The Midnight Showing of Trisha

Cruise Askew, Day 3

Yes, I know it's been FOR-EV-ER and I'm finally getting a chance to update this bizzle.

So the final day at cruise didn't involve any ports of call or crazy excursions.  It was the "Fun Day at Sea", where the ship is basically making its way back to Port Canaveral from Nassau.  Since we had nothing planned until 1pm that day, Katie and I took advantage and didn't set our alarms.  Since we were so used to getting up though, we were both up around 10:30am I think.  We wandered up to get some lunch and from there it was up to the very top deck to play some mini-golf with the rest of our travel companions.

For one of the first times excluding dinners, our entire travel group of 19 was together to play some mini-golf on the top deck.  There was some discussion on the origins of the term "putt putt" - I guess it's actually a brand of mini-golf chains on the East coast.  We broke up into groups of 4 to play and had some fun.  Throughout the cruise, each day they had a different colored hurricane style plastic glass for sale with the "Drink of the Day" which had discounted refills.  It wasn't that great of a deal, so I got the first days clear glass to go with the similar ones I have from Las Vegas and Miami and was satisfied.  But on this last day we discovered it was more of a theme park strange shaped cup in the shape of the tail of the ship.  So while we were waiting for everyone to finish up their games, Katie went down to get us some.  I thought I made it clear that I wanted a Pina Colada in the cup instead of whatever the drink of the day was (a Yellow Tail?) but she got the DotD and MAN was it fucking strong!  I could only stand to sip at it.  I actually did probably the best I've ever done with a 29.  I have no idea how I pulled it off, other than the course wasn't all that challenging.







Of course there was one obstacle to hit the ball through a hollowed rock... and just Adam's luck, it got stuck.  So he had to improvise.



I think when it was all said and done Joe won with a 26?  I don't remember exactly, but it was basically at that point that we all separated ways to go enjoy various parts of the ship, with plans to meet back at 4:30p for the ship's Movie Theme Trivia game.  Katie really wanted to take advantage of the spa services on the boat, so we went down a deck to find the spa.  Katie had already pretty much decided on a special that was advertised in the daily ship newsletter the previous day.  Unfortunately we were told when we got down there that the specials are daily and don't extend to the next day, which is a bit lame.  She picked out a slightly different package and, after looking at how outrageous the prices were and hearing my wallet groan all the way back in the safe in our stateroom, I decided to wander back to the hotel room.

I made it down to the hotel room and gave up the ghost on the Yellow Tail drink, pouring it down the drain and replacing it with ice and my Mountain Dew that I'd bought while on shore in Freeport.  Since I had an hour or so to kill before Katie would be done with the spa, I decided to wander the ship a bit.  As I was heading down to our stateroom in the first place, I noticed that there was a big crystal sale near the gift shop and I thought I saw some dolphins (which I collect, if you didn't know) so I went back up.  The deal was 2 for $12 which looked pretty solid, so I picked out the two designs they had that were dolphins and took them back down after some other wandering. 

I watched parts of The Dark Knight on TV for the millionth time on the cruise (I swear that's all they were playing) and Katie soon returned from her relaxing massage.  She felt it was worth the money, so rock on.  Later in the afternoon we met up with almost the entire group for one of the events the ship was hosting, Movie Theme Trivia.  As Nicole and I went up to get scorecards for our groups, the guy running it noticed that Nicole and I were wearing the Cruise Askew shirts and asked us about them, which lead to him raggin' on our overly boisterous groups in the back of the room.  We had fun, and ultimately we played as 3 teams (we had an alternate answer sheet since we couldn't decide between two answers for some lol) and ultimately took home the two carnival trophies.  Since the last song was really hard and kinda obscure (Home Alone) and Katie was SO confident of it, we let her have and take home the trophy from our group. 



Right after the trivia there was a very important event to attend - sunset on the Serenity deck.  We all made our way to the rear deck of the ship to watch the sunset on the final night.  It was gorgeous.  Instead of talking a lot about this, I'll let the photos speak for themselves.











Andrew's always the wise guy...



