LOS - TA - April 2-16, 2011 MIA-BCN - TRIP REPORT

[foxesden1]

whoops, DH just told me its going to take a day to transfer over the photos, seems there are over 3000 in total. :rolleyes:

 

I also am about to start on a dragon cake this week, so this might be it till next weekend.

 

I will upload more as soon as they are ready!

 

Have a great week and thanks for hanging in this far!

 

Taylor

[patannel]

I have been reading your posts for the past hour............. then they stopped ! I want more !

 

Did my first RCCL cruise in January on the Voyager. Loved it. But I now realize how much I missed. I am dying to go again and do the things you did. Think I would love a TA and enjoy the ship. Did you have any rough weather?

 

Thanks so much for your review and tons of pictures. Love it.

[foxesden1]

a few nights, nothing bad. I think we took sea sick pills maybe three times, and we were aft? :D

 

David says 1000 images have gone over to the NAZ, so only 2000 to go!

 

Glad you liked it, sorry it took 30min and its not even at the half way point! :eek:

[foxesden1]

Well the good news is the pix are up on the NAZ the bad news is my DH removed all the dates..

 

So at this point, this is going to be a two week overview, with no date order what ever.. or as best as I can..

 

Thanks for the understanding.. :rolleyes:

 

Taylor

[foxesden1]

Highlights of the CC Cabin Crawl..

 

 

Flowers living, past day 6... not mine, in a friends stateroom. :rolleyes:

 

Yes, get over it Taylor already.. :D LOL

 

 

 

 

Gold Towels, Gold Sea Pass?

[foxesden1]

 

 

 

Concierge Lounge

 

 

 

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daily menus, games, dvd's.

 

[foxesden1]

Lunch after the Cabin Crawl! We took over a section in the dining room. Bill tried to get us free wine with lunch.. but RCCL did not go for it.. :(

 

 

Wave to my friends everyone!!!! had a super fun time with them!

 

 

More friends!

 

 

And even more! And for those of you who are also my friends, and were at that lunch.. your pixs are not posted because the sun was too strong, the windows were behind you.. :(

[foxesden1]

 

Photos to follow are NOT of my lunch alone, my table mates from CC were kind enough to allow me to photo their lunches as well!

 

 

 

 

This was mine, and it was so good, I asked for a 2nd plate, without the salad!

 

 

[foxesden1]

 

 

[foxesden1]

This day was super fabo fun, best day on the ship I think.. Menu, was almost perfect, hanging with friends (and WINING) the Quiz night, was just the perfect topper to a great time, with great friends, and team mates!

 

 

 

 

 

Now this was the first night, I noticed this.. in the corner of the menu, Day 1/Caribbean 05/10 was printed.. so from then on I tried to take note to see if there was any order.. there never was..

 

[foxesden1]

By this time of the cruise, we were just pigs. Truly pigs.. but so much looked good, we wanted to try everything!

 

 

 

The watermelon salad was nice and light, but more dressing was needed.

 

 

Loved the duck..

 

 

The chicken was mine..

 

 

This was Davids. And once again, the sauce was lovely.

 

[foxesden1]

So having no idea if I am in order or not, I am going to carry on.. some port days are going to be told from two sides, Davids and then mine. He did two private tours with the CC gang - because I had Miss Em (really - who wants to be on a bus with a 5 year old for 8 hours anyways..?) and I have already been to Spain I thought he should go with out me.

 

**Now please also let me add in, how much he hates tours. REALLY HATES them. Out of the four we did, he liked one.. :rolleyes: and I am guessing it was because the gang was on it, thus more fun then just riding a bus around town.. ;)

 

Tenerife.. My day.

 

Miss Em and I got off the ship around 10am. I had a stroller with me, a bottle of water, two camera's and spring in my step. This was my first trip back to Europe in many years (I used to live in London, and Paris) and I was looking forward to it.

