mking8288

Back on the ship, the Garden Cafe is closed until 5:30 pm, double doors shut. Great Outdoors have afternoon tea & coffees, cookies, finger sandwiches & burgers, etc. - and, yes, scones (missed those, Joy has them daily in the Observation Lounge.) Looks like inventory of tea & varieties are back up near normal, not necessarily the all premium selections. Time to pull out the 10k mAH USB portable power bank for a turbo boost quickly ... otherwise, it will drop down to under 20% soon & won't get thru this long day.

We're planning to stay out and have early dinner in town here before going back to the ship around 7'ish with all abroad at 7:30 pm for 8 pm sailaway. The 2 sisters decided they've walked enough & didn't feel like hopping on the yellow bus again. Hence, we took a ride back to the ship in a Mercedes Benz ... LOL, just a yellow taxi, probably 30+/- years old S series. Only ship card needed to board the ship again, although we did carry our photo ID. Outside the fence, several venders selling souvenirs - magnet specials at 2 Euro each or 3 for 5.

That seafood paella was so good, just 17 Euro. Ship passengers & crew off-duty on shore leave were in town to spent money. Walked right past a very busy Cafe Funchal. Checking out historic churches & buildings, gift shops & stores along the way.

Place was busy but we didn't come here for pizza and burgers, worth the wait.

Almost, next time - we took the 24 hours 2 for 1 option ... SIL doesn't want to go far with her walking stick. BTW, these available combo tickets are a small fraction of NCL's inflated offer. Saved by walking a 1/3:mile to the nearest stop on the route 👌

Cappuccino - not from Starbucks ... and it's excellent. Resting our tired feet climbing on & off our open air bus 😁 - seafood lunch ordered ... very busy open air cafe restaurant, reasonably priced. Supporting locally owned & operated small businesses whenever we can 👌

This is near yellow bus - stop #4 or #5 near the small Anadia Shopping Mall with a small food court & restrooms ... it's a downhill walk to stroll thru the center of town, as we started to checkout menus - who wants to go to Mickey D or Pizza Hut 3,000 miles from NY ... heck, no.

Scenic yellow bus loop - 2nd batch of photos ... hotel & tourist district on the waterfront along our route This is the scenic rock - hilltop near the port entrance where the bus would stop to drop off pax returning to ships.

Scenic route on the Yellow Hop on Hop off bus - 27 stops loop take close to 2 hours. Part 1 - batch of photos

We are off the Epic, walked 20 minutes over to the Marina & waiting to get on the next Hoo on-off yellow bus route.

Now, we get a solid 5G cellular signal. Shutting down WiFi until tonight 😎

Have a great 15 days on your cruise with dad turning 80, will be following along and we will be home in NY next week while you are at sea. Bon Voyage & safe, healthy and happy cruising, calm seas and great weather. There's no going back, my dad would've been 103 this year ... smiling w mom together at peace as they both are free. Cherish and you'll look back years & decades later with fond memories.

We are at Funchal, Portugal - almost but not docked yet. Good morning 🌄 sunrise coming up shortly - local time 6:55 am

@AtSeaAlways Good observations and nice additions to impressions onboard, we are not spending much time in the buffet and open decks above - with 5 days ahead, will try to check things out. Reasons #17 B - about 3 or 4 blocks from where the Epic was docked, one of the souvenir & gift shop is also kind of a Dollar/Euro convenience store, selling lots of inexpensive products appropriate & needed for cabin living below the pax decks - slippers, hair & personal care products, clothes, underwears, socks, and other essentials - and a full selection of iPhone cases covering probably iP 5's all the way to iPhone 14 ProMax with all the variants and Samsungs' assorted models - these are preferred by crews. I spotted a 220v to 110v adapter plug with an On/Off switch for 2.50 Euro & picked one up for use, never enough of these - fit perfect into the desk/counter with the hidden outlets. Maybe, if we see them for sale in Funchal in the morning while out & about, roaming in town - will pickup several more as gifts for our cruising friends that didn't come along, surely they'll appreciate it at their next cruise.

