Day 1
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Thursday, June 7, 2018
Carnival Pride - Day 8 - Disembarkation Day
Today is the day no one likes to have arrive - disembarkation day. One of these days I'd love to be one of those people sitting there on this day laughing and waving at all the people getting off knowing that I was staying on for a back to back cruise.
I think though that by today, we were both ready mentally and physically to say goodbye to the Carnival Pride. We already had the bulk of our carry on bags pulled together the night before so it was simply a matter of getting dressed and triple checking we'd packed everything. Dad always says I'm the designated double checker after we've packed up. At one point I opened a drawer and thought I'd found some kid's socks that were left behind from a previous cruiser. Turns out they were actually Joni's socks!
Since we'd missed catching our steward Purwanto before he'd cleaned our cabin yesterday, we used one of the envelopes available at guest services to leave a tip for him and a note of thanks propped up against the mirror.
We bid goodbye to balcony cabin #6323 and made our way upstairs to the Lido buffet with our carry on bags. After some searching, we found an open table and took turns grabbing some breakfast. Since we couldn't be on deck 2 near the Piazza Café this morning, Joni cashed in her free coffee at the counter in the buffet. She reported back that the crew member (different than Ms. no chai latte for you) working the counter this morning greeted her by name without ever seeing her card. I joked that they must have her picture up in the back like a Wanted poster.
This was also one of the first cruises I've been on that we didn't arrive officially back at our home port early in the morning. There's always that couple hour wait to get off the ship but usually we're docked by the time we wake up in the morning. Disembarkation calls went very slowly at first because as Leigh explained, the Port of Baltimore only allowed 2 customs agents to be on duty until a certain hour of the morning. There was a gap between calls every so often and Leigh would get on the intercom to explain that there's a backlog and to keep waiting patiently. Shortly after we each got up for a bathroom break to stretch our legs not being able to stand sitting anymore, they finally got more customs agents and started calling large ranges of disembarkation numbers.
Our turn came and who are the last Carnival crew we see before that final ding out - I'sha and Bradley from the fun squad. I'sha asked Joni if the look on her face was happy or sad to be leaving. While the line was long for the path from the ship to the customs area inside the building, it moved at a decent pace. We walked in at such a good time that our small group of 2 was able to go to a customs agent within seconds. It also took that long to get approved and sent on our way. A little bit of a walk across the parking lot where they'd held back the cars waiting to pick up their loved ones was all it took to be back on the road heading home by 11:45AM.
I hope you enjoyed reading about our experiences on this cruise! If you did, please feel free to comment and share with your friends and family. What's next for my travel adventures? Stay tuned!
I think though that by today, we were both ready mentally and physically to say goodbye to the Carnival Pride. We already had the bulk of our carry on bags pulled together the night before so it was simply a matter of getting dressed and triple checking we'd packed everything. Dad always says I'm the designated double checker after we've packed up. At one point I opened a drawer and thought I'd found some kid's socks that were left behind from a previous cruiser. Turns out they were actually Joni's socks!
Since we'd missed catching our steward Purwanto before he'd cleaned our cabin yesterday, we used one of the envelopes available at guest services to leave a tip for him and a note of thanks propped up against the mirror.
We bid goodbye to balcony cabin #6323 and made our way upstairs to the Lido buffet with our carry on bags. After some searching, we found an open table and took turns grabbing some breakfast. Since we couldn't be on deck 2 near the Piazza Café this morning, Joni cashed in her free coffee at the counter in the buffet. She reported back that the crew member (different than Ms. no chai latte for you) working the counter this morning greeted her by name without ever seeing her card. I joked that they must have her picture up in the back like a Wanted poster.
This was also one of the first cruises I've been on that we didn't arrive officially back at our home port early in the morning. There's always that couple hour wait to get off the ship but usually we're docked by the time we wake up in the morning. Disembarkation calls went very slowly at first because as Leigh explained, the Port of Baltimore only allowed 2 customs agents to be on duty until a certain hour of the morning. There was a gap between calls every so often and Leigh would get on the intercom to explain that there's a backlog and to keep waiting patiently. Shortly after we each got up for a bathroom break to stretch our legs not being able to stand sitting anymore, they finally got more customs agents and started calling large ranges of disembarkation numbers.
