Belize - Cave Tubing

Tuesday, June 15th – Belize

Bob and I went to breakfast together in the Paris Restaurant and while we were eating, we could see land off in the distance. As we were starting back to the cabin, the ship passed a small island that had a couple of buildings and some sort of tower. The Carnival Capers had warned that the ship would be making several sharp turns that morning and it did! I thought it was odd that Bob had only eaten fruit for breakfast but found out why…he was meeting Kent for breakfast a little later and then they were going to get in line to get tender tickets…he ate breakfast twice that day!!

  

Gilligan's Island?

Tender tickets were to be handed out at 8 a.m. in the Normandie Lounge and by being one of the first ones in line; the guys got “tender #1” for all of us. By the time they got back, Laurel and I had our bags packed for the day and were ready to leave. Being on the Riviera Deck may have some disadvantages since it is the lowest level of cabins, but it certainly is convenient when it comes time to get off the ship at a port…being in the forward part of the ship made it even easier. A few people were milling about, but the tenders were not being loaded yet and we were instructed to just wait on the stairway going down to deck 3. We never did hear them announce our tender number, but as soon as they started loading the first tender we were right there ready to board…there was only one other couple ahead of us and we were among the very first ones to leave the ship. I was worried that we wouldn’t get off early enough to make our cave tubing tour, but there was no problem whatsoever.

Although the tenders are very fast (I mean REALLY fast) it still took over 20 minutes to go from the ship to the shore. The tender dock at the “Tourism Village” was specifically built to cater to cruise ships, and has bathroom facilities, restaurants, snack bars, and a variety of local souvenirs shops. 

The wake of our tender as we head to shore.

We weren’t quite sure where to go when we first docked but we asked around and were pointed to where Richard, the Xstream Cave Tubing representative, was waiting. Belize was an hour behind “ship time” so we actually were an hour early for our tubing tour that was to meet at 9:50 local time. Xstream will only take 14 people in a group for their tours so they started registering the first few people that had arrived. As I signed my name to the list I realized that the other two families going on our tour were Cruise Critic members that I had emailed several times. It was fun to put a face to the name!

Meeting place for our cave tubing tour.

  

Charles Perry was to be our guide and he took us to where his van was waiting. There were 12 of us in the van going together plus Charles and another girl who was training to be a guide. Just before we left, Charles loaded a cooler into the van and right away the van was filled with the delicious smell of fruit! (It was to be our “treat” when we were done tubing.)

Our trip first took us through Belize City, the country’s largest city with a population of 70,000. Before leaving the city, Charles pulled into a gas station to fill up the van. Gas was $8/gallon Belize dollars which translated into about $4/gallon US dollars…and to think we complain our gas prices are high!! As we waited for the tank to be filled, a man approached us and wanted us to buy cashews that he was selling. No one bought any (although I wish I had now).

Driving through Belize City.

Leaving the city we were on a paved road that gave us a good look at how poor the people in Belize are…most homes we saw were just shacks. We rode for a long time (45 minutes or so?) and then saw the sign pointing to a road leading to the cave tubing. Charles turned onto a dirt road that looked to me would only be passable with an SUV or some type of off-road vehicle. The road was filled with huge rocks that made for a very bumpy ride. Charles joked that we were getting a free massage but my back thought otherwise! At one point a large tour buses was passing the van on the left. Charles was talking to the girl (in training) and didn’t notice the bus coming around. He started to veer over to the left a bit and if Laurel had not let out a yell I’m sure we would have collided! It was pretty scary at the time…later we joked that the van ride was more “Xstream” than the cave tubing!!

The area where the cave tubing begins has a small rustic, open air restaurant…the food was being cooked on open fires in the back. There is also a restroom which was pretty rustic…only two stalls (on the women’s side at least) and they were “yucky” and wet. Laurel and I ran to use the restroom while Bob and Kent were nice enough to go get our inner tubes. We were required to also each take a life jacket which we tied around the tubes.

