mitsugirly

As we walked around, I was on the hunt for Ducks. I looked everywhere and everywhere I looked I would see little munchkins with them in their hands. How are they finding these? Where are they finding these? We came across the Library and decided to go in. It was time for a little competition. Now Karl had never played chess until a few months ago when Sakari showed him how. They challenge each other online in the evenings on their phones. Well, he's gotten pretty good, but don't tell him I admitted to that. We challenge each other to everything we do...trying to be the best and beat the other at games. The kid is smart I tell ya and he catches on quick. He beat Sakari. He beat the hubby. He challenged me...and beat me as well. Of course he gloated and I swore I wasn't talking to him the rest of the day...or feeding him. Oh wait, we're on the ship and he's already managed to learn how to get to the buffet. Ok, I have had enough of him making fun of beating all of us. I'm challenging him to a game of UNO. He won't beat me in that...and he didn't. I won over and over and over. My turn to gloat! Take that Karl! It had rained a bit while we were inside but the sun was out now. We decided to head outside and get comfy. But it was still cold. We wouldn't realize that the rain still had the cushions to the chairs wet (although you couldn't tell on the one's we sat on) and we would all get up with wet stains on our tush. Inside they were having a BIG SALE...like never before. End of season sale that I'm sure they end their season every 8 days. But this time, just for our cruise, it was a special event! As we continued to kill time waiting for 1:30pm to roll around, so that we could get the earliest tender tickets possible for Cabo the next day, we made our way up to the pool deck to find that the Easter Bunny himself was there. The kids took pictures with him/her but I did not purchase them. They also had an ice carving event going on around the pool. What would it be? It ended up being a fish...one of many I hope to see this cruise...only in the water. As soon as the fish was revealed, we briskly walked down to the Havana Bar area where they were going to be passing out the tender tickets. Karl took about 20 steps to get there and we took probably around 50...just saying. We would find that there was already a VERY long line waiting on the tickets at 1pm. I guess everyone had the same idea as us...get there soon to get the best tickets. We stood around waiting and at 1:30pm they started passing out the tickets. We got 3rd place in the race. I'm not sure if it was because everyone ahead of us took 1 & 2 or those tickets went to the VIP people.

SUNDAY MARCH 31: EASTER SUNDAY We were up by 6:45am and so was the sun already. I would find that it was still extremely chilly as I stood on the balcony reflecting on my decision to not sail somewhere that was warm. This is so not me. But I'm going to pull up my big girl britches and suck it up. I'm on vacation and the sun beaming through the dark clouds with rain off in the distance gave me a bit of hope. Karl was now awake and glaring at me. "What???" He said, "I need Melatonin tonight!" The audacity of him suggesting that I snored last night was ludicrous. No way...not me! I'm sure that when I woke up in the middle of the night with a completely dry mouth from having it open and not being able to breathe due to my sinuses being stopped up did not mean I snored. Geesh. Such white lies he told that morning. We headed up to the breakfast buffet to see what goodies they had. Mmmm bacon. Of course on Carnival, they have the bacon police and you must beg for your pork (unlike other cruise lines). But, just know they are willing to pile as much as you want on your plate so no worries (which really defeats the purpose of them monitoring it to begin with right?). I really don't understand why ships don't have shredded cheese out for breakfast. I love cheese on my eggs and there's none to be found. But, you will find sliced cheese available over by the fruit. Better some than none I guess. So let's see what is on the agenda today... I really don't like sea days. Even though there's a million things to do on a ship, I'm still bored and not sure what to do on those days. I would much rather have a port day every day of the cruise! I like to keep busy exploring and doing new things. We just walked around until it was time for the first event we had decided to do. The Fun Times listed a "Crafts" event and well, that's right up Sakari's alley right? It was held in the Ocean Plaza and they announced they would be making Easter Cards. The kids went up to get their supplies. They returned with a bunch of goodies and I could not wait to see what they would come up with. Sakari immediately got to work...cutting different shapes out and grabbing a pair of googly eyes while Karl looked on wondering what to do. The events person announced that they were not supposed to take the scissors from the stage area and only cut what they needed there because they did not have many pairs...and by not many pairs, they said they only had two!!! Yes, you heard that right...2!!!!! Um...you have an event like this with tons of people/kids participating and you only have two pairs of scissors for everyone to share? I thought that was odd. Then let's us talk about the glue bottles they provided to put things together...they were all dried up. You had to remove the top and dig the rubbery substance out. It was a mess. As Sakari would head back to the stage to wait for her turn for the scissors, Karl decided he liked the shapes that Sakari was cutting out and started stealing them one by one. When she returned, she was somewhat puzzled and went back up to cut more only for him to steal another and glue it on his card. Eventually she came back and caught a glimpse of his card and said "Wait a minute! There's where my shapes went!" She laughed and continued to design her card. She has such patience and so calm. See, I told you he answers to the given name of Karl by our family. He even signed his card Love Karl. LOL Sakari finally put her card together and showed us hers. Karl thought she was very creative considering the short time they had to do these and her having to cut her shapes out multiple times due to his pranks.

