When Ship Happens

Why are you wearing camo and what the hell happened in the kitchen?!

Martha Stewart in the kitchen I am not … That phrase has been quoted on this blog before.  So this really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.  I was cleaning up the kitchen and decided we weren’t going to eat any more of this pork shoulder Mark made and I wanted to get rid of it so I could clean the pot it was in.  The next day was not trash day… so I logically decided to put it down the garbage disposal thingy in the sink. 

Definition of garbage disposal (n)

gar·bage dis·pos·al  1.grinding device: an electrical device, installed beneath a kitchen sink, that grinds up food so that it can go into the waste pipe.

AFTER I am done, I hear a voice from the living room… “you didn’t put that pork shoulder down the sink did you?”  At that exact moment the sink stopped up.  Nasty chopped up meat and water filled back into both of my kitchen sinks.  “What in the world?!  I thought that’s what that thing was for!”  Mark came in the kitchen to survey the damage, shook his head, turned around and left.

He turned around and left… so I did too!  The next morning when I woke up the sink had miraculously fixed itself.  No standing water.  I cleaned up the sink… good as new and went on about my way.  No harm done.

The next day I ran the dishwasher and that my friends is where it went wrong.  Very, very wrong.  I returned from a shopping trip to see both of my kitchen sinks nearly overflowing with water.  Ugh… so naturally, I just walked away.  That’s what fixed it last time, right?  Only the next morning, when I woke up… the water had not drained.  Uhh Ohh.  So that night, I went out and bought some of the Drano type stuff and poured a bottle in.  Next morning.  No change.  I poured another bottle in and left for work.  14 hours later…  No change.  So I went back to the store and bought a whole basket full of various Drano type solutions.  All promising to eat hair, food, foreign objects, you name it.  I poured a couple of more bottle’s in.  You guessed it, nothing.  At this point, the darn sink is about to overflow… so I did the only logical thing I could think of … I called my Momma.

After pouring a 5^th bottle in the sink I realized there was a little warning on all these bottles I now had lined up in my kitchen… something about not mixing with any other cleaning agent or drano type substance…. Oops.  Mom suggests I should just call a plumber.  Umm… No way Jose!  I don’t need a plumber.  Calling a plumber would be admitting defeat.  I just need a little man power. 

The warning labels also advised against plungers… but obviously… their way wasn’t working.  I have already ignored all other safety warnings… why stop now.  I went and collected 2 plungers (cause on a double sink it seems like 1 would just defeat the purpose), camo to put on so if we got splashed with the now extremely hazardous water it would not hurt us or our clothes and of course… protective eyewear.  (I used my sunglasses)  Mom and I went to plunging away. 

Trenton watched safely from the dining room.  He made a fort out of the TV trays and armed himself in his own camo clothes and a shield.  The only thing missing from the monumental family moment was the theme song to Mission Impossible playing in the background.

10 minutes later… magic happened.  Success!!  The sink cleared, Mom went home and I plopped down on the couch to play some Candy Crush.  That’s when Mark came through the door :( Perhaps I should have changed my clothes and removed some of the crime scene bottles and plungers…

It appears after posting on facebook…. The WHOLE WORLD knows not to put a pork shoulder down the disposal.  Thanks for the support!  But, I have to tell you... My sink is sparkling!  It hasn't shined like that since they day they installed it!

True text from the best friend:    

This is why I should live on a cruise ship.  I am just not cut out for this domestic stuff!

Happy Birthday and the perfect present!

So last week was my birthday… and this week was Mark’s birthday.  Yep… we were born 8 days apart.  I am not one really to fixate on birthdays or numbers.  Just never really was my thing.  Mark however, as we all know is the exact opposite of me in every way imaginable.  SO months before July rolled around he was already making plans… Not necessarily what we were going to do to celebrate, but more so… he has calculated that we have likely reached the “mid point” of our lives.  So his plans are where we need to be financially, physically, health wise… blah blah blah.  My plan was we needed to go to the Cheesecake Factory.  I’ll take one of those, and one of those, and yep… we’re gonna need that one too!

Here’s a little “non cruise” back story.  Mark and I met in high school.  He was moving to my school district and his cousin already attended.  Mark was flipping through his cousin’s yearbook and came across the cheerleader page.  Here he sees MY picture and told his cousin… “I’m gonna date her.”  His cousin laughed and told him “No way buddy!”

Mark enrolled in my school and low and behold, his locker was right below mine.  A nice person barely being 5 feet tall would probably offer to switch with the male clearly over 5 feet tall so he didn’t have to crouch down in the floor to get to his books… but, yeah… that wasn’t going to happen.  So crouching down there every day is just what he had to do.  One day as he was huddled down at my feet, I reached over him and flung my locker open in a hurry and out tumbled my 32 ounce glass of sweet tea I had successfully smuggled down the hallway (years of this smuggling thing I have going on)… So the huge glass of tea comes flying out of my locker… and lands … upside down … on top of Mark’s head.  He was soaked.  All his papers drenched.  I stood there in shock thinking “Holy Shiiii…. I can’t believe I just did that to this poor dude!”  But then again… this was high school.  I quickly composed myself and simply said “Oops” as I grabbed my book, shut my locker and pranced off down the hallway.  (No way was I getting caught with a glass of tea down there!  Are you kidding?  You got in big trouble for that!)  So there he sat… in the floor… in a growing puddle… literally dripping in sweet tea… and hopelessly IN LOVE :)

So that’s how it all started.  The next year we were dating, 6 years later we were married, 2 more years after that Trenton came along… and now instead of leaving him standing there covered in sweet tea… It’s Jaguar piss.  How can that NOT be true love?

Earlier I mentioned we were born 8 days apart.  Did you catch on that last week was MY birthday and next week is his?  Yep… mmm, hmmm.  We are literally born 8 days apart.  Same month, same year, same astrological sign… and that makes me OLDER.

I say our souls met prior to birth… we decided to have a race here to Earth and, well clearly, I won.  I mean really, I see no other explanation.  He mutters something about “bullshit and it was the only thing I was ever early for in my life…” but no one’s listening to him anyway.

This birthday thing was fun for me ONCE.  When we…  I mean I turned 21 I was able to legally order my drinks.  So maybe I was a “little” harsh for 8 days until Mark finally became of age.  However, I was young and dumb and really didn’t think that through because every other birthday that has followed has left me living 8 days of pure hell until he finally reaches my age.  And turning 30!!  Oh geez… he had over the hill balloons, dead flowers, all sorts of embarrassing shit sent up to my WORK for everyone to see!  8 days of torture!

So the day before my birthday this year he started in with “How are you feeling?”  “You doing alright?”  “Feel any older yet?”  My protests that it was NOT my birthday yet fell on deaf ears. 

However, I survived yet another 8 days until he caught back up to me.  My Mom is freaking awesome, by the way!  She called me months ago… giggling so much on the phone I could barely understand her… something about Mark’s birthday present.  It appears she ran across some “Jaguar cologne”!  This is so my chance at revenge.  These opportunities don’t present themselves very often and I must take advantage when they do!

So they day before Mark’s birthday I called her to make sure she had the cologne and NOPE she didn’t buy it… nor could she remember where she had seen it.  Crap!  I frantically told her “Mom… this is for the love of the blog and my redemption… we’ve GOT to find that cologne!”  And so the search began.  Apparently, Jaguar cologne is not exactly popular… perhaps because it stinks… but, anyhoo I finally found it in one of those stores that sells nothing put perfume wall to wall.  You know the ones you can’t breath when you walk past them because no one dares step foot inside so the employees have to resort to attempting to spray people down with an unknown fragrance as they walk past the store… Yep, they had it!  She asked me on the phone if I wanted to blue kind or the green kind.  My response was… I honestly don’t care!  She did not quite understand this and kept insisting that I come smell them… No thanks!

The mission was a success!  Happy Birthday Babe!  I do truly love you and thank you for putting up with me all these years… and well, now this blog. :)  Less than 2 months before our next cruise! 

Cabin Crawls, Poker Runs, Iguana's and More ... Who says you can't have fun on sea days?

I must finish this review!  I am at the point though where there is so much going on in my head it’s like trying to put a leash on a squirrel!  Aaahh!  Ooh.. maybe I should put on my squirrel shoes!  OK… never mind…must focus!

My favorite Deck of the whole ship is Deck 5.  It’s got everything you need! 

Shops: I walk through aimlessly at least once a day looking as if I have never seen the items in there before.  We bought one of those singing and dancing stuffed monkeys once … you know the one drinking a pina colada. 

Yea… that one.  Trenton lost it 10 minutes later.  We sat down at the future cruise desk and he was never seen again.  (The monkey… not Trenton)  Whoever went home with a free $30 singing monkey… ”You’re Welcome.”

The second cruise we ever took they had a cash poker tournament going on.  It was hosted by a group of people traveling on the ship and independent of Carnival.  We entered and Mark ended up winning the whole darn thing.  I think it was something like $1200!  We were so happy because that basically paid for our entire cruise and we were coming home with money for a change!  Mark said the only thing he wanted was to buy a “nice” watch.  So we headed straight for the Carnival shops!  LOL They talked him into a real nice one… said it was 50% off… gave him this whole spill on what a great deal he was getting!  We came home… 2 weeks later he saw the same watch (Not On Sale) for $200 less than what he paid for it!  Ha!  The only jewelry we purchase on the ships now comes from the $10 sale!

Cherry On Top Candy Shop:  Trenton begged to go in here every time we walked past it, which was several times a day!  We did end up purchasing a large stick full of different flavored sugar that he still to this day has not consumed all of! I can’t even imagine how nasty that must taste… but it really is pretty cheap for a tube and the kids get to pick the flavors and fill it up on their own.  … I am sure there has been a disaster or two there before!

 

Casino:  What generally happens when  MawMaw and Trenton head back to the room to call it a day… Daddy and Mommy go out to play!  The first night we decided to go check out the casino and see if we could donate any money… which they will always let you do.  I ended up winning some back when I sat down to play poker and cleaned Mark out for the $186 he had just won.  I don’t know why he bets against me.  He should know by now… but anyhow… A win is a win :)   I didn’t really play poker much the rest of the cruise.  I sat down a few times, but the majority of people were playing like moron’s.  While it is fun to play, I usually have an agenda to leave the table with more money than I sat down with and playing with crazy people reduces those odds so … not much poker for me this cruise.  Mark and I officially went to bed at 3am this night.  Pretty sure we ordered room service and someone ate it… I don’t really recall.  There were empty dishes on a tray sitting on our coffee table the next morning.  (That’s always a sign of a good night!)

After my run in with the coral reef in Roatan… my ankle/foot was done.  (Those “little” scratches have now officially turned into scars!  Who would have thought?  Oh well… free souvenir I suppose) When I wasn’t wearing flip flops, I put on my cow house shoes and headed to the casino.  (I couldn’t even wear my squirrels! … Such a shame!)  I didn’t win much money this cruise, but I didn’t care because I was in my cow house shoes and surrounded by great company!  Maria the casino host was great.  She is so friendly and I found myself always looking for her.  Alexsandr (yep, I spelled that correctly) became my favorite dealer.  He is hilarious.  Mark was asking him about ship life.  My favorite line of his was “No one girlfriend.  On ship, many girlfriends.”  LOL  I don’t need to know anymore!  Eugenia the slot hostess was a delight.  She’s someone that truly enjoys her job and it shows!  And then there was Ramona.  Ramona was on the Valor when we cruised last July.  She remembered both of us!  Now, I know we spend our fair share of time in the casino, but can you imagine how many people they see over a year?!  She stopped both of us to ask if we sailed on the Valor last summer!  What a memory!  She’s awesome by the way.  If you see her, tell her HI!

The only damper for the cruise was some people we met in the casino.  Mark and I were having a great time (losing our money) and had sat down at a 3 card poker table with 3 other … I am going to say “mature… meaning over the age of 60” adults.  (Mark says they had 1 foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel)  After a couple of hands a handicapped lady rolled up in her wheelchair and wanted to play.  Mark got up and helped her up into the chair so she could reach the table.  It was obvious she was drunk as a skunk…but she wasn’t obnoxious.  However, she did not know how to play the game … so I leaned over and started explaining it to her.  The 3 “mature” adults at the table began chastising her… telling her she needed to just go back to her room… asking her if she even knew where her room was like she was mentally challenged!... being extremely rude… then the man decided to Yell at me to quit helping her.  Now… I might make fun of Mark (because I can) but one thing you don’t do is disrespect me in front of him.  That didn’t go over well at all.  They probably should have removed Mark from the table from the way he was talking to that man, but was later told by the dealer that she agreed with everything he said, and that was the reason she did not ask him to leave.  Some people are so rude and insensitive to others.  I just don’t get it.  Probably the same bastards that took all the meat off the sandwiches from the Triumph when it was floating for a week! 

Hey…  Here’s a valuable tip.  “You’re on vacation... Be Nice!”

I felt so bad for that poor lady :(  My cow house shoes and I went to find another table.  I only like to be around happy people.  Life is too short to spend it around the ugly ones.

I think all in all we pretty much broke even on this cruise.  We would win some and lose some.  Mark was really miffed he didn’t receive a “drinks on us” card.  Maria made up for it though and pretty much bought our drinks the rest of the cruise.  Every time mine was empty a waiter was tapping me on the shoulder with a new one :)  Love her!

Meet N Greet:  Our cruise group from Facebook/Cruise Critic had a Meet N Greet scheduled for 12:30 in the disco on the first sea day.  We were first scheduled to be in the piano bar, but due to the overwhelming response and number of RSVP’s we were moved to the disco.  We had already met a few people at the cruise terminal and several others we had run into the first day.  It was so nice to see and meet everyone.  You get to know them online and it is such an amazing feeling to meet them in person.  We were so lucky.  The group that was on the Magic this week truly was special. 

The Meet N Greet was for 1 hour.  The kids were there with their virgin drinks, getting to know each other (they had their own facebook group prior to the cruise).  One family was so awesome to make lanyards with name tags for everyone.  Our goal was to all consume more alcoholic beverages than we had paid for … and I am fairly confident in saying that goal was accomplished… by ALL!  As… we actually forgot to each lunch that day!

I met some “When Ship Happens Blog” fans and the first question I always got was “What meltdown did Mark have on the way to Galveston this time?”  LOL  At first they seemed bummed that he had been on such good behavior… but minutes prior to leaving our cabin and heading down to the Meet N Greet,  Trenton dared Mark that he would not wear my red/white/and blue headband with springy tassels.  (*Never… ever… dare Mark that he won’t do something! … ever)  Much to Trenton’s dismay … and this bloggers delight, Mark put them on top of his head and proudly marched his way through the ENTIRE ship to the disco!  He even wore them into the men’s bathroom and scared the beegeezus out of some poor man who didn’t even finish doing his business before he ran out of the bathroom in fear!  So… that pretty much made up for the lack of bad behavior and he was met with “Ohhh… you must be the husband, Mark” :)  Famous folks… I have made him famous!

Subsequently this night was also the first “formal night”.  After we realized we had totally missed lunch and headed up to the Lido deck for hamburgers around 4:30pm we went back to our cabin for a nap.  When we woke up it was 7:30pm and I certainly had a day hangover.  I decided I was just staying in bed and ordering room service when I discovered Mom was hungry and had been dressed a full hour waiting for us to wake up!  Crap…. Give us 5 minutes…. And we were ready.   Must be the fastest formal night dressing I have ever pulled off!  We got downstairs and there was zero wait for the dining room.  Perfect! 

Deck 5 is also home to the karaoke stage … “Oh MY Goodness it was awful!”  Behind that is the Red Frog Pub which is pretty popular.  We stopped in for a delicious tasting “Kiss On The Lips” and long enough to get our picture taken and scrolling up on the wall. 

They also had fuze ball and shuffleboard tables which were a big hit!  Piano Bar and Spotlight Lounge with comedy shows round out the aft of this floor.  Soooo much to do!

Deck 4 is not too shabby either.  It is home to the photo gallery… walls and walls of looking for yourself and what crazy face your husband made when you weren’t looking this time!  It took us 3 whole days on this boat to make it down to Deck 4.  That morning, Trenton and I were taking a break from an intense game of mini golf… attempted shuffleboard at the Red Frog Pub, (but it already had an action packed game going on)  So, we moseyed on down to Deck 4.  We realized there was a hallway in the corner of the photo stuff and wondered “What’s down here?”  Oh My…. It was home to the Library with tons of books and games.  We found the Art Auction room (free champagne… the auction itself sucked) …and then we found THE WAREHOUSE.   It took us 3 whole days to find the arcade room.  Can you imagine?  Atleast that saved me a couple days’ worth of expenses!  I still think we made up for it though!

The 2^nd sea day morning the boat was moving a little bit.  I did not restock up on non-drowsy Dramamine for Mark… which he instinctively woke up asking for.  So, Trenton and I headed off to the medical deck on Deck 0 to see what they had, which gave us another opportunity to explore a part of the boat we hadn’t seen yet!  Turns out motion sickness medicine is reasonably priced. 4 pills for $3 and yes, they take your S&S Card.  Trenton and I delivered the meds and set off for breakfast and more exploring.  However, it appears the pills they give you are not NON-Drowsy so Mark spent the next 24 hours in a daze thinking he was terminally ill because he was exhausted and could not wake up!  Oops.  Sorry Babe!

11am our Facebook group had organized a cabin crawl.  We toured a massive amount of cabins from Deck 12 all the way down to Deck 2.  Spa balcony, Inside spa rooms, handicap ocean views, obstructed view oceanviews, regular inside cabins, 4 person balcony rooms, connecting balcony rooms, extended balcony, cove balcony… you name we saw it.  Each little room had a special treat in it from keychains, wine, spiked gummy bears, jello shots, bracelets, hair bows, coozies, Cajun seasoning.. . lol  It was a blast and nice to see how the other half lives too!  We had such a large group parading down the halls of the ships and cramming into cabins other cruisers walking by kept trying to look in and see what the heck was going on! The look on some of their faces was priceless!

During the cabin crawl we also paid $5 and did a poker run.  They select 5 rooms that have a deck of cards and when you visit that room you draw a card.  The person with the best hand at the end wins the pot of money.  I didn’t win a darn thing!  I was on a roll with a K, Q and J… then Trenton went and drew a 4 and a 7 :(   Yep… you read that right.  I am blaming my loss on the kid.

Our Facebook group had an organized slot pull this afternoon too.  Mom participated, but her group didn’t win anything either. They sure did have fun though!  They were hooping and hollering with each roll.  The ladies were rubbing the machines, petting the penguins…  It was a sight to watch.  I wandered over to a machine and sat down where I could still watch the free entertainment and ended up winning $230!  Woo Hoo … excursion money for tomorrow!  I didn’t have the heart to tell that to the slot pullers at the time.

Holy crap this kid is just like Mark!:  Our morning ritual among cruise ships is Trenton waking me up for some spectacular wonder of the world and me stumbling my way onto the balcony, sleep deprived, to see it.  The first day at sea was no different when at 6:30am (after going to bed at 3:30am) Trenton woke me up exclaiming “Oh My Gosh… Mom, I have never seen water this blue!”  Me with 1 eye open … “Trenton, this is your 3rd cruise THIS YEAR.  You’ve seen water that blue!” “Ok, I know I have seen it before, but Mom… you HAVE to come see it!” …. And so I did. 

Another evening Trenton’s new friend and his mom joined us for dinner.   After dinner they went back to his friend’s cabin.  I asked Trenton later what they played and he says “I taught him how to play 5 Card Draw.” 

“What?!  Honey, that’s not a game you teach other 10 year olds! “ 

“Why not Mom, it’s fun.” 

Great.Parenting.Skills.101

Secrets.to.the.child.gambler.

Don't.Judge.

And then there was the past guest party….  As now the whole world knows Trenton became a Gold Card VIFP Member on this cruise.  He has attended past guest parties with us before…but this time he received his OWN invitation.  He proudly wore his Gold Pin and upon entering the Showtime Theatre… led us all the way down to the front row.  The theme this time was “Mardi Gras” and of course beads were being thrown… Trenton had a mission to catch them all!  We get him seated again and the very first question out of the cruise director’s mouth is “How many of you became Gold on THIS cruise?”  Trenton bolts out of his seat, arms waving in the air, jumping up and down.  Yep… folks, that’s how you get on stage.  He got to talk into the microphone and won himself a front row spot for all the dancing.  EVERY cruise this kid manages to get himself on the official cruise video somehow. 

First cruise he was ever on, I dropped him off at Camp Carnival one morning, returned to the room and found him on the cruise directors morning show!  Apparently it was being held in Camp Carnival that morning and who do you think is sitting right next to the cruise director…. Surely you don’t have to ask!

Laser Tag:  Laser Tag is held in the Showtime Theatre (Deck 3 and 4 Forward).  I have no idea how often it was offered, but I saw it on the last sea day.  The cost is $5 for roughly 5 minutes.  But trust me, 5 minutes is plenty.  Laser tag is held in this blown up thing and apparently it is hotter than Hades in there!  But Trenton never turns down the opportunity.

We met another family while waiting for Trenton (their son was in there too).

 *Folks be careful what you tell me if you don’t want it going in this blog.  I have NO trouble putting Mark’s embarrassing moments out there for the whole world to read… and I Love him!  Which means … your husband’s embarrassing moments are fair game!

So.  What I learned during laser tag. 

This couple was married.  They have 2 children.  This was their first vacation in quite some time.  He is a police officer and going on about how he feels “overly protective” of his family while they are in Mexico.  His wife blurts out “Over protective?!  Were you being “over protective” when you were so drunk you tried to wrestle the iguana?!” 

My ears perked up.  My heartbeat quickened.  I can smell a story! Hell, at this point I could taste it!  “Oh, please.  You must elaborate!”  I said, and so she did…

They were on a beach in Cozumel.  Police officer Dad is drunk as a skunk (I am sure you can relate… probably too many “Ticket to Fly’s”) wearing only his swim trunks and along comes this rather large iguana sauntering down the beach.  Police officer Dad decides… he wants to apprehend this iguana.  So he takes after it in hot pursuit. The iguana scurries a few feet ahead of him and stops, turns around and looks at him.  So police officer Dad tries again… He lunges forward to try to take the suspect off guard, only he misses.  The iguana scurries ahead a few feet, just out of reach, turns around and looks at him.  Police officer Dad now decides the iguana is taunting him and police officer Dad will have none of that!  He takes off, full speed ahead in his drunken stupor… dives after the suspect, taking a flying leap with his arms outstretched, ready to tackle this iguana once and for all …..

l

l

l

V

 

And belly flops hard in the sand.  Sand flies everywhere as police officer Dad slides to a stop.  When the sand settles… the iguana turns around , looks at him and slowly continues on down the beach.

I was laughing so hard I had tears streaming down my cheeks.  Police officer Dad is now bright red and attempting to offer another side of the story… but that is not needed.  I know the truth when I hear it!  So this is the moment when I hand over my card and say “By the way, I write a cruise blog.  You should check it out.”  … and the color completely drains from police officer Dad’s face.  :)

<a href="http.hypersmash.com">Hypersmash.com</a>

How one eats on board the Carnival Magic

Here’s your one warning… If you are currently hungry… or about to go to the grocery store… Come back to the blog later.  Ok... now the rest of us can proceed forward.

 

There is no doubt about it…. I LOVE cruise food!  I often (daily) read through cruise reviews (obsessed, I know) and I am always amazed when people say the food onboard is horrible.  Where the hell do you people eat on a daily basis?! 

Mark is a fantastic cook (thankfully because I started a fire attempting to boil water!  (True story)  People rave about his food.  When he doesn’t want to cook we have some really good restaurants we go to and we are quite picky regarding service and quality.  When we eat somewhere good… It’s good!   

Here’s my one and only complaint with Carnival food.  There are too many choices.  When I eat something that is fantastic, I certainly want more before they kick me off the boat at the end of the week… but I can’t manage to fit all the food in and still try other things.  I don’t think I ate half the places that were available on the Magic… and I still came home with 4 extra pounds.  :(

I am thankful I brought 2 different sizes of shorts.  Those that fit at the beginning of the week and those for the end of the week so I don’t feel so bad about myself :)  Am I the only one who does this?

Let’s start on the Lido Deck.  Our very first meal on board was from the Deli Station.  Fresh made sandwiches right in front of you.  Trenton had an amazing grilled cheese, Mark had a corned beef and I am partial to the turkey wrap.  Ahh… they are soo good!  Your other choices up here by the pool are the hamburgers and hotdogs… complete with all the fixings (chili, mushrooms, jalapeno’s, grilled onions, cheese sauce, fries) … And the pizza.  24 hours a day!  I really like the new recipe with the thin crust.  You just can’t go wrong with the pizza.  I was starving one night, headed back up to the room with my pizza and turned the corner too sharp.   My pizza flew off my plate onto the floor… I actually contemplated picking it up and eating it.  (Don’t panic.  I went back and got in line to get another piece), but that’s how good it was!

Inside the Lido Marketplace is the buffet.  Plenty of choices from salad, pasta salads, hot choices (meat and veggies).  Burrito bar (tried it on the Valor and loved it!... never made it there on the Magic)  I also discovered the Mongolian Wok which looked pretty popular … only it was after I had just consumed an entire plate of pasta, ceasar salad and half a portion of lasagna at Cucina de Capitano.  Sooo…. I didn’t get to personally try it.  It is on the To Do List though (in the future).

Another super, duper don’t miss on the Magic is the Seaside BBQ.  It is located outside on deck 5.  We had a balcony a couple of floors above it and had the pleasure of smelling it on sea days :)  The only reason it took us until the last sea day to eat lunch there was because Sea day #1 we were consuming beverages at our Cruise Critic Meet N Greet and completely forgot to eat lunch at all! Sea Day #2 mother nature sent a downpour of rain and they had to close down early.  So… Sea Day #3 it was.  They had slider hamburgers, huge hot dogs, quesadillas and some other type of Mexican wrap thingy, and chips and salsa.  It was all very good.  First ship we had been on with the concept… it’s quite nice.  There did seem to be a line, but it moved really quickly. 

The Main Dining Room (MDR):  We had Any Time Dining which is my new preferred way to go.  I thought I would miss the dedicated waiter, but on several occasions we have had the same waiter/waitress and you can always request a specific section if you want too.  Most nights our wait was 5 minutes at most… if there was a wait at all.  This proved to be an experience this time because after the first night at dinner, Trenton refused to go to Camp Carnival.  The first night Camp Carnival was not open, so he came to dinner with us.  The kid acted like we hadn’t fed him in an entire week.  He ordered fruit cocktail, chicken fingers, cured salmon as appetizers and the southern fried chicken with mashed potatoes for his main course… and ATE IT ALL!  After that… MDR it was.  He continued to amaze the waiters and fellow diners around us ordering Oysters Rockefeller, 2 plates of Escargot, Lobster, you name it… and he ate it.  The waiters were all very professional.  He ordered just like an adult and they wrote it all down with an amused smile on their face… (I know they were thinking this kid will never eat that!)  halfway through dinner it never failed that someone at a table beside us would lean over and say “Excuse me…Is that _____ he is eating?”  Why yes, yes it is.  There was only 1 thing he didn’t like and for the life of me I can’t remember what it was.  I do remember we had wine at dinner that night though :)

The Chef’s Table:  The first time we ever did this was last summer in July on the Valor and we LOVED it!  This year I was trying to rack my brain on what to get my Mom for Mother’s Day and I decided we would all go back to the Chef’s Table on our May cruise.  Trenton did not get to participate in this as it is $75 per person, but worth every penny!  Perhaps next year we will let him join us.  We had no idea he would develop such a love for real food on the ship when we made the reservations.  Some items on the menu from last July were the same, but some were different. 

We met in the disco and were served champagne and appetizers.  The Chef met us here and took us back to the galley.  We had a small tour of the galley and our table for dinner was actually set up there.  It was lovely.  You are assigned seats, complete with little name cards :)  Red and white wine is served with each dish.  The food is amazing!  Hands down some of the best stuff I have ever eaten.  If you are a foodie… this table is the place for you!  Lots of different concepts and flavors placed together.  More food than any one person should rightfully ever eat!

We did the Chef’s Table after our excursion in Roatan so my leg was throbbing and all scraped up and my hand was throbbing with a huge bruise rising off the top of it. They request that you wear closed toed shoes for this and I had to break the rules as I could not get any other shoe on my foot besides flip flops for the rest of the cruise! I was pretty banged up, but ready for a good meal :) 

I would say on the Valor we did not eat in the galley, but instead a little room off the side of the main dining room.  While a table in the actual kitchen was cool, it was very loud… our galley tour on the Valor was better and being able to eat in a quiet room allowed for more conversation with our tablemates and a better conversation with the chef.  The food… it tastes good no matter where you are!  LOL

*They also say you aren't allowed to take pictures.  Twice I have eaten at the Chef's Table and failed to figure out a way to sneak them in.  That in no way implies that I have given up :)

Steakhouse:  Trenton did join us here.  He was still refusing to go eat with Camp Carnival and had decided he would just stay in the room and order room service.  So Mark caved in… gave him the “You will eat $35 worth of food” lecture and called to adjust our reservation.  Trenton was really excited! 

They start you off with a complementary appetizer from the chef.   You are given a menu like the Main Dining Room and asked to choose 1 appetizer, 1 salad and 1 main entrée.  Unlike the Main Dining Room if you want to order a second entrée, they charge you an additional $25 I think.  However, you can substitute your salad choice for an additional entrée or vice versa.  The food and service is phenomenal. 

We had escargot, lobster bisque, and ceasar salad as appetizers.  Main entrée was lobster ravioli, surf and turf, and lobster tail.  Dessert was fruit, the chocolate sampler and Mark chose a slice of cheesecake that came out big enough to feed all four of us and then some! 

Tea Time:  I managed to talk Mark and Trenton into joining me for tea time.  Neither was happy about this arrangement, but I promised we could all go to the arcade if they would come with me.  My persuasive skills are amazing! 

Tea time actually turned out well.  It was my first time to ever attend and I had heard wonderful things about it.  It did not disappoint.  The tea was nice.  We were served cute little salmon and cucumber sandwiches and the best desserts on the ship… hands down (minus the Chef’s Table and Steakhouse… those don’t count)!  Even Mark and Trenton agreed the desserts were awesome!  Afterwards we returned to the arcade just as I had promised.  It’s worth it to go atleast once :)

While we’re talking about food… let’s talk about Wine:  Mark, Mom and I ordered wine on a couple of nights and usually more than 1 bottle at a time.  We found a wine we all really liked.  I believe it was $35 a bottle + gratuity.  Mom asked (I don’t know why she does this to me!)  “This is the same wine we drank and liked so much on the last cruise.  Have you ever tried to find it at home?”  Well… I have now. 

 

Hell….  Nothing like the sting of paying $40 bucks for $5 WalMart wine!

Next up... the bottom part of the ship and fun cruise group activities :)

 

*sidenote… If you are reading this and want to read more of our adventures… please subscribe by email over on the right hand side of the page.  If you really, really like it… please share it with your friends. 

This cruise was the first time I had met strangers that had actually read my blog… while it was extremely cool… I found myself embarrassed!  How silly is that?  I think… well, I know… by nature I am introverted.  When writing my blog I don’t hold anything back.  I write it as I see it and how I feel it.  Perhaps meeting people that have seen/read such a raw side of me is hard for me to grasp because these thoughts are usually buried deep inside.  So… if you meet me on a cruise and I seem a little weird at first, just point me to the nearest bar.  After a drink or 2 I’ll knock the edge off  :)  IF you happen to run into Mark at the bar… hold onto your seats… you are guaranteed an adventure! 

Onboard the Magic! Part II

When I left you last time we were just chilling in the terminal.  The excitement when the lady comes over the microphone and calls “ALL PRIORITY BOARDING IS NOW BOARDING” is amazing!  My bag was heavy, but I didn’t care.  Mark was lugging a cart with 48 bottles of water on it, but I didn’t care :)  My heart beat quickened with nervous anticipation.  I glanced around at the now completely full room full of other passengers… sitting in their blue chairs patiently waiting for their zone to be called… longing to be in our priority boarding line.  I know this because I have sat in those chairs so many times watching everyone else get on board first thinking … lucky bastards! 

We calmly (I don’t know how) all merged into one line and made our way to the 4 booths they had set up to take our picture for our Sign and Sail Card. This was the first time we ever had them taken while still in the terminal…. (Usually they are taken when you first step foot on the boat.)  All four of us ended up in different lines to have our pictures taken so once we merged back together it was around the corner for the group embarkation photo.  (I totally didn’t buy this one because it sucked.  The only person who looked decent was Trenton.  Mom was squinting and barely smiling, Mark looked whipped and my hair … Oh gracious)  Mental picture… that’s all you guys are getting!  It wasn’t worth $12 even for the blog’s sake :)

We picked up all our bags and belongings and headed up the tunnel to the ship.  Somewhere in the process of Mark speed walking to get there, the cart turned over and half the water escaped.  I caught up long enough to hear him mutter “Never again” as he hoisted the water back up on the cart and took off at a rapid pace again with 1 bungee cord swinging loose behind him. 

Suddenly you feel the rush of cold air and you know you are close.  One more step and you are officially ON BOARD.  I love entering through the Atrium.  It is the most beautiful view and the Magic did not disappoint.  Everyone was smiling.  There was friendly staff waiting to welcome you to your new home for the next week.  Music is playing, people are dancing.  Drinks are being passed out.  The feeling is infectious.  It takes over your soul. 

It is nice getting on board early as it is not very crowded yet and you get the opportunity to explore the ship in an untouched form.  Most people hit the food stations first…

 

We always head straight to our room (thank you Faster To The Fun), drop off our truckload of water and then hit the top deck for the water slides.  I oooh and aaah and snap pictures of everything from the hand railing to a deck chair; Trenton strips out of his shirt , throws me his glasses and flip flops as fast as he can in a mad dash to get into the water; and Mark nevers fails to find the closest bar! 

As Trenton splashes through the Water Works and tries out all the slides, Mark and I took advantage of the Serenity Deck located right behind the entrance to the slide.

Serenity Deck:  We didn’t spend a lot of time here as we were not childless.  The serenity deck looks awesome though!  Hammocks and big loungers.  Perfect for stretching out or cuddling up…. Whichever suits your fancy.  The Serenity deck did have its own hot tub and bar … which is where we scored our first Drink Of the Day.  Throughout the cruise I walked through a couple of times and always saw open seating so it did not appear that it was crowded. 

Water Works:  With drinks in hand we went back to check on Trenton who was in hog heaven!  All the other ships we have been on only had 1 water slide.  The Carnival Magic has water works!  It includes 2 slides and HUGE dump bucket (never figured out why getting dumped with gallons of water when you least expect it is fun, but the kids seemed to have a blast).  There were also 2 smaller slides for the smaller children.  It really encompassed all ages which is nice. 

Now… let’s talk about those slides.  I promised Trenton I would go down them with him at least once during the cruise.  It took me until the 2^nd sea day when I finally got up the nerve.  When I was younger I used to LOVE water slides.  Now… I realize having the beegeezus scared out of me… twisting and turning through dark tunnels with water in your face … not knowing what is coming up next … doesn’t sound fun at all!  I did rationalize the amount of stairs it took to climb up to the slides was NO Where near the amount of stairs I climbed when we were at Atlantis and I still survived that.  How bad could this really be?  Ha!

So Trenton assures me the yellow slide is slow and for babies, but the orange slide is really fun!  So he dives down the orange one and it leaves me standing on the top deck staring at the Carnival employee.  So I asked her if the yellow slide was slower than the orange and she looks at me like I have lost my mind and mutters No.  No warning.  No help.  Hmpf.  So I think.. oh well, I’ll trust the kid.  MISTAKE.

The truth:  The yellow slide is in fact longer than the orange.  I am not sure what speed I got up to, but I spun in circles so many times I got dizzy.  It was pitch black.  I remember trying to put my arms out on both sides and trying to slow myself down to no avail.  Finally, I saw daylight, just as I was drowned in water.   Once I finally realized I had stopped and was able to take my legs out of the air and sit up to breath … there was Trenton.  Laughing and jumping up and down clapping.  “I thought you said that thing was SLOW!”  “It is Mom, come on!”

So a promise is a promise.  I climbed the stairs once again.  Got dunked by the stupid dunk bucket and finally made it back up to the orange slide.  Maybe this attendant did know a thing or two.  So I took a deep breath and down the orange one I went. 

It wasn’t pitch black… that was a plus.  I was still spinning in circles, but being able to somewhat see seemed to help and then suddenly I felt like I was being flushed down a giant toilet bowl!  I was in the big open thing, flying around in cirlces, body  part flinging in all directions… When I finally came to a stop I wasn’t sure where I was, if my swimsuit was still on…. And then I saw stairs leading down.  I thought “Is the ride over? Lord, I hope so.  Water is still swishing in circles around me.  What if it’s like those mini golf things where you have to go down to another level… Oh surely not.”  So on my hands and knees I crawled over to the stairs and gingerly walked down them.  To Trenton.  Laughing and jumping up and down clapping.  Oh Geez!

“Come on Mom!”  Ummm… No.  I promised.  I did.  Now, Mom is going to go sit over here under that umbrella and recover.

Now… Mark made this slide promise too.  Sucker!  So on one of our port days we came back to the ship when it wasn’t crowded and decided to hit up water works.  I brought a book to read!  Mark says… “What?  You aren’t going down the slides?  Why not?”  No reason babe… I’ll be right here.  You just go have fun.  Guess what …. 1 time.  Each.  And then I got to stand at the end of the slide laughing and jumping up and down clapping.  Redemption!  It was awesome! It’s so nice to see he’s getting old too!

The other main attraction on the top decks is the Sports Square.  You have your mini golf game that is spread over 2 stories, ping pong, fuze ball, life size checkers and chess board, hot dog stand, pool tables, a jogging track, multi sport court for basketball or soccer and I am sure whatever else, AND an outdoor gym!  There were stations on all 4 corners of the track.  Bikes, elliptical machines, pull up bars, etc. ( … There is also a real indoor gym with fitness equipment… this was just a bonus) 

The Sports Square also has the famous Ropes Course.  I really wanted to do this and figured of the 3 of us, I would be the only one.  Trenton however seemed as excited as I was so we set off… on several occasions to attempt this.  You can’t be wet. You must be wearing closed toe shoes.  No loose articles, glasses, etc. Oh, and the wind can’t be more than 30 mph.  We attempted to go on this thing 4 times before we were successful.  It was fun!  Trenton ended up doing it twice.  The easy and the hard side.  Mark did it too, but ended up having a panic attack halfway through!  In his words… it’s not the heights that scare him… it’s the plummeting to his death!  LOL  He made it and I was proud of him! Pretty sure the Ropes Course was a 1 timer for him like the slides!

So, this is totally out of place, but 1 deck below the Sports Square is Cucina de Capitano; the special Italian restaurant on board.  It is free for lunch and I believe $12 per person at dinner.  We only tried it out at lunch time.  I was under the impression it was like a buffet, but I was wrong.  You must be seated and they give you a piece of paper.  You choose your type of pasta, what you want in it and your sauce, then the chef prepares your pasta.   They also have a wonderful Caesar salad and lasagna.  I was hoping they had really awesome breadsticks, but they didn’t.  The food was pretty good.  Trenton had the lasagna and declared we must eat there for lunch… every day!  The only bad thing about it was its location.  Cucina de Capitano is directly under the Multi Sport Court.  I am not really sure who had a game going on above us, but the sound was similar to about ten 400 pound giants in a heated basketball game.  The entire ceiling and chandeliers were shaking.  I was certain someone was coming through the roof, however, they never did. 

Well, that was 7 days on the Magic and we covered 4 decks!  Now must book another 7 day cruise so we can see the rest of the ship!  That's how I felt atleast.  This boat was so big... we still didn't get to do it all!  But alas, stay tuned and we'll get to a few other decks before they kicked me off!