Documenting the dream western caribbean 01/21-28/2012; the money monkey goes cruising

[bigbigblake]

There must be an accounting:

 

We received the final Sail-and-Sign statement early in the evening and of course there were no surprises. I’d been looking at the statement all week on the info channel. Here it is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because of the missed port our net price for the Behind the Fun Tour was $170.00. That works. Also for the final tally here is what we spent off the ship:

 

Fran:

 

Five Dresses @ $15.00 = $75.00

Two Towels @ $10.00 = $20.00

Three Frames @$8.00 = $24.00

Five Pins @$4.00 = $20.00

Aztec T-Shirt = $14.00

Two Magnets $2.00 = $4.00

Extra Tip for Room Stewards $5.00

Subtotal $162.00

 

Ray:

 

Two Bottles of Kahlua @$9.50 $19.00

Taxis in Cozumel $18.00

Tips for mannequins $1.50

Two Change Purses @$5.00 = $10.00

Two Pins @$2.50 = $5.00

Subtotal $53.50

 

TOTAL $215.50

 

Belizean Currency (net) $110.00 [This is merchandise]

 

Not too bad…

 

The day is done. Tomorrow is the final chapter.

 

 

 

TOMORROW: DOCUMENTING THE TRIP CHAPTER 8:

 

 

JANUARY 28, 2012 - DEBARKATION

 

 

Great review, you missed editing the picture of your bill though!

[somoremoney]

 

 

Two Bottles of Kahlua @$9.50 $19.00

 

Hi Ray,

What size bottle were the Kahluas?

[radrayjax]

Great review !

You may want to pull your final bill and check the bottom for privacy issue that you missed.

 

Thanks! I've fixed and replaced it!

[radrayjax]

Wow, this has been truly EPIC ! :eek:

 

Thanks so much for taking the enormous amount of time required to do this. Anyone having a question about the Dream should start here !

 

Thanks again!

 

Thank you! Tonight is the finale'!

[radrayjax]

Hi Ray,

What size bottle were the Kahluas?

 

980ml, which is 2% less than a liter.

[radrayjax]

Hi Fran,

 

I heard you were on the Dream in January...why don't you tell us about your cruise.

 

Now see here matey, my adorable hubby has been tirelessly posting every nook and cranny of The Dream, (it's a miracle he didn't take a picture of me in the buff, hehehe) so, I say 'nuff said already!;)

[radrayjax]

DOCUMENTING THE TRIP CHAPTER 8:

 

JANUARY 28, 2012 - DEBARKATION

 

 

Arrival was scheduled for 6:00AM, but I could see from the positions a few hours earlier that I had to be up much earlier if I wanted to capture coming to Port Canaveral.

 

I got up at 5:10AM. I was right on time. The position fix showed us a short distance from the harbor, just turning to port. The speed was still above 14 knots.

 

Our position, starting to turn to port. 5:13 AM:

I went forward to the observation deck in the dark. When I got outside it was CHILLY! I was dressed in short sleeves and shorts. Every few minutes, during the next half hour, I would have to retreat to the hallway between the inner and outer doors to warm up.

 

The next few shots were taken using a low light setting.

 

View to port; The lights of Cocoa Beach or Cape Canaveral. 5:18 AM:

 

View to Port; Telephoto shot of buildings just to the south of the port. 5:20 AM:

 

We’re turning into Port Canaveral.

 

Forward view: This is Port Canaveral, the long wooden dock is the string of lights to the far left. 5:24 AM:

 

Forward view as we are heading into the port. 5:27 AM:

 

Forward view as we are heading into the channel. 5:30 AM:

[radrayjax]

In the Channel at Port Canaveral...

 

P1060080 View to port, the Ecstasy terminal is coming up on the left. 5:31 AM:

 

P1060084 Aft and port view of the few port watchers/RV’s out at this hour. 5:32 AM:

 

P1060085 Port view as we pass the Ecstasy’s terminal. 5:32 AM:

 

P1060090 Starboard view of commercial docks. 5:35 AM:

 

P1060098 Port view of a barge. 5:38 AM:

 

P1060103 Port view further along the channel. 5:40 AM:

 

[radrayjax]

Closing in on the Terminal and the Disney Magic...

 

Starboard view of the Disney Magic at her terminal. 5:41 AM:

 

Forward view, the Dream’s terminal and the parking garage are on the right. 5:42 AM:

 

Forward telephoto view, the Dream’s terminal is center as we are closing in. 5:44 AM:

 

Forward view, the Dream’s terminal is center left, Disney Magic is right. 5:47 AM:

 

Starboard view of the Disney Magic. 5:49 AM:

 

The Dream is now moving very slowly as the yards to the terminal diminish.

 

Forward view, the Dream’s terminal is now to port. 5:51 AM:

[radrayjax]

The Final Yards to the Terminal...

