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Loving this review. My only time on a spirit class ship was my honeymoon cruise on Miracle in 2009. Looks like she has held up well.

lol, great minds think alike.

Maybe while you are there, ask about the excursion credit? I have a feeling as the cruise nears the end, the lines are going to get worse.

Didn’t your FAS include some specialty dining?

You two have some great photos from this cruise! You need to print and frame some of these!

My husband bought both the blue and grey on our Epic cruise. They had a sale. Don’t remember the cost, but less than $45. Double XL are not easy to find, so we tend to purchase when we find it, lol!

Love @HelloItsMeB’s dress!,

NCL needs help in this area. We had the same experience in Alicante, Spain. A NCL rep directed us to the wrong bus twice for our excursion. Went to the first bus she directed us to only to be told by the driver that was the wrong bus. Went back to ask her again and again we were directed to the wrong bus. Finally, a bus driver directed us to the correct bus. It should not be this difficult! With the $50 shore discount, there is an incentive to use NCL tours, but they could be better organized.

Love me some British rashers!

I’d be interested in your comparison of Carnival vs NCL. We have not sailed Carnival since 2013 and have kind of settled on NCL as “our” cruise line after also sailing Celebrity and MSC. But Paul’s Venezia review has me rethinking maybe trying an Italian themed Carnival ship. We don’t get Casino deals, so the cheers package added to the Carnival fare is always a bit of sticker shock compared to NCL. Enjoy your cruise! I’m loving this review!

We were on the Epic in April and would have loved an Epic t-shirt. Everything was branded "hooked on cruising." Glad to see some ship specific merchandise!

We spent 4 nights in Rome in April after a transatlantic cruise and I ate cacio e pepe everyday. It was heavenly!

We bought air tags after your Barcelona experience. I’m sure you are responsible for the sale of a few of them!

I live in FL and they sell the white chocolate covered Oreos here at Christmas. I think they have dark chocolate covered ones too, but I always go for the white chocolate. Those things are sinfully delicious!

On NCL Epic, it’s called Posh. We just sailed Epic in April, so I’ve got Posh in my head. I know what Havana is, but have not sailed Carnival since 2013, so have no first hand experience. I must admit though that the Italian themed ships are tempting. The ship looks beautiful!

What is the Terrazza? Is that like Posh Beach Club on NCL?

What’s with the drug sniffing dogs? Is this a Carnival thing or a Miami thing? We have cruised out of Port Canaveral twice this year, once on MSC and once on NCL and saw no evidence of drug sniffing dogs. Our last cruise from Miami was 12/2022 on Celebrity, but do not ever recall seeing drug sniffing dogs.

You might already be there by now, but Carmel car service provides rides from LGA to midtown Manhattan for around $50. I have used them for about 20 years and they provide consistently good service. So sorry to hear about your dad. I know he shared the love of the ocean with you, so you know he will be with you in spirit. I lost my mom this past January and the stages of grief come and go. I don’t have any great advice for getting through it, other than try to remember the happy times. Wishing you a wonderful cruise!

RCI has not been on our radar due to the lack of an included beverage package and having to pay for a beverage package per day, but those virtual balconies are very cool. That key lime pie looked good too. I live in FL and too many places here forget the meringue, even in Key West. To me, it's not key lime pie with just whipped cream, you need the meringue. Even Celebrity gives you the "all in" option with an option to include a beverage package. If RCI did this, we'd definitely be on it. We've done every mainstream cruise line except RCI and Virgin (I guess they are considered main stream now). I think other lines need to get on that virtual balcony idea. I believe Disney has a virtual port hole, but we've not done Disney since our kids were young. Enjoy the train. We did it on our Alaska cruise back in 2008. I don't remember it being anywhere near the price it is now, but of course, that was 16 years ago. If you live near Chicago, I'd assume you'd be all set for warm weather gear. The coldest this FL girl has ever been was the July 4th spent in in Chicago. I was NOT prepared for the wind that whipped across the great lakes and ended up needing to purchase a jacket. Being from FL, I was not expecting to need a jacket to watch fireworks on the 4th of July, lol! Enjoy your cruise!

Thanks for the reply. When booking, what kind of room do you look for? Do all interior rooms on this class of ship have this option? It's very intriguing to me to have the view of the outside from an interior room. We specifically booked a balcony for our NCL Alaska cruise for the view, but sitting outside it was very cold. It would be nice to have the views without the cold. Thank you.

