pghsteelerfan

It's always been the Fun Ship Special for me, every single Carnival cruise. 

I just sat down and read your entire review today.  It's raining and dreary and the last time we cruised was in 2015 & our next isn't until next year, so I'm going through cruise withdrawals and nothing like a good review to help with that.  🙂  I really enjoyed reading and you have some beautiful pictures.  Bermuda looks gorgeous and that's one place we'd love to cruise to one of these days and I'd also love to cruise out of NYC.  I always enjoy reviews where I feel like I'm on the cruise and I felt like I was along on yours.  It's always hard when the cruise ends, but I know it must have been that much harder for you/your family since it wasn't just the ship you were leaving.  😞  Thank you for taking the time to do a review, I really enjoyed it and it was a great way to pass time this afternoon!

Could she have cruised on the Holiday?  June 1992 was our first cruise (honeymoon) and I still have the brochure, so just grabbed it and am looking at it now.  Carnival had both the Holiday and the Ecstasy doing western Caribbean cruises out of Miami.  The Mardi Gras and Carnivale were sailing out of Port Canaveral to the Bahamas.  There were no itineraries showing ships sailing out of Fort Lauderdale.  My SIL/BIL sailed on the Holiday in September 1992 (shortly after Hurricane Andrew hit), and their itinerary was the western Caribbean.  Ocho Rios; Grand Cayman; Cozumel was the itinerary Holiday did. 

We've toured with Spencer twice and just love it there.  Beautiful scenery and the best snorkeling I have experienced in the Caribbean.  We did the "Land, Sea, and Beach Adventure" on our second visit to see more of St. Lucia, which is just beautiful.  We still had about 2.5 hours at Jalousie Beach, so I've gotten to do that twice.  Next time we get to St. Lucia, we'll be doing the beach break again.  Thanks for the pics...wish I was there now. 

I stumbled upon CC by accident in 2010 while looking up the port of Grand Turk before our 4th cruise (the cruise prior was in 2006).  I knew Grand Turk was one of our ports but didn't know much about it.  CC has been a world of information and we've been able to get so much more out of our cruises.  Love the Ports of Call section for ideas of things to see and do, other than tours through the cruise lines. 

We booked a cruise a couple of weeks ago that will be stopping in Aruba and Curacao next year, so this is GREAT information.  Arashi Beach in Aruba is one that I wanted to see.  Thank you!

Thank you for sharing another cruise!  I have enjoyed your reviews for a few years now and I really enjoy the beautiful pictures you get AND you're writing style.  I love the humor you throw in and always a great and entertaining read.  OMG, the love bugs!  We used to go on land vacations to SC every May and those little buggers were EVERYWHERE!  We're scheduled to go on the Magic next year (booked just over a week ago), so I'm going to go back and find the review you did.  I'm thinking that was a Magic review you did that I read a few years ago.  This will be the biggest ship for us, the largest to date has been the Conquest class so I'm already preparing to be a sponge to soak up as much info. as I can on the Dream class. 

Jeff, I really, really enjoyed your review and Patti's pictures.  I am so glad that your 25th Anniversary celebration will go down as one of your favorites.  Again, congratulations to both of you and wishing you many more happy years together.  From your words and Patti's pictures, it looked like a GREAT vacation.  Thank you both  for taking the time to share your cruises with us, I really enjoy your reviews and I know many others do too.  Looking forward to your next adventure and I hope you and Ryan have a great cruise.   

19 hours ago, willdra said:

 

Thank you so much! I have a Canon Rebel T6 that I absolutely adore (except when I leave the whole battery unit at home). It was nice that I could get replacements fairly quickly tho. 😉

https://amzn.to/2IGEIUo

 

That's what you're using?!?!  Awesome!!!  I JUST got one a few months ago, so I am very happy to hear this.  I forgot to mention, I just love your pictures, from ALL your reviews I've read.  🙂

32 minutes ago, Pylea said:

Oh stop lol You'll have people freaking out! This is my hubby btw! 10 years today! ❤

Today, as in June 13?  I thought we were the only "crazy" ones to pic the 13th (June) for our wedding day.  Hey, it worked for us, 27 years today and still happy together.  Loved your hubby's comment, btw!  LOL!!!  Happy #10 for you and wishing you many, many more.  It will go fast, believe me. 

