Meanee

Just off Epic (boarded in Barcelona). 2nd night was lobster night. Those were some sad little lobsters, however...

The thing I really appreciated about the behind-the-scenes tour was seeing how clean and well-ventilated everyplace was. I guess I had sweatshop conditions envisioned, and was happy to see what a great work environment it is for the crew. :)

Even if they had sweatshop environment, trust me, you will never see it. Cruiselines want to show you rainbows and butterflies. In a way, behind the scenes tours not only generate money, but also publicity. But there are tons of bad things going on. You get a tiny room with bunk beds for 2 people to share it. And bathroom/shower is shared by 2 cabins. Simple search of "cruise crew cabin" on YouTube will show you more.

On Epic, it was on the MDR menu. They did not serve it in "cupcake tray" like I usually see it, but snails were just on a plate, mixed with some mushrooms. Pretty good too.

So me and my significant other (No, I am not using D-ABCDHEFG-Z thing) just got off NCL Epic and currently relaxing in Barcelona airport.

We decided not to do any excursions through the ship mostly due to a complete ripoff prices. We also flew into Barcelona a day early to enjoy the city. Did the usual touristy things, like eat paella, chasing it down with sangria in shadow of Sagrada Familia. We preferred not to take cabs, and used public transport as much as we could.

Embarkation

Embarcation in Barcelona was easy. We took a metro to port and 2 euro bus to the ship. We got to the ship at around noon. There were barely any people there. Dropped off our bags, went in to a very short (2 people) line to get our photo taken, and given boarding number (ours was 9). They were boarding 8 at the time already. Barely had time to use the restroom and they said that anyone waiting to board, regardless of group number, can go ahead. Total time at terminal = approximately 10 minutes. Like any warm blooded cruise passenger, we decided to go get food right away. Garden Cafe was NOT a mob scene. I was able to get a great seat, and there were plenty more available. When it was a mob scene was usually in mornings. It is difficult to find a seat.

Naples

Was not my favorite city. Hot, humid, uncomfortable. Hopped on a subway and then on Circumvisuviana train to get to Pompeii. Did a walking tour. It was 12 euros for the guide, and 11 euros for entrance. While guide is more or less a must, we left the group about half way. We had a ton of people in the group and it took forever for guide to lead us anywhere or enter any buildings. When we saw a gigantic line to see the brothels ruins, we just left. It's stone beds, nothing else, and there's a ton of waiting.

Encountered a nasty accordion player on the train back. They are very fast to spot tourists, and he wouldn't leave. We already gave him 2 euros coin on the way there, so he decided to get more cash out of us. I had to tell him NO in every language I can think of, so he would take a hint.

Rome

My brilliant plan of getting out of port, going to the right and reaching train station in Civitavecchia went out of the window when we realized that Fort Michelangelo is under renovation and cruise shuttle is going to the bus depot pretty far the other way. But at the bus area we found a round trip Civitavecchia-Rome bus for 17 euros per person, and took that instead. There was a bit of a traffic in Rome, but ride was pretty fast. Dropoff was 15 minute walk from Vatican and that's where we went.

Line to basilica was about 2 hours long. Sistine Chapel was about the same. We did not go into any, but there are tons of people who will do a very hard sell for you to do a line-free tour. We told one of them that we are not doing it, and he decided to promote his YouTube channel to us for some reason.

After Vatican, some pizza, and a subway ride to Trevi fountains. Which are under renovation... Bummber. Walked to Colosseum from there.

In Colosseum, you will get the usual "Skip the line" hagglers. Instead of doing that, go towards ticket line, and look for a poster with a QR code. Scan that, and you will be able to buy tickets online right away. Proceed to Reservations line after that (10 min max) and tell them you bought it through QR code and show them the email. They will print your actual tickets with barcodes.

After that, we took a subway back to Vatican area, got on a bus and back to the ship.

