Our first sea day was pretty quiet, and it was chilly even out on the sheltered part of the Lido deck. It was "cruise elegant" night, and we did get dressed up and go to the dining room, because I don't miss a chance to eat lobster. By the way, the food was very good, and while there were a number of things about Carnival my dad didn't love, he though the food was better than on HAL.

It was much calmer on the second sea day, and we spent a fair amount of time sunning on the Lido deck. I went briefly into the hot tub, which wasn't very hot, and decided it wasn't possible to get my dad in and out of it safely, which was a little disappointing. We did discover that the ship's jazz band and the guitarist in one of the lounges were very good. We also decided to see the production show. I'm easily amused, but my father found it torturous.

Now for the undershorts. My father didn't pack enough. He's notorious for packing too lightly. In this case, he brought enough pajama pants, socks, and shirts. One extra pair of pants and some woefully inadequate number of undershorts. We were hoping to find some in Grand Turk.

The cruise center in Grand Turk was very attractive, and had a lot of stores, but they all seemed to see souvenirs and jewelry. Some women's clothes, but not a lot of men's, and my dad could not be persuaded to enter the Ron Jon shop.

No undershorts.

Re Undershorts ....

Other than using the laundry facilities where available, one can always wash them in the wash basin and hang it on a coat hanger to dry.

An alternative would be "disposable", and they came in varing fashions: paper, plastic, edible etc.

Other options: wear it inside out, in reverse, add paper linings, or simply going commando and do without.

With a daily washing schedule (and no accidents), two pairs should work well enough for a light packer.

Disclaimer: I pack light but my minimum is 3.

After doing laundry one time on a Princess cruise, and feeling resentful that I was in the laundry while everyone else in the group was topside having fun, I swore, like Scarlett O'Hara, "as God is my witness I shall never" do laundry on a cruise again.So I take enough undies for every day and 1 or 2 extras.Don't even want to wash them out in the sink. We're light packers, and lately we travel with carryons only.

I'm not a fan of the "wash them out in the sink school". I never really believe that they are clean. We did end up using the ship's laundry service since the lauderette was expensive and inconvenient.

And that's why single use such as disposables and linings works best! Guaranteed clean and no laundry ever!

Perhaps, but that seems a little extreme.

Despite the lack of undershorts, we enjoyed Grand Turk. First we sat in beach chairs while my father napped, and then had a beverage (pina colada for me, bottled water for dad) and I had a swim. Then we went to walk on the beach, and discovered that the minute you leave the cruise center, you seem to be in a small, sleepy, and very Caribbean slice of the Caribbean. We waded a little and stopped at beach bar for beer and fried plantains, walked some more and stopped for more beer and water. We tried wading, since the surf seemed gentle, but a stronger wave knocked my dad over, which was a little scary, although a couple of fellow passengers helped me get him up. I left him in a beach chair for a few minutes and went to swim in the ocean, but the occasional stronger wave was making it a little difficult, and there was a fairly steep and shelly drop off. We walked back to the cruise center at our leisure and had another snack in Margaritaville. I ordered a cheeseburger because the ones on the ship weren't very good, and sadly it was no better. My father had the West Indian Conch soup and said it was good, but hotter than he'd expected.

I send everything to the laundry, except my underwear. I don't want strangers playing with my smalls! I just washed them in the sink and dried them in the window. I thought they might blow off the balcony! lol

Our next stop was San Juan. My dad had been there in the fifties, and loved it. He had wanted to go to El Morro, but I couldn't get him onto the trolley because he wanted to walk around right by the cruise ship dock and see what had changed. By the way, I love those tropical shaved ices with syrup. You sometimes see them in NYC, but a lot less than when I was a kid, and that was MY first order of business. My father thought that was funny.

Since he wanted to walk, we made our way slowly up into the old city, and visited the park with the pigeons and the Christo Chapel, and then made our way slowly back down and started to look for lunch. We wound up in what appeared to be a fairly trendy nouvelle Puerto Rican restaurant called "Inaru". I had chicken, my dad had fish, neither of us had patience or room for dessert, and it was absolutely delicious. The chicken was a lot like a dish I make at home, except that mine doesn't taste like that. There was a POLO outlet nearly across from the cruise ship, and a CVS, but my father had no patience for stopping. He loved San Juan. After lunch, we were ready for El Morro, but we waited and waited,and there were no trolleys, unquestionably due to the extreme gridlock in San Juan. We tried a cab, and he said there was no way he could get there either, so we settled for walking around and admiring the reproduction sailing vessels moored next to our cruise ship (the Amistad, and a reproduction galleon that had apparently come all the way from Cadiz). We stopped to sit and have a drink in a little restaurant across from the ship, since my father noticed that they had two for one margaritas. Which meant that I should drink two margaritas, since he's not allowed to have any. He had ginger ale. It was a pity we were full, since what was coming out of their kitchen also looked and smelled good.

persimmondeb-So nice that you and your dad took the cruise together. Do you mind if I ask your and your dad's ages?

I'm 46, my dad's almost 85. And cruise staff did sometimes assume I was his wife, although our headwaiter thought I was his granddaughter.