Laurel and I each wore our swimsuit with a pair of shorts on top. The four of us all had water shoes and they seemed to work out well. I also brought along a nylon fanny pack that I used to carry very small bottles of bug spray and sunblock (neither of which I needed), my water camera and a waterproof container that I put some cash and my Sail and Sign card in. I also had a water bottle carrier that I clipped to my fanny pack. No one else took water, but I was glad to have it when I got hot and sweaty on the hike.

To begin the tour, we walked through the rain forest carrying our tubes for probably 45 minutes or so. The walk was not terribly strenuous…the worst part was just the high humidity. Charles would stop periodically to point out various trees and bushes and explain a little about them. At one point, Charles cut a piece of sugar cane and let Bob have a taste. At the beginning of the trail we crossed the river at the point we would be returning to once we were through the caves. The river was very shallow and not very swift so this wasn’t any big deal. There was a rope strung across to hold onto if you wanted.

Our guide, Charles.

Laurel pointing out a termite nest.

Along the way we went into a couple of dry caves…but just barely. I thought we would walk into the caves and do some exploring, but we just stood at the opening of the caves and looked at some bats. This was no big deal to me, but Bob and Kent had done a lot of “caving” in college and they thought it was cool.

When we reached the starting point of the float trip we had to wait on another group getting into the water. While we were waiting another Xstream group caught up to us and the two groups stayed together the rest of the time. The bad part was that meant our small group of 12 now had doubled. The good part was that one guide stayed at the front of the group and the other watched the rear which worked out well in certain places.

  

The group ahead of us was tossing their tubes into the river and then jumping off of a rock about 10 feet above the water. I suppose we could have done that too, but Charles had us hold onto a rope and lower ourselves slowly down into the water. The water was cool (not cold) but felt so good after being hot and sweaty. The place we got in the water was right at the start of the first cave so as soon as we were all in the water we entered the cave.

Each person was given a headlamp to wear while in the caves. We were fortunate that Charles had carried all of the lamps for our group in his backpack and didn’t hand them out till we got there. People that we saw in other groups were all carrying their own headlamps. The inner tube was enough to carry…I didn’t want anything extra! The guides each had headlamps with red lights so they were easy to spot in the caves. They also carried big spotlights that they would use to point out things for us to see as we went.

The caves were large and the ceiling was very high so unless the darkness bothers you, I wouldn’t worry about claustrophobia. I was a bit surprised that we had to paddle almost all of the time we were on the river. I had envisioned just being carried along by the current while I relaxed…not so. Laurel and I both realized later in the day that the inner parts of our upper arms were all bruised from all of our paddling. There were some spots where the current was swift, but these places were so shallow that the guides would yell “butts up”. Not heeding their warnings would result in some nasty bumps on your backside! One spot along the river was so shallow we had to get out and carry our tubes a short distance. I'm sure the depth and speed of the current varies based on the time of the year. 

I had no idea that the caves would be so long. There were two different caves and I’m a bad judge of distance but I would guess maybe combined they were a mile long! At one point there was an opening in the cave ceiling where you could look up and see all of the lush vegetation growing above…just beautiful with the sun streaming down into the dark cave!

After exiting the caves, we came to a place where people were using a vine to swing out into the river. Of course Bob and Kent had to give it a try! Eventually we reached the spot where we had crossed the river earlier and this is where we got out. It was only a short walk back to where the van was parked.

  

Charles had ordered our lunch before we started our hike and it was waiting for us when we got back. The meal was $5 and consisted of grilled chicken, rice, beans, slaw, fried plantain, a delicious sweet muffin and a glass of fruit punch. Since we had started our tour earlier than scheduled I figured we would have plenty of time to eat afterwards. I didn’t realize at the time that the rest of our group hadn’t ordered any food so then I felt like we needed to rush a bit so they didn’t have to wait on us so long.

