Tropical Contact Highs: Eight Breeze-y Nights in the Southern Caribbean (Part 3)featured
The skies weren’t exactly vacation picturesque when I woke up on our first sea day. They were cloudy and gray. The seas were rocky. It didn’t bode well.
Since there was no rain and it was still warm out, we put on our swim suits and cover-ups, packed a bag and headed up to the Lido Marketplace for breakfast. The Marketplace felt crowded even though it really wasn’t. In an unusual change in events, the line for regular breakfast fare was longer than the lines for custom omelets. No matter for me, though – I had my eyes on something else for breakfast: Blue Iguana Cantina.
I’m a bit of a huevos rancheros fiend. Brunch is big in Chicago and if there’s huevos rancheros on the menu, I’m all over it. So it was interesting to see huevos rancheros on a cruise ship (along with made to order breakfast burritos). Unfortunately, the huevos rancheros weren’t all that good, but the Blue Iguana Cantina had another offering that surprised me and was honestly one of the tastiest things I ate all week: arepas.
The arepas were served piping hot, with the sweetness of the corn meal flatbread melding with the slight nuttiness in the cheese. A cup of salsa verde on the side for dipping and I wanted for nothing else. Sweet, salty, crunchy, soft. It was a myriad of juxtapositions. Pure breakfast perfection.
We headed out to the aft pool after breakfast and found it pretty crowded for an overcast day. The pool water was very warm (almost like bathwater) and the hot tubs were a bit cool. We didn’t stay out for too long.
We headed back to the room to change around 11:00 am and our room still hadn’t been serviced yet. On most of our previous cruises, our rooms were serviced by 10:00 am. In the interest of not getting in our steward’s way, we changed into our sweats, grabbed our Fun Times and headed to Ocean Plaza to watch trivia and figure out what we wanted to do.
There wasn’t too much going on, so we just kind of wandered around the promenade deck a bit.
We all disagreed on what we wanted for lunch. Mom and Stephanie wanted barbeque, but I wanted to do the brunch in the MDR. Ultimately, they won. Apparently many other people had the same idea as them because the line stretched along the Lanai.
The fare offered a variety of meats and sides, but nothing all that unique or noteworthy. It was all standard non-regional barbeque fare.
I have to say – while I liked the concept of the Lanai grill better, I think the food is better with the barbeque. Chicago isn’t any kind of barbeque hub, so I’m no expert, but I know good food and the barbeque sauce was nice and tangy. I thought the bbq chicken, in particular, was a standout.
We headed back in to Ocean Plaza for some trivia and I noticed that they turned the Taste Bar into a salad bar for lunch. Offering made-to-order salads, two soups and a few pre-made sandwiches, it was kind of like an undiscovered treasure. We never saw lines when they were open on sea days and we were passing through.
Mom went for a walk and Stephanie and I stayed in Ocean Plaza for TV Theme Song Trivia and Family Feud Trivia. We lost at both, proving that there is, indeed, a limit to the useless knowledge that fills my head.
We headed back to the room after awhile and found that the room steward had left us a plate of treats for formal night. We left those for later.
I sat out on the balcony and read for a bit (I was determined to start reading The Hunger Games series since I’d held off for, like, a year and a half) and watch the water.
And when the seas got rocky, I headed in for a nice, long nap. It was crappy out and the rocking was making me sleepy. I worked 80 hours the week before and had an early flight the day before last. While I want to pack as much into my trips as I can, sometimes you have to realize the point of vacationing is to rest, and few things are as relaxing as long, mid-day naps. We missed tea time, but you know…sleep > tea and scones. And my office now stocks that Cozy Chamomile tea I like anyways.
Stephanie and Mom didn’t wake me up until both of them had showered and had their makeup done for formal night (a theme throughout the week – if they didn’t want to fight over space at the desk or the blow dryer, they just let me sleep until they were done), so I took a shower and had the desk to myself to get ready for formal night. Elegant evening? Whatever they’re calling it these days. Stephanie and I took our obligatory balcony pic and then headed out.
We hit up Ocean Plaza, where there was live music and a drink special.
