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

[DouglasE]

Originally Posted by lauriep

Love the videos. I agree with you about the dining-with-strangers issue. I was very lucky on the long Panama cruise to be seated with a wonderful family, so dinners were fine. But if I wanted a sit-down meal for breakfast or lunch (just me and my book), I was always made to feel that I was messing up their seating plans by choosing to eat alone. For that reason, I almost always ate at the buffet where I could choose a solo table. I love dining with friends, but, even if the strangers are nice, sometimes I don't want the small-talk.

For so long I was doing things solo, so I have absolutely NO qualms about dining alone or anything alone for that matter. I just do not worry about what others think. Isn't that the benefit of maturing? You don't have to be shackled with worry over others' opinions of you. I don't care about someone else's seating plan. If I just want to dine alone with my book, that's what I'm gonna do.

[DouglasE]

Originally Posted by chezp

I am so with you about the eating with strangers thing - we had a bad experience on our first Disney cruise and on the second one, we were lucky enough to hook up with people through these boards who became great friends. How great that you were able to enjoy a meal for the two of you!

How did the bad experience with the first cruise take to you taking pictures of your food? I got a lot of people giving me funny looks and asking questions during this most recent vacation. I never encountered that before. It was all friendly and in a genuine curious kind of way. Eventually, Craig was just matter of fact with an attitude, "that's what he does". He's so used to it now. I just explained that it helps me remember all of the great meals I had on my trip for my journal. I had a lot of people thinking I was going to write a book for some bizarre reason. Gladly, my life is too boring to be turned into a book.

[DouglasE]

Originally Posted by B.M.

Sounds like yall are having fun; glad you two were able to have the table to yourselves....

Since we are in this long distance thing, intimate moments are really important to us. We were already planning to be spending a good amount of time with Cruise Critic folk. I wanted to have my alone time with Craig. I'm glad I got it.

[DouglasE]

Originally Posted by Big Baloo

Sounds like you two are off to a great start--We never have to worry about dining with strangers as we have always cruised with our neighbors/good friends--which brings our grand total to 7--pretty tight quarters at the dining table . Plus the fact that we always joke that there is no one stranger than us!! (I'll have to tell you about the mysterious case of the missing chair and the extremely confused waiter incident sometime....)
Can't wait to hear more!!

You have definitely piqued my curiosity with your "mysterious case" and "waiter incident". Looking forward to hearing those stories.

[DouglasE]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

More great updates Douglas! Sounds like a good meal!

Thank you Marnie! It was a good meal. I'm getting hungry just thinking about all of that food I had.

[DouglasE]

London Dining Room







Well, during our Sail Away Party, Captain Angelo Los, had the nerve to interrupt all of our fun by informing us that Tropical Storm/Hurricane Richard is causing havoc in our little part of the world. To avoid this bit of nastiness they were changing the order of ports. Instead of visiting Belize first, we would be visiting Cozumel first, followed by Roatan Island, and then finally Belize. “Fine by me” is what I thought. Our cruise director was Cory Rogers and my initial impression is that he had a really great speaking voice as he highlighted the evening’s events.

At 9:00 pm a “Friends of Dorothy” meeting was being held for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender passengers in the California Wine Bar. Craig and I passed by right at 9:00 and there were a few people there. I figured that folks were on gay time (the gays always arrive late to a party). We checked out some of the other lounges only to discover that no one was at the California Wine Bar when we walked by at 9:15. Trust me, there were quite a number of gay folk on this cruise. My gaydar works fairly ok. I guess for whatever reasons they didn’t feel the need to make any connections. If I knew of any gay single solo travelers I would feel a little bad for them because that’s a shame that the gay gathering seemed to be such a bust.

At 10:30 pm, Craig and I ventured into the Rome Lounge to see the “Welcome Aboard Show”. Cory, our cruise director, acted as host. It was mostly a musical review with The Triumph Showband led by Pat Blodgett and the Triumph dancers and singers Tanner & Adam. We found a seat right in the spot that I like to see shows. I like to sit in the very front row of the balcony in the center if given a choice. Basically we were just off to the side of the center of the balcony right in the front row. I was disappointed because it became clear that the band was just a supplement to a pre-recorded track. Sorry folks, but it just isn’t the same thing as having a live band. The dancing was good. The singing on the other hand, I had some problems with. The female singer was a belter and the music suited her voice. The male singer was asked to sing things out of his range and it showed. His singing seemed forced. However, he moved really well. He probably would have been just as good a dancer as several of the dancers. I was really disappointed that there were only two singers. I thought the show would have been better if they had hired more singer/dancers. We also got a glimpse at a new direction in onboard entertainment. Triumph just started the new Punchliners! Comedy club. During the “Welcome Aboard Show” we were treated to a little sample to the first two comedians on board the ship, Will Marfori & Dobie Maxwell. They would be performing in a lounge at the rear of the ship on the following evening. Each comedian does two separate sets one with family friendly material and another that is an adult show. We both really wanted to go see Will Marfori’s show. He was hysterical. He is a comedian with cerebral palsy. A lot of his material is based on the fact that he has cerebral palsy.


