Surprise Cruise- keeping the secret for 13 months

[FLArmyWife]

Ok the long-awaited review! I may still have to break itdown into different posts but I’m gonna do my best.

 

Friday August 11 was the big reveal. It was later in theevening due to an issue at the restaurant.

As you all saw from the video he was excited but clearly just exhaustedoverall.

 

Saturday morning, we got up and he started getting stuffpacked. My mom had stayed the night before as she was staying with our sonfirst half of the week we were gone. My mom and I went to the grocery storewith my son while the DH packed. We got back around 11am and my son went downfor a nap. That’s when I went to check on DH who still was barely packed. Well,he couldn’t find his passport! We tore the house apart looking for it to noavail. My MIL even started going through stuff she had at her house in case forwhatever reason it happened to be there.

I was getting so discouraged as he couldn’t find hispassport or his birth certificate. I even pulled up the Carnival website to tryand see how much, if anything, would get refunded if we canceled. As Isuspected it wouldn’t have been much.

Finally, around 2:30pm my MIL sends a text with a picture.She had found a copy of DH’s birth certificate. Thank goodness! DH finallyfinished up packing. We kissed our son goodbye, made sure my mom was all set,and off we went. We were driving to Orlando to stay at my in-law’s house asthey were driving us to the port in the morning.

When we got to my in-laws we had dinner and just relaxed. Wehad an alarm set for 6am the next morning as we wanted to be on the road by6:30.

 

Sunday morning: IT’S CRUISE DAY!!!

It was almost 7 when there was a light knock at our bedroom door. DH and I bothsleepily roll over and squint at the clock on our phones. How in the world hadneither of our alarms gone off?! So, we rushed to get dressed and pack the car.We were on the road by 7:30 with a 3/3 ½ hour drive to port ahead of us. No onehad eaten or had coffee so we decided if we made it to Port Everglades withtime to spare that we would go get breakfast somewhere.

 

 

We had only been on the road about 10 minutes when themirrors filled with the flashing red and blue. My FIL had been doing 15 overthe speed limit! Oh boy. The officer asked questions about where we were fromand where we were headed as we were in a rental car. We explained that we werelocal but late heading out to the cruise port. Thankfully, the office let usoff with just a warning. In about 45 minutes or so we were finally on 95southbound.

We made it to the St. Pete area before we all gave in tohunger and the need for coffee. We went through the McDonald’s drive-thru andgot back on the road. After eating I made it a point to sleep a little more asI get carsick. I awoke as we got off 95 to head to port.

Drop off at the terminal was quick. Having purchased FTTF wegot through security and to a check-in counter in under 5 minutes. At thecheck-in counter they were confused why my husband’s name on the reservationwas ‘Christophe’ when his name is ‘Christopher’. I explained that no matter howmany times I had tried to change it the R just kept disappearing. So the ladytried it herself and sure enough it wouldn’t take the R. Apparently DH’s nameis 1 letter too long (though this made for some fun throughout the cruise aseveryone referred to him as ‘Christoph’ [pronounced like the Frozencharacter]).

 

Everything went great with using DH’s birth certificate. Wewere sitting in the FTTF waiting area very quickly.

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7z4zMkMruDTBqiHj1 (I can't get the photos to link :( )

[FLArmyWife]

We only sat and waited about 20 minutes before they started boarding. Compared to other cruises I’d been on I found the waiting area and boarding process to be a bit more confusing than other cruise lines. But sure enough we were on the ship fairly quickly and, WOW PINK EXPLOSION! [i did not take pictures of the inside though]

https://photos.app.goo.gl/uRueCsQ3uAn4cidp1

 

We headed right up to our room to put away our soda then head to get some food as McDonald’s was barely holding us over.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6wxj78Lz9e2NTQwj1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VQtWtJynAVgZXoG62

https://photos.app.goo.gl/c66OJbxeOZMh14Iz2

 

The entertainment schedule for the week was sitting on thevanity.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Wgkcmv451LGHwfgu1

 

We met our room steward in the hallway. He informed us that all that was needed to be done in our room was for him to run the vacuum. We set our bags down, through some sodas in the fridge, and went to grab some brunch.

After eating, we returned to our rooms. It wasn’t quite 1 pm yet and, even with having purchased FTTF, our bags still were not in the room.However, that wasn’t too big a deal. We headed off to tour the ship. In the process we played some carnival games, toured the spa, and entered a few raffles.

