We strayed to Carnival...NEVER again!

[Sitzmark]

What is a Key Lime Pie? Similar to a lemon meringue pie in Oz?

 

It's tart lime flavored pie, similar to lemon meringue although many don't put the meringue topping on it. Personally I don't care for it, it tastes to me like something that is starting to turn bad.

[John&LaLa]

Oh heck no! A key lime pie made with standard limes is not a key lime pie. One hint....if the pie is green, it's not key lime. A real key lime pie is more of a yellow color. The standard topping is whipped cream, but meringue is also used by some restaurants.

 

I live in the key lime capital so I guess I'm a bit of a critic. ;)

 

This is why I gave a simple description. Lots of passion about those tasty beauties. I think it was an ongoing theme in the second season of Dexter.

 

FWIW, I like the candy lime on top :D

Edited September 11, 2015 by John&LaLa

[Aquahound]

This is why I gave a simple description. Lots of passion about those tasty beauties. I think it was an ongoing theme in the second season of Dexter.

 

FWIW, I like the candy lime on top :D

 

Next time you're in KW, go to Kermits and try the frozen key lime pie on a stick, dipped in dark chocolate. It's heaven on a stick. ;)

[LMaxwell]

Oh heck no! A key lime pie made with standard limes is not a key lime pie. One hint....if the pie is green, it's not key lime. A real key lime pie is more of a yellow color. The standard topping is whipped cream, but meringue is also used by some restaurants.

 

I live in the key lime capital so I guess I'm a bit of a critic. ;)

 

What are some shops in the touristy area with REAL key lime pie? I saw a show on The Profit when he went to a Key Lime store and they were using bulk pre-made pudding mix. Not interested in going to Key West for 35 cent pudding mix; I want the real deal!

 

edit> saw your suggestion for Kermits. Will try it out

Edited September 11, 2015 by LMaxwell

[John&LaLa]

Next time you're in KW, go to Kermits and try the frozen key lime pie on a stick, dipped in dark chocolate. It's heaven on a stick. ;)

 

There is a shop in Cocoa Village that makes them in 4oz containers. Very portable. Can't believe I have one in the fridge. :eek::D:cool:

[Big_G]

Not a single thing on your list of complaints qualifies for a "never again!" type diatribe, imho. (in my experience, most of your complaints could easily be about any cruise line)

 

People wearing beach-ware on the pool deck? No sesame rolls with dinner? The horror. And heck, if not having the pop-machines is a capital offense, then RCCL is, imho MORE guilty, since they market them, and pretend to have them, but never install them anywhere. Jerks.

 

Such anger. :eek::confused:

[CaribSailor]

I think after a certain age it should be mandatory you sail on HAL. Where in part of the disembarkation process you have to take your drivers license test again.

Edited September 11, 2015 by CaribSailor

[tlatrice]

I work in a doctor's office. Guess what? Rude people with poor social graces as well. People of all ages wearing inappropriate dress, "letting it all hang out". This is the new America, where the people do as they feel makes them happiest. My opinion of the Dream, which I have sailed on, was it was just bigger, with more staterooms but not more common areas or entertainment options. No cruise line, besides the luxury liners, is going to make every cruiser happy. Readers, your on vacation! If after 4 cruises your still disappointed, try a different kind of vacation

 

Amen!

[John&LaLa]

I think after a certain age it should be mandatory you sail on HAL. Where in part of the disembarkation process you have to take your drivers license test again.

 

I have been waiting for the right time to use this

[CaribSailor]

I have been waiting for the right time to use this

 

 

That made me laugh.

[cjdixon4]

It's tart lime flavored pie, similar to lemon meringue although many don't put the meringue topping on it. Personally I don't care for it, it tastes to me like something that is starting to turn bad.

 

I've never heard it quite described like THAT :eek:

[cjdixon4]

Such anger. :eek::confused:

 

I agree with ya' G. I was kind of afraid to respond! LOL

[CaribSailor]

We are a couple in our 60's who are pretty loyal to RCCL because we like the product despite cutbacks over the years. But we wanted to sail out of NOLA, so we chose to go on the Carnival Dream. First let me say, we had a great time (we were cruisin'!), met some lovely people and enjoyed ourselves. We are totally aware that you can have good and bad experiences on any cruise line, any ship anywhere. Having sailed Carnival once before, we were well aware there would be differences. So we went into the cruise with an open mind and tried really hard not to compare. We go with the flow.

