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

[Travelicious]

22 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

Good morning from the very grey and choppy Mediterranean.

 

I slept in a bit (yay sleeping pills), and was very happy to see the swelling in my feet had gone down, also the bruises developing are pretty epic. 😂

 

I headed down for Starbucks and a final Eggs Benny. Yum.

 

 

After breakfast, I popped up to the pool deck to check the weather, but it was cold and windy (even compared to earlier in the cruise), so I gave up on my plans to sit out with my laptop and a BBC.

 

Instead I headed to the Atrium for a Miami Vice and some music trivia.

 

Headed to Taste for lunch. The mushroom soup was really good, as was the monte cristo sandwich and the tiramisu. 

 

 

 

 

During our meal, the entire dining room would shudder and make unusual noises as big waves hit us. I’ve cruised in rough seas before, but never heard anything like that. 

After lunch, I went back to my cabin for some organization and pre-packing. 
 

 

Random observations 

 

Do boomers know who DJ Khaled is? That seemed like an unfair musical celebrity to have to name.

 

Apparently the progressive trivia team that I joined midway for a few sessions finished third, and they found me to give me my certificate and prize. 🏆 

 

 

But I don’t actually know what the prize is supposed to be? Tell me!

 

 

I call it a "thingy."

[Travelicious]

Thanks for sharing!

[graphicguy]

Brava!!!!!!!!

 

Grazie, Molto Bene!

 

 

 

 

[9tee2Sea]

every tour I take, I ALWAYS have a spill on some sort of stairs.  I fell twice in Malaga, coming back down from the Castle.  Fell in Cartagena ( Spain), almost broke my camera.  Have fallen just walking across the street.  I have now learned to try to keep my head from hitting the ground.  And if there are handrails any where close by,  I GRAB onto them.   

[schmoopie17]

Good to hear that Customs/Immigration wasn't a hang-up and you were able to essentially just walk off.

 

You said you arrived at the airport in Rome at 9:20. What time did your flight depart and about how long would you say it took to get through security at the airport?

 

Asking for a friend...(actually asking for myself, since we'll be disembarking in Rome in September and will have a tight window to get from the port to the airport to make our flight.)

 

 

[quillwercruisers]

5 hours ago, GALSews said:

Thanks for documenting your cruise and letting us follow along.

Wishing you uneventful flights. 

We will be in Vancouver in 3 weeks from tomorrow as we'll board the Jewel there on Monday. 

 

Us too!!🙂

[crazycatlady82]

Hello! I was also a solo cruiser on this TA. I don’t disagree with anything you said but figured just threw out some of my random observations…

 

the solo meetup in headliners was not beneficial due to the way it was set up. It was set up with rows of chairs which makes it hard to mingle. Most of the time, we just stuck around in the studio lounge with the bartender, Raymond. (Because you also couldn’t get a drink at headliners!)

 

I had a wonderful time. Only a couple of criticisms: evening meal service in Manhattan took about 2 hrs, and even going past that one night. Also, I had the premium internet package and had significant issues with it the second week. I was working some and it would just cut me off and wouldn’t let me connect. The internet manager was unhelpful and it was my newer Apple products causing the issue.

 

It was difficult losing that hour! Felt like I was going to bed earlier and earlier, but some of us solos met everyday for breakfast. 
 

disembarkation was easy and using the shuttle, I was at the airport by 8:15am for my 12:10pm flight.

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I’m sure we ran into each at some point 🙂

[Rusty Shacklefjord]

18 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

Unfortunately, because I am a polite Canadian, I let an older couple I recognized from the cruise ship get into the aisle ahead of me. Big mistake. Big. Huge. 😂

 

18 hours ago, OrcaGirl said:

. I was completely blocked, and despite me asking increasingly urgently to let me pass, they just…

didn't. 🤷‍♀️ 

 

• Stories like this make me glad I’m an obnoxious American. (Seriously, I’m happy it worked out for you. What else could you? Besides screaming like a lunatic or Ludacris.) 

