Epic embarkation from multiple ports

[strykes]

How does the embarkation and disembarkation work for the Epic western med cruise? People can join the cruise from multiple cities. When we'll be getting off to tour in Rome, there will also be people starting and ending their cruise. Are we all trying to get off at the same time?

[KeithJenner]

How does the embarkation and disembarkation work for the Epic western med cruise? People can join the cruise from multiple cities. When we'll be getting off to tour in Rome, there will also be people starting and ending their cruise. Are we all trying to get off at the same time?

 

 

 

I assume you are boarding in Barcelona, which is the most popular embarkation port.

 

Other than seeing some cases out the night before Rome (and possibly Marseilles but to a much smaller extent), and maybe meeting to some people who leave part way through your cruise, you won't even notice anything different.

 

Rome is getting more popular, but I can honestly say that I never really noticed the disembarking passengers when I've done this cruise

[Quilting_Cruiser]

I'm curious about this, too. I'll be boarding in Rome on my cruise next year and it'll be interesting to see the difference. I've read posts that there won't be the typical sail away party for those boarding in Rome, but that's unimportant to me anyway.

 

I'd be interested in hearing how it works for folks on the roll calls and booking excursions with other members. Did you follow multiple roll calls? Was it a hassle to coordinate tours with (I'm assuming) no meet and greet? Any tips would be appreciated.

[strykes]

I assume you are boarding in Barcelona, which is the most popular embarkation port.

 

Other than seeing some cases out the night before Rome (and possibly Marseilles but to a much smaller extent), and maybe meeting to some people who leave part way through your cruise, you won't even notice anything different.

 

Rome is getting more popular, but I can honestly say that I never really noticed the disembarking passengers when I've done this cruise

 

Thanks!

[KeithJenner]

I'm curious about this, too. I'll be boarding in Rome on my cruise next year and it'll be interesting to see the difference. I've read posts that there won't be the typical sail away party for those boarding in Rome, but that's unimportant to me anyway.

 

 

 

I'd be interested in hearing how it works for folks on the roll calls and booking excursions with other members. Did you follow multiple roll calls? Was it a hassle to coordinate tours with (I'm assuming) no meet and greet? Any tips would be appreciated.

 

 

 

Things are a bit different for you guys. As you say, the sail away party is on the wrong day (not an issue to me either), and I believe there is some sort of welcome show in the theatre which is obviously on the wrong day too.

 

When in Barcelona, you may well notice a difference. For example, the ship closes down for the muster drill (it doesn't in Rome). If you are onboard then get a drink beforehand and find somewhere to settle away from the muster stations.

 

People do join multiple roll calls, and people starting at different ports arrange tours.

 

There have always been meet and greets on my previous cruises (all from Barcelona), and I believe that the Rome people have also had them on occasion. However, this year no meet and greet has been planned for the Barcelona cruise. People are still discussing tours though.

[Dramamamahil]

We are embarking in Rome for this cruise in July. I think it's going to bee odd, especially the numbering of the dailies and the fact that apparently things sort of reset in Barcelona so when you are on the ship you need to wait till you get to Barcelona if you want to make dining/show reservations. The only issue I have had with my pre-cruise reservations was the incorrect start date listed for my Thermal Spa Pass.

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Things are a bit different for you guys. As you say, the sail away party is on the wrong day (not an issue to me either), and I believe there is some sort of welcome show in the theatre which is obviously on the wrong day too.

 

When in Barcelona, you may well notice a difference. For example, the ship closes down for the muster drill (it doesn't in Rome). If you are onboard then get a drink beforehand and find somewhere to settle away from the muster stations.

 

People do join multiple roll calls, and people starting at different ports arrange tours.

 

There have always been meet and greets on my previous cruises (all from Barcelona), and I believe that the Rome people have also had them on occasion. However, this year no meet and greet has been planned for the Barcelona cruise. People are still discussing tours though.

 

 

Thanks, Keith. I appreciate the tips. I'll definitely remember the muster drill advise in Barcelona.

 

I'm guessing we won't do a meet and greet for the Rome group since we don't have a sea day until five days later. I'm more interested in coordinating for tours anyway.

 

I read a post that said they don't number the dailies now--just put the date rather than a number for the day which makes more sense with multiple embarkation ports.

 

Thanks!

