First Cruise - Solo on The Epic around the Western Med - My Review

Firstly a little background… I’m a 51 year old Scottish female. I have been single for many years and took the decision some time agoto travel solo, as my other option is to not travel at all. So I’ve been on several solo vacations, but always find myself returning to a resort in the Canary Isles that I’ve been to many times. The first couple of times going alone were quite difficult, but it became easier and started to feel like a 2nd home. However, every year for the last few years I’ve had the urge to do something different and visit new places… many people recommended trying cruising, but I’d always assumed it would be too expensive.

Earlier this year I started to properly research my cruising options…and discovered the option of the Solo Studio Cabins on some of the NCL ships.After much deliberation, I eventually booked the Western Med Cruise on The Epic. I only had a couple of months between booking and heading off on my adventure! During that short time I researched EVERYTHING! The CC forums and roll call thread were extremely helpful.

So on to my review of my first solo cruising adventure… I won’t post individual photos in my posts, but will post a highlights video at the end of my review...

Day 1 – 25th June 2017 - I had to get up extremely early on the morning of my cruise to catch my flight to Barcelona from Glasgow.During my flight I happened to overhear a little of a conversation happening in the row in front of me… I honestly tried not to eaves drop lol, but from the snippits I heard I started to wonder if the girl in the seat on front of me was another of the solos I’d been chatting to in my roll call and was looking forward to meeting later that day. I decided to be bold and ask her as we were getting off the plane, and sure enough, it was indeed her! We were both booked on the NCL transfer from the airport to the ship so we waited at baggage reclaim together (both of us suffering the panic of whether our suitcases were going to show up as ours were among the last to appear!), then we sat together on the coach.

When I first saw the ship I was quite overwhelmed with the sheer size of her! Wow!!! Check in was slow and I got a little impatient to get this embarkation process done! Once I got on board the ship didn't feel so massive or overwhelming at all. My new friend and I went our separate ways, agreeing to meet later for our informal roll call meetup. I checked out my studio cabin and dumped my large hand luggage bag, then had a good wander round to familiarise myself with the public decks.

The one place I did think was huge was The Garden Cafe Buffet Restaurant... I wandered around it twice before I grabbed a plate and got myself some lunch. There was just so much choice I didn't know where to start!

After Lifeboat Muster I went along to our informal meetup at Spice H2O. Only 4 of us showed up, me, my solo friend and a lovely young couple on their honeymoon. We had a good chat, and then it was time to head to the Solo Meetup, which was scheduled to start at 6pm… it was now 6.30pm so we knew we were a bit late and may have missed some introductions, but thought we would still be able to say hello and find out what dinner plans were happening etc… but when we arrived in the solo lounge it was empty! The barman told us that a few people had gone off to dinner with our solo host about 10-15 minutes ago! On reflection I feel that this was a little bit rude of our solo host, and I will admit to feeling a bit disappointed. But we went back up to Spice H2O and had more drinks with our honeymoon friends and the 4 of us ended up going for dinner together to Taste. The food was absolutely delicious and service excellent! We ended the night in Bliss.

All in all... a fantastic start to my holiday!

Day 2 was our sea day. I had breakfast outside and sunbathed most of the day. This time I made sure to get to the solo lounge for around 6pm, and this was when I realised our solo host had already planned dinner for 6.15pm for every night of our cruise (except 1 night when it was the Ice Bar that was in the plan… also for the same time though.) I like to eat late, so I soon realised that if I wanted to have company for dinner I was going to need to try to find some others who also wanted to eat later, but for tonight I decided to eat alone as I had the Burn the Floor show booked and I knew I’d meet up with some of the other solos at the Norwegians Night Out Party later.

I had a delicious dinner in The Manhattan restaurant where I had a chat with one of the Assistant Cruise Directors who promised to look out for me on the dancefloor at the party later. The Burn The Floor show was awesome and the Norwegians Night Out Party was lots of fun! A group of us went on to finish the night in Bliss again, and I stayed out too late considering I had my alarm set for 6.30am to get ready for my excursion the next day! It was great fun though so worth it!

Day 3 - Naples (Napoli)... I had booked the Leisurely Sorrento half day excursion through NCL. Sorrento has been a place I’ve wanted to visit for many years, and it surpassed my expectations! The only complaint I have is that I wasn't there long enough! I hope to go back one day. I bought myself some beautiful Italian made jewellery there.

When we got back to Port I took myself off to see a little bit of Napoli and to eat some pizza. It was a very hot day, even though it started off cloudy. I didn’t stray too far from port, but managed to see a few of the sights. Went back on board and chilled in the sun for a bit.

