NCL Epic Live Trip Cruise Report Aug/Sep 2014

[rhapsodybluezz]

I was on the August 24th sailing. I bought 4 bottles of wine at the shops before getting on the ship. I put them in my carry on and walked onto the ship. There was a scanner but they let me walk past without scanning my carry on.

[ghockley1981]

Thank you!! I'm really enjoying your live review, it's been lovely following you on your travels.

 

I've a couple of questions I hope you don't mind answering.

 

1) Were there many taxis parked in Livorno port? (I'm hoping to get one to Florence and back with family, instead of train. Will be interested to hear how you found travelling to Florence or Pisa)

 

2) Which bar (in your opinion) makes the best cocktails?!

 

3) Which day would you recommend booking one specialty dinner for? Bearing in mind the port-heavy itinerary.

 

4) How was the travel from ship to train station in Civitivecchia? (I heard they are re-furbing the port, I'm sure you'll cover this in your review)

 

Happy rest of your cruise :)

 

Hope the weather stays calm.

 

 

Glad you are enjoying my little input! 😀

 

1. There were lots of Taxis in the port for us, waiting outside the ship. Some were offering deals to Pisa, so I would believe some would to Florence as well. There is a shuttle bus which also takes your to Livorno every 20 minutes.

 

I did the NCL run trip to Piss in the morning so can't comment any more than that. Pisa was lovely though.

 

2. I enjoy the Maltings Bar due to the guitarist who plays there every night between 8-12. It's a very nice chilled area for a few cocktails, the Bahama Mamma is nice here.

 

 

I also like the Spice Bar at the back of the ship, this has a different range of cocktails and is nice and lovely.

 

Here I reccomend the Mudslide, we liked the so much we asked for it in the Maltings Bar although it's not on the menu. This was not a problem for them and that is where this picture is taken.

 

 

I shall attach the menus in a later post for everyone.

 

3. Really this would depend on what you are doing each day. I would say though that perhaps Livorno would be the one to go for as Rome and Naples are very busy full days. Livorno is closer and less rushed in my opinion.

 

4. This I will cover in full for my next post 😉

 

 

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[suspaul]

Thanks so much for sharing your adventure, I'm eagerly awaiting your next ports and postings as we'll be on this same cruise in a few weeks :). Enjoying your help and insight, thanks again.

[Froufie]

There was a scanner when you got onboard.

 

 

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I was on the August 24th sailing. I bought 4 bottles of wine at the shops before getting on the ship. I put them in my carry on and walked onto the ship. There was a scanner but they let me walk past without scanning my carry on.

 

Sounds hit or miss? Will have to do a risk/benefit analysis prior to boarding the ship I guess? :D;)

 

thanks for the info!

Edited September 4, 2014 by Froufie

[Steeler Nation At Sea]

We are on your cruise. Currently enjoying free wifi and a coffee at a cafe in civitavecchia. It's good of you to take time out of your cruise to write this review

 

Hope you're having a great time! Book the Escape TA while onboard, okay?

Kim

 

OP- Thanks for your live report. I am due onboard for 18 days next month!

 

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[ghockley1981]

Ok then so today was our trip to Rome, the one we were really looking forward to.

 

We got off the ship and found a massive line for the coaches to the port exit, this was not moving very quickly due to the amount of passengers with luggage leaving us today. It really was slow. We were probably 3 ship berths from the fort at the entrance to the port so we decided to walk to the train station. We did this because if you weren't aware the coach drop off point has now moved to Via Turco which is much further away from the station now and we thought if we are having to wait here at the ship and then there is probably a queue to wait at Via Turco for buses to the train station as well. It would probably be quicker to walk directly there. So after guessing walking would be quicker, it turned out it was. There is a specific path at the port for pedestrians so it's quite safe and was quite a nice walk really.

 

The fort is currently a building site but we can now see half the work is complete and they are making it into a lovely pedestrianised area. Once you get here you need to walk to the front of this and head right through a gate.

