t4jes

3 hours ago, masterty said:

Any update?

 

No major renovations, but the rooms seem to be redone (at least the bathrooms), including some public space bathrooms (the one near the main dining room seems very modern and new). The video above showed a re-done pool. It was raining so we didn't use it much, so can't speak to it. They added a Bonsai Sushi permanent station. I've read many reviews about how Inspiration felt dated and old. We didn't feel that way at all --- hopefully that's due to the Dry Dock. 

 

I did post a trip report that mentions a bit about the condition of the ship and some of the dry dock features. You can read a lot more in detail here: 

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They didn't add any activities or dining even though you couldn't tender?

This isn't about the guaranteed balcony on the Legend, but I can speak that some of the obstructed cabins are barely obstructed. I had room 5180 and all we couldn't see was down. We thought it was great! There are others you can find online (here's another 5190) that you can almost see everything. There are others that will have large lifeboats in the way so you want to choose carefully. 

 

If you're concerned about what you might get, maybe it is worth it to spend the $60 and find one of the obstructed that are barely so, rather than potentially ending with one where you can't see anything, or will have a very noisy location. 

11 hours ago, cali-croozer said:

We are also on the next sailing.  I think it's going to be cold.......hopefully there will be brave souls by the pool or else the indoor areas are going to be super crowded.  Bringing ponchos and umbrellas in hopes that since I am prepared for cold, the weather will turn.....lol

 

Hope you have a great time! There were maybe only 2-3 hours where it was warm enough to be outside, but we never found it too crowded anywhere in the indoor areas. I believe the ship was pretty close to capacity. 

Overall, we really enjoyed this cruise. Here's some general ratings for the ship: 

 

Ship Design/Cleanliness: B+ I thought the ship was well-kept up. Looked modern and not old (hopefully result of recent dry dock). Some portions of the ship can be hard to navigate, and some of the design is a little bling and old-school Vegas-y. But for a short cruise, it was great. 

 

Rooms: A- We had an inside cabin (R138). No complaints. Room was clean and modern. I thought bathroom was pretty good size. Shower was actually pretty good. Our home shower is not super strong nor does it get super hot, so it was a treat to have a hot strong shower. Bed was comfortable enough despite the two twin beds separating sometime. Not a lot of space to hang out other than the bed, but that was okay with us. Plenty of storage space. Elevators were easy to get up and down. 

 

Dining: B A couple of dishes were very good. Food is not fine dining, but definitely good enough. Was fairly easy to eat healthy. Rating went down because lack of choices on last few days. Guys burger was good. Blue Iguana was good too. If i was to say favorite dishes, it'd be the Miso Salmon in MDR, the Sea Bass in MDR, fries at Guy's Burger, Shrimp/BeefTostada Bowl at Blue Iguana, and fish tacos at Blue Iguana. I don't eat a ton of desserts, but most Lido desserts weren't good. MDR was okay. The ones at the pay cafe looked good though! 

 

Service: B+ Room was well taken care of despite them moving to only one cleaning a day. Didn't see room steward that much and didn't interact much. Dining staff was pretty good. Wasn't A+ service, but was good enough considering we weren't in that much of a rush. But nothing to complain about, and we felt well-pampered enough. 

 

Entertainment: B+ Shows we watched were decent. Nothing spectacular. We didn't watch any of the main productions. Guitarist in the Atrium Bar was good. Didn't pay attention to many of the other bands. Overall, found enough things to do when we wanted, but we plenty enjoyed our free space to be able to just read and such. 

 

Overall: A It's funny. Despite not giving an A to most of these categories, the overall trip was an A. The cruise was fun and exactly what we needed. Enough to relax and eat and just enjoy. We were super impressed that the captain was able to get us some decent weather and get us to both ports, especially when coming back, we heard it had rained for 4 days straight. Our "Fun" factor was definitely an A+ and I think that helped a lot. Even with the rain, we were able to enjoy and have a fun vacation. I think being chill and relaxed about things really helped! 

 

I think these West Coast short cruises get a bad rep of being booze cruises, but we didn't experience that at all. Ship was well-kept and I didn't think it was showing it's age. We were ready for 3 more nights, and I looked into the Carnival Panorama for a 7 night next year, but not sure if it'll happen as work schedule might not work out.

 

Looking forward to the ways Los Angeles and the rest of the West Coast will keep expanding with cruising. Such a great staycation option without needing to stay super still. If we got a good deal, we'd do this same cruise again!

 

Thanks for following along. Again, I give props to everybody who does these extensive pictorial reviews. It took a lot longer and a lot more work than I would've thought, but I enjoyed reliving the cruise, two weeks after we're back. I hope that others can learn and it's helpful for those who are considering or planning this cruise. 

 

Feel free to shoot any additional questions you might have, and I'll answer as I can. 

 

Blessings! 

We woke up around 7 the next morning. I had thought about going back to the MDR, but we decided instead to go to the buffet for our final breakfast meal. Many people were already beginning to disembark. As I mentioned early, we did the checked luggage option, and chose luggage tag number 8. We didn't want to rush off the ship, but we also didn't want to be very last. I had to be back at work around 11:30 that morning. 

 

Breakfast was fairly uneventful. My husband grabbed another huevos rancheros (aka chicken taco w/ cheese), and I grabbed a few things from the buffet, including another slice of the gluten free bread. I did find the sliced fruit in the salad section to be better than the diced/cut fruit in the buffet line. One thing I do remember --- ice cream was shut off in the morning. It was not 24/7 and we were not able to get anymore. Not that we should be having ice cream that early in the morning. 

 

We walked briefly outside, and my husband saw this bird and took a picture.

 

 

We headed back to our room to get our stuff. They asked us to clear the rooms by 8:30. It was probably about 8:15 when we left the room with our backpacks. We headed up to Promenade deck and planted ourselves by one of the table along the windows. They were calling for self-assist disembarkation by decks, and if we were self-assisting, we would've been able to disembark around 8:30. They started from top decks and worked their way down, so Deck 4 would've been the last self-disembark deck. 

 

At that point, I was thinking maybe we should've taken the early disembark option, but snapped myself out of it when I realized I had some more free time to read and relax. So we sat and read while we waited for them to finally call our tag. It was probably around 9 or 9:15 when that happened. We walked back into the big dome. Then we saw the huge line. First, we were let into the area with all our bags. Everything was there already, but we had trouble finding one of them. It turns out that instead of putting it in Section 8, they put it in Section 18. It took us a little while, but fortunately our bag is unique in that it's a hardshell purple bag, so we could locate it. 

 

Then we got into the Customs line. We chose to pick up a customs form because we had gone over the alcohol limit. I'd rather declare and be asked to pay the duty rather than be in trouble. The line took about half an hour. We did see porters offer to take people to the front, but they tended to target people with lots of bags. We wouldn't have even been able to have the option as they never came to us. In this line, you can't use your cell phone, but I did take out my kindle and try to keep reading. 

 

When we got to the front, the Customs officer just waved us through. No duty. He just asked if the alcohol was all we got. I ordered a Lyft (I had checked Uber about 20 minutes ago, and it was $38, and then when i checked when we left, it was $50!, so we decided to go Lyft. There must've been a surge right in that minute). 

 

It was a fairly smooth ride back. Lyft cars are older than Uber if that matters to people. You can tip on them both. Our driver told us that many drivers start their day off waiting in the Queen Mary lot for Carnival cruisers as there are 4-5 different days they can get work due to Imagination and Inspiration both sailing. Her car had a little bit of problem going back to our house, but we made it in one piece. 

