Thursday, December 1st, 2016
I had an early morning flight out of Hartford, so I arrived in Orlando around 10am. I had to be at the airport by 5am, so my husband sprung for the parking fees to avoid driving me. I used LAZFly, which we had used once a couple of years ago. Being winter, I wanted to use the valet service, so if it snowed I wouldn’t have to clear my car upon my return. I parked, shuttled to the airport, checked my bag & made it through security with lightning speed, and therefore had around two and a half hours to kill before my flight. The flight was uneventful, and after my dad & Sue picked me up in Orlando, we stopped at an adorable spot called Keke’s Breakfast Café. It was fairly new, and fairly delicious. I had one of the best tuna melts I’ve ever eaten there! From there we headed back to the house, where we spent the afternoon playing some games and relaxing. That evening we had reservations for Capone’s dinner show, which I hadn’t seen for many years. Since it is December, it would be the holiday themed show. It’s basically a nod to the mobster era of Chicago, and the servers are all in character. They have an Italian buffet (mediocre), but the show is lots of fun, and it’s only about $35pp, which includes bottomless rum runners, beer & wine. Well worth the money overall.
Friday, December 2nd, 2016
We don’t board the Norwegian Epic until tomorrow, so I thought it would be nice to spend the afternoon checking out the Christmas decorations at the Disney resorts. Unfortunately, Disney had changed their parking policy, so now you can only park at a resort if you are either staying there or if you have a confirmed dinner reservation. Ridiculous, but there it is. Since we fit neither criteria, we had to bag that idea and instead headed to Disney Springs, which encompasses the old Disney Village Marketplace & Disney’s West Side, but has also been noticeably expanded. I hadn’t been there in a couple of years, and the difference was impressive. Lots more shops and restaurants, and very picturesque to walk around. We grabbed a light lunch at the Boathouse Bar, which is an open air venue right on the water. Sue and I split some fantastic clam strips and fries, and I had a lemon drop martini, complete with a rock candy swizzle stick. After lunch we wandered back to the car and headed home so Sue could pack. Tomorrow we head to Port Canaveral!
Saturday, December 3rd, 2016
My dad had agreed to drop us off and pick us up, so there would be no need for parking. Our ride over to Port Canaveral was fine, although there was a hot mess of traffic heading the opposite way, which thankfully for my dad had mostly cleared up by the time he drove back through. Upon arrival our bags were promptly taken away, and we were checked in so quickly we didn’t even have time to pull all the paperwork out. In short order we were onboard, having lunch at Taste. They had a great fish sandwich on a pretzel roll, which I enjoyed a couple more times over the week. After lunch we checked out the ship, which was new to both of us, and within a few moments we had run into Ronnie, a server we had befriended on the Norwegian Spirit. We knew she was now on the Epic, so we had brought a couple of small gifts for her, and she was delighted. She would be working the casino all week, so we got to see plenty of her. The Epic’s layout is a bit funky, and it took a couple of days to get used to it. One odd thing that was particularly annoying was that it only had two elevator bays, so you were always forced to walk either all the way forward or all the way aft to change decks. The only exception to this was one staircase midship from seven to six, and one escalator from six to five. Weird. Anyway, we had decided to use Sue’s free platinum dinner at La Cucina, the Italian restaurant onboard, and made a reservation for 5:30. By that time the rooms were ready, and we headed there. The room had both good points and horrible design flaws. First, when you walk into the room, the toilet is on your right and the shower to your left, both with curved sliding doors. There is a curtain you can use to visually separate this from the rest of the room, but it means when you get out of the shower you have to stand directly in front of the door to the stateroom to dry off. It also means that if you close the privacy curtain, anyone in the room is basically captive till you are done. As for the rest of the room, the beds were very comfortable, although really short. I’m 5’5” and my feet hung over the end of the mattress. The big perk was the storage – I have never had anything close to this amount of storage on any other ship. There were two closets, and tons of drawers and shelves. It’s like the room was designed by two people; one genius and one idiot. Very strange, but it worked out okay for the week once you developed a system. To add to the oddness, there was a shore excursion ticket for Sue to do a Zip Line & Bobsled ride in Jamaica, which was something she would never have signed up for. A trip to guest services fixed the problem, but it provided a lot of joke fodder for the week. By this time we were just about ready for the lifeboat drill, followed by sail away and then dinner. Dinner was excellent, and we finished up just in time to see the Epic Beatles Live show in the main theater. It was basically a Beatles tribute band, and they were outstanding! The entire audience was on their feet by the end, and the band said they would be playing a couple of nights in the Cavern Club, but be sure to get there early. My initial plan was to check out Howl at the Moon dueling pianos after the show, but instead we opted to stop at the casino before calling it a night. Great Stirrup Cay tomorrow!