 

 

The road is blocked to prevent road through traffic. As this will now be permanent a tourist pedestrian area. Going through the gate you then arrive at quite a nice beach promenade, you just need to walk along this lovely area and the train station is on your left near the end. It's very easy, and even easier to buy train tickets.

 

 

We went for the BIRG tickets, this cost €12 each. They allow you all day return travel on the train, and the buses and metro in Rome. The queues for the main kiosk were massive, but these tickets you can buy from the shops next door. Just simply walk to the back right of the small main ticket hall and go through this corridor to the shops, the first one is a newsagents and then there is a bigger second supermarket shop. This is where I bought mine, just ask for a BIRG (pronounced berg) ticket.

 

Now the important bit, these tickets need to be registered for the day your travelling, if you buy from a shop they are not registered. To do this you just need to use the machine on the platform, insert them as shown and they will print the time and date on your ticket. Once done for each ticket you have yours ready to go. You will not have to register then anywhere else. The train to Rome will either start from platform 1 slightly down the track or platform 3. These tickets are not accepted on the inter-city train. Just the regional one so print off the timetables so you easily know which is which.

 

 

When it arrived we managed to get a seat and were on our way. It all seemed very easy really and we were on our way to Rome.

 

 

We decided we would get off at Roma S Pietro which is close to the Vatican and begin our journey here. The Pope had just done a morning session so it was very busy here but we got the touristy pics and enjoyed our walk around here. We then headed down the main road leading directly away from the Vatican and turned left at the end which took us to the nearest bus stop. From here you can get the 23 or 280 bus which takes you down along the river towards the Colosseum, Circus Maximus and the Roman Forum. As we approached the Tiber island in the middle of the River we pressed the button and got off almost opposite it. This was great as we could cross over and almost be at Circus Maximus. We walked along here and then up to the Roman Forum entrance.

 

Now we knew we could buy tickets here and this would also get us into the Colosseum. We did however buy these online, but this is what we would of done if we hadn't as there was no queue.

 

After our walk around the forum where I got this great pic below we then headed over to the Colosseum. The queue for this is massive inside and goes almost half way round the building itself!! So glad we were prepared.

 

q

 

We really enjoyed the colosseum, it has been something I always wanted to do. Admittedly once you have done 30 minutes here there is not much else to add to see but still being in a theatre of entertainment such as this really left me feeling happy to have had the experience.

 

After this we realised we were running out of time so we got on the metro for two stops to the Roma Termini. We then took the long walk to platform 27 which is actually at the end of the main station platforms so be prepared.

 

We caught our train from here and got back to port after a little walk and a stop off in a cafe on the sea promenade quite quickly. This journey really was very nice and easy, when you knew what you had to do and where to go, just make a little preparation.

 

In the evening we had some buffet in the Garden Cafe again which is great, I shall put up a few pics of this afterwards. We then stayed in the Maltings bar, as we realised all cocktails here were served in a bigger glass. Spice only serves the cocktails in plastic cups so worth noting that, although sitting in the sun I suppose it is worth it. We then headed to the Ancora Pop Opera in the Epic theatre. They were very good and sang some of the classic opera songs mixed with some recent chart songs. I enjoyed this but it doesn't seem to be on very often which is a shame, I hope they put this on more.

 

After this we spent some more time walking between the bars and then settled in the Malting Bar again till midnight called and it was time to call it a night. Pisa was calling us next.

 

 

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[Gettingwarmer]

 

We decided we would get off at Roma S Pietro which is close to the Vatican and begin our journey here. The Pope had just done a morning session so it was very busy here but we got the touristy pics and enjoyed our walk around here. We then headed down the main road leading directly away from the Vatican and turned left at the end which took us to the nearest bus stop. From here you can get the 23 or 280 bus which takes you down along the river towards the Colosseum, Circus Maximus and the Roman Forum. As we approached the Tiber island in the middle of the River we pressed the button and got off almost opposite it. This was great as we could cross over and almost be at Circus Maximus. We walked along here and then up to the Roman Forum entrance.

