Commentary – Cruising

We have long avoided the cruises out of Port Canaveral. We thought they were just excuses to get on a cruise ship and eat. You can do that if you want. However, there is so much else to do. Carnival did a great job of providing lots of activities (non food related) from morning into the night. We saw shows, played put-put, did the water park, left the ship, sat at the pool, and just had a great time! Port Canaveral is so close and easy we will be doing this again.

Ketchup Thieves

In the middle of our pizza fest, the ship’s crew started cleaning up. They were preparing for us to leave the next group of passengers to board tomorrow. While we were still sitting at the table, the crew took our Ketchup. Connor quickly went to another table and got a bottle. (We didn’t need it and were not using it, but why did they have to take it?) A few minutes later, someone else came up and took the Ketchup bottle. This was weird. Repeat get another and have it taken. After about four bottles, I finally asked for someone to get us a bottle of Ketchup. Victory! We got to keep this bottle for the rest of our time at the table. Later that night, while getting sodas, we asked for another bottle. They would not give us one. What do they do with the Ketchup?

Gluttony! One of the seven deadly sins.

It is easy to be gluttonous on a cruise ship. We tried to be good. We walked up and down all of the stairs. But by the last night on the ship, we were worn down. This is the start of a late night pizza fest. It was topped off at the end with a new invention, “ICE CREAM PIZZA”. Yum! Chocolate and strawberry ice cream on a piece of pizza, only a few of us were brave enough to try it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins#Gluttony_.28Latin.2C_gula.29

Craps!

Mary has never seen me play Craps. It is a lot of fun. While at Atlantis, I helped one of our friends learn how to play. He had a great time. He also did well at the table. It was a lot of fun to teach someone the game. It is really not as hard as it looks once you learn a few basic bets.

One night on the cruise ship, I was going to show Mary how to play. We walked up to the table expecting a normal pace game. Not tonight. The stick man was very fast. Within a minute or two, I was the shooter. The game was fast, the table was hot, and I rolled for about an hour. Everyone was cheering, there were high fives across the table, Mary was happy, and the stack of chips just kept growing. It was the best roll of my life. Mary is definitely my good luck charm! I will always want her near me.

Cruising with Friends

Another family went with us on the trip. We all had a blast. Cruising is more fun with more people.

The Slot Tournament

What? A slot tournament. How does that work? It is a fabulous exercise in stupidity. You pay to join the tournament, they configure the machines specially, get a group of people willing to do this, and start the tournament. They encourage people to “love” their machines by hugging and talking to them. There were six machines configured for the event. Six people at a time played over a two hour period. At the end of the two hours, the top 5 scores and one wild card player would play for the grand prize. When it was your turn to play, all you had to do was push a single button over and over again. There was absolutely no skill required. Just push a single button over and over again. I had to try this! It was a lot of fun. I was briefly in 5th place. Unfortunately, 5th place did not last long.

Soda Cards

On the cruise ship, you could purchase a soda card. This would let the holder of the card get unlimited sodas while on the cruise. The kids made sure to get the value out of their cards. This also allowed them to sit at the bar.

The Bahamas

This was our destination. We were going to meet up with some friends that live about 2 minutes from our house at Atlantis. They flew to the Bahamas, we took a cruise ship. Both families made it successfully and we had a great day at Atlantis. Atlantis is a full theme park by itself. The atmosphere is very Disney like with Atlantis controlling everything. There is a huge hotel, a massive water park, time shares, and shopping area. All of this is owned and controlled by Atlantis. We spent most of the afternoon in the lazy river. This river was NOT lazy. There were rapids, conveyor belts, and a wave pool in the river that would push you along in spurts.

Pool Deck

This is where we spent most of our time. The pool deck was great. There were always activities on the main stage. We saw ice carving and the men’s hairiest chest competition. In this picture, the hot tubs only have a few people in it. For most of the cruise, the hot tub had so many people in it there was not room for anyone else. We never did get in the hot tubs.

Carnival Sensation

This was a very cool cruise ship. There was so much to do. In the few days we were on the ship, we never got bored, were always busy, and still did not do everything we wanted to do. The ship actually has a water park and a put-put course. We did both and had a blast.

Spring Break 2009

We decided to do a mix this year for Spring Break. Half of the break was at home “chillin”. The other half of the break was a cruise out of Port Canaveral. We have lived in Melbourne, for 19 years and have never taken a cruise out of Port Canaveral. It is one of the busiest cruise ports in the world. We decided on a cruise aboard the Carnival Sensation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Canaveral