anonmom

Currently at 5 O'Clock Somewhere, anchored by Grand Cayman. I wasn't going to skip ahead, but Clarense is cracking us up with his custom drinks. Here he is when I said I wanted something tasty but not too sweet:

Here I am with the result, a Running Dummy:

This one is Three Irish Balls:

And here's a Smack on the Ass:

And here's a Sleeping Beauty (literally half Hennessy and half Grand Marnier):

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Hey, I am organizing a pub crawl for our 2/17 cruise. Question, how did you arrange the tray of drinks at the various stops?

 

Thanks,

 

Coach Jim

Here's how I did it: I emailed Ivi Hernandez at SpecialEventsEscape@ncl.com to set up the Meet and Greet and get some related assistance. I'll just include our correspondence here instead of paraphrasing:

Good morning anonmom,

Can I have an estimate on how many guests have signed up for the meeting so that I can set it up? The meeting is usually on the 2nd*day from 12:00pm to 1:00pm.

*

Please see answers below.

*

Regards

Ivi Hernandez* |* Event Coordinator Norwegian Escape

specialeventsescape@ncl.com

800.327.9020 ext.26227|* fax*305.436.4114

*

Norwegian Cruise Line ®

7665 Corporate Center Drive |*Miami FL 33126

From:*Me

[mailto:myemailaddress@gmail.com]*

Sent:*Tuesday, September 19, 2017 2:59 AM

To:*Special Events Escape

Subject:*December 9 Cruise Critic Meet & Greet with Pub Crawl

*

I am organizing the Cruise Critic Meet & Greet for the December 9, 2017 sailing of the Escape. Since we don't know exactly where we are cruising, I would like to get the group excited about some of the things we will encounter *on* the ship.*One big draw with cruising is, of course, the food!*I am hoping*you can send me current menus for the main dining rooms and the specialty restaurants on the Escape to share with our roll call.*I am sorry but we do not have any current menus since the menu changes from week to week. You will have to request this information onboard.

I also want to touch base about the meet and greet schedule and venue. We would like to do a brief Meet & Greet with the ship's officers at noon or later on the first sea day, and then transition into our combined Pub Crawl/Cabin Crawl. This was a very fun event when we did it on the Getaway earlier this year, and this time I would like to work out a schedule of bars with the ship in advance, with a featured drink at each bar, so that the bartenders on duty can be prepared with a batch cocktail.*Can you also send current drink menus for the bars on the Escape to help us decide which bars are "must-sees"?*I am sorry but we do not have any current menus since the menu changes from week to week. You will have to request this information onboard.

*

Thank you so much for your time and assistance,

My Name

Guest #...

Reservation #...

Honestly, I was annoyed that she would just flat out lie. We all know the dinner menus and drink menus don't change every week. I feel like she could have said something like, "We don't guarantee current menus since they are subject to change onboard." And even that seems like laziness to me. Why not just send the most current menus you have and include a disclaimer stating that they are subject to change? I feel like she just didn't want to bother to look the stuff up.

Anyway, once on board, I asked Pamela to help me set up the pub crawl and she referred me to the onboard group services coordinator, Jesse, who referred me to the assistant beverage manager, Anthony. Anthony said NCL no longer sponsors pub crawls because too many accidents. I said we had this pub crawl planned for months and a group of about 30 of us would be arriving at his bars in a predictable order at times that we could at least roughly estimate, and that he could decide whether to help me have a tray of drinks ready at each bar or just have it be total chaos when we got there. He assigned beverage supervisor Marc to go around to the bars right before us so that they could have a heads up as to how many of us there were and what we were drinking. ;)

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Can you let me know if the Mersey Boys show is still onboard?

No, sorry. The theatre shows are After Midnight and For the Record, and the supper club show is something like Flyboys.

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"I can now confirm that priority embarkation is absolutely *not* a guaranteed perk for organizing the Meet and Greet."

 

But there certainly were a few perks I got last time. I believe priority disembarkation was one we got last time....and those chocolate strawberries in the room were awesome! Enjoy the last call before muster!!

Yes, we have gotten a few nice perks. There was an invite to a party in the Haven that we totally meant to go to, priority tendering for Grand Cayman that we would have used except there already was no line when we got down there, the aforementioned chocolate-covered strawberries, etc. We definitely won't use priority disembarkation, since that is just a fancy phrase for "ending your vacation before they drag you kicking and screaming off the ship"

The one really awesome perk we've gotten is a letter from the hotel director, directing us to call his secretary, the always helpful Pamela, if we had any needs whatsoever. She has moved around specialty dining reservations for us, gotten us tickets to Escape the Big Top when we forgot to go to the box office before they sold out, helped connect us with the bar staff to organize our pub/cabin crawl, etc.

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Pre-Muster Last Call was a fabulous success, had a ton of fun and met some great cruisers! Managed to have 2-3 drinks inside me and a fresh one in my hand for the dreaded muster drill. We were assigned to O'Sheehans.

This is what my husband thinks is an appropriate picture of me:

This is what I think is an appropriate muster drill pun:

OK, **** international maritime law, muster is over, back to the District!

And we're sailing away from Miami!

And here's a gratuitous drunken selfie:

Before I wrap up this post, I suppose I should include the all-important "what cameras do I use to capture these special moments in such stunning detail?" section. I prefer the camera attached to my Nexus 5X because 1. It is attached to my phone so I don't have to carry an extra thing. 2. It is literally a part of my phone, so I don't have to pay for an extra thing. 3. It is a relatively good smartphone camera at a very reasonable smartphone price. I know I could get amazing action shots and ultra-macro detail with a stand-alone SLR digicam, but I stopped carrying a second camera about 5 years ago when smartphone cameras started taking good enough pictures.

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R-yan and B-ryce...

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James, Steve, Dan & Lance

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StepheeBee & her hubby have joined us!

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Ok, we're settled in at the District. :) Hope to see you all for the Pre-Muster Last Call! 🍻🍹🍾

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What happened was that you were so prompt in filling it out that you did it before I even realized kids' ages would be a good thing to collect, LOL!

Hi anonmom,

 

How are you?

 

I'm just seeing your post... have been on the Escape since the 2nd... truly apologize... thought I placed requested info on the spreadsheet, when it first came out :(

 

DD is 15 years old

 

See you soon!!

 

Our Meet and Greet has been scheduled at the expected time, so we're all set! Typically, food and beer samples have been provided to Meet & Greets on the Escape this fall, so hopefully we'll get the same treatment. [emoji4] As of noon on December 5, I have 76 adults and 7 kids (6, 9, 10, 10, 13, 15, ? - Txhomeschoolmom, I don't have an age listed for your child)

 

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More lobby art. It is Miami Art Basel right now, so the hotel commissioned some awesome interactive art by Claudio Castillo:

https://www.icmiamihotel.com/art-week-hotel

More us being goofy:

View of the Escape from our room this morning. It's the last ship on the right.

Statue del Gran Libertador!

Memorial statue for the crew of the Challenger:

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I can now confirm that priority embarkation is absolutely *not* a guaranteed perk for organizing the Meet and Greet. We're in the regular line, but it's moving pretty fast.

A few more pics from Bayfront Park and the Freedom Tower:

And the hotel lobby. This statue was commissioned by the InterContinental before it was built, to be an artistic centerpoint for the hotel.

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Hi. My husband and l want to join the m & g and pub crawl tomorrow. We do drink!

Mary Lou and Pat

Great, I just added you! We're getting in a Lyft now. See y'all on board!!

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Hi, new to cruisecritic. How do we find out about the pub crawl...

Here is the final schedule for the Last Call, Meet & Greet, and Pub/Cabin crawl!!

Pre-Muster Last Call (Saturday, December 9, 2 pm, District Brew House)

This is the most casual event, and the shortest. The idea is just to meet a few people, sign up for the District Brew House Leaderboard contest (for those who think they might sample 60+ beers over the course of the week), and to grab that all-important last drink that will sustain us through the muster drill! If you haven't signed up yet, just post here and I'll add you to the list. I'll be updating all of my lists until Last Call.

Meet & Greet (Sunday, December 10, Noon, District Brew House)

Our Meet and Greet has been scheduled at the expected time, so we're all set! Typically, food and beer samples have been provided to Meet & Greets on the Escape this fall, so hopefully we'll get the same treatment. :) If you haven't signed up yet and want to join, just let me know how many adults will be going, how many kids, and the ages of the kids. The event will last 55 minutes, and will be followed by the combined Pub/Cabin Crawl.

Pub/Cabin Crawl (Sunday, December 10, 12:55pm, District Brew House)

This event will start after the Meet & Greet, at the District Brew House. Please order your last drink from the District by 12:55, so that it is in your hand and you are ready to go at 1:00pm. We will tour 7 cabins, from Studios to Suites, and 6 bars. At each bar there will be a sample beverage for the drinkers, with virgin cocktails and refreshments for the kids and sober adults. Please don't think you need to be a big drinker to enjoy this event! Yes, those of us who enjoy imbibing will be partaking in the variety of libations available on the Escape, but it is also about meeting new people, checking out the different cabin categories and locations, and getting some exercise while touring the ship that will be our home for the next 6 days. So if you haven't signed up yet, please let me know how many drinkers will be attending and how many non-drinkers will be attending, so that I can request a tray of drinks at each lounge.

As of 11 am on embarkation day, these are the numbers for all of the events I've organized:

jene1108 is organizing the slot pull and will announce the time for that at tomorrow's Meet & Greet.

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You two are gorgeous.

Following. Have a nice cruise.

Thank you!! :) And thanks to everyone following along!

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Next time we're *embarking* in Miami, lol...

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And then we went to Pollos y Jarras for dinner, which was so tasty that we couldn't stop to take pics of our food before we accidentally ate it...

But here is part of the menu. I can vouch for the fried yuca and the Big Sandwiches. Yum! The chicken is so juicy, just like rotisserie chicken should be. And they have great dipping sauces. The amuse bouche is a tiny bowl of aguadito de pollo, a little spicy for my taste, but delicious nonetheless. We'll definitely be back here next time we embarrassing in Miami.

For drinks, I had the Cevichini 105 and my husband had the Cesar Vallejo, both very good!

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Whoops! Forgot this gem:

Then we walked over to the CVS to buy a couple of things we forgot. CRITICAL THINGS, like floss...

Grrrrrrr, just put too many pics in one post, so splitting this in half...

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Beautiful Bayfront Park is a lovely place to take a stroll, see what ships are in, etc.

We'll definitely stay at the Intercontinental again, if only because there is such a great playground and fun things for kids right by the waterfront, and lots of space to walk around and see the bay, the river, the ships. (We usually cruise with our 6 year old daughter.) We didn't actually take a pic of the playground, because she isn't with us and we're not creepers. But here are a few fun highlights:

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Beautiful room at the Intercontinental. You can see the ships at the dock out the panoramic window:

We went downstairs to Toro Toro for our complimentary cocktail:

I had the Puesta del Sol which was amazing and fruity, but still totally light and refreshing; and my husband got the Age @Grace.

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Leaving MSP:

Trains from MIA were clean, on time, and not crowded./

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I had to install and reinstall the forums app, but I can finally post pictures! That last one was just me at Bayfront Park, right in front of the Intercontinental.

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Test...

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I need to figure out this photo issue! We had drinks at Toro Toro, walked through Bayfront Park, saw the Freedom Tower, ate at Pollo y Jarras, spent some quality honeymoon time in our room and now we're at Area 31 at the Epic.

We're having fun, but I think we're pretty clear on the fact that downtown Miami is just too cool for us...

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