Live From the Carnival Magic - BC5

[mississauga]

Bob, thanks for the shoutout. I have mixed feelings about not being there. Wish I was there but then on the other hand, I can't be too sad as I just returned from a fabulous cruise 10 days ago. If I had booked for the BC5, when this opportunity to cruise on the Oasis of the Seas came along, I would have had to pass on it. It is quite a different kind of a cruising experience but fantastic all the same....lol

 

I feel so sad for your daughter Jodie that she had to miss out on a cruise but on the other hand, she got to spend some precious time with her husband before he got "shipped" out again. What a great cruise you will have in June with the whole family there.

 

Sounds like you are having a great time on BC5 and say hi to John H. from Mrs Shy.:)

[mississauga]

You have probably been to Cozumel many times and know where all the free wifi spots are but here is one I discovered a couple of weeks ago. Just in case you haven't found it yet, I'll share this new discovery with you.

 

It has been many years since I have been in downtown Cozumel so we finally decided that it was time to go this time. We took a taxi to the Forum Shops which is full of jewelry stores with Diamonds International being the main store. Now I am not a jewelry type lady but hey, the taxi was free that day ( given by the ship ) so off we went. After I got my free bracelet and charms, I saw a big sitting area ( nice comfy leather sofas ) where people were using their laptops. Free wifi.... hooray! If one doesn't have their own with them ( not you, of course ), there were 2 PC's for anyone to use. Just a little FYI...lol:)

[WestCoastCruiser123]

I'm enjoying reading your live report. Thank you to your son-in-law for his service. I'm sorry that your daughter couldn't make the trip. But at least she'll have lots of "babysitters" on her first cruise when the kids get to join her!!

 

Now go back to your cruise and have fun in the piano bar tonight.

[mickiemac]

"Now… with my five kids and their spouses… and the twelve of their children… if I can just survive that June cruise it will be a happy ending for all. "

 

 

I know this will be a tough week for you, so when you get the room for me and Jim booked, let us know and we will try to help you "hang on" in the midst of all the craziness!!! It is the least we can do!!

[colorado_flyer]

kokomo_man, I have really stepped in it. I have convinced my signifigant other to go to dive magic in Boise and get the ball rolling. might have to follow keys law and go to rainbow reef before the family cruise. wishing i was there with you all. Cant wait for june....

[Kokomo_Man]

Live From the Carnival Magic

Bloggers Cruise 5

Day 3 – Jamaica Mon

Before I get going on Jamaica, just a note to tell everyone that I accomplished my main goal on the two sea days… I helped close down the Piano Bar both nights. As usual, Ron was really entertaining and everyone there had a good time. There’s always a weird collection of people in there ranging from Storman Norman, to some guy in bright orange & red parrot shirts.

Both nights the piano bar has been standing room only. Last night Amy and I wanted to be sure we got a seat right at the piano bar. The only way to be sure of that was to “camp out” early at the bar. The piano bar entertainment starts at 9:30. Since we have late dining we decided that we would eat dinner in the buffet so that we could start “camping out” around 8:00.

Our plan worked as far as getting seats at the piano bar, so it was worth not eating in the main dining room. But there was slim pickins at the buffet. I don’t mean that all the food trays weren’t full… it’s that there just wasn’t much to choose from. Carnival’s plan for the evening meal is to feed everyone in the main dining rooms. The buffets are almost an afterthought. Other cruise lines seem to feed as many people dinner at the buffet as they do in the main dining room.

You know how sometimes the words on a menu make something sound good… like “broiled Wellington beef, smothered in mushrooms and swimming in our special Au Jus”? Then when it shows up it is the sole of an old shoe with toad stools and swimming in brown. That’s kind of what the buffet was like. Ok… it wasn’t really that bad. We were able to find something adequate to eat so we didn’t go hungry. It’s just the main dining room is so much better.

The main dining room has been the he opposite of the buffet. For the nights I’ve eaten there, the menu had lots of choices of good food. The biggest problem has been to choose from all the good stuff. Then when the food showed up, it was better than the description. Service has been exceptional. Wait… exceptional is not enough of a description, but I don’t have words to describe beyond that. So whatever those words are… put them here. Needless to say, we will probably not eat dinner in the buffet for the rest of the cruise.

