Froufie Breezes across the Atlantic - Nov 3, 2012

[Froufie]

Loving this review Froufie!! Can't wait to read more. Would you mind telling me where you ordered the flashing ships. I think it would be fun to order some to take on BC6, Thanks in advance.

 

Thaks a bunch!

 

The 'blinky cruise ship pins' were a big hit - you can try here:

 

http://www.flashingblinkylights.com/product_info.php?products_id=2468

 

Have fun on BC6!

[cruisepal67]

Froufie, I totally agree with the opening statement of your review, that this was the best cruise EVER EVER EVER! Your review and pictures are making it all come alive, and I sure miss everyone! Thanks for all your work in putting this together! Nancy

 

Till Sunshine next year. ;-)

[elleangel]

Loving your review, I keep re-living the cruise with your pictures and descriptions. I really do miss all of my new friends. :) I still have my blinky ship pin. My cats are really amused by it!

[cruisepal67]

 

elle I love the shirt. Where might I get one for myself?

 

Deb

[DJ56]

Loving this review Froufie!! Can't wait to read more. Would you mind telling me where you ordered the flashing ships. I think it would be fun to order some to take on BC6, Thanks in advance.

 

Just ordered 6 of the flashing ships!! THANKS!! They will be fun to wear on my next cruise!! :)

[Froufie]

Till Sunshine next year. ;-)

 

You said it! :D:D:D

[Froufie]

Loving your review, I keep re-living the cruise with your pictures and descriptions. I really do miss all of my new friends. :) I still have my blinky ship pin. My cats are really amused by it!

 

Just ordered 6 of the flashing ships!! THANKS!! They will be fun to wear on my next cruise!! :)

 

The pins are super cute - and I think Carnival is missing a BIG MARKETING opportunity here - they can be 'personalized' and I think people would definitely purchase them - esp with the name of 'their' ship on it!

 

I know everyone really enjoyed them and I'm sure you will too! (see even cats like them :) )...

[elleangel]

Thanks Deb! I Love bright colors. I found it at Fashion Bug. They are going out of business unfortunately, but if you have one near you they are doing a lot of clearance right now so maybe they will have one or one like it!:)

 

 

elle I love the shirt. Where might I get one for myself?

 

Deb

[cruisepal67]

Thanks Deb! I Love bright colors. I found it at Fashion Bug. They are going out of business unfortunately, but if you have one near you they are doing a lot of clearance right now so maybe they will have one or one like it!:)

 

Thank you Elle.

[Froufie]

I decided I should also post some of my 'videos' to add some further 'entertainment value' to the review - so here goes! Click on the pics to see the videos!

 

Teatime Videos:

 

 

 

Edited December 24, 2012 by Froufie

[Froufie]

Some videos of the 'crossing' showing weather and sea conditions :)

(click on pics to see/hear video!)

 

 

 

 

 

And's here a view from a cove balcony:

Edited December 24, 2012 by Froufie

[Froufie]

Here are some of the videos I took while enjoying the 'ambience' of the Piano Bar and the great entertainment provided by Ron Pass and 'bar service' by martini mistress Silviya:

 

 

 

 

 

 

...and my favorite casino machine! :D:D

 

[Froufie]

Now back to our 'regularly scheduled programming" ...

 

 

Woke up too early again - awaiting room service breakfast - decided to turn on the TV to see if we were back to getting some satellite TV/news when a fabulous site appeared on one of the webcam channels! I quickly jumped out of bed, got dressed, grabbed my camera and ran out to the Lido pool area to see this:

 

How adorable is that? I was so excited to see all those cute towel animals lounging about and wondered how much work that was for the staff! I truly appreciated it tho as did others and everyone was wandering about smiling, pointing and snapping pics! Too cute!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Froufie]

View of Antigua from the ship:

 

Back to the cabin for breakfast and to pack up the beach bag - today I was ‘beaching it’ with Loretta and Deborah from the roll call. Off we went to grab a cab to Dickensen Beach ($12 each way). When we got to the ‘taxi dispatch’ area there was some confusion - and everyone passing us along - I think that many did not want to take us for the short ride and cheap fare? One taxi driver motioned to us and we followed him for a block to some other driver who took us in hiswere off and toes were in the sand - and nice powdery sand it was. We started walking down the beach already saying ‘no thanks’ as several tried to lure us into their beach bars.

 

About halfway down the beach we were approached by Charlie (hello you beautiful princesses - how could we resist?- Charlie was from Sneaky Pete’s, a name I recogniczed from my CC research- and yes we did want umbrellas and chairs - so Charlie escorted us there and set us up for 3 chairs - one umbrella for $25. He also told us if there was anything we needed to let him know.

