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Just back from Inspiration!

GAMOM4

By GAMOM4,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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GAMOM4

GAMOM4

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I am just walking in the house from our cruise on the Inspiration. Will post a detailed review just as soon as I can! I can tell you we were the very FIRST Inspiration cruise to have the My Time Dining - because I asked them and they walked to the table and told us that it was the first time - so it is available and LOTS of people were taking advantage of it.

My husband is unloading the vehicle - so got to go help!:)

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daynab

daynab

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We cruise the Inspiration in 33 days. I am so excited. I can't wait to read your review. We sailed her on our Honeymoon. It was one of her first voyages 13 years ago. This time we have the kids with us.

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GAMOM4

GAMOM4

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I may have to do this in parts - the car is empty and suitcases are empty (and we took WAY too much stuff again this year!) I'm going to post some before I start washing clothes.

We left on Wednesday morning, July 8th and drove down to Clearwater Beach. We were hoping to get to see the beach since I have always heard how pretty it was...but it started raining on us about an hour into Florida and it pretty much rained all day. We checked into the Holiday Inn Express in Clearwater (very nice place to stay..but it is a very busy part of town) We decided to drive on to the beach after we checked in - when we got down there it was just to messy to even bother parking - but that is a very pretty area and I would like to go back there one day. We didn't get to see much in Tampa either because of the rain. I didn't realize that Tampa was a huge city like Atlanta (don't know why I didn't realize that..guess I had never thought about it).

 

Embarkation Day:

We didn't have to be in a rush that morning because we were already so close to Tampa - so we ate breakfast at the hotel and then went on to the port. This is the first time out of all of our cruises that we have ever been really early...so this was good! We pulled up and got the "MANY" suitcases out of the car..and my husband and son went and parked in the parking garage. Me and our daughter stayed at the front of the building and waited on them to come back - it was so wet and messy. We went in when they got back to where we were and it was such an easy embarkation...could have been because we got there so early. (Our friends that went got there about 45 minutes after us and they had no problems with the embarkation either.) I had put on the reservation that I was going to pay with cash - I did this because we had booked early saver and I had gotten $460.00 in OBC due to price drops and guess that I thought that would just add some cash to it. I decided to give her a credit card - and that is when she said you booked your reservation stating you were using cash - but that is o.k. it will only take me a couple of minutes to get it as credit in the computer. And it did only take a few minutes - she gave us our sign and sail cards and gave us a number and told us when they called the number - I think we were in group 6 that we could board. She told us that we were booked with the My Time Dining (on your sign and sail card it shows Table # 777 in the MardiGras Open Dining) We got us a seat - there were plenty of them - we were right beside the window so we were looking down out at the ship and watching the workers all busy working. We took some pictures - in fact lots of people were taking pictures - but when the room starting filling up some they announced that we weren't suppose to be taking pictures in the building. I had several good ones anyway. They called group number 6 within about 20 minutes (time passed very quickly) - they took our pictures and the next thing we knew we were walking on the Inspiration. It was so different than our past cruises - we have sailed the Jubilee the first time and the 2nd two times have been on the Celebration - so this was the first ship that had an Atrium...and also the distance from picture to inside the ship wasn't very far at all. In Jacksonville (which is all I had to compare it to) after you took the picture you had to walk along a sidewalk like thing on the outside and then turn and go into the ship. We were so impressed....I can't even begin to tell you! My family got so tired of hearing me say the last 5 days about "I read this on Cruise Critic or I read that on Cruise Critic" - but the things that I have read on this board helped so much! We went to the Lido deck and had lunch (I'm going to try and be as specific as possible regarding the food - but I am the first one to admit that I don't eat alot ever - so I'm probably not the best judge!) The Inspiration has a dining line outside on the Lido Deck (which the Jubilee nor Celebration had); there were two dining lines inside on opposite sides. There was the beverage station in the middle. They had the salad bar which was in a circle and on one side of it was the frozen yogurt and ice cream. They had two dessert stations set up (there wasn't always desserts there - but during dining time there was). There was a deli station and also the pizza station. The tables and chairs were so different also than the other ships - I really liked the chairs - they were wicker looking but I'm assuming it was that plastic kind of wicker look. I wanted SO bad to see the ship go under the bridge since everyone on here really recommended it - and we were outside at that time but it was so wet and not a hard rain but a very windy rain - just as we were going under it we did walk up the steps (very carefully) with the rain hitting us in the face and we saw it as it just went under - tried to take a couple of pictures but they didn't turn out well. I looked awful by then - I was wet, my clothes were wet and my hair was so bad I didn't even want people to see me. I didn't realize at that time my husband and son were on the opposite end of the ship so they were getting wet and seeing the ship go under from the back side. By the time you get fairly comfortable learning your way around the ship - it is time to leave. The way the dining rooms are kind of in the middle of the ship and you use certain elevators to get to one side or the other was confusing..it did finally get better..but that was probably one of the most confusing things on the trip (so that isn't bad is it?) We went to the pursers desk and asked them if they could switch our sign and sail cards because me & my daughter was booked in a room and my husband & son were booked in a room - they told us they could have went ahead since it was the room beside this and booked it that way and we wouldn't have had to make the change - they were very nice about it though - us and one other couple were the only ones at the desk and there was no line (the other couple were trying to get their tips took off in advance........) they got ours put together and asked me if I wanted them to link the other room to my room so that we would only get one bill and I told them yes - that worked out good also. When we got to our room it was about 1:25..they told us it would be at least 1:30 but we were so tired of lugging our bags that we carried on around...my daughter and son had the room that the beds were pushed together - and that would have been o.k. but they weren't so happy - me & my husband had the two separate beds - we started to go ask the purser to switch our rooms but the cabin steward came by and we asked him if it would be possible to take their beds apart and push ours together. I think he was having a hard time understanding - he thought he had done it wrong and kept showing us his printout - and said that was what he went by - we told him that was fine that we had traded and me & my husband would be together..we told him if it was to much problems not to worry about it (we acutally could have just swapped rooms with them) but he told us he would take care of it but it maybe a little while that they were still working on rooms. We completely understood that - and told him if he could do it that was great - if he couldn't that was o.k. also - but within a few hours it was all fixed the way we had asked him to do it. The bowl in the bathroom had a razor, 4 little packages hooked together of Crest toothpaste, one Pepcid Complete sample and some kind of dental floss sticks.

