Our Triumph-ant First Cruise!

[PictureChris]

I am enjoying your review and have the link in my faves until you finish. I was on the Triumph solo in 06 and had a great time. Dalia at the Wine/Martini bar was great. She let me plug in my lappy and even stocked Diet Coke for me. Here are the pics from my Triumph Cruise.

 

http://www.picturechris.com/photos/index.php?cat=47

[greatful]

So this ends Day 1, except for a few thoughts now that I have my capers in front of me and can refresh my memory again.

 

Here is a picture of our first towel animal, a walrus. We always had fun going back to the room and debating which wonderful animal would be lounging on our bed. They were all so cute, and made an awesome addition to making our cruise so special. I absolutely loved them!

 

 

So, just to brush up on a few things. Almost didn't make it, but here now, and VERY HAPPY! Had our luggage early, but wore what we were wearing when we boarded to dinner. Dinner first night was relaxed, I guess they know not eveyone is getting dressed up. We saw lots of shorts and a few tanks, but mostly T-shirts. Didn't bother us. One set of our tablemates thought first night was elegant night (she is so NOT a CC member!) so came to the table dressed extremely nice. Our other set was well-dressed, but not as well dressed as they would be for even the casual nights the rest of the week. But, we were definitely the "slobs" at our table. We are not snappy dressers in real life, and won't be here either. I am willing to bet all 4 of our table mates dress well in the real world. Oh well, we both wear uniforms in the real world, so clothes just aren't our thing! We made an attempt to dress nice, and didn't feel out of place even when the tuxes and evening gowns came out later in the week. If I offended anyone there with my slightly more casual dress, so be it. This was my vacation too! I don't like dressing up, and honestly don't own that many super dressy clothes to start with. I was never a true slob, we never wore jeans other than night one. The DH wore khakis and polos to all the casual dinners, I wore capris with nice tops. Elegant evenings he wore a tie and jacket, I wore a cotton dress. Nothing too fancy compared to the tuxes and gowns, but it was as nice as I was willing to go! If you are really going to have a horrible cruise because I wore a cotton dress to elegant night, perhaps you should stay home! Nothing we saw being worn offended us in any way.

 

The show tonight featured the dancers and singers we would see the rest of the week. Louise Eddens has a fantastic voice, but her male counterpart, Kevin Jayroe was not so good. His voice was alright, but not as great as hers. The comedien tonight was Marvin Todd. He was OK, but the comedien later in the week was the best! There was plenty going on after sail away. We had late seating, and I'm not sure that's the way to go. It seemed like lots of stuff was scheduled thru the dinner seatings that we ended up missing. Don't get me wrong, there was stuff during the early seating too, but it seemed like the stuff I wanted was during our dinner. Also, we never went near the spa, so I can't answer any questions about it, other than to tell you what the daily specials were, and then only because they were posted in the Capers.

 

And so ends Day 1, and onto Day 2. See you next post, got to go stir my turkey soup!

 

Enjoying your review, come back soon :)

[amcjeep4life]

Here is something I forgot from Day 1. The limits on the casino tables are lower the first night than they will be all week, $3 minimum versus $5 for the rest of the week. Bill lost his $20 in about 5 minutes. I have never gambled before, so wasn't too keen on joining in. Sadly enough, we live less than 10 minutes away from 2 casinos here in CT. I just work too hard to give my money to those Indians tho. The reason I remembered this now is because I sort of picked up a small dose of the gambling bug today on the ship! You'll see!:p

 

And so begins Day 2. We didn't get up early enough to see a sunrise, which will become a bit of a theme this cruise. The DH gets up early at home, but I work a bunch of afternoon shifts. The DH was happy to sleep late, and I just continued my schedule from work. Today was a sea day, and there was soooo much stuff to do. Too much at times. You had to make decisions between some things you wanted to do, but we muddled thru! Today was also our scheduled meet and greet, and I was looking forward to that. We had already met 2 couples, I think I forgot to mention that we bumped into Alan and Norma from North Carolina during sail away. He had stated they would be wearing orange Harley shirts, and we were able to spot them and chat for a while. They had also found Lesley and Kevin, our resident Scots, and said they would be fairly easy to find at the meet and greet!

 

I'm sorry to say I don't have a whole lot of pictures today, don't know what happened. I think we were so busy, we just forgot to take pictures. We have tons of pictures from our port days, but not so many from sea days. Sorry!

 

Did I mention today was my birthday! Bill had a nice card for me, and told me I could get some stuff today at the shops for my birthday gift. Yea!

 

Anyway, we started our day with breakfast in the Paris dining room. They both look pretty similar, but this is the bigger dining room, probably the reason they keep it open for breakfast and lunch. We did end up with a table for 2 on the upper level. I had read so much about the eggs bendedict that I knew I had to try it. Bill ordered a belgian waffle with stewed bananas and strawberries. We both had chicken sausage and hasbrowns to round the meal out. They come around with a little basket of pastries, and I tried a cinnamon roll, while the DH had a cheese danish. They were both warm and delicious. My family used to own a bakery, so it takes a lot for bread and pastries to impress me, and these were good! We also both decided to have pieaplle juice rather than OJ, and neither of us drink coffee. They will come to your table with the coffee repeatedly, but noticed they didn't offer refills on the juice. If you wanted more, you had to ask. Our breakfast came out quickly, and having never had experience with hollandaise sauce before, it tasted wonderful to me. I had asked for my eggs to come out well-done, since runny yolks tend to gross me out, and they were done to perfection to me. Not hard-boiled, but definitely firm. I didn't like the chicken sausage at all, and ended up leaving it. Bill said it was OK, but he didn't order it the rest of the week, so I guess it wan't all that great to him either. The hash-browns are these two little crispy potato cakes. They were quite yummy. Normally Bill eats eggs and potatoes with ketchup, but there wasn't any on the table. He never asked for it either, so I guess the food was all right without it. I will tell you, if you like bananas foster, order the stewed bananas! Today, it came in a bowl with a caramel-like sauce. That's it, no bananas in sight! We assumed they were mushed in there, so never thought anything about it, but it tasted sooooo good! He put it over his strawberries on his waffle, and then had to hold himself back from licking his plate! Oh yea, more on the stewed bananas to come!

 

After breakfast, we wandered about the ship some more. We joined in a game of trivia by the Vienna Cafe, but decided we weren't quite smart enough to keep playing and wandered away. We went to the photo gallery and found our embarkation photo. One of the things we said we wanted to do was get lots of pictures taken, since we have so few of us together. I knew you didn't have to buy them just because you had them taken, and honestly, they were very good about telling you that right away! We did end up buying a few. I'll see if I can get the hub to figure out the scanner later.

