Sea-Sick PART 4 Test Cruise 8/23-26 First Time 1 Adult, 2 Teens
Got up, showered and ate a quick breakfast and we were out the door at 10:30 am to take a shuttle to the port. It was 2 miles away and you could see the ship from the hotel. I can’t believe how big it is! I mean it is really big! We checked in just like at an airport and it wasn’t busy at all. I’m glad people recommended to get there early because it did pick up a lot later on. We took a few pictures and waited for the second boarding group to be called. It is a very impressive ship and we can’t wait to get on. On a side note DN was able to find a swimsuit that suited his tastes at the hotel gift shop. We also stocked up on sunblock, Immodium AD, and Pepto just in case. I also still have my dramamine but I forgot to get some ginger. It’s a little windy and it’s supposed to be on and off storms the entire trip so it will be a good test for my motion sickness.
Wow what a day! There is just too much to write about. The cruise is incredible and I can’t believe it took this long to go! Once we started boarding a man ran up and asked if the bracelet he found was ours. DN recognized it and said thanks. Good thing it wasn’t his cell phone like at scout camp! Oh wait, the other DN can’t find his cell phone! We had just passed through the security and just stepped onto the ship when he realized he didn’t have it anymore. So we left the ship and searched where we were sitting. We looked for about 15 minutes and were starting to give up when I noticed an employee holding something in her hand and looking around. Sure enough she had it so we were able to board for good this time. (Don’t worry DN’s Mom, I will tie them together in the Bahamas). We ate at the Beach Blanket Buffet and it was very good.
We then changed our dining time from 5:30 to 8:30 so we could eat more (eat a earlier light dinner) and stay in port longer if we wanted to. We than walked the entire ship to find where everything was. It is really clean and nice. DS would be so happy. There are gel sanitizers EVERYWHERE! They even hand them out to everyone as you walk in to eat.
The boys decided to stop and play shuffle board for a little bit, since our room would not be ready until 1:30pm.
We arrived in our room and it is also really nice. It is a lot bigger than I expected and is very clean. The queen turns into two twins so we have three twin beds. There is a ton of drawers and storage but only two plugs.
At 4:30 I had a nice hour massage while the boys visited the arcade and checked out the ship. After we met up and got a second lunch and played ping pong. Next was the Hercules musical show. It was a lot better than I expected. It was really funny and well put together. I’m sure the boys enjoyed it (I caught them laughing a lot) but if you ask them I’m sure they will say it was just ok. After the show we did a little shopping. Family bingo was starting so we checked it out and didn’t even come close to winning anything. By this time dinner was about to start. We still had 20 minutes and we were really hungry so I got half a bratwurst and the boys got chicken strips. I felt like DD and DS asking everyone what they were ordering and ordering something different or telling them to order something. After our pre-dinner dinner we ate our actual dinner. It was great. DN14 loved the cold papaya soup and wanted it for desert. Our servers are really good and funny. I could have done without the Happy Birthday song but it was nice. At least it wasn’t like Macaroni grill and sung in opera!
After dinner we shopped some more and then DN’s went to their age areas to just check them out. DN12 came back right away because the age group is 8-12 and he said there were not really any kids his age. DN14 has been gone for over an hour so I guess he is having fun!
So here is the sickness update. Right when I walked on the ship I got a slight motion sickness headache. But it was completely mental. The ship is dead still while in port. It was weird because I knew we weren’t moving but I was on a ship so my body instantly did what it normaly does. We actually started going while I was getting a massage so I didn’t hear the horn or feel it moving. Once I stepped out of the room I felt it. My headache got a little worse but was still not bad at all. I was fully functional and just had a slight headache. I was on the verge of starting to get sick for a few hours but I think I’m going to be ok. There were a few times I stumbled a step or two but the motion is really really slow so I think that helps. There are thunderstorms all around us and it rained a bit but it’s been pretty good. I did hear one castmember say that it is rocking a little more than normal. Overall I have just had a slight headache and I think I will make it. I am just taking Dramamine so we’ll see if it keeps working. Tomorrow I am doing a run so we’ll see if that screws me up. Our room is in a perfect location. I can barely feel the ship moving at all and it is very very nice to just sit on the balcony and look at the ocean. The boys aren’t getting sick at all so, so far so good!
