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The Ma'am's Star Western Caribbean Review with Pictures!


medicalma'am
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Medicalma'am is doing a great job. I can't add much to her posts. Here are some ramblings.

 

We had a wonderful meet & great. There were about 45-50 attendees. We enjoyed coffee, juice and sweets on the first mid-morning at sea. The Captain and many of his crew were there to talk to us. They gave each of us a card with all the important numbers on and said to call them directly if we needed anything. And, yes, the Captain did say he'd be inviting all of us who were interested to a Bridge tour on our last day at sea! What an honor! We exchanged gifts from our part of the country, and had about an hour to chat and meet everyone. We really enjoyed our yummy dates from Southern California! One of the things I most like about meet and greats is seeing people we've met there around the ship and on shore during the rest of the week and being able to say "hi" and wave. Makes it more like being in a small town.

 

I tagged along with Planma'am and her family in Costa Maya. We went to Tropicante and had a good time sitting on the beach, wading in the water, reading a good book and watching people. The food was good, the drinks were good. Planma'am and her daughter had a great hour-long massage right on the beach. My neice also got a couple of nice temporary tatoos. I decided to get one, too, but when I went looking for the lady, she was gone. I really thought it would be fun to freak out the daughter who got a few tatoos in her teens "over my dead body."

 

The bus driver didn't seem to know where Tropicante was. He let us out at the end of the line and pointed us in the direction of the beach. Ended up, we had to walk back a block or two. We had made arrangements for Tropicante prior, so they were expecting us. We had a spot on the beach with a large umbrella and chairs or chaises, whichever we wanted. The beach was beautiful, clean and the water the clearest I've ever seen. There was a dock area with a canoo-like boat that could be used and I kept seeing a banana boat going by. Don't know if it belonged to Tropicante or not.

 

Tropicante is a slice of beachfront with a "restaurant" behind. I use the term loosely. There was a bar area, a kitchen of sorts that I was glad we couldn't see, an area with tables and chairs and shelves full of books you could check out and a bathroom for each sex. We were given a waiter who would take care of us during the day, whatever we needed and introduced to another man who could also help with anything. I must say that it did take awhile to get the food we ordered later. Drinks arrived more quickly. There were other "resort areas" like Tropicante to the left and right of us.

 

What I will say is this -- next time in Costa Maya, I'm going to Maya Chan!

 

DH and I had an aft cabin also, but not a mini-suite. They don't make enough mini-suites in a row! Our little band of cruisers did have 5 cabins in a row, aft, on deck 10 though. It is nice to be able to sit out on the balcony in a lounger, rather than a straight-back chair! And there's nothing more soothing than listening to the wake behind the ship. We had heard that the cruise line no longer allows the steward to open up the doors between balconies. The one between Planma'am and Medicalma'am did happen to come open once, and our Steward allowed it to stay open. We couldn't get ours to happen to come open, though!

 

It was rather nice seeing my neices and nephew and their spouses and children have such a great time on the cruise. We did things together almost every day. The great neices both reeeaaallllllly enjoyed the Children's Place, or whatever it's called. One day we happened upon them having lunch. Just to see them acting so grown up, sitting at a table with other children and the adults in charge, napkins in their laps, eating away and chatting was priceless! When their grandma's decided to take them back to the cabin for a short nap, one of them in particular puckered up her face and pouted. They enjoyed their special place so much.

 

Our two daughters, their husbands and our six grandchildren stayed back at home. There's no way we could afford to treat all of them like Planma'am and Medicalma'am did their children. Daughter #1 gets terribly motion sick, just in a car, and says she'll never cruise. Daughter #2 went on a cruise for her honeymoon, at Halloween 7 years ago. It was quite eventful. Ended up it was a cruise mainly for a certain type of person, and there they were, newleweds, one a male, the other a female! Not a Norwegian cruise, I must add. Their travel agent was out to lunch when she arranged that one.

 

For not having much to add, I've certainly gone on enough. Looking forward to what the other two ma'ams will add.

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HAHA I am LOVING the review mom is doing, its fun to re-live the cruise.

 

I thought I would add my 2 cents.

 

I read a lot of post on cc with just random meaningless complains. I must say I found ALMOST nothing to complain about. The food was way above my expectations in all of the specialty restaurants with the exceptions of la cusina- the food was average and the service was bad- it was the last night of the cruise so maybe everyone was tired? im not sure but that is the ONLY complaint I had.

 

Also for people in Family suites we were in 12530 and the room is AMAZING. Its huge and it is at the section of the ship that is pushed out a little so part of the room is slanted. This is a GREAT thing! From that window you can see straight ahead at where you are heading. Very cool! No one had mentioned that before that I could find. (if i can figure out how to upload a pic i will put on on here so you can see the view). ALmost forgot- The jogging track is all the way around the ship right above the suites. Yes you can hear it but honestly its only during the day and how much time are you spending in the room during the day? Also you only hear it for the few steps it takes to get past your room. This should NOT be a consideration for the room. You WANT these suites.

 

ok ill leave the rest to mom

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This is 10230 which we were in on Jan 2011.

 

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This is the balcony

 

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Now, if you are on deck 9, I believe that the balcony will be a bit smaller. But you should still have the lounge chairs, just not much room at the end of them to walk around. You may just have a reclining deck chair, which we had one of along with the lounge chair in this location.

 

 

You will love that aft balcony view.

