Bulldogsoc

No. But I cannot recall which two are the largest. Ours on the Breakaway was really big. I think it was on 14.  I want to say 9 and 14 but rest assured someone here will be in the know. 

Not going on one sooner and if you Can swing it...go large. You get what u pay for.

Now that I have them printed out in colour they are Teal and Teal is spelled out in the case of black and white printout.  I wonder if there are different colors for different sections or decks?  

One more day at the office!!!!!!

Many thx. 

We are on the Getaway this coming Sunday.  We upgraded to the Haven.  When we had originally booked our Mini Suite we ended up (no sure what I did) getting 9:30 am arrival times for two of us and 11 am for the kids (ten and twelve... good job dad!).  I called customer service and they said we can show up at either time as long as we are together.  9:30 seems pretty early.  She said that boarding starts between 11am and noon (she was vague and non committal (and I get that).  Does the arrival time matter now that we are the Haven?  Does anyone have a suggestion as to when we should go?  When do you think they will start boarding?

Also, I seem to recall when we did the Haven previously the tags were a different color.  Our current tags have the correct Haven room but don't appear to differ from the previous tags.  Do we just give the luggage to any of the porters or is there somewhere specific we should drop them?  I have no idea if we get our bags any earlier or not.

Anyone with experience that can comment would be appreciated.  Looking forward to leaving this snow behind.

THX in Advance.

Mark

I don’t need my MBA to tell me that these cruise companies could teach graduate level class in finance and marketing.  As Jamie points out, the amount of data they are sitting on for their algorithms is mind boggling.   Other industries would kill for this kind of data and depth of data on every person on every trip and every purchase and every year.   Incredible. 

Cool thread. 

Four more sleeps!

Thx. Enjoyed your prose. 

Oh well Mike D... we can’t take with us!

Cheers

I have had trouble for the past week here and fairly frequently on NCL as well during the same period.

Thx Lulu. That helps. Much appreciated. 

I notice that NCL permits a cabin occupant to get unlimited use of the Arcade for twenty something dollars per day x 7 days with some restrictions, such as a limit of three games in a row with some type of min down time before new play on that machine and only green card readers are included.  It is my understanding that this may include darts and does not include bowling or games that spit out prize tickets.  Can anyone who has some recent experience on this and can confirm what type of games are "green swipe" and what is or not included.  I thought Jamielogic had some knowledge but for whatever reason I could not message her.  It is not cheap but depending on how many games are included, my sone and daughter would certainly spend time in the Arcade daily.

THX in advance.

Mark

OK... so we get the YC and they introduce us to our nice Butler.  I cannot remember her name.  She takes us to our suite.  I

Our room was on deck 15 on the Starboard side.  The Meraviglia YC as bar and concierge on deck 16.  You can take an elevator or spiral staircase up or down from there.  There is no deck 17.  Deck 18 is the Restaurant and then 19 is the deck, grill, hot tub, pool and smoking area just aft of the hot tub.  

Our room was very very nice.  It is very spacious.  It has those DND and Make up My Room light switches (no old school card on the door).  Ours had a bathroom on the left as you walk in.  There are closets on either side just off the bathroom entrance.  Bathroom is smallish.  Shower has a fixed glass partition only so if you splash around a lot or use the overhead rain shower or have two of your in there at once, you are going to get water on the floor.  I just put a mat and towel down and then left them on the floor of the shower for the young lady to change.. I swear she was in our cabin primping and check ing on things ten times per day.  Seriously!  The bathroom is nice but small.  Haven bathrooms will win that category as well as the closet space category, but there was plenty of storage for the two of us.  

The main room of the YC suite was large.  Larger than the basic Haven penthouse or spa cabins.  There is a king bed with night stands and plugs.  There is couch for 2.5 (three slim people) and a coffee table.  The whole other wall at the foot of the bed has a vanity, lots of drawers and a fridge.  The mini bar was included and it was restocked a couple of times a day.  Seriously... you tell them what you want and they filled it. Noticed I liked Absolute Vodka and Johnie Walker.. that's what I got.  Toward the end of the cruise i did a test by emptying the mini bar into the cabinet below the bathroom sink.  I did that three times one day and they were all replenished within two hours.   Really attentive.  There was also a Nespresso machine.  The balcony was a good size and we used it a good amount of time.  We had a nice few of the starboard flying bridge with the officers giving commends on the days we were docking or disembarking from a dock.  We docked on the starboard side in just about every port which was fun. 