  

My plan was to change out of my wet swimsuit before the trip back to the ship…however the bathrooms were even more nasty and wet than they were before so I opted to stay in my swimsuit. As we were getting into the van I happened to remember the cooler full of fruit that Charles had loaded earlier. The others in our group said they all had been eating fruit while we were eating our lunch! Rats!! Charles knew I was disappointed so he said “hurry up…go get some!” He had left the cooler with another Xstream guide and we hustled over and grabbed thick juicy slices of pineapple and mango. I have never eaten anything that tasted so good!!

  

On the way to the caves, Charles had driven about 30 mph on the bumpy road but going back it was more like 45 or 50! Yikes…I thought the whole van was going to fall apart! Also the van was air-conditioned…depending on where you sat! The first two rows (where we sat) were freezing cold. Laurel and I resorted to wrapping up in our beach towels to stay warm. The guys in the back two rows got none of the cool air and were covered with sweat!

At least the fast driving got us back to the tender dock with about an hour to spare! I had read about the National Handicraft Center that sold crafts made by locals and I wanted to check it out. Kent and Laurel decided to just do a little shopping there at the dock. I knew we had to leave the “tourism village” to get to the Handicraft Center, but that was easier said than done! The whole area was behind a locked fence being protected by guards…the only way out was to go through one of the long shopping buildings. Once outside this area we discovered that there were lots of small booths set up where people were selling all sorts of stuff. We by-passed them on our quest to find the National Handicraft Center.

A house we passed while walking to the National Handicraft Center.

We found the building, but it was locked and appeared to be closed. I knocked on the door and a man came and let us in. It was a little awkward shopping while he watched us, but he was friendly and visited with us a bit. I was looking for a basket with a lid (which I didn’t find). All we bought was a bottle of Marie Sharps hot sauce for $2 (US). They had many different varieties and in hindsight I wish I would have bought more because my sons love the stuff!

  

The line for the tenders had grown quite long by the time we returned but didn’t take too long. It was very hot standing there and it was encouraging to see several tenders show up at once to load passengers.

It was interesting to compare our day’s activities with our dinner companions each night. They had also gone cave tubing, but with a Carnival-sponsored tour. They had a very large group that traveled in a bus. Their tour didn’t include any food nor did they go through the dry caves. On the way back to the port, their bus had a flat tire so they had to sit by the side of the road until another bus (that wasn’t air conditioned) showed up to get them. All of this they got for $89 compared to the $60 that we paid for our tour with Xstream!

  

I’m sure Kent and Laurel thought my obsession with planning was a bit crazy at first, but by the end of the week they were bragging to others about how great it was to have every detail taken care of and how much money they had saved with the tours that I had lined up on the internet (instead of booking through Carnival.)

Each night the waiters and waitresses would entertain the diners with singing and dancing. They attempted to get passengers up to sing and dance also and Bob and Laurel were always some of the first to jump up and join them! This would have been more fun had it not been for some issues they were having with the sound system…that thing needed some major work!!

Macarena anyone?

One of the fun things we discovered on our first cruise was that it was a great time to try new foods...or just indulge in "extra" servings of the things you really love. Bob found out he really liked escargot (me not so much) and desserts were always a good time to splurge!

Let's just try all of the desserts on the menu!

  
After dinner we went back to our cabin briefly, and Laurel couldn’t get her Sail and Sign card to unlock the cabin. (The card acts as an ID card, key card, and charge card for all purchases made on the ship.) It had worked fine before dinner, but after repeated tries, the card would not open the door! A trip to the purser’s desk and the mystery was solved. The purse Laurel had carried to dinner had a magnetic clasp and it had de-magnetized the card! They were able to fix it but said to keep it away from any type of magnets!

The evening entertainment was a comedian who was “ok” and a magician. I fell asleep during some of the magician’s show, but what I saw wasn’t all that great. This guy (John Duffy) had performed on our last Paradise cruise and I wasn’t impressed with him then either.