Things to do next time or things I’m glad I did. Bring highlighters to mark the Navigators. There is way too much information to remember. I’m glad I brought a magnet for the door. It does add a little something and helps to remember what room we are. I have only three things to plug in and I thought for sure they would have at least two outlets with two plugs each but they only have one! And they are side by side instead of on top of each other so my plug blocks both! So next time I will remember to bring a power outlet. Two other bits of information. I get wireless internet in my room (They say you can get it in most public areas, guest staterooms and all open areas on decks 9 and 10). I also have cell phone service. My cingular bars say “cellular at sea” and I usually have full bars. I can still make calls and text message from the ship. I will try to update more often but we are very busy so we’ll see!
:thumbsup:
FINAL(LY) REPORT 1 of 2 Sea-Sickness Test Cruise 8/23-26 1 Adult, 2 Teens
Yes, I am alive and I did survive! It was fantastic. Sorry it has taken a month to update. I also have picture blog I was doing and that took all of my free time, which was not much. I was also having hosting problems with it. The day after I got back, I started my last semester of college so that has taken up the rest of the time. If you would like pictures than IM me and I can give you the blog link.
Day 2 – Nassau, Bahamas.
This morning I had a Body Composition Analysis. It would tell you your optimal weight, fat percentage, metabolism, etc. It turned out to be a $30 sales pitch rip off. The guy was telling me how I’m a toxic waste dump and I need to spend $270 to get rid of it and I also need to turn vegetarian. It was such a rip-off but I got my revenge. He pitched his “toxic waste” for about 25 of the 30 minute “analysis”. He said that when your water percent is below 65% your in danger and your body fat should be under 20%. So, he attaches the electrodes and the results pulled every last bit of wind out of his sails. It recommended I loose 0 pounds and said I was 9% body fat +/- 2% (I still think that is way too low) and said my water percentage was 64.8%! He didn’t say much after that and I left. So to celebrate not needing to loose weight I made sure to eat everything! And as you will see, I did just that.
The ship got to port about 9am and we were allowed to disembark at 9:45am. We ate breakfast at 9:30 at Parrot’s Cay buffet and it was very good. We got off at about 10:20 and it was already packed everywhere. There were two other ships in port and there were many people. We needed to get to Comfort Suites next to the Atlantis resort. We entered the port terminal and it was a chaotic nightmare. I had no clue what was going on and before I knew it I was on a taxi van headed to Atlantis for $4 a person. I was warned on various sites to bring small change because the taxis do not make change and I had a ton but I forgot it, so I had to pay $20 for a $12 fare. Next time I will just leave the terminal and try to find a real taxi. There was a lot of traffic and it took about 15-20 minutes just to go a few miles. They dropped us off at the Atlantis and we had to walk about 15 minutes in the heat to get to the Comfort Suites (Hence the reason I will take a taxi straight there the next time) We checked in and paid and then walked all the way back to the Atlantis. My #1 piece of advice for the Atlantis is GET A MAP! It is the most horribly designed park for movement and convenience of getting around. The ONLY place to get a map is at the front desk. The place is huge and we walked in three huge circles for about 30 minutes before we found the locker rentals. We also had to find a towel distribution place to get our wristbands. Finally, we were able to play in the water. The Atlantis is incredibly beautiful. I was very impressed with the rides and how nice everything was. If it were not for the confusion in getting around, I would give it at least a 9 or 10.
