Carnival Dream 9/11/2010 - I'm Dreaming of a Big Big Big Cats Cruise! The Sequel

[StudMuffin]

Sheree,
We are still trying to work something out with ron jons. If we can park 2 cars there than we might head over there on the 10th and Hope can drive over after work. it just might work.

I sold the new purple bus I just couldn`t say no...the guy offered 2X what I paid for it. Now Sheree I bet you never sold a purse so now whos addiction is the worst. LOL

Work has been so bad that 2 employees had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance this week..... I need a cruise NOW!!!!! or I will be taking that ambulance ride soon.

George,
Lets hear more about the Mariner!!!

I hope all is well with everyone.

Jim,

You have my word, I'll most certainly post more about the cruise by this weekend. I don't think you will have a parking issue at Ron Jons, just give them a call; I'm sure they will be fine with it. Congrats on the sale of the bus...looks like the 12 step program for your addiction is finally paying off...... Shereeeeee ;D I'm gathering the hospitalizations are heat related? I had 2 serious ones last year...very scary! On the self imposed ambulance ride, you can sign me up for a 30 day stay in a padded room in which I would be segregated from my wife, kid, and staff :D On the weather front, when we left Long Beach on Sunday it was 74 degrees. When we stopped in Quartzite, AZ, it was 111 degrees...what a smack in the face when we got out of the car!

[oriolesfan22]

Waiting.....waiting.....

[StudMuffin]

Waiting.....waiting.....

Alright, alright, here you go, a very abbreviated version of our cruise last week. Used to write some longs ones, but found that I no longer have the time, nor do I care for the ripping I get from others who champion certain cruise lines….so that means this is simply for the Big Cats.

Here is your first installment…

Pre-Cruise:
Drive down is typically uneventful, we stop in Cabazon at the outlet malls and Anne / Arrielle try to drive me into the poor house, then we proceed down to Long Beach for a day or two. Cabazon went as planned, but the drive to Long Beach hit an unexpected twist when we hit a traffic back up on the 91 freeway for two hours. Upon reaching the melee, we seen the mere burnt out / melted to the ground remains of what appeared to be a semi truck and various other vehicles. What we later seen on the news, was a small car cutting of a Pepsi truck, sending it sprawling over the concrete barrier into oncoming traffic, and bursting into flames…pretty horrific site to see in person, and them the recording of the events of the crash.

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach, which is easily our favorite place to stay on Long Beach. Great rooms, bead, service, ammenities, décor, and pool area. The hotel is directly across the street from Shoreline Drive, which is home to many restaurants, pubs, shoreline vendors, Queen Mary, and the Long Beach Aquarium….much to see and do.

Embarkation:
We got to the port at 10:30, and sat in an area specifically for platinum / diamond passengers only. Even though the ship was full, there were only 800 repeat RCCL passengers on this sailing….even fewer platinum / diamond passengers on board. I would say only 50 folks waiting in the area with priority boarding. Very fast process in getting our sign and sail cards, pictures, and then on the ship eating by 11:30...very efficient!

Ship / Cabin:

Ship looks great, no noticeable drop-off in appearance. We were in 7688 ( cabin with large corner aft balcony…awesome to just kick back and read or watch the water). Can’t believe RCCL has yet to change out the 19” TV’s for plasmas….many problems with the TV going in and out every few minutes. Premium movies are no longer those that are a few weeks away from coming out on video, but rather those that have been out for months / years. Pay per view are movies that have been out for months. Our cabin steward (Tony) was a real work of art. First day we didn’t see him until 5:30, when we and everyone else in his area were getting testy about the whereabouts of our luggage. After telling everyone it had yet to arrive, we all walked down to the area where they dropped off the luggage and found every piece for all of our cabins…took care of ourselves ( Tony actually stopped by after dinner to let us know he had just checked, and he was assured our luggage would be coming very soon…should have seen the look on his face when we told him we went and got our own luggage…couldn’t disappear fast enough). Tony failed to return until 5:00 pm the following day, and that’s only after we call housekeeping because we only had two towels at embarkation. Surprisingly, we got a call on day 3 from the head of ship / hotel operations inquiring about the level of service Tony was providing…from that point forward, service got much better, with the exception of leaving our cabin dead bolted open, and him gone for the remainder of the day…pretty mad about that one….but luckily nothing was gone.


Food:

Lido deck buffet food really needs some help / change. Same old food, just either extremely over cooked, or under cooked. Seating was at a premium, unless you were a suite passenger, which allowed you priority seating in Grills. After day two, we found ourselves eating breakfast in the dining room each morning, a first for us. Food / service was extremely better, and you got seated with different folks to talk with each time. Great time, great conversations…a must for an alternative to the buffet.

Dining room:

Food was good, but nothing really that stood out. Dining team truly did not like each other (never spoke a word, nor were at the table at the same time). Both were so uneventful, they never introduced themselves, neither can I recall their names. Our Waiter, while very pleasant, was extremely slow. Our assistant was non-existent, and we were convinced he had us on a no carb / no drink diet. Surprisingly this duo only had a table of six and a table of eight, so were certainly not overwhelmed by any stretch of the imagination. We were always last to leave each night. Our maitre ‘d was also not to happy with these two…he spent much time getting drinks and food for us each night. Got to be so laughable that many at the table had all glasses filled with water, because we knew we wouldn’t get a return trip. Maitre ‘ d told us there has been a considerable drop off in dining room staffing because of the competition between cruise lines to staff all the mega liners. On the bright spot, our table mates were awesome (well, certainly not as awesome as the Big Cats…but a good substitute). No matter how bad the service, or how late we dined, we didn’t seem to mind simply because of how great of a time we had with our table mates…ate six out of 7 nights in the dining room.

