A Glorious Spring Break Cruise:Long, Detailed Review with Photos: 3/27/11-4/3/11

[pcrum]

A Glorious Spring Break Cruise or Just How Long is DD Going to Stay in the Teen Club: Long, Detailed Review with Photos: 3/27/11-4/3/11

 

Sunday, 3/27/11

 

My family traveled on the Carnival Glory the week of 3/27/11 for spring break. This is my trip report with photos. It will be wordy, long and include a lot of details and photos. If you don’t like long, wordy reviews, it’s best you skip this one! Warning: Although I have lots of photos, the only food porn I have is of the wine tasting in the Emerald Steakhouse. For food porn, refer to my June, 2010 Freedom trip report. I might take some food photos from that report and insert in here, as we tend to order the same things trip after trip!

 

We are a family of 4, DH and myself are in our middle 40s and we have two 16 year old boy/girl twins. Planning for this trip started a year before the cruise when I booked based upon two things: the itinerary, which at the time included a stop at Half Moon Cay, and the availability of two port hole cabins next to one another. I had read Froufie’s wonderful review of her port hole cabin (although I think she had one meant for just one person, with a single bed) and I liked the idea of having natural light in the room at the price of an inside. We have sailed every category of stateroom (well, except for the suites...maybe one day when the kids are through college...), and although the kids say having a window doesn’t mean anything to them, I prefer natural light and the added advantage of having a couch in the room, which you don’t get with an inside.

 

At the time I booked, Carnival had not yet made the change whereas travel agents must charge the same as the Carnival site, so, as I always have, I used a site to book where travel agents bid on your business based upon the cruises you have selected. We have used this site quite often and had good results, however now that travel agents have to charge the same as Carnival, the only perks are perhaps an onboard credit. I booked at the easy saver rate, but because I booked so early and got a fairly good rate to begin with, I never saw the rate decrease. To be honest, I didn’t check every week for a rate decrease, so it’s possible I missed something, but overall, it seemed the rates continued to rise. Also with booking a port hole cabin (category PT), they tend to sell out very quickly since there are so few of them on the ship, so once they are sold out, Carnival doesn’t decrease the rate (or at least that was my rationalization for not checking so often).

 

Well, about a week after I booked, the stop at Half Moon Cay was replaced with a stop in Nassau. Not sure about the reasoning on this, as the next eastern cruise after ours (the cruise the week immediately after ours was western) went to Half Moon Cay. Some on our roll call said that since Holland American owns Half Moon Cay that they can “bump” a Carnival ship if they want to call the same day. For whatever the reason, we would not be sailing to Half Moon Cay, which was a big disappointment to me, but not really a big deal for the rest of my family as they tend to leave the cruise planning up to me and didn’t really know where we were going! If we had a longer day at Nassau and could take advantage of the Atlantis water park, I’d have been happier, but with a departure at 2 pm, I knew it wouldn’t be cost effective for us to do the water park for such a short stay. Oy vey...

 

We also traveled the week of Thanksgiving and purchased a future cruise certificate, which I used on this sailing. When we bought the certificate on the Liberty ship, Carnival told us we would not be able to use the certificate on this trip, since it was already booked, but I had no problem at all with it. This is the second time I have bought a future cruise certificate when the next cruise was already booked and both times it has been accepted without question.

 

This cruise departed on a Sunday, 3/27/11. We live in Orlando, about a 3.5 hour drive from the Port of Miami. We thought about going down on Saturday to look at some colleges in the area and spending Sat night in Miami. I have recently discovered Priceline and had a great experience getting a room for a college visit to FSU in Tallahassee. A week before our trip, I did some research on betterbidding to try to see what rooms were going for and also checked some other travel sites to get an idea of the “rack rate”. To my surprise, everything was booked! It seemed the closest we could get to port was about 40 minutes away! Ok, I know it’s spring break, but I didn’t think downtown Miami hotels got a big spring break crowd. My husband did some checking on the internet and found out a big tennis open was going on in Miami that weekend, so there was literally no room at the inn. The closest we could get was about about 40 minutes out. Since we had a car, that was not a big deal, but in the end, the kids decided they really did not want to look at the colleges we were considering (FL Atlantic University and Barry University), so we ended up leaving early Sunday morning, which turned out to be a good thing, because I don’t think I’d have been ready to leave on Sat. anyway.