Dinner the last night was awesome.  While it wasn't a fancy dinner attire night, we all kind of dressed it up a little.  I rocked one of my favorite outfits ever, and Ed was quite impressed with my gloves.  He kept insisting I tell Crystal where to get some... like, really, insisting lol.  I took the opportunity to order a bottle of the lovely dessert wine that Nicole had ordered the night before to try some for myself... OMG so delightful and sweet and YUM!  And it's LOCAL (to me anyway... the benefits of living so close to California wine country :)).  It's called Quady Electra, a lovely muscat.  We were all delighted by it, and the thread on the View Askew board was alive with talk after we'd all returned home of how to order it online and where to get it.  I'm sad to report that I checked my local Safeway and Lucky stores in hopes they'd have it, and while one had another wine from Quady Winery, they didn't have Electra.  I've yet to check Beverages & More, but if they have it I won't have to order it online.  Yay!



After dinner we all pretty much went back to our cabins before heading to one of the lounges for an "adult comedy magic show".  Even though we got there about half an hour before the show started, the only seats we could get were stools at the bar along the back side of the lounge.  The show was OK, with some jokes definitely funnier than others.  There were a lot of sight gags, so I'm sure the large group of deaf passengers I may have mentioned before that were on board had a good time.  We had some drinks, and some folks had to call it a night early because the boat was REALLY rocking.  More than it had the entire voyage.  The unstableness of the bar stools, combined with the serious rocking of the ship and the alcohol did not lead to good times.  Katie I think had opted against the comedy show in favor of the casino and I made it back to the cabin to pack up, since we'd be disembarking bright and early in the morning.

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Cruise Askew, Night 2 at Senor Frogs

Naturally at the end of the day we had a lot to celebrate - good friends, Gavin & Nikki getting engaged, AND it was Linnitt's birthday to boot.  A lot of us had birthdays in the weeks before and after the cruise, which helped us pick this date, but hers actually fell smack on cruise time so we had to celebrate!  Since the ship was docked much longer in Nassau than it had been in Freeport, we didn't actually have to be back on the ship until 5:30 am the next day.  So we took the opportunity to all have dinner in Nassau at a restaurant called Senor Frogs.  There are several locations, it's kind of a world wide touristy restaurant known for a good time.  Gavin had heard lots about it and, if I remember correctly, was really the catalyst to our deciding to go.  And the fact that it was just a couple of blocks from port and you didn't have to take a cab was a plus.  I dread taking cabs in America let alone a foreign country.  Call me cynical, but I don't trust it.

Anyway we all made it back to the boat from Atlantis and our assorted other adventures (Linnitt & Korey had just wandered around town, Kevin & Maria went to swim with sting rays) and chilled until about 7.  A few of us wanted to go a bit early and wander the straw market right next to port before it closed, but when we went through it to get from where the bus dropped us off to the ship half of it was closed already, and with almost all of us needed to shower off some chlorine before dinner, it just wasn't in the cards.  I'm not sure I've mentioned it, but our awesome Carnival agent Terence had made sure that all our cabins were right near each other at the end of our deck, so we just kind of congregated there before heading as a group down to dinner.  Good thing we did too, because Nikki totally saved me with some aloe vera gel for my sunburn!



We walked down to Senor Frogs, where some of our travel group had already acquired a table.  The place was decorated with ecclectic signs, black lights, and other Mexican style decor as that was their cuisine specialty.  As soon as we were seated, employees came around and made sure we all had obnoxious balloon hats on since it was a celebration.  Joy.









Everything in that joint was highly touristy, but fun and at the same time not super overdone or flashy.  The menus were comical, the drinks were plentiful, and even the table clothes had amusing diagrams on them for placement of the plate, cup, salsa drips, etc.  The staff also had put purple mardi gras style beads at each of our place settings, and also came around and made sure we all had some.  At the end of the night I realized I had three!  We took our time in picking out our dinners and I decided to have their sample platter for dinner - nachos, quesadillas, and floutas (though I had a feeling that I wouldn't eat those, and I was right).  We also were not shy to order drinks.  Katie went for a tequila sunrise, I opted simple for a strawberry margarita, Joe and Adam made what seemed like a suicide pact with the Zombies, and Andrew wasn't shy and double fisted a couple beers.







My food arrived and OH MAN... quite possibly the best quesadillas I've ever had.  The flour tortillas were just so soft and perfect... nummy.  My margaritas were good, Katie said she couldn't even taste the tequila in her drink (though when I tasted it, it was ALL I tasted), and Adam & Joe quite liked their Zombies... maybe a bit too much for Joe.



