Our Trip to Europe (Part 1)

Crossing the Atlantic Ocean by ship!

On April 7th, we left on our big trip, starting with a two-week Atlantic crossing from Florida to Italy on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Epic repositioning cruise. Our ride picked us up at our house at around 8:30 am packed and ready to go. Our ship was due to leave from Port Canaveral in the afternoon and we were scheduled to board between 10:30-11:00 am. We got to the port in an hour and a half or so, dropped off our luggage, and waited to get on the ship. Our assigned boarding time did not seem to count for anything, it was first come first served. It took us a couple of hours at least to board the ship, quite a chaotic process. Once on board, we found our way to the 15th deck where there was a bar and buffet waiting for us. A couple of hours later, our cabin was ready. We had a cabin on the stern of the ship on deck 11, with a balcony. A little before 6:00 pm, we were on our way. And as we were leaving the coast there was a SpaceX launch which we were able to watch from our balcony.

It took us a couple of days to settle in to life on board the ship. Our cabin was comfortable enough, but it had a strange layout and the “king size” bed must have only been for kings shorter than 5’10” or so (I am 6’2”). There was a splendid gym which we used almost every day, quite a few restaurants and bars, a theater, shops, and the usual amenities we’ve found on the other two cruises we have taken. There were also a lot of lines and a lot of waiting for almost everything, which we found disappointing. Once we got used to the ship we were able to find our way around most of the lines. The food was mostly quite good, and the crew were friendly and easy to get along with. I have always had a fascination with all things nautical, and I’ve always wanted to actually sail across the Atlantic from continent to continent. As we spent more time on the ship we found passengers from all over the United States and the World who had the same goal. There were people who had come from Europe, just to sail home, and people who had come from as far away as Australia just to experience an Atlantic crossing. There was a man we met from Texas who was taking the cruise to Italy just to get pizza in Naples and then fly right back home.

The first couple of days at sea the weather was fine. We were at the aft end of the ship and it seemed like a lot of the things we wanted to do were at the forward end of the ship, which was over 1,000 feet long. We usually choose the stairs instead of the elevators, and we definitely got our steps in every day. We started to have some rougher weather a few days in and getting our “sea legs” took a bit of practice. One night the ship was rolling so much that one of the fire closet doors in the hall outside our cabin came open and was going back and forth hitting the walls like a loud metronome. I finally went out and made it stay shut. Then the time changes started. Our destination was six hours ahead of our daylight savings time in Florida, and the ship started changing the clocks in one hour increments every day or two. Just shaving an hour off of a day was something we really felt more than we had expected. The internet service that came with our cabin was really feeble which added to our feelings of isolation and disorientation. The crew was not fond of these shorter days as their workload stayed the same, just their free time was shortened. Our cabin was quite dark and with the curtains shut it was very hard to tell night from day. Some days we woke up so much later than usual that we were surprised when we looked at the time. Passengers with interior cabins must have been even more bewildered.

We found ourselves skipping breakfast most days because by the time we got through with the gym lunch was being served. We usually opted for the buffet on deck 15, or one of the interior restaurants when the line was bearably short. With our cabin came a decent drink package and three meals each in one of the specialty restaurants on the ship. The Steakhouse and the French restaurants were outstanding and would have been expensive if we had had to pay. In the French restaurant I discovered that steak tartare is definitely not for me, but somehow really rare New York strip certainly is.

One of the things we did on board was take the “Behind the Scenes” tour of the ship. It was a bit pricey and required advance booking, but we thought it was worth it. If you are interested in ships and what it takes to run one I certainly recommend taking the tour. We started by seeing the backstage area of the theater, then went on to the laundry area, the food storage and preparation areas, the engine control room, and finally the bridge. There is always a tremendous amount of activity on this ship. The main crew passageway running from bow to stern on the ship is nicknamed “I-95” because of the constant traffic. Running a ship with several thousand passengers and crew takes a lot of coordinated work and effort, and we got to see a pretty good slice of that.

We also saw a couple of shows in the ship’s theater. The first was a professional Broadway type production called “Burn the Floor” featuring some fantastic dancing. It was a great show. The second show featured a Beatles tribute band dressed in their Sergeant Pepper regalia, and while the music was good these guys really didn’t look too much like the Beatles. Still a lot of fun.

Close to two weeks of all sea days on a ship does get tedious, no matter how much there is to do. We also had to pay close attention to charges on our on board account because erroneous charges do appear and are best dealt with immediately.

For our next post we’ll write about passing through the Straits of Gibraltar and arriving in Europe.

Saludos, Craig