Unique Staterooms on Carnival Breeze

Breeze in Grand Cayman

Carnival Breeze

All the big cruise ships have a variety of stateroom categories. The basic divisions include suites, veranda, ocean view and interior cabins. Each category has their starting level price for particular rooms and then differing levels within each category where the rooms get more expensive as they are deemed better for one reason or another. Suite prices go up as the rooms get bigger and bigger. Other staterooms vary more in price within their base category due to location on the ship than size. Rooms on the lowest passenger decks and farthest from the middle usually cost the least, with prices increasing as you get higher in the ship and closer to the center of each deck.

Accessible Stateroom

Accessible Interior Cabin 7342. Notice the extra-wide door and low mailbox placement

Carnival Breeze has plenty of ordinary staterooms, but it also has its share of odd and unusual cabins. To see the usual array of rooms click here. For the out-of-the ordinary cabins, keep reading.

 

cruise ship deck plan

Deck 2 – note larger cabins at the stern same color as those around them

Checking out the deck plans before booking your cruise can help you not only to find that one special cabin, but also to make sure you choose one in a location you prefer whether that means a quiet area or close to the action.

odd shaped cabin

L-shaped aft Deluxe Ocean View Cabin 2485 is bigger than other cabins in the same category

Here and there you find special rooms, some in a category of their own like the spa cabins, which cost more than regular cabins of their type because of the perks that come with them. Others just happen to be the odd room at the end of the row or along a curve of the ship that has more space, a bigger balcony, or some other feature that sets it apart from all the other rooms that cost the same.

its the perks

Special Spa Products come with Spa Cabins

Spa cabins differ from others partly in their location near the spa, but mostly because of the amenities and perks that come with them.  Guests in spa cabins have slippers, spa products, and special robes and towels provided for them.  They get unlimited use of the thermal suite and both priority on spa appointments and exclusive deals on spa treatments.

a uniqe room

Accessible Ocean Suite 7270

Grand suites are bigger than the other suites. Other categories include ocean and junior suites.  Breeze has just one accessible ocean suite so it’s a very unique room.

big veranda

balcony of aft premium vista balcony room 7458

In the back corners of the ship a few wrap-around balcony cabins delight the lucky occupant with extra large verandas and views in more than one direction. While these rooms have a category of their own and cost extra, the ones right next door at the end of the long side of the hallway have a different configuration of the room giving them extra large balconies with the same stateroom classification as the ordinary balcony room on their other side.

odd shaped rooms

Junior Suite 9206, bow corner deck 9

Another room type with a category of their own for just a couple rooms is the junior suites at the corners of the bow of deck 9.

special cruise ship cabins

accessible inside room with window 7208, bow deck 7

Decks 6, 7, 9, and 10 have a row of rooms across the bow that book as inside rooms though they each have a window. While at the top of the price levels for interior rooms, they cost less than ocean view and yet are practically balcony cabins with access at either end of the hallway to a door to the outside deck in front of these rooms. These are public decks, but seldom used so there aren’t hordes of people outside the window. Usually none at all except when the ship leaves port or has something else of particular interest to see. The railing on the bow area obscures the view from the lower half of the window, but the upper half has a panoramic view. These rooms are no bigger than other inside cabins.

cabin with portholes

Porthole Stateroom 1219

Portholes make another way to get a view at inside cabin prices. Again not the cheapest of interior rooms, but a bargain compared to ocean view. These cabins have two fully-functional portholes with covers the steward may close in excessively stormy weather. It’s not the sweeping view you get through a full-sized window, but enough to let light in the room and to have a peek at what’s outside – which can be spray from the waves at times.

porthole view

ledge in front of the portholes with 2 weeks of towel animals

The biggest bonus in these rooms is the size as they are about as big as ocean view rooms.  The biggest drawback is that in rough waters you can both feel and hear the ship pounding through the waves.  Sometimes it sounds and feels like bouncing over drifting logs. I’ve had porthole rooms twice and would still book them again in spite of a couple rough nights on the last one. Some ships have a lot of porthole rooms, but on the Breeze they are in short supply. One more added bonus, the ledge in front of the porthole adds an extra space to put things.

cove balcony

Cove Balcony from cabin 2285

Breeze has cove balcony cabins on deck 2. These close to the water balconies have a metal framework around them and a storm proof door that seals the room off from the balcony in rough weather. The view is through a large opening in the metal rather than fully open across the outside like verandas on higher level rooms.

bigger and easier to use

bathroom from wheelchair accessible room

Wheelchair accessible rooms are scattered about the ship and can be found somewhere in each of the major room types. These tend to be at the bigger end of room size for their category. They have wider doors than other rooms and lower placement of things like the mailbox and clothesline. Bigger bathrooms containing big showers with flat entries, handrails, and a fold down shower seat make for easier use by the intended occupants.

traveling with family

deluxe ocean view cabin 1393 sleeps 5

If traveling with a family or other group of people it’s nice to know the Breeze has a few 5-person rooms.  These deluxe ocean view cabins have two drop-down bunks and a couch that converts to a bed as well as the usual two beds that can be apart or together.  Having five people in a room could be a problem with just one bathroom, but these cabins have two.

great for extra people

extra bathroom in the deluxe ocean view cabins

One bathroom has a toilet, sink, and shower while the other contains a small bathtub and a sink. All the deluxe ocean view cabins have the extra bathroom regardless of the amount of people they hold. While this feature is an awesome addition when traveling with extra people, for rooms that hold just two most people would probably rather have left the spare bathroom out and had more floor space and a lower price as regular (not deluxe) ocean view cabins on the Breeze are rare.

