Holiday 1/19-1/24 Review

[qalo]

Holiday

January 19-24, 2008

 

Alright, this was my first cruise, so I have nothing to base this on but what I saw.

 

The port was a little confusing to get to, one of the streets was flooded so we had to go around a different way. Yes, everything seems to be a metal scrap yard near the terminal. Also, there was no convenience store close by (that we saw) and had to drive around to get some last minute “supplies.” Some police officers were parked in the entrance so it gave the “am I supposed to go in here” vibe. The attendants asked for my boarding pass, which was in my carry on in the floorboard, thank God it wasn’t in the trunk before she would even let us in and was quite rude yelling at me to go forward.

 

We had a pretty nice and smooth check-in with the exception of having our boarding passes checked a dozen times.

 

The boat, I thought it would’ve been bigger. I knew it was one of the smallest but I thought it would at least seem bigger. Checked out the room, kind of cramped, I’m 6’5 at 280, so anything room feels cramped to me, but it was clean and tidy. Walked a round a few minutes checking it out, and that’s all it took, a few minutes. It was freaking COLD, the rooms were cold too, they had the vents on full blast.

I started to get a little claustrophobic as there weren’t any large areas to enjoy. I could tell the age of the boat in window crevices and some of the décor, but it was clean.

 

The rocking was fierce, zig-zagging down the hallways and such, I didn’t get sick, but it was annoying. The clubs and lounges were always empty with not much going on, but people sure loved ice cream.

 

The Wharf usually stocked hot dogs and hamburgers or some dish of the day which was okay. They kept a good rotation so nothing got too hard. There were usually people on the Lido just chilling out not doing much.

 

Progreso was alright, the Double Dutch Bus ride was kind of creepy with the wobbly thing cruising a few feet away from the edge of the pier. I was waiting on a free shoreline excursion at any moment. Then we cruised into an impromptu demolition derby narrowly escaping a head on with a dump truck and there was a cop in the middle “directing” traffic, that man had balls of steel, completely fearless.

 

We strolled through the market of trinkets and down the road, we were offered a pipe, refused, and then asked if we wanted to get high. Tempting as it was at the time, no. We walked down the shoreline as the “entrepreneurs” set up shop. Decent looking beach, I think the town still has some work to do. It looks primitive, that could be a plus or minus depending on your preference. “Pedro the Poem writing and Dancing Mexican” approached us several times asking if he could write a poem for a dollar or dance. I wish I took a picture of this guy, he was classic.

 

Most sellers were friendly but very persistent. Always asking for “fighting Mexican chance” during haggling.

 

We opted for a massage on the beach, $10 each for 45 minutes. THIS was the highlight of my trip. For once, I was relaxed. We hit a little diner down the road, nowhere looked like a good place to eat, so we got a few beers and a Coke for the expecting wife. Okay, at first I thought the Coke was say, 10 years old judging from the bottle, now I know they reuse the same bottles. Hey, nothings wrong with the inside, right?

We headed back to the ship on the bus ride-o-death, fake Cubans in hand with a shot glass as a memento.

 

Cozumel… beautiful waters, saw some fishies! Walked the pier, dodged the shopping mall and walked some. Cozumel seemed more “modernized” with most prices set rather than asking and trying to haggle everything down to a dollar. I was disappointed that there was no beach to access.

 

I had to drop the wife off at the boat, the sewage/garbage smell plus the humidity made her a little nauseous.

 

There were still some “entrepreneurs” down a few alleyways in the flea market if you wanted to haggle, but most were specialty shops. Leather, diamonds, gold, tequila, pharmacy, etc. There were several places to eat that you would recognize, Hard Rock, Margaritaville, etc. And yes, they charge US prices, if not more, and are spicy. Chicken tenders never took a layer off my tongue before. Still burning.

 

So, tequila, REAL Cubans, and a shot glass in hand, I headed back to the boat.

 

This night was probably the worst, not because the ship was rocking, not because my wife was ill, not because the infirmary basically called my wife’s OB a moron because they have a biased against the patch, it’s because I could not get Chicken Noodle Soup for my sick wife. I now call this the “Soup Incident.”

 

Now, from what I understand, you are supposed to be catered by Carnival. Apparently this is not the case. I know they have it on the ship, because it was on the menu the night before. Also, when you’re sick, what soup do you go for, yes, something with a broth, or more over, porting in Bama, you better have chicken noodle soup. Wharf, did not have any, only a Lobster Bisque, which would not sound appealing on a healthy stomach. Room service didn’t have any soup. I spoke with the Maitre De at the Four Winds, he said he would look and call me. I felt he was going to take care of it so I went back and checked on the wife. She needed something to eat. 20 minutes, 30, 40, no calls. So I call the Pursor’s Desk.

