Homeruns on the field and in the kitchen

Dads love baseball. Dads love grilling. Sounds like spending time at a Rays game for Father's Day weekend is a great idea! The Tampa Bay Rays have a great promo going on this weekend as they take on the Kansas City Royals. With the Rays Ticket Tandem you'll be able to get a Rays apron at any game this weekend (June 14th-16th)!

The aprons are designed to look like the jerseys that the players wear. The apron is a perfect gift for dads this Father's Day weekend, or the perfect addition to any cooks apron collection. It's also a different take on the traditional baseball shirt or jersey gift. I received a copy of the apron to try out - and I'm sure you'll love it too! Support your home team while cooking up some good food. Perfect!

Click here to purchase your tickets!

While you're at Tropicana Field, be sure to check out Everglades BBQ! I'm sure dad would love a Pulled Pork Sandwich while he watches the game.

Also happening at the Trop this weekend -

Saturday June 15th - Vow renewal on the field after the game. Deadline to register is Thursday 6/13
Sunday June 16th - Kids 14 and under get a pair of Jeremy Hellickson headphones (while supplies last) & post-game concert with the Imagination Movers. Also - Bark in the Park is back!

Go Rays!

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Sailing away on the Norwegian Epic {part 4}

Let's scan our room key cards and get back onboard the Norwegian epic for the final part of my vacation recap series. We've talked about pre-cruise, our stateroom, and the excursions.

So what kind of food blogger goes on a cruise and doesn't take any food pictures? Me. I'll hang my head in shame. I didn't board the ship with intentions of blogging about it, and since I was on vacation I didn't carry my phone with me to take pictures. Once I got home I regretted it. I won't let it happen again!

Yes, cruises have food available 24/7. If it's not from a dining room or a speciality restaurant, it could be from a buffet, room service, or pizza delivery. Oh yeah, 24/7 pizza delivery is available on NCL ships - and it can be delivered anywhere on the ship! We didn't take advantage but I did have plenty of pizza on board.

Norwegian is known for their specialty restaurants. These are an additional fee per diner, but usually worth it. During our 7 day Epic cruise we dined at a few specialty restaurants:

Moderno - a Brazilian steakhouse. So worth the $20 for a massive salad bar with meats and cheeses, and all you can eat churrascaria meats served table side. Also 3 desserts and grilled pineapple. Needless to say we were stuffed when we left here.

La Cucina Italian Restaurant - Classic Italian restaurant with traditional dishes for $15. This was not as good as the La Cucina we had last year on the NCL Star, but overall not a bad dinner.

Wasabi Sushi Bar - We stopped by between lunch and dinner for a sushi snack. Well... one thing lead to another and a few sushi rolls later we waddled back to the cabin. So good and so fresh.

The aftermath of 3 desserts at Moderno

Besides eating, drinking, excursions, and laying poolside - here are some of our other favorite activities on the Epic:

Howl at the Moon - A dueling piano bar with 3 very talented performers. Bring your request (and tip money!) and a sense of humor, and you'll be hooked. We attended 3 out of 4 Howl performances on board. This was our favorite part of the ship, and we wish NCL would bring Howl at the Moon on all ships fleet-wide. 

Our 2 favorite performers and favorite audience member (left)

Svedka Ice Bar - An entire room made of ice, Svedka vodka drinks served in ice shot glasses, and a whole lot of chill! Make a reservation, put on a parka and gloves, and head in for the most unique bar on the high seas. $20 per person includes 2 drinks. Only drinks from the limited menu are served. Tip: You can order the non-alcoholic options and ask the bartender to add vodka. Dress warm! (I wore flip flops. Brrrr!)

Key Master Game - Kudos to whoever came up with this! What a money maker! Every time we walked by the casino, we stopped to watch whoever was playing the Key Master game. We never saw anyone actually win, but every single person gets "so close." It's even more addicting because no cash is involved - you just slide your room key card. I only wasted $2 playing this, but we saw some do a lot more. These are strategically placed on both sides of the casino, so you're sure to stop, stare, and sneak in a play. Just one try. Ok, one more... 

Win an iPad or lots of cash! 

Other onboard activities we liked:

Blue Man Group - I am glad I saw this, but wouldn't see it again. 

Legends in Concert - I'm happy Michael Jackson was one of our entertainers. He was great! Other performers were Donna Summer, Jimmy Buffet, and Whoopi Goldberg. 

