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Carnival Victory : April 29 - May 4

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My wife and I just got back from the 5-night cruise on Carnival Victory (April 29-May 4). We visited Nassau, Half Moon Cay, and Grand Turk. We flew down to Miami the night before and stayed on South Beach prior to boarding the ship. This was my 4th cruise (2nd with Carnival) and my wife's first cruise.

 

Prior to this cruise I checked out this website for the first time and read some of the reviews and forums. I have also read some of the reviews from my cruise and thought I could give a decent review based on our experiences. I will try to have my wife chime in as well with the first time cruiser perspective.

 

I saved the Fun Times from the cruise which will be helpful to remember what all we did while onboard. This might take me awhile to get the full review complete but will try to get through it as quickly as possible.

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I will start out with a very boring but necessary background for our trip. I have been accused of being very verbose in the past so this may get quite long, but as someone else stated...I am also using this as a way to remember the trip. As I stated above, this was my 4th cruise (Carnival Fantasy, Norwegian Spirit, RCL Enchantment of the Seas, Carnival Victory) and my wife's 1st. This trip was meant to be a 3 year delayed honeymoon/ anniversary (4/30). We have 2 small children (2 and a half and 6 months old) so we haven't traveled in quite awhile. I was able to convince (con) my mother-in-law to come babysit for a week while we went on this trip. She was able to convince (con) a friend of hers to come up to Wisconsin to help.

 

I booked the cruise through Travelocity, which I have used in the past. I like using them since when searching for cruises you can quickly sort through itineraries and prices. We chose this cruise based on price and itinerary. It included 2 stops I have not been to (Half Moon Cay and Grand Turk).

 

I also booked our flights through Travelocity for the same reason above. Typically I use Travelocity to figure out the cheapest airfare then go to the airline website to buy the fare at a slightly discounted price but this time it was actually cheaper through Travelocity.

 

I like to fly into port the day before leaving in order to take the stress of late flights out of the equation. So I booked a hotel on South Beach (The Park Central Hotel) using hotels.com. I use that site for the same reason as the Travelocity idea above.

 

The babysitters arrived at our house Saturday afternoon and we got everyone situated that night. We pulled out of our driveway Sunday at 6 AM for the 2 hour drive to Minneapolis to catch our flight. We arrived at my buddy's house at 8 AM so we could leave our car and get a ride to the airport. We were greeted with a case in point situation at the airport when we were told our plane was broken and they were looking for a replacement flight for us down to Miami. I would have been extremely nervous had it been Monday morning but since we were a day early I could relax knowing that I assumed they could get us to Miami in the next 24 hours. My thoughts were confirmed when then moved us all the way across the airport to a new terminal to catch a new plane.

 

The flight down was a bit bumpy but we arrived ultimately only 30 minutes after our original scheduled arrival. We got our bags and took a cab to our hotel on South Beach ($35).

 

The Park Central Hotel (as most on the strip) is a very old historic hotel. It was really nice but old. The room was pretty small but sufficient since we knew we would only be there 1 night. Being from the Midwest and dealing with a terrible winter, we quickly changed into our swim suits and head for the beach. It was a beautiful day but pretty windy. The beach was crazy packed. We found a slice of sand to park on and did a little swimming and wandering on the beach.

 

After getting our fill of beach and people watching we strolled along Ocean Drive until we came across The Clevelander where there was a huge party going on for the Miami Heat game that afternoon. We decided to stop in for a few beers and to people watch (this became a theme of the entire vacation). It was a good time and afterward we strolled back toward our hotel. On the walk there was a large backup of people and shortly after Ocho Cinco (Chad Johnson - former NFL player) walked by us. We got back to our hotel changed clothes and head out for dinner. The options along South Beach are endless and most menus ultimately seem the same. We settled on The Pershing. My wife had the salmon and I had seafood pasta. My wife claimed this was her best meal of the entire vacation. My pasta was also very good. It was a generous portion of seafood and pasta and I finished off the whole thing. (Note this will become important later the next day).

 

After dinner we did a little more strolling and went to a close-by Walgreens to get a few things for the cruise we didn't pack (water, soda, more sunscreen). We went back and settled in for the night a bit early due to our long trip down to Florida.

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We woke up pretty early due to our early bedtime and the fact that we have 2 small children so sleeping in is not something we are programmed to do yet. I woke up with a slight odd stomach feeling but nothing too concerning. We wanted to head back out to the beach in the morning when there would be less people. The weather was beautiful at this point in the morning.

 

The weather was a concerning factor leading up to vacation. I monitored it online and tried not to inform my wife that it was looking like it might be pretty rainy for much of the trip. Up until this point, though, the weather was cooperating.

 

My wife grabbed some coffee and we found a spot of sand to enjoy the sunrise. We wandered on the beach and found some shells to bring home for our boys. After relaxing on the beach for awhile I head back to our room to start packing my bag and cleaning up for the day. My wife followed a bit later after laying out by the hotel pool for a few minutes first. While she was cleaning up I wandered along Ocean Drive and my stomach was continuing to go downhill. This was starting to concern me due to the fact that we were going to be on the ship in a few short hours. I was wondering if I was actually getting sick.

 

We ate a small breakfast knowing that we would be getting fed plenty in a few short hours. I thought I remembered and read that boarding the ship began at 1 PM. So our plan was to bum around South Beach a bit after checkout and have a light lunch. This plan changed after I informed my wife I was not feeling well. I told her maybe it would be better to just head for the cruise terminal so I could relax and hopefully whatever was going on would pass. So we called a cab to take us from the hotel to the cruise terminal ($25). It was around 11 AM when we got to the terminal. The porters were there to grab our bags and it looked like we could start going through the boarding process. I was surprised since I thought we couldn't go till later. Turns out I was glad we went to the terminal when we did since it wasn't too busy at that time.

