Victory 10/14 review with pics

[Pellaz]

...and also a lot of details and verbiage. I'm a writer, so it comes with the territory. :)

 

 

Full Moon Victory Cruise -- 10/14 - 10/19/2013

Nassau, Half Moon Cay (finally!), Grand Turk, fun day at sea

 

 

A few upcoming highlights...or lowlights:

 

 

• the largest number of lobster tails ever ordered on Carnival Victory, as told to us by Chef Panda (!)
  
• Faster to the Fun experience
  
• Behind the Fun ship-tour
  
• cabana at Half Moon Cay
  
• snuba at Grand Turk
  
• some offbeat pics
  
• "buzzed" by a US Coast Guard chopper while sailing out through Government Cut
  
• delayed embarkation, but for a good (although sadly tragic) reason
  

 

 

First, some background.....

 

 

This was my fourth cruise overall and my third with Carnival, and I travelled with my sister Cindy, for whom this was her third cruise, all with Carnival. Previously we had sailed on Carnival Imagination in early 2012 and Carnival Liberty in late 2012. I'm 49, and she is 48.

 

This cruise was the first time I've gotten a call from the sacred Upsell Fairy. I had booked cabin 1414, an interior, aft on Deck 1 for the ridiculously low price of $199/pp for a 5-day (really, 6-day) itinerary, and with only days before embarkation I got a call offering an upgrade to cabin 2368, an oceanview on Deck 2, more midships, for $100 total. I took the offer...but was worried because the last time I accepted an interior -> oceanview upgrade (by email) the room ended up being not air-conditioned at all, and they eventually had to move us. Happily, THIS time the room A/C was fine.

 

We're both in the Atlanta area and after looking at flight/baggage costs compared with driving costs, once again we concluded that the most economical option was to drive down to Miami. Since my sister can't drive due to her (many) medical issues, and my car doesn't have cruise-control, we decided to break the drive up into two segments, just as we did last September for our 2012 Liberty cruise. We had good luck in taking I-75 south to I-10 and then crossing over to I-95 and taking it south to Miami, so we used the same route again. It might not be the shortest option, but it involves no tolls and this time, we had a speed-limit or greater ride all the way down to Miami.

 

After some research using Google Maps and street-view, I once again decided that a good midway stopping point was at a Best Western located in Baldwin, Florida along I-10, just a bit west of Jacksonville. It really is about midway between Atlanta and Miami using the route we took, and the hotel is far enough out of Jacksonville to be relatively cheap ($55/night with government discount). The exit is uncomplicated, the area pretty safe and the hotel is next to a Waffle House and a Pilot truck-stop...both handy to have nearby! We stayed there on the way down and on the way back.

 

For the third cruise in a row, we decided to stay at the La Quinta Miami Airport East the night before embarkation. The hotel is decent and decently priced, and they offer free parking onsite for cruise passengers for up to a 7-day cruise.

Considering parking at the port is $20/day, that's a no-brainer right there. They also offer a free shuttle to the Port of Miami on embarkation morning and you can now purchase the return ride at the hotel for a reasonable $10/pp. I learned about this particular deal on CruiseCritic and it's probably the single most useful item I've gleaned from the site.

 

The CC roll call for this sailing was...somewhat odd. Many of the initial participants were in fact embarking on the sailing before ours and continuing on a back-to-back (B2B), and many were part of their own group. Eventually they formed a group for themselves on That Certain Popular Social Media Site and largely dropped off the CC roll-call thread. I sent a request to join the group on the "Book of Faces" but was ignored. Oh, well, there were still a few of us left on CC, like Josette aka "Fighterone" and Don and Lee, aka "Aussiegirlfl." We set up a meet'n'greet for 2pm on embark day by the Sirens Bar, aft.

 

 

The journey begins

 

Our cruise was set to depart on Monday the 14th, so we departed the Atlanta area on Saturday the 12th and had an uneventful drive down to Baldwin, FL. Speed limit all the way. It's about a 6-hour drive with a few stops on the way, but we didn't feel rushed. Here's a look at our Best Western hotel room, which includes a microwave and fridge in the room:

 

 

We ate dinner at Waffle House. Of course. We're from Atlanta, right? :)

 

On Sunday we left at about 10:30 and proceeded to drive down toward Miami on I-95. This drive was also uneventful except for the weirdo on a "rice-rocket" motorcycle who kept harassing drivers (including us) by jumping in front of cars, braking sharply, then zooming ahead, braking again, dodging in and out of lanes, etc. This happened near W. Palm Beach. The rest of the ride was uneventful and THIS time I didn't get lost trying to find the hotel, so we arrived in good spirits at around 4:30pm. I gave the desk our information for parking the car for 5 nights and got us on the first shuttle to the pier, at 10am. Thanks to CruiseCritic we already knew that the Bennigans restaurant in front of the hotel is really awful, so we got a collection of menus from the front desk. We settled on Chinese food for delivery. I think it was from Ping House (it's something-House, anyway) and it was reallly good and reasonably priced. The front desk guy had warned us against ordering from any place that slipped a menu under our door and sure enough, one of those menus was from the awful place that we'd ordered food from back in early 2012.

