Dreary Weather, Dreamy Cruise

[EMc&DrS]

Chef's Table AND Steakhouse--sounds like you did it up right! Glad you had a great trip despite the weather.

[blueskyday]

This is our fourth trip out of Port Canaveral and the first time the ship has actually stopped this far out in the ocean. Usually the pilot gets out a lot earlier, but maybe he was chatting with the Captain and lost track of time. I hope that is all that happened as I would hate to know someone got so ill they had to leave the ship that early.

 

Hey Mike, nice to meet you and Laurie on Lido.

 

I watched the USCG vessel arrive on starboard side right below/beside the chess set around 9:30PM (we were in cabin 10277). They removed a passenger on a stretcher about 10PM. Couldn't tell if male or female, the passenger was all wrapped in blankets and strapped in tight, face uncovered. They took passenger to Ft. Pierce, I believe.

 

A call earlier over the PA during early dining was for a "code sierra" for room 2???. I was told by wait staff that this was for a passenger who could not get up or not responding, i.e. stroke, heart attack, etc. Don't know anything else. We hope all is well with this passenger.

 

Marie and Cary

[Socref124]

Chef's Table AND Steakhouse--sounds like you did it up right! Glad you had a great trip despite the weather.

 

We did! It was our anniversary so we decided to do it as best we could. I enjoyed your review when you got back from the Dream as well. Like I said, the weather was dreary but the cruise was Dreamy.:D

[Socref124]

Hey Mike, nice to meet you and Laurie on Lido.

 

I watched the USCG vessel arrive on starboard side right below/beside the chess set around 9:30PM (we were in cabin 10277). They removed a passenger on a stretcher about 10PM. Couldn't tell if male or female, the passenger was all wrapped in blankets and strapped in tight, face uncovered. They took passenger to Ft. Pierce, I believe.

 

A call earlier over the PA during early dining was for a "code sierra" for room 2???. I was told by wait staff that this was for a passenger who could not get up or not responding, i.e. stroke, heart attack, etc. Don't know anything else. We hope all is well with this passenger.

 

Marie and Cary

 

Thanks Marie. We enjoyed meeting you fellow Floridians as well. I sure hope whoever they took off the ship is doing well. That's a crappy way to spend your vacation.

We had a great time despite the weather. Next time on the Dream we will get a Cove Balcony.:D

[TTinAZ]

You know Mike I was wondering if we weren't talking about the same thing...I didn't see the 9:30pm boat.

 

BTW - I saw the picture of the sea snake...I can NOT believe I went in the water with it near by!!!:eek:

[cingroomer]

Your trip report is great, but its making me miss being on there. Did our trip on the Dream in September, had a spa room. Definitely want to go on it again, maybe the Eastern Carib next time.

Anytime dining is awesome. First time we ever did it too.

 

Can't wait to hear the rest of your trip.

[jenninlaca]

Hi - nice review, really enjoying it (although I could not get your photobucket link to work). We will be on the Dream in a Cove Balcony on December 31.

[bookpage]

Could not get the other picture link to work. Think this one will.

 

http://s991.photobucket.com/albums/af32/socref124/

[WestCoastCruiser123]

Hi Mike, Great review so far. I have booked the Sergeants Cay Snorkeling tour on my upcoming Glory cruise. There were only two snorkeling excursions that I saw through Carnival. The other one has some kind of beach break attached to it. Was there anything in particular you didn't like about the excursion besides swimming back to the boat? I wasn't able to find any reviews on this excursion. I still have time to switch. Thanks.

[Socref124]

You know Mike I was wondering if we weren't talking about the same thing...I didn't see the 9:30pm boat.

 

BTW - I saw the picture of the sea snake...I can NOT believe I went in the water with it near by!!!:eek:

 

Yepp, around 830 to 9:00 we started the head West and a USCG vessell pilled alongside the Dream. I heard the Code Sierra, but wasn't sure what it was for. Blue Star is for a death onboard. Unfortunately, we have hear this three different times on cruises:(

The snake was just a little itty bitty thing. :)

[Socref124]

Hi Mike, Great review so far. I have booked the Sergeants Cay Snorkeling tour on my upcoming Glory cruise. There were only two snorkeling excursions that I saw through Carnival. The other one has some kind of beach break attached to it. Was there anything in particular you didn't like about the excursion besides swimming back to the boat? I wasn't able to find any reviews on this excursion. I still have time to switch. Thanks.

 

Other than the swim back the excursion was fine. I heard the snorkel at Goffs Cay had a difficult swim to it, that is why we chose Sergeants Cay.