When we were almost done eating, the DJs and employees practically attacked Linnitt and brought her up on stage, much to her embarassment.  She'd already told us that she wasn't the type of person to really celebrate her birthdays, so she didn't look too happy about it but took it in stride.  The staff also came around with random shots, and I have to give props to Drena for taking one!  And after 3 tequila sunrises, and two zombies, and some other alcoholic beverages, Katie, Adam, Andrew, and others had no shame in their game on the dance floor.







We weren't out that late... the place really turned into a nightclub and we weren't that into just dancing.  We all wandered back to the ship, some of us in a semi-drunken stupor, and Joe & his three zombie's worth of intoxication decided that dammit, he wanted ice cream and pizza.  The ship had a 24 hr pizzaria and they always kept the soft serve machine on that's in the buffet area where the pizza is, so dammit we went for ice cream and pizza.  That was, of course, after we decided to go up to the very top deck and check out the mini golf course that we planned to play the following day.  Joe was on top of the world, apparently.





We just wandered back to the staterooms, happy that we were going to be able to sleep in the next day, which was the last day of the cruise, the "Fun Day at Sea". 

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Cruise Askew, Day 3 in Nassau

As the day before in Freeport, Nassau started bright and early with a 9:15am departure time for the excursion to the Atlantis Aquaventure.  Unlike in Freeport where a lot of us branched off to different excursions, most of us went to Atlantis.  Adam, Nicole, Gavin, & Nikki had decided to fork over the extra dough to swim with the dolphins, while Katie, James, Lena, Crystal, Ed, Joe, Andrew, Drena & I all decided to do just the water park portion.  Carrie & Steven ended up coming with us too because the dive they were scheduled for was canceled due to choppy waters.  Atlantis was my favorite part of the Bahamas HANDS DOWN!

Gorgeous.  Now this was the tropical paradise we'd been hoping for.  Definitely more touristy than Freeport, but that's just what we wanted.  It took us about an hour to get to the park from port and through the long ass tour they take you on before letting you loose.  I made the error in judgment to only bring the disposable waterproof camera I'd bought with me and not my normal camera, not really knowing that there would be SO much cool stuff to take pictures of before getting to the slides.  I figured slides are slides, pictures aren't 100% needed, but I was wrong.  LUCKILY, Katie was a champ and remembered hers, and wisely relinquished it to me during the tour and I must have taken probably a hundred photos just of the grounds as we were walking through.  You think I'm lazy getting these updates up, she still hasn't taken the photos off her camera and sent them to me.  I think I may have to go to her house next weekend to retrieve them myself!  I was able to snag some that others took, so here's a delicious taste.







That walkway in the last photo isn't actually a walkway, though that's what most of us assumed it was at first glance.  That's actually one big suite.  The tour guide pointed out that celebrities like Michael Jackson have stayed there.  The price is $25,000 per night with at least a 4 night commitment and books years in advance.  It has views of both sides of the island, over the resort and beach and out to the ocean on both sides.  Just... WOW. 







We decided to attack The Current before hitting the slides... there's a slide called the Leap of Faith that's something like a 120 foot drop that dumps you into the lazy river, and several people wanted to go on that.  Crystal and I... not so much.  So we opted to just grab some tubes and jump into this lazy river.  Well, it wasn't that lazy.  It was actually more of a rapids ride... think Rip Roaring Rapids for those familiar with Great America... except with an individual tube like at Waterworld or Raging Waters.  Of course, no rocks, more artificial rapids created by strategically placed water jets, but it was a nice balance back and forth from scream like a little girl rapids to lazy floating.  Crystal & I were greatly amused at how far apart we got at some points because of the rapids.  We did a round and jumped out.  We'd been separated from most our group and Ed had opted not to get in the water at all after feeling the colder winds that were blowing through, so he was keeper of some of our stuff by one of the big pools.  We'd left most of it like clothes, cameras, etc. in the lockers at the main visitor center, but he chilled in a shaded lounge chair with our towels and sunscreen.  I believe Carrie & Steven chilled with him awhile, so he was definitely not bored.

Again, I've failed you for photos... I took a bunch with my waterproof disposable camera, but I haven't taken that camera in to get developed yet.  So, that'll be it's own post I guess.

