Photo Review - Carnival Dream Exotic Western Caribbean with FTTF - 12/8/12

Carnival Dream Exotic Western Caribbean

December 8-15, 2012

December 8, 2012 - Depart Port Canaveral 4:00PM

December 9, 2012 - Fun Day at Sea

December 10, 2012 - Cozumel, Mexico 10:00AM to 6:00PM

December 11, 2012 - Belize City, Belize 8:00AM to 6:00PM

December 12, 2012 - Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan, Honduras 9:00AM to 6:00PM

December 13, 2012 - Costa Maya, Mexico 7:00AM to 2:00PM

Booking Process

We booked a Pack N Go rate for a Balcony Guarantee about 30 days prior to sailing. I was using a Future Cruise Certificate as well as several $100 Carnival Cruise Line Certificates from Citi Thank You Rewards. I made the initial deposit on my Citi Visa and made arrangements with the booking agent to apply the FCC and mail in the rewards certificates. Because we were within the 75 day final payment window, final payment is normally due within 24 hours of booking, but the booking agent got an extension to November 30 so that the certificates would have time to make it to Miami and be processed. No big deal, right?

Unfortunately, the next day, when Carnival applied the $100 deposit from my FCC and my onboard credit, their system reverted my final payment date back to November 9. I called Carnival and got a lovely older southern woman who assured me that she could take care of it. She told me that her supervisor instructed her to enter my Thank You Rewards gift certificates as FCC certificates (I knew this would not work - the certificates have to be physically mailed to Miami to be applied...), and I waited patiently for her to submit my gift certificates one at a time, using the wrong form, and to tell me everything would be taken care of on Monday and not to worry. No problem, right?

I kept watching the booking every day to make sure that my booking was still there. At one point, I found that we were assigned a balcony cabin on Deck 9 Forward, which I was happy with due to it not being under the outdoor areas of the Lido Deck. The only problem was that my payment was still not applied, and the final payment date was still showing as December 9.

Finally, about three or four days later, I log in to my Carnival.com account to find that my booking is not accessible. The booking number still shows up, but when I click on it, I get an error message. You know what this means. Another call to Carnival to find out that my booking was canceled for non-payment. I explain the situation and the agent was very understanding and went through previous notes to find out that the last agent I spoke with was indeed given incorrect instruction by her supervisor, and she would reinstate my booking with no penalty. The only problem was that the computer would not let her reinstate the booking, so she had to call another supervisor, and after 10-15 minutes on hold, they were finally able to re-create my booking and apply my deposit and FCC certificate and onboard credit to the account. They extended my final payment date to December 7, one day prior to sailing, and assured me that my reward certificates would be applied within a few days (tracking # already showed them as being delivered in Miami). Sure enough, a few days later, my cruise was paid in full after the Miami office processed my rewards certificates.

As a Carnival shareholder, I also sent in my proof of ownership to qualify me for the $100 onboard credit. I mailed a letter with my statement and booking number to Guest Administration the same day I mailed in my rewards certificates. Three weeks later, no OBC. I email Guest Administration and get an automated reply. Wait until 4 days prior to the cruise. Still no OBC. I finally call Guest Administration and get a live person on the phone. She apologized profusely and was not sure why my first request that I mailed in did not get processed. She also explained to me that they do not do OBC via email request (would have been nice if they sent a reply telling me this), but she gave me her personal fax line number and I faxed my shareholder account statement and she immediately applied my $100 OBC. I also received an extra $20 OBC on a separate line with no explanation. Oh well, free money is free money!

With final payment taken care of and all of my OBC squared away (a total of $220 for a 7-day cruise), it is time to pack and go!

Beautiful picture. Looking forward to more :) .

Too much of a hassle. Carnival needs to SIMPLIFY the booking prices and booking process. If Carnival is the "WalMart" of cruising, it needs to adopt the same pricing (and booking) strategy. Lowest price possible - no changes, tricks, loopholes, or hoops to jump through to get a special price. Just whatever the bottom line price is, for everyone.

I procrastinated a little more than I should have and put off packing until the day before the cruise. I worked until 7:00PM and had hoped to be packed and ready to go by midnight. Five loads of laundry and a trip to Walmart later, I was finally packed and ready to go at 2:00AM. I made an attempt at sleep, but it just was not coming, so at 4:00AM, it was time for me to get ready to meet my friend for our quick trip to the airport.

