Norwegian Epic Transatlantic: Crossing Sea Day 1

Today is the first of five sea days as the Norwegian Epic crosses the Atlantic. I haven’t done that many sea days in a row since our Hawaii cruise in 2013.

Morning Aboard Epic

I was up shortly after six am and can’t find my glasses anywhere so pull out the spare pair I packed. I’ll take another look after I have fuel (caffeine) onboard.

I found Sister T. up in the Great Outdoors and had coffee while journaling. It’s already 70 degrees this early in the morning. We went to breakfast at taste this morning (opened at 7:30 am). I had the corned beef hash and it was very good along with an english muffin for the first time (and banana).

Sister T. had the spinach dill pancakes and thought they were pretty good; although you don’t need three. It came with smoked salmon and sour cream.

Afterwards, I tore apart the cabin and finally found my glasses wedged between the wall and the bed on the side. They were fine! While doing that I went ahead and put away my winter clothes (heavy coat, long johns, long sleeved tops) in the suitcase under the bed and got out my beach bag, sun hat, etc.

Then I got ready for the pool for the first time and found a lounger I liked second row back (the first row had no room to recline if they wanted) and ordered a Bloody Mary.

In my mind, the cruise has officially switched from an European one to a Caribbean one. 🙂

I spent 2 1/2 hours sunning, visiting with a few Canadians next to me (she wanted to know where t get my tote bag) and reading. I also did use the hot tub and dipped my toes in the pool. It wasn’t as cold as I expected but not warm enough for me to go in…. yet.

Afternoon at Sea

Before I got too red, I left the pool to get ready for lunch. I showered and joined Sister T. in the casino. I quickly lost 10 dollars.

Then we went to lunch in Taste. It was the same menu as embarkation.

I had the crab salad in potato skin for starter.

For entree I had the cheeseburger.

I tried to get bacon added but since one of the other dishes has bacon (other than meatloaf cooked with it), it was a polite no. I got a picture of the Christmas display in the dining room.

Sister T repeated her selections from day one and we both finished with creme caramel.

We tried to visit the cruise next desk afterwards but they were closed for lunch. We’ll make it one of these sea days. I wanted to go the the 2pm Beatles lecture but elected to nap instead. The last three ports were tiring! Otherwise, didn’t do much until I got ready for the evening.

I put together a bag of laundry as we had another slip for the special (my second bag).

I really need short sleeve tops but washed my second set of pjs and a few other things.

Evening at Sea

We met at Shakers for a cocktail before dinner. I had my favorite Citrus Gem and Sister T. Had brought a BBC from the pool bar.

Shortly before 6, we checked in for our dinner at Teppanyaki. We were seated at the table for 8 with a party of six from Puerto Rico that included three sisters. They were nice but didn’t try to interact with us at all.

After being seated, we were poured water, then our waiter explained the menu to us.

The room we were in had four grills with more in another room but it had no windows to the outside. The only decisions to make are what entree and dessert you want. We both decided to start off with one of their cocktails. Sister T. Had the Wasabi cocktail last time and didn’t care for it so we went with the other one, Shaku-Shaku.

It was tasty.

We were first served the miso soup with edamame.

The soup was bland but otherwise fine. Some of the edamame were a little old so hard to open. Next we had the salad which was very tasty.

In the meantime, our chef had arrived and introduced himself and started frying the eggs for the fried rice. I was surprised how many eggs he put in it.

It was fun watching him prepare the rice and he explained each ingredient as he went along.

Next he prepared the vegetables.

We had onions, mushroom, zucchini and carrot. While that was cooking we were poured two dipping sauces. The chef recommended the garlic one for the vegetables and the mustard based one for meats. The results were delicious and the sauce really complemented it.

Then he served us a generous bowl of the fried rice (which he was happy to refill but no one at our table took him up on it).

It was very good!

Then the chef moved on to cooking the entrees. Three people had ordered vegetarian udon noodles with vegetables and he did that first. Then came the shrimp.

While I was enjoying that with my rice (and dipping sauce) he prepared the filet mignon. I ordered medium so mine was first off. Sadly I was so busy eating, no photos were taken! Then the chef cooked the calamari and scallops.

As if that wasn’t enough, we had dessert. I had ordered the green tea cake.

The cake was horrible but enjoyed the ice cream. I forgot to get a picture of the fruit sashimi which was lovely and had about six kinds of fruit including kiwi, watermelon, strawberry, melon, etc.

We went back to the cabin where I camped out the rest of the evening. Although I had reservations to Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, I was just too tired. I saw it two years ago on our previous Epic sailing plus the movie of course.

Instead I watched a couple of episodes of Mad Men. The characters are so frustrating sometimes; they make such poor decisions but I can’t stop watching.

We had card to turn clocks back.