Epic Med Itinerary - Embarking and Disembarking in both Rome and Barcelona

[GULDHAV]

Look forward to your trip. Port days you will have lots of room if you stay on the ship. You will be first in line for shows the last days since most passengers board in Barcelona. And to have the sea day late in the cruise is definitely better.

 

Done this cruise several times on Epic, look forward to a fantastic holiday, dont worry!

[yyz1314]

We did the May 6-13 Rome version of the trip.

 

Getting on with only 1/4 of the ship is fantastic. As others said, it is a ghost town when you get on as everyone is in Rome for the day. Rooms were ready at 1 and bags came mid afternoon for us. Lots of chance to explore the ship and unwind after a few days running around Rome.

 

Leaving port was different as there was no Sail Away bash on the deck, you experience that when you get back from touring Barcelona. However, it really does not detract from anything. We really didn't notice it until we saw it in Barcelona.

 

As everyone says, it's a really port intensive trip, so you don't spend much time on the ship if you want to see Europe. We just did the Manhattan Room most nights, and walked right in every time. We also did the Cirque Dreams with the standard seating and it was totally worth it. Had a booth at the back and saw 95% of everything, only lost a bit of the trapeze thing at the start.

 

There seemed to be room in the specialties most times or short waits.

 

The shows in the theatre were Legends, magician, Burn the floor. We missed all of these as we were okay with other stuff. There were openings available when we boarded if we had wanted to go to them.

 

We did see Howl about 4 times. It is a drop in venue and there were always seats available. Great show as all 3 of the performers are amazing. We also really liked Crystal Blue, although the crowds for them were sparse for some reason. They played more classic rock and were really good musicians. Beatles cover band was okay too, bit cheesy but fun. Jim the acoustic guy was a great way to wind down. Great thing about the musical acts was that sometimes another performer would join in. Rhonda from Howl joined Jim one night and sang a couple of Janis Joplin songs to about 20 or so gathered at the bar/lounge late at night.

 

As I said, it is an awesome cruise, tons to see and do. You will not be bored.

 

We liked boarding in Rome as I think it is better to have multiple days in Rome instead of just seeing the sights in a few hours if it is just a port on your trip.

 

After passing through Barcelona, we now have a reason to go back and spend serious time there too.

 

Only you can decide what is most important for your vacation to be perfect.

 

There are people who will find issues no matter what and will write stuff on forums about problem with this and that. That is the age we live in. I choose to enjoy the experience and not sweat every detail.

 

Trust that you and your travelling party are in the best part of Europe, and make it as great as you want it to be. It is different from North America (in many ways better) and you will have life long memories. Hope you have the time of your life.

 

Frank

[albertamom]

We used Barcelona Day Tours.

 

For Italy ports we used Romecabs

 

Both were extremely professional and just made our trip perfect. The private tours add so much value to this cruise.

 

I will look them up. Thank you! :)

[em-sk]

I will look them up. Thank you! :)

 

If your comfortable exploring on your own there is a port bus (under 10 euros) that shuttles between where the ship docks and the La Rambla. Very frequent. (google search for PORTBUS). Might take 10 minutes of so. It is like a city bus and pay when get on board. You should be able to find lots of self guided walking tours from that location. It is a very accessible city. That is what I did, though I had been in Barcelona before for work.

 

One item on reservations for the shows on the EPICS. You can reserve ahead of time and in principle they do fill up. Even if full in the booking system they are always no shows and 10-15 minutes before the start they release any empty seats and if you just show up you have a very good chance of getting in anyway.

Edited May 22, 2015 by em-sk

[funpig]

We just disembarked from Epic in Rome on May 20. Our original flight out of FCO was about 1:30 pm and we had arranged for Bob's Limo to pick us up at 9:30 am

 

One or two days before disembarkation, an envelope was delivered to our room with a letter and our luggage tags. The letter said our disembarkation time was 7:30 based upon our floor. There is a disembarkation time set on the half hour. I believe the last one was 8:30am.

 

We tagged the luggage and left it outside our room at 10 pm the night before. Ours were not picked up until anout 11 pm.

 

I had telephoned and emailed Bob's Limo to change the pickup time to 8:30 am.

