Day 10




Towel animals from the last 3 nights

Carnival started a complete ships tour this year at an extra cost. We had signed up for it and it was this morning. They only take 12 on each tour and only schedule it on the last sea day. The tour takes 3 ½ hours.

Just walking around

So, at 9am we were up and down to the library to meet our tour guide and the other passengers going on the tour. It was too bad that they didn’t allow any photographs. They even walked us through a metal detector to make sure we didn’t have any cameras or cell phones.
During the tour we covered the crew's quarters, there food servicearea, the lounge and other areas that are normally off-limits to a customer.  Then we went into the food service area and saw the massive storerooms and freezers.  The head storekeeper met us and took us through this area. They purchase $300,000 worth of food each and every week and it is all purchased in the US. For example, 65,000 eggs, 10,000 pounds of chicken, 3,000 pounds of shrimp and 8,850 pounds of flower, just to list some of the items they buy each week.

Our table for dinner

Then we went to the showroom and the technical director talked about how the stage, lights and special effects worked. After that we went into the changing rooms and the head dancer talked about costumes and her work in the shows.

After that, we went to the engine control room and heard a discussion about the engines and all the systems by the Chief Engineer. At this time we were several floors below sea level. Some of the things we were told were they producing 528,344 gallons of water a day and burn 41,475 gallons of heavy fuel oil a day.

Finally we went up to the bridge where we met the Captain and he gave us a tour and in-depth discussion as to how the bridge works and his duties.

A great tour finished after 3 ½ hours and was really worth the time and money to see these areas that the public does not get to see.

By this time, it was time to eat lunch and we went to the main buffet. The second buffet was an entire line dedicated to chocolates so we stopped there also.

Next we went to the slot tournament where neither of us qualified, but as always we had fun.

Finally we played a session in the casino and we are now up for the entire cruise – a great feeling.

Then we went back to the room to rest before getting ready for our second formal night.

A snack

The only bad thing about the day was that the sun was beautiful and we spend the entire day inside – but that’s ok considering what we did.

We got dressed and out to the Promenade deck to have our pictures and people watch – that is always fun. We also ate at the Sushi Bar for a before dinner snack.

The dinner was wonderful and we had a really good time with our tablemates. After dinner we went to the show which was a Beetles tribute and quite good. Then it was on to the casino. Barb was down but Ed was up so the world as we know it is good. One of our table couples happened to stop by as Ed was making a good run so that was fun.

It’s 2:00am so it is time to go to bed.



Tomorrow is our last port, Nassau and we arrive at noon so Ed needs to get up at 7 to get lounge chairs that will be close to the room and in the sun.

Night for now.