@PistolPete13 We, too, were surprised at the size - most of it hidden from view - the bigger space is "behind" and further inside, past the Noodles Bar (with seating for less than 20, maybe 15 at most) In one of the two photos, there's 2 smaller private/VIP ? dining room, hidden by the almost closed red curtains, that can seat maybe another 20 to 30, possibly 35 additional) The open kitchen is super busy and hectic both times we ate there, non-stop cook-to-order. Menu choices really isn't much more than the Noodles Bar on the other mega ships. Word of caution, the beef chow fun came out more like beef pad thai, sweet & somehow soggy, neither dry or nothing like hor fun with black bean sauce. Toss a slice of lemon & sprinkle some chopped peanuts, they can call it beef Pad Thai. Part of the challenge is the difficulty of hi-temperature wok cooking, without using & high flame. Rice noodles were used in the early days as chow fun noodles, now they adapted the dry & thin hor fund noodles, but, still come up short. They probably failed to keep some of the better chef from the Joy that was targeting the Chinese/Asian market in 2017-18 when the ship launched initially. Both the spicy seafood noodles soup and the cha siu noodles soup are good & acceptable, the cha siu is closer to Japanese ramen style, minus the rich broth. Bean sprouts and green onions are missing. Spring rolls are edible as are the pan fried pot stickers (steamed ones not as tasty for some reasons) - these are the most reliable comfort food staples for SH onboard ... and we do / will go there for these as an option or alternative. Keep your eyes on TA leaving from or ending at NYC, both this Fall & next April - May, last minutes should and can be found ... there are empty Inside cabins on this sailing.

@meatball_nyc Haven't seen you on this board in a while, all is well & busy ... regards. Any thoughts about planning to and taking a TA in the near future. @The P So, are we getting you to consider taking one of these - do a one-way and fly the other direction ... some saying eastbound is easier. If the price is right, Susan said - just book it and let's go. Maybe, get her to downsize to just a 22" rollerboard & stick to carry-on ... she now sees 23 kg or 44 lbs plus a smaller hand bag/item combined as too heavey - yeah. Anyway, we'll chat about this via email later ... as for the Platinum pin & other materials, maybe it was due to SIL's "silver" tiered - not sure, I'll go back to have a look at the earlier posts. Thus far, we are getting our Sapphire benefits or rewards just fine. @dexddd Want to hear what you ended up doing for your meal. The 12" veg pizza we ordered at La Cucina tonight was excellent & yummy, thin crusted & baked just right - a meal by itself, works for me. Beef tenderoin, medium, cooked almost perfectly. As for the navy ship captain seen on deck of the F-591, Pixel 7 Pro's 30x failed to positively AI ID-d him, going to submit a feedback to Google that their hardware isn't good enough, reasons for them to grant a free upgrade to the newest Pixel 8 Pro coming out soon so that I can field test with user's report. As for the sparkling bubbles, not sure if we can help as I hardly touch that stuff but will see if DW can find out anything ... wait, tomorrow is May 1st and a new month, is it going to be a case of SHTF ?? or NCLH earnings related. Maybe that's one reason that the Epic left 50 crates of what not on the pier, although delivered by tracter-trailers that day, but longshoremen never moved them onto the ship, despite leaving Pier 88 ... 45 minutes later than scheduled.

