Epic Western Mediterranean (June 15-22) review

[ShannonSC2]

Sorry for the delay. Why does life get busy when you get home from vacation? It is summertime and should not be this busy. I will upload some more pictures today and start the report on Naples!

 

Thanks for all who are following!!!

[NCLfamily]

Mooooooooooooaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr :)

 

We leave for Rome in 3 days and sail on the 9th. Any pics of the freestyle dailies?

 

TA

[Lilystar]

Mooooooooooooaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr :)

 

We leave for Rome in 3 days and sail on the 9th. Any pics of the freestyle dailies?

 

TA

 

If you do a search on this board, there are a couple others who recently got back from this cruise as well and posted the Dailies.

[ShannonSC2]

Mooooooooooooaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr :)

 

We leave for Rome in 3 days and sail on the 9th. Any pics of the freestyle dailies?

 

TA

 

I don't have any. I do know it was different than the ones I saw before we left because of the World Cup. The ones I saw had movies playing in Spice H2O at night but while we were there they had the World Cup games on. It was fun to watch the games with everyone else.

 

Have a great trip. I am ready to go back. :)

[ShannonSC2]

Naples, Italy

 

At 630AM my husband went up with the camera in hand while the rest of us got dressed. We were doing our first excursion ever. We booked the Naples/Sorrento/Pizza Tasting Excursion. I have to say it was a blast. More on that later.

 

After the day we at sea I was so glad to see the sun coming out. I was worried it would be rainy all day but it was a beautiful day.

 

 

 

We ate breakfast and watch as we went into port.

 

A view of the Naples as we are going into Port.

 

 

The lighthouse

 

 

After breakfast we headed to either the Epic Theater or the Manhattan Room (can't remember now which one) until they called us for our excursion.

[ShannonSC2]

My family & I were on the same cruise - that waterspout was incredible! We filmed it from our balcony but my husband left his phone in the taxi on our return trip to the Barcelona airport - he took nearly all the pix for our family:(

 

I'm loving your report! Without many photos I doubt I'll post a review. We had an AWESOME time!

 

 

Oh that is a bummer about your husbands phone. UGH! At least you have great memories of your trip. That water spout was incredible. I bet it was cool watching from your balcony. We watched it from the front of the ship in the Garden Cafe and then outside at the pool area. Pretty wild!

[NCLfamily]

If you do a search on this board, there are a couple others who recently got back from this cruise as well and posted the Dailies.

 

Can't see any :(

 

Not to worry, will see ours in 6 days :cool:

[Sparkles87]

Can't see any :(

 

Not to worry, will see ours in 6 days :cool:

 

Here you go :)

 

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2039767

 

They start from about post #14

[ShannonSC2]

For our American friends I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July. I started back to work this past week so i am trying to get everything caught back up.

 

I left off with us in Naples, Italy.

 

We did our first excursion ever and I am glad we did. We booked through NCL the tour of Sorrento/Naples/Pizza tasting.

 

Everything was very organized. We meet in the Epic Theater and there were a lot of people in there. They called our tour and off we went to catch the bus. Sal was our tour guide and I have to say he was great. He lived in Naples and knew a lot of the history. He knew a lot.

 

Once we got everyone on the bus we started our journey up to Sorrento. The ride was amazing as was the scenery. It took awhile to get up there because of the traffic.

 

 

 

 

[ShannonSC2]

As I said before the traffic was tough getting to Sorrento. The roads are very curvy and can be tight in areas. The mopeds would pass by people and go around curves. I would hold my breathe because I was afraid someone was going to get hit. I would like to know how many accidents there are in that area. I guess I am not that much of a daredevil to do things like that. The mopeds are fast too.

 

Once we arrived in Sorrento we stopped at the restroom (or washroom). We stopped at a small store where all the NCL tours stop to get off the bus. We all piled off the bus and headed to the bathroom. At this store you can also get free WiFi which everyone was trying to get. It was pretty funny!

 

We had two hours to walk through town and enjoy the scenery and the town of Sorrento.

 

 

The town had all the World Cup flags going through town. Very neat looking.

 

 

 

 

[ShannonSC2]

The girls & I saw the beach area and decided we were going to walk down there and put our feet in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

[ShannonSC2]

This is the first time I have experience restrooms like this. You do have to pay in order to use them which I find sort of strange.

 

 

After our walk back up we started walking towards town. The girls saw something they have never seen before because pay phones are nonexistence here in our state. Now we have the great and wonderful cell phones. I told my girls I use to have to stop and pay a quarter to call my parents or friends. They use to be everywhere on every street corner and sometimes you had to wait for someone to finish their call in order to call someone. They thought that was crazy! The luxury they have now! :)

 

 

SO they pretended to call someone.

