Dramamamahil

We were in one of those 9th floor owners suites on the Jewel. It was 4 of us (with a 4 year old and 8 year old) and we had originally booked a family suite but got upgraded to the OS. It was an amazing room! I didn't feel it was terribly inconvenint being away from the Haven. We had never sailed inside the haven before so we didn't know the difference. Our kids are both boys, so they slept together on the pull out sofa.

The front balcony was our favorite part! We were cruising in Alaska so the views were incredible. But it was super windy. But you also have a side balcony so it's best of both worlds!

Besides NCL, I have also sailed on Princess and RCL and I am a big fan of NCL. I love that we can cruise in a Haven room, which is better that any other suite life we have experienced. I am also a big fan of Freestyle. It just works best for my family.

Hi Dramamamahil,

The football match will be 2 days before you are due in Marseille so I imagine things will be much quieter and much safer then. I would keep my options open if I were you and not immediately imagine there will be any problems as those generally happen on days before matches and on the day itself. As I said, most fans from all other countries are generally mixing well together to create a carnival atmosphere and not behaving badly.

Del.

Thank you for the info!

There is a Euro semi-final in Marseille on 7th July and the tournament ends with the final in Paris on 10th July.

 

We have just returned from Epic cruise that docked in Marseille on the day of the violence. The threat was well documented in UK press in advance so we chose to stay on board which was a pity as it was the only port we hadn't visited before but we took the view as regular cruisers that we would probably re-visit in future when better placed to enjoy what the city and region had to offer.

 

We spoke to people who had gone ashore oblivious to the likely troubles and had gone early but did experience the beginnings of crowds and police massing as they were ready to head back to the ship.

 

It seems to depend which countries will be playing as to whether or not there will be a threat of further violence. Anything involving Russia or England could have the potential for trouble whereas fans of other countries seem quite content to mix with each other and have a good time without drinking themselves into oblivion or looking for trouble.

 

I will post a review of our cruise shortly.

Del.

Wow, ok. We are scheduled to be there on July 9th! We have 2 small children so those volitile crowds are definitely something I wish to avoid. We booked the ship excursion to Aix just to utilize the busses and explore the area on our own for a couple hours. As sad as I would be to miss it, I'd rather stay on board!

Some other ships, such as Harmony of the Seas missed Marseille completely this week and had longer stay in the previous port and then a sea day!

 

 

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What's going on in Mardseille? We Weill be on this cruise in the beginning of July so I concerned now!

We also embarked in Rome (Civi) after a week+ traveling in Italy. We planned on them having the laundry special based on a Barcelona schedule, which would be our embarkation day, worked very well for us. I don't see how this would mess anything up, we had few clean clothes left so first thing we did was ask for a bag and turned it in. It cost $19.95 for filling a large bag, much cheaper than laundromats in Rome. We had it back the evening of our second day, earlier than estimated. When you get on in Civi the dailies will be on day four, the whole cruise runs on a Barcelona - Barcelona time frame, didn't bother us at all except we had to join three roll calls (smart Barcelona embarkers did the same) and had the only cc meet-up on our fourth day.

Because we are only traveling for 3 days before the cruise, but a week after the cruise. So we won't have much to wash on embarkation day but need the clothes to last a while post cruise. We will figure it out.

Is it not advisable to bring a backpack while on excursions because they won't be allowed in museums and historical sights?

Thank you so much for your help!!! I appreciate all of the details. I may follow your plan almost exactly :)

Since you are doing it the week before I do, I hope it goes well and you'll have to report back so I can make last minute changes!!

Does anyone know when they do the laundry special on the Epic? We are embarking in Rome but will be traveling a bunch before and after the cruise so laundry is a must for us. Having the laundry special mid cruise based on the Barcelona embarkation would mess things up for us!

Thank you!!!

I'm taking the cruise leaving on 7/6 from Rome so I don't have rome excursions planned as we are touring Rome prior to the cruise. There are plenty of child friendly Vatican or Coliseum tours if you google that.

Florence - Exclusive Pisa & Florence tour with Discovery Tours (this one is a long tour that's particularly kid focused but seeing David and the toper in pisa were important to me! Our kids are too young to climb pisa though.)

Cannes - Scents and Tastes of the French Riviera with Private Shore Trips (I'm excited about this tour! We are visiting a candy factory, olive oil factory, and perfume factory.)

Barcelona - Dragon Hunt, Family Orientation to the Gothic Quarter with Context tours - this one is specifically for kids and only 2 hours.