Can you tell me more about the virtual balcony? Is it a TV screen? Sorry for sounding stupid, but we’ve never sailed on RCI and have never heard of a virtual balcony. Loving the review. Enjoy the cruise!

Not our experience at all. We frequented Maltings and Shakers and never had more than a couple of minutes wait for a drink. The pool bars were crowded, so we tended to avoid those, but inside the ship, no problem at all getting a drink.

We were on the same cruise. The key is to arrive to the port early. We arrived shortly before 10 am. Had a short wait until we were let inside at 10 am. No lines at all to check in. I always try to arrive as early as possible before the lines form.

We are aboard the NCL Epic on a transatlantic cruise from Port Canaveral to Civitavecchia, Rome. We booked with free at sea so have the standard beverage package, 3 specialty dinings, 300 internet minutes and $50 shore excursion credit. I also booked the AT& T cruise package, which has not worked at all. I will be seeking a refund when we return home. This package was meant to include unlimited texting, calling and some data, but has been absolutely worthless. The only way I can receive texts is via iMessage using the NCL internet package. That is also the only way I can access the internet. Photos will be posted at the end, most likely after we are home, due to internet challenges. The NCL internet is fast though; Starlink is working well! Just some thoughts from the cruise. This will not be a detailed day by day blog, but just overall general impressions. Our last TA cruise was in 4/28/2019 on the Epic, from Port Canaveral to Barcelona. We have seen some differences in the service and ship in those 5 years. Our most recent cruises have been on MSC and Celebrity, and I think the buffet at MSC is better than NCL. In 2019, we saw much more variety in NCL breakfast buffet offerings, but those have been cut back. The cheese selection is not as good and Brie seems to have been removed. They do still serve scones in the late afternoon on one of the side stations. We booked this cruise rather last minute, in January. The price was good and since Port Canaveral is our home port, we only had to book flights for our return home. We will spend 4 nights in Rome post cruise and then fly to London one night before flying back to Orlando. Before the cruise, I booked the following: Flight from Rome to London Gatwick 4 nights hotel in Rome Transfer from Civitavecchia to Rome hotel with Cab Roma Day trip to Amalfi Coast from Rome by train with Get your Guide Jewish Ghetto and Campo De Fiori by Night Food, Wine, and Sightseeing tour in Rome with Food Tours of Rome Evening tour of Sistine chapel with Tour Guy Transfer from Rome hotel to airport with Cab Roma Hotel at Gatwick airport Flight to Orlando with Norse Airline West End theater tickets in London Once on board, we booked the Two Towns shore excursion in Alicante, Spain. In Gibraltar, our plans are to buy cable car tickets and tour on our own. We were in Gibraltar in 2019 on our previous TA cruise and took a ship’s tour from Malaga to Gibraltar. We are excited to have the entire day in Gibraltar and to walk the glass walkway and suspension bridge. I have attempted to purchase cable car tickets from the ship, but keep receiving error messages. I’ll keep trying or worse case, we will purchase them when we arrive. Kudos to those who do carry on luggage only. With the colder temperatures, we took 2 large suitcases that we will pay over weight charges on the flight home. Sweaters and jeans and jackets are not light! Cruise Day: We booked an Uber from our home in Orlando to pick us up at 8:30 am. For the drive to the port, the Uber driver took a wrong turn on the way to the port, but we arrived around 9:45 am. The doors to the terminal were closed when we arrived, but they opened at 10 am and we went through security and check in with minimum wait and were given boarding group 7. Boarding began shortly before noon; I was surprised that those who purchased priority boarding were able to board ahead of the latitudes. We thought about purchasing this, as I was hoping to get Posh Beach Club passes, but decided against it, thinking the beach club passes were most likely sold out. Upon boarding, we did go to Guest Services, who confirmed there were no Posh Beach Club passes available to purchase. Our next stop was to the restaurant reservation line to make our dining reservations for the cruise. We received 3 specialty dining restaurants when booking the cruise and booked an additional 2 specialty dining restaurant visits via a package online before sailing, for a total of 5 specialty dinings. I was only able to book one dining reservation prior to the sailing so making those reservations was a priority. I was able to get what we wanted at our preferred dining times of between 6:45 pm and 7:15 pm (with about a 20 minute wait, during which my husband went to a bar and procured us some drinks) so with that taken care of, we headed to check in at our muster station. We had received an email (or 6!) prior to the cruise to watch the safety video, so once onboard, it was just a matter of having our card scanned and verifying we had indeed watched the video to satisfy the muster requirements. One note regarding