smileygirl_68

You seem to have run dangerously low.

You don't know us...don't judge

We are quenching our insatiable thirst at a local hole.. double danger for £8 incl straws...

I did drop off my thank you card for the restaurant manager. I will be able to scan them at HQ using the Institute's sheet fed scanner.

 

I just realized that we don't have all the bar menus. We probably can't do a pub crawl in order to get them tonight.

 

On the other hand, we're having pasta for dinner and that's highly absorbent.

 

On the third hand, we have to be up for disembarkation tomorrow morning.

 

On the fourth hand, it's not like we have a long flight. We're taking Uber XL to our house.

 

On the fifth hand, we do have to be up for breakfast.

I saw this, and thought of you...

Thanks! Decision made! I just reserved the Dec. 23 trip on the Epic, Studio.

Wahoo! Come join our roll call too. I'm so excited for you, I guarantee you will have the best time. Looking forward to meeting you on board

Norwegian Epic Roll Call - December 23, 2017

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Do it!!! Hope that's enough of a push....Epic is amazing, studios are amazing and being away over Christmas is amazing. This will be my 3rd Christmas on board and each time it's been, well, amazing!!

Is James still alive, haha

 

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We didn't see him! Travelling companion found the show a little tedious (I know!) so we left and went gurning at one of the hotties in Shakers....!!

Loving your review! I have my first solo cruise next September when my daughter heads off to uni. I SO hope you're on it!

Too kind....I am confident that you will have a fantastic time. I remember my first solo trip where I had a conversation with myself upon arrival which went something like this 'ok girl you've got 2 choices, you can either sit in your cabin worrying about going out, or you can grow a pair and just go'. Obvs I took option B, and before you know it I was chugging cafe patron with Canadians in O'Sheehans !

Hi are you able to post the Dailies? Or does anyone have the current ones. We leave on Oct 22nd. from Barcelona. Any help is appreciated.

Are there any ones/things in particular you want to see? Got the dailies, happy to post just want to provide a stellar service and make sure you get what you need

Folks I'm sorry I haven't been Britain's best blogger this trip but most of the highlights have been unpublishable. And really it's hardly been my doing, I can assure you. There have been a number of inappropriate phone calls to our cabin from what can only be described as a s** pest. Imagine the scene, the phone rings, I answer seductively, 'yes?' he asks 'who's this?', I respond 'never mind who this is, who the heck is this?' he says 'it's me' I say 'is this a chat line?' and he seals the deal with 'well, I am lying on my bed'. Then there's been a visit from another pest who came along to try and fix a faulty plug (not an innuendo). Conversation was mostly one sided (his) along the lines of me needing to pull it harder so it would stand up straight.

There has been a meeting with a hideous old boot who blabbed relentlessly about her conquests and I'm not joking when I say that Timpsons (Google it) were demanding their shoe leather back. I asked her if she lived in a retirement castle which went down like a Trump in Korea, but it didn't stop her from asking me to slap the Factor 10 chip fat on her wizened back. I faked a prior engagement and exited stage left, it was beyond my limited gag reflex tolerances. My parting shot was to suggest she spent our Palma day in Magaluf (Google it) and she responded, 'what's that, is there a nudist beach?'....

We've seen some lady of the night action, quite fascinating to observe a quartet of gals and a single homme plus their 'daddy' who has taken control of all their UBP cards, wearing them like a chandelier and dispensing them like candy when the customers fork out the cash.

So after a heavy evening of Mr Worldwides (delicious) and a swiftly avoided invitation to 'hang out on deck 15, I've got some gear in my bag' I've woken up in a hazy blur of grogginess. I am reflecting on solo v companion travel and I will admit I have found the following things a challenge (girls, you'll understand)...

1. What are you wearing tonight? Oh, I'll wear my not dissimilar item too

2. Does this look ok?

3. What are you having to eat? Yeah, I'll have that too

4. What are you having to drink? Yeah, I'll have that too

5. Shimmying through the gap between your friend, the bed and the mirror, stepping over the straighteners to get to the sink and then waiting for someone else to finish getting ready

Much as I adore my wonderful travelling companion and the luxury of a balcony cabin, I would definitely get a solo cabin each next time, so I can indulge my selfish, inconsiderate and intolerant ways and reduce my increasingly loud huffing after the 900th time of being asked 'which floor is O'Sheehans on?'

I ordered it a few years ago then promptly fell asleep with my back against the cabin door. Woke up at 5am with a sore neck and no pizza [emoji15]

 

 

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That really made me boom with laughter....I can just imagine the situation, brilliant!

Loving this review! sounds like you're having a ball! I was on the epic a few weeks and I miss it like mad! have you checked out howl at the moon? James the piano player is hot!!

 

 

 

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Well that's tonight's plans sorted, thanks for the top tip!!! There has been some extensive inappropriate behaviour towards a couple of the crew already so we can add James to our list of crimes and misdemeanours. I will provide an update once we've drooled!

Feel your pain[emoji23][emoji23]as a matter of interest where did you get late night pizza????

 

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You need to order it to your room....a 24/7 pizza button is conveniently hilighted on the phone!

After a little radio silence, the blog has resumed. I know that drinking yourself insensible followed by waking up fully clothed, contact lenses still in situ and being the owner of what can only be described as 'death breath' is nothing to be proud of. So I will not speak of that any further, suffice to say that my lack of blogging COULD be connected to the incident described above. Our japes and capers have continued at pace, and the late night Bliss boys have become our firm friends. I am a big fan of love, and will happily fire my Cupid's Arrow to make love happen for those who may need a little help. So I gave it a whirl to help David in his quest for a certain someone. Despite late night pizza there had been no intimacy between David and the object of his affection. I boldly marched up to his hearts desire and demanded to know if there was any chance of 'it' happening between him and David. There was some coy giggling, a request to know exactly what David had said about him and a definite inclination towards getting to another base. In the interest of decency I will leave that story there, although I will add that we bumped into the object some time later....he was alone and I feel there may be a little playing hard to get going on.

Good morning everyone! Well, yesterday was our sea day, and really there wasn't much to do except hit the bars. It's a chore of course but I forced myself to go along with it just to please my travelling companion. Black Russians were the drink du jour for me....pretty awesome they were. I decided to have my hair cut at the Spa. My regular hairdresser must have been having an off day when I went for my pre cruise snip and it just wasn't right, so I was hoping the Spa team could fix it. I have only compliments about the whole experience, Jenny Scissorhands did a fantastic job and I'm delighted. We dined in Manhatten, and I took the opportunity for more borrowed hat and glasses pictures. We met a group of gorgeous but unavailable boys on their first cruise and they gleefully took my advice that Bliss is the top spot for some male bonding after hours. We bumped in to David this morning who was a little worse for wear despite not picking up any meat from the Bliss market. He's determined to continue his quest though, and we will be watching with interest to see how it all unfolds.

We did the meet and mingle, greet thing today, Bluesmania did a sterling job of bringing us reprobates together and as always it was great to see the crew fraternising with the enemy. The F&B guy, manny, was so right when he said raise any issues now, not at the end of the trip when it's too late to fix it. The serial complainers would probably have complained that they were being forced to complain when NCL said they should, not at a leisurely complaining time of their choosing, it is freestyle after all

First time in a balcony....love it beyond words, I cannot wait to sleep next to the sea. The scripted departure worked, made all the better for remembering my past passenger status gets us a bottle of fizz...thanks NCL!!

Loving the start of your review, and your humor. Just off Epic from Barcelona on Sept. 3rd - hope your cruise is as good as ours was!

You know, I think it might be! I'm definitely a glass always full kinda girl and I'm sure that looking for the good not the bad in everything really adds to the magic of any adventure. So glad you had a fabby trip, hope you're coming back for more!

Well folks. We are on board and the ship is just as beautiful as ever. Whilst waiting for our shuttle we saw an older chap throwing some shapes to the music in his head, I think there was some Shakira and a bit of Steps as his hips did not lie and his phalanges were most certainly reaching for the stars. Good on him I say. We met Vladimir in Shakers, who tried valiantly to explain how the UBP works. I nodded impatiently until I could stand it no longer and pointed at my 'been here before' status on the freestyle card. He soon got the message, whopping up our drinks and announcing 'see you in 5 minutes'....I like him already. My wonderful travelling companion is in awe of the ship and my heart is singing with happiness as I show her around like a proud and occasionally annoying parent. I'm trying not to to wax lyrical about the time this or that or the other happened but I think she is too happy to care.

She's been given strict instructions to make me leave spice and head to our room once they are available. Last night we rehearsed the script as follows..

Me: ooh the cabins are ready

Her: great, let's go

Me: in a minute, let's just have one more drink

Her: that's a good idea, we can take it with us

It seems foolproof, but only time will tell....

