Cruise Stories

Cave Tubing in Belize

Posted on January 7, 2012 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Cave Tubing in Belize

This is no cruise ship tour. And I mean that in a good way. We really wanted to try the cave tubing in Belize. Riding an inner tube down a river through a cave sounded like lots of fun. We first discovered this adventure in the list of Carnival’s shore excursions for Belize. Looking online for reviews, I discovered a variety of outside companies also provided that tour. The reviews ranged from use an outside company for a longer ride at half the price to don’t go with an outside company because you might miss the boat.

We definitely did not want to miss the boat and have to provide our own transportation to the next port. We eliminated any company with a complaint of guests missing their boat from consideration. We deliberated for awhile if we wanted to take the risk of booking with an outside company for what sounded like a better, cheaper tour. After much researching online, checking websites, reading reviews, that sort of thing, we settled on booking our excursion with cavetubing.com. In fact, since their price was actually slightly less than half the price through the ship, we added the zip line for a combo tour and still paid less than the ship’s price for the cave tubing alone.

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Finally the day came, our second port day for this cruise. We badly needed to catch the first tender, and not having the priority of a ship’s tour, we went to the lounge to get our tender tickets half an hour before the scheduled time for it to open, fully expecting to sit out in the hall behind a locked door. Through wide open doors, we found only a couple other people in the room. When it got to about 20 or so the cruise ship people said they would give us all our tickets before anyone else got there. Everyone rushed to the table, I managed to push my way into third, and since we were the second ones there (and the first ones made it to the table first) I did not feel one bit badly about crowding past people who got there after I did.

crossing the river

We sat happily with our Tender 1 stickers as the room filled. And filled. Turns out the government of Belize picked that day to delay clearing the ship by an hour. No idea what for, but the longer they keep the passengers out of port the more money their citizens lose. Finally the ship cleared and they called up tenders 1-6. All at once, no sort of order. So we felt a bit miffed that some of the people who strolled in long after us ended up well ahead in line. We all got on the same boat though. One other tender left before ours, probably full of passengers on shore excursions purchased through the ship since they get priority.

hiking through the jungle with tubes

Once the boat landed, we hurried down the pier through the terminal specified on our instructions to the street on the other side and found the guy from cavetubing.com holding up their sign with my name and many others on it. They showed us to their bus where we found seats. People with tender sticker numbers as high as 4 joined us, so had they not put us all on one boat we’d have been waiting on the other side for the slow people who didn’t follow the instructions to get on the first tender.

Chris, me, and Liza starting our cave tubing adventure

They took us for a short bus tour through town, driving past the fancy rich houses by the beach and the not so fancy houses on the other side of town. Our hilarious guide, Speedo, kept us entertained the whole way with his lively talk. As we passed the phone company (their one and only choice for phone service) he said its initials of TAL stood for Try Again Later. Gas, he said, cost about twice what we pay in the USA, so everyone drives a BMW. Which stands for Better Me Walk.

Once we reached the highway toward the caves, he announced party time. And he meant it. After offering free bottles of water if anyone would like them, one of the other guides brought out a jug of punch, followed by another guide with a bottle of cashew wine. Big cups for the punch, little for the wine, both for anyone desiring both. My son, Chris, took both and when I just said punch got a wine cup for me as well saying we’d find a use for it. I normally don’t drink alcohol, but drank the punch anyway even though it tasted a bit spiked.

heading toward the mouth of the cave

What the heck, I had a cup of spiked punch last year on an Alaskan cruise, a drink once a year probably doesn’t hurt. Took a taste of the wine too, which I thought had a bit of a nutty taste, better than most wines. I never did like wine even before I stopped drinking any alcohol many years ago. (And no, I was never an alcoholic, just didn’t have any reason to drink.) After everyone had a taste, the guides awarded the rest of the bottle to the person most vocal about wanting it. He stood right up and guzzled the whole thing. I’d be willing to bet the people on the official cruise ship tour did not get any offers of free alcohol on their way to the jungle.

Once we arrived, they took all the people who had the zip line as well as the cave tour in the first group, and those just doing the cave tube in the second after a very brief option for a pit stop or clothing change. The hike to the river comes after the clothing change, so for anyone considering this excursion there’s no need to bring most of the things you think you want because you won’t have access to them until you get back to the bus anyway.

Wearing a swimsuit underneath fast-drying shorts along with good walking shoes you don’t mind getting wet works best. Those who don’t mind the exposure could go without the shorts. There’s not much time between the cave tubing and zip line, but a shirt or something left on the driver’s seat can be grabbed quickly if needed. Anything else stays on your own seat on the bus for later. We had a backpack full of towels and things that we never used. By the time we got back from the zip line we had already dried. It’s possible the group who just did the cave tubing used theirs, but no-one from our group did. We never used the passports or credit card we had stashed in the backpack either, but those things need to come along because if you ever did miss the boat you would definitely need them to get to the next port.

guide pushing a string of cave tubers

For those without water-proof cameras, they passed out ziplock bags. A small booth in the parking lot offered disposable water proof cameras for sale, but anyone stopping to buy one would not have time to visit the bathroom or changing room as there was time enough only for one thing.

Once everyone in our group had an innertube (with life jacket attached) and a head light (as in a light on straps that you put on your head so you can actually see something in the cave) we set off down the trail carrying our tubes. They offered helmets if anyone wanted them, but nobody did. They said the official cruise ship tour requires everyone to wear the helmets, but depending on river conditions they make them optional when they can, something we all appreciated.

First we crossed the river where a rope stretched from one side to the other all the way across. Little minnows swam around our feet. Then we walked down the trail a bit and crossed the river again. Busy taking pictures, I had not noticed my tube rotated a bit so that the corner of the life jacket got a bit wet. I put that back to the top again, but by the next river crossing it had migrated to the bottom and got wetter still. Luckily, since the water was low they did not make us wear them if we knew how to swim, although I did not know that until we got to the starting point of the float.

rock formation in cave

Liza did not have good walking shoes, so she had a bit of trouble and one of the guides carried her tube for her. Another saw me taking photos and said he’d carry mine to make the picture-taking easier. A bit farther down the trail when I offered to carry Chris’ so he could get some good pictures the guide said no problem, he’d take that one as well. Once we got to the starting point, different groups hitched up together, feet under the person ahead of you’s arms. Chris, Liza, and I had our own little group with a guide just for us, although the three sections of our group stayed more or less together through the caves.

our cave tubing guide

“This cave has bats,” said the guide, “so keep your mouth shut if you look up.” We saw a few hanging upside down and Chris saw one flying around. Nobody actually got guanoed that I know of though. The cave had lots of interesting rock formations and some crystals. A couple really pretty spots had light-filled openings big enough for some plants to add a bright touch of green to the view. While we lazily floated on our tubes, the guides worked hard steering them through the cave, often calling “butts up” in places where shallow water or tall rocks posed a threat to low-hanging derrieres. The guides had little black inner tubes, but mostly seemed to walk or swim, each bringing along their column of bright yellow tourist-filled tubes.

other tubers leaving the water near cave exit

Just past the exit from the cave, we saw people from other groups leaving the water. “That’s were the people who booked through the ship get out,” the guide said. We floated quite a way downriver from there before we had to get out. When we came near the exit point, the guide let us float freely on our own to the end. We floated on down back to where we first crossed the river at the place with the rope across the stream. Most people used it for an aid in that first river crossing. I decided to let my tube float to the rope, which I could then use to pull myself to shore. He did say not to go past it, but not that we couldn’t go to it. Easy way to get to shore I thought, no paddling required, just grab the rope and go hand over hand until the tube touches bottom. Worked great.

me free floating back to the beginning of the trail

We had a wonderful time. I totally recommend cavetubing.com. In spite of the late start, they got us back to the dock with about 45 minutes to spare before the last tender. They kept us all entertained from the time we stepped on the bus for the first time until the time they let us off safely back at the pier. We all loved both the cave tubing and the zip line as well as the free tamale for lunch. This was definitely one of the highlights of our Carnival cruise.

