Oh, Island in the Sun: Breeze-ing Back to the Southern Caribbean (Part Nine)featured

by Nicole on February 12, 2015

There’s a bit of a sadness that sets in when you’ve moved past all of your port days. The anticipation and planning and exploration and adventure are done and all that’s left is…packing. Luckily for us, we had one more thing to anticipate: Halloween. If you’ve never been on a Carnival cruise ship on Halloween, let me tell you – it is something else. It’s all the fun of cruise ship night life amped up a few dozen volts. The staff decks the public areas out in decorations, there are movies and costume contests and dance parties and the more people who get into it, the more fun it gets (and with three of the past four years of Halloween cruises under my hat, I can confidently say people get very into it).

Daylight savings would end on the day we’d get off the ship, but in the interest of not confusing the time on debarkation day, we were instructed to set our clocks back one hour the night before, two days ahead of time. The time change not only put us two hours behind home time, it put us an hour behind our vacation time, so we were up absurdly early for a sea day. The sun was shining bright, enticing us to roll with the time change and get in some deck time while the masses got their bonus hour of sleep in.

We had plans to do brunch later on, but since we were up so early, we decided to grab a little nibble. And by nibble, I meant arepas with salsa verde and coffee.

The Lido Marketplace was decently empty and the pool deck was even emptier. We grabbed some chairs, I put my headphones in and watched the clouds pass by. Between the naps and deck lazing, if lounging were an Olympic sport, I’d take Gold.

When the masses started rolling in, we headed down to Ocean Plaza to grab a Fun Times and plot out our day. Ocean Plaza was already decked out in cobwebs and plastic spiders. Did you know they serve breakfast down there? Not a full service meal, but they have fruit, meats, cheeses and a pretty awesome looking oatmeal bar. We never partook in breakfast on Ocean Plaza, but it’s a more serene experience than standing in lines and trying to find a table up on the Lido deck, and a much more casual experience than the dining room.

We sat through a couple of rounds of general trivia before heading to the dining room for brunch. Back home in Chicago, the brunch game is strong. It’s not uncommon to wait upwards of an hour and a half for a table on a Sunday morning at any of the top rated brunch spots. To level set the experience for any frequent bruncher, brunch on Carnival is…like having breakfast at a 24 hour diner that has a 20 page menu. The food is solid, but nothing is going to wow you. The appeal in the seaday brunch is twofold: it’s definitely a change of pace from the other dining options available at breakfast time, and if you’re a Platinum or Diamond cruiser, you get a drink coupon to redeem for something boozy at brunch.

Service began with a basket of various muffins, breads and cakes. If you dine after 11:00 am, you’ll begin with a basket of popovers. While most of the brunch fare is unremarkable, the bread basket stands out. Everything was fresh and each item was baked to textural appropriateness: the cake slices were dense and crumbly, the pastries were flaky and the muffins were nice and soft.

Bar service was slow due to the number of patrons redeeming drink coupons, but the coffee flowed freely while we waited for our mimosas and bellini.

Our mains were good, but the sides really shined. We ordered a few sides we don’t normally order for tasting (at the urging of our server), and the chicken sausages were mild but impeccably seasoned, and the cheese grits were amongst the best breakfast foods Carnival has ever served. If they could serve those up at the Blue Iguana for breakfast, I’d be in seaside heaven. Mom enjoyed her lox platter, Stephanie’s eggs benedict were no different from the ones they serve in the Lido Marketplace and I remained perplexed at why they serve the brunch filet with so many forms of potatoes (all of which sat lonely on the side while I snuck some bites of those cheese grits).

Fresh Fruit Platter with Cottage Cheese

Bagel Breakfast

Eggs Benedict

Steak-n-Eggs

Chicken Sausage and Cheddar Grits

We headed back to Ocean Plaza after brunch for musical theater trivia and somehow in a shame that only mirrors that of losing at Friends trivia, we lost…by two points. And by we, I mean me because I sat there shouting answers left and right while Stephanie laughed at me.

After trivia, I walked off my shame all the way back to the room and into my bed for nap #1. Between our early wake-up, the heavy brunch, the emotional turmoil of missing a song from Cats and the anticipation of the late Halloween activities, nothing was more appealing than an hour of zzz’s. Beyond that, there wasn’t a ton going on – the number of activities had waned throughout the week and even though it was Halloween, there weren’t as many Halloween events planned as we were used to (in fact, they weren’t even showing Halloween movies outside aside from a showing of Halloween at midnight).

Mom started packing at and some point, I moved from the bed to the balcony to get some reading in.

Later on in the day, Stephanie and I decided to go swimming thinking that the pool wouldn’t be as crowded in the later hours of the afternoon but not only was it crowded, but it teetered on being a scene out of some bizarre middle aged version of Girls Gone Wild. Stephanie and I lasted in the pool maybe five minutes before we headed to some loungers in the shade.

We headed back to the room and decided to make dinner a late one and ordered some snacks from room service to munch on while we sat on the balcony. We were sailing off the coast of Haiti (where we caught a glimpse of Port Au Price – throw it on the Kokomo bucket list!) and we were sailing on waters that were so smooth it was mesmerizing. Every so often, a flying fish would pop up and lattice the surface of the water, but in all our cruises (and especially those in cove balconies so close to the water), I’ve never experienced sea day waters so calm. It was really something special.

Later on, we headed out for a walk before dinner, taking in the Halloween spirit.

We skipped the Taste Bar and headed straight to dinner, where the regular dessert menu was skipped in favor of a special Halloween one: chocolate cake or pumpkin spice cheesecake.

Shrimp Cocktail

Vine Ripe Beefsteak Tomatoes and Buffalo Mozzarella

Asparagus Vichyssoise

California Spring Mix and Cherry Tomatoes

Chicken Tenders Marinated in Thai Spices

Oven Roasted Turkey

Petite Filet Mignon and Braised Boneless Short-Rib

Chocolate Cake

Pumpkin Spice Cheesecake

After dinner, we headed back to the room to get ready for Halloween. Our room was turned down for the evening, but we were ready for a busy night ahead.

We missed the Latin show when crimping my hair became an all-hands-on-deck effort, but with the repeating show schedule, we could catch it the next night. Decked out in completely different costumes, we headed out to officially begin our Halloween. The lobby became one huge dance club and the promenade on the Lanai deck a catwalk of Halloween fashions. Everyone was decked out and everyone was having fun with it.

We caught an encore performance of The Brits while we waited for the official festivities to begin. It wasn’t much better than it was any of the other times we’ve seen it, but Wee Jimmy’s routine before the show would never be unentertaining.

After the show, the real fun started with the costume contest. There were so many elaborate costumes and Wee Jimmy was the perfect emcee for the event, keeping the mood light and the audience laughing.

Around midnight, Mom headed to bed and Stephanie and I headed out to the Red Frog Pub. We expected a full house but oddly enough, it was nearly empty aside from a few groups of crew members. Even Wee Jimmy ended up in the Red Frog with some of the entertainment staff and – get this – Jimmy isn’t even his real name! His name is Ralph!

I love so many things about the Red Frog Pub. I love the space and the ambiance. I love love love the live acoustic music. But the service is never better than decent (and teetered on painstakingly slow on this visit), our mojitos were weak and the snacks we ordered were awfully over-seasoned.