So...it's almost over...Woke up in Miami. Actually, I could see Miami when I finally turned in last night, 2ish, but we didn't pull into the port for quite a while. I almost slept thru it. In fact, I managed to lay there in bed til 8am. Then I got up and went out on deck to see what was what. Talked to a few peoples and had a cup of joe and made a few phone calls, now that we're back in domestic Verizon range.
Went up to the EPIC Club for breakfast, where I had the Fruits de Mer en Brioche (lobster, shrimp and scallop on toasted brioche bread with a poached egg on top. It was fantastic. Spent my last hour aboard talking to a couple of people I had met over the course of the week. Tone from England (who now resides in Atlanta), a trivia whiz, and Sophie, a really nice young lady who owns a tea house/bakery in Belgium.
Finally at 10am, they got serious about shooing everyone off the ship, so I departed, got thru customs in less than 10 minutes and my friend called the shuttle guy to take us to Fort Lauderdale.
When we got there we found some electrical outlets and some wifi, same place I have before, in the courtyard of the building Hooters shares with Big Kahuna and CVS and the Croc store, and whatever. I plugged in and wrote up Nassau, charged my phone and, basically frittered away four hours on the internet, catching up with the world I left behind a week ago.
At 2 I decided I was getting hungry so I went up to Hooters for some Buffalo Shrimp, fried pickles and french fries. Oh, and I ran over to CVS to buy safety pins to repair my luggage that Virgin America so rudely tried to destroy last week. And fall back on their Contract of Carriage, when I complained, saying they didn't cover damage THEY caused, to zippers, seams etc. Asswipes. Oh, well...it's not like I was ever going to used that suitcase again. It was over 6 months old and had been used before. Once. Anyway...did you know you can only buy safety pins in about $5 quantities? I am 51 years old and I don't believe I have ever actually purchased a safety pin. They are one of those things, like rubber bands, that are just 'there' somehow.
Anyway...I digress...I finished up lunch at Hooters about 3:15 and decided to go north on A1A for a bit before turning south to meet the shuttle at Las Olas. So that's what I did. I really love Fort Lauderdale. The beach is very much like home, and the business on the other side is, like wise, way more like CA than Miami. So, it fits me.
Anyway, got the shuttle, arrived to the airport in plenty of time, found more plugs and free wifi, and continued wasting my life until it was time to board, and now I am completing this weeks blog series from Seat 13F on Virgin America flight 327, 34,195 feet above the west coast of Florida, and zipping along at 476miles per hour.
I'd say the world has changed a bit in the half century I've been here.
but enough of that...GOOD BYE!!! GO HOME!!! SHOW'S OVER!!!
p.s. and finally - I do hope you all enjoy reading this, and looking at the pictures and stuff. I also want everyone to feel free to copy, share, repeat and re-post anything and everything on this blog. I am not one to quibble over intellectual property and copyright and I don't like to threaten people with silly lawsuits. But I will tell you, right now, that if you do any of those sharing/copying/etc things and DON'T attribute it to the originator (in this case, ME), or at least link back to THIS site, you are a douchenozzle of the first order, and karma is gonna get you better than I ever could.
That is all. Carry on.
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Norwegian EPIC, No Longer In a Studio - Nassau, Bahamas
So, it was cold and drizzly in Nassau. And in Miami when we pulled in. So, I put on a jacket. Now I am in Fort Lauderdale and it's about 75f and blue sky, and basically a perfect day. I'm going to skip ahead for a minute, so bear with me. I have a choice on nonstops with Virgin from FLL to LAX - 10am or 7pm. I could *probably* make the 10am, but I am always nervous to leave that early, because that would be the one time there is a problem debarking. So, I take the 7pm flight, but then have hours and hours to kill. So, I usually get a shuttle to the airport, check my bags and grab a cab to the beach in Fort Lauderdale for a few hours and cab back. This shuttle company my friend found is so AWESOME, he actually dropped as at the
beach, is keeping our bags in his van, and will be back for us at 4pm. So, MAJOR shout out to MJS SHUTTLE. If you book your Miami or Fort Lauderdale cruise thru me, he will totally be the new preferred provider. Especially if you have unusual schedules, like a red-eye in and a late flight out.
Anyway, so, back to the Bahamas. Like I said earlier - rainy and cold. But I did get up to the EPIC Club for breakfast finally, and had my Crab Cakes Benedict. And then bopped around the ship. And then went back to EPIC Club for Lunch. The Flounder Milanese was fabuloso. After lunch I headed to town with Michele (or "1L" as I sometimes think of her [I know a bunch of michele/michelle/michille/mychel types, and fortunately no two of them spell it the same, so I think "1L" and "2L", and "with an I" etc...]). Anyway, so, me and Rich got off the ship, ran thru the terminal and two stores across the street, and managed to accomplish a day's shopping in about 20 minutes. Cuz, we're guys. I think the line to get back in the terminal took longer than the actual shopping. Got back aboard and Michele was missing a kid. So those two went one way to look for her, and I, The World's Greatest Uncle, went the right way and found the kid in a minute or less. Cuz that's how good I am.
