Timsierramist

Just wanted to confirm you can indeed "sneak" water in your luggage. I wouldn't push it, but here is 5 bottles I brought in my luggage that I handed to a porter at the dock. Safe and sound in room 8101.

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Thanks guys! I've dropped a pretty penny on my 3 week vacation, most expensive being this cruise, and I'm happy to save some money here and there.

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Just out of curiosity, and only out of curiousity of course), anybody have any luck "smuggling" the extremely against policy and evil bottle of

Water (or two) in the luggage the you hand to the porters or your carry on?

I heard through the grape vine that RCI doesn't actively enforce you bringing a few bottles of water in your packed bags.

If you must keep the Omerta, I understand.

Thank you.

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Doesn't appear to be on Netflix or included with Prime Video.

You can watch from your PC though.

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Just in case you haven't seen it, as was in my case, I wanted to share this fantastic Oasis of the Seas Documentary.

I'll be sailing both Royal Caribbean and Oasis for the very first time in June. And I'll be hitting the same ports as her maiden voyage.

Documentary by Mighty Ships.

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Out of curiosity, where do you store your photos for sharing now that photobucket is long out of the picture?

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Apologies, looks like photobucket got a little greedy and has stopped hosting photos on another site unless you pay $399 per year.

Needless to say, that's Cruise Vacation money and I cannot just dump 400 bucks on image hosting. My next photo trip review will be on another service, but I'll have to hope these photos helped enough people for now.

I'm hoping 5 ships on the DCL market will bring some of those prices down. As much as I'm a Disney fanatic, I simply haven't been able to fit these cruises in my budget as I generally extend my vacation on both sides of a cruise by a week or two.

After reading his review I was wondering the same thing.

Yep. Just take the buffet food downstairs. It was never closed for breakfast while I was there, and besides embarkation day, I never ate there for lunch.

What a great review!

I found it very interesting particularly because:

1) I was on this sailing

2) It was my first NCL sailing

3) I was in a studio cabin on deck 12 as well

4) I am also a Disney geek and have done nearly all of my cruising on that line

 

I specifically booked this cruise on Epic because Priscilla was the musical onboard.

 

Btw, the Disney Fantasy does not have the Frozen stage musical; that one is exclusive to the Disney Wonder. The Fantasy has Aladdin as a stage musical. And not all of DCL's muster stations are outdoors, there are some that are indoors. I try to choose my stateroom from one of the ones with indoor muster stations.

That is pretty interesting. What an amazing coincidence. Good info on the Disney Cruises. I would probably book a deposit and start putting in for a Disney Cruise if it wasn't for the fact my next major trip is probably going to be London (with a stop over at Disneyland Paris of course).

Thank you!! I made the call and the jet ski tour is sold out! We just booked our cruise two weeks ago so I expected this might happen.

I have really enjoyed your review. Excellent!!!

Ah man. That is very unfortunate. Jet Skiing around blue Bahama islands was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. Hope is not completely lost. I would still call back every few days/visit the excursion desk on the ship and the excursion desk on the island the day of to see if any openings came up as a result of cancellations or if they are reserving some for booking onboard.

Had some requests to open up photos from the cross country trip to Florida from California. Most people would probably shy away from that, especially an introvert like myself, but i'm also a keyboard warrior. So have at it. Enjoy. Plenty of selfies, doubles photos and other unedited pics. All taken with a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. No compromising info in there, except my license plate which is under special confidential status with the DMV, so have at it...

https://goo.gl/photos/RUd278t9wm4oUA5n8

Refer to the map if you are not sure where the pictures were taken. Enjoy.

I believe H2O is only adults only till 6p and then it is open to everyone, makes sense since it is the only outdoor movie screen.

Correct.

That was great to read from a Solo's perspective. I'm going alone in March, and was curious did you ever have any difficulty finding a lounge chair on the deck for 1?

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I never tried by the pool. But I never had an issue finding a lounge chair on the top deck at the very front of the ship or in Spice H20 Club on deck 15 at the very back. That's the other great thing about going solo. You can kinda sneak through crowds at a faster pace since or fit into situations where you couldn't in a group, like a tender or a solo chair, etc.

How did you sign up for the jet ski excursion? I'm not seeing it as a choice on our Feb. 11 Epic sailing!

It should definitely be an excursion option under the Great Stirrup Cay Excursion page when you sign on...unless it sold out! :eek:

I would call the Excursion desk as soon as possible to see. 1.866.625.1167

So from here, the back half of my vacation would take me to New Orleans, a Swamp Tour, The Alamo, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, White Sands National Monument, Tombstone, AZ, Saguaro National Park and finally home.

So final thoughts. Thanks for reading through this far. It really wasn't a bother to post, as I had fun posting. I got something out of it to, including reliving my cruise again.

I know there are negative reviews for Epic. Perhaps my expectations are just not that high yet, as this is only my second cruise and my first was Carnival Imagination. Further, I like big ships. I would rather have to grudgingly decide between two things I really want to do on a ship than open the daily activity planner and realize there is nothing I want to do.

The crowds really were not as bad as I always have heard, and I live in So Cal. So maybe i'm just used to it? Never waited to eat unless it was at Shanghai's. Always found solice in my "private dining room". My studio cabin was more than adequate for my needs. Always had something to do.

So if you are hesitant to press the "buy" button on NCL for Epic, I say don't. You are going to have a good time, if you know what you want to do and you plan for it (book shows before they "sell out").

More than happy to answer questions and comments as I can. But for now, this took up a few days of my time, so it's time to take a brake from the PC. Thanks again for reading this far! Until my next adventure (later in February to Canada).

So there was that $10 discrepancy on my bill from the fin rental on Great Stirrup Cay. But you cruise vets know darn well what Guest Services is like the on debarkation day! Yeah. Keep it NCL. It's a tip for such an amazing cruise. My priority is getting off the ship as fast as humanely possible. Why? I have to make it to New Orleans in a Prius C before bedtime. And those major tornados that ravaged the southeast a week ago are starting to form in the very middle of my route. I had many first on this trip. But one thing I'll make an exception for is a Tornado. So let's move before it's too late.

Last moments onboard

Grabbed an uber and took one last look before riding off into the sunset.

Well, i'm posting here today, so yes. I made it. The turbulence you see in the video is the wind trying to shove my car off the road.

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Main Course: Chicken Parmigiana

Desert menu.

Snickerdoodle Pound Cake for desert.

Tonight's movie at Spice H20 Club was E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. I kid you not, I had not seen this movie for at least 20 years. What a perfect opportunity to enjoy it.

So off to bed. But I did get up early to witness our return to Port. Here we are at Port Canaveral again. We've come full circle, and sadly our cruise has come to an end. The same ships we departed with were here with an added Carnival ship.

Last one off the tender.

Dinner. NO! I'm not putting on pants after a great day in the Bahamas, Manhattan elites! I started Table service with Taste, I'm ending it with Taste.

Finally had the sense to get a snapshot of the menu for the last dinner onboard Norwegian Epic.

I chose two appetizers. First was Cream of Asparagus Soup.

And a very strange "Shrimp & Watermelon Salad". Yes. That si Shrimp, Watermon and Cheese bits you see there! :eek: Just eat everything seperate. It's good...seperate.

It did take awhile to get back on a tender. But that was okay. I was trying to soak in my last day of the cruise and enjoy it.

Finally going aboard.

The Bahamas man...just wow.

What's cool about this tender is they have a foot rinse area just before you get on to get rid of all that sand you no doubt accumulated from shore.

Arriving back to the ship as the sun sets.

I did some last minute browsing of the shops and checked out this old grave that was nearby the line to get back on the ship.

Norwegian Cruise Line placed this plaque here in his honor including what was originally on the headstone since it was hard to read.

Paid my respects and it was a great thing for Norwegian to do. Is there anything worse than being forgotten?

Anyway, here is the line to get on a tender and back on the ship.

Now that is what I call a wheelchair.

It kept me entertained for a good 10 minutes or so. But now I wanted to go back and do some snorkeling to see what else I could find in the lagoon.

So I headed back down the path to Downtown Great Stirrup Cay. The Big City.

I went back out and snorkeled for a good 2-3 hours. Although I had brought my own equipment, I didn't bring my Scuba fins with me. So I rented them. They'll be forced to issue you a life vest, but you are not required to wear it. I don't mind SCUBA BCD's because they deflate easily and let you go down when you want to, but snorkeling vests annoy me having to blow air in them without a tank. So I avoid them when I can because if I see a certain shell or Starfish or other Marine life of interest like a Turtle, I want to go down and be there with it.

Just be warned that if you rent "only fins", they might charge you for the entire rental package even though they do rent "just fins". Make sure you check your statement and get it corrected. $10 gets you a decent way in gas in my little Prius C on my return trip from Florida to California.

So anyways, the sun was setting and the lifeguards finally had to drag me kicking and screaming from the water.

On the walk back, I found this trail veering off to the left of the main road. I knew I had to go on this adventure. It was destiny. But just to make sure I could, I asked our Wave Runner guide. He said it was no problem, so I left the group and went on my hike.

Hardly a hike. The entire trail is probaby 1/10th of a mile. But there is an old well here.

And even some picnicking areas if you are really looking for some solace.

The end of the trail.

More old buildings.

Not sure what to expect on a Wave runner, I left all my stuff in the locker. Camera included. Sorry folks. But I'll detail what I can.

You file down to the dock and are ordered by those who have the most experience on a wave runner. From 10+ to zero. Those with more experience go with the first guide who will go much faster and those with no experience start off slower with another guide.

You sit on the waverunner and they push you off the dock and you are off.

You'll get about 30-45 minutes on the Wave Runner and I can certainly say that this was probably my second favorite thing I did on this trip, behind Stingray City. I had to stop and realize to myself that I actually had a big grin on my face and it was true love from there. I knew then and there I would have to get a Wave Runner sooner or later for personal use.

We did a tour of some of the back islands, including historical prohibition buildings that were still standing from rum runners as well as a stop a good 2-3 miles off shore to a sand bar similar to what we did at Stingray City. There you could get off and do some swimming or snorkeling. Wasn't much sea life around, but guides picked up a few Starfish so you could see them up close.

Finally we came back. I had an absolute blast.

Anyways, back on track before all heck breaks loose, let me get a few more pics in...

I headed back to the excursion desk so I could meet my guide for the Wave Runner tour.

Unless I am mistaken, there is a cell phone tower. T-Mobile was generous enough to provide me 2G connection.

The guide retrieved my group and we walked through the back "countryside" of the island.

On the other side is the Wave Runner dock with all the Wave runners.

You will store all your gear in lockers (and they don't charge you for them). Everything has to be left behind. Backpacks, Sandals, etc. Just bring a camera. Waterproof hopefully. Inside you will watch a short 15 minute video on how to properly operate a Wave Runner. It's very easy. Again, this was another first time opportunity for me, and I was thrilled.