So spring break 2017 has arrived. The kids have already been off since last Friday (4/7) staying with their grandparents enjoying the fun of not having to go to school while mom and I still plugged away at work! It was time for us to have a little time off too! We had decided that this would be a great time to take a little family vacation. We try to travel together as much as we can throughout the year so this just happened to be a perfect opportunity. After tossing around a few ideas here and there we decided on a cruise. We enjoy taking cruises and they have finally brought a cruise ship back to home-port in Mobile AL so why not take advantage of it! However this cruise turned out to be more than we could have imagined.
(Picture of the Carnival Fantasy as I was leaving work)
It all started the moment I was leaving work on 4/13. Since the cruise ship is home-ported here now, I was able to go in to work for a few hours, then leave to change and go board the ship. I arrived home around 11:30 a.m.. My wife (Debbie) had the luggage all packed, our dog (Belle) dropped at the vet for boarding, and the kids (Reagan and Harrison) were all excited ready to go. I changed quickly and off we went. The cruise terminal is only about a 10 minute drive away from our house but the moment we exited I-10 we hit a stand still. I mean the traffic was not moving AT ALL! After getting to the ship, we noticed that we had to cross some railroad tracks. We now suspect it was a train that had held us up. No matter though, we had arrived!
We always try to sign up for Faster To The Fun when going on Carnival cruises, or anything similar with other cruise lines and this time was no different. (It cost about $50 a room, but I would call it a MUST HAVE!!!) We parked on the upper level of the parking garage which did not have a roof but that didn't matter to us. We also parked right beside the elevator which could not have been any better than if we had parked in the #1 spot on the 1st floor. We unloaded our luggage and stepped right onto the elevator which took us down to the first floor where a woman was waiting to point us in the right direction. With our Faster To The Fun she directed us to a security baggage check line that had nobody in it. The other lines had a good bit of people in them and the lines were growing fast. But not ours! 😊 As we stepped up to the security check everything went smooth as usual until they saw my pocket knife in our backpack. haha You would have thought Debbie thought I was going to jail. haha There was no problem though. I believe the rules are a 3" blade or less. The supervisor had me remove it from the bag, looked at it and immediately said it was OK. We passed though and headed straight to the ship while our luggage stayed behind to be placed at our room door by the cruise staff. From the time we parked until the time we were stepping onto the ship was probably roughly 20 minutes. We knew luggage would take a little time to arrive to our room so we carried the kids swimming clothes in a carry on bag and had them change into them right when we got on board in our room. We went topside to let the kids swim and stuff but they wanted to just kind of hang out with us for a little while.
(Picture taken of the ships I work on as well as my work site)
Once we got up top, Debbie and I both grabbed a drink and found a table that we could all sit at and just get more excited that we were about to head out on a cruise to Cozumel. I called my co-workers and told them to look outside that I was standing there with my drink toasting them! They weren't as excited about that as I! lol
So the ship was expected to get underway at 4 p.m.. The kids finally decided they were ready to get started with their fun. Debbie and I found a couple of lounge chairs and the kids started playing on the ships slides.
(Picture of the slides and lounge area)
The kids were having a great time and Debbie and I were finally starting to relax after a few very hard weeks when an announcement came across the intercom system. They stated that there was a problem with our propulsion system and that we would not be able to go to Cozumel. 😞 They also said that they were trying to get us approval for a Cruise To Nowhere and would let us know something at 7 p.m
Carnival said any passenger that wanted to cancel their cruise could depart with a full refund, however if you stayed for the Cruise To Nowhere you would receive 50% discount on this cruise, $50 dollars on each room card (4 of us = $200), and 50% off on a next cruise. WOW not a bad deal at all.
I had never even heard of a Cruise To Nowhere but had it explained that it meant the ship would just get underway and basically do circles out in the Gulf Of Mexico for a couple of days and then come back in at our scheduled return time.
7 p.m. came and so did the announcement. We had gotten approval to go on our Cruise To Nowhere at 9 p.m.. There were quite a few very upset and disappointed passengers that we watched leave but Debbie and I said what the heck, they have offered us a great deal and we weren't overly upset that we couldn't go to Cozumel again. We've been there a few times so just cruising for a few days would have been just fine with us!
So now that we knew we were getting underway we decided to go ahead and head down to have dinner. We had Yourtime dinning which means we can just show up between 5:45 and 9:45 (I think) and they will sit us and we can eat. With Yourtime you also don't sit at the same table every night. Dinner was good, we all got stuffed. We went back topside at 9 p.m. so we could watch as we got underway. After we were moving down the channel heading out into Mobile Bay we decided to go ahead and head inside and get settled into our room for the night.
Day 2 started with Debbie wanting to sleep in! lol She earned it, so the kids and I got dressed and headed down to the breakfast buffet. I love breakfast so it was a very good meal. After eating we went back to the room to wake Debbie up. After she had gotten her shower and dressed we headed out to explore the ship. It's one of Carnivals smaller ships so it didn't take long to figure out where everything was located.