 

Now we knew we could buy tickets here and this would also get us into the Colosseum. We did however buy these online, but this is what we would of done if we hadn't as there was no queue.

 

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Did you mean the Forum entrance or the Palatine Hill entrance?

[ghockley1981]

Your quite right, I meant the Palatine Hill entrance.

 

A bit difficult to read it all through on my iPhone 😀

 

 

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[Gettingwarmer]

The review and information is very good. Love the photos.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Gettingwarmer

[Hikini]

Fun to follow along - thanks for taking the time while you're on vacation to keep in touch with all of us! :)

[CruiseDoggy14]

Great info and tips! Departing on this same cruise Sept 14. [emoji1]

 

 

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[ghockley1981]

When I complete our trip I will upload the freestyle daily for each day and the menus for Manhatten and Taste for you to view if you wish. Plus some tips I have learnt and used.

 

Don't want to do that just now, I have Cannes to go and enjoy 😀.

 

Will write up our Pisa experience over a cocktail when we get back.

 

 

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[ghockley1981]

Now when we awoke at Livorno we had just pulled in and it was a lovely day. I took some pics of the breakfast buffet in the Garden Cafe which I will load up with some other general photos at the end of the trip.

 

Today we had just the half day trip with NCL to Pisa. We didn't want to tire ourselves out on this port intensive trip. We went to our meeting point on our ticket which was the Manhatten Room where we checked out the menu as we waited, there was some veggie options here which they liked the look off so we booked that up for the evening. We were then organised into our buses and then disembarked the ship and jumped on our coach.

 

I noticed there is a shuttle bus to the town centre near the train station also for those that fancy doing something themselves.

 

The NCL tours here are run by the Aloschi Bros. The tour guide Andrea (a fella) was very good in chatting away as we drove through the countryside to Pisa. He also gave us a voucher per person for water from a restaurant cafe which was our meeting point. They obviously have a deal with them here to get them into their cafe and shop. I didn't mind this as the prices actually were quite good and it was a nice place with toilettes in the cafe and also in the garden out the back. There were also some nice market stalls opposite.

 

He then explained that the trolleys which would take us directly to the town centre could not actually take us inside the town walls due to some ongoing road works. We got dropped off outside, and walked through to our meeting point at the cafe. He then said anyone who wants to do their own thing can head off now. If you would like to enjoy my tour follow me.

 

He then led us to a shaded area with great views of the leaning tower and explained its full history very easily for us. We then had some time for pictures before he then led us to the Piazza del Cavalieri . Here there was a beautiful little square and the buildings here were beautiful. We then went inside the church here and it's ceiling has to be seen.

 

 

We were then left to ourselves for some free time before we met for our return back to ship.

 

The buildings were so beautiful in Pisa and they were doing a lot of work to clean them up now the traffic has been re-routed away from the area. Got lots of pictures here and had a pleasant walk around. The Catherdral here was worth a look if you had time. Free tickets could be collected from the information site trough the oval door by the green opposite the leaning tower. These are for set times but are free so worth a go if you can get them.

 

We picked up our free water and collected a few gifts and had a coffee here at our meeting point and had a good look at the market stalls. We then were met by our guide and taken back to the trolley to take us to our bus and then back to our ship.

 

After some drinks in Spice we headed to the Manhatten for our dinner. This was obviously much different to our usual Garden Buffet we have. I shall share the menus in another post for the week along with the cocktails menus I have got. But here are some pics of what we had in Manhatten, which was

 

Palma Ham, Mozzerella Cheese Sticks, French Onion Soup :

 

 

Steak Diane, Veggie Lasagne Rolls, Spaghetti Bolognese (without the meat for Veggies):

 

 

Melting Volcano, Snickerdoodle Pound Cake. :

 

 

This was yummy, the food was so nice but it felt strange not wearing shorts lol it was certainly nice for a change though and I can see why people like it so much, especially with live music. But I so love the range in the buffet and having a bit of everything. So the Garden really is the place for us.