Livorno/Pisa/Florence

The idea was to visit all of the above. Well, in Livorno, there's not much to do. We took a bus to train station, bought the ticket to Pisa and in 18 minutes we were there. A quick cab ride later, we are at the tower, admiring all tourists propping up the tower. Photo with a comment "Everybody was kung-fu fighting" got a decent amount of likes on Facebook.

We decided against going to Florence, since the timing won't leave us with more than an hour or so there.

Cannes

I liked that town. We did not reserve the tender so we had to be a on a standby. Was not a very long wait (20 minutes or so) and we were off.

Cannes is very pleasant, but my goal was Eze. We went to Eze village, up to the castle. It was insanely beautiful. Keep in mind, the bus (83) that goes between train station and Eze village sometimes may take up to an hour to get there. Since it was pretty late for us, we opted to take a cab to Nice and got on a train there. Got back to the tender area 30 minutes before last tender.

Palma

Also a great port. Palma is beautiful place just to stroll through. We tried to go up to Soller on that little tram thing, but wait was too long. Instead we just remained in Palma, exploring Cathedral area.

Debarkation

We opted to do a walk-off. We have no problems carrying our own bags, and we did not have to sit around, waiting for your group to be called. There are no customs or passport check, like in USA. Just walk off. We went to the bus, subway, and then a regional train to airport (where we are right now)

Stateroom

We decided to go with inside stateroom. While I usually try to get balcony, we thought that on a port-intensive itinerary like this one, balcony won't make a lot of point since we will be out and about.

Room was well designed. There are 2 110v and 2 220v plugs. Protip: Bring a power strip. I had no problem having all my gadgets charged.

Bathroom and shower had no locks. And frosted glass, while covering you up, does not leave a lot for imagination. But if you are privacy concerned, there's a curtain. Sink is not in the shower/bathroom and we did not have any issues using it. There's no "splashing all over once you turn it on" like others are claiming.

Food

I found food to be somewhat bland. Not a very large variety of main courses in dining rooms. We also did Chef's Table which was great. Met some wonderful people, ate some great food. Drank enough wine to make the rest of a day a blur ;). O'Sheehans was pretty meh. Fish was "creamy" and buffalo wings didn't have the kick I expected.

Garden Cafe was ok. Certainly not the best food, but not the worst. Staff could be a bit better with silverware. One night, I had to hunt down someone and ask him to bring me 2 sets of silverware. He disappears for 5 minutes, brings back 2 sets, and with amazing sense of accomplishment puts it on a different table, where eager occupant put them into immediate use. I had to send him on a second trip. Same goes for spoons next to ice cream. Plenty of ice cream, zero spoons. They are usually slow to refill, and told me few times to go to the other side of the buffet, where they have additional ice cream, to get spoons. I thought it would have to be a battle to the death over last spoon that was left over there, but thankfully, they brought out a bunch before blood spilled.

Also, unlike on Carnival, they do not ration out bacon there. Yay!

On second night, I came down with a bit of a cold. So I could not sleep and went hunting for some hot tea at around 4am. O'Sheehan's was the only place that could get me some tea, I set up my laptop, watched a movie, sipping tea. At the same time, a VERY drunk irish dude sat at my table with bunch of drunk talk. It all ended up with me convincing him that I am a secret agent (agency did not matter), and had to calm his paranoia that someone on the ship is out to kill him. When his wife finally came to collect him, I had to give him my personal guarantee as a secret agent that he is safe in his room from any of my minions. Fun night.

Lobster

Yep, I am giving it it's own section.

First, the news of lobster night demise were greatly exaggerated. 2nd night they served lobster in Garden Cafe. Or it could be just an overgrown shrimp... Lobster itself was tiny and tail was cut in half. But there were no issues getting as many as you want. They typically put 2, but if you ask them for 10, you will get 10.

Pools

More like human soup. Midship pools were jam-packed with kids, adults, etc. Pool in the back (Spice H2O) was a bit better, but it's also pretty small. And loungers were pretty much impossible to obtain in Spice H2O. So far, for a ship this size, there should be more or bigger pools. And pools are pretty shallow. On Royal Princess, there were pools with 9+ feet depth. Here, you won't get more than 4 and change.

Hot tubs were also packed like can of sardines.

Onboard entertainment

We did the usual Blue Man Group thing. Was great. Would I pay money for that? Nope. But since it was free, it was great. But I am unlikely to go again.

Due to feeling a bit under the weather, I opted to stay in the stateroom a bit more than usual and cannot give a better review on that. Howl At the Moon was ok. Skills of musicians were great, but I did not care much for songs.

Ship layout

Best layout I experienced was Allure/Oasis. Absolute worst was Carnival Dream (that ship tends to bring out homicidal maniac feelings that I've been suppressing since that cruise). Royal Princess was sitting in between. I found NCL Epic to be pretty close to Royal Princess, but I prefer RP if I had to pick. There are no big atriums. On bottom of 2nd atrium is a dining room. Decks 5, 6, 7 have all entertainment and public spaces.

I found the feedback that you do not see much of an ocean pretty accurate. Most venues do not give you a lot of ocean view.

I guess this is it for now. I will try to answer questions, if any come up.

I had a blast on Oasis/Allure. Will be on Epic in few days. Would love to sail the 200k ton monster. I love big ships :-)

Sneaking a charged cylinder onto an aircraft is pretty dangerous. Pressurization changes may make it burst. And flooding the baggage compartment with another gas that can replace oxygen won't win you a lot of friends.

As for a cruise line, even if it's not specifically prohibited in a contract, I am sure they won't allow it anyway. Who knows what you are smuggling? Maybe it's not CO2 but something dangerous?

• USD or EUR: Not sure if it depends on where you are cruising. I don't know where Jade is in October 2915.
  

In spaaaaaaace!

;)

Unless you are absolutely enamored with the idea of staying in Manhattan consider the following. Check the hotel booking sites for Jersey City, NJ.

There are several hotels in the financial district that are a one or two block walk to the PATH station (subway). You can take the subway to lower Manhattan ( World Trade Center), walk one block and get a subway to Times Square. You can also go from N.J. to Greenwich Village.

 

You will probably save some money on the room and the parking.

It's a 20 minute PATH ride.

But anyway, Jersey City is a pretty shady place if you wander too far from Exchange Place. And last few weekends, PATH was closed for whatever reason on weekends, making getting to the city a pretty tough deal. You may have to take light rail to Hoboken and get on PATH there.

Hope that will be on Epic soon. Only time I used Internet was on board of RCCL's Oasis of the Seas. Due to abysmally low speed, I blew through $100 without getting much actual use.

Found it. Thanks. Was looking for it in onboard activities.

As much as I hate being forced to pay another "fee" I would like to get it over as fast as possible. I saw bunch of threads where people are able to pre-pay their gratuities. However, looking at NCL's website, I am not able to find where I could do the same. Anyone could point me in a right direction?

Definitely looking for more. I will be on this cruise on July 6th.

Easy now, that's not going rile people up is it!:rolleyes:

 

Suggestion noted!

Meant this for everyone with a lot of respect as well :o

But yeah, photo threads look a bit chaotic when people quote multi-pic posts. And it was not directed at you personally, but to a number of people who do it. A lot of times unknowingly.

Quick suggestion to anyone using Quote button.

EDIT YOUR QUOTES!!!!

If you do not, you may be quoting a post with gazillion photos, only just to say "Thanks" or something. This will create cluttered, confusing, unpleasant thread.

This does echo our experience on Carnival Dream.

On Dream, food was top-notch. We reserved 2 hours after boarding the ship and got last spot on first Chef's Table. We were not so lucky on Princess, unfortunately.

Wish me luck on Epic.

Me and my better half (I refuse to use whole "D-AtoZ" slang) are sailing on Epic's July 6th sailing out of Barcelona. We tried Chef's Table on Carnival, and as much as we did not like the ship/cruiseline, we loved Chef's Table.

