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Published: April 21st 2017
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Last night was worse than the night before. There were even more trains and we both feel like we got little to no sleep. But, hey we are on a cruise for the next 20 days, so are quite happy and upbeat.
This will be our second cruise on the beautiful Norwegian Epic. It is our favourite ship. It is one of the largest ships around and has some controversial setups which some people do not like. We love the set-up; hence we are spending the next three weeks aboard. It is like Marmite, you either like it or you do not.
Norwegian had a promotion going when we booked this cruise in early 2016. As well as a really good price, they gave us the Ultimate Beverage Package. This would have cost us about £450.00 per person to buy for the week. We would not normally buy the beverage package, instead opting for the Soda package instead which would have cost us about £90.00. Either way, it is a very good saving for us. Ultimately, all free drinks on board but pay to use the internet instead.
As planned, we arrived at the Alamo car rental office
at about 8.30am and the drop off of the car went very smoothly. Even the bill was exactly spot on to our calculations. The seven day hire amounted to over 2000 miles. USA is vast. There were already a few people in the office and we were advised that the first shuttle to the ships would probably be about 10.30am.
Theresa was talking to one of the assistants who were welcoming people who were getting off the cruises. He advised that if we wanted to get to the ship quicker, we could always get a taxi. We decided this was a good idea and we are soon on our way. This turned out to be a great decision, as at about 9.30am they stopped anyone else getting into the terminal as it had reached it´s 500 people capacity.
We had about an hour wait for our turn to board, but that time soon went with so many interesting and excited people to talk to.
Once on board, we made a bee line for the Guest Services desk on deck 5 as we wanted to buy some passes for what they call the Posh Beach Club. This is
an area on the 18 floor that is really only for Haven guests, but they sell a few passes at the beginning of the cruise for others to use the area. We were really lucky and got the last two passes.
The staterooms are not quite ready yet so we headed to the Garden Café on deck 15 for a light lunch. This area is one of our favourite haunts and is one massive buffet station. The choices at each meal time are just vast. Let us see how long the good intentions of not eating too much last. We try to be sensible with this.
At 3.30pm, they had the emergency muster drill where they get everyone on board into the muster stations and show them how to use the life jackets and other important information. Attendance is mandatory. If you fail to turn up for the safety drill, you simply get off loaded before setting sail.
Then it was up to posh for our planned departure for 4.00pm. Think we were a bit late leaving, but have abandoned the watches already, so no idea what time we actually left. They had unlimited champagne available during
sailaway. Think Theresa managed to drink 5 of them. Saw some people with many more glasses than that.
As we pulled away, there was a group of 4 or 5 small dolphins playing in the bay. That was a much unexpected sight.
In the evening we went to the Shanghai Restaurant. This is an included restaurant, so no extra to pay. Food was really nice, but by this time, we were both so tired all we wanted to do was get some sleep.
We were not too tired to stop off on the way in the Garden Café buffet area for some ice cream for desert.
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Sandra Riggs
non-member comment
Day 10
The Epic looks, and sounds fantastic, love the photos. The ice cream is a Wow, I bet George was in his element, I love this sort of ice cream too. The Posh Beach Club looks very nice. Always nice on the first day to get settled into your cabin and to explore the ship.