OrcaGirl

Went to the final bingo and raffle; no luck. But fun was had. And then. I lived out my literal nightmares. My new friends entered a team in Music Mania trivia, and we were selected. We had to identify songs by just a few notes played on a drum (we sucked), play ‘name the song’ musical Pictionary (we were scary good), lead the audience in a Sweet Caroline singalong (we were decent), sing the missing lyrics of Call Me Maybe (we realllllly sucked), and then after somehow still making the finals based on our mad Pictionary skillz, we had to dance a dance I’d never heard of. In front of people. It was the worst. 🤣 After that I needed a drink. And then another. 🍸 Once I’d mostly recovered from the embarrassment, we headed up on deck from fresh air. The ship continued to rock and roll all day, but we were surprised to see that the sun was out. If I didn’t have a dinner reservation and didn’t want to pack a wet swimsuit in the morning, I would have been tempted to hop into the hot tub. But instead I headed back to the cabin to pack a bit more, shower and get dressed for dinner. But first: a final espresso martini. Tonight’s dinner was at La Cucina, using up my final FAS specialty dinner. I had the pear-Gorgonzola salad, mushroom risotto, filet with blue cheese ravioli (alas not as good as the Le Bistro steak), and my second tiramisu of the day. (When in Rome… or almost in Rome.) I wanted to sneak in one final karaoke session, but dinner took a loooooong time and I’ve got to disembark early tomorrow in order to make my flight, so to bed I went. Random Observations The Epic Theatre really needs handrails on the aisle staircases. Maybe during the dry dock? Surprisingly, Bruno Mars’ Grenade as a piano lounge song actually kinda works. On the Escape last fall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much ‘new’ music was sung at karaoke. Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Adele… On this cruise, not so much. Lots of the usual suspects. If I never hear My Way or These Boots are Made for Walkin’ again, it’ll be too soon. On the final day of the cruise, I finally heard a song from The Greatest Showman played in the Atrium. I know a few people tagged me in to that other thread with someone on this same cruise who thought the food was ‘inedible’, the crew ‘rude’, and the ship ‘dirty’, but that certainly hasn’t been my experience. I think barring extraordinary circumstances, you set the tone for your own cruise. There have certainly been a few things that have annoyed me, but honestly it’s usually other passengers’ behaviour rather than anything that the cruise line can control. 🤣 But speaking of things that are within the cruise ship’s control that annoy me: it’s total ******** that NCL branded merchandise in the photo gallery doesn’t get the same Latitudes discount that it would get if it were sold in the main shop. I didn’t see any Christmas ornaments in the main shop, but spotted this one in the photo gallery. Why should it not qualify for the discount?!?! And while I’m in a complainy mood: If the shops are set to close at 7pm, they should not already be closed at 6:51pm. 😡

Good morning from the very grey and choppy Mediterranean. I slept in a bit (yay sleeping pills), and was very happy to see the swelling in my feet had gone down, also the bruises developing are pretty epic. 😂 I headed down for Starbucks and a final Eggs Benny. Yum. After breakfast, I popped up to the pool deck to check the weather, but it was cold and windy (even compared to earlier in the cruise), so I gave up on my plans to sit out with my laptop and a BBC. Instead I headed to the Atrium for a Miami Vice and some music trivia. Headed to Taste for lunch. The mushroom soup was really good, as was the monte cristo sandwich and the tiramisu. During our meal, the entire dining room would shudder and make unusual noises as big waves hit us. I’ve cruised in rough seas before, but never heard anything like that. After lunch, I went back to my cabin for some organization and pre-packing. Random observations Do boomers know who DJ Khaled is? That seemed like an unfair musical celebrity to have to name. Apparently the progressive trivia team that I joined midway for a few sessions finished third, and they found me to give me my certificate and prize. 🏆 But I don’t actually know what the prize is supposed to be? Tell me!

