An "Epic" European Adventure -Review of Western Med with pics

[elsplace2]

After Florence we headed to San Gimignano, which is a small medieval town in Siena, Tuscany. Now this was really beautiful. We walked around the quaint little shops and took many photos of the area. John recommended a great place for Gelato which of course we just had to try. Yum! Again we spent an hour there. (Although, there was some miscommunication, again with RIL. We were suppose to go to a winery for a wine tasting. Not sure what happened, but there were no arguments coming from me….the last thing I wanted to do was have some wine! San Gimignono was beautiful so we enjoyed it just the same.)

 

 

 

[elsplace2]

What a great day we spent in Tuscany with RomeInLimo. They really get you to the highlights and get into places that a bus could not possibly fit in. I was really pleased with everything we got to squeeze in, in one day!! John, our driver was excellent too!!

It took us an hour and half to get back to the ship. We were there by 5:30pm…went to get a quick dinner in the buffet and after that relaxed for a bit in our room…then headed to see Legends. It was very good, although I was soooo tired from lack of sleep the night before, that I could barely keep my eyes open. We went back to our rooms and were in bed by 9:00pm. Yep, we are quite the party animals!

[elsplace2]

Today we were doing our tour with NCL. Rome and the Colosseum. I wanted to go with NCL because I knew they had a guide with you the whole time, telling you about everything you are looking at. And with Rome being so rich with history, I didn’t want to miss a thing….Needless to say it was information overload. The guide was so knowledgeable about each site and barely ever stopped talking. And to top it off, she was about 9 months pregnant! She was wonderful and this was a GREAT tour!! I know a lot of people don’t like Cruise line tours, but we actually enjoy them, (well most of them, that is). One thing for sure is they are so organized.

Anyway, we were up by 6:00am. Enjoyed breakfast in the buffet and off to the meeting room for 8:15am in the Manhatten room.

We started this day at the Trevi fountain. What a beautiful fountain! Although, again it's in an unusal spot. They gave us just enough time to get some photos and throw a coin over our shoulder ensuring us a return to Rome.

 

[omc329]

I'm enjoying the review. You are taking me back in time to our cruise on the Jade with the same itinerary. You also make me appreciate our meal in Florence more so than I did. My one complaint with ril was how long that meal took in Florence, but it sounds as though it wasn't much different for you and your 'quick' sandwich. I guess lunch just takes time in Florence.

 

I keep reading this review, and I'll have to go back and find my old one for a bit more reminicing. ;)

 

Someday we are going back to Europe!

[elsplace2]

From there we walked to Roman Forum, which is a forum that is surrounded by the ruins of ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. This was a fascinating place to see!

[elsplace2]

Then we walked over to the Colosseum. It is considered one of the greatest works of Roman architecture and Roman engineering. It was used for gladiatorial contests and public spectacles, executions etc. There is lot’s and lot’s of interesting history behind these places.

[elsplace2]

After we were done at the Colosseum, we walked over to a restaurant where they would serve us lunch….by this time it was around 1:30pm. This was a bit of a disappointment. We thought we would be having an Authentic Italian meal…..they did serve some pasta I guess as an appetizer, but the main course was a thin slice of turkey and fries, like steak fries and a small salad also on the plate. Dessert was something like pie crust pieces, with a raspberry sauce, and pudding??? Not sure what it was. But that’s OK, they gave a couple of bottles of wine with lunch, which made up for it....It was all pretty good. I believe we were there for about an hour.

 

[waterport]

wow i am loving your review cant wait for the rest of it im going on the epic med cruise in August and and really enjoying your review

[elsplace2]

After lunch we went walked to our bus and headed over to the St. Peter’s Basilica located in Vatican City. This Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world! The line to enter it was VERY LONG, but we got through it in about a half hour or so. (Actually it was the security line you have to go through, first which causes the backup). While we were in line our tour guide continued to give us some information on the Basilica and Vatican City and we were able to get some pics of the area as well. Again this area was beautiful and everything inside the Basilica were beautiful.

 

 

 

[elsplace2]

When we were done, which I believe we were there for about an hour and half, we walked over to a souvienier store, where they gave you just enough time to use the rest rooms or pick up a souvenior . We were only there for about 15 min. or so….so not much time to do both!

The bus picked us up around 5:00pm and we were back at the ship at 6:30pm. This was a very long day! Yet, it was so fascinating and informative. We enjoyed every minute of it!!

 

Back on the ship….we had no reservations for a show today so we went to dinner at Manhattens. It was very good and there was some entertainment on the stage…a piano player and singer. A few couples got up on the dance floor, between their courses. After dinner we were off to the Casino to try our luck…as usual no luck for me, but DH, won about 30 bucks, big whoop, but better than nothing, like me!! We walked around the ship for a bit and just ended up in our room on our balcony for the rest of the evening. It was nice to just be able to relax. We have had some very busy days, so far!!

BTW the seas were pretty rough this evening for the first time….it had been literally smooth sailing until tonight….fortunately I did not get sea sick, but I had heard some people were not feeling so well.

