Mitsugirly takes great PRIDE in bringing her Spring Break extreme review
Day 3: Sea Day
So on to Day 2-Monday and a sea day.
I have to say that this is the first time that we have ever left on a Sunday and it completely has my mind mixed up...it feels like a Sunday today.
I woke up at 8am. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was the hard bed...and I mean HARD. I don't think I have had such an uncomfortable bed on a cruise before. Then again, it could have just been the excitement as well (but the bed was still hard).
I stepped out on the balcony and.....burrrr, it's still cold. Not my idea of a Caribbean vacation yet! I need some heat to warm this cold blood.
I had heard so many good things about eating the brunch at the MDR and knew I had to try it. So time to get the family up and get moving.
We headed to Normandie for our first sit down meal of the cruise.
Daddy was being a little goofy...which means he had his first cup of coffee at this point.
Sakari followed his lead (and I sat back and acted as if I was forced to eat with these people I didn't know prior to the cruise and it's all the staffs fault for making me share a table)
I had also read on here that a "must try" is the huevos rancheros and I decided it was a must have.
This meal did not disappoint. It was so yummy and I'm so glad I decided to try it. Sakari had her favorite...pancakes
Daddy had a steak and eggs...with french fries??? I thought that was a little strange.
After our meal, I just knew I had to try the caramel cheesecake. I had seen pictures of it on here and I was going to make sure I got some. Now normally I like just plain cheesecake, but this would have to do. It was yummy.
Here's the bowl of "goodies"...I had to try a little of all of them by the time it was done and over with. Yes, I needed to be rolled out of the dining room once I was finished.
So, if you get the chance, definitely go to the sea day brunch at the MDR. It's so delish!! It's Mitsugirly approved. :D
We hung out on deck for awhile letting our stomachs settle...that was a lot of food, but I'm not complaining.
See this is the reason I never book a balcony...I always forget I have one and end up hanging out on the deck most of the time.
We headed to the shops to see where we might be able to blow some of our money at during the cruise and once Sakari discovered that she wasn't going to get to blow her Easter bunny money in there, she was ready to hang out at the kids club for awhile and off she went.
We headed to the next best place to donate our hard earned funds to...the casino. Now I love me some slots and the casino, but as much as I play (every day) while on a cruise, I really don't go to the casino here at home. I know weird. We had a new casino built 2-3 years ago about 10 minutes away from us and I have been 3 times now with Kendra. I don't know. It's not the same as being on a cruise and playing I guess.
Once we were done donating to a bad cause, we headed back to the room to relax a little before picking up the munchkin for lunch.
I took a sdmike photo:
I called housekeeping to report the problem with our heat not working. It was still freezing in our room, even after setting the temp as far as it could go on heat last night prior to going to bed. It was still blowing out very cold air and I couldn't even find a way to turn it off either. We froze all night...so hard AND frozen bed=bad night.
Our room steward told us that we were not the only one's in this hall that complained of only very cold a/c in their cabin and no heat, so they were aware of it and they were calling maintenance to correct the problem.
This would be one of the times I actually DID prop my door open. Sailing down we were on the starboard side (well of course we were on the starboard side sailing back too...not like we magically switched rooms), but it was the side with the sun...thank goodness. I found that propping my door open with the sun beaming in actually warmed the room up more than what it was. It was starting to get a little more comfortable. I could feel my fingers and toes again.
When it was time, we picked up Sakari from the kids club and she insisted that it was pool time. Now I was still freezing, but I had also walked in the covered pool area several times that morning and it felt pretty good...so why not.
We put our bathing suits on and headed to the main pool.
Sakari was eager to jump in and mommy.....yikes! HALT!! Who swims in this stuff??? It's freezing cold water! NOPE!! Not gonna do it....I just can't. I'm already cold and this would only make it worse. There will be no polar bear plunge challenge for me today.
