Photo of the Week: The Gulf of Mexico

Often when we hear about the Gulf of Mexico, you think of a nice, warm location.  The truth is, it can be, but it all depends what part you are in.  The Gulf of Mexico can also be a rather depressing place.

This photo was taken about a day from New Orleans.  What people don't realize is, when you go down the Mississippi, the last hundred miles is almost non-stop industry.  A big chunk of that industry is oil.

Once you exit the Mississippi you see non-stop oil platforms.  For hundreds of miles, you see oil platforms.  The above photo shows one tiny section of the horizon.  You can see a number of oil platforms.   If this was a 360 degree photo, you'd see dozens of platforms.

When we hear about oil platforms, we sometimes think that there are a dozen or so.  In reality, there are hundreds.  If you ever cruise out of New Orleans, you'll see this for yourself.

The Crystal Caves of Bermuda

Bermuda is easily in the top three islands you can visit on a dime.  That being said, there are some guidelines you need to follow. If you do not follow the guidelines listed below, you will blow your budget.

Many of the islands that cruise ships visit have a shared problem.  Public transit is almost unheard of.  There are some exceptions like Bermuda.  Bermuda has excellent public transit.

Here are some guidelines to follow.

1. You cannot use taxis.

2. Avoid hotels. Stay on a cruise ship. The cost of the cruise is cheaper than even the cheapest hotel.

3. Avoid eating on the island except for food stands or other quick options.

4. Buy a bus pass.  Don't pay by the trip.  Buy a pass for your stay.

Bermuda has a surprising number of things you can do.  Some islands are a one hit wonder.  Bermuda has beaches, water sports, light houses, historical sites, and unique natural features.  One of those natural features is the Crystal Caves.

The Crystal Caves are subterranean, tidal caves.  There are two main caves.  Both are worth checking out.  The price isn't too bad if you go it alone but there is a group discount.  If you are an outgoing person, and have a little extra time,  ask people at the entrance if they would like to group up.  This can save everyone in the group.  The discount is sizable.  When we were there we teamed up with a group of strangers.  It saved us $20.

The Slick Stairs

You have to descend into the caves.  This can be an issue for people who are very out of shape or become easily winded.  Keep in mind.  The descent isn't bad, most people can do it without any problems.  The ascent is the killer.  If you are out of shape you will need to stop and rest.  The descent / ascent consists of two sections.  The first section is a ramp.  This is the part people have a hard time with.  After the ramp there are stairs.  Both the ramp and stairs hand railings, use them.  The floor is often slick.

Now the caves themselves are impressive.  The rock formations and colors are amazing.  Now this might sound odd, but the water is a draw in itself.  The water is layered.  The top layer is pure, rock filtered, water.  The second layer is a mix of salt and fresh water.  The final layer is sea water the enters through submerged tunnels.  The layers create an optical illusion.  They magnify the bottom.  This means that the depth appears to be about ten feet when it's really up to fifty.  Whatever you do, don't drop anything.  You can see why as soon as you look over the edge.  There is a collection of cameras, glasses, and other items.

Now for some warnings.  If you are claustrophobic, you can do this, but make sure you do it at low tide!  At high tide parts of the caves could be difficult for people who cannot tolerate tight spaces.

If you are afraid of the dark, do not do this.  They shut the light off at one point.  It's not a problem for most adults but some of the kids in our group freaked out.

If you need fresh air, that could also be a problem.  It can get very stuffy in the caves and the air does not move.  The air is also very humid which can make things worse. 

If you do not suffer from any of those issues you should really enjoy the Crystal Caves.

Royal Caribbean Grandeur Grand Suite Review

Grand suites on Royal Caribbean cruise ships are considered one of the highest categories.   Many people will write off these rooms based on that and not even consider getting a quote for one.  Granted they are expensive when compared to other staterooms but they also come with some killer perks. 

Often you see a list of pros and cons but it’s often hard to tell what the real impact of those are. In this review I am going to point out benefits of booking a Grand Suite and pull those facts off of paper and into reality.  I’m going to explain what you will use and what you should use if you book one of these staterooms.

Another thing to keep in mind this review is about getting to your room, the room, the rooms benefits, and leaving the ship.  Other details will be covered at a later date.

Getting On the Ship:

Yes I’m going to walk you through from beginning to end starting with getting on the ship.  This is going to be the first area that stands out from the normal when  you book one of these suites.

At most cruise ship terminals you’ll notice a series of lines.  Royal Caribbean breaks them down more than some other lines.  There is the general line, some lines for certain frequent cruisers, and then the line for the top tier frequent cruises and grand suite or higher cruisers.

When you get in your line you’ll notice that it’s not really a line.  When we showed up there were hundreds of people in the general line and no one in the grand suite line.  They reserve a number of people who only check in high tier cruisers and they do not take the normal cruisers when no one is in line.  This allows for extremely fast service for anyone who is accessing these lines.

It appears that Royal Caribbean picks their best people to serve the express lines.  The people checking us in were unlike people who have checked me in on other cruise lines.  They actually seem to have customer service skills.  That is something extremely rare today.

In a matter of minutes we were checked in and led to a roped off area that separated the people who went through the express line and everyone else.   They stick you here to put you on the ship as soon as it’s ready.  Within a few minutes they had us pack up and board the ship.