For those of you who want a taste of Will, here is a YouTube clip of him. He used many of these jokes in the act that I saw


YouTube - WILL MARFORI - America's Funniest Comedians


When we returned to our room following the show, we discovered our towels folded into an animal along with a set of chocolate mints, and a copy of a newsletter that outlines everything that will be happening on the ship the following day, called “FUNTIMES”. We had received our issue of FUNTIMES for embarkation day as soon as we had gained access to our room. Our bedding had been turned down for easy entry into slumblerland.

[DouglasE]

Sunday, October 24, 2010 - Sea Day (or lazy day)

I had woken up early this morning. Down on the other end of the ship and the opposite side was a self service launderette. Prior to the sailing I asked the question on Cruise Critic how do you pay for laundry. Do you use your Sail ‘n’ Sign card? Do you use paper bills? Do you use coins? I knew where the room was. I knew how much a load of laundry cost ($3). I just didn’t know method of payment. The response back was from someone who checked with Carnival and they informed them that on the Triumph you used your Sail ‘n’ Sign card. This is patently false. Those machines only took quarters. I had enough, but it could have been a pain. But this was not the reason I entered the launderette. The reason was I had some ironing to do. What a nice surprise it was to see a Sunbeam iron. It was very, very similar to the iron I have at home. Since it was so early in the morning, I didn’t have to wait to use the iron. In fact, there was hardly any body up and about at that hour. This is a good thing because I didn’t bother to dress to walk around the ship. Well, I was dressed but not in day clothes. Get your mind out of the gutter! I had underwear on and a white terry cloth bathrobe. Bathrobes are supplied by Carnival and were hanging in our closet in the stateroom when we checked in. Thank you, Carnival! So I ironed my clothes for the day and the evening and maybe a few other items.

Upon my return I took a shower and groomed. While I was busy in the bathroom, Craig went to the breakfast buffet to grab a cup of coffee. I suppose he could have called room service since it is complimentary. However, it did give him something to do while I was using the bathroom. This was our daily routine in the morning.

While we were at the Sail Away Party, members of CruiseCritic mentioned how much they wanted to experience breakfast in the main dining room. I wanted to do that too. So a core group of us agreed to meet at 8 am. Breakfast was open seating in the Paris Dining Room aft on Deck 3. Now on Carnival Triumph there are a few decks on which you can not go from one end to the other. You have to go up or down a deck to avoid areas that are inaccessible to passengers. Then further on you can go back to the desired deck. So Craig and I managed to find ourselves just outside of the Paris Dining Room on Deck 4. We arrived probably about a minute before 8 am. We were able to enter the dining room, but no other passengers were there. We could tell that the staff was doing last minute preparations. We were not sure whether we should even be where we were. The truth is we shouldn’t have been. Just as we were entering the dining room, we saw staff members open the main doors to the dining room down on Deck 3. Craig and I walked down the steps and sat ourselves on a couch that is placed right inside the entrance to the dining room on Deck 3. Members of Cruise Critic were among the first to gain entrance. They were quite surprised to find us already in the dining room and wondered how we accomplished that feat. Surprise! We just had dumb looks on our faces. We knew that not everyone who said they would be at Main Dining Room breakfast was there yet so we waited just a tad.

A group of about eight of us made our way to a banquette of seating. We were all so excited to have breakfast that several of us forgot to order beverages from our server. But shouldn’t the server have asked if we wanted any orange, guava, or whatever juice? The service during breakfast was definitely lacking. It took a long time to get anything we needed. The saving grace for us was that we are a big, chatty bunch. When you get really engrossed in a conversation, you don’t notice the waiting quite as much. I remember Doug and Andy, Tom and Cheryl, Jay and Heidi, Patty and Rick, Craig and myself were all there. Soon Joy showed up with her crew of fun ladies. They were seated much farther down from me so we didn’t get a chance to chit chat.

