The last full day on the Dream started off with a split….Fric and Frac were still fast asleep after their late night shenanigans.
Kevin and I did our last ‘shore excursion’…the only one we paid for through Carnival (a note: shore excursions through Carnival are guaranteed…the boat won’t leave without you, etc…but, are about 2x-3x more expensive. For every stop this trip, we had went ‘off the grid’ and purchased outside of Carnival. Especially in Belize, we ran the risk of an airplane malfunction making us miss the boat. But, for example, the cost per person in Belize was $115 for the flights and the 2+ hours out at the reef….just to walk around the ship here was $85).
Kevin and I did a behind-the-scenes tour of the ship. No pictures allowed (and the one picture of Kevin and I with the Captain will have to wait for me to scan in when I get back home). The tour was almost four hours long (too long…) and we went to the following places:
The Galley: the only escalators on the ship help the wait staff bring food from the kitchens on three to the dining rooms on four. The kitchens were industrial in scale and an interesting stop
The Storerooms: On Deck 0; I probably enjoyed this stop more than most because I enjoyed the discussion of waste minimization but could see how others might have been plenty bored.
The Engine Control Room: Can’t go to the engine room for security reasons, and we had security with us even here. Enjoyed this stop, especially the big flat screen control displays. The verbal part of the tour here went on too long…Kevin said he was really bored at the end of it….
The Laundry Room: Enjoyed this as well….they only dry towels and bathrobes…all the other linens are dried as they go through automatic folding devices
The Training Room: The tour was run by the training director, so, we ended up here. And it was interesting to a point hearing about how they integrate the different nationalities and train the staff (why no Americans? you can make more working minimum wage at McDonalds for the most part)…..but this ran on to long for me….
Deck 4: We went out to the front of the ship where we had seen hot tubs before and wondered how to get there….turn out those hot tubs and that area are reserved for the crew.
Backstage: Met the dance captain and went through the dressing rooms. Described as “muti-million dollar productions” which I almost laughed out loud at…..I did find interesting the discussion of how some productions change when the ship is in heavy seas….
The Bridge: Best part of the tour…..met the Captain, he answered questions (someone, not me, asked him about missing Roatan…I was going to ask but had decided it wouldn’t be polite…..he said they’ve missed that stop three times in three months. 50% is not good). Wish we had been here later in the day when we were closer to Miami and the ship traffic picked up….
The last night of the cruise was another dining room dinner…..I don’t recall what I had now (I know I finished a lot of Matthew’s ribs and Kevin’s fried chicken….what I had wasn’t very filling, but I’m just spacing on it now). I think by the end the boys were getting the hang of this formal dinner business; it was definitely trying at times with them though…..
We went to the final show (the best of the best karaoke…it was OK, some were a lot better than others), wandered through the casino, and headed upstairs to the windy Lido deck before calling it an evening.