The bed was a king and was comfortable.  It was quite rough on a few nights but that bothers neither of us.  It was really nice room.  They will stock your fridge with whatever you want.  They have lots of snacks like Pringles and Toblerone bars and jars of nuts that are all included.  This was funny... so most people who like a few pops on their first day of a cruise or AI resort generally wake up in the night feeling a little... parched shall we say.... OH Look!  a night light in the mini fridge... nice touch... OH... Perrrrrfect..a couple of bottles of OJ... pop that cap and take a big swig at 3:30am.... only it was not OH but some type of peace nectar or something... not gross, but not my preference and more importantly... what my eyes had told me mind to expect when it hit my very dehydrated body.  LOL  Niki laughed when I told her in the morning.  The next day I asked the lovely butler if she could make a note to never put any juice other than OJ in my fridge.  She said they did not have bottled OJ but she simply brought glasses of fresh squeezed OJ  (three or four of them in my fridge at all times).  They just needed a quick stir and good to go.  Perrrrrfect!  So Absolute and Fresh OJ was our go to cocktail in am and when getting ready before dinner and later on... a substitute for the rather lack lustre mixology on the ship but more on that later.   

So as someone that really does not care what my bathroom looks like if there is no window... I would give MSC YC the prize for the better basic suite cabin vs the Haven.  I would also give them the nod on the attentive butler side of things.  She was new and eager and she was really really nice.  She just said a (nervous) sorry all the time.  I told her she did not need to sorry and I think it clicked and she just smiled instead.  She was really great.

So we unpacked our carry on and then went up to the YC bar to get a drink and a bite to eat in the YC.  I have never been on any of the big Haven venues (Escape or Epic maybe???) but the physical space in the bar and lounge and restaurant in the YC wins hands down over the Haven on the Breakaway class.  BUT I would still prefer the the Haven Bar and Restaurant because A.  The Food was ALWAYS awesome and B. They know how to make a mixed rink.  Seriously, we are not picky eaters but the food on that MSC YC dinning room was pretty pedestrian.  It was neither bad nor stand out.  I don't think I had anything that I thought was so good that I would recommend or order a second time.  So on the dining side, because each meal other than breakfast is a multi course affair... you are investing a fair amount of time and when you are going to get average to average/good meals... it makes to think twice.

On the mixed drinks... I have to go look up some of the menus to spell out the bad and the ugly... cannot say there was anything really really good other than those amazing fresh squeezed OJ machines at the bars where you could watch the oranges being squeezed in through the plexiglass fronts.  But more on that later... I need to look up the names of those truly horrid cocktails.

Back in a bit...

Mark

Whoops!... forgot about Amsterdam!

We flew into Frankfurt overnight and then after a 90 minute layover, we caught a 3/4 EMPTY Lufthansa connector flight to Amsterdam.  Come to think of it, our flight across the pond was in Lufthansa as well.  Oh well, that is what I get for waiting four months to do this.

So we get into Amsterdam and then take the train into the city centre.  We just watched the Youtube video about how to do that and it was easy.  The trains go about every 10-15 minutes.  It was however cumbersome with two pieces of luggage because you have to navigate a few doors when entering and exiting the train... not like a subway train where the doors oven on the side of the cars and you just go in... this commuter train is like a Via or Amtrack train where you enter up steps and then go through a door.... so if you have a lot of luggage and are not the most nimble and strong, then I might suggest not using it.

We got into Amsterdam's central station and decided to take a cab from there to our hotel rather than switching lines to take us to our hotel which was located a few kilometres way at Rembrandt Square.  I think we got scammed with the price fo the cab.  I did not see a meter.  Oh well... live and learn.  