Sunday, December 4th, 2016
Great Stirrup Cay is a tender port, and while we did not intend to use the beach, we did want to check out the island. Sue had been there once before, but it had been recently renovated, and we were both excited to see it as it was now. After a quick breakfast we grabbed a tender over. The water was super choppy, but once we entered the alcove of the island it was totally calm. Ronnie had told us she would be working the Bacardi Bar on Great Stirrup Cay, so we headed there once we got ashore. It was a really nice bar overlooking the beach, with a beautiful patio decorated everywhere with the signature Bacardi bat symbol. Up from the Bacardi Bar is a huge pavilion where a buffet barbecue lunch would be served. We did check it out, but I was more interested in the taco bar on the other side of the island, so we headed that way. They had beef, chicken or fish tacos, and a fixins bar to add whatever extras you might like. They were yummy! After we ate we checked out the shopping kiosks, and then took a tender back to the ship, where we played a little tri-bond trivia, which I’m actually pretty good at. We did well, but didn’t win. We also decided to check out the 80s movies visual trivia, and we befriended a nice couple there, Robert and Kelly. We grabbed dinner in the Manhattan Room, which took an unbelievably long time. So long, in fact, that we never ate there again for the rest of the cruise. When we finally finished up, we headed to the Cavern Club to check out Siglo, one of the house bands, who turned out to be excellent. The Cavern Club was a great venue, and we had a prime spot there almost every night. Basically when you walked in there were two couches on the right, directly next to the bar, and then all the other seating was to the left. Since Siglo was a band, we didn’t really need to see them, just hear them, so we grabbed the second couch, closest to the bar. Not only was this a great spot, but one of the servers, Julian, took great care of us all week. It’s also worth mentioning that he may be the most attractive man I’ve ever seen working as a cruise ship server. And so nice!! Once the band finished for the night, we headed to the casino to try our luck before bed. Neither of us won anything notable, and we turned in shortly after.
Monday, December 5th, 2016
Today was a sea day. We had breakfast and then stopped at the atrium for the early risers trivia, where we ran into Robert. He joined us for trivia, and then through conversation mentioned an interest in the shuffleboard tournament, which I had wanted to play but as Sue did not I was lacking a partner. We decided to team up, and found ourselves in a fight-to-the-death shuffleboard tournament! We made it to the finals, but in the end we lost, and unfortunately the tournament ran so long that it made me about twenty minutes late for the cruise critic meet & greet. I apologized profusely to the host when I finally made it there, and although I missed meeting the ship’s officers, I was able to finally catch up with another cruise critic member from West Haven, CT! Dan Potter, and his wife Jodi, were also from my hometown, and we had a great time chatting about all sorts of local things. Dan was also organizing a slot pull later in the week, and since he was so nice I opted to join in the fun. After lunch I checked out Deal or No Deal, which was held in the atrium. Not the best choice of venue for it, in my humble opinion, since it was completely packed, and the overhang from the upper deck made it impossible for the back half of the room to see the screen. It was still fun, though, and I won two pull tabs (similar to scratch off lottery tickets). We also checked out Where in the World Visual Trivia, which we were absolutely terrible at. Interestingly enough, we teamed up with an elderly couple, and the husband had claimed to have travelled and lived all over the world, but he was less than useless at providing answers. That night we had reservations for Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, which was hilarious! It was basically a musical comedy about three drag queens travelling across the Australian outback. They give umpteen warnings before the show that if you are under 18, or easily offended, you should leave, but people persist in ignoring the warnings and then complaining later. We loved it, though. After the show we went to the Cavern Club to see Siglo, and then a quick stop at the casino before heading to bed.