 

I joined the roll call for the cruise after I booked and I am always amazed at people who are packed 2-3 weeks before the cruise!! Who are you people and can I come live in your house and see how you do it? I was actually proud that DH and myself were packed the Fri. before the cruise, leaving only the kids’ stuff to pack on Saturday. There have been times when we start the packing process at 9 pm the night before we leave...oy vey!

 

From the roll call, I learned that singlecruise.com was also doing a group sailing on this cruise. Some on the roll call were a little miffed at this, either thinking the singles group would tie up public rooms for their private events or that the ship would be filled with a wild group of singles ready to party and hook up. Neither proved to be the case. We saw the singles group take a group photo one night and it looked like a relatively small group (under 100 cruisers) and there was no wild partying antics, at least not from this group.

 

We planned to leave at 6 am Sunday morning, but in between setting the stuff out for the cat sitter, last minute clean up, etc. we actually got in the car about 6:20 am. I was stressed, but DH was saying I was putting arbitrary deadlines on myself and to just relax! But, you know when you are having people in your house while you are gone and you want everything to look perfect...or is that just me? A quick stop at Mickey D’s for food (we don’t like the choices on the FL Turnpike at all) and we hit the Turnpike listening to the Sirius Broadway station. For those of you who missed my June, 2010 Freedom review, we are big theater buffs. DS is in a theater magnet school and we all love (well, DH tolerates) Broadway. I was so sad when our 90 day free trial on Sirius ended. Might have to break down and actually subscribe now, but I digress...

 

So we were making great time, just one stop for gas on the way and we were boogieing down the Turnpike until we got to the part of the drive where the FL Turnpike ends and turns into the interstate and we noticed that the express lane (where you can pay a toll to bypass a lot of traffic) was closed. That should have been our first warning. A short while later, traffic was very backed up, just crawling along. We were probably only delayed 30 minutes, but it literally took 30 minutes to go just a few miles until we reached our exit. As we got closer to our exit, we could see that someone had hit the wall separating the express lane from the other lanes. Hoping no one was seriously hurt, we continued on our journey and made it to the Carnival terminal at about 11 am. We were at the same terminal and parking area we had used in Nov. for our Liberty cruise, so everything was very familiar. We parked and wheeled our bags across the street to give to a porter.

 

We got through the Security line very quickly and made our way into the terminal. We were given zone 9 for boarding and directed to one of the check in kiosks. We had trouble using them on our Thanksgiving sailing because we had done the online portion too late (you mean to tell me that doing online checkin at 10 pm the night before isn’t enough time for it to register?). Well, this time we did it a full week before so were not expecting any trouble at all. But,I guess we are just too old for the new technology (my kids were helping with which buttons to press), but it still wasn’t working for us. A carnival employee came by to help and it got us our passes for our sail and sign card and off we went to another very short line to pick up our cards.

 

There has been a lot of discussion on cruise critic about traveling with minors where only one parent is traveling. Carnival tells you that you need a notarized document from the parent not traveling stating that you have permission to take the children on the cruise. I always do this when I travel with the kids, having their dad sign a document saying I can take them on the cruise, listing the ship, sailing dates, and ports of call. However I have never been asked for it. But I figure, better safe than sorry.

 

After obtaining our sail and sign cards we waited....and waited some more. You can see how crowded the lounge area was.

 

Disregard the date on the photos...I had 2010 set instead of 2011...oy vey. The chairs were all filled, so the kids took a seat on the floor

 

We amused ourselves by watching the singles come in and make small talk with one another. By the look on some of their faces, it seemed the person they were now talking with face to face did not exactly match the physical description they had given online. I was reminded of that moment in the movie, “When Harry Met Sally” when, after a discussion with Sally about her recent date, the Carrie Fisher character says to her husband, “Please promise me I will never have to go out there and date again...” Watching these interactions, I was so thankful for the wonderful man by my side, but I digress...

