After a couple wonderful days in Ireland and a day in
England, it was finally time to board our cruise. We woke up in the morning,
stepped onto the balcony of the room we had and this is what we saw:
That’s our ship, the Carnival Legend, docked just around the
corner from our hotel. We packed up our three suitcases and headed to the one
small elevator. Since most of the guests in our hotel were heading to the
cruise ship at around the same time, there was a line to get into this small
elevator and that was just on our floor. I’m assuming it was the same on the
others. So, we dragged our luggage down to the stairs and carried each one
down. We beat the first people in line down to the lobby.
As I said, there were a lot of the guests that were heading
to the dock, so we put our name on the taxi list. We sat in the lobby next to a
nice family from Chicago who we would see again on the cruise and waited for
our room number to be called. In only 15 minutes or so a nice cab driver came
in and found us and we were on our way to the dock. It was a flat five pound
fare for the short drive to the dock. He dropped us off, we left our bags with
the porter and we were in the terminal. We quickly made our way through the
security screening and went to the check in lines. Now, since we are platinum
guests, we get a VIP check in line. However, when we got there we noticed that
the “VIP” line was actually longer than the regular check in lines, so we got
in the regular line. The only thing that slowed us down the tiniest bit was
that the check in person had to go to the VIP area to retrieve our sail and
sign cards. That took all of three minutes and then we were heading for the
ship. This was the 18th time that I have boarded a Carnival cruise
ship, but this had to be the most exciting one for me.
We were on the ship and, of course, the first place you
head…. The “Welcome Aboard” lunch on the Lido Deck. Now we ate a bunch of food
on the Lido Deck and if I described every meal here in this blog it would take
a year to get through. But, I do have to mention the “Welcome Aboard” lunch.
Not that the food is any better than any other time on the Lido, but it is the
FIRST time you get to eat on the ship. I opted first for the grilled ham and
cheese sandwich from the deli:
And then a quick plate from the buffet lines. It’s been
awhile since I took this picture, but as I remember from looking, I had some
roast beef, potatoes, some cole slaw, some noodles and beef from the Chinese
station and some sort of pasta.
Finally a slice of caramel cheesecake from the dessert
station:
After we finished the first of what will be many meals on
the ship, we went to the dining room to find our table. We ended up with a nice
little table for two just inside the entrance to the dining room. Before we sailed,
I had made a quick post to John Heald’s Facebook page requesting a table for
two and he did not disappoint. We then headed to our room and found it ready
for us. Something new that Carnival is doing is expediting luggage delivery for
VIP guests. For the first time, our luggage had arrived at our room before we
did. I stepped out on our balcony and snapped a quick couple of pictures. In the
first one you can see the White Cliffs of Dover that were just off the ship and
the second is looking back at our hotel (to go with the picture above of the
ship taken from the hotel):
Once we were underway, we checked out the ship a little more
and then relaxed a bit in our cabin before heading off to the Truffles dining
room for dinner. Now, a typical dinner for us on the ship consists of two
starters (soups, salads, appetizers, etc.), a main course and a dessert. For
this first night, I selected as one of my starters a main course item. One
thing you should know about any Carnival main dining room is that most of the
pasta main courses are available in a smaller “starter” size. That’s what I do
quite often. So, this night I started my meal with Linguini with Italian
Sausage, Bell Peppers and Mushrooms served with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
My second starter was off the “Every Day” menu and it was a
simple Caesar Salad. It is nothing super special, but a great salad
nonetheless.
For my main course, I really didn’t have that tough a
decision. I decided on the Tender Braised Beef Brisket in Gravy that came with
roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes. Here’s what I got:
Nice chunks of brisket with smooth potatoes. It was a very
nice main course, but Joan with her meal got something that would make this
even better. I quickly flagged down Renato our server (I’ll talk more about our
team later) and asked if I could get one of the sides that came with Joan’s
main course. He said “Of course” and in a couple minutes I had one of these as
well:
Ooey, gooey macaroni and cheese. It was just a little ramekin
of it, so it didn’t add too much. Just enough creamy cheese sauce and pasta to
top off my brisket. Then it was on to dessert. The first night on a cruise is a
difficult choice because they have two great desserts that are only available
the first night, the crème brulee and the black forest gateau. I went back and
forth and back and forth and then decided on the black forest gateau which is a
chocolate cake filled with bing cherries, heavy cream and kirschwasser. Here’s
what it looks like:
It was very good, but the crème brulee was also in my mind.
I then remembered the words of my friend Scott who says about dinning on a
cruise, “There’s no shame in doubling up.” So, here’s my crème brulee:
Joan and I shared this and so ended our first dinner on the
ship. We have 11 more nights and plenty of ports to go.
Next time, our second dinner after a day at sea.
Until next time,
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