Part 2 soon to follow…

[4evercruzin]

Good Morning Cats,

Has anyone been to Nachi Cocum in Cozumel? Greg and I are trying to decide what to do while in Cozumel. We were not that crazy about Paradise Beach.

George,
Glad to hear you had a good trip. I need a cruise already.

Regina,
Are you keeping Tommy busy?

Sheree,
Tell Greg congrats on the passing of his test.

God bless,
Barbara

[StudMuffin]

Part II

One thing I forgot to mention about dining, we were routinely asked about AZ SB1070, aka Arizona’s newly passed illegal immigration bill. Very interesting to listen to the views of folks outside of the state…made for very interesting table conversation.

Sea Days were the polar opposite of port days, windy and cold to most, as evidenced by the low turnout around the pool areas…with the exception of the hot tubs. Adult area had a pretty good turn-out, but no one really venturing into the pool…only the hot tubs. Anne dragged me in and out of the shopping areas on the ship throughout the week. It’s funny how the duty free pricing just isn’t what it used to be. Things are actually quite pricey. Shops were routinely empty, most things we can get cheaper at home, and no worries about transporting them home.

Could not believe how many people from Az was on this trip. One would have thought we were on a residents only cruise. Arrielle made a friend (Andy) on the first day, they hung out much of the cruise together. Incidentally, Andy lives ten minutes down the road from us, and they have been chatting non-stop since our return. They are going to the water park this Friday together…goes to show the cruising world is really much smaller than we think.

Cabo San Lucas…

Pretty much a leisure / shopping day. The building of resorts and businesses around the port has increased dramatically since our last visit…much to do right around the port…including a Senor Frogs. The stops we made at various cantinas were all quite nice and a great atmosphere. Most employees were quite kind and expressed considerable gratitude for Americans returning to Mexico after the H1N1 outbreak, and of course the political discontent regarding SB1070. Drank and ate far more than our share. Shopping on the other hand was a complete nightmare! Think of the flea market in Nassau, and then times it by ten. Vendors were insanely over-baring, to the point of arguing with you. Arrielle made the mistake of commenting on a cheap painted bracelet, that a vendor wasted no time in pouncing on her. He broke out his little pocket scale and slapped the bracelet on it for Arrielle to see. Anne came and got me and said the guy wouldn’t leave Arrielle alone. As I walked up he was getting testy with Arrielle in pronouncing “see that number, what does it say” ? To which he himself answered that 24.8 grams. I proceeded to ask “24.8 grams of what”? “Silver” he stated…to which I informed him “ no you just weighed that bracelet, that’s the total weight, and I’d venture to say there is more weight in paint on that thing, than actual silver”! He kindly told me to “get the h*ll out of my store”! I told him gladly, and told others outside what he had said as well on the way out.

Mazatlan…

We originally planned on doing a day pass at El Cid, but after the poor shopping day the day before, we opted for a shopping day in the Golden Zone…should have done El Cid! Same experience as Cabo, you just never get to relax with folks constantly hassling you. At dining that night, two of our table mates were kind enough to share the awesome day they had at some resort called … El Cid!

[StudMuffin]

Folks, I found the cruise...and look at the prices...

16 Night Transatlantic Cruise starting from* $629.00 USD

Ship Name: Mariner Of The Seas
Departure Port: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
Ports of Call: Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy; Palma De Mallorca, Spain; Cartagena, Spain; Funchal (Madeira), Portugal; Santa Cruz, Canary Islands; Nassau, Bahamas; Galveston, Texas
2011 Date(s): 26 Oct

Stateroom:
Prices From*:
Interior Outside Balcony Deluxe/Suites
$629.00 $749.00 $999.00 $1,799.00

[StudMuffin]

Good Morning Cats,

Has anyone been to Nachi Cocum in Cozumel? Greg and I are trying to decide what to do while in Cozumel. We were not that crazy about Paradise Beach.

God bless,
Barbara

Hi Barb,

We were actually discussing Nachi Cocum a few years back, but never made it. Everything I have read, seems like a nice place with good ammenities and reasonably priced.

[oriolesfan22]

Happy Fathers Day Big Cat Daddies!

[StudMuffin]

Happy Fathers Day Big Cat Daddies!

Thanks Sheree. Pretty uneventful day here, watch some movies and hit the pool at Casa De' Anne.

We were looking at the Oasis / Allure pricing...I can't believe how mush more these ships are, especially for 3rd and 4th passengers. I would like to see, but not for how much more they are charging for the Freedom class. If we could get reasonable airfare to San Juam, that looks like a great itinerary...not to mention a class of ship we haven't been on.

[4evercruzin]

Good Morning Cats,

Hope all the Father's had a great weekend. We went out for dinner with our daughter, son in law, and newborn on Sat. evening. After church, we just stayed in the lanai and later went out to dinner.

George,
You are so right about the pricing on the Allure and Oasis. We were blessed with a $1,080 pp rate. It is an awesome ship!

Ladies,
There is a Coach store on the ship. Just so you know to save your $.

Regina and Sheree,
How are the new jobs going? Do you like it better? Any new OPI colors to boast about? DD bought me a color from the butterfly collection. It is frosted and pinkish orange. I don't really like the frosted colors.

Jim,
Congrats on the sale of the bus!

God bless you,
Barbara