The EPIC trip that almost didnt happen

I've never done a review before so here goes nothing. I have spent hours on the boards and am going to try to repay the favor. Please excuse any typos. I'm doing this on my phone which should be interesting.

Anyway. This was the March 3 sailing. It was supposed to be a short girls trip for me and my friend. We needed a break from the NY cold and thought this would be great. We did miscalculate the spring breakers just like many others. It was not the end of the world.

Our trip starts with flying out of Albany. It was supposed to snow west of I81 and only rain in Albany. Nope. There was about 5 to 6 inches of snow when we woke at 5 am. We hurried around and went to the airport. And waited...

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We waited about 2 hours and they finally let us board. Then we spent another hour waiting while they deiced the plane. Finally we took off. Whew! It was time to have the first drink of my vacation.

We landed in Orlando without further ado and headed to the hotel. Later we met up with some friends for dinner at Grills.

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We made it an early night and headed back to the hotel. We were up early and headed to port. We got there around 830. The ship was still unloading but we didn't care because we were so excited to go!

They didn't open the doors until around 930 if I remember correctly. We were boarding group 1 and headed on early. The boarding process was pretty painless and quick. The groups were fairly small and went quickly.

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We stopped at guest services asap to book a clamshell. We asked about Posh but the people before us had gotten the last passes. [emoji852] no big deal.

We stopped at the Atrium bar and grabbed drinks because why not??

We went to Taste for lunch. I had the popcorn shrimp which was very good. The cheese steak was not though. A common theme became that my food was blah but my friend got better things. Lol. I'm not a fussy eater I swear!

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We wandered around and oriented ourselves. They were holding carry ons I think where the circus was but I could be wrong. So we dropped our bags for a bit and explored. Decks 5, 6 and 7 were where all the action was. Then we picked up our stuff and snuck into our rooms a little early to drop our bags. We were on the 10th deck.

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Next we went up to the pool deck to check out Spice H20. That's when we actually noticed all the spring breakers. We grabbed a drink and met some new people. It was pretty windy and a little chilly up there.

After that we walked over to the pool deck and checked out the top of the ship. Then it was sail away!

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We booked Cirque Steam dinner show so off we went. It was a great show. More sensual than I had thought of but I'm not complaining. They said no flash photography but didn't say no pictures so I took a few. The food was actually pretty good. They do move quickly so it feels a little rushed but not horribly so.

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More pictures...

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Well done. Thank you!

We went to Howl at the Moon but I didn't really get any pics of that.

We did get a few towel animals. We had odd service with cleaning our rooms. It seemed like the steward disappeared for a day and someone else filled in. But he was back on the last day I'm not sure. It wasn't horrible. We just didn't really see him much.

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The next day we were supposed to go to the private island. Unfortunately we were experiencing 5 to 10 ft swells so tender for us. We regrouped and went up on deck 18. It was very quiet and no bar. So no spring breakers. I managed to get burnt to a crisp even with sunblock. Lol

The following day we explored Deck 19. It was even better. Lol. I napped in one of the chairs up there.

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We went to the sushi bar and had lunch. I tried raw tuna for the first time. It wasn't bad at all. The sushi rolls were taking a long time to come out. They kept bringing food out instead. So edamame and miso soup were complimentary. There were so many people that they actually put us in Teppanyaki.

That night we had dinner at Teppanyaki. It was great as well.

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Then we found Maltings. It is a whiskey bar. Alan was our bartender and he was great. He introduced me to Old Fashions which I drank for the rest of the trip. He gave me extra cherries. Lol there was some live entertainment that was pretty cool in the evening.

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The following day we were supposed to go to Nassau. Again there waves were too much for the ship to get into port. We missed it again. The following night we met a young couple that was supposed to get married that day. Luckily they were able to do it the following day when we did actually make it.

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The bathing suits required sign is a new addition since I was on the Epic. When I went up to check out deck 19 there was a woman sunbathing completely nude. Thank God I had sunglasses on so she didn’t see my eyes bug out.

