The Bubble and Beads Tour, October 2010 About This Page:

[DouglasE]

We are dropped off at Playa del Carmen and informed that we now have free time to explore. The ferry should be at the dock in a little over an hour and we are to reconvene at this spot of park benches near the tall flag pole by the dock. As soon as we heard that, Craig and I wasted no time and off we went. First on the agenda was peeking our heads in various souvenir shops. We were dropped off on a major drag of town and the shopkeepers here are on the aggressive side. Even when you tell them that you have no money at all they insist you must come in and take a look. At one shop a merchant showed me a whole variety of jewelry items. Seriously, I don’t have money to spare. Craig isn’t interested. I make my apologies and leave.

We discover a pedestrian only street and continue to peruse the offerings of various shops. The ones on this street are more appealing. Craig begins to shop for his niece and the folks that are watching his dogs for him. These shops have just the type of thing for which he is looking. He just wants little knick knacks to show his appreciation.

After finding some gifts, he stops into a coffee shop to get a caffeine fix. Craig loves his coffee. I am not a coffee drinker at all. Somehow I escaped the need for coffee or tea on a regular basis. While he was ordering I went off a bit to take pictures of the area. When he finds me he realizes he left his little backpack back at the coffee shop. Probably all sorts of valuable stuff was in there. Thank goodness he realized he left it for only a few moments. The pedestrian walkway is very picturesque and thankfully shaded by many trees. We would not have found it had our tour guide not directed us.











We turn left off of the pedestrian walkway and walk over to the beach. While there we lazily wander along the ocean getting our feet wet. Once again the charms of Playa del Carmen work their magic on me. We decide it is time to walk our way back to meet our tour group and get the ferry back to the ship. I figure that we could save some time and cut through a patch of beach. As we head in the direction of our meeting spot we are stopped by what looks to be a security officer who starts to question us in Spanish. Neither my or Craig’s Spanish skills are adequate to the task. I believe what we were attempting to do is walk through a hotel’s private beach. In order to be on this stretch of beach you needed a wrist band. Actually, the biggest appeal of having the wrist band was that they were having an outdoor barbeque. Craig seriously contemplated bluffing his way through to have some food. It smelled that good! But all we wanted was to walk. Since we didn’t have a way to explain ourselves, we just turned around and walked the long way around.

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures Douglas! It's beautiful!

[DouglasE]

We are the first to arrive at our meeting point by the super tall flag pole near the dock. Our meeting time was made early to account for stragglers. However, everyone in our group made it there on time. So we just waited and waited because the ferry hadn’t even arrived at the dock yet. Once the ferry arrives we all make our way back aboard the ferry. Since we felt obligated to tip the singing guitar player the last time on the ferry, we decide to sit in the bottom level of the boat and avoid the singer and paying a tip. The seats downstairs are like those found on a long distance tour bus. They are extremely comfortable. I believe I fell asleep within moments of our departure. What a great nap! The temperature aboard the ferry was perfect and I drifted off in my nice comfy seat. I woke up only moments before we returned to Cozumel. We had our Sail & Sign cards and photo ID ready at the Gangway to re-enter the Triumph. We only needed the Sail & Sign cards really, since a picture of us flashes up on a screen for the Carnival employee in charge of allowing passengers aboard.









Tonight is our second and final Elegant night aboard Carnival Triumph. I think we just hung out in our room until dinner time. We didn’t need to be aboard ship until 4:30 and the ship didn’t set sail until 5:00 pm. Once we had showered and gotten dressed in our shirts, ties, and jackets we made our way to Deck 4 of the London Dining Room. Tonight we were seated in a booth by ourselves. My dinner started with an appetizer of escargot swimming in a sea of butter and garlic. This is one of my favorite foods if prepared properly and the kitchen did not disappoint. I followed this up with a Chateaubriand. I must have been stuffed because I did not have a dessert tonight. That is the only possible explanation. Once again the other passengers aboard don their finest outfits. As we made our way to the dining room it was very apparent that most people were dressed up. Since the previous elegant night was a bust in terms of the professional portrait at one of the ship’s spiral staircases, I thought we would try it one more time. We gave it a try but none of the pictures taken were worth purchasing. Most times Craig has a painful look on his face or the poses they had us do looked ridiculous. I bet if we didn’t take such pains to position ourselves it would have turned out much better. The more off guard you catch Craig, the better the pictures seem to turn out. During dinner there were roving photographers and the picture taken at our table turned out well.


