teamhutchens

Hi everyone! Here are some thoughts I had about our cruise: • Not a fan of the long drive, nope, I cannot drive more than 8 hours anymore in a day. o The drive to NOLA was 12 hours, we decided to leave on Thanksgiving to miss the traffic, that part worked, but one thing we forgot was that the food places would be closed for Thanksgiving. We did eat at Bojangles before they closed at 2 PM. When we got to Atlanta, the few places that were open were packed, we bought subs and sandwiches from a RaceTrack store, we did not spring for the gas station sushi however. • Will not be paying for the boys and their girlfriends to go anymore. They can go on a cruise, but they will be in their own separate cabins (2 to a room on their dime). • The hotel we stayed at was nice enough for a one night. We hit the road the next morning and were off to NOLA. • Not a fan of NOLA o We were probably NOT in the best part of the city, BUT dang! We thought we had found a kewl place for gumbo and bought an online coupon for it, but when we got there, the Cajun Daiquiri and Café was just a Daiquiri shop the kitchen was closed at 4. • The embarkation process at NOLA was on the verge of controlled chaos, not really a fan. • I did like the Triumph, but I like the Fantasy class ships better o The ships I have been on did not have the upgrades, but now with most of the Fantasy class having the upgrades, I will stick with them, I did not the extra people. I know there is a trade off in the size of the ship will hold more people but just liked the smaller size for the Fantasy class. I would like to try the Magic or a member of the Dream class for comparison • Loved the SeaDay Brunch of course o Now you know I love the Steak and eggs, the steak was a bit smaller than I remember it, but it was very good. • Not a fan of the Lido eating due to the crowds and trying to get a seat for all of us. o I do understand that I have a special issue with Kyle and not being able to leave him alone of have him carry his food, but just the basic crowd in the Lido deck turned me off. They were nice, but still just a drag trying to get around. • Did not get off the ship in Progresso still had a good time on the ship. o We just did not see an excursion that we wanted to do, so we just chilled out on the ship, it was nice, even without the Casino. • Had a good time at the El Cid resort o I do recommend this excursion, it was all inclusive, the pool water was a bit cool for me, but the hot tub was great and right next to the bar. I was expecting some kind of bill at the end, but yes it was indeed an all inclusive drink and food excursion and within 2 blocks of the ship. Now, I did take a cab back to the ship with Samantha and Kyle, Kyle is not able to walk very well for a long distance, the guy at the resort got us a cab for $7. • Internet was ok, but this website hated it o The kids did not have a problem with the Internet, but they have better phones than I do. I used the ships computers, very nice HP all in one computers, not too shabby pcs. NO CRT monitors lol. • When we came back from Progresso the Internet was not happy with crossing into another Time zone and would not work. • After leaving Progresso, the ship encountered a propulsion issue and could not get above 13 knots, the ship is usually capable of 23 knots. o This delayed us getting back to NOLA from 8 AM to 8 PM Thursday evening. The ship had an information session with the Cruise Director Jess from the US (a bundle of energy, that is how she always introduces herself), then a Q&A session with the Ships Senior Management team. It started out nice, but then it got rough. Carnival is offering $200 to help with making connections for flights. There is a problem though, the people were encountering significantly higher prices to make changes in their flights if ANY were available. o Anyone who wanted to was able to stay on the ship Thursday evening without charge, but had to leave between 6 and 8 AM. We stayed on the ship, had a nice dinner and then had to disembark about 8 PM and get back on the ship, this was pretty disorganized, but we made it. o We were given credit for the extra day on our VIP status so I will be going Gold on our next cruise when Danyl does (She has one more 4 day cruise than I do) We have now crossed a cruise from NOLA off our list, unless Danyl and I get a fabulous deal on a cruise from NOLA, we will not be going back to that port. We are looking forward to the cruise in February by ourselves.

It was an enjoyable cruise, there were some ups and downs. The food of course, started tasting the same after the 3rd day. The ship was clean, no mechanical issues, great staff! Tampa embarkation went very well, no staggered boarding like we had on CCL, but we did get there at 10 and were taken right on board. This was very new to us and very enjoyable. Once on board, we hit the WindJammer, the pizza was definitely better than CCL, but there were only 2 choices of pizza. The rest of the Windjammer was nice, there was suckling pig along with your normal foods. The salad bar was good, but I liked the one on CCL Fantasy class ships better. The layout of the Windjammer was very nice with islands for different foods. We had an inside stateroom that was supposed to have a trundle bed for Kyle. We saw that there was pullman's in the room and waited for the trundle bed until after supper. We got back and a pullman was brought down from the ceiling. NO GO. Contacted Guest Services, but they said the trundle bed was against the safety rules. We advised that Kyle might fall from the bed and that was a safety issue. They offered to separate us into different rooms, still no go. We advised that we would just pull the mattress from the pullman and put it on the floor, again against the safety rules. We said we would work it out. Came back a bit later and a trundle bed was in the room. The MDR was nice, Miguel and Jose took very good care of us, we ate there 4 fo the 5 nights. The Windjammer had a great lady Lizzie taking care of everyone out there. Rockwall, Chris climbed the Easy and Medium levels. Mini Golf - we did not do. Casino- we went there one day, smoking is restricted to one area of it. You feed the machines with money, not like on CCL where you used your S&S card. There were VERY few kids or people our age on the ship, mostly an older, more laid back crowd. Kinda missed the hustle and bustle of the CCL ship. Key West and Cozumel were like Key West and Cozumel. Really enjoyed the SeaDays, even slept in a lounge chair. The Solarium was very nice, the sea water was different, this was the first time I have been in the pool on a ship. Very interesting with the extra buoyancy of the sea water. We had a great trip overall, even saying that, we will probably go back to CCL for our next cruise or try a NCL cruise. Brian