Mo-Bay

Mo-Bay is the nickname the Jamaicans use for Montego Bay. This was a very important stop in my ongoing quests. My first quest is to visit every place the Beach Boys told us in their song “Kokomo”. You know… Aruba, Jamacia, oooh I wanna take you. Well one of those places they mention is “Montego”. The other quest is to have a frozen strawberry Margarita and a Cheeseburger in Paradise… and of course buy a T-shirt and/or ball cap in every Margaritaville in the world where Margaritaville should be.

I guess I need to explain that where “Margaritaville should be” part. There’s no way that Margaritaville… the real Margaritaville is in a cold place. So any place with an average winter time temperature cold enough to freeze the male parts off of a brass monkey is no place that Margaritaville will ever be. I certainly understand why people in those places need a place like a Margaritaville store to go to during those long, cold, dark winters. But those places certainly are not part of my quest.

So today was a stellar day because I crossed off a place on two of the quests. Now only Bermuda and Martinique remain on the Kokomo list, and only Hawaii and the Pensacola Beach hotel remain on the Margaritaville list. Yea… I know, it’s a tough job but somebody’s got to do it.

My previous trips to Jamaica have been to Ocho Rios and to Falmouth. This time I deiced to do a walking tour (on my own) of Mo-Bay. Now I hear everyone who’s been here before giggling at me. That’s because there’s almost nothing within walking distance of the “boat park.” So the only way to get to town is a “hop-on / hop-off” bus that goes from the port to town and back. The cost for that is $15.00. Most importantly the bus will drop you off right at Margaritaville.

Since it was around 10 in the morning when we went to town, it was too early to have a Margarita. So we did the walking part first. (Ok… any true parrothead out there will now be screaming “It’s 5 0’clock somewhere”… so let’s just say it was too early for a Cheeseburger in Paradise.) Any way we did the walk-about in about two hours.

The area of Mo-Bay that we were in had a lot of the standard tourist-trap type places. Since it is right along the ocean, there a lot of hotels along the shore interspersed between the tourist traps. This area does not have the character or atmosphere of Ocho Rios. Ocho Rios has a curious mixture of opulent resorts like Sandals mixed with object poverty looking places. To me, what I saw of Mo-Bay (what I could walk in two hours) is more like the “blue collar” area of Jamaica. There was only little of the poverty and none of the opulence of Ocho Rios.

One of the things that surprised me was that as we walked around, no one approached me about purchasing some errrr…. Ummmmm… ahhhhh… some of Jamaica’s main crop. After we had walked the length as far as we were going to go… through the main area of the “hip port” area I commented to Amy that it was strange that we weren’t approached. It turns out that she was being offered some of Jamaica’s finest at just about every shop and door opening.

Other than the tourist shops… and of course Margaritaville, there’s not much of interest in Mo-Bay itself. Most of the tours go some place else like the Ocho Rios or other places that take an hour or two to get there. If this had not been my fourth trip to Jamaica I would have been disappointed with Mo-Bay. So my recommendation is that if you come here for the first time, take one of the ship’s tours. I recommend the ship’s tours because the traffic in Jamaica is awful. I don’t always recommend a ship’s tour, but in this case… since most of the good places are a considerable drive away, you are assured you won’t miss the ship if something happens on a ship’s tour.

With that… it’s time to go have my only smoke of the year… a cigar with John Heald and friends under the stars. (I don’t really smoke it… I just get it lit and let it smolder a while.)

By the way... Sargent_Schultz is posting pictures of Mo-Bay so check out his thread.

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[steph7021]

Love that review of Mo Bay! I am reading both live threads because we are leaving on the 25th so I'm obsessed! You have 2 distinct voices and I enjoy both! Would like to see your pics as well!!

[Kokomo_Man]

Just a quick note on my pics.

 

I don't want to spend the time (and internet minutes) just now to figure out how to get them to post right. So what I usually do is put together some kind of Youtube video with pics and real video after the cruise. I'm thinking about doing that with Ron Pass in the piano bar too. So if you "suscribe" to this thread, I'll post it here when it's ready. If you have suscribed, you'll get notified when I post it.

