Live From the Carnival Valor... Again

[soccersharon]

Following along too!

 

We loved the Valor - she was our first :)

[Kokomo_Man]

Before I get to Day 1, I have a few things to catch up on from last night. Just sort of a Day 0 wrap up. (Besides I get to have all of you singing "Day-yay-yay-0" again.:D)

There was entertainment hopping all over ship. That’s usual for carnival, but last night seemed to be a bit better than usual. There was a guy singing & playing the guitar in the atrium that was very good. There’s really nothing unusual about some entertainment in the atrium, but it’s usually some kind of chamber music… you know, stuff for seven really old people that go to bed about seven-thirty. But last night was different. He played all kinds of music... everything from new stuff (that I didn’t recognize) all the way back to oldies (that I won’t admit to recognizing.) And there was a pretty good crowd. I’ll get the persons name and find out how long he will be on the ship.

Sgt. Schultz asked about the Piano Bar. Brad Alexander, one of Carnival’s premier piano bar entertainers, is here for this cruise. Last week was supposed to be the end for him. A couple of months ago when I found out that he was leaving just as we were getting on I threw myself down on the floor and started kicking and screaming. This would have been the third time that kind of thing would have happened to me. So… I sent Brad an email “begging” him to extend one more week. I had all 22 of those traveling with me looking forward to having a good time in the piano bar. To my surprise he was able to extend and I don’t have to commit hari-kari.

So that’s good news for me… but I have some not so good news for those getting ready to get on. This is indeed Brad’s last sailing on the Valor and the guy coming on next week is a new-bie. So starting next week it’s pot-luck in the piano bar.

By the way… I was so tired after “herding cats” all day, I only made it till about 11:00 PM in the piano bar last night. We’ll see about tonight.

I’ll be loosing my internet connection soon, so I’ll close this post and write about the day in Key West in my next post.

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny.

[Irishlinny]

Hey Bob! Love me some Kokomo Man reviews! Looking forward to it:)

And I can sympathize with herding cats. We took all of our (grown) kids, spouses, and my Dad on their first cruise a couple of years back. There were only 9 of us (and no children) and I felt like I was on a working vacation for sure...LOL! Had to go and book another cruise later that year just so my DH and I could have a real vacation!;)

Hope you have a great cruise...I'll be reading!:)

[CanWeGoYet?]

All I know about twitter is that it's something other people do, and I don't. Yes I am a dinosaur! So if I subscribe, I guess I need to make my own twitter account and then does it come to my on my cell? Or can it be email?

 

Sorry for the dumb questions. I don't check email on my phone so for me those two are still separate entities.

[Kokomo_Man]

Day 1

 

 

Ok… on to today.

 

Key West… or should I say, “Key Weird”… is one those places cruise ships shouldn’t go to. After all, we started boarding the boat yesterday around noon and Key Weird is only a little over three hours drive from Miami where we boarded the boat… we could have been there by early afternoon. So it should be “cruise law”… no ship should go to a place you could drive in three hours.

 

Now before you start “flaiming me”, Key Weird (West) is one of my favorite places in the world. And it is certainly better than some of the “Great Private Island Cay” that some cruises pawn off as another Caribbean Island. And indeed Key Weird is the United States own “Caribbean Island”.

 

And in some ways it’s more “Caribbean” than a lot of other places cruise ships go. The first thing is Key Weird has more T-Shirt shops per square yard than any other Caribbean Island… and more “watering holes” per square inch than anyplace else in the world. And of course if you haven’t been there you must stop at the Key West Margaritaville and have a frozen concoction to help you hang on. I’ve had many there. There’s also a Hard Rock Café, Hogs Breath Saloon, the world famous Sloppy Joes… hi-brow and low-brown saloons everywhere… don’t forget to visit the worlds smallest bar… and last but not least, the “Bourbon Street Pub” where Sushi is lowered from the balcony in “her” giant ruby slipper at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s eve. I’ve been there too. (By the way, I won’t try to explain Sushi… just ask “Uncle Google”.

