Getting Aboard, A Seasick Sea Day and Cruise Critics Meeting

Getting Settled

Wisconsin from the restaurant

We went up to the Italian restaurant to eat and I wasn't impressed - the Caesar salad was just glopped full of mayo.

Lynde eating sphagetti

Lynde went to the spa and made an appointment for tomorrow to have her nails done, and I went and asked where we were to eat. We are to eat in the Sunrise restaurant which means we have to go up an elevator and down an elevator to get to it.

Atrium elevator

So I asked for early dining in the Sunset restaurant which is right here by the room. I also went by the excursion desk and picked up our tickets. And found that they had rescheduled the Snuba so it conflicted with the Segway tour that Lynde was taking. When she got back to the room she went and got it changed. When I got back to the room there were two ladies in wheelchairs trying to get into the room opposite ours.

From the door looking at our beds

Bed with plastic cover to put a suitcase on

I logged onto the internet with my computer, but I am unable to use my cell phone and Lynde can't seem to use her iPad either. She did call before we left the port. So if Jaclyne wants to get in touch with her mother, she needs to email.

Selfie

They would not say when the lifeboat drill was. And when they had it, they took all of us impaired people into a room so we didn't have to go out on deck. But when we went out to see us sail away at 5 they were still loading the ship.

Ferry dock from the ship

Hospital Point (Mile Marker 0 for the ICW

Coast Guard boat

Lynde on deck

Navy helicopter

Loading provisions

Fork lifts on the dock

Nauticus

Removing the boarding ramp

Sunset over Norfolk

Reflections in the glass of the new terminal 2016

We finally went inside at 5:40. We still didn't have our luggage. We were hungry (at least I was) so I we didn't wait for the sail away which probably happened about 6 and tried to get to the Sunrise dining hall. But even when we got on the correct deck, we couldn't get there because there was a private party in the Limehouse Lounge. We did see our luggage as we were going to dinner. We ate with two ladies from NC - mother and daughter. Lynde and both of them had the shrimp cocktail and I had the

Strawberry "Bisque"

which was kind of a strawberry yogurt thing. Not what I think of as bisque. Then the mother had sweet and sour shrimp and the other three of us had the

Roasted chicken

Our chicken had very dark skin and I thought that the skin part of it was tasty but I thought the breast meat was a little dry. I didn't think much of herbed stuffing - it didn't seem to actually be made of bread. For dessert I had

Apple pie a la mode

and Lynde had the melting chocolate cake. She said it was good. I'll have to have that sometime. We came back to the room and unpacked and charged the scooter which took a long time to charge.

Desk with the scooter charging

Lynde tried to send an email with her iPad but couldn't and I couldn't get guest services to answer the phone at all. We tried to plug in a power strip (which we found under the bed) with the plug with two round pins and it blew the circuit breakers and all the lights went off (except the TV and the charger for the scooter). We had to get them to come and reset it. When I tried to plug something into those plugs I got sparks, so I am afraid to try anymore.

European plug

Sitting on my bed

We just have the one power strip and the two US plugs to use.

Bed

Thermostat

We had a handicapped accessible bathroom

Sink and Towels

Shower seat

While we have a refrigerator (and I booked the room based on a survey I found which listed the rooms that had them)

My cranberry juice in the refrigerator

we have only four drawers and one of the drawers is taken up by a completely unnecessary hair dryer.

Functional closet - hangers are locked to the bar

One of the hanging closets was taken up with life preservers and had no hangers (I put the dirty clothes bag in there)

Closet with no hangers

Three tall shelves reflected in the door mirror - instead of drawers (one out of sight at the top)

and the little night stands have no drawers - just a cubby hole.

My bedside table

Totally inadequate for two. And this room can be for four people

What we don't have is an ice bucket. Maybe because we have a refrigerator. When I asked for an ice bucket, I got a big plastic bucket with no lid filled with ice cubes (?).

Lynde went out to smoke a cigarette and read her book

Swan Towel animal

but it was a little chilly. So she's in bed. And I'll try to sign on again. I can't figure out how to access my account on board. The Carnival website says one device at a time, but it appears that once I logged on with the computer, that it is permanently logged on and I cannot log off to use another device.

Lynde wants to sleep with the TV on which is OK with me, but I'm not too happy with her choice of music. Carnival has both a bow and stern camera and the deck is lighted at night so the stern camera always has something on it.

TV tuned to the stern camera

Sea Day - October 29

Lynde had an appointment at 9 to have her nails done so we got up at 7:30. I did the belt and suspenders thing and asked for a wake-up call and also set the alarm. Both worked. Lynde slept so well she didn't want to get up. We went up to breakfast.

