Day 6: Carnival Magic 7-night Western Caribbean

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Costa Maya (But Turned Out To Be An Extra Day At Sea)

We were woken in the morning by an announcement that due to strong winds the ship was not able to safely dock at Costa Maya, and therefore we would have an extra day at sea. We weren’t too bummed about that development since we didn’t have any definite plans for Costa Maya, and we were planning on spending most of the day on the ship anyway.

Day Six Lido Buffet Lunch

We slept in, and then went to check out what was being offered for lunch at the Lido Buffet. Chef’s Choice, the International station, was featuring Italian, and the featured items were: Minestrone; Pasta Asiago; Fish Portofino; Tuscan Braised Beef; Veal Parmigiana; Frito Misto; and Patate Alforno.

The other side of the Lido Buffet, Comfort Kitchen and other stations, were offering: Vegetable Pasta; Grilled Fish; Veal Mozzarella; Braised Beef; Fried Potato; Crispy Vegetable; Veg Broth; and other items.

Sweet Spot for lunch offered: Apple Cheese Cake; Banana Rum; Strawberry Cake; Diet Pannacotta; and other items.

BlueIguana Cantina Lunch

We decided to try the BlueIguana Cantina for lunch, since we had only tried the breakfast food there. It offers tacos and burritos, and fillers such as Chicken, Fish, Pork, beans, pico de gallo, and so on. Neither of us especially liked their lunch food, but it appeared that other people were really enjoying it.

Fun afternoon on SportsSquare and Lido Deck

After lunch we did the SkyCourse. The Sky Course is a ropes course that is above the miniature golf area on SportSquare. They strap you in, so you don’t have to worry about falling. I was expecting the SkyCourse to be really fun, and it turned out to be not exciting at all. The straps are dirty and smelly, so know ahead of time that if you do the SkyCourse, you will get those dirty, smelly straps touching your skin and clothing. OK, I’m a tad OCD about cleanliness, so maybe if the straps were clean I would have enjoyed the Sky Course more, but I felt like I just wanted to rush through it so that I could get out of the straps ASAP!

We hadn’t tried the Mini Golf course yet, so we decided to that, but it turned out many other people had that same idea. We didn’t want to wait, so we decided to do the Mini Golf the next day.

We then went to do something else we hadn’t done yet – the two water slides!

We love water parks, and Disney Cruise Line’s AquaDuck is a lot of fun, and Disney Cruise Line’s AquaDunk is also fun. The water slides on this ship were not as fun. The first one we did was the one that twists and turns. I don’t know if the water pressure wasn’t high enough, or what the problem was, but I kept nearly stopping as I slid down – a couple of times I had to use my arms to push myself through the dark tube part, and for someone who feels claustrophobic sometimes, nearly coming to a stop in a warm, muggy, pitch black tube with water flowing by is an uncomfortable feeling. When I finally got to the end of the slide, I waited for my husband to slide down, and when he finished the slide he said, “What happened to you? What took you so long? We thought you got stuck.” Well, just about. I’m never doing that slide again. But that’s not the worst part about that slide, actually both slides have something very bad about them – as you’re sliding down you can feel every single section of the slide that is connected to the next section of the slide. “Kekunk, kekunk, kekunk, kekunk,” all the way down. Ouch! We both got banged and scraped all the way down both slides. I think if more water was flowing down the slides and/or we slid down lying on a water slide mat, then maybe those slides would be a lot more fun and less painful. I’m going to look into buying a couple of mats that we can roll up and bring with us for our next cruise. So maybe I will try those slides again after all, if we have water slide mats with us.

Even though we didn’t get to go to Costa Maya that day, the Sky Course had smelly straps, the Mini Golf was packed, and the water slides were painful, we were still enjoying ourselves. It was an absolutely beautiful day – lovely, blue skies surrounded us, the temperature and humidity were perfect, the breeze was just right, and all of that was accompanied with pleasant, fresh ocean air. Plus, and this is a big plus, Guy’s Burgers was always just a walk away! Yummy!

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the jacuzzis, and exercising. Then we cleaned up and got ready for dinner. The attire that night was Cruise Elegant, which always means special items in the Main Dining Room, so we dressed up nicely.

