FrenchTickler

I am on the Epic right now for the TA and I asked Will the onboard Cruise Consultant and he said that NCL did not renew the contract and that Nickelodeon would be gone by the end of the year.

For the cruise I am on now there are plenty of Nickelodeon activities. There are family games on the pool deck where the "prize" is a pie in the face. There is Nickelodeon trivia where the "winner" gets a pie in the face.

There are also arts & crafts activities. The first activity was coloring Spongebob bandanas with fabric markers, and the second was coloring Spongebob and Dora canvas tote bags with fabric markers.

There are also Nick character Meet & Greets with photo taking opportunities.

There is a dedicated Nickelodeon channel in the staterooms that so far has been running the same iCarly epidsode from 2011 several times a day. At least there are no commercials.

The average age of the cruisers on this TA is 59 and I believe there are fewer than 100 children overall.

The Captain is Frank Jullussen. The hotel director is Richard Janicki.

I am on the Epic right now and Crystal Blue is in Fat Cats tonight from 8pm to Midnight.

I am just doing the TA. Then I am spending 1 night in Barcelona before flying back to San Francisco. I would stay longer but I will need to get back to work.

Hi everyone. I am writing from NCL Epic on day 2 of the transatlantic crossing. I am a platinum cruiser having been on over 20 cruises starting with the SS Norway in 1984. All but 2 of my cruises have been on NCL.

I purchased the unlimited internet package today @ $24.99 a day for the remaining 10 days of the cruise. I will post a little about my experience on the Epic so far.

I had an uneventful flight from San Francisco to Miami on Saturday the 18th. I spent the night at the Holiday Inn Port of Miami using my IHG Visa annual free night. I chose this hotel because it is very close to the port and I wanted to get to the port early so I would be one of the first on the ship and be able to purchase a POSH pass. More on that later. I was pleasantly surprised to have been upgraded to one bedroom king suite when checking in. I was very happy with this hotel because the room was very quiet with no noise from the street or the hallway, and the bed was very comfortable.

I took a cab from the hotel to the port and arrived at the port a little after 9am. The cab ride was about $11. As soon as the cabbie popped the trunk a porter arrived and took the luggage from the trunk and put it on the cart to be loaded onto the ship. That was the easiest luggage drop off I have ever experienced. I walked to Terminal C and found out it opens at 9:30am. There were 3 other people waiting that had arrived at 8am. Once the doors opened at 9:30am we had a seat until they were ready to scan the carry ons.

At around 10:30 we went through security and then upstairs to wait to board the ship. I really like that the photographers were set up in the waiting area to take pictures while everyone was waiting to board instead of trying to take everyone's photo as they are tryng to board. The two photographers were very friendly and their was no pressure to get your picture taken 12pm due to special preparations that needed to be done for the transatlantic crossing. Promptly at 12pm they boarded special needs passengers and the Groups 11 through 13. I was group 11 and went onto the ship. I headed straight to Deck 5 Guest Services. From all the posts I had read about the POSH pass I decided I would like to get one. I was the first person in line to purchase the POSH pass. I was informed that the price was $118 due to the length of the cruise. I purchased the pass. I went to the Garden Cafe for lunch and had the roast beef from the carving station which I enjoyed. After lunch it was time to go to my stateroom. I have a mini suite on deck 12. The mini suite is quite spacious and the standard balcony is larger than I expected. The amount of storage space is amazing. The shower over bathtub is very big. After dropping off my carrying I used the stateroom TV to make my entertainment reservations for the entire cruise. The process was very easy. I then went to explore the ship. I went back to my cabin at 3pm and was pleasantly surprised to find that the room steward had placed my luggage on the sofa in the cabin. Very nice! I quickly unpacked and then went to the lifeboat drill. My muster station was in the Spiegel tent. After the muster drill I decided to use my POSH pass for the sail away party. I used my keycard which had been programmed to access the POSH area on Deck 18 when I purchased the pass. It was not crowded at all and there were many padded loungers available. Unfortunately I found that there was virtually no shade anywhere to be found except when sitting at one side of the bar. There is really no way use a lounger and get a break from the sun as there are no umbrellas and no pool in the POSH area. After about 30 minutes they made an announcement that the sail away was delayed until 6pm. At about 5:30pm the Carnival Splendor sailed past, then the Carnival Breeze, and then at 6pm it was out turn.

I had 6:30pm reservations for Moderno and arrived shortly after 6:30. The restaurant is very large and I was seated right away. About 5 tables were occupied in the restaurant I went to the salad bar and then turned my card to green. The servers started bring out all of the meets one by one and the service was very good. I was done with the meal at 7:30pm and was thoroughly stuffed.

I decided that the POSH pass was not really what I thought it would be so I went to guest services and received a refund which was cheerfully issued. I noticed that a total 12 POSH passes had been sold.

I dropped by Headliners and watched a little of Howl at the Moon which was very entertaining.

I had made reservations for Legends in Concert at 9:30pm. I arrived at 9pm and got a good seat. The artists were Rod Stewart, Sting, and Gloria Estafan. Unfortunately I found the production to be extremely loud. It was at least twice as loud as any other cruise production I have seen. I left early once my ears started ringing.

I walked through the casino and many people were playing the machines. I really dislike cigarette smoke and I was happy to find a non-smoking section. Even walking through the rest of the casino, the smoke was only slightly noticeable.

I intend to post Day 2 tomorrow. Let me know if you have any questions and if I can, I will provide an answer.