Good for your dad still cruising at 85. I very much hope we're cruising and traveling into our 80's or 90's. And good for you being such a great daughter.

I hope you tipped the headwaiter extra ...

It's wonderful to see that kids looking after their parents so well. Good for you! And I'm sure if you have kids, they will look after you the same way.

We did tip him extra, but just for generally being really nice. All the dining room staff was great.

We do joke around with my kid that he'll get to wheel us around when we're old.

Our next stop was St. Thomas, which was probably our least favorite, although there we first encountered two things that I understand are common throughout the Caribbean--elaborately painted open air bus/taxis and feral chickens. Otherwise we weren't that impressed. The mall was really boring and all the stores seemed to have the exact same goods, except for a surf shop, where we didn't solve our underpants problem, but we bought my Dad a pair of flat front Billabong shorts which he consented to wear. We also walked around and looked at the taxis, some of which were very creative, and found random chickens roaming through the mall's parking lot, much the way pigeons do at home.

We had been kind of intrigued by Senor Frogs when we saw it from the cruise ship as we were docking since we had enjoyed Margaritaville a lot and at home the restaurants do not have attached swimming pools. So we gave it a try. We were not that impressed. Other than very pleasant waitstaff and a very stealthy waitress who managed to sneak up on my father with a balloon hat, it was not very exciting. They were only semi-open when we arrived, so it took ages to get anything out of the kitchen and when we did, the mozzarella sticks could have used a longer bath in the fryer. The fries were fine, but my pina colada wasn't as much to my liking as the one at Margaritaville, and it was on the costly side, although we understood that it tends to be an expensive destination to eat in. We had paid for a shore excursion, the "KON-TIKI" barge, and while probably over-priced, we were very happy with it. Well run, excellent service, cheap and good rum drinks, free and plentiful ice water and Kool-Aid, and an absolutely gorgeous and not otherwise terribly accessible beach. The boat guide's historical commentary was inaccurate and silly (particularly regarding the privateer Edward Teague) but his description of the reef and it's inhabitants was enthusiastic and accurate, and they were very, very good about helping me get my dad up and down. We waded a little, he sat under an umbrella while I swam for a few minutes, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Sorry, that should have been "Edward Teach". I think I must have seen "Pirates of the Caribbean" one time too many. And I think the guide might have referred to him as "Teague".

Persimmondeb - Nice review. I hope you took a picture of your father in the balloon hat at Sr Frog's. Opportunities like that don't come around very often!

Thanks! Oh, I have evidence on my phone. It is pretty funny.

Our last stop was Tortola. The shore excursion we had originally signed up for was cancelled since the beach they were taking us to was red-flagged. We signed up for another one, sightseeing and an open beach, and it was awesome. Our driver, "Skip", was wonderful. The roads were very steep with sharp drop-offs and at no time did we feel unsafe, and his commentary was interesting and had a lot of local and cultural information, rather than made-up colorful details. Even at the beach that wasn't red-flagged, the surf was frankly too rough for us, so we found an open-air bar attached to a hotel, and had some (very good) breakfast, enjoying the view and the breezes. We did a little shopping (no undershorts-and we had given up and surrendered to the need for laundry by then) and enjoyed the drive back to the ship. We walked around a little bit, bought some jewelry for my sister, and reboarded. The view as we left the port was great, and we saw quite a few other ships, including one of the Windstar's in the distance.

The sail back to New York was pleasant, although the last two days back were rough again. So rough that I felt slightly queasy from it for the first time in my life. My father and I are both "very good sailors" in that sense, and we had not bothered with bands, patches, little tubes of dramamine, etc. I tried a little Coca-Cola in this instance, and then resorted to the old-fashioned remedy of a little brandy, which did work.

In conclusion, we had a great time, and we were both very glad we went. I like Carnival, and I was as happy with it this time as I was the last one. My father thought the food and service were excellent, but there were a number of things he did not like. He thought the ship was very gaudy, and the placement of restrooms left something to be desired. He also got stuck in a tubby little chair in the lobby, and had to have a couple of random strangers help me get him out. And those chairs do seem to be designed to eat the elderly; I had to join another rescue of someone else a couple of days later. He also thought the ship heavily promoted drinking and gambling, and decided to disapprove of that.

The thing he really disliked, however, and I did tell Carnival about it, because while it wouldn't drive me from the dining room, I don't like it either, wad "Showtime" at the evening meal. We would be in the middle of an excellent, and otherwise fairly civilized, dinner, and the maitre d' would announce it, the lights would flash, loud party music would come on, and the waitstaff would start to sing and dance among much napkin twirling. My dad really, really hated it. We were on "my time" dining and we tried to time meals to avoid it.

In conclusion, we enjoyed it, and although my father definitely prefers HAL, despite the food not being quite as much to his liking, he would take Carnival again if necessary (family trip, itinerary he really wanted).

Carnival has dismissed its chief designer Joe Farkus who is know for those gaudy interiors. I hear that post Farkus ships are not this way anymore.

I suppose the dinner entertainment is part of their thing though other cruise lines we have been on do it as well albeit once during the cruise.

Thank you for posting your review.

Larry