Mountainbreeze's HUGE Victory vacation review!

[djwood24]

Can you tell me when Elegant nights were?

 

Love you pics/review...BTB coming on 10/9-19

[Jenny in TX]

DAY 4 - SEA DAY 1- Tuesday Sept 3, 2013

 

 

 

 

Donkey, the assistant cruise director, was our BINGO host, and he made it so much fun!

 

 

 

 

He made us yell things, and it was here that I began to lose my voice. I had shouted, yelled and woohoo'd so much the day before (at sail-away, and during the Welcome Aboard show) and now yelling at BINGO was becoming difficult.

 

 

He had us yell "O" every time he called an "O" with a number.........

 

 

Also, when he called a number and you didn't have it, you had to yell, "COME ON, DONKEY!!" which was so funny!

Then if he called a number and you had it, you had to yell, "YEAH, BAYBY!"

 

 

So everytime Donkey called a number out, the room was full of people yelling things. I thought it was SO fun, I didn't care that I didn't win. Donkey made Bingo so much fun!

 

 

Here is a terrible picture of Donkey calling Bingo numbers:

 

 

 

 

 

OMG....Donkey!! He was part of the entertainment staff when we sailed on the Conquest out of Galveston in 2010. We loved him and his crew and wrote a long letter to Carnival about how wonderful he was. We all thought he would make a wonderful cruise director. I am so glad to hear that he is now an assistant cruise director! I remember playing bingo with him and how much fun it was!!

[soccersharon]

Wonderful review and pictures! I absolutely love GT and HMC :) Two of my favourite ports. I will definitely rent a golf cart next time, so we can explore the island, and see those awesome beaches!

[Brenda62]

Loved your review--I will be sailing on the Victory 11/7. Thanks for all the great info and pics!

[lele100]

thanks great review I will be going on the Victory on Dec. 5th. Looking forward to it. I was wondering can you smoke at the pool bar, from your pic below? Or do you have to go to deck 10?

 

thanks

 

 

Moving toward the front of the ship on deck 9

The big buffet area. The deli and the Chinese place are along the sides of the buffet

 

 

On the other side of the buffet area

Just past these tables is another pool bar (on the left)

 

 

 

The pool bar

On the other side of the pool bar is the pool

 

 

 

 

 

And the hot tubs

[mountainbreeze]

Keep up the good work Mountainbreeze. Enjoying your review! I love the way you took a picture of the deck sign prior to taking pictures of the lounges and such on each deck. That is a great idea. I am going to steal that idea. Thanks!

 

It worked so well until I forget to get a pic of the Lido Deck - Deck 9 sign! Grrrr!

Feel free to steal the idea........and if you happen to get a pic of the deck 9 sign, send it my way, please!

Glad you are enjoying my review! More coming!:)

[mountainbreeze]

Can you tell me when Elegant nights were?

 

Love you pics/review...BTB coming on 10/9-19

 

Hello! The Formal/Elegant nights on both of my cruises on the Victory were on the first sea day.

Glad you are enjoying my review! Thanks for reading it!

[mountainbreeze]

OMG....Donkey!! He was part of the entertainment staff when we sailed on the Conquest out of Galveston in 2010. We loved him and his crew and wrote a long letter to Carnival about how wonderful he was. We all thought he would make a wonderful cruise director. I am so glad to hear that he is now an assistant cruise director! I remember playing bingo with him and how much fun it was!!

 

Yes, we loved Donkey too! :) I also think he would make a great cruise director. He has a great personality and so much charm!

[mountainbreeze]

Wonderful review and pictures! I absolutely love GT and HMC :) Two of my favourite ports. I will definitely rent a golf cart next time, so we can explore the island, and see those awesome beaches!

 

Those beaches were sure worth it! Just gorgeous!

The golf cart made it so easy to get around the island.........well, if we hadn't made so many wrong turns. It was a very fun day :)

Thanks for reading!

[mountainbreeze]

Loved your review--I will be sailing on the Victory 11/7. Thanks for all the great info and pics!

