Sailing12Away

They have cookies. So whoever started the rumor that there's no more cookies was wrong. Embarkation was empty, lounge was empty, on the ship as fast as I could walk to it. Checked in at the muster station then up to the room to see friends. No need to go to cruise next to sign up for the latitude rewards, concierge took care of all that for us. No dinner with the officers on this ship. Pre embarkation desk screwed up my dinner reservations, so concierge is trying to fix it. 2nd time in a row so I'm not doing that ever again. Up on the posh deck waiting for the SpaceX launch as we sail away. RCC wonder of the seas just passed us by. That ship is huge. Definitely give them props for that side see through pool, looks nice, but way too many people for my liking. 3 drinks in, but left my phone charging so hubby has those photos. Let the fun begin! VID_20240225_164605.mp4

Hubby had room for dessert, but I was stuffed so took the last few bites of potato to go. In the Uber on our way, but the driver wanted to avoid tolls so it's taking the long way. I didn't realize the hour drive would now become 90+ mins. Grumble grumble. Should be at the port around 2 and hopefully on board by 2:30.

Snuck a taste of some of the cookies from yesterday, then headed to Mrs Potato for a quick lunch. Where are all my hash brown lovers at? Crispy hockey puck, shredded... We sampled the cheese balls and chicken drops, then split a bacon baked potato and carne seca rosti. Amazing. Had to get my potato fix in before hopping on the ship. Have a small container of leftovers that we'll bring with us, ran out of room.

Absolutely! We'll go hunt them down and sneak attack hug them.

Oh, and of course a stop in the Star Wars store to play with light sabers. He already has one at home, so no way I was letting him spend $250 on a second one after that expensive wine earlier. But he can play and nerd out. 🤓 VID_20240224_163525.mp4

Cirque show was just ok. I like more acrobatic stuff, hubby liked the story line more, but it was ok overall. We walked around and grabbed a bunch of snacks, debated about dinner, then just walked back over to the hotel. 12k steps today (my normal is only around half that much), and we were up since 4:45am so we were toast. 5+ hr wait for Gideons, so we went on the virtual queue before the show then were able to get in the smaller 15 min line by the time we got out. The peanut butter iced coffee was with the wait alone, will try a cookie for breakfast tomorrow. Had wanted to grab an Uber and eat somewhere away from Disney but didn't feel like a $25 ride each way. Looked into delivery but the options were somewhat limited. Settled for just a kid chicken tenders and hot dog from the hotel Cafe, we were still stuffed from lunch anyway. Calling it an early night then off to the port tomorrow.

Yup, the mouton-rothschild was my favorite. Guess I have expensive taste after all. Moved on to a more reasonably priced syrah.

@HBCcruiser I think you'll appreciate the wines here. We splurged for the first growth experience. I know they carry the lafite Rothschild on board.

Room was ready so we relaxed a bit before heading out. Wandering through Disney springs and grabbed a quick lunch at the Polite Pig. Great bourbon flights, food was decent. Going to walk and wander and find another bar to top off at before our 5pm show tonight over here. Good bourbon certainly makes dealing with the excessive Disney lovers easier. Going to have to have some of that Blanton's when we get on board. The Stagg was really good too.

Was there anything special happening in the circus tent on board? Years ago they had a dinner show.

Thanks, it was on the list of possible. We saw an Asian place Hawkers that we were considering too. Trying to get something we can't get on the ship for 7 days if possible to mix it up.

Off the plane and in the Uber to the hotel by 10:15. Lines at MCO to fly out of there were insane. Quick stop in the Harry Potter store for a new headband (the one I bought nearly 8 yrs ago is finally wearing down) and on our way to the hotel. NCL reps were there with signs, not sure if there's another ship leaving today.

From the front door of our house to the gate of the plane in 45 mins, and that includes waiting 5 mins to get a spot to hop out of the Uber. JFK was packed, but once you got inside it was fine. Plane is empty, so we have a row of 3 in comfort plus for just the 2 of us. Yeah!