Carnival Paradise - Sea Day #1

Monday, June 14th – Day at Sea

  

I love sea days! Our last Paradise cruise was the “old western route” with only three ports…that meant a mid-week sea day to break up the hectic pace. This cruise had us visiting four ports and our only sea days were at the beginning and end of the week

  

Sun	Miami		4:00 PM
Mon	At Sea
Tues	Belize City	9:00 AM	6:00 PM
Wed	Roatan	7:00 AM	3:00 PM
Thurs	Grand Cayman	9:30 AM	5:00 PM
Fri	Cozumel	1:00 PM	11:00 PM
Sat	At Sea
Sun	Miami	8:00 AM

I was up before Bob and knew I would end up waking him if I started puttering around the cabin. I threw on some clothes and left a sticky note on the mirror saying I was going to breakfast. There weren’t many people up and about yet and it was fun walking through the quiet ship. I made my way to the Paris Restaurant on the Lido deck and grabbed a cup of coffee and had the omelet man make me a couple of eggs over-easy. I didn’t realize they would make “regular eggs” on the last cruise until the last day when I saw someone else ordering them so I made it a point to order them a couple of times on this cruise. The scrambled eggs on the buffet are kinda nasty so it was nice to have the option of a hot omelet or over-easy eggs. During the week, Bob got in the habit of going through the same buffet line each day and would tell the girl making omelets to “surprise him”. The first day she wasn’t quite sure what to think, but after that she seemed to look forward to creating different omelets for him each day! In fact, the one day he didn’t order an omelet she seemed really disappointed.

  

Another thing that Bob and Kent both did was take time to talk to each worker that came by in the Paris Restaurant. They made it a point to ask where they were from and find out a little bit about life in their native country. The crew members always seemed to really enjoy the chance to share about their background.

Anyway…I enjoyed my breakfast and then started wandering around the ship. I had brought my son’s digital camera…a Canon Elph which is no bigger than a pack of cards. I have been researching digital cameras and after using his I am sold on the small size. There are other cameras for about the same price that probably take better pictures or have fancier features, but this camera fit into my pocket so I carried it everywhere! If the camera had been larger, I’m sure it would have been left behind in the cabin for most of the cruise.

I used the quiet morning to take pictures of some of the public areas on the Paradise…the casino, the lounges, the atrium, etc. 

“Understated” is NOT a word that describes Carnival’s decor!

Bob was gone to breakfast by the time I got back to the cabin, but it wasn’t long before he returned along with Kent and Laurel. When we booked the guarantee cabins, I knew we were taking a chance that our cabins wouldn’t be together so we were really glad that we ended up with adjacent cabins. It just made things so much simpler being “next door” while planning our activities. It wasn’t until half way through the week that I learned how to use the phone to call cabin to cabin. You must dial a four digit number…the first digit is the deck number and the last three digits are the cabin number. Since we were on the Riviera deck (deck 4) and Kent and Laurel were in cabin number 6, I would dial 4006 to get their cabin.

  

Laurel was anxious to get some sun and wanted to lay out by the pool. I am a fair-skinned redhead so am cautious about how much time I spend in the sun. On our last cruise Bob and I spent a lot of time on lounge chairs on the outer portion of the Lido deck. It was great being able to watch the sea but yet we were in the shade of the lifeboats. What a shock to head out there and see no lounge chairs whatsoever!! There were empty chairs around the pool so I asked one of the Carnival employees if it would be OK to haul a couple of chairs to the outer deck and he said “yes”.

No chairs?

It wasn’t the easiest thing to do, especially when I was carrying my beach bag with my towel, book, sunglasses, etc. but we managed. Later on in the day I noticed several more chairs had shown up here so other people were following our lead. That night we met Jeff Bronson, the cruise director, as we were going into the Captains party and I asked him about the lack of lounge chairs. He said the Coast Guard (or someone important) had made them quit putting the chairs in that area because it would be a hazard if they ever had to use the lifeboats. I didn’t tell him that I had gotten permission to put the chairs there that morning! As far as I could tell, that was really the only shaded outer deck on the ship and we pulled chairs out again later in the week too!

