2 days before Cruise departure -Friday December 18, 2009.
After a fairly mild December weather the outlook was that we were going to get on our cruise with very little expected issues.
In the days prior to embarkation the weather man started issuing the gloom and doom forecast for some SNOW to arrive for the weekend. As the days got closer the report only got worse.
So we pick up the story about 2 days prior to departure:
Thinking about work vs Cruise becoming difficult. Add weather forecast of the storm of the decade! was not helping.
Friday night Snow expected to start late evening and sure enough it started about 9 PM.
Now I love a good snowstorm, and it would be awesome to leave Baltimore behind and go to warmer climates, But we have to get to the ship!
Saturday 1 day prior to embarkation.
Woke early in the morning to check status. Yup it snowed a good bit overnight, sticking very nicely!
Forecast still to get Very Heavy Saturday afternoon. Now expecting 14" - 20" , Great just great. Baltimore does NOT deal well with weather handling. Never mind the storm of the decade.
Saturday PM - After a few attempts at keeping the driveway somewhat clear, it now became obvious that our getting to the ship may be in jeopardy.
Saturday 1 day prior to embarkation.
Woke early in the morning to check status. Yup it snowed a good bit overnight, sticking very nicely!
Forecast still to get Very Heavy Saturday afternoon. Now expecting 14" - 20" , Great just great. Baltimore does NOT deal well with weather handling. Never mind the storm of the decade.
Saturday PM - After a few attempts at keeping the driveway somewhat clear, it now became obvious that our getting to the ship may be in jeopardy.
Sunday EMBARKATION DAY.
We start our day very early again to clear our trucks and driveway to prepare to get to the ship.
After the trucks are ready to go we have to take a Sibe Sasha to her kennel.
The road to our house is the LAST thing they get to... the end of the end of the road on a Cul-de-Sac (dead end!).
So some trucks have navigated the road and proved it passable so we pile into our 1990 Jeep Wrangler and off to try and get to the kennel, we have already called them and agreed at a new appointment to drop her off. So it was interesting getting down our street and made the turn to go down the 8% grade and up the 8% grade on the other side. The Jeep handled it just fine!
once out of our development the roads were fairly clear, lots of icy spots on overpasses, and single tracks in a lot of places. Went very well.
Trek back to the house to get ready to go (early) to make the 15 mile trip to the Port of Maryland (Baltimore). That also goes well.
We put on some fresher clothes, threw the bags in the Jeep and we were off to the Port.
After the trek out of our development went well, the roads to the port were pretty clear and we got in the short line of cars already arriving with the same idea as us, DON'T MISS THE SHIP!
The Port procedures were very well organized and we move through all stations, luggage drop off, parking ($105 for the week), security, Cruise registration, Sail and Sign cards. Queued in line for board (Lucky Group 13) lasted only 30 minutes to get to us (20 min after they started boarding).
Woo Hoo ... we are on board! about 1:30 looking back down at others arriving. We got notice on the PA system that they are delaying sail from 5:30PM to 08:30PM. We did not care ... the ship was open for business and we were on board!
Began snooping around the ship, found the bar, paid for our SODA CARD ($48 each adult fixed price for unlimited SODA for the week).
Met up with our friends shortly after boarding.
I believe somewhere here we went to our first meeting with our Cruise Director Kirk and Assistant Cruise Director Jaime.
Made our way to the dining room 6PM for an Open Seating meal.
Sailed in the dark at 08:30 PM.
Still had boots and parka on while out on deck for sail out ... weird going on a boat on the water when so cold.
Found our way to the Lido Deck and checked things out and found all the buffets and all.
We did sign up for more excursions. 1 Jeep Tour of Nassau (For Thursday) and 2. the Behind the scened Ships Tour (For Saturday). ($90 per person but we recommend it, you MUST sign up ON SHIP and EARLY in the Cruise two groups of 16 people (32 MAX)
Day 2 - Fun Day at Sea - Monday
Morning breakfast on the Lido deck (Deck 9).
As we were admiring the view off the coast of North Carolina Outer Banks ... were were momentarily perplexed at why the Sun was sort of moving around the other side of the ship.... er that really means the ship had changed course! At first it seemed like a normal course correction, a sharp turn out to the East away from the coast, avoiding weather ? but it continued and then at the same time the Captain came on the PA and announced we had a very sick passenger on board and we would be returning back up to Norfolk Virginia.
That was about 0900 and it took us until about 1300 to dock at Norfolk. We dropped off the passenger to a waiting ambulance and got under weigh again about 1430.
The really good news that we received later on in the cruise was the patient was doing very well have receive some life saving attention and was expected to be release from the hospital in a few days!
So this all put us about 9 hours behind schedule plus the 3 for late departure. Captain assured us our arrival in Cape Canaveral, Florida would be on time.
Day 3 Fun Day At Sea - Tuesday
Ate Drank and snooped around.
Took in shows, karaoke (watched some incredible people there!).
Day 4 - Port Canaveral - Wednesday
We had signed up for the NASA space center excursion prior to the cruise.
It is a 7 hour, all day tour, includes a 3D IMAX movie (Custom showing for Cruise tours).
Part bus tour all around the NASA Campus, part museum tour of the Saturn V center (one of the last 3 Saturn V rockets, restored to Smithsonian specs,) on display .
Day 5 - Port Nassau, Bahamas - Thursday
Day 6 - Port Freeport, Bahamas - Friday
We stayed nearby the ship while others took taxi's to the "shopping area".
We just checked out the few tourist trap shops, bought t-shirts etc.
Day 7 - Fun Day At Sea - Saturday
We took our "excursion" on board, Ships Tour behind the scenes, we went everywhere, The Taj Mahal stage operations and Dance Captain gave us a run through of what they go through for all the shows they put on. A walk through the ships stores (Food Coolers), Gallies, met the head chef who give us the tour (Group Photo), Training center (tour guides work there), Engine Control was very cool, cannot see the engines themselves because the Azi-Pods (Electric Motors) are bolted on the bottom!, EVERYTHING is automated / remotely controlled.
We enjoyed the visit to the BRIDGE, got to meet the Captain (Photo), and a tour of Davids Steakhouse, met the Chef, toured the galley, and got a food preparation instruction.
(Day 8?) Debarkation Sunday Morning.
We did get a last run through the breakfast buffet on the Lido Deck!
Packed the night before and did the self disembark, carry your own luggage. A lot of waiting around and figuring out how this process really works?!
We eventually made it off the ship without any problems through security/customs we were back at home very quickly .... the 20" of snow we left behind had melted away!
We retrieved our Siberian Husky Sasha from her day camp/kennel. She was very happy to see us again, but was too hoarse to give us her normal Woo WOOO! but she tried! it was kinda funny!
We are sure she did her fair share of Barking/Woooing for a whole week!
She was back to normal the next day demanding things of her servants!
Closing Remarks
Kudos' to everyone staff, crew, show teams, magician, ventriloquist, karaoke, the band in the BUTTERFLIES Lounge, "The Jaffar Curry Band" was AWESOME, I just wish more people did not find this place? It has to be hard to play a great performance with only 10 people in the crowd. Particularly CD Kirk Benning and ACD Jaime did an awesome job participating and informing us of everything we need to do or what shows we need to see!
Together they put a face on Carnival Cruise Lines that is hard to beat. They always appeared sincere, truthful, and they cared about making sure they did their part to make sure we ALL had a good time, Including themselves.
Cheers
Ron N Sue