When you board the ship the sales mentality that all cruise ships have adopted hits you in the face.   Just after you manage to dodge the photo people you have a new obstacle to get beyond.  The restaurant jockeys!  These people are not awful but they do want you to stop and sign up for a dining plan.  I have to admit that Royal Caribbean needs to rethink this. This is a really STUPID time to do this.  Let’s break it down for a minute.  I tell you that you can now board the ship.  What goes through your head?  WOOOOO!! My vacation is starting! Let the running of the bulls begin!  If anything gets in your way until you step onto that ship there is a good chance they are going to get trampled.  NO ONE really wants to stop unless you guilt them into it.  Why not do this on the ship when everyone realizes that they can’t go to their rooms yet?  Hit people when they are bored and you’ll get better results.

The Stateroom:

When you make it inside your stateroom one of the first things you’ll notice are the mirrors.  When you first walk in you’ll see the storage / bar area on your right.  They pack this area with mirrors.  This makes the room look much larger than it really is.  It’s a nice little trick.  In reality the grand suites on the Grandeur are about three times larger than a normal stateroom yet smaller than a standard hotel room (varies a little depending on the ship you are on). 

To your left is your bathroom.  It has a tub and dual vanities.  Normally you have a shower stall and one sink.  The toilet is right in with the rest of the bathroom and is a standard issue toilet.

Beyond the bar area is the sitting area.  You have a TV, media console with a PS3, chair, ottoman, and a pull out sofa sleeper.  There is another thing in this area that ruins the room.  In some of the grand suites there is a door to the adjacent room.  This is nice if you book both suites for a big family cruise.  This is AWFUL in any other situation! This door has NO insulation.  I mean ZERO insulation.  In fact the all metal door might actually act as an amplifier.  You will hear EVERYTHING going on in the other room.  If you talk in a normal volume your neighbors will hear you.  If you speak a little higher than that they will be able to easily make out every word you are saying. 

So how much of an impact does the door really have?  I know more about a toddler named Julian than I ever wanted to know.  I never met Julian but I often heard him and his parents until 1am. The noise was so bad that, after I called the desk to complain, I tried to figure out what I could stack against the door to try and give it some sound proofing.  I honestly thought about pushing the chair against it and then packing my clothes in the gaps.  Sadly that wouldn’t have been enough.

The bed area isn’t bad.  They put a bunch of mirrors here to make it seem larger than it is.  There are two night stands, a coffee maker (not in the bathroom!) and some more storage in this area.  The bed itself total crap.  If you enjoy a hard bed with no support this is the bed for you! I was really surprised by these beds considering the Grandeur recently went through an overhaul.  Carnival , NCL, and Disney have much better beds.  Maybe Royal Caribbean was hoping people would be too intoxicated to care about the beds.  Royal Caribbean was wrong.

The balcony was very nice but odd.  It was quite long with a table and two deck chairs.  The rest of it was empty.  That’s what makes this balcony odd.  There was a lot of open space / wasted space.  They could have put lounger or something else out there to fill in the space.

Now for a comparison, the same stateroom that does not have the “DOOR” in it is very different.  A family we ate dinner with most nights were staying in one of those suites about three doors down from us. 

T. Straub had this to say about that room compared to ours:

 

The adjoining door really screws with your space. We had a wrap around sofa that
gave the girls a queen space and the spacing between the pieces was
different which made the night stands much more usable. The play station
plugs and coffee maker and center was all together. The vanity area also
looked different from yours. It is a actually amazing how little things ,
like the adjoining door , changes the layout in the same class of suite. I
may never be able to book a Junior Suite Again. For a family with kids, this
is the only way to go.

 

The Concierge:

The Concierge for grand suite guests on the Grandeur is tucked away on the top deck, around the corner from their signature bar.  You are supposed to need a key to get into it but that feature on the Grandeur was busted.

Once you are inside you will be greeted by the Concierge.  On the Grandeur the staff in here is top notch.  They are some of the best concierge staff I have run into.  They were actually much better than the concierge staff I’ve run into while staying at club level at the Disney resorts.

While you are in this lounge you can drink whatever you want at no cost.  Between booze and soft drinks over the seven days my wife and I would have spent over $250 if we had to pay for what we drank (granted that’s at cruise ship prices).  We are not big drinkers either.   We are only talking about three drinks per person per day.  That goes a long way into lowering the cost difference between a grand suite and a normal junior suite.

There is also food available in the lounge.  The quality wasn’t bad.  It was better than what you would expect them to give away in a lounge.  It was much better than the food I’ve run into at the club level at the Disney resorts.

The Concierge will also make reservations for you.  In fact you will do better booking through him than on your own.  If something is sold out it might not be sold out when you book through your Concierge.  In some cases they can bend and break the rules for you.

The Shows:

This is not an overview of the entertainment on RC.  This is to let you know that if you book a Grand Suite you get reserved seating.  I can’t explain how nice this is if you are going to go to one of the shows.  On other cruise lines you have to get to the venue an hour early and sit through bingo to get a seat you can actually see from.  That’s not the case if you are staying in a grand suite.

