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off the Fantasy this morning, general review


saltwaterfixes
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Okay, I'll work on getting a kid to help an old lady with posting pics later today. Anyway, on to Nassau. We've been a zillion times and couldn't really decide what we wanted to do. At the last minute we decided to see if there were any spaces on Carnival's Catamaran (you know, cause they have free rum punch and we needed to drink. Kidding, geez). Anyway, it was completely sold out so We slept in again and decided we'd figure it out when we got off board. When we finally made it down to the gang plank, it was pouring. We headed back upstairs for a bit, waited for it to subside then debarked. We were going to do a little shopping, maybe hit Senor Frogs (for booze) and then decide. After making our way through the gauntlet of "hey pretty lady, you want to see the city?" and offers to have our hair braided, we hit bay street. You know we bought illegal pocketbooks.....

Anyway, stopped in a little liquor store (what did you expect), bought a beer and a few bottles of water and decided to find the rum distillery. We walked uphill for what seemed like 2 dozen miles and the second we got there, dripping in sweat and about to die from the sheer exercise, the sky opened up and literally SHEETS of rain came down. Most of the tour was inside, so we wandered about for a little bit. There's not much to see, it's a self-guided tour, and when we made it to the gift shop, a lady brought about a tablespoon of pina colada in souffle cups to taste. I wanted to taste the rum, not the pina colada! Oh well. They have a little tavern but we were starting to worry about how we were going to get back to the ship in that weather, so we chatted for a few minutes at a table and ultimately asked them to call us a cab back. We were back onboard with just our new purses and some "free gemstones" from one of the street vendors by 1:30 or so, soaking wet. Total cost of "shore excursion," $14 cab ride and $7 in water and beer. Lol. Pitiful. Will avoid Nassau at all costs in the future!

When we got back to the ship, we had to wait in line to show our ID to reboard in the still pouring rain. Oh well, what could we do? Back on board, everyone took a quick shower and we went to get some lunch. Eventually we went to watch the pier runners. I think the ship sailed without some fellow cruisers (unfortunately the slobs made it back on board against our hopes) because there was an officer on the pier with a walkie talkie until the last minute. She finally handed an envelope to a guy on a golf cart. He went to the end of the pier, the horn blew and we were off again.

Same nightly routine. Nap, slots, taste bar, couch, dinner, drinking, bed.

 

Hilarious. Love.

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Seriously!! Is it?

 

" We also smuggles aboard a bottle of vodka, a bottle of vanilla flavored rum, a bottle of Captain Morgan's, a bottle of whiskey and carried on 2 of the 3 bottles of wine they allowed. We consider ourselves moderate to heavy drinkers at home. (Duh, right?) Smuggled booze was in a variety of rum runners and shampbooze bottles split among that mountain of luggage (including some we carried on to get us started as soon as we boareded). Every drop got aboard."

 

That plus a split Cheers package? The only drinkers I know who rolled like that were my grandparents back in the 70's

 

Its more the whole style of the writing/stories as a whole that seriously made me think it was some sort of tongue in cheek/joke review. I completely believe they went on the cruise however.

 

I went to University less than a decade ago....Ive seen and done 'worse' in terms of drinking. Not to mention cost....I would have rather paid for a better room than buy 4 bottles of spirits but different strokes for different folks right?

 

Moving on...

Edited by Velvetwater
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but if we had the nicer room and no booze, what would there have been to do in the nicer room? and i don't have an iphone. After my liquor budget, I have no $$ left over for a phone bill so I have something that was literally grandfathered into my very cheap data plan from like 5 years ago. It moves slightly slower than the chicken nugget line at the buffet on ship.

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Not even sailing on this ship but subscribed to this thread because of the review. Awesome on so many levels.

 

 

.....................................................

Carnival Pride 7 day Mexican Riviera: September 2008

 

Carnival Inspiration 4 day Mexican Riviera: September 2013

 

Carnival Miracle 15 day Hawaii: coming October 2015

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So there, skeptics. More coming. But I assure you, this cruise happened. And exactly as I say it happened! Stay tuned.

