacon there. Yay!

 

On second night, I came down with a bit of a cold. So I could not sleep and went hunting for some hot tea at around 4am. O'Sheehan's was the only place that could get me some tea, I set up my laptop, watched a movie, sipping tea. At the same time, a VERY drunk irish dude sat at my table with bunch of drunk talk. It all ended up with me convincing him that I am a secret agent (agency did not matter), and had to calm his paranoia that someone on the ship is out to kill him. When his wife finally came to collect him, I had to give him my personal guarantee as a secret agent that he is safe in his room from any of my minions. Fun night.

 

Lobster

Yep, I am giving it it's own section.

First, the news of lobster night demise were greatly exaggerated. 2nd night they served lobster in Garden Cafe. Or it could be just an overgrown shrimp... Lobster itself was tiny and tail was cut in half. But there were no issues getting as many as you want. They typically put 2, but if you ask them for 10, you will get 10.

 

Pools

More like human soup. Midship pools were jam-packed with kids, adults, etc. Pool in the back (Spice H2O) was a bit better, but it's also pretty small. And loungers were pretty much impossible to obtain in Spice H2O. So far, for a ship this size, there should be more or bigger pools. And pools are pretty shallow. On Royal Princess, there were pools with 9+ feet depth. Here, you won't get more than 4 and change.

 

Hot tubs were also packed like can of sardines.

 

Onboard entertainment

We did the usual Blue Man Group thing. Was great. Would I pay money for that? Nope. But since it was free, it was great. But I am unlikely to go again.

 

Due to feeling a bit under the weather, I opted to stay in the stateroom a bit more than usual and cannot give a better review on that. Howl At the Moon was ok. Skills of musicians were great, but I did not care much for songs.

 

 

Ship layout

Best layout I experienced was Allure/Oasis. Absolute worst was Carnival Dream (that ship tends to bring out homicidal maniac feelings that I've been suppressing since that cruise). Royal Princess was sitting in between. I found NCL Epic to be pretty close to Royal Princess, but I prefer RP if I had to pick. There are no big atriums. On bottom of 2nd atrium is a dining room. Decks 5, 6, 7 have all entertainment and public spaces.

 

I found the feedback that you do not see much of an ocean pretty accurate. Most venues do not give you a lot of ocean view.

 

I guess this is it for now. I will try to answer questions, if any come up.

 

Thanks for the review. Is the ship in good shape?

[Meanee]

Thanks for the review. Is the ship in good shape?

 

Yeah. I found the ship to be in a great shape. It's not particularly old, and it feels pretty fresh.

 

Ship itself has a bit more modern looking interior and cabins. For example, to turn on your night/reading light, you push the button right under the light, which has a glowing blue LED surrounding it.

 

I did not see anything broken or uncared for. All inside/outside facilities were nice, clean, and tastefully designed. There was not a single thing out there that I thought "you know, it could use a fresh paint" or anything like that. Nothing like worn carpeting, or anything like that in sight.

 

It seems that everything is very well cared for. I am sure the ship has very thorough maintenance staff.

[steilkurve]

Ok. Thanks for the reply.

[Rosethorn40]

Thanks for the review. We are sailing on the Epic next September (Barcelona to Southampton, England), and I'm hoping with most kids back in school the pools won't be as packed. This it why I refuse to do a Med cruise in July/August-the hordes of children.