It was a long day on Friday May 7, 2010 for Mom and me. We drove down to College Station, Texas to pick up Cassandra (my sister) before heading out to New Orleans. We were tired by the time we hit the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge (refer to pic above), but we decided to continue on to New Orleans to stay the night at La Quinta Inn there in NOLA. We had a fun time driving, playing music, talking, gossiping, just talking.
We finally arrived at New Orleans, check into the hotel, and fall fast asleep. It was funny because at approximately 1:45 in the morning, just as we were falling asleep, a man called the room asking to speak to his unidentified daughter. I told him he must have a wrong room number because I do not know any daughter of his. I was tired, but still tried to make sure I was as nice as one can be for getting a phone call at 1:45 AM.
We woke up and decided to explore New Orleans, as this was my first time ever to visit. I've driven through plenty of times, but never have explored. It's a pretty cool little town but has some areas that are dirty, but all in all, it was a pretty city. We ate breakfast at McDonald's, which was filled with very pleasant people.
After walking back to the hotel, we got ready to embark on my first cruise! I was super pumped and ready to rock 'n roll. I had been tanning for the past 2 weeks in hopes I wouldn't burn on the cruise so I was very excited, as was Mom and Cassandra. This cruise was mostly for Mom, since it was Mother's Day, I decided to take her on a cruise also allowing me to take a nice vacation. :)
We sat in line driving up to the port for what seemed like forever. It was miserably boring but we still managed to have a good time and keep smiles on our faces.
Finally, the porters get to our luggage and we park. We are set to go! We went through Customs, got our passports scanned, and boarded the ship. I was pumped.
We decided to grab lunch at the buffet, since by this time it was 12:30 and we couldn't go to our room yet. When 1:30 finally decided to roll around, we went to our room and dropped off our luggage and then walked around the ship and explored the decks and various levels of the ship. I learned very quickly that taking the stairs every day would definitely be good for my legs and training. The pool was quite small; I guess I was thinking for such a large ship, the pool would have been much bigger. There was a cool little slide and a HUGE movie screen by the pool as well. There were levels upon levels of lounging chairs available.
It was on our self assisted tour I found out that the running "track" wasn't really my idea of a track - 11 loops = 1 mile! I already hate running around on a track, but 11 loops, really?!?! It was ridiculous. I still don't understand why they didn't open up the muster deck and allow that as a track to run on. It would have been the whole ship, I bet 4.5 loops would have been close to a mile. I still don't understand that and wish they hadn't closed off the deck because I would have much rather run on that deck than 11 loops.
Dinner that night was quite fun. I cannot remember anything I ate except the Cream of Tomato soup. It was very good - very hot. After dinner, we went to the show.
The show, no going to lie, was a bit cheesy. Watching it was hard because I have a dancing background so it was hard to see people not together in turns/kicks/arm levels. All-in-All though, I wasn't expecting a Broadway quality show. It was still fun. I was exhausted and wanted to just go to bed by the time the show was over. Off to bed for me.
I spent the next two sea days enjoying the sun. I laid out by the pool all day, each day. I was able to work on my tan. Cassandra and Mom played trivia, slept, read, and wondered around the ship. The first sea night, Mother's Day, was our first formal dinner night. I was so excited! :)
I couldn't wait to put on my pretty green dress and show it off. I really was excited! Dinner comes and goes. We made friends with the lady who sat at our table. She was such a sweetheart! Her name was Norma, very delightful woman.
The third day of the cruise we were in Belize. We took the most amazing excursion: Raiders of the Lost Mayans. It was so much fun!
We ziplined, rappelled, crawled, and hiked. All for a total of 2.5 miles. I know that doesn't sound very far but let me say this about the excursion. The cruise line suggests wearing long sleeve shirts and pants to protect your extremities and also mentions something about the caves being cool. It's all a lie! The caves are very very very warm this time of year and wearing pants/long sleeves makes it miserably hot and very humid. The weather was easily 94 with 98% humidity. It was a bit ridiculous. I still cannot believe how warm it was outside. To top off about the excursion, I was stung by a wasp and my ankles swelled up. I was telling Mom that I looked like I had cankles. Not cool at all. We met the cutest and sweetest couple, Julie and Reuben, during the excursion. They were from Alabama and probably the sweetest, most open people I have encountered in a very long time! My one suggestion about this excursion is to have the participants leave the ship earlier. It is the longest excursion of the day and the ship tenders about 5 miles from the actual port. The end of the excursion was rushed because of time and having to get back to the port. The excursion really needs to leave earlier than 9:00 AM. We didn't actually leave the port until closer to 10:00 AM because of having to wait for the people tending from the ship. That was a big complaint amongst the excursion participants.
The next day we ported in Roatan. I cannot say anything but WOW! What a beautiful island! It was the prettiest place I have ever seen or been to. The water was so very clear and the people of the island were extremely nice. I was very impressed with the hospitality of the locals. We hired a taxi and our driver, Isaiaha, took us to Half Moon Bay.
It was a beautiful area and had a very quaint restaurant out there as well. We went out there with Norma, Julie and Reuben. Everyone snorkeled but I had my trisuit, goggles, and swim cap on... I went swimming. I did my very first open water swim - ever! I was so proud of myself and so very proud that I got out there and just did it. I probably didn't swim near as far as I could have but I was completely shocked by the salt water. I don't think I was expecting it to be as salty as it was. Who knows?!? After feeling content on my swimming, I put on my bathing suit and laid on a lounge chair and absorbed some more sun light! Just what my body needed. Everyone else got some more snorkeling in and then we decided to head back to the ship.
