Live From the Carnival Valor... Again

[LizaMM]

The "Hog Family" story made me laugh and reminds me of what I saw on the Liberty.....I was up and on deck having coffee at about 7:30 AM......and you are right, the adults DID not set their alarms and go back to bed....this particular family sent one of the children - young boy, he looked to be about 10 years old - out to the Lido Deck. He would show up with his arms loaded with towels, books, flip flops and the like and the poor kid would spend about 1/2 an hour carefully selecting and placing items on about 12 lounge chairs. :eek: I felt bad for the poor kid! The family did not start arriving until at least 10 and many of them did not arrive until later.

 

In the meantime, If I saw people looking for chairs I would nod toward that group of saved ones and mention that I had not seen people there at all.

[Kokomo_Man]

Day 6 – not really a day 6

 

 

I’m sorry I have to report to you the scene I saw this morning. It began with a fittingly dark, rainy day. It was if the skies were crying. It was a sad sight to see… as we were getting off the ship, grown men were crying. OK… it was me. As usual, I just wasn’t ready for the cruise to be over.

 

Since I use Day 0 (got to do it again... tee hee) Day 6 really isn’t a day at all. Instead, it’s get up early… woof down some breakfast and get of the ship. The very loud PA system started out in the hall way right at 7 AM. Goose (the cruise director) came on in his piercing voice welcoming us back to Miami and starting the disembarking process. What he was really saying was, “IF YOU ARE STILL IN BED, GET YOUR FANNY UP AND OFF OF MY SHIP!!!” I was still in bed, so I rolled over and tried to get another 40 winks. In what seemed like only a minute he was calling, “GROUP 1!!!! GET OFF MY SHIP!!!”

 

I tried to ignore it, but this little cartoon image of Goose popped up on my pillow. He was dressed in a red suit with a long pitch fork tail. He yelled into my ear, “THIS MEANS YOU!... GET UP!!!” So I drug my butt out of bed and went through the drudgery of getting off Goose’s ship.

 

Getting off the ship was mixed emotions. In some ways it will be good to have a little peace and quite after 6 days with 22 people of all ages. But mostly I’ll be suffering from “empty nest” syndrome. When my five kids were growing up my house was always a “zoo”. And it was mostly "happy sounds” in the house. So the “zoo” we had during the cruise was a lot like that. And there were certainly lots of “happy sounds” for the past six days.

 

Now I’m sitting in the airport and everyone has flown away... it certainly is a bit like “empty next syndrome”.

 

I should tell you a little bit about the last sea day afternoon and evening…

 

As expected everyone… all over the ship were trying to get the most out of the last day. The pools, water-slide, hot-tubs, serenity deck, and deck chairs everywhere were getting quite a work out… lots of “happy sounds”.

 

In a previous post I mentioned the slow service I had in the Washington Dining room. Well… it never got stellar, but it did improve some from the low that I wrote about in the rant. And I never did have to approach the maitre’ de. Then, mysteriously, on the last night the service got surprisingly good. Hummm, wonder if they were thinking about the extra tips they would get… or in my case extra tips they would not get.

 

Right after dinner we went up to the serenity deck for “Cigars Under the Stars”. As I think most of you know, I don’t smoke… except for the Cuban cigars. I always buy Cuban Cigars when I’m in Grand Cayman. This time I bought one for every one who wanted one… me, and four others including one of my daughters. I really don’t smoke them. Instead, I just get them on fire and let them burn and smolder for a while. So why do this?

 

Well… it’s my silent (and now not so silent) way to protest the U.S. obsolete, unsuccessful, arcane, cold war policy toward Cuba. In this case, I put my money where my mouth is. Except that I need to find a new Cuban product. Every time I light one of those cigars it’s… paaattooooeeyyyy!!! Even though these are fine cigars, it’s like a heard of camels traipsing through my mouth. I only puff on them just enough to the them smoldering, but still… paaattoooooeeeyyyyy.

