{"id":1565,"date":"2022-06-20T15:12:12","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T21:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/?p=1565"},"modified":"2022-06-20T15:12:12","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T21:12:12","slug":"day-1-sea-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/2022\/06\/20\/day-1-sea-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 1 \u2013 Sea Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today\u2019s post is dedicated to Peanut. No\u2026 not Jeff Dunham\u2019s Peanut\u2026 my Peanut. You see, today is Peanut\u2019s birthday. And this is her birthday cruise. Happy Birthday Peanut!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She booked this cruise to be here on her birthday. She got a real good deal\u2026 I mean R.E.A.L   G.O.O.D  D.E.A.L !!!! And she was excited to explore this new ship. So, I booked it to be with her. Except\u2026 with the price of airline tickets from California to Florida going crazy\u2026 and the uncertainty because of cancellations, she had to cancel the cruise *sad face*.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Peanut, I miss you and really do wish you were here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now\u2026 on to the cruise stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This morning started off with the usual stuff\u2026 sleeping in late (of course) and then to the sea-day brunch. A little while back, Carnival introduced my favorite sea day brunch item\u2026 12-hour French toast. It\u2019s really a small loaf of bread that is fixed up sorta like regular French toast, but without slicing it up. There are a few spices added in too\u2026 maybe a little cinnamon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I make a little hole in the \u201cloaf\u201d and pour in one of the two little dishes of maple syrup. Mmmmmm-mmmmmm good. After eating the center of the loaf, I pour the remaining syrup over the outsides and eat that. It all tastes so good that I\u2019m sure there are lots of eggs and other bad things in it\u2026 and a couple million calories. So, this is the only one I\u2019m allowing for myself this cruise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After breakfast it was off to get a Bloody Mary. That has become a little bit of a tradition for me. And especially on ships where there\u2019s a Pig & Anchor. Today didn\u2019t disappoint. The \u201cPig & Anchor puts many of the daily essentials and something from all the food groups in the ones they make\u2026 tomato juice (of course) for vitamin C, stuffed olives from the vegetable group, a stalk of the celery from the ruffage group, Tito\u2019s finest from the make you mellow group, and of course a few pieces of bacon from the clogged arteries food group. This is another thing I\u2019m allowing myself to have just once this cruise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With full tummy, and a little \u201ctomato juice\u201d in me it was time to go off exploring the ship. The first thing that struck me is that there is a bar everywhere. I have yet to visit them all, but it seems like this ship is truly devoted to bars and lounges for the bars. A quick check of the Carnival Hub shows that there are 13 places where you can get a frozen concoction to help you hang on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hummmm\u2026The Carnival Hub. A smart cell phone and the Carnival Hub app have become almost essential on-board Carnival ships these days. Gone are the paper copies of the \u201cFun Times\u201d that listed all the events of the day. Yes\u2026 it is possible to hunt down paper copies of the daily events if you must have one, but you really do have to work at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Add to that\u2026 any time you want to eat in almost anything but fixed time dinner, or the buffet, you must use your smartphone to request a table. AND\u2026 once you get to the restaurant, you use the cell phone to pull up the menu. Gone are the days where you can turn off your cell phone and put in the drawer as soon as you board the ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, the ship is large, but in the end, there is little new or different on board. All the stuff previous ships had on two decks (mostly 4 &5), are now spread out on three decks. Two of the decks have all the familiar shops\u2026 Cherry on Top, Effy jewelry (yeowwww $$$$), \u201cFun Shops (Carnival Store, Fragrance store, and overprices stuff store) \u2026 and let\u2019s not forget the Liquor and Tobacco store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One deck is nearly entirely devoted to the casino. There has been a clear attempt to separate the smoking and non-smoking sections on opposite sides of the ship. It works fairly well except around the cross over in the middle where the \u201caromas\u201d waft between the two sides of the ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two things missing from this ship. Gone is the Red Frog Pub\u2026 farewell old friend. The Red Frog Pub was a place I spent time on sea days writing stuff. Not to worry, have laptop-will travel. Also gone are the Park West Auctions\u2026 most would say \u201cgood riddance\u201d and others would say, \u201cthank you for saving me a small fortune on my sail & sign card.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also gone are two of my favorite events: the Hairy Chest Contest and the Master Mixologist normally held on the Lido deck. A few months ago, I was told these events were eliminated to prevent mass gatherings as part of the Cootie Bug protocol. However, if you could see the Lido deck today, it is already back to mass gathering. I suspect a lot of people would say good riddance to both of these too\u2026 especially the Hairy Chest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
No Cootie Bug protocols in progress<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Pools and hot tubs in full operation.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The most obvious new thing is the Roaster Coaster. Yes, I meant \u201cRoaster.\u201d Peanut used to say that when she was little and since today is her birthday, I defer to her. If you are a fan of roaster coasters, then the novelty of this one makes it a must do. But as roaster coasters go, this one isn\u2019t much. It\u2019s just two quick laps around a little part of deck 18. It only lasts about 48 seconds. If it was free, then maybe it would be fun, but it costs way more than a frozen concoction to help me hang on, so I\u2019ll pass on this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a big change to the Atrium. On all previous ships the Atrium had a bar on a lower\/bottom floor, a little seating area and a small stage. On the Party Grass it\u2019s a whole new ballgame. There is a big stage and seating on three levels to watch the shows and productions that go on there. While it hasn\u2019t replaced the main showroom, there seem to be many similar type productions in the Atrium Theater (Atrium Theater is my naming, not Carnivals. I think it\u2019s really called, \u201cCenter Stage\u201d. My name is better.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This is the Atrium Theatre. (Center Stage) They reconfigure it for various performances adding or removing chairs from the floor.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One more thing before I find a hot tub and a frozen concoction to help me hang on. Contrary to popular legend, it doesn\u2019t take a week to explore this ship. Between Day O (had to get that one in one more time) and this morning I checked out all the venues of consequence. Having said that, drinking a little liquid libation in all the bars is another thing entirely. So that is my quest for the rest of this cruise. Have one drink in all the bars. Perhaps I\u2019ll do a write up on each one in the days to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, I\u2019m starting with the Blue Iguana and a visit to my friends, Sr. Patron and Don Julio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kokomo Man<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s post is dedicated to Peanut. No\u2026 not Jeff Dunham\u2019s Peanut\u2026 my Peanut. You see, today is Peanut\u2019s birthday. And this is her birthday cruise. Happy Birthday Peanut!!! She booked this cruise to be here on her birthday. She got … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[84],"tags":[18,31,16,81],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1565"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1572,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1565\/revisions\/1572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kokomoman.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}