What is it about cruises that seem to make time move faster than regular days at home? Somehow it was already the last full day of our cruise and we were sailing back towards New Orleans. This is usually the time in my vacation when all of the action-packed port days and physically exerting excursions catch up with me, and all I want to do is plant my butt on a lounge chair, write in my trip journal, and eat (after all, I won’t have the excuse that “vacation calories don’t count” after the vacation is over!). Of course, that doesn’t mean that I’ll suddenly adjust to sleeping late, so I was wake around 7am. I quietly got dressed and tip-toed out of the cabin so I wouldn’t wake DH, and I found these fliers in our mailbox. The first was about the debarkation information, but it was a general form for all passengers on board. We were supposed to get a different form specific to FTTF but it wasn’t delivered until later this afternoon.
My first stop today was up to the Serenity Deck to stake out my claim on a lounge chair. It was around 7:40am by the time I got up there, but it was almost completely deserted and I had my pick of wherever I wanted to sit.
It was a little cloudy this morning, and also a little chilly, but the water was pretty smooth.
No need to worry about being a chair hog at this early hour, so I dropped off my tote bag on one of the clamshells, then headed down towards the Lido buffet to get a quick breakfast. On my way down, I caught the end of a beautiful sunrise!
Blue Iguana had just opened so I could have gotten a breakfast burrito, but I decided to change it up and see what other options were available.
In the end, I sampled a little bit of everything in the carbs department…
Unfortunately, most of these items were a let down. They were either stale, soggy, or a combination of both! The round cinnamon pastry was the best of the bunch (but I already knew it was something I liked because I tried it earlier in the cruise too). I will also say that the hard boiled egg was surprisingly good… it was still so hot that I was burning my fingertips as I tried to peel it (that is NOT a complaint, by the way!), but the shell peeled off easily in one big piece, and the yolk came out as one solid ball. I hate when the yolk crumbles and it’s hard to remove it, but the crew member in charge of boiling eggs has mastered the skill and I was pleasantly surprised.
I still had a few minutes before I needed to get back to my clamshell to be within the 40 minute limit, so I walked around taking some more photos of the ship. It was now a little after 8am, and there were still plenty of lounge chairs available at the aft pool.
The clouds broke up and it was turning into a beautiful morning at sea
hmm, or maybe not… lots of clouds out in the other direction!
The lounge chairs around the main Lido pool were filling in, but there were still plenty available at 8:10am.
Back up on Serenity Deck, I set up camp on one of the half-clam shells and spent about an hour jotting down notes in my trip journal. In that time, maybe 2 or 3 other couples came by and sat for a bit, but it was almost completely empty for most of the time.
At around 9am, I remembered that we could pick up luggage tags in the Ocean Plaza. Yesterday, I had stopped by at Guest Services to ask how the luggage tags were distributed for FTTF and they told me that we would get zone 2 tags. Based on the information on the debarkation flyer, that meant we would be called to leave the ship around 8:30am. DH and I had a few things planned for tomorrow, but we didn’t really need to be the first ones off the ship, and 8:30am was a bit too early for us. I was originally planning to just let our luggage sit in the collection room with the zone 2 tags, and we’d get it when we got there, but then it occurred to me that I could also go get a higher zone number. When I got downstairs, there were about 20 people on line ahead of me to pick up luggage tags, but the line moved fast and I had my pick of nearly any zone I wanted when I reached the front of the line (I think the zone 5 tags were already gone, but there were still tons of tags for all the other zones.)