Our turn came and who are the last Carnival crew we see before that final ding out - I'sha and Bradley from the fun squad. I'sha asked Joni if the look on her face was happy or sad to be leaving. While the line was long for the path from the ship to the customs area inside the building, it moved at a decent pace. We walked in at such a good time that our small group of 2 was able to go to a customs agent within seconds. It also took that long to get approved and sent on our way. A little bit of a walk across the parking lot where they'd held back the cars waiting to pick up their loved ones was all it took to be back on the road heading home by 11:45AM.
Carnival Pride - Day 7 - Sea Day (Part 2)
The crowd cleared out but we opted to stay since it was near the theater. We expected a huge crowd wanting to get in for tonight's final Lip Sync Battle moment and decided to forgo dinner in the dining room in order to be at the theater early. With 90 minutes to kill and now officially being after 5PM, I ran back to the room to get my free drink certificate. I was a little concerned that it specifically listed soft drinks, coffee, wine, and beers but not the blended drink I'd planned to get. I first went into the Red Frog Pub where the karaoke we'd been listening to for the first part of our wait had just broken up but the bartender up and walked away as I approached. My next stop was the casino bar where the bartender had to ask about how to ring up the certificate and made a big show of proving I was the person listed before he'd make my requested mudslide. I had to sign a $0 total receipt before receiving my drink. The drink wasn't quite as good as I've had it on other lines but I appreciated that it wasn't super strong either.
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| Kind of missing the mud in my mudslide. A certain someone told me she'd get her 1 alcoholic drink at the same time as I cashed in my certificate. Notice how many glasses are sitting here? She did help herself to that little cherry garnish though. |
By the time I'd been waited on and went through this process to get my drink, people were starting to line up at the closed theater doors so I returned to Joni and said let's get in line too. The two final contestants, Anthony and Sujeta, wandered by and chatted before the doors opened 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the show. As the line grew behind us, we heard several people talk about saving spots for people who were still in the dining room or that they'd left their meal early to get here. I heard someone mention they'd had the old alligator fritters on tonight's menu. Funny to see that still on the menu since I recall trying them when Carnival included a "Didja ever?" crazy food option on their menus.
Once the doors opened, we picked lower level seats in the middle of the middle section to get the best view. This was my first time seeing Lip Sync Battle on a Carnival ship. I've seen many episodes of the TV show. Both contestants did a great job with their regular and costumed performances with the back up dancers.
The "surprise" performances by Leigh and Blake were hilarious.
The kids club members who came up during what on TV would have been a commercial break to do their own group lip sync was cute. Audience cheers declared the winner just like on the TV show and Sujeta won the famous belt.
Upon announcing the winner, confetti cannons were shot out from the sound booth area above the lower level and I ended up with the foam stopper falling directly into my lap as the confetti rained down. Took me an extra second to figure out why confetti would land with such a direct thud.
Since we'd skipped dinner in the dining room, we headed back to the buffet. I now wanted to try the deli sandwiches and walked up to the counter where there was no line. For a while I thought I was getting ignored by the one crew member standing behind the counter working on a slicer. He eventually told me that someone else would have to come from the back to take my order. So I continued to stand there waiting. As I stood there, I watched not only him keep looking back at me but also a few crew members from the back peek out the door and ignore me. I would think at the very least the first guy would stick his head in the door and tell someone they had someone waiting. I finally couldn't stand it anymore and walked away to get pizza. The pizza wasn't very good, possibly due to my appetite dwindling from being annoyed, but when I walked past the deli again there was finally crew out to serve the line that had formed. I recognized at least one of them as one who'd peeked out when I was waiting and refused to come out.