We arrived at the $4/day long-term parking lot at Columbus International around 5:00AM and were at the terminal, with our bags checked and through security to our gate within about 20 minutes. We were among the first people in our gate area, but it would slowly fill up with families on their way to Disney World over the next hour and a half. There is nothing like a Saturday morning flight to Orlando!

Thankfully I checked in early and received boarding position A48 on our 7:35AM flight to Orlando on Southwest. I felt very fortunate to find two open seats next to each other in the front row of our brand new Boeing 737-800. The pilot said the plane was brand new and among the first few -800's delivered to the Southwest fleet. They must be REALLY new on this route because on our return flight, none of the flight attendants had been on the 737-800 yet, and spent the first half of the flight playing with the new touch screen control panels and the color-changing settings on the LED cabin lights. We got quite a light show thanks to their curiosity, but the -800s are indeed very nice planes. The pilot also said that even with the higher capacity plane (175 seats vs. the older 137 seat B737-700 that Southwest has flown for years), the flights between Columbus and Orlando are still almost always sold out. I'll take this as a good sign as we have lost our Southwest flights from both Detroit and Cleveland to Orlando over the past few years.

After a fairly uneventful flight in the very front row of the plane (and no children around us!!!), we landed right on time at Orlando International and proceeded to the baggage claim area. One thing that I dislike about Orlando is that the airside terminals are quite a distance from the main terminal and baggage claim, and it often takes 20+ minutes for your bags to appear on the carousels. Knowing this, I decided to leave my friend at baggage claim and head down to the Budget Rent-a-Car desk to pick up our rental car. I scored a great discount code that resulted in us getting a Toyota Corolla for $57 from Orlando to Port Canaveral on the 8th and $38 for a Dodge Avenger from Port Canaveral to Orlando on the 15th. Even with fuel and tolls, we still saved a bundle vs. the Carnival port transfer shuttles and were able to make stops at Downtown Disney and Publix along the way.

I was thankful that I decided to "beat the crowds" and head directly to the rental car counter while my friend waited for our bags. When I got to the budget counter, there were two parties in front of me and three agents working. I had my keys within 10 minutes, but by the time I left the counter, there were 20+ people waiting in line and the agent that I was working with was calling her supervisor for backup. We probably would have waited 30-45 minutes had I not skipped baggage claim and headed directly down to the rental car counter. I made it back up to our carousel just before our bags appeared, and from there we were off to the garage to pick up our red 2012 Toyota Corolla with about 3,500 miles on it.

Port Canaveral is about 45 minutes and $3.00 in tolls down FL-528. The Budget office is about two miles past the cruise terminals.

We arrived at the rental car office at about 11:30AM to find a disorganized drop-off process. A single older lady was walking around the lot checking mileage and fuel gauges and collecting keys in a little white basket. No walk-around or inspection of the vehicle, just a quick note on your contract about the return mileage, and she took the keys and sent you inside to close out your contract. Inside, all I had to do was show my fuel receipt to prove that I filled up the tank to avoid a $13.99 flat-rate charge for trips of less than 75 miles, and we were off to wait for the shuttle to the port.

While we were inside, I found out why they were so frantic to get our keys quickly. They had cruisers from the previous week standing all around inside waiting on cars. THEY WERE OUT OF CARS!!! One family accepted a 12 passenger shuttle van with the BUDGET logo on it in place of the minivan they reserved (the father said he was ok with it...), and another father and son got a Chevy Camaro convertible in place of the small sedan they reserved.

After dropping off the keys, we waited maybe 10-15 minutes, and were on the 2nd shuttle back to the port. Budget runs two big shuttle vans and a smaller 12 passenger van between the rental office and the port, but with three ships in port at different terminals, it could be 20 minutes or longer before you see one of them, especially if they get stopped at the drawbridge for a sailboat leaving the harbor, as we would learn on our return trip.

Our shuttle driver dropped us off at the shuttle drop off area, where our luggage was loaded onto a baggage train similar to what the airports use. From there, it was a quick walk across the street to the brand new cruise ship terminal.

We entered the terminal around noon and were through security within two minutes. From there, we proceeded to our assigned check in line, where we only waited behind two or three other parties and were almost immediately directed to an agent. After scanning our passports and going through the quick health questions (any flu-like symptoms or stomach ailments within the past 48 hours?), we made some small talk with the check-in agent while he was waiting for someone to bring our Sail & Sign cards over. After a minute or two, he went off to see what was taking so long on our keys. A few minutes passed and he finally returned with our keys in hand. Turns out they were over in the Faster to the Fun area, and had the Faster to the Fun stickers on them.