Exclusive Party:

People staying in a grand suite or better also get access to an exclusive party.  They have the typical free booze and food that you would expect at one of these.  They also role out the ships officers who make the rounds and meet everyone.  This was a nice little bonus. 

Getting Off the Ship:

Normally this is awful.  If you are staying grand suite or better you report to the lounge.  They feed you and then your concierge reserves the elevator to keep anyone else on the ship from using it.  Once the call is made he personally takes you down to the correct deck and sees you off the ship.  I think for this alone it might be worth the cost of staying grand suite or higher. 

 

Wrap Up:

Overall if you take advantage of the perks that come with a grand suite it can actually be a value.  However, the worst thing you could do is book this room and then not go to the lounge or take advantage of the other perks.  For this to be a value you REALLY need to take advantage of all the perks.

You can see a video tour of the room here.

If you are looking for a cruise review, that’s coming at a later date.

New Video Posted: Baltimore Departure

A new video has been posted to YouTube.  It's a video of the cruise ship departure from the Port of Baltimore.   My goal is to get a series of these overtime.  I want to add Boston, New York, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and maybe some others.

The video is in 1080p and can be viewed here.

Disney Cruise Line vs. Royal Caribbean

I recently asked for a quote on a Disney cruise.  I’d never been on the Disney Cruise Line so I thought it would be worth a shot.  After all people rave about DCL.

The cruise I asked for a quote on was a seven day cruise in a balcony stateroom. What did it come out to for two people?  Over $3,700.00.  I nearly fell out of my chair.  That is…insane.

Why is that insane?

First you need to find a good comparison.  You can’t compare NCL to Disney.  NCL is as low as you can go when it comes to the major cruise lines. It’s not fair to compare NCL to anyone because no one else is that bad (if you don’t believe me go look my up many articles on my experiences with NCL).

What about Carnival?  That’s a no go to.  Carnival’s customer service is so horrifying it wouldn’t be fair to compare them to Disney.  If you don’t believe me about Carnival go look up the articles I wrote on my experiences with them.

Royal Caribbean is another matter.  After some fairly in depth research online RC to Disney is a fairly close comparison.  Let’s set the stage by saying that DCL is slightly better than RC.  If RC isn’t as good then they should be cheaper but still somewhat close.  Well that’s half correct. For a seven day cruise on RC the quote came in at $2,500.

The difference is literally 33%.  Disney is a full third more expensive. Disney is not 33% better than RC.

Now let’s take a page out of Mythbusters book.  On Mythbusters when a myth doesn’t pan out they often try to figure out what it takes to match the myth.  So what could you get on RC for the price Disney is charging?

The next step up on RC is a Junior Suite aka category JS stateroom.  It’s bigger and often better located than a normal balcony stateroom.  Does that match up?  Nope!  A JS comes came in around $2,800.  

So what is next?  The only other feasible stateroom for a couple on Royal Caribbean is a Grand Suite, category GS.  A GS is a HUGE jump from a JS.  GS is bigger, much bigger. They tend to be some of the best located rooms on the ship.  They also come with major perks.

1 - GS gives you expedited boarding.  In other words the second worst part of cruising is almost eliminated.   

2 – GS gives you expedited exit.  You get off the boat fast and while you are waiting you are in a private lounge.

3 – GS gives you access to an exclusive lounge where you get free booze at night.  To put this into Disney terms GS gives you access to club level services. 

There are a lot of other small perks that come with a GS but those are the big ones. 

So what is the price for that? About $3,300. A super suite with HUGE perks cost $400 less than a normal balcony on DCL.  

For once I am at a loss for words.  What can you say about that?  It’s truly hard to wrap you head around that.

CMDTA's - Cruise Tips

Here are some tips for everyone considering taking a cruise.  Most apply to all cruise lines.

If you have a choice take the late dinner – The early dinner is comical. All the old fogies line up and can’t wait to get in. There are tons of rug rats at this seating too. If you don’t like who you’re seated with tell your waiter. You have an out because it’s your honeymoon. If it’s freestyle seating do not go to dinner before eight at night.


Skip the Vegas Shows – they talk them up but they stink. They really stink. I don’t think stink is a strong enough word to describe them but I’m trying to keep things clean. The cheese factor is through the roof. All the other shows are great. On the night of the Vegas shows the hot tubs are empty. The hot tubs near the pool bars are the best ones. It’s normally cool and breezy too.

Kids aren’t allowed in the hot tubs or pool in the gym area. The gym area is a kid free zone. There are sometimes other pools are areas where kids are not allowed too.

You can’t take booze back to your room…if they see it. There is a booze check in desk if your getting back on the boat during a busy time you might be able walk right by it. You can also buy booze in odd containers that sometimes will get you through.

Most cruise lines allow you to bring a liter or two of soda. Ginger ale is a good one. Now because it can help with an upset stomach but because you can empty it and fill it with scotch, bourbon, whisky, or other golden liquids.

Even though you just drove or flew for hours smile non-stop until you are on the boat. They take your picture at least twice before you get on. Once is for your cruise card. If you’re not smiling then, security will see it for the rest of the cruise. They take your picture at every stop and a few of the dinners too. They post them all in the gallery so make sure to get down there and take them down. Plus you get to see all the freaks on the ship too.

