OrcaGirl

Catching up from last night… I was planning to eat in the MDR tonight because usually night five is my favourite of NCL’s rotating menus, but when I swung by Taste earlier to check, there was no short rib ragu on the menu. Oh well. Instead, one of my new friends from the solo group decided to join me in trying Shanghai’s at 7pm. Thanks to @seachelt, I knew to arrive well in advance so I got a buzzer at about 6:15pm and found a perch to wait and people watch. It ended up being a 45 min wait for a table for two, but I was let in before the couple that was right ahead of me in line and the hostess had been telling everyone it was an hour wait, so maybe that’s the Platinum advantage at work? Dinner was… okay. The orange peel beef was the highlight. I had relatively low expectations, and so I was neither disappointed nor delighted. After dinner, we headed to Bliss for the start of the Superstar Karaoke competition. A couple of great performances, a couple of not so great performances. Unfortunately I’m ***** with names so I have no idea which three people won because I couldn’t remember who sang what. 🤣 After the competition portion, I let some new friends drag me to Howling at the Moon duelling pianos, and I’m glad they did! Much funner experience than the last time I attended on an NCL ship. The one woman in particular with the sparkly outfit and make-up was amazing. I stayed up far too late but eventually excused myself and headed to bed. Random observations The Shanghai’s menu on the NCL app is a very pared-down version of what’s actually offered in the restaurant. I wonder if that keeps some people away? My throat got scratchy just from sitting in the casino waiting for a table, with the residual smoke. It said it the dailies that smoking wasn’t allowed in the casino, so it must be just baked into the carpets or something from when it was. It should be against the karaoke competition rules to sing Sweet Caroline. 🤣

It was a little weird standing there while crew folded someone’s underwear! 🤣

After the tour and some coffee, I went to the Local for some French toast with a side of eavesdropping on but not playing the morning trivia. I did some work in my cabin, watched a bit of the cha cha cha dance class in the Atrium, and wandered back to Spice H20 for some wake views. Grabbed a quick bite at the Garden Cafe and ate outside in the sunshine. Interestingly the pool bar couldn’t make me a BBC today, even though they did yesterday. 🤷‍♀️ So I settled for a mudslide. Pool was still closed but I enjoyed watching the water slosh back and forth. During the afternoon, I joined one of the progressive trivia teams as a ringer. My big contributions were knowing the name of Bermuda’s international airport, the name of a crappy George Clooney romcom, that Norway is known as Land of the Midnight Sun, and how many provinces are in Canada. 🇨🇦 Post-trivia I headed back to the cabin to rest; the time changes are kicking my butt, and we’ve got another one tonight. Random observations Apparently there was some drama at the progressive trivia yesterday, and some **** made the trivia hostess cry? I’m definitely picky about poorly designed or just plain wrong trivia questions, but don’t yell at the staff! (Also, the recent degradation of Google search paired with the rise of AI-generated web articles with false information has definite consequences for trivia enthusiasts. Just because something is the top result on Google doesn’t mean it’s true!) What’s the point of having my Do Not Disturb on my door if the steward is just gonna call me (interrupting my nap) to see if I want my room cleaned? People really just don’t wanna believe that Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn. 🦄 🤣 Anyone else see a clown ghost face in the carpet? Or am I hallucinating again? 🤡

I’m planning on eating there tonight and will arrive extra early.

Good to know! Where in the casino and around what time?

One thing I'll add in: be nice to the CruiseNext team. I've heard multiple people get upset that their dinner with the officers or other perk has been scheduled for a night when they already have dinner reservations or conflicted with show reservations. When soooo many people have Platinum and Sapphire and higher status these days, that must be a scheduling nightmare.

Not sure about access via the casino? The line for lunch at Taste stretched past Starbucks and almost to the Atrium screen just before noon, but then quickly disappeared as soon as they opened. Haven’t happened to walk by Shanghai’s in the evening yet.

