Carnival - WereThey Being Sexist? You Be the Judge

[Haysiedaze]

Thanks for the great story and the great laugh, OP.

 

You have the wonderful ability to articulate your love and joy with your family and the great vacation you had!

 

Thanks for sharing! :)

 

We are truly blessed, thank you.

[going2cruz]

Our family of 4 (DS 11, DD 10 (almost 11), DW and I) just returned from the 2/21/10 sailing of the Carnival Victory from San Juan. This was our first cruise. Overall I have to say this was the best vacation we have ever taken BUT I am very disappointed in one incident that almost ruined the whole trip. The issue borders on sexist behavior by Carnival and my son and I will be scarred for life because of it :mad:.

 

I have been the Cruise Critic Junkie in the family. I have spent hours on here reading post after post. I had dreams of achieving the holy grail of Cruise Critic Members. I wanted a 24kt Gold Plastic Ship on a Stick on my very first cruise. I had resigned myself to the fact I would not be participating in any of the trivia or hairy chest contests so I knew this was out of my reach but a guy can fantasize (yea we really can) can’t he :D ?

 

So when my wife and daughter decided to take part in the Digital Scavenger Hunt, my son and I went out to the deck to see what they had to do. The only 2 people with the fun ship person were the two of them. We walked over closer to see if it would be cancelled and there it was in all its glory, a Carnival Victory 24kt Gold Plastic Ship on a Stick. I said to my son we are getting in this. My goal is there for the taking. The cruise director said that with the mother/daughter vs. father/son competition the event could go on. I knew I had the ship layout and location info cold. My wife and daughter would be crushed. I would share in the glory with my son. How much better could that get :) . We quickly got my camera and off we went. There was a list of 22 items. We had 25 minutes. We being male started off for the first item (we did look through the other 21 to see if we could knock off 1 or 2 at one location). It was a glorious time. We found 20 of 22 items in 25 minutes. Plus in the list of 22 it said you got an extra point for each grand piano, we found 3. We ran into my wife and daughter a couple times and could tell they were lost (cue in “We Are the Champions” here please). This was too easy (a red flag if I ever saw one in hindsight).

 

So both teams arrive at the appointed time. The cruise activities person starts reviewing our pictures on our camera. He starts adding them up. We score 23 points out of a list of 22. Once in while my wife and daughter would comment, we didn’t know there was an Irish Lounge (we needed a picture of a shamrock) or I didn’t know you got extra points for more than one grand piano (music to our ears). The trophy presentation would be sweet :rolleyes: .

 

So on to my wife and daughters pictures and the sexist part. First picture is 6 people hugging each other, the words, “2 points for each person 12 points” comes out of the NOFUNSHIP cruise person's mouth. WHAT that’s cheating they had a different list then us, I scream to myself :eek: . Then 5 more points for a picture of 3 people doing see no evil, hear no evil and say no evil. Then I look at our list, there at the bottom of the paper after the list of 22 items is the “fine print” and a list of 5 bonus items. We were DOOMED. My 24kt Victory Ship on a Stick was sinking faster than the Titanic.

 

My contention is that men would not read the fine print (or at least the 2 on my team wouldn’t). We do things one step at a time. My wife and daughter read the whole sheet of paper. They found the high scoring bonus points that were easy to get. Think back to the test that starts with the words, “ 1. Read all the directions before completing the test”. One hour later the males are groaning when they see that last direction “sign the paper and turn it in, you do not have to do questions 2-99" The girls have been out on the playground laughing at us for the past 55 minutes.

 

Carnival knew this and they purposely made up the scavenger hunt list like this. We never stood a chance. So now my wife and daughter have put their stupid little gold plastic boat on a piece of plastic in my “manroom” on a shelf where my son and I have to look at it every day. I am now studying up on trivia and applying Rogain for Men on my chest in preparation for our next cruise…and there will be another cruise Carnival and it will be on your stupid ships because we loved our vacation in spite of the women’s lib meetings being held behind closed doors.

 

Only thing worse than the stupid plastic trophy is the presentation picture I had to take with my wife and daughter jumping for joy with smiles as big as could be on their faces..... ;) The same type of smile we see on all our faces in most every picture we took on our vacation.

 

Thanks for a good laugh!!

[Snowxman]

Great story, thanks for sharing.

[deej696]

Great story. Thanks for giving me a chuckle this afternoon.

[Haysiedaze]

I got brave after this post and did start a review

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1156142

 

Thanks for the encouragement.

[funsunner]

Had a good laugh, you have a way with words Steve!

[sailinglisa]

OMG - I love it!!!! Thanks for the laugh!

[cathyoo]

I love hearing about families making keeper memories. That sure is one. Thanks for sharing.

