We tried to do something different in the morning – have brunch instead of the buffet breakfast. But the wait was over an hour so we ended up in the buffet as usual.

After breakfast I tried to upload photos to the laptop but failed. I might have to wait until the cruise is over to post cruise photos.

I attended a couple of trivia contests and did very poorly. Tim, on the other hand, won the show tunes trivia contest. Who knew that he was so into show tunes?

Marlene and I spent several hours before dinner in the casino. We both won – a couple of hundred for her and $10 for me (down $480). But any win is a win, right?

It was the second Elegant Night for dinner so we dressed up. I had prime rib – pretty good but not great – and Marlene had a pecan-crusted salmon entree that she liked very much.

After dinner we attended the show in the theater. It was a song/dance show featuring rock music of the 80s and the Vista Rockband. Very nice.

We had breakfast, as usual, then left the ship to browse the port area. It was the usual cruise port shops. Nothing interesting. So we started the 5-mile walk into Freeport.

We didn’t get very far before Marlene’s shoe broke (the heel came off). So we went back to the ship, got a different pair of shoes for her and headed back out. But on our way out we got some advice: go to Port Lucaya. It was supposedly more interesting than Freeport. So we, along with 4 other cruise passengers, took a cab 12 miles to Port Lucaya.

We shouldn’t have bothered. It was pretty much the same as the port area. Same trinkets. Marlene did find a sterling silver ring and I found some Bailey’s-flavored popcorn. Then we took a taxi back to the ship.

We had dinner in the buffet. We could have gone out after dinner – the ship didn’t leave until midnight – but there would have been nothing to see. We weren’t expected in port that day (we were there only to get some repairs done to the engine) and all the shops and restaurants – the ones that opened at all – shut before 5pm which was when we were supposed to have departed.

We danced some after dinner and Marlene, as always, got a lot of nice compliments on her dress. We were on our way to the casino when we got a call from Tim and Rachel – they wanted to see Marlene. Rachel was traumatized by an incident in the casino. She had sat at an empty machine – after asking the person at the next machine if it was free. As soon as she inserted her card three security guards surrounded her, telling her that she had taken someone else’s money and she had to cash out immediately. She was escorted to the teller, like a thief, with the entire casino looking on, wondering what was going on. Turns out the person using that machine before her had been unable to cash out and had left $100 in the machine. It got transferred to Rachel’s account, without her knowledge, when she put her card in. It was all resolved, but not before Rachel vowed to never sail on Carnival again. It was handled very badly.

Yet more evidence that this is the Cruise From Hell.

Marlene and I went to the casino and I stopped my losing streak, but just barely. I won $10 (down $490). Marlene won again. She is up over $1,200.

We dropped anchor about a quarter of a mile from Princess Cay and water shuttles ran from the ship to shore (and back) all day. I put on my swimsuit in anticipation of a day on the beach.

Never happened.

After breakfast (which featured the baker presenting her with a dozen of her favorite poppyseed muffins) Marlene informed me that the casino was open and she wanted to visit it before going ashore. She was getting close to the 2,000 casino points she needed to get a $200 freeplay gift. I wasn’t. But we both went down. As usual I lost $100 but this time it was particularly brutal – over 250 spins without a hint of a bonus. My fourth straight very bad day at the ship casino. I am now down $500.

After losing my limit I went up to the cabin to read. Then I went to lunch. Marlene finally left the casino around 2pm, too late to get to shore. I was miffed. We didn’t have a pleasant evening. She went to dinner with her son and daughter-in-law and I ate in the buffet. Then I read some more, finishing the book that I reported on yesterday.

Marlene went back to the casino after dinner and won again. She is up a lot now. So some good came from a bad day.

A quiet day at sea, cruising slowly – between 6 and 11 kts (a ship normally travels 17 to 22 kts) due to the engine problem that prevented us from reaching Aruba. But the weather was nice so at least we didn’t have to experience heavy seas in a crippled ship.

We (Marlene and I) had breakfast in the buffet while Tim and Rachel brunched. We then hit the casino for a bit. The casino hit me back, causing me to lose $200 (down $300). But Marlene hit a major for over $1,500 so she is up a bunch. Tim also did well, winning over $1,000. And my losses aren’t really losses (yet) as I have $300 onboard credit. So I can consider myself to be even after 2 days.

It was formal attire for dinner so we dressed up (photos to follow), met the captain and had some fancy fare for dinner (filet mignon and short ribs for me, braised shrimp and fish cake for Marlene). We dined with Tim and Rachel and the only downer is that Rachel’s filet arrived much too underdone and had to be sent back.

After dinner Marlene and I checked out the Vista Rockband. This is not the same band that we had on our first Carnival Vista cruise, but it was very good.

There was a meteor shower around midnight. Tim and Rachel saw it but we missed it. No big deal – I have seen “shooting stars” before.