I was getting a little hungry again since I didn’t eat much for breakfast, so after I took my luggage tags, I went back to the pizza place for a Quattro Formaggi pizza. Yes, it was 9:20am, but people eat cold pizza for breakfast all the time, so why can’t I eat hot pizza?! As I expected, there wasn’t anyone else on line when I arrived, and they didn’t have any pizzas pre-made and sitting there waiting to be taken, so they needed to make one fresh for me. The guy said it would take about 5 minutes. This was the photo I showed on the first sea day, but I’ll show it here again too since this was actually when I took it…
I took my pizza to-go and went back upstairs to Serenity Deck. When I got there, DH was sitting on one of the bigger clamshells and he had moved my bags so we wouldn’t hog 2 spots. By now, it was getting very windy and quite a bit colder, so the clamshell was helpful to block some of the wind, but we also needed to get towels to use as blankets. While DH was sitting there, he noticed the crew member walked around and put stickers on the chairs around him that had belongings on them.
Sure enough, at 9:55am, that same crew member came back and gathered up the belongings from our neighboring clamshell. We thanked him for taking care of that because even though it was not crowded due to the cold and the wind, the rules still remain that you can only reserve a chair for 40 minutes and people need to be more respectful of that. On other cruise lines, the staff is reluctant to enforce policies like that, so it was great to see that Carnival actually enforced their policies.
I stayed up there until around 11am when I just couldn’t tolerate the wind anymore. By now, I assumed Jennifer would have finished cleaning our cabin, so I left DH reading his book in the clamshell and I went back downstairs to start the grueling task of packing. On the bright side, this was only a 7-day cruise, so we didn’t have nearly as many things to pack up as we did on our last few cruises, but it still has to get done and it still eats away at time I should be out enjoying the ship. When I got back to the cabin, this little guy was hanging around, waiting to greet us…
I took him down and added him to our windowsill collection…
I spent about an hour putting a big dent in the packing process, then decided to take a break and find something to eat. I had been craving another lunch at Pasta Bella, so I went up there at around 12:15pm and OMG! It was crazy crowded! The hostess said it would take about 40 minutes to get my dish, and I immediately wished that I had this idea 30 minutes ago so I could have been there right when they opened at noon, and not now at the tail end of the initial rush. Oh well, I had my trip journal with me so I found a table, filled out my request paper, and passed the time by writing in my journal. Exactly 40 minutes later, a waiter came over with my pasta bowl, and it was totally worth the wait!
By the time I finished, it was a few minutes after 1pm, so I took a little walk around the ship to see what else was happening. It looked like the Hairy Chest Contest was in full swing at the Lido pool. I also didn’t see any vacant lounge chairs, so I guess you need to claim your spot before lunch if you want to spend time out here.
I went back upstairs to Serenity to find DH, and we went back downstairs to the cabin so he could pack up some of his stuff. At around 2pm, I remembered that I wanted to try the Mongolian Wok one last time since I only had it once on embarkation day. Yes, I fully acknowledge that I ate something every hour or two throughout the day, but I tried to keep the portions small to maximize how many venues I got to experience around the ship. It would be a shame to miss out on anything! Haha
I got to the line at Mongolian Wok at 2:10pm, knowing that there would be a line, but wanting to make sure I was served prior to their 2:30pm closing time. The line reached back to the doors from the elevator bank. While I waited on line, DH went around to the other line and came back to say that it was equally long. I wish they had a better system for the Mongolian Wok because this line moved incredibly slowly. Part of the problem was that nearly everyone on line ahead of me was making two bowls (one for the person in line, and one for someone else who was not physically standing there). This meant the line was twice as long as it seemed, and it took 45 minutes from when I got on line to when my food was ready. There is only one guy cooking on each side, and he cooks 3 woks at a time, so it is just a very slow process. At 2:30pm, one of the crew members stood at the end of the line with a sign saying “buffet closed”, so as long as you are in the line by 2:30pm, you will be served, even if you don’t get your food until long after the printed closing time.
It was fun that they had calamari as the seafood option today instead of shrimp, so I asked for that and the guy was extremely generous when he scooped it out of the bowl. I have a feeling not many people ordered it and since I was one of the last bowls he was cooking, he probably wanted to use it up. I also ordered my dish to be cooked with soy sauce instead of one of the 3 sauces on the menu, and that was no problem at all for him.
