Hello My Friend!! Yes, it’s been almost a month and I have LOTS to share. I promise that I will be back on regularly now…I just needed to get some things in line and time devoted–but, now I’m yours again!!
So, back to the cruise. For those of you on Facebook, I’ve heard from so many of you commenting on how fabulous our cruise on the new Norwegian Epic was—and you are correct—it was AMAZING!!
Check out this massive ship!!
The Norwegian Epic first set sail in July of this year.
We went on a 7 day to the Eastern Caribbean
(St. Maarten, St. Thomas and Nassau).
It will be Miami for the next couple of months
and then head over to Europe for good.
It will then sail to Greece, Italy, Venice, etc…how awesome.
Whoa…
CW booked us in Spa Suite.
Now, that in itself just sounded fabulous.
Little did I know just how mack-daddy this trip would be.
Being in a Suite enables you private access to areas
on the boat that are specifically for just the suites and villas.
When we first got on the boat,
we went to what I termed the “Red Room”.
It’s the private deck and is super swanky.
Love the red everywhere, the misters, the exclusivity.
Here we are getting ready to leave Miami…
So, let me take on a tour of this spectacular boat…
This was one of our fav places–O’Sheehan’s Irish Bar.
Great food (and drinks).
After one of the pool days…
I needed mozarella sticks =)
Look at that 2 story big screen!
Perfect for football.
When sports aren’t on, they had shots of different places…
Loves from my Chicago!
So nice of them….just for me..
One of those Japanese
chopping-in-front-of-you places…
The Casino…
It was pretty cool that the casino was an entire floor length,
not just stuck in a side room somewhere.
Lots of tables.
At night it was the place to be.
Bowling!!!
The greatest Steak House, Cagney’s.
The main dining room is below Cagneys.
Of course our butler
(oh, did I forget to tell you we also had our own butler?)
Lanie, she took us to all of our reservations, scouted things out
and made sure we had the best table in the house.
We felt like rock stars!
The main dining room had celebrity impersonators one night.
Our table was right above it looking down…
You know that’s Michael, right?
And that’s Britney Spears…
I loved this chandelier in the middle of the ship…
So, let’s get a pic…
This was another dining area…Feast.
Headliners is where
Second City and Howl at the Moon played.
The Epic Theater is where
Blue Man Group was.
Cirque de Soleil performed here…
Moderno’s was a Brazillian Steak House next to Cagney’s.
Oh my goodness.
It’s one of those places where you have a green card and a red card.
As long as you have the green card out, they keep
bringing you different types of meat…
(ribs, steak, sausage, chicken, never-ending).
I had to keep reminding myself to put the
red card out to finish the plate in front of me.
Oh, and there was a ginormous salad,
appetizer and soup display you could also eat from.
Dueling pianos….
Sushi. Incredible. We had sushi a lot.
Oh, and the Ice Bar….
I think it was something like 16 degrees.
I had flip flops on….
CW did not…
That guy bartender works in there
all day–everyday–every week.
Crazy.
Even the chairs are made of ice.
Why wouldn’t there be an ice bear?
I loved it…
reminded me of Telluride and
how much I miss the snow =(
Is that weird?
We stayed 25 minutes in there…
Cool little martini bar on the side of a floor.
My favorite restaurant.
Super authentic Chinese.
Fat Cats Blues Lounge.
This guy was amazing!!
Somedays they had Bingo in there.
CW won the first game.
$150 buckaroos….
He had to stand up and say,
“hi, Chris from Tampa” haha….
The first night we went to La Cucina–
the Italian restaurant.
Ok, so back to the private areas…
The Epic Lounge.
It was a little get-away from the rest of the boat…
The area right inside from the pool…
Our pool.
Fabulous.
I camped out in the chairs in the water everyday.
The private gym is right above the pool in the dark windows.
I didn’t go there.
First stop was St. Maarten!!!
I match the water..
This was my first time here…
We rented a Jeep Wrangler and went exploring.
Before we left there were quite a few hurricanes
and tropical storms out and about.
We lucked out with the weather–
they stayed away from us.
