Day 1 – At the port (re-boarding ship)

It wasn’t until the day before the end of my first week before I decided to extend my vacation for another week. I went to the purser’s desk Friday evening however it was too late for them do to anything about it. When I left the ship on Saturday, I proceeded directly to the check-in area to try to re-book for the next cruise. It was 9:30 when I made it to the check-in area. I was told they would not be able to help me until they received the list from Carnival, which would be around 11:00am. A woman working there told me to have a seat and wait. Sure enough, around 11:00 she found me and told me they only had one cabin left. I excepted the cabin and re-booked. They charged me what they would have for a normal cruise, basically no discount. However i did get a 4A cabin for the 1A price. At first they were going to charge me the 4A price, then they called Carnival and they gave it to me for the 1A price.
The first week i paid the 1A price and got a 4C cabin, so the first week’s cabin was slightly better (larger drawers and side-by-side beds). However, I was just glad to be back on the ship.
Actually i was lucky, someone had inquired about the cabin the day before but they never booked. After i payed for the cabin, the people showed-up at the terminal and tried to get the cabin. Of course it was already sold and they were pissed about not being able to get on this ship. They should have booked while they had the chance.
As they say: 'You snooze, you loose'.


Day 2 – Nassau - Salt Cay, Bahamas

The ship docks in Nassau and you can do things in Nassau or take a tender to Salt Cay.
Salt Cay (pronounced ‘Key’) is Carnival’s private island. It is also known as the Blue Lagoon since this is where they filmed the movie.

Glass Bottom boat
I had to get up early in the morning to be ready in time for the first tour on the glass bottom boat. The have a second tour however, I wanted to go to Salt Cay later that morning. By going on the glass bottom boat early, I was able to be back in time for the 10:30 tender to the island. This is the last tender to the island. The glass bottom boat tour was interesting. As the boat left the pier, we passed by many homes of well know people along with other points of interest. The guides on the boat spoke about many of the sites. After about 20 min, we arrived at the spot they use to view the fish. They split us into two groups and we went down into the bottom of the boat to look through the glass at the fish. While we were down below, the crew would through bait over the side of the boat in order to attract the fish. We saw many fish of different types. While the second group was viewing the fish, we went up on the top deck and enjoyed the scenery. From there we could see some fish in the water as well as a stingray jumping out of the water. We were told the rays jump out of the water when there is a shark around and they are trying to elude the shark. When finished, the boat returned to the pier where we directly proceeded to the tender.

Sting Ray Ally
After about a 45-minute ride on the tender, we arrived at Salt Cay. Salt Cay is a very nice looking island with a beautiful lagoon in the middle of it. Some of the crew from the ship had prepared a lunch, which was served ‘buffet style’ under a thatch-roof building. The Stingray snorkel wasn’t until 1:00pm so I had plenty of time to eat and relax for a while before swimming.
The area is fenced in so there was no worry about sharks. There were many fish there (along with the rays of course). They had a small sunken boat, which attracted many of the fish. I had a really good time. I went in February, so the water was cold but you got use to it right away. I had not been snorkeling in a long time and it took a few minutes to get use to it again (my lungs just didn’t want to breath in). They have someone there you can get food from the feed the rays. It was neat to have them eat right out of your hand (watch your thumbs). Watch out for the fish as well, they like to steal the food from your hand before the rays get it. One fish grab the food from me and I had to grab it back out of the fish’s mouth. You wear these life jackets that you can inflate by blowing into them. This made it very easy to just float there and watch everything swim by. The hard part was getting all the air out of them so you could dive down and swim along side of the rays and chase the fish (no fins). Apparently the rays are not as large as they are in other places, but I still thought they were pretty good sized (about 3+ feet around).
One thing I thought was very nice... The person there had picked one up of the rays (a small one) so people could pet it. These two little girls came over and the guy let them hold the ray while he went and got some food for it. You should have seen the look on their faces, they were having such a great time holding and petting this ray. I bet it was the highlight of their whole trip.


Day 3 – Fun day at sea


Day 4 – St. Thomas / St. John

The port of St. Thomas
The port of St. Thomas is very pretty. The island rises to almost 1000 feet out of the sea. Green hills dotted with houses and a harbor filled with colorful boats.

Beginners Scuba Dive
After arriving in St. Thomas, we left the ship and boarded an open sided tour bus. The bus wound its way through the hills to the top of the highest peak and then down to the other side of the island. Eventually we arrived at the place to go scuba diving. Across from the cove we could see the island of St. John. The first thing we did was to learn the different hand signals we would need for a safe dive. After our mini lesson, we turned over are Sail & Sign cards as a down payment for the scuba gear. We proceeded down to the beach were we put on our gear and prepared to enter the water. After entering the water, we stayed in the shallow water for a while to get used to the equipment. Finally we started to swim into deeper water. We had to always keep an eye on the instructor, as she would constantly motion use as to our status. There really wasn’t as much under the water to see as I would have expected. Also, we spent so much time preparing for the dive that we didn’t get to spend more than 40 minutes or so in the water. After the dive, we returned out equipment, picked up our S&S cards and headed back to the ship. When I got back to the ship, I took a shower and decided just to relax for the rest of the day.


Day 5 – St. Maarten

The Port
St, Maarten looked very similar to St. Thomas. After 11 days and 6 ports, I decided not to do anything in St. Maarten. I spent the day catching up on some sleep and taking pictures of the ship.
Click here if you would like to see some pictures of St. Thomas and St. Maarten.

Day 6 – Fun day at sea



Day 7 – Fun day at sea



Day 8 – Back to port

Once again, we arrived in port around 7:00am. The ship was cleared through customs by 8:30.
Debarkation was the same as the week before however, this week my tag color was not called until 10:30.
After leaving the terminal, you can take a shuttle to the airport. I had drove there so I just rolled my luggage to my truck and left the parking lot. I felt very sad having to end my cruise and, having a very long drive home, made the trip home even more depressing.

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