JanShanNJessPartyOf3

I was going to book the Encore online and the computer wanted to add $249.20 to my unlimited drinks package as a service charge. there is no way in my wife and I are going to drink enough drinks that we would spend $249.00 in tips for drinks alone!

We kind of felt like that, too, at first. But then we did the math. Drinks are about $10 each (mixed drinks, that is. Beer is about $8/9). If you divide the $250 by 10, you get 25. Divide that by 2, and you get 12 1/2! So, the 2 of us would have to drink 12 1/2 drinks total each over the course of a week in order to make it worthwhile. We did that one the first day. So, the UBP was well worth it for us - we averaged at least 10-15 drinks a day, for each of us.

Even at 5 drinks a day for both of us at $10 a drink, that would have cost us at least $100/day, not counting tips. So, if you are a very light drinker and only have 1 or 2 drinks a day, then the UBP would not be worth it. But, if you drink more than that (we don't normally, but, hey - it's vacation!) then it is definitely worth it.

JMHO!

I understand the idea behind it (both financially & environmentally), but as someone with dental issues who has to drink from a straw most of the time, investing in biodegradable straws and distributing them only upon request would be preferable to me, and seemingly an easy solution. Just sayin'....

BBC ~ (Banana's, Baileys & Coconut) was our #1 drink of the week! Our next go-to drink was the Bushwhacker.

~*~ George Town, Cayman Islands ~*~

Well, this port started out as an almost cluster frack. We had no excursion planned, and were just going to wander around. There were a few things we wanted to see, so we figured we'd just find our way to them. Easy enough, right? Not in *my* life!

As we were walking, as in most ports, drivers were bombarding us with offers to go places. We wanted to get coffee first, so we declined. After our coffee, a woman hustled us to her van with the promise of a $4pp ride to the beach. So, we hopped in and got settled. She said she was going to run get someone else to share the ride and came back with a group of 8 people. We all would't fit, so she told US to get out & get another ride. I was livid. I initially refused to get out & loudly complained. But, she was so busy trying to keep the 8 people by the van (who were also arguing with her telling her it wasn't fair to throw us out), and trying to find a driver for our party of 3, that she didn't hear me. Just as I was about to become the "Ultimate Rude Foul-Mouthed American", a passerby poked their head in the window and told us to just take a public bus, that it was just $2.50 a person and they would take us anywhere. They even pointed to one that was passing by. So, we jumped out of the van, just as the group of 8 were leaving also. The woman tried to stop us, but I just held out a $100 bill and told her that it would have been hers if she had just taken us when we boarded as all we had were $100's, and we made a quick exit.

So, we took the public bus to a free beach. It was beautiful. People tried to rent us 3 chairs & an umbrella for $25 for the whole day. I negotiated for 2 chairs only for $10 for 1.5 hours.

We saw jet ski's parked in the water, and there was a little rental table there. We ended up renting 3 of them for $40pp for 30 minutes. Which was a lot cheaper than the excursions I had looked into. We signed the waivers, hopped on and took off. There were no guides, just instructions on how to operate them, and where the boundaries were. It was the best 30 minutes of our day - I was bee-bopping on the water, going up to 50mph on the jet ski. Hubby & son were doing pretty well, too.

After our time on the beach, we went to Hell. It was a cute little tourist trap, and my son got his first stamp in his passport. We had to buy some momento's and headed out.

Did I mention yet how there were chickens & roosters everywhere? It was amusing to us - they would just walk across parking lots, or where ever. We got a kick out of that! We're used to seeing them on farms, not in a "city".

Of course, we stopped on our way back & bought a bunch of rum, rum cakes, rum fudge & rum taffy (remember I said I was a rum girl?). We didn't even care about limits, as we were driving home. Had we been flying, it might have been a different story. But, we had a great day & wiped out by the end of it!

Janet, I absolutely LOVE your enthusiasm. Welcome to cruising.

 

Please forgive me. I had a chuckle. When you said you were addicted to cruising and then said this is your first cruise I only imagined someone smoking their first cigarette and becoming immediately addicted!

 

Hey, glad you loved it. Some of us get hooked and some people think we are crazy.

 

Hope you have many more that you love.

Thanks, Donna! I think we all became addicted the minute we stepped on the ship, and of course the beautiful weather & scenery didn't hurt either! We just enjoyed it so much!

Next up.... The ICE BAR!!!! This was such a cool experience! We get all bundled up and go thru 2 doors to this small-ish room that is 17 degrees inside. The bartender (Oliver) was just so adorable in his big parka & heavy gloves. We were the only ones in there & he told us a lot of about the place, and offered to take our pictures. Everything but the floor was ice - right down to the ice glasses. They were cone shaped, and were placed inside an actual glass. There was a big Viking statue of ice, and a polar bear one as well.

