Carnival Miracle 12/01/07 Review - The Good, The Great and the AWESOME...

[NCTribeFan]

Was the Orpheus bartender Ali by any chance? I thought that was what someone said a couple of weeks ago. Said he was excellent. Since the aft pool is an adult pool, I figured that would be THE place to hang out on sea days!

 

My Eggs B have varied a lot from day to day. But that bacon sure looks yummy!

 

Even I (at my advanced age of >50) had to laugh at all the oldsters in the DR at breakfast ordering their stewed prunes. :D

[Drew B]

Lex had the smoked salmon (didnt try it cuz I dont like smoked salmon - I think Im the only Jew ever that doesnt - but Lex said it was good) as an appetizer

 

Nope. I'm one of those bad smoked-salmon-hating Jews, too. Yuck!!!

 

Thanks for your awesome review!

[TallyRockChick]

The nerve...I actually had to do some work! Im gonna post this last post and then finish it up either tonight or tomorrow morning when I get up.

 

NCT - I think the guy you are talking about is not a bartender but one of the people that go around and get you drinks. I remember someone telling me about him. He ALWAYS has the top sales. When other lido deck servers see him get on the ship they groan cuz they know he's a workhorse. He seriously was everywhere.

 

Anyhoo...

Tonight was the second formal night so we got our stuff together after the sunset and headed to the room to shower and change into our nice duds and then strolled on down to sushi.

This is a pic of me at the bottom of the stairs that was right where you eat sushi.

Since tomorrow was Belize and there is lots of jewerly shopping there there was a shop talk by Lance playing over and over again on the TV. We called Lance "Southern Belle". If you need me to explain that then let me know.

So after sushi we wanted to talk to him about possibly getting a watch for Lex and asked him about the different kinds and the prices and what not. We had also heard something about tendering from him so we wanted to ask him that too. After getting butted in line by some "geri's" we finally had our little chat and that was that. Then we strolled on over to dinner, but there was about 15 mins before dinner started so we went outside to check out the night sky. Lots of pretty stars. We also had a convo about how if you fell overboard you would so die if not from sharks but just from freaking out because you are just miles and miles from any land and who knows how many ships actually go thru that area. It was so dark....it was a scary thought. I grabbed onto the handrail a little tighter after that.

Heres us after that convo LOL

Then it was on in to dinner...the napkins were folded really cool today

We both had the lobster bisque...NO WHERE NEAR Nick and Nora's. It was good lobster bisque, but I wish we would have had it before we went to the supper club. Oh well, it was still lobster bisque. It had lots of meat shreds in it, but it was too similar to crab to tell a difference, but still good.

We also both got the crawfish etouffe. Another good dish, I just wish it was a little bit spicier. Ive visited NOLA quite a few times and I was wanting some of those flavors and it just didnt happen with this dish. Still good though

I had the Chateaubriand which was excellent. Very tender and moist and juicy. The sauce was very good too. The broccoli in that buttery dipping sauce was great and the potatoes were good too.

Lex had the half a roasted chicken and it was another good dish. The chicken was also moist and tender and had excellent flavor. The potatoes looked dried up and nasty though, I didnt try them...I dunno if Lex even ate them, and he eats anything.

[TallyRockChick]

ok so I lied...I'll finish the day and then complete the last 2 later on...

 

Tonight was another dancing and singing night. Heres sweet cheeks Maryono doing his thang

and Rodolfo too!

this guy cracked me up when I saw him

We both got the diet cheesecake for dessert which was awesome. Lex got another cappucino and I got tea again which you can see the empty pack in the pic

The lady at the table across the way was the birthday girl that day and they got her a cake. They were also served by our servers. They had some leftover champagne also from dinner that night so they gave both me and Lex a glass. It was quite tasty.

Tonight was the night of the Grand Gala Buffet. Rodolfo started to show us cool tricks with toothpicks where you have a design and you have to turn it into something else in 3 moves and things like that tonight. It was a lot of fun. Also showed us the one where you get an empty coke can from one glass to another without touching it. We were gonna get more but the Maitre D put a stop to that with an announcement and a whip crack that they had to start getting ready for the Gala Buffet.

