En Route to New Orleans, LA, & Embarkation
Friday,
16 Sep 2016 – Yes, we have departed for another CARIBBEAN cruise. We left Bettendorf at about 11:15 AM. Jesse drove while Sally read aloud, first
finishing Green Darkness, by Anya
Seaton, then starting on Somewhere in
Time, by Richard Matheson. We
stopped by West Memphis Walmart to buy wine for the cruise. (Carnival allows passengers to bring aboard
750 ml of wine per person.) We arrived at our motel in West Memphis, AR,
at about 10:15 PM.
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| Pat O'Brien's, New Orleans, LA |
Sunday,
18 Sep 2016 – At about 11:00 AM, we checked out of our New Orleans hotel and
drove to the Erato Street New Orleans Cruise Terminal. Jon and Carol rode with us, while the other
members of our cruise party rode in a charter bus. Although there were less expensive
alternatives to parking, we elected to park our vehicle in the terminal parking
garage to avoid the anticipated long shuttle waits upon our return.
Upon
entering the cruise terminal, we realized that we had been issued “priority”
boarding passes, which enabled us to avoid the majority of the long check-in
lines. Except for the security
inspection, Jon and Carol were allowed to accompany us through the check-in
lines.
We
boarded the ship on deck 3. Upon encountering
long lines at the elevators, we opted to take the stairs down to our cabin on deck
2, while Jon and Carol waited to take an elevator to their cabin on deck
6. We were in our cabin by 1:30 PM.
Although
we had planned to meet Jon and Carol for lunch in The Gathering on deck 10, the
restaurant was so expansive that we were unable to locate them. Eventually we gave up and started our
lunch. Several menu venues were available,
but we chose Italian. We were almost
finished with dinner when we finally connected with Jon and Carol, who joined
us for dessert.
At
3:30 PM, we endured the dreaded mandatory life-boat drill, then returned to our
cabin and unpacked, relaxed, and made a couple of last minute phone calls while
we were still in range of the New Orleans cell phone towers. Our cabin steward welcomed us back. Her name, Patcharin, was difficult to
pronounce, so she suggested that we just call her Pat. She also gave us two complimentary liter-size
bottles of water, given to “priority” Carnival members. We believe our upgrade to “priority” was a
mistake, but Jon and Verna believe otherwise.
At 8:15 PM we met our cruise party for
dinner, where we had assigned tables in the Scarlet Restaurant for the late
dining. For dinner each night, we sat at a table for seven along with Verna,
Earl, Jon, Carol, and Julia. At an
adjacent table, Dolores, Wilbur, Humpty, Missy, Kitty, Larry, and Doris
sat. Our waiter was Omar, from Columbia,
and his assistant, Viktor, from Ukraine.
Sometimes another waiter, Rushad, from India, also helped out at our
table. Waiters on cruise ships are
almost always from countries other than the US.
Our
other table had a different waiter and assistant. We had started the day wearing our matching tee-shirts,
but changed into more dressy outfits for dinner, while most of our cruise party
were still wearing their matching shirts.
Whoops!
Sally
had not slept well on Saturday night, so immediately after dinner, we retired
for the night.
2 Days At Seas
Monday,
19 Sep 2016 – We barely made it to breakfast before the buffet closed at 10:30
AM. Although we had planned to swim
later, the two swimming pools were so crowded that we returned to our cabin
with our swimsuits still dry. We lounged
in our cabin until 2:15 PM, when we went to The Gathering for a light
lunch. However, we had not realized that
all of the buffet lines closed at 2:30 PM.
We did manage to order two Caesar salads from the pizza grill, which we
enjoyed along with lemonade and frozen yogurt.
Internet
access was excellent on this ship. For
just one payment of $60.00, we purchased unlimited internet access for the
duration of the 7-day cruise! Needless
to say, we spent a lot of time online!
This
was an “elegant” dining night, so after enjoying the “Chocolate Delight” strawberry
plate in our cabin that we received as “priority” passengers, we dressed in our
tuxedo and evening gown and attempted to meet up with the rest of our cruise
party for a group photo at 7:00 PM.
However, due to a comedy of errors, we never managed to get the complete
cruise party in one location; therefore, at 8:15 PM we abandoned our photo
plans and went on to the Scarlet Restaurant for dinner, where we enjoyed
lobster and prime rib. After dinner,
most of our party attended a comedy show, but we opted to dance to a few songs
with the Impromtwo band in the Dream Atrium.
We did a couple of slow Rumbas and one Cha Cha.
