Island to Alaska with Pictures

[joyride]

Ok, I just found your thread tonight. I will be on the Island on 8/6.

 

So, it's been 6 days and you are at the first night dinner. I'm thinking that I may have heard all about your trip by the time I leave in August. That's good! I'm enjoying reading your story, you really should write a book...

Actually - I think you are! :)

[luv2travel2beaches]

HEY....I understand the Nebraska, Oklahoma food thing. I'm from KANSAS. So, neighbor...lets get on to the dinner, I can't wait to hear about it.

 

Just a little note here...dh and I have been married 26 years yesterday (last year we went to Hawaii & cruise for our 25th). This year we are pouting because "LAST YEAR we were in Hawaii at this time". Also, about the wedding on the cruise ship for the daughter....BELIEVE ME...IT IS CHEAPER TO TAKE THE CRUISE SHIP WEDDING...our youngest DD just got married 3 weeks ago in the traditional wedding/reception. Now, don't get me wrong....It was beautiful BUT save the money...go on the cruise!!!!! Our oldest daughter, who at this time is still single, has decided the cruise/island wedding is for her and you can believe we are in full agreement of that!

 

Now, I'm ready for your next chapter. Our next cruise isn't till January but I'm sure we will still be reading about yours when we are about to leave for Disney World (my favorite place too) and our cruise. I must admit, your cruise story is better than any Harlequin I could find.

[Bob-A-Loo]

This is absolutely the best thing I have ever read!!! Can't wait till the next installment!

[cworld]

BOOM, BOOM, POP, POP, BANG, BANG

 

Insert picture of fireworks here.

 

Hear the roar of cannons in the distance.

 

Marching bands are congregating. (Hear them playing 76 trombones?)

 

Let the show begin.

 

DINNER IS SERVED

 

 

Being seated where I could see that revolving kitchen door, I watched Judith/Justine walk toward the kitchen. (The anticipation builds.) She goes through that revolving door and… “Dear, did you hear what I said?” (WHAT? Leave me alone. I’m day dreaming here.) Yea, when we get back to the room we’ll call the kids before we lose cell phone coverage. (Yea, yea, yea) (Look here she comes…)

Judith/Justine reappeared with a large round tray that had 4 plates covered with those round plastic cover thingys. You know those lid things that are about 1 and 1/2 inches tall, and cover the plates to keep things warm. Usually they are made of metal, and shine, but these are plastic that you can see through. In my mind (which can be an interesting place to be), I envisioned these to be silver or gold. This is a high class joint isn't it?

Back to reality. FOOD. YES, FOOD, here it is, the moment we have all been waiting for. A hush falls over the crowd as Judith/Justine brings the tray over to the workstation where she starts pulling those cheap plastic tops off the plates. Number one comes off, no shrimp there, Number two comes off, and again no shrimp. That’s OK, there’s two to go. Number three comes off, that doesn’t look like shrimp, ditto with number four. Judith/Justine then starts to serve people at another table. THE NERVE. Hey, Judith/Justine don’t you know who I am. I am the man that if he could remember your name would now be ranting and raving about your poor service. I am the undisputed king of writing scathing emails. I am woman hear me roar (well maybe that one doesn’t work). PLEASE, JUST SERVE ME FIRST, I’M HUNGRY.

About that time, the other server, Justine/Judith comes over to our table and very professionally slaps down 2 shrimp cocktails and a basket of bread. Did I miss something here? (Obviously dummy.) Justine/Judith asked is there anything else you need? “Yes how about the iced tea we ordered about 2 days ago.” OOPS, back up (.oga syad 3 tuoba deredro ew aet deci eht…daD dna moM raeD…denrael nossel paehC, and if any of that makes sense to you, call me. You would probably make a great Air Traffic Controller.) Way back when my wife ordered the Perrier, we also asked for iced tea. You would have thought we had grown an extra head or something by the way Judith/Justine looked at us. What? Doesn’t anyone ever order ice tea around here? Or is it just that iced tea is free, and you don’t get that automatic 15% tip added to an already inflated bill. We drink ice tea with dinner. We have ordered ice at some of the world’s finest (well at least Oklahoma City’s finest it’s really the same thing) restaurants. Never (well almost never) before have I had a server act like it was beneath them to serve ice tea. (Maybe it just my paranoid streak rearing it’s ugly head, but, I swear, it was like we had just shot J. R. Ewing.)

Fast forward back to the present (really not the present, but you know what I mean.)

The shrimp cocktails are here, rolls are on the table and ice tea is on the way. (PRIME RIB, PRIME RIB is coming.) Let’s dig in. The shrimp cocktail looked good. It was served in a silver metal chalice looking dish that had the cocktail sauce and a slice of lemon in the middle and the maybe 6 or so shrimp around the edges. Tasting time…Dip on of the little shrimpies in the sauce and mmmmmm… that’s pretty good. The cocktail sauce is just right. It’s not too spicy, and has just the right amount of bite to it. And the shrimp is fine, I mean really, how hard is it to boil shrimp? The only thing that might have made the whole thing better is if the shrimp were bigger. But all in all, a good start.

