NCL Epic Cruise 7/5 trip report - Day 1

[familyof6cruisin]

Day 1 - embarking Barcelona

We arrived from our hotel via taxi to the terminal at around 1245. The check in took us about a half hour and we were on the ship by 1:30 .

We went to our room and threw down our carry ons. Beautiful view from our balcony. Room was very small but we didn't care. We had a room for 4 and the 2 older boys had an inside stateroom across the hall. We went directly to Taste for lunch.

The kids love the Sherbet for dessert. After a fulfilling lunch we went directly to the pool. There we met up w our 2 older boys who had secured some lounge chairs. The pool was crowded. Kids had fun on the slides. Our 13 son found the sports court and played basketball and soccer for the remainder of the afternoon. I took 12 yr old daughter to sign her up for splash zone. It wasn't open for activities yet but it was smart to sign her up as they weren't crowded and she was able to ask a lot of questions and the counselors seemed to be a lot of fun. She was excited to see all the activities they offered for her age group, the Dolphins 10-12 year olds. I allowed her to have the privilege to sign herself in and out . They printed out her yellow bracelet, she put it on and was now set for the week. We went back to the pool - By then I had made 915 reservations at Taste so although everyone was going in different directions they knew to meet there at 915. Daughter insisted she wanted to go to the splash zone at 8pm for the boys vs girls competition. ( and would miss our dinner ). She grabbed a hot dog by the pool, quickly showered and went to the kids club. I was happy to relax by the pool as it wasn't crowded now but by 815 I had to head back to the room to shower. I think we were still on the U.S. Time as it felt much earlier. The 5 of us enjoyed our dinner together. The kids had stories about the friends they had already met. They were excited bc they met a lot of friends from other countries.

The splash zone club closes at 1030 (you can pay extra for after hours) , daughter checked herself out and met us at the restaurant. She quickly ordered a sorbet for dessert.

After dinner the 4 of us we went up to the pool deck while the 2 older boys went to the bar to have a few drinks . There wasn't too much happening for the younger kids. It was now 1130pm, I was tired and wanted to head back to the room. The 2 kids and dh didn't get back to the room till 1 am. Everybody was wide awake and giggling. The kids talked till about 2 am. Insisting I set the alarm for 900 am Bc daughter planned to meet a friend at the kids club at 10 am and son planned to meet a friend in the sports court.

A few things to mention - we had downloaded the Iconceirge app before the cruise - a great way to reach each other on the ship. We had the drink package for the 4 of us in the balcony room.

[smartpeach]

Thank you for your review. Can't wait to read more!

 

Is it ok for you to post the full dailies?

 

:)

[mfantasia]

As you already said in my very short review, we were in the same cruise. I'm going to read your experiences and compare! It was great.

[familyof6cruisin]

I will try to post the dallies as I did save all of them. It may take me a day or two.

[familyof6cruisin]

We stayed in balcony room 11028 and inside state room 11026 front of ship. I really liked our location as we could easily take the stairs up to the pool on the 15th floor, splash on the 14th floor.

We ate breakfast at garden cafe which is on the 15th floor near the pool. I was surprised to see the crowds. We had to walk around a couple of times until we could find a table. There are windows on all both sides.

After breakfast the 2 younger ones were busy with their new friends so dh and I headed to find posh as we had purchased a one day pass for $15 each. We were happy to find the quiet zone area on our way to posh and planned to sunbath there the rest of the week. The sun beds in posh are very comfortable but we worked hard to move our chairs so that we could be in a little shade. It was very hot and we wanted shade.

 

I took a break from the sun and went shopping on floor 7. It was only around 5 pm yet there were a lot of people dressed very nicely and taking pictures. There were people dressed as if they were heading to a wedding or a prom. I went back to sunbath, we stayed in our bathing suits till much later, as we very relaxed . Our family's idea of a vacation is lounging and trying not to adhere to any time constraints on the ship as we knew our port days would be busy. We passed through the Strait of Bonifacio, with Corsica on one side and Sardinia on the other . Beautiful photos.

 

We all met at Taste again for dinner. We found that the Taste restaurant changed their menu daily -we preferred eating there as opposed to the Manhattan as one of my sons did not want to get too dressed. The males were fine in khaki shorts and nice shirts. I had the chocolate volcano for dessert which was as good as it sounds.

 

We went up to Spice H2O which is at the back of the ship so we had great views. There was always something going on at SpiceH20 and that is where husband and I spent our evenings. We did not see any shows and were happy having a few drinks outside on the top of the ship. Our children were never far from there and they could easily find us. We usually were alone after dinner as the kids usually ran our of dinner to some kind of activity. We seemed to regroup w our kids at around 10:45 ish and then we would all playping pong or the life size chess game. I was very happy that all the kids had fun together.

My husband and I took the 2 younger ones back to the room- I tried to get everyone in bed by 1130 as I knew we had an early start the next day. The 2 older ones went to Bliss. They knew to be ready at 8 am to meet our tour guide.