Carnival Victory

The next cruise up is our spring break cruise from 2008 that we took with our friends Louise & Travis. We chose Carnival Cruise Line for this cruise mainly on price for our friends since this was their first cruise and they couldn't afford the prices for Royal Caribbean, which we were pushing hard for. We chose to do a western Caribbean cruise on the Victory out of Miami going to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, & Ocho Rios Jamaica.

A little info on the ship before we get to the cruise itself. The Victory is a Triumph-class ship built buy Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri in 2000. She weighs in at 101,509 GRT, is 893 ft long, 116 ft wide, and has 13 decks. She is identical to her sister ship the Triumph and closely related to an earlier class of ships, the Destiny-class. She has 13 decks and 1,379 cabins with a passenger capacity of 2,758 people.
This was our friends first cruise so we took care of getting everything booked. Since we had the bigger car we drove down to the port. Look at all that luggage!! The porters will have fun unloading all that!

We both had a balcony cabin for this cruise. Not a bad size, about normal for this type of stateroom. What was nice was our friends were in the cabin next door so they opened up the door between the two balconies so we had one really long balcony that we shared. Very nice! We spent lots of time out here during the week, relaxing, reading, & sleeping!!

After finding our cabins, we did a quick tour of the ship to get our bearings and to check out the pool area. Also a quick stop at the ice cream machine! Then it was time to get ready for dinner. Aren't we a good looking bunch!



Our first stop on this trip was Cozumel. Since our friends hadn't been before we walked around the shopping area and just wandered through the shops. Since we walked pretty much the whole street I got some really neat pictures here this time. 

We weren't off the ship long and we were back on to enjoy the pool area without the masses. Also time for a little snack.

Next stop was Grand Cayman. We did a shore excursion here. It wasn't the best excursion we have ever done but a neat concept. You were on these little 2 person boats that had a glass bottom built in so you could see what was underneath you. It wasn't as cool as we thought it would be and ended up being kind of boring. We definitely wouldn't do this again. After the tour we just headed back to the ship since we aren't big shoppers but if you are this is the port for you. You can find pretty much anything you are looking for. After we were ready to head back it was time to get on the tender for the ride back to the ship for another evening aboard ship.

Our last stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We did a great tour here this time. Since our friends had never been, we decided we should climb Dunn's River Falls. My wife and I had done this before on our honeymoon. This trip however was different from the one we did. We did a plantation tour the 1st time. This time we did a catamaran sail. We boarded the catamaran at the dock and sailed over to the beach in front of Dunn's River Falls where we got off and began our climb. I had almost forgotten how chilly the water coming down the falls is but that memory came back very quick. You climb up the falls in a daisy chain holding hands with the person in front of and behind you. This comes in handy in a couple of the stops that can be quite slick. It is a pretty easy climb for the most part but it can be crowded and slow going at times. After the climb it was back aboard the catamaran for a leisurely sail back to the ship. The trip back was filled with music and dancing and drinking! We had a great time.

Once again we were very lucky to have some flat seas on our trip. It amazes me at how calm the seas can be sometimes and other times so rough. We also met some cool people on this trip. Here are Travis & Bill having a drink. Bill was a cool guy and we ended up running into him several times and he bought a couple rounds of drinks for us.

Since we aren't huge Carnival fans to begin with we went into this with low expectations of the food and service in the dining room. The food was good but I don't remember our servers being the best. Of course that can happen on any cruise line but they just weren't as good as servers we have had on other lines. We did have a great bar guy that we all loved in the dining room, Yoki! He was the bomb. He introduced us to the "kiss on the lips" and he made our trips into the dining room each night so much fun! We wanted to bring him home with us at the end of the cruise.
Overall we had a good time but we just aren't big fans of Carnival and they would be one of our last choices to pick for a cruise.

To see more pictures of the ship and other pictures from this cruise please visit Partridge Pictures.

Caribbean Princess

Hopefully you aren't getting tired of all the cruise posts. I do have other pictures to share but we love cruising so much it is hard not to share them first. As we keep going through my cruise history the next is another cruise from 2007. We tried out Princess Cruises for the first time and went aboard the Caribbean Princess for a trip to the western Caribbean. We departed out of Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale and went to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Ocho Rios, & Princess Cays.

A little info on the Caribbean Princess before we get into the cruise itself. She is part of the Grand Class of cruise ships with a capacity of over 3,600 passengers, the largest carrying capacity in the Princess fleet. Caribbean Princess is slightly larger than the other ships in this class due to an added deck of cabins. She was launched in 2004 and weighs in at approx 112,800 gross tons (GRT). She is 951 feet long & 118 feet wide.
We had a pretty nice balcony cabin on this trip. We were in what they call a mini-suite. So we actually had a pretty decent size room, a whopping 324 sq ft (which includes the balcony). We actually had a real tub & shower in the bathroom as well. Usually its just a stand up shower that is pretty tight. The lower balcony cabins stick out farther than the ones above, which isn't great for privacy. From ours we could look all the way up to the top of the ship.

Most ships have a buffet area to eat. The set up of the area on this ship was not the best. It didn't flow well with people being able to enter the food area from multiple spots it caused quite a back up at times. I don't remember much about the food in the buffet area so it must have been your normal cruise buffet fare.  We also did another galley tour on this trip. They had some cool things out they had prepared for presentation later in the day. It still amazes me of what they can create out of food.

