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A review of my first ever Carnival cruise!

acruisingpeach23

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Keepercruiser

Keepercruiser

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I have really enjoyed reading your review - you have made me smile and laugh - you are a great writer! We are going on our first Carnival Cruise in 31 days! I can't wait. We've been on NCL 10 times and Princess once before, but had avoided Carnival because we'd heard so many bad things. We've decided that we ought to give them a try since we now live near to Galveston, so it has been nice hearing your comments. It sounds as though they're just fine and we'll have a good time. We have opted for a balcony room so I was pleased to hear your description. Thanks again! I look forward to reading the rest.

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rob6465

rob6465

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I have really enjoyed reading your review - you have made me smile and laugh - you are a great writer! We are going on our first Carnival Cruise in 31 days! I can't wait. We've been on NCL 10 times and Princess once before, but had avoided Carnival because we'd heard so many bad things. We've decided that we ought to give them a try since we now live near to Galveston, so it has been nice hearing your comments. It sounds as though they're just fine and we'll have a good time. We have opted for a balcony room so I was pleased to hear your description. Thanks again! I look forward to reading the rest.

 

You will enjoy carnival. Wife and I have only cruised on carnival but have no complaints. Heck, one of the best cruises was one where we missed 2 ports.My son got married on magic last year and everyone with us had a blast.

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bsdmhutch

bsdmhutch

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There is a Lancaster's less than 10 minutes from Northlake.

 

Thanks!! Did not realize there was one in Huntersville too (I see from their website). I went to the one in Mooresville on a recommendation. We drive through there often from Concord to get to 77. DD boyfriend lives in Elkin and it's an easy way to avoid the traffic in Huntersville.

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acruisingpeach23

acruisingpeach23

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Tuesday July 16th---Belize, Where is my boat? The nightmare of tendering, Seasick while snorkeling?, Miami Vice boat ride, and more!

 

I woke up bright and early again and headed outside to see what was going on. After getting ready and collecting my towels for the day I saw some brown water spots in the sink so I asked BF if he noticed the water being brown and he said no so I figured it must have been from ice tea that we had spilled down the sink the night before.

 

We were scheduled to meet our shore excursion at 9:30am island time so we figured we would head down to the tendering ticket location at 10am. The excursion we booked was also through Island Marketing and it was called Goff Cay and Snorkeling. We weren’t worried about being late because on the paperwork we had it specifically stated that if we were late there would be another boat to pick us up from the dock.

 

We headed down to the 5th floor and walked towards the tendering ticket location, which was all the way aft. However the line was soooo long that we actually hit the end of the line by the casino. I will admit the line moved fast to get the tickets. We wound up being tender #38 and was told to wait in the Victoria lounge or in the piano bar because they weren’t announcing the tender numbers over the loudspeaker and those were the only two places we would be able to hear the announcements.

 

We crammed ourselves into the Victoria lounge and found seats. It was so hectic and crowded that I said to my mother that NCL’s tendering process was so much better.

 

The only other time I ever tendered was on the NCL cruise I went on and their process, I thought, was flawless. On NCL you get your tender tickets and then you can wait anywhere on the ship including your cabin because they actually announced the tender numbers over the loudspeaker.

 

We finally got called and headed to the tender. Now they make you go alllll the way aft and wait there to get on a tender, but then you have to walk alllll the way forward to get on the tender itself. I think I was pushed once or twice. I didn’t understand why people were in such a rush. I mean we were headed to the same place and we were all going to get on the tender.

 

Once on the tender I want to say it took maybe 15-20 minutes to get to the dock. Once we were there we found the island marketing rep and were told really bad news.

 

We missed the boat to the island and we would now have to wait for them to get 15 people to sign up for this excursion or we couldn’t go. We were sooooo angry. It says in black and white on the receipt that they would get us there even if we were late. We told the guy to forget it and to give us our deposit back but he refused stating the only way we would get our deposit back was if the cruise ship didn’t make it to port.

 

Well this really started the day off on a sour note.

 

BF and I walked down the pier and found a bar. He got 2 Belize made beers for $5 and we hung out in there while the rep looked for 11 other people. After about a half an hour the rep told us they had found enough people and we were good to go.

 

We boarded a speed boat. In the description of the excursion it does tell us that from the dock there would e a 35-45 minute boat ride to the island. However we were thinking a nice boat. Not some speed boat that you see in drug movies! Anyway we get on this boat and we take off. OMG we were going soooo fast and everyone was getting tossed around. I felt like the boat was trying to outrun the coast guard or something.

 

It was soooo painful but at the same time, a little exhilarating. LOL

 

My mother did not do well on this ride and we had to stop the boat so she could change her seat. She is kind of small and she was getting tossed around like a rag doll.

 

After our Miami Vice style boat ride we arrive at a small island. It was beautiful and very tropical. It looked like something out of Gilligan’s Island. The driver told us we had a few moments to walk around on the beach but if we wanted to go snorkeling we had to be back at the boat in I believe 15 minutes.

 

I wanted to go snorkeling but again on the description of the shore excursion it said snorkeling with a guide from the beach not from a boat. I never went snorkeling from a boat and I was nervous. My mother and sister stayed at the beach but BF and I decided to go.