Put a bathing suit and sunscreen in your carry on. You might not see you luggage until 8 or 9 pm depending on where you are located on the boat.

The fire drill is not optional.

Kids are not allowed on the tops optional desk (don’t ask).

If you’ve never seen a purple sunburn, you will.

If you’ve never seen a fat guy in a speedo, you will.

If you’ve never seen someone so drunk they can’t tell what floor they are on, you will.

If you think it’s impossible to gain ten pounds in a week, guess again.

The 24 hour pizza bar (carnival only) has really good pizza.

The midnight buffet is nice to look at but only the heavy hitters can eat that late.

Only drunks and fatty Mcfatties go to the late night crape buffet which makes it some of the best entertainment available.

It’s possible to eat at anytime and if you manage to eat one item of food for 24 hours straight you should get a trophy.
Beware of the pillow chocolates. Many people (yours truly included) have fallen asleep on them after a late night. Yes they do melt.

New Video Posted - Sunset Over Ft. Lauderdale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usco6beJcGYA video of a sunset over Ft. Lauderdale has been posted to YouTube.  The video was taken from a couple miles out to sea. The video is in full HD - 1080p.  The speed of the video was boosted to 3X.

The video can be seen here.

CMDTA on Vacation – Carnival – To Do or Not to Do?

After everything is considered would I go on Carnival again?

Let’s consider a few things first.

• They are much better than NCL (no surprise there)
• The food is very good
• The price is often half of what Disney charges
• VIP check in is great
• The waiters are acceptable
• The entertainment is much improved.

So would I go on them again?

No.  This was my last cruise on Carnival and I don’t say this lightly.  I’ve been on a number of Carnival cruises and I have some good memories of them.   I also have some horrific memories that Carnival did nothing to fix or try to prevent over the years.

Here are some of the issues:

• The customer is never right and you never have a problem worth addressing
• Customer service is awful
• Maintenance is awful.  They tried four times to fix our stateroom door and failed. I finally figured out how to fix it myself.
• The sales culture has invaded in full force to the point where it’s annoying
• Excursions are overpriced
• Alcohol is overpriced – even for a cruise ship
• Major cutbacks could be noticed throughout the entire cruise
• Nothing about the service makes you feel welcome

Carnival is now at the point where I never want to cruise them again.  My fear is next time things will have gotten so bad that the experience will be similar to what you get on NCL. I have no desire to punish myself like that.  Right now Carnival is heading in the wrong direction.  Their biggest problem is their customer service.  It’s just bad.  Hopefully they can right the ship before it’s too late. If they don’t they will find themselves in big trouble.  NCL is already dominating the crappy cruise market.

CMDTA on Vacation – Carnival’s Entertainment

If you’ve read my past overviews about cruising you know how I normally detest a majority of the “entertainment” that can be found on a cruise ship.

Upfront I will say that Carnival has done a great job with their entertainment.  In the past a majority of the shows were those awful Vegas Review style shows that I hate so much. Sometimes they would throw in a comedian to spice things up but other than that the entertainment was bad.

This time there were only a few Vegas style shows.  The first night you had the usual kickoff  show.  It’s not bad but it’s not great either.  It’s full of the cruise director and others talking about what’s coming up.  They also had a couple of comedians do some short sets.  They actually found decent comedians which was a nice surprise.

Carnivals main show was a Beatles tribute.  The only thing that saved the show was the Beatles music.  Without that it would not have been good.  One really odd thing about this show came at the end.  A band came on stage and did a few Beatles songs.  The odd thing was they looked nothing like the Beatles.  I realize that a lot of tribute bands don’t really look like the band they are imitating but these guys looked like the opposite of the Beatles.  In fact you would have been hard pressed to find four people who looked less like the Beatles.

Another night there was a show themed around Frank Sinatra.  We didn’t make it to that show but I got a detailed report from the couple we had dinner with.  Before I tell you what they said let me say that they like the Vegas style entertainment.  They like most cruise ship entertainment. They hated this show. They said it was a strange show with a guy who didn’t sound like Sinatra who liked to talk about himself.  I’m really glad we missed that one.

The rest of the week was filled up with a ventriloquist and some other forgettable shows.  They weren’t bad they just average.

The final show was a talent show.  Guests could get on stage perform.  I had to go to this one.  I love a good train wreck.  I was not disappointed.  One person out of all of them could sing. The rest were awful and I mean awful.  One girl tried to do a Brittany Spears song.  She did it so poorly she made Brittany Spears seem like she has some talent.  For that to happen you have to be beyond bad.

The only one who did well was an old guy who sang a Garth Brooks song.  I’ve never listened to Garth Brooks.  I don’t know if he did good or not but his singing didn’t hurt my ears so I assume it was good.  Most of the crowd sang along too and really got into it.  It was funny at the end because my wife asked me if I’d ever heard the song before.  Neither of us had.  When you live in New England you don’t listen to country music.

Overall Carnival was much improved in the entertainment department but is that enough to save them overall?  You’ll know soon.

CMDTA on Vacation: St. Lucia

If you have little to no money what can you do in St. Lucia’s Port?