 

If I get some fantastic picture then I'll post it as best I can right away... but in the mean time, go check out what Sargent_Shultz is posting.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[futureAG]

How can we find out Ron's schedule? Can you ask him or is there someplace I can go look it up?? I would LOVE to know if he will be on our Magic cruise!!! :D

[kcparrothead]

You must be on an island today! Hope we get an update this evening!! ;)

[Kokomo_Man]

Live From the Carnival Magic

 

 

Bloggers Cruise 5

 

 

Day 4 – Grand Cayman

 

 

Wastin’ away again in Margaritaville.

 

Well… not really wastin’ away. We made it to Margaritaville but only after we went for the two tank certified SCUBA dive. When you do this excursion, there really isn’t much time left for “wastin’ away”. By the time you get back from the diving there’s only enough time to go have a Cheeseburger in Paradise and of course a frozen concoction to help me hang on.

 

And there’s also enough time to do a little shopping in the tourist traps. You do understand that “cruise law” holds that when you visit Grand Cayman, you must spend enough to support a small starving nation. So we obeyed the law and bought some of the standard stuff… ball caps, T-shirts, shot glasses, and gallons & gallons of booze… you know enough stuff to keep a roof over the heads of the starving natives of Grand Cayman. Wait a minute… the people of the Cayman Islands have one of the highest standards of living. So I guess we’ll change that to… I had to buy some of the standard stuff so my kids won’t have an inheritance… sorry kids.

 

One of the things I always buy when I’m in Grand Cayman is a Cuban cigar. And I don’t even smoke. I give the cigar away to someone on the ship who will enjoy it. Maybe I’ll give it to John Heald this trip. The reason I “buy Cuban” is indeed to help support the starving people who make cigars in Cuba. But more than that, it is my small way to protest the arcane policy of the United States toward Cuba. Hopefully this won’t make this thread go “political”, but my vote is for cruise ships to go to Cuba.

 

Grand Cayman is my favorite of all the islands. I don’t know what it is about the place… I just love it. Besides buying souvenirs from all the tourist traps… and drinking “boat drinks”… the other activities are mainly water activities…which is just fine with me. In fact, I’m not sure of what the other activities are because almost every time I’ve been here I’ve gone SCUBA diving.

 

There’s good reason for all the water activities… especially the SCUBA or snorkeling. This is one of the premier diving and snorkeling places in the world. The water is warm… today it was 80 degrees; there’s the beautiful turquoise blue water… and the water is crystal clear. Hummm, I wonder how the water is such an amazing color yet it is so clear. I guess that’s one of the “secrets” of Grand Cayman. Oh yea… there’s also the brilliantly colored tropical fish. It’s like swimming in your dentist’s aquarium… except the tank is a lot bigger… and the fish a lot bigger too.

 

I should mention the weather. (I suppose this is also my way to gloat to all of the folks who are still up to their “Ah-Haa” in the cold stuff.) It was a bright, sunshiny day. Everyone was wearing shorts, tank-tops and flip-flops. And oh yea… on the dive boat we had two very “talented” dive guides in bikinis today. I had my dark sun glasses on a lot.

 

Tonight is the second “elegant” night in the main dining room… except tonight is almost certain to be a bit less elegant than the first one. It always happens. As a Caribbean cruise progresses, people relax more… there are more and more T-shirts, more “parrot shirts” and hardly any button down shirts left. Everyone is much more “laid back” then when the cruise started. That’s what this crusin’ stuff will do to you. Or perhaps it’s that a lot of people bought more “stuff” than I did in Jamaica. In any case, folks will still dress up a bit tonight, but there will be far more men with open collar shirts and more ladies with their brilliant colorful dresses that they have buying during the cruise.

 

… I took a break, went to dinner and now I’m finishing this off for today.

 

I was right about the dress for the second “elegant night”. The first night there were quite a few guests in full tuxes. Tonight I only saw a couple. More of the men had open collars than those with ties. The women were still wearing cocktail dress and a lot of the “hard bodies” were still wearing the “do me” high heels.

