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(See part 1 for the beginning of our Christmas cruise adventure. One note: I failed to mention how much we all loved the conch fritters at Caroline’s in Key West. I’d never had them before but look forward to having them again.)

Our at-sea day on Boxing Day was uneventful; the boys spent much of the day hanging out in their various clubs, while I parked myself with a good book on the fantail in the “Serenity” adults-only area. There were a lot of noisy young adults there, but it was quite a bit more pleasant than the high-noise, high-traffic area around the pool on the Lido deck, plus the view from the stern of the ship was stunning. For our elegant dinner that night, we had lobster and alligator fritters,  both of which were very, very popular with all four of us.

I actually forgot to mention the high point of our first sea day. David and I signed up for the “Behind the Fun” tour, a $55, 3-hour tour of several “backstage” areas on the ship. The tour includes the ship’s laundry (staffed exclusively by Indonesians, as are all Carnival ships; there’s sort of an unofficial Indonesian mafia that finds jobs for family members, fellow villagers, etc.), the kitchen (which is huge, spotless, and busy), the engine control room (crewed by a chief engineer who perfectly fit the stereotype of a brusque, grease-stained technophile), and the ship’s bridge, where we got to meet the captain and a couple of other deck officers. The whole thing was fascinating; we learned a ton about the operations that take place behind the scenes and that helped us better appreciate the largely invisible efforts that the staff has to make to keep everything running smoothly.

On the 27th, we made port in Nassau, which is where we’d booked two major activities: a Segway beach tour and a visit with the Bahamian Ministry of Tourism’s “People to People” program. I’d read about both of these on CruiseCritic, and the four of us were all excited about them both. Sadly, the People-to-People meeting never materialized. I registered on 11 December and never heard anything back until the 20th or so; I immediately answered the email I got from them but never heard back. We met the van from  Bahamas Segway and Beach Experience promptly at 0930 and were richly entertained by Meeks, our driver, on the 15-minute van ride to the nature preserve. This is a bit of a grandiose term; it’s really a nearly 200-acre plot that was originally supposed to be a resort before ownership and tax disputes put the land into a title dispute from which it hasn’t recovered. In any event, the property is gorgeous, with a number of nature trails and a gorgeous area where we stopped to recharge the Segways and learn how to plait palm fronds (seriously! one of the other tour attendees was from Jamaica and taught all 3 boys how to do it.)

The four of us at the Segway beach area

The experience of riding the Segway itself was fantastic! My only complaint is that I was going too fast, hit a soft spot in the trail, overcorrected, and went flying– it is, in fact, possible to wreck a Segway. Fortunately the expensive Segway was undamaged; I wound up with a sore neck, a broken camera, and wounded pride, but nothing too serious. Despite that, the whole Segway experience was superb; the tour company did a great job, the weather could not have been nicer, and riding the Segway itself is a blast. I recommend this tour very, very highly.

People-to-People? Not so much. Despite all my efforts, I couldn’t get hold of an actual human until the morning of our arrival, and they had no record of our visit. The lady I spoke to was quite apologetic and tried really hard to find someone for us, but she didn’t succeed until nearly 1pm, when we were just sitting down to order lunch. With a requirement to be back aboard ship at 5pm, there was no way to make it work, which was really disappointing. Maybe next time.

We had lunch at the Fish Fry, a strip of restaurants right outside downtown Nassau. I don’t remember the name of the place where we ate, but the food– conch, shrimp, and grouper, all fried– was superb. After lunch, we walked the 1.5 miles or so back to the cruise ship pier, going past Junkanoo Beach. It was a beautiful walk along the water, as you can see from the two pictures below.

The view from Junkanoo Beach out towards the water

Another view, this one towards the cruise ship pier

Of course, these pics (and all the others from this point on) came from my iPhone, since my D40 wouldn’t admit that there was a lens connected to it. It is now on its way back to Nikon’s body and fender shop; if they can’t fix it for a reasonable cost I’ll pick up either a D3100 or a D5100.

On the 28th, we were due into Freeport at 0800. I woke up about 0735 and went forward but didn’t see land anywhere. What I did find was wind gusting 15-25 knots. Sure enough, the winds in Freeport were too high for us to safely dock, so we had another sea day instead. This was disappointing, as we’d booked a bottom-fishing expedition that promised barracuda, shark, and other fun sea life. However, we all had a good day playing Uno, drinking too much soda, and generally taking advantage of all the services aboard the ship.

Debarkation on the 29th was quite smooth. Our cabins were both on the Verandah deck inboard; we had V12 and V20, which were nicely appointed and very convenient to the observation area. Because we were first-time Carnival cruisers on a discount fare, we were assigned a debarkation number of 2 (out of 30 or so). This was great, since we wanted to get back to Pensacola, not linger on the ship like the long-time cruisers. After a delicious breakfast, they called our group and within 20 minutes we were out and waiting for the Avis shuttle van. The debarkation and customs process was flawless and quick.