Jeff, sorry for the hijack (I believe that's now hijack #2 in your review).  I just saw that comment and had to reply.  I am really enjoying your review and Patti has really gotten some great pictures, wow!!!  I also love getting a lot of pictures and try for pictures of the inside of the ship/venues when they are empty too.  I was up super early on one of the mornings on our last cruise in 2015 for those pics, but several of the venues had the doors closed and locked and some were being cleaned.  Really enjoyed seeing the "Big Island" through your words and Patti's camera since we didn't get there.  It's gorgeous!

Holly

Yaaayyyyy!!!  Another Wildra review!  I have loved your others and will happily be following along on this one.  Thanks for taking the time to share another cruise with us!

14 minutes ago, mitsugirly said:

 

 

Lol...go dad! I hadn't seen that. There are actually a lot of "boy" mermaids in these mermaid clubs they have all over the world. The place where Sakari gets her tails from also have mermen tails as well. I can't believe how many young boys come up to Sakari, while cruising, asking where they can get one. 😄

 

I'm so glad I shared with you then!  When that popped up in my news feed this morning from a friend's post, I immediately thought of you and Sakari.  "Mermen" tails, love it!!!  😂

1 hour ago, Jamman54 said:

There are two auditoriums there, so a new showing starts every fifteen minutes. The Documentary on the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor runs about twenty five minutes. We learned quite a few new things that we didn’t know about the attacks. It was a very powerful and moving film, and when it ended, you could hear the sound of people fighting back the tears, including myself.

 

 

When we were in Hawaii in Sep. 2017 celebrating our milestone anniversary, we spent our first 5 days in Oahu and booked the same tour of Pearl Harbor through our hotel (we still have our tickets and they are identical).  I had no idea that the ramps to get onto the actual USS Arizona Memorial were damaged/being repaired, so I am so glad that we were able to get onto it.  We also saw the movie before they took us to the memorial and I am so glad they did.  My hubby and I both felt it added a personal feel to the whole experience and we felt the same way after seeing it.  When we went inside the memorial, it was almost as quiet as a church.  Many left in tears.  They day we went to Pearl Harbor was Sep. 12, a day after the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. 

I noticed you mentioned the traffic in Honolulu.  We got a rental car while we were there and were staying in Waikiki Beach (Hilton Hawaiian Village - the large building with the rainbow down the side), and every time we went out, we sat in that traffic.  Traffic was not bad once you got out of Honolulu.  We were joking that we were on vacation but sitting in the same rush hour traffic as we did at home (we're in VA, about 30 miles southwest of DC) but at least with Honolulu there was beautiful scenery and mountains to look at while stuck in traffic. 

I'm really enjoying your review and since we've been to both Maui (we stayed just north of Lahaina, in the Ka'anapali area), and Oahu so I'm recognizing several things in Patti's beautiful pictures.  We also spent several days in Kauai and really enjoyed the beauty, but didn't get to the Big Island, so I'm looking forward to a "Big Island" experience through your words and Patti's pictures. 

I just saw this pop up on my social media newsfeed and thought that you, and Sakari, would get a kick out of this.  You may have already seen it.  Enjoy! 

Holly

http://www.fox35orlando.com/news/local-news/marine-does-mermaid-photo-shoot-to-make-his-buddies-overseas-laugh?fbclid=IwAR0ZeBiKXHrVBihDqho-O2DyPotSlWdsUonvSj_WkJoRheFhKHEjF5i4N2o

Short video

https://www.wdrb.com/news/wdrb-video/mermaid-photo-shoot-lets-us-marine-show-his-fun-side/video_4f78bf65-30e1-5ab7-81bf-ff86132bd037.html

EDITED:  May have to copy/paste links into browser to view. 