 

We then went to see the Legends show again, it was still Shakira, Diana Ross and Prince but they were again very good. A show I would definately reccomend you don't miss.

 

We then went to Maltings for a cocktail before we headed to the White Party which was very popular.

 

 

Just remember to bring appropriate white attire!!!

 

Next stop is Cannes.

 

 

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[ghockley1981]

 

Tender at Cannes

 

 

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[bluegirluk]

Loving the trippie, I will be doing this cruise in 4 weeks time :D

[CRAustin]

Great TR. What was the price of the Pisa tour. Will be doing this cruise on Oct 19th. Have sail Epic 3 times. First European cruise!

[ghockley1981]

Great TR. What was the price of the Pisa tour. Will be doing this cruise on Oct 19th. Have sail Epic 3 times. First European cruise!

 

 

It cost just over £100 for 2 people when we pre booked it. It never felt rushed so we could enjoy the area in our own time.

 

 

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[ghockley1981]

So then Cannes. Not much to say here to be honest, the tender was quite exciting, sit on the right facing the driver so you can get some good pics of Cannes.

 

 

When you get off there is a handy info centre with Maps so you can easily plan your journey. They are quite good.

 

We did nothing at Cannes itself but walk around. It's a nice walk, some good cafés and you can walk around the harbour and see some nice boats and beaches, lots of shops in the centre and up the hill for a good look out for pictures and to see an old square with some nice buildings, I think there was a museum and gallery here too, it's on the tourist map we got from the info centre.

 

 

Cannes took us a few hours to get around. To get to the top area there are quite a few steps both up and down so you need to be able walking but this is a very pretty area

 

 

We then returned to the ship to enjoy the quite time around the pool , grab some food and then enjoy the sail away before we get ready early for the evening where we had a few things planned.

 

 

We saw the Ancora Classics again, this one in headliners. I think they were very good and we all enjoyed this. We then went to see the Beatles, they were very good and the crowd were up for the celebration. After this we played some machines in the casino before heading to bed.

 

Only Palma to go before our final journey to Barcelona.

 

Hope everyone has enjoyed this, appreciate all the comments from people, it has made it feel worth while. Thanks 😃

 

 

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[Zhane's mum]

Hope you're having a great time! Book the Escape TA while onboard, okay?

Kim

 

OP- Thanks for your live report. I am due onboard for 18 days next month!

 

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Still undecided about TA Kim, maybe?

 

Someone asked if there is a perfume shop on board, there certainly is, I had a cheeky spray of perfume every night. I had my eye on a Calvin Klein perfume it was $65 onboard and I did not buy it. I saw it in Barcelona airport and it was reduced from €55 to €29 euros.

 

Another question was about duty free shop in Barcelona port, I think there were 3 or 4 shops, 2 of which sell alcohol, 1 wine the other spirits. This year we bought 2 bottles of wine, the scanner was set up just before entering the ship but no one was manning it. If you're undecided you can always get on the ship to check security and then go back to duty free, it's not far.

 

OP great report, it sounds like we did totally different things and both had a great trip!

[1lovehols]

Still undecided about TA Kim' date=' maybe?

 

Someone asked if there is a perfume shop on board, there certainly is, I had a cheeky spray of perfume every night. I had my eye on a Calvin Klein perfume it was $65 onboard and I did not buy it. I saw it in Barcelona airport and it was reduced from €55 to €29 euros.

 

Another question was about duty free shop in Barcelona port, I think there were 3 or 4 shops, 2 of which sell alcohol, 1 wine the other spirits. This year we bought 2 bottles of wine, the scanner was set up just before entering the ship but no one was manning it. If you're undecided you can always get on the ship to check security and then go back to duty free, it's not far.