 

No doubts you went on the cruise...its just what happened on it.

 

Re the 'stuff to do in your cabin with no balcony or booze' there are 2 options in my book. First option involves not being in it much and the 2nd option involves your beloved....go figure ;)

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Thanks for the review. Fellow smuggler here... and I didn't even drink the batch I smuggled.. just liked the idea of smuggling I guess! LOL

 

Next cruise I'm gonna make drinks for my RC friends with my smuggled booze!

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Random pics of the coffin bed with the murderous pillows. As I've said, I'm technologically challenged. Several times I tried to take pictures, I actually made video. You may end up seeing one as I don't remember what is what.

p><p>(before the beds were put together.  Notice the phone.  At some point we discovered how to use them (floor number +room number, so 6096 to dial U96) and we used them often to call from places on the ship to see who was in the room.  Since there is no caller ID, we vowed we were going to make phone pranks one night after our drunken binges.  We were going to call random rooms and tell whoever answered that we were "calling about the lawnmower they had for sale on Craig

One of my pet peeves on cruises is when the steward tears of random pieces of paper to make eyes for the towel animals. I have no idea why I freaking hate it so much. So, Ivan's towel animals weren't the greatest, but he had some leathery premade eyeballs that he used everynight and that saved me a tremendous amount of stress.

p><p><img src=[/img]

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The vanity is in the middle of the wall opposite the coffin so they won't fit under the window. Yucky. And the one with the phone didn't get uploaded in that batch. It's coming....I haveta cook dinner, dammit. I tried to go to the Lido deck but all that was upstairs and outside was my crappy roof that needs washing. Sigh. The life.

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Maybe this will be the pic of the phone at the headboard. Also random pics that have nothing to do with the review other than sorta letting you into looking at what else was going on.

20140804_160430_zps1946d006.jpg

100_0165_zpsccb16d00.jpg

100_0172_zpsc21c64a3.jpg

See why the bed can't go under the window? That little area where the stool is and the other light is the only area not taken by furniture....boo. stupid cabin.

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Last sea day: I've never had the let down I had on this cruise. I tend to be pretty stoic and non emotional anyway, but I'm just not susceptible to things like that. I have no idea what happened this voyage. I knew oldest DS was getting ready to go back to his home (4 hours from ours), middle DS is getting ready to go back to college and baby DD is getting ready to go to the USAF. She's sworn in and ready. Well, something about that made me have a meltdown. Sitting on "our couch" at the end of the day I was SOBBING. Not a few tears, but a blubbering mess. The people beside us were doing shots of tequila....talk about awkward. Poor hubby, all he could say was, "who cries on a cruise?" Anyway, that was the end of the day, but there was a "mood," the whole day that was just so deflated.

Had sea day brunch again and tea time again. Before going to brunch, we went to the Lido to have coffee. All the towel animals were out! I was so excited, they weren't there last time on the Fantasy! People used them instead of beach towels throughout the day lol. I spent a little time on Serenity, it was hotter than blazes up there. Eventually I found the cool shower to get wet every now and again, cause who wants to sit in a hot tub in 100 degree weather? Drink service was good. I ordered a gin and tonic (my daytime drink of choice) but as soon as the waiter walked away, I found myself longing for something frozen. When he came back I got a pina colada. Most of the frozen drinks on board are just too stong for me; when we make daiquiris at home, it's ice, triple sec, fruit and rum. That's it. The drink was fine but it wasn't as good as mine ;)

Dragged middle son to tea time with my daughter and me once he found out there would be cake and cookies there. They didn't have the usual strawberries and cream this time. Boo. Also managed to grab some of the Taste Bar which was Red Frog fare and not at all impressive.