 

We woke up at 6 am, showered and had breakfast. At 7:30 am, we went to the 4th floor aft and disembarked. We just had to swipe our id cards and that was it. Down the gang plank and a short walk to a large port tent area where our colour tagged luggage was all neatly organized. We rolled out our luggage and were in the parking lot before 8 am. We waited about half and hour and Bob's showed up to drive us to FCO about 45 min away.

 

When we got to the airport, our 1:30 pm flight was delayed which would have made us miss our connecting flight from london to Canada. British Airways put us on an earlier 11:55 am flight.

 

PS. For our shore excursions, we mostly did it on our own. We did book Joe Bananas Tour for Livorno and Naples. Would highly recommend.

Edited May 22, 2015 by funpig

[CdnJeff]

So is a pick-up time of 10am on disembarkment from Rome too later? I'm sure they can't kick us off the ship since not everyone disembarks that day, but I wonder about our luggage sitting in the port tent area whether it will be safe.

[als1428]

:confused:Is there anyone yet back from this itinerary that can give me a little information on how it works? Apparently the Epic will be making a continuous loop this season that can begin and end in either Rome or Barcelona. We're sailing Rome-Rome Sept. 2 - 9. I'm wondering how disembarkation works when they are not clearing the entire ship. Will it be quicker and therefore allow booking of an earlier flight time? Or will the disembarking passengers be hindered by the rest of the ship getting off for a port stop? Any experience with how this works would be really appreciated.

 

P.S. A couple of years ago we took a similar sailing of the S.Caribbean that embarked in both San Juan and Bridgetown, Barbados. We knew it was happening, but there were so few passengers coming and/or going from Barbados that it wasn't even a blip on the radar screen.

Just returned from the May 20 - 27 Rome round-trip cruise on the Epic. Disembarkation in the Port of Civitavecchia couldn't have been easier. The night before we were given instructions and labels for our luggage. Since we were on the 11th Deck we were given Aqua colored labels. There disembarkation schedule was: 7:00am (Red Luggage Tags) for NCL Transfers and Flights to FCO. 7:15am (Blue Luggage Tags) for Guests on Decks 8, 9 & 10). 7:30am (Aqua Luggage Tags) for Guests on Decks 11 & 12. 8:00am (Lime Luggage Tags) for Guests on Decks 13 & 14). Tours from the ship don't leave until 8:30am and 8:45am.

We left the ship at 7:35am and had scheduled through Civitavecchia Cab Service a car pick-up at 7:45am. When we left the ship we had a 5 min. walk to the terminal for luggage pick-up. With the limited number of Guests that board in Rome finding our luggage was easy (found them within a minute).

Our car arrived in front of the terminal at exactly 7:45am. The ride to the airport took about 50 mins. Arriving at airport terminal at 8:35am we had to wait until 9:00am to go through [step 1] passport check. (they start passport check 4 hours before your flight. Since our flight wasn't until 1pm we had to just wait.) After passport check, which took us 10 mins. of waiting in line, you walk to [step 2] ticket /luggage check-in (with your luggage). We were flying Delta and the luggage check-in took 5 to 10 mins. After Luggage check-in you go to [step3] Security Check in, this takes the longest. We got through Security in about 20 mins.. After Security you go down stairs and catch a bus to the actual terminal (gates, food shopping, etc.). Overall from 9:00am we were at the actual gate G2 a little before 10am.

FYI: The ship announced our Aqua colored tags could leave with the Red and Blue. But we were in no rush and waited until after breakfast.

You should have NO wait at terminal passport check since if you leave the ship at the earliest, 7:00am and have transportation waiting, you should be at the airport by 8:00am-8:15am, Give an hour for check-in to terminal I see you by your gate at 9:15 to 9:30. Giving you a couple of hours to shop at their large Duty Free Shop.

FYI: Any purchase of products in Europe is subject to VAT (Value Added Tax) 21%. You can request a refund of these Taxes when you leave the country but you have to file the paperwork at the terminal, the VAT refund office is right next to the security line entrance (after check-in). There was a line there but I don't know how long the wait was because I didn't care to file. You should factor some time if you believe you will be filing for a refund.

