Brief Review of the Epic Sailing 05/17/15

[HeidiHo]

This review of the Epic sailing 05/17/15 will be brief as I have been crazy busy since returning home and just don't have time for a long review.

 

My husband and I are in our mid 50's and it was just the 2 of us on this cruise. It was our first cruise on NCL. I have sailed Carnival and Princess in the past and my husband has only sailed Carnival.

 

We boarded in Barcelona. Got to the pier around noon and boarding was a piece of cake. At most it took about on half hour.

 

We had cabin 10317 which is aft facing and on the end so the balcony was wider than most others on the aft and of course deeper than the side balconies. I know the ship is going into dry dock in the fall so I was expecting to see some wear and tear. I thought the cabin was in pretty good shape except I could see that the sofa and the carpeting should probably be replaced. It was very clean though so this didn't bother us in the least. The cabin seemed very small to me. I am used to the larger balcony cabins on Carnival but I must give kudos to NCL for all the storage space.

 

While we didn't really care for the weird bathroom it didn't really bother us. There was one awkward moment when room service was delivered while my husband was in the shower but it really was no big deal.

 

Public areas of the ship were all fine and seemed well maintained. I'm sure there are some areas that need work but I didn't notice anything obvious.

 

We had the dining package and loved that. We ate at a specialty restaurant every night except one. The last night we at e at Taste and while the food was fine I didn't care for it. First of all, the decoration was weird. Parts of the dining room (the outsides) were decorated with warm colors and a pub feel but the center was just white with no decoration on the walls at all. I told my husband I felt like I was eating in a hospital cafeteria. It was also very loud in there. The food and the service was fine however. We never ate in the Manhattan Room.

 

Since I want to keep this brief so I won't comment on the ports except for Livorno because that was the only port where we did a ship excursion. I can't remember the name of he excursion but it was the one that went to Pisa and then to a vineyard where we were served lunch and different wines. We thought it was a great tour.

 

Because this cruise was so port intensive we didn't really do much in the way of shows. We were so exhausted most nights. We did Cirque Dreams on the first night and really enjoyed it and thought the food was good. We went to see Burn the Floor which was good but to be honest, I was so tired that night I was falling asleep through parts of it. Howl at the Moon was funny but we only caught about an hour of it one night.

 

We really enjoyed this cruise and would definitely sail NCL again.

[ttiplock1973]

Hi! Great review! I will be cruising on the Epic on June 28th. I also purchased the Pisa and Taste of Tuscany tour. For medical reasons, how long was the ride to the vineyard? How long did you stay in Pisa?

Thanks!

[HeidiHo]

Hi! Great review! I will be cruising on the Epic on June 28th. I also purchased the Pisa and Taste of Tuscany tour. For medical reasons, how long was the ride to the vineyard? How long did you stay in Pisa?

Thanks!

 

Yes! That's the name of it. Pisa and a Taste of Tuscany.

 

I know you only asked about the ride time and not the amount of walking but I will address that too since it could be an issue for some.

 

The ride time was not outrageous. I'd say the longest time we ever spent on the bus at one time was about an hour. We probably had 2 hours total at Pisa. It was quite a long walk though from where the busses park (about 20 minutes). We made the walk as a group and then stuck together as a group for a short time at the tower so that the tour guide could give us the history, etc. Then we had bit of free time (maybe 45 minutes). After the free time we met up again for the walk back to the bus. If walking is an issue there may be ways to get a ride. I read somewhere about a trolley and I did see one but for the walk there we were never offered that option so you might have to ask about it. I do remember for the walk back the guide said anyone not wanting to walk could take a cab back. We walked both ways.

 

The ride from Pisa to the vineyard was probably under an hour. There is almost no walking there. The bus parks close. You will go in and be seated at a long table for the meal. After the meal, if there is time, you might be offered a short walking tour out to the vineyard which isn't far. We missed that part though because we needed to use the bathrooms and there was a bit of a line. The walk through the vineyard was only going to be about 20 minutes anyway. It's right behind the farm house though so we just walked over there ourselves for a look see and took a couple of pictures. The ride back to the ship was about an hour.

[ttiplock1973]

Thanks! I am going with my mother and I wanted to make sure the ride wasn't too long. She has a bad back. Thank you!

[HeidiHo]

Thanks! I am going with my mother and I wanted to make sure the ride wasn't too long. She has a bad back. Thank you!

 

I feel her pain. After the cruise we met up with our kids in Madrid (our son lives there) and traveled around Spain for another week. We were due to fly back to Chicago on Monday and on Saturday my back started to hurt. On Sunday it was worse. On Monday morning it hurt so bad I didn't know if I was going to be able to get on that plane. It was better after my muscle relaxers kicked in though. When we were checking in at the airport the agent took one look at me and asked if I needed a wheelchair. I took her up on it and thank god because it was a very on g walk to the gate. There was a wheelchair waiting for me in Chicago too. The almost 9 hour flight was not pleasant but I got through it with ibuprofen and muscle relaxers.