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TennesseeTater

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    A Winter Escape: Was there any Magic?

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    Sea Day 1: Things get interesting

     

     

     

    Let me first correct what I said the prior post: Our family members saw "Flick" tonight, not on the embarkation day. Let's just say I was not exactly in a position to remember good portions of both nights, and needed a bit of correction on my accounting of events...

     

     

     

    Ok, Here we go:

     

     

     

    We woke up on the sea day and all headed to lido for breakfast at different times. Jake and I got eggs, bacon and some yogurt, while his sister and BIL found the omelet station and came back with some amazing looking breakfast. The day was bright and sunny and we looked forward to a very nice day at sea.

     

     

     

    Shortly after breakfast, the Captain came onto the loudspeakers and announced we would not be calling upon Amber Cove. With his strong accent, it was tough to hear exactly what he was saying, but many of us were quite upset that they were cancelling a non-tender port more than 24 hours before we were scheduled to be there.

     

     

     

    After a little while, Dr. E came onto the loudspeaker to specify that the reason we were not making Amber Cove was due to an approaching storm, and that we could expect seas to get very rough later in the day, and calling on Amber Cove would have put the ship in 18 foot or higher seas, and that docking would have been impossible.

     

     

     

    I was very disappointing, and found it hard to ignore the conspiracy theories that Carnival misses ports on purpose (Don't flame me, over the next few days we would learn firsthand why these conspiracy theories make no sense). We'd all scheduled excursions here, since Amber Cove was one of the few East Caribbean ports unaffected by the hurricanes. We spent a good chunk of time looking at excursions and other options. Jake's sister and BIL decided to book a snorkeling excursion for St. Thomas, his mother decided to book a spa appointment and the rest of us decided to simply accept the cancellations and go from there.

     

     

     

    Come lunch time, we all met up again, and margaritas flowed freely courtesy of Zoey. Jake and I may have gone a little crazy with tacos at this point, I think I may have eaten 7...

     

     

     

    We spent a good deal of the afternoon talking, and many of our group got to know each other. My parents have barely interacted with Jake's sister and BIL, and many of us got to know each other better. There's not too much interesting to say about the bulk of this afternoon, other than it was meaningful family time.

     

     

     

    Come the evening we went to dinner, which would be the first formal night. The dining room didn't seem to strict on the letter of the dress code, as long as people looked fairly decent (and I fully support this). Our table was fairly evenly split between ordering lobster and steak. We ordered bottles of wine for the table, and quickly stuffed our faces with good food and drink.

     

     

     

    I had sworn not to overeat on formal night, being one of those fools that can't get enough lobster. I ordered a single dish of lobster and felt very proud of myself. And then... our wait staff proudly placed 3 extra lobster dishes on our table, telling us they though our family would appreciate some extra. We thanked them, as we've never been offered extra like that before.

     

     

     

    I scowled as I ate my 2nd lobster tail and a whole bunch more shrimp. Dining staff: 1, Self Control 0.

     

     

     

    After dinner my parents, Jake and I took the 12 year old to the Sports square and we played a game of putt putt golf that got increasingly wacky as the wind blew the ship around and the waves rocked the decks around. We attempted to play ping poing, but the ball hilariously flew in opposite directions from where it was being hit. After a little while, the 12 year old headed off with his parents, and my parents Jake and I headed to the piano bar.

     

     

     

    At the piano bar, we met Jeff "True" Jones, whose voice and talent was quickly apparent. Equally apparent was the very limited song choice the rest of the passengers desired. Jeff repeatedly begged for someone to request something other than "Piano Man." We also met Suzy, the primary bartender at the piano bar.

     

     

     

    The regular barstaff on the Magic was making stronger drinks, probably to help the spirits of the passengers. Zoey seemed determined to get us drunk. Suzy... well she wanted to kill us. I swear my margaritas were simply tequilla with some lime juice. Not fully sober when I entered and with the ship really starting to rock and roll around us, simply sitting up on the barstool became an epic struggle after just a couple of drinks.

     

     

     

    I remember leaning on my Dad most of the way to the room, feeling like the ship was just rolling and shaking around me, trying to figure out how I'd gotten so intoxicated off of just a few drinks. After stepping into my room, I went for the bed, and remember the floor rising up to meet me on my second step, causing me to faceplant into the floor next to the bed.

     

     

     

    I had a fairly rough night as you can quite imagine, still fairly certain the spinning room and rising floor was Suzy's fault.

     

     

     

    It wasn't. At least not completely...

     

     

     

    Next up: Sea day 2- Rock N Roll and not in a good way...

     

     

     

    I’ve cruised with Suzette three times in the piano bar. She’s one of my favorites but the first time we cruised with her our running joke was also “she’s trying to kill us.” Was on Magic last week and as soon as she saw my wife and I she came up, called us by name, hugged us and already knew our drink order. If you survive her drinks she is great to know!

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Forums

    Vista cruise-finally-after Irma

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    I just got off the Vista yesterday and mid way through the cruise they installed a new system for the forward elevators. They essentially installed touch screens in the elevator Lobby's and you selected what floor you would like to go to and it assigned you an elevator. They took away the buttons inside the elevators so some people didn't pay attention and then where in for a surprise when they got in the elevator and couldn't select a floor. I think it worked out great and hope they roll this out.

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Forums

    John Heald statement about what Carnival is doing to help

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    I've noticed that after other cruise lines announced what they were doing people here and on social media were very critical of Carnival. I think what people fail to realize is one should not just react when a disaster occurs. You need to find out what the needs of the communities are. For example other cruise lines are showing up with supplies. If everybody were to show up with water and food, that's great, but what about people that need clothes, ply wood, etc. I actually think waiting to see what the needs of those effected is the best decision.

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Forums

    No Red Frog Pub on Horizon

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    If you could point us to wwhere one of those videos where John said that it would be appreciated

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Forums

     

     

    It was on his Facebook page. It was either a video or an answer on his visitors posts, I honestly don't remember. He's said it or responded more than once. So if you get bored you can look through all of that.

     

     

    Sent from my iPhone using Forums

    No Red Frog Pub on Horizon

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    I have heard John Heald say (on one of his daily videos) that the Horizon will not have a RFP. With that being said I heard an interview with Colin the brew master on the Vista, and in that interview he did say there would be a brewery on the Horizon . I wonder if it will be a new branded theme?

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