 

By this time I was starting to put the pieces together of why I wasn't feeling so well. I had determined it was due to the meal I had the night before and not any flu type situation. I was hoping it would pass shortly. Since I was flustered from the not feeling well I was bumbling all through the security line and almost left my phone in the scanner. My wife was telling me to get it together.

 

We took a 6 pack of water onboard and an 8 pack of Sprite. On prior cruises I was not aware that you could do this but read about it on these boards. In retrospect we probably didn't need the soda since we only truly drank a few cans. The water was handy but I'm not sure if it was necessary. It was nice to have if you are not a fan of drinking the tap water onboard. We didn't care much about that and so we simply used our bottles to refill all week. For this reason I think next time we would only bring big bottles to continually refill rather than lug a case of water onto the ship.

 

Going through security my bag was searched. I'm sure it was due to my flustered nature. The search did not seem too thorough and I'm pretty sure I could have gotten liquor onboard using any one of the methods you can find online. I, however, do not see a need in doing that. To me personally I think cruises are ultimately very affordable and know that these lines need to make money somewhere. So I have no problem buying my drinks onboard rather than going through the trouble of trying to sneak alcohol onto the ship. I also do not believe drink costs are ultimately that high compared to big city bars. I think they are pretty affordable and the bartenders are not shy when pouring them.

 

Back to boarding...The next mistake I made was that my wife's passport still had her maiden name on it while her license had her married name on it. This caused a bit of a slowdown in the process and had me a bit concerned that we might have a serious problem. The lady checking us in found a supervisor and the issue was quickly resolved. Her Sail&Sign card just had to be placed under her maiden name and she would use her passport and not driver's license as her photo ID to get on and off the ship. Finally the check-in lady asked the canned question, "Is anyone in your party experiencing any flu-like symptoms?" I quickly said no while my wife was nudging me behind the counter. I gave her a look that said...stop or you are gonna get me in quarantine for the entire trip. (Side note...I was 95% sure that what I was feeling was food related and not the flu, I would not have wanted to risk getting anyone else sick had I thought it was indeed the flu)

 

After all that circus was done, we were finally ready to board the ship. I was excited to see my wife's face as she saw the ship for the first time but was also still not feeling 100%.

 

We took the obligatory boarding the ship photo and then proceeded to the Lido deck for lunch. We both had small lunches (stupid I know) ...me because I wasn't feeling well...her because she is coming off of dieting and wanted to ease herself into the food experience that is cruising. I didn't find the buffet food to be that impressive anyway as compared to what I remember on other cruises. The food was good but the choices of food was not very large.

 

After eating we decided to wander around the ship a bit. We went all the way to the top to see the Serenity area (This is a neat upgrade from my previous Carnival cruise that is adult only) and then wandered down the outdoor decks. By this time I was not feeling well at all and thought it best to try to go to our stateroom and lay down. We walked down to our room (7226) an inside stateroom.

 

Aside...I have learned early on in my cruising that inside rooms are all I really need. I understand the balcony rooms and suites are very nice but I have a hard time justifying the price difference. My reasoning is that I do not spend that much time in my stateroom anyway. Even when I want to hang out in the sun I would much rather do it on the public decks where I can people watch and listen to music than on a private balcony. This is just a personal choice but one I think my wife agreed with while on the cruise.

 

Back to the story...we got into our room and it was all ready. We met our stateroom guy and he got us ice for our soda and said he would refill it daily for us. He did an amazing job all week as did the entire crew onboard. It always amazes me on cruises no matter the line how great the crew members are. I have never had any major issue with crew members while onboard.

 

Our luggage had not arrived yet at this point but we had packed some things in our carry on. My wife loves the sun and changed into her swim suit and headed up to the Lido Deck while I lay down. I never fell asleep but simply rested in bed getting angry at myself for being sick. After a few hours of resting I decided to suck it up and meet up with my wife, it was now around 2 PM. The short time resting did seem to make things get a bit better and I felt I was on the mend. My last bit of medicine to put me over the top would be to order my first fruity drink. We got something with an umbrella in it and that seemed to do the trick as I was really starting to improve which confirmed that it must have been a food related issue from the night before.

 

After relaxing by the pool for a bit more time I asked my wife if she wanted to head over to the "meet and greet" thing from the Roll Call board. We decided not to since I wasn't sure if I was in a social mood just yet. We ended up wandering around a bit more before heading back to our stateroom to get ready for the safety drill. We went to our station and listened to the drill, which seemed to last a bit longer than I remember. (It had been 5 years since my last cruise so I'm sure most of my memory was foggy).

 

I changed into my suit so that we could sit in the Serenity hot tub as we sailed away. I love sitting in a hot tub as we pull out of port. Well as soon as we got up to the Serenity Deck it started raining. We quickly got into the hot tub but found out it was more tub and less hot. We were actually a bit cold sitting in it so we didn't stay in long. We went to the other side of the ship so we could watch South Beach drift away, hoping the rain would go away. The rain did not cooperate so we didn't stay outside long. On our way downstairs we saw a couple with MN Twins shirts on. We chatted with them to see where they were from and found out that they were people from the Roll Call. They told us they went to the "meet and greet" but it didn't seem like anyone really gathered. So I didn't feel as bad skipping it.

 

The Sail Away party wasn't really happening due to the weather so we went inside to get ready for dinner. Our bags had reached our rooms by this time.