We tried to stay awake to go to it, but we just couldnt do it. Plus tomorrow was Belize and we had to meet Yohany and the Cave-tubing.com crew at 8 and had to conive ourselves onto the first tender so we passed out and saved ourselves for tomorrow. But not before we got our next towel animal! An elephant!!!

 

 

ok guys...going home now. I'll finish it up either tonight or tomorrow!!! Hope you guys are still enjoying it.. If you have any questions about anything let me know!

 

Oh yeah and sorry I didnt get to the capers today. That will have to wait till Monday. They are here on my desk though, so I'll for sure do them then.

[asader83]

Brandy-

 

Again, excellent review. Don't worry about the Capers, I'll check them out next week. Still have a couple of more weeks to go until I leave for mine.

 

Enjoy your weekend!

Amy

[shargurl]

This has been THE BEST review I have ever read!

[sharonh1885]

Wow, it is hard to believe we were on the same ship, except for the geriatric thing. That was difficult to miss. I even got run over by a woman backing her scooter into the elevator :) Oh well, there were no problems finding deck chairs on deck, but God forbid if you didn't show up in the Phantom Lounge an hour early to reserve those unreservable spots. Those scooters/walkers were a real trip hazzard. I can totally see how we missed each other though; I was in the elevator and avoided the stairs, ate everywhere except the sushi bar, and avoided the sun, especially after the nasty burn received while snorkling in Belize. Darn that 50SPF Bullfrog! Been itching like crazy for days so I must certainly be getting ready to peel. Will post a review and pictures soon. I saw all the shows and loved them. I played some of the games and even won my ship on a stick. I won three jackpots in the slots $250, $500 and $1000 all on quarters and was a finalist in the first slot tournament so I got the t-shirt for my trouble too. I was late to the meet and greet and managed to meet Bruce and Marsha and a couple of others. I had some unpacking I wanted to get done first. I hated to come home and back to work. :(

[chitown cruisers]

Can't wait to hear your take on Yhony, Dennis and the guys from cavetube.com

 

 

We had a blast with about 50 people from our roll call.

[TallyRockChick]

Lets finish this sucker shall we??

 

First I must say... SHARON! I wanted to meet you real bad. Im sorry that we didnt get to meet up. Im glad you had a great time and Im JEALOUS that you won all that on the slots!! Those damn one arm bandits bend us over and took advantage of us. Sorry about your sunburn. We used the spray on Coppertone 50spf ultra waterproof and sweatproof and never had to reapply, even after the waterslide. I couldnt believe how tan I got while using 50spf.

 

Onward ho!

 

Day 7 - Belize

We woke up super early and got everything ready and headed up to breakfast. We ate the norm and then headed on down to the Phantom to try and go about getting on a tender. I read on here that people had to sneak on to tenders and that Carnival lets all their excursions off first and if you have a private booked excursion you are screwed. Knowing this, when we went in to the Phantom, I told the people giving out tender tickets that we were there with the cave tubing. I knew that Carnival had a cave tubing excursion so I figured as long as I left out the fact that it wasnt with Carnival I would be golden. We they couldnt find it on their list and so they asked me again what it was called and they checked again. Then they asked me the hated question..."do you have your excursion tickets?" Think fast Brandy, what do you say?? "Oh, no I forgot them in my room, I need to go get them before the tender. Can I just get a ticket??" "Well you need to go get your tickets because we cant find your excursions name". Ok Brandy, just come clean... "Oh well, were not booked thru Carnival" "OOOOHHHHHHHH, well thats why we couldnt find you on the list. Go talk to him and he'll help you out" and they point towards someone who I learned later was Big Sexy the Asst CD. This is the first time I had seen him or heard that name the whole cruise. Im not sure if its because I didnt do very many activities or what, but yeah, he was non-existant until then. So I go up to Big Sexy and before I can say anything he says "private booked excursion?" we said yes and he gave us a sticker with a 1 on it and told us to follow the people who are walking out right now. Thats it. Easy. All that worrying, coniving, lying and all it took was to talk to Big Sexy. No big deal, no sneaking at all. Now I felt bad for lying, but oh well, were getting on the first tender out of here and will be able to leave in enough time to get back to go shopping!

