Hi Sheryl- here's my review...feel free to email me with any questions. Enjoy!
Two early-thirties, single gals on their first cruise
All times are ship time
Sept. 15th, 2003: Monday leaving Miami
We left the Howard Johnson of Port Miami at 11:30 a.m. in their free shuttle. The shuttle driver had loaded and unloaded our bags. One porter handled our checked bags at the port. We encountered two lines, one with magnetic scanners right inside the door (must have cruise documentation completed to get in this line) and then the long check-in line which moved fairly quickly. The kind gentleman checking us in took our ID’s and documentation, checked us in quickly, gave us our Sign & Sale cards (only one credit card for both cards/people in the cabin) and a deck plan and directed us to head on up to board the ship and begin eating. From check-in, we were directed to a couple tables upstairs to pick up our room keys (still in the terminal) and to a seated waiting area. We were soon directed onto the ship, each stopping to insert our Sign & Sail card in the photo ID machine (smile!), and our embarkation photos taken just as we stepped onboard.
We were on the ship around 12:45. The ship had a glitzy Vegas look with lots of lights, neon and such, sphinxes too, atrium area is gorgeous. Our room, U151, had plenty of room for us, two closet hanging spaces, one full-length area of shelves and a safe. There were four drawers in the desk with vanity as well as a middle drawer for paper, pens, etc. Medicine cabinet above bath sink had two sides, each side holding each of our toiletries with room to spare. We read over the itinerary in our daily Carnival Caper and noted interesting activities. We grabbed our Shore Excursion sign-up sheet from the desk and filled it out to turn in early in hopes of getting the tours we chose as they fill up quickly (thanks to info on the message boards.) We head to the Shore Excursion desk, turned in our form and hit the buffet. We ate beside the pool and people-watched (that can be SO entertaining on a boat) and explored the boat. Checked out the dinner table (indicated on the S&S cards) to make sure we didn’t need to request a change with the maitre’d. Yes, we hit the topless deck. Muster drill was at 4 p.m. All done and we’re ready to PARTY! Bon voyage!
The Calypso band kicks up and the sail-away party begins. Here come the ship’s photographers taking photos and more photos. (Advice, let them take all they want, you’re not obligated to buy and you never know when you’ll get a gem of a shot!) We head to the top deck to watch ourselves move out to sea.
Our dinner seating at 8 p.m. (we chose the late dinner seating during reservations in hopes of allowing us more time in the afternoons for shore excursions, activities, etc.) We arrived at our assigned Spirit dining room about 8:15-8:20 p.m. and were shown to our assigned dinner table (#244). (We had read that you wouldn’t necessarily want to arrive right at seating time and wait in line.) The table was a large booth for six. There were two ladies there traveling together (mother and daughter) and two gentlemen. The two gentlemen decided there was not enough room at the table for their comfort. One left for the Lido buffet and to request a new table assignment the next evening. So that left us, the two other ladies whom we enjoyed dinners with the remainder of the cruise and one of the gentleman for that night only.
This, ofcourse, was the first formal dining experience on the cruise (dressed resort casual). The tables are set with fine linens, fanciful folded linen napkins, nice glasses and all the silver you may need for the four course meal (or more if you so desire). Z, our waitor, gave us menus to order appetizers, a salad and an entrée. Menus were given once again for dessert after the meal. I ordered the salmon, Linda had the Three Peppercorn Steak, Lynn had the rack of lamb and Sherry had the sweet and sour shrimp. It was all wonderful as was all the food, including the 24x7 pizza and room svc. The gentleman dining with us that evening had a rack of lamb, the shrimp and another rack of lamb. Yes, you can order all you want of anything you want. Ah, isn’t life grand?
Sept. 16th, 2003: Tuesday, day at sea
The sunrise was beautiful at sea. You MUST catch at least one. We begin our day hitting the walking track and the sundecks. There were a handful of folks at the track. Some doing their morning rituals, others standing with their coffee, in quiet awe of the view. We had breakfast on the Lido deck. They served coffee, orange juice, milk, scrambled eggs, sausage links (the good kind without the casing), ham slices, pancakes, omelets to order, cereals, yogurts, fruits of all kinds, toast, croissants (yes, everyday too, which probably accounts for several of my five pounds gained), but no gravy…anywhere…ever. No gravy on this ship. Well, except for au jus and the pumpkin soup which Linda said tasted like KFC’s brown gravy. No gravy. That can be tragedy to some southern gals, but the food was excellent at all times.
Now is a good time to mention (for first-timers) that for breakfast and dinner, we also had options of the Horizon Grill (casual dining, self-service buffet, in an air conditioned, enclosed seating restaurant) or the formal dining room. The formal dining was open seating for all meals except dinner. This meant that you sat where they seated you at the time, at differing tables and with differing wait staff. Also, these open-seating meals were all in the Pride dining room which was a different one than the Spirit dining room that we were assigned for dinner. Both rooms were equally exquisite.