Tuesday, December 6th, 2016
Today we were visiting Grand Cayman, but we had decided not to get off the ship. For one thing, we had both been before and there was nothing specific we really wanted to see. Second, there were five ships in port, and since Grand Cayman is a tender port, it would be challenging at best to get back onboard in time. The schedule of activities was very light, so we didn’t do a heck of lot that day. That night we did a trivia I was convinced I could excel at, Visual Superheroes and Villians, and I did do well, but still didn’t win. From there we grabbed some dinner, and then headed to the Cavern Club for an evening of Siglo, followed by the Epic Beatles band. During the Beatles set, we noticed that security came in and took a couple out of the club. They then brought a different man over by the bar to speak to quietly, but it happened to be right next to where we were sitting, so we caught the whole thing. Turns out the male half of the couple that had been escorted out had punched the other guy in the head. It was unclear what prompted this behavior, but the guy who had been hit wanted an apology and an assurance that it would not happen again, or he would press charges. The apology was given, and the couple left anyway, but the question remains: who gets into a fight at a Beatles show? What the heck?!?! Anyway, it was a great night of entertainment, and after the shows we headed back to the room. Jamaica tomorrow!
Wednesday, December 7th, 2016
Today we would be stopping in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and we had decided to do an excursion to a place called Reggae Hill. It turned out to be a great day! After a short van ride, we arrived at a beautiful grotto on a riverbank, where a band played authentic Jamaican music, and dancers performed authentic Jamaican dances, all while being served a seven course tapas style lunch of local cuisine. There were two particularly entertaining exchanges. First, Sue asked our host what the smoking policy was, and she was asked “what were you looking to smoke?” Apparently people come to Jamaica with all kinds of crazy ideas about what is acceptable! The other funny moment came immediately following the first of the dances, when an elderly gentleman at the next table waited till they were done and then announced “THAT WAS A SEX DANCE!!” very loudly for all to hear. And in truth, the dance was less suggestive than what people do in nightclubs nowadays. The whole excursion lasted about four hours, and was a great time. On the way back to the ship we stopped at a few kiosks, and I was able to pick up matching tropical shirts for Dave & Jared to wear when we next cruise. Can’t wait for them to wear them! We got back onboard just in time for $20 Bargain Bingo, which I played and lost. We grabbed a light dinner and then I wanted to check out the 80s music trivia at Bliss, a bar I hadn’t visited yet. It’s actually quite a lovely venue, and I’m not sure why they don’t have more going on there. Anyway, we decided to meet up at the Cavern Club. One thing I neglected to mention was that the first couch remained vacant the entire week. No one sat in it for more than five minutes, and we began to joke with the bartender that it was haunted. On this particular night, Sue arrived before me, and was asked by a random guy why no one was sitting at the couch. She told him it was haunted, and rather than chuckling at it, he totally believed her. To the point that he even mentioned feeling a chill when he sat there, and then getting up to relocate. After we listened to Siglo a bit, we made one last stop at the casino and then called it a night.