(Picture of the mid-ship where the pools and hot-tubs are.)
As lunch started to approach, we decided to get a little head start to get in line. Everyone talks about Guys Burger Joint, and we had heard the line forms quickly, so a head start didn't sound bad. Good thing we did too, the rumors were right, lol the line did start forming quickly. Lunch was really good though. We all had the burgers and fries and they really were good.
(Picture of a cheese burger with chili, lettuce, mayo, mustard and bacon with fries)
After lunch we checked Harrison into the Kids place where he did arts/crafts and video games while Reagan stayed with us. We feel a lot more could have been done with the kids place. I know it's a smaller ship, and these are geared towards the grownups but... Reagan hit the pool and slides again which means Debbie and I got to just lounge around being lazy some more! Ahh so rough! While relaxing an announcement came across the system stating that they had fixed our propulsion system but we still could not make it to Cozumel due to time constraints, however they got us approval to pull into Key West FL. Oh My Goodness! We got all these apologetic benefits from Carnival and now on top of that they are taking us to a port we haven't ever been to!
Day 3 arrived with our excitement that we were about to pull into Key West!
(Picture of the port of Key West!)
We only had 5 hours to spend in Key West before we had to leave. That doesn't sound like much but once we heard we were pulling in Debbie went to the shore excursions desk on the ship and signed us up for what was called the Hop On Hop Off trolley tour. This was a GREAT excursion to go on. It had 8 stops that you could get on and off at at your leisure. Each time you got off another trolley would come by every 15 minutes. The drivers of the trolleys were very knowledgeable and made the tour very interesting. If you ever go to Key West on a cruise I highly recommend this tour! We saw many very interesting sites on this tour like the southern most point in the United States.
(Picture of the Southernmost point in the Continental United States)
The line was crazy long to get our photo with this buoy but well worth the history. They also had a huge statue of the famous photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays a U.S. Navy Sailor grabbing and kissing a stranger, a woman in a white dress, on Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day) in New York City's Times Square on August 14, 1945.
It all started the moment I was leaving work on 4/13. Since the cruise ship is home-ported here now, I was able to go in to work for a few hours, then leave to change and go board the ship. I arrived home around 11:30 a.m.. My wife (Debbie) had the luggage all packed, our dog (Belle) dropped at the vet for boarding, and the kids (Reagan and Harrison) were all excited ready to go. I changed quickly and off we went. The cruise terminal is only about a 10 minute drive away from our house but the moment we exited I-10 we hit a stand still. I mean the traffic was not moving AT ALL! After getting to the ship, we noticed that we had to cross some railroad tracks. We now suspect it was a train that had held us up. No matter though, we had arrived!
We always try to sign up for Faster To The Fun when going on Carnival cruises, or anything similar with other cruise lines and this time was no different. (It cost about $50 a room, but I would call it a MUST HAVE!!!) We parked on the upper level of the parking garage which did not have a roof but that didn't matter to us. We also parked right beside the elevator which could not have been any better than if we had parked in the #1 spot on the 1st floor. We unloaded our luggage and stepped right onto the elevator which took us down to the first floor where a woman was waiting to point us in the right direction. With our Faster To The Fun she directed us to a security baggage check line that had nobody in it. The other lines had a good bit of people in them and the lines were growing fast. But not ours! 😊 As we stepped up to the security check everything went smooth as usual until they saw my pocket knife in our backpack. haha You would have thought Debbie thought I was going to jail. haha There was no problem though. I believe the rules are a 3" blade or less. The supervisor had me remove it from the bag, looked at it and immediately said it was OK. We passed though and headed straight to the ship while our luggage stayed behind to be placed at our room door by the cruise staff. From the time we parked until the time we were stepping onto the ship was probably roughly 20 minutes. We knew luggage would take a little time to arrive to our room so we carried the kids swimming clothes in a carry on bag and had them change into them right when we got on board in our room. We went topside to let the kids swim and stuff but they wanted to just kind of hang out with us for a little while.
Once we got up top, Debbie and I both grabbed a drink and found a table that we could all sit at and just get more excited that we were about to head out on a cruise to Cozumel. I called my co-workers and told them to look outside that I was standing there with my drink toasting them! They weren't as excited about that as I! lol
So the ship was expected to get underway at 4 p.m.. The kids finally decided they were ready to get started with their fun. Debbie and I found a couple of lounge chairs and the kids started playing on the ships slides.
The kids were having a great time and Debbie and I were finally starting to relax after a few very hard weeks when an announcement came across the intercom system. They stated that there was a problem with our propulsion system and that we would not be able to go to Cozumel. 😞 They also said that they were trying to get us approval for a Cruise To Nowhere and would let us know something at 7 p.m
Carnival said any passenger that wanted to cancel their cruise could depart with a full refund, however if you stayed for the Cruise To Nowhere you would receive 50% discount on this cruise, $50 dollars on each room card (4 of us = $200), and 50% off on a next cruise. WOW not a bad deal at all.