Escargot!





Chateaubriand!





Craig's mystery dinner

[DouglasE]

Following the picture portrait taking, we headed back to our room to change into more casual clothes. On the message boards I had read that “The Big Easy” show was not to be missed. Our cruise director, Cory, also made a big deal about the show in his announcements. At 9:00 pm, we headed to the Rome Lounge to catch the tribute to New Orleans. There was singing. There was dancing. There were props. It was enjoyable, but I definitely did not think it was the best show of the week. I much preferred “Wonderful World” earlier in the week. Craig agreed that “The Big Easy” was not spectacular. It’s my understanding that the costs associated with these productions are quite high. Due to their expense they will be performing these shows for years and years at a time. The quality of the performances is good, not bad, but not great. But then, I have been spoiled living in Philadelphia and visiting NYC often. In fact, I can’t wait until April when Craig and I will see Neil Patrick Harris and Patti LuPone in a production of “Company”. I think we might also go see an opera at the Met. Or maybe I’ll be able to score some tickets to see Nick Adams in Priscilla Queen of the Desert. I think we just might make a visit to TKTS and get the luck of the draw.

At one of our ports the previous two comedians departed and two new comedians joined the ship. Craig and I went to see the R-rated Adult comedy specials for Derrick Eason and Mutzie. Derrick’s show was at 10:00 pm. Mutzie performed at 11:00. I can’t recall Derrick’s show at all. This must mean that it was funny because I would remember if he was horrible. I remember Mutzie’s performance distinctly. There were quite a number of gay men in the Club Rio Lounge on Deck 5 this night. Mutzie discovered this fact quickly. He had me laughing so hard. I was not the only one. The audience was clapping and laughing like crazy. Jeremy and Danny were near us with their gang of friends. They all were laughing wildly too. Mutzie would pick on particular audience members and shine a flashlight out into the dark audience so he could see them well. He also would talk to them using a megaphone. Too funny! There were a few things about his act that rubbed me the wrong way. Much of his comedy tonight was focused about gays and lesbians. He had a tiny, bit of misconceptions and ideas that I wasn’t surprised to discover coming from a straight man. I am willing to overlook a lot of that when you are funny. Trust me, he was hysterical. My eyes were tearing through his act and I almost lost bladder control.

While I did have a nap, once Mutzie is finished with his act it is midnight and time for Craig and I to call it a night.

NEXT: Our last day at Sea – what did I think of lunch in the main dining room, the Deli, the Liar’s Club and the Ultimate Suntan?

[pamcarey]

Those souvenir shops look like fun! Good think Craig realized that he had left his backpack, before it was too late! Beautiful beach... too bad you couldn't walk across it.

[Mickey Mama]

Yay, another update! I am so glad Craig remembered his backpack. That could have been terrible! I love shopping in kitschy little souvineer shops.

I don't know why the ship photographers insist on posing people so goofy. On our honeymoon we were posed in the craziest way... I bought the photo because it was so funny! I was so embarrassed that the vein on my forehead was bulging!

[lauriep]

The beach looks beautiful and the souvenir shops fun. I can't believe you were able to stay up so late after such a full day!

[B.M.]

Great update! Glad Craig was able to re-claim his backpack! Sounds like a great day of shopping and eating

[Colexis Mom]

More great updates Douglas!

[DrDolphin]

All caught up - sounds like a nice afternoon in Playa del Carmen and dinner looked Y.U.M.M.Y!!!

[ilovedisney247]

Great updates! Love the comedy show bit--can't wait to read about the end of your trip1

[chezp]

Wonderful updates Douglas. It sounds - and looks - like a truly wonderful time.