Although I didn’t love waiting in line this long, I must admit the food is always really yummy!
Unfortunately, this whole process took way longer than I was anticipating and I had to miss the Q and A session with Gary. I usually like going to those sessions because I like hearing about what it’s like to work on a cruise ship, and the cruise directors are usually entertaining and funny, but it just wasn’t meant to be today. The next event I wanted to attend was trivia about the TV show Friends in the Ocean Plaza at 3:15pm. DH isn’t a big fan of Friends, but I have seen every episode multiple times and wanted to put my knowledge to the test. The questions were very fair, and definitely the kinds of things you’d only know if you watch the show, so that meant I was completely on my own as DH had no clue about any of the questions haha In the end, I got 16 out of 20 correct, and I was kicking myself over the ones I missed because I knew them immediately when they announced the answers. There ended up being a tie with 2 people both getting all 20 questions correct, so they brought both those people up to the front of the room for a tie breaker. They had to take turns saying the name of a TV show (past or current were both okay), and the first person to not think of a reply or to repeat something already said lost. I think one of them was nervous standing up there because he only answered 2 TV show names and the other woman was announced the winner. DH and I could go back and forth for an hour listing TV shows, so I have a feeling that guy probably just got nervous in the moment.
Trivia ended at 3:45pm, just in time for us to walk down the hall to the Caliente Night Club for karaoke at 4pm. It seemed a little weird that they had karaoke in the middle of the afternoon, but there were no other activities that interested us at this time, and DH had yet to sing for karaoke, so this was our chance. It was already pretty crowded by the time we arrived (not sure if all these people were camped out here all afternoon in anticipation of karaoke, or if they were just ahead of us in the crowd leaving Ocean Plaza after trivia?), but we managed to find 2 seats together towards the back of the room.
When we first arrived, it was 3:50pm and DH approached the host to make his song request. The host said he wasn’t ready yet and he would make an announcement when it was time to come back up. DH was sitting at the edge of his seat, ready to go as soon as that announcement was made, so he ended up being the third person in line. That was a really good thing because there were about 50 people who ran up to request songs, and the host had to cut off any requests after that because we’d be here all night at that rate!
DH rocked out on air guitar while singing Sweet Child o’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses
Three or four songs later, they had a technical malfunction and the host had to call in help from a technician. It took them about 20 minutes to get things up and running again, and lots of people gave up and left at that time, so DH was really happy he got to sing before the machine broke. They did eventually fix it and we stuck around to listen to a few more people perform. Karaoke is always a fun time, and even if the person singing doesn’t necessarily have the greatest voice, it’s still fun to cheer them on.
While we were watching karaoke, I needed to check in for our flight home tomorrow. Luckily, the signal in the Caliente Nightclub was really good, so I was able to type in my information into the Southwest app, and DH’s information into the Southwest website, and I was ready to go the second it hit 24 hours prior to our flight. I ended up getting B-17 for me and B-30 for DH, so that was impressive considering those are the kinds of boarding numbers we get when we check in right on time at home too.
We stayed at karaoke until 5:30pm, but then we knew it was time to go because we wanted to get changed before dinner and we still had to finish packing. The debarkation flyer said our luggage had to be placed outside of our cabin before 11pm, so we wanted to do it before dinner. Otherwise we would need to interrupt our evening activities to return to the cabin and finish packing, and that’s not how we wanted to spend our last night on the ship! It wasn’t too hard to finish packing our big bag because we maxed out our weight limit before the bag was full haha That meant that everything else had to fit into our rolling carry on bags or backpacks, and if not, we could always rearrange as needed when we got to the airport tomorrow. It’s always a sad moment when you put your suitcase in the hallway…
At 6pm, we headed upstairs for our last dinner in the MDR. All week, I had been searching the menus for escargot but it had yet to make an appearance. I hoped it would show up tonight on the last night of the cruise, but it did not. That was a bit disappointing to me because I love ordering escargots on cruises and I know it is offered on other Carnival cruises, but for some reason, it was not offered on our cruise. Maybe it has something to do with New Orleans??
