Semi-Live from the Epic | Transatlantic from Orlando to Rome | April 7 to 19, 2024

[mking8288]

FWIW, the newer Prima & Viva ship's "atrium" triplex re-defined the definition of small (here, when chatting about the Epic's atrium) and not one suitable for sailing in colder climate either, especially when outdoors aren't usable.  

 

Enjoying this TA review, thank you.  Curious as to how the lines are at lunch in the Taste MDR with access via the casino (by French designers, I'm sure) and how crazy the lines are for Shanghai Noodles Restaurant ...  

[OrcaGirl]

Headed to afternoon karaoke. Slightly more chill vibe but still good.

 

Then to Headliners for the solo meet up. I signed for tonight’s dinner and a Burn the Floor performance for later in the cruise, but then there was an ice-breaker style group activity planned and I hate those with the heat of a thousand suns. But it wasn’t the worst, just breaking the very large solo group into smaller subgroups and then spending one minute talking to each person within your group 1-on-1 before switching. 

 

Dinner was good, although still incredibly hard to hear anyone at the table beside the person you’re sitting directly next to.

 

Didn’t grab a picture of my appetizer but the cheesy potato croquettes were delicious. The pork belly was tasty but hard to cut (even with the steak knife) so I left most of it on the plate, sadly. Carrot cake was just okay. 
 

 

 

After dinner I tried to grab a seat at the Spiegel Tent for the 80s Broadway revue, but it was already full so I headed back to evening karaoke.

 

It was soooooo good. Lots of surprising talents that gave me a good reminder to check my own biases. Young 20-something dude who looks like a jock? Absolutely killed a Celine Dion power ballad. Little old lady with a stroller? Who knew she could rock “Play That Funky Music (White Boy)”?!? It was amazing.

 

Karaoke was followed by the 90s party, but I was tired and had early morning plans compounded by another time change so I headed to bed.

 

 

Random observations 

 

One downside of the solo dining groups is that service takes forever and you will absolutely miss any evening entertainment that requires lining up.

 

I just looooove being mansplained about how travel booking websites work. So fun. 🤣

[Mommapadraig]

I love your random observations. Lol

[OrcaGirl]

Waking up in time for the behind the scenes tour was rough this morning with the time change. I ended up leaving my card in my cabin, and had to get it reprinted.

 

I checked in at CruiseNext for the BTS tour, and we headed off shortly after 8:20am. Our leader mentioned that there are 900 Platinum and higher guests this sailing, so they had to book a lot of tours across different days.

 

We had four stops on the tour: galley, provisions, laundry and the theatre.

 

The gallery stop focused on the pastry and bread prep areas. You guys: there were cookies! I could not get a straight answer on why it’s so hard to find cookies on NCL ships anymore, but I sure enjoyed that cookie. And also the chocolate croissant.

 

 

 

 

 

Then we headed to provisioning. Everyone was shivering in the fruit cold storage, but I loved it. Apparently 15,000 pounds of watermelon were loaded for this sailing. 🍉 

 

 

 

 

Then to the meat locker. 🥶 Half our tour stayed outside, but I’m from northern Canada, it was a lovely temperature for me. Practically balmy. 🤣

 

 

 

Off to the laundry as our third stop. Quite the temperature difference — I’d rather work in the cold food storage, personally.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally we headed to the theatre. We got to see the Burn the Floor dressing rooms (no photos allowed), and then head up on stage.

 

 

One person asked the question I was wondering, eg any plans to bring on a proper show to replace Priscilla Queen of the Desert, but of course the stage manager couldn’t say. Which means no.

 

After the tour wrapped I headed straight to Starbucks. Of course.

 

Random observations

 

Of course a few people grumbled about not getting to see the bridge but the Epic does have a bridge viewing area, so… 🤷‍♀️ 

 

So disappointed in the loss of Priscilla, Kinky Boots, and especially Six. The Broadway shows are what drew me to NCL in the first place, and I’m sorry but a pay-to-play Wheel of Fortune game show is not an equivalent entertainment experience.

