The Bubble and Beads Tour, October 2010 - Page 10 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I just found this - sounds like overall you had a wonderful vacation! We're hoping to get to NOLA this fall - it's been on my list for years and I think maybe we'll make it in September!
Oh my gosh, I totally agree with you about how helpful Cruise Critic is! Thanks to a post there I learned about a promotion Tropicana and NCL were doing and it got us a $100 OBC. And right before our final payment was due, I found some posts saying that fares had dropped substantially from what we had paid. When all was said and done we got a refund of $900! So Cruise Critic saved us $1000! And it prepared me to not have expectations of thinking we were cruising on the QE2. It was good to know in advance what to expect so that we wouldn't be disappointed -- although it surpassed everything I did expect. I didn't have the experience you had with meeting a group of cool people from our Roll Call though -- the people on our Roll Call only seemed interested in booking independent tours and not socializing. NCL gave us a room in one of the specialty restaurants on our ship so we could have a Cruise Critic meet n greet (with juice and coffee and snacks and a bunch of the officers came to meet us too) and I swear if there'd been a rainstorm in that room a whole bunch of CC members would've drowned. In fact, there was another CC member named Donna who arranged one of the independent tours and one person came up to me thinking I was her - when she found out I wasn't that Donna she dropped me like a hot potato. Not even a "nice to meet you but I have to go stand over there now". We did meet one guy from Cruise Critic that we became friendly with and we hung out with him when we could. I wish we could've done more with him actually and we keep in touch now. But the Friends of Dorothy meets were well attended on our ship and he spent a lot of time there with his new friends. (BTW, I'm not outing him. Although it was cute when he outed himself to us... Like you, my Gaydar works fine so we were like "it's ok, we already knew, but guess what -- we don't care" )
We had Free Style Dining on NCL which is the same thing as Your Time Dining. We chose to share tables a few times at the beginning of our cruise, but we found that they liked to put 4 couples together at a table and inevitably one couple would pretty much get left out. Now, I can talk to a fence post and Dan's the same way, so it was never us, but I felt really badly for the people that were the wallflowers. After a few days we met a great group of people on an excursion so we either ate alone or ate with them and I much preferred that.
And FWIW, except for the White Hot White Hot one, I wasn't too impressed with the parties NCL held either. There was a Sail Away BBQ but other than that nothing really celebratory was done. In fact I didn't realize we were moving until probably a minute after we'd already left! I thought there'd be a huge racket or the ship would blow her horn or something, but nope. Country Night was a lot of line dancing and although they did teach us a few line dances, it still left a bunch of folks out. Eventually they quit with that nonsense and let us all two step and dance like we wanted to. Did they make you buy all those stupid Drink of the Day glasses or could you get them in a regular glass? That was my only real complaint about the entire cruise - contrary to what I had read on Cruise Critic the pool bartenders wouldn't sell cocktails (not just the DotD cocktails) unless you bought the souvenir glass. Anybody want a plastic NCL glass? I have a few...
Even with the many changes it looks like a great time! I think your afternoon at the all inclusive was fantastic--even if it required a few changes along the way! Great photos too! Keep them coming!
I'm loving the cruise updates, but I can't wait to hear about the rest of your stay in New Orleans. Let me know if you are ever headed back my way!
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More wonderful updates Douglas! I'm fascinated to read how everything works on Carnival, particularly your comments about the announcements and how hard it was to find your independently booked tour guides.
Yeah, sometimes the announcements were necessary. For example, when they informed us of the itinerary change. But I just am not a fan of using the public address system. It's a very minor thing and it wasn't like the announcements were constant or anything.
It was only at Roatan that Carnival makes it difficult to find the independents. That's because they are trying to create their own private island there. At least there are independent options. Think about Castaway Cay. Are there any independent options or is everything connected to Disney? What would happen if you wanted to run a catamaran business in the Bahamas and you wanted to offer an adventure to the folks stopping at Castaway Cay and you didn't want to share your earnings with Disney?
Wow, I watched your choir "flash mob" video and you guys sound amazing!
Your breakfast looks soooo good! It's pretty much exactely what I had every morning during our last cruise I love a good omelet but I'm too lazy to make one myself at home in the mornings.
Thanks Sabine! We try to do a mix of different genres so that there is something for everyone. In April we will be doing a concert called "Cherish the Child". I think the title sums it up.
You should be enjoying the report because I am sure that every installment will have pictures of food. Hahahha. Every time Craig comes for a visit I make him omelets.
The set-up (or lack thereof!) at Mahogany Bay is ridiculous. Glad you found your tour. The video of your choir is wonderful. You all sound fantastic! It's not easy to sing as a group when you're all spread out like that.
Yeah, I was not pleased with how Carnival is treating the independents. However, it is very clear that they are trying to make their little part of Roatan just like a private island. So it would be like you wanted to have your own independent snorkel company and then you decide you are going to service the visitors to Castaway Cay but you aren't going to pay Disney anything. You know that would not fly with them at all. At least I had the option of dealing with independent tour operators.
