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Live from the Rockwall of the Seas

Kokomo_Man

By Kokomo_Man,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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okgirl

okgirl

Posted
Posted

I'm also enjoying the side by side comparison and appreciate that Kokomo is doing it with humour (as one bent tooth CD would spell it) and in a non-flaming way.

 

I am about to reach my milestone cruise with Carnival and plan to consider other lines, but will probably stay within the corporate family for a bit.

 

Very interesting about the night life, not at all what I thought based on RCL commercials.

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kujobie

kujobie

Posted
Posted

I'm enjoying it too. Keep it coming OP. As you can see by my sig, I've had a decade long monogamous relationship with Carnival, and for some of the same reasons as you, and other reasons, I am thinking about having an affair with Royal. Disappointed in hearing about the lack of nightlife. And that Flowrider does look fun!

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NittanyLioness

NittanyLioness

Posted
Posted

Kokomo...

 

First, I am really enjoying your comparison. As a "Loyal to Royal" cruiser, I am researching Carnival (and other lines) to maximize my vacation dollar. Given the current state of the economy, I am certain others feel the same and appreciate your review as much as I do!

 

That said, I assume you are currently on Freedom of the Seas. If so, you might want to check out the Disco (Decks 3/4 I believe), which has dancing til the wee hours of the morning...For "Ms. Blame", the upper level allows smoking and one can look directly down onto the dance floor. (My DH enjoyed this birds-eye view...:p)

 

Also, it sounds like you checked out the "Schooner Bar" which you called the "Piano Bar", but perhaps you would like the English Pub for sing-a-long (on the Promenade)...Ms. Blame can smoke at the bar, I believe.

 

Another area you might like is RCCL's signature Viking Crown...This is located on the highest deck (other than the Chapel) with panoramic views of the Sea/Lower Decks. There are a couple of different-themed bars up there...Ms. Blame should look for the "smoking permitted" symbols built into the glass tabletops, or just ask a bar server (with the trays).

 

The Karaoke Bar is on a lower deck. It also has private recording studio booths, should you and Ms. Blame like to record your own Karaoke DVD! Not sure about smoking in this venue.

 

One last suggestion is to check the interactive monitors located by the elevators, and hit the "What's happening now?" prompt. It'll tell you the various venues that are open, and...what's happening there! LOL!!!

 

Hope you have as great a time on FOTS as I know we will on our next Carnival cruise! Looking forward to hearing more...

 

Happy cruising to all!

NitneyLioness

 

P.S.U. Apologies for not knowing the specific names of the bars, but I've also sailed Freedom's sister ships, Independence OTS and Liberty OTS, and the bars on each have different names!

 

P.S.U.1. Consider the zipline on Labadee...What a thrill!!!

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nathand95

nathand95

Posted
Posted

I like your review as it compares CCL and RCCL in a nice manner and you are also a very dexcriptive writer, but I do have 2 gripes.

1.) What is with this "Flowrider of the seas" mess? It was pretty funny at first,now it's annoying. All this is information is good and all, but a little useless if we have no idea what ship you are on.

2.) "Woman to Blame"? Also pretty funny at the beginning, but now is also rather annoying.

 

All in all I am enjoying your review and the comparison, but the 2 gripes above would make reading it a whole lot more enjoyable. I know I am not alone on this...

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Kokomo_Man

Kokomo_Man

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I'm doing a little bit of catch up. I'll post some replys to your comments tomorrow, but first here's some stuff from our sea day.

 

 

Day 2

 

This will be a bit long since this was a sea day and I’ve had plenty of time to ponder the goings-on on the ship.

 

The Flowrider

 

Usually on the first sea day I spend lots of time exploreing the ship. Except that I ended up spending most of my time at the flowrider. I have not got this thing mastered yet. Hummmm, not mastered is an understatement. Everyone, and I mean everyone, “crashes and burns” on the flowrider. That’s the way the line progresses. By this, I mean that each “rider” is allowed to stay on the Flowrider until they crash & burn. So if some of the better riders have been on for a while, the operator (or audience) encourages them to do a more difficult trick. And of course when they try the trick, they “crash and burn”. Great sport!

 

Me? Well, I’m not what you might call proficient. The time I stand on the board until the time I’ve been washed away by the rushing water is measured in mili-seconds… err, make that nanoseconds. But I’m not going to give up easy. I’m bound and determined to do better. Today I actually managed to stand on the board… on my own… in the flow of the rushing water… for maybe even as long as a second… until I crashed and burned.

 

Although tomorrow we’ll be in Haiti and I’ll be going to “catch a glimpse”, I’m also going to give it another try when I get back to the ship.

