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The Breakfast Grill has the same menu every morning but there is another side to the breakfast buffet that serves many more items such as various cereals, fruits, breads, cheeses, skim milk, 2% milk, chocolate milk, etc. Regular coffee, decaf coffee, hot water and tea are available for free 24 hours a day at the Lido Buffet. I think hot cocoa is also available free around the clock. We purchased a small bottle of Dole Plantation Brand Freeze Dried Instant 100% Kona Coffee but we actually thought the fresh brewed coffee on the Carnival Splendor tasted much better. But, I guess we are comparing apples and oranges when we are compared fresh brewed coffee to freeze dried instant coffee. I wonder if Carnival purchases coffee as pre-ground or if they grind the coffee beans on board.
There was always a long line at the Mongolian Grill. Actually two long lines since one starts on one side of the grill and the other starts on the other side of the grill, each with its own chef and its own three cooking woks. When we've had lunch on this cruise it has almost always been from either the Mongolian Grill or the Tandoor Indian Restaurant. Both are only open for lunch and not for dinner.
If we aren't too hungry at lunch time I'll get our lunch from the Mongolian Grill as I fill our bowls up with almost all vegetables, no noodles, and then the chef adds just a bit of meat before cooking. Chicken is always available and I'll select that for my bowl unless they have salmon, the only cooked fish that I like. They usually alternate between different types of seafood each day. I'll ask for the seafood item for my wife, Barbara, as she is a fan of seafood. Sometimes the seafood selection is shrimp, sometimes clams and muscles, and sometimes salmon. They will also often feature pork or some other meat. You also get to select your choice of sauces: Black Bean (Mild), Thai Barbecue (Medium), or Szechuan (Spicy). On our prior cruise we always selected the Szechuan (Spicy). On this cruise we found the Szechuan was too spicy for us and switched to the medium Thai Barbecue sauce. Actually, all the food on this cruise that is supposed to be spicy is more spicy than on our prior Carnival Splendor cruises. As far as the Indian food is concerned, that is good as it is tasting much better on this cruise and not bland like on our prior Carnival Splendor cruises.
I was just going to put some low-salt soy sauce on our food and leave the bottle there, but I could not find anywhere to set the dishes down. The counter where they keep a lot of bottles of ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, tabasco, etc., was piled with dirty dishes. I didn't want to put our food down near that. So instead I just took the bottle of soy sauce back to our room. There were lots of other bottles of it so I wasn't depriving anyone of it. I figured I would keep it in our room and would probably use most of it before the end of this cruise.
El Morocco is where they have the "Punchliner" Comedy Club sessions every day. It is a very nicely decorated room with a Morocco theme with plenty of room for everyone that wants to attend the comedy entertainment. It was more than big enough for this Astronomy session though there was a good size crown in attendance.
When I arrive about 12:55 PM the room was already full but the presentation going on obviously had nothing to do with astronomy. The ongoing presentation also didn't look like it was about to end anytime soon. I stepped out of the room, looked at the signage on the room and looked at my map and the Carnival Splendor Fun Times Daily Schedule and "What's Happening" on the Carnival Splendor App to make sure I was at the right place at the right time. I was! Looking at the schedule and at "What's Happening" neither showed that there was supposed to be anything going on in this room between 12:30 PM and 1:00 PM and yet here was a full room! I listened a bit to the presenters. They were talking about how they ended up being employed by Carnival. Then they moved on to talking about the "VIP Guests" and to thanking them. I realized that this was a private event for the Playlist Production Cast Members and the "VIP Guests". I had noticed at the last show that when the cast went out into the audience and brought audience members up onto the stage, all of those audience members on the stage were wearing big red ID tags on their lanyards, much bigger than the "Sign & Sail" room key cards that most passengers wear on their lanyards around their necks. Also, these "volunteers" from the audience appeared to be much more talented and autonomous in their dancing and participation on the stage. I suspect these "VIP Guests" are pre-arranged to be brought up onto the stage. I've seen many shows where "real" audience members are brought up on the stage and they usually seem lost in what they are supposed to do, are rarely talented dancers, and rarely are spontaneous in their interactions with the singing and dancing cast members. At any rate, this private event that was held prior to the event that I came to attend was something for the show cast members and those "VIP Guests". They did quickly wrap up their event at around 1:05 PM which caused the event that I came to see to start about 15 minutes late.
The Astronomy Class really wasn't about Astronomy but rather about Mobile Apps and Websites that are really good if you have an interest in Astronomy. All of these Apps can be used by people who have little or no knowledge of Astronomy but are just interested in what they are looking at in the sky above them that evening. Here are some of the Apps that were recommended that work on both iPhones and Android mobile devices:
The following website were suggested for astronomy information:
If you are interested in purchasing a telescope with tremendous capabilities at relatively low cost, check these:
The person giving this lecture, Jason R. Rich, is not an astronomer but rather an author and photographer who has written books and gives lectures on Consumer Electronics. He will be giving 17 different lectures on this cruise, usually 2 per day on many days. Many of the lectures will be repeated on different days. All of his slides can be viewed at his website at: www.JasonRichClasses.com.