 

 

 

Things we liked...

 

Cabin and steward....was fine! Actually I think our balcony cabin was a bit bigger getting around the bed. Towel animals EVERY night!

 

 

 

Entertainment... Production shows were excellent! No complaints!

 

 

 

24 hour pizza...very good!

 

 

 

Bar service was very good.

 

 

 

 

 

It was the little things that made the difference....

 

 

 

People....We encountered SO many rude people on this ship with poor social graces. It is hard to go into much detail but just the total lack of concern for others. 1100 kids on this ship, as well. MY fault for booking a summer cruise :eek: SO many people inappropriately dressed...letting it all hang out in a bad way. Some didn't seem to understand the difference between "casual" and "slob".

 

 

 

Food...MDR selections were not very good at times. For example, I ordered "tiger shrimp". I expected the waiter to come over and cut the shell off my shrimp as Rccl does. NO need! I got 4 tiny circular shrimp sitting in tomato sauce. THAT was my tiger shrimp! Prime rib was good, but that is the only meal all week I could rave about. AND we totally missed the bread choices! Only 2 types...Italian and a white roll. That's it! NO savory bites, seeded or wheat rolls! Buffet food was ok...but we missed all the selections RCCL has. No pineapple all week, very little watermelon; one of 2 kinds of cheese and lunchmeat on buffet. No pre-made sandwiches. Few salad offerings. All the stations had long lines which were chaotic. Even to get a hamburger, you had to go all the way out by the pool...then go back in to get the rest of your food. I really didn't like that all jellies, jams, cream cheese, etc were open large containers and not under a glass cover.

 

 

 

Room service...they only serve a cold continental breakfast.:(

 

 

 

Pop card...same price as RCCL....but you always had to sign a receipt! Big pain! And no pop stations as on some RCCL ships.

 

 

 

MDR Wait staff...We had a really bad team! Even our tablemates who are avid Carnival cruisers were so disgusted. All around us were waiters doing an awesome job and had the guests up dancing and having a great time. Our's just wanted us out of there...so they rushed us thru every evening. If you ordered a 2nd entrée, they put it on the table with the first . Served us cold coffee one night; dirty butter dish; served from across the table; never offered us anything else to drink or coffee at the end of our meal even tho' we wanted it and had to ask; the waiter had the ass't serve our whole meal 3 nights while he set a table for the next day; they only had 2 tables! It was an eating extravaganza, not a dining experience! They made the first couple order immediately before the 2nd couple arrived 5 min. later...so they had their food before 2nd couple even ordered. It was ridiculous. We know you can have a bad waiter anywhere, but it just added to the list. Not once did our waiter fill us in on the next days activities, ports, etc like they do on RCCL. Guess Carnival doesn't do that.

 

 

 

General Lack of supervision....on RCCL, you always see supervisory staff wandering around whether you are at the pool, MDR, Buffet, stateroom area. We hardly saw anyone overlooking things. Never had a maitre'D come to our table in the MDR! Dirty tables were a frequent sight in the buffet. Un-potty trained kids in the pool...nobody seemed to care.

 

 

 

Pools....OMG! NO adult-only pool!!!That was pretty much a nightmare. The pools are very small for the size of that ship and kids overtook the pools and hot tubs. There is a Serenity deck...but only whirlpools.(And you have to climb 2 flights of stairs to get to it since the elevator doesn't go that far.) Carnival need to change that big-time. And the pools are only 4 ft. deep and kids were jumping over our head with no place to go.:eek: There is NO kids pool area. No steel drum music around the pool...in fact , no live music at all!

 

 

 

Out of order!!....I have never seen SO many things out of order on a ship! This included elevators...(3 or 4 at a time), urinals in men's bathroom(per hubby, they were "out of order for beautification"...HUH?), drink machines in the buffet (so you have a plate of food and have to cross the whole dining room to get something to drink without spilling it of being knocked over by someone pushing!)

 

 

 

Hygiene....There were hand sanitation stations near every buffet, near the MDR, etc but we hardly saw anyone use them. I know some people prefer not to, but this was pretty much the way it was always. We are used to RCCL encouraging the use of them. Kind of concerned me at the lack of hygiene, even tho' many people claim they wash their hands. (BTW, I am not a germ-a-phobe!) Just an observation.

 

 

 

Casino....no non-smoking nights. The smoke was SO disgusting every minute of every day and even unbearable for my husband who usually doesn't care....we couldn't even go in there...plus it penetrated all the gift shops and a nice music bar area...sadly, we had to stay out of ALL these areas.

 

 

 

Extras....we missed the ice shows. They showed a movie every night at the pool, but we were always at dinner. Evening Bingo was always during our dinner as well.

 

 

 

Loyalty...We did not get invited to a Welcome Back Party...they changed their levels that qualify...but each got a 1 liter bottle of water. I think with RCCL, we are Emerald and still only get a 20 oz water...WOOHOO! Carnival has you beat RCCL:!

 

 

 

Disclaimer....these are all my opinions, so no need to flame me :-) There are good things about every cruise line and every ship. WE just came off the ship feeling like Carnival wasn't what we want in a cruise line. They pushed FUN, FUN, FUN in your face constantly. Music was SO loud all over the ship ALL the time. Maybe if we were in our 20's......

 

Just when you think RCCL isn't worth the extra money, we decided you get what you pay for....and for that little extra money, it is worth it.

 

 

You do realize you CAN NOT complain your way to happiness right? HAL is your answer.

Edited September 11, 2015 by CaribSailor

[CrusinAgain]

I get a kick out of all of going on about Carnival. Have you people not read any of the reviews on the 2 Quantum class ships? How the pools are so small. 800 sun chairs for 5000 people. Computers charging people for things they didn't purchase. The Bionic Bar not working. Not enough staff. Oh and on the Inaugural cruise on the Quantum there was a malfunction in one of the shows and a performer was kicked in the head. And these are brand new ships not 8 years old like the Dream.

 

We went on the Quantum with no problems in January and will be going on the sister ship in November. All new ships have kinks and what you are referring to happened on its maiden transatlantic voyage, but some of your statements are not correct. There was an over abundance of chairs and plenty of staff. I read a ton of Quantum reviews and never read about the performer who got kicked in the head. I will have to search for that one. Did you see what happened with the Carnival Liberty at St. Thomas? I have been on a number of Carnival cruises and they were fine but this was before all the recent problems Carnival has been having.

[Aquahound]

What are some shops in the touristy area with REAL key lime pie? I saw a show on The Profit when he went to a Key Lime store and they were using bulk pre-made pudding mix. Not interested in going to Key West for 35 cent pudding mix; I want the real deal!

 

edit> saw your suggestion for Kermits. Will try it out

 

Kermit's is my personal favorite, but if you want a slice with a thick layer of meringue, go to Blue Heaven. :)

[Big_G]

You do realize you CAN NOT complain your way to happiness right? HAL is your answer.

 

Why when they appear to be happy with Royal? ...but you already new that didn't you?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[BecciBoo]

Carnival has absolutely nothing that could possibly lure us back again.:cool:

 

As for Key lime pie, I have a tree(with tons of thorns!)_ and have made them myself. The originals were made with a real pie crust. Back when I was a child, my mother made them that way. Then in the 60s they started using the graham cracker crusts. And they used meringue back then too.

 

I am a fan of any version and enjoy Kermits while in Key West...yum!

Edited September 12, 2015 by BecciBoo

[Tunkhannock]

I have been waiting for the right time to use this

[pspercy]

...

Edited September 12, 2015 by pspercy

[stewpapa]

Royal Caribbean isn't more expensive than Carnival in Galveston. A great deal in my opinion and yes, a better experience than Carnival by a slight edge.

Edited September 12, 2015 by stewpapa