The next day we finally did get off the ship. We didn't really have any exciting plans so we walked around and did some shopping. Then we stopped at the brewery and had a beer and shopped some more. Lol

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Some more Nassau pics. There were a couple of really nice yachts...

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This is were our trip goes sideways. We had turned our phones on in Nassau so we could check in with our families. We had headed back to the ship early and were sitting out on the deck and our phones both pinged with texts. Our flights the following afternoon were cancelled due to another snow storm. Crap.

We tried to book new flights on the app but they were going rapidly. We ended up on separate flights on 2 different days. So then I called Southwest to try to fix it. I didn't realize you can't call an 800 number outside of the US. Sooo.. that wasted time. Then I get a lady on the phone that sounded like she was Indian. I normally do not have a problem understanding but she spoke way too quick and would not listen to me. After 5 minutes she finally stopped and told me should couldn't even help us rebook our flights!

So another phone call and sitting on hold for what seemed like forever. I think it was at least 5 minutes. We got a very nice guy on the phone and he was very helpful. BUT the only flights he could get us were on Saturday when we were supposed to go home on Wednesday.

Now a whole different panic. We have to find a hotel to stay at that is fairly cheap for 3 days. My friend is a Disney lover but they were all booked. It took us about 3 hours to completely get it all settles and then it was time to sail away.

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We tried the noodle bar. My friend liked hers... I didn't. Oh well.

I'm attaching a picture from the tv that shows the twisty path we took over the 4 days. Plus a required pic of the Atrium. Lol

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Since we were not going to go home we ended back at Maltings because I wanted more Old Fashions.

Around 10 pm we wandered back to our room. On the way we noticed they have a list of charges outside of medical. I work in the medical field so I took some pictures. I thought I was weird to see them posted like that.

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More charges...

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Then we got to the room and saw them dropping the rescue boat to get the lady that fell over board. At the time we assumed that it was a spring breaker. Now my understanding is it was a lady in her 50s. Either way it really sucked to watch. We knew that normally people that fall overboard are not rescued alive and thinking that a young girl fell was horrible. Not that it's easier if it's an older lady but I have teenagers. I know they are not known for their critical thinking skills.

Anyway there were quite a few people watching from the balcony. It was very quiet and people were whispering to each other and you could hear everyone just hoping that the person was ok. Once the captain announced she was onboard and in medical a big cheer went up. We breathed a sigh of relief and went to bed.

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The day we were to disembark we headed up to the buffet. It was gray and rainy. The ship was a little late getting in but not horribly so. The buffet was ok. I got my coffee which was all I really needed anyway.

We grabbed our stuff and headed to self disembark. It was well organized and crowded. Everyone was quiet and respectful. Before we knew it we were off and waiting for our uber.

The next 3 days were spent in Orlando. The first day we just relaxed. The next day we went to Epcot and saw all the flowers. The last day we went to Disney Springs. So in short we entertained ourselves.

Finally it is time to go home! We were at the terminal and they announce our flight is delayed by 20 minutes due to a maintenance concern. Ok. No big deal. About 20 minutes later we get a text saying that our flight is delayed 2 hours! Really?? Ugh. They hadn't made an announcement in the terminal yet.

So off to the counter we go. Behind us there were some people complaining about being delayed 3 hours. We had to laugh because it had been 3 days for us.

In the end we flew into Rochester and our loving husbands picked us up and took us across the state to Albany where my car was. It was a long day but we were finally home!

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Overview:

This was my first cruise with NCL. Nothing went the way it was supposed to. We did still have a good time but it was not as relaxing as I had hoped. I don't care that my food wasn't awesome. I figure that it just stopped me from overeating so much! Lol My friend loved all of her food so I probably just had bad luck. I'm going on the Getaway in July with my family so I will see how that goes. I was going to buy 2 future cruise certificates but didn't just due to the chaos. If all goes well in July I probably will.

Hope this helps people doing research!

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The bathing suits required sign is a new addition since I was on the Epic. When I went up to check out deck 19 there was a woman sunbathing completely nude. Thank God I had sunglasses on so she didn’t see my eyes bug out.

Haha. I had read something about that. We went up first thing in the morning and were the first ones there!

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