Sailed:
01/08/2012- 01/15/2012 out of Baltimore, MD.
Okay, a little bit of background information
first. This was my DH (28 years old) and my (26 years old) first cruise.
Therefore, we have NOTHING to compare it to. We are not foodies, or traveling critics.
We go on weekend trips often and we like nice accommodations. I have been in
different parts of the hospitality field since I was 16. Therefore, I know what
I expect out of myself and I am very judgmental when it comes to good service.
Currently I am a full time student and my mother passed away two days after
Christmas (of Breast Cancer). So for me this was a much needed vacation
considering the three weeks prior to vacation I was taking care of my mother
and her final arrangements.
My husband and I live in Auburn, NY. We left
our house at 5:10 am for the trip to Baltimore. We arrived at the driveway to
the port at 10:50 am (we stopped a few times along the way for coffeeJ). That first view
of the ship as your coming over the bridge on the highway gets your heart a
thumping!
Embarkation:
We
were parked and in the port terminal and through security by 11:30. The
computer system was down so the people who did the pre-check in online (like
us) had to redo all their information on paper. This was a very long and drawn
out process. A little irritating but I wasn’t about to let it ruin my vacation.
After the check-in process we were herded into the waiting room. (I think they
should have a little more room in-between the row especially since everyone had
at least one carry on per couple and it was hard to maneuver through all the
baggage if you had to go to the rest room.) We waited in the waiting room and
were on the ship at 1:07 pm (walked through the door and officially on
vacation)! My only complaint in all of this is when you are welcomed aboard,
that’s it. No one directing hundreds of people getting on the ship at one time
(but 30 wait staff offering you drinks) and then you get the handful of stupid
people that stop right inside the door to take a picture of themselves. Really?
Come on people! Commonsense would tell you to walk twenty extra feet and move
to the side. Don’t get me wrong I’m all for taking pictures but please get out
of my way. I hadn’t eaten since 4:30 am and I was starved. However, if you move
to the elevators there was a cute blonde lady telling you what floor lido was
on and that you could get into your room at 2:30 pm. We went to lido and there
were about 2,000 people there all milling about so we went down on the third
floor lounge and waited until about 2:15 then decided to find our room. It
wasn’t finished being vacuumed yet but the room steward told us to feel free to
leave our bags there and he would lock up when he left. We went back up to lido
at around 3:00 and the place looked like a ghost town so we decided to have a
little something before heading out for the muster drill, and sail-away.
Food:
As stated before
we are not foodies by any means. After the first day we figured out the timing
to avoid the excessive wait for food on Lido we did go to the MDR for breakfast
one morning. We also had early seating. We were placed in a booth with another
couple (dating) from Jersey. They were fantastic and any worries we had over
eating dinner with strangers (DH was nervous about this) was expelled within
minutes of them sitting down across from us.
Food
on lido-
Aside from long
lines if you went there at peak times, the food was moderately warm and good
enough considering how many people they are feeding at one time. Best times to
go to lido for breakfast are before 7:30am or after 9:30am (there are no
lines). Don’t forget to try the apple and vanilla cream Danishes, YUMMY! Lunch- anytime after 2:30pm. My
recommendations are the burgers, Mongolian Wok, and the Turkey on Country roll
or the turkey wrap (Ruben is okay, however bread is a little soggy) at the
deli. Phenomenal!! The man behind the deli (Vijay) was always pleasant and the
deli is open from 11 am to 11 pm and I swear anytime we went there morning or
night he was there with a smile on his face. I asked him how many sandwiches he
made in a day and he smile and said “maybe I will break a Guinness Record.”
Food
in main dining room-
We were at booth
175. We were nervous because we were sitting with another couple but the
Maître’d did an awesome job pairing us up. We got along really well. Our food
was always hot. Twice, I burned my mouth on the soup. The dinners were good, I
only had to add salt and pepper a few times. Always try the soup, they are
delicious. I had the warm chocolate melting cake twice (ask for extra ice
cream) it was okay…super sweet though. The bitter n’ blanc was tasty but a
little dry for my liking. Our waiter at first was a little stand offish at
first but by the end of the week he started warming up to us. Bar service was
good as well, always remembered what you were drinking. The dancing wait staff
was always a pleasure. Those guys had the biggest smile on their face you could
tell they were having fun. We did the MDR for breakfast one morning, the Eggs Benedict
are a must!
Room
Service-
We
ordered room service the first two mornings. It asks for you to tell them a
time we put between 7 and 7:30 and it was always there at 7:25. We ordered
Danishes and coffee and tipped three dollars each time. One other time I
ordered from the TV and ordered a quesadilla (delish!) with guacamole and a bag
of ice (ours was gone) to chill our wine before dinner. It took about 40
minutes for it to be delivered. Again we tipped three dollars.
