Epic heading to Europe year around

[Froggitt]

Lets hope they get as cheap as the Jade and the Spirit did, hoping for longer than 7n for the winter runs.

 

I did a 9 night Spirit last month for £218 solo!!! Of which £18 was the solo supplement, and £180 was taxes and fees. Admittedly was as last minute as you could get.

 

To fill Epic, which is twice the size, they would need a similar level of discounting......similar to all those lovely cheap winter Caribbean cruises.

[old nutter]

London/Southampton is not really much worse than Rome/Civitevecchia at the end of the day and with both Heathrow and Gatwick within reach by coach transfer there would be plenty of sense in making cruise starts from Southampton. Add the fact that there are adequate fixed terminal facilities in Southampton instead of having to use that big tent in Civitevecchia and it all begins to make much more sense.

 

Personally, I would love to see the fjords from that huge sun deck above the Haven, atop the Jade someday.

[gstewart]

Pure guess - Jade to remain in Europe cruising from Venice to the Eastern Med. Epic to replace Spirit in the Western Med / Canaries and Spirit to head to Asia or more likely - Australia year round.

[UpTheBanner]

On our last NCL cruise on the Spirit. There were over 700 British people. The majority of the cruise were British. Are they just avoiding the UK? Would love to have one of their freestyle ships based out of Southampton.

[FreestyleNovice]

Pure guess - Jade to remain in Europe cruising from Venice to the Eastern Med. Epic to replace Spirit in the Western Med / Canaries and Spirit to head to Asia or more likely - Australia year round.

 

Hmm.. Spirit seems to attract an older crowd year round but, as I understood, has a quite low occupancy? So if the Epic would do the classic 7 day Med from Barca alternating with the Canaries on low seasons to make up for the Spirit.

Jade can sail the Eastern, already skipping Egypt so wouldn't be a problem indeed.

Can't imagine that NCL would leave the 7 day Epic, I *think* that's their best revenue/attractment.

 

Would like to see some new ports on the Epic in the Med personally and that all three ships, Jade, Spirit, Epic, stay in the Med. :D

 

Anyway; good news, only no more TA's on NCL megaships besides the inaugural ones on the newbuilds.

[meltingmoments]

Hi Easyjet fly to Barcelona from Liverpool every day betweenThursday and Monday at this time of the year and By February every day of the week..

 

I was just going to say that to Craig......and as well, Jet2 start on 13th Feb Manchester to Barcelona. Not sure if your Spirit trip you're looking at is before then or not. :)

[meltingmoments]

NCL - Please port one of Jade or Spirit out of UK. You know it makes sense!;)

 

Pretty please.....with a cherry on top....or the Haven if you prefer! ;)

[insidecabin]

They had ships in the UK they had problems filling them there were masive bargains on the fjords and baltics.

 

Also NCL cant compete with the RCI offering for families in the summer.

 

The move to Copenhagen for the Baltic makes it a 9 day rather than 14 so much more atractive to americans.

 

One issue with the ex UK market is unless you are in the south you might as well fly anyway.

 

Currently brits go for the canaries(warmer) over the med in the winter and the Jade attracts locals 800 italians on the Xmas cruise.

 

Summer the spirit 12n (venice<->BCN) itinerary attracts everyone, 50+ pax nationalities in August when we were on.

 

Thinking about it the Epic could go anywhere the ships the destination, allthough the haven won't be much use in the winter without a lid.

[sha32]

I'm a little sad to hear this news, as no more TA on epic . But hopefully more cheaper MED ones will come up on her

Edited January 13, 2014 by sha32

[garycarla]

Good riddance. Worst ship in the NCL fleet.

Remember you can adjust the Daily Service Charge, up or down, by simply visiting the customer service desk. You do not need to provide a reason for your adjustment.

 

Why do you continue to tell people to stiff the staff?

[Tedj6050]

Good riddance. Worst ship in the NCL fleet.

 

I'll bet your butler doesn't love you.

The epic is my favorite ship and the reason I switched to ncl.sad to see her leave the USA!