 

Rating for shrimp cocktail B+

 

Hey, finally iced tea is delivered. Thanks ladies. Wait a minute. Take a look at this tea. Looks kinda funny. Kinda like it was brewed with motor oil or something. It’s awfully dark. I can’t even see through it. Just how long has it been sitting around? OK, maybe it’s just a water thing, let’s taste it. Slurp. Neither one of use spewed it back up, and though it was a little (maybe little is the wrong word) strong it was OK. (Insert note from Mrs. cworld here…Tell the truth, Carl. The tea was awful. Every night it was the same thing. Order tea, and then pour water in to it to make it drinkable. It was too strong.) I know dear, but I didn’t want to be too harsh.

 

Iced Tea rating - D

 

Note to Princess – Call your advertising agency and have them locate a television commercial for ice tea. (If you could get it, Luzianne would be the best.) Look at that commercial and see what real ice tea should look like. It shouldn’t look like Coke, or motor oil. It should be that beautiful browinish orange color. Tea should not be dark that you can’t see what is lurking in the glass. Or walk up to the Horizon Court, pour a glass from there, and make your dining room tea like the tea in the Horizon Court.

 

OK, we got through the shrimp cocktail without creating an international incident, lets see how the salad goes. Judith/Justine were prompt in picking up our plates when we finished the shrimp cocktail, and they brought over our salad. Interesting. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m expecting a balsamic dressing to be dark. This one is kind of a murky white. It’s OK dear, my wife said, it tastes all right, and it did. The salad was very good. The greens were crisp and fresh and the dressing was not overpowering. I’m not a great connoisseur of salad (or is that a connoisseur of great salad). One or twice a week I’ll eat a regular salad, but nothing real fancy. This salad had some of those fancier greens in it. You know the one Martha and Emeril use when they make their salads. Endive, Arugula, and other leafy things I’m not real familiar with were the greens that made up the salad. It was very tasty.

 

Rating for Salad – A-

 

What Real Man can eat just salad? If you are going to stoop to eat salad you better wolf down a loaf of bread or two, right? So here we go. Going to try the rolls. There are two white and two wheat rolls and some breadsticks in the basket. Real men don’t eat wheat rolls, if God had intended man to eat wheat rolls, he would have made rolls out of wheat. (HUH, did you just turn into Yogi Berra or something. Flour is made from wheat.) Really, you learn something new every day. But answer me this, if flour is made out of wheat, why are wheat breads not white? HUH. (AFLAC) I ripped open the roll. It had a hard shell, but was very soft on the inside. It was still a little warm. Judith/Justine had left some butter, so I daintily dipped the correct knife into the butter dish, and with my pinky finger in just the right position lathered a hunk of butter right on to that warm roll, and stuffed the whole thing right in my mouth. Well, maybe I didn’t stuff the whole thing in my mouth, but hot rolls are Real Man food, and I took a Real Man bite. HOLD THE PRESSES. STOP EVERYTHING. TIME TO GET UP AND HOOT AND HOLLER. ALL ROLLS SHOULD TASTE LIKE THIS

 

Princess I must say, you got this one just right.

 

Rating for rolls – A+++

 

Mrs. cworld just walked behind me and saw what I wrote about the rolls. She vehemently disagrees. The word she used was … (I’m not going to put that word in this, because it might be offensive to a more genteel soul). As usual she’s wrong, I’m right. The rolls were very good. Besides she only tried them one night.

 

OK ladies, time to take away the salad dishes and bring that main course. (PRIME RIB, NEBRASKA PRIME RIB, PRIME RIB) I almost can’t sit still I’m so excited. Go Judith. Go Justine. Drop everything you are doing and serve me. I’m a heap big important person, and I have been waiting weeks for your PRIME RIB. Don’t worry about that table for 8 that your talking too. There just a bunch of old fogies. Pay attention to us. NOW. I’ve waited 7 seconds. Do you know how long 7 seconds is to an Air Traffic Controller? It’s like 45 minutes in real people time. Come on, come on, clocks ticking, I can hear it. That’s right, I really can hear it. There’s no music here. Attention! Attention! News Flash! I just realized that there was no background music in Bordeaux Dining Room.

 

Note to Princess – Most fine restaurants have some kind of background music. This seems to be missing from the Bordeaux dining room on the Island Princess. Maybe something was broken, or maybe you have done some market research that tells you that music isn’t really important to fine dining, and it might not be, but we did miss it.