First of all St. Lucia has an odd port.  It’s a mix of old and new.  There are some nice shop areas that are new and updated.  Right next to that there is what I’d call a flea market.  The flea market feels confined and you keep thinking someone is going to try to mug you while you are in it. This might sound odd but that’s the place to go.

The clean area has your normal port stores so in other words it’s nothing special.  The flea market has a lot of odd stuff. Stuff you might not be able to find in other places. The people in the flea market are also interesting.  They are true locals.  That might sound odd but there is a reason why that stands out.

Often the tourist stores hire non-locals.  Some of the major ones even hire Americans.  Some of these employees work year round for these companies.  You might wonder how they get through the off season.  The answer to that is rather interesting. 

My wife and I were in St. Thomas one year and we walked into a Spectrum store.  Spectrum specializes in ammolite which my wife likes but we could never afford. However because she likes it we always check out the stores selling it.  The sales rep knew us.  He knew us because he tried to sell us some ammolite in Ketchikan.  Ketchikan is in Alaska. Turns out a lot of the workers you see in the Alaskan ports spend their summers in the Alaska and their winters in the Islands.  I don’t know how much money is in that but how awesome does that sound?

OK back to the port in St. Lucia.  Other than the flea market there isn’t a whole lot in the port for poor people.  One thing you can do is head to the end of the port where you’ll find a bar that does karaoke.  It’s always fun to listen to drunk people try to sing.

If St. Lucia didn’t have the flea market and the karaoke bar I’d say skip it if you can’t afford to take a tour. However, those two places make it worth getting off the boat.

CMDTA on Vacation: St. Kitts

Continuing on my overview of islands when you are broke – St. Kitts!  St. Kitts has one of the most generic port areas in all the islands.  It’s crammed full of shops, bars, and touring companies.  80% of the shops are jewelry stores, 10% are liquor stores, and the rest sell crap.

If you can’t tell already I wasn’t impressed by the shopping in St. Kitts.  The bars weren’t much better.  Unlike in St. Maarten the prices for beer are insanely low.  You can find some good deals but you’ll have to hunt for them.  If you want a mixed drink you are going to pay a fair amount for it. 

On the subjects of drinks I should mention my experience with non-alcoholic drinks in St. Kitts.  I was being good so I ordered a Diet Coke.  What they gave me was a Coke Lite.  Coke Lite looks like a Diet Coke but tastes very different.  I can understand why the name is different but I’m not sure why you would change the formula.  It wasn’t awful it was just different.

On really strange thing you’ll run into in a lot of the shops in St. Kitts are the skeletons.  It seems like every shop has some creepy motorized skeleton that shakes. I might be able to understand this if it was Halloween but not a week after Thanksgiving.  I really don’t know why all the shop keepers thought these were a good idea.

A final note about St. Kitts – Look out for the monkey people.  There are a lot of people walking around the port are with monkeys.  Most of the monkeys are wearing diapers. Their goal is to put a monkey on your shoulder so you’ll pay them money to have your picture taken with the monkey.  I don’t know about you but I don’t want anything wearing a diaper on my shoulder. 

Overall St. Kitts isn’t the best stop if you are broke.  You might be better off just staying on the boat unless you want to grab a couple of beers.

CMDTA on Vacation – Carnival: The Food

One of the biggest features on any cruise is the food.  The food can make or break a cruise.  You need to look no further than my overview of my NCL cruise to see how bad food can get on a cruise ship.  Honestly the food was so bad I was concerned that the standards had plummeted throughout the industry.  Thankfully Carnival has not lowered their standards.

I can’t even compare Carnival to NCL when it comes to food.  It’s just not fair.  Carnival beat NCL in all but two places and those two places are so foolish they are not a factor.

The food on Carnival is very good.  It’s not top notch but it’s consistently great.  The food in the buffet is good for buffet food and they mix it up a lot.  The pizza at the pizza bar is very good.  The self serve ice cream and frozen yogurt is great. The food over all is fresh and well presented. The bread isn’t stale (I have to mention that because of NCL).  The deserts seem like they were made recently and not pulled out of a box (again I have to mention that because of NCL).  The food was hot when it should have been hot and cold when it should have been cold (again…NCL).  The waiters were nice and wanted to do their best to serve you.

It’s hard to imagine food that is cooked on such a massive scale being as good as it is on Carnival.  I say without any doubt that they match Royal Caribbean any day of the week. That’s impressive considering Royal Caribbean is often much more expensive.

Earlier I mentioned that NCL beat Carnival in two areas.  The first area is the coffee.  Carnival has 24hr coffee machines that provide coffee or hot water.  NCL has 24hr machines that do coffee, espresso, and cappuccino.  If you want better coffee on Carnival you have to pay for it.  The second area is the self serve ice cream.  NCL gives you a topping station.  Those are the only two areas.  Like I said they are not a factor at all when comparing the food the two cruise lines offer.

CMDTA on Vacation – Carnival Miracle

The Carnival Miracle was the last Spirit Class ship Carnival built.  It’s been a few years since then but the Miracle is still in decent shape.

Unlike some of the other Carnival Ships the Miracle has a full promenade that can be walked or jogged at anytime. This is always a nice feature and I really don’t like ships that don’t have a full promenade.