a door makes two cabins one

connecting cabins 7382 and 7384

Connecting rooms make another helpful room configuration for families.  Some staterooms have connecting doors to the cabin next door.  Each side has a door which remains locked when separate parties stay in each room, and can be unlocked when parties traveling together want direct access from one room to the other.

good for singles

interior upper lower room 2203 has a couch that converts to a bed instead of a bunk

Solo cruisers or passengers on a tight budget might like the interior upper/lower rooms since these are the lowest priced cabins on the ship. Most have one bed and a drop-down bunk, but there are some at the bow of deck 2 with one bed and a couch that converts to a bed instead.

portable crib on cruise ship

ships have portable cribs for the youngest cruisers

Sometimes it isn’t a special room you need so much as a special accessory. When traveling with infants or toddlers it’s nice to know that cruise ships have portable cribs.

bigger stateroom

ocean view cabin 2493 is one of the odd shaped rooms at the stern corner

Staterooms on other cruise ships: Arcadia, Breeze (regular rooms),  Divina,  Ecstasy,  Infinity,   Legend, Liberty, Pearl, Ruby Princess,  Splendor, Veendam, Westerdam, Wilderness Adventurer

For a complete list of blogs about cabins see My Cruise Stories Ships and Cabins page.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2016
Posted in Breeze, Carnival, Shipboard Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Reflections of 2015

christmas ornament ships

2 new ship model ornaments to add to my collection this year – the Infinity and the Ecstasy. (I already had Breeze and Legend didn’t have any.) Veendam didn’t have any either, but my aunt had a lovely ornament made for me from one of her photos.

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope the new year brings good things to all and fine adventures to the travelers.

ship model ornaments

Ecstasy and Infinity in their packages

2015 IN CRUISES

2015 was my best cruising year so far with 5 cruise adventures taking place throughout the year. Our cruising year started early with a month-long February trip to Australia. We visited our daughter and her family who live there and took a one week cruise to Tasmania out of Sydney on Carnival Legend with my daughter and her kids.

cruise ship docked in Quebec

Veendam in Quebec City

May brought an early-season cruise to the northeast with a couple aunts and an uncle on Holland America Veendam. After a couple days touring Boston we boarded the ship for a cruise to Maine and Canada, ending at Quebec City.

Celebrity Infinity

Infinity in Columbia

In September my husband and I set out for 35 days of cruising to celebrate our 35th anniversary, which we spent transiting the Panama Canal on Celebrity Infinity. We had never sailed with Celebrity before so we got to try out a new line as well as a different ship. We boarded the Infinity in San Francisco and spent 17 days cruising to Fort Lauderdale. After disembarking we hopped in a cab for a slow and tedious traffic nightmare journey to Miami. It took about twice as long to get there as it should, but we still arrived well before time to board Carnival Ecstasy for a short 4-day cruise.

Carnival Breeze

Breeze in St. Kitts

We had one night to spend in Miami, but the motel we had booked near the cruise dock had plumbing issues and they took us to another they owned far from the port, which turned out to be the same place we had stayed several years earlier. Next morning we boarded Carnival Breeze for back to back Caribbean cruises totaling 14 days and the grand total of 35 days of cruising.

2015 In The Blog

2015 was a very busy year for My Cruise Stories blog. Besides adding cruises from 4 new ships over the course of the year, the blog had plenty already going on. Of course new towel animals and recipes appear from time to time. 2015 brought about the conclusion of the Cruise Ship Doctor series. Other adventures that saw their final post in 2015 included the MSC Divina Caribbean cruise and the Un-Cruise Adventures Wilderness Adventurer beer-themed cruise in Washington State, with the final episode published in October.

Meanwhile tales of the Carnival Splendor had pretty much just gotten started at the beginning of the year. The first leg of the back to back cruise got covered in 2015, but the second has yet to be revealed so there are plenty of posts left from the Splendor for 2016.

2015 On a Personal Note

This was the first time I was able to take so many trips because 2015 was my first full year without an outside job. I used to be a press-brake operator in a sheet metal shop so I had limited vacation time. After breaking my arm at the elbow joint in 2014, trying to keep working there led to back issues and a knee injury so I left my job that summer to regain my health. Things are going much better for me healthwise now other than having a bit of skin cancer removed last spring. While the arm will never regain full strength or range of motion and two of my fingers would like to be one, it could have been a lot worse. I’m working on losing the weight gained during that time, but have to be careful because while both my back and knee are much better than they were, exercise makes my back feel better and my knee feel worse.

fishing tackle

glow mono spreader light rig with water activated light

We’ve expanded our product lines on our internet fishing tackle business to include new items like King Kandy. Besides selling tackle now I actually make some sometimes and even invented my own product – the monospreader light rig – by adding an underwater light into one of my husband’s product designs, the Brite Bite glow monospreader. Both versions are available at supersquids.com, one of our fishing tackle websites. Also at squidlures.com, a site that I rebuilt this past winter so we could move it to a new host. At the Alaskan fishing lodge where they tested the prototype they couldn’t keep the fish off it and I had to send more because all the guests wanted to fish with something that had a fish on it as fast as they could get it into the water. Monospreaders catch bottomfish like halibut. The fishing line attaches to the plain swivel, lead weight to the corkscrew swivel, and bait on the hook.