We had some pretty good entertainment on this cruise. They had a hypnotist who had a pretty good show one night in the main theater. He had people doing funny things up on stage. It was pretty convincing but I'm still skeptical that they were all actually under his control.

They also had one of the better lounge/piano guys we had heard. His name was Bert Stratton and he put on a great little show for the crowd. I don't remember much about the production shows but I do remember going.  So they must have been just so-so.  The one complaint we had was their late night shows, like adult comedy, were held in a lounge rather than the main theater.  This made for a very crowded venue which took away from some of the show. You also had to get there really early to find a seat.

Our first stop was the lines private island, Princess Cays. I believe their island is right next to Royal Caribbean's Coco Cay. We did go in here and we did a kayak excursion. I thought this would be fun but it was hard work out there. Was exhausted when we got done!

Next stop was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We did one of the most fun excursions here. We did an ATV tour that was awesome. We got to go fast and get dirty on the ride. So much fun! The tour starts at a ranch and you ride up the mountain and come back down. You do make a couple stops on the ride up. The first stop is in a nice clearing where you can look back down. The other stop is at a little house with a small pond which is the turn around point.My wife enjoyed this tour much more than she originally thought she would. She was going so fast on one turn she almost flipped her ATV over but she was having a blast driving it through the water & mud!  By the end of this ride we were both covered in mud. So worth it!!

At the last stop we had the opportunity to do some swimming if we wanted to before heading back to the ranch to return the ATV's and wait for our return trip to the ship. We didn't go but lots of the others on our tour did jump off a cliff into the lagoon for a swim. We had a great guide on this tour she took several photos for us with my camera and even posed with my wife at the end. This was by far one of the best shore excursions we have ever done and would recommend it to anyone looking for something fun to do in Ocho Rios.

The next stop was Grand Cayman. This is one of the ports where you have to tender in. It was a nasty day here and we didn't have anything planned so we didn't go in. Despite the bad weather it was a busy day in port and we followed 2 other ships out at the end of the day. We also didn't get off in Cozumel either since we have been here so many times it is one of those places that unless you are on a tour or want to do some shopping, that once you've seen it, you don't need to get off again. We did have great seas on this cruise. See how clam the seas are here. If you couldn't see the ships wake it would look like we were sitting still.

One thing that did really stand out were the ships photographers. Some of the best we have ever had on any ship. There was one really good girl who stood out from the rest and we went to her several times over the course of the cruise. Normally its just the standard, stand here, put your arm this way, smile. They took time to different poses which was really great and we got some really good photos from them on this cruise. When it was time to pick out the ones to buy we had a hard time and had them spread out all over the table and everyone commented on how good our pictures were. I think we spent more on pictures this cruise than we did drinks!! Here are a couple of the ones they took.
Overall this was a nice cruise and a break from our standard Royal Caribbean Cruise. However, we noticed that as a late twenty-something couple, we were among the younger people on this ship.  Most were in the their middle ages and not very many children or families.  This wasn't a big deal for us as we are easy going but might have been a problem for others.  In fact, we had some of the coolest table mates on this cruise.  We were with an older couple from England which was pretty cool.  They had interesting stories and always commented on our dinner attire which made my wife happy as she works hard to make us look good!  Nothing is standing out in my memory about the food so it must not have been great but not horrible either as I would've remembered that.
As usual to see the rest of the pictures from this cruise please visit Partridge Pictures.

Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas

Up next on our journey through my cruising history is our trip on Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas from 2007. We did this cruise for spring break that year and just did a 4 night Bahamas cruise since we already had another cruise planned for the summer.

Here is some info on Sovereign before we get to the rest of the cruise. She is 73,192 gross tons, 880 feet long, and 106 feet wide. When she was launched in January of 1988 she was the largest ship in the world. In November of 2008 she was transferred out of Royal Caribbean's fleet to Pullmantur Cruises, which is part of the RCI family.

Once again we were in just an outside cabin but this was due to the fact that many of the older ships don't have that many balcony cabins except for the suites which are out of our price range. Also the cabins on the older ships just seem so small compared to the newer ships. Not that this was bad but after being on some of the newer ships you just notice these things. 

This was a 4 night cruise to the Bahamas so our stops included Nassau and Coco Cay (Royal Caribbean's private island). We have been to Nassau many times and very rarely get off. Since a lot of people get off to go into port you get most of the ship to yourself.  This time we got off to do a little shopping but were back on pretty quick so we could enjoy some time on board without the crowds.

Coco Cay is one of RCI's private islands. The other is Labadee. Coco Cay is a pretty nice little stop. You do have to tender in but they have some great beaches and plenty of activities to keep you going. They have chairs on the beach and some hammocks for relaxing. They also serve a BBQ lunch on the island so you don't have to go back to the ship if you don't want to. Don't forget to get your coco loco, Coco Cay's signature drink, while you are here!

The food on the shorter cruises also just doesn't seem to match what you get on the 7 night cruises. Still good just not as good. Plus you are on a cruise so does it really matter since you didn't have to make it? We did have an excellent service team in the dining room as usual. They always strive to make your dining experience the best it can be.

To see the rest of the pictures from this cruise please visit Partridge Pictures.