Trip Report A Carnival Cruise.....With A Chicken?

[usnuzuloose]

So was it $40 per hour and you payed for 2 hours totaling $80. $40 deposit was the deposit which was refunded.



Was it warm or cold?

It was cold soup. They have other cold soups as well.

That does look really good too.

I really enjoyed it, I also love the cherry soup as well.

Skiboy - I also got the Pay for 2 get 3 hours special. $40 sounds about right (once I got my deposit back). Sherry E put me on to it and it is the spot immediately to the left once you get off the Catalina Express ferry/flyer. From memory, Sherry said that they do book out early so we pretty much caught the first boat out.

Depending on how much stopping you do, you may or may not need the full 3 hours. We stopped at Wrigley Gardens and one of the local enviro museums so we ended up using all 3 hours.

The other thing to consider is make sure you plan out the afternoon activities as well. By the time we came back to Avalon, we had decided we wanted to do the zipline but it was already all booked out for the day. On hindsight, we should have booked the afternoon activity AFTER we got the golf cart.

She is right, you may not need the full 3 hours. Depending on how much you want to keep driving and seeing. There is enough to see and do even without the golf cart. Unfortunately, the other half of the island you couldnt drive due to a rock slide. But you certainly have quite a bit of time to fit in a few things.

 

[usnuzuloose]

We finally arrived in Ensanada, got up early as I did have an excursion. We had some breakfast at the buffet.

It was a beautiful day.

I should have taken the shot from the side, the size of this flag is I think 3 football fields.

While waiting for my excursion, I saw foxesden1, who was on the same excursion. We sat there waiting for the guide to let us know when we were ready to leave. After about 20 minutes the guide came back and said they were looking for us!

Whoops!. I guess we held the bus up.

We headed on our way and made a few stops nothing worthy of pictures anyway. So after the bus driver making a few speaches were finally on our short drive to the restuarant. The name of it is Mango Mango.

I will show the food we made, it is really not a cooking class. But you made your own salsa. For the most part it was good up until the tostada. Blech!

 

[usnuzuloose]

This was the chef for the restarant cant remember his name

This was the salsa with avacodo, it was very good.

Chicken echilada also good.

Now this tostada, sorry but he used oregeno on the thing and that was horrible, no one liked it. Not a good way to end your cooking class.

This whole process was about an hour. The guide said we had about an hour and a half to do some shopping. Well foxesden1 and I went together. I really didnt take pics. Dont really know why. Half way down the shopping trip, we ran into Chris and he was with the other couple that we have dinner with at our table every night. Well Foxesden1 said to finish with my husband. So I walked back to the restaurant and let the guide know I would continue and not be back on the bus. She thanked me for letting her know. We walked back to an area to catch the bus to the port. It cost $1.00 dollar to ride.

I bought a purple beaded necklace for a dollar. They have people everywhere selling you stuff. The children are always grabbing you to buy things. The bus drivers get to know the locals. When the bus was ready to leave, one local was on the bus continuing to sell. After so far he stopped and let the guy off. We got back to the pier.

I didnt get a chance to look in the port shopping area, so I looked around there and bought a bottle of vanilla.

We told the other couple we would meet them in the library to continue our monopoly game. It was a good thing we kept the game, as the library was closed for a private function. So we had to find a new place to go play our game.

We eneded up at the lido deck inside, where the buffet was. We played until it was time for dinner.

I had so much food I was not hungry, but I did not want to disappoint the waiter, so I ate a few bites and let it go at that.

But, couldnt pass up dessert

No pics from dinner on as we played monopoly the rest of the night till bedtime....

Upnext our final day at sea..

 

[kmedina]

Great food porn. Which one of you had the burger for breakfast? DH would approve. The other breakfast looked amazing. Yay to more monopoly.

 

[ACDSNY]

Love the Catalina house. It doesn't sound like the golf carts have gone up too much since we went 6 years ago, I think we paid around $60 back then.

 

[franandaj]

That looks like a nice day. I'm thinking of a possible cooking class excursion if we go on a cruise (besides, it's about the only HA one available).

Skiboy - I also got the Pay for 2 get 3 hours special. $40 sounds about right (once I got my deposit back). Sherry E put me on to it and it is the spot immediately to the left once you get off the Catalina Express ferry/flyer. From memory, Sherry said that they do book out early so we pretty much caught the first boat out.

Depending on how much stopping you do, you may or may not need the full 3 hours. We stopped at Wrigley Gardens and one of the local enviro museums so we ended up using all 3 hours.