[Socref124]

Day 4, Wednesday

Here is where the Dreary weather really hit. All Carnival shore excursions were cancelled because of weather. I heard on CNN later that night that there were mud slides in Honduras and the Cruise Director advised us that one of the roads in Roatan was flooded. I was going to rent a car but decided against it once I heard about the roads. Anyway, we started the day in typical fashion, I went to the gym while Laurie started to pack her gear. After the gym we had breakfast and this is when we heard all shore excursions were cancelled. After the rain stopped, we decided to walk down to Mahogany Beach and I'm glad we did. On the way down to the beach we saw quite a few Hummingbird in the bushes and plants. We took a few pics and proceeded down to the beach where we just goofed off and took more pictures, We had the pleasure of meeting a young family on vacation before the husband deployed to Korea. He is in the USAF and I talked to him a short while about the USAF since my youngest son Adam is a Staff Sergeant in the Air Force. I'm telling you, we are in good habds with the quality of young men and women that are serving our great country. On the way back to the ship we saw a nature trail and the people coming off it weren't muddy so we decided to give it go. Another good choice. There were several good photo ops and we saw some really beautiful butterflies. Unfortunately, the pics of the butterflies didn't turn out. Back to the ship for lunch and games. We had lunch in the Pasta Bar. Another good choice. The Pasta Bar is in the Gathering restaurant, but up a flight of stairs on Deck 11. At one time, Carnival had Fish and Chips up there on certain ships. Anyway the pasta bar serves up a nice array of pasta dishes and salad. If you like pasta, you will love the pasta bar.

After lunch we went back down to Deck 5 for more triva games. These were not listed in the FunTimes, but were added because of all the shore excursions being cancelled and a lot of passengers not leaving the ship.

At dinner, we went to Anytime Dinning in the Crimson Dinning Room. The hostess and our server both asked how we enjoyed the Chef's Table and the Steakhouse. I was impressed that they would ask because we have eaten at the Steakhouse on most of our other cruises and no one ever asked before. Our server, Ula (pronounced Oohhhlaaa, like ooh la la) was fantastic. She was probably the best serever we have had on any of our Carnival ships. She was exceptionally professional and reminded me of servers in high end restaurants in New York. After our meal, Ula brought us a Bitter and Blanc dessert with two candles in it and she and her assistants sang happy anniversary to us. It was very special.

The Deck party and Lounge hop were on the agenda tonight so Laurie and I went to Sam's Piano Bar to spend the evening with Dave and friends we have made during the week. After a few songs and drinks, off we went to our cabin and out onto the balcony for a glass of wine and some good companionship with Laurie. In my opinion, this is the best reason to have a balcony. Time to spend alone with my best friend, my wife.

Tomorrow Costa Maya.

[Socref124]

Could not get the other picture link to work. Think this one will.

 

http://s991.photobucket.com/albums/af32/socref124/

 

Thanks for the assistance.:D

[Socref124]

Your trip report is great, but its making me miss being on there. Did our trip on the Dream in September, had a spa room. Definitely want to go on it again, maybe the Eastern Carib next time.

Anytime dining is awesome. First time we ever did it too.

 

Can't wait to hear the rest of your trip.

 

I know how you feel. We had frinds on the Dream in June and the last week of Aug and we wanted to be on her badly.:)

[DonnaBeachLover]

Other than the swim back the excursion was fine. I heard the snorkel at Goffs Cay had a difficult swim to it, that is why we chose Sergeants Cay.

 

We were on this cruise with you. We went snorkeling in Belize with Coral Breeze tours. It was really rough water/not good visability where they took us. I was swimming against the current and turned back and got back on the boat it felt so strong to me. Another lady about my age (I'm 56) also turned back - they threw a life preserver out to us. Also our boat was blowing black smoke out the back on the way from Belize and it got worse - overheating on our way back. We just barely made the tender @ 5 pm because the boat went so slow since it was overheating. Trip is called something like Cay Caulker/Sharks Alley tour. You have 2 snorkeling stops. One to see coral/colorful fishes (although it was rough seas/hard to see) and the other for stingrays and nurse sharks. I originally booked the Bannister Beach break tour with them which had one snorkeling stop. They said only the 2 of us had signed up/canceling and offered us this one instead so we tried it. I heard from some others that the Bannister Beach was wonderful when they had tried it before - beautiful private island. I think I would have enjoyed it more - it came with a manatee watch tour too.

