Polo Grill - not to be confused with Pollo Loco

The Polo Grill, the steakhouse themed restaurant onboard Oceania Riviera, is one of four themed specialty restaurants. For some reason throughout the rest of the cruise, I had to think twice while talking with someone because my brain wanted to call it Pollo Loco. All specialty restaurants are included but do require reservations.  To view the menu for this restaurant on Oceania Cruises' official website, click here.

Steakhouse restaurants are always at the top of our list for trying on cruises. We always try a specialty dinner in the steakhouse restaurants on every cruise, even if it costs extra. However, aside from the wonderful show that Mother Nature put on with dolphins/dall's porpoises jumping in and out of the water outside our window, this restaurant's experience left a less than stellar impression. 

We were seated at a two top table along a back corner with a large circular table taking up the bulk of the corner. For most of the meal, it seems like we were forgotten by the wait staff. Long waits for courses and drink refills. We had the unfortunate luck of being seated next to a table behind us with a woman who decided that her chair couldn't be in the same zip code as her table when the crew member tried to help her push in her chair. I was in the chair directly behind hers so the solution by the crew member was to have me shove into my table so far I had to twist each time I wanted to bring my arms up in order to let her sit as far back as she wanted. Not sure if this is the new diet plan - making it so the passenger can't use her arms to lift the knife and fork. We also had the pleasure of hearing her conversations loud enough to be heard from across the restaurant. Maybe if you sat a little closer to your table, you wouldn't have to yell at your dining companion! I'm betting she's related to the couple having a loud speakerphone conversation on their balcony yelling as if they were trying to be heard back home without the phone on a previous cruise.

From the Starters menu:

Escargot in Casserole with chive sauce and garlic vegetable julienne with Fleuron. I was quite surprised to see escargot in this preparation. Perhaps due to that, this version seemed like it was missing a lot of the flavor that normally comes in the escargot dish presentation.

Chesapeake Bay Lump Crab Cake with Pommery Mustard Sauce - not sure why the pommery mustard sauce came looking like a melted lime popsicle?

From the Soups menu:

Honestly, I'm not sure whether I ordered the New England Clam Chowder or the Lobster Bisque topped with morsels of sauteed lobster. Judging by the picture I'd have said this was the chowder but the dishes before this would have me second guessing if this was what they considered bisque.

From the Salads menu - Dad ordered the Classic Caesar salad that is supposed to come with a tableside preparation from a wheeled cart. A crew member that looked to be a manager came over and asked what Dad wanted on his Caesar salad because they wouldn't be able to fit the cart up next to our table. They did bring the cart easily over to the large circular table in the corner behind us.

Dad is trying a lot more foods he previously vowed never to eat but alas, anchovies on his Caesar salads are still a no go!

I asked our waiter for his recommendation between The Polo Grill Surf and Turf - Florida Lobster Tail and Filet Mignon and the Whole Maine Lobster steamed with drawn butter or gratinated with bread crumbs, olive oil, garlic, and parsley. He wholeheartedly encouraged me to go for the Surf and Turf, talking as if the Whole Maine Lobster choice would be like risking my life or at least my digestive tract to choose it.

This Florida Lobster Tail served on my way to Alaska looked like it had just flown in on the red eye today to get to my plate. The filet mignon was only about 2 inches wide looking like someone had cooked one steak and split it between several dishes. It had such a hard salty crust on top I would have thought it was hanging out in the ocean with the lobster. Never saw any of the sauce choices arrive that we ordered. Someone did come by offering to take the lobster out of the shell when I was nearly done eating it.

Lobster Mac n Cheese from the Sides menu - I  must say, I've never been on a cruise where lobster was used so frequently in so many dishes. Especially without charging extra. This dish though must have had a criminal lobster who needed to go into the witness protection program. All traces of it from this dish seemed to have disappeared.

Chocolate Layer Cake for dessert - I miss the days when steakhouse desserts used to be large servings with plenty to share. The whipped cream piping down the side to cover up the chopped off end where the rest of the piece would have at least come to a point gets an honorable mention for ingenuity. 

Dining onboard without needing a reservation

One of the nice features of Oceania Cruises is that while they have four specialty restaurants centered around cuisine from various countries, none of them are an extra cost. However, the specialty restaurants do require making a reservation. You can choose when you reserve whether you're willing to share a table or want a private table for just your traveling party. The length of the cruise and your cabin category dictate when and how many specialty dining reservations you can make pre-cruise. For our nine day cruise in a Penthouse Suite, we were able to make four dining reservations (only one per restaurant was allowed to be reserved pre-cruise) starting at 75 days out from the cruise. We chose to try them all and made a single reservation for a private table in each of them. Another perk of a PH and above suite is that you can arrange to have your specialty dinner served course by course in your cabin. We chose not to do that.

This post, however, will start to show you the dishes we experienced in the venues that need no reservation. We spent a lot of our meals dining in The Grand Dining Room. While it's called The Grand Dining Room on Oceania, it is the same as the typical Main Dining Room (MDR) you'd find on other lines. At least those with freestyle, my time, or anytime dining versus a set time in traditional dining. You simply walk up to the host station any time during serving hours and give your cabin number and the amount of people in your party. You will then be led to an available table that fits your group. It doesn't matter whether you are dining as a party of two one evening and a party of four the next like we had the pleasure of doing when we invited some friends on board to have dinner together. The Grand Dining Room, also much like other cruise lines, will always be open for breakfast and dinner every day but will not be open for lunch on a port day.

Unlike the specialty restaurants with a set menu, the menu changes here daily. There are some dishes in each course that are always available. We found that being asked about allergies and dietary restrictions was hit and miss so be sure to mention it yourself to your waiter if needed. The waiters are very helpful and knowledgeable to answer questions about what is in dishes or how it's prepared. Remember, these crew members are on board for months at a time seeing these same menus and most likely even sampling the dishes so they can answer guests' questions. Don't be afraid to ask for their opinions and recommendations!

Embarkation night dinner:

Appetizer Course

The Chilled Shrimp with horseradish spiked cocktail sauce

(Always Available option)

Also the dish Dad tried on one of the last days and literally said "I'm kicking myself. I've been avoiding this when I could have been enjoying this all along!" 

Dad's BLT Salad - smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, cheddar, and ranch dressing

Lobster Bisque with armagnac cream

Entree Course

(The Jacques Pepin Signature Dishes listed at the bottom are all included and always available)

Oceania features a list of always available side dishes so you can mix and match with your entree

Traditional Beef Bourguignon served with tagliatelle. The beef was definitely the focal point of this dish as there was just barely enough tagliatelle to hold up the large hunks of beef. Then again, I'm an Italian girl so I'm always wanting more pasta!

I don't have a picture of tonight's dessert menu but I recall this (Dad's choice) was pistachio based

Dinner Menu from Night 3

Frituras de bacalao - salted codfish fritters, salsa criolla

Bottom two choices under Soup & Salad were always available

Creamy potato bacon soup with cheddar and scallion

New York Strip Steak Diane - potato gratin and almond broccoli. This steak filled the entire plate so that the sides had to literally come in another dish on the side. I only could finish about half of the steak.

Herb Crusted Rotisserie Chicken - mashed potatoes and jus de roti. This is the size of the slices the gentleman before me received in the buffet.

(From the Jacques Pepin section of the menu)

Slight variation on the side dish choices for tonight:

I remembered to take a picture of the dessert menu this time. It was nice to see options for a healthy choice (Aquamar Vitality Cuisine), a dairy free/vegan option, and a no sugar added option. Oceania Cruises has the unique partnership with the Humphry Slocombe ice cream line featuring unusual flavor combinations.

As if you couldn't guess what I picked off this list - The New York Cheesecake:

I was glad to see no inclusion of fruit compote. The top layer being torched with sugar becoming crusty like a creme brulee shell was a bit odd however.

Breakfast menu stayed the same every day:

Eggs Benedict with pork sausage - I'm not sure this even had any meat under those poached eggs.

Banana pancakes with crispy bacon:

Two over medium fried eggs and apparently you had to specifically request if you want more than one hash brown. Once I ordered it as "and two hash browns, please" I always got two. Never saw only one slice of bacon or sausage though. 

The two other no reservation options onboard that do stay open on port days is The Terrace Cafe (buffet) and Waves Grill (similar to the poolside grill on most other cruise lines). The Waves Grill turns into The Pizzeria in the evenings. 

The Waves Grill menu - this stayed the same every day:

The Surf and Turf Wagyu Burger - Wagyu beef patty, lobster medallions, and truffle mayonnaise. The fries served at the Waves Grill are these nice thick cut steak fries. Much better than the matchstick ones at the grill section in The Terrace Cafe.

The Waves Club - Roast beef, turkey, smoked bacon, swiss, hard boiled egg, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise on white toast

The Grilled Reuben - corned beef brisket, swiss, sauerkraut, thousand island dressing, rye toast