BJWill

Now Doug...you cant just throw that out there and expect us to wait three weeks to hear the story! That's just cruel!!

Which one of you four decided to be the MC for our slot pull??

Wow...I'm glad I found you guys! You really know how to research and make it much easier on me! Being the only ship in port will be nice for the tenders!

Good, bad or ugly... I can promise you that I will be singing whether it be at Karaoke or just in the Piano Bar...I rarely need a microphone to be louder than the music!! Bring your recording devices and share with your friends...if I get a record deal, or comedy show, out of it then I will give you a cut!!

Atrium bar sounds great @ 3:00. I'm sure with my group that we will be the 1st - 8th people on the ship because they are so eager to get on board. That should give me plenty of time to roam the decks and try to rally additional family for our group if there are any others.

I'm not sure how they determine how many F@F tickets to offer but it seems fairly random. I hope you guys get it as you said Jon, if for nothing more than the early Belize tender.

Doug, you didn't mention anything about the piano bar or karaoke. Did you spend any time at either? How was the pianist? What songs did you sing at karaoke?

Sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday Doug. Yes we did the all-inclusive for $55. We have heard really good things as well. We usually just sit at one of the bars and drink but decided this time its just as cost effective to do the all-inclusive at Sanchos and get to swim while we are at it.

We will have to catch a cab at the end of the pier. About $16 per cab ride for up to 4 people. Should take about 15 minutes to get there.

Well sounds like you had a great time! Thank you for the feedback!

We were able to get F2F for everyone in our group so that should be helpful. Sorry the casino was not so nice to you guys this trip, maybe you can make up for that in May! I hate to hear that staff was low. We have always been so pleased with how attentive our Carnival crew members were on past cruises.

We are doing Mr Sanchos all-inclusive day in Cozumel. Take a look into that and see what you think.

Doug where are you?? Hurry up and get online we need a report of your trip. Welcome back!!

Have you been to Ambergris Caye? One of the people in my group found it and I haven't even researched to determine what it is all about. My preference was the cave tubing since you cant do that just anywhere but no one else was interested so I decided to just go with the flow to keep peace among the group...its much easier to just let them have their way. I can find a bar to have a drink or five and make it all okay.

I'm sure they are having a blast this week and hopefully scoping out the fun things to relay back to us when they return.

Me and my partner are in 8477. We had another one of our couples right next to us but one of the two had to cancel for work so he was replaced with a female friend of ours. We want to open the divider between the two balconies and have an even bigger outdoor living area since the last two couples are in interior rooms they will spend a bit of time on our balconies as well and we need the space. That being said...privacy from above or below is not as much of a concern in our situation :(

Jon, I don't know about you guys but we are having a bad case of cruise envy over Doug and Mike this week!

My group decided to book an excursion from Belize that will fly us over to Ambergris Caye for the day.

Cant wait for Doug to get back so he can tell us all about it.

Yes! Thank you for the FTs. Hopefully I can do some pre-planning and be prepared to keep up with you rowdy guys.

And oh sweet dear Jon...there are more ways than one to induce a Tarzan yell and rest assured, your new found friends will be glad to help make that happen. In my experience it really doesn't matter how good you are at the competitions as long as your friends are louder than the other competitors friends. I challenge anyone to try be louder than a gaggle of gays!!!

Not a fan of crawfish but the rest sounds like a blast! You guys are going to have a great Easter weekend-week!!! Did some research on the Bunnies on the Bayou and it looks like we may give it a try.

Okay so the idea of being a score keeper sounds a bit exhausting to someone who will most likely have both hands full of cocktails (read that as you wish) so I will gladly play but I hope someone more diligent will be the MC and score keeper.

As I lack the required feature to being a competitor of the hairy chest contest, I will be front and center to cheer you on once we have ensured the proper amount of Grey Goose has been delivered to you!!! I will even rally votes for you from the crowd...unless Johnny Skandros or one of his most viewed are standing beside you in the competition...then I may not be around long enough for the vote.

You just keep rubbing it in that you get to take that Easter cruise!! We are going down to Houston this Thursday to spend the weekend with Todd's uncle. Uncle has a house at Lake Livingston and the weather should be nice enough for sea-doos but that's no cruise!

We also thought about going back to his condo early enough on Sunday to check out Bunnies on the Bayou...do you know anything about that?

I agree that the slot pull sounds like a good time! Should we recommend that to the greater general public in the other roll call?

And Jon did you ever get that unitard mankini?? That may earn you a bottle of grey goose on my account!

Doug, did you ever get the FTTF yesterday? The last room in our group got his yesterday and saw that he posted a reply to yours on the fb page. By the way, he is the Little James (LJ) to my Big James (BJ) in our group.