We found a little beach bar, Busby’s, for morning cocktails..
After traveling around the entire island,
we ended up at the famous Orient Beach.
It was so relaxing.
I did a little shopping as we left…
Oh, I didn’t even show you the main pool on the ship…
How rude.
There were 3 waterslides and one was like a toilet-bowl type,
where you go down on inner tubes.
There was an adult pool (sorry, I didn’t get a pic)
with a huge big screen that they played videos on.
A skating rink, basketball court, rock climbing wall,
video game room, you get the idea…
everything you can think of.
There’s was a pretty cool Kid Area too….
I saw lots of parents dropping their kids off and
heard lots of kids saying they wanted to go back and
when were they going back to the Kids Area.
That’s pretty good.
I snuck my head in–it was loud.
They sounded like they were having fun =)
I bet you’re dying to see our Suite also…
Yep, a round bed.
CW loved the hot tub bath…
I could hardly get him out of there,
bc he could see out the window to the water.
Thank god for strategically placed bubbles.
You’re welcome.
The shower was big and
had a rain shower on top and a handheld.
You know I’m even going to show you the toilet.
That’s an opaque, curved, sliding door.
The sink area…
Gotta love a flat screen on a boat.
This room had a TON of storage too.
I didn’t use all of the compartments at all (I know, shocking).
Smarty pants the designers were–your luggage fits under the bed.
On the other side of those curtains is a big
mirrored area to do make-up, etc.
We spent a lot of time out on the balcony.
Second port was St. Thomas.
When we’re there we usually head right over to St. Johns on the ferry.
We wanted to do something different this time.
I had my heart set on this gondola ride…
yes, tourist trap for $25 each,
but once we got up there
(and stayed for 2 hours), it was beyond worth it.
Can you believe that view??
The boat on the left is ours…
We also had cell service in St. Thomas, since it’s US,
so we were able to catch up with some friends and family–
and update Facebook of course =)
And just because we couldn’t resist…
Next up–we were sooo excited to check out
Duffy’s Love Shack. Yep, Duffy’s Love Shack.
Don’t ya just hear the music in your head as you say the name?
(our awesome travel agent, Cheryl, had told us about it).
Now, you’re probably thinking we’re on some fab beach,
well, we’re in a parking lot, really.
You would never know when you’re in there though.
It’s right on your way to Red Hook
(the ferry to St. John) and it’s the best little secret ever.
Now I’m sharing with you.
I just loved the personality of this place.
Even cute little signs on their food.
This was Jamaican Jerk tacos if you’re wondering.
We always went back to our “Red Room” as we left port.
The funniest was leaving St. Thomas.
Now, back-story–one year we were SUPER late
getting back to the boat bc we were caught
in the crazy St. Thomas traffic.
We had to get out of the cab and RUN.
So–evil me, I was waiting to see
someone who experienced the same thing.
Oh, it happened.
A guy and a girl jumped out of a cab,
she started sprinting towards the gang-plank
(or whatever that things is called–I’m in Jack Sparrow mood)–he, did not.
He hunched over, she runs back, trying to pull him
(and I was too far away–but, I’m sure some screaming was happening).
Wait for it–he was going to throw up.
Drinking if I had to guess.
He started stumbling, the captain guys were trying to help,
he was pushing them away
(what an idiot–it was already a half an hour past departure–
wonder if they actually waited for them)
Anyways, the poor girl finally coaxes him on as
he’s still flailing and making a scene
(well, a scene to all of us spies up on the Red Room deck haha)
Sucks for him. And her.
CW and I laugh, cheers our champagne and are glad we came back early.
The last port was Nassau.
I wish I could’ve gotten a photo with our
ship next to these Disney and Carnival boats…
they looked like little miniature boats.
We headed over to Atlantis.
I mean, what else is there to do on Nassau?
It is such a cool resort in the middle of nothing.
The day was again–perfect weather.
So, we decided to bite the bullet and pay the
astronolical price to use the pools and slides all day.
Just guess how much…then guess more…
But, it seemed like a great idea…chill in the pool, tackle a few slides…
We went through the aquarium..
Stared at this guy for a bit…
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