February 24, 2008

[CarafromFlorida]

That was supposed to be I have no CLUE how to post pics...sorry!

 

[poke]

a few quick thoughts

i wish we would have been able to meet ya'll, but we didnt get onboard until
2 pm, then the friends we went with had us busy unpacking and showing us stuff they had seen on their first cruise, then they had made us reservations
at Palo. I had lobster ravioli ( it has a fancier name but thats what it was) which I enjoyed immensely. I am not hard to impress with food. Cooked is about my only requirement.
Cara....great tip for Thursday am, I was plenty warm in my fleece which I
carried just because of your post after your arrival...so thank you very much.
i enjoyed the disney cruise, loved seeing all the cute kids....some of the parents were stressed but i can understand that.
i loved the parasailing but it was a rough ride compared to my previous times
doing it, lot of wind up there.
the adult beach at Castaway Cay was worth the whole trip...it is wonderful.
we went to the shows every night then late supper, enjoyed most of the shows but i have to admit "the art of the story" was not my cup of tea.
our server was witt, he had great recommendations and remembered what we liked or didnt like, took excellent care of us.
stayed in 8080, great spot, close to aft elevator, drink station one floor up,
was never too noisy. ( not that i would have noticed, the patron margaritas
and the drinks of day had me sleeping like a baby).
the rough seas the last night were the most noticeable i have ever had on a cruise but once again the slightly inebriated state i was in made it all feel normal. ( thats my story and i am sticking to it).
so folks thanks for all the great tips, sorry i didnt get to meet anyone, i think that would have made it even more fun........and if you were in WaveBands
the 2nd or 3rd nights we may have met.
if i can figure out how to post pictures i will get one on here of the magic pirate hat from the gift store that turned an ordinary night into one of dancing and fun for us old folks.
and i will also recommend the couples massage for anyones next trip, i was so relaxed i almost fell asleep during brunch !
later Poke

 

[poke]

TO JagsandJax or Tabatha...even though we didnt meet.

my wife and i took a cruise last year on Princess and I really enjoyed
their ship. It was the Grand Princess, and they were sailing out of Galveston.
( i think they have stopped doing that now).

It had a more "elegant" feel to it , which was what we were wanting since it was our 25th anniversary, not necessarily better than DCL just different.
Formal night was formal and it made for some great photos.

They also had the choice of open dining, and that fit our plans, or lack of plans,
better that trip.

My wife liked it more but that may be because of the jewelry she got in Costa Maya, or Honduras...or Belize....you notice a pattern here ??
Anyway thats my 2 cents on other lines.

 

[soleilmagie]

OK....Here is my report but with all my pictures....let's see if this works! LOL

http://www.practiceboard.com/?8243636

Otherwise I have no how to post pics....

Nice pics Cara! I can't wait to get mine tomorrow. I'll post a few then.

 

[CarafromFlorida]

Soleilmagie
Can't wait to see your pics - and everyone else's!!!
Cara

 

[JagsandJax]

Hi all,

I booked my next cruise. I am going on Carnival Imagination out of Miami. June 26 for 4 nights (again). We will be stopping at Key west and cozemuel. I am taking my mother, for her 60th birthday, and my 2 sisters. NO KIDS!!! We decided to stick w/ the 4 night b/c it was almost $1700 cheaper than the 5 night. We are staying in the Penthouse suite. i hope it is worth the money. I stayed in an inside on Disney and thought I may feel better w/ a balcony. If any of you have ever experinced this ship or carnival, I would love to hear your thoughts.

TTYS,

Tabatha

 

[CarafromFlorida]

I just saw an ad for Carnival and it looked AWESOME! Good for the kids too, so let me know, that one would be PERFECT for us here, so keep your eye on kid stuff to do there if you remember, how FUN!!!!!!!! Great you could get a suite too now!!!