Aqua Park - The lines for slides can be long on sea days, but quick and easy on port days. The Epic Plunge was great!

One of our favorite onboard activities was just sitting on the balcony and enjoying the view. Before we knew it, 7 days was up and we were back to reality. We can't wait to book our next NCL cruise!

Sun setting on our vacation

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Sailing away on the Norwegian Epic {part 3}

We're onboard the Norwegian Epic, and ready to hit the open waters. Catch up on part 1 of my review here, and part 2 here.

Some people choose a cruise based on the ports of call they'll be visiting. I prefer to choose based on the ship and onboard amenities, but our ports of call on the Epic were pretty, well, Epic. We were on an Eastern Caribbean itinerary which sailed out of Miami to St. Martaan, St. Thomas, and Nassau. This was a 7 day cruise, so we had 3 sea days as well.

Here are some of the highlights of our excursions:

St. Martaan (or St. Martin depending on which side of the island you're on)
We chose the Ultimate Island Tour & Explorer Cruise excursion offered by NCL. This was a relaxing way to see both the Dutch and French sides of the island, and learn a lot of history about the island. Our tour guide on the bus ride was Cecilia. She had a heavy accent and I felt like I was comprehending her in slow motion. I had to really slow down and listen to everything she said so I could understand her. She was very knowledgeable and had a great sense of humor.

View from where our ship was docked

Bus tour

After about 20 minutes on the bus with Cecilia, we boarded our Explorer cruise. As soon as we stepped foot on the boat, the dark skies welcomed us with heavy rain and wind. What a nightmare! We were able to grab chairs on the top deck, which was covered, and rum punch to warm us up. Did I mention that the boat has unlimited rum punch? I think I might have had 3 glasses before we reached Marigot.

The sun came out shortly after the Explorer left the dock. Whew!

Gorgeous Marigot area

We were dropped off for an hour in Marigot. This was a marina shopping area on the French side of the island. Well if I can't be in Paris this year, I was going to soak up being in a French territory! The merchants accepted Euros and all spoke perfect French. Even the handwriting was very French - I loved looking at all of the menu boards.

French handwriting, French cuisine = I'm in France! 

We opted to eat lunch instead of shopping. We ended up with a crepe and a pizza. Even after 3 days of all you can eat pizza onboard the Epic, I was craving pizza for some reason. Both dishes were good, but a little pricey after factoring in the Euro to US Dollar conversion.

Jambon, fromage, and oeuf crepe

Margherita pizza

After our hour flew by, we were back on the bus with Cecilia to return back to our ship. We had the option of being dropped off in the shopping area, but we chose to return to our home away from home on the Epic.

St. Thomas

St. Thomas was pretty darn close to paradise. You know those images with the crystal blue water and the palm trees? Yep, that's where we were. We chose the St. John Champagne Catamaran Sail and Snorkel offered by NCL. This was the highest rated excursion offered for our itinerary and all of the reviews I found online were good as well. Plus, it had "champagne" in the name, so I knew it had to be good!

We had a short ride to the dock where we were greeted by our catamaran crew. We saw a boat docked in the marina that was from St. Petersburg, Florida. What a small world! I had to get a picture of that!

When we were leaving we actually saw Mr. and Mrs. Mango Man on their boat. We told them we were also from St. Petersburg. The Mango's had been docked in St. Thomas for 3 months and they were getting ready to head out to the British Virgin Islands. This is where I almost had my Chris Gardner moment, "What do you do and how do you do it?"

The scenery on the ride to our near private island, St. John, was beautiful. We arrived at the snorkeling destination and had an hour or two to explore. I am not a snorkeler, so we headed to the beach and enjoyed the water. You could almost see your feet through the water, it was that clear.

Before we knew it, we headed back onboard our catamaran for some drinks and snacks. Being bummed about leaving the island was made better with unlimited champagne and rum punch. How many rum punches could we drink before we headed back onboard the Epic? Not enough :)

Bye bye St. John! 

Fueling up

Nassau
We actually decided to stay onboard the Epic instead of doing an excursion in Nassau. I've been to Nassau 3 times on cruises and never gotten off of the boat there. Either I am really missing out or I'm not missing much at all.

Stay tuned for part 4 of my vacation recap - featuring all of the onboard features of the Epic!

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