Belize has the second largest reef system only to Australia, which is why you have to tender at the port. All ships tender in Belize City. We hop aboard and were off towards shore.

me on the tender with my hard earned sticker on

decending upon Belize City

As we got off the tender boat we headed towards where Yhony told us to meet him. It was Terminal 1 at Fort St. (I think thats the name of it). At first we got kinda turned around and werent show which way to go but we figured it out and made our way down. For future reference when you get off the tender and your back is towards the water, you take a right and walk almost all the way to the end. You will see a sign that says Terminal #1. We walked thru the terminal and there were some sliding glass doors that had a security guard standing at it. As we walked up to the door, the guard opened the doors. When the doors opened we were hit in the face with music and smiling faces and in front of us was a board with names written on it, one of which was mine. Yhony was there to greet us and I gave him a smile and a "HOLLAAAAAAAAAAAAA" and he loved it. We went across the way and sat in an area to wait for the other people in the tour group to show. There were a total of I believe 5-6 families that were booked with us. Everyone that came thru had a cave-tubing.com shirt on and a smile on their face and they said hey.

Another couple walked in shortly after and Yhony came in a little later and said that we were gonna get on the bus and take a little tour of Belize while they filled up the tank with gas and waited for the rest of the group.

We loaded on the bus and met Timmy the driver who was dancing in his seat and Richard.

Richard told us a few things about Belize as Timmy drove us to the gas station. He showed us the casino and the local clubs and told us a lot about the town. Belize City reminded me of New Orleans and Richard told me why. Belize City used to be a french provance, and one of the languages there is Creole. Ahhh it makes sense now. Their first language is English, then Spanish, then Creole. The Creole is more of a slang and Richard said that if we hear them speaking in it, usually its not about us. Richard was great. He cracked me up the whole time. He really knew his stuff and had a great wit about him.

When we went to go fill up I saw across the street a great sight: SUBWAY!! Belize doesnt have McDont's! The closest one was 200 miles away in Mexico. Sweet salvation!

 

After the fill up we went back over to the terminal and scooped up the rest of the crowd. We were still missing one couple but Yhony waited behind for them and sent us on our way. Bernard, another Cave-tubing.com employee got on the bus as well. This was our team for the trip. Then we were off!

There were quite a few things that Richard told us this time around. Apparently Belize is very political and very expensive to live. Not to buy houses, houses are about as cheap as they are in Costa Rica, but gas was just as expensive as in Costa and food and groceries are crazy expensive. They blame this on the current Prime Minister. Most people in Belize hate him and there are all kinds of political signs all around the town. We also saw a couple of the 3 working stoplights in Belize. 4 stoplights, 3 work.

We passed by a cemetary on the way out of town and saw that they have tombs on top of the graves just like in NOLA but Richard said that the people are still buried in the ground. They are below sea level in Belize City so they dig till they hit water and then just build up on top however much more it takes to get to 6ft.

 

We hit the highway and started the long stretch to the caves. Richard told us all about what we were going to encounter and we were basically prepared for whatever was going to come our way. For a couple minutes I had that weird sinking feeling in my gut when I realized we were in the middle of no where and it was possible they were taking us to some sort of work camp to make us their slaves, but it went away. There were more of us then them and although Richard was a pretty big guy, I was certain that I could take Timmy and/or Bernard by myself.

[TallyRockChick]

Some of the scenery on the way

We came to find out that part of our group was doing the ATV tour as well as the cave tubing and we were going to drop them off at the ATV spot on the way and then they were going to meet us at the river. Yhony called Richard and asked him where we were because the other couple had shown up but we were too far away to turn around so Yhony had the people hop in his Lexus and he headed out towards us.