 

When we got home, one thing we realized was that our bags were wet. One thing we did to try to lighten our load was to put our leftover sodas into our bags. I double bagged them incase they leaked but it was not enough. I guess they were thrown around quite a bit overnight being checked in. Fortunately, it was a sparkling water and cream soda, so didn't stain anything too badly. 

 

I made it back, and I headed to work, and then our vacation was over... 

 

Will write up some final thoughts when I have a chance these next few days... 

10 hours ago, sanmarcosman said:

Great review, I've sailed 5 times on this itinerary between the two ships. For your breakfast board did you order soft boiled eggs by minutes, e.g. 4 minute eggs? Did the waiter ask how long you wanted your eggs cooked? Or did the eggs just come out hard boiled? I'm curious because Carnival didn't used to list soft boiled as an option but when I have ordered them over the years I always have received them. I do want to try the board but not if it only comes with hard boiled eggs. 

The poached eggs on the avocado toast look nice. 

 

I didn't specifically order soft boiled eggs by the minute, but this is what the menu said (I copied and pasted from a Carnival menu https://www.carnival.com/~/media/Images/explore/dining/menus/dining-room-breakfast-menu.pdf)

 

I forgot to add the paragraph in the beginning: 

 

As we were driving home, we were given the options of being dropped off at the ship, or in downtown depending on what you were looking to buy. They were also willing to stop somewhere on the way back, as one family almost stopped by the beach to go horseback riding, but didn’t have the cash on hand to do it. Instead of dropping half the group on the ship, they dropped us back at our starting point where people could catch the shuttle back to port. When we purchased the tour, we were given a ticket for the shuttle back to the cruise port. We didn't end up using it.

My husband and I opted to get dropped of downtown since we still had a few hours to kill. They dropped us off in the middle of the shopping district. It was more of the same kind of things that we saw at the market by La Bufadora – mostly trinkets and souvenirs. My husband was bummed there wasn’t any bootleg things like we saw at the market, like fake bags and purses, etc. There were still some places giving out tequila tastings and such.

 

We ended up walking around a little bit, and then saw a chocolate store with free tastings, and a sign for purple corn tea. Don’t remember the name, but we decided to go in. When we went in, we saw a guy with a broken leg on one of those knee scooters, and we realized it was the comedian we had seen earlier on the cruise (he had made jokes about it). It made me curious about comedians and their contracts, and found out that they often just go on for a trip or two, and perform at night, and then are able to explore during the day.

 

Back to the chocolate store – I decided to order a purple corn tea. It was a long day, and time for some refreshment. While waiting, we sampled some of their chocolates. They had a lot of flavors (don’t remember them all, but remember strawberry, lavender, blueberry, and such). They were good. Good enough that my husband wanted to buy a bar. It wasn’t cheap – maybe $10 for a large bar of 85% dark chocolate, but it was really good. The purple corn tea was also good – it reminded me of Korean Corn Silk tea, so I’m guessing they’re similar. It just tastes lightly of corn essense – doesn’t taste like corn if you think that might sound weird. A little bit nutty. 

 

 

I decided to Yelp and see what food was around the area. (I mentioned in a response, but we have T-Mobile, which made it great for us to have cell service everywhere we went.) Saw a posting for La Guerrerense which had amazing reviews and it was only a block away. We walked over and looked at their menu. They specialized in tostadas and seafood. Woohoo! 

 

Even though we weren’t that hungry, we were in Mexico and on vacation, so we decided to order two tostadas as a snack. They have about 12 types of seafood tostadas that are their regular priced (I think they were between 1-2 dollars), plus a few specialty ones that were closer to 5-7. They also had cocktails. We ordered the sea urchin one (we love uni) and a mixta tostada (mixed with fish, shrimp, squid I believe). The sea urchin one was really flavorful. The mixta one was good, but not as good as the other. I wish I were hungrier so I could try more. If I could try more, I would’ve tried some of their pate ones. They looked kinda like a tuna salad. The specialty ones also looked interesting. They had a ton of hot sauces you could try, and they sold them as well as they were homemade self specialties. 

 

Sea Urchin (left) and Mixta (right) - Very yum! 

 

It was a great little pit stop, and recommended if you stop in Ensenada downtown. As a note, you order first, they make the tostadas, you eat to your hearts content, and after you’re done, then you go to the back lady to pay. I believe it’s a bit of an honor system. Apparently this was a pit stop for Anthony Bourdain at some point, so it’s worth checking out. 

 

After this, we took our time to walk back to the ship. There were some good views of the ship on the walk back. We asked a security guard to take some photos for us.

 

 

As we went back onto ship for our last few hours, we decided we were going to go to MDR early, since we wanted to head back to the room to pack up and finish off our time. Originally, I had thought we’d just do self-assist express debark, but we decided to see if we thought we could pack up our bags to send down that evening for the checked luggage option. 

 

We had taken advantage of bringing sodas on board with us since we do like a Diet Coke here or there. My husband was in charge of buying the sodas and had got some Diet A&W so we decided to go do root beer floats. We went up to Lido and enjoyed some while we continued to play Monopoly Deal. It was here that my luck finally turned and I began to beat him. He beat me 7 in a row, and then I proceeded to win 3 in a row. We stopped before the damage continued for him. 

 

We headed to the MDR right at opening (5:45 I believe). There were a few people waiting already, but for the only time on this cruise (other than for Sea Day Brunch), we were sat immediately. I wasn’t super excited about the last two nights menus, but decided I’d order the Indian Vegetarian one of the nights. Since we didn’t go to MDR the night before, I used it for this night. My husband decided to try one of the upcharge $20 Surf and Turfs since he too wasn’t super excited about the entrees. We also got the Lychee bisque, escargot, and salmon cake for appetizers. Lychee bisque tasted kinda like cereal milk – whether that’s good or bad is up to the diner I guess. The Indian was fairly good – we have some really good Indian food near where I live, so I thought it was on par with what I’ve had. The surf and turf was decent – I’m not sure if it’s worth the $20 upcharge. This was the only night I ordered a dessert – there was a no sugar added key lime cheese stuffed apple. Most of the no sugar added desserts didn’t super appeal, but this one did. It was good (I forgot to take a picture). 

 

Salmon cake - was pretty good

 

Lychee Bisque - aka cereal milk

 

Escargot - very, very buttery, which is typical for escargot. 

 

Indian Vegetarian - my favorite part were the fritters on the right side, and the round dish on the top.

 

Surf and Turf

 

I told my husband I wanted to see the other comedian, so we made it back for the dearly PG family-friendly show with the comedian Roman. They had described him as “smooth like jazz” or something like that. I wasn’t sure how a comedian would do that, but I realized what they meant. Roman’s comedy I thought was funnier than the other comedian – my husband had a few deep belly laughs. I don’t know how to describe it, but his dynamics were very muted. It wasn’t that he wasn’t animated, but it was like listening to jazz music. His voice was so soothing, but made it a little hard at times to follow what he was saying. Also, I had not been to many comedy shows so I didn’t know what family-friendly meant, so I was a little surprised at the content as while it wasn’t offensive, it wasn’t kid-friendly. In my quest to learn about comedians on ships online after I got back, I learned that comedians just need a show that doesn’t contain language or explicit content – but it doesn’t need to target families. In fact, it said these shows most likely will go over kids heads. I’m surprised how many families brought kids to the shows, as I’m not sure how interesting they would’ve been to the kids.

