April 2014 cruise - day 2 and 3

April 2014 day two 

We started the day with a great breakfast at the hotel. I had an egg white omelet and Glenn got the continental breakfast. We took a nice walk on the beac and then relaxed in the lounge on the roof. We all headed to the port around 1130 am. Check in was a breeze. 

We got a great table at the Sunset bar on the back deck and enjoyed a Buffet lunch. Glenn and I upgraded to the premium package right away and a couple other people joined us. 

After lunch, we grabbed a group of chairs and set up camp in a hot tub on the main deck. The weather was perfect and sunny.  We really enjoyed the band. 

We headed inside to get ready for dinner and the muster drill. The muster drill was at 745 pm so after that we got our Martinis and headed to dinner. 

Our group was set up at a table for 12 and a table for 6. The first night we had eight of us. Our waiters are Robert and Sanjaya (like the guy from American Idol). The sommelier Rhoel. The food was excellent! I was so excited to see you can get escargot every night. The best dish of the night was the jerk chicken. The Thai beef spring roll and cumin carrot salad were also very good. The sommelier quickly figured out that just leaving the bottle was the most efficient way to handle all our wine orders. At one point we had 6  bottles on the table: Bordeaux, Cab, Malbec, Shiraz, Pinot noir and merlot. It was a lot of fun. 

After dinner we went back to the martini bar for dessert Martinis. Then Beth, Ron, Glenn and I headed up to the disco. We closed it down at 2 am. We had a blast dancing!! We tried to keep the party going but everything was shut down by then. 

Day 3 - Sea day 

We started the day at the eggs Benedict bar on the buffet where we ran into Marisa and Bob. We spent most of the morning inside. We played trivia, then has our cappuccinos at the coffee bar. We also attended a lecture in ship navigation from the captain.

 It was fascinating. He talked about how the ship is able to maneuver. The ship can safely list up to 45 degrees, but since that is not very comfortable, they take all the turns slow so that the maximum list is one degree. He was asked why there are not more female captains. He guessed it was because all captains must start on cargo ships and that can be a very difficult environment for women. 

After the  lecture, we stayed for the Iron Chef competition with some of the chefs from the Summit. It was pretty fun. I asked the chef how much control he had over the menu. He answered that he has no control over the sit down restaurants as those are decided by corporate, but he does have a lot of control over the Buffet menu. Then we headed to lunch in the dining room. It was also delicious. We had several good laughs about the pork knuckle sandwich on the menu. 

After lunch we grabbed some seats by the pool and enjoyed the sunny weather. We attempted afternoon trivia and actually got second place. The host was very rude and abrasive so I don't think we will be joining his games in the future. We enjoyed some tea sandwiches and sushi on the back deck before heading back to get ready for dinner. It was formal night so we took some group pictures with everyone in their fancy outfits. 

Dinner again was very good. The highlights were the salmon tartare, the corn soup, and the beef tornadoes. The duck and lamb chops also got rave reviews. We went to the show after dinner. It was a series of dance numbers highlighting the different decades. After seeing the elaborate sets and shows on the Carnival Breeze in December - this was a bit of a let down. The aerialists were very impressive and the highlight of the show. We decided to call it am early night. 

Overall - a fantastic day!