Pure Imagination: A photo trip report!

[Gopherpharm]

Great review so far! My better half and I went on this Imagination intineraryin January so I'm really enjoying reliving our experience through yours!

[JayMo]

So we just took pictures.

 



 

Malcolm loves this picture for some reason.

 

Then a nice lady came by and asked if we wanted our picture taken together. She was so sweet and happy!

 



 



 

I brought a Lifeproof case for my iPhone so we were able to take it into the water with us. (They are usually 80 bucks, but I got mine from eBay for $30!)

 

We really wanted to ride Jet Skis so we sat off to find the Jet Ski man, who we found napping a little further down the beach. He told us it would be $50 for 15 minutes…which sounded like a bit of a rip off, at least to us…so we opted out and added to our “Next Time We’ll Know List”

 

Then we talked about getting a couples massage on the beach, but it didn’t look all that secluded, it was pretty open to the rest of the beach, so we opted out of that as well. So we headed back up to the pool, but stopped to take some pictures along the way.

 

I loved how green this place was:

 



 



 

It really felt like paradise.

[JayMo]

We sat getting used to the water for a bit.

 



 

It’s this just….OMG, can I just crawl into this picture and go back to this day?!

 



 

He has this weird thing about not letting pool water touch his lips. He’s weird.

 



 

I’m a natural underwater.

 



 

After swimming, we built up quite the appetite, so we ordered lunch at the hut.

 



 

We were slowly starting to get tired of the taste of alcohol, so we got virgin daiquiris and water.

 

I got a steak fajita and Malcolm got a burger.

 

I know I know, how do you come all the way to Mexico and get the most American thing on the menu?! WOMP WOMP.

 

Anyways, we sat just talking, laughing and enjoying the scenery, not wanting to leave. Soon, we were ready to start heading back towards the ship, but we stopped downtown to do a little shopping.

 

I went to the bathroom to change out my wet swim suit. Very clean bathrooms. So clean, there is a lady in there with a mop, moping out the bathroom each time someone comes out the stall.

 

We headed towards the taxis and Malcolm told the lady we wanted to head downtown and we sped off.

 

We passed the ship, passed what I thought was much of downtown and kept going. At this point I was getting scared like, “Where is this lady taking us?!”

But soon enough, she stopped, ever so conveniently in front of the Diamond Center. Surprise, surprise. We were so far away from the ship, that even if we walked a few miles, we would STILL need to take a taxi. But we had a few hours to spare, so we went with it.

 

Malcolm paid the lady for the taxi and I politely, but firmly told the ladies we didn’t want to go into the Diamond Center. I told Malcolm to let me do the talking when it came to situations like this, because he’s too nice and we might end up in an ally somewhere buying something we don’t need to buy! (MY EXACT WORDS. FORESHADOWING)

 

We came across these ladies who sewed names into bracelets, so we had one made for his little sister. We picked out the colors and wrote her name down and they told us it would be ready in about 15 mins, so we wondered around the shops. One of the shops had a free tequila tasting (wait, didn’t we say we were tired of alcohol?). One was really sweet tasting, and one had this minty taste to it that was really good. So Malcolm got a bottle of that to share with his roommates.

 

I’m not into tee shirts and all that other SWAG (Stuff We All Get) crap, but I do like to collect miniature flags where ever I go. But no one seemed to know where I could find any, so I got the prettiest bracelet for me and my coworkers and a bottle of tequila with a little sombrero for my cousin/roommate/coworker.

 

We went back to pick up the bracelet we had made Malcolm’s little sister and it looked really good! We were happy. We just kind of walked the area, slowly making our way back to the ship.

[sjcruiser]

Love the review and pictures, thus far. Can't wait for the rest. I was on the Imagination for my first cruise, which led to cruise addiction!!!! Happy Sailing!!!

[JayMo]

 

I spotted the Disney Cruise ship, which I want to go on so bad! I’m a Disney Cast Member, so of course I love all things Disney. Malcolm ignored me while I marveled over the ship.

 



 

I mean, doesn’t that water slide look awesome?!?!?!?!?!

 



 

I was really in love with that ship And slightly disappointed that I couldn’t find my Mexican flag anywhere.