We booked the NH Schiller right on the park.  We got a room right way but holy crap it was small!  It was smaller than an inside cabin on ship.  We had a top floor with a nice window that opened with a view of the rooftops but literally with four suitcases there was no room to sit anywhere but the bed.  It was also hot as Hades up there.  They did give us a fan but it was more like staying at our cabin at the lake in July than a 4ish stay hotel.  The staff were nice.  The breakfast was included and very good with made to oder and buffet.  The coffee was help yourself from an espresso machine with cups to-go.  But for the price we paid it was a fail.  We stayed in Amsterdam for three nights before catching an early flight to Hamburg the day before our ship departed.  The desk ordered us driver.  He was early and we headed out to the the airport the next morning which was only 20 minutes.  The cost of our trip to the airport was only a few dollars more than the cab that took us to the hotel only a few KMs from the train station.  It was then that I knew we had been had.  Overall, I would not book this hotel unless it was in the winter and with a bigger room.  The room we got did not look like the pictures but if you are ok with the size and a fan in hot weather, I cannot say it would not work.  GREAT location.

For the three days we were in Amsterdam we did a lot of walking.  We did the Albert Cyup market.  It was billed as the largest outdoor market in Europe but it did not look that big to me.  It was ok.  I did not think the street food was as amazing as people on Youtube made it out to be but it was a nice walk and I did end up buying a little cast iron pad to made those little pancakes they make there (Poffertjes).  We did the Heineken tour and that was fun and worthwhile.  We did the boatamsterdam.com afternoon 90 minute cruise.  It was an open boat (was a bathroom) with comfy cushions and blanket and an open bar for something like $20 Euros.... it was go good and fun we just stayed on board and paid again and did it a second time.  We were a little hooped after the three hours.  Very fun.  We ate lots of their wonderful French Fries and most ate street and pub food.  No formal sit down dinners.  We did the WWII Resistance museum.  It was good for a history buff like me but I think Niki was just a good sport.  I would only go if you are a WWII buff, want to learn about it or if you are enriching your kids.  We drank allot of beer and sat on allot of patios.  We did some shopping.  I am amateur cooking buff and all manner of professional food preparation products is my kind of holiday shopping.  I found a few items I had not seen before and that I had been looking for for reasonable prices.  We did the Amsterdam sign and walked many of the parks but we did not do any other museums.  Neither of us are interested in most museums or art galleries.  War museums are an exception but we just never made it.  I tried a special brownie.  They told me to only eat half at first.  I felt nothing after the first or second half.  Niki laughed at me.  i would pause on the street, go silent... look reflective.. say wait..... wait... NOPE.. Nothing.  I will stick to beer.  Really liked Amsterdam and it was a perfect chill spot before the Cruise.  I found it to be a big version of Copenhagen, which I also like and recommend if you have never been.  OK... so thank you for bearing with me through all of that... now on to the cruise departure day.

I had tried to figure out where the cruise ship in Hamburg was actually going to depart from.  There are two or three locations.  Our taxi driver told us we were going to be on the other side of the river.  We left around 930 or so and it only took about 15 minutes to get there. We pull into the terminal and there was a pop up tent right a curb with with a yacht club inn on it right there to take our bags.  We pack a small stapler to put the tags on.  I cannot recall exactly what happened next but I think a staff held up a ping pong paddle with YC on it and we were told to follow her.  It just seems so silly and embarrassing.  The terminal in Hamburg is a huge open air affair with a sea of humanity.  So we follow this YC staff member to this little ripped off area right smack dab in the middle of the terminal. Basically they rope off a group of normal benches you see in a departure lounge with a square that was about 30 by 30 with a table with some snacks and sparkling wine.  It was help yourself and they were out and did not notice for the first ten minutes or so.  Then it was just confusion frankly silly.  We were there for about 30 minutes before we got to go.  We filled out some paperwork on little clip boards or something.  I felt like I was in a petting zoo.  When I was a kid I grew up in a little airforce town in rural Nova Scotia.  The ***** mall had a little fenced off carpeted area in the mall for senior citizens to sit on couches and make themselves some complementary tea and coffee.  It was a nice gesture but the only person that ever sat there was the old guy who lived in a shack down by the dumb and got the Santa job at Xmas because of his beard.  It was nicer than his place and had free coffee.  This was like that... a fish bowl.  We laughed and I proceeded to check under the table cloth to find some more bubbly, which i did can cracked it to the delight of my fellow ship mates.  It wasn't until I drained the first bottle serving my fellow passengers that the staff/butlers clued in that maybe there were some things to attend to.  It was all good.  We are laid back but I did notice that regular passengers were arriving, standing in line and boarding before us.  Finally, a new gentleman grabbed another pin pin paddle and we followed him through the metal detectors and then up to the second floor to get the boarding ramps.  It was crowed and slow but we did not have anywhere we had to be and went with the flow but it was... well...  underwhelming. 

