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****Live from the Escape Transatlantic****

SuiteCruiser

By SuiteCruiser,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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SuiteCruiser

SuiteCruiser

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Day -2, -1

 

I know! Not another "live from the Escape transatlantic", but for those that know me, I do "live from" reports on all of my annual transatlantic trips. They're less about the ship, and pictures and more about the fun and antics that we get up to. If you don't want to read long rambling posts, this is not the place for you.

I am in my forties for one last year, married with twin 17 year old boys, who I can't believe will be heading off to college next year. I've been running my own business for 28 years, and October/November is my quiet time, so have done transatlantics for the last 3 years and have another planned for next year.

 

This year we managed to get our entire Ultimate Texas Hold'em table to rebook from last year's cruise, so I see 10 days of laughs, jäger and loudness at the table in my future.

 

I flew to London on Monday night, arrived without incident at 9:30 AM and straight to my hotel to sleep for a few hours. This sounds very straight forward, but, I'm trying to be sneaky, so it was anything but easy.

 

Rewind to end of August and I needed a biopsy, and wouldn't have the results back until after final payment date. Last October, my husband and I had booked ourselves into an 8th deck mini suite with the massive balcony, and had upgraded from the original comp from CAS. We were traveling with our friend Judy who would be in the connecting mini suite and another friend that I had met on the Epic in March was in her own balcony cabin.

 

My husband had just landed a new job, which meant he couldn't cruise, and he was the real reason for the large balcony as he likes to sun while I like to give my money to the casino, so I didn't really need the mini suite any longer, so thought it better to cancel the trip, so I could wait out the results. Judy and Mindi understood that I had to cancel, but we were all bummed. I had introduced them to each other, so that wasn't an issue, but we'd all been looking forward to this time together.

 

This past summer was a huge mess with lots of work stress, family stress with my Dad getting sick and needing to move into a home, my health issues, and many other things at the same time that I won't get into. My results came in and everything was clear, thankfully, so now I had to decide what to do. Part of my work stress for the summer was that our biggest client decided to bring the work back in house, so I was potentially going to have to let one of my staff go. I've never had a point in 28 years of business where I had to let staff go due to lack of work. It was incredibly stressful as the staff member was a single Mom, and was not only an employee, but a friend. One of my other staff was headhunted away and it made the decision much easier, so I was able to save my employee. There was no way I'd be going on my cruise if I had to let her go, so that opened things up for me again.

 

I knew my actual "drop dead" date was October 5th because I'd booked our flights with points in business class Ottawa-London direct and after the 5th, the points wouldn't go back, they would just be available for a future similar trip. I called on the 3rd and cancelled my husband's flight. I called CAS and they comped me an ocean view cabin on the 5th floor. I didn't want to pay anything else, so happily accepted it.I was able to book one night at the Sheraton on points, so the only cost outside of port charges and taxes that I had was a 24£ ticket to Southampton and one night at a hotel there.

 

My son and I had been talking and we thought it might be fun for me to just show up on the ship, and surprise the girls. I wasn't sure I could pull it off, but thought it might be fun to try.

 

Most of it was innocent, carefully worded sentences that meant I didn't have to outright lie. Like I told Judy that I had to call Aeroplan to cancel, which was true, but I only cancelled my husband's ticket. The later it got the more I actually had to lie, which was uncomfortable, but fun too. I told my staff and my family that I was going, and that was it. I didn't want any FB posts of bon voyage to mess with the surprise. I also set Judy and Mindi to "restricted" status, just in case.

 

I have developed a strange new health issue that my doctors are working on, and that is that I can't stand up for long and breathe. It sounds worse than it is, but I just need to sit most of the time and if I need to stand, it needs to be in short bursts. Walking is a bit better than standing, but not much. Apparently my heart rate jumps as soon as I stand. Normally it jumps 10 beats per minute, but mine went up over 30 on the one test I've done. Holter monitor and echocardiogram are in my future, but for now, I need to be careful.

 

Monday night, smooth flight over the pond, even though I knew that Judy's flight was arriving within twenty minutes of mine. I had visions of hiding out at a random gate and letting my breathing come back, and maybe watch Judy walk by.

 

Well...we arrived and needed to go through customs, of course, so no gates or seats along the way. It was a bit of a hike, but I had a fast pass and was relieved that there was no line when I got there. Afterwards, it hit me that Judy would be coming through here, and exiting to meet up with Mindi to catch the bus to Southampton. As the door opened, I looked quickly and no sign of Mindi. Phew. Onto baggage claim and I see Judy's flight and mine are sharing a baggage carousel. Yikes. Saw my bag, grabbed it and headed out for a taxi. At this point I looked like I'd run a marathon, as I couldn't breathe, but happily sat in a taxi to the hotel, was checked in right away (early) and to sleep. Room service for lunch/dinner at 4:00 and back to sleep for a bit, then wide awake until 6:30 AM, thankfully I had late checkout and slept until 11:00.

 

Taxi back to Heathrow to pick up the 3:00 bus to Southampton. No one on board that I know, means I'm still good.

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SuiteCruiser

SuiteCruiser

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Thank you so much :)

 

Day -1,

 

So I arrived in Southampton and decided to try to find the girls and do the "surprise" so we could board together the next day, get Vibe passes, and have lunch.

 

Judy said in a message that they were going by the group dinner to say hi, so I brushed my hair, changed my shirt and headed out. Apparently the dinner was being held at the Duke of Wellington and it was just across from my hotel and up a street. Fantastic!

 

I crossed the street and saw a cute little pub with a sign "Stop, don't keep walking", but it was called the Pig in the Wall. I kept walking and was met with a wall, like a castle wall, so wasn't sure where to go. Inside it there were flat numbers, but no street names, so I wandered for a bit, in the dark, and thought that if I was mugged, no one knew I was there. I found a more "main" street and decided to turn on my data roaming to see where the heck I was. Set the GPS in the right direction and one block later I see a pub and the sign tells me I'm in the right place :)

 

I go in, look around and don't see anyone I know. Ugghh. Go back outside, and someone tells me I look lost and I asked if there's an upstairs, and sure enough yes. Yay!!! I go back inside, up the hidden staircase and Voila!!....there are 5 people I don't know looking at me. I go back downstairs, see a familiar face and said "have you seen Judy" they said, yes, they were outside and have headed to another pub. Crapola.

Any idea which one? It had the name Pig in it.

 

Back down the hill and there is the pub, telling me not to keep walking, look through the window and Judy, Mindi, Barb and Linda are in there. I stop, sit, catch my breath, and a couple walks in, so I follow, grab a chair next to the girls and say "I've been looking everywhere for you" Judy was gobsmacked :) It was awesome!

 

We had a few pints and then headed across the street to my hotel for some snacks, then a cab home for the girls and a plan to meet at the terminal just after 10:30.

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SuiteCruiser

SuiteCruiser

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Day 1

 

Met at the terminal as planned, and inside we were given boarding #5, asked to sit and they would call us up when they were ready for checkin. #1 was called, then #3 fairly quickly after that, it was our turn and checkin was easy, and done, then sent to the security scanners and onto the ship. We thought it might be a bit of a mess, but was handled very easily.

 

We headed straight to guest services, got in line (well Judy and Mindi did) and got our Vibe passes. We were #26 & 27 out of 75, so they were going pretty quickly, even though the weather will not be good for sunning for at least a few days.

 

Onto lunch at Savour, which was really good, my traditional glass of wine to start the cruise and lots of chit chat. Judy ordered 3 different kinds of wine before finding one that they had in stock. They said they hoped to have it the next day, which I took as they would be restocking while they were in Southampton, but the reality is that they haven't. My regular wine is in stock, but Judy hasn't found any that work for her, which is sad with the UBP.

 

Rob, one of the guys from our UTH table last year arrived, had some dessert, and we all headed down to my cabin to check it out and so I could drop off my suitcase. We get to my door and the keycard won't work. I'm already having trouble breathing at this point and we had to go back up to guest services and get a new key. I reminded them that I had purchased a Vibe pass, to make sure they included the access to my card. Thankfully I had people to wait in line for me.

 

We went to have a drink at Tobacco road and wait for Judy's friend Gavin to arrive. He arrived with no issue, Mindi took my carryon to her room and afterwards, we went to check out her balcony cabin and grab my bag. Her suitcase was already in her room, and this was around 2:30. Back down to 5 and my oceanview cabin and keycard worked, and there was the biggest cabin I've ever seen outside of a suite. Probably 40 ft from the door to the window, same width as a balcony cabin, couch area with it's own TV, curtain to separate the areas, desk, huge bathroom with a bathtub :) It's a family oceanview, and right near the kids club, but there are hardly any kids onboard, so that's not an issue. 3 closets, and another TV near the bed. I'm very pleased with it.

 

From there, up to check out the casino and chatted with a few dealers there to give gaming lessons. We were told the casino was to open around 11:30, which was disappointing. The ship is really nice, it's got that new ship smell and I like the feel of it. It's funny, because I was disappointed with Breakaway, but I really like this ship.

 

Shortly after was muster, which for me was in the atrium, went early to make sure I could get a seat. Plan was to meet at Spice afterwards for sailaway. Checked out Margaritaville which looks great, and onto Spice where there was a sign for a private function, which was a nice touch. Not too many people there, because the weather was pretty cruddy, but had a couple of drinks and chatted with a few people.

 

From there, we walked through the pool area where the big sailaway was going on, and onto Vibe to check it out. My keycard wouldn't work. Uggh. Mindi's would so we went in and looked around. No cabanas on this ship, area looks nice and lots of umbrellas are nice to see. Back to Tobacco Road for another drink and Mindi ran to her room to drop off her jacket. She saw Judy and Gavin in having dinner in Food Republic, I had the chicken terriyaki and the salt and pepper calamari, and both were excellent.

 

Gavin went to chill out and we went to the 5 O'clock Somewhere Bar and watched a band, who were great, and had another drink (take that UBP!) Mindi and I went up to the casino to get her line of credit sorted out and found out they just opened the casino! This was at 10:00 so we had the place to overselves for the first bit. I won a couple of hundred dollars, and had several more drinks (the last one was a killer) and then we went to leave and grab a snack at O'Sheehan's and it was 3:30 AM. We moved the clocks back an hour thankfully!

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