****LIVE from the 2014 Epic Transatlantic****

[Langoustine]

Can you please let me know if any of the bars carry Fireball Whiskey, I will be boarding Nov 9th in Miami....

 

This appeared yesterday on Kitchen Daily:

 

"Bottles of Fireball Whiskey are being recalled in Finland, Sweden and Norway over anti-freeze contained within it. According to The Daily Beast, Fireball creates two versions of its cinnamon-flavored whiskey. One is made for Canada and the U.S. and contains an anti-freeze chemical, while the other is made for Europe and contains less of it. Fireball has said that they sent Europe a batch of the North American formula."

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking us along on your TA cruise.

[SuiteCruiser]

Day 3

 

We were up in time for breakfast, so got ready for Posh and went to the Epic Club. Since we were so casual I suggested we just eat in the Epic Grill, and the bartender in there went to the restaurant to get a waitress. We said we were happy to go to the restaurant if it was easier, and they said, no no, it's fine, eat here. Well no one arrived except the restaurant manager who said we needed to tell them we were there. We explained that her staff had already done it but she clearly wasn't listening to us. We went into the restaurant and ordered and the manager came over to apologize profusely. No big deal, but we learned our lesson, just go straight to the fancy schmancy restaurant even in your swimwear. We headed up to spend some time in Posh, but it was a bit chilly and windy, so eventually I caved and went back to the cabin, changed and down to the casino. Some of the usuals were there so we played the rest of the day.

 

Judy arrived around 4 PM and we played for a while longer, but not having any luck. We decided on an early dinner at La Cuchina. The restaurant is as far forward as you can get, so the windows look out over the bow. It was a beautiful view and the sun set as we were eating. We had bruschetta, caprese salad and chicken parmagiana. All were very good.

 

Back to the tables for more laughs, we all started doing the wave whenever anyone hit anything good. I got a 4 of a kind and a flush on the next hand, which turned things around.

 

We had an early night as they next morning we had an excursion in Madeira.

 

Day 4

 

Up early (for me) at 8:30, out to the balcony for a beautiful view of the city, and off to the Epic Theatre to wait for our excursion to be called. They were running late, so we waited for a while then finally loaded onto one of 5 buses doing the "Best of Madeira" tour.

 

First stop was a cable car up the mountain. I am not a fan of heights, but that would be tested throughout the day. The whole island is very steep and has no flat land. All of the houses are built into the mountainside, and sometimes they lose them to landslides if there's too much rain. The views were beautiful, but I accidentally looked straight down once and it was crazy high. Kept my eyes on the ocean from there on and it was okay.

 

At the top we were directed to 487 steps up to a church. (okay maybe 50) so we tromped up and walked around the church, it was pretty, but not worth the huffing and puffing. We were then directed to a crazy long line waiting for our next part of the tour, an hour and 10 minutes later, it was our turn.

 

In Madiera, they have this hundred year old tradition of wicker chairs that they add skis to, and hurtle you with two handlers, down the streets on the mountainside. Picture wicker love seats that are well worn with two men dressed all in white, with ropes attached to the chairs pushing, pulling or just running like hell behind you as you as you travel at high speeds and almost run into the walls, or cars for the 2 km trip. We had a blast, but there were a few scary moments too.

 

A short time to regroup and back to the bus. We then traveled on tiny roads in a very big bus, with drop offs and no guard rails plunging 1000 feet. Scared the crap out of me, I wanted to be back hurtling down the mountain as it felt safer. At the top, lots of opportunities for pictures, no guard rails again, yikes, and some shopping. Judy was trying on hats and looking at all of the store's contents. I hate shopping so grabbed a coke light, and sat outside. It was time to go back to the bus for the scary return trip and Judy realized that she didn't have her sunglasses. We went back to the hat area and there was no sign of them. Asked the staff, but no luck. She got a cute bracelet and a few gifts, but it ended up costing her a $200 pair of sunglasses :(

 

Bus took us to downtown for a wine tasting and we had a little sip of the famous Madeira wine that is super sweet, kind of like sherry, and decided to head back to the ship. We were starving as we hadn't eaten yet, and it was almost 3:00 by that point. We were supposed to be back around 1:30.

 

Back on the shuttle and into O'Sheehan's for fish and chips and then back to the cabin for a carb coma nap.

 

I checked my email and saw an urgent request from a client, so spent the next 2 hours working. Online for 1.5 hours connected to my work computer through my iPad, it's amazing what technology does, but I really would have preferred being able to totally disconnect.

 

Finally rested for about an hour and back to the tables. Had some more luck, then bad luck, so headed to the Sushi Bar for dinner. I don't like raw fish, so had the tempura shrimp roll which was to die for and some yakitori. Judy had another roll of some sort and Linda asked the chef to make her a surprise special roll. All was very, very good, but way too much food.

 

Back to the tables and I won back what I'd lost and then some, so that worked very nicely. Off to bed around 1:00 and we had another card on our beds saying to change the clocks back again :) Yay! I get to sleep in tomorrow!!

 

Day 5

 

Sound asleep at 6:00 and I'm woken by the loudest sound I've ever heard. I'm disoriented, and it's still dark in my room as I have the curtain pulled. I run out to the balcony and there's a helicopter outside of my room. A couple of doors down and one floor up. Crazy loud and as soon as I saw the tail, and knew it was a helicopter, I knew it was a Medivac. I looked again at the helicopter and it was painted all camo, and suddenly my brain went to "what if it's pirates!" so I double locked our door. I thought if the butler couldn't get in with the second lock turned, clearly no pirates could. Then my mind went to ISIS, and I ran to pop some steroids. I have no adrenal glands so no adrenaline, and when something scary happens, I get sick, so I popped some pills and then realized of courise I was being silly. It was 6:20 AM, then I heard a knock at the door the ISIS/pirate/Medevac helicopter was still hovering above my balcony and I thought how stupid is that pirate at the door to think I'll open it. I looked in the peephole and it was Jason. He wanted me to have a look at the Haven, which was a disaster, there were chairs and cushions tossed, some floating in the pool. While we were surveying the damage the very kind and brave Medevac team pulled the person into the helicopter (it never landed just hovered 10 feet off of the ship) and took the person to a hospital.

 

We had turned around towards Madeira sometime in the night, so we'll likely have to truck it to make up time. Eva (not Ava as I had spelled it earlier, my apologies) later explained that we were closer to the Azores now, so they'd be taking them there.

 

I tried to go back to sleep, but no go, so we were in having breakfast by 7:00 and the place was full. I'm sure everyone in the Haven was woken by the racket. Except for Judy who slept through the whole thing. I was finishing my coffee before heading back to bed when she got up to use the facilities and heard me milling about.

 

We came up to Posh and heard the Cruise Director make an announcement that they won't go into details, but that the person is doing well. Great news! It's only 10:00 AM and we're on our second Mimosa, the sun is shining, there's a lovely breeze and the seas are like glass :)

[Rhea98]

That was really exciting. You have a really pleasant writing style which I (others, too, I'm sure) enjoy.

[Susie51]

Thank you for your great review. I enjoy your style of writing.

[Single Cruiser]

Hope you have a quieter crossing.. Missing you all!

[N747KT]

I'm enjoying your story.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SuiteCruiser]

Day 6

 

Spent the (very long) morning in Posh with the guys and then had lunch in Epic Club around 1:00. Today was shrimp cocktail and fettucine for me. Both very good. Back to the cabin to change and down to the casino around 2:00.

 

Everyone was playing 3 card so I joined and lost, then onto UTH and lost, then Rob and I went to the craps table for a couple of hours and had lots of fun, I ended up $45 ahead for the game, though we kept saying one more, so could have been $145 ahead if we'd just stopped when we initially planned to.

 

Back to UTH and had some more luck, then up and down. I was down about $200 so left to freshen up for dinner and met our group of 23 people for Teppanyaki. Jason had organized it and it was our group of Posh folks, Linda, Rob, Ewr and his wife from the casino, and some of my other friends from the 2012 crossing. Lots of fun, Judy and I ended up sitting in between the two cooktops, so were able to watch both shows. The guy at our end kept dropping his utensils everytime he tried to throw them and the guy down with the other group was outstanding. The food was fantastic as always (I had the steak and chicken combo) and we all had a lot of laughs. Everyone was working on the origami directions on the menu. I made a paper airplane and a cooty catcher instead. Lots and lots of fun.

 

We went back to the casino and won back some money plus some. So far I'm up for the cruise, which is great. I hit another 4 of a kind with 3's and a few hands later, Judy hit 4 of a kind with 3's. We all went crazy because Judy has played this game for years and this was her very first 4 of a kind :) We were so happy for her! Rob and Judy went early, Rob has a cold developing and Judy was tired. Not sure what is going on with me, because I was up at 6:00 AM, no nap and still going strong. Judy snoozed in the afternoon and was totally exhausted. I went to bed around 12:30, slept pretty well. My feet looked like Fred Flinstone's from all the sitting and all the salt, so I was up about 8 times in the night to get rid of all of that fluid (TMI I know) but still awake before 9:00 and up at Posh before Judy woke up. She's normally the early bird, so something odd is happening.

 

I was the 2nd person here, Ken, another friend of the guys and now myself as well, is here but otherwise all is quiet.

