Day number three at sea found us falling into our usually sea day pattern. Beginning with breakfast, we are discovering that when ordering our food, we need to be very specific about each and every item we want. We like Greek yogurt which resembles regular yogurt, but is much thicker and whiter in color. Both us got the "other" kind this morning. The waiters here seem to drop the food, then disappear. So we finished the mixed berries with the yogurt before he reappeared to take our order. What we think occurred was that he asked another waiter to get our starters, but did not give the correct instructions. Not a big deal, he promised the right yogurt tomorrow.
One of our buddies sitting across from us said his eggs Benedict was sitting on an English muffin that was like cement. He challenged our waiter to try to cut it with a knife. Guess we were not the only ones with a problem. Very quickly, a new plate of food was brought to our friend, who said the muffin was just right and not a brick. Bet that doesn't happen again. The omelets we ordered were just fine, but we had to order double-sized catsups and jams……and more butter. If you don't ask, they do not automatically bring you all of the condiments. We do like coffee at breakfast….lots of it and hot as can be. That has been a problem. Tomorrow we will ask for a full carafe to be left on our table. The folks sitting behind us did just that today and were given them. Why not? It saves them the trouble of pouring it all morning.
The masked boobies were putting on quite a show all day outside mostly on the port side. We got some good shots of them diving and actually catching some of those flying fish. Wonder how many they can consume in a day? A few brown boobies invaded for a while, but the white ones prevailed. Several of the camera folks also came out to snap some shots. These birds are curious enough to fly close to the promenade deck to check us out.
Spending some time at the Seaview Pool, we noticed that the smoking area is on the port side now and not near the Seaview Bar. Most all of these tables were full too. We did not linger too long, since yesterday, we got a little more sun than we expected. The pool lounges on this ship are set up nicely with lots of room in between them. On the Volendam, the lounges were about touching each other, and few people were able to use them. And to be honest, this is a whole different crowd of passengers that are busy doing many other activities besides sunbathing.
We ordered room service for lunch at 2pm and it came rather quickly. The chicken Caesar salads were excellent along with a shared club sandwich. Also, we got our complete delivery of the four bottles of alcohol that comes with the veranda room. Although they were not on the written request form, we did get two bottles of Jack Daniels, one Captain Morgan Spiced Rum and a bottle of Johnnie Walker Red. These will last nicely for the next four months. The last bottle of JD we ordered while on the Volendam set us back $94. Once again, we appreciate this perk.
We did make it a point to listen to Kimberly's talk on Tobago. It was very informative and had lots of good hints about what to see and do outside the shore excursions. One aspect that was not mentioned was the fact we are going to be there on a Sunday. We bet some of the venues will be closed.
At 5pm, Kimberly came on the speakers to promote this evening's activities. Included in her speech, she added that tonight was formal, and the "required" attire was in force in every table service venue. Only the Lido was exempt as always. Now we were really curious to see how this was going to work. Will there be people wearing jeans and baseball caps in the dining room? Somehow, we think not.
At 7pm, there was a Captain's welcome in the World Stage. Still not comfortable with big crowds, we did not attend. Normally it is so crowded that the overflow can go to the Billboard Onboard to watch a live broadcast of the affair. Perhaps it will be repeated on the TV later. By the way, we are still seeing some passengers wearing masks, although they are not mandatory to wear like they were last year.
Formal dinner was just that….formal. Nice to see for a change. No jeans or baseball hats. Now it would have been nice if our mains had been delivered hot like we prefer. The dining room for the second fixed seating was not crowded at all, so why we had to wait almost an hour for the entrees is a mystery to us. After our starters, we had ordered one veal entree and one beef tenderloin dish with a baked potato. When the plates finally arrived, everything was cold, including the baked potato. Not even warm, we could not tell our waiters since they had disappeared again. Normally there is a two minute window where they come back to ask how everything is. But not tonight. Normally we do not complain, but cold is cold. When we were about done, our waiter came by and we did inform him about the cold plates. He looked surprised because he was not the one that brought them to us. Apologizing, he offered to replace them, but no way were we going to wait another hour for more food we did not need. Even when the chef came by, he was happy to hear that the food was tasty, but disappointed it was served cold. Up until tonight, the food has been very hot and the plates hot as well. Somewhere along the line, these dinners took a detour long enough to get cold. They all promised it will not happen again.
To brighten our spirits, we had gifts waiting for us in our room. There were two heavy duty canvas bags containing a computer-sized bag, a phone charger, a new room key holder, and a safari hat, although we are not going to Africa that we know about. A card came with the gifts saying they were handed out now so we can use them during the cruise. And there was a promise of a few more surprises as the voyage nears the end. "Formal" pillow chocolates were on the bed along with a cute towel animal.
Tomorrow we will be in Tobago and as we said, a new port for many of us.
Bill & Mary Ann