 

But I digress.

 

As we were making our way back, a guy came up to Malcolm…UGH.

 

“Aye big guy, you want cigars?”

 

I told the man no.

 

Malcolm, on the other hand, said…

 

“Hmmm…cigars?”

 

Okay. What in the world. Malcolm doesn’t smoke and HATES being around smoke, so why this boy wanted to buy a dang cigar is beyond me. I grabbed Malcolm’s hand and start dragging him, telling the man no along the way. The man says he would cut Malcolm a deal, giving him 25 cigars. Malcolm starts pulling me. I’m yelling, “MALCOLM, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH 25 CIGARS…WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO DO WITH ONE?!”

 

Then my worst fear happens, him and Malcolm starts walking to an alley. Oh hecks nah. I’m livid at this point for how not smart Malcolm is being.

 



 

So DUMB Malcolm.

 

Anyways, so I was happy to find out the guy had a legit shop with cigars, jewelry and bags. But I didn’t like how pushy he was being and Malcolm isn’t a good bargainer, so it wasn’t looking good. Malcolm doesn’t know how to say NO and all of it was making me uncomfortable, so I did the only thing I knew to do to get him out of there.

 

I left. I walked clear out the door and down the street. I knew Malcolm would freak out about me walking alone, so he would leave, which he did. I was still mad though and told him not to say a word to anyone one the street until we got back to the ship.

 

He didn’t lol

 

I felt bad, so we stopped at a shop where he was able to get ONE cigar and a good price just to say he had one.

 



 

We took some pictures, then hailed down a cab to get us to the ship, it was nearing 2 and I didn’t want to be a pier runner aka the star in someone’s YouTube video.

 

We got back to the port, alive thank goodness.

 



 

This nice couple took this for us. They didn’t speak not a lick of English, but smiles and hand gestures go a long way. They took our picture, we took theirs.

 

Malcolm really wanted to head out to a Nike outlet he saw just across the street, but I was really scared about getting left, so I advised him not to go. Or I told him HE could go, while I was on the ship. We both weren’t going to be stranded in Mexico. I only sail with my birth certificate, he has his passport, he can get left in a foreign country, but not me.

[JayMo]

We came back to find the Carnival Elation in port with us.



 



 

Apparently, I don’t look over the age 18 because security asked me what was in my bag and I told them and then went on to ask if I was over 18. I wanted to lie and say, NOPE, but I told them my age and checked in my liquor and we went on about our way.

 

Once back on board, we went to the top deck to get some last shots at Cozumel.

 



 



 

and did some more exploring around the ship.

 



 

[JayMo]

 



 

This was the line around 3 p.m...ya know...the time we were supposed to leave?

 



 

So that made Malcolm mad at me because we could of went to the Nike Outlet store.

 

Well excuse me for following the rules and being back on board when Carnival says being back on board!

 

We went to lido to eat a light, pre-dinner, meal and watched sailaway from one of the decks.

 

Then we went back to the room to shower and take a nap before dinner.

 

That nap turned into a deep sleep where we woke up late for dinner. We quickly got dressed and headed to dinner. We really wanted to go tonight because it would be our last night with our table mates since we would be in Key West the next day until 8 and me and Malcolm for sure we not coming to dinner tomorrow.

 

We got there just as the water and bread was being served and chit chatted with everyone asking how their day in port went.

 

We ate dinner and took some pictures with all of us together. Tim and Michelle and me and Malcolm, we exchanged contact info so we could all hang out together in Key West the next day. We said our “See you laters” and left.

 

Malcolm and I had down to guest services because the money we were planning to spend on pictures, we spend on Casino Vault, so he needed to add more money to his account.

 

I took these while we were down there.

 



 



 

Yeah, the Fantasy style ships are kinda cheesy and very in your face, but the Fantasy style ships are what I grew up on. In fact, my first cruise was on the Fantasy when I was around 10. So I have grown to love them and accept them for the cheesiness that comes with it.

 

We headed upstairs to buy the pictures, Malcolm called his mom for a second (I know right $$$), we played in the arcade for a bit, went to the disco/club for a while, listened to some live music and had a drink or two before playing Casino Vault again, failing at it and calling it a night.