cruise ship in Panama Canal

Infinity Entering Locks at the Panama Canal

Looking Forward to 2016

2016 looks like another good cruising year. I have a transpacific, an Alaskan cruise, a cruise in Europe, and a transatlantic booked so lots of interesting new adventures coming up for the blog. Two of them are on cruise lines I haven’t tried before, P&O and Princess. It’s always fun to branch out and try different ships and see new places, though familiar ones like Alaska or the Caribbean are lovely too.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2016
Posted in Randoms, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 26 Comments

Staterooms on Carnival Ecstasy

Carnival cruise ship

Ecstasy in Key West

Carnival Ecstasy has several different stateroom categories ranging from spacious suites to money-saving inside cabins.  The showers have dispensers with shampoo and shower gel and bars of soap are provided. Beds in most staterooms can be set apart as twins or together as one bed. The ship has a couple launderettes which come in handy for anyone with clothes they want to wash, dry, or iron. Some cabins are wheelchair accessible with wider doors and lower placement of things people need to reach like the mailbox and clothesline.

Suites

Suites are larger than other cabins and come with VIP check-in.

biggest cruise ship cabin

Grand Suite room U94

Grand Suites are the biggest staterooms on board.  Some have extended balconies.  Some grand suites are available with connecting rooms or space to sleep 5.  There is even a wheelchair accessible grand suite in room #U69.

cruise ship suite

Junior Suite room V18

Junior suites sleep up to 3 people.  These suites have balconies and more interior space than regular staterooms.  Some have obstructed views from the balcony, which means a lower price for the room.

Balcony Cabins

Balcony staterooms have glass doors out onto a veranda for a sea view and a bit of private outdoor space.

really big balcony

Extended balcony from the Grand Suite

Aft View Extended Balcony cabins sleep up to 3 people.  These rooms across the stern of the ship offer a view of the wake and of where the ship has been from their extra-large balconies. Balcony cabins each have a private veranda.  Some balcony cabins sleep up to 4 people.  Some have connecting rooms or accessible features.

Ocean View Cabins

ocean view stateroom

Ocean View Cabin M60

Ocean view staterooms have picture windows for a view of the sea. Some sleep up to 5 guests. For bigger families some have connecting doors to the next room. These doors remain locked unless the same party has booked both rooms and wants to have passage between them. You can also find wheelchair accessible rooms in the ocean view category.

Interior Cabins

Inside cabins are the most affordable accommodations on the ship.  Many people book them for the cost savings, but some book them for the convenience of darkness for sleeping at any time of day.

a bit of a view

Porthole Cabin M22

Porthole cabins book as interior, but have two portholes to provide daylight in the room and a bit of a view giving guests the advantage of the economy of an inside room while still having small windows.  These fully functional portholes have covers which the stewards can close in stormy weather.  Although many of the porthole cabins are as big or bigger than ocean view cabins they sleep just two guests.

inside stateroom

Interior stateroom has a curtain with a light over it, but no window behind the curtain

Interior Staterooms sleep anywhere from 2 to 5 guests. Some inside rooms have connecting cabins and some are wheelchair accessible.

economical cruise ship cabin

Interior Upper/Lower Room R52

Interior Upper/Lower staterooms are the smallest and most economical rooms on the ship.  These cabins are great for singles and can sleep up to 2 people.  These rooms have one twin bed and either a fold-down bunk or sofa bed.

old style cruise ship bunks

One bunk is down, but the bulky frame of the other bunk over the bed takes up a lot of space

The majority of passengers sail two to a cabin, but sometimes more people share the same space. Many cabins only hold two people, but some have bunks and/or trundle beds or couches that convert to beds.  Some of the Ecstasy’s cabins hold up to 5 people with two bunks and a trundle bed. If you are traveling with just two people look for a room that only holds two. The bunks on the Ecstasy are in a bulky wooden frame along the wall rather than dropping from the ceiling as they do on newer ships so if you don’t need them they are just taking up space in the room.

portable crib on cruise ship

portable crib for the youngest cruise ship passengers

While there are no permanent beds for babies in any cabin, the ship is equipped with portable cribs that can be set up in a cabin as needed for very young cruisers.

Click links below to see cabins on other cruise ships: Arcadia, Breeze,  Breeze odd cabins,  Divina,  Infinity,  Legend,  Liberty,  Pearl, Ruby Princess,  Splendor,  Veendam,  Westerdam,  Wilderness Adventurer

For a complete list of blogs about cabins see My Cruise Stories Ships and Cabins page.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2015
Posted in Carnival, Ecstasy, Shipboard Life | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How to Make a Towel Yoda

yoda in full robe

Towel Yoda with bath towel robe

How to Fold a Towel Yoda

Supplies Needed to Make Towel Yoda

towel Yoda

My first Yoda made for facebook in 2012

1 Green Hand Towel

1 Green Bath Towel

1 Brown Bath Towel or Brown Hand Towel

2 Paper Eyes

How to Fold a Towel Yoda Head

towel origami

make sure both ends of the towel hang evenly

Hang the center of one long edge of the green hand towel over a wall hook or tuck it under your chin. Make sure both sides hang evenly.

towel art

Roll both sides at the same time making them as tight as possible. The other hand should be even with the one shown, but it had the camera.