 

My plan for this visit was to be tour guide for my own group. First, start the morning with a “walk-about”… “Bob’s Walking Tour of Key Weird”. There’s almost no point in taking most of the tours offered for Key West. You can see most of the stuff on foot. Now if you don’t visit all the “watering holes” (we docked at 8:00 A.M.) there’s a lot to see in just a short distance. (If you do try to visit all the bars, good luck trying to make it back to the ship before it sales.)

 

The boat docks right at Mallory Square and almost everything in Key Weird is within walking distance from there… almost. So what we did today was try to go as far as the littlest legs with us could stand.

 

A little walk around Mallory Square is always in order. This is the “kind of hi-brow” part of Key West. There a few of the obligatory tourist trap shops with an ice cream place or two thrown in. You can also book some water activities like jet ski or fishing tours right there at the dock. The cruise ships don’t get to do the best “activity” at Mallory Square which is the sunset. This is one of the most magnificent sunsets on land or sea. But alas, the ship sails at 4 PM and we have to settle with a fiery red sky at sea.

 

As you walk away from the pear and Mallory Square you run right into the Mel Fisher Museum. Mel is a historic Key Weird figure. He discovered the 15th Century Spanish shipwreck of the Atocha with zillions of dollars worth of silver and other treasures. The museum has lots of artifacts and silver from the Atocha and an interesting history of how it was found. The museum also has a fairly good display pyrate history. (And me matey… pyrate is spelled the way it should be… arrrrrrggggggg.) The self paced walking tour inside the museum costs $12.50 per person and depending on your pace will take up to two or three hours. There’s a shop in front with some souvineers and some “replica” coins. (Even the replicas are not cheap.) In the back… around the side is another shop where the real coins are sold. Some of the stuff you buy there requires you to identure your first born son. If you’re interested in this sort of stuff, then I highly recommend you take the tour… I’ve been twice. But on this trip we didn’t go.

 

Turning left just beyond the Mel Fisher museum our walking tour wandered past all of the t­-shirt shops, and all of the “everything $5” shops. There’s a couple of “hop-on: hop-off” tours on your left as you head into old town. If you’re not sure where you’re going then these will take you all over the island so you can get a glimpse of everything. These cost about $27 and are a good way to get a feel for stuff. But I knew where I was going so we didn’t do that.

 

One of the big “to do” things in Key Weird is Duval Street… it’s where a lot of the “watering holes” are. (I forgot to mention… at night most of these “watering holes” have some kind of live entertainment… country, folk, rock, Jimmy Buffett… you name it.) But we crossed over Duval Street and walked a couple of blocks north and turned left. There’s a little man made beach (the key word here is little). The left turn took us down to that little beach where we all dipped our toes in the water. That’s the Gulf of Mexico.

 

We walked back from the beach, turned left and headed north again. That took us to Schooners Warf. There are literally thousands of boats there, and everything ranging from little dinghies up to boats of the “rich and famous”. If you like sea food this is also the place. Again, this is to some extent a “night life” sort of place, but they do start opening up around lunch time. Of course, there are some of the obligatory “tourist trap” shops there too. After we wandered around Schooners Warf a bit, we headed back south toward Duval Street.

 

As planned, when we got back to Duval Street all the little feet were tired and hungry. So we stopped into the world famous Sloppy Joes and had of course a Sloppy Joe. This was a favorite hangout and “watering hole” of Ernest Hemingway when he lived in Key Weird.

 

I knew all the little feet would be tired by this time, so I had reserved a couple of those eight passenger electric cars for the next portion of our tour. I had scheduled for a pick-up there at Sloppy Joes. Well that didn’t work out at all… the place I set this up with didn’t show up. When I called them, they “had no reservations”. So in a panic, and a lot more expensive, I walked to the nearest one of those places and rented two, 4 passenger electric cars. They had nothing else available.

 

I really wanted to go to the Southern Most Point and get a family picture of all of us… it’s likely that we’ll never get a chance to do this again. So after everyone finished at Sloppy Joes, we spent the next hour using those two electric cars to “ferry” everyone to the Southern Most Point.

 

I should mention that the “Southern Most Point” is within walking distance of the dock if you are a regular “walker” and need your exercise for the day. Just turn right at the first street after you get away from the dock and walk straight to the “Southern Most Point”. Just keep in mind that it is a bit of a hike… about 45 minutes at a moderate pace. Take water.

