Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Runnin' on Island time- a late 08/11/10 Miracle Review

pickeringprincess

By pickeringprincess,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

Recommended Posts

pickeringprincess

pickeringprincess

Posted
Posted

Hello hello!

 

My name is Stephanie, I'm a 21 year old student from Canada, and recently my family and boyfriend went on a cruise to the Bahamas leaving from New York. This was our 7th cruise, and 2nd with Carnival (and 1st cruise for DBF). This will be my first review (I have lurked for a looooong time lol), so take it easy on me lol and enjoy! ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
lovecruzing

lovecruzing

Posted
Posted
Hello hello!

 

My name is Stephanie, I'm a 21 year old student from Canada, and recently my family and boyfriend went on a cruise to the Bahamas leaving from New York. This was our 7th cruise, and 2nd with Carnival (and 1st cruise for DBF). This will be my first review (I have lurked for a looooong time lol), so take it easy on me lol and enjoy! ;)

 

 

Anxiously waiting pickeringprincess.

 

Bevie

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pickeringprincess

pickeringprincess

Posted
  • Author
Posted

To save Money, we decided to drive to New York. DD (54), DM (52), DBF (21), and I all have our license (DLB- dear little brother, 19, does not). Splitting between four people driving is always a good idea when you're going to be driving 9 hours in "perfect traffic conditions" :p Is there such a thing? :confused:

 

So this was our route:

 

7

 

Google Maps lied. It was nowhere near 9 hours lol! I don't remember the name of the specific highway, but it was down to one lane each way for construction. Also, trying to drive to Times Square? Foggedabboutit! By the time we settled in to our rooms it was 9:45 pm, and we had left (Tim Hortons lol) at 10:30am.

 

We stayed at the Staybridge Suites in Times Square, and I have nothing but absolutely nice things to say about it.The locations is great. It's a really close walking distance to anything we wanted to do. There are about 3 or 4 other hotels beside it (next door is the Marriott I think?), so although the end of the street is a little bit shady (port authority terminal, XXX stores and liquor stores (not a bad thing ;) ) it makes you feel a little bit better. Front desk and staff made everything a breeze. This was definitely the smoothest (and cheapest- we paid everything with priority points, rooms start at 350$ a night I think?) part of our trip. Sunny and Jamie the doormen are amazing (more on that later).

 

We arrived on a Monday, and were staying Monday-Tuesday, so the hotel also has this wonderful thing called "happy hour" from 5-8 Monday through Wednesday. Essentially, finger foods, beer, and wine are all-you-can-consume-for-free. This made me, DBF and DLB very happy campers (hot wings and beer is pretty much our typical friday night, and now it's free? amazing). It is a very new hotel, so everything was very clean, the atmosphere was great, and the place was beautifully decorated- and really not as small as I imagined knowing that it was a Times Square hotel.

 

This was our room:

7

 

Even though it isn't all that tiny- let me warn you, the shower is lol. DBF and I went out for Pizza (there's a place next door) and on the way back he stepped in something icky. We decided to take a shower together to save time and get to sleep early (big events tomorrow!) and it's impossible. Literally impossible. We laughed the entire time because one of us had to duck quickly whenever the other had their arms out. I may or may have not decked him by accident ;) lol

 

So after said learning experience, we hopped into bed to rest ourselves for the ginormous event of smuggling that was about to occur tomorrow!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pickeringprincess

pickeringprincess

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Big Plans for Today!

 

1) Over to NJ to See Carlo's Bakery from Cake Boss

2) Top of The Rock

3) Museum of Natural History

4) Buy our alcohol and start a-pourin' into the rum runners

5) Promises, Promises!