One thing the Miracle has in common with all other Carnival ships is its atrium.  The atrium is impressive.  It rises from deck two to above deck ten.  It has the classic glass elevators and the nice bar at the bottom.  At the very top of the atrium you can find Nick and Nora’s Steak House.  I’ll do a separate review for the steak house.

Deck nine is Carnivals Lido deck.  A solid third to one half of the lido deck is the buffet area.  The buffet area is made up of a fresh pizza counter, cuisine of the day counter, salad counter, Asian counter, drink station, grill (dogs, burgers, fries, and so on), deli, and a handful of soft serve ice cream machines.

Beyond the buffet area are two pools and the gym / spa area.  In the very back of the ship there is a bar and the smallest pool I’ve ever seen on a cruise ship.

Beyond the staterooms the rest of the public areas are found on decks two and three.  In rear of both of these floors is the main dining room.  On front end of both of these floors is the Phantom Theater.  In between are a number of clubs, a casino, the atrium, a library, and some bars and sitting areas.

One odd thing; near the entrance of the Phantom Theater is the entrance to the Mad Hatters Ball which is a secondary showroom where they do a lot of karaoke and have some Comedians.  This is odd because the entrance is a stairwell that goes under the Phantom theater and dumps you on deck one. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this design before.

The Phantom Theater is a classic Carnival theater.  It’s not bad but if you’ve been in other Carnival Theaters it’s nothing to write home about.  Along the sides of the theater there are Phantom masks with glowing red eyes.  I thought the red eyes were tacky and didn’t add much.  On the walls there are paintings depicting scenes from Phantom of the Opera. These are very nice except one of them wasn’t cropped correctly so one of the characters heads was cut off.

One thing that I noticed which I believe is a Carnival policy was the number of bar service and photograph employees. They have always been there but now they solicit you.  In the past the photo employees stood by and waited for people to get their picture taken.  The only exception was when you got on and off the ship.  Now they constantly invite you to stop and take a picture.  It gets old after a while.  They are not pushy and are nice but you get tired of being asked. This hits home when you have to walk by at least five photographers when walking from the dining room to the theater.  I don’t know why they ask.  If you don’t want your picture taken, they are just wasting money because they print a copy of every photo.

The bar service people are the same. In the past they’d walk by and announce “bar service” now they ask everyone if they want a drink.  Doesn’t sound bad but there were a number of times when my wife and I would sit down and we’d be asked by three different people in less than five minutes if we wanted a drink.  It just gets old.

The dining room on the Miracle is nice.  It’s themed after the Greek god of wine.  The only real way you can tell is from all of the purple lights that are designed to look like bunches of grapes.  Beyond that it’s a standard Carnival dining room. 

Taking all aspects into consideration the Carnival Miracle blows the NCL Pearl and Jewel out of the water.  It’s not even fair to compare them.  I can’t think of one way the NCL ships are better than the Miracle. In fact every Carnival ship I’ve ever been on is better than the NCL ships.  I’ll go into some finer details later.

CMDTA on Vacation – Carnival VIP Check In

I recently spent 8 days on the Carnival Miracle. After my last cruise I was prepared for the worst. After all, NCL helped me to define what a terrible vacation is.

For the first time we got to try out Carnival’s VIP check in. Anyone who has cruised with Carnival 10 or more times or booked a qualifying stateroom gets to use the VIP check in. So how did it work?

I showed up at the port around 11:15am on the day of departure. We went in the separate entrance reserved for the VIP check in. Right off the bat we passed dozens of people who were waiting in the regular line. Next went through a separate security screen which was amazingly fast. After that we dealt with our first employee. We didn’t have to wait at all. She processed us and sent us up the escalator.

At the top of the escalator we went to another separate VIP check in area. Again there was no line. An employee gave us our stateroom cards, took our info and had us on our way in less than five minutes. She also informed us that they were already boarding VIPs. We followed the signs to board the ship and passed a few hundred people who were using the standard check in.

By 11:30 we were on the ship. I’ve never even come close to that timeframe on any other cruise I’ve been on. To be honest getting on the ship could not have been easier.

If you have the chance to use the VIP check in on Carnival, use it. It’s awesome.

CMDTA on Vacation – Pre-Cruise Hotel

One thing I always try to do is fly out late and stay in a hotel at my destination the day before my vacation officially begins. I find that by doing this I don’t have to get up at some insane time in the morning to catch a plane and I also have a much more relaxed and enjoyable first day.

My wife and I flew down to Ft. Lauderdale, collected our bags and called our hotel, Candlewood Suites. The girl who answered the phone, told us where to go, and said the shuttle would be there shortly.

Everything seemed great. After all this was why we booked this hotel. They offered a free shuttle from the airport and to the port the next morning. Sadly things are not always as they seem.

After waiting over 20 minutes we called the hotel again. The driver said he already went by the stop we were at. I guess the girl at the hotel knew he wasn’t telling the truth because she chewed his head off (we could hear this because she was paging him while we were on the phone). Ah, there is nothing like conflict after flying.
The driver showed up in less than three minutes. I guess the butt-whooping the girl at the hotel gave him worked. The van was decent but we quickly realized that it wasn’t owned by Candlewood Suite’s; it was owned by a group of hotels. This comes into play later.