 

Sorry, but that’s all for the evening. I promise that I will finish dinner (PRIME RIB, PRIME RIB, PRIME RIB) tomorrow. Maybe with just a little luck we will also finish day one of our trip. Let’s see I started this on the 20th, it’s the 27th and I’m almost through with day 1. At this rate…

[Mrs. cworld]

THE ROLLS WERE BAD--VERY BAD :mad:

 

Note to Princess: Any good Texan knows that it is Lipton iced tea. HOWEVER, as he has already established, my DH is from north of the Red River and only admits to being a Texan by birth when I remind him of his birthplace.

[cworld]

Yes but Luzianne had better commercials. And I escaped Texas as soon as I could.

[prophotogirl]

Yes but Luzianne had better commercials. And I escaped Texas as soon as I could.

 

But we'll still claim ya! Even if you excaped. Once a Texan always a Texan. :D

[judynorth]

THE ROLLS WERE BAD--VERY BAD :mad:

 

No, no, the bread was wonderful. A+. The tea was terrible though. Muddy, and never enough ice (can there ever be enough ice?).

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Carl - just found this thread. What a hoot!!!

 

We're on the Island Princess 10/23/05 to Hawaii. Looking forward to following your cruise posts. Makes me feel like I'm on the ship right now.

[cworld]

Let’s get right to it. The Finale, The Show, The Big One, Here it comes, (PRIME RIB, NEBRASKA PRIME RIB, PRIME)

 

The Main Course.

 

Judith/Justine properly serves my wife her dish first. She serves both the Tournedos of Beef Tenderloin (Isn’t the internet a wonderful thing. Just a little research and boom, there are Princess menus. Not exactly the same, but most of the dishes are labeled the same.) AND AND AND the Seafood Turnover in Lobster Sauce. Hey, What’s up? She didn’t order (SHHHHHH, it looks pretty good)… I guess Judith/Justine must have overheard us talking about the Seafood Turnover, and decided we needed to try it.

 

Note to Judith/Justine – Most ladies (especially ladies that are dieting, or look like they need to be dieting, or for that matter, almost any lady I can think of) don’t want people to see 2 entrees at their place. If you want to bring a lady an extra entree, serve it here husband. You know, THE MAN. Two entrees at his place is not a capital offense. He'll look like he’s a pig, but, he’s used to that. Women, on the other hand, want to look dainty and petite. It’s the whole “look at me, I cutting this pea in half, because I couldn’t possibly fit the whole thing in my mouth” culture. The “I don’t really need to eat, I’ll just try a bite or two to get the taste” type thing. Please, in the future, don’t ever put 2 entrees in front of my wife unless she expressly asks for them, and then you might think about bringing them in succession. (One at a time for you people in Arkansas.)

 

OK, Boys and Girls. Here’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. (Yea, right Carl, can’t cha' drag it out just a little longer, only 75% of the people reading this thread have gone on to something else waiting for you to post something important.)

Judith/Justine plopped down my PRIME RIB, according to Princess Menu (found on the Internet), Nebraska Prime Rib with Horseradish. !!!!YES, YES, YES !!!!! (picture Meg Ryan in “When Harry Met Sally” the diner scene.)

 

When the plate landed in front of me I heard Jim Nantz speaking in that sonorous golf voice of his… “Here we are ladies an gentlemen this will determine the outcome of the whole dinner today. Carl picks up his fork in his left hand. He’s lining up the cut with his #3 knife”… (In the background Gary McCord butts in and says “Jim, The Carlmiester, REAL MAN deluxe, has had a tendency over the years, in these types of situations to slice off huge hunks of beef and stuff them whole in his mouth”…) I picked up my knife, I started to cut the meat when I looked down at it and WHOA. WHOA HORSE, STOP THE PRESSES!!! What’s this brown stuff? This gravy looking stuff? Nothing in the menu said anything about gravy. NEBRASKA PRIME RIB WITH HORSERADISH. I’ve already declined the horseradish, and anyway it’s white. No one, no where, zip, zero, nada, was there anything said about gravy. (Just shut up and eat the dumb thing already.) OK, but I’m not gonna like it. I did take a bite. The meat was good. It was cooked perfectly. It was tender. It was not over spiced. It was very good. BUT

 

NOTE TO PRINCESS (I hope you can hear how loud my fingers are pounding the keys) – Ding, Ding, Ding, Attention, Attention, Attention Princess Management ... This is to notify you of a major customer complaint.

Does anyone in you company have any idea what a Nebraska steak looks like? Have any of you ever been to Nebraska? Nebraska doesn’t put gravy on their steak, unless it’s chicken fried. Then it’s only white gravy. HELLO, Nebraska serves very large steaming hunks of BEEF straight up.

Go, right now, and find a map of Nebraska. It’s one of the straightest states in the United States. Look at the interstates, no curves, totally strait. You can drive from one side of the state to the other without ever turning the wheel. And do you know what you will see? Everything in as straight line. Corn in rows, cows in rows, wheat in rows, every where you look rows, and rows and rows. Even the people in Nebraska are straight (I mean that as a sincere complement).

