First cruise - take 1

Where to begin ...

We've been back over a month and I need to get these memories down on digital paper before I forget.

I have held cruises in high esteem since I ever heard of them ... all you can eat food with amazing service, cabin steward who cleans your room and makes your bed, new countries and ports of call and top that with Caribbean sunshine ... what more could a person ever want in this life??  I guess you could say the bar was set high before we even set foot on the boat!

We cruised on the "beautiful Carnival Dream", as we were assured of over and over again.  And, it was an impressive ship:  2 dining rooms, multiple hot tubs and pools, water slides, mini golf course, ping pong tables, 24 hour pizza and ice-cream and 12 decks to explore.   It was amazing how quickly the kids found the quickest route from the stateroom to the ice-cream.  

The entertainment was outstanding on a few evenings - phenomenal props and costume changes and choreography in their performances.  The break dancers, aka, Fun Force were impressive.  One one evening they had a couple guys that had the most amazing core strength I have ever seen. Ever.  They were "competing" in shows of strength using poles - climbing the pole in increasing levels of difficulty.  I cannot explain it and I have no video, as per their copy write and safety laws.  I did think the volume of the Encore shows was excessive.  I even wrote that in the feedback survey!  Maybe by the time I go on my next cruise the decibels will be lower ;) 

The food was plenteous and delicious, with the exception of the desserts.  We found they looked exquisite, but the taste didn't match the presentation for the most part.  I did have the chocolate melting cake, on Michelle's recommendation, and it was for sure one of the best desserts.  At 1200 calories, it should be worth eating!!  I didn't weigh in and weigh out, so I'm not sure what the overall damage was.  The 10 times I took the stairs helped I'm sure!

Cruising with a large group was more challenging than I thought.  I had really no idea how it would be, and I did feel a little lost when I couldn't find my own family at times!  Although, sometimes I lost them on purpose.  Ha!  We practiced some good old fashioned communication skills such as, "Have you seen ??" "Oh, they are looking for you", "I think they are ....".  I will be more proactive on my next cruise so I don't waste as much precious cruise time looking for people.  Although, the more laps I made around the decks, the more calories I burned :)

 On quite a sad note, I must share that my camera broke on the first night of the cruise.  I took a few supper pictures on that first night, as you will see, and the next day my camera would not even turn on.  So, the quality of my cruise pictures are not what they could be ... sad, sad, sad.  But, I am thankful I brought along my phone so I could at least capture some of it.  With 25 plus of us cruising together, I'm hoping I'll get a few more pictures sent my way.

 All aboard!

First glimpse of the "beautiful Carnival Dream" after getting our bags from the mafia porters.

Room with a view, not a balcony.

Formal Dining

Here we all are:  It was as calm and orderly as you can imagine :)  Lots of laughs .. except from Kirk, at this moment!

To be continued .....

LEGOLAND continued

Unleashed in ....

Hmm ... what to do first?

photo op ... 3/100

Photo op .. 4/100

Quite a few driving skills to learn yet!

Running from the cops!

More gallows!

Proof that Samara and Rhett are crazy  ... soaking wet ride on a barely warm day!

FUNNIEST picture!

Award for 2nd place - FUNNIEST picture

Note my high score  (Phil must have been sleeping)!

BEST RIDE!!

Our souvenir of LEGOLAND ... picture printed on LEGO blocks.

LEGOLAND Florida

I had grand ideas of putting all the LEGOLAND pictures on the blog tonight. But, there were soooo many I thought I'd start with these:

Keithan had my camera at one point in MINI land and probably took 50 pictures ... 1/2 of which I already took!  It is hard to describe how amazing this is to see with your own eyes ... to think that the buckets of LEGO in our basement could be built into the Vegas Strip! However, I did notice a few custom pieces, so we won't be able to replicate anything quite so grand.  

There was a replica of the space station, so course we had to wait and see the shuttle "blast off".    We loved our Legoland day - it was warmer than our day in Disney, there weren't that many people there and they have some great little roller coasters.

I will get to the action part of Legoland in the next post ...

our view on Disney World (Magic Kingdom)

Disney World Magic Kingdom was amazing.  I was impressed and I didn't think I would be!  In making plans to go, I was almost resigned that we were going there because  the kids wanted to go.  Good choice, because I enjoyed it as much as they did!

I was impressed with the cleanliness, the attention to detail and the grandeur of the place.  I understand now why they charge $100.00 to get in the gate, and then on the train or boat, and then in through another gate!  The size of the place is ... sizable.  Another bonus is with all the walking and minimal pricy food purchases, it really is a good weight loss program.  I just thought of that now!  Ha ha! I better go back quickly.

I really didn't understand what it would be like as far as the rides.  Many of the rides were more like "experiences" than fair rides.  We didn't do Space Mountain, which I've been told is the most thrilling ride there.  We had decided to all stick together and I think Grady was too short for the ride and Keithan was glad to  avoid a roller coaster in the dark, so that ride was off the list.  

We loved the interactive comedy show with Monster's University characters.  It was hilarious and it was also warm.  (It was a chilly high of 12 degrees).  The line-ups seemed long to us, but according to park staff, they were not.  The longest time we waited was about 50 minutes, and that was for the Thunder Mountain roller coaster (mining experience).  The Jungle boat tour one was the other long one, but many of them were about 25 minutes and seemed to go by quickly.  Another favorite was the Haunted House.  I'd do that one again!  Amazing effects.

When the sun went down around 5:00 we started to perish with hunger and cold!  Our $60.00 lunch of hotdogs was long gone.  We had a coffee/hot chocolate warm up and managed to stay until almost the end of the electric parade.  We were too cold and tired to stay for fireworks.  We were close to the park entrance for the parade and we made a hasty escape with the first flood of people.  No line ups to get out!!  We were back at the van in good time and cranked up the heat.  

WELCOME

Grady's favorite

The People Mover

Stroller parking ... complete with attendants!

Punny jungle tour (no typo)

Rhett might be a little dizzy!

Dancing with the Incredibles warmed us up a little

Thanks Grandma S. for souvenir money!

Heading back on the parking tram ... proof that I was there!

I enjoyed taking a few pictures!  Sorry for overload. Hope the collages helped for skimming over them.


Would I go again?  When I left, I said "no thank you, that was good enough for one lifetime".  But now, I could be easily convinced!

Stay tuned for Lego Land ... and then the cruise.