bethfelk

Well we have made it out of the terminal and are sitting curbside as of 8:55 AM. The port operations part of debark was smooth but it was a mess on Carnivals end. They had multiple lines blocking and crisscossing each other, blocking guest services (not that we needed it), blocking the stairs etc. No one really knew what to do and staff were not very clear about it either. Not sure if Deck 3 is the only option for the Long Beach gangway or what but I think it would work much better or Deck 5 or even 4 where people could stand in a straighter and less circuitous line. They were also calling numbers way too fast in my opinion before they had enough space for all the people. And we did debark with our own luggage and we had supposedly selected 9:10 but that seemed to have no bearing bc they were calling all self-carry from the very beginning. Not that bad overall still but handled worse than many other debarks we’ve done

We are sitting in dining room breakfast now. Debark morning always comes too soon but I am kinda ready to get off this one tbh. We just examined our bill and between the two of us in 3 days we had 67 drinks so I think we got good use of the cheers package lol. Although a fair number of those were water, coffee, hot tea, and soda but that is a value of the package too I think

Well so far I am extremely unimpressed with the “St Patrick’s Party.” Two songs thus far have both Bruno Mars?? I want my damn Irish music lol.

We did get some green beer (gluten free cider for me) which I am really excited about. I expected it to be something pre mixed that I couldn’t drink, but it’s actually pretty neat how they are doing it, they just put the green coloring in the bottom of the glass and you can choose it with any beer you want.

Update so after breakfast I kinda just chilled in the room bc I was exhausted and hungover from a long two nights lol. I am feeling a lot better now tho and gonna enjoy the parties tonight bc I love Irish and shanty music but will take it slower for sure. I had a great time meeting people last night tho and lots of fun at the piano bar.

Good morning everyone. Another late night but I made it to dining room breakfast to get my preorder. My sister is still sleeping so I am solo rn

One of the annoying parts of cruising with my sister is that we constantly get mistaken for a lesbian couple (especially by photographers who are always putting us in the most ridiculous poses lol). I am realizing, as we are changing into our coordinating rainbow checked outfits for formal night, that we don’t do much to combat the illusion 😂

The dirty Shirley is supposed to be more red lol but the bar was running out of grenadine and this was the last of the bottle

Hanging by the aft pool now. I got some gluten free pizza that was AWESOME and surprisingly fast. Weird how the presumably same batter was so bad as pancakes but so good as pizza crust. Also having a pirate punch. Unfortunately none of carnivals fruity rum drinks are as good as the princess paradise punch imo

Right now we got some coffee from Java Blue and are waiting to be let in for Cat and the Hat breakfast

Well sorry for the lack of updates last night, guess we were having too much fun😂. After dinner we went to alchemy where we made some new friends and then we were also in the pub, lobby bar, and night club at some points. I am a really big fan of the Island Old Fashioned. And I think Meo Ming (sp?) at alchemy will be our man this cruise.

Carnival melting chocolate cake, one gluten free and one regular

We are at dinner now. Dark and stormy for me and something sweet for my sister? For appetizer I had some kind of roll (I forgot the name, I ordered on the phone) and my sister had a salad. All is good now! And also I put picture, I got some me gluten free bread. Crumbly bu

We have got our cabin and we have a very interesting layout. Never seen one like this before. Picture taken from my twin bed and across diagonally is another twin bed. Weird but cool

We have migrated to the pub. Thirsty Frog red and a beachcomber. And we found our first duck!

And a gluten free Guys Burger! The bun looks questionable so I may be switching to bunless for the future which is fine, but I wanna give a huge shoutout to Prajit from India for taking it super seriously and hand delivering it to me. Awesome first gf interaction

Drink #1! Had to start with a fun ship. I think this is basically the same thing as paradise punch on princess which is one of my faves.

On board at 11:00 exactly. Super efficient. And unlike Galveston don’t have to wait for the package to start. So let’s get this party started my friends!

Through security and waiting for boarding to start at 10:23. This is our first cruise out of Long Beach and so far it is kicking Galveston’s ass in terms of port efficiency

Update we arrived to the port at 10:07

On our way to the port now. ETA of around 10:15 I think, our arrival time is 11:00 bc we expected traffic to be worse but hopefully we can get in earlier. No stress tho, today is only good vibes. We have the cruise playlist playing of Jimmy Buffet and Beach Boys 👍🏻

Happy cruise day everyone!! I am so excited bc after what an ordeal my travel was it felt like this might not happen but now it is here. Starting the morning with French press coffee and my usual breakfast of a gluten free bagel with cream cheese. I have celiac also so gluten free food will be a major focus in this review. I’m sure 3 days won’t be enough to get a great feel but I am excited to see Carnival’s new GF MDR menus

About 4 hours on the main train (Heartland flyer) but then it took another 2 hours of a TRE, a DART train, and DART bus to get to the airport

Update I have made it to my sisters! We are catching up and enjoying some whiskey. Excited to try some new whiskies tomorrow!

Had some surprisingly good airport food for dinner and on the plane now. Finishing up boarding and seems like we will be on time