Homage to the Towel Animal

Since I didn't feature the towel animals this cruise, they get a post all their own.

Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey...

With the debarkation process on any cruise ship, passengers are given the option of tagging their luggage with their debarking number and sitting it outside their cabin the evening before leaving the ship. The next morning, you leave the ship when your debarking number is called, and your luggage will be waiting for you in the terminal. Since we were on a different deck than the rest of our group, Bib suggested we take our luggage down to their floor and tag it with their numbers so we could all debark at the same time. Carnival had provided us with all of our debarking instructions, and we knew that we would not be able to get off the ship until 8:15am. We set our alarm for 7:30am last night; however, our morning started with a wake up call from Sarah at 6am. (UGH!) We met everyone for breakfast on the Lido deck then headed down to the Encore to wait our turn to leave. By 8:30am we were through customs, and by 9:15am, I took this final photo as we pulled away from our Dream.


We got back to the Residence Inn Cocoa Beach, and we were exhausted. We said goodbye to Annette, Becky, and Pat (who had left their car at our hotel), and headed inside.

Inside the lobby, there were groups of people with their Dream luggage tags waiting for their shuttle to take them to over to board. I was instantly so angry and jealous. Luckily, our room was ready for us, so we didn't have to hang around to watch them leave.

Since our flight isn't until 6:30am tomorrow, we have all day to just relax at the hotel. We watched movies, went to the pool, ordered pizza, and went to bed early. It was the perfect time to just decompress. It already seems like such a long time ago. Maybe it was all a Dream...

It's so hard to say goodbye

I really hate the last full day of a cruise. On one hand, you want to make the most of every minute and do everything you didn't get a chance to do. On the other hand, you know in the back of your mind that you need to get your stuff organized and packed, so there is a dark cloud hanging over the day.

Today started with our final breakfast in the Scarlet dining room. Our new friend, Leslie, joined us. We then spent some time in the photo gallery ordering pictures from the week. We also worked on making a photo book of "The Adventures of Flat Deana." Several weeks ago, Bib had come up with the idea of taking the photos. We had planned to find a Wal-Mart or CVS after we debarked to put the book together as a birthday present for Deana. We had no idea that the Dream would offer the service onboard!
She's laughing...she's crying...I think she liked it.

The afternoon went by in a blur. We had lunch in the Scarlet today, too. Since this was a Sea Day, we knew the Lido would be packed, so we took one final opportunity to have our meals served to us. It was wonderful...so wonderful, in fact, that we skipped the chocolate buffet on the Lido deck.

This cruise recap would not be complete without mentioning Bruce and Bea. They were onboard celebration 62 years of marriage. They were so adorable, and if anyone made the most of this cruise, it was them. They participated in a number of activities...and they loved to dance. It was not unusal to run into them on Ocean Plaza dancing to the Blackjack band. Bruce had some moves!

Here, they are participating in "The Game of Love." The three couples in the picture have been married 62 years, 25 years, and 1 week, repectively. Much like the format of "The Newlywed Game", Butch (our cruise director) would ask the couples questions, and they had to match answers. One of the questions was a fill-in-the-blank. "You haven't seen ugly until you've seen my wife's _____." Bea answered that Bruce better have said nothing. Bruce's answer? "You haven't seen ugly until you've seen my wife's sister, Janice." That's the most perfect answer ever.

When we got to dinner tonight, there was a lovely arrangement of paper flowers as our centerpiece. Our sweetheart, Jason, had made a flower for each of us. Aren't they pretty! Not only were they pretty, but they smelled good, too.


He had sprayed the flowers with his cologne. When we asked him about it, he told us it was called Dark Chocolate.

{Let me fast forward a couple of days. When we got home Sunday afternoon, my mom and I were talking about Jason to my brother and his family. Mom told them about these flowers and that he had sprayed them with "Dark Chocolate." My 14-year old nephew, Jon, piped up and said "Hey...I wear that...it's Axe." HA! He ran upstairs to get the can, and mom and I proceeded to sniff it the rest of the afternoon, while my brother sat and rolled his eyes. In the meantime, Kelley was telling us about the commercial for this product that had a chocolate man that gets torn apart. Check it out. My favorite part is when the girl on the bus takes a bite out of his biscuit.



Everyone has memories that are brought about by scents. We had so many laughs with Jason that the smell of this Axe body spray will forever be ingrained in my mind as the signature scent for this cruise. }

Back to dinner....tonight we celebrated Pat and Sarah's birthday. They showed up for dinner in style. Dinner took a sad turn at the end as we realized it was time to start saying goodbye to Tsvetan, Iputu, and Carolina. Tender-hearted Pam started crying.

Tonight was the Legends show in the Encore theather. This show is made up of fellow cruisers who have been participating in the karaoke shows throughout the week. They perform as their favorite superstar. Here's Butch as Dolly...

Here are two of the entertainment staff as Sonny and Cher.

And for one last time (this trip), we hung out at Ocean Plaza.

Jason hijacked the camera and took this picture of Tami, Linda, Agnes, Louise, Bib, Louise.

Jason and Mom.

It was so hard to say goodbye to our African Violet, Jason. We all wanted to take him home with us. If he ever leaves his job with Carnival, we've all agreed to find him a job in WV. We've tried our best to teach him "hillbilly" this week. Here are a few of the phrases he's tried to master.

"Kiss my crack, and don't come back"

"Don't let the door hit ya' where the good Lord split ya."

