bbtbear

We're going soon on August 28. I'll try to remember to come back and let you know how it was! But in the meantime, have you checked again for reviews? Plenty come up when I look... 

Here's another one she made for me. 🙂

Here's the digital proof for the door sign we ordered on Etsy. You can customize everything in this shop, from what the people look like to what they wear to what they are holding onto to what it says. I've used her several times. 🙂

I'm glad you changed your mind. I live in NJ and visit NYC with some frequency and would add to everything that has already been said about New York traffic that moving around in NYC on a deadline is absolutely exhausting and totally stressful. Even if you got to the port on time, you'd be ragged with worry about it. You're much better off flying in early.

Thanks so much! 🙂

Does anyone out there know what the dive in movies are for this month?

Thanks!

doh! I just saw you were already off the ship. Sorry I'm Johnny come lately lol

Check the arrival city excursions that Carnival has available for the day of your return. When we returned to New Orleans in March, my sister got a late airport transfer. They took her bags and held them for her, then she met up with a bus in the city later in the day for her transfer. If that's available, you would certainly save some money over renting a car and could still walk around the port.

Wow, we had a totally different experience than the previous poster. My sister was skeptical, but got it with me because I wanted to do it and we were both really into all the different yummy flavors. We thought it was great and would have kept eating until it was gone if we weren't already so full. I'd definitely get it again.

I just went on my first cruise with my sister on the Carnival Dream in Feb/March. I have to say that even though we found some of the stage shows to be pretty goofy (the 80s show, for example), we had a GREAT time laughing and singing along, regardless. Something doesn't have to be amazing or impressive to be a ton of fun. Bring the party with you and enjoy yourselves. We also loved the piano bar (went there twice) and the comedy club (went there 3 times) and the dive in movies (saw 2 of them) and the deck parties (went to two of them). We enjoyed the live music acts, too. There is just so much to do. If it is really important to you to be wowed by really quality entertainment, maybe a Carnival cruise isn't the best option for you. But I can report first hand that a Carnival cruise can be an opportunity to have a ridiculous amount of fun with your sister if you just embrace it for what it is and embrace your opportunity to spend so much time one-on-one with someone so special to you. That's really the important part. Everything else is just details. Enjoy!

I love packing cubes, too. I love that I can just throw the cubes into drawers or onto shelves and everything is instantly organized and easy to find. It's also great that as they empty out, I can put dirty clothes into empty cubes and consolidate clean clothes into other cubes so they never come into contact with each other when I'm packing everything back into my suitcase to go home. And I don't just use them for clothes, either. For my cruise in Feb/March, I had a packing cube for beach bag stuff, one for excursion gear, one for toiletries and bathroom items, one for cabin stuff like alarm clock and power strip, etc. Everything was so organized and so easy to find. 

On 1/21/2019 at 10:26 AM, TMR2 said:

We did an all inclusive, food drinks and gorgeous beach https://bahamascruiseexcursions.com/excursions/freeport-resort-day-pass/

Was there transportation arranged for you for this? Or did you need to take a taxi?

Thanks!

Having a hard time getting photos uploaded today, so I will add some more, including tge other fun times, when I get home next week.

Bags are all packed up and ready to disembark in the morning. Today was a pretty low key day for us, but a couple more things to review.

Super Food Spa Facial:

This was great! So relaxing, I actually fell asleep for a minute. My skin looks great now, too. I actually bought a couple products, though I didn't expect to. Highly recommend Lily. She was wonderful!

Pasta Bella:

We had this for lunch today. Loved being able to customize our meal, although I wish they had added more of each veggie than they did. Still, quite good. Yum!

Lip synch Battle show:

This was a lot of fun and we laughed a lot and enjoyed the show. It was short and really well done. Kudos to the winner, an older guy named Bill who won the crowd over as Tina Turner! Ha!

Ok that is it for now. I will come back with more pics and an overview post next week when I am home and have good wifi and a keyboard available to use. Feel free to post any questions and I will try to answer them then. Thanks for following along! Cheers!

Cozumel by Land and Sea tour:

This actually was not our first choice of excursions, but our excursion was canceled, so we chose this. I am SO glad we did! This tour was a blast! We got to go to a chocolate factory and learn about the Mayan culture and the process for making chocolate. We also got yummy samples! Mmmmm! I ended up buying a chocolare pina colada at the bar there, plus several chocolate bars and some Mexican vanilla.

