2009 Part 7featured

by Nicole on April 16, 2009

We slept in a bit today because we had a full day at sea…our second to last. We were starting to realize our cruise was quickly drawing to an end. We only had this day, Grand Turk day, and our last day at sea left! We got our swim stuff ready and went up for breakfast on the Lido before spending the day laying out. I wanted to go to the galley tour, but I was outvoted and didn’t want to go by myself. Maybe on the next cruise.

We had a quick lunch at Horatios and spent a few more hours out in the sun. We headed back to our rooms around 2:00. Tonight was our last formal night so we both had to shower and do our hair, and afternoon tea was at 3:30. I’m kind of surprised at how I’ve mastered the quick cruise shower. At home, taking a shower is at least a half-hour. On the boat? Five minutes, tops. I guess the cramped shower area doesn’t encourage long, hot showers (or cold showers, for that matter!).

We headed down to the Jeeves Lounge for tea around 3:00 and it was already getting full. Afternoon teas this week was PACKED, but it was an older crowd and I think older people tend to like afternoon tea more than families with small children (never saw one child once at tea). My sister and I, at 23 and 22 respectively, seemed to be the youngest people on the ship. But we love tea time with the rest of ’em so we grabbed a table and enjoyed the quiet chit chat and the soft music with our tea and treats. Right before tea time started, we noticed it was raining and there was a rainbow outside…how picturesque! I grabbed a picture through the window, but by the time I got up to the promenade, it was gone.

We shared a table with a lovely woman who was traveling with her husband. The tea pots were distributed and the server with the tea chest came over shortly after. There was a nice variety of teas (Darjeeling, Earl Gray, English Breakfast, Chamomile, and a few others) and I was quickly developing an affinity for the chamomile tea. I usually buy my teas loose from Teavana (and they charge an arm and a leg) and I was surprised at how much I liked a chamomile tea from Lipton’s that probably costs $2 a box. The tea sandwiches and baked goods were generally the same, with a few differences. They had these mini lemon meringue tarts that were absolutely fantastic and some homemade doughnuts that were one of the best things I’ve ever tasted on a cruise ship (or anywhere else for that matter…nothing like fresh, homemade doughnuts!)

After tea, we went back to our rooms to get ready for formal night. Stephanie kept good on her promise and we got some formal pics taken before heading to dinner. I feel the need to comment on something I saw tonight in the dining room. Carnival changed formal night to elegant evening. We still take the opportunity to dress up because we don’t have many chances at home to get all glammed up and think it’s fun. Just because it’s no longer formal night does not mean you can wear anything you want in. There was a table a few down from ours that took “cruise casual” to a whole new level. To them, it meant cut offs, tank tops, wife beaters, and a generally unkempt appearance. On elegant evening, it meant a dirty tank top worn with a pair of overalls. Being seated near the podium, I could see (and hear) the tension as the hosting staff tried to decide whether or not to kick them out, but they couldn’t decide who would do it so they didn’t do anything. On our cruise last May, we saw the Maitre’D kick a few people out of the dining room for not following the dress codes. If you don’t want to follow the dress codes, eat on the Lido deck. They have nearly every item from the dining menus (and all of the desserts) up there. I know this for fact…I was up there every night with grandma and I have pictures of the Lido bistro dinner menus. Everyone else looked lovely, though. I love seeing everyone in their formal wear almost as much as I like getting dressed up in it.

Dinner tonight was very good and was one of the best of the week. I started with the chilled cherry soup. It was absolutely scrumptious. Very light and creamy and very refreshing. Then, I had the grilled portabello mushroom, which was also very good, but very mushroom-ey. If you love mushrooms like I do, you’ll love it. If you don’t love mushrooms, you might not like this. I had the chateaubriand for my entree and it was everything the filet last night wasn’t; it was soft, tender and absolutely delicious. The portion was more than ample, too. Dessert was Baked Alaska, which we all had. It was totally yum. Stephanie had the broccoli soup and thought it was excellent, and also had the chateaubriand and the Baked Alaska, as did Mom (but she had her usual shrimp and caesar salad for her starters).

Freshly Grilled Portabello Mushroom and Freshly Picked Mesclun Lettuce

Chilled Creamy Bing Cherry Soup

Cream of Garden Fresh Broccoli

Chateaubriand with Sauce Bearnaise

Baked Alaska

After dinner, we headed over to the lobby to take more pictures and we saw that it was martini fluge night! They set up a huge ice fluge in the lobby and mix the martini and chill it through the ice. I’ve never seen this on any other ship but the Pride, so maybe it’s exclusive to the Spirit-class ships.

After checking out Martini Mania, we headed towards Gatsby’s Garden and the fountain to take some informal formal pictures before heading back to the room to go with grandma to Horatios.

When we got back to the room, we had a towel monkey waiting for us! We left him hanging for the rest of the cruise.

Stephanie, again, changed out of her dress the first chance she got. I still don’t know why she hates wearing formal dresses so much. I wore mine for the rest of the night. After grandma ate, we headed down to the Phantom for Bingo (we lost again) and show time.

Tonight’s show was “Singin’ With the Big Band” starring Christopher Alan Graves. Mr. Graves does two shows a week, on the Liberty and Miracle, and switches off between the boats (gets on at one port and off at the next to get on the other ship). We saw his show on the Liberty two years ago and it was exactly the same. He’s a good singer with a very big ego. That’s what I got from his show. It was very self-indulgent…moreso than the last time we saw it, so we didn’t really enjoy it (except for grandma, who loves that classic Sinatra music). At one point, he calls all the kids from Camp Carnival up on stage and hands out candy, so if you have kids, that might be something interesting for them.

I think I alluded to Stephanie getting sick before, but earlier I know I mentioned the dry cough that was going around the ship and the lack of sanitary manners of many of my co-passengers. They weren’t covering their mouths, and if they were, they were touching the handles of the serving spoons in the food lines at Horatios immediately after coughing. Despite constant use of hand sanitizer and washing her hands frequently, Stephanie caught whatever was going around. It started with a dry cough. By tonight, she had a bit of a sore throat (Mom got her some over-priced cough drops) and a cough (the infirmary sold her cough medicine for $5 and said this seemed to be going around the ship). By the time we were heading home, she had a nasty chest infection. If you are sick, please don’t get on board a ship. If you cough, cough into the crook of your arm, not your hands. And please, use the hand sanitizer provided before every line on the Lido deck before touching the serving spoons. Someone with a cough at the beginning of the cruise turned into a ship full of people coughing, hocking, and some with chest infections. She wasn’t really sick until we hit Atlanta, but it made the last day or so on the ship nearly miserable for her and made the long drive home nearly intolerable. Thankfully, grandma didn’t pick it up. It could have been worse, I suppose…we could have been dealing with Norovirus and that would have been disastrous. Did I mention Stephanie got Norwalk virus on New Years and I got it a week later? I barely had my energy back before we got on the ship two weeks later.

Anyways. We spent some time in the lobby before heading back to the room to rest a bit. I think we went up to the late night grill around midnight for a snack before going back to the room and falling asleep to Nancy Grace. Tomorrow was another new port for us, Grand Turk, and our last port of call before returning to Port Everglades.

Up next: A day in Grand Turk, an Afternoon in Margaritaville