Good morning everyone! Trying to get rid of this cold mess that i got from Danyl.

It started with dropping off our youngest pooch Rosey at the Vet for boarding and for her to get fixed while we were gone. Then we had a very LONG drive to Miami left at 8 AM arrived at Miami about 10 PM due to stopping for gas, food and restroom breaks) from NC on Black Friday and stayed at Comfort Suites in Dania, FL about 30 mins from the cruise terminal. I want to caution you that there is a "Port of Miami Cruise Parking" that is NOT at the POM. We had set out directions to that one and decided against it, just did not appear to be a good setting, so we drove on to the REAL Port of Miami and parked there. The embarkation was not as smooth as it was in Charleston last year, but not bad.

Once we were on the ship, things were great! We ate at the Southern Comfort portion of the Lido Deck. We went to our room and rested until the Muster Drill. It went well, we had the briefing and then went to the lifeboat area. We went back to the room and rested until time for supper. We decided against the MDR and went to the LIDO and had a relaxing supper.

1st Sea Day one of my sons came to me and let me know that he has lost his wallet, I asked him where he had last seen it and he said right there on the desk in the cabin. we tore the cabin apart looking for it, i went to the muster station area checked out the seats there, the casino and went to Guest Services. He had already called and they had not seen the wallet. I asked them to check again and the wallet was there, with the money inside. Sea Day Brunch - I live for this! loved the Steak and Eggs! Had a relaxing day at Sea, hit the casino and assisted Danyl in the Bingo Hall, bought some tshirts from the funshops then got ready for the MDR and enjoyed the Steakhouse Selections Lobster tail. We went to a playlist production of piano tunes and some real rock thrown in.

Grand Cayman's - we did the Amphibious Bus tour, and had a great time. I do want to say that the food at the Royal Palms was overpriced and there was not enough time to enjoy it. We only had 45 mins there, so please DO NOT spend your time eating at the Royal Palms, the food was good, (very good wings, conch fritters and POUTINE – Joe and Dom, yes they had some very good poutine) The tour guides were great, however and entertaining. They took us out in the water close to where the ship was anchored. We were shown shipwrecks as we passed over them. We were able to feed the fish by throwing out pieces of bread.

Jamica - we did the Top ten of Jamaica, Angela did great as a tour guide, they took us up to top of the mountains and showed us cocoa (gave everyone a piece from a cocoa plant to suck on), cooking herbs and allowed members of the bus to walkover and buy some of the cooking herbs. They also took us to a very scenic area in the mountains for pics and restroom break. During one of the stops, we had limited time at a shopping center, the group bought some items and left. we continued on, got lunch for $5 at a jerk place. then continued on, near the end the bus notified the driver and Angela that they had to return to one of the earlier spots. One of the watch places file a POLICE REPORT that the tour guide interfered with their selling one of the tourists buying a watch. #Givemeabreak

Sad day at sea, still had a great time! loved the ship! Danyl lost our camera bag and camera in the casino. Keleigh, one of the Pit Bosses took our name and room numbers in case she found it. I went down to the Guest Services and it was there, they had already cataloged the contents separating her diabetic kit, testing supplies and needles. All was there. Thanks to the always watchful security onboard.

Dolhma in the Lido inside restaurant was a treasure for us to talk to, she was so interested in hearing about where we were from and how she wanted to get to see different places inside the us like the Blue Ridge Parkway and up north at Niagara Falls.

Aristole – our lead waiter in the MDR rocked! Poor guy he tried his best to get a handle on what I would want to drink – lol good luck with that! He did get what everyone else wanted after the first night we were in there. He has 2 more cruises to go then he is retiring and will see his daughter back in the Manilla for the first time.

Zindi – our cabin steward was great also! She took great care of our rooms!

Things i did not like - it looks like bitter n blanc along with the grand marnier souffle have been removed from the dessert menu. Humans during disembarkation, the crew tried their best, but some people wanted to be self important jerks.

It was a great cruise, hated to see it end, stayed in Savannah, GA on the way back at the Springhill Suites by Marriott. Nice hot breakfast included, very clean place. We are going to look into flying down in May for the Vista cruise, right now, however, it looks like it will cost about $300 a person * 5 = 1500. A bit out of our price range.