Epic Western Med - Rome - May 13 - 20, 2015

[funpig]

This was my first real cruise (I did a 3 day re-positioning cruise more than 20 years ago from Vancouver to Los Angeles).

 

Embarkation and Disembarkation was a breeze. On the last day, we disembarked at the scheduled 7:30 am to catch a 1:30pm flight out of FCO. It turned out our original flight would be delayed more than 2 hours. We were able to book on an earlier flight out at 11:45am when we got to FCO.

 

For our transfers from Rome to Port and from port to airport, we used Bob's Limo which was €150 for our group of 6. It was great dealing with them. They always showed up a bit early and were willing to adjust the pick up time if we called or email. On the last day, a taxi driver quoted us €240 for the same ride to the airport and i heard a shuttle bus would have cost €75 per person.

 

Our 3 couples each had a mid ship balcony stateroom on the 12th floor. It was exactly as advertised. We were happy with the room. Only noticeable issue is tha the carpet looked tired which I expect will be changed out in the upcoming dry dock. Also, the toilet flush was very loud.

 

Our cabin steward Sokkaia was pleasant to deal with. He made some nice towel animals and cleaned and turned down bed without any intrusion or fuss. I had not planned on tipping any more than the mandatory DSC. In the end, we still had a substantial balance in my OBC. I was able to go to Guest Services and to transfer it all to him by signing a gratuity voucher. So it worked out for everybody.

 

We all had the UDP and we reserved a specialty restaurant, including the free Cirque Dreams Dinner, every night except for the first night when we went to the Manhattan. The Manhattan is beautiful. We generally had dinner at 6:30 pm which is great because after getting back from shore, we had time to shower (and to do daily laundry. Tip: synthetic clothing wash and dry quickly; we always had fresh clothes to wear and no stinky clothes for our 19 day trip), we were famished, it gave us time to catch a show later and still get to bed early so we could get up early and start again.

 

It is a shame that the band in in Manhattan only plays from 6:30 to 7:30 pm. We would have liked to dance on the beautiful dance floor after dinner and the later diners really missed out. IMO, the best seats for the Cirque Dreams Dinner is up top. There is one performance in which a guy dips himself in a bath and then swings in the air suspended by ribbons. There was a lot of man sweat and drippings flying all over and many diners in the premium floor tables were trying to cover their dinners. Teppenaki cook was entertaining albeit noisy with the clanging utensils. Cagney steaks were largest and best on the ship. Moderna meat was generally overcooked except for the lamb chops which were delicious. Le Bistro had the best cuisine IMO. La Cucina had the best view, but after 10 days in Italy we were bored with Italian food. All our breakfasts and the odd lunch were at the Garden Cafe buffet which was very good. We went to Taste after a specialty dinner just for coffee and dessert and to say we were there; nothing special. We walked by O'Sheehen's every day but never did try it. I believe the same food is available at the Garden Cafe which was so convenient.

 

I would recommend UDP especially if you can get it as a freebie. We are not big drinkers. My wife and I did get a soda package. In retrospect, it was not worth it IMO. I drank mostly club soda at the dinners. The rest of thd day, the ice tea, lemonade, fruit flavour drinks, coffee and tea were available from the beverage dispensers. For some reason, i was under the impression that these beverages were only available at breakfast and lunch only.

 

We set up our own shore excursions four our group of six. We used Joe Bananas Tours in Livorno (Cinque Terre €520) and Naples (Sorrento, Positano, Pompei €450) which worked out cheaper than NCL. Joe Bananas is highly recommended. In Barcelona, we pre-booked our admission, guided tour and Tower admission at the Sagrada Familia and easily traveled by metro. The SF is awesome. Later we booked a HOHO bus €27 which is a reasonable but rushed way to try and see a lot of the city. There are 2 or 3 bus companies and each has 2 or 3 loops, but each loop can be up to 2.5 hours. In retrospect i would have preferred to just walk and take the time to just enjoy a few things rather than try and see everything for a brief moment. We visted Palma by a shuttle bus €12. I knew nothing about Palma but enjoyed the visit very much.