 

In the end we got the picture and were ready to head for the next stop… Smathers Beach. There are no real beaches in the Florida Keys, so this is a man-made beach. The reason for going to Smathers Beach is that they have a place with a bunch of water toys… kayaks, paddle boards, Hobie Cat sail boats and the like for very reasonable prices.

 

And… Smathers beach is on the Atlantic Ocean. So if we dropped our toes in the water at Smathers Beach we will have been in both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean in the same day. Ok… not a huge deal, but I figured everyone would have fun with the afternoon as a beach day.

 

Well… by this time it was hot, and because of the “faux paux” with the electric car, it was later that I had hoped for. So with the time left, about half of the “crew” wanted to go back to shop for t-shirts and trinkets… the other half still wanted to go to the beach. So we started shuttling in both directions. Eventually everyone who went to the beach had fun there.

 

With this kind of “walking tour” everyone got the flavor of Key Weird, but missed a lot of stuff… especially the night time stuff which is when Key West “comes alive”. And there was a lot of stuff we missed or just passed by like the Hemingway house… the butterfly conservatory, the “Truman Whitehouse”… the Green Parrot Bar… and not to mention the “Bourbon Street Pub”.

 

That’s a problem with cruise ships… you can’t see a place like you can if you stay in one spot for a while. Don’t get me wrong… I keep doing cruise ships so I can keep going back to spots I like. And I love cruising. But I don’t think a cruise ship that “visits” only in the day can ever do Key Weird justice. I’ve spent a few long week-ends… and one “New Years Eve” with Sushi… and still need to go back to see more. (Ummm… Errrr… I didn’t spend it “with” Sushi… I just spent it being entertained by “her”… I MEAN!!!!... …I think I should just shut up.

 

Since this is a long, I’ll stop here and get this posted. I’ll write more about the day, and try to get some “kid opinion” later on.

 

By the way, I tried to post some pictures on Twitter (@KokomoMan)… let me how that’s working.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

P.S. I'll get to replies to all posts, questions, and hello messages in my next post, but just for now I want to tell Mickiemac that I already had one Chocolate Mocha Whatchamacallit for her last night... I'll probably have at least one more tonight. Wish you and Jim were here... then I could go eat dinner with you guys.

[Kokomo_Man]

Quick twitter answer... I think it starts out just being while on line with the internet. Then you can add your email, and then you can add your phone.

 

But I just came back from being a prehistoric fossil a few days ago... and there's lots of online help at the twitter web site once you've signed up.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[Kokomo_Man]

I’m just going to answer a few of your notes and questions. I’ll get back to the cruise stuff in the next post a little later on today.

 

Hi Mary (mississauga)… I met Mary on Bloggers Cruise 4. She showed me a good place to get free internet (Starbucks) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Sorry I missed seeing you on BC5. Dispite all the competing splinter groups I’m almost certain to do BC6 as long as I can get away from work. Hope to see you there. (No… I don’t get anything from Carnival for such comments.)

 

Bunkie103v , Devmegsmum, Cru1zun1rl, kclvt, Kelane, b4cruze, and ComeSailWithME (and probably others) are sailing on the Valor soon, so I’ll try and post photos when I can. I’ll probably continue to do this on Twitter if this is working out because so far it seems very easy. (Still waiting for feedback on twitter.)

 

Sargent Schultz (Bill) – Sorry I didn’t stay connected with you and Elizabeth after BC5, but in the disembarkation zoo I misplaced all the contact information from that cruise. Perhaps you know a way to send a private message to me here (or even on twitter.) Yes, Ice in the stateroom, and Pillow chocolates. (For those who don’t know Bill, he posts a lot of photos… really great photos from his cruises on his web site. Click on his name to read some of his posts and you will figure out how to get to his web page.)

 

Vivavegas… I’m trying to get on the Breeze for the 11/24/12 cruise with you and irishlinny (Linda). But it’s sold out so I’m on a wait list so we’ll see if I can get a “seat”.

 

QTMichele posted something about comparing the Freedom to the Valor. This is a little difficult since the Freedom was an 8 day Eastern Caribbean cruise and all of my Valor cruises (this is the 6th) have been to the Western Caribbean. I do prefer Western mainly because the SCUBA diving is better overall. But there are also some great adventures to be had in the Eastern Caribbean. So for me I’ll just say it’s all good and I’ve worn out the phrase¸ “so many islands, so little time”.