We were lead up to the YC to and our Cabin.  So, if I was to compare embarkation in YC vs. Haven... Haven killed it. No competition.  I just mentioned the fishbowl/zoo thing to my wife... she knew exactly what I was talking about.  

OK... I need to review some pics to jog my memory.

Mark

Hello Linda and Ritchie

We sailed out of NYC on the Breakaway in an Aft Haven in March of 2017.  It was our first ever cruise and it was amazing.  So cool to be out in gloves and winter jackets for the departure, only to wake up the next morning and be fine in a shirt and shorts on the balcony the next day.  Fortunately or unfortunately doing the Haven on your first cruise is like going to a 5 star resort on your first trip to the Caribbean... it is hard to go back.  That said our regular balcony and inside cabin on the Carnival Spendor the next year was our favourite (and half the price!).  Now that I know how this bidding works, I will simply book balconies and mini's that I would be satisfied with and then bid on the Haven moving forward.  The potential savings are just too good.  

Good luck.  Man it is a cold day here just north of Barrie off Horseshoe Valley road.  Sunny but bone chilling.  I am sure it is just as cold in Wasaga.  I will cross my fingers for yah!  

Cheers from just down the road.

Mark

So our Baltic cruise was departing in the second week of September out of Hamburg.  I believe we were leaving on a Thursday.  We had parents staying at our place for the two weeks look after the kids who were in school and the dogs.  Many thanks Roger and Di!

We were up in the air for three or four months about what to do before the cruise so we did not book flights until the spring of  last year.  We really prefer as few layovers as practically possible and flight times and the availability of direct flights plays one single biggest rolls in our holiday planning.  We ended up booking Red Eye Air Canada flight our of Pearson the Saturday night before the cruise to Frankfurt and then a short layover that Sunday morning on another flight to Hamburg.  We had the points so the business class pods on this 747 was a really nice way to start the cruise.  We took taxi from the Hamburg airport into the city to our Hotel, which was the large Steignberger, which is right downtown.  Unfortunately, the Steignberger did not have a room for us until mid to late afternoon, which was a bummer as we were TIRED!!!.

The Steignberger is a large well appointed hotel.  The rooms were very large and the bed was comfortable but it was clear to me that this non-smoking room had been smoked in.  I am a "holiday" cigar smoker but cannot stand cigaret smoke.  Oh well... anyway, I would not recommend the Steignberger.  

We did not do much.  We walked around downtown and the old warehouse district and had a few beers.  If you want good, cheap, yummy, fast eats, the food stalls in front of the city hall have amazing fries and Shawarma and cold beer right on the square.  Inexpensive and really really good.  If the washer is nice, you just drink in the square.  The warehouse district is is really cool.  The old converted and renovated warehouses are really cool.  Lots and lots of fine clothing stores.  Hamburg was very clean and orderly.

Gotta take the kids to Soccer...more later.

Mark

This review is a little late, as it has been several months since we got back from our 12 day cruise of the Baltic Sea on the Meraviglia in the Yacht Club.  However, for those planning a similar cruise next year, you likely have booked or are in the process of doing so, and it is my hope that this will be of some assistance as you do your planning and fun lead up.  To sum our experience up... we did not have a bad time.  It was just "Meh"!