I want to type on and on but I have got to stop for now! Post more soon!

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mom2lillirissa

mom2lillirissa

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FYI: I just registered on this site for the 1st time just to respond to your thread. My husband and I are taking our 4 year old on Inspiration in Oct and have been told we were at late seating, which doesnt work with a youngster. Our travel agent researched for us and told us that there was my time dining, but all the news releases etc state that the Inspriration will not have my time dining until next year.

 

So, if we don't get early seating, we can still go to the dining room, say...at 6:15, and eat? I am so excited.

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GAMOM4

GAMOM4

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As long as you have My Time Dining you can go anywhere between 5:45 and 9:30. That is wonderful because you can pick whatever time - you don't make a reservation or anything you just show up at the dining room you are assigned to. When you start to walk in at the desk at the front on the right side you walk in as Early Seating or Late Seating and on the left side of the desk when you go in it is My Time Dining. The first night we were on the cruise - I haven't got to that part of my review yet - we showed up about 7:00 - that was because we wanted to see the ship go under the bridge - she gave us a beeper and told us that the beeper would work if we wanted to sit in the Library (which was right next door) or any of the lounges - we had a party of 7 - that was why we had to wait - we ended up waiting 45 minutes that night...when we were finally seated - they apologized over and over about how long the wait was - then they came and told us that was the 1st night of the My Time Dining on that ship and that 7:00 seemed to be the time that almost everyone seemed to be coming - they said if we came about 5:45 to 6:15 or anytime after 8:30 that there probably would be no wait - the 2nd night there was no wait - we went at 5:45. They asked our opinion of the My Time Dining...they were asking everyone I think...I told them that we understood that it was going to take the waiters some time to get use to (anything new does) and that we were fine with that. I will tell you that there are some downsides to it (other than the 45 minute wait the first night). You are not sitting at the same table every night - we are a family of four so we have always had a booth with just the 4 of us sitting in the same booth with the same wait staff everynight - they get to "know you". With the My Time Dining - you are seated where there is an open table for the 7 of us they had to put two tables together...I noticed that with alot of the long tables that they would have 4 people or 2 people or different amounts and you eat as you get there - so if you were sitting at a table for 10 and it is just 2 of you - when you are finished eating and leave they take the table cloth off just your part of the table and reset it - they are amazingly fast at doing that - that is probably why they don't have round tables on that side - you could change out the linen on just a portion of it. They were very accomodating to our needs and they tried their best....I think that maybe after the cruise that went out today that they will get even a better grasp on it. I think we would choose My Time Dining again...simply because we can eat when we are ready. The waiters seemed a little uncomfortable because they were having to stop and get it right about what table gets what - (we were sitting right next to where the waiters stand one of the nights). But I was pleased with it as a whole.

