Day 134: At sea

Captain Forteeze had stopped by after last night's Captains Circle party and we were talking about our (finally) sunny day yesterday. I asked him if that meant our weather would be better now en route back to Fort Lauderdale, and he shook his head no. He said that we would be experiencing high winds and a persistent swell.

Captain Fortezze, I've decided, is a master of understatement. :-( But at least it's sunny, and that allows people to be dispersed outside on the open decks. We have been shaking and shimmying all day. 

It was also a very bouncy night, but it didn't keep us from sleeping well. I awoke first this morning and tried to do my morning thing and slip out without waking G but it didn't work. He said he'd join me in the DaVinci Dining Room for breakfast in about 15 minutes. For once, I was saying good morning to Awesome Ambrish before G did, and when G finally did appear, Awesome teased him about being too tangled in his sheets to be able to get out of bed. That's been an ongoing joke...G told Ambrish two days ago that if he heard G's name being announced by the Passenger Services Department as being missing, Ambrish should first look for him buried alive in bed. ;-)

Filip from Serbia in the International Cafe saw me standing in line to get my coffee, and told me there were donuts with sprinkles today. He knew I would want to take one to G at breakfast. There I was, with a plate with a donut on it in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, and my iPad squeezed against my body under my arm, starting to walk up the curved stone Piazza staircase to Deck 6 and the DaVinci Dining Room for breakfast when I overheard two people sitting at a table at the International Cafe say, "Heatherdowns, Byrne and Schneider Road," and I turned right around and went back down the stairs to meet these people who were talking about the neighborhood in Toledo where I'd grown up. 

Sure enough, they knew the street where Mom had lived until just last May, but had gone to competitive Catholic schools of the ones which I had attended (Central Catholic, Mom). And they knew exactly where Mom was living now and commented on it's excellent reputation and we spent a few very enjoyable minutes talking about growing up in that area (they live in Sylvania now). Really, what were the odds of that encounter? 

G joined me shortly in the DaVinci Dining Room, and I was an instant hero for bringing him a donut.  We had orange segments, and I had a veggie egg white omelet and G had three boxes of Frosted Flakes (just another example of craving food he eats at home, I guess) and he bounced around the ship like Tigger for the rest of the morning. 

I stopped into one of the shops on my way out of breakfast. I have not yet mentioned (but must remedy that now) that the perfume/makeup shop on board (I forget its name) sells Smashbox products. Smashbox!  I went in there to ask if they have any waterproof eye liner (they do...Smashbox) and nearly hyperventilated when I saw the Smashbox display. I now have a shopping list for the first day of the cruise tomorrow...if I spend $100 I get 10% off plus the 10% off for being Elite. Smashbox is one brand that I can't find discounted at home (and our local Ulta doesn't allow their 20% off coupons to be applied to Smashbox products). So, listen to this deal...the Smashbox Photofinish primer is $36 each at home. I can get a 2-pack for $58 on the ship. They also have the contour kit ($44, I think) and the eye liner ($18). Less the two discounts. Woohoo! As you know, I am not a shopper for 'things' but love my consumables!!

G had picked up a copy of our onboard statement at the Passenger Services Desk, and I took a deep breath and sat down before I looked at it. We had just received a letter documenting the 'computer glitch' that removed $150 in credits from earlier cruises. We've also had the myriad of other issues we've had corrected. It's been a challenge, for sure, and I do advise any other people cruising a series of B2B cruises to keep an eye out back to their embarkation date for postdated discrepancies. But today's statement yielded no nasty surprises. Yay! I have to admit that the new system of maintaining running totals instead of cleanly cutting off each cruise at its end is not an improvement. 

I then logged on WiFi to download today's mail and news. I receive such really wonderful emails from blog readers that keep me motivated towards the end of a cruising season, and I received one today, also asking for some clarification and suggesting a correction. First, when we were in Grand Turk last cruise with the Celebrity Constellation, and we went down to Governours Beach, I posted a photo of the Mega One Triton wreck with the cruise ship pier in the background. Since my waterproof camera had already stopped working, and we didn't want to leave our iPhones on the beach there while we swam, we didn't take a camera with us that day. That photo was taken during the taxi tour we'd had of Grand Turk nine days earlier. I posted it so you could see the wreck and also the proximity of Governours Beach to the cruise ships. Gregg noted that it didn't look like the Celebrity Constellation in the photo, but a Carnival ship, and he was exactly right.  