I personally hadn't really noticed the wind until after we were getting out of the water (of course).  It wasn't as nasty overcast in Nassau as it had been in Freeport; the sun was out most of the time and it was definitely brighter and bluer skies, but there was a chilly wind blowing.  Crystal and I headed almost straight past Ed and into the neighboring pool.  Soon after Lena and Katie found us and Katie joined us in the pool.  We spent a lot of time just chilling talking with the majority of our bodies submerged in water to keep warm (yes, the water was warm... just like I'd dreamed for Bahamian water!), then finally got out to utilize our meal vouchers and get some lunch at the snack bar near the pool.  As we were eating with Carrie, Steven, Ed & Crystal, the others managed to find us.  We spent the time drying off and getting our grub on while attempting to solidify plans for the rest of the afternoon.  We decided that once we were all done we'd head over to the two aquariums that Atlantis boasted.  We had wanted to meet up with the 4 that went for the dolphin excursion, but without cell phones (NO ONE wanted to mess with $6.99/minute international rates!) there wasn't much way to communicate.  Although we headed over to the aquarium in kind of two groups since some were going to stop off at the lockers first, and while they were there they ran into the dolphin folks, who'd been far delayed and were more interested in enjoying the slides than the aquariums at that particular moment.



It was about that time that I first learned (cause I haven't been in the loop I guess) that Gavin had been long planning to propose to Nikki while they did the dolphin swimming.  And she'd said yes!  Gavin, you suave motherfucker... this boy made arrangements with the people at Atlantis to, during their experience, have a dolphin swim over to them holding a buoy that said "Will You Marry Me?"  I guess originally he wanted the dolphin to be carrying the ring somehow in a waterproof container or something, but people quickly talked him out of it.  What a dreamy way to propose to a woman... via dolphin in the Bahamas... and I LOVE dolphins, ask anyone whose seen my collection of dolphin stuff... so yes, consider me super jealous!  It was just so romantic and sweet and great.  Couldn't have happened to a nicer couple of people to find each other either.



So, back to the aquarium, aptly titled The Dig.  One of the coolest things was the decor, which again, we'll have to wait for Katie's photos of because I don't see any of our other travel buddies have pictures of it in their albums that they've shared with me.  But, they also had two MASSIVE manta rays.  Like, 10 foot wingspan.



That photo has no scale and doesn't do it justice... once I get the photos from Katie I'm almost certain I have one that has a scale object in it.  When we went through with the group we just had my disposable camera with us, but on our way out of the park we went through again to stop in the gift shop that was in the center of the aquarium halls, so I took a TON of photos of the inside of the aquariums with her camera... it all fascinated me.  I love aquariums.  The decor inside was also rather futuristic in an ancient civilization way, very true to the Atlantis theme.  So there was plenty of photos of that too.  One of the nifty factoids that the tour guide had told us that morning about the aquarium's residents are in such good shape because the water in the aquarium isn't just water treated with chemicals and sea salts to mimic their natural sea water - it IS actual ocean water from the surrounding Caribbean.  Pretty cool.



Once we were done oohing and ahhing as a group, we wandered around the lagoon area to the other side where the smaller predator aquarium was located.  This promised to be sharks, sting rays, barracuda, etc. that, for obvious reasons, can't be housed wiht the other fish.  I have to say I was disappointed - the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas was a much better predator only aquarium attraction.  The decor was basically none, and they were all just in one big bowl like tank.  There was one of those glass domed walk ways, but that was it.  And the sharks are the small ones that aren't that impressive, and there didn't seem to really be that many fish in there either.  So that was a bit of a let down for me, but The Dig made up for it.

In general Atlantis was AWESOME, and I'd love to just fly straight to Nassau and spend more time there to do the dolphin swim, try out more slides, hang in the lagoon, snorkel, feed sharks (yes, they do this twice a day but we missed both times), etc.  The only thing I really didn't like about Atlantis was the exorbantly long tour upon first arrival and that the park was cashless - I specifically brought cash with me to take care of snacks and stuff but even the snack bars only accepted credit card or payment via room key if you were a guest at the resort.  Which was lame, and now I owe Carrie like $4 for an ice cream lol. 

More photos I stole from Crystal since Katie's laggin'...