 

The weather has been outstanding. Suntanning every day, a bit of a breeze and fairly calm seas. The ship is doing a lot of front back movement thought considering the seas appearing so calm. I think it may be because we're really trucking since we have a lot of distance to make up due to the Medevac and needing to turn back for so long.

 

Today will be fun as it's Halloween and we're all dressing up. One of the guys has put together a Halloween party for us in Bliss at 7:00 PM. Judy and I are getting our hair done at 5:00, so it will be a full night.

 

May not be able to post this for a while as the wifi seems to be down. I'll keep trying. For now, back to sunshine and relaxation at Posh.

[SuiteCruiser]

Thank you for your kind replies! I'm having fun doing the blog and it's a good way to remember all of the fun things that happened.

 

I'm a day late in posting because the internet was down all day yesterday.

 

Craig, wish you were here and hope you are all better. We miss you!

 

I will catch you all up with yesterday's antics. Halloween was a blast :)

[SuiteCruiser]

Day 7

 

Went to lunch at Taste with Judy and Linda and had the chicken nachos. Very yummy. Headed for the tables for a bit, had some crummy cards, so went with Rob and played some craps. Had a good run, came out $150 ahead on the game and about $50 ahead on the day. Played some Let it Ride and the dealer Alan was very good to me. Nice to have some good luck still :)

 

Off to the salon for my hair appointment at 5:00. I had my hair washed, dried and curled with a straightening iron. My costume is an angel, so I have nice long curly hair, a white 50's style satin dress, feathered wings and a halo that lights up. It all came together very well.

 

Judy was part of a group costume, consisting of Gilligan, the Skipper too, A Millionaire and his wife, a movie star, the Professor and Mary Ann. Judy was Ginger and they all looked awesome!

 

We had a private party organized by one of the guys. It was at Bliss and a lot of the crew turned out too. There must have been more than a hundred people and most of them in costume.

 

At around 8:30 we did a parade and occasionally a conga line. I kept singing "You don't make friends with salad - and some people looked at me like I was crazy, others knew exactly what I was talking about. We went through the casino, Taste, Manhattan and back to the Guest Services area and had lots of people taking our pictures. I saw a few devils, so we had our pictures together. We have one shot with Judy and I on one side and the devil on the other and her contemplating. Very fun :)

 

We wrapped that party and had another starting at 10:00, so went to the UTH table for a bit and then onto craps. They were having a costume contest in the casino, so there were tons of people and they kept bumping into my wings. I wasn't thinking very angelic thoughts and was drinking and gambling, which most angels stay away from. I'm sure it was a crazy scene when I was shooting the dice :)

 

My feet were kiling me from standing so cashed out about $100 ahead and back to three card poker where I did well initally, so didn't go up to the party. Judy had to because she was part of the group, but eventually then things went sour. At that point it was only myself and Barb (a very nice woman who plays UTH with us) and I decided to take a break for a hand. Doesn't she get a straight flush. I had been playing $15 on the bonus, so would have won $600. Yikes. The dealer said he was going to kill me (must have been a translation issue as most people don't want to kill me) but I do tip really well, and he'd been flirting (not really, just joking) with me because I was an angel, and he really did want me to win. I was not upset though, as Barb is a really great lady, and it was meant for her, not for me. Alan the dealer (who we all yell Alan, Al, Al, Alan, Alan, Steve to as in the groundhog video on youtube) will get over it too :)

 

Moved on to UTH and won back some money, so I was down about $100 on the day. Not bad for an entire day's entertainment.

 

I headed to roulette to play my last $5 chips and Ewr gave me one as well to play on 17. Last night I did the same thing on my way out the door and it hit 17 so Ewr and I won $175 each. So I went and placed the bets....and....17!!! Yay, now I'm up $75 for the day :) Ewr gave me another $5 to play, so we left 17 on there, I played 7 as well and I played 20 for him and 20 hit.

 

So much fun and crazy luck. Really great.

 

The casino host came by and said she had something for me at the counter, but she wasn't there when I popped by. I have no idea what it is but will let you know when I go back down there.

 

I finally made it upstairs with my aching feet about 12:30. Another time change card :) I had a great sleep, up around 7:30 and Judy and I were at breakfast by 8:00. We didn't eat any dinner last night, so were both pretty hungry. I had them bring me sliced tomatoes and some mayo along with my eggs, bacon and toast and made an egg, bacon, tomato sandwich which was awesome! Really hit the spot.

 

Today it's really grey out and a little chilly, so no Posh for us. I think we're going to be decadent and hit the casino early and drink Mimosas.

[SuiteCruiser]

Day 7

 

We spent the day in the casino. It sounds like one activity, but actually several very fun activities. We bounced as a group between UTH, Craps, 3 Card and Roulette.

