We’re going all the way back to October of 2012 for this flashback friday! Between undergrad and grad school I was able to take a cruise on the NCL Epic from Rome across the Atlantic Ocean to Miami! We stopped at a number of ports in the Mediterranean including Pisa, Monaco, and Barcelona.

Getting to Rome

To get to Rome my dad redeemed his United miles for one-way business class from Newark to Rome. Back then I wasn’t writing reviews of the planes and service, so by pictures are limited, but here are a few. From what I remember the worst part of the whole trip was waiting for our bags to come out in Rome even though we were “priority”.

Manhattan from the United Club – One World Trade wasn’t done yet!

My Dad on the plane

IFE Screen

Standard Business Class seat – Sorry for the blur

Seeing Rome

We had a couple days in Rome to do some exploring before boarding the NCL Epic for our transatlantic cruise. I took full advantage of that by using the double-decker hop-on hop-off buses to get around the city. I got to see all of the major highlights – Coliseum, Vatican, The Capital, and some of the famous Rome fountains.

The Roman Capital

Circus Maximus

The Coliseum

The Vatican

St. Peter’s Square

Trevi Fountain – 1.1 milloin Euros are thrown in each year!

Inside the Vatican

Inside the Vatican

Swiss guard outside the Vatican

In front of the Vatican set up for an audience with the Pope

We left from our hotel for the port of Civitavecchia where the NCL Epic would depart from. Civitavecchia is about an hour outside of Rome through the country side full of olive groves.

Life Aboard the NCL Epic

My dad and I were in one of the Epic’s mini-suites I had a little room with a couch that turned into a bed (kind of like Etihad’s First Class Apartment) and my dad had the main bedroom. There was also a nice living area and a balcony.

The living area from the door

My bedroom

My small bathroom

Master Bedroom

The living area

Our Balcony

The Epic had some pretty cool features on board including the Svedka Ice Bar, a bowling alley and some water slides! During our cruise there was also a cirque du soleil dinner and the Blue Man Group played a couple shows on board.

Water slides

Ice Bar

Blue man

From looking at NCL’s website the Epic has undergone some renovations and the staterooms look much more modern. One of my favorite things about NCL cruises is their huge array of dining options. They pretty much have every type of food you can think of, but my two favorite restaurants were definitely Cagney’s steakhouse and Le Bistro french restaurant.

NCL Epic Destinations

Our first stop was Pisa where we went to the leaning tower.

I refused to pretend I was holding it up

It looks like it is going to fall over

Our next stop was Nice, where I took a bus trip over to Monaco.

Monaco is full of fancy Cars

Ferrari in front of the Casino

The Famous Casino Monte Carlo

The hairpin turn

F1 grand prix course

Overlooking the Harbor from the Palace

Changing of the guard

The other stops on the cruise were Marseille, Barcelona, and the Azores before we crossed the Atlantic to St. Thomas.

The Azores Architecture

Azores Harbor

The Azores

St. Thomas Sunrise

Castaway Girl Snorkeling Cruise

Dolphins

I found the camera that had all of these old pictures on it while I was cleaning at my dad’s house recently. It was cool to go back and see the places that I have been. If I can find more old travel pictures, I will do more flash back Fridays.

This was my third transatlantic cruise, have you ever cruised on the NCL Epic or done a transatlantic? Let me know in the comments!