Do you know what the 3rd largest town in Nebraska is? Cornhusker stadium (the football (real football, not that fake stuff the Europeans call football) stadium of the University of Nebraska) on game day. This is not your great metropolitan melting pot. PEOPLE IN NEBRASKA ARE STRAIGHT UP TYPE PEOPLE. You can’t even buy a drink with a twist (TRUTH DECTECTOR GOES OFF, HE”S LYING! Well may be I am just a little. I don’t drink, and I haven’t been to Nebraska since I was 11, but it’s how I feel about the people of Nebraska).

Why would you mess NEBRASKA PRIME RIB with some fancy sauce/gravy. If it was just pan drippings that would be perfect, but Nebraska Prime Rib doesn’t need some kind of wine sauce. If you want to know what Nebraska Prime Rib should look like, look up Omaha Steaks on the Internet. One of the largest on line meat distributors in the United States is Omaha (Nebraska) Steaks. They have a picture of what prime rib is supposed to look like. SEE NO GRAVY!!!!!!

 

PS. I do like the way you cook your prime rib. So many restaurants today try to spice it up with rubs or they marinate the meat in some kind of flavoring and ruins the natural taste of the meat. Thank you for not doing that. But please Prime Rib should only be served in it’s natural juices.

 

Sorry. I’ve waited almost 3 weeks to get that off my chest, I feel better now. Anyway on to the rest of dinner… There was some vegetables on the plate, but with the Prime Rib, but why bother. Scrape a little gravy off, butter up another of those really fabulous rolls. And have a mini-feast. You know thinking about it now, if I had asked for another Prime Rib without any gravy, Judith/Justine would have probably smiled and brought me just what I wanted.

 

Note to self – In the future, remember that you are on a cruise. The people serving you are just waiting to fulfill your every desire. You are on a cruise, serving you is what they live for (at least what they get paid for). You are on a cruise. Be a REAL MAN and complain about something (or at least con your wife into doing it for you). Repeat after me…You are on a cruise.

 

Rating for the Prime Rib – B

Rating for the gravy on the Prime Rib – 0 – F-

Average grade for the Prime Rib – D, barely passing

 

After all of that dessert is probably going to be anticlimactic, and it was.

 

I forgot to put in that we both tried some of the Seafood Turnover in Lobster Sauce. It was surprisingly good. The turnover was golden brown, flaky and just outstanding. The seafood in the middle was very good. A very good dish.

 

Rating for Seafood Turnover in Lobster Sauce – A

 

On to dessert. Maybe, after what, 4 days or something, I’ll get this meal finished.

 

After we finished eating, Judith/Justine picked up our plates and used that slick little curvy tool to scrape the droppings off of the table. "What, can’t you wait until we are away from the table to start cleaning it? Am I so messy that you have to scrape up everything I dropped during dinner just so you have room to slap down a dessert plate? Are you worried that your precious little dessert menu is going to get dirty, and you’ll have to print another one?" CARL, STOP. All top notch restaurants swipe the crumbs off the table prior to serving the dessert. Oh, Sorry.

Judith/Justine brought us the dessert menus. We weren’t feeling particularly daring, so I ordered the New York Cheesecake, and my beautiful, lovely, all knowing, love of my life, wife (love you, mean it) ordered a chocolate sundae. HOW BORING. Judith/Justine promptly brought out our desserts. The ice cream was very good. The filling on the New York Cheesecake was out of this world, but the crust was very hard. This was not the norm. We had Cheesecake several times during the week, and every other time it was wonderful. I just love the raspberry sauce they put on the plate with the New York Cheesecake. It complements the cheesecake very well.

 

Rating for dessert - B+ (would have been an A if the crust on the New York Cheesecake would have been normal.)

 

Hey, we don’t have to wait around for the check. Let’s motor. Stuff to do, Things to see, Sheep to count…

 

The dinner that would not end is finally over. (What? Did you think this was Hotel California or something?)

 

Time to go nightey night. Tomorrow, we’ll see what is in store for our first full day on “THE LOVE BOAT”.

[cruisebie]

So.....here I am reading and catching up on the latest installment when I should be in bed. I think I'm addicted. Can't wait for the (PRIME RIB, PRIME RIB, PRIME RIB)! And the rest of the cruise!:)

[cworld]

But we'll still claim ya! Even if you excaped. Once a Texan always a Texan. :D

 

Note to prophotogirl, and my Mother-in-law, a Texan through and through.

 

I've lived in Texas more of my life than any other state. It's kinda like that Prime Rib I talked about tonight. Lots of potential, but falls short. And yes, you can take Texas out of the boy.

 

BOOMER SOONER,

BOOMER SOONER,

BOOMER SOONER,

BOOMER SOONER,

 

BOOMER SOONER,

BOOMER SOONER,

BOOMER SOONER,

OKU.