Q & A time - just finished remotely checking into home security video cameras ... 5 hours behind, still raining & flash flood warning in effect for NY area. A busy day at sea ... didn't want to answer or comment until I get the chance to open the Chromebook, it's almost 11:30 pm ship/Funchal time now - about 70 nm remaining to port, cruising slowly at just 11 knots, felt as if we aren't moving b/c the ocean is super silky smooth, no waves or swell that we can feel on Deck 13 Fwd/Mid ... air temp is about 69 degree F, tomorrow will be about 75 and partly sunny, nice weather. Scheduled to arrive at 8:15 am - good chance we will arrive before 6 or 7 am at the current speed and gangways cleared shortly. Alarm set up for 6:30 am ... breakfast & then get ready, and plan to be outside by no later than 8:45 to 9 and pickup our Hop On Hop Off Yellow Bus at the port after 9:15 am'ish. For a 12 - 13 years old mega ship, she is still, overall speaking, given us impression of a younger big ship, not as fancy with extra bells & whistles like the Joy or Bliss & Encore (not yet sailed on these 2 ... or the Prima) Signs of wear & tear (loose cabinet hinges) can be seen if you look closely, the railings on the balcony are worn & overdue for a fresh coating of varnish or clear coating, spots of rust from exposure to sea salt spray day & night, but nothing serious in terms of safety. We haven't spend time up on Deck 15 AFT / Spice H20, now that we are in warmer weather & ports ahead, will have a closer look & perhaps find a spot on our next/last sea day (after Funchal) to check things out. First impression counts - right - the buffet is not well utilized and organized, tables & chairs including spacing and layout could be better set up and positioning ... seen solo cruisers and sometimes 2 or 3 pax taking up large and larger round booth/table with seating for up to 8 or even 9, 10 - and, such as waste. Results, others cannot find a spot to sit and eat. Clusters and groups of friends traveling turning sections of the busy buffet into their all day club to socialize ... the new buffet hogs, inconsiderate & a few of them with poor manners. Not happy about the limited availability of major shows, tonight is the 2nd repeated sequence of Burn The Floor while the Beatles show was cancelled & postponed to May 2nd. Knowing this is likely when we booked last minute, not upset but disappointed, annoyed a little. Overall, this TA has been good as a whole for what we paid - we aren't going to jump to another line b/c of the shows. Spoke with some of the crew about it - this seemed to be an one-off situation with this TA and the subset of passengers onboard, not a problem before with children & families at higher occupancies. The wait in the MDR is, I feel, a by-product of these unique sub-groups currently onboard, the wait at and for O'Sheehan's aren't bad, usually none or no more than 5 to 10 minutes. Plan C for us in the morning with a port of call, heck - pay that $5.80 ($4.95 + 20%) for hot breakfast room service & get it delivered, solution for a problem that we can evade. @gregluk greg - it's been shortened further for sure, even when compared to what we had this January on the Getaway, i.e. Irish stew (or something like it) as a soup is gone - not even an every day soup like chicken noodles soup, instead it is just one and only - whatever the "soup of the day" is - ask your friendly server ... black beans soup 2 or 3 days ago. We haven't been back but will get the full menu, post update here as a follow-up

It's all about generating extra onboard revenue, whatever it takes. We stopped paying for coffee at Starbucks and cold brew at Dunkins - not going to do that while at sea. My 2 cents, of course 🙊

Atlantic sunset on the Norwegian Epic - 2nd batch of pictures Seas are unbelievably calm and smooth with a light breeze - the angled secret large balcony, helps ...

Sunset on the Atlantic Ocean, nearest to Funchal, 100 nm to our east - pix set 1 of 2

Earlier today at lunch, pork chop in the MDR, a repeated entree was very good, again ... as was the dessert. OMG, tomorrow is going to be Day 10 - time to do 2 more full bags of laundry. Barcelona, we are coming - tours reconfirmed and pickup info outside the cruise terminal emailed to us, going to use WhatsApp on any last minute changes.

We had a very nice Italiano dinner using just 2 dining voucher for 3 of us at La Cucina, plus an extra a la carte order. Service was excellent, food served hot & tasted fine, and portion size adequate, with a great forward view, deck 14 with direct accessible entry instead of down the stairs via the Garden Cafe. There is no minimum per person dining charge when not using a voucher or credit. SIL could just order a soup, salad or pizza, and not obligated to get an entree or secondi

Current selections onboard the Epic using Platinum voucher - subject to actual availabilities

Menu for Shanghai Noodles Restaurant, which is quite spacious with good # of tables & chairs - apparently quite popular, despite it average and at best, IMHO, medicore choices & quality in taste, subjectively, of course ATM, right by the down escalator in the casino - it will also break your $100 and $20 bills. Unlike newly *Away ships, cigarette smoke from the casino apparently not a problem when seated inside Shanghai Restaurant, unless you are near the counter by the Noodles Bar or entrance

This is the first eggs Benedict on this cruise for me as breakfast in the MDR, and the Pretzel egg sandwich roll is one of the 2 specials for today only. We missed the singing pastry parade at breakfast, coming around with the sweet & cute pieces. La Cucina menu on the Epic, we decided to book this instead of Le Bistro that we cancelled earlier. Stay tuned - 6 pm tonight. Tonight's 2 Beatles show cancelled & postponed for a few days, one of the performers said to not feeling well ... Godspeed to him & get better soon. Passing the card room at 10:30 am, there's at least 6 mah jong tables going inside already, and more across in Le Bistro - busier than the casino table games 😆😆😆