The Bubble and Beads Tour, October 2010 - Page 13 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Discovered a misplaced photo from our Upachaya excursion
When Craig had first proposed this trip, I had responded hesitantly pointing out that it was still hurricane season. He had pointed out that it was the end of hurricane season and that it was unlikely that we would be affected by that. A big part of the reason we did the cruise was the low price tag. The reason it had the low price tag was the fact that it was hurricane season. This was the gamble we took when we signed up for the cruise. Prior to departure I was getting reports about the possibility of hurricanes and storms. I would regularly point out what we might expect to Craig. Now that we were facing the consequences of our decisions Craig was a little bit more put out than I was. I had been reading the boards on Cruise Critic and realized the gamble that we had taken. It really helped to develop an appropriate set of expectations before I even stepped foot on board the cruise ship to read those boards. Yes, it was disappointing that we would not be visiting Belize or Costa Maya today. But there are plenty of things to do on a cruise ship on a day at sea.
Wandering aboard the ship
I decided I would go and write in my journal this morning out on deck. I can’t recall what Craig had decided to do. I left and made my way to a low populated area of the Lido deck. As I was making my way I ran into Patty and her family who had staked out a table that was sandwiched between the 24 hour pizza bar and the New World Bar aft on the Lido deck. Patty (cosmocruisin) invited me to sit down and join them. I did just that. We were having a really good time chit chatting with her mother, their mother’s friend Louise, TJ and his wife, Patty’s husband Rick would occasionally pop by. Patty’s mom asked that we start to play a game of cards. I hardly know any card games. Patty’s mom insisted I join in to play and that it would be easy to learn. I tried to beg off and say that I would watch one round and then play. But she was not having that. So I started first with one game to see how things went. Surprisingly, I was able to hold my own. I think with the first game it came down to Patty’s mom and I. Everyone else got eliminated. Then I ended up losing. We played a different card game next. Once again I had to learn the ropes but I was much more willing to give it a go this time. We would bet but using a tin full of altoids instead of money. That’s the type of gambling I can afford! It was so much fun playing cards with this family. We just laughed and laughed. This second game required more memory skills. It was a good thing I hadn’t started to drink yet. It still was morning, remember. Not that that would stop fellow passengers because it’s 5 o’clock somewhere in the world! What an unexpected turn of events that was so much fun.
Patty and Louise
The card playing gang
It got to the point that hours had rolled by and I wanted to check on Craig and see how he was doing. I believe he must have been napping because why else would I expect him to be back in our room? I got back to our room and it was empty and the room had been cleaned by our room steward because the bed had been made. I hardly saw our room steward the entire week, which was fine. It was like the magic elves came and did their thing while we were away. They cleaned our room twice a day. They did their duties once in the morning and then once again in the early evening. Personally, I don’t see the need for that much service. I would have been totally fine with them servicing the room one time per day. That could be a way you could reduce costs of a cruise. Don’t suppose that Carnival would listen to that. I left our room and headed back to rejoin Patty and family. When I return guess who is sitting in my seat? Craig! It’s funny how that all turned out without the use of cell phones or even leaving a note.
Back at the time of our Meet ‘n’ Greet at the start of the cruise when we discovered that the itinerary was changing we figured out that we had to come up with a plan. Originally, on the message boards we had a designated day for a cabin crawl among the Cruise Critic members. We had scheduled it on a day at sea. However, with changes there was the potential that the day might now be a day at a port. I made the executive decision that the next day at sea, whatever day that was, would be the day of the cabin crawl. Today it turned out was going to be that day. What is a cabin crawl? Have you heard of a pub crawl? It’s like that except it is on a ship. The idea is that you get the opportunity to see how the other half lives. You tour around the ship visiting different friends accommodations aboard the vessel. Cruisecritic.com is a public forum. Any one can read those boards. There are some kooky people out there so we had one individual designated to receive via email peoples’ room number and cabin category. Our cabin crawl would start at noon. The thinking is we would have less trouble moving about the ship while everyone was busy eating lunch. Since we all knew when the cabin crawl would take place we could eat before and/or after the crawl. Plus, we have the added advantage of not having to navigate among the hordes as they wandered cluelessly through the South Beach Club and the Grand Buffet. Basically, Patty, Rick, family, Craig and I were already at the meeting spot. You had to pass by our table in order to get to the stairs that went up to the starting spot.
Joy had showed up with the list of people and their rooms. I had decided that the way we should progress through the cabin crawl is by increasing level of accommodations. It is the fairest way to get excited about each others rooms if you start out with an inside category and work your way up to a suite. Can you imagine the “wah-wah” horn of disappointment if you saw an inside after having seen an aft balcony room? While it would mean a bit more work wandering around the ship, it would build the excitement up as we worked our way to see the suite.