[OrcaGirl]

12 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Curious as to how the lines are at lunch in the Taste MDR with access via the casino (by French designers, I'm sure) and how crazy the lines are for Shanghai Noodles Restaurant ...  

Not sure about access via the casino? The line for lunch at Taste stretched past Starbucks and almost to the Atrium screen just before noon, but then quickly disappeared as soon as they opened.

 

Haven’t happened to walk by Shanghai’s in the evening yet.

[tsahall01]

I was walking through the casino yesterday (on the Epic as well)—there were cookies available there!!

[seachelt]

3 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

Not sure about access via the casino? The line for lunch at Taste stretched past Starbucks and almost to the Atrium screen just before noon, but then quickly disappeared as soon as they opened.

 

Haven’t happened to walk by Shanghai’s in the evening yet.

We are on this cruise also. Long lineups at Shanghai’s every evening. We stood in line one night, about the third to get a pager, 40 minute wait. Food was quite good, service very quick.

seachelt

 

[OrcaGirl]

2 hours ago, tsahall01 said:

I was walking through the casino yesterday (on the Epic as well)—there were cookies available there!!

Good to know! Where in the casino and around what time?

[OrcaGirl]

2 hours ago, seachelt said:

We are on this cruise also. Long lineups at Shanghai’s every evening. We stood in line one night, about the third to get a pager, 40 minute wait. Food was quite good, service very quick.

seachelt

 

I’m planning on eating there tonight and will arrive extra early.

[detroitlions]

8 minutes ago, OrcaGirl said:

Good to know! Where in the casino and around what time?

The last few cruises and on the Joy a few weeks ago they had a small buffet cart with cookies and sandwiches every night.

[tsahall01]

15 minutes ago, OrcaGirl said:

Good to know! Where in the casino and around what time?

It was mid afternoon at the snack table by the cashiers. In the morning they had pastries

[OrcaGirl]

After the tour and some coffee, I went to the Local for some French toast with a side of eavesdropping on but not playing the morning trivia. 

 

 

I did some work in my cabin, watched a bit of the cha cha cha dance class in the Atrium, and wandered back to Spice H20 for some wake views.

 

 

Grabbed a quick bite at the Garden Cafe and ate outside in the sunshine. Interestingly the pool bar couldn’t make me a BBC today, even though they did yesterday. 🤷‍♀️ So I settled for a mudslide.

 

 

 

Pool was still closed but I enjoyed watching the water slosh back and forth.

 

During the afternoon, I joined one of the progressive trivia teams as a ringer. My big contributions were knowing the name of Bermuda’s international airport, the name of a crappy George Clooney romcom, that Norway is known as Land of the Midnight Sun, and how many provinces are in Canada. 🇨🇦 

 

Post-trivia I headed back to the cabin to rest; the time changes are kicking my butt, and we’ve got another one tonight.

 

 

Random observations

 

Apparently there was some drama at the progressive trivia yesterday, and some **** made the trivia hostess cry? I’m definitely picky about poorly designed or just plain wrong trivia questions, but don’t yell at the staff! (Also, the recent degradation of Google search paired with the rise of AI-generated web articles with false information has definite consequences for trivia enthusiasts. Just because something is the top result on Google doesn’t mean it’s true!)

 

What’s the point of having my Do Not Disturb on my door if the steward is just gonna call me (interrupting my nap) to see if I want my room cleaned? 

 

People really just don’t wanna believe that Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn. 🦄 🤣

 

Anyone else see a clown ghost face in the carpet? Or am I hallucinating again? 🤡 

 

[dmwnc1959]

5 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

Pretty cool picture! Love all of that clean, neatly folded laundry! 🥰

[OrcaGirl]

1 hour ago, dmwnc1959 said:

Pretty cool picture! Love all of that clean, neatly folded laundry! 🥰

It was a little weird standing there while crew folded someone’s underwear! 🤣

[mking8288]

2 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

I’m planning on eating there tonight and will arrive extra early.

