Spaniel Lover

This is the chef, who cooked a fantastic lunch for us. I had beef fajitas, which were delicious.

 

 



We had our lunch served at this table under the palm trees, with a view of the ocean

 

 



When we weren't eating or swimming, we were lounging around on a day bed under the palms

 

 



Our weather was perfect, but not every day in Cozumel is like that. If a thunderstorm pops up,

La Casa En La Playa has lots of covered areas where you can stay out of the rain.

One word of caution about this shore excursion...

You absolutely MUST book this months in advance of your cruise. As I said, it's limited to just 16 passengers out of the thousands on the cruise. It's a great shore excursion with excellent word-of-mouth, and it books up fast. We were very lucky, as I booked our tickets for this shore excursion months in advance of our cruise... and I got the last three spots. If you wait until you get onboard the ship to try to book this shore excursion, you will almost certainly not get tickets.

Our final port of call was Cozumel, which is an island off the east coast of Mexico. Like Grand Cayman, Cozumel is a major destination for cruise ships. There were six other cruise ships in Cozumel the day we visited! In fact, there were so many cruise ships in Cozumel that day that I saw something that I've never seen before in all my previous visits... there were more cruise ships than there were piers to handle them! There were seven ships in port that day, and only six places to dock... so one of the ships had to tender her passengers in. I've never seen that before in Cozumel. The unlucky ship on this day was the Norwegian Jewel.

In Cozumel, we were docked at the Puerta Maya pier next to an old friend, the Carnival Magic. I call her that because we had a really nice cruise on her in 2012. You can read about it here. At the adjacent pier, it was a treat to see the largest cruise ship in the world... the Allure of the Seas. I'll probably sail on her, someday, just to see what all the fuss is about.

Our final shore excursion of this cruise was a real treat. It's a relatively new shore excursion known as "La Casa En La Playa". In English, that's "The House On The Beach". La Casa En La Playa is located at Playa Palancar... which is about a fifteen minute ride from where the cruise ships dock in Puerta Maya.

La Casa En La Playa is basically a little cottage at the beach. What's special about this shore excursion is that it's limited to just 16 people, and everyone is treated like a VIP. There's a private chef to cook for you, and a bar staff to bring you unlimited drinks. You can swim or kayak in the ocean... or enjoy snorkeling at a small reef just a few feet off shore. I wish I had brought my water proof camera on this shore excursion, as there were more fish at this reef than I saw anywhere else during the entire week. I didn't even realize they had a reef, so I left my waterproof camera back on the ship.

All around La Casa are little places for you to relax... pick whatever suits your mood. There are tables to eat lunch at... loungers at the beach for those who want sun... and under the palm trees are day beds, hammocks, and loungers for those who want to stay in the shade.

I know it doesn't look like much, but believe me... this was paradise!

 



It was warm that day, so we stayed under the shade of the palm trees when we weren't in the water

In Grand Cayman, we did the Snuba shore excursion. Snuba is like scuba diving, but a lot easier and without involving all the training and certifications. Instead of wearing an air tank on your back, the air tank sits on a small raft on the surface... and a long hose connects you to the air tank. We've done it on several previous cruises, and it's a lot of fun. It's way better than snorkeling, because you can dive down to the bottom rather than having to stay on the surface... and it's a lot easier than scuba diving.

I shot a video of Jeff and Kellyn as we enjoyed the snuba experience at Grand Cayman. To see the video,

Snuba is very convenient in Grand Cayman because there's an excellent dive site that is literally less than five minutes from the tender pier. Here's a picture of it...

A quick orientation session occurs near those red umbrellas on the right side of the picture. Then you get in the water and get used to the equipment. Once you're comfortable, you make your way over to where you see that white raft with the red flag. That's where the shipwreck is, that you see Jeff and Kellyn exploring in the video. That white raft with the red flag is the raft that carries the air tanks which are connected by the long hoses to the divers below.

Our second port of call was Grand Cayman island. We've been there many times before. It is, as you know, a classic Caribbean destination for cruise ships. In fact, when we arrived, there were four other ships that had arrived before us! The Norwegian Jewel was there, which was no surprise, as she seemed to be doing the exact same itinerary that we were. The other ships that were there that day were the Island Princess, Carnival Liberty, and Norwegian Pearl.

I was a little surprised to see that Island Princess seemed to be in need of a paint job. You don't normally see that many rusty spots on a cruise ship. Cruise ship crews usually take great pride in the ship's appearance and paint over any rusty blemishes.