Once we were done with the two aquariums as a group, it was pretty much decided that we were done for the day.  Drena was having some energy issues because she really needed to get back to the lockers and take her medications, so Joe & Andrew volunteered to go back to get them while the rest of the group stayed with her at the shark area.  Katie and I had decided that, since we already knew we wanted to go back to the gift shop in The Dig before leaving, we'd head back to the lockers with them and get our stuff and then head back to the port.  Once we got back to the lockers we realized that there was an inlet right beside them for The Current, so since it had definitely warmed a bit, we took one last go-round before the park started reeling people in and we got dressed to leave.  We made our stop at the gift shop, taking another slightly less leisurely trip through the aquarium for me to take better photos with Katie's camera.  We wandered back to the bus area through the casino, taking more photos of their really cool dolphin lighting features and a couple of the big glass sculptures they had. 

Just in time, we ended up getting onto what seemed to be the last or second to last bus, and low and behold the rest of our group ended up on that bus too!  So we all rode back to the port.  I was a bit sad to see when we returned that the Harley shop I'd seen that morning was now closed.  I really wanted to get another shirt for my dad, but I was relived when Linnitt later told me that all the stuff inside looked exactly like what Katie and I had shown her that we got at the one in Freeport.  But later that evening as we went to Senor Frogs I had to take a photo of the store anyway.  It's perfectly placed next to a Nascar store - which means my dad would have been like a little boy in a candy store!



Once again I'm going to tease you to say that the festivities for the evening at Senor Frogs are worthy of their own post.  So stay tuned!

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Cruise Askew, Night 2 Formal Evening

I left off in my last chronicle of my Bahamian cruise just about the point where we'd returned to the ship after our day in Freeport.  We all knew when planning for the cruise that one night would be the "Captain's Dinner" where the attire was formal.  I was sweating this a bit since the last time I had to wear anything "formal" was my wedding almost 6 years ago.  But, I managed to get a dress from Old Navy that could be dressed up as formal, even though it was technically cotton, so I wasn't too worried once I got the accessories.

It was about 4 once we got back on and talked to some of our traveling companions.  We found out that some people planned on attending the Captain's cocktail party, which was one of the only times/events on board offering complimentary cocktails.  So Katie & I decided we'd go straight back to our stateroom and get ready for the evening then, assuming it'd take a bit of time for both of us to get cleaned up and gussied up for the formality.

So after getting all pretty, we headed down to the Captain's Cocktail hour before dinner.  We made a point of going in early to get a booth since we expected more of our travelling group to show up.  Katie and I were sitting in a booth alone for probably 40 mins enjoying several glasses of wine and screwdrivers before Adam, Drena, and Andrew (below) showed up, just in time for the last round of complimentary cocktails and a brief toast. Everyone looked smashing, especially Andrew showcasing his British charm in a tux!

After three drinks and an hour of listening to the ship's swing band and mocking some poor woman wearing a turquoise dress that looked like the most hideous prom or bridesmaid dress from 1986 with poorly matched black shoes, we floated our way to the dining room to join the rest of our party for the meal.  As I said before, everyone looked smashing.  Dinner this second night was much better quality than dinner the first night.  I think after Gavin's tongue lashing the evening prior, they were on their toes.  Our server Andy was a pleasure... he was our table's server all nights and we made sure to tip him extra the final night, even though their tips are technically included in the $10/day Carnival charged for service like the waiters and porters and stewards.

The one thing that bothered the bejesus out of me during dinners in the dining room were the photographers.  I remember after my first adult trip to Las Vegas mentioning that every attraction you go to had a shameless forced photo op trying to sell you the incredibly overpriced prints afterwards.  And on the cruise they pushed that camera in your face every chance they could.  Before we got on the boat in Port Canaveral, after we got onto the boat, every time we got off in port, sometimes twice, photos every night at dinner while you're trying to eat they go around to every table and take photos of every person or couple, sometimes photos with a showgirl outside the dining room, and an entire corridor of one deck was lined with backdrops and pro photogs asking you if you were interested in taking photos.  And some of the backdrops were HORRIBLE... like it was obviously pixelated from 5 feet away.  I understand if I was looking at it up close and could see the poor quality, but from 5 feet it shouldn't be visible. 

I digress... it's the years I spent working at a printing company infiltrating my vacation story!  Anyway the first night I think it was they came around with some ass dressed like a poor facimilie of Capt. Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.  If this was the Disney cruise I'd expect that, but man it was lame.  The night of the fancy dinner they came around again and this was the only night I could really understand them doing it since people don't normally have many opportunities to get dressed up so a pic would be nice.  Retrospectively the accessories all worked for a fun formal outfit for me, though I should have left the watch off lol.