 

When it comes to the ships, the Freedom and the Valor are “sister” ships. They have virtually the exact same floor plan. If you know where something is on the Valor, then you also know exactly where it is on the Freedom. (The same goes for the Glory.) The theme, décor and “paint scheme” are different on the three ships but that should be minor. That said, there’s something intangible about the Valor and the reason this is my 6th cruise on her.

 

There seems to always be more “juice” and energy on the Valor. The sail-away party is one example. The sail-aways on the Valor it seems that more people are dancin’ and getting into the cruise vacation spirit. The same thing happens on the other ships, but they have not seemed as much as they Valor. The other example is the “night life”… All Carnival ships have a lot of night life with all the entertainment, bands playing, piano bar¸ etc that go on along the Promenade deck. But for whatever reason, the Valor just seems more “lively”. Of course this is just my opinion… or maybe it’s because I’m on board and the life of the party. Yea… right.

 

I know that’s a probably a feeble answer. I’m sure other people have their favorites¸ so I’ll just leave this by saying that for me… the worst I’ve ever had was wonderful.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[ATL2LAS]

This is too funny....I have a group of friends on this same sailing:D. Wish I was there now

[jimjamxx]

I am also an old fa**. Could you post a link to your Twitter thing? Thanks

jimmyjames

[Kokomo_Man]

Day 2 – Sea Day

 

 

Good morning all. Those that know me or who have read my past “live froms” know that I’m writing this from the tables poolside on the Lido Deck. I like to get my lite breakfast and bring it out here first thing in the morning. Then I’ll spend a bit of time here people watching… generally watching the world go by… sipping my morning coffee… and of course writing this stuff.

 

Before I tell you about this morning, I need to tell just a little bit about last night. As usual, all the “action” was on the Lido deck. Everyone was there having a very good time. I like a places with a lot of people… usually the more the merrier, and last night was no exception. From the shops in the front of the boat, through the casino to the back of the boat where the disco, piano bar and “punchliner” comedy club are, there were large crowds dancing, singing, and having a few frozen concoctions to help them hang on.

 

The casino “bandstand” had a really entertaining band last night named “Music Reality”. They played “jazzed up” versions of 40s, 50s, 60s, stuff as well as 70s, 80s and on up music. One of the performers did a phenomenal rendition/imitation of Louis Armstrong’s “It’s a Wonderful World”… ohhhh yeaaaaaa. If you closed your eyes, you might well believe that it was Louis himself. They played every kind of music. Young and old filled the “dance floor”. They had one of the biggest crowds of the night. If the same band is playing again tonight I’ll be back there.

 

But the crowds on the Lido deck do bring up one of my pet peeves… all the photographers along the walkways from the back of the ship clog the passage ways. You really have to “run the gauntlet” to get from the shops (main atrium) to the venues in the back of the boat. I know Carnival needs to make a profit, but I think they have gone overboard with all the photographers. This cruise seems worse than most. There have been times when the pathways have been completely blocked and all “traffic” was at a standstill. I come here to get away from all the “gridlock”. This happened during the boarding process too. Carnival really should do a better job at making the photographers less intrusive while giving people an opportunity to get pictures if they want.

 

While I’m complaining a bit… the P.A. system on the ship is too loud… especially on the Lido deck. It’s never been this loud on my previous Valor cruises. Or maybe it’s that “Goose” (the cruise director) has a piercing voice. This is not just my opinion. Almost everyone in the “crew” traveling with me has made the same comment without me prompting them. This applies not only to the announcements, but to the “Morning Show” that plays on the “big screen”, the recorded music that plays all the time and the Caribbean band that plays in the afternoon. It’s all too loud and it’s hard to carry on a conversation. I suspect that some old phart on last weeks cruise complained that the announcements couldn’t be heard and they turned it up… it’s time they turned it back down.

