Norwegian Epic - Transatlantic - Day 6

DAY 6 - MONDAY - 12/12 - AT SEA

Each of these days feels like several days to me. Without my notes, I’d have no idea what happened when, I don’t think! I didn’t take many photos on this day, for whatever reason.

Woke up at 7:30 - third day in a row with a one hour time change - it was nice!

I generally wake up hungry and eat earlier than the agreed upon 9:15am breakfast time, so on this day, I went to Taste by myself and had a secret first breakfast. Shhh!! They had a shakshuka special, so I had that. It was good. Not as good as at Miriam in Park Slope, but that’s ok.

At 9:15, I had my second breakfast with Adam and Terri at Garden Cafe. We made a plan to go to the Beatles show at Cavern Club that night. Working backwards, we settled on a 6:30 dinner. This would mean missing the solo meetup, but I personally needed a break from it after dinner the night before.

At breakfast, Adam mentioned going to the 18th deck. On the first day, I’d tried going higher than the 15th, but ended up in the Haven area, which is off limits. The Haven is a fancier, more expensive way to experience Norwegian cruises. It has its own restaurant and pool area. People get their own butlers and a bunch of other perks. I gave up getting higher than 15 pretty quickly.

I’d missed, though, that there was an elevator that went up to a public area of the 18th deck! After eating, Adam showed me how to get there. It was a beautiful, sunny day. There were a lot of lounge chairs strapped together, but nothing available to use. I assume they have them out on port days or days that are not the middle of the Atlantic in December. Still, you could go up there to see a great view. It would be nice to be able to bring your own folding chair.

The new normal (for me) was to have breakfast with Terri and Adam, spend most of the day doing my own thing, and then meet back up with people in the evening for dinner and entertainment. So after checking that area out, Adam went his way and I went mine.

I went down to the CruiseNext desk to buy credits for a future cruise. I won’t explain it in detail here, but it’s basically a way of getting a discount on a future cruise. I saved money on my transatlantic cruise by getting one of these credits while on my New England cruise.

Next, I went to my cabin and did some writing and painting and enjoyed the beautiful day from my balcony.

After a while, I remembered that Silvia would go hang out at Spice H2O on nice days. This is an area in the back of the 15th deck that has a couple hot tubs, one pool (the only pool that had been open on this trip), and a bar and a grill. I went up to check it out.

The weather was GREAT. There were more people there that day than on any other. They were sunbathing and taking advantage of the pool and hot tubs.

When I got there, Silvia and Terri were at a table together and I joined them. We hung out and chatted. I got a couple wings and half a sandwich from the grill.

When I then realized I still had time to go to the gym (which I needed even more after two breakfasts and a lunch), I excused myself. Six days in a row! I showered and hung out in the cabin again for a while. Eventually I got ready to go to dinner.

Even though all of my devices were set to the correct ship time, I still managed to accidentally be ready a full hour earlier than I meant to be.

I felt like getting out of the cabin, so I went down to Maltings and see if anyone was there. No one was, but a few minutes later, Adam arrived. After a drink, we went down to the Manhattan Room, where Terri had already secured us a table.

It was a busy and popular time to eat there because the cast of Burn the Floor was performing on the dance floor at 7pm. That was great, but it also made service a little slower. I had another one of my favorite dishes that night - a grilled vegetable entree with couscous. I’d picked out two desserts I wanted to try, but because of the time, we decided to skip it and head to the Cavern Club to get seats for the Beatles Show. There were no seats available at all. In hindsight, I think we would have had to get there an hour and fifteen minutes before.

It was time for a backup plan. We went to the Epic theater and stood in the back to hear Alex Yost perform. The show had started a while earlier. It was pretty cheesy. Yost is from North Carolina and seems like a good Southern boy. Once I passed him on the stairs and he greeted me with a “Mornin’, Ma’am!” I’d had it in my head that he was going to sing country music, but he did songs like My Way. (Actually, he did My Way.)

Next, we went to see the Newlywed Or Not So Newlywed Game. There are a lot of game shows on cruises. I’d been curious about them, but never went to any until this one. It was way more amusing than I expected it to be.

The audience helped pick three couples who had been married for varying lengths of times (one year to 48 years) to compete. The husbands and wives were asked a series of questions and got points if their answers matched. Some examples:

Where did you go for your first date and how much money was spent?

What is your husband’s pet name for his…member?

What was the name of your last girlfriend and what does your wife call her?

The funniest was when they were asked the most challenging place they’d ever had sex. One guy’s answer was on a lunchroom table at work. What made it funny, though, was that his wife guessed MANY different places (baseball field, bar bathroom, etc.), all incorrect. I knew way more about them than I wanted to and it was a bit weird seeing them at the buffet a couple days later…

After that we all went to Bliss for ABBA night, where we caught up with Fiza. There were so many people there, all ages. We found an empty couch and sat down. It was uncomfortable and hot, but the music was fun.

While there, Fiza told me that she had learned that one person she’d be competing with at the karaoke finale (in a day or two) had professional voice training. I laughed and reminded her that she herself is a musician. I told her other people were probably talking about her too. I wasn’t worried about her - she’d be fine!

As soon as ABBA was over I told everyone I was heading to Maltings, where Lucas still had another set. Fiza and Adam decided to join. Terri stayed at Bliss with some of her other friends - her spot!

I was reminded that I’d always wanted to try a French 75, so Adam ordered a couple. Maybe they weren’t the best French 75s? Or maybe they’re just not my thing? Oh, well. After many years of thinking I should try them, I got it out of my system!

Fiza seemed to melt when Lucas agreed to sing her request - Tears In Heaven. “He’s a music crush!” she told me. I assured her she was not alone on this.

When Lucas was done, I still had dessert on my mind, so I decided to finally try the carrot cake at O’Sheehan’s. It was ok. I hadn’t been missing out.

Bedtime.