Tuesday,
20 Sep 2016 – At 10:30 AM, we met our cruise party for the Sea Day Brunch in
the Scarlet Restaurant, where we enjoyed breakfast and conversation until about
12:30 PM. Then we went for a swim. Both swimming pools were crowded, but we
managed to crowd our way into the aft pool, where Jesse did water aerobics and
Sally treaded water. It was
“should-to-shoulder,” with maybe two or three feet from other people. Before leaving the pool, Jesse managed to
tread water for five minutes or so. He’s
been practicing “treading” in the YMCA pool for the last few weeks without much
success. After our swim, we returned to
our cabin and played on our computers while watching Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 on the TV.
After
dressing for dinner, we stopped at the Ocean Plaza and danced to a few songs with
The Blackjack band. At 8:15 PM, we
joined the rest of our party for dinner.
Sally ordered salmon and Jesse tilapia, and we enjoyed chocolate cake
and ice cream for dessert. After dinner,
we went with the others to the Lido deck, where Motown music was playing. Jesse joined a couple of line dances; then we
retired to our cabin.
Island of Roatan, Honduras
Wednesday, 21 Sep 2016 – This morning we went to
breakfast in The Gathering. Soon after
breakfast, we went for a swim. The pool
was almost empty this time, since most passengers had gone ashore. The pool on this ship was filled with salt
water, which made floating very easy for Jesse; however, the salt stung his
eyes.
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| Mahogany Bay, Honduras |
Missy, with assistance from others, had organized a
surprise anniversary for Jon and Carol, so we all met in Missy and Humpty’s
cabin at 6:15 PM. When the very
surprised Jon and Carol arrived, we drank champagne and wine, and snacked on
hors d’oerves until our 8:15 PM dinner reservations.
After dinner, Sally started to feel a little congested,
so we skipped dancing and returned to our cabin, where Sally started on cold
medication.
Belize City, Belize
Thursday,
22 Sep 2016 – We awoke to our alarm at 6:00 AM.
Sally didn’t really feel like going anywhere, but since this was our
only excursion for this cruise, she decided to endure it. After breakfast we met up with Jon, Carol,
and Missy at 7:30 AM at the entrance of the Encore auditorium for our
excursion. Soon, we all boarded a tender
to Belize because the port harbor wasn't deep enough for the ship to dock
there. Then we boarded a bus, which we
rode for nearly 2 hours to the Xunantunich Mayan ruins. Our tour guides were Therese and Carla. One guide said if we couldn't remember how to
pronounce the name, to simply tell people we had been to the "Tuna
sandwich" ruins.
After the bus ride, we walked a short
distance to a large flat ferry (almost like a big wooden raft), where a man was
turning a hand crank at the cables to move the raft across to the other side of
the small river. Then we boarded
minibuses that took us up a hill to the area of the ruins, where we walked and
listened to presentations by our site guide.
Our site guide’s name was Edgar, but his nicknames were “Bean” and
“Little Man.” He was very small in
stature, so we assumed “Bean” was taken from one of the characters in the book Ender’s Game.
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| Xunantunich Myan Ruins |
After our tour of the ruins, we returned to our bus via minibus and ferry. Shortly after starting our trip back to the pier and the awaiting tenders, we stopped at a restaurant, where we enjoyed fried chicken, rice, beans, yams, potato salad, water, and the local Belikin beer, which has been brewed in Belize since 1969. This lunch stop was included in the day’s excursion.
When we finally reached our cabin, Sally was
exhausted. Dinner in the
Scarlet
Restaurant is a two-hour affair, and she would have preferred not going to
dinner at all and just grabbing something fast and going to bed. However, she really enjoyed the escargot
appetizer, soup, salad, and barbecued ribs.
After dinner, Jon and Carol came to
our cabin for a little while to access the internet. Then we retired for the night and were asleep
by 11:30 PM.
Cozumel, Mexico
Friday, 23 Sep 2016 – Sally slept until 11:00 AM; Jesse had been up for quite a while. Soon, we enjoyed a big breakfast at The Gathering. By the time we were finishing, they were closing the breakfast buffet line. Jon and Carol joined us at the end – they had already returned from their early morning excursion and were there for lunch. They planned to join the rest of our party ashore at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Restaurant later that afternoon.
Friday, 23 Sep 2016 – Sally slept until 11:00 AM; Jesse had been up for quite a while. Soon, we enjoyed a big breakfast at The Gathering. By the time we were finishing, they were closing the breakfast buffet line. Jon and Carol joined us at the end – they had already returned from their early morning excursion and were there for lunch. They planned to join the rest of our party ashore at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Restaurant later that afternoon.
