Epic Carnival Fantasy Review & PICS/March 23rd, 2012 Sailing

[All4fun&fun4all]

Oh, and I meant to mention that the 2 couples we met on lido deck got some pretty bad sunburn. I had some ice potion with lidocaine that I gave them to use and some sunscreen. Protect your skin youngsters!

 

We brought the remaining strawberries up on lido to share with random people we encountered. They were soooo tasty but there is absolutely no way this girl should eat more than one or two of them. Sharing is caring.

 

I realized at this point that the ship was bookin it through the water (over 20 knots). We made it to Freeport earlier than expected. We heard later that there was a death onboard and that may have been the reason for our early arrival.

 

We called it a night and drifted off around 3:00am and shortly after I heard us pulling in to port. I am going to take a moment (again) to interject and say that our room was perfect for us but if you have any issues with sleeping through noise, then the aft oceanview room is not for you. I could hear hydraulics kicking in and steel banging steel when we pulled in to port. Just keep that in mind if you decide to book an aft room. I brought ear plugs which helped a great deal.

 

FREEPORT:

 

The view of Freeport from our cabin

 

 

We slept in a bit this day and got up around 8:45am. Today, we had lido breakfast (potato wedge, bacon,omlet and a fried boiled egg?). We met up with cool couple James and Ann and they decided to join us on our adventure to Lucaya. About the time we were going to gather our stuff, this crazy torrential downpour occured. Sharp lightning and crazy wind with rain. It was over quickly and we grabbed our backpack and headed out.

 

We made our way to the shuttles and someone is behaving badly.

 

 

We got onto the shuttle right away. It was air conditioned and of course there was a tree freshener hanging from the mirror. (It's a Repo Man reference)

 

 

The driver told us that if we paid $10.00 when we get off that all we would have to do is come back to the designated location with the round trip ticket and we can hop back on when we are done with our day. i was a bit skeptical but we went with it. After about a 20 minute drive we made it to Our Lucaya.

 

Here is cool couple James and Ann

 

 

We had planned on running by the duty free store and picking up some rum and then making our way by the cool cigar shop we stopped at before. Then, we would go to the same beach we went to last time.

 

 

Picking rums

 

[navybaby1113]

Loving your review. Looking forward to reading more.

[All4fun&fun4all]

Rums selection

 

 

They have bottle openers for your beer right at the door on the way out

 

 

As we were walking towards our little beach we noticed that the cigar shop was closed. Is it because it was Sunday? Then we noticed a guard shack in the pathway that led to the beach we wanted to go to. Whaaaatttt??? We had run into pinkfloydfan at the duty free store and he had mentioned this but I had to see it to believe it. What a ripoff. Meh.

 

So we ended up walking back past the casino towards the police station.

 

 

At the end of the sidewalk you will see this...turn left

 

 

There is a sign that clearly says no glass bottles and the guys had just bought a beer.

 

 

What to do? Dont want to waste it Chug chug chug.

 

 

However, chugging was not necessary. These folks in the Bahamas got it down! They had plastic cups for you to transfer you beer into. Whoops! Sorry guys!

[All4fun&fun4all]

You will walk down this pathway

 

 

And then around this curve

 

 

And you wind up here

 

 

We basically ended up where we were on our last cruise but things were different. Apparently, there is a new owner of the hotel that the beach is in front of. He has hired security guards to chase off people that are walking on the area that is paved. We werent even allowed to sit on the wall. Poor guy really hated his job though. We talked to him for a moment and he was super nice and didnt like having to chase people away.

 

There was a nice shady spot under a palm tree and laid out our towels here.

 

 

Toes in the sand

 

 

After being chased away by the wall police

 

[All4fun&fun4all]

The water was really really choppy and I didnt even make an attempt at swimming. There were really confusing signs that said no swimming and then some that said no swimming past the buoys. Nevermind, I will just sit here and get to know my new found friend

 

We had a few shots and made our own fun. The boys then went to chase down a beer and after a while it looked like it was going to pour down rain. We began to pack up our stuff just in case and someone was already trying to get into our spot. The clouds passed with no rain and we parked back in the shade. The boys finally showed up and we decided maybe it was time to head back to the ship. We did a little bit of shopping but decided to wait for Nassau to see if the deals were better. (They were)

 

 

We ran into this guy on the way back to our shuttle spot and he told us some history of Junkanoo. (crap...are we married now???)

 

 

Back into the shuttle. There was no hassle getting back on with the round trip cards we were given. The one we took back had no air condition but the windows were open.