 

Note totally unrelated to cruise...skip if you like, read if you like sappy love stories:

DH and I first met in college at age 18. We were friends and slowly, over the years, became more than friends. We were engaged briefly after college, but I thought DH was taking too long to get his life in order (I expected a good job, with a pension plan, house, etc by the time we were 22...oh the naivety of youth), and ended things. Both of us married other people, I had 2 kids (DH had none), we moved to different countries and coincidentally, both of our first marriages ended literally within a month of one another. I was back in the USA by then and we got back in touch and saw each other and that was that...16 years later and we knew we were meant for one another. We took our time though and dated for 5 years before we finally married. This cruise is to celebrate our 2nd anniversary!!

 

 

 

Now, back to the review: Around noon the boarding started and it was not long before our zone was called. We did the obligatory welcome aboard photo (which never turns out nice for us) and walked on the ship. Now, Carnival has it all set up for you the minute you walk on the ship. So many places to spend your money. Immediately in the lobby area we came upon a table to make a steakhouse reservation, purchase a wine package, and purchase an unlimited soda sticker. Since the free bottle of wine promotion was still going on in the steakhouse (we also took advantage of this in Nov.), we made a reservation for 7 pm. DD knew the teen club activities started at 9 pm and she wanted to be sure to be finished with dinner before then. DH then instructed me to get in line at Guest Services to switch our keys around (we booked one adult and one child in each room, per Carnival regulations, but planned to put the kids together in one room and the adults together) while he perused the wine packages. Now a word about DH...he doesn't think a meal is complete unless it is accompanied by a bottle of wine (preferably red), so a wine package is a must for him. But, the wine packages only come with 5 bottles of wine. The free bottle in the steak house takes care of one night, but that leaves us with one night in which we have to purchase a bottle a la carte. Not a big issue, but it’s a 7 night cruise Carnival...how about a 7 night package? DH settled on the mid-ranged priced package (there are 3 packages offered). For the bean counters out there, the package was $149.50 including gratuity (and I assume, sales tax since we were still in port). That comes to roughly $30 a bottle, so you save a bit (Carnival says the package saves you 25%...not sure if it’s that much).

 

Then it was off to Guest Services to get our keys switched so DH and I were in one room and the 2 kids in another. Guest Services has no problem doing this, so not sure why you have to book it with an adult in each cabin. I also asked for a key to the kids' room and was given a blue S & S card that said "key only."

 

Ok, dinner reservation made, wine package ordered, keys sorted, now it was time for some food.

 

The Lido Deck was not too crowded. We all got some different types of food and found a table and DH ordered us some DODs and something virgin for the kids. We always buy the kids the soda stickers for the week, but usually wait until the ship sails to save on tax (should have thought about that when ordering the wine package, lol). They usually want something foo foo with an umbrella at first anyway, so it works out. I don’t remember what everyone ate, but I know I took this opportunity to try the burrito bar since it was not crowded. I had first tried it on the Liberty and was underwhelmed, to say the least. But, I do like Mexican, so decided to give it another go. Let’s just say I had my second and last burrito from the Carnival burrito bar. Here’s my take on it: the tortillas are way too big for the amount of filling they use. I was taking bites of nothing but tortilla before I got down to the filling. My second complaint is that the tortillas are at room temperature and the meat fillings are luke warm at best. Add cold vegetables and sour cream and guacamole and you have a burrito that is bordering on being cold. I think they could improve things very easily by having the tortillas heated and adding a bit more filling (I guess I could have asked for “heavy fillings”, but I always hesitate to be “that” gluttonous American among all the ultra thin crew!

 

We finished eating and by this time it was 1:30 pm and the kids wanted to go check out the cabin. DH and I first went and stopped by the dining room to check our dinner seating. We always ask for late seating and a 4 top. Not that we don’t like meeting other people, but we are so busy during the year that we like to have family time while on vacation. As it turned out, during sea days, DD spent so much time at the teen club that breakfast and dinner was one of the few times we saw her, so it was a good decision! We were assigned to the Upper level of the Golden Dining Room. We found out that the lower level was used for Your Time DIning. This location turned out to be very convenient to our room. After confirming we had a 4-top, we went back to check out the cabins.

