Live(ish) Epic Transatlantic April 22-May 7

[depplep]

Beautiful pictures. Exotic and unusual flowers.

[ConnieTact]

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Protest here in Funchal today too. Not sure about what but isn’t that part and parcel of May Day?🤔

 

Will keep our fingers crossed that our visit to Paris will not be too impacted. We should arrive the evening of the 7th and leave for Iceland on the morning of the 13th. 

European countries protesting about austerity measures by governments. A lot were planned for May 1st. 
Glad you got to see the flowers though.

[Va Girl]

Clay,

Happy Birthday!!!!!  I won't mention your young age.  Can't think of a better way to celebrate than being on a cruise.  Have a great day.

[ckre4d]

╔═══════..๑ ƸӜƷ ๑✞ ❤ ✞๑ ƸӜƷ ๑ ...═══════╗

¨*•.¸¸ ✞ ♫♫♫♫♪♪♪♪ ✞ ❤ ✞ ♫♫♫♫♪♪♪♪ ✞ *¨*•.¸.•

./'.

•. .•* Happy Birthday Clay !!♫♫♫♫♪♪♪♪ ✞ ❤ ✞

/.•*•.\

¨*•.¸¸ ✞ ♫♫♫♫♪♪♪♪ ✞ ❤ ✞ ♫♫♫♫♪♪♪♪ ✞ *¨*•.¸.•

╚═══════..๑ ƸӜƷ ๑✞ ❤ ✞๑ ƸӜƷ ๑ ...═══════╝

[like2cruise33]

I am sorry to see that the solo's are meeting at 5:30, I liked it when it was at 6 so you have time to find people for platinum + shared meals. and mingle before rushing off to eat.

Your itinerary is similar to my (2 1/2 year wait)   TA from NY to Rome on the Gem.

 

Anybody check out the lowest weights in the fitness center?

 

Sat. when I returned to NY on the MSC -was the worst rain storm in history. I and my luggage got drenched. Luckily I live there, but flying people must have had disgusting wet clothes when they arrived home. Also flight delays BC of the weather. - way worse then when you left NY. Most did not bring warm clothes' since it was May!!

 

Oh MSC said we were leaving from NY NY many went to Manhattan, I asked what they thought of the Epic. They said - weird that the front was much higher then the rest of the ship.

 

Most days on my cruise the weather was not great. I even had a wading pool on my balcony. There were many 'pot holes' that the ship ran over our first night. You were in the same Atlantic that I was.

 

I hope for smooth seas and warm weather for the rest of you trip.

 

 

[room with a view]

41 minutes ago, like2cruise33 said:

I am sorry to see that the solo's are meeting at 5:30, I liked it when it was at 6 so you have time to find people for platinum + shared meals. and mingle before rushing off to eat.

Your itinerary is similar to my (2 1/2 year wait)   TA from NY to Rome on the Gem.

 

Anybody check out the lowest weights in the fitness center?

 

Sat. when I returned to NY on the MSC -was the worst rain storm in history. I and my luggage got drenched. Luckily I live there, but flying people must have had disgusting wet clothes when they arrived home. Also flight delays BC of the weather. - way worse then when you left NY. Most did not bring warm clothes' since it was May!!

 

Oh MSC said we were leaving from NY NY many went to Manhattan, I asked what they thought of the Epic. They said - weird that the front was much higher then the rest of the ship.

 

Most days on my cruise the weather was not great. I even had a wading pool on my balcony. There were many 'pot holes' that the ship ran over our first night. You were in the same Atlantic that I was.

 

I hope for smooth seas and warm weather for the rest of you trip.

 

 

Thanks for all your posts and information.

[Clay Clayton]

Good Morning from Motril!   We missed Cadiz yesterday due to high winds.  Getting ready to head to Alhambra with Spain Day Tours.  

[Clay Clayton]

Previous Dailies including the original for Cadiz and the revised (black & white).

Edited May 4, 2023 by Clay Clayton

[Clay Clayton]

Today’s daily

[ConnieTact]

4 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Good Morning from Motril!   We missed Cadiz yesterday due to high winds.  Getting ready to head to Alhambra with Spain Day Tours.  

Stunning photo Clay! Wish I was there! 

[Clay Clayton]

Wonderful tour to the Alhambra today!  If you haven’t been you need to add it to your list. I highly recommend a tour guide, otherwise I think you’d easily miss rings and spend twice as long backtracking to see things. 
 

We were off the ship with the ships excursions and because we were as many people we got away from the port before them.  Big crowds at Alhambra but I suspect less than on a weekend or later in the day-folks were arriving as we left. It was a pretty grueling 2.5-3 hours. Lots of steps and rarely time to sit down, but boy was it worth it.  Just amazing! 
 

More pictures over at our Instagram

Edited May 4, 2023 by Clay Clayton

[Clay Clayton]

Awoke this morning to this view!  It’s the island next to Ibiza where we are scheduled to dock at noon.   I suspect we are docking so late as I believe Virgin overnights there so we are moving at half a knot a decade to kill time before we can move to the pier. 

