Bibble

Thank you so much!!!! I am sure he is looking down and smiling...he was such a quiet person.......I so wish he could have at least lived to have went on this cruise in 10 days....but I know without a doubt in my mind that he would want me to go .... (he just never thought I would go without him.....and I really won't be...I am sure every time I look at the ocean I will feel him there with me)

He definitely wants you to go, I'm sure of it.

My brother died in October (2011) and my parents, husband and daughter and I went on a Thanksgiving cruise the very next month (it was already planned). Since we weren't sitting around our dining room table eating turkey & watching football, we pretended it wasn't a holiday. and we pretended like it was "just another day". But there were moments we would be reminded that it was indeed Thanksgiving, and that he should have been there with us. But then we'd laugh and say (as a costumed turkey and pilgrim came around taking pictures with everyone) that he's up there laughing at us and saying "HA! you think you'd ever have gotten me to take a picture with a turkey??" And we'd smile.

You will feel him with you, and you will have moments of sad. But then hopefully you'll have moments of remembering the good times and smile. I am guessing that as you buy that beer and put it in the paper bag, you're going to want to be sad and cry. Count to ten and smile up at him :)

Peace to you.

That is nice! I will be there on the 19th and I will have one for him also :)

I forgot to mention I did too!

In Nassau I realized I forgot to bring some of my brother's ashes (then remembered mom brought him in September), so then I remembered to have a drink for your husband.

I hope he's having a blast watching people he doesn't even know having drinks & walking around Nassau in his honor. :)

AT&T texting on ships is free to receive and $.50 to send.

Same in Bahamas, but I don't recall other countries too well.

I always expect about $20 in phone charges for a week long cruise. (of course, the time mother in law called to wish me happy birthday, I'd hoped that "I'm on a ship" would have been a signal to keep it short... NOT. $22 for one phone call! but that was only because I didn't want to cut her off and hurt her feelings).

If you turn DATA ROAMING OFF, you won't get any big charges for email, facebook, etc. Nothinig but phone and texting will work.

If you put it into airplace mode, phone and texting will not work.

and yes, typically in the places in the caribbean that the ships go, there is coverage.

San Juan and St. Thomas are just like being at home

You will even have coverage on Half Moon Cay.

Good for you, thanks for sharing your refreshingly low maintenance approach to resolve your situation with a minimum of fuss.

We fixed it for my friend's husband with no fuss also. I don't let much impact my fun on a cruise, and made sure my friend reacted the same way :)

She got steak & lobster, he got a sandwich from room service, and honestly, everyone was happy!

The reason you're not supposed to take a hot meal from the Main Dining room is because of the sanitation regulations. All food must be served at a certain temperature and they are liable if someone gets sick. My sister is a health inspector so I know this to be true. The buffets are different because you're serving yourself. Carnival also confirmed this the last time my sister sailed with us.

I understood that part.

I was asking if it was new that they were enforcing it, and/or making less exceptions. Seems they are possibly making less exceptions.

I think you just had a bad waiter.

Thinking either he didn't know, didn't care to see if he could make an exception...

Why didn't anyone order room service for him? Gary

We did, after we found out he couldn't have the meal from the dining room.

It didn't break the night really. We just rolled with it (and so did the husband). It wasn't important enough to get a supervisor.

I've just never been told no before, and wondered if they've shifted (I shouldn't have said "Rules") their easy-going-ness of making an exception, or if it was just this guy.

Thank you all!

She should have used the FTTF with the second leg of the b2b. It does seem to me that she's being unreasonable though and should have investigated it on her own. Also she wanted to leave....lol to cut off he nose despite her face....I guess by going home and wasting the money she spent she would have shown them...lol....Can you say IRRATIONAL...HA HA HA.:D

Could also have just been the frustrating straw that broke the camel's back.