 

We found a movie on tv, cuddled like we do back home and went to sleep.

 

That’s my favorite thing about vacation. Finding something that feels familiar in a unfamiliar place. Makes it comforting but fun. I just love the feeling.

 

Coming up next! A day in Key West!

 

Find out what ticked me off to the point we won’t return unless it’s done differently. WOMP WOMP WOMP!!

 

Wait! Malcolm just reminded me that this was the night that we went to play some games in the theater. We played this guys versus girl game. It asked girls questions about sports and what not and asked guys questions about women fashion. Every team had to elect a team captain, something TOLD me to be the team captain, but I did't want to make it seem as I was taking over. The team had to answer and give our answer to the team captain. Our team captain usually changed our answers if she thought they were wrong. Needless to say, we lost. The first question for the girls was something about the Superbowl, I had just watched a documentary on the Miami Dolphins, so I told the team captain...she changed the answer -__- THEN, the guys got a question about what color is the bottom of Christian Loubtain (spelling?) shoes...of course the boys shouted out Red. Duh. Then, the ball was back in our court, our question was how high is a soccer goal. I played soccer in high school and knew the answer was 8 feet. I told her my answer and then someone overrode me and said 15 feet? 15 FEET? REALLY NOW? Ugh, so after that, I stopped answering questions. Somehow, these ladies ended up tying with the men and we all went on stage for tie breaker. The tie breaker was sticking a large coin between our buttcheeks, squeeze them together and walk over to a Carnival drink cup and drop it in. It wasn't as gross as it sounds. Unless of course you are the last person to go, like I was and the coin was all warm...lol But, we lost. WOMP WOMP. Moral of that rant was, I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE TEAM CAPTAIN.

 

[alreadypacked]

We sat getting used to the water for a bit.

 

 

 

We were slowly starting to get tired of the taste of alcohol, so we got virgin daiquiris and water.

 

I got a steak fajita and Malcolm got a burger.

 

I know I know, how do you come all the way to Mexico and get the most American thing on the menu?! WOMP WOMP.

 

Anyways, we sat just talking, laughing and enjoying the scenery, not wanting to leave. Soon, we were ready to start heading back towards the ship, but we stopped downtown to do a little shopping.

 

I went to the bathroom to change out my wet swim suit. Very clean bathrooms. So clean, there is a lady in there with a mop, moping out the bathroom each time someone comes out the stall.

 

We headed towards the taxis and Malcolm told the lady we wanted to head downtown and we sped off.

 

We passed the ship, passed what I thought was much of downtown and kept going. At this point I was getting scared like, “Where is this lady taking us?!”

But soon enough, she stopped, ever so conveniently in front of the Diamond Center. Surprise, surprise. We were so far away from the ship, that even if we walked a few miles, we would STILL need to take a taxi. But we had a few hours to spare, so we went with it.

 

Malcolm paid the lady for the taxi and I politely, but firmly told the ladies we didn’t want to go into the Diamond Center. I told Malcolm to let me do the talking when it came to situations like this, because he’s too nice and we might end up in an ally somewhere buying something we don’t need to buy! (MY EXACT WORDS. FORESHADOWING)

 

We came across these ladies who sewed names into bracelets, so we had one made for his little sister. We picked out the colors and wrote her name down and they told us it would be ready in about 15 mins, so we wondered around the shops. One of the shops had a free tequila tasting (wait, didn’t we say we were tired of alcohol?). One was really sweet tasting, and one had this minty taste to it that was really good. So Malcolm got a bottle of that to share with his roommates.

 

I’m not into tee shirts and all that other SWAG (Stuff We All Get) crap, but I do like to collect miniature flags where ever I go. But no one seemed to know where I could find any, so I got the prettiest bracelet for me and my coworkers and a bottle of tequila with a little sombrero for my cousin/roommate/coworker.

 

We went back to pick up the bracelet we had made Malcolm’s little sister and it looked really good! We were happy. We just kind of walked the area, slowly making our way back to the ship.

 

That is one nice thing about some public restrooms in Mexico and other areas of the Caribbean. With an attendant--they're clean!