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| Cozumel |
After breakfast, we went ashore to Cozumel for maybe a total of 30 minutes or a little more. It took a while just to walk across a bridge area (there was another Carnival ship parked beside ours) and into a shopping/restaurant area. We took a couple of photos and then walked back to the ship. We were here last March and walked a little further, but didn't see the point of doing that again this time,
Then Jesse wanted to go to the
swimming pool. Sally wasn't enthusiastic
to say the least because she knew it would be very crowded, which it was. That didn't seem to matter because we often
find ourselves next to someone who wants to talk, which happened again this
time. The woman next to us was very
friendly and told much about her health problems. She lives outside of Seattle and has been
married for 45 years. She does things to
help her memory because she had a stroke several years ago and was numb on her
left side; she had physical therapy to learn to walk again. After a while, her husband joined us. He's had a lot of bad sciatica problems, for
which he goes to an office where there is both a chiropractor and a sports
deep-tissue massage therapist. We talked
about a lot of stuff and how society has changed, but stayed away from
politics!
Then we got into the hot tub, which was
next to the pool. Again, the woman next
to Sally struck up a conversation. She
was from Anaheim, CA. We talked about
places to live and cruising ... we never got into as deep a conversation as
previously because our skin was becoming shriveled from being in water so
long. She prefers Carnival to other
cruise lines because it really is the "fun ship" cruise line. We had thought that the "fun" was
because younger people cruise Carnival and they drink a lot more alcohol. However, we’re beginning to believe that the
passengers are also often more friendly.
We have thought that, many times, people of other nationalities are friendlier
to us than Americans. Being a mixed
couple, we do tend to test people's reaction.
We don't know the answer to all of this.
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| Family Dinner |
One
thing they did on the Carnival ship was to have a sort of a show some nights in
the dining room, where they played loud music and the servers danced, some on
top of the serving platforms. Tonight, they wore ruffled shirts and held
flashing lights in their hands. One of the better dancers got up on a
small round platform about 45 inches from Sally’s chair. She loved
watching him! The whole thing lasted about 10 minutes.
Because Sally was tired, we didn’t dance tonight as Jesse would have liked to do. We were back in our cabin by 10:00 PM.
Because Sally was tired, we didn’t dance tonight as Jesse would have liked to do. We were back in our cabin by 10:00 PM.
At Sea
Saturday, 24 Sep 2016 – We
slept again until 9:30 AM. This extra sleep and taking NyQuil, plus using
Zicam spray, had been keeping Sally going with no apparent symptoms other than a
lack of energy. We were on the last day of our cruise – another beautiful
sunny day. Our balcony was very wet, but when Sally went out there, lots
of water drops flew at her. The ship seems to be going pretty fast and
throwing up lots of spray. We love being on the ocean.
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| Awaiting Sea Day Brunch |
After brunch, we went to the small pool and hot tub at
the rear of the ship. The pool was
crowded, but we “elbowed” our way in. Then
we returned to our cabin and started our packing routine.
As priority passengers, we were invited to the 5:00 PM
Captain’s Cocktail Party, along with about half of our group. Since each priority passenger was allowed to
bring one guest, we had enough invitations for the entire group (though there
was no check for invitations at the door)!
All but Carol attended. Since she
doesn’t drink, she preferred to work on her packing. Very soon, the wait staff started serving
free drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Sally
didn’t like the hors d’oeuvres, but we both liked the rum punch cocktails. The Carnival drinks seemed to contain more
alcohol than those on Princess. Anyway,
after three drinks each, we had to help each other stagger back to our cabin!
By
8:30 PM, we had recovered enough for dinner.
We were the last to arrive and received applause from the rest of
group. Sally stopped to give Kitty a big
hug, since she had obviously had too much to drink also. After dinner, we returned to our cabin to
finish our packing. We exchanged our
“priority” debarkation tags with Dolores for a later debarkation time to match
Jon and Carol’s. We managed to get our two
large suitcases in the corridor by the 11:00 PM deadline.
Debarkation & Return Home
Sunday, 25 Sep 2016 – After our alarm awoke us at 6:00 AM,
we hurriedly dressed and went to The Gathering for breakfast, where Jon joined
us. We stuffed ourselves as usual and managed
to vacate our cabin about five minutes before the 8:00 AM deadline.
Since the “priority” waiting area was already closed, we
found a place to sit near the ship’s debarkation point. We were trying to contact Jon and Carol, just
as they walked up behind us. After waiting
until our debarkation group number was called, we then disembarked and joined
another very long line to pick up our luggage.
