One of the reasons I was determined to take a cruise at this particular time was so we could celebrate our 1st anniversary on the cruise. And the last day of the cruise happened to be our actual anniversary. This was going to be a jam packed day of activities. I wanted our day to be special, and we also had to get to those remaining activities on our to-do list.
We started the day off with breakfast in the main dining room. Why had we not made time for this previously on the cruise?!? It was so much better than the buffet breakfast. I got eggs Benedict with a side of perfectly crispy hash browns. Nisheet got chicken and biscuits. Although mine was delicious, I think Nisheet won. Halfsies, please!
It turns out that a lot of other people waited until the last day to check out the dining room too. And, everyone was celebrating something! It was a wedding anniversary for the couple on one side of us and birthday for the couple on the other side.
After breakfast we headed to the theater. No, we weren’t going to watch a show at 10 am. We were going to learn how to make towel animals! For those not aware, towel animals are a big thing on cruises. Every night some sort of creation will be left in your stateroom. On this cruise, we had everything from bats hanging from the ceiling to sexy playboy bunnies. During the tutorial, we learned how to make elephants and puppies. My elephant might have needed a bit of support from the chair, but it was rocking some styling sunglasses!
Then it was time for more food. Like I said, it was the last full day of the cruise, so we had to cram everything in. And, it wasn’t just any food. It was tea time! Nisheet was a good sport and pretended to enjoy it, but I’m pretty sure he was the only male in the entire room. We were promptly served tea as soon as we sat down, each with our own little teapots. Servers would then pass by every few minutes offering new and delicious little treats. We had all sorts of sweets and mini sandwiches. Yum!
After a morning full of making animal towels and eating delicious food, we were in some serious need of relaxation. We grabbed one of those clamshell loungers and a drink and were set for the afternoon. There might have been some pool time and a hairy chest contest in there too (Nisheet did not participate), but for the most part we didn’t move a muscle. Except the lift required for taking another sip out of our drinks.
Eventually, we had to pull ourselves away from the lounger and get ready for dinner. Our table mates knew it was our 1st anniversary and made reservations for all of us at the Steakhouse. I was pretty excited to check out the restaurant because I had been hearing fabulous reviews all week from others. When we got back to our room, we found our room steward had left us a surprise! He decorated our cabin with the classic swans making a heart! How cute!
We got ready with time to spare, so we headed to Carnival’s iconic Alchemy Bar before dinner. The drinks were expertly prepared, like always. And, mine was free for having gold status, but I’m going to pretend it was Carnival’s treat to us for our 1st anniversary. Wohoo!!
Dinner was divine, and our table mates were hilarious. We always had a great time hanging out with them over the week, and this dinner was no exception.
For an appetizer, I got the mushroom risotto which was creamy and perfectly scrumptious. Nisheet opted for the tuna tartar. It was by far the fanciest appetizer I have ever seen. I still don’t even know what to make of it. Here’s the description I found on a website: “molded ahi tuna with: an avocado salsa, onion and chive vinaigrette, mushrooms, chives, fresh grapefruit and orange, togarashi, Sriracha and miso powder. It’s then topped with an edible “nest” made of shredded phyllo dough that holds an “egg shell” made of a rich cheese crisp. The “yolk” is a yuzu sphere made with yellow pepper puree, orange juice and sugar. The plate is garnished with a ring of black olive-almond pesto, and two dollops of aioli with green pea dust. The final touch is an avocado leche de tigre, which is served on the side.” It was salty, citrusy, crunchy, and so much more. The combination of all these flavors and texture made this a truly special appetizer.
For dinner Nisheet got the broiled filet mignon served with garlic butter, and I got the surf and turf that came with succulent Maine lobster paired with tender filet mignon. For neither of us being big steak eaters, we sure cleaned our plate! (In case you are wondering, the lobster in the steakhouse is 10x better than the lobster in the main dining room).
Dessert was especially incredible. Everyone at the table agreed we should get the “Art At The Table.” One of the chefs comes out and creates an edible art masterpiece with tons of different sweets and sauces. While there was so much stuff in the masterpiece, the ones we remember are: raspberry sauce, jasmine tea sauce, and condensed passion fruit. For sweets they had raspberry roll-up, cookies, fudge, macaroons, and yuzu. The star of the show are two large chocolate balls. Since it was our anniversary, Nisheet and I were asked to break the chocolate balls. I was up first. Not wanting to create a huge mess, I didn’t hit it very hard and kept only making dents in the chocolate before it eventually broke after the 10th hit. Nisheet learned from me and gave it a nice hard wack. Pieces went flying everywhere. LOL! The chocolate balls were filled with ice cream, cake, tiramisu cream, lemon gel, and cocoa salt. So cool and definitely a once in a lifetime experience!
It was getting pretty late after dinner, but we weren’t ready to call it a night. I didn’t want our 1st anniversary or our vacation to end. So, we went to the hot tub until it closed, and then we wandered around the ship until we could see Tampa Bay lights coming into view.
