TravelBluebird

I did not see a sideway interior; I’ll see what I can find out. I’m not going to lie, the regular interior looked very tight to me—both sides of King bed with narrow walkway, only 2 closets not 3, etc. As for the casino, very large! Unfortunately for me also very smoky—smoking and non smoking areas are just across a walkway. There is also a totally non-smoking annex but I couldn’t find a machine I liked there, and it was just not as much fun for me, so I just bring my asthma inhaler down with me and take a claritin and off I go. Luckily have not had a heavy smoker sit down next to me even once so far, so that is good! My fav machine is on the smoking side. C’est la vie! Here is one photo I pulled from the video so you could see the interior bed; sorry it is not a bit clearer.

Next on my list for today is to try the Chinese Buffet for lunch that is at the Seafood Shack! I only found out about this yesterday; I will report back. Russ had the Cuban Mixto at the Deli a bit ago; it is panini style and he really liked it. He is off with his book. Plans for this evening are early dinner, Deal or No Deal, Italian Fiesta party//festival on the Lido Deck (I believe this will also be held for the voyages out of New York) and then our Live YT broadcast. We are going to have a lazy afternoon. Temp has risen to about 57 degrees.

We are about to pass 30 nautical miles from where the Titanic lays. Evidently this is as close as we can get due to restrictions around where she lays. See, I told everyone that it was actually aliens that took her down…..LOL, wrong forum! 😂 OK we pass her in 1 minute, here is the map and then I’m heading outside for a minute of silence.

So if anyone is super bored, has questions for us that we haven’t answered yet, or just wants to say hello as we sail the North Atlantic, Russ and I are attempting a LIVE YouTube broadcast from the ship tonight, at 8:30pm EST and 5:30pm PST (that is 10:30pm ship time, at least tonight). That link should work but if it doesn’t for some reason, we will come here and post the link when the time comes. z

Our current views from the ship! Sun is trying to burn off the fog finally.

This morning I woke up to the blasts of the fog horns. In my semi-awake state, I thought I was hearing whales. This makes more sense when I tell you that people have seen whales from the ship the last two days! I am not one of those lucky people. So we have had quite a patch of fog this morning. It’s 10:33 and we just blasted the fog horn again. It’s also very chilly out—53 F—which made me feel like a very smart person for pre-buying my Venezia sweatshirt for when the cold weather hit. This weather seems appropriate as sometime, I believe within the next 2 hours, we will go right over where the Titanic lays. The captain says he will announce this on the loudspeaker. Not sure if that is delayed a bit as, due to the fog, we are going 11 knots not 12. Ran into a gal who was green from the boat motion last night. She was just venturing out to get something to eat for the first time all day. I always feel bad for people who get motion sick and wonder why I am impervious to boat motion.

Thank you! I took video of the cabin crawl, with permission from the room guests. I can try to pull some stills out of that if there is any particular room you’d like to see, or I can just post some of the more interesting rooms—like the one that had the standard bathroom AND then also had a mini one with a dressing table and a nice, deep tub! I think that was an ocean view. We also saw an Ocean Suite, a balcony, and an interior. Laundry was $15 a bag “special” . You can really stuff those bags and get quite a bit of laundry done. We did laundry and no complaints; I was quite happy with the service.

Today was raining most of the day and a little colder. Plus a little more rock to the seas, though it wasn’t that bad. For breakfast we had the Blue Ig——I mean Tomodoro—- made-to-order breakfast burrito. If you’ve never done this I highly recommend—you tell the servers exactly what you want in it—ham or sausage, scrambled eggs or mexican scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheese, which sauce. Choice of wheat or jalapeño tortilla. Yum. We decided to have Bonsai Sushi for lunch to mix things up a bit. Always good and a decent value. We got the sushi boat which is $14 per person—miso soup, salad 2 rolls (4 pieces each a person) and 3 nigiri sushi. Plus we got some Sam Adams N/A beers and shared a yummy green tea cupcake for desert. Took a cabin crawl and got to see lots of other room types. WOW to the ocean view room that was on the 1st deck SO close to the water! I could see that the waves were much bigger than I thought they were,

Thank you! I try! Got a little lazy here on these lazy relaxing sea days!

Ours supposition on the theater evacuation was correct—fire alarm trigger—nothing to worry about and show resumed. Dinner was again quite good—we are definitely fans of the Venezia MDR. We ate late—after 8pm with zero wait. The tables are close together but we enjoyed our dining. Ompanions last night, always a bonus. Photos and menu to follow—Hotels Operations Q and A is starting!

Thank you! Glad you are enjoying my LIVE! and videos. No lunchtime pasta bar. I have not yet been by the Seafood Shack at lunch—I will check that out!

A bit of excitement just now. we were in the theater for the Rock show when an emergency recording right in the middle of the show told us all to calmly evacuate the theater. which we did. no word on cause—perhaps the dry ice pillar effect or something else set off the smoke alarm? We have gone to dinner.

I failed to tell you about our Mexican-themed dinner last night. Excellent menu. We had the Queso Fundido and Inflatidas de Camarones, then for mains the Pollo Mole and the Chile Relleno. Both main dishes were outstanding; the appetizers were good but my Inflatidas (shrimp) were not hot enough. ALso had a shrimp cocktail for good measure. Just 4 shrimp on the small side but very tasty. The Coco Tres Leches for desert was also great.

Now relaxing out in the Terrazza Carnivale area in the back of the ship. Drinking some Faux-jitos. Dinner in the MDR tonight then we are going to go to the Venezia Rock Band Live in Concert (they are REALLY good; this is the band that has been playing in the Gondola Lounge most evenings. Then some comedy, maybe a bar or two. Perhaps a venture back into the Casino. Sea Days are so stressful. 😂

There are rude, selfish, inconsiderate people playing music out loud on the cabana net to mine, they re even snapping fingers and singing along. I came out to my cabana to hear the ocean and relax. So to those people who are like “there is no privacy for cabanas you are not wrong, although someone I suppose could do the same on a balcony next to my balcony room.

Yes, most definitely! Similar set up. I actually like it better that Guy’s Pig and Anchor, but if you are strictly into barbecue, you would not feel the same. Also not open for dinner, only for lunch.

Our view yesterday! Similar, and beautiful, today! Seas yesterday had little white caps; good stabilizers on the ship, back of ship did a little “bump” occasionally but that didn’t bother me. We have nice slightly rolling seas today; should make for a great nap. Bed report: On the hard side; great for DH not great for me. Pillows are firm and big, and we were able to get extra. If you like soft and squishy pillows i don’t know if they are available, I can find out.

Backtracking to yesterday! Started the morning with our usual Macchiattos; I needed a small bite so today we went up to the Lido Buffet for some fruit and hash browns; we were there around 9am; no line, much bigger line at 10am. The hash browns were HOT. Yay! And the cantaloupe sweet. I then disappeared into my room, finally, to create my latest video. For those of you who are interested in that process, briefly: I’m doing walking tours while on the ship because those are the easiest to edit. I’ll do a short intro of myself in the room, and then for this one because of noise and music I don’t have a copyright to, I did a voice-over of the tour instead of using my narration while I taped. So I have to chase poor Russ out of the room since he has to be quiet. He likes the reading spots above the Lido Pool on 11 (I’ll grab some photos of that for you, and it will be in my next video tour as well) so he hid up there. While waiting for Godot — I mean, while waiting for my video to load—I went into my hammock and read a book. Heaven. Until it got too hot and I took my book into the stateroom. We mentioned our lunch at La Strada Grill in an earlier post (with food photos above) We went right after it opened at noon, and there was quite a line but it went quickly. It is a self-service buffet. We tried the following: Italian Meatball Hoagie (excellent!) Pork Porchetta sandwich (even better than the Meatball Hoagie; lots of flavors, see menu board below); Slow Cooked Chicken (chicken has ben uniformly delicious so far on this cruise), the Italian Sausage, Mac and Cheese (good, not great), Baked Beans (OK) and the Buttered corn (super fresh and YUM I need more).

When we left Sea Day Brunch at 12:30 there was still a huddle of people waiting for a table. Most were waiting about 1 hour although the app said 30 minutes or so. Sea Day Brunch was good. Not hot, but warm enough. I had the Huevos Rancheros (side of hash browns) and DH had a made-to-order omelette with mushrooms, cheddar cheese and ham, plus a side of Corned Beef Hash and bacon. We put our app reservation in at 10:30 and finished Brunch at 12:30, but its a sea day and we have nowhere to go! We also got our favorite ($$) vegan juices to start the meal. Not as good as on the Mardi Gras—my #2 didn’t have enough Tumeric (Pineapple, Ginger, Lime, Dates Tumeric) or Ginger or Lime…really tasted like a glass of pineapple juice (blech) and DH’s was better, the #1, Carrot, Orange, Lime and Cayenne, but again was quite bland. We will save that order for Mardi Gras and similar ships in the future.

We had a 1 hour wait for Sea Day Brunch table—app had said 30-40 minutes. We put in at beginning of Military Appreciation and saw the whole thing. Awaiting our food

I have the menu on that sea day brunch in Steak House and will post—we do it in 3 days The La Strada Grill menu is on a board and I will also post that—very very tasty! We are going to go back.

Hi everyone! Sorry to be not as active yesterday but the ship internet and I were having a battle over whether my latest video would load. I FINALLY won Here is the latest in my Walking Tour series, on Lido Deck 10:

Thank you for following! We are having the special steakhouse brunch on the 9th. The hot tubs always seem to have people in them but not crowded like a lido hot tub where you could use all the kids heads in the hot tub to walk straight across

I remember that! I have a couple from getting the Fun Ship drink the first day—just didn’t pack one

The Sea Days broke us—we just purchased the middle Internet package so we can sometimes both be on together. Marital harmony and all that. Duper Chill sea day. Really enjoyed the La Strada Grill for lunch—delicious and great variety! LING line at noon but went quickly.