 

We spent the evening sorting our belongings into stuff that would stay in the car trunk for the week, and stuff we would take with us on the cruise, and also got our cruise luggage tags ready. I had printed these in color -- yeah, I know, color printing is not required but since the decks are color-coded, it DOES help -- and I'd ordered some plastic luggage tag holders on eBay (about $20 for 8 of them). They worked great.

 

Cruise Day 1 -- Miami embarkation

 

We woke up in time and got our stuff ready and outside. We had 5 checked luggage items plus a few carry-on items: my sister was a cosmetologist and a certified master barber before health issues forced her to retire early, and she travels with everything but the kitchen sink...including a portable plug-in vanity mirror. (!) It was tricky schlepping all of this to the shuttle bus, but we managed and soon we were on our way to the port in the free shuttle.

Sitting in front of us were a couple named Will and Marybeth who were on their first cruise, for their honeymoon. It turned out that not only were they from the Atlanta area, but he worked at a Publix supermarket that was two blocks from my sister's apartment! They'd both become pretty good friends of ours on the cruise.

 

We hadn't been told at the hotel to purchase the return ride fares there, and in the past with a different shuttle company we had always purchased the return fare on the bus while going to the port. Worried, I asked the driver and he said we could simply hang out with the other cruisers with Jet Transportation stickers when we disembarked and pay the driver at pick-up.

Relieved, we dropped off our bags with the porters, who tagged them with the bright orange priority Stickers of Awesomeness since we had paid for Faster to the Fun:

 

 

We cleared the security screening fairly quickly and once inside, were ushered to the VIP check-in line. After a short wait we had our Sign and Sail cards and our coveted "Priority" boarding placard with "Faster to the Fun" emblazoned on it.

And then we waited. And waited some more. Finally at around noon they announced boarding for "wedding parties, Diamond and Platinum members and suite guests." I was surprised since wedding parties usually board well before everyone else. A huge mass of people converged on the boarding entryways and then a PA announcement reminded everyone that ONLY diamonds, plats, suite guests and wedding party participants should proceed to boarding and everyone else was getting in the way.

After the crowd died down a bit my sister and I started making our way to the boarding area since we'd be called next. The guy saw our placard and waved us through, and a few seconds later they announced boarding for Faster to the Fun guests, so we beat the crowd by a little bit. :)

 

After skirting the embarkation photographers -- an art in its own right -- we 'bonged' our S&S cards for the first time and crossed over the gangway and onto Carnival Victory. As the sign says at the port, we were now officially on vacation! :)

 

 

Coming up: sailaway pics, getting buzzed by the Coast Guard, a fateful visit to Shore Excursions (and why it's important to get there FAST sometimes), some thoughts on Victory herself, and more.....

Edited October 24, 2013 by Pellaz

[Luv2cruise14]

Great review so far!!!!

[Oceanborn]

Can't wait to see the rest of your review! My fiancé and I will be sailing on her for our 1st cruise with 27 guests (Also 1st timers) for our wedding. Same itinerary as yours. We will be getting married on Grand Turk weather permitting :D

[Flutie03]

Subscribing. Counting the days to my cruise!

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forums mobile app

[fototaker]

I truly looking forward to the rest of the review, sailing on her Dec 9th and a good photo review only helps to kick the anticipation levels up! :)

[cruisin_baker]

Loving this review...we'll be on the Victory in December. 64 days, I believe !

 

 

Sent from my Ipad

[celticd1]

More please! Leaving Saturday for 2 days precruise in Miami for this same itin! Can't wait!!

[momonthego17]

My DH and I will be on this exact cruise next Sept! Great review!!

[Pellaz]

Day 1 -- Miami Embarkation (continued)

 

 

So, now we're finally on the ship and we can take it easy and relax, right?