 

Starboard view of the Disney Magic and her terminal. 5:52 AM:

 

Forward view of the Dream’s terminal. 5:54 AM:

 

Forward view of the Dream’s anchorage. 5:54 AM:

 

Starboard view of the bow of the Disney Magic. 5:55 AM:

 

Port view of Dream’s terminal as we are almost on top of it. 5:56 AM:

 

Port and downward view of gangways. 5:56 AM:

[radrayjax]

The Dream is Home...

 

Forward view as we are almost stopped, and moving toward the dock laterally. 5:59 AM:

 

Port view of the terminal. 6:00 AM:

 

Port and downward view as we nudge the last few feet to port. 6:00 AM:

 

Now just a yard or two... 6:02 AM:

 

Aft view of the terminal as the Dream is docked. 6:02 AM:

After some 38 hours at full speed and about 950 miles the Dream is home. After 160 hours we are back.

 

Starboard aft view of the Disney Magic. 6:03 AM:

[radrayjax]

Back in the room, final pack-out; Colors return to the World...

 

A few minutes later I went back to the room. I check the info channel and it is under 58 degrees. With the wind chill while we were still heading in, it must have felt like the high 40’s.

 

The Money Monkey had hopped into my back pack; he was ready to leave. We waited a few minutes for Fran’s final preparations. I had cleaned out the refrigerator. I still had 5 of the 17 bottles of soda left. That means that we had consumed 12 bottles; a total of $6.00 worth for the week. I still had an unopened bag of the Ghirardelli left.

 

The Money Monkey in my backpack. 6:20 AM:

 

I still had a few minutes to spare so I went aft to capture some shots of the port and environs as the sunrise was approaching.

 

Aft view down the channel as the sky begins to lighten in the each. 6:49 AM:

 

Starboard view of the Disney Magic as the world shows some color. 6:50 AM:

 

Sometime during the intervening minutes since we docked the Norwegian Sun has come home to roost, also.

 

Starboard aft view of the Norwegian Sun at dock. 6:50 AM:

 

View to port and aft view of the aft lido pool area and “our lady of the Dream.” Note the color of the sky. I never saw violets like that during our voyage! 6:53 AM:

 

 

[radrayjax]

Leaving the room for the last time…

 

Shortly before 7:00AM I headed forward to the room for the last time. Fran was ready.

 

The Money Monkey bids adieu to the room from my backpack. 7:00 AM:

Final shot of the number plate; goodbye to old 11220. 7:02 AM:

We head and down to the Gathering for a final breakfast. I capture a few more shots on the way.

 

Starboard view of the Disney Magic. 7:05 AM:

 

Starboard and aft view of the Norwegian Sun, now in near daylight. 7:05 AM:

[radrayjax]

Final Breakfast in the Gathering…

 

Without any troubles we are both able to get omelets made to order. Fran goes first while I sit with the carry-off luggage and Money Monkey.

 

Fran’s Breakfast. 7:22 AM:

 

My omelet is cooking. 7:35 AM:

 

My breakfast, with a ham and cheese omelet. 7:39 AM:

 

 

During breakfast we came upon one of our fellow Behind-The-Fun tourists and I told him about the shot of the bridge. He confirmed that he didn’t get one. He noted that I seemed to be taking notes furiously and I told him about my Cruise Critic blog.

[radrayjax]

The Vehicle Assembly Building...

 

After eating we still have some time and I take more photos. The sun is fully up at this time.

 

Starboard and aft view of the Coast Guard Cutter. 7:57 AM:

 

Here is something you won’t see at any other port in the world: The world’s largest building by volume – The Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.

 

Starboard view of Norwegian Sun with the VAB in the background. 7:57 AM:

Telephoto Starboard view of the VAB in the early morning haze. 7:59 AM:

 

If you haven’t been to KSC, here is a closer view of the VAB that I took on a tour a couple of years ago. It was taken from at least ¼ of a mile away.

 

Closer view of the VAB. 04/09/2010:

Back to the present and a final few shots on board…

 

Starboard view of the Disney Magic, now in full light. 08:00AM:

 

Within a few minutes our number is called and it is time to go. I go back to the Gathering for the last time to retrieve Fran and the Money Monkey.