[dalgirl]

Glad to hear this - we have sailed on the Epic out of Barcelona twice and all customers really enjoy this ship - that includes Europeans, North Americans, Aussies, Scandanavians, Brits, Asians and the Middle east. It is a real United Nations on these sailings. Hope that they will include longer and more diverse itineraries. Don't expect the Jade to go anywhere - the sailings out of Venice alone will keep that ship in the fleet - the Epic is too large for the new canal sailing rules.

[RSLeesburg]

NCL - Please port one of Jade or Spirit out of UK. You know it makes sense!;)

 

If either of these is small enough, we would love a new ship in Baltimore :)

[orgutierrez]

I was on the Spirit a month ago to the Canaries and the cruise fare was ridiculous, winter cruises in the Med are not comparable to cruises in summer, only if they visit the Canaries due to their weather. Although I live in Barcelona and that it is great to have the Epic year-round here, I don't think they will fill the whole cruise capacity in winter. Having said that I don't really think that the Epic will stay during the whole year doing the same 7 night Mediterranean cruises, I think it is more likely that the Epic will be sent to the Canaries and Morocco during winter.

[TSUmom]

We love the Epic and are thrilled to be cruising the Mediterranean on her in May of 2015!!

[SteveH2508]

We bumped into Kevin Sheehan last night on the Getaway (shameless name dropping:D) - very nice man but I forgot to ask about/mention UK porting:(

[dalgirl]

We bumped into Kevin Sheehan last night on the Getaway (shameless name dropping:D) - very nice man but I forgot to ask about/mention UK porting:(

 

You could have even put in a word about sending some of the older, smaller ships out further into the world - what were you thinking:eek:

[SteveH2508]

You could have even put in a word about sending some of the older, smaller ships out further into the world - what were you thinking:eek:

 

Too surprised to see him passing in the corridor (and having had a few fortified cordial waters by then:rolleyes:) I was not thinking too clearly...

[bluesea777]

Oh that saddens me because there will be no more T/A's - glad I'm going this year!

 

I agree. We have been on Epic TA twice and loved the ride. We're debating whether to go this October or not - last chance!

[Demonyte]

I agree. We have been on Epic TA twice and loved the ride. We're debating whether to go this October or not - last chance!

 

There is still one TA in the spring 2015 when she actually moves there.

[Froggitt]

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/news.cfm?ID=5684

Sheehan also gave his strongest indication yet that once the fleet gets a few ships bigger, Norwegian would look at basing a ship in the U.K.:

 

"We don't have 102 ships like Carnival Corp. does; we only have 13, so we have to be very careful about where we base ships.

 

"If we have six more ships, then we could get to the point where we look at coming into a new market.

 

"We'd like to have a ship based in the U.K., but we have to grow into it."

 

Andy Stuart, executive vice president of global sales and passenger services, added: "People say we're not committed to the U.K. market. We are, we're just not committed to the ex-U.K. market; we're committed to fly cruise."

 

That's like saying "Lets base our US East Coast ships in Miami, and let everyone fly there from New York/Boston etc........but we are still committed to New York......the New York Fly-Cruise market".

 

Personally I would rather put the airfare cost towards a longer cruise or a cabin upgrade.

[dub237]

Épic Will do 10 and 11 days Cruise in winter 2015/2016

[FreestyleNovice]

Épic Will do 10 and 11 days Cruise in winter 2015/2016

 

Source? :)

[Demonyte]

Source? :)

 

There is this post: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=41013121&postcount=154

 

But then again, at least until the beginning of December 2015 Epic will do mostly 7-nighters based on this:

 

http://ports.cruisett.com/schedule/Italy/135-Civitavecchia_Rome/November_2015/

Edited January 16, 2014 by Demonyte

[FreestyleNovice]

There is this post: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=41013121&postcount=154

 

But then again, at least until the beginning of December 2015 Epic will do mostly 7-nighters based on this:

 

http://ports.cruisett.com/schedule/Italy/135-Civitavecchia_Rome/November_2015/

 

Thanks!! Added them to My Favs :D