[prophotogirl]

Note to prophotogirl, and my Mother-in-law, a Texan through and through.

 

I've lived in Texas more of my life than any other state. It's kinda like that Prime Rib I talked about tonight. Lots of potential, but falls short. And yes, you can take Texas out of the boy.

 

BOOMER SOONER,

BOOMER SOONER,

BOOMER SOONER,

BOOMER SOONER,

 

BOOMER SOONER,

BOOMER SOONER,

BOOMER SOONER,

OKU.

LOL I'm not a UT fan. Not really a fan of any of the colleges either.

[Coral]

OK - I have lived in Nebraska all my life...

 

Here is Nebraska - we don't think Omaha Steaks is that good. Though the steaks we get locally can't be beat by any other place I have been.

 

The best beef on Princess is to be found in the pay restaurant Sterlings. I was impressed by the rib eye steak we had there. And being a Nebraskan - I am picky about my steak.

 

-------

 

Now complaints - I usually order tornados of beef (filet) on formal night. Though not like steak at home, it is OK. I was thrilled when they added this to the anytime menu on Princess and I ordered this on French night. It was the worst steak I have ever had - it had a tan/gray color to it on the outside and absolultely no taste on the inside. Nothing like the tornados of beef they had during the formal night. Beware!

[Singinman]

My RP on the Coral was perfect. No gravy. Maybe the cook it differently for traditional dining (which we had) and personal choice dining. RP is one of my favorite meals.

[cworld]

The rest of the evening went without incident. We went back to the cabin, watched a little Sports Center (and yes, Mrs. cworld watches Sports Center too. Right dear?)

 

We were both exausted from the late night and the long day. We watched the sun go down from our balcony. And if I worked this bloomin thing correctly you'll see what we saw that evening. It just doesn't get any better than this. I mean that sincerely.

 

I'm going to take a little break this evening, and I'll start fresh tomorrow. We'll all go for a tour of the Island Princess starting tomorrow.

 

Please remember our service men and women tomorrow.

[Hate 2 W8t]

Aack! Gravy?!?!?!? on prime rib?!?!?! What were they thinking? :eek: I am a prime rib afficionado <sp?>. There's nothing like a good, au natural piece of prime rib. Thanks for the warning. Even if they don't put the "gravy" on the menu, I will be sure to specify "no gravy".

 

Coral - While not from Nebraska, I have enjoyed good midwest beef. (dad's from Iowa, DH from Utah) Can't beat the real thing. Can't figure out why Omaha Steaks, supposedly from Nebraska, don't taste like good midwestern beef. Not "bad", but not the real deal either.

 

Keep it comin' Carl... :D

[ricktalcott]

Hey Carl -

 

Thanks for the travelogue. Spend as much time as you like getting through the story; I'm having a ball.

 

Nancy & I took princess from San Francisco to Montreal last fall and thought that the food and the service was horrible. The people were really nice, however, so maybe it all balances out.

 

Rick

[cworld]

Good afternoon, I hope you are all enjoying the day, had the grill going, and hopefully you’ve taken some time to remember our service men and women.

 

Enough of that, let’s get back to the action. Day 1 of our Journey, a day at sea, (Why do they call it a day at sea? Are we really at sea? It doesn’t look like a sea. Most of the time I can see land on both sides of the boat. Seas are rough, this is smooth as glass.) a day to sit back, relax, check out the beautiful Island Princess, and avoid Formal Night.

 

Ring, Ring, Ring. Around 8:30 in the blasted AM the phone rings. Hello, I answer sleepily. “Hello Mr. Trent, this is Dave from the customer service office.” “Hello, Dave” (and WHY ON EARTH are you calling this early in the morning, of course being the kind, considerate fellow that I am, I didn’t mention the fact that he woke me from a DEEP, COMALIKE, MUCH NEEDED SLEEP.) “Mr. Trent, I have some good news and bad news for you.” (Dave, do you have to be so cheery, especially this early in the bl….) “Go ahead, Dave.” "Well Mr. Trent the bad news is that we haven’t heard anything about your bag yet, but, I’m sure it’ll turn up.” “Thanks.” “The good news, Mr. Trent, is that since your bag is missing for more than 24 hours, or at least it will be missing for more then 24 hours, before we could possibly get it to you, and since you bought that overpriced (OK he didn't really say overpriced, there are you happy now) insurance that Princess sells, you can spend up to $500.00 to replace the things you are missing. That’s 500 dollars will only available until the bag shows up, so you’ll want to do it before we get to Ketchican, in case the bag catches up with us there. The insurance people are pretty liberal about what you can call "replacement items". So, Mr. Trent, our shops are open today, and if you need anything just let me know.” “Thanks, Dave.” “By the way Mr. Trent, since tonight is formal night, do you need any formal for the evening.” “No thanks, Dave.” “Good. If you need anything, just let us know. No Worries” “Thanks, Dave”

 

HEY CARL!!!! WAKE UP! That was an important phone call. Did you hear what the NO WORRIES guy said, SHOPPING, SHOPPING, you can blow $500.00 shopping. Hey, dear, wake up. Woops, where is the wife? Shake out the cobwebs, check the memory banks. Oh, yea, she’s in the shower. When you were awake earlier, you knew that she was going to shower, and that you would follow later. Remember? I guess, But...