[Quilting_Cruiser]

We are embarking in Rome for this cruise in July. I think it's going to bee odd, especially the numbering of the dailies and the fact that apparently things sort of reset in Barcelona so when you are on the ship you need to wait till you get to Barcelona if you want to make dining/show reservations. The only issue I have had with my pre-cruise reservations was the incorrect start date listed for my Thermal Spa Pass.

 

 

I saw your post about the spa pass. Did that get straightened out? I'll be purchasing a spa pass so hopefully won't have the same issue you had. Did you book dining or entertainment before boarding or did you wait until you're on the ship?

[tel2]

My unlimited internet package also "expired" In Barcelona, though I embarked in Rome. It was a pain, they had to reset it about 5 times because it kept reverting back to an expired error code. Other than that, I had no real issues. The dailies were confusing because day 1 was Barcelona, and Rome daily, when I embarked, was day 4. I was on the epic last week.

[Dramamamahil]

I saw your post about the spa pass. Did that get straightened out? I'll be purchasing a spa pass so hopefully won't have the same issue you had. Did you book dining or entertainment before boarding or did you wait until you're on the ship?

 

NCL claims it's straightened out, lol:roll eyes: I guess I'll see when we board.

 

I have 3 speciality restaurants booked plus the Cirque dinner/show and Burn the Floor. We have already seen Priscilla so there was no need to book that one.

[Dramamamahil]

My unlimited internet package also "expired" In Barcelona, though I embarked in Rome. It was a pain, they had to reset it about 5 times because it kept reverting back to an expired error code. Other than that, I had no real issues. The dailies were confusing because day 1 was Barcelona, and Rome daily, when I embarked, was day 4. I was on the epic last week.

 

Hopefully the Thermal Spa pass won't have that are issue!

[hawkeyetlse]

For the roll calls, it would be nice if CC if took the initiative to streamline things so that there was only one roll call per week during Epic's 3-port season. And as long as Barcelona remains the main embarkation port, it would make sense to have roll calls for the Barcelona departure dates. And people who are embarking in Rome or Marseille can join the two roll calls that overlap with their cruise. I know this makes those passengers feel like second-class citizens — it's a taste of things to come once they are on board (just kidding :p, sort of…) — but having discussions of each port day in one roll call is more convenient for everyone, instead of the current situation, where the same port days are discussed in up to 3 different roll calls.

[20YearsBetweenCruises]

We took this cruise last year, from Rome. I think they had different exits for those leaving the cruise all together vs. just leaving for the day. I don't recall waiting in any lines together.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[backsbanny]

The official boardind date is barcelona listed as day one on your cruise...I took this cruise few years ago from rome though and it was perfect...very few people boarded from there...latitudes line was almost empty..from the time i went to the terminal after 15 minutes i was already at osheehans having lunch...best embarkation ever!!!

[Kidtechno]

Just disembarked today in Rome. There were no issues.

[MIKEW69]

We just boarded a couple of weeks ago in Rome and , quite simple straight forward process. as there are not that many people embarking it will work quite fast , there are separate lanes for guests who already are on the ship and who are new (this is same process in most other port's ) like for instance we could just skip the long lines in Barcelona and go straight to the ship.

 

 

as the official cruise period is from Barcelona to Barcelona you step in like day 4.

 

some shows bookings might be prebooked a people are on the ship a while but at the other end you have that advantage in the morning in Barcelona were you can book lots of stuff already before the big groups entering the ship

 

when you arrive in rome again 2 exits one for people leaving and one in transit

[LoopyLou66]

Hi - we got off and on in Marseille (first ever cruise) - I was sorry when it was booked that way but not sorry when I saw how many thousands got on (and off) in Barcelona the day after! :D Think we were around 120 in Marseille, basically just one simple queue of people on and through the desks in 30 minutes. We had our own little safety muster and then could ignore the following ones. I was slightly sad there was no big welcome for us but the next day they made up for that with the big welcome/sail away party from Barcelona!

 

No, they haven't taken the numbering system off the dailies, which did make it slightly hard remembering we were one day along then from on the paper! But no big deal really.

 

The worst bit was getting off, basically once we'd checked out at the desk we just made our way off and away we went. No-one hardly says goodbye or anything. As it was our first cruise that felt a bit sad :(

 

As for tours and Roll calls - YES, it would help if they put all the 3 ports onto one joint roll call! I was trying to organise trips and say hello and had to keep checking all three joining dates. In the end I was the ONLY person on the Marseille roll call, which was very surreal! But I did manage to find people for both my excursions which went very well (over 2 roll calls I might say).

 

Louise