So Fascinating--Southern Caribbean (plus 3 days in PR) with Kids

[lolavix]

Johnspo--We liked the games very much (especially given our participation). However, since we saw it during the afternoon, we would have preferred something else the night that it was the featured entertainment.

 

Tgirl25--They are fun to watch (and play). I'm sure we'll put the GC to very good use in the upcoming months, yes.

 

Ontheweb--Our elementary does some sort of celebration for Dr. Seuss' birthday. We've had a night where the teachers dress up and read stories, the kids attending in PJs, etc. It's fun for them, and having this as part of the cruise was enjoyable.

 

Minnieiowa--Thank you!

 

__________________________________________________________

 

Let's see if I can finish this sea day.

 

The Hasbro show was over an hour and our laundry was done. We went to retrieve it and folded it. It was a bit odd to be doing that on vacation, but not too terrible.

 

Tonight was elegant night so we got dressed up and took a few photos outside.

 

 

We opened one of the wine bottles we bought at the CVS in SJ.

 

Tonight's options:

I had heard great things about the Strawberry Bisque, that was it for me. DH and I also shared the mushrooms. For dinner, I had the spaghetti carbonara. I enjoyed all of these quite a bit.

 

Last night, Andrias, our waiter, had showed DS2 a trick with a fork which appeared to rise and fall behind a napkin. He even showed DS2 how to do it, so DS2 came back tonight and demonstrated it to all of us at the table. Tonight, Andrias had another trick, where he folded a napkin into a bunny which "jumped". DS2 loved this.

 

 

 

I'll mention it here, because I know it happened early (by Tuesday or Wednesday). I guess Andrias took a liking to DS2, because he gifted him with one of the 'ships on a stick' that people try to win at various venues. I didn't take a photo so I don't know what day it was, but it might have been this night.

 

 

A song with napkin-waving. I know "That's Amore" was early on during the week, but I don't think that was the napkin-waving song. Whatever. DS2 loved joining in.

[lolavix]

Dessert menu:

 

 

I chose the caramelized apples with puff pastry. We also had some cherries jubilee at the table.

 

Not sure why I have a photo of the dessert but had to take the dessert menu through the glass. My guess is that our companions finished their dessert before we were served ours and they had left.

 

The dessert was just OK. The puff pastry was difficult to cut with the fork. DH and DS1 liked the cherries jubilee and I don't recall what the others had.

 

The kids scattered to their clubs, and DH and I went to the Divas show. We really enjoyed it. We sat very close to the catwalk and I had my prime lens, so I got some fun photos.

 

Kris with a K

 

There was a pre-show, where they showed us how they can have a model change outfits in under a minute. I think it was more like 30 seconds.

 

Then they had two couples from the audience give it a try.

 

This is one husband's attempt to copy the above.

I am including her because at the end of the show, she comes back as a transformed diva. You'll see.

 

On with the show!

[lolavix]

I liked the fact that we could take whatever photos we wanted. We weren't allowed to do so on Norwegian.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is our audience member, the newest diva:

[lolavix]

After the show, we went back to the cabin and sorted through some of the photos we had taken. I originally thought that this was the night I went to see Mark Simmons at Punchliners, but now I remember that it must have been Monday night (last night), because I remember having "America's Got Talent" on TV while DH went to get the boys on this night, and that show is on Tuesday nights. So I can mention that I went to a second Punchliner show on Monday, which also had its moments, and then I went to the Welcome Aboard Show.

 

I don't think I did much more on Tuesday. I will leave you with this, our towel animal friend for Tuesday night.

 

[lolavix]

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our sea day, we now had four consecutive port days. Not that I was complainin'. :D

[lolavix]

I'll see how much I get done here. My pictures are taking forever to upload.

 

 

Yes, we had arrived in Barbados.

 

 

I don't know whose ship this is, but she's even smaller than the Fascination.

 

We had our breakfast at the buffet and got off the ship around 9. We were meeting our guide, Sanjay Kini, at 9:15.

 

 

We hadn't been posing for photos on the gangway, but each boy stopped to get their photo taken with the giant bird.

 

I bought this one

 

because I also have this one:

from our Bermuda cruise. I guess it's a little tradition.

 

[lolavix]

The shops you walk through to get outside the port.

 

We followed the painted stripes and emerged to a deluge of taxis. We knew we had to keep walking past all of them, outside the port, to find Sanjay. If you do not have a tour lined up, never fear about getting a taxi. There are a lot of them.

 

We found Sanjay and set off. Our first stop was going to be at the Folkestone Marine Reserve to swim with the turtles. I had really been looking forward to this.

 

On the way, we had a little bit of information about Barbados.

 

The houses along the water are very expensive.

