JennN

PRE-CRUISE CONT'D

So, as I said, I didn't paddle board (I just had toe surgery a few months ago and my balance is still off) but decided to head to the pool and wait for the girls - the weather was unusually hot - 90+ degrees but felt like it was in the 100s. However, all we had was sun, sun, sun on the front end of the trip!

We decided to venture to the beach too - it was really where the lagoon and beach met so it wasn't white sand beach but it was nice enough for a dip but then we went back to "our" saltwater pool:

We took a taxi back to OSJ for dinner and ate at Raices for Mofungo - which is the Puerto Rican national dish made with meat and plantain mashed. It was yummy!

t

After, we walked through OSJ and took a cab back but had him drop us off a couple of blocks away to pick up champagne for the cruise (my drink of choice and Carnival allows you to bring one bottle of champagne or wine a person on board). I also picked up a few fun drinks (think Capri Sun for adults - a pouch of rum punch with a straw!) for that night and water - all much cheaper than at the hotel!!!

We woke up on Sunday and had a view of the Valor in port from our balcony:

Although super excited to get there, we took our time and swam some more, had a Starbucks breakfast (coffee and oatmeal for $7, out on the verandah with that view - couldn't beat it!) and finally packed up and checked out and headed into OSJ to port around noon.

We were unsure of what time we could check in, since we didn't leave on board until 10p, but there were no real lines when we got there and getting on was a breeze. Now, while the port itself is pretty run down, I LOVE that they had alcohol and drinks on sale inside so if you wanted, you could drop your bags off and come back out to purchase it.

We headed right up to Lido, had lunch and then headed to our rooms -we decorated my MIL's for her 60th birthday (we also wore matching t-shirts to board) and I had a surprise waiting in our room for my wife...

Hi all!

It's me, Jenn again, back with another review. As in my other reviews I will note that I travel with my wife (that makes us lesbians) so if that offends you, please X out of the window right now.

Still with me? Great! Nice to meet you and thanks for taking the time to read my review. We traveled on this cruise with my mother-in-law (MIL) again so it's written from a three person perspective ;) I will start with pre-cruise and over a few days perhaps, finish up the entire 12 days.

PRE-CRUISE

My wife, MIL and I decided to tack on 2 days to the front and tail ends of the cruise to extend the vacation into legs of a trip. We're brilliant, huh?

We arrived in Puerto Rico on Friday, April 26 only minutes apart from my MIL. We stayed at the Conrad Condado. And we LOVED it. While our room wasn't quite ready, we got to visit the grounds and eat lunch and the views were breathtaking. The food was VERY expensive the entire time we stayed in PR, and the hotel was no exception. But where else could you get these kinds of views?

We were in awe. Our rooms though actually overlooked the lagoon. We booked with Priceline for about $130/night (not including the $18 or so resort fee). You never can tell with Priceline rooms - sometimes they give you a dumpy one but aside from a stale odor, our view was amazing (we also didn't get a king bed but two doubles)!

The grounds themselves are quite nice as well. They have three pools - a lap pool which is never busy, a saltwater pool which was by the bigger pool but was smaller and less crowded and then the bar pool which had an attached slide. We opted to camp out at the saltwater pool for most of our stay.

We ventured into Old San Juan for dinner with my friend and braved the long Friday night lines for a meal. Between food costs themselves and taxis, this is where much of our money went on the trip!

We woke up Saturday morning and my MIL and wife decided to try paddle boarding. My wife hated it and MIL loved it. It was a $20 fee for an hour on the boards in the lagoon. I headed to the pool after snapping some pictures.

More to come in the next post (ran out of picture options!)...

I suggest that you inform Carnival of the harassment. If it occurred during an excursion that you bought from Carnival, you certainly have a right to complain to Carnival. The more the cruise companies know about it, the less likely they will continue to include Jamaica in their itinerary.

I've let them know! I couldn't agree more.

I really wish that a) I found this thread sooner and b) it wasn't 94 pages long!!!

My wife and I (we got officially married in Maine in 2006 and legally in DC in 2011) LOVE cruising! I got her hooked in 2010 when I convinced her to try cruising (it was my first time too but I've been wanting to for years) and now we can't stop! We've been on three cruises, with two more planned for this year!