 

Breakfast & Morning Coffee

 

On other cruise lines the “Woman to Blame” and I like to have our morning coffee and maybe a bite to eat up on one of the outside decks. All of the other ships we’ve been on have the buffet adjacent to the outer decks. You can take your food from the buffet out to the pool area and enjoy your breakfast there. Here on the “Flowrider of the Seas” the buffet area is not set up very well for that. The only thing adjacent to the buffet is the kids pool area. I suppose we could hike down to the other pool area but what a “pain” it would be…. Point to Carnival.

 

On-Deck smoking areas

 

For some this will be good news and for others this will be bad news, but please… as I’ve asked before, don’t make this into a discussion of smoking… and don’t shoot the messenger… I’m just passing on information. (In case you didn’t catch this before, I’m a non-smoker and the “Woman to Blame” smokes.)

 

This ship is a little different than all the other ships I’ve been on. Here on the Flowrider, there is no smoking on the pool decks. (All of the pools are on deck 11 in this case.) Other ships allow smoking on one side of the pool deck and prohibit it on the other side. By the way, on other ships this is also the area next to the buffet so those who wish to can have a smoke with their morning coffee.

 

Here on the Flowrider, the next deck up (deck 12)… the deck overlooking the pool, there is smoking allowed on the left side of the ship. When the ship is underway, it is quite windy… which is good and bad. It’s good because it really will blow the smoke away, but it’s bad because I suspect that the ash and sparks get blown as well. There are no table and chair arrangements on deck 12. I’m going to stay neutral on this even though the “Woman to Blame” says, “point to Carnival”

 

If you want to go up to deck 12 for a smoke, then have a seat on a reclining deck chair. Except that oops… the chair hogs have all claimed the reclining deck chairs. Which brings me to…

 

Chair Hogs

 

I’ll only say a brief word on this. As you walk onto the pool area there’s a big sign that says that if someone leaves their stuff on a poolside chair longer than 30 minutes. I hoped that things would be different here on the “Flowrider of the Seas”… but sadly it isn’t. The chair hogs were out in force first thing this morning. I was up early this morning and the chair hogs were out early too. They would spread towels and maybe a magazine on the chair and then leave. I even saw one person bring a pair of flip-flops and proceed to put one flip flop on each chair. Puh-lease!!!!

 

There is a little known maritime law that I thought about enforcing this morning… but I didn’t. The law says that if a chair hog has left their chair and the cruise line doesn’t enforce the 30 minute rule, the other passengers may, after 31 minutes, throw the chair hog belongings into the pool. You may throw it overboard only if it is something the fish can eat. Remember it… maritime law… chair hogs… 31 minutes… stuff into the pool.

 

Lots of Kids

 

There are lots of kids on this ship. And I like to have kids on the ships since they are most often making “happy sounds” while they are on a cruise. There was a cruise we did a couple of years ago in October/November where the average age was at least 125. I’ve never seen so many “walkers” and “scooters” on a ship in my life. Now don’t get me wrong. I like old people… I hope to be one some day. (OK… those who know me… you quit your snickering right now!!!!) When I get old and can’t get around, I’ll have a scooter too… except that it will be souped-ed up and I’ll be racing it. (Those who know me know that’s true tool.)

 

Anyway, I think a ration of 10 kids to about 100 adults is about the right mixture. Plenty of happy sounds and not so many walkers/scooters that the isles are clogged up. When we booked this cruise we knew that would be lots of kids because it’s summer vacation time. But… OMG. There are at least 10 thousand kids for every 100 adults… make that 10 thousand and one including me. (I told those who know me to quit snickering… the “Woman to Blame” will certify that I’m still a kid… or at least that I’ve never grown up.)

 

I’m not really complaining about the kids. They are really making lots of happy sounds… and who cares if they pee in the pool, most of the adults do that too.

 

And there’s a lot of teen-agers. I think about 20% of the ship must be teen-agers. I’m not exaggerating on this. Everywhere you look there are teenagers. And the 16 and 17 years… OMG some of them almost make it understandable why school teachers end up in jail. But there are laws, but there should be more. 16 and 17 year old guys should be prohibited from being that buff. (I see the middle aged women talking when one of those guys walks by.) And for the 16 and 17 year old girls there should be a law requiring them to wear only baggy sweatshirts… I see the guys who think that because they have on dark sunglasses you can’t see their eyes following the girls… WRONG! You can see the guys ogling the sweet young things right through their sun glasses. Not me of course… I’m just an objective observer reporting what I see.

 

I can’t tell if Carnival or Flowrider does a better job with kids. I’ve made it a point often both here and on Carnival to ask kids of all ages if they are having fun and across the board I get a yes. So I’m going to call this one a draw.