I needed to start this cabin crawl business with a beverage. I had forgotten to bring my souvenir plastic drink of the day glass with me. I left it back at the room. The reason why this is so important is because you get a discount if you are just “refilling” your glass with the drink of the day. I think it is something like $1-1.50 less expensive if you bring your own glass. I was not about to cart my a** all the way back to my room for that little bit of money. I just forked over my Sail ‘n’ Sign card. It turned out that today the color of the glass had changed. When we started out the cruise they were clear. Today the glasses were red. It turned out that my little lapse in memory proved fortuitous. Today’s Drink of the Day was the “Bahama Mama”. I’m not sure how Carnival makes them, but a traditional recipe for one is as follows:
Bahama Mama
1 ounce Rum
1/2 ounce Malibu
1/2 ounce Banana Liqueur
1/2 ounce Grenadine
1 ounce Pineapple Juice
1 ounce Orange Juice
Splash of Lemon Lime Soda
As the bartender made my drink, I mapped out the order of the cabin crawl path. Unfortunately, everyone who had signed up to join the cabin crawl did not make it to the starting point. Since I didn’t even belly up to the bar until after noon, I know that we gave plenty of leeway to latecomers. Others were also prepared with their beverages before we began. Drinking was optional. Craig was the designated driver and started the whole process sober.
We start the cabin crawl visiting Joy’s room. Joy had a regular inside category cabin that she was sharing with three other adult ladies. We didn’t have far to go this time because she was on the Lido deck which is where we started our tour. She had the room decorated very festively with a whole “Bon Voyage” theme. If you want tips on how to survive a cruise with four adults in an inside cabin, I would imagine that Joy has a number of tricks that could help you out. From Joy’s room we ventured out a “secret door” to her “private deck”. It is one of those public spaces of which people just are not aware. It was quite spacious. I literally was in awe when she took us all out to discover the “private deck”. Looking at the pictures I am counting 13 of us romping around the ship. In this case, 13 proved to be a lucky number.
Jay was in charge of the cabin crawl poker. He had decks of playing cards. Participation was optional. Each player put up $5 to play. At each stop of the crawl each player drew one card. At the end of the crawl, the pot is divided evenly between the person with the best poker hand and the person with the worst poker hand.
Next, we visited Jay and Heidi’s room. They had an inside room but the configuration was different because the room was rotated 90 degrees so that it was a sideways inside room. It was kind of cool to see the difference. Thankfully, the crawl was organized so that I didn’t have to think all that far back in my alcoholic haze to compare the difference between this and a traditional inside cabin. Jay offered us all a little fruit treat. He had brought on board some lychee fruit. They actually have a melon taste. There is a prickly rind you have to remove and then the inside is like a giant grape that tastes sweet and melon-y. Different countries have different varieties and different names. We met his cabin steward who went above and beyond throughout the week to help Jay out and did us all a special favor to aid in making the crawl amazing. It was against company policy, so I can’t discuss what he did but it made our trip so much better.
lychees!
My Bahama Mama needed refreshening. Off we go to the Capitol Bar on Deck 3! I took pity on these poor fools and not take the stairs. We all managed to squeeze into an elevator. The bartender took her time finding me, but find me she did. Not too many took advantage of this pit stop. I am a much focused individual. If I am waiting on a beverage I can think of little else. Others took photographs here. I did not.
Next stop is my Outside View room. Craig and I were the only ones who had this category and folks were surprised by the amount of space we enjoyed. Actually, the room itself has more space at 220 square feet than the balcony rooms because their square feet is given up for the balcony. It probably is among the largest rooms in the industry for non-suites. We had some nuts left over from our Upachaya excursion and shared them around.
Our room
Ok, now it gets a little fuzzy in terms of order. On that day I had alcohol and now it is a couple of months later. I can tell you we saw a number of balcony rooms. One of which was Doug and Andy’s room. At Doug and Andy’s room there was a mini-bar. We had an assortment of beverages from which to choose. Then I start hearing the word “shots”. We all start to do a variety of shots. I can’t recall what exactly I had. But whoo! These folks don’t mess around!
We saw an L-shaped balcony. We saw an aft balcony. Bob and Sylvia were wonderful hosts. If memory serves me right, this is where I had the whisky shots. Someone along the way had this incredible whisky that had a cinnamon like taste. It was powerful stuff. Betty and Larry were so much fun and had oodles of mardi gras beads to share along with Halloween candy treats. By now I am feeling no pain. Everyone is having a blast and laughing hysterically.