I will tell you that on formal night - there was everything from suits & ties & evening gowns - to khaki pants and a polo. We only ate in the dining room 3 of the 4 nights and the other 2 nights we ate in there - it was kind of strange - didn't bother me at all - but probably would bother some people that are offended by other people's clothes - they were women in very fancy evening wear (even when it wasn't formal night) and there were people in shorts and flip flops and I did see a couple of baseball caps...my food tasted the same no matter what any of them were wearing.

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Mom22Reds

Mom22Reds

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Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip. Dh & I sail on the 18th. This will be our 1st cruise. One question, I'm guessing that you're from GA. We live just outside of Macon and will be driving down on Friday. Due to work obligations, we're planning to stop in Ocala. Would you mind sharing your travel time? I know that Orlandon is about 6 1/2 hours from our home. Having never made the drive to Tampa, I'm just curious to see if MapQuest is accurate and it's about the same time.

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GAMOM4

GAMOM4

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We live about an hour south of Macon and on Wed morning we left here about 9:00 and we were in Clearwater at the hotel between 3:30 and 4:00 - we stopped in Tifton and got something to eat and also stopped to get gas somewhere in Florida. We also was driving in messy rain for about half the trip. Yesterday coming back we left Tampa about 10:00 a.m. and got back about 5:00 and that was with several stops for food or gas on the way back. So my guess would be about 5 1/2 hours from here to Tampa so less than that to Ocala.

I'm going to try and work on my review some more today - I can't believe how many dirty clothes we have....and I know we didn't wear that many (or at least I didn't think we did!) So I will spend the day washing clothes!

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GAMOM4

GAMOM4

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They were putting people at bigger tables with people - that was what I meant about them changing the linens on just a part of the table. I don't know if these people requested to sit at the larger tables or not. I guess if you didn't care where you were sitting and a part of the table for two came open they would just put you there (if you were a part of two). I saw people continuously getting finished eating and get up and leave and them re-do that part of the table and sit more people down. So you may be at the table with lots of different people as some of them begin to get finish and leave and others are seated there.

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GAMOM4

GAMOM4

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I'm going to try and continue posting my Embarkation Day Review. After we left the room we explored the ship some more - we went back in time to get the life jackets for the Muster Drill - our drill was in one of the lounges and we decided to sit on bar stools - those bar stools aren't that comfortable to sit there that long (you know how it is - the muster drill probably isn't that long but it sure seems like it) they had the most trouble trying to get people to quit talking so we could hear the announcements -and you know it wasn't teenagers or kids doing the talking it was adults...it was the exact same way on our last cruise - the only difference was the ones on the last cruise were loud (I think drunk) and cursing every other breath talking about things that you shouldn't be saying in front of children..but anyway....when the muster drill was over we went back to the room put the life jackets away...and waited to set sail...we stood outside but was getting wet..tried to take a few pictures without the camera getting wet - it was mainly the wind making the rain hit us because we were out on one of the side decks. We then waited until time to go under the skyway bridge - that was an adventure because I really wanted to see it but with the rain and all we should have just went to dinner because once we were finally up on the top deck and going undder it we were trying to dodge the wind and rain that we really didn't "see it" even though we were there trying to look at it! After feeling so wet, we decided since the capers said "come as you are to the dining room" for the first night - we blow dried our hair put on some dry clothes and went to eat (we wore shorts that night - as most people did). For dinner that night, I had the flat iron steak and I was going to try and remember what else I ate - just ask if you want to know anything specific - like I said I'm not much of a food person so it is hard for me to just remember (and I should have written in down). I posted above about the 45 minute wait to get a table - so that put us not getting out of there until kind of late (I'm not a night person and usually don't eat late at night). I did have the warm melting chocolate cake. One night I don't remember if it was the first but I was going to try one of the cold soups people write about so I ordered the gazpacho soup. When they brought everyones first course to the table they brought mine and it was in a bowl and there was this "tiny bit of something piled up in the middle of the bowl" not even a spoonful - all the people at the table kept asking me what I had ordered - it was all I could do not to laugh - the waiter came back in a minute or so with something and poured it over the stuff and I stirred it together - I liked it. I never got the nerve to try the strawberry soup or any of that kind of stuff - since I had read it was like melted ice cream - I decided against it. We went to the opening show (by we I don't mean my entire family) it was pretty good. I ate alot of the frozen yogurt cones - excellent as always. I can't remember alot more about that day - I went to bed around 11:00 I guess, my husband and son stayed out really late..not sure when they came in.