 

 

After listening and dancin’ in the casino bar for a bit over an hour, I went down to the Piano Bar to sit in on Brad Alexander’s late night “Adult only show” (starts at midnight). And it is really very adult only. He even plays a recorded disclaimer (half as a joke, but quite serious) that says, “The following show will contain adult language and nudity”. Well… it certainly had adult language, but I’m still waiting for the nudity… I think we should hold Brad to that. All in all, it was entertaining but after a bit over an hour of continuous raunchy songs and similar babble, I called it a night. Brad is indeed one of the top tier piano entertainers on Carnival and if you like piano bars you should go see Brad… and if you don’t want the adult stuff, just go earlier in the evening.

 

One piece of housekeeping I want to bring up before I move on to today’s exploits is that I have discovered that my cell phone camera is not focusing properly. So I’ll “tweet” a few of the pictures that I took with my regular camera when I get those into my computer.

 

Sea Day

 

As I sat here eating my breakfast this morning the ship was kind of “dead”. And it was about 9:00 A.M. I suspect that with all the late night stuff last night a lot of folks are “sleeping in”. I would have slept in longer too, but I’ve set up a family “walkabout” for 9:00 A.M. on sea days to work off some of the Chocolate Melting Cake. This is only a voluntary “walk-about”, but I’ve been kidding them all about being wimps. So after all my “poking” at them, I knew I had better be there in case any of them were. I was… they weren’t.

 

After a lite breakfast, I did my morning walk-about/run. Then I got my coffee and started to observe the goings on. As I mentioned the ship has been kind of dead this morning… except for the chair hogs. The hogs seemed to have been all over the place even before I got there. In the area around the main pool there are around a hundred… maybe a hundred and fifty lounge chairs. Only three or four of them are being occupied by people. Almost all of the rest of them are being kept warm by a variety of Carnival Blue towels, flip-flops, and paperback books. There was even one woman (more on her in a minute) that brought two big yellow clamps to clamp her towel to the chair.

 

In the past I’ve commented about my proposed solution to chair hogs… throw their stuff in the pool. But over the few hours that I’ve sat here, I’ve come upon a new idea… make a time lapse video of the chair hogs with a clock running. Then post the video on YouTube showing the time that the hogs were “saving” their chairs. Also post a link to the video here on Cruise Critic. There should be an entire thread with the chair hog videos posted. Then if the chair hogs don’t die of embarrassment, they deserve to hog the chair.

 

Remember I mentioned the chair with the two yellow clamps. Well, by about 11:00 A.M. most of my “crew” had drug themselves out of bed and come to visit me at “mom’s table” where I sit in the mornings. (Notice I said “most”, but not all had gotten themselves out of bed.) Anyway… during this time the two yellow clamps faithfully held the towel on the chair with nary a body to help them out. Then somewhere around 11:30 a woman appeared almost out of nowhere and was sitting in the chair. I thought about telling her to get out of the chair because it was reserved for two yellow clamps… but I didn’t. Instead, I took a picture of her. I’ll post it on Twitter later today.

 

There was also another ummm… I’ll say… “interesting” woman on the main pool deck. This was a thin but quite “shapely” woman. Now I’m a man that likes a nice… err… umm… “behind”. And I’m particularly partial to the ummm… “front bumpers”. But carnival is has lots of families and there are a lot of kids in that area of the ship. Also a lot of husbands are there with their wives and I’m sure many of them got in trouble this morning… this “shapely” woman had most of her assets on display. So although I firmly approve of her displaying what she has, she should have it on display in the adult areas of the ship. I also took a picture of her and I’ll post it on Twitter too. (By the way… at first I didn’t spot the “assets on display”. It was my daughters that pointed it out to me… EEEEWWWWWWWW!!!)

 

We have run into some storms and rain which ran all the “assets” off of the pool area. Such is the way it is in the Caribbean. But when the rain came, they just closed the sky-dome in the adult pool area and all of the assets came back out on display. The rest of the afternoon has been a typical sea day… getting a little sun… watching other “assets on display”… checking my eyelids for cracks. Just floating along on another nice warm Caribbean day. I really do love this stuff.

 

I’m kinda dreading tonight since it’s formal night and we’re going to try the cat herding exercise all over again. We are going to try to get a group picture of all of us on the main atrium stairway… oh fun. I also am not much for the dress-up night any way. As soon as dinner is over I go back to my room and change into much more appropriate attire for a Caribbean cruise… a bright orange shirt with parrots all over it.

