Daisy-J&D
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2004
- Messages
- 552
Where to begin?
Sadly, our cruise had a rough start AND a rough ending. On the way to Cape Canaveral I had a car accident. It was only minor but it was my first so I was very upset and I thought we were going to miss the cruise. (Many tears) We boarded at 3:00 pm.
Our stateroom (2040) was awesome. I was pleased with the size and comfort. I was so tired the first night I didn't even notice the noise from Wavebands. We had late seating for dinner and ended up going to bed at 10:00 pm when we were finished.
We participated in the Sailaway party, swam in the adult pool and saw Hercules on the first night. Everyone was so nice. My thought was - I WANT TO WORK HERE!
Dinner:
I was only able to eat at Tritons the first night. I expected more from the service so I was a bit disapointed. Our servers were both very friendly but also mechanical in the way they presented. To give credit, I think this may have been a language issue. Yet it still felt like their recommendations were over-rehearsed. Our table was a downer itself. On the first night 2 people didn't show up and one half of the other 2 didn't seem interested in being there. (Not to be blamed, 13 year old boy) On the second night, the missing 2 arrived but only 1 of the other 2 and then I had to leave before the main course. I'm sure the servers were upset by this.
It was my birthday (May 6) so I was given a cake and the servers sang to me. It was such a nice surprise since I'd had a hard day with the accident. It wasn't really feeling like my birthday until then so I left very happy (with a cake since I was too full to eat any!)
Nassau - BLUE LAGOON, Stingray City
What a blast! I loved it. I had read bad things about Blue Lagoon before leaving so I was a bit concerned. It ended up being exactly what I wanted. BUT I wasn't prepared for what Salt water was like - what a shock. I'm a city-girl who loves vacations to big cities so this was a new experience. Yuck - Salt water tastes bad and I opened my eyes under water. BIG MISTAKE.
If you go, bring your own snorkle gear! Swimming was so much fun afterwards. There were so many fish to see in the "Lagoon". My friend and I both loved snorkling so much we're going to look into it at home.
Lunch - I didn't want to eat on the Island but I did. This is one of my regrets, I'll get into that later. Afterwards I had my hair braided which was fun and something I'd always wanted to do. I wish that we had been ready for the early boat back to the ship but we missed it. The afternoon was a bit long but still fun. I got a sunburn and was hot pink when I got back to my stateroom.
Golden Mickey's - This is a good show. I shifted in my seat a bit during Hercules but enjoyed this show a lot. Afterwards we wandered the stores - I was starting to get chilled to the bone and was really uncomfortable. I wanted to go back to the stateroom right away. My burn was really bad so I picked up a can of Solarcaine and applied that. We watched some TV and then went to dinner.
Animators - I enjoyed the theme of this restaurant. We had some good converstations with our tablemates. I ordered a Caeser Salad and a Pasta dish. I made it through the salad but when the Pasta came I couldn't eat it. We had hotdogs by the pool when we got back from Blue Lagoon - this was probably a bad idea. Our drink server rushed to me right away and asked if I didn't like it. I told him I wasn't feeling well and he said that I looked very burnt and wasn't used to the "hot carribean sun". As I was getting up to leave our other server came by and was very nice, he told me about room service. I didn't get to see the full show of colours. )=
Back at the room I got changed into my PJ's and sat around for a bit. I thought about going back since I had left my friend to eat alone. We hadn't done anything the night before and I really wanted to go to the tropical deck party - I was so disapointed I'd missed the 80's dance party!
Sea Sick? Food Poisoning? Sun Stroke? I didn't know what was wrong, I had an upset stomach and I was throwing up every 20 minutes. My friend swore up and down that it was Sun Stroke since I was so burnt. I took the braids out of my hair - I couldn't handle how they felt. Any little thing bugged me - light, noise, movement. I felt horrible but I didn't want to see a doctor since I'd read about Isolation and I wanted to go to Castaway Cay. Things got worse (Including my physical condition) through the night - first the constant "thump, thump, thump" of Wavebands and then the rocking of the ship when we pulled out of Nassau.
Morning came and I wanted to jump overboard. With no relief in sight I called Guest Services who paged an on-call nurse. My friend was mad - since she still thought I had sun stroke or Food Poisoning and would be fine. The nurse gave me a shot that burnt like mad but was supposed to stop the vomitting. She sent me back to my stateroom and instructed me to come back at 8:00 am to see the doctor. I did as I was told and fell asleep right away.
When I returned to the medical centre things got crazy. I'm not sure if there is any info on here (I'm intersted in knowing) but apparently there was a "major" accident in the engine room and 3 people were hurt. I was in a room waiting for the doctor at this point and felt as though I didn't belong at all. I didn't want my upset stomach to interfere with the urgency of a serious accident. It was a very interesting perspective hearing what went on from the inside. I was a bit out of it but my friend saw crew members coming in with Chicken - Pox and apparently there was a flu going around the crew as well. I was starting to re-think wanting to work on a cruise ship. All of the smiles turned into thoughts of being trapped on a boat and sick and getting sick and living in small spaces with sick people. )= Whatever happened in the engine room was very upsetting. I could hear a man screaming in pain and someone was eventually taken by helicopter from the boat.
