An Epic live adventure crossing the Atlantic in November... Let’s go!!

The photo is a crew pool. I once had dinner in la cucina whilst an officer worked out down there.

 

 

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Aha! Thanks [emoji1362]

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Few random pics that I haven’t gotten round to posting over the past few days...

We did the $19.99 laundry bundle a few days into the cruise, mainly to get jeans washed but I stuffed that bag good & proper. Everything returned quickly and nice and clean but don’t expect it smelling of flowers and spring air and all that jazz, there’s a definite industrial washing powder whiff to it all...

Queues for breakfast at Taste... some saying they move quickly but then service is poor inside... (the queues for lunch are just as bad)

Lunchtime peanut butter cup cheesecake- yum, just yum (not naming any names but there may have been two of these ordered and demolished in one sitting)...

Sticking £800 worth of iPhone out over the ship for the perfect shot...

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Back to it...

We had reservations for Teppanyaki last night, got there for 8 and the hostess asked if we would like to wait for other guests or we’d be dining alone. I like to think I’m a sociable soul, so we took a seat at the bar and became acquainted with the Wasabi cocktail... ohmydayssss... hello my new favourite drink aboard, despite the unfortunate shaped garnish ❤️

Dinner was fun, I think we got a great chef - he had an excellent song repertoire and kept us all well entertained. I did miss the fire and flames but I guess safety comes first on a ship 🤷🏼*♀️ The food was really good, so good I forgot to take pictures, I had the seafood option and he had the steak & shrimp... both excellent, but his steak was phenomenal - so tender you could cut it with your fork! Mouth is watering just thinking about it....

I faltered at one point and ordered the other speciality cocktail, it was nice but it wasn’t a patch on the testicular drink so back to the Wasabi I went...

When it comes to desert, if you ever consider the green tea cake option, all I can say is - DON’T. Just, don’t 🤢.

After dinner we finally made it to a show - Priscilla. I loved this on my first trip on the Epic and enjoyed seeing it again... although I will admit to possibly dozing off at a couple of points due to the food and cocktail overload 🤦🏼*♀️

After the show we headed up to Spice for the first time of the trip, but sadly by the time we had got there the rain had arrived so everyone was headed back in... Cue Maltings at the liveliest I have ever seen it and the rest of the night somewhat of a haze, and the discovery of the bets snapchat filter ever which I will leave you with for now -

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“Waiter, waiter, there’s a testicle in my drink”

“Ssh, don’t tell everybody or they’ll all want one!”

I wonder if the appendage was lost trying to make use of the holes in your shower screen?

This is awesome! :')

Fantastic review, hanging for the next instalment already!!

Following!

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I imagine you heard that those of us boarding Saturday have been called and told not to arrive at port until 2pm. I suspect they will need time to replenish the booze. lol I have so enjoyed your jolly review and wish you were doing B2B so we might meet you.

No way will we be sailing as scheduled. Someone posted that in addition to crew and passengers going thru immigration/custome there was a total review of ship by Coast Guard. Guess this means no lunch for those of us waiting to board. It will be dinner time before they get everyone off and on.

Are you two flying back across the pond Saturday? FYI we have cold front descending on Florida and next week temperatures in Central FL are supposed to be low in 40s. No fun in the sun, so to speak.

I imagine you heard that those of us boarding Saturday have been called and told not to arrive at port until 2pm. I suspect they will need time to replenish the booze. lol I have so enjoyed your jolly review and wish you were doing B2B so we might meet you.

 

No way will we be sailing as scheduled. Someone posted that in addition to crew and passengers going thru immigration/custome there was a total review of ship by Coast Guard. Guess this means no lunch for those of us waiting to board. It will be dinner time before they get everyone off and on.

 

Are you two flying back across the pond Saturday? FYI we have cold front descending on Florida and next week temperatures in Central FL are supposed to be low in 40s. No fun in the sun, so to speak.

I was thinking the same thing about them doing a B2B so we could meet them! I hope it's warm where we are going next week...I need to work on my tan. Sad that we will miss lunch tomorrow - going to throw all our plans overboard!

I was thinking the same thing about them doing a B2B so we could meet them!

I have so enjoyed your jolly review and wish you were doing B2B so we might meet you.

