The Bubble and Beads Tour, October 2010 - Page 9 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Just found your TR and am loving it! You are too funny! Going to spend some time tonight catching up!
The thing that I have discovered is that people find me funniest when I had no clue that what pops out of my mouth could be considered funny. Often, I get laughs when I'm trying to be earnest. Probably it's because humor comes out of truth and I have been accused of being a speaker of truth on occasion. Glad that you are enjoying the trip report. Thank you for the kind words.
Doug! You are a trooper! I am so glad that the third excursion was finally a charm for you! That all-inclusive beach resort looked like my kind of place and that drink of the day looked like my kind of drink!
I am starting to get the feeling that you are the type of person who can find fun in any situation - - and that is quite a feat, my friend!
Jill
That is a good way to look at it. The third try is a charm. I like that. Well, judging from your trip reports I had your kind of drink every late afternoon/early evening, hahahaha.
Well, a vacation situation is different for me. I definitely spin things so that I find fun no matter what. My daily life doesn't get the positive spin that vacation gets. Craig has seen me get really tense, anxious, or upset during my daily life. But in general I do try to have positive energy. Speaking of tense and anxious, earlier today I had to rectify my identity getting stolen and someone making unauthorized charges with my check card number. I think I've fixed everything. Not so much a fun day today!
Sounds like your day turned out well, after a bit of a rocky start with the weather and cancellations! Mr. Sancho's looks great. I'll have to keep that in mind when my cruise stops in Cozumel in 2012.
A friend of mine is going to Cozumel soon and he talked about going to a different all inclusive resort that sounded incredible. Once I see his pictures, I'll let you know the name of that one too. His sounds more luxurious
This all sounds like so much fun! I've never been to Cozumel before, but I'm taking note of Mr. Sancho's.
We were on the Grandeur in 2009, before it relocated to Tampa. I've never sailed on Carnival before, just Disney and Royal Caribbean. You have peaked my interest now. You and Craig should think about a cruise out of Baltimore - we have lots of choices now.
It definitely could be a possibility. I definitely do enjoy Baltimore. I used to know a great dive bar there. Philadelphia has officially ended its run as a cruise port. I think by the end of this report you should have a good idea of what a typical Carnival is like and decide if it would be right for you.
Yay, loving your trip report so far! Sorry about the cancelled excursions but it looks like you made the most of it. I'm very interested to hear about and see pictures of the ship since we've only cruised on Disney ships.
Yay! I'm loving that you are loving it! As I said to Joan, by the end of this report you should have a good idea of what a Carnival cruise is like. I think the key for me was reading the Cruise Critic message boards to get an appropriate set of expectations. That made all the difference for me.
As I've mentioned life gets in the way, some of it mundane, but then I have moments like last Saturday. I sing with the Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus and we did a Random Act of Culture/Flash Mob event at the Philadelphia Ritz Carlton. I was wearing a black sweater with a fire engine red dress shirt. The camera zooms in my way at 1:37. It was a lot of fun and the look on the faces of the patrons was priceless.
Santa came early this year and I now have a scanner so here is the picture that the Carnival photographer took at Sail Away. Can you spot Craig and myself?
Here is the picture that the photographer took at San Gervasio in Cozumel
According to my FUNTIMES, it listed a Sail Away Party aboard the ship on the Lido deck for 5:15. The ship departed fun filled Cozumel. I secured myself a prime viewing spot for all of the fun midship on a deck higher than the Lido so I could look down and observe. I am the type of guy that if you are going to do something, you do it right. To me, the Sail Away Party was rather a lack lustre affair. I just felt that if you are going to have an event you do things in a big way. Basically, I just sipped my Blue Margarita as I watched a small group of people on the Lido deck do line dances to the music provided by a DJ. Craig and I have a routine now. I purchase a Drink of the Day in the late afternoon/early evening and he takes a sip to see what he thinks. He enjoyed the Blue Margarita and went off to get one of his own. Meanwhile, I was able to spot one of my Cruise Critic pals down on the Lido deck dancing her little heart out. Betty was easy to spot in her bright pink outfit. She looked like she was having a really good time. You could see that some of her fellow dancers enjoyed interacting with her. Personally, I love to dance but I do not know any line dances, not the Electric Slide, nothing. I think doing one or two line dances is perfectly fine. However, I think you exclude a whole slew of people from being participants in the party by only conducting line dances. The exception would be if you started out by teaching the dance first (which they did not) and then let the chips fall where they may. Craig found me and we just people watched and waved good-bye to Cozumel. Wouldn’t it have been more fun if the guy behind the microphone encouraged everyone to go up to the Lido deck and grab a spot along the port side rail and wave good-bye to festive Cozumel? For being a “fun ship” I found the party rather lame. The FUNTIMES has a “Today’s Top Ten” list posted and this was its number one item. I figured that there should have been more hoopla, but that may be just me.
