Cerulean Cordillera

Posts Tagged ‘Carnival Triumph’

Originally posted on Friday, February 20, 2009

Previous night there were two shows. The first one was a magic show which was quite entertaining. The second, a late-night adult-only burlesque show, I couldn’t attend because my photo ID are all locked in the room safe with my dad’s credit card and he was nowhere to be found. It turned out he was already inside the room, so instead, I just went back home and stayed on the internet for a while.

We woke up extra early in the morning to leave the ship and start exploring St Maarten. It looks like St Maarten is a bigger island than St Thomas of the previous day. However, it was also quite obvious that St Maarten is relatively poorer. Pretty soon we got to the beach, although nobody really planned to do anything on the beach aside from taking photographs. Then there were shops, where 90% of them were jewelry shops. After a bus ride to the French side, it started raining, so as a result we couldn’t do much, and returned. On the way back, the rain stopped, and we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping around for souvenirs and stuff.

In the evening they had another comedian, who wasn’t bad. St. Maarten is supposed to be the highlight of this trip, and it’s surprising that it’s such a let down.

I realized something… next time I want to watch a movie and can’t find a good one to watch, what I should do is download a collection of recent trailers, and watch them. I used to look at entries in Wikipedia or IMDB, but those descriptions almost always repel me away from these movies. Meanwhile, there’s a channel on this ship that just shows movie trailers and just about every one of them makes me want to watch the movie.

My sickness is now reduced to just coughing (rather violently, as it’s making the bottom of my ribcage hurt) every once in a while. All other problems seems to have gone, so that’s good… I need to start reviewing operating systems now, I’m too behind in that.

Photos of Day Five

Originally posted on Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Hey guys! Sorry about not updating earlier. I fell sick somehow. I think it’s because of changing environments too quickly. I left Toronto, a cold place, to arrive at Miami, a hot place. Then I went onto the ship which takes me to hotter places yet at the same time the rooms on the boat are extremely cold. On top of that, my bed (an extra) was close to the floor and the rocking of the boat made it difficult to sleep on the first night. By the second morning, my nose was getting weird (as in stuffed). By the second night my throat started itching and hurting, and it got worse yesterday. The five hour walking in San Juan yesterday afternoon didn’t help either, so as a result I had to sleep early yesterday, and missed half of St Thomas excursion this morning. I think the worst part is over now…

But anyway, let’s see what happened. It seems that the shows on the ship every evening are quite good. The singers and dancers are good and the sound and lighting are good. They also got a comedian in who was quite funny, who did two shows. Meanwhile, I’m starting to become less and less impressed about food and service on the ship. In terms of food, yes, you always get food, but they aren’t always satisfactory. There’s always food on the 9th deck, but the only thing that’s 24 hours is their pizzeria, and their pizza is pretty bad. When the other places on the 9th deck opens, it almost always serve the same thing. Some of the popular food items are much too greasy, and the deli/asian corners have only a few options available.

Dinner at the dining rooms are quite nice, though. However, the whole point behind dinner is having an excellent dinner, and not a satisfactory one. Note the use of vocabulary. Excellent means the dinner is organized, the waiters are perfect, the dishes are well-made down to every detail, etc… However, the wait-time between the bread, appetizers, main course, and dessert is so long that you’ll feel like you’re wasting time, and at the same time, the food themselves may look amazing, but at times they’re neither tasty nor filling…

However, there are two things that are absolutely awesome in terms of the food on this ship: coffee and ice cream. I have no complaints about those at all, they’re awesome, amazing, easily accessible, and very satisfactory.

In terms of service… my complaint is that I tried to call the room steward twice now on different rooms in different times, and I haven’t yet been able to reach him by phone. I have no idea where he is, but considering that what I needed are related directly to my illness, I got pretty annoyed. Aside from this, all the other service is pretty good actually. Everyone is very, very friendly.

In the end, there aren’t that many things to do for me on the ship. There’s a spa on the top deck, but everything their cost money and are expensive. I wouldn’t mind watching some trivia games (they had one in the first day and it looks pretty fun), but since the first day it seems that the Rome Lounge (place where they play game events) has been made exclusively for bingo. It kinda makes you wonder why such a simple and childish game is being such a major event here. I usually don’t like to sunbath, but I wouldn’t mind swimming. However, the two swimming pools on deck are tiny pools meant for little kids, and are usually extremely crowded. Can’t blame them though, as it’s difficult to build a pool on top of a ship. There’s a casino, which seems to be highly popular, but that’s not for me. The various bars are not for me either, as I’m not one for drinking. There are lots of lounges and places where they play music and people socialize, so it’s awesome if you came with a group of people, and less awesome if you came by yourself.

In the end, I spend a lot of my time trying to get good photographs and explore the ship, and go to random events that look interesting. The evening shows were usually awesome. Of course, there are three shore excursions which means touring three different cities. If you want to see pictures of those, check out the links!

Photos of Day Two

Photos of Day Three

Photos of Day Four

Since I’m sick, I’m also behind on my review for the Operating Systems midterm that’s happening the day after the evening I get back… That’s starting to look a bit scary. However, some initial readings made it pretty clear that all I need is time to read the stuff… it’s not that hard to understand. It would be awesome if I can finish the cruise on a high note, be totally ready for Monday’s midterm, and find that I got an AMD job offer by the time I get back… that would be so awesome, lol…

I will see you guys later!

Originally posted on Sunday, February 15, 2009

Well, the trip started out with taking the plane from Toronto Pearson. This was my first plane trip since many years ago when I went back to China. My impression was… well… planes aren’t very sturdy, and it shakes often in the air. We took a flight from Toronto to Chicago, and then switched to the second flight to Miami.

The second flight was delayed for an hour, but it came eventually. Onboard we watched some kid’s movie about a town called Ember and two kids trying to get outside. It seemed like a Disney movie at first, although soon it started to look like a movie based on a Children’s fantasy novel. I have no idea where it came from or what it is called, but I liked it. The world needs more children’s fantasy films that are dramatic and dark at times (as opposed to Disney happy-go-lucky ones). By around 11:00PM Saturday, we arrived at Miami.

We stayed at Day’s Inn Miami International, a hotel roughly about four stories high. It was right beside a highway and the airport, so the night was an orchestra of noise. I slept without a problem, but apparently it bothered my dad. The next morning we missed breakfast, so we bought a few sandwiches at a gas station, commenting on the palm trees along the way. We checked into the cruise later in the afternoon. The process went quite quickly and not long after, we’re where we are now.

You know those cruise ships you see in thriller movies like Poseidon? Apparently this one isn’t that big (although it is one of the bigger ones available). Well, it’s hard to tell. On the top deck, you can definitely marvel at its size, as it is 12 stories tall and even more massive when you look at its width and length. However, inside the cruise you’ll see either hallways of staterooms, or public lounges/cafeteria/dining rooms/amphitheatres/etc… The biggest of these rooms are merely two-floor theatres or dining rooms, and there are no long and massive multi-story walkways (like the Eaton center) inside the ship. Clearly, Hollywood is exaggerating, although no one should be surprised.

The departure from Miami was fantastic not only because of the ship, but also because of the weather and skyline. There was a fair bit of clouds, hence making it so that the afternoon sun shone through the clouds onto water, and the vapor-filled air allowing for sunlight to appear in multiple shapes. Meanwhile, this massive ship makes its way out Miami Harbor (land on both sides makes the narrow strip of water seem as if it’s a massive lane for a massive ship) and into the sea. Plenty of people were taking pictures, playing around in the pool, and eating random things.

Food was everywhere. Not only are both dining rooms operating throughout the evening, the buffet area on deck 9 always had some sort of food and drink available, and the best part is that just about all food here is free (or rather, already been paid for). I finished lunch with a full stomach, and that continued until long after dinner. At 10:30 PM there was a comedy show, which wasn’t bad, and here I am, about to head to sleep.

Meanwhile, I realized that the Photoshop script I use to make my picture galleries don’t exist on this computer. When I upload this, I will try to upload the pictures onto a directory. If the bandwidth is too limited, then I guess pictures won’t show up on this site until after I return.

Click Here To See Photos

Hope you guys are having a nice reading week!

Originally posted on Friday, February 13, 2009

In case any of you didn’t know, I won’t be around during reading week. Instead, I’ll be cruising the Caribbean on this:

Carnival Triumph

A few months ago, my parents told me that apparently some student organization (Microbiology Student Union or something like that) from their college years have decided to gather up North American alumni and organize a cruise trip together. For the two of them, I think it’s a good thing. Ever since my Dad went to New York, both of them have been working and living alone, and from how things sound, it was probably quite stressful. Needless to say, I got to take advantage of this cruise offer too.

Plane leaves Toronto on Saturday morning. I’ll be arriving at Miami, Florida Saturday night. The cruise will leave Florida shores Sunday afternoon. It will visit San Juan (Puerto Rico), St. Thomas (U.S. Virgin Islands), and St. Maarten (Netherlands Antilles). Most of the trip will be peacefully sailing at sea. It’s a good chance to relax and have some fun. Although it seems I’ll have to bring my Operating Systems textbook as I have a midterm right after I get back.

There should be Internet, although it will be expensive. I’ll be taking pictures and leaving updates of the trip (here) whenever I can. If you want to somehow get into contact with me, your best bet is probably email me, and I’ll check it around once a day. I won’t be using my phone unless it’s an emergency. I will be back in Toronto on a flight that arrives Sunday evening (Feb 22nd).