Live(ish) Epic Transatlantic April 22-May 7

[aungrl]

That looks like a really nice lounge experience!  Glad it's all working smoothly so far.  That last minute bar bill seems to be a relatively common occurrence, or maybe we're just unlucky.  On all of our prior VO trips, we've had a small bar charge added overnight on the last night.  Fortunately, we've been able to get these adjusted in person before leaving the ship, but I will say that the last time it happened, the gentleman manning the guest services desk argued with me a little bit about it - politely, but he didn't just immediately accept my assertion that we hadn't incurred the charge.  

 

Anyway, looking forward to hearing more about the rest of your journey!

[gregluk]

I take it you can sort the onboard spending account later on once off the ship if there is an issue?

[Clay Clayton]

11 hours ago, gregluk said:

I take it you can sort the onboard spending account later on once off the ship if there is an issue?

Here’s hoping! If not I’m sure Chase can😂

[Clay Clayton]

13 hours ago, aungrl said:

That looks like a really nice lounge experience!  Glad it's all working smoothly so far.  That last minute bar bill seems to be a relatively common occurrence, or maybe we're just unlucky.  On all of our prior VO trips, we've had a small bar charge added overnight on the last night.  Fortunately, we've been able to get these adjusted in person before leaving the ship, but I will say that the last time it happened, the gentleman manning the guest services desk argued with me a little bit about it - politely, but he didn't just immediately accept my assertion that we hadn't incurred the charge.  

 

Anyway, looking forward to hearing more about the rest of your journey!

Since it’s not cruise related, I wasn’t planning on posting here.  Will do so on our Instagram-ClaynMike.  

[aungrl]

16 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Since it’s not cruise related, I wasn’t planning on posting here.  Will do so on our Instagram-ClaynMike.  

That thought occurred to me.  Disappointed, as I'm not on Instagram - my only social media is CC and LinkedIn.  I may be the only one who follows you that can't see you on Instagram, but I'm guessing no one would mind if you did a few update posts here, as well.  😉

[Clay Clayton]

19 hours ago, aungrl said:

That thought occurred to me.  Disappointed, as I'm not on Instagram - my only social media is CC and LinkedIn.  I may be the only one who follows you that can't see you on Instagram, but I'm guessing no one would mind if you did a few update posts here, as well.  😉

Well ok.

 

We arrived at our Airbnb last evening with only minor issues-Orly has signage to show you where to pick up ride shares where ride shares aren’t allowed to go?  Anyway, after a final airport death March (at least until Friday), we made it to Versailles and I think the view from the living room made all that worth it.  Yes that is the chateau just peeking through in the upper left! 

[depplep]

Breathtaking! Thanks for posting here, I am also not on social media. Have a wonderful time.

[Tyskie]

@Clay Clayton  Beautiful view!  

Not on Instagram so if you post here - I'm sure many of us would still enjoy traveling along.🌞

[like2cruise33]

wow, I guess I was lucky on my TA, we did not have to miss any ports.

But I had heard from the guide that a few days earlier some ships had to skip because of the rough seas.

Sounds like you had a great trip after all. Traveling when the ships were NOT full was great, any restaurant you wanted - no problem -plenty of seats available.

In Moderno - I believe it was my table and maybe one other table on my Panama Canal trip.

Did you ever check out the weights in the gym?

I will be on the Epic in November for a Mediterranean cruise - Rome to Israel.

Must book something sooner than that.

On the MSC many many of us were from NCL. Well -obviously we prefer not to fly when we have NY. But my favorite is still NCL.

 

[Clay Clayton]

43 minutes ago, like2cruise33 said:

wow, I guess I was lucky on my TA, we did not have to miss any ports.

But I had heard from the guide that a few days earlier some ships had to skip because of the rough seas.

Sounds like you had a great trip after all. Traveling when the ships were NOT full was great, any restaurant you wanted - no problem -plenty of seats available.

In Moderno - I believe it was my table and maybe one other table on my Panama Canal trip.

Did you ever check out the weights in the gym?

I will be on the Epic in November for a Mediterranean cruise - Rome to Israel.

Must book something sooner than that.

On the MSC many many of us were from NCL. Well -obviously we prefer not to fly when we have NY. But my favorite is still NCL.

 

Yes I posted earlier that they have 1lb weights

[like2cruise33]

4 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Yes I posted earlier that they have 1lb weights

I hope they had more then 1 pound. But thank you so much for looking. Your posts were very entertaining, and the pictures showed beautiful weather. (yea I know it was not all beautiful weather.)

Hopefully you are safely home by now, and planning your next trip.

I know your posts must have taken quite a while to write, and I did appreciate reading about it - especially the ports I was in, and did not see what you saw.

[Clay Clayton]

10 hours ago, like2cruise33 said:

I hope they had more then 1 pound. But thank you so much for looking. Your posts were very entertaining, and the pictures showed beautiful weather. (yea I know it was not all beautiful weather.)

Hopefully you are safely home by now, and planning your next trip.

I know your posts must have taken quite a while to write, and I did appreciate reading about it - especially the ports I was in, and did not see what you saw.

They started with one pound…

[Clay Clayton]

We walked 5.9 miles today on our first trip into Paris. Some of that was underground in the metro as we got good use of our week long passes. I had printed several sizes of pictures of each of us at home and thankfully those worked for the nice service folks who made our passes. Those cost a total of $77.35 and will take us any where in the city including to the airport when we leave on Saturday. 
 

We had our first French pastries for breakfast and then got on the RER for our 25 minute ride. Our first stop was the Eiffel Tower. We then bought tickets on the HoHo Boat ($33.15 with a 5€ discount for each of us for having the metro pass😀). We HoHo-Ed fora good while. Had a great lunch. Did walkbys at Notre Dame (so sad to see it under repair-hate Mike didn’t see it before the fire), Louvre (Mike said he didn’t want to go in), went to the Terrace at Galleries Lafayette (I had forgotten what real department stores were like), and then headed back to Versailles. Phew! Ready for bed and it’s not quite 9:30. 
 

Tomorrow we will visit that big chateau across the street. 

Edited May 8, 2023 by Clay Clayton

[Clay Clayton]

Cold rainy day to tour Versailles followed by delicious lunch at the bistro on our corner…the rainy window picture is from our table looking out towards the market. Now back at the apartment listening to the rain and considering a nap😂

[depplep]

Mussels, frites and onion soup, you are my idol Sir!

[schmoopie17]

1 hour ago, depplep said:

Mussels, frites and onion soup, you are my idol Sir!

French fries and French onion soup. What...no French toast?

In any case, when in Rome...er, Paris.

[aungrl]

That lunch looks fabulous!  The roasted chicken with fries combo is one of my go-tos when I'm lucky enough to be in Paris.

[Clay Clayton]

 

The washer/dryer machine at our Airbnb isn’t working so we are being very French and went to the laundromat down the block this morning. Rather than sit on plastic chairs and listen to the machines, we were civilized and had a pastry in a beautiful shop two doors away from the laundry. It’s another cold and rainy day so we canceled our “Paris Greeter” since we didn’t feel like walking in the rain again.  

 

After finishing laundry, we returned to our apartment, wandered around the market-today was mostly clothes and housewares.  Did buy some fresh pasta for supper later. Then checked out another of the restaurants surrounding the market.   We shared onion soup (good but not as good as the other day) since it’s so chilly, croque Madame, and spinach and goat cheese pie. Now I think it’s nap time. 

[AZbeachBumz]

On 5/8/2023 at 10:37 AM, like2cruise33 said:

I hope they had more then 1 pound.

 

While I didn't use the fitness center on the Epic, I did check it out. It was pretty impressive IMO. Specific to the dumbbells (hand weights?), I thought their selection was impressive from light to heavy! Now I just wish I had found time to use them during the crossing! LOL 

[Clay Clayton]

Couldn’t seem to get CruiseCritic to load yesterday.  🤔

 

We took advantage of the lack of rain and headed back into Paris.  We started at the Arc du Triomphe and then walked a bit down the Champs Elysee.  Luckily the shops don’t open until 11 so we didn’t spend any money.  We made good use of our metro passes by using them to get place to place. We rode to Place Concorde and enjoyed some time at the Octagon Pond and the beautiful gardens at the Tuileries. 
 

From there we rode the Metro to Montmontre.  While up there we had a delicious lunch -escargots, baked goat cheese, pork, beef bourguignon, and creme brûlée. Then we headed back to Versailles.  Even with all the metro trips, we still walked over 6 miles. 😳

[Clay Clayton]

We just took our final Paris Metro ride 😢

 

We slept in a bit this morning and he gathered our final croissants-so good, they were still warm!  We then finished repacking and cleaned the apartment. Lunch was crepes at a place across the market. We shared one with egg, ham, mushroom, and Emmental cheese and another with chicken, Roquefort, and salad.  Both were delicious but the one with the egg was our favorite. For dessert, Mike won with his selection of warm chocolate but Clay’s Suzette was tasty and was even flambéd at the table. We enjoyed our last French restaurant meal.  

 

On our way back to get our luggage, we bought a sandwich, a couple of slices of  pizza, a mini tarte tatin, and macaroons to have for dinner at the hotel.  We used our weekly passes to take the RER C into Paris where we changed trains for the  RER B to the airport. There we took the free airport train that connects the all the terminals and two parking lots.  Our Holiday Inn Express is adjacent to one of the parking lots so it was a 5 min walk from the shuttle station to the hotel.  We have had a fun time in Paris and look forward to Iceland tomorrow!

[PasadenaDave]

Holiday Inn is to NCL as Hilton is to Viking?

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, PasadenaDave said:

Holiday Inn is to NCL as Hilton is to Viking?

I think it’s closer to Comfort Inn is to NCL as a W is to Viking. 
😂

Edited May 12, 2023 by Clay Clayton

[mking8288]

Hola, Clay and shall I say ... Bonjour - just a hello, I've been "peeking" in here over the last few days to see what you are up to with the continuing adventure.  Food pix are always great, making us hungry.  

 

Have a great time in Iceland - are you continuing your update on this or starting a new one as we'll follow along.  Best regards, happy and safe travel onward.

 

Henry / mking8288

[Clay Clayton]

9 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Hola, Clay and shall I say ... Bonjour - just a hello, I've been "peeking" in here over the last few days to see what you are up to with the continuing adventure.  Food pix are always great, making us hungry.  

 

Have a great time in Iceland - are you continuing your update on this or starting a new one as we'll follow along.  Best regards, happy and safe travel onward.

 

Henry / mking8288

Just going to continue here and on our Instagram. Glad you’re enjoying.