Posted in Caribbean, Carnival, Liberty, Shore Excursions | Tagged Belize, cave, cave tubing, cruise, fun, inner tubing, photos, river float, travel, vacation | 5 Comments

Belize

Posted on December 31, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Tender port in Belize City

Nestled between Mexico and Guatemala along the coast of the Caribbean Sea, Belize enjoys temperatures ranging from 66-88 degrees Fahrenheit. As the only English-speaking nation in central America, Belize makes a great port stop for ships from the USA. Though they have their own Belize dollars, they happily accept American dollars from tourists.

Inside the cave tubing cave

Belize has many attractions including the unique cave tubing experience, Mayan ruins, jungle adventures including zip lines, diving and snorkeling on the second longest barrier reef in the world, and historical sites such as St. John’s Cathedral in Belize city, the oldest Anglican church in Central America. This church dates back to 1812, built from bricks brought as ballast on European ships. The former governor’s house built in 1814 now houses a museum.

Belize jungle canopy over the river

Costal areas of Belize have islands, mangrove swamps and cays. Much of the inland area remains heavily forested with hardwood jungles and home to numerous species of birds and many varieties of wild orchids.

Once the capitol, Belize City sustained severe damage in a hurricane in 1961. The capitol moved inland to the new city of Belmopan, but Belize City remains the largest city in a small country. Many people in the lowland area build their houses on stilts to protect them from flooding during hurricanes.

While on the bus on our way to our cave tubing and zip line, the guide pointed out things such as a sports field donated by an American Olympic athlete with Belizian roots, and a hospital donated by and named after a German. He assured us we did not want to end up at that hospital. He also said they had a bridge paid for by China and one from Canada (I think, might have been somewhere else.) He said they’re still waiting for one from America, but I’m guessing they’ll have a long wait on that.

Formerly known as British Honduras, Belize gained independence from Britain in 1964, although it did not change the name to Belize until 1973. British soldiers still remain, mostly to prevent trouble from Guatemala, which did not recognize Belize as a country until 1991 and still would like to claim ownership of some of Belize’s land.

Belize Jungle

The colorful history of the New Hampshire sized patch of ground now called Belize includes early occupation by the Caribs and Arawaks who inhabited much of the Caribbean long before the Spaniards came. Mayans spread to Belize from Mexico’s nearby Yucatan Peninsula and flourished in the area until the arrival of the Spaniards many centuries later.

Europeans were drawn to the area in the late 1600’s, attracted by mahogany and other woods growing in the area. Over time English settlements arose and following a war with Spain, Britain won the right to claim the territory, which eventually became an official British colony. Pirates played a roll too, its shores after all are on the Caribbean.

In most tender ports the cruise ships anchor fairly close to shore, but in Belize they stay quite a distance from land. Perhaps they can’t get any closer because of the world’s second longest coral reef. The Carnival Liberty arrived at the scheduled time, but the Belizean government officials took about an hour to clear the ship, so departures on the tenders got quite a delay. Not everyone can get off the ship at once in a tender port. Each boat has a limit to how many people it can hold. People on shore excursions board according to their scheduled departure times. People without excursions go to a lounge where they get stickers indicating when they will be allowed to board a tender on a first come first served basis.

tender approaching Carnival Liberty

We sat in the lounge sporting our tender #1 stickers for quite some time anxiously awaiting our planned cave tubing and zip line adventure.

In most tender ports, even water based excursions require a tender trip to shore to catch the boat. In Belize though, that would require a trip to shore followed by passing the ship on the way back out. They allow boats from their official shore excursions to pick people up right at the ship. They also had to wait for clearance to leave though. When we finally boarded our tender we saw John at the other door getting on the fishing boat for his reef fishing excursion. People who did not have plans in Belize don’t seem to find much to see within walking distance of the tender pier. When visiting Belize on a cruise ship, make sure to schedule some sort of excursion. It was my favorite port of the whole trip with the unique cave tubing experience and zip line adventure.

With the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef extending from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and Cozumel past Belize and on to the Bay Islands of Honduras, diving and snorkeling make excellent options. Other excursions include Mayan ruins, jungle or city tours, horseback riding, kayaking, cave exploration and beaches on a private island.

nut pod on cohune palm

Normally a cruise ship leaves port on the dot of the scheduled time. Time to leave Belize came and went, and still the ship sat at anchor. Finally, nearly an hour past departure time a very full tender arrived from shore. People must have had an all-day excursion that did not finish on time due to the late start. That is an enormous advantage of scheduling excursions through the ship because the one thing they wait for is people on an official cruise ship excursion. I’d imagine that whole boatload of people felt quite grateful for booking through the ship.

our guide called this a monkey no climb tree because of the spikes

Posted in Caribbean, Carnival, Liberty, Ports of Call | Tagged Belize, Caribbean, Central America, cruise, photos, tender ports, travel, trees | 1 Comment

The Amazing Rollable Gluten-Free Pie Crust

Posted on December 24, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

apple tart alamode

Merry Christmas everyone. This pie dough recipe took a long time and a lot of experimentation to get it right. It is my Christmas gift to all my gluten free readers, and to anyone else baking for gluten free friends or relatives. For other gluten free recipe ideas, try the coconut-lime muffins, chocolate melting cake, brownies, or pavlova.

Last Thanksgiving my sisters, who both have gluten-free diets, whined about the lack of a good gluten-free pie crust recipe for their Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.

“We can make a gluten-free crust,” they said, “but we have to pat it in the pan like you would a graham cracker crust. If we try to roll it it falls apart.”

Not being on a gluten-free diet myself, I hadn’t really given it much thought since then until I started experimenting around with other recipes for my blog. If I can’t find the recipe I want, I invent it, and for gluten-free recipes the trick was in learning a couple of key ingredients.

The problem with gluten-free baking is that gluten is the substance that binds flour together so the things you make hold up. Pie crusts made with wheat flour roll out in one piece and breads don’t dry up within a day or two after making them (or in the case of store bought bread, opening the package.) Gluten-free baked goods on the other hand seem to have a tendency toward being dry and crumbly.

I learned of two key ingredients that replace the gluten in gluten-free baking so things will hold together. With my coconut lime muffins I found a way to make baked goods that don’t go bad the next day. One key ingredient, xanthan gum, I learned from a friend from work who bakes his own gluten-free bread. The other I learned on a Holland America Caribbean cruise on the Westerdam.

Westerdam Cooking Demonstration

The Westerdam had daily cooking demonstrations. My husband probably attended all of them, but the ship had so many other things to do (like computer classes) that I only made it to one. There a large Austrian chef showed us all how to make a traditional apple strudel from his home country. Not a sugary breakfast strudel, but something they would eat for dinner. The dough was similar to pie dough, and he said one of the most important strudel preparations included stretching the dough ever thinner without making any holes in it. The key to that he said is to add some vinegar to the dough.

I noticed my friend’s gluten-free bread recipe also listed vinegar as an ingredient, and the gears in my brain began to turn. I tried adding both to my gluten free coconut lime muffins and they turned out wonderful. Next step: pie dough.