Since I had the internet package I took to Twitter to share my bad service report with Carnival. I made a point of mentioning that it was my last night onboard and tagged them in my tweet. I sat there for the longest time rewording and rethinking what to say before sending that tweet so that I could say something level headed, calm, and professional sounding. I've read too many complaints shared by John Heald of the weirdest and immature entitled comments cruisers send in. Wasn't until I sat there at breakfast waiting for our disembark number to be called the next morning did they respond. Their response: "I do apologize, if you like, please DM us your stateroom number and we can email the ship and have someone speak with you." Not that I expected anything for the inconvenience in the first place but what good would sending my stateroom number so they can email and send someone to speak with me going to do when I'm literally at this point sitting here waiting to disembark? I composed a tweet politely explaining that point and sent it only to realize upon returning home that it never went through.
Once we'd both had enough of the dinner we could salvage from the already half closed buffet, we headed back to the cabin to pack and put our suitcases out in the hallway.
Carnival Pride - Day 7 - Sea Day (Part 1)
Our final sea day and our final full day of the cruise has arrived. The ship had been rocking so much during the night and this morning that my shower felt like I was inside a washing machine.
Our last Clue presentation was scheduled for 9:15AM so we decided to skip breakfast in favor of attending the sea day brunch later. The Clue was scheduled once again for the same time as the morning show with Leigh. This time he broadcasted the morning show from the open stage of the Taj Mahal theater inviting anyone who wished to come sit in the theater and watch. He even made jokes about how most of us were probably there for the Clue and not him. During the show, Leigh mentioned that the first person to bring him a breakfast burrito from Blue Iguana Cantina would win a prize. I have a feeling that one of the audience members texted a friend because when the burrito showed up, the woman brought it to the people in the audience first.
In addition to a little conversation with Fran (tastic), Leigh rambled on for so long that he didn't get to the Clue until after 10AM. Fran handled revealing the giant cards while Leigh started reading off the eliminated suspect only to be confused by everyone's reaction. The group gathered informed him that we'd already gotten that clue yesterday. Fran ran off stage to fetch the right set of cards only to drop them onto the stage in her rush to put them on the easel. She tried to scoop them up but Leigh just announced who the eliminated suspect was since we'd all seen the card when it fell. I hope Frantastic wasn't too GREEN with envy at having her reveal ruined.
At 10:30AM, the Debarkation Presentation was to be held in the theater and a first for me was that this was also the time they put out a display of luggage tags for you to pick your own based on when you wanted to leave. They had a sign at the top explaining that the lower group numbers of 1-14 would go first and gave a time frame of 11:15AM-11:45AM. The time frame for the groups 15-25 was from 11:45AM-12:15PM. By the time we came out of the theater this morning, there was a line from the computer kiosks almost to the theater of people already waiting to be allowed to pick their tags. You'd think they were giving out free money the way people were being so territorial. I heard there was even arguments about who had what place in line. Without a plane to catch and Joni having made arrangements for her husband to come give us a 20 minute ride home, we opted for group #15 after the line had cleared and we were back in the area for the Calling All Nerds trivia.
Since Leigh revealed during the morning show that this morning was when they'd decorated the Lido deck with towel animals, something I'd missed catching in all my cruises, I wanted to hop up there to see it. We altered our plans slightly when the morning show Clue reveal ran long and we decided it wouldn't be enough time to attend sea day brunch in the dining room before our next activity. I was disappointed when I didn't get to share this ritual with Joni on her first Carnival cruise and was even more disappointed when we got upstairs and 95% of the towel animals were gone! I found one towel creature sitting on one of the counters and a couple on one of the tables.
There was remnants of felt eyes and tape on the deck just taunting me! Ahh well, something to strive for on the next cruise I suppose.
After a quick hodgepodge of what I could grab easily from the breakfast buffet remnants and a lecture from Mama Joni who'd noticed that I'd taken a bagel a few times this week only to not eat it, we headed back to our usual hangout of the Piazza Café. Calling All Nerds trivia was followed by Game of Thrones trivia (my only help was knowing who wrote the books) and we were determined to stick around for today's session of Trivial Pursuit since we'd missed it every other time.
During the downtime between trivia sessions, Joni went to get another coffee and must have given in to the barista's insistence on a caramel latte. She came back sipping and making a face at the taste after each drink. She'd also now been given an almost fully punched frequent buyer coffee card so she'd have proof of being entitled to the next coffee being free. The barista even told Joni that she'd told her co-workers to look out for her too.
