My uber-Last-Minute Solo Bermuda Cruise! - Page 8 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Are you ready for some serious food photos???!!!???
On our second full day at sea, I did something I rarely do whilst on vacation—I slept in! After a small breakfast of chocolate croissants and bacon (gee—I wonder how people gain weight on cruises…!) I retired to the adults only deck to read in peace and quiet. It was lovely.
As you can see, one of the downsides of traveling solo is awkward self-taken photos!
In case anyone is keeping track, all I’ve done so far this day was sleep, eat, and lay around reading. So of course I was ready for a five course lunch by noon! In my (brief) pre-cruise research, I’d read about the ‘Best Of’ meal and absolutely intended to do it. Little did I know that the best of meal was actually a LUNCH. Ah well—I still made reservations—and so did my new cruise friends! So the four of us showed up to Le Bistro at noon for an insanely large—but very, very good—lunch.
The ‘best of’ lunch was a (cover charge) meal featuring the ‘best of’ each signature restaurant on board. Though I intended to use this meal to sample things from each restaurant, I ended up ordering mainly items from the Le Bistro menu (duh!) I should have taken a photo of the menu…but of course I forgot. However, here are all of my courses, in order, with notes…
Appetizer--Shrimp Cocktail (Cagneys)
While this was ‘small’, that’s actually a very good thing considering how many courses we had still to come! The shrimp were very good—dressed in some sort of lemon herb dressing and cooked perfectly (it is possible to mess up a boiled shrimp—trust me, I’ve done it!) The cocktail sauce could have used a bit more horseradish.
Salad—Asparagus and Prosciutto salad (Le Bistro)
This salad was very, very good. Very good. No complaints. I believe it was dressed in some sort of balsamic vinegar based dressing. It was also covered in chunks of parmasean. So good. Mouth watering now!
Soup—Mushroom Bisque (Le Bistro)
The presentation of this dish was odd—they serve you a mostly-empty bowl with some mushrooms in it and then pour the soup into your bowl at the table. I’m not sure what the point of this is (and I know from watching Top Chef that everything needs to ‘have a point’!) However, the soup was very good. I believe it was called a ‘three mushroom’ bisque, and it was very earthy and delicious.
Entrée—Rack of Lamb (Le Bistro)
Don’t let the unappetizing dish of mint jelly fool you—this was one of the best things I had on the ship (do I say that a lot? I must have enjoyed the food!) I love lamb, and this was pretty well-done. And by well-done I don’t mean overcooked—I mean cooked correctly. It was a little over the medium I asked for—though perhaps I should have asked for medium rare. Additionally, the sauce in which it was served was savory and delicious (I think it was some sort of wine reduction—again, I should have taken a photo of the menu!) and it was served over a variety of olives (a strange but YUMMY choice!)
Dessert—Cheesecake (Cagneys)
This was the least impressive part of the meal, but to be fair 1. I was stuffed at this point and 2. I don’t really like cheesecake unless it is REALLY good cheesecake (but the only other option was an apple tart, and I don’t like apple desserts at all.)
After lunch it seemed like a good time to lay around again—heck, what else could I do after all that food? I’m really starting to understand why people love cruising—I don’t think I’ve ever actually relaxed this much on any trip, ever (I’m a ‘go go go!’ type person when traveling—you should have seen my itinerary for our month-long Europe trip last year!)
And then, when I got tired of lying around, it was time for ‘education plus alcohol’ part two! I had skipped the wine tasting the previous day to do the ill-advised martini tasting. But fortunately for me, there was a second wine tasting—this one featuring French wines—on sea day two! Horray!
While I didn’t take any photos (or remember the names of any of the wines!) I did really enjoy this tasting. It was much more laid back (read: quiet!) than the martini tasting and, well, I like wine better than vodka! It was also interesting because the woman in charge (the head sommelier? ) explained how French wines are named for the region and not the grape…which helped explain why my husband and I were so perplexed at the monoprix in Paris last summer! As an added bonus, I sat at a table with what turned out to be a very friendly, interesting, and funny couple. We stayed for a good hour after the tasting was over, finishing our wine and chatting. (POST CRUISE NOTE: I run into them later on the trip, which just proves that people who go to wine tastings fit into some strange group of people that get up super early to do everything. Actually, I ran into the same people several times on this trip--interesting.)