Edited June 11, 2011 by elsplace2

[elsplace2]

We had another Day planned with RomeInLimo. The Amalfi Coastline, Positano, Sorrento and Pompei. We met with Vito our guide for the day at 8:00am. What a great another guy from RIL! He kept calling the woman…”Lady”. “Look at this beautiful site, Lady.” "Hey Lady, let me tell you something....." It was so cute!

Here he is with me.

[elsplace2]

We did this tour with the same group as Livorno. Again we were fortunate enough to have another beautiful day….with the exception in the late afternoon, where we got a little rain, but for only about 10 min or so.

Anyway, our first stop was going to be in the town of Positano. We drove through the Amalfi Coastline, what a beautiful coastline. Vito made a few stops for us to get some pictures….words just cannot describe the views.

 

 

[Single Cruiser]

Some great pics there El. Looks like those tours paid off!

 

Not sure about the pretty rough sea though! :D:confused: The ship barely moved all week as it was going slow.

[elsplace2]

We made it to Positano in what I believe was about an hour. This was my favorite town! Vito gave us about an hour to walk around and enjoy the town and do some shopping if we wanted. It was such a quaint little town, and we enjoyed walking down it’s windy roads and views overlooking the water.

 

 

 

[elsplace2]

After Positano we were off to Sorrento….again another beautiful town. We had about an hour to do some shopping and sightseeing.

[elsplace2]

Vito met with us and walked us to a nice casual Italian restaurant where we all enjoyed some authentic Italian Margherita pizza. (For those of you who didn’t know, Pizza was invented in Naples, Italy. A chef created the Margherita Pizza , in honor of Queen Margherita of Savoy. He garnished it with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil to represent the colors of the Italain Flag.) It was delicious, the best pizza I ever had! After lunch they gave us all a complimentary shot of the infamous Limoncello. Speaking of Lemons….we thought we were seeing the biggest lemons we have every seen, but Vito told us they were not lemons they were “amacello”???? Sorry, I can’t remember what he called it.

 

 

[elsplace2]

After lunch, we headed to Pompei. We met our tour guide, Barbara, which was arranged via RomeinLimo. It cost 100 Euros for a private tour guide….the more you have the cheaper it is per person. Although I believe 10 is the limit….so it was only 25 Euros per couple for us. She was awesome and filled with information and very passionate about the history behind Pompei and how much she respected the site. Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during an eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. It is a very interesting site. We were seeing a storm brew from afar so Barbara , tried to hurry it up a bit. She didn’t want to because you can tell how much more information she had and wanted to share. Fortunately we were almost through when it started to rain a little, but luckily we got through it all. I’m sure it wasn’t with as much detail as she wanted to give, but that was OK with us. We got an awesome tour with plenty of information. Vito was waiting for us and surprisingly it cleared up once we got back on the road. We got dropped off at 5:00pm and again another wonderful day spent through Romeinlimo and in Naples.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 11, 2011 by elsplace2

[elsplace2]

We got back on the ship and DH and I ran into Mike and Cindy and a few other cruise critic folks. We discussed our days with RIL seeing we were in different groups. They LOVED their day as well! They were given a bottle of Limoncello by their driver and were kind enough to share some with us.

Afterwards we headed to Taste and enjoyed a meal there and also enjoyed the company of a couple from Chicago, who was seated near our table. On our way back to our room we went to view the bridge viewing room on our floor…..they were getting ready for sail away, so we were only allowed to watch for a couple of minutes and due to security reasons, they had to close the curtains. Then we went to our rooms to enjoy watching the sail away at 7:00pm.

After watching sail away for about an hour we headed to the Casino….again, made our donations to the slot machines. DH lost all of the money he had won on the previous night. After the casino we headed O’Sheehans for some chicken wings, mozzarella sticks and beer. The wings and sticks were very good…although they only give you 4 small pieces of mozzarella sticks (6 pieces of wings).

After O’Sheehans, we saw the Atrium was hosting a show called Dancing with the Epic Stars. So we went downstairs to check it out. It was a show where they chose about 8 people from the audience (pulled your name out of a hat) and you danced with one of the Epic Stars, I guess they may have been dancers…we missed the beginning so we weren’t sure who they were. They played about 2 min. of a song like country, polka etc. and after each song 3 judges vote for the bottom 2 and the audience votes by applause which one to keep….it was pretty funny at times. After the show, we ran into a wonderful British couple that we toured with on the NCL tour in Rome. We were at the same table at lunch. We talked with them for about an hour and then headed back to our room, by this time it was about 11 to 11:30pm. We were exhausted. OK, I was exhausted….my DH never seems to get exhausted

[TrikeRider]

I love your review. I am on this same cruise in about 2 1/2 months and using RIL in all three Italy ports. Your pictures are amazing and making me impatient.

