saltwaterfixes

Hubby and I both played in a slot tournament on our recent cruise. He won first place, $500 and a seat in a tournament on a November cruise (Sunshine outta Miami, I think November 7?). I got second place and a second certificate. Do these have any value to *anyone?* I mean, could we sell them? Should we give them away? We absolutely positively CANNOT go on this cruise no matter what (daughter is graduating from Basic Military Training around that time and don't have vacation time). What do we do with them? (Guy running the tournament acted like it was a really big deal, particularly because we have 2 of them). Considering pitching them because we can't imagine the value.....are we wrong?

We just got off her on Friday. I have a review posted. Nothing new as far as I could see (except the Cheers program). She's really showing her age :(

Both times we've cruised from Charleston we took a cab to the pier and were on the ship among the first. Between 11:30 and noon with virtually no wait once we got on that damn shuttle and to the agents. Self-park people were always "behind" us and they really didn't open parking much before noon. Nightmare no matter how you look at it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

Oh look at me! I figured it out! Now I hope I can remember long enough to get up the ones I have in Photobucket and get the rest of them there.

well, it sorta worked but wasn't the pic I bargained for lol. Trying again (sober, this lovely Sunday morning, I swear....)[/img]

Test...if it works, it's DS coming in second at the hairy chest contest.

Precruise (maybe)

DS has uploaded all his pics to dropbox, so i'm trying to figure out how to get them out of there. Meanwhile, some pics might be out of order...(or might not show up at all dangit)

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.

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.

A few pictures of the USS Yorktown precruise. Yipes. Didn't work. Lemme try again.

Open to suggestions on how to post a full pic instead of thumbnail, but another shot of filling bottles pre cruise and some pics of pre stay at Home2Suites.

Gonna try to upload some photos to prove it's real.

I don't know how to do this. I've done it before but can't remember. First try....

Filling bottles pre-cruise.

The hotel has shuttle service but it's not their shuttle, they contract it out. We got a military rate for the room, ($126 I think), then got in the same taxi as their guests who bought the package for $35 one way for all 5 of us. We had a little mess with coming-back transportation (will explain later in the review) so we contacted the guy ourselves. He had a U-haul behind him for the luggage. It was maybe "Nathaniel's Taxi's" or "Nathaniel's Transportation," something like that. He was professional and on time.

First Port: Freeport. I know everyone says they hate this port but we always love going to Paradise Cove/Deadman's Reef. This time, though, the weather was sorta sketchy. It couldn't seem to decide whether it was going to rain or not and it was really windy. The driver (Roland) said it wasn't perfect snorkeling weather and that they would only charge us $20 pp to use the beach and facilities and if it got better and we wanted to snorkel, we could rent the equipment separately for the difference in price ($15pp more). He gave us a great tour on the way to the property and we tipped him generously (bear with me, there is a reason I spell that out). We were the only ones in the van. We got there and swam for a bit and when other people started snorkeling, we got some equipment and headed out. They were right, it wasn't perfect, it was realllllly shallow low tide waters and they were pretty rough in spite of being in the cove. Still, they've put in some artificial reef bars not too far from shore so we were able to see some. We definitely got a work out in the rough water even though it was shallow. There were a lot of sting rays in the ankle deep water, which was freaking the kids out. The "guides" said they were non stinging kinds. What the heck? We've googled and googled....there are no "non stinging" kinds, they just don't aggressively sting. If you step on them, then ouch. Ugh. Anyway, while we were trying to enjoy our day here, the workers essentially chased us around reminding us that if we were having a good time, they take tips. Well, we'd be having a lot better time if they would have quit asking for money! It was not at all crowded there and we had a pretty good time. The driver who took us back to the bus, Nathan, was not nearly as great as Roland. (Last year, a car swerved into our lane and Nathan U-turned the van in the middle of the road and chased the guy. He didn't remember but we didn't forget, lol). And Nathan was also going to make sure we didn't forget to tip him. In fact, he suggested amounts. (how nice. not). He told us that him and Roland shared tips but since none of us rode in the van that morning, we needed to tip him and he'd share with Roland. But we did ride in the van in the morning. And we did tip Roland. So if Nathan had been a little more demure, we would have tipped him too. But it pissed me off so I told him we weren't tipping him and why. He yelled at us until we were out of earshot. We won't go back to our favorite snorkeling spot because of him :( We were back on the ship by about 3 p.m. Even though we had eaten at the beach, we were famished and got some room service (yummy and pretty fast) and took naps, followed by our nightly meeting at the couch, dinner with the slobs and a long night with the penny slots. Went to bed pretty late, probably about 2. Way later than at home :)

First Sea Day: We slept in (and by that, I mean til like 9:30 a.m. lol). Went to sea day brunch in the main dining room. It was really awesome. We had our past cruise free drinks and had a little hiccup with that....they had a "bar" set up outside the dining room with all the garnishes and hot sauces and seasonings. Since we weren't sure which we wanted, it said on the menu that you could walk up to that bar. Well, for some reason, that bartender wasn't having any walkups lol. He insisted that we sit in the piano bar and order our drink. There was a slight communication barrier and he and the piano bar guy argued with us for a few minutes so we went to go back into the dining room. The hostess asked what was the matter and walked us back out there and help us get our drinks custom made. I have no idea what that was about.

