Thread: Ges cruise on the Holiday 10/10/09

We got the chance to say farewell to the Holiday before she "retires" to another cruise line. Here was our experience.

I started out on I-10 out of New Orleans because I was worried about time, but about Gulfport, I realized we were well ahead of schedule. I decided to try the scenic route along the coast. I ran into a car show. I should say perhaps it was not just any car show. The sign near downtown said "Welcome back cruisers." Our first reaction was "cruisers? I didn't know they had cruises that left from here!" Then we found the "cruisers." They swallowed us on the road along the coast. The traffic was scary bad. After an hour and about 5 miles, I gave up and headed back to I-10.

We arrived at port right at 12:30. We took our time gathering everything and entered the terminal around 1:00. Boarding was incredibly smooth. The parking process was easy. Mobile has its act together. There were long lines but they moved fast. We were on board within 15 minutes. All the boarding staff were very friendly and helpful. We went directly to the room to drop stuff, then headed to lunch on Lido. There was a long line at lunch - a lot of browsers* (*ref John Pinette).

After lunch, we took a quick tour of the ship and grabbed some photos of ship highlights. Then we headed back to the room to get ready for muster. Honestly, this is the first muster that didn't make us stand in a crush for 45 minutes. We sat in a lounge for most of it. All muster drills should be conducted this way. After muster, we hung around on deck awhile to wait for crowded elevators to clear. Then we headed down to the cabin to get ready for dinner. We ended up at a booth for 4. I hate booths, but other couple was nice. They were from Alabama, but we’ll forgive them that minor transgression. The guy really liked to talk football, so sports dominated the conversation the first night. I had music in common with the wife.


After dinner, we went to TV theme trivia. We were 1 short of winning.

We stuck around afterward to watch the disco dance lesson. Fun! Then we came back to watch the comedian (ventriloquist) at 10:30. We finally hit bed around 1 am. Totally exhausted!

Day 2

We slept like the dead. Woke up at 8:15 and thought it was still middle of the night. Ahh the joys of the inside cabin. Love it! No joke!

DH brought breakfast from Lido. After that, we hit the morning trivia - we're silly that way. We did well, but not well enough! Then sunburn time. I haven’t sunburned for real in years, but this time, it came quick. Then we went for lunch in the dining room. After that, we went for the afternoon movie quote trivia – we made a dismal showing. Then naptime.
Tonight was formal night, so after we fixed up, we went to Doc Holiday’s and watched ship's band before dinner. They are truly amazing. After that, things got eventful. At dinner, a kid at the next table dropped a piece of fruit (launched, rather) onto the carpet - in the aisle, no less - where it sat, unnoticed, in this high-traffic area until one of the waiters "picked it up" on the heel of his shoe. Then it was gone.


Our room steward did not clean our room this evening. He finally dropped by, so at least we got clean towels and ice. Then my bed broke. The slats just fell out. We tried to fix it but had to call maintenance because I was afraid of actually breaking the slats trying to force them back into place. He fixed it in short order and said he would add a screw or a board for extra reinforcement tomorrow. Yay. So much for early bedtime, considering our early port call tomorrow.

Day 3

Today, we took a tour to the Mayan ruins at Chichén Itzá. I wrestled with whether or not to go on this tour because it was an all-day tour that involved 5 hours on a bus. I finally decided since I had been hearing about Chichén Itzá since I was in Elementary School and had seen it on the cover of a National Geographic magazine, I really couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see it. It turns out I was right – I had forgotten about the new 7 Wonders of the World, but Chichén Itzá is on the list. We had two guides: Diego, who was our guide to the region, and Mario, who was the historian and our guide at the ruins. My first response was relief at finally hearing the correct pronunciation of the name. Ever since I learned about accents in Spanish class, that has been bothering me. “No Chíchen Ítza, no chicken pizza…” Diego either has a good sense of humor or is a good student of American humor. I never heard it called chicken pizza until went on this cruise.

They weren’t kidding about making a pit stop which is, in essence, a shopping opportunity before you get to the site. Surprisingly, the bathrooms were cleaner than I was expecting. I ended up buying a replica of a Mayan calendar. While we were being followed around the shop by the guy I bought the calendar from, a group of merchants was gathering out by the street. When we came out, it was like a mob out there, except they were waving tiki heads and Day of the Dead masks instead of bats and torches. (I forgot Day of the Dead is coming up soon). We fought our way back on the bus amid "1 for $3. 3 for $1! I make you deal!" Little did we know they would beat us out to the ruins. I’ve visited lots of historical sites in the U.S., but I don’t think I’ve ever been chased around the site by a determined merchant! They all have tables set up along the path from the main building out to the ruins and scattered around the site everywhere you look. The stuff they’re selling is absolutely fascinating. If I had unlimited money, unlimited space, and/or a housekeeper to dust all the crap I brought back, I probably would have bought a lot more than I did. I’m happy with my Mayan calendar and book explaining how it works.

We didn’t get to visit the entire site – according to Mario, the guide, you need a couple of days to see everything – but the buildings we did get to see were all very interesting. The two main areas that interested me most (probably most interesting to most folks who visit) were the ball court and the temple. In both cases, the acoustical properties were of particular interest to me (channeling that impossible Physics class from 12 years ago). Mario said you could stand in the building on one of the ball court and hold a regular conversation with someone in the building on the other end of the ball court. The two buildings are probably 75-100 yards apart or so. If I had more time, I could have measured it definitively (in yards, of course), and looked very silly in the process. I found it interesting, though, how Mario could stand under the ring on one side of the ball court and clap, and the clap would echo a couple of times off the walls. I’ll have to look up the specifics on how they used the ball court and what the carvings on the walls mean. He was very academic and I couldn’t hear or see him very well.

When we got to the temple, he stood at the base and clapped and got an echo, of sorts, that sounded like a bullet whizzing by. He equated it to something like a bird call. Here’s a sample from someone else’s YouTube video. YouTube - sounds

The Maya were very mathematical people. Obviously, math and physics are a big part of acoustical science. They also created their calendar which I mentioned. The math figures prominently into their site structures. For example, the temple has 91 steps on each side. Multiplied 4, this means there are 364 steps around the 4 sides of the temple. Add to that the platform on top, there are a total of 365 steps on the temple – the same number as there are days in a year.

Mario and Diego both mentioned the general site is round. A while back, someone found a giant sinkhole that is underwater. The site follows the shape of the sinkhole. He theorized the size of this sinkhole suggests this could be the giant meteor that hit the earth and caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

And, as if that isn’t interesting enough, Sarah Brightman is playing a concert at Chichén Itzá on Halloween. Wow. If I didn't absolutely detest Halloween...

We managed to get back to the port area with just enough time left over to buy some perfume in the shops before reboarding the ship. It was such a long day, we didn’t do much after dinner. We were lucky we even made it to dinner. I think we found a movie on TV or something.

Day 4

We took a cab to downtown Cozumel, at which point, I realized that's where we were on our first cruise - except that we neglected to leave the street along the waterfront. We explored a bit further this time and found the plaza. At one point, we sat down at a table in a drugstore to cool off for a minute and were approached by someone wanting to take our order. I apologized and explained we were just cooling off. That's the biggest eye roll I've ever gotten from a person in public service - ever. So we left. But not before we spotted some 'fume DH wanted to buy. Of course, now that we're back home and he's wearing it, I hate it. Bleh. Anyway, we sat in the plaza and people-watched a while and then headed to lunch at Pancho's Backyard. It wasn't that good this time around, and it was terribly expensive. Makes me wish we had opted for beach again instead. We went back to the ship early so we could sit in the hot tub - an odd choice for a 100-degree day, I know. But it was nice in the shade, especially when the breezes would float by. The high temperatures were pretty much the straw that killed any further October cruises for us, I think. We’re going back to December. I can’t handle this hot weather. I’m on vacation, for Pete’s sake!

For dinner that night, I "surprised" DH and our table mates with a cake for our anniversary. When the waiters sang, one of them kept nudging my arm and saying "kissy kissy" between each line. Too funny!