Bar
Service:
Our last night at
dinner my DH and I ordered a Margarita on the rocks and it had so much liquor
in it we had to add water after a few sips to tone it down (It was $20.13 {for
both} with gratuity and I felt that they were worth the cost). I recommend
doing the mini martini tasting. It is $19.55 pp w/ gratuity. When you are
finished you get the recipes and a little martini charm. The bartenders in the
Florentine lounge were very pleasant. That was the only time we went to the bar
for drinks, we bought three bottles of liquor through Bon Voyage before we
left. We left the ship with a full bottle. We were having too much fun to be
drunk our whole vacation. We also brought onboard two bottles of wine and
brought glasses to dinner on elegant nights. (Ask stewards or order wine
glasses from room service.) On the last night at sea they have the Fun Farwell
party where the show band plays and servers are walking around the Taj Mahal
handing out {free} drinks (make sure you tip the wait staff and they will keep
bringing you drinks every few minutes). It goes from 5-5:45. It was a lot of
fun and there were only a few hundred people there. Not to mention you get
unlimited drinks.
Onboard
Activities:
Anyone
who says there are not enough activities onboard, are LIARS!!! There are
activities from 7am until midnight. There are even activities all day long on
port days, which was a pleasant surprise. The trivia games (there are plenty)
are very eclectic well put on and fun, fun, fun. The comedy shows were for the
most part HISTERICAL! The adult shows are just that adult. Right at the
beginning, the comedians state that if you are easily offended this is not the
show for you. So anyone who complains is just stupid because they were told it
was going to be raunchy. There were two comedians on the first leg. (On in
Baltimore, off in Port Canaveral) Jim did different shows each time and Chaz
did the same show every time (which he told everyone, not only that he made
everyone repeat back to him that it was going to be the same show) and the next
day some lady was bit**ing because he did the same show twice in a row). Not
kidding, people are actually that dumb!! I have to give props to the Pride
dancers, they did really well considering they are on a moving ship not only
that, one of the nights, the ship had a significant rock to it and they still
pulled it off. The vocals of Erin and Brian left a little to be desired but I
think they did well enough. I recommend going to the Bust a Move workshop (it’s
free) and you get to meet a Pride dancer and learn some of their dance moves
they perform in a show. As a side note, the show Vroom and Wonderful World were
awesome however as another side note, the girls are in thongs with their
hinnies hanging out and the men do a strip tease (Vroom). I had no problem with
this but they say nothing about it in the description and there were some very
young children there. Just a heads up!
Casino:
There
are plenty of slots that range from penny lines to dollar lines. The slots are
about 50% smoking and 50% nonsmoking. As a nonsmoker, the smoke on the
nonsmoking side really didn’t bother me. It was annoying however that my
favorite slots were in the smoking area. I just went super early when no one
was there and stayed until the smoke started bothering me and then went to the
nonsmoking section. I will say however that I was a little concerned when I was
playing a slot in the smoking section and a woman sat next to me, put her
oxygen tank between us and took her tubing out of her nose and lit up! I couldn’t
get my card out of the machine quick enough. WTF!
Room:
We
were in room 5268 (aft balcony). The room was always clean and the towel
animals were wonderful. All the room stewards always had a smile and a hello
every time they passed us. The bed was comfy enough but there was definitely a
very strong vibration when you sat or laid down. I felt it was very soothing
and actually think it helped me sleep better. There are three closets, two for
hanging and one with shelves (5). There is a cupboard with two shelves by the
bed, plus night stands and there are four drawers in the vanity. Also there are
six small shelves on the mirror in the bathroom so there is more than enough to
store your bathroom stuff. ***Note to the ladies*** there is a hair dryer provided,
it leaves a lot to be desired (however it was one less thing to pack) there are
two settings low and high, and you have to hold the button down to make it
work. Normally I just dried my bangs and took a little of the wetness out of my
hair, then just let it air dry. Before dinner I would just straighten my hair.
The water pressure was awesome and I had no drainage problems. However I would
recommend bringing one of those gel cone air fresheners for the bathroom (enough
said). Not to mention the shower was cleaned everyday (how nice)! The bathroom
is big enough for what you need it for. I
know everyone says to bring a bungee cord to keep balcony doors open but I just
stuck a tube of lip gloss in the track and that worked really well.
Ports
of Call:
Just a note, we had no excursions booked
through Carnival and had nothing set in stone. We had things we thought would
be fun and kind of played everything by ear when we got to the ports. Getting
off and on was fast and efficient. There will be photographers to take your
picture; there is no obligation to stop if you don’t want to.
