Such a nice audience

Now it's a while since we've written anything here at Dolce blog. At the moment we are sitting at a sports bar in Barcelona and will soon move into our fourth week on the boat. It is no longer so confusing to navigate around the boat and we start to get used to our new habits. Last week  Sofia's parents came visiting. Very nice to have friends and family on board. Sofia had a chance to explore the various ports and Henrik and I continued with training. This week the safety training continous. Yesterday, we learned basic first aid and this week we will learn how to operate fire extinguishers and in Palma jump into the sea from deck 4 to learn how to turn a liferaft. Although the training takes a lot of time is quite interesting and important to learn. Since Sofia has spent much time with her family, Henrik and I had many meals together. On Friday we were dining at "Moderno". Moderno is a Brazilian meat restaurant. They have 10 different meat dishes, great salad buffet and sides for the meat. One is equipped with a card with a green and a red side. When you want more meat you turn your card to green and then a waiter will come and cut off a piece of meat. It was an evening of a lot of food because you want to taste all meat types. It was incredibly good! We will definitely recommend Moderno to all who plan to visit the Norwegian EPIC. We are often asked by visitors and those working on the ship if we feel comfortable and enjoy working there and the answer is that it is the nice people on the ship that makes the whole experience. This week we had a fantastic audience. They make all the work worth it. This week we got our first tip and a small gift from Japan. Next week is the Nicelodeon week at the ship and Spongebob and his friends will be going around everywhere and entertain 2,000 children. Here are a few pictures of our last experiences.

Sofia and Beatrice in Naples for the first time. Our "home" in the background.

Sofia tasting real pizza in Naples

A typical sidestreet in Naples and also the pizzaretsaurant we visited.

The Epic celebrated it's 1 year birthday last week and arranged a crew party in the Manhattan Room.

A happy trio celebrating Epic's Birthday.

-Bea

It's a really big boat.....no,no SHIP!

So this blog post is going to be about the confusing new terms we need to use here on the boat. I constantly say that the EPIC is a really big boat, when the right term is Ship. We no longer have floors but decks. It's a bit confusing, but when you get used to it it's much easier to navigate around the ship.

So here is a little list of Ship Terminologies

Aft:  Towards or near the stern/back of ship

Anchor: When the ship sits off shore, at sea in port city; tender

Boat: Any small waterborne vehicle, smaller than a ship

Bow: The forward end of any vessel

Bridge: The control or command center of any power vessel

Debark: To leave or exit the ship: get off. Also, Disembark, Disembarkation

Docked: When the ship is able to “park” by shore-side at a pier

Embark: To board; set sail; to get on. Also, Embarkation

Funnel: The smokestack of the ship

Galley: The ships kitchen area.

Gangway: The opening through the ship’s side and the ramp by which the guests embark and debark the ship

Helm: The ship’s steering system

Itinerary: A schedule of visiting ports on a cruise travel

Mid-ship: In or towards the middle of the ship

Pier: Where a ship is docked in a port

Port side: Left side of the ship when facing forward

Starboard side: Right side of the ship when facing forward

Stern: Rear of the ship

Tender: Transportation by boat between the ship and visiting city.

How to speak our language.

-Bea

This is an security announcement

Dolce Trio is continuing their security and emergency training. We now have knowledge of Crowd Management, How to handle an emergency situation, how to interact with guest and how to treat and respect other crewmembers and guests.  Among the crewmembers we have 72 nationalities.  Today is a sea day (sailing from Naples to Palma di Mallorca) and our first day off. Tonight we hope to get at table at “The Manhattan Room” or “Taste” and eat dinner there.  If you want to check out the deck plans on the EPIC you can go here.  Yesterday Sofia and Bea went to Napoli and had their first slice of Italian Pizza. No time for sightseeing this week, but next week we will explore the city and maybe Pompei. Henrik (also know as Henrick) took the opportunity to practise in the Manhattan Room during portday. Tomorrow we will be playing in the Atrium and visiting Palma. Vamos a Laaa playaaa!

Signs of life

Finally we got the expensive internet connection working...

 

The EPIC adventure has begun! Our first day on the boat started  early at 05 am. We recognized that a lot of the guest at the airport hotel was crewmembers on the EPIC. It was a fantastic feeling when we drove into the port and saw the beautiful Norwegian EPIC. 

From the first steps on board and until present we have had a lot to do all the time. 

Henrik and Sofia is looking confused after the intensive morning with a lot of new information.

The first two weeks consists of training, both security and service and we also try to practise as a trio before each night’s gig. This is a picture of us practising in "The Manhattan Room"

We have been playing in a dining room called “Taste” and yesterday we were in “The Manhattan Room”. It’s hard to imagine how big this ship really is. Just to know wich deck (notice we don't have floors anymore...) you are on can be a struggle.  But fortunate all crewmembers are really friendly and helpful so we feel welcome.  Today we are in Civitavecchia (Rome) and some of you may wonder what we thought about Livorno yesterday. For time being there are so many new things to learn and training so we have decided to visit the ports next week.

This is a picture from when we had to write a personal escape route and write the name of the fire extinguisher.  We also had a firedrill yesterday and we will have them every week. Here you can see me an Sofia waiting for the fire drill to start.

When we are on the boat everybody need to wear their nametag both in passanger and crew area. It feels a bit strange to wear your nationality like this. And the point of being a Scandinavian Trio is fading now  when I'm official french ;)

Even if we have a lot of training we also have a lot of fun. Here are some pictures from our nice time on the boat.

Follow us for more info about the destination. 

The travel to Barcelona

The Dolce Trio adventure started this morning at 08:30.  It felt like Gothenburg were crying and this is what it looked like:

The story about the hat. When we got the contract with Norwegian Epic , our friend Magdalena said that we had to get a big straw hat so we could sit on sun deck and look like the actors in "The Love Boat". So...Bea got herself a hat. The only problem is that it's really fragile and BIG, so we decided to wear the hat on the plane instead of putting it in a bag. After watching the last picture you may understand how crazy it looked when we came with this big hat when the rain was pouring.

 Dolce Trio on the plane to Frankfurt. Henrik is holding our "Reinforcement rings. Self - adhesive, made of transparent plastic film, for nearly and dependably reinforcing or repairing file attachement holes" pack. We call them the "plupps" and Sofia is the plupp master. A good way to pass the time is to do some "plupping" on the plane.

Dolce Trio at Barcelona aeroporto. Really nice airport by the way.

NCL had booked a hotel for us close to the airport.  A lot of the shops there were closed so we had to take the bus to the city center to buy shampoo, soap and sunscreen. And the weather in Barcelona was fantastic!

Tomorrow our day starts with a busshuttle from the hotel to the port at 06:30 am.  A nice thing with travelling as a NCL crew is that you get some extra attention at the airport. When Sofia cheked in they asked her if she was going to work on a cruise. Apperently it said so in the reservation.

Sunny greetings from Barcelona - Dolce Trio