The first batch I tried I used shortening and just a little vinegar. It rolled out fairly well, but was a bit on the delicate side. The taste would work for pie where you have a much larger ratio of filling to the amount of crust, but I had just made small tarts, and the taste of the shortening came through a bit too much for those. For lactose intolerant folks who need to eat dairy free and are also on gluten-free diets, it would work, but for better flavor anyone who can eat it would do better sticking with butter.

The second batch I doubled the vinegar from what I tried the first time and used butter instead of shortening. Again I made small tarts and the crust not only rolled out much easier, it also tasted great. This one would easily roll big enough for a pie. I use Bob’s Red Mill gluten free all-purpose baking flour because it is a variety of flours all in one bag, and gluten-free baking works best with a mixture of flours rather than all one kind.

I tried making a full sized pie, and found that while it rolled out fine and tasted good, a fork would not go through it. The only way to eat the pie was to pick the piece up and bite it. I went through several more versions of dough, finding each one to either not taste good, not roll well, or be either too tough or so soft it fell apart. I tried different flours in different proportions and adjusted the amounts of butter, vinegar, and xanthan gum making all sorts of different pies and quiches along the way. Thanksgiving came and went and I noticed my sisters again had a pie with the crust patted into the pan.

rolled dough

Just after Thanksgiving, I made a pumpkin pie with yet another version of my gluten free pie crust. This time it turned out right. At least I thought so. Wanting some other opinions, I took some to work and shared with a couple co-workers. The one on a gluten free diet asked for the recipe. The one not on a gluten free diet said she would not have known it wasn’t a regular pie crust if I hadn’t said it was gluten free. Even my husband, who had grown wary of my experiments and avoided the pie until the very last piece liked it. Those on dairy free diets can still substitute shortening for the butter, but it tastes better with butter so use it if you can.

Pie Dough

This recipe is for a one crust pie. Double it for a 2 crust pie.

xanthan gum

1/3 cup Bob’s gluten free all purpose baking flour

2/3 cup Bob’s sweet white sorghum flour

1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vinegar

3-4 Tablespoons water

Mix flour with salt and xanthan gum in a bowl. Cut in the butter until dough is crumbly. Use a pastry blender if you have one. A fork works fine if you don’t. Stir in the vinegar, then add the water a little at a time, stirring after each addition until all the flour is moistened and it reaches the consistency of normal pie dough. Roll out on waxed paper with a generous amount of Bob’s gluten free all purpose flour (not the sorghum flour) top and bottom to prevent sticking. Use a couple pieces of overlapping waxed paper to make sure none of the crust runs over the edge. Add more flour as needed to insure the crust does not stick to the waxed paper. Place pie pan upside down over dough and flip over, easing dough gently into pan and then carefully remove wax paper. This dough is a bit more delicate than regular pie dough, so handle it with care and be sure to use plenty of the all-purpose flour to keep it from sticking to either the wax paper or the rolling pin.

apple tart topped with whipped cream

apple tart filling

Gluten-Free Apple Tarts

Apple Filling

The filling shrinks down considerably when it cooks, so make sure to pile it up really high in the tart. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Bob's gluten-free all purpose baking flour

Gluten Free Flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 Tablespoon Bob’s gluten free all purpose baking flour

3 – 4 apples

Stir everything except the apple together in a bowl. Peel the apple, slice into quarters, and slice out the core. Chop apple into medium size pieces. Put apple bits into bowl of other ingredients and stir until well coated. Makes 3 tarts. (Use 1 crust recipe for pie dough.)

dough ball generously floured & ready to roll

Divide crust into 6 portions, roll 3 for bottoms of tarts

onto waxed paper as directed in pie crust recipe. Fill each with 1/3 of apple filling. Roll 3 remaining portions for tops. Seal and flute edges and poke a few holes in top crust for steam to escape.

topped and folded

Place bowls on cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes or until tops appear golden brown.

ready to eat

If you pre-heat the oven to 425 and then turn it to 400 just before you put the tarts in it makes up for the heat loss of opening the oven to put them in.

Eat as is, or top with ice cream or whipped cream.

Shrimp and Spinach Quiche

6 eggs slightly beaten

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup milk

1 cup frozen chopped spinach

2 tablespoons chopped onion

3/4 cup shredded cheese

1/2 cup small shrimp, cooked, peeled & de-veined

Paprika

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Blend pepper, sour cream, and milk into slightly beaten eggs. Stir in spinach and onion. Sprinkle cheese onto prepared crust in pie pan, coating bottom. Dot shrimp around on top of cheese. Pour egg mixture over shrimp. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake 15 minutes, then turn temperature down to 350 degrees and bake 40 minutes more or until center of quiche sets firmly.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2011

Posted in recipes, Westerdam | Tagged apple tarts, gluten free, gluten free baking, gluten free pie crust, pie crust, quiche, recipe | 6 Comments

Folding Carnival Cruise’s Easy Towel Seal

Posted on December 17, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

towel seal

Ever since I posted How to Fold Cruise Ship Towel Animals, it has got more hits than any other blog I’ve ever written. Every day, every week I find that one at the top of the list of blog hits. So I know I am not the only one who likes towel animals. Looks like lots of people would like to make their own. When I took my last Carnival Cruise, I had a plan. Bring lots of cash to bribe, I mean tip, the cabin boy (whom I found out is actually called a Stateroom Steward) to make towel animals while we are in the room so we can take photos and videos for blogs.

We had a great steward, who some days would not even take the tip. I wanted to pay him though because I knew he had lots of other rooms to clean and he went above and beyond the call of duty to come back to our room and re-fold the animal every day for my blog photos. I also learned from this that flashes from a still camera disrupt the video footage, but we did not watch any of them until we got home. Sorry for the jumpy bits, but it still shows how to fold the animal.

He’s really fast so you might have to watch it a few times to get everything, even on this easy seal.

fold towel crosswise

First fold the towel in half, crosswise.

fold crosswise again

Fold the towel crosswise again. Flip it over so the open end is towards you, on the top, as in the picture below where he folds the corners over and the open bit ends up on the long bottom side of the triangle.

fold corners down into two triangles with the centers turned up a bit

Fold the corners down to the center like two triangles. Turn up the inside edges of your two triangles just a little bit. Fold the the two triangles together with the turned up bits sticking out just a little.

stand seal up and shape upper body and head

Stand towel up with smallest point at the top and the longer points of the triangles sticking out to either side like seal flippers. Bend top part back and shape into upraised seal chest and head. Add eyes to finish the seal.

finished seal

even the towel animals have fun on Carnival

This is the first blog in a series on how to fold individual towel animals. The second is the rabbit. Also up now: frog, gorilla, monkey, pig, crab, snakes, elephant, cake and more. Watch for new animals over the coming months. Future animals will include a better towel seal, cat, dog, elephant, stingray, and more. If you don’t want to miss the rest, there’s plenty of ways to make sure you find this blog again. You can follow it on twitter or networked blogs, “like” My Cruise Stories facebook page, or get an email subscription and have new posts delivered right to your inbox.

