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Epic Western Med Review 5/26 -6/2

BaseballMomof4
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BaseballMomof4

BaseballMomof4

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We made our way to the Colosseum and again were very happy to have pre-purchased tickets. There is no way we would have waited in the line that circled around the Colosseum to get in. We simply walked right past the line and in with our tickets. I had found a website to purchase tickets that didn't not require a time - the were good for 2 days - and were inexpensive as well.

 

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carolyn22

carolyn22

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We made our way to the Colosseum and again were very happy to have pre-purchased tickets. There is no way we would have waited in the line that circled around the Colosseum to get in. We simply walked right past the line and in with our tickets. I had found a website to purchase tickets that didn't not require a time - the were good for 2 days - and were inexpensive as well.

 

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Loving your review! I'm doing the western Med cruise on the Liberty of the Seas in a few months, and we will be doing some of the same ports. We are thinking of booking that exact same excursion with Rome in Limo when we dock in Naples. Were you pleased with this tour?

 

Also, do you remember the website that you purchased your Colosseum tickets from? I need to buy those, too.

 

Can't wait to read the rest of your trip report!

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BaseballMomof4

BaseballMomof4

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Rome in Limo was fantastic. Everything went perfectly and I highly recommend them. We did pay extra to have a guide in Pompeii and it's important that you have some sort of info in there. Either a guide ($100 split 8 ways in our case) or at the very least an audio guide otherwise you won't have a clue what you are looking at. I will say my boys were getting a bit ready for the tour to be over about 2/3 of the way through. Pompeii is huge and it takes a long time to go through the tour and it is a lot of walking but it is an amazing city.

 

I looked in my folder for the Colosseum tickets and of course that's the one I couldn't find :p I will see if I have it in my old email somewhere.

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cyndepet

cyndepet

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Hi! I'm glad to see you're doing a review. I was on the ship with you just through Rome. I had to laugh at where you had lunch in Sorrento. Our guide from SASE brought us to the same place. We were a little later - around 1? I think that's a favorite spot for guides :-) Great lunch, not expensive, and quick. Crowds in Rome were unreal - we got off our train in Ostiense and had to get the metro to the Vatican area where we had booked our hotel. Not so much fun with 2 big bags and a couple carry-ons lol.

 

Agree with you about food. Most of my experience has been Carnival with some RCL and Princess thrown in. I'd give the nod to Carnival for food overall. We never ate in the same place twice on Epic - best were Moderno, Le Bistro and La Cucina which was a pleasant surprise on the last night of the cruise. Other than that, while we never had a bad meal (except the buffet), nothing really stood out. Particularly not breakfast or desserts.

 

And I don't know how you managed with 4 in a balcony cabin. Good thing you are a close family :-)

 

I'm enjoying your review - sorry I didn't get to meet you but we completely forgot about the M&M until that afternoon :o.

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BaseballMomof4

BaseballMomof4

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Hi! I'm glad to see you're doing a review. I was on the ship with you just through Rome. I had to laugh at where you had lunch in Sorrento. Our guide from SASE brought us to the same place. We were a little later - around 1? I think that's a favorite spot for guides :-) Great lunch, not expensive, and quick. Crowds in Rome were unreal - we got off our train in Ostiense and had to get the metro to the Vatican area where we had booked our hotel. Not so much fun with 2 big bags and a couple carry-ons lol.

 

Agree with you about food. Most of my experience has been Carnival with some RCL and Princess thrown in. I'd give the nod to Carnival for food overall. We never ate in the same place twice on Epic - best were Moderno, Le Bistro and La Cucina which was a pleasant surprise on the last night of the cruise. Other than that, while we never had a bad meal (except the buffet), nothing really stood out. Particularly not breakfast or desserts.

 

And I don't know how you managed with 4 in a balcony cabin. Good thing you are a close family :-)

 

I'm enjoying your review - sorry I didn't get to meet you but we completely forgot about the M&M until that afternoon :o.

 

I'm sorry we missed each other too!! Yeah, definitely was not a fan of the food.

 

Yeah, it was an adventure being in one cabin with all those boys :eek: thank heaven we could create a wind tunnel when we opened the door and the balcony door :p

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BaseballMomof4

BaseballMomof4

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We're from South Florida and wondering if you used a travel agent to book your cruise, hotel, etc. or did you go at it alone. I normally go at it alone since I greatly enjoy researching and planning trips.

