My amazing vacation review! 11/7-11/18

[F27TW]

 

 

Driving down the A-1-A was like a Vanilla Ice dream come true. All I could do, when not getting teary-eyed and wide-eyed with excitement about the upcoming embarkation, was scream out "A-1-A – Beachfront Avenue!" in proper gangsta mode multiple times. I tried to get hubby to take a picture of any sign that said it, but that was a bust. I was like, "C’mon Whitie! Get gangsta with me!"

 

...

 

 

No she diiiiiidnt!! Girrrrl ... you aint right! :p

I'm loving ur review !! You are a riot!

[TrqoisWtrs]

 

That is hysterical! lol

 

Love the review - and you're like me - I drive DH crazy with all my self portraits. :D

[bobmal99]

Wonderful review, glad you

had a great time..

[LoveCruising2012]

Look forward to the rest of the review. Will be on her in 29 days!

[SoCalKJ]

No she diiiiiidnt!! Girrrrl ... you aint right! :p

I'm loving ur review !! You are a riot!

 

LOL! But I ain't wrong no noneth neitha! :-)

[jellybeen8]

Loving your review!!

 

 

not sure if it was posted (or if I missed it) but if you go to disney again, even without the dining plan you can make restaurant reservations up to six months in advance to try to avoid some of those wait times! Even if you just do it earlier in the day a lot of restaurants will still have reservations availible.

[Chelleum]

When I approached the S.E. desk, I noticed a gal there (not a S.E. agent, but more just a nice friendly crew member just welcoming people to that area) assisting. I let her know I was there to line up for a HMC cabana and she told me where to go ahead and wait. There was no sign posted where to stand/line up, so I just kinda waited off to the side of the counter. In no time, another lady was lined up behind me and we got to chatting about cabanas and such and before I knew it, the first S.E. agent was at the desk and the assignments began. Cabana 10 was immediately unavailable, so I picked 11.

 

Hi we were in the same roll call. I was the one who had cabana #10.

[SoCalKJ]

When I approached the S.E. desk, I noticed a gal there (not a S.E. agent, but more just a nice friendly crew member just welcoming people to that area) assisting. I let her know I was there to line up for a HMC cabana and she told me where to go ahead and wait. There was no sign posted where to stand/line up, so I just kinda waited off to the side of the counter. In no time, another lady was lined up behind me and we got to chatting about cabanas and such and before I knew it, the first S.E. agent was at the desk and the assignments began. Cabana 10 was immediately unavailable, so I picked 11.

 

Hi we were in the same roll call. I was the one who had cabana #10.

 

Cool!!!

[F27TW]

LOL! But I ain't wrong no noneth neitha! :-)

 

i SO wish this site had a 'LIKE' button!! You would be a blast to cruise with!!!

[SoCalKJ]

i SO wish this site had a 'LIKE' button!! You would be a blast to cruise with!!!

 

 

Anyone that uses "diiiiiint" and "girrrrrl" in the same post has my approval! ;)

[SoCalKJ]

...thinking I may just say Day 2 since this is the Cruise Forum! (and not the Disney forum or the Alligator Page...)

 

Since we had excursions booked for Nassau and HMC, we decided to spend most of our time on the boat. We did walk around the immediate market area and grab a few souvenirs, look around and listen to the welcome band in the center concourse area there, but we didn’t spend more than an hour or two before we decided to head back onboard.

 

Us.

 

View from our balcony.

 

Random Tree

 

Information about The Bahamas National Flower...

 

Senor Frog, Himself!

 

Pose, honey!

Edited December 4, 2012 by SoCalKJ

[SoCalKJ]

I had made a list of things I really wanted to do on this cruise that I had never done before on any of the other cruises I had been on and going down the waterslide was one of those things. Naturally, in Alaska, it was too cold and a few other times, the waterslide was down for one reason or another, so I was determined to do it while in Freeport. Wise choice. Since the boat was virtually empty, so was the waterworks area. I took my waterproof video camera and got footage of the experience. It wasn’t a crazy slide down, but it was fun…fun enough to do it twice.

 

Observation: has anyone else who's gone down the Ecstasy waterslide, no matter how much momentum you pick up on the way down, just kinda come to a non-climactic stop before the actual end of the slide?

 

We just kinda puttered around the boat…ate…relaxed…the usual…but without the crowd. After a while, Scotty went to chill in the room and I decided to go do a little laundry. At this point, we’re halfway through our vacation and the thought of eliminating some dirty clothes during some downtime in Freeport was tempting.