[20YearsBetweenCruises]

We also went on the May 20 , Rome-to-Rome cruise. We had our dinning and shows booked online, so no problem there. For the port intensive cruises, the Rome to Rome works better, IMO. You have 1/2 sea day on day 3, the sea day on day 5. These give you a much needed break between ports. Also, to do an excursion in Rome, you would spend 2 hours traveling to/from Rome. Barcelona was just a 5 minute bus trip away. And as you said, there is so much to see in Rome. We spent 3 days post cruise in Rome.

 

 

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[McDMan]

I did the cruise (boarding and disembarking in Rome) the first summer they did the multi-city cruise.

 

There are fewer people getting on and off in Rome when I did it. That makes the check-in process much easier. Shorter lines. Cabins ready sooner etc. I don't think you miss out on any of the entertainment You jut don't see it in the same order as Barcelona passangers. You can pre-book the major shows ahead of the cruise online any way.

 

I like Rome, being able to spend an extra couple of days in Rome before the cruise was wonderful. The port near Rome is quite a distance from the city and because of that I would prefer Rome as the port where I start and end the cruise.

 

In Barcelona there is a shuttle bus that costs a couple of Euro that takes you from the ship to the centre of town. When you come back there will be a large queue of people checking in on the side there is a queue for people who are already checked in form other ports and you get back on. Not certain what day Barcelona is now when I did it is was Sunday, and many of he shops were closed.

 

These are very port intensive cruises, with very few sea days. That gives it a different feeling all together. The on-board experience is mostly an evening affair. Other than the one or two sea days there are very view passengers on the ship during the day. Some of the ports, such as Naples are downtown and you can come and go as you see fit. Other ports are in industrial areas and there are shuttle buses to get you unto town. If they are still doing Canes, that is a ender.

 

I also caught the Air Canada flight back the same day the ship arrived. I was a little worried because it was before noon however I had no problems and spend a good hour and a bit sitting in the lounge at the airport. Same process as any other cruise, luggage outside the door the night before arrival or you can also walk off as soon as the ship docks, I did the walk off as I was worried about the flight.

 

I did another cruise a year latter flew back connecting somewhere with a very early departure. I stayed overnight at the Hilton connected to the airport. Short walk to the terminal. The hotel also has a free shuttle into downtown Rome for guests.

 

Hello, we are on the EPIC out of Rome on Aug 19. Can you please tell me when then ship arrived in Port and the earliest you were allowed to disembark? We have a 12:20pm flight. Also, when you arrived at FCO, how long was the check-in to get to the gate? We are flying FCO to Toronto to YVR.

 

Thank-you, Charles

[portofrome]

Just disembarked on June 3 in Civitavecchia. I woke up at 05.30 and the ship was already docked. I did self disembarked and I got out at 06.45. The disembarking info letter I got said that the first free shuttle starts run at 07.15 but when I was outside the terminal the shuttle was already there and at 07.00 I was downtown. I remember also that passengers with ship transfer to the airport they had to disembark at 07.00. I hope this will help you. Enjoy your Epic cruise :)

[funpig]

Hello to fellow Canadian posters above.

 

We were on May 13 Rome Epic Med cruise (I posted a review earlier).

 

The embarkation and disembarkation was a breeze. There is a giant tent-like building where you check-in and where you pick up the luggage. We are talking minutes to get on or off the ship. You can disembark early if you want and should be able to easily make a 12 PM flight. (We got bumped up to an 11:45 am flight to go home to Vancouver via Heathrow, see my post above for full description). FCO was not too bad. Checking in with British Airways was reasonably quick even though we had to deal with changing our flights. The only slow part was lining up to go through security, which seemed very disorganized, to get to our boarding gate. But we made it through and even had time for a small lunch before boarding our plane. Note that we went through FCO about ten days after the big fire. We could still smell the smoke, but I could not see where the damage was and I do not think it created any additional delays.

 

If you want to stay longer on the ship, I do not think that is a problem. The luggage is placed in the big tent and there should be staff around. I suggest that you call NCL or just talk to guest services on the ship to verify that the staff will be there. Please note that the luggage is just freely picked up by the passengers as they walk off the ship. There really is nothing stopping people from just grabbing other people's luggage at anytime. So I would not put any real valuables in the luggage anyways. If you are worried about that, just keep the luggage with you until you decide to disembark.