 

At about 1230, we decided we night have enough room in our tummies for lunch. We went to the Lido deck, where the buffet lines were huge! We hadn't really wanted to eat there anyway, but I was absolutley amazed by how many people were in line! I got in line at the NY Deli, since I had talked Bill into trying a reuben. He doesn't like sauerkraut, but was willing to give it a try. He went over to the Hong Kong Noodle Co. He loves Chinese food, it was his staple diet before we got together, so was very excited to hear there was a place onboard. While I was in line, these 3 Hispanic ladies in very noticable dresses got in line at the buffet. The dresses were not to be missed, which is how I saw them. I only bring this up now to make a point. I'll get there in a few. I got our two reubens, and found a table in front of the buffet and to the port side. Bill soon joined me, so I went off to get us iced teas. I came back to a plate with chicken lo-mein, hoisin beef, and spring rolls. The ruebens were fantastic, they grill them in a panini machine, so no butter on the outside bread, which means they aren't very greasy! They make them fresh as you order them, they aren't sitting around getting soggy.YEA! Bill even said they were good, since I asked for his with light sauerkraut. The Chinese food was tasty, except for the spring roll. I thought it was greasy and tasted like shrimp. I am not a seafood person, and should have known better. A lot of the spring rolls in our area are made with shrimp, as are the egg rolls. I will usually ask for a pork egg roll just to make sure. Bill said all the food is made while you wait, they have bins of noodles and veggies, and they throw it in a wok and warm it up. I guess if you wanted somethig substituted this would be the place to go! We both decided we wanted something a bit sweet, so I went to the buffet dessert area. We had some diet cheesecake and some fruity layered thing that was yummy. As I was sitting down with our dessert plates, I noticed the 3 brightly dressed Hispanic ladies sittting down at a table near ours! Holey smokes! They had gotten in line at the same time I did, and were just now sitting down, although we had eaten our entire meals and were working on dessert! The line for the buffet was huge! (Told you I'd get around to that point!) We avidly avoided the buffet the whole trip, for various reasons.

 

After lunch, we headed out to the Lido deck, and were quite bummed to realize we had missed the Ice Carving demo. But, we were just in time for the hairy chest competition. It was very entertaining. I think a few of the guys got talked into it by their women folk, and weren't told what was going to happen. It's not just who has the hairiest chest, it was dancing around, and pretending to wrestle a snake and yelling like Tarzan! Funny stuff! The guy who won was 50 ish, a bit round, bald, and funny! He really did a good job! It was closing in on 1400, so we headed down to Deck 5 and the Vienna Cafe for the Triumph Hunt. Chicken Little was there, and told us how the Hunt would work. They give you a paper with questions about various areas on the ship. You need to find the area, and then answer a question about it. You got to work as a team. There was a group of 5 mid-twenties guys there that were ALL IN THE SAME CABIN!! Boy do I feel sorry for their room steward. I thought it was pretty coll that they were here, rather than getting smashingly drunk, and continued to see them around the ship a lot. Sometimes they had some beer, but often they were pretty sober. I was impressed, especially with Carnival's reputation for partying. Anyway, my team consisted of me and the gimp. Remember I mentioned earlier that Bill had hurt his knee? I knew I was destined to lose, with some of the other teams consisting of 4 to 12 people! Oh well! After getting the sheets, I sent Bill on a few closer areas and ran upstairs to start at Deck 11 and work my way down. This is not a leisurely thing, since you have to meet back in 20 minutes with your answers! We met back up in the Vienna cafe and I wrote his answers down and then waited for everyone else to get back. I can't remember if there were 26 or more possible points, but the winning teams had 16. We got 14, so I was pretty happy, and some of the questions were tough! How many black keys are around the piano bar? I couldn't even find the piano bar! I had asked a memeber of the crew, and he kept telling me it was the atrium lounge. I think there may have been a bit of a language barrier going on here. Also, don't ask the crew for the answers, they will give you the wrong ones on purpose. I found the internet cafe, but asked the guy how many screens rather than counting them myself. He gave me the wrong answer! Lesson learned. I will give you another small hint, if you do this yourself. Here it is: Sherbet IS NOT ice cream! That's it. Remember that and you'll understand when you get there. After running up and down 6 flights of stairs, I managed to find a little hollow spot in my tummy, and since we were right at the Vienna Cafe, which is where they hide the chocolate covered strawberries, we decided to get some. Did I mention that today was my birthday? I had told Bill I didn't want him to preorder the strawberries for our room, since they are much cheaper on board then thru the Bon Voyage department. Unfortunately, they were temporarily out of them, but the girl said they would be more than happy to deliver them to our room when she gpt some later. So, we ordered 2 chocolate shakes and 10 strawberries, signed our name, and headed off to our room. Our meet and greet was scheduled for 1500 in the New World Bar, which is all the way aft on the Lido deck. It's right next to the Pizzeria. We had said we would wear mardi-gras beads to be recognized. We drank our shakes, hung out on the balcony for about 15 minutes, grabbed our beads and walked up one flight of stairs and out to the bar. There were afew people already there, so we walked up and introduced ourselves. I am the one who did all the planning and stuff for the cruise, and my hub never got onto the roll-call, but he had fun talking to everyone there. We had 17 "people" on our roll call, and 9 of them showed up, which meant a total of about 20 people. I'm sorry we missed the others, I can see how there is so much stuff going on you just miss it. We had an awesome time meeting everyone, and would end up bumping into them time and time again. Lori and Barry, you guys were awesome. How old is Barry now? Steve, Darrell, Heather, Pat and Hannah, we had a blast going to DRF with you as well. John, we crashed into you all over the place! We'll look you up the next time we are in Boston! Alan and Norma, we had fun seeing you two all over too. Nativeway did an awesome job, and I'm glad I listened to you! Jon and Maryjo, we crashed into you two a bunch too, as well as Lesley and Kevin. To everyone else, it was nice to meet you and we hope you had an awesome cruise! Anyway, here is a picture of our little group!

 

 

The people with early seating started leaving about 1630 or so, since tonight was elegant night and the Captain's Reception. After this, we headed back to our room. Our strawberries were delivered not too long after we got back from the m&g, so we snacked on a few of them before leaving. We decided to head out to the casino and try my birthday luck. Did I mention that today was my birthday? But first we decided to try and find the secret decks. Basically the front of the ship on decks 6, 7 and 9 have areas where you can go out on the bow of the ship and be blown half to death. It is wicked windy there. You can also see the crew area, but they all work so hard we hardly ever saw anyone out there. After checking these decks out, we headed to the casino. We played black jack at our lucky table and I ended up walking out with $100, meaning I had doubled my money. Bill had started with $60, and walked away with $75, meaning that he was now only into the casino for $5, having lost $20 last night. We were quite happy with that and headed back to the room again to get ready for dinner. We headed to the Captain's reception at about 1930, and it proved to be a bit boring. We met the officers (who's driving the boat!?!?) and headed into the lounge. We each had a rum and coke, which was wicked strong. We weren't hungry and didn't want to ruin dinner, so had no appetizers. We were sittin in the back of the room, so didn't have many offered anyway, but skipped the ones that were. There was some nice music playing, so we enjoyed that for a bit then went out to find some pictures. There are twice as many photo areas set up on elegant night as there are on casual nights, so it was very easy to find a few we liked. The lines weren't long, except for a few, so we had 4 different pictures taken. They all turned out nice, and we did end up getting three of them. We then headed down to the Atrium lounge, listened to the classical trio play for a bit, and headed into dinner. Since tonight was elegant night, there were some pretty fancy-schmancy dressers out there. Our table mates all showed up in suits and dresses, a bit fancier than us. Tonight was lobster night, but I am not a seafood person. Bill ate a lot of it growing up, since he had a few traps tohelp his family subsidize food, so he wasn't eating it either. We started off with stuffed mushrooms, then he had a ceasar salad and I had the strawberrybisque. It was so good, just like melted strawberry ice cream. Bill tasted it and said it was good too. The mushrooms were also yummy. For dinner, we both had prime rib. I wreally like my beef rare, almost screaming for mercy, so I found it to be too done for me. It was very tender, and Hengke came around with a boat of sour cream and horseradish. That was a nice touch, and made the meat taste that much better. I would prefer it more rare, but it was still good. Bill's was just perfect for him, he likes it a bit more cooked than me! Our table mates all had the lobster and said it was very good. They all cleaned their plates, so I guess it was fine! Bill also ordered the chili relenos. I told him I would eat some, but it was too psicy for me. He ended up eating the whole thing himself. He said it was very good, just spicy. For dessert I had the cherries jubilee, and he had the carmelized apples with puff pasrty. My cherries reminded me of canned pie filling, but they were OK. Bill said his apples were yummy. He never even offered me a taste. Brat. Here is a picture of the servers on the stairway. We had an awesome view of everything. I never thought about how people on the outside may not have been able to see, so I was very happy with our table after this night!