I once had an embarkation that, upon retelling, wasn't so bad at ALL (probably considered good by some people), but as it unfolded, by the time I boarded, I was so frustrated that I wanted to turn around. (and trust me, I NEVER want to get off a ship!!!). I wasn't angry, I was upset and frustrated and just wanted it all over. I, like the OP, had been told one thing, and it was wrong. Then we got sent somewhere else, and seemed to have gotten forgotten about by the person who was helping us. Then when we FINALLY got our cards, we get on the boat, give our cards and wait to hear DING!, we hear the most awful goose-honk instead. The cards didn't work... So I do understand those moments. Thankfully my moment ended ten minutes after boarding, and although I still looked a mess from the crying I did for 15 minutes, it quickly became a funny story at just how frustrated I was. (but NOT funny at the time)

And yes, I will agree that I was feeling a bit IRRATIONAL :) (of course, my husband would have the used the word PSYCHOTIC for me - LOL!)

AmI missing somthing when doing B2B you are escorted off as soon as the ship is cleared and brought stright back on before loading starts.

I'm guessing her issues weren't in between the cruises.

I'm also guessing she didn't know an early flight could get off early.

On the other hand, her husband had an early dive scheduled that would obviously benefit from an early tender. To my untrained eye, this is where the frustration truly lay.

Previously, I know that my mom has been able to take my dad's dinner (with a cover) back to the cabin when he hurt his foot and just didn't feel like going to the dining room. Once, the waiter even offered to let us take my daughter's leftovers since she didn't eat it all.

So this past weekend, we asked to take a meal for my friend's husband, as he has a bad back and didn't want to sit in the dining room chair through the whole meal (he made it through the steakhouse the night before, but he was "done"). We were told no, that there's no way to control the temperature. I asked "How do you control it after you serve it to me at the table?" His answer was simply "Ma'am, we don't allow that".

So, when we were all done, and the wife had half her steak leftover, that was ALREADY served, and would now be thrown away, we asked for a lid to take the leftovers back. "No ma'am. We don't do that. We can't control the temperature".

Now, don't get me wrong, I have been places where they won't let you take food to go. and I understand when they have those rules in place. I'm not looking for "why" a restaurant would have those rules.

I'm asking if anyone knows if this rule is:

a) new

b) ship specific maybe (a crap-shoot depending on your ship)

c) a waiter who didn't know better (or just didn't want to help)

Thank you!

Thank you!

It seems it's the same place I was thinking. But everyone made it sound like it was inside, so I got confused.

 

thanks again!

Yup, exactly the place I was thinking :)

I am so envious, JW and Jerome would be great company on a cruise. I can't wait for the finish of this review and hopefully he will do one for your upcoming cruise. I seem to be laughing hysterically with every post he makes.

 

I am waiting anxiously and because they are probably so busy with setting up the Christmas House and because it is for such good causes I can only be thankful that he is actually finding the time to do a review at all.

I ditto all of the above!!!!

It is just past the straw market, before Senior Frogs. It has a blue awning with stools and a small room where she gets the drinks.

Thank you!

It seems it's the same place I was thinking. But everyone made it sound like it was inside, so I got confused.

thanks again!

That makes me think about the horse races! Had forgotten all about them.....anyone else remember those?? Wooden horse heads decorated by teams with only things they brought with them or were found on board. Pretty funny!

On my very first cruise, my best friend and I were 23 years old. A week to Bermuda that I had won. There were, say, 7 of us under 30 on the ship (we ended up partying with the crew! So much fun!! but I digress...)

Anyway, we met up with a group of 3 couples in their mid 40s. They showed us the ropes of cruising, they were awesome!! We called them "The Mamas and the Papas" because they treated us like their own children.

Anyway, they all bought one of the horses, and asked us to do the race. Remember that we were some of the only 20somethings on board? Well, a lot of the other horses were kind of tame. Not ours... we named him NumbNuts. Somewhere we got poster board and made a big sign for him. I borrowed a waiter's flowery long sleeve button down for my jockey outfit, worn with bike shorts. We made a cloak of somesort around the horse and had two round and one long balloons hanging out underneath the back.

It was so much fun!!!

I was just in Nassau yesterday. The Casablanca's beer prices are $5.00 for American beers & 3 for $10.00 for local beers.

Can you give me directions like a 5 year old to Casablanca?

I'm pretty familiar with the port area.

Thanks so much!

is it the place on the left where all the stools are outside? and the only "inside" is the refrigerator room?

