BooBooMonkey and Poppadaddycruiser’s FASCINATION with the Southern Caribbean 4/30/17

[bellaa]

Great start!

We are on this one in October.

[MrsPhoenix91]

Up next: Tuesday-Day at Sea. Only one sea day on this itinerary. We had a strange sea day.

 

Questions:

 

Why am I at the medical center?

 

 

 

Yeah, why are you??? :o:confused: Looking forward to this segment :') And thank you for taking the time to review your cruise. It is much appreciated!

[BooBooMonkey]

Tuesday sea day:

This was pretty much the strangest day I’ve ever had on a cruise. 20 cruises.

I have been trying to decide whether to post this part or not. I decided that it would be good information for those who may be cruising with medical issues and who do not buy trip insurance (we are among those). Life can throw anyone a foul ball…regardless of whether you are on land or at sea. Just read this part with that in mind. I am not posting this for kudos. Thanks anyway. Just hope if it were me or DH, someone would help us out. So that, and the fact that it was so unusual, I have to share.

We didn’t do too much the morning of the ONLY sea day of this cruise. We slept and got up later than usual. I’m pretty sure that was the day they did the slot tournament in the casino. I went ahead and used my buy-one-get-one platinum entry for that. Totally didn’t come close to winning. We went to the sea day brunch in the MDR and I had a mimosa for my free drink. Later, I ordered a “funship” and we pretty much sat around on Lido doing nothing.

 

Mid-afternoon, we decided to head back to our room to take a nap. We were going to have a busy 3 days ahead, so we may as well rest up today!

As we entered our room to take a nap, there was an announcement that came over even the in-room speaker. Like, you know how they only pipe the announcements into the room before muster drill and when they are trying to get you out of there on the last day? It was like that. “We request that anyone with blood type B+ who has a valid blood donor card please report to the medical center on deck 3 for a medical emergency.” I looked at DH and said, “That’s me”. He said, “You go do your thing. I’m taking a nap”.

 

I grabbed my ID and donor card out of my wallet in the safe and headed out into the hallway to find the medical center. Never having been there, personally, I stood there in indecision as to which way to even go. Luckily, I ran into our awesome steward, Bagus, who directed me to go all the way forward and down to deck 3.

 

Upon arrival, there were a couple others standing outside the door to the medical center, and there was a sign on the door reading, “Closed due to a medical emergency” or some such. I went inside and was met by a man whom I believe was a medical doctor. Also there were some O-negs who thought since they are universal donors, they might be needed. I heard the staff tell them they were specifically looking for B-pos and they would make another announcement if they couldn’t get the units they needed.

 

After sitting in the waiting area for a bit, I was escorted to a room in the back where several of us (which someone in the group named the "B-positive club") were waiting to find out what was going on, and if they needed us to donate blood. Some point shortly thereafter, it appeared that only myself and one other B+ volunteer had a valid donor card with them. We were the two they decided to collect blood from--they said they needed exactly two units. At that point, I’m kind of starting to think this isn’t really happening—maybe I’m actually still in my cabin taking that nap I was about to take. I mean, seriously...

Next steps involved filling out consent forms, having vitals taken, and having a blood sample taken to check for communicable diseases, infection, anemia, etc. I got to talk to two of the nurses who couldn’t tell me anything other than it was a female passenger who probably needed a transfusion prior to reaching the next port. It was quite an ordeal for them to figure out how they were doing all this. I said, “You guys don’t do this every day, do you?” The response was “Ummmm,NO!” Apparently they can't really type-and-cross-match, so that is why they needed donors to have the exact blood type with a valid donor card. They did say they do not bring any blood products aboard.

 

It was probably about an hour before the actual procedure started.

 

Afterward, they ordered room service cookies and juice for us, lol. Just like at the Red Cross—cookies and juice! Being an RN myself, I asked them about their jobs. They said it varies from primary care, to urgent care work mostly, with a few ER type cases in between. Super nice people. They wear non-descript white officer-ish uniforms—I saw them hitting up the pizza stand late night a few days later, lol. Now I know.

One of them took this pic of me, so I could prove to myself later that it wasn’t just a bizarro dream and I wasn’t in the twilight zone,but that this actually happened!

I hope and pray the person who may have needed the blood made it OK. We were on the leg of the trip where the ship is travelling super far from St. Thomas to Barbados. Probably out of range for the US Coast Guard,or maybe they were a Barbados resident who just needed to make it home. Who knows.

 

The next day, I found this on my account (lol $0 charge at the medical center):

And, later in the room, this nice note and fruit/cheese basket from the captain:

 

 

Nice touch.