Waking up in time for the behind the scenes tour was rough this morning with the time change. I ended up leaving my card in my cabin, and had to get it reprinted. I checked in at CruiseNext for the BTS tour, and we headed off shortly after 8:20am. Our leader mentioned that there are 900 Platinum and higher guests this sailing, so they had to book a lot of tours across different days. We had four stops on the tour: galley, provisions, laundry and the theatre. The gallery stop focused on the pastry and bread prep areas. You guys: there were cookies! I could not get a straight answer on why it’s so hard to find cookies on NCL ships anymore, but I sure enjoyed that cookie. And also the chocolate croissant. Then we headed to provisioning. Everyone was shivering in the fruit cold storage, but I loved it. Apparently 15,000 pounds of watermelon were loaded for this sailing. 🍉 Then to the meat locker. 🥶 Half our tour stayed outside, but I’m from northern Canada, it was a lovely temperature for me. Practically balmy. 🤣 Off to the laundry as our third stop. Quite the temperature difference — I’d rather work in the cold food storage, personally. Finally we headed to the theatre. We got to see the Burn the Floor dressing rooms (no photos allowed), and then head up on stage. One person asked the question I was wondering, eg any plans to bring on a proper show to replace Priscilla Queen of the Desert, but of course the stage manager couldn’t say. Which means no. After the tour wrapped I headed straight to Starbucks. Of course. Random observations Of course a few people grumbled about not getting to see the bridge but the Epic does have a bridge viewing area, so… 🤷‍♀️ So disappointed in the loss of Priscilla, Kinky Boots, and especially Six. The Broadway shows are what drew me to NCL in the first place, and I’m sorry but a pay-to-play Wheel of Fortune game show is not an equivalent entertainment experience.

Headed to afternoon karaoke. Slightly more chill vibe but still good. Then to Headliners for the solo meet up. I signed for tonight’s dinner and a Burn the Floor performance for later in the cruise, but then there was an ice-breaker style group activity planned and I hate those with the heat of a thousand suns. But it wasn’t the worst, just breaking the very large solo group into smaller subgroups and then spending one minute talking to each person within your group 1-on-1 before switching. Dinner was good, although still incredibly hard to hear anyone at the table beside the person you’re sitting directly next to. Didn’t grab a picture of my appetizer but the cheesy potato croquettes were delicious. The pork belly was tasty but hard to cut (even with the steak knife) so I left most of it on the plate, sadly. Carrot cake was just okay. After dinner I tried to grab a seat at the Spiegel Tent for the 80s Broadway revue, but it was already full so I headed back to evening karaoke. It was soooooo good. Lots of surprising talents that gave me a good reminder to check my own biases. Young 20-something dude who looks like a jock? Absolutely killed a Celine Dion power ballad. Little old lady with a stroller? Who knew she could rock “Play That Funky Music (White Boy)”?!? It was amazing. Karaoke was followed by the 90s party, but I was tired and had early morning plans compounded by another time change so I headed to bed. Random observations One downside of the solo dining groups is that service takes forever and you will absolutely miss any evening entertainment that requires lining up. I just looooove being mansplained about how travel booking websites work. So fun. 🤣

Interesting, the Encore/Bliss is my baseline as a decent size of atrium for NCL. Although I do prefer the Princess atriums on newer ships.

After completing my course module (Psychosocial Resilience in Disaster Management, super sexy stuff) and probably getting a little sunburn on one side of my body, I dropped off my laptop in the cabin and headed to the Atrium for Destination Trivia. Unfortunately every seat was already full or saved, and it was too warm there to stand. So I headed up one floor and grabbed a seat at O’Sheenan’s along with an Aperol Spritz. I watched but didn’t participate in the trivia, instead using the time to look up an itinerary that someone mentioned to me yesterday than looks super tempting. Of course I’d have to pack like three times the Gravol Ginger. Once that trivia was over, I took a few steps over to the casino to attempt to win the money to pay for that cruise. 😂 Alas, I blew through half of my free slot play in about five minutes. Oh well. Up to the buffet for a quick lunch. The pesto chicken, tempura vegetables and carbonara pizza were fantastic. I got a bit of work done in the afternoon at Maltings, but the table height isn’t conducive to being on a laptop so I eventually retired to the cabin to finish up before getting ready for the evening frivolities. Random observations There are not nearly enough seats in the Atrium for a ship this size. I hate it when random old(er) people give me ***** for having a phone in my hand. You cruise your way. I’ll cruise mine. I miss the Observation Lounge. When new ships are designed, cruise execs should have to shave their legs in a mock-up of the shower, which is mounted on a gimbal that shifts at random intervals. 🪒

