POA1

I tried to get a PDF, but printing was faster. This leads me to believe that there's a similar document available for other ships. Hope reigns supreme.

Carnival corporation has not added any new builds to the schedule. There may be a ship or two in the pipeline, and three Costa ships are being transferred to CCL (Venizia, Luminosa & Firenza, I think. Or Nina, Pinto and Ford Festiva. Not 100% sure.) There was this pandemic thing and governments shut down their economies. In order to survive, cruise lines had to take on massive debt. While the lines are paying down their debt at a good clip, it will likely be a while until there is capital for fleet expansion. The pandemic was in the news, but you might have missed it.

You, sir, have an organized mind! If someone asked me to provide a childhood photo with snacks, I'd be hard pressed to come up with a memory, let alone a black and white picture, digitized for the web.

For our first course, Michelle had the Caesar Salad. I had the Steak Tartare. Simi sauv blanc for the salad. Charles Smith cab for the beef. I think the white was over the $11 SBP limit, but we're playing with $15. The cab was covered by the SBP. I was not quite sure where to put the bread, so here it is. Sad to report that the lavash is no longer on team bread.

We have not seen any ducks in person. We have heard the occasional whisper about them in the halls and elevators. It's always, "I would have put it back, but my grandchild will love it." This fools no one. We know that ducks are in your sewing room in Fort Myers. So, the short answer is, "No." Haven't seen them. I know the ducks are there though. Somewhere in the deep underbelly the Pinnacle Class ships lies a rubber duck with a jaunty sailor cap.

Good evening from one of the ships at sea! Wednesday's Pinnacle Grill dinner started (as the best meals oft times do) with a drink. Michelle had the tableside gin and tonic. Forgive me for not having the menu handy, but it's De Lijn Gin, Fever Tree Tonic, lemon, lime and botaicals I'm not a G&T person, but it was a good cocktail. I can't award a lot of points for the tableside prep, but you pretty much need to sabre some Champagne to impress us. I had the Ship Shape Manhattan. The whiskey is Buffalo Trace. The vermouth is Carpano Antica, and the vermouth is Dolin dry. (There are bound to be some typos, but we've been researching like you would not believe.) Note to self: Riffle on The Manhattan Project and hope no one knows history. Manhattan front and down stage, right. G&T center stage. We'd happily order both again.

Why yes, yes I have. We had mayo on our fries in a salute to you. Our spring cruise dropped Curaçao and I was worried about my access to Dutch healthy snacks. Merry Christmas to you and Maria!

Sure... Rain on my parade. 😉

You're waitlisted for the Rotterdam, but you are definitely high on the list.

That would be on a future date. Not today. We aren't savages.

Audible update: We cut the second appetizer in trade for a Gelato shake and Dutch Cafe fries. Film at eleven.

You ask. The National Institute of Cheer delivers! You'll have to wait until we're back in Fort Lauderdale for the scans though.

Heading off to dinner in the PG. As usual, Poohby Joe dresses to match Michelle. In fact, he does a much better job than I do. Sadly, he never goes to dinner.

This library is more impressive than the ones we all miss from the older HAL ships. (Assuming my memory is correct.) It could probably use a few more club chairs though.

For the sake of continuity, here's the Club Orange menu that we're not having tonight. It's Culinary Council Night so CO and the MDR have the same menu. This also happens on formal / gala / dressy / could you at least wear long pants nights.

Even though we loaded digital books for the trip, we were impressed by the library. Unfortunately, we are working to hit 400 days in a row and actual bound paper books don't count. Our 400th day will be Sunday when we leave the ship.

For what it's worth, when we go to a restaurant and expect to order extra, I always lead with, "I understand if there's a surcharge, and it's not a problem."

Tonight's dinner is in the Pinnacle Grill. We had two eggs for breakfast, no toast or anything else really. Lunch was a small sandwich from the Royal Dutch Café. We shared, but did not finish fries. Nothing else but water & cabana champagne. Dinner will be multiple courses, wine paired per course. I'll skip the Maker's before dinner, so we'll each have a cocktail from the list. The proteins will be beef. Michelle's will carry a supplement, which we will pronounce in a snooty French way, "supp-le-mon." You're looking at two cocktails, two appetizers, shared clothesline bacon, a main course and dessert. Wine pairings throughout. As an extra hint, the up charge item will not be the giant tomahawk. Good luck. We're counting on you. (You don't have to play along. That's Lisa's thing. I'm just giving you fair warning that there will be a bit of food.) Choose one from the cocktail list for each diner. Don't worry about the wines. I'll work off the big list. We have the Elite Beverage Package but I plan to exceed $15 on a few of our wines. Entrées from the steak page. Probably a side or two.

This is the Deck 12 forward piece from above. Looing at it this way tips you off a little bit.

I'll pop by on the way to the Pinnacle tonight or after dinner. It seems like the kind of thing they'd put in the app.

This next piece is on Deck 12, forward elevators. (Note how you're getting pix from places I go regularly. The first one is from Deck 7,where we live this week. This next one is from the elevators we take to get to the cabana.) This one is really cool. I'll show you from various angles and see if you can figure out what it is. From the left side. From the right. Head on from the front. The hole is your clue. Viewed through the circular cut out, you see Rene Magritte's "Son of Man."

We did a quick walk into town in search of Nativity displays. Then the rain blew in and put a damper on things. (Quite literally.) Having thoroughly watered our clothes, we returned to ship to change into dry swimsuits. We are now working on the the research project that got pushed back due to weather. But first, a well-deserved champagne break. Poohby Joe is enjoying his afternoon bubbles before we get back to work. The eagle-eyed among you might notice that he's sporting his new Poohby Joe's Guide to Cabana Living t-shirt. That's probably a tip off as to the nature of the project.

I will admit that we both thought it was inspired reasoning. Alas, it is not to be at the moment.

Here's the first installment of the art series. Deck 7 forward elevators. The reflected guy in the blue shirt is not part of the installation.

I meant to check out the Library but finally got around to it today. It's still in the hidden gem category, but I'm sure word will get out. I thought the selections were good. We're big readers, so we've read quite a few of the titles they have on the shelves, but there looks to be something for everyone.