Rome-Rome on Epic…thoughts and comments

[henrid]

We (4 adults, mid-fifties) returned yesterday from our wonderful Epic cruise. We spent 3 nights pre-cruise in Rome. This post is not intended to provide a review of the cruise, but instead just pass on some thoughts and comments on some of our experiences – many based on questions I had before boarding the Epic.

 

Rome – stayed near the Vatican next to Ottaviano metro station. We found this extremely convenient and the neighborhood offered numerous dining and shopping options. Stayed at St. Peter Guest House and would stay again if we return. Price was excellent for what was provided. We never felt threatened walking around – even after dark and in metro - and had no issues with pick pockets. We did try to be smart about protecting our cash and credit cards.

 

Cash/ATMs – we found, to our dismay, that all the bank ATMs that we tried to withdraw money from In Rome limited our withdrawal to less than 400 euros despite a personal limit of around 800 euros per withdrawal. (we did get 400 out of an ATM in airport, so may not have had a low limit in airport). We asked at one bank and were told their limit to withdraw from ATM was 250 euros, although we managed to get out 370 on two different occasions. This may not be an issue to many, but we are charged $5 per withdrawal on our ATM so wanted to limit the number of times we had to take out money. Needed cash to pay for the 4 tours we took. Also, our hotel offered a discount if we paid in cash – which we took advantage of.

 

Rome to Port - Long story, but on our way to the ship we ended up taking a taxi from our hotel to the Port. Look or ask for a station wagon taxi if you have lots of baggage. The total cost – which we determined with driver before we left - was 120 euros, which was cheaper than any private shuttle we could find. The driver said 120 euros is supposed to be a set taxi fare from Central Rome to the Port but many drivers ignore this unless you confirm before starting your trip. With 4 adults to our group, the taxi was a great option. It also gave us some flexibility on when we wanted to leave Rome for the Port. We had the hotel call for a taxi when we were ready to leave.

 

VAT – on the cruise we were charged Spain VAT for all of our on board purchases even though we got on/off in Rome . 20 % on spa services and merchandise purchases; 8% on all drink and food purchases – this in addition to the 15% automatic gratuity. This was very aggravating to me as I don’t think it should apply if you don’t board in Spain, but oh well, not much I could do.

 

Ship Laundry Special – we were given a note in our cabin on Sunday of the laundry special – full bag for $24.99. Had to have bag ready Monday and clothes would be returned Tuesday – day before we disembarked. It appears the day of your laundry special is based on when you board the ship. We opted not to use the laundry service.

 

Slot Coupon and Bon Voyage casino purchases – used both of these and they worked quite well. Both were easy to activate and instructions given for slot play so that you know how to upload only a portion of your credit so you don’t have to use it all on one machine.

 

Specialty Restaurants – free bottle of house red or white wine per couple if you make reservations to eat by 6 pm. This may seem early to eat, but actually worked out for us a couple of times – like when we boarded in Rome at 4 pm, we were hungry but didn’t want a late lunch. Instead we unpacked, toured the ship and ate an early 5:45 pm dinner. Worked great for us, may be of no interest to others.

 

Marseille shuttle – do not think NCL should charge to shuttle you into Marseille, or if they are going to charge it should be minimal like it is in Barcelona. We paid the $14.99 per person because we wanted to walk around the City, but next time some in our group might just opt to stay on the ship – which is an economic loss to the Port of Marseille.

 

iConcierge – I used this app on my iPhone numerous times primarily to check cabin charges, dining menus and show times/ locations. Did use it once to make dining reservations. Would be better if it included schedule for all daily activities and also included deck maps. We never took advantage of the text capabilities, but did use phone to call to make a dinner reservation. Phone worked great. There was no charge for the service although from the survey I took it looks like they may plan to charge to use this service in the future. Not sure if I’d pay to use it.

 

Disembarkation - flight time concern. We used self- assist and were off ship by 7:35 am. I may be wrong, but it looked to me that luggage was lined up in the baggage claim area and that if you did check your luggage the night before that you could probably pick it up by 7:30 am. We had a private shuttle waiting for 8 of us (we joined up with a terrific family from Ohio) and all 8 rode for 160 euros total. We were to the airport and dropped off by around 8:30 am and had plenty of time before our 11:30 am flight.