With all of this going on I was very surprised at the attention I was given. The staff was so nice to me and I was not delayed at all. Should I mention that my doctor was gorgeous? He looked like a cross between Peter Krause (Nate on Six Feet Under) and the guy who plays Luke on The O.C. Anyway, I've refered to him as Dr. Ken (as in Ken and Barbie) when re-telling the story because he just didn't seem like your average doctor. lol Anyway, Dr. Ken decided to give me an IV since I was dehydrated. About 4 hours later I was on my way back to the stateroom very drugged. I slept so hard and so long I didn't know who I was when I woke up - and YES, I was put in isolation. My diet for the rest of the cruise was Apple sauce and Powerade and I didn't get to go to Castaway Cay. When I woke up the cruise was over. I had to drive the car back to Orlando and I could barely walk to get my passport (at 6:00 am!). It was very sad saying goodbye when I barely got to say hello. Unfortunately I've associated Nassau, Salt Water and Hot dogs with the worst stomach flu I've ever had. I think I may still go on another cruise but it may take some time.
My friend did go to Castaway Cay - she went on the Banana boat ride as planned and said it was the scariest thing she'd ever done (she's an adventure seeker so I was shocked when she said this). She said I would have hated it but I already knew that and was going to do it just for her! She spent about 3 hours on the Island but said it was so hot she was okay coming back to the ship. They asked that she not go to dinner so she spent the rest of the time with me. She ordered from room service and said the food was really good and watched movies. We were given free pop and powerade and someone checked on us frequently. At this point I still didn't believe that I had the flu - it wasn't until Monday (2 days after my illness) when my friend also fell ill that I believed it. She went through the same things I did except had a much bigger, stationary bathroom. I had my leftover meds so I gave them to her. In total the illness took about 3 days from our vacation.
This wasn't what I had imagined the vacation to be but we did have 2 weeks in Florida and our time at Disney and Universal made up for the bad cruise. I wish I had experienced Castaway Cay and the night activities but at least I did get to see Nassau. I wish that we'd had our picture taken - it was only offered once and the times we tried before I was sick we were turned away. I wondered if this was because we didn't have kids (why we weren't approached). I'll be posting my trip report for Disney World soon - this will be a good one since we had good weather and a lot of fun!
Sadly, our cruise had a rough start AND a rough ending. On the way to Cape Canaveral I had a car accident. It was only minor but it was my first so I was very upset and I thought we were going to miss the cruise. (Many tears) We boarded at 3:00 pm.
Our stateroom (2040) was awesome. I was pleased with the size and comfort. I was so tired the first night I didn't even notice the noise from Wavebands. We had late seating for dinner and ended up going to bed at 10:00 pm when we were finished.
We participated in the Sailaway party, swam in the adult pool and saw Hercules on the first night. Everyone was so nice. My thought was - I WANT TO WORK HERE!
Dinner:
I was only able to eat at Tritons the first night. I expected more from the service so I was a bit disapointed. Our servers were both very friendly but also mechanical in the way they presented. To give credit, I think this may have been a language issue. Yet it still felt like their recommendations were over-rehearsed. Our table was a downer itself. On the first night 2 people didn't show up and one half of the other 2 didn't seem interested in being there. (Not to be blamed, 13 year old boy) On the second night, the missing 2 arrived but only 1 of the other 2 and then I had to leave before the main course. I'm sure the servers were upset by this.
It was my birthday (May 6) so I was given a cake and the servers sang to me. It was such a nice surprise since I'd had a hard day with the accident. It wasn't really feeling like my birthday until then so I left very happy (with a cake since I was too full to eat any!)
Nassau - BLUE LAGOON, Stingray City
What a blast! I loved it. I had read bad things about Blue Lagoon before leaving so I was a bit concerned. It ended up being exactly what I wanted. BUT I wasn't prepared for what Salt water was like - what a shock. I'm a city-girl who loves vacations to big cities so this was a new experience. Yuck - Salt water tastes bad and I opened my eyes under water. BIG MISTAKE.
If you go, bring your own snorkle gear! Swimming was so much fun afterwards. There were so many fish to see in the "Lagoon". My friend and I both loved snorkling so much we're going to look into it at home.
Lunch - I didn't want to eat on the Island but I did. This is one of my regrets, I'll get into that later. Afterwards I had my hair braided which was fun and something I'd always wanted to do. I wish that we had been ready for the early boat back to the ship but we missed it. The afternoon was a bit long but still fun. I got a sunburn and was hot pink when I got back to my stateroom.
Golden Mickey's - This is a good show. I shifted in my seat a bit during Hercules but enjoyed this show a lot. Afterwards we wandered the stores - I was starting to get chilled to the bone and was really uncomfortable. I wanted to go back to the stateroom right away. My burn was really bad so I picked up a can of Solarcaine and applied that. We watched some TV and then went to dinner.
