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Thursday, May 19, 2016

Norwegian Epic, December 2013

A lot of Spencer's friends seem to be very artistic, and have carved out some pretty cool jobs over the years.  One of his fraternity brothers/roommates/good friends, Kyle, moved out to LA and started working with the Second City training center in LA.  He's pretty good, I'm not just biased.  In 2013 he got a job with the Second City crew that was working on the Norwegian Epic.  He sent out a general "who wants to hang out with me" email and Spence and I decided that, heck ya we did!  We had only done 1 cruise before this, on our honeymoon.  That trip we hadn't done a lot of travel together and stuck to the ship excursions and didn't really venture out of that bubble.  This trip since we knew we'd have the benefit of Kyle having been to all the places before we decided that we'd skip that and just wing it. 

We decided to fly down to Miami the night before the ship left for 2 reasons, (1) I am beyond paranoid about missing things due to travel delays beyond my control and (2) one of my best friends from high school and her husband live in the area and OF COURSE we wanted to get some quality time in with them.  In an amazing twist of fate another one of our friends and her husband were taking a different cruise that left from Miami the same day.  So the 6 of us were excited to have some time to spend together before the ship left the next morning.  We went to a hockey game, a first for me, it was quite exciting and came down to a shoot out for the win!  A tradition is that this team throws plastic rats onto the ice for a win, once I heard that all I wanted was to see people throw rats at the team. No idea why this was so fun to me, but hey, I'm easy to entertain.   The next morning Ash and Lew took us all to the cruise terminal and sent us off on our adventures!
Top Left: after the win, the black dots are the rats! Bottom left: the shoot out for the win
Top Right: our friends when we were at the airport  Bottom right Spence and I at the game

2 of my oldest and most amazing friends.  These women are truly a blessing in my life.
 
Top left: Cuban Coladas aka the best coffee ever. This little cup is supposed to be split by like 4 people.....but I drink my own, its amazing.  Bottom left: first drink on board, vacation had officially started!  Right Photos: views as we left Miami
 
Spence and I before the ship left Miami

 The first stop on the ship was St. Marteen BVI.  The day started out with some rain, and we saw a double rainbow from our balcony before we left the ship.  It rained a bit more after that, but then turned into a gorgeous day!  We walked around past where the shops and chairs were for rent and lounged on the beach with our towels.  For lunch we ate a little beach shack that had the MOST AMAZING seafood nachos I've ever come across.  I'm not kidding when I say I would go back to St. Marteen for these nachos alone.  Not an overly exciting day, but the fact that we were on vacation, hanging out with a friend we hadn't seen in a long while was more than enough to make the day. 

The top rainbow is a little hard to see, but it was such a beautiful view from our room!
 
We waited out the last rain before walking to the beach


Everyone needs one of these photos on vacation right?
 
at lunch, gotta love a beach shack meal

Our beach view for the day
 

Hanging out in the water!
 
The 2nd stop of the trip was St. Thomas USVI.  For this day Kyle hung out with us for the first part of the day and then Spencer and I went out on our own to Megans Bay for some more beach time.  Our first stop was at BadAss Coffee, because the coffee on the ship left something to be desired.  Then we took the sky tram up to Paradise Point for some great views.  After this Kyle went back to the ship and we took off for the beach!  St. Thomas is great because they take US Dollars and because you can use your cell plan.  What we didn't anticipate is that we'd have a hard time finding an ATM.  As a result we may  have run out of cash and almost didn't make it back to the ship!  Thankfully some kind soul gave us cab fare back and we didn't miss the boat!
 

View from Paradise Point

View from Paradise Point

Our ship in the background, at the top of Paradise Point

The best part about traveling so close to Christmas is all the festive trees in tropical settings!
 
We spent the majority of the day soaking up the rays at Megans Bay.  Good drinks, great people watching.  It was one of my favorite stops!



 
 
The last stop on the trip was Nassau, Bahamas.  After 2 beach stops that didn't cost us a fortune we weren't really feeling like paying a lot to go hang out at one of resorts.  I did some research and we decided to the Bahamian Food Tour.  It was a full day of stops around Nassau, and some history about the city along the way.  We really enjoyed the food!  We stopped at the following places (copied and pasted from their website) Bahamian Cookin’ Restaurant & Bar
A three-generation iconic downtown mainstay adored by locals for its mouthwatering selection of soulful traditional Bahamian favorites and warm ambiance (est. 1986).

Graycliff Chocolate Factory
This iconic estate is home to the region’s first 5-star restaurant, an award-winning cigar factory and onsite chocolate factory serving handmade, artisan bon bons (est. 1973).

The Drawbridge Patisserie
A beautifully restored colonial home featuring delicious designer pastries and the island's only selection of Bahamian gelato.

Athena Cafe & Bar
The island’s oldest Greek restaurant and a Downtown Nassau landmark serving original classics including Greek salad and gyros from its family run kitchen (est. 1995).

Genuinely Bahamian Boutique & Confectioner
A local specialty merchant showcasing a unique selection of: native jams, spices, salts, exotic pepper sauces and tea and sweet treats sourced only from Bahamian artisans (est. 2011).

Tortuga Rum Cake Company
Nassau’s premiere rum cake bake shop serving 6 flavors of rum cake baked daily using 5 year aged rum (est. 2005).
Just a little sample of what we had on the tour, I would recommend this to anyone.


These chocolates....I still have dreams.

Everyone needs a picture with a pirate!

Before the tour we grabbed a drink at a bar next to the Pirate Museum.

classic Nassau
 
 
Of course, the port stops are only part of the fun when on a cruise, we spent several days on the ship between stops and had a blast!  One of the things we enjoyed most about the Norwegian Epic is entertainment options.  We saw Blue Man Group, Cirque Du Solai dinner show, all of the Second City Shows (obviously since Kyle was in them) including a murder mystery lunch, the "Legends" show which featured Katie Perry, Elvis and Steven Tyler impersonaters along with the live music, alcohol tastings pool side fun etc.  Having Kyle on board also gave us a "behind the scenes" look at the crew and the other side of cruise life.  Kyle had to get special permission to hang out with us before the trip since crew members are not supposed to fraternize with the guests. 
We always try to get a balcony room, I like the ability to get up early and sit out there while Spencer sleeps in and not have to contend with other people in my space all the time.  The room on the Epic was a slightly strange configuration in a wave, at the narrowest part it wasn't even wide enough for Spencer to put his arms out to the side!  The balcony had plenty of room for Spencer, Kyle and I to hang out after the last comedy shows for the night were over.  It was almost like when Spencer and Kyle were roommates in Lawrence again, except it takes far less alcohol to get us tipsy than it used to! 
Yay we're finally boarding!
 

We're excited to be here!
Our cabin with the wavy walls
Pool side fun on board!

Overview of the pool area
Waterslide fun on sea days!

Having fun after the slides
the set for the Cirque dinner show

Martini tasting, one of the best things we did on board, they were delicious!
Svedka Ice Bar, you go in and they give you 2 *very* strong drinks while you try not to freeze.  It was a fun experience, but I don't think I'd do it again.
Boy, do we look like we're having fun! (and being photo bombed by the statue)
Views from the balcony on our room, I spent probably 3 hours a day just relaxing with a book and a glass of wine.
 
At the end of the trip we were back in Miami, Ashley and Lew picked us up and we did some sightseeing before catching our flight back to KC.  It was the perfect end to a friend filled trip!


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