We definitely do not need to bring home any additional beads or any other junk for that matter. We have gotten to where we do not even buy souvenirs for ourselves unless it is a ball cap (Mike) or an occasional t-shirt if it is not too touristy looking.

I wouldn't mind seeing a copy of the funtimes that you have from February. Doug and I are on the FB page for our sail date. Have you joined that group Jon? I think I found you on FB and sent a friend request unless that was not you then some random Jonathan may become my new friend. That would be a way that I could send you my e-mail through private message instead of posting it on the blog for everyone. Unless you have another recommendation?

So I have heard of the cabin crawl and pub crawl, but not the slot pull...how does that work?

I really wish they had more theme parties and it would be so helpful if they would make the Funtimes available for us online a week or so before the cruise so that people could plan for the activities.

Well there are jewels...and then there are the jewels...it's good to bring both! I have quite the stock pile of beads as well so I will bring mine too. Maybe trade a few! There are some I just cant part with though.

Luke isn't always the most butch, but I've seen him in concert and he can move in those painted on jeans and boots!!!

Have I mentioned how jealous I am that you are getting to sail before us? I am sure they will have increased security and awareness over the next few weeks just be smart and don't wear your big jewels out on the excursion!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a man in boots and a ball cap!!! Luke Bryan comes to mind all of a sudden.

Thanks again for the research Jon! You are really making this easy on me...have you considered a career in travel advisement??

I've been following the incident in Roatan and John Heald's post made me feel a little more easy about getting off the ship in the Mahogany Bay area but am still discussing with the group what our plan may be for that port of call. Not sure if we will venture out too far. I guess we have the "safety in numbers" thing working in our favor but that doesn't really help when you are at gun point.

I read where lunch is included and unlimited Rum Punch...the tubes have cup holders but did you happen to read if can you take drinks with you during the float?

Excellent plan! I will look into this with my group and if we decide to go this route perhaps we can arrange to be in the same tour group. Have you ever done cave tubing? Just trying to figure if it is easy enough for the not so athletic/adventurous members of our group.

Help educate me please... since you have a particular tour company name, does that mean you did not book it on the carnival site? I do not see on the carnival site where it says who the tour company is for any of the cave tubing excursions.

Sounds like we will just keep checking back in hopes of getting one for our last couple.

Have you guys decided on any excursions?

Speaking of faster to fun...3 of our 4 couples got it but by the time the fourth couple tried, they were sold out. In your experiences, have they ever opened up additional faster to the fun passes that you know of? In order to stay with our group, we are thinking that the three couples who did get it might have to see if we can cancel.

Lucky dogs getting to sail so soon! If you take pictures, we may have to exchange e-mail or FB information so I can get a preview if that's okay with you.

I may be out of practice on this timing thing...let me know what time and which day you can give a few lessons.

I am excited that the casino is bigger but I am sure it will be just as crowded. I am also excited to be on a cruise with the serenity deck as I have not had that experience yet. The hot tubs on the side of the ship also look like an excellent adult hangout as long as we can find one empty.

A double dessert...I like the way you think! I do feel like my ability to multitask may be tested in this scenario but I like a challenge!

We do the late dining just so that we don't head in too early. If we do the anytime, then we are not guaranteed that everyone will show up at the right time if we had split up to do different activities earlier in the day.

You must not stalk your eye candy aggressively enough if you cant get it taken care of before chocolate melting cake! :p

We are going to be on Deck 8, so if you do upgrade and you do get a balcony, maybe you can find one near the aft of Deck 8 so you're close by for that sail away room hop party!

Let me know how the interior rooms compare to the Triumph. We were on the Triumph last summer and our lesbians stayed in an interior...it was too cramped for my liking. They are comfortable in the interior room though and prefer to save the money so maybe I'm just being a spoiled brat but I'll own that.

My singing is...amazing!! As in it's amazing that people don't start jumping off the ship, but my crew has a saying and "it's my cruise too" so everyone can just deal with my 3.5 minute serenade, take a shot and move on to the next performance :D

Ha! Well I am sure there will be room for four more on our balcony if we choose to do a sail away from there! Each of our couples has one smoker, coincidently they are the gambling half of the couples, so we do the balcony as a convenience for them. I also have a bit of claustrophobia and need to see and smell the outdoors to wake up in the mornings.

I read about those delays as well and have fingers crossed nothing delays our boarding.

How do you all feel about the piano bar? Or the Karaoke Live? I am a natural born singer myself...although ALL of my friends must be tone deaf because they claim I sound horrible. But that's okay because I never listen to what they say I just belly up to the bar/microphone/PA system/bull horn and belt it out anyway.