Norwegian Epic Transatlantic: Tortola

After five relaxing days at sea, today the Norwegian Epic will dock in Tortola. Tortola is one of the British Virgin Islands and Sister T and I have been here previously.

Early Morning on Board

The price for going to bed so early was waking up at 4:30 am! I went upstairs for coffee only to find the machine broken and the other one outside not on. It was a lucky coincidence that this was the day I brought up a Starbucks french roast coffee vial that Sister T. found when starting her packing yesterday.

Speaking of Sister T., she had gotten up even earlier than me and had a Reuben sandwich at O’Sheehan’s before they switched to breakfast menu at 5 am.

We checked the menu for tonight and won’t be missing it while dining at Le Bistro.

tonight’s dining room menu (click to enlarge)

Although the dessert menu looked good.

Sister T. also showed me that Christmas elves had come while we were sleeping.

There were trees, garlands and holiday flower arrangements up.

You can see the garlands around the O’Sheehans above the atrium.

I got breakfast at the buffet.

It was so gorgeous outside and we were docking when I finished.

I checked if I had cell data and started going through the 1,756 emails that accumulated during the last five days.

A Day at Cane Garden Bay

We were early so got out beach bags together and waited on 15 admiring the view until it was announced the ship was cleared. We found the taxis outside easily but had to wait until the taxi filled up before they would leave for Cane Garden Bay. It was $16 per person round trip and they collected the entire amount when we got there and gave us yellow bands to show we already paid.

We settled in at the Painkiller beach bar (the menu says glen seaside but that’s not what the restaurant said or the wifi network we used).

We had front row loungers, an umbrella and drink table for $20.

She said the wifi was $5 but gave it to us for free if we bought something. If you look closer at the photo below you can see Sister T. accessing her accumulated emails!

We of course were planning too. The beach was gorgeous.

The water was warm, no rocks on the beach and no drop offs.

The view was even great from the water with just green trees and plants on the hills behind the beach.

We had two rounds of mango daquiris and also ordered lunch.

I had the bacon cheeseburger.

Sister T. Had chicken strips; both came with fries.

We enjoyed our lunches and caught the 2 pm taxi back to the pier. We were back in our cabin before 3 pm and cleaned up before taking a short nap before dinner.

Le Bistro Revisited

My alarm didn’t work and we woke up 20 minutes before our 6 pm Le Bistro reservation. We called to see if we could push back the reservation but the next opening was at 8:45 and he said we could show up by 6:15 and be safe.

Somehow we made it before then ad were wonderfully greeted and seated. The maitre’d here is so nice; he’s going home to Bosnia on Sunday and is excited about that!

We are dining at Le Bistro again because we enjoyed it so much earlier in the cruise and ended up cancelling our reservation at Moderno, the brazilian steakhouse, in favor of a second visit here. We are seated in a different part of the dining room and it was very dark at our table; so much so that I had to use my phone’s flashlight app to read the menu.

We are definitely getting tired of food and only had one appetizer each (and no alcohol but lots of water). I had the crab a salad and Sister T. selected the cream of mushroom soup. You can see photos of items we had the first time around on that post.

For the entree course, I had the butter poached shrimp which Sister T. raved about last visit. I agree that it is divine! This time Sister T. went with veal medallions and really enjoyed them.