Port
Canaveral-
We
got off the ship right before 8 am. There were excursion buses, taxies, and 1
single lonely information person when you left the port terminal. We were going
to try to do Kennedy Space Center on our own. Too bad it was a $50 ride pp/per
way plus the $48 admission pp. If you plan on going here, book it through
Carnival, it’s worth the price. So, instead we took a cab $5 pp (we weren’t
charged on the way back) to Cocoa Beach. My recommendation here is don’t buy
anything through Ron Jon’s there are 10 other surf shops in a two block radius
with the same merchandise for ¼ the cost. We had lunch at the Shark Pit $11.95
for a pizza and a picture of beer (they fed the sharks while we were eating,
very cool). We forgot our Carnival towels so we rented $5 pp beach chairs at
one of the shops right by the beach. It was mostly overcast with sporadic rain
and wind. I found it funny that I was sitting on a beach in January wrapped up
in a hoodie. On the ride back the cab driver pulled over so we could see and
alligator sitting on a rock at the pond by the pier. Arrived back at the ship
at 5ish, showered and headed down to dinner. Only had to wait about ten minutes
to get through security to get back on the ship. Before coming back from Cocoa
Beach, we bought a 12 pack of Mountain Dew and had no problem bringing it back
onboard.
Nassau-
We
walked from the port down to the bridge and over to Paradise Island. It was a
really nice walk (about 2 miles) and a beautiful sight once you got to the top
of the bridge. We went to the ferry terminal (go to the end of the bridge and
take a right). We took a 2 pm catamaran ride (sailed most of the way) to rose
island reef and snorkeled for an hour (or they would drop you off at the beach)
($70 pp) (Flying J’s). It included a soda, rum punch, and bag of chips. These
folks were WONDERFUL; I would recommend them to anyone. Snorkeling was an experience;
the water was warm, crystal clear and beautiful. Got back to the dock around
5:30 pm and then took the ferry back to the port terminal. As a side note,
nothing is free here; if you take the ferry ($4) expect to tip the guide. When
you get off the boat people will offer you necklaces for “free” and then follow
you saying that “nice ladies” give them five dollars a necklace. It was a small
young boy and I felt bad so I gave him a five for two necklaces and he about
grabbed my wallet out of my bag. Make sure you divide your money amongst
everyone you are with incase something happens. Not saying it will but just to
be safe. We went back to the ship after that because I didn’t feel comfortable
walking around there at night time. I would have liked to go to Senior Frogs,
but didn’t feel comfortable wandering around much longer. Actually, I feel
safer walking around NYC at night. Plenty of people were wandering around and
as far as I know no incidences were reported.
Freeport-
We
rented a scooter from a place right in port ($55) plus gas and went to a beach
(Taino Beach). My DH and I are both licensed motorcycle drivers so we got our
fix for a while; it was pretty interesting driving on the wrong side of the
road. The beach was $5 per person and it included chairs, paddle boats, kayaks,
bathrooms, and changing area. Jet skies were also offered for $70 per ½ hour.
There were several people there offering hair braiding and jewelry. After you
said no, they didn’t bother you again. I did find a really nice bracelet, they
were asking $7, I offered $5 and it was accepted. We tried some Kaliak and
Sands Beer both were tasty ($4 each). We left and went back to port to return
our scooter at Noon and while in port I had a Pina Colata in a coconut w/rum
($7). Then we got back on the ship and relaxed on our balcony for sail away. I
did go up top to see the pilot get off the ship. Very interesting to see!
Disembarkation:
This
was about as efficient as it could be with stupid people not following
directions and just getting off. Side note, you have to leave through the
casino so just a heads up! Again no one directing you? We were off the boat and
on the highway by 11:15 am. It was kind of weird the customs people just let us
walk right on through they didn’t even look at our passports. Of course we
really didn’t have anything to claim either. You do have to be out of your room
by 8:30 am and find a seat to park yourself and your stuff (self assist). We
left our room at about 7:45am and just read our Kindle/Nook while waiting.
So, that’s pretty much it! I’m long winded I
know.
Side
Notes:
The
lemonade and Iced Tea are drinkable, the guava juice in the morning was delish,
I would always bring my large Rubbermaid water bottle and fill it up (if you do
this, grab a small plastic cup, fill that and then dump into you water bottle,
a lot more sanitary). (It mixed well with Vodka.) The coffee is strong I just
added a little hot water to tone it down. There is a great hot tea selection,
hot chocolate is good, and the ice cream and frozen yogurt were tasty also. The
pizza was edible and that’s about it. The water is also filtered and better
than my filtered city water so no problems there, the water out of the tap in
the bathroom had a slightly chlorine taste to it but it is drinkable. You can
also bring a 12 pk. of soda (pp) back on board in each port. So unless you
drink tons of soda the card just doesn’t seem like a good deal to me. I didn’t
think the bar staff or the photographers were too pushy. They asked if I wanted
my picture taken, if I wanted to, I would strike a pose, if not I smiled said
no thank you and kept walking. They were never rude they just said okay, have a
nice day! I would recommend this cruise
to anyone. We plan on taking another cruise in June out of Boston this time.
Hope this was helpful, have a wonderful day all! If you have any questions or
comments, feel free to message me!
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