 

I've been in bathrooms that look like a hole in the wall on the outside, but were clean inside! I don't mind tipping for that service either. In St. Maarten, we paid $1.00 fee to use the attended public facilities. Well worth it!!

 

I wish our public restrooms at the beaches and malls here in South Florida had attendants! I will gladly pay for cleanliness over the current status quo.

[Justapeach1]

Love the review and pictures. Especially the one of ya'll under water.

[JayMo]

Thanks everyone for reading!

I have Key West already on my blog and will be posting it here tomorrow!

I'm sad because my trip report is coming to a close :(

 

But thanks again for all the reads and comments! Y'all are the best :D:D:D:D

[bonnys]

 

 



 

He has this weird thing about not letting pool water touch his lips. He’s weird.

 

 

I have heard of some odd quirks, heck I have quite a few myself :rolleyes:, but I have never hear of this before. It gave me a good laugh!

 

Still enjoying the review and looking forward to the rest.

[luv4u859]

You didn't go to key west first? I was on victory with the ports and we did key west first and then cozumel, then a sea day

[topguy]

Really enjoying your review.

[JayMo]

You didn't go to key west first? I was on victory with the ports and we did key west first and then cozumel, then a sea day

 

I wish we would of did that ship and flip flopped the ports...reasons being in my next post. A sea day before debarking would of been great.

[JayMo]

Okay, you good people have waited long enough and I really do appreciate you reading along. Things got crazy at my internship and I'm gearing to head back to school...so the last few weeks have be crazy. But on with the show!

 

Okay, let’s wrap this thing up.

 

Today was our day in Key West. It was a new port for me and I was excited because I had gotten a lot of suggestions about what to do in Key West.

 

All I really wanted to do is take a picture by the Most Southern Point sign. I wrote that on a bucketlist when I was like 16.

 

All Malcolm really wanted to do is rent a scooter.

 

And all we both wanted to do is get some drinks from Fat Tuesday.

 

So we were excited about our day.

 

We weren’t pulling in until noon I believe so we slept in (no surprise here), and got lunch on lido.

 

I got Mongolian Wok while Malcolm got something else.

 

I got a few grievances about Mongolian Wok y’all.

 

That LINE! Oh my goodness. Almost turned me off from getting it. But I was hungry and didn’t have anything else to do…I’m on vacation, why not.

I didn’t understand WHAT was going on. So I grabbed my little bowl, and filled it up, thinking I was making some type of salad. So imagine my surprise when they ask for the bowl back to cook it with meat. What? I would of got noodles and stuff if I would had known. But it was still good.

And I’m not the one for spicy food, I’m a baby, so it was a bit too spicy for my liking, but it wasn’t nothing a chocolate milk could’t fix. Mmmmm…spicy food and chocolate milk while on a ship. Sounds like a toilet joke waiting to happen right?

 

Malcolm and I sat eating, watching the ship inch towards Key West. Most people were already on their cell phones, catching up with what they missed since we left Miami. Me, with stupid Sprint, couldn’t get my service to work just right, so I just put it back into airplane mode. I was used to it being in that mode by then anyway.

 

I borrowed Malcolm’s phone to call my mom. You know, let her know we didn’t have a Triumph situation at hand, we were safe, I didn’t need any more money, and we were indeed having fun.

 

I was starting to get a little antsy because it was already almost 45 mins past docking time and we were still just barely sailing into port. That’s 45 mins I wouldn’t have in port. WOMP WOMP.

 

They made an announcement that because we were coming from a foreign country (Mexico), we would have to undergo customs or something. I forget what they call it. But we would have to bring our Sail and Sign, birth certificate/passport/papers, and stand in this CRAZY line. And they were going to call people by decks. We were happy. Surely they would call from bottom up right? Wrong. *cries*

 

I was angry. We weren’t even in port yet. They kept delaying calling of the decks. It was almost an hour in. WOMP WOMP.

 

Since they haven’t even started calling decks yet, we decided to head out to watch us pull into port.

 



 



 



 

It was a bit chilly for my liking, hence my jacket.

 

They finally started calling decks, starting with the V cabins and worked their way down. The deck started slowly getting empty, so we headed inside to stand in line. UGH. Longest line of my life. It was around 2 in the afternoon and we were supposed to dock at noon. WHY WERE WERE HAVING TROUBLE WITH GETTING OFF THE SHIP AT A DECENT TIME THIS CRUISE?