Hi everyone! :D

I posted an original review here when my wife and I went to Jamaica: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=36340299&postcount=4

But I thought I'd call attention to it here as well. My wife and I cruised Carnival in December and it wasn't until November that we heard that Jamaica is one of the most unfriendly places for GLBT couples in the Caribbean (TIME Magazine). Since we couldn't cancel, we decided at the advice of other GLBT friends that we'd leave our wedding bands in the safe onboard and play it like we were friends (people also ask if we are sisters so we would have gone with that). However, for the next 4 hours, we were asked my we weren't married, why we didn't have kids, what was wrong with us that we were so old and didn't have men, etc. I wish Carnival has vetted their excursions better. While most times, people don't mean any harm by it, these were the same 3 people leading our tour asking us. And we already felt unsafe as it was. We vowed never to go to Jamaica again.

Did anyone else have a similar experience? Are there other ports you won't visit because you, as a member of the GLBT community, don't feel safe?

We also got this notice and it's quite confusing. I wish they would say something like: anyone NOT from the US must get one.

How do they tell or keep track? By your passport?

Looking forward to the rest! We go out of PR on the Valor in April (our second time on the ship) and while my friend lives in PR and I was there in 2003 (and swam in the bio bay!), it's super helpful to read about PR and your experience. Looking forward to reading about embarkation and the rest :)

Thanks again!

I will not be selecting a ship to sail because of 2.0, in fact its absence makes it more desirable to me.

 

I've no desire to sail on "Senior Frogs of the Seas".

I didn't find this to be the case at all. The bar was never busy earlier this month when we were on the Breeze. And most times, it was populated with people 50+ when there were a few souls in there (besides me). The bar on the Lido deck? Same thing - much older crowd. This could have something to do with the fact that it was a 6+ day cruise (so I find that the average age goes up the longer the cruise).

The beer at the pub is AWESOME!

Thanks for the review! I'm loving reading all the Breeze reviews popping up at once. :D

 

Question- besides your food taking a long time to get to you, what did you think of the Punchliner Brunch? I don't think I've read anything good about it yet. It seems service is slow and the comedian only tells jokes for 10 minutes. Maybe it's because it's pretty new and they're still working the kinks out. Is it even worth attending?

 

I've read many stories about local gay men and women in Jamaica being abused, attacked, even killed. I don't blame you for being cautious. I'm glad y'all still had a good time.

 

And your foot- OUCH! :eek:

The brunch was something that, in theory, is a great idea. However, the comedian "chats" for about 5 minutes (not sure if they do this in intervals per hour or what - the first time we were there almost 90 minutes and only heard him once). I would recommend attending to form your own opinion and because the thought of a dining room breakfast at 11a is tempting in and of itself. Especially if you are a past cruiser and have to use your free drink coupon ;)

Thanks ripjerry - yes we debated not leaving at all but trusted that doing a shore excursion with Carnival would prove "more safe" than nothing else. We won't do that port ever again!

We are thankful for JH and glad it turned around. We aren't terribly picky or uppity people but enough was enough!

Great review....hope your foot is feeling better.

It is getting there. Crazy nuts and leave it to me to get rope burn and a bruised heel on my trip!

We're doing the chef's table now one whichever cruise we can. THANK YOU for the awesome review and pictures. Simply amazing!

Silver - thanks! The heel is healing...luckily I am in PT for the surgery foot so when they ice that one, they ice my heel too. The bruise is slowly fading but it did put a damper on things. Thank goodness I always pack an "Emergency" bag that contains everything you can think of: Dramamine, ibuprofen, bandages, heat patches, tiger balm, OTC sleep pills, neosporin, etc. So I was able to relieve some of the pain and since our steward kept my champagne on ice, I had that too ;)

ItalianFemmy - I will admit, we don't go to the Friends of Dorothy meetings. I wanted to this cruise but I was always somewhere else! Sadly, we never really make "friends" with anyone on the cruise. I mean, I am friendly enough and start talking and chatting others up but save one cruise (when it happened to be another gay-boy couple), we've never met people we kept in touch with on the ship or thereafter. I look forward to reading your review (and I did read yours about the Dream!).

We were SO glad to hear the anchor the next morning and were relieved to be docking! However, it took about 90 minutes post docking time (supposed to be in Nassau at 8a and we weren't allowed off the ship until almost 9:30a). The line was super long to get off the ship - I've never been one to wait on an unnecessary line but we were late getting to shore!

I will preface this part of the trip by saying we've been to the Bahamas before on our first cruise. We didn't book an excursion that time and had a horrible experience. This time? We booked the Dolphin Cay dive (deep) and that gave us access to the entire water park, pool and beach at Atlantis. I lost 30 pounds in the year prior (we had 479 days to plan after all!) and the gift was to swim with the dolphins without breaking them!