Carnival has a whole set of Trivial Pursuit made just for playing on the ship with giant size color wheels, wedges, and a multicolored die. Each wedge in your wheel starts out the color of the category and if you get the question right, you flip it over to reveal the color of your wheel. Since there are only 6 wheels, everyone had to merge into larger groups and meet new friends. We paired up with a couple on their honeymoon and the new bride was in charge of writing our answers on the dry erase board. There were a lot of teams super close to completing all their wedges but many of them needed a color that Blake couldn't seem to roll. The play went clockwise around the room and if you didn't get your answer right, it was the next team's chance to steal. If they got it right, they could turn that colored wedge over. If they didn't need that wedge anymore, then their only consolation was that it stopped anyone else's team from getting it. There was one rule that said if it was your turn and the die rolled to a color you already had, then you got one more roll to try and get a color you didn't yet have. If that still didn't fit what you needed, then you essentially lost your chance to answer a question and Blake moved on to the next team.
After a while of many teams getting the true/false questions wrong, Blake offered to toss out all true/false questions to which everyone cheered their agreement. It came down to several teams being one wedge and our last wedge just happened to be the color of our wheel, yellow. History is not my strongest category but I wished Blake would roll a yellow on that die with all my might. We all started even chanting yellow, yellow, yellow as Blake rolled. It did land on yellow and lucky for me, our history themed question was "Which department store is credited with being the creator of the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Christmas carol character?" That random fact of it being created by Montgomery Ward as an ad campaign has always stuck in my head for some reason. Our whiteboard wielding teammate wasn't sure whether to accept my answer and debated for a while but my serial killer stares of desperation finally convinced her to take my word for it. Our answer was declared correct and we triumphantly flipped our last wedge in the pie over winning the game. Blake was kind enough to bring ships on a stick for everyone (the newlyweds agreed to share one) and I tried to send Joni home with mine but she was happy just taking home the two she'd helped win.
After Big Bang Theory themed trivia, we rushed upstairs to find a quick lunch. I was going to try the deli sandwiches for the first time this trip but as soon as Joni said the words "taco bowl" I did an about face and reported for my new favorite lunch. This was also the chocolate extravaganza day in the buffet and I found cake and chocolate donuts among the choices to hand the crew member dipping our choices into the chocolate fountain. Not quite the donuts I'd been hoping for but I'll take it. Mmm, donuts! Hey, who let Homer Simpson in here?
We headed back down to the theater catching the last several minutes of Leigh's Q & Awesome talk. His story of a rogue wave reaching up to deck 6 was quite interesting. That's a topic I hadn't heard mentioned in other similar Q&A with the crew talks. After a while of listening to the talk, we realized that the entry forms to put our Clue answer were sitting on the edge of the stage and Joni went up to grab us each one. A woman in the row in front of us heard us talking and started arguing with us about how there was still two suspects left to choose from. We tried to explain that with this morning's clue, they'd eliminated all but one but she was adamant. It was a little confusing because everything we'd say to explain, she'd agree with and then still insist there were two left. Between the talk, the Clue reveal, and the upcoming Bingo game right after, the theater was filling up fast.
When Leigh was done he called Fran up to do the reveal. She made such a big show of lifting up the raffle box in order to draw a name that a slip fell out of the box on its own. She picked it up, confirmed that it had the right answer and declared them to be the winner. The woman whose name had been called came down from the back of the theater and collected her prize winnings of a ship on a stick, a magnifying glass, and the same Hasbro card deck game the losers of Hasbro game night got as well. The woman in front of us who'd been arguing turned back around and asked if we'd gotten the right answer. Umm yeah, how could you not get the right answer if you'd attended every Clue reveal? Rest assured, we responded more politely than that before walking away.
Joni wanted to get some more time lounging in the sun so she headed for the pool deck while I attended Full House trivia. I played by myself but the place was packed so almost every question I had to tune out the group of young girls yelling the answers to each other despite sitting next to each other at the couch next to me. I had a good high score but another lady got all but one question right. Not wanting to play another round of Speak Out, I headed upstairs and took the empty lounger next to Joni. We chatted and polished off the last of my sour gummies before heading back down for Movie music trivia and Scattergories. There was such a large group gathered to play Scattergories that we were only allowed to run one round. Most everyone of my answers got eliminated and I think the woman who won managed to do so by having a super low score.
Our last Clue presentation was scheduled for 9:15AM so we decided to skip breakfast in favor of attending the sea day brunch later. The Clue was scheduled once again for the same time as the morning show with Leigh. This time he broadcasted the morning show from the open stage of the Taj Mahal theater inviting anyone who wished to come sit in the theater and watch. He even made jokes about how most of us were probably there for the Clue and not him. During the show, Leigh mentioned that the first person to bring him a breakfast burrito from Blue Iguana Cantina would win a prize. I have a feeling that one of the audience members texted a friend because when the burrito showed up, the woman brought it to the people in the audience first.
In addition to a little conversation with Fran (tastic), Leigh rambled on for so long that he didn't get to the Clue until after 10AM. Fran handled revealing the giant cards while Leigh started reading off the eliminated suspect only to be confused by everyone's reaction. The group gathered informed him that we'd already gotten that clue yesterday. Fran ran off stage to fetch the right set of cards only to drop them onto the stage in her rush to put them on the easel. She tried to scoop them up but Leigh just announced who the eliminated suspect was since we'd all seen the card when it fell. I hope Frantastic wasn't too GREEN with envy at having her reveal ruined.
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| Our final towel "animal" |
Since Leigh revealed during the morning show that this morning was when they'd decorated the Lido deck with towel animals, something I'd missed catching in all my cruises, I wanted to hop up there to see it. We altered our plans slightly when the morning show Clue reveal ran long and we decided it wouldn't be enough time to attend sea day brunch in the dining room before our next activity. I was disappointed when I didn't get to share this ritual with Joni on her first Carnival cruise and was even more disappointed when we got upstairs and 95% of the towel animals were gone! I found one towel creature sitting on one of the counters and a couple on one of the tables.
There was remnants of felt eyes and tape on the deck just taunting me! Ahh well, something to strive for on the next cruise I suppose.
After a quick hodgepodge of what I could grab easily from the breakfast buffet remnants and a lecture from Mama Joni who'd noticed that I'd taken a bagel a few times this week only to not eat it, we headed back to our usual hangout of the Piazza Café. Calling All Nerds trivia was followed by Game of Thrones trivia (my only help was knowing who wrote the books) and we were determined to stick around for today's session of Trivial Pursuit since we'd missed it every other time.
During the downtime between trivia sessions, Joni went to get another coffee and must have given in to the barista's insistence on a caramel latte. She came back sipping and making a face at the taste after each drink. She'd also now been given an almost fully punched frequent buyer coffee card so she'd have proof of being entitled to the next coffee being free. The barista even told Joni that she'd told her co-workers to look out for her too.
Carnival has a whole set of Trivial Pursuit made just for playing on the ship with giant size color wheels, wedges, and a multicolored die. Each wedge in your wheel starts out the color of the category and if you get the question right, you flip it over to reveal the color of your wheel. Since there are only 6 wheels, everyone had to merge into larger groups and meet new friends. We paired up with a couple on their honeymoon and the new bride was in charge of writing our answers on the dry erase board. There were a lot of teams super close to completing all their wedges but many of them needed a color that Blake couldn't seem to roll. The play went clockwise around the room and if you didn't get your answer right, it was the next team's chance to steal. If they got it right, they could turn that colored wedge over. If they didn't need that wedge anymore, then their only consolation was that it stopped anyone else's team from getting it. There was one rule that said if it was your turn and the die rolled to a color you already had, then you got one more roll to try and get a color you didn't yet have. If that still didn't fit what you needed, then you essentially lost your chance to answer a question and Blake moved on to the next team.