 

Not quite. The first order of business is to run like mad to Shore Excursions to obtain a "good" cabana location at Half Moon Cay. I had reserved a cabana wayyy back when I booked the cruise, but the actual numbered assignments are handled on-board...and it's first-come, first-served!

So it's a bit of a land-rush to get to Shore Excursions and get a good cabana location...and this is where Faster to the Fun is key. There are many great reasons to pay $50 per cabin for FttF, but it's well-worth it just for "beating the crowd" to Shore Excursions if you have a cabana at HMC to select.

 

I showed my sister the 'quick' place to go smoke (outside Guest Services on Deck 3 starboard) and snapped this photo of the "doors to nowhere" on the side of Terminal E. Sure hope they're locked tight! (I kinda like the ship's reflection in the glass, too.)

 

 

I also took a pic of the shipbuilder's plaque, which is located on Deck 3 also.

 

 

I hightailed it over to the ShoreEx desk and got in line and wouldn't ya know it, Josette aka "Fighterone" from our CruiseCritic roll call and her husband ended up right behind me, so that's how we first found eachother. They were selecting their cabana too, and like me, they wanted something in the #10-12 range.

The low numbered cabanas (#1-6 or so) are so close to the tender pier that the beach is crowded and people often wander into your cabana, despite the "Private Cabana" signs...and the last few, #13-15, are starting to get a bit remote. #10 was already taken, and it turned out that #9 was "owned" by Lee/Aussiegirlfl from our Roll Call, so I took #11 and Josette and her hubby took #12. Don from our Roll Call had #13, so we pretty much controlled that part of the beach...except for those evil interlopers in #10. :D

We didn't know it yet, but one of those new two-story villas now sits in between #12 and #13....oops.

All the other "decent" cabanas (basically everything from #7 back) were already taken by the time we left....if we had gotten there much later, we'd have been stuck with one of the first cabanas on the beach. Granted, "any cabana is better than no cabana at all," but who wants a bunch of people eyeballing your stuff?

 

While at ShoreEx I also signed up for the Behind the Fun tour, because slots for it go quickly. It's limited to only 16 people and only seldom will they add a second tour due to demand.

 

People, I learned about the Behind the Fun tour as well as the cabanas at Half Moon Cay thanks to CruiseCritic. Never let it be said that Carnival hasn't made any money off of CruiseCritic...because they've surely made a mint from ME! :D

 

(continued)

[Flutie03]

I truly looking forward to the rest of the review, sailing on her Dec 9th and a good photo review only helps to kick the anticipation levels up! :)

 

Me too. Join our roll call. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1668134Carnival Victory December 9th 2013 (anybody going yet)

 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Forums mobile app

[Pellaz]

Day 1 -- Miami Embarkation (continued)

 

Even with the late boarding -- we didn't know why, yet -- we still had some time to head to our stateroom, drop off our carry-on luggage and change into swimsuits before our casual meet'n'greet at 2pm by the aft pool. When we walked up to the room door we both felt cool air flowing out into the corridor from the threshold. "That's a good sign!" I remarked. THIS time our oceanview upgrade room was nicely air-conditioned, unlike on Liberty where the air was humid. (They eventually moved us to a balcony.)

 

We also met our stateroom steward, Herry, and he took great care of us for the rest of the cruise. My sister's medical conditions include an inability to generate saliva, so she has to have some sort of liquid refreshment at all times (flavored water, soda, tea, etc.) and Herry ensured that our regular ice-bucket plus a large additional tub were filled twice a day or more. We took care of him with an additional tip, of course!

 

Back up on deck I got a few photos. This is the aft pool and whirlpools with the roof retracted. Note that on Carnival Victory, unlike similar ships like Liberty, these facilities are NOT adults-only; kids can use them too.

 

 

And here's the statue/symbol by the aft pool:

 

 

 

A little after 2pm I went down to the Sirens Bar by the aft pool and found Josette and others from our Roll Call already whooping it up. :) It was a fun group and it's always good to make a few friends on the ship. As we discovered on our last cruise, a smile and a wave from someone you know can go a long way toward cheering you up in the face of adversity.

 

It was during the meet'n'mingle that someone, either Josette or Lee, told me why we had delayed boarding. Sadly, a 6-year old child had drowned in the midships pool the day before as Victory was inbound to Miami, and the resulting investigation by Miami-Dade Police and the FBI caused everyone -- even the wedding party -- to be delayed boarding until noon.

Quite understandable...but such a tragedy! Most of the people on our sailing had NO idea what had happened the day before we embarked. That was probably for the best.

 

Soon it was time for muster drill and then -- eventually -- sailaway. On our last cruise Liberty began moving away from the dock even while we were still at muster drill, but this time we had plenty of time after muster, probably due to Sunday's tragedy and our late embark. Typically Carnival Victory is one of the first ships to depart Miami when she is there on a Monday, but this time we watched as Majesty of the Seas and then Carnival Imagination both slipped out before we did. Then we finally left, leaving Norwegian Sky as the last ship standing. They were also the only ship in port that would need to head west to the turn-basin and spin around, as everyone else was already facing out toward the sea.

 

Here's a pic of Imagination moored right behind us. She was my first Carnival cruise back in early 2012:

 

 

And a pic of Carnival's signature whale-tail funnel is basically required by law and custom:

 

 

 

(continued).....

[Pellaz]

Day 1 Sailaway

 

I had already noticed that, despite online reports and at least a few incorrect deck plans to the contrary, Victory HAD already been upgraded to Carnival's "new" pizza format, known as "Pizza Pirate." This means the thin-crust pizza we got was arguably better than the "old" pizza, known as "Pizzeria Arno," but it also meant no caesar salads, no calzones, and no garlic bread at the pizza station either. I'm still not sure if I was disappointed or not...but there it is:

 

 

"Arrr! Somehow being a pirate makes us like thin-crust pizza! Arrrr!" :D

 

 

So it's finally our turn for sailaway and here are a few pics:

 

U.S. Coast Guard vessel moored near the port. (Doesn't seem big enough to be a cutter, but I could be wrong...)

 

 

Looking back at the cruise terminal while going through Government Cut. The cruise ship in the distance is Norwegian Sky, making her way toward the turn-basin. All other ships in port that day made their turns upon arrival and were already facing out toward the sea.

 

LOTS of boats. Or maybe these are yachts. I'm not sure when a 'boat' becomes a 'yacht,' but either way, there's a lot of money in this pic.

In the foreground are two barges used for 'bunkering' fuel or water to ships at the port along with their accompanying tender/tug.

 

 

(continued...don't want to exceed the dreaded six-image limit per post; wish it were a bit higher.....)

[sfpen66]

Loving your review so far. I can't wait for the rest of the story!

[Pellaz]

Day 1 (yes, still) -- Sailaway and getting "buzzed"

 

Remember when I mentioned getting "buzzed" by a U.S. Coast Guard chopper? Here it is, flying right along our starboard side. He was moving VERY fast and I had to take it while swiveling....I'm shocked this pic came out at all:

 

I also have video of his second "pass" when he came up from behind along our port side:

 

 

I checked with a few experienced Miami cruisers and they said they'd NEVER seen anything like that before, so we can only guess it might have something to do with the child drowning in the pool the day before.

 

With the droning of the chopper's engine a fading memory it was back to sailaway. Here's a pic looking back through Government Cut as Victory enters the Atlantic. South Beach is on the right and wayy off in the distance dead astern, Norwegian Sky is making her turn in the turn-basin.

 

 

 

Not far from us all the way to Nassau was the home of my first-ever cruise, Majesty of the Seas. Here she is:

 

She's not a big ship, and not as "fun" as Carnival's Fun Ships, but you always remember your first cruise fondly. I remember impeccable service and strolling musicians in the dining room, glorious snorkeling at CocoCay, and a mere $380 for a 5-day, in my own cabin. At 119 sq. ft., I'd have hated to have to share it. :)

 

(Continued.....CAUTION: Food-porn ahead!)

[Pellaz]

Day 1 continued -- Dinner (at last)

 

And now, first-night food porn! Sadly it's also the last time I remembered to get any food porn pics.

 

Beef brisket:

 

Pork "steak." Whatever THAT is. But it was good:

 

My sister got this vegetarian pot-pie-like thingie, and said it was really good. She could only finish about half, and they wouldn't let her take the rest of it with her. Oh, well.

 

The MDRs on Victory have a certain.....mermaid-y theme to 'em. More: they're all nekkid!

Everyone say hello to my sister Cindy! Err, she's the one on the left:

 

I'm not sure what you do if you're prudish and/or don't want your kids to see nekkid wimmen in the dining room...I guess the Lido buffet is always open! (We'll see some more-amorous mermaids in the dining room a bit later.)