Good morning from somewhere northeast of Bermuda and south of Newfoundland. Feeling back to normal today. The ship continued to rock and the solo cabin creaked a lot, so finally I popped in some earplugs around 1am and slept like a baby after that. I woke up sans alarm around 8am, and headed downstairs for a Starbucks and then breakfast at Taste. I was craving an Eggs Benny and it really hit the spot. (But the potatoes are still blah 🤣)… Service was really fast. And I’m glad I went when I did, as the line was pretty long when I was leaving. I popped back to my cabin to grab my laptop and then up to the pool deck. If one must study while on a cruise, you can at least enjoy the sunshine and a BBC while doing it. Random observations Pro tip for future transatlantic cruisers: a little bit of masking tape would probably stop the closet doors and cabinet doors from sliding open and closed all night. I’ve got the standard unlimited wifi package, and the speeds have been fine but unlike past cruises, I can’t access any video services, even slowly or with buffering. I was able to access my online course and complete a quiz, but not play the embedded video links.

I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry but figured a little food was a good thing so I headed up to the buffet and grabbed a hot dog, some fries and green beans. I headed down to the Atrium to catch the 80s Awesome Trivia. My pet peeve is poorly-thought-out trivia, and this was certainly that. It wasn’t as bad as on my last Princess Cruise (Jurassic Park is not an 80s movie!) but it wasn’t super great. After trivia I headed up to Maltings for an Eastern Legacy and ended up having a nice chat with some people about past and future cruises. I eventually excused myself to head to bingo. I had missed the bingo yesterday due to being collapsed in a heap on my bed, but to my surprise they still let me use my free bingo play. Bingo was held in Headliners, with a very different vibe than when it’s held in the theatre. I ended up one number away on the second and third games, but no $$$ for me. After bingo I headed back to the cabin, where the steward was just finishing up making up my room. And the closet door was fixed! Once we was finished, I had the quickest shower ever and got dressed for dinner. I headed down to Headliners for the solo meet and greet, and snagged one of the last spots for the solo group dinner. I think they had about 50 seats reserved for the solo group. Dinner was good and my tablemates were nice, although it was very loud and hard to hear everyone. I missed my 7pm reservation for Burn the Floor so I’ll try to catch it later in the cruise. Instead, once dinner was over I headed to karaoke. 🎤 The highlight was the dude who sang a kick-ass rendition of Sweet Transvestite from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Honourable mention goes to another older dude who rocked Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream. The lowlight was the dude with more enthusiasm than talent who sang one song (very poorly) then — in direct contradiction of the hostess’s instructions that no one could sing twice unless they got through the entire line — signed up a second time under a different name and sang the worst version of Don’t Stop Believin’ I’ve ever heard. Even worse, he had his bare feet up on the table in between his songs. 🤢 And of course, it wouldn’t be cruise ship karaoke if some dude didn’t sing My Way. 🤣 And now it’s time for bed. 😴 Random observations Random person in the elevator on my way to dinner: “Well you look comfy.” I’m going to take that as a compliment? 🤣 My dress does have pockets. I don’t understand these light controls in my cabin. And I won’t even tell you how long it took me to figure out how to turn off the light above the sink. 🤦‍♀️

