Category: food

Our Captain who comes over the intercom every day at noon with a jolly “Good afternoon, good afternoon, good afternoon!”, tells us that the seas are a little higher today at 3 meters but that everything is great, the weather is beautiful, and the ship is performing beautifully. Plus it is the friendliest and happiest ship on the sea. Our room, however, being on Deck 5 all the way aft is rocking and rolling a little more intensely today.

We make our way down to the Star Theater for the cooking demonstration at 10 AM and especially enjoy the head chef’s explanation about what they do with waste. They have two refrigerators one that is a longer term refrigerator and the other which is a 4 hour refrigerator. Any food moved into the 4 hour refrigerator must be used within that time period or thrown out. They do their best to estimate how much the passengers will eat and move that amount into the timed refrigerator, after that, any of the food at the buffet or one of the restaurants along with whatever is left in the 4 hour refrigerator has to be ground up and ultimately dumped at sea. It seems wasteful but these are U.S. health regulations.

At noon we are back to try our hand at trivia again. Once again we get 10 out of 15 correct. Our goal for tomorrow is to get 12 out of 15. I have been studying up memorizing dates of historic happenings and NASCAR winners in case there are any questions along those lines.

Since it is too rocky up on deck 7 for me to eat the lunch buffet, we decide to have lunch in The Restaurant which is centrally located on deck 2. It is disappointing. I order gnocchi prima vera but it is definitely gnot gnocchi but a shaped pasta. There are a lot of peas in it. Not my fav. John has a Reuben on incredibly thick bread so he has to deconstruct it to eat it.

Before heading back to our room we make a detour to look over the Viking exhibit. There are various Viking artifacts and a video about the Bayeux Tapestry. The Tapestry depicts William the Conqueror’s invasion and conquest of England. William who was a Viking became King of England. We have seen the Bayeux Tapestry in France where you stand on a moving walkway and zip by. Having a slower explanation makes the Tapestry really come to life.

We spend the afternoon reading and napping. We have dinner at Chef’s Table at 8 PM. Tonight’s offering is Asian Panorama. It’s pretty good and we have a table by the window so I can look out at the horizon.

Sleeping tonight does not bode well. Our end of the ship is shuddering and pitching. It is noisy with the hangars in the closet banging around and the bedroom making creaky noises. I imagine I will be tired tomorrow.

Today, as you can see from the picture, the seas are a little higher with some whitecaps. I start feeling sick right after breakfast and spend most of the day in bed. I need the extra sleep though because I am thoroughly boat lagged and only had about 3 hours of sleep last night.

Here is our position in the Atlantic Ocean. #2 is St. Martin and #3 is our next port of call in Funchal, Madeira on Saturday. Boats do not go very fast.

I encourage John to leave me alone and go down to play Trivia where without my stellar help they do worse than yesterday. He also braves lunch alone and brings me back a roll and a cookie. Later he goes to a talk about pirates. Yaarr….

I am feeling better at dinner time and discover that at our restaurant, Manfredi’s, which is on Deck One in the middle of the boat, that there is almost no movement at all. Maybe I need to spend more time down in that area!

Manfredi’s, the Italian restaurant, prepares our dishes to a good or very good standard. The service is better here too. When we leave at 9:45 PM there are still 7 other tables full in our room and no one is trying to shoo them out. Here is what we eat.

Later as I am lying in bed it seems like every little movement of the boat is amplified. Maybe that it is because I am experiencing it over the length of my body rather than just through my feet. It would be hard, though, to sleep standing up.

Unless I can figure out something other than water and food to take pictures of, my blog is going to be very repetitive and not so interesting until we get to Madeira on Saturday.

Here is the view out the back of the boat from our cabin.

We do a lot of lazing about today probably destroying any progress we have made with boat lag. After having breakfast in our cabin the first thing we do is play trivia with our Canadian pals and two random ladies who are looking for a team to be on. We come in second but it is fun and everyone agrees to meet tomorrow for another try.

Then it is lunchtime. The offerings today are not as good as yesterday and I opt for a slice of pizza after not eating my first plate so much. We split a cookie for dessert.

Nothing interesting going on this afternoon so we read books and nap.

For dinner we are eating at The Restaurant again. We go down at 8 PM. Although the food is good the service is quite rushed. It is like they don’t want you to linger over anything since the servers and the rest of the restaurant staff want to get out of the restaurant. When we don’t like our desserts and ask for a cheese plate instead, they are especially unhappy. They bring our cheese and continue setting up for breakfast around us.

On the way out I explain to the hostess that we would like slower service without your entree coming before you have finished the first course. She replies that most people complain that the service is too slow. Ah, well, we will try again another night to slow things down.

We go to bed around 10PM and I sleep until 2 AM and then I am awake for the rest of the night.

Today our destination is St. Martin. While we are having breakfast in our room we approach the island. It is not what I expected. I thought of lush tropical greenery but St. Martin is a volcanic and limestone island and does not support a lot of plant life naturally. Plus it is very tiny although divided between two countries. So I have to adjust my thinking to populated desert island. It is not very attractive. This is made worse by the devastation created by Hurricane Irma. So populated desert island with lots of previous buildings turned into scrap and still lying around.

Ours is not the only ship here. We watch as behemoth ships do a delicate dance getting a space at the barre. Then a lot of mostly white, mostly older people are disgorged from the ships. Much like when we went to the small towns of Alaska, there are too many tourists to be absorbed.

We are taking a bus trip around the island stopping here and there and getting a running commentary from Dahlia, our island tour guide. She says how appreciative they are of the tourists because it is their main industry. And they certainly need dollars since everything is imported to the island. There is no agriculture on St. Martin and it is really too mountainous and dry to raise animals.

Our first stop is on the French side at an air conditioned shopping center and a marina. This a much better kept area than anything we have seen along the way. We are offered what I think is a papaya drink and an opportunity to use the rest rooms for $1. I think the drink is awful but John gamely drinks his. We go outside where it is hot and humid and take a few pictures.

Next we stop at an old carousel where we are invited to take a ride. There is also a place to buy ice cream. After crossing back into the Dutch side our third stop is at a look out point where we are admonished not to climb up to the lookout point because we might fall on the way down.

We return to our ship after about three hours glad to be off the bus and in the air conditioning of the ship. We wait a while before going to lunch hoping to miss the crowds but are only slightly successful.

After lunch the boat departs and now we are on the ocean until next Saturday. We take advantage of a couple of talks. One is “Explorers—The Age of Discovery”and the other is “The Moorish Influence in Spain.” Both are interesting. Many of the places in Spain with Moorish architecture we have been to and it is fun to see them again.

We take the plunge and eat at The Restaurant tonight waiting until 8 PM to go down to dinner. It is still fairly crowded at that point but mostly everyone is at dessert and the place clears out while we are there. A loudish woman is sitting next to us decrying homeless people and sanctuary cities. Her dinner companions can barely get a word in edgewise. She finally stops when she sees that the woman across from her is falling asleep. They leave and we have the restaurant pretty much to ourselves and enjoy a really good dinner of foie gras and duck with a delicious potato dish completed by a tasty cheese plate.

Our cruise takes us from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Barcelona, Spain. Today and tomorrow we spend getting to San Juan and then familiarizing ourselves with ship.

Our flights go smoothly. We change planes in Dallas and are lucky enough to catch a ride between gates with a friendly driver whose job it seems is to pick up bedraggled seniors. The flight from Dallas to San Juan has a dinner that is not horrible and includes a vanilla/ice cream cone crumble dessert. I sleep a bit and we arrive in San Juan around 10:15.

John’s luggage arrives well before mine and that causes a moment of panic on my part. We are anxious to get to the hotel because it is warm in the terminal. But it is much warmer and humid when we step outside! Wow, we are not prepared for the humidity. It is 11 PM and still 81 degree and very damp.

Our hotel, Embassy Suites is still recovering from the hurricane but it is pretty basic regardless. We have a large-ish room that has very little furniture – a bed and dresser and a small low table with two plastic chairs. It is very minimalist to say the least.  We turn the air conditioning on full blast and try to get to sleep but are bodies are still on Pacific time and it is hard to sleep.

In the morning we go downstairs for breakfast which is not great and later catch a taxi to the ship. The taxi driver talks about the troubles that Puerto Rico is still suffering from the hurricane, the mean things that President Trump has said about the island and its inhabitants, and how the Governor of Puerto Rico would like to punch Trump in the mouth. So, no love here.

Yay, we are on the ship and in our nice suite!

We go down to lunch and introduce ourselves to the receptionists, wait staff, and bartender. Everyone is super nice.

After lunch we go to the Explorer’s Lounge where one of the staff recognizes John. Unfortunately most of the staff who were on the ship the last time we took a cruise have moved on to other ships or are on vacation. But we will make new friends.

After a much needed short nap it is time for the safety drill. We follow the safety drill with a visit to the Explorer Lounge where we have a celebratory sail away negroni sbagliato.

Dinner is at the Chef’s Table where we have the Xiang menu. All of our friends have moved on to other ships here too. But we are busy buttering up the new staff. I hope it pays off.

There is also a yummy mango tapioca pudding for dessert.

Finally we end up in the Living Room where there is a pianist and we enjoy an Irish coffee. We meet some Canadian folks who are nice and want to draft us on to their team for trivia. We say sure.

After a long day we are happy to go to sleep in our bed which has been provided with some smaller pillows and a top sheet. Yay!