Tightly roll both hanging edges to the center.

towel creations

put towel rolled side down

Set the rolled towel down on a hard surface rolled side down.

step by step towel folding directions

roll towel starting from the wide end

Tightly roll towel from the wide end.

how to fold a towel animal

tuck the pointed end between the rolls and shape the ears and it looks like Yoda

Tuck pointed end between the two rolls. Shape the ends sticking out each side into Yoda ears.

How to Fold a Towel Yoda Body

how to fold towel animals

roll both ends of bath towel to the center

Tightly roll both ends of green bath towel to the center from the short ends.

how to make towel creations

pull the tips out of the center of each roll and fold rolled towel in half

Pull out the tips from the center of each roll at both ends. Fold towel in half with rolls to the outside.

the art of towel folding

Pull both sides at once. There would be a hand on the other side, but it’s on the camera.

Take the tips from both ends of one roll in one hand and the other roll in the other hand. Pull both sides at once until it forms a body. If you can’t pull both sides all the way at the same time you can finish them one roll at a time.

how to make towel animals

towel body in sitting position

Place the towel body into a sitting position.

Finishing Towel Yoda

towel Yoda

Finished towel Yoda with robe from hand towel

Drape the brown towel over it like a robe. Use a bath towel if you want a long draping robe and the hand towel if you want more of the body to show. Set the head on the body and add the eyes. Use double stick tape to keep the eyes in place. Position Yoda as desired.

For step-by-step towel animal folding instructions with photos for many other towel animals, please visit My Cruise Stories towel animal page.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2016
Posted in Towel Animals | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Cruise Ship Cabins on Celebrity Infinity

cruise ship at anchor

Infinity in Cabo

The infinity has several classes of suites. All suites include personal butler service, priority check-in, debarkation and tender, access to the Suites-only Michael’s Club Lounge and Luminae dining room, and ipod docking stations.

very fancy cruise ship suite

Foyer at the penthouse makes a grand entry into the suite – room 6147

At 1432 square feet, the penthouse suite is bigger than my house, which would pretty much fit on the 1098 foot veranda. This suite has all the comforts of home and then some. It comes with a baby grand piano, full-sized refrigerator, and the option of in-suite meals and afternoon tea served in the suite’s very own dining room as well as unlimited access to the ship’s specialty restaurants.

sweet suite

Royal Suite balcony has comfy furniture and private whirlpool – room 6141

The 538 square foot Royal Suite comes with many of the same amenities as the penthouse suite including private whirlpool tubs both in the bathroom and on the veranda as well as complimentary in-suite cappuccino, espresso and internet.

fancy suite

The spacious Celebrity Suite has separate living area and bedroom – room 8104

The 467 square foot Celebrity suites come with many of the privileges of the bigger suites like a bottle of wine and daily fresh fruit platters. Guests in these suites get one or two complimentary dinners in the ship’s specialty restaurants depending the length of the cruise.

cruise ship accommodations

Sky Suite comes with extra perks for suite guests – room 6132

The 251 square foot Sky Suites may not have as much space as the Celebrity suites, but they come with about the same amenities. Some Sky Suites are accessible with roll-in showers rather than tubs.

high class stateroom

Aqua Class room comes with spa privledges – room 9100

195 square foot Aqua Class staterooms have private verandas, free access to the Persian Garden aromatherapy in the spa, extra bathroom amenities, priority check-in, and their own restaurant, Blu, which serves lighter and healthier food than the regular cruise ship fare.

healthier eating

Blu Restaurant for the Aqua Class Guests

191 foot Concierge Class staterooms also have priority check in. These rooms include concierge service, seating time preferences for the dining room and specialty restaurants, expanded room service menu, and afternoon savories delivered to the room. Accessible Concierge Class rooms are 334 square feet and equipped with roll-in showers.

cruise ship cabins

Veranda Stateroom 7172

Veranda Staterooms come in three styles – Family, accessible, and regular. The 271 foot family cabin has a 242 square foot balcony and a divider between the bedroom and living room areas. The 272 foot accessible veranda cabins have roll-in showers and a 38 square foot balcony. The regular veranda rooms are 170 square feet with a 38 square foot balcony.

room with a view

Ocean View Stateroom

Ocean View staterooms have 170 square feet of space and a view of the sea. Accessible ocean view cabins are 381 square feet with roll-in showers.

lots of space

Inside Stateroom 3042

Inside rooms are pretty spacious.  At 170 square feet these have just as much room as the regular ocean view or veranda cabins. Accessible inside rooms are 240 square feet with roll-in showers.  Some staterooms have drop-down bunks in the ceiling which are lowered when more than 2 guests share a room.  Cribs are available on request.

drop down bunks add sleeping space

Inside cabin with one bunk down

The stateroom stewards came by to introduce themselves on the first day and when they said if there is anything you need just ask they meant it because a request for more hangers had them at my door within minutes.

ship bathrooms are called the head

bathroom in Celebrity suite

The doors and walls in the cabin are magnetic. Room amenities include shampoo, conditioner, hand lotion, soap, shower cap, and a box labeled essential vanity pack with a couple packets containing a couple cotton balls and q-tips and a tiny nail file.

inside cruise ship closet

the two bars at the back of the closet near the bottom of the picture pull down for more hanging space

The closet has a set of pull-down bars for a second hanging space, one on each side so either one or both people can have double rows to hang their things if desired.