"Pert near, but not plumb"

"Up a crick" and "down the holler"

In return, he taught us a few dances. We'll never forget you, Jason! You spoiled us all week.

Costa Maya, Mexico

We're back in Mexico for our final port. Costa Maya was also built specifically as a stop for the cruise ships. This was a new port for me, so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was actually a beautiful place. The dock was pretty long, so there was a trolley ride available to transport passengers to the end of the pier. Costa Maya had the feeling of a "lifestyle mall" (think Easton in Columbus, OH) with the exception that it had saltwater pool with a swim-up bar in the middle of the plaza. There was also a pool area along the coastline with dolphins.

There was an artisian here who personalized rings with a small tool that looked like a hacksaw. Here he is creating a ring for Bib. It took him about 3 minutes to carve her name in the top. (Unfortunately, I didn't get an "after" picture.)

This was a short day at the port, and since all the ports were starting to look alike by now, we headed back to the ship by noon. It was a hot and humid day, so we spent the afternoon lounging at the pool.

For lunch, we tried the pasta bar. Oh my goodness! It's probably a good thing that I didn't find this until so late in the week. It was delicious. The made-to-order pasta bar is an area all to itself on the 11th deck. You start at a hostess station, and she gives you an order form. You can chose the type of pasta, the type of sauce (marinara, bolognese, butter, alfredo), and any add-ins (chicken, broccoli, eggplant, the list goes on), salad, and a roll. It takes a while to get your food, but it is well worth it. Yum!

Tonight was our final Elegant night. The dining staff pulled out all the stops. For the entertainment tonight, we danced to the song "Low" by Flo Rida. Last night, Jason had taught us some of the moves, so Bib and I hopped up and danced along. Jason, of course, came in to dance with us. Unfortunately (NOT!) I don't have pictures of the dancing.

Tsvetan and Iputu (or Sweatin' and PooPoo)

The gangCarolina with Pam and Frankie

Tonight's show in the Encore had a country theme and was called "8 More Seconds." The main two singers in these shows are pretty talented, but the dancing is a little bit cheeseball for my taste. After the show, we went to Ocean Drive to hear Blackjack play. We ran into the Atlanta girls, and they're always good for a lot of laughs.

Tomorrow is our final day at sea. I'm just not ready to say goodbye to this trip.

Roatan, the beautiful

Three cheers for Captain Carlo Querirolo! We made it to Roatan without a hitch, and it was a perfect day. We docked in Roatan around 9:30am. Since our scheduled departure for the beach day wasn't until 11:30am, we didn't rush. This port is entirely new since I was here last, and it is really beautiful.

Mahogany Beach is a man-made beach area that is right by the new port. They've built a ski-lift contraption called the "Magical Flying Beach Chair" to transport people to the beach.

We opted to go to Tabyana Beach. It was a 30 minute bus ride (because we went the long way around the island), but it was well worth the effort. All 9 of us spent the day here. There were plenty of chairs under the shade of the palm trees, island music being played nearby, shallow and clear water, and snorkleing right off the beach. It was so amazing to walk out to waist-deep water and have hundreds of beautiful fish swimming all around you. There were no waves here, so it was very easy to just sit in the sand at the edge of the water.

About mid-day, I arranged a water taxi to take Bib, Mom, and myself to the West End area to do some shopping for mahogany. Unfortunately, getting into the water taxi (little boat) proved to be a little difficult for mom, so she headed back to the others to catch the bus back to ship. I was disappointed for her because I wanted for her to see this area of Roatan, but it wasn't easy for me to get into the water taxi, either, so I completely understood her decision.

This is a restaurant in West End that I visited on my first trip. This area looked the same, and I was able to easily find the little mahogony shop. It looks like someone needs to mow the water. You'd never know the water is about 8 ft. deep here. This is the Norwegian Spirit. When we got closer, I realized it was docked at the "old" port I was expecting at Roatan. The Dream's baby brother, Valor, was also in Roatan with us.

I've just visited my favorite place in the world, so what could make it better?? My favorite Carnival dessert....bitter and blanc bread pudding. Unlike the warm chocolate melting cake (also a favorite), the bread pudding is offered only one night. It was totally worth the wait. Here is a picture taken before they added the warm white chocolate. Mmmm.....

Tiramisu was also on the menu tonight. I didn't try it, but it was a crowd favorite.

We were pretty pooped from a long day, but we soldiered on. There was no show tonight, so (almost) everyone went to bed early. Jason wanted us to meet one of his friends on the ship, Tanya, who is a bar waiter in the Rendevous Bar. The Rendevous is a small quiet bar designed for people who want to have an actual conversation. It was the size of my family room and had nice leather arm chairs and banquettes and one large TV. Besides Tanya, there was one other older couple there. We found out Tanya is also from Bulgaria and knows Tsvetan (our head waiter) and his wife. We chatted with Tanya for about an hour, and we asked her 20 questions about life on board a Fun Ship. She has been with Carnival for 14 years and is usually on board for 9 months at a time. Her boyfriend is Ante is the maitre'd in Scarlet (downstairs) and ends everynight's showtime peformance by saying "Let's have more fun....fun, fun, fun!" He came in as we were leaving, so it was fun, fun, fun meeting him.

Tonight at 11:30pm, there was laser light show with a Mexican buffet on the Lido deck. Of course, we had to check it out. We didn't eat anything, but it smelled pretty good. Here are a couple of (lousy) shots of the laser show.

Tomorrow, it's back to Mexico.