By tonight I felt like our solo host really wasn’t interested in helping to facilitate anything other than his own pre-arranged plans and there was nowhere for us to leave any messages for people to try to make our own arrangements… but luckily, through chatting, I had found a few others who agreed that the official solo group dinner was too early, and a few of us arranged to meet to go for a later dinner. We discovered we had a birthday to celebrate in the group too! After another yummy meal in The Manhattan dining room, it was off to Spice H2O for FABBA & 70s DiscoParty then Bliss again (are you noticing a theme here? lol) Unfortunately the music was really not to my taste in Bliss on this night, so I went to bed early(1am!)… probably a good thing!

Day 4 we docked in Civitavecchia for visiting Rome, so it was another early start for the one and a half hour drive to Rome. I was booked on the NCL Rome Highlights excursion and was lucky enough to have the company of the young honeymoon couple I’d met from my roll call, one of the blokes from Solo Studios, and a Scottish couple I’d met on the Sorrento excursion. It was really nice to spend the day with good company rather than feeling alone in a big group and it really helped make the day special.

We were disappointed to disembark the ship to find it was raining, but it did clear up a bit in the afternoon. Our tour was pretty fast paced to pack in as many of the sights of Rome as possible. I found Rome to be very busy and don't think I'd rush to go back there. I’m very happy to be able to say that I've been and seen some of the highlights of the city though, and I do feel that this was a good choice of excursion for me.

After a busy day, a group of us went out to dinner again, this time to Shanghai, and we were celebrating another birthday tonight. After another delicious dinner it was party time again... Tonight was 80s Night and up on deck it was very windy... One of the crew told me not to worry about the ship rocking, that she was just joining in with the dancing and partying. A few of us went to Bliss again then I ended the night in O'Sheehans with a couple of large Sambucas and chatting to various people till after 3am.

Day 5 - Livorno. I was supposed to visit Pisa & Viareggio (NCL’sPisa & the Beach excursion)... But we were wakened at 7am with an announcement from the captain to say we couldn't dock at Livorno due to high winds and rough sea. I must admit although I was very disappointed, I enjoyed an extra couple of hours in bed! After a leisurely breakfast at the Great Outdoors, I went for a walk to find somewhere to park myself to soak up some sun. The higher sundecks were closed because of the wind, but I found myself a chair in a sheltered corner of Spice H2O where I relaxed for a while.

By mid-afternoon I felt like I needed to move around a bit, so went for a walk around the public decks. I wished I’d brought my training gear as I would’ve spent an hour in the gym. Unexpectedly finding myself with this extra sea day was making me feel a little stir crazy… which makes no sense at all, as on a land vacation it’s not unusual for me to lie by a pool and not move all day!

After a late afternoon snack at The Great Outdoors, I settled back down with my book to enjoy the early evening sun,something I felt I'd been missing out on due to the timing of the solo meet ups, which I didn’t attend tonight. I watched a stunning sunset, then went to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert which I’d pre-booked for tonight. After the absolutely fantastic show I went to sample O'Sheehans for a very late dinner... Wasn't disappointed! More great food! After my customary visit to Bliss & a Sambuca nightcap and chat with more lovely people in O'Sheehans bar, I went to bed around 2.15am looking forward to Cannes the next day.

Day 6 – Cannes. I purposely didn’t book a tender boat time as I wanted to have a leisurely morning and my plan was just to stroll around Cannes on my own and soak up the atmosphere of the place. Once they opened up the tenders to those of us who hadn’t booked (around noon), I joined the queue and was soon ashore. I had a lovely afternoon walking around taking photos. A pretty perfect way to spend an afternoon actually. I managed to see a fair bit of the town,then before getting back on board I stopped off at a streetside place for a yummy crepe and a glass of wine.

Tonight, 10 of us went for dinner to Taste... Great food and great company! After dinner we headed to the Glow Party. Unfortunately, it had got very windy again so the party venue was changed to Bliss. It was lots of fun, but a bit sweaty!! (They need to fix the air conditioning in Bliss!). I had a fab night going round chatting and dancing. As had become my habit, I ended the night in O'Sheehans again... Went to bed at 3.30am knowing I could look forward to a long lie next day as we wouldn’t dock in Palma till 1pm.

Day 7 - Palma. After a nice lie in (no early morning wake up from our cruise director today, thank goodness!) I had breakfast in The Great Outdoors again then spent a relaxed morning enjoying the views of the Majorca coastline as we sailed past. I was right up at the front of the ship, up on deck 18, as we docked in Palma and the precision of maneuvering the ship into position was fascinating.