1st Sea Day

We got up and ate at the breakfast buffet. I had the omelette every morning - had everything in it other than mushrooms. Excellent every day. They had two different stations making the omelettes so the wait was never very long. I also had a bowl of the fresh grapefruit sections and a few of the orange slices every morning. That is one of my favorite things to eat on every cruise. I wish I had someone at home to take grapefruit and remove the seeds and have the sections waiting for me each day (I guess that is a good reason to keep cruising - because that isn't going to happen!) My husband is a big eater so he ate eggs and pancakes and sausage and bacon and biscuits and about everything other than any kind of fruit or omelettes. The "bacon police" was there...they had the end you would get your food from covered up and they were handing out the bacon - of course you could go through the line and get it as many times as you wanted - even at the omelette station they had the bacon so the man making the omelettes had to give it to you - you could dip the other stuff yourself. My daughter and my friend got all into going to the stuff at the spa..I went with them when they had the drawing and of course none of us won - they gave away lots of things and several very small children won things like maybe 4 or 5 years old and lots of the men had their names pulled out. I was surprised that so many people were there when they pulled their names out - usually people enter and don't show up - but I guess since it was raining. The drawing was held in the gym - I don't exercise so I never go to the gyms on a ship - but this one was really nice - people were exercising away. My daughter and my friend went to several of the seminars..in fact I told them that they spent most of the first day at sea in seminars - but it was rainy and kind of dreary so they didn't miss much sun. My daughter participated in aerobics one day and her and my friend walked the walking track every morning. They both also paid $25.00 to have their metabolic rate (I guess that is what they called it taken). My friend bought a bunch of their stuff but my daughter knew we couldn't afford that - it was something to eliminate toxins. My son & husband spent the day wandering around - neither one of them like to just be in the sun (not that there was much sun that day anyway) I guess they explored all the things inside the ship. And of course my son and his friend are both 16 so they "checked the girls out"...never got enough nerve to talk to them so I guess they just looked at them. They did go to the disco one night for people their age but didn't stay long. Speaking of the children's programs - it looked like all the kids were having a good time - I saw them of all ages - my children never really participated in Camp Carnival or the older two programs on other cruises either. I'm trying to think what I did that day - I mainly sit and watched people - I either sit on the lido deck or outside the lido deck. There were lots of chairs and lots of chair hogs...I made sure to notice this...it just doesn't make sense why people will leave their stuff for so long. There are several things about this that I don't understand - 1) don't people think it is rude to see other people looking for somewhere to sit and there are all these empty chairs other than towels and stuff on them and not just for a few minutes to go get a drink or something to eat - two next to me stayed empty with people's stuff on them for over two hours I know. 2) Are people not afraid that someone will take their towel and they will have to pay for it if it is returned - isn't that the way it works? And what about leaving bags and sunscreen and shoes and books..I mean these people aren't leaving their stuff with friends that they have known forever - don't they think someone might just pick up their stuff and take it - and even if it isn't valuable stuff it is their stuff. Enough on that subject - just know that they are chair hogs... My daughter did tell me that one day where she was sitting out in the sun at that two women got into an argument over one of their stuff being there for so long and nobody sitting there - something about 5 chairs being saved - she said that one of the women got so mad she told the other one that she would just go somewhere else and have a nice day in the sun and it wouldn't be on the deck with her. (I guess that at least emptied some chairs)

Well I'm going to come back and post some more of this later on - it takes a long time to do these reviews.