Well this is probably a complete opposite response than most....we drink beer also...and on all 7 trips to Nassau ...we walk to the street one street behind the main one....lots of shops back there...and you can walk in and buy a beer .... really cheap...a couple of dollars...they put it in a brown paper bag and we walk around and drink it and then go back for another.....I am going back to Nassau on the 16th.....my husband died of a massive heart attack (no sickness at all before then) he had it on September 9th and died on the 10th.......and my plans include having at least a beer for me and one for him when we are in Nassau.

I usually grab a beer that way for walking around too :)

I'm very sorry about your husband. My brother died two years ago (age 44) of a massive stroke, I understand the suddenness of it all. I wish you much peace as you embark on that cruise.

17 cruises, and I still look noobie :)

I don't carry a purse on ships, and tend to lose things in pockets.

I actually just purchased a really nice one from Brighton for newly acquired Platinum Carnvial keycards!

Before I even read the installment above:

YAY!!!YAY!!!YAY!!!

(CLAPPING HANDS!!)

Gallivanting with Cocktails in Freeport

 

Jerome and I made our way down, down, down to the bowels of the ship, exiting the Ecstasy and beginning to explore the Port of Freeport. It was gorgeous and sunny albeit a bit hot. We have been here many times, both with Carnival as well as with the Bahamas Celebration (BC). There were three ships docked in port today: The Ecstasy, The BC, and The Carnival Fantasy. So, roughly, about 5,000 people.

 

The port area has come a long way, and now there is a brand new addition of a Senor Frogs, which by later in the day, became a festive outpost of drunken naredowell’s waiting for the sound of the departure horn blast of their mother ship.

 

Jerome and I followed the well placed signs to the taxi stand, and once there, waited in a short line to board a mini van to Port Lucaya. The vans hold about 12 people, at least that is what they try to cram into them, and the vans over by the Carnival boarding area are all run by Metro Transit. The cost is a flat rate of $10.00 per person, round trip. We did not have to pay until we reached The Port Lucaya Marketplace, and at that time, we were also given a special return ticket for transportation back to the ship.

 

We were next in line and our bus pulled up, and I called out loud, “Shotgun!”, to which several people were not aware that this means I call riding in the front seat, began to scatter,and one lady in our group even screamed. She then started speaking in a foreign language about, what I supposed, was me having a shotgun! Jerome was like “Trouble, people think you are going to go crazy and start shooting, Geez, JW!” Well I fixed Jerome’s wagon. I got the front seat, and he got the fourth row, all the way back, stuck in the corner, next to a Sweaty Betty who blah, blah, blah'd the entire twenty minute van ride…..Ha Ha Ha. Geez, Jerome.

 

The actual port area of Freeport has some wonderful craft stalls and local food delicacies. A drug store, a couple of bars as well as some local flavor and color. Enough, if I wanted to just get off the ship for an hour, walk around, get a cocktail, then re-board and enjoy the ship’s facilities. Other than that, there is not much at the Port itself. In order to see a bit of Freeport, we had to venture to Port Lucaya.

 

The trip into town, is not the prettiest drive. We drive past several American pharmaceutical companies, that emit some major foul odors (Yeah, like that would go over well back in the USA. I wonder what they are producing there that they can‘t get away with back home?). Unmistakable in the least, we drive past at least 50 or more oil storage tanks. I mean, they just keep going on and on, and they are building new ones! I asked the driver why so many and he replied that these belong to the United States and it’s part of their oil reserves. Well, Okay, I thought. Interesting, Oil Reserves not in the US. Makes no sense to me, so I just kept my mouth shut.

 

Freeport was hit back in 2005-2006 with five back to back hurricanes. The damage was total devastation. In particular, when I came to Freeport growing up, yes the beach was very nice, but I gravitated along with everyone else to the Royal Oasis complex and The International Bazaar. Now, as we drive past the complex, it is still as if the hurricanes just came barreling through yesterday. The Royal Oasis was an amazing property. It boasted a thousand themed hotel rooms all sprawled out in over a dozen buildings. It’s enormous casino was right out of Scheherazade. A truly magnificent theater that boasted a famous, jaw dropping, topless spectacle production that rivaled any of the same shows in Vegas. Dozens of famous Stateside eateries like Trader Vics, Tony Sweet’s Fish Market, The Boom Boom Room, and Ember‘s. A 36 Hole Championship Golf Course, A Professional Tennis Pavilion that rivaled Wimbledon, an International Swimming Complex and more Martini’s anyone could ever imagine. Frank, Dean, Jerry, Tony and Sammy all performed here.

