Setbacks at Sea

When you book a cruise, there is a disclaimer that is often repeated which states that cruise ports can be cancelled or changed at the discretion of the company. So, a week after we paid the final payment, we were disappointed but not surprised that Norwegian cancelled the port stops of Bermuda and Lisbon Portugal. Since this cruise was more about transportation like that of our ancestors, versus a giant party, we rolled with the first punch.

We boarded the Norwegian Epic in New York on March 31, 2025 with a sail away party scheduled at 7:00pm. The party actually got started at 7:30 and rumors suggested someone got hurt and needed an ambulance. Though the weather was a bit damp, the energy on the top pool deck was nothing but damp. Whoops of joy and alcohol flowed heavily as the Epic began her adventure out of the harbor, but just past the statue of liberty she slowed and stopped. The bridge was coming up, but we stopped moving toward it. Is this normal? No? Hmmm? We wondered what this was all about. Then came the announcement “Folks, we only received half of the fuel needed to get to Funchal, Portugal. We need to wait for a barge to come and give us the other half…” This dampened some of the spirits of the party as the rain began drizzling. So, we all started going inside. Eventually we made our way to bed.

Imagine our novice surprise when we awoke on April 1, 2025 still sitting in the same place. What the hell kinda April Fools trick is this? Why can we still see New York from the balcony of our transatlantic cruise after 12 hours aboard? Then, we got the answer, “Good Morning Folks, the barge we were expecting last night to add fuel to our ship was detained during the storm last night. We are fueling now and should be starting out again in an hour.” With bated breath, we waited for him to shout, “APRIL FOOLS, FOLKS!”, but it did not come and we did, indeed, sail away finally.