It was my lucky day, driving my car to a Car Show.
Florida and travels.
Friday, February 28, 2025
Monday, February 24, 2025
Cruise Food?
Sister Lynn, asked me, "Why don't you tell
about the food onboard the cruise?"
Buffet breakfast food
Buffet
Buffet
This meal was on shore, Cozumel. 2 pork chops $11US
Fine dining room, with a special request for extra veggies.
Buffet
Fine dinning rm. The menu said Mexican Enchiladas. Turns out it was 2 refried bean soft tacos
with nothing else. de nada. I ate one bite and gave up. #Sad
fine dinning dessert cake
fine dinning dessert fruit plate
This guy stopped buy my table (fine dinning) to ask if I might want to, "try a very sweet fruit slime shot?" AFTER i took the offered 'try', he informed me I owed $11US for it.... #Sad&Bitter
A $20us original painting from Roatan, Honduras and an $11 shot glass
fine dinning dessert. banana cream pie
So, to tell you 'about the food.' There was a bunch of it on the 10th floor at the buffet. Like a Mall food court without a cash register. Nothing to write home about, except it was ALWAYS there. Nobody went to bed hungry on that ship. (it also appeared few had ever missed a meal) The "fine dinning" on deck 8, had table cloths and reserved seating. I was disappointed with the quality and selection. (on shore, i would not go back to that restaurant) The menu changed nightly, but didn't ever make me excited.
I'm told that cruise lines spend their money on: Food, Service, or Entertainment. The service was good. Very good. I didn't see ANY of the entertainment. (i did sit at a bar just outside the room where they did Karaoke one night. It sounded like a torture chamber)
that's my report. Cruiser Skip
fine dinning, Al's 85th surprise.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
I'm home from a Caribbean Cruise.
I sailed from Tampa down to Roatan, Honduras and then back up through Cozumel, Mexico. I'm still trying to decide how much I enjoyed it. It's obvious now, that I didn't know what I was getting into. I lived on my own sailboat for 13 years, sometimes traveling on my boat for 6 months outside the USA, but that didn't prepare me for 5 days on a cruise ship.
Our Route on a Carnival Princess Cruise, through The Gulf of America?
It all started last 4th of July timeframe. My local Florida friends invited me to go on a Carnival Cruise with them. I ponied up the money and put it on my 2025 Calendar. I didn't realize what I was getting into till much later. The Carnival Princess carries 2,200 guests and 1,000 staff. On this, our cruise, I was signed up with a group. Our group? A 500 Alcoholic and Narcotics Anonymous members group. {turns out one of my group has a sibling in the AA group, so we got combined with them.} Now let me say upfront: EVERY person I met on the boat was friendly, warm, and welcoming. It's was clearly a community of my 2,000 boat friends. My problem was not with the people, it was with the Cruise Ship. In reality, it's a floating hotel full of; old, mobility challenged, people all seemingly fighting over the line for food. (*I don't mean that to be judgmental, just descriptive of what I saw. I'm 'guessing' Old because they were not young. The mobility challenge was because of all the scooters and walkers being used.)
I naively thought the voyage was about the shore excursions, but the majority of the people onboard consider the voyage to be about the time spent on the ship. Lots of people didn't really go to shore. They never left the Duty Free shops on the dock. Lots of folks disembarked just to buy something duty free, then hustle back on board to get in line at the buffet.
I hope that does not sound critical, picky, or condescending. I was just surprised, as this was my first cruise experience. It was a very interesting experiment. I did it and survived. But I'm not signing up for anymore cruises anytime soon.
Here are some photos from the trip:
Carnival Princess
Tampa
On Roatan we Ziplined.
Finally Home again and ashore!
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