Cara

 

[Mommy2Katie]

Hey Tabatha. We had a balcony on this cruise (Disney) and I'll tell ya... we will never have it any other way. We loved loved loved the balcony. Very romantic. Irvin and I would just stand on the balcony at night and just hold each other. Our hair just whipping in the wind. Wow it was nice. We are spoiled now. We've only ever had an oceanview before. We both said that we will only go on cruises if we can get a balcony.

 

[Mommy2Katie]

Guess I should have mentioned this in the last message...lol... but we liked Carnival. We went on the Ecstasy out of Galveston. The kids camp was great but there was one setback. We could only leave Katie for like 2 hours at a time. Then you had to go pick the kiddos up. This made it difficult to do anything by ourselves like go to the spa, go to a show, go swimming.. etc. It seemed like we would no sooner get her in camp, leave and go someplace and then one of us would have to head back to camp to pick her up. You could only leave the kiddos up until 10 at night. After that it was called babysitting and you had to pay per hour for it. But the thing I liked about Carnival VS Disney was that Katie did more things during Camp Carnival. She was always bringing back some "craft" that they did. She never did one crafty thing on Disney. All she did was play. Don't get me wrong.. I like her just playing... but it made it to where she was falling asleep during dinner and to be honest I just felt like she got more out of Camp Carnival. Because she was interacting more her speech was better and Camp Carnival is where she really got potty trained. They never paged me once about potty problems.

We were having small potty problems... (she was forgetting to go).. and they really worked with her. They made her go to the potty once an hour... I know it's the parent's responsibility to potty train.. but we were right there at that point... you know the "we almost got it down but have a few mishaps" and after Camp she was completely potty trained. With Disney.. if they aren't 100% potty trained, you can't leave them in the club. They have to go to the nursery.

The problem we have now is that when she poops, she isn't 100% proficient with wiping... so we have to help her... with Carnival they would wipe her... but with Disney... they said absolutely not. Luckily she never pooped when she was in the club. LOL

So if I had to choose between the two I guess I would have to say that I was more impressed with Camp Carnival than Disney's Oceaneer Club... but I was glad that we could leave her longer at the club and actually do things together.

 

[anllily]

I just posted a review of my trip here!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=23784755#post23784755


Congrats on booking a Carnival trip Tabitha! I was on the Fantasy over Christmas and will be on the Legend in April! You have to try a Kiss on the Lips! I liked CCL's foo-foo drinks better than DCL, DCL didn't have enough frozen cocktail concotions (well for me) and too many with coconut rum in them!

The ship you're on just got a complete refurbishment with an adult area and a new water works area. Plus you're in a suite so you'll have prior embarkation and disembark and a hairdryer and fridg. Plus a balcony! It doesn't have a supper club, but the level with the casino will have some terrific lounge chairs! It's the same class of ship as the Fantasy, and the only real big complaint I had was the whole deck as the casino seemed a bit smoke-y.

 

[CarafromFlorida]

Anlilly
What a nice, detailed report! I enjoyed reading it - especially from another perspective (solo and without kids etc..)
Thanks!

 

[Sallyc]

Hi everyone,

I am sorry I didnt make it to the meeting. We went to the sales "class" and I won a free rum cake. (thought it was over at 3.) They also gave away a nice necklace and one of our table mates won that !

Tabatha, I thought it was interesting that your hubby didnt feel safe. We did the jet skies and I felt the same way. The water was really choppy, I was the only female and everyone was way ahead of me. I kept thinking, how can he see if I am in trouble if I cant see him? My hubby waited back for me though.

This was our first cruise. When I go again I think I won't plan so many activities ahead of time. I felt like I couldnt relax at times or I would miss something.

I got motion sickness about 830 the last night. We were in Animators Palate.
I just went to bed (after a trip to the bathroom) and slept it off.

I lost a small pouch that had 2 Bahama stamps in. They called today and said they found it

When I got home I felt really wiped out the next day and thought I was just really tired from the trip....NOT. I ended up with the Flu!! The doctor thinks I got it on the plane or the airport.

Oh, We really enjoyed the dolphin encounter. We also spent a lot of time in the rainforest. I was really surprised that my hubby liked it so much.