Pyrate Cruise report
12 March 2007 18:32![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kmusserAnd we’re back from our cruise with the fabulous Pyrates Royale.
Saturday - We fly down to Miami a day early to minimize the next day’s craziness. Also gives us time to have dinner with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
zammis' cousin. Fairly uneventful.
Sunday - Hotel shuttle back to the airport and then Carnival shuttle to the very large boat. We're sailing on the Valor and it'll be the first cruise for both of us. Boarding is efficient and as rumored there is a copious amount of food. We soon find fellow pirates as well includinghemloche, queenmaggie, and pyratelady. We do some exploration of the ship; there are 2 pools (one with a water slide, which we never did get around to trying), a spa, casino, several restaurants, and seemingly infinite number of bars. Sometime early afternoon the ship actually sets sail - while still near the port it is very smooth, but once into the open ocean we find that the talk of barely being able to feel the ship's movement is a bunch of hogwash - I'm very glad I have the motion sickness patches (which worked like a charm, yay!). We get a welcoming show (and open bar!) with thatliardiego, and the Pyrates Royale. Later it's time for dinner, we meet Ruth and Ron, who are the fellow pirates that will be our dinner companions the rest of the trip, very fun folks. We end with a lazy evening.
Monday - The day is spent at sea, we sleep in, mmmm, sleep. Zammis gets her toes done. We spend much of the day sitting out on the deck reading and drinking foofy drinks. In the afternoonskivee gives an astronomy talk about stuff we might be able to see in the sky that we can't normally. Unfortunately the weather isn't really cooperative for star-gazing as it's kind of cloudy. Also today Zammis drags me to the gym to do Pilates, as compensation we get some time in the hot tub. Dinner is formal - we're a good looking bunch :-)
Tuesday - Supposed to be a stop at Grand Cayman - we can see it, but we are woken with announcements that we won't actually be stopping due to the weather. The weather is fairly miserable, cold, windy, and rainy. The sea is choppy, it doesn't look too bad, but it's apparently bad enough they don't want to run the tenders to and from the ship in it. We had scheduled seeing sting rays, so it's a bit disappointing that we won't get to see them. I go to the spa and get a hot stone massage instead, life is rough. We also get to seethatliardiego's full show which is a treat. I spend some time in the casino as well - my gambling game of choice is blackjack and I do fairly well :-)
Wednesday - Isla Roatan, Honduras. Finally we get to get off the boat. The weather is even worse than yesterday. Originally we had this planned as a slack day, but since yesterday was an enforced slacking day we decide to do one of the shore excursions. We get a little shopping time as well - apparently Roatan has chosen wood-working as its specialty and they have some very nice stuff, but we don't buy anything. The first part of our excursion is taking a catamaran to a snorkeling stop. Here my patch is truly put to the test as the sea is very rough - I'm pleased to say it passed with flying colors, not even a hint of nausea - being able to be on a small boat without being ill was a very good feeling. Other than that though is was fairly unpleasant as the cold, wind, and rain did not let up much. Zammis still tried the snorkeling, but couldn't see much and quickly tired of fighting the waves and came back to the boat. The second part of the excursion was decidedly more fun as we went to Gumbalinda Park and finally escaped the rain. There was a small botanical garden and a bit of info about John Coxen, a pirate that made Roatan his hideout. And there were monkeys! Also parrots! We got our pictures taken with both. The monkeys were very cute, except the one that bit Zammis on the nose. In the evening we had more pirate time with a meet and great in the space-themed disco (pirates in spaaaace!), a little silly, but hey, an open bar :-) Afterwards we took advantage of the ship's fancy supper club, felt a little out of place, but the food was truly excellent.
Thursday - Belize, we wake up bright and early to go on the cave tubing expedition we have planned. The weather is much improved, we get a brief tour of Belize City and then in to the interior to our tubing spot. The tubing is obviously a major attraction as there are tons of people there. They have a restaurant and changing station for folks to get into bathing suits and store stuff. Then it's about a 45 minute hike to the put-in spot. Fortunately the hike isn't too bad and I'm glad the Caribbean isn't being it's usual hot and sunny self. Then into the water we go, we get about an hour and a half in the river and it is quite lovely. The Sibun river is probably about 20 feet wide and the cave is very spacious in most places, rumored to be considered a gateway to the underworld by the Mayans. We get little headlights to help see the various cave features - looking at other folks they look like a bunch of candles floating down the river. An occasional break in the ceiling lets in sunlight as well which gives some stunning views. Not many critters though I do see a couple of bats, and later on our ride back to ship we'll see an alligator. A little sorry we didn't get pictures of this part as it was one of our favorites of the whole trip, but we didn't want to risk dunking the camera.