[Clay Clayton]

Here are today’s dailies. NCL is charging $15pp for a roundtrip shuttle ticket into town here and in Palma tomorrow. We think there is a water taxi for 5€ which seems like a better value🤞

Edited May 5, 2023 by Clay Clayton

[Pretty Woman]

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Looking forward to our cruise in July.

Hope you had a great time.

[Clay Clayton]

So glad we didn’t pay @cruise_norwegian $15 for the roundtrip shuttle into/from Ibiza😳 #SeaDayOnLand

[Clay Clayton]

9 hours ago, Pretty Woman said:

Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Looking forward to our cruise in July.

Hope you had a great time.

Stay tuned for my subjective critique….will probably be a week or two after we disembark on May 7th. 

[Clay Clayton]

Disembarkation Instructions arrived with our Daily this evening. Guess we need to start thinking about packing😂

[Clay Clayton]

Good Morning from Palma de Mallorca! Headed out for our free walking tour. 

[Clay Clayton]

Phew! The Free Walking Tour of Palma about killed me but glad we went.
 

This is a beautiful place with so much history.  We took a cab downtown (€15) rather than add an hour to our 2 hour walking tour. The taxi took us around the harbor which has more super yachts, yachts, small yachts, sailboats, dinghys, and rowboats than I have ever seen in one place.

 

The tour took all around the high town near the cathedral and showed us much of the old town and history. The walking wasn’t awful but the standing while learning got to me after a while.
 

After the tour we did not go to the Popeye’s on the main square. 😂Instead, Mike and I shared a HUGE bottle of water and some tapas-bacon wrapped dates, Russian salad with tuna, patatas bravas, and delicious bread served with garlic aioli that seemed to be made with something other than just mayo-yougurt? at a sidewalk cafe.   That refreshed us enough to get to a cab to bring us back to the cruise terminal and then make the long walk back to the ship. 
 

We just finished packing (why does it seem harder to fit it all back in?) and need to start getting ready for dinner. We canceled our second Le Bistro reservations earlier in the week and the only place with availability to use our last meal deal voucher was La Cucina for 5:45.  So we will have an early Italian dinner tonight. Given tomorrow will be a long day, probably not a bad idea to try to get to bed early. 
 

 

[www3traveler]

Thank you for all your wonderful pictures and comments.

 

Prayers for your very long journey home.

[depplep]

Beautiful pictures. Loved this journey.

[LauraAnneC]

Thank you for all the info about the bus into Palma and the queues to get on it. Just wondering if you have an excursion do you have to take the bus too or did the excursion buses pick people up at the ship? I’ll be there later in the year, so I’m curious. Thanks. I’ve really enjoyed reading your reports. 
Safe travels!

[Clay Clayton]

18 hours ago, LauraAnneC said:

Thank you for all the info about the bus into Palma and the queues to get on it. Just wondering if you have an excursion do you have to take the bus too or did the excursion buses pick people up at the ship? I’ll be there later in the year, so I’m curious. Thanks. I’ve really enjoyed reading your reports. 
Safe travels!

The excursion buses picked up at the pier so the lines were only for the $15 roundtrip shuttles.  They didn’t seem to have as big an issue with these at Palma.  But if you can walk 3/4 mile, I think taking a taxi would be more comfortable and convenient and as long as you are two or more, wouldn’t be any more costly. 

[Clay Clayton]

Disembarkation went smoothly.  We did self disembarkation and didn’t have trouble getting an elevator to take us down to deck 6.   We connected here with the other 5 joining us for the transfer I had arranged to the airport.  
 

Do be sure and check your account balance in the morning before leaving the ship.  We checked it before bed and all was correct.  However, this morning, we suddenly had a $44 bar tab added.  Mike attempted to take care of it, alas, the line was too long so we will deal with it when we get home.  😢
 

The only slowdowns leaving were at the top of the escalator down into the terminal and then at immigration.  That went very fast thankfully and we were outside the terminal about 20 minutes after leaving the ship. 
 

This meant we were 30 minutes early for the shuttle.  Of course they turned out to be 30 minutes late and rather than a minivan for 8, we had two taxis.  I’m letting ZipTransfers know I was unhappy with their service.  
 

Good news is we got to the airport and are now enjoying the lounge access we get via PriorityPass which is a perk of one of credit cards.  Best part is, the lounge is across the hall from our gate and has a view of the tarmac!

 

Even with the issues we had, I would recommend pre-arranging transportation, the line for taxis was very long -300 people?  

 

So  another hour here then off to Madrid and we will see how that lounge compares to this one. 

[CCWineLover]

Clay - I've enjoyed following your trip!  Thank you so much.  You and Mike have a wonderful time in Paris!  One of these days our paths will cross on Viking I'm sure.  We disembark in Reykjavik on June 21 and spend several days touring before heading home.  Will let you know how Iceland goes.

Kent