OUR CARIBBEAN CRUISE

My wife and I just returned from a western Caribbean cruise. We landed in three ports. Following are details of our trip including information about the ship and the ports.

Getting There
We traveled Vancouver – Toronto-Miami via Air Canada. This part of the trip was uneventful and went smoothly. The only potential glitch was a US immigration officer that seemed to want to pick a fight. When we didn’t respond to his taunts and innuendos he stopped his attempts to engage us and grunted us on.

We stayed at the Airport Hilton. Getting there was the part of the trip that was most poorly organized. We seemed to wait forever in the airport for the Greyhound bus that was to pick us. The Carnival crew that was orchestrating the transfer didn’t seem to be anymore knowledgeable as to what was happening than we were.

Our experience at the Hilton was pleasant. We found the people to be helpful. I did speak with one other person whose experience was different. His luggage had not made it through and so he asked the hotel staff for a toothbrush and toiletries. He reports that they were annoyed with his request and were rude to him. He experiences a lot of pain from cancer so he may have been overly sensitive to the responses. We did not see any rudeness or annoyance.

Since we had a few hours before bedtime, we took a taxi out to South Beach and enjoyed the night. The prices there are certainly inflated but we enjoyed ourselves.

The Ship
Our cruise was with Carnival cruise lines and we were on the Carnival Victory. We left port at 4 PM and spent the next day at sea. Some things became prominent in my mind that day:
(1) This cruise was a party cruise. Entertainment and drinking were the keys. Drinks were pushed on every part of the ship except in the cabin areas. The entertainment was designed to keep people from getting bored and there was entertainment for all ages and likes. There was a karaoke lounge, a lounge with 60’s music, a piano lounge, casino with entertainment, lounge with classical music, a disco, outdoor stage with a live band, bingo, trivia games, shows at night with singers, dancers and comedians, dance lessons provided by the cruise director, video games room for the youth, teen disco, gambling contests, singing contests in the karaoke lounge and dancing on the open deck. There were swimming pools and jazzuci tubs. And there was a lot of sun tanning!!!
Although drinks were pushed, there was not a lot obvious drunkenness or obnoxious behavior. Only once did I see ships officers breakup a situation and that was a fully clothed sex simulation on the open deck. Alcohol was, I believe, a factor.
(2) The ship consisted of many obvious profit centers. I already mentioned the drink pushing. On the price of each drink was added a 15% gratuity so there was incentive for the staff to sell as much as possible. Other profit centers included the casino, bingos, the spa and gift stores. It became obvious that the shore excursions sold on ship provided a kick back to Carnival and these were pushed hard. Also, the Carnival endorsed shops at the ports of call provide a source of revenue for Carnival. Passengers are encouraged to swipe their ship card in these stores. A jewelry store in one of the ports confirmed for me that he pays to Carnival a fee for every passenger that buys from him. Photography appears to be a big profit center. There are photographers are every place and they are in your face a lot. They begin before you even board the ship. Processing takes hours and then the photos are up for display. The photos are not cheap but a lot are sold in the name of memories.
(3) Staff. The staff on the ship are truly international. I remember people from Philippines, Indonesia, Romania, Canada, United States, China. Thailand, India and other countries that are now escaping my memory.
(4) Gratuities. Gratuities are added on at two times. The first is 10 dollars per day per passenger added directly to your account. The bulk of this is for cabin staff but some is for dining room servers and a small portion is for miscellaneous and assistants. There was confusion as to whether or not this gratuity constituted the full salary for the cabin staff. We had been told by staff that this was the case – that if the gratuity was not paid there would be no salary. Other people seemed to have different information. So we are not certain about that. The second gratuity is on the drinks as previously mentioned. There is an expectation that passengers will tip the dining room servers and cabin staff as well – but this is not required.

The time on the ship does not need to be expensive if you don’t drink a lot or spend in the gift shops or the other profit centers.

All in all, the time on the ship was fun and relaxing. My wife enjoyed the karaoke (of course, she always does) and was chosen to sing Madonna at the last night entertainment in the main entertainment center.