 

 

We headed back to the Lido so my husband could get another cone, and went back to our room. We were able to pack all our things into our bags for checked baggage option, and had grabbed tags for the latter half of the earlier checked baggage disembark and sent two bags out (when we came on the ship, we only checked in one bag). We thought it’d be easier to do when hanging on the ship for our time home. 

 

And so I continued my novel while my husband watched TV. Sometime this day or the day before, they switched to the new programming on TV, which meant they had shows like HGTV and Food Network. I think they were just on loops, as we turned to Food Network, which was basically just Chopped. But we had seen them play the same episode at least twice. However, we like Food Network so it was a nice change from the channels that were previously there. 

 

We lamented that it was our last night, but was grateful for the trip that we did have, particularly the great sunny day in Ensenada. 

 

 

4 hours ago, BENHANDEL said:

Love your photos!

 

If we do not plan any kind of excursion in Ensenada, will we find placed to eat and shop within reasonable 1-2 miles walking distance from ship? Any beaches?

 

 

And do you recall what deck you embarked on?

 

Yes, there are definitely lots of places to eat and shop within 1-2 miles. Will get to some places we explored when I have time to finish the last few pieces of this review. Also, you can easily find some places on Yelp. We had T-mobile international coverage so easily looked up things when we were there, but even if you looked ahead, I think you can find things.

 

As for beaches, I noticed one as we were driving out of town where people could ride horses. I think it was the Playa Ensenada or Playa Hermosa, but honestly, not sure how far it was away. Looking at Google Maps, I think it's probably accessible to get to walking, but probably a little further than 2 miles. 

 

For embarkation day, we embarked on Deck 7, but each of the days that we went to port, we disembarked on Deck 3. 

Day 4 – Ensenada

 

Last day on the ship. It felt like it flew by fast – particularly with the sea day on the first day. We were docked in the morning in Ensenada. It was a longer day in port (All Aboard I believe was 5:30), and we didn’t have a lot of set plans. Plus, we had read weather would be pretty good all day, so we decided to take a slower morning. I remembered enjoying the MDR breakfast on our last cruise, so I asked my husband if we could do that. 

 

The new MDR breakfast menu was being served. I didn’t take a picture of it, but it can be found on the web. There were some fancier options that weren’t on previous menus, but I did notice some things that maybe were previously available weren’t. We tried the Breakfast Board and the Avocado Toast. My husband also got the Smoked Salmon and I got the Bruleed Grapefruit. I forgot to take pictures of the appetizers. 

 

Avocado Toast 

 

Breakfast Board 

 

About the breakfast, it was served pretty fast. I think we got in and out in about 35 minutes and we had two courses. It was nice to have some fancier options than upstairs, but the food wasn’t as good as the brunch. The smoked salmon plate looked fancier, but didn’t taste as good. The bruleed grapefruit wasn’t really good at all – I would’ve preferred fresh grapefruit. The avocado toast was decent. The breakfast board was also decent, but I was disappointed that the supposedly “soft-boiled eggs” were just hard-boiled eggs. The people sitting next to us ordered a ton of food, and some things like French Toast and other more traditional foods looked good. 

 

I think we may have walked to Lido just to grab a little more fruit or coffee, I don’t quite remember. But while we walked, we encountered the Towel Animal Invasion. Pleasant morning surprise. 

 

 

We went back to our room, got our stuff ready, and disembarked on Deck 3 for Ensenada. We didn’t really have much plans for the day. We thought we’d walk around. I had read about the Canopy Tour/Ziplines, and was interested in that. My brother had also told me about the Bufadora, which I’d seen many pictures of. My husband’s main goal was to have some good fish tacos. I had read enough to know that if we wanted to do something, we shouldn’t book excursions on the ship, and they’d be way cheaper on the shore. 

 

Next to us was the Emerald Princess I believe. I found out later from some that were on that ship that they were on the tail end of a 15 night cruise to Hawaii, and Ensenada was their foreign stop. I was jealous they got to go all the way to Hawaii and for that long, especially since we were on our last day.

 

 

We weren’t exactly sure where these tours would be so we just started walking around. There were shuttles into town, but I had heard it wasn’t too far to walk, so we just decided to explore ourselves. It wasn’t super clear where to walk to get to town, so we just followed others who walked along the boardwalk-ish looking area. We eventually got to a small area with a bunch of stands, and we thought maybe we’d be able to find some tours there. There were a few people trying to get us to go on a horse carriage (not interested), and a few men holding signs that seemed to be selling tours. There was one bus there, but it looked really empty, and I didn’t want to get on a tour where I’d have to wait hours waiting for it to get full, so we passed, and started walking in the actual downtown area instead. 

 

We walked a little further, and seemed to hit the main transportation depot – I’m not sure if it was a bus station, or a pier or something, but it was a little bit more busy. Plus, this was where the cruise shuttles (at least the Princess boat) seemed to be dropping off people. We saw a bus being loaded pretty full, and a small window that seemed to be selling tours. We asked what they had, and they mentioned there was a ride to Bufadora for $17 per person. That seemed reasonable, and we didn’t bother to ask about anything else (plus hubby wasn’t really dressed for anything too exciting). We were ushered onto the bus, where it was practically full. It was called Tour Misioneros. 

 

Turned out everybody on the boat was from that Princess ship, but it was fine. There was a brief moment where I realized I had not any idea how long this tour actually was, but I knew that the blowhole shouldn’t take that long. I was relieved to hear that we’d be back in plenty of time to make the Princess ship all aboard, which was an hour earlier than the Carnival one. 

 

Our tour guide was Gabriel. He was fantastic. It took about 45 minutes to drive out, and he was hilarious. Gave some really interesting facts, told some funny jokes, and most of all, gave us real insight into how to survive the flea market there. My husband and I weren’t planning on shopping much, but it was nice to know. Basically, bargaining should be at about 1/3 of the original price that they quote. Best way to get a good deal is to be willing to walk away. He told us about tequila, and how it was much cheaper in town, but also told us to give them a try there.

 

 

We arrived at the Bufadora. Gabriel first walked us through the flea market. It was clear (and he didn’t hide it – in fact, he straight us let us know) that he had relationships with some of these vendors and definitely got some kickbacks for having us shop there. But the tour wasn’t overly full of pressure, and in fact was informative to know what’s there. The biggest things that people seemed to buy were leather, metal trinkets, fake brand-name purses, and pharmaceuticals. Lots of fun free samples everywhere of Pina Coladas, Mexican candy (peanuts), pan dulces, and churros. We didn't need to buy any extra snacks. 

 

The Market

 

We finally reached the blowhole itself. It took us a little while, but we got a few pictures of the hole in action. They told us it really matters what the tides are like. It was low tide, but we got some pretty good blowhole action. 

 

Sign by the blowhole

 

La Bufadora!

 

On our way in, we stopped at a stand to have some grilled clams and shrimp on a halfshell. It was covered with cheese and some tomatoes. It cost us $8 USD for two halfshells. I wasn’t sure whether we were being ripped off, but they charged the same for a lady next to us who was speaking Spanish, so I think that is the going rate. We did see another place further up the market that was selling for $6 for two halfshells, but they weren’t right by the blowhole, lest couldn’t charge a tourism upcharge. It tasted pretty good.

