Monday, July 27: I’m On a Boat….

I’m on a boat ---, take a look at me
Straight flowing on a boat on the deep blue sea
Busting five knots, wind whipping out my coat
You can’t stop me ---, ‘cause I’m on a boat.
(Search “I’m On a Boat – SNL in YouTube!)

A few notes that I forgot to mention. Our room steward Jono was awesome!! He made sure to keep our cooler stocked with ice, he brought a separate large bucket for my wine, and he stocked our ice bucket with ice as well – twice a day. He always approached us by name, asked how our day was going, and made sure we had everything we needed. He even brought us a corkscrew and extra wine glasses. It was really nice chatting with him every day.

Ahh the first relaxing sea day. Jim and I were up pretty early this morning so we headed to the aft deck after grabbing some breakfast at the Unicorn. Before this, though, we noticed our mail in the mailbox. Dessi had been able to switch us to a table for 2 for early seating. Yey!!

Since we don’t take too much time eating, we grabbed a table and put our towels out on two lounge chairs (we are not chair hogs!! We were in direct sight of our chairs and only took 20 minutes to eat!!).

After breakfast, it was time for some sun. I made it a point to NOT start drinking until 11, and right at 11, my favorite pool bar server came around with those cute Money Head drinks. Although my Coco Loco was awesome, they fail to tell you that the drink in the cup is $17.00 (!!!!) with tip. Yikes! Oh well, I have a cute coconut cup now for future beachy parties, and I used the cup for the rest of the day (of course filling the cup with my own alcohol!)


We continued this lounging funness for quite awhile, and then proceeded Art Auction at noon. At some point in the day, we noticed another carnival ship in the distance (Valor?)


Today was also the first Champagne art auction. Since we were pretty deep into drinks at this point, and a bit hot a crispy, we decided to attend, if not for the Champagne, then to at least check out the Firebird Lounge and the AC! People were crowding around the one bar server that was handing out Champagne, and she never quite made it down to our seats, where we were patiently waiting, so we did what everyone else did and hounded her as well.

Jim had been checking out some framed photo of Joe Namath (I think) and thought that maybe since this is an auction, he could get the print for cheap. Not so much. The print was something like $1,400!! It seemed a lot of these prints were absurdly overpriced. I cannot believe people actually buy stuff on here. I guess some of it’s a great deal, but I was maybe excepting more. Well, we snuck out of there pretty fast. I was starving at it was already 2!

After lunch, we checked out the main pool and hung out there for a bit. Those chairs were packed with towels and books (but no people) but it didn’t really matter, we just wanted to cool off for a bit and then went back to the cabin to change.



At 4:00 we headed up to the Sports Deck for Dodge Ball. Forgetting that its beyond windy up here, I wore a flowy dress. Bad idea!! But Jim had a great time playing and his team came in second.










Tonight was formal night, and because we had early dinner, we had to bolt back to our room, but with Marissa and Joe in tow. There we shared some wine before realizing that crap!! we need to get ready!! Luckily I can get ready pretty quickly!

I guess here is really where the tradeoff between early and late seating is. I hated late because I hate eating at 8:15, plus it was always a rush to the evening activities. But eating early, at first, was a little bit rushed. It all worked out in the end, and I think on future cruises we will stick with early or Your Time Dining. I really liked the relationships we built with our servers though (more on that later).

So we changed rally quickly and headed to the dining room with glass of room wine in hand! This time we had not bothered to look for our table beforehand, and did not realize that we had such a great spot! We were on the second floor of Truffles at the railing. Amilcar was our head waiter and Juan was our assistant. Inyoman was our bar server and we saw him everywhere on the ship!



Tonight’s dinner really made me rethink the food on Carnival and the fact that the night before was probably a fluke. I had the stuffed mushrooms (yum!!) and Jim had soup to start. For dinner, Jim had prime rib (it was so good) and I had the Lobster tail and shrimp (very very good!). I asked Amilcar for 2 tails since, will, you can. He brought out an extra plate. Yikes!!






Dessert was also extra good. Jim had some apple thing and I had the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake (WCMC). I personally really liked it, although I agree with opinions that the consistency changes from night to night. Who cares though?!?! Yummy chocolate with vanilla ice cream. Mmmmmmmmmm.



Showtime came and our fantastic servers sang to us. Juan even made me a nice set of ears (remember Passover though?? I kept asking him what else those could be?!?!)




After dinner we checked out the Capitan’s reception. Before heading in, we had the chance to meet and shake hands with the captain and his officers. We also had the change to meet and chat with CD Jen. Other than the fact that Jen likes to make a lot (LOT) of announcements, I actually found her and ACD Kev to be great. They were entertaining, approachable and really looked like they were having a great time. Jen and her glitter were seen everywhere. We stayed for the reception and had some very sweet drinks. Afterwards, the Legends band played for a bit and Jim actually dragged me on stage to dance!


We then headed out for a photo op. Again, it was VERY windy.


We headed over to the casino bar for some drinks and donations. Jim and Jim were looking for something…


And Kat made sure to add some more rum to Marissa’s Daiquiri…



And finally, we enjoyed some music from Mr. Tony Ray, who we loved. Not sure he felt the same way, although he laughed every time he saw Jim and me. I wonder if it had anything to do with the random music requests and loud singalongs?!?!


With an early morning call in Cayman, it was time to go to bed. Jim snapped a few last shots of the moon against the ocean.


And we said goodnight to our friend, Mr. Dog (Chewy!!).


Next up…our first port of call, Grand Cayman!