DH and I both ordered the baked onion soup appetizer. It was almost comical to compare this to the one DH had in the steakhouse on Sunday! You know the piece of bread/crouton they put in the bowl? It was literally a slice of sandwich bread, with the crust still on it! They folded the bread in half, then in half again, and crammed it into the little bowl before adding broth and cheese. Neither of us had any onions at all! We just had to laugh…
We ordered the BBQ Chicken flat bread to share, but we both loved it so much that we probably should have gotten our own!
I ordered the Penne, Shrimp, and Bacon dish for my entrée. DH had the Prime Rib, and I probably should have gone for that too just because it’s a fancier dish and we rarely eat steak at home, but I wasn’t in the mood for meat. DH said his Prime Rib was good, as was my pasta dish.
Dessert Menu… There were no cake options tonight aside from the Baked Alaska (which is ice cream, not really cake), so I wonder if today is the pastry chef’s day off?
I’m not a huge fan of Baked Alaska because I try to avoid ice cream (stupid lactose intolerance!), so I ordered the Carnival Melting Chocolate Cake with no ice cream (as I always order it, much to my waiter’s confusion haha) When my dessert arrived, it had the ice cream included, which isn’t a big deal because it is self-contained in its own ramekin, and DH doesn’t mind taking one for the team and eating it on his own so we don’t waste the food.
Just as I was about to start eating, our wait staff came over with a cake and to sing Happy Birthday to me! My birthday is not until the week after the cruise, but that was nice of them to acknowledge it on the last night. I just wish I had known because I did not need two heavy chocolate desserts at the same time and I wouldn’t have ordered the WCMC! The birthday cake was more of a fudgey mouse than a cake, and it was really good, so we ended up taking it back to the cabin to snack on later tonight. Luckily this plate was small enough to fit in our fridge!
After a quick stop at the cabin to drop off the cake, we went up to the Encore! Theatre for the Lip Sync Battle main event. Apparently they had multiple lip sync competitions that lead up to this event throughout the week, but I have no idea when or where those occurred because I never saw it! Haha We didn’t spent much time out by the Lido pool, so I have a hunch they did some events out there. This was the only show in the theatre tonight and it was at 7:30pm, so it’s a good thing we had a speedy wait staff in the MDR or we would have missed it.
The show is modeled after the Lip Sync Battle TV show on Paramount Network. They had two contestants and each performed two lip sync songs, the second of which included dancers from the production shows. The contestants get to dress up in crazy costumes and they really got into it.
Here is Gary explaining the rules, while one of the guys from the entertainment team displays the winner’s belt.
The two contestants were called on stage so Gary could introduce them
I forgot to write down which songs they sang, but I have a feeling they are heavily coached by the singers and dancers on board because the songs were all big crowd pleasers that everyone was familiar with. They had a little intermission after each contestant finished their first song, and they invited up children from the kids club to sing and dance on stage. I think they had practiced with each age group and this was like their final recital. After that, the lip sync contestants returned for round two, and this was when they went all out.
The first lady did a good job of getting the crowd pumped up, and she really owned the stage.
The second contestant “sang” Tina Turner’s Proud Mary. This guy was incredible! He’s a recently retried police officer, but wow did he have some great dance moves! The whole crowd was laughing and cheering him on, and you could tell he was having such a fun time up on stage.
And then, this happened:
The dancers helped him strip off the black shirt and pants, and they put on that wig, and bam! Nothing like a macho guy dressed in drag to get the crowd on their feet!
There was no question as to who should win this battle, but Gary still gave us a few minutes to think it over while he performed a lip sync routine with the dancers to a medley of 80’s songs.