 

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Wow, Medicalma'am, you've been busy since I've been on here last! I'm going to have to catch up. I've settled in with DH's "laptop", and am ready to go. I put laptop in quotes, as that is the brain I'm working with, but I'm in his Lazy Boy, with the laptop on the coffee table, with two screens in front of me, a 22" and a 19", and a wireless keyboard and mouse on my lap table. Now that's a set up!

 

I am going to go back a few days in time to our first full day in NOLA, and post a few pictures starting there.

 

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There were some good entertainers and bands on the closed-off streets in the French Quarter; we saw this band on CBS Sunday Morning today, too. They were really good.

 

 

 

OK, gonna post this to see if I got the picture full size; this is my first time using Photobucket. Keep your finger's crossed!

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See if this helps. This is how I do it.

 

Go to your photo sharing site. I use Picassa but it should be the same for any.

Open you photo full size on the site.

Right click on the photo. One of the options that comes up should be something like "Copy photo URL". Select that.

Come back to your CC post. On the little icon options on top pick the one that looks like a photo with a mountain and a sun. If you scroll over it it says "Insert Image."

Put your curser in the box that pops up and hit Ctrl V to paste the URL.

Now when you do a preview post, the photo should be there.

 

Good luck! Loving the review and all the photos!

 

Donna

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Thank you, Donna. I changed from PhotoBucket to Flickr, as DH has an account and was more willing to help me out since he knows that program.

 

Mrs. H - the story is worth spending the time submitting again. Sometimes I write it in Word or Wordpad, then copy and paste into CC. I have had posts disappear before if I took too long; CC signed me out. But I could go back, and the post came up, I copied it into a word document, signed onto CC again, copied and posted again.

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Pat O'Brien's was busy the day we were there, even though it was a Friday afternoon. I think because it was the first weekend of Mardi Gras.

 

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I enjoyed a Mint Julip, and DH had a Hurricane. Warning about the Mint Julip, it is almost all bourbon!

 

The Ma'ams

 

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And our DHs

 

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There were two bachelor parties there that afternoon, and this is the drink each of the groups ordered! It had to be strong, as soon one member of the first party was sacked out with his head on the table!8442012597_1c8e78ce1d_b.jpg

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Here is a picture from the French Market. A lot of trinkets and souvenirs, but no one bought anything.

 

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Carriage rides were available.

 

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I had seen Central Grocery famous for their muffalettas, about a block or block and a half before the French Market, and went by, but they were closed (close early, either 4:30 or 5:00 if you're interested). We had already eaten, so nothing lost.

 

We then went over to the river.

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As Medicalma'am said earlier, we went to the Irish Pub down the street from the hotel for dinner that night, and I had to leave early as DD & DGD had arrived, and I went back to the hotel to meet them.

 

The next morning I gave DGD the mask I had bought her.

 

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That afternoon the Ma'ams drove first down St. Charles where the really nice homes were, past Tulane and I think it was Loyola, then went to the 9th Ward.

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We saw building in every possible state of repair. Some newly repaired in a sea of abandoned, devastated buildings.

 

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Sunday finally arrived, and it was time to go to the port.

 

I just HAVE to post the whale picture by the whale lot!

 

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If your view of it is from this angle, you have already passed the entrance into the lot.

 

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Once on the ship, it was to Versailles for lunch. The grin on my face is because I'm in my happy place; between DGD and DD after not having seen them for 13 months!

 

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Here's DH and DD:

 

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And my stuffed mushroom appetizer.

 

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DD's suite was ready before ours, so we went up there first and deposited our carry-ons before exploring the ship further.

 

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After checking out the Kids Club and spa, 10th deck cabins were ready, and I finally got to see my suite:

 

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Notice our champagne already being chilled waiting for us. Well, it would keep waiting several days, as we didn't pop the cork until Saturday.

 

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And the bouquet of flowers on the coffee table. I loved my blue slipper chair; I sat there often during the week, it was so cushy!

 

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Notice there were beach towels waiting for us, too. We had no problem with them all week. When returning from shore, we deposited the used ones in a bin, exchanging them for clean ones before getting back on the ship. Don't know how, but we ended up with 4 in our room the last day. I think the steward didn't see ours and brought us more.

 

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I loved this dressing area; I claimed it for the week. The hair dryer is in the right top drawer all plugged in and ready to go.

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Two pics of the bathroom area:

 

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As Medicalma'am said, it is larger than the balcony bathrooms.

 

I just wish the magnifying glass on the mirror over the lav were in the dressing area. Also notice the scales on the floor.

 

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8442071525_05eb1d26ed_b.jpg DGD and DD's friend JaNae on our balcony.

 

There are full-sized mirrors on the dressing room side of the closet. You could open the right one to an angle to see the back of your hair. There were two thermostats for our room, one can be seen in the picture above and one in the picture below.

 

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And looking back towards the door, with a view of the bar area and that fabulous coffee machine!

 

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And the view out onto our balcony. We were on the corner, so the balcony was narrower to the right than on the left.

 

DH asked that I add you would be wise to take European plug converters; you would have more places to plug things in if you could access these.

 

Did you notice the decor of my suite is different from Medicalma'am's? She had dark paneling, and I had light, she had dark blue carpet and I had red. Our curtains were different, too; hers were true blackout, ours were heavy, but not blackout.

Edited by planma'am
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DD & DGD at the family cupcake decorating.

 

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And JaNae won for the best adult-decorated cupcake!

 

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We did have some entertainment at the martini tasting: Once the glass was full, he poured the rest into his mouth while the glass was still on his forehead. Then he brought that martini to me! (I shared with our group.)

 

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