Posted in Liberty, Towel Animals | Tagged cruise ship towel animals, folding towel seal, towel animals, towel folding, towel seal | 4 Comments

How to Find Free Jewelry on a Cruise

Posted on December 10, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Carnival Liberty

Ahh, shopping. People love to shop, and cruise ships love people who go shopping. So its win-win for everyone. Cruise ships have their own duty-free shops, with various items on sale at really good discounts throughout the cruise. You can get some excellent deals on some of the stuff there, but probably won’t get anything for free on board. So where do you get the free stuff?

free necklaces

Start with the handouts you get as you exit the ship at any given port. Often they have something free to offer if you go to the store mentioned on the ad. Of course they will try to sell you something as soon as you set foot in their store, but just say no and they give you the free stuff anyway. Anyone can get those with just the slight effort of finding that shop, which is not hard to do as you probably got a port shopping map delivered to your stateroom the night before. Odds are that is just one thing though, where to get more?

Enter the official port shopping guide. Most cruise ships seem to have one. The port shopping expert will give a variety of lectures throughout the cruise. Their job is to promote those stores that affiliate themselves with the cruise lines, but in between their shameless promotion of said shops they do have some useful tidbits of information. You might learn about new products, such as clothing and other items that change colors in sunlight or are made of interesting materials such as bamboo. They will also tell you where to find these and many other things.

Jewelry though is normally the main focus of the port shopping talks. In fact some are just specifically talks about jewelry. You can learn all sorts of interesting things at these lectures. Some will tell you how the value of specific stones is determined, complete with handouts explaining all the details. You might get some useful tidbits of information such as the human eye can’t tell the difference between a 1 carat stone and one of say .85 carats, but the price goes way up when you hit that full carat so you can save a lot of money buying the .85 carat stone and still have the same look.

Tanzanite case in ship's jewelry shop

You also might learn about stones you may not have known existed had you not gone on a cruise. Alexandrite is an interesting stone that changes from red to green depending on if it is daylight or night. Tanzanite is the biggie of cruise shopping though. This violet or blue stone comes from only one mine in Tanzania (hence the name tanzanite.) Once there were three mines, but only one has any tanzanite left.

tanzanite & diamond necklace with tanzanite earrings

They are not kidding when they say the tanzanite rapidly increases in value. Just in the few years since I first learned of it at the port shopping talks on a Norwegian cruise it has gone way up. Bracelets that sold for about $500 at that time now sell for nearly $2000. The biggest lesson I learned from that is if you find something you want made from tanzanite, buy it when you see it because if you decide to think about getting it later it will cost a whole lot more.

free tanzanite earrings for attending jewelry lecture

To entice people to come to the jewelry/port shopping lectures, there is often the offer of something free. Which usually turns out to be some sort of card that you take to a store in port to retrieve said free item (where they can try to sell you something else). Again, as long as you just say no to buying more things, you can get that free item and walk out of the store without spending any money. Sometimes you can get additional cards for collecting even more free things by visiting the port shopper at their desk at a specified time. Just by attending a couple lectures and visiting a few of the shops offering free items at a couple ports, I got quite a collection of free things on my recent Carnival Caribbean cruise. If someone made the effort to go to all of the talks and all of the shops offering free things, they would have considerably more. Of course you do get nicer things if you actually buy stuff, and they do have some really good deals. Jewelry and liquor tend to have really good prices both on board and in port, due to their duty-free status as well as lower overhead costs.

Jewelry booth in St. Thomas

Some ports also have local handcrafted jewelry, which is often inexpensive as well as pretty. You can find things there made of stones you wouldn’t find anywhere else. In St. Thomas we found Larimar jewelry at a booth in a local market. Larimar is a blue stone from Dominica found in jewelry around the Caribbean.

Buying on board or from the cruise ship approved stores means you get a guarantee backed by the ship on whatever you purchase, so in the case of jewelry you know you get the real thing. You can often find lower prices in other random stores though, so if cost is more important to you than the guarantee they are good places to look.

Free Jewelry

Without making any real effort on my last cruise I collected three necklaces, two additional pendants, a charm bracelet, and a pair of earrings from Carnival approved stores. The three necklaces came from the cards they give everyone as they leave the ship. The earrings, bracelet and crystal pendant I got through the one jewelry lecture and one port shopping lecture I attended. The pearl pendant came from one visit to the port shopping expert’s desk. If I had opted to purchase one charm for $5, additional charms for the bracelet could have been collected free at each port. I also got a loose stone which can be set into a ring or something from walking past a random jewelry store who used that to entice people to come in. If I had put any effort into it, I could have collected much more.

free pendants with chains from inch of silver sale

I had no problem finding chains for the loose pendants. The ship had inch of gold and inch of silver sales with chains starting as low as $1.00 per inch. They also sold clasps to add to the chains.

If you have a specific stone in mind to buy, do your research before the cruise. Check websites or stores for items similar to what you would like to buy. If you know what the price is at home, then you know when you find a good bargain. Value of stones such as tanzanite is determined by cut, color, clarity, and carat weight. A better cut stone reflects more light, giving it more sparkle. Clarity refers to flaws in the stone, a clear stone having more value. Deeper color also makes any particular tanzanite more valuable whether it is deeper blue or deeper violet. Carat weight of course refers to the size, obviously increasing in value as the stones get larger.

All tanzanite used to get set in gold, mostly white gold, but some in yellow gold. Now though with the prices of both gold and tanzanite escalating, some places have started setting it in silver to lower the cost of some jewelry. Diamonds enhance the sparkle of the tanzanite and are often found set around it, which increases the value (and cost) of any piece of jewelry containing them.

Posted in Carnival, Liberty, Randoms, Shipboard Life | Tagged cruise, free, free jewelry, jewelry, shopping | 5 Comments

Tulum Mayan Ruins

Posted on December 3, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Carnival Liberty in Cozumel

Shortly after the Carnival Liberty docked in Cozumel, we walked briskly down the dock toward the passenger ferry tied to the next pier. Everyone with excursions on the mainland boarded for a journey to varying destinations, ours the Mayan ruins of Tulum.

ferry to Playa del Carmen

Once on the mainland, we boarded the bus bound for Tulum while other passengers found the appropriate busses for their chosen excursions. On board our guide for the day, Angel, took up the microphone. He had all sorts of interesting things to say.

He started with the beginning of tourism’s popularity on the Yucatan Peninsula, an area where nobody spoke English. He was the result of a program intended to solve that problem. Growing up, he’d had a variety of English teachers sent to the area from the US to teach local children English so they could work in the growing tourism industry. From that he discovered that not all English speakers sound alike. His teachers over the years came from various regions of the US, and had a variety of accents. The same with French, those from Quebec sounding nothing like people from France. And Spanish of course sounds quite different spoken by someone from Spain rather than Mexico. Through it all though, he managed to learn to speak English quite well, along with French and the Mayan and Spanish he already spoke.

phonetic translation of Mayan characters to our alphabet

Mayan Alphabet

He had two Mayan grandmothers, and said that much knowledge the Mayans once had was only known through passing it verbally from one generation to the next. The early Mayans had a written language from which characters translate phonetically to match our letters. Spanish conquistadors in their determination to convert everyone to their religion destroyed anything they thought might have significance to a religion other than their own so much of what the Mayans wrote got destroyed.

obsidian turtles at gift shop

On the way to the ruins, the bus stopped at a Mayan crafts center where they hoped tourists would help support the local economy. Locals carved some of the items on display there from a type of black obsidian that looks gold in sunlight. Angel said upon first sighting Tulum, the Spaniards thought they had found the golden city of El Dorado. When night fell, all that gold turned into black rocks.

Mayan calendar

Mayan calendars in a variety of sizes lined a large section of wall at the store. We would find none at Tulum, Angel explained, because they made them of wood so the Spaniards had burned the ones originally there. The circular Mayan calendar has 13 months, as they used lunar months following the cycles of the moon. 360 days of the year are covered around the outside, one for each degree of a circle. The middle depicts a person carrying a heavy burden, signifying the remaining 5 days. Each successive year starts at the next equinox, ¼ of the distance farther around the circle than the previous one, accounting for the extra time we now put into leap year.