 

They did give out snorkeling equipment but my mom had actually brought us each our own kits about 2 years ago from Costco. It is a bag with flippers, a mask, and a mouthpiece. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes to snorkel but finds it nasty (like I do) to use used snorkeling equipment.

 

We got back on the boat and drove out a little bit. Then we were each given a life vest. The instructor told us to either tie the life vest around our wrist or to wear it around your waist.

 

I wore mine around my waist line.

 

Here is a helpful tip: Women wear a shirt over your bathing suit top. Wearing the vest around your waist line well it doesn’t stay on your waist line, it actually floats up a little to the top of your rib cage and ummm yeah unless you like a lot of attention just wear a shirt over your bathing suit!

 

Once I got myself situated I was told to jump off the boat. Whatttt? I’m not jumping off a boat! I can barely swim and you want me to jump off this boat and go snorkeling. Ok I can swim but anytime you hear stories about sharks it always involves a boat in the middle of the ocean. BF said if I didn’t jump he was going to push me. Now I have been with this man for over 8 years and he knows better not to push me so after telling him “I swear to god if you push me off this boat OMG” I realized I was so angry at him just telling me he was going to push me, that I had enough adrenaline to just jump. And that’s how well he knows me ladies and gentlemen LOL

 

I jumped off the boat and chocked. My mask wasn’t on properly and I got hit with all this water! After swallowing all the lovely Belize water and making sure that I wasn’t going to die I started to snorkel. Now I’m not sure if it was because the water was really rough that day or what but I actually got seasick while snorkeling. I was sooooo nauseous after it was all said and done. We saw some beautiful coral and some beautiful fish. It was really pretty and I would snorkel there again!

 

When the snorkeling was over we had about an hour to an hour and a half on the beach. BRING WATER SHOES!!! The water was soooo rocky but it was beautiful.

 

I heard a lot of bad things about Belize and I am sure there is some truth to it but this excursion was pretty amazing. I really liked it!

 

Once the beach time was up we got back on the boat and headed right into the middle of a storm. It was so weird to go from sunny skies into dark rainy weather. It was also kind of fun to get rained on!

 

Once we were back on the dock we hopped on a tender and went straight to the ship. We unpacked and passed out cold. I swear the sun down there is better than any sleeping aid. LOL

 

BF and I woke up long enough to decide on room service for dinner, eat, and watch a little TV and then we were both out cold again.

 

It was kind of annoying being so tired because we missed the comedians and just didn’t get too much time to walk around the ship.

 

 

 

Although this has nothing to do with Belize I just thought this would be a good tip to add.

 

So last summer I went to Myrtle Beach for the first time. I am very pale and use SPF 55..wellllll I wound up with severe sun poisoning. My eyes became swollen and so did my mouth. I looked like rocky balboa for a week and it was sooo painful, so for this trip I went out and bought SPF 70! Welll even after using SPF 70 I still got a little burnt but I actually got a tan!! WOOOHOOO a tan!!!

 

Seriously though if you are sensitive to the sun I would go for the SPF 70 J

 

 

 

Ok its Friday and I have the weekend off so hopefully I will be able to catch this bad boy of a review up and post pictures for those who don’t have instagram!!

 

 

 

Stay tuned!

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acruisingpeach23

acruisingpeach23

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I have really enjoyed reading your review - you have made me smile and laugh - you are a great writer! We are going on our first Carnival Cruise in 31 days! I can't wait. We've been on NCL 10 times and Princess once before, but had avoided Carnival because we'd heard so many bad things. We've decided that we ought to give them a try since we now live near to Galveston, so it has been nice hearing your comments. It sounds as though they're just fine and we'll have a good time. We have opted for a balcony room so I was pleased to hear your description. Thanks again! I look forward to reading the rest.

 

I will be posting a picture of what the balcony looks like when its open. I dont think i could ever have a room without a balcony. They have spoiled me! :)

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acruisingpeach23

acruisingpeach23

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I own the little ones(poms)and when I was a teen owned a pitbull and loved him so much.We got him from family in Puerto Rico. My cousin in NY owns 2 pitbulls and travels to show that pitbulls are not the problem.

 

Sent from my SGH-T999L using Forums mobile app

 

Thats so nice that your cousin does that! I hope to one day open my own no-kill animal sanctuary. :)

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acruisingpeach23

acruisingpeach23

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Wednesday July 17th---Roatan, Anytime Dining, and of course more napping!

On this morning when I woke up I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. When I turned on the water I noticed it was BROWN!!! Ewwww now I know why there were brown water spots in the sink the morning before. I wonder how many times during the night I washed my hands half asleep with brown water!! YUCK

After a few moments of letting the water run it did turn back to clear water, but I was officially grossed out.

For Roatan we booked a west bay beach break again through Island Marketing. We gathered our belongings and headed off the ship, through the shops, and to the taxi area. We were told out transportation would be waiting for us at the taxi area so we figured that’s where we would be meeting our driver.