 

Cannes was the only disappointment. This shore excursion was cut short by two hours before the cruise because of scheduling and according to rumors a bad engine. Wead to use a tender. Because of the short time. We had not booked anything. After a few hours,we decided to just go back to the ship early, have lunch and just relax. Unfortunately, the wind and waves kicked up. The ship anchor either broke or bent and the ship began to drift. The ship had to reposition itself and use the spare anchor. Meanwhile we were stuck on shore in a line-up. We waited over two hours before we could tender. The real annoying thing was that there was almost no communication by the ship personnel. If they had told the thousands of people waiting what was going on, we could have all left the lineup in the hot sun and gone back to town for food and drink. And we had bad luck with a boat driver who had to take 3 or 4 tries to dock the tender at the ship in the rough seas. Finally, we had 3 or 4 wheelchair passengers who had to use the power lifts while the rest of us had to wait. Altogther, it was almost 3 hours.

 

We left Cannes almost 2 hours late. The engines must be okay because we motored it and arrived early in Palma the next day. That night the sea was rough and some in our party got sea sick. My wife and I were the only 2 of our group who attended the Burn the Floor show. The Epic theatre is located the bow. The bow rocked up and down. I could barely walk down the steps to our seats. After about 5 minutes, the show was cancelled out of concern for the safety of the performers. Later that night, our hamper drawer went in and out from the rocking until I got up and secured it. Fortunately, Burn the Floor added a performance the following night for us. It is a great show. I think I enjoyed it more than the Blue Man Group. My wife wanted to see it again.

 

Overall, we enjoyed the cruise. The dinners were great. I did feel very rushed each day and was glad that we paced ourselves. The Sea Day was a welcome break which is on the latter half of the cruise for us Rome embarkers which IMO is better than the Barcelona embarkers which is their second day. We had done 10 days in Italy on our own before the cruise. I much prefer the more relaxed pace of settling in a city for at least a few days and enjoying the visit, sites, local food and people.

Edited May 22, 2015 by funpig

[smartpeach]

Thank you for your review. I'm taking the same itinerary this August, so I have a few questions if you don't mind:

 

1. Do you know if the main dining room was open for lunch during your embarkation in Rome?

 

2. I'm taking the exact excursion you had in Naples (Pompeii, Positano and Sorrento), but I'm travelling with 2 seniors and and 2 children (ages 8 and 11). Do you think the itinerary is too hectic for the young and very old? NCL had also shortened the port departure time from 7:00pm to 6:00pm so aim a little worried if we have enough time. Do you remember what time had to get back at the boat?

 

3. What was the latest time you had to leave the ship on debarkation day? Our flight leaves at 2:30pm and I'm hoping to leave the ship sat late as possible.

 

4. What do you mean by the free Cirque dinner? I thought Cirque is no longer free with the UDP on the first day?

 

 

Lastly, is it okay if you post the dailies?

 

Thank you!

 

:)

Edited May 22, 2015 by smartpeach

[funpig]

Peach:

 

1. The Garden Cafe (inside and outside on 15th floor) was open for lunch. We ate there on embarkation. I believe that the Manhattan and Taste complimentary dining rooms are only open for dinner.

 

2. We used Joe Bananas Tour. The drives between the towns were not very long or tiring. We went to Sorrento first and was basically dropped off to shop on our own for less than an hour. We basically walked just about one block looking at shops LOL. We then went to Positano and was dropped off for a little over an hour. Once again we were on our own and walked down to the beach and then back to the parking lot. As part of the itinerary, we were then driven to a restaurant with a great view over Positano for an nice relaxing lunch. After that, we were driven to Pompei and we had about 2.5 hours to tour it on our own. We had a lot of options. We had a Rick Steves audio. We could have rented an audio guide or hired a tour guide. In the end, we just wandered around on our own with a map. We saw a few buildings and the plaster figures including the famous dog. We saw a brothel and the bathhouse. We were warned not to try and see the amphitheatre because we would have torun both ways to make it back in time for the van pickup. It was hot and dusty, got bored and then we wandered back to the entrance. Pompei is about 50 acres. You could easily spend 4 days there if you want see everything. When walked out of the attraction, I found a cafe with shade, ordered a cold drink, checked my email and waited for our van. The others walked and checked out the souvenir vendors. I heard that the town Herculaneum may be a more interesting substitute. It is much smaller, better preserved and has more luxurious buildings than Pompei. But Pompei is more famous. They don't make movies about Herculaneum. Anyways, as you can see, you cand go at your own pace in each of the 3 towns. If your seniors or kids get tired or bored, you can easily take a break because you are really in control of much of the tour. We had to be back on board in Naples by 5:30. JBL made sure they got us back on time (they want to get paid and not be stuck with us any longer than they have to, LOL).