Angel said the big scare about Mayans predicting the end of the earth in 2012 is like another Y2K scare from people who know nothing about them. Just like our calendars end each year and start the new year with a fresh calendar, so is it the end of an era in their more complicated long count calendar system. Not the end of the planet, just time to reset the calendar. Often articles about the Mayans predicting the end of the earth are accompanied by a photo of a circular calendar with a sun in the center. Which is an Aztec calendar, not Mayan.

Mayan sized gate

When the bus reached the ruins, we had the option of walking to the entrance or taking a tram for a small fee. The walkers actually beat those on the tram, probably because of the time it took to buy tickets and load people on. After gathering the group together again, he led us down a path. We watched other people walk through a tall gate in the wall. “We’re not going in that way,” Angel said. Turns out that gate got rebuilt later by taller people. He took us farther down the path to a gate in the original height built by the Mayans, who stood somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 feet tall. Though tall himself, he said his Mayan grandmothers are both very short.

Once inside, Angel seemed quite eager to impart his knowledge onto our group. Besides the information passed through generations of Mayans, he had also done a college thesis on them, and possessed a wealth of information not found other places. Some of what he said about Tulum seems contrary to most internet sites have to say about it.

Mayan Pyramids are not crypts like those in Egypt, no old mummies lurk inside. Angel said that Tulum was more of a place of worship than a city. The scholars, thinkers and mathematicians lived inside of its walls, the farmers on the outside. Though the farmers had the wealth, they did not have calendars. The scholars told them when to plant and when to harvest.

Mayan ruins at Tulum

Mayans had very advanced mathematics, using a binary system similar to the computers of today. A 4-sided Mayan pyramid would have 91 steps on each side. Add that to the bit on top for 365, the amount of degrees in a full circle. The idea of the pyramids came from their numbers, which written form grow higher as the number grows larger. The Mayan symbols representing very large numbers resemble a pyramid.

Temple at Tulum

Everything in the layout of Tulum had a meaning to the Mayans. Temples ran east/west while living areas ran north/south. The large temple now called the castle is placed with an open area between each side of the main center pyramid and the part built on each side. One side frames the sun at the summer solstice and the other at the winter solstice.

Mayan Baby

When standing facing the temple, you see a smaller structure on the left side. This building depicts a baby at the moment of birth just over its door. I think that is what people refer to as the descending god, but Angel said that building and the placement of the carving over the door had meaning in the representation of a Mayan woman giving birth, and a baby coming out of the darkness into the light. Birth and death as well as the summer and winter solstice in the whole structure all tied into the cycle of life.

The number five had significance to the Mayans. Their weeks had 5 days, they divided their lives into 5 stages, and they lived to the average age of 35. During the five days at the center of their calendar the people gathered inside the walls of Tulum to fast and worship. Tulum had sewers, necessary for a gathering of that size.

big-nosed Mayan masks

Quite advanced in many ways, the Mayans also had plastic surgery. They considered big noses most attractive, and re-sculpted theirs to start high on the forehead rather than between the eyes where noses naturally begin.

beach view at Tulum with Temple of the Winds in the distance

The Temple of the Winds warned the Mayans when hurricanes approached. It still works. The winds of Roxanne whistled through its strategically placed holes in 1995 when the storm reached hurricane force.

When Angel finished his talk, we all had free time to explore the ruins on our own or go down to the beach for awhile before catching the bus back to the ship. For ruins, Tulum is in pretty good shape. In Mayan, tulum means wall, and though the wall is a rarity among Mayan ruins, odds are it was not the original name of the place.

Chris and Liza went for a swim. They wore their suits under their clothes, which anyone wanting to swim on this tour should do. I had assumed we’d have a place to change. Other than walking back out to the restrooms near the tram stop by the entrance to the ruins, which we really didn’t have time for, there wasn’t. John never wanted to swim and didn’t bring a suit.

We took some pictures of the ruins and then checked out the shops. I really wanted some sort of jewelry made from the black obsidian that looks gold in sunlight. Just like the first shop we stopped at, none of these had any. Lots of knick knacks out of the obsidian, and jewelry out of other things, but no obsidian jewelry. One guy tried to sell me a pendant for $30. I talked him down to $10 and said if it turned gold in the sun I’d buy it. Walking out into the sunlight in front of his shop it stayed quite black. It stayed at his shop.

fish Chris saw snorkeling at Tulum

Chris brought his mask and snorkel and found a few fish to photograph. Most of the people got back to the bus and we began to wonder if he and Liza would make it. We felt quite relieved when we saw them coming, but then they didn’t get on. Turned out they’d asked if they had time to grab a fish taco before boarding, and though last on they did make it.

This tour pretty much takes the whole time in port. Book through the cruise line because if you don’t get back on time the boat only waits for their official tours. The price on the ship’s tour includes bus and ferry transportation as well as admission to the ruins, and costs far less than some private tours.

Temple of the Frescoes

More Adventures in Cozumel: Atlantis Submarine, Cave Snorkel, Palancar Reef Snorkel, Playa Mia Beach Park

Posted in Caribbean, Carnival, Liberty, Mexico, Shore Excursions | Tagged 2012, mayan alphabet, Mayan calendar, Mayan ruins, obsidian, photos, travel, Tulum | 8 Comments

Cozumel, Mexico

Posted on November 26, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Carnival Liberty in Cozumel, Mexico

Just off the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula sits the island of Cozumel. The name comes from Mayan words meaning the land of swallows. At about 30 miles long and 9 miles wide, Cozumel is Mexico’s largest island. It has an average temperature of 80 degrees farenheit. Although a major tourist destination for divers, snorkelers, and cruise ship passengers, much of the island remains undeveloped. The island has some small Mayan ruins of its own, and sits close enough to Tulum and Coba to make day trips to those more impressive ruins possible. Tourists also enjoy Chankanaab National Park, whether diving on its sunken ship or visiting other attractions such as the gardens or wildlife sanctuary. Many enjoy swimming with the park’s dolphins, watching the sea lion show, or visiting the manatee exhibit.

Cruise ship passengers visiting the island have plenty of shore excursions to choose from. Cozumel has lots of opportunities to snorkel or dive, many of which include boat rides, beach time or swimming with stingrays. Horseback riding, parasailing, zip lines, or ATV’s offer more choices for island pastimes. Some guests prefer fishing, golfing, submarine rides or just shopping. Every cruise port has plenty of shops. Although the Mexican peso is the currency used there, most shops in or near cruise ship ports or where cruise ship excursions stop accept American dollars.

Cozumel belongs to the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. Most of the island’s population lives in the main town, San Miguel de Cozumel, on the western shore. The highest point on this flat limestone island peaks at less than 50 feet above sea level. Centuries of erosion from seawater created deep water-filled inland sinkholes called cenotes. The top layer is freshwater from rain, with saltwater underneath. Cenotes link a vast network of underground galleries and passageways containing breathtaking formations including stalagtites and stalagmites.

Early Spanish explorers passed smallpox on to Cozumel’s resident Mayans, devastating their population. They also destroyed the Mayan temples which had existed on the island, once a place where Mayan women made a pilgrimage to their fertility god. Later pirates used the island as a safe harbor. During World War II Cozumel’s largest Mayan ruins were razed to make a runway. The current island population includes descendants of people who fled to the island in the mid 1800’s to avoid the war of the castes between the Mayans and people of European descent on the mainland. People from both sides of the civil war escaped to Cozumel. Most were devout Catholics, still the predominant religion of the region.

cruise ship dock in Cozumel

Walking up the dock from the Carnival Liberty, we came to the typical cruise ship shopping port. We couldn’t stop to look at anything because we had to catch the ferry waiting on the smaller dock. Everyone with excursions on the mainland boarded the ferry. After the ferry docked at Playa del Carmen, each person found the appropriate bus for their excursion. We chose to visit the beachside Mayan ruins of Tulum. Other options included the Coba Mayan ruins in the jungle, and some cave tours that included either swimming through caves or a 4 x 4 jeep tour. We saw some videos of the cave swimming on the return trip on the ferry. It looked like a lot of fun.

Chris & Liza at the Cruise Ship Port in Cozumel Mexico

We had just a small amount of time to spend at the shops by the cruise ship dock after returning from our excursion to Tulum. Ship’s time isn’t always the same as shore time, so the wise cruise ship passenger keeps their watch on ship time so as not to miss the boat. Passengers who board without watches never fear, the gift shop on board has plenty of inexpensive watches. Just about any watch costs far less than cab fare or a plane ticket to the next port.

Most cruises end up leaving someone behind somewhere. People often tend to miss the boat in Cozumel. Mostly those who have one too many at the bar and are not so alert when the time comes to leave. People who speak neither English nor the language of the port are also at risk. So are people on tours booked outside of the cruiseline. We left three people behind in Cozumel and two in Puerto Rico.

What happens to those who miss the boat? Often just before the scheduled departure time, the names of missing passengers get announced in hopes they will check in. On Carnival, if they don’t, the next step is to try and help them out. People from the ship will check their room for their passport. The safe is the first place they look, because most people keep it there. They have an agent on the dock waiting for the missing passengers with their passport in hand (assuming that the person brought it to begin with and the staff found it.) The agent will help them make arrangements for transportation to the next port, at that person’s own expense. It’s nice to know Carnival looks out for their guests, but it’s a whole lot cheaper not to miss the boat.

John having fun in the cruise ship port

More blogs about Cozumel: Tulum Mayan Ruins, Atlantis Submarine, Cave Snorkel, Palancar Reef Snorkel, Playa Mia Beach Park

Posted in Caribbean, Carnival, Liberty, Mexico, Ports of Call | Tagged Caribbean, Carnival, Cozumel, cruise ship passengers left behind, cruise ship ports, Mexico | 2 Comments

Carnival Funships 2.0

Posted on November 20, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Overlooking the Lido Deck, Carnival Liberty

In 1972, Carnival bought its first ship, the Mardi Gras, which began life as a the Empress of Canada. With that one refurbished ship they had a dream of starting a new era of fun and affordable cruising for everyone. On its maiden voyage out of Miami it……well Miami has no ice bergs, but it went aground on a sand bar. This could have ended Carnival before it even got started, but the owner decided to throw a big party on the lido deck. As other ships left port, their passengers watched people on the Mardi Gras having the time of their life. The Funships were born!

Through the years Carnival grew from a one ship cruise line to the largest cruise line of all. Now, nearly 40 years later, Carnival has begun Funships 2.0 upgrades starting with the Liberty. Carnival has teemed up with well known brands and celebrities to bring branding and improvements to both the entertainment and the food. With new training for DJ’s and comedians, upgrades for the shows, and a multitude of new spaces, the 2.0 upgrades mean more fun for everyone. Liberty was the first of 14 ships to get the new upgrades. Over the next 5-10 years other ships will have their turn, and all new ships will have the upgrades as well.

NEW SPACES

Guy's Burger Joint

Guy’s Burger Joint

On the Lido deck near the pool we found one of the most popular new eateries. There’s always a crowd at Guy’s Burger Joint when its open. People love it. The menu offers several burger choices including chili burgers and one with a patty made entirely of bacon, but many people just order the “straight up” regular Guy’s Burger.

Guy Fieri, 2006 winner of The Next Food Network Star, created the menu and personally trained the cooks for Guy’s Burger Joint. Between Guy’s and the Red Frog Rum Bar sits a kiosk of burger toppings. Guy’s is one of many free eateries passengers on the Liberty have to choose from.

There are no drink stations in the outside eating area, so anyone wishing to eat near Guy’s might want to pick up their iced tea, lemonade, coffee or tea inside Emile’s buffet before venturing to Guy’s to order the burger.

As non-beef eaters, John and I expected Guy’s Burger Joint to offer some sort of chicken, turkey, or veggie burger. We felt a bit of a letdown seeing the menu had no such options. We did suggest to the Maitre D’ that they add a veggie and either chicken or turkey burger option. He said he would pass that information on to higher management, although they cannot change the menu without Guy’s approval.

John decided to make his own substitute one day. He picked up some chicken at the Blue Iguana, where the workers happily accommodated his request for meat only. At Guy’s though, he had to plead his case like a lawyer, backed by the rest of the people in line, just to get them to give him a bun with cheese and some fries. They tried to insist he had to take the meat even though they had a tray of buns with cheese sitting right there. The backs of their shirts say Have it Guy’s way, not your way, and apparently they mean it.

Chris does eat beef so he gave the Guy’s burger a try. “It’s a good burger, but not more spectacular than some others I’ve had. A bit too salty,” he said. Actually we found much of the food on the Lido deck too salty for our taste, but we use far less salt than the average person so other people may not agree. The judges on any competitive Food Network cooking show continuously complain about wanting more salt on food that already has way more salt on it than we would ever use. On some of the how to cook shows, people put more salt in one dish than I’d use in several months. So I’m guessing the average person would not find any of the food too salty for their taste.

Blue Iguana Cantina

Blue Iguana Cantina

The Blue Iguana also sits near the Lido pool, opposite Guy’s. There is no extra charge for any of the food places on the Liberty except Harry’s Steak House on deck 10, Starbucks, and the Jardin Cafe. Blue Iguana offers a choice of tacos or burritos. For the burrito, pick a tortilla, choose your meat and beans and start adding the extras like rice, cheese, lettuce, veggies and things. Top with salsa, sour cream, and/or guacamole. Portions look a bit small on each item as they dish it up, but perhaps that is so that the burrito still rolls up after they are all added instead of being too fat and overstuffed to roll. Once you add all your toppings, it is plenty full and big enough.

There’s often a short line for the burritos, tacos normally have no waiting. They serve 2 tacos with a choice of several meats. They don’t start out with much else, but there’s a whole salsa bar with additional toppings. We’ve suggested they add some chips to the salsa bar as well for people who would just like chips and salsa. The tacos are a bit messy to eat, but taste quite good. The Blue Iguana also serves breakfast. I tried their delicious breakfast burrito one morning.

As with Guy’s, pick up your free drinks first because the outside eating area has no drink stations unless you want to buy something from one of the bars. It does have swirls soft ice cream stations next to both Guy’s and the Blue Iguana though.

Blue Iguana Tequila Bar

Blue Iguana Tequila Bar

The Blue Iguana tequila bar sits next to the Blue Iguana cantina on the Lido deck. It opens later in the day than the Red Frog Rum Bar. The Blue Iguana hosts a Mexican Fiesta one night each cruise. The Blue Iguana cantina stays open for the fiesta, and Emile’s serves an upgraded Mexican buffet that day as well.

