Caribbean Cruise

I just talked with a friend about my cruise vacation today and I thought why not sharing with my readers? Here you go and hope you can make good use of it.

Back in May of this year, I went on a 7-day Caribbean cruise with my friends and the cruise boat was Carnival Valor. This link shows the exact cruise we joined. We got Ocean view cabin and each of us paid $625 for the cruise. Before I went on the cruise, I thought it would be one of the most boring vacation I would have ever had. Well, I was totally wrong. I have to say it was one of the best vacations I have ever had. Why was it good? First of all, it was super relaxing since we really didn't have to plan for anything other than getting airfare down to Miami, booking the cruise, and booking some tours at port of calls.

To make it even better, the food was pretty much bottomless! I love eating so much and the bottomless food just made me super happy. Mind you, they are not those crappy buffets that you get from college or some Chinese restaurants; they are definitely above (or even way above) average restaurants in most cities. Sit-in dining is a given every night and they serve a 3-course meal - appetizer, entree, and dessert. They have quite a lot of options for non-vegetarians and the best thing is that you can order as many as you want. Any example of food we ordered? Well, to name a few, we had lobsters, tiger shrimps, halibut, steaks, prime ribs, sushi, and all kind of fancy desserts (which I don't care much about since they were too sweet for me). Man, I feel very hungry now after thinking about them. I have pictures of some of the dishes and will post links here eventually.

Where exactly did we go and what excursions did we do? We had four ports of call, Grand Cayman, Roatan (Honduras), Belize, and Key West (it was a replacement for Cozumel because of swine flu). At Grand Cayman, we joined a sailing tour to see the sting rays and to snorkel; sting rays were amazing and the experience was awesome. At Roatan, we joined a private tour to see the islands; we got to see the local people and try out some local fruits. We originally planned to snorkel over there but then it was too wavy so it got canceled. We went hiking in a jungle and chilling out around a beach instead. At Belize, we visited a Mayan ruin and did a river touring (kinda boring though). As for Key West, well, it's in the US so it wasn't that exciting and we just went to a beach to hang out. A piece of advice, it's much better to join a local tour than to join the excursions through the cruise as local tour is usually cheaper and better. Of course, you need to do some research to make sure that the tour has good review (see end of post on how to do that).

A lot of people asked me if it was boring to be on the boat. Let me tell you, not at all. You know, you can always eat when you are bored :). Eating aside, you have a lot of other activities you can choose from. There is a main show every night; it could be a musical/dance show, a magic show, or a stand-up comedy. Other than the main shows, there are some smaller game shows (indoor or outdoor) that you can participate or be a spectator of. For days when you don't have any port of calls, you'll have formal nights - it's a night when you have to dress up for dinner. It was actually pretty fun and it was great for photos. If you want to be more active, there is a gym, a basketball court, and a running track (which is pretty awesome as you are jogging and looking over the ocean). By the way, the cruise boat has 13 levels and it is always fun to explore what's there on each level. To top it off, there are also parties, casinos, and clubs.

Considering how much cheaper it is now, if you haven't cruised before and have the time and money, you should consider taking a cruise. It's totally worth it. Carnival is awesome. If you do decide to plan for a cruise, I highly recommend the Cruise Critics froum. I learned everything from them. Of course, you could always ask me.