 

Internet connection

 

I have complained loud and hard… and often to Carnival about their miserable internet service. I even sent Jerry Cahill an email complaining about it. The only answer I have ever gotten back is; “Satellite Communication is difficult”. Yes it is, but I’m an engineer who has designed satellite communications systems. There’s no excuse for what Carnival wants to pass off as good enough. The charges are outrages but they claim that they charge what the rest of the industry charges.

 

The last part is true... Carnival charges what the rest of the industry charges. But their charges are for a substandard product. I’ve waited until today to post this part so I could go out and try my laptop and iPad in different sections of this ship. No… I’m not surfing. It’s still too expensive to spend much time on the internet ($100 for 240 minutes.) But I have checked email and made a couple of cruisecritec posts. In every case, and everywhere on the ship, the service has been better than anywhere I’ve been on three different Carnival ships. It’s time for Carnival to either upgrade or vastly reduce their cost.

 

Two points for “Flowrider of the Seas”.

 

Table-Mates

 

This section isn’t really a compairison between between cruise lines, but I thought I would tell you about it anyway so you can get a feel for things.

 

When the “Woman to Blame” first got me to go on a cruise, one of the things I was worried about was being stuck eating dinner with someone I didn’t care for. So for the first couple of cruises we booked had some form of “any time” dining and we could always sit by ourselves… or with someone we had met and liked.

 

But, we went on a cruise line that didn’t have “any time” and we found out that we liked that too. On that cruise we were seated at a table for eight and everyone got along well and became friends. So since then, we’ve chosen “traditional” dining. I now think of it as living adventurously. Although the cruise lines claim to make some attempt to group like people, I think it’s just about pot-luck… about 50% of the time we have been seated with folks we got along well with… but the other 50% were I’ll say were ummmm… less than favorable. This time we are again seated at a table for eight. Except that there were only four of us tonight. Last night, while we were at the “Mystery Theater Dinner” there was only the other couple by themselves.

 

So now I’m sure the question on your mind is… are these the good, the bad, or the ugly. Well, none of the above. It’s kind of neutral. The folks at our table are nice folks, but we have very little in common with them… except that we are on the same cruise together. They have no kids, and we have a hoard… he’s a visit the museum kind of guy and I’m a flowrider kind of guy. In Haiti she wants to go to the beach, and the Woman to Blame would burn to a crisp. So we will have pleasant chit-chat at dinner time, but probably never see them otherwise.

 

That’s all for today. It’s time to “rock-n’roll”… and perhaps a frozen concoction or two to help me hang on. More tomorrow after I catch a glimpse.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

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jmcancruise

jmcancruise

Posted
Posted

Great review and great goal. I also am searching for kokomo. So far haven't done that well, but I must keep searching. At work (where I tend to sing a lot) someone is sure to yell to me an let me know when Kokomo is on so I can sing along. I know life can be tough sometimes, but we all need something to dream about. Oh, by the way, I can sort of cross Port au Prince off my list because my husband and daughter have been there. Does that count?

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Rochmom

Rochmom

Posted
Posted

Kokomo Man, your thread is great! You have a neat sense of humor and I'm enjoying your posts very much.

 

We cruise Carnival because it's affordable for our family - but once we get these kids into college, the Man Who Pays for it All and I can think about other lines. Your comparison seems fair and you explain your reasons for the things you like and don't like - which lets we readers decide if that factor is important to us or not.

 

Nice work, keep it coming!

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laumicmah

laumicmah

Posted
Posted

I've read your reviews before and love them. Thanks for posting this...I can't wait to see who comes out ahead...Carnival or Flowrider (I've only been on Carnival and the Mouse).

 

I loved Port Canaveral too...been out of there 2 times and out of Jaxport 2 times...prefer Canaveral to Jaxport...it's an easier and friendlier port (though neither is a pretty port). Next up is NY on the Glory to Canada.

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BeachChik

BeachChik

Posted
Posted
I like your review as it compares CCL and RCCL in a nice manner and you are also a very dexcriptive writer, but I do have 2 gripes.

1.) What is with this "Flowrider of the seas" mess? It was pretty funny at first,now it's annoying. All this is information is good and all, but a little useless if we have no idea what ship you are on.

2.) "Woman to Blame"? Also pretty funny at the beginning, but now is also rather annoying.

 

All in all I am enjoying your review and the comparison, but the 2 gripes above would make reading it a whole lot more enjoyable. I know I am not alone on this...

 

I believe he is on freedom of the seas.

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Kokomo_Man

Kokomo_Man

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I’m going to take a few minutes to answer some of the questions and comments that have been posted. But first…

 

Those who know me or have read about some of my previous escapades know that from the minute I leave home heading for a cruise I have a big grin on my face. There is very little that can happen on a cruise that can change that to a frown.