I decided it was going to be a sit-on-the-side type of pool day for me. I made Sakari get her puddle jumper on after a huge long fight about it and a threatening of "we'll just go back to the room and not swim at all" battle...mommy won. Although she's a pretty good swimmer at this point, I still do not trust the factors that go into her swimming on a cruise ship...the salt water (which throws her into a state of shock when she first jumps in), the movement of the ship and water, and especially all the kids around her that don't know her and pay no attention to what they are doing when jumping in and swimming. I read all the sad stories on here and in the news about the cruise ship drownings and I am overly protective when it comes to any water and her. I will not be a statistic. She constantly reminds me "I'm a big girl. I can swim!" But better safe than sorry in situations like this.
For most of the day, it was only kids that were brave enough to venture into the freezing pool.
Mommy and daddy sat on the side bench that is located in the water on the side and cringed any time a kid ran by and splashed water. I think my heart stopped a beat a few times, but at least my feet were getting use to the water at this point.
Sakari had found a little friend to play with in the pool. They would jump into the pool and swim across... rinse and repeat. At one point Sakari's foot slipped off the edge of the pool...1 leg only and while she was just standing there. She did the splits. It was not a pretty site. She hit the edge of the pool in not a very nice area. She bolted out a blood curdling scream and the panic attack was on. I did everything to get her to calm down and we wrapped her up in the towel and whisk her away to the room where I would examine her. She had every reason to be crying. It was not just a "hit" in the area, she was actually bleeding. :( I felt so bad. We rested for awhile, she calmed down and I monitored her until she felt she was able to get up and start moving around.
We all started complaining of this hunger issue and Sakari decided she was good to go and we could eat. She was walking slowly and oddly, but she was walking. One last "check" of her situation and we were off to try the Blue Iguana Cantina that everyone was talking about.
I had me a burrito with rice and chicken and the toppings.
I was a little disappointed to see that the only options for the tortilla was either wheat or a "hotter" version (and I'm not a "spicy" type of person)...so was forced to take the wheat one.
It was "ok" I guess. It definitely wasn't anything to write home about in my opinion. Maybe I'm just use to my Chipotle and this was definitely no Chipotle. I missed my white rice with lime in it. I would decide today that the Blue Iguana burritos were just not my cup of tea.
Sakari's version after picking at it and her little hands not being able to hold it together too good.
When we were done, we all just kinda hung out for hours. I honestly don't remember what all we did at that point, but I'm pretty sure it didn't involve much as far as activity because of Sakari.
Later in the day, Sakari decided she was able to go back to the kids club and wanted to spend time with her new friends. I told her to have them call me if she started hurting more or bleeding. It was about that time that the kids would be going to their kids dinner and I ask her if she wanted to try that. (This is one of the things I was unaware of on our last Carnival cruise). She agreed (since she was probably a little hungry after that not-so-good burrito) and off she went with them.
We decided to go to the MDR to have dinner ourselves. I wanted to try it out. Now normally I'm a buffet type of girl. I just really enjoy buffets and like to "see" the food prior to picking it out to see if it looks good and if it is...I can always go back for more. However, our last cruise, we weren't enjoying the buffet as much as before and started going to the MDR for more meals than we usually do and thought it was a nice added touch. This time I vowed to try the MDR more than normal...we'll see how that goes.
We got in line only to find out once we got inside that we needed to go up to the 3rd floor for anytime dining. Oops. I had no clue. I thought it was strange that I was only able to locate 1 MDR when roaming around. So bottom floor (2nd deck) is scheduled dining, top floor (3rd deck) is my time dining. Ok, got it. Up we went are were seated.
We had a lovely time dining and the food was excellent.
These stuffed mushrooms are so yummy!! Like I could have made a meal out of them and been perfectly happy.
I had to have the lobster and shrimp. It did not disappoint.
Hubbys meal
Now he had ask for some A1 sauce. The waiter took awhile, but after the 2nd time of asking...he finally brought us some. When the hubby opened it...it was EMPTY! Um, ok. Once again, we had to locate the waiter and tell him we needed another and why. They spent quite some time trying to locate a bottle for him. By the time they brought it, and my hubby ask if they ran to the store to buy it, I had finished my meal...and most of the bread on the table, and the only thing remaining on his plate was his meat, which was a tad bit cold by then.
