Port Canaveral
We booked this trip a few months ago, choosing a balcony cabin, but less than a week before the cruise we got a phone call from Carnival offering us an upgrade to an Ocean Suite. I was surprised because the cruise had been completely sold out. There must have been a cancellation. After about two minutes of careful and thoughtful consideration, we took the upgrade. When else would we have a chance to stay in a suite??
One of the perks of being a suite guest is priority boarding so Ron and I arrived at Port Canaveral bright and early. We were among the first few people on the ship, right after the Diamond and Platinum guests. The first thing we did after we boarded was head up to the Red Frog Rum Bar so that Ron could sign up for the soda package and I could get my traditional Welcome Aboard mojito. Alas, fresh provisions hadn’t been delivered to the bars yet so there were no limes or mint to be found. I had to settle for a Welcome Aboard mudslide instead. It wasn’t quite the same, but I made do. :-)
We had lunch on the Lido Deck (a Guy’s burger for me and pizza for Ron) and then explored the ship until the cabins were ready at 1:30. Finally, we got to see our suite! Ok, if you’ve never been on a cruise, you might wonder what the excitement was about, but by cruise ship standards the cabin was HUGE. The balcony was twice as wide as a normal balcony with four chairs and two tables. And instead of the “luxury port-o-let” you get with a regular cabin, our bathroom had a bathtub and double sinks. But my favorite part of the room was the separate dressing area with a vanity table where I could do my hair and makeup while Ron was in the shower. Very convenient. I could definitely get used to the suite life!
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| Ocean Suite |
Once we unpacked, we went up to the adults-only Serenity area at the bow of the ship. We found two padded clam-shell chairs and chilled, enjoying the sunshine and the nice breeze. It was so relaxing that we both drifted off to sleep until a blast from the ship’s horn told us that it was time for the muster drill. When the drill was over, we went back to our cabin and watched the sail away from our balcony. We passed the massive Symphony of the Seas, currently the world’s largest cruise ship, as we headed out to sea. There were people lined up on Symphony’s decks and balconies, waving us farewell.
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| Serenity adults-only area |
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| pilot boat picking up the pilot |
A little after 6 o’clock, we headed to our assigned dining room, the Golden Olympian, for dinner. I’m not a big fan of Carnival’s new “American Table/American Feast” menus but my corn chowder and grilled mahi mahi were pretty good. Best of all, I was able to order gluten-free chocolate melting cake, which tasted exactly like the original version. Yummy! And unlike our cruise on Liberty last year where the dinners took two hours, service was quick and efficient with each course coming out right after we’d finished the last.
After dinner we went to the comedy show. Carnival does comedy very well, with multiple shows each night, some family friendly and some geared towards adults. This show was of the adult variety and the comedian, Vince Morris, was hilarious. His show was mostly improv, my favorite type of comedy. It always amazes me that someone can come up with such funny things on the fly. Vince talked about how people are so easily offended these days. While he was listing various offensive words, he noticed that a lady sitting near the front was translating to her tablemate in sign language. So of course, he started saying “Blowjob. Blowjob, blowjob!” to try to get her to sign it. Poor woman. But she handled it really well. Then about half way through the show, a young guy in the front got up to make a bathroom run. Rookie mistake. While he was gone, Vince found out that he was there with his parents and that he was single. By the time the guy got back from the bathroom, Vince had set him up with a girl in the audience, and another person had offered them their cabin for the night. The moral of this story is that you should never sit in the front row of a comedy show unless you want to be part of the act. And whatever you do, DON’T get up to go to the bathroom. :-)
When the show was over, Ron and I stopped by the piano bar for a few songs before heading off to bed.
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| Piano Man Bar |
Nassau
Since we didn’t arrive in Nassau until 10, we slept in and spent a leisurely morning on deck, watching the ship pull into port. I was excited about our plans for the day. A lot of people don’t like Nassau, but Ron and I have always found something fun and interesting to do there. We’ve been to Nassau so many times (three times just this year) that it’s starting to feel like a second home to us.
