Trip review Epic 9/15-22

[ejnsb]

A bit late writing this but we have just been back in the states a few days.  My thanks to all the reporters before me for their invaluable insights.  My apologies for not having the discipline to take notes and do a daily play by play.  This will be more summary style and I will be glad to answer questions. 

 

We are 3 couples, 5 of the 6 recently retired.  We did 3 days pre-stay in Barcelona.  Post cruise we did 3 days each in Paris and London, traveling by high speed train.  Since this a cruise report I won't cover the land stays other than to say we had a fantastic time everywhere. 

 

Embarkation/cabins/disembarkation.  We arrived at the port around 10:30 and were onboard with cocktails in Maltings by 11:30. Pretty seamless experience.   Bags were in our cabins when we returned from the muster drill.  My wife and I had sailed Epic before and chose balcony cabin 8197, starboard and aft.  Our friends were alongside.   We loved this location for easy access to many drinking and dining venues.  Our routine was to meet in Maltings for drinks pre-dinner.  Disembarking,  we walked off at 7 to meet our private driver to the train station.  Ten minutes from closing the cabin door we were dockside.  We found the cabins to be fine and had no problems with the unique bathroom setup.  Our steward did a fine job.

 

Food and Beverage:  Due to the early start to each day to get the most out of the ports, we usually did breakfast in the buffet and/or room service.   We liked the outside tables (the Great Outdoors). Buffet was fine, nothing special.  Most lunches were ashore.   We had 3 dinners in the Manhattan, one each in Shanghai's,  Moderno, Cagney's and La Cucina.  All good to very good, made even better by the champagne (which leads us to beverages).  We all had the beverage package but when NCL announced their Premium upgrade package, I was definitely interested.   Thanks to some input on these boards, I pulled the trigger and am very glad I did.  We had 13 bottles of Veuve Cliquot champagne during dinners.  It did not matter that the other two couples did not have the package,  they simply asked how many glasses we needed.  We also had 3 other bottles of wine, multiple specialty coffee drinks, 12 large glasses of fresh orange juice and probably 50-60 bottles of water.  In addition,  I am a scotch drinker and enjoyed Glenlivet,  25 year old Macallan and more.  Again, most of this was shared and the servers did not care.  Maybe it helped that we tip a buck when ordering but we have always done that.

 

Running out of gas so will leave this here and pick up tomorrow. 

 

 

[ejnsb]

Moving on to the ports:

 

This is a port intensive itinerary and we did our research to make sure we got the most of it.  The three big days in a row were exhausting but exhilarating and I think we did it right.  Since there were six of us we never considered the ncl excursions.   In the Naples, Rome and Florence stops we booked with RomeinLimo based on the reviews posted here and another site.  They were fabulous and cheaper than the ship's offerings.   We had an 8 passenger Mercedes van with driver all to ourselves.   We were driving away from the ports while hundreds were piling into the big buses.  Even though we had booked specific tours, our drivers were completely flexible to our requests.  For example, we were supposed to tour Florence first and Pisa later but the driver suggested we flip it.  We hit Pisa before any buses and it was very nice walking through nearly empty streets.   Florence is always busy so it didn't matter there.  Another example was the Rome driver.   On the way in we told him we did not buy tickets for the Colosseum because the website said we probably would not have time.  He took us straight there and went to the ticket office.   We got right in and it was a highlight of our trip.  We also booked a private guide for the Vatican and Pompeii and it was money well spent.  The drivers also gave us great lunch suggestions and complimentary cold water.  In Cannes and Palma Mallorca we did our own thing, walking or tendering when we wanted.  Really liked Cannes, awesome market in town.  Would probably enjoy Palma more if we weren't worn out by then.

[barbnbrian]

I've loved reading your review, can you talk more about Cannes and Palma?  I'm doing this same exact ship/itinerary on Oct. 20th.  Please keep the information coming.   Thanks!

[ejnsb]

I am probably not your source for insight on Cannes or Palma because we didn't do much there, but this is what I remember.   We decided not to stress over catching an early tender for Cannes and that's the one day we had a relaxing breakfast in the dining room.   It's a short walk from the tender pier to town and we strolled in with no real plans.  One thing we learned in Barcelona was to get off the main streets and check out the alleyways and other areas.  That's where we found a very cool market selling everything from flowers to pizza to oysters.  Looked like a lot of locals do their daily shopping there.  My wife is a movie buff so we also visited the hq for the Cannes Film Festival.   You can pose on the red carpet and peruse the handprints scattered around.

 

We did not do Palma correctly.   Again we had no plans and if we visit again will set up a private tour.  It is a long walk from the dock to an area where you can pick up a taxi or the hop on bus.  There were long lines for both and it was the hottest day of the week.  We walked into town, had drinks and then grabbed a taxi back.  Again, I should have planned this one better.

[mapleleaves]

@ejnsb ..... the other ports required a lot of thought, so I think it was easy to skip the planning for Cannes and Palma.   We intended on them being the relaxing ports after the previous rushing around.  Yes , it would have been nice to visit the area outside of Palma, but we were exhausted by this point and i don't think any more touring would have been enjoyable, esp in that hot weather.

 

We planned on an earlier tender so we could get to Monte Carlo first then stop in Nice.  But due to the tender delay we decided to skip Monte Carlo and visit Old Town Nice instead since it was closer.  It was ok but I wish now we had done Monte Carlo instead.  The train ride was very scenic with many views of the coast line. Cannes was a pleasant surprise.  Even though it was much bigger than i anticipated, it had a small town feel to it. Lovely architecture and so clean. And oh, those bakeries.    We all enjoyed the French Riviera/Cote D'Azure much more than we expected.   It would be a area to come back to for a week, and do day trips via train to various cities along the coast. 

 

In Palma we just wanted to see the Cathedral and wander the alleys.  But geez, the heat and humidity were so oppressive. We talked to locals who said it was very unusual.  We walked for a couple of hours but then parked ourselves at a cafe and drank sangria. We were toast.