 

Even with the camels in my mouth, “Cigars Under the Stars” was a very nice way to spend time with everyone on the last night of the cruise. Cigar smoking is not so much about smoking… rather it’s social. We were there by ourselves, so there was no one to disturb with the smoke… and there was a brisk breeze to disperse the smoke so it wouldn’t bother people in other places on the ship. The non-smokers in the “crew” came too. We spent about an hour talking about all the escapades and adventures everyone had on the cruise… happy sounds. When the cigars had burned down to little stubs, we all said good night.

 

I did one last tour around the ship. I stopped off at the casino bandstand to listen to a few last tunes and to have one last frozen concoction to help me hang on. Others were there doing essentially the same thing… having a last few minutes with more happy sounds. With that, I called it a night… and in effect… “called it a cruise”.

 

Today’s a long travel day. I’m flying to Los Angeles, and then I have another 80 miles to go after that. So I’m going to stop this post here. I’ll be back tomorrow with a wrap up post to talk about some of the “loose ends” and other bits and pieces. Also I’ll be posting more pictures via twitter. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to answer them then too.

 

Bye for now,

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[mickiemac]

Bob, as usual, your post made me smile.

 

Mickie

[maitlandmom]

Bravo on a great review!!! I loved it. I was on the Valor 3 years ago and I have fond memories. (Except for the odd older French gentleman that kept trying to pick me up at the BlackJack tables. But that is a tale for another day.)

 

Your writing is wonderful and so colorful. Forget Rick Steven's, you need your own travel book.

[Kokomo_Man]

Acknowledgements

 

 

Later today I’ll post my wrap up. But now that I’m back to high speed internet again I took the time to re-read your posts and replies. I want to take the time to say thank you all very much for your kind comments. You're the reason why I do this. I enjoy sharing the exploits and maybe putting a smile or two on your face. Your encouragement is the fuel that keeps me going.

 

Mickiemac… I looked at your signature block with the past cruises in it. I almost can’t believe how long ago it is that we met you and Jim on the Ruby Princess. And can it possibly be nearly two years since we all sailed on the Valor? That doesn’t seem possible. This cruise, every time I walked past the booth we were in I could almost see the four of us there… Jim eating buckets of Chocolate Melting Cake… everyone laughing and having a good time. (Pass the Kleenex please.)

 

I apologize to everyone for using twitter. I have been, like many of you, resisting and all but refusing to sign up for the endless babble that goes on there. Postings like, “I just stepped out of the bathtub”… or “I’m fixing spaghetti” are people being way too full of themselves. GIVE ME A BREAK! But for this case I have not figured a better way to post pictures and maybe pass a few quick messages. Posting pics on twitter takes far less valuable shipboard internet time than anything else I know. Another thing it may do is to allow me to contact you the next time I’m on an adventure. I’m certainly open to other ideas on how to do this, so let me know if you’ve got an idea.

 

Did someone mention a book??? Hummmm… I have to be careful here or I’ll get sent to the cruisecritic naughty room. Maitlandmom said, “you need your own book”. Funny she should mention that… and NO… I didn’t put her (or anyone) up to saying that. I don’t want to get a “CC” time-out so I’ll just say that I’m workin’ on it. It’s nearly finished and should be out in only a few weeks.

 

I’ll have the wrap-up post and some pics (via twitter… sorry) ready in a little while.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[mickiemac]

"Jim eating buckets of Chocolate Melting Cake"

 

As I recall, he was not alone on the melting cake, or any of the other 9 desserts we had on the table one night. We will have another table on another cruise as soon as we get the last of the children married off. Hopefully we can make a cruise happen in March?

[mississauga]

Bob, not on twitter and have no desire to join so did not see your pictures. Now that you are back to regular internet, will you be posting them here?

 

With or without the pictures it was still a nice 'Live". Thank you.:)

[Kokomo_Man]

"Jim eating buckets of Chocolate Melting Cake"

 

As I recall, he was not alone on the melting cake, or any of the other 9 desserts we had on the table one night. We will have another table on another cruise as soon as we get the last of the children married off. Hopefully we can make a cruise happen in March?

 

 

BUSTED...

 

Mickie, you caught me. So I admitt that I'm not sure who ate the most melting cake... Jim or Me. Tee-hee

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[Kokomo_Man]

Bob, not on twitter and have no desire to join so did not see your pictures. Now that you are back to regular internet, will you be posting them here?