I just finished with the last part of your review.  I really enjoyed it and thank you for taking the time.  You have some beautiful pictures!

21 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

Just throwing this out here...can anyone see this?

 

http://mitsubishigirl19.wixsite.com/mitsugirlys-cruise

I definitely can - oh wow, this is awesome!  Only had time to browse a through a few Aruba beaches (next cruise may be to Aruba/Curacao).  Love how you set it up, looks really nice!  Can't wait to spend more time going through this.  I'm always looking for ideas of places to go.     

We've stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott - Isla Verde one night before our two most recent cruises out of San Juan.  It's very close to the airport, right across that main road.  It's about 20 minutes away from Old San Juan.  Our flights arrived around noon, both times, and we wanted a hotel on the beach that was within our budget.  We really enjoyed it and it was very easy to get a cab to the cruise terminal the next morning.  Both times those cruises left at 10PM, so after checking in we had the whole afternoon in Old San Juan to see the forts, etc. 

Thank you for taking the time to do a review, I really enjoyed this one as much as the others.  We haven't cruised since Sep. 2015 and don't have any booked at the moment (land vaca later this year, so no cruise until at least next year) so I really enjoy reviews by others to help with my "cruise fix" when I'm going through withdrawals.  And reviews always give me great ideas for things to do in port.  Next time we get to Cozumel, I really want to check out the east "wild" side.  We've been to Cozumel twice, but never to that side.  Thanks again for the information about Jamaica, something we'll definitely keep in mind if we ever get there on a cruise stop.  The pictures you take are just beautiful and I always enjoy them. 

21 hours ago, grandmarnnurse said:

Amazing, viewing a cruise ship of days gone by. Our very first cruise was on a ship that was pretty much the same—the Regent Sun. It is now a defunct cruise line.

I'm not 100% positive, but I'm pretty sure the Regent Sun was with us on our first cruise (our honeymoon) in San Juan in 1992.  We were on Carnival Festivale and RCI's Monarch of the Seas was docked right behind us.  Another ship was quite a ways down, but we could see it.  We were all docked across the harbor (where the freight docking is) for embarkation since they had the Christopher Columbus 500th anniversary celebration with the replica ships docked where the cruise ships normally dock in Old San Juan.  I had been curious as to what the other ship was and recently just found that during the time of our cruise there were three ships that did cruises out of San Juan on Sundays, Carnival Festivale, RCI's Monarch of the Seas, and Regent Sun.   

Jamman54, sorry if this is a "hijack".  I am really enjoying your review and looking forward to your trip to Hawaii on Splendor.  Patti is getting excellent pics, I'm really enjoying them.  I also loved seeing the pictures of the Queen Mary and seeing what the ships looked like then.  I think this is the first review that I've ever seen pictures of the interior. 

17 hours ago, Bluenoser47 said:

Hi

I was trying to find both your and mitsugirlys reviews and can not find either can you please post direct link?

I would love to see her pics you mentioned as well as both reviews

Here are the links to Mitsugirly's reviews from St. Lucia.  She just finished another review of Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas in which St. Lucia was one of their stops, so she also has two reviews with tons of pictures from St. Lucia.  The first was her Carnival Fascination Review from 2016 where they did Spencer's "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break".  They just did Spencer's "Land, Sea, & Beach Adventure" on this most recent cruise in April. 

Just found the links to both reviews and have attached them.  ALL of her pictures are spectacular and she's got some GREAT snorkeling pictures from Jalousie/Sugar Beach in both reviews. 

Link to Mitsugirly's Carnival Fascination review (August 2016), St. Lucia/Spencer's "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break" starts on Page 27

Link to Mitsugirly's RCI Freedom of the Seas review (April 2019), St. Lucia/Spencer's "Land, Sea, & Beach Adventure" starts on Page 11

17 hours ago, Bluenoser47 said:

Hi

I was trying to find both your and mitsugirlys reviews and can not find either can you please post direct link?