 

I checked in with the Casino Host to see what she had for me and she gave me a beautiful bracelet from the gift shop because she liked my costume from the night before so much. It's a Pandora-esque bracelet with lots of blue beads, palm trees, starfish, etc. Very pretty and very sweet of her.

 

We had lunch at O'Sheehan's and then right back to the tables. I was having horrible luck at UTH so decided to go to 3 Card and lost another stack of chips there. I decided to go all in and blind, so had $5 on 6 card, $20 on Pair Plus and $5 on Ante and Play. The dealer flipped the cards and I had a straight flush! $800 on the Pair Plus! Woo Hoo!

 

These two lovely and fun ladies who I'd played with the night before had come by so sat and watched as suddenly I was getting flushes and straights all playing blind. About 6 hands after the straight flush, I hit another one (unheard of) this time with $15 on Pair Plus, so another $600. The ladies with me and I did a double take and couldn't believe it. I played another couple of hands, then cashed out and went back to the cabin to have a snooze and to make sure I kept the money, not that I would or could have played it all away anyway ;)

 

Back down after and another night full of fun as we all played all kinds of different games together.

 

Judy and I went to Wasabi for dinner, we weren't too hungry, so I just had the Shrimp Tempura Roll. Judy had a Godzilla Roll, both were fantastic. Everyone was at 3 Card, (Linda, Rob, Judy, Ewr and I) and we had a community hand in the 3 card so it was really fun. Our community hand got a full house, so we each won $125. Rob finally earned his drink card, so was making good use of it. We were singing and being crazy and had a blast. We had the staff singing along with us too.

 

Linda and Rob headed off to their cabins and I popped into Bliss on my way back to the cabin around 1:30 and ran into Ian and Robert and danced a bit, had another drink, then back to the room. Another time change night :)

 

Up at 7:00 AM and lounged for a bit, then headed to breakfast where I had them bring me sliced tomatoes, bacon, toast and mayo for a bacon tomato sandwich, which was heavenly. It's 8:30 AM, we're at Posh and it actually a little too hot today and hardly any clouds. Will have to be good about the sunscreen today for sure. For now I'm headed to the shade.

[N747KT]

Sounds great!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[misand]

Love reading your review, we sail onher in 3 weeks.

[jdough789]

I am enjoying your review. I will be cruising he in 4 weeks. Could you please name the captain, cruise director, hotel director chef and f & b manager? I hope that some of these will be familiar names from our previous cruise. Again, I wish you smooth sailing.:)

[SuiteCruiser]

Day 8

 

Spent the rest of the morning in the shade at Posh then off to the Epic Club for lunch. I had the potato chowder and the beef dip which was really good.

 

I went to the room and changed and Judy headed back to Posh. I went down to the tables and lost some money, then onto craps and lost some more. Wandered around for awhile, watching others play and then when Judy came down, I joined them again. They guys (Rob and Ewr) had an amazing run, where Ewr was rolling for over an hour. I missed out on that, but they made $1100 and $2000. I joined and we all decided (except Judy - who was the shooter) to bet $5 on midnight and she rolled it. With our other bet, we all made $175 on that roll. Very fun.

 

Onto 3 card where Judy got a straight flush and then we all went over to Pai Gow for a bit, and Rob had the staff take our photos. We had the whole gang together. Judy and I left Linda and Rob behind and went to Le Bistro to meet up with Chad, Jason, Alessio, Ian and Ian's friend Paul. Lovely meal with interesting conversation. Super nice guys and glad to have a chance to actually visit with them.

 

I had the escargot, mushroom soup and filet. All were very good, Le Bistro is my favourite specialty restaurant.

 

Back to the casino where I went to check my points. I'm "Hot" in the casino, so get certain perks and the next level is Golden. I knew I was close, so checked with the casino host and I had 15001 points exactly. That is the exact amount I needed, so I got my Golden card which required a celebration that may or may not have included one or two Fireball whiskey shots :)

 

The casino staff love us because we're loud and fun and tip well, and they say things are so boring when we're not there. We've already been invited to go to the casino in St Martten because they want to gamble with us. I don't think we'll take them up on it, but sweet to be asked.

 

My luck hadn't changed, so I sat beside one of the girls that had been cheering me on at 3 card the other night and told her I'd be her good luck charm. There are a couple of "lucky chips" that come out every once in a while and she got one, so I told her she needed to angle it properly to face her, and she won trips 3 times in a row and then every second hand for awhile.

 

I decided to move down by Judy and watch her once the other ladies left and the dealer flopped 3 Kings. Judy had the 4th, so we went crazy.

 

We headed to bed shortly after.