Like I said, it was rainy for most of the morning, so I got my book and a long island iced tea and sat in that chaise that seemed to swallow me for a couple hours til the sky cleared and we went to the Lido for some lunch and some beers. Around 4 we took our daily afternoon nap and got up and dressed for dinner at around 5:30. We had late seating, so we went to the Taste Bar and had a yummy tidbit from the blue iguana. It was some kind of tortilla-y thing and some soup. Perfectly fine, but I wouldn't choose a cruise just based on that. We played the slots for awhile, then we chose a spot in front of the Forum lounge where the big leather couches are and designated it as our "meeting spot" for pre-dinner for the rest of the cruise. Great place for people watching and we didn't have to crowd the stairs and bombard the dining room the second it opened. We did however have to bombard the dining room very soon after the initial stampede as we did not have friendly table-mates. We had a race to the window seats every night hahaha, which I have no idea why, since ya obviously can't see anything out at 8:30 p.m. Our dining room server was Melchor and we asked for 2 cheese plates before dinner every night. After the second night, they were just there when we arrived. Sweet. Dining room service was among the best we've ever had. When I boarded, I vowed not to let things bother me, but 2 things in the dining room made me break my promise to myself (neither Carnival's fault). The family assigned to dinner with us had *no* table manners. That is the understatement of the decade. Watching them literally shovel food in their faces with the remnants all over their face and then watching that food rattle around in there while they chewed with their mouths open was downright revolting. The routine continued throughout each dinner as they then wiped their filthy faces with the cloth napkins which they kept crumpled up in front of them with all the food on it throughout the meal. Barf. Sorta a buzz kill. The other thing that bothered me was the next table over that brought very ill behaved kids to dinner the first two nights. They were literally standing in the windows and playing handheld video games LOUDLY while their parents happily drank and chatted. Worse, the nights that the kids didn't come, the parents came realllllly late and it held up everyone's service. In the grand scheme of things, if that was my biggest problem, I probably did ok. My fussiest kid complained that none of his meals was hot. He was right that things weren't piping hot, but the only thing I tried all cruise that was so off temperature that it was inedible was a bowl of sweet potato soup my daughter ordered that was designed to be hot but was borderline frigid instead. Everything else was fine.

I did think it was a new bizarre thing I've never noticed on a ship before that a couple bar waiters came around with after dinner shots. (You keep the glass.) What's up with that?

Entertainment. Um. Yeah. Not so much. I mean, it was a 5 day cruise on the oldest and smallest ship in the fleet. We didn't expect ropes courses and skating rinks, so we weren't really disappointed. But there really wasn't much. Same shows as our last cruise on her over 2 years ago, and I loathe trivia. I feel like there is always an obnoxious drunk group that feels the need to cheat for the ship on a stick. 22 year old DH competed in the hairy chest contest on a whim when one of the judges came and plucked him from the audience, so that was fun for us. It did rain on our first sea day, so a lot of stuff was moved (read jammed in an already crowded corner somewhere) inside and that took an element of fun from it too. We did love Dat Band. Every set we heard from their wide range was straight up phenomenal. I spent some time in one of those comfy chaises in front of the coffee shop with my book and the piano player was playing there. It set a great mood on a rainy day on a ship.

The slots were good to me. I was playing the penny machines with 45 cent bets. I never played more than $20 at a spell and at cash out, I had $300 on my account. Unfortunately, I didn't count how much I spent $10 or $20 at a time, so I have no idea whether I won lol. But, my cash out was nice on the last night. The casino never seemed busy. I only saw the craps table open twice and there was never much of a crowd at the roulette wheels. I never had to wait for a slot machine and often had my choice, including my first choices most days (my 2 big payouts, one for $165 and one for $95 were on the diamond one 2 seats from the window along the wall and whatever was the 5th machine from the window on the same side). yeah, it was smoky but not as bad as some other ships I've been on.

