Report # 112 Sailing Towards Bridgetown, Barbados April 20, 2014 Sunday Partly cloudy, 79 degrees Easter Grand Show Buffet

Happy Easter to all family and friends! 

Happy Easter to one and all !!

Our day began as usual with a nice breakfast in the dining room. When we arrived, we found it had been decorated with Easter balloons (oh no, we hope not to see more balloons in our hallways), and foil egg mobiles hanging from the ceiling. The center raised portion of the dining room was being converted to a buffet for the Easter Grand Show Buffet. This is when the artistry of the chefs comes out and they go the distance to produce an extravaganza of culinary delights. This is the first year we have welcomed the new executive chef, Daniel Hrgic, as the top man. We have been most pleased with his new entrees, as well as the updating of the basic fare we have come to expect. Even though we do not partake in the buffet afterwards, we do like going early to take photos.

The Easter Bunny

Since the viewing and picture-taking would not begin until 11 am, we went for our walk, then worked on the computer until it was time to go. When we got back to our room, we found two boxes of Seattle's Best Chocolate Candies on our bed with cards saying Happy Easter. A message in the bottom of each box said, "A little too much chocolate is just about right". Nice touch.

Gifts of Seattle's Best Chocolate Candies for Easter

Grabbing our camera, we were among the first to view the buffet beginning with the fancy breads, veggie carvings, fruit arrangements, sandwiches, meats of all kinds (served cold), and fish. The seafood consisted of tuna, salmon, huge shrimp, lobster, and King crab legs. Desserts were the nicest with cakes, cream puffs, chocolate boats, and even a chocolate fountain with skewered chunks of fruit to dip in it. Watermelons were cleverly carved into animals and birds. Some of the ice sculptures were tinted red and blue, making them look like giant popsicles. Actually, they photographed way better than the clear ice ones. 

Two foot tall chocolate bunny

Breads

Pineapple and watermelon carving

Bread art with eagle

Assorted cheeses

Ice sculture of goldfish looked like a big popsicle

Fruit

Lunchmeats

Deli meats and veggies

Ahi tuna and salmon

Octopus

Turkey carving

Lamb chops

Rack of lamb on carved watermelon

Carved veggie flowers

More lamb chops

Stuffed eggs

Quail eggs with green olives and carrot beaks

Birds from veggies

Finger sandwiches

Chicks of quail eggs, olives and carrot beaks

A mountain of king crab legs with lemons

Watermelon bunny

Ice sculpture

Salmon

Blue-tinted seahorse ice sculpture

Extra large bunny

More salmon

Lobster

Shrimp tree with birds on the top

Desserts

Ice sculpture

Chocolate treats 

Sweet cakes

This one says Manila

Clever fruit cup

Bet this is cheesecake 

Could be carrot cake

Balloons and decorations

Meringue-topped cake

Hard to see, but it was a bunny drawn with edible gold paint on chocolate

Too nice to eat

Clever decorations

Apple tarts

Swan cream puffs

Even more with white chocolate

Looks like a butterfly

Tempting

Great colors

Origami

Sweet chocolate dragon

Do we need more chocolate?

Pecan-topped dessert

Cherry-topped

Napoleans

Looked like little sailboats

Cream puffs of different colors

Skewered fruit chunks

To dip in the flowing chocolate fountain

Blue ice......we like it

A tiger

One of these bunnies found their way to our dinner table.  Wonder who did that???

Sliced meats

Veggie carvings

Watermelon elephant

Lots of seafood with cocktail sauce

Guards....do not sample the food yet (Eddie taking video)

The viewing ended at high noon, when the crowd was let in to help themselves to the beautiful trays of food. Bet it was destroyed. Last night at dinner, Barb had told us all to grab a chocolate bunny, and run with it. Then we could bring it to dinner, break it up, and eat it. Of course, we thought she was kidding. We did notice that the two foot tall chocolate bunnies were wrapped in saran wrap, protected from the "touchers". What was missing, were the small foil-covered chocolate Easter eggs that are usually scattered around the displays. These have always found their way into the pockets of the viewers, so they have been eliminated. Gosh, they spoil all of our fun. By 1pm, lunch was over, and we are certain all of the food was devoured.

One pm was also the time for the Easter Bonnet Fashion Showcase and Scavenger Hunt in the Ocean Bar. Earlier in the day, guest speaker, Tom Goltz, spoke about Spanish treasure galleons and how they got the riches back to their homeland. Also around the same time, Paulette presented a Central and South American food market show in the Wajang Theater. We are not sure how many participated in these talks, since the Grand Buffet was held at the same time.

A better time for a talk was at 2pm, when Jill Eyers lectured on stories in stone and rock, a favorite subject if you are a geologist. This talk will teach us how to look at rocks and the landscapes of the voyage with new eyes.

We spent our time at the aft pool, soaking in the sun with the regular sun lizards like us. Even though the cloud cover persisted, it was warm to hot, depending on when the sun peeked out of the clouds. As we are heading closer to the Caribbean, the weather is getting much more humid and warmer.

This evening was the final formal night of this cruise. Two Mariner Appreciation Parties were held in the Queens Lounge....one at 4:15pm and the other at 6:45pm. We went on time to the later one, but found the doors had already been opened and our usual seats were occupied. Moving over to the next set of two chairs, we sat down, and were soon asked for our drink orders. That is our reasoning for sitting in these seats.....you get the best service, and the first of the cold canapies, and the hottest hors d'oeuvres from the kitchen. Marianne, Bill, and Maureen sat across from us as we all listened to the music before the awards began.

This is when we noticed a different approach to the ceremony. For the first time we can remember, each one of the President Club members were introduced and they had their photos taken with the Captain and Hotel Manager. In previous years, they would stand up as a group, never being introduced. That was nice. But, this is where they made a mistake, we believe. The guests with days numbering from over 700 to 1399 should have been asked to stand. This never happened, as this group, probably not all that big, went ignored. Medals of platinum, gold, and silver were given individually as well, but to mostly a distracted audience. Everyone was talking, ignoring the goings on. The bronze inductees were asked to come up for a group photo, because they were so numerous, they could not mention them by name. While that was taking place, the majority of the folks were heading off to dinner. Maybe next year, Gene will get it right, because this crowd will set him straight.

A large number of the housekeeping staff were lined up with their vacuums, brooms, and dustpans as they needed to clean the lounge for the upcoming show at 8:15 pm. The entertainment this evening was a repeat of the Incognito Artists, two fellows and a girl singer. We heard they were better than most folks expected.

We had an awkward moment at dinner this evening since Tom M, our favorite host, had been invited to dine with us. He was already seated when we got there, and with the last of our table mates to come, we had a total of nine chairs. Unknown to us, we also had an officer coming to join us, but our waiters did not know that Tom was coming. They did a quick addition of a chair and table setting right before our officer, the young female revenue manager arrived. It worked, as she never saw a thing as we shuffled our chairs over to make room. We all kept her talking during the evening, and she even enjoyed our trivia session with Maureen. Dinner ended with dessert, and the sharing of the two foot chocolate Easter bunny Barb had liberated from the buffet today. And here we thought she was kidding. We had Firman break up the bunny, and we all got a chunk to eat. Delicious.

And an extra gift of time was given, as the clocks were turned back one hour tonight.

Happy Easter