[DouglasE]

Friday, October 29, 2010 – Craig’s Birthday is a Day at Sea

This morning Craig slept in. I ventured off to give breakfast in the main dining room another try. The dining room wasn’t all that busy it seemed to me. They sat me at a big, round table with 9 other people. I would have been perfectly fine if they had sat me at a smaller table all by myself. I mean I manage to have perfectly splendid breakfasts all by myself at home on a regular basis. But I guess they were concerned that I would be lonely. Usually, I can be talkative but on this morning I just was not in the mood. I quietly sat and ate my breakfast. Service was much better this time around.

After breakfast I went to check out the pictures that were taken during the previous night’s Elegant Night at dinner. I was disappointed to discover that our pictures in front of the spiral staircase did not prove purchase-worthy. However, as you saw in the previous post, I did purchase the one taken at our table at dinner. I also found the picture of our group at the Sail Away Party and purchased that. Since I was buying two pictures and this was the last day of the cruise, the ship offered a frame at a discounted rate. It was fairly inexpensive so I went for the deal. As I was wandering around looking at the pictures that had been taken throughout the cruise, I noticed that one of the souvenir shops was having a sale on t-shirts. I still had most of my money that I had deposited on my Sail & Sign card. I found two t-shirts that I liked for $20. I love the sale on the last day of the cruise! I know cruise ships have sales goals for each department for each sailing. For example, they know to the dollar how much alcohol they need to sell on a given sailing to break even. I wonder if the sales that I encountered on this last day varies based upon how much spending was done by passengers over the course of the week? For example would there be deeper discounts on this last day should this particular sailing had very stingy people not spending much through the week? Just something I was wondering about.

One of the things that I was impressed about was the continuous ongoing maintenance of the Carnival Triumph. At all times of the day I would notice a team of individuals scrubbing, polishing, and wiping all areas of the ship. I’m sure they vacuumed those carpets regularly, but it was never at a time when it would disturb me in my room. The crew takes excellent care of the ship and considering the amount of passengers that come through each and every week I must say that the ship was in excellent shape. It seemed like new to me and this is a ship that entered service in 1999. She ain’t a youngin’ anymore! Well, let’s face it, neither am I.

One of the hot topics on the CruiseCritic message boards is smoking. I am not a smoker and never have been. Cigarette, cigar, and pipe smoke all bother me and I really do not like the smell. The smoking on board the ship was not an issue for me for the most part. Luckily, if I was hanging out with smokers they were not smoking around me. I can only think of a few areas where I found the smell disturbing. First was the cigar bar. Shocking! I know. If it’s called a cigar bar then I would expect lots of smoking. That’s where the smoking should take place so it’s not a problem for me. The sports bar reeked of smoke. Fine, I’m not a big sports nut but I do recall wanting to check out some event that was to take place there. I just decided that I would go find something else to do. There are tons of things to do on board and I just kept on moving. The third place was the piano bar. Craig especially loves a good piano bar, but we just didn’t hang out there at all. The saving grace to me was that on the few occasions that we did pass by the piano bar the music that was playing was not appealing to me. I don’t enjoy sticking out like a sore thumb. I was not about to go into a piano bar where they are playing Garth Brooks and Loretta Lynn to request songs by Cole Porter and Burt Bacharach. On the few occasions I passed by while the piano player was playing music people were actually obscured by the smoke. It was filled that much with cigarette smoke. It’s a tiny, closed off room. This is the one area of the ship which I wish I could have enjoyed. Isn’t this the 21st century and don’t they have ash trays that can suck the smoke away. Aren’t there little machines you can place in rooms that can suck the smoke and filter it away? The casino, at times, had smoking odors, but the casino is so big and open it didn’t seem like it would be an issue for me. I am not a gambler so it was even less of an issue. Just to reiterate I hardly noticed the smoking that did take place on board the ship. It did not disturb my vacation in the least.