 

I went to Guest Relations to get a roll of quarters to do a load: it was exactly 8 bucks for the washer, the dryer, the box of detergent and the box of softener. During the wash cycle, I just farted around the ship, munching here and there at the Lido and looking around at the different sights. During the drying cycle, I proceeded to go hang out on the Serenity Deck. This proved to be a great way to spend the 45 minutes I’d have to wait for the clothes to dry. I found a lounger right in the front center and enjoyed just being in the moment.

 

God Grant Me...

 

After about 20 minutes or so, the other Carnival Ship that was in port started to leave. This ship was really close to us and it was like having a front row seat watching it maneuver 180 degrees to turn to make it’s exit. It was really impressive watching the precision by which that ship was handled. Flawless. Anyhoo…45 minutes later, I wandered back to the Laundry Room and finished up. BTW, conveniently enough, the Laundry Room was on the Upper Deck...same floor and not far from our room.

 

 

Before I knew it, it was time to get ready for elegant night, the ship left Freeport and we were off to enjoy another fun-filled evening of music, casino and various other activities.

 

Hubby will only dress up for elegant night until dinner is over. We even skipped dessert so he could change quicker. I, however, really enjoyed being dressed up but didn’t wanna walk around with hubby in khaki shorts and flip flops and me in a formal dress, so it was back to jeans <sigh>. Anyway, it was a great day….and to top it off, another cute towel animal greeted us to say goodnight.

 

Rare is the occasion that I get dressed up; rarer is the occasion that I take a serious photo. <sigh>

 

Scotty and Ranil. Best Buddies!

 

The gratuitous glamour shot!

 

Freeport's Pet of the Day!

 

 

Tomorrow: Nassau!

[SoCalKJ]

This shouldn't be taking as long as it is to write, so I apologize for lagging (to the few people who are reading my review). Life is definitely in session and it's taking longer than I expected to get this completed! More to come...

[SoCalKJ]

Rise and shine…and might I add, each morning we took advantage of room service for breakfast. Nothing screams vacation like a big pot of coffee, fresh fruit and some bagels with cream cheese and salmon served exactly when we want it, right!?! I’m hungry now just reflecting on it!

 

Today we had the Total Package excursion booked, but not through Carnival. I found an independent website a few months prior to sailing with different adventures…and settled on this one through www.bestonbahamas.com. The adventure I booked was called the "Do-It-All" package which included parasailing, banana boat ride, jet skiing, snorkeling, lunch and some fun beach time where we could hunt for sea shells, relax, swim, etc. For $150/person, that seemed more than reasonable. I must say, though, that if I book this again (if we ever make it back to Nassau…GOD WILLING), I now know that I can book directly through "The Total Package" and that the above-named website was more of a booking service. Good to know to save a few booking bucks next time.

 

Anyway, our excursion wasn’t scheduled until noon, so we didn’t feel an urgency to disembark immediately upon arriving into port. We actually enjoyed watching the gangway/walkway activity between the other ships and us in port. When I walked outside onto my balcony, the first thing I saw was this behemoth of a ship by Royal Caribbean across from us. All I can say is that it took two pictures on my phone to get the entire length of it! This mamma jamma was ridiculous! I did notice that it was pretty windy in Nassau that morning…annoyingly so…and it would prove to cut into our excursion later that afternoon.

 

Oh hello Atlantis. Nice to see you.

 

 

So…I head back into the room to get dressed and fart around for maybe about 30 minutes or so and then I head back out onto the balcony and what’s squeezing in between us and the RCL? Another gi-normous ship – this time a Disney monster! And, of course, it wasn’t going to make a subtle grand entrance: as it floated to it’s stop, "When You Wish Upon A Star" started playing. It was actually kind of intense and beautiful. I was feeling a wee bit of jealousy gazing upon their waterslide…see-through tubes and a long ride that seemed to go from one end of the ship to the other. (A little exaggeration, but it was kinda cool!) At one point I noticed someone slide through the see-through tube so I figured they weren’t in a big hurry to disembark, either.

 

Disney's Grand Entrance.

 

Anyway, we decided to head out about 11:00-ish so we could walk around and do a little shopping in the welcome center area before it was time for our excursion which was from 12-4 so we’d have ZERO time at the end to venture around Nassau. Once off the boat, we walked against the wind down the walkway and around the corner, snapped a front pic of the Ecstasy (little tugboat compared to the others next to us!) and headed toward the welcome center.

 

We're modest by comparison, but honestly, it's a lot easier navigating around this baby than the other two, I'm sure!

[SoCalKJ]

Our first goal was to make sure we knew where to report for our excursion so we didn’t miss the shuttle to it. After a phone call and some clarification assistance with a nice lady at the welcome desk, we started wandering around grabbing a few different souvenirs including magnets, postcards and, of course, 6 of the Bacardi mini rum cakes. Scotty enjoyed some free samples and since I abstain from anything with alcohol in it, I enjoyed him enjoying them. We bought 2 of each flavor (Regular, Pina Colada & Chocolate) and then started making our way towards the "fountain" outside the welcome center back area.