Day 3 Transatlantic Daily Epic-day3.pdf

Day 2 Transatlantic Daily Epic-day2.pdf

They totally do! 🤣

Good morning from somewhere west of Bermuda. I woke up around 9am (with time change factored in) after a restless night. My solo cabin was creaking LOUD last night. My one working sliding door kept sliding open and banging shut. At one point (I was possibly hallucinating) I could have sworn there were rats scuttling in between the ceiling and the next deck. I got dressed and heading down to deck 7 for a little stroll in the fresh air. Judging by the crew member I saw scrubbing the carpeted stairs, I wasn’t the only one experiencing seasickness. I had a half of a breakfast sandwich at the Local (sorry, O’Sheenan’s). The sandwich was delicious. Breakfast potatoes continue to be disappointing. I swung by Starbucks for a coffee and took it up to deck 15. Enjoyed a good hour watching the pool water splash back and forth. At one point the lifeguard showed up for his shift, looked at the pools and just laughed. 🌊 A little before noon I headed down to Moderno for the Wines of the World event. This is my third cruise as Platinum but first time I’ve made it to the wine tasting. And probably my last? The wines were okay, but I expected more of a sit down event with sommeliers telling us a little something about each wine we were tasting. But this was more: here’s a glass, line up for each wine, rinse and repeat. I bailed after three wines and one breadstick. Random observations No, the ship is not going to reschedule or add more Dinner with the Officers events just because you have a conflicting specialty dining reservation. The gall of some people. Pro tip for people going on future transatlantics: know how to manually change the time on your phone before you sail. ⏰ We lost one hour last night, and I’ve been providing tech support for lots of people already. 🤣 I had a lovely conversation with one of the bar staff in the pool area. I surprised her by using the two or three phrases that I know in Mandarin and it turned into a long conversation about different places in China, the different types of Chinese food, homesickness, seasickness, etc. She wasn’t feeling great herself, but she said just chatting with someone made her feel better. 🥰

During the Q&A they just mentioned that it will be a refurbishment of “all cabins and public decks” but also that plans were still being finalized. It would be amazing if they could update the bathroom but I imagine that might be structurally complicated.

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur. I think I slept for a hour or so, then decided I needed some fresh air. I headed up to the top deck and sat out for a bit. I ordered a mudslide but only had a few sips. The Mr. Sexy Legs competition was starting, but perhaps due to the transatlantic demographic, they had way less signups than on my Bliss cruise in February. Wasn’t feeling hungry, so I skipped lunch and headed back to the room for another nap. I had intentions of getting up for bingo but that didn’t happen. I heard the PA announcement when the solar eclipse started, but just didn’t have the energy to get out of bed. Really sad to have missed that. Finally woke up around 5:30pm when my room steward called to see when he could make up my room. I told him I didn’t need the room cleaned, but requested maintenance to come the next day to fix the closet door if possible. Decided to head up to the buffet for a light dinner of French fries and gingerale. The perfect choice to settle my stomach. Spent a few more minutes up top watching the water splash in the pool, then retired back to my cabin. Random observations The only instruction of the Mr. Sexy Legs competition was that the dudes couldn’t touch the judges; literal every one did anyway. 🤷‍♀️ If anyone reading this is on the Epic and did get photos of the partial eclipse, please share!

Separating this out as a separate post. Scroll on by if you’re squeamish. It’s very gross and TMI. So just as the Q&A was getting down to last questions, my stomach started signaling that I should probably get outside. I made a mad dash for the nearest bathroom or outdoor space, but alas I only got as far as the hallway right outside the Bliss Lounge when my entire breakfast decided to make an appearance. I felt so, so bad about the mess, but at that point there was nothing I could do. I didn’t exactly collapse in a heap of vomit, but not far off. A passerby asked what I needed, and helped flag down a housekeeper to deal with the mess. All I could do at that point was keep saying “Sorry, I’m so sorry” like the Canadian I am, and trying not to fall over. One of the officers from the meet and greet came out at that point, and stopped to check on me. I can’t remember which one, but it was one of the women. She also got on the radio and another housekeeper showed up shortly with those yellow ‘don’t walk here’ stanchion thingies. At this point, I knew the guests from the meet and greet would be all exiting the venue soon, and I just wanted to disappear, so I asked the officer for the nearest bathroom so I could wipe myself down a bit before heading back to my cabin. I was such a mess. In trying to contain the mess and not throw up everywhere (which I still did), I ended up with goo on my hands, shirt and flip-flops. I cleaned up as best as I could, and then made the walk of shame back up to my cabin to shower, brush my teeth and collapse into bed. I also took another Gravol ginger. Guess I’ll be using my free Platinum laundry sooner than planned. Random observations Cheers to the handful of guests who stopped to check on me, ask if I needed an escort to medical or to my cabin, etc. 🥰 Jeers to the one or two people who interrupted the officer who was helping me to ask for directions to various places on the ship. I didn’t think a blue-haired woman literally covered in vomit could be invisible, but they certainly made their best efforts. 🤣 Alas, this little escapade means I won’t be able to post a picture of the card with the officers’ names and contact efforts. It, uh, got a little messy.