Thursday, December 8th, 2016
Welcome to Cozumel! I’ve been here several times, and I always enjoy it. For this visit we’ll be doing the Cozumel Bar Hop, which takes you over to the east side of the island to four different bars. It’s a neat way to see the more rustic side of Cozumel. We met up with the group at Senor Frog’s and headed to the bus. Since we had a fairly large group we had two guides: Greg & Colleen, who both did an amazing job. We stopped at Punta Morena first, which is the best spot to dip your toes in the water, if you are so inclined. The east side has a terrible undertow, but this stop had a nice protected alcove where you could swim for a bit. From there we went to Coconuts, which was decorated for Christmas, but also had the Halloween decorations still out, making for an interesting mix of décor. Playa Bonita was the third stop, and where we decided to grab a quick bite. It was also where I was tricked into buying the world’s largest margarita, by being told it was a margarita special for two people. I’m not sure what two people they were referring to, but I literally had to enlist the help of three additional people just to finish it! From there we went to our last stop, Rasta’s, and one of the other hoppers had clued me in to a little known secret stash of homemade peanut butter tequila, which was amazing!! I think I had three, and was in truth limited by the fact that I ran out of disposable cash. We had such a great time on the hop that we decided to go to Senor Frog’s with part of our group for one last cocktail before we set sail again. Once onboard we grabbed some dinner and then went to Bliss for TV theme song music trivia, where I crashed and burned. I made a point to avoid the Cavern Club for awhile, because they were doing karaoke, and I have no love for karaoke. We did head there later to catch the Epic Beatles, though, which was lots of fun. Once they were finished we called it a night. Sea day tomorrow!
Friday, December 9th, 2016
Today was by far the worst weather of the cruise. From 7am when Sue went up on deck, right through to bedtime, the outer decks were closed due to high winds. The Epic, while designed to accommodate more passengers, was not designed to comfortably house them all inside at once. Anyway, I was scheduled to do the cruise critic slot pull this morning, so after breakfast I spent some time in the casino just so I would be in the right place. I played some three card poker and had a fantastic 30-to-1 hand of three aces. Woohoo! Since that put me up, I decided to check out a shiny dragon slot machine that had been tempting me all week, but I had been skipping it because it was $3 per pull. I fed a $20 into the machine, and on the first pull got a bonus wheel that paid me $200. Three pulls after that I got another bonus wheel, which paid me another $200! I sank about $60 back into the machine before calling it quits, still up significantly for the day, and pretty much fully reimbursed for my cruise expenses. The slot pull was up next, and it was a lot more fun than I had anticipated. In the end we lost, and I hung out a bit to chat with Dan & Jodi afterward. I decided to try my luck again at Deal or No Deal, and won one pull tab this time. By then we were hungry, but we had missed the main dining room lunch and had to make due with O’SHeehans, which was packed. It was so busy that we joined up with three other ladies just so we could all be seated at once. It didn’t take overly long considering how busy it was, and everything was quite good. A little more gambling, since I was on a hot streak, and the we did Bad Hair Day trivia, which was stupid. Seriously, if you ever see it on the schedule, skip it. Later we did 50s and 60s music trivia in Bliss, and then we made the rounds to give some extra tips to some our favorite servers from this week. A nice end to a great week!
Saturday, December 10th, 2016
We called my dad once we got up so he could head to the port to pick us up. Disembarkation was smooth and easy, and my dad found us with no trouble. We dropped our luggage at the house, and then went to Tijuana Flats for lunch, followed by the grocery store. I really wish we had Tijuana Flats in Connecticut – they are so tasty! From there we headed back to the house again, and spent the afternoon relaxing and playing some Dominos and Uno. Also of note, I am the reigning Uno champion of 2016! I plan to have a t-shirt made. Nothing else interesting today, and I fly home tomorrow morning.
Sunday, December 11th, 2016
I had to be at the airport around 8am. Luggage checking and security went quicker than usual, and I grabbed a breakfast sandwich at Jersey Mike’s before my flight. The flight was fine, although a bit bumpy, and we landed in Hartford around 1pm. I grabbed a shuttle to the LAZFly and picked up my car, then headed home. It was much colder in Connecticut upon my return than it was when I left!