 

One thing I’ve been forgetting to mention is Ken the maître d' in the main dining room for traditional dining. Some of you may have of heard of him as the singing maître d'. He’s not merely a good singer… he’s a crooner in the class of Frank Sinatra. In fact, when the dining room entertainment started, I thought there was a recording of Sinatra being played. I was amazed to turn around and find out that it was Ken.

 

Tonight Ken sang a “Hip-Hop / Pop” song for the wait staff to dance on the tables. Again I thought it was a recording, but then I realized it was Ken doing the singing. He also did another Sinatra song tonight…“My Way”. The first few words of that song are… “And now… the end is near” which made me realize that the end of this cruise is near.

 

It’s hard to believe it, but there’s only two days of the cruise left… tomorrow in Cozumel and then the last sea day. The time is really flown by. But I don’t want to think about that any more for now. I’m not ready for this to end, so maybe if I don’t think about it, then it won’t end so soon… Yea… that’s the ticket.

 

Before I close for tonight I want to answer a question about Ron Pass’ schedule. There are a couple of ways to find out about that. The first is the thread on Cruise Critic that is dedicated to Carnival piano bar stuff. (The link is below.) On that thread you can see posts about the people in the piano bars, and there’s usually a post with a list showing who is on what ship. Laura (screen name Divetrash) does a good job of keeping the list current. That’s your best source of information.

 

Piano Bar thread: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=32787006

 

The way to find out about Ron Pass specifically is to go to his web site (ronpass.com) or to his facebook page. I’m sorry to tell you that this week was a special week for the bloggers cruise so he won’t be on here after this week. As far as I know his next ship will be the inaugural cruise on the Breeze later this year.

 

That’s all for tonight. We’ll be diving again tomorrow in Cozumel.

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[Kokomo_Man]

Live From the Carnival Magic

Bloggers Cruise 5

Day 5 – Cozumel Morning

Buenos Dias. This will just be a quick post for this morning. This morning I’m writing a little from my favorite coffee shop in Cozumel...the one in the Puerta Maya tourist trap at the end of the pier where we docked. Why is it my favorite? Well, the coffee is good so instead of having my morning coffee out by the pool, so on Cozumel days I spend the morning watching all the tourista activities.

But the good coffee is not the only reason… They have good wi-fi internet… it’s a good place to sit… watch the people go by… and get my internet fix without worrying about how many minutes I’m using up at the OMG this is expensive rates.

While I’m talking about internet, I do have to say that the internet on the ship has been the best I’ve had on any of the Carnival ships. I don’t know if this is happenstance or if the newer ship was built with internet in mind instead of an after the fact add-on. Whatever the case, this has been better than my previous Carnival cruises. Also… the price seems to have been lowered. I can’t be sure of this because I don’t know for sure. But this time the price for 240 minutes was $89.00 which I think is quite a bit cheaper than in the past.

This is another of my favorite ports. We’re docked at the Puerta Maya pier. This is the one of the made for cruise ship shopping areas… errr tourist traps. But it is a nice one. They have a couple of booze stores where I usually buy a bottle of tokillya. Not a bottle of drinking tequila… but an ornate bottle for display only. I know it sounds like I’m real booze hound, but I’m not really. Almost the only time I drink any kind of booze is when I’m on a cruise. So I buy the souvenir bottles just in case I want to pretend I’m on a cruise.

That’s all for now… it’s time to go scuba diving. I’ll post more on the day’s activities later this evening.

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[mississauga]

Bob, sounds like you are having an awesome time!:D:):D

[steph7021]

Wondering if we'll be fine for a 10am excursion in Cozumel? Non-Carnival...at Chankanaab Park?

[kcparrothead]

Thanks for the update! Looking forward to the next one!!!

[Kokomo_Man]

Live From the Carnival Magic

 

 

Bloggers Cruise 5

 

 

Day 5 – Cozumel Afternoon

 

 

Those of you who know me or have read my cruise stuff know that from the minute I set foot on a cruise ship until I get off, I have a big smile plastered on my face. There is usually very little that can knock that smile off. But you may also know that it seems that once every cruise I go on a “rant”. So look out here it comes.