I would love to see her pics you mentioned as well as both reviews

We've done two tours with Spencer Ambrose while in St. Lucia.  The first was in May 2013 in which we did Spencer's "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break" and the second time was in September 2015 when we did the "Land, Sea, and Beach Adventure" and I did reviews of both cruises, with a lot of pictures.  I'll attach the link to both of those reviews.  

The first one was the Valor review from May 2013.  The section on St. Lucia starts on Page 7 but the "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break" section starts on Page 8, Post #187. 

The second was the Liberty review from September 2015.  The section on St. Lucia starts on Page 15, but the "Land, Sea, Beach Adventure" sections starts on Page 16, Post #399.

I included TONS of pictures of both tours in these reviews, including snorkeling pictures from Jalousie/Sugar Beach.  This is the best snorkeling I have seen out of the places we've snorkeled.  I should not that I've heard the snorkeling is great in Curacao, Bonnaire, Belize, and Roatan, but I've never snorkeled at any of those places. 

***If for some reason you can't see the pics in my review (some can see them, some can't), just post a reply and I'll get them to you somehow***

Carnival Valor review - May 2013 (we did the "Jalousie/Sugar Beach Break")

Carnival Liberty review - September 2015 (we did the "Land, Sea, & Beach Adventure", but still had a little over 2 hours at Jalousie/Sugar Beach)

I'm so happy to find you have another review in progress as I really enjoy them!  You take beautiful pictures too.  I've caught up and really enjoying this one.  We were on Glory in May 2010 and loved her.  We were in Jamaica in 2007 but there for a week at an AI in Negril and loved it, but have heard about the reputation for cruise stops.  I can't believe the "hidden" charges (more like scamming) after prices are agreed on, so something to definitely keep in mind if we're ever there on a cruise stop.  I'm looking forward to following along for the rest. 

Holly

4 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

 

 

 

Yes, I have mushroom coral in my tank, along with other corals and anemones. It's pretty cool to see the multiply. One day you have 2 before you know it there's 10. LOL

 

So was this just like a ship that took people out for excursions while in Barbados? It looks like a ferry of some type. What's the name of it (like which of the 5 ships was it in the bay)? That's so cool to see it before and now after.

 

 

 

 

I'll bet your tank is awesome!  They have some real nice tanks near the lobby of the Courtyard hotel we've stayed at when on our most recent cruises out of there, that have corals, anemones, and fish.  I was mesmerized by those.

Yes, it was a ship/boat that did the booze cruise excursion in Barbados.  We booked the tour through the cruise line.  I don't know if they used it for other excursions it or not.  The name of it is/was "Bajan Queen".  I guess I forgot to mention the name.  It DID look like a ferry boat, maybe it was at one time.  It was docked right in front of the building that the shopping area is at now (yellow buildings), so it was a fairly short walk to get to it from our ship.  It is cool to see it before and now after, but kind of sad.  At least we have great memories from it.

18 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

Please forgive us if we don't post anything the next couple of days, as we are observing a rather somber anniversary. Those that have been following us for over five years would understand. We promise to ramp it up over the weekend again. Thanks!

I do remember and will keep you, Patti, and Rayn in my thoughts and prayers. 

20 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

The Carnival Inspiration is anchored off the coast of Catalina Island…..

 

 

 

 

I normally wait to comment, unless I have a question, but this picture...WOW!!!  This would be beautiful enlarged, framed, and displayed.  Please let Patti know this is a GREAT one!!! 

Since I'm commenting, I noticed on John Heald's social media page this morning that he posted an article about the Choose Fun Airship (blimp) will be doing an "east coast tour".  It will start at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal tomorrow (5/23) for the ship naming ceremony (Sunrise) and will do a month long tour of the NYC area, NJ, and Philly.  The article mentioned it would be touring over NJ the first week of June.   So hopefully you and Patti will get to see it. 

Really enjoying your review and so glad to see the weather has cooperated for you so far and hoping it stayed that way.  I'll keep tuned in to find out.