We got to our hotel in a few minutes and got checked in. Our room was great. It was large, had a stove, a full sized fridge, and a microwave. The only drawback was the internet connection. The Ethernet cable was busted. It didn’t clip in so it could easily fall out of your network port. Once you got online it asked for a user name and password. There was no info in your room. You had to call the front desk. I didn’t bother. I just used my phone instead.
The hotel offered a free shuttle to a restaurant down the road so we decided to check it out. The “restaurant” was actually a restaurant in another hotel owned by the same people. Getting there was no problem unlike getting to our hotel from the airport. The food was ok. It was a typical hotel restaurant. However, they gave us a coupon for a free drink or appetizer. We thought it applied to one person. They applied to both of us. We got two free drinks. The final bill for two drinks and two meals was around $35 which wasn’t bad at all.
We went back to the entrance and told the man behind the desk that we needed the shuttle to get back to our hotel. He said he’d call them and told us to wait in a sitting area. 20 minutes later I went back to the desk to find out what was wrong. The first guy was gone and the second had no clue what I was talking about. At this point it was 11:30 at night and I was getting tired. Not a fun time to find out they forgot about you. The guy scrambled and dug someone up to drive us back to our room.
The next morning we get checked out and were told to go over to the next hotel to wait for the shuttle to the port because they shared one. A few people were already waiting but there was no line or any organization of any kind. The first shuttle was supposed to show up at 10:30. By then a mass of people from both hotels has grouped together. 10:30 came and went. At 10:50 the shuttle showed up. To no ones surprise it wasn’t big enough to fit everyone. Since there was no line or any kind of organization everyone stormed the van. It was a total mess. Thankfully a second van pulled up and everyone who was left packed onto it.
I want to let everyone know at this point that Candlewood Suites was an ok hotel that doesn’t have a restaurant. The third party shuttle service is awful. Actually “awful” is not a strong enough word. They are totally unreliable and dysfunctional. They only way they could have been worse were if they had crashed the van. They were not pleasant either and on two occasions they decided to make personal phone calls while driving us around.
My advice would be to book a hotel you know is close to the port and use taxis. The combined $30 that would have cost us would have been more than worth dealing with the awful shuttle service.

Upcoming Vacation Topics

About a year ago I did a series of topics called CMDTA on Vacation.  Those posts coved my horrifying (and it was horrifyingly bad) cruise with NCL.

I’m pleased to announce that the CMDTA on Vacation is coming back! WOOOOOO! Here are the upcoming topics which should debut around late December:

Carnival Miracle

Carnival Spirit Class Vista Suites

Carnival Overall

St. Marten

St. Lucia

St. Kitts

Carnival at Sea

Carnival vs. NCL

What’s the Next Vacation?

Now if any of you are disappointed that I’m not going on NCL again I just want to remind you that a certain warm place hasn’t frozen over yet.  NCL was so bad I’ve almost blocked the entire trip from my memory.  I remember the details but it now feels more like a nightmare then something that actually happened.  Why don’t you go on NCL and blog about it?  I won’t be doing that anytime soon.  If I want to waste my money on something that depressing I’ll burn it in my pellet stove.

Want to know all the really bad stuff about cruising?  Check this out:

Carnival = Poor Conflict Resolution

Carnival is in a cut-throat industry.  Typical wisdom would tell you that you need to do what you can to make your customers happy.  Throughout the history of business the best way to do that is live by the famous saying, “the customer is always right.” 

Carnival does not follow this creed.  In fact Carnival will argue with you to convince you that you are wrong.  I found this when I discovered a problem with my original stateroom.  In my opinion (and my travel agents as well) my stateroom was not as described.  In fact its description was very deceptive and had an undisclosed obstructed view.

I may not know much but I do know one thing.  A stairwell outside your window is an obstructed view. 

So what did Carnival do to fix the situation?  Charged me $400 to get into a decent stateroom or take a lower category stateroom.  I am being very serious here.  Carnival did absolutely nothing to take care of my problem.  They wouldn’t even admit there was a problem with the room and insisted that no one had complained about the room.  In fact many people had complained about the room. All I had to do was Google my stateroom number and an insane number of hits popped up. I found a shocking number of people who ran into the same problem I did.

You might think they treat their loyal customer’s better right?  Wrong.  This was our 7^th cruise with Carnival and after being treated like this I think it’s safe to say it’s our last.

You might wonder what kind of stateroom did we book, was it one of the cheap ones?  We booked a suite. So keep that in mind. Carnival is so greedy they will do NOTHING for a loyal customer who booked an expensive stateroom and has a problem.

How much time was wasted trying to find out Carnival would do nothing?  Hours were wasted.  My travel agent called many times spending hours talking to different people.  She even called her agency rep and got the same results. I spent hours supporting her by digging up information and researching what Carnival should have disclosed up front.

Keep in mind that Carnival normally offers a good value.  A good value as long as nothing goes wrong.

Does NCL Do Anything Right

After reading about my experience on NCL I left some people wondering if I was just an embittered person trying to make up for the fact that I had a bad vacation. That’s not true. My goal is to explain what I experienced so you can judge for yourself. That’s why in this post I’m going to explain what NCL does that is good.

