Inspiration Review (with pics) to Grand Cayman and Cozumel

[ohitssunshine]

Annnd we are back to the pier area.

 

 

We did some shopping- all the stores in the area carry the same type of things- lots of cheap little things. The kids love to shop here because they can get so many things.

 

We only brought enough cash off the ship for paying off Nachi Cocum and a few souveniers..(why can I not spell that right?). So we have $10 exactly left and my daughter find a bracelet she wants for $10 at the same time my son finds a necklace he wants also for $10. The employee tells us he can do $18. I explain to him, we only have $10 left, I'm sorry. I wasn't even trying to barter...I'm not good at doing that anyways. I always just pay whatever. So we start walking away and he says ok...both for $10. I was shocked. That in no way was my goal, and I thought it was great. Both kids were happy and we only spent $10 instead of $20 that we didn't have.

[ohitssunshine]

LOL @ your sister in law...Good pics.

 

 

Haha, I know. She spent the rest of the night in her room. She thought she had food poisoning. I mentioned earlier we all had the same food...lol.

[ohitssunshine]

Oops...almost to the ship.

 

 

 

Mom...really....you want me to hold my hand up like I'm holding up the ship?

 

 

 

That was fun...I want to too

 

We decided we really wanted to check out Fat Tuesday's so we left the kids in their room while my sister in law napped in hers. My kids ordered room service I believe a total of 17 times during the 5 day cruise, so they jumped at any offer to get to hang out in the room and order in. What can I say...they're easy.

 

So my husband and I and our future brother in law (?) head to Fat Tuesday's. Wow...what you hear is right. I am 99% sure that most of the people there made it only that far. It's at the end of the pier. People are wearing balloon hats, balloon bikini's (I think) and one was wearing a balloon belt with a, well, a penis coming from the belt directed to his face. I think the angle was off on that.

 

Some pics...

 

 

[ohitssunshine]

A couple more...

 

 

 

I hope she made it back...

 

 

 

 

We were trying to figure out why they gave him 2 straws...he was all alone

 

 

He has a new love for margaritas now..

 

 

So Fat Tuesday's was fun...pretty crazy. One of the ships left port so about half the place cleared out....(Of course making it easier for people to have access to the tables for dancing)

 

 

 

 

 

[ohitssunshine]

Back to the ship before we get ourselves in trouble! (Oh and got a great t-shirt from Fat Tuesday's for $16 reads on the back: 'Went on vacation, left on probation'. Cute.

 

 

 

 

 

Sneak peek into the Oasis

 

 

 

 

[mass02703]

Enjoying your pictures! We are headed to both Cozumel and Grand Cayman on our next cruise, so excited!

[ohitssunshine]

Ok...need to take a break for a little bit.

 

Really quick...we were scheduled to leave Mexico at 8pm, with everyone onboard at 7:30. About 7:35 we heard a call for one guest to call guest services. At about 7:45 we hear another call for 2 different guest to call guest services. Right after that call you see all of the lights go off at Fat Tuesday's and surrounding bars. I thought that was funny...last ship docked getting ready to leave and that's it...they are closed and headed home!

 

Well right before 8 pm we see:

 

 

Could this be...guest #1?

 

Everyone on board is yelling RUN! RUN!

 

 

And just about 5 minutes later....

 

 

 

I think this was their sign language for "Get your ass on this ship!"

 

 

[nytraveller53]

I'm sorry, that was confusing. I was just mentioning as a side note that my husband ate that much. (When he heard the 4,000 each I think he almost exploded) He was just answering one persons question. Weird that you were able to find out its 1100, I wonder why he would say it was 4,000? He didn't even really laugh about it like it was a joke, he answered it pretty matter of factly! I wonder now?

 

It was like...

 

"How many calories do you think one passenger consumes on a typical cruise"

 

He said

"Well did you all enjoy the melting cake in the dining room?"

 

Lots of people say yes... and he says

 

"Well the cake alone is at least 4,000 not including the ice cream"

 

To which everyone in the room moaned and almost threw up.