And, just to clarify, harious isn't a typo. I know the word is hilarious. It's just that we have used the word harious since McGee first said it when he was two years old. Harious=Hilarious; Frying=Crying (Patch at age 2); Fuzzy water= club soda (G at age 32).  I also know that I often use a semicolon when I should be using a comma. That is merely a function of typing this blog while lying in bed with my iPad sitting on my stomach. Four fingers of my left hand are used to support the iPad and my left thumb does all the typing for my left hand. I aim for the comma, and instead touch the semicolon just above it. When I go home and read over my blog entries from the prior winter, I try to correct those things. No matter how awkward it is to type on my iPad while lying down in bed, it's a huge improvement over using my iPhone as I did for several years. Instead of typing a post every night using two fingers, I use three fingers...my left thumb and the second and their fingers of my right hand. And I have a larger keyboard to do it on. It's been a wonderful change for me. 

Things continued to get bouncier throughout the day. We went down to have just a small lunch (I had calamari and gazpacho), since we were having dinner tonight at S h a r e, and returned to the cabin, astonished at how much rougher it is back here than in the middle of the ship. There was a post on Cruise Critic asking about the noise in these cabins on the back of Riviera Deck from the Horizon Court Buffet just above us. There is no really noticeable noise, but, good grief, we may need seat belts in bed tonight. Still, this movement does not make me seasick the way that I was for a couple of days on the Pacific Princess. It's definitely more of a shaking motion than a rolling motion. 

It didn't keep G out of a hot tub, but I was happier just reading this afternoon. Another of my Overdrive books from the library, this one an autobiography ebook by Leah Remini, is going to disappear from my iPad tomorrow, and I wanted to finish that up. I showered for the evening with one hand on the shower bar to keep from tumbling out of the bathroom. Our reservation for S h a r e was early tonight, at 5:30pm. We had asked for a table by the huge windows overlooking the back of the ship and hoped to catch the sunset while we dined. 

What can I say about S h a r e?  Perhaps most appropriate would be to wear a t-shirt emblazoned "I survived dining at S h a r e with my meat and potatoes husband". And then on the back it would say, "But it wasn't easy!"  I knew we were in trouble when we first sat down and nearly slid out of our seats. Several of the tables have wooden chairs with leather seat cushions on them. They're not large chairs and the seat cushions are very slick. They also lack arms.  G tolerated that for about 30 seconds before asking if they couldn't change our chairs out for some bucket shaped ones. Of course, they gladly accommodated his request.

G next commented on the lack of tablecloths or placemats on the tables. In fact, most of the surfaces in S h a r e are hard (the entire decor is upscale contemporary) and sounds do echo. The lady at the next table had a FaceTime phone call from her kids during her dinner and everyone in the restaurant heard every word. The lack of a tablecloth became more of an issue when the water goblets started to sweat. The ship was really bouncing in the restaurant's location on the back of Deck 16 and G caught a wine glass just before it danced off the table. 

I was hopeful, though, that the food would overcome these petty issues. We had the standard charcuterie platter as a starter, which we, of course, shared. The whole premise of this restaurant is to feel free to share food from common plates set in the middle of the table. 

My southern husband loved the pickled cauliflower. I liked the pearl onions with mustard seeds. I'm not into processed meats but G liked them. And olives are olives. 

This was bread with chicken liver pate and pomegranate jelly. The bread and jelly were delish. G, of course, lamented the absence of butter. 

Our food choices were as follows:

Appetizers

Tagliatelle with crab (me)

Cavatelli (G)

Next to the donut holes for dessert, this was my favorite part of the meal. 

I was growing weary, by this time, with G picking up various pieces of this with his fork and wondering aloud what they were (mostly cause I didn't know either). 

I was very happy with my tagliatelle. This pasta is made fresh daily, and I love fresh pasta. It was light and delicate and very delicious. G chose the cavatelli because he also like pasta, and likes brussel sprouts and doesn't mind beets. The issue was that it was all served mixed together and the brussel sprouts were just a few outer leaves, not the whole sprout. It was not his favorite, but he did eat it. 

Mains

Butter poached lobster (me)

Twice cooked duck (G)

Lobster (yummy) with sweet and foamy endive (not so much)

Immediate issues here:  there were bones and skin on the duck. G does not do bones and skin on anything. Then it was dark meat. Does duck even have white meat? But he liked the smoky flavor. 

G's choice here was a real surprise to me. I thought for sure he'd choose the beef cheek pie. What I had not realized is that he had talked to the chef, Christian, at the S h a r e Open House and was told that the cheeks from which this beef came were not the butt cheeks but the face cheeks. After a few days of thinking about this, G decided that these cheeks were too close to the lips which are used to make hot dogs and he wanted no part of beef cheek pie. God help us. 

So he ordered duck. I can count on no fingers the number of times I've seen G eat duck. But his other options were seafood or vegetarian, so duck it was. And to his credit, he did eat it. But he left little doubt that he would have been happier tucking into a filet mignon instead. 

I was, frankly, disappointed with the lobster. The lobster itself was as tender as any I've ever had. But the carmelized endive did nothing for me.  And I intensely disliked the endive foam (even setting aside that it was unhelpfully described on Cruise Critic as cat sick). It was neither hot nor cold (and I have a thing about that), it didn't look appealing and the flavor was very odd. I like endive; I guess I just don't like it carmelized. Or foamed. I suppose that same thing would hold true for many foods I eat. 

Braised kale

Potato gratin

Cheese course

La Gruta (me)

Shaft blue (G)

Steady on, we next moved to the cheese course. God bless him, our waiter Cristian rightfully explained which of the four cheeses were made from sheep, goat or cows milk, or a combination of two or three of them. But I cringed when I heard that...the only cows milk cheese was the blue cheese. G won't touch anything but cows milk cheese. One would think that G, who loves blue cheese dressing, would adore blue cheese itself, but he doesn't unless it's very mild. This one, naturally, was not. He took one bite and set it in front of me. Luckily, I do love all sorts of blue cheese. In fact, I don't often meet a cheese I don't like, and finished his as well as my own la gruta cheese plate. 

Dessert

Ricotta fritters (me)

Dark chocolate crémeux (G)

I had finally heaved an audible sigh of relief (that echoed and echoed and echoed...) when we reached the dessert course. Surely G would adore something made up of dark chocolate and burnt vanilla ice cream. Well, he did love the dark chocolate but said the ice cream tasted "funny". I have never, in all the years I've known him, heard him diss any kind of ice cream. On the other hand, we both adored my ricotta fritters. They were like fresh, warm donut holes, and were the biggest hit of the night. I was full of cheese so G got most of this dessert. 

We drank a lot of wine and enjoyed attentive service by Cristian from Romania. And, to be fair, the tables on either side of us, made up of two ladies at each, raved about the food (because, of course we heard their comments). One of them said that if they had discovered S h a r e on the first night of the cruise, they would not have eaten anywhere else on the ship. It was also well attended; we had not been able to get a reservation on formal night, and, with our MTP and Captains Circle parties this cruise, tonight was the only night that worked for us. 

We lingered over the meal and ended up spending over three hours there. By that time, I was thankful that G had insisted on getting our chairs changed out. We would never have lasted that long in the chairs we were originally seated in. I am glad we tried S h a r e once, but, unless/ until the menu changes, it is not something we'd do again. As G helpfully (though not totally correctly) pointed out,  we could dine at the Crown Grill twice for the same amount of money (it's actually $25pp vs. S h a r e's $39pp). Frankly, I'd rather eat at the Crab Shack than either of those two specialty restaurants, but G has always refused to eat there. That I even got him to go to S h a r e was a coup.

But tomorrow, his life will return to normal. Our adventures in creative dining will be over. He'll have beef tenderloins for lunch followed by prime rib for dinner, and peace will reign. 

Insert deep sigh of relief here ____________.

Day 131: At sea

We were up very early today, having collapsed in bed early last night. Somehow, our lack of activity on turnaround day made us feel even more lethargic than if we'd had a busy day. We were determined to remedy that today, and left our cabin before 6am. I went right up to the jogging track to walk a couple of miles and G, after getting a cup of coffee, climbed the aft stairs from Deck 6 to Deck 18, over and over, checking on me up on Deck 19 occasionally when he'd get to the top. We spotted a hint of a sunrise off the back of the ship, but it lasted just a minute before clouds once again moved in. Luckily, the forecast for Cozumel tomorrow is quite encouraging. 

I picked up a coffee from the International Cafe (today it was the decaf skinny salted caramel strata, only because we need to start using up some of the punches on our coffee cards. I am really a brewed decaf person at heart.) and joined G at a table for four for two in the back corner of the DaVinci Dining Room for breakfast. I love it when they hide us back there. I can download and read the news of the day; G can look back at photos he's taken, and emails he's received and we're not caught up in conversations inherent with sharing a table. It's not that I'm anti-social; it's just that it's Day 131 of our winter, and that's a bit like having company in the house for over four months. 

I took a chance at ordering iceberg lettuce for breakfast today, and used it, along with peanut butter and toast, to channel Dad and make a PB&L sandwich. It seems the longer we're here, the more we're eating as we do at home. When we start craving chicken muddle for dinner, it will definitely be time to leave.  

We went from the DaVinci Dining Room up to Deck 15 to see what the weather was doing. It was overcast, and the clouds looked ominous, and, by the time we got back to our cabin, we could see from the front of the ship webcam it had started to rain. With nothing else pressing, and with tonight being formal night, I gave G an extensive haircut that will hopefully see him through until we get home. We finished and he showered in time to go to the Curtis Stone S h a r e restaurant open house up on Deck 16 at 11am. The menu's dishes were displayed, and chefs and waiters were available to answer questions. Champagne and mimosas were served and it really was the best idea I've seen to promote this new restaurant.

It's hard for us mere mortals to picture a starter called 'Cavatelli- beets, castlemagno, sun choke and brussel sprout' (and even harder to get that past Autocorrect), and, if it's hard to picture it, it's hard to summon any enthusiasm about eating it. We are more used to fast food restaurants with their photo menus displayed overhead; even the menus at the local Ruby Tuesday feature lots of photos. Well, the open house went a long way to answer questions. I found three of the six courses I thought G would tolerate and booked us a table for two Friday night. Stay tuned to see if my meat and potatoes guy survives S h a r e. 

S h a r e open house 

I'll post more Curtis Stone S h a r e pics in Fort Lauderdale on Sautrday. But for now, I absolutely love this dinnerware!

The funny thing is that the head of the ship's photo department was there taking candid shots, and he loved G's brightly colored tropical shirt and its contrast with his freshly trimmed white hair and tanned skin and...well, my husband can now add model to his list of life's accomplishments. Several photos were taken of him discussing the displayed food with Curtis Stone's corporate chef, Christian. Nothing surprises me any longer. ;-)

We next went to British Pub Lunch in the Wheelhouse Bar. I think G was extracting early payback for Friday night, because you know (and he does, too) that I'm usually happier with a salad from the dining room for lunch on a sea day instead of greasy fish and French fries. But I paid it forward, smug in the knowledge that I will be watching G eat nasturtium pesto (really) Friday night. 

We returned to our cabin to see that Ambrish had completed his morning service, and our new Princess Luxury Bed was finally complete. (Except for the pillows, of course...we still choose to have the old pillows covered with the new pillowcases.) The bed looks gorgeous, and the sheets are silky and feel divine, but when G started digging into this depth of luxury atop our mattress, he quickly got lost in linen. It's completely different from the old duvet system. The bed anatomy is now as follows: the super comfortable mattress is covered with a bottom sheet, a top sheet, an uncovered duvet (it's used like a blanket, and it's not washed between cruises) and another bed cover/ top sheet with an 18" pocket into which the top of the duvet is tucked. 

All those people who have asked for top sheets for years will be thrilled; those of us who find the shower curtains that go unchanged between cruises a bit cringe-worthy will imagine germs everywhere. This will take some getting used to. We've so enjoyed the old Princess system of sleeping under only a duvet with a frequently laundered cover that it's what we now use at home, too, with nothing tucked in at the foot or sides of the bed. Tonight's bet is about how tangled we will get in all these layers by the time we awake in the morning. 

And the new pillows are like balloons without enough air. They are huge and poofy but they flatten down to nothing under the weight of the head, and puff up around it. Side sleepers like me will find their heads flat on the bed and their faces covered by pillow poof. Hopefully these will calm down over time.

As for the cabin stewards...I hope they can calm down over time, too. God bless them; these beds have added hours to their day. 

We changed into swimsuits and went to a hot tub and then I did some water jogging, too.  The sun came and went, mostly went, but it was a perfect afternoon to use a pool. I squeezed in just a few minutes in the steam room before returning to the cabin. The only formal night of this 5-night cruise was tonight, so we took a little extra time getting ready for dinner. This will be a busy cruise:  formal night tonight, MTP cocktail party tomorrow night, Captains Circle party the next night and dinner at S h a r e the last night. Something tells me that, after tonight, entertainment will take a back seat to everything else. 

G was dressed in his tux and left the cabin in time for the 5pm veterans get together held in Crooners. I left the cabin, too, but went to Vines to have a glass of merlot and just a tiny serving of hummus and tapenade. I loved sitting there and watching as the champagne waterfall for tonight's Captain's Welcome Aboard Party and Champagne Waterfall was built. I also chatted with the couple at the next table. What they said did not surprise me, that yesterday's embarkation had been brutal, and they stood in line for two hours to get into the terminal and get checked in. It was not a good way to start a cruise. 

G and I met up in the Michelangelo Dining Room for a very un-formal night dinner menu. He had surf and turf and I had the seafood skewer and we both had red currant sorbet for dessert. It was an excellent meal; it just wasn't the usual formal night fare. This shorter cruise gets a bit shortchanged that way. 

We left the dining room in time for a glass of champagne at the party and then went to the 8pm performance of Magic To Do. Frankly, the Prestidigitation segment has got to go. Bloodshed really has no part in a Princess production show. But, aside from that, I'm liking the show. G remains unconvinced, and he's not alone. When the curtain falls, one can almost sense the audience asking, "What the heck did I just see?" Typical Princess entertainment this is not. 

The ship is totally stable tonight, a welcome change after last night's bounciness (BTW, the minibar stayed in place on the vanity all night).  We called it a day after the show. True, we were up early this morning, but I think we are just anxious to see how this new bed sleeps. G was out in about 30 seconds; I think that means he gives it a thumbs up. :-)