specialty restaurants, the gentleman who made my dining reservations was adamant that gentlemen must wear collared shirts and closed-in shoes to Le Bistro. The lines were long for reservations, but he gave the same spiel to everyone. However, during our two meals at Le Bistro, we did not see this enforced. There were men in short and T-shirt’s dining there. Your mileage may vary. Lunch was being served in the Taste dining room and O’Sheehan’s Pub, as well as the buffet. It is so nice to have a sit down lunch option rather than the buffet. Lunch in Taste has been consistently good this cruise, but to me, the embarkation day menu is the weakest. My notes are non existent for this meal, but I had the cheeseburger without a bun and the chocolate orange mousse and I think my husband had blackened chicken pasta. The chocolate orange mousse dessert is one of my favorites and easily the best part of the meal. Rooms were to be ready at 3 pm, so we walked around a bit, ending up on deck 18 in some loungers in the shade. When it was announced that rooms were ready, we made our way to our balcony on deck 14. We found our luggage in the hallway on the way to our room, several rooms down from our room, so wheeled it to our cabin. Our last cruise was on MSC, and there is a substantial difference in the balcony sizes. On the Epic, there is very little space between the foot of the bed and the dresser. It was difficult to wheel our suitcases through that narrow space. We got the suitcases in the room and promptly took the best cruise nap! We slept for nearly 3 hours, which was heaven and the longest nap I’ve taken in years, but the lead up to the cruise was very busy. Upon waking, we tried to call our steward to request additional hangers, a coffee maker and robes, but either no one answered or the voicemail box was full. We unpacked what we could. We travel with strong magnetic hooks, which are invaluable in hanging up jackets, hats, bathing suit coverups, etc. We also have the over the door shoe hanger which we use for small items. The Epic does not have a separate bathroom, but rather one area with the toilet enclosed in a tube like booth and another shower area enclosed in a tube like area, kind of like a telephone booth. The sink is in the cabin area. There is a nice sized medicine chest over the sink to store toiletries. We had enough room for our clothes between the closet and various cabinets, however some drawers would have been appreciated. We usually dress for dinner, but for the first time ever, decided to go in our clothes we wore on the ship. On our 2019 TA on Epic, there was the opportunity to reserve your MDR dinners, however this time, we were told that reservations were not taken in the MDRs. We were given a pager when we requested our table and went to the Maltings whiskey bar while we waited. The grass clippings is a favorite cocktail and it was as good as I remembered. After dinner we went to the adult comic in Headliners, Paul Morrissey, who was pretty good. Later in the cruise we saw Julie Barr, another comic, who made the comment that the movie “Cocoon” could be remade from the passengers on the ship. The fellow passengers do skew older. My husband and I are 61, but still working. I’d say the average age of the passengers is at least 10 years older than us and retired. There are a few kids, but not many. Our cabin is near the Splash Kids’ Club and it has been very quiet. There are 2 dogs onboard, one is an obvious service dog, the other looks to be barely 2 lbs. Not sure how he qualifies as a service dog, but we’ve only seen him once and he was very well behaved. Day 2, sea day( one of many!). We left our room steward a note and tip requesting our hangers, coffee maker and robes. NCL has gone to once a day servicing of the rooms. We do miss the twice a day service on MSC. Breakfast in Taste was good. Eggs Benedict for me and an omelet for my husband. With the time changes, that might be the only time we make the 9:30 am breakfast end time in Taste. After breakfast, we found the jogging track, which had some serious power walkers. It was like merging onto the freeway to get on the track! Next was a very well attended dance class by two members the Burn the Floor cast. We browsed the shops and bought 2 tshirts for $30 and some other buy 1, get 1 free polo shirts. Since we were not successful in getting Posh Beach Club passes, we went to the adult Spice H2O at the back of the ship. Every day has been consistently colder and windier, but day 2 was pleasant for sunbathing and using the hot tub. Our 2019 TA was later in the year and warmer and smoother. This cruise we feel the movement, nothing crazy, but it is more movement than we felt in 2019. At times, the main pool is sloshing a bit. The freestyle daily shows snacks at Spice H2O in the afternoon, but on at least 3 days, nothing has been served. When open, there is a nice selection of burgers, hotdogs, chicken wings and some salads, but with colder temperatures and less crowds, the food service is not consistent. There has been no issue in bar service though. The bars are open and waiters come to the loungers to take orders. Dinner in the Manhattan dining room has been very good. Having a band play live music and a singer during dinner is a nice touch