kitchen or butler's pantry

penthouse has full sized refrigerator

We received a surprise email shortly before the cruise saying that the upper decks boarded first and the lower ones didn’t get on until close to the end of boarding time. As this was our first cruise with Celebrity I don’t know if this is their general practice or if it was specific to that cruise or that port.

cruise ship accommodations

Bedroom in Celebrity Suite

Staterooms on other cruise ships:  Arcadia, Breeze, Breeze odd cabins, Divina, Ecstasy, Legend, Liberty, Pearl, Ruby Princess, Splendor, Veendam, Westerdam, Wilderness Adventurer

For a complete list of blogs about cabins see My Cruise Stories Ships and Cabins page.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2015
Posted in Celebrity, Infinity, Shipboard Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Back to Back in Different Rooms

Grand Turk of Turks and Caicos Islands

Splendor in Grand Turk

Taking two cruises in a row, called back to back cruises and often referred to as B2B, makes a great way to add extra time to an otherwise too short cruise. (To me every cruise is too short – no matter how long we spent cruising I never want to get off the ship.) Often ships rotate between more than one itinerary so you see different things on each voyage.  It also saves money over taking two (or more) separate cruises at different times since you only have to pay the airfare once. We took a B2B on the Liberty several years ago, with the ease of staying in the same room the whole time. We thought we’d have some time on a nearly empty ship, but as soon as the departing passengers have cleared the vessel the new batch starts to board. The back to backers are supposed to all zip through customs in a group before new passengers board, but the Liberty had a couple people who wouldn’t leave. About 20 back to backers sat waiting in the atrium long past the time we should have gone through customs until the crew could round up the errant passengers, who apparently were not easy to find, and get them off the ship.

cruise ship cabin

oceanview cabin set up for 4 people

Things went smoother on the Carnival Splendor as far as customs went, which was good because after the 8:30 cutoff for getting everything out of the room we really had nowhere to go. We had an oceanview room that slept four for the first cruise, but since the second was just the two of us we tried out one of the smaller “secret” rooms at the bow that book as inside, but have a window. We went up to talk to the steward of the new room while we still had the old one. He said we could bring our luggage up and put it in that room when we had to leave the other one whether the room was ready or not. The stewards offered to move the luggage for us, but they have a lot to do and it wasn’t that difficult to wheel our own bags to the new room. Our new steward did have the room ready by 8:30 when we had to leave the old one, but we wouldn’t have a key card for that room until after going through customs. Once he let us in with our luggage we couldn’t get back in when we left unless the steward was somewhere nearby to open the door so we made sure we took with us anything we might need before going through customs.

The Splendor had quite a lot of people doing the B2B. They probably got more than normal since the first leg was a repositioning cruise and the second a regular Caribbean loop. After we all got back from customs they had a little celebration in the atrium and took group photos of the back to backers.

secret rooms on a cruise ship

inside cabin with window (the window is actually on the other side of the bed, but shows here in the mirror)

While it was nice to see two different rooms, neither type of which we had stayed in before, it was definitely easier the time we spent both cruises in the same room.  Changing rooms meant having to pack everything up as if we had to leave the ship even though we actually just moved 6 floors up from deck 1 to deck 7.  We really liked the oceanview room on deck 1, which was just as spacious as the cabins with a balcony. While the new room wasn’t any bigger than the average inside cabin, the panoramic window more than made up for the small room size even if you did have to stand up to see over the railing of the deck outside the window. Can’t really complain about that when getting a window at inside room prices though.

secret balcony

deck area at the bow in front of the inside window cabins

Besides the obvious benefits of having a longer cruise and taking two cruises with one airfare, taking two cruises back to back means you can ask at the spa on the first cruise if they need any volunteers for models during the spa tour on boarding day of the second one. If they do you can get whatever they need you to model for at the spa for free.

best room number ever

oceanview room 1234

We love doing back to back cruises and have another one booked.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2016
Posted in Caribbean, Carnival, Shipboard Life, Splendor | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hasbro the Game Show on Carnival Legend

life size board games

Hasbro The Game Show on Carnival Legend

Many people grew up playing Hasbro board games. Who hasn’t played Sorry, Yahtzee, Operation, Simon, Connect Four, Monopoly, or other Hasbro games? As part of Carnival’s Funship 2.0 upgrades they added life size versions of old favorite games done in Hollywood game show style. These giant versions of familiar games include Sorry Sliders, Yahtzee Bowling, Operation Sam Dunk, Connect Four Basketball and the dreaded Simon Flash. Winners each select a Monopoly game card to determine the grand prize winner at the end of the game show style production involving passengers as contestants.

Hasbro at sea

Sorry Sliders on Carnival Breeze

When we took the transatlantic cruise on the Breeze they had several episodes of Hasbro the Game show on several different days of the cruise and my husband John got selected to play in one of them. On our Carnival Australia cruise on the Legend they had the Hasbro game in the evening after my daughter Sheri put her kids to bed. Since John had already played he watched the kids while Sheri and I went to the show.