I did ride the waterslide. It was on my bucketlist. All I could picture was the look of the poor people at the bottom when my fat ass came barrelling out, in my mind it was like the Honey Boo Boo episode when her mom rides the waterslide, but I was terrified so I was determined to do it. Turns out, the real battle is just climbing the stairs. Then I got up there and there were 2000 kids pushing and shoving that didn't help. (Side note: there were tons of kids on the ship but I decided I mostly like that since the things I wanted to be doing like the casino and bars and comedy clubs didn't attract the kids; they mostly ran over people interested in pizza and ice cream, so having lots of kids was good for me as it meant fewer adults jamming up the stuff I like) Anyway, back to my waterslide story....maybe the slide is fun or scary for little kids, but for me, lol...it was just a meandering slide, nothing scary, no bolts jabbing me, no rushes. Barely enough to even get wet. Anyway, I crossed it off my bucket list on sea day.

I checked out the spa but didn't buy anything there. I am just way too picky about where I spend my "beauty budget." Either I'm going to get crappy service and expect and pay for crappy service at a place like massage envy, or I'm going to pay for high end when I *know* it's high end. Not rolling those dice and paying double than a land massage for something that might suck. And I wasn't into the sales pitch that goes with it. DH teaches at a cosmetology school so we get all our products at cost; I certainly wasn't going to pay a premium to hear them try to sell me their crap.

Played the slots a little more, cashed that out and took it to the pursers desk. Shopped the gift shops a little but wasn't really impressed with the prices. I pay around $90 for Coco Madamoiselle at home, I wasn't going to get a bottle for only a few dollars cheaper only to have to claim it at customs and carry it home, it just wasn't enough savings for me. Same thing with liquor. We are mostly beer drinkers at home and even if the booze was half price, it's too much hassle to carry it home.

The people with the ill-behaved kids at the next table at dinner were super late this night, holding everyone wayyyyy up. I was furious because the comedy club was having a "double header" with both comedians playing. One of the comedians had made it a point every show during the cruise to ask for applause for the military and veterans, so when I ran into him during my couch meltdown, I asked him to shout out to my daughter who is getting ready to go to basic training (in case you missed that detail the other 34958375 times I've said it during the review). DD didn't know I'd made those arrangements, but the boys did and they were anxious to see her reaction too. It meant we had to leave before my Grand Marnier souffle, which sitll has me a bit bummed, but we got there in time to snag pretty decent seats. I'll never figure out why they have the comedy shows in that littler lounge at the back of the ship. I think just about every adult on board was in there, mostly standing crowded in the back. If its such a hit, why not have in the main lounge? Like I also said early, drinks were painfully slow in here. The first night I ordered a "punchliner." Blergh. It was like kool-aid, way to sweet for me. We stuck to beer in here. The guy next to me had an ecig, I know they aren't "legal" in there, but there was no one to stop him. Anyway, at the end of the show, as the comedian did his normal military hooray, he pulled my daughter up on stage. She was confused for a minute but accepted it graciously and it made me happy. I'm sure the rest of the guests have already forgotten it happened lol.

We went right to bed after the show as I've had just enough cruises under my belt to know how little fun it is to drive home in cruise withdrawl mode with a hangover. Big.fat.bummer.

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Thanks for the insight on those rooms. I thought they would just be single rooms but I guess Carnival doesnt do those.

 

 

It was a funny review and I enjoyed it. I apologize for my cynicism...I can be a little dry at times.

Edited by Velvetwater
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Welcome to empty nest syndrome! It's horrible. It's always on the edges of your day, waiting to crowd in and make you sob. I've got five and four are out of the house. People think I'm crazy for cruising for 12 days in a 175sf cabin with a 16 year old- are you kidding me? If they only knew how fast these kids grow up.

 

I have to say your review is one of those things that comes along and makes me know I did the right thing quitting drinking 15 years ago. Man oh man. That was my life. It may be fun for you but looking back I'm so glad I kicked it to the curb.

 

I'm glad you had a great time on Fantasy and got her primed for me. We're all sitting here PRAYING we don't get any slobs like you had at dinner. Ughhhhhh....

 

Hope your PCD isn't too bad. Book another cruise- it's the only way. Even if it's a year out.

 

Thanks for the review!

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