 

After changing we strolled the lower decks of the ship to get better acquainted. We walked into the Fun Finds Show were they were talking about the shopping in Nassau. This was good if only to learn some fun names of stores as we went ashore. We walked back through the casino to find all the bars and clubs. While going through the casino the sushi bar was open. There weren't many people in line so we decided to grab some even though we were going to dinner soon. The sushi was good and I have always been a fan that this is included in the price of the cruise. As we walked by the bars they had a desk setup with art for Guess the Max Painting. We stopped if only to not seem rude and walk by. We placed our guesses and got a free "art piece" which was an 8x10 print of something. We continued back to find the lounges and piano bar. There was a wedding reception in the Piano bar as we walked by and another group gathering in the Black & Red Seas bar.

 

We decided it was finally time to eat so we headed for the Atlantic Dining room. We did the anytime dining option. This fits my style since I like the idea of eating whenever we are ready depending on how the day has gone. We found out we had to go to the lower level (Deck 3) of the dining room for this option. They asked if we wanted a table for 2 or if we wanted to eat with others. We decided to eat with others since it would be faster to get seated. We were seated with 2 other couples. One from Utah and 1 from Oregon. It always amazes me how on these huge ships with thousands of people how you continually run into the same people all cruise long. We ran into these 2 couples the entire rest of the cruise.

 

Dinner that night was good and I always chose the "exotic" appetizer on the menu for that night which for tonight was escargot. I have had it before on other cruises and it is soaked in so much butter that it doesn't really have much taste.

 

After dinner we wandered back to the Piano Bar (this would be our favorite stop for much of the cruise) Joe from New Jersey was a great musician who played alot of the music we enjoyed. We then wandered to the Carribean Lounge where we spent much of the night watching the different shows. "Game Show Mania" (they play a music or movie clip and you have to name it), and then the "Welcome Aboard" show. This is where we met the cruise director Goose and learned more about what would be going on for the week.

 

After those shows were complete we checked out the Adriatic club and watched a quick dance competition take place on the dance floor. We didn't stay too long and decided to head back to the 24 hour pizza since I was already getting hungry again following dinner. I grabbed a few pieces of pizza while we sat in the Siren's Pool and Bar area. We didn't stay out too late since by this time my wife was beginning to not feel too well from the ships swaying.

 

I will add...from my recollection this was the most motion I have felt on any of my prior cruises. The seas did not seem overly wavy so I assumed it must have been from the wind. We got back to the room and she took some Dramamine before heading to bed.

 

Sorry for the overly long description. I am sure I have lost most of you. But I already warned you above that I am very verbose, it's in my nature.

 

I will work on Day 2 (Nassau) tomorrow.

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Day 2 and another early morning for me. My body is just not trained to sleep in. It had nothing to do with the bed, it was actually very comfortable and the room temperature was good as well. I woke up at roughly 6:30 and went topside to see the sunrise and check our Nassau. I fully expected to be docked by this time since on past cruises we are usually docked long before I wake up. I was surprised to see we were still sailing toward Nassau. It also appeared that we got quite a bit of rain overnight. I grabbed some juice and wandered the top decks, watching as we pulled closer to Nassau. After wandering for a bit I decided I would wake up my wife so she could watch as we pulled in to port also. To my surprise when I woke her up she did not take a swing at me. She got ready and we both head back upstairs.

 

Aside...we were on deck 7 and that deck seemed optimal for us. We were 2 floors below the outdoor Lido deck and 2 floors above the casino deck 5. Both common decks were within walking distance so we didn't need to wait for elevators duirng much of the trip. Our room also did not have any issues with sound from the bars or clubs. We could hear the Carribbean theater when shows were going on, however, we were rarely in our room during those times. We only knew this since they had rehearsal one day and we were able to hear them.

 

My wife grabbed coffee and we head up to the Serenity deck around 7 AM. To our luck we were able to snag one of the last clamshell seats. There are only 4 of them and they are occupied pretty quickly in the morning. They are awesome for relaxing and reading a book. We stayed there until the ship finally pulled into port about 30 minutes late. Due to the late arrival we were told over the announcement that we would stay in port an extra 30 minutes as well...so no time was really lost.

 

After pulling in to port we head down for breakfast in the Mediterrean buffet. The lines were not too bad to get most food except omelets...so we skipped them.

 

After breakfast we head down to change and get ready for our time on shore. We had a parasailing excursion planned for the day at 12:30.

 

Aside...I booked all our excursions prior to leaving. This was the first time I have ever done this. On past cruises I always tried to book excursions right away when getting on board and always wondered how some of them could already be booked. I learned it is because alot of people prebook them. So I tried it this time. I booked parasailing in Nassau and the stingray adventure in Half Moon Cay through Carnival. I also tried another new thing this time. I booked a non-cruise line excursion. I typically use the cruise lines because I am paranoid...but thought I would try booking my own. I used expedia.com to look up horse back riding in Grand Turk and found a company that had really good reviews, Sunset Tours (http://www.sunsetridesandtours.com/home.html). I used them because their prices were substantially better and the reviews said you had a bit more freedom on the ride.

 

We got off the ship to head to the markets and shops to do a bit of shopping for our boys and the babysitters. We walked through the straw markets and the stores that are very near the pier. There were 4 other cruise ships already in port when we got there so needless to say it was quite busy. We found that most things that are sold in the straw markets are exactly the same as those sold in actual stores but are actually cheaper in the stores. We just browsed at first.

 

At 10 AM we were thinking about our excursion and how it was going to suck to walk all the way back down the pier to meet up with our group and then back down the pier to do the excursion. We were walking along the water and the guys doing parasailing tried to get us to go with them. I said we already had tickets and they said they were the company running the Carnival parasailing and that we could go earlier if we wanted and not have to walk all the way back down. My wife was a little skeptical but I thought as long as they take our tickets and don't charge us any more money what was the difference. So we missed the group leaving at 10 but I eventually convinced her it would be OK and we went with a group at 11. We didn't have to walk all the way back down the pier and just went out on the boat. They took our tickets and we asked other people going if they were from Carnival and they were so I knew it was OK.