 

 

Xpress shuttle

 

 

I wanted to see what was up with the bar that is right next to the ship so we stopped there for a restroom break and a cocktail.

 

 

 

The interior of the bar.

 

 

[All4fun&fun4all]

I got a Yellowbird and the Andrew got a restroom break. Ha!

 

 

 

There was a really nice shop owner that we met. They are right next to the bar. Their names are Shavon & Coral Rolle. Very sweet people with lots of wares to gander at.

 

 

The gang hanging by the ship

 

 

Ann found some pigeons to chase

 

 

Silliness

 

[All4fun&fun4all]

Reasonably priced sunglasses (around 5 bucks)

 

 

Back to back ships (Ecstacy was in port with us)

 

 

Nice glasses. Photobomb courtesy of James

 

 

Ann loves this dress

 

 

As far as ports go, I was sadly disappointed in Our Lucaya. Next time we are planning on trying Dead Man's Reef. Boo to the new owners who messed things up!

 

[silvercrikhix]

Loving your review! Keep it coming..........

[All4fun&fun4all]

Oh, before we boarded the ship...this happened

 

 

Bahamas Celebration was in port with us. Not a pretty ship

 

 

Folks getting back onboard

 

 

Hot dog love

 

 

Before sailaway, I ran back down to the room for a moment and as I was walking out of the room....power outage. Um, whoa! Back to the room for my flashlight. This was around 4:20pm but those hallways sure do get dark without power. Tonight was to be the Past Guest Party at 5:00pm. We certainly cant miss that! What is gonna happen with that?

 

We went down to where the PGP was to occur and the doors were shut. We opened them and there were members of crew sitting in there. Okaaaaay. Um, let's see what Guest Services knows. They had no clue what was going to take place. We found an officer who said that the party will be at the lower level.

 

Finally, we made our way inside the Universe Lounge for the party. Now, at this point my camera TOTALLY refused to work so unfortunately there arent any pictures. Keep in mind we had absolutely no power so there was no music or the cool film where you yell for your ship. Carnival really pulled it together though. They still had hors d'ouvres and free drinks. They offered raspberry sours, rum punch and yellowbirds. The hors d'ouvres were tomato mozzerella on thin crispy bread, crab dip of some sort on crispy bread and a jam pinwheel. A member of our roll call, patthecma, won the raffle. YAY! They extended the hours of the party and everyone was cheering and happy. They did an acoustic version of "Stuck in the Middle With You". Funneh.

 

In the middle of the past guest party the power came back on and we ended up back on lido to hang out with Ann. We finally departed around 6:30pm which was a little late but no worries. We were having FUN! I made a few room rum cocktails with Monster energy drink.

 

 

I met this guy and thanked him for his service and listened to his stories

 

 

We did not make it to dinner this night. It seems that anytime the PGP is involved we end up missing dinner. I excused myself from the table on lido to run down to my room. I was sneaky and ordered room service for myself

[All4fun&fun4all]

Turn down service was done and got this towel...I wont tell you what I think this towel is.

 

 

I ordered the strip loin with cheddar (good but I miss the beef and brie)

 

 

And also the open faced shrimp sammich (ohhhh so good)

 

 

After I ate, I made my way back up to lido deck where the Andrew was wondering where in the heck I ran off to. After I told him I had room service, he decided he wanted some too!

 

He got, the ruben (not a lot of meat but tasty...go to the deli for better)

 

 

Mixed green salad (crisp and fresh and tasty)

 

 

Grilled chicken wrap (lots of jalepenos and delicious pico de guy yo) HA!

 

[jimbri]

Enjoying your review!

[bobsfamily]

Had to peek... 39 days to go til we are on her... I LOVE the review but goodness is it making the time go SLOW! More!

[All4fun&fun4all]

We fell asleep this night around 2:00am. I awoke to the sound of hydraulics and banging steel. I took a peek out the window and got to watch us back into our spot in Nassau. Our towel animals suffered an unfortunate demise as my excitement to get up into the window overshadowed the need to keep our towel animals intact. RIP little fellows.

 

But check out this cool pic out of our window!

 

 

SIDENOTE: My PVP just called me to see how my cruise went. I am going to forward him a link to this review when I am done. Now I want to book another. And now back to your regularly scheduled cruise review.

 

NASSAU:

 

I had lido breakfast (oops, ate it)

 

 

and we met up with Ann and James. They were going on a snorkel excursion. I had a bloody mary before we went out and about.

 

We got a picture of the aft of the ship. Our room is all they way to the right in the middle.

 

 

Here we are

 

 

YAY Nassau!