He was probably my favorite NCL employee of the whole cruise. He was sweet, and humble, and just gushed about how wonderful NCL has treated him and how much he loves the company. He's from the Philippines and he says that working at NCL has been a blessing for him & his family. He was humble & sincere in his words, and I just loved him.

I'm not a big fan of vodka (I'm a rum gal), so I didn't care much for the drinks. He noticed this, and pulled out a bottle of wine and opened it for me. Oh. Em. Gee. This was the sweetest, best wine I have ever had. He called it "Ice Wine". He said they froze the grapes, and then mushed them to get the juice out. I didn't catch it all, as I was too busy guzzling this heaven-sent beverage.

It was a very cool experience & definitely worth the extra money just for meeting Oliver alone! I gave him a nice tip & filled out a Heroes card for him at the Guests Services counter.

Janet,

 

Thank you for your review. I love your style: paying over time, planning, putting up with the guys attitudes (I've been there)! Looking forward to more of your posts. You made very good points about the toilets extremely loud flush and Poo-Pourri... LoL!

 

I hope that you bought some Cruise Next Certificates to "double-up" as down payment on your next cruise(s) ...if a balcony or higher category.

 

Anyway, I'm following...

Thanks! We did buy some of the Cruise Next Certificates! I'm already researching! LOL

Great review and Thank you! Nervous to sail Epic, but I may try one day.

One thing: Baileys and Coffee. I have sailed several classes and never had an issue getting the 2 together. It may be an Epic/ Atrium thing, but a quick fix to this may be sliding a couple dollars to the bartender. Either way, I don't think they should have charged you :confused:

The Bailey's & Coffee was what I tried. Maybe it was the bartender, next time I'll remember to slip him a buck or two! I'll tell you one thing tho - as soon as we were off the ship, we headed straight to Dunkin' Donuts where I downed 2 large iced coffees in record time! LOL

I got a little nervous about the Epic, too - especially with the bad reviews. BUT ~ we figured it was our first cruise, we had NOTHING to compare it to, so how bad could it be? Plus, we are pretty chill, laid back folks. As long as someone isn't messing with our family/friends, we just tend to ignore the petty stuff. I would sail on her again with no problem.

FOOD!!!! My favorite topic next to Adult Beverages! :)

The food on the Epic was great - none of us had any real issues with any of it. Some places, the serving sizes were quite small - as proven by the appetizer of Mozzarella Sticks from Taste:

Yes, that's TWO sticks & an olive. We had a good laugh at that. Knowing what we know now, next time we'll order 4 of them!

I didn't get many food pics - I usually forgot to take them, but sometimes I didn't have my phone on me. But, here's a run down on our thoughts:

Moderno: It was great! We love Brazilian steakhouses and the meat did not disappoint. If you've been to other Brazilian steakhouses, the salad bar will disappoint you as there really isn't much there (especially in the *salad* part). But, let's be real - who goes to a Brazilian steakhouse to eat salad? We enjoyed our dinner there, and would def return.

Teppanyaki: We were hesitant at first, but ended up really enjoying it. The fried rice was amazing, the chef was totally entertaining & the green tea cake was DELICIOUS!!! I did snap a few pics...

Taste: Nothing disappointed us there (except the Mozzarella Sticks, lol), and we ate there several times. The Bread Pudding & Lava Cake desserts are definitely on the DO NOT MISS list! We had Chicken Cordon Blue, French Onion Soup, Country Chicken dinner and several other items, but I failed to write them down. My hubby had a couple kinds of steak & he devoured them, so I'm sure they were great as well.

Garden Cafe: It was your typical buffet - different sections of food, which some rotated daily. They had a seafood night, a Caribbean food night, a grilled food night, ect. You could always find something to eat there. Crowds & seating were never an issue, as we went at slightly *off* times to avoid that.

Great Outdoors: Decent food, nothing spectacular, but always filling.

O'Sheehans: We ate there a few times. Hubby & son LOVED the wings. Hubby preferred the Thai Chili flavor, while son feasted on the BBQ. I got the loaded hot dog (sauerkraut, cheese & bacon), and the nachos. As a Nacho fanatic, these were kind of disappointing, but I still ate them. I'm just not a fan of cheese sauce, and the toppings were kind of sparse. Lots of chips were always "empty".

Noodle Bar: Pretty yummy stuff! We had Pot Stickers (both steamed & fried), the Shrimp Dumplings, Spring Rolls, Peking Style Shrimp & Chicken, Spicy Seafood Udon Noodles, Shrimp Fried Rice & the Five Spice Chocolate Cake. They were all good, and the Spicy Seafood Udon Noodles was truly SPICY!!!!

