The Mirubian's Guide to the Galaxy or At Least the Southern Caribbean: A Review

[itsalljimmysfault]

Great review!!! We are doing this itinerary but not for another 307 days!!!:eek: Thanx for all the awesome pics and ideas!! I really can't wait...it looks so beautiful!

[vivig]

Sherry it was really GREAT meeting you!

 

You have done an awesome job re-capping the cruise. Beautiful pictures!

 

I am sorry to hear about your luggage and about Jenn's toe.

 

Hopefully we will meet up on a future cruise and this time I promise to do better recognizing you. :rolleyes: I really felt awful that I was unable to place faces with names..vacay brain.

 

WOW I just relived our whole vacation!

 

A word to all you folks who may be taking this itinerary if it is raining in Curacao or Aruba be forewarned not to go near the greenery...the bugs will find you with a vengance...boy were we ever bitten.

[barbc61719]

Sherry, did you see the people doing the polka in the pool? They took over from the DJ for about an hour and played all polka music :eek:

 

Will post some pics late, having trouble with photobucket

[Sherrybaby412]

No I missed that. Would have laughed though. :D

[Sherrybaby412]

Our Last Day: Sea Day :(

 

Tried not to think about it being our last day.

 

I slept in and was totally surprised because Jenn and Alex brought me a breakfast tray from the Lido deck. :D I have never had breakfast in bed. Great treat.

 

I then went to the hot tub. I loved spending time here. |Then someone mentioned the CHOCOLATE BUFFET :eek:. This was not mentioned in the Fun Times :(

 

I went back to the cabin and got Jenn and Alex. We had chocolate for lunch. ;)

 

[ReadytoGoAgain]

I love your review. We're doing this itinerary next March and I can't wait! Loved all the pictures! Thanks!

[Sherrybaby412]

The girls decided to do their own thing.

I ran into Nancy and Chris from our roll call. Then Cap'n Ric and Cheryl came along. We ate lunch on lido by the pool.

Then my own kids walked by , didn't notice me and sat one table over. OOps.

Roll call decided to meet up about 7:30 in Atrium for pics.

[IMG]http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k612/TNCruzer56/DSC_0121.jpg[/IMG]


Then off to dinner. Fantastic food and service as always.

Went back to cabin to finish packing and set our luggage out. We opted for luggage express. Second time using this and well worth the money.

Alex decided to go to sleep but Jenn and I were too wound up. We went to the casino. I bet my last $50 from my big winning hand and lost. But I had fun. Jenn and I then played the quarter slide game. We won as much as we lost. So ended up even.

Then we went up for pizza and ice cream. We walked outside and could see 4 other cruise ships lit up in the night. Oh what a sight!

Then we could see several islands all lit up. I'm assuming Bahamas. Another gorgeous sight!

Finally went to sleep about 2. Got up about 7:30. Packed up and went to Lido for breakfast. We had zone 10. They called us about 9:30. We were off the ship in less than 15 minutes and customs wasa breeze.

With all my detailed planning, I had forgotten to make arrangements to get us to our rental car. :eek: So I paid $11 per person to ride a passenger van to airport.

Then shuttle from airport to rental car. We decided to use Sunshine rentals because Jenn got a discount through her bank. I would not recommend them. When we went to pick up the car, they asked for my credit card. Then they told me it was declined? They were trying to charge $250.00 to my credit card. :confused: Now I have rented my fair share of rental cars. I have never had anyone try to charge before I rented. Their own site says to have plane tickets to show them to avoid huge holds. I did so. Still wanted $250.00.

So Jenn used her credit card and had to pay an extra $17 for being under 25. She is 24.

Our flights were not to 8pm so we had about 8 hours to kill. We went shopping at Sawgrass Mills. Had a lot of fun. Then Jenn wanted to eat at Bubba Gump's. It's on the beach. After taking an hour to go a mile, we found public parking. We were told it was at least a 2 hour wait for a space. Pass! We found a small deli few minutes away and ate there.

