Boarding Carnival Venezia

By Glenn 

Today we left our Brooklyn apartment for Manhattan using a Lyft at 9:40. We arrived at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal at about 10:50. 

 Some heavy traffic in midtown and congestion at the port. Once we checked our luggage with the porter, we breezed through the check-in process and we were onboard the Carnival Venezia by 11:20. We were able to go to our cabin and drop our carry-on luggage.

Then we headed to the highest decks where Angie started her filming. This ship was previously in the Costa family, primarily an Italian cruise line that is part of Carnival Corporation, and was deployed in 2019. It's in the Vista class and was originally built for the Asia market. It wasn't too successful in that region and of course soon afterwards the pandemic came along. It was last year that Carnival Cruise Lines, also a company that is part of Carnival Corporation, took ownership of this ship. It got rebranded as a Carnival ship but still retains a lot of the Italian architecture from Costa. Carnival's marketing tagline for this ship is "FUN - Italian Style". If you're interested in the ship tour, make sure you're following Angie's FB page Trips with Angie 

When on a FUN Italian cruise ship, it seems appropriate to have your first dinner at the Italian specialty restaurant Il Viaggio. We started with some freshly baked bread: Pesto bread and a garlic roll. The pesto bread was very tasty. The garlic roll needed some more butter or garlic - or something.  

At this restaurant you pay a cover charge of $42/person and can order a starter, a soup or salad, one main and a dessert. A four course meal. Started with the Caesar salad and the Panzarotti. 

 The Caesar salad had crispy romaine and a decent dressing. I asked for and received anchovies. The Panzarotti were exactly as described. Crispy pillows of slightly sweet fried dough filled with sausage and pesto. The dough did remind me of the fried dough that you can get at a carnival - which may be ironic. 

Next course was orzo soup and octopus salad.

 The soup had such great flavor. The octopus was well cooked and came on top of some freshly sliced vegetables. It was missing a vinegary dressing to tie it altogether. There were some briney capers that added some contrast, but not enough. A good dish, that could have been great.  

The Main courses were two types of pasta: Ziti with short rib and Pappardelle with pork Ragu. Both had well cooked al dente pasta and such flavorful sauces.  

The standout desert was certainly the Mile High Gelato Pie!! Such creamy and flavorful mocha, vanilla and caramel gelato. 

We got one final send-off from the chef of some crostoli. These were slightly sweet and lemony, thin and crispy, dusted with powdered sugar. A perfect partner with a shot of Limoncello!! 

 Overall a very good meal.  

After dinner we listen to the Music and Magic duo. They played some crowd favorites including "Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls" and "Love Shack". After that, we decided to head to the cabin. Tomorrow is our first sea day.