Movie screen

Pool before breakfast

I got what I thought was Eggs Benedict but it had salmon instead of ham.

Breakfast

Didn't care much for the salmon. I got grits and a square of French toast. The fried potatoes were cold.
I discovered that the Blue Cantina has ranchos hueveros in the morning but it was too late because I'd already eaten.

Huevos rancheros sign

When Lynde went up to have her nails done, I went back through the pool area - it was a little rough and they had drained the pool and were scrubbing the bottom. But by this afternoon things were in full swing around the pool.

Drained pool with workers

Before we went to breakfast we went for an explanation of how I could log the computer off and she could log her iPad on. Also they said I could check my bill at one of the kiosks. So I did that this morning. Boy those kiosks are the PITS. The touch screens require a hammer touch to work, and sometimes even then it just sits there. But I did find that we each got a $10 credit for less taxes I think, and that I had the $100 stock owning credit. After that I went back to the room and tried logging the computer off and using the phone. I was worried that Bob had a problem getting home, but he answered the phone so I knew he had gotten there. He couldn't hear me too well so we didn't talk long.

Atrium reflected

We went to lunch and we have to take these big plates - there is a counter that I can push the plate along, but I can't easily reach the food on the back plates and of course I can't see the labels because if I am on the scooter, they are way over my head.

Menu

They had a mac and cheese spring roll!!!

Mac and cheese spring roll?

Whoever heard of such a thing. I got the soup which was called Caribbean hot pot - wasn't spicy and had okra in it

Lunch

Lunch dessert

I thought they had bread pudding (even though that is a HAL (Holland American) thing, but it turned out to be a Napoleon which Lynde tried but didn't like. She really liked the Key Lime pie and ate two pieces.

I logged off the computer and she was able to log on and Skype and talk to Jaclyne and reassure herself that all was well at home - Timmy had paid the cable bill and he was feeling better and had gone back to work.

We did get early dining in the Sunset restaurant. Lynde had made an appointment to have a seaweed wrap, but tonight is formal night and the seaweed wrap wouldn't be done until 6. So she switched to have it tomorrow.

Cruise Critics meeting

At the Cruise Critics meeting this afternoon, the hotel manager told me that
-a) it was not carnival's policy to tell guests that they couldn't bring plastic aboard - that if I had been able to persuade the lady to let me dump the water out it would be Ok to bring the empty bottle

Juice bar and coffee at the meeting

-b) We aren't supposed to have power strips in the room (so I have hidden it)
-c) They don't do the ice buckets anymore. But several people have told me that they got ice buckets when they asked. Probably gold or platnium members. My card is red - Lynde's is blue for a first time cruiser.

Getting ready to go to dinner, the ship was rocking and rolling a bit. There was a northwest wind of about 35 mph (the TV said Beaufort scale 8), Lynde got a shower and used one of the bathrobes but when she got dressed, she threw up as we were going to dinner.

They have us at a table for four, but there was no one else there. Not sure if there will be someone there tomorrow night or not. Lot of tables were empty.

Dinner table

It was lobster night, so we both had the

Shrimp cocktail

(which was good, if small) and the lobster.

Then for dessert Lynde tried a chocolate hazelnut cake which was dark chocolate done very fancy with slabs of chocolate on the top and a chocolate ribbon,

Malted Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

and in case she didn't like it (which she didn't because she doesn't like dark chocolate) she had a creme brulee, which she did like

Creme brulee

I had

Coffee Cream Cake

Carnival did their usual thing at dinner with the waiters dancing and everyone waving their napkins

Dancing and napkin waving

Dancing waiters

Afterward we went out on deck for her to smoke a cigarette. It was so windy that they had those doors closed to that side of the deck. It was not cold although it was windy and Lynde said she could see the whitecaps in the distance. The ship was throwing up big waves of wake (we were near the bow). A couple came out - he was dressed in black with a really nice black hat. They complimented Lynde on her shoes - the straps were silver but the heel was clear acrylic.

Towel animal

We came in and she called home via Skype (after I logged off the computer) and she was immediately sick again. I was started to get a headache myself. So when she finished her call and then went out tosit on deck again I set the computer to upload the photos of Glouscester Courthouse, and plugged in the scooter and shut my eyes. The Florida game was on the TV, but I have no idea who won.

I came to and unplugged the scooter, but I left the computer uploading photos all night. They charge for the whole trip a flat fee so it does not matter how many minutes i use.