 

Have you snorkeled in Grand Caymons? That was absolutely beautiful and what I had expected it to be like in Belize.:cool:

[Socref124]

We were on this cruise with you. We went snorkeling in Belize with Coral Breeze tours. It was really rough water/not good visability where they took us. I was swimming against the current and turned back and got back on the boat it felt so strong to me. Another lady about my age (I'm 56) also turned back - they threw a life preserver out to us. Also our boat was blowing black smoke out the back on the way from Belize and it got worse - overheating on our way back. We just barely made the tender @ 5 pm because the boat went so slow since it was overheating. Trip is called something like Cay Caulker/Sharks Alley tour. You have 2 snorkeling stops. One to see coral/colorful fishes (although it was rough seas/hard to see) and the other for stingrays and nurse sharks. I originally booked the Bannister Beach break tour with them which had one snorkeling stop. They said only the 2 of us had signed up/canceling and offered us this one instead so we tried it. I heard from some others that the Bannister Beach was wonderful when they had tried it before - beautiful private island. I think I would have enjoyed it more - it came with a manatee watch tour too.

 

Have you snorkeled in Grand Caymons? That was absolutely beautiful and what I had expected it to be like in Belize.:cool:

\

 

I am so sorry about your excursion. I hope you went to the shore excursion desk and filed a complaint. Ours wasn't that bad bu twe have been on better. Laurie got some nice pictures, a very colorful reef.

We snorkled at Sting Ray City once and it was pretty good seeing all the rays.:)

[Socref124]

Day 5 Costa Maya.

We have been to Costa Maya once before and did the Chacchobin Ruins which was pretty good. Laurie wanted to dive here this time and I just wanted to relax so I booked a private excursion with Maya Chan Beach Resort and they scheduled Laurie a two tank dive.

Our day started out a little different this day. No gym, and I ordered coffee and danish from room service. We had our coffee and danish on the balcony and then got ready for Maya Chan. Their instructions were to meet at the Taxi stand at 8am. We were there, but no one else was so we were told we would wait another 25 minutes. About 8:30 we boarded a taxi with about 8 others and headed to Maya Chan Beach Resort. The resort isn't that far away, but we had to traverse some pretty bumpy roads to get there. Once we got there we knew we made the right choice. The beach was beautiful and the resort was fantastic. It isn't this ivory and marble palace rather a beach shack type resort. Each person had their own table and chairs overlooking the ocean. There is snorkeling, kayaks and floatation seats available at no extra charge. The drinks are included and so was a delicious lunch. Laurie was picked up at the resort by the dive company and returned right there at the beach. The lunch was steak, chicken and fish fajitas . There was also a bean soup that was pretty good. The cost of this excursion for the day is $59 and it is American owned and American operated. For an extra charge you can schedule a scuba trip, a fishing trip or a massage. The massage was $25 for a half hour.

We had to be back at the ship by 2:30 so the last taxi for us left Maya Chan at 1:30 ships time. On the way back to the ship we stopped to take some pictures of the NCL Star which was docked along side of us. Laurie and I took our honeymoon cruise on the Star when she was in the Hawaiian Islands. Ahhh memories. Then we were back on the ship and Laurie went to the Lido Deck for some more R & R and I got the camera and walked around taking pictures of the ship.

We decided to go to the past guest party which was held real early, 3:30 I believe, in the Encore theater. I like watching the clip with all the Carnival ships throughout the years and clapping for the ones we've been on. After the party we had to waste some time before going to eat in the Crimson Dinning Room which didn't open till 5:45. We were spending time with some friends we met from our roll call and asked them to join us. We didn't think it would be a problem since we hadn't seen the Your Time Dinning room anywhere close to being full on the three nights we dined there. We got to the dinning room just as it opened and asked the hostess if our friends could join us. She said she didn't see any reason why our friends couldn't join us, but she had to run it by the Maitre D first. She asked us to sit in the Library and wait until she heard from the Maitre D. I didn't think there would be a problem either, since we were gusts of friends of ours in the Anytime Dinning Room on Princess in January. Well, I shouldn't have been so sure because the hostess came in and apologized and said the Maitre D would not permit it. I was shocked. She then suggested that we go to the Scarlet Dinning Room with our friends and ask the Maitre D there if he could accommodate us, so we did. The Maitre D in the Scarlet Dinning Room was happy to accommodate us and we enjoyed dinner with our friends. I made sure to bring him the Maitre D tip envelope on the final evening of the cruise. As it turns out, Elvis the Maitre D is also very talented. He sang a song for the dinning room while the servers got ready for their entertainment.

After dinner we headed to the Punchliner Comedy Club in the Burgundy Lounge. Two different comedians tonight, Thomas Brown and Tony Esposito. We stayed for each of their family show and two of the three adults only shows. It is hard for me to say which comedian I liked the most. All were very good and very funny and they used different material for each show.

After the fourth comedy show we headed home to our balcony for one last glass of wine before turning in. Today was a great day.:D

[Socref124]

Oops, double post.

[TTinAZ]

That was our favorite day too! Maya Chan was awesome, can't wait to go back some day!