 

The following photo of Carnival's signature dessert, warm chocolate melting cake (or "WCMC" to us regulars), is REQUIRED by law and statute:

 

 

We had Your Time Dining, and while the service wasn't quite as abysmal as our 6 pm seating service was on Liberty last year, it was somewhat slow. We'd been placed near the back entrance and drinks went a long time before being refilled, etc. I DID like having the option of coming to dinner at varying times...or of NOT coming to dinner in the MDR at all.

 

(last part of Day 1 coming up, huzzah!)

 

[Pellaz]

Day 1 finally comes to an end

 

After dinner we both felt stuffed and we were kinda tired. Back in the room we found our first towel animal of the cruise! We think it was a dinosaur:

 

 

Here's a better view. You decide:

 

 

 

My sister wanted to chill in the room -- we seldom go to any of the shows at night -- and I went up to Lido to see about taking a dip in a pool or a hot-tub.

A bit more background: I'm a volunteer radio deejay and I've been doing a weekly radio show in Atlanta for about 13 years (the show is nearly 30 years old). It's a hard-rock/metal radio show called WREKage and I was "flying the colors" by wearing a metal band t-shirt. One of the guys on the Lido Deck pool-crew, a young guy named Vedat, recognized my "Amon Amarth" t-shirt and we had a great chat about metal worldwide and in Europe, as he is from Macedonia (i.e., Greece). This lasted for 20+ minutes and I resolved to get him a business card for the radio show (which I did a few nights later). He probably can't tune in and listen online from the ship, but at least he can see from our playlists what we play. (The site is http://www.wrekage.org )

 

This sort of thing happened several times during the cruise, since I was usually wearing a metal t-shirt (when I wasn't wearing a collared shirt for the MDR) and some other liked-minded cruisers struck up conversations. We're outnumbered on any cruise*, so we tend to stick together. :)

 

So with that really cool chat with Vedat out of the way and an early stop the next morning in Nassau, it was time for even this night owl to head to bed!

 

 

 

Coming up on Day 2: Nassau port pics. It ain't my favorite port so I didn't venture past the first shopping area and just got some pics of ship-stuff.

This will hopefully be posted later on Saturday or maybe Sunday...remember that radio show I mentioned? It's on Fridays at midnight, so I'll be busy for a few days.....

 

-----

* Except on a metal cruise, like 70,000 Tons of Metal...but I can't afford those!

[Pellaz]

Thanks for the kind comments, y'all. :)

 

Can't wait to see the rest of your review! My fiancé and I will be sailing on her for our 1st cruise with 27 guests (Also 1st timers) for our wedding. Same itinerary as yours. We will be getting married on Grand Turk weather permitting :D

 

Wow, what a great place to get married! And there were a lot of first-timers on this cruise, too. The ship was rocking a little, not too much, and they kept asking "Is this normal?" I had to chuckle since the seas were "slight chop" (1-4 ft.) pretty much for the entire voyage.

 

Out of curiosity, does your nickname "Oceanborn" come from anything specific?

 

More please! Leaving Saturday for 2 days precruise in Miami for this same itin! Can't wait!!

 

Oh, hell. I really hope I can get this thing finished for you before Monday when you embark! :)

Edited October 25, 2013 by Pellaz

[cruisinJenF]

Great review so far! Just 31 days and I will be doing this same cruise!!!

[celticd1]

Oh, hell. I really hope I can get this thing finished for you before Monday when you embark! :)

 

Me too! Loving it so far but really wanting to read and see more! :)

[nccomet86]

I'll be boarding the Victory a week from tomorrow! Its my 4th cruise but 1st with Carnival. Can't wait to read the rest of your review!

 

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk

[Crusin Karen]

Was on her back in the day and loved her, especially the colors.:) LOVE reading other's cruise reviews with pictures so I can relive it all. Thanks for sharing and BON VOYAGE to all who will be sailing on the Victory in the future.

[agc291]

She's not a big ship, and not as "fun" as Carnival's Fun Ships, but you always remember your first cruise fondly.

 

 

Indeed, my first ship was the Victory. Loved her so much (even w/out those fancy upgrades) we booked her again for February! Love the review so far!

[Pellaz]

Cruise Day 2 -- Nassau debark

 

Nassau is not my favorite port, largely due to the huge array of "tour operators" and others who accost you in and around the pier area. It can also be a looong walk from the ship's gangway to the "Welcome to Nassau" sign, and (naturally) we were parked at one of the further piers.

 

My sister Cindy and I had originally booked the new Balmoral Island excursion through Carnival, but quite a few lackluster reviews led me to cancel the excursion. Then we considered just going to a nearby beach in Nassau (possibly Junkanoo, since it's within walking distance), but in the end we decided to just walk over to the shopping district so Cindy could (hopefully) hunt down $5 t-shirts for her two sons, and then we'd return to the ship to enjoy a peaceful, relatively empty day on board.