1 – Deposit on a Future Cruise: If simply put down $250 towards a future cruise NCL gives you $100 in on board credit. This isn’t your average program. First you do not need to pick a cruise. It’s good towards any cruise in the future. Second you don’t need to use an NCL travel agent when you find a cruise you want. You’re travel agent can book it for you. The $250 reserves the cruise. Normally if cost at least $500 to reserve a cruise. You have a year and a half to cruise so you have plenty of time.

2 – Tasters: NCL does multiple tasters throughout the week. For $15 you get four drinks. That’s a great deal. They do one for martinis, beer, whiskey / scotch, and more. How many they have depends on the length of the cruise.

3 – Customer Supplied FAQ on Their Website: NCL has a part of their website where you can ask questions. That’s not a big deal. However, users can answer other people’s questions. This allows for some information to be shared that NCL normally wouldn’t share.

4 – Serve Yourself Soft Serve Ice Cream: The only way this would be better is if it was available 24hrs a day.

5 – Hand Sanitizer Stations: They have these at every restaurant and when you get on and off the boat. They also make you use them. If only the airlines did that.

Ok that’s about it. Are those enough to make you go on a cruise with NCL? I doubt it but keep in mind that there are a lot of people out there who like NCL. My parents like NCL. That blows my mind. I think it is because they are older. Old people seem to like NCL.

CMDTA on Vacation – Final Thoughts

After taking some time to think over my experiences on my NCL vacation what made the grade and what didn’t?

Rotan – I’d go back. The port of call itself was nice and worth visiting again. I felt safe the whole time and the people were nice.

Belize – I’ve been here twice and I go back again. Both times were fun.

Costa Maya – If there were a lot of other stops on the cruise I wouldn’t mind stopping here again. It was a nice laid back day.

Great Stirrup Cay – Well considering I’d have to cruise NCL again to stop here my answer is simple. I will never, ever, go back here.

Jet Blue – Despite the incident with the ants and the fact their people arrived at the airport later than other airlines, I’d use them again.

NCL – I was trying to think of a good simple way to explain how much of a disappointment NCL is. I think the best way to put it is this: If the cruise was free, the airfare was free, and we had onboard credit, I would not cruise NCL again. It would not be worth taking the time off of work. I can use that time for something better, like staying home. That isn’t to say I’d never try them again. If they dropped the “Freestyle” thing, abandoned the premium dining locations, greatly improved their food, stopped allowing smoking in their staterooms, reviewed and adjusted how they tender people, made their ships more attractive on the inside, and repainted their ships to get rid of the awful artwork on the outside, I’d consider using them again.

CMDTA on Vacation – The Everglades

I’d never been so happy to get off a cruise ship as I was to disembark the Jewel. It took everything I had not to wave an obscene gesture back at the boat once I was off. Of course NCL had a couple of surprises left for me.

They made two lines to get off the boat. At first I thought “wow NCL is actually organizing something,” at least I thought that until I realized they just merged the lines before you got off the boat. What’s the point of creating two lines? How does that make sense?

We made it through customs in record time. I think mainly because they realized that they were dealing with NCL and a lot of the people were going to be rude or cranky.

We found our bags fairly fast and headed out to find our bus for our everglades tour. Here is where organization completely broke down. NCL didn’t even try. Their employees tried to put us on a City Tour bus twice. No one had any idea where the Everglades bus was. Finally one employee from the tour company came through and found us. She took us over to where the bus should have been. I say it like that because ours was the only bus that had not arrived yet.

Finally the bus arrived and everyone piled on. Turns out they only had one bus for everyone doing the Everglades tour so we’d have to go to the Miami Airport, then back to the port, then to Ft. Lauderdale. OH JOY!

How could this vacation get better!?! Monty got on the bus.

When you go on a cruise there are people you see everywhere you go. It’s crazy. It just happens. Out of 2500 people there will be two that will be there every time you turn around. A few of those people were Monty and his parents. Monty was a young child who hadn’t learned to control his volume level and suffered from a major lack of discipline. To say he was loud is an understatement.

After the loud ride to the Everglades we arrived at the fan boat place. We made sure we got on a different boat than Monty and his family. The fan boats were fun. You had to wear ear plugs because the boats were so loud. The best part about the boats is when you turn fast. The boats actually glide sideways for a while.

We didn’t see too much on the boat trip. It was too cold and the water level was too high. It didn’t matter though because there was an alligator show after. That was entertaining. You got to hold an alligator after if you wanted. I got a picture of my wife holding an alligator. She hates snakes and spiders but something that could bite your fingers off is just fine.

After the show we went to the restaurant and ate some alligator. It wasn’t bad but it tougher than your average meat.

We got back on the bus. Thankfully Monty got off at the Miami airport so we had some peace and quite. Only five of us were going to Ft. Lauderdale. We got to enjoy the sites of US Interstate 95 between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. If you’ve never done that ride you are missing something. I can’t help but think of Obi Wan Kanobie’s description of Mos Eisley Spaceport when I see this strip of road. Doesn’t matter what side of the road you look at you’ll see a varied selection of Porno Stores, Strip Clubs, and Bail Bond Dealers.

We got to the airport and we were literally the last ones off the bus. We still had plenty of time before our flight. That turned out to be a curse. Our flight was delayed. How else could our vacation end?