 

We finally got to the front, got our papers looked at, Sail and Sign hole punched and literally RAN downstairs and off the ship. Seriously? We couldn’t had started this process earlier? Now I was robbed two hours in a new port.

 

Because we docked at a military base, we had to be ushered via taxi/shuttles off the base. We weren’t allowed to take photos as we were leaving the Navel base, but geez, that would be one place I wouldn’t mind being stationed at if I was in the Navy. We met up with Tim and Michelle, who only plans were to go to the beach. They asked if we would like to join them, but we politely declined. They got off at the first stop and we continued on.

 



 

The trolley gave us this nice little quick tour as we made our way off the military base and into downtown Key West.

 



 

The trolley dropped everyone off in a very touristy area. Me and Malcolm asked for directions to the nearest scooter rental place and headed off to find it.

 

I can’t remember the name of the rental place (I should, it held a hold on my bank account forever).

 

The guy was unbelievable. He was so rude in the funniest way. He was very used to people getting dumped on the island by ship for a few hours and you could tell. He closed at 5 p.m and it was nearing 3…so he cut us a slight deal on the scooter. We paid cash and he just had to put my debit card on hold.

 

Here’s the scary part. He was showing Malcolm how to use to scooter. Malcolm haven’t ridden one since freshman year in Panama City. He let him ride up and down the street to get comfortable before I got on the back. Then he asked Malcolm if he was ready for me to get on. I was scared so I asked him if he had a helmet and he reminded me of the No Helmet Rule in Florida. Great. I hopped on the back of the scooter and clutch onto Malcolm for dear LIFE. Malcolm takes off and I jerk back, almost falling. Malcolm stops. A random guy walking his dog saw the whole incident and rushes over, asking if I’m okay and asking Malcolm if he knew how to drive the scooter cause if not, he would show him. Wow. It was funny. It that dangerous sort of way. I told the man we were fine, but thank him VERY much for being concerned…that was really sweet. He watched us take off again and we rode back up the the guy who gave us the scooter. He greeted us with a laugh and told us to be careful, don’t mess up his scooter, have it back by closing and to have fun. We got directions to where the Most Southern Point sign was and we were on our way.

 



 

****continued in next post****

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JayMo]

OMG! I went to post this review on my siggy and saw I never finished it! I finished it on my blog, but never on here! I don't like not finishing what I start...so here is the rest! If this made it's way to the main pages, hello! If you were subscribed to this thread...I'm sorry y'all!

The show must go on!

 



 



 



 

We finally reached the sign, found a place to rent our scooter and headed towards the sign, only to be greeted by a really long line. We parked our scooter in a 15 minute parking space, so in the words of Sweet Brown, “We ain’t have time fo’ that”.

 

So this is what we did:



 

and then got someone to take our picture:

 



 

Then, we took their picture for them doing the same thing we did. Ha.

 

We headed back to our scooter. We were a bit thirsty and we parked right in front of an ice cream shop, so we headed in.

 

We got a water, Malcolm got a mango-banana smoothie (yuck) and I got mint chocolate chip ice cream.

 

We sat outside eating and enjoying our time. And we watched our scooter to make sure it didn’t get towed away.

 



 

 

 

****continued****

 

 

 

 

[JayMo]

We noticed there was a beach just up the road, so we stopped there for a bit:



 



 

Tim and Michelle texted us asking if we wanted to meet up later for a few adult beverages. Of course. We still had about an hour and a half with the scooter, so we just drove aimlessly around, getting lost in Key West. But we had one more stop to make.

 



 

We went back to get a picture in front of the buoy : )

 

Then, we were on our way.

 

We stopped in a few shops, rode up and down Duval, rode down some quiet streets. I loved Key West because it reminded me so much of Savannah, Georgia.

 

Time came to return our scooter and meet up with Tim and Michelle. We met them at this one bar where they were having dinner. We weren’t hungry for some reason, so we just sat at the bar with them and they brought us a shot. I don’t know WHAT this thing was called, but it tasted like Cinnamon Toast Crunch in a glass…it was pretty good.