We needed to use the elevators quite frequently. On one visit to the elevator we all squeezed in with an unsuspecting passenger. He was a very good sport. I believe that Doug flirted with him in a very non-threatening, semi-drunk kind of way. The fellow passenger was such a trooper and responded back in a jocular way. I recall him referring to the size of a body part. Anyway, we would wander through the hallways of the ship going from room to room. I was rather quiet. These folks were LOUD! They were loud in a mid-day, boisterous, let loose kind of way. It was obvious that we were harmless. Plus, there was hardly anybody about. But when on occasion we would pass another passenger(s), we would get looks like “what is this all about? What is going on?”. The laughter among our group was ongoing.
TJ, who I had played cards with earlier in the day, had agreed to open up his room to us. It was getting to the time when we wanted to visit his room. Patty called him up with her cell phone and told him we were on our way. She might also have needed to get his room number. I’m not sure. Let’s face it, we all were drinking quite a bit and she would be forgiven not to remember his room number. In fact, by this time Craig had had an occasional beverage himself. Of course, he was the most sober of us all by now.
I think TJ wasn’t quite ready for us so we went on to see Patty and Rick’s room. Patty shortly before our departure had upgraded her room to a suite. Sweet! It was amazing. It was so great to be able to see what a suite is like. They got lots of ooh’s and aaah’s. Rick had a little stuffed monkey that could be shot around the room like a sling shot. The monkey is given to a co-worker whenever they go on a trip. So this monkey has been around the world and then some I imagine. This week it was Rick’s turn to be in charge of the monkey.
As we make our way to TJ’s room a woman runs into us and is curious. We tell her what we are doing and she joins in. It turns out she is a amateur photographer. She was more than happy to take a picture of all of us in TJ’s balcony room
The Cruise Critic crew will make havoc on this hallway in a matter of moments
Everyone was having such a good time we didn’t want to split up. I had mentioned that it was getting close to the time when Craig wanted to do karaoke. Suddenly everyone wanted to see Craig sing. The vast majority of us went down to check out karaoke. There was limited space in the Venezia Lounge so we just invaded The Big Easy lounge that was empty. Carnival cruise employees are sharp eyed. Before you knew it there was a waitress there ready to take drink orders. Doug and Andy were incredibly generous and bought everyone a round of drinks. Let me tell you something. Heidi did not need any more beverages. She was feeling no pain and was in love with everyone. Well, she especially loves Craig. I must say she has good taste. Have you ever met a loveable drunk? That’s Heidi. Actually, she’s quite loveable when she’s sober too. Craig had put in his song request at karaoke and we all just chatted away as we waited for his name to be called. As he waits he runs off and gets some food to eat in the Big Easy Lounge because he is starving.
While Craig runs off to get food, we find out who has won the cabin crawl poker. I don’t recall who had the best and worst hand. Something tells me the two winners were Patty and Heidi. Anyway it really doesn’t matter because I did not win.
Rick and Patty enjoying down time at the Big Easy Lounge
Jay sportin' the great door hang as an accessory and Heidi is the best accessory of all
Joy relaxing
NEXT: Craig has been drinking and now Craig hits the stage. Will it be a huge drunken mess of a disaster?
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Such a shame to have missed Costa Maya!! It was one of my favorite ports. I saw the Chacchoben(?) ruins there. I loved how it was set up, the water so beautiful. But my grandma and I didn't waste any time meeting up with our tour. Lol
The cabin crawl sounds like a ton of fun!! Glad you had such a great time, looking forward to more!
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I'm enjoying your trip report so much! It really helps to make me forget about the cold weather here. My family of 4 has cruised twice during hurricane season. It enables us to get the best cabin we can for the price we're willing to pay. I made sure my husband & kids knew what to expect if we ran into a hurricane. 1st time - no problem. 2nd time this past August we had to miss our stops in St. Thomas & St. Maarten due to bad weather. Instead we were re-routed to Costa Maya & Cozumel. Yes, it was disappointing to miss our planned excursions, but we quickly found something to do in each new port & had just as good a time. I would have also enjoyed an additonal day at sea. If you know that might happen, you're better equipped to handle whatever comes up.
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I'm so not a winter person! I actually started planning a budget trip to Florida for the summer because I want to think about the sun 
Sorry about missing Belize and Costa Maya!
It really helps to make me forget about the cold weather here. My family of 4 has cruised twice during hurricane season. It enables us to get the best cabin we can for the price we're willing to pay. I made sure my husband & kids knew what to expect if we ran into a hurricane. 1st time - no problem. 2nd time this past August we had to miss our stops in St. Thomas & St. Maarten due to bad weather. Instead we were re-routed to Costa Maya & Cozumel. Yes, it was disappointing to miss our planned excursions, but we quickly found something to do in each new port & had just as good a time. I would have also enjoyed an additonal day at sea. If you know that might happen, you're better equipped to handle whatever comes up.
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