We pulled in to the ATV spot which was a huge tiki hut and we got ourselves a couple of Belize beers called Belikin. It was tasty and reminded me of Amberbock.

Yeah it was only 10:00..so??

The group that was supposed to do the ATV didnt want to do the ATV first because they liked our vibe and wanted to stay with our group and didnt want to seperate. So Richard asked us if we cared if we all went down the river and then went BACK to the ATV area and waited for them to do the ATV tour and then we could all go back.. We said as long as they were stocked with beer in that tiki hut then we were fine with it. So we all loaded on the bus and were all on our way to the caves.

[TallyRockChick]

Heres where the underwater camera came in. The pics are crappier but they still came out pretty good.

We had a little walk to get to the start point. We carried our tubes most of the way until we had to cross a part of the river and then the boys took all of our tubes. I coulda made it the rest of the way with my tube but they were holding like 4-5 tubes each, I couldnt imagine!

This is a view of where we started out

Me and Lex at the top of the hill getting ready to drop in.

I got to be at the head of our chain of tubes. We were in 2 rows and we all linked together our row by putting feet under armpits. Some people might be weirded out by that but I saw WHO CARES?? Well, Lex's feet were under my armpits, but I still wouldnt have cared if I had a strangers.

It was pretty funny too because Richard would bring us to the end of the ledge and put the tube in the water and would hold our arms and drop us butt first into the tube but some of the ladies didnt let go and Richard went in to the water a couple times. Funny!

And heres our chain building up and getting in the water.

The water was kinda chilly but once you were in it, it was fine...till you went under a drippy part in the cave and then it gave you a chill again. They dubbed me the screamer because every time I got splashed or dripped on I shreaked!

Thru the first cave and theres the light at the end

The 2 chains were linked together by us holding on to the tubes next to us. Im not really sure how it happened but in the first cave, one of the the people in my chain's tubes popped. Richard immediately acted and gave up his tube and he just swam and walked the rest of the way. I thought that was really great. Some of the way he would hold on to my feet and pull us along as he swam and kept us centered in the caves. They had forgotten our headlamps in the other bus but Timmy and Bernard both had big flashlights and those provided enough light. I actually liked it better without much light. What I DIDNT like was when they turned the lights off and splashed us all. They said "we TOLD YOU it was a fully wet tour!"

 

[chitown cruisers]

Some of the scenery on the way

.

I think they called this the sleeping man or sleeping Giant.........from right to left you can see his forehead, nose, chest, waist and then legs and feet.

[TallyRockChick]

This is when we split the lines up. Richard took the other line and Timmy and Bernard were in charge of our line.

Heres a pic of our line

theres Richard with the other group

The end of the road

We exited the river and made our way back to the bus. I decided against getting water shoes because I knew we were going to be hiking to get to the start of the river. I didnt really care if my shoes got ruined or anything because they were old, but for some reason the thought never crossed my mind to bring another set of clothes and shoes. So we got to walk around the rest of the day in wet sneakers. Just another mental note to tack up in the ol noggin there. If you go cave tubing, bring dry clothes and shoes for after you are done.

We made our way back to the tiki hut and enjoyed some more Belikins waited while the other half of the group rode their ATVs and got soooo muddy! One lady had mud in her mouth because she was laughing when her husband sprayed her with it. Oh yeah and the couple that Yhony had brought in his Lexus had basically their own tour and were finished right after us and met up with us at the tiki hut.

On the way back to town, Richard drove and Timmy was our entertainment. His brother Jimmy was the tour guide for the couple who were behind us and he was on the bus too. Timmy collected the money from us and we tipped them well because they rocked. They said that their business is by word of mouth so if we had a good time then to spread the word. Consider this my shameless plug. CAVE-TUBING.COM ROCKS!! They are absolutely wonderful at what they do and they do the same exact tour as the ship, except they do an extra cave and its WAY CHEAPER! Im talking $45 per person. The tour on the ship was at least $70, and they did less caves, and they werent guided like we were so they could get stuck in the trees and caught up in the rocks. No thank you! Give them a try, give them 5 tries! You will not be sorry! Heres another reason why they rock so hard...