Betty is the one with the hot pink shirt, pink flip-flops, and blonde hair
Our view of Puerta Maya, Cozumel from the rail of the Lido deck
As you may (or may not) recall, on our very first day the Captain had made an announcement that our itinerary would be rearranged. Originally, I had not planned to make use of the internet facility. On my lazy day at sea, I decided it would be necessary. I had made arrangements with an independent tour company on Roatan Island, Honduras to do a snorkel tour. I had paid a $50 deposit for the two of us already via Paypal to reserve our spots. We now would be arriving on a completely different day. I sent a brief email detailing what happened and asking for advice on how to proceed. Once Craig and I had had enough of the Sail Away and he had finished his Blue Margarita, I decided I wanted to go check to see if I had received an email back from the tour operator. What I wasn’t counting on was the fact that after only one cocktail, the most bizarre comments came out of Craig. I wish I could recall what the heck he was saying, but he came across as a little bit of a loveable loon. That boy was intoxicated! His walk was weaving a tad bit too. I asked him how he was feeling and he confirmed for me that he was rather drunk. He wasn’t in danger of being ill at all, but it was very clear that that one beverage would be all he would be having this evening. At the Internet Café there was no word from my tour operator.
We went back to our room and discovered our bed had been turned down, the room cleaned up, and a towel animal wearing Craig’s sunglasses waiting patiently for us. Craig said that he wasn’t in the mood for dinner in the Main Dining Room (MDR) and wanted to try the buffet on the Lido deck tonight. I was fine with that.
Basically dinner at the Seaview Bistro was unmemorable. It wasn’t spectacularly yummy, but it wasn’t disappointing either. There is one thing I can definitely say and that is there were plenty of choices. For some reason there seemed to be an especially large array of choices when it came to dessert. I have a huge sweet tooth and it was hard to resist not sampling each and every offering.
Tonight there was a production in the Rome Lounge called, “Showtime” with the “Soul Man of Bourbon Street” Ron Joseph. Craig really wanted to do karaoke so we skipped the production and opted for the karaoke madness in the Venezia lounge on Deck 5 aft. Karaoke wasn’t until 8:30 so we had some time to spare. While we waited we plunked ourselves down on a couple of chaise lounges on the Lido deck. Triumph has a giant monitor, I mean GIGANTIC, monitor on the Lido deck. Tonight’s movie at Carnival’s Seaside Theatre was the Tim Burton directed “Alice in Wonderland”. The ship must be moving at a good clip because there was a brisk breeze. I was a bit too chilly. I was really enjoying the movie and if Craig hadn’t wanted to go to Karaoke Madness I would have loved to spend my night watching the movie. They had two showings, one at 8:00 pm and one at 10:00. If we were going to stay I would have run back to my room so I could wrap myself in a bathrobe and cover myself with my beach towel to keep warm. It’s moments like these that I start to see the appeal of the absurd “snuggie”. After watching the movie for a half hour we dashed off to secure Craig a spot at Karaoke Madness.
Earlier in the evening I was feeling a tad bit queasy. As a precaution I had taken along some motion sickness tablets around dinner time. Why should I feel uncomfortable if that is not necessary? Craig did a wonderful job at Karaoke singing “Vincent” also known as “Starry, starry night” which is a very pretty song. Don McLean wrote the song and it was a hit for him back in the early seventies. While Craig was singing I saw a fellow Cruise Critic member at the bar, Clay. Clay was celebrating his honeymoon on this cruise and looked like he definitely was enjoying himself. The other singers at Karaoke were just fine. No one made my ears bleed which is always a danger. I don’t like singing Karaoke myself. I need to be prepared and practiced. You never know what key the song is going to be in and it could potentially just be a disaster. If someone would give me the track to practice on my own for about 20 minutes beforehand, I would be fine. But to just jump up on stage? No, not gonna happen. I give everyone at karaoke credit for risking making an ass out themselves. It takes some guts.
The motion sickness tablets were doing their thing and I was feeling just fine, but there was a definite side effect. I was getting a bit groggy. After dinner we went to check to see if I had received an email from my tour operator in Roatan. Sure enough, a response was waiting from me. They are all ready to take Craig and I on our snorkelling excursion. It turns out that Hurricane Richard had hit the island and they were without power for a bit otherwise they would have responded sooner.
We turned in for the night and looked forward to our Honduran adventures on Roatan Island.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010 – Roatan Island, Honduras
We had an early day today. We were due to arrive at Mahogany Bay at 8:00 am. Our snorkel excursion was scheduled to begin as soon as we arrived. Craig and I were diligent in setting the alarm to allow us plenty of time to get ready and meet the tour operator. I was already out of the shower by the time the sunrise happened at 7:11 am. We had an incredible view of it through our window of our stateroom. It was amazing. I was so glad I had upgraded our room.