Faster to the Fun (FTTF)

A quick side note on Faster to the Fun. Shortly after booking, I decided to sign up for Faster to the Fun, thinking it would be nice to get on the ship early and have immediate access to our cabin. I paid for it on my Visa card on the Carnival website. After deciding that we were going to fly in the day of the cruise and rent a car to get to the port, I realized that we probably wouldn't get much benefit from FTTF outside of maybe receiving our luggage a little earlier and having priority tender stickers in Belize, so I canceled FTTF online the day before the cruise. I received a full refund on my Visa for the $49.95.

Well to our surprise, apparently the port had printed the FTTF list before I canceled and we were on it, so our Sail & Sign cards had the FTTF logo sticker on the back and we were given full Faster to the Fun benefits for the entire cruise, even though we had canceled and received a full refund for it.

Anyway, after the slight confusion over where our Sail & Sign cards were, the agent explained to us that next time we sign up for Faster to the Fun, we should proceed to the Faster to the Fun line so that we are at the same check-in area as our cards. No biggie, we still didn't have to wait in line at the regular check-in area and they were already doing General Boarding just after noon, so there was no wait in the terminal either.

Since we were given the FTTF stickers on our cards, we decided to go for the FTTF/Priority Boarding line at the boarding area where you get your THIRD photo taken and "ding" onto the ship for the first time. What was ironic was that the people in the general boarding line actually made it on before we did because the FTTF/Priority line only had two machines whereas the general line was using like six. So much for getting to the fun faster. In any case, it only took us maybe five minutes from the time we received our Sail & Sign cards until we were in the atrium on Deck 3.

After boarding, we figured we would check to see if our room was ready. The doors were still closed as it was not even 12:30PM at this point, but heck, we were on the FTTF list for our Sail & Sign cards, so we figured that our steward probably had us on the FTTF list as well. We were assigned cabin 8288, port side, midship. We could not ask for a better cabin assignment given that we booked a Balcony Guarantee, except maybe an upgrade to an extended balcony or a suite.

Anyway, we arrived to find our room door held open with the deadbolt, but after opening the door we found that it was ready for us, complete with a note from the ship's Hotel Director thanking me for purchasing Faster to the Fun. I guess we made the list ;)

We dropped our carry-ons off in the room, and headed back out to the Lido deck for lunch. The doors to the cabin hallways were still closed, and the stewards were still hard at work preparing rooms for the non-FTTF passengers, so it is safe for me to say that if you do not have FTTF, closed doors means that your rooms are not ready, so stay out!

Having been on the Dream in October 2011, I already knew exactly what would be offered on the Lido deck during embarkation day. Sure enough, long lines outside at the poolside grill (burgers and hot dogs) and Pizza Pirate, as well as inside the Gathering buffet, which was Italian themed on embarkation day. We skipped past all of this and headed up the staircase behind the dessert station and up to Deck 11 to the Pasta Bar, now named Pasta Bella on Carnival ships.

I had penne with pomodoro, shrimp, spinach, and mushrooms with a side of bread. The bread at the pasta bar is the best; fresh baked rolls with a hint of rosemary and olive oil.

My friend had linguine with alfredo, chicken, and spinach, I think.

After lunch, we were off to explore the ship for a bit. It didn't take long for us to settle in at the Blue Iguana Tequila Bar for our first drink of the cruise.

One thing that I found missing on this cruise were the classic FunShip specials being delivered by all of the bar waiters on embarkation day. Carnival has done away with the classic hurricane glass and Drink of the Day promotion; replacing it with feature drinks in different areas of the ship. The Blue Iguana Tequila Bar and RedFrog Rum Bar each had their own mixed/frozen drink special every day, which was always $1 off, and a draft beer special that was $2 off for a 101 ounce beer tube (about $26 + gratuity). They have several different collectible cups, ranging from swirl sport bottles to plastic parrots, to tiki totem pole cups, but all were significantly more expensive than the old FunShip Special in the hurricane glass. FunShip specials are now served in a regular plastic tumbler on embarkation day.