 

We were in no particular hurry to get off at this port, so we got down to the gangway after the initial press of people had already debarked and there was no line...except for the "paparazzi" photogs from Carnival/Pixel who stop people on the gangway to get debark photos. At first it's kinda amusing...then it just gets annoying.

 

We were one of five ships to make port at Nassau that day; Carnival Sensation and Majesty of the Seas were at the outer dock, then us, then Disney Dream, and a bit later Carnival Glory showed up and took the slot just inside Disney Dream. No-one ever took the coveted closest slot to the wharf. Too bad; it's a short walk.

 

Here are a few seedy dockside photos:

 

Disney Dream:

 

One little Victory (compared to Dream, at least...)

 

Bahamanian gunboat at the pier, with part of Majesty of the Seas behind her:

 

Another view of the same gunboat. The deck-gun is covered with a protective black tarp:

 

Welcome to Nassau! We weren't really feeling it, though.

 

A second Bahamanian gunboat at the pier. I think it's the same one, in the same spot, as appeared in my pics from my first cruise, when Majesty of the Seas docked right there next to it maybe 50 ft away:

 

 

(continued...)

[Pellaz]

Cruise Day 2 continued: Nassau, and losing my sister

 

Here's a few more pics from the dock area.....

 

Disney Dream.....pretty ship. And big.

 

 

 

I finally got a pic of a raft going through the enclosed watercoaster. This reminds me a bit of Augustus Gloop from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Not sure if that's a good thing or not:

 

 

So Cindy and I went into the first port building and scoped out the shops inside. Alas, the t-shirts there were overpriced (there was only one booth selling t-shirts there) and somehow, toward the end of the building, I managed to lose my sister. One minute she was there, and the next, gone!

 

I looked around both inside and out for about a half an hour before shrugging and heading back to the ship, thinking she might have gone back.

 

After re-boarding I got this pic of a sign on Deck 0 near the gangway.

It's Italian. Can't imagine why.....(j/k)

 

FYI, the long passageway on Deck 0 that runs all the way from bow to stern is called "I-95" on virtually every ship in Carnival's East Coast fleet.

 

I went to the room and didn't see my sister, so I changed into more comfortable clothing (read: bathing suit) and went up on deck. I was intercepted by Lee aka AussiegirlFL from our Roll Call, who said they had taken over a good chunk of the Serenity area and invited me up there. The area wasn't too crowded anyway on a port-day and I had a nice time relaxing in the sun and the big Serenity hot-tubs, which didn't seem that hot until you were in them for a while. They're really big, though; bigger than the Serenity whirlpools on Liberty.

 

After a couple of people tumbled (admittedly hilariously) out of those incredibly tricky Serenity hammocks, I took these....

 

Note the innocuous sign on the wall over the top of the hammock:

 

Yeah, that sign is for the hammock, not the tiny crew-only hatch behind it:

I think they really need to make that sign a bit more obvious.

 

The hammocks between the cabanas at Half Moon Cay were similar to these, but not any longer...but more about that on Day 3.

 

I hung out with the folks from our Roll Call up there for a while. They invited us to meet them at 7pm in the Black and Red Lounge before heading down to dinner, which was nice. I then decided to go look for my sister. I knew she had been back in the room at some point because she had left some shoreside purchases there, and eventually I found her and we went to go ride the twisty 3-story waterslide, because a port day is a good time to do so. No lines!

 

I was expecting another episode of getting stuck most of the way down (as happened to me on Imagination), but to my surprise I slid down FAST and got a noseful of salt water at the bottom. Epic impact! :)

My sister was scared to try it, since she's afraid of heights, but eventually she did...and enjoyed it so much she went down again!

 

(continued...)

 

[Pellaz]

Day 2 -- Nassau (ship-day) continued

 

 

On deck, I happened to catch this sequence of events on the bow of Majesty of the Seas right next to us...maybe a boat-drill.

 

 

 

 

 

That was pretty nifty. Not sure I'd like THAT ride, though...I think I'll stick with the waterslide.

 

On the way back to the room to get ready for cruise-elegant night we stopped by the Atrium bar for sodas and I got these two pics of the Atrium ceiling. Victory has a lot of garish "art" (a couple of "fish" pics coming later) but this looks pretty nice. Deep green is one of my favorite colors, though:

 

 

 

(continued)