 

Case in point:

If this is not the singer Rihanna's house, it is very close to this one.

 

 

We arrived at the Reserve about 15 minutes early. We took an opportunity to walk down to the water.

 

 

It was quite lovely.

 

I am going to end for now. The photos are taking a long time to upload and it's late. Be back tomorrow.

[alpoplup]

Thanks for the great review, can't wait for more. I noticed in the funtimes that it says American Table, so does the Fascination have American Table? Thanks

[ontheweb]

Thanks for the great review, can't wait for more. I noticed in the funtimes that it says American Table, so does the Fascination have American Table? Thanks

 

No, the dining room had the regular cruise food, not the new American Table.

[alpoplup]

If you scroll up and look at the Funtimes she posted, it says American Table experience. I know the menu looks the same as ever, but the Funtimes has American Table experience, just wondering what this means.

[bakersdozen12]

If you scroll up and look at the Funtimes she posted, it says American Table experience. I know the menu looks the same as ever, but the Funtimes has American Table experience, just wondering what this means.

 

 

I have no idea what that means, but the Fascination does not have the American Table menu yet.

 

https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1107/~/new-dinner-concept%3A-american-table-and-american-feast

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[lolavix]

Alpoplup--Thanks for your kind words. I'm ready to add more content now.

 

Regarding the menu--This is my first cruise on Carnival, so I wouldn't really know the difference between the old menu and the American Table. I did see "American Table" on the Fun Times, but perhaps looking at the menus I've posted might help? We did have tablecloths, if that makes a difference. :) What I didn't see on our menu is the section that is dedicated to food specific to that particular port, the way I've seen on menus from other trip reviews, if that makes a difference.

 

_______________________________________________________________

 

Back to Barbados!

 

At 10 AM, we walked over to the ship and met our captain, Kendrick (or Kenrick). There was just one other family, from England. (Parents, grandparents, and two kids who both seemed younger than DS2).

 

The tour was very organized and had everything we'd need--snorkel gear (we had our own), life jackets (we also had our own but used theirs so we didn't have to inflate ours), water and soda, anti-fog device for the snorkel masks. Kendrick was very helpful and made sure we were all comfortable.

 

So comfortable that the boys got to steer the boat for a bit.

 

 

 

Looks like a nice place to hang for a day or week.

 

It didn't take long to get to our destination. There was only one other ship out there, and I think it was Calabaza. I've heard a lot of good things about Calabaza, and I might have booked them if we had already visited Barbados and didn't want to see other sites, or if it were just DH and I, since they were a bit more than we could spend per person for just one island.

 

We jumped in over the side and almost immediately met some new friends.

 

[lolavix]

So many photos of turtles. I loved this experience.

 

DH has a nice video of this turtle. I will see if I can post it later.

 

 

We were told that the turtles will swim away if you swim toward them. What we weren't told is if you stay still and view them from a few feet away, they might continue to swim right up to you!

 

 

I really liked this photo, with the people swimming in the background.

 

It almost looks like DD is touching the turtle.

 

[lolavix]

 

 

Food helps!

This guy was from Calabaza. Kendrick fed them briefly from the boat, but this was better to get the turtles to come.

 

OK, done with food!

 

 

Coming up for air. Our boat is to the right.

[lolavix]

Selfie

 

 

Some of the fish in the area.

 

It was time to move on to the "shipwreck". I put that in quote because it's not a natural shipwreck, but it is fun to snorkel around. In total, we saw two turtles, so not a ton, but we were happy. Kendrick said the most he had ever seen on one tour was 13. Wow!

 

En route:

 

 

Time to swim in the aquarium.

 

Tons and tons of these fish.

 

DD with the fish.

[lolavix]

It always amazes me that we can just swim through the fish and they don't seem bothered. I guess they are used to people.

 

 

And some coral, too.

 

 

 

Some clear photos of the shipwreck.

 

[lolavix]

 

 

A little blue fish among the coral.

 

Another little, non-blue fish.

 

We snorkeled for about 45 minutes or so here. Then it was time to go back to shore.

 

We dried off a bit and then hopped back in Sanjay's van.

 

We started to drive through Speightstown.

 

We kept driving and arrived at a little local restaurant to grab a light lunch. We got things like macaroni pie, which was like baked macaroni that you could cut into squares, flying fish and I'm not sure what else (but it might not have been local fare). This restaurant took our American dollars, so just keep in mind that the Barbados dollars are worth half of what ours are.

 

A shot of where we ate:

It was a fun experience, and the food was pretty good.

 

We'd been having a great time in Barbados so far, but we still had a lot to see.

[lolavix]

We saw and learned a lot about real estate in Barbados.

 

Evidently they are going to build a Sandals Resort in Barbados as well, which will increase tourism. Folks from the UK (as noted by our companions on the turtle swim) already frequent Barbados, but not so many Americans. It sounds like they are trying to change that.

 

These look nice:

 

We arrived at our next destination:

 

This was recommended by Sanjay for the kids, in particular. We arrived about 1:15 deliberately, as you'll soon see.

 

This is a walk-through reserve. Most of the animals are not in cages. Entrance fees for the five of us totaled $42.

 

There is a well maintained path, although you can't see it here.

 

We had spent the morning with sea turtles, and now we had land tortoises. It was fun because you could just walk next to them.

 

[lolavix]

A good view of the path (and a turtle, if you can see him).

 

There he goes...

 

More vegetation

 

DS2 loved that they came right up to him and checked out his Crocs.

 

Sort of like the fish earlier, these tortoises were everywhere

 

They had other animals as well, like this peacock.

Edited September 8, 2016 by lolavix

[lolavix]

I loved looking at the different trees and plants:

This was a place where I could have stayed longer for more photographs. However, we moved along because we needed to get to a certain spot by 2 PM (and needed to keep our tour moving anyway).

I thought this was interesting.

 

Something like a deer:

 

 

Not all the animals roam freely. Sort of glad this guy didn't:

 

I should have put this sooner. Here is a map, although it's pretty easy to just follow the trails.

[lolavix]

We saw quite a few of these:

 

 

 

And yet another turtle. Much smaller than the others.

 

We hadn't yet seen one of these guys yet today.

 

Such pretty birds:

 

 

Hard to see in the cage, but so pretty to look at.

[lolavix]

Some cute monkeys

 

Back to the deer

 

 

 

Many!

 

 

Back to our tortoise friends

 

 

Now at 2 PM every day the animals are fed. I thought it would be a little "show", where an employee would explain what they were eating.

 

 

It was actually much less ceremonial. An employee did come, but he merely dumped a large wheelbarrow full of fruit down on the ground. You can kind of see this, although his back is to my camera.

Edited September 8, 2016 by lolavix

[lolavix]

And like all living things, the animals came running when they were served lunch. They ran right past us, without paying us any attention.

 

These guys came "running", too.

 

Soup's on!

 

Taking it all in.

 

Happy animals:

 

[lolavix]

So many different animals enjoying their meal.

 

 

This is blurry, but the baby looked so cute with its mom.

 

Yes, there are people nearby, too.

 

I enjoy watching them so closely.

 

Soon, it was time to move on.

 

This was a nice way to spend an hour. As I said, I could have spent more time, but we needed to keep on going.

[ontheweb]

Our day in Barbados---we took the Harrison Cave tour in the morning, and the caves were spectacular.

 

After getting back from the tour, we walked to the town. All along the way and once we were in town, we were solicited by cab drivers. But we both like to walk, so we ignored them.

 

DW had seen in Fodors that there was a place called the Queen's Park, and that is where we went. Looked around, and it was interesting. DW's goal was to find the Queen's House which was supposed to have an art gallery. I found it, but it was boarded up and no art gallery. Either Fodors was wrong, or since the copy we took out of the library was a few years old, things had changed.

 

We started to walk back, and began to realize we had gone a long way. Still a lot of cab drivers trying to get our business. Finally, one said for $5 he would take us back to the ship, and we accepted.

 

I ate probably at the Mongolian Wok. I'm sure DW went for a swim since the only day all summer she did not swim was the day we disembarked.

 

A word on nightlife---I believe lolavix had already mentioned that there were shows. In addition, there was music all around the ship. There was a Caribbean musician that I listened to a little. There was a very good rock band, that I listened to more. And there was a Latin band that we danced to and watched the very good Latin dancers. There was also an acoustic guitar player that I really only noticed playing, and I believe there was a piano bar, but we never went there.

 

A word on dancing--we started dancing on our 3rd cruise (I'm not sure whether that was 2004 0r 2005). I suggested it when I saw how much the dancers were enjoying themselves. We did not know what we were doing, but it was fun. Soon DW had us taking lessons, but I would always forget the steps. It seems she thought the steps were the most important part while I thought letting the music move you was the important part. I did remember "He lead, she follows". She knew that too but was frustrated that I did not get the steps right. One of the nights we came to the bar that the Latin Band was playing just as their break was about to end according to the schedule. We were the only ones there, and after a while they said they would play soon, Then their leader said I have seen you dance. I said meringue was our best, and they played a meringue for us. We must have done ok, since I saw them smile at us. Once the music started, more people came to hear them and dance to their music. On the last night, I thanked them for helping us enjoy our cruise.