Edited April 20 by Rusty Shacklefjord

[Timo_Berlin]

I will cruise end of May with the Epic, I know it is different to TA but could u tell me if there were also solo traveller between 40 and 60 or were most older 

[OrcaGirl]

Wrapping up the end of my travels home.

 

My flight from Rome to Montreal was uneventful, but halfway over the Atlantic, my phone buzzed with a "your flight from Montreal to Vancouver has been cancelled" notification. Boo.

 

I was automatically rebooked onto a later flight, which meant six hours of a layover in Montreal instead of the much-more-reasonable two hours. 😢

 

I was already feeling the effect of too many time changes, and hunkered down in the Maple Leaf Lounge and binge-watched more Dexter for a few hours. At least the cookies in the lounge were good.

 

The flight back to Vancouver was fine, and I did manage to get a couple of hours sleep, but I was feeling twitchy. Next time, I'm definitely doing the flight to Europe and then taking a transatlantic back to North America.

 

I arrived back in Vancouver just after midnight local time, and -- after having a short but weird Uber ride home with a therapy dog (?!?!) -- I finally made it back to my apartment. A shower and my big bed never felt so good. (So good! So good!)

 

[OrcaGirl]

On 4/18/2024 at 5:21 PM, mking8288 said:

Love this review, photos, descriptions, random observations and the humor.  

 

Agreed 100% about lunch served in the MDR ... trio of mushroom soup, was the monte cristo sandwich and tiramisu.  Seemed like NCL only put that out once on a given cruise, typically toward the end.  Towel animal are back, randomly from the kindness of the housekeeping team ?  asking for a curious friend that like to know.  Seemed like pillows are arranged different on a daily basis.  Safe and smooth travel going home.  

 

I don't know that towel animals are back. Maybe just because I chatted with my room steward in Indonesian? Or because I only had him clean my room like every three days, so he left the animal as a treat when he did?

 

[OrcaGirl]

On 4/19/2024 at 7:47 AM, schmoopie17 said:

Good to hear that Customs/Immigration wasn't a hang-up and you were able to essentially just walk off.

 

You said you arrived at the airport in Rome at 9:20. What time did your flight depart and about how long would you say it took to get through security at the airport?

 

Asking for a friend...(actually asking for myself, since we'll be disembarking in Rome in September and will have a tight window to get from the port to the airport to make our flight.)

 

 

 

My flight wasn't until 1pm. I didn't time going through security. It was a bit chaotic but probably only took 15-20 minutes? The biggest hold up was passengers not following instructions on which screening line to get into, and then ignoring the instructions to leave laptops and liquids in your bag BUT put your entire bag in a bin.

 

 

[OrcaGirl]

On 4/20/2024 at 6:17 AM, Timo_Berlin said:

I will cruise end of May with the Epic, I know it is different to TA but could u tell me if there were also solo traveller between 40 and 60 or were most older 

 

There were A LOT of solo travellers on this cruise, and they covered quite the age range. I mostly hung out with a couple of mid-30s, but I'm in my mid-40s. There were lots younger, and lots older.

[OrcaGirl]

All Freestyle Dailies:

 

Day 1: Embarkation Day

 

Epic-Day1.pdf

 

Day 2: At sea

 

Epic-day2.pdf

 

Day 3: At sea

 

Epic-day3.pdf

 

Day 4: At sea

 

Epic-day4.pdf

Day 5: At sea

Epic-day5.pdf

 

Day 6: At sea

 

Epic-day6.pdf

 

Day 7: At sea

 

Epic-day7.pdf

 

Day 8: At sea

Epic-day8.pdf

 

Day 9: At sea

 

Epic-Day9.pdf

 

Day 10: Gibraltar but not

Original: Epic-day10a.pdf 

Revised: Epic-day10b.pdf

 

Day 11: Alicante

 

Epic-day11.pdf

 

Day 12: At sea

 

Epic-day12.pdf

[crazycatlady82]

On 4/20/2024 at 8:17 AM, Timo_Berlin said:

I will cruise end of May with the Epic, I know it is different to TA but could u tell me if there were also solo traveller between 40 and 60 or were most older 

A lot! I'm 41 myself, and for this sailing, I think I was on the younger end.