 

 

 

One of the perks of doing the tour is that we got a free Margarita from Habana Banana. This was the bar in the middle of the flea market. They had tequila tastings as well as opportunities to take photos with the lions and jaguars. I know there is controversy over these, and I’m not saying they are more humane, but I had heard some other cruisers mention they didn’t want to do it because they are declawed and that seemed inhumane. But the tour guide told us not to do it because they could scratch, and in fact, other people on our tour observed somebody get scratched up, so it seems the cats aren’t totally being declawed. 

 

 

Free Margarita - had to go to upstairs bar to have it. 

 

I had read about the amazing tacos somewhere in the market, and our tour guide had mentioned this one stand at the beginning of the market called Lidias. It’s up behind the parking lot, and they have a smaller satellite in the actual market. We ordered shrimp and fish tacos. They were awesome. Highly recommend you stop by here. 

 

Great Tacos!

 

We ended up walking around. We went to one of the stores with the leather fake brand name bags (yes, they’re not real!) First, he tried talking to me in Chinese. I do speak Chinese, but I knew he originally pegged me for an Asian tourist as they tend to like to buy these brand-name bags. But quickly corrected him and let him know I mainly spoke English. I tried bargaining for a clutch. He started at 50 or 60, and I told him I was really just looking for a bag that I could use for weddings, and I could buy one at Kohl’s for like 10. He just let me walk away. Told me the only thing I could buy for that price is a wallet. 

 

We did buy 3 magnets. She offered 1 for 3. We ended up countering 2 for 4, and she said 2 for 5. She in the end giving us 3 for 6. I know we paid too much, but it’s okay. They were cheaper than what we had paid before, and we were happy with what we got as souvenirs, and that’s all we got.

 

When we were on the way home, people shared their bargaining stories. After seeing a woman with 5 or 6 coach bags, I asked her more and took a look at them. I had wished I had looked at the bags more carefully, as perhaps they would be worth $20, rather than the 10 I offered if they were indeed leather. I don’t love bargaining, so it was creating more anxiety and made me not want to really shop more. But I do think if I had a little more mental energy and a desire to shop, it would’ve been worth it to look for something I would’ve liked and bargained a little bit for it. But it’s okay. No need for more stuff. It’s a Marie Kondo kind of year. 

 

Another shot of the market

 

We took the bus home and headed into Ensenada around 2. 

 

Scenic drive back to port

 

More views from the bus

 

 

 

7 hours ago, cali-croozer said:

Just booked for next monday! Did you go to the comedy shows or piano bar?

We did go to the comedy shows - mentioned it briefly for the Sea Day (Day 2), and I'll get to a little bit more on my next post on Ensenada (Day 4). We never hit the piano bars at night. They started around 9:30 or 10, but even though we walked pass the area, I don't think it ever drew our attention The piano bar wasn't very big (we usually hung out there during the daytime). We did pass by the Karaoke at night. Never went in, but seemed to be well attended.

 

2 hours ago, BENHANDEL said:

Thanks for this review. I will be on the Imagination in March and agree that we see very few reviews for those ships/itineraries. 

 Hopefully the Imagination is just as fun! All the activities should be practically identical, but I do know they haven't done some of the same refurbishments, though you will have all the Funship 2.0 things! 

Ensenada Fun Times (Day 4, normally Day 3)

 

 

 

 

Catalina Day Fun Times (Day 3 - normally Day 2)

 

 

We were back on the ship and went to Lido Deck to grab some lunch. The first day, we had a Guys Burger, and my husband only thought it was okay. I think it was because it was cold because we were waiting for one another. So today, we made a different plan. I’d go grab the Guys Burger and try to keep it hot, and my husband would go grab tacos (we like the fish ones) from Blue Iguana. There no lines at either, so we thought it’d work out great. I got my burger and found a table inside just beyond where I could see my husband. Then I waited and waited and waited for him. It probably took about twenty minutes, and by this point, the burger was cold again. Our plans were thwarted, and again he had a cold burger. Apparently, there was a huge delay in the taco line for some reason. Usually it was super fast, but not today. We didn’t end up eating everything, which is okay, because this day ended up being a snack kind of day. I don’t exactly remember when, but I’m pretty sure we also discovered the Taco Salads at Blue Iguana and shared one later on that afternoon or maybe the day before (though it’s not in my notes, but I know we ate it!)

 

 

Since we missed the 1pm trivia, we decided to go for the 2pm movies trivia. They were just finishing up Scattergories. One interesting fact I heard from the guy in charge is that he had tons of “Bling on a String” – so he was giving them out liberally since they didn’t have much of a winner for the Scattegories game. 

 

The trivia game started pretty much on time. We didn’t expect to do well. As soon as they hit the second half where they were talking about Classic movies, we knew we were done for. Actually, after scoring, we were probably in the top 5, but nowhere near the top. They did give out a Ship on a Stick for the winner. I had read that maybe they had gotten rid of it and replaced it with the Bling on a String, but that was not the case. The person who won had won the previous trivia game as well, so walked away with two. I don’t know what you’d do with two ships. I wish we could’ve gotten one, but then again, I don’t know what I’d even do with one ship. 

 

My husband wanted to stay for Carnival Tower, which was basically giant Jenga. We were generally split into two teams. It was pretty nerve-wracking to play. The first game ended pretty quickly and our team had won! The game leader decided to let us have another change to play again, but not for prizes. I liked that this game really got everybody around into it, but it was much harder than regular Jenga. Our prize for winning: Bling on a String! 

 

Carnival Tower! (this angle makes it look really tall. It was probably about 4 ft high)

 

Our bling on a string!

 

We returned back to our room for a nap. We went to Lido deck to check out what dinner looked like up there since MDR menu didn’t really inspire us. We decided to make that day a chill day rather than going to MDR. We weren’t quite ready for dinner yet though, so we just spent some time upstairs in Lido watching another movie (Searching) and reading. I loved that on this cruise, I could actually read and enjoy it. I think with all the internet these days, I usually don’t sit down to read a long book. But this cruise, I was able to read through the book Pachinko. 

 

We had an appointment at 5pm to meet up with the Dreams Studio photographer. I was worried it’d be high pressure, but wasn’t at all. We had a chance to view the photos, and I was actually quite impressed. The photos were really good. When my husband and I got married, our wedding photographer was actually a friend of my husband’s who specialized in studio photos. He had taken photos of celebrities and politicians. We got some because he threw it in with our wedding photos. They were good, but I thought these ones on the ship were done better. I commented that these must be really expensive, but the photographer said they weren’t that much more than the photos outside. He said it’d cost about $150 for 5 of them, which came out to be about $30 a piece. The photos outside were 21.99 for the Cruise ProPortraits so he was right. The problem: because these were just black background photos, we didn’t really think there were five that we’d want to take home. And they wouldn’t sell just one. So he let us walk. 

 

Remember on the first day, when I mentioned they asked us to sign up for a photo session and I declined? This is where I wish we actually did. If we had some other photos on other parts of the ship, we might have actually purchased the package since the photos were quite good. If we had 5, I think we might have splurged.I’m surprised Carnival wouldn’t want to get some money out of us by selling more single shots. Oh well. 

 

We ended up going back and looking at our ProPortraits and chose one that we’d get free wallets for. Now that I’m home, I’m not sure what I’ll do with those free wallets. They managed to suck us into those purchases with all these promotions! 