 

We were the 2nd of 3 couples to go parasailing, which took place just outside the harbor where the ships were docked. We watched the first couple thinking...wow they are really out there. When it was our turn we were strapped in and sailing away within seconds before we could even think about it or change our minds (not that we wanted to). Once out above the water it was so peaceful. It was an amazing view and just overall really cool. I do not get scared of heights but my wife does. She said it was only bad when she looked down at the water. As long as she looked out at the horizon she had no issues. We were up for 10-15 minutes before they pulled us back in. On the way in, they dipped our feet into the water which was neat and refreshing. Shortly after we were back onbaord the small boat. I have read reviews about the parasailing and that it wasn't a long enough time in the air. I asked my wife and we both agreed that it seemed like the ideal amount of time. Not too short not too long. We were both satisfied with what we got out of it.

 

After getting back on land our plan was to walk to a beach. My prior trip to Nassau I took a cab to the Atlantis beach which was very nice. This time in an effort to not pay money to get onto a beach we decided to walk to the nearby public beach, Junkanoo Beach. It is a short 10 minute walk around Senior Frogs. I had read reviews about this beach as well and what was there was pretty reminiscent of the reviews. It was a nice enough beach but there was alot of garbage and broken glass to watch out for. We never had a problem with the glass but it is good to be aware of so that you don't step on any since it was all over. We spend some time in the water and relaxing on the beach before heading back to the main shopping area.

 

Once back we stopped in at Senior Frogs for a drink and to watch the "activities" going on. I laughed as it reminded me of my time in Cancun for Spring Break many years ago...except instead of drunk college kids, this was drunk adults letting loose.

 

After our drink we went back to shop for a few items we head seen earlier. We bought each of our boys one of these turtles made out of a coconut shell, where you pull a string and the turtle walks due to some wound up rubber bands inside the shell. They were really neat especially for my engineering mind. We got them for 4 bucks each at the market but found out in the shop we could have gotten them for 3 each. Oh well...support the local economy. We then went to the Tortuga rum cake store. We got to sample some rum cake and we were sold. We bought 3 small cakes (1 for us, and 1 for each of the babysitters). I am still amazed that all 3 made it home without us eating them in our room prior to the end of the trip.

 

After we finished shopping we went back on board the ship to grab a late lunch. Since alot of people were still on land my wife was abel to go through the sandwich line where they make your own sandwich. This line was typically really long and slow. The sandwiches were really good.

 

After lunch we went back to the room to take a quick nap. My wife was a bit tired due to the Dramamine from the night before. She slept well but I did not. I'm not a big sleeper. So I changed and went back to the upper decks to watch as the ships were getting ready to pull away. I grabbed a fruity drink and watched the Master Mixologist Competition on the Lido deck. Afterward I found a chair near the back of the ship and relaxed. I went back down to the room right before we left to get my wife so she could watch as we pulled away.

 

We hung out for a bit listening to the music of the sailaway party. We then went back to our room to get ready for formal night. Today was actually my wife a I's 3rd wedding anniversary so it worked out well that it was formal night. We got to dress up and go out to eat on the ship. I was thinking as we parasailed earlier in the day that 3 years prior I was saying "I Do" and today we are tied to the end of a rope with a parachute high above the ocean...Weird.

 

We got down to dinner around 6:30 and hoped to maybe make it to the early show which was at 8:15. Dinner was packed so we had to give our name and get one of those little pagers. We thought it would be a good time while we wait to get a bunch of the corny pictures they take in the lobby since we were all dressed up. We went to every photographer and had all the pictures taken. We were enjoying the goofiness of them. As luck would have it once we were done with pictures, our table was ready. We decided to get a table to ourselves since it was our anniversary. We sat down at 7 PM.

 

Dinner was great (lobster night) and I had the alligator fritters as my "odd" appetizer this night. They were awesome. Throughout dinner we heard the dining staff singing to many people for honeymoons, birthdays, and anniversaries. I thought, "hey how do we get some singing". So I went back to the lady that gave us the table and mentioned it to her. So put something into the computer and we were all set. Dinner was great except for the fact that it took ridiculously too long to get our food. Ultimately we ended up in the dining room for over 2 hours eating. We enjoyed our entire cruising experience but this was the first of the 2 times we were a bit frustrated. After dessert we got an additional dessert when they came out to sing to us for our anniversary.

 

I later found out part of the slowness was due to our timing. The dining staff does a little song thing between early and late seating where the waiters have to be away, which slows things down. For anytime dining you may be right in the middle of ordering or whatever and it backs things up. So even though it was anytime dining, there is some benefit to going either early or late rather than right in the middle.

 

After finally getting out of dinner we no longer could make the early show and had a little time before the late show started at 10:15. We wandered through the shops onboard and looked at our pictures from embarkation. We then headed to the Carribean theater for the show, "Living in America". We enjoyed the show and afterward head over to listen to some more piano from Joe and then a quick stop in the Arctic club to check out what was going on.

 

Aside...one issue I had with the ship layout was that of the casino stage. The casino stage usually had fun bands playing but it is located right in the middle of the main walking area through the ship. So if you want to listen to the music or dance you feel like you are right in the way or if you are trying to walk through you have to weave through people enjoying the music. I don't think that stage is in a very convenient location. Also, I will agree with something else I read on the message board. I do think they had the volume at many of the places too loud for the speakers. It was so loud in the theater at times it seemed like the sound was distorting.