I wanted to see if anyone had any recent experience with Chef's Table on Epic on West Mediterranean itinerary. Any feedback? Pictures? Menu? Was it worth it?

Not cruise related - When I landed a plane for the first time.

Cruise related - My very first cruise, and it was on Oasis of the Seas. Moment I walked in, I had to pick up my jaw.

Whew. I thought you were speculating about 2106 -- and I was about to remark that hopefully we'd still have New York and Florida above sea level then. :D

Welcome to Fhloston Paradise! (5th Element reference)

We don't have any flying advice because we always drive and park at the pier. Rather than staying in Manhattan the night before we are considering staying somewhere around EWR the night before cruising next time. Still will probably drive on in to the city on embarkation day. We have stayed in Times Square pre cruise for several years. Just thinking of doing something different.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Try not to get stabbed.

Newark is not exactly a good place to be, not at daytime, not at night. It is pretty much a one large ghetto that happens to have a downtown.

There is completely nothing to see. Airport and surrounding hotels are within walking distance of.. well.. airport and those surrounding hotels. Oh yea, there's NJ Turnpike, and nearby prison. Picturesque.

Areas in actual Newark require you to wear a body armor and be escorted by a president-level security detail.

Even discounting the fact that you will be surrounded by hoodlums, hotel prices are not cheap. Proximity to airport and NYC keep prices higher.

If you still think of having your adrenaline rush, try to stay closer to Newark Penn station. You can hop in a NJ Transit and that's a quick ride to NY Penn Station. Or you can get into a PATH train for a midtown/financial center destinations in NYC.

Did I get this right?

You're flying to Baltimore, renting a car, driving to parking lot in Newark and taking transport from there to the pier in Manhattan.

Gee - hope you are saving a TON of money!

Otherwise, fly to JFK or LaGuardia and take a cab or car service.

No worries about a traffic problem (or two) on I-95?

Multiple changes/transfers in Baltimore and NJ...

Sounds way too messy, time consuming - and risky.

Or you can take a BoltBus to NY from Baltimore/DC for all of $15/pp

Sailing on Epic on July 6th and would love to read more about the ship. Will be my first NCL experience.

I'll bet the butlers would appreciate the extra money for providing this service and they know the cabin storage areas better than you. Go ahead and enjoy that perk.

 

Wendy

Kind of like gas station attendants, who insist that they wash windows on your just-out-of-carwash cars, with dirty squeegee, just because they want a tip.

Not every service is needed/appreciated. If I don't want someone unpacking my clothes, I won't let them, only because they want to do it for a tip.

Because I know if my suitcase has been broken into. It is my hope (just like home security) that if I make it much more difficult then everyone else they will bypass mine. I have read and watched the news where airport handlers in particular just reach into peoples luggage and help themselves to a little something. I made it more difficult for them.

I used to work in airport (JFK) as a "ramp bitch" doing anything from marshalling in planes (depends on airlines, most liked to use their own staff), to driving air stair, to baggage unloading. In airport as large as JFK, there were few thefts. But they pay snitches quite handsomely, so everyone is afraid of helping themselves. Port Authority prosecutes every case.

Chances are one in a million someone will raid your suitcase and take that dirty pair of socks that they may find. Is it going to be tossed around like it was in a giant blender? You bet. Cargo crawl space in a 737 is pretty small and VERY uncomfortable.

I got in a habit of having anything expensive in my carry-on.

I definitely recommend doing your research before planning to buy jewelry/watches on a cruise. They TRY to make you think these are terrific bargains but often they are not. Not that it's necessarily a rip-off... just not a bargain.

Correct. On a ship it would be more difficult to pop on Google and see the typical pricing on the item. And cruise lines count on that.

Hi There

 

I have a mini hard drive that uses USB and was going to take it with us for photo viewing, music etc

Thanks

Juls

Got it.

I found that usually TVs have crappy USB support. My home TVs, my office TVs, are fairly bad when it comes to playing media off USB. So I usually rely on my laptop.