 

3. The disembarkation times are the earliest times you can leave the ship. The times are set just to stagger all the people so that there are no crowds. As far as I can tell, they cannot force you off the ship. If you put your luggage out the night before, the luggage will just sit in the tent on the dock. You could choose not to put out your luggage if you dont want the luggage left on the dock and just keep it with you. I would assume that a cabin steward will kick you out of the room at some point because he/she would need to clean it for the next guests. But you could sit and eat in the Cafe or hang out and sunbathe on the deck. We joked that we could probably just stow away on the ship because it would be hard for the crew to find you with all the masses on the large ship.

 

4. We still got a free Cirque dream dinner (only one night) under our UDP as at the time of our May cruise. I think that at some point (June ?), there will be a change in the NCL policy and there will no free Cirque dinner available.

 

I am a noob. What are "dailies"?

 

PS. The Palma shuttle was $12 pp not €12.

Edited May 23, 2015 by funpig

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review.

[nadeki]

Thank you for your review. I'm taking the same itinerary this August, so I have a few questions if you don't mind:

 

1. Do you know if the main dining room was open for lunch during your embarkation in Rome?

 

2. I'm taking the exact excursion you had in Naples (Pompeii, Positano and Sorrento), but I'm travelling with 2 seniors and and 2 children (ages 8 and 11). Do you think the itinerary is too hectic for the young and very old? NCL had also shortened the port departure time from 7:00pm to 6:00pm so aim a little worried if we have enough time. Do you remember what time had to get back at the boat?

 

3. What was the latest time you had to leave the ship on debarkation day? Our flight leaves at 2:30pm and I'm hoping to leave the ship sat late as possible.

 

4. What do you mean by the free Cirque dinner? I thought Cirque is no longer free with the UDP on the first day?

 

 

Lastly, is it okay if you post the dailies?

 

Thank you!

 

:)

 

We did this trip last year and I had my in-laws(one in a wheel chair) and my kids 8 and 10 with us. You just can't push yourself. We had our tour drivers take us to anything they could before lunch. After lunch it was usually one more tour, a gelato and back to the ship early. They were always surprised we wanted to go back around 3PM.

 

Our kids are decent travelers and have seen a lot but we never push our luck and that way they are ready for the next day's adventures.

 

Having private tours was the best choice we made and the entire party is still talking about our fantastic trip.

 

We had pre-arranged taxis from airports, hotels, port and reserved airport parking spaces etc.... The more things you can pre-plan and pay avoids frustrations at having to make too many decisions in languages you might not understand.

[AceDoc]

Peach:

 

1. The Garden Cafe (inside and outside on 15th floor) was open for lunch. We ate there on embarkation. I believe that the Manhattan and Taste complimentary dining rooms are only open for dinner.

 

2. We used Joe Bananas Tour. The drives between the towns were not very long or tiring. We went to Sorrento first and was basically dropped off to shop on our own for less than an hour. We basically walked just about one block looking at shops LOL. We then went to Positano and was dropped off for a little over an hour. Once again we were on our own and walked down to the beach and then back to the parking lot. As part of the itinerary, we were then driven to a restaurant with a great view over Positano for an nice relaxing lunch. After that, we were driven to Pompei and we had about 2.5 hours to tour it on our own. We had a lot of options. We had a Rick Steves audio. We could have rented an audio guide or hired a tour guide. In the end, we just wandered around on our own with a map. We saw a few buildings and the plaster figures including the famous dog. We saw a brothel and the bathhouse. We were warned not to try and see the amphitheatre because we would have torun both ways to make it back in time for the van pickup. It was hot and dusty, got bored and then we wandered back to the entrance. Pompei is about 50 acres. You could easily spend 4 days there if you want see everything. When walked out of the attraction, I found a cafe with shade, ordered a cold drink, checked my email and waited for our van. The others walked and checked out the souvenir vendors. I heard that the town Herculaneum may be a more interesting substitute. It is much smaller, better preserved and has more luxurious buildings than Pompei. But Pompei is more famous. They don't make movies about Herculaneum. Anyways, as you can see, you cand go at your own pace in each of the 3 towns. If your seniors or kids get tired or bored, you can easily take a break because you are really in control of much of the tour. We had to be back on board in Naples by 5:30. JBL made sure they got us back on time (they want to get paid and not be stuck with us any longer than they have to, LOL).