Oh gosh...I remind her of this often. It seems to come up in discussions here and there. She says "I remember that place!". She is making me feel old as well. It seems like just yesterday she was that little. She is a Sweet 16 now! She has...way too fast. Aww thanks. He definitely had the time of his life and such a great new experience. Hi and thanks! Ah ha! Yes...that's great and how me and the hubby met 22 years ago...our Mitsubishi's. Haha, thanks... great memories of our first cruise together in 2010 on the EPIC. What started it all. Not on the ship...but.... Aww thanks so much! I appreciate it. Back on Carnival, but have cruised with NCL still and land vacations of course on my website (if you've missed it). 🙂 Shameless plug.

Some of the Main Dining Room Menus:

Ok, for those of you that are just dying for menu's, I did manage to get a few of them for your viewing pleasure. Hopefully these will be big enough to read and expand to see.

WELCOME TO 2024!! Where nothing is as it used to be back in the day. Ok, ok, I know you all HAD to have heard about these elevators on the Panorama right? If not, I'm about to let you in on how it works. It's not your normal "push the button and wait for an elevator to arrive" type of deal. Oh no, it's much more ?complicated? for some people. So you go to the screen and find the floor you wish to go to. Push that floor. BUT!!!! Make sure to push that button as many times as the people in your party. Otherwise, the elevator will only calculate room for that one person. Sometimes you'll see the elevator doors open and it will be full. Why is this? Because a family of 6 people pushed the button once and the elevator system thinks only one person got in and now there's not enough room in that elevator for your party. So...PUSH THAT BUTTON...several times if there's more than just you. It will tell you which elevator to wait at and will also flash. The system seemed to work pretty good to me. The only gripe that I would have is the following...You can only do one person at a time. Then the system starts over and you have to repeat these steps over and over from the beginning. It should be smart enough to have a button you can just push it multiple times for the amount of people in your party instead of starting over each time. Sometimes by the time you (we) got done putting in 4 people, it would be giving us 2 different elevators to take. Um...I don't think so. Here's a short video showing how it works:

Just a few odd's and ends around the ship

Deck 12: The Clubhouse and Sports Square

Deck 11 Cucina del Capitano: You can eat here for free during lunch on sea days Ji Ji Asian Kitchen: You can also eat here for free during lunch on sea days

Deck 10: Beach Pool This is the pool in the middle of the ship. The above decks on the end have the Waterworks and slides. The back of the pool is the Tides Pool and hot tubs The Seafood Shack is also located on the back of the ship by the Tides Pool. You have to pay to eat here and it is a la carte. But, you can get drinks at the station here including coffee in the mornings On the other side is the Pizzeria del Capitano

Deck 7: Sky Zone

Havana Bar Pixels where you can buy all your pictures during the cruise, have a professional session and purchase items like electronics, a GoPro and even a snorkel mask to attach your GoPro too (trust me, I considered it but after thinking about it, it's attached to the top of the mask and usually when snorkeling, that part is up out of the water....so what would you be getting video of? Hmmm...am I right or no?) Then there are seating area's that you could look at your pictures on the screens there as well. The Library where you can read or play games: (as you can see...we spent some time in there. Sakari is concentrating hard here)

Guys Pig & Anchor (I must have really liked this place because I managed to get a lot of pictures there)

Fahrenheit 555 Just a few of the Fun Shops. They were always having "sales" of course with tables out in the hallways Piano Bar

DECK 5: Alchemy Bar Bonsai Sushi Bonsai Teppanyaki: We did see them having a fire/flame in here during the "performance". I thought that was odd because I'm pretty sure that NCL stopped doing the fire due to hazard. Cherry On Top For those that need to get your duck on...they had duck everything. Carnival is cashing in on the duck hunting experience now.