Service and staffing, overall, were on a par with Disney and Princess. I thought that Princess had the best dining room staff and cabin stewards, but Carnival’s were quite good. For the price we paid, the accommodations and service were quite good, and I would happily cruise with Carnival again– hopefully soon!

So this year I wanted to do something different with the boys. Arlene and I have been able to work together to share the boys during holidays, long weekends, and so on, and when she offered me some extra time with the boys over their Christmas break I jumped at the chance. David wanted to stay in Huntsville with his girlfriend; no one wanted to go to California, and I was not going to spend Christmas in a hotel room. After talking it over with them in some depth, we decided to take a cruise.

Thanks to the fine folks at VacationsToGo, we identified the 24 December sailing of the Carnival Ecstasy as our best bet. Alexander, our travel agent, did a superb job. This is my second booking with VacationsToGo, and it won’t be the last. We got what I considered to be a great price on the cruise, and Alexander handled all the arrangements because I was locked in The Bunker during most of the planning period.

We were set to depart Port Canaveral on Christmas Eve. After a long drive from Montgomery to Valdosta to Cocoa Beach, we stopped at the KSC Visitors’ Center for the big KSC tour. Unfortunately, we missed the last tour bus, though we did get to go ice skating (or, more precisely, the boys did; I was having no part of that.) The tickets were very expensive relative to what you get (~ $43/person), and I didn’t feel like the exhibits were worth the money. They also don’t accept a Space and Rocket Center membership as reciprocal, which is too bad.

Tom, cold-chillin’ on the ice at the KSC mini-rink

One of the fun things about our KSC visit was the holiday decorations; the rocket garden had a huge tree, and there were decorations at the ISS mural as well.

your tax dollars at work

Closest I’ll ever get to the ISS

When we were done at KSC, we settled in at the International Palms Resort in Cocoa Beach, which I found through Kayak. For $53 a night, it was quite decent, although not fancy. We didn’t use any of the “resort” features, which include a basketball court and a boardwalk leading to the beach. Instead, we went to do some last-minute Christmas shopping at Walmart, a process which we reprised the next morning at both Walmart and Merritt Square Mall. Once all the shopping was done, we dropped our rental car off at Avis in Cocoa Beach and took their shuttle to the cruise ship terminal. Note: if you’re thinking about doing the same thing, be forewarned that the Avis staff was completely overwhelmed when we were there. We waited nearly an hour for the right shuttle, and the staff was just flappin’. They were obviously in a rush to get everything done before they closed, but their customer service suffered as a result.

The boarding process went smoothly and fairly quickly. We got aboard and started exploring the ship, which has a sort of metro-art-deco feel to it. Lots of neon (and faux neon), etc. I didn’t especially care for it. I think the ship, which was built in ’91, is showing its age, and I vaguely remember that Carnival is planning on refurbishing it in the near future. Anyway, we got settled in fairly fast, although our luggage didn’t show up until much later. At dinner, we met our table companions: a couple from upstate New York and a mother (with a daughter and two sons, all older than my boys) from Shreveport. David, Tom, and I all ordered escargot as an appetizer, and Matt tried them and decided that he liked them too– score!

Christmas Day was a blast. We opened presents in the morning, then made port in Key West and set out for our snorkeling trip, booked through Fury Watersports. I recommend them highly: great equipment and a superbly friendly staff made them a great choice. The snorkeling itself was eventful. Tom was one of the first ones in the water, and he was the first one out after an encounter with a Portuguese man-o-war. Then David got in, then Matt and I. Matt was very reluctant after Tom’s sting, and even with gentle encouragement from Missy (one of the boat crew; she did a great job with Matt) he wasn’t having any. Shortly thereafter I got stung by a moon jellyfish, and then David poked one accidentally and got stung on the finger. The snorkeling itself was anticlimax; I didn’t see anything except a few grouper. The weather and water were gorgeous though, and I loved being out on the water.

David in full snorkeling regalia

Tom and Missy on the snorkel boat

After we made it back to Key West, we had a delicious lunch of conch fritters and shrimp poboys at Caroline’s, walked around Duval Street for a while, and had superb key lime pie at the Key West Key Lime Pie Company. At lunch, Matt pulled his own tooth, so that was his injury du jour— more permanent than a jellyfish sting. Back aboard ship, we had dinner, and the boys went to parties at their individual age clubs. Carnival, like Disney, has clubs for various age groups. David and Tom very quickly took to their peers; Matt thought the activities for his age group were lame, probably because he thinks he’s as old as his brothers (and partly because they were kinda lame by comparison.) Surprisingly, Christmas wasn’t an occasion for an elegant or formal night, although the food and service were excellent. (I should take this opportunity to point out that the ship was decorated quite nicely for the holidays– lots of tinsel, lights, Christmas ornaments, and so on.)

This is getting a bit long, so I’ll wrap it up in a second post once I’ve had a bit of recovery time. We just got back to Pensacola today and I need a bit of a respite from my vacation…