During the night the seas subsided to less than five feet. The 15 knot wind is on our stern as we head West Southwest towards Curacao at 18 knots. The temperature is 82, and skies are mostly sunny. A perfect day in the southern Caribbean. Yesterday we were at the extreme eastern location of the cruise, tomorrow we will be at the most southern location.
This morning I had the opportunity to take a tour of the galley. With the language barrier and the high noise level in the galley I missed much of what was said, but did pick up a few interesting facts. On every ship there are always a number of guests with special dietary needs. On this ship all special requests are prepared by one chef and his staff in an isolated area of the galley. As we toured he was cooking 2 eggs for a guest for breakfast. Yes in an 8 inch pan, rare in a galley that feeds thousands.
Turkeys were being roasted for lunch. Just like at home there is lots of juice that bakes out. While we take extra care to not spill any drippings in the oven, here they deliberately dump off as much liquid as possible when removing the trays from the roasters. It all goes to a catch pan in the bottom to be dealt with later. I would guess they were roasting about fifteen turkeys at the same time.
Many ships have a separate galley for the buffet, this ship does not. Everything for the Windjammer on deck 11 is prepared in the galley on deck 4. Because of the added logistics you wouldn't expect this, but Royal does a better job of serving hot food in the buffet on this ship than they do on most others.
One of the most popular activities this cruise has been watching movies in the cinema. They show movies 4 times a day, and at each showing there are a number of disappointed guests that can't watch because the theater is full. Very popular, and they don't even serve pop corn.
The Christmas holiday is approaching, and the spirit is beginning to spread throughout the ship. A guest in the lounge the other night was sporting a red Christmas outfit complete with blinking lights, tree earrings and Santa hat. All personnel in the shops are wearing matching red hats. A Christmas carol singing get together for guests was held, but at 10:30, too late for me. Background music on information TV channels is now Christmas carols, as is the music between entertainment sets.
A nice day to be outside, the pool and lounge chairs are full with many passengers soaking up the sun.
One of the production singers is sick and quarantined to her room so the show had to be re-blocked without her. No understudies here. I saw the show last week so chose not to attend tonight.
Tonight was Italian night for dinner. As always the Lasagne was excellent.
Tomorrow we arrive in Willemstad, Curacao. The destination that was my excuse for taking these last two cruises, not that I need much of an excuse.
No comments:
Post a Comment