Ahhhhh [emoji5][emoji5][emoji5] I wish we were going a B2B but sadly not!

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I imagine you heard that those of us boarding Saturday have been called and told not to arrive at port until 2pm. I suspect they will need time to replenish the booze. lol I have so enjoyed your jolly review and wish you were doing B2B so we might meet you.

 

 

 

No way will we be sailing as scheduled. Someone posted that in addition to crew and passengers going thru immigration/custome there was a total review of ship by Coast Guard. Guess this means no lunch for those of us waiting to board. It will be dinner time before they get everyone off and on.

 

 

 

Are you two flying back across the pond Saturday? FYI we have cold front descending on Florida and next week temperatures in Central FL are supposed to be low in 40s. No fun in the sun, so to speak.

They are saying you can self disembark from 6:30, all must be out of cabins by 9 and everyone is to be off by 11:30. I hope it’s not a shambles, but I suspect it will be... Hopefully you are not massively delayed [emoji52]

I have another week in the US (we’re driving up to Pensacola) before flying back, hopefully I will get to see some sun as we definitely don’t have any at home...

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Yesterday was another glorious day at sea, by far the best we have had all trip...

The day started with an impromptu balcony photo shoot 🤣...

... and then breakfast followed in Taste (the pancakes were disappointingly dry)

We made it out on deck nice and early and the drinks started to flow... and flow... and flow...

At some point we ate late afternoon snacks at the buffet and returned for a spot of drunken snoozing. For once though, the snooze didn’t turn into a few hours of glorious sleep, because sadly, the buffet food came back to haunt me 🤢 and I ended up missing the Glow Party which I had been waiting for all trip [emoji24][emoji24][emoji24]

It’s ok, you can dry those eyes and put away your violins as I am feeling better and we have started today, our final abuse-the-UBP-day, as we mean to go on... with wine glass sized mimosas for breakfast [emoji13]

(And yes, that is fried egg floating in my juice - I managed to flip it in without even trying [emoji1373])

Luggage tags have been collected and we’re off to purchase a photo or two, so that we can actually have one that isn’t a selfie together...

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Ooooooops... someone call Bob the Builder

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I was thinking the same thing about them doing a B2B so we could meet them! I hope it's warm where we are going next week...I need to work on my tan. Sad that we will miss lunch tomorrow - going to throw all our plans overboard!

Enjoy your week... Fingers crossed for both good weather and eligible solos for you... [emoji5][emoji11][emoji10][emoji8][emoji7][emoji9]❤️❤️❤️

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Enjoy your week... Fingers crossed for both good weather and eligible solos for you... [emoji5][emoji11][emoji10][emoji8][emoji7][emoji9]❤️❤️❤️

 

 

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Awe thank you! I will definitely keep you posted! <3 :champagne-toast:

I have another week in the US (we’re driving up to Pensacola) before flying back, hopefully I will get to see some sun as we definitely don’t have any at home...

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You will mostl likely see sun but hope you have warm clother with you. It is supposed to be in 40s and 50s here in Central FL all next week thus it will be much cooler in Pensacola. Enjoy our sunny state even if it is chilly.

We had an issue with our account being closed early which set yesterday off to a bad start... No one at guest services could give us an answer as to why it had been closed, why we weren’t told, why we couldn’t buy anything on board despite being in credit, if we had been charged already or if it was just a hold, whether it had gone through or the card had been blocked or not... Annoying, wasted our time, and no real apology: poor show NCL.

When account was good to go again, and we saw that our final day at sea was a sunny one, it could only mean one thing - draaaaaanks and snapchat silliness [emoji484][emoji1373]

After a delightfully blurry few hours on deck it was time to return to our cabin to pack our cases...sob sob... We showered and, as is now customary on our last cruise night, dressed up to the nines and headed out for a few final hours of fun.

Dinner was at La Cucina; we have never been before, and I was never that bothered about going - big mistake. The food was amazing and the service phenomenal... Highly recommended. Sadly, after a straight 2 weeks of gorging, there was absolutely no room left for dessert and we passed on the (apparently legendary) tiramisu [emoji24]

Bellinis to start...

Caprese salad

Calamari

Garlic Shrimp

Seabass

A spot of gambling and a few drinks later and we conceded that the trip was coming to an end and headed to bed one last time...

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We had an issue with our account being closed early which set yesterday off to a bad start... No one at guest services could give us an answer as to why it had been closed, why we weren’t told, why we couldn’t buy anything on board despite being in credit, if we had been charged already or if it was just a hold, whether it had gone through or the card had been blocked or not... Annoying, wasted our time, and no real apology: poor show NCL.

 

When account was good to go again, and we saw that our final day at sea was a sunny one, it could only mean one thing - draaaaaanks and snapchat silliness [emoji484][emoji1373]

 

 

After a delightfully blurry few hours on deck it was time to return to our cabin to pack our cases...sob sob... We showered and, as is now customary on our last cruise night, dressed up to the nines and headed out for a few final hours of fun.

 

Dinner was at La Cucina; we have never been before, and I was never that bothered about going - big mistake. The food was amazing and the service phenomenal... Highly recommended. Sadly, after a straight 2 weeks of gorging, there was absolutely no room left for dessert and we passed on the (apparently legendary) tiramisu [emoji24]

 

Bellinis to start...

 

Caprese salad

 

Calamari

 

Garlic Shrimp

 

Seabass

 

A spot of gambling and a few drinks later and we conceded that the trip was coming to an end and headed to bed one last time...

 

 

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Thank you so much for sharing your trip w us! Enjoy your stay in the U.S.!

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...We were woken up around 5:30 this morning juddering into Port Canaveral, so sat on the balcony and watched the sun rise. Props to the “driver” for an excellent spot of reversing past Disney at one point [emoji1362]

Watched a couple more ships arrive (not one person on Carnival waved back - maybe they had a miserable cruise) and then headed downstairs for disembarkation breakfast at Taste.

We’re now sat waiting for our luggage tag colour to be called (estimated 9am, it’s already 10) because as of 8:30 there were already delays in the terminal ([emoji849])... Our plan for today, when we finally get off the boat, is to pick up the hire car, call by some outlets (I’m having shopping withdrawals) and then begin the journey north.

I hope everyone has enjoyed my first foray into (semi)-live blogging as much as I have enjoyed recalling my (mainly drunken) shenanigans... I shall be back to summarise my thoughts on some points over the next few days, and when I figure out how, upload some videos from the trip.

It’s been an Epic 4365.2 miles! [emoji8]

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This is going to be fun...

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It’s now 11:30...

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ouch... hope it doesn't take as long as it looks...

It’s now 11:30...

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Oh, mine ... dear - it's been wonderful, quietly following your T/A and reading those comments.

And, shall I ask how many immigration/border control booth are open & manned - are they splitting up USA passport & permanent residents and all "others" (non-US travelers returning home)

Hopefully, others and you've enjoyed a hot, big and good breakfast on the Epic earlier (you did) - since they can't bring food into nor serve finger sandwiches etc. once inside the secured area of the terminal building, etc. And, to think flying (back) into the USA on an international fight with 2 to 3 plane loads of A380 and B777 passengers are bad at the airport ...

Hang in there, almost ... almost at the front of the lines; and, there's no shortcut or bypass using port services :eek: to try to beat the crowd.

Oh, mine ... dear - it's been wonderful, quietly following your T/A and reading those comments.

 

 

 

And, shall I ask how many immigration/border control booth are open & manned - are they splitting up USA passport & permanent residents and all "others" (non-US travelers returning home)

 

 

 

Hopefully, others and you've enjoyed a hot, big and good breakfast on the Epic earlier (you did) - since they can't bring food into nor serve finger sandwiches etc. once inside the secured area of the terminal building, etc. And, to think flying (back) into the USA on an international fight with 2 to 3 plane loads of A380 and B777 passengers are bad at the airport ...

 

 

 

Hang in there, almost ... almost at the front of the lines; and, there's no shortcut or bypass using port services :eek: to try to beat the crowd.

No, there was one line for everyone - us foreigners were definitely slowing things down as I (and my passport) was well and truly interrogated - beyond anything at the airports!

We got out bang on 2 hours after entering the terminal... hire car picked up and now on the hunt for food!

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Great trip review, v entertaining!! Safe onward journey to you both