What to Expect on a Cruise

Shipboard Life

Shipboard life is lazy! Before you go to bed, put your breakfast order out on the door. We would get a pot of coffee and some danish. Then we'd still go up for a late breakfast in the dining room. You'll find a copy of the Carnival Caper newspaper each night under your door. This will tell you the day's activities and schedule.

Your cabin is made up by your steward. I think it varies depending on who you get. We hardly saw our steward although he did keep the room clean and made up. They do a "turn down" every night with a mint on your pillow. Some people say they really saw a lot of their steward, but we didn't.

We did find a few "towel animals" in our cabin. Some people said they got animals every day and others said they never got any, so again I think it depends on the steward. My only complaint is that on the last full day we asked him to get us two beach towels that we wanted to buy (you can buy the beach towels to take home for $22/each). He told me he would handle it, but we never got them. We never got charged for them either, so no big deal. Overall, the steward did a good job, but compared to the excellent service we had in other areas of the ship, he wasn't the greatest.

In your cabin there are a few sodas, ice, and a 1.5 liter bottle of Evian water. If you open these, they are charged to your account. The Evian is a good deal, and you will probably want to take one ashore with you.

Once you get up and have your coffee, you might want to check out the dining room for breakfast (or the Wheelhouse). There will be a variety of talks, shows, and activities explained in the Caper. During the day, these are typically pretty tame. You can take a dance class, for example. Bingo is a staple (be prepared, it costs $10/card). Gambling is one place where you might want cash. If you buy casino chips or bingo cards with your shipboard account, they charge you a 3% service charge. Cash is cash. Besides, I like to know how much money I am gambling.

There are many places where the ship's photographers will take your picture. You can find your pictures on the Promenade and buy them -- they aren't very expensive, but they do add up. On the other hand, it is free to take the pictures, so go ahead! When you are dressed up, there will be several photographers taking "formal" pictures.

If you are really bored, you can check out the library on the Admiral deck. They have books and games for loan. You can also get Internet access although it isn't cheap. Here's a freebie tip: ask the library if you can borrow a deck of cards. They will give you a deck of Carnival cards and tell you to just keep them! There's a cheap souvenir.

If you are athletic, check out the top most decks. There is a running track, a volleyball court, a basketball goal, and shuffleboard. There's also a gym. On the Lido deck there are a couple of hot tubs and pools. Sunbathing is the major sport, of course. The rear of the ship has the most sun worshippers as well as the area around the pools (where there is usually live or recorded music or some sort of game going on). However, the forward area of the ship is where most of the wind is, so it is cooler. But the only place to lay out forward is the "top optional" deck. This is all the way forward and has plenty of room, no noise, and lots of empty chairs. A good place to read in the sun. There are many people fully clothed there and in fact, I only saw two topless women in the distance while I was on board. If you want the best view forward (but no where to lay out) go to the Empress deck. Go through the corridor with the passenger rooms (and the radio room) and you'll find a door. When you go through that door, you'll immediately find another door. When you go through that door, you'll be as far forward as a passenger can get. Very windy and a great place to get a picture. But the area is small and there aren't any deck chairs.

You can also shop. There is gift shop, a duty free shop, a flower shop, and a few other stores on board. There are a few good deals, but it is mostly what you would expect. On the last full day, you can expect a lot of things to be on sale, so best to put most shopping off until you get back from Mexico.

In the evening, there are more entertainment activities. There are two identical shows (to accommodate those with early or late dinner seatings). These are the usual musical-style shows. I'm not big on these myself, but they were OK. We had two different comics. They would do a short afternoon show that was "clean" (usually in conjunction with some other event) and then they would have a midnight show the next night that was longer and "blue" (that is, off color).

Of course, there is also karaoke, a country band, a rock band (we had a one-man rock band, who was actually impressive). You can hang out at the piano bar. There is a disco, but it played music that was too modern for our tastes. In fact, we were disappointed that there weren't any good dance venues except for the modern disco. Some people danced to the rock guy in the middle of Bourbon Street, but it wasn't the same as having a proper dance floor.

One thing I was disappointed with was the way the passenger talent show was done. I had heard that ships have a passenger talent show and this cruise in fact did have one. I like to tell a joke or two, so I worked up a short bit to do that was cruise-specific. On the day before the show, they published in the Caper that they would audition passengers for the show but they would not consider lip sync acts or comedians! I don't know if they were afraid you'd upstage their comic, or if they were afraid you would bomb and be unhappy. At least, they could have told me earlier so I would not have worked up my material! However, the talent show was quite good. There were some very talented musicians (and even one funny musician) plus a young girl who did a dance routine. You should try to go -- some of the passengers were quite impressive.

Late at night, there is the midnight buffet and there is always some sort of party going on at the Lido deck pool. Usually a host is staging silly party games and playing loud music.

One thing you should not miss is the galley tour. The ship's galley prepares thousands of meals every day (there are three restaurants for passengers, plus five crew messes). The galley is amazing. They said they buy 36,000 eggs per voyage, for example. At the end they will teach you how to fold napkin and towel animals, among other things. They even sell a set of books that show you the recipes they serve, how to carve food, and how to mix their drinks. They sell these for $25. Your waiter will try to sell them to you one night. They will also try to sell them to you at the carved food buffet. We bought a set from the waiter even though I doubt we will ever cook anything like that at home.

So there is plenty to do: gamble, shop, eat, dance, play games, eat, sleep, sun, work out, read, eat. Did I mention you can eat?

Next thing you know, you are in Mexico, which is the subject of the next page.