I apparently had too many Belikins and had to pee really bad. Like I was NOT gonna make it back to the terminal. I told Richard he could just pull over and Id run into the woods but he went and found a gas station and pulled into it and let me out so that I could go. I mean, I guess it was that or a stain on their seat, but still. I was so greatful.

[TallyRockChick]

We got back to the terminal and grabbed a bite at the restaurant there called Iguana Rana.

The server dropped the menus and was telling us they had chicken fingers and burgers and all that Americanized crap. I told her that I was in Belize and I want some Belize food. Im not gonna come all the way to Central America and get freaking chicken fingers, ya know? So she's like "oh yeah? then you want the Belize special." I said sounds perfect...we'll take 2, and 2 Belikins.

Our food came out and it was perfect. I pile of what looked like a kind of redbeans and rice with some chicken, a sweet plantain and some potato salad. The rice was SOOO good and the chicken was so tender it fell right off the bone. I was so hungry, I forgot to take a picture. Shocker, I know! But if you go to Belize City and you go to the Iguana Rana, get the Belize special. 2 huge plates of food and a couple Belikins ended up being about $18 total. The guys from cave-tubing.com were eating there too. We went and sat with them for a few minutes after we were done eating before it was time to go shop.

From left to right is Richard, Bernard, Jimmy, Yhony and Timmy....a bunch of clowns and I heart them!

We went in to the terminal and there started the MADNESS. People scrambling EVERYWHERE trying to get their cheap priced jewelry and tshirts and liquor before it was time to take the last tender. It was insane in there. I found a place that I got a Belize tank top and a bottle cap opener for my friend and Lex got some more cigars (had to get some at each port) and we also got his sister a bottle of pure cane rum and then headed out to the line to catch our tender. They had a table with coolers on them in case people were getting hot so they could get a drink of water.

Then we hopped back to the boat.

Sad that we had to leave Belize...

I had the rum in my bag and they didnt say anything about it when it went thru the xray scanner so I didnt say anything either and took it back to the room.

Back up to the Orpheus pool for a nice nap and then we were off. Decided to take in another sunset. As we maneuvered our way thru all the islands we saw a couple places that we wanted to live.

[TallyRockChick]

Another gougeous sunset...

[TallyRockChick]

Back to the room to shower and change and then, what else?? SUSHI! Every time the sushi master saw us he would smile. 2 of each master!

Then off to the dining room...

I dont remember what kind of soup this was but me and Lex both got it and I liked all the soups so whatever it was, was good. LOL

Spinach and Ricotta crepes for me. It wasnt really what I was expecting considering my definition of a crepe is like a really thin pancake. These were more like crunchy and flaky. The spinach and ricotta filling was kind of bland. It was just an OK dish. I probably wouldnt get it again if I had the choice, and would have just gotten more soup. Always more soup!

I had the chicken coq au vin tonight. Now, I had only ever had coq au vin as the base to boil things at Melting Pot so I wasnt too sure what to expect. I knew it was marinated in wine and cooked in it too...cant be bad right. AMAZING! Very tender and fell right off the bone and was bursting with flavor. Yummy yum yum. The potatoes were awesome too. Great dish on every angle.

Lex got the Louisiana style fish and rice. It wasnt called that on the menu but it was something like that. You get the idea. It was good. Theres a very fine line between being flavorful spicy and burn your mouth spicy and just doesnt taste good. It was right at the line but it was good. Lex enjoyed it.

Tonight the poor servers had to dance to the Ketchup Song. If you dont know what it is...google it. Its basically a newer version of the freaking Macarena. Yeah...I dont think I need to say more. They had the girls wear these horrible flamenco tops and dance on the server stations to the song.

but leave it to Maryono to jam it out on his own!

[asader83]

Oh, I'm so relaxed just reading this. Stunning pics! I used Yhony last November, too, and here's my shameless plug. Use cave-tubing . com! We had a great time, too.

 

Still loving your review.

 

Amy

 

ps- Brandy, can you email me at my user name at Yahoo? I've got a question for you and don't want to hijack your gorgeous review. Thanks!

[TallyRockChick]

I didnt take any pics of dessert that night and I was confused for a minute till I remembered that we just got tea and cappucino that night.

The original night of the deck party was rained out so they were gonna try it tonight instead. We really were gonna try to go out there but after drinking our hot beverages and letting our food settle we were doubting it was gonna happen.

Tonight was the night that the Maitre D visited our table. The night before the night were supposed to tip him. You already read how I felt about that.

When we got back to the room and I was sad to see that we didnt have a towel animal waiting for us on the bed or on the couch. I was so sad! That is till I walked a little further into the room and saw THIS:

A MONKEY!!! So excited!!!!!

I sat down on the bed to take a look at the last days Capers and we kinda just sunk in and decided that we had a long day today and it was ok to just go to bed. After laughing about how boring we are, we turned on the tube and went on to bed.

 

Tomorrow...the last day. NOOOOOOOOOO!! :(

 

Im gonna finish this one out tomorrow guys. Glad your still reading. See you manana!

[cathyoo]

Brandy "you're a fine girl".. one of my favorites and if my second son had been a girl he would have been "Brandy". but girl you are good.. thank you..

[chitown cruisers]

thanks for the memories

[Skeeter1602]

All I can say Brandy is WOW!! your whole review really made my Saturday morning!! I am looking forward to the final posts:D

 

I wish My GF and I were on the cruise with you and Lex. Both of you seem to really have a great time, and your enthusiasm would be contagious.

 

Thanks again for the great memories of the Miracle. I wish I was back on her. (especially looking out the window and a fresh snow fall from last night):eek:

[dulcinea5002]

Excellent review.. We are looking forward to the start of our Miracle adventure on Jan 10.

[TallyRockChick]

Now its time to say goodbye...to all our company.

 

Day 8 - Last Day at Sea

 

Today...we wake up sad. Soooooo sad. Where did the time go? It seemed like just yesterday we woke up on our first day at sea and were saying we had so much time left. I think we jinxed ourself. Wait...Im dreaming, thats it. Do I have to wake up?? =(

We get up to see another beauty of a day. We really lucked out on this cruise. We put our game face on and got ready for the day and made our way up to lido for breakfast. Today we decided to change it up and fight the line that way the OMELET STATION..dun dun dunnnnnnn. This line was always OUT OF CONTROL so I never bothered, but today, I wanted a freaking omelet, so I went for it. The line didnt seem all that bad but not very many people knew that they had a station at the other side of the bar too, not just the one at the beginning of the line. If you went to the other side all you had to do is get your sides and what not first and then get your omelet, or order it and then when you finish filling your plate it was ready for ya. A man in front of me ordered 2 eggs, which I had COMPLETELY forgot about and got a little mad at myself that I didnt get to enjoy eggs over easy at least a couple of days. The cook guy had to go GET the eggs and when the man that ordered the eggs started throwing a hissy because people who ordered their omelets after him were getting theres and his eggs were no where to be found. The cook emerged with the eggs and all was right in the world.

The omelet was good. I wish I was paying more attention to ask for some more veggies, but no harm done. Also the little flare that they do when they toss it in the air to flip it is a nice touch.

Off to the Orpheus bar. I think I forgot to mention that every day we were at Orpheus, we met up with Charles and Elizabeth. Basically we hung out with them all day...Lex at the bar with Charles and Elizabeth lounging in the sun with me.

We had checked our sign and sail and added up that we had some additional funds to play around with, so we decided to have some last drinks from the bar.

Lex sad with his last pina colada

me with my last kiss on the lips (the drink!!! ;o))

P.S. we saved our cups from the drinks we got in the beginning and got the cheaper drinks by reusing the cups. Just a little tip tidbit for ya there, as if you guys didnt know.

Our regular daily crew...me and Lex and Charles and Elizabeth

More fun in the sun

LOL sorry again, but it is a review of what happened right??

Today was 7 card bingo. My luck on cruises hasnt been very good with bingo so I was saving myself for one that I would get more bang for my buck so I didnt feel like I completely blew $20.

This was going to be 7 games so I figured with me and Lex playing we had a great chance.

...we were wrong. We came close on a few games and it got my heart racing, but we didnt win crap. However, guess who DID win! HARD NINE! So not only did he win a bingo game, but he won 2 of the drawings from the scratch off tickets. Im telling you, I just wanted to rub on his hairy chest (if you remember, he won that too...he also won various other games throughout the week) for good luck.

We hung our heads in defeat and made our way out of the Phantom in a hurry as to not be mowed over by the people rushing in for the towel animal presentation.

On up to the room to make a drink where Lex finally killed off his bottle of Woodford Reserve

and then back up to the Orpheus to get as much left over sun as possible. That didnt work out too well because it ended up just being really windy so we joined Tracy, Scott and Andrea (from zip lining) at a couple tables with some other folks for some chatting. Then we caught our last sunset.

[TallyRockChick]

Sunset on the last day...

it was really windy up on deck so some of the pics came out blurry..

[TallyRockChick]

We were heading back to the table to talk a little longer when I saw this lady. I had to take a picture of her because the entire time I was on the cruise, every time I saw her, she was wandering around aimlessly by herself, in her bathing suit, with her backpack on. The only other people I saw doing that were the geriatrics and that was because they were turned around and lost and didnt know where they were (Im not trying to be funny on that one, Im serious. Actually, that is a little funny). It was just perfect that the whole cruise she was wandering aimlessly looking confused and here she is on the last day...cherry on top I tell ya!

 

Back to the table for a little more chat. As we were getting up to go to sushi and Scott and Andrea decided to come with. On the way to the sushi bar we saw Frank, a guy that Scott and Andrea were table mates with and we had met earlier in the week because he was wearing a lei but wasnt a CC member of our roll call, at the roulette table. Andrea had found Frank's wife's Chanel sunglasses and gave them to him and he basically handed us the money that he had left from roulette to run up to the room to give them to her because he said she was literally crying. Frank said to have at it so me and Andrea took the $13 or so and started putting money down on numbers. We ended up turning that $13 into $63 and called it quits. $31.50 each. Heck yeah! My first winnings in the casino all trip!

Then we went off to sushi where Frank and his consoled wife joined us and we showed them our ways of the sushi bar. After a bit more chatting and laughing we excused ourselves to go get ready for dinner. On the way back thru the casino I decided to use the quarters from my winnings in a slot. I put them in the penny slots and turned my $.50 into $2.00! SCORE! Another win!

Off to the room to shower and change. I had surprised Lex with a fruit and cheese and wine basket from the Bon Voyage department and today we were putting the wine to good use. We had it in the mini fridge the whole time and then put it on ice in the morning. Before we left for dinner I put the tip out for the stateroom attendants for their awesome service. I attached it to the mirror with a post-it note with our sincere thanks.

Down to Baccuus. Today was the day that I saw some shlubby looking people. There were lots of jeans, we were some of them, but most looked nice and dressed their jeans well and wore nice shoes. The shlubs I had mentioned earlier wearing gross old jeans and t-shirts and muscle shirts. Gross...

The wine

Creamy mushroom soup for me. Creamy and and flavorful and yummy....mmmmm

Lex's soup...I dont remember what it was but it was good as well. Like I said before, all the soups were good. The warm soups...I didnt try the chilled soups. Dinner is supposed to be hot (except for salad)....dessert is cold. Thats how it makes sense in my head.

Escargot for me. Anyone who is freaked out by the fact that they are snails...dont. They seriously taste like mushrooms. Lex didnt know what they were and I had him try it and then told him what it was. "Snails?? Really?? Oh well they are good". Buttery and garlicy and tender, not chewy. I had been waiting on the escargot all cruise. Yay for escargot!

Lobster and crab cake for Lex. It was flaky and good. It kinda needed something more to it though. Maybe a little more spiciness. The sauce didnt do much for it.