I took the Ship Tour at 9 a.m., shopped in the Galleria shops on the ship afterward and attended the Grand Cayman Shopping Talk at 11 a.m. I did not come on this cruise with any kind of shopping in mind except picking up a few souvenirs. I’m not a shopper. I was, however, attracted to the huge savings on the ship (and off…rum, lots of rum!) on jewelry, rings, watches, gold and silver $1 per inch sales, tobacco products, rum and other liquors all duty and tax free on top of the savings! I would encourage folks to take some shopping cash and take advantage of the savings, up to 70% cheaper. Just be sure and find out how much you can buy tax and duty free, because there are limits, otherwise the savings will not be as great.
For lunch, Linda and I opted for formal dining since we would be onshore the next two days. Lunch in the formal dining room was nice. We sat at a table of 8 including a family of four and two couples. This “open†seating was nice in that we had the opportunity to meet new people. We utilized some of our pre-bought drink coupons that afternoon and later opened the bottles of liquor we had brought on in our checked luggage too. (I know, I know, Carnival policy says not to bring on booze, but we did anyway.) We mixed a couple drinks with the sodas available in our room (they’re not free ones, folks, they’re on the vanity and cost ya $2.50 per 20 oz. bottle--Coke products, auto-charged to your Sign & Sail card, but we knew we wouldn’t drink enough of them to matter much) and headed to the piano bar for “Popular Piano Music†with Damian who played beautifully. We stayed, listening to Damian play beautifully until guests began to trickle into the lounge in their formals. It had been announced earlier on that this would be formal night, the Captain’s reception and dinner. We decided it was probably time for us to go get dressed in our formals as well.
Dressed in formal attire, we head to the Captain’s reception in the Dynasty Lounge for free drinks and hors d'oeuvres. We were served Whiskey Sours, meatballs, pot stickers, and little taco bites while the band played and cruisers danced on the stage. Folks were dancing a mixture of real ballroom dance and some odd two-stepping, but nice, nonetheless. We then head to the formal dining room for dinner. We stop at one of the photo shoots along the way for a formal picture. The photographers stopped by a few times during dinner, too, ofcourse. Linda had prime rib for dinner and I had lobster tail.
After dinner, we bar hopped. Karaoke was hilarious! There weren’t many people in the disco bar, Illusions. In the Shangri La, we found Tina Turner and her band playing (not really Tina, but she sure did look and act like her!), some line dances, but was an older crowd. The Mirage piano bar had sing-a-long, which was lively, but we opted to go to the midnight buffet. It was beautiful, some different foods with an ice sculpture of the ship and a unicorn, but the long line wasn’t really worth waiting in.
Sept. 17th, 2003: Wednesday in Grand Cayman
After watching us pull in and anchor in Grand Cayman (around 7 a.m.) and seeing the three other ships (yes, THREE) that were anchoring in Grand Cayman for the day, I dressed, (bathing suits under our shorts and shirts for our excursions), packed a bag for shore with a beach towel Carnival provides in your room (be sure to bring them back, they’re around $22 each), sunscreen, a bottle of water, etc., head to the Lido deck for a quick buffet breakfast and then joined our shore group in the Dynasty Lounge at 8:15 as my excursion ticket received Monday evening indicated. We were led down to the Riviera deck, down the gangway and out onto tender boats. (Grand Cayman’s port is too shallow to dock, so we anchor and use tender boats to shuttle us to shore.)
Once on shore at the North Tender Landing (a little pavilion with an information booth), we first met up with the ship’s photographers taking our pictures and then sought out to find our tour guide holding a sign with our shore excursion name and ticket number with what must be our tour group ganged around him. We were loaded into an air-conditioned, cloth bucket seated van (nice!) that took us on a scenic tour of Grand Cayman to Hell, a black stalactite rock formation area that looks just like what the locals have named it. We stopped there and unloaded, getting pictures, mailing postcards from Hell and buying souvenirs. Our driver instructed us what time to be back on the bus giving us 30-45 minutes in Hell. Our next stop is the Turtle Farm. I didn’t think I would be much impressed with the Turtle Farm, but these sea turtles are HUGE! These are sea turtles and they’re beautiful. We walk through listening to a guide who ended up not really being our guide. We end up at “touch†tanks where we can actually pick up some of the younger, smaller turtles for pix. After touring the farm, we head into the souvenir shop from there (where all tours must end.) I visited the Tortuga Rum shop next door for rum cake and liquor tasting. You can buy Tortuga rum only in Grand Cayman, I believe. They have several shops around the island, but since this one was next door, I decided I would shop here. It was great. I got to sample rum cakes, mango rum, pineapple run, banana rum and got to talk with the islander doing the sales to get recommendations, etc. I bought 2 liters, one mango and one pineapple, plus a variety pack of rum cakes. Yum! The shop delivered the liquor to the ship and the ship delivered it to me the last night of the cruise. It’s time to head back to the tour bus.