The cluster of getting our bracelets and getting in line was so disorganized. I feel like a 5 year old sometimes with this and the excursions never seem to be organized at first. This was no exception. We finally get walked to a bus and I always forget that it's such a long walk from the ship through port! We did notice that despite having an 8:30 excursion time, our swim time wasn't until 11:30. That kinda sucked because by the time the "tour" was over, we had an hour. Which isn't really enough time to do much. So we hopped in the "lazyish river" and went for a ride. It was fun but a bit dangerous. (your legs and feet slam into the walls without warning). Since we went around in 20 minutes and still had 40 left, we decided to go around again and try the water coaster.

I, of course, get hurt. Went up the conveyer belt and into the line for the water coaster, go up the belt again, down the first drop and before going up and into the tunnel, I was about to flip over so I stuck my foot out, it slammed on the metal entrance to the tunnel and I cry immediately. I get through the coaster and can't even get off because I've still got 1/2 the river to go through. I tried to ask a lifeguard for help but they didn't pay attention to me. We got to the first "outlet" area and I really thought I broke my heel. I've never had something bruise so darkly and immediately!

It was no joke! But I sucked it up and hobbled, late, to the Dolphin Cay. BEST EXPERIENCE EVER! We had so much time with Palmer, our dolphin. She was soooo sweet. The trainers were great and the only small complaint (aside from having to wear a wetsuit) is that the water is a bit, well, gross (algae and such floating). And I always feel a bit bad for the dolphins when I see things like this but it was a BLAST to do. We had a good 30 minutes with the dolphins. Palmer was our picture dolphin and after, she and the others swam with us in the "deep" water swim. One of the best moments of my life!

After meeting Palmer (we were in a group of 6 with the one dolphin), feeding her some fish, doing a dance and a kiss photo with her, she used her nose and while on a surfboard, propelled us through the water to the other side. I swear she knew my left foot was injured (just had survery in August), tried my right foot and knew that hurt, went back to the left, decided no and used the right (fresh heel injury). She found the right spot that didn't hurt and it was amazing! This was totally worth the money we spent!

We had about 2 hours before having to get back to the ship and met up with my MIL to explore the grounds (though I was in a ton of pain!). We hit the beach first because I needed to get into the Caribbean!

We spent about 45 minutes minutes at the beach, about 30 cleaning off (it was super salty!) in the shower and drying by the pool listening to an awesome DJ and then it took me, with hop-a-long ability, about 30 minutes to get to a taxi (we didn't want to wait for the free ride back). We waited 10 minutes for the taxi to fill (this annoys me) and headed back to port and I hobbled around to find my MIL souvenirs. By the time we got through customs, I was crying again and took a free van to the ship. It was awesome! Although, I didn't know if it was really free or what but at that point, I didn't care.

We got back on the ship at 4p and bid a fond farewell to a great time in the Bahamas!

We went to dinner that night, sad to be attending our last dinner on the cruise but had a great meal and time.

We packed in a mad dash to get our luggage out the door by 10:30p that evening...including the 4 bottles of rum purchased in Jamaica (which I am enjoying now!).

Sadly, they are always on time to get into port for the end of the cruise and so we woke up at 7:00 to get to breakfast only I misplaced my S&S card (despite checking for it 9,000 times). I found it in my backpack when I got home but had to go down to guest services and get a new one - which was, no pun intended, a Breeze! We also hit the deck and found a hundred towel animals on the chairs on Lido! It was so much fun!!!

We were in group 8 and my MIL in group 23 so we ate breakfast and went into the Ovation Theatre to wait. They were setting up the champagne bottle for the ship naming ceremony that day and so we waited for Mr. John Heald himself and sure enough, he appeared! It was nice to be able to thank him in person - he knew our names and seemed relieved to have the issue be resolved. I was so happy to meet him and spend a few minutes with Butch as well to thank him for his great CDing (thought I am still bitter about the Hasbro game!). We went to the Blue Iguana party one of the sea nights and had a blast dancing the night away (talk about a workout! Butch can cut a rug!!

Debarking was an easy process - we got our luggage right away and off we went back to Miami (we stayed at the Mutiny Hotel and wound up getting a refund from a certain "pay low price" hotel site because it was so bad) and then back home to DC.

On a scale of 1-10 in the review Carnival sent us to take online, we gave it an 8 overall. We missed a port and had 2 days of bad food and a damper on one of our excursions by bad staff but overall and looking at the big picture, we'd do it again. We're actually taking my MIL on a cruise for her 60th birthday in April (we will become Gold members in the new VIFP on this cruise) - back on the Valor for a busy Caribbean cruise and then in October we will take a European cruise on the new Sunshine.

Thanks for reading the review and I am happy to answer any questions you may have!

Grrrr, Just wrote all of Day #4 and CC ate it. Grrrr

Let's start over again!

On our last sea day, we got up early to use our VIFP free drink coupon and tried the Comedy brunch again. So glad we did! The food was a lot better and the free mimosa and bloody Mary helped!

Afterward, we headed up to the Serenity deck to get some rays. It was cloudy and sunny at some points and so we saw not one, but TWO rainbows! One was over the sea, the other on the other side of the ship in the sky! It was neat.

After some sun, I decided to bite the bullet and ride the yellow Twister slide. While it was a bit too fast and too dark for me, I can see the appeal. I never got on the orange one though...

For lunch, we hit the Pizza Pirate and I must say, YUMMY (and hot!). It was almost gourmet - thin crust and great toppings made for a great improvement over the pizza I ate on the Dream and Valor!

After lunch and some more sun (I needed to look tan like I've been on a cruise after all!), we took a few pics around the ship since it was our home and even for an extra sea day! The ship was decorated subtly (aside from the non-subtle tree in the lobby). No sign of a menorah though Hanukkah hadn't started. The ship was really nice overall and a great new design while still being familiar.

That night, we went to dinner and took pics after. The food was good and hot! My only other ship peeve? In 2010 on the Dream, they had electronic pics - swipe your S&S card and face recognition picked your pics and displayed them. Why the heck did they go back to printing them out again???? Anyway, the new "bonuses" card was a neat addition - a pic of the ship at 3rd pic purchased, a mug at the 6th and a pen drive at the 10th and with an additional $9.99, you get your 10 pics put on it so you've got the bigger sizes, plus pics of the ship. We did that so I leave you with a shot from it.

Awww man! You knew the answer??? I was soooo bummed because I knew it and read it all the time. Off to post Day #4. I hope you enjoyed the cruise!

Michael -I only ate on lido 3 times: the pizza (LOVED the new pizza and worth the 5 minute wait for a fresh slice), the Tandoor grill (never a line for Indian food) and then Guy's (the line moves quickly when they throw burgers at you!). I didn't find these lines to be any more or less than on any other cruise - except when we disembarked in the Bahamas (which I will get to tonight when I finish up my review). Otherwise, it was quite the norm. In fact, in the dining room, even with requesting the same wait staff, we never had to wait!

Shatima and Gambee - yay gays! LOL. I have NEVER experienced adverse reaction from Carnival in regards to being a same sex couple. We feel a bit left out when they do the Newlywed Game show as we know they'd never pick us, but we never got looks when taking pictures (by other cruisers, YES but the photography staff is great about it and even used us as an example - asking if we minded first - to train other photographers) or by stewards when we wanted the bed to be one king size, etc.

Carol - John is the best! I find him funny, and when I don't I tell him. We got to meet him (he agreed to it ahead of time) on this cruise before they did the naming. I will tell you the story later in my review!

Thanks all for reading. Will definitely finish this tonight!

I will have to do the rest tomorrow night...lots going on during this cruise!

Day #3 - Falmouth Jamaica

I am going to preface this part by reminding you that we are a gay couple. Jamaica is the #1 least gay friendly country in the Caribbean and one of the worst in the world. It's dangerous for us to be out and there, so we decided to take off our wedding bands and play "friends" while there.

We book all our excursions through Carnival for personal peace of mind and booked the Chukka Zipline and River Tubing excursion. While we had a blast, it was hard for us being asked many many questions about why we were single, why we didn't have men or babies in our lives, etc. It really put a damper on the excursion. But that aside, we made a great time of it. It was safe (equipment wise) though the river tubing was not as they allude to (we were tied together and then to a guide and the river was low so there were no rapids).

We shopped in port as well (had to collect on our "freebies!") and of course, I had a Red Stripe beer!

We had extended time in Jamaica to sort of make up for missing Grand Turk. It was a very nice port and we bought a lot of alcohol :) I am glad we went but as a gay couple, we'd not go back.

We got back on board and not only did we get seated with EXCELLENT wait staff, but our food was soooooo hot, we had to wait to eat it. And when we did? It was yummy. John single handedly turned our entire cruise around!!! My MIL went on a different excursion (one of those "drive around but we won't let you get out of the van" type tours and hated it but liked Jamaica).

Day #1, Fun Day at Sea

We woke up and joined my MIL around 10a for the Punchliner Brunch, which continued our bad food streak. The food was not only cold and horrible tasting, but it took us 1.5 hours to get through! I went down to guest services after that and lodged a "formal" complaint. Still hungry, we hit Guy's Burger Joint for what we hoped would be a decent burger but alas, our streak continued: the burgers were thrown at us - we weren't asked for a choice of burger at all. The patty fell apart and it didn't have much flavor. And of course, it was cold.

We hit the Hasbro Game Show which was fun. I was called up but got the question half wrong (The Family Circus and I said The Family Circle) but yet a cute kid said Pennsylvania for the answer of caves and got to go up (bitter, party of one)

I *will* say, we had Butch as our CD on the Dream in 2010 and didn't care for him. This trip? He was fabulous! We also hit the Fun Finds Shopping Show and while I think it was a waste of time, we did buy the $25 book and got some "free" items in port because of it.

Afterwards, we got changed and heading up to the Serenity Deck. We spent a lot of time up here and were a bit sad to see that Carnival STILL didn't get it right, building the slides right on top of adult only area kinda negates the purpose of a kids-free zone. Regardless, it's the most comfortable area with the best seats and the better service.

We mulled around up there for the rest of the day before hitting elegant night where, would you believe it? OUR FOOD WAS COLD!!!!!!!!!! I hadn't heard from anyone in customer service and we were all frustrated and annoyed and we went to bed.

Day #2 - Supposed to be Grand Turk, but wound up an extra Day at Sea

We woke up when we were docking but realized after getting ready for our snorkeling excursion that we weren't really docking but sailing away from the land. An hour later we were told by Butch the CD that they tried a number of times to attempt to dock but the winds kept us from doing so.

Disappointed to no end now, I took action. Now, I know there are some here who are not fans of John Heald, but to you I say :P My MIL was starting to get upset and not enjoying the cruise at this point because all the food was horrible and now we missed a port. There was seemingly no customer service. So I wrote on his Facebook wall and left him a note saying just that. In a matter of a few hours, I had champagne and strawberries in our room as well as my MIL's with a note from him, a response on his FB wall to us and a call from higher ups to apologize. We had eaten the Tandoor food that day and had no issues, and booked the steakhouse which was fabulous so we had no issue. But now we had service!

The steakhouse never disappoints and I had been craving a steak for some time. So yummy.

After two long says at sea, we were ready for Falmouth!

Before you being reading this review, please note that a) we are loyal Carnival customers and b) we are two women in a same-sex marriage (making us a lesbian couple). If you want to X out of the review now, feel free to do so now.

Hi! Glad you stuck around! We waited soooo long (479 days to be exact) for this cruise and convinced my mother-in-law (MIL) to join us for her first cruise. This was our third (first was on the Carnival Dream in 2010, second on the Valor in 2011).

We stayed the night before in Miami at The Hyatt Regency Coral Gables. The room was decent and decorated for Christmas. We took a taxi the next morning around 11a and went to the ship. Of course, it started raining in the three minutes before arriving.

We didn't have a FTF pass but did each bring a bottle of champagne with us per their rules (all for me!) and had no wait getting through security into the holding area. We did have to wait about 30 minutes for our zone to be called and then it took another 15 minutes before we got on the ship.

My MIL enjoyed cutting our little line to be first on board

Once on board, we headed to Red Frog Pub - after 479 days of hearing about the ship in multiple areas, we knew our first drink would be there!

My MIL loved their brew (it tastes better at the bar than the Lido Deck bar, FYI). I had the Red Frog Caribbean Tea (the blue one) and it was STRONG but yummy. The other I don't remember the taste of but we all enjoyed! Most of all, me!

Linden there was a great server as well

We set sail very, very late and I have no idea why. We took the time to explore the ship some and visit our room, which I decorated for both my wife and MIL. MIL had an inside room (I think it was 9486) and we were in an oceanfront room (2986). Despite noting a king bed, we were met with two twins that our steward, Henry, promptly fixed. He was the best steward we've ever had!

The room was nice and again - the steward was impeccable and always had my champagne on ice for me!

I will stop here to say we went to My Time Dining in the Sapphire Room and it was HORRIBLE. Not only was the food ice cold, but it wasn't even good. I talked to one of the maitre d's and was assured it would be taken care of.

We walked the ship some more and discovered all the "new" features of this one and got our MIL familiar with it.

We had a few drinks on deck and hit the hay to start the day anew!