We left the Atlantis at about 4pm and were very tired. It was very hot, humid, and sunny. I do not know if my motion sickness was acting up but I had a huge headache every time we walked up stairs. It was fine just walking around and floating in the river but if I took more than three steps up or down my head would start pounding. I did forget my sunglasses, (that may have caused the headache) so I bought a pair of chepo’s. We then did a little shopping and all the reviews about downtown are correct. This place is really junkie. If you ever come here do anything but shop in downtown. It is the tourist trap of all tourist traps and everything looks like it is about to fall apart or going out of business. If you lived near a Kmart that closed down and went in when they selling off everything you know what I am talking about. Some may like it but you can tell my view. We found some cheepo gifts and than boarded the ship. We ate our second lunch and played ping-pong and I won a broken laser in the arcade while the boys played air hockey. There is this prize game where you stop some bars on top of each other and try to reach the top. It is a little difficult but by the end of three days, there were virtually no prizes left. I won the major prize after about 5 times (about $5) they did have an iPod Shuffle (only 1) but I did not try the game until later and by then it was gone! I decided to go to the show and the boys wanted to play ping-pong again. The show was really good. In a way, it was little like fantasmic in the sense that it was a bunch of short clips of Disney movies. After that, I decided to hit the gym again (I ran a few miles on the 4th deck but it got too hot) and did a great workout. I really like their setup. I then spent about 20 minutes in the Tropical Rain Forest Sauna. It was very hot but very relaxing. I will definitely come back here. Nice showers, and very relaxing. I ran back to the room and met up with the boys to head to dinner. Since the pirate party was that evening, we each got pirate bandanas to wear and surprisingly the boys and a lot of other people wore them the entire dinner. One family of four was decked out in full pirate costumes including a stuffed parrot on the shoulder!
Ok, so dinner was a pig-out. What better way to celebrate loosing a lot of weight than by adding about 5 back on! I ordered Vichyswa (I have no clue how to spell the cold soup), salad, Shrimp, and Escargot for starters. For Dinner I had herbed Halibut meal AND the scallop meal. In the scallops meal I only ate the scallops so there was still a lot left on the plate but I still ate a ton. For dessert, I had the white chocolate dome and the Soufflé. It was so much food but it was worth it. The boys didn’t eat too much so I made sure to finish their filet (Tyler) and Duck (Fon). Jonathan tried the escargot and didn’t really like it and Tyler decided to pass. After dinner, we went to watch the pirate party and the fireworks. And guess what I happened to find but a DESSERT BAR!!!!
Tyler passed on dessert. Hmmm. I have only two hands, with Tyler not getting any that will give me Four Hands! So I had two plates of dessert! I took a few bites of each dessert but it was probably equal to about 3-4 full pieces of cake!
The seasickness is going very well. I feel a little tipsy on land but on the ship, I have absolutely no problems!
Things for next time. In Bahamas stay on ship, or take a specific taxi to Atlantis. Don’t forget power strip. Play prize game earlier to get an iPod. Use rainforest room everyday. Don’t do BCA. Arrive at Atlantis as early as possible. Buy boys a ping-pong table.
Rest of Report Continues on Part 2!:thumbsup:
FINAL(LY) REPORT 2 of 2 Sea-Sickness Test Cruise 8/23-26 1 Adult, 2 Teens
Day 3 – Castaway Cay
Wow, this is a great place! I woke up earlier than the boys did so I went to the beach to check things out. I found a great place with lounge chairs that had trees in front and behind. This way we would have shade the whole day. I left my shirt there, bought a nice, big, and colorful blanket from the little store, and left it there too. I than swam a little bit and went back to the ship to pick/wake up the boys. They were a little slow and our first thing was the stingray encounter. I did not realize that it is a bit of a walk so we barely made it. They were a little bugged at the rush but it was worth it. Ty has a big fear of snorkeling and water but he did very well. We teased him for the first ten minutes and then we were nice to him. You stand in knee-deep water and there are tons of stingrays swimming all around you. Occasionally they would brush up against you and no one was scared, except ty. We were a little mean but every few minutes we would rub our feet on the back of his and he would flip around really fast. He’s 12 so it didn’t scar him too bad, hopefully. After we fed the rays, we swam around for about a half an hour and took many pictures. After that we rented the bikes and rode around the island (we got the stingray, bikes, snorkel, and float package. I think it’s the extreme package) It was very hot but it really was a lot of fun. Be advised that there is no bathroom on the trails. They are not too far from everything but I barely made it. I was at the end of the bike trail, maybe a mile or two (?), and had the strongest urge to go. I couldn’t just find a bush because the leaves were too tough for what I needed. So I rode faster than ever in my life and barely made it.
Lunch just started so we ate and it poured for about 5 minutes and than was nice again. Lunch was very good and easy.
Next, we went snorkeling at the beach. It was very low key and nice. Ty was done with snorkeling so he just relaxed. We went from buoy to buoy and looked at all the sunken items. Fon was eaten by the life vest rubbing against his neck but I was ok because of my rash guard.
After that, we went back to the boat. There was only one line to get on and it was very long. A group of us noticed another door open at the very end of the dock, one brave man, and his son, walked all the way down and disappeared in the door, never to be seen again. So, the boys and me took our chance, as well as three other people. So us six walked all the way down and it was a normal boarding area. Then we waved to the half hour line to come to the “new” door and not one person came! Oh well. Once on board we showered, changed, and did a little shopping. I went to see the Golden Mickey’s show (excellent) and the boys did…. of course, Ping-Pong! We met up at dinner and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed, but expected a little more. We ate at Animators Palette and I have heard rave reviews. It was neat but I think I expected too much. I did change color but I thought it would have been more like a gradual thing where everything, including the tablecloth, changed to color. Granted a lot did change but as I said, I guess I was expecting way too much. The food and service were, of course, exceptional. Mariano and Antonio(?) were excellent servers and really got the boys to open up. Seasickness today was non-existent. I think I got my sea legs. I never felt the boat move, not even when leaving port, and never got sick on, or off, sea.
Things to Know – Do stingray as early as possible. After we were done, the water was way too cloudy to snorkel in. Go to the bathroom before a bike ride. Get to the beach extra early, be first if you want a hammock. Try to snorkel before it gets too late. The tide (small) or wind came in the afternoon and it made it a little harder to swim. Wear a rash guard if snorkeling or for Stingray adventure. The vests can give you a very bad rubbing and rash guards also have SPF qualities. Each lunch right when it opens or at the end. The lines were pretty good the entire time but were a bit shorter at the beginning and end. Realize there are three doors (at least for us) when you get on the ship. The first is for supplies and crew, the second was a boarding door for guests and way down on the other end of the ship is another door for guests.
Last Day – Kicked to the curb
Breakfast was way too early but what can you do. Packing the night before was a little annoying because we ran out of room and had to buy a piece of luggage and still barely fit everything. Disembarking took about 30 minutes and was pretty confusing but painless. Once of the ship you wait in a long line and enter immigration/customs. Disney definitely had no say in decorating this place. It was like a warehouse or garage. You had no clue what you were doing or where to go when suddenly you found yourself kicked to the curb, vacation over. We had to wait for 45 minutes for our sedan (My guess was wrong on what time we would get off the ship) and to our surprise, it was a Limo! We had a very nice and comfortable ride to the airport watching Chicken Little and drinking sodas. We were delayed at the airport for 2 hours and missed our connecting flight. It was the last flight so we were going to have to stay the night. Luckily the person at the ticket counter found a flight that would go to LA then to Reno that the gate people AND the telephone service missed (stupid airlines, good thing I tried a third time). We had literally five minutes to go back through security and run to our gate. We were very lucky because the security was absolutely empty and our gate was only three away from security. We made it on the flight and were almost home. After that Fon got sick but we did make it home at about midnight (3am Eastern) and poor Fon had to get up at 5:00am for seminary! My “sea sickness” was a little bad today. Not on the ship but off it. I felt like I was moving the whole time and my headache came back. Eventually by evening, it went away but for about three hours I didn’t feel that good. Overall though I would do it again in a heartbeat. The seasickness effects were minimal and I know I can know go on the seven day!
Things to Know. Even if everything fits in a small suitcase, bring a bigger one. Bring a power strip. Make sure you get in the correct line in customs/immigration (For us it was the left one. Use Disney transportation back to the airport (everyone else had to wait on the curb in the heat), or drive yourself. Make sure you have three hours between connecting flights (I though two would be ok, stupid me). Remember to bring ginger and pack Advil on the carry-on. Try not to cry going home!
It was an incredible, albeit short, trip. I will definitely go on the seven day this February. If you have any questions, or if anything is not clear, let me know and I will try to help. :party:
