OrcaGirl

All Freestyle Dailies: Day 1: Embarkation Day Epic-Day1.pdf Day 2: At sea Epic-day2.pdf Day 3: At sea Epic-day3.pdf Day 4: At sea Epic-day4.pdf Day 5: At sea Epic-day5.pdf Day 6: At sea Epic-day6.pdf Day 7: At sea Epic-day7.pdf Day 8: At sea Epic-day8.pdf Day 9: At sea Epic-Day9.pdf Day 10: Gibraltar but not Original: Epic-day10a.pdf Revised: Epic-day10b.pdf Day 11: Alicante Epic-day11.pdf Day 12: At sea Epic-day12.pdf

There were A LOT of solo travellers on this cruise, and they covered quite the age range. I mostly hung out with a couple of mid-30s, but I'm in my mid-40s. There were lots younger, and lots older.

My flight wasn't until 1pm. I didn't time going through security. It was a bit chaotic but probably only took 15-20 minutes? The biggest hold up was passengers not following instructions on which screening line to get into, and then ignoring the instructions to leave laptops and liquids in your bag BUT put your entire bag in a bin.

I don't know that towel animals are back. Maybe just because I chatted with my room steward in Indonesian? Or because I only had him clean my room like every three days, so he left the animal as a treat when he did?

Wrapping up the end of my travels home. My flight from Rome to Montreal was uneventful, but halfway over the Atlantic, my phone buzzed with a "your flight from Montreal to Vancouver has been cancelled" notification. Boo. I was automatically rebooked onto a later flight, which meant six hours of a layover in Montreal instead of the much-more-reasonable two hours. 😢 I was already feeling the effect of too many time changes, and hunkered down in the Maple Leaf Lounge and binge-watched more Dexter for a few hours. At least the cookies in the lounge were good. The flight back to Vancouver was fine, and I did manage to get a couple of hours sleep, but I was feeling twitchy. Next time, I'm definitely doing the flight to Europe and then taking a transatlantic back to North America. I arrived back in Vancouver just after midnight local time, and -- after having a short but weird Uber ride home with a therapy dog (?!?!) -- I finally made it back to my apartment. A shower and my big bed never felt so good. (So good! So good!)

Made it to FCO in plenty of time for my flight, though not without some misadventures. The train from Civitavecchia to Rome Trastevere was arriving just as I made it to the platform, and I just jumped on. I didn’t even have a chance to look for a ticket booth, and no one asked me for a ticket. Sorry TrenItalia, I owe you one. I turned on the data roaming on my phone to help me navigate and make sure I was going the right way. Which was especially handy on that first leg because there were no ‘the next station is…’ type announcements on that first train. So as we pulled into Rome Trastevere, I knew it was my stop and I stood up and grabbed my bag. Unfortunately, because I am a polite Canadian, I let an older couple I recognized from the cruise ship get into the aisle ahead of me. Big mistake. Big. Huge. 😂 They each had a large suitcase, and when the train stopped and the door opened, they paused right in the doorway while they tried to confirm that it was their stop. I was completely blocked, and despite me asking increasingly urgently to let me pass, they just… didn't. 🤷‍♀️ So yay, I got to take the train an extra stop while trying to figure out on my phone how this might change my route or arrival time to the airport. Fortunately, all’s well that ends well, and I was able to catch the right train at the next station, albeit with a much longer walk between platforms and having to carry my bag up and down a couple of flights of stairs. This time I had enough time to find a ticket booth and pay my €8 fare for the train trip to the airport. I arrived at FCO around 9:20am, so it ended up being just a little over two hours from the port to the airport. I dropped off my bag, went through security, resisted the temptation to buy Italian gin packaged as motor oil, and headed to the Premium Plaza Lounge. A lovely cappuccino, croissant and donut were my breakfast of champions, followed by some blood orange juice and a prosciutto and sun-dried tomato sandwich. Yum. Heading to my gate now. Random observations Looks like everyone still smokes in Italy. An Uber from the port to the airport would have been €170. I’ll have a two-hour layover in Montreal, with time to answer questions about the cruise if you have any.

Buongiorno from Civitavecchia! My alarm went off at 6:30am, and by the time I was brushing my teeth, they were making the call that disembarkation had started. Threw the last few things into my backpack and said goodbye to my adorable little solo cabin. It took a few minutes to get space in an elevator (but nowhere near as bad as that last cruise on the Bliss.) I normally would have hoofed it down the four flights to deck 7, but I didn’t trust my ankle. The dancing last night was a bad idea. Within minutes I was outside, beeping out for the last time and onto the gangway. It was still early so I’m guessing the baggage hall will be more chaotic as more bags are unloaded and more people disembark. There was no customs or immigration to speak of, and I followed the signs to the port to train station shuttle bus. It was six euros, and the shuttles were running every ~20 mins. I think I got on the second shuttle of the day? Some people further back in line would probably be better off taking one of the private vans, who were yelling about it being the same price. 🤷‍♀️ The drive to the station took about 10 min.

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.