Pete was the cruise director. I never care about the CD anyway, but he wasn't particularly annoying like some of them can be. There was almost always a huge line at guest services. No idea why. Both comedians were crass and not particularly funny. DH pointed out that it is probably hard to find something universally funny to 2000 cruise passengers. Both were middle-aged black men and thankfully, they didn't make race a joke...that always makes me wildly uncomfortable, but they did use a lot of sex as fodder and that makes me uncomfortable when I'm with my adult kids, lol, but oh well.

We bought one picture. One. from embarkation. We didn't even let them take others knowing it would be too tempting. The only kid eligible for a "club" was DH who is 18 but still in high school. She wasn't interested, so she never even went in.

We watched the talent show, whatever they call it. It was also just ok. Just five singing acts. Why, though, every single cruise, every single ship I'm on, does some couple with a guitar, dressed in matching outfits, have to sing their one stupid church hymn/song? Even as a Christian, I'm just not at sea to be preached at. It's offensive to some degree and just annoying at another. I don't know why they let them do it. Anyway, I digress. One teenage boy totally belted "All of Me," or "All of You," whichever it's called. He was remarkable. I would have listened to him all night.

We went to tea time both days. I love that little-known gem in the middle of my sea days.

I have to work today (boo, back to real life) but will try to add to this throughout the day, depending on the work flow. Breaks my heart that someone is sleeping in *my* coffin bed right now with my murderous pillows....

Food: The food on this cruise was waaaaaayyyyy better than our last Fantasy cruise. Everything just seemed "fresher," and to have more taste. Sometimes dining room service was better than others, but we felt like our waiter didn't have a lot of support from his assistants and he tried (mostly doing a really great job of succeeding at) to do it all himself. The best food we had this week, believe it or not, was the beef short ribs. This is absolutely not something I would normally eat at home and when I'm on a cruise, I like to get things I normally can't have at home (for example, no one in the family eats fish but me and I love anything Parmasean but hate cooking it, so I usually try to order those things when I'm not at home), but for some reason I tried those short ribs and fell madly in love. I also loved the spring rolls (again, something I usually wouldn't order, would save for the chinese takeout) but ended up getting them twice. Loved the mozzarella on ciabatta at the deli and loved the steak and eggs at brunch. Did not love any of the soups (all were bland) and the chicken wrap we got one night from room service was pretty delightful, even if the potato chips on the plate might have been from 232354 cruises ago...yucky and soggy). Did not love the bacon mac and cheese (also bland) and the beloved chocolate melting cake was better some nights than others. I guess I should have specified I like it runnier. Had to leave dinner on the last night for a show (will explain soon) and missed my Grand Marnier souffle, another favorite, but it was about priorities. Salad bar was yummy all the time. Getting a burger or chicken tenders at any time of day was just more trouble than it was worth. Didn't eat pizza this time but the kids tore it up so it couldn't have been too bad. Taste Bar was a nice addition, I guess, but I miss the sushi. Everyone at the table who had the lamb loved loved loved that too.

I absolutely hated our rooms. We always sail with interiors because we aren't in there enough to justify the expense for anything else. We've been upgraded to an oceanview one time at no charge, and while we loved some things about it, we really can't spend the $$$ for anything but the cheapest room we can get. My biggest beef with these rooms was the layout. I will try to post pics that I took expressly for showing why these rooms sucked so bad. The beds were literally in the middle of the floor with the vanity beside the king. There was no other way to configure it, and it meant that I slept against the wall in what felt like a coffin and DH had no headboard above his head. Closet space was fine. Bathroom was fine. Basket in the bathroom had more goodies than we expected, including some bonine samples, which we needed as we danced around Bertha.

We've been joking that my pillow was trying to murder me. Every night, as soon as I laid on it, my throat would literally seem to close. And because I was in the "coffin," there was nowhere to keep a glass of water. (Sleeping in the non-headboard position wasn't an option, because I psychologically felt like was going to fall off the top of the bed, lol). So I'd hack and choke and cough til I fell asleep and then wake up with a feeling like I was coming down with something. It subsided throughout the day. Today (last day), it occured to me they might be foam pillows. I am allergic to latex. So. Maybe they really were trying to murder me. The sheets had stains on them, they were downright yucky, and I asked to have them changed every day and new yucky ones with different stains would be on the bed the next night. Our steward was Ivan. He was ok, maybe even a little creepy in overusing our names, but he just never went above. We asked for ice on the first day, we got it on the 3rd (after which he did keep it full). He gave us grief about putting the beds together (cause remember, we lied about who was sleeping where to scam the drink package). And at the end, I felt like he was one step away from putting his hand out for extra gratuity. I've never had a steward I was particularly endeared to, so I'm not sure if I have unreasonable expectations or if I just felt like Ivan did plenty, he just didn't go above.