Returned rental car and off to airport. We were able to go directly to security checkpoint duet o using luggage express. I was full body imaged. :eek:

Dear TSA, Please do not use my body images for nefarious reasons. Thank you.

The woman in front of me was also body imaged AND fully searched in front of everyone. Her panties and bra were made public to all who could see. This is outrageous. The reason for her search? Her jeans had zippers all over them. :rolleyes:

They then wanted to fully search me. I told them no. They gave me the option of the scan or body search. I gave consent for body image. |The guy just sighed and told me to go on through. ;)

[Sherrybaby412]

Flights left on time. Jenn's luggage actually got to Baltimore one flight ahead . My flight from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta was only and hour and 20 minutes. It took an hour and a half to get our luggage. :mad:

I tried to talk to someone at Delta about my previous luggage complaint. He blew me off.

|We took shuttle to long term parking, picked up my car and hit the road. We had hoped to be on the road by 10 my time. It was actually midnight. We had a 3 hour drive. I had to make 2 small nap stops but we got home about 6am.

Dogs and one cat were ecstatic to see us. One cat gave me the stinkeye for a few days. :rolleyes:

[Sherrybaby412]

Two things I did not address were chair hogs and line cutters.

Honestly I did not see any chair hogs. There were plenty of chairs and people just asked one of the crew to get them one.

Line cutters: I had 2 line cutters. There 2 people myself included getting a pastry one morning. TWO people that is all. This woman decided she had to squeeze in between us to pick up a muffin. I reminded her the line ended behind me.

The other incident pissed me off more. I had a child about 6 cut in line to get a plate first. He stepped on my foot as he did so. I said excuse you, you stepped on my foot. Then in order his older brother, dad and then mom all cut in line. They shrugged and said we are with foot stepper. I told them same thing. Line ends behind me AND your kid stepped on my foot. They looked at me like I was nuts.

So really these incidents were small and random in my opinion.

I also did not mention demographics.

We traveled during Spring Break and thought there would be a lot of kids or college kids.

There were a lot of older people. I'd say I personally saw less than 100 kids and maybe 100 people college age.

[Sherrybaby412]

Overall I would say this was the best cruise/vacation I have ever had.

Carnival gets [IMG]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p260/savethetpc/Emoticons/emoticon-thumbsup2-1.gif[/IMG]

Miracle gets [IMG]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p260/savethetpc/Emoticons/emoticon-thumbsup2-1.gif[/IMG]

Entire crew gets [IMG]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p260/savethetpc/Emoticons/emoticon-thumbsup2-1.gif[/IMG]

Fasttrack parking gets [IMG]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p260/savethetpc/Emoticons/emoticon-thumbsup2-1.gif[/IMG] [url]http://www.avistarparking.com/fasttrack/Atlanta_%28ATL%29-Airport-Parking[/url]

Hampton Inn gets [IMG]http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p260/savethetpc/Emoticons/emoticon-thumbsup2-1.gif[/IMG] [url]http://www.ftlauderdalehollywoodhotel.com/[/url]

[Sherrybaby412]

Delta gets [IMG]http://smileys.emoticonsonly.com/emoticons/t/thumbs_down-1011.gif[/IMG]

As does Sunshine Car Rental [IMG]http://smileys.emoticonsonly.com/emoticons/t/thumbs_down-1011.gif[/IMG]

[Sherrybaby412]

Oh and I forgot to mention how good a turn out we had for our roll call. The total number of people who showed up at various functions was:

[IMG]http://www.lousycanuck.ca/wp-content/uploads/42.gif[/IMG]










[IMG]http://i987.photobucket.com/albums/ae351/Sherrybaby412/Just%20Us%20Girls%20Miracle%20Cruise/SDC11005.jpg[/IMG]

[Sherrybaby412]

Darn my punchline was ruined above.

