Yep, we went on a cruise last week...and we went on the newest and largest ship that Carnival Cruise Lines has. The ship is 6-8 months out of the shipyard, holds 4200 or so passengers and has about 1400 crew. I think it's about 1100' long; width depends greatly on elevation/altitude.
This was a "bloggers cruise". You may recall a time when I copied and pasted a fine bit of prose from John Heald, the senior cruise director and "brand ambassador" for CCL. He's been writing this blog thing for several years, and they've had 6 annual cruises to celebrate the blog. 600 guests (they call us guests, even though at home, when you have a guest, you don't make them pay for food, beds, drinks, cokes, including a 15% tip on EVERYTHING) were signed up for the bloggyness, which meant we got a few different experiences than the rest of the people on board. Some different shows, a free drink party, etc.
The cruise is out of Miami, and we went to St Thomas (actually went to St John), Antigua, Tortola (actually went to Virgin Gorda), and Nassau. Turns out we went to Nassau twice and San Juan, also. Lots of sick/injured people on this ship.
CCL thinks enough of John that they named this ship after his dog, a German Shepherd. I've only seen one pic of the dog, and he's a great looking dog. I'd find it and post it, but it's also got his kid in the pic. So, here's a dog pic.
This was Duke, this pic was taken in late June of 2010. It's June in the pic, that's why the snow looks moldy.
Some people think I'm always negative and look to find the bad in everything. Those people are not totally wrong, but not nearly right, either. To prove this, I'll post some more pics.
Rust! Right on the front of the boat, overlooking a crew only deck. This spot is right on top of the rail, visible to anyone with functional eyes.
What the hell is this crap? Sold in a shop called "Cherry on Top", a candy store. The next pic is from the same place.
Yeah, $6 for a glass of beer that isn't very good.
The only sunset that I saw on the whole trip.
Dirt!
Ok, I'll show you what else I saw on the crew only deck. Please extend my thanks to AlGore for inventing zoom function on cameras. I'll post 2 pics demonstrating the zoom, too. Those pics will be of our traveling companion, Jim. Weird how many people think Jim is my brother.
The rust pic and the butt pic were taken from the same place, just pointing the camera a different direction and depth of field. :) The last 2 pics were taken from the same location, pointing the same direction, just using the zoom. Pretty big ship. St Thomas, the sky is as blue there as anywhere else!
Our room was located right off the middle set of elevators, a pretty decent location and a decent room once I got Val to quit throwing a fit about lack of storage space. All of our crap fit just fine. The beds were terrible, about as soft as a Fred Flintstone bed. They use 2 small beds to make a queen sized bed, which is weird when you have the beds separated....in the small rooms (cabin) that we always get, having the beds separated allows for more room. It was different in this room, but better, as Val was having to climb over the bed to get in. The desk is right at the foot of the bed, so separating them shoved her bed against the wall. Hard to describe, should have taken a pic, I guess. At the head, there's a narrow closet on the left. Next to that is a lamp/table/cupboard, then my skinny bed, her lamp, and her bed.
In a normal room that we'd get, the closet thingy would be somewhere else, and the beds could be shoved apart about 3 feet, thus giving much more room in the room. Suitcases go under the bed.
The house is so quiet...I hear the clock ticking, and that's it...the fridge is not running right now, there's no other sounds. The ship is so noisy...music everywhere, ventilator fans, toilet suctions, engines, motors, elevators, dingings, kids stomping, doors slamming, etc. And as I write this I wonder: will I cruise again? So much of it is not fun....getting to the port, for example, started Thursday night to diesel away on Saturday. There is so much standing in line: at the buffets, to go to the shows, to get in to dinner, to get off the ship, to get on the ship, to get coffee, to get water, to get lemonade.
So many of the seating areas of the ship are not very comfortable. Deck chairs make my ass go numb, other chairs either lean back too far, are not wide enough for my big butt, or just look gay. Seriously.
I didn't attempt to sit in or on either of those.
I spent a lot of time looking for a cool, quiet comfortable place to sit and read. I spent a lot of time being disappointed and annoyed. So many people running around barefoot and mostly shirtless were complaining about being cold. If you're cold, put on a sweater, because I know that you'd raise hell if I were running around naked.
Overall: I had a good time. I enjoyed most of the shows, most of the entertainment, the food, the ports, etc. The next entries will likely be 2 days, there won't be a minute by minute accounting of what I did; you'll think I spent the entire time in the toilets. :)
The cruise is out of Miami, and we went to St Thomas (actually went to St John), Antigua, Tortola (actually went to Virgin Gorda), and Nassau. Turns out we went to Nassau twice and San Juan, also. Lots of sick/injured people on this ship.
CCL thinks enough of John that they named this ship after his dog, a German Shepherd. I've only seen one pic of the dog, and he's a great looking dog. I'd find it and post it, but it's also got his kid in the pic. So, here's a dog pic.
Some people think I'm always negative and look to find the bad in everything. Those people are not totally wrong, but not nearly right, either. To prove this, I'll post some more pics.
Ok, I'll show you what else I saw on the crew only deck. Please extend my thanks to AlGore for inventing zoom function on cameras. I'll post 2 pics demonstrating the zoom, too. Those pics will be of our traveling companion, Jim. Weird how many people think Jim is my brother.
The rust pic and the butt pic were taken from the same place, just pointing the camera a different direction and depth of field. :) The last 2 pics were taken from the same location, pointing the same direction, just using the zoom. Pretty big ship. St Thomas, the sky is as blue there as anywhere else!
Our room was located right off the middle set of elevators, a pretty decent location and a decent room once I got Val to quit throwing a fit about lack of storage space. All of our crap fit just fine. The beds were terrible, about as soft as a Fred Flintstone bed. They use 2 small beds to make a queen sized bed, which is weird when you have the beds separated....in the small rooms (cabin) that we always get, having the beds separated allows for more room. It was different in this room, but better, as Val was having to climb over the bed to get in. The desk is right at the foot of the bed, so separating them shoved her bed against the wall. Hard to describe, should have taken a pic, I guess. At the head, there's a narrow closet on the left. Next to that is a lamp/table/cupboard, then my skinny bed, her lamp, and her bed.
In a normal room that we'd get, the closet thingy would be somewhere else, and the beds could be shoved apart about 3 feet, thus giving much more room in the room. Suitcases go under the bed.
The house is so quiet...I hear the clock ticking, and that's it...the fridge is not running right now, there's no other sounds. The ship is so noisy...music everywhere, ventilator fans, toilet suctions, engines, motors, elevators, dingings, kids stomping, doors slamming, etc. And as I write this I wonder: will I cruise again? So much of it is not fun....getting to the port, for example, started Thursday night to diesel away on Saturday. There is so much standing in line: at the buffets, to go to the shows, to get in to dinner, to get off the ship, to get on the ship, to get coffee, to get water, to get lemonade.
So many of the seating areas of the ship are not very comfortable. Deck chairs make my ass go numb, other chairs either lean back too far, are not wide enough for my big butt, or just look gay. Seriously.
I didn't attempt to sit in or on either of those.
I spent a lot of time looking for a cool, quiet comfortable place to sit and read. I spent a lot of time being disappointed and annoyed. So many people running around barefoot and mostly shirtless were complaining about being cold. If you're cold, put on a sweater, because I know that you'd raise hell if I were running around naked.
Overall: I had a good time. I enjoyed most of the shows, most of the entertainment, the food, the ports, etc. The next entries will likely be 2 days, there won't be a minute by minute accounting of what I did; you'll think I spent the entire time in the toilets. :)
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