Norwegian Pearl and Carnival Liberty

 

 



Norwegian Pearl

I mentioned earlier that we had done a cruise with NCL back in 2008, and that it had compared poorly to the Carnival experience. I've actually got my eye on the Norwegian Pearl and am thinking about giving NCL another try in 2015. The Norwegian Pearl has a feature called "The Haven" which intrigues me. It's a little bit like the Serenity Retreat on Carnival, except there's limited access... and it's actually serene. This idea appeals to me. Check out

Grand Cayman is one of those unusual cruise ship destinations where you have to use a tender (small boat) to get ashore. Grand Cayman doesn't have a pier large enough to accommodate cruise ships... at least, not yet. If you take a look at this article, you can see that they're in the beginning stages of planning not just one, but two cruise ship piers for the future. I look forward to seeing the day when a visit to Grand Cayman doesn't involve tendering.

Grand Cayman tender

I shot a video of the tender ride from the dock in Grand Cayman, back to the ship. I think it's kind of fun to see the ship getting bigger and bigger as we approach it. To watch the video,

Our shore excursion in Montego Bay was known as the "Seawinds Family All Inclusive Beach day". This is a five-hour visit to a resort that has a beach and swimming pool and which offers free drinks and lunch. The beach is quite beautiful...

Seawinds Resort, Montego Bay

There are a few small rocks in the water, so my advice if you're planning on visiting here is to bring some water shoes. Also, notice the day beds under the white covers. It was the weirdest thing... they all had signs on them that said "reserved"... yet no one used them the entire time we were there. After a few hours of looking at the day beds sitting empty, we finally moved on to one...

One other word of advice about this all-inclusive resort...

We got there about 11 AM, which seemed just a bit too early for lunch, so I started drinking first and figured I'd have lunch later. Don't make this mistake! If you want to remember and enjoy this excursion, don't start drinking on an empty stomach!

I shot a time-lapse video of our departure from Montego Bay. To view it,

Montego Bay was our first port of call. We had been here one time before, and had a great time on a shore excursion to an all-inclusive resort. So, we decided to do the exact same thing again this time.

When we arrived in Montego Bay, the Norwegian Jewel was already there waiting for us. We last saw her in New Orleans, where she departed just a few minutes before us and was in front of us the whole way down the Mississippi river.

I shot a time-lapse video of our arrival to Montego Bay. Unfortunately, there wasn't a good place to set up the camera with an un-obstructed view. I ended up having to shoot through the picture window in our cabin... which means you'll get a pretty good view of how dirty the window had gotten in the rain the night before! To see the video,

Montego Bay

 

 



A closer look at the Norwegian Jewel

We took a cruise with Norwegian Cruise Lines in 2008 and it was simply inferior to the experiences we had with Carnival, so we never did another with them. We've been loyal to Carnival ever since. However, in 2014 we're going to do a little experiment and try two cruises with Princess. It will be interesting to see how Princess compares to the great experiences we've come to expect from Carnival.

Jaime Deitsch, Cruise Director

 



On the ship, she is known as Jaime Dee

Jaime first came to my attention in 2009 when she made a series of posts to John Heald's blog. At the time, she was one of the entertainment staff on the Carnival Splendor... which was making its way to its new home in Los Angeles. As LA is the nearest big port to me, I was very excited that Carnival was moving her newest ship (at the time) so close to me... and I was reading everything I could find about the Splendor and her unusual voyage to California. Unusual because the Splendor is too big to fit through the Panama Canal... so it had to go the long way... all the way around the horn of South America. A 49-day voyage! Each day on John Heald's Blog, Jaime would write a "Dear John" post to fill everyone in on what was happening that day on the Splendor. Click here for a sample.

Jaime's writing style showed off an energetic, positive, and funny personality that came through loud and clear to me. She impressed me, just with her writing. I made a mental note to keep an eye out for her... in hopes that someday I'd run in to her on a Carnival cruise ship. A few years later, I stumbled upon her Facebook page... and put in a friend request. She had no idea who I was, of course, but my Facebook profile photo shows me with a Carnival funnel in the background... and on that basis alone she accepted my friend request.

My Facebook profile photo

I introduced myself on Facebook and mentioned that I hoped to sail with her someday... but for the longest time we never could end up on the same ship at the same time. I thought it was going to happen at one point when they assigned her to a ship in California... but by the time I booked a cruise on that ship, they moved her to a different one! Years literally went by before I finally caught up with her on the Carnival Sunshine. During all those years, I kept reading things on Cruise Critic and on Facebook by people who had sailed with Jaime... and they all had such nice things to say! It seemed that everyone that sailed with her ended up becoming a big Jaime fan. Now I'm one, too.

