scuba_ninja

Sorry again friends for taking a break for a few days. Like I explained before... work is.... not nice right now.

Here's a good example from just this morning!

Caller: I need my pay stubs and W2

me: Ok, give me your name and info

::checks system::

me: I'm sorry, I can't find you in the system

caller: I HATE YOU AND THIS STUPID COMPANY (insert 3 full minutes of expletive filled rant here)

Me: I'm very sorry, and you are sure you work at (insert company name here)

caller: NO, YOU IDIOT, I WORK FOR (other company)

Me: Well, I really can't help you then, you've called the wrong company

caller: But you work with computer, I know you can just find out my info

me: uhhhhh..... no

Anyway, yeah, you get the idea.

Moving along.

Sea Day Part Deux was actually a lovely day. I really enjoyed being able to do... nothing

Other than maybe enjoy a sunet.

Or take pictures of the "pianno" bar.

If the sun it setting, it must be time to eat again, right?

I thought about Sushi, but the MDR food was so good, I decided we'd stick with it.

Those duck wontons do look delicious. The lobster is always good and I may sometimes order the 3rd after getting 2 with my initial order if they are super good

I would have ordered 15 of the duck wontons. Seriously. They were far better than they had any right to be.

I was really surprised how good the lobster was. I always expect a little overcooked-ness, but nope, not here.

Agree with you on Roatan! We loved it. We just rented snorkel gear on the beach and just enjoyed the scenery before grabbing a few drinks and picking up a few souvenirs but of all 3 ports we loved Roatan the most.

 

Enjoyed your review! We are hopping on the Dream in less than a month. WOO HOO!

Glad you are enjoying the review. Almost as much as Roatan, right? :p

really enjoying your review - thanks!

Thanks for taking the time to read it!

While I live in Virginia, I live at the state line (literally less than 15 minutes) so I spend most of my time in North Carolina. You know what they say about Carolina bbq. It's hard for me not to compare other bbq to ours.

Funny, I'm a fan of the Carolina style of making the meat (vinegar mops), but not as big a fan of the carolina sauces usually, Heretic, I know! Ain't nothin' wrong with Carolina style though.

I am positive that the BBQ is something we will skip when we are on the Dream in a few weeks. We live in Texas so I am sure we would not like it at all.

Yeah, head to the tandoor instead. Way more flavor. Texas sure knows its 'que.

OK, I'm going to show you the plate I ordered. And after that, let me please warn the ummm, sensitive amongst you that I'm about to get medieval on this "bbq". I ordered a sausage, some beef, pork, slaw and collards.

OK. Let's talk. I know I'm going to make a lot of you mad, but here goes.

THIS IS NOT BBQ. THIS IS NOT GOOD. THIS WAS THE WORST MEAL I HAD ON THE SHIP. I Carried it up to my wife who was happily eating a burger. I took a few bites and went and ordered a burger. I'm not kidding, it was that bad. When I walked up to the BBQ and saw tons of plates strewn about on the tables, abandoned but still piled high with food, I should have known.

OK, haven't punched a hole in the screen yet and called me names? Let's discuss in detail.

1) The sausage was weirdly sweet, and very clearly made with cheap fillers and ground turkey. 100% positive about this. I'm a verified supertaster with a practiced palate. Ground turkey is one of my LEAST favorite flavors, I can pick it out with ease.

2) The beef was dry, flavorless and had no bark or even fake smoke ring (in competition, smoke ring is no longer judged because it's easy to fake with chemicals).

3) Pork was dry and flavorless.

4) Potato salad was.... bland. It was just there.

5) Collards were inedible. Horrendously undercooked and had zero flavor other than bitter.

6) The meat isn't smoked. Period. It's cooked in a sauce full of liquid smoke.

::sound of record player scratching to a halt:: #6 alone deserves some more explanation. See, liquid smoke itself is not the WORST sin in the book when it comes to large scale food production, but it IS when you are calling it BBQ. I can almost sort of excuse it when you're making beef jerky, or even a sauce of some kind. Some liquid smoke brands actually DO distill and filter smoke. It's a neat process actually, and it's made from, well, real wood smoke. No matter where it comes from, liquid smoke has a very distinct flavor and odor profile and it's all over this meat. It permeates it. Some people don't mind it, I can't stand it. LEGALLY, you can use the wording Carnival does to call their food "smoked". It's not smoked. I know, I know, "BUT LOOK AT THE SMOKERS BEHIND THE COUNTER". Yeah, guess what, THEY ARE NOT BEING USED FOR SMOKING!!!!!!!! Look, to actually smoke a brisket of the sizes they were slicing it would take almost 20 hours. I passed those smokers many, many times, hoping to catch them on. Nope. Never. What they do is a trick used by many cheap restaurants like Applebees. They fire up the smoker maybe an hour before service and finish the meat in there at high temps. Cheap trick, makes for lousy BBQ. Also, yes, DO look at the smokers. Look inside them. Notice how little buildup is on them. Sorry, Carnival's not doing a better job cleaning those than anything else on the ship.