I will not go into the rest of the day too much, other than to say this was also the day DH’s chronic health issue flared up and he didn’t make it through dinner. I also stuck to virgin frozen drinks since I was now a bit volume-depleted and didn’t want to make myself sick. I ordered steak at dinner so I could get some iron in me, lol. This was the night the first two couples from prior dinners didn’t show up and the first night couple #3 showed up. They sat all the way on the other side of the huge table, and DH didn’t make it through dinner, so it was quite awkward. Kind of a slow, bad evening :(. Oh well, all uphill from there, I guess!

Next up: Barbados!

[hishorselover]

This is interesting. I read the emergency portion of your review to my husband. Oddly, we were on this cruise with you and neither of us remember hearing that announcement! Although, we did find it hard to understand most of the announcements anyway. Glad you were able to help out!

[BooBooMonkey]

This is interesting. I read the emergency portion of your review to my husband. Oddly, we were on this cruise with you and neither of us remember hearing that announcement! Although, we did find it hard to understand most of the announcements anyway. Glad you were able to help out!

 

 

I'm thinking because we were in the cabin we heard it. Had we been on Lido, we probably wouldn't have.

 

Trying to get the Barbados report up tonight! Stay tuned...

 

 

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[Morning glory]

Anxiously waiting [emoji4]

 

 

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[attran99]

We were on the same cruise, but a week ahead of you. The exact same thing happened on our day in St. Lucia. Unfortunately, none of us were matches...and we didn't bring our ARC blood donor cards, either. So glad there are folks who come prepared and can help!

[themerle]

Really enjoying your review. I love sailing out of San Juan especially doing the Southern Caribbean. Looking forward to more of your review!

[hishorselover]

This cruise is on my list, but not on a ship like this. They need to put a better ship in SJU for this itinerary.

 

Patiently waiting for more.......Thanks for doing this!!!!:D

 

I hope you are very patient! I think the itinerary is the very reason they put the older ships on it (it was Valor prior to this). Most (I know, not ALL) will say they will deal with the older/smaller ship because the itinerary is so fantastic. I'm no expert but I do not see Carnival switching this any time soon. From what I can tell, the sailings are pretty close to full every week.

[cruisemom67]

I hope you are very patient! I think the itinerary is the very reason they put the older ships on it (it was Valor prior to this). Most (I know, not ALL) will say they will deal with the older/smaller ship because the itinerary is so fantastic. I'm no expert but I do not see Carnival switching this any time soon. From what I can tell, the sailings are pretty close to full every week.

 

The first time we did the Southern Caribbean out of San Juan, we were on the Tropicale. 1200 passengers. We had a great time. With it being so port-intensive, many people tend to go to bed earlier than those that have more sea days. I know we will be up early every day ready to get off and see the islands. With that mindset, Carnival can leave their bigger, "better", lots-to-do ships for the less exciting ports, or those itineraries with more sea days. I am one that really likes the Fantasy class, so I am thrilled that it is what we will be on next month. My children will be the ones up late every night, but they are just happy to be on a cruise again. They don't care about the ship, just who they might "meet."

[Katie62]

We have been on this itinerary from San Juan twice, this past March on the Fascination (which we loved) and the Liberty two years ago. Probably my favorite itinerary. Really enjoying your review.

 

 

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[whengingersnaps]

We are doing this cruise the last week of October/first week of November, with friends. It is the second cruise I have ever been on, the first one was on RC The Jewel of The Sea, ten years ago, to the western Caribbean. Since it seems I only get to cruise once a decade, and I'm turning 60 in November, I want this cruise to be very special! I am clueless about which excursions to take, and I am really looking forward to reading the rest of your review!

[phoneman69]

Thanks very informative and complete. DW and I are on the Sept 17th sailing. Leaving out of BOS and airfare was booked 8 month in advanced which allowed us these destinations. Your making feel like I am already their.

Thanks Matt

[sierramyst44]

Love your review we will be going in Sept we also had trouble finding reasonable air fare ended up costing us around $350 RT each from Orlando we were getting nervous prices were going UP instead of down and this was 3 months ago. Cant wait to hear about Barbados its the one stop I look forward to the most!

[cruisemom67]

Love your review we will be going in Sept we also had trouble finding reasonable air fare ended up costing us around $350 RT each from Orlando we were getting nervous prices were going UP instead of down and this was 3 months ago. Cant wait to hear about Barbados its the one stop I look forward to the most!

 

Wow, your airfare is CHEAP! I just booked my daughter who is joining us now. The additional cruise fare was $43, and we lost $50 OBC, but the airfare cost me $600! There are 5 of us going (that I am paying for) from Houston, and my parents are coming from Iowa, and their airfare was over $600 each.

[seaoats228]

Great review so far me and my sister are going on this same cruise Dec 3-10, 2017 can't wait!!! Our airfare is $562 each round trip from Wilmington, NC. We are arriving Friday afternoon so we have the evening, Saturday and part of Sunday before we board. BTW, there is a little restaurant near the port called Sangriiia they have strawberry mojitos 2 for $10 they are yummy!