Animators - I enjoyed the theme of this restaurant. We had some good converstations with our tablemates. I ordered a Caeser Salad and a Pasta dish. I made it through the salad but when the Pasta came I couldn't eat it. We had hotdogs by the pool when we got back from Blue Lagoon - this was probably a bad idea. Our drink server rushed to me right away and asked if I didn't like it. I told him I wasn't feeling well and he said that I looked very burnt and wasn't used to the "hot carribean sun". As I was getting up to leave our other server came by and was very nice, he told me about room service. I didn't get to see the full show of colours. )=
Back at the room I got changed into my PJ's and sat around for a bit. I thought about going back since I had left my friend to eat alone. We hadn't done anything the night before and I really wanted to go to the tropical deck party - I was so disapointed I'd missed the 80's dance party!
Sea Sick? Food Poisoning? Sun Stroke? I didn't know what was wrong, I had an upset stomach and I was throwing up every 20 minutes. My friend swore up and down that it was Sun Stroke since I was so burnt. I took the braids out of my hair - I couldn't handle how they felt. Any little thing bugged me - light, noise, movement. I felt horrible but I didn't want to see a doctor since I'd read about Isolation and I wanted to go to Castaway Cay. Things got worse (Including my physical condition) through the night - first the constant "thump, thump, thump" of Wavebands and then the rocking of the ship when we pulled out of Nassau.
Morning came and I wanted to jump overboard. With no relief in sight I called Guest Services who paged an on-call nurse. My friend was mad - since she still thought I had sun stroke or Food Poisoning and would be fine. The nurse gave me a shot that burnt like mad but was supposed to stop the vomitting. She sent me back to my stateroom and instructed me to come back at 8:00 am to see the doctor. I did as I was told and fell asleep right away.
When I returned to the medical centre things got crazy. I'm not sure if there is any info on here (I'm intersted in knowing) but apparently there was a "major" accident in the engine room and 3 people were hurt. I was in a room waiting for the doctor at this point and felt as though I didn't belong at all. I didn't want my upset stomach to interfere with the urgency of a serious accident. It was a very interesting perspective hearing what went on from the inside. I was a bit out of it but my friend saw crew members coming in with Chicken - Pox and apparently there was a flu going around the crew as well. I was starting to re-think wanting to work on a cruise ship. All of the smiles turned into thoughts of being trapped on a boat and sick and getting sick and living in small spaces with sick people. )= Whatever happened in the engine room was very upsetting. I could hear a man screaming in pain and someone was eventually taken by helicopter from the boat.
With all of this going on I was very surprised at the attention I was given. The staff was so nice to me and I was not delayed at all. Should I mention that my doctor was gorgeous? He looked like a cross between Peter Krause (Nate on Six Feet Under) and the guy who plays Luke on The O.C. Anyway, I've refered to him as Dr. Ken (as in Ken and Barbie) when re-telling the story because he just didn't seem like your average doctor. lol Anyway, Dr. Ken decided to give me an IV since I was dehydrated. About 4 hours later I was on my way back to the stateroom very drugged. I slept so hard and so long I didn't know who I was when I woke up - and YES, I was put in isolation. My diet for the rest of the cruise was Apple sauce and Powerade and I didn't get to go to Castaway Cay. When I woke up the cruise was over. I had to drive the car back to Orlando and I could barely walk to get my passport (at 6:00 am!). It was very sad saying goodbye when I barely got to say hello. Unfortunately I've associated Nassau, Salt Water and Hot dogs with the worst stomach flu I've ever had. I think I may still go on another cruise but it may take some time.
My friend did go to Castaway Cay - she went on the Banana boat ride as planned and said it was the scariest thing she'd ever done (she's an adventure seeker so I was shocked when she said this). She said I would have hated it but I already knew that and was going to do it just for her! She spent about 3 hours on the Island but said it was so hot she was okay coming back to the ship. They asked that she not go to dinner so she spent the rest of the time with me. She ordered from room service and said the food was really good and watched movies. We were given free pop and powerade and someone checked on us frequently. At this point I still didn't believe that I had the flu - it wasn't until Monday (2 days after my illness) when my friend also fell ill that I believed it. She went through the same things I did except had a much bigger, stationary bathroom. I had my leftover meds so I gave them to her. In total the illness took about 3 days from our vacation.
This wasn't what I had imagined the vacation to be but we did have 2 weeks in Florida and our time at Disney and Universal made up for the bad cruise. I wish I had experienced Castaway Cay and the night activities but at least I did get to see Nassau. I wish that we'd had our picture taken - it was only offered once and the times we tried before I was sick we were turned away. I wondered if this was because we didn't have kids (why we weren't approached). I'll be posting my trip report for Disney World soon - this will be a good one since we had good weather and a lot of fun!
I am so sorry that you were so ill for your cruise. You are a such a good sport to post a trip report after all that you went through. I'm glad you had fun in the parks. Do you think you'll try another cruise in the future?