Feel free to chime in as much as you want @CWMixer. All thoughts, opinions, and photos of cute pups are allowed. Finally all packed up (almost forgot the luggage tags that were hanging on the fridge). Hubby waits until the last minute, so had to do some finagling with his gadgets to get the latest software updates installed, games loaded up, and batteries all charged. In the process though of him packing up his messenger bag for the plane he found an envelope from the last trip. Inside was about $400 cash from when we got a refund for unused OBC the last trip. So I'll give you all one guess as to who is holding onto any leftover money after this trip.... Minor setback tonight as we'll be short one companion on our journey Sunday. Between the port fees, drink package, and prepaid gratuities it was over $500 coming back our way, so that's a plus considering we thought there was a chance the refund would be 0. Would still much rather have the full gang, but well life isn't always easy or predictable. Flight is boarding at 6:20am from terminal 4 at JFK, which means a nearly mile long walk to the gate. So definitely getting up earlier than originally planned... need to stop booking Delta if they're going to keep flying out of terminal 4.

Our first NCL trip was on the Epic in a club balcony suite. It was hubby, myself, and my MIL sharing the cabin together. The bathroom situation is a bit unique, but we made it work. If it was just hubby & I there wouldn't be any issue, he's seen my bits and pieces so a shadow of them behind the frosted glass wouldn't be a big deal. With MIL we all wanted to be a bit more modest. But there's a curtain you can draw to separate the bathroom area from the living area. So at night we would pull that curtain and leave the potty light on as a night light, and if anyone needed a tinkle during the night it wouldn't both anyone else. For showering, we just coordinated when we would each shower. So she typically would wait until we were done first, then we would head to the bar while she showered in the room alone. The only concern was if someone wanted a mid day shower, if you come into the room while someone is in the shower you would need to walk past them. Again - it was no big deal, just more of coordinating schedules and such.

We normally don't fly in a day early for same coast trips, but haven't been to Orlando in some time so figured we would take a day or two to ourselves first. Flight prices were insane (or I'm out of touch with reality), so we ended up using credits from my Delta Amex for a one way trip down, and points from my Capital One card for a one way flight back home. We're used to being able to get down to Florida for around $200/pp, but these flights were double-triple that. Looked into heading to Universal for just 1-2 days as we've never been there before. But unless you go for 5+ days, the pricing is insane (I'll just own up to it now I suppose, I've become an old curmudgeon I suppose). $150/pp/day just to get into the park, extra if you wanted to visit more than one park per day (not sure how that would work if you didn't have it as one of the Harry Potter rides takes you from one park to the other), extra if you don't want to spend hours waiting in line, extra extra extra. Worse than the NCL nickel & diming complaints. So if we stayed at a property close to the park and did 2 days with their park hopper thing, it would have cost us over 1K. For 2 days visiting Harry Potter and friends. Pass, I'll go back to England and visit the real Harry Potter studios first at that price. So we peeked at Disney, figuring we could just go visit the new Star Wars stuff. Nope - just as bad. We're not really Disney folks. Love the food & wine festival, and dig the Star Wars stuff... but I'm not dropping a thousand bucks on 2 days there. So we opted for just one day pre cruise, staying at a modest hotel near Disney Springs, and booked tickets for the Disney version of Cirque for the night. https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/drawn-to-life Have a few places in mind for dinner afterwards, but just planning on walking around and vegging most of the day. If all goes well tomorrow we'll be from our front door at home to the gate of the plane in ~40 mins thanks to TSA pre check, and sitting near the hotel pool by 10:30am. Dog is fresh and clean, so time to finish that last minute packing checks and go walk her over to the sitter.