[pr1vatepiles]

Loving everything so far. Well done on donating blood. It's prompted me to getting registered and donating.

[phoneman69]

BooBoo I hope you finish as I would like to hear about the other ports. I am on this cruise in Sept.

Thanks Matt

[BooBooMonkey]

I’M BAAAACK! Wednesday-Barbados

 

 

First of all. I am so, so sorry I left this hanging for two weeks. I have been extremely busy with family and work! But now I at least have all my pictures loaded into Photobucket and have written the next few posts, so here we go! Also, I apologize for the poor photo quality. I had been e-mailing myself them “medium” size before uploading to Photobucket. Since then, I have been sending them in real size, so hopefully that will take care of the problem. If not, then it’s Photobucket, and I refuse to upgrade, lol.

For Barbados, I had booked directly online with Edwin Lovell of Scenic Barbados Tours. We had requested several stops, and Edwin said he would accommodate us for $80 total on an approximately 4 hour tour. Our meeting time was 9:00.

After the bloodletting and hubby’s flare up of the day before, we debated taking a loss on our pre-paid tour, as we really were not feeling 100% that morning (more like 60%, really). However, we decided to tough it out, and were glad we did!

Here is the ship docked at Barbados:

 

 

 

This is one of the tours that you must walk outside the main terminal area to catch. As promised, Edwin was waiting for us just outside the main gate, near the traffic circle. It is about a 10 minute walk once you exit the ship and walk through the shopping mall you are forced to endure at every port these days. He said he had another person who might be joining us, but the guy never came back, so we left after about 15 minutes. The tour was in a large van, but it was just the two of us, so we could go where we liked, stay as long as we liked, and change it up if we wanted to.

We took a drive out of town toward the north of the island. Here are some shots at the first scenic stop:

 

This is a typical view in the smaller villages between the port and the north side where we were headed:

Here is a fruit market along the way:

More Barbados to come...

[BooBooMonkey]

To be fair, I think this next shot was in Barbados, but it may have actually been St. Kitts. I just think it is interesting that wherever you see a “no dumping” sign, there is always stuff dumped—even in the U.S.

 

 

Our first extended stop was at St. Thomas Anglican Church—the oldest church on Barbados.

This tree is reportedly over 300 years old:

Inside the church:

 

The church organ:

 

[BooBooMonkey]

Some pictures they have displayed from when President and Nancy Reagan visited. The bench has a placard commemorating their visit. (Another bench, I think I remember, was for a visit from Queen Elizabeth or someone):

 

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The old church bell from 1896. One photo has the guide who was showing us the church, the other, hubby photobombing me, lol.

 

This is the baptismal, inscribed with the date 1684!

 

[BooBooMonkey]

After quite an interesting and scenic drive, we arrived at our next stop-Animal Flower Cave. We had intended to actually go down into the cave, but decided not to when we saw there was an additional fee (like $20 each, which could have actually been $10USD each as that was the exchange rate, but we didn’t inquire). The cool thing about this stop, is it was great even without going down into the cave! There is a restaurant, a market, and plenty of scenery and photo-ops. Check out these beautiful views:

 

 

 

 

 

 

It reminded me of Hawaii.

[BooBooMonkey]

A couple pics of us while there:

 

Selfie:

 

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Hubby taking pics at the viewing area:

 

 

Me doing a half-hearted imitation of this sculpture (much to DH dismay, lol):

 

 

It was super-hot that day, and we were both feeling a little weak and dehydrated, so we decided to grab a couple drinks at the restaurant there, before joining Edwin back in the nice cool van to continue to our next stop, Cherry Tree Hill (near St. Nicholas Abbey).

 

This next stop was short, but had more scenic views and had a smaller market area. They had a variety of handmade items to buy. This was probably the best place to purchase souvenirs, if you want something authentic from Barbados.

 

 

[BooBooMonkey]

I hope you are very patient! I think the itinerary is the very reason they put the older ships on it (it was Valor prior to this). Most (I know, not ALL) will say they will deal with the older/smaller ship because the itinerary is so fantastic. I'm no expert but I do not see Carnival switching this any time soon. From what I can tell, the sailings are pretty close to full every week.

 

 

I agree for the most part. If the ship itself is not your "destination" then any ship will do for us.

 

Previous two were on Glory and Breeze.

Glory for 7 days was a bit long, only because been there done that. Breeze I think was 5 days. There were parts of the ship I never saw.

 

Next time we do a newer, bigger ship, I won't care where it's going. Could make the ship more of a destination if Bahamas or Cozumel are involved, lol...

 

 

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[BooBooMonkey]

BooBoo I hope you finish as I would like to hear about the other ports. I am on this cruise in Sept.

Thanks Matt

 

 

Sorry Matt! Working hard to get through at least St. Kitts today! Wish it was easier to post pictures, otherwise I would have been done by now [emoji849]

 

 

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