Day Six – The Taste Bar

Before dinner we went to The Taste Bar. That night the featured restaurant was BlueIguana Cantina, and the food was Chicken, Avocado & Lime Tortilla Soup; and Roast Pork, Green Chili Salsa, aged Cotija Cheese, Tortilla. They both looked and sounded tasty, but they weren’t as tasty as they looked and sounded.

Day Six Dinner

The second night of the cruise, we had found a table in the Main Dining room that was isolated and away from all the fragrances, which is quite a feat. The kind, understanding hostess had found a table that was completely out of the way of the other tables, which worked out perfectly for my sensitivity to the chemicals in fragrances. However, the wait this night at the Main Dining room for the table we had been using other nights was really long because they had just seated people at that table. It’s not Carnival’s fault – we had “Your Time Dining” – so the timimg just didn’t work out for us that night. We compared the menu from the Main Dining room with what the Lido dinner buffet was offering, and realized we should just eat at the Lido Buffet. So we turned in our Main Dining Room pagers, went back to our cabin, changed into casual clothing, and headed to the Lido buffet.

Day Six Main Dining Room Dinner

First, I’ll tell you what the Main Dining room was offering that night.

For appetizers: Shrimp Cocktail – Traditional cocktail sauce; Chesapeake Crab Cake – Herb remoulade; Stuffed Mushrooms – Spinach, romano cheese, fine herbs; New England Clam Chowder – Potatoes, little necks; Pasta e Fagioli – Beans, bacon, tomato; Four Season Salad – Lettuce, Corn, cucumber, tomato; and Kale or Romaine Caesar Salad – House made dressing, shaved parmsesan.

The entrees were: Fusilli, Mushroom Cream – Spiral pasta, mushroom, aged parmesan; Teriyaki Salmon Fillet – Sesame rice cake, vegetable medley; Grilled Jumbo Shrimp – Marinara sauce, mustard potatoes; Dual of Filet Mignon and Short Rib – String beans, red wine sauce; Spanakopita and Stuffed Bell Peppers – Greek pie with layers of phyllo dough, spinach, tomatoes, feta cheese, couscous stuffed peppers; and Featured Vegetarian – Indian style vegetable dish with lentils, basmati rice, pickle, papadam and raita.

From the Grill: Striped Bass Fillet – Citrus and pepper rub; Flat Iron Steak – Pepper, herbs; Chicken Breast – Roast garlic and herbs; and Pork Chop – Caramelized onions, stewed apple. The sauces: Chimichurri, BBQ Sauce, Peppercorn, Roasted garlic and tomato tapenade, Béarnaise.

The desserts were: Amaretto Cake – Almond flavored chocolate cake; Grand Marnier Soufflé – Orange créme anglaise; Carnival Melting Chocolate Cake; Key Lime Mousse – lower calorie, no sugar added; Fresh Tropical Fruit Plate; Cheese Plate; Selection of Ice Creams.

Day Six Lido Buffet Dinner

The Lido dinner buffet was featuring: Honey Glazed Virginia Ham; Raisin Sauce; Fussili with Mushroom Cream; Stuffed Fried Mushroom; New England Clam Chowder; Teriyaki Salmon Fillet; BBQ Chicken; Flat Iron Steak (which was actually filet mignon, we asked to make sure because it looked like filet mignon to us, and it’s offered as either medium well or medium rare); Spanokopita; White Rice; Roasted Broccoli Carrot Pearl Onion; Baked Potato, Sour Cream, Cheddar, Bacon Bits.

As usual the Lido dinner buffet had other options too, such as Snow Peas ‘n’ Greens in Sesame; Grilled Eggplant Miso Sesame; various salads; and other items.

We both had the medium rare Flat Iron Steak (Filet Mignon), and they were overcooked.

Sweet Spot, of course, had a number of yummy looking choices that night, but I didn’t note what those yummy looking desserts were.

Grand Marnier Soufflé

We went back to the Main Dining Room and asked if we could have two of the Grand Marnier Soufflés to take to our cabin, which they were happy to provide. Though we both felt overall that Carnival’s food is better than Disney Cruise Line’s food, we both agreed without any doubt that Disney Cruise Line’s Grand Marnier Soufflé is perfection and Carnival’s was mediocre.