Having been on the Dream in October 2011, I already knew exactly what would be offered on the Lido deck during embarkation day. Sure enough, long lines outside at the poolside grill (burgers and hot dogs) and Pizza Pirate, as well as inside the Gathering buffet, which was Italian themed on embarkation day. We skipped past all of this and headed up the staircase behind the dessert station and up to Deck 11 to the Pasta Bar, now named Pasta Bella on Carnival ships.

 

 

I had penne with pomodoro, shrimp, spinach, and mushrooms with a side of bread. The bread at the pasta bar is the best; fresh baked rolls with a hint of rosemary and olive oil.

 

My friend had linguine with alfredo, chicken, and spinach, I think.

 

After lunch, we were off to explore the ship for a bit. It didn't take long for us to settle in at the Blue Iguana Tequila Bar for our first drink of the cruise.

 

 

 

One thing that I found missing on this cruise were the classic FunShip specials being delivered by all of the bar waiters on embarkation day. Carnival has done away with the classic hurricane glass and Drink of the Day promotion; replacing it with feature drinks in different areas of the ship. The Blue Iguana Tequila Bar and RedFrog Rum Bar each had their own mixed/frozen drink special every day, which was always $1 off, and a draft beer special that was $2 off for a 101 ounce beer tube (about $26 + gratuity). They have several different collectible cups, ranging from swirl sport bottles to plastic parrots, to tiki totem pole cups, but all were significantly more expensive than the old FunShip Special in the hurricane glass. FunShip specials are now served in a regular plastic tumbler on embarkation day.

Great Review! Looking forward to more:)

Do you know if Carnival still allow refills on DOD even though its in tumbler cup?

Thank you!

I should have said refills on FunShip Specials?

I should have said refills on FunShip Specials?

They have a 16oz Rum Runner at the RedFrog Rum Bar that goes for $10.95 in a souvenir glass. I believe it can be refilled at the 12oz price. Not sure about the FunShip Special since they don't advertise that drink anywhere on the ship that I saw.

After exploring the ship, we headed back to the room to unpack and hang out on the balcony for a bit. It was almost time for the "safety briefing", so we headed down to our assigned muster station, A3; which is located in the Encore! Theater in the front of the ship.

Unlike many of the older ships, the safety briefing on the Dream only involves a simple video presentation and a short spiel over the intercom by the Captain and Cruise Director. No lugging out the life vests, and no standing 5-deep in the sun at the life boat embarkation station. A quick 10 minute video and it is all over. PAINLESS!

After the safety briefing, we headed out to watch sail-away and then decided to take a "quick" nap before dinner. We had Your Time Dining, so we figured that we could sleep for an hour or two and then go to dinner. After all, except for a 15 minute nap on the plane, I hadn't slept since before work on Friday and had been up for 30+ hours by this point. The Carnival Comfort beds must be really comfortable because we both fell asleep within minutes and didn't wake until almost 2:00AM! We missed dinner and the entire night's activities. Fortunately, I knew I wasn't missing much as I've seen the Welcome Aboard show three or four times now and there aren't any special offerings like Punchliner Comedy on the first night. We settled for some 2:00AM pizza on the Lido deck and then watched TV in our cabin until we fell back to sleep.

December 9, 2012 - First Fun Day at Sea

After sleeping through most of our embarkation day, we were up bright and early on our first sea day. We knew we wanted to check out the Punchliner Comedy Brunch, which lives up to the reviews that I've read on CC recently. More on that later.

The Punchliner Comedy Brunch is held on the first level of the Crimson Dining Room, Deck 3 Forward, from 8:30AM to 1:30PM on sea days. Outside of the dining room is the Build-Your-Own Bloody Mary Bar, where you can use your free VIFP drink coupons. If you don't want a bloody mary, they also offer full bar service at your table once you are seated. I know John Heald mentioned the possibility of changing where you can use the free VIFP drink coupons so that you could use them at dinner or in other bars on the ship, but as of the December 8, 2012 sailing, the coupons are still only valid at breakfast or Comedy Brunch in the main dining room (sorry, no MDR lunch service on the Dream - it has been replaced by the Punchliner Comedy Brunch). We arrived at the Crimson Dining Room a little after 9:00AM to find no wait. We were seated immediately at a shared table on the Port side of the ship. We shared a four-top table with another couple. The dining room was maybe 1/3 to 1/2 full, and service was prompt.