I got off the ship a while after we docked and went for a walk round the marinas to the area of Palma where the cathedral is. I had a nice wander round and took lots of photos. I had planned to go for Tapas & Sangria for lunch, but wasn't hungry so just had a Sangria in the sun. I got back to the ship around 6.30pm and popped into the Solo Lounge to check what everyone was up to for our last night. I was going to join the 8pm dinne rgroup again, however I ended up deciding to enjoy the last of the sunshine on deck... I’m from Scotland and we don’t get to enjoy warm sunshine very often!

I ended up in the Garden Cafe Buffet Restaurant for dinner and sat at a table outside. I had avoided eating in the Buffet restaurant all week, but it so happened that it was Grill Night and I had a delicious dinner of steak and shrimp while still sitting in my scruffy clothes from the day! Oh and there was a special Canada Day Cake for dessert! After dinner and catching the last glow of sunset I quickly got showered and changed before heading out for final drinks and dancing and to say some goodbyes. I was a little disappointed that I missed out on saying cheerio to some of the gang, but c'est la vie! That sunset and some last evening musings were special for me.

Day 8 – Time to disembark! I had been booked on the NCL Airport Transfer, but they wanted me off the ship by 6.30am!!! Flight wasn't till12.15pm! After much consideration, I had decided to do "easy walk off" and get a taxi. This gave me some time to have a coffee and a final wander around the ship for a few last photos. I was sad to be leaving. The week flew by so quickly! I disembarked around 8am and joined the taxi queue... It was all very organised and I was soon in a taxi on my way to the airport.

I had a fantastic first cruising experience and I’m investigating options for next year. From all of my research I had developed certain expectations and have to say that the vast majority of my expectations were either met or exceeded. There were one or two things that didn’t quite meet my expectations and disappointed me slightly, some of these haven’t even been mentioned in this review as they were so trivial. You will have picked up that I was a little disappointed in our solo host, however I am well aware that you can’t please everyone and there were other solos on board who thought he was great. None of my slight negatives were detrimental to my overall enjoyment at the end of the day, and I would happily choose to cruise with NCL again (although unlikely to book their excursions again).

The Epic is a great ship catering to many different tastes, requirements and expectations. I visited some lovely places, ate delicious food, drank lots of yummy cocktails, saw fab shows, partied until the wee small hours, met some great people and made friends I not only hope to keep in touch with, but hope one day I will see some of them again…possibly on another cruise!

Here’s a short video of my highlights…

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Love that slideshow/video at the end...what a perfect way to end your review! Sounds like a wonderful trip. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks so much for your detailed review! We're doing the exact same trip as you (also leaving from Glasgow) in October, to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. It'll be our first cruise. Even more excited now, thanks!

Thanks for the review.

I had never imagined not being able to dock in Livorno! I know it's always a possibility that ports can be missed, but for some reason I associate that with tender ports even though I know that's not always the case.

Glad you were still able to enjoy yourself.

Thanks for the review.

Love that slideshow/video at the end...what a perfect way to end your review! Sounds like a wonderful trip. Thanks for sharing!

Wonderful review and I also enjoyed your video recap! I'd be interested to know how you made it (being a total amateur with videography).

Liked your Canada 150 mention and cake photo!

Hope you will find more cruising opportunities now.

Thank you for your review. Nice video!

Thanks for the review - and super wee video at the end!

Note for the future if the cruise bug bit you! Travelling solo? Look at the transatlantic cruises - always great value! Do you bank with RBS? Royalties give 10% off NCL cruise website prices, free insurance + airport exec lounge vouchers!

Transatlantic head from Barcelona in November - and back from Florida in the Spring (April). (The November cruise sees better sunshine!) They are usually around two week cruises - lots of activities and partying as there are few sea days. We have done more TA cruises than I can remember and I always see there are a lot of solos on board. We take our cousin with us - he lost his wife some time back - he has a ball - sometimes we don't see him for days hah! He meets lots of people and enjoys all the fun of a TA.

Worth checking out!

Love that slideshow/video at the end...what a perfect way to end your review! Sounds like a wonderful trip. Thanks for sharing!

You're welcome and glad you enjoyed. :)

Thanks so much for your detailed review! We're doing the exact same trip as you (also leaving from Glasgow) in October, to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. It'll be our first cruise. Even more excited now, thanks!

I hope you have a great time! :D I'd do it all again in a heartbeat! :hearteyes:

Thanks for the review.

 

I had never imagined not being able to dock in Livorno! �� I know it's always a possibility that ports can be missed, but for some reason I associate that with tender ports even though I know that's not always the case.

 

Glad you were still able to enjoy yourself.

It also hadn't occurred to me that it could happen... especially in the mid summer months. I can easily get a cheap flight to see Pisa one day if I really want to... or doing the same cruise again is always an option ;)

Thanks for the review.

Thank you for your review. Nice video!

