Bulldogsoc

Years ago I was at the bar around 10pm or so and the bar tender told me I was at 13 of my 15 and suggested that if I did not want to get cut off to just pay cash for the next round or two if I planned to be up for a while which leads me to suggest the answer is they don’t count but I thought I read somewhere the 15 limit was to keep folks from getting carried away. Well, I will find out in a few months.

If I got to the bar with my cheers and get a beer on the package but buy a bucket round for a group, I know I am charged for bucket and one round off my cheers, but do those four subtract from my 15 limit for the day as well? Just curious if I can drink my 15 or so if I want and buy rounds for others during the day. I know if I am on my 12th in the evening they are unlikely to let me buy that many extras but I frankly don’t really know. THX Mark

We parked in the Bayonne port garage on the 12th and we got in no problem at 9:30 am.

$175 for our week. We pulled in on Sunday morning March 12th at about 9:30 and there was a squad of men in vests manning the gate and directing people where to park and encouraging people to back into stalls. When we disembarked the they had taken the very smart move to have all of the ticket pay stations manned to speed things up. I thought we would be an hour getting out of the garage with the number of people that did self assist at 7am but aside form waiting for the elevator if you needed to, it was super fast.

There is a small cafe in the buffet on the Pride.

Another stupid fight on the Magic. Sitting at the bar in Casino watching this guy who was already really really loud get wound up. Unfortunately he was more drunk than the people winding him up. Just got through telling the guy beside me that people like that can’t help themselves and… Dam Hulk Hogan Suplex right there on the floor in front of us. I am not talking about small dudes either. Too tired to upload the video tonight. Idiots! If the sheriff doesn’t meet us at Canaveral I will be surprised. Saw the guy in the lobby on my way upstairs. Face looks like he ran into a barb wire fence. Merry Xmas Cruise.

Amber Cove was our last port of call today. We got in around 7am, with a 3pm departure planned. We booked a hillside Cabana. We did not realize everything that came with it when we booked. It. We opted for the hill because of the views. We read and saw pics of small hot tubs but also heard of some people arriving and theirs not working. Well it would appear they replaced the one/two person ones with new four person tubs. Brand new. We were off before 8am and one of the first to check in. There is a kiosk labelled as such just to the right as you exit the duty free shop entrance. They give you a room key and everyone in the party gets a wrist band (up to eight) which gives you unlimited zip lines. What we did not know is that you also got an hour of water sports (we did paddle boards and aqua bikes). If I had been thinking I would have gotten some of Jack’s new friends to join us on check in so they could use the extra 4 wrist bands. The guy gave us Cabana 12 which is the closest to the water slide and the furtherest (not far) from the zip line entrance. He said it was the best because of the view and he was right. Our view was much more expansive. I am not sure how they decide which you get but I suspect it is first come first served so if you are going for a Hill Cabana, I suggest you get their first and ask for 12. What we did not know is that it also got you two umbrellas and sets of chairs (likely eight) by the pool, which was cool but we frankly never needed to use them. The Cabana also had a misting system on the deck operated by valves on the upright posts (follow the water lines). The AC worked great.. like a souvenir shop (even with the door open). The slatted side windows open but they have plexiglass that you don’t noice which helps with the AC. There is fridge filled with water and coke products. We took some beer and sandwiches from the ship and stored them in there. There is a sectional and lounge chair inside the Cabana and two chases on the deck and an umbrella plus the hot tube. The clean washrooms are 30 feet up the path below the sky bar. There is a shower outside your front door. There are four Cabanas. There are two water slides about 50 yards down the path. One covered (smooth) and one uncovered (like a cheese grater on your back between the grooves). There is a gradual path and steps on the back side of the hill leading up to the top. Alternatively there are 78 steps up from the main plaza. The zip line requires you to briefly fill out some details on each person including kids and then they are fast and efficient. They kind of suggest that if you plan to do it repeatedly in a row to keep your helmet and harness on but I would not do that even if I was going to…. Too dam hot!. They have tons of staff and a side by side to ferry the used helmets and harnesses back up. There are two tandem lines so you can race one another. Small kids can go with the parent together. Our Canada gave expansive views for pictures and video of everyone on the zip line. The over the water cabanas have nice views but the water is very cloudy from being churned up several times a day with the cruise ships so it is like swimming in a swamp pond… no thanks. We got to paddle around in front of them and check them out. The pool side cabanas don’t have hot tubs but you get a hammock. All things considered I think I would go with the hillside again all day long. Great instagram pictures from there. We cannot comment on the food of drinks as we did not order any. The sky bar is worth a walk for the views. We got the obligatory fridge magnet in the shops (took a while to find one that actually said Amber Cove on it that was not simply pencilled in). Watched the pilot get on his boat from our cove balcony room (right below us). It was super hot but nice an cool in the Cabana. Another great day. One (sea) day left. Lobster tonight. Two thumbs up. Staff and food continue to be great. More later…Mark .

Only surpassed by the line to get back on board at Amber Cove. Yikes! IMG_3329.MOV

Old San Juan yesterday was a chill day. Hiked to the Castil for a pic or two and then to Walgreens for some Solarcaine and then spent most of the day enjoying the unobstructed views of San Juan from the aft pool on Deck 10. We booked the 555 for dinner and it was great. The steaks this time were a cut above previous visits with lots less membrane/sinew in some cuts. Even our NY’s in the main dining room were quite thick and very enjoyable this cruise. The cheesecake portions in the Steakhouse were huge. Service was good. After a day in the Sun and 12 drinks on the Cheers it was bed time. Teens had some type of pyjama party while we sawed logs. Deal or no deal was pretty good the other day as both contestants picked the $1k as their case right off the bat. That makes the game fun to watch. When I was on the Pride it made for a stupid game to watch when the poor contestant eliminates all the high dollar amounts in the first round and a half… not very dramatic when the banker has a down side of $24. LOL. Today is Amber Cove. We rented a hillside Cabana. Got some beers to stick in the fridge and some Cubans wrapped in foil to enjoy before grabbing some wings or something in the port. This morning the caffeine line is the longest yet! Not even my addictions is that strong! More later. Mark

Old San Juan

Yes. Same time as restaurant.

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The taxi driver (Agatha) was from A.A. Taxi and Tour 1-869-6677-8365. They put a wrist band on my arm with their phone number in case we wanted to change our pick up time. If you are less adventurous you can sign up for a beach experience at the South Friar’s Beach club (not sure what it is called). It was and one end of the beach and Ship Wreck was at the other with Discovery Beach Bar in the middle. The developed place at the one end had a pier that had tenders servicing the Le Bellot ship. Lots of Carnival towels down there. The beach is deeper but you are packed in there. BUT you have clean and tidy showers, etc. which is the upside. We light going on our own as we despise waiting around dockside for the transportation and being at the mercy of the late arrivals. Agatha stopped at the look off so we could take pictures of the rough Atlantic side and the Caribbean side. There are vendors there and guys with Monkey’s that you can pay to take your picture with. Back at the port you will find that the counterfeit police are ignoring this port as the polite moniker of “Replica” is everywhere for luggage, belts, purses, handbags, watches, etc.. If you know your watches there are a few very very good fakes for about $200, but you need to know what your are looking for, as they bastardize certain Swiss classics with all kinds of bands, bezels, straps, etc that are not options on the originals. There are some good ones and some horrible. I found two copies of my originals, the Omega (Seamaster) and Breitling (Superocean) that were very good counterfeit copies for $200. The Queen Mary 2 was in port with us and left earlier but needed a tug to help them out because of a lack of stern thrusters (or so it appeared). OK… just pulled into San Juan so heading off for some breakfast and a Caesar and then off for a walk. Cheers. Mark

Our day in St. Kitts was a great one. We left the ship mid morning around 9:45 or so. Our plan was to grab a taxi to the Discovery Beach Bar in Friar’s Bay which is about a 15 minute ride from the port. St. Kitts looked a lot like St. Maarteen from a distance but up front this British island is a whole lot tidier than SM was, and I am not talking about the hurricane debris and damaged buildings on St. M as they got pounded a few years back. I am talking about yards and yards of rusty wrecked cars, trucks, junk, half built structures and abandoned containers, etc. This is stuff that was there before the hurricane and will be there for decades to come. Where driving around St. Maarteen reminded me of Mexico, the DR or Mexico, St.Kitts reminded me of the very tidy and well kept parts of the west coast of Barbados. The port area of St. Kitts is similar to that of St. Maarteen with wide clean piers with no mandatory duty free shop to walk through. It is a big port area with lots of shopping, but more on that later. You are going to be bombarded with people on the other side of the fence asking you about taxi’s tours and such. There are INFORMATION tourist booths on the pier and just inside the port. The one the pier was staffed with a bored and indifferent teen who found it difficulty to avert her eyes from her phone to answer questions about the Taxi system. Fortunately the guy in the booth just inside the port was very helpful, showing us a map and telling us it would be $7 pp each way to the Discovery Beach bar. He hold us where to go and and that was to the right just inside the port. You walk past all the dozens and dozens of drivers showing placards and hawking tours to a small red roofed shed where clean and well dressed taxi drivers wait to be dispatched. We arrived, told them where we wanted to go and Agatha was assigned to walk us to the most immaculately clean mini bus/van to take us on the 15 minute drive. She asked us what time we wanted to be picked up and we figured 3.5 hours was about good for some beach time and she was there 15 minutes early at 13:45. The bar is in Friar’s bay along with a couple other beach bars such as Ship Wreck, Godfathers, etc. Discovery is basically a shack with toilets you need to flush with a bucket. It however has a way better beach that’s Ship Wreck. Two chairs and an umbrella was $16. Skol beers were $3, water was $2. Wonderful Jerk Chickenwings with grilled plantains and zucchini with Parm $10. Fries were $5. With a $60 transportation expense for four, it was a very cheap and enjoyable excursion. If you are adventurous, you will enjoy it. The Bay had many a luxury super yacht anchored along with a luxury expedition cruise ship from the Le Bellot line tendering into a small dock at the end of the beach. Ok, the coffee shop just opened so I need to get my shot before the line gets too long. More in a minute. Mark

Here is picture of the Magic in St. Maarteen towards the end of the day and for those who like scotch, here is the list for the Bar in the 555 steak house. FYI, this is a great spot to go for a drink during that busy time between 5:30 and 7 pm when all the other bars are a zoo. The bar has about a half dozen stools or so and you don’t have to be eating there to go for a cocktail. Try the Polaris or the Watermelon Martini.

Ok, back although at the end of our St. Kitts day, but more on that later. So Maaho beach is just F’ing insane! Truly insane. There must have been 3000 people there. Our bus driver was trying to get us there for the arrival of that big jet from France and he delivered! The place is NUTS. There are bars and tourist traps on either side of the beach but this is not a day or half day destination in my opinion. A one and done. It is so crazy. Two lanes of traffic with sand on the road and curb in the middle. People driving slow and stopping. Some Donkey’s walking on the side of the road because they don’t want to get sand in their four hundred dollar sandal. Just nuts but a must visit. The driver gave us 45 minutes and we met by the Casino which reeked of sewer smell. We were all ready to go in about 25 minutes. It was hot, crowded and LOUD. AC Bus welcomed us back. Driver had a huge cooler of Coca Cola, waters and Carib beers on ice and his rum punch. As much as you wanted. Great day. Very reasonable price plus a tip. The cold drinks alone added to the value. Back in port with time to wander around the shops and then back on board after some selfies. Guy’s burger and the deli and some cold beers and then a Nap. Kids just wanted to go on their own for dinner so we opted for the Italian option. Good meal for $18 and great service. No problem with a last minute booking. Then an early night. Will tell you about our St. Kitts adventure today later. Mark

Wow, what a great day in St. Martin/Marrteen! We were in port by 8:45 ship/9:45 local time. It was overcas7t and threatening rain. There were about five ships in Port yesterday including the Magic. There was a P&O, RC Jewel and two Celebrity. We had never been here before and had a Bernard’s Island Tour booked. We had been given the option of 9am; 9:30 and 10am when I booked it from home on that snowy day back in early December so it nerve occurred to me to look at ship vs. Local time…. I had booked 10am. I knew that I would get my money back if we missed the port but looking at the printout of the booking there were all of the usual warnings and threats about missing the bus (literally). I told myself to chill and not worry about it as our party would constitute a good portion of the bus. I think it was $50-60 pp. Great deal IMO, but more of that to come. Did the usual routine which is to take Niki’s SS card and mine and head down to the cafe to get the usual Americano coffee’s (I deliver… one of the perks of putting up with me). The staff are so good about pushing the people through. Once change on this cruise is that they have put 3-4 people there in the morning during the rush which seemed obvious on previous cruises in the past five years but not implemented. Great… never more than a five to six minute wait. On the coffee… the speciality coffee is not bad but it is not great. An while I am not necessarily a full bore coffee snob, I have to say… OMG I do not see how people drink that slurry in the buffet.. Holy crap that is bad stuff! My folks would drink it happily out of good Scottish rooted politeness and frugality but man o man. This is one comment I will gladly take a flaming on!! OK, enough about the bloody coffee. After the other usual Spicy Grey Goose Bloody Caesar from the Casino Bar (Evi makes them great), it was off for Breakfast Burritos by the pool before packing up and getting off the ship promptly at 8:45… easy easy. St. M. Is a big port and our tour guide says it is going to expand. He told his that before the pandemic they once had 11 ships moored and tendering. That basically increased the population by a third if everyone would have gotten off. The pier is no longer than the usual ports. You don’t have to walk through an inside duty free. There is tons of open space and you can take pictures of lots of super yachts both coming into the port and about the Island. So back to the non-carnival excursion. Like most ports, if you book a non cruise excursion have to leave the port. We had some initial difficulty finding the exit. The parking pick up and taxi lines is to the right if you have the ships at your back, but the exit is to the left… so go left… you will find the gate and then walk about a 150 feet and you will see a fenced gate with lots of small buses and vans.. you cannot miss it or just ask. They had a white pavilion tent set up for check in which was good as it did start to rain for a brief period. There are some bathrooms in a corner of the the lot if you need to go before you head out. We waited about 10 minutes before boarding our nice cool AC bus with Mr. Mailman (not to be confused with his father… Mr. Milkman who his son says fathered 26 siblings that he knew of). He joked that he moved from St. Lucia to get away from his father’s carnage and avoid marrying a sister! Anyway… he was great. Our tour was scheduled for 4-5 hours and he got us back in about 4.5. We drove around the whole island with stops every 20 minutes or so so see the boarder between the French and Dutch sides, several looks offs, the Iguana spot where they come out of the bushes and let you feed them. A guy runs a little stand with drinks and tshirts and feed S them for you with a tip jar. Nice man. It had just rained and being cold blooded they were not so active but my Maddy still loved it as they have a bearded dragon back home. The Males are huge and stay high up in the small scrub trees to sun themselves. The bigger and more colourful that more dominant they are. Our next stop was beach for an hour. It had been raining so many people opted to stay on the bus and go into the french capital to shop, so we were on the only ones to get off. The sun came out just as we stepped off the bus. Nice beach with bars, food and chair rentals but we just used our beach towels to do the hula towel change trick and spent the hour bobbing in the drive and watching the super rich come an go on their tenders manned with male models in uniform. Great hour. Guy come back to pick us up and drive us into town where the rest have been walking around for an hour and a half. We got 45 minutes to get some pastries from the french bakery (public toilet just next door 50 feet FYI) and to walking around the straw market and get the obligatory fridge magnets before getting back on the nice AC bus to head to Maaho Beach to see if we can get there in time for the arrival of a big transatlantic jet our of Charles De Gaulle nine hours earlier (or later I guess given the time zone). This was a real highlight and Maaho was the only thing I really wanted to see…. OK… time for a Caesar… back in a few. Mark

Well Christmas Eve and the 25th were just as good as embarkation day. The food has been very good in our opinions. The dining room staff have been great. We had turkey last night and it was moist and lovely. I have to say that the buffet on the Magic can be quite tight at times, especially with parked scooters. The longest lines I have seen have been for the Wok station at lunch. The BBQ was particularly good with the Beef and C-Greens being my favourite. Alchemy has been lovely before our usually 8’ish meals. The bands that play there have at Ocean Plaza have been really good. The staff at the cafe work really hard all day and keep that line moving. My teens continue to enjoy making friends and I basically don’t seen Jack for much of the day and evening. The rooms are fine with the AC keeping the room nice an cool in this hot Caribbean weather. I think the Casino on 5 has the best bar tenders and Serenity makes the best margarita. The elaborate family Xmas costumes, festive outfits and Christmas dinner formal wear have made for great theatre. Families and their leader(s) have clearly put some TIME and Effort into this. Off on an excursion on St. Maartin today. Shaping up to be another really great Carnival experience. I really don’t have any gripes at all. Two Thumbs up. Mark

FTTF goes directly though priority line regardless of time on your boarding card. As long as everyone is in a FTTF cabin, it does not matter. Show up when you want.

Matters not what time you get. Just show up at the port and they will send you to the priority line regardless of your check in time. All they look at is your FTTF on your boarding papers. Went through Canaveral yesterday.

Flew into MOC Wednesday night. No checked luggage so after a short wait for the rental at the Budget counter we were off to Canaveral. Stopped at giant Walmart on the way for some supplies and then on to the Hotel. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Vacation Club for two nights before the cruise. Got a massive 2 bedroom on points. Great staff, very good food (pizzas, alligator bites, fries, turkey avocado wrap). Also made some wings in suite oven. Bring your own canned beer and soda not an issue poolside. They don’t want it in or near the pool but nobody was taking issue with sipping in the boiling hot tubs! Lol. Poolside bar tender was A+ (Wish I got his name… super hard worker and friendly all day). Very clean. Free parking for the rental. A good amount to do for a night or two. Pools and lazy river were heated and warm and the giant hot tubs were sous vide HOT! Wow! Unfortunately the Magic was over at Terminal A so we could not simply walk across the street to the Terminal A. A short $12 Lyft was all it took. They are building another Holiday Inn across the street, which will do well being right across from the MG terminal. FTTF, so we were on before 11am. Terminal A6 is very small. Rooms were ready for unpacking on arrival. No room cards til 1am. Lot of ships in Port. Carnival Freedom, Independence of the Seas, NCL Prima, MSC Meraviglia, Wish and Magic. Great Sail Away Party! Vids attached. So Far two thumbs up. Great meal and service in Main Dining Room. Guy’s burgers and fries! Fish tacos. The SPICY CHIPOTLE PINEAPPLE MARTINI in the main dining room was really really good. “Stoli Vodka, chipotle pineapple syrup, pineapple juice and mint leaves. A refreshing, yet spicy start to your dinner.” Lots of other teens on board for my kids to hang with til the 1 am curfew. Both O2 and Circle C were packed. Good to see. Adjoining Cove Balconies are great. Staff are super. Great band playing 80’s las tonight outside Alchemy. Good Internet. Can stream. Sea Day today. Looking like another winner! I feel for my fellow Canucks who’s flights got cancelled yesterday. Looks like we got out of Dodge just in time on the 21st. More later…. Mark IMG_3284.MOV IMG_3268.MOV