I had the French Toast, which is coated in your choice of Cheerios, Raisin Bran, Frosted Flakes, or Fruit Loops. I tried mine with Frosted Flakes, and it was delicious! Just the right amount of crunch and they coat it after the French Toast is cooked so the cereal doesn't burn, unlike other places where I've had cereal French Toast in the past. I also had hash browns, which arrived hot and fresh. I left my VIFP coupon back in the room, so no alcohol at breakfast for me. I stuck with the orange juice.

My friend had Eggs Benedict, which arrived hot, but with the hollandaise sauce almost baked onto the egg. Not good. She had a bellini with her free VIFP drink coupon.

The brunch menu features both breakfast and lunch items, as well as desserts. I just had to try the banana cream pie, so I ordered dessert along with my French Toast.

Around the time that dessert arrived, the pre-recorded George Lopez intro came on over the sound system and Jeff The Fun Dude came out to talk about the comedy club and introduce the comedian. After about 5 minutes of George Lopez and Jeff The Fun Dude telling a few jokes and talking about the comedy club, one of the two headliners (they alternate every hour, on the hour) came out and did about 5 minutes of comedy and then announced his headline shows for the next two nights. That was it. Five minutes of intro and five minutes of comedy once an hour.

The food was good, and the menu is a fun novelty over the normal breakfast menu, but I wish the would bring back the traditional main dining room lunch on sea days; perhaps in the Scarlet Dining Room, with the Crimson Dining Room being used for the brunch.

The "comedy" part of the Punchliner Comedy Brunch is nothing more than a few short jokes and an infomercial for the Punchliner Comedy Club shows that take place on four nights of the cruise. The brunch is great for promoting the comedy club, and the food is good, but as stand-alone entertainment, I would give it a "D-" grade at best. Go for the food, not for the comedy.

Great start so far. Sailing in 2 weeks. I actually should be on CCl's webiste right now checking in and printing boarding passes right now but instead I am on CC feeding my addiction ;)

Thanks so much for taking the time. Great pics, keep up the good work!!!

We booked FTTF too, I am excited about. On our last NCL cruise we got spoiled with VIP perks because we got flagged in the system for setting up the M+G for CC. It was sweet. So when we heard about FTTF, we couldn't resist!

After the Comedy Brunch, we changed into our bathing suits and spent some time on the outer decks while waiting for the afternoon's poolside entertainment. Pool games started at 11:30am, followed by the Master Mixologist Competition (now called Red Frog vs. Blue Iguana or something like that), an ice carving demonstration, and finally, the hairy chest competition, aka Miss Carnival Dream.

If you want to participate in the Mixologist competition, you can pick up an entry form from any of the bars on embarkation day. You write down your recipe, and from there, they choose a group of finalists to make their drinks on "stage" on the Lido deck during the competition. Each finalist gets the drink they made for free, and the winner gets a set of free drink coupons and their drink is featured at all of the bars for the rest of the week.

On previous cruises, they had a table full of liquors and mixers, along with a blender and shaker, and the contestant pretty much poured whatever they wanted into the drink. Not so much anymore. Now the contestants are allowed to pour the main liquor into a jigger, at which point a bartender "assistant" takes over and carefully measures and pours all of the other ingredients into the blender or shaker according to the recipe, while the Cruise Director dances with the contestant off to the side of the table. After the little dance, and after the "assistant" finishes making the drink, the three judges (Bar Manager, Asst. Cruise Director, and a guest), get to taste the drink while the contestant announces the name of the concoction. After they taste all of the drinks, the judges deliberate, and they announce a winner. That drink is then the "feature" drink for the rest of the cruise, and is available for $1 off for the next hour at any of the pool bars.

The winner.

Ice Carving Demonstration

Hairy Chest Competition - 2:00PM

AKA "Miss" Carnival Dream

The finalists getting dressed up by the female passengers...

On our first sea day, we also decided to head down to the whirlpools on the Lanai on Deck 5. My experience from the last cruise was that these are the largest, and also least crowded whirlpools on the ship, and are a great place to relax and watch the waves go by.

Here is a view of the whirlpools on Deck 5 from our balcony on Deck 8. There are two on each side of the ship.

Unfortunately, on this particular trip, the heating elements on the whirlpools on Deck 5 did not seem to be working. Our whirlpool was more like a mini swimming pool than a hot tub, and the guests that joined us said that the other one on that side of the ship was not much better. This is a shame, because they were hot last time I was on the ship. One of the Port side whirlpools was also closed the first two days of our trip for "hyper chlorination", but it re-opened on the third day of the cruise.