After a while of many teams getting the true/false questions wrong, Blake offered to toss out all true/false questions to which everyone cheered their agreement. It came down to several teams being one wedge and our last wedge just happened to be the color of our wheel, yellow. History is not my strongest category but I wished Blake would roll a yellow on that die with all my might. We all started even chanting yellow, yellow, yellow as Blake rolled. It did land on yellow and lucky for me, our history themed question was "Which department store is credited with being the creator of the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Christmas carol character?" That random fact of it being created by Montgomery Ward as an ad campaign has always stuck in my head for some reason. Our whiteboard wielding teammate wasn't sure whether to accept my answer and debated for a while but my serial killer stares of desperation finally convinced her to take my word for it. Our answer was declared correct and we triumphantly flipped our last wedge in the pie over winning the game. Blake was kind enough to bring ships on a stick for everyone (the newlyweds agreed to share one) and I tried to send Joni home with mine but she was happy just taking home the two she'd helped win.
After Big Bang Theory themed trivia, we rushed upstairs to find a quick lunch. I was going to try the deli sandwiches for the first time this trip but as soon as Joni said the words "taco bowl" I did an about face and reported for my new favorite lunch. This was also the chocolate extravaganza day in the buffet and I found cake and chocolate donuts among the choices to hand the crew member dipping our choices into the chocolate fountain. Not quite the donuts I'd been hoping for but I'll take it. Mmm, donuts! Hey, who let Homer Simpson in here?
We headed back down to the theater catching the last several minutes of Leigh's Q & Awesome talk. His story of a rogue wave reaching up to deck 6 was quite interesting. That's a topic I hadn't heard mentioned in other similar Q&A with the crew talks. After a while of listening to the talk, we realized that the entry forms to put our Clue answer were sitting on the edge of the stage and Joni went up to grab us each one. A woman in the row in front of us heard us talking and started arguing with us about how there was still two suspects left to choose from. We tried to explain that with this morning's clue, they'd eliminated all but one but she was adamant. It was a little confusing because everything we'd say to explain, she'd agree with and then still insist there were two left. Between the talk, the Clue reveal, and the upcoming Bingo game right after, the theater was filling up fast.
When Leigh was done he called Fran up to do the reveal. She made such a big show of lifting up the raffle box in order to draw a name that a slip fell out of the box on its own. She picked it up, confirmed that it had the right answer and declared them to be the winner. The woman whose name had been called came down from the back of the theater and collected her prize winnings of a ship on a stick, a magnifying glass, and the same Hasbro card deck game the losers of Hasbro game night got as well. The woman in front of us who'd been arguing turned back around and asked if we'd gotten the right answer. Umm yeah, how could you not get the right answer if you'd attended every Clue reveal? Rest assured, we responded more politely than that before walking away.
Joni wanted to get some more time lounging in the sun so she headed for the pool deck while I attended Full House trivia. I played by myself but the place was packed so almost every question I had to tune out the group of young girls yelling the answers to each other despite sitting next to each other at the couch next to me. I had a good high score but another lady got all but one question right. Not wanting to play another round of Speak Out, I headed upstairs and took the empty lounger next to Joni. We chatted and polished off the last of my sour gummies before heading back down for Movie music trivia and Scattergories. There was such a large group gathered to play Scattergories that we were only allowed to run one round. Most everyone of my answers got eliminated and I think the woman who won managed to do so by having a super low score.
Tuesday, June 5, 2018
Carnival Pride - Day 6 - Freeport (Part 2)
Back to the cabin to change for dinner as tonight was our second and final formal night. Some people assume that formal nights are only on sea days but oftentimes, especially when the later sea day is the last night of the cruise, the other formal night will actually be on your shortest port day. Despite being a super long line again, we made it in without a pager. I have a feeling though that since the hostess who was walking the line checking cabin numbers and party sizes stopped at our spot in line and walked back to the front with us, that we were one of the last groups tonight to avoid a pager.
We ended up being seated back in the same section as the other night with Selvin as our waiter and the slow service. The wait staff remembered that I ordered soda at dinner and brought me another can and cup of ice versus the fountain soda. Unfortunately, the slow service was also the same and we sat for a long time in between courses to get our food and/or have our plates cleared. I believe at one point they even brought out our next course and were shocked when they couldn't find room to put it down because our table still had the plates from the previous course.
