Day 2:
Today began our first day at sea. We had a lot of fun
activities planned for the day that we were really looking forward to including
a behind the scenes kitchen tour and an international beer tasting. We started
off the morning by having breakfast served to us in the dining room which was
made complete by having a beautiful view of the ocean (love those window
seats!). At 10am we headed to the Pool Deck to cheer on Chris and my Dad in a
golf chipping contest. The contenders lined up around a small circular platform
poolside where the musicians usually performed. They had a portion of the pool
closed off for this, of course. They threw out three hula hoops into the pool
and the goal was to get all three golf balls into the hula hoops. They had a
prize for hitting one in and hitting two in, but we did not see one for hitting
all three in as nobody was able to do it! My dad went before Chris and came
close but did not make any hoops. Chris performed at a 2/3 accuracy and
received three Holland American golf balls and a tee as a prize. He was pretty
shocked as he said he is terrible at chipping.
Shortly after it was
time for the Kitchen Tour which I was excited about as I have never been behind
the scenes in a cruise line kitchen or any kitchen of that size for that
matter. It did not disappoint and we were able to take our time on the
walk-through taking pictures and of course receiving a variety of food and
drink samplings. We learned that the galley consisted of a 150 person team
under the supervision of the Executive Chef. The crew was very friendly as
usual and we even were able to see a team member working on a huge ice
sculpture. Chris was also able to take a picture of a funny sign for his
brother Mike who appreciates such things (see below).
We also learned some interesting statistics regarding the
weekly food consumption on our ship prepared and eaten by approximately 2,100
guests:
Meat/Meat Products:
11,830 lbs Watermelon 2,300lbs
**not including fish, poultry, or seafood
Veggies 137,500
lbs Ice
Cream 300 gallons
Sugar 950 lbs
Individual Sugar Packets 24,000
pieces
Assorted Beers 332 cases
Assorted Wines 1,636 bottles
**not including Sparkling Wine and Champagne which was 450 bottles
And lastly water….280 cases
We broke off in the afternoon to attend different
activities. I went for a leisurely lunch with my mom in the dining room (did I
mention I love Oceanside
views?) while the boys went for a quick lunch at the buffet and headed to the
International Beer Tasting. I was super excited to see Baked Macaroni and
Cheese on the menu even though it was probably for the kiddies. I got a laugh out of the waiter when I ordered it. The guys
enjoyed their beer tasting although they said the bartender was more
entertaining then the beer itself which turned out to be a sampling of North
American beers (haha). So of course they got to try the “delicious” and rare
Miller Lite first followed by a few familiars. They do rotations of the areas
they serve beer from cruise by cruise so of course Chris got the North American
beer sampling this time around. I think he will survive though ;)
After spending some time in the sun we regrouped for an
afternoon movie in the screening room Rock
of Ages. I knew my dad would like it and it was pretty much what I expected
it to be. Totally worth seeing just based on Alec Baldwin and Tom Cruise’s
characters. Chris and I attended an Indonesian Tea Ceremony after the movie
where we were able to sample two types of tea (Black and Jasmine) as well as a
variety of small desserts and sandwiches. The Black tea was excellent and the
desserts were coconut inspired and very good as well. The sandwiches were
interesting (open faced egg, tomato/cheese, tuna, among others), but enjoyable
too. We were seated with a really nice group where we had an interesting
conversation about the education system, and lightly grazed politics. It was a
really fun and open discussion and good tea time chatter.
We then had to hurry off and get ready for Captain’s Night
formal dinner. It was really fun getting all dressed up especially since the
dress I had picked out really flattered me and showed off my bump nicely. We
got some great formal pictures (standard by the stairs and portrait shots)
and
managed to run into my parents for a group photo as well. We then arrived at
dinner which was fantastic! We had so many choices to choose from it was a
challenge to decide what to order. Chris wound up sampling both the King Crab
Legs and Pheasant entrees for his dinner. He did say the pheasant tasted like
chicken though (Ken later confirmed that true pheasant does indeed taste like chicken). After dinner we attended another Mainstage Performance entitled
Nightlife featuring classic
nightclubs around the world (i.e. Moulin Rouge, Tropicana, Studio 54, etc.) and
all the typical song standards you would expect from it. My parents really
enjoyed it and Chris stayed awake so that was promising. After doing a quick
stop by the room to change from heels to flips we checked out some of the
nightlife before retiring to bed. One of the places I will have to go back to
is the Piano Bar. We did not get to stay long as it was standing room only, but it
was definitely the place to be.
The Piano Bar
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