Knowing how much we would be eating, we all agreed that during the week we would only use the stairs…not the elevator. Being on the lowest cabin deck, this would surely help stave off those unwanted pounds. We were pretty faithful for the first few days…even walking “up” to the Lido deck or higher (6 or 7 decks!) By the end of the week we were pretty much just doing the “down” stairs!

Paradise elevators.

Stairway art.

Besides the stairs, Laurel made up her mind that she was going to keep up her walking habit and do two miles on the jogging track on the Sports deck. She convinced Bob and Kent to go with her that morning, but I was content to lie on my lounge chair and read my book and doze occasionally. I did walk into the atrium once and could see them going round and round up above through the glass dome. I think Bob said it took 11 laps to make a mile.

Looking through the glass ceiling of the atrium, I could see Bob, Kent & Laurel doing their laps.

I was content right here.

I had a list of several things I really wanted to do during the week that I hadn’t done on the last cruise. One was to go in the swimming pool. When the walkers returned they were so hot it didn’t take much convincing to get them to go with me! The pool was much deeper than what I had imagined so Laurel and I just kind of hung onto the sides. Despite being deep (around 4 to 5 feet) it was still a very small pool so there wasn’t much to do and we didn’t stay long.

Prior to the cruise I had been corresponding with several other cruisers whom I had met online through the Cruise Critic website. We had arranged to meet at 11 a.m. on Monday near the pool at the back of the ship. Bob wasn’t too keen on meeting “strangers” but finally consented to go with me. Right away I recognized Debbie since I had seen her picture. A few minutes later Joel and his family showed up and we spent some time yacking and getting to know each other a bit. Eventually Glenn and his two girls came but that was it…there were a few others who had been taking part in the “roll call” posts, but they never made it to the get-together. It was funny because after that we would see Debbie and Glenn almost every day, but I never did see Joel anymore! I’m sure part of the reason was due to the opposite dining times that we had.

We had made plans to meet Kent and Laurel for lunch in the dining room so we hustled to get cleaned up and changed. Between the humidity, salt water, wind, etc., I felt like I spent half of the week just trying to tame my wild hair!! Much of this was wasted effort because one step out onto an open deck and it looked like I didn’t even own a comb! Laurel complained about her hair going limp, but I swear my hair would swell to twice its normal thickness and turn to pure fuzz!

  

Lunch was at our regular table in the Elation dining room, minus our table mates. I really wanted to have a chance to eat lunch in the dining room at least once during the week and knew with the heavy port schedule that it probably would have to be that first day. Bob ordered an oriental steak salad and I had veggie fajitas which were delicious.

  

After lunch, Laurel decided she had had enough sun and joined me on the promenade deck where we had dragged the lounge chairs that morning. Kent and Bob headed back up to the sports deck to try their hand at shuffleboard. As we lay there looking out to ocean, it was obvious…the swells were definitely getting much larger!

Monday night was the first formal night as well as the Captain's "Welcome Aboard Party." Captain Antonio Marchetti and cruise director, Jeff Bronson, were at the door greeting cruisers and posing for pictures as we entered. 

Waiters were circulating and offering drinks and hors d'oeuvres. I rarely have anything to drink, but had one of the complimentary lime daiquiris. After all...I didn't want to offend the captain by  not accepting his hospitality! :) Bob, Kent and Laurel each had a glass of non-alcoholic punch. I assumed it was probably the same stuff that was in the buffet dispensers, but Bob claimed it was much better.

During the party all of the Paradise officers were introduced and then the orchestra played for any who wanted to come on stage to dance. The four of us made our way down the stairs (we were on the upper level of the Normandie) and onto the stage. The orchestra was playing a slow tune, but it might as well have been rock and roll because that’s what the ship was doing!! I can just imagine what a hard time the performers have when the sea is rough because it was a challenge just to do one slow dance. I clung to Bob…if I went down I was bringing him with me!!

