beachsidescott Posted September 9, 2013 #1 Share Posted September 9, 2013 Prior to my cruise, other trip reviews and threads on this forum provided me with tons of good info. I think the least I can do is try to give back and tell you guys about my trip. Maybe something I write will answer a question or concern you have. About me: 42 yrs old, live in Florida, work from home in an IT job, have a wonderful girlfriend(this was our first week long vacation together) never been on a carnival cruise. I'm really laid back and rarely annoyed by little things. I've been on 2 Royal Caribbean cruises, the last was 4 years ago. I don't consider cruises my ideal vacation. I love to travel but I want to experience the culture, food and people. You won't find me doing the typical excursions or touristy activities. BUT, I couldn't lay off this cruise because of the price. Here's us on the way to the port. We stopped by the beach for a quick photo op Cabin: I booked my cruise about 7 weeks out through a company that rhymes with orbit. Initially booked a 6th floor balcony but due to price decreases I was able to upgrade a couple times to a spa balcony, cabin 11222. I liked the room, the bed was comfy and the balcony was great. 2 things to not about this room, 1. it's right below the gym and the treadmills. One evening a a couple mornings we could hear the thumping of runners on treadmills. I sleep like a rock so it didn't bother me. GF is a light sleeper but wore earplugs and she was fine. 2. this room has a connecting door to the room next door. Because of this, we could hear everything and they could hear us. Really folk I mean everything, conversations, TV.... Unfortunately for them, they heard a lot more of us than we heard of them, sorry. More to come Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgatjb Posted September 9, 2013 #2 Share Posted September 9, 2013 Thanks for posting. Can't wait to read more. We leave this Sat on the Dream with the same itinerary. We will be in cabin 11246, from what I can tell not right under the gym. Tammy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachsidescott Posted September 10, 2013 Author #3 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Day 1- we got to the port around 10:30. I was dying to get on the ship and get vacation started. FTTF was sold out so we had to wait. Something was up with the computers and boarding took forever. We were in zone 7 but didn't board until about 2:00. We headed straight to the lido deck and hit the mongolian wok. I heard this was very busy during the cruise so we tried to beat the crowd. It was really good except I picked the Szechuan sauce and it was much spicier than I thought. Then we headed to check out the spa and our room. We were impressed with both. My lovely GF kept commenting on how clean the ship was. Actually all week everything seemed really clean. She said it was better than her last carnival cruise on a different ship(not sure which one). Around 5:00 our luggage came and I was excited to see the licquor I smuggled on made it. I know some of you don't like this, but to each his own. Here's a pic of the stash I fixed us a cocktail, we sat on the balcony then got ready for dinner. I booked the steakhouse 1st night. Dinner was excellent! I was really impressed with the food, we both had steak and lobster tail. Dessert was excellent too, I had cheesecake beautiful GF had the chocolate sampler. After the steakhouse we checked out the band, bought a drink at the bar and then back to the cabin for the night Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachsidescott Posted September 10, 2013 Author #4 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Forgot to mention, we met our cabin steward, Ozzy. He was really nice and always happy to see us. I had forgotten about the towel animals, GF took a pic of me every night with the towel creations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riclop Posted September 10, 2013 #5 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Thanks for starting the review. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachsidescott Posted September 10, 2013 Author #6 Share Posted September 10, 2013 2nd day at sea. We woke up to room service(we did this every morning) then got ready for yoga class. You get 4 free classes with a spa cabin. The yoga was good, it was out on the Serenity deck and was a little hot but a good time. Then we went to the gym for cardio. Gym was a little crowded but not too bad. After the gym we grabbed some lunch at the barbecue on the lanai. I thought it was good, GF thought just ok. After lunch we headed to the lido deck. Just in time for the hairy chest contest. It was really funny!! This is Gumby, for a big guy, he can twerk and booty shake. He had the crowd in stitches trying to show the contestants how to dance We then met up with our roll call/FB group for the paid happy hour. Total fun, definitely a great bunch of folks, drinks were flowing, awards handed out, even the cruise director Jamie stopped by. It was fun. We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon then got ready for formal night. I live at the beach and work from home so I don't dress up that often. I wanted to surprise lovely GF (and I've always wanted to wear a white suit) Dinner in the dining room was good, I bought us a bottle of champagne. This trip was was going well! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ourfamilylovescruising Posted September 10, 2013 #7 Share Posted September 10, 2013 great review so far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bizeemom4 Posted September 10, 2013 #8 Share Posted September 10, 2013 2nd day at sea. We woke up to room service(we did this every morning) then got ready for yoga class. You get 4 free classes with a spa cabin. The yoga was good, it was out on the Serenity deck and was a little hot but a good time. Then we went to the gym for cardio. Gym was a little crowded but not too bad. After the gym we grabbed some lunch at the barbecue on the lanai. I thought it was good, GF thought just ok. After lunch we headed to the lido deck. Just in time for the hairy chest contest. It was really funny!! This is Gumby, for a big guy, he can twerk and booty shake. He had the crowd in stitches trying to show the contestants how to dance We then met up with our roll call/FB group for the paid happy hour. Total fun, definitely a great bunch of folks, drinks were flowing, awards handed out, even the cruise director Jamie stopped by. It was fun. We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon then got ready for formal night. I live at the beach and work from home so I don't dress up that often. I wanted to surprise lovely GF (and I've always wanted to wear a white suit) Dinner in the dining room was good, I bought us a bottle of champagne. This trip was was going well! Ugh. We were on the Dream 8/10 and couldn't stand our CD and ACD. Gumby drove us nuts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAHMto5 Posted September 10, 2013 #9 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Thanks for the great review so far! We are heading back out on the Dream in a couple if weeks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmoniz Posted September 10, 2013 #10 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Enjoying your review so far!! Can't wait to read the rest!! What a lovely couple you are, by the way! PS - bizeemom4 - I have to agree with you!! He was on the Pride with us and I couldn't stand him either! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orpheo Posted September 10, 2013 #11 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Thanks for writing this review. Can't wait for the rest;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silvercrikhix Posted September 10, 2013 #12 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Great start! Thank you for sharing your cruise experience with CC! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannago35 Posted September 10, 2013 #13 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Thanks for sharing, great review can't wait to read more. We sail the Dream in 32 days, same itineary I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachsidescott Posted September 10, 2013 Author #14 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Day 3 Cozumel: We had cloudy overcast skies and even some rain this day. We'd both been to Cozumel before so I bought us a day pass at the Cozumel Palace. We had a wonderful time here. The resort is beautiful and the food and drinks were excellent. After asking the front desk, they even gave us a complimentary room for a few hours. Here's a couple pics of the pool, swim up bar and the restaurant we ate breakfast and lunch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachsidescott Posted September 10, 2013 Author #15 Share Posted September 10, 2013 That night we ate in the dining room for the first time. Our head waiter Onesimo was hilarious. He really made the dining room enjoyable. He got to know us right away and is quite the entertainer. Whether it was singing, dancing or just being silly. One night he asked if I'd ever been fed by a man before. I didn't know what he was talking about but he sat down next to and fed me some of my dinner. Really, he cut my steak and fed it to me. Our entire section was cracking up. The dining room was fun every night. My take on the food is that it is just OK. Not bad but nothing really was that good. I'd probably be disappointed if I went to a restaurant and paid for the dinner. Also, I had changed the dining time to YTD on the carnival site a couple weeks before the cruise. When we checked in we were issued late dining, 8:15. It ended up fine but after talking to Onesimo, he said we could come anytime between 8 and 9. So no need to stress about being on time or early for dinner. Throughout the week I would see people lined up to get in the dining room. I never understood what the rush was all about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JaniceB Posted September 10, 2013 #16 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Enjoying your review! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob6465 Posted September 10, 2013 #17 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Keep it up buddy. Love the review so far. About sneaking drinks onboard...big deal to those that do not like it.:D:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachsidescott Posted September 11, 2013 Author #18 Share Posted September 11, 2013 The next morning we woke up to room service. Actually we did room service every morning. Another cloudy day but we hopped on the tender to explore Belize. The plan was to take the water taxi to Caye Caulker. On the tender I was conversing with the woman next to me asking what their plan was for the day, she mentioned they were just going to shop at the port. Her and her husband had been to Belize on a past cruise, they were too afraid of the locals to go beyond the gate. I guess I gave