This is a cruise with an outstanding itinerary on a ship with many options. Great time! Definitely book the Haven!
Embarkation
5 out of 5
We got on at Civitavecchia and were in the Haven. Civitavecchia embarks about 1/3 of the passengers where Barcelona embarks the rest. We got there around 2 and only a small line for everyone. The Haven has priority boarding so we were escorted aboard immediately and given a tour of the Haven facilities. Our bags got there in about 2 hours. Gave us time to explore and get something to eat. Overall I can’t think of a better way to start the cruise.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
We ate at Moderno, Tappanyaki, the Haven dining room, O’Sheehan’s and the main dining room The Garden Cafe. All of them were very good and they had a large range of options. The only place that had a dress code was Le Bistro. Service was consistently excellent.
Teppanyaki
5 out of 5
A lot of fun and tasty food. Usually they let you sample everything they cook even if you can’t decide between chicken beef or shrimp.
Spiegel Tent - Cirque Dreams and Dinner
5 out of 5
Amazing! We we so close to the performers we sometimes had to hold onto our chairs for worry that they will fall into our laps. Haven again gets preferential seating. I was amazed at how well they did with the ship moving on a sea day. Food was just ok though.
Garden Cafe
5 out of 5
Great for buffet and trying everything. Particularly loved the bacon and chicken panini.
The Epic Club
5 out of 5
Best food on the ship and excellent service!
Great Outdoors
4 out of 5
Late night snacks and ice cream.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
Haven pool hot tub sun deck were awesome and never crowded. All 3 slides are a blast and a must do. There is so much to do on the ship you can’t possibly do them all from shuffle board and bingo to rock climbing it covers all levels of interest.
Spa
5 out of 5
Had spa package. It was great after all the walking on the excursions. Also great to start your trip with relaxing thermal spa and a massage. Hint: if you are used to a firm Swedish massage ask for a deep tissue. It is worth the extra 30$.
Posh Beach Club
5 out of 5
Worth the price of Haven.
Epic Plunge
5 out of 5
The funnel slide is a blast
Epic Casino
5 out of 5
Very fun but some areas have smoking.
Aqua Park
5 out of 5
Have to do the slides. All ages do them.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Great options with professional performers. Very hard to get bored on this cruise.
Epic Theatre
5 out of 5
Priscilla queen of the desert was spectacular! Very professional production. If you are in the Haven you get preferential seating.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Excellent customer services throughout the whole ship. Special shout out to Roel our concierge and Lodson our steward. They were very responsive to a couple of issues with the ship.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Layout and design were good. Everything was very clean. Epic is about 10 years old and therefore needs constant maintenance. Which means it is likely that there will be some work going on with the ship when you are there. It just so happened to be going on on the deck above our cabin. We stayed on deck 14 and the pool deck is 15. They decided to strip the paint off and replace it at 1:30 in the morning. Needless to say it was LOUD! Staff was very responsive and did not happen again. There are also a few glitches in their computer systems particularly if you board in Rome. They also had to do caulking of the in suite jacuzzi. Most of the time they do it while you are on excursions.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Overall great. Not much extra walking space though. Shower was large worked well. Frosted door to the toilet was a little odd. Suggest using it while roommate is either on the veranda or out of the room. Veranda is awesome! Lots of storage spaces. Suggest putting empty luggage under the bed. Saves a lot space. Also ask your steward about the wash and fold special for 20$. Covers up to a full laundry bag of clothes.
Use of the Haven is major plus.
Ship tip
Booking the Haven is perfect for someone who wants to combine the best of a small luxury ship with the options of a large ship
Pompeii is incredibly interesting. Must do on this cruise. We also did a small group tour of Positano and Sorrento. A lot of driving but the scenery can’t be beat. This was the one of only 2 excursions we did through NCL. Glad we did it. The other one was Pisa and Florence on our own. Also worth it. I recommend doing the excursions to cities over an hour away through NCL. We didn’t have to worry about missing the ship. NCL will hold the ship if one of their excursions is late.
Flew into Rome 2 days prior to leaving. There is so much to do in Rome. We did the Vatican Museums, Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, multiple piazzas and shopping on Via Nationale. Fantastic! All of the above. Note: Vatican Museums are packed and once you start you have to go through many rooms until you get to the Sistine Chapel. Most rooms are not air conditioned so it can get stuffy. We went mid October and can’t imagine doing it in the middle of summer. It is definitely beautiful. The Colosseum is large and full of visitors so don’t get separated from your group. Make a plan ahead of time for what to do if separated. Good advice for anywhere on excursions. Wonderful shopping.
Great port for a relaxing stroll after 2 days of ports with heavy activity. Very pretty and it was cool to see the Carlton and all the film festival related stuff. Also good shopping.
We did our own excursion and saw the cathedral which was beautiful then went to a beach Illetas. The beach was perfect and was one of our favorite spots. We took a taxi which was about 14 euros and took about 20 minutes. Highly recommend this beach if that is what you are looking for at this port.
Pisa is very cool. Florence is incredible. Pictures really don’t capture the ambiance and beauty. Seeing David was incredible. We got skip the line tickets for Accademia and all the other exhibits we did. Highly recommended. We rarely stood in line the entire trip except for airport lines.
We had been to Barcelona before and had already visited Sagrada Familia which I recommend. So instead we went to Parc Guell which was amazing. On the way back we strolled down Las Ramblas. There were many shops open on Sunday although they are closed most everywhere else.
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