 

Now, before I go any further. Most crew members are from different places with limited English speaking skills, I can only imagine the communication barrier between them personally.

 

The operator could not speak very good English, I tried to tell her about how I found the lobster bisque but needed chicken noodle soup or some chicken broth. I go ahead and order a turkey sandwich in hopes it would be something she could keep down. Pursor decides to intercept the order and send the carrier on a mission to find soup. I'm thinking, okay cool, soup will be here soon. Oh no, 30 mins later. Guess what soup I have? Oh yeah, Lobster bisque. The kind I specifically said not to bring me.

 

I go to the Seven Seas and talk to the Maitre De. He was more helpful suggesting the Won Ton since it had some chicken broth in it, but still could not get me chicken noodle soup.

 

It had to do, and of course she couldn’t eat it because she doesn’t like won ton soup.

 

The only thing I could muster was some crackers. Way to go Carnival, way to go. This story is going to continue with top Customer Reps very soon.

 

Anyway, back to the cruise, I ate with my bud and our waiter, Juan, who was the MAN by the way. Got pictures, post em later. Played a roulette, won some, then lost it at the BJ table (that’s Black Jack pervs), so I went and won some more at roulette and walked.

 

Last day at sea, pretty sunny, wife is feeling better, chill on the lido deck for a few hours. Pretty fun, little crowded. It’s a small ship but I still cant get over got ignorant some people are as they walk by and just stand in your face while a competition was going on. I figure they are rude or just ignorant. From what I saw, the girl from up north put on a hell of a lip synching show. Also, the other girl seemed to be the life of the party, I saw her on the re-runs of the hairy chest contest. She was classic, I think she was having a good time.

 

Rain came early afternoon and cooled everything off so the nice day came to a cool end.

 

Next morning, service for breakfast was terrible. Twenty minutes to get milk dude, twenty minutes!

 

Debarkation was pretty fast, but not for the others. We had to wait an extra hour for them to get to the car. You know what; I was expecting a scan of our carry on bags or something, not even a dog sniff. I could’ve brought 2 kilos on land with ease. Kind of scary.

 

Honestly, I came on the boat with high expectations from CCL commercials and was really disappointed in the cruise. If I knew what to expect, I think I would’ve had a great time. I was definitely turned off of smaller ships, but not cruising. It will get another shot on a bigger boat.

[Tapi]

Honestly, I came on the boat with high expectations from CCL commercials and was really disappointed in the cruise. If I knew what to expect, I think I would’ve had a great time. I was definitely turned off of smaller ships, but not cruising. It will get another shot on a bigger boat.

 

That's the attitude, and I'm glad that you aren't turned off from cruising. Had I been turned off by one bad cruising experience 23 years ago, I probably would've missed out on many, many, MANY great cruises that I have experienced after that.

 

IMO the Holiday is a great little ship, but it's definitely not the glitzy newer ship that you see on the Carnival TV commercials. It can definitely be deceiving. I still enjoyed my cruise aboard the Holiday 100%!

[browneyes7]

My husband and I loved the Holiday, also! We had a great time on our cruise. We did know ahead of time that it was a smaller and older ship than what we had been on before.

 

Happy cruising to all!!!

 

browneyes7:) :rolleyes:

[F5Loar]

Welcome to the world of cruising. Sounds like you made it over the hump and can now sit back and enjoy your nice one with some well gained knowledge from this one. While sickness of anytype is something you don't expect to happen to you on vacation it can. Maybe next time you'll have some Campbells Chicken noodle in your luggage. Lesson learned. Everyone expects to be pampered on any cruise and I really think they should have come up with the soup. However take the wonton out of the wonton soup and that should have been close. I enjoyed the French onion soup and that's close. You should have been able to buy a can in COZ. too. There was a CVS drugstore a half mile from the terminal. Ask for directions. Locals know these things. Once we found the first Cruise Terminal sign it was easy to get to the terminal. I think it was mentioned elsewhere the Carnival directions are wrong. Not good on their part. I learned the hard way in Tampa driving around looking for the Carnival terminal at the freight yard area. Asked and no one ever heard of a Carnvial ship in Tampa. Luckily they have a toll free number to call in case of this type emergency and they go us to the port 10 mins. before the ramp closed. Keep that number handy next time.