 

We had 1220 and 1216 on the Riveria Deck, both port hole cabins (port side) which were next door to one another, but without an adjoining door. 1220 actually had an adjoining door to 1224, on the other side, but this is just a regular ocean view, not a port hole cabin, so we chose 1216. Although at the time I booked this cruise we had never had a port hole cabin, I later booked a PT for Thanksgiving week 2010 on the Liberty and we loved it. In fact, we also had room 1220 on the Liberty (the kids were with their dad and did not travel with us for that one). We love the convenience of being all the way forward, as we are near the show lounge (remember we are big theater fans and never miss a production show!) and also disembarking in the ports is a breeze because it’s just one floor down and more importantly, when we return to the ship after a day in port, it’s one short flight of stairs up to the cool air conditioned comfort of our cabin.

 

Some photos of the room:

 

 

More to come...Please let me know if the font is too large or the color too distracting. I first tried the review in blue, smaller font, but I find the older I get, the more I like large print. If it's too large, I can change it for future posts. Thanks for reading!

 

 

[Ykgorbie]

Great review so far - looking forward to reading more - and, your pictures are perfect !

[pcrum]

More room photos:

 

 

The kids had already ordered room service (it’s just not a Carnival cruise until my kids order the pb&j from room service) and wanted to nap, so DH and I also decided to chill in the room until it was time for muster drill. I was hoping to get some of our luggage so I could start to unpack, but the luggage would not arrive until later. When we arrived, the beds were reversed as how we wanted them...our room was set up as two twins and the kids’ room was set up as a king. I guess we could have just changed rooms, but I kind of liked the idea of staying in 1220 again, so when we saw the room steward we asked him to change the bed configuration. Our room steward was Noel, and out of all the Carnival cruises we have taken, he was by far, the nicest steward we have ever had!! He learned our names after the first day and when I would come back to the room throughout the week and be fumbling in my purse for my key, he would always be right there to open the door for me. He seemed like such a kind person and his patience would certainly be put to the test this week with our neighbors (more on that later), but Noel nerve lost his cool. We left a nice tip for him at the end of the cruise, as he was so outstanding!

 

As we were resting, waiting for muster drill, our neighbors arrived. Across the hall from us in inside cabins was a group of young men traveling together, whom we not so affectionately called “Jersey Shore,” because of their accents and overall demeanor. They had 3 rooms, 2 guys in each room, and during the week they would leave their doors open, like they were in a dorm (although they really didn’t look like college types and the hair cuts on some ruled out the military). Socks would be littered along the hallway between their rooms. We would open our door to look into their room and see them lounging on the bed with their door wide open. Later in the week, they hung a t-shirt over their bed with the Warner Brothers emblem with the words, “If you see a cop, warn a brother”. Charming. They would regularly yell down the hall to their buddies, yell to Noel when they locked themselves out (which happened surprisingly often during the week) and just generally be loud and obnoxious. When one yelled, “Bring me your daughters” I thought DH was going to go ballistic and I had to stop him from going out in the hall to confront the “gentlemen”. I just had a feeling that talking to these guys would do no good and I didn’t want to do anything to draw attention to ourselves and the fact that our 16 year old DD was alone in the cabin with her brother. So, we waited for our bags and got acquainted with our neighbors.

 

Muster drill was listed for 3:15 pm, but the actual siren didn’t sound until around 3:45 pm. We have learned to wait for a bit after the siren so we are not squeezed in the back. We made it through the drill and came back to the room to see if any luggage had arrived. Nada. So, we went up to the Lido for sailaway. The kids and I positioned ourselves on loungers and DH sat at a table (he doesn’t like the chaise loungers). I don’t think Carnival has changed sailaway in our last 3 cruises....they always play the same 3 line dance songs....Electric Slide, Cha Cha and something else that I can’t recall. There was a very small group dancing this time, the smallest I had seen. We just chilled and watched the ship leave Miami.

 

 

DD:

 

Both Kids:

.

 

More to come...

[pcrum]

DS loves the airbrushed tattoos and took this opportunity to get his first one...a Charlie Chaplin. He has had the same tattoo on previous cruises. The lady doing the tattoos was very nice and came over to me to make sure it was ok for him to get the tattoo. I told her it was fine, lol. He would visit her several times during the cruise as after each tattoo she would give him a card for a discount on the next one.

 

 

We buy the kids’ soda stickers on our S & S card and give them charging privileges on their S & S card for up to $100. That way they can go the specialty coffee shop and get a milkshake, get tattoos, etc. DS also liked the pick and mix candy from the formalities shop. I think he used up his money and DD didn’t spend any!

