Since we do not leave for several days on our big cruise, I thought I would share some thoughts on our recent cruise that we took on the Carnival Elation out of Mobile Alabama.
If you have ever tried to get from here to Mobile, Alabama by airplane, you know that is almost impossible or will cost you an arm and a leg (not ready to give up either at this time). Since we were going with my oldest son and family, it was decided to drive to Mobile in their new van. Talk about new vehicles, it is amazing what technology is being put in today’s vehicles. Actually, I would be buying a new car myself, but we can go on several cruises for the cost of monthly payments. You know what my vote is, don’t you.
Anyhow, I digress. Some would call it a squirrel moment. Boy, some days, we have a whole herd of squirrels around me. What was I talking about??? Oh, I remember… Paramount Joe. Let me explain.
The Paramount Arts Center had a contest going on to take a cut-out of Paramount Joe to different locations, and take pictures of him. The person that got the most pictures of Joe posted won An all-expense paid cruise around the world!!! No not really, it was for a few tickets to shows. Anyhow, as we are traveling to Mobile we start taking pictures of Paramount Joe at different locations, like the Space and Air Museum at Huntsville, Alabama. See Joe as he checks out the Apollo 11 Emblem...
Eventually, Joe was torn, pulled in different directions, and he refused to have a picture taken of him on board ship using the restroom. That ended our Paramount Joe experience. In my defense, I did tell him not to drink the water in Mexico.
Well, we had great weather in Cozumel on our first visit. Actually, we visited Cozumel two times. We did what is called a back-to-back cruise. We had the first cruise which only went to Cozumel and then returned to Mobile. In Mobile, we waited while everyone else got off the ship. Then, one of the officers took us down to Customs and then took us back aboard immediately. We were the last ones off the ship and the first ones on the ship that day. We actually had the entire ship to ourselves for about 2 hours before anyone else boarded. It was even better because we had the same cabins for both cruises. We did the back-to-backs for several reasons. First, we only had to travel once for two cruises. Second, Carnival’s loyalty program is currently based on the number of cruises you are on. By doing a back-to-back, my son became a Platinum cruiser with Carnival and the two grand kids become Platinum on the Mediterranean cruise. What are the benefits of being Platinum? Well, the biggest is that we get a free bag of laundry each day we are on board. This sometimes saves us a suitcase. Additionally, we get immediate embarkation. We don’t wait in line to get on board ship. We get free admission into the slot tournament, and several gifts of food and carnival items during the cruise.
During our second cruise we went back to Cozumel and Calica. During the first trip to Cozumel we went to a Dolphin Encounter and went snorkeling. Without a doubt, the dolphin encounter was a highlight of our trip. It was awesome. See some of the photos of our dolphin encounter.
Rexie said that was the best kiss she has had in years. hmmm...
On our second trip to Cozumel, we went back to national park and went Snorkeling. This is one of the few places in the world where you can walk off the beach and be in a coral reef. Everyone one had a great time until I was attacked (sort of) by a fish. More about my fish attack tomorrow.
While the rest of the Carnival fleet was having problems with Hurricane Irene (or as John Heald says, Bastard 1) we only had a few showers that actually kept the temperature down. The ship that was in San Juan was ordered out of the port three hours early by officials and left 300 cruisers in San Juan. We had no problems until we got to Calica and visited the Ruins of Tulum. While we were in the Ruins, it was 106 degrees with 100% humidity and was NOT raining. We were exhausted when we finished our tour.
Because we were doing a back-to-back we really got to know several of the staff onboard. We probably had the best Dining Room experience we have ever had on a Carnival Ship. We sometimes have a head waiter who is great, or an assistant waiter who is great, or a Maître De that is great. But in this cruise, we had all three that were awesome. Our Maître D’ was Nikola, our head waiter was Liberato, and our assistant waiter was Marlon. This trio was great. They knew what we liked to drink and had to waiting for us. Liberato and Nikola actually had crème brulèe made for us on the last elegant night, even though it is no longer on the menu. This was very impressive.
Well, we get back to Mobile and being Platinum guests one of the perks is that we get to get off before the common people do. This is awesome as we usually have no lines as we go through customs. Well, we get downstairs in the customs building and start getting our suitcases. We only find three of our seven suitcase for both families. We start searching for our suitcases in other areas, with no luck. By this time I get Carnival personnel involved and of course I am very calm and patient. Right! Let’s just say that I used my “Platinum” status to full advantage as we ended up with ten people looking for our suitcases. After a half hour, we suitcases were found and by then there was a big line for customs.
The carnival people quickly took us around the crowd and put us second in line. I am sure we upset several cruisers that were waiting in line as we “butted” in front.
Even with the luggage problems, we were actually out of the terminal and heading towards I-65 with an hour of getting off the ship. The biggest problem with Mobile is that it is not near the interstate and takes several minutes to get out of the neighborhood. Coupled with that problem and the airplane situation, I am sure these are several of the reasons that the Carnival elation is moving to New Orleans permanently the end of October.
No comments:
Post a Comment