 

 

 

After our stroll through town it was time to head back to the shop to catch the bus. We stopped by the store and went to the free restrooms and tried the Wifi again. It worked this time. Of course the girls were posting pictures and Katherine had to get in her text to her boyfriend. Sal our tour guide said it was time to go and this is Katherine with Sal giving her a hard time on that texting.

 

 

Sorrento was beautiful. I would love to go spend more time there. Now back to Naples for Pizza!!!

[ghockley1981]

Loved reading your review so far and seeing you pictures, the water spout must of been something special to see, but worrying at the time i could imagine.

 

When are we going to hear about Rome and the rest of your trip ?

 

You can't leave it there :)

[Skippingaroundtheglobe]

Great review!

 

I laughed when you commented on the pay potty! At least it wasn't a squatty potty!!

 

I actually love pay toilets in Europe, usually it means they are clean!

[bluegirluk]

Loving this as I am doing this very same cruise in October :)

[flcruiser3]

I'm enjoying your review, thanks for posting it!

[Sanantoniocruiser]

Thank you for sharing. This was a wonderful review, full of great information. We will be sailing this same itinerary next May 13-20. We can't wait as this will be our first time in Europe. Did you consider taking any private tours vs. doing NCL sponsored excursions? Any other tips for managing life on board the Epic for a week?

 

 

Vicki & Sam

[ghockley1981]

Thank you for sharing. This was a wonderful review, full of great information. We will be sailing this same itinerary next May 13-20. We can't wait as this will be our first time in Europe. Did you consider taking any private tours vs. doing NCL sponsored excursions? Any other tips for managing life on board the Epic for a week?

 

 

Vicki & Sam

 

Just thought I would help you out Vicki & Sam as I can't directly message you, we did the same trip in September, our review is here :

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2095731

 

We did our own tours at Naples when we went to Pompeii, at Civitavecchia when we made our way into Rome and at Cannes when really we had a relaxing walk around. So you may find info in here helpful.

 

It quite easy to do, you just need to plan ahead.

[Sanantoniocruiser]

Thank you very much for your review. You obviously had done a lot of research and planning for your trip. That is exactly what I am attempting to do as there will be so much that we want to do in this short time. I have been reading all of the posts here and on the trip advisor site to pick up tips on how to make this an enjoyable vacation.

 

Thanks again for sharing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[ghockley1981]

Thank you very much for your review. You obviously had done a lot of research and planning for your trip. That is exactly what I am attempting to do as there will be so much that we want to do in this short time. I have been reading all of the posts here and on the trip advisor site to pick up tips on how to make this an enjoyable vacation.

 

Thanks again for sharing.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

 

Glad it helped. In my research and planning I just learned I had to ask the right question to get the answer I wanted. Someone has always done what you want to do before.

 

Hope your planning goes well

 

 

Sent from my iPhone

Norwegian Epic Med Cruise Sep 2014

[ShannonSC2]

Thank you for sharing. This was a wonderful review, full of great information. We will be sailing this same itinerary next May 13-20. We can't wait as this will be our first time in Europe. Did you consider taking any private tours vs. doing NCL sponsored excursions? Any other tips for managing life on board the Epic for a week?

 

 

Vicki & Sam

 

I just realized I never finished my review. I have been so busy since I started writing this review.

 

You will have a great time. It isn't a relaxing cruise or it wasn't for us. We wanted to see everything and do everything because we had never been to Europe before. We flew in the morning of our cruise into Barcelona and went straight to the ship. We did stay an extra night in Barcelona the day after our cruise though which was wonderful

 

We didn't do any tours for Rome. I pulled up lots of information on what to see in Rome and did a walking tour. We did a lot of walking. Now I wish we had done a tour for Rome just because there is so much to see and do.

 

We did a NCL tour for Naples/Sorrento. It was the pizza tasting/Sorrento/Naples. It was a lot of fun and we had a great tour guide.

 

We also did a last minute tour for Monte Carlo when we got to Cannes. I am glad we did this through NCL because the transportation/trains were on strike the day we visited. We went to Nice & up to Monte Carlo. I have to say our tour guide was very rude and not friendly at all.

 

For Pisa we just rode the train to Pisa and then walked to the Tower. The town of Pisa is very unique and we enjoyed seeing the different buildings. There isn't a lot in Pisa but it is a fun little city. We had the best Pizza near the Leaning Tower.

 

The ship itself has a lot to offer. My girls did a lot of teen club events.

 

Do as much research as you can. We got the girls involved in helping to plan the trip. We made a list of what we wanted to do and see in each port. It was the best trip ever and I am ready to go back.

 

I guess I should finish my review one day. :)

[tomsuelaw]

Shannon,

 

Thanks for starting your review, really have enjoyed it so far! Your family is beautiful. Hope to see the rest of it if or when you find the time! Thanks for sharing, it is awesome so far!