 

YES, YES, YES, We’re going shopping, where going shopping.

 

Hey. STOP. Wait just a doggone minute. Hold the bus.

 

YOU DON”T LIKE TO SHOP!

 

Oh, yeah, that’s right, I don’t like to shop. (Unless it’s for things like cars, or TV’s or computers, you know MAN stuff.) But shopping for clothes… No thanks.

Mrs. cworld came out of the shower, and asked, who was on the phone. I told her it was Dave and that we could go shopping. Sharing my love for shopping she said “Oh joy”. She said it’s your turn to shower. So I jumped in.

OK, here goes, I've read hundreds of posts about this shower thing. So what's it really like, what's "THE REST OF THE STORY". I figured out the water thing pretty easily, being the Real Man I am. Then I stepped in and closed the curtain. Yep, just like everybody says. It’s very small in here. Our 105 pound daughter would think “it’s kinda tight in here.” Me, being slightly more than 105 pounds, (slightly, dummy you haven’t seen 105 pounds since you were 10 years old, yea, but, I’m a MAN) was more than a little cramped. I kept banging my elbow on that (I would insert a derogatory term here, but being that some day I will probably be handicapped and need it, I won’t, besides, this thing might come handy in heavy in rough seas) steel tube, hand hold thingy. The shower curtain did cling to me.

The shower experience was everything everyone said it would be, but, it was one of those things in life that you really need to experience for yourself. (No it’s not, dummy. Number one, you could not go on a cruise, and number two you could fork over the extra bucks and not only have a real shower, but a real bathtub too. Cheapskate.)

The water was hot, and plentiful, at least today. Either our second or third day, there was no hot water. YUCK.

 

Note to Princess – I guess it’s probably too late, but if you could move one wall about 1 foot toward... Oh, what’s the use? Never mind…

 

Note to self – next time fork over the bucks, book early, and get you one of them sweet thingys.

 

We got ready, and then headed for breakfast. FOOD! Good, George Wendt is starting to rear his ugly head again. We are going to the BUFFET. FOOD GALORE. All you want to eat, and more… Let’s go. We step out of the room, walk 8 steps to those cool elevators, and head up to the 14th floor/deck or whatever you call it. Being the true REAL MAN, I quickly follow my wife out of the starboard side doors and on to the deck, where she immediately turns the wrong way. Excuse me, but we want to go this way. OK she says, and we traipse down deck 14.

Look dear, it’s a beautiful morning. The sun is shining. There are a few high clouds around. It’s probably about 55 degrees, headed for a high of 70 or so. The water is almost calm. Just a few ripples, not even any white caps. To the right you can see Canada, or at least I think it’s Canada. To the left, you can see the outside of the wall to deck 14.

We walk on up, through the indoor pool, no one in the pool or hot tubs, through the outdoor pool, again not a soul in the pool or hot tubs, and into the Horizon Court. FOOD. There is a crew member standing in the doorway reminding us to use the soapy thingy and wash our hands. What no water? Where’s the towels? Just put my hand under there and pull… OK. There, see, I’m not a virus spreading terrorist. I’m a clean person, I shower almost daily. I have showered today, and there is absolutely no reason to think I’m going to spread… Thank you sir, would you please move on, there are people waiting. Oookay.

 

So we walked in to the Horizon Food court. Interesting, the pictures I’ve seen make it look bigger than it really is. (I’m not saying it’s small by any means, but I was expecting the serving area to be bigger. Not a complaint, just an observation.)

 

Excuse me. Sorry, but I had to go run an errand. I went to Wal Mart. Isn’t Wal Mart a great place? Anything you could possibly desire under one roof, and at low prices. (What’s up Carl? We don’t care about your stinkin’ life. Hush, this really does have a point.) I was in a bit of a hurry to get back to this report, so when there were 2 people in line at the register, I quickly jumped over to the Serve Yourself register. Check yourself out --- at Wal Mart??? What’s going on here?