 

This isn’t about the cruise or carnival or anything like that. Before I go too far, I’m one of those that doesn’t care what you smoke… snort… chew… drink… or rub into your belly button. What any of us choose to do to ourselves is our business and no one else’s. But when you step on my toes… or if you spit your chewing tobacco on my toes, then that’s going too far. There was this kid today… I say kid because he acted that way, but he was probably in his twenties that was chewing tobacco. What a gross, detesting thing to do, but that’s his business for himself.

 

But this “kid” was uncouth. Every time he would spit, he would do it on the sidewalk. It would land with a big splat. He could have at least found some dirt or some other absorbent place… but nooooo! He just kept splatting it out on the sidewalk. SPLAT… SPLAT… SPLAT.

 

I tried to get away from him but for whatever reason it didn’t work. Ultimately, one of his splats splashed up and got me on my foot and sandals. I spoke up, but he just shrugged and moved away. I won’t tell you what I thought here… but it was clear that everyone around me thought the same. What worries me most is that this kid will be allowed to breed. Now I’ve got to burn those sandals.

 

I hesitated to tell you about the next thing. But in the beginning I promised to tell you about the good, the bad, and the ugly. So while I’m on the rant, I’ll tell you about the first ugly I’ve ever experienced while cruising.

 

If you’ve been following this you know that we went SCUBA diving today. By now you know, diving is one of my biggest activities on all my cruises. I’ve experienced the good and the not so good in the various places in the Caribbean. But today was truly ugly. The first thing is that the dive boat was way over crowded. It was so bad that we were almost falling over each other.

 

I could have possibly tolerated the over crowding even though it bordered on unsafe. But it was the diving… the dive-master/tour guide/tour operator that was unsafe. I won’t bore those of you who don’t dive with the details of the unsafe stuff, but suffice to say that although this was supposed to be two dives, Amy and I didn’t do the second dive.

 

I did report this to guest services with the details. The person at the guest services was very good and took down the details. He also recommended that I talk to the folks at the “tour desk” when they open up this evening… which I will. If past performance is any indication, Guest Services will be right on top of this.

 

I’ll close this “rant” by saying that you should choose for yourselves, but as for me…I will never dive with Sand Dollar again.

 

Ok… enough of that. I’ve got the smile back on my face again and it’s back to some crusin’ stuff… dinner and the piano bar tonight! Of course, I'll post on tonight's activities... but probably not until tomorrow morning. It's pajama night tonight in the piano bar and I'm wearing a pink "support the cure" pajama top tonight... and I intend to help close down the piano bar.

 

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[MalGee64]

Mate, thoroughly enjoying the review as per usual with your cruises. Can you please ask Ron Pass if he's bringing the Spirit down to Australia in September? If he is then I'm pencilling in 0200 in the Piano Bar every night right now.

 

Have a frozen concoction for all us parrotheads who are cruising vicariously through you, and enjoy what's left of your holiday.

 

Cheers,

Mal.

[CourtneyLovesCruising]

Loved your review so much. Enjoy the rest of your cruise!

[jgr8fulbear]

very much enjoying your review, your writing style and humor are right up my alley!

[kcparrothead]

THanks for sharing the "bad" & "ugly," too! Looking forward to your Day @ Sea report!

[rwstout]

Well I am glad you guys stayed safe. Did you make it to Margaritaville?

[Kokomo_Man]

Live From the Carnival Magic

 

 

Bloggers Cruise 5

 

 

Day 6 – Sea Day

 

 

Good morning from the Lido deck… out by the pool. You can tell it’s the last day of the cruise. There are more people by the pool this morning than any of the days before. Everyone is trying to get as much in before they have to go back to reality.

 

Last night was one of those extra special night on a Carnival cruise ship. There was a lot to do. It was really hard to decide which things to do. There was more than anyone could do. There was the usual show in the main theatre… I didn’t go because I was in the piano bar with Ron Pass. Like the song in cheers… it’s good to go where everybody knows your name.

 

After the main show there were the comedy guys in the “Punchliner”… but I didn’t go to that either… yea, I stayed in the piano bar. Then late-night… midnight there was a “roast” of John Heald. You’re right… I stayed in the piano bar. After all it was my job to help close down the piano bar and I did it well. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.

 

I took my video camera with me to the piano bar and got some really good “footage” of Ron and all the going’s on. Ron has sworn me to secrecy for now. He as asked to review what I put together before putting it on youtube. I’ll let you know on this thread when it gets posted.

 

Since this is the “John Heald Bloggers Cruise 5”, I should tell you one observation I have made. I can’t imagine anyone reading this who reads this that doesn’t know who John Heald is… but just in case… I need to mention that John Heald is Carnivals Senior Cruise Director and “Brand Ambassador”. The “”Bloggers Cruise” refers to a blog John maintains about cruise ship stuff. One of the words he often uses in his blog is “arse”.

 

Well… today I got a lousy seat at the bloggers “morning show”. I has to sit behind the head table where the folks hosting the show were seated. Now for those who don’t know, John Heald is a large fellow. You know that I don’t normally don’t make a habit of watching men’s “arses”… there are far better “arses” to watch while on a cruise.

 

But this time from where I was seated I had no choice. John stood up from where he was sitting, bent over to pick up something and there it was… or in this case, there it wasn’t. You might think that he would have a large “arse”. But… he has no “arse” at all. Somewhere along the line he lost it. The man simply has no “bottom”. It’s really true. The next time you’re on a cruise with him, take a look…. Or… maybe not.

 

That’s all for this morning. I’ve too want to get as much as I can crammed in before the cruise ends.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny.

[Kokomo_Man]

Live From the Carnival Magic

Bloggers Cruise 5

Day 6 – Sea Day

Afternoon

I spent quite a bit of time out and around the pool areas today. It has been a very nice day. The temperature is probably in the low 80s and there is a trailing wind… the wish of all sailors. Early in the cruise there seemed to be a lot of “hard bodies” around the pools. But today it’s almost as if the “hard bodies” disappeared.

Yea… there are still some “hard bodies”, but they are now way outnumbered by “not so hard bodies” and ... errrrr… ummmmm… “soft bodies”. There are bodies all ages out there. And for the first time in my memory I haven’t seen any of the awful men in spedos that I’ve often talked about. The women’s bathing suits also seem to be quite appropriate. By that I mean those that should show off what they’ve got do… and those who should cover up do that to. Maybe they’ve been reading my postings from past cruises.

One thing I did notice today is that there are a lot of kids on this ship. Early on we were told that there were 800 kids on the ship… that’s a lot. I’ve asked somer parents about school and more often than not the parents said, in effect, that they were “playing hookie”. When I asked the kids if they were having a good time, to a soul they said yes. I suppose being on a cruise ship is better than being in school any day.

The kids have never been bothersome in any way and I’ve never seen any of them misbehave even the slightest. There is one thing I’ve noticed on this ship is that there are kids in all of the pools and hot tubs. On other Carnival ships I’ve been on there has always been an adults only pool area. Maybe with so many kids on this ship Carnival has suspended the “adults only pool”.

There is a huge water park kind of area with two different water slides and lots of water play stuff. At first I thought that overwhelmingly kids would be playing in this area. Well I now have to qualify that and say “kids of all ages”. Although the majority was young kids, men and women of all ages seemed to enjoy playing in the area. Of course being the kid that I am, I had to try out some of it too. Yahooooooo

The last thing that really stood out as I walked around the ship is that now there are no longer any “button down” types onboard. I looked all day to see if there any of those types but they have all disappeared. Like camellions, they have changed their colors. I haven’t seen any “hard shoes” all day. Not that I look at shoes all the time. Bright colored shirts and blouses along with T-Shirts from all of the stops are the order of the day. I don’t think anyone has had long pants on today. Ok… well… maybe John Heald and even those were Caribbean style.

I’m going to close this up for now and get it posted. I’m going to spend my last evening with my fingers wrapped around a frozen concoction to help me hang on instead of a keyboard.

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[Sargent_Schultz]

Have a save drive home. We'll see you when we see you.

[mickiemac]

Sounds like another great trip. Thanks for taking us all along!!!