What Time to Line Up on The Epic

[NewCruiser51912]

My husband and I are first time cruisers sailing out of Barcelona on the Epic on June 3rd, 2018. We've booked our shore excursions through private companies to save some money. I've heard that the lines to disembark the Epic for shore excursions can be quite long. And since we didn't book through NCL, we won't have an assigned time to disembark. How much time should we allow ourselves to get off the ship if we have to meet our shore excursion guides at a specific time (ex: 8:50 am) while also planning to grab breakfast?

[KeithJenner]

I have never come across any queues to get off the Epic on this itinerary.

 

Admittedly, we aren’t usually trying to leave immediately after we arrive in port. Remember, the arrival times are usually very early, so that does stagger things a little.

 

Unless you need to get ashore very soon after arrival in one of the main ports (Naples, Civitavecchia or Livorno) then, in my experience, you should be ok heading off the ship about 10 minutes before you are due to meet your tour. The most time consuming part is actually walking through the terminal in Naples.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[tef43]

an assigned time to disembark.

Never heard of such a thing, with the exception of ports where the ship does not dock and you have to tender to shore.

[KeithJenner]

Never heard of such a thing, with the exception of ports where the ship does not dock and you have to tender to shore.

 

 

If you are on an NCL tour then you meet up at the time indicated by NCL. I assume that is what they mean.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[boatseller]

In ports where the ship is docked, such as Barcelona, there are no assigned times and I've never seen any meaningful line to disembark via the gangway. There may be a line, but it moves pretty much as fast as people can walk and the crew can scan you out.

 

You are assigned times and groups for tender ports and it's not uncommon to see passengers without excursions booked through the line to wait 2 hours for a tender.

[Crazykat945]

I was on Epics and getting off at each port is pretty easy and doesn't take long, so I would say you should head down 20 minutes before meeting time. For tender port, you need to get on the first one. you should go to service desk on day 1 and request that.

[BirdTravels]

My husband and I are first time cruisers sailing out of Barcelona on the Epic on June 3rd, 2018. We've booked our shore excursions through private companies to save some money. I've heard that the lines to disembark the Epic for shore excursions can be quite long. And since we didn't book through NCL, we won't have an assigned time to disembark. How much time should we allow ourselves to get off the ship if we have to meet our shore excursion guides at a specific time (ex: 8:50 am) while also planning to grab breakfast?

 

The NCL tours will start disembarking in groups about 30 mins after arrival. If you are quick, you can get off before them. At 8:50, you may miss the crowds (its a late start time). Most tours start early because it is a long drive to the major cities in rush hour traffic.

[Huntingdon1701]

I've done Epic's Med Itinerary twice now and the only place where I've seen queues was Cannes, because of the tendering. If you have an early trip there, make sure to book one of the earliest tenders available as soon as you board (or learn how to queue jump by attending the meet and greet).

 

Everywhere else, I agree with others that 10 minutes should do.