 

The walk from the port to town, was long and hot. They had a bus transfer but we were urged not to take it. Once we got to the main port building, have the doors were locked, I had a stroller and it was a hassle to find the ramp up. Once I found it, it was a easy push UP HILL :rolleyes:.

 

 

Turn right here..

 

As soon as you hit the main street their is a hop on hop off bus stop, as well as someone selling maps. If you keep walking to your right (past the park) you will see a tourism building. Maps are free there. Once you exit that building, and go up about a block, on your right you will see the main shopping street. It is all up hill. :p Which in truth, felt great after 9 days at sea..

 

Now at this point, I would like to remind everyone that I am a foodie, and a hobby cake decorator and candy maker. (I am part of a very well known club in North America - and many of my European photos are geared to them. I will be giving a talk on sugar arts in Europe in a few weeks. So sorry for the over load of pastries, candy and chocolate..

 

[foxesden1]

 

 

 

 

 

Thats a whole lot of marshmallow... you say?

[foxesden1]

 

 

 

 

 

RUN do not walk to this shop!!!! So good! As you can see Miss Em is thrilled by her first selection of European pastries, and is ready to tuck in!

[foxesden1]

 

We hit a few more stores, did some shopping, (Love C and A) and then made our way back to the ship. I totally forgot that strollers are not idea for going in and out of stores, and finding a WC for us to use when we were fully loaded with camera's and shopping bags.. was hard.. (missed having DH at this point.. ) it was getting hotter, so around 1pm we headed back to the ship.

 

 

We grabbed a quite bite at the port for under 12Euros (with a Fanta)

 

 

before boarding. Guess which was mine and which was Miss Em's?

 

Now this is where its really going to go sour, and the shizzex started to hit the fan between me and our CA and Guest services, so please if you do not want to hear it.. move on two posts. You have been advised.. :eek:

[KarinaGW]

So at this point, I have to say I feel like I am all alone.. :( is my review that bad? I have tried to add more comments, is it to pix heavy? Are people not reading it? Did everyone give up on me?

 

anyone? anyone? anyone?

 

Oh well, I will just keep plugging away...

 

I'm having a ball with the review. I have the feeling that part of your problem is that you're doing this on Memorial Day weekend. That, and I think, TAs are a more targeted audience than a 7day Caribbean cruise so it may have a somewhat more limted audience for that reason as well.

[kpatrick74]

I have been out of town for the holiday weekend and came back wanting to do a quick perusal. I couldn't tear myself away. Your review has been great.

 

I am also in agreement with you on the Dreamworks breakfast. We originally had made our ressie early in the week and it was rescheduled by MDR to the last day of our cruise. By that time, our kids (4 and 6) were so tired and were sleeping til 9 or so. No way I was going to wake them up and after hearing my sis-in-law's (and now yours Taylor) I am glad I didn't. They enjoyed the parades and the charactes also visited in the Kids Club. They saw plenty of them.

 

I can't wait to read more of our review.....please keep it coming. Thank you.

[foxesden1]

It was 2pm, it was hot. We were dead on our feet. I wanted a shower, cold drink and to check my little darling into kids club, so I could have a break (bad, bad mom.. ). We get to our deck.. (six) we are almost at our door..

 

and I see our CA.. she smiles, and looks at me and says something about our room not being done.. and would we mind going to lunch and coming back in a few hours.. :rolleyes:

 

I tell her I need a shower, and to change my clothing. I head into our room.. and this is what hit me. At 2pm... NOTHING had been done. The pullman was still down, the beds were unmade, we had no towels, or rather they were wet and were on the floor from the AM - it was the straw that broke the camels back for me. I just about cried. I was hot, and done.

 

(I took photos, but lord knows where I put them.. )

 

We had a shower, changed, and then went off so that our CA could do our room.

 

Miss Em went to the kids club, I hit the pool, all in all not to bad.

 

Then it was time to get ready for dinner..

 

our room still had not been done.. another CA gave us some towels..

 

then it was dinner.. and our room still had not been done.