 

:eek:

:eek:OMG! To think that I ate that, with all the appetizer/bread/entree stuff, just at dinner! WOW!

Great review by the way!

[ohitssunshine]

Enjoying your pictures! We are headed to both Cozumel and Grand Cayman on our next cruise, so excited!

 

Thank you! I'm busy planning our next one too!

[ohitssunshine]

:eek:OMG! To think that I ate that, with all the appetizer/bread/entree stuff, just at dinner! WOW!

Great review by the way!

 

 

I know! No wonder my dress felt tight after dinner! :o:D

 

And thank you!

[mass02703]

When your on vacation, who cares how many calories it is? You have one week to enjoy, and the rest of the year to worry about calories! I had chocolate melting every night with my dinner.........and will do the same next time, even if that was 28,000 calories (lol, it was worth every single one of them)!

[Cruisin Christi]

When your on vacation, who cares how many calories it is? You have one week to enjoy, and the rest of the year to worry about calories! I had chocolate melting every night with my dinner.........and will do the same next time, even if that was 28,000 calories (lol, it was worth every single one of them)!

 

I concur....I am glad I don't bother counting calories.

[Snookie415]

Great review! I love seeing cruise pictures. We are going to Key West & Cozumel this August. I am shocked that the little dish of WCMC is 4000 calories!! I hope he was secretly pulling a joke!

[ohitssunshine]

When your on vacation, who cares how many calories it is? You have one week to enjoy, and the rest of the year to worry about calories! I had chocolate melting every night with my dinner.........and will do the same next time, even if that was 28,000 calories (lol, it was worth every single one of them)!

 

 

True true! We actually brought our gym clothes and had every intention of working out a couple times at least (we try to twice a week at home) but it never happened!

[ohitssunshine]

Great review! I love seeing cruise pictures. We are going to Key West & Cozumel this August. I am shocked that the little dish of WCMC is 4000 calories!! I hope he was secretly pulling a joke!

 

Thanks! And I would really love to know now where we can find out for sure!

[ohitssunshine]

The last thing we got to see before sailing away was the pilot jumping from the ship to the pilot boat....I never knew they come on board to navigate the boat close to the pier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kind of Macgyver-ish!

[ohitssunshine]

So now we were to start the much talked about, highly anticipated Sail Away party, complete with music, dancing, conga line, and mexican buffet. It was scheduled to start at 8:30 and continue until 11:30 pm. I was spent and ended up taking the kids and heading to bed. My husband and future brother in law stayed up to check out the festivities. The event was supposed to be led by the Cruise Director Stephanie.

 

According to my husband she showed up for about 5 minutes and left. She never made an announcement or anything like that. He said there was about 20 people on the lido, with a couple little toddlers dancing. He said they did do a conga line, and that was apparently led by an assistant of some sorts who was not that great. My husband's main goal was to try the mexican buffet...so it finally came and he said it was just blah. And I'm not a chef, and neither is he. We eat tacos from a kit...know what I mean?

 

So for him to not like

 

a)free

b)already made

c)heartburn inducing food

 

well that is really a crazy thing.

 

So he was pretty bummed and said that evening was a bust. They also had closed the pool and hot tubs as well as cleared the area of all loungers.

[navybaby1113]

Loving the review. We were debating on doing Nachi Cocum, but there are 4 ships in port that day, so it's probably too late for us to get a reservation.

[ohitssunshine]

Whoops, almost forgot- we did attend the Gender Showdown at 8:30.

 

It was that fun...I forgot to mention it. That pretty much sums it up.

 

Ok, moving on...

[ohitssunshine]

Day 5: SEA DAY

 

This morning the ship was rocking pretty good again, and the weather was already back to rainy and dreary. The ship was full of zombies it felt like. Between the hard partying many guests enjoyed the night before and the motion, I think everyone stayed in most of the day.

 

At 10:15 we had to hit up the towel folding. My little one is a huuuuge stuffed animal fan and just loves the towel animals. Last year we went to it but they had so many people and went so fast she was frustrated and confused. This year I went on stage with her to help so I could make sure it was fun.

 

 

The event was led by one of the entertainment crew and he had a couple of the stewards to help. The one was named Yoyo, so the main guy made jokes as often as he could regarding that. I'm sure he didn't care but he didn't look that thrilled either. And then I thought...wow this guy has to listen to this probably once a week...lame.

 

 

 

We learned how to make the dog, the elephant and the seal (much to my daughters delight!)

 

 

 

 

I love how you have to roll the towel super tight and then manage to pull the corners out....silly towel folders.

 

 

 

 

Our dogs

 

 

My daughter opted to use the last of her spending money AND part of her upcoming allowance to purchase the book showing you how to make 80some towel animals for $14.95.

 

 

By now we decided to have an early lunch and none of us were feeling too well from the rocking so we took a midday nap.

[ohitssunshine]

Loving the review. We were debating on doing Nachi Cocum, but there are 4 ships in port that day, so it's probably too late for us to get a reservation.

 

 

I would check...I was pleasantly surprised- we too had 4 ships and 2 of them were the huuuuuuuuge one Oasis and Epic. I thought great, Nachi is going to be packed! But there was really like 30 of us there, and that is probably over estimating it. My kids were the only ones in the pool most of the time and we were the only ones in the hot tub most of the time. And down by the beach we had no one right next to us. Carlos was able to keep up with everything, forgetting one time that I asked for a bottle of water and he apologized profusely and got it right away!

[ohitssunshine]

The normal view outside of our rooms:

Room service staff made a killing off our rooms this week!

 

 

At this point we were bored out of our minds. It was still cold out (to the point where people had winter coats on) and it was rainy. We wandered the ship for a bit...

 

Oh here...I did break down and take like 3 shots of the ship

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ohitssunshine]

Did I mention my husband played with the date settings on the camera so now they all have that lovely time stamp in the corner?? Grr.

 

 

 

 

 

Ok here is when I say listen kid...stand on these stairs so I don't look a fool taking pictures of...the wall.

 

 

 

My son made a few good friends this trip- I was really glad. My youngest was too shy to go to camp without her brother (last year they were together, this year split) and the oldest was too cool of course.

 

 

 

Cheap entertainment for kids...drinks with umbrellas

 

 

 

After all this excitement the kids wanted to hang out in their room so my husband and I hit up the future cruise presentation. They try to get you to sign up for the Carnival Mastercard and they try to sell you either a booking or a voucher towards a booking.

 

The mastercard seems ok from what they tell you but the points system looks like it would take some serious commitment to make worthy. I try to talk my husband into doing the $100 voucher but he thinks...that's 10 margaritas. Lol...gotta love him. So we leave without making a purchase much to my dismay, but here is when we check out the Serenity deck.

 

I had posted before- there were only a couple people out as it was yucky cold. There were a couple die harders that were in the hot tub and some laying out as well. It was nice and quiet and when we travel for our adults only cruise, I will visit it more!

[ohitssunshine]

I was really excited to see the glass figures out for sale at 3 pm...still $8 each or 2 for $12. I've never been a big glass figurine fanatic but there is something about needing to own each and every one of them that I cannot help. I now have 5 for my collection. They don't match any of my decor, so they stay on my tv stand in my room...upstairs....away from civilization. Oh, and next to my stuffed towel animals also 2 for $12 if I remember right.

 

 

Ship 411 was being held in the Avant Garde room at 4:30 and I was excited to go to hear all the insider information. We arrived at about 4 because we were so bored and there were 2 others there. By 4:30 they had staff bringing in more chairs.

 

Ship 411 was lead by the CD, and included the captain and 3 other senior officers. One was in charge of food, one hotel and another that I cannot for the life of me remember.

 

So they begin by telling us the crazy amount of food they use on a 5 day cruise, something like 70,000 eggs and all that. They then open it up to any questions we want to ask, with the exception of pay.

[navybaby1113]

I hope they have the Ship 411 on our sailing. That sounds like a lot of fun.