 

3. The disembarkation times are the earliest times you can leave the ship. The times are set just to stagger all the people so that there are no crowds. As far as I can tell, they cannot force you off the ship. If you put your luggage out the night before, the luggage will just sit in the tent on the dock. You could choose not to put out your luggage if you dont want the luggage left on the dock and just keep it with you. I would assume that a cabin steward will kick you out of the room at some point because he/she would need to clean it for the next guests. But you could sit and eat in the Cafe or hang out and sunbathe on the deck. We joked that we could probably just stow away on the ship because it would be hard for the crew to find you with all the masses on the large ship.

 

4. We still got a free Cirque dream dinner (only one night) under our UDP as at the time of our May cruise. I think that at some point (June ?), there will be a change in the NCL policy and there will no free Cirque dinner available.

 

I am a noob. What are "dailies"?

 

PS. The Palma shuttle was $12 pp not €12.

 

Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for posting the review.

 

Dailies are the daily programs that you receive which outline the schedule aboard.

 

Cheers

[Sauer-kraut]

2. I'm taking the exact excursion you had in Naples (Pompeii, Positano and Sorrento), but I'm travelling with 2 seniors and and 2 children (ages 8 and 11). Do you think the itinerary is too hectic for the young and very old? NCL had also shortened the port departure time from 7:00pm to 6:00pm so aim a little worried if we have enough time. Do you remember what time had to get back at the boat?

.

 

:)

May I suggest Herculenum instead of Pompeii, it will be shadier and easier walking for the seniors. The frescoes are lovely and the villas are really well preserved. I think this might be a more enjoyable trip than in the hot sun of Pompeii. You can actually do this as a DIY on the train, it has its own station Ercolano Scavi.

[mickeysgal]

This was my first real cruise (I did a 3 day re-positioning cruise more than 20 years ago from Vancouver to Los Angeles).

 

Embarkation and Disembarkation was a breeze. On the last day, we disembarked at the scheduled 7:30 am to catch a 1:30pm flight out of FCO. It turned out our original flight would be delayed more than 2 hours. We were able to book on an earlier flight out at 11:45am when we got to FCO.

 

For our transfers from Rome to Port and from port to airport, we used Bob's Limo which was €150 for our group of 6. It was great dealing with them. They always showed up a bit early and were willing to adjust the pick up time if we called or email. On the last day, a taxi driver quoted us €240 for the same ride to the airport and i heard a shuttle bus would have cost €75 per person.

 

Our 3 couples each had a mid ship balcony stateroom on the 12th floor. It was exactly as advertised. We were happy with the room. Only noticeable issue is tha the carpet looked tired which I expect will be changed out in the upcoming dry dock. Also, the toilet flush was very loud.

 

Our cabin steward Sokkaia was pleasant to deal with. He made some nice towel animals and cleaned and turned down bed without any intrusion or fuss. I had not planned on tipping any more than the mandatory DSC. In the end, we still had a substantial balance in my OBC. I was able to go to Guest Services and to transfer it all to him by signing a gratuity voucher. So it worked out for everybody.

 

We all had the UDP and we reserved a specialty restaurant, including the free Cirque Dreams Dinner, every night except for the first night when we went to the Manhattan. The Manhattan is beautiful. We generally had dinner at 6:30 pm which is great because after getting back from shore, we had time to shower (and to do daily laundry. Tip: synthetic clothing wash and dry quickly; we always had fresh clothes to wear and no stinky clothes for our 19 day trip), we were famished, it gave us time to catch a show later and still get to bed early so we could get up early and start again.

