Another day at sea proved to be pretty similar to yesterday. Mostly cloudy, but patches where the sun came through was most welcomed. The breeze remained chilly. Perhaps it will take another day of going south before we feel those island breezes.
So we have some time to continue the 7 day food consumption numbers for the Eurodam. We always thought that the most popular entrees on cruises was the seafood. But according to the figures, we were incorrect. Meat tops the chart at 11,830 pounds eaten. Of course, this applies to beef, pork, and lamb combined. Poultry, a favorite of ours, comes in next with 3,814 pounds consumed. Seafood would be shellfish and crustaceans and everything that does not include fish. That weighs in at 2,575 pounds. Last, we have fish with 1,875 pounds eaten.
Now in the potato department, 7,750 pounds of spuds are the most popular starch, while rice comes in with 3,500 pounds. With the large population of Indonesian crew, we feel that this figure would triple in size.
Dairy consumption is 11,475 pounds which must include ice cream with 2,505 pounds and butter/margarine with 1675 pounds. This is the first time we have ever seen margarine listed, as we assumed only butter has been used.
Flour usage is 3,150 pounds, but we estimate that figure has dropped since they have down-sized the portions and the availability of rolls at lunchtime in the dining room. Sugar usage surprised us, since they have listed the pounds at 1,082. With the several offerings of desserts at lunch and dinner, we thought that figure would come in much higher.
The only figure we have on fruit is for watermelons, with 2,300 pounds of it served. Gosh, we must have eaten that much with the mixed berries we have enjoyed thus far!
On a separate note, the cabin laundry is separated into 500 bags ship-wide daily. Not sure, but this may be your bed sheets and toweling. By the way, there are no public laundry rooms on this ship, like we have on ships in the Amsterdam class. And so far, the personal laundry service provided has been outstanding. So much for the numbers.
Breakfast in the dining room continued to be almost over-whelming for the staff in there. Patience is the name of the game. And don’t plan on the waiters getting your order right. To be fair, the waiters take your order as you dictate it, but something happens once that order reaches the kitchen chef. They don’t read it. One egg comes back as two eggs most times. One of the waiters we know, said just order two, because the price is the same. Funny. So much for trying to save them food waste. The bad thing is being raised with “clean your plate” syndrome, and we have a hard time leaving a lot of food on our plate. Coffee refill service was much better this morning. We have noticed that the waiters are never in the same spot every day, like on the Amsterdam world cruise.
The normal day at sea activities filled the day, while we took a long walk outside. As for us, we are accustomed to walking counterclockwise, which actually follows the directions printed on the promenade decks of most ships. Not on this one. So, many folks walk the opposite direction, making it dicey in some of the chokepoints around the aft section. Some lounges were set up in the mid- section, but there were few takers, at least so far. There are a few brave passengers coming outside in shorts, hoping for some heat. Sorry, not yet. One of the activities hit the weather on the head. It was America’s Test Kitchen class on lunch for a rainy day – classic grilled cheese sandwiches and steaming hot tomato soup. Sounded good to us.
Lunch was once again in the dining room for us. It was every bit as crowded as breakfast. We could not help but overhear some comments while in line about the zoo-like atmosphere in the Lido (their words, not ours). Some guests had been rude when they were trying to get breakfast, so they did not want to go back there anytime too soon. Survival of the fittest, or the most rude works for some.
A sliver of sun was still shining on our veranda, so we took advantage of that for a bit. As we stated previously, having your own little bit of outside, keeps you homebound way more than in an outside room. Except for the gentleman next door, who likes to sing partial songs, and the fellow a deck above, who made a minimum of seven phone calls leaving Vancouver, it has been pretty quiet.
We did stop by the future cruise consultant’s desk today. Her name is Sara M, and she was able to do a price search for a cruise we have already booked a year from now. Thinking that there was a chance with the October specials that the shipboard credit would be increased, we were wrong. It appeared that the pricing was way better when this trip was first announced. It has gone up, and with the addition of the Explore 4 perk, that kept the price even higher, we assume.
While at the front desk, we asked for a copy of the daily rates for internet. These plans are good for 24 hours at a time and begin with Social – for social websites at $14.99. The next package is Surf – for email, news and sports for $24.99. Finally, there is Premium for emailing and streaming for $29.99. The speed for these can vary, depending on where we are located, and also how many people are on it at the same time. We have heard people talking that at times, they were kicked off of their sites, having to log on over and over. The other plans are similar in nature, but are priced according to the number of days in the trip. And it is these plans that the daily megabytes are limited. So far, we are still using the complimentary minutes(megabytes) that we received at the beginning of each cruise.
During the first dinner time, we went to the shops to check out their watches. This time was much better, with more professional sales people. Actually the senior watch guru answered our many questions. With so many nice brands to choose from, we did make a couple of purchases, using some of our shipboard credit. The gratuities are covered on this Hawaiian trip, so that put money to spend elsewhere.
Dinner for us was in the Tamarind Restaurant. We had 8pm reservations, and found that there were only a handful of tables occupied tonight. By the time it turned 9pm, we were dining all alone, with the wonderful wait staff doting on us. We tried some new items for a change. One of us had the Thai chicken soup, which came steaming hot and quite good. Shanghai ribs and a Thai salad were the starters for one of us. Entrees were Szchechuan shrimp and coconut chicken were similar in nature (same veggies), but different sauces. Sides of brown rice and sautéed veggies made the meal about complete. Finishers were desserts of coconut pudding and their signature fortune cookie. There is no fortune inside, but instead there is a rich dab of chocolate ganache. The tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream sort of rounds it out. We’ll need to walk more miles tomorrow to burn those calories.
Bill & Mary Ann