 

Up at 8:30 this morning and off to breakfast where I had my usual bacon, tomato and toast to make a sandwhich, and now back in Posh. I'm in the shade again because it's really hot again. Having an amazing time, we have a good crew up here and another really good crew in the casino. Missing the folks at home, but know that this week is going to fly by, so going to enjoy every minute.

[pugsammy]

Love your trip report! Can't wait to get on the Epic on Nov. 30th!

 

Glad to know there is shade at Posh...I'm kinda married to Casper the ghost! :p

 

Also, you seem to holding your own in the casino....our game is video poker. Can you tell me if there is any bar-top video poker? (I'm sure the paytables are terrible...but oh well...I know we'll be making our donation) :D

[SuiteCruiser]

Love your trip report! Can't wait to get on the Epic on Nov. 30th!

 

Glad to know there is shade at Posh...I'm kinda married to Casper the ghost! :p

 

Also, you seem to holding your own in the casino....our game is video poker. Can you tell me if there is any bar-top video poker? (I'm sure the paytables are terrible...but oh well...I know we'll be making our donation) :D

 

There is bar top video poker, I played there for an hour one day. I'm still using the money I won on the Gem in the summer, so I'm very happy with that!

[brookie848]

One (nice, for us) thing about the bar-top video poker is that it is non-smoking. The payouts weren't great, but they also weren't horrible. I can't remember if we were playing Double or Double-Double.

 

My parents only play video poker (well, my Dad does some blackjack as well) and they won $8,000 in jackpots on our cruise in January on the Epic. Those machines at the bar were very nice to them! They mainly play quarter machines, but sometimes my Dad will sneak the coin-in up to .50.

[SuiteCruiser]

Day 9

 

Spent the morning in Posh after breakfast and then went down to the casino around 1:30. Judy went for a nap, and I came to get her at 4:00 because I was hungry as I hadn't eaten any lunch. We grabbed a bite at O'Sheehan's but didn't eat too much as we knew we wanted to have dinner at Epic Club. We hadn't managed to get there yet.

 

We went to the casino after our very late lunch and most of it becomes a big blur. I know at one point, Rob started calling for Jaegermeister shots and they kept coming. We had our crew at the UTH table, and I'm not sure if it was our craziness and loud antics, or the booze, but we gathered so many people around us that the casino manager had to keep asking people to make room for a corridor.

 

We had been very lucky early on, but then slowly we gave it all back. We were at that table for about 5 hours, drinking, shots, and having an absolute riot.

 

Judy went to bed a bit ahead of me, Rob, Ewr, Sylvie and I went to Bliss, Rob decided to go back to the tables and I stumbled around the dance floor with Chad for a song or two.

 

Off to bed around 1:00, with another time change card on the bed.

 

Day 10

 

We woke up too late and hungover for breakfast, but made it for lunch. I ordered soup and a cheeseburger and I got about 3 spoonfuls of soup in me and my stomach had enough. I went back to bed and had a bite or two every time I woke up.

 

Finally got up and joined everyone in the casino around 4:00. Dinner was chicken pot pie, which is all I thought I could handle, and even that I only at 1/3 of it. Tables were rotten, so I sat and visited with the casino staff as the casino was dead. I went to bed around 9:30 and slept really well.

 

Day 11

 

Woke this morning early to see Saint Maarten out the window, and headed for breakfast. Finally feeling better, and then hit the Haven and the Haven pool with Judy for a bit. Around noon I headed over to Maho Bay by cab. Judy decided to stay on the ship. I was in a big bus like cab, and everyone else got off in town, so I had a private tour with a very nice woman who was my cabbie.

 

Maho Bay is amazing as it's right at the end of the airport, so planes landing are so close above you. It's beautiful and exciting at the same time. Once at Maho, I grabbed a drink at the bar and found a spot to set up my towel to start watching the planes fly overhead. The waves were insanely high, like 10-12 feet at shore, and crazy undertow. I heard my name and saw Rob close by, so he came and sat with me for a while and watched my stuff so I could go swimming. The water was beautiful, just had to be careful about the waves coming and going.

 

Rob headed back to the ship, he'd rented a scooter and was touring the island. I sat for about 10 minutes before I saw Alen and Nash, two casino dealers come by, so they set up with me and we had a blast all afternoon watching the planes and getting our butts kicked in the ocean.

 

Alen whacked his head on his watch and has a goose egg and a cut, but otherwise seemed okay. Hopefully his watch survived.

 

Nash had a waterproof carrier around his neck that he was very careful to never let it float away as it had their money in it. Alen had brought enough to buy a new iPhone, if the price was right, so I was glad their money was safe.