 

All of that is gone now. Our driver was part of the 2,500 people who were employed at The Royal Oasis and had been out of a job since 2006. He told me how a time share company tried to come in and revive the property, but then the 2008 real estate bubble burst, and the company went bankrupt. No one has touched it ever since. It is a shame, as this now broken down Grand Lady of the Bahamas was one classy chick. As we drive past her once, very grand entrance, what used to be four gorgeous towering gleaming golden guard gates, are now replaced with razor wire fences, over grown brush and the original sign still toppled on the ground. We pass the tennis facility and there is the great bleacher complex, looking like a over grown Roman ruin. The grand pool facility is completely filled in and barren. You can still see the main hotel tower, but it had a fire in it about a year ago, so one side of the building is heavily damaged from black suet. The Casino building has collapsed. So extremely disappointing. I try to rekindle in my mind the memories of my past. I wonder what changes lay ahead for her, if any.

 

I must credit The Carnival Corporation as one of the American companies re-igniting the economy of Freeport. Their almost daily arrivals of thousands of passengers bring hope and a glimmer of prosperity to an island of wonderful people that needs our help right now. Our driver was thankful for the expansion of Metro Transit because of the Carnival arrivals. That expansion gave him a job, just this past year. By the way, the drivers do not make the $10 per person collected. The company does, and it is highly regulated. The Drivers are paid a daily wage based upon people transported, but do get to keep their tips, so a dollar or two will go along way.

 

We arrived at The Port Lucaya complex and our transportation drop off/pick up stand was at the entrance of the Treasure Bay Casino. Can you hear Angels singing? "LAAAAAAA" To be dropped off at a casino is like Gawd saying Happy New Year to me! We were all issued a return ticket by our driver, we paid another lady our $10.00 per person fare, I gave our driver three dollars and then, for me at least, it was off into abyss the Treasure Bay Casino. Jerome finally made it out of the bus, and one half of him was dripping wet, because as he put it, "Sweaty Betty just rambled on and on and dripped all over me!" Thankfully, Jerome had dripped dry by the time he completed his first Bloody Mary.

 

The Treasure Bay Casino is one of my usual stomping grounds when in Freeport, and I just love this place. Also, I have to tell you how to get your $10.00 taxi fare back and then some.

I think I'm just going to have to get the restraint to wait a full week for all installments. I keep putting myself through heck... waiting with bated breath for each one, and as soon as I'm done reading, I'm waiting again!!!!

p.s. the only times I've been to Freeport have been on the Celebration twice, and also "back in the day" on the Discovery Sun (one day trip), and although it's not my favorite port, I can so easily have fun in the Lucaya area. Can't wait to hear about your shenanigans!!! (and how to get back the $10!!!)

 

Regarding the OP's question, we walked from the cruise port to Fish Fry and never once felt uncomfortable in any way. The walk along Junkanoo was really enjoyable. There were three of us and we stopped at the Bikini Tiki to take advantage of their 3 beers + 3 shots for $9.99. We absolutely loved that place! Byron made sure that all of his customers felt welcome and he wanted to make sure that everyone was enjoying themselves. I would definitely recommend stopping there for a visit along the way if you do walk over to Fish Fry.

I've walked to the Bikini Tiki Bar - love it!!!!!

This review has been so much fun to read that I am officially adding "Go on a cruise with JW and Jerome" to our bucket list!

I know, RIGHT??????

It's been 36hours since our last dose!! JW we need you!!! Where are you?!?!

It feels like MUCH longer!!!!

YooooHoooooo!!!!

What happened next, as we arrived at the bar and tried to order a cocktail, became perhaps the worst Guest experience of Jerome’s and mine entire cruise history.

O

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You're really going to just put that out there and leave us hanging???????? REALLY??????? oh man!!!!

Hilarious, JW! Just one pic....please!!!:p

We all just KNOOOOOOOOW you have a picture.

Please share!!!!!!

I am LOVING this review!!!!

The last one I read from you was about the Bahamas Celebration. You are one of the few other people who like that little ship, as do I :)

I actually make my own ham & cheese sandwiches :)

Much quicker than the deli.

I think next time I"ll make my own BLT!