I had never even heard of a Cruise To Nowhere but had it explained that it meant the ship would just get underway and basically do circles out in the Gulf Of Mexico for a couple of days and then come back in at our scheduled return time.
7 p.m. came and so did the announcement. We had gotten approval to go on our Cruise To Nowhere at 9 p.m.. There were quite a few very upset and disappointed passengers that we watched leave but Debbie and I said what the heck, they have offered us a great deal and we weren't overly upset that we couldn't go to Cozumel again. We've been there a few times so just cruising for a few days would have been just fine with us!
So now that we knew we were getting underway we decided to go ahead and head down to have dinner. We had Yourtime dinning which means we can just show up between 5:45 and 9:45 (I think) and they will sit us and we can eat. With Yourtime you also don't sit at the same table every night. Dinner was good, we all got stuffed. We went back topside at 9 p.m. so we could watch as we got underway. After we were moving down the channel heading out into Mobile Bay we decided to go ahead and head inside and get settled into our room for the night.
Day 2 started with Debbie wanting to sleep in! lol She earned it, so the kids and I got dressed and headed down to the breakfast buffet. I love breakfast so it was a very good meal. After eating we went back to the room to wake Debbie up. After she had gotten her shower and dressed we headed out to explore the ship. It's one of Carnivals smaller ships so it didn't take long to figure out where everything was located.
As lunch started to approach, we decided to get a little head start to get in line. Everyone talks about Guys Burger Joint, and we had heard the line forms quickly, so a head start didn't sound bad. Good thing we did too, the rumors were right, lol the line did start forming quickly. Lunch was really good though. We all had the burgers and fries and they really were good.
After lunch we checked Harrison into the Kids place where he did arts/crafts and video games while Reagan stayed with us. We feel a lot more could have been done with the kids place. I know it's a smaller ship, and these are geared towards the grownups but... Reagan hit the pool and slides again which means Debbie and I got to just lounge around being lazy some more! Ahh so rough! While relaxing an announcement came across the system stating that they had fixed our propulsion system but we still could not make it to Cozumel due to time constraints, however they got us approval to pull into Key West FL. Oh My Goodness! We got all these apologetic benefits from Carnival and now on top of that they are taking us to a port we haven't ever been to!
Day 3 arrived with our excitement that we were about to pull into Key West!
We only had 5 hours to spend in Key West before we had to leave. That doesn't sound like much but once we heard we were pulling in Debbie went to the shore excursions desk on the ship and signed us up for what was called the Hop On Hop Off trolley tour. This was a GREAT excursion to go on. It had 8 stops that you could get on and off at at your leisure. Each time you got off another trolley would come by every 15 minutes. The drivers of the trolleys were very knowledgeable and made the tour very interesting. If you ever go to Key West on a cruise I highly recommend this tour! We saw many very interesting sites on this tour like the southern most point in the United States.
The line was crazy long to get our photo with this buoy but well worth the history. They also had a huge statue of the famous photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays a U.S. Navy Sailor grabbing and kissing a stranger, a woman in a white dress, on Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day) in New York City's Times Square on August 14, 1945.
They said that Capt. Tony's Saloon is the original place where Jimmy Buffett got his start. (It might have had a different name during his time there. I forgot. lol) They said you could come by here on any given evening and Jimmy would be inside playing.
Being in the Navy, it was just neat to learn how much military history there was with Key West. I never would have guessed of its history.
This might be the coolest thing I think I saw. Mile marker 0 End! How cool is that! Exactly across the street was Mile marker 0 Begins! Where it all begins and ends. They said that this sign was the most stolen item in Key West, so much so that a store across the road on the corner just started selling them.
This was a GREAT port visit. Debbie and I have said a few times already that we would love to go back for another visit. Come on Carnival, add this as a stop out of Mobile!!! Well, it was time to get back to the ship and start our slow journey home. We were pretty wore out after the few hours we had in Key West so for the rest of the day we just let the kids play in the pool and slides while we relaxed.
Day 4, Happy Easter! We took some time today to play a little putt-putt. This was some fun family time. I'm not a huge fan of putt-putt but when you put these kids out there with a mother that you can't turn your back on, well, many laughs come out of it!
I can't post a blog without mentioning everybody's favorite casino dealer Sulayman! This guy knows how to make loosing your money very enjoyable! lol We formed a group of regular guests and when Sulayman came to deal then everyone started laughing and having a great time. I look forward to seeing him again on a future cruise.
Well, it's 4/17 and we're pulling back into Mobile. I am really going to miss this cruise because we have had an amazing time, but I always love coming back to Mobile.
This is a great family to spend time with. There are ups and downs just like with everyone, but I would never trade them in for anything! I'm pretty sure it is them that make all of our trips the "amazing" that they are!
#CarnivalCruise #luceyhallvacations #KeyWest
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