Ocean Plaza also had the Taste Bar, where on selected nights, they offered small plates inspired by the various venues on the ship. Tonight’s offerings were inspired by the steakhouse.
We did some walking around the deck and people watching before heading to dinner.
We had Anytime Dining so we headed to our assigned dining room at our leisure, checked in and asked for a private table for three and were quickly led to a table right next to a window. Perfect.
Our glasses were filled with water quickly and a basket of warm bread left for our table.
I’m not entirely too plussed about the new menus because on this cruise (which was before the roll out for the new menus began), we noticed more cutbacks from our last Carnival cruise. The mushrooms for the stuffed mushrooms starter were smaller (as was the breadstick they were served with). Instead of fresh strawberries and a mint chiffonade in the strawberry bisque, the garnish was a single mint leaf and a small dot of red Jello. The food was still tasty, but similar to the disappointment over the show the previous night, it’s disappointing when something you’ve enjoyed for so long is stripped down.
Strawberry Bisque
Sake Stewed Beetroot Carpaccio
Greek Farmer Salad
Baked Stuffed White Mushrooms
Broiled Maine Lobster Tail and Jumbo Black Tiger Shrimp
Tender Roasted Prime Rib of American Beef Au Jus
Caramelized Apples on Puff Pastry
Fresh Fruit Cocktail
Cherries Jubilee
We wrapped up dinner and headed out right as show time was beginning and headed back to the room to change shoes. We found pins, invites to the Past Guest Party and our Platinum gifts waiting for us in the room. Tervis cups! They were awesome! We were expecting the caps (which none of us really have use for), so we were really excited to see the cups waiting for us.
We were a little confused that the Past Guest Party was the next night, though. It’s usually a little later in the week and we felt like they were cramming things in a bit. While Stephanie and I looked through the Fun Times for the next day, Mom checked our onboard accounts on the TV and we all had on board credit that we didn’t know the origin of. We didn’t take too much time to ponder it, though – we wanted to grab some coffee up on the Lido deck before heading down to the show.
Tonight’s show was Motor City. They had the male dancers come out about 15 minutes before the show started to pump up the crowd and lead a group dance. The show, itself, would have actually been really good if it weren’t for the tacky animatronic backgrounds. I get what Carnival is going for here, but you have to be careful when you rely on digital graphics to replace true sets because they run over the top really quickly if you don’t use them right. We found them distracting from some solid singing and dancing.
After the show, we headed back to the room for a little bit because I wanted to watch some of the World Series and there were no World Series events going on tonight. Seriously. One of the biggest sporting events of the year not only were they not showing it on the big screen outside, they didn’t even have a bar showing it (or, at least, not according to the Fun Times). One of my favorite venues on the Spirit class ships were the sports bars because they were always lively and ran tickers for people like me who like to keep up on their sports news while at sea. I’m sad they’re not on the newer ships because, depending on the CD, if you’re traveling during a major sporting event, you might just end up watching in your cabin on a tiny screen. And that’s not all that fun, is it?
When Stephanie had just about enough of me yelling at the TV, she dragged me out to the piano bar. And the piano bar on the Breeze was probably the best we’ve been on. Nice and dark with an array of tasty libations on the menu (and an even larger menu of songs!) and an experienced piano man leading the entertainment. We sat back, ordered some drinks and sang along.
After a couple rounds of drinks and many rounds of “She needs the barrrrrrrrrtender,” we headed back to the room to change into our comfy clothes and headed up to Movies Under the Stars to watch Playing for Keeps. I love MUTS. It’s one of my favorite parts of cruising. It doesn’t get much more relaxing than lounging with a sea breeze keeping you comfortable while you watch a movie. Well, not much more relaxing without cucumbers and spa robes.
We grabbed some pizza and had a late snack al fresco. The aft pool was still open and there were many people taking advantage with a midnight swim.
I grabbed some tea on the way back to the room to enjoy with my nightly Nancy Grace and then … bed! Our first port day was coming up in a few hours!
Today’s Lido Lunch Menus
Today’s Lido Dinner Menus
