Home From the Cruise!

We're back and I'm planning my next cruise! We had the most fabulous weather, the most fabulous food, and the most fabulous service that I've ever experienced...and we were on a budget cruise. If Carnival wants to use my blog for their advertisement, they're welcome to it because my praise is well deserved.

Since I'd never been on a cruise before, my expectations were on the low side. I've stayed in some fancy hotels and been slightly disappointed with what I got for my money. Our rooms on the ship (Sensation) were smallish but spotless clean and not too confining. The meals in the cafeteria were marvelous but the meals in the dining room were out of this world. The entertainment was nice and better in some ways than I thought we'd get on a budget cruise. The casino paid well...to everyone else but me, unfortunately.

We landed in Freeport and I was advised to stay on the ship because there wasn't much to see there. The following day we reached Nassau and did leave the ship. Our first stop was the straw market and it wasn't the same as I'd seen 15 years ago on a Bahama vacation. It was so tightly crammed with merchandise and sellers that there was barely room for one person to walk down the aisle...a definite fire trap and it also smelled bad. We left there quickly and walked down Bay St. to look in the stores where I bought a t-shirt and a tie dyed shift for a reasonable price.

Then we took a taxi to the Atlantis hotel on Paradise Island. It cost us each $4 and our driver was an erudite gentleman who filled us in on Bahama life, history, and customs. The Atlantis casino took a bit more of my money but my friend, Sylvia, won over $100.

Back to the ship and a few hours of sun, conversation, and music before heading off to the dining room. After dinner, we usually watched a stage show and then I'd head to the casino. I left many dollars in that casino but my friends just kept winning. Sylvia won more than $100 there and stopped gambling. Our guide and friend, Linda, won every place she went and even won a whopping $1500 on our last evening on the ship.

Because we had to be up at 5 A.M. the next morning, we wanted to go to bed early. The problem was that our duty free booze had not been brought to our cabin and we'd been told it might not get there till 10 P.M. At 8:30 P.M. I phoned our cabin steward and asked him, explaining the circumstances, if there was any way we could have our delivery as soon as possible. We had received excellent service from all the staff so we weren't especially surprised when he brought our purchases to the door about 15 minutes later. We thanked him with a nice tip...and we seniors don't tip too freely.

On our final morning, all non-U.S. citizens had to go through customs on the ship at 6:15 A.M. Sylvia and I were the first Canadians in line and the Canadians were chosen to be processed first. Lucky or what?? We even had a smiling, good natured customs inspector who couldn't stamp our passports and declarations fast enough. By the way...2 litres of rum cost me $17.95 U.S.

It was pouring rain and cold when we landed but the sun came out as we pulled into our park...120 happy travelers. I was going to take a nap but the pile of laundry I'd brought home forced me to haul it over to the laundry room.

Now my laundry is done and I'm off to a birthday party. Life is good.