Since I boarded so late I’m already considered late for my muster drill. After dropping my bags in the room I immediately headed down to my muster station inside Teatro Rosso.

These jackets are different than the ones they have on most Carnival ships so I’m going to include a few more pictures than normal.

This theater is almost exactly like what you have on Carnival Vista, Horizon and Panorama. The major difference is it does not have the removable seating everyone hates. It has normal theater seating with cupholders.

Bar Rosso is just like bars on Vista class ships.

Except of course for the draft beer selection which is all Italian at this bar.

Now that the safety briefing is over we can get to the fun. Here is today’s Fun Times.

We are embarking on Memorial Day. That is the reason for the flag in the atrium.

Finally I got to a fun ship. I would normally be on my second or third one by the time I do my muster drill.

We have a trio for entertainment.

I have some catching up to do with fun ships.

A door or two down from my room there’s a lip, bump, unevenness in the floor. I hit that every time and stumble a bit. Hopefully at some point I’ll get used to it–like Bill Murray did with the puddle in Ground Hog Day.

This is our first look at the lido deck. As you can see there is a retractable roof that is open right now. As a result there isn’t that normal big screen you have on most Carnival ships. The big screen is behind me. It’s smaller and lower like what we had on Carnival Splendor last year in Alaska. The retractable roof is what makes this a good ship to do year round cruises from New York. Though it looks like Carnival has already shifted that position with plans to move this ship to Port Canaveral next winter.

Tomodro is basically your Blue Iguana Cantina with a few additional items to make it more Italian.

Guy’s Burger Joint also has a couple of new menu items to add some Italian flavor to their bugers.

The tray of burgers with mozzarella on them is what they use for the pizza burgers.

This is the pizza burger. It has mozzarella cheese, a fried mozzarella cheese patty, marinara sauce, and fried pepperoni strips on it.

Yeah pizza burger is the way to go. If you like mozzarella sticks and marinara, you’re going to love this burger.

I just don’t know about this part. These fried pepperoni strips don’t taste like anything. Whatever they did to them took away their flavor.

After eating I was able to catch sail away. I am familiar with this ship layout since it’s basically the same as Vista class ships. I know the good spots. This is from the “secret deck” at the front of deck 9. It has the wings that go out over the sides of the ship because it is above the bridge. 

Now I guess people are redecorating the spaces between doors.

The smart elevators have instructions. Of course it’s not telling you the most important thing which is to hit the button once for each person. Carnival employees aren’t doing it. During embarkation I saw a Carnival employee who was manning the elevator ask a group of three their floor then hit the button once for the entire group. If it’s a group of three it’s important the elevator know three people are getting in that way it will know when it’s full and it won’t stop on any additional floors.

Back out on Lido deck, Rococo is the only bar in the pool area on deck 10. There is another bar in this area up on deck 11.

Rococo has a slew of frozen cocktails. Apart from that it’s really just a regular pool bar.

I got the Pistachio Dream. They don’t have pistachios so they are using melon liquor and rum. That sounds good to me.

Let’s take a peek at the Venezia items in the gift shop.

The shirt on the left looks like my Celebration Inaugural Season shirt. That may be what I go for unless I find a better one.

More Venezia shirts.

The string trio is performing in the atrium.

This is the Hero’s Bar on deck 4. Exactly where it is on Carnival Panorama. This one does not have the smaller TVs that are on pillars on Carnival Panorama.

They did add a fourth screen down on the end. Panorama only has three big screens. I’ll be interested to see how this works during football season. The Hero’s Bar on Panorama got quite crowded on Sunday and for primetime games. And Panorama has the Pig & Anchor Smokehouse on Deck 5 which had a few TVs for sports. This ship does not have that. This is the only spot for sports on this ship.

This is the Limelight Lounge which is primarily known as the Punchliner Comedy Club. I’m not a fan of the two statues. On other Vista class ships there would be three more seats in there. One more on the left and two more on the right. There’s also going to be a lot of standing room in this area and cocktail servers trying to navigate that. I predict those statues will be relocated at some point in the future.

I’m moving up to deck 5 in the back of the ship now.

This is the entrance to what would be the Havana area on Carnival’s Vista class ships. On this ship the bar is called the Carnevale Bar. When it was a Costa ship this little walkway had wax figures along both sides of it.

Here is a look at the menu.

I was going to try to get a spot at Amari which is basically the Alchemy Bar on this ship but the main bar is full. Let’s go check out Frizzante.

This is the Amari menu.

Now we are at Frizzante. Frizzante and Il Viaggio occupy the space where the Red Frog Pub/Pig & Anchor would be on Vista class ships.

This is a look at the Frizzante menu.

I’m trying the Italian expresso martini.

This is the chocolate orange expresso martini.

I headed down to the Limelight Lounge for Punchliner comedy with Dominic Leonelli.

This is the Punchliner menu.

This is a look at the atrium from deck 5.

Let’s see what’s going on in the theater.

It’s just bingo. And they’re using Costa graphics.

The Teppanyaki is usually packed on other ships. I’m surprised to see it like this.

I ran into Fleet Cruise Director Mike Pack on my way to the Welcome Aboard show.

Cruise Director MarQ at the Welcome Aboard show.

I prebooked dinner tonight at Il Viaggio. I took a late slot because I figured I would want to eat late on the first night. I also have an early slot on the last night when I would prefer to eat earlier.

the food I was feeling pretty good going in because these two guys next to me had ordered all different things and both tried all of them. I asked them if anything was really great and they named off everything I ordered…except the dessert. Neither of them had my dessert. They did help me with a good bread. There are like 4-5 bread options. This is the good bread. It has parmesan and pesto in it.

These were my dinner selections.

 

 

This is a different bread. I forget what it’s flaky kind of like a croissant. I overheard Hanna say she likes to alternate between the first bread and this one so I decided to try it. It’s good but I like the first one better.

They give everyone a shot of limoncello at the end.

I was full so I asked for my cannoli to go.

The other things they give everyone at the end. The waiter said he would put some on my to go plate.

Something everyone needs to be aware of. I overheard the table next to me when their check came. They prepaid just as I did. They asked if gratuity was included in the amount they prepaid. The waiter told them it was not. Now I know I paid gratuity. And I’m assuming if I did everyone else did as well. Sure enough he brought me mine saying the $42 was paid but no gratuity. I don’t mind giving additional gratuity. I always do. But they’re now giving you an iPhone with the preset % options in the tip. I would add 10% which sounds cheap when he’s saying you haven’t paid any gratuity but it’s not when I actually already paid 18%. This is what I pre-paid on all of of my Il Viaggio dinners.

 

 

This is what was on the Main Dining Room menu.

 

After dinner I headed to late night comedy in the main lounge.

Spike Davis

Dominic Leonelli

I am off to bed. Tomorrow is a sea day.