Naples –Child Friendly Tour with AP Tours (visiting ruins, making pizza and gelato. We are not going to Pompeii because it is supposedly very hot with no shade available and a bit of a ride to get there so we decided it wasn't really kid friendly and are seeing Herculaneum instead)

In Marseille we just plan to go to Aix en Provence to visit the Market in the AM and then have lunch.

I am doing this cruise with my 6 and 9 year olds in July. I planned a bunch of kid friendly independent tours. I can give you my plans and the tour companies we used if you'd like!

I have not had that issue, but did the payment show as posted to your credit card or bank account? If so use that record to support your booking with NCL.

I did, but what I didn't notice was that a month or so later they refunded both charges! They have no idea why it was refunded. Anyway, I repaid and hopefully it won't happen again.

I booked the thermal suite pass and the Cirque dinner shows online and paid for them at that time. Then I called a booked one shore excursion on the phone in order for it to go to my onboard account so I could use the shore excursion credit. Yesterday I got an email from NCL saying that since I haven't paid for the spa, entertainment, or shore ex they were going to be cancelled!!

So I call NCL and they say I need to call may TA (which is strange since I didn't book these things through the TA). So now I am on the phone with TA and NCL and they still can't figure it out!

Anyone else have this issue before? How was it resolved?

Regarding taxis, I can't stress enough how much this can fluctuate and really depends on what other ships are in port.

 

I could use three of my experiences to say that taxis are plentiful, but that doesn't change the fact that we almost missed out flight on the occasion that we were waiting for about 90 minutes due to other ships being in port on the same day.

 

Check the cruise schedules and prepare. If Harmony is regularly docking on Sunday's (I don't know whether it is) then that is potentially a gamechanger and all previous experience could be irrelevant.

I looked it up and Harmony will be docking at the same time as Epic (5am) and it looks like Holland America's Oosterdam will be arriving at 8am.

Now I'm nervous about making our 8:45 tour time without getting off the ship crazy early! Would reserving transportation be our best bet and can you recommend a transportation company?

I heard an announcement this morning that they were picking the King and queen of bingo today, which sounds like the sort of thing that would happen at the beginning. Perhaps they work it from Barcelona, which won't help those people who board in Rome.

 

Can they have multiple kings and queens?

I don't know but as long as we can play bingo, I'm good! We never win anyway, so the jackpot part of it is pretty meaningless, lol!

Did you recall if taxi's were readily available at the port in Barcelona? Since we embark in Rome, Barcelona is just stop for us and we will be heading to Sagrada Familia in the AM. We are hoping to take a taxi from the port.

Thanks for letting me know about the bingo! If you can let us know the evening and sea day hours for the kids club, I'd appreciate that too. My kids loved it there on previous cruises!

You sure will not be bored.

 

Your meeting point is directly outside the Sagrada Familia and 15 minutes before it opens.

 

I would probably think about getting off the ship at about 8 am and get a taxi. You may be there really early, but as lots of folk will be trying to get taxis to the airport there may well be a queue.

Bored was a typo!! It was supposed to be booked, lol! Thank you😁

We are bored on a tour of Sagrada Familia that meets at a souvenir store at Marina Street with Mallorca Street.

What is our best bet to get to the meeting point from the ship and how long will travel take? We have a meeting time of 8:45am and the ship docks at 5am, what time should we leave the ship?

Thank you in advance!

Hi Mallory & Jason...we're in the H4--2 bedroom suite--Deck 16--in order to be near the pool and the Epic Club, etc.

 

I noticed not too many threads focus on the Epic Haven in detail. Lots of the menus online for the Epic are also outdated. I'm hoping to be as detailed as I can--if nothing prevents me from doing so.

 

I hope I can start from when we first sign in--perhaps pictures of where to go for Haven guests, what it will look like, etc. I may have to start another thread as to not hijack Keith's thread.

Is it 16011 by any chance??

I'm pretty sure there has usually been bingo on this cruise, but I'll check for you.

 

I'm a bit intrigued by your question about the multiple ports. I've never played bingo but assumed that they were one off games. I take it from your question that it's something that runs through the week.

 

I'll see if I can get the chance to ask someone about it.

They usually have a progressive jackpot of some sort.

This is a silly question, but my husband I were wondering if they do bingo on this cruise? If they do, we were confused how it would work with the multiple embarkations and port intensive itinerary. Bingo is a favorite of ours!

Will this work in Europe too? We are on the Epic in the western Med at the beginning of July.

Mine are off 30 min too. I also called and confirmed the times. Must be some sort of website glitch.