 

Fran at the table. Note how the Money Monkey is contemplating the scene at the port. 08:16AM:

 

 

[radrayjax]

Leaving the Dream to Memory…

 

Final downward view of the Dream Atrium from the Lido Deck. 08:20AM:

 

Port view on the Lobby Deck as we head towards the gangway. 08:24AM:

 

Fran walking down the gangway towards the terminal. 08:24AM:

A final view forward of the exterior of the Dream. 08:24AM:

A final view Aft of the exterior of the Dream. 08:24AM:

Ray and the Money Monkey walking down the gangway towards the terminal.. 08:25AM:

 

[radrayjax]

In the terminal…

 

On the upper floor of the terminal. 08:25AM:

 

The escalators to the lower floor of the terminal. 08:26AM:

 

Going down the escalators to the lower floor of the terminal. 08:29AM:

 

At this point I was not allowed to take photos until we were out of the terminal. It took a few minutes of waiting until our luggage swung by on the carousel. We then exited to the taxi/van/bus area to wait for the bus from the park and ride. This part seemed to take a long time and nerves became a little frayed. As good as their service was coming to the port, I felt they could have had more vans in rotation at this time of day to take people from the port.

 

Here, then is the final, parting shot of the Carnival Dream taken from the waiting area at the terminal.

 

Final shot of the Carnival Dream from the waiting area of the terminal. 08:51AM:

 

 

At about 9:30 we were back at the parking lot. Since we had paid when we parked a week earlier, we were able to get going in short order. We arrived at my mother’s house in Titusville shortly after 10:00AM and gave her the frames and 1 bottle of Kahlua.

 

We briefed her on the trip and then left for Jacksonville. We arrived home about 12:30PM. I then hightailed it to the vet to pick up Spunky. I brought him home, opened the cat carrier, and collapsed.

 

Later that day when I processed the photos of this last day I found that I had taken 192. That brought my total to a mind-boggling 5,382, not including any maps or scans of documents I would end up including. A long process was awaiting me. The real end of the trip would be many weeks off.

 

 

NEXT: SOME CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

 

[radrayjax]

SOME CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

 

 

I started this project on December 7 of last year. Since I got home I’ve worked 46 days straight without a break. Between the three Word documents I’ve got about 1625 pages and about 91,000 words. Now for an exit strategy…

 

I think I’ve accomplished about 98% of what I set out to do in Documenting the Ship and Documenting the Trip. The fact that we didn’t land in Roatan is a wash because I still fully documented what occurred that day, and I had more time to explore the ship. About the only thing I might have done differently is adopt a more rigorous exploration of the ship earlier on so that I would have been more organized.

 

In my various Photobucket folders I have about 3,100 files. About 1,385 were used to Document the Trip and about 1,420 were used to Document the Ship. (The balance of about 295 were use in the long preamble to this cruise.)

 

So, how do I feel about either or both after all this?

 

Summarizing the Carnival Dream:

 

The ship, compared to any other in my experience is magnificent! I’m sure a lot can depend on the time of year you sail, the passenger count, and the weather, and everything was great in my estimation. The crew was as conscientious, hardworking, and friendly as I could imagine. For this cruise there was plenty of room to spare on the ship.

 

I said it before: I fully traversed decks 0-15 and parts of decks A and B (those are below sea level). I was in places such as water and waste treatment areas that you would have expected to smell bad and NONE did. The ship’s smell, what ever it was, is no longer to be found.

 

I had no real surprises with the food (other than that great mocha cake on the last day!) and was very happy in this regard. There were so many venues that I only had one shot at about half of them and still missed a couple all together (the deli and room service to name two, and only had a single slice of pizza all week).

 

I had a great time in all the ports, win, lose, or draw on the money expeditions. I’ve already said my piece about Belize City; that port was more interesting by far than Costa Maya. I’m sure Roatan would have been very pretty, but not necessarily more productive for me.

 

I thought the big shows overall were great and I recognize that a lot of hard work that went into them. Fran and I just went to a dinner theater this last weekend and saw Hello Dolly, and I thought the set design was really threadbare! The comedians were also great, as different as their styles were.

 

By making a project of the trip I was so active on the ship that I lost three pounds! Unfortunately, in the 46 days since coming home, I haven’t been active enough and have subsequently gained about 8 pounds! I’m now going to try to get my health back and walk at nights instead of sitting, processing thousands of photos, and typing.

 

Wither goest Fran and Ray? Any future cruises? This cruise got the urge out of my system (and Fran’s) for quite some time. I said at the onset that I only have time to do such long trips about every year and a half and that a fall trip is out of the question. That puts another cruise at least three years in the future, possibly more.

 

Would I sail on the same trip again? Probably not, we’ve been there, done that. That is not a condemnation. I spent eight days in New York City in 2010 exploring the Big Apple. That was also a superb experience but I have no intention or need to repeat it again. It is with the same rationale that I don’t go to Disney World any more often than once every five years. If I break that rule I get bored. Boredom is the enemy.

 

I’ve seen too many reviews by people who cruise too often and are bored. Why did they do that and what did they expect? A cruise should be a refreshing break from other kinds of trips, not a crutch.

 

I also noted that Fran has no interest is cruising the Eastern Caribbean. She is adamant about that.

 

Some of the things she would like to do: Go to Puerto Rico to visit family and friends, some of whom are very aged. She hasn’t been back there in seven years. That would be a flying and land trip, not a cruise. She would also like to visit the great redwood forests of the northwest US. If I could find a good coin show in San Francisco or Seattle, that could be a trip.

 

As for the near future, we’re going on a three-hour eco cruise on the St. Johns River this weekend. This will be our third eco-cruise in the last six months. I’ve got a major coin show in Baltimore next weekend. Fran is going to New York (actually Long Island) from April 7-14 to babysit her granddaughter. And the list goes on.

 

This project is ending in the nick of time; I’ve got to organize and to my taxes!

 

To accomplish this project and make the photos available I bought a 1-year subscription to Photobucket for $24.95. I will renew it next year if I see that there is any action on this thread but will likely let it lapse after that. The photos will still be out there but I don’t know if there will be enough bandwidth to support the linkage to CC.

 

Some hardy souls expressed such appreciation for my efforts that they wished they could throw money my way. I don’t want “something for nothing.” So, if anyone is serious, I’ve converted the Word Files (except for this last one) into PDF format and offer them on CD for $10.00. The files include a number of the CC comments from others and my replies. Also, the files will show the photo IDs that I used to organize the photographs. A few of these got into the final postings. One major difference is that the photos had to be sized to fit the pages in Word, which is different from WEB pages. The first document also includes the infamous deleted post #2.

 

I have a PayPal account. If you are interested you can contact me at my e-mail:

 

radray1 at comcast dot net

 

Here is a coincidence: Fran and I have been listening to a 2011 CD audio book of Mark Twain’s 1869 book/travelogue The Innocents Abroad. It is his telling of the first organized cruise in US History. In this case a months-long expedition to Europe and the Holy Lands.

 

It was amazing that this voyage happened only two years after the end of the Civil War. It cost $1,250.00, which would equate to about thirty times as much in today’s dollars. They traversed the ocean in paddle wheel steamer that ran at about a quarter of the speed of today’s ocean liners. Today’s travelers have nothing on the pilgrims who undertook that voyage.

 

We started listening to this just before our cruise. I’ve been listening on and off since getting back and I just finished Twain’s voyage today. Now mine is also done.

 

 

I’ll leave now with my favorite photo of the trip, the Dream “Money Shot” at Cozumel.

 

Thanks to everybody who dared to hang in this long!

 

The Carnival Dream Docked at Cozumel, Mexico Monday January 23, 2012 10:49AM

 

 

 

The Dream really was the Destination!

[PoofyTheCat]

Thank you for your review. I do wish you could have been a bit more detailed :p

 

Just so you know, I have not slept since you started this review back in January. I missed my own cruise, just to keep up with your review!

 

(obviously I am kidding)

 

Thank you so much for sharing. Waiting in anticipation for the sequel! Until then... I guess I will have to cruise myself.

 

Cheers!! :)

[WLHyatt]

It's been so long since the start of this, and after following it daily, I need to go back to the beginning to remember how it all began.

 

I am sure after reading it a second time I will have a better understanding of your rather unorthodox documentation method and your background. I had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading this thread before it had 2 pages.

 

Thanks for the amazing review, it's probably the best review of ANYTHING I've ever read. It is definitely the longest.

[germanyboy]

Great job! Interesting reading. Thanks.

[Sh1035]

for 10 do I get bonus pics of,the lovely Fran ;) Headed out this month to puerto Rico since we now have a jet blue flight out of jax. not bad for 225!

 

Great review btw I see it's down to 639pp balcony on 4/28 and might jump on it!

 

Hope to see you in town!

[radrayjax]

Thank you for your review. I do wish you could have been a bit more detailed :p

 

Just so you know, I have not slept since you started this review back in January. I missed my own cruise, just to keep up with your review!

 

(obviously I am kidding)

 

Thank you so much for sharing. Waiting in anticipation for the sequel! Until then... I guess I will have to cruise myself.

 

Cheers!! :)

 

Thanks, Poofy! Time to catch up on sleep. If I don't have insomnia wondering what to do next...

[radrayjax]

It's been so long since the start of this, and after following it daily, I need to go back to the beginning to remember how it all began.

 

I am sure after reading it a second time I will have a better understanding of your rather unorthodox documentation method and your background. I had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading this thread before it had 2 pages.

 

Thanks for the amazing review, it's probably the best review of ANYTHING I've ever read. It is definitely the longest.

 

WL, Thanks! I didn't know how long it would be when I started...

[Pennyscandy]

Ray, so sad to see you go, you seem like an old friend. You have done the Dream proud with your review. Think you have covered everything and answered every question. Will e-mail you for copy of CD. You and Fran make the perfect couple and are so cute together.

Thanks so much