I woke up early this morning and had the most pitiful breakfast at a hotel. Nothing was set out, just a man on a phone who had a bad accent started talking to me. Finally I figured out he worked at the hotel and wasn’t an Uber driver looking for a passenger. Nothing was set out, but he said he would make me bacon and eggs… he gave me a bowl of cereal (Frosted Flakes) after a while and then eventually brought me a mostly cooked sausage patty (not to be confused with bacon) and some toast. I ate the cereal and most of the sausage patty.
The first shuttle from Go Port Canaveral leaves the airport at 10am, so I checked out and took an Uber so I could arrive around 9am. Surprisingly I was not the first person there, I was group #12 and they took 22 groups in the first bus – it was full without social distancing.
check in counter for the bus on the bus I took this early, the bus was full Luggage carts at the port
The bus ride was not too long and I arrived at the port shortly before my check in time of 1130. I took the elevator up to the top of the parking garage to take a picture of the ship.
Carnival Mardi Gras
When I went to get in the queue for the terminal it stretched down the ramps outside nearly to the ground floor. It was hot and humid, but at least it was shaded from the sun. Despite the boarding passes having time slots no one even checked them at the terminal.
outside the terminal building near the end of the outdoor line
The check in process was pretty simple, they took a look at my COVID test, boarding pass and took a picture of my passport.
After this I had the joy of going through security. They asked me to take out my laptop and then I asked about my drone. Instantly they had no idea what to do. They called over someone else who had no idea what to do, but wrote down my name and cabin information. Eventually they called over yet another person who had no idea what to do and then by chance one of the security people said I could take it, but not fly it from the ship.
After the obligatory boarding photo (without mask) I walked to a facial recognition system that checked me onto the ship… it was nice not having to use my card to get on. I’m usually fumbling with the card while they force hand sanitizer on my hands and trying to juggle my camera equipment.
I was a bit disappointed that they didn’t really have a big crowd to welcome us aboard, but I’m sure they had most of the crew turning over the cabins. They didn’t need to worry about this for the inaugural cruise.
I was able to drop my carry on bags outside my cabin, which was nice since I had extra weight from 15 cans of soda and 2 bottles of wine.
I first walked to Pig & Anchor, but eventuality figured out where Guy’s burger bar was.
I had the pig patty, which in addition to the hamburger, super melty cheese and other normal toppings it had a patty made of deep fried bacon. It was one of the best hamburgers I’ve ever had. The patty wasn’t too big and it was just good.
Guy’s Pig & Anchor Pig Patty from Guy’s burger joint
The mustering “drill” was very simple. I walked to my muster station and one crew member gave a quick demonstration on how to put on the life jacket. There was a video with Shaq – the CSO “Chief Safety Officer” with more safety information on the tv.
After lunch I wandered around the ship to find locations to mount my GoPro to record a time lapse.
I also wandered around to explore and see what was where. It’s a big ship and it has soo many bars and restaurants. It was still fairly early so it wasn’t very crowded yet, in fact the “Serenity” adult pool area was empty.
Serenity Pool Cape Canaveral Port Canaveral Park Infinity Pool
The ship was bunkering fuel (LNG) for a while, I managed to take a picture as the fueling ship was leaving.
The cabins were ready at 1:30pm and I took a short video inside the cabin before moving in my bags. I attempted to go outside on the balcony, but found out the child safety lock was still engaged. The cove balcony is pretty nice.
The door to the balcony balcony chairs A sweet treat from my Carnival Business Development Manager
The Sailaway party was scheduled for 4pm and just before the Cruise Director made the remaining part of the safety drill speech. Guest services (bars, etc.) were stopped briefly, but it was much more relaxed as we weren’t all huddled together in a small area.
Port Canaveral Park Sailaway Party
At 4pm the Sailaway party started outside on the Lido deck (16) midship where the main pool is. The Cruise Director is from Scotland and was wearing a kilt. It was an entertaining party and about 4:45pm the ship left. I had started the time lapse much earlier, but the battery didn’t die until the ship passed all the interesting things. There wasn’t much land to go past (I put the camera further back to get more footage of the land), but I was able to capture a bit of the pilot ship chasing us.
I grabbed a quick slice of pizza since my dining time was at 8:15pm (I did pick Your Time Dining, but for some reason it didn’t update).
I remembered that even though I recorded a video of the cabin I forgot to take pictures, so I went back to organize the cabin and put away my clothes so I could take some more photos. The closet is very well designed. The shelves can fold down if you need more shelves instead of hanging clothes. I also like the lighting around the mirror and ceiling light.
Closet and safe Extra shelves or extra hangers – you decide Bathroom Shower shower door opens in a way to provide more space
I took some pictures of the piano bar, it is has a lot of piano keys, even on the windows.
I went to a comedy show at the Punchliner. It was pretty good.
I saw a quick show “Meet your cruise director” in Grand Central with the fancy screens. They didn’t rotate the screens like I saw on another video, but it was still quite nice.
Center Stage Center Stage
I chose to eat at the main dining room even though I didn’t see anything in particular I liked on the menu. No one else was at the table, so I was able to eat quickly – which is good because it was boring eating by myself. The dining room was nice and the bread plates had different photos on them. My seat had one from Seattle and next to me there was one for Texas.
Chandelier Palms Main Dining Room
The bagette was very good. I had the Caesar salad (without the anchovies I asked for) which had very limp lettuce and tried the cured salmon they had on the appetizer – it wasn’t that good either.
Caesar salad cured salmon
For the main I decided to try the braised brisket. It was tender (as something braised should be), however it didn’t really have any flavor.
For desert I had the chocolate melting cake…. it was good, just too sweet for me
I went to a Playlist Production preview show at Grand Central and it was pretty good. Again the fancy screens were stationary.
I went to see the Playlist Production “Rock Revolution – Summer of ’69”. The theater itself was devoid of any decorations and seemed quite small. The show was good, however there were no props except for a couple of jungle gym type devices and you spent most of your time distracted by the animations on the screens behind the entertainers. It seems like they could have done a better job if the scene was stationary behind them
I wandered around the ship a little more. I walked into the night club very briefly – it was one of the smallest night clubs I ever saw on a ship. The reason is they had live music in a number of different places. I didn’t stay long because it was a bit hard to breathe with my mask on.