We had a juggler and another comedian for the show. The juggler was on our last cruise but most jokes were new (or maybe they weren’t that memorable?). Seriously, I still thought he was funny and good at what he does. There was a lot of interplay with the ship's band, especially during a joke about drinking Mexican water - something I definitely don't remember from the last cruise. (I don't remember the band being such an integral part of the entertainment. They show up and play an intro and then they're done until the show's over and it's time to play music to walk out of the theater to.) The comedian had a lot of ad lib with the audience. He did like to pick on audience members, but I think he knew when to pull back before he went absolutely too far. Maybe not before he went a little too far, but definitely before he went absolutely too far. But I thought it was a good show. He was really funny, if you can stand the politically incorrect humor.

Day 5

We must have been tired. We didn’t do much the last day at sea. We went to the towel folding demo - but forgot to bring towels. We bought the book, though. This brought us to a whopping total of $45 spent on board. I got my mani/pedi before I left and didn’t really feel like I needed or wanted a massage this time. We’re not drinkers. We brought our own Cokes and didn't even go through the case we brought. We simply did not spend a lot of money on board. After towel folding, we stayed to watch bingo (did not actually participate), then the debark talk. Then we headed back to the room.

I was gonna read while DH wandered, but I got antsy. I started packing, instead, and got about 90% of it done. After lunch, we went back to relax and watch a movie. We managed to see most of "The Proposal." One last dinner and early bed. I swear, inside cabin is NOT a bad choice! Didn't I say that already. I know I, at least, slept better on this cruise than I did on the last one, where we had a balcony cabin on a much newer, nicer ship.

Debark

We went with self-assist for the first time ever. We were off ship by 8:15, which was earlier than they said. I’m a fan of self-assist for life.

We didn't make great time coming home, though. We walked in the door half an hour before midnight. The house welcomed us home with a lovely sewer smell. I’m glad my parents didn't come to visit until the following week. But hey, I heard the bathrooms on the ship had that sewer smell. No dice. And no brown water either.

General Impressions - prepare yourself!

Our dining room service was great. Our waiter was fantastic and the assistant waiter was almost as good (he only needed an occasional prompt). They both had great personalities that made dinner fun every night. Thank goodness they weren’t dragging us out of our seats every night to dance. If I want to dance, I’ll go to the dance club after dinner. There were a couple of nights. One was enough. Two nights were a stretch. More than that and I was not getting up. Our waiter, Jesus from Peru, had a great sense of humor. Very deadpan, but fun, once you catch up. Goran, the assistant waiter from Croatia, was a chocoholic and totally understood why everyone at the table refused to give up the warm chocolate melting cake night after night.

We had some bumps with our cabin steward, James from Jamaica. He wasn’t the friendliest Carnival employee I’ve ever met, but with cabin stewards, I don’t necessarily require that. As long as my bed is made, and I have clean towels and fresh ice, I’m happy. I don’t ever need to even see the guy. Unfortunately, there was one day the cabin never got made up after dinner. I also asked for extra washcloths and ice for my cooler. He forgot about the extra washcloths within a couple of days, and the ice was hit or miss. I debated lowering his tip, but ended up not bothering with that. But I didn’t give him a good review. I didn’t give him a bad review, I just wrote there was room for improvement. He wasn’t horrible, but this was definitely the worst I’ve seen so far. I do wonder if he was having a staffing problem, though.

I had heard the Holiday has a problem with brown water. If that’s the case, I certainly never saw it. Everything appeared as it should be. We brought plenty of bottled water, as always, but by the looks of it, I wouldn’t have been afraid of it.

We stayed in an inside cabin this time. I found a really good deal on a cheap cabin, but by cheap, I mean REALLY cheap. I tried to upgrade to a window cabin, but never could find a price drop. As it turns out, the inside cabin was a good way to go. I know some people don’t like them, but I really did. I is a little disorienting at first, but there is a great benefit – if you want to sleep in, you don’t have to worry about the sun. The first morning, I woke up at 8:15 and thought it was still the middle of the night. If not for DH, I probably could have slept another 3 or 4 hours. The only light coming into the room is from around the door – and it stops at the door. There is no adjusting your eyes to the dark. It is dark. Period. But midnight bathroom raids were no big deal. As long as you keep the floor free of clutter, finding the bathroom in the middle of the night is not a problem. The other thing about the inside cabin is that, yes, it IS smaller than the other cabins we have had in the past. Even the ocean view was larger. This was not a problem, either. There was a lot less drawer space and a lot less storage in the bathroom, true. But once we determined a place for everything, we simply made sure we kept everything put away. There was still plenty of floor space. The only sad thing about this was the inability to stockpile our towel creatures. But I took photos every night.

