Spent a night in rome before embarkation then caught train from termini to port lugged two very heavy cases over cobbles and flat pathways for ten minutes to the free epic port shuttle bus we found this daunting as there were so many other people trying to get on the same bus and there was plenty of queue jumping going on.From there on in it was a breeze,my only niggle with ncl was that when we checked in the lady on the check in desk asked for a credit or debit card as it was a cashless boat,we had chosen to bring cash so the check in lady told us thats ok you just settle up at the END of the cruise with guest services and pay for what you have had,skip a little here and we discovered we had been told the wrong information,as when we ordered our meal in osheehans and drinks the waitress fetched both our keycards back saying sir there is a problem with your keycards and you will need to sort it out with finance,so we left our meals and drinks and had to queue up with the other guests only to be told you pay a cash deposit at the start of the trip not the end as the check in lady had told us-obviously as we were first time cruisers we didnt know this.

That aside our room was superb we had been given a disabled balcony room on the aft which was much more spacious and roomy than the normal balcony rooms it was as big as my bedroom at home! It was spotlessly clean and the room steward junelle introduced himself to us straight away with just ring me if you need anything.What a character he was a credit to ncl! we loved the fact every night when we got in he had created an animal out of a towel and put it on the bed,our rooms were cleaned twice a day,and it was very nice that every time you passed a member of staff on deck thirteen they said hello.We didnt hear any noise from other guests at night it was very quiet.

A plus point was the entertainment The blueman show and the spigel tent wow! trust the clown to pass me the plate to spin I dropped it lol we took excursions which cost over £800 to barcelona-fab cannes-beautiful nice marseille-not so good,amalfi coast-jaw dropping and pompeii,sadly it rained for two days but that didnt stop me sitting on my balcony reading my book our balcony was covered overhead.We ate out in shanghai's twice and the pear mojhito is a must! and the pancake with banannas and coconut ice cream delicious.I enjoyed every minute of the cruise and will definately be returning to the superb epic!