Love the Flash Mob video! Just once I'd love to be somewhere when one breaks out!
Glad you were able to find your group for the snorkeling tour - didn't sound as though Carnival Co. made that easy!
Yeah, I've never been fortunate to be there when I would be a spectator. That would be cool as long as it was the performance kind of flash mob. Here in Philly we've had some experience with large groups of teens who communicate via social networks and then converge on a location only to harass and cause harm to anyone in that location. It has given a bad name to the term flash mob.
No, Carnival didn't make it easy. But in all fairness I don't think the Disney corporation operates all that differently. Disney likes to capture as much of the market share from top to bottom too.
The flash mob video is great- I bet that would be a blast to participate in!
Great update; looking forward to more....
It was a blast! Here is a little insider bit of gossip. I am friends with the Director of food and beverage at the Ritz Carlton so we all had some liquid refreshment beforehand. I was feeling mighty good by the time we got started.
I just found this - sounds like overall you had a wonderful vacation! We're hoping to get to NOLA this fall - it's been on my list for years and I think maybe we'll make it in September!
Oh my gosh, I totally agree with you about how helpful Cruise Critic is! Thanks to a post there I learned about a promotion Tropicana and NCL were doing and it got us a $100 OBC. And right before our final payment was due, I found some posts saying that fares had dropped substantially from what we had paid. When all was said and done we got a refund of $900! So Cruise Critic saved us $1000! And it prepared me to not have expectations of thinking we were cruising on the QE2. It was good to know in advance what to expect so that we wouldn't be disappointed -- although it surpassed everything I did expect. I didn't have the experience you had with meeting a group of cool people from our Roll Call though -- the people on our Roll Call only seemed interested in booking independent tours and not socializing. NCL gave us a room in one of the specialty restaurants on our ship so we could have a Cruise Critic meet n greet (with juice and coffee and snacks and a bunch of the officers came to meet us too) and I swear if there'd been a rainstorm in that room a whole bunch of CC members would've drowned. In fact, there was another CC member named Donna who arranged one of the independent tours and one person came up to me thinking I was her - when she found out I wasn't that Donna she dropped me like a hot potato. Not even a "nice to meet you but I have to go stand over there now". We did meet one guy from Cruise Critic that we became friendly with and we hung out with him when we could. I wish we could've done more with him actually and we keep in touch now. But the Friends of Dorothy meets were well attended on our ship and he spent a lot of time there with his new friends. (BTW, I'm not outing him. Although it was cute when he outed himself to us... Like you, my Gaydar works fine so we were like "it's ok, we already knew, but guess what -- we don't care" )
We had Free Style Dining on NCL which is the same thing as Your Time Dining. We chose to share tables a few times at the beginning of our cruise, but we found that they liked to put 4 couples together at a table and inevitably one couple would pretty much get left out. Now, I can talk to a fence post and Dan's the same way, so it was never us, but I felt really badly for the people that were the wallflowers. After a few days we met a great group of people on an excursion so we either ate alone or ate with them and I much preferred that.
And FWIW, except for the White Hot White Hot one, I wasn't too impressed with the parties NCL held either. There was a Sail Away BBQ but other than that nothing really celebratory was done. In fact I didn't realize we were moving until probably a minute after we'd already left! I thought there'd be a huge racket or the ship would blow her horn or something, but nope. Country Night was a lot of line dancing and although they did teach us a few line dances, it still left a bunch of folks out. Eventually they quit with that nonsense and let us all two step and dance like we wanted to. Did they make you buy all those stupid Drink of the Day glasses or could you get them in a regular glass? That was my only real complaint about the entire cruise - contrary to what I had read on Cruise Critic the pool bartenders wouldn't sell cocktails (not just the DotD cocktails) unless you bought the souvenir glass. Anybody want a plastic NCL glass? I have a few...
You hit the nail on the head when it comes to the benefit of using Cruise Critic message boards. For me, the biggest value was setting up appropriate expectations so that I could enjoy my vacation.
NCL spearheaded the freestyle dining movement and now I believe all of the mainstream cruise lines except for Disney seem to be implementing some form of that model. The newer cruisers seem to prefer it while the veteran Carnival cruisers prefer the set dining time because they get a wait staff that seems to anticipate all of their needs before they even think of what their need could be.
As far as the souvenir glass goes, on Carnival if you just wanted a garden variety cocktail you could get an ordinary glass. However, for the Drink of the Day it paid to get the souvenir glass because if you used your souvenir glass for a refill the beverage was discounted. So I was using that glass from day one which I kept in my room to get discounted beverages all week long. Another trick I learned from Cruise Critic.
Among our group of cruisers, we had veteran Carnival cruisers who had been on over 10 Carnival cruises. They reported to me that they never experienced such a fun group of Cruise Critic members on a ship before. We definitely were a lively bunch and I will prove just how lively on an upcoming dispatch.
Even with the many changes it looks like a great time! I think your afternoon at the all inclusive was fantastic--even if it required a few changes along the way! Great photos too! Keep them coming!
I'm loving the cruise updates, but I can't wait to hear about the rest of your stay in New Orleans. Let me know if you are ever headed back my way!
I definitely will give you a heads up. Craig has been to New Orleans several times so I know that it's a favorite destination for him. I don't think I am ruining my trip report to make the blanket statement that I absolutely New Orleans. It has a flavor all its own. Ooo! I like that comment. I'll have to use that again.
The owner makes sure everyone is all set and ready to go
The assistant handles our gear to ensure a safe outing
I'm all ready to move into this beautiful, large home. How about you?
When we arrived at Upachaya, we were given a waiver to sign away our life which is standard procedure. Basically, it said they were not responsible should I get injured or killed or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, give me the pen. Next we were outfitted with snorkel, mask, and fins. Our snorkel guide, his assistant, and the owner of Upachaya walked us down to the boat. As we motored our way out to sea we passed by an incredibly beautiful and huge home. How wonderful it must be to live there!
We were taken out into the sea, not too far from land. The owner had stayed behind so it was us twelve adventurers and the guide and his assistant. The staff at Upachaya is excellent. It was great going out in the water with such a small group. I loved how no one else could be seen. I would imagine the hordes of people from the cruise ship would scare away a lot of aquatic life. We were taken to two different locations to go snorkeling. As soon as we were underway in the boat we were offered water, beer, or soda. The second location was the more dramatic of the two. I had never been snorkeling before. I would not recommend this tour for beginners. Basically, we were given our gear and off we went into the water. I’m a decent swimmer. That was not an issue for me. For whatever reason, I just could not get the hang of breathing through that tube. I barely got to see anything at the first location. When we got back to the boat, I had decided I would just sit it out because I obviously needed more time to acclimate myself to snorkeling. The guide was very disappointed and was very adamant that I at least give it a try. Once we got to our second location everyone got into the water and once they got underway I had a change of heart. I’m glad I did because amazingly enough I managed the knack of taking the leap of faith that I would be able to breathe through this tube. Part of it was I held the tube securely into my mouth with one hand while I swam with the other hand. Once I got the hang of things I was able to see incredible coral, tiger fish, star fish, barracuda, all sorts of things. It was beautiful. I would love to share pictures but I didn’t have an underwater camera. There was a sea wall that was absolutely amazing.
After this second location we headed back to Upachaya home base. Once there we entered a little one room house to enjoy a home made lunch by one of the owners. I don’t know if it was because I had worked so hard swimming or if I was incredibly hungry but that was an incredibly delicious lunch. She made the best broccoli rabe dish EVER! I loved the quinoa salad. It was so yummy and so good for you. I had watermelon and a bag of nuts. My huge slab of papaya was mmm, mmm good!
The owners of the operation are a husband-wife team. They gave up corporate America to move to Roatan after a visit. This is their dream. They are creating a spa resort little by little. Barbara, the owner was more than happy to talk about their experiences in Roatan, about the local culture, their plans for their business. She even went into detail about what it would have taken to become a tour operator associated with Carnival. Basically, it would have required them to take out an inordinate amount of money for insurance and then Carnival would charge double what they were charging for the tour. She didn’t like those terms. They currently are grooming our 16 year old assistant to become a guide for a kayak tour of Roatan. He will be absolutely great. He was such a sweet and helpful young man.
After lunch we got back into the van. Before you knew it we were dropped off right where they picked us up. Basically Mahogany Bay is much like the private islands of the cruise companies. It is a similar set up to what Castaway Cay, Coco Cay, and others are like. Only Carnival has carved out a port on the Honduran island of Roatan. Just like a Disney park we had to go through a souvenir shop that reminded me of an airport duty free shop to get back to our ship.
Craig had a pair of sandals that now smelled so horrifically it was turning my stomach. I swear to you they smelled like vomit. I had brought along Clorox wipes. We tried wiping them down. It made a dent, but just barely. He tried ripping out the layer that came into contact with the sole of your foot. No good. So at this point we went into some shops to find him some new sandals. In one shop, I found these great pair of simple brown leather sandals for $12. I liked them so much I wanted to get a pair for myself later. We immediately tossed those nasty old sandals of his into the garbage.
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In fact, there was another CC member named Donna who arranged one of the independent tours and one person came up to me thinking I was her - when she found out I wasn't that Donna she dropped me like a hot potato. Not even a "nice to meet you but I have to go stand over there now". 
We did meet one guy from Cruise Critic that we became friendly with and we hung out with him when we could. I wish we could've done more with him actually and we keep in touch now. But the Friends of Dorothy meets were well attended on our ship and he spent a lot of time there with his new friends. (BTW, I'm not outing him. Although it was cute when he outed himself to us... Like you, my Gaydar works fine so we were like "it's ok, we already knew, but guess what -- we don't care" 
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I'm fascinated to read how everything works on Carnival, particularly your comments about the announcements and how hard it was to find your independently booked tour guides.
New Orleans. It has a flavor all its own. Ooo! I like that comment. I'll have to use that again.
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