 

 

They sang a song, and it was so funny to hear this mish-mash of accents being sung. We had fun, said good night to our table-mates and servers, and headed off to our rooms to change. Did I mention today was my birthday? Well, I guess I didn't mention it to the right people, because I never got a song sang in the dining room. I was kind of bummed, but it was OK, certainly didn't ruin my cruise. I guess we'll have to cruise on my birthday next year to get it made up! When we got back to our room, we found our next towel animal, the dog!

 

 

 

 

The show was supposed to happen at 2230, and we got back to the room around 2145. Our intention was to change and leave, but the next thing I knew it was 2300 and we had missed the show! We decided to call it a night, since the next day was Cozumel. We didn't have to get up early, we had scheduled our excursion for 1230. I wanted to get up and see if I could catch us docking. I'll continue with tomorrow later, but at least I finished Day 2. Day 3 will have few more pictures. Sorry about that!

[mr jailerman]

Great review !! Very Detailed..I'll look for more tomorrow.. Thanks..:)

[niiaka]

great review.. but "those indians" contribute to your state economy and also employ a great deal of state citizens. You sound as though "us" indians are taking money and stashing it our teepees.

[greatful]

great review.. but "those indians" contribute to your state economy and also employ a great deal of state citizens. You sound as though "us" indians are taking money and stashing it our teepees.

 

Actually if the truth were known the indians probably get a real small percentage of what the casinos net. That's sad. Same for the taxes the states receive very small % of net profits casinos are making.

[Life's a Beach!!]

We are going to be on the Triumph the 28th of December and I get sooo excited as we read your adventure. HOPEFULLY our journey from Connecticut will be less stressful than yours. Appreciate all the time you are are spending on this for us to enjoy. Can not wait to hear about Cozumel!!

[amcjeep4life]

Niiaka, I just wanted to say there are plenty of problems with the Mashantucket tribe. They only got recognized about 15 years ago, and before that you couldn't have gotten them to admit they were Mashantucket. They hand over copious amounts of money to their members, many of whom were imported once the tribe was recognized. 18 year old kids are driving cars and trucks at ridiculous speeds, drinking and driving, and killing innocent people. There have been at least 3 fatalaties involving tribal members in the last year. All drivers were UNDERAGE and tribal members and lived. Their victims weren't so lucky. My parents live in the town, and I see what's going on there. No, I don't think they are stashing it in their teepees. I think they are buying million dollar homes and fighting dogs, since they are on soveirgn land and the law doesn't apply to them. It's a personal problem with my local tribe only, so don't think I'm generalizing about Native Americans at all. I have great respect for them, and spent some time on a reservation in North Dakota. But the Indians in my area are a different bunch, and I have no respect for them whatsoever. Please don't take it personally. And now off my soapbox, and on to the regularly scheduled trip report.

 

 

I'm going to try to knock out two days today. DH doesn't get out until 1530, and I should be able to fit in plenty of typing between loads of laundry!

[amcjeep4life]

Ok, here we go! We were scheduled to arrive in Cozumel at about 0800. At about 0730, a shuddering of the ship woke me up. I looked out the bacony door and saw a "sunrise." It's a bit up aready, but it was one of the first times we could see the sun coming up. Because we were heading east, most of the sunrises occurred in front of us. As I said earlier, I didn't really want to see the sunrise, if you get my drift! Anyway, here is a picture of the sunrise as we saw it.

 

 

I woke the DH and told him I was heading down to the secret deck on deck 6 to try and get some pictures of us coming in to Cozumel. He mumbled he would be there in a few minutes. I figured he would fall back to sleep, but he found me about 20 minutes later. The walk from all the way in back to all the way in front seems like a long walk, mostly because all the hallways look the same. But when I got to the deck, I was the only one out there and got to see Cozumel before the DH. It was pretty, but definitely touristy. I could see Margaritaville, and all the beaches. I knew we were docking at the newly reopened Puerta Maya, about 2 1/2 miles from Punta Langosta. This is Carnival's dock, and pretty soon the Fantasy would be joining us here. I knew that because the CD, Ryan, was busily announcing that we were docking and that once the Fantasy started in, the pier would be closed for disembarking passengers. Didn't bother me, we didn't have to get off until later. Here are some pictures I got while we were pulling in.

 

 

That is the pilot boat. Her name was the manatee. It says "pilot" on one side and "piloto" on the other. Just thought that was funny. Anyways, here are a few more of coming into Cozumel.

 

 

I believe this is Chankannab Park. This is actually taken from our balcony.

 

 

As you may remember, Cozumel was devastated by Wilma four years ago. One of the taxi drivers was telling us this area used to be a hotel, but it was destroyed completely. They are now getting ready to rebuild something there. It just looked so sad being there in between Cozumel and Chankanaab.

 

 

This is Puerta Maya. I don't think you would have to leave this area unless you absolutely wanted to. We found everything we were looking for, and the people were very friendly, not pushy at all. Of all three of our ports, I would go back here before any other.

 

[amcjeep4life]

Here is a picture of the ferry boat. I know some people were getting ready to board her for some excursions. I think the scuba people went on her. I just thought she was a nice looking boat.

 

 

I just didn't realize how big some of this stuff was until you can put it in perspective. I didn't think those concrete pilings were that big until the tiny little man walked out and waited to catch our ropes. Wow, that thing is BIG!