 

Baggage allowance/weight – with most airlines limiting weight and number of checked bags we were concerned about buying so much that we would be charged for over-weigh bags or be charged to check a second bag. Fortunately we were just under the allotted weigh but determined that the best way to avoid these concerns is to make many of your purchases in the airport, once you pass security. We were in Terminal 3 and there are several shops with wide varieties of pasta, olive oil, vinegar, and many of the gifts. (I assume similar in Terminal 5, but don’t know this as a fact) These purchase are sealed in a plastic bag, do not count against your weight limit and we saw no airline person restricting a passenger from carrying on a duty free bag even though the passenger also carried on a small suitcase and large purse. Note: this does not work if you have to change planes and go back through security as you may have a problem meeting the 3 ounce limit on each liquid container.

 

This was our first NCL cruise – and overall we all had a wonderful experience. This is a port intensive cruise so time and energy on the ship was limited more than any other cruise we have been on.

 

Let me know if you have any specific questions and I’ll see if I can help 

[francina]

Thanks for the quick review. :o

[Jolimont]

Thank you for sharing this info.

 

On the Cash/ATM issue, I think what happens is that they don't want to keep more than a certain amount in cash in the machines so they limit withdrawals. It's not meant to charge you more fees because most banks in Europe are not allowed to charge withdrawals fees. So if I go to a Spanish or Italian bank with my French bank card I pay no fees to either bank.

 

On the VAT tax, you will pay it unless your ship makes at least one stop outside of the EU (Turkey, Dubrovnic, etc.) I'm not sure how the cruise lines negotiated that with various governments, but that's how it works for now.

 

Specialty Restaurants – free bottle of house red or white wine per couple, that's good to know!

 

On the Marseille shuttle I agree that it's a lot to charge. How far is the ship from the ol,d port in miles? We'll be there on July 14, Bastille Day when lots of public services are closed, so it's possible we'll have to either walk or pay for the NCL shuttle. I'm glad you mentioned it, I hadn't read about it before.

[Yankee123]

Thank you for the review.

 

My question is also on the shuttle that you took at the Marseille port. If you have a private tour booked for that port, do you still have to take the shuttle?

 

Thank you

[Victress2007]

Thank you for the review.

 

My question is also on the shuttle that you took at the Marseille port. If you have a private tour booked for that port, do you still have to take the shuttle?

 

Thank you

 

We took a private tour out of Marseille and the tour people picked us up right at the pier.

 

Vic

[Yankee123]

Thank you for the reply. That's one less expense. We have 6 on this trip together. This would have been an unplanned expense.

[rocklinmom]

Would you recommend this cruise for a family with two teenagers and a 10 year old?

[ohionana26]

I was on this same cruise, but didn't get a chance to meet up with you, Hendrid. Glad you had a good time and got home safely.

 

To the person who asked...YES I would highly recommend this ship for you. I traveled with 3 teenaged grandchildren (18, 17, 16) and they had a great time. The teen club really had lots of activities. Unfortunately, that left the 18 year old on her own at times. But with the slides, climbing wall, bowling, etc etc, they were busy all the time. They loved the Blue Man Group and also the Cirque.

 

I was very worried after reading some of the other posts on here. Because I was the only one over 21, we were forced to be in one cabin (family mini suite...13034...great location!). All my worries about being crowded etc were proven wrong. We had plenty of room...we unpacked our four large suitcases and they all fit under the beds with room to spare for tote bags etc. There are so many storage areas that we literally had some that were empty. The best hint I got was to take along one of those plastic shoe bags..it fit over the shower door and held all our shoes etc. Each person had a place to put their key cards, etc. Really helped keep the cabin organized. Even when the upper bed was pulled down, there was more than enough room to get past it to go to balcony and they could sit on the couch bed beneath it and watch the soccer games (although they preferred going to the HUGE screen to watch).

 

We all really liked the separate shower/toilet/sink...and none of us felt the frosted glass was an issue. You really couldn't see much through them. We also never once got water anywhere but in the shower (which is huge with a great shower head).

 

I met another cruiser who has taken like 28 cruises..mostly on Holland. This ship is very different from that line (he said the average age for Holland is 87..which is stretching it...but it does cater to an older group). He said he loved this cruise too. He felt there was a lot for his age to do too (he was in his early 70's).

 

Now it's back to the real world when no one comes and whisks my plate away.

[hellokitty123]

Did you find the three days in Rome precruise was 'enough' time to see everything you wanted or did you find some days were a little rushed?

