Tiggerbabe
1st-February-2006, 08:25 AM
Well, I've almost recovered :wink: so, if you want to know what I thought of it all - read on............
Firstly 06.45 on a Friday is just stupid o'clock to be checking in at Heathrow but it didn't manage to dampen my excitement too much, and it did mean that I had time for a second breakfast :eek:
Miami and Mangos - brilliant fun! Mangos is a Salsa-type bar with many scantily clad, gorgeous girls shaking their booty in a manner that defies description (female forumites were doing our best throughout the cruise, and despite the lack of the "drawstring and extremely low cut" trousers - we might just almost have perfected it, I swear it's a momentum thing :rofl: )
it's a fun place to be and we all managed to dance quite a lot despite not having (m)any of our favourite tracks. It was hot though :devil:
The boat was huge - as in HUGE! Shopping arcades, an ice-rink, theatre, endless watering holes including the champagne bar (that's the one with the mirrored ceiling :wink: ), clubs, restaurants, the casino, the incredible dining rooms, crazy golf, climbing wall, swimming pools and jaccuzzi (always emptied of jive'n'cruisers by at least 7am). Apart from the odd movement it really didn't feel like we were on the seas at all - very smooth driving from el capitain :clap:
I loved it, the staff were all extremely helpful and treated us all like we were royalty.
The sheer scale of the operation is quite mind boggling when you consider how many people are on board, but they have everything well sorted out and it runs very smoothly indeed.
We danced all over the ship - quite possibly in many places where we were not supposed to, but the dancers became extremely popular with the rest of the passengers very quickly :D
Favourite dance of the whole cruise was to "Spanish Eyes" played by an incredible trio - one violin, on acoustic guitar and a bass guitar - in the middle of the shopping mall.
Favourite destination was Ocho Rios, Jamaica - definitely have to go back. Ended up tubing down the White River, with Gordon, Sally and Franck. Sooooo relaxing whilst being a total hoot at the same time, and wet, very wet!
This was also where I heard "The Big Bamboo" song and managed to purchase same from the local DJ - it soon became the "cruise" song :D
Some amazing food to be had here too!
Grand Cayman was amazing too, lots of totally fabulous fish to be admired whilst snorkelling (the bucket of Piña Colada from Señor Frog went down a treat too :eek: thankfully it stayed down as well :whistle: )
Unfortunately only one day to visit Cozumel, Mexico meant having to chose only one of the two desired excursions but it also gave me the chance to get some shopping done :drool:
It was quite humbling to witness the devastation caused here by the recent hurricane :(
Labadee, our first port of call, was probably my least favourite as it's basically a beach, end of! It is still a beautiful place though, and it was lovely to wander along the sand listening to the local bands playing (yes , of ccourse we danced on the beach :D )
I did manage to fall off the jet-ski, which was fun :eek: climbing back on wasn't so amusing, and my muscles were aching for the next couple of days, having been hanging on for grim death over the extremely choppy water. Next time I'm jet-skiing someplace calm.
The days we were at sea we had workshops both in the morning and the afternoon, which were a lot of fun. Franck taught fingertip leading and connection with your partner in the morning. Gordon and Sally taught double trouble in the afternoon. The second set of workshops were style and footwork tips, including those wonderful ochos, and then, in the afternoon, Gordon and Sally taught the Madison - which everyone performed later on at night.
Favourite dancing events had to be the two deck parties we had. Despite the deck not always being the easiest of surfaces to dance on, there's something so beautiful about dancing in the open air in the middle of an ocean. Often other passengers would join in too :) and there were always people watching and smiling.
We had some fab times in the Cosmopolitan Lounge, dancing to the music provided by a Jazz group from Poland, the Dungeon provided more up to date music and the Ixtapa Lounge had Rockaroke (?) and our cds in the intervals, when we weren't providing all of the music ourselves.
The Formal evenings when everyone dresses for dinner are just amazing, Franck managed to cause quite a stir in his Easy Access Pants :rofl: (commonly called his kilt).
Unfortunately the week on board passed all too soon :tears: we got a few hours to spend (literally) in Miami before we had to be at the airport, although I would have loved another couple of days :wink:
American Airlines managed to totally excel themselves on the way back with the grumpiest crew I've ever encountered. I did seriously consider getting some of our guys and gals to swap places with them at one point to see if we could make the journey a little more enjoyable for everyone.
It's been an incredible experience, I've made so many new friends (|hopefully they're gonna join the forum now too) lovely people from down South and the Scottish crowd were just brilliant :hug:
Gordon and Sally were a great help, having done it all before :wink: and we all had such fun! It was fab working with them and hopefully we've managed to persuade them to come up for the BFG or sooner!
Memorable moments - splitting my trousers in the style workshop, Gordon's ceiling photography, the cool guy walking straight into the statue while smiling at Claire S, leaving my new rasta tigger in a shop in Jamaica :tears: the "setting sail" party on the top deck...............there are so many others but :innocent:
Memorable songs - has to be the Big Bamboo, although Spanish Eyes will never be the same again.
