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| Christmas Cruise; nevermore | |
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| Topic Started: December 29, 2008, 12:02 pm (172 Views) | |
| Roadbuster | December 29, 2008, 12:02 pm Post #1 |
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Roadbuster
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So, As I said in the BRB notices... I spent the last week and Christmas on a Cruise heading down to Progresso and then to Cazumel. All in all, I had a good time, however, I'm just soooo not a cruise person. Plus, it just wasn't very 'Christmassy' for me. First, the cruise itself... And this was Carnival's 'Fantasy' ship. The room: - small, but that's to be expected. - crappy bad picture TV that had a strange mixture of channels on it, some from I think Detroit... and others that were in English, but every commercial was in Spanish. I did have Cartoonnetwork, but I couldn't figure out what timezone it was on. TNT was there too, so we had movies. There were also a few movie channels. I so wish I had grabbed my PS2, as I could have hooked it up and had a DvD player running at least. - clean. And well taken care of. Room service was very good as was housekeeping. They cleaned several times a day, yet we never once ran into them. The little towel creatures they left were fun too (I'll post the pic of the sexy bunny they left one night when I upload it) - Internet was $.75 a minute. Needless to say, I didn't partake. The ship: - Below deck: Uhg. Basically it was like a lower end Casino. The central hub had lots of outdated neons in it, and a few Christmas garlands without lights on them. There were mini-gift-shops around, a Casino section, a library/board game room, the dining halls, a Universal lounge which the shows took place in, and a slew of different bars for different tastes (sports, jazz, teen, 60's, discotech, kareoke, etc...) - Above deck: A fairly smallish pool with hottubs on either end. All were consistently choked with little kids. Lots of 'laying out' area. Frightening bathrooms. The Lido deck (where the pool was) also had a 24 hour pizza/ice cream buffet, and did have meals with buffet lines at normal times too. There were also 2 pingpong tables, but good luck on getting on those. Above that, there was a running track if you wanted, and there was a minigolf place. Now, for both of those, it would be equivalent to running/playing on a flatbed truck that was cruising down the interstate at 80mph. For the little kids there was a rather fun looking waterslide though. Now, neither my wife or I are big into the Casino thing (costs money), and she can't do any drinking, and I do very little drinking to begin with(which drinking costs lots od $$ on board at any rate), AND she didn't want to be in smokey areas, that pretty much knocks out the bar scene. Neither of us are pool people or sunbathers (we grew up on the beach, so we're kinda long since over all that) there really wasn't that much for us to do. The food was hit or miss. Some things were 'pretty good' but nothing that I couldn't match/surpass in an instant here in Houston. And there were plenty of things that were... bad. Still, at least it was "free" (meaning we've already paid for it via the cost of the cruise... which means it's not really free at all %#$@%!!) The service at dinner was excellent. They were fun, they would remember your habits (drinks, coffee, dessert patterns, etc) and they were attentive. The service for breakfast or for lunch on the Lido deck was HORRIBLE. Breakfast people were inflexible, rude, and grumpy. And this is a sit-down type breakfast in the main dining hall, and they were not slammed busy any time we went there. Refills were rare, and waiting on food was common. As were 'mix ups' They would never seat any of us together, which was somewhat ok, since we were a party of 12 (the max table they had was 10) but every time they would give us grief. At one point, the last day, they sat three at one table, then a guy came over and said 'there's no one covering that table, you'll have to move' Now... this was within five feet of the other table, and of our table. This was on a platform small section. There were few others in the resarant at all, and we had plenty of time till breakfast was over. They couldn't just say, 'oh, hey, Joe, can you watch that table?' Noooooo... they MADE THEM MOVE. Lunch gripes: ok, so I'm in line with my tray on the Lido deck, buffet style (and an uninpressive buffet at that) I'm getting my food, and a woman starts coming down the line wiping up crumbs. Doesn't look at me, doesn't say 'sorry, excuse me' not a word. PUSHES MY TRAY OFF THE THING AND WIPES HER WAY IN FRONT OF ME! Yeah. Right. Then fifteen minutes later, I and others are at one of the two dessert bars. We're getting our stuff, and there's an older lady behind me. A guy comes over and tells her 'This is closed. Go to the other side.' Just like that. While she was in mid getting of a dessert!!! Ridiculous!! The 'Shows': We only went to one show on the ship. I was ready to gouge my eyes out with a spoon by the end. It was the opening show and it was pretty bad. The dancers were... well, the girls were pretty and all, but out of the six or so of them there were only two that could dance at all... and of those two, I'd bet that one was a stripper formerly. The other girls danced like teenage white girls. I heard from Jen's sister that the Christmas Day show was pretty bad too. And the way she said it (she is an EXTREMELY optimistic and cheerful person) means that it was probably equally as bad. Ok, so off of the ship now. That was all my gripey parts (or some of them at least.) The good: Progresso was our first port. 10 of us got a trip to the ruins at Chichen Itza. Those were COOL! They're Mayan ruins including several large pyramids and a huge sports field (where the winner was beheaded... yeah, the winner.) Our guide gave us a whirlwind tour of the increadible mathematics that went into the Mayan fanaticisms and buildings. We got rained on, but we didn't care all that much. Lots of fun, very very interesting. Ate at a restaurant on the way home. Cozumel was the next day (Christmas day) and my wife, her brother Jimmy, and I paid a cabby $90 (which, at $30 a piece was well worth it) to drive us around wherever. He took us to some more ruins, these were more like a village (and were filled with iguanas everywhere) then he drove us along the opposite coast were the water was deep deep blue, and the tide made breakers on the rocks. The beaches there were populated primarily with locals (no white folk) and the air had an interesting mix of the salty spray and sweetness from the large amounts of honeybees that live there! We ate at a local restaurant near a more commercial beach and had Conch Cerviche, a Whole Fried fish (I think it was a snapper), Garlic Octopus, and Grilled Shrimp. All was very very fresh and excellent. We did a little shopping at the port hub, getting some vanilla and stocking up on some alcohol (bottle of Frangellico, 2 bottles of good rum, and whiskey) all duty free and about half what they cost stateside.l Throughout the trip we did spend lots of time with Jen's family, which was fun. We also got to meet her Nephew's longtime girlfriend... who is as of Christmas Day his fiance, so that was fun too! We played games, mostly Farkle (a form of unlimited Yahtzee) and Pictionary (which I unfortunatly had a headache and bowed out of) We did do several of the cruise's trivia games... which we cleaned up on as a family. 2 medals and three trophys for our family alone, including one that went to my wife after she sand 'Stairway to Heaven' for the gathered crowd. That was all fun. |
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| Blue Phoenix | December 29, 2008, 1:32 pm Post #2 |
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Administrator-For-Life!
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all in all, i think i'm going to avoid cruises like the plague! i'm glad you had SOME fun, spent time with family, and i hope you got some great photos of local scenery! ...the winner is beheaded... i'll have to remember that if we ever have any contests here! ![]() Welcome back, Roady, we missed you! |
![]() Come with me and you'll be in a World of Pure Imagination | |
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| Roadbuster | December 29, 2008, 2:19 pm Post #3 |
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Roadbuster
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Thanks Blue! On a strange and sad note... a ship we saw in Cozumel, the Norweigan Pearl (which btw, is the largest cruise ship out there for the moment) apparently lost a woman the night after we saw them! They have footage of her going overboard while they were out to see after leaving Cozumel (Christmas night) :-( http://www.wftv.com/news/18374555/detail.html |
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| LightSlayer | December 29, 2008, 3:58 pm Post #4 |
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Screaming Naked Hot Stuff!!! (Emoticon Guru)
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Welcome back Roady. Your trip certainly doesn't make me want to go on a cruise any time soon, altho the ruins sound like a very cool time. I can't wait to see pictures of them. |
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own!" ~Adam Savage
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| Roadbuster | December 30, 2008, 12:58 pm Post #5 |
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Roadbuster
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Here's the pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/RoadbusterDoM/KearleyVannStubbsChristmasCruise2008?authkey=mrFggXCQJcw&feat=directlink |
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| Blue Phoenix | December 30, 2008, 1:57 pm Post #6 |
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Administrator-For-Life!
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH... somegreat shots there, love the ruins! and the iguanas! (is that a WILD yellow boa???)and i love the sexy bunny! ![]() and oh man, i love the video of Stairway to Heaven! HARHARHAR~! |
![]() Come with me and you'll be in a World of Pure Imagination | |
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| Roadbuster | December 30, 2008, 1:58 pm Post #7 |
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Roadbuster
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Nah, the boa was quite tame. It was in the restaurant area shops with a guy who had a monkey also (surprised we didn't get a shot of the monkey) there was a peacock there too apparently. |
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| Blue Phoenix | December 30, 2008, 2:31 pm Post #8 |
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Administrator-For-Life!
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YOU DIDN'T GET A SHOT OF THE BIRRRRRD??? |
![]() Come with me and you'll be in a World of Pure Imagination | |
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| Roadbuster | December 30, 2008, 2:40 pm Post #9 |
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Roadbuster
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Never even saw it. My wife mentioned it, I didn't see it anywhere... |
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| Blue Phoenix | December 30, 2008, 2:42 pm Post #10 |
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Administrator-For-Life!
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off with his head! |
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off with his head!
6:24 PM Jul 10