 

POP QUIZ

 

1. How many of you remember full-service gasoline?

2. How many of you, at first we looked down on self-service gasoline stations?

3. How many of you carry out your own groceries?

4. How many of you have your papers thrown on your porch?

5. How many of you have gone to an ATM in the past month?

6. How many of you have applied for a loan over the internet?

7. How many of you book your own travel?

8. How many of you have eaten at a buffet?

9. How many of you carry your bags in the airport, rather than use the Skycap?

10. How many of you would rather do it yourself?

 

 

Let’s face it, we have become self-service people. Old-fashioned service is becoming a thing of the past. I admit it, I’m guilty. By the time I started driving, self-service gasoline was cool. But I do remember the filling stations that had full-service pumps, and the high school aged boys that ran out to your car, and took care of you. Self-service even the cruise lines, the last bastions of service, are doing it. Starting with the end to butler service in the suites, to dining rooms where you serve yourself, even for dinner. It an epidemic, but, in my uneducated opinion, it's not just driven by money. It’s a reflection of our society. This is what we have become. In the mornings the Horizon Court was packed for hours. We never did, but, I bet that if you went down to the dining room, it would be almost empty.

 

Where has the concept of personal service gone? I hear echo’s of it, but I have a feeling it’s fading. My generation (I’m in my mid 40’s) remembers what it was like to have good service, but my children don’t have a clue (about anything, but that’s another story). The service industry is supposedly the fastest growing sector of our economy, but what kind of service? Is it that personal touch service that was around when I was a child? That friendly, “Yes, sir” smile on your face, “I’ll be happy to get that for you” type of service that used to be what we all enjoyed…

 

I have a feeling that it will come back, but not for a while.

 

ENOUGH OF YOUR WHINING!

 

MOVE ON ALREADY!

 

OK, but not tonight. I’ll try to get through breakfast tomorrow, then “Only the Shadow knows”.

[Hornet]

Good morning, Carl. What a fun read this is!

[cworld]

Breakfast, time to eat, calm down stomach it’s coming. Breakfast has to be one of my three favorite meals. Really, breakfast is probably my favorite. I love breakfast, especially good breakfast.

 

We walked into the small open area of the Horizon court, the area before the serving area.We were on the starboard side.

 

ANNOUNCEMENT, ANNOUNCEMENT, ... Carl is now going to describe in great boring detail the layout of the Horizon Court. Should anyone want to skip the boring details and go right on to the mutilation, destruction, maiming and all that other stuff you might want to skip the nest couple of paragraphs. There pretty dry. END OF ANNOUNCEMENT.

 

The Horizon Court is arranged like a horseshoe. The legs are the where the serving areas are. There is seating all around, including outside of the serving areas. The two serving areas are identically set up, and as far as I could tell, the food offered on both sides was the same. Both sides were open every morning at breakfast, but only one was open for dinner. At lunch, if the boat was in port, only one side would be open. While at sea, both sides were open for lunch. It seemed like if only one side was open for lunch, the other side would be open for dinner.

After you walk in to the door, (You probably mean “through the door”. Well, that depends on the activity from the night before now doesn’t it) there is a small open area. This gives everyone access to both the food service area, and the seating area. Just past the open area is where you pick up your plates and silverware, then THE FOOD. PILES and MOUNDS and PANS of FOOD. There are breads and fruits, and cereals, and lots more.

The food area divides up into several sections. Toward the center of the ship, there is the hot food area, in the center, there is an area that usually had chilled items, and toward the outside of the ship is the area that contained the breads, the fruits and cereals. All of the trim on the sneeze guards is gold. The cabinets are trimmed in wood, with tile looking facing. Really high class.

At the end of these areas there is an area for beverages. They had water and tea out of a spigot, and coffee pots. (But again, no COKE, we’ve discussed that before, but it is still one of my pet peeves. I need my caffeine, I would prefer Dr. Pepper, but Coke will work. PLEASE.) They also had milk, and juices available. (I’m sorry, juices don’t interest me, so I didn’t check to see what kind they had.)

 

END OF REALLY BORING STUFF, WE WILL NOW RETURN TO MILDLY BORING STUFF.

 

The seating area was very busy. It was hard to find a seat. After the first morning, we would scope out our seats before we got our food. The seating area consisted of the outside area of the horseshoe, around the food service area, and more seating at the top of the horseshoe. The areas outside of the food had 2 rows of tables separated by a traffic path. The outside of these two rows sits in floor to ceiling windows that give you great views of the passing scenery. You could see out of the windows from almost everywhere in the Horizon Court. It’s pretty cool. In the top of the horseshoe there is an area where the chefs would set up special displays. Also there is some extra seating in this area. At regular intervals there were the server workstations just like in the main dining rooms.

Enough of the practical stuff, on to the FOOD.

We grabbed our napkin/silverware wrap, and our plates and raced to start scooping mounds of food on to our plates. The plates were huge. I’d guess they were about 13 inches long and, at the widest point, about 6 inches. They had a fairly high lip on them. Being that I never wanted my fellow travelers to think I was piggish, I never really loaded up a plate to see how much I could get on one. (I did however make numerous trips invisibly so no one would notice that I was eating enough to feed a small country.)

Now to the food… First thing we did is to go around and check out what was available. Meats, eggs, potatoes, all of the standard fare. There were also some more exotic offerings, like freshly sliced salmon, an assortment of cheeses, and usually some exotic egg concoction And last but very certainly not least, there was an omelet station. Where do I start?