For the first game they used scattergories questions to select audience participants. They split the audience down the middle, one side has a chance to get on the red team and the other on the blue. Sheri is big into board games so when they asked for a board game starting with C for the blue team she jumped up ready to answer. The cruise director picked someone else. The first guy couldn’t think of anything to say in spite of the fact that the giant Connect Four basketball game sat on the stage ready to go. The CD turned to Sheri. Though her first thought had been Carcassonne, her favorite of the million or so board games she has, she went with chess instead figuring more people would give the obvious answer giving her a better chance at the win. Sure enough, chess was among the acceptable answers and Sheri took her place on stage with the blue team.

connect 4 basketball

Looks like a done deal for the reds and hopeless for the blues while Sheri takes a shot

Initially the red team had a scoring streak, getting a lot of basketballs into the giant Connect Four game board, but not the four in a row they needed for a win. Sheri’s team on the other hand all missed except for her. On the next round the other team didn’t score as well and still didn’t get beyond 3 in a row. Sheri scored again. Somewhere along the way the little girl on her team got a ball in the same line with Sheri’s, but the other two adults never got a single ball on the board for the entire game. They missed every shot completely. Lucky for Sheri, the reds lost their early luck and she got the fourth ball in a row before they did, scoring 3 of the four balls for her team’s win all on her own, plus one other in another row. The red team had more balls in, but mostly all over the board. They just couldn’t get that last one in the right row to win.

giant monopoly ATM

Sheri picks her monopoly card

The red team went back to their original seats and the blue team each picked a card from the giant Monopoly ATM. Sheri got first choice and picked the horse.

For the second round they had Trivial Pursuit for the qualifying round. When they asked the ingredients of Rice Krispie Treats for the first blue team question, I knew I could win….but the cruise director called on someone else. He said Rice Bubbles (which is what Rice Krispies are called in Australia – even the box says so), marshmallows and cocoa. Apparently Australians usually make their Rice Krispie cookies chocolate because when they said he was wrong I was all alone jumping around waving my hands in the air while everyone else had a blank stare. So the Cruise Director pretty much had to call on me even though Sheri already played the first game. I said Rice Krispies, marshmallows and butter. (Butter is a key ingredient. Even if you used cocoa you would still need butter.)

“Isn’t that the same thing he said?” The CD asked.

“No,” I replied. “He said cocoa, I said butter.”

Simon Flash in Hasbro the Game Show

waiting for a team

So he checked with the answer fairy and they said I was right. I took my place on stage with some space between me and the red team while I waited for them to select the rest of the blue. Each team had 5 players this round, four to play and one to direct while we played the dreaded Simon Flash, the one game of all of them everyone says they hope will not be the one used if they get selected to play. We had four adults on the stage and a little girl to direct us.

fun on a cruise ship

um…nobody moved

The cruise director made sure to confuse everyone saying that we would line up opposite what we see in the colors when they flash because we needed to be in the order of what the audience sees. Only the colors flashed one at a time, not in a line of them like the audience sees. We couldn’t see the color on the front of the big blocks we wore, and the tiny light on top that told us what color we had did not light up until the sequence was over. They had a practice round and the red team scurried about while us blues stood there looking stupid trying to figure out what the CD meant about the backwards thing.

cruise ship entertainment

everybody find your spot

The game started for real and we just lined up normal. Not fast enough though, first round went to the reds. Next round my light started out blue and about the time I got into place it changed to green so I had to move. Luckily although the reds lined up first they had the wrong order so we got into the right order first. Last round we got quicker and the lights on top the blocks didn’t change color midway through. Our little girl director had the hang of it by then and we all got in place faster than the other team – and in the right spots for the win.

fun playing games

Monopoly Train Card

Each of us got to pick a Monopoly card. They had two big racks of them so unless you were the first person there while they were talking there was no time to look them over to see what they were as we just had a few seconds pick one while passing by on the way to the stairs. I just grabbed the closest one which happened to be the train.

All the winners came back up on stage and they asked each person why they picked the one they did. Sheri went first. She said she picked the horse because she grew up riding. I never asked her if she just happened to grab the horse or if she intentionally picked it, but she did go first so she probably had a chance to look at them.

no luck for you

one of the contestants checks their card

Everyone had a good story for their choice so instead of saying totally random when asked why I picked the train I said because my grandsons really like Thomas, which they do. Sometimes you have to think on the fly, or at least in that moment I felt that way. Looking back just saying because it was closest might have been a more entertaining answer.

Sheri went first.  She put her card in the giant Monopoly ATM thing and the dollars just kept whirring around. It went all the way up to $115,000. She stood aside in the current winner’s spot. If anyone scored higher they’d take over and she’d go back down the stairs. One by one everyone put in their card. Mine was $15,000. The second highest was $20,000. Each person was handed a travel size Yahtzee game as they exited the stage while Sheri looked on.

best prize ever

Sheri wins!

The CD and his helpers said they had never seen it go anywhere near as high as Sheri’s score before. One of them wondered if it was broken. Too bad it was Monopoly money, who couldn’t use a spare $115,000? Sheri won the grand prize by a mile, which she rightfully deserved since she nearly singlehandedly won Connect Four basketball. Her prize consisted of a selection of travel sized games (which her kids had fun with the rest of the cruise) and $150 onboard credit. On ships sailing out of the USA the winner gets a certificate to pick a selection of games from Hasbro rather than the onboard credit. Perhaps the cost of shipping the games to Australia is too high.