 

Well after a few pics it was off into the ocean - ahhhh....How lovely - blue and beautiful - okay there was a gray cloud hovering about and it actually rained for about 5 mins as it passed over - but we were already in the water so it was not a big deal! There was not a wave in sight so we floated around chatting with those around us - several other Breeze cruisers were there on a ship excursion

 

 

 

 

..and coconut man was doing a brisk business on the beach selling fresh coconuts! (click on this video)

 

We started talking to one woman about cabin locations and turns out she is on her first cruise - which I thought was pretty amazing - doing a 15 day transatlantic as a first timer. We continue chatting - she asks me where I”m from - I say Ottawa,Canada - she then says me too!

 

Now you gotta love when that happens - standing in the ocean halfway across the world and chatting with someone next to you and then finding out they are from your city!!! Turns out we don’t live that far from each other either - talk about a small world/

 

So the sun is beating down on us - I get my sunhat and sunglasses on and back in the water...then we sit out sunning for a while. After about 3 hrs we have had our fill and the ladies wish to do some shopping so we hunt down Charlie and ask about getting us a ride back.

 

No problem he says and leads us away from the beach down a side road and INTO HIS OWN VEHICLE!! Talk about good service (and yes we confirmed the same $12 price for the ride back, and of course we added a tip!).

 

The 3 of us parted ways - I did a bit of window shopping in and out of the jewellery and souvenir shops but was getting hungry and wanted to get out of my bathing suit so I was back on the ship around 2 pm and ordered a BLT from room service for my lunch!

 

Back to the ship:

Edited December 24, 2012 by Froufie

[Froufie]

This is when I noticed the state of my toes (and hands for that matter) - yes I had a pedicure done before I left along with a ‘shellac’ manicure which was now over 2 weeks old so I decided to give the spa a call to see if I could arrange an appt - no problem - 3:30 pm - a lovely new shellac manicure and pedicure - all with a view of Antigua out the windows!

 

5 pm sailaway found me outside with my camera - getting some great sunset pics as I fooled around with the various settings. Then it was back to the cabin go get ready for dinner followed by a visit to the Piano Bar with my big glass of red wine.

 

 

 

 

Tonight we celebrated some birthdays at the piano bar - Mike - travelling solo - a regular at the bar: (note to self don't mention birthday or you will be forced into wearing 'silly' head gear!)...

 

..and Roll Call Member Kim:

 

Video of Kim celebrating her birthday at the Piano bar: (click on pic)

 

Edited December 24, 2012 by Froufie

[Froufie]

 

Dinner tonight included tropical fruit, baked mussels, steak and diet sour cream banana cake.

 

 

Now we had a change of cruise director as John and Calvyn left for some CD conference in Miami to be replaced by Butch Begovich. Tonight’s entertainment was the passenger talent show - including Dr. Cha Cha Cha, the ‘mind reader’ and her companion, the guy in the wheelchair (always sporting different outfits/hats: once looking like a monk, then a beret, then a straw hat, quite an interesting fellow). He also frequented karoake quite a bit as well and played on his harmonica!

 

Other acts included a couple of singers, a martial arts display (father and 2 sons) with the newly formed Carnival Breeze Glee Club rounding out the evening. Great fun for all.

 

Some Breeze Glee club videos: (click on pics)

 

 

After that there was a deck party which I didn’t attend as I was exhausted and had an early wake up call for St. Martin the next morning.

 

 

Edited December 24, 2012 by Froufie

[Froufie]

Another beautiful sunny and hot day and we are docked in St. Martin. Having been there several times my initial plans included visiting Orient and Maho beaches with my new friend Ruth - but she of course wanted to stay on board to get any news she could of the situation back home and I didn’t blame her one bit. So my plans changed as I decided to join some other roll call friends on their excursion with Bernard Tours.

 

 

 

I thought that I might be bored given I have seen some of the sites so many times - but in fact some of the spots were new to me - the ‘iguana’ pond where we found iguanas, ducks, chickens and roosters, followed by a visit to the sea urchin man - where I bravely held one in my hands!

 

 

 

 

[Froufie]

Click on the 2 'iguana pond' videos:

 

 

 

Our tour guide, named Sexy (?), was excellent providing lots of detailed information as we stopped for photo opps along the way. St. Martin was still as beautiful as I remembered.

 

 

 

Julie 'bravely' holding a sea urchin!

 

Me too!