 

I'm so glad you are enjoying my review! I have a lot more coming.........I'm not even half way through yet.

I'll post more today

[mountainbreeze]

thanks great review I will be going on the Victory on Dec. 5th. Looking forward to it. I was wondering can you smoke at the pool bar, from your pic below? Or do you have to go to deck 10?

 

thanks

 

The great news is, YES, you can smoke at that pool bar!!! :) There seemed to be plenty of places to smoke on the ship, plus I could smoke on my balcony. I was concerned before I boarded that I would have a hard time finding places to smoke. I didn't need to worry.......there were plenty of places to go that were convenient.

[mountainbreeze]

I'll be back in a few minutes with Nassau Day and Turnaround Day :)

[mountainbreeze]

DAY 7 - NASSAU, BAHAMAS DAY - Friday Sept 6, 2013

 

 

 

 

I woke up early again, I could see it was still pretty dark out through the cracks in the curtain.

 

 

I thought I would go outside and check anyway, just to see if we were close to land at all.

Out on the balcony, I couldn't believe it! I could see the lighthouse at the port of Nassau, we were about to sail right past it.

 

 

I ran in to get my camera. It was right before sunrise and still pretty dark out. I took about 50 pictures of the lighthouse as we went past it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we passed the lighthouse, we turned around in the channel and backed into the dock. It was pretty cool, since we were at the back of the ship. We had front row seats to the whole thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a beautiful morning in the Bahamas! The sky was turning all kinds of bright colors.

We could see Atlantis Resort in the distance

 

 

Some men at the dock pulling in those huge ropes and hooking them on the big metal thing (no idea what thats called)

[mountainbreeze]

And when the sun finally showed itself, it was the best sunrise I had seen yet on my trip.

I think I took about 100 pics that morning of Atlantis with the sunrise behind it. It was gorgeous.

 

 



 

 

 

 

Lisa came out and took pictures with me. We must have stood out there for an hour or more.

 

 

I was a little sad, thinking this was the last day on the ship for Lisa and the kids. They would be getting off and heading home in 24 hours.

 

 

The other thing on my mind was that today was my best friend Christina's travel day. She would be getting on a plane and would land in Florida for her first time ever. Saturday would be her first time on a cruise ship, and I knew she was excited. I was excited for her and I wished I could talk to her!

I knew Christina's travel schedule for that day and I was with her in spirit the whole way. She was definitely on my mind all day and I kept track of where she was (supposed to be) throughout the day.

 

 

I have no idea how this idea came up, but Lisa and I decided to walk to the front of the ship and check out the "secret decks". They aren't really secret, but not many people know about them.

We went all the way forward, and then down one floor to deck 7. At the front of the ship are the doors that go outside onto the very front decks of the ship.

 

 

We weren't out there very long when I spotted another cruise ship coming into Nassau in the distance. We kept watching it and zooming in with my camera. Finally I could see it, and my heart skipped a beat. It was the Disney Dream!!! Have I mentioned I love Disney?! The Disney Dream is my favorite of their ships. I will go on that ship someday. I have no idea when, but someday. It's on my list.

 

 

And now it was coming HERE!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As it came into the channel, it stopped right in front of us and slowly turned around to back in like we did.

I was THRILLED! How many chances will I get to see my favorite Disney ship turn around right in front of me?

I was beyond happy, and I took a lot of pictures of the Dream that morning

 

 

Here she is, pulling into the channel:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And turning around right there!

[mountainbreeze]

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now backing in right next to us! On the same side our cabin was!

I was going to have a nice view of the Dream all day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As it started backing in, Lisa and I walked back to our cabin,

W walked three football fields in just a few minutes. It was quite a hike.

 

 

Back on our balcony, we had a great view of the Dream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lisa and I got dressed and went up to get breakfast. We decided to go to the big buffet this morning. I'm not sure why. The lines were always longer at the big buffet, but they also had more to choose from there. I guess we decided we wanted more choices that day.