All in all, there were always many choices, and no real disappointments. We never felt hungry, and we never had any issues with anything.

As a child care provider for 30+ years (and a mom), I am guilty of thinking of, and preparing for, every possible scenario. This includes packing. I began my preliminary packing for this cruise about 6 months ago.... don't judge! LOL

I created a list based off of these boards of *things* that I should pack such as meds, first aid kit, highlighters, post it notes, etc. Here's what we took, that we actually used:

* Flashlight

* Post-It Notes

* Tylenol & Excedrin Migraine

* Magnets

* Aloe & Sunscreen

* Ziplock baggies

* Extension Cord; Power Strip

* Tums

* Magnets

* Band-Aids & Neosporin

Things we took that we didn't use:

* Highlighters

* Immodium

* Hand Sanitizer

* Entire First Aid kit (except Band-Aids & Neosporin)

* Cold/Sinus Meds

* Towel Clips

* Over the door shoe holder

Here is the non-surge protector power strip we bought off Amazon:

(NTONPOWER Power Strip Flat Plug with 6 AC Outlets, 15W 3-Port USB Charger 5 ft Power Cord Non Surge Protector for Cruise Ship and Home - Black) It was great because we could use the outlets & charge our phones at once.

And, we brought these magnets as well - and used the heck out of them! He could hang stuff from the ceiling, on the balcony, etc. They were always in use & next time, I will bring twice as many. Also bought off Amazon.

( 10L0L Magnetic Hooks Neodymium, Powerful Magnet Hook (25lb-silver) )

In the end, the lists were very helpful, and I did bring stuff that was never used, but I'll just know better for next time!

On Sunday (4/1) we were scheduled to stop at Great Stirrup Cay. I'd previously heard that this stop was frequently cancelled due to weather conditions. I don't have the best of luck, so I figured we wouldn't be stopping. But, yay! We did make it, and it was a beautiful day. The white sand, blue water and bright sunshine was a vast difference from what we were used to! We hung out for a while, and eventually found our way to the Stingray City excursion that we (aka "I") had booked. It was amazing to see these animals in real life. My son, Jesse, still harbored resentment of stingrays because he was *traumatized* by Steve Irwin's death when he was a child, but he ended up loving it. We were the last to get out of the water, and as I was climbing the stairs to get on the float, one of the guides hands me a ginormous starfish! That made my day! The food was good (not great, but it fed us and didn't make us sick, so I'd rate it "good"), and the drinks were great. My hubby fell in love with the Mojito's at the Bacardi bar. Here's a few pics:

Ok, now that I've got the photo's figured out.... this part will be about drinks! Alcoholic ones, that is! Thanks to these message boards, I had a list of yummy sounding drinks I wanted to try. After all, I had the UBP so I wanted to make good use of it - and I did! Sadly, I left my list in our truck, so I had to go by memory.

My very favorite drink was the BBC:

Next up, it was a tie between the Mudslides & the Bushwhackers. They were both very similar, and very delicious!

A very cold, very tart, very sweet drink was the Frozen Lemonade:

And, here are 2 of my other favorites:

A few notes:

* The inside bars made MUCH better drinks - especially the one on the 5th deck by the Guest Services area/Atrium (I'm horrible at remembering names).

* Every bar allowed us to get 2 drinks at a time.

* We tried adding a shot of Baileys to coffee at the Coffee Bar, but it was not allowed to be part of our UBP - we had to pay for it.

Ok, so sorry about all the tests... Here we go again! This is the 3 of us:

This is my son goofing on the potty:

And these were our visitors while still in port:

By golly, I think I have it now!!! :)

Ok... Photo Test #3

Photo Test 2

Photo Test:

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Hi! My name is Janet and I am addicted to cruises. I just finished my first one, and am absolutely going to go on many, many more! I booked this cruise in 2016, and made monthly payments in order to be able to afford it. We got a mid-ship balcony stateroom, and chose the UBP & SDP as our "bonus" gifts. I will say that I was CLUELESS in what we were about to do, so I spent every single moment that I could researching & planning. These boards were an AMAZING help (my husband and son, not so much!).

There were 3 of us traveling - me, my hubby of 21 years & our 18 year old son. They are used to me being the planner, and they enjoy sitting back and not having to sweat the heavy stuff (Lanyards or no? This show or that one? Cagneys or Moderno? etc...) They basically told me to tell them where to be & when. I could have had a lot of fun with that, but I'm too OCD!

Anyway, here we are as we start our drive from Delaware to Port Canaveral:

We chose to drive instead of fly for a few reasons, that I'll probably get into later, but it was the drive from hell. What should have taken about 14 hours ended up taking over 20, thanks to holiday/spring break traffic. It was a simple, straight shot down I-95, but at one point in Virginia, we did just over 180 miles in 5 1/4 hours! UGH!