 

I want to also put my review in some context. Any negative comments I make are only to point out things we noticed. We enjoyed the entire trip and had no major problems. I am merely trying to sum up our time onboard. I also agree with what the other reviewer said about cruising in general. I think vacations are what you make of them. People in all walks of life love to complain. If you don't let minor things bother you, you can relax and enjoy your vacation so much more. So with that said, I am in no way complaining about anything...just pointing out minor things.

 

Back to the story. After finishing up our wandering around the ship we head back to our room to sleep. We knew we would be up early to get off the ship in Half Moon Cay so we didn't want to be too tired or oversleep (never an issue for me)

 

I think that's all for Day 2...I will wake you back up when I'm ready to talk about Day 3 tomorrow (Half Moon Cay).

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I again woke up early but this time we were already anchored off of Half Moon Cay. This was my first time to the island so I was excited to get upstairs to check it out. This time my wife joined me early for breakfast since we knew we needed to get off the ship early to make our excursion. We ate a quick breakfast in the buffet line and listened to when the tender boats would be starting. Since we were up early we did not have to wait in any lines to get on a tender. They told us to go straight down to deck 0 and board. Apparently I didn’t look closely enough at our excursion tickets that said we needed to be on the first tender boat. Our excursion was at 9:30. We made it onto the island with plenty of time. They only had 2 tender boats running from the ship to the island and one of them was the glass bottom boat that would later be used for that excursion. This would be a crucial detail later in the day.

 

We quickly decided upon getting onto the island that having one of those clamshell shades would be nice. We assumed we would need to hurry since we were on the 2nd or 3rd tender and many were probably already taken. We were happy to find out that they still had some available and we got one for $19.99. I believe they sold out shortly after we got ours so it was good we got one prior to going on the excursion. After securing our clamshell we head back to the main area to meet up for our excursion. We were right on time and boarded an open air truck to take us back to where the stingray adventure was.

 

It was a short drive to the other side of the island and a quick briefing on the equipment and we were in the water. There was a steel set of steps into the water. The water was a bit chilly at first but not bad once in. The stingrays were quite large and swimming around as soon as we got into the fenced in area. They weren’t too interested in us at this point since we didn’t have any food. The snorkel gear seemed OK but I quickly found out that mine was falling apart. I had issues with the breather and kept getting full mouths of seawater. I brought it back to get a new one but found out it was just a plastic flap that was bent over. The guy fixed it and sent me back into the water. By this time, people were gathering in a circle for our chance to feed the stingrays. The lady in charge talked about the rays and then handed out our piece of squid. We had to keep our hands above the water otherwise the rays would immediately come to steal it from us. Once in the circle the rays (who still have their barbs) knew it was feeding time and swarmed all around us. It was really cool but a bit nerve racking. The lady went one by one to help us feed the rays. When they got to me, she put my hand under the water and a huge ray swam up and sucked it out quicker than I could even see. It honestly did just feel like a vacuum cleaner. She moved on to my wife next and another huge ray took her squid and also took a little chunk of her hand with it. They don’t have teeth but it scraped on her hand and left a small mark that she was able to show off the rest of the cruise. Since rays are a member of the shark family she went around telling people she got bit by a shark.

 

After everyone fed the rays she passed around a few other sea creatures (starfish, conch, sea cucumber, anemone). It was neat to hold them and see them in the ocean rather than just in an aquarium. After she was done talking about all the creatures we all got out of the water to gather our things. Altogether we were in the water for about an hour. Again, I think the amount of time was sufficient. My only problem was my gear not working left me with little time to snorkel with the rays…but that seemed to be limited to me. We then boarded a truck back to the beach.

 

We went back to our clamshell to put down our bag and headed for the water. This beach is hard to do justice. It was beautiful. The sand was probably the finest and whitest I have seem except for maybe in Cancun. The water was clear and free of most rocks and shells. There were a few rocks that your feet would occasionally find but not too many. The weather was perfect for the day. We ordered a few Miami Vices and just enjoyed the sun. When looking at the water from the beach to the far left were some sponge mats further in the water. We swam out to them and relaxed out in the water for a bit of time as well.

 

Shortly it was time for lunch so we strolled down the beach. We checked out the pirate ship bar which looked neat but not what we were looking for in our day. We wanted sun and laziness. Lunch lines moved pretty quickly and the food was your typical grill out (burgers, potato salad, fruit). It seemed the guy running the grill was letting the burgers fry a bit too long and my wife’s burger was almost charcoal and inedible. We were able to find enough good food and enjoyed our lunch before heading back to our spot.

 

Ultimately we didn’t end up spending too much time in our clamshell but for $20 it was nice to have a shaded place to call “home” on the beach.

 

We thought with all the people it might be a good idea to head back to the ship a bit early so as to beat the rush. Well apparently everyone else had this same idea. Herein lies my second major issue from the entire cruise. We waited in line in the heat for a tender boat for over an hour and a half. We learned they only had 1 tender boat running now since the other boat was running tours. It was a little frustrating and some people did appear to get irritated but we eventually did make it back to the ship.

 

The only other time I have had to use tender boats was in Grand Cayman and they used many boats to keep people ferried back and forth with no issue. I think Carnival should remedy this issue since it ultimately even made us late to leave since there were so many people to get off the island.

 

Our time on Half Moon Cay, though, led me to always want to search for the private island stops on any future cruises. It was nice to be on the island with only other cruisers and the beach was simply amazing.

