June 25, 2006
Photos are up!
This blog is going to be an account of my recent cruise on the Carnival Legend to the Eastern Caribbean ports of Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, USVI, and Tortola, BVI. Have only started making the actual diary entries, but they will be coming along shortly.
In the mean time, the photos are up - digital ones anyway - so have a look ... Cruise Photos - and check back soon for the tale of our travels!
They that go down to the Sea in Ships ...
So the Dawson sisters went cruising again - no not that kind of cruising - sheesh the places some people's minds will go! Our kind of cruising involves a ship at sea!
This time we sailed on the Carnival Legend out of NYC to the Eastern Caribbean ports of Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and Tortola. Warning: this account is going to be a long day-by-day (for as much as I can remember) diary-type tale of our trip.
I know Carnival is often maligned, but just because they call it the "Fun Ships" doesn't mean that a cruise with Carnival is some kind of continual drunken bacchanal - it's just fun, period. It's relaxing, casual and has just lots of fun kind of activities, games, contests and sometimes just plain silly stuff.
If you're the kind of person who can't laugh at yourself, or watch others laughing at themselves, or if you take yourself very seriously, try another cruise line - you won't be comfortable on Carnival. On the other hand if you want to laugh a lot, relax, eat good food until you burst and have a great time with a great bunch of people, I highly recommend booking a Carnival cruise.
With that said, on to my tale...
Note: I hate when I see part of a quote and don't know where it comes from. The title is from Psalm 107, "They that go down to the Sea in Ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep."
July 07, 2006
Day 1 - Departure from NYC
My husband (who couldn't go because he doesn't get vacation time, poor baby) was sweet enough to drive us to the NY Waterways Ferry in Weehawken (they have great new terminals on both sides, BTW). This is the best way IMO to get to the ships that dock in NYC. It's fast and relatively inexpensive (compared to a limo or parking in NYC, even if you have to leave your car in their parking lot.)
Once on the NY side, you can take one of their buses (fare included with your ferry ticket), you can catch a cab, or you can walk to the pier if you're fit and not carrying a lot of luggage. There is a pedestrian walkway that goes up to the piers. We chose to walk - hey, it was extra exercise so we could eat more!
My sister, who is a travel agent, has enough cruises under her belt that she has earned platinum status with Carnival. If at all possible, I highly recommend traveling with a platinum status passenger - you also share in the perks, like VIP check in.
We arrived at the pier at about 12:00-12:30 and they said I had to check my suitcase - which I had prepared for, even though I'm quite sure it would have fit through the x-ray machine - so I had to take care of that, but then we were ushered through to a VIP area - nothing special, same metal chairs as everyone else, but at the head of the line - quite nice.
We waited with a wedding party and a few other people for about 10-15 minutes, and then they came out and said we could board - YES! We had filled out our preboarding info online at the Carnival web site, so we were good to go. A quick trip through the security check and the obligatory photo session, and then we moved on to the check in area. Did the passport flash, got our sign and sail cards and our cabin number and we were off to the gangway. A quick elevator trip later - no crowds, no lines, no waiting - and we were in our cabin - a nice balcony room (7144) on the NYC side going out (port side I think, I'm never quite sure).
Our cabin wasn't quite ready, but they let us in anyway. We stowed a few things, asked our cabin steward for a big bucket of ice for our champagne (actually not champagne, but Italian sparkling wine - Zardetto Prosecco - very nice), and then we went up on deck to get out of their way.
Since people were still boarding and it wasn't crowded we decided to partake in that all time favorite cruise activity - eating! The Taste of Nation buffet featured Italian food, so we checked it out and found the Lasagna quite tasty. I also got some of the Foccacia bread - yum, tried a bit of the fish - also yummy, and a salad from the salad bar - gotta eat them veggies!
After lunch, we went to the poolside Avalon bar where I got a Fun Ship Special - some kind of tasty fruity concoction, and my sister got a Corona. I like to get at least one of the souvenir drink glasses and I needed to replace the clear one from my last Carnival cruise because it cracked. I never did get around to getting the cheaper refill. I wanted the clear glasses and they don't give you yours back. They just give you a fresh one and sometimes they are pink or yellow. Guess I could have asked for a clear one, but I never thought about it - duh.
Since we had grabbed our Carnival Capers before leaving our cabin, we knew about the Fun Ship Signature Challenge. You needed to get 7 out of 10 signatures from various areas of the ship (all the ones where you can spend extra money, of course, ::wink, wink:: ) - Spa, Shore Excursion Desk, Golf Pro, Gift Shops, Casino, Art Auction, Legends Café (coffee bar), Formalities Shop, Internet Café, Photo Gallery and Supper Club. If you collected all of your signatures and submitted the completed form, you had a chance to win a $500 prize package during the Welcome Aboard show.
In between collecting our signatures and refreshing our memory of the ship layout (we'd both sailed on the Legend before), we went up to take the Spa tour. This is usually a good idea, because you can get in on drawings and sometimes other Spa-type goodies. They take you around and talk about all the different treatments they offer - with the hopes of selling you something, of course. We filled out our contest entry forms and moved on to other things.