We are lucky enough to have dear friends that lives in Cape Canaveral, so we drove to their house & parked, and the drove us to the port and dropped us off curbside. It was 12:20 when we got in line, and it moved pretty quickly. We were in our rooms by 1:37pm, and 1/2 of our luggage was already there. We figured the rooms would be "cozy", but didn't imagine just HOW cozy. Here is my son (who was sitting on the toilet just goofing off) saying hi to us - while we were sitting on the bed!

While we were unpacking, we had some visitors outside our balcony:

I'm going to wrap this first part up, so I can finally get to sleep in my very own bed, but first a few things about what to expect from this "review".

1) It will not be organized like most reviews, nor will it go in a regimented order. It will more likely be segregated by topics (like "Drinks", "Jamaica", "Food") rather than go day-by-day with every little detail.

2) It will not be picture heavy, even though I am a camera whore.... I have over 600 & I'm sure you don't want to see them all! I'll post the best of the best though!

3) Although I have all the dailies, I won't be posting them. But, if there's one you want to see, ask & I'll gladly do it!

Also, here are some overall musings:

1) The hallways to the staterooms are tiny, especially with luggage/cleaning carts in them.

2) The bathrooms in the Epic were not surprising to me, as I had done my research. But, I don't recall ever reading about how LOUD they are when you flush!!! I woke up my guys several times the first 2 nights. I was finally not allowed to "flush" unless it was a #2! Oh, and Poo-Pourri *IS* your BFF on this cruise!!

3) The Great Lanyard Debate - my humble opinion: do what you want. Half the people had them, half didn't. I didn't see anyone making fun of those who did or vice-versa.

4) If the hot tubs are full (which they were most of the time), just jump in a pool. It'll be about the same temperature, just no bubbles. Yes, I found the pools to be totally non-refreshing due to their tiny size & high temps.

I'll be back to do more later, but I hope you've enjoyed what I've written so far!

Following! (And making a list of ones to try....)

Our family did this excursion with Native Way on 2/12/18. Awesome experience!!!! Very personable crew- Solomon and David were great!

 

 

 

Do you have a link for them?

We are sailing on the Epic, and will be in Cozumel on April 5th. We are interested in doing the bar hop, but we have a few questions...

1) There will be 3 of us - me, my hubby & our 18 year old son. Our son is worried that there will be *nothing* for him to do, since he is under 21 (I'm assuming you have to be 21 to drink), and all the stops are at bars. I've seen the pics & read the reviews, but I'd like to know any other info/ideas that I can relay to him.

2) I've read/heard that swimming in the ocean during stops is not recommended due to strong currents/riptides. Is it not ALLOWED, or just not RECOMMENDED? Is wading permissible?

3) What are your food/drink recommendations at each stop?

Thanks! :)

We are cruising on the Epic (Western Caribbean) March 31. Final payment is due 12/31. Since we are 1st timers, is there anything I should look for/do before making the final payment? Somewhere, I'm thinking that I read that any changes or new perks have to be done prior to the fp. Of course, I could be dreaming, but I thought I'd at least ask.... TIA!

We brought coffee, jerk sauce, spices, Sangster's rum cream and souvenir jamaica soccer shirts for the kids next door at the MegaMart in Montego Bay.

Did the cruise line let you bring it to your stateroom, or did they take it & store it until the end? Thanks!

Any liquor brought back from ports will be taken till last day of cruise.

When you arrive back on ship, you are pulled aside and they give you a receipt of liquor taken. It will either arrive back in room on last day of cruise or you can pick it up on the time listed on your freestyle daily.

Do you by chance know if there's a limit? Thanks!

Actually, since the rum cakes are sealed in plastic and then boxed, you CAN bring them aboard the ship with no problem. We have often brought back rum cakes from various Caribbean ports.

Were they taken as well, or were you able to take them to your stateroom? Thanks!

We are booked on the Epic for the Western Caribbean (3/31/18) & we are all first-timers. If I were to purchase a case of rum in Jamaica, or a half-dozen bottles at each port, will we be able to bring it on board with us? (I get that we will have to hand it over for NCL to store until disembarkation). I'm not worried about taxes/tariffs at customs. We are also driving home, so flying isn't a worry either. I just want to make sure that if we stroll up to board with a bunch of liquor bottles, that NCL isn't going to make us leave them behind.

Also, what about food? Apparently at one of the ports, you can buy freshly made rum cakes (can you tell I like rum?). If I buy a cake or two, is that allowed to be brought on board? Or other local food products (non-perishables)?

Thanks in advance for all your input!