[mjsshipboy]

VAT – on the cruise we were charged Spain VAT for all of our on board purchases even though we got on/off in Rome . 20 % on spa services and merchandise purchases; 8% on all drink and food purchases – this in addition to the 15% automatic gratuity. This was very aggravating to me as I don’t think it should apply if you don’t board in Spain, but oh well, not much I could do.

 

As somebody else mentioned, even doing a Rome to Rome cruise, you never leave the EU.

The ship has to pay VAT in one of the European states that it visits during the cruise (Spain, France and Italy) and clearly, as the bulk of guests join the ship in Barcelona, Norwegian chose to pay the VAT in Spain. (And let's face it - Spain needs all of the help it can get right now).

 

If they had elected to pay it in Italy, you would have been paying more, as the current Italian VAT is 21%. France is at 19% and Spain is presently at 18%, however, next year Spain is expected to increase their VAT rate.

[mjsshipboy]

VAT – on the cruise we were charged Spain VAT for all of our on board purchases even though we got on/off in Rome . 20 % on spa services and merchandise purchases; 8% on all drink and food purchases – this in addition to the 15% automatic gratuity. This was very aggravating to me as I don’t think it should apply if you don’t board in Spain, but oh well, not much I could do.

 

As somebody else mentioned, even doing a Rome to Rome cruise, you never leave the EU.

The ship has to pay VAT in one of the European states that it visits during the cruise (Spain, France and Italy) and clearly, as the bulk of guests join the ship in Barcelona, Norwegian chose to pay the VAT in Spain. (And let's face it - Spain needs all of the help it can get right now).

 

If they had elected to pay it in Italy, you would have been paying more, as the current Italian VAT is 21%. France is at 19% and Spain is presently at 18%, however, next year Spain is expected to increase their VAT rate.

[henrid]

Jolimont - I'm not exactly sure how far from dock to Old Port, but I suspect it is at least a few miles based on the route our shuttle took. I would not say it is walkable, not so much from the sdistance, but from what I saw the roads and area did not seem conducive to walking.

 

Remember the free wine is only if you reserve and eat early.

[henrid]

Did you find the three days in Rome precruise was 'enough' time to see everything you wanted or did you find some days were a little rushed?

 

For us, three days was enough to see most of the highlights of Rome. This was our group's first trip to Rome and we knew we couldn't see everything but tried to make the most of the time we had without wearing ourselves out too much before the cruise. Time off work and money also dictated that we not stay longer. We spent a lot of time doing "Vatican" things and could have cut back on those if there was anything else we considered a must see. After completing the cruise our group agreed that if we went back to Italy we would definately spend a few days in or around both Florence and Sorrento. Those places are incredible and the day trips were not enough to take everything in.

[Victress2007]

We spent three days pre-cruise in Rome also. While it still isn't enough time to see everything, it's a heck of a lot better than 8 hours while on a cruise! We walked all over that city! One full day in the Vatican area and one in ancient Rome, the other time split getting there and getting to the port.

 

Vic

[TyrnaD]

We had 5 days pre-cruise and it was so nice to have the option for a nap back at the hotel in the afternoon in between seeing sites and dinner. Rome is definitely a late-night city, some restaurants open at 7 for dinner, do we were able to see sites in the morning before the heat set in, get back to the hotel in the early afternoon and cool off/relax/nap, then head out later in the evening for more sites and dinner.

 

I think 4 days would have been fine for us but 3 wouldn't have allowed for as much relaxation, which I think made the difference between enjoying our time in Rome and feeling exhausted every day. Also remember that some sites can be seen at night, like Trevi, Piazza Navona, Spanish Steps, and that puts you near some nice dining options for dinner as well.

[trixietg]

Henri,

 

So nice of you describe us as the "terrific family from Ohio." I just posted a review of the cruise on the NCL board, ...the real review section is a little complicated.

 

For the person who asked, this is definitely a good cruise for teens and tweens!

[henrid]

Henri,

 

So nice of you describe us as the "terrific family from Ohio." I just posted a review of the cruise on the NCL board, ...the real review section is a little complicated.

 

For the person who asked, this is definitely a good cruise for teens and tweens!

 

Tracey - good to see your post! We are still suffering the post-cruise blues and having a hard time putting up with the heat here in TX - 106 today! Just not the same as cruising the Med.! Hoping the remainder of the summer goes well for your family.

 

Henri