My reviews tend to a rather long, so this will be a string over the next few days. I will go day by day and I will also discuss what we did pre-cruise for a few days that may also assist those planning a similar itinerary.  I am also going to do a direct comparison of the YC to our prior (single) Haven experience.

We booked this cruise about 9 months in advance.  We are new to cruising and when we booked it we had only cruised on one previous occasion which was in a Haven Aft Penthouse on the NCL Breakaway out of NYC in March of 2017, which was an awesome awesome family vacation.  We came out fo that cruise saying to ourselves... why have we been limiting ourselves to All included resorts for the past 25 years!  By the time we cruised the Baltic and the Meraviglia, we had added to our experience with a seven day Mexican Riviera cruise on the Carnival Spendor out of Long Beach.  
 

My primary reason for choosing this MSC cruise at the time was Cost.  The cost of a YC suite on this Baltic itinerary was many thousands less than the other lines.  It was a new sparkly ship and that is why I booked it.  

As I sit here at my kitchen table with a foot of snow outside and -24C weather and dreaming of our next Cruise out of Miami next Sunday on the Norwegian Getaway, I told my lovely wife that I am finally doing the review.  She summed her view of our Meraviglia YC experience as this... If that had been my first cruise... I probably would have spent the next twenty years sticking with ground and air vacations and All Inclusive resorts.

More to come.

Mark

I used them in one on of the laundry rooms on the Starboard side of the Splendor in 2018.  They were clean.  I think there were three of them.  They were on a timer. There were spray bottles there as well for water/steam.  

The room I used was pretty anonymous and easy to miss.

Mark

I agree 100 with you review.  Many thanks.  Enjoyed it.

I am new to cruising (first in 2017) and have only been on Carnival , NCL and MSC and I have to say that I enjoyed the Carnival Splendor and NCL Breakaway (Haven) equally but I have to say, I loved the Carnival Fun factor... the comedy club and pool side games were really fun.  The lunch food on the Carnival is just amazing and I prefer the Carnival drink package as it includes so much more and I will likely only drink more than 15 OH drinks on a cruise maybe once or twice.  I am on NCL Getaway next week only because I could not find a Carnival ship with basketball court for my son that worked for the last minute booking.

On entertainment and food... don't even get me started on MSC.  I was in their Yacht Club in the Baltic for 12 days in the fall and it was less that idea and certainly zero "mojo fun factor"!  Both Carnival and NCL were way better even if you compared a regular cabin on those lines to the YC on MSC.

Thanks again.  Cheers. Seven sleeps.

In the Haven, i asked for stuff off the menu all the time.  They always came through. Poutine... no problem.  Steak Frites... my pleasure sir. Warm chocolate chip cookie with Vanilla ice cream on top... coming right up.  Never ate the in the main so no idea there.

We are on the 1/27 Getaway which we just brooked on January 11th.  We booked a mini suite for the four of us (kids 10 and 12). This was our first time being offered to Bid.  We stayed in a Haven Aft Balcony that we booked in 2017 on the Breakaway of of NYC.  We did not know this existed.  When I booked our mini suite it cost $4500 (Canadian) including the UBP, UDP, Shore credit and internet.

We got the bid offer the next day after booking.  The min bit on an aft haven was $1k pp.  I bid $1125 pp and upped it to $1220 this afternoon.  The Min bid on a 2 bedroom Haven was $1330 (or at least that was the min option presented to me).  I bid $1330.  So both bid were poor.    Yesterday there appeared to be one deluxe haven (small balcony), 3 aft balconies and about 14 2 bdrms left in the Haven.  This afternoon, three more courtyard penthouses appeared.  About an hour after i upped my aft balcony offer by a "smidge" that our bid on the Aft Haven offer I got the email that our minimum bid on the 2 bedroom haven was accepted.    So our total was $7,200 Canadian for the 2bdrm.  I did a mock booking at it would be $9895 to book it so $2,659.00 discount was pretty good in my book .  Our one week aft haven on the breakaway in 2017 was about $9k CAN if I recall.