 

I’ll stop at this point. I’ve told “ the crew” that we have a late afternoon workout in the gym for those that want to go. So at least I’ve got to show up.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[nodogkisses]

Twitter pics are great--love the toes in the water and ass in the sand pics! :)

[Kokomo_Man]

I've posted some pics on twitter. (reposted a couple)

 

More later.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[mickiemac]

I've posted some pics on twitter. (reposted a couple)

 

More later.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

 

Now I have to go figure out how to "twitter". I need a mocha chocolate thing to help me hang on.....

[HMM]

We'll be on the Valor a week from Sunday (7/1). I'm loving these postings and getting great pointers from you. Need to figure out how to find you on twitter.

[b4cruze]

Before I get to Day 1, I have a few things to catch up on from last night. Just sort of a Day 0 wrap up. (Besides I get to have all of you singing "Day-yay-yay-0" again.:D)

There was entertainment hopping all over ship. That’s usual for carnival, but last night seemed to be a bit better than usual. There was a guy singing & playing the guitar in the atrium that was very good. There’s really nothing unusual about some entertainment in the atrium, but it’s usually some kind of chamber music… you know, stuff for seven really old people that go to bed about seven-thirty. But last night was different. He played all kinds of music... everything from new stuff (that I didn’t recognize) all the way back to oldies (that I won’t admit to recognizing.) And there was a pretty good crowd. I’ll get the persons name and find out how long he will be on the ship.

Sgt. Schultz asked about the Piano Bar. Brad Alexander, one of Carnival’s premier piano bar entertainers, is here for this cruise. Last week was supposed to be the end for him. A couple of months ago when I found out that he was leaving just as we were getting on I threw myself down on the floor and started kicking and screaming. This would have been the third time that kind of thing would have happened to me. So… I sent Brad an email “begging” him to extend one more week. I had all 22 of those traveling with me looking forward to having a good time in the piano bar. To my surprise he was able to extend and I don’t have to commit hari-kari.

So that’s good news for me… but I have some not so good news for those getting ready to get on. This is indeed Brad’s last sailing on the Valor and the guy coming on next week is a new-bie. So starting next week it’s pot-luck in the piano bar.

By the way… I was so tired after “herding cats” all day, I only made it till about 11:00 PM in the piano bar last night. We’ll see about tonight.

I’ll be loosing my internet connection soon, so I’ll close this post and write about the day in Key West in my next post.

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny.

 

:( Potluck in the piano bar....I'm hoping for the best! Wished Brad would have stayed two more weeks!

[Devmegsmum]

Absolutely loving the posts and Twitter. Keep up the great work.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Kokomo_Man]

For those looking to get onto twitter, it's really easy to get started. Just go to the twitter web site and sign up. There doesn't seem to be any hidden agendas or tricks to get to you.

 

Then hunt around on their web site and you will find that there are lots of instructions and information on how to make it all work. I didn't have an account myself until just before I started this cruise so we're all learning together.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[Sargent_Schultz]

The hard part is I think I have an account but can't remember enough details to get my password. :o

 

I'll keep trying.

[Shake-n-Bake]

I have signed up on Twitter just to follow this. I have been in the computer field for over 20 years but Twitter was something I had no interest in until now. Love the pictures over there thus far. Keep them coming. :D

[LizaMM]

I have signed up on Twitter just to follow this. I have been in the computer field for over 20 years but Twitter was something I had no interest in until now. Love the pictures over there thus far. Keep them coming. :D

 

I have stayed away from Twitter as well....and also very rarely go on FB (other than to look/monitor my kids) BUT.....for ship photos I may have to suck it up! ;)

[Irishlinny]

I have stayed away from Twitter as well....and also very rarely go on FB (other than to look/monitor my kids) BUT.....for ship photos I may have to suck it up! ;)

I'm on FB a lot...that's where I connect with all my cruise buddies all over the country;) But now I guess I will have to suck it up and get on Twitter as well coz I'm missing all the pics.

 

Bob, thanks again for the review...great as always! I agree with you about not seeing Key West til you've been there at nite...what fun! Hope all the cats are enjoying themselves!:D

[bigbigblake]

Twitter subscription up 20 percent to see the picture of the assets I am sure. Its more fun then going online!