 

 

I missed Hector - my omelet maker. I settled for scrambled eggs that day and it wasn't the same.

 

 

When we were done eating, we went back down to our cabins to wake up the kids. They got up right away and Lisa and I waited on our balcony while they took showers and got ready for the day.

 

 

Lisa left her tip for Carlos with a note and we put our "Crusin" signs out.

[mountainbreeze]

I'm not sure what time we got off the ship, but it was probably around 10:00AM or so. We weren't in a hurry to do anything that day so it was a nice change.

 

 

We went down to Deck 0 and got off the ship. We walked down the long dock to the port building.

 

 

 

 

The dock at Nassau is HUGE!!

 

 

 

 

A closer view of the port building. There were booths and shops in there.

 

 

 

 

After we got onto the busy streets of Nassau, it was kind of a shock. We had 2 very quiet and peaceful island days and this was more like a hustling, bustling town.

 

 

Cody wanted to see the Straw Market, so we headed that way.

 

 

 

 

At the Straw Market, Cody and I each bought a "Bahamas" purse, Cody's is black and pink, and mine has blue.

 

 

 

 

Lisa found a Snoopy purse and we waited while the lady sewed "Nassau" on it for her.

We loved that everything we bought here was handmade.

 

 

 

 

After the Straw Market we walked around the stores near the port. We browsed and shopped.

 

 

 

 

I got a pic by the Pirate at the Tortuga Rum Cake place.

Lisa bought Rum Cakes, I bought hot sauce to take home to my Sweetie.

 

 

[mountainbreeze]

I got this hand painted 5X7 picture on a piece of wood for $5.00 from a lady sitting on the sidewalk.

I love it. It's hanging in our living room now.



 

 

 

 

Then I spotted this, and I had to have it for my husband

It was only $15.00 for this hand made motorcycle. There is so much detail I couldn't believe it was so cheap. SOLD!

 

 

 

We were getting hungry but we couldn't decide on a place to eat.

Also, Chris was absolutely miserable. He had such a bad sunburn. We all felt bad for him, and we decided we would walk him back to the ship so he could take a nap if he wanted to.

 

 

We all headed back to the ship. We considered going over to Atlantis later that afternoon.

 

 

We stopped to look in some of the little shops inside the port building. I found something else I HAD TO HAVE. It was a small bag of Nassau sand..........something I hadn't been able to get on my last stop to Nassau or on this stop either. I paid $3.00 for it, but it was so worth it to me to have the sand.

I have been collecting sand from all of the beaches I have traveled to. It's amazing how different the sand looks from the different beaches. At home, I put it in cute little jars that I get from Hobby Lobby or Michael's Arts & Crafts, and I use stickers to put the name of where it came from on the jars.

 

 

My store bought Nassau sand:



 

 

 

 

As we left the port building to walk down the long dock back to the ship, there were security guards asking to see our Sail & Sign cards and I.D.

I had my S & S card, but I hadn't brought any ID. I was using cash that day and I really didn't think to bring my drivers license off the ship with me. Cody didn't have her ID either, and she was worried.

I assured her we were getting back on the ship, even if Lisa and Chris had to go to the ship to retrieve our ID's. I wasn't really worried.

The guard let us go through, but not without a lecture about bringing ID with us the next time we got off the ship.

 

 

By the time we walked down the long dock, got back to the ship and dropped our new souvenirs off in our cabins, we were all starving.

We walked down to the lunch buffet on the Lido Deck to see if anything looked good.

 

 

Oh my, YES! Today was the "American" buffet lunch. Each day they had a theme for the kind of food they served at the buffet. One day it was "French", and another day it was "Caribbean" - we had the Caribbean when we were on Half Moon Cay the day before.

I loved the American buffet. The briscuit (or was it pot roast? Doesn't matter, beef is beef) was delicious. Tender and so good!

 

 

They also had the Chocolate buffet set up with the lunch buffet that day.