 

It is a shame that the band in in Manhattan only plays from 6:30 to 7:30 pm. We would have liked to dance on the beautiful dance floor after dinner and the later diners really missed out. IMO, the best seats for the Cirque Dreams Dinner is up top. There is one performance in which a guy dips himself in a bath and then swings in the air suspended by ribbons. There was a lot of man sweat and drippings flying all over and many diners in the premium floor tables were trying to cover their dinners. Teppenaki cook was entertaining albeit noisy with the clanging utensils. Cagney steaks were largest and best on the ship. Moderna meat was generally overcooked except for the lamb chops which were delicious. Le Bistro had the best cuisine IMO. La Cucina had the best view, but after 10 days in Italy we were bored with Italian food. All our breakfasts and the odd lunch were at the Garden Cafe buffet which was very good. We went to Taste after a specialty dinner just for coffee and dessert and to say we were there; nothing special. We walked by O'Sheehen's every day but never did try it. I believe the same food is available at the Garden Cafe which was so convenient.

 

I would recommend UDP especially if you can get it as a freebie. We are not big drinkers. My wife and I did get a soda package. In retrospect, it was not worth it IMO. I drank mostly club soda at the dinners. The rest of thd day, the ice tea, lemonade, fruit flavour drinks, coffee and tea were available from the beverage dispensers. For some reason, i was under the impression that these beverages were only available at breakfast and lunch only.

 

We set up our own shore excursions four our group of six. We used Joe Bananas Tours in Livorno (Cinque Terre €520) and Naples (Sorrento, Positano, Pompei €450) which worked out cheaper than NCL. Joe Bananas is highly recommended. In Barcelona, we pre-booked our admission, guided tour and Tower admission at the Sagrada Familia and easily traveled by metro. The SF is awesome. Later we booked a HOHO bus €27 which is a reasonable but rushed way to try and see a lot of the city. There are 2 or 3 bus companies and each has 2 or 3 loops, but each loop can be up to 2.5 hours. In retrospect i would have preferred to just walk and take the time to just enjoy a few things rather than try and see everything for a brief moment. We visted Palma by a shuttle bus €12. I knew nothing about Palma but enjoyed the visit very much.

 

Cannes was the only disappointment. This shore excursion was cut short by two hours before the cruise because of scheduling and according to rumors a bad engine. Wead to use a tender. Because of the short time. We had not booked anything. After a few hours,we decided to just go back to the ship early, have lunch and just relax. Unfortunately, the wind and waves kicked up. The ship anchor either broke or bent and the ship began to drift. The ship had to reposition itself and use the spare anchor. Meanwhile we were stuck on shore in a line-up. We waited over two hours before we could tender. The real annoying thing was that there was almost no communication by the ship personnel. If they had told the thousands of people waiting what was going on, we could have all left the lineup in the hot sun and gone back to town for food and drink. And we had bad luck with a boat driver who had to take 3 or 4 tries to dock the tender at the ship in the rough seas. Finally, we had 3 or 4 wheelchair passengers who had to use the power lifts while the rest of us had to wait. Altogther, it was almost 3 hours.

 

We left Cannes almost 2 hours late. The engines must be okay because we motored it and arrived early in Palma the next day. That night the sea was rough and some in our party got sea sick. My wife and I were the only 2 of our group who attended the Burn the Floor show. The Epic theatre is located the bow. The bow rocked up and down. I could barely walk down the steps to our seats. After about 5 minutes, the show was cancelled out of concern for the safety of the performers. Later that night, our hamper drawer went in and out from the rocking until I got up and secured it. Fortunately, Burn the Floor added a performance the following night for us. It is a great show. I think I enjoyed it more than the Blue Man Group. My wife wanted to see it again.

 

Overall, we enjoyed the cruise. The dinners were great. I did feel very rushed each day and was glad that we paced ourselves. The Sea Day was a welcome break which is on the latter half of the cruise for us Rome embarkers which IMO is better than the Barcelona embarkers which is their second day. We had done 10 days in Italy on our own before the cruise. I much prefer the more relaxed pace of settling in a city for at least a few days and enjoying the visit, sites, local food and people.