Once again we were told wrong. Carnival apparently does not allow shore excursions booked with other companies to pick up people at the taxi area. You have to walk up a steep hill and then down a steep hill to meet your driver. However you can pay $2 a person to take a taxi up the hill.

My mom has some heart issues and can’t walk up a steep hill so we decided to take the taxi. When we met our driver she informed us that after the excursion was over she would be allowed to bring us directly to the drop off area, she just isn’t allowed to pick us up.

Ok soooo taxis and carnival excursions can meet us as the port area, but private tours can only drop us off at the port, not pick us up.

Are you confused? Because I was! What kind of crap is that I thought? The driver then told us that it was a part of some contract that was signed between the government of Roatan (i am assuming) and Carnival.

This was the last shore excursion we had booked, and at this point we were really sick and tired of all the little things Island Marketing failed to tell us.

*I will go on my little rant about Island Marketing later*

Anyway….the driver was very nice she told us about the culture and proceeded to bring us to West Bay. On the way there we saw so much poverty. It broke my heart to see how people live there. Garbage was all over people’s front yards. There were stray dogs everywhere. We saw a Bojangles and laughed at the fact that a Bojangles made it to Roatan and the driver explained to us that Bojangles is a very popular place for dinner on this island and there are 4 of them. She also explained that when families go there, they save up for it and treat it like a very formal dinner.

That made me realize how lucky I am. Sometimes you don’t realize how much you take for granted until you see how other people live.

We made it to the beach and it was soooo beautiful. We hopped right into the water and snorkeled away. We noticed that there were a lot of police officers walking down the beach.

I also noticed how much selling there was.

When I got out of the water to lie down on the lounge chair I was constantly being sold to. Did I want my hair braided; did I want sun glasses, how about a shell, or ice cream, or parasailing, water sports? Did I want to pet a monkey? Now I know this is sort of selfish of me but I found it really annoying. I completely understanding that these people use tourists as ways to make a living but I got so annoyed by the constant interruptions I just went back into the water.

I have to say this water was my favorite. It wasn’t rocky or smelly! We also saw tons of fish while snorkeling so it was a lot of fun.

When our time was up we found our driver and she took us on a different route to get back to the ship so we were able to actually get some sort of island tour without asking for it.

When we got back on the ship it was still early enough to take a nap and go out for dinner!

My mom offered to take us to the steakhouse for dinner so I went ahead and booked a reservation. I couldn’t get one for this evening so I made it for Thursday night. We decided to try anytime dining.

Once that was all settled my mother and sister (who actually stayed on the ship while we were in Roatan) headed down to the second round of trivia which was held in the same place, 3rd floor atrium.

I was exhausted as usual and decided to nap. You would think with all this napping I would be refreshed but I’m telling you I left this vacation more exhausted then when I started it ;)

I checked out the menu on the TV in the room and decided what to eat dinner then went to bed!

I woke up with enough time to do some laundry so I did some laundry and then got ready for dinner.

My mother, boyfriend, and I headed downstairs to the Golden Olympic Dining room and had to wait 5 minutes. We were seated promptly and right away realized that we had an ocean view!

During assigned seated we were upstairs in the dining room and we thought it was odd that there weren’t any windows to look out into the ocean, but downstairs there were windows and we were able to see the ocean.

We then also realized that there was a woman breastfeeding at the table next to us. Ok, so as a woman I am all for the right to breastfeed in public, I really am, BUT I am not sure I PERSONALLY would breastfeed my baby in the middle of a dining room. I know I felt uncomfortable with the fact that I couldn’t look to the left of me for fear that I would make awkward eye contact with the mother.

Anyway, that was just an odd observation; ok so imagine how excited we were when we were given our very own bread basket. In assigned dining we were each given only one piece of bread and then would have to wait to ask for more or wait to see if we were asked by our waiter if we wanted more.

See folks it’s the little things that count :D LOL

Then when I opened the menu I saw a completely different selection then what was on the television. I asked the waiter about this and he said to NEVER go by what is on the television menu because it is usually wrong.

OHHHHH I was so disappointed. Alright fine let me re-think what I want for dinner and I’ll get back to you. I decided on the fried chicken and various appetizers. Ehh I couldn’t be that upset, the food was delicious, the service was awesome, and I actually got coffee with my dessert! Woohoo it’s a good night LOL. Also we were going to the steakhouse the next night so I was really excited about that!

After dinner we walked around the ship a little bit and then went to bed.

Next up Grand Cayman, the sulfa returns!!!, Mongolian Wok, the Steakhouse, and more!

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acruisingpeach23

acruisingpeach23

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Just wondering, you’re on vacation, why doing so much laundry??:rolleyes:

 

We didnt pack alot and i dont mind doing laundry :) our cabin was right there so i would start the machine and go back to my room.

 

I hate to over pack more than i hate to do laundry LOL :)

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acruisingpeach23

acruisingpeach23

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My brother is also a big pit advocate. In fact, he won't cruise out of Miami because of their anti-pit laws!

 

Wowww good for him! We were going to move to Miami but i learned about the BSL laws there and said no way!

 

They just tried to overturn BSL and sadly it didnt go through :(

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