The Ebano Strings played almost every day of the cruise, sometimes in the Promenade (Casino Bar Stage) and sometimes in the Splendor Lobby (Atrium).
"Join the ship's Senior Officers in an unforgettable and fun night of dancing, food and drinks!" This party was held in all three levels of the Carnival Splendor "Spectacular" Theater, Levels 3, 4 & 5 Fwd, both from 4:30pm-5:15pm and then again from 6:15pm-7:00pm. Free food and drinks were provided.
At first I went to this event alone to take some photos while Barbara, my wife, was still getting ready. I arrived at 4:34 PM, about 4 minutes after it had started. The Spectacular Theater was already pretty full and the serving of free food and drinks was already underway as you can see above. I then went back to our cabin to get Barbara. As I've mentioned elsewhere in these reports, Barbara had to push Barbara in the wheelchair shown in the above photo to get around the ship. She could stand and walk short distances, but with the pain in her legs she was not able to stand for long or to walk the long distances on the ship. By the time we returned to the party I didn't see any servers going around giving out free food and drinks. However, one server personally came to us and gave us one glass of red and one glass of white wine. Notice in the above photos just how full they poured the glasses of wine! They never pour that much when you buy a glass of wine. The red wine was just "OK" but the white wine was pretty good and we are usually not big fans of white wine. During this event the Ship's Captain and Senior Officers are usually introduced up on the stage. If they did that, I must have missed that part when I went to get Barbara.
Another "Very Good wine for under $40 per bottle! This one is even available by the glass, but in the restaurants and not in the bars. We've now found enough different wines from the Carnival Restaurant Wine List under $40 per bottle to eliminate the need of having to sneak some decent bottles of wine on board. On future cruises we'll just take on board the one bottle each in carry on luggage that they allow and then purchase additional bottles from the Restaurant Wine List.
Of the Carnival cruises that we've taken over the last couple of years the wine list does not seem to change much. Over time some wines are eliminated and some wines added, and of course the vintages often change as they run out of the older vintages of the same wine. Thus, with luck, some of the wines that we've found that we like on this cruise will still be offered on the Carnival Panorama Mexican Riviera Cruise we are going on in January 2020 and the Carnival Mardi Gras Transatlantic Cruise we are going on in March 2020.
This duo also played every day usually alternating between the Splendor Lobby (Atrium, 3 Fwd) and the Promenade (Casino Bar Stage, 5 Mid). The person you see playing the saxophone also played the guitar, actually playing the guitar more often than the sax. The gal on the left was the singer. I don't think she played any instrument.
For most of this cruise this duo usually played in the Promenade but they would sometimes play at other stages.
"Whether you're a die-hard fan or a part-time lover of the famous musical, this one-time-only tribute performance will knock you off your feet!" 8:00pm - 9:00pm, Grand Piano, 5 Aft. Some members of the singing and dancing cast joined Rohan for these songs.
They have a lot of comedy performances on this cruise, sometimes starting as early as 3pm. Today Kathleen Dunbar performed at 3pm "Room for Rent" (PG-13), 6pm "Sin City's Diva" (R-18+) 8:30 pm "Too Many Margaritas" (R-18+). Will Marfori performed at 4pm "Prime Time" (PG-13), 7pm "Smart Comedy" (R-18+) and 10:30pm "POP Comedy". Some days there are less comedy performances but rarely less than four every day except on shore days. In addition to the PG-13 and R-18+ categories some of the performances are rated as Explicit-18+.
The above is a photo of the bar in the El Morocco and an Ardbeg Scotch Whiskey that I ordered at that bar. Since it seems to be Carnival policy to always offer to make it a double for just $3 more, I made it a double. The total cost of the drink was $15.93 which even included the automatic 18% gratuity. I gave the bar tender an addition $1 tip in cash, which I almost always do for every drink that I order. My wife's drink glass was empty to I split the whiskey with her. That meant that we each drank a single shot drink on the rocks of an excellent Scotch for less than $8 each! I didn't notice until I reviewed this photo the people staring at me. They were probably wondering why I was taking a photo of them, but I wasn't. I was taking a photo of the bar behind them.
"After a fun evening of entertainment, enjoy this enticing display of culinary treats!" 11:30pm - 1:00am, Lid Restaurant, 9 Aft.
The only food that I saw at the Midnight Gala Buffet was just sweets, mostly cakes, pies, ice cream, etc. I'm not big on desserts or sweets, so instead I went to the deli and ordered a tuna sandwich. I probably had enough to eat for the day but just got tempted by seeing so much food at the Midnight Gala Buffet.
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If in this report you see any typos, misspellings, factual errors or other types of errors, please let me know.
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