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Cruising with a cheapskate: Review of NCL Epic 3/31-4/7 2018

drewsmom123

By drewsmom123,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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drewsmom123

drewsmom123

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The Burn the Floor dancers were scheduled to perform in the Manhattan Room at 6:30 (they did it again on Thursday night) so we decided that is what we would do for dinner (it was seafood night in the buffet and I actually regretted this decision). We slept until about 6:15 and had to dress very quickly and head downstairs. There is a dress code at the front door and I think the hostesses were enforcing it. Men- pants and closed toe shoes I don’t remember what it said for women, but I wore a sundress and chacos.

Dionne Theodore was our waitress. For appetizers I had a salad and DH salmon tartar, for dinner I had skirt steak and DH had lasagna, we had dessert. Dinner was good but not great. This was the first time I really over-ate (one of the reasons I like the buffet is that I don’t feel like I have to finish everything on my plate- I try not to be wasteful when building my plate, but if I get full I just don’t finish). The dancers did a great job of course, I am fascinated with dancing, I really wish I could. DH refuses so I don’t get many opportunities to try.

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drewsmom123

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We then headed off to load up on drinks and then to the Levity Comedy show with Mike and Don. Once again we didn’t have tickets and it was quite crowded. We found a couple of seats but they were behind a pole so DH couldn’t see. The comedians were good- I laughed out loud.

We had Priscilla tickets for 10 so we wandered around the ship for a while.

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drewsmom123

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The theatre was pretty full, but not completely for Priscilla. There were several warnings before the show started saying that it was not a child friendly show- it wasn’t. I thought it was very well done- the music was great, the costumes were incredible, and the dancers were amazing. Now I’m going to soapbox for a minute- you can scroll on to day 4 if you would prefer. I do not appreciate NCL pushing an agenda through the entertainment that I have paid for on my vacation. I want to be entertained not taught a lesson. This has nothing to do with the actual message, I would feel this way no matter which side of the issue I stand on. Rant over- I will not acknowledge or respond to any kind of negative comments about my little fit, its my review and you can leave if you want to be negative.

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drewsmom123

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Back to my wonderful vacation- the show was pretty long so we called it day afterwards. Our room was very dark (after I figured out how to turn off the closet light). It was also very quiet. I don’t think I ever heard anyone in the hallway ( actually we didn’t really see anyone out there either- we saw the people in the cabin directly across from us one time- kinda weird) , never heard the neighbors, once or twice we heard what sounded like jumping and running above us but it didn’t last long. So I always slept very good.

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drewsmom123

drewsmom123

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Epic will home port in San Juan when she completes her Nov 2019 Transatlantic crossing, not this year.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

Than you and I apologize for posting misinformation. I can only blame the UBP.. it was 11 o'clock when we went to the meet and greet so I had already had a few.

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drewsmom123

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We both woke up really early (5 am) so we watched a movie while slowly getting ready for the day. We went to the Garden Cafe’ for breakfast- I had french toast and bacon, yum, yum, yum. Then we did some more wondering, eventually making it to the Bridge view on deck 13, it was pretty cool. One very disappointing aspect of this ship is the lack of access to see off the ship. When coming in to port I like to watch from the front of the ship and there really isn’t a good place to do that (it is a restricted view on 18). It turns out that it was ok, the port at Ocho Rios is not much to look at.

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We were scheduled to meet Peat Taylor of Peat Taylor tours 30 minutes after our ship docked. They were calling excursion guests by 7:30. I had arranged to meet my friends at 8 outside of the Manhattan so we could go off together. They let us walk off by 8:10. We walked all the way to the end of the pier and there was Peat waiting right where he said he would. A couple of other families joined us in the van and then we were headed off into town. Peat wasn’t very talkative, he only told us that we would be stopping to change vans according to where we were going. After a short 5 minute drive, the 4 of us and a father and 2 teenage boys from Michigan loaded up in O’Neal’s van and headed out (on the wrong side of the road) into the city. Ocho Rios is a small town of about 6K people, it receives around 76 inches of rain a year and is almost consistently 85 degrees. We drove through town and out into a couple of neighborhoods. The area looked as though building had begun and then abandoned. O’Neal explained that there aren’t any rules about how long it takes to build a house, and the local attitude is it will be finished eventually. So the necessary rooms- kitchen, bath, a bedroom are completed and then they add the rest when they feel like it.

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Our first stop was for Tubing on the Calipso river. We stopped in the middle of a residential area at a small building with a bathroom and a counter. We were given big black tire inner tubes with seats added to the bottom, then Leon and Jerome led us to the river. It was cold and said to be so full of minerals that you would come out looking 10 years younger. We all got in and floated away. Our guides kept us together and away from the banks. They sang songs and answered our questions. It was a beautiful area. The water was swift, but not scary, there were a couple of very small rapids. My waterproof camera decided that it no longer wanted to work so we have no pictures. We learned about breadfruit, jackfruit, and ackee (which is deadly if eaten before it is ripe). We floated by the Bob Marley reggae concert hall (really just a small shed in a clearing). After about 30 minutes we stopped at a riverside stand- souvenirs, hammocks, a rope swing, and red stripe. We hung out there for just a few minutes, no one bought anything even though the old man there said he would have it delivered right to our ship- he could even wait on payment until then. The last 20 minutes was filled with song and relaxing floating. Then back in the van and off on a wild ride.

We headed into the rainforest. O’Neal explained that the further we got from the city, the smaller the roads became. They were not much more that one lane trails in which cars, vans, and full sized busses had to maneuver around each other perched precariously on the edge of a cliff. It was quite the adventure. Our destination was the Blue Hole. It was an unbelievable area of river with waterfalls and deep holes. Once we arrived and squeezed our van into the parking lot, we signed waivers and were given wristbands. We were assigned Tony as our guide. Now I really have a hard time explaining what happened next. It was a sort of organized chaos of a couple thousand people climbing up swift waterways, swinging on rope swings, scaling waterfalls, and jumping off cliffs. The liability insurance in the states would have made it too expensive to visit. It was somewhat crazy, but one of the most beautiful and exciting places I have been. I climbed and jumped with the best of them. One cliff was about 25 feet high, I almost chickened out. Tony did a great job of keeping our little group together and even cut line a couple of times so we didn’t have to wait as long. The guides were fearless and very helpful, they encouraged everyone to participate and even jumped with little people if they were afraid. I think our group really enjoyed themselves!!

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We returned to our van and tried to leave the parking lot, however, there were huge busses coming in and blocking the road. Men appeared out of nowhere and began to work a crazy automobile puzzle to get everyone moving. There were times that the cars were only inches about- one side pressed against a mountain- the other on the edge of the hill.

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Along the road there was a huge pipeline. O’Neal said that it was water diverted to the hydroelectric plant to make power for the city. He said when they close the pipe you can’t be in the river we were just playing in because there was just too much water. The pipe was made entirely of wood, the only metal was in the straps holding it in place. It was pretty incredible.

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