 

 

No shame in our game!

 

Wandered into the Department of Tourism and found Their Excellencies on the wall:

 

 

Happy to be on vacation!

 

I must say that it’s true what they say about vendors in the Bahamas: they are really easy going and they’re really good about taking "no" for an answer the first time around. I’ve been to Mexico countless times and there are little kids shoving crap in your face tirelessly and adults ruthlessly trying to make a deal, but here it was almost comical how the vendors could care less if you bought anything or not. Side Note: I remember some woman the day before in Freeport telling a vendor that she wanted (whatever the heck it was) for 50% less than the price it was and if she didn’t get it, she’d march over to the vendor next door. The saleswoman told her to knock herself out. What the woman didn’t quite realize was that all the prices were the same and while the vendor admitted to being happy to negotiate something reasonable, the vendors pretty much stay on even ground so as not to screw each other over.

 

Anyway, we ventured out to the “fountain” to wait for the excursion shuttle that finally found us and we were off toward the harbor for our big afternoon of fun.

 

 

More coming...

Edited December 6, 2012 by SoCalKJ

[SoCalKJ]

While the catamaran made it’s way out to our snorkeling, etc. destination area, we got an earful of Nassau information and an eyeful of amazing celebrity habitats along the way.

 

The Total Package!! Totally!

 

Tiger Woods' Digs. Poor guy.

 

Chuck Norris's modest pad.

 

Oprah's (if memory serves)

 

Not everyone on the tour booked the same activities. Most of us snorkeled, some didn’t.

 

 

 

Scotty and I were the only two that did the banana boat ride, so that was quite an adventure with just the two of us on this 16-person boat holding on as our guide was flying the jet ski leading us at top speeds of (at least) 25-30 mph! Neither of us fell off the boat, but I fell INTO the boat about 5 times. You just start laughing your rear off, bouncing around, holding on for dear life and the next thing you know, you’ve lost control. It was a total blast. We also enjoyed about 15 minutes of jetskiing. I used to own one but it’d been over 10 years since I’d had it and been on one, but just like a bicycle, it took almost no time to re-familiarize and off we went.

 

As far as parasailing went, that was a no-go. It was far too windy and the tour crew decided against it. Scotty tried to feign disappointment, because he really did NOT want to do this (I forced him against his will), but I was kinda bummed. We were given the option of an extra 15 minutes on the jet ski or $60 back. We took the cash. Lunch was also part of the total package (barbecue chicken, rice, beans, drink) so we enjoyed that and some beach time. On the ride back, one of the tour members DJ’d and we danced and enjoyed the (albeit windy) ride back. I would highly recommend this tour.

 

More pictures to come...

[shaandjah]

I really enjoyed your review! I'm leaving for the Bahamas on Sunday on the sensation and I was trying to find the total package that you are refferring to but I cant locate the website directly to the total package. Would you provide a link if you can :)

[SoCalKJ]

http://www.paradiseoceansports.com

[F27TW]

This shouldn't be taking as long as it is to write, so I apologize for lagging (to the few people who are reading my review). Life is definitely in session and it's taking longer than I expected to get this completed! More to come...

 

I'm still with u girrl! Your pics are great and i love how u write! I know what you mean too about that RCCL ship -- that was the Oasis or Allure (they are twins) ... almost ridiculous in size .. it looks like a hotel done pulled in next to you!

But i got ta axe u ...why come u didnt git yo hair braided you wuz in da Bahamas!?

[SoCalKJ]

I'm still with u girrl! Your pics are great and i love how u write! I know what you mean too about that RCCL ship -- that was the Oasis or Allure (they are twins) ... almost ridiculous in size .. it looks like a hotel done pulled in next to you!

But i got ta axe u ...why come u didnt git yo hair braided you wuz in da Bahamas!?

 

Bahahahaha!! I decided against gettin' muh hair did cuz the shiz woulda done falled out on the water-mon!

[F27TW]

Bahahahaha!! I decided against gettin' muh hair did cuz the shiz woulda done falled out on the water-mon!

 

Oh, hellll no! ... I know homegirrr aint lyin neetha! Pssshhhh!

[SoCalKJ]

Oh, hellll no! ... I know homegirrr aint lyin neetha! Pssshhhh!

 

Tee Hee!! I think I'm just gonna email you the rest of my review! I'm pretty sure you're the only one left reading it!

[LoveCruising2012]

great review! we are still reading!!

[SoCalKJ]

Yay! Thanks!! I promise to have more first of the week! This is ridiculously long coming and for that I apologize.

[mom22tinks]

Great review! Can't wait to ear more :)