I always liked zebra print bikini's... Just sayin'. :)

After missing out on dinner and basically all of the activities on the evening of embarkation day, we weren't going to miss out again tonight. Sunday night, or the first day at sea, is also the first Elegant Night on the Dream. We had Your Time Dining and headed to the first floor of the Crimson Dining Room on Deck 3, Forward at 7:15pm. The line to check in went from the hostess podium out into the lobby. We waited maybe 5-10 minutes to receive a pager, and told the hostess that we would take the first available table (you have the option to share, or to receive a table for two). She stated that it would be about 30 minutes and that the pagers work in the public areas, but not in the cabins.

We decided to head up to Deck 5 to check out the casino, and also came across the Taste Bar. The Taste Bar is a replacement for the old sushi bar offering (sushi is now offered on select nights on the dinner buffet in the Gathering), but is not located in the same place. The old Wasabi Sushi Bar now sits empty, but the new Taste Bar is located in Ocean Plaza, between the coffee shop and the Ocean Plaza Bar, where the martini tasting used to take place.

The Taste Bar theme for the first Elegant Night was Blue Iguana Cantina, and they were serving some sort of Mexican spiced pulled pork and tortilla soup. The soup comes in a little black pot about the size of a shot glass, and the pork is served next to it on a plate. We found it interesting that although the pot is designed with tiny handles on the side to drink the soup, no silverware is available for the pork (or for any of the other items we tasted throughout the week, even those that did not appear to be "finger food", like the pulled pork). In any case, it was a neat little appetizer; I just wished they served some of those items in full size elsewhere on the ship at some point during our sailing. The tortilla soup and the pork were both excellent!

After trying the Taste Bar, we headed off to the casino, where we played a little blackjack and some video poker. When we walked to the far corner of the casino, our pager started saying that it was out of range, so we decided to head back to the atrium bar outside of the Crimson Dining Room. At 8:25PM, 70 minutes after we checked in, our pager finally went off and we were seated at a shared table for four on the Starboard side of the Crimson Dining Room.

Our tablemates proved to be quite entertaining on our first Elegant Night. We were seated at a table for four with a husband and wife couple in their 30's. The husband clearly did not want to be in the dining room, and made it quite clear that he does not like dressing up for dinner. As soon as he sat down, he rolled up his sleeves. When the assistant waiter came over to fill our water glasses, he told the assistant waiter that he wanted a Diet Coke. The poor assistant waiter told him that he would have to order it from the bar waiter. He came back with the bread basket and the guy again told him that he was still waiting on his Diet Coke. At this point, his poor wife got up to go to the atrium bar to get him a Diet Coke. While she was gone, the bar waiter came over and he ordered two Diet Cokes with no ice. She came back almost immediately with the two Diet Cokes, but when she asked him for his Sail & Sign card, his wife had taken it to the bar, and the poor bar waiter was too frustrated with this guy to even come back to ask for payment. Shortly thereafter, his wife returned with two more Diet Cokes from the bar.

When it came time to order, I had the shrimp cocktail (it is back as an every day "Carnival Classics" item on the menu!!!) and the lobster tail, and my friend had the prime rib. Mr. Diet Coke, No Ice ordered the chicken nuggets with fries from the kids menu as his appetizer, and a hamburger, well done, with American cheese and fries as his entrée. His wife ordered the lobster.

When our appetizers came out, he complained that his chicken nuggets were fried. I don't know what he was expecting, virtually every restaurant serves chicken nuggets fried, not baked. He picked around a few of them and proceeded to complain about how Applebee's screws up his food at home.

Our entrees came out and his burger had what appeared to be cheddar cheese, not American cheese on it. He acted as if he was going to complain and send it back, but his wife proceeded to help him peel the cheese off of his burger. He then proceeded to tear the burger apart with his fork and knife until it was nothing more than a pile of loose ground beef, and ate a few of his fries, all well complaining about his burger and about how much he hates coming to the dining room and prefers the buffet. His wife quickly finished her lobster, and then they excused themselves from the table before dessert because he does not like being dressed up.

I don't know how anyone can behave like that in public, but he certainly provided us with some entertainment and became a topic of conversation more than once when we would see him in other areas of the ship.