and not something I’ve seen on other lines. One note about food service, with the time change, one morning many people were lined up at the supposedly 24 hour pub, O’Sheehan’s, for breakfast, which was listed as being served until 11 am in the Freestyle Daily. At 10:45 am, people were being turned away, being told to return for lunch at 11:30 am. There was a mutiny among the passengers. The hostess was telling people Garden Cafe was open for breakfast, but a gentleman was telling her it was not. Come to find out, the Garden Cafe was indeed closed at the main entrance, but if you went in the side doors, from the pool deck, there was breakfast being served. There seemed to be a lot of disgruntled guests, and a bit more communication on NCL’s part might have been helpful in this regard. We ended up just waiting until noon and enjoyed lunch at Taste, which soon became our routine with the almost daily time changes of losing an hour each day. Burn the Floor is not to be missed, a spectacular show! I booked one night before the cruise and we did a second night in the standby line. What I have missed are the nightly shows of singers and dancers. Hypnotists and magicians are not our thing. In 2019, Priscilla Queen of the Desert was on and we enjoyed it. It seems that NCL is phasing out the broadway shows, which is a shame. One night there was a 1980s Broadway Revue which was good. Ryan is a featured singer in the Burn the Floor show and he also performed in the Broadway revue. He is very good. Howl at the Moon was our favorite in 2019. This version of Howl at the Moon has 2 very talented sisters who perform and one older gentleman. Love the women, the man is not our favorite; he skews a bit country for our tastes. Shakers Martini Bar has Roel, who also plays the piano and sings. He has been fun to watch. One night we left Howl at the Moon when Sweet Caroline was being performed, only to find Roel doing the same song! Ugg! We met another couple who had also bailed at Howl at the Moon when the dreaded Caroline song started. Not sure why this is a favorite! Modern is the Brazilian steakhouse and comparable to Texas de Brazil in Orlando. It is a lot of food. I like my meat more well cooked, so they brought me a plate of all of the meats more cooked. We were so full we skipped dessert, as there is also a very extensive salad bar. Le Bistro was good. The dress code is not enforced, but that doesn’t bother us. The filet is a $10 upcharge from the dining package, which is a change from 2019. The steak was good though and worth the cost. Our second night there, I had the lamb, which was also good and my husband had coq au vin. No issues with food or service. Cagneys steakhouse was good. The shrimp cocktail and lobster bisque were good. We get better steaks at Fleming’s Steakhouse at home, but the sides and dessert were good. It is a lot of food, with appetizer, soup/salad, entree, two sides, and dessert included with the dining package. The portions are very generous. The regular beverage package has been fine, we thought about upgrading, but my husband was happy with the bourbons/whiskies on the regular package and I am fine with the regular wines and spirits , so it’s all good. At Shakers Champagne and Martini Bar, I showed the bartender the recipe for a classic champagne cocktail, made with cognac, bitters, and lemon peel and he made me one with the Prosecco on the regular package. It was wonderful. Another bar tender made one with simple syrup and a cherry, which is not the classic recipe. I made sure to visit the one who follows the recipe after that! We attended the Q&A session with the officers about running a cruise ship, and that was interesting. The captain has been with NCL since the 1980s. One night was a Silver level Cocktail party, which was nice. There was a band and cheese snacks and the senior officers were introduced and a pitch made to purchase Cruise Next certificates, which no longer expire. We saw the gold level and then platinum, diamond, and ambassador parties listed another night in the Freestyle Daily. I guess this is on the honor system, because no one asked to see our ship card to verify our status when we attended. We decided we like the NCL product enough to purchase 4 Cruise Next $250 certificates for $500. The fact that they don’t expire is a selling point and being able to sail an hour from home is a plus. The Beatles cover band plays in the Cavern Club. This is much too small a venue for the people who want to attend. In 2019, we could arrive just prior to showtime and not worry about seats, because we spent the entire show on the dance floor. Now, there is a person monitoring the entrance, who will not allow anyone in once the venue is full, which is about 30 minutes before showtime. No one danced during the one show we attended. The band also plays 2 shows in the large theater, which was packed during last night’s show, with standing room only. I think all of their shows should be in the theater, as there is such a demand for them. Cavern Club is much too small. I will write more as the cruise progresses. We arrive in Gibraltar on Tuesday so tomorrow is another sea day.

Thanks for this information. Can you pay the bus fare on the bus or do you purchase bus tickets in advance? Thanks again.