 

They had arranged for a cab to come back and get them at 3:00, so they invited me along, and we went to meet the cab, grab some water at the store, and they insisted on paying for me. Nash opened his case and it was full of water! Their money was absoutely soaked. They took it outside and laid it out on the hood of a car to dry, thankfully it didn't blow away and it did dry a bit.

 

Their cabbie arrived, and drove us back to the ship. Alen and I kept saying that there was a "Schnauzer in my Lederhosen" from the movie Top Secret! and we got everyone else started saying it too. It meant whatever we wanted it to mean, sometimes we said if someone was mean that they were a Schnauzer, and sometimes if they were nice, they were a Schnauzer, etc. It never got old, and the cabbie started using it all the time, so it will turn into the next big saying of St. Maarten. Too funny. Someone cut us off and the cabbie called them a Schnauzer :)

 

Back to the ship and had a shower, feel very sorry for my cabin steward as there was way more sand in my bathingsuit than I knew. Most is in the shower, but it's a bit of a mess.

[LrgPizza]

 

Day 10

 

 

 

We woke up too late and hungover for breakfast, but made it for lunch. I ordered soup and a cheeseburger and I got about 3 spoonfuls of soup in me and my stomach had enough. I went back to bed and had a bite or two every time I woke up.

 

 

 

Finally got up and joined everyone in the casino around 4:00. Dinner was chicken pot pie, which is all I thought I could handle, and even that I only at 1/3 of it. Tables were rotten, so I sat and visited with the casino staff as the casino was dead. I went to bed around 9:30 and slept really well.

 

 

 

This could very well be my favorite CC post ever.

[SuiteCruiser]

This could very well be my favorite CC post ever.

 

LOL..you can't make that stuff up.

 

Sorry, have had zero internet for days :( Will finish off tomorrow :)

[SuiteCruiser]

Day 10 Continued

 

Grabbed a little snack at O'Sheehan's as I hadn't had any lunch. Ran into Lettinets and chatted with her while she had her tea. The rest of her group (Froufie and the Flipfloppers) were all off on an excursion.

 

Met up with Judy and went back down to the casino once it opened. We decided to go back to the sushi bar for dinner, the usual shrimp tempura roll for me.

 

Back to the tables, where my luck was still crappy, so sat and visited with Alen, and stayed even by not playing :) Eventually tried again and had a little luck, but it was an early night as we had to be up in the morning to clear customs.

 

Day 11

 

Arrived into St Thomas right on time and up early to clear US customs. We were assigned 8:00 AM and because we were in the Haven, we were escorted down by the Concierge, David, and it was totally painless. Back to bed for a bit, that didn't work, so up to Posh with Judy for Mimosas and sunshine.

 

Around 12:30 we headed off the ship to visit

 

Back onboard with plenty of time, just rested and read my book for awhile. I had bought 6 e-books to read on the trip, and none of them downloaded. Our wifi had been out for a couple of days, but when it finally worked, I tried to get the books loaded, but it wouldn't work. This whole trip I've been re-reading old books, and will have to wait until I'm home to be able to read the new ones. I'm such a loser.

 

We were a little premature on our casino visit and didn't want to appear desperate, so we went to the casino bar and ordered some really bad cocktails. We thought it would be fun to try something new, but that didn't really work out. Eventually the casino opened and by the time we got to our table, there weren't any seats left, so it appears everyone was desperate ;). We played some 3 card, and all I did was donate. Craps...donated. Finally UTH....donated. It was not meant to be.

 

We thought dinner would be a good idea and maybe we'd have better luck afterwards. We went to the Epic Club for the first time in the entire trip and had the short rib, which was fantastic and the mushroom ravioli which was to die for. We're sorry we waited so long to come here for dinner. It's funny because we were here for breakfast and lunch, but the ambience is really nice at night.

 

Back to the casino for a bit, still no luck, so went to bed early again.

 

Day 12

 

Posh for the morning after breakfast. My people at home are going to be so shocked to see how early I've been up every day and also how many times I've been to breakfast. Since the middle of the cruise I've been making a BLT for breakfast every morning, and it's been scrumptious.

 

In Posh, hanging with the regulars, really, really great guys. Robert comes up to us and asked if we'd heard about Froufie. I hadn't, so he told us she tripped on the tile coming out of an elevator and broke her shoulder! She'd left in St Thomas. Holy crap. That's so horrible an she's such a nice person, not that I want any not so nice people to break their shoulders, just that she'd been so looking forward to this trip and it ended so badly and too quickly.

 

For lunch we went back to Epic Club and then down to the casino for awhile. Judy stayed upstairs until around 4:00 when she showed up all gussied up as we were going to Cagney's that night with Linda and Rob. I went up and primped and curled and barely fit into my favourite dress, and back down to the casino. I joked that we were so dressed up we should be playing Baccarat, but that would have been boring.