Odds are that, given the time zones changed - dinner is done already this evening, somewhere onboard ... if not Shanghai Noodles.  For whatever reasons, it was very popular.  Assuming your Latitudes status is higher at Platinum or above, make use of "priority seating" when you get to the host/ess and asked about it, she acknowledged us - gave us a pager like everyone else that stood around or hangout at the bar nearby for a drink or two, or three ...  Worked for us, as it cut the 30 to 40+ minutes to about half (did this twice) as they don't take reservations and lines started forming 30+ minutes before they open up for dinner.  Pan-fried pot stickers preferred over the steamed ones, spring rolls and the roast pork ("cha siu" noodles soup, as well as the spicy seafood noodles soup were all good ... portions were petite, leaving room for the dessert & green tea ice cream.  

[The Traveling Man]

9 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

there are 900 Platinum and higher guests this sailing

So roughly 1/4 of the passengers are Platinum or above.  Sounds about right for a TA.

[Lisa353]

16 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

After the tour and some coffee, I went to the Local for some French toast with a side of eavesdropping on but not playing the morning trivia. 

 

 

I did some work in my cabin, watched a bit of the cha cha cha dance class in the Atrium, and wandered back to Spice H20 for some wake views.

 

 

Grabbed a quick bite at the Garden Cafe and ate outside in the sunshine. Interestingly the pool bar couldn’t make me a BBC today, even though they did yesterday. 🤷‍♀️ So I settled for a mudslide.

 

 

 

Pool was still closed but I enjoyed watching the water slosh back and forth.

 

During the afternoon, I joined one of the progressive trivia teams as a ringer. My big contributions were knowing the name of Bermuda’s international airport, the name of a crappy George Clooney romcom, that Norway is known as Land of the Midnight Sun, and how many provinces are in Canada. 🇨🇦 

 

Post-trivia I headed back to the cabin to rest; the time changes are kicking my butt, and we’ve got another one tonight.

 

 

Random observations

 

Apparently there was some drama at the progressive trivia yesterday, and some **** made the trivia hostess cry? I’m definitely picky about poorly designed or just plain wrong trivia questions, but don’t yell at the staff! (Also, the recent degradation of Google search paired with the rise of AI-generated web articles with false information has definite consequences for trivia enthusiasts. Just because something is the top result on Google doesn’t mean it’s true!)

 

What’s the point of having my Do Not Disturb on my door if the steward is just gonna call me (interrupting my nap) to see if I want my room cleaned? 

 

People really just don’t wanna believe that Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn. 🦄 🤣

 

Anyone else see a clown ghost face in the carpet? Or am I hallucinating again? 🤡 

 

I am Scottish and can confirm that our national animal is the unicorn.

[Mommapadraig]

Not that I am a pot stirrer…. But we are trying another cruise line in May and this was a breakfast picture posted this morning! 

[OrcaGirl]

Catching up from last night…

 

I was planning to eat in the MDR tonight because usually night five is my favourite of NCL’s rotating menus, but when I swung by Taste earlier to check, there was no short rib ragu on the menu. Oh well. Instead, one of my new friends from the solo group decided to join me in trying Shanghai’s at 7pm. Thanks to @seachelt, I knew to arrive well in advance so I got a buzzer at about 6:15pm and found a perch to wait and people watch.

 

It ended up being a 45 min wait for a table for two, but I was let in before the couple that was right ahead of me in line and the hostess had been telling everyone it was an hour wait, so maybe that’s the Platinum advantage at work?

 

Dinner was… okay. The orange peel beef was the highlight. I had relatively low expectations, and so I was neither disappointed nor delighted.

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we headed to Bliss for the start of the Superstar Karaoke competition. A couple of great performances, a couple of not so great performances. Unfortunately I’m ***** with names so I have no idea which three people won because I couldn’t remember who sang what. 🤣

 

After the competition portion, I let some new friends drag me to Howling at the Moon duelling pianos, and I’m glad they did! Much funner experience than the last time I attended on an NCL ship. The one woman in particular with the sparkly outfit and make-up was amazing.