[IMG]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41D05DS8KYL._SL500_AA300_.gif[/IMG]

[steveNcindy]

[quote name='Sherrybaby412']

Returned rental car and off to airport. We were able to go directly to security checkpoint duet o using luggage express. I was full body imaged. :eek:

[/QUOTE]

Did you buy the glossy 8 x 10 as a souvenir :confused:

[luv cruising 007]

oooops didnt know your review of the galaxy wasnt over:p great ending & i must be easily amused but the happy & sad smileys you put on the end of your review made me laugh so hard i almost pee'd my pants awesome smileys, my coworker loved the review & the smileys as well!

[sandij]

Thanks for the wonderful review, makes me wish we were still out there. so sorry I didn't make it to any of the gatherings, forgettfulness is a horrible thing. we had a great cruise, rested up a lot and got rid of a lot of stress. We just did walking tours of Curacao and Aruba since we had been there before and done the regular tours. In La Romano we did the Santo Domingo Express and really enjoyed it, a long ride but the guide did a great job of keeping it entertaining and knowledgable. The city is old and poor but it was neat to see the palace and the cathedral. Grand Turk was beautiful. we live year round near beaches but this was a beauty and the weather was the best. We love sea days so enjoyed them and we just like Carnival period. We had a bit of trouble at the end when we were getting off the ship and were asked to step aside for a random custom search. Nothing to hide so we did and sat there for 20 minutes as everyone else was getting off the ship. Only to find out it was nothing random and Carnival had handed in the wrong passport number and of course it didn't match our name. Luckily customs cleared it up quickly and apoligized, nothing from Carnival. But all in all it was a great trip and a lovely ship, although they need to get some new mattresses and towels.

[Sherrybaby412]

[quote name='steveNcindy']Did you buy the glossy 8 x 10 as a souvenir :confused:[/QUOTE]

I'm framing it for your Christmas gift. :p

Glad everyone enjoyed my review. Thanks for the compliments.

[happylady]

[quote name='Sherrybaby412']I'm framing it for your Christmas gift. :p

Glad everyone enjoyed my review. Thanks for the compliments.[/QUOTE]

Great review. Can't wait until our cruise!!

[ajhunt2]

Thanks for this review. Looking forward to taking this cruise next year on the Freedom!

We have a CC group cruise together for this so can't wait. Info is in my link

You're pictures give me a glimpse of what's to come, even though I have to wait a year :(

[steveNcindy]

[quote name='Sherrybaby412']I'm framing it for your Christmas gift. :p

[/QUOTE]

Please make sure you wrap it in brown plain paper so it blends with my other mail :o

[zavadil]

Great review Sherry! wish we were back on the ship, so much fun. I copied some pics off your photo bucket,thanks so much, fyi, our camera is in the ocean in the DR, hubby dropped it off the dock,a word to the wise, download pics on laptop daily, we had 5 days on our sd card :mad: very fun cruise, it is a little older crowd,but was great, thanks again Sherry, Nancy and Chris

[Sherrybaby412]

Thanks Nancy. It was really great meeting you and Chris.

[TNCruzer]

[IMG]http://i1118.photobucket.com/albums/k612/TNCruzer56/DS.png[/IMG]
[SIZE="4"][COLOR="Red"]...................2nd Place Poster.........................................................................Third Place Poster[/COLOR][/SIZE]

A little grief for you guys...all in fun.


Nancy...duck tape the new camera to Chris` hand:D


Looks like we`re gonna do the Pacific next year. The Love Boat stops: Cabo, Maz, PV etc. Cool water but something new...

Hillbilly Hi`s to all Mirubians, hope all are well.

[TNCruzer]

[quote name='Sherrybaby412']They then wanted to fully search me. I told them no. They gave me the option of the scan or body search. I gave consent for body image. |The guy just sighed and told me to go on through. ;)[/QUOTE]

My titanium shoulder bold set off the full body scan and I got the full body grope. Really enjoyed it!!
Then off to the Continental Presidents Club with a couple of comp passses. 5 free drinks later, all was forgiven.

[Sherrybaby412]

I might let someone grope me for 5 drinks or after 5 drinks. lol