I was so excited to see Stuffed Mushrooms listed as an appetizer tonight hoping that it was the same bread crumb and seasoning stuffed button mushrooms with melted cheese baked over everything I'd enjoyed on my previous cruise. Alas, it seems the budget cuts trickled all the way down to the cheese as this dish was swimming in something resembling tomato sauce. I'm pretty sure I have some Italian relatives that are hanging their heads at this dish. Joni went with the Chesapeake Crab Cake.
For an entrée Joni chose the Duo of Filet Mignon and Short Rib along with the Teriyaki Salmon Fillet. She was glad that she ordered both because hated the salmon from the first bite. I went with the Grilled Jumbo Shrimp and the Fusilli Mushroom Cream. For some reason whenever shrimp is the main part of an entrée, the dish barely has anything to it so it wasn't a big stretch to eat both that and the pasta. Joni even sampled some of the pasta and said she wished she'd ordered that instead.
Tonight was another round of dancing wait staff and something that was even more worth the wait - it was Joni's turn to get sung to! She was the first one to spot Selvin coming around the corner with the same little birthday cake and cringed. He backed up out of sight again and she thought she was in the clear. No such luck my friend, as a minute later he brings the cake over to Joni's seat and proclaims that I was making them sing to her.
I tried to get it on video to post on Facebook but alas, it didn't start recording until I was already bringing my phone back down to sit on the table. I showed Joni the video and she asked why I got a picture of just her boobs. All you can see in the short clip is her pissed off look and threatening to throw the now blown out candle at me while commenting "I can't believe you did this!" Well that and how they didn't bother to bring her any utensils for which to eat the cake. Thanks for the blame Selvin.
The Grand Marnier Souffle she ordered with tableside sauce pouring made her happy again. I had to try the tip I'd read online about ordering some peanut butter to go with your Carnival Melting Cake so that once mixed together, it was like eating a warm gooey Reeses cup. The way people recommend it, I thought the wait staff would have been used to the request but instead I got a very confused reaction. "You want what? Peanut Butter? Like a little cup? What?" I can now say, the cruisers online are right! It's not quite like a Reeses cup consistency wise but more like a chocolate peanut butter cake or one of those brownie sundaes.
A lot of people were chatting today about the addition of gratuities added to everyone's account summaries. Ours came to around $90 so I can see why people were a bit taken aback at such a large single entry added to their bills. I used the kiosk to check my account statement as well this day to confirm that the credits and refunds were being applied to my overall total. The app summary would show the credits but not adjust the balance total. If you'd rather not waste the paper, just look it up on the kiosk screen and then exit out. Just don't wait until the last day. Not only is it a rush to get something wrong fixed but you're also stuck in the long lines waiting at guest services. I heard some tempers flare the last day at the kiosk even because some thought others were taking too long at their turn.
I loved how Carnival tries to put a good spin on the old "out of order" sign in the public bathrooms:
Despite the slow dinner we made it to the Punchliner comedy club (aka Butterflies Lounge) in time to get the last few available seats for the family friendly comedy shows of Jim Brick & Damon Sumner. I like how both Oasis and Pride offered a comedy show that featured two comedians. The best part was when Damon leaned back on the projected picture of a brick wall and nearly fell off the stage.
We noticed that in addition to unique drinks you can order during the comedy shows, you can now also get pitchers to share. On my last Carnival cruise, it was the usual bar menu on the tables with a couple Punchliner themed drinks at the bottom. Now you can get pitchers and buckets in your own little checklist:
Note that the starred options for pitchers, four shots, and buckets are not eligible for Cheers:
Unlike previous comedy shows on the Pride where they made us all leave and line back up to give everyone a new chance to get a seat, they didn't bother to empty the venue this time in between shows. We stuck around and watched Jim Brick's first adults only show where he spent 95% of the time mocking the family in the front row. We opted out of staying for Damon's one only adult show. There was also a late evening second adults only show with Jim Brick after that but we didn't feel like going back down after getting comfortable in the cabin. Back in the room was papers about disembarkation and picking our own luggage tags in the morning. I suppose this was close enough to the last day when I think disembarkation info should appear. I've been on cruises where it shows up in your cabin day 2. Welcome aboard, now think about getting out!