It’s fun to watch Hasbro the game show, but it’s even more fun to play even if getting picked does involve attracting attention to oneself, something that goes totally against my normal blend into the background nature.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2015
Posted in Australia, Carnival, Legend, Shipboard Life | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Bar Harbor

cruise ship at anchor

Veendam in Bar Harbor

Bar Harbor (pronounced Bah Habah by the locals) may have its prime tourist season when people come to see the trees in their glorious fall colors, but it is a nice place to visit earlier in the season as well. We came in May on one of Holland America Veendam’s earliest cruises for the New England cruising season. The ship anchors up just outside of town and smaller boats called tenders – which are also used as lifeboats – bring passengers to shore. A walk up the dock brings the visitors to the main touristy area full of quaint shops in charming wooden buildings from Bar Harbor’s heyday as a playground for the wealthy in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. The gift shops carry plenty of lobster related gift items and the area’s signature dish, lobster rolls, were available at a restaurant right on the dock.

Buildings in Bar Harbor

Our first view of Bar Harbor from the dock area

In our pre-cruise planning we had thought of taking a trolley tour with Oli’s Trolley, which you could either book in advance or just wait to get off the boat and sign up at their office near the dock assuming they had openings. We decided to wait on the weather rather than booking in advance. The forecast called for rain and we imagined open sided trolleys so we went with a bus tour to Acadia Park from the ship instead. We ran into someone later in the day who said they had done the trolley tour and it was closed in rather than out in the open like those we have seen other places so it would have worked out fine if we had taken that tour.

tour bus

the tree shuttle

My aunt was quite excited when she saw trees painted on the side of our tour bus. She had accidently sent my mother a message mentioning the tree shuttle at our hotel in Boston when she meant free shuttle, so here we had an actual tree shuttle ready and waiting for photos. Later on the cruise we saw crew people wheeling some potted trees out to the dock to set up for photos, a very literal tree shuttle since they were actually shuttling trees.

mansion turned hotel

Some of the remaining mansions are hotels now

On the way out of town our driver told us a bit about the history of the region. At one time lots of big mansions occupied an area on the outskirts of town. Some of those and part of Acadia park burned in a huge fire in 1947. Now smaller homes of 1950’s construction fill the formerly burned area where mansions once stood. The fire did not extend to the entire town so some mansions remain in the unburned area. Famous people like Martha Stewart still have homes in Bar Harbor, but it’s not exclusively a rich area like in the past. Bar Harbor’s earliest vacationers stayed in local’s homes, then hotels got built. As other people who stayed shorter times started coming to the hotels the “seasonals” built their own mansions to avoid the tourists. The fire brought an end to that era.

trees at Acadia Park

Evergreens in the mist

Evergreens come back last after fire, so the abundance of birch trees make fall colors spectacular in the burned area, though enough time has passed now that the evergreens have started to return and eventually that area will look the same as the rest of the park.

evergreen tree

evergreen tree close up

Due to the foggy day our tour guide would say to use our imaginations as she pointed out where the sights should be and we looked out the windows to see the immediate roadside and fog shrouding whatever distant interesting thing we couldn’t see. As we passed the sandbar to Bar Island (taking her word for it as we could not see the water at all) she said that in a low tide people could walk across the sandbar and it was what gave the town of Bar Harbor its name. People have lost their cars driving across and parking on the sandbar, only to have the tide come in and wash their cars away.

Acadia Park

an entrance to the carriage roads

Acadia National Park takes up much of the land on Mount Desert Island, the second largest island on the east coast. The park also has land on some nearby smaller islands as well. It is the oldest national park east of the Mississippi. Some of the land for the park was donated by wealthy people who once spent their summers in the area. One of the park’s biggest supporters was John D Rockefeller Jr. who built 50 miles of carriage trails including 17 granite bridges, much of which is still in use today.

Cadillac Mountain

At the top of Cadillac Mountain

Our bus climbed to the top of Cadillac Mountain. On a clear day we would have had an awesome view, but we mainly saw mist in the nearby trees. We got out and walked around a bit. On the way back the bus took a different road and our guide pointed out one of the granite bridges as well as an entrance to the carriage trails where motor vehicles are not allowed.

Mount Desert Island, Maine

one of the better views out the bus window as the fog began to lift

On the way back the sky cleared a bit and we saw a few peek-a-boo views of the sea. A deer wandered along the roadside unconcerned with the bus passing by. Back in town the driver gave people the option of getting off 0n the far side town and walking back through the shopping area or riding the bus all the way to the dock. We opted to get out, as did quite a few other people. We wandered into a few shops on the way back and found a path leading to a great view of the ship at anchor.

Bar Harbor has lots of interesting architecture

interesting old church seen from bus

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2015
Posted in Holland America, Port Cities, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions, USA, Veendam | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Scalloped Potatoes Recipe

scalloped potato recipe

Scalloped Potatoes

Scalloped Potatoes

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons butter                                    2 cups milk

2 Tablespoons flour                                       4-5 medium russet potatoes, peeled and sliced

1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease bottom of large casserole dish with butter.

Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan. Whisk in flour until thoroughly blended. Add salt. Slowly add milk while whisking constantly. Stir frequently with whisk on bottom of pan until sauce boils and thickens. Add potatoes and heat until it boils again, stirring often with spoon.

Pour potatoes into prepared casserole dish. Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees fahrenheit. If you want the tops of the potatoes to brown bake uncovered. For white creamy potatoes bake covered.

To make Au Gratin Potatoes stir one cup of shredded cheese into the sauce just before adding the potatoes.