 

 

We made our way to the customs area

 

[KrystalWaters]

Great review. Sounds like ya had fun. Looking forward to the rest.:)

[All4fun&fun4all]

Only two ships in port today! Glory and us!

 

 

Glory arrived after us and had a shorter time in port. We decided to begin our day at Junkanoo Beach. This is how you get to Junkanoo Beach.

 

Once you leave Festival Center hang a right.

 

 

Keep moving forward

 

 

Go past the mopeds

 

 

Stay to the right and walk along the marina

 

 

Water is choppy still

 

[angiegal]

This is a great review! We took this cruise last year and loved it!

[All4fun&fun4all]

You will see the new Straw Market to your left

 

 

These are the catamarans for the Carnival excursions

 

 

You will end up at Senor Frogs

 

 

Go left around it

 

 

This is where the fire happened apparently

 

 

Keep going....oops....no sidewalk

 

[All4fun&fun4all]

Still headed toward Junkanoo...moving forward

 

 

Getting there!

 

 

It isnt much of a walk for real (maybe 10 mins total) but keep going

 

 

 

Cool graffiti art

 

 

We have arrived YAY!

 

 

There are restrooms and they are fairly clean.

 

[All4fun&fun4all]

We stopped along the way at the Duty Free store for some rum for the beach. We got 2 half pints of Ricardo white rum for $6.30. Sweet! We approached the beach and found the Tiki Hut. Best deal for beer ever. My Bahama Papa and 5 local Sands beers in a bucket with a cup was $20.00 total. Wow! You cant beat that!

 

 

These guys (Dj's) played great music and had several contests. I swear to god though...if I hear the Wobble or the Cupid Shuffle one more time, I may kill someone!

 

 

We found a nice shady spot under a tree again. Here is the view straight ahead

 

 

To our left

 

 

To our right

 

 

Our spot...nice and shady. Not trying to get any additional wrinkles.

 

[navybaby1113]

Wow...the straw market looks so different than last time we were there back in 2008.

[All4fun&fun4all]

Our shade tree

 

 

the Andrew with libations

 

 

Bahama papa. It has dark rum, light rum and a fruity blended juice mixture. After I drank it down a bit, I added some of our duty free rum to it to keep the party going!

 

 

Happy Andrew

 

 

Segway tour went by. Hay-ohhh!

 

 

And then I heard a ship horn and panicked a little. It was the Glory leaving

 

[angiegal]

Wow! Junkanoo beach is getting better and better! I'll see if I can find pics of last year.1

[All4fun&fun4all]

I met up with CC member flowergirl66 and we stood in the water for a bit. I love this beach because it sits directly in front of my favorite lighthouse. There was great music and spring breakers acting silly which made for quite an enjoyable afternoon.

 

Hooray beach!

 

 

Toes in the sand

 

 

no diving. I wanted to jump but didnt know if jumping was closely related to diving.

 

 

view at end of the concrete pier

 

 

view of Junkanoo

 

 

BIRDIE

 

[All4fun&fun4all]

The Andrew met a local and I was serenaded. We shared a beer with him. Super cool guy!

 

 

Pretty

 

 

I wanted to make it to Fish Fry (Arawak Cay) but time did not permit, so we packed up and headed towards Senor Frogs where James and Ann showed up. Hilarity ensued and naturally my camera decided to die completely. Not even CPR could bring it back.

 

We purchased a Yard of the Hurricane ($16.25) and were slightly disappointed that the bottom did not have a roundy end. It was hollow. Oh, well. James bought the Andrew a beer and Ann and I went to the Straw Market and got a great deal on a hat for my son and a shot glass and gifts for her friends at home. We gathered the boys and headed back to the ship, talking to locals along the way.

 

I totally need to back track for one second. The Andrew broke his toe on the way to Junkanoo. He was talking to the local sanitation workers over near Senor Frogs and slammed his toe on the steps. It is still black and blue with a blood blister. EW!

 

Okay, I hate to end on this note but I have been at this since this morning. I need to figure out where to find the iphone pics because this computer is being a total D-bag.

 

Wow! That was like a total work day of writing. 7 hours worth of review. It may be Monday before I get back on here so that I can find out what folder these darn pics ended up in. So, until later folks, I hope you enjoyed our voyage so far and will be happy to answer any questions from this point forward.

 

Shoot!

[Pinkfloydfan]

Nancy, The ice carving is an Indian wearing a head dress. It is shown from the back. Note the jaw is on lower lefthand side of the photo. Do you ever wonder where they keep the carvings between cruises. David. P.S. Great review...