Just my two cents...you'll feel LESS boat movement on the bottom than the top...basic law of physics. And basic law of Carnival...you'll hear every bit as much yelling on the top as the bottom too! A cheaper cruise gets you...for the most part...a cheaper clientele. The nicer the boat, the better the fellow passengers. You are right...move up in class a bit..maybe Victory or Triumph or one of the newer boats or one of the longer cruises.
I think you are right Steve. My husband is going to law school this fall, so for the next few years we'll be poor students again, but hopefully a few years after graduation we can go on one of the larger boats. It was still an amazing time despite a few bumps along the way!
Baby doll- yes I loved the waters. We went to Aruba on our honeymoon, and the waters totally blew me away, very different from the Florida panhandle's waters near where I live. The Bahaman waters weren't as shocking, since they were similar to the Aruban waters, but still GORGEOUS. Nassau was particulary beautiful.
I love the snorkeling picture too. Another one of my favorite photos of us is when we went to Islands of Adventure in Orlando and went on a 3-D ride, wearing our large 3-D glasses. The dorky pictures always tend to be my favorite, maybe because it shows a true, fun moment, nothing posed!
This forum did help, yes, although the jeans question was a big mistake! I thought I would get a few responses to help me decide what was expected for a cruise, not a heated debate! But, yes, I found a lot of my questions answered from previous posts. I searched some of the archives for info about the island that was extremely helpful. Now I kinda want to stick around for the fun of it, even though we won't be cruisin again for some time!
Was the cruise all I expected? I try not to have too many expectations, because nothing in life ever goes perfectly. This way the cruise ended up being great, despite a few mishaps. Mr. October, I think (?) had an accurate depiction of Freeport, although I didn't take his advice and ventured off the ship anyway. We still had fun. With all the racket over wearing jeans, we looked very nice, but saw many people dressed informally. Didn't really affect our time. I think this forum is pretty realistic about the good and bad of cruises so it all went pretty much how I expected, without any expectations, of course!
Desiree, you have a great attitude, sure makes for softening life's ups and downs. The wearing jeans thing was really not so bad and I didn't think it ever got mean-spirited. It was a healthy discussion among people who have definite opinions on both sides. Don't feel bad about that.
Steve, I want to make a gentle notation that the liners that you cruise on are ships and not boats. Only a big deal to some of us. You are correct about clientèle vs. the amount of money spent on a cruise and your laws of physics are well founded.
Desiree - Off topic - I did mention Sushilicious to my daughter (as she LOVES Sushi like me). She had me cracking up. Said it sounded like a combination of sushi and strip club! Anyways - thank you again for the referral. Maybe we will catch ya there one day!
Cruzin-- lol!! It does sound like combination sushi and strip club! Anything that is that close to "bootilicious" is pretty scary- but trust me, it's awesome stuff!
Celebration is one of the two smallest ships in the fleet. It is a great starter cruise with the ports. So if you liked that, you ain't seen nothing yet
You've got the newer bigger ships, and the real caribbean to look forward to. I loved the pics as well. Best to you, and don't worry about the jeans thing. It wasn't the topic that got things stirred up
Hi Desiree: Glad that you had such a great time on your cruise! My husband and I are crusing on the Celebration, our first cruise too, in about 4 weeks to the Bahamas too and your pictures gave me even more to look forward to. I do have a few ?'s though. You said that you wished they had more activities, did they have all the games by the pool, and the Newlywed and Millionaire games?? Did they have a Comedy Club and did you get to see any of the shows?
Snoop- Yes, I am pretty sure they had the activities by the pool and I am not sure about the Millionaire game. I guess I am just kinda shy, but the pool area was so small, if you were in the pool it was all eyes on you, and everyone was drinking and partying.. just not my scene, so I didn't participate in any of the games. The Newlywed game was hilarious. I definitely recommend it!
I didn't see any of the other comedy clubs. Those were all at night and being the duds that we are we were more interested in sleeping (our first time away from our 1 yr old, sleep has become quite the hot commodity!!).
We also saw one of the shows- it was a review of broadway tunes. It was okay. I hope this doesn't sound too snobbish, but I've been exposed to top performers since I was born, and went to a top music school for college, so I've seen some amazing shows, so... it wasn't the best, but still entertaining. Kinda like the sushi thing I mentioned earlier~lol! It is hard to be way impressed when you've seen the best! But, nonetheless, we still enjoyed it. We didn't go to the country performance they had on board, so can't comment on that.
Really- there are activities if you are into the partying thing. And if you are drinking then I am sure that makes it a lot more fun!! You'll have a great time, just go in with an open mind and a determination to have fun!
We are not what you would call partiers, but we don't mind being around and having a good time. We really want to do the Newlywed game, it should be fun.
I can relate to the getting sleep when you can thing, we have two kids, a daughter 14 and a son 11, but I can remember the midnight feedings and the 5am wake-ups. We hope to take in a show or two and my husband wants to go to the Comedy Club, we are both night owls now that the kids are older, so we are excited to do all we can!
If you have seen the best in Broadway shows, I am sure that these shows don't even come close, I don't think that is snobbish, just honest.
Thank you again for all the info, you have been a great help! I will write when we get back and let you and everyone know how our trip went.
DesireeOO-Really nice pictures-for your next cruise,if you do choose Carnival-try booking Category BL (Gauranteed Balcony). It is an inexpensive way to try a Balcony cabin and the farther in advance that you book,as a prior Carnival cruiser-the more likely you will get a higher category cabin!
Hi Desiree00, We were on that cruise also. We were on The 6th level? We thank goodness didn't have problems with loud partiers. This was our first cruise also and that was one of my gripes. Not enough to do. The pool was always full of kids as was the hot tub. The days at sea were boring. I've done the resort thing in Mexico and must say I missed being able to either swim in the ocean or the huge pools without being scared of bumping into someone. I enjoyed the food and drinks and the money we ended up spending on the total cruise agreed with my wallet. I wished the shore excursions were longer though. The Bahamas was beautiful(will be going there in the future). I couldn't believe the whole place shut down at 6pm. The storm the last night at sea was fierce. I have pretty good sea legs but even I got a little nauseous. All in all I do plan on going on another cruise. We would like to go to Alaska this time. And this time we will also try to get a bigger ship. Nice chatting with you.
You are correct about clientèle vs. the amount of money spent on a cruise and your laws of physics are well founded.