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GAMOM4

GAMOM4

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Ready to continue my review:

That night was formal night so we decided to be in the My Time Dining line at 5:45 - they took us right in. This was lobster night - but I don't eat seafood - so I ordered some kind of turkey pasta stuff - it was really good - on one of the nights I also ordered the Farmers Salad (I think that was what it was called) it was excellent! That night I decided to order the butter pecan ice cream (I know I can get it at home but I never buy any). Everyone enjoyed their lobsters..they all seemed to like the shrimp cocktail also. My son ordered the short ribs one night and said they were good. My daughter ordered a duck appetizer she enjoyed it. The only thing I can think of in the dining room that wasn't liked was the smoked salmon appetizer - my son ordered it - I didn't care for the tomato and mozzarella slices either. People were dressed in all sorts of ways - I have posted on this already - so won't go into that. My advice on this is - don't worry about what you are wearing because there is a good chance you will see other people wearing clothes similar to yours no matter what you decide on. We went to the show "Shout" after the dinner - it was really good - lots of dancing and singing. We sit in the top part of the Paris Lounge - and really if you want a good seat you need to be on the bottom so that you don't get some of the view cut off by the glass walls that are there. Oh yeah, I forgot to post about the Captain's Party - me and my husband were the only ones ready in time to go - we were probably in the first 20 to go in. The waiters were walking around with the drinks and as soon as you finished one and put the glass down they were coming by to see if you wanted another one. I asked what all was on the tray - but can't remember them all - I know there was wine and whiskey sour, punch, and screwdrivers because I had three of them (wasn't being greedy) they came by and asked. We got there at 5:00 they opened the doors then - and we left about 5:40 since we were meeting the others at 5:45. One thing I did want to mention I had ordered the rum runners and didn't even take them with me! We don't keep alcohol at our house and we have to drive to another county to purchase alcohol since we live in a "dry" county..and it just didn't seem like we ever had time. So I guess that was a waste of money - but maybe we will use them next time. We spent a long time that night just sitting out on the deck and talking - we found a really quiet place - even saw another Carnival Cruise Ship in the distance - all lit up since it was night.

3rd Day:

On the 3rd day we were in Cozumel - we ate a big breakfast and then got off the ship and walked that long walkway into the port. It is very nice when you first get to that part of town - everything was real touristy. I would have been fine to just walk around that part and get back on the ship for the day - it was really hot. We met some taxi drivers (they were all vans but called them taxis) I asked them for their name because I was going to post it on here - but I never could understand what they were saying. I think they all must be owned by one company because they looked alike - and we probably saw 50 or more around the island. They told us that for $20.00 per person that we could get an airconditioned van with a driver that wouldn't leave us for 5 hours - he would stay with us, we could stop where we wanted to for as long as we wanted to. We decided that this was a good deal (and it was) there were 7 of us and we saw parts of the island that there is absolutely no way we would have ever seen on our own. He took us to so many different beaches - it was just to hot for us to relax in the sun and the couple we were with doesn't drink so we thought it would be rude for us to drink in front of them. He pointed out all the damage that Hurricane Wilma did to the island and how you can still see so much of the devestation so many years later. He showed us all the resorts - we discussed how the Swine Flu had caused so much revenue loss for the island from tourist - he said nobody could come or go. He told us about his home life - it was really a pleasant time. The difference in the beaches were so amazing to me - there were ones that were only rocks - there were beautiful isolated ones - there were the big touristy ones with the water toys and lots of chairs. One thing I will tell you every place we stopped there were other taxi drivers and I guess they just all hang out together while they wait on us. I think they were all happy to have the island full of tourist again. The Holiday and the Destiny were both in dock the same time we were. One of the people that was with us said that our driver poured a Corona in a cup and was drinking it while waiting - if I had to drive in that crazy downtown traffic - I would need a drink or something - he said that the scooters in town caused so many accidents - they were everywhere - traffic was everywhere - you could just pull up and turn around in the middle of the street - amazing to me - I asked him didn't they have stoplights and I think he said only about 3. It was crazy driving though (and I was only a passenger!) We had asked him to take us to Carlos n Charlies and Senor Frogs because our kids wanted shirts - those were the only stores we went in while we were stopped in the town part. We ate at a little hut beside the road that had a tiki looking top and plastic for siding and the plastic was torn in some places - I guess being on the beach - we stopped and there were 2 people showing him where to park (there were only about 3 parking spots total) so that was kind of funny - and there were 2 or 3 people working in there - so different than a restaurant here - they were very eager to please us....flies were EVERYWHERE I live in the South and we tons of flies - but honestly...when we ordered the food two people ordered fajitas - they brought out enough fajitas on one serving for at least 4 people - it was the most food I ever seen on a plate anywhere...they each had about 10 tortillas...my son ordered a cheeseburger in Mexico of all places...said it sounded good - he told them it was the best cheeseburger he had ever ate in his life - it was so huge. The serving size of the food - was not even comparable to here at home. I just couldn't believe how much each person got. They didn't have Diet Pepsi they had Pepsi Light - and so the people that wanted drinks got that - I had the bottled water - I didn't order any food - I ate the salsa and chips - and we had so much of that left - the salsa wasn't in any kind of sauce at all - completely fresh chopped ingredients - the flies were everywhere though - I couldn't keep them off the food no matter how hard I tried - even the steaming hot iron pan of fajita's didn't stop them. I was beginning to wonder how safe it was to eat with all the flies landing everywhere...but anyway...it was an experience...they were so nice and so busy wanting us to be happy and enjoying the food. I do think that the taxi drivers and all the locals "help each other out" - I think that they want us to eat at local places and shop at local places (not to say that downtown isn't local). But he never tried to talk us into purchasing anything or stopping anywhere to eat. He would ask us and if we said no he said o.k. let me know if you see anything you want to stop at. A friend of ours had a very bad experience a few weeks ago with a cab driver and some cops in Mexico - not Cozumel or an island - in some town he is working in - so we were kind of anxious about getting in a taxi - and I still wonder if there is any danger in doing so - but this was a wonderful experience - we got tired and was ready to go back to the ship before 5 hours was over so we asked him to take us back - and he kept asking was we sure. We had seen so much of the island and he had been so informative - we saw lots of the groups of people that were snorkeling and doing all the other activities. I would recommend that if you go to Cozumel and want to see the real island to get one of the taxis and like I said I guess they are all owned by the same company because they were all white vans with red letters. We were so tired when we got back to the ship!!! We decided not to go to the dining room that night. Me and my daughter went up to the top deck to watch the people coming back to the ship right before they closed the doors....we didn't see anyone really drunk stumbling back - but they could have been before we got up there.

My hands are tired of typing so will post more later.

When you type a review like this I guess it doesn'tever get to the cruise review board does it? That might be why there isn't lots of new reviews on it.

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GAMOM4

GAMOM4

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Yes that is what he said - he would sit at the beach with us for the entire 5 hours if we wanted to. He wouldn't have been alone though at almost everywhere we stopped there were other taxi drivers and most of them were sitting under a tent like thing. So I guess this is just their everyday life and a way to make a living.

Continuation of Day 3:

We didn't even go in the Paris Lounge to watch the show that night - it didn't sound like anything that would be interesting to us. My husband and son went to some of the late night comedy stuff and they also watched karoke and went to the party on the Lido Deck. I didn't do any of these things because most of them were late at night and I am not a night person.

