meltingmoments

I was on the Epic sailing from Barcelona on 9th August and I didn't think it was in need of a dry dock either but it was only my 2nd cruise.

 

Enjoying your review, brings back memories from our cruise. Judging by your Sorrento pics I am guessing you were on the same cruise.

Oh my!! We sailed from Barcelona on the 9th August too! But we continued our holidays a little further up the coast from Barcelona afterwards.......hence my only starting my review now! Small world, hey?

So we were awake early this morning. We had to be in the Epic Theatre for 7:45 am for our coach to Sorrento.

We still don't feel confident enough to do trips ourselves so we bite the bullet and use NCL's excursions. This one was Leisurely Sorrento. Our tour guide was a real gem today......Eva, if I remember correctly! She kept us entertained all the way to Sorrento and made us smile even though it was raining!! :eek: This trip was basically just transport to and from Sorrento and suited us perfectly. As we got off in Sorrento we were given a voucher for either soft drinks or gelato in a local café close to drop-off and pick-up point. We were meant to follow the tour guide into a near-by shop to hear all about how some of the local pottery is made........we ran off like naughty school children and began our wanderings!

The rain gave up shortly after we arrived and we enjoyed our time spent in Sorrento, but could have done with longer.

We made our way back to the café near the meeting point and used our vouchers for drinks and gelato.......yummy......AND they came with free nibbles! Always a bonus!

Sadly, when our tour guide counted up her *family* ( as she called us)......she was missing one! We had to walk from the meeting point to a nearby coach parking area as Sorrento centre struggles to accommodate all the coaches so the poor guide had to go BACK to the meeting point to look for the straggler! Fortunately she wasn't too long, as people were getting restless!!

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Some snaps of our day in Sorrento

Well our chilled out day continued with a lovely meal at Cagneys that evening.....I SOOOOO love those truffle fries and the Oreo cheesecake! :)

Entertainment this evening was in the form of The Supreme Dream Girls in Headliners. They are a Motown tribute band and really got the crowd going. Sadly they were only on for 45 minutes and that was a real shame because everyone was thoroughly enjoying them!

We ended our evening as always, with a quick trip to the casino then an early night as we had a busy day ahead tomorrow!

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Greeted by this little creature this evening! :)

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Sea day crowds!

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Boarding the Epic for the first time September 6th so enjoying your review.

Have an amazing time....we did! :)

Enjoying ur review looking forward to reading more 93 days till my epic trip [emoji3] x

Glad you're enjoying....I promise there's more! :)

93 days will pass by quickly!

Enjoying your review :) & I'm glad that they appropriately sorted out your wine situation. I love the Epic & look forward to being back on board this coming February :D

Glad to have you along for the read! :)

We appreciated the sorting out of our wine situation and the way it was dealt with.

Enjoy your cruise when February comes along.

Nice - We just got off EPIC but oh is it in need of dry dock but loved it. The ship and crew are wonderful and we had the best time after what has been an awful year.

Did you really think it was in need of dry dock? I'm not a very experienced cruiser, I can't say we noticed any glaring signs of wear and tear, but maybe that was the extra bottle of wine? ;)

I agree that the crew are wonderful.......and I'm sorry you had an awful year but glad you had a great time. :)

We were awake early, around 7:15am, but just chilled on the balcony for a while before heading to the Garden Café for breakfast. It was crowded, as to be expected. But we managed. Then began the hunt for a bed!

We ended up on Deck 18 at the front, but didn't last too long......it was SO hot....I was meltingmoments!

Today was a day to chill and relax. We had lunch, we wandered, we stopped for a drink, we wandered some more and we came across a member of staff selling the Viva Vino package that we had bought yesterday. DH stopped to chat to her about not being able to get the red he had ordered. She looked bemused by this and asked to see his slips and double checked which wine he had ordered. The wine that was WRITTEN on the slip was NOT on board........but the wine he had ORDERED ......WAS! The crew member was VERY apologetic and took DH's slips from him and gave him 4 more with the CORRECT wine on. Now being honest people, we told her we already had one bottle of red in replacement for the one that hadn't been available, but she just shook her head and said "no problem...our mistake" So DH ended up with an extra bottle of wine!

Thanks for your review! We sailed the Epic for the second time earlier this year and had just as great of a trip as on our first sailing! Glad you made a good choice, and looking forward to the rest of your review and pictures. :)

Thanks for reading along! Glad you enjoyed your second trip too! I love the Epic!

I'll try and not be too long in continuing this review! :o

Hi all, finally back from our holidays and thought I'd do a write-up about our second time around on the Epic.

A little background......it's only myself and DH who holiday now. Our DD is at Uni and is not too keen on the heat, so a Western Med cruise in the heat of August is not for her! It almost proved to be the breaking of ME this year.......my user-name reflects my capacity for heat...as well as my age! ;)

We flew into Barcelona the day before our Epic trip and stayed at the H10 Montcada, a lovely hotel, albeit with fairly small rooms.

I'd booked it particularly for its gorgeous rooftop bar, but sadly we never got to appreciate it as it rained the whole early evening and the hotel closed it off!! Still we enjoyed our stay there regardless.