Scalloped potatoes are easy to make and go well with any meat.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2015
Posted in recipes | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Carnival Breeze

looks like paradise

Breeze in Grand Turk

Until the Vista launches in 2016, the Breeze is Carnival’s newest ship. It is from the Dream Class, currently Carnival’s biggest.  The Breeze launched in 2012. Decor on the ship is Caribbean casual. Breeze is 1004 feet long with a passenger capacity of 3690 and crew of 1386.

things to do on a cruise ship

SportsSquare has an assortment of fun and games

Breeze has the features of other dream class ships with outdoor movies on the Lido deck, waterslides, and a splash park. Like her sister ship, the Magic, Breeze has SportsSquare with a ropes course, mini golf, pool tables, and other games. There are also features unique to the Breeze like the 5D Thrill Theater, which will also appear on the new Vista.  This theater down on deck 5 plays short 3-D action movie features with moving seats and well-timed air and water that will really make you feel like part of the action.

Entertainment on the Breeze also includes trivia and other games, stage and comedy shows, a piano bar, nightclub, and Hasbro the Game Show. After all the fun and food it’s good to know that if you need to wash your clothes the Breeze, like all Carnival ships, has self-serve launderettes. You don’t even need quarters as these machines operate from your sail & sign card.

veggie burger

Guy’s Veggie Burger – it’s not on the menu, but available if you ask

Breeze has plenty of food options. Besides the main dining rooms and Lido buffet passengers can also eat at the Blue Iguana Cantina or Guy’s Burgers at no extra charge.  Guys now has veggie burgers. They’re not on the menu. You have to ask and then wait for them to cook, but it is nice that they are finally available. On Sea days at lunchtime anyone willing to brave the long line can have barbecue at Fat Jimmy’s also for no charge.

barbeque

Fat Jimmy’s has good food and a long line

For a little extra the Red Frog Pub serves up some excellent Pub Grub. I do mean a little.  At just $3.33 per item or $2.22 for the cake it is well worth it. Bonsai Sushi serves sushi by the piece, the boatload, or anywhere in between. Cucina del Capitano has a surcharge of $15 at dinner, but at lunchtime it’s free. For those looking for an evening of fine dining a visit to Fahrenheit 555 Steakhouse may be in order. It’s the fanciest eatery on board and comes with a surcharge of $35. Room service has both free and pay extra items.

cruise ship pool

Aft pool on the Lido

Breeze has two pools on the Lido and hot tubs on several different decks including on the adults only Serenity deck. The Serenity deck also has a hammock. Just one. It had four when we took the transatlantic crossing several years ago. It could have used more rather than less.

cruise ship at the dock

Breeze in St. Kitts

A few other things have changed since our first cruise on the Breeze. The EA Sports bar is gone and the large screen TV’s have moved into the casino. This is not a good thing as the casino is now larger and more open to other areas. With the greater number of people smoking in there now that they aren’t supposed to smoke on the balconies it means some smoke escapes into Ocean Plaza on one end and part of the hallway by the shops on the other.

We had a balcony room on the ocean crossing and never could use the balcony due to other people’s smoke. Carnival has tried to do the right thing by making balconies non-smoking, but they need to give the smokers an enclosed lounge of their own where they can keep the smoke to themselves rather than allowing it in the casino where their smoke drives away other passengers who might otherwise use it.

fun on Carnival Breeze

orange drainpipe and yellow twister slides at the waterpark

The waterpark on the Breeze is a good one. It has two slides, the twister and the drainpipe. I liked the twister better, John liked the drainpipe. It also has a lot of water features in the splash park which besides giving people a place to splash and play they also keep the area at the slide exits and stairways up to the slides through the waterpark wet which means not having to walk on hot decks in bare feet on the way up to the slide.  There is a dry way up for those who want to go up the deck stairs, but the wet way is much kinder to bare feet.

if it ain't broke, don't fix it

the old FunTimes was bigger and more informative than the new version

The Breeze is trying out a couple of Carnival’s new ideas. They have the American Table menu in the Main Dining Room. It gets a lot of complaints on facebook, but we liked it just fine. Some of the complainers sound uninformed enough to have never actually tried it. They also have the new format for the FunTimes, which we did not like at all. It is a lot smaller than the old one. It doesn’t have as much useful information and what it does have is hard to find and all crammed together in microscopic writing. Of course some people have gone all electronic and don’t use the paper copy at all any more, but there are still plenty of people using the paper version. Its one redeeming feature is less paper used so less waste generated.

cruise ship stateroom

TV’s in the stateroom have multiple uses

The stateroom TV’s have a lot of useful options. Besides watching TV on them you can do things like see the menus for the whole cruise, check your sail and sign account, buy shore excursions, see where the ship is, or check out the bow cam view. It also has the dining room dress codes which is a good thing because they are no longer published daily in the FunTimes like they were in the old version. On the Breeze the bow cam channel is still a full screen view of just what the bow cam sees which is really nice, especially for those in an interior room who want to use it like a window. Some other ships now show just a small bow cam view and all sorts of stats which is informative, but useless as an electronic window.

keeping fit on a ship

outdoor fitness equipment station by the track

There is always something to do on the Breeze, whether it is relaxing in a hot tub or on a deck chair, trying to work off all the cruise food at the gym or on the outdoor walking track and fitness equipment, participating in games or activities, watching shows or movies, or just watching the ocean go by. Spa appointments are available for all sorts of different massages or treatments. Of course eating is always an option. Besides all the different options for meals three times a day, Pizza and ice cream are available 24 hours and free popcorn is ready at the start of the evening’s outdoor movies.

you never really want to need to use this

Carnival Breeze Life Ring

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2015
Posted in Breeze, Carnival, Shipboard Life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments