Sidebar: I have decided that I am not going to edit the posts I make. If I find out something different or change my mind about something I’ve said, or, most likely, soften my attitude about something I’ve opined on, I will simply mention it in the next post. For example, if I find out that Carnival is the only cruise line for me, I’m not going to go back and remove my less than positive thoughts from yesterday’s posts. If my perceptions appear to change, it’s because they do. As always, you’ll get me, unedited.
Let me start with last night’s sleep. There is simply no sleep as good as inside cabin sleep and the sleep in our little standalone cabin is as good as it gets. It’s quiet as a tomb, we set the thermostat on freezing (and I kept turning it down if it somehow (😉) got turned up during the night, and we hunkered down on the best mattresses and under the softest, coziest linens imaginable and slept and slept. We needed it. During the two previous nights, we had loud Harleys driving up and down the Seawall right outside our hotel room until 3am. We were exhausted.
We also moved clocks back an hour last night. And even though I forgot to shut off the alarm on my iPhone that I had set for 6am yesterday, my Apple Watch told me I got over ten hours of sleep. It’s hard to beat that as an attitude adjuster.
G immediately bounced out of the room. He wanted to explore this ship without hordes of people (good luck with that) but I organized my few unpacked items a little more until 8am when the spa and thermal suite opened for the day. My room key gets me in, and there is even a back door from our corridor right into the hall outside the thermal suite so I don’t have to cut through the main spa lobby.
The thermal suite is amazing. The showers in the locker room are massive, the rain showers in the thermal suite work perfectly, and, in addition to the thalassotherapy pool (smaller and not as fancy as the one in The Enclave), there is an aromatherapy steam room that actually works, a regular steam room and a red light sauna. Between all those toys and the heated loungers (and my iPhone and ear buds) I spent nearly three hours in the thermal suite. It was relaxing, it was peaceful, it was quiet.
G, meanwhile, had found Shaq’s Big Chicken for breakfast on Deck 16 aft where they were featuring chicken biscuits with bacon or sausage for breakfast and this guy was in heaven. He really could live on fast food at home, and probably would if it weren’t for me (and still he’s healthy enough to run up mountains. There is simply no justice in this world). At some point he sent me a chat that we were joining two other couples for dinner tonight at one of the, well, I guess Princess would call it a casual dining restaurant called Chibang (first visit free, additional visits $8).
So I was spending hours in the spa with my noise cancelling ear buds screwed into my ears while he was out and about picking up dinner invites. This is us in a nutshell. Vive la difference!
I do miss the Princess Medallion for its Find My Husband capability, but the chat feature on the Carnival Hub works quite well, and it provides sounds, pop up and badge notifications on my iPhone and Apple Watch. As long as we are consistent about posting our whereabouts when we move from one place to another, we’re coping very well.
I got cleaned up and made it to the Pacific Dining Room for what they call the Sea Day brunch. It’s really not much more than what Princesses offers every day for breakfast, and less than what Princess offers for dining room lunch. The Pacific Dining Room, though lighter with windows overlooking the back of the ship, still lacks table cloths on the tables. Service is friendly but the ambience is basic, with dirty dish stations in full view. In fact, it reminded me exactly of a Denny’s. Exactly.
The view from my table
G caught up with me in there. A nice thing about Carnival is electronic queueing for tables. You request a table online using the app, and when the table is ready, the app notifies you and you have ten minutes to get to the restaurant, where you’re immediately seated. I sent G my table number once I was seated and he was directed to my table. It is far preferable to anything Princess offers, and though there are still minor lines outside restaurants, they move quickly as people get seated.
We spent the afternoon exploring the ship a bit more. We have quickly learned that to move from the ship front to back or vice versa, it’s best to use a deck with passenger cabins. So we frequently walk from where our cabin is on Deck 5 forward to the mid ship or aft elevators and then go up from there. The passenger deck corridors are wide and bright, with plenty of room for passing steward carts (which are smaller than those on Princess).
We met our new friends for dinner in Chibang at 5:30pm. Though service was friendly and efficient and our dinner companions were a lot of fun, I would put the food on par with Panda Express. In fact, I’ve yet to find any food that compares favorably with Princess.
The app provides notifications about meal reservations and even table numbers.
We spent the evening with our friends, going to Rio Carnival in Center Stage, and what a show that was. An hour of Latin music and a Carnival parade with gorgeous costumes and aerialists and dancing musicians. This show had it all. It also made me long for the time I lived in Miami and also being at Carnaval in Rio with Sheila. Fabulous musical and dance entertainment in that part of the world!
But we weren’t done yet. We then went to the 9:45pm performance of production show Dear Future Husband, and it was cute. Lots of great, contemporary songs loosely strung together with a weak plot line. I can see it especially appealing to young people and newlyweds.
And by then it was bedtime. Luckily our cabin is only a two minute walk from the Jubilee Theater, because this ship is huge. I still haven’t made it to the buffet, which is on the opposite end and high on the ship, for the same reason. That’s my goal for tomorrow.
Day 2 in the Carnival Jubilee: much improved. Between you and me, I doubt it changed at all. We are simply learning the Carnival way of cruising. And we got some sleep.
Life is good :)