Up bright and early the next day, we took a taxi to the Port and I was once again overawed by the sheer size of the Epic. It never ceases to amaze me that these HUGE beasts can actually sail the seas!

Boarding was fast.....less than 20 minutes from handing in our luggage!

I think we arrived about 11:30am.

We decided to take a look in the duty-free shop to look at wine. Now normally I order a bottle of white and a bottle of red for us to be in the cabin on arrival.....just a nice treat and a habit I've got into. Well this time I refused!! I'm no cheapskate, but the wine I usually buy had gone up $10 a bottle from last year! :eek:

Anyhow, nothing appealed to us in the duty-free shop and as we MAY have had to pay corkage on top, it wasn't too cheap either! As it happens, we saw nowhere to pay corkage after the shop, so we could have carried wine on without additional cost! Luck of the draw!

We went to O'Sheehans for lunch. It was nice and chilled, not too busy.

Next job........order a wine package. This is normally quick and painless....not today! Bless him, the guy taking out order was new and it took him an age to write out 8 slips! His colleague noticed it was taking a while and when he checked, it was because he was putting too much info on the slips! Not a problem (or so we thought!) we had plenty of time!

Once wine package was sorted, we wandered the ship and realised we could remember mostly where everything was, so it wasn't that feeling of "help, I'm lost" which was rather nice!

Cabins were announced ready and off we went. Surprised to see our suitcases already outside the cabin.......yay, I can settle in quickly!

We had a mid-ship balcony on deck 12 with the bed by the balcony. Last trip we were fortunate to be allocated an aft balcony which also happened to be an accessible cabin, so this time we noticed the difference, not only with space, but of course, the much talked about bathroom situation!

It didn't bother us one jot, but I can see how it would bother some......there's sure not a lot of privacy!

Once settled, we headed off to Muster drill, which was painless enough, apart from a group of young children who insisted on playing drums with the cup-holder thingys on the card table! ( We were mustered near Fat Cats and the Casino)

Back to the cabin for sailaway and found we had been treated to a bottle of Prosecco and chocolate covered strawberries by some friends! Lovely start!

Tonight we had booked Cirque Dinner and even though we had seen it on our previous trip, I was still mesmerised the whole way through....it's just amazing! Dinner was good too, although, as last time, I found it a bit of a distraction!

Afterwards we headed to O'Sheehans to retrieve a couple of our bottles of wine. My white wasn't a problem. DH's red on the other hand WAS! The very obliging bartender went off to get the wine and came back and said DH's wine was not available and hadn't been for a couple of weeks.......I forget which is was, a Rioja, I think. Well he wasn't best pleased as it's one of his faves, but the bartender recommended another and gave him a glass to try before he opened the bottle. DH said it wasn't as good, but what could he do? Hey ho! More on this later!

Headed to Howl at the Moon, as we had never made it last trip....it was fun!

Finally a trip to the casino and our first day was done!

As I'm still unpacking and washing and ironing, I'll get back to you all as soon as I can! In the meantime......a few photos!

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Epic docked at Barcelona

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View of Barcelona from our cabin

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Mid-ship balcony cabin

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Balcony and view

I'm counting down in terms - they go down quicker! A colleague of mine is counting down in days - I'm not quite at that stage yet.

Oh my!! I live my life in 6 or 7 week blocks.......and because I work with little ones......I count down in *sleeps* :)

Talking of which..........3 more sleeps!! :eek:

The spreadsheet with early retirement projections is already up and running - kind of hoping for a redundancy offer to just 'tip the balance';).

Wouldn't that be the best? :) Aww well, not TOO many years to go.......hopefully!

The new Asia and OZ itineraries have piqued our interest - I can see the TPS retirement wedge in 2018 possibly heading that way:D (Brother in OZ as a base helps as well).

Ooo I hear you! And we're quite possibly similar ages as I'm thinking of (very early, you understand!) retirement and how to spend that pot! ;)

I am intrigued by this question, having only cruised NCL in Europe. I have read some reviews of US sailings and cannot square some of them with my NCL experiences in Europe.

 

I have a pet theory, (with no evidence to back it up:o), that there is a difference between the passenger make up between European sailings and US sailings, which changes the on-board ambience and the expectations.

 

Assuming that Demonyte's post is accurate (and their posts usually are), the only variables are the area sailed and the passenger clientele.

 

I await other answers with interest.

Whilst we haven't sailed the same SHIP in both Europe and the Caribbean, we have done Epic in Europe and Getaway in the Caribbean, and I made the same observation as you Steve.

The clientele was very different on the Getaway. Nothing horrid, just different. My example was that on the Getaway ( mainly American)everyone was so friendly........people would happily chat away having never met you before, whereas on the Epic (mainly European) not so much, people were more reserved. The Getaway also seemed to us more noisy, full of laughter and people REALLY having a great time...in a GOOD way, I mean!

Of course this is only our observations and other peoples experiences could be very different.

