Carnival Ecstasy Cruise - September 4, 2022 - At Sea

We were reminded of one of the reasons we don't fit in so well on Carnival cruises when in the middle of the night, people from across the hall decided to host a party in the hallway that went on until Paul got up and politely told them we were trying to sleep. 

As is often my tradition on cruise ships, I set an alarm for early to be up and about before the sun rose.  I was walking through an empty atrium before 6:00 a.m. finding my way up to the outdoor decks.  The sunrise was pretty and the few people out were a bit entertaining.  I passed at least one who clearly had been drinking so late, he had not been to bed yet.  And many others were wandering around in pajamas and robes.  Nothing, even the cafe, was open yet.

I spent some time exploring the ship before finally settling in the Serenity Adults Only Area at the back.

 

At some point while I was sitting in Serenity, Paul had woken up and unsuccessfully went in search of me but took a few of his own sunrise photos.

Paul really wanted to try the 12 Hour French Toast and so we decided to try the Sea Day Brunch.  Carnival now makes use of their app for Anytime Dining at night and for breakfast and brunch in the main dining room.  When you are ready to eat, you check in to the app and once a table is ready for you, you get a notification with your table number.  A line of servers waits outside the dining room at the start of meals to help people find their tables.  

Even though you have to actively check that you want a shared table, we quickly learned not checking it doesn't actually guarantee you will get a private table.  We checked in shortly before 8:30 a.m. and didn't have to wait long to be notified our table was ready.  We were then shown to a large table where they had squeezed 10 people around what should have been an 8 person table.  

Waiting for the notification our table was ready

Paper menus were no where in sight and we were directed to scan the QR codes on the table.  They quickly took our orders and it didn't take long before our food arrived.  Instead of serving things in courses, everything was brought out at once which as you can imagine was a bit of a challenge for 10 people at a table meant for 8.  And those who asked for a croissant or danishes were each brought a plate of multiple of them.  It really was quite an unpleasant experience and made us hesitate to return to the main dining rom anytime soon.

We spent much of the morning enjoying the quiet of the Neon Piano Bar which is really a unique lounge.

We returned to our room to find it had already been made up even though we asked for evening service - oh well!  We had our first towel animal.

For lunch, we picked up burritos at Blue Iguana Cantina and took them down into the atrium to people watch.

We did a little more exploring.

Kathie Lee Gifford is the ship's Godmother.  This is from the ship's Naming Ceremony.

This year was both the Ecstasy's first and last season sailing out of Mobile, Alabama.

In the China Town Lounge, there is half of a produce truck (made to look whole by a mirror) that was a bit intriguing.  

That evening was formal night.  The menu in the main dining room didn't really interest us and we really didn't want to repeat the experience at brunch so quickly so we stopped at the Alchemy Bar for drinks, hoping for a better experience (which we did not get) and then celebrated formal night in the buffet.

That evening, we watched the colors of the sky change as the sun set from Serenity.