 

DD and I went to the Orientation Meeting for the kids’ clubs at 5:15 pm. This was held in the Ebony Cabaret all the way at the back of the ship on deck 5. All the kids’ clubs have orientation together, even the teen clubs. I registered her and my son, knowing that my son would probably never attend, as that is just not his thing. I found out we could have registered online...live and learn. We picked up the teen club schedule for the week and were out of there within a few minutes without stopping to listen to the presentation, as it seemed more aimed to those with younger kids.

 

Since we were sailing, I bought DD’s soda sticker (DS had already gone back to the cabin, so I couldn’t do his since I didn’t have his S & S card). Even though the kids are 16, they were charged the child’s price. I don’t know what the cut-off is when the adult price kicks in...I would assume either 18 or 21. For the bean counters, the cost of the unlimited soda for the week was $36.23 (they add in a gratuity). DS’s sticker was not purchased until the next day and his was $31.05 for the week.

 

After this, we went back to the cabins and soon after the luggage arrived, piece by piece. One rolling duffle was a bit late in arriving and when it did, it had a note inside that it had been searched but that everything was fine. We didn’t smuggle any liquor or even bring a bottle of wine this time, but we did pack a 6 pack of 24 oz. bottles of pepsi max, a 8 pack of 12 oz bottles of diet coke and some mini cans of sunkist orange. Even with the soda cards, we like to have soda in the room for when we get back from shore excursions or to enjoy with room service. I guess the weight of the bag along with the liquid bottles raised a red flag. Anyway, it was all retuned unharmed.

 

I unpacked and before we knew it, it was 6:30 pm. I wanted to shower and didn’t think we’d make the 7 pm steakhouse reservation, so DH called and pushed it back to 7 pm. DD was upset she’d miss the start of the teen club welcome aboard party, but we kidded her that this way, she could make an entrance!

 

The Emerald Steakhouse is located on Deck 10 near the back of the ship. We had to walk to either the middle of aft elevators as the front ones did not go to the steakhouse. The steakhouse was relatively empty and we were seated quickly.

 

 

 

My kids had the ahi tuna as a starter and DH and I had the crabcakes.

 

These photos are taken from my 6/10 review since I did not take photos this night. But, the food looks the same each trip, lol!

 

 

 

More to come...

[boaterette]

The font size is great. I wish everyone posted in this font. Loving your review. I loved your love story by the way.

[h_blond2]

Great review so far, can't wait to see more! :D

[saintscruisefool]

Loving your review keep it coming. Also really enjoyed your love story.

[raylene5]

 

We planned to leave at 6 am Sunday morning, but in between setting the stuff out for the cat sitter, last minute clean up, etc. we actually got in the car about 6:20 am. I was stressed, but DH was saying I was putting arbitrary deadlines on myself and to just relax! But, you know when you are having people in your house while you are gone and you want everything to look perfect...or is that just me?

 

Nope, that's not just you! I always clean the house the morning we leave for a trip...clean the bathrooms, the floors, the kitchen, etc. And I only clean the bathroom after everyone's taken their shower. And I only clean the floors after all the luggage is in the car...that way the foot traffic on the newly clean floors is at a minimum. I'm a bit neurotic this way, as you can see and it drives my husband CRAZY!

 

I have 4 kids and with each one, as soon as I went in to labor, I seriously cleaned the house. My family would be there watching the other kids and so I wanted to make sure it looked all sparkly clean for them. Terrible, I know.

 

Loving your detailed review and your pictures. Great job! :)

[bplazo]

Great review and pictures. Love the font size!

[alreadypacked]

Loving the review!! I enjoyed your other reviews too, and was delighted when I logged on tonight and saw this one. Thanks!:D

[pcrum]

These are the butters that accompanied the bread:

 

We were given the free items from the chef...the ladies got the soup and the guys got the mini hamburger:

 

 

This photo was taken from our 11/10 Liberty cruise, but the burger looked the same:

 

I had the lobster as my entree, DH had the filet and the kids had the surf and turf. On the Liberty cruise, I was disappointed to find that the lobster was actually served grilled, when it is listed as “broiled” on the menu. I really didn’t like the grilled taste of the lobster on the Liberty so I asked the server how the lobster was cooked. She said all their main courses are both grilled and broiled. I specifically asked if the lobster had a grilled taste and she said no, she I decided to try it again. It was good, but I have to say the lobster in the MDR was better. The steakhouse lobster just did not have a lot of flavor. But, everyone enjoyed their steaks very much and the kids liked their lobster, so it might have just been me.

 

Note: Photos are from previous cruises, but the food all looked the same!

 

Filet:

 

Lobster:

[pcrum]

Surf and Turf:

 

 

Our free bottle of wine was a Chilean bottle of Santa Carolina (complete with screw top), which is Carnival’s house wine. We were given a choice of red or white and we chose the merlot. It was ok, not the best wine we’ve had, but hey, it’s free.

 

For dessert, I had the cheesecake, which looked just like it did on our Freedom cruise in June. It really is enough to feed the entire table!!

 

 

DH had brandy, Couvoisier VS and skipped dessert. On all of our past visits to the steak house, the brandy was served over a glass of hot water to warm it. This photo is from our June cruise on the Freedom.

 

 

Tonight, the brandy was served warm, but without the glass of water.

 

The kids skipped dessert. DD wanted to get the to Welcome Aboard Party at the teen club and DS is not a big dessert person and wanted to just chill in the cabin. He did stop by the formalities shop for some pick and mix candy on his way back. So, DH and I had our desserts alone, a trend that sadly would continue the duration of the cruise. Those kids grow up so darn fast.

 

We enjoyed our meal at the steakhouse and I have to say, the value for the money is very good, but DH was saying he thought Carnival needed to vary the menu a bit. I guess after 5 times, maybe we are just a bit tired of the menu. That is no fault of Carnival’s...maybe we just need to branch out a bit more!

 

A note about the teen club: DD first did this over the summer during a girls’ only cruise on the Inspiration we took with her friend and her friend’s mom. She had never before wanted to do a kids’ club after having a bad experience with her dad on DCL’s kids’ club when he left the kids there for an extended period while he went ashore to gamble in Nassau. Apparently she and her brother were quite bored, as they were on the older end of the kids’ club and found most activities geared towards the younger ones. Well, all that changed last summer when she went with her girlfriend to the Carnival teen club. The girls loved the club and DD still keeps in touch with people she met there. So, she was quite keen to do the teen club again and would have loved it f her brother came with her. However, her brother had absolutely no interest in the teen club at all. As I mentioned earlier, he goes to a theater magnet school and has very specific interests not shared by a lot of other teens, so he just felt he’d be bored. He would rather watch a movie in his room rather than go the teen club! Go figure! Well, during the summer Inspiration cruise, I made DD’s curfew at midnight, thinking that was certainly long enough for her to be out. For this cruise, she talked me into a 12:30 am curfew since the teen club activities specifically ended at 1 am. I really had an issue with how late the activities went. It wasn’t while the kids were at the club that I was worried, it was the thought of her walking back alone so late that had me worried, especially when I knew there were others out there like our neighbors across the hall! She assured me she would find someone to walk her back (as she and her girlfriend did last summer...they had a group of very nice boys who were only too glad to walk them back each night). The thought of me or her stepdad coming to pick her up was just tres horrible! Oh, the social humiliation...how would she live...you get the picture. So, with her promising to call if she could not get anyone to walk her back, we let her stay out until 12:30 pm. Of course, I could not sleep until I heard her come in (the walls were a bit thin between our cabins) and she called me to let me know she was back in the cabin.

 

So, after dinner, DH and I rolled ourselves back to the cabin where we found this guy:

 

 

Then, we read until DD got home and then went to sleep lulled by the gentle motion of the ship.

 

More tomorrow...my goal is to write up one day of the cruise each day.

[OSUKNIGHT]

Keep it coming, I just booked the same cruise next year in PT room.

[pcrum]

The font size is great. I wish everyone posted in this font. Loving your review. I loved your love story by the way.

 

Thanks so much. I find as I get older, I like the large print! I also find that it seems more and more people are reconnecting with people they knew in high school or college, which is why I included it in the review. We are both so glad to have been given a second chance!:)

 

 

Great review so far, can't wait to see more! :D

Thanks so much. My goal is to write up one day of the cruise each day.