Yup, our cruise was booked the day after bookings opened for the ship, but we didn't sail until a year later. We knew we were paying a premium for the newness and for the specific room we chose. But the value was just not there at all for us. It was more than double what we normally pay for a typical Haven cabin. If we had paid what we normally pay for Haven, it might not have stung so much. But all things combined, it just wasn't a trip we look back at and want to repeat. We want to return to those ports of call - just not on Prima/Viva in September.

All checked in for our flights, packing is mostly done (just need to pack the champagne), and planning on running to the bank for cash for the dog sitter & butler/bartender tips while the dog is getting a last minute bath. She's a beefy 85lb couch potato, hound/pit mix. For GSC we booked the 2br villa at Silver Cove. We've got 14 people so far sharing it, so that certainly helps with the cost. For now we haven't booked an excursion anywhere else, figure we're going to wing it at most places. Amber Cove will be new for us as is GSC, so we may book a last minute something or other there to get away from the port a bit. San Juan we just want to get to Old Town (still not sure which port we're coming in at) and walk around, eating and drinking our way through town. Have a few places that we've bookmarked, so we'll see if that pans out for new snacks to munch on (alcoholic milkshakes with a cookie cup anyone? Drunken Cookies https://www.instagram.com/getdrunken/?hl=en). Upcoming weather: Cape Canaveral GSC Bahamas San Juan (we have an umbrella, and despite being evil at times we will not melt in the rain) St. Thomas Amber Cove DR Sure beats what is expected back home...

Ok kids, the time is here for another adventure on the Epic. This will be our 3rd time sailing on her, but the first time since the renovations that were done during Covid, so we're excited to see the differences. Our friends are staying in the 2br Haven room we had last time, so I'm going to see if I can dig up some of the photos I took from that trip years ago to retake some new ones of the same views for a side-by-side comparison. Between our free wifi minutes and unlimited data when on land (yeah Tmobile), I should be fine for posting updates as we go. But priorities this trip will be confirming the cookie and hash brown situation (I already know about the crispy pucks, they're not even on the menu anymore ), overall food quality in general (going to try a new trick for the wings at O'Sheehans), test how quickly we can run out of certain types of booze (don't worry, we're bringing our own on board as well), soak in a nice tub with some bubbles, and just get away from the NY cold for a few days. Normally our trips are about the itinerary first, and other stuff secondary. But this trip is a bit unique as it's about the people joining us first and foremost. Anything else is fluff and bonus. On our Panama Canal trip we were lucky to be in the Haven for 15 days, and got to sail with an amazing group of people. Even on a 7 day trip you can form some great friendships in a short amount time, so imagine the fun when you get a great group of fellow travelers on a journey twice as long. Two of those couples we met have husbands named Bob, and both of them decided to take another February trip and the timing, pricing, and interest were there where they both booked the same one. UK Bob reached out to me and simply said "NCL Epic, February 25th 2024. Be there, or be square." Hence this trip has been coined internally as the Bob-O-Rama trip. To steal a phrase from another dear 🐀 friend I didn't 'pull the trigger' right away, because we had just gotten off of Prima and weren't too happy with how that went. But I had it added to my spreadsheet and was tracking the prices and # of remaining rooms. After final payment date the prices started to drop a bit and remaining cabins started getting snatched up. When there was just 3 Haven cabins left that I could see online, I called up my PCC and asked her what price she was seeing. She only saw 2 cabins left, and found a bonus 10% off coupon we were eligible for, some free OBC, and her price with taxes & fees was cheaper than what I saw online and was comfortable with so we just went with it. For some things she's great and I'll keep letting her make the booking (I always know my own price going in first though), but other things... not so much. As for external TA's - I'm swearing them all off for good. Don't get me started on the debacle I'm fighting with my upcoming Galapagos trip on Celebrity. The next day I was peeking again and there were different cabins open, so we were able to move to the one we originally wanted on deck 16, and will be next door neighbors with our old cabin with the shortest walk possible to the bar. Priorities baby... We've got another set of friends who were interested in tagging along as well, but they have a more complicated situation at home to juggle than us just finding a dog sitter for a week. By the time they were able to sort all that out, Haven had been sold out for several weeks. We had offered our 2nd bedroom up to them and they're aware that it's on the small side, but the price is right, they'll have access to the Haven, and it's a week of sunshine and fun with friends. So @oteixeira and his wife will be sharing the cabin with us and can chime in on how comfy it is for adults in there. The roll call for this trip has been fairly non-existent, but if anyone else is joining us feel free to add your own commentary and photos as we go.

Design is one thing - where they missed the mark was with the execution. We loved the renderings, we loved the concept, we loved the idea of a large ship but small ship feel. That's not what we felt at all when we were on board. Combine that with the higher price tag for the newness and it doubles down on the negative lingering thoughts. I'm hoping Aqua and beyond tweak some of the simple things that can be easily fixed/improved upon without changing the whole concept, but unless there's a too good to be true price I have no interest in trying Viva just to say I've tried it.

Fingers pointed at me I presume, as I'm one of those notorious 'drunks' hogging the seats in the regular Haven bar. 🙄 We've never had a problem walking up the Haven bar and getting a drink, even when it was 2 people deep. The Prima Haven bar and lounge is just a different experience than the other ships. My biggest gripe with it was that the photo with the xmas tree was the "library" quiet zone. It is literally next to the bar with no walls to block noise, and on our trip we were told in the evening hours there was no loud talking permitted at the bar and no frozen drinks to be made so as not to disturb the guests sleeping below or the guests sitting in the library. Bar itself is large, but not conducive to making friends. A fun part of being in the Haven on the breakaway plus ships is stepping into that lounge/bar area and seeing a ton of people and striking up a conversation. You couldn't do that on Prima - everyone was in their little tiny pockets and closed off, and practically whispering. There's no fun in that to me at all. And what Bird failed to mention about the concierge desk is that when all those fancy seats are filled, it's a massive long line of folks just standing in that peaceful quiet lounge getting grumpy. Our trip was particularly bad the first few days for a number of reasons, and the line was easily 6+ people deep wrapping in front of the couches and chairs in the lounge so that you couldn't sit and chat because there was someone standing in front of you. Need to look at photos when those spaces are actually in use to really see the vibe, not at 6am before anyone wakes up.

It's silly, because you can get a mudslide for free. That's just an alcoholic milkshake, which is even better. So now if we're staying in the Haven I just take that trick and get frozen grasshoppers (thin mint girl scout cookie milkshake), frozen toasted almonds (tastes like the good humor ice cream bars), and anything else they'll make frozen and alcoholic for me.

At Cagneys specifically we've always been allowed to pick 2 sides each. Sometimes I even get a side as an app instead because I until I realized I could get that iceberg wedge salad without all the icky blue cheese I had nothing to pick from (I'm a PITA with food). So I would get 3 sides total, and just get the baked potato to come out as an app. When you get there, just let the wait staff know you're using a dining credit and they'll explain everything to you and let you know how much wiggle room (if any) there is.

It's amusing to me the vastly different opinions some folks have on the traditional dining vs newer freestyle way of doing it. My first cruise was when I was around 8 yrs old with my family. I absolutely hated the fact that there were strangers with us at the table. It was just very odd to me, as they were loud and mean. Granted - I was 8 yrs old. But still.... Even though our most favorite part of cruising is making new friends, I want to still pick and choose who I share a dinner table with. Also don't like having such a strict thing of you must be hungry for dinner at 5:30pm otherwise good luck. Folks who want a set time and the same table and same waiter can easily talk to the maitre'd and request that on day one. For the rest of us, we'll come and go as we please.

Reminds me of our trip to Alaska at the end of August. Little bit of everything. NCL always does the 'all you can fit in a bag' for $29. It's usually in the middle of the cruise, but if you're running low ahead of time, just ask at guest services. They can either let you know when it will be offered, or have in the past honored the sale price ahead of the published sale.