Well we are back and thought I would do a review of our recent trip/cruise to Europe. Here goes and sorry it is so long. JMHO and observations...

AIR: We got a great price on Business class and since our cruise and hotel rooms were paid for by using hotel points and timeshare trade we decided to spend a little extra and fly business class since it was our anniversary. Got to say a great way to fly and was awesome even if I didn’t sleep on the plane much. No issues on the way over or on the way back. Note to self...priority check in not the same overseas as it is here...too long of a story for now but lets just say a family of 6 in front of us didn't understand when they tell you to take out all electronics, cameras, etc. it means ALL! LOL Good thing we were there 2 hours early!

HOTELS: Stayed at Marriott Boscolo Exedra in Rome for 3 nights. Great location and would stay there again if on points but too expensive if paying for it at $300+/night. Stayed at Rome Park Marriott one night and it was very nice as well.

ROME: We decided to embark in Rome vs Barcelona because we knew there was a lot we wanted to see in Rome and knew we couldn’t see it all in a cruise stop and also heard embarking here was a breeze which it was. Enjoyed all the sites. Did the HOHO bus day we arrived to get an idea of where everything was and see some things we wanted to see but that weren’t high priority. Highly recommend skip the line tickets at Colosseum and Vatican. Go early Vatican does not have air conditioning and VERY warm with all the people in there. Also we did St Peters before and were there when they opened at 7 am before the lines got long. Observations: Beautiful city though surprised by all the graffiti, taxis were very reasonable price and we used them instead of bus or subway, food was awesome as were the sites, and people friendly and helpful. Never felt unsafe. Drivers don’t care if only two lanes they make 3!

TRANSFERS: We used Bob’s Limos from airport to Rome hotel private car, their shuttle transfer to port which ended up being just us in a car, and shuttle from port to airport hotel which was minivan with one other couple. All good and would use them again.

Embarking: There was no line we checked in and onto boat in 15 minutes after arriving. Ate some lunch went to our room and bags already there. NCL EPIC…room was fine Balcony mini suite on deck 9. Having never cruised not sure what to expect but we actually really enjoyed it and would do it again.

Florence/Livorno: First port and we did a tour through Joe Bananas and HIGHLY recommend them. We stopped in Pisa and then on to Florence. Our guide ended up being awesome as were our tour mates. Guide was very helpful when one of the galleries wasn’t going to let one us in at the scheduled time. He took care of everything.

Cannes: This was our only ship tour we took and would not do it again. It cost so much more than the private tours, spent way too much time waiting on people to return to bus, etc. Getting off the ship was a mess with people not showing up on time, not paying attention to announcements, etc. On the positive side we got to see Monte Carlo and Monaco, and even though weather was drizzling (our only bad day of weather in 12 days) we really enjoyed the tour.

Palma Mallorca: We were bummed that we only had about 4 hours in port. It is a beautiful area and a HUGE marina. After 5 days of intense site seeing we decided to just walk on our own found a nice little bar on the marina and had some Sangria. Very relaxing and though we didn’t see much of the island enjoyed the down time.

Barcelona: We were there on a Sunday and very little was open which was disappointing as the shopping looked good. Did 2 of the 3 routes on HOHO bus and enjoyed the sites and being able to get off and walk when we wanted to. Beautiful and very clean city and the only place I felt like I was in danger of getting pick pocketed as I had a couple of people bump into me when that shouldn’t have been the case. We had heard about this in advance, so we were very careful on all our days ashore and wore money belts. In the end no issues!

Day at Sea: Friends told us this would be our favorite day…swimming, cocktails, relaxing. Well I would respectfully disagree JMHO. The pool area is waaaay too small for 4100 people and chairs are crammed together way too close. Service from the bars was almost non existant and with the automatic 18% added gratuity they didn’t care. That was the only thing we felt was a real rip off on the ship as you couldn’t do anything about tipping if service was bad.

Naples: We decided to do Amalfi Coast and used Joe Bananas again. Awesome service again and driver was great! This was the best of the best and would love to go back and spend a week in Positano or Sorrento. Pictures do not do it justice!

Back to Civitecchia and disembarked with no issues and our transfer was waiting for us. We didn’t think we had time to make our flight home so we stayed the day at airport hotel relaxing by the pool. We were the only ones at pool most of the day. In hindsight we could have made it, but that is the way it goes.

Other things: Signed up with Verizon before we left found out the hard way that they didn’t work when they were supposed to. Could have been a very bad situation. Needless to say spent way too much time on land line phone trying to get service. Not Happy but didn’t let it ruin the trip. Enjoyed the cruise way more than we thought we would…would do another one…ship was not too big even with 4100 people. Great way to see this area of the world. LOVED Italy and would love to go back. If you read this whole thing you are a sport as I gave way more detail than you probably want. Thanks to those with suggestions from this board before we left. They were all helpful. Hope this helps someone else!

We're not major cruise fans but we sure did enjoy our balcony suite cruise to Bermuda, so much so we are contemplating another one through the Hawaiian islands in the near future. We've heard pros and cons about NCL so I'm wondering if your over-all experience with them was good, and if you were doing another cruise would you rebook with them?

It sounds like a lovely trip and that you made the most of it. It's wonderful to have those airline up-grades, isn't it? Thanks for sharing your thoughts and I'm glad it all went well for you. And regarding the extra day at the hotel, I'd far rather be a day early than an hour late.

Again - great trip report and thanks for sharing it.

Thanks...yes the day we got off in Rome before heading home, we decided to stay an extra day to decompress and relax before the long flight home. We decided that when we booked the tickets 8 months in advance! In hindsight we probably would come home that day but we did enjoy it just relaxing by the pool. All good! I would go with NCL again and even the Epic. They are going into dry dock this month so all freshened up. It was a good experience but since I haven't been on any other cruises or cruise lines nothing to compare against. I liked the fact no set dining time. No formal nights required, but yet liked that men had to wear collared shirts and slacks in dining room in the evenings. We never thought we would cruise but thought this was a great way to see that part of the world. Don't think I would cruise where there are several days at sea. JMHO