After dinner they also had a photog set up on the staircase in the main lobby, and we took a nice group shot.

We got a little photo happy afterwards against the wall as some of the couples in our group were busy with the pro taking couples shots on the stairs.

After the photo extravaganza, some people went to play bingo, Katie went to the casino for some blackjack and ended up doubling her money, and I stayed behind in the room to get into some more comfy shorts & a t-shirt and watch some Dark Knight while chilling before having to get up bright and early again the next morning for when we arrived in Nassau.

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Cruise Askew, Day 2 in Freeport

Day two started bright and early with Katie and I getting up at 7 ish.  Not really my idea of fun on a vacation to get up earlier than I do when not on vacation, but we'd docked in Freeport and jam packed our time there with an island bus tour and a glass bottom boat tour.  To steal Katie's wording from her blog, Freeport was not the tropical island paradise that we'd imagined.  Freeport is the industrual capital of the Bahamas on the main island Grand Bahama Island. 

As a disclaimer since I take a LOT of photos and talk a LOT about my experiences, this is only day 2 up until our getting back on the boat after being on shore.  The formal dinner was that night on board and that requires a post by itself, apparently.  Yes I ramble that much!

We made our way down to the gangway and off the ship to where the tours were.  We were informed that, while on our tour, we should stay on the last stop the bus made because that's where the glass bottom boat would leave from.  Otherwise we'd waste a bunch of time taking the bus back to the cruise ship port and then another bus back to the port for the boat.  So on our way to our first stop, a market in downtown Freeport, we started snapping photos of the local scenery.

There were markets and similar stands everywhere on the island, which were commonly referred to as "straw markets".  Katie described them as a cross between a flea market and an art festival, but I'd really say they were strongly more flea market.  Most merchants sold local straw woven bags and necklaces and such, with a lot of other trinkety things like t-shirts 3 for $10 and shot glasses 2 for $5.  Of course, being a collector of shot glasses, I got one.  We spent about 20 minutes at the market and I almost missed the bus because of a group of other tourists lingering in the small stall that I wanted a shot glass from (I hadn't seen the same one at any of the other stalls).  But I made it on and we were off.  Here's some photos from the market:

On our way to the next stop, Taino Beach, we were driven through some of the neighborhoods of the island.  The tour guide/bus driver told us that this upper-class neighborhood was mostly 3-4 bedroom houses that ranged from about $100,000 - $200,000.  Since we'd already been told that the Bahamian dollar exchanges at a 1:1 rate with the US dollar, I was really irritated to know that a super nice house in the Bahamas is way cheaper than a comparable house here in the SF Bay area!  Someone I mentioned that too reminded me that the crime rate in the non-tourist areas is pretty high though, so I guess that's the trade off.  We were told more facts about Freeport and the Bahamas, and soon we arrived at the Junkanoo Beach Club at Taino Beach.

We were there for about 30 minutes, enough time for Katie and I to sink our feet into the crystal clear Caribbean Ocean and walk on the soft sugary sand of the beach.  The overcast weather was a bit of a downer since we were hoping for blue skies like you see in photos, but it was still absolutely gorgeous. 

We ran into our travel companions Linnitt and Kory as we left - they'd chosen the shore excursion that was just spending the day at Junkanoo to soak up the sand and waves.  So we said a quick hi & bye to them and were back on the bus heading to our final stop, Port Lucaya.  This area is one of the main tourist areas of the island, where many of the resorts are located, the casino, and the port where all recreational vessels are docked (for the most part).  So while we were only supposed to be there for an hour with the bus tour, we took the advise of the tour guides at the ship's dock and stayed a couple hours in Port Lucaya waiting for the Glass Bottom Boat tour we'd scheduled. 

This was great, because it gave us plenty of time to wander around the shops, where we discoverd a Harley-Davidson store.  My dad collects t-shirts from various Harley stores, so of course I HAD to get him a Harley of Freeport shirt!  We also stopped in one of the drug stores there to get some munchies to take back onto the boat.  The gift shop on board really didn't have much in the way of snacks to keep around the stateroom, and didn't have my staple caffinated beverage, Mountain Dew, at all, so I grabbed a couple bottles and some snacks to take back, as did Katie.  We wandered around for a long while trying to decide on where to eat lunch.  Katie wanted to sample some local fare, but unfortunately all the restaurants were pretty mainstream and the only local fare they had was conch, but she wasn't quite ready to give that a shot, so we ended up having some strawberry daiquiries and really American food at Rum Runners (she had a hot dog, I had a grilled cheese sandwich... adventurous, aren't we?). 