Being a bacon kind of guy, you know, “it’s a pork fat thing” I go right for the good stuff. Bacon, I piled on the bacon, 1 pound, 2 pounds, who cares. We’re on vacation, right. All dietary rules go right out the window. The bacon was prepared like all industrialized bacon.

From my many years of cooking bacon, one thing I have learned, each piece of bacon has to be cooked individually. They require individual attention. When you are trying to cook bacon for 2,500 people, I bet it’s hard to provide that individual attention. That being said the bacon was pretty good. (I should know, I probably consumed 5 lbs. during the week.) It wasn’t too smoky, it was usually warm, it wasn’t burned or undercooked. Overall the bacon was edible.

 

Rating for the bacon - B

 

Go down the line eggs? Nah, gonna go for the omelet. Potatoes, why not? French Toast???? HMMM??? I really like French Toast, but, I don’t usually get it when we go other places. Because, I’m the WORLDS BEST FRENCH TOAST COOK. Yep, me, that's right, take a bow, modesty flies out the window, I'M THE GREATEST. Just ask my kids. Which always make me worry when I try to eat someone else’s French Toast. What’s it gonna taste like? Is it gonna be dry? Will it be too eggy? Will it be overcooked, undercooked, badly cooked? Will the world end tomorrow? What’s the meaning of life? You know all of those earth shattering important questions come to mind when I look at French Toast. Besides, it’s sitting there in a pan. There’s no telling how long it’s been sitting there in that pan. I could have been sitting in that pan for hours. Just sitting and drying, Sitting and drying… OK, OK already, spear a couple of pieces and let’s move on.

I threw a couple of other things on the plate, nothing special until I came to the fruits. And there it was. Does anyone know where the Island Princess was just a few short days ago? Hawaii. The land of DOLE PINEAPPLE. I love good, fresh, juicy, yellow, sweet, just cut, ripe pineapple. And there it was. Not just pieces, not just slices but 2 inch thick hunks. Just look at it. It sits there looking at me. It’s that perfect shade of yellow. It says to me I’m perfect. I have aged to just the right age. I’m sitting here waiting for you to cut in to me, to take a great big bite out of me so my thick syrupy juices can run slowly, sloppily, down your cheek, and drip on to that clean white shirt, marking you as mine for the whole day. Or something like that. So I grabbed a hunk.

 

Then we got in line at the omelet station.

 

Note to self – In the future, dummy. When you are at a restaurant, and you can fill your plate with food that looks good, eat it before you get in line for something. It’s pretty silly to stand there with a plate full of rapidly getting cold food while you wait for the cook to make 4 or 5 omelets. GET IN THE OMELET LINE FIRST, then get your food. There’s no wait to go to the bacon trough. There’s no waiting at the French Toast pan. But, there is usually a line and it takes several minutes to make omelets, DUMMY.

 

We both had our plates full, then we went in search of a table.

 

Note to self #2 – Breakfast at the Horizon Court is crowded, in the future, instead of walking around for 5 minutes, while that omelet that you just had made fresh and hot gets cold, find your table then get in line. OK.

 

We found a table, but something was missing. Drinks, (heavy sigh), put the plate down, grab the wife’s room card, and off to the bar. Hey, bartender guy, look at me. I’m here. I’m not a paying customer, but I’m very thirsty and my once warm bacon, French Toast, omelet and pineapple are getting lonely. Would you please look at me so I can politely ask you for a STINKIN’ COKE! My blood pressure would have about 10 points lower if I could have just gotten a COKE myself (some more of that serve-yourself stuff we talked about last night). After about a week, 2 minutes in real people time, I got our Cokes and off I went.

 

Food shouldn’t be this hard.

 

Just think, we could be down in that lonely dining room, getting waited on hand and foot. But NO, somebody had to come up here every morning. Somebody wasn’t…OOPS. I better stop right there, or I’ll be in deep you-know-what. Get over it and eat your breakfast.

 

Maybe tomorrow, and then the way things pop in to my head, maybe not.

[HMcruiser]

Carl,

 

Just wanted to let you know you have another fan. This review is fantastic! Even a rating for the bacon!!

 

Keep up the great work, can't wait for the next installment.

 

Michelle

[cruznliz]

Forget the bacon :eek: how about your luggage??? Did Dave help you out??? Did you go to formal night??? :) This is one soap opera I'm enjoying!! ;)

[luv2travel2beaches]

Geez...being the shopper that I am, I am wondering what kind of power shopping you got done before your luggage showed up. That is my DREAM! Are you anywhere near telling about the shopping expedition....I would have skipped breakfast to shop! And believe me....I don't miss many meals!

[cworld]

I'm sorry I didn't get anything done tonight. Our son has started playing baseball again. But, no more games through the weekend. I'll have something for sure tomorrow.

 

See you tomorrow.