 

With or without the pictures it was still a nice 'Live". Thank you.:)

 

Mary... I feel your pain. Before now I too had resisted twitter. So I'm working on something else "as we speak".

 

The problem with trying to post them on Cruise Critic is that you really have to post them elsewhere and they appear here on CC with a link embedded in the post. That means something like photobucket or others.

 

Another option I'm looking at is to do a Kokomo Man facebook page or something like that. I think that might work pretty well, but it could have the same problem of people not on facebook.

 

Lastly, I'm considering a Kokoman.com web page. This is how Seargent Schultz (I see nothing) does it. He posts his pictures on his own web site and his posts here just "point" to those pictures. The problem with this is that it involves some cost (not a really big deal I don't think) and it involves a bit of work to build and maintain a web site. The extra work of the web site is what might be a problem.

 

For now I think I'm just going to try facebook and post the link here. Will that work for you Mary?

 

Anyone else have an input on using facebook for posting pics... now or during future cruises and adventures?

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[mississauga]

Mary... I feel your pain. Before now I too had resisted twitter. So I'm working on something else "as we speak".

 

The problem with trying to post them on Cruise Critic is that you really have to post them elsewhere and they appear here on CC with a link embedded in the post. That means something like photobucket or others.

 

Another option I'm looking at is to do a Kokomo Man facebook page or something like that. I think that might work pretty well, but it could have the same problem of people not on facebook.

 

Lastly, I'm considering a Kokoman.com web page. This is how Seargent Schultz (I see nothing) does it. He posts his pictures on his own web site and his posts here just "point" to those pictures. The problem with this is that it involves some cost (not a really big deal I don't think) and it involves a bit of work to build and maintain a web site. The extra work of the web site is what might be a problem.

 

For now I think I'm just going to try facebook and post the link here. Will that work for you Mary?

 

Anyone else have an input on using facebook for posting pics... now or during future cruises and adventures?

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

 

Bob, please do not go to any extra expense to share your pictures. It was already generous of you to do the "Live from". Again....lol, not on Facebook for the same reason. However, I do have access to fb since DH has an account and am able to access JH's fb page as he is a public figure. Would anyone be able to see your fb pictures or only those who are your friends? Again, don't go to any extra trouble or expense.

[Irishlinny]

FB works for me! Glad you had a good cruise, and I hear you about getting some peace & quiet...LOL!;)

Still hoping to sail with you in November...have everything crossed over here (but I'm falling down a lot:eek::p).

[BettyPC]

Great review - really enjoyed reading about Valor and your adventures. We went on her in 2008 and really enjoyed it! Went to Twitter to see your photos (I had an account - but never used it). Thanks again for taking us with you!

[Kokomo_Man]

More pics up via twitter. I'm going to try to put all the pics up on Facebook next.

 

Mary... I'm going to try to create a fully public account so that everyone can see everything without having to be a "friend".

 

I'll post the link here when it's ready.

[Kokomo_Man]

I created a Facebook page and posted some of the pics there. It's KokomoManToo (someone else had KokomoMan). I'll use this for now to see how it goes

 

Someone let me know if this works OK. If it does, then I'll post more pics.

 

Here's the link:

 

http://www.facebook.com/KokomoManToo/photos

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[LizaMM]

I created a Facebook page and posted some of the pics there. It's KokomoManToo (someone else had KokomoMan). I'll use this for now to see how it goes

 

Someone let me know if this works OK. If it does, then I'll post more pics.

 

Here's the link:

 

http://www.facebook.com/KokomoManToo/photos

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

 

It WORKED!!!!! YEAH!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!! :D

[mississauga]

I created a Facebook page and posted some of the pics there. It's KokomoManToo (someone else had KokomoMan). I'll use this for now to see how it goes

 

Someone let me know if this works OK. If it does, then I'll post more pics.

 

Here's the link:

 

http://www.facebook.com/KokomoManToo/photos

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

 

It WORKED!!!!! YEAH!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!! :D

 

Thanks Bob:D

[Kokomo_Man]

Wrap-up

 

 

 

I sit here this morning in something of a stupor. It’s sort of like coming down from a sugar high. But in this case it’s coming down from a Chocolate Melting Cake high.