How can I explain what makes this Cruise Director so much better than the ones in my previous 20 cruises? First off... I've sailed with some really good Cruise Directors! Brent Mitchell, Gary Brierley, Kirk Benning, Stuart Dunn, Stephanie Meads... just to name a few. But Jaime's in a league all her own!

All CDs have that great on-stage presence you expect of a master-of-ceremonies. But where Jaime sets herself apart is what happens when she gets off the stage. At the end of a show, most of the Cruise Directors I've ever seen have simply disappeared. Show over, house lights up, audience leaves, CD disappears out the back of the stage... presumably to the safety of their cabin where they can't be bugged by those pesky passengers. Jaime's just not that way, at all! She's a people person... and it's easy to see. When the show is over, she lingers around the theatre in case anybody wants to talk to her. She's visible, and approachable.

Another big difference I noticed was in the overall energy level. How she can keep that energy up day in and day out, week after week... is beyond me! She's like the Energizer bunny when she's in front of a crowd. I've got a little video to illustrate my point. Watch the energy level of the two crew members (in red shirts) on the left, and then notice how Jaime's energy level is about double what those two put out! To see the video,

I watched Jaime just totally fire up a crowd in the atrium one night after a show in the main theatre. It's so unfortunate that I didn't have my camera with me for that one... as I would have loved for you to see how Jaime got that crowd fired up and having fun that night. She single handedly just took the crowd and IGNITED it with enthusiasm... doing whatever it took, including jumping up and dancing on top of the bar!

I was also impressed by how Jaime handled herself when things went wrong. Things always go wrong, of course, but Jaime handled those challenges so well! Jaime introduced a song and the DJ played the wrong one... no problem! Jaime laughed it off and let him know that it wasn't the right one... but never lost her cool.

There was also a serious accident one night right in the middle of the Love & Marriage show that Jaime was hosting in the theatre. A woman slipped while coming down these stairs, and ended up taking a horrible fall to the floor below...

The woman was seriously injured in the fall, and this all happened right in the middle of the show Jaime was hosting. The professional and caring manner that Jaime displayed during this horrifying accident was incredible to see. And Jaime topped it off by doing something a few days later that I've never seen a Cruise Director do... she gave an update to the whole ship on the woman's condition. Usually CDs are so concerned about issues of medical privacy that they forget to be human for a minute and give the passengers a little update on what happened to the person involved in the incident we all witnessed.

It was a real pleasure to sail with Jaime... she treated us like VIPs! She sent a basket of fruit and some chocolate covered strawberries to our cabin. She also met us for drinks one night, had free drinks sent to our table in the dining room another night, and bought a drink for Jeff on another night! Apparently the CD has some kind of budget for entertaining VIPs, and as her special Facebook friend and occupant of the Captain's Suite... I qualified, for one week!

Free drinks from Jaime!

I keep talking about the Captain's Suite like there's only one... but actually, there are two onboard the ship... one on each side. In this map of deck nine forward, the two Captain's Suites are 9115 (the one we were in, on the starboard side) and 9128 (the one on the port side of the ship).

On the map, note those blank areas next to the Captain's Suites. (Specifically, the area between 9115 and 9135... and a similar blank space next to 9128.) That was such a mystery to me before the cruise!

I couldn't figure out what the heck those blank spots on the map were. I pored over every picture I could find on the Internet that showed the Captain's Suites... and every post I could find about them... and couldn't find any information about those mysterious unmarked spaces next door.

Once I got onboard, the mystery was solved. It turns out that those rooms simply house air conditioning equipment.

Outside the room, in the hallway, the entrance to the cabin doesn't give any hints as to how fabulous the cabin is. It looks like the entrance to any other room on the ship...

I guess a natural question would be... "if you stayed in the Captain's Suite, where did the Captain stay?" The term "Captain's Suite" is kind of misleading, because the Captain's Suite is NOT where the actual ship's captain stays... he's got a special cabin just behind the bridge on deck eight. In fact, it's directly below the "Captain's Suite". The funny thing is that if you stand out on the balcony of the Captain's Suite and look one deck below you and just slightly behind you, the window of the actual Captain's cabin is quite visible. At night, if he's got his lights on and hasn't closed his blinds, you can see in! If you take a look at the Carnival Sunshine deck plans, the actual Captain's cabin sits just forward of cabin 8101. On the deck plans, it is simply shown as part of the bridge.