 

It’s no different with this cruise. As you read through my posts, I might sometimes report on something that is… ummm let’s say… less than perfect. But keep in mind that all the while there is still a big grin on my face. Like the saying goes…

 

A bad day on a pleasure cruise is better than the best day in the dungeon where I work… better than working with the ogre and one- eyed-Cyclops… and certainly better than all but one other thing in this world. (I can’t tell you what that one other thing is for two reasons… the first is because my daughters are reading this and they will go “ewwwwwww”. The second reason is that I’ve forgotten what that thing is.)

So on to your posts.

 

Thanks to everyone for your encouragement and I’m glad to know that most of you are enjoying these posts. The “Woman to Blame” says that don’t encourage me too much… she doesn’t want me to give up my day job to try to become a full time writer.

 

About the “Woman to Blame”… I have to tell you that she fully admits to being the woman to blame… she’s proud of it… and wears the hat & t-shirt proclaiming it. What’s she to blame for? Besides most everything good in my life, she’s the one who got me to go on a cruise after I had resisted for many years… and as you can see… that created the monster”. So am I over-using the phraise “Woman to Blame”? Yea… I probably am. But you’ll get over it.

 

Thank you very much to OKWRITER for the “SOB” reference… now I can overuse that. And… OKWRITER, also has another great “tag line”: “Cruisng is OCEAN CRACK… but I can stop any tine I want to.

 

A couple of people asked why I’m spending time doing this… that I should be “out there”. Well, hopefully by now you can tell that I am “out there” most of the time. And I’m really not spending a lot of time on line. I just carry either my little laptop or my iPad in my backpack most everywhere I go. Then when there are a few minutes of “down time” I’ll write a few sentences or a paragraph or two. I do this using a word processor… not on line. It’s like just keeping a journal. Then later on in the day I’ll post the stuff on line. (The on-line time only takes about a minute to log in and copy and paste the stuff into cruisecritic.)

 

To make it clear for a couple of folks… the day after Carnival announced their new smoking policy I began to look at other options to see what else was out there. And of course, looking at all of those cruises got me breathing heavy… and then the fever started to set in… and then just like the Incredible Hulk I became an uncontrollable monster. And the only cure was to book a cruise. So, I only booked this cruise about 3 weeks ago. And in the just so you know category… I’ve booked an NCL cruise for October.

 

I guess that I should make clear to those who haven’t figured it out.,. yes, we are on the Freedom of the Seas. But I’m trying to keep the compairisons more generic than just for a specific ship. Of course that’s not really possible since I am on the FOS, but I’ll try just the same.

 

As for the people who love to “flame”… perhaps they’re married to or certainly related to Hildegard. But I really think that the “flamers” just need a cruise for them to mellow out and have a big grin put back on their face. So perhaps we should all pitch in and get them a cruise. There are plenty of state rooms left on the USS Davy Jones.

 

Lastly I want to say hello to MickieMac. We’ve been on two cruises with Mickie and her husband Jim and had lots of fun. – Hey Mickie. Last night I was thinking of ordering a Chocolate Mocha Getaway as a toast to you and Jim, but the bartender didn’t know what it was. So it will have to wait until the next time we are on a cruise.

 

I Love you Peanut.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

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hubofhockey

hubofhockey

Posted
Posted

OP, don't you feel a bit foolish for remaining loyal to any cruise line? I guess my point is that if you don't try other cruise lines, you don't know what you're missing. Each line offers a bit of a different kind of vacation. Well, if your motive on trying another line is revenge, at least you are trying something different. Maybe when RCI decides to tighten up its smoking policies a bit, you'll try another cruise line. Something tells me that it won't be Celebrity or Princess. :D

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pjhootch

pjhootch

Posted
Posted

Keep it coming Kokomo Man. I am really enjoying this. I am about to book another cruise, and as always, I am looking at all the cruise lines since the ports are actually really important for me. There are a couple of things you've said that I would never have known about the FOS without your comparison, that may help me make a decision.

 

Enjoy your cruise and good luck with the flowrider.

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lp3556

lp3556

Posted
Posted
I like your review as it compares CCL and RCCL in a nice manner and you are also a very dexcriptive writer, but I do have 2 gripes.

1.) What is with this "Flowrider of the seas" mess? It was pretty funny at first,now it's annoying. All this is information is good and all, but a little useless if we have no idea what ship you are on.

2.) "Woman to Blame"? Also pretty funny at the beginning, but now is also rather annoying.

 

All in all I am enjoying your review and the comparison, but the 2 gripes above would make reading it a whole lot more enjoyable. I know I am not alone on this...

 

This is a very enjoyable review. Nathand95, if you don't like how the OP writes, just don't read it. It is VERY RUDE to tell a person how to write and what to write. I think you are the one that needs to Scroll On By.

 

OP, please continue with your review and write it the way you want to. I know that there are a bunch of us really enjoying it.

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