[Kokomo_Man]

Day 3 – Grand Cayman

 

 

Last night was “elegant night”. Everyone dressed up and we got a group family picture. It was not as “painful” as I thought it might be. Everyone showed up at about the right time and after a short wait in line we were on the staircase… click-click-click and we were done. I’ll let you know how good the pictures are.

 

After dinner, the Promenade deck was alive with activity again. We started at the piano bar and danced our way to the atrium… stopping at most of the venues along the way to shake our booties and have a frozen concoction to help us hang on. The best stop of the night was at the casino bandstand where “Music Reality” was playing again… we stayed there for two frozen concoctions to help us hang on.

 

But then I made it an “early” night… if you consider midnight “early”. We were going to “drop anchor” in Grand Cayman by 7 AM and I had scheduled a morning tour to Stingray City. I needed to be up early (if 7 AM is early) to get the tour organized.

 

Well… I drug myself out of bed at 7:30. I made it up to the Lido deck for a quick bowl of cold cereal before taking a tender to shore. I was really worried that my “crew” was waiting ashore because I had told them to get to shore as early as possible. I didn’t figure that I would be draggin’ and not get there until 8:30… tee hee. As I sat there woofing down my cereal, about half of the crew sat down with me. But the other half was indeed waiting ashore.

 

“Docking” at 7:00 A.M. in Grand Cayman doesn’t make a lot of sense if all you are going to do is spend some time in town. After all, that’s 6:00 A.M. Grand Cayman time… almost everything is closed. Even by the time I got there 8:45 ship’s time (7:45 Grand Cayman) most of the shops were still closed and wouldn’t open for another couple of hours.

 

I keep mentioning “ships time”, and “Grand Cayman time”… for those who have not been on Carnival before, the Carnival ships do not change their ships time to match the time zone they are in. So be careful how you schedule stuff. If you’re not taking a tour through the ship, remember that the local tours will be scheduled on local time. There have been people left behind because they didn’t “do” the time right. Of course being left behind in Grand Cayman might not be such a bad thing.

 

I had scheduled a catamaran tour to take the “crew” to Sting Ray City. I did not book it through Carnival. There are several reputable tour providers in Grand Cayman and this is one of the few places I’ll take a tour not provided by the cruise line. I booked this through Island Marketing and everything went well. Of course any time I’m scheduling on my own, I am very conservative.

 

This was my 11th time to Grand Cayman. It is my favorite island in the Caribbean… so far. However, this is my first time to Sting Ray City. On most of my previous visits I either went SCUBA diving or just went to town… and Margaritaville to have a frozen concoction to help me hang on of course. Twice I had scheduled to take waverunners to Stingray City, but both times weather caused those tours to get canceled.

 

This time weather was threatening. I checked with guest services just before I went to bed last night and they told me, “scattered thunder storms” (normal days for the Caribbean); 60% chance of 1-3 inches of rain (oops, could be wet); and 20 knot winds (@#!#*&@, this could be trouble.) It’s the winds that caused my two previous attempts to go to stingray city to be canceled. In fact, the time I was on the NCL Sun, we couldn’t even stop at Grand Cayman because of the high winds and just had another day at sea.

 

We all got to the “meet spot” with ample time to spare and boarded our bus to take us to the catamaran. By this time it was not looking good… the wind was getting quite brisk. Just the same, off we went and when we got to the catamaran we started getting aboard right away. Then, just as we were about to cast off, a guy drove up in the pick-up truck and indicated that officials were closing down the area to Stingray City.

 

The captain of our boat, Capt. Byran, said something to the effect that he “didn’t trust the guy in the pick-up”. Capt Byran got out his cell phone and disappeared into the cabin. Within a couple of minutes we were casting off, and out into the ocean we went.

 

I was quite worried as the seas seemed “angry”. We had little kids with us and it seemed a bit dangerous to be heading out like that. But out we went toward Sting Ray City. I decided that if it got any worse I would pitch a bitch and get the Capt to go back.

 

I was sure that as a minimum everyone, including me, would be “chumming the waters” on our way out. But at least for now, the wind and the waters were not getting worse and we continued on. It was about a 30 minute ride out and to my amazement no one got sick.

 

I had not properly explained what Stingray City is to most of the “crew”. I don’t know exactly what they thought we were going to see. I had mentioned along the way that we were going to a “sand bar”. I did not explain that this was not a “watering hole”… not a place where booze was sold. Some were disappointed that I was not buying “drinks” at the sand “bar”. Neither did I explain that the “city” is a “city” of stingrays as opposed to a city full of people.

 

Despite the choppy waters, everyone got into the water. It’s about waist deep for an adult at the “sand bar”. Even with the rough water, going there was worth it. The stingrays are amazing creatures. I’ve been close up with them SCUBA diving but nothing like this. Here, the stingrays are almost domesticated. They will come up and rub you like they are saying, “pet me”. They actually want you to feed them.

 

Everyone had a lot of fun, but the little ones (two 4 year olds) had difficulty with the seas. Later when I asked the two youngest they did say that they had fun. That said, I would suggest that maybe 6 years old would be the youngest that can really enjoy the stingrays. Everyone else of all ages raved about the stingrays.

 

This tour also went to a snorkel spot. Again everyone had a good time, but this time the smallest five kids did not get in. The water at the snorkel spot was about 10 feet deep. I should mention that it was snorkeling in the Caribbean that got me “hooked” and I became a SCUBA diver. I think there are several hat got “hooked” this trip.

 

By the time we got back to town we only had a little bit of time for shopping and a frozen concoction to help me hang on… of course at the Margaritavill. There was also time for a quick trip to my favorite shop in Grand Cayman, “Artifacts”… a place that sells “ship wreck” coins from some of the most famous ship wrecks in the world. (Who would have ever figured that I would buy historic ship wreck coins in Grand Cayman.) This time I didn’t buy anything, but I did point out some suggestions for Christmas presents.

 

There was also time for some of the “crew” to buy a couple bottles of their favorite booze. I did find out something if you’re considering buying booze in Grand Cayman. They will not sell you anything later than 1 hour before the “all aboard” time. This is because you can’t take the bottle with you… this is because they deliver the booze to the cruise ship. I know about this delivery method, but not about the 1 hour time limit. I guess this makes sense because they have to make the delivery before the final tender back to the ship departs.

 

We’re now all back on the ship and “steaming” toward Ocho Rios. (Somehow that wording came our wrong and I don’t know how to fix it… so no, none of us are steaming.)

 

Before I close out this session there are a couple of tid-bits I want to mention about the ship.

 

The first thing is that on my previous cruises on the Valor (and other Carnival ships) the service keeping the tables clean up on the Lido deck was very, very good. On those cruises I raved about the service because it seemed like they were clearing the dishes and glasses almost before we had finished. This cruise however, the tables are not cleared nearly as efficiently. Don’t misunderstand here… the service is not bad, but it is not quite up to the standards of my previous rave reviews.

 

The next thing is the elevators. In each bank of elevators there always seems to be one out of service. And those in service are seemingly slow. I end up taking the stairs more on this cruise than on any previous cruise. Maybe this is a good thing, because I can now have an extra Chocolate Melting Cake for desert.

 

One very good thing to tell about is the “past guest party”. I did not go, but my daughter Amy and her husband Zach went. I had seen some complaints here on Cruise Critic and in other places that Carnival had gotten “cheap” with the booze at the “past guest party”. Well, that appears to be corrected. Amy and Zach said that even before they finished their first drink the next one arrived. If they wanted to, they could have become completely “sloshed”. As it was they were only a little bit tipsy. (Ever notice how many slang words we have for being intoxicated.) Carnival served so much booze that when Amy and Zach joined up with the rest of the “crew” on the Lido deck¸ they came with their hands full of several drinks… enough for anyone in the “crew” who wanted one. So this seems to be one of the many cases where Carnival listened.

 

That’s all for now… I know I promised to give some “kids views” during this cruise and I’ll try to get you their opinions thus far in the cruise for the next post.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[mickiemac]

So glad you did Sting Ray City! Jim and I did that and we loved it. Glad all is well and you and the kids are having a fun Camp Grandma!!

[ComeSailWithME]

Loving your review! Thanks for the tidbit about 'Artifacts'. My Father-in-law collects coins so I will need to remember this place the next time I am in Grand Cayman for a great gift for him!