 

Once back on the ship I convinced my wife to take our afternoon naps on the deck of the ship since it was beautiful outside. We went to the deck above the Lido and pulled 2 chairs under the overhang near the video screen. This was the ultimate spot due to the shade from the screen and still able to watch over the rail at the people below. As other cruisers got back on board we were joined by many other people in our spot under the screen. My wife took a quick nap while I kept myself busy. I started by taking my first run down the waterslide. I learned a valuable lesson. The deck is VERY hot after the sun shines on it all day. I tried to run across to the slide and felt like my feet were burning off. Keep your sandals or flip flops on at all times and that goes for your children as well. I saw kids running across the deck as well while their feet were burning. It was so hot. I did manage to survive and enjoyed the slide. It was actually quite fast. I then took a quick dip in the hot tub but forgot my sunglasses at my chair so had to get out. I was not too bright this afternoon as is evident by the above stories. I only write these things as a lesson to everyone else. Please…don’t be dumb like me.

 

After returning to my chair I ordered the first of a few fruity drinks and ran down to get a sandwich from the sandwich line which wasn’t too long at this point. After refueling with snacks and drinks I finally relaxed in the chair as the ship was pulling away from the island. We watched as a bean bag toss tournament took place on the Lido and then head down to change for dinner.

 

We made it down to dinner early this night after checking out all our formal night pictures. We ended up purchasing one of them since it was our anniversary. I had the “odd appetizer” again which was a cured salmon. It was pretty good. Dinner was much quicker this night so I think last night was just an anomaly.

 

After dinner we wandered down to the Ionian Lounge for karaoke. There were some good singers and they were singing good music so it was fun. I was a little bummed that it didn’t seem like they used this lounge very much during the cruise. We really liked the look and feel of the lounge but never found much happening there.

 

After karaoke we went to the early family friendly comedy show, Eddie Clark. We caught only the tail end but it was pretty good. He ended up pulling a few people onstage for “acting out” during the show and put them in timeout until they apologized. It was pretty funny to watch the guys squirm. We skipped the piano bar this night since there was a different player, Luis, and we were already committed to Joe for the week and headed over to the Caribbean lounge for a few gameshow type shows.

 

The first was the Liars club which is similar to Balderdash where some crew members would make up definitions to words and 3 guests had to pick the true definition. The crew did a good job of making up humorous definitions. After that was the Carnival Quest which included a lot of guests. The cruise director would ask for a specific item…like a woman’s purse and someone from the group would need to bring it to stage. It was pretty comical to watch. These games are pretty similar on all ships and I remember a similar one on my RCL cruise that seemed a bit better organized and funny. After this show was done came my favorite part of any cruise. The Love and Marriage show which is ultimately the newlywed game with people of all ages. They found 3 really good couples to play and it was a lot of fun to watch. After the shows were complete we planned to go to the late adult comedy show but it was totally packed by the time we got there so we decided to skip.

 

We finished the night with a quick walk through the Arctic club to see a funny dance competition happening and then head back to the room for bed.

 

Aside…we planned to use our phones to get incoming text messages from home to find out how things were going. We turned off our data to our phones to ensure no huge charges but were still able to get incoming calls and texts. We learned that texts were .50 cents for outgoing and .05 cents for incoming. So it was our plan to use that to communicate back to Wisconsin. We found that the only place on the ship we were able to get reception was on the upper decks and near the elevators. We would not get any service in our room. Also, my wife has an iPhone and it did not tell the correct time the entire cruise. My Droid did have the correct time so we used it as our clock in the room.

 

Next stop Day 4 and Grand Turk.

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momsoftwins

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really enjoying your review!! myself and twin daughters are doing the stingray excursion at HMC and are using our fttf to get off the ship early since our excursion isnt till later in the afternoon to get a clam shell. we are a group of 4 adults and 3 kids so we thought it would be money well spent.

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really enjoying your review!! myself and twin daughters are doing the stingray excursion at HMC and are using our fttf to get off the ship early since our excursion isnt till later in the afternoon to get a clam shell. we are a group of 4 adults and 3 kids so we thought it would be money well spent.

 

Thanks for checking out the review. My wife mentioned that she may try to post some pictures later since everyone likes seeing pictures of what you are talking about. As for the stingray adventure...I recommend it. It was alot of fun. Hopefully my description didn't add any worry about it. We were both a bit unsure heading in...even though I knew it had to be safe since it was through Carnival. It did take a bit to get over the initial fear or apprehension but it really wasn't bad and at no time was I actually scared or fearful. You can be as hands on as you wish. It was comical that it seemed like the guys on the excursion were more afraid than the girls. As for my wife's "bite", it was a tiny scratch that she just liked to exaggerate for effect. You and your kids will love it, it's something I think all cruise people need to try at least once.

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Our last stop of the trip was in Grand Turk. We arrived later in the morning at 11 AM. This allowed for us to sleep in a bit more (in theory). I was awake at my normal early hour and head upstairs to take my regular stroll around the upper decks while my wife slept in. She met up with me a bit later and we shared a relaxing breakfast together due to the late start. Afterward we went down to get ready for the day and head back up to watch as we pulled in to Grand Turk.

 

Again it looked like it rained pretty hard overnight but it was currently fairly sunny outside. When we got to port the Liberty was already docked and we were pulling in next to it. Our horseback riding excursion was planned for noon. Since it was a non-Carnival excursion we had to leave the terminal area (Jimmy Buffet area) and go outside to meet up with our guide. They do not let outside tour operators into the terminal area. Since it was later in the morning, it was a mad dash to get off the ship right at 11. We waited on the stairs for a bit as everyone filed out. It ultimately didn't take too long but it was a wait.

 

Once on land we noticed some grey clouds slowly moving in but had no worries. We wandered over to the Margaritaville pool to check it out quick and cool down from the early morning heat. The pool area was really neat and there were still plenty of chairs available at this time. We only had a short time before we had to meet up with our guide.

 

We head outside the terminal by going through the parking lot and along a short path. We met our guide who said we had to wait for 3 other couples. We were suppose to be going on a trail and beach ride with another couple and there were 2 couples that were just doing a beach ride. After about a 15 minute wait another couple from the Liberty joined us. The other 2 couples were no where to be seen so the guide took us into town to get on the horses. This other couple was only doing a beach ride and since it was already a bit later than we had planned starting and the fact that we wanted to get back for some time at the pool we agreed to only do the beach ride as well. I am not really sure that there would be much difference between a beach ride and a trail and beach ride except for price. By going this direction we saved $40.

 

We got on our horses, mine was Billy and my wife's was Tango. We were led by our guide "Bones". We head out through town on the horses. They are island ponies and are a bit smaller than the horses most people would be used to. Though my wife's horse seemed to have a bit more pep in it's step none of the horses seemed too unruly and were all fairly easy to control. We head out through the middle of town, an odd experience while riding a horse, and head towards the beach. About 15 minutes into the ride the skies opened up and it began to downpour. I have not seen or been in rain like that in a long time. We were getting completely drenched and even the horses didn't seem to be enjoying themselves. I was a bit concerned because I had a brand new camera we just bought for the trip in my pocket and figured it was getting soaked. Our guide asked if we wanted to keep going or what we wanted to do. We all agreed that it might be best to stop for a bit.

 

He pulled us off the road and we sheltered in some abandoned building while the rain continued. We took our shirts off to wring out all the water since they were just hanging off of us by now. The rain was actually really cold which may have been a good thing since it cooled the temperature down. I looked around at the sky and it didn't seem like the rain would ever be quitting but my wife said, it will be done in a few. Sure enough 15 minutes later the skies cleared and the sun came back out. We remounted our horses and head back out. We went straight to the beach and rode all along the island. Our guide tried explaining different things about the island and the people but unfortunately we only could understand about 1 out of every 10 words.

 

The nice thing for us about using this group rather than the Carnival rides is that you are a bit more free. With the Carnival excursion we were told the horses just follow in a line and you just go on a very direct route. With our group we were really free to take the horses wherever we wanted on the beach. They wanted to follow each other a bit but if you guided them away they would listen and react. After a very long ride we got to a point where we could take the horses out into the water. The horses did not seem to really want to go into the water, but with some gentle nudging did go. Mine was the only one that really went very far into the water and it was neat riding in the water. After a very short time doing this we all got ready to head back. It was a long ride back to the stable and I was getting concerned about time. Our ride ended up lasting from about 12:30 till 2:30. We definitely got our money's worth. It was a real neat experience. The guide drove us back to the terminal where we head straight for the pool.

 

After cooling down at the pool for a few minutes we decided to wander around the shops to see what else we could find. My wife found a small ring that she liked, we got our obligatory trip magnet at Ron Jon Surf Shop, and we found a small wooden statue (I like to get odd things from all the different places we visit for conversation pieces at the house). Hopefully the statue doesn't turn out to be a fertility god or something.

 

After shopping it was close to time to get back on the ship and reboarding took no time at all. We head straight up to the top deck to try and find some food since we hadn't eaten all day. One trick we used was to take a few boxes of dry cereal with us each day as a snack. They came in handy this day as we sat by the pool in Grand Turk. By this time the lunch buffet was closed so we settled for pizza at the rear of the ship. They also served Caesar salads back there which I love so we grabbed a couple of those as well. I wanted another fruity drink and even though my wife wanted water I took it upon myself to get her one as well. We finished off the meal with some ice cream and just relaxed while taking in the views of Grand Turk.

 

We went back outside to watch as we pulled away from the island and then head in to change for dinner. I was ready a bit before my wife so I went to wander the interior decks and found some more sushi to try. We met up in the casino and then went down to check out our pictures from the stingray adventure. There was a pretty funny one of me feeding the stingray so we had to purchase it as well. We then head in for an early dinner. Our server this night was very good and our food came out fast...probably because we went early. The odd appetizer for the night was frog legs and this was the first time I have ever tried them. Just like the escargot earlier they were soaked in butter and really didn't have much taste. I would actually agree that they probably do taste like chicken but with so much butter it was hard to tell. After dinner we wandered the ship for awhile stopping in to see Joe back at the piano. Our plan was to use this night to stay up late since tomorrow was a day at sea. Tonight was also the "Mega Deck Party" We peeked in to the Carribean lounge to watch a few minutes of "The Revenge" which was another instance of the earlier game "Game Show Mania".

 

It was now 9 PM and the party didn't start till 10:45. There really wasn't much else going on around the ship until then so we decided to head down to our room and maybe take a quick power nap before the party. We laid down with plans to sleep for an hour and a half. When I woke up and looked at my clock it was already 11:45. "Crap we missed the party". I fell back to sleep and when I woke up again it was now 4 AM. Wow we must have been tired from the day. I knew by this time the night was a wash and so I fell back to sleep until 7 AM the next morning. My wife hadn't moved all night so I knew she was exhausted. I still cannot believe I slept that long.

 

At lunch the next day, we were told that the deck party was awesome. The couple told us that they have never seen so many guests out for the party and that it was alot of fun. We appreciated her rubbing it in that we missed it. Oh well vacations are suppose to be for relaxing as well so that's what we ended up doing that night instead.

 

Up next Day 5 and day at Sea

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Enjoying your review! Thanks for taking the time to write it.

 

 

Kim

 

I used to live out in Raleigh. I also lived in Cary for a year when I did an internship there for school. I loved it out there but wasn't a fan of the heat and humidity in the summer. I still have alot of friends that live out there and some are in Apex.

