We have just gotten home form a wonderful week on the NCL Epic.  We left here last Saturday and went to Cape Canaveral to catch the ship.  It is only two hours form here and all easy driving until you get to the pier.  Then we miss the last turn every time, but it is easy to recover from a wrong turn there.  Every time we went out of Miami we got lost near the pier.  We could see the ship but could not get there.  We sailed on the Epic and went down into the Virgin Island. 

This is the ship we were on.  We are Gold Latitude members, that means we have sail with NCL many times before.  This was our 8th or 9th cruise, I forget and have loved every one.  This one was very special.  When we got to the pier to register we already had our boarding passes as we did all that on line and because we were gold members we did not have to wait in line to sign in and give our credit card for one board spending.  We went right through the registration and on to the ship.  We had gotten there early so had to wait on the ship until our cabin was made up which wasn’t long before they let us into our cabin to put down our carry ons and then we went right up to the 15th deck for lunch. I was very careful what I picked to eat as I have been staying away from wheat of any kind and feeling much better for it and did not want to have a spell on the ship.  I was asked about that in the dinning room and they introduced me to Reynard Ruiz who is the chef/head waiter in charged of special diets.  He explained the program to me and he took over my meals for the rest of the cruise.  I didn’t have to worry about what to eat or worry about any bit of wheat slipping into my food.  All my meals were prepared in a separate kitchen and each evening Rey came to my table, wherever I was eating, and gave me the menu for the next day for me to pick from.  Some things could not be made for without wheat so he told me what not to have.  I would order all my meals for the next day and when I went in to eat I just told the waitress my cabin number and my food was made up and sent to that dinning room.  It got to be that Rey would check in with me at each meal to be sure things were going right and I was happy with my choices.  He ever stopped to talk when he saw me out on deck.  I felt like I had come on board with my own private chef.  Norman has just returned from his walk and time for us to have the first course of breakfast so I’ll finish this later.  Have a great day.