Travelicious

Finally getting a nice photo of the ocean and some blue sky.

Here’s something I love about the ship in public restrooms: Left is soap, middle is water, and right is DRYER! Maybe not much of a big deal to some of you, but amazing to us country bumpkins!

Breakfast at Hudson’s. No photos, as I forgot to bring my phone. We arrived around 9:20. Service was not great, but not complaining. Slot pull with $100 entry returned $220 each! Great time for all who participated! I a as already lost profits, but not initial investment. Dinner again in Hudson’s. I had lemon-pepper shrimp and Pookie had spinach/ricotta stuffed pepper. Both were very good. For dessert, I had lava cake and Pookie had apple strudel. Mine was cheesy, but need to request without strawberry gelatin/ ook. Pookie said her topping was good, but apples somewhat hard.

My bad! We haven’t tried Metropolitan yet. I meant Belvedere.

It’s a no in Metropolitan.

Unfortunately, having slept so late today, we missed the bar crawl organized by @Taxvp. Sorry! Hope y'all had a great time!

First, bacon-wrapped shrimp from last night: Next, tonight's dinner at Le Bistro: Tonight's dinner was compliments of Amex, which provides a dinner at Le Bistro and $200 non-refundable OBC. When we were seated, we were told the meal comes with one appetizer, one main, and one dessert each. We decided to get and split the beef tenderloin for a $10 upcharge and the lobster thermidor for a $25 upcharge. We were shocked to find out there was no upcharge for using the Amex credit, as opposed to the FAS dining credit. They swiped the card for the wine, but did not bring a ticket to sign for anything additional. We even stuck around for a few minutes to make sure we were good to go.

We were able to catch the early showing of Donna Summer last night, and loved it! Her music always makes me happy. After the show, we had a late dinner in the Commodore Room. Unfortunately, there is a problem loading photos today, but the bacon-wrapped Cajun shrimp with cheesy grits was the highlight. So good, and highly recommended! After dinner, Pookie got a lemoncello and I got a cosmopolitan, and we headed to the casino. Pookie is not much of a gambler. She lost a very small amount in a slot machine, played a little coin pusher, and was done. I was winning pretty big when she was heading back to the room. I should have cashed out and gone too, but, alas, I did not. I did quit with only a small loss and cashed out a decent voucher, so it wasn’t so bad. I also didn’t drink too much, which is probably the biggest win of all. The daily time changes seem to be catching up with us. The ship was really rocking last night and this morning, which makes me sleep exceptionally well. We didn’t crawl out of bed until after 1:00 this afternoon. By the time we were ready to leave the room it was a bit after 2:00. I wanted a salad from the buffet, as we have a 5:30 reservation at Le Bistro tonight. It was still a madhouse after 2:00, and the salad bar was closed. We headed to The Local, got a beeper, and waited for about 15 minutes. Why are all of these people eating lunch so late? We each had a Caesar salad, and headed back to the room, where our room steward said he needed about 5 more minutes. This guy probably thinks we are the laziest guests ever! He may be right. We are chilling for a bit and will head out for a pre-dinner cocktail around 5:00, then dinner. I suspect it will be an early night away from the casino. I agree with the assessment of those who say the Prima is not ideal for a cold weather cruise due to limited indoor public spaces. The outside deck on 8 is closed again today, although it is about 20 degrees warmer than yesterday. Still no sun, but at least it is not foggy today so we can actually see the ocean. I would really like to sail the Prima again, or the Viva, in a warmer setting. The ship itself is great. It is all the people in my way that is the problem. 🤣

Hopefully, but she was a little cold at one point today.

Can’t find anywhere onboard that makes them. Not even the whiskey bar.

Weather wise, I haven’t seen the sun since New York. It is cold, rainy and foggy. Deck 8?is pretty chilly from people going outside and those sliding doors opening. Probably need to put on my long Johns!

Oh, and I just discovered that Pookie did not really bring any warm clothes. 🙃

After eating way too much yesterday, we skipped breakfast and headed to Indulge at around 11:15 to claim a table for the 12:00 lunch service. We learned yesterday that this was a necessity. I read on my Kindle and Pookie played a game on her phone as we waited. The time finally arrived, and we placed orders for several items, which soon began to arrive one at a time. Again, I forgot to take photos of most items. Sorry. Here’s what I got: We also ordered the bacon-wrapped dates, a salad, soup and one or two other items. Surprisingly, the soup and salad arrived last. It wasn’t too long into the service that people were coming through looking for a table. Someone stood a few feet away and looked at us for a while, then approached to ask if she could have our table when we were done. But “take your time,” she said. Eventually she must have decided to go elsewhere. Then a man circled by a couple of times before leaning on the column next to our booth, right next to me, before asking if we were almost done. We told him that we still had items coming, so he moved on to someone else. It was like vultures, really. There has to be a better way for this facility, which seems to be the only one without a hostess. As far as the food, it was just okay. The best items were the gnocchi and the dates. We won’t go back for lunch, but may try it for dinner if there is a different menu. I guess we’ll either go to Hudson’s or The Commodore Room for dinner tonight. We were waitlisted for dinner with the officers, and received a letter today advising the date and time. We had a conflicting dinner reservation, but were able to get it changed, so we are good to go. Hope we get interesting people. Pookie has never done this and I’ve done it only once. One other oversight has occurred related to Latitudes benefits. We have not yet received our cartons of water, and we should get 2 each. We advised Cruise Next yesterday, and again today. Hopefully they will be delivered before we get to Iceland, as the smaller cartons are easier to take off the ship.

We are staying at the Comfort Hotel at the airport. From reviews, I can’t say it is good, but very basic. Our flight is at 6:30 a.m. the following morning, so proximity is most important to us for this stay.

Back in the land of the living, but still a super lazy day. Basically, we at breakfast in Hudson’s, walked around a while to give our room steward time to make the rounds, only to return to find out I touched “do not disturb” instead of “make up room.” We were sending out the first load of laundry today, so left again to make sure it was collected. We were hoping for a light lunch at Indulge, but every table was taken before they even opened for lunch. We went to the local for what turned out to be a not so light lunch: wrangler burger and Reuben. I also had a Moscow Mule. I saw the last half of Elvis a couple of night ago. It was coming on when we got back to the room, so decided to watch the beginning. Then promptly fell asleep. Dinner was Los Lobos, where they’ve changed the recipe for the chili relleno. Not it is stuffed with quinoa instead of cheese. I like quinoa, but not what I expected. Anyway, it was lots of food and we are stuffed. We each had 2 margaritas, and a decaf cafe Mexicano. I forgot to take photos of the mains before we dug in. A couple of days ago, Pookie mentioned that one of her crowns was loose. This is one she just had redone a month ago. We joked that she should stay away from corn on the cob. So tonight she had the corn cut off the cob, and the crown still came off during dinner. Guess we’ll try to find a dentist in Reykjavik to glue it back on. It is way too early in the trip for this. Fret not, Dear Readers. Despite have a few drinks, I’m not going to the casino and am done for the night. Hopefully we can try Indulge tomorrow.