7) I'm willing to accept that differences in suppliers, staff, etc might mean that the BBQ is better on some ship/sailings.

8) It's just not good. End of story. I've had better BBQ at Applebees. It's not tender, or smokey. Or even a good cut of meat.

9) Even knowing that the outdoor smokers were not on long enough, I WAS excited to try it, hoping that maybe they had some indoor ones in the galley. Nope.

10) The sauces that were availible were not terrible, but nothing to write home about.

OK, I know I've gotten under the skin for some of ya, I'm ready for battle!

OK, less words, more pics for now. Here's a few shots that show the BBQ spot from different angles.

With crowds like this inside

And like this outside

It was time to grab my book and head to the serenity lounge.

Turns out we got our goodbye heart towel animal(?) early that day. Awwwwww.

After a little bit of serene relaxing (see what I did there) and not so serene (There was an 80+ year old woman sunning herself and walking around in a thing bikini) I realized "OH SHOOT! BBQ!!" It was 2pm and I only had 30 minutes to score some. Now, I love BBQ. Like... really really love bbq. I'd do terrible things for good BBQ. And I know good BBQ. As I mentioned many pages ago, I actually have a small food based side gig, and it centers around BBQ and smoking. So I actually do know what i'm talking about.

Giddy like a schoolgirl I ran down to the BBQ "pit" outside the casino. It's a weird spot for it, but hey, whatever. I guess thet figure the casino smoke can help flavor the BBQ. Also, right by the BBQ is the ship's plaque.

Very interesting review! We were on the ship a few weeks before you, funny how different it is week to week

I decided it was time to try the breakfast burritos. I was tempted to eat this bowl of peppers (I'm a bit if a spice addict), but after watching the line, I decided there were way too many fingers in that bowl messing with the peppers. For their sakes I hope they washed before touching their eyes or using the bathroom.

I'm happy to report that even on the last day the breakfast burrito was much better than expected.

The Areppa was a little sweet for my taste, but the cheese was nicely melted through. My wide also had a burrito and enjoyed it.

Since I really didn't spend much time in the buffet (never actually ate more than a mouthful of prosciutto there even) I figured I'd wander through after breakfast and take some pics for you guys

The omlet line was already longer than I would have ever stood in willingly.

I will say that to Carnival's credit, most of the fruit on board was excellent all week long. Especially the fruit in the fruit plates for dessert in the MDR.

Sadly, The bananas though were pretty much ready for a funeral by the end of the week.

OK, so here's the part where we start crying. Last sea day!!! :loudcry::loudcry:

Last sea day was actually a lot of fun for us. We did out best to see everything we might have missed on the ship, and we did in fact miss areas I'm sure. I know there is at least an arcade area we never went into.

I also wanted to try and find things to take pics of thave I had not seen posted previously. Stuff even like the view from the most forward (spa) elevator, looking up.

Or the juice machine at breakfast, mostly to show that every square inch of the ship is decorated. Even the tiles at the drink station.

Also, this is Claudia. I think she fancied me. Don't tell my wife. Don't worry about the man with her, that's just her brother Antonio. At least, she calimed it was her brother.

Just a little tip going forward. You could have gone to your room as soon as you embarked. The fire doors are meant to keep people out but with FTTF you're allowed to open them and go to your room. Your room is ready as soon as you get on the ship. :)

Thank you, I had heard about that, but we were so hungry, we decided food was more important than putting our carry on bags down. Thankfully we didn't have any roll aboards to carry on, just 2 backpacks.

Great review and photos. Thanks for doing it.

Thanks!

I feel your pain! I used to work in the payroll tax department of a large corporation and I'll never forget January and mailing out tax forms (annual reconciliations) for the state and local taxes we withheld and most were due on 1/31. We still had the regular payments of the withholding taxes to state/local and on top of that, we were the "tax" customer service to the company. There was a queue line but all of our phones were constantly lit up and busy. Mostly people asking "Where's my W2" at the beginning of January, even though we had till 1/31. Then you had those who noticed that taxes were withheld and paid to the incorrect state, resulting in the need for a W2 correction...even though reminders were constantly sent out for employees to check their paycheck stubs to insure that the withholding taxes were correct and being paid to the correct state. We worked EVERY day in January except for MLK Jr's. Birthday since they were already paying overtime and didn't want to pay double time on top of all of that. I'm a homemaker now as the company decided to outsource the whole payroll department and I certainly don't miss those days. So I can definitely relate and totally understand if this gets in the way of your review.

 

I also have to tell you I am really enjoying your review and your beautiful pictures. We haven't cruised in over 2 years now and I'm going through the "cruise withdrawals", so I get my cruise fix through reviews. I'm also looking forward to reading about (and hopefully seeing pics) of your post cruise stay in New Orleans. We were there for a week in 1996 (LOVED IT) and will be returning to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of our good friends and really looking forward to it. Thank you for taking the time to do a review, as I know these things take time, and congratulations to your and your wife on your belated honeymoon!!!

Thanks for the words of encouragement! Tax time is a nightmare. There just has to be a better way to do this, top to bottom. It's amazing how people fly into fits of rage when they find out that their W2 is going to be mailed to an old address. and they just moved yesterday. And never told us we were moving. You get it, it's just... broken.

The good news is our company is too cheap for ANY over time! Yay! And we actually don't get any "minor" holidays off. New Years Day, Christmas, Labor Day, Memorial Day, July 4. That's it. And if any fall on a weekend, well, guess we have less days off this year. Such is life. Our industry is healthcare related, so I should just be happy we're not 24 hours yet. I worked in a hospital for a while, that was pretty terrible.

Don't worry, NOLA pics comin' soon!

Nice reviews and pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks! Don't worry, we have one sea day and some NOLA days comin' up!

oh the couch, good times :lol:

 

yeah a repeat cruise would be cool. you could sort of expound from where you left off, try some different things you ma have wanted to do that you dodn't have time for or didn't know about, while still (probably) enjoying a similar experience as the last.

That's kind of what I'm thinking. Maybe next time we'll do some Mayan Ruins in Mexico, dive in Belize, etc.

Also, Then we get to hold sloths again. Yay! Sloths!

Really enjoying your review. I totally understand about the pools.

Thanks!!!! Pro tip - if a pool smells like chlorine, don't go in! It's not actually the chlorine you smell. It's the chemical that's produced when chlorine mixes with pee.

Dinner that night was fine.

The crab cake was decent.

I was starting to feel the effects of gorging myself all trip, so I didn't order any meat that night. I had the pasta. I was pleasantly surprised how good it was, but it didn't look good. It looked... sad, But the flavor and texture were actually great. Lots of mushroom flavor. I think the sauce sat out a little too long in terms of visual appeal, but it did taste good.

Amaretto cake was a little dry.

And one last one of that show, cause, why not.

Oooo, here's a video, let's see if this works on here:

Spa prices are high enough to negate any relaxing aspects of your massage.

Y'all love your fun times, so here's one for the 29th.

We also saw the Rock and Roll show that day. That's very much my kind of music and I enjoyed the show. The singers are very talented. The dancers.... well, maybe they were tired after a long week. If you got to the show early enough you get a cool bandana

We went back to the room after brunch and we already had our towel animal for the day.

Also, sea days are great for doing absolutely nothing and taking pics of clouds.

People on here like to ask about cabin decorations. This is about as festive as it got.

We got a special letter from the art sale!

So, if you're thinking of buying art on a ship. Don't. A lot of it is fake, and guess what, YOU ACTUALLY HAVE NO RECOURSE!!!! Despite any pledges to the contrary, you're in international waters, buying from a company in Italy. Good luck with that. Also, even the real stuff is actually usually seconds and/or damaged. If you REALLY want something, check it and the frame over VERY carefully. Also, realize you're likely paying considerably more for it than you would on land. Don't believe me, do a quick google search.

My wife's mac and cheese and chicken was tasty, but not quite hot enough when she got it, you can see the sauce starting to seperate a little. I'm sure a lot of food sits out before it can be delivered.

Steak and eggs though were pretty good.

Desert didn't disappoint though.

Also, apparently there are some meeting rooms on the first floor of the crimson dining room?

I don't really do drugs, so I can't say I understood all of the art on the ship. There were in the aft staircase I think. I wish I had been a little less lazy and gone to more floors, I'm sure there were even "better" ones.

I'm glad cloud cat had butterflies for lunch, but I was more in the mood for a seaday brunch

The dining room was pretty busy. Note, if you're in any kind of hurry, skip brunch. Service is slower than slow. All 3 times we went. OK, sorry, it's leisurely. For a sloth. A sleeping sloth. A drugged sleeping sloth.