 

 

We walked back down to our floor and of course we saw Ari



We stopped to talk to him for a minute or two, and this is when he told us the morgue story. I have no idea how we got on this subject, but we did. Ari told us using his broken English and charades, about a time he had to clean the morgue on one of the ships he worked on. He said he hated it, and he put on gloves, a mask, and a hat. He said he cleaned the morgue, which could hold 3 bodies, although none were there at the time. He said when he was finished cleaning it, he went back to his cabin and took off all his clothes in the hallway and left them on the floor out there. Then he went into his cabin and took a hot shower and scrubbed himself all over.

That was quite a story!

 

Chris and Cody both went to their cabin and took a nap after lunch. Lisa and I relaxed in our cabin and on our balcony. We talked about getting back off the ship for the afternoon to go visit Atlantis, but we never did. We were comfortable on the balcony and we didn't really have the energy to do all that walking.

 

So, we just relaxed for the afternoon. Lisa started packing her things (SO SAD!) and I decided this might be a good day to do laundry. I was going to run out of clean clothes soon.

 

 

I walked around the hallways on our deck until I found the nearest laundry room. Then I went back and got my dirty clothes, soap and quarters.

It was $3.00 to wash and $3.00 to dry each load and I did 2 loads.

 

 

Lisa and I walked down to check our Sail & Sign balances, and we also chatted for a while with our 2 neighbor ladies over the railing. It was a very nice afternoon.

 

 

Around 5:00PM, Chris and Cody woke up and came out on our balcony to watch sailaway.

 

 

Sailaway from Nassau is awesome!

You have to watch for pier runners. These are people who are late getting back to the ship, and you will see them running down that looooong dock trying to make it in time before the ship sails away.

(Yes, the ship will sail without you!)

Make sure you set your watch to SHIP TIME.

 

[mountainbreeze]

As we sailed away from Nassau, we all waved, yelled and woohoo'd at the people next to us on the Disney Dream, and they all waved, yelled and woohoo'd back at us. I was still losing my voice, and yelling at the Disney Dream didn't help at all.

 

 

 

 

Pulling out of our spot in Nassau. It's like a parking lot for cruise ships.

 

 

 

 

A last look at Atlantis as we pulled out

 

 

 

 

As we rounded the corner by the lighthouse, I was able to get a few more pictures. This time it was lighter outside so I could actually see it as we went past it.

 

 

 

 

After sailaway, we were all hungry again so we got dressed and went down to our dining room.

We met up with Amy and her group on the way down. We all decided to eat together again since it was the last night.

 

 

 

 

It was this night that I discovered Donovan and Joyce............the most excellent wait service team EVER in the history of wait service teams.

 

 

Meet Donovan:

 

 

 

 

And this adorable little thing is Joyce:

 

 

I had been waiting ALL WEEK to find a good wait service team in the MDR and I had almost given up. For one thing, we had eaten almost every night in a group of 8, and I think it's hard for the wait staff to try to keep up with large tables like that.

But finally, on the last night of the first cruise, I FOUND THEM!

 

 

Donovan and Joyce

 

 

They were both very friendly and their service was excellent!

[mountainbreeze]

During dinner Donovan told us he was from Jamaica and he has a wife and a 6 year old daughter there. He was saying he was very happy that he would see them in 3 days when the ship docked there for the day.

 

 

The wait staff sang "Leaving On A Cruise Ship", and it was sad thinking this was our last dinner together on the ship.

 

 

After dinner, we went up to the cabin so Lisa and the kids could get more of their packing done.

 

 

It wasn't fun watching them pack up to go home. The only happy part about that was that I didn't have to pack quite yet. I was going to start on another part of my awesome vacation.........a whole new cruise with my BFF!

At this point, Christina had just landed in Ft Lauderdale. She should be in the great care of John's Car service. I had arranged for John to pick her up and take her to the Intercontinental, just like he did with us 6 days ago.

I had no way to know, but I hoped her journey was going smoothly that day and that she had made it to Florida. I couldn't wait to talk to her in the morning.