 

after dinner and our room was still not turned down (no point in putting up the pullman at that point.. ) the bath room was not sorted, and it was after 10pm.

 

I counted to 10 and called guest services to say that I was not pleased..

 

yada yada yada song and dance...

 

fast forward a few days - now things were really going down hill - cleaning was coming back 3 days after I had given it to her - if I asked for something to be back by 4 it came back at 10pm. Some days the pullman was down, some it was up.. some it was down all day.. I always called and she came right up and did it. With a smile. By this time the smile was driving me nuts. It was like a mocking, my contract is almost over smile, what can you do.. smile.. oh, yes, you have pre paid your tips.. so screw you.. smile.. (again I am sure it was not but at that time it was how I was feeling.. )

 

Now this is what I do not understand - I am a nice person. I have meet many CC and I don't think they would say I was a *itc#. (I hope not at least.. ) and some of my CC had the same CA - and she was fine with them.. so I have no idea, was it just us? Were we too easy going? Was our stateroom jixed?

 

Ever day from that point on till the end of the cruise, something happened, that was not huge but it was just enough to drive me a little batty. promises of phone calls, we will action that comments, it was like they just pushed the issue to the next dept. and then moved on. no one ever DID anything other then forward issues around. no one took OWNERSHIP.

 

By no means did it wreck our vacation - but it sure caused me more stress and work then I needed to do.

 

Trying to contact GS and to get them to help, was like banging my head on the wall again and again. The girls in the front line need to be empowered. They would talk my calls, take msg, pass them on to Mang. who would then do nothing.

 

It took a total of FIVE days for GS to do something (nothing in fact.. but they did send me this.. )

 

 

Which I assume was the same thing they sent to the man who made us leave WJ the first few days we were on board. Thoughtful, not really. I would have been more impressed if they had of followed up on good service, rather then pushing a little issue to become a very large one.. just by the fact of no one standing up and saying, yes that is not right - we are sorry. it will not happen again. rather then, well, we have no record of this.. or that can not be correct, have you report it? EVERY DAY. It was like living in ground hog the movie. DROVE ME BATTY.

 

and it was over such a small issue. that is what I do not understand.

 

while I book royal again? of course, will I ever pre pay my tips, or charge them to my room? not on my life. NEVER.

 

BTW - did you notice I got ICE in the bucket? LOL

[foxesden1]

back to my happy place :D

 

 

WAHOO! The chair hogs are all in PORT!

 

 

 

Now its at this point I am going to do a add for Kindle. LOVED IT. Perfect for a long cruise. I loaded up with 20 books, and off I went!

 

 

The view from Super marios office... as wel left port ;)

[foxesden1]

Davids Day..

 

 

Well, first I sent him off with the super easy camera. The no fail, easy point and shoot camera. The camera which I forgot to charge.. :rolleyes:

 

David joined a tour that our CC gang booked. He said out of the two it was the best. He had a great time, the food was yummy and he would go on a tour with that guide any day.

 

So not too many photos..

 

 

Nation Park

 

 

David said his meal here was the best on the whole two week crossing.

 

 

Odd I know. But David talked about these for weeks.. and let me say, he does not even LIKE potatoes !

 

 

And then the camera died.

 

I have no idea who David did the tour with, but I am sure you can find it in our Meet and Mingle Page if you are looking to book a day tour in Tenerife.

[foxesden1]

 

 

 

 

[foxesden1]

 

 

I so did not like this. I ended up eating the toppings only. The pizza dough was just to thick.

 

 

I should have ordered this..

 

 

Meh.

 

 

Not bad.

 

And the bed time snack..

 

[foxesden1]

the following day was a sea day.. and they had a HUGE buffet on deck six.. david was out with miss em pool side, and I just happened upon it.

 

i don't recall it being in the cruise compass.

 

 

 

 

 

These were so good!

 

 

[foxesden1]

More photos around Deck 5

 

 

Peter, this one is for you! :D

 

 

 

Loved this store! So many cute things, for under $10.00