 

We returned to our room around 1 and our bags were there. We took some time to unpack and get all situated. Then we sat on the deck with some soda and *ahem* spirits, and watched people board the ship. We could seethe gangway from our room. We were shocked to see there were quite a few people that were pretty late getting on the ship. Then came that annoying siren for the muster drill. We hung out in the room for as long as possible before making our way down. By doing so we were placed near the front. Even with being upfront, with the heat my claustrophobia kicked in full-swing very quickly. After the drill was over our section was one of the last to be dismissed. An elderly gentleman beside me almost passed out so they escorted him to a place to sit down. A woman standing beside me could see I was not doing well, asked if I was ok, and then sternly urged the crew members to hurry-up. I was grateful for a stranger’s concern but also understand that the crew members standing there with us have no control over how fast all the other guest move thus no control over how quickly we would get dismissed.

 

I was not feeling well by the time we made it back to the room. I, begrudgingly, had to lay down and take some medication. I usually love to watch leaving port but my body just wasn’t having it. So, my DH went up to the serenity deck and watched us leave while I rested to hopefully feel better in time for dinner.

 

I had opted for early assigned dinner. We were assigned to eat in the gold pearl restaurant. We walked into dinner right at 6pm. Seeing as our typical dinner time at home is 6:30 this seemed to be working out perfectly.

 

We were sat at our own table, in a quiet little spot off beside the staircase on the right-hand side. The head waited introduced himself: Ali Ross. We talked briefly so he could get to know a little about us and our preferences then he handed us menus. We opted to only drink water that night at dinner at neither of us had drank much water leading up until then.The two assistant waiters, Angel and Mark, both came over and introduced themselves. Angel was an older gentleman probably in his 50s. Quiet and reserved. Mark was a young vibrant character who seemed to be in his early to mid-20s.All three of our waiters were from the Philippines.

 

I had steak for dinner with a shrimp cocktail as the appetizer. The steak was alright, but I have had better at longhorn, outback,etc. Then for dessert I tried the infamous Warm Chocolate Melting Cake. I was SO disappointed. I love chocolate and usually am in love with any dessert that is chocolate. There was barely any ‘cake’ part to it and the ‘melting’ part was just not good tasting chocolate in my opinion. It was almost as if it was ¼ cake and ¾ chocolate soup.

After dinner, we briefly returned to our stateroom to look at the FunTimes and try to see what we wanted to do. We opted to check out the Clue murder mystery show then we stuck around for Bingo. We paid $40 to get the‘best’ package. Imagine my surprise when we won the very FIRST game of Bingo! My prize? A $100 credit to our stateroom! Woohoo so I made $60 for us to spendon drinks. Round 2’s winner got $150. For round 3 there ended up being no winner so the jackpot was held for another night.

 

Despite being on vacation my body is on such a timed schedule that I was back in the room in bed by 10pm. DH stayed up and went tothe comedy show. He later reported he liked it, but you could tell the guy was having an off night. DH returned to the room around midnight or so.

 

 

Next stop: Nassau.

[Cruzlover7]

Ok the long-awaited review! I may still have to break itdown into different posts but I’m gonna do my best.

 

Friday August 11 was the big reveal. It was later in theevening due to an issue at the restaurant.

As you all saw from the video he was excited but clearly just exhaustedoverall.

 

Saturday morning, we got up and he started getting stuffpacked. My mom had stayed the night before as she was staying with our sonfirst half of the week we were gone. My mom and I went to the grocery storewith my son while the DH packed. We got back around 11am and my son went downfor a nap. That’s when I went to check on DH who still was barely packed. Well,he couldn’t find his passport! We tore the house apart looking for it to noavail. My MIL even started going through stuff she had at her house in case forwhatever reason it happened to be there.

I was getting so discouraged as he couldn’t find hispassport or his birth certificate. I even pulled up the Carnival website to tryand see how much, if anything, would get refunded if we canceled. As Isuspected it wouldn’t have been much.

Finally, around 2:30pm my MIL sends a text with a picture.She had found a copy of DH’s birth certificate. Thank goodness! DH finallyfinished up packing. We kissed our son goodbye, made sure my mom was all set,and off we went. We were driving to Orlando to stay at my in-law’s house asthey were driving us to the port in the morning.

When we got to my in-laws we had dinner and just relaxed. Wehad an alarm set for 6am the next morning as we wanted to be on the road by6:30.

 

Sunday morning: IT’S CRUISE DAY!!!

It was almost 7 when there was a light knock at our bedroom door. DH and I bothsleepily roll over and squint at the clock on our phones. How in the world hadneither of our alarms gone off?! So, we rushed to get dressed and pack the car.We were on the road by 7:30 with a 3/3 ½ hour drive to port ahead of us. No onehad eaten or had coffee so we decided if we made it to Port Everglades withtime to spare that we would go get breakfast somewhere.

 

 

We had only been on the road about 10 minutes when themirrors filled with the flashing red and blue. My FIL had been doing 15 overthe speed limit! Oh boy. The officer asked questions about where we were fromand where we were headed as we were in a rental car. We explained that we werelocal but late heading out to the cruise port. Thankfully, the office let usoff with just a warning. In about 45 minutes or so we were finally on 95southbound.

We made it to the St. Pete area before we all gave in tohunger and the need for coffee. We went through the McDonald’s drive-thru andgot back on the road. After eating I made it a point to sleep a little more asI get carsick. I awoke as we got off 95 to head to port.

Drop off at the terminal was quick. Having purchased FTTF wegot through security and to a check-in counter in under 5 minutes. At thecheck-in counter they were confused why my husband’s name on the reservationwas ‘Christophe’ when his name is ‘Christopher’. I explained that no matter howmany times I had tried to change it the R just kept disappearing. So the ladytried it herself and sure enough it wouldn’t take the R. Apparently DH’s nameis 1 letter too long (though this made for some fun throughout the cruise aseveryone referred to him as ‘Christoph’ [pronounced like the Frozencharacter]).

 

Everything went great with using DH’s birth certificate. Wewere sitting in the FTTF waiting area very quickly.

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7z4zMkMruDTBqiHj1 (I can't get the photos to link :( )

 

 

You can see the excitement in his face. Great memory!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[FLArmyWife]

A little about our room. The location had it's good and bad points. The halls were nice and quiet, and for the most part no noisy neighbors. We were just down the hall from the stairs that led straight up to the Lido buffet. Oh it was wonderful (and also bad lol) to be that close to food. The downside? All day/night you could hear the chairs being moved around just above our room. It got especially bad when the evening pool side movie would end. The crew would come around and start straightening up, which I am ok with, but I could hear every movement of those chairs.

Other than that, we absolutely loved our room. Spacious, plenty of hangers, beautiful view, etc. We especially loved that we faced east 90% of the cruise so almost each morning we could watch the sunrise either from our balcony, or if being super lazy, just open the curtains and watch it from bed.

 

Will post about our day in port at Nassau soon!

[Slugsta]

I'm glad that you managed to keep your secret and that you both enjoyed your cruise. Even more glad that you escaped Irma without major damage!

 

My OH is also a Christopher and, although we cruise with lines other than Carnival, we have the same problem with the missing 'R' :)

Edited September 26, 2017 by Slugsta
typo

[JAXCRUISER]

Thanks for writing your review. Looking forward to more!

[azjim66]

Great story!! What an awesome surprise!! Enjoying your review.

[FLArmyWife]

Sunday August 14: Nassau

 

Due to our home schedule with our toddler we were up and moving by 6:30am. Wetook the few short steps up to the buffet and got breakfast. The omelets wereFINOMINAL. DH and I both had one EVERY morning. The good thing about being upso early meant we didn’t have to deal with long lines.

The other items on the buffet was subpar. The eggs, pancakes, etc were coldunless you happened to catch it right as they were putting a new tray out.

We would grab coffee and then take it back to our room to enjoy on our balcony.I brought powdered flavored creamer because I just can’t stand bland coffee.