 

OP great report, it sounds like we did totally different things and both had a great trip![/quote']

 

 

Thanks ill prob ask my cousin to check barcelona airport on her way home so can see if best price us away on ship, airport or Debenhams. ;)

[ghockley1981]

 

 

 

OP great report' date=' it sounds like we did totally different things and both had a great trip![/quote']

 

 

Will be interesting to hear what you got up to, see what we missed and what we can look forward to if we can ever afford to go again.

 

It was a fantastic trip

 

 

 

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[kfowinst]

Glad you are enjoying my little input! 😀

 

1. There were lots of Taxis in the port for us, waiting outside the ship. Some were offering deals to Pisa, so I would believe some would to Florence as well. There is a shuttle bus which also takes your to Livorno every 20 minutes.

 

I did the NCL run trip to Piss in the morning so can't comment any more than that. Pisa was lovely though.

 

2. I enjoy the Maltings Bar due to the guitarist who plays there every night between 8-12. It's a very nice chilled area for a few cocktails, the Bahama Mamma is nice here.

 

[ATTACH]324184[/ATTACH]

 

I also like the Spice Bar at the back of the ship, this has a different range of cocktails and is nice and lovely.

 

Here I reccomend the Mudslide, we liked the so much we asked for it in the Maltings Bar although it's not on the menu. This was not a problem for them and that is where this picture is taken.

 

[ATTACH]324185[/ATTACH]

 

I shall attach the menus in a later post for everyone.

 

3. Really this would depend on what you are doing each day. I would say though that perhaps Livorno would be the one to go for as Rome and Naples are very busy full days. Livorno is closer and less rushed in my opinion.

 

4. This I will cover in full for my next post 😉

 

 

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Thank you for all the great info, ill make sure to visit those spots

 

Only 4 weeks to go for me can't wait :)

[ghockley1981]

Just thought I should round this off now I'm back.

 

Palma we had an excursion organised which ran well. It was the Train to Soller, although for us it ran the other way so we drove to Soller and then headed back on the train. This involved a lot more driving and was not as enjoyable as it could be but still worth it. Some other groups did it the other way which I think would be better.

 

When back on the ship we got our disembarkation info and the coloured time tickets appeared at the main guest information desk at 4.

 

We didn't bother with this though, we just kept out cases and decided to carry them off ourselves at 9.

 

After some final cocktails and a visit to the Howl at the Moon dueling pianos (which was very good) we called it a night. Very sad to be at the end of our trip.

 

Leaving the next morning was fine, we had breakfast at 8.30 which was very busy, we then just picked up luggage from our room and got off at level 7 and walked straight off. No hassle at all and seemed much easier than fighting for your cases downstairs.

 

There were plenty of taxis waiting outside and the long queue took us 5 minutes to get to the front. It cost €39 to get us to terminal 1.

 

Some hints I found useful to know.

 

Top tips

 

1. Bring an extension plug

2. Bring Moisturiser, your face can dry out easily

3. Channel 13 on your tv is a guide for your day and the ports, very useful

4. The drinks out the machine can be quite syrupy in the Garden so water them down

5. For breakfast in the garden, go to the front and go down the stairs to the Italian restaurant . Great view and lots of seats normally. They also have some breakfast items here too!

6. Cocktails on the top deck are served in small plastic cups. You get bigger glasses inside such at the atrium bar or Maltings. So if your not worried about sitting outside and want a drink then bear this in mind.

7. The Spice serves food late in the evening if you want a quick snack.

8. If you want close up pictures of yourself with the front of the boat then Naples port is the best for this as you can walk along the full length of the boat in dock. The rest of the ports are restricted.

9. Buy water at a shop in the Naples port building before you go through the scanners. Not far to carry it and it is cheap €1.50 for a 1.5 litre bottle

 

Hope you enjoyed this little report, I will post up some pictures of it tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

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[PathfinderEss]

Nice report, thanks for posting it.:)

[ghockley1981]

Nice report, thanks for posting it.:)

 

 

Thanks 😀 good to know

 

 

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