The lovey bit - a huge thankyou to ALL of the people there, who honestly made my holiday, it was fantastic! I WURV YOU :hug:
Firstly 06.45 on a Friday is just stupid o'clock to be checking in at Heathrow but it didn't manage to dampen my excitement too much, and it did mean that I had time for a second breakfast :eek:
Miami and Mangos - brilliant fun! Mangos is a Salsa-type bar with many scantily clad, gorgeous girls shaking their booty in a manner that defies description (female forumites were doing our best throughout the cruise, and despite the lack of the "drawstring and extremely low cut" trousers - we might just almost have perfected it, I swear it's a momentum thing :rofl: )
it's a fun place to be and we all managed to dance quite a lot despite not having (m)any of our favourite tracks. It was hot though :devil:
The boat was huge - as in HUGE! Shopping arcades, an ice-rink, theatre, endless watering holes including the champagne bar (that's the one with the mirrored ceiling :wink: ), clubs, restaurants, the casino, the incredible dining rooms, crazy golf, climbing wall, swimming pools and jaccuzzi (always emptied of jive'n'cruisers by at least 7am). Apart from the odd movement it really didn't feel like we were on the seas at all - very smooth driving from el capitain :clap:
I loved it, the staff were all extremely helpful and treated us all like we were royalty.
The sheer scale of the operation is quite mind boggling when you consider how many people are on board, but they have everything well sorted out and it runs very smoothly indeed.
We danced all over the ship - quite possibly in many places where we were not supposed to, but the dancers became extremely popular with the rest of the passengers very quickly :D
Favourite dance of the whole cruise was to "Spanish Eyes" played by an incredible trio - one violin, on acoustic guitar and a bass guitar - in the middle of the shopping mall.
Favourite destination was Ocho Rios, Jamaica - definitely have to go back. Ended up tubing down the White River, with Gordon, Sally and Franck. Sooooo relaxing whilst being a total hoot at the same time, and wet, very wet!
This was also where I heard "The Big Bamboo" song and managed to purchase same from the local DJ - it soon became the "cruise" song :D
Some amazing food to be had here too!
Grand Cayman was amazing too, lots of totally fabulous fish to be admired whilst snorkelling (the bucket of Piña Colada from Señor Frog went down a treat too :eek: thankfully it stayed down as well :whistle: )
Unfortunately only one day to visit Cozumel, Mexico meant having to chose only one of the two desired excursions but it also gave me the chance to get some shopping done :drool:
It was quite humbling to witness the devastation caused here by the recent hurricane :(
Labadee, our first port of call, was probably my least favourite as it's basically a beach, end of! It is still a beautiful place though, and it was lovely to wander along the sand listening to the local bands playing (yes , of ccourse we danced on the beach :D )
I did manage to fall off the jet-ski, which was fun :eek: climbing back on wasn't so amusing, and my muscles were aching for the next couple of days, having been hanging on for grim death over the extremely choppy water. Next time I'm jet-skiing someplace calm.
The days we were at sea we had workshops both in the morning and the afternoon, which were a lot of fun. Franck taught fingertip leading and connection with your partner in the morning. Gordon and Sally taught double trouble in the afternoon. The second set of workshops were style and footwork tips, including those wonderful ochos, and then, in the afternoon, Gordon and Sally taught the Madison - which everyone performed later on at night.
Favourite dancing events had to be the two deck parties we had. Despite the deck not always being the easiest of surfaces to dance on, there's something so beautiful about dancing in the open air in the middle of an ocean. Often other passengers would join in too :) and there were always people watching and smiling.
We had some fab times in the Cosmopolitan Lounge, dancing to the music provided by a Jazz group from Poland, the Dungeon provided more up to date music and the Ixtapa Lounge had Rockaroke (?) and our cds in the intervals, when we weren't providing all of the music ourselves.
The Formal evenings when everyone dresses for dinner are just amazing, Franck managed to cause quite a stir in his Easy Access Pants :rofl: (commonly called his kilt).
Unfortunately the week on board passed all too soon :tears: we got a few hours to spend (literally) in Miami before we had to be at the airport, although I would have loved another couple of days :wink:
American Airlines managed to totally excel themselves on the way back with the grumpiest crew I've ever encountered. I did seriously consider getting some of our guys and gals to swap places with them at one point to see if we could make the journey a little more enjoyable for everyone.
It's been an incredible experience, I've made so many new friends (|hopefully they're gonna join the forum now too) lovely people from down South and the Scottish crowd were just brilliant :hug:
Gordon and Sally were a great help, having done it all before :wink: and we all had such fun! It was fab working with them and hopefully we've managed to persuade them to come up for the BFG or sooner!
Memorable moments - splitting my trousers in the style workshop, Gordon's ceiling photography, the cool guy walking straight into the statue while smiling at Claire S, leaving my new rasta tigger in a shop in Jamaica :tears: the "setting sail" party on the top deck...............there are so many others but :innocent:
Memorable songs - has to be the Big Bamboo, although Spanish Eyes will never be the same again.
The lovey bit - a huge thankyou to ALL of the people there, who honestly made my holiday, it was fantastic! I WURV YOU :hug: