Shortly after my last post I got nailed by covid. Yesterday my fever went back to normal and today I think I can start to focus for a little bit. This was my first cruise, and it was all new to me. I hope the information is helpful and not redundant.
I will start by talking about the food on the ship. In short, there was an overabundance of it! My kind of place!! There were four main dining rooms that our group rotated going to each night. There were seven of us in our small group from Michigan and we stuck together for meals and tours. Altogether I think there were over 3,000 passengers on board and a crew of 1,200.
We had the classic meal and beverage package included as part of our tour. This got us into the buffet, the main dining rooms, coffee shop, and the pizza place that was open late. This was more than adequate for us. It covered all the pop, bottled water, basic beer, wine and liquor, with no limits. The beer selection included Michelob Lite and Heineken; a couple of red and white wine selections; and basic liquor drinks, Johnny Walker Red was the bar scotch. If you wanted a better wine selection, single malt scotch, or craft beer there was an upgrade package available. All tips were also included in the package.
Each morning the breakfast buffet menu was fairly standard with a variety of stations and baked goods. They had an English station which I enjoyed. My usual ended up being bangers, black blood pudding, English bacon (very similar to Canadian bacon), grilled tomatoes and sauteed mushrooms.
The buffet was also open for lunch and dinner and had a wide assortment of offerings. There was always Chinese, Mexican, burgers and a variety of chicken dishes. I thought having a carving station for roasted vegetables was a little over the top. It is hard to watch a grown man try to slice a rutabaga with flair and not laugh! I tried to stay away from the stuff we could get at home and try more dishes that were closer to the region we were in. I tried a variety of lot of lamb and duck dishes that were nice. For the most part the food on the buffet and in the dining rooms were enjoyable, but I felt it was kind of like eating at an "Olive Garden". The food was good, it just didn't seem as authentic as it could be. Which is to be expected if you are serving over 4,200 people three square meals a day.
The four main dining rooms had different themes, French, Mediterranean, American, and Italian. They worked out of a shared kitchen and each night there were common things that could be ordered in any dining room, along with exclusive items for each particular restaurant. There were also meals you could order for an upcharge or were covered in the exclusive meal and beverage package.
The first night there were three of us that ordered NY strip encrusted in filo dough. That was not what we received. No filo dough was the first giveaway that it was wrong! The waiter insisted it was what we ordered. We didn’t belabor the point, but It was just one mean, tough, NY strip. I will say it was cooked correctly and seasoned nicely. Just very chewy. They nightly menu went from NY Strip to flank steak as the trip progressed, so I stayed away from the beef, until the last night when they had aged prime rib. That was very good. I asked them how they aged it and the chef who came around to the table said it came that way. For heat and serve it tasted good!
The dessert menus were always outrageous. They served most of the classics Crem Brulle, Baked Alaska, Cheesecakes, Tortes, cakes etc. but with flair. The portions were small enough that you didn't feel guilty for ordering two or more. The dessert we had the most fun with was Mille Feuille, it was described as Millie Feuille Vanilla Caramel, Apricot Coulis, Apricot, Almond, Whipped Cream. The group decided it should be pronounced as Frilly Milly Filly, but it had to be said without sounding silly! Most of our group was easily entertained!
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Topic: Change of Plans (but still cruising) (Read 2644 times)