"Turnaround in Baltimore" Top 5 Page for this destination Baltimore Travelogue by grandmaR

People in line to get off with signs on the chairs

The ship has spent the last day just fooling around off Cape Hatteras.

When we looked at the bow camera at 0700 on Sunday, we were coming into Baltimore. We had breakfast and I saw for the first time the Captain's dining room area. There were stewards in there folding napkins.

All the chairs in the atrium had signs on them saying that it was not a waiting room.

Floor sweeper cleaning the Lido

About 10:30 they called and said they were ready for us. Apparently the other 3 people on the B2B had gone into town, so it was just the two of us. They took us down the ramp past all the people and thru customs and then back up the ramp and took our new photos.

I asked to go up to the Lido to see what was up there without people in it, and they were cleaning. They had kind of a street sweeper machine which was cleaning the hard surface floors.

Fruit basket and bottle of wine

When we got back to our room there was a fruit basket and a bottle of wine there that said it came from the Hospitality Manager.

Eventually the Lido opened and we went back up and I got a pastrami sandwich and a piece of cake and some lemonade. There was a thing in the schedule that said the M&M for Cruise Critic was at 1430, but no one else was there, and it would have been silly to have it then because not everyone was on yet.

Chicken a la Greque

We were at a table on the other side of the dining room for dinner. Our companions are Jim and Brenda from York PA, and Gladys from Clinton MD. Her husband is from St. Mary's, but we didn't know any of the same people. She is traveling alone because her husband was having to deal with his father who has dementia and also got sick and needs full time care.

Bob had tomato soup and I had a salad, and then for the entree Bob had sweet and sour shrimp (which he remembered when he saw them were shrimp that had somehow been straightened out, and I tried the chicken a la grecque. Which I didn't really care for - it was on big pasta with a tomato sauce which gave me reflux. I had the chocolate melting cake for dessert, but the first time I had it I got two scoops of ice cream and this time I only got one.

Lobster dinner

We went to breakfast but I forgot my camera so couldn't take a photo of the waffles - I got two pieces, which were cold.

Then we went to the real Cruise Critics meeting. We went and looked at the photo gallery - there was a pirate going around the dining room last night so we look or our photos with him (but didn't buy them).

At lunch we were at a very big table and several people came in, sat down, and then just left. I had a salad and the mongolian steak salad - it is really some pieces of beef with a side salad - I had seen it that someone else had ordered last week. It was very tasty. Bob defaulted to spaghetti. I had pineapple sherbet.

Then we just hung around until dinner. Bob had shrimp cocktail and I had strawberry soup and we both had lobster. This time they pressed us to eat more lobster, but we didn't. I got the same dessert as last week, thinking it had ice cream with it, but it didn't. I should have asked for some.

German chocolate cake

I have heard that the decor on Carnival was garish, but I don't find it so. There are an awful lot of breasts and penises on show in the Renaissance art, but the people that mind that are people with little boys. They have framed pictures over the couches and seating in various places and the only thing wrong with that is that the colors are muddy and the lines are blurry - they are very poor reproductions.

The art on the landings of the stairways is very nice modern art. I think all the Grecian columns are a bit excessive and maybe also the mermaids on the ceiling in the Lido, but I like the geometric mosaic squares that are all over the ship.

For lunch on the 15th, I had the chilled curried apple soup which was reasonably good, and Bob had the fresh fruit. He ordered the chicken Caesar salad for the main course and initially confused that with the starter. I had the BBQ baby back ribs which were very good. I had the lemon mousse for dessert which was very light and good and Bob had the German chocolate cake.

Fruit cocktail

Before dinner I noticed that the lights over the band-stand were changing color. I heard that we wouldn't hear the calypso band at all on this cruise because to cheer people up on the last two cruises, they played for nine days straight.

For dinner I had the smoked chicken quesadilla, but it was more intense than I like. Bob had the everyday fruit cocktail which was not the canned variety but actually cut up fruit. Then I had meatloaf which was OK and Bob had the mahi mahi from the everyday menu and he said it was dry. I had strawberry cheesecake for dessert and it came with the strawberries in a separate dish - and it was strawberry sauce.

They had the dancing and singing at dinner with the waiters getting up on the serving islands. Jim and Brenda didn't come to dinner, but Gladys got up and danced with them. Our towel animal was (I think) a goose

Tomorrow we dock at Port Canaveral in Florida.