 

We will be on this sailing out of Rome very soon. So thank you for this review!

 

How did you book the free Cirque show? I've prebooked our specialty restaurants but wasn't sure about the Cirque show.

 

I thought the same thing about La Cucina...was afraid that we'd be tired of Italian so I'm still unsure whether to book it or not.

 

How was the Manhattan room's food? Heard it could be so-so. Wish I could dig up some daily menus somewhere so that we can plan a dinner or two there also...

 

Yes, not looking forward to Cannes given the new scheduling change. Often such a hassle tendering back and forth. Hardly any time on shore.

 

Glad you had a good time and thanks again!

[funpig]

Gal:

 

If you have UDP, the Cirque may or may not be free depending on when you sail. After some certain date, I believe that there is an NCL policy change and the Cirque is no longer included as part of the UDP. If you are entitled to the free Cirque, you can only book it on the embarkation day and not on any other day. What NCL does not tell you is that the embarkation day is the Barcelona day for everybody even if you embark in Rome. So try booking the free Cirque on that day. It took me weeks to figure that out. I had telephoned NCL and our TA to book our free free Cirque to no avail. I only learned this from CC.

 

I think the Barcelona embarkers get a little bit more special treatment including a big welcome aboard cake at the buffet. I don't recall seeing a cake for the Rome embarkers, but that first night I ate in the Manhattan so I could be mistaken.

 

I think La Cucina has the best view of all the restaurants. It is located at the very front on the 14th floor with panoramic view. Of course, you can have same view in Garden Cafe one floor above. At lunch, you can pick up food from Garden Cafe and bring it down to eat at the La Cucina tables. If you have UDP, why not book?

 

I thought that the Manhattan food was good. I believe you can get menus on the NCL site and it should be the same food as the rest of the complimentary restaurants. The band in the Manhattan from 6:30 to 7:30 is worth a see.

 

The schedule change in Cannes was that the ship leaves one hour earlier at 5 pm than previously scheduled. So I was incorrect. I mixed it up with Palma where we lost 2 hours. For us, we booked a late morning tender in Cannes, made no plans and had wanted to return to the ship early which turned out to be bad luck with the weather. Other people booked excursions and went on a full day tour of nearby cities. With the weather delay, many did not get back on the ship until after 6 pm and the ship sailed about 1.5 hours late.

[funpig]

Ace and Peach:

 

OK. Here is 1 of 3 scans of the pages from the Freestyle Daily.

 

I have to admit that we were so busy that we never had time to read these while on board. I just stuffed them into our pack.

Freestyle Dailies 01.pdf

[funpig]

Here is 2 of 3.

Freestyle Dailies 02.pdf

[funpig]

Here is 3 of 3.

Freestyle Dailies 03.pdf

[kkpcruiser]

Thanks so much for posting the dailies from the Epic for the 2015 Med itinerary!

[mickeysgal]

Oh wow...thanks for posting the dailies!!

[mickeysgal]

Gal:

 

If you have UDP, the Cirque may or may not be free depending on when you sail. After some certain date, I believe that there is an NCL policy change and the Cirque is no longer included as part of the UDP. If you are entitled to the free Cirque, you can only book it on the embarkation day and not on any other day. What NCL does not tell you is that the embarkation day is the Barcelona day for everybody even if you embark in Rome. So try booking the free Cirque on that day. It took me weeks to figure that out. I had telephoned NCL and our TA to book our free free Cirque to no avail. I only learned this from CC.

 

Thanks...I had not known that the free Cirque night was Barcelona night. Wow. Now how do I find out the cut off for this free night? We are sailing July 1. I guess I could call NCL, but cust service has been wrong before on other questions...

[funpig]

Gal

 

When I called NCL, they were unable to book for me or to provide me with any correct info. They just told me to go to Guest Services when I got on the ship.

 

What I did was register on NCL.com and reserved everything online. I went to the Barcelona date and clicked Cirque, the time and our names. If it is free for you, it will show the price as $0.00 per person. If not, sorry.