 

 

We wanted to go to the 9:00PM VROOM show in the Caribbean theater, so we needed to get there around 8:30 if we wanted our favorite seats.

 

 

We went into the gift shop so Cody could get some last minute ship gifts.

I bought another carton of cigarettes and sent them home with Chris. Each person can take 1 carton of cigarettes back to the US, and I wanted to be able to carry another carton back with me when I got off next week.

 

 

Lisa and Cody went to Guest services and "cashed out" their S&S cards. If you put cash on your S&S account, you can get your cash back the last night of the cruise. If you don't cash out at Guest Services, Carnival will mail you a check with your balance.

 

 

 

 

Chris and I went into the theater to get our seats. We were lucky, and we got "our" seats.

I know you aren't allowed to save seats in the theater, so we didn't. We just sat there and hoped Lisa and Cody would hurry up and come in there before another passenger wanted to sit next to us.

We did fine, and Lisa and Cody made it.

The theater fills up fast, especially the balcony seats where you don't have a pole in your view of the stage.

 

 

Also, VROOM is supposed to be Carnival's best show in their entire fleet. I hadn't seen it before, but I had read reviews about it.

 

 

The show was very good! We all loved it. I would agree it was the best show I had seen yet.

It was singing and dancing, very high energy and fast paced.

The dancers were very good.

 

 

When we got back to our cabin after the show, Carlos had left us another cute towel animal. I'm not sure what this one was either, but it was adorable.

 

 

One thing I expected to find in the cabin, but didn't, was my info for my B2B turnaround the next day.

I thought this info would be on my bed, telling me where and when to meet the next morning to get checked in for the next cruise.

I called Guest Services and asked about my B2B info. The guy on the phone checked my account and told me he didn't see anything there about me doing a B2B, but he would contact the right person and get me my info.

He also told me, if I didn't get any info, I should report to the Lobby area at the guest services desk at 9:30 the next morning and someone would be there to help me.

Sounded good to me.

 

 

I happened to go out in the hallway for something, and I saw Carlos. I told him Lisa and the kids were leaving the next day, but I would be on the ship with my friend Christina for another cruise. He said he didn't have that info either, and he thanked me for telling him.

 

 

That night, I spent some time with the kids in their cabin while they packed. At some point, we decided to walk around the ship. It's really cool to go on the top decks at night. It's a little spooky out there when the ocean is all dark.

We stopped to get ice cream on the way back.

We went back to the kids cabin and we ordered sandwiches from room service. It was nice spending time alone with them before they had to leave.

I also helped them fill out their customs forms for the next day.

 

 

Back in my cabin, I got my cell phone out of the safe and plugged it in so it could charge up while we slept.

I was going to be able to talk to my Sweetheart the next morning!

 

 

Also, I hoped Christina was safe and sound in her hotel room at the Intercontinental. I felt bad for her that she had to start her vacation all by herself..........I was excited to see her tomorrow!

[mountainbreeze]

DAY 8 - TURNAROUND DAY - Saturday Sept 7, 2013

I woke up SO EARLY that I was sure it was still the middle of the night. I looked at my alarm clock anyway. It WAS still the middle of the night....it was 4:10AM. I had no idea why I was up at this hour.

 

 

I was just about to roll over and go back to sleep when I saw, from the tiny crack between the curtain and the wall, a blue flashing light outside.

 

 

Well, there wasn't supposed to be blue flashing lights in the middle of the ocean, so I had to get up and see what it was. I peeked out the curtain and I saw several blue flashing lights out there.

 

 

I realized we must be coming into the port of Miami already

I quietly slipped outside so I could see where we were.

 

 

We were just coming to the port area, and it was still really dark outside. The city lights of Miami were getting closer.

How strange that I happened to wake up at the exact right time every single morning. The only explanation I have is that maybe I could feel the ship slow down as we approached each island. It's possible, but that ship was so stable during this cruise I couldn't tell we were moving when I was awake. How could I tell we were slowing down when I was asleep?