Feel the same as you meltingmoments, we were planning on doing a b2b2b on the Spirit next Oct.-Dec.2016 (starting in Barcelona 12 Days to Venice and back again then a Transatlantic from Barcelona to Port Canaveral= 40 Days :eek:) But now that the Spirit is staying in the Med. year round we'll have to rethink what our plans will be. Oh well, the Sun will still come up tomorrow morning so I won't lose any sleep over it.

 

cheers...the Ump...:D

*waves hi to the Ump* :)

Wow, umpy......40 days cruising! That would be amazing!

Yes, with the Spirit staying in our neck of the woods all year round, we could maybe take a look and see! Won't be 40 days just yet though........don't think my Headteacher would agree to THAT one!! :eek:

Happy planning, umpy! :)

We both love the Jade (see my sig. block). Not so sure about the direction the new NCL management regime is going currently. We are waiting to see how things settle down (if they do) before going for NCL again -too many changes in too short a time for us to be confident of the product we will get (10590 on Jade was close to being our second home:D).

I'm inclined to agree with you Steve.

We will be hedging our bets and in no great rush to book next year's cruise just yet! Such a shame as NCL really suits us and I DO like the look of some of the new itineraries.

We'll see!

What a lovely photo review! :) Cheers for posting.

You're very welcome! Thanks for reading! :)

I was midship deck 10 on Jade too! Great location I thought! Santorini and Mykonos do look stunning and that's what is drawing me to this cruise.

 

It WAS a great location, yes!

 

Santorini and Mykonos are indeed stunning....photos do not do them justice!

 

I do love the Jewel class ships at NCL. I don't fancy the huge megaships as I prefer a smaller amount of people and the Jade is such a welcoming, friendly ship. I'm going to have to research doing this cruise next year now! ;)

Someone once said to me that the Jade reminded them of the story of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears.......not too large, not too small, just right! I always smile when I'm reading that story at school now! :)

Enjoy your research and if you have any more questions, feel free to ask away!

Hey! I loved your report, I love the Jade too having been on her in early July having done the Adriatic and Ephesus cruise. Been thinking about booking this cruise as well now. Would you say it's a great cruise? And what stateroom did you stay in? Thanks so much!!

Thank you so much, glad you enjoyed reading!

Would I say it was a GREAT cruise? Nope, I'd say it was an AMAZING cruise!

Those Greek Islands are just beautiful. So much to see and do. It was, for us, a very relaxing cruise after the hustle and bustle of the Western Med the year before and was just what we needed at that time. We are seriously considering going back next year, that's how much we loved it! My favourite ship and my favourite itinerary so far in my cruising life! I say go for it!

We stayed in a mid-ship balcony on Deck 10

We are currently booked on the 7 day western med from Barcelona and I know that most of the cities we are going to will require a lot of walking. what about the 7 day Norwegian Fjords from Copenhagen? Would that cruise (in general) be about the same amount of walking in the ports that it goes to? I guess my question is if you had a person that has limited mobility (not in a wheelchair but will have difficulty doing alot of walking) which would be the better itinerary?

Whilst I can't compare the two cruises, I CAN speak from a perspective of walking difficulties, as I have Rheumatoid Arthritis.

We did the Western Med from Barcelona 3 years ago and are onboard again in 5 days! :)

There is a tremendous amount of walking at all those ports as you have rightly said, but with plenty of stops and pacing myself, I was able to enjoy all the cities and intend to do the same again next week.

Hope this helps a little and enjoy whichever cruise you decide on.

Oh I just had another thought......Pompeii I found VERY tricky and was glad we had opted for a shorter tour/time there. It was very uneven and I was slightly nervous walking.

Hello Melting Moments

 

I remember you reading MY Jade review and getting very excited about your trip so it was great to actually read YOUR review!

 

My husband and I actually did a Greek Island cruise on the Azamara Quest last year and visited Santorini & Mykonos amongst other islands but they were both amazing to visit - we like to have a good old explore! :)

Hello kikki21,

I DID read your Jade review and I've just read it again, along with mine! :)

I always find myself doing that when I'm a few days off my next trip! :eek:

How was the Azamara Quest? It looks a beautiful ship, and it's always good to have other options!

The Greek Islands are an absolute delight to explore, we loved it and are considering it again next year.....Ssshhhh, don't tell anyone.......it's our 25th Wedding Anniversary! :)

Enjoy your next cruise. :)

It's not a big deal, Europeans are very small so any ship will seem huge

Haha, as a tiny, 5 foot nothing kinda girl, who took her first trip on the Sky and thought it was HUGE, till we docked next to Oasis of the Seas.......THAT made me giggle!! :)

Sailed her at start of July and the ship is still in very good condition!

This is good to know because we sail her in.....oooooo.....let me see............8 days!! :eek: :eek:

This was the Epic's itinerary the FIRST time we sailed her and we stayed on board for Marseille......nothing appealed to us!

This time round we started out with almost a full day in Palma and we were pleased, even though we have visited Palma before. Then, of course, NCL changed the timings and we now only have a few hours there....still, better than nothing! :)

Glad we decided to do Epic again THIS year and not next after hearing that news!

Beautiful photos! Glad you enjoyed your trip. Brought back lovely memories of OUR Jade trip. Thanks for sharing.:)