I think this is kind of a unique idea.  If I was booking an off peak time in the future I would almost certainly do this again and pick a mini that we would be happy with and then bid. 

I hope that is of assistance to folks.

Cheers from Barrie.

Mark

I was on the Splendor the first week in March. I printed out my SnS account and I was basically 19-20 drinks per day on Sea Days and 10-12 on port days. That was obviously everything from cocktails, to coffee and Rock Star and Vitamin Water. I had 13 OH drinks one day. Never got to 15. I got good value.

We were on the Spendor and had Lobster on the first elegant night on March 4. The lobster were an ok size but two of the four were undercooked. The only real dish fail on our cruise. We had the fillet in both the steak house and in the mdr for $20. Both were identical and perfect medium rare.

Thank you all for following along and your kind words. I have tried to post some pics from my iPad but I just get errors. They may be too large. I will try again when I get some time.

So I told the family before we left I was going to ask them what they thought of this cruise vs the Breakaway Aft Haven Suite from March of last year out of NYC. I told them that I thought this cruise was about half the cost of the other. Was the NCL twice as good?

As I said early on they are very different room and service categories, so factor that in.

I think our Haven Suite for the four of us last year with the free drinks, specialty restaurants and internet was on sale for just shy of $10k Canadian. Our Carnival cruise with one aft extended balcony, on inside stateroom, two cheers, two bottomless bubbles, FTTF x2 and internet was about $5600 Canadian. Remember, that Haven cabin was 650 soft and both the master bath and the Balcony were bigger than our inside room! But that $10k was on sale by about $4-5k when we went.

We normally spend about $12k-15k Canadian including air for nice all in Caribbean resort for a week each winter so even adding the $1600 for air for the four of us to LAX (yes, $394.00 CDN return each!!!!), the Carnival cruise was a total bargain.

So in the cab on the way back to LAX I asked the question and basically we thought this was a great cruise and while the Haven experience certainly beat out on the room and service side, BUT IT WAS NOT TWICE AS GOOD. The lad would gladly go on two Carnival Cruises vs One Haven trip.

Look, we really don’t have a budget issue, but we wanted to compare. I enjoyed the Splendor more than the Breakaway overall for what I got and what I paid. If I could get a two room suite with FTTF priority service and Cheers, I would be choosing Carnival over NCL Haven.

The wife and I are doing an 11 Day Baltic Sea cruise out of Hamburg in Sept on the MSC Meraviglia in the Yacht Club, so we are looking forward to seeing how that compares.

In closing, Carnival given great great value. I truly believe that just about every working joe and Jane can afford to take a family of 4-5 on a week long cruise each year even if they are on a budget. That is the beauty of the product. Although through good fortune and work we can choose different (and more pricey lines) I frankly will be showing up at another Carnival entry ramp with our new “Red SnS Card” in the future.

Two thumbs Up!

Thanks for listening.

Later... Mark

Worth it and more to use. Normally on other cruise lines it is tied to very expensive rooms like NCL’S Haven or MSC Yacht Club costing thousands. We would buy it at twice the price, but as previous posters have said, it is supply and demand. Someone on a budget is going to ditch it, but there will always be others who will gladly pay a premium for the perks. Just a reality. I really felt I got value for the $ I spent. Opinions vary.

Ok back from a few days away.

So it was day 5 and we are at Los Veranos Canopy tour. I spoke to the owners about how I did not get the discount when I booked. The couple (owners) assured me it would get credited back to my card (and a it was!). We had some food and beers and went for a swim and down the plunge (20 feet) slides. We did the tequila tasting and zoo and then back in the jungle buggies back to the boat. On the way back to the cruise pier they stopped in the cove when the valley goes into the jungle and told us this was where Preditor was filmed. They toured us around Les Arces and fed the fish. Really amazing value for $75.

Back on the pier we walked to Walmart across the street. Checkout zoo. We gave up. I did not think it possible to have slower checkout lines than Wal-Mart at home. Nope. Cashiers are responsible for making sure their count is right and when dealing with thousands of cash pesos transactions, they count the money x3. Also, almost all clothing has security tags and in some cases inside the packaging, so if someone in front is buying a cart load of under garments... well you get the idea. We gave up. Kids were tired. There is a mall next door.

Note that the entrance and exits gates that cruise passengers can use are at the horn and south ends where customs officers are. If you try to use the gates in between (bus traffic) you will be redirected. The gates are about a 10 minute walk between them. There will be a marketplace set up right outside the ship with vendors and a bar.

By mid to late afternoon it was hot and it was nice to get back on board to relax. We hit the Golden Pearl that night. We did an early show and I had a nap before taking in the last adult comedy show at 11pm. It was packed and standing room only by 10:45. Very funny. Certainly R rated.

Before bed I grabbed a few Vitamin waters at the coffee shop and stopped by the SnS machine across from guest Services. You can use this machine when you first board to set up your password and you can email or print you balance and statements whenever you want. With the password it then allows you to look up your account on the TVs in your room.

The TVs in the rooms are in a sad state. They have a green or orange tint to them. There are a tone of Carnival info channels. We did not watch much TV but the kids always had it on.

Day Six - I was up early to watch the streaming coverage of the world Jr Curling as my niece was on team Canada. The rest of the day was spent aft in the adults only area. Bar service was good. We got to Walt h some humpback whales which people went Apesh$t over. Lol. We skipped the formal night and did pizza and the buffet.

Day Seven - was our last sea day. Looking at the Fun Times we saw an egg toss sign up for 11am with a 4pm event so the Lad decided to do that. We picked up the invitation (required to get the egg) at 11. Our plan was to use Layers of Fun Times around the egg and plastic bags. It worked as did 90% of the other creations people made and which were dropped from level 5 in the lobby. The lad got a Boat on a Rope. It was fun MaeQ did a good job.

We also dis the Groove for St Jude on the Lido in the afternoon. Ten bucks gets you a tshirt and bracelet and then about 10% actually bust a move.

We packed, did some ping pong. Did some jewelry shopping for the good doctor’s Bday on the 13th. Lunch was a combo of the BBQ and Tandoor. Lots of cocktails. MDR and then we watched the Lip Sync battle in the theatre followed by the 10pm adult comedy. It was really good. Packed again for 10pm show. I took in the 11pm which was less crowded. I think that was the last show of the cruise. Both were very adult oriented.

I finished the night by printing my SnS accounts and packing Xander getting ONE HOUR of sleep as I had to get up at 1pm... 9am in Scotland to watch the Gold Medal Curling Final between Canada and UNDEFEATED Sweden. What an amazing match. I went for my last Pizza Pirate at 3am at the half and then watched Canada Win gold. I watched the Canadian men win gold on my phone a few hours later.

So we got up and put the last of our stuff in our bags and grabbed breakfast. Unlike the rest of the week the buffet was a very busy spot a seven AM.

The day before departure we got FTTF letters in our box explaining departure. We had a 1:15pm flight out of LAX to Toronto. We planned to do self assist. The ship was pulling into the dock while we ate breakfast. We were told to assemble in the Black Pearl by 8am. The only issue is was dreading was our four large suitcases, carry on each plus backpacks. LOT O LUGGAGE navigating the halls, elevators and Black Pearl. It turned out to be not as bad as I thought. Not too many Diamond or Plats did it. We were off the ship by 8:15. We debated ordering a drive service or using the Carnival transport $30 each but a CC user answered my question and told me there were lots of cabs and they We right. Not 100 yards from the terminal exit on the North East side is a great taxi stand and as fate would have it, there was a minivan as the first Cab which was a must given our quantity of luggage. We were off and at LAX before nine am.

I had some problems figuring out the back of the seat credit card machine to work, but the driver gave me a hand, but not before giving himself a 25% tip punching in the numbers. Lol. Fine. The bill was $60 +$15.

Ok... pulling into Union Station so I will sum up my thoughts on the ride home later.

Cheers Mark