 

Loving your review keep it coming. Also really enjoyed your love story.

Thanks so much. I am a very lucky woman and try not to take anything for granted!

 

[pcrum]

Great review and pictures. Love the font size!

 

Thanks so much for the kind words!

 

Loving the review!! I enjoyed your other reviews too, and was delighted when I logged on tonight and saw this one. Thanks!:D

Thanks for reading!

 

Keep it coming, I just booked the same cruise next year in PT room.

 

You will love the room! And, I hope your neighbors across the hall are much more considerate than ours were!:)

[pcrum]

Nope, that's not just you! I always clean the house the morning we leave for a trip...clean the bathrooms, the floors, the kitchen, etc. And I only clean the bathroom after everyone's taken their shower. And I only clean the floors after all the luggage is in the car...that way the foot traffic on the newly clean floors is at a minimum. I'm a bit neurotic this way, as you can see and it drives my husband CRAZY!

 

I have 4 kids and with each one, as soon as I went in to labor, I seriously cleaned the house. My family would be there watching the other kids and so I wanted to make sure it looked all sparkly clean for them. Terrible, I know.

 

Loving your detailed review and your pictures. Great job! :)

 

Well, at the very least we can say that no one will see our house looking dirty!!:)

Great review so far - looking forward to reading more - and, your pictures are perfect !

 

Thanks so much!

[oncruisecontrol]

Keep it coming, pcrum. I love reading your reviews. Also, I enjoyed reading your "sappy love story". What a great story, not sappy at all. Not many have a second chance at love with the same person!

[pcrum]

Monday, 3/28/11, Nassau

 

Before we went to bed last night, we consulted today’s fun times to check the opening times of the dining room for breakfast. We tended to leave our wake up call to coincide with the breakfast serving because we much prefer breakfast in the comfort of the MDR rather than fighting the crowds on the Lido Deck. Today breakfast was served in the Platinum MDR until 9 am so we left a 8 am wakeup call. We called next door after our wakeup call to see if the kids wanted to join us for breakfast. DS wanted to sleep in, but DD came with us. Breakfast was being served on the lower level of the Platinum Restaurant, located on Deck 3 all the way aft, so we had a long walk down our hallway on the Riviera deck to the aft elevators.

 

We always ask for a table just for our party size, so we had no trouble getting a table for 3. Ah, eggs benedict, I have missed you!!! I had my traditional eggs benedict with a plain yogurt, DD had a grapefruit half to start and then eggs benedict and DH had an omelet, hash browns and corned beef hash. The breakfast service was better than it has been on past cruises...we were always offered juice and pastries, which has not always been the case.

 

Here is a photo of the eggs benedict from our Freedom cruise. It looks exactly the same!

 

 

I asked our server if I could order a toasted English muffin to take to my son, who was in the cabin, but he told me that no food was allowed to leave the MDR and that I’d have to call room service for the English muffin.

 

DD caught us up on her teen club activities from the night before over breakfast. She really enjoyed the club and said there were a lot of kids from around Orlando there, which made sense because all Orange County, FL schools were on spring break that week. She said the director of the teen club was a girl who had a degree in criminal justice who had joked, “what better way to put her degree to work than to deal with a bunch of teenagers!”. She said the director was much more involved this time than her past experience with the teen club on the Inspiration ship, where the guy in charge pretty much sat back and let the kids do their own thing. But here, there were lots of organized activities. After the welcome Aboard party, they did a teen hunt, then something called bubble talk and then late night dodgeball on the sports deck. She really enjoyed her time there and even said she met some “theater kids,” so her brother would feel right at home! Not that he would ever set foot in the club, during the cruise, but, hey, it’s his vacation too, so we didn’t push!

 

So, after breakfast we went up to the Lido Deck to get something to bring back down to DS to entice him to wake up. No English muffins to be found, but plenty of other things, so I took a plate down to him to try to wake him up. As others have said, the Lido Deck buffet alternates between pancakes one day and french toast on other days. Once during the week I saw eggs benedict there. There is also am omelette station, but the waits were quite long.