 

If you can book the free Cirque, you should try and do it before you board. The Speigel Tent venu for the CD is quite small and will probably sell out quickky. The lineups at Guest Services can be long and slow. The touchscreen devices by the elevator and the mobile iConcierge app can be sketchy (but I would still recommend you download it on to your smartphone or tablet before you leave home or while you still have free wifi).

 

Our 3 groups of 2 were all able to book the free CD about 2-3 weeks before the start of our cruise. That may because almost everybody was always trying to book the Rome embarkation date which was unavailable. If you can, book the premium and when you go, go early and ask for up top.

Edited May 24, 2015 by funpig

[mickeysgal]

Gal

 

When I called NCL, they were unable to book for me or to provide me with any correct info. They just told me to go to Guest Services when I got on the ship.

 

What I did was register on NCL.com and reserved everything online. I went to the Barcelona date and clicked Cirque, the time and our names. If it is free for you, it will show the price as $0.00 per person. If not, sorry.

 

If you can book the free Cirque, you should try and do it before you board. The Speigel Tent venu for the CD is quite small and will probably sell out quickky. The lineups at Guest Services can be long and slow. The touchscreen devices by the elevator and the mobile iConcierge app can be sketchy (but I would still recommend you download it on to your smartphone or tablet before you leave home or while you still have free wifi).

 

Our 3 groups of 2 were all able to book the free CD about 2-3 weeks before the start of our cruise. That may because almost everybody was always trying to book the Rome embarkation date which was unavailable. If you can, book the premium and when you go, go early and ask for up top.

 

Thank you so very much! Appreciate the help on this.

[tedly1960]

Great Review!! Also thanks for sharing the dailies. We fly to Barcelona this Wednesday, have 3 nights in Barcelona then embark 1 week from today. It is also our first real cruise. I have a few questions.....did you go to the Ice Bar? Was curious what you get for your $20 cover charge. Or does the $20 just get you in and get you a parka? Did you go to Howl at the Moon? If so how as it? We are in need of a room fridge for medical reasons. Can we just get this when we embark?

[naagnel55]

Here is 3 of 3.

 

Thank you so much for posting!

[luv2gonow]

Thanks so much for the great review and daily info:-)

I will be sailing this cruise in July.

 

It seems they have don't have different main show every night but repeat the same ones. Legends, burn the floor etc.

 

I know you need a reservation for cirque.... Do you just show up for other shows... 1st come 1st serve??

 

Also Manhattan room, I would like to go when the band is there.... Do you need a reservation? Was there a long wait at that time?

 

At Cannes and Palma is there a nice town at the port area if I don't book excursion?

Thanks:-)

Kerri

[zounds]

Thanks very much for the review and dailies ! We'll be on her next Jan.

[smartpeach]

Thank you so much for answering all my questions and posting the dailies.

 

You are awesome!!!!

 

:)

[funpig]

Ted

 

I did not try Ice Bar, but i think i read somewhere 2 drinks are included; don't quote me. I did not go to Howl. Our room had fridge and i believe all rooms have a fridge. We spoke to steward and just placed all the beverages into one of the storage compartments during the whole voyage so we could have fridge space for personal use.

[funpig]

Luv2

 

We were able to reserve Legends and Manhattan online before the trip. For some reason we were not able to reserve Burn the Floor until we got on the ship. I don't know if they fixed the latter now.

 

I would recommend reserving to make sure you get in and to help you fill your itinerary and pace yourself. You have to time your diinners and shows. You cannot be in two places at the same time. Legends was only about half full. Burn the Floor was pretty packed but there were still some empty seats. But i would definitely reserve Burn and not take the chance to miss it. I really liked it and I am not a dance guy. These shows do not play every night. When our Burn was cancelled because of rough seas, we were scrambling to reset a reserved 7:45 pm dinner to catch the last available 8:00 pm Burn show the following night. Fortunately the cruise added another 10:00 pm Burn show on the following night and automatically booked us to make up for the cancellation

 

We only ate at the Manhattan on the first night and we had made a reservation. As far as I could see, the whole place was full up and busy. Why wait? Just reserve. Also keep in mind that the band only plays from 6:30 to 7:30 pm at least during our cruise.