Finally, we joined the last long line to go through immigration. Jon and Carol took longer to get through
immigration, so we waited for them at the exit doors; then we all took the
elevator up to the top level of the parking lot and loaded up the van.
It
was a short drive back to the hotel. We
hadn’t thought about the fact that we would be arriving at the hotel at 10:45
AM, well before the 3:00 PM check in time.
As a result, we all sat in the lobby until our rooms were ready. Since we had internet access, Sally kept
occupied with her genealogy research.
Several of our group had skipped breakfast and went to find a restaurant
for an early lunch.
About
mid afternoon, we left with the group to visit the French Quarter again. Jon and Carol had left earlier to see a few
sights, including the St. Louis Cathedral, the oldest cathedral in the United
States, so we arranged to meet them at the Café Du Monde. After investigating our transportation options,
we decided to purchase 24-hour trolley passes at $1.50 each. The trolley would take us very close to the
café; however, almost immediately after we boarded the trolley, it came to a
complete stop. One of the trolleys, two
ahead of us, had jumped the track. After
a few minutes, we gave up on the trolley and started walking towards the Café
Du Monde.
Apparently,
the group was planning to call for taxis from one of the hotels along the way;
however, after talking with one of the drivers, the other members of the group
opted to take pedicabs (bike taxis) to the café at $1.00 per block per
person. The two of us decided to walk
instead. The instructions were very
simple: continue on Canal Street and
take a left at Decatur Street. The café
would be a couple of blocks down Decatur.
We ended up walking a lot further than we had intended. First, we missed the Decatur turn because the
street had a different name on our side of Canal. Once we realized we had missed the street, we
turned around and walked back to Decatur.
Then, we found out that the café was a lot farther than “a couple of
blocks.” [Note: It was about 95 degrees and very humid!] However, we finally made it there and joined
the rest of the group. At $1.00 per
person per block, we think the others had paid about $30.00 per couple for the
pedicabs. We had saved the money, but
were hot and tired!
Anyway,
at the Café Du Monde, we ordered the traditional Beignets
and orange juice. The café was open air,
so it was very hot there. Beignets taste
a little like cake donuts, but not as sweet. (Sally was less than impressed
with them.) However, of course Jesse
also helped others at the table finish their Beignets! While we were there a man who looked homeless
started performing on the sidewalk next to the café. Most of us tried to ignore him, but he was
slightly entertaining. Larry was the
only one who gave him a tip. The man
also pointed out a TV star near him taking “selfies” with fans, but we weren’t
familiar with the TV show. After a few
minutes, we left the café and headed to another restaurant for dinner.
We
walked a couple of blocks down Decatur to the Gazebo Café, where a band was
playing. Unfortunately, this was another
open air café; Sally had hoped for an air-conditioned place for dinner. We danced to one song; then, a young women at
another table asked Jesse to dance. She
was a really wild dancer and Jesse had trouble keeping up with her. (She was definitely not allowing him to
lead!) Sally ordered a grilled chicken
wrap and Jesse ordered Jambalya. (Jesse
still prefers the Jambalya at the Thunderbay Grill in Davenport, IA.)
After
dinner, everyone except Jon and Carol returned to the hotel via trolley, which
was much more comfortable than walking. Jon
and Carol opted to walk back so they could do more sightseeing. We were back in our hotel room by 7:00
PM. Sally retired very early, but since our
suite had a separate room with a TV, Jesse stayed up much later, watching TV
and playing on his computer.
Monday,
26 Sep 2016 – We awoke late and packed up for our trip home, checking out of
the hotel right at the 12:00 PM deadline.
After loading up the van, we drove to the airport, where we dropped off
Jon and Carol; then we headed for West Memphis.
Sally resumed reading aloud to Jesse while he drove, finishing Somewhere in Time. We arrived at our West
Memphis motel at about 8:15 PM, just in time to watch the first Presidential
Debate.
Tuesday, 27 Sep 2016 – Sally slept until very
late, so Jesse picked up complimentary motel breakfast items before the 9:30 AM
closing time, and brought them back to the room. After getting a late start, we spent the
remainder of the afternoon visiting relatives in Memphis; then we stopped by
Verna’s house for dinner and conversation until about 9:00 PM.
Wednesday,
28 Sep 2016 – After the complimentary breakfast, we started our drive back to
Bettendorf. Sally read aloud The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, by R. A. Dick, finishing
the entire book. We arrived home at
about 6:15 PM.
