Wednesday Night

It is a full night.  It is a formal night and there is the Captain Circle Party.  We dress and we head upstairs but we have about a half hour to kill before meeting up with friends.  

We decide to check out the Wheelhouse bar for one of the signature Norman Love Cocktails.  Note the Wheelhouse is the only place to get them.  We take a seat off to the side and sit there but after ten minutes we realize if we want a drink we will probably have to move to the bar.  And I really want one of these drinks.

This is how the drink should of looked

So we take a seat at the bar.  I ordered the Chocolate Whisky Bacon drink. Yup Bacon.  First issue is the bacon is not behind the bar so he has to get one of the servers to head to the galley to get a plate of bacon.  That takes about ten minutes.  The drink is made and when the bacon arrives the bartender is looking for a crispy piece but all the pieces are flimsy and not crispy.  He picks out the best and lays it on top of the drink and then puts chocolate on the bacon. 

this is how it looked - bacon was soft and not crisp

Hmmm doesn’t look very appealing but I give it a try.  I take a bite of the bacon with the chocolate and well, not really that good.  The actual drink is very good, kind of like an adult chocolate milk and very strong.  But have to say the presentation is not good.  As I write this I am not exactly sure how it should look but when I get home I will look it up to see.  I would not order any of them again.

Because the drink took so long to make we have to leave right away to meet up with friends so we take the drinks and leave and make our way aft to the Vista Lounge.

Rick and Monika from Kelowna are the Most Travelled Passengers and they have asked us and Kim and Norma to join them at their table at the Captain Circle Party.  The first person to greet us is Jazz and her Happy Happy greeting.  She  takes all our orders and even poses for a pic, and takes our picture too. 

Tonight we are dining in the Crown Grill and the main reason is because Beatrice is there.  We are sat at a table right behind the Hostess Station so we can chat with her when she is not busy.

Woody from Thailand is our waiter and he takes our order and Beatrice serves us our drinks. 

Our first course is the Black and Blue Onion Soup and when it arrives we are warned it is very hot and to be careful.  But when we taste it, it is just warm, certainly not hot.  We call Woody over and he whisks it away and brings us hot ones.

The next course is the beet with goat cheese, heirloom tomatoes and spinach salad.  The presentation is very different from other times we have had it and there is not as much in the way of beets or goat cheese.  Tons of spinach and the tomatoes are not heirloom but a mixture of under ripped tomatoes and some cherry tomatoes.  It was good but not at all what we have had on other ships.

For my entrée I ordered the tiger prawns with the rice and Bernie had the lamb.  His lamb was cooked perfectly and loved it.  I also really enjoyed my prawns and loved the bit of punch in flavor and spiciness it had.

For dessert Bernie ordered the chocolate obsession and I had the Norman Love Peanut Butter Bar.  I love this Peanut Butter Bar and hope it stays after the anniversary year.  Bernie’s chocolate Obsession was perfect too.

To see the Crown Grill Menu click here.  

In it was a great dinner.  It was so nice to spend some time with Beatrice.  You can really see her shine as hostess here.  She is so welcoming and friendly with the passengers.  She makes them feel like you are personally dining at her home.  As passengers leave she wishes them a good night and tells them she hopes to see them again and many respond back with lovely comments. 

Our server Woody was very good too and very attentive when he needed to be.  In all the Crown Grill is good but not great.  Sadly it doesn’t feel all that special and the food is often not better than the dining room and tonight I would say it was probably worse than the dining room.

We are off to the cabin and hopefully a good night’s sleep but the ship is moving.  We make sure that everything is safely secure in the cabin.  Hangers are pushed to one size to eliminate the clanging.  The bathroom door is closed shut as it often swings open/closed with the movement and we settle in to bed being rocked to sleep.