 

I woke up at 6am (not typical for a 21 year old, just throwing it out there lol!) with my mom to go to Carlo's bakery. The boys didn't want to go at all, so they just slept in (we probably shouldn't have brought them back treats, but we're nice :p)

 

It opens at 7 am, and we got there at 7:45am on a Tuesday morning. Let me tell you the line was still down the block. I can't imagine going on like a Saturday afternoon *shudders*. They only let about 60 people in the store at a time, and it is a really, really small store. You are elbow to elbow with everyone in there, and actually getting to look into the dessert windows is an act of pure gymnastics lol :cool:

 

So here are a couple pictures from there:

 

2ps1vrc.jpg

The sign!

 

28hhb3s.jpg

Some delicious goodies!

 

35iugt3.jpg

Mauro from the show.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pickeringprincess

pickeringprincess

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Next up is Top of the Rock (the Rockefeller Centre)

 

I'm a trip advisor nerd and I'd read many times that the view was just as good as the Empire State building if not better, and way cheaper. So we went there. it was 12$ each for us to go up (we went around noon). It was so pretty!

 

24qtj5u.jpg

Empire State Building

 

344oy87.jpg

DBF and I. I swear I'm not scowling, it's just really bright outside lol. (On a seperate note, because it was really bright outside and I have a plain point and shoot digital camera- how do I make that grey "glow" go away?)

 

2emmoeu.jpg

DM and I

 

2yy81h4.jpg

View of Central Park from TOTR. So pretty!

 

2qjabzo.jpg

Solar panels lol. DBF is studying to be an Electrician (final year as an apprentice) and got really excited about the amount of solar panels in NYC. Also, you can see our hotel from here (directly in between the Westin "W" and the solar panel in the picture).

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pickeringprincess

pickeringprincess

Posted
  • Author
Posted

After TOTR we walked through Central Park (40 minute walk from there to the Museum) to The Museum of Natural History. DBF and Myself absolutely love animals, so because we only had a couple hours (and I had been there before and seen a lot already and he hadn't), we went to all the animal related wings of the museum.

 

4q5s44.jpg

I really feel like that guy sometimes lol :cool:

 

 

2j4au09.jpg

Lions!

 

2m841uo.jpg

Their horns can grow to over 6 feet long. 6 feet! That would be like DBF (6'1) and I (5'11) standing on top of their heads! :eek:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gapearl

gapearl

Posted
Posted
We decided to take a shower together to save time....

 

So after said learning experience, we hopped into bed to rest ourselves for the ginormous event of smuggling that was about to occur tomorrow!

 

To save time. Suuuuuuure. ;) :D :p

 

I'm looking forward to reading more and hearing about this big smuggling event. Maybe I'll learn something. I love your pictures of NYC. I've been to the American Museum of Natural History. Isn't it a great place? It's so big and I don't think I even saw half.

 

Keep it coming!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pickeringprincess

pickeringprincess

Posted
  • Author
Posted

After we finished walking for about two hours at the Museum, we walked the lovely hour back to our hotel. I throroughly enjoy walks. DBF does not. DBF did however cheer right back up when it happened to be 5pm and there was free beer waiting for him lol. We also had some great street meat along the way and the wonderful company of NYC's nosiest pigeons.

 

ve59gi.jpg

 

There was a liquor store a couple stores down from the hotel, so we stocked up for the first part of our cruise. Liquor is definitely cheaper in the States than Canada, but not by a ton. DBF was very curious as to what we were going to do with it all lol. I have lurked around this board for a while, so I got some great smuggling ideas :cool:

 

We bought the Rum Runner's smugglers revenge kit and a friend as a gag birthday gift bought us the "wine rack" lol!! so we set up shop in our hotel and filled them all with deliciousness. The package contained four 32oz (.946 liter) Travelers, two 16oz (.473 liter) and two 8oz (.237 liter). These things are awesome. Not a leak, not a problem- tested them out in the bath tub and they do definitely float lol. We'll get back to them later though! ;)

 

After we finished "rallying the troops" we got dressed up all nice, had our free liquid dinner (and snacks! lol) and walked to Promises, Promises on Broadway. I absolutely adore Kristin Chenoweth, and am a very big theatre buff so this was so wonderful for me. DBF was also getting used to NYC and happily dragged me across the street in traffic like a real New Yorker many a time :p

 

nownxi.jpg

 

The show was really well done. I had heard that they changed around the musical numbers to add in "a house is not a home" for KC after the amazing performance she did on Glee (I am a huge Gleek, this is another story entirely lol). I was also extremely impressed with Sean Hayes. I never watched Will and Grace before, but I think I will definitely be catching some re-runs! The show stealer though is definitely Marge. Hilarious. You really need to see it. Even my doesn't-like-stuff-if-it's-not-cars-or-sports DBF loved it.