As for our entrees, my lobster came out hot and the shrimp and mashed potatoes were delicious. My friend's prime rib, which she ordered medium rare, came out VERY rare in the center, to the point where it was almost purple. For dessert, not wanting anything too rich after eating lobster, I ordered the Strawberry Bisque (an appetizer, but perfect as a dessert), and my friend had the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. Both were delicious.

After dinner, my friend decided to take another shot at the casino and then turn in early, while I headed up to the Lido deck to check out Sunday Night Football on the Seaside Theater screen. Very cool.

After checking out the football game, and with my friend already in bed, I watched a few minutes of the 10:30PM production show, Eight More Seconds, in the Encore! Theater. The violinist from the Blackjack Band (playing nightly in Ocean Plaza) performing Devil Went Down to Georgia is the best part of the whole show. Other than that, I could take it or leave it.

After catching part of the Eight More Seconds show, headed to the Punchliner Comedy Club, where I caught the 11:00PM and midnight shows. I don't remember the names of either of the comedians, but both were funny, kind of middle of the pack in terms of what I have seen on Carnival ships. The 11:00PM show was maybe 80% full, but the midnight show was only about half full. Jeff The Fun Dude announced prior to the midnight show that the turnout was a little low compared to most cruises, and I can confirm that it seemed as if more people went to bed earlier on this cruise than on my last cruise on the Dream in October 2011.

Enjoying your review and photo's, thanks for posting.

December 10, 2012 - Cozumel, Mexico - 10:00AM to 6:00PM

We docked at Puerta Maya in Cozumel just before 10:00AM, arriving to find the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas already in port at the International Pier next door. For those who have never been, Cozumel has three cruise ports; Puerta Maya (Carnival's main pier), International Pier (Royal Caribbean/NCL), and Punta Langosta (downtown pier serving Disney and overflow from Puerta Maya or the International Pier). Punta Langosta is located in downtown San Miguel and is attached to the Punta Langosta shopping mall, home to Carlos 'n Charlies and Senor Frogs. Puerta Maya and the International Pier are located about 7-10 minutes and a $7 cab ride down the road from the downtown area, but each has their own, purpose built shopping area complete with bars and restaurants.

Cozumel Bar Hop - $57 per person

Cozumel was quite possibly the highlight of our trip. After initially deciding on the Isla Passion by Twister excursion through Carnival, we changed our mind about a week before the trip and instead booked the Cozumel Bar Hop (www.cozumelbarhop.com) after reading about it here on Cruise Critic. We ended up with 22 people on our bar hop, ranging in age from 24 to 70+, and all from our roll call.

After a quick 10 minute taxi ride downtown, we met up with our bar hop group at Starbucks, located at Punta Langosta, just outside of Carlos 'n Carlies. We arrived at about 10:50AM to find that we were almost the last to arrive. We hung around for a few more minutes, waiting on the now infamous Laurie to show up, and then headed out to the bus. My cell phone said it was 10:57AM when we were doing the "last call" for Laurie, but apparently Tom's watch said it was already after 11:00AM, so keep this in mind and arrive early so you don't get left behind if you are going on the bar hop.

After a short walk through the Punta Langosta shopping mall and out to our waiting bus, Tom (the owner of CBH) came aboard and collected our remaining balance ($27 deposit online and then $30 on "hop day" for a total of $57 per person) and then introduced Greg, who would be our guide/babysitter for the day. As we pulled out of the parking lot, Greg gave us a quick overview of what to expect, as well as some background of how Tom started the Bar Hop and how he became Tom's first employee after gaining dual citizenship in Mexico (Greg is an American turned Mexican citizen, and Tom is Canadian).

We made our way through San Miguel, which is the only town on the island of Cozumel, and home to almost all of Cozumel's 90,000 residents. Along the way, we passed the brand new McDonald's that opened a few weeks prior, and the new Sam's Club. Some see it as signs of progress, others see it as the Americanization of such a beautiful island. The locals seem to love it though; according to Greg the McDonalds had a line down the street when it opened.

Once we were out of the city, it was nothing but jungle on either side of us as we made or 20 minute trip across the center of the island to the unpopulated Eastern side of the island. Except for 8 bars and a small, 14-room hotel, there are no buildings and no electricity on the East side of the island, which is virtually all Federal land reserved as a nature preserve. It is beautiful and something completely different than what you see if you go to the tourist beaches on the Western side of the island.