 

 

So after we docked, we headed down to breakfast in the Paris dining room. We really loved breakfast in the dining rooms, and would eat here almost everyday. Today we were seated at a big table with 3 other people, who turned out to be from CT too! How weird. We talked a bit, they said they were doing the cooking tour and needed to be out at 0915. I asked them if they had heard about the pier closing and they hadn't! They finished up quickly and headed out before the Fantasy came in. They thanked me for paying attention. Wonder what they would have done if they hadn't sat with us? Anyway, we decided we were going to try and be good for breakfast and we each ordered an omelette made with egg beaters. Bill ordered turkey bacon and I ordered corned beef. The omelettes were so greasy from cooking we decided we were better off ordering regular eggs! That was the only day we ordered them, and the last time too! The corned beef hash was very good, and I will end up getting that the rest of the week! We also had some hash browns, which were just so yum-o!

 

Then, we heard that the Fantasy was docking, so we headed out to the side of deck 3 to get some pictures. It was pretty neat watching a huge ship parallel park. She is a bit smaller than us, but still looks very big!

 

 

After that, we decided to head out, once they reopened the pier, that is! It's bit of a walk down the pier, and gets very windy with two big ships sitting there funneling the wind. When we got off, they took our picture on the gangway, and then there were some Mexican dancers and some Mayan warriors waiting to take pictures as well. The ladies were very bright and cheerful, but the guys looked a bit chilly! Their costumes consist of a lot less covering than the ladies. They were sitting on the pier waiting for the Fantasy to dock and the guys were wrapping themselves in the ladies' skirts. We walked around the pier a bit, and found some very pretty areas. There were lots of people around trying to get you to rent a car or take a taxi, and lots of little shops with everything to buy. We did master the self portrait during this trip, so here is one of my master pieces!

 

 

This was taken at a cute little fountain designed to look like a Mayan temple. Here's one of Bill standing in front to give you a better idea.

 

 

After this, we had the brilliant idea to walk down to Punta Langosta to meet our excursion. We had booked an ATV jungle tour directly with Wild Tours. We saved $33 pp over booking the same tour with Carnival. And we had some people from the Fantasy on the tour with us who had booked with Carnival and they were mad when they heard we paid less! I told them about Cruise Critic, and how I learned everything here, and a few of them said they were going to look it up when they got back. Anyway, to get back to the walk. It turned out to be a nice walk, but it is about 2 1/2 miles, maybe a bit more. It's very flat and would have made a lovely walk, but someone will ask you every ten feet if you would like to rent a car or take a taxi. Once we hit the center of the walk, away from both piers, it was a lot quieter and the walk was beautiful. By this time, we definitely needed the exercize! I didn't feel threatened or in danger during the walk, so don't feel scared to do it, but be prepared to be sold to. They aren't super pushy, and a simple "No thanks!" worked every time. The one thing that made us laugh was that as we walked closer to Punta Langosta, it got farther away! When we went to the gate atthe end of the pier, the guard said it was about 5 kilometers. (For us Americans, 2.2 kilometers is one mile, so just over 2 miles.) We walked about 15 minutes, and some guy tried to rent us a Jeep. He told us that the Punta Langosta was about 3 miles down the road! We said No thanks, and kept walking. About 15 minutes later, someone else tried to get us to take his taxi. He told us Punta Langosta was about 4 miles down the road! That made me laugh out loud! He asked me why I was laughing and I told him it was funny how Punta Langosta kept getting farther away the closer we got! He said it was a Mexican secret, laughed, and drove away! After that it was pretty much a clear shot to Punta Langosta for us. All togethr, the walk took a bit over an hour, and we found Samuel just outside of Carlos N Charlies at about 1150. We told him who we were, and he said we were about an hour early! Oops, they never did specify what time they were on, but I assumed they meant ship's time! You know what they say about assuming! Luckily, they were just starting the earlier tour, and they had room for us. He quickly shoved us in a taxi and away we went. He had collected our money and told us we didn't have to pay for any of the taxis from there, but we did tip the driver a few bucks, since he was haulin burritos to get us there on time. He wasn't very talkative, but he pointed out a few things, including the iguana he came to a screeching halt for to avoid running it over! We got there in time, bought a couple of bandanas since it was so dusty and pretty much hopped right on the ATV's. Our guide there was Carlos, and when he heard us say we owned an ATV at home and were both experienced riders, he quit hustling us thru, and we missed the whole safety talk. Just fine with us! He did put us on two fairly new Honda Rancher 250's, which are exactly like the 350 we have. Very easy to use, for us anyway. A few people did have some issues with shifting gears, but it was mostly painless. We flew around on some very dusty roads, thank you for those bandanas! We were the last two riders before the guide, so we would hang back and then fly along to catch up. Pretty soon the two young guys in front of me started doing the same thing, so there were four of us troublemakers in the back! Anyway, soon you come to a spot where you park and walk down to a ceynote. Our guides on this tour were Efrain and Mike. They gave us the history of the ceynote, how it is a source of fresh water and how a zillion years ago the Mayans would come here and throw their human sacrifices into the ceynote when they were having a bad year. He told us that this particular ceynote was about 66 feet deep, and that when divers went into it they found bones and jewelry, which are now at the museum in Cozumel. They told us they were going to sacrifice the lady, unless she was willing to kiss a Mexican! It was pretty funny. She gave Mike a big kiss on the cheek, and we headed back to the ATVs.

 

[amcjeep4life]

Here is a picture of Bill looking very Bandito on his ATV. Isn't he cute?

 

 

And just to be fair, here's one of me. I don't think I pull the bandana off quite as well as he does!

 

 

 

So we rode some more and finally came to a cave. We did have to keep our helmets on for this, which is a good thing, since I am usually somewhat clumsy. Yup, I managed to bonk my head not once, but three times. Obviously, these guys have some experience with clumsy Americans. Anyway, they were telling us that a zillion years ago when the Mayans would come to Cozumel, they would often find themselves here for a few months, waiting for the currents to change to get them back home. If a hurricane would hit Cozumel, this is where they would take shelter. It was pretty cool since there was some fossilized coral and shells on the walls. And there was a resident already there!

 

 

Isn't he cute? I have worked with animals my whole life and I have never seen iguanas moving about so much and looking so healthy. Obviously, captivity is no place for them. Makes me feel bad for my snakes. If I could figure out how to get them back to the wild in South America, I would, but I doubt they have white mice to eat there anyways! Here is a picture of the outside ledge of the cave. It was pretty low, and very dark in there. I wouldn't want to spend too much time locked in there waiting for a storm to hit!

 

 

After this, we went to a Mayan ruin. Think very small. These are not the big ruins of Tulum, they are quite small. The guides were telling us that the big temples were built to the God of Sun, while most of the temples here on Cozumel were built to the Goddess of the Moon and fertility. He also advised anyone Honeymooning that Cozumel is the land of fertility, so to be careful, or they'd leave with an extra souvenier! e didn't get any pictures of this, since we werer way to the back and the walls were only about 2 feet high. Looked like a round rock wall built on a bit of a hill to me. Whatever. We headed back to the main area, and filled out some comment cards. We tipped our guides, since they were awesome, and waited for a taxi to take us back. While we were there, they came by in the X-rails, and Bill was drooling! I told him if we come back to Cozumel on another cruise, we could do those. Needless to say, he really wants to go back to Cozumel now! Soon enough, we hopped in a taxi with some people from the Fantasy heading to the beach. The water was really rough today, and we heard that a lot of excusions involving water were cancelled. The driver said he would take us back to Punta Langosta, and we asked if he could drop us at Puerta Maya instead. It was closer, so he agreed. I'm sure he still charged for the trip back to Punta Langosta, but I wasn't going to argue, we weren't paying! So, on our way back to the ship for lunch, we bought some souveniers for ourselves and the n&n's and headed back for lunch. I wanted to wash up a bit too, since all I could taste was dirt. Here's one picture of the back of the ships at the pier.