Thanks for reading :)

Wonderful review and I also enjoyed your video recap! I'd be interested to know how you made it (being a total amateur with videography).

 

Liked your Canada 150 mention and cake photo!

 

Hope you will find more cruising opportunities now.

After testing various options I used the GoPro Quik App on my tablet. :cool:

My daughter lives in Toronto and my parents were over there visiting for Canada Day so it was nice for me to feel part of their Canada Day celebrations by eating some cake! hehe :')

I'm sure I'll be cruising again... got a visit to Toronto in September before I start planning next year's vacations.

Thanks for the review - and super wee video at the end!

Note for the future if the cruise bug bit you! Travelling solo? Look at the transatlantic cruises - always great value! Do you bank with RBS? Royalties give 10% off NCL cruise website prices, free insurance + airport exec lounge vouchers!

Transatlantic head from Barcelona in November - and back from Florida in the Spring (April). (The November cruise sees better sunshine!) They are usually around two week cruises - lots of activities and partying as there are few sea days. We have done more TA cruises than I can remember and I always see there are a lot of solos on board. We take our cousin with us - he lost his wife some time back - he has a ball - sometimes we don't see him for days hah! He meets lots of people and enjoys all the fun of a TA.

Worth checking out!

Thanks for all the useful info! :) I'm not sure how I feel about a Transatlantic cruise as I do feel the big advantage of cruising for me is the possibilities to visit lots of different places... however it's definitely interesting to note that there tends to be lots of solos on board and the extra partying sounds like fun!

After testing various options I used the GoPro Quik App on my tablet. :cool:

 

It occurred to me to add to this that I don't own a GoPro camera... although I think one may be going on my Christmas list ;)

I took all of the photos and short video clips on my Sony Xperia phone. I then uploaded them to my Google Photos Drive and used the Quik app on my tablet rather than on my phone to put my highlights video together, purely because I wanted to have a bigger screen to work with.

I have a highlights video from my Toronto trip last year that I think I created with Windows Movie Maker... think I may look at revamping it now that I've found the Quik App as it really does a nice job! :)

Great Review Caz!

You've just reminded me that I need to get mine started! ;p

Hoping you will continue your eaves-dropping on your next solo adventure - you never know who you'll end up meeting! :D

'Your Solo Airplane Buddy' Sparkles x

It occurred to me to add to this that I don't own a GoPro camera... although I think one may be going on my Christmas list ;)

 

I took all of the photos and short video clips on my Sony Xperia phone. I then uploaded them to my Google Photos Drive and used the Quik app on my tablet rather than on my phone to put my highlights video together, purely because I wanted to have a bigger screen to work with.

 

I have a highlights video from my Toronto trip last year that I think I created with Windows Movie Maker... think I may look at revamping it now that I've found the Quik App as it really does a nice job! :)

Thank you! I'd like to be able to make a short video like that, so thanks for the tips!

Thanks for the review, this cruise was awesome! We need to reunite the solo gang in a future cruise [emoji4]

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After a late afternoon snack at The Great Outdoors, I settled back down with my book to enjoy the early evening sun,something I felt I'd been missing out on due to the timing of the solo meet ups, which I didn’t attend tonight.

When are NCL going to listen to feedback and make the solo gathering slightly later in the evening..? Even just an hour later would make a big difference!

Great review :D:D This coming weekend it will be 1 year since my first solo trip on the Epic - one of the best holidays I have ever taken!

Thanks for the review.

 

I had never imagined not being able to dock in Livorno! �� I know it's always a possibility that ports can be missed, but for some reason I associate that with tender ports even though I know that's not always the case.

 

Glad you were still able to enjoy yourself.

We missed Livorno a couple of years ago, due to high winds. It is fairly rare to miss the port, but it does happen.

Actually, Livorno has probably been the unluckiest post for us. We have been on this itinerary four times and once we didn't didn't dock, and on another occasion the weather was so bad that we dropped our plans and stayed on the ship. It shows that your plans can easily be messed up by the weather, especially on a cruise.

Thanks for the review, this cruise was awesome! We need to reunite the solo gang in a future cruise [emoji4]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Loved meeting you! Hopefully one day we'll manage to organise that reunion :hearteyes:

When are NCL going to listen to feedback and make the solo gathering slightly later in the evening..? Even just an hour later would make a big difference!

 

Great review :D:D This coming weekend it will be 1 year since my first solo trip on the Epic - one of the best holidays I have ever taken!

Maybe they'll listen if enough people feedback the same message. I wrote about it in my NCL post cruise feedback too. From everything I've read they're ahead of the game of other cruiselines in catering for us solo travellers, but they shouldn't be complacent about that, and look for ways to make the experience even better.

That being said... like you, it was one of my best holidays ever. :cool: