Carnival Magic- 6/18, Another Day at Sea
Monday, June 18th- Another Day at Sea
We woke up around 8am and made our way up to the Lido Marketplace for breakfast. To our delight, there weren't any lines around 8:40 and our food was super satisfying (which is a weird way to phrase it but that's what my notes say from that morning!).
Breakfast views!
After eating, we went to morning trivia where we scored two points below the winner, so we left feeling pretty good about our performance! We decided to live a lazy lifestyle this morning so after trivia, we lounged on the lanai for about an hour and enjoyed the beautiful weather and gorgeous water views. More trivia was on the agenda and we did not do well, which was a real letdown after our morning's close success. We went up to the lido to take pictures of the ship and grab a drink.
Busy day!
While up there, we started listening to "Caribbean Sounds with Gerrant" but unfortunately his shift ended about 10 minutes after we sat down to listen, so we went back down to the lanai. I said it last post but it's worth saying again: the lanai (deck 5) is really the unsung hero when it comes to lounging chairs and soaking up the rays (there are also shaded spots if Vitamin D isn't your thing.) It's so peaceful and lovely and I'm missing it right now. My husband was sitting in the shade while I was in the sun, but after 15-20 minutes, the sun started creeping onto his seat and he started complaining. I suppose in all fairness, he does burn 10x faster than I do, so we decided to get in line for the BBQ and then go up to the balcony.
Lanai views:
BBQ Menu
The BBQ line moved fast and we climbed the flight of stairs up to our room. Side note, it was awesome to have a room on deck 6 because we're only a few flights of stairs away from basically everything. Now we know that it really is a prime location! Back to the food, the BBQ was pretty disappointing. I thought the beans were flavorless, the mac and cheese was weird and almost chemical-like. The pork was pretty good and the brown sugar bourbon sauce was good, so at least there's that. I will also say that the view from our balcony during lunch is unbeatable, and I wish I could have that view more than once or twice a year! We read on the balcony for a while before decided it was time to try our athletic ability on the Sky Course around 2:30pm.
I mean, it can't get better than this!
There was no line when we walked up, so we got our harnesses on right away and the Carnival staff said we could go around as many times as we wanted since there weren't any guests waiting. We did two laps around the course, switching sides after the first lap. The route on the inside of the circle is the easier route and the outside is harder, but I think each route had some challenging sections. There were a few smaller kids on the course that shouldn't have been doing the outside harder section, so we were held up by them. Although, that being said, some could argue that mid-20 somethings shouldn't be on there either 😛 We had a fun time on the course and had beautiful views of the ocean and ship while up there. Honestly, I thought it would be a little more tricky or scary than it actually was, but again maybe that's because it wasn't designed for our age group.
A few screenshot captures from our video:
Here's a video of my husband going on the Sky Course, edited to remove wait times for sections of the course and sped up to 1.25x. Make full screen for better viewing.
We grabbed our belongings out of the locked cubby that was at the Sky Course (course and locked box free to use) and went down to the Lido Marketplace to grab some ice cream. We ended up in the Ocean Plaza for some trivia about musicals and didn't do as well as I thought we would. We went back to the room to shower, nap, and watch Netflix on my iPad before getting ready for dinner.
Just before 6pm, we walked up to Cucina del Capitano for our reservations. We got a seat near the window which was really exciting because we typically cruise during winter months when it's dark at dinner time, so we were happy to actually to see the water and enjoy the views this time. Our service team was wonderful and our experience there was fantastic. This was our second time at a Cucina, and we continue to love it. Absolutely check it out if you're considering a little something extra to make your cruise special. Plus, at only $15 a person, it's not an exorbitant price, especially for the huge amount of food they provide.
I had the calamari which was delicious and plentiful. For my entree, I had the risotto and it was very rich and cooked well. If our room had a microwave, I definitely would've taken a to-go box to reheat some of it later, because I couldn't finish the whole bowl.
My husband had the burrata as an appetizer since I had it on the honeymoon, and he said it was yummy and he loved the cherry tomatoes that were very sweet and dessert-like.
He also had the lamb chop for his entree and said it was really good and almost like a ground lamb patty with crust. I think he meant it was very tender? He liked it so that's all I really know! He also had a side of spaghetti and said it was "out of this world good" and he would definitely order it next time. We also got the veggie side and I feel like the broccoli was burnt and the cauliflower was undercooked, but my husband liked the broccoli.
SO MUCH FOOD!
For dessert, we split two choices. We had the lemon dessert, in which the sorbet is truly phenomenal and tart and I need more right now please.
We also had the sea salt chocolate cookie with coffee gelato. We feel like the gelato was lacking some flavor and too "ice-y" but the cookies were great.
We left SO stuffed. Like wow, food overload! My husband also finished the meal with an espresso (included) and thought it was smooth.
Cucina is right upstairs from the Lido Marketplace. Here's a good view of both at once. We didn't really notice any Lido noise so that's good!
We went to the room to lay down and stretch out so the food could settle. We watched a little bit of Netflix before heading up to decks 3 and 5 to have pictures taken, then went back to the room to continue to relax. We went to the Showtime Theatre to see the country show at 9:30pm. I thought it was really good and the set design and choreography was awesome. I felt like the songs could've included a few more popular/recent country songs, but I did enjoy the story line and we had a good time.
The mega deck party was starting on the lido deck so we made our way up there. Our cruise director Cookie was ridiculously energetic and has awesome dance moves. He really knows how to get the party going! My husband learned a two-step dance and we danced along to a few songs from deck 12 while watching the party and enjoying the Caribbean air. Ice cream was calling me again so we went down to grab a cone and went to the comedy show. We saw Michael Isaac again, and he continued to be hilarious and really had the crowd going. I know it sounds like we lounged a lot this sea day but that's hard work, so we were drained after the comedy show and went to the cabin to sleep.
It's a party!
You all know the song, sing it with me! "Follow the lead-a, lead-a, lead-a, follow the lead-a"
UP NEXT: Tuesday, San Juan! [LINK]
We woke up around 8am and made our way up to the Lido Marketplace for breakfast. To our delight, there weren't any lines around 8:40 and our food was super satisfying (which is a weird way to phrase it but that's what my notes say from that morning!).
Breakfast views!
After eating, we went to morning trivia where we scored two points below the winner, so we left feeling pretty good about our performance! We decided to live a lazy lifestyle this morning so after trivia, we lounged on the lanai for about an hour and enjoyed the beautiful weather and gorgeous water views. More trivia was on the agenda and we did not do well, which was a real letdown after our morning's close success. We went up to the lido to take pictures of the ship and grab a drink.
Busy day!
While up there, we started listening to "Caribbean Sounds with Gerrant" but unfortunately his shift ended about 10 minutes after we sat down to listen, so we went back down to the lanai. I said it last post but it's worth saying again: the lanai (deck 5) is really the unsung hero when it comes to lounging chairs and soaking up the rays (there are also shaded spots if Vitamin D isn't your thing.) It's so peaceful and lovely and I'm missing it right now. My husband was sitting in the shade while I was in the sun, but after 15-20 minutes, the sun started creeping onto his seat and he started complaining. I suppose in all fairness, he does burn 10x faster than I do, so we decided to get in line for the BBQ and then go up to the balcony.
Lanai views:
BBQ Menu
The BBQ line moved fast and we climbed the flight of stairs up to our room. Side note, it was awesome to have a room on deck 6 because we're only a few flights of stairs away from basically everything. Now we know that it really is a prime location! Back to the food, the BBQ was pretty disappointing. I thought the beans were flavorless, the mac and cheese was weird and almost chemical-like. The pork was pretty good and the brown sugar bourbon sauce was good, so at least there's that. I will also say that the view from our balcony during lunch is unbeatable, and I wish I could have that view more than once or twice a year! We read on the balcony for a while before decided it was time to try our athletic ability on the Sky Course around 2:30pm.
I mean, it can't get better than this!
There was no line when we walked up, so we got our harnesses on right away and the Carnival staff said we could go around as many times as we wanted since there weren't any guests waiting. We did two laps around the course, switching sides after the first lap. The route on the inside of the circle is the easier route and the outside is harder, but I think each route had some challenging sections. There were a few smaller kids on the course that shouldn't have been doing the outside harder section, so we were held up by them. Although, that being said, some could argue that mid-20 somethings shouldn't be on there either 😛 We had a fun time on the course and had beautiful views of the ocean and ship while up there. Honestly, I thought it would be a little more tricky or scary than it actually was, but again maybe that's because it wasn't designed for our age group.
A few screenshot captures from our video:
Here's a video of my husband going on the Sky Course, edited to remove wait times for sections of the course and sped up to 1.25x. Make full screen for better viewing.
We grabbed our belongings out of the locked cubby that was at the Sky Course (course and locked box free to use) and went down to the Lido Marketplace to grab some ice cream. We ended up in the Ocean Plaza for some trivia about musicals and didn't do as well as I thought we would. We went back to the room to shower, nap, and watch Netflix on my iPad before getting ready for dinner.
Just before 6pm, we walked up to Cucina del Capitano for our reservations. We got a seat near the window which was really exciting because we typically cruise during winter months when it's dark at dinner time, so we were happy to actually to see the water and enjoy the views this time. Our service team was wonderful and our experience there was fantastic. This was our second time at a Cucina, and we continue to love it. Absolutely check it out if you're considering a little something extra to make your cruise special. Plus, at only $15 a person, it's not an exorbitant price, especially for the huge amount of food they provide.
I had the calamari which was delicious and plentiful. For my entree, I had the risotto and it was very rich and cooked well. If our room had a microwave, I definitely would've taken a to-go box to reheat some of it later, because I couldn't finish the whole bowl.
My husband had the burrata as an appetizer since I had it on the honeymoon, and he said it was yummy and he loved the cherry tomatoes that were very sweet and dessert-like.
He also had the lamb chop for his entree and said it was really good and almost like a ground lamb patty with crust. I think he meant it was very tender? He liked it so that's all I really know! He also had a side of spaghetti and said it was "out of this world good" and he would definitely order it next time. We also got the veggie side and I feel like the broccoli was burnt and the cauliflower was undercooked, but my husband liked the broccoli.
SO MUCH FOOD!
For dessert, we split two choices. We had the lemon dessert, in which the sorbet is truly phenomenal and tart and I need more right now please.
We also had the sea salt chocolate cookie with coffee gelato. We feel like the gelato was lacking some flavor and too "ice-y" but the cookies were great.
We left SO stuffed. Like wow, food overload! My husband also finished the meal with an espresso (included) and thought it was smooth.
Cucina is right upstairs from the Lido Marketplace. Here's a good view of both at once. We didn't really notice any Lido noise so that's good!
We went to the room to lay down and stretch out so the food could settle. We watched a little bit of Netflix before heading up to decks 3 and 5 to have pictures taken, then went back to the room to continue to relax. We went to the Showtime Theatre to see the country show at 9:30pm. I thought it was really good and the set design and choreography was awesome. I felt like the songs could've included a few more popular/recent country songs, but I did enjoy the story line and we had a good time.
The mega deck party was starting on the lido deck so we made our way up there. Our cruise director Cookie was ridiculously energetic and has awesome dance moves. He really knows how to get the party going! My husband learned a two-step dance and we danced along to a few songs from deck 12 while watching the party and enjoying the Caribbean air. Ice cream was calling me again so we went down to grab a cone and went to the comedy show. We saw Michael Isaac again, and he continued to be hilarious and really had the crowd going. I know it sounds like we lounged a lot this sea day but that's hard work, so we were drained after the comedy show and went to the cabin to sleep.
It's a party!
You all know the song, sing it with me! "Follow the lead-a, lead-a, lead-a, follow the lead-a"
UP NEXT: Tuesday, San Juan! [LINK]
We skipped the Italian place but we did the steakhouse... I liked that menu better. It looks like you guys had a good time at the Italian spot though. One thing that happened to us was that my husband DID take food from the steakhouse for later, and there was no place to heat it up. He asked one of the workers in Lido about a microwave for his leftover steak and they said they could not do that.
ReplyDeleteWe weren't super impressed with the BBQ joint... much rather have the Carnival Deli or Guy's Burgers, or really any of the other sea day options (salad bar on Deck 5 was good). Deck 6 is the place to be with rooms though, that's where we were as well and loved being only a few flights of stairs from all the food and happenings.