The other thing to consider is make sure you plan out the afternoon activities as well. By the time we came back to Avalon, we had decided we wanted to do the zipline but it was already all booked out for the day. On hindsight, we should have booked the afternoon activity AFTER we got the golf cart.

Other than the zipline, this sounds like what we did when we went to Catalina, but I think that was 12 years ago...

 

[usnuzuloose]

Great food porn. Which one of you had the burger for breakfast? DH would approve. The other breakfast looked amazing. Yay to more monopoly.

Well, that is an oops! Dont know where that came in. I think that must of been during our monopoly game. The deep fried egg was good!

Love the Catalina house. It doesn't sound like the golf carts have gone up too much since we went 6 years ago, I think we paid around $60 back then.

I loved that house to. I wish I could have gone inside. Everything has gone up.

That looks like a nice day. I'm thinking of a possible cooking class excursion if we go on a cruise (besides, it's about the only HA one available).



Other than the zipline, this sounds like what we did when we went to Catalina, but I think that was 12 years ago...

I like the cooking classes. There is alot to do in Catalina. Its just a matter of choosing what to do in that time your there.

 

[skiingfast]

Deep fried egg looks interesting. I wonder if they could make them soft boiled?


Tapas style dinner looked really good. Mmmm Chocolate.

 

[skiingfast]

Deep fried egg looks interesting. I wonder if they could make them soft boiled?


Tapas style dinner looked really good. Mmmm Chocolate.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Nice food porn. Looks like you had a nice day in Ensenade despite the oregano.

 

[queenie82]

Yeah, but that Strawberry soup has like heavy cream, sour cream and all sorts of wonderful fattening foods (including strawberries).

I think mine has lowfat vanilla yogurt, milk and strawberries, all blended up in a blender. Maybe not as tasty as 1900 Park Fare's (pictured above), but a lot less artery clogging and you can eat a lot in the summer, not just once!

What you are describing IS Yoghurt. Or actually.. a smoothie you DRINK...

NOT SOUP

If it tastes like regular yoghurt it ain't soup...

As for the fried egg....

 

[usnuzuloose]

What you are describing IS Yoghurt. Or actually.. a smoothie you DRINK...

NOT SOUP

If it tastes like regular yoghurt it ain't soup...

As for the fried egg....

It was a little thick, but it was so refreshing. They arent the healthiest, but it does taste good on a warm evening.

I thought that about the egg, as well until I tried it.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Deep fried egg looks interesting. I wonder if they could make them soft boiled?


Tapas style dinner looked really good. Mmmm Chocolate.

All the food is good, Good thing about a cruise you can order what you want and how much you want. There are certain cruises, longer cruises that offer a midnight chocolate buffet. All the chocolate you could handle. Hmm..maybe I should suggest a bacon buffet. Or a mixture. That may do real well.

Nice food porn. Looks like you had a nice day in Ensenade despite the oregano.

Ensanada is kinda like TJ, not quite as bad though. But all the shops carry just about carry the same thing. I was looking for a purse that I had back in the 70's, but the leather is not the same. I didnt find one. I was feeling the quality they use now, it is not the same. It was a great day. Just dont do oregeno...... There bottled vanilla is excellent by the way.

 

[kelmac284]

Loving your TR and have to say that my mom and two girls and myself had this exact cruise scheduled for this past President's week. But then a few weeks before I had a few people say it was pretty choppy and since I suffer from motion sickness ESP on boats I got freaked. I was afraid if I got on and felt ill I would be STUCK. So we cancelled last min and ended up going to Long Beach and we stayed on the Queen Mary.

I had seen the first part of your report and never even thought about it but was intrigued and we LOVED it!! We got lucky and were upgraded to the King George Suite and it was amazing. We took the background and ghost tours and we ate at the chowder house.

Thanks for such a detailed report because it really influenced us going there and SO glad we did.

I must ask though did you notice it being choppy at all? Does that stuff bother you or do you think you didn't notice because it doesn't? I don't know if we will ever attempt one again. I am hoping to hold out to go on one of the BIG ones in the carribean. Thinking maybe the bigger ship I might have less motion.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Loving your TR and have to say that my mom and two girls and myself had this exact cruise scheduled for this past President's week. But then a few weeks before I had a few people say it was pretty choppy and since I suffer from motion sickness ESP on boats I got freaked. I was afraid if I got on and felt ill I would be STUCK. So we cancelled last min and ended up going to Long Beach and we stayed on the Queen Mary.

I had seen the first part of your report and never even thought about it but was intrigued and we LOVED it!! We got lucky and were upgraded to the King George Suite and it was amazing. We took the background and ghost tours and we ate at the chowder house.