 

We played Pai Gow with Judy for a bit, that was fun and you can play for awhile without losing your shirt.

 

Played some roulette, 3 card and UTH, but the casino gods were being unfriendly.

 

Off to dinner at 7:30 at Cagneys. Judy and I both qualify for a free dinner for 2 from the casino in any specialty and with a bottle of wine each. We had spoken with the Casino Host, Carey, earlier in the week and were there while she confirmed our reservation. She'd pulled in a favour as they were already fully booked, I guess because it was the 2nd last night. Well, we got up there and they didn't have our reservation. We explained that Carey had booked it and we were there, etc and they needed to speak to her. They called down to the Casino Services desk and the assistant answered, spoke to the Cagney's hostess and then asked to speak to me. I took the phone and she said "Yes, I see you are entitled to a dinner for 2 but you have not booked it yet, would you like to go to La Cuchina tomorrow?" "Ummmm No... I am here with guests that we invited and this is all rather embarassing. We were standing in front of Carey when she booked it, I don't understand the problem" Then she asked me to hold on and put down the phone. Thankfully Carey came back and I could hear their conversation and Carey said she didn't understand how they could screw it up. She then spoke to me and apologized profusely, asked me to hang up so that she could call the manager at Cagneys.

 

Finally they sat us at a table. I just don't understand why they didn't go ahead and seat us and work out the rest behind the scenes. Once sorted out, it all ended up fine, but the whole production was unneccessary as they clearly had a table available.

 

We ordered a bunch of different apps, I had the potato soup and the chicken drumsticks followed by the ribeye. I ordered mac & cheese and onion rings for sides and I have to say, it was probably the best mac & cheese I've ever had. The steak was good as well and the onion rings, but I've been dreaming about that mac & cheese ever since.

 

After dinner, we went back to the casino for a bit and then another early night. I stopped by Howl at the Moon for a bit on my way back upstairs.

 

Day 13

 

I was up earlier than Judy and decided to visit the casino to see if my luck was better in the morning. I sat with Barb for a while, was able to visit with Alen and the supervisors too as it was quiet. Tried some roulette and played with one of 2 new dealers that had come on board at St. Thomas. One of the supervisors came over and said remember that dealer on the Jewel with us, the one with the curly hair? (I know lots of the staff as you can imagine, with the amount of time we're in the casino) so I said "Adelina?" and he said, "yes, she's over there!" OMG. Wrapped up and headed to see her. She is an absolute favourite dealer of mine. I cruised with her twice and she was so sweet. At the time, she had a crush on a co-worker, who had a wife on the ship and a husband at home, so she was out of luck. We caught up and I played with her a bit. Apparently she had asked Kostino (the supervisor) if that was Sally at the roulette table. It's always nice to be remembered, especially when they see so many people coming through.

 

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but it's hilarious. Every half hour or so, someone will sing "Because She's Sallyyyyyy" (to the tune of Happy) and then there will be harmonized Sally.....sally....Sallllly Sally's from the staff or the passengers. I'm not exactly sure when it started, but it was pretty early on. There's one carmudgeony guy that plays with us sometimes and now he says it every time he sees me.

 

He told me that last night, we walked into his cabin and said "Hello Sally" to his wife, who was not very impressed, which is understandable. I laughed, and he kept telling everyone. OMG. Then we were talking about the ugly orange shirts the dealers all have as their uniforms and a guy walked by wearing an orange shirt so I said "That guy must want to be a dealer" and he thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. He grabbed my face with both hands and kissed my forehead and said "I love you, Sally!" I was all like "EEEK" and Barb at the table could hardly contain herself. Alen was at the next table over and asked me later what happened, and I told him "The Snauzer grabbed me by the Lederhosen and Schnauzed my forehead!" Alen responded with "The Schnauzer Schnauzer?" and I said "Yes! In the Lederhosen!" and he said "O Mein Gutt". And we laughed. I didn't realize that Rob was watching this whole (barely in code) discussion we were having but he was laughing his ass off too. It's likely a "had to be there" thing, but we manage to carry on conversations and actually know what we're talking about. Too funny.

 

Chatted with Alen again for a bit later and he was finished early so we said our first goodbyes, but he promised to come by later as he was going to Cagney's for dinner since he had the night off. Tomorrow was going to be a crazy day for the casino staff as they start their huge Texas Hold 'em Tournament on Sunday. The are bringing on 24 more dealers for the week and the staff have to clear Bliss Lounge of furniture starting at 6 AM and then load all of the Hold'em tables in and set them up with the proper felt coverings, etc, make sure they are all right and then tear them all down again for Muster as Bliss is Muster Station A, and then set them up again after muster. It will be a day from hell for them all.

 

I went back in the afternoon to pack and we each have one suitcase to put out tonight and then still have a carryon for tomorrow. I'd gotten out of that habit for the last few years, but it really does make things a lot easier on the last morning.

 

At 7:30 we went to the Friends of Dorothy get together as Ian had invited us and he wasn't there. He ended up having an early dinner and then a late show, so I'll have to catch up with him on Facebook. Hung with the rest of the guys for a while, then off to dinner.

 

Judy and I went to dinner at Epic Club but didn't see Alen come through beforehand, so I thought I missed him. We had the mushroom ravioli again, Judy had the crispy shrimp cake which she says is fantastic and I had the shrimp cocktail. Back to the casino for more play, we managed to snag the UTH table for our gang Linda, Rob, Uwe (I'd been spelling wrong, sorry!) Barb and Judy and I. We had good/bad luck and somewhere later in the evening, I felt hands across my eyes from behind and a "Guess who!" It was Alen, all dressed up from Cagney's, there to say goodbye, he said I promised you I would come to say goodbye, he said I made the cruise for him, and he wants to stay in touch. Hugs goodbye.

 

We all turned in relatively early after exchanging digits and lots of hugs, as we knew the morning would come quickly, and the dreaded announcements to get off the ship would start.

 

We have breakfast plans with Jason, Chad and Alessio, fitting as we also had our first meal with them 2 weeks ago.

 

Day 14

 

I slept fairly well, lots of weird dreams, but up with plenty of time to get ready. We met up with the boys and had a lovely breakfast and farewells with all of the Haven folks that we met. Lots of great people like Didi and Greg, and Pam and Jerry, loads that we met through the boys and it was a sad farewell, but we know we'll do it again and see each other.

 

Judy and I were being picked up at 10:00 by Sam and Adam from last year's transatlantic on the Star. They were spending the day with us, then we fly home on Monday.

 

We headed down and were both pulled aside for secondary screening for some reason, so they went through all of our luggage and then sent us on our way. We exited at exactly 10:00 and they guys were there to take us off to Vizcaya for the afternoon, High Tea and then off touring around the Miami area then to dinner.

 

Reflections: The cruise was fantastic. Each one is different but great in their own way. We always manage to meet great people, and Judy is a great friend and travel companion and I love her dearly. We love NCL's casino staff. We treat them well and they treat us very well in return. We have fun in the casino whether we're losing or winning, and I really enjoyed meeting Alen and spending hours in quiet times chatting with him when my luck was bad. He always asked me to sit and always asked me to stay with him chatting. I worried he'd get in trouble, but often the supervisors would come and chat along with us. I learned a lot about the inner workings of the casino, about the cruise staff in general, and I told him about my life back home, about my husband and kids and what the kids want to do and so on. Lots of laughs for sure as we both have the same twisted sense of haha. I feel like I've gained a new Bosnian baby brother. Proved me right that it's not all about the tips with the dealers (as people have tried to convince me when I say the dealers are so nice to us and seem to have fun with us), it's about the personalities, willingness to add more people to your circle, to not be so closed down that you miss that opportunity.

[SuiteCruiser]

What was it like crossing through the straits of Gibraltar ? Did you see it?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Sorry for replying so late, the wifi was really bad! When I went through the straits in 2012 it was really exciting and such a cool experience. The issue is that we set the clocks back the night before we boarded, so what was sunset in 2012 was pitch black in 2014. If you can go earlier than the 20th of October, you will be able to enjoy it.

[kerrytens]

Sally, just discovered your live from review!! I haven't had a chance to really get into it yet but I will for sure tomorrow when I'm hopefully more awake:D

 

I loved chatting with you both here (and somewhere else) leading up to our cruise. I still can't believe that we never crossed paths on the ship.

 

Can't wait to get into this review! Miss the sea yet? I sure do!

[Froufie]

In Posh, hanging with the regulars, really, really great guys. Robert comes up to us and asked if we'd heard about Froufie. I hadn't, so he told us she tripped on the tile coming out of an elevator and broke her shoulder! She'd left in St Thomas. Holy crap. That's so horrible an she's such a nice person, not that I want any not so nice people to break their shoulders, just that she'd been so looking forward to this trip and it ended so badly and too quickly.

 

Well here I am at home in a sling for about six weeks and on drugs. Very cranky and depressed and reading reviews to keep myself occupied lol.

 

It was great seeing you on board Sally and meeting old friends and new friends. so sorry the cruise ended early for me and in such a bad way!!

 

Thanks for the great review:)

Edited November 17, 2014 by Froufie