I decided that I wanted to experience lunch in the main dining room. I hadn’t done that yet on this cruise. Originally, I had planned to have as many meals in the main dining room as I could because I had read that the food was better there than at the buffet. Once again we were seated at a table for 10. Some of the people with whom we were seated were rather talkative. Craig and I engaged in some chat but I felt like I didn’t have much in common with most of the other diners. In hindsight I should have steered the conversation more towards our experiences on this cruise so we all would have something in common to discuss. This conversation veered into the realms of politics. Not the best idea when meeting strangers for the first time. If I had my druthers I really would have enjoyed a little booth or a table for two with just Craig and myself. The food was quite tasty. I had read on CruiseCritic message boards that the hamburgers were much better in the main dining room. I started with a medley of garden and field greens. In the main dining room you can “create your own burger”. The description of the beef is just that it is a lean cut of meat. Lean is a relative term. However, if I wanted to eat healthy I would have selected something from the Spa menu. I am after decadence on a holiday. I believe I chose to add cheddar cheese, onions, grilled mushrooms, lettuce, and tomato topped by a sesame seed bun. For desert I had a hot fudge sundae. It was all quite good. In hindsight, I am a fan of the buffet for lunch. There are so many options on the Lido deck you are sure to find something very tasty and often times something a little bit different. Between the Asian station, the Taste of the Nations, the Pizza Bar, and the Deli you have oodles of options on top of the fare of the Grand Buffet. Additionally, you get to eat with whomever you choose and however many people you feel like.

[DouglasE]

We saw this decorated door while wandering around on this day.



The must-see event for me during the day was “The Marriage Show”. At 2:30 pm in the Rome Lounge I secured my usual seat and watched my fellow passengers make fools of themselves. This reminded me of that old late 70’s-early 80’s game show that I would watch as a kid when I was home sick from school called “TattleTales” with host Bert Convy. I have a distinct memory of having a crush on Bert Convy. He had great hair and dimples. Anyway, husbands and wives were separated and they would be asked questions about each other and see if their answers would match. It was amusing because a few of the passengers ended up being characters.

I can’t recall much about this last day at sea. Today probably was the only day that we didn’t have things scheduled or planned. The biggest event that happened was that Craig and I took a mid day nap. The bed in our room was nice and cozy. We spent a good portion of the afternoon taking a nap. What a nice luxury that is! We had to have been in bed for at least three hours. Nothing had to get done; we had no deadlines to meet or appointments to keep. This allowed for blissful slumber.

On multiple occasions on the second half of this trip we attempted to play miniature golf. We both really wanted to play. Since this was our last hurrah aboard the ship we kept on checking to see if we could play. But every time we tried to go play the wind was such that it would have made it impossible. Most of the time, the course was blocked off.

Later in the day, I visited the N.Y. Deli aft on Deck 9. I thought I was ordering a sandwich that would be grilled because on the menu in front of the Deli it seems to separate the hot from the cold sandwiches. I was rather disappointed to discover that my sandwich was not grilled. Huh? tI was a tasty turkey sandwich on foccaccio bread with lettuce and cheese, but I just was expected it to be grilled. I believe that only a couple of sandwiches are grilled at the deli. Oh well, now I know better for the next cruise.


My New York Deli sandwich





As per usual, I had my Drink of the Day in the late afternoon while I relaxed. Today’s drink was the Ultimate Suntan. The Ultimate Suntan cocktail includes dark rum, crème de banana, blackberry brandy, orange juice, and grenadine. Of course to make it extra especially tasty they topped it off with a tiny paper umbrella. Yummy! Overall, the beverages on board were to my liking. I would have preferred them all to be stronger. However, I have only been sober once and that was the worst eight hours of my life. I guess you really shouldn’t go by me.

While I was having my deli sandwich and lovely orangina *plus <wink, wink>, Craig was enjoying a dip in the hot tub on Deck 9 aft. Everybody loves Craig. When I went to collect him the ladies he was enjoying a dip with all sang “Happy Birthday” to him. So sweet!


