Day 2 – Day at Sea

For our first morning, we made a bee-line to our favorite breakfast establishment.  The Blue Iguana Cantina.  I love a good breakfast burrito. 

After waiting a couple of minutes we were able to get our burritos and snag a spot to eat.  We had an agenda. 

Our last trip aboard the Carnival Vista we won a free excursion on the Fun Ashore, Fun Aboard talk with Matt the Cruise Director.  Matt is hilarious.  It is worth going to the talk just for his jokes, but after we won an all-inclusive beach day in the Dominican Republic the last time we went to the talk we had no choice but to go back with our fingers crossed.  It didn’t work.  We didn’t win, but we caught the tail end of the Morning Show with Matt (also hilarious) and learned some important tips about our ports at the talk. 

Then we headed towards brunch. 

I know what you’re thinking.  You’re thinking we literally just left breakfast and then went to brunch.  I mean, I even carried my coffee to the Fun Ashore, Fun Aboard talk. 

On our way to brunch, we got distracted by a cooking demonstration.  We watched several of the chiefs prepare foods that are available on the ship.  It was interesting, but probably not something I would have set out to go to.  It was a nice distraction on the way to brunch though. 

So, we went to brunch.  Apparently eating was the only thing on our agenda on this day at sea.  Brunch has a completely different menu than breakfast or lunch.  There actually is no lunch in the dining room on board Carnival Ships.  Brunch features both breakfast and lunch items and is one of the must-do activities on board.  We got a very fluffy pastry…that didn’t seem worth the calories. 

The bacon mac and cheese was definitely worth it though. 

I would like to tell you that we went to work out, went for a swim, a walk, played soccer pool, or something active after we ate breakfast and brunch.  But that would be a lie.  After sitting around reading & sitting around casino tables for a couple of short hours….we went to Afternoon Tea. 

I know.  We ate again. 

Tea includes tea (or coffee) finger sandwiches, scones, and pastries.  And it is all super delicious!  See the post on Afternoon Tea (link me!) on the Carnival Vista for more information.   

After Afternoon Tea, we wondered around the ship for a while before we ended up in the Red Frog Pub.  No, not to eat!  To try some self-serve beer.  It is pretty cool that Carnival has put a whole brewery on board their ships.  I’m not exactly a micro-brewery fan (I’d rather drink a Guinness), but it was fun to swipe your card and pour your own beer. 

Honestly, we just went to try it out so after about a half a pour, we went back to the room to get ready for formal night.  Formal night on Carnival is diverse.  Some people show up in slacks and polos while some show up in a tux.  Some wear prom dresses and some wear sun dresses.  Wear what you want as long as its sorta nice.  I would not recommend shorts or a t-shirt (even if they’re nice), but other that it doesn’t really matter. 

We had just started looking at our fancy dinner choices (lobster!) when a couple was being shown to our table.  We learned that they had asked to change from any time dining to early dining and thus were seated with us and I think we were all pleased with the new situation.  There is something nice about set table-mates for a cruise.  You get to actually get to know each other.  You get to hear about different types of excursions and different things you could have chosen to do in your port.  It helps when you like your tablemates, which we did. 

After dinner we went to the Havana pool.  Not just to take pictures.  It is a great place to take pictures after dinner by the way, especially if you don’t mind getting your feet wet.  You can get some great photos from the pool off the back of the ship. 

But we went to Havana to take advantage of the relatively empty pool and swim in the beauty of Havana.  Havana includes an infinity pool, two hot tubs, obviously some lounge chairs and a bar.  The indoor seating and bar portion of Havana are open to everyone all the time, but the outdoor sections of Havana are only open to non-Havana guests after 7pm.  There were a couple of other girls in the pool with us and multiple people stopped by the almost empty pool to see what the fuss of Havana was all about. 

We thought about booking Havana.  It would be really great to have a mostly empty pool all the time, but we decided we didn’t want to pay the price of Havana and we would just accept Havana at night after dinner. 

It was nice out there, though.  We stayed for an hour or so, enjoying being on such a large ship with so few people. 

*UPDATE* The Havana pool is no longer open to non-suite guests at any time of day.