We are staying at the Barcelona Airport Hotel. I've stayed here before and it's perfect for a pre cruise stopover. I'd usually fly in on the day of the cruise but the Sunday/Sunday flight prices were insane. It was cheaper to fly a day early and stay in the hotel. There's a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel, first time I stayed I just hopped a cab but this time we decided to try the shuttle. So, after collecting our cases whilst avoiding an odd, swaying chap who appeared to be 'off his face' (and possibly the reason for the dry flight), encountering a local lady who took her dog for a wee in the ladies and another local lady (possibly 'of the night') who beckoned me towards her and muttered something involving a cost of 5 Euro, we followed the map to the shuttle stop. At this point I'll cut to the chase, the map is wrong, you don't head directly out of the lift to the 'parking meeting point' as labelled and clearly visible on exiting the lift. Oh no, you hang a left and go to where all the shuttle buses are. I know this because after waiting 30 minutes, calling the hotel and then deciding a cab (20 Euro minimum fare) was now required we saw the shuttle bus pulling away as we stomped and huffed our way back into the terminal. On arrival at the hotel, my penchant for inappropriate swooning was satisfied by Guillermo (gifted name) at the check in desk. I'm sure he smiled and giggled along as I drooled all over his pristine desk. The hotel offer a shuttle to the pier for 11 Euro, I booked our seats as I've used this service before and it does stop exactly where it says, which is nice. We got to our room, put the Veuve on ice and headed for dinner. Club sandwiches and beer set us up for a heavy night of sleeping, so we returned to our room, chugged half the fizz and saved the rest for a pre breakfast livener.

And here we are, cruise day, the 9th of Seventeenuary....breakfast was great, a buffet full of all you can eat Spanish meat (no sign of Guillermo...) plus fruit, hot food and pastries etc. It's enough to make sure the gap between leaving for the ship and being close to another food source does not become a cause for anxiety. We're off to catch the shuttle to the port now, next stop the ship of dreams!!

The trip to pick up the beautiful Epic in Barcelona started on September 16th, embarkation is on September 17th. I'm writing the date like that to make sure no one thinks my holiday starts on the 9th of Sixteenuary, an erroneous date juxtaposition of the Americanly challenged. I am travelling with my friend this time, I'm hoping my selfish solo ways won't ruin a friendship of some 30 years standing. There has been little of note to report since our arrival at the Airport of the Manchesters...the exec 1903 lounge for above par T3 passajeros was blummin amazin....for example my comment that 'last time I was here they had champagne ' was met with bowing and scraping worthy of a 1920s parlour scene and resulted in an almighty popping of the corks that I barely managed to consume.

Our flight was scheduled for 330pm. Despite no aircraft at the gate, the GBP (Great British Public) did what they do best...queuing.

My fear of flying was once again nowhere to be seen. My travelling companion saw this as a sign that she could sleep off the gallons of fizz we'd consumed before the flight, so I entertained myself by taking unflattering photos

We were shocked to discover there was no alcohol being served on the Vueling flight...I don't know why, but I'm pretty certain it wasn't anything I had done. Although I did receive a note with the bottle of Veuve I bought in duty free

I took note of the word 'advised' and chose not to see it as a challenge on this occasion.

Next up, getting to our hotel, dinner and waking up on cruise morning!

It's a pretty short hop, I've never bothered getting tender tickets for Cannes, just rock up in the Epic theatre when you're ready and they escort you to the tenders

Hi Smileygirl :D. Misself here from Epic in October. Prosecco and wine was going to be my suggestion too ;p. Just about to book my Epic adventure for this year x

Ah how are you?! Well I'm just back from the Epic med today, what a mess it's been, as usual...I'm hoping to do October again as well, in advance of Xmas and new year...shocking eh?

It is with a heavy heart, a distended liver and another lifetime of memories that I prepare to say my final goodbyes to the Epic. Champagne Sarah has presented us with joyous gifts, the hot tub has been hogged for the last time, Caesar (did I mention Caesar, he's H.O.T and very willing to make the arduous trek from spice bar to hot tub repeatedly to quench our insatiable thirst) has dolloped his final screwdriver. We are off to shakers to wave off Mickey (did I mention him? He was treated to a rousing chorus of oh Mickey you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind hey Mickey at every single opportunity) and then to Manhatten to quaff, guffaw and reminisce the night away. Unless there is a 'port to airport' based calamity (I really hope not) then this is 'Glamanda' over and out. Thank you for sharing my trip, and all you lucky souls travelling on Norwegian Epic I hope you have the best time ever...if you don't then there's something wrong with you, fact! xx