Red Frog Rum Bar

Red Frog Rum Bar

One of the new Funship 2.0 upgrades, the Red Frog Rum Bar, sits on the Lido deck, next to Guy’s Burger Joint and across the pool from the Blue Iguana Bar and Cantina. The Red Frog has some other alcohol besides rum, and has the ship’s own Thirsty Frog beer on tap. According to my son Chris, the beer connoisseur, thirsty frog is the best beer on the ship. The Red Frog opens at 8:00 am. The Red Frog hosts a Caribbean party each cruise. Musicians staged at each bar alternate playing times throughout the evenings.

Alchemy Bar

Alchemy Bar

Located on the promenade deck near the dance club and piano bar, the alchemy bar serves a host of interesting concoctions from its trained mixologists. Passengers sometimes have the option of creating their own potion to drink.

Hot & Cool Nightclub

Hot & Cool Night Club

The former disco got a makeover and reopened as the Hot and Cool nightclub. It has different sorts of music starting at different hours to give people of varying musical tastes a chance to dance to their preferred music. The music each night is tailored to the taste of the crowd in attendance within the scheduled theme. Passengers under 18 are not allowed during nightclub hours, but may have their own party scheduled there earlier in the day sometime during the cruise.

Punchliner Stage

Punchliner Comedy

Plans for the punchliner comedy club include having George Lopez train and mentor young comedians for the Punchliner Comedy show. It is currently open some nights, normally with a few time options for the 1/2 hour shows. Several different comedians come and go during the cruise. Some evenings offer family friendly shows early and most nights have late night adults only shows for passengers who enjoy a raunchier act. Photography is not allowed during the shows. Eventual plans include a comedy brunch.

Stage Shows

The Funships 2.0 upgrade also brings changes to the main stage shows in the Venetian Lounge. Carnival now flies comedians and other performers in and out mid cruise to upgrade the quality and increase the variety of their stage shows. We saw an excellent comedy juggling performance with spectacular tricks by Edge, He did some amazing stuff, but unfortunately photography is not allowed during any of the shows.

Serenity Adults Only Deck

Serenity

A quiet comfortable retreat for the adults on board, the serenity decks offer plush deck chairs, hot tubs, and cushioned hammocks behind a no-kids-allowed fence. Located on decks 12 and 14 (somehow they seem to have forgotten to include deck 13) these decks also offer quite an excellent view. Sitting in the hot tub, one can see over the top of the ship to whatever scenery the current location of the ship has to offer. People (including us) loved this space.

EA Sports Bar

EA Sports Bar

The EA Sports Bar is another new branded space. Watch whatever is current in the sporting world in comfort whether it is football, baseball, or even the world series of poker. This bar has the Thirsty Frog beer on tap.

Cherry on Top

Cherry On Top

This colorful shop sells everything from m&m’s to chocolate mice. It also has a small collection of sunscreen products and other non-food items. They can help celebrate special occasions with cabin decorating or party arrangements. Welcome aboard gifts or presents for other occasions can be ordered online pre-cruise. They also can send flowers or other gift items to passengers.

Behind the Scenes

Carnival’s 2.0 upgrades don’t stop with the new and remodeled spaces. More 2.0 upgrades happen behind the scenes as well. Starting from the very moment the guests step onboard the ship. Where a piano player or other musicians used to play set scores, now a DJ reacts to or with boarding guests. If a wedding party comes onboard, he can play wedding music. If guests come with musical requests, he can grant them. It’s not just random DJ’s. The new program includes training with DJ Irie of the Miami Heat.

Entertainment received upgrades as well. The production shows by the crew’s entertainment staff have new and better sets. Carnival is also making an effort to bring in higher quality entertainers for the nights in between the production shows. The entertainers used to stay on a ship for long periods of time, but now they may not even stay for an entire cruise, but rather fly out at a port stop and someone new comes in. This gives passengers more variety and access to quality acts by guest entertainers who don’t live on the ship for months at a time. It’s better for the entertainers as well since they can spend more time at home.

Coming Attractions

More planned improvements include teaming up with Haasbro for game show style contests the passengers can participate in and comedian training done personally by George Lopez.

Posted in Carnival, Cruise Food, Liberty, Shipboard Life | Tagged Carnival, Carnival Funships 2.0, cruise, cruise ships, fun, travel | 3 Comments

Carnival Cruises Chocolate Melting Cake

Posted on November 12, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Carnival Cruise’s Chocolate Melting Cake

Food is a huge part of every cruise ship experience. Of course, just about everyone loves dessert. People love some desserts more than others. Carnival has a dessert so popular random people talk about it on facebook. They love it, and can’t wait to cruise again to taste it one more time. Warm chocolate cake with the center all gooey and melty. Mmmm, what’s not to love? People like this dessert so much that instead of just appearing once on the dessert menu during a cruise, it has become Carnival’s signature dessert available as one of the dessert choices every night. Another great dessert from Carnival is the Bitter & Blanc Brioche Bread Pudding. I have a gluten-free version of the chocolate melting cake in a different blog.

I discovered the chocolate melting cake through conversations on Carnival’s facebook page. At the time I had awhile to go before my cruise when I could finally taste this marvel for myself.

Finally time came to embark on a Caribbean cruise on the Liberty. First night’s dinner I tried the chocolate melting cake. Warm and chocolaty with a not-quite set center that oozes chocolate. They must make thousands of them every week for another horde of hungry vacationers. I ordered it again another night, but that time the center was close to cooked through so it wasn’t as good. Lest any would-be melting cake makers try to overbake their melting cakes, don’t. Overcooking takes all the melty goodness away and it just becomes yet another ordinary chocolate cake. However, if you do accidentally overbake it, you can redeem them by poking a hole in the middle and filling it with hot fudge or other chocolate ice cream sauce.

I didn’t just try the cake, I got the recipe. For all the chocolate melting cake lovers, or those would like to become melting cake lovers, here it is:

Carnival Cruise Line’s Chocolate Melting Cake

7oz semi-sweet chocolate

7oz butter (1/2 cup + 6 1/2 tablespoons)

6 fresh eggs

3oz sugar (1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon)

4oz flour (1 cup)

Melt chocolate and butter. (I use a double boiler.) Mix half the eggs with all the sugar and whisk for a few minutes, then add flour. Add the rest of the eggs. Blend egg mixture with melted chocolate mixture. Pour into 8 ramekins cups. Bake at 200 degrees C (390 Degrees F) for 15 – 20 minutes. Do not overbake. Their given time is longer than it has ever taken any I’ve made. Cake is done when the outsides are cooked through and the middle remains somewhat gooey. If you look at them in the oven, it should look done around the edges with a darker shiny not-quite-done spot in the middle. The bigger the shiny spot, the more melty goodness in the center of your cake, so cook it until the shiny spot looks about the size you want the melty center to be. Although Carnival’s recipe does not mention dusting the top with a bit of powdered sugar, they do serve them that way. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Makes 8 servings.

I tried this recipe at home and baking them the 15 minutes at the low end of the range in Carnival’s recipe cooked them all the way through with no wonderful melty center. Baking 13 minutes they turned out pretty well. To test for the best baking time for your oven and the size of dish you are using you could try baking just one. Start with a fairly low baking time like 7 or 8 minutes. If the top has stopped looking too doughy at that time, take it out and see what the center looks like. If the top still looks too doughy give it another minute or two. When you find the right time for your preferred doneness then bake the rest. It can vary so be sure to check the tops for the dark spot in the center that tells you the outside is done, but the middle still gooey.

They are better underbaked than overbaked. Extra melty deliciousness in the center tastes much better than none, though it does need at least some cake part around the edge. They also taste great topped with whipped cream instead of ice cream. I even tried making them with half as much butter to cut down on fat and calories and they came out fine that way too.

You can make these ahead of time and then put them in the refrigerator until you want to bake them. They’ll even keep in there overnight so you can bake some one night and the rest the next if the recipe makes more than you want to eat at one time. You usually need to add a minute or two to the bake time with cold dough.

Carnival's chocolate melting cake recipe

Baked at home, 13 minutes

Posted in Carnival, Cruise Food, Liberty, recipes | Tagged baking, Carnival, Carnival Cruises Chocolate Melting Cake, Chocolate Melting Cake, recipe, special dessert | 11 Comments

Carnival Liberty – Before the Cruise

Posted on November 5, 2011 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Chris Photographing Destiny Leaving Miami from Balcony of Liberty

February, 2011: We’ve tried the late booking from a cheap site, so this time we went with the early booking from Carnival cruise line’s own site. Well actually through phone and email with cruise line personnel. Always looking for a new way to save money. We did look at Sky Auction, where we found our Holland America Caribbean cruise so cheap last year. This early, they did not have rooms so cheap, but they did offer room choice, which they had not on the cheap one. Without our media discount, Sky Auction would have been slightly less, but besides the room assistance for relatives, by booking directly through the cruise line we will be able to take advantage of any rate reductions that may come along between now and when the ship sails.

Looking at the Liberty’s deck plans, we saw a few rooms at either the bow or stern ends listed as the same class as those around them, but with either much larger balconies or slightly larger rooms and balconies. We tried to book one, but even this early they were already booked. Wow, must have to book as soon as the schedule comes out to get one of those.

This time we went with the 2 week option where you tie two one-week cruises together to make it two. Holland America calls that a collector’s voyage. I haven’t found a name for it at Carnival yet. Even though we will have to return to the starting port midway through, we felt this was our best option for this cruise as we can have other family members join us that may not want to cruise for the full 2 weeks. My son and his wife have already booked for the first week. Carnival was kind enough to give them the cabin across the hall, and to extend the media discount to them as well. We wanted the luxury of the veranda cabin this time.

We normally go cheap and book the inside room, but the one time we did have a veranda on a Holland America poker cruise to Mexico, we loved it. I spent a lot of time sitting out there with a good book. On our previous Carnival Mexico cruise with an inside cabin I found quiet nooks near windows for reading. Now I find if I have any spare time away from the multitude of activities the ship offers, the computer gets a lot more of it than books do.

April 2011: We got our tax return and paid off the cruise. Then all we have left is plane tickets and shore excursions. And maybe a hotel if we stay a night in Miami. I’ve looked at the shore excursions a bit. So many interesting sounding things to do including zip lines, pyramids, and snorkeling. I’m particularly intrigued by the cave tubing.

May 2011: When we took the cruise on the Spirit, I discovered their laundry rooms, which they call launderetts. I have not seen them on any other cruise line that I have sailed on so far. Since this is a 2-week cruise I would find a launderette quite handy as it costs a fortune to have the crew do laundry, so without it we would either need to pack a lot or hand wash things in our bathroom sink. I posted a question on Carnival’s facebook wall asking if anyone knew if the Liberty had the launderettes, and got replies back both from former passengers and Carnival staff stating that all of their ships have them. Good to know, now we can pack lighter.

June 2011: Still intrigued by the cave tubing, I did a little research. I posted a question on Carnival’s facebook page asking for info from people who had done that excursion. The comments ranged from it sucked to best excursion ever. They ran about half and half as to whether they loved it or found it somewhat OK. So I did some further research online and found there are multiple tour companies offering that tour. Again the comments varied from you save money and get more freedom and possibly a longer tour booking on your own, to book through the ship because tours in Belize have a reputation for returning guests to the ship late. Of course if you return late the ship does not wait, except for official tours booked through the ship. The cost of transportation to the next port would far exceed any difference in cost between booking through the ship and self-booking.

August 2011: John mentioned fishing in Belize, but the rest of us are still mulling over the cave tubing idea. A longer, better, cheaper ride sure sounds good, missing the boat doesn’t. Perhaps they have more than one tour per day, in which case if we booked the earliest one we might be OK. I guess I need to start on the registration process so I can get the exact schedule and see how long we stay in Belize.

Horses pretending to swim at Half Moon Cay

One comment in particular on one of the cave tubing reviews worried me. The person praised how the guides’ greatest concern was safety of the guests. So I wonder if they act as annoying as the horse guides and life guards at Half Moon Cay. “Safety” gone awry there pretty much ruined our day on our last cruise, except for the parasailing which had wonderful boat guys.

Parasailing by the Holland America Westerdam

Parasailing at Half Moon Cay

I did find out that the cave tubing tour involves a long bus ride and a hike through the forest to get to the river. The tubing part involves a relatively shallow stream, and part of the 45 minute or so tube ride takes place outside of the cave. The guests remain linked together throughout the ride as well. At least now if I choose this excursion I have some idea of what to expect. I’m going on this cruise with 3 other people so at least it will be a group decision.

July 2011: I keep seeing comments on Carnival’s facebook page about the chocolate melting cake served on Carnival ships. No indecision on this one, they all love it. Can’t wait to give it a try.

October 2011: Chris, Liza and I have pretty much decided to do the cave tubing, booked through an outside source. We might add a zip line to that as the combo tour there is less than just the cave tour through the ship and the website says that particular company always returns guests to the ship on time. The boat is also there pretty much all day so if we book an early tour we shouldn’t have a problem (I hope). I’ve never booked a tour through an outside source before, this should be interesting. John is still up in the air as to whether he wants to fish or come with us. The cave tubing excursion involves a hike through the jungle, and odds are we’ll do some walking at other ports too, so I am now equipped with new Merrill shoes. Everyone who has them says are the best.

merrell shoes

I found some interesting news on facebook recently. Carnival has big plans to upgrade many of their ships to what they call Funship 2.0. Liberty gets renovated first, and is in drydock now, so we will be among the first to experience the new upgrades.

I’ve pretty well finished with the online registration for the cruise now, and we have our flights booked. Now we just need to print out our cruise documents and luggage tags and book a hotel for the night before the cruise since we arrive in Miami the evening before the boat leaves. We’ve recently joined a condo travel club, which promises big savings on most travel needs, so we’ll get to test them out with our Miami hotel. We’ll get to stay in timeshares for less than the people who own them as well as discounts on hotels, camping, resorts, etc, and most importantly, CRUISES!!!

Not long now until our cruise. The Liberty launched today with all the new upgrades. I can’t wait to see them. I made reservations for the cave tubing in Belize with an outside company. Something new to try. They asked for a cash payment after the tour and said if it rains or something and we decide not to go we just don’t show up at the meeting point.

We’ve done the random tours that hover near where passengers disembark waiting for people with no plans before, but never actually booked something not through the cruiseline. We’ve also looked through shore excursion options at other ports and think that the ruins of Tulum at Cozumel look interesting.

Posted in Carnival, Liberty | Tagged Carnival, cruise planning, facebook, funship 2.0, Liberty | Leave a comment

Cruise Stories

Cave Tubing in Belize

Belize

The Amazing Rollable Gluten-Free Pie Crust

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2011

Folding Carnival Cruise’s Easy Towel Seal

How to Find Free Jewelry on a Cruise

Tulum Mayan Ruins

Cozumel, Mexico

Carnival Funships 2.0

Carnival Cruises Chocolate Melting Cake

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2011

Carnival Liberty – Before the Cruise

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