Documenting the dream western caribbean 01/21-28/2012; the money monkey goes cruising

[radrayjax]

Boat watchers at Jetty Park, near the last piece of land to starboard:

 

Nearing lands end to starboard. Both of the other ships in view:

 

The last bit of pier is coming up on starboard:

 

Looking up at the bridge. Note the reflection of the water on the windows:

 

The last spit of land to starboard:

 

Looking north (to port) a LONG shot of THE VAB in the distance:

 

[radrayjax]

The bow of the ship is past land. Norwegian Sun in the distance:

 

The officer seen earlier, talking to passengers on the Upper Deck OD:

 

The Empress Deck (7) OD looking at the shore of Kennedy Space Center to port (north). The stairs to the Upper Deck OD are seen at center:

 

Well into our turn to the south, a view to the starboard and rear from the Empress OD:

 

Final shot of the Ecstasy (for now):

[radrayjax]

It was now about 4:50. At this point I headed in on the Empress deck and spent the next 25 minutes taking interior photos for DOCUMENTING the SHIP, working my up through the Empress, Veranda (photos BEHIND the bridge) and Vista (9) decks.

 

Port side shot looking rear from the Vista Deck OD at about 5:15 PM:

 

 

Looking far aft at THE VAB at KSC from the Vista Deck OD:

 

Vista Deck OD looking from port to starboard:

The coast of Florida, looking starboard, now south of Cocoa Beach:

 

Starboard, aft view from the Vista OD:

[radrayjax]

I worked my way up to the Lido Deck and towards the center of the ship. At about 5:25PM I arrived at the main pool area and it looked like this:

 

Near deserted main pool area on Lido Deck mid ships, looking aft at screen:

 

I’m working my way to the far aft of the Lido Deck and arrived at the far aft pool at about 5:40PM. The sky is taking on some color. In the shot below, note the two other ships below the sculpture.

 

Aft pool area on Lido Deck:

 

Walking all the way to the rear of the Lido deck and looking to the port side, I see that we are overtaking the Ecstasy.

 

Aft pool area on Lido Deck, Ecstasy now to port :

 

Ecstasy to port, as we begin to overtake it:

 

From the aft of the Lido Deck, looking forward to the aft areas of the Panorama (11), Spa (12) and Sun (14) decks in the twilight:

 

The wake of the ship, seen from the Lido Deck aft pool area:

 

After the shot above I head up to the Panorama deck and forward to my room to get ready for dinner.

[radrayjax]

After arriving at the room, I take a quick look at channel three (Ship’s Information). I’ll be taking a LOT of photos of the info channel and the info screen on the Promenade Deck to keep track of progress. Then we head down to the Lobby Deck to the Crimson Restaurant.

 

Info Channel, speed in Km/Hr area:

 

Our position, just before 6:00PM was about 25-30 miles south of Port Canaveral:

[radrayjax]

The First Supper, 6:00PM January 21

 

We had early dining and we were assigned table 131 on the lower level of the Crimson Restaurant. The deck plan below shows our approximate route from the elevators to the table. Now, isn’t this better than most reviews when people try to describe where they sat? Hey, this didn’t stop Fran and me from making a couple of wrong turns. One time later in the week I entered from the rear and was confused. Another time Fran entered on the upper level on the Atlantic Deck (4). That was for anytime dining. She kept wondering WHY she was standing in a line. We never had to wait for seating with assigned seating.

 

Deck plan of Lobby Deck (3) Forward, Crimson Restaurant, table 131 on the starboard side.

 

Going into the Crimson Restaurant, Lobby Deck 3, just after 6:00PM (sorry for the motion blur):

 

Our table mates were Angela and Ed, a couple in their forties from southern Illinois. They made sure you knew that Chicago didn’t count! He has a tile laying business. He needed this trip to de-stress. It was their first cruise.

 

Our table. I tried to take UNposed photos but it didn’t always work. Only the TABLE was kind enough to sit still:

 

Looking aft and to the starboard side of the Crimson Restaurant (photo taken a day later). Our table is circled:

 

I had beef and barley soup as an appetizer and liked it. (I think I also had a simple salad but didn’t get a photo):

 

For the main course I had the chicken breast and it was nice and juicy. Off to the side you see my extra copies of the Saturday Fun Times:

[radrayjax]

Fran had fried shrimp with the Asian dipping sauce as her main course. Since we just ate at Dixie Crossroads the night before (remember that post from two weeks ago), I didn’t see the need to have shrimp again.

 

Fran’s Shrimp:

For dessert I had a black forest torte/cake. It was excellent. It was not too heavy.

 

My dessert:

 

Fran had crème’ Brule’ for dessert and loved it:

 

Service went very well. My time stamp on the dessert photos above is right around 7:00 PM!

 

Fran then had a travelling pirate for dessert and loved it:

 

Angela enjoying the special attention of the travelling pirate:

After dinner we headed forward to the lobby.

 

Fran by the spiral stairs in the lobby:

[radrayjax]

VISITING THE DREAM SHOPS:

 

We went up the stairs two flights to the Promenade deck to look at the shops. I wanted to get a couple of Dream Pins, one for my travelling hat and one to give away at a gift exchange the next day at the Cruise Critic Roll Call Meet and Greet. We were at the shops at about 7:15. While looking around in the shops we got separated.

 

Looking forward at the lobby stage and stairs from at the Promenade Deck level

 

The “Bargain” Jewelry area in the starboard side shop forward:

 

The Carnival souvenir area in the starboard side shop near the aft area of the lobby:

 

Model of the Dream on a shelf that was facing the wall above:

 

[radrayjax]

Invisible Movie Trivia in the Encore...

 

I found the Dream pins one the other side of the above shelf one a stand near the door.

 

After this, at about 7:40, I made my way forward to the Encore Lounge to play Invisible Movie trivia. The idea hear was that they would show sixty stills from movies with the actors made invisible and you had to guess the title of the movies. I’m a movie nut but this was hard! I only got 30 correct. I show a couple of slides below. The winner got 54 correct.

 

Encore Lounge at Lobby Deck (3) level, just before the start of the Invisible Movie Trivia:

Slide 46 – I still don’t remember what this is:

 

Slide 48 – James Earl Jones from Field of Dreams:

 

The trivia was very fast paced and only lasted about 30 minutes. This would be the only trivia game I took part in.

 

After this I did more exploring and I’ll continue tomorrow….

[starstruck05]

#46 is A Christmas Story, its the scene were the kid gets stuck to the pole.

[EpcotBill]

All of the pictures in posts 174 - 178 are just the Photobucket square that says the picture has been moved or deleted. Some of the pictures in post 179 too.

[misand]

Loving the review so far! We sail on her in 6 weeks!

[radrayjax]

#46 is A Christmas Story, its the scene were the kid gets stuck to the pole.

 

Thanks, I didn't have a chance with that one because I've never seen it all the way through....

[Aldeya]

I can't see any pictures from posts # 174 through 179.

 

Is it just me or there is a problem with photobucket? I hate to miss ANY pictures from this review!

 

Oops, just saw EpcotBill posted about missing pictures too.

[radrayjax]

All of the pictures in posts 174 - 178 are just the Photobucket square that says the picture has been moved or deleted. Some of the pictures in post 179 too.

 

I think I know what is going on. I reviewed all those posts multiple times before submitting and all photos were in place last night after I submitted. I moved a number of photos late last night because they accidently were uploaded into the wrong folder. I'm very new to PB and I forgot that moving them would make them DISSAPPEAR from the posts.

 

This after over three hours of work. I will REPOST those photos this evening before moving forward.

 

My humble apologies. Thanks for hanging in there.

 

I will have to make sure the photos are in the INTENDED folder before copying to CC.

 

Also, as time goes by I will have a PB folder not only for each day but for each DECK of the ship.

 

Just to let you all know, the WORD document that is the master for my write-up is up to 250 pages. I can only average two photos per page.

[Debbie42467]

I'm very new to PB and I forgot that moving them would make them DISSAPPEAR from the posts.

 

This after over three hours of work. I will REPOST those photos this evening before moving forward.

 

My humble apologies. Thanks for hanging in there.

 

 

No need to apologize. I appreciate all the hours you are putting into your review. It's wonderful! I can't wait for what you are going to show us next.

 

Debbie

:)

[radrayjax]

PHOTOS RESTORED & MOVED!

 

I figured the FASTEST thing to do would be to move the "missing" photos back to the folder that was linked to the prior posts and that only took about 15 minutes. I literally did a series of page refreshes and watched the photos reappear in the original posts. ALL photos in posts 174-180 should now appear in the correct order.

 

Time to move forward. I will be back later tonight and try to get through the Welcome Aboard Show.

[radrayjax]

MORE EXPORING – PRE-WELCOME ABOARD SHOW….

 

 

After the Invisible Movie Trivia Game I did more exploring around the ship, first working through the Promenade (5) and Atlantic (4). Again, many of these photos will be used when I DOCUMENT those decks. By the way, after looking around the shops Fran went up to the Cloud 9 Spa and RELAXED! We knew we needed get together in plenty of time go get to the Welcome Aboard Show, which was scheduled for 10:10PM in the Encore Lounge.

 

During my travels I caught site of Funship Freddie shortly before 8:30 in The Caliente Dance Club.

 

The Caliente is just aft of the Wasabi Sushi Bar and the L-Shaped Art Collection Gallery, it is seen just about in the center of this aft-half deck plan of the Promenade. The art auctions would be held in the Caliente since it was typically an open space almost contiguous to the art gallery.

 

One of the many paths of my wanderings. The blue arrow pointing to the Caliente is my approximate position when getting the photo below:

 

Funship Freddie in Club Caliente:

 

I never got close enough to FSF to get a photo with him. Drat!

 

In the far aft of the Promenade deck (the far right of the deck plan above) was the Burgundy Lounge. This was used for Superstar Live Karaoke and the Punchliner Comedy Club.

 

Karaoke “Jam” sign in front of the Burgundy Lounge:

 

Karaoke in the Burgundy Lounge:

 

Some of the many masks decorating the Burgundy Lounge. I will have MANY more photos of the walls, floors, and ceiling of this lounge. It was amazing:

 

[radrayjax]

Shortly before 9:00PM I went topside to explore the top decks. On the large screen overlooking the Lido and Panorama central Pool area they were playing Cars II.

 

View of the large screen, looking aft, taken from the Sun Deck (14) forward:

 

I had a few minutes to spare and I had been on my feet for nearly two hours since getting out of dinner so I decided to go down to the Lido and watch the movie. Also they were giving out free popcorn from the portside forward Waves Bar. See circle on deck plan below.

 

 

Waves Bar shown above:

 

Shortly before 9:30 I went up one flight and forward to my room on the Panorama Deck and check on Fran and the ship’s position. When I got back to the room I was greeted with the first towel animal of the trip: The vagina seal.

 

The vagina seal – first towel animal:

Fran was getting ready, having only gotten back from the spa a few minutes earlier. So I checked out channel 3. We were about even with Port St. Lucie, about 30 miles north of Palm Beach. We had travelled about 100-105 miles south in about 5 hours.

 

Ship’s Position:

 

Ship’s Speed:

[radrayjax]

THE WELCOME ABOARD SHOW: 10:10 PM….

 

 

Right around 9:50 we made our way down to the Promenade deck and Encore Lounge. We were in time and able to get good, if high seats at the upper tier of the lounge.

 

Since our room was on the port side of the ship we tended to enter lounge and look for seats on the port (left) side of the lounge.

 

Encore Lounge, Promenade Deck level, looking towards the starboard side:

 

Apparently we were still in good time. Two of the assistant cruise directors (ACD’s) were still running Bingo.

 

One of the ACD’s. I never got her name (she's English):

 

ACD Cory, the Bingo Meister:

 

Within just a few minutes the Cruise Director, Gary Brierley came out to introduce the senior officers.

 

Gary Brierley introducing the senior officers, to the left is the Hotel Director Pierre Camilleri:

 

Chief Engineer Guiseppe Seccia:

Our Captain Massimo Marino. During the Behind the Fun Tour later in the week he said that his mane translates to Maximum or Top Sailor:

 

[radrayjax]

Shortly thereafter Funship Freddie took to the stage to be joined by the lead singers Janae Longo and Jason Dowty.

 

Janae, Freddie, Jason

 

 

 

 

Freddie:

 

Janae, Freddie, Jason. Doesn’t Jason look like an Osmond Brother:

 

Next we were introduced to the Fun Force (Break) Dancers and they were great!

 

One of the Break Dancers:

 

[radrayjax]

Three of the of the break dancers. The guy in front was called Random. He had superb “robotic” moves:

 

The action was being projected on large screens on either side of the stage:

 

 

Finally to cap off the show the first two comics of the cruise, Roman, and Joe Bronzi (Pronounced Bronzee) came out and did brief bits. Both were very funny, even in the “clean” sample material.

 

Roman:

 

 

Joe Bronzi:

 

[radrayjax]

POST-SHOW Exploring...

 

In all, the show lasted about an hour. Afterwards, Fran went back to the room and I went down to the Atlantic Deck (4) to continue exploring. This time I went out to the lifeboat area. The photo below was taken at around 11:40. There will be more of this later in the write up.

 

Lifeboat 3 at the Atlantic Deck wtarboard side

 

About 11:45 I went back topside to do more exploring before going back to the room. I got up to the Sun Deck (14) aft section.

 

The lights of South Florida seen from the Sun Deck Aft Section starboard side.

 

At midnight I returned to the cabin. I still had to get the photos uploaded from the camera card to the hard drive of the lap top and the thumb drive. I also reviewed the photos do delete the obvious out of focus shots.

 

When I got back to the room I found that the Money Monkey could not resist the Vagina Seal and was having his way with her. Sadly, this would become a pattern for the rest of the week.

 

The Money Monkey with the Seal of the day:

 

Somewhere after 1:00AM it was lights out. The first day was done.

 

WHAT’S NEXT: TIME TO REGROUP.

 

IT’S TIME TO START DOCUMENTING THE SHIP!

 

Starting tomorrow: THE SKY DECK!

[sail2sea]

this is the most involved review. great job!

[Celandine]

wow, definitely an intense review.

 

I am definitely enjoying it!!

 

Cannot wait to read more!