More Carnival Cruising: Sunday 1/15

After breakfast, where we shared the restaurant with players & coaches of the St. John basketball team (in to play for the weekend), we caught our shuttle to the piers. At Fort Lauderdale, where we’d sailed from before, there were normally four or five cruise ships preparing to sail out on most weekends. Here in Tampa we were the only ship preparing for embarkation, so the terminal was almost empty and it took us only a short time to get registered, cleared by customs and receive our ‘sign & sail’ cards.

After 9/11 cruise ships became much more security conscious so now when you initially board a ship your photo is taken for comparison & scanning each time you leave or return from that point. The card is not only your ID, but is also what you use instead of cash while aboard. Generally folks will attach the card to a credit card, but you can also leave a cash deposit and either get a refund or pay the remaining fees

Since we got on around noon and our rooms wouldn’t be available until at least 1:30 we took advantage of the buffet on the Lido Desk. On many ships this is were you’ll find the 24 hour eats ranging from pizza and burgers to regional and international cuisines during the lunch and dinner. We had a light lunch and drinks, until we could head back down to the Main Deck where our rooms were located.

If you go over to the Carnival Cruise Lines site and check out the ‘balcony’ rooms you’ll see exactly what we found when Donna and I got to 4-171. We have been spoiled, or at least I have, as we’ve booked balcony cabins for the five cruises we’ve taken together. Depending on the cruise lines they are generally not much more than what they call ‘ocean view’ staterooms, which only have a porthole or window. Just remember that even if you book an indoor cabin you get everything else the folks in the balcony suites are entitled to, so be sure to keep that final bill in mind when booking.

We had signed up for late seating so dinner wasn’t until 8:15pm that night. This left us plenty of time to check out the bars, shops and other things available. It didn’t take me long to figure out where the cigar bar was, for future reference and we’d already discovered ice cream bar and pizzeria were located. When we finally did go to the dining room we met our waiter & busboy for the week, Jeffrey and Deo. As is very common on many cruise lines the crew members involved in cleaning, cooking and wait staff is mostly Pacific Islanders. I always find it interesting that when I was in the Navy most the Steward’s Mates, who worked cleaning and caring for the officers were also from the Philippines.

It was a pretty busy day all around so we called it quits early that night, going back to our rooms by around 11:00pm after a final drink at one of the bars.