Friday - Costa Maya, Mexico. Costa Maya is a somewhat odd place, it's a cruise ship destination built from scratch - so feels like a Disneyfied version of Mexico. We again head for the interior for our shore excursion, this time to the Mayan ruins of Chacchoben. The appropriate Caribbean weather has finally caught up to us and it is indeed hot and sunny, fortunately we have our geeky little personal AC units to wear. The ruins are pretty extensive, with 3 temples and a portion of the Mayan town excavated - most of the site is still unexcavated, not nearly the size of places like Tikal or Chichen Itza, but impressive nonetheless. The trip was marred a little bit by our guide who was busy hawking his various side-businesses rather than talking about the ruins (Zammis called him the Mayan shopping network). Still very glad we went. Later in the afternoon, back on the boat, we get a little pseudo-LARP action with a murder mystery set at the turn of the century. Everyone looks incredible in their Edwardian garb (another thing I'm sorry I didn't get pictures of). No one is surprised when Victor (call me Vic) Timm dies, and in the end the British secret agent from Spain (that would be Roger the Moor) explains all.
Saturday - Our last day, spent at sea. Mostly taken up with pirate fun and we get the group picture of us in garb taken. There is another Dinty the Moor/Pyrates Royale show in the afternoon which is open to everyone so we get a few new people. Evening is the final Pyrates show (and open bar!) and they sing a bunch of stuff other than their usual fare which is nice. We close out the evening going over to the cruises final show which is people impersonating various musical legends (think karaoke with props) - most of which was painful, but their finale featured one of our own (Tracey, who you MDRF people may know as the bartender at the Dragon Lair) as an absolutely stunning Frank Sinatra.
Sunday - Miami, everyone off the boat. The airport is absolutely slammed, since our flight isn't till later, rather than deal with the crowds we rent a car and head over to South Beach to check out the World Erotic Arts Museum - very cool stuff, highly recommend to you pervy types. Waved at Miami Ink, had yummy Thai lunch. Then back to the airport for an uneventful flight home.
Pictures!
Other overall thoughts. While we had lots of fun, I'm not going to be in any hurry to do another cruise, it's just really not our style of travel. I don't like having to do everything with large groups of people. The relentlessly cheerful cruise director (fun, fun, fun, we have a funtastic day planned for you, if you're not having enough fun, we'll have some delivered to your stateroom) and the Mandatory Fun made me feel a little like being in a Paranoia game (I think a Paranoia LARP set on a cruise ship would be awesome, hint, hint, hint). We did enjoy getting to spend time with the Pyrates and other fans on the ship, we probably could've done a little more socializing than we did as they are all fabulous folks, looking forward to seeing them all again at faire.
In other news – gaming in Brunswick this Saturday.
Saturday - We fly down to Miami a day early to minimize the next day’s craziness. Also gives us time to have dinner with
zammis' cousin. Fairly uneventful. Sunday - Hotel shuttle back to the airport and then Carnival shuttle to the very large boat. We're sailing on the Valor and it'll be the first cruise for both of us. Boarding is efficient and as rumored there is a copious amount of food. We soon find fellow pirates as well including
hemloche, queenmaggie, and pyratelady. We do some exploration of the ship; there are 2 pools (one with a water slide, which we never did get around to trying), a spa, casino, several restaurants, and seemingly infinite number of bars. Sometime early afternoon the ship actually sets sail - while still near the port it is very smooth, but once into the open ocean we find that the talk of barely being able to feel the ship's movement is a bunch of hogwash - I'm very glad I have the motion sickness patches (which worked like a charm, yay!). We get a welcoming show (and open bar!) with thatliardiego, and the Pyrates Royale. Later it's time for dinner, we meet Ruth and Ron, who are the fellow pirates that will be our dinner companions the rest of the trip, very fun folks. We end with a lazy evening. Monday - The day is spent at sea, we sleep in, mmmm, sleep. Zammis gets her toes done. We spend much of the day sitting out on the deck reading and drinking foofy drinks. In the afternoon
skivee gives an astronomy talk about stuff we might be able to see in the sky that we can't normally. Unfortunately the weather isn't really cooperative for star-gazing as it's kind of cloudy. Also today Zammis drags me to the gym to do Pilates, as compensation we get some time in the hot tub. Dinner is formal - we're a good looking bunch :-) Tuesday - Supposed to be a stop at Grand Cayman - we can see it, but we are woken with announcements that we won't actually be stopping due to the weather. The weather is fairly miserable, cold, windy, and rainy. The sea is choppy, it doesn't look too bad, but it's apparently bad enough they don't want to run the tenders to and from the ship in it. We had scheduled seeing sting rays, so it's a bit disappointing that we won't get to see them. I go to the spa and get a hot stone massage instead, life is rough. We also get to see
thatliardiego's full show which is a treat. I spend some time in the casino as well - my gambling game of choice is blackjack and I do fairly well :-)Wednesday - Isla Roatan, Honduras. Finally we get to get off the boat. The weather is even worse than yesterday. Originally we had this planned as a slack day, but since yesterday was an enforced slacking day we decide to do one of the shore excursions. We get a little shopping time as well - apparently Roatan has chosen wood-working as its specialty and they have some very nice stuff, but we don't buy anything. The first part of our excursion is taking a catamaran to a snorkeling stop. Here my patch is truly put to the test as the sea is very rough - I'm pleased to say it passed with flying colors, not even a hint of nausea - being able to be on a small boat without being ill was a very good feeling. Other than that though is was fairly unpleasant as the cold, wind, and rain did not let up much. Zammis still tried the snorkeling, but couldn't see much and quickly tired of fighting the waves and came back to the boat. The second part of the excursion was decidedly more fun as we went to Gumbalinda Park and finally escaped the rain. There was a small botanical garden and a bit of info about John Coxen, a pirate that made Roatan his hideout. And there were monkeys! Also parrots! We got our pictures taken with both. The monkeys were very cute, except the one that bit Zammis on the nose. In the evening we had more pirate time with a meet and great in the space-themed disco (pirates in spaaaace!), a little silly, but hey, an open bar :-) Afterwards we took advantage of the ship's fancy supper club, felt a little out of place, but the food was truly excellent.
Thursday - Belize, we wake up bright and early to go on the cave tubing expedition we have planned. The weather is much improved, we get a brief tour of Belize City and then in to the interior to our tubing spot. The tubing is obviously a major attraction as there are tons of people there. They have a restaurant and changing station for folks to get into bathing suits and store stuff. Then it's about a 45 minute hike to the put-in spot. Fortunately the hike isn't too bad and I'm glad the Caribbean isn't being it's usual hot and sunny self. Then into the water we go, we get about an hour and a half in the river and it is quite lovely. The Sibun river is probably about 20 feet wide and the cave is very spacious in most places, rumored to be considered a gateway to the underworld by the Mayans. We get little headlights to help see the various cave features - looking at other folks they look like a bunch of candles floating down the river. An occasional break in the ceiling lets in sunlight as well which gives some stunning views. Not many critters though I do see a couple of bats, and later on our ride back to ship we'll see an alligator. A little sorry we didn't get pictures of this part as it was one of our favorites of the whole trip, but we didn't want to risk dunking the camera.
Friday - Costa Maya, Mexico. Costa Maya is a somewhat odd place, it's a cruise ship destination built from scratch - so feels like a Disneyfied version of Mexico. We again head for the interior for our shore excursion, this time to the Mayan ruins of Chacchoben. The appropriate Caribbean weather has finally caught up to us and it is indeed hot and sunny, fortunately we have our geeky little personal AC units to wear. The ruins are pretty extensive, with 3 temples and a portion of the Mayan town excavated - most of the site is still unexcavated, not nearly the size of places like Tikal or Chichen Itza, but impressive nonetheless. The trip was marred a little bit by our guide who was busy hawking his various side-businesses rather than talking about the ruins (Zammis called him the Mayan shopping network). Still very glad we went. Later in the afternoon, back on the boat, we get a little pseudo-LARP action with a murder mystery set at the turn of the century. Everyone looks incredible in their Edwardian garb (another thing I'm sorry I didn't get pictures of). No one is surprised when Victor (call me Vic) Timm dies, and in the end the British secret agent from Spain (that would be Roger the Moor) explains all.
Saturday - Our last day, spent at sea. Mostly taken up with pirate fun and we get the group picture of us in garb taken. There is another Dinty the Moor/Pyrates Royale show in the afternoon which is open to everyone so we get a few new people. Evening is the final Pyrates show (and open bar!) and they sing a bunch of stuff other than their usual fare which is nice. We close out the evening going over to the cruises final show which is people impersonating various musical legends (think karaoke with props) - most of which was painful, but their finale featured one of our own (Tracey, who you MDRF people may know as the bartender at the Dragon Lair) as an absolutely stunning Frank Sinatra.
Sunday - Miami, everyone off the boat. The airport is absolutely slammed, since our flight isn't till later, rather than deal with the crowds we rent a car and head over to South Beach to check out the World Erotic Arts Museum - very cool stuff, highly recommend to you pervy types. Waved at Miami Ink, had yummy Thai lunch. Then back to the airport for an uneventful flight home.
Pictures!
Other overall thoughts. While we had lots of fun, I'm not going to be in any hurry to do another cruise, it's just really not our style of travel. I don't like having to do everything with large groups of people. The relentlessly cheerful cruise director (fun, fun, fun, we have a funtastic day planned for you, if you're not having enough fun, we'll have some delivered to your stateroom) and the Mandatory Fun made me feel a little like being in a Paranoia game (I think a Paranoia LARP set on a cruise ship would be awesome, hint, hint, hint). We did enjoy getting to spend time with the Pyrates and other fans on the ship, we probably could've done a little more socializing than we did as they are all fabulous folks, looking forward to seeing them all again at faire.
In other news – gaming in Brunswick this Saturday.
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no subject
Date: 12 Mar 2007 23:11 (UTC)not all cruises are like that.
http://www.geekcruises.com/index.html
no subject
Date: 13 Mar 2007 00:23 (UTC)no subject
Date: 12 Mar 2007 23:49 (UTC)what was the ship's crew's (and regular passengers) reaction when you all finally came out full-effect garbed?
no subject
Date: 13 Mar 2007 00:30 (UTC)snort
Date: 13 Mar 2007 16:15 (UTC)no subject
Date: 13 Mar 2007 01:44 (UTC)Mayan Shopping Network
Date: 13 Mar 2007 15:45 (UTC)