[Ashpalo]

Thanks to all of you for the kind comments. I have started to write a summary of my trip in order to help me remember it. Once done I'll see if I feel it is Cruise Critic worthy.

 

I'll give you a brief summary though. This was an outstanding trip for our family and it was our first cruise. We did everything together. We met people from all over from our roll call. The friendships we made added so much to our trip. Dinner with the other 6 people at our table made every main dining room meal enjoyable. We have many family memories made with our cruise critic friends.

 

We didn't care about booze smuggling it wasn't a family activity. We found food we liked from sun up to sun down. The next to last day we had pizza and ice cream for breakfast. That puts smiles on kids faces! We enjoyed the shows we went to. We didn't play at the casino. We enjoyed quiet times on our balcony. The ship was immaculate. People cleaning everywhere. We had very calm seas during the cruise. We had excellent service from our steward and the dining staff. We made it a point to say good morning or hi any of the crew we walked by on the Victory we were rewarded in kind. We would love to do a Victory Cruise again.

 

Our excursions were all booked privately because of the info on the Ports of Call board. We did not use Carnivals excursions. We did the Sea Lion Encounter at Coral World (St Thomas), Bumpiing Tours (Dominica), Cosol (St Lucia), Rose & Jims (St Kitts) and Shasa (Barbados). All I can say is my wife who did none of the planning told me on the last day that I did a great job choosing the tours. The kids both agreed. That made my day.

 

Some small memories that make me smile. My daughter being afraid the ship would sink to the point she asked the steward for a childs life vest in her room. Yes she checked to see if there was one first. That was the first day. By the last she didn't want to leave. My son learned to make towel animals. I had a whole zoo every night in my room (no towels to shower with though). My wife dancing with Mardika our assitant waiter. Me having the lead female singer at VROOOM sit next to me and sing to me. My family still laughs at how shocked I looked. The look on my daughters face when the cast dancing to Macho Man ripped off their pants. It was priceless. All of us have photos of Omar a 300 lb sea lion kissing us at Coral World. On the ship people stayed away from me because it smelled like I was wearing Sardine No 5 cologne. My wife playing air hockey with the kids. The scavenger hunt. There are many more. We have over 1000 pictures and we have been watching slide shows of them since we got home. Nothing will ever take these memories from us.

 

Oh and our kids never had time to check out Camp Carnival we were too busy being a family.

 

We truly enjoyed Carnival and all it had to offer.

 

This just brought a tear of joy! What a beautiful family!! I can relate...it's just me and my 3 daughters and we've started taking a cruise each year - the memories that we have made are priceless! One of the best things about being on a cruise as a family is getting away from all the distractions - phone, internet, text messaging, TV, etc.

 

Thanks again!

 

Ashley :)

[RatherBFishin]

... My contention is that men would not read the fine print (or at least the 2 on my team wouldn’t). We do things one step at a time. My wife and daughter read the whole sheet of paper. They found the high scoring bonus points that were easy to get. Think back to the test that starts with the words, “ 1. Read all the directions before completing the test”. One hour later the males are groaning when they see that last direction “sign the paper and turn it in, you do not have to do questions 2-99" The girls have been out on the playground laughing at us for the past 55 minutes. ...

 

I'll get revenge for my brother in arms! (and fellow New Englander)

 

BTW... You didn't happen to save the list, did you :-) :-)

[lillulu]

Our family of 4 (DS 11, DD 10 (almost 11), DW and I) just returned from the 2/21/10 sailing of the Carnival Victory from San Juan. This was our first cruise. Overall I have to say this was the best vacation we have ever taken BUT I am very disappointed in one incident that almost ruined the whole trip. The issue borders on sexist behavior by Carnival and my son and I will be scarred for life because of it :mad:.

 

I have been the Cruise Critic Junkie in the family. I have spent hours on here reading post after post. I had dreams of achieving the holy grail of Cruise Critic Members. I wanted a 24kt Gold Plastic Ship on a Stick on my very first cruise. I had resigned myself to the fact I would not be participating in any of the trivia or hairy chest contests so I knew this was out of my reach but a guy can fantasize (yea we really can) can’t he :D ?

 

So when my wife and daughter decided to take part in the Digital Scavenger Hunt, my son and I went out to the deck to see what they had to do. The only 2 people with the fun ship person were the two of them. We walked over closer to see if it would be cancelled and there it was in all its glory, a Carnival Victory 24kt Gold Plastic Ship on a Stick. I said to my son we are getting in this. My goal is there for the taking. The cruise director said that with the mother/daughter vs. father/son competition the event could go on. I knew I had the ship layout and location info cold. My wife and daughter would be crushed. I would share in the glory with my son. How much better could that get :) . We quickly got my camera and off we went. There was a list of 22 items. We had 25 minutes. We being male started off for the first item (we did look through the other 21 to see if we could knock off 1 or 2 at one location). It was a glorious time. We found 20 of 22 items in 25 minutes. Plus in the list of 22 it said you got an extra point for each grand piano, we found 3. We ran into my wife and daughter a couple times and could tell they were lost (cue in “We Are the Champions” here please). This was too easy (a red flag if I ever saw one in hindsight).