I think the assistant from the entertainment team also did a medley, maybe to 70’s songs? I don’t remember and I forgot to take a photo to jog my memory. Anyway, after that, they brought the two main contestants back on stage for the final judging. By a deafening round of applause, the guy was announced the winner!
The lady did try hard and she was a good sport about it, but that guy just won everyone over. They awarded him to winner’s belt…
The show lasted about 45 minutes, but when it ended, there was a big gap in the activities schedule. Kudos Strings was performing in the lobby, but they were just about to finish their set, and the only other two options were country music with Machine Company or country music with the BlackJack Duo. Hey, wait a minute! I know what we can do now… I need to redeem my past guest coupon for a free cocktail! Carnival thought I would forget to use it, but I’ll prove them wrong! The coupon says it is good for a drink up to $9 in value, but I must say that is quite challenging because nearly every cocktail on the ship costs more than that, even if it’s just by a few cents. I stopped by the piano bar because it was empty since Zack didn’t start his set yet, and that meant the bartenders were sitting around just waiting for someone to order a drink. I asked the bartender if I could use the coupon towards a drink that costs more than $9 and I would just pay the difference, and he said that was fine. I looked through the menu and decided to order the Music, Sweet Music, with Bacardi Rum, Malibu Coconut Rum, Disaronno Amaretto, pineapple juice and orange juice.
When the bartender handed me the bill, it came out to zero dollars. I am not sure if he did something special to make that happen, or if the coupon really does work on more expensive drinks, but either way, I was happy. I would have paid the 50 cents (plus tip) difference, but I guess that was not necessary.
Just something to keep in mind for people sailing on cruises out of New Orleans… Once you re-enter the Mississippi River, they do start charging tax again. I asked about that at guest services and they told me that I would need to pay tax on this drink if I ordered it after we re-entered US water space, and he estimated that to be around 10pm tonight. I made sure to get my drink much earlier than that at about 8:30pm, just to be safe, but that means these “free” drink coupons for New Orleans-based cruises are extremely limited on the hours when the drink really will be free!
Cocktail in hand, we went over to The Song lounge to listen to BlackJack Duo. Neither of us really listens to country music, but there was nothing else to do at this time and we wanted to stay close to the Burgundy Lounge for the 9:30pm comedy show, so since this was right next door, it just made sense. The duo were pretty good, and there were two or three couples dancing on the small dance floor, so it made for an entertaining way to pass the time, even if we didn’t know any of the songs!
At 9:15pm, we went next door to get seats for the comedy show. Tonight’s adult show was with the forth comedian on our sailing, Caroline Picard. She is from the south, so I think she is a good fit for this cruise ship. She did a whole set about her experiences traveling the country as a comedian, and she had the whole room laughing. I especially enjoyed the part about her time in a blizzard in Michigan when all of the locals were unphased and came out to see her show despite the weather.
When that ended, we popped back into the piano bar for a few last songs with Zack. It wasn’t very crowded in there tonight, so maybe people were back in their cabins packing their luggage and going to sleep early?
We were both getting hungry again around 11pm, so we went upstairs to the deli for a late night snack. I ordered the meatball sandwich again, and it was just as good as when I had it for lunch yesterday!
We sat at a table by the windows, and it was so weird to see lights outside! We must have already entered the Mississippi River so we were seeing lights from the little towns and buildings along the shore, but that was so rare as I was used to seeing nothing but darkness on that last night of the cruise when returning to ports in Florida. On our way back to the cabin, we noticed that the casino was still open and there were lots of people taking advantage of it being legal to gamble on the Mississippi River. We got back to the cabin around 11:30pm and called it a night, knowing that the debarkation announcements would start bright an early tomorrow morning and we wanted to get a good night’s sleep before that!
Step Tracker Daily Total: 10,110 steps; 4.12 miles; 27 flights of stairs
Dana's Destination Diary 