kaseyoz review part 1

[kaseyoz]

This has been a very difficult review to write as my trip took in 4 days at san franscisco 11 days at disneyworld where my daughter was playing in a baseball tournament and then a 5 night cruise through the bahamas.

 

I wont linger too long on san franscisco or disneyworld seeing as this is primarily a cruise site. If you do have any questions please feel free to ask here or kaseyoz@hotmail.com

 

We stayed at Fort mason at SF a great cheap place. Think YHA on huge grounds where you walk out the front and see the golden gate bridge alcaratz and walk to fishermans wharf. Accomodation basic. The players shared a room with 24 girls (glad i wasnt one of them!) i shared a bunk room with 3 other ladies from our group. I was hestitant at first but it turned out to be a riot, we were like kids at school camp.

 

Had a trip to alcaratz plus day at the giants/dodgers baseball game.

Sunday saw the girls play 2 friendly games.

My daughter was first up to bat, first game in america and hit a home run only to be called out at first base for not hitting first plate. How disappointing. second time she came up she scored another legal home run. I got both on tape the crowd drowned out by me screaming "hit the plate!!" what a comeback.

They drew that game and won the second. The american mums put on a wonderful BBQ all day for us.The kids all chatted together for ages on different ways we say things. it was a joy to watch. Sorry to say the baseball went downhill from there.

 

the worse part was the washing. I was nominated as "team mom" or manager. we had probably just under 30 pairs of white pants every game day plus everyones socks, tops and general washing. the parents also had the same tops. scrubbing that amount of white pants made for some amazing bonding sessionswith other parents as everyone chipped in to help.

 

see part 2 if still interested. i will get to the cruise i promise

 

karon

[kaseyoz]

heres goes disneyworld.

 

we flew from Sf to orlando a 5 hour flight where they dont serve any free food,

we stayed at disneyworld all star sports. A huge complex with 4 main buildings all decorated by theme. We stayed at the baseball part of course. Wall paper, curtains, bed linen prints are all baseball. We had rooms along two sides of the building on the ground floor which made eating and meeting so much easier. we didnt see many other people at our end so hopefully we didnt bother many.we catered for ourselves after buying a microwave($30usd). coolers toasters and plastic plates etc.

 

Disneyworld is well disneyworld. it doesnt matter what age you are there is something for you. we also visited the water parks which are also themed.

I feel we didnt spend as much time as we could at the parks as the girls were mostly content to laze around in the hotel pool. After getting up at 5.30am for training on several days i didnt blame them.

 

My daughter and i had 3 days extra at disneyworld after the team left and before our cruise. several groups did other side trips as well.

 

The baseball while very well run and a big production made of it was a bit disappointing in the end results.

 

The girls were called out by name and they then stood in line while the national anthems of australia, canada and US were played. Still brings a lump to my throat thinking about it. When I think about all that we did , saw and experinced that will be the one defining moment of the whole trip.

 

Our girls were certainly outclassed in the baseball stakes but more than made up for it in the fun stakes. You would have thought we had won the world cup instead of losing.

Jade also had a chance to play on the major league diamond with the womens team. Most of the womens canadian team were either injured or couldnot play the final game so they had to forfiet. They decided to play a friendly game .the seniors lent them a couple of players and our more senior junior girls went on to play with the big girls!! what a thrill for her and also for me.

she certainly looks lost on the huge diamond. I hope she gets the chance to do that again in the future.

 

Before i finsh this post i just have to make mention that i WENT on "space mountain". not bad for this chicken who hates roller coasters!!

 

ok what you are here for , cruise details coming up next

 

karon

[strawberrypatch81]

Great review Kaseyoz! I'm glad you and your daughter had a good time. Can't wait for the cruise review!!

[kaseyoz]

fantasy cruise.

well fantasy by name , fantasy by nature.

If you close your eyes and think about what a cruise to the bahamas would be like, it was all that and more. I couldnt fault it except maybe hubby not being there but it was great to be able to spend so much time with teenage daughter. They so need it at this age as any out there who have teenage will attest to.

the cruise was our chance to unwind and do nothing and thats what we did.

 

Our travel agent forgot to book transfers (plus many other details for several other people). The people at disneyworld were great but could only suggest a taxi service which is what we did.

Our taxi arrived at the terminal (cost 150usd wow)where we were met by porters who took our bags (and tip) straight out of the car never to be seen again until they reached our cabin. checkin was very simple and quick. as auzziecruiser mentioned we had to check in as "aliens"they had to find a check in lady who could do that. Guess they dont get many aussies over that way. It took less than 30 minutes from when we left the taxi to being on the ship and that was a more than detailed checkin due to me being foreign.

 

it was a bit of dejavue as the ship is very similar to the pacific sun, just larger even the cabins are the same. we werent allowed to go to the cabins(blocked off until 1.30pm.) we were on board at 11.30am.

we got the usual cocktail and a sodacard for jade which was $20 for the duration of the cruise.

 

cabin

 

Very similar to the "sun" we were upgraded to empress deck, which was so close to everything,we hardly used the lifts.we had outside cabin.

bathroom again very similar to the sun except huge array of toiletries, trial sizes including a romance book???toothpastes with flavours of vanilla and mostly sweet or jelly bean flavour which i couldnt bear to use. way too sickly but goes to show different tastes.

 

food.

wow, way too much as can be imaginged on an american ship. we were down for 8pm dinner although we requested early(better for teen club)the queue to change was huge but i stood in line and did manage to get it changed to 6.15pm. dinner companions fantasic and loved the fact we were from australia and wanted to know all about the baseball. food very similar except most amercians like a salad course after the entree. waiters fantastic, jade was bought a coke without asking. I dont think there was anythin i didnt like here.

