Day 12—At Sea
What is it about the sea days that make me lazy—must be something in the salt air. There are so many activities to participate in every day that I could spend the entire day going from one to the other and never stop for a moment. Instead I usually end up going to just a couple of things, and yet the days still seem to go by so quickly. I met Sharon, Jackie, Joan, and Ann for breakfast in the main dining room at 8:00, and once again had the Japanese breakfast.
At 9:30, I went to the Mondarian lounge where Eric, the cruise director, interviewed last night’s comedian, Chris Alpine. Eric has been doing these interviews with the previous night’s entertainers each day. Since I enjoyed the show the previous night and thought it was very funny, I thought the interview would be too—and I was right. The interview was just as entertaining and the comedian had all of us who attended laughing the entire time (it was like getting a whole extra show).
I bought a few of the pictures the photographer had taken and also picked up the free one that my travel agent had arranged. When I dropped them off in my room, I saw my room steward, Handi, and he asked if I were attending the towel art demonstration. He also told me that he would be doing the demonstration, so I said I would definitely be there—all the crew seem to be so proud of what they do and I think they really appreciate it when the passengers take an interest.
I saw Linda, another lady travelling alone, and told her about the towel demonstration. She had expressed an interest in learning how to do them since she runs a bed and breakfast in Stratford, Ontario in Canada and thought it would be nice if she did one for her guests now and then. We met at 1:30 that afternoon to watch the demonstration. It was very interesting how they fold the towels into such cute little creatures. While it was very interesting, I didn’t buy the book since I can’t see myself sitting around making towel animals (and if it turns out that if for some bizarre reason I do need to learn this skill, why I’ll just have to book myself another cruise to learn how—oh, wait, I’m already booked for a future cruise).
I had dinner reservations that night for the Pinnacle Grill (it’s the premier restaurant that you normally have to pay extra to dine there, but my travel agent had provided a complementary dinner). I didn’t want to miss it since I’ve heard so many great things about the Pinnacle Grill, but the previous night I found out that the Chef’s Dinner was planned for this same evening in the dining room and I didn’t want to miss it. The Chef’s Dinner includes a small show the dining room staff puts on before dinner. I thought about changing my dinner reservations to a lunch, but then decided I would just change my reservations to 5:30, have dinner at the Pinnacle Grill, then go to the main dining room for my 8:00 dinner (Ok, call me a pig for having two dinners, but I did skip lunch so I could do this, and yes I’m still taking the stairs, so hopefully I can still fit into my clothes when I get back).
When I got there, John and Winnie (they were the ones from Cruise Critic who organized the cabin crawl at the beginning of the trip) asked if I would join them, but I decided to eat alone. I know some people would think that was strange, but it was nice to just spend some time by myself for a change, and I really don’t have a problem eating alone.
The dinner in the Pinnacle Grill was outstanding! I ordered the crab cakes, filet mignon with béarnaise sauce, and asparagus (skipped the potatoes since I knew I was having another dinner in a few hours). The waiter served a bread basket with four kinds of bread, three kinds of butter (regular, sun-dried tomato, and garlic herb), and three kinds of salt (although I can’t imagine why I would need three kinds of salt). Then the waiter came over with a tiny sample (about two bites) of some kind of ahi tuna in soy with tiny bits of pear and said it was complements of the chef and he hoped I would enjoy it. I have no idea what it is called, and I know it sounds strange, but it was absolutely wonderful. The crab cakes were the best crab cakes I had ever had. There were two tiny crab cakes, each about three bites, so at least I wasn’t going to be totally stuffed. The filet was so tender, the béarnaise sauce was perfect, and the asparagus was cooked just right. After eating all that, I had planned to skip dessert, but when the brought me the menu and I saw that crème brulee was listed, I couldn’t pass it up—I had read so much about how great the Pinnacle crème brulee was—it was their signature dessert, I had to try some. It came in dish that had three wavy stripes and in each “stripe” there was a different crème brulee, vanilla, coffee, and chocolate. It really was out of this world. I could easily eat here every night and be in heaven! Thank goodness the portions are small (for those who like you eat a lot, you can always ask for a second entrée or however much you want). I thoroughly enjoyed this dinner.
When I went to the main dining room for my second dinner, I explained to Gede that I had already eaten and that I was there for a second dinner—he laughed. I did tell him all I had planned on having was the lobster bisque, but he said I had to have “Act 1, Act 2, and the Act 3” courses since that was part of the show. Thank goodness they weren’t huge portions or courses. There were no napkins on the tables and we actually pointed that out—Gede explained that was part of the show. At a couple of minutes before 8:00, all the dining room stewards disappears, then at 8:00 the narrator announced thanked everyone for attending the Chef’s Dinner and announced all the dining room stewards would perform the “dining room steward ballet.” With all the appropriate music and very exaggerated movements, the waiters all danced into the dining room and danced around all of us placing napkins on our laps. This was followed by Act 1—which was a duck, mushroom, and asparagus pâté. Act 2 was the salad and again the waiters all left the dining room and then danced in with large salad bowls and twirling plates on the ends of long poles—this had to be challenging since the ship had started rocking a bit since we were once again in the Pacific Ocean. They put on quite a show, and then when the music was over, served the actual salad course. The next course was the entrée and I had ordered the lobster bisque instead of a full dinner (there was no way I could eat a full meal!). After the entrée course, the waiters once again disappeared and the announcer announced the Baked Alaska dance (Act 3) and in trooped all the dining room stewards carrying baked Alaska desserts, with they served with flourish. They all seemed to enjoy dancing around and some were actually laughing as they danced around the passengers. Yes, I did have a very tiny bit of the baked Alaska. By the time my second dinner was over, I was stuffed even though I actually ate very little in the dining room!!!
As I was leaving, Gede asked if I would be attending the dessert extravaganza. This was being held on the Lido deck and would start at 10:30 pm, but would open at 10:15 to allow for pictures to be taken. I did go up and take pictures, but no matter how great all the desserts looked, there was no way I was going to even try any.
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