"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report #105 Sailing Towards Cadiz, Spain April 4, 2017 Friday Partly cloudy & 68 degrees 13 pictures

Due to a miscommunication between the front desk staff and our special girl who takes care of the President's Club members, we had a very nice event held for the two of us and two close friends today. Quite a while ago, our best buddy Barb (also President's Club), had placed our names on the list for a cooking demo with George Geary, our favorite guest chef. In fact, we had received a letter stating that if we had not already done our complimentary cooking class with any other guest chef, we would have priority booking, over and above any five star members. We had waited until George boarded before booking any other demo. Well, long story short, our names had disappeared off of the list. In hindsight, we know now that we should have gone directly to our girl, Jennifer, or Christel, the guest relations officer, and no one else. Who knew there were two lists?

As a result, some folks got into the 12 person class with George that should not have been there, as they had taken many previous cooking classes. We were not happy about this turn of events, but requested that we would like the aprons if we could not do the class. Well, they went a step further by inviting us to a private lunch in the Pinnacle Grill Restaurant with George as our host. They felt that something had to be done to correct the oversight, and truly felt bad for the mix-up.

So the four of us met at noon in the restaurant, although it was closed for lunch today. It is always closed for lunch when they have a Captain's dinner, which was tonight. We were seated in the large booth near the entrance, handed special menus, and served wine of our choice. Can you believe they printed four menus titled "Lunch with George Geary" with today's date?

The menu began with a tomato broth with spicy lemongrass chicken, crab cakes, and a choice of entrees. Beef tenderloin, broiled salmon or a wild mushroom entrée were the choices. One of us does not eat the crab cakes, so they served sliced tomatoes with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil drizzle. Of course, fresh rolls were served, and George said we needed to have some in case there was a fire drill, and we might starve without food for more than 15 minutes. He is a kick. By the way, George is an author, instructor, Food Casting Critic, and a TV and radio host, among other things. He is also a recipient of many awards including 2012 Tour Operator of the Year, 2012 Frommers Foreign and Domestic Tour guide, and 2014 Culinary Educator of the year. Pretty impressive.

Over an hour flew by as we caught up on people we all know and harmless ship gossip. Our meal was finished off with a warm fudge brownie with coffee gelato, and what we call cracker jacks ( caramel-coated popcorn). Espresso coffee was offered with heavy whipped cream to add to it. What a nice event. George signed our menus, and asked for all of our email addresses before we left. Sure hope he continues to be a guest host, because he is about the best there is. Something tells us that there will be a few naps in store for some of us.

At 10am, Barbara H gave a talk on the upcoming port of Cadiz and Casablanca, Morocco. We could give tours in Cadiz….we know it so well, but Casablanca will be a new stop for us. We will believe it when we wake up and are really docked there on Sunday.

The third photo competition was advertised today. For a mere $5 entry fee, you can show off your best photographs in hopes of winning some prizes. There are four categories of food, people, landscape, and things around the world. We are not sure who does the voting, but we don't think it is the passengers anymore. The winning entries are displayed without names or room numbers, so it is not a personality contest as in the past. At least the printed $5 eight by ten photo is yours to keep after the contest is over.

Two guest speakers are onboard. The morning lecture was delivered by Revell Carr about Moorish Iberia, while Lawrence Fairman spoke all about Cadiz and Seville.

The movie in the Wajang was Finding Altamira. We have yet to go to the theater since we can watch the movie in the comfort of our room tomorrow evening. The only thing we are missing is the popcorn.

Tonight was gala and the theme was Fiesta Espana Dinner. Besides the lighted columns, there were no other decorations in the dining room. Unless you count the waiters, who were dressed in lime green and orange velour shirts and black hats. Good thing the weather has cooled off, because those shirts would have been very hot. The menu may have leaned a little in the Spanish food, but none of us ordered it. Oh yes, the table decorations were black lace fans for us to keep. For the first time in a long time, we felt the entrees were not up to their usual quality. We ordered rack of veal, and it came not with the bone, but small and rather fatty. Dessert of hot whiskey soufflé was disappointing. The whiskey sauce was actually substituted with the raspberry topping they serve with waffles at breakfast time. So we are guessing they ran out of the whiskey sauce. Worse yet, the soufflé was not fully cooked, almost dough-like. One of us had the fruit plate, which cannot ever be bad. We think that alternate sirloin steak entrée is looking better and better. We already know the chicken alternate is very good.

The show this evening was a fellow by the name of Julian G, who was an international piano virtuoso. He was billed as Carnegie Hall meets Saturday Night Live. So is he a comedian that plays the piano? We shall ask someone tomorrow.

Looking good for the weather and tomorrow's port of Cadiz, Spain.

Bill & Mary Ann

The Pinnacle Grill Restaurant was closed for lunch