Formal night meant “lobster night” on the Paradise. Laurel isn’t a seafood lover so she had the prime rib, but Kent, Bob and I all ordered the lobster tail which was served with “porcini mushroom risotto and broccoli florets”…in fact, Bob and Kent each ordered TWO lobster dinners! Besides the yummy lobster, that night’s menu had several different appetizers that sounded great. Bob and I each ordered the Mississippi Delta Prawns plus I got the wild mushroom rougout and Bob had the roasted pumpkin soup…all were delicious. The salad selection every night consisted of two choices…a mixed garden salad plus one other choice. Tonight we chose the Caesar salad and it was very good. With all of the excellent menu choices, Carnival should make more of an effort to serve interesting salads.

The evening entertainment was a Las Vegas style show entitled “Dream Voyage.” Not wanting to look through a pole, we hustled to get to the Normandie Lounge as quickly as possible. The late dinner folks were still in the lounge enjoying their Captain’s party so we waited by the doors. Once they left, the doors were closed again so all of the debris from the party could be cleaned up. The Paradise gift shop was right next to the door where we were waiting and we shopped a bit to help pass the time. We were told it would take them 30 minutes to do the cleaning, but it couldn’t have been any longer than 10 minutes before the doors opened and people started grabbing the good seats.

The show featured the Paradise dancers and was a montage of songs throughout the years. Neither of the production type shows had changed since our cruise two years ago…only the lead male and female singers were different. I wondered if their costumes had been passed down to them from the former leads…I remember the gal before was very slim and this girl was just a little more “round”…the dresses she wore definitely fit snuggly!! This time the two shows were presented in reverse order. It actually made more sense this way since the music in the two shows were arranged chronologically beginning with the ones in Dream Voyage.

Although it was fun getting dressed up for dinner, all four of us were ready to change once the show was over. The seas were very rough by now and it was fun to try and walk a straight line down the center of the cabin hallway…none of us succeeded! When we got to our cabins, Kent opened his door and exclaimed…”we have animals!!” Sure enough…the first of our nightly towel animals had appeared. From then on there would be one waiting each night along with chocolates on our pillow and a copy of the next day’s Carnival Capers laying on the turned down bed.

We changed into our swimsuits and headed up to the hot tub on the Lido deck. Several teenagers were in the tub too and it was funny to see all of the hormones at work! They were about 15 years old and being a teacher I am well acquainted with this age! They weren’t rude or rowdy so I won’t complain…but I will say there was a lot of flirting going on!

Tomorrow would be our first stop so we headed back to the cabin to get a good night’s sleep. Being in the front of the ship, we felt a lot of movement that night. You could hear the big splash when the ship hit a wave and then a split second later a big “thud” as the ship came back down. This “splash…..thud” went on all night and although I was aware of it, it was also soothing…almost like being rocked to sleep.

Carnival Paradise - Embarkation Day!

Sunday, June 13th – Embarkation Day

Bob, Kent & Laurel walked across the street to a Burger King to get breakfast. Knowing how much food I would be consuming in the following week, I opted for a granola bar and cup of coffee in the room. The three came back talking about some guy who had “appeared out of no where” wanting money from them. Laurel was sure they were close to being mugged, but nothing came of it, thank goodness!

  

I was anxious to see my “Paradise” so as soon as the rest of the crew returned from breakfast we all headed up to the 21st floor once again for a view of the port. Besides the Paradise there was also a Royal Caribbean ship in port, but that was it. 

At 11:00 a.m. we gathered our stuff and went downstairs to get a cab to the port. Once again the bellhop suggested we use the hotel shuttle. I don’t think we really saved any money since it was $4/per person but it did enable the four of us to travel together. There was no way we would have fit into a regular cab with all of our luggage!