Recapping yesterday in Alicante: Woke up, headed to Taste for more Eggs Benny. Then up on deck for my first look at Alicante. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Wish you were here. At 9:45am I met up with some friends and we headed off the ship. First step on land in 10 days? Weird. We made the long walk down the pier, stopping for photos along the way. Walked along the beachfront to the lift up to the Castillo de Santa Barbara. I didn’t track how long we waited, but it was longer than I expected. I thought I read that the lift capacity was 90 people, but I guess that was just for the tunnel? The elevator itself was small, maybe 10 people at a time? We were popped out into one of the castle buildings. We poked around for a few minutes, but really we were here for the views. So gorgeous, and perfect weather. Lots more pictures in my Instagram Stories (erin_braincandy). We stopped at one of the cafes for a ‘glass’ of wine, served in a paper cup because of wind? More people had their paper cup of wine blow over (including on me 🤣; my shorts now smell like a full-bodied red) than would have likely spilled in a heavier glass. At least it was funny. And then what happened next was not so funny, as least to me, although I’m sure it appeared comical to others. On my way to the bathroom, my flip-flop caught on the stone steps and down I went. I hurt a couple toes and my ankle pretty bad, and scraped up my legs and arms. (At the time, I was more embarrassed than hurt, but as the day wore on, it really started to hurt.) Those of you who followed my last semi-live from the Bliss should appreciate the sense of deja vu and irony I was experiencing. 🤣 So anyways, I cleaned myself up in the bathroom and thankfully my friend had a couple of band-aids in her purse, as I had left mine in my cabin. We continued on our way down from the castillo into the city, albeit walking a bit slower. We wandered our way through some beautiful pedestrian streets, until we found El Carrer dels Bolets, aka Mushroom Street. It was so adorable. We stopped at a little restaurant for some tapas and sangria. The food was soooooo good. I wish we had bigger appetites and could have tried more things, but as it was we couldn’t finish it all. After stuffing ourselves, we wandered back to the ship via the lovely esplanada. We got back to the ship around 3:45pm, and my excursion had a meeting time of 4pm. So I hustled up to my cabin, dropped off my shopping bag of souvenirs, re-cleaned and re-Band-Aided my wounds, and hobbled back off the ship to meet my group. I was the last one on the bus and looking forward to just sitting for two hours of ‘Panaoramic Alicante’ sightseeing. But no. 🤣 The bus took us the length of the pier and then parked. We then had to walk ‘5 minutes’ back up the esplanada to a cafe for our complimentary horchata. So I was right back where I had just been. Spanish horchata is made of tiger nuts, and is sweeter than the Mexican style of horchata that I’m more accustomed to. And then the tour guide tells us we have an hour of free time to explore. Like me, most of the group had already been here and explored to their hearts’ content. I guess someone negotiated her down to 45 min, so we had instructions to meet back in this spot at 5:30pm. I was so tired and my feet were really starting to hurt so I went up a block to the Starbucks I had seen earlier and just chilled there for 30 minutes. Finally we reconvened and the guide led us back to the bus. Except the bus wasn’t there so we stood around for a bit waiting. Finally the bus arrived, and we were on our way. The bus portion was… fine. But maybe the tour companies have a different understanding of the word ‘panoramic’ than I do. 🤷‍♀️ I was just glad to not have to walk anymore. We got back to the ship around 7pm (all-aboard was 7:30) and I headed straight back to my room. I was so tired, I didn’t even make it up on deck to watch for pier runners. 🏃‍♂️ And there were a lot of names given when they made the ‘if you’re on board, please contact guest services’ announcement around 7:45pm. I rested and elevated my poor feet for an hour, and then somehow mustered the energy to limp down to the theatre for the finals of Dance Fusion and Superstar Karaoke. And I’m glad I did, it was a fantastic show. And the right contestants won. 🏆 One standout of the show was the entertainment team administrator who was brought out to sing. Amazing voice. And then I headed to bed. Random observations I couldn’t use my Starbucks app at the Alicante Starbucks. And they were out of the caramelized macadamia macchiato, which sounds amazing. If I had paid full price for the ‘Panoramic Alicante’, I might have been upset at what we actually got out of it. But with the FAS discount, it was fine for the price. Apparently you can get a beachfront condo north of Alicante for 200,000 euros? Tempting. Bridge officer Enzo (one of the Dance Fusion judges) looks soooo much like the most recent Bachelor, Joey, that it was really creeping me out. I was telling someone about the themed cruises that are often on NCL ships, and in going through the list, I discovered this cruise that I desperately want to do. 🎄