 

 

You can see the Fantasy is a bit smaller than us. She sails out of New Orleans, in case you were wondering. We headed directly to the Lido for lunch. Today's Taste of the Nations was Mexican, big surprise! I had some arroz con pollo and a piece of lemon garlic chicken. Bill also had shrimp quesadillas and some homemade nachos and salsa. After I picked the olives out of the rice, it was pretty tasty! I don't like raw tomatoes, so the salsa didn't do it for me, but the nachos were very good! We also grabbed a cheeseburger and fries. We headed down to the room to drop our stuff off, and washed up a bit. Then we headed back into town. I had read about this place called Cozumel mini-golf, which says it is the biggest mini-golf green on Cozumel! We grabbed a taxi and were dropped off there for $6. We paid our $6 pp to play, and headed off. Interestingly enough, the guy there running the place was from around Philly, PA, about 45 minutes from where I grew up! How funny! Anyway, we found out it is the biggest mini golf place because it is the only mini golf place! We still had fun, and I thought the course was really challenging and beautiful. There are no annoying challenges like windmills, but the greens themselves have lots of rolling areas and little hills to go over and around. There are also some water hazzards that we took full advantage of! 1 stroke penalty, I think I had 3 by the end of the game! You can order drinks to be delivered to you while playing, and they have a little aviary with some friendly parakeets in it. It was nice and relaxing, and I ended up getting my butt kicked.

 

[amcjeep4life]

After this, we argued with a taxi driver who wanted $10 to drop us back at Puerta Maya. He said $6 was fine when we told him we would wait for the next taxi. Then we went to buy some vanilla, and headed back to the ship. The Fatasy was getting ready to leave, and some of its occupants were just a tad tipsy! A group of ladies asked if we would take their picture and then they were telling us how they were heading home, and how they had missed ALL of their ports but Cozumel due to rough weather. We wished them the best and headed back for a real shower! We weren't due to pull out until 2200 that night, and it was about 1830 now. Here is a picture a nice person offered to take of us.

 

 

When we went back into Puerta Maya, we walked around a different way then the first time, and found this beautiful garden area. It was very pretty, and we walked around for a few minutes looking at all the different plants.

 

 

We also found some beautiful murals that were painted to cover some broken windows inone of the stands that was selling jewelry. I thought it was a nice touch.

 

 

Here is another one. They were painted in mostly black and white, but you can see this has just a touch of color. It amazed me that someone has this much talent and could just paint on sheets of plywood. They were beautiful!

 

[amcjeep4life]

So the rest of the day will just be a discussion, no pictures. We were back on board and were very happy having visited our first port! Everything worked out well and we were looking forward to the rest of our cruise! We showered and got dressed for dinner. Tonight was open seating, no assigned table or time. I guess they were figuring that since we were in Cozumel so late most people would be off the ship. Well, they were wrong! The dining rooms were very busy, and we actually had to wait about 10 minutes before they sat us. We ended up at a table for 4 on the port side of London with a very nice mid-twenties couple from Utah, Jessica and Jesse. We were originally going to go to Paris, but got discombobulated and ended up in London. Oh well! For starters, Bill had a tomatoe and mozzarella salad, which sounded an awful lot like a caprese salad to me. I had cream of mushroom soup. Both Bill and Jesse said the tomatoes weren't quite ripe enough, and that the mozzarella tasted different, but was very good. The menu said buffalo mozzarella, and I told them that traditional mozzarella cheese was made with buffalo milk. They both looked at me and said they thought the cheese would be spicy. Men :rolleyes:. My soup was fantastic, I ended up not having a single soup on board that wasn't just delish! For an entree, Bill had the filet mignon with sweet potato hash. There were also fried green beans with it. He said it was nice and tender, and cooked perfectly for him. I had the spinach and mushroom lasagna. It was a big disappointment. It was very gritty, like someone forgot to wash the spinach, and cold. I was very bummed, since it had been something I was really looking forward to. For dessert, Bill had a Raspberry cream cake and Ihad WCMC. They also had apple and pumpkin pies on the menu, and Jesse had one of each. He said the pumpkin pie tasted funny, but then remembered that it was the diet dessert offered that night. He said the apple pie was tasty. We siad goodbye and headed to the Rome Lounge. We learned our lesson last night, no more heading back to the room before the shows! We got there around 2130, just in time for Carnivalaire, which was like Who wants to be a millionaire, or "That show we can't name" as Chicken Little called it. W played along, and once again realized we just aren't smart enough about some stuff to win these things. Give me science, nature, food or animal questions, and I can do OK, but throw politics or old movies into it and I'm done! Bingo was next, and we decided to try our luck. Should have stuck to the blackjack tables! Then at 2230 the Big Show started. Ryan came to the stage and announced that we were underway with everyone on board. Then he introduced the comedian, Percy Crews. This guy was hysterical! He had me laughing so hard I was crying at a few points. He played for about 50 minutes, and had the audience roaring the whole time. I don't know that it was very appropriate for very young kids, but I think my 12 and 13 year old nieces would have loved it, and not been too put off by it. We had recently gone to see Bill Engvall, and this guy gave him a run for his money. I hope he gets off the boats and starts touring some other places, because I'd love to see him again. I'm going to see if he does play any land shows and if he is close by, we'll definitely be going to see him! After the show, we headed off to bed. It had been a very busy day, and we didn't get a nap, so we were both feeling a bit tired. Tomorrow was a sea day, so we planned on sleeping in. Be back later with more!

[greatful]

Good morning everyone! Downloading the second half of our trip photos to webshots today. This is rather time consuming, but does make for an awesome review! My computer isn't the fastest thing on the earth either, so I need to be patient. I've got about 240 pictures to put up there. I'll link to all the photos at the end, that way if you want to see them, you can take a peek.

 

Jailer, I don't know that I'm the one to ask about this cabin being good for you or not. It is pretty far from Camp Carnival, but very close to Lido deck. We enjoyed it, but we are going to look into a different balcony for our next cruise. We tried the aft, now we want to try a regular balcony to see the difference, especially with the price difference now. When we booked, this cabin was an 8C, now it's an 8I. Significant monetary difference! I do think that the room would be HOT in August, especially on the deck. But if you like that kind of thing, go for it. I will say the room was very quiet, little to no noise from other people, and very minimal noise from the Lido. We usually slept thru it, and only heard it if we were actually awake. I really liked the room, but I'm not sure it's worth the extra money. Of course, I've got nothing to comapre it too, which is why I must book another cruise!:p

 

Sorry <wink> you have to book another cruise to compare what a shame to have to go on another cruise ! Thanks for great review, looking forward to pics hope you have before we go this Sat.

[amcjeep4life]

Forgot this picture from Coumel. It was a beautiful sunset.

 

 

OK, on to Day 4, a day at sea. We slept in a bit, since we didn't really have anyplace we had to be, and headed down to breakfast. We sat with some people from Ontario. They were very nice. Today I had pancakes with stewed bananas and strawberries. Bill had a belgian waffle with the same fruit. I had corned beef hash, he had ham slices, and we both had hash browns. Today I decided on a plain criossant, and it as very buttery and flaky, points again on the pastry scale! When our stewed bananas came out today, they came in a dish like the creme brulee is served in. When we looked, there were two big pieces of banana in the sauce. I think they may ghave forgot our bananas the first day! How funny. Well, they tasted even better with the bananas, and put over my pancakes, they were divine! Oh my! YUM-O! After breakfast, we headed to the Rome lounge for bargain bingo. Bingo is a bit pricey, one card for $10, or 3 cards for $20. You only play one game. Today, you could get it for half price, so we played two 3-cards and still managed to lose! I only needed one number, but let's face it, that doesn't mean squat! We then headed to the photo gallery and bought some photos, including the gangway from Cozumel, and one we had taken with sombreros and castanets. On Monday we had bought ourselves T-shirts and a magnet of the ship. That's what I collect. I love refrigerator magnets, since I get to look at them a hundred times a day, any time I go into the kitchen or fridge, there they are! Just seeing them makes me think of the good times we had getting them. We are both t-shirt people, so we like to collect those. Unfortunately, they take up a bit more space and we are really ourtgrowing our drawers. May have to weed some of the old ones out, but I hate getting rid of the memories! Anyway, we wandered around a bit, just looking and people watching. We had decided to try lunch today inthe dining room. We were seated a a table with a bunch of older folks, no one under the age of 55 at least. The one couple were in their late 70's, another was in their late 60's and a single woman about 55. They were nice, but we had nothing in common with them, and it made for a bit of an akward meal, honestly. Bill had the antipasto fro an appetizer, it was very small and had some lettuce, some calimari and prosciutto on it. He said it was OK. I had the lentil soup, which was awesome. I had the hay and straw, which is egg and spinach fettucine in a sun-dried tomato sauce. It tasted awesome, but was a bit greasy. When I cook, I never use the tomatoes packed in oil for exactly that reason, but they must use them. Bill had the Chinese pepper steak. he also said it was good. They were very small portions. We skipped dessert, since nothing really appealed to us, and the lady said to me, "You know, I wonder how many of the ladies skipped dessert on the Titanic because they were concerned about their weight?" I hadn't made any comment to that effect, and as you can see by my pictures, I am not a dainty eater. I told her that nothing appealed to me, and we excused ourselves and left. We wandered about a bit more, and then headed back to the room. We decided we were stil a bit hungry, and having not had room service yet, decided to try them. We ordered a BLT with mayo, a Roast Beef and Brie on baguette, chocolate cake and cheesecake. It was all very good, honestly, the chocolate cake was awesome. The cheesecake was OK, some of the ones off the buffet were better. The BLT was stuffed so full the bacon was falling out! I took the tomatoes off my half and the DH ate them, commenting that they were better than the ones offered with his salad last night! Now, it was pretty close to 1430, and we decided that we wanted to go to Tea. I highly recomend this to everyone. It is in the Oxg=ford Lounge on Deck 4 every sea day at 1500. If you can just do it once, you'll be impressed. All the tables are set up very fancy for tea.

 

OK, I'm ending here because I can't find the 2 lousy pictures I took of tea. I will find them, and be back to finish the day. Got to go walk up to meet Bill when he gets off work anyways. See you all later!

[neverpar]

What a great review so far!! And I'm loving the pics too...thank-you for sharing......and please just ignore the person that tried to hijack your thread...hopefully the mods will ask her to knock it off...

We sail on the Triumph in 4 days!!

[amcjeep4life]

OK I'm back. Continuing with Day 4, a sea day somewhere between Cozumel and Grand Cayman.

I left off with tea. I loved tea. I am a big tea drinker, so this was a great experience. I'm sad to say not many people took advantage of it. I bet there were only about 30 people in the room, and that included the servers and the trio. This is the same trio that plays each night in the atrium lounge before dinner. They were wonderful. I am a closet classical music fan. Bill doesn't like it, and honestly, I listen to a lot of hard rock at home. But I do like the classical station as well, adn listen to it oftern when I'm alone. I often listen to it when I'm on patrol. It's very soothing, and doesn't offer too many distractions, so I can really keep my eye on things. We got there a few minutes before 1500, and grabbed a seat. Immediately, a tuxedoed server came and offered uis a choice of tea from a wooden box. HE poured the hot water over it and offered us milk or lemon. I think milk in tea is sacreligious, but love lemon. Bill followed my lead and drank tea the same way I do. After our tea was poured, another server came with the little goodie cart. There were some wonderful looking things, including marble pound cake, finger sandwiches, coffee scones, and Bill managed to find pots du chocolat. We tried a few things, and were very happy. The pots du chocolat were fantastic, I was bummed they didn't offer this as a dessert in the dining room. It was BETTER than WCMC. I know, someone out there will say there is no way it's better, but I challenge you to go to tea, and if after eating it, you don't think it's better, well, then......we all have different taste buds! I think it was better. That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it! So, here are the two pictures from tea. The first is the tables all set up, the second is the trio. I didn't get pictures of the tea selection or the food, it just feels weird to ask them to stand for that. Sorry.

[URL="http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2113812900104454228jbmHPw"][IMG]http://inlinethumb15.webshots.com/33038/2113812900104454228S600x600Q85.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

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Tea ended at about 1600, and we still had some time to kill, so we headed to the casino to try our luck again. Today, we weren't so lucky, and we both lost the $50 we each played in about 25 minutes, so headed out for a walk. Today, it was very windy on the secret decks so we went up to the Lido to listen to some Calypso music. It was just a guy and a girl, but they were pretty good. She played the steel drums and sang, he sang a bit too, but mostly played the keyboard. After wandering about for a bit, we headed down to the Vienna Cafe for 80's Entertainment trivia at 1830. It was fun, I only lost by one point. All I can say is, Who the heck is Kylie Minogue anyway? Gillian, a member of the entertainment staff who is from England, acted a bit offended that we didn't know who she was. But, she didn't know the Huey Lewis question, so I guess they aren't popular on the other side of the pond! To each their own. I actually googled Kylie Minogue and still don't recognize any of her music. Go figure! After losing my ship on a stick, we headed back to the room for showers before dinner. Yesterday was open seating, so I was looking forward to having Hengke and Siwa back, as well as our regular table mates. We already knew what we wanted, since we had read the menus posted in the dining room that morning when we went for breakfast. Siwa came with bread and water (sounds like we're in jail!) and Hengke took our orders. Bill and I both had the French onion soup, it is a favorite of us both! We often get it wherever we are eating. We also split a chicken quesadilla. The soup was awesome, I wish I had ordered two and skipped the quesadilla. DOn't get me wrong, that was good, although I wish they gave you a bit more sour cream with it, but the soup was just soooo delish! Bill had the jerk pork loin, and I ordered the braised short ribs. They both came with this awesome sesame eggplant, which was really good, and fried rice. Don't ask me! Bill's pork was good, and I'm not a fan of jerk, but the short ribs were just pieces of what looked like pot roast to me, and were very dry. They had an OK flavor, but there was just something not quite right with them. They were a bit of a let down. For dessert, we had WCMC and strawberry cheesecake. In between our entree and dessert, the servers put on a bit of a show. Again, I was very happy for our table being right up front, and really enjoyed the show! Here is Hengke, dancing and singing it up. He had some good moves.