her a perplexed look so she added this gem "well the mexicans or whatever they are can speak english, but just enough to get you out of the gate and steal your money" Conversation over, sometimes it's no wonder Americans are so hated by some. Sorry for the small rant, back to Belize. We walked out of the gate and headed to the water taxi. After a few minutes, the 9:00 taxi was ready. It was about a 45 minute ride to Caye Caulker, I was surprised it took so long, the boat wasn't as fast as I expected. Here's a tip, get on the water taxi early and sit up top. This one was a diesel and the fuel smell was heavy on the lower level. We get to the caye and it was just what I read, no cars, some golf cart taxis and bicycles. We spent the day walking around the island, again a cloudy day so we didn't snorkel but at one end (I think this was what they call the split) we sat on this concrete pad and saw every fish. It was awesome Then we ate lunch, this is what I was waiting for. Grilled lobster and bread fruit, it was amazing!! Caye Caulker would have been amazing with a little better weather, we could have done some snorkeling but I'm glad I got to see it. That evening another fun dinner in the dining room with Onesimo then we hit the Comedy club. The comedy was really good on this ship Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phatbachelor Posted September 11, 2013 #19 Share Posted September 11, 2013 Enjoying the review, you guys make a nice couple! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarilynCA Posted September 11, 2013 #20 Share Posted September 11, 2013 Thanks for the review. We will be going on this cruise next month and it's great to get some recon beforehand. BTW - is your pre-cruise beach picture in Flagler Beach? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachsidescott Posted September 11, 2013 Author #21 Share Posted September 11, 2013 Not Flagler, it's Satellite Beach. We live about 30 mins south of Port Canaveral Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dar & Bob Posted September 11, 2013 #22 Share Posted September 11, 2013 On the tender I was conversing with the woman next to me asking what their plan was for the day, she mentioned they were just going to shop at the port. Her and her husband had been to Belize on a past cruise, they were too afraid of the locals to go beyond the gate. I guess I gave her a perplexed look so she added this gem "well the mexicans or whatever they are can speak english, but just enough to get you out of the gate and steal your money" Conversation over, sometimes it's no wonder Americans are so hated by some. Sorry for the small rant, back to Belize. We walked out of the gate and headed to the water taxi. After a few minutes, the 9:00 taxi was ready. It was about a 45 minute ride to Caye Caulker, I was surprised it took so long, the boat wasn't as fast as I expected. Here's a tip, get on the water taxi early and sit up top. This one was a diesel and the fuel smell was heavy on the lower level. We get to the caye and it was just what I read, no cars, some golf cart taxis and bicycles. Amazing comment considering the Official language of Belize is English. :) Great report so far, anxiously awaiting the rest. I am on the Dream on the western itinerary in a month. Thanks for posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Athankfulheart Posted September 11, 2013 #23 Share Posted September 11, 2013 "Cabin: I booked my cruise about 7 weeks out through a company that rhymes with orbit. Initially booked a 6th floor balcony but due to price decreases I was able to upgrade a couple times to a spa balcony, cabin 11222. I liked the room, the bed was comfy and the balcony was great. 2 things to not about this room, 1. it's right below the gym and the treadmills. One evening a a couple mornings we could hear the thumping of runners on treadmills. I sleep like a rock so it didn't bother me. GF is a light sleeper but wore earplugs and she was fine." Thanks for including this in your review. We have this cabin booked on our next cruise. We have our agent switching our cabin. Hubby figures we will just give the neighbors something to listen to, but honestly the TV noise alone would drive me insane. We originally booked it for proximity to our kids, but found one that will work better, all things considered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wannago35 Posted September 12, 2013 #24 Share Posted September 12, 2013 ...On the tender I was conversing with the woman next to me asking what their plan was for the day, she mentioned they were just going to shop at the port. Her and her husband had been to Belize on a past cruise, they were too afraid of the locals to go beyond the gate. I guess I gave her a perplexed look so she added this gem "well the mexicans or whatever they are can speak english, but just enough to get you out of the gate and steal your money" Conversation over Don't they speak English in Belize as well? Her comment is funny, she won't go beyond the gate for them to take her $ but she's gonna spend her time shopping in port where you can end up giving your $ away LOL! Ignorance is truly bliss! Enjoying your review! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bubbakirk43 Posted September 12, 2013 #25 Share Posted September 12, 2013 yes they speak english in Belize.Not a great port area ,but make of it as you want it to be ,or just stay on the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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