It was 8:00AM when I woke up and looked at the clock.
AHHHHH! Our first seaday!
We had a long way to go to get all the way across the gulf of Mexico and then down to Honduras.
No wonder it was going to take us 2 days to get there.
Here is a general map of where we were headed during our first 2 sea days:
The first thing I did after I was up and around that morning was to go out to the smoking area and have a morning smoke.
I want to take a minute to mention the smoking area on Deck 11. (sorry non-smokers, bear with me for just a minute)
For one thing, it was a really nice smoking area set up with comfortable couches, tables and chairs, and lounge chairs. I know smokers have recently been banned from smoking on Carnival Cruise Lines' cabin balconies and the smoking areas have become more important to us. For another thing, the smoking areas on this ship became important to me as this cruise went on because I ended up spending A LOT of my time in these areas, as you will see later.
Here are some pictures of the smoking area on Deck 11:
In this picture, it's the middle deck with the comfortable couches along the green wall with the colorful cube tables in front of them:
And here is another view of the couches:
The smoking area goes all along deck 11 on the port (left) side. You can smoke all along this side of the deck to the back of the ship.
When we were sitting in the smoking area, this was our view of the lido deck main pool, and the big screen TV. It was so nice to be able to sit there and watch everything and not be banned to a back corner of the ship.
I had my morning smoke and went back to the cabin to get ready for the day.
My roommate and I were both hungry so we decided to go down to the buffet and see what they had to offer for breakfast.
We ate a nice breakfast. I really love the ships buffet breakfast and the Carnival Magic buffet was perfect.
After we ate, we decided since it was a sunny morning, we would lay out and get some sun.
We went back to the cabin to change into swimsuits and grab our towels. We found some lounge chairs by the railing at the back of the ship on deck 10 on the other side of the hot tub.
It was a good spot to spend the day:
We stayed there most of the morning and early afternoon. We spent quite a bit of time that day talking to a sweet young couple that sat near us.
When we had enough sun, we went back to our cabin to shower and change. We ordered some fruit from room service to hold us over until dinner.
We stopped the gift shop that afternoon to see if they had any good souvenirs:
That night was elegant night in the Main Dining Room (MDR) so we spent the latter part of the afternoon in our cabin getting dressed up for dinner.
When we were ready for dinner, we met up with the neighbors to go down to the 3rd floor. The entrance to our dining room was in the Lobby area of the ship.
We went down to the restaurant around 6:00PM, and we didn't wait long for a table.
We were seated at a table for 4 and we all ordered.
This meal, on the 2nd night of the cruise, was where things really began to go south with my roommate and I.
I already had a bad vibe from the neighbors, and so did my roommate. We had discussed the neighbors in the previous few days and we agreed that it was really stressful to be around them for any length of time. We both felt that our time with them was awkward and strained and we really weren't connecting with them.
It's possible that being around the neighbors that night at dinner got my roommate in a bad mood. Maybe it wasn't related to the neighbors at all. Maybe she was tired? I know that my roommate and I had a nice day, and now at dinner her mood completely changed.
I will admit, my roommate had been a little snappy with me at times during the past few days, but I had been willing to ignore it.
While we were eating our appetizers, I noticed my roommates mood was going from bad to worse. The neighbors were no help, they seemed to be enjoying it and maybe even egging her on.
Without going into details, I'll just say that by the time I got my entree, I was ready to leave the table.
Of course, I didn't want to miss my prime rib dinner, so when my entree came I ate quickly and then excused myself from the table. I made some excuse about going to have a smoke, and I left the MDR with no intention of going back to that table.
I was pretty irritated at this point with both my roommate and the neighbors. I was beginning to wonder what I had gotten myself into.
I went back up to the cabin and changed into some more comfortable clothes and made my way out to the smoking area to sit for a while.
I sat there thinking things over, and calming myself down. I thought back over the past few years, the past few months and the past few days and I wondered if anything I had done was causing my roommate to treat me the way she was. Her behavior toward me was really strange. She was mostly fine, but there were times when she made fun of me, called me names (jokingly, of course), or made comments to me that just weren't nice.
I came to the conclusion that since day one I had been very patient with her and I had been very kind. I had treated her just as a friend should treat a friend. I honestly couldn't think of anything I had done that would cause her to treat me the way she had.
I was pretty disappointed that I was on a cruise and I should be out and about on the ship doing fun things like going to the comedy club or watching a show in the theater. Instead I was sitting here pondering my friendship with my roommate and wondering what in the heck was going on.
As far as the neighbors were concerned, I was willing to just let them be. I wasn't really "friends" with them before the cruise, and I was OK with not being friends with them after the cruise. I decided since I was spending the next 6 days with them, we might as well get along as much as possible. I was going to continue being nice to them, and make the best of the cruise. I wasn't sharing a cabin with them, so it wasn't that big of a deal that I didn't click with them.
My roommate was a completely different story. She and I had been friends for 25 years, although we had lost touch for a while. I felt terrible about the way thing were starting to go between us, and I hoped whatever was happening was repairable.
After I calmed myself down I started talking to a woman that happened to be sitting near me. She was an older lady an she was hilarious. I needed a laugh and I enjoyed talking to her for a while.
As we were talking, my roommate happened to walk by.
The three of us got to talking and we all decided to walk down to the piano bar and see what was happening down there.
I was kind of glad the woman was hanging out with us because she was a nice buffer between my roommate and I for a few hours.
The 3 of us stayed at the piano bar for a while
After about 45 minutes to an hour, we moved on to the Vibe Nightclub to listen to 70's and 80's music hour.
These pictures were taken on a day when the club was empty, but I'll add them here so you can see what the club looked like:
The club was packed and none of us wanted to dance so we found a place off to the side of the dance floor. We listened to the music and people watched. They played good music; Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, BeeGee's, etc.....
I had a really good time that night, both at the piano bar and at the night club.
After 70's & 80's hour was over, the 3 of us went down to the Lido deck in search of food. We were all hungry.
We found the cheeseburger place was serving food so filled our plates with burgers and fries and sat down to eat.
After I ate, I couldn't resist going to get an ice cream cone. I love the ice cream on the ships and I got ice cream as much as I could on this cruise.
My roommate and I said goodbye to our friend and went back to our cabin.
By then, the mood between my roommate and I was fine. Neither of us had said anything about dinner.
Back in our cabin, we found this little guy. I have no idea what he is supposed to be, but he's cute:
Again, my bed looked sooooooooo comfortable:
We were both tired after a long day and we went to sleep that night around 1:00AM.
I was a little bummed out that I hadn't gone to the spa that day. I told myself I was definitely going to go to the spa at least once a day for the rest of the cruise. I had enjoyed it so much on the first night, and I really wanted to take advantage of it on this cruise.
Tomorrow was another sea day, so I could sleep in and also be sure to make time to visit the spa.
Day 5 is HERE!
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