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LUVMYGSDOG

LUVMYGSDOG

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I used to live out in Raleigh. I also lived in Cary for a year when I did an internship there for school. I loved it out there but wasn't a fan of the heat and humidity in the summer. I still have alot of friends that live out there and some are in Apex.

 

 

I love the heat (not so much the humidity) but I've lived here all my life so it is "normal" for me! I wouldn't do well in cold and snow!

 

Kim

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As I stated from yesterday’s review, we got a lot of sleep last night. I slept in till 7 which was late for me on the cruise. I went up to Lido to check on the weather situation for our day at sea. I looked behind our ship to see the Liberty trailing us. It had rained quite a bit overnight once again but currently was only slightly overcast. The deck party from the night before and the overcast skies maybe kept people in bed a little later. I noticed that the clamshells in Serenity were still available but knew they would fill quickly so I hurried down to wake my wife so we could get up to one of them. 3 of the 4 were still available and we tried to sit in one on the side of the ship where the sun was peeking through only to have a lady in the next shell tell us she was saving it for her friends. I was a bit frustrated with this since it clearly states on a sign right in front of her that there is no reserving them. So we walked to the other side of the ship and claimed one of the 2 open ones there. We settled in and I closed my eyes and took a short nap while my wife relaxed with a book. The weather was trying to make up its mind whether it was going to rain or try to clear up. I woke up and we took turns going down to get coffee and breakfast while the other stayed with the shell and read. We stayed with our clamshell for a few hours and by this time many people were waking up and finding them full. I was glad we got up there when we did. When we left we had an older couple that was scoping out our shell for quite some time so we happily passed it off to them.

 

After relaxing and reading for a few hours we decided we had enough and the sun was beginning to peak out. My wife did not want to miss a full day of laying in he sun so we wanted to search out good chairs on the deck. I swung by the ping pong table to see about the ping pong tournament but there was no one else there to play.

 

We changed into swim suits and found 2 chairs right on the rail overlooking the Lido Deck. This was optimal for me and my people watching skills. Somehow the sun did decide to stay out as we appeared to be in a pocket of the only sunny weather in the area. We relaxed, got some sun, read our books, and had some beers.

 

I still had my free drink coupon for a return cruiser and it could only be used in the MDR for lunch so we head down for our only lunch in the dining room. It was nice since lunch was only served in the Pacific Dining room and we were in the Atlantic the rest of the cruise for dinner. We were seated with 3 other retired couples, us being the only young ones. This is always fun to listen to their stories. We enjoyed our lunches and I got my free drink as did every other person at the table except my first-timer wife.

 

After lunch we returned right back upstairs where we left. Our original chairs were now taken but we quickly found 2 new ones on the outside rail of the ship. We stayed here for quite awhile and were even “conned” (didn’t take much convincing) into getting a bucket of beers. We figured it was the last day and the weather was perfect for a few Coronas. I convinced my wife to try the waterslide so we took a few turns down the slide and dipped into the pools a few times to cool off while sitting in the sun all day. The upper decks were quite packed for most of the day and it was fun to see everyone from the cruise outside.

 

I wandered downstairs to get a pile of cheese fries and chicken tenders and chips and salsa and when I came back my wife had a guilty look on her face. She said…I did something bad…I was like what did you do. I ordered another bucket of beer. By this time I had had quite a few beers and fruity drinks in me and was planning to cruise into the evening but I had to power on and help her finish the next bucket.

 

After being out in the sun for probably 9-10 hours we finally decided to head in and clean up for dinner. We went to an early dinner and were planning to sit with other people again for the final night but there weren’t many people eating in the MDR so we ate alone. We again were placed in the slow section from formal night and low and behold it was quite slow again. I know the waiter was working hard but he just didn’t seem as organized or as quick as others. We still enjoyed dinner and finally I didn’t have the odd appetizer which was sushi. I had had plenty of sushi all cruise long so I just went with my trusty Caesar salad.

 

After dinner we wandered the lower decks and peeked in on karaoke. This was the first time all cruise we were in the Black and Red Seas bar. Again…like the Ionian lounge this area didn’t seem to be used to well during the cruise. After we stopped in the shops and bought one of the little wind up Carnival ships for our boys. This would be a big hit when we got home. We then went to the Caribbean theater to watch the last show “Vroom”. They talked this show up all week so we were looking forward to it. It was an entertaining show that we enjoyed. Afterward we made one last stop in to see Joe and even did a little slow dancing to his music. We then went out to try to catch the late comedy show. Again it was already packed so we just skipped it. We went up to the top decks to take one last stroll under the stars and I’m glad we did. This was by far the nicest evening we had the entire cruise. It was warm and the wind was not blowing too badly. We enjoyed some time looking out over the water and at the lit up Liberty next to us.

 

We head down to our room to make sure our bags were all packed and ready to go and set them outside the room. I decided I needed to get some room service since I didn’t have any all cruise long. I got a chicken fajita wrap and some New York cheesecake. It was amazing and I was now upset that I wasn’t getting the room service every night.

 

We settled in to bed for the night and I watched a bit of TV before falling asleep.

 

I will finish up my review tomorrow with debarkation and some other things I forgot to include along the way.

 

One that I remember now was that we did catch a few minutes of a movie on the Lido Deck. We watched a bit of “The Wedding Planner”. It was fun watching outside on the big screen out at sea. I have more to say about this but will include it tomorrow.

 

I will try to get some pictures up yet tonight

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I'm gonna try to get pictures on here. I will start with our time in Miami.

 

Here is our hotel:

IMG_0029.jpg"]IMG_0029.jpg[/url]

 

My wife and I on South Beach:

IMG_0011.jpg

 

Watching another ship leave on Sunday (not sure what ship this is):

IMG_0009.jpg

 

Our hotel at night:

IMG_0021.jpg

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