We ended up being seated back in the same section as the other night with Selvin as our waiter and the slow service. The wait staff remembered that I ordered soda at dinner and brought me another can and cup of ice versus the fountain soda. Unfortunately, the slow service was also the same and we sat for a long time in between courses to get our food and/or have our plates cleared. I believe at one point they even brought out our next course and were shocked when they couldn't find room to put it down because our table still had the plates from the previous course.
I was so excited to see Stuffed Mushrooms listed as an appetizer tonight hoping that it was the same bread crumb and seasoning stuffed button mushrooms with melted cheese baked over everything I'd enjoyed on my previous cruise. Alas, it seems the budget cuts trickled all the way down to the cheese as this dish was swimming in something resembling tomato sauce. I'm pretty sure I have some Italian relatives that are hanging their heads at this dish. Joni went with the Chesapeake Crab Cake.
For an entrée Joni chose the Duo of Filet Mignon and Short Rib along with the Teriyaki Salmon Fillet. She was glad that she ordered both because hated the salmon from the first bite. I went with the Grilled Jumbo Shrimp and the Fusilli Mushroom Cream. For some reason whenever shrimp is the main part of an entrée, the dish barely has anything to it so it wasn't a big stretch to eat both that and the pasta. Joni even sampled some of the pasta and said she wished she'd ordered that instead.
Tonight was another round of dancing wait staff and something that was even more worth the wait - it was Joni's turn to get sung to! She was the first one to spot Selvin coming around the corner with the same little birthday cake and cringed. He backed up out of sight again and she thought she was in the clear. No such luck my friend, as a minute later he brings the cake over to Joni's seat and proclaims that I was making them sing to her.
I tried to get it on video to post on Facebook but alas, it didn't start recording until I was already bringing my phone back down to sit on the table. I showed Joni the video and she asked why I got a picture of just her boobs. All you can see in the short clip is her pissed off look and threatening to throw the now blown out candle at me while commenting "I can't believe you did this!" Well that and how they didn't bother to bring her any utensils for which to eat the cake. Thanks for the blame Selvin.
The Grand Marnier Souffle she ordered with tableside sauce pouring made her happy again. I had to try the tip I'd read online about ordering some peanut butter to go with your Carnival Melting Cake so that once mixed together, it was like eating a warm gooey Reeses cup. The way people recommend it, I thought the wait staff would have been used to the request but instead I got a very confused reaction. "You want what? Peanut Butter? Like a little cup? What?" I can now say, the cruisers online are right! It's not quite like a Reeses cup consistency wise but more like a chocolate peanut butter cake or one of those brownie sundaes.
A lot of people were chatting today about the addition of gratuities added to everyone's account summaries. Ours came to around $90 so I can see why people were a bit taken aback at such a large single entry added to their bills. I used the kiosk to check my account statement as well this day to confirm that the credits and refunds were being applied to my overall total. The app summary would show the credits but not adjust the balance total. If you'd rather not waste the paper, just look it up on the kiosk screen and then exit out. Just don't wait until the last day. Not only is it a rush to get something wrong fixed but you're also stuck in the long lines waiting at guest services. I heard some tempers flare the last day at the kiosk even because some thought others were taking too long at their turn.
I loved how Carnival tries to put a good spin on the old "out of order" sign in the public bathrooms:
Despite the slow dinner we made it to the Punchliner comedy club (aka Butterflies Lounge) in time to get the last few available seats for the family friendly comedy shows of Jim Brick & Damon Sumner. I like how both Oasis and Pride offered a comedy show that featured two comedians. The best part was when Damon leaned back on the projected picture of a brick wall and nearly fell off the stage.
Note that the starred options for pitchers, four shots, and buckets are not eligible for Cheers:
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