These cabins are bigger then most. We had plenty of room in an oceanside for 4 but then I'm only 6feet 210 pounds so you got me there. I can see where the beds might not quite fit on 6 1/2 feet. Since you seem to have weathered the weather and rough seas you can expect a smoother ride on a bigger newer ships as they have better controls to combate those things.

You didn't mention the brown water, the sewer smells, the vibrating loud noise at the back of the ship so maybe you escaped those adnormalities on the Holiday. Hope your wife feels better by now and your next cruise brings you much joy and happeness and far exceeds your expectations.

[7upp]

My wife and I, accompanied by our two children (13 and 11) travelled to Mobile from Ohio. I had intended on driving straight through (14 +/- hour drive), but opted to leave a day earlier and stop in Nashville, TN. We stayed at Drury Inn for the night...the price was reasonable and includes a few adult beverages and a hot breakfast. Regretably, it seemed the cold followed us into TN...when we left for the final leg of our pre-cruise drive it was 15 degrees. Sorry Nashville.

 

Friday...About one hour into the drive we had the wonderful experience of hitting a bale of hay that had flown off of a truck not too far ahead of us. Luckily for us, the bale's initial impact with the road broke it up enough that no damage was done to our car. What a shock though...almost got to make use of that trip insurance we purchased. The remainder of the drive to Mobile was uneventful. Again, we stayed At Drury Inn...can't beat those adult beverages.

 

Saturday...Cruise time!

Sorry Mobile, it appeared the cold even followed me down here! But at least it was a balmy 38 degrees! We left the hotel at 11AM and hopped onto the highway. A short jaunt down I-65 to I-10 East and we were almost at the terminal...according to my map and GPS. The wife and kids got pretty excited when they saw the ship. Unfortunatly, my map was off a little. I took the Water St exit, but it appeared that it dropped me off past where I needed to be. A few quick turns down some side streets and I was at the entrance to the parking deck...or so I thought. After the train passed by I drove on through only to find that I was apparently trying to go in the back way...oops...silly Yankee...what was I thinking (darn map!). I followed the directions the police officer gave me and got into the real line.

 

I found the initial parking deck staff somewhat harse...basically demanding boarding passes and passports. Hmmm...didn't know I needed them to park, but at least I had our passports handy and a copy of our Fun Pass. Next we were directed to drop off our luggage...at least I was ready for that. $75 later, we were parked on level 2 and headed towards the elevator for level 1. After another show of our passports, we were inside the terminal headed for the escalators to level 2...hmmm...were'nt we just there? Oh well, whatever.

 

Embarkation...have cruised last March on Glory at Port Canaveral, I must extend praise to the staff inside Mobile Terminal. This was by far the smoothest and easiest embarkation ever...there wasn't a 1-2 hour wait like Canaveral and the staff was very friendly. Within 25 minutes we were on the ship and getting some lunch from the buffet.

[7upp]

Our state rooms were available at about 1:30PM. We were on the Upper deck in room 138...this was a 2 twin, 2 bunk stateroom. The twin beds could be put together , but would make the room feel much smaller than it already did. Although the upper bunks were up, the kids were excited later when our stewart put them down for the night.

 

MUSTER...

Yikes...a necessary must (pun intended), but our life jackets were stored in a little correr cubby that doubled as an end table. When we opened the lid to get the life jackets out a horrible musty smell spewed out. It was clear that the life jackets had been put away wet at some point and the mildew smell was overbearing. As long as the life jackets were in the cubby and the lid was closed, everything was fine. Note to self...don't open the table ever again. The muster drill was over realatively quick and were were permitted to start our cruise fun.

 

HOLIDAY

We toured around the ship with the kids to familiarize ourselves with the ship. Being the smallest ship in the Carnival fleet, this didn't take long. However, compared to the Glory, one of the biggest ships, the Holiday was noticibly smaller...no problem, though as we knew this when we booked. In fact, this turned out to be a good thing (more on that later). The kids paid particular attention to the location of the ice cream machine...this would be one of their major attraction throughout the cruise. Holiday also has a 9 hole mini golf course on the forward deck...another plus. The kids also found the main pool and slide to be a major attraction later in the cruise (remember day 1 starts out at a balmy 38 degrees).

 

Food

We found the food to be excellent. Although we requested an earlier dinner seating, we were assigned the 8:30PM seating...a little late for the kids. None the less we made the best of it (that's what the buffet is for anyway). Our waiter, Awan, and his assistant, Ni (Ni Butu), were fantastic! The did a fabulous job and were deserving of the additional tip we left for them. Our glasses were never empy and we never had to wait for anything. In fact beginning on day 2, Awan knew that I would order 2 entrees and Ni would have my after dinner coffee ready as soon as desert was served. BRAVO!

 

PROGRESSO

This peer is huge...4+ miles long! We decided to take the Uxmal excursion. Although I thought the $71 per person was somewhat pricey, we didn't want to risk missing the ship by booking the excursion on our own. After seeing all the twists and turns, I'm glad we booked through the ship. With the shour 9 hours you spend in this port, there's not much time for mistakes. I must say this excursion was EXCELLENT. I only wish we could have spent more time there. It's 1 1/2 - 2 hours away from port so we were only able to spend 2 hours looking at these Mayan ruins. The Chichen Itza excursion had two FULL tour busses, but the UXMAL excursion only had 1 bus with 20 people...very comfortable. We took over 200 pictures...I'll see if we can't upload them for your viewing pleasure.

 

Part 3 coming soon.

[grammy c]

To all that have sailed the Hoiliday, loved it or hated it! It is what it is! One of the oldest, but still lovable by MANY! And, one that will be missed when it goes! To new cruisers I would have to say, if you experienced the Holiday first, I'm happy for you, you will soon see that bigger its not always better! Also, that cruising changes daily and all one needs to do is experience what is at hand, for tomarrow it will be gone! I have cruised large and small, but find that whatever you cruise, it is entirely up to you to enjoy what is there for the taking. The Holiday resides in my backyard, Mobile Bay, and I cruise her when I can. To all cruisers, may all your cruises be the ones you most antisipated!

[leedm]

Everyone who sails on the Holiday needs to understand BEFORE they sail she is an older ship and not one of Carnivals BEST. What the Holiday is a chance to cruise at a cheaper price and enjoy all the things Crusing provides. My DW and myself have cruised on the Holiday 2 times and are booked again 1 March. We have also cruised on Carnivals largest, each ship has its neg. and pos. If you enjoy CRUISING any ship big or small is enjoyable. Take each ship for what they are. If you don't like older small ships don't cruies the Holiday. Please don't give a rating of Holiday thinking she is Carnivals Best Ship at sea.

 

Leedm

[F5Loar]

How right you are. A great ship for first timers. Like this one? You'll love cruising from here on out and it didn't cost you so much to find that out since this is one of the few bargin CCL left. I go back to the Cunard Jewel and the Celebrity Meridian so I know what a small ship is about. The Holiday is a huge ship compared to those. And in 1985 when she left her first port it was the biggest cruise ship out there at the time except the Queen Mary.

Now that I think back on my 30 cruises (Holiday last week) the worst I can remember was pretty darn good. (Please don't ask me to name my worst one, I don't think I can!) Like others say you can find fault in any cruise but usually they are things you learn and learn to avoid the next time. Each new cruise brings a new adventure.

[shallow sea]

Sorry to hear it man. When I booked my first cruise I didn't even know that selecting one ship over another would make a difference. I got luckier than you did. You are "lucky" that you are open-minded enough to realize that your trip is not indicative or typical cruising and that you will try again.

[PINEVIEW01]

Holiday was my first cruise. At that time she was the biggest. I fell in love with her and cruising. The stateroom are the same 185 sq ft as the new ones, qalo. If you find the room to small stay off of the other lines, at least all but the newest, as you could find yourself in rooms that are as small as 122 sp ft. She does rock more than the new ones.

[qalo]

Oh, I didn't miss the smell or vibration. It smelled like the sea to me, just a little concentrated:D

 

I knew the rooms would be cramped, Im cool with that, it just took some getting used to. BEsides, they should only be for sleeping and umm...:cool:

 

I'll definitely try another cruise, but the thing I was looking that I needed on the Holiday was a big open room. The Americana was the closest thing and I spent a lot of time in there. I had a liking for the showgirl Terri;)

[F5Loar]

Some of the new ships have mini-suites and others just suites. Sounds like you need an upgrade!

[Kurbanfan]

 

I'll definitely try another cruise, but the thing I was looking that I needed on the Holiday was a big open room. The Americana was the closest thing and I spent a lot of time in there. I had a liking for the showgirl Terri;)

 

I agree. All the public places were just too cramped and small. Very claustrophobic to us.