Day 4: Last day at Sea

We slept late that day and then went to the Lido Deck to eat breakfast - it seemed like all 7 of us seemed to eat at different times. My daughter and my friend went and found chairs really early and they stayed in the sun from about 8:30 until 2:30. I walked around alot and just checked things out - I would sit in the sun for about 20 or 30 minutes walk around some more and then go back sit in the sun some more. We did go to the dining room that night (mainly because my 20 year old daughter loves doing this..the others of us just wanted to eat on the Lido Deck - but we got dressed and went anyway.) After dinner we went and watched the last performance in the Paris Lounge - it was a Vegas style show - it was pretty good but I liked the 2nd night show better with all the singing in it. We went to the gift shop and looked around. The day was about finished by then - I went to bed and my husband and son stayed out and played cards until the wee hours of the morning.

Disembarkment day:

We put our luggage out the night before - we got up early went an ate breakfast - they said we had to be out of the cabin by 9:00. We stayed around the cabin until about 8:55 and then we went and sat on the promenade deck - lots of chairs - all the pictures were there - so you could still look through them in case you wanted to buy some before you left. Our friends did the self disbarkment but they weren't that far ahead of us on the road. We were out of there and at the car by 10:00 a.m. The day you leave is always sad..I was ready to plan another cruise immediately.. this is my family's favorite type of vacation but maybe we should try something different next. I would be a little reluctant to book early saver right now even though I ended up with a $460.00 credit this time - on the last morning there was a check for $108.11 under our door! If we would have carried the rum runners I purchased that check would have been for more! But having a daughter in college and not sure of plans next summer - just don't know if booking early saver would work out as good next time (we thought a couple of times this time that we were going to have to change dates). It is a big gamble...but it paid off this time!

Let me see if there are other things I wanted to mention. The Cafe Bar was EXCELLENT the prices were more than reasonable - especially if you compare it to a Starbucks or somewhere like that. I know alot of people don't want to pay extra; but honestly the coffee on every cruise we have been on has been absolutely horrible in my opinion. I only got two coffees the entire trip so that wasn't bad $1.50 each - one of them was on disembarkment morning - so it was open. I got a chocolate chip cookie that cost $1.00 and it was probably other than the grapefruit sections every morning the BEST thing I ate on the cruise - I couldn't believe how big, thick & fresh it was. My daughter got the 3 of the strawberries dressed in tux - they were 3 for $2.00. She got several specialty coffees during the week. One thing that was amazing a child of about 5 or 6 was sitting at the little table at the cafe beside us - her mother bought her a piece of the cheesecake - it filled an entire plate....it was HUGE..she ate very little of it - I asked the person working about the slice and she said the first slice was always that big because if you tried to slice it smaller it broke or something like that - she said she usually gave several forks with the cheesecake because it would fill up two or three people. I think it was $2.00 a slice - my daughter said that at some places that one slice would have been between $6.00 and $9.00. So if you really want something good try the Cafe out. I did eat a Ceasar Salad from the Pizza station because I had read a post of how good it was...but that was one thing that I didn't like at all..Ceasar Salads just aren't for me..I tried to eat it..but just couldn't make myself eat more than a few bites. I ate a slice of pizza it was very good. The deli line was also good - I ate a turkey wrap and that was all from it that I tried - my daughter had several panini's. I didn't try room service but my friends son did - he ordered the peanut butter & jelly sandwich - it came with chips. He liked it. I took advice from the board and my son and husband got a free deck of cards from the Purser's desk each. There were no past guest pins. We went to the casino and got a laynard for our sign & sail card but I ended up not using mine and my friends fell apart immediately. There were alot of children on the boat - but the last day there seemed to be groups of them that weren't with any of the kids or youth clubs just all walking together - at one point they were throwing french fries at each other - they were acting like kids I know - but I wondered where there parents were. There was this really drunk guy probably early 20's and I was amazed to sit and watch all of his friends laughing at him and pointing and taking videos and pictures - he was walking down the stairs from the deck above the Lido deck and was stumbling so bad - he finally ended up just falling kind off the side of the stairs. But his friends thought it was wonderful....I thought it was kind of sad - he could have really been hurt.

I have capers from the cruise if you want to know anything in detail - I don't have a scanner or I would scan them in. I have lots of pictures but haven't figured out how to post any on here yet. There seemed to be lots of security on this trip - maybe there always is and I just haven't noticed it as much as I did this time - but I made the comment to my husband several times about all the security. We had a wonderful cruise - and I want to thank each of you that have given advice or comments on things to make it better! Any questions - just ask!

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