We’d signed up for the Bites of Nassau tour through Tru Bahamian Food Tours, something I’d been wanting to do for a while. The tour was a 3-hour walk around downtown Nassau that combined Bahamian history, culture and FOOD! Food is always interesting to me. :-) During the tour, we stopped at six different eateries and sampled all kinds of delicious Bahamian dishes, from conch fritters to chicken with peas and rice to rum punch and even chocolates from the Graycliff Chocolatier. As we walked from place to place, our tour guides Joy and Kyshana told us about Bahamian culture and explained the history of many of the buildings that we passed. It was a great tour and I learned quite a bit. (I will post a full review soon.) Afterwards, Ron and I walked back to Graycliff’s chocolate shop so I buy some more of those wonderful chocolates to take home.
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| Bites of Nassau Food Tasting and Cultural Walking Tour |
It was late afternoon by the time we got back on the ship. We went up on deck for a drink (I finally got my mojito!) and watched the sun setting over the city from the bow. I wondered how long it would be before we were back in Nassau. I’m guessing it won’t be very long.
That night was “elegant night”, and I was surprised how many people really dressed up for the evening. We saw lots of women in cocktail dresses, especially around the Promenade area where all the photographers were taking formal portraits. We opted to be a little more casual. On a three-day cruise, I’m just happy to get Ron to put on long pants. :-) After we’d eaten dinner, we went to the production show, “America Rocks!”. We rarely go to cruise shows anymore because, to be honest, most of them are a little cheesy. But this show looked promising, so we decided to give it a try. The show featured rock songs from the 80s with a live rock band, flashing laser lights and lots of energy. Before the show started, the crew handed out red, white and blue bandanas and glow sticks to the audience. Being from the 80s generation, Ron and I loved the music. The singing…well, not so much. They should have made the show an audience-singalong and it would have sounded better. :-) Oh well, at least it kept us out of the casino. We called it a night and went back to our cabin to watch Jurassic World from bed.
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| The Garden Atrium chandelier |
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| Alchemy Bar |
Sea Day
Saturday was a day for relaxing. We had breakfast at the Sea Day Brunch and hung out on our balcony, watching for flying fish. Since we had all day to get back to Port Canaveral, the ship was moving slowly, and the water was perfectly calm.
At around 11 we went up to the main pool area to get some sun. There were plenty of empty lounge chairs, although they were starting to fill up. I read about a page of my book and promptly fell asleep. When I woke up, the entertainment staff was getting ready to start the Hairy Chest Contest. The cruise director, Kyndall Fire (I’m pretty sure her last name isn’t really Fire), had the hairy contestants perform a few tasks, such as giving their best Tarzan yell. There was one older gentleman in the group, who Kyndall called “the silverback”. :-) After the final two contestants showed off their feminine sides by putting on whatever women’s accessories they could collect from the audience, Kyndall declared a tie.
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| Red Frog Rum Bar |
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| Kyndall with the hairy chest winners |
For lunch, Ron and I picked up tacos from the Blue Iguana Cantina and ate them at our lounge chairs. Then I fell asleep again. I couldn’t stay awake! I think the end of Daylight Savings Time had finally caught up with me. Lots of people love “Fall Back” because they get to sleep an extra hour. It doesn’t work that way for me. I still go to bed at the same time but instead of waking up at 5:30, I wake up at 4:30. I end up losing an hour of sleep every night until my body adjusts after about two weeks. Ugh! I wish they would leave the clock alone.
That night we hit the Alchemy Bar and went back to the comedy club to see Vince Morris one more time. Another cruise was quickly coming to an end. And another year too. This will be our last getaway for 2018, but we had some wonderful trips this year and now we’ve got a whole new year to anticipate.
Happy Traveling!
Susan’s favorites: the comedy shows, the great tour in Nassau and our suite
Ron’s favorites: ditto
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