After I finished talking with the nice couple it was almost time for trivia—and then dinner again! Aaack! I couldn’t take any more multi-course meals, so I did something I vowed I would not do on this trip—I had dinner at the buffet! Also on my list for the evening was ‘watch sunset’ and ‘check out karaoke and the hypnotist show followed by the comedy show’.
Surprisingly, I actually did all the things I thought I would do—though I did the ‘watch sunset’ part at the same time as the ‘buffet dinner’ part. They had malai kofta on the buffet, which made me very happy, and the two-top against the window provided a great view of the sun setting over the Atlantic.
I could not be more impressed with the buffet offerings; the food is pretty tasty and the selection is more than adequate. I can’t believe I actually chose the buffet over the sit-down dining room—and didn’t regret it. And I managed to pass on the dessert section (though I did have that chocolate croissant for breakfast this morning…)
The hypnotist show was, as it sounds, kind of cheesy—but very relaxing (you can choose to ‘participate’ from your seat, which I did) yet really amusing. I wasn’t sad that I went. I was, however, sad that I stayed for karaoke in Bliss after the ‘Majority Rules’ game later in the evening. Man, some of those people were TERRIBLE singers! We—because I met up with my cruise friends at the game show—decided to leave during a horrible rendition of some rap song and show up ‘early’ for the adult comedy show…yeah, we weren’t early. (POST CRUISE NOTE: NCL Gem tip—show up VERY early for any show in Spinnaker. And be prepared to defend your friends seats when they get up to use the restroom. Seriously—it was like sharks circling!) All the people in the comfortable seats showed up even earlier, and we ended up on bar stools—still not bad.
The comedian—Bud Anderson—was REALLY funny (even given the insane rules that comedians have to follow to do shows on cruise ships—he worked the list of rules into his act, and I now understand why cruise ship entertainment typically sucks) Yet somehow his show didn’t suck—I honesty and sincerely laughed really hard for an extended period of time. And I’d only had two drinks!
I went to bed WAY too late considering the very early for which I set my alarm. But darn it, I was going to watch us sail into Bermuda!
What a delicious day! I don't even know which food item to comment on first!!
I think sea days are the best, but I guess if I were to do a trans-Atlantic crossing, I'd gain 40 pounds!
What a delicious day! I don't even know which food item to comment on first!!
I think sea days are the best, but I guess if I were to do a trans-Atlantic crossing, I'd gain 40 pounds!
i know! and i BROUGHT my sneakers and workout gear...and it stayed in the suitcase the whole time! i'm VERY (very) seriously considering a panamal canal cruise for april--if i do that i will HAVE TO work out every day!
I am really itching to take a cruise now...it looks so relaxing and the food looks amazing! I think I gained 5 lbs just reading this update. The mint jelly with your lamb dish reminds me of my grandpa as he made really good mint jelly.
I am really itching to take a cruise now...it looks so relaxing and the food looks amazing! I think I gained 5 lbs just reading this update. The mint jelly with your lamb dish reminds me of my grandpa as he made really good mint jelly.
awww...i'm glad the mint jelly served a good purpose!
and don't even get me started on cruise itching--i'm hoping to do at least one more (if not two) before the end of my year off. it's a GREAT way to travel (in my humble opinion, anyway!)
oh--and according to all things cruise-related, Norwegian is supposed to have BAD food. so i can't imagine the food on the other lines! i've been on celebrity, but that was pre-blog and pre-camera phone, so i have no notes or photos (and that was only 5 years ago!)
WOW. I started a diet this week, so this post was torture! Can't wait to see photos of sailing into Bermuda.
just so you know... the #1 predictor of future weight gain is 'being on a diet right now'. eat whatever you want in reasonable amounts and exercise. i swear. even with ALL THAT I ATE (and am posting here) my pants from last year are big on me (though to be fair, they are REALLY big pants!) why? because i started exercising. so have a cupcake and go for a walk.
Here’s where my written-on-board notes become mere bullet lists—thus, most of this was written today, with the assistance of said bullet lists (and many, many photos!) I will stop writing POST CRUISE NOTES, because this is all written post cruise.
Man, I wish it wasn’t post cruise! There’s another sailing leaving tomorrow—if only I could be on it!