The next stop was the Sting Ray City tour. Elizabeth dropped us off at the dock where we were greeted and helped aboard the Ken Ken snorkel boat (with the Land & Sea Limited, we believe) by the two guides and began the 15-30 minute ride out to the sandbar. As the driver gave an orientation over the loud speaker, we all began taking off our shorts and shirts from over our bathing suits and putting on sunscreen getting ready to be in the water. We sat in the boat’s upper deck & had the privilege of chatting with the guides and hearing all kinds of information and stories about the sting rays and the area. One had been stung by a ray two weeks before. I quizzed him good about that, finding out all the necessary information on how to handle a sting (being my usual Ms. Prepared) while the others talked to the driver about scuba diving and the marine life among many topics.
The water became crystal clear as we neared the sandbar. The guides pointed out a couple of star fish on the sea floor and even a sea turtle swimming along. This was magnificent. (I highly recommend sitting by the guides!) There were approximately 10-15 other boats all anchored at the sandbar with their tourists already out in the water. We could see the large rays swimming all around, mostly around the groups of people. We were instructed to stay in a circle behind the boat in the water so he could keep up with us and that there was to be no “squealing, screaming and kicking†in the water as the rays were tame, accustomed to humans and would not hurt us. We were given snorkel masks. No fins or shoes were to be used because they could possibly injure the rays. I took a few pictures with my regular camera from the boat and then grabbed my waterproof camera to head into the water. Here we were, standing in chest-deep ocean water with a group of strangers. Anticipating that first brush of a ray on our body was nerve racking. If I could just get through that first touch without squealing and making a fool of myself, everything would be just fine. A ray brushed by my feet and rubbed against my legs just like velvet. It was nothing. It was as soft as anything I have ever felt. The guides held large rays for the cruisers to touch and feed. I absolutely loved taking the underwater pictures. I decided to feed a ray. The ray sucked that squid (provided by the guides) up like a Hoover vacuum cleaner! I laughed out loud. It was grand. The water was beautiful, an amazing experience swimming with the rays.
When we arrived back at the dock, Queen Elizabeth was waiting for us with the van. She took us back near the tender landing, also near many shops. It was about 1 p.m. We stopped in a few shops, but they were very full of tourists, we were tired and it was starting to rain, so we head to the tenders to go back to our ship. We ate a late lunch at the Horizon Bar (casual dining.) We didn’t feel up to getting dressed up for formal dining that evening. So we opted for casual dining at the Horizon, again, and a very quiet evening on the boat. Linda hit the casino late in the evening.
Sept. 18th, 2003: Thursday in Jamaica
What a beautiful, lush country! This island is much more mountainous and green than the flatter Grand Cayman. We actually docked in Jamaica as the water is deeper here. We had opted the night before to fill out breakfast sheets to hang on our door and have breakfast delivered to our room while we are dressing for our shore excursion which left at 10 a.m. from the pier. We had more time this morning since we didn’t have to tender to the island, but we still thought we would have breakfast in our room to avoid having to hustle around to the deck as we did the day before. Room service offered practically all the same items as the Lido deck (for breakfast, not so for other meals.) It arrived promptly and was wonderful. We were ready to go ashore with time to spare. We walked off the gangway and were greeted, as we always are, with the ship’s photographers. We proceed up the dock to meet with our tour guides, again holding signs with our tour names. They loaded us into vans once again and off we went to Dunn’s River Falls and Dolphin Cove. The first thing to note was the speed with which the Jamaican driver was barreling along the highway. 80 MPH! Normal, he said.
At the falls, guides helped us rent rubber shoes ($5) and rent a locker ($8 with $3 deposit on the lock). Our group was then taken to the bottom of the falls at the beach. It was unbelievable. The falls fell into the ocean at the end. The guides required that all of us hold hands in a big line as we climbed the falls. At first, this seemed awkward in climbing, but we soon learned that it was beneficial to have these helpers holding on to you, helping to steady you on the wet rocks and climb the large rocks. It was a great experience. Our guides took pictures of us along the way, even carried our cameras. The falls had a worker take a picture which we were able to purchase at the top.
Once at the top, we returned our rented, rubber shoes and retrieved our bags/clothes from the locker. We tipped our guides, got pictures and head out through the “crafters village†to the exit. This “crafters village†was a bunch of shops with people begging you to buy. I eventually just kept walking, feeling rude, saying “I’m broke! I’m broke! Gotta go!†This, in my opinion, was a downside to the visit, and seeing some of the poor living conditions, was not necessarily how I like spending my vacations, but nonetheless, the country was beautiful and I did enjoy my time at Dunn’s River Falls.