Then we went to a tequila factory and learned about how tequila is made (from blue agaves, which are in the pineapple family!). Our tour guide here was awesome. So fun and knowledgeable. We got to sample about 6 different tequilas that were surprisingly tasty. Tasted nothing like Jose Cuervo or other tequilas we get in the US. If I weren't worried about airline weight allowances, I would have bought a bottle.

Last, we went out on a glass bottomed boat that took us out to the reef. This was great because my sister was too nervous to snorkel in Roatan, so she still got to see marine life up close. We saw tons of fish and coral. Great activitiy for kids, too.

Overall, we had a really great time. If you take this tour, I would recommend bringing a lot of small bills because there were a lot of different people to tip if you wanted to and I ran out of small bills.

The tour was about 4 hours, which gave us enough time to also enjoy ourselves in the port area. We did some shopping, had a delicious Mexican lunch, and drank some enormous margaritas before getting back on the ship with about 45 minutes to spare.

America Rocks show:

Ok, I know I have been really enthusiastic and positive all the way through this review, but I have also been genuine. So I am not gonna lie here... this show was just goofy. We laughed a lot, and were definitely entertained, but whooo boy! Getting a bunch of show tune singers/dancers to cover Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Kiss, etc. turns out to be not such a great plan. Lol! My sister had the best comment of the night when she said it was like watching karaoke with costumes. We had a great time laughing, but I really don't think that is the reaction they were going for...

Seafood Shack

We had this for dinner since we weren't hungry at dinner time.I had the snow crab with garlic and my sister had the combo platter. Messy, but just delicious! Worth the extra charge, for sure! 

On 2/27/2019 at 12:19 AM, Markmom18 said:

 

   He'll be on the Sail Away Party on Deck. I just saw him in photos from a member here who just did a BTB on the Dream.  I know he's been doing Trivia, selling BINGO cards, hard to say exactly because there is not set assignments. But, he'll be doing the Fun things onboard with the guests. I think there are only around 8 people on the Fun Squad/Team lol I'm not sure the "official name".  I'll post a photo of him ...

Thank You so much!

🌸🌸. Bobbi

Bobbi, look who I found thos morning! Had a great chat with him about you waiting to get off the ship in Cozumel! 

Belize Lamanai Ruins:

This was a great tour! It took a tender ride, bus ride, and boat ride to get there, but really so incredibly worth it! Waithin for an hour to get on the tender was pretty rough with my sister, who is a mess before noon and several cups of coffee, but once we got rolling, it was very cool!

We booked through Carnival. Our tour guides were very knowledgeable and taught us about their country all tge way on the bus ride.

The boat ride was really fast and windy, but pretty short.

The ruins themselves were jaw dropping. I kept having to pinch myself to make sure this was really my life. We got to climb to the top of tge highest one, which you apparently cannot do in Mexico. A few people had some problems with this. One lady got vertigo and was shaking so bad, I worried about her climbing down. And there were a lot of steps so tgere was a good deal of huffing and puffing. But if you are in good shape, I couldn't recommend it more. The 3 dimensional view from the top was something I will never forget!

We also saw howler monkeys, iguanas, lizards, egrets, butterflies. Just a great day! 

The only downside was tgat the lunch was cold and not great. But such a little thing compared to tge overall experience!!!

Ok, I have fallen a bit behind here! Sorry about that! Let me try to catch up...

Dive In Movies:

This was really fun, but those deck lounger chairs just aren't comfortable for 2 hours straight. Man, our butts fell asleep about 45 minutes in! Next time, I would sit at one of the tables ringing the Lido deck on deck 11 or 12. Other than that, really fun! Loved that there was free popcorn and everything!

Piano Bar:

This is definitely a fun way to spend some time. The piano man is fun and silly and talented, and the whole place has a great time belting out songs everybody knows. They could use more wait staff, though. Last night we literally sat there for 45 minutes without getting served before we left. We got to see a couple get engaged there, though! So sweet! I cried and they were total strangers, but I am goofy like that. I will post a photo below!

Karaoke:

We tried to make this happen, but when we walked in there was only one seat left and the poor guy singing should have stuck to his shower instead of bringing his act out on the road. Bless his heart. Lol! Not worth standing up for, though, so we didn't stay.

Alchemy Bar:

This was GREAT!  My sister ordered a cucumber sunrise off the menu, which was very tasty and refreshing. I had a drink created for me that the bartender created and named the Deep Purple. I know it had blackberries and rum and lemon zest. It was amazing. I had 2 in a row and wanted another but had to go.