Last night’s recap… The best plans are always made in hot tubs, and the new friends suggested meeting at the Manhattan Room in time for the Burn the Floor floor show. We juuuust made the first seating cut-off, but unfortunately the layout of the room meant peekaboo views of the dancing from our table. But it was still fun to watch. Dinner was excellent. I had the unphotogenic but delicious lamb kofta, the upcharge surf and turf (too much food for me to finish) and the crème brûlée. After dinner, I headed to the karaoke superstar semi-finals, while my friends went to the Perfect Couple game show. They made the better choice. I don’t know if the audio was off or if there were just too many loud-talkers at the bar, but it was sooo hard to hear the hostess or the singers. And I’ve definitely heard better karaoke performances this cruise than most of the people who made the semi-finals. Once karaoke wrapped, I ducked into Howl at the Moon for a drink and a random yet rousing performance of O Canada. 🇨🇦🤣 (Except she sang the old lyrics.) I then headed in to the Spiegel Tent for the 10pm 80s Broadway revue. In hindsight, I wish I had done that at 8pm. It was very fun, and even this Broadway nerd learned a couple new songs. Awkward venue, though. And then to bed to get ready for Alicante. 🤞 Random observations I’m genuinely surprised that Home for a Rest isn’t up there with Sweet Caroline as a cruise ship karaoke singalong standard. I had no idea that One Night in Bangkok was from Chess: The Musical (written by the ABBA dudes). The shorter of the male featured vocalists could be instantly cast as Elder McKinley in The Book of Mormon. The taller of the male featured vocalists should be cast as General Zod in the Superman: The Musical, a new Broadway extravaganza that one exists in my head… for now. The day 10 MDR menus:

I grabbed a quick lunch in the Garden Cafe, keeping a weather eye for Gibraltar dolphins but didn’t see any. After lunch, I went up to deck something or other to scope out a spot for cruising through the Strait of Gibraltar. The view was a little hazy, but it was neat to see Tangier, Morocco on one side of the ship, and then Spain on the other. The front sun deck of the ship was already crazy crowded, and we had a good hour at least until we were in the Strait proper. Just being up on deck for 20 min or so had me boiling, so I eventually gave up my spot and headed inside. I made it to the Atrium just in time for movie kiss trivia. I got seventeen out of twenty right, but lost by one point. And funnily enough, had to explain why this picture was absolutely, definitely from The Empire Strikes Back and not from Star Wars to the other contestants. After trivia, I headed out on deck 7 to see the views as we passed through the Strait. Hi Gibraltar! And then up to Spice H20 to check out the wake view of the Strait. I closed out the surprise sea day afternoon in the hot tub again. The pool deck was as busy as it has been all cruise. Random observations Although I missed out, other people mentioned seeing dolphins from the ship today. 🐬 Gonna tell my (entirely fictitious) grandchildren that was the Strait of Gibraltar. Meanwhile back in Canada…

The main cabin corridors have the fish that swim from the aft to the bow; it’s just the solo cabin corridors that don’t.

Actually not a fan of smoked salmon, although I’ll eat salmon sashimi or in sushi no problem. My absolute favourite though is the pork belly Eggs Benny at Jam Cafe, about a 10-15 min walk from the Vancouver cruise terminal. (But usually has an hour wait for a table on weekends.)

Woke up at 7:40, and was just brushing my teeth when the PA did the bing-bong tone and the captain came on. Never a good sign. Apparently there were generator issues? So we haven’t been able to go as fast as needed, and the repairs took longer than expected, so we are skipping Gibraltar. Oh well. It happens. (I did notice a heavy officer presence in the Atrium this morning, probably so anyone upset could yell at them instead of the poor guest services staff.) Since I was already up and dressed, I headed to Taste for breakfast. Eggs Benedict makes everything better. After breakfast, I grabbed my laptop and headed up on deck to get some sun in and schoolwork done. Once I finished a quiz (only 95%? Must have been the BBC’s fault.), I went for a swim and then into the hot tub for a good long while. Random observations I don’t think the Brit in the hot tub talking about the Premier League was impressed by my “if it’s not Roy Kent, I don’t know who you’re talking about” comment. Didn’t think a dance mix of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit would ever be good cruise music, and yet… Surprised (or maybe I’m not?) that the in-room TVs don’t have the navigation screen.

Set my alarm AND adjusted for the time change, so I woke up on time to head to my 8am massage appointment. So weird walking across the pool deck while it was still dark. The massage was delightful, and she incorporated their sunburn cream since I apparently got a lot more sun than I thought the day prior. I had a quick breakfast in the buffet, still bitter about the lack of hash browns and eggs benny. And then I decided some hot tub time — avec mimosa — was appropriate. It was super windy but delightful. My shoes only went flying away once. After getting dried off and changed, we went to Taste for lunch. My Asian sliders were good, the caprese salad was a little sad (needed balsamic and riper tomatoes). I should have known better. We hustled over to the theatre just in time for Wheel of Fortune. I had low expectations; I was on the first or second sailing of the Escape when it was introduced and it was just… confusing. But this was okay; I think our cruise director this time had a bit more personality and explained the game better. I ended up winning ‘fastest solve’ for one of the games, winning a little Bluetooth speaker. And then placed fourth overall on the random portion of the game, winning an NCL umbrella. Ooooooh. Aaaaaaah. 🤣 Next I headed to the CruiseNext repositioning cruise presentation. Oh look, more cruises that I shouldn’t book but definitely want to. The CruiseNext presentation went long, so I had to miss the end and hustle over to Headliners for bingo. Alas, my lucky streak did not continue. Didn’t even get to stand up. Took a little post-bingo siesta in my cabin, before venturing out to Maltings for a pre-dinner Eastern Legacy. Was originally planning to join the solo group at Taste for dinner, but the menu wasn’t compelling and I wasn’t particularly hungry, so instead went to not-the-Local for fish and chips. And the raspberry brownie cheesecake. Then to the theatre to grab seats for the magic show. I’d expected more of an illusionist, and this was more card tricks, but it was pretty good. Not the best magic show I’ve seen at sea, but definitely not the worst, either. Then hustled over to the Atrium for the final round of the Dance Fusion qualifiers. Some excellent, enthusiastic performances. 💃 🕺 But a real shame that no one dared to grab a bottle of water and really get into the spirit of Flashdance. And then I headed back to the cabin, to get ready for my busy day in Gibraltar… 🤣 Random observations Maybe you don’t like the Prima, but don’t be a dick and contradict the CruiseNext staff when they’re giving a future cruise presentation in the Atrium. On a related topic, why so many dudes putting their bare feet up on the furniture in the indoor public spaces?!?! Pool deck? Sure. But in the theatre? Day 9 MDR menus: I miss the little fishies that swim forward.

Oh dang, they just cancelled our stop in Gibraltar. Engine problems. Guess I’ve got more time to get caught up on recapping yesterday. 🤣

Sunday evening recap Headed to the martini bar for a pre-dinner cocktail. The rum cake martini is an acceptable substitute for the now-unavailable pistachio martini. Chilled in the Atrium and watched the start of the Salsa dance class. Then up to Teppanyaki. Fun as always. Too much food, as always. Teppanyaki took sooooo long that with a 7:15pm reservation, I still didn’t make my 9:30pm reservation for Burn the Floor before they opened up the standby line. The theatre was completely full, and we ended up standing at the back. It’s an okay performance, but I’d seen it before four years ago. It’s probably time for a refresh. The one dude playing guitar in a face mask was giving me major Fury Road vibes. Or maybe Bane? Random observations Huh, I thought it would take longer than 4 hours to get to Lithuania from Spain. Lines for the 7pm Burn the Floor performance were already looooong at 6pm. 💃 I still wish they’d kept Priscilla Queen of the Desert, or at least replaced it with another Broadway-style show. The day 8 MDR menu for my fellow nerds who track such things: Don’t forget sunscreen! Even if it’s windy and cold! Why do people act so affronted when they’re told that they can’t film or photograph a live theatrical performance?!? “I wasn’t filming, I was trying to turn my phone off!” Sure, dude. And if you are going to break the rules, at least turn your flash off!

Another time change, another morning that I forgot to change my phone time. I slept in until 11am, but thought it was 10am and was confused as to why the buffet and not-the-Local were no longer serving breakfast. Oh well, a BBC is practically breakfast. 🍌 I met some new friends in the hot tub for some Prosecco because they are very good bad influences. We hung out in the hot tub until it was time for the progressive trivia finals. Apparently our team was sitting in third going into the final round. We won’t know who wins until it’s printed in the Freestyle Daily, as the hostess needs to verify the scores. Lots of shenanigans and disagreements. After trivia I went up on deck for an hour or so of soaking up the sun. A little (lot) windy but still nice. Then down back down to the Atrium for more trivia, this time cartoon characters. Time for a siesta and shower before the evening frivolities. Random observations “Who played Ken in the Barbie movie (2023)?” is a very tricky question! Yes, of course Ryan Gosling was the accepted answer, but Simu Liu, Kingsley-Ben Adir, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans and John Cena also played Ken. The pool is open!