 

“JR. WINS!!! I’m a bit of a NASCAR fan so how could I not know this until today. This morning I’m watching SPEED TV and catching up on the goings on for the past week. Can you believe it… “Jr. Nation” is still standing up cheering… Dale Earnheart, Jr. won the race last Sunday at Michigan. I’m not part of “Jr. Nation, but Congratulations to Jr. He’s worked very hard to earn it.

 

Now for those of you who don’t care anything about NASCAR… probably a lot of you… I only mention this here to point out one of the great thing about a cruise… you block out most of the world for a while when you are on a cruise. For the most part you “disconnect”… cell phones are off (useless)… my postings not withstanding, the computer is off… news of the day is off… the TV is off. Yea, we all keep an eye on emails or other stuff in case of an emergency notification but that’s about it.

 

On a cruise we ignore the world. Even my postings are about cruising and have little to do with anything else. In my “crew” there are at least three of us NASCAR fans and the others follow it more or less. Yet none of know that Jr. won last weeks race. Such is the power of cruising. And after all, “unplugging” is what a vacation should be about.

 

Before I leave this subject, I just want to say… “Congratulations Jr.”

 

Odds and Ends – In no particular order

 

I’ve mentioned this a little bit before, but I want to emphasize here that the kids “soda cards” were probably the best spend money of the cruise. Every kid on the cruise and a couple of the adults had one. It would have cost at least twice as much if we had to buy the sodas individually. In some cases, the kids would have sent their parents (and me) to the poor-house if they had to pay for all the sodas they drank. Now they will just have to pay for the dentist’s bills.

 

Camp Carnival has their “Night Owls” program that I mentioned early in the cruise. At the time I said the kids didn’t particularly like it. Well… that changed later in the cruise. Of course this is a program for the parents too… mom & dad can participate in late night activities. The last night of the cruise the kids all loved the “Night Owl” program. They had activities that they all had fun at… they had some dancing, some crafts stuff, and a lot of activities that they liked. They each got a grab-bag with goodies and made their own custom T-Shirt. As their parents picked them up every one of them said they had a very good time.

 

Another Camp Carnival comment from the kids is that the food was not very good when the kids ate at one of the Camp Carnival programs. The also seemed to be the consensus of all the 4 – 11 year olds (the groups with the food programs.) The main complaint was that the food was always cold when they got it. They also talked about the limited variety… a steady diet of chicken nuggets and pizza gets old even for kids. By the way… most of the kids (all ages) ate dinner with the family most nights, and they all liked the food.

 

While mentioning the food, the consensus of the adults was that with one exception, it was never very hot… usually bordering on luke-warm. It was never so bad that any of us had to send it back, but it was close for me a couple of times. As slow as our service was, I suspect the problem was that it was sitting in the delivery line for quite a while. The exception was of course the last night when I suspect they were working to increase their tips… the food was piping hot for just about everyone in my “crew”.

 

My other comment of food is you can always find something you like… for any meal… and almost any time of the day. Late night there’s only pizza, but at other times there are so many venues with such a variety of food that if you can’t find something good to eat, then you just weren’t hungry.

 

The photo prices on the ship are outrageous. Maybe if you buy just one, then the price is only a little high… about $21 for the portrait types. During the cruise there are photographers every where… all the time. (You’ve heard my complaints about running the gauntlet of photographers before.) If you decide to buy a second picture it is also $21… and a third is the same price. No matter how many pictures you buy the price each is the same. On the cruise they could take enough pictures of you to make you take out a second mortgage on your house. Unless I’ve just missed a special somewhere, Carnival needs to put together some kind of package deal.

 

I have only bought two of these pictures on all my previous cruises.. I have mostly boycotted them because of the outrageous price. But now I wish I had bought at least a couple more. Since this was a special cruise for me with my entire “crew”. I broke down and bought five pictures. We’ll probably never have a chance to do this again and I didn’t want to loose those images of the family. It’s only money.

