Day 4: Tuesday

I woke up and it was really dark in the room. No, I mean REALLY dark! I couldn't tell if it was 2 AM or 8 AM. Having no window makes it really hard to tell. I fumbled around the edge of the bed, it was so close to the wall, and made it to the desk to check the time on my cell phone. Know what I discovered? When you're spending a day "at sea" there's no phone signal so your cell's clock is way off. It said it was 3:30 in the afternoon, or something like that. I then had to turn on the bathroom light and wedge the door to get a little light, without it swinging wide open (still rough seas), and without waking up Tim in case it was still the middle of the night. With that little bit of light, I fumbled over to my purse, dug out my tablet without service, to see that it was almost 6 AM. I quietly gathered my things together, and took a shower to let Tim sleep a bit longer before I turned on all the lights. When I was done, he was mostly awake, he turned on the TV, and went to the two channels with views of the pool deck and off the front of the boat. It was light out, sunny, and windy - but it looked warm. It was weird...you could watch a big wave approaching the boat, then feel it as it came under us (our room was at the front of the boat). It was like watching a 3D movie of a roller coaster and you can feel your stomach drop just as the movie shows your car going down the big hill. It was exactly like that. Tim got up, got dressed, and we headed out to the breakfast buffet.

The breakfast buffet was where you ate. They didn't have a sit-down, planned breakfast or lunch on this ship. The buffet had eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, french toast or pancakes, waffles, yogurt, chocolate milk, juice, coffee, but instead of fruit cups or mixed fruit, it was just an unappealing, non-organic apple or banana. Non-organic ones have almost no nutrition and no flavor, so I skipped that fruit. Back in the room I had some organic fruit "rope" snacks with zero ingredients except fruit, fruit juice, and pectin. That would be better. I also don't eat pork, so no bacon or sausage. Eggs work just fine. I was really missing some good green veggies though. I eat tons of them every day, and with vacation and traveling, I hadn't really had much in about 4 days. It was a little chilly since it was the open deck of the ship, but the view was still pretty, the sun was warm, and if you could keep out of the wind, it wasn't bad at all.

After breakfast, Tim's shoulder had been really bothering him so he wanted to soak in the hot tub. I couldn't imagine how cold getting OUT would be, so I declined. I decided instead to lie in a sun deck chair near the hot tub. He met a guy in there that was a little redneck, but pleasant and friendly. Although it was pretty cold when the sun went behind a cloud, sunning myself is one of my favorite things, so I just waited it out, happy that we had nowhere to be again. We spent a few hours there, then got changed and went to look for something to do, since we'd stay at sea all day without getting off at any ports.
We went to the Violin Bar area again where a woman was hosting a trivia game to pass the time. The first one was a Name that Song game, we got about 3/4 of them. Then they did a second guess the song game with Movie Themes. I think we got about 12 or 13 of those. The ones we missed were movies we don't generally pay money to see, like Blades of Glory, Dumb & Dumber, The Hangover, etc. The winners got a tacky little plastic black and gold colored trophy shaped like the ship on top of a V. We had fun and it killed an hour.