You may also be wondering how much it costs to stay in the Captain's Suite... and after I stayed in it, did I feel it was worth the cost?

Like the pricing for any cruise ship cabin, the price of the Captain's Suite varies depending on what week of the year you are looking at. It's more expensive during the summer, for example, when demand for cruising is high. Any week that involves a holiday... such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, etc. will also be an expensive week. Early to mid-December is an inexpensive time... that's why we cruised when we did. Most people don't want to take a vacation just before Christmas.

The price of the Captain's Suite tends to run about three times the price of a standard balcony cabin. I thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the Captain's Suite... and I'm glad I got to experience it... but I don't think I'll be doing it again. When you could do three weeks in a standard balcony cabin for the cost of just one week in the Captain's Suite... it's kind of hard to justify except for a one-time splurge.

Why didn't you just go hang out on lido or something?

A picture of the Pride in Baltimore today is worth a thousand words. This is from John Heald's Facebook page.

Bill, I have a question for you regarding this picture:

I've never seen those structures in the water on any of the other Carnival ships. What's up with that? Are those there all the time, even during the day? Or is that something that is temporarily inserted in to the pool at night so that entertainers can dance on them and appear to be walking on water?

It would seem like those would be in the way during the day when people were trying to use the pool.

I found another interesting presentation about the Azipod XO system. You can view it here.

One of the benefits of the new Azipod XO system is that shaft seals and pads can be replaced while the ship is in port. In other words, they don't have to take the ship to dry dock and lift it out of the water to do this. Here's a picture to illustrate the point:

Because maintenance personnel can access the inside of the Azipod unit from within the ship, seals and pads can be replaced a lot easier.

I have a bit of a claustrophobia problem. So I just shudder at the thought of being the maintenance guy that has to go down in to the Azipod to do this work! I hope they pay that guy well.

The main benefit of the new Azipod units is increased fuel efficiency... possibly by as much as 15%. That's obviously why Carnival decided to go this way for the Carnival Vista.

This was a surprise to me...

ABB has announced that they will be supplying Azipod propulsion units for the Carnival Vista. See the press release here.

I'm surprised by this, as I thought that Azipods had fallen out of favor with Carnival Cruise Lines. I spoke to the Chief Engineer of the Carnival Splendor a few years ago (during the Behind The Fun tour) and his comments led me to believe that Carnival wasn't a big fan of Azipods anymore, after experiencing too many reliability issues with them.

His remarks seemed to be verified by the fact that Carnival hasn't installed Azipods on any of their ships since the Spirit class. So, reading the news today that there would be Azipods on the Carnival Vista is a surprise to me.

Perhaps ABB has worked out some of the issues in their newest Azipods... which are known as Azipod XO units. You can see a presentation about Azipod XO technology here.

In case you're wondering, there are six Carnival ships that have Azipods. They are the Carnival Elation, the Carnival Paradise, and the four Spirit-class ships: the Carnival Spirit, Carnival Miracle, Carnival Legend, and Carnival Pride.

Carnival Sunshine finally left at 7:30 PM New Orleans time.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking about the private yacht, too. That could get boring pretty fast. I think a cruise ship would be better... you can go to a comedy show, or to hear the various musical entertainers. Plus, you have the opportunity to people watch, and also to chat with people.

Nice video!

I noticed that the camera motion is pretty smooth. It looks like the camera must have been mounted on to some kind of stabilizer. Can you tell me exactly what camera stabilizer you used?

I bought a little Hague Mini-Motion Cam stabilizer to try to smooth out the motion on my future cruise videos... but I'm not entirely satisfied with it. I'm curious to know what you used.

I've been on 19 Carnival cruises, and I've been working my way up over the years. I started with an inside cabin on the MS Holiday, then moved up to an ocean-view on a Fantasy-class ship, then a balcony on a Spirit-class ship. Next was a suite on the Splendor. At that point, I decided that suites weren't worth the money and stuck with balcony cabins for a while. I tried a couple of Conquest-class ships, and really loved those. On those Conquest-class ships I really felt like I was seeing Carnival at near-perfection. Soon, the Dream-class was the latest and greatest and I got to experience the Magic and later the Breeze.

What I'm trying to share here is that I worked my way up the Carnival fleet... and it was fascinating to see the improvements from one class of ships to the next. With each new class, things got better. I could just imagine how the people in charge had cruised on each current class of ship, asked themselves how things could be improved, and then integrated those ideas in to the next class. It was easy to see the improvements in each class over the previous one.