Maybe it was just good luck.

 

 

I went back inside as quietly as I could to grab my phone and my camera. I didn't want to wake Lisa so early in the morning.

Back outside, I wanted to call my Timmy............but I knew it was just after 3AM in Kansas City so I decided to wait a few hours before I called him.

 

 

I texted Christina and told her we were pulling into port RIGHT NOW, and to text or call as soon as she woke up. She replied right away that she was already up and looking out her window.

 

 

I called her. My voice was nearly gone by now, and I squeeked "It's ME!!, My voice is gone but it's me!!"

 

 

It was so good to finally talk to her after 5 days of silence.She said she had just happened to wake up about 5 minutes before I texted. Wow, we both had good timing that morning.

 

 

She told me she had a good travel day the day before. Her planes were on time and John was there to pick her up at the Ft Lauderdale airport as planned. She loved the Intercontinental. I knew she would.

 

 

I told her where to look for the ship to come in. She couldn't see us yet, but we were getting closer. I told her to watch the buildings and look for a huge white building that was slowly moving behind the other buildings. It took a few minutes and finally she said she saw the ship! She agreed it really did look like a huge building moving back there. Then she saw the whale tail and she got excited. I was ON the ship and I was excited too!

 

 

We talked on the phone for quite a while as the sun came up. Lisa woke up and went in to make sure the kids were up too.

Christina and I got off the phone after we had made plans to keep in touch with each other throughout the morning. She was going to eat room service breakfast, shower and re-pack. She planned to check out of the hotel leave for the port around 9ish. I was excited to see her when she boarded around 11:15 or so, and I told her I would be waiting on the ship in the lobby when she got on.

 

 

The plan for Lisa and the kids was for the 4 of us to eat breakfast and they would get off the ship around 8:30.

John would be there to pick them up in front of the port building around 9 to get them to Ft Lauderdale airport for their flights home.

 

 

I have no idea why............but suddenly Lisa was in a hurry to get off the ship. She didn't want breakfast, even though I told her she had plenty of time. The kids didn't care one way or another, or at least they didn't voice their opinions about it. Before I knew it, they were rolling their bags down the hallway toward the elevators.

I walked down with them, and stood in line with them in the Lobby while they waited to get off the ship.

At the point where they dinged their cards through the machine, I couldn't go any further with them. We all said goodbye and they rounded the corner and were out of sight.

 

 

I looked at my watch.

It was 7:37AM

 

 

Seriously??!! It was still so early and I couldn't understand why they wanted to get off so early and wait around in the parking lot for their ride. And none of us had eaten breakfast yet.

 

 

Oh well, it is what it is.

 

 

So I walked back up to the cabin by myself.

 

 

I didn't see Carlos, and even Ari wasn't at his usual spot in the hallway.

 

 

It was a little drizzly that morning in Miami, and it was pretty gray outside. I put the TV on to listen to the Miami weather forecast. They said it would blow over by mid-morning.

 

 

I took a shower and got dressed. I called Christina and checked on her at the Intercontinental.

 

 

I finally talked to my Sweetheart!! All was well at home and he was prepared to pick the kids up at the airport later that night and take them to their homes.

 

 

Lisa checked in with me and let me know that she called John when they were outside and he came for them right away.

We were all very happy with John's Car Service, so far he had come through for us 3 out of 3 times. We still had 2 more rides coming with him, and I felt confident in him by now.

 

 

I couldn't really go out on the balcony, because the rain was coming in by then.

 

 

I decided to go up and get myself some breakfast. Alone. All by myself.

 

 

Really, I'm over-doing it on the alone part......it wasn't too bad, since I was either on the phone or texting the entire time. But it did feel strange to be there by myself after there were 4, and sometimes 8 of us together the whole week.

 

 

I stopped in at my kids cabin and let myself in with the key card I still had. I checked their room all over to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything. I'm such a mom.

It was sad to be in their cabin knowing they weren't here. I sure missed them already.

 

 

I walked up to the Lido deck, and there were quite a few people up there with their luggage. I went to the part of the Lido deck by the main pool and bar and sat down and had a cigarette. I could smoke here without getting wet. It was also fun to people watch although this wasn't a very good day to people watch. It was rainy and gloomy out, and all these people had to go home. Everyone was so glum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After my smoke, I went to the back buffet and saw Hector

 

 

GOOD MORNING HECTOR!!

 

 

 

Finally a smiling face!!! It was nice to see somebody familiar this morning.

Hector made my ham and cheese omelet and he asked me where my family was.

I told him they got off the ship but I was staying on for another cruise.

I don't think he understood me, he looked pretty confused when I said that.

Language barriers. Charades worked most of the time with Ari, but I didn't know how to do a charade about cruising 2 times in a row.

Oh well, he would understand when I came to get an omelet the next morning.

 

 

I got the rest of my food and carried my plate one floor down and back to my cabin. Most of the doors to the other cabins on my way were opened and the beds were all stripped, including the kids cabin. It was like a ghost town.

I didn't see any sign of Carlos or anyone else on our floor.

[sjn911]

It is a huge and happy review!! Really enjoying it and your style...Sarah

[mountainbreeze]

Back in my cabin, I ate my breakfast and watched TV. I talked to Timmy and Christina.

Lisa texted and said they made it to the airport and to their gate. Now they were waiting for their plane.

 

 

It was about 8:45AM. My plan for the morning was to walk around and take pictures all over the ship when it was totally empty. I could do the inside areas, but because of the rain I didn't want to do any of the outer decks that day.

 

 

When I was talking to Christina and she was almost ready to leave the hotel to come to the port, I decided I didn't want to wait on the ship ~ alone ~ anymore. It's been an hour and 15 minutes, and I'm bored!

 

 

I called Guest Services to ask if I could get off the ship and re-board with my friend. He said yes I could, but I would not get priority boarding if I got off the ship myself.

 

 

Fine with me, we'll have zone 1 boarding anyway.

 

 

I called Christina back and told her I would meet her outside in front of the port building in 20 minutes.

 

 

I quickly filled out my customs form, got my passport, boarding pass, S&S card, and my camera.

 

 

I went down to the Lobby and dinged my card through the machine.

 

 

Down at customs, I explained why I didn't have any luggage and showed the guy my boarding pass. He let me go through.

 

 

Outside I waited for Christina to arrive.

 

 

(Finally, some pictures from that morning! I must have been in a slump!)

 

 

I took these pics of some of the funny Carnival signs where you enter to board your cruise

 

 

 

 

 

 

As soon as Christina arrived, I pepped up considerably.

 

 

She gave her bag to a porter, tipped him, and we went inside.

 

 

We went through the usual security checks, and we went upstairs.

 

 

When we got to the long check-in counter, we gave the guy our boarding passes, and he took our pictures for our S&S cards.

For some reason, he didn't hand us our cards

 

 

Instead, he came out from around the counter and asked us to follow him.

I'll admit I was a little worried I wasn't getting back on the ship.

 

 

We followed him through the large waiting room and through a door that said "Captain's Lounge".

Then it clicked.

We were getting priority boarding!!! WOOHOO!

 

 

We took a seat in the "lounge" and the lady there helped us with our S&S cards

 

 

 

 

YAY! We got them!!!

 

 

 

 

Pics from the Captain's Lounge

 

 

Looking out into the rest of the lounge from where we were sitting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christina!!! Lucky you!!! It's your first cruise and you are in the Captain's Lounge!

(I don't think that happens very often)

 

 

We waited in the lounge for a little more than an hour. By the time we boarded the ship, there may have been 10 people in the lounge with us.

 

 

A woman came to get us and led us through the lobby and over to the escalator.

 

 

When we got on the ship, Christina loved it!!! It was fun to watch her looking around and trying to take it all in.

 

 

We went up to the Lido deck and got lunch.

We had sandwiches from the deli and french fries from the buffet. Then we had ice cream.