 

We walked down to Fat Tuesday’s were it was a PARTY. We got the strongest drinks and found a place to rest. The boys played pool while me and Michelle talked.

 



 

We had a few drinks before it was time to start heading back to the ship : (

 

Like Savannah, Georgia, Key West is one of the few places were you can carry alcohol as long as it is in a plastic cup for example. So we got our drinks to go.

 

The line to get back on the trolley was long (no surprise there), but we had each other and our drinks to keep us company. Within the course of us standing in line, the drinks started to hit us. We noticed we were standing in line by a store, so the boys went in to buy souvenirs while the girls held their spot. Then me and Michelle went in. Apparently, I brought a flag while in the store. I say apparently because it wasn’t until I got to the room later that night to pack up that I saw the flag that I thought Malcolm brought for me since I couldn’t find my mini flag in Mexico. He denied it and I saw that I brought it because I found the crumpled receipt in the bag. Yeah, we had fun.

 

When we got back unto the ship, they had a Mexican buffet. We all got some drinks from the bar, sat and ate. Tim and Michelle were better at the consuming adult beverages than we were, so we stopped. Also because we had to drive to Orlando the next day, while they had a flight. We hung out with them for a while until they disappeared some how. We were tired, so we went back to the room depressed that vacation was almost over, packed up and put our bags outside. Then we showered, found something on tv to watch, snuggled and fell asleep, sad knowing the next day was back to life, back to reality.

 

We woke up the next morning in Miami : (

 

We said goodbye to the room, left a little extra something something for our wonderful cabin stewardess along with a nice note, and headed for our last meal on the ship, breakfast.

 



 

It took kind of forever to get off the ship, but once we were off, we waited for our shuttle to take us back to our car (which took forever and 3 weeks). At least my car was safe when we returned. A little dirty from collected road dirt from sitting under a parkway, but safe.

 

The story about our cruise ends here unless you want to know about Orlando.

 

Long story short:

 

We didn’t want to make that 8/9 hour drive back to Georgia so we drove four hours up the road to Orlando to stay the night instead. Since I used to live down there, it was like returning home for the night. We got food, headed to Downtown Disney where I brought this shirt:

 



 

 

I was missing Disney and promised to come back very soon. Which I did for my birthday….but y’all will have to stay tuned in to my blog and/or the DisBoards for that review : )

 

Thank you ALL so very much for reading!

 

- Jay

[JayMo]

Testing

Edited October 9, 2013 by JayMo

[michiganredrose]

Did you take the underwater shots with your iphone w/ the Lifeproof case? I have thought about doing that instead of buying a new camera. They look great.

 

Thanks for the review!

[Isasprings]

Testing

Thank you for your great review

I love the Imagination it is my favorite ship

so sad that is not going to be in Miami next year.

I can't wait for my Oct 28 Holloween cruise:)

 

Isa

Edited October 9, 2013 by Isasprings

[JayMo]

Did you take the underwater shots with your iphone w/ the Lifeproof case? I have thought about doing that instead of buying a new camera. They look great.

 

Thanks for the review!

 

Yep! I got a brand new Lifeproof case off of Ebay before the trip. Just make sure you test the case without your phone in it before taking it underwater :)

[JayMo]

Thank you for your great review

I love the Imagination it is my favorite ship

so sad that is not going to be in Miami next year.

I can't wait for my Oct 28 Holloween cruise:)

 

Isa

 

A Halloween cruise?! Mucho jealous! I've always wanted to do one of those!

[ch27088]

JayMo - great review and thanks for sharing. I love your writing style and almost died when you talked about your boyfriend following some guy in Cozumel. I'm like you, I don't follow anyone any where (too many stories about Mexico), and I follow the rules. DH and I are going on a cruise in 2014 (October), so we have quite a while to wait, but I know it will be here before we know it.

[macsmokin]

Oh happy to see this, I'll read later. Can't wait.

[Namelocg]

Thanks for.the great review. I sailed on the Imagination in April and August and had to squeeze in one more before she moves to Long Beach so I'm doing the Key West / Cozumel trip again on Monday. I'll sure miss the Imagination when she's gone.