Finally it was time to go on the glass bottom boat tour.  We found the place to turn our tickets in and were led to the boat and got on. 

We set out of the bay area, past the jetty and out into the open waters.  The water the boat was in was incredibly clear, so it was easy to see every plant and random fish as we headed out to our first stop.  We finally arrived above a coral reef with tons of fish swimming around.  I was worried that the photos I was taking through the glass below wouldn't be that great, but the clarity of the Caribbean really helped that endeavor.

They gave us some hamburger buns and let us toss them over the side to feed the fish.  I didn't expect them to rush to the surface, but they did and it was really cool to see them schooling around just under the surface.  A couple of small kids tossed in their buns whole instead of breaking them into bits like the rest of us did, and it was a massacre!  The fish went nuts, of course.  We then took off towards a ship wreck in deeper water, which Katie and I were looking forward too.  They also promised that there would be sharks there, which was also exciting.  Unfortunately when we got there, divers were on the wreck, which meant the boat couldn't hover over it.  Bummer.  But, we did see sharks!  Since the water was a bit deeper, we couldn't see a lot of detail, mostly just silhouettes.  But even that was nifty.

The small boat was rocking a lot and it wasn't making me feel all that great, but I still wish it had gone on longer.  We got back to the dock and, smartly, went straight for where the tour busses were to get back to the ship.  They'd given us return vouchers when we got off at Port Lucaya, so we just jumped back onto the first bus that was headed back to the Sensation.  Good for us, even though we thought we had time to spare, because we got back right about 3:30, the time they told us we HAD to be back on the ship by. 

So, like I said at the beginning of this post, that evening on board after we set sail and said bye bye to Freeport, the formal Captain's dinner was scheduled.  That, my friends, requires more time to process and a whole other post.

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Cruise Askew, Day 1a & 1

So now that Crystal and Katie have both blogged about the cruise, I guess it's my turn.  I tried to use my Posterous account to blog while on the vacation via my mobile phone, but once we set sail I remembered that we were venturing into International waters, and I didn't want to use the phone and incur International charges.  So much for that, but a few things are up at http://trisha.posterous.com

Also, I think since I tend to ramble on I'll need to talk about the whole vacation 1 day at a time, so this will focus on the night we arrived in Orlando (day 1a) and Day 1 of the cruise while we were at sea headed to Freeport.

So, it all started Saturday morning the 21st with Katie and I heading to Oakland Airport bright and early for a 5 hour flight to New York.  The flight to JFK was relatively uneventful... we had a pleasant few conversations with the lady sitting in our row and enjoyed some DirecTV and XM Radio via Jet Blue.  They're definitely my favorite airline right now, with Southwest in a close second. 

I digress.  Once arriving at JFK and changing our watches to Eastern time, we find out that our connection flight to Orlando would be leaving from the same gate & went to find some lunch.  Just when it was looking like we'd have to settle for some Jamba Juice and premade sandwiches, we find a food court and get some burgers.  It was kinda nifty because there were several options, like a normal mall food court, but you ordered via screen and then paid at one central station.  The service was slow and the burgers were a bit overcooked (even for my normally well-done standards).  We also had to grab our burgers and head back to the gate to board on time. 

The flight to Orlando was even less eventful, and once we arrived and got our luggage I called Nicole to arrange getting to the condos we were staying at for the night.  They'd had a horrible time coming to the airport earlier in the day to pick up others, so they took up a pool to pay for our cab and we cabbed it over.  The cab driver was incredibly chatty (which I hate) and told us some long sob story about having lost his job 4 months ago and how this was his second night driving a cab and how he only makes $15 at the end of the day between tolls and gas and the cab rental fee.  It was like he was begging for a good tip, so I found it really funny when Katie didn't tip him at all!  Besides the fact that when we arrived the meter said $31 and he asked us for $34 when we asked how much we owed while he was bitching about how heavy our bags were getting them out of his trunk. 

