TravelBluebird

It was the Sea Day Brunch. We are going again tomorrow so I will tell you how that goes. For dinner tonight at 6 for MDR no wait at all.

Woke up to rain this morning, but still calm seas—maybe 2 to 4 now, so a bit more than around Europe, but still pretty darn smooth. Breakfast in the MDR was a 50 minute wait, so after our Terrazza Carnivale Macchiattos (the espresso kind not the Starbucks kind) we went up to the Lido Marketplace buffet. Was not that crowded; just wanted fruit (delicious cantaloupe this morning, the slice kind) and hash browns (they were hot). Rain permitting we are going to try the La Strada Grill for lunch. In the meantime, its reading and working on videos and chilling. Let the sea days begin!

I’ve never seen a more polite, quiet, good natured bunch of kids as I’ve seen on my current cruise. May have something to do with the long itinerary and the fact that there are only 250 kids aboard (I’m on the Venezia transAtlantic). But, I was on the Mardi Gras for Spring Break, and the kids were everywhere, but had a GREAT time and perhaps were a little exhuberant, but overall they were well behaved.

The only other entertainment tonight (besides other music at bars and lounges was Family Feud, which really isn’t my thing.

Not much to report other than I’ve been int he casino. Winning in the casino, which makes up for losing in the Casino the other night! Now I am eating my celebratory (and delicious) authentic Italian Carnival pizza before bed time. Prior to gambling we listened to the music in the Gondola Lounge; the “rock” band is the 7 piece band that played in Vintage Pop with 2 singers. They are very good; the Lounge was standing room only; lots of dancing; people even broke out into a line dance. We also sampled some items from the buffet for late “snacks” before it closed at 9:30, A lovely start to our Atlantic crossing!

That sounds marvelous! There are removable seats in this theater too—I wonder if they may also do that on the Venezia down the line?

After our Seafood Shack we had Swirls—first time all week! Then off to the Terrazza Carnivale area for Sail Away and sunset. Gorgeous. And GOODBYE TO LAND for 6 days!

Cat in the botanical garden today! Thought it was more appropriate for your live than mine 😃

We got back to the ship in that awkward time between 4 (buffet closed) and 6 (buffet open for dinner). We were really hungry—had a small continental breakfast while watching the sail-in, and the tour had no time for lunch. We decided to finally try a Seafood Shack. We were surprised to see the Lobster Roll was $18, but then found out that was for 2 rolls. We also got the Clam Strips ($8). Both came with frie. It wasn’t a Maine Lobster Roll where you get the big pieces of lobster with the mayo on the bread—pieces were small and the mayo sauce was mixed in, but it was good! Clam Strips were decent—hot and tasty with cocktail sauce, not giant pieces of clam however.

Ponta Delgado, Portugal in the Azores. I can’t believe we got to visit here today—one of those tiny dots on the globe you think you’ll never get to actually see! We did a comprehensive tour through Carnival, which included a small town, one of the crater lakes, the botanical garden and the hot springs. 5 hours (advertised as 4). Here are some photos; this is a gorgeous island. I’d have even more great images but it rained on our way back so I missed getting a bunch of vistas on the South side of the island. I’m terribly fascinated by earthquakes, volcanos, and the like, so I love islands that have been formed by volcanic activity. I’ve visited Hawaii, New Zealand and now the Azores—here I really enjoyed the hot springs area—boiling water straight out of the ground, steam, sulfur smell—incredible!

@happycruiser220 Surprisingly good so far! We’ll see how the internet holds up crossing the Atlantic—I know it can be very variable, so I”ll report back.

Hey fellow Vols! Nice to have you along! It’s been a great cruise so far—enjoy!

We are in the Azores! Off to the Hot Springs and Botanical Gardens on Carnival excursion then individual exploration since all aboard is 7:30

Really loved the Vintage Pop show—first time we’ve seen it—7 piece live music band and a great blending of old and new pop songs. Give me a live music show every time, and this one fired on all cylinders. After party in the Atrium

One funny thing about our king dinner is we hit both It’s Sssshhhowtime performances of That’s Amore 😂

We are awaiting the Vintage Pop show. We also attended Punchliner and saw Joe Marlotti—very funny, PG show Before Punchliner I had a GREAT nap in my cabana. I never nap, so it was lovely and needed after 3 busy many step port days!

Dinner tonight was…..lengthy. We sat over 40 minutes till our order was taken and over 1 hour till we got any food. Entire dinner took over 2 hours. Food quality was mostly fun except for barely warm crab cake and terrible fettuccini Alfredo-tasteless and not enough clumpy sauce. The stuffed mushrooms were excellent, very nice thick medium rare filet. Panda Cotta and Grand Mariner Soufflé good App wait was fine—15 minutes

Are you able to stream with it? Yes—have watched YT videos no problem. Will try a livestream Q and A if possible on a sea day

I was really surprised by them (as was our waiter, evidently) DH didn’t have a chance to have them on Mardi Gras. I may try the Shrimp and Grits during the crossing.

So do I!!! In fact I’m so surly about it that I didn’t even go to the first Sea Day Brunch on Venezia.

Still not getting old and still no one out here but me. May try the hammock in a bit. Gosh, I love it out here so much maybe I should see if I can switch my Ocean Suite on the Jubilee next year for a Havana Cabana room?

Great news that they found the cat! Glad you were able to find out.

It was very empty the night we were there too; we attributed that to it being Formal Night. I took advantage of the situation and taped some for my videos—I don’t like doing that if I’m going to disturb the diners next to me, but there weren’t any! We really liked it too! My only complaint was for me the lobster and scallops could have been cooked more—I like my lobsters cooked Maine-white and they were definitely not that at Il Viaggio.

After brunch we (well I) decided to do some shopping. Left my tumbler for ice and drinks at home, and decided that already the late sea days have been cold enough that I wanted a sweatshirt or jacket. Plus I wanted my very first ship model, to have on shelve in my office where I tape the “talkie” part of my videos at home. SO $128 later, we had 1 Carnival Venezia sweatshirt (cheapest but soft and hopefully warm one we could find—$49), one red Carnival tumbler for water and ice so I don’t have to keep buying water bottles ($16.95–they were $12.95 the day we boarded but those prices were crossed out and this is the new price) and the standard ship model at $59.95). The glass inaugral-only model is really, really nice, but was $129.95 and very heavy. Would look great in my office though…maybe I should do a return//exchange and pay the extra? Can’t decide. I lost my eyelash curler and although the makeup store is extensive, no eyelash curler. So if I look extra sleepy in videos this week you’ll know why 😂 Finally, the makeup store had a good selection of Sundry items, unlike the Carnival Mardi Gras in March. Photo below.

Our Sea Day Brunch was the first one where the food was not served hot—it was warm, so acceptable, but you know me and hot food. And beignets should be piping. We sat at the same table as our first night dinner, but didn’t have the same wait staff, and our waiter said he had just joined the ship in Lisbon. We ordered the beignets and he looked perplexed—we had to show it to him on the menu. Shrimp & Grits, Beignets, Lobster Benedict and Crab and Avocado Sandwich are all available for an up charge from the Emeril’s menu. Other than being only warm, the food was GOOD. Really the best Eggs Benedict I have EVER had on Carnival—perfect hollandaise sauce, very fluffy poached eggs with perfect yolks, and big, thick pieces of ham! DH had the steak and eggs and he said the steak was good. When we left the HUGE line that Saint Greg said he saw earlier was back—people waiting all the way to the elevator banks AND even on the next floor by the limelight lounge. We seemed to pick the perfect time for brunch today (app reservation requested at 9:20). ‘