Tom got up to work out at about 6am, and even at that hour, our neighbors were moving their deck chairs around again. I just thought “What the hell are they doing this early?” then managed to go back to sleep. When Tom came back and I got up for good, I finally made the connection (with his help)—we are RIGHT BELOW the lido deck, where the pools are…and where ALL of the deck chairs are, LOL. So last night it was the crew putting the chairs away, and this morning it was the crew setting up the chairs for the day! I felt like an idiot for not making that connection earlier, because we had even commented how cool it was to be below the lido deck, because we got the benefit of the music (live bands) without being blasted out or sitting on the deck with a bunch of people and screaming kids!
So I finally got to sleep in—9:30, woohoo! We went upstairs to breakfast. Fortunately, not much appealed to me so it was a light meal (and if you can believe it, even with unlimited access to bacon, I only had a few slices). The restaurant buffet food just doesn’t seem to be that great on this cruise…which sounds kind of sucky but in reality is a good thing since the last time I ate way too much and always felt stuffed.
After breakfast we just hung around the room for a bit then went to check out our photos from the previous evening. They were all decent, but one was actually quite good…so we splurged and got a canvas print. (The day’s deal was if you bought a canvas print, the 8×10 was free. The 8×10 was expensive anyway, so it wasn’t really THAT much more to get the print. And it is a good picture!)
At noon, it was off to Nick & Nora’s, the high-end dining restaurant for a Food & Wine Pairing event. I am not a big wine drinker (as you probably know) but I was intrigued to see how wines went with different foods. It was very interesting, although somewhat hard to understand the women—one was from Indonesia and the other was from Romania. We learned things about tannins and acidity and if you eat something sweet before drinking a sweet wine, the wine is less sweet. (Yes, that one seems obvious, but it’s one of the few I remember, LOL.) And with a certain red wine, it tasted much smoother if you put lemon and salt on the filet mignon (something about like being like, maybe?) and with a white wine, if you ate something acidic before it, it tasted horrible. I could never possibly remember all the rules, and honestly I am not sure how much we will remember or be able to put what we learned into practice—and that’s why I’m not a sommelier.
Then it was off to the waterslide, where we were to meet our Cruise Critic friends. I am still on my “being vain” kick because we are going to a nice dinner tonight and I am not getting my hair wet…so Tom was the only one of us to go down the slide. Later this week, I definitely will—just not today. Then we ate lunch (again, nothing that really knocked my socks off) and Tom got a drink special that comes in a coconut with a monkey face (yes, you will see a picture). Then it was back to the room where we took a nap and then I sat on the balcony and starting reading one of the four books I brought!
As I got up to head inside, I saw a dolphin swim by! I called into Tom so he could come out and see it, but by the time he got out there, it was gone. So we waited a few more minutes and then a pair of dolphins appeared! It wasn’t until then, of course, that I decided to run and get the camera—and by the time I got back, they had disappeared again. We watched for another five minutes, but never saw them again.
At 5:30 we headed down to the Atrium for drinks with our group—and got a big shock as we saw posters announcing that Costa Rica was cancelled! Apparently there was a massive dock-worker strike scheduled for the day we were to be there, and the authorities thought it best if we skipped that port, since it would likely affect the docking, excursions, and all transportation. We were all immediately upset—we had booked an excellent and highly-recommended ziplining excursion in Costa Rica (outside of Carnival) and now we weren’t going! The only somewhat silver lining was that it wasn’t pre-paid so we didn’t have to worry about getting a refund. Carnival was scrambling to set up new excursions at our new port of call—Isla Roatan, Honduras—and we were all kind of freaking out because we all REALLY wanted to do the ziplining. It was really the ONLY thing I wanted to do, as well. We mentioned we should see if ShoreTrips (the company we used for our dolphin swim the last time) had any excursions, and everyone thought that was a great idea, so Tom ran up and brought the laptop down. They did have one, so we counted off and 10 wanted the tour, so we took a leap of faith and purchased 10 excursions…on OUR credit card (easier than everyone trying to order on their own). It was (is) a bit scary, since we don’t REALLY know these people, but I am sure it will all work out. Unfortunately, you typically have to wait three days for your vouchers to arrive via email, but we would be docking there in two days—and there was no place for notes on the order. I emailed them immediately and told them of our situation (rerouted ports) and asked if they could please rush our order. There was nothing else we could do at that point, so we enjoyed our drinks, ate some sushi (from the sushi cart by the dining room that is only open a few hours a day), then went back to the room to relax a bit before getting changed for appetizers and dinner.
Our appetizers (canapés) arrived a hair before 7:30 and we about fell over when we saw how many there were. We honestly imagined that the canapé order would be a plate of food—so that when they said we had two orders, we figured that would be just right for four people, and had them bring both at the same time (I even asked if that would be sufficient for four people and they said yes). So imagine our surprise when they arrived and we saw it was two PLATTERS—with probably 40 pieces on each one!
HOLY SHIT! It was entirely too much food for four people, but we managed to eat most of one tray. We called room service to at least bring us a few plates so we could divide up the leftovers to put in the fridge (and we sent one plate home with our friends). Everything was delicious—and we enjoyed some wine and conversation for an hour before dinner. Oh, and we didn’t get any announcement of who sent the appetizers, so we either have to ask room service or just ask all our friends and family!
We arrived at Nick & Nora’s promptly at 8:30 and were seated at a table right on the dance floor. There was live music (and singing) and it was actually a little loud—we had to shout a bit to hear each other, and I could not hear one word the sommelier or meat guy said. (Yeah, meat guy, LOL. I can’t be sure of his official title since I couldn’t hear it, but he was the guy who brought out the meat tray to showcase the night’s offerings.) I completely forgot to take a picture of the menu so I have to go from memory…
All of the starters looked amazing to me, and I asked if there was any way to order more than one, or to get a sampler. To my delight, I was able to order three starters if I skipped the salad, which was fine with me since I wasn’t thrilled with any of them. So I had a beef carpaccio which was DIVINE. It was sliced so think that it was almost a mush when you tried to eat it…but I could definitely eat that again. I also had a crab cake and lobster bisque. I stopped taking pictures after the carpaccio because the lighting wasn’t good and the flash was too difficult to get just right. Tom had onion soup, Heidi had escargot, and Geoff also ordered the escargot for us to share, as he is deathly allergic to seafood. We tried each other’s dishes and it was all amazing.
Tom had prime rib, Heidi and I had surf and turf (6oz lobster tail and 6oz filet mignon), and Geoff had the 9oz filet mignon. The surf and turf came with pumpkin ravioli which was yummy—and almost a dessert—and Heidi and I both chose the wasabi mashed potatoes which came wrapped in a phyllo dough-style crust. Of course everything was presented beautifully—and there was SO much food it was insane. (Here is our surf and turf presentation:
Nothing in the dessert menu really stood out to me, but the Washington Apple Tarte I had was good, and everyone else enjoyed their orders (I think there was a mango cheesecake and a trio platter with a chocolate torte, tiramisu, and a mousse). Oh, we also enjoyed two bottles of a DELICIOUS Riesling (I still have to try to find the name). Overall, the meal was very nice, but I would say I don’t have to do it again (beforehand, we contemplated doing it more than once). If it was a bit lesser surcharge, we might—but at $30pp extra, it wasn’t THAT good. I feel kind of snobby saying that, but it’s the truth. It was very good, just not something I want to spend an extra $60 on again. One of the best parts of the night was getting to dance a few slow songs—I always tell Tom that since we didn’t get to dance at our wedding, we always have to take advantage whenever we can.
After dinner it was back to our room to change for the bar. We were headed back to Dr. Frankenstein’s Lab for 80s night. An Officially-titled 80s Night—none of that “70s & 80s” business from the previous night. And to our delight, there were many more people in attendance, even though there still weren’t nearly as many as we’d thought there would be. We sweated our asses off dancing for maybe two hours. Heidi is a dance fiend and Geoff was drunk so they were a total hoot. Tom was thrilled to finally be dancing—he has been jonesing to go out dancing ever since he got home.
We closed the bar down and went back to our room and CRASHED. But a good time was had by all! We are thrilled to have clicked with Heidi and Geoff—we are the exact same ages (Heidi and I are 34 and graduated in 1991 and Tom and Geoff are 35 and graduated in 1990) and I am sure we will keep in touch!!