I used this time to experiment. I have never had eggs benedict before. Years ago I didn’t like poached eggs so I just avoided it. But tastes change, people mature, and I decided a cruise is the perfect time to experiment. You see, on a cruise ship all of the food is included. So if you don’t like something, you just order more food. Or if you can’t decide between two items, you order them both! It’s my favorite part of cruising. I love being able to have both the lobster and the steak! I tried the eggs benedict and found that I really enjoyed it. I could tell I would like it even more if it weren’t sitting under a heat lamp. It was obvious that mine had been. Probably they were waiting to finish up making my tablemates meals before bringing it out to me. I most enjoyed the combination of flavors. I liked the sandwich effect of the ham with the English muffin with the egg all topped off with the hollandaise sauce. I am now looking forward to a place that does a mean hollandaise sauce. Besides the eggs benedict, I had a croissant and some stewed apples. The apples were definitely yummy.



Breakfast Croissant




Stewed Apples






Eggs Benedict






Doug and Andy at breakfast






During breakfast my CruiseCritic friends decided that we wanted to check out the adult R rated comedy of Will Marfori. He was the standout from the Welcome Aboard show.

Cheryl was gracious enough to bring some Downey wrinkle release spray for me. I had mentioned on the message boards that I was disappointed that due to the whole 3-1-1 rule of flying I would need to leave that behind. She offered to bring a little spray bottle for me since she was driving. After breakfast I went with her to pick up the bottle. Stupid me forgot to buy that sassy gal a drink. I owe you a beverage Cheryl! I love Downey wrinkle release. It is one of the true genius inventions of modern times. It’s right up there with Belvedere vodka.

When I got back to my room I made some good use of the wrinkle release. Then it was time to decorate! Jim (wineforhealth) had suggested that we all decorate our rooms for Halloween. I managed to find some things to do just that and not take up space. I had this fake police caution tape that was designed for Halloween. It had the words “Danger” and “Caution” in a scary font. I wrapped that on on our cabin door and in our room. Paul (DeafDude) had created a couple of door signs. I went to FedEx Office (Kinko’s) before the trip and printed one out and had it laminated. I stuck that on our door. Having our door decorated certainly made our room easy to find. Hardly any of our fellow passengers on our deck had anything on their door. Craig and I didn’t even have to pay attention to the room numbers. We just stopped when we saw our decorated door. Inside the room I splashed some fake spider webs around with tiny plastic spiders. Finally, I had a fake black raven sitting, hanging out. It was a fun thing to have our room decorated. We are on the Fun ship, right?

Once that was done I spent much of the day lying on a chaise lounge. Carnival provides each room with two blue towels to use for the pool or when you are in port (the beach). If you loose your towels, you are billed $20. I took my blue towel and relaxed port side. There was hardly any body there. The whole week I just found an isolated area of the ship to experience quiet time. I put on my ear buds and listened to the music I had queued up on my iPod with my cruise playlist. Sometimes I just listened to the sounds of Otis Redding, Christopher Cross, the Sundays, and Natalie Merchant. Sometimes I was reading my novel. Sometimes I attempted to write notes about this trip in a journal. This is the art of being lazy. Eventually, Craig found me. I forgot what he was doing when I was having “me” time. He joined me at a neighboring chaise lounge. We watched the clouds and thought what the shapes reminded us of. The water was fairly still and a clear blue. It was quite a bit windy and therefore a tad chilly. The sun was shining. Good times, good times.

[DouglasE]

NEXT: Taste of Nations and an Afternoon Tea

[goofysdtr]

I love how relaxed/ing things seem! Just hanging on a lounge chair, reading--sounds like heaven to me!

I'm with you on the Downy Wrinkle Release! I never seem to have the time to iron, and it has saved me from looking like someone's rough draft on more than one occasion!

[pamcarey]

Ah... the art of being lazy... sounds wonderful!!

[lauriep]

Ahhh, your at-sea day sounds fantastic. The essence of cruising. What is that towel animal? A bird?

[Mickey Mama]

The pic of you "lounging" reminds me of my honeymoon cruise. My DH & I found a couple of empty chairs on deck and fell sound asleep. When we woke up we had no idea how long we had been there. It was so nice to totally relax!

[ilovedisney247]

Looks like a great time! I'm glad to see that you enjoyed your first day in New Orleans. It was great to see your photos of my city! It gives me a whole new perspective to see it through someone else's eyes! And I love Juan's Flying Burrito, I used to live in that neighborhood and could have eaten there every day.

[Colexis Mom]

More great updates!

[B.M.]

Sounds like a great day!
Too bad no one showed up for the meet n greet......
Breakfast sounds delish.
I have yet to try downy wrinkle release; but I keep meaning to because I know I could put it to good use.
Sounds like a great time relaxing on deck; I bet having a $20 fee charged for loosing the blue towel helps prevent people from using them to save chairs!.
Looking forward to more......