The Ultimate Suntan





Dinner was an early affair in the main dining room. We enjoyed our last night together. We were seated at a table for two. We experienced this on three other nights as well. These tables for two are mere inches away from other tables for two. It kind of is ridiculous because there is no way to have a private conversation in a set up like this. Basically it turns out that you are really eating at a table for four. Because the two diners that are closest to you are so close, literally less than a foot away, you end up having conversations with them. Basically, they group three tables of two together. The middle table can interact with the tables on either side, but the tables on each end have trouble hearing or talking to each other. We were very lucky on all three occasions and met some very nice people. Every night at dinner there is a moment when the wait staff stop serving and sing and dance to a prerecorded track of music. Tonight, since it is the last night, is a more elaborate affair. Since we were “Your Time Dining”, if we had managed to show up at a time between the two set dining times, we could have missed the show. Craig usually went to see what all the hullabaloo was all about. I generally continued eating my meal. Personally, I could do without my waiter singing and dancing. Let’s face facts. They are servers. The guests would be lucky if the servers could carry a tune. I don’t need to see an amateur hour in the middle of my meal, thank you very much.

Earlier in the day, Cory made an announcement about tipping the Maitre D’. The Maitre D’ is responsible to oversee that the service in the main dining room is at a certain level. He is the one who makes sure that the serving teams are all properly trained. Carnival arranges for tips to be automatically deducted from your Sail & Sign accounts to be delivered to the serving teams and cabin steward teams that provided you service during your trip. $10/day/person were deducted from my account for tips. The Maitre D’ does not see any of those tips. Instead, the room steward left an envelope in our room during the day so we could tip the Maitre D’ this evening. Additionally, if you forgot your little envelope, a plethora of envelopes were circulating at various areas in the main dining room. Craig went berserk when he heard Cory’s announcements. He did not know that this additional tip would be asked of him. I, on the other hand, knew that this would be coming because I had been reading the message boards on CruiseCritic. I didn’t bother to inform Craig because he was a past guest of Carnival. I figured he was quite aware of this fact. I suspect that since he had gone with his mother previously, mother took care of everything for him. It was funny when Maitre D’ Prasad came to our table to introduce himself and Craig asked if he would be doing a magic trick. Earlier in the week we had a “table artist” who went around and did little magic tricks. Craig honestly thought our Maitre D’ was the table artist. You could tell Prasad was a little insulted but managed to cover nicely. The other diners around us thought it was hysterical because we all could understand because they looked very similar and even had a similar uniform on.

Following dinner, we went to see The Liars Club. We decided to skip the Carnival Legends show. All week long fellow passengers had auditioned to perform as iconic music legends at this show. I was not thrilled at the prospect about Bubba doing his best Frank Sinatra impression. Although if Bubba was selected to perform as Madonna, that would have been funny. But I don’t trust Carnival to have my sense of humour. At The Liars Club, three members of the cruise director’s staff were each given the same word to define. One of the staff members was telling the true definition. The other two were creating fictitious definitions. The audience would be asked to stand and applaud for the person that thought had the true definition before the answer was revealed. I was fooled most of the time because I rarely picked the correct answer. It was rather funny thanks to the cute “Fun Team”.



Sunset through our window in our room





My dinner








Craig and I wanted to see Mutzie perform again in the Club Rio Lounge for Punchliners! Comedy Club. Craig and I found a little table for two right next to Jeremy and Danny and their friends. Tonight when Mutzie asked for gay members of the audience we all were silent. I guess we all happened to be in the same mood. I just didn’t feel like having to out myself on this evening. Let me sit in the dark and be entertained. I saw Doug and Andy briefly before the show began and they were sitting with another gay couple. Obviously, I know about 12 gay men in the audience and that’s just the ones that I knew. Mutzie seemed a little disappointed that we hadn’t shown up again. His material was still funny. I laughed a lot. It just wasn’t the same level of hilarity as the previous evening. Maybe I should have volunteered to have a flashlight in my face. Puncliners is a great new addition to the Carnival lineup of entertainment. I think this is going to be a mainstay for Carnival for several years to come.



For a taste of Mutzie's act: YouTube - mutzie show

When we returned to our room, we found that our room steward had left towels in the shape of a heart on our bed. Awwwww!





NEXT: The cruise may be over, but the beads keep on appearing because it’s a holiday in New Orleans, baaaabeee!

[ilovedisney247]

Great last day! Cant wait to read about your stay in New Orleans!