 

 

 

 

After we ate we walked around a little and I showed Christina around the ship.

 

 

We waited till around 12:30 and we went to our cabin.

Christina loved it! She loved the balcony too.

 

 

It was done raining but it was still gray out and the balcony was still wet.

Lisa and the kids texted to let me know they were on the plane and ready to take off.

 

 

We hung out in the cabin, walked around, went to muster drill, and then up to the aft lido deck pool bar to get a drink of the day.

 

 

 

 

[mountainbreeze]

On our balcony, the skies were looking a little better than they did that morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met our new neighbors from the balcony next door. They were a couple from Canada. Very nice people.

 

 

Just before we sailed away, this little airplane flew in and landed IN THE WATER right beside us. After a few minutes we watched them take off again. That was the first time I ever saw anything like that.

 

 

 

 

The Liberty sailed off ahead of us. We all hooted and hollered with them as they went by us.

I didn't have much voice left to hoot, but I yelled anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When it was our turn to leave, the police boats followed us out of the port

 

 

 

 

Before we knew it, we were out at sea with Miami in the distance again.

 

 

 

 

I called Timmy one more time to say goodbye for 5 more days.

Christina called home and said her goodbyes. After that we turned our phones off and put them in the safe.

 

 

Carlos came by and introduced himself to Christina. He stayed for about 20 seconds, and he was gone again.

[mountainbreeze]

We sat around on the balcony talking. We had a lot to catch up on, we hadn't talked in 5 days!

 

 

After a while we decided we were hungry and we wanted to go to dinner. I wanted to introduce Christina to Donovan and Joyce, my new favorite dinner service team.

 

 

By then Christina's luggage had arrived. We both changed our clothes and we went down to dinner.

 

 

 

 

When we got to the dining room, we asked for Donovan and Joyce. The hostess told us their station wasn't opened yet.

Aww!

I was a little disappointed.

I asked for Nungah again, remembering his good service from a few days ago.

 

 

Nungah was an awesome waiter. As far as we could tell, he didn't have an assistant, he did everything himself. We both enjoyed our dinner.

 

 

We missed the singing in the Dining Room that night. We were ok with missing "That's Amore".

I was looking forward to the Macarena and Hey Baby later in the week.

 

 

After dinner Christina and I walked around the ship. We walked through the casino, the gift shops, and I showed her the secret deck in the front of the ship.

 

 

 

 

When we came back to our cabin, we saw Carlos had been there!

Christina was very happy to see a swordfish on her bed, with her bed turned down and looking so comfortable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were both pretty tired. Neither of us had much sleep the night before.

 

 

We went out for the night anyway. We could sleep later

 

 

First we stopped at the casino bar and had a drink. I had a Miami Vice. It was my first time trying one and it was very good.

Next we went to the Caribbean Theater to get seats for the Welcome Aboard show.

 

 

 

 

We were there pretty early, so we watched from the balcony as Donkey hosted an evening game of BINGO.

Christina thought it looked like fun too, with everyone yelling at Donkey, so we made a plan to play BINGO the next day.

 

 

We watched the Welcome Aboard Show, it was exactly the same as last week's show, but Marcelo was still funny. Even the 2nd time around.

There were 2 new comedians on the ship this week, and one of them did a few minutes of comedy for us. He was funny, and Christina and I wanted to see his show in the comedy club later that week.

 

 

After the Welcome Aboard show, Christina and I went to the Lido deck for ice cream, and then back to our cabin for some late night balcony time.

 

 

We went to bed that night around midnight, we meant to stay up for a while and watch TV but we both fell asleep pretty quickly.

 

 

We had a Sea Day the next day so there was no pressure to get up early.

[mountainbreeze]

It is a huge and happy review!! Really enjoying it and your style...Sarah

 

This is ridiculously HUGE :) Thanks for reading it, and I'm happy you are enjoying it. Plenty more to come............I'm about half way through with the vacation at this point, and now I need a vacation!! (time to book another cruise??!!)