Even though the bathroom was smaller, I actually liked the setup better. The shower was actually larger. I’ll take more shower space over more storage in the bathroom any day. The only things that truly need to stay in the bathroom are toothpaste, soap, and shampoo. All else can be used elsewhere. The shower was great. The only thing truly missing was a hook to hang your bathrobe while you’re showering. So I guess you could say I’m a champion of this setup.

The ship itself was a lot of confusing, but I guess that’s a product of its age. On the other hand, its design forced more exercise on me, so I can’t be too irritated. Basically, the galley blocks the way from one dining room to the other, so you have to go down a deck and aft, then back up to get to the aft dining room. We couldn’t get to our dining room by taking the elevators closest to our room. Also, because we were on the lowest deck, we had to remember not every elevator bank would go all the way down to our deck. If we forgot, it would mean being decanted to the deck above, then a walk forward and down a flight of stairs. There was never a day I could get anywhere on board without looking at the deck plans.

One thing about the age of the ship that I really liked, however, was the understated decor. The newer ships all have fantastic artwork, neon, and really over-the-top flash. This ship really reminds me more of the romance of the seas: woodwork, ropes, and steel.

The walls were very thin compared to past cruises. We could hear everything with real clarity coming from our neighbors' rooms and from the hallway. Particularly, it was very easy to hear conversations from the neighbor's while in the bathroom.

One of my favorite parts of this cruise: no motion sickness whatsoever. In fact, I wasn't feeling much motion at all, which was surprising considering I was led to believe the age of this ship meant the stabilizers weren't as good as on the newer ships. We felt a lot more motion on the Conquest last December, believe me. I felt a constant sense of vague ill-at-ease on that cruise, but nothing at all on this one. In fact, after debarkation, I barely felt the movement sensation I usually maintain for a couple of weeks afterward - just a twinge every now and again.

Another thing we noticed particularly on this ship we had not noticed on other ships was the blatant disregard for nonsmoking areas, particularly around the swimming pool at night. It didn't matter that there wasn't anyone sitting in the smoking area, they'd rather bring their smelly cigarettes and cigars(!) over to the non-smoking area, sit right under the no smoking area sign, and blow their nasty smoke. I'm still shaking my head over this one because I can't figure out why they couldn't just sit on the other side in the actual smoking area. Does it smell bad over there or something?

So yes, it was confusing trying to get from one place to another. Often, you couldn’t get from one location on one deck to another location on the same deck by simply walking from forward to aft without having to make a detour up and down a flight of stairs in the middle. Even so, for the able-bodied, this was not bad, and for the able-bodied but looking for an excuse not to exercise, this ship really forces you to do the stairs. But I can’t imagine trying to get around on this ship in a wheelchair. Ugh. What a pain in the rear.

I’m just not even going to comment on the food except to say it’s like eating in common restaurants but with better presentation. I did try some new things this trip, but I didn’t find anything new I liked. I never could get warm eggs off the Lido buffet. We did actually try the room service this cruise, unlike the last one, and I can only say this: wow…I really miss Royal Caribbean. I think for our next cruise, whenever that may be, we are really aiming hard to go back to Royal. But the Holiday made for a much better Carnival experience than did the Conquest. We really enjoyed ourselves this trip. I can see why people are sad to see her go. The cruise director Tory and host staff were fantastic. The band was the best I have seen in three cruises – definitely the most interactive and visible. I think there may very well be something to this idea that the service on this ship is somehow a cut above, despite our cabin mishaps. In any case, it shot down my idea that Royal Caribbean is better than Carnival. They are at least comparable and as I suspected, I really can enjoy either.

blah blah blah

Heard enough?

This is great Ges!

You covered so many details and I love your writing style!

Thanks for taking us with you.

Originally Posted by Char

This is great Ges!

You covered so many details and I love your writing style!

Thanks for taking us with you.

Thanks! My writing style is still a work in progress, but I'll take the compliment anyway. Keeps the work moving the right direction, hopefully.