Just returned from a six day western Caribbean cruise on the carnival dream. I’m not sure why I booked this cruise, I’ve always said I was not a cruise person, the ships are just large hotels at sea, and not even upscale hotels at that, and filled with people and germs and designed to separate middle income folks like me from hard earned wages - via overpriced alcohol, casinos, by selling crappy jewelry or watches or paintings, etc.… but I thought maybe I was just being a snob. Why not give it a try. They seem so inexpensive. I have to say, I wasn’t being a snob, I was accurate. Take breakfast for example: The food can best be described as similar to the quality of the free breakfast one receives at the Budget Inn with watery eggs, powdered probably, weirdly thin, bacon, unripened, melon, and a few pastries, which are really the only tasty thing on the menu. Of course you can enhance your breakfast experience with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice - for a price. I think it was four dollars, but needless to say, I turned it down. The other meals were equally mediocre. It almost tasted as if they are not using butter. Like my mother‘s nursing home food. I mean, I get that you’re cooking for a couple of thousand people at a time and that’s difficult? Maybe? But is that really an excuse? I just felt sort of insulted. I have to say the people who serve the guests in the cafeteria and dining room are lovely. I’ve got no beef with them. I think they are also at the mercy of the executives of Carnival Cruise Lines who don’t apparently give a you know what about the quality of the food.
The excursions were extraordinarily overcrowded. I opted for a snorkeling jaunt on an endangered reef in Belize only to discover that I would be joined by 150 of my fellow passengers, and we would all be snorkeling together in an area about the size of a tennis court. Needless to say, there were no fish around. Any of the smart ones had gotten out of town long ago. The grilled chicken lunch meal that was included tasted of lighter fluid. There was some free rum punch, which was dispensed from a large water cooler, and not cold. All that aside, the really sad thing is that the excursion was passed off at as “Eco tourism” - as something that is beneficial to Belize, or the people of Belize - but it in fact is only damaging the reef further. They’re one beautiful natural resource. The cruise industry should leave that reef alone. Fun fact which I learned too late:is that these large cruise ships are emitting more planet, warming fossil fuels than hundreds of millions of cars. They are large contributors to the warming of the seas, which is killing the reefs so it’s pretty ironic. And sad. if you’re one of those people who like me gave into the advertising and thought a cruise would be fun… At least go into with open eyes, and Google the impacts that these cruise ships on our environment before your next trip.
The excursions were extraordinarily overcrowded. I opted for a snorkeling jaunt on an endangered reef in Belize only to discover that I would be joined by 150 of my fellow passengers, and we would all be snorkeling together in an area about the size of a tennis court. Needless to say, there were no fish around. Any of the smart ones had gotten out of town long ago. The grilled chicken lunch meal that was included tasted of lighter fluid. There was some free rum punch, which was dispensed from a large water cooler, and not cold. All that aside, the really sad thing is that the excursion was passed off at as “Eco tourism” - as something that is beneficial to Belize, or the people of Belize - but it in fact is only damaging the reef further. They’re one beautiful natural resource. The cruise industry should leave that reef alone. Fun fact which I learned too late:is that these large cruise ships are emitting more planet, warming fossil fuels than hundreds of millions of cars. They are large contributors to the warming of the seas, which is killing the reefs so it’s pretty ironic. And sad. if you’re one of those people who like me gave into the advertising and thought a cruise would be fun… At least go into with open eyes, and Google the impacts that these cruise ships on our environment before your next trip.