Saturday sea day recap, what I remember 😂 Today started a little rough again. I forgot to change the time on my phone last night before bed. So I woke up at 8:40am but oops it’s actually 9:40am and I’ve got a Canvas by U session starting in 20 minutes. No time for coffee. I’ve got no artistic talent, but this was fun. Maybe not exactly how it looked in my head, but decent. After painting, I grabbed a quick breakfast at not the Local, to the melodious sounds of the bowling pins being knocked over and reset. So relaxing. I then returned to my cabin, where my cleans laundry (sent out just yesterday) was ready and waiting for me. I attended the sushi demo in the Atrium, which had me craving sushi, so I immediately canceled my La Cucina reservation for that night and made plans to meet some people at Wasabi instead. I wandered around for a bit, but it was cold and rainy up on deck, even for a Canadian. 🤣 I joined in on the progressive trivia again. My proudest moment was correctly guessing “what animal is in the painting on Rizzo’s bedroom wall in Grease” 🐴 After trivia I headed back to the cabin for some work and rest, before getting ready for dinner. The sushi was really good, almost on par with the good stuff in Vancouver. I used a Platinum coupon, and 8 items easily fed the three of us with more than we could finish. The sake was also delightful. After dinner I grabbed a drink and headed to the Atrium for the second round of Dance Fusion. Then it was back to the Bliss Lounge for more karaoke to close out the evening. For me at least. 🤣 Random observations There was a Code Alpha called around 3pm. First one I’ve heard all cruise. I thought it was hilarious that Dune was the movie playing in Spice H20. Spice is life! I found my first cruise duck of this trip in a stairwell, and rehid it in the Bliss Lounge. Apparently the ship is running out of the ingredients for the off-menu pistachio martini. The bartender warned me this might be my last one. Lots of people brought their cowboy hats on this cruise. 🤠 (Although I’m guessing some are all hat, no cattle.) Hope someone at NCL head office renews the digital charts license…

Catching up on last night… I had a dinner reservation for 5:30pm at Le Bistro. The food was spectacular. The cauliflower veloute in particular was amazing, and the steak surpasses anything I’ve had at Cagneys for the last few years. After dinner, I hustled over to the theatre to join some new friends at the hypnotist show. Not usually my thing, but it was actually pretty funny. Then we headed to the Atrium, grabbing seats on the floor to watch the first round of Dance Fusion, aka Dancing with the Stars but on a cruise ship? It was fun, though I thought the ‘judges’ prattled on a bit too long after each round. The top crew+guest dancing couple from each of three (?) nights moves on to the final in the theatre later in the cruise. Then it was time for me to cash out my bingo winnings from earlier, grab an espresso martini, and head to bed. Random observations Some people get really weird about a woman dining alone.

After a little siesta in my cabin, I headed out looking for a beverage and some shenanigans. I grabbed a mudslide, watched a little bit of the CruiseNext presentation. Then since I still had some time before bingo, I wandered the casino. The Huff n Puff machine called to me, so I loaded the little bit of my $50 free play. After a few misses, I got a $54 win! Immediately cashed out. 🤑 After that win, I headed to bingo for 3:15pm in Headliners. It was a relatively sedate, sleepy crowd. The many time changes kicking our collective butts? But my lucky streak continued and I won the second game! $182USD ain’t nothing to sneeze at. I signed for my winnings and — after getting within one number on the final coverall bingo but losing — I headed back up to Shakers. I was delighted to learn that the off-menu pistachio martini was available. It’s quickly surpassing the espresso martini as my favourite martini on board. Took my delicious martini back to the cabin to enjoy while I got ready for dinner. Random observations Dudes, don’t be gross to women. No low “heyyy” as they walk by. Just no. I know shower beers are a thing, but cruise ship showers should really have a martini glass holder. 🍸 Hey Reba! The jogging track is pretty sad on the Epic. I found the elusive cookies in the casino but they were pretty picked over.