Anyway…
I got up at 6-ish on our first Bermuda day to watch us sail towards the island. Was it worth getting up at this hour? Um…yes. Check out some photos that I took from my breakfast table in ‘the great outdoors’—the outside dining area on deck 12 all the way aft…
After breakfast I ran around from port to starboard trying to watch Bermuda approach—and then got tired of trying to do that and retired to Spinnaker Lounge—which is all the way forward—to watch us approach from a comfortable chair. You will note that I’m getting quite lazy at this point! I did eventually go back outside to watch them tie up the ship (because I am a nerd and I care about these sorts of things!)
As I’d left my cabin all ready for the day—backpack slung across my body—I was ready for the ‘you can go ashore now’ announcement (is there a name for this?) As much as I hate lines, I wasn’t prepared for what was to come—I was able to walk, unstopped, off the ship. Perhaps I had different expectations because we were tendered in most of our ports on our Alaska cruise—with LONG LINES for the tender. But I was literally shocked as I stood on a street in the Dockyard, blinking in the sun, realizing I was IN BERMUDA!
And it was something like 8:40 in the morning.
I took some photos whilst approaching the ‘town’ proper (town in quotes because the Dockyard isn’t really a real place)
…and then located the line for the St. George ferry. I was determined to go to St. George on day one, even though there were two ships in port (ours and a Carnival ship) and the lines promised to be REALLY LONG. Imagine my surprise when the only five people in line at this hour were…my cruise critic friend Charlie and his wife and son and the two nice people I’d met at the wine tasting the previous day! It seems that great minds do, in fact, think alike—so we were all the first people on the 10:00 ferry to St. George.
Yes, that’s right—I said the 10:00 ferry. You will note that it was maybe 8:45 at this point. So I left my new friends and wandered off in search of the most important things in port—the internet café (which I found but did not utilize) and the public restrooms (one of which I found—and utilized.) After taking way too many photos of chickens crossing the road…
...and a million other photos (only a few posted here--my username is elbodans on photobucket if you really want to see all 693 of them)....
…I got back into the now-forming line with my friends and proceeded to wait maybe 45 minutes to board the ferry. By the time boarding started, the line was REALLY FREAKING LONG…
But I was at the front, so all was well. You should also note that they did bring in an extra ferry for all of the people. Though the one I boarded--being at the beginning of the line--looked much (MUCH) smaller and much (MUCH) faster. I never saw the other ferry again.
So I'm waiting in line for the ferry. There's something you should know about me (full disclosure)—I pee a lot. It is a problem I imagine many people have but don’t talk about. Well, I’ll talk about it because I think it is important to stress how easy it is to travel (and, especially, to cruise) with this issue. While I was one of the first ten people on board the ferry, I decided to use the facilities as soon as I boarded. I knew that this would mean that perhaps I wouldn’t get a great seat—but that had to be ok. As I was traveling alone, taking time to use the restroom without anyone to save my seat was bound to be a problem. Except that it wasn’t—because my new friends saved me a GREAT seat up on the top open deck. Thank you, new friends.
The ferry to St. George was really, REALLY rough. Like people were holding on and looking green rough. Horribly, horribly bad—but because of my trusty Bonine (or my belief in its magical powers, much like Dumbo’s feather) I was fine—and actually had fun! We pulled into St. George less than 30 minutes after leaving the Dockyard.
Up next--St. George and Tobacco Bay. Though this may be the last post for today (sorry!) because I absolutely must make dinner at some point!
Everyone keeps saying the same thing! Rather than calling it a “diet,” I am going to start saying, “I’ve started eating reasonable portion sizes.” Which is actually what I am doing. You know, 1 cup of popcorn instead of 5 cups. That kind of thing. It’s HARD.
Anyway … I love that you keep expecting to hit lines but find none … it’s 9am … and it’s NOT Disney! LOL everyone else was sleeping off all of the free food and drinks.
Everyone keeps saying the same thing! Rather than calling it a “diet,” I am going to start saying, “I’ve started eating reasonable portion sizes.” Which is actually what I am doing. You know, 1 cup of popcorn instead of 5 cups. That kind of thing. It’s HARD.
Anyway … I love that you keep expecting to hit lines but find none … it’s 9am … and it’s NOT Disney! LOL everyone else was sleeping off all of the free food and drinks.
Your photos are just beautiful.
i like your new explanation much better. what you tell yourself is important, too! and, for the record, no one can eat five cups of popcorn. their stomach would explode. though i'd kill for a bag of kettle corn right now...damn you, snowstorm!
and yes, i frequently though of disney on this trip. people DO sleep in on cruises. crazy, right?
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