 

The rest of our day was fairly uneventful. We went back up to Lido deck and ate from the buffet. Probably around 7:30 pm, we went back to our room and rested up. We read and watched movies as we prepared for our next day in Ensenada. 

 

Oh, one last thing. Somewhere in the afternoon, Orlando, the CD, came on the loudspeaker to apologize to everybody about the weather. He did say there was nothing they could do about it since that’s out of their control, but he did wish people would’ve had more fun. I realized that those who might have waited later to get off the ship (maybe 11 or after, since we were in port until 3:45 or so) probably had a miserable day. It wasn’t Carnival’s fault at all. In fact, I’m super impressed the captain switched around the schedule so we could even make it onto the island at all, but I bet there were those very disappointed with the lousy weather that day and wanted to blame Carnival for it. The guest services lines were often VERY long. 

 

I'll throw in some Lido Deck and ice cream machine photos for the heck of it --- since a lot of our afternoon was spent here:

 

 

 

 

The only day we set the alarm was this day. I woke up and felt the boat totally still – no movement whatsoever. Could it be? Was the weather actually good enough that we could get to Catalina Island? 

 

As mentioned in the introduction, one of the reasons we had went on this cruise was because my husband had never visited Catalina before. When the weather turned, we understood tender ports tend to get skipped over, so we had prepared in our hearts that we may not make it. I went upstairs to deck 7 and took a look. Waters were still! And we were docked just outside of Catalina Island. It was overcast, but it wasn’t rainy and the water was calm. We also knew from going online the day before that it’d only last before noon, so I went back downstairs to our room and my husband and I decided to make a beeline to the buffet to grab a quick breakfast. 

 

View of Avalon from the ship

 

During breakfast, I discovered the gluten free bread. It was really dense. It didn’t toast up quite right. But somehow, I found it quite satisfying and addictive. I think my husband got the Huevos Rancheros at Blue Iguana, which really just looked like a chicken taco to me. 

 

 

We headed back down to our room on Deck 4 since the tenders were loading from Deck 3 and it’d be easy to get to. Grabbed some rain gear and our stuff, and we headed to the tender boat loading zone. 

 

Let me mention that on our last cruise, we had gotten Faster to the Fun. While we were glad to get it last time for our honeymoon, we decided not to this time. For the most part, up until this point, we didn’t really think we needed it this time around. We were willing to just carry our carry-on bags with us and sit around waiting for the room. The guest services lines were long, but we didn’t need to use them. The one area I wasn’t sure about was priority tenders, since we’ve never had a cruise that required tenders.

 

We headed downstairs and basically had zero line. We walked right onto the tender (this was probably around 9am), and this gave us confidence we made the right decision that we didn’t need FTTF this trip (it was available right up until the day before we left). 

 

View of ship from tender

 

We took the quick tender ride to port. We didn’t get any excursions for this trip, and at one point, contemplated maybe doing one of the underwater excursions (like the submarine) because of the weather, but in the end, we decided to try for renting a golf cart. I had researched, and settled on Island Rentals, which actually ended up being the closest one to the tender dock. 

 

 

There was a line already forming, so we jumped in. A few notes for Island Rentals - They are cash only and their carts are a little less fancy than the other places (no turn signals). They only have carts that seat 4. But they are the best price. Most places are $45 for an hour. Island Rentals is also that much, but if you purchase 2 hours, they give you the third hour free. Some people in line got to ask about 6-seaters, and were referred to another rental place down the street. Also, some people didn’t have cash, and were also told the same. We waited about 15-20 minutes and then settled into our cart. We paid for the 3 hours (for the price of 2), and went on our way. 

 

Island Rentals gave us a map. Because of the rain and rockslides, the whole left section of the scenic route was closed off. That was a little bit of a bummer, because some of the good views were over there. But I knew it was for our safety. Even in the area that was open, there were quite a few rockslides that we had to navigate around. 

 

We drove around the town a little bit first (partially to get some Pokemon Go stops) and to scout it out. We should’ve looked at the map more carefully but ended up getting towards an area of the scenic route that was one way, so we had to turn around back into town to go the other way. 

 

The scenic route was nice. There was some drizzling, but nothing particularly unbearable. We drove up towards Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Gardens. When we got there, there were a bunch of other carts there, but people quickly left as soon as they got there. We weren’t sure why, but then realized it was another $8 to get into the memorial and gardens. With the rental time of the cart, plus the fact that it was pretty drizzly, we also passed and quickly went down the hill and back onto the scenic path. 

 

The scenic drive was pretty. We got some good views of the town and of the ship. At some point, we passed by the Catalina Island Zipline Eco Tour. Despite the weather, they were still sending people down the ziplines. I originally wasn’t very impressed as the first zipline looked fairly short (I’ve done a few in my travels). But we drove around the corner and saw a huge one that went a really far distance over the Catalina Island foliage. That one looked fun and beautiful. 

 

 

 

We kept driving, and hit a point where fog started to hit in, but we also could see the beach (specifically the Descanso Beach Club). It would’ve been nice for a picture, but it was a little too drizzly. We prayed that it would clear up for a photo, and shortly after, we found a spot where we could see the ocean background pretty clearly. We took a couple of photos and selfies and continued on our way back down the hill. We switched spots and I decided to drive (my husband had been driving up until this point)

 

At this point, maybe an hour and fifteen had passed of our rental time. We headed back into town when my husband told me he didn’t think the photos we had just took had saved on his phone. Since we had extra time, we decided to make another loop to try to see if we could get the photos again. This loop was shorter as made a shortcut through part of the city and were able to start driving right near the Zipline. 

 

Right as we approached the place we were before, we realized the photos weren’t going to be good since the weather was definitely beginning to turn (probably about 11:15 by this point which we knew was when the forecasts said it’d get worse). I grabbed my husband’s phone anyways, and then realized we had our photos! Yay! 

 

One of the photos we thought we lost (Descanso Beach Club down below --- totally empty that day with good reason)

 

So we just drove back into town. There wasn’t much more to drive around and see (I would imagine 1 hour of rental is too short, but 3 hours was too much, even on a regular day when the whole scenic route is open). I had seen a sign for a bowling alley and arcade. With the rain coming in, we parked our little golf cart on the street, and decided to explore the stores and the bowling alley. 

 

The bowling alley wasn’t a full size, but a little island bowl (small softball sized balls and no need for bowling shoes) It was $5 a game. A little pricey, but hey, we were on vacation. We got the full 10 frames. It was pretty fun, and we’re glad we did it. It took probably about twenty minutes. There were two lanes. Another family came by and looked like they wanted to play. They could’ve played on the other lane, but I guess they decided to wait until we totally cleared. 

 

 

We ended up walking around the different stores in the area. We honestly could’ve returned our cart and just walked around, but it did feel nice to know we had the cart as an option if we wanted to do anything else. Checked out the grocery store (Vons) just to see the prices, since everything needed to be imported in. Some things were a little bit pricier than LA, but not exorbitantly so. We found a magnet for our travel collections and some coffee for the husband. 

 

The rain was coming down more and we were getting tired (it’s probably just around noon) and we had always planned to eat lunch back on the ship, so we returned our cart at about the 2 hour, 40 minute mark, and then got into line for the tender back. 