 

My suggestion for you regarding the on-board pictures is to take a lot of pictures of the people you’re with yourself. It’s amazing how many pictures we take of things and places and how few we actually take of the ones we love. There are also going to be those pictures that the ship’s photographers take that you will want. So before the cruise, budget how much you are willing to spend on those “special” pics that you just can’t live without. Then stick with that… resist the urge on the last night to say, “oh well it’s only money.”… that’s where they get you. With this mindset, you’ll only end up buying just one or two more than was in your budget.

 

Jamaica – If you haven’t been there… go! Be sure to do a little bit of a walk-about and have the experience. Throughout “Cigars Under the Stars”¸ … after we got off the boat on the bus to the airport… and while waiting at the airport… everyone was still telling stories about Jamaica. Now, even if they never go on another cruise… or never go back to Jamaica ever again… they all have stories to tell the rest of their life.

 

I asked the "crew" about what their favorite thing during the cruise was… what their favorite place was. I asked kids and adults. Everyone had a hard time answering because they liked almost everything. They really couldn’t pick because there were differing “categories”. They liked Key West because… well because it’s Key West; “America’s Caribbean Island”. A cruise ship may not be the best way to go there, but if you do, be sure to at least get off and do a walk-about in the T-shirt & Booze Bar capital of the universe.

 

Grand Cayman – Every person in the “crew”… big or little… loved going to Stingray City in Grand Cayman. Those of us that are SCUBA divers decided that we need to go back there for an eight day vacation. We would dive every-other day and do other stuff on the off days. For our off days, we would go to Stingray City again, spend a day “wastin’ away again in Margaritaville”… and two days exploring the rest of the island I’ve never seen. Certainly short visits to “Hell” and the Tortuga Rum Factory… Rum Point and the East End are all in order.

 

And of course Jamaica – I spent a lot of time the last day answering questions about the other stuff I’ve done in Jamaica. Everyone was interested in more stuff there. I’m certainly no expert on the place, but no matter what you do in Jamaica you will always leave there with a smile on your face. Yea… you have to get over the “hustlers”, but once you do that… you will get into the feeling that no mater what the day brings, everything is “no problem mon”… “everything is eire”.

 

The crusin’ part – I used to tease “The Woman to Blame” that she would be very happy just getting on a cruise ship to circle around a buoy in the middle of the ocean. As soon as I would get those words out of my mouth, she would just say, “Let’s go… my bag is packed”. Early on… before I cruised… my biggest fear was sea days. Now I look forward to them. I’m not sure I would like to circle around that buoy for days on end, but the sea days are part of that ability to “unplug” that I talked about earlier in this post. You get to do what you want… when you want… and there is never much that you “have” to do.

 

Carnival’s Crew – I can’t leave without giving you my overall impression of the ship’s staff. In a borrowed word, they were “brilliant”. Bartenders everywhere had to contend with little kids from my “crew” badgering them. They always did it with a smile and always a little something special for the kids. The bartenders on the smoking side of the main pool on the Lido deck were especially good with the kids. There was also a “drink” waiter in the Washington main dining room during the late seating that was exceptional with all the soda drink orders from the kids.

 

I had a couple of occasions to go to the guest services desk to help me with a variety of arrangements for my “crew”. They were always professional and efficient. In each case they figured out a way to help me do the impossible thing I was trying to do.

 

The “crew” had nine cabins in total. They ranged from the lowest category (1A) down in the bowels all the way up to the “Ocean Suite” on deck 7 (mine of course). There were “Ocean View” and “Balcony” cabins too. We had no problems with any of the cabins, and everyone said that the cabin stewards were very good. As usual the stewards know most everyone by name.

 

Half of the adult “crew”… and almost all the kids were first time cruisers. While we were making our way to the airports and as we sat in the airport, every one of the “crew” was dreamin’ and schemin’ about some kind of future cruise. …“Dad, what about a cruise to Mexico”?… hummm Cozumel. …“Dad, how about cruising from Galveston?” …hummm the Magic. …“Dad, is ‘your guy’ in the piano bar for BC6?” … hummm YES HE IS!!!. Somewhere in my posts I think I’ve said, “so many islands, so little time”… I need to add, so many cruises, so little time.