I haven't cruised on the Sunshine yet, but I will soon. I've been reading everything people have written about her, gone over the deck plans, looked at a million pictures, and watched videos posted to YouTube. I can see a lot of little improvements... where somebody in charge cruised on the Dream-class and asked themselves "how could this be better?"

For example, if you've ever tried to sit and listen to a live band in Ocean Plaza on the Dream or the Magic or the Breeze... the setup is a little awkward. There's traffic flow right in front of the band. On the Sunshine, they fixed that... with seating right in front of the band, exactly as it should be.

The location of the sports bar is really awkward on the Dream-class, too. I see they've fixed that on the Sunshine... putting it off in its own space rather than sticking it in the middle of a busy casino.

The Serenity retreat is too small on all the Carnival ships... and they've fixed that on the Sunshine.

They also made some nice improvements to the setup of the buffet area, and also totally re-designed La Cucina Del Capitano.

They even put a Coca Cola vending machine out at Sports Square. I think that's a great idea.

I can't wait to see it all in person. None of it is revolutionary... it's just a continuing evolution where Carnival takes a look at things and tries to figure ways to make it better in the next new ship.

It's going to be REALLY interesting to see what they do with the Carnival Vista!

This thread is interesting to me, as it is very well aligned with my fantasies!

I'm kind of surprised that no one has mentioned the Garden Villas on Norwegian Cruise Lines. That looks like a great way to go. You can have all the privacy you want in your own little compound, but you can also venture out to the rest of the ship to experience things like the comedy club, which can not be replicated on a yacht.

The thing I especially like about NCL's Garden Villas is that they have their own outdoor space, including a Jacuzzi. Kind of like having a serenity deck for you and your closest friends.

Indoors there are three bedrooms... so basically this would be ideal for three couples and perhaps a few small kids. Unfortunately, this doesn't really work for my ultimate family cruise as I have three siblings... so my fantasy Garden Villa really needs four bedrooms. Perhaps we should just draw straws and one sibling gets a room down the hall.

The other cool thing about the NCL Garden Villas is that you don't have to have any of your meals in the public restaurants if you don't want to. You can have every meal inside your private compound, if you want. Sounds pretty cool to me.

I bet that's one reason you don't see many celebrities... even D-list celebrities... on Carnival. They're probably all in NCL Garden Villas... or at least in NCL's Haven... so they don't have to associate too much with us folks in steerage!

A few other thoughts on this topic...

I think if I suddenly got rich and could retire with lots of money to spare, I would definitely try some of the newer NCL and RCCL ships just to see if there's anything there for me. I did have one previous NCL experience, and it only convinced me that Carnival is the one for me.

If still convinced that Carnival is the one for me, I think I would make it my goal to sail on every ship in the Carnival fleet. After that, if it turned out to be as fun as the idea sounds... I would probably expand the goal to sail on every ship in the Carnival Corporation fleet. My guess is that's something no one's ever done. After that, if I was still enjoying it, perhaps the goal would expand to all the ships in the NCL and RCCL fleets. I'm a really casual guy, so I really don't see myself on some of the high-end lines... even if money wasn't the issue. Too snooty for me, I think. But then again, maybe one should try it once before totally writing it off.

At whatever point I tired of sailing on all the various cruise ships... I think settling down on to "The World" (the residential cruise ship) would be a great way to go.

I also think that if I was mega-rich, I would invite family and friends to cruise with me frequently.

Great fantasy topic!

Ah, that explains it. You'll be singing a different tune once you sail on a ship with the 2.0 upgrades.

After sailing on the Breeze, it is now my policy that I will ONLY sail on Carnival ships that have Guy's Burger Joint!

After digging a little deeper through CruiseCritic this morning, I found my answer in another thread.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1946310

Someone that sailed on the Inspiration post-drydock reports that a new emergency diesel generator was installed onboard (part of the post-Triumph $300 million upgrades) plus there was some electrical and plumbing work done... as well as the usual carpet change-out and some signage upgrades in the buffet area.

SoCalKJ...

Now that you're onboard the Inspiration, are you seeing any noticeable changes that were made during the recent drydock?

I suspect it was all minor stuff like replacing a few areas of carpet and doing a lot of maintenance behind the scenes. I know you posted at one point that you were expecting to see Funship 2.0 enhancements... but I don't think they're planning to do that to any of the Fantasy-class ships anytime soon.

So, I'm curious to hear if you're noticing anything different from your previous cruise.