Do You Believe in Magic... Sea Day #3

A Little Bit of Everything

Saturday, June 20. 2015 

Morning

Another typical morning came peaking through our window as the sun was rising and we were too. I had already reached the goal of running 6 miles at sea so I opted to not jog while Chris continued to push forward and jog 2 miles (He is so dedicated... I love that and wish I could do that too). Knowing that we are bringing the kids on a cruise in November we decided to pay the $5 fee to partake in the Green Eggs and Ham Dr. Seuss Character Breakfast. WOW... This was so cool and so much fun! The entire lower level of the Main Dining Room was decorated in Red and Blue with Cat in the Hat decorations everywhere. The menu featured Green Eggs and Ham, of course, and other food that had a Dr. Seuss themed base. Several of the Dr. Seuss characters came out and gave autographs and took pictures and it was tons of fun, even for this 32 year old. I know my kids and most kids less than 10 would have a BLAST! I loved every minute and I think it is well worth the $5/pp we paid to get in! Be sure to book this early as it does sell out! 

Words cannot describe the excitement I was feeling! 

The dessert bar! Every thing was extravagantly decorated and fit the theme very well!

Our table... LOVED it! 

More table and room decorations! 

A Cat in the Hat ice sculpture! Are you kidding me? 

Chris being silly with his bow-tie napkin.

My pancakes... they were the hat from the Cat in the Hat! So cool! 

The Cat in the Hat himself dancing around as we ate breakfast!

He even had time to pose for a picture!

An up close of the Dr. Seuss ice sculpture. 

Thing 1 and Thing 2... Gosh this was FUN! 

After meeting and greeting the Cat in the Hat we went to the FRIENDS trivia in the Piano Bar. If there ever was a trivia I could win.. .this was it! I was ready and Chris even started prepping me with questions as warm-ups before it started. Unfortunately, I scored 17/22 and and the winner scored 21/22 so I was not the champion. I felt like a complete failure. How could I not remember "Frank Jr. Jr." or the name of Joey's barker lounger? Oh well... It was fun! We then stayed for Scattergories which was fun with nearly 50 people playing! We didn't win this either but we had FUN!

We LOVE the Carnival Magic! Might be our new favorite ship! 

Then we went to the Serenity Deck to try to find some deck chairs but they were all taken so we searched for another 10-15 minutes before finally finding some in the shade, bonus, on deck 11. We sat and napped there for nearly 45 minutes before making our way to the pasta bar! Cucina del Captiano once again hit the spot and completely blew us away. Chris was even impressed this time. While this "make your own" pasta bar was complimentary for lunch it does cost $15 for adults and $5 for kids at night and we both agree it would be worth that! Great food, atmosphere and service!

Afternoon

Immediately following Cucina del Captiano we went down to the Lido for the Chocolate Extravaganza buffet. This was not my cup of tea at all as I do not really like chocolate but I loved the thrill of standing in line for an exotic orange/ mocho chocolate cheesecake (YUCK by the way). Chris enjoyed most of the offerings and once again the fruit carvings were incredible. A word to the wise... GET THERE EARLY as the line for these buffets were about 40-60 feet deep at 12:30, just 20 minutes after opening! 

Just some of the offerings on the Chocolate Extravaganza!

We wanted to spend some time just exploring and enjoying the ship so we once again just walked around and tried to take it all in. We also wanted to relax so we found some deck chairs in the shade to lounge around in! This was perfect and really hit the spot. 

Afterwards we found the "I'm not really hungry but I will eat anyway" line for the Oceanside BBQ we liked so much on Tuesday so we once again ate some luscious and delicious food. As previous stated there were 4,700 people on board and I never really felt that way or crowded at all... until it was time to eat and I had to stand in line. However, I did not feel this way at the food offerings on the Lanai on Deck 5. The Oceanside BBQ, Snadwich shop and create your own salad bar never had a line more than 5-10 people and the food was just as good if not better than that on the traditional Lido buffet! 

Some of the offerings on Lanai Deck 5... this is at the Taste Bar and is a sandwich shop!

We spent a while packing, everybody saw "awe", and some time on our balcony before we went to Tea Time. Once again, Tea Time was very impressive and we thoroughly enjoyed. It was a touch of class for Carnival and look for it on Sea Days at 3:00PM. 

Chris enjoying his favorite tea!

Just some of the goodies that were offered at afternoon tea time!
Check it out... Sea Days at 3:00PM! 

We spent the remaining time of the afternoon trying to take it easy and actually be on vacation. We even saw the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas traveling home from their course on the Caribbean. This reminded us of prior cruises we have observed other ships that ended up being futures cruises for us. While on the Carnival Conquest in 2013 and Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas in August of 2014 we saw the Carnival Magic of which we sailed in 2015 and while on the Navigator of the Seas in August 2014 we saw the Carnival Legend of which we will sail in June 2016 as we embark on the wonderful countryside in Alaska. This cruise we saw Royal Caribbean Independence of the Seas and Carnival Breeze. It will be interesting to see if either of these 2 will be future home away from home for us. My bet is on the Carnival Breeze solely because she comes to her new home port of Galveston in May 2016... I think we will be booking her for summer 2017! We are excited!

Deck Chair selfie! 

Evening 

We wanted to be sure to be in the Main Dining Room when it opened as we the knew the last night of the cruise is always one of the busiest as everyone wants one more amazing meal. We praised our waitstaff and gave them additional tips before watching their farewell performance. I love that Carnival has their waitstaff perform songs and dances for their guests and this performance was great and really made me smile, and perhaps cry as I knew the end of this glorious week was about to end.

Norbert and Minggus, our waitstaff, was AWESOME!
Some of the BEST MDR service we have ever had! 

The entire waitstaff singing for us "You're leaving our FUNSHIP"! 

The sun was going to set at 8:05PM so we had plenty of balcony time before we continued our last night tradition of watching the sunset. Unfortunately, the clouds and hazy fog made it difficult to watch the sun completely set on the horizon but we still love this tradition. If you are a new cruiser, especially, be sure to set aside time to watch the sunset at least once on your cruise! 

There was not a main headliner show or Farewell show, which was disappointing, but we were able to attend the Gender Showdown competition, watch the last of the Dive-in movie and enjoy a sing-along in the Piano Bar. The Dive-in movie was especially relaxing and nice and would be perfect for families. The movie being shown on this night was "Home" and while we only saw the last part of it, we really enjoyed it! 

We made our way to our room at the later part of the evening and did our final packing steps and spent some time on our balcony listening to the waves roll by as we looked at the gorgeous blue waters we were passing through. Tomorrow will be disembarkation day and looking back it has been a cruise for the memory and record books. 

Up Next... Disembarkation and Final Review 

God is good... ALL THE TIME!