We took the Norwegian Epic out of Civitavecchia at the end of September 2016 for our honeymoon and it was great! We arrived in Civitavecchia the day before our ship left and explored the town. Not too much in Civitavecchia, but great restaurants. Our ship left on a Wednesday and we joined a cruise already in progress (most people embarked in Barcelona 3 days earlier). This was the first time I ever experienced that. Other than no big sail away party, it was a normal, easy embarkation process. The itinerary was Livorno, Cannes, Marseille, Barcelona and Naples. Fantastic itinerary! All ports were easy to navigate. If you book an excursion through Norwegian, they hold your hand through the day to make sure everyone makes it back to the ship on time.
THe food on the ship was plentiful. The complimentary restaurants include 2 dining rooms, 1 buffet, an American Irish Pub and a Noodle bar/Chinese restaurant. The food at all of the complimentary restaurants was good. The Noodle Bar is the only place we experienced really awful, slow service. The upgrade restaurants we went to were the French bistro, the Brazilian steakhouse, and the Cirque Dreams show. The upgrades are definitely worth it! The food was fantastic! Again, we experienced some service issues at the French bistro (slow, and confused). The Cirque Dreams show was really great! We did the standard seating and had some trouble seeing some of the aerial acts, but you could still get the idea.
There are a few negatives for NCL. First, the fact that the coffee bar is not included in the drink package. I can get a $15 bourbon but not a $10 latte? This is just stupid. And the coffee at the buffet is not very good. The other ridiculous charge is the delivery fee for room service. Most mornings we were rushing off the boat for excursions. If we wanted to actually eat breakfast we would have had to add an extra 40 minutes to our alarm in the morning.
Other than the small bed, the cabin is fine. Reading negative reviews about the shower/toilet area had me a little nervous, but they were absolutely fine!
We embarked in Civitavecchia so we didn't take an excursion. Other than good restaurants, there's not much to see in Civitavecchia itself.
We did the Le Petit Train tour in Cannes for 10euro per person and then walked around on our own. I do wish we had gone to the beach, but we saw all of Cannes.
There is so much to do in Barcelona! You need a few days to see it all, so if you're only there for 8 hours, choose wisely. We used the hop on hop off bus to get around which worked pretty well. The line to get back on the bus at La Segrada Familia was incredibly long so we walked the 30 minutes up to Park Guell. For a great panoramic view of Barcelona, go up the Columbus Monument. Yes, you can actually go up the Monument. The entrance is below the monument and it's definitely worth it (skip if you're claustrophobic).