Mostly we just walked around the ship, listened to the music, checked out the pools, and then we took a quick trip back to our cabin to check on my luggage - which wasn't there yet. My sister unpacked a few more things, taking up space in both closets (and most of the hangers!). For someone who packs light, she had plenty of clothing that needed closet space! I told her she had to pick a closet - she couldn't have both!
Our cabin steward had brought us a nice big plastic bucket instead of the little metallic looking ice bucket to put our wine in and it was chilling nicely. She brought us ice in the little bucket as well, so we were all set to sail.
The lifeboat drill started pretty much on time at 3:30pm. The emergency exit was right across from our cabin - very convenient, but we didn't have to use it, except for the drill thankfully! We put on our ugly life vests. Did not blow the whistle (yuck!) and mustered at station B on the Atlantic Deck.
An aside for a moment on the various lifeboat drills I have been through.
My first cruise - the very first vacation I paid for myself - was on the Greek Line, Olympus eons ago. Back then they had these really ugly life jackets that really were like jackets without sleeves. They made you look like Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin.
Back then they also lined you up, women and children in the front, men in the back, according to that old law of the sea - women and children first. One little old man lined up with the women and children. The crewmember in charge of our station told him he had go back with the men. The little old man ignored him, so he took him gently by the arm and moved him back there, then he moved on down the line. In the blink of an eye, the old man moved back in front again.
The crewmember must have moved him back there at least three more times and each time he shuffled back up to his preferred spot among the women. I wasn't sure whether he was determined to get off the boat first, or if he just thought he'd rather be marooned with a boatload of women, but the crew member finally gave up and left him there.
At least that time I was at a muster station that had real boats. On my recent cruises, I have mostly had those inflatable tent rafts. If I'm going to be venturing out onto the high seas, I want a real boat, preferably with a motor, thank you very much. Once we even had one of those obstructed view cabins with a big ole lifeboat hanging right out our window. Was it our lifeboat? - Nope. We had to go down to the deck and stand in front of one of the inflatables. Not me - I was going to hop out the window and stowaway in that boat before they lowered it. Luckily, I didn't have to try!
We have also had to muster in some strange places. One time we were assigned to a station inside somewhere near the bow. It was hot and noisy, and I couldn't see how they were going to get the boats out - again those inflatable ones. I figured they would inflate them, then we'd sit in them until the ship sank far enough for us to float out - very weird.
Another time we were mustered in the main dining room on Voyager of the Seas. We were all sitting at the dining tables in our life jackets. One of the men at our table looked around and said, "Formal dinner - life jackets required." I'd wished I'd brought my camera that would have been a great photo and caption.
Okay - enough about life boat drills. Luckily we have never had to do one for real. This drill on the Legend was uneventful.
By the time we got back to our cabin, the ship was moving. Yay - we were underway. We opened our Prosecco and took our glasses out to the balcony.
Now normally, I'd be running around taking pictures of the New York skyline - a view I never tire of seeing - but I have lots of pictures from past cruises and Circle Line rides, so this time I just sipped my wine and enjoyed the experience. It was quiet and quite peaceful- just lovely.
When we passed the tip of Manhattan, we went up on deck to watch the ship sail under the Verrazano. Bridges fascinate me, so this is a must. Camera in hand, I snapped away. You can see the results in my photo gallery. If you're a bridge lover like me, you can visit my other photo page and see most of the NYC bridges there.
We walked around a bit more, then went back to the cabin again to check and see if my luggage had arrived. It had - yay! I put my clothes away, then we went to the Atlantic Deck to check out the ships and the free liquor tasting. After that it was back to the cabin to change for our late seating dinner (8:15). We prefer the late seating because we don't have to rush. The only problem with late seating is that we are often too tired to do anything after the show.
A word here about clothes for those who are interested ... (If not, you can skip this part)
I'm very organized about clothes when I'm preparing for a vacation or other trip. I have lists that I've saved for years and I just keep revising them. I add all the other things I'll need to pack to the bottom of the clothing lists. This way I don't forget anything.
When I come home from a trip, I add on things I could have used, but didn't have, for the next time and the list keeps growing. I also have small travel bags that are stocked with common items in small sizes, so I already have many things packed and ready to go.
For this cruise, I decided on a basic black and white theme for dinners and tropical colors for day. I took mostly white and black pants (2 each) and the same for shorts. For tops, I packed a variety that would co-ordinate.
So for dinner the first night (casual) I wore white twill pants and a lightweight cotton top - black with white embroidery around the neck and sleeves.
In the Truffles dining room, we found ourselves seated on the top level at a window in the back of the ship - nice to have a view! Our four other dinner companions were two mother-daughter pairs and both were very nice. We all hit it off, and spent additional time together at our island stops, at various shipboard activities and poolside.
I wish I'd asked for the dinner menus as well as the Capers. I did download menus from some other site, but they weren't exactly the same menus that we had on our 6/5/06 cruise. For this first night, I think I had the smoked salmon appetizer. We share the chicken satay, because posters on CruiseCritic.com recommended it. It was quite tasty, but I really love smoked salmon.
There weren't any soups that interested me, so I just had salad and the tilapia. For dessert, I had the light espresso and almond cake - yum - and we got a serving of the Lavender Flavored Iced Soufflé with apricot sauce to taste. It was surprisingly good. I'd order it again. The almond cake was also yummy.
to be continued ...