After that we went to the lunch buffet, which was the same as yesterday's lunch buffet. We figured out we'd get the same foods at that location. There was a place you could get pizza and ice cream 24/7 but we never did manage to get over to it. We later heard it wasn't good pizza anyway, so nothing lost there. We hurried through lunch a bit because we got an invitation to the ship's Art Auction. We had never been to one, and I was curious how they work, what to look for with an artist that makes some of his/her work worth more or less, etc. The gallery was a mix of different things. Nothing that really caught my eye. They offered free champagne and a free piece of artwork to everyone who went, and we had to fill the day aboard, so why not? I had no idea it was going to be a two hour event. It was pretty slow, although they tried hard to make it fun. It seemed to take all afternoon, but we'd survived this long, might as well wait it out and get the free art. They spoke a bit about 4 or 5 artists, told their stories, explained what was unusual about each piece of art compared to their other works, and offered "free, no interest financing for any amount with up to two years to pay it back - we PAY YOU to take art home." Yeah, not interested in that. If we don't have the cash to buy it, we don't buy it. The only debt we're interested in having is a mortgage when we buy our next (and hopefully last) permanent home. Anyway, the interesting highlight was getting to see Peter Max's artwork. He inspired the Yellow Submarine art of the Beatles, although he wasn't the actual artist. His works go for anywhere from $5000 to over $100,000. It was still nice to see some of his work. My favorite was a close up of the statue of liberty he did. We did get a piece of unframed art to take home, the champagne wasn't bad, and it was a good learning experience.
We had about two hours to kill after the art auction and before getting ready for dinner, so we just wandered the ship, looked out at the ocean, walked through some of the on board shops, and went back to our room. When we went to dinner the second night, it was supposed to be a dressy evening, not casual. I was looking forward to seeing our table friends again, and having the luxury of ordering whatever I wanted without the prices being a decision-making factor. I started the evening with the Cream of Mushroom soup. At least it was similar to a vegetable, right? Not sure what the theme was for the night. We also ordered the flatbread for the table. That's something I need to make at home. It was about 6" wide and 10" long, super thin and crispy, topped with sauteed onions, mushrooms, and some kind of butter or oil, topped with cheese. It was really good and looked really easy to make. I just never think about rolls and breads - too close to baking I guess. I cook but I do NOT bake. One's an art, one's a science. I'll stick to cooking. I think Tim's special appetizer was calamari, we're not sure. They served Calamari every night after that, so not sure if that was it or not. Anyway, for the entree, I wasn't in the mood for heavy pasta, nor seafood. When our Chinese friends found out I grew up near Boston and didn't eat "the best lobster there is", they were shocked. Sorry, but I had a bad experience with lobster, I've tried it a dozen times over the years, made every way possible, dipping it in everything you can think of, I just don't like it. Anyway...I ordered the lamb shank over roasted cauliflower with a Greek Salad on the side. Finally veggies! Well, the lamb tasted more like an old sheep than a young lamb. It tasted nothing like the lamb you make at home. It was missing that slight aftertaste that makes lamb so good. Tons of fat on it too. My roasted cauliflower was, I kid you not, the very end florets, about the size of a quarter, and I think there were only two of them in the big, deep bowl with my massive lamb shank. Disappointing when you hear cruise food is like a 4 star restaurant, but being Carnival, and a cheap cruise, it was okay. Maybe 3 out of 5 stars. Hey, at least I didn't have to cook or do dishes, right? Now the Greek Salad, THAT I loved! It was fresh, crisp, lots of kalamata olives, feta cheese, not too much dressing. That was worth waiting for. It probably sounds strange hearing someone so excited about a salad, but I really do love vegetables. For dessert, I had no interest in chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, pumpkin pie, or a dessert with artificial sweeteners, so I just got a scoop of Butter Pecan and a scoop of Vanilla ice cream. They're very small scoops, so no guilt there. They're about the size, if not smaller, than the palette cleansing sorbet you get between courses at weddings. The conversation was good, we all got to know each other a little better, and we had a good time.

After dinner we stopped back by the nearby Violin Bar. There were about 10 places with things going on, but this one seemed to fit our likes the best (and the nightclubs were closed if there wasn't a specific event happening). We again listened to the Sea Ninjas. They were doing a 70s tribute, in full 70's costumes. They were a lot of fun. During the break, we got to talk to a few of them. Their 18 or 19 year old bass player is a musical genius at such a young age. They were really enjoying their first cruise gig too. I asked if they had a Facebook page and they said not yet, it was a good idea. I couldn't believe they hadn't thought of it.
We ended the night watching a "family friendly" comedian named Dougie Doug (or Doug E. Doug), but he's not the same guy from Cool Runnings by the same name. This guy was funny. We watched the show with Christopher and Kerry from dinner. It was nice to hear some comedy that isn't all f-bombs, body parts, and centering around women's cycles. Just for the record...If a joke isn't funny to start with, adding f-bombs all throughout the joke does NOT make it magically funny. Just sayin'

After our long day at sea, we went back to our room, a little later than last night, and went to bed excited to see Catalina Island in the morning.