We got into the condos and man were they nice.  The master bathroom was almost the size of my living room & dining room combined.  We met up with about half the crew we'd be sailing with: Kevin, Nikki, Crystal, Joe, and Drena.  The rest had gone to get dinner and a Walmart run.  Luckily when I called Nicole from the airport she'd took Katie & my dinner requests and we were soon introduced to Five Guys, an East Coast burger chain.  Do I have to turn in my West Coast resident card if I say it was better than In & Out? lol  The rest of the gang Nicole, Gavin, Ed, Adam, and Maria came back with the burgers and we watched Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog.  Shorter than I thought it'd be, but pretty good.  Later that night Lena & James arrived, and shortly after we all bedded down for the night on the air mattress, which was perfectly comfortable enough for us.

The next morning we got up and had some cereal and prepared the condo to leave.  The view from our 4th floor balcony was nice, as seen here:


After cleaning up the condo per the check out instructions we went to get on the limo bus we'd rented to take us the hour to Port Canaveral.  The limo bus rental was cheaper per person than the shuttle from Carnival, and picked us up at the condos without us all having to make a trip back to the airport to get the Carnival shuttle.  Although, being a "limo bus", I have to say I expected it to be a bit nicer than it was, but still a comfy ride to the port.





We'd all heard that it could take hours for our checked luggage to be delivered to our staterooms, so we made some moves of various items into our carry ons and started to get on board.  The process of getting on the ship was more than I thought it'd be, but there weren't any hangups and it went smoothly. We got on the ship with our carry-ons at about noon and our cabins weren't going to be ready until 1:30, so we all headed up to the Lido deck for the lunch buffet.  Not that great; it was Italian day and I didn't eat much, but enjoyed the chocolate milk & bread lol.  We made it down to our stateroom to check it out and, if I remember correctly, found our luggage there already. 

So, some notes about the ship before I forget.  MAN was it Vegasy!  The walls were purple, lots of neon, very bright.  I expected it to be a lot more modern, especially since this particular ship, the Carnival Sensation, had just been in dry dock getting revamped.  The staterooms were nice and calm though, but much of the ship was really dated in terms of decor.  There was a certain charm to that though, being something I'm not used to.  It became a bit of a running joke though. 





Since we were tired from travelling all the day before, we just chilled out for awhile and I took a short nap... man the beds were comfy!  We then went up for the life boat drill, which was boring but a necessary evil.  One cool thing was that as we were out on the decks by the boats was when the ship set sail, so we were on deck to see the ship embarking.  Nifty!  Afterwards we put our live vests back in the cabin and went exploring to check out the shops that were supposedly on board.  The shops weren't open yet so we got a drink at the main lobby bar.

We killed enough time to go look at the shops and again, were a bit disappointed with how few there were and the content.  While in the gift shop I started for the first time to feel the ship actually move, and since she didn't feel the movement Katie accused me of being tipsy since the drink I'd had at the bar was a bit strong.  Luckily Andrew was also around in the gift shop and confirmed that it wasn't just me!  We ended up killing more time wandering and went to stand in line to get into the dining room for dinner.  We'd decided as a group to go with the later dinner time of 8:15 and as we stood in line there were two couples behind us, easily in their mid-late 60's chatting.  I heard one of the men say something about being happy to choose the late dinner time to avoid all the little old ladies.  I couldn't help but thinking how ironic that was coming from an older gentleman himself lol.

One of the things I was looking forward to on the cruise was the food; I've heard that cruise food was supposed to be really good.  Well, by the end of day 1 I was really let down.  As I already mentioned the lunch buffet was severely disappointing, and dinner in the dining room night one was a bit of a letdown as well.  And, since we were split up to two large tables with all 19 of us, the second table didn't get served until after we were done eating.  Gavin gave them a stern talking to after the meal... and believe me when I say it normally takes a lot to get him riled up.  But dinner was one of the first times we were all together... the 15 of us who'd stayed at the condo the evening before, Carrie & Steven, and Linnitt & Korey.  Although Katie & I had randomly run into Linnitt & Korey in the hallway on our way back to the room earlier that evening.

So that was day one... we went to bed and set our alarms to get up bright and early since we had to eat breakfast and be off the boat in Freeport for our bus tour by 8:45am. 

Here's some photos of our stateroom for those interested:

Katie took the bed by the window


This was the view of the stateroom from the inset porthole windows

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