jam19872016

Continued. Remembering the great view I got in Malaga at the top of the mountain I set out to see how far I could ascend before it got too steep for me.

We found a large shopping center for my mom and we wandered around that for a little while. Again, it wasn't really a souvenir shop but she still found some items to purchase. The store employees were less than friendly, and did not speak English. Fair enough, I don't speak French, it was just unexpected as usually between my broken language skills, and their broken English, we can usually converse. But all I got was angry yelling in French. I know that's the stereotype of the French behavior towards Americans, but that was not at all true in Paris when I spend three days there last year. Still, she found some items she liked and she was happy so I was happy. I got her back to the pick up spot and set off to explore the city on my own. There was a giant ferris wheel nearby but it was not running at the moment. Perhaps at night? This is my version of shopping, seeing the beautiful streets and buildings of these old European cities.

The line moved significantly once a boat pulled up. The trouble was the wait time between shuttles. It seemed like there were only two running in the morning based on the wait time and the fact that we did not pass any other boats during our transit. In the afternoon, however, we saw many so I am not sure if they hired more when they saw how slow things were going or some didn't show up until later but things definitely improved later in the day. It was 10:43 when I took this picture, so just under an hour from start to finish arriving in Toulon, but about 30 minutes of that was sitting waiting for the shuttle to fill and the travel over. There were lots of little shops for my mom to peak into right along the area we were dropped off. There were also a lot of pretty boats for me to look at. I'm not sure I knew what any of the interesting buildings were when I took pictures of them, and I certainly don't recall at this point. A local square with lots of merchants set up selling their wares, although this was more for the locals and not souvenir stands Walking

Got a little downtime since my mom wants to do a late dinner tonight. So let's do some catching up on port days My memory is already getting fuzzy but I will do the best I can to accurately articulate my time in port. My first port of call with the QE was a stop in Toulon, France. We were docked, but there was nothing in the immediate area so Cunard provided a water shuttle to take us into the city proper. This was at 9:45, nearly two hours after arriving in port, and the line strechted almost back to the ship. The lady in charge of the line was quite aggressive about keeping the line tight and didn't seem to understand when people started arguing with her that they can't keep moving forward if the people ahead were not moving forward. She just kept repeating to move forward. The beautiful QE.

I don't recall seeing them out but saw a number of people with them, but perhaps they were supplied upon request or were kept from a room service delivery. I don't believe Carnival even supplies them any longer on request, but will carry your plates for you on request for those with mobility issues.

Andy said we will be cruising the straights of Gibraltar around 8 tonight. Not sure if we will be able to see anything but I may try to take in the sights. On the way in they said visibility was good, but it was around 1AM and no way I was staying up for that for a "maybe".

Internet was excellent on QE with the newly installed Starlink. Expensive, but it worked 99% of the time. So far I'd say this ship is still at above 95% availability, and so far its just been late at night (when the crew are sharing the bandwidth) that it seems to be slow until whatever just happened now. Seems to be back to normal.

Platinum get a certain number of free bags of laundry based on the length of the sailing. Diamond get unlimited free laundry. Turn around time is slow due to the large number of high level pax on this sailing, but at least we don't have to fight the mob in the one available laundry room. Ooops, see if it was already answered. I'm a little slow 🙂

Yes, exactly this. Plus the elimination of trays is Carnival's version of fat shaming. Seems to backfire as many just pile it on higher and then waste food. I don't believe in wasting food and take only what I can eat and very seldom won't eat something just because I don't like it. I was reminded today of the dish I wasted last week. A couple passing by the sushi place and the man asks hey want some fish bait? She was not amused by his comment, but it reminded me of the time I was served ACTUAL fish bait. Bleh. Thanks for following along! Plenty of further culinary adventures ahead 🙂

Yes it did leave me more satsified. It also left me more likely to eat when I wasn't hungry just so that I would not miss out. Carnival sort of hits a sweet spot in that I don't really eat out of FOMO. The problem, though, is that they use fattier sauces I think to mask cheaper ingredients. That is also probably contributing to the gloopy look. Unlike on Cunard, the desserts are not preplated. Makes it much easier to carry multiple desserts. I could have handed her two separate plates but would have made it harder to carry back and many times they will ask if it is okay to put them together so that you can chose to keep them seperated. I've never been one to mind, in fact when I eat from a buffet, I pretty much take a bite of one item and another item at the same time. Food's mingling don't phase me at all. They also don't usually give such generous portions of the cake where they have to stack like that. As you noted, they are "homemade" and once they run out they run out. So they tend to ration the portions to last through meal service. As it was later in the meal time, and many were in port, they felt a little more comfortable giving real slices instead of the thin slices that tend to fall apart during plating.

Wi-Fi is struggling. If I disappear assume the Wi-Fi got too frustrating to use.

Casino already 70% full. Number of machines turned on 0% I was wrong about the window in the sauna being fixed. I need new peepers because I didn't notice it yesterday. I was also mistaken about the laundry room on 6. It is open, however there are no card readers on any of the machines. So the whole ship who isn't platinum or diamond has one laundry room available. If anybody needs their laundry done I will send it out for you for the low, low price of just $5!

Off to the sauna. There was a giant crack in the window in there but it has been fixed. I wonder how they decided which to correct as there are still a number of cracked windows, including the steakhouse which I would have thought would be a high priority.

Now I'm the one who doesn't get the reference 😆. I'll presume you mean there is a sanitary reason the pool is closed but I think it is water related. There are some plumbing issues onboard that seem worse than before the dry dock. I suspect it was drained due to weather and they can't get it refilled, as the hot tubs have been inexplicably drained from the start of the cruise. This is all speculation of course.

Would also explain the subtle digs about ordering seconds, to keep costs down without sacrificing quality. Carnival limits you to two and then charges $5. Cunard just fat shames you 🤣.

True and the cakes are ALWAYS plated poorly. They cut very thin slices and they tend to fall apart. Or they are stacked onto each other like mine above. I'll admit, I don't really pay attention to plating so I'm not sure if it's unique to this cruise, this ship, or this brand. I do know the end result is better On Carnival than Royal, NCL, MSC, and Celebrity (😲 😱). IMHO of course.

That Spanish tax is killing me. Oddly I was not charged yesterday even though we were still I'm Soanish waters. Cut the music off, I hope I don't invite people who need to make a phone call again.

The presentation leaves something to be desired. Not everything is a winner but for me where Carnival excels is their variety. Most lines I've sailed on you pretty much have the dining room and the buffet for included food. That's fine if the food was good like Cunard, but despite what the celebrity folks will have you believe, the food is pretty average across all the lines I've sailed with, Cunard excluded. I have no idea how Cunard is given such a generous food budget 😆. Maybe it's because nobody eats?

The ziti.

Fish and chips. Potato salad. Baked ziti with sausages Jalapeño cheddar mash Carrot cake Tiramisu cheesecake. Average lunch, excellent desserts. I tend to stay away from their buffet (except the cakes) its not their strong suit. It was surprisingly good on the way over so I've been gravitating towards it but I think I'm going to back off it. Except the cakes. Love love love the cakes.

In at attempt to raise my presentation score, here are the lunch time cakes before the buffet opened. This is one of the few spots Carnival outshines Cunard. As nice as the desserts were in the dining room, the buffet sorely lacked any good desserts. Not even a nice bread pudding. Unfortunately these delicious cakes are only at lunch, dinner is back to the flavorless cakes and gelatinous mystery desserts.

Back onboard after my stroll through town. Malaga is a very pretty place and I really enjoyed my two days here. I've hit the buffet for an extra gloopy helping of lunch 😋

As I've got to get my steps in either way, I'm going to venture out as the view will be better in town than on the jogging track.

It was basically a salad sandwich 😆 I had some Sriracha strategically hidden on the back of plate for the fries.

Celebrity Infinity is in port with us today.