 

Here is KC singing A house is not a home for reference as to what I'm talking about:

 

 

 

After that we stopped by a nice bar and grill on 7th called Lattitudes for beer and a snack. I'm not a foodie by any means, and this was pretty much just bar food, but I had some buffalo chicken sliders that made me want to be a better person lol. Also, Jolly rancher martini? Best idea ever! Definitely a great end to our little stop over in NYC. We will definitely be back!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pickeringprincess

pickeringprincess

Posted
  • Author
Posted

gapearl, you might have caught me on that one lol! :rolleyes:

 

So after waking up and eating breakfast, we went back upstairs to take our rum runners out of the fridge and put them into our suitcases. we filled all of them, so we had to get creative. The small ones I rolled in with socks, put in DBF's shoes etc. The medium ones we hid in Cargo shorts pockets and in my toiletries bags. The large ones however lol, we hid in our decorations. I had bought a large bag of fake rose petals for after a romantic night on the balcony, and a canadian door banner to put across our door. Both bags had enough room to fit both their intended objects and our alcohol, and even if you took a pretty good look, they were impeccably hidden lol :cool: Also, being the free spirit that I am, I decided to give the wine rack a go lol. I definitely didn't need the extra boobage, but I knew for sure if anything was going to make it over it would be the boob-alcohol :p

 

Embarkation was the absolute FASTEST it's ever been. It literally took 15 minutes, and it wasn't like we were one of the first couple of people boarding, either. The only thing out of the ordinary was the couple behind us lol. The entire time in line it was "MARY!" this or "MARY!" that. It was a couple in their 50's with thick New York accents and they yelled at eachother the entire time and provided quite the entertainment. They were made for eachother lol. He had forgotten to print off the pass and it was an absolute barrage of insults afterwards. After someone from carnival tried to rectify the situation, they tried to cut the line and some smartass stranger yelled "Jesus, MARY, Joseph, you had better not be thinking of cutting this line". It made quite the first impression for DBF's first embarkation :p

 

Also he learned that me and my alcohol boobs are sneaky and resourceful lol. They made it over with out a hitch. I'm pretty much always "selected" for a random search, but not even that this time!

 

We boarded, and the first thing we did was go to the excursions desk to book the behind the scenes tour. After that we went up to our stateroom and dropped off our bags. We met our stateroom attendant and he was really lovely.

 

I warned DBF about chair hogs at this time, and he thought I was joking. All we had to do was go get a couple plates of food and try to find a seat outside and he knew it was the honest truth. The chair hogs were out in ABSOLUTE FULL FORCE for the entirety of our vacation. Wouldn't let that ruin our vacation though, so we went to the bar to get the DOD to make it better :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pickeringprincess

pickeringprincess

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I'm going to focus more on pictures and anecdotes at this point, but I will definitely lay out the major details of what happened when and more of the on the ship life stuff in later posts.

 

So our first land stop was Grand Turk. DBF wanted to go Dune Buggying, so I caved and let him take the wheel lol. He owns two cars, one an every day car and the other an old classic muscle car that he loves to work on, so I was about 80% sure he wouldn't crash us :p Our tour was at 11, so we got up a little earlier and played at the beach for a while. DBF had never been to the ocean before, so it was a really nice experience for him, minus the salt water up the nose :eek:

 

25p4p4k.jpg

 

2dl0u9u.jpg

 

2hgv60p.jpg

 

116kxew.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...