 

So far I’ve had no luck getting any of the kids to write something to post here to give you the perspective in their own words. They were too busy having fun to be punished with an “essay”. Perhaps now there’s at least one… the one who is a budding writer… might give it a try and post something here. Or maybe not. I think some of the “big kids” (my son or daughters) may have a few paragraphs to contribute too. It will probably be a few days before they post, so you may want to “subscribe” to this thread if you haven’t already.

 

As you know if you’ve read all the posts, I’m trying to scrounge up a cabin for the sold out U.S. inaugural 8 day Caribbean cruise on the brand new Breeze. If I am able to get that booked, I’ll be doing a “live from” during that cruise. I’m also likely to be on BC6 in the middle of January (really a bad time for me, but I’m workin’ on it.) If I make BC6 then I’ll do a “live from” for that too.

 

I also have a couple of other things in the works that I’m trying to figure a way to do a “live from” too. But these are not cruises so they are probably not suitable to post here. The first is actually a business trip in July to Florida’s Miracle Strip on the Gulf Coast. They have the purest sugar white beaches I have ever seen. And although it’s a business trip, I’ve got four working days sandwiched in between two week-ends. You probably know me well enough by now to know the sort of things I’ll be doing for the week-end parts.

 

I’m also working on a trip to Cuba this fall. This is one of the places a lot of cruisers have been wishing for, so perhaps I can figure a way to post stuff on Cruise Critic for that trip. I think it makes sense because it relates to potential future cruise stuff. I think… and hope it’s only a matter of time before U.S. based cruise ships are visiting Cuba.

 

I’ll use twitter to try to let you know when/where I’m posting stuff for the Florida & Cuba trips. When I do a “live from” for my next cruise, I’ll post a link to the new thread here in this thread so if you’re subscribed you’ll see it.

 

I will be posting a pile of photos somewhere today or within the next couple of days at the worst. I’ll also be making a youtube video over the next few days. I’ll post links to both of those here when they are ready.

 

In closing my past cruise posts, I have ended with; “I wish you all fair winds and following seas… and long may your big jib draw”. Those are traditional nautical partings. And indeed I wish those things for you. But this time I wanted to say something of my own. So this time I’ll just say:

 

May your search for Kokomo be as wonderful as mine has been.

 

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[Postman806]

Thank you so much Bob. Very entertaining and informative.

[Carebear95]

Its taken a while, but here's my take on the cruise and, judging by the complaints and excuses offered by my cousins, I'm guessing I'm the only one willing to give it.

First: the club. They make it seem like a lot of fun with all their events and such. Who knows, maybe on other cruises it is more fun. In my case, not so much. It seemed as if everyone had come on the ship with a built in group of friends, there didn't seem to be much mingling. As for the events, I went a couple times to participate but most of the time they weren't enforced. Basically it was a bunch of teens sitting around talking and watching football. The supervisors were pretty cool, easy to talk to and almost one of the kids, but I wish they would've gotten more involved and forced us to interact.

Second: the "free" stuff. With the soda cards, you got all the soda you could drink. I think I must have had several gallons of coke. Then there was the ice cream. Literally all you could eat 24 hours a day, I know at least two of my cousins took that to heart. There were also free stuff offers off the ship. Simple stuff, like if you go to this store you got this special gift. Of course, they were all really cheap and broke easily.

Third: the shows were probably one of the best things about the cruise. The 80s theme was pretty cool, but the finale was amazing. They had auditions for crew and passengers, the winners got to imitate famous singers in the show. Me and one of my cousins got front row seats, no more than a few inches from the stage. There were many, many dancing girls with short skirts. Let's just say the guys had fun.

Honestly, the best part of the cruise was getting to see my family. I don't see them often and rarely all at the same time, so this was definitely an experience.

The formal nights were excellent, but maybe that's just me. I liked the excuse to dress up and get fancy. I know the guys complained about the stuffiness of the suits. I thought the food was fairly good, the service was eh but the staff was cool.

One more thing, about the excursions. You had to get up at seven o clock just to have time to do anything on land. I don't know about everyone else, but I am not a morning person. I'd rather get up three hours later and spend all day on land. Instead the deadline was early and everything was a little rushed. I'm told Jamaica was fun, key west was okay. Grand cayman was the most fun, if only because of the stingrays. Sure, I may have nearly drowned in the salt ridden water, but it was worth it.