 

I'm really enjoying your review.

 

Little known fact, Sears has a travel agency and if you book through them, you get Rewards points for use at Sears or KMart.

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BaseballMomof4

BaseballMomof4

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Ok guys, sorry for the long delay - life interfered!

 

I was up early again for our Florence port anticipating being off the ship and on our way to Pisa with our second Rome in Limo tour by 8. I went out and sat on the balcony to watch us doc and noticed 3 cargo ships at anchor. As I was out there it was cold and windy and the water was fairly choppy. The poor pilot boat looked like a scene from A Perfect Storm!

 

After sitting on the balcony for quite awhile I realized I had seen those same cargo ships 3 times. At this point I realize something is not right. Shortly thereafter came the announcement. Sorry, we can't dock and will be missing this port and heading directly to Marseille.

 

Since we knew we were in for a long day I decided to take advantage of the advertised port special at the spa. Obviously they hadn't planned on missing the port so the spa was swamped! I did manage to get my 1 hour massage and my 2 hours in the spa hot tubs etc for the advertised $89 (which when they are done taxing it is more like $105). It was nice but I doubt I would repeat this.

 

Saddened by missing our port I was also upset about the rather large investment I had made for the private tour with Rome in Limo. I was worried for no reason. All I had to do was email them when I got home, give them my paypal account and within minutes my refund was there. I did lose the money I paid to visit Accademia, but there really wasn't anything NCL could have done that day. Apparently there were 70 knot winds and they had 5 boats trying to get us in with no success.

 

That evening we opted to eat at Moderno and all I can say is GO HUNGRY! I would have been more than happy to eat there every night. Shoot - I could have eaten their salad bar alone every night! Moderno gets the highest food rating from me from this trip. Absolutely worth the price of admission.

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BaseballMomof4

BaseballMomof4

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Our next port was Marseille. I had made no definitive plans for this port. We are not wine country people and most of the tours revolved around wine tasting, so we decided to just get off the ship and go to the old port with hopes of taking a ferry over to Chateau d'If.

 

The old port is really lovely and we very much enjoyed shopping around the area for awhile. Then we walked over to the ferry sales area to try to buy a ticket to Chateau d'If. We were again disappointed. The Chateau was closed due to the bad windy weather. Mother Nature was not on our side for this trip.

 

Improvising quickly I decided we should grab the Petit Train. This turned out to be a lot of fun! Although when they say Petit they mean it! We were pretty close in those seats!

 

We rode Le Petit Train to Notre Dame de la Gard and it was beautiful!

 

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BaseballMomof4

BaseballMomof4

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It was so windy up at Notre Dame the wind was literally pushing us around! You can catch a return train from Notre Dame every 15 minutes and they were very prompt and easy to get on to.

 

After returning to the Old Port area we decided to get some lunch and do a bit more shopping. Here is where we encountered a bit of a problem. I don't speak French. No one with me speaks French. And then menus at these lovely sidewalk cafes are all in French. When I am paying between 16 and 17 euro per plate, I would kind of like to know what I am ordering!

 

We walked passed countless cafés before we finally found one with a translated menu. The food was good - a bit pricey for lunch if you ask me - but good. And it was very enjoyable as the wind died down a bit and the sun was shining and we were feet from the water and street performers entertained us during our lunch.

 

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Our café is to the left and the water is to the right.

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BaseballMomof4

BaseballMomof4

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A couple of things about Marseille from our perspective. While it was beautiful, it wasn't our most friendly port. English speakers are next to impossible to find. And DO NOT leave the ship in need of a restroom :eek: Even McDonalds did not have a functioning restroom. It cost us 15 euro in coffees to be allowed a restroom visit.

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BaseballMomof4

BaseballMomof4

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So back to the ship and on to dinner in Taste. I had one of the regional specialities that night. Seafood Cioppolini. I am pretty open to new foods and I like most everything but this was just not good. At least not to me.

 

So back to the stateroom we went and then we decided to wander the ship to see what there was to do. Unfortunately my youngest, a veteran sailer, spent that night worshiping the porcelain God. The seas were very rough and walking about the ship was difficult.

 

We have had some rough seas on some of out past cruises (particularly Eastern Caribbean) and this night ranked right up there as one of the rockiest.

 

By morning everyone was well and our last port day in Palma de Mallorca would prove to be our warmest, nicest weather day.

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