Motown Show:

Lots of fun singing along with all these hits! Our cruise actually has 2 playlists casts on board, as they are switching out on this cruise. We saw the opening performance for the new cast. Tons of talent. Lots of fun!

Guys Burgers:

Ok so now we get why there is always a line here! Omg, yum!!! I would eat here constantly if I didn't gain 5 pounds just smelling food like that! Highly recommend!

Pizzaria del Capitano:

Wow! So tasty! I know not everyone likes a really thin pizza crust like these are, but my sister had the funghi and I had the quattro frommagi and we both loved them. Mine was just packed with flavor. Totally recommend.

Red Frog rum bar:

Neither of us were very impressed by the drinks we got here, but the bartender was a ton of fun, which made it a good experience overall.

Fun Times

I know I am behind posting these, but my sister is sleeping, so I don't want to make noise getting photos. Will post them soon, promise!

Isla Roatan:

We took the Jolly Roger catamaran snorkeling excursion through Carnival and are SO glad we did! It was amazing! They drove us about 20 minutes from the pier to where the catamaran was docked and took us out along the coast to our snorkeling location. They had all equipment available, although I brought my own. 

I can't even describe how wonderful the experience was. I literally saw hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of fish today that were every color of the rainbow. The Reef was absolutely gorgeous. The crew did a great job keeping everyone safe and together and so down to point out things like lobster and Starfish for us. OurTime snorkeling flew by. 

Afterwards they brought us all back on the boat and got the party started! They served us as many rum drinks as we could hold and the most delicious food that I've had since our vacation started. Really tasty Caribbean lunch that we enjoyed so much. They also gave each of us a piece of Honduran currency as a souvenir and took tons and tons of photos that they will post and give us a link to so that we can download them all for free. Overall, this was just a magnificent day. I can't recommend excursion enough.

Afterward, we went to the carnival owned Beach at Mahogany Bay and found some covered loungers just waiting for us. Enjoyed a quick dip in the ocean and headed back to the port for a little bit of shopping before getting back on the ship

Such a wonderful day. This vacation makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the world!

Dinner in the Main Dining Room:

No great shakes this time around. My sister and I had some kind of Caribbean chicken that was on special, but it wasn't that special, after all! But we had a great time with our table mates again and partied the rest of the night with some of them! Table 439 represent!!!!

PG Comedy show with Jon Stringer:

Omg, what a fun time this was! We laughed so hard that these ladies in front of us started throwing us shade and one stuffed napkins in her ears. At a comedy show. I know, I was confused, too. They are probably the life of the party at funerals! 

I digress, though. Jon Stringer was really very funny. Either be prepared to laugh your belly sore, or be prepared with napkins for your ears!

Totally 80s:

This floor show was GREAT for Gen Xers like us, especially since we had had a few drinks before going! 😛We sang along with one song after the next in this "totally awesome" trip down memory lane! Singing performances were much more solid than in the other production we saw. Tons of fun.

Rock & Glow 80s party:

Another very fun opportunity to wallow around in nostalgia. We loved dancing to all the old 80s tunes. Everyone seemed to be having so much fun!

Sea Day Brunch part 2:

We hit the sea day brunch again today after seeing the line for Guy's bbq was about 20 deep 20 minutes before it even opened. My ham and cheddar omelette was hot off the griddle and very good. The mimosa I ordered, however, was hobbit sized, so that was disappointing.

Lanai Deck:

We found a really nice place on the Lanai Deck to enjoy the beautiful weather, which has become decidedly tropical since we left NOLA. it was nearly deserted and very quiet. We enjoyed soaking up some rays in peaceful tranquillity.

More later. Falling asleep... 

1 hour ago, football43 said:

Enjoying your happy and enthusiastic review!  In the steakhouse on the first night, were you able to order those extra bottles of wine at 50% off?  I wasn't sure if you could order more than one and take it to your room.  Since you purchased them on board, are you able to take it to the MDR without paying a corkage fee?

Yes! We received one free bottle of wine, plus were able to buy 2 bottles at 50% off because it was the first night. I don't think we would have been able to buy more than 2 because he said he would need to charge one to each of our folios. There is a corkage fee to bring the bottle to the dining room, but you can ppur a glass and bring it to dinner yourself and wont be charged. 🙂

Mani/ Pedis:

After my massage, I got a mani/pedis with my sister because tgat is how awesome my life is today! 😄 Wasn't as amazing as tge massage, but she still did a great job and now I am all decorated for Mardi Gras! 

Fun Times and today's towel animal below. 🙂