Carnival Miracle: October 21, 2013, Sea Day 2

I woke up at 5:30 and Steve was already up. I found him on the Lido deck and had coffee and a cinnamon roll before heading to enjoy pre-breakfast time on our balcony.

We enjoyed many beautiful sunrises and sunsets from the aft balcony

We could immediately feel it was warmer than the day before but still a number of morning clouds.

At 8:30 we went to the dining room for the Brunch menu. We enjoyed steak and eggs at a table for six with two other couples. The company was good but service was not. First the waiter didn’t want me to change my egg order from the default sunny side up – which I won’t eat. Second, we both ordered banana cream pie and it never arrived. Once our entrees were delivered we never saw the waiter again.

We had two group activities scheduled for today. The first was a slot pull at 10 am. We had over 70 people signed up. Each person put in $15 for five $3 pulls. The final winnings would be split by the participants. It was a lot of fun and took about 1 ½ hours to get through all of us. The net result was $12 payout to each so it was an inexpensive way to spend the time!

We decided to have lunch on the lido deck. It was a madhouse in there. Today’s cuisine was Indian food which I like but didn’t appeal to me today.The lines at all the stations were busy. It was pretty annoying to have to wait in the salad bar line and then the pizza line.

View of funnel. The pink glass is the ceiling of the steak house

We had the second group event at 1 pm. It was a cabin crawl and we visited seven cabins in various categories (no inside — technically). Each host would give out one card with a unique design and the best hand won a prize. Some hosts had treats for the visitors. We saw an aft wrap suite (ocean?) a midship grand suite, an aft balcony like ours, a regular balcony, a 4K, an extended balcony and one gem with an very long balcony. I wish I could remember that cabin number as it’d be the one to book in that category (8K).

When we returned to the cabin afterwards guest services called asking if we had grabbed the wrong bag at our Hotel. I guess they wanted to confirm the story they got from the hotel/port. We were happy to hear that they had the bag we had taken by accident and that person would be getting it back.

After a nap, we went to the gift shop for more purchases this time for deodorant and sunscreen. I also bought a t-shirt. Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for our first cruise elegant night.

Once we were dressed we went to the Taste bar and had short rib croquettes and a pumpkin bisque. Both were excellent although I found the soup to be pretty spicy.

We went by the library so I could check email for the first time since sailing. I bought the 240 minute plan. It’s probably more than I need but 120 minutes wasn’t enough and I don’t want to have to buy more at a higher price per minute. Although I had over 300 emails, there wasn’t anything urgent.

At dinner, I ordered the pumpkin soup with lobster and shrimp for my entree. Steve ordered the Greek farmer salad and two entrees. He had the lobster tail and shrimp with prime rib. It was the first time I’ve had lobster tail two nights in a row but I sure enjoyed it.

For dessert I selected the warm chocolate melting cake while Steve had cherries jubilee. Our tablemates arrived about 30 minutes late. It turns out they thought dinner was at 6 pm because that’s what the boarding documents said and we all had a laugh when they realized they’d been late every evening.

We finally made it to a show and saw Ticket to Ride. It was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen at sea. The glow sticks and confetti effects were great.

For some reason, we were tired even though the day wasn’t particularly taxing. I wish my fitbit charger wasn’t in the left-behind suitcase so I knew how many steps I was getting each day. Lights out at 10 pm.