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Hengke was dancing on an oval station just to the right of the staircase, but Siwa got to do her thing just behind us. She was rocking out!

[URL="http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2768415930104454228lVtdPv"][IMG]http://inlinethumb07.webshots.com/44614/2768415930104454228S600x600Q85.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

The servers who don't have the cool stations to stand on get stuck doing their thing on the staircase. They just don't look as cool as our servers in their spiffy jackets.

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The server beind us was from El Salvador, I think his name was Daniel. He has been working for Carnival for 10 years. He had some wicked merengue moves, and with his accent, it was funny to hear him sing!

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Dinner was very fun tonight, and those farts I read about on other reviews who don't like the floor shows sound like boring, stodgy folks with no sense of humor. I really looked forward to the shows, and was glad we got some more later in the week! Anyway, tonight's show was New Wave Magic with Kevin and Caruso. I love magic, and was looking forward to the show, especially when they said that it was a brand new show, and they were debuting it on our ship that very night! WOO HOO! We got to the lounge just as bingo was starting. They always played bingo before the shows, and it seemed to be very poular. They also had scratch off tickets for $1 each, that you could win up to $1K. I saw a few people getting them, and some won small amounts, but I didn't see anyone getting ecsatic having won $1K. You could write your name on the back of the loosing tickets and drop them in a box for a comsolation prize. Usually they gave away a bottle of champagne in the middle of bingo to someone. After bingo, the magic show started pretty promptly. Kevin is a bit dorky, and Caruso never talks. Sounds a bit like Penn and Teller, right? The Triumph dancers in very skimpy costumes were flitting about on stage, and K&C had a scantily attired assitant that they kept shoving in boxes. I thought the tricks were good, and I never spend time trying to figure them out. Magic is one of those last bastions of naivete that I allow myself. Caruso does this one trick with a floating ball that was awesome! I asked Bill what he thought of it, but he was so busy staring at the scantily clad assistant he hardly saw the trick. Surprise, surprise! Anyway, the finale comes up, and they bring out this big structure with crtains all around it. They start putting the sides down, and the next thing you know, the main curtain closes onthe trick. Kevin came out and apologized, saying sometimes new tricks have a few bugs, and that this one had it's share. So, if someone can tell me what the final trick was supposed to be, I'd appreciate it!

[amcjeep4life]

Kevin and Caruso offered a midnight burlesque show later, but I didn't feel a burning desire to go see how much less clothes the dancers could wear. And I really didn't want to see Kevin or Caruso take it off either! So we headed back to our room and found our next towel animal!

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Isn't he cute? As I was looking for his picture, I realized that I skipped the towel animal from last night. I don't know how I forgot him, but here he is, the swan!

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Not a huge fan of swans. I seem to find the meanest, orneriest ones that get themselves injured, and then have no compunction about biting me or beating me with their wings when I catch them to take them to the vet. They also have some of the foulest poop of any animal! Anyway, Not something I'm sure you guys want to read about, so forget I said it. He was kind of cute, especially since I wasn't trying to catch him, so it was OK.

Anway, after cooing over the elephant, we headed to bed in preparation for Grand Cayman. We were scheduled to meet our excursion as soon as possible after getting off the ship. I also forgot to mention that our tablemates told us that Carnival had cancelled all their water excursions in the Caymans the next day. Jim and Diana were supposed to go to Stingray City, and were bummed by the fact that it was cancelled. We told them we were booked with Nativeway, and that we hadn't been cancelled yet. They said they just might see us in the morning. So in preparation for our early excursion, we decided to have room service for breakfast. There isn't a whole lot to choose from, and it is mostly cold stuff, but it was good. We hung the tag on our door and headed to bed! See you all later for Day 5, Grand Cayman!

[kissykitty2002]

Loving your review and pictures, thank you for taking the time to write it.

[mr jailerman]

[quote name='amcjeep4life']Kevin and Caruso offered a midnight burlesque show later, but I didn't feel a burning desire to go see how much less clothes the dancers could wear. And I really didn't want to see Kevin or Caruso take it off either! So we headed back to our room and found our next towel animal!

[URL="http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2815826020104454228AOjTik"][IMG]http://inlinethumb37.webshots.com/36260/2815826020104454228S600x600Q85.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Isn't he cute? As I was looking for his picture, I realized that I skipped the towel animal from last night. I don't know how I forgot him, but here he is, the swan!

[URL="http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2912123360104454228RXQuET"][IMG]http://inlinethumb40.webshots.com/43303/2912123360104454228S600x600Q85.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Not a huge fan of swans. I seem to find the meanest, orneriest ones that get themselves injured, and then have no compunction about biting me or beating me with their wings when I catch them to take them to the vet. They also have some of the foulest poop of any animal! Anyway, Not something I'm sure you guys want to read about, so forget I said it. He was kind of cute, especially since I wasn't trying to catch him, so it was OK.

Anway, after cooing over the elephant, we headed to bed in preparation for Grand Cayman. We were scheduled to meet our excursion as soon as possible after getting off the ship. I also forgot to mention that our tablemates told us that Carnival had cancelled all their water excursions in the Caymans the next day. Jim and Diana were supposed to go to Stingray City, and were bummed by the fact that it was cancelled. We told them we were booked with Nativeway, and that we hadn't been cancelled yet. They said they just might see us in the morning. So in preparation for our early excursion, we decided to have room service for breakfast. There isn't a whole lot to choose from, and it is mostly cold stuff, but it was good. We hung the tag on our door and headed to bed! See you all later for Day 5, Grand Cayman![/quote]
GREAT REVIEW !! :) I have a question for you.. I had an idea ? Even though it would cost me A BIT MORE..:eek: :D I was thinking of booking #8428 , The AFT WRAP right next door to your cabin. That way I could still get that nice breeze on the side of the ship in August and still get a great AFT view as well. Did you get a chance to look over that divider and see that WRAP Balcony ? Is it as great as everyone says ? Don't supose that you got a chance to see in the Cabin #8428 ? Is that cabin right next to your #8430 in the hallway or is it off by itself ? AS ALWAYS, Thanks for your time on these questions and look forward to reading more of that GREAT review ! :D

[chukeee]

OMG I absolutely love your review. It is is no way boring! Your pictures are wonderful and I'm hanging on every word of the written review! We are sailing on the Triumph in Jan. and I am loving hearing about the ship, staff, ports and everything. Keep up the good work.......and hurry:D

[amcjeep4life]

Day 5, Grand Cayman

Today is our first room service breakfast. We had bagels and cream cheese, croissants with honey, bananas, cereal and OJ. I ordered an extra box of cornflakes to take snorkeling with us, since I had read here that it works well to get the fish to come up to you. We asked for our breakfast to come between 0700 and 0715, and it got there at about 0655. Can't complain, we were up and it turned out to be nice eating on the balcony that early. I don't think we were very awake, since I don't have any pictures until we actually got on Grand Cayman. Sorry. We were told by Ryan, our chipper CD that we had docked in a different place than normal. The Conquest was already in the area, and we could see the tenders heading back and forth. We got our cereal and towels and headed off for our first tendering experience. The Capers had said you needed to go and get a tender ticket, but when we asked we were told they weren't necessary, since Carnival had cancelled their tours there wasn't the normal huge outpouring of people to get off. Sounds good to me! We went down to Deck 0, put our cards in the scanner and got gonged out. We headed onto the tender and were quickly on our way. When we got ashore, they took our picture at a mock gangway, one for us, and one for the COnquest. We quickly found our guide, Eldon, from Native Way Watersports. He told us that they were sending a bus to take us into town, since we were a few miles from the normal tendering place. He also said that they were sending a boat out to Stingray City to make sure it was OK for us, and that if we chose to stay with them, that the Rum Point stop would be cancelled, since the waters were too rough to cross the bay. It reduced the price to $40 from $60, so it was OK with us. No Rum Point meant no lunch, which kind of bummed us out, but we were just happy to hopefully be going, since hundreds of people from Carnival's tours weren't going to be there. We took the bus into town, and they let us out in the shopping area. We went into a store and got some T-shirts, which were pretty expensive. Evidently the dollar in Caymans is higher valued, so stuff was a bit pricey here. You could see some damaged buildings from Paloma, which had hit just the week before we got there. We found the Harley store, and got ourselves some T-shirts, then headed over to a the main mall. We found the Blackbeard's rum cake booth, and after a few samples, bought a bag full of them. They had specials like buy 6 small, get a large free, so we bought some for everyone at home. I still have a large one in the fridge for Christmas dessert. Can't wait! We met at 1000 hrs in the pavilion across the street, and Sharon told us that they were sending the bus to take us to the marina to leave! YEA!! At that point, we ran into Jum and Diana, our tablemates, who told us they were indeed going along with us. There were a few Triumphers and a few Conquesters, all of whom seemed to be from one group. All together, there were about 25 people. We headed down to the marina, where we met our guides. We loaded onto the boat and headed out to Stingray City. We passed some VERY nice homes on the way out.

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They girl who was there to take our pictures was telling us that these are the homes of the upper class, like we couldn't tell that ourselves. She was naming some names of people who live on the island, but I wasn't really paying attention. I was too busy looking for iguanas!

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Can you see him sitting there? He's very dark, since these are the marine iguanas, rather than the typical green iguanas most people are used to seeing. Anyway, we headed out and finally came to Stingray City. We backed in, got our spot, and got ready to get in the water. I've seen other pictures were there are just hundreds of people in the water, but there were only 5 boats in total out today, with about 100 people all told. It was nice.

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Yes, those dark spots in the water are all rays! The picture lady had told us that no one had been out to the City since Sunday, and it was now Thursday. The waters had been very rough, so no one was allowed to go out there. The water was still a bit choppy, but it just made being there more fun! If you weren't paying enough attention, you would get wacked from behind by a big wave! We had 3 or 4 kids under 10 on our tour, and some of them were too scared to get in the water. One boy got in, but then got knocked over by a big wave, and spent the rest of the time clinging to his dad. One girl got in and immediately started screaming and thrashing around. Needless to say, Bill and I found a quiter spot to go hang out. Pretty soon, one of the guides called to us to see what he had.

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These things were amazing! They are so big, but they just gently brush up against your legs. The guides told us to make sure we shuffled our feet rather than picking them up. You don't want to step on one of these guys! But they just swam in between people and it was so cool to be there! I just can't describe the feeling. These are wild animals, they are not tame, and they are just so trusting that we won't hurt them, and will perhaps offer them a bit of food. I can't even say how awesome this was! I guess I'll just shut up and post some pictures, which really speak for themselves.

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[amcjeep4life]

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[amcjeep4life]

If you look closely, and ignore the water on the lens, you will see I have a piece of squid in my hand. These critters don't have teeth, but rather suck their food into their mouths like vaccuums. This one was definitely mooching from Bill, and was ignoring me completely. When the food comes out, they get a bit more rowdy, especially since they hadn't had any food in 4 days, other than what they got themselves.

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You hold your hand with the food underwater , and they come over it and suck it in. You need to be careful, or you can get a stingray hickey. Diana, our tablemate, got a huge one on her butt! No, I didn't take a picture of it! Here are some more pictures of us feeding the rays.

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Not everyone out there is willing to feed these guys, and with so few people in general being there, if you did decide to feed, you got mobbed! Usually there were three or four rays vying for that piece of food in your hand.

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We spent about an hour here, and it was such an awesome time! If you have never done this, Ihoghly recommend it. It may not be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing, but it should definitely be a bucket-list item. I'm very glad we got to go, and really enjoyed it.

After Stingray City, we all loaded up on the boat again and motored off about 15 minutes to a snorkeling area. The water here was about 10-12 feet deep, compared to the 3-5 feet at the City.

[amcjeep4life]

I just got my CD in the mail from the company that was taking pictures at Stingray City. We paid $31 to have 2 pictures burned to CD and shipped to us. A bit of a scam, but we're on vaction! I spent 4 times that on pictures from Carnival! Anyway, here are the pictures. The nice thing is that it shows Bill and I together.

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Man, I just can't say enough about this experience. The rays feel so cool, like petting a wetsuit with muscles! They are so soft and gentle. People were talking about Steve Irwin on the boat, and how these things could kill you. There were a few people who never got off the boat. I had to jump into the conversation about Steve Irwin and put in my 2 cents worth, about how he was crazy and honestly had some poor animal manners. He was going to get himself killed one day with his antics, it was just a matter of time. Don't get me wrong, I liked the guy, but he was a bit crazy! Before I get in trouble for that comment, I have one more stingray picture. The guides tell you that if you kiss a ray, it's 7 years of good luck, so we did it. Does that mean we get 14 years?

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OK, so on to the snorkeling. I enjoy the floating and swimming, but I never see anything. This is only the second time we've gone snorkeling, and it is really fun. As you can see from previous picture, I wear glasses. I have to take them off to snorkel, obviously, so I just generally float around and don't really see details. If a fish is brightly colored enough I may see it, but otherwise, Bill gets more out of the experience than I do. But I still enjoy it, it's pretty relaxing. So, we both went into the water at the snorkeling stop.

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Bill said the fish were everywhere, and some were pretty bright. These are definitely NOT Connecticut waters, where you can't see your own feet if you're in the water above your knees! There was lots of cool things to see, and Bill took plenty of pictures.

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