Next, we board the shuttle to Dolphin Cove for our “encounterâ€Â. We arrive to a group dancing in a shaded tent, doing limbo and other dances with lively music. Honestly, I was too pooped to care much (and I’m in pretty good shape.) A guide gathered us up to take us on their Jungle Trail. On the trail, we encountered toucan parrots which they placed on our heads for pictures, an iguana the size of my lower arm, a coffee hut where we were told all about their blue mountain coffee-making, fruit samples and finally, a boa constrictor exhibit. Tourists were allowed to touch the snakes and hold part of it for pictures, but I had no desire to get that close. They have you exit through the gift shop and board the shuttle who dropped us off a couple blocks from the pier at some shops. We shopped and bought a few souvenirs, some of our best deals, and walked halfway to the boat to Margaritaville. We were offered marijuana at the shops. This is also where we encountered a few beggars along the road. None bothered us, aggressively, there was a security guard at the gate keeping watch, but it was just sad and depressing to see them in what seemed such dire straits. We kept walking.
We received coupons for free shots as we walked in Margaritaville. We found a table and sat and talked with some friends from the ship about our adventures. We got some souvenirs. One of our ship-friends had arranged for a taxi to pick him up and invited us to ride back with him. We got back to the ship, safe and sound. We dropped our things in the room and ended up to eat in the.
Later in the evening, we packed our bags for the “It’s in the Bag†game and did end up dressing for dinner and going in hopes that Z, our waitor, could get us out of dinner in time for the game. We arrived in the Dynasty Lounge for the game at 8:45, a bit too late to participate, but we saw the end. After the game, they held cash Bingo. After Bingo was the ship’s “Game Show,†a version of Name That Tune which we signed up for. (I had tried to get on the Survivor game earlier on the trip.) One of our friends was called up to the stage to play! It was great.
After the game show, we all head up to the Lido deck for the Mexican Festival midnight buffet. The girls had been wanting some good Mexican food, but it wasn’t all that great. We ate some and then went to the top deck to overlook the dancing on the Lido deck. We did the Macarena from there and people-watched. We ended up in the casino.
Sept. 19th, 2003: Friday at sea
I decide to go to the formal dining room for breakfast, for once, for the formal open seating in the other dining room. I take my book and my Caper to read and ask to be seated by myself by a window, but they really didn’t want to do that. I told him I didn’t mind. I had ordered (“Lox and bagel†[salmon], orange juice and coffee) and had eaten most of my meal when three older ladies were seated at my table. They were nice and lively and another group was seated with us. I excused myself to go and get a picture of Cube that could barely be seen through the morning haze out the window.
We stayed on the aft sundeck all morning. It was perfect with a cool breeze from a nearby storm. We grabbed a plate from the Horizon for lunch and watched the debarkation talk on TV since we had missed it that morning while lying on the sundeck.
That afternoon we began packing our bags as we had to have them outside our door between 10 p.m. and midnight. You keep any clothes or toiletries you may need the next morning in a carry-on. We dressed for dinner and went for our last meal with Z. The wait staff danced for us again. We got pictures with them and were given pictures of the ship. Z was wonderful, definitely one of the brightest highlights of our trip.
From dinner, we went to the show (a Vegas-style show with the ship dancers), 10:30 for late dinner seating folks. We got great seats right down front. The show probably would have been better from a distance. The contortionist/dancer was impressive as were the two singers. After the show, we made a last evening trip up to the top deck to absorb as much of the night’s ocean breeze as possible to take home with us.
Sept. 20th, 2003: Saturday of debarkation
We had to be ready by 8:30 a.m. for our deck calls to debark. We got up, packed our last minute items in our carry-ons and went to the Horizon for breakfast. Once done with breakfast, we waited by the pool on the Lido deck for our “color†(Carnival luggage tag color) to be called to debark. That occurred about 9:30. We headed to the gangway, debarked the ship with no trouble (photo ID, Sign & Sail card, and customs declaration form in hand.) We found our luggage reasonably quickly, stood in the customs line, handed over our declaration forms and walked right out. We grabbed a cab and were at the HoJo checked into our room by 10 a.m. where we napped the day away and read our novels checking the balcony every now to gaze at the ships and see if they had set sail for their next adventure into the Caribbean.
Oh, by the way, the gentleman that sat with us the first night at dinner happened by our table that last night to wish us a safe trip home and I got the chance to ask him how many lobster tails he had eaten formal night. He ordered five. (Smile.) Ah, isn’t life grand, mon?