 

So both teams arrive at the appointed time. The cruise activities person starts reviewing our pictures on our camera. He starts adding them up. We score 23 points out of a list of 22. Once in while my wife and daughter would comment, we didn’t know there was an Irish Lounge (we needed a picture of a shamrock) or I didn’t know you got extra points for more than one grand piano (music to our ears). The trophy presentation would be sweet :rolleyes: .

 

So on to my wife and daughters pictures and the sexist part. First picture is 6 people hugging each other, the words, “2 points for each person 12 points” comes out of the NOFUNSHIP cruise person's mouth. WHAT that’s cheating they had a different list then us, I scream to myself :eek: . Then 5 more points for a picture of 3 people doing see no evil, hear no evil and say no evil. Then I look at our list, there at the bottom of the paper after the list of 22 items is the “fine print” and a list of 5 bonus items. We were DOOMED. My 24kt Victory Ship on a Stick was sinking faster than the Titanic.

 

My contention is that men would not read the fine print (or at least the 2 on my team wouldn’t). We do things one step at a time. My wife and daughter read the whole sheet of paper. They found the high scoring bonus points that were easy to get. Think back to the test that starts with the words, “ 1. Read all the directions before completing the test”. One hour later the males are groaning when they see that last direction “sign the paper and turn it in, you do not have to do questions 2-99" The girls have been out on the playground laughing at us for the past 55 minutes.

 

Carnival knew this and they purposely made up the scavenger hunt list like this. We never stood a chance. So now my wife and daughter have put their stupid little gold plastic boat on a piece of plastic in my “manroom” on a shelf where my son and I have to look at it every day. I am now studying up on trivia and applying Rogain for Men on my chest in preparation for our next cruise…and there will be another cruise Carnival and it will be on your stupid ships because we loved our vacation in spite of the women’s lib meetings being held behind closed doors.

 

Only thing worse than the stupid plastic trophy is the presentation picture I had to take with my wife and daughter jumping for joy with smiles as big as could be on their faces..... ;) The same type of smile we see on all our faces in most every picture we took on our vacation.

 

As I read your post all I could hear was the narrator from A Christmas Story" and seeing Ralphies little smile. You sure know how to set the stage for a story, thanks, loved it!

[kyrisong1]

whooooosh :confused:

No Nunu it went faster than the speed of sound, it made no noise as it sailed right over their head;)

OP this post was awesome I LOVED it!!!

Cheers, Carole

[hot cocoa]

OP, I kept seeing this thread over the past few days, and never read it cuz I figured it would be all negative, and you would be complaining. But today I decided to finally to see what issues you had that you're calling Carnival sexist. As I started reading, I was like, "here we go..". As I continued reading, I began to laugh, because it was totally not what I had imagined. I'm glad you had a great time w/ your family. And as for the SOAS, I won my first doing the same scavenger hunt w/ my sister and 2 cousins. I hope you win yours soon!!!:)

[goofytoo]

My husband is like you and must have a ship on a stick from every ship we've been on. We have 5 of them sitting in our place of honor. Guess how he got them?

 

He took three of them from our daughter! She just gets a kick out of winning a ship on a stick for him.

 

Last cruise I won $1400 playing the slots. She won a ship on a stick in the moonwalking contest. Guess what he was happier with.

[amynorth]

Great read! Thanks for sharing...

[Haysiedaze]

I'll get revenge for my brother in arms! (and fellow New Englander)

 

BTW... You didn't happen to save the list, did you :-) :-)

 

I did and will pass it on to any male member requesting it ;) along with a copy of both teams " scavenger hunt photos" on an SD card..... :D

[crusinpsychRN]

The funny part is I didn't even read the story but just read the reactions. (It's a guy thing...) :p

 

And all this time I thought Nunu was a guy!

 

Funny story! You sound like the nicest guy, your family is lucky. You are awarded an honorary solid gold plastic ship on a stick!

 

What kind of work do you do?

[Haysiedaze]

And all this time I thought Nunu was a guy!

 

Funny story! You sound like the nicest guy, your family is lucky. You are awarded an honorary solid gold plastic ship on a stick!

 

What kind of work do you do?

 

Thanks. I'll send you my mailing address for the honorary trophy :D and make room for it beside the stupid one the girls have (make that in front of theirs).

 

I work in the high tech industry. I started in 1973!