persimmondeb

Our last stop was Tortola. The shore excursion we had originally signed up for was cancelled since the beach they were taking us to was red-flagged. We signed up for another one, sightseeing and an open beach, and it was awesome. Our driver, "Skip", was wonderful. The roads were very steep with sharp drop-offs and at no time did we feel unsafe, and his commentary was interesting and had a lot of local and cultural information, rather than made-up colorful details. Even at the beach that wasn't red-flagged, the surf was frankly too rough for us, so we found an open-air bar attached to a hotel, and had some (very good) breakfast, enjoying the view and the breezes. We did a little shopping (no undershorts-and we had given up and surrendered to the need for laundry by then) and enjoyed the drive back to the ship. We walked around a little bit, bought some jewelry for my sister, and reboarded. The view as we left the port was great, and we saw quite a few other ships, including one of the Windstar's in the distance.

persimmondeb

The sail back to New York was pleasant, although the last two days back were rough again. So rough that I felt slightly queasy from it for the first time in my life. My father and I are both "very good sailors" in that sense, and we had not bothered with bands, patches, little tubes of dramamine, etc. I tried a little Coca-Cola in this instance, and then resorted to the old-fashioned remedy of a little brandy, which did work.

In conclusion, we had a great time, and we were both very glad we went. I like Carnival, and I was as happy with it this time as I was the last one. My father thought the food and service were excellent, but there were a number of things he did not like. He thought the ship was very gaudy, and the placement of restrooms left something to be desired. He also got stuck in a tubby little chair in the lobby, and had to have a couple of random strangers help me get him out. And those chairs do seem to be designed to eat the elderly; I had to join another rescue of someone else a couple of days later. He also thought the ship heavily promoted drinking and gambling, and decided to disapprove of that.

The thing he really disliked, however, and I did tell Carnival about it, because while it wouldn't drive me from the dining room, I don't like it either, wad "Showtime" at the evening meal. We would be in the middle of an excellent, and otherwise fairly civilized, dinner, and the maitre d' would announce it, the lights would flash, loud party music would come on, and the waitstaff would start to sing and dance among much napkin twirling. My dad really, really hated it. We were on "my time" dining and we tried to time meals to avoid it.

In conclusion, we enjoyed it, and although my father definitely prefers HAL, despite the food not being quite as much to his liking, he would take Carnival again if necessary (family trip, itinerary he really wanted).

jacketwatch

Carnival has dismissed its chief designer Joe Farkus who is know for those gaudy interiors. I hear that post Farkus ships are not this way anymore.

I suppose the dinner entertainment is part of their thing though other cruise lines we have been on do it as well albeit once during the cruise.

Thank you for posting your review.

Larry

Sally_Parker

I hate the dinner time entertainment by the wait staff. Unless you want the professional singers to wait on tables, then let the professional wait staff wait on tables and let the professional singers do the singing.

The heavy handed promotion on drinking also turned me off from Carnival, and that decore. Only cruise line with worst color combo is Norwegian.

The Food on Carnival has actually gotten a lot better. I think it is better than Celebrity, which is riding on past reputation at this point.


persimmondeb, thanks for the report and insight.

persimmondeb

And I'll start a new trip report for this round, but I'm just giving a heads up to anyone who enjoyed it that we're doing it again. We take the Pride out of Baltimore to Florida and the Bahamas.