[elsplace2]

We were up around 7:30am and was heading to breakfast by 8:30. Today we just wanted to relax a bit. After breakfast we went to the pool area, Spice H20 for the peace and quiet….….surprise, surprise, there were plenty of seats to choose from….although yes, there was the usual chair hog seats, unoccupied, as well. We got our loungers and decided to go in the hot tub for a bit, seeing it was still a little cool….but not bad. We couldn’t figure out how to turn it on….there was a button there, but apparently it wasn’t working, so we sat in it anyway, another couple from South Carolina came in soon after and we enjoyed chit chatting with them for a while….OK, so now we were the chair hogs, with our stuff sitting on our loungers and we weren’t!! We didn’t stay laying around for too long, DH wanted to hit the gym. So we headed off to the gym. But not before stopping off at the “sidewalk sale” and purchased a couple of Epic shirts. After the gym, we relaxed a bit in our room on the balcony and enjoyed the views. (Oh BTW, you may want to try and get a port side cabin, because occassionaly we passed through some land and you can see them at night or during the day.)

We went to have lunch at O’Sheehan’s. It happened to be right around the time they were doing the towel folding demonstrations. So we took a “bar” seat overlooking the atrium, had our lunch and watched it. It was cool to see how quickly they can make them.

Edited June 11, 2011 by elsplace2

[elsplace2]

After watching the towel folding and having lunch, we stopped off at the buffet to pick up a bowl of fruit for dessert (see we can be good). Then went back to our room and sat on our balcony until around 2:15. We went to see the Blue Man Group meet and greet at 2:30pm…..Glad we did, it was very interesting.

 

[elsplace2]

DH left to go to the beer tasting in the Maltings bar and I met up with him after Blue Man M&G, which ended right around 3:00pm. He happened to be sitting next to one of our Cruise Critic roll callers, Julie and Mark. Tosha from CC and the Margerita Tasting was there as well, but didn’t join us until afterwards. After the beer tasting, we hung around the bar and chit chatted for a bit.

[elsplace2]

We left around 5 to go see the Epic Live and freshen up for dinner. Epic Live was not that great from what we saw, although we didn’t stay that long so it could have gotten better. We went to dinner early to make sure we got out in time to see Steve Sorrintino at 8:00pm. We went to Taste this evening. They seem to be a lot quicker with the serving of the meals and it is quieter in there, music wise…..Manhatten can get loud and you can barely hear the waiter, but of course it probably didn’t sound as loud if you sat more toward the back.

After dinner we went to go look at some of our pics. The first time we went there, they weren’t able to get any pics of us on the computers supposedly due to the fact we didn’t get our photo taken on embarkation day and they didn’t get to swipe our card for photo recognition…..which it wasn’t that we didn’t want to but it was because, we never saw them….which is HIGHLY unusual because it is always the first thing that happens, you get pulled over to get a Welcome Aboard photo! So if for some reason, they miss you too, the photographers told us to get our photo taken at any of the photographers “booth” and they will swipe our card and take a photo. We just never did it, because we barely ever buy their photos…..usually just one or 2. They had some of our photos on the back wall and put them in our “folder”. But we did discover a day or 2 later that our photos were on the computer, but we never swiped it at a photo “booth”. So I don’t understand what happened.

 

 

These are the photo Kiosks. The notebooks in the back have your room number and will have some printed photos in there or you can put your printed photos in them if you see them on the wall.

 

Edited June 11, 2011 by elsplace2

[elsplace2]

After looking at our photos we headed back to our room to the balcony for a bit, then headed to see Steve Sorrentino. He is a comedian musician impressionist. He is very talented with his impressions. Unfortunately, I didn’t think it was all that funny, I was expecting more standup comedy then the musical rendition he did. On the other hand he was very good at his impressions and did have some funny moments. Of course that is in my opinion someone else may have thought he was very funny like my DH who really enjoyed him….the show was only 50 min. I’m not sure if this show is good for the younger crowd, who don’t know some of the people he impersonates, like Jerry Lewis, etc. I know one of our RIL tour companions, who was 28, didn’t know hardly any of the people he was impersonating and did not like the show at all….on the other hand, another one of our other tour compainions were about the same age enjoyed it very much. So it’s all a matter of opinion…everyone has their own. But I still suggest going to the show and make your own.

BTW Steven Sorrintino told us that he is the Elvis on Legends….we are not sure if he was kidding or not….I believed it, DH did not.

Later on we vetured off to the Epic Theater to see if we can be on the waiting list to see Blue Man again. Embarrasing to say, I really don’t remember much of the show from the Margarita tasting night…..We waited in the no reservation line at 9:30pm…they took our room number and there were about 13 people ahead of us…..by 9:45 they started to let us in….YAY we made it in! We ran into Christina and Ben from our tours and sat with them. The show was awesome! I’m glad we made it back!

After the show we went into Headliners for a bit, see Howl at the Moon again. Pretty much the same “gig” as the other night, so we stayed for a little while then back to our rooms around midnight.

[Lovely_Star]

OMG your review is AMAZING thanks for sharing all of those beautiful pics. I've got my eye on this cruise for next year :)