Okay, back to yesterday morning before all of the nastiness. The aroma hot therapy massage was blissful. Just perfect. I even sat through the product recommendations hard sell at the end with a smile on my face. (Still didn’t buy anything.) Post-massage, I headed up to the buffet for breakfast, and – in lieu of hash browns or Eggs Benedict, which were nowhere in sight – I had some fruit and a ham-cheese-mushroom omelet. The Garden Café was pretty packed so I headed down the stairs to the extra seating at La Cucina. After breakfast, I headed down for the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. I’m glad I had checked the roll call this morning, because the venue had changed from the Manhattan Room to the Bliss Lounge. There was a great turnout, but… I always thought that the meet and greets are best when they’re about chatting with and getting to know your fellow cruisers, and sometimes a few officers show up. This was really structured more as a “meet and greet with the officers” event. Maybe there was more of the socializing at the end? You know, the part I missed because I was busy tossing my cookies (except without the cookies part) outside in the hallway. But my big issue with the event was how the Q&A with the officers quickly devolved into a ***** session. Perhaps I’m alone in this, but a meet and greet doesn’t seem like the appropriate opportunity to discuss: — Why weren’t my double Latitude points applied that one time on a different ship? — Why wasn’t I offered two side dishes at Cagney’s last night? — Why isn’t the Studio Lounge bigger? — Why wasn’t there a special line for dinner for Sapphire members last night? — Why can’t my free Platinum dinners be noted on the NCL App? — Why am I a new Latitudes member when I cruised with NCL that one time in the early 80s? These are all perfectly reasonable questions to discuss with the appropriate staff member, but bringing them up during a Q&A and putting them on the spot without any of the context just felt… off. (Yes, I understand the irony of bitching about a ***** session.) Or maybe I was just feeling cranky because I was starting to feel the seasickness take hold? Random observations “Country potatoes” are just not as good as hash browns. The general manager (??? The really tall guy) noted that the ship is sailing full with 3,680 passengers this trip, but it’s actually less than last week. (Due to fewer kids and 3rd/4th guests, I presume.) The best moment of the Q&A with the officers is when a first-time cruiser with NCL asked why the Hotel Director referred to the Epic as “unique”; literally 2/3rds of the other attendees just burst out laughing. 🤣 I really miss the Waterfront. I was going to try to be more social on this cruise – I’m an introvert by nature – but I just don’t think it’s gonna happen.

A quick update before I return tomorrow to recap the rest of Monday. I got super seasick today, and (mortifyingly) threw up just outside the entrance to the Bliss while the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet was still taking place. 🤮 Gross and embarrassing. Apologies to everyone who had to walk past on their way out.

Slept like a log. Motion of the ocean was the perfect thing to rock me to sleep. Also the having been awake for like 36+ hours. Woke up about four minutes before my alarm went off. Quickly showered and headed straight to Starbucks for my morning fix. Caffeine acquired, I took a little stroll through the casino, finding the perfect slot machine to play later today. And then to the spa for my massage appointment. Random observations Apparently pre-booking spa treatments isn’t actually pre-booking? A woman was very upset that the days/times she’d booked in advance had changed. Woke up to 9 unread messages from my husband. Was initially concerned until I realized he was recapping last night’s episode of reality show Love in Translation that he watched with my mom back home. 😂 Missed opportunity in the spa to not have the treatment rooms cantilevered over the edge slightly with a SeaWalk-style glass window in the floor under the massage table so you could watch the waves as you get a massage.

Ha, that’s almost exactly what I texted a friend last night.

Day 1 Epic Transatlantic Daily: Epic-Day1.pdf