The waiter tried to make it up by offering ME another lobster tail. I declined and told him I was full. He ask again several times before we left. My answer did not change. I still wonder why he never ask the hubby for a new plate of HOT meat? I mean I was pleased with my meal.
The photographer came around to take our pictures.
Then we headed out to check out the sunset.
We headed back to that evil place to donate some more money. A guy came around and punched holes in our cards and attached a springy plastic thingy-ma-bob to it and then attached it to us. This would be an item that I would twirl in my fingers and play with for the rest of the cruise. Thanks Carnival for my new found entertainment piece.
Our TA had given us lanyards to wear for the cruise (which is something I had never done before). I always take a small purse that goes around the head and shoulder to store my cards and programs in. So, I thought I would try the lanyard this time around. It was awkward to me. I guess because I have more things to carry with me and still had to wear my purse as well. Wearing 2 things around got annoying, so I'm glad this guy provided me with a different option to keep track of my card. It must have brought me luck. I spent $13 and won $68. Not a big winning, but better than giving a donation tonight.
We were sitting at the slot machine and a lady from the bar came over and said my name....um, yes? She informed me that the kids club had called and I needed to go pick up Sakari. Oh boy...
Ok.. now HOW DID THEY KNOW WHERE I WAS? On NCL, when you drop your child off, you have to report where you are going to be during that time. If you move, you best be calling them and letting them know where you are moving too or you're getting your hands smacked, reprimanded and a lecture! With Carnival, they never once ask where I was going to be at. How did they find me? How did they know? Do the cards being inserted into the slots keep track of your location in a system somehow? I would really like to know? What if I would have been at a show or swimming? How would they find me? I'm still blown away by this.
We went to pick Sakari up and they were not at Camp Carnival?? Um ok. We went next door and they said they were upstairs on the 10th floor at Club o2. Up we went. Once we got up there, they were lined up and getting ready to leave. They ask that we meet them downstairs at Camp Carnival. Geesh. Back down we went were we met them and picked Sakari up. She was complaining of pain and said she went to the restroom and there was dried blood. Up to the room for another inspection and change of clothes.
It was time for a show we wanted to check out and we were totally at Sakari's mercy at this point. She agreed that she would be fine to go and off we went.
It was an 80's show and man how I love the 80's music. The dancing was great...the singing...not so great I thought. They didn't really sound anything like the real singers, but we still enjoyed the show and a trip down memory lane for me.
After the show we walked around and made our way to the atrium where this "sound" was coming from. I thought they might have decided to have karaoke in the atrium tonight and a 10 year old was on the mic. When we got there, it was the actual entertainment. YIKES! This girl was horrid...seriously horrid in my book. Her voice was like a child, she sung off key, she screamed...I just stood there in amazement and wondered how in the world she landed this job. Did she even audition?
Sakari wanted to go back to the kids club (in my amazement) so once again, we told her to have them call us if she began feeling bad again. Back to donate more money and meet up with Kendra. They did ask me if I was going to have her stay for the after hours party (which I had planned), but told them I would check back in on her prior to that time.
We decided once we returned that it was probably best to go ahead and pick her up and not let her stay. I didn't want her to over-work herself at this point. We picked her up at 9:45pm and headed to the buffet since I knew the kids were probably hungry at this point.
The only thing open was the pizza and deli again. Kendra got the pizza...which ended up being burnt and had tons of bubbles in it. She was less than excited about it as you can see. She said it was not that good.
Hubby got a sandwich from the deli.
I ended up with a hot dog with sauerkraut and it was pretty darn good if I say so myself.
We headed to the Fun shops for awhile and picked up Sakari a playset of the cruise ship, people, car and so on in it and also bought our ship ornament that she collects and also found a whale tail ornament as well. Mommy was trying to make her feel better in any way that I could. Lot's of quiet play time with her new toys and cuddling should do the trick. Oh, and hubby picked up a new set of contact holders since his was still MIA.
When we arrived back in the room, this was our towel animal for the night.
We relaxed and off to bed we went.