Thanks for such a detailed report because it really influenced us going there and SO glad we did.

I must ask though did you notice it being choppy at all? Does that stuff bother you or do you think you didn't notice because it doesn't? I don't know if we will ever attempt one again. I am hoping to hold out to go on one of the BIG ones in the carribean. Thinking maybe the bigger ship I might have less motion.

Welcome, you know I am not bothered by motion sickness. In fact it gives me a great nights sleep. They make so much stuff for sea sickness. The ocean is so unpredictable..Every ship we have been on , even in the caribbean the seas were fairly smooth. I enjoyed going to the caribbean. We had a 7 day cruise the last time. I would encourage you to try something for the motion and go out on a day trip and see how you do. I am glad you stayed on the Queen mary. Do you have pics on the suite? You may add them here for everyone to enjoy. If you have more questions , please feel free to ask. Thanks for stopping by. I am going to do an update tomorrow.

 

[kelmac284]

Thanks you!! You know it is weird I have taken Dramamine on planes and it usually works but I went out on a fishing boat and I still got EXTREMELY ill. I realize that was a LOT choppier but as I said I guess I am afraid if the dramamine DIDN'T work then I would be stuck like you said. And it is just so hard to tell if I would be "less" affected on a larger boat. I guess one of these days I will just have to try it and hope for the best. That is why we thought of the 4 day so if it was bad I wouldn't have as long but I just got really nervous and didn't want to ruin mine OR my families trip.

And yes I DO have pics of the suite. I haven't used photobucket in forever but I will try to upload them and see if I can get some on here.

 

[kelmac284]

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[kelmac284]

Unfortunately I am not good at taking tons of descriptive pics like yourself and others. Which I really appreciate by the way because it is nice to be able to see all the little details. But these are the ones I DID take.

One you open up the door to the suite on the left is a HUGE walk-in closet and I don't know if you took any tours but they told us that it was VERY common for people to bring like 70 or 80 pieces of luggage on these trips. YIKES! And then even have some more in the hold! But then on the right is a small room that is a maids quarters. That is the last pic on the bottom with my daughter in it. It has a single bed a sink and a small closet. Then going back out in the hall there is a bath for the "maid" or for guests that has two doors. One from the hall and one that leads into the living room. Then straight ahead is the living room which was quite large with a book case and bar and of course now they have a tv. On the tour we saw one of the other suites and it had a fireplace but our's did not. The living room is my first pic.

Then from the living room you entered the master suite and it was HUGE with a king bed and lots of clostes and such and there were two doors that lead out to the hall and then a private bath with a separate comode. As shown in the above pics.

We really enjoyed it and thanks to your report we decided to try it and will DEF be back.

 

[usnuzuloose]

Unfortunately I am not good at taking tons of descriptive pics like yourself and others. Which I really appreciate by the way because it is nice to be able to see all the little details. But these are the ones I DID take.

One you open up the door to the suite on the left is a HUGE walk-in closet and I don't know if you took any tours but they told us that it was VERY common for people to bring like 70 or 80 pieces of luggage on these trips. YIKES! And then even have some more in the hold! But then on the right is a small room that is a maids quarters. That is the last pic on the bottom with my daughter in it. It has a single bed a sink and a small closet. Then going back out in the hall there is a bath for the "maid" or for guests that has two doors. One from the hall and one that leads into the living room. Then straight ahead is the living room which was quite large with a book case and bar and of course now they have a tv. On the tour we saw one of the other suites and it had a fireplace but our's did not. The living room is my first pic.

Then from the living room you entered the master suite and it was HUGE with a king bed and lots of clostes and such and there were two doors that lead out to the hall and then a private bath with a separate comode. As shown in the above pics.

We really enjoyed it and thanks to your report we decided to try it and will DEF be back.

Those are fabulous pictures, and you did a great job in describing them. That is one large suite. Enough room for a maid. Wow! I'd say you were so fortunate to have that suite! Its a good things people dont bring that much luggage anymore, that would be one hefty airline fee. Well, you know dont give up on yourself, or beat yourself up because you get seasick. You might one day be able to find something that will work for you. And thank you for sharing you beautiful pictures for everyone to enjoy as well. I did not do the tours. The main room I wanted to see was the pool. I was to cheap to pay to see that when I saw alot on my own. But if I do come back , I may do a tour at that point and time. I hope you join me on my journey to Las Vegas.

 

[kelmac284]

Thank you!! I did get a pic of the pool if you would like to see it!

And yes I am hoping that someday I can find something that works because I would very much like to try one!!

And yes I will def check out your vegas report. I love following along especially with people like yourself that are so descriptive!