 

As I reported earlier, we were originally scheduled to stop at Half Moon Cay today, but the stop was replaced with Nassau, which we were only scheduled to be at until 2 pm, which meant a 1:30 pm boarding time. Not a lot of time when you have a teenager who wants to sleep in, lol!! I would have loved to have taken the kids to the Atlantis water park, but at $125.99 a person ($503.96) for a family of 4, it didn’t seem cost effective for just half a day. Let’s see, for that amount, I could buy the entire family annual passes to the Disney water parks ($106.45 a person for FL residents) or the Sea World water park ($110 a person)! I know some people book the room at Comfort Inn to be able to use the amenities at Atlantis, but again, with such a short time in Nassau, it seemed like a lot of hassle for such a short time.

 

The kids also expressed an interest in parasailing and there was a shore excursion in Nassau for this, but we decided to wait and do it in St. Thomas, since it is a US territory and we figured there might be more stringent safety requirements. DD had parasailed in Cozumel last summer on our girls’ only cruise (DS was performing in England and Scotland on a school trip) and had loved it, but after we returned home and told my mom about it, we were inundated with newspaper clippings of how dangerous it is. You know how grandmothers are...

 

So, the plan for Nassau was basically to walk around near the port area and visit the straw market for knock offs. This did not appeal to DH in the least, so he elected to stay on the ship and read his books. The only time he has time to read is when we cruise, so he looks forward to having time to sit, relax and read.

 

So, the kids and I got off the ship and took the obligatory Bahamas photo:

 

 

The Disney Dream was docked right next to us. We got a good look at the water roller coaster and while it looked like fun, there was a long line for it. DS commented that if the line was that long on a port day, he couldn’t imagine what it would be like on a sea day! We had to take some photos of the Dream:

 

 

 

More to come...

[pcrum]

 

There is a cruise critic member, Hollybelle, who spent part of her honeymoon on the Disney Dream. Be sure to look for her trip report (hopefully in the next few days), as she writes great reports and takes wonderful photos!

 

We made our way over to the straw market and started looking around. DD found a bracelet she liked and asked the lady how much and then asked me for the money. Have I taught this young lady nothing...that’s not how it’s done. I told DD we’d wait until we were finished shopping and then make an offer for everything at once. I found a knock off coach scarf that I thought my mom might like and then made an offer for both the scarf and bracelet. My offer was rejected and we said, “thanks” and started to walk away, when the lady changed her mind and decided she’d take our offer. Now, that’s how you shop in the straw market!! We walked past a few more stalls, but really didn’t find anything we couldn’t live without.

 

We could see Senor Frog’s down the way a bit, so we made our way over there, stopping again for the obligatory tourist photos.

 

 

 

We looked in the gift shop, but didn’t see anything we really wanted or needed. It was quite hot by then, so we decided to make our way back towards the ship. Total time spent onshore: about an hour!

 

 

[pcrum]

 

 

We returned to the ship, dropped off our stuff in the room and then went to find DH on the pool deck. I shot some more photos of the Disney Dream and the kids went for lunch.

 

There is a cruise critic member, Hollybelle, who was on the Disney Dream recently for her honeymoon and she has promised a review, so look out for that one. She does great reviews and takes lovely photos!

 

 

 

 

More to come...

[raylene5]

Really loving your review. I love that your kids are in a lot of the pictures, hanging out with you. I've read a lot of other reviews with teenagers in the group and they're never around and I think it's refreshing to see the whole family spending time together. And they look happy too...without the typical "bored teenager" look on their faces :) I really hope my own kids still enjoy hanging out with us when they're older!

[Katty891]

I'm loving the review so far! I have my first PT cabin booked on the liberty room 2220! Did you like the PT as much as a OV?(That's what we had last time) my moms worried it won't be as nice!?

 

Sidenote- How did you and your kids like FSU/Tallahassee? I've lied here pretty much my entire life(21yrs). I meet so many students that say they love Tallahassee and FSU, I personally can't wait to move though! I do think your son would fit in with a lot of the other students as there are a ton of theather majors! I will admit it's a very diverse campus.

[Cruiser_SG77]

Great review! Can't wait for more! Thanks for taking the time to post it!

[mimxmom]

Enjoying your review!

[hayesktrm]

Loving your review! Your daughter (when she smiles) looks just like my DD. She even stands the same way. My DD came over to look and even she said it was a bit creepy.