 

So we sat on the balcony and watched the boat pull into port. We were the ONLYboat in port. I was really looking forward to using the empty boat as time forus to enjoy the amenities but DH kept insisting we at least try to go find someliquor. So we went ahead and left the ship. I HATE being bombarded by so manypeople right there. It just makes me so uncomfortable. We were quick to justkeep walking. Eventually we found our way to a store that had samplings of rumcake. OMGness it was delicious. Wepopped in a few other shops along the road before I pleaded DH to go back tothe ship. We were back on the ship by roughly noon. My anxiety was so high Ifelt like crud, but I was determined to make the most out of the day. DH wantedto go back on the island to drink at Senior Frogs. So off he went and I headedup to the serenity deck. Let me just say, without the boat moving and creatingwind the serenity deck adult only area felt like a damn oven. I only lastedabout 10 minutes before retreated down to a slightly covered area by the pool. Unfortunately,the heat was just exasperating my already nasty feeling so I retreated to theroom around 1pm, drew the blackout curtains, and enjoyed a nice quiet nap. DHwas back on the ship around 2:30. Once DH was back we headed up to the lidodeck to grab some lunch. After lunch it was back to the room to watch the shippull out (I know we’re so exciting, right?).

That night was the first of two formal nights. We opted todo semi-formal. I worse dress slacks and a blouse. DH wore a button up shirt,khaki’s, and a tie. We arrived at dinner and worked on trying a few differentthings. We both ordered the lobster tail, but DH decided to try something ‘odd’off the appetizer menu. I will list everything he/we tried in a separate postas for the life of me I cannot remember what nights we ate what nowunfortunately.

After dinner we went to the room, changed into jeans andt-shirts [i adorned a hoodie as I was FREEZING anywhere inside the ship]. Wethen went to go watch the Studio VIP show. Oh boy was it bad. We didn’t stickaround for the entire thing.

I was of course in bed by 10 pm. DH went off to see a comedy show.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qzPtj4A74KyAWdyh2

 

 

 

Next Stop: Half Moon Cay

[FLArmyWife]

Sorry life is a little hectic. Hoping to work more on the review this weekend

[FLArmyWife]

Monday August 15: Half Moon Cay

 

We woke up and did our typical routine: DH went to the gymsuper early but was back by about 6:30 which was when I was stirring. Wewatched the sunrise from the balcony then headed up to the lido buffet forbreakfast. Then it was back to the room to watch the boat arrive at the island.I was so nervous about the tendering thing as I had never done that before.When the announcement sounded that everything was a go, we headed down to geton the FTTF tender. Because there apparently wasn’t many FTTF people attemptingto get on the island yet the boat ended up waiting around even for regularguest to board before heading in to the dock.

 

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/BS37FFiVUIEnZHTG3

 

 

DH and I were both just so amazed at how clear and beautifulthe water was. We walked down the trail a little before making the turn towardsthe beach and picking out some chairs. We got front row choice. We each had inhand a tall island drink, an EXPENSIVE tall island drink ($15 a piece!), byabout 10/10:30 am.

 

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/YOLTTtRQ4YYkgmmr1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/rb7aepcLu9MNTiqx1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EEfbgjihkwAmq6zh2

 

 

After finishing ourdrinks rather quickly we both took some time to read and just enjoy the sun. Wealso were enjoying watching all the children being “set free” to have fun.After an hour or so of hanging out on the beach we opted to go for a walk. Dueto my bad knee and ankle we had to walk in the area where the sand was hard(you know that place where the tide has gone out but the sand is still somewhatwet so it’s compact and not mushy or loose). We walked about 20 minutes onedirection then opted to head back to our seats.

 

 

We were dying hot by this time so we ventured into thewater. Now, usually I am an ‘only ankles deep’ type person because I have aphobia of sharks [to the extent I cannot go into the shark exhibits ataquariums]. However, the water was so clear I actually was willing to ventureALL the way to the rope. I only lasted about 20 minutes in the water beforeanxiety took over and I retreated to the shore. DH stayed in the water for alittle longer.

 

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HFW3oWeFEDaf3mBo1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Ka4MZAaCW1Ch4GTg1

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xtai83Tc4U5kvdvr1

 

 

When DH got back we decided to go get some food. We, alongwith many others, fumbled our way around for a bit before being pointed in thedirection of the buffet. The food selection, for me, was not appetizing. It wasa lot of ‘hot’ foods (temperature wise) and I cannot eat hot foods when I’mhot/in a hot environment. I opted more for veggies and such. We found a tableand ate. There were chickens roaming around and were getting a kick out ofthem. After eating we decided to try and beat the crowds back on the boat. Hereare some photos from the tender back.

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KKnQY43jGG4r5F442

 

 

 

…… more to come [i apologize for it taking so long. Life man... life]