 

There was a tender disembarking and we were kind of towards the front of the line, so we thought we would be able to get on quick. Nope. The disembarking and embarking process took a while. And with the weather going bad, more and more people were getting in line to get back onto the ship. It probably took us about 20 minutes before we were able to load onto the boat. There were two different tenders – one was bigger and one was smaller. We were waiting to load onto the bigger one. 

 

Waiting for a tender

 

The ride back to the ship was definitely an adventure. The waves were building. The calm seas had dissipated and our ship was going up and down fairly dramatically. My husband and I were standing. It wasn’t crazy enough to get seasick, but definitely enough that we really needed to hang on. We probably got to the side of the ship around 12:35 or so when they started bringing passengers onto the ship.  This took a long time to get all the passengers off. I had hoped to make a 1:00pm trivia game about food and drink as that’s probably the only one we had a shot at winning. We waited and waited as they let some of the upstairs people off first. Soon 12:35 became 12:45. And 12:45 because 12:55. And FINALLY, we were let off the tender back onto the ship, only to be waiting in another security line. And when we got back on, we realized there were still a ton of people from the upstairs that needed to disembark from the tender. They weren’t able to because the sea was rocking so bad that they couldn’t get it stable enough. Finally after a five minute wait, it was calm enough for them to get back onto the ship. 

 

I finally got through security maybe 1:10 or 1:15, and by this point, I knew the trivia game wasn’t going to be a possibility, so we decided to just go straight to lunch.

 

A few thoughts about the tendering and Catalina before I move on for the rest of the day. 1) If I had bought FTTF, I would’ve been really disappointed unless they gave me priority tendering to get back ONTO the boat. That didn’t seem to be the case. 2) There must be a better more efficient way of loading and unloading. 3) I’m very glad we checked the weather the day before and made plans to get off early. We heard tons of people who only did about 45 min on the golf carts because they didn’t start until 11 and by noon, the weather was really bad. We feel like we got to experience everything we had planned to for Catalina. 4) Golf carts was fun. Not sure I’d need to do it again. Avalon is really tiny, so I’m not sure what we’d do in town for a repeat trip. I told my husband if we went again, I’d probably take him hiking or something. 

 

 

 

My husband loves scotch. One thing I forgot from the day before was that he was on a quest to figure out which interesting scotches or whiskeys they had on board. He had his eye on a Macallan that he hadn’t tried before, and we spent about half an hour trying to figure out which bar it was that he saw it at. I got annoyed and just asked him to ask a bartender, but he was determined to find it on his own (men sometimes). We finally swung back near the Casino Bar (which we had already been by twice) and he saw what he was looking for! It was a Macallan Quest. I guess there are some travel exclusives that he found on this ship that he can’t find on the land. There was usually a deal for an extra $3 for a double shot, so this was his go-to each day generally. I don’t like scotches at all, so I can’t tell you how they were, but I think he rated this one a C+. 

 

Back to Sea Day afternoon – I took a nap (this is what vacations are for!), and he decided to go check out the Watch and Scotch event. I declined to go, lest I grow more annoyed at the duty free shop. He went for five minutes and then decided to come back to the cabin as he thought the event was lame. 

 

Our ipad had some movies loaded on it, so we decided to watch Three Identical Strangers – interesting documentary. I’m glad we loaded movies. The movies on the Carnival tv were only okay, so it was nice we had some options of our own. PS, we got a notice this day that between the 17^thand 18^th, they would be switching over some of the TV channels – something like they were including a new news channel, plus HGTV and Food Network. We got to see some of the new shows after they turned over – I love food network, so it made for more entertaining TV watching. 

 

Then it was time to get ready for Cruise Elegant Night! I had this floor-length rose gold sequin gown that I had wore for the wedding the weekend before as a bridesmaid. I had figured I’d never wear it again after the wedding, but after talking to my friends, decided why not? Let’s wear it on the ship! So my husband and I were pretty bling-ed out for formal night. 

 

We went to find the photographers. We had not taken portraits previous days, but wanted to take advantage of that day. We took our first photo – this photographer took a LOT of time making sure the photo turned out well by adjusting my hair and lots of angles. He said this is “old school photoshop”. We ended up not buying that photo. 

 

Right afterward, another photographer pulled us aside into a corner, and we ended up taking some Dreams Studio photos. This was primarily against a black background. I really didn’t necessarily want it as I was worried about a hard sell, but we figured we’d just go along with it since we were dressed up. He scheduled us to view the photos the next day. 

 

There were maybe 8 or so backgrounds to take. We took about 4 or 5 of them. In hindsight, I wish we would’ve taken them all. There were some that looked tacky when looking at them in person, but ended up looking really good in the photos. I particularly liked the way the backgrounds that were set up nearer the Alchemy Bar ended up turning out. We didn’t take them as by that point, I was getting photo’d out, but kinda wish I did. We did buy one of them on the next day since there was a promo of free wallets.

 

The day before, I mentioned I stopped by the Alchemy Bar and talked to Michelle, who described some great drinks that she could make without added sugar. We headed back to the Alchemy Bar (by the way, the bar always looked empty whenever I passed by). Unfortunately, Michelle wasn’t there, so I asked one of the mixologists who was there about a drink without sugar. He was really unhelpful and basically said he couldn’t make a drink without using the syrups. I described as best as I could what Michelle had shared the night before (gin based drink mixed with some fresh fruit and some herbs --- she had mentioned she could add some bitters, but he didn’t end up using those). He told me he think it’d be sour, but managed to throw something together with citrus. My husband also described what he enjoyed (whiskey based), but again, this mixologist had no suggestions for him, so my husband ended up just ordering a Kentucky Mule (Moscow Mule but with bourbon) – kinda boring. Wasn’t the type of experience I expected at Alchemy Bar after reading tons of great things about it, and this particular mixologist wasn’t very good. If you go on the Inspiration, look for Michelle! She seemed a lot more knowledgeable. 

 

My sugar-free drink on the left. Hubby's Kentucky Mule on the right. 

 

Fortunately, the drink he made turned out great. I’m glad I insisted and remembered some of what Michelle told me the day before. Plus, it was Ladies Night with a dollar discount. He gave us both the discount, so that was a nice plus. 

 

It was about 7:30pm at this time, and we went to the MDR. The wait this time was 30 minutes. We weren’t in a rush and I had Monopoly Deal in my purse, so my husband went back to the Rhapsody in Blue lounge to hang out there. Other people watched us go into the near empty lounge, and then followed suit to hang out in there while we waited for our buzzers. My husband proceeded to beat me 2 more times (that’s 5 games in a row!) before our buzzer rang. 

 

We were always sat in the left side of the dining room. I don’t know if it was intentional. Towards the end of our trip, they kept seating us in the same section with the same dining team. I don’t know if that’s typical or not. That evening, we decided to try one of the cold soups, after reading lots of raves. My husband really enjoyed it. I thought it was a little bit strange. For mains, he ordered prime rib and the shrimp, and I ordered the Sea Bass. Again, I thought this fish was great! Top two meals on this trip overall were the Sea Bass and the Miso Salmon. 

 

Strawberry Soup - weird to me, husband liked it.

 

 

Four Seasons Salad - Felt very plain, and I think Carnival's blue cheese dressing tastes weird

 

Prime Rib 

 

Shrimp Dish

 

Sea Bass --- very very good! 