 

I would not worry about the LAST group of Barcelona people booking all shows or special dinners before you get on the ship. The way to look at it is that you can book all the shows or special dinners before the NEXT group of the Barcelona people get on the ship. With this continuous loop, it really is a chicken or egg question. But the best advice is to log on to NCL.com and you can pre-book almost everything in advance. We did and we saw all the available shows and had all the prime reservation times (for us) for each of the special restaurants available under the UDP. There is a chance to get seats at sold out shows. Our sold out shows had a number of empty seats. Long shore days really tire you out and people just bail to go to bed.

 

IMO, the Rome embarkation is still better. I still prefer having the relaxing sea day on our day 6 as opposed to day 2 for the Barca people. And of course, Rome makes a lot of sense if you plan to be in Italy before or after the cruise.

 

But Barca is clearly the "start" of the cruise. They get a big welcome cake at the buffet (at least I did not see one on our first night). And on the Barca embark night, when we went for dinner, it seemed like the whole ship was dressed up, not in tuxes or formalwear, but no flip flops or beachwear which was so common up to that point. I guess I did not read the memo because I was still dressed on the casual end of the spectrum. Also there were a lot of officers in their uniforms walking around the restaurants greeting guests.

 

If you organize your own shore excursion or join up with a group (check the Roll Call or some of the private tour websites), you will save a lot of money. Some cities like Barcelona, Cannes and Palma have a lot of touristy attractions and can easily be accessed by just taking local shuttle buses from the port. City ports like Livorno and Naples really require that you get out of the city and go somewhere else to see interesting attractions. Still doable on your own, but then you need to deal with trains or city to city buses or taxies. It is worth it to get a private tour. We used Joe Bananas.

Edited June 10, 2015 by funpig

[ALASKACRUISE161]

Hi, what time did you arrive to port? It says the ship departs from Rome at 7pm. All my other cruises I have been at port for the first time with luggage around 10am. I don't want to arrive this early if it is not necessary,

 

thanks

Desiree

[McDMan]

We got to the port around 2pm. But we took a fasttrain from Rome to the port as we stayed in Rome 3 days before embarking. You can go any time you like but haven't not been there before (in Europe) we wanted ample time to get there as well as to navigate/get used to the ship before embarking. If you are taking the train, you will have to haul your luggage up an down some stairs to get to the street where you'll then have to take your luggage to the port. You can take a taxi but its only a 5-10 min walk. There were some elderly couples who left the train with us and my son and I helped them carry therir luggage up and down the stairs.

[aubreyc1988]

wow, definitely an interesting thread! I just booked this cruise and was confused for a while about how there could be a 9/6 sailing for Epic from Rome when I am going on the 9/3 from Barcelona, but I figured it out! I think people on either leg will have a great time, but it definitely seems like a different experience for sure! I do wish we could embark from Rome, but a Wed-Wed just doesn't work as well for us as a Sun-Sun. :D

[Bean2010]

We did Rome - Rome and it was a mega easy get on and off...not a queue in sight. We used the train and the bus from Rome to the ship then used a limo transfer back. All really easy and the transfer met up directly outside the ship. we were at the airport within the hour.

 

On the Barcelona day some of us did a hop on hop off bus tour in the town, 2 did a DIY tour on the underground and 2 of us stayed on a wonderful empty ship!

 

I would do it that way again.

[janlel1963]

I'm so glad I found this thread! I had no idea of the looping with the Rome/Barcelona ports. I just went back to see the dates on the NCL site and see now how it all works. We are booked for August 29-September 5, 2018 embarking in Rome. We will spend a few days in Paris, then overnight in Rome before the cruise begins. The flight I am looking at on the day we disembark departs FCO at 12:20, and so reading all these comments leads me to believe we will be fine. My only concern is that we aren't flying nonstop on the way home and have an hour layover at CDG - if our first flight is delayed at all, chances are our luggage won't make it.

 

Glad to see so many people enjoyed this cruise, our family of 4 can't wait!