The Epic Cruise- Part 1

On December 10th, Tim and I sailed out of Miami on the NCL Epic with 4,200 other vacationers. We also traveled with Josh, a co-worker and good friend of Tim's and Josh's mom, Barb. This is the newest and largest ship out there. This thing is a beauty! We called our room with a balcony home for 7 glorious days. It was so relaxing to soak in the sun, endless food and exotic locations without having to lift a finger. This vacation had the right balance of everything. There were quiet moments to read and lay out and time to break out the dance moves until 3am.

The entertainment aboard was amazing. We saw The Blue Man Group,The Second City comedy troupe, Cirque Dreams, and Legends in Concert. Tim even got pulled into the act during the Cirque act. They did not allow pictures to be taken or I would have some neat pics of Tim the Sheriff.

There were too many restaurants to try them all. The cruise dinner experience has completely changed since our honeymoon 11 years ago. There is no more "early dinning, late dinning" or assigned seats. There were 2 main dinning restaurants "Manhattan Room" and "Taste" that you could dine at your leisure or at the endless buffet. Then there were many "speciality" restaurants by reservation. We took in the French restaurant, "LeBistro" and the Italian restaurant, "La Cucina"

During the "Days at Sea", Tim and Josh were in class so it gave me some free time. That was quiet a weird feeling. No kids to teach, or house to clean, or food to make. I got to ride the 3 awesome water slides all by myself! I thought I would miss the kids, and I really did, but when I saw other parents trying to rope their kids and lug all the stuff around, I was glad that they were having fun at Grandmas instead.

Our ship made 3 stops on our journey. We explored St Maarten, St. Thomas, and the Bahamas. I will write about the excitement on those days in a different post.

I had an awesome time on the ship with Tim and a new found friend, Josh. They kept saying, "What happens on a FreeStyle Cruise, stays on a FreeStyle Cruise" So I am not going to share everything. It was just nice to take a break from life and being a mom and enjoy vacation. Which made the week we came back harder to get back into. Believe it or not, Tim is already looking ahead to the next trip!