Honestly I am having a hard time remembering anything from then til I went dinner at LeBistro, on Richard. Joined by Crickett. Had the lobster finally. Definitely worth the upcharge. This is real lobster, succulent and sweet, in a nice buttery sauce, with diced artichoke and a couple of little potato somethings. Also ran into Steve Metzger. Steve has been a waiter with NCL for quite some time, and was, at least for a while, the only American waiter in the fleet (not counting NCLA in Hawaii, where the whole staff is pretty much American). I first met him on the Norwegian Star, and the last time I saw him he was stoked to have been chosen to open the EPIC. Told me all about how he'd be going to France for training and sea trials, etc. Except when I went on the pre-inaugural, he wasn't there. Mike Guida, the ACD at that time (and one of the
staffers featured on Undercover Boss), and also a former Star staffer told me he had gone to the Norwegian Sun in order to stay with his wife. But now they are both on the EPIC, and he still sounded pretty stoked to be there. This is one of the nice things about staying loyal to a particular line - you get to know some of the employees. Not just the HD's and Captains, but the day to day front line staff that are the ones who make a difference. And when you get to know them and follow them from ship to ship, they really CAN make a difference. I am not saying we would not have gotten exemplary service in any case, but it was clear that when our servers found we knew Steve, they treated us with that extra little bit, you know?
So, after dinner I bopped around lookinf for something to do til QUEST. A little karaoke, a little casino, a little break out on the balcony...like that.Finally it was time for the Quest. We were about 15 people and had to split into 2 qroups. We won. I would say more, but, you know what happens on the ship, stays on the ship. So, yeah...my team won. And then I hung out in Bliss for a couple hours, with a few of the diehards. Danced Gangnam Style for about 30 seconds. Watched the rest of them acking up on the dance floor, and at 2 am WENT TO BED. It's been a long and pretty good week, over all. Which probably sounds weird for a guy whose father just died a couple days ago, but, you know - life is for the living, and it does go on. I will deal with all that other shit Monday~!
I will have wifi on the flight home, so I should get the debarking day and recap post done and posted this evening...but right now, it is just too nice a day to sit at a computer. Think I will eat some buffalo shrimp and take a walk down A1A, before I have to head to the airport.
Have a great weekend, y'all
beach, is keeping our bags in his van, and will be back for us at 4pm. So, MAJOR shout out to MJS SHUTTLE. If you book your Miami or Fort Lauderdale cruise thru me, he will totally be the new preferred provider. Especially if you have unusual schedules, like a red-eye in and a late flight out.
Anyway, so, back to the Bahamas. Like I said earlier - rainy and cold. But I did get up to the EPIC Club for breakfast finally, and had my Crab Cakes Benedict. And then bopped around the ship. And then went back to EPIC Club for Lunch. The Flounder Milanese was fabuloso. After lunch I headed to town with Michele (or "1L" as I sometimes think of her [I know a bunch of michele/michelle/michille/mychel types, and fortunately no two of them spell it the same, so I think "1L" and "2L", and "with an I" etc...]). Anyway, so, me and Rich got off the ship, ran thru the terminal and two stores across the street, and managed to accomplish a day's shopping in about 20 minutes. Cuz, we're guys. I think the line to get back in the terminal took longer than the actual shopping. Got back aboard and Michele was missing a kid. So those two went one way to look for her, and I, The World's Greatest Uncle, went the right way and found the kid in a minute or less. Cuz that's how good I am.
Honestly I am having a hard time remembering anything from then til I went dinner at LeBistro, on Richard. Joined by Crickett. Had the lobster finally. Definitely worth the upcharge. This is real lobster, succulent and sweet, in a nice buttery sauce, with diced artichoke and a couple of little potato somethings. Also ran into Steve Metzger. Steve has been a waiter with NCL for quite some time, and was, at least for a while, the only American waiter in the fleet (not counting NCLA in Hawaii, where the whole staff is pretty much American). I first met him on the Norwegian Star, and the last time I saw him he was stoked to have been chosen to open the EPIC. Told me all about how he'd be going to France for training and sea trials, etc. Except when I went on the pre-inaugural, he wasn't there. Mike Guida, the ACD at that time (and one of the
staffers featured on Undercover Boss), and also a former Star staffer told me he had gone to the Norwegian Sun in order to stay with his wife. But now they are both on the EPIC, and he still sounded pretty stoked to be there. This is one of the nice things about staying loyal to a particular line - you get to know some of the employees. Not just the HD's and Captains, but the day to day front line staff that are the ones who make a difference. And when you get to know them and follow them from ship to ship, they really CAN make a difference. I am not saying we would not have gotten exemplary service in any case, but it was clear that when our servers found we knew Steve, they treated us with that extra little bit, you know?
So, after dinner I bopped around lookinf for something to do til QUEST. A little karaoke, a little casino, a little break out on the balcony...like that.Finally it was time for the Quest. We were about 15 people and had to split into 2 qroups. We won. I would say more, but, you know what happens on the ship, stays on the ship. So, yeah...my team won. And then I hung out in Bliss for a couple hours, with a few of the diehards. Danced Gangnam Style for about 30 seconds. Watched the rest of them acking up on the dance floor, and at 2 am WENT TO BED. It's been a long and pretty good week, over all. Which probably sounds weird for a guy whose father just died a couple days ago, but, you know - life is for the living, and it does go on. I will deal with all that other shit Monday~!
I will have wifi on the flight home, so I should get the debarking day and recap post done and posted this evening...but right now, it is just too nice a day to sit at a computer. Think I will eat some buffalo shrimp and take a walk down A1A, before I have to head to the airport.
Have a great weekend, y'all
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