Dinner was a fun night this night. We sat with Norma and talked and laughed the night away. It was fun. This was our second formal night and I was very excited because I was able to wear my "cupcake" dress. Again, can't really remember what I ate.
After dinner, we went to the show, "The Big Easy". It was another big cheesy spectacular but it was still fun. I, then, went to bed to get ready for our next day in Cozumel!
In the morning, we adventured out with Julie and Reuben. Reuben was from Cozumel so he was an expert at showing us around the city. We rented this little Chevy Tracker and rolled around the island. We ended up resting at a little resort known as Mr. Sanchos.
I swam there too and felt much better than I had at Roatan. The first time is always the hardest, I know. :) After some more relaxation, we headed back to the ship. There really isn't a lot to do in Cozumel but drink and since I don't drink, I just wanted to relax a bit. Mom had a special invitation for being a returning Carnival Cruiser so she attended a little function the cruise director, Lenny, had put on. She came back, visibly upset and Cassandra and I asked her what was wrong. She said that a lady had won a bottle a champagne who's name was Fanny. She proceeded to say that when Lenny and Chicken (the Cruise Director's Assistant) started to call out her name they were laughing so hard Chicken had to walk off stage. Lenny, still laughing, managed to call out Fanny's name. I'm sorry, but if that's the case, that is the most unprofessional thing that one could do to another person.
After she came back, we got ready for dinner. I was wearing rather tall heels so standing for me wasn't really an option especially considering my ankles were still swollen. We went into the upstairs lounge by the Paris Dining room and listened to the great little band play. While sitting in there, Lenny walked in and said hi to us ladies. Then he went straight to the bar to start drinking. About 5 minutes later, a couple of female staff members came into the bar scantly clad, honestly, they were dressed like $5 hookers. I don't mean to sound judgmental or mean or rude in anyway but one of the girl's dress was so short you could almost see her buttocks. I was embarrassed for her. They, too, went to the bar and started drinking. At each of the shows, we went to there were staff members drinking. I'll address that in a bit.
The next day was another sea day. The cruise was coming to an end. It was this wonderful Friday, I decided that I would go for a nice workout in gym. I figured I could complete a pseudo brick workout with the stationary bike and the treadmill. I walk into the gym, excited to be working out, attempt to adjust the bike and it was so rusted and worn through, I couldn't make the proper adjustment or get to the proper fit on the bike. I needed the seat to be at a 6, but if you set it at a 6, the seat would fall to the level 4 (refer to the picture).
My biggest complaint with this is that people cannot safely ride the stationary bike because you can't get a a proper fit. An improper fit will put strain on the knees which can lead to blowing out a knee. This gym really was a very poor showing of how Carnival takes care of their gyms.
After a long day of working out, relaxing by the pool, attempting to get a tan - despite the crazy windy day, I was ready for the final dinner on the ship. I put on my pretty red dress I got in Cozumel and away we went to our last dinner. Norma was dressed so beautifully in a Salmon color dress with matching shawl. She was just adorable! After dinner, we set our luggage outside the door to see it again when we got to port in New Orleans.
We woke up, only for me to learn how AWFUL disembarkation is! There really has got to be a better way to do this procedure than the way Carnival did it on this day. It was miserably slow. Carnival started letting people off the ship around 7:00 AM but we didn't get off the ship until almost noon. It really was a bit ridiculous. I have never been so happy to see my car as I was that afternoon. We got everything in the car and loaded up and headed back home. It was an uneventful drive but boy, was I glad to have my bed back!
All-in-all it was just an OK trip. Our room steward - Bambang was a cool guy. I was very impressed with his ability to remember all of our names and always addressed us by our names. It made me feel a bit more personable with him.
Our head waiter and team waiter, Wilton and Joy respectively, were amazing. They were hilarious! I enjoyed them being our wait staff for the week! :) Each night they knew how to put smiles on our faces. They even remembered Norma's milk each night, which was very impressive.
I was disappointed that there really wasn't that much to do on the ship. They had some things to do, like they had quite a bit of trivia, but other than that, they didn't have that many games or tours of the ship or anything else that was readily available. One day during the early dinner seating, they had NOTHING planned but during the late dinner seating there were 7 things planned for the guests. That is poor judgment on the cruise director's part. Personally, I feel as though Lenny and his staff were too busy drinking and mingling amongst themselves to be concerned about entertaining the guests. I don't mind the staff drinking and having fun, but I do care when it is amongst the guests. I can't drink while I'm on duty at work and I am in a customer service type position. My company doesn't allow drinking because it loses respect of the customer and loses credibility. If you want to be a professional and keep a professional image, you should not be allowed to drink and dress seductively, while wearing your name tag. I lost so much respect for the cruise director staff during the cruise. I felt as though they were not helpful, nor were they nice. In fact, they bordered along the lines of rude.
During disembarkation, we talked to many of the guests around us, and were interested to find that many of the cruisers had taken many Carnival cruises in the past. I think about 5 of the 7 people we talked to all said this was the worst Carnival Cruise they had ever been on. One lady even said this ship needs to be dry-docked. It is just a worn out ship that needs some renovations.
I was asked if I would do a cruise again - Definitely! I had fun! Would I do another Carnival? Maybe - but not if Lenny and Chicken were working it and I definitely wouldn't sail on the Triumph.
Other than that, It was great being able to spend the time bonding with Cassandra and Mom. I can't wait for my next long vacation in October. Miami here I come! :) Get ready for me to Swim, Bike, Run all over the city! lol.
God Speed and Safe Training,
Megan