 

I stayed up far too late but eventually excused myself and headed to bed.

 

 

Random observations

 

The Shanghai’s menu on the NCL app is a very pared-down version of what’s actually offered in the restaurant. I wonder if that keeps some people away?

 

My throat got scratchy just from sitting in the casino waiting for a table, with the residual smoke. It said it the dailies that smoking wasn’t allowed in the casino, so it must be just baked into the carpets or something from when it was. 

 

It should be against the karaoke competition rules to sing Sweet Caroline. 🤣

[OrcaGirl]

Epic transatlantic day 5:

 

Epic-day5.pdf
 

 

Epic transatlantic day 6:

 

Epic-day6.pdf

[cruiseny4life]

32 minutes ago, Mommapadraig said:

Not that I am a pot stirrer…. But we are trying another cruise line in May and this was a breakfast picture posted this morning! 

My heart actually leapt almost out my chest...until I read your pot stirring words! 

[zounds]

I'm enjoying your review and pics very much.  Thank you. We did  the 11 night rd. trip Barcelona yrs. ago on the Epic.

[graphicguy]

1 hour ago, OrcaGirl said:

 

 

It should be against the karaoke competition rules to sing Sweet Caroline. 🤣

Truer words have never been uttered.

[OrcaGirl]

Getting out of bed this morning was a challenge. Remind me to only book transatlantics going the other direction from now on.

 

I woke up around 9:30am, and spent a few minutes getting my laundry bag ready itemized and set out.

 

Really had a hankering for Eggs Benny but had missed Taste’s breakfast hours. So after grabbing my morning iced Americano I popped up to the buffet for a mushroom, onion and cheese omelet. This chef had a very different omelet cooking style than my last one, and it was sooooo good. Silky!

 

 

I ate outside again but there were grey clouds above and looks like it had already rained at some point. The few people up on deck were all bundled up. The pools had been drained and are now cordoned off with yellow caution tape while crews do maintenance.

 

 

I grabbed my laptop and headed to Shakers to get some work done. Was tempted to join the martini tasting, but since I don’t have The Fox here to keep me out of trouble, I declined.

 

 

Wasn’t feeling particularly hungry at lunch time, so I headed back to my cabin to drop off my laptop. An elusive towel animal was waiting for me!

 

 

Random observations 

 

With the consecutive time changes, a lot of people were surprised to be turned away from the Garden Cafe at 10:30am. It does feel like they should keep it open for breakfast a bit later.

 

The NCL app was a little glitchy today. The time didn’t update for a good line while, even after closing and restarting. And later in the afternoon it was taking forever to open, load content, etc.

[OrcaGirl]

After a little siesta in my cabin, I headed out looking for a beverage and some shenanigans.

 

I grabbed a mudslide, watched a little bit of the CruiseNext presentation.

 

 

Then since I still had some time before bingo, I wandered the casino. The Huff n Puff machine called to me, so I loaded the little bit of my $50 free play. After a few misses, I got a $54 win! Immediately cashed out. 🤑

 

 

After that win, I headed to bingo for 3:15pm in Headliners. It was a relatively sedate, sleepy crowd. The many time changes kicking our collective butts?

 

 

But my lucky streak continued and I won the second game! $182USD ain’t nothing to sneeze at.

 

 

 

I signed for my winnings and — after getting within one number on the final coverall bingo but losing — I headed back up to Shakers.

 

I was delighted to learn that the off-menu pistachio martini was available. It’s quickly surpassing the espresso martini as my favourite martini on board. 

 

 

Took my delicious martini back to the cabin to enjoy while I got ready for dinner.

 

 

Random observations

 

Dudes, don’t be gross to women. No low “heyyy” as they walk by. Just no.

 

I know shower beers are a thing, but cruise ship showers should really have a martini glass holder. 🍸 

 

Hey Reba!

 

 

The jogging track is pretty sad on the Epic.

 

 

I found the elusive cookies in the casino but they were pretty picked over.