So, there you have it. I know it was only supposed to be three or four paragraphs, but I figure no one else was going to do it. For the record, I'd do this cruise again if given the choice. I'd also do some more of the events, eat more food, and meet new people.

[mickiemac]

So, there you have it. I know it was only supposed to be three or four paragraphs, but I figure no one else was going to do it. For the record, I'd do this cruise again if given the choice. I'd also do some more of the events, eat more food, and meet new people.

 

 

I do not know which of the "crew" you are, but thanks for a well written account from a young person. We seldom see a young persons view on here.(I know it made grandad happy) I know all of you had a blast and grandad, I am sure was thrilled to have the lot of you share this Camp Grandma with him.

 

Mickie

[mississauga]

Its taken a while, but here's my take on the cruise and, judging by the complaints and excuses offered by my cousins, I'm guessing I'm the only one willing to give it.

First: the club. They make it seem like a lot of fun with all their events and such. Who knows, maybe on other cruises it is more fun. In my case, not so much. It seemed as if everyone had come on the ship with a built in group of friends, there didn't seem to be much mingling. As for the events, I went a couple times to participate but most of the time they weren't enforced. Basically it was a bunch of teens sitting around talking and watching football. The supervisors were pretty cool, easy to talk to and almost one of the kids, but I wish they would've gotten more involved and forced us to interact.

Second: the "free" stuff. With the soda cards, you got all the soda you could drink. I think I must have had several gallons of coke. Then there was the ice cream. Literally all you could eat 24 hours a day, I know at least two of my cousins took that to heart. There were also free stuff offers off the ship. Simple stuff, like if you go to this store you got this special gift. Of course, they were all really cheap and broke easily.

Third: the shows were probably one of the best things about the cruise. The 80s theme was pretty cool, but the finale was amazing. They had auditions for crew and passengers, the winners got to imitate famous singers in the show. Me and one of my cousins got front row seats, no more than a few inches from the stage. There were many, many dancing girls with short skirts. Let's just say the guys had fun.

Honestly, the best part of the cruise was getting to see my family. I don't see them often and rarely all at the same time, so this was definitely an experience.

The formal nights were excellent, but maybe that's just me. I liked the excuse to dress up and get fancy. I know the guys complained about the stuffiness of the suits. I thought the food was fairly good, the service was eh but the staff was cool.

One more thing, about the excursions. You had to get up at seven o clock just to have time to do anything on land. I don't know about everyone else, but I am not a morning person. I'd rather get up three hours later and spend all day on land. Instead the deadline was early and everything was a little rushed. I'm told Jamaica was fun, key west was okay. Grand cayman was the most fun, if only because of the stingrays. Sure, I may have nearly drowned in the salt ridden water, but it was worth it.

So, there you have it. I know it was only supposed to be three or four paragraphs, but I figure no one else was going to do it. For the record, I'd do this cruise again if given the choice. I'd also do some more of the events, eat more food, and meet new people.

 

 

Very well written! Your grand dad was right....a budding writer. Thank you for taking the time out to give us your thoughts and perspective.

 

Bob, you must be one proud grandpa!:)

[Kokomo_Man]

Care Bear is a nickname Emily (Her Grandma) gave her.

 

The first thing I did when I saw her in that blue dress is put her on my arm and parade her around the prominade deck... twice.

 

The second thing I did was dust off my old shotgun.

 

 

 

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[newcrew42]

Thanks for "live" report. I loved every minute of it.

 

Special thanks yo Care Bear for giving her teen report. :)

[mickiemac]

Care Bear is a nickname Emily (Her Grandma) gave her.

 

The first thing I did when I saw her in that blue dress is put her on my arm and parade her around the prominade deck... twice.

 

The second thing I did was dust off my old shotgun.

 

 

 

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

 

Very pretty girl, Bob. I know you enjoyed parading her around. Jim has more guns if you need them..

[Kokomo_Man]

I just posted the last of the pics from this cruise to the KokomoMan facebook page. I'll try to get a video up to youtube this week-end. Here's the link:

 

http://www.facebook.com/KokomoManToo

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny