HEADED NORTHWEST ON THE ATLANTIC!

On the Atlantic Ocean

Thursday/Friday, January 18, 19, 2018

Cooler Temperatures, Cloudy 70 F on Friday

Dear Readers,

My blog writing has definitely been better in the past. Last night Donna reminded me that I had not finished St. Kitts, and now I have—if you have been reading this blog, you know it has been something like this: We got off the ship in ________________, we shopped or went to the beach, and we returned to the ship. Very exciting adventures!

Sometimes I threw in what we ate and so on, but I am sure that those sons of ours have fallen asleep reading “Exploring the World.” Granddaughters B1 and B2 reminded me at Christmas that I need to test their dads when I get home to make sure that they have read the blog.  The girls are so insistent on that. Maybe this will be the cruise blog to test them. “You got off the ship, you shopped, you got back on the ship.”  End of story.

All that said, we have had fun. Donna and Lawrence are great friends and we have enjoyed being with them. Donna is a kindred spirit—we love the same colors, the same kind of clothes (especially TB swim suits), we enjoy a lot of the same things, books, TV, and so on. She appreciated the World War I story I am writing about my great uncle (I showed her my PowerPoint presentation) and she loved my bullet journal and plans to create one herself.  She is going to retire soon from Walgreen’s and I hope that we can shorten the distance between Janesville, Wisconsin, and Erie, Pennsylvania. After all, the Mall of America is only about 3 ½ hours from her house!  Lawrence is a very funny guy and we have a lot of laughs when we are together. His mind works in mysterious ways.

Random Thoughts

For some reason this has been a rocky cruise, not so much as to make one sick, but we do roll and rock a lot. At night the waves lull us to sleep—it does seem like I sleep better with such motion. Walking around the ship is not difficult so the rocking is just not that bad. Perhaps it is the effect of the storms in the East on the Atlantic..

When Carnival Destiny met its destiny by floundering around the Gulf of Mexico without propulsion and was dry docked, fixed, and reincarnated as the Carnival Sunshine, the designers added more staterooms and reduced the size of public areas. Our stateroom is adequate, but it would not be considered roomy. The bathroom is tiny, but better than the “capsules” on the NCL Epic. (reminder: there were two plastic floor to ceiling capsules on each side of the stateroom door—one was for the toilet and one was for the shower, allegedly opaque, hahahaha.) The sink in the Epic was in the stateroom itself. Worst design ever.

The Sunshine has very tastefully appointed décor—some Carnival ships are gaudy (though we do love Gaudi’s art and architecture in Barcelona from which the word gaudy came from). We have noticed there is not much space between tables in the dining room, the public bathrooms are very tiny (one has to be able to do acrobatic feats to even close the stall door), and there are not enough shady areas near the pool for shade seekers like me.

We have not gone to one show production, but the lounge musicians are very good. I have enjoyed Jason R. Rich’s “Academy of Fun” lectures. Thursday’s lecture was about using technology for stargazing/astronomy and I plan to download a couple of his recommended apps.

We have only seen one comedy show, Sheila Kay, and 45 minutes of menopause and doctor’s visits, while humorous to a point, was enough comedy for one cruise. Maybe the biker comedian we missed on Thursday because the show was full would have been better.

At the televised Morning Show this morning, Friday, we saw the spa manager wax Cruise Director Lee on his chest, legs, and underarms-a challenge for raising money for St. Jude’s. To his credit, well over $11,000 was contributed on this cruise alone—an extraordinary feat. Apparently the captain, the hotel director, and another officer jumped in the pool with uniforms on to kick off the challenge a few days ago.

The food has been OK. My absolute favorites were: Guy Fieri cheeseburgers, the beef empanadas in the Havana Bar, the arepas (grilled corn meal with mozzarella cheese) in the Blue Iguana Cantina, and the lobster (twice). The flat iron steak was good too. Yesterday I had cherry Napoleon-what’s not to like about layers of crème and puff pastry? That was the best dessert on the ship by far. We have said so many times on many cruises that the food looks good and is presented well, but it does not always taste as good as it looks.

I have read five books: Greg Iles' Mississippi Blood, David Baldacci's Split Second and Hour Game, Jeffery Deaver's Hell's Kitchen, and Lee Child's Echo Burning, all quite a departure from my World War I books, but all engaging! No research while cruising!

We will spend the rest of the day enjoying the ship, taking photos, and packing. So far we do not have the last day blues—mostly because our adventure will continue in Florida with Mary Lou and Scorchy and then Friend Judy in St. Augustine. First thing tomorrow, after we disembark about 9 a.m., we will call our sons and see how our families are doing, including son Brian’s father in law, John. We hope to find out that everyone is fine and that our house survived all the snow.

After our prime rib dinner tonight, it was very hard saying good bye to Donna and Lawrence. We have had such good laughs with them. They fly out of Orlando for Wisconsin as we head to Dade City and TK’s sister at Travelers Rest Resort. Until we meet again!

TK’s Takes: He saw butterflies in every port. So many men are wearing shorts in the dining room in the evening, he thinks he will no longer have to bring long pants. (JK note: hahaha)

He found out today at the debarkation seminar that we no longer have to fill out a customs form (unless we spent $1600 total between us—we did not). Plus we can now bring home 100 Cuban cigars apiece. Now they tell us that-another hahaha. Bringing Cuban cigars stateside was forbidden on past cruises.
The elevators are fast, so fast that you can miss them if you are not paying attention.