The trip to the port was a breeze, especially when compared to our last cruise when the traffic was horrendous!! As we were getting the luggage unloaded from the shuttle I was shocked to see that no one else was around! It sort of gave me a weird feeling like maybe I had gotten my days mixed up or something! But no…there was the Paradise sitting there in all of her glory just waiting on us to board. The porter looked up our cabin numbers on the manifest and even though we had booked "guaranteed cabins" it was no surprise when he said we had cabins R6 and R8. On the back of the Sail & Sign page of our documents was a long code number. The first few digits was our booking number and it was followed by the cabin number. Thanks to the advice of fellow Cruise Critic members, I was able to “break” the code! The porter gave us brown “Forward Riviera” luggage tags to replace the gray TBA tags that we were using.

Heading into the terminal, we sent our carry-on luggage through the x-ray machine and then walked right up to the desk where agents were waiting to check our documents. This took all of maybe 3 minutes and then we were sent upstairs where again we walked right up to the desk and were given our Sail and Sign cards. Immediately I checked to see what dinner time we had been assigned to. Yeah!! We would be eating at 6:15 p.m. in the Elation Dining Room…just what I had requested. A quick check of Kent and Laurel’s cards showed that they would be sharing our table so all was well.

One large room was already filled with waiting cruisers and we were directed to a second room of chairs. We settled in expecting a long wait but soon a staff member came and started dismissing us by rows. First we had a picture taken for the Sail and Sign card and then onto the obligatory “welcome aboard” picture. I looked at my watch and we were walking onboard the ship at 11:50…not bad considering we had left our hotel less than an hour ago!

Kent, Laurel & Bob

It was fun to see Kent and Laurel’s reaction as they entered the impressive atrium of the Paradise…they seemed to be in awe of it all! 

Paradise Atrium 

Glass elevators in atrium.

The information we had been handed requested that we wait until after 1:30 to go to our cabins, but we hoped that maybe we could just drop off our carry-ons before heading to lunch. Having been in the forward part of the ship on our last cruise, it was easy to find the cabins although I was a bit surprised to find out how far forward we really were! It was quite a hike from the elevators through the zig-zagging hallway at the front of the ship! Our cabins were the third and fourth from the very front.

Our cabin steward, Yusef, was just finishing up the cabins when we arrived and said it would be fine to drop off our stuff. This was my first glimpse of a porthole cabin and I was surprised at the large “ledge” that was under the two portholes. This area was probably 3’ by 4’ and was easily large enough to sit in. 

Kent and Laurel had an even bigger surprise in their cabin…a flying fish had landed in their porthole and died! He remained with them for the entire cruise. We joked that some night he might end up being the “catch of the day” for dinner!

We wandered around the ship a bit and eventually ended up in the Paris dining room for lunch. Kent made it through the buffet line but the rest of us headed to the back of the dining room for pizza. It was still as good as I remembered and I enjoyed every bite! Besides the pizza, I also got some Caesar salad from the “pizza man”. He prepared it while I waited and it was fresh and tasted wonderful!

The rest of the afternoon we gave Kent and Laurel a tour of the ship and Bob and Kent managed to get in a quick game of shuffleboard while we were on the sports deck. 

I was curious where our table was in the dining room but when we went to investigate, we were told that they were still in the process of putting numbers on the table. The gal we talked to assured us that we would be sharing a table for 8 by the window and that was good enough for me. We had requested seating at a larger table, but I didn’t want to be at one of the round center tables…I wanted to be by the window! I was looking forward to an ocean view while we ate!

Before we knew it, it was time to don our life jackets and take part in the muster drill. I could feel the sweat dripping down my back as they pushed us closer and closer together on deck, but at least the process didn’t last too long. Knowing the ship would be pulling out shortly, Laurel and I conned Bob and Kent into taking the life jackets back to the cabin while we found a good spot for “sail away”.

By the time the guys got back, Laurel and I were at the extreme front of the ship on the sports deck. What a wonderful feeling to be headed out to sea knowing that the week-long cruise stretched out before us. Laurel even spotted two dolphins swimming alongside the ship as we cruised towards the open water.

As Miami slipped away into the horizon, we headed down to our cabins. The stewards were in the process of delivering the luggage and it wasn’t long until all of our bags were safely in our possession. The great thing about a cruise is that you unpack once for the whole week. The cabins on the Paradise have plenty of storage and it’s easy to find a spot to put everything. There are two closets…one is open with a shelf at the top. The other closet has double doors…one side is designed for hanging clothes and the other side has shelves. This is also where the safe is located. The safe is not very large, but we had no trouble fitting our travel documents, my purse and the digital camera inside. Any card with a magnetic strip can be used to lock the safe. I brought along an old Wal-Mart gift card and it worked fine.

I knew “outside cabins” were supplied with bathrobes on the Paradise, but I wasn’t totally sure if the porthole cabins were considered “outside”. They must be since there were two terry cloth robes hanging in the closet. I guess getting the robes wasn’t as big a deal as I thought. Bob never had his on once and I rarely wore mine. The robes were very heavy and were just too hot to wear, especially when I was running my hairdryer.

I had brought along a small hanging shoe holder that I bought at the Dollar Tree and hung this by the desk. It had a coat hanger type thing at the top and I just slipped this through the grate on the light above. The individual pockets were great for storing stuff like hair products, suntan lotion, sunglasses, etc. The desk itself had several drawers for additional storage.

A bowl of sample sized products was sitting on the sink in the bathroom. It contained things like hair conditioner, disposable razors, Rolaids, Listerine breath strips, toothpaste, etc. Since our last cruise on the Paradise, soap dispensers had been installed in the shower…one was for body wash and the other for shampoo. Small bars of Levor 2000 soap were also provided by the sink. The shower was actually just one end of the bathroom. There was a shower curtain and a small metal strip on the floor to keep the water from overflowing. 

Toilets on a cruise ship are unlike anything I have ever seen before. It is not a chemical toilet like on an airplane. The suction toilet flushes with such force that you definitely don’t want to be sitting on it when you push the button! 

Once unpacked, it was time to head up to the Elation dining room for dinner. Our table was located on the port (left) side of the ship and was near the back of the dining room. Our tablemates were a couple from Kentucky and their 16 year old son and also the wife’s sister who was from Minneapolis. As we talked we discovered that the sister had been on the same flight as us from Minneapolis to Miami. Throughout the week we constantly made an effort to engage them in conversation but all that ever developed was small talk about the day’s activities. Usually they just talked among themselves. I was glad that we were traveling with Kent and Laurel. We had a great time at dinner each night!

Our headwaiter was Chiranjeev from India and assistant waiter, Roberto, was from the Philippines. They made sure to learn our first names that night and called us by name from then on.

Following dinner we explored a bit more and then went to karaoke which was held in the Leonardo Lounge. They were just getting started and Jenny, the girl running the show, was having trouble getting people to sign up to perform. Eventually things got underway and we stuck around to hear several of the singers (who were actually pretty good!) 

The Welcome Aboard show was scheduled for 10:30 so our next stop was the Normandie Lounge. Cruise director, Jeff Bronson, chose several participants from the audience and did humorous interviews with them. Not great entertainment, but not bad. Kent and Laurel learned quickly what we had learned from our previous cruise on the Paradise…there are very few good seats in the Normandie Lounge. We decided to make sure we got there early the next night to get good seats for the first musical production show. None of us wanted to watch around a pole or other obstruction.

Afterwards we checked out the midnight buffet in the Paris Restaurant on the Lido deck but ended up just grabbing a slice of pizza instead. The day ended on the outdoor eating area at the rear of the ship with us enjoying the good food, good friends and a beautiful night at sea! Before going to bed we followed the instructions in the Carnival Caper and set our watches back one hour. We were now on Central Daylight Time just like at home!