 

Second night was formal. we had decided before leaving we would give this a miss, jade doesnt do dresses and i know they are more particular than us on dressing up. The buffet on lido deck was fine and there were many people there as well. There were 24 hour pizza, ice creams, drinks (usual machine type)and beautiful sandwiches. several nights(could have been every night i was not tere!!) there was amidnight buffet. the night i was there looking for a cup of tea, there was a long line to get a burger at midnight after a huge 5 course meal.

breakfast we had one in the dining room, 2 in the room(we wanted to get off the ship qucikly) , the rest in the lido. Again same as "sun" with a few additions and larger servings.

 

kids club.

they had a 12-14 club and because it was outside holidays there wasnt many kids, jade wnet first night and met some people who she hung around with all the time, leaving me by myself. I never felt alone though and went to the shows etc.they did have a few planned activities but hard with so few. jade said it was the best cruise.

 

The shows i didnt like much as they seemed to drag on for too long. they had a magician who was awful i think it must have been his first show he was so bad. The MC(cant think of the title (like demo) was amazing and is wasted on a cruise ship. He was actually better than Demo believe it or not. there was a wondefful couple celebrating their 60 odd year of marriage cant remember actual years , it was almost as if they were a "plant" on the ship they were so adorable.

bingo i also didnt like, too slow and no fun and games with it. At $10usd for one game it was dear too

 

excursions.

first stop was grand turk. Please guys google this place and check out some photos before i post mine, this is heaven on earth, so why were some people complaining about it, nothing to do etc.

it is a pier stop into a cruise terminal and a few shops. there is also a huge pool with chairs and a bar serving food and drink(margaritaville)They also had a dj playing music and running a mr and miss margaritaville comp. Beach was lovely with again free chairs and umbrellas. i couldnt see anything to complain, heck we should send them to mystery island and see what they say.

second stop was Halfmoon cay again a paradise. i had emailed a wonderful couple from the carnival board who booked a cabana on the beach which we paid half for and shared. it had aircondioning, outside shower, float mats(pure bliss) snorkels drinks food fruits dips loungers etc plus priority tendering off the ship. what a fantastic day. they also had a free barbeque ashore, play area for kids in the water plus the dj and music. what a day, i certainly didnt want to leave.

nassau.

this is the city stop. i had booked the sting ray tour and power boat transfer before steve irwin and decided after talking to daughter to still do it. we had the sting rays to ourselves and 6 others for about an hour until the main boat came. we then got to feed them, hear about them and then get your photo taken before the jetboat was opened up and after reaching speeds of 60 mph we were back on mainland. we then caught the ferry to Atlantis(again google this fantastic place) we ran out of time so couldnt stay long.

 

all in all this was an amazing cruise and well worth the travel just to do this. If you do venture over that way check out prices as you will be amazed. Thsi cruise was selling for $299USD and $219 for past cruisers.towards the end they dodnt accept P and o as past cruisers.

 

most people wanted to know about steve irwin. several times i was told when they heard my accent was "im sorry for your loss" i had to think a few times until i realised who they were talking about, make no mistake how huge he was in america and how loved he is and how sorry they are he is now gone.

 

Hate to leave this on a sad note. i will post photos HONEST> i need somehwere to upload them to as i have exceeded my load at webshots, any recommendations.

well if you have any questions ask away, hope i am forgiven for not writing sooner and making this a TOME.

ps i also apologise for any spelling mistake i may have missed. i just wanted to get this done while i could

 

karon(now off to make a cup of tea and stretch her hands!!!

[kaseyoz]

ohh forgot one thing. I must be the first person to go on a cruise and come back with a credit!!!

i managed to get a $160USD OBC due to the fact the price of my cruise had dropped. I paid $20 for jades soda card, some photos, sting ray tour was paid before we left and i paid the couple for the cabana in cash plus bingo was cash. other than a few drinks for me that was it!!I was happy with the lemonage on the ship(like lemon barley water and very refreshing)and tea or water. I got a cheque back but it cost me over $10 to put it im my account. never mind hubby was amused to see i had a credit. shame about the rest of the trip!!

[strawberrypatch81]

Thank you. wonderful review, looking forward to the photos. :)

[howsthis]

Fabulous read, thanks, you had a very full 'holiday?', thanks for taking the time to share it all.

[AuzzieCruiser]

Glad to see you had a wonderful time. I knew you would enjoy it.

Your bingo was only $10!! :eek: On our ship, Jackpot bingo was $50!! And of course you can guess, the jackpot didn't go off.

I went to Disneyland before my cruise, which was perfect timing, it gave me time to rest my aching feet.

Did they have any of those 'Beauty Spas' on your ship. That is one thing I hate about american ships, is the junk mail you recieve every night about beauty deals.

I caved in a got the soda card as well for $27.50 for the 7 days, which I did use, but don't think I got my money's worth.

Looking forward to the photos as well. Unfortunately I have rely on my brother to upload them for me, so God only knows when they will be. My photos from last year have still yet to be uploaded as well.:o

[kaseyoz]

I agree, it was like being at home with the junk mail you get every night. I didnt do any spa treatments as we only had one day at sea and that was the first one. i wanted to spend the shore days at the beach.

 

as well as bingo they did raffles and scratch cards all in the theatre room.

I didnt check out the disco scene at all so cannot comment on that.

[Skyrules]

That is one thing I hate about american ships, is the junk mail you recieve every night about beauty deals.

 

You don't have to go on American ships to get that. The cabins on Pacific Star had little mail boxes on them - and everytime you came back to the cabin there was a piece of paper in it flogging something.

[karmac]

WOW!! Loved the review Karon. Can't wait to see the photos. I'd love to go to that Atlantis resort. Hope you have some good pics from there.

 

PS Space Mountain was my favourite ride at Disneyland.

 

Karen