This morning I wanted to experience the made to order omelets that is available at the Lido deck breakfast buffet. It took me a while to find where the omelet stations are located, but after asking a crew member I managed to get myself into a small line. I had a simple cheddar and onion omelet. It was just what the doctor ordered and I intended to revisit the omelet station on subsequent breakfasts. Of course, since this is the vacation to pig out I had more than just the omelet. I had a nice big stack of pancakes along with a large plate of fruit of all different varieties, especially melons. To top it all off I made sure I grabbed a danish.
Soon after breakfast we made our way to disembark the ship. There was quite a bit of congestion as we waited to exit. Craig and I were stuck on Deck 1 at the head of the stairs to go down to Deck 0 where everyone exits the ship. We waited for what probably was a half hour. Announcements were made by Cory, the cruise director, about things we really didn’t need to know. How about making an announcement that would prove useful? For example, Roatan Island is not on Daylight Savings Time. Ship time was 8:00 am, but locally it was 6:00 am. If you do not use a Carnival sponsored excursion you need to be precise about what time you will meet and what time the excursion will end. Cory would announce that you needed to be back by 5:30 pm, but that is ship time. They don’t tell you that means 3:30 pm local time. I made sure we were clear about timing in my email communication with my Roatan tour operator. Seriously, it is about this time when I start to get irritated by the announcements that Cory would make. The vast majority of his announcements included information that I could find in my daily FUNTIMES. Dear Carnival: I can read. I can go through my FUNTIMES, read it, highlight things that interest me with a highlighter or a pen and plan my time accordingly. I don’t need you to get on a loudspeaker to inform me that I could win $800 at bingo. Don’t get me wrong. I love me some bingo. I just don’t need to have a barrage of announcements about it.
I was so proud of Craig and I. We were among the very first passengers off the ship. Carnival a couple of years ago created a new port on Roatan Island for use by all of their various divisions. If you are on a cruise ship that is owned by the Carnival company, like Princess, Holland America, Seabourn, Cunard, and of course Carnival and your itinerary includes Roatan Island chances are you will be docking at Mahogany Bay. Because it was created and paid for by Carnival they want to make sure they get as much money out of their passengers as they can. If you take a Carnival sponsored shore excursion it is very easy and no problem to find your group. If, on the otherhand, you book an independent tour operator like I did, they make it quite difficult to connect with them. Our tour operator gave us a paragraph long description of where to go to meet them. Additionally, Jay, my fellow Cruise Critic member, had made a post from a different independent operator that had a map with arrows. We had to walk through a large complex and exit out a back entrance/exit. This exit let you out to a small paved road. There is absolutely no place for passengers to safely walk to get to their tour operator. You either walk on the small road that vehicles use or you are walking on wild grasses, under trees and avoiding brush and whatnot. It is just ridiculous what they force the independents to do. We walked about a ¼ mile down this road to meet our tour operators who had only just arrived. There were a few others on our ship that would be joining us. We had to wait for them. While we waited the tour operator told us how actually this area is a little bit better than when Mahogany Bay first opened. It just boggles the mind.
This is the road we walked down to meet the tour operator
This is where we waited for the others from the Triumph to join us
It turned out that among the foursome that we were waiting for was a couple that sat directly opposite us at our afternoon tea. “It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears, a world of hopes, it’s a world of fear. There’s so much that we share that it’s time we’re aware, it’s a small world after all..” Everybody sing!
This tour cost $60 per person and at this time we paid the balance that was due in cash. We all hop into a van and we go to pick up a few guests off of a Norwegian cruise ship. It took a bit of time to get to the opposite side of the island and have everybody all on the same page. Once we get underway, we discover we are definitely going into jungle territory.
I had booked a tour with Upachaya. They provide a snorkel experience in Man O’ War Harbor. This part of Roatan is not frequented by the cruise ship hordes. Trust me; we were far, far away from the usual tourist destinations. Just the ride out to Upachaya was an adventure all on its own. The roads were not even paved. This tour requires intermittent effort throughout, including walking medium distances over uneven surfaces and walking up a hill back to the parking area. They welcome all ages, however you must be reasonably fit for this tour. They have snorkel gear for ages 6 and up. From my perspective you need to be a good swimmer and I would not recommend this experience for those under 12. Although, we had no children in our group so perhaps they would tailor the experience differently had there been. They only take a group of 10 out at a given time. Due to the craziness of the changing of cruise ship schedules we actually ended up with 12 in our group. The tour included a guide to help us discover sea life, a full lunch with a variety of beverages, equipment rental, and round trip transportation. The total tour time is four hours.
NEXT: The snorkel adventure and an afternoon at the beach
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.
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.
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.
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Sorry about the cancelled excursions but it looks like you made the most of it. I'm very interested to hear about and see pictures of the ship since we've only cruised on Disney ships.
PassPorter Guide Author
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.
I love a good omelet but I'm too lazy to make one myself at home in the mornings.
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