[Froufie]

We arrived at Orient Beach around 10:15 am and had over 2 hrs to enjoy it - stopping at La Playa. We exited to the beach thru a lovely restaurant and bar area to see rows of lovely lounge chairs and umbrellas - four of us (me, Nancy, Julie and Leslie - also from my hometown!) got 4 chairs and 2 umbrellas - because we were on a tour we seem to have gotten a ‘discounted’ rate. We were told the umbrellas were free and the chairs were $5 each and came with a free drink - sounds good to me!

 

 

 

 

Nancy and Leslie relaxed on the chairs while Julie and I headed straight for the water....and today we have serious wave action (unlike Antigua the day before). Wow - big undertow - great breaking waves - so we had to get beyond the ‘break’ in order to jump those big ones. It was great fun - and since it was so early there was hardly anyone on the beach or in the water.

 

Julie and I were floating around and chatting - and I was obviously not paying attention when that giant ‘rogue’ wave hit me - I turned around and there it was - just enuf time to close my mouth and hope for the best LOL.

 

Down I went skidding along the ocean bottom coming up several yards away sputtering. Forgot how bad salt water tastes! So that was enuf for me - out I went and located the fresh water shower to rinse off some of that salt.

 

Off to sit on our lounge chairs until we decided it was time to visit the bar for our drinks and have some lunch. The rum punch was good as was the mahi-mahi burger. Almost time to go so I decided to change out of my bathing suit - wow what a surprise I had - I think I had half of Orient Beach in my bathing suit...and sand where sand should never be!

 

It was quite a challenge getting changed and this is when I would have wanted a shower in the change room but alas none to be found - so the rest of the day I tried to block all that sand out of my mind as we continued touring.

 

Back on the bus at 12:30 - we were off to Marigot as seems we have not eaten enuf as our main stop is Sarafina’s french pastry shop.! YUM YUM - we all had some cake/pastry and coffee and yes I ordered in French! Then it was off to Maho to see the planes land - one of my favorite spots.

 

 

 

[Froufie]

 

 

 

 

...and lots of Marigot pigeons

 

click on video of my French pigeon friends!

Edited December 24, 2012 by Froufie

[Froufie]

We of course ended up at Sunset Beach Bar with a great spot overlooking the water - also noticing several roll call members and fellow cruisers already there. Had to order a guavaberry colada of course (thanks Julie!)....and then got some great video of a couple of planes coming in.

 

 

click on 2 'plane' videos:

 

 

 

[Froufie]

Then it was off to take some pics of Simpson Bay before heading back to the ship. Some were dropped off downtown for shopping - the rest of us ended up at the port around 3:15 pm. The tour was a great value for $40 that’s for sure! (Forgot to mention drinks were included: e.g. water, coke, diet coke, beer and rum punch). The only downside was the ‘narrow’ aisle on the bus - guess people in St. Martin are super skinny? - the aisle was a mere 6-8 inches wide - so if you were fluffy in any way or not ‘tall’ you had to somehow squeeze yourself to your seat! (And this got harder as the day went on - remember lunch? And Sarafina’s? LOL)....

 

 

 

 

Me and tour guide Sexy (yes I asked him if he came by his nickname honestly!!!:eek:)

 

 

I wanted to do some comparison shopping as I had found a nice Citizen watch onboard - dh’s birthday was next week - so off I went to some of those lovely shops - and really didn’t find any bargains so decided to buy the watch on the ship (in fact in the funtimes it mentioned if you bought a watch between 5-6 pm you would get an additional 10% off so that was my plan).

 

Found Doug and Kay as I was wandering about so sat and had a chat with them - then bought my friend Ruth a small gift at the Guavaberry stand at the port (guavaberry honey) since she didn’t get off the ship.

Edited December 24, 2012 by Froufie

[Froufie]

Finally onboard and able to shower - yup - half the sand on the beach was now in my cabin and shower and rinsing of the bathing suit seemed almost futile (had to rinse it out about 4 times at home to get all the sand out).

 

Time to go shopping - I get the watch - already 40% off and off to Ruth’s cabin to deliver the gift. I then realize I didn’t get that extra 10% - back I go only to be told there was a PRINTING MISTAKE in the funtimes and there was no extra discount? Head guy says he called his HQ who told them he didn’t really need to honor the price as this was Carnival’s fault - and I was sent down to Guest Services.

 

Well in fact I was happy with the price but did go down to see what they would say. As a platinum I got into the special line - and waited. While waiting I noticed an elderly couple in the ‘regular’ line - seemed to be an argument going on - carnival staff guy arguing with said couple in regard to a watch they just purchased - and something about not getting 10% off. Very interesting I thought.

 

Once I was ‘served’ the young lady took the funtimes and disappeared into the back for many minutes giving me ample time to view what was going on - and frankly I was appalled. I really really thought Carnival dropped the ball on this one - this poor couple was trying to get what was clearly stated and the carnival guy was not very polite and was arguing with them. I then heard the price of the watch - $165 - so for $16.50 Carnival was tickingoff these people and causing them to be upset - shame on you Carnival!

 

I am still waiting patiently when Jimmy the Carnival head store manager comes out to speak with me. I get the same ‘mistake’ story - and I ask about checks and balances and doesn’t anyone check the funtimes to make sure it’s correct- yes but this seems to have slipped thru and they are so sorry - but no real effort to make me happy are made (except for if I buy something else I can get an additional 10% off - I don’t think so!). I then mention the altercation I witnessed at the purser’s desk - and that for $16.50 Carnival should just ‘suck it up’. And perhaps more ‘customer service’ training is required by some of their staff?

 

Jimmy couldn’t chat too long - cuz he got another call on his cell while speaking with me - seems someone else with a ‘gift shop watch problem’ wanted to speak with him - good luck Jimmy!

 

Well it must be time for some fun at the casino and piano bar right? I am up to about $450 on my favorite machine so that makes me happy so off to the piano bar I go - I am not feeling super great so no wine for me - just a club soda tonight.

 

Dinner consisted of: oysters rockefeller, mushroom soup, lasagne and apple pie with ice cream. Then off to the show with Ursula and Anne to watch Victor Zuniga - comedy juggler!

 

My eyes are closing at 11:15 so it’s off to bed for me!

 

 

 

It's getting crowded :D:D

Edited December 24, 2012 by Froufie

[happy trailer]

Yippee! Videos! I swear I was going thru 'Froufie withdrawal,' waiting for you to post the next installment :D:p

 

Even better: Spent today at the beach in Tel Aviv, and while there, thought of how I missed our St. Martin beach day, and how incredibly sweet you were to bring me that honey- and I came back home to find you posting about it!!

 

Miss you, sweetie! Can't wait to read (and watch!) more!

[Froufie]

So depression is slowly setting in as I realize we have 2 sea days left before we hit Miami so time to squeeze everything in before getting off the ship - and yes the suitcase makes an appearance from under the bed for the dreaded nightmare called packing!

 

I am up at 8:45 - call Sue and off we go to for breakfast in the Blush dining room. Then it’s off to grab a seat on the Serenity deck to catch the last days of sunshine. Today the sea is literally like glass - not a wave in sight - it’s almost eerie - like we are in one of those ‘water globes’. I took video to show everyone back home. We sit out for about an hour but it is roasting how and I have a lunch date with my friend Rick at the Cucina at 1 pm.

 

 

I head up there to meet him and wow the place is busy and hopping - very different from my visit on embarkation day when the place was so quiet and empty! We have a good lunch catching up on all cruise and other gossip - and I am able to palm another bottle of wine off to Rick for him and his buddies to enjoy.

 

And yes it’s that time again - teatime which is now very well attended - with about 10-12 regulars. Today we are joined by Ruth and Weezy who haven’t experienced teatime yet! We are now taking lots of group pics realizing this will soon all be over. ;( Sasha is heartbroken and says he will miss me terribly...and altho his cabin is small and he does have a roomate.....;)LOL).

 

 

Look how happy Anne is!

 

After that it was time to cashout my casino bank ($470) and carry that money down to the purser’s desk to pay off my folio! Then I actually went back to my cabin and did some packing - with only 2 days to go I could clear out much of the closets and drawers.

 

No Ron Pass tonight - so off to the comedy club for 7:30 pm for a pre-dinner comedy show with Sue and Anne. Then off to dinner: baked eggplant/mozzarella appetixzer, smoked salmon, grilled tiger shrimp and my one and only warm chocolate melting cake! Chateaubriand was on the menu tonight and those that had it were not impressed - glad I skipped it this time.

 

A sample of the dining room 'entertainment' (click on pic for video)

 

 

At 9:45 pm I was back in the limelight lounge for yet another comedy show - and managed to find a seat with Doug and Kay as the place was packed! After that it was off to the Ovation to catch the ‘motown’ singer Ron Joseph - I have seen him before on other cruises - but I do like motown so I did enjoy it.

 

Then a tour thru the casino - found Sue and Anne there - some popcorn from the Lido and off to bed.

 

Edited December 24, 2012 by Froufie