Day 35: Sailing, takes me away

As I write this I am sitting on my balcony, in a bathrobe and sunglasses. The coastline of New Brunswick is directly ahead of us as we slowly make our way towards it. We are in the Bay of Fundy now so it’s pretty calm. There’s a low level fog along the coastline, but as it is a beautiful, cloudless, sunny day, I expect that the fog will burn off quickly. Our excursion doesn’t leave until 12:30, so we have the morning to relax and take out time getting off the ship.

It’s been a nice cruise so far. I think Scott is probably enjoying himself more than he expected to. I got him to sit in the piano bar with me for a while on the first night, he didn’t last long, but the effort was there and appreciated. Last night, we went to the production show “Living in America” and he said, “It wasn’t bad for what it what it was, high praise indeed. Then the deal was that he would go back to the cabin and nap and I would go to the piano bar for a couple of hours, then we would go to the midnight comedy show, so this was an historic evening. The first time I’ve been on a cruise ship and haven’t spent the entire evening from open to close in the piano bar. It was a struggle let me tell you. But the comedian, Happy Cole was very funny.

This may be the first cruise that I gain weight on. More due to inactivity, than the food. We’ve been pretty lazy so far, breaking my rule of only doing steps. But I suppose my saving grace is that the food has been a MAJOR disappointment. I kept raving about the food in the dining room to Scott, but alas, the quality I recall from my previous 4 Carnival Cruises just has not been there. The first night, Scott’s strip steak and those of the couple sharing our table were tough as leather. I had the sweet and sour shrimp and, while better, the shrimp was kind of mushy. Last night, was the worst though. Scott’s spaghetti carbonara was bone dry, my duck was indifferently cooked and cold, by the time I received it, I ate less than half. The prime rib that one of our companions ordered was 70% fat. However her husband enjoyed his lobster tail and shrimp. The maitre d’ chose last night to come around and ask how dinner was, and trying to be nice, we said, “Well, John enjoyed his.” He asked us what is wrong. The sad part was that while he appeared concerned, he didn’t seem all that surprised. He promised that he would make sure that the meals at least arrived hot.

I doubt it’s a coincidence that the major fall in quality coincides with Carnival’s decisions to drop the staggered seating times for the two dining rooms. Instead of 5:45, 6.8 and 8:30, there are only two seatings, 6 and 8 and I’m sure the kitchen is getting overwhelmed. Also, not coincidentally, they changed the menus recently (but not the dessert menu). I feel really badly for Scott. Plus, this is the first time I’ve really noticed lines at the Lido deck restaurant. And I’m talking really long lines that wrap around the sides.

On the plus side, the pastrami at the deli is still surprisingly good. Desserts however remain fairly indifferent.

Embarkation literally took no time at all. I was prepared of a wait, so I planned for us to arrive at the pier at noon. Figuring if the hour and a half I had heard reported was true, we would be able to go straight to our cabin when we boarded. However, we arrived at noon and we were on the ship at 12:30. Lines were short and efficient, and the embarkation staff was cheerful and friendly.

Fortunately the crew remain the biggest asset that Carnival has. They’ve been unfailingly friendly and helpful, without exception.

Oh and loving my balcony. It’s going to be hard to go back to a simple ocean view or inside when I sail alone, and I’m not sure that Scott will develop the love for cruising that I have so there will probably be many more solo cruises in my future.

And no, there hasn't been any piano riding this trip. I've enjoyed Peter Rossetti very much and we've had some interesting conversations after the bar closed, but while I've been having a tough time getting a handle on him, I do get the vibe that he's not a girl on the piano kind of entertainer. And that's okay. There's always the Bloggers' Cruise in February.