 

I wanted to see the comedy show, so we headed over for the 9:30 show. The comedian was Eric Schwartz. They described him as a combination of musical and comedy. While he had his moments that were funny, particularly when he did his singing, I thought he was only okay, and mostly was waiting to laugh. 

 

 

While I don’t remember for sure, I’m fairly positive we stopped by Lido deck again for my husband to grab and ice cream cone before heading back to the cabin. At this point, we weren’t sure what was going to happen the next day. We hadn’t heard any announcements about Catalina Island being cancelled, but we had looked online that day since I had internet. It looked like it was going to rain most of the day. However, we did look and see that the time it was least likely to rain was in the morning before 11am. We had originally planned on taking it easy on port days and getting off whenever we felt like it, but because of the weather report, we made a plan to wake up earlier, grab a quick breakfast, and see if we were actually able to dock in Catalina. If we were, we’d try to get on shore before the weather started to turn. 

 

However, I was still thinking that I’d wake up and end up finding out that we’d have another day at sea… So to bed we went and awaited what would actually happen the next day… 

 

 

Day 2 (Sea Day) 

Sleeping in the interior room was great with it being super dark. And because it was a Sea Day, we weren’t in a rush to get up. However, I still ended up waking up around 7:45. My husband was going to sleep in, so I decided to make use of my morning by getting out of the cabin so he could keep sleeping in the nice dark room. One pitfall to an inside cabin is you have no idea what it looks like outside. You could turn on the TV to see a picture from the forward of the ship, but I didn’t want to wake up the husband – plus, it turns out we found out later that our TV stopped working that day. 

 

I decided to prep for two things: 1) get online to write a review for a book that was being released that day, and then 2) go for a run, since one of my New Year’s resolutions was to run a 10K at the end of April. I figured I’d just change and then if it were too cold or wet outside to run on the deck, I’d just go to the gym. 

 

So about the online review. One of my best friends had a book published that was due for release on Tuesday, January 15^th. I had signed up for the launch team, which meant that they gave me a copy of the book and some goodies, and I’d be a part of getting the word out. Since we were originally scheduled to dock in Catalina, I figured I’d just get cell phone coverage when there. The rescheduling meant that I couldn’t go with my original plan. Since I wanted to be a good friend and fulfill my launch team duties, I decided to just pay for a one day package for internet. 

 

I sat on the tables opposite the internet café on the Empress Deck, right next to the Atrium Bar. Honestly, it was a little sad once I logged on, getting all my e-mail notifications and some work slacks. I realized how much I enjoyed being forced to disconnect. But I was grateful to be able to write my Amazon review as well as get an instagram and facebook post. And it gave me a chance to test out the internet. We did the $16 value package for 24 hours. In the morning, I thought it was quite fast, but there were times later in the day that it was really slow. I pretty much logged off after I did my business, but let my husband go on here and there. I also logged on to try to get a better sense of the weather for the next few days in Catalina and Ensenada. 

 

I also got a chance to look outside and see that we actually were getting some clear skies. So after dropping off my book and iPad, I headed up to the Sun Deck (Deck 14) to the jogging track. Here it was 11 laps for a mile. I hadn’t ran in a long time, so I just decided to try to get a mile in, which I did. There were a few people out at the mini golf course and a few people running. It was a little windy, but overall, was a nice day to run. 

 

 

I went back to find my husband, who was finally up, and we headed to the Sea Day Brunch. We really enjoyed this on our last cruise, and knew we had to go again! After the amazing salmon last night, I decided to go for the salmon again. It was visually impressive, but not as good as the one the night before. My husband went for the Steak and Eggs – the only chance for free filet mignon – and that was good as always. 

 

Pretty salmon. Tasted fine - nothing spectacular. 

 

Steak and Eggs with side of Tomatoes

 

Our plan for the morning/early afternoon was to do our annual New Year reflection where we take time to listen to God and plan for our next year. Even though it was already 2-3 weeks in, we had a busy first few weeks, and set time in our vacation to do this. Before we did this though, we decided to check out the Serenity Deck. We had really hoped to take advantage of it, but when the weather turned, we weren’t sure we’d be able to. There was some sun that day, so we headed back. It’s just one floor below the aft of the Lido deck, so easy access if you wanted to head before or after a meal. 

 

 

Look at all that sun! It actually got so warm, we had to move! 

 

 

There was sun! And a lot of it. We decided to sit and rest for a few minutes and soak up a little bit of the rays, since we weren’t sure how much we’d have. At noon, we had heard there would be a chocolate extravaganza buffet, and we wanted to go see it! It was much smaller than I expected. I feel like when we were on the Legend, there was a chocolate extravaganza also, but that one actually felt extravagant. This one felt… well, just chocolate ordinary. There were maybe 6-8 chocolate cakes. We tried two, and thought they were only okay. There were a bunch of little random candies out like marshmallows, sugared almonds, rock sugar (not sure how you ate those), and some Turkish delight looking candy. 

 

 

After that, we settled in the Rhapsody in Blue Piano Lounge to do our reflection. This would end up being one of our favorite spots during the day to hang out, or when we had to wait for a dining time. There were rarely people, good tables for playing games, and a nice view. We spent an hour or so doing our reflection and sharing, and then proceeded to continue with Monopoly Deal, where my husband ended up winning 3 games in a row! 

View from the lounge window

 

We decided to take a peek in the casino. This casino was much larger than the one on the Legend, even though I had heard from others that it was small. The games were mostly older ones. We aren’t huge gamblers, but do go to Vegas often, and I’m definitely attracted to some of the newer penny machines they have there. This casino didn’t have a ton of games that I recognized, other than Buffalo Gold, but the Buffalo games were always being used. We decided to play a few dollars. I lost a little bit, but my husband hit a bonus that won him $12 bucks or so, so he was up about 10. In our times in the casino, we honestly didn’t see a lot of big wins. Just a few dollars here or there. Definitely felt tighter than when we’re in Vegas --- but then again, we usually lose there also. 

Casino Pics (from embarkation day) 

 

Casino Pic (from Embarkation Day)

 

Husband's small little win! 

 

Closed off our Sea Day afternoon by heading back to the cabin and taking a nap! 

Day 2 Fun Times : Repost with working photos

 

 

Day 1 Fun Times : REPOST with working photos

 

Seems to be working on my end when I go into incognito mode so I'm going to keep reposting the same posts with photos. Unfortunately can't delete previous ones. 

 

REPOST: 

Shortly after the Fun Ashore and Fun Aboard show, as we were getting ready to head to the Muster Drill (which by the way, Orlando mentioned usually only takes a long time because people head over way too early), we heard an announcement. Originally, our cruise was scheduled to stop at Catalina Island on Tuesday, Ensenada on Wednesday, and Sea Day on Thursday. I was fully expecting them to just cancel Catalina Island. Instead, they announced that they were switching up the schedule and that we were going to have our Sea Day on Tuesday, and go to Catalina on Wednesday and Ensenada on Thursday. Honestly, I was a little surprised, as the weather reported it was just going to be bad on Catalina every day so I wasn’t exactly sure why they were doing this. 

 

We headed to the Muster Drill station which was in one of the lounges on the Promenade deck. Our last cruise, we were outside so this was a lot better. It was fairly quick and easy, and they didn’t make us wait for those who weren’t there. While we were waiting, I was checking the weather and the Carnival app and the Weather Channel app weathers didn’t match. I had a theory that maybe their weather reports weren’t accurate and they told us they were switching up Sea Day with Catalina Island to appease people rather than making them think they wouldn’t make port (and thus receive a ton of complaints), and that they’d then tell us the next day that we’d have another day at sea, or move down to Ensenada on Wednesday instead. My husband and I weren’t too fazed – we would’ve been disappointed to not go to Catalina as that was one of the original reasons we booked this cruise, but mainly just wanted to go on this cruise to relax. We’d just roll with whatever happened. 

 

Muster Drill Station

 

After the muster drill, we went up to the Lido deck and only things that were open were deli and pizza station, so we grabbed a half prosciutto pizza. This pizza felt a lot faster than when were on the Legend last time. They’d go to the back and pop out with pizzas very quickly – I have no idea what’s going on back there, but it was efficient – far more than I remember. 

 

 

The ship started to sail and with at least other people, we got sucked into the Liquor Tasting event at the stores. This was the most “booze cruise” moment of the whole cruise. We packed into the hallway to wait to try one little sip of a liquor of your choice (they had four choices) while they tried to hype up the crowd so they could hand out raffle tickets. We grabbed a bunch, which ended up sucking us into a greater vortex. As we walked in the store, we tried another sample which was Amarula. If you’ve never had it, it’s a cream-based liquor that’s made out of a fruit that’s native to Africa. My brother and his fiancé had mentioned that they were planning to serve some at their wedding, since she’s from South Africa, so we decided to buy some of these limited-edition sleeves for them. 

 

Liquor Tasting Event

 

We asked the guy about customs and duty, and he said it didn’t matter how many we bought if they were bought on the boat. They only cared if you bought them off of the boat. I don’t really know if this is true or not. We researched later and found that the info he gave us wasn’t true officially. We did declare the extra liter of alcohol (since we also bought a bottle of scotch), but they just waved us through. 

 

Back to the craziness in the duty-free shop. Because we had grabbed a bunch of tickets, we decided to stay for the raffle which would take place in 15 minutes. While waiting, they kept handing out these different fliers for different free things, including a charm bracelet and a gem necklace. The store was PACKED, but they were doing whatever they could to keep people in the store. I was already a little annoyed and claustrophobic, but my husband and I decided to just stick around and see what the raffle would be like. Very disappointing. We waited maybe 20 minutes of sales pitch for them to call one name. I was about ready to leave, but then they announced they’d be giving out the free charm bracelet. Since we were already there, we decided to stay and try to claim one. How long could it take? 

 

Mistake. The lines took forever, and they were trying to sell charms. Even though these were free, they needed to scan every single person. We were maybe 5^thor 6^thin line, but people were crowding the counter, and it took maybe half an hour to finally get to the front. You know that feeling when you really don’t want to be somewhere anymore, but you’re so close to the front that you didn’t think you should leave?  We got our bracelets but at this point, we’d be in the store for almost an hour and half and I was cranky and annoyed. 

 

We decided to head to the MDR. Like last time, we chose to do Anytime Dining. We never were given the option to sit with others, and were always just placed in a 2-person table, which was fine by us. This night, we were told there would be a 20 minute wait and were given a pager. We went to the library and grabbed the game “Guess Who” (there were not many games there). We played once, and shortly after, our buzzer ran – probably for a total of fifteen minute wait. 

 

The food was good. I don’t remember everything we ordered particularly for our appetizers, and in my intro, I mentioned I forgot to take photos of a lot of things. I do know that I ordered the Miso Salmon off of the Port-of-call menu, and my husband got the Flat Iron Steak. The salmon was VERY good. I’d order it again in an instant. I think we skipped dessert so dinner moved pretty quickly – I think we were out in less than an hour. 

 

Kale Caesar Salad - dressing was a little different, but overall good

 

Flat Iron Steak - Good. My husband enjoyed. 

 

Miso Salmon - very good! If you like fish, get this! 

 

We walked around a little bit and stopped by the Alchemy Bar. I don’t drink a whole lot, but was hoping to have something special the next day. I decided to stop and ask the mixologist what she could make for me if I didn’t want any sugar (added or in fruit juice/mixers) since I’m diabetic and try to limit those. Her name was Michelle and she explained a bunch of things she could make for me that sounded great. She was really knowledable and I asked if she’d be there the next day and she said she would. I decided I’d want to go there the next day on Formal Night and have her make me a drink.

 

I wanted to check out the Welcome Aboard show that was at 10:15pm – again, since I’ve never been to one. It was more raffles and then a short preview of the Playlist Production performances. Nothing particularly exceptional, and only somewhat entertaining.

 

 

After the show, Orlando had a conga line go to different parts of the ship, where he’d give out free stuff. We started by going to the atrium where we had a dance contest where winners would win a free cocktail. We had some fun dancing, but left right before they gave drinks since we wouldn’t drink them anyways.

 

 

We ended our first day on board with my husband getting his favorite dessert – an ice cream cone, and headed down to our room to sleep.

This will be a REPOST. Trying to post again with photos. It worked on test forum, so please let me know if this works now! 

 

We decided after getting settled in to check out the Fun Ashore and Fun Aboard that afternoon, since I didn’t catch any of these on our first cruise. Also, one of my motivations was that I really wasn’t sure what would happen on this cruise because of the weather. I was pretty sure that we wouldn’t make Catalina Island because it’s a tender port and because of the storm, but I wanted to hear if they would address the weather during the presentation. (Sneak peak – they didn’t). 

 

On our way walking toward the theater, we did see the new permanent Bonsai Sushi Station they put in during the dry dock. Definitely really new and classy, but really underutilized. I think in my whole time there, I only saw somebody order from it once, and we didn’t order at all this trip. It looked decent, but we have a lot of decent sushi places in LA, so it didn’t seem worth it to pay extra for something we get fairly regularly. 

 

 

 

Beyond the staterooms and Bonsai sushi, the only other things we noticed that seemed to be newly updated were the pools (though they were mainly shut down and not being used during our time on the cruise due to weather) and some of the public bathrooms. While portions of the ship clearly seemed older, these updates did make the whole ship not feel like it’s 20+ years old. 

 

Back to embarkation day: We arrived at the theater a little bit after the show started and found some seats upstairs in the balcony. We met Orlando, our CD from Jamaica. We arrived a little late so didn’t get raffle tickets before they raffled off their first prize. This presentation was basically a sales pitch for different excursions in the two ports with a few raffles thrown in between. We did end up getting our raffle tickets into the box. I felt bad for Orlando – the people who did win were mostly super quiet and did NOT seem excited at all. Probably the highlight was when he was looking for a 3 year old and a parent volunteered her daughter. As soon as Orlando went up to her, she turned around and made a beeline to run away from him. It was really cute and funny all at the same time. He ended up gifting her some candy and a build a bear certificate. They did pull the only man to win up on stage and made him dance for the prize.

 

 

We didn’t win anything (pretty much story of our cruise). Plus, Orlando made no mention of the weather and what we should expect with the itinerary with the rain, at least during the show. That would change very soon after… which I will get to another day. 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, centralcalicruzer said:

Nice review so far. For some reason, after post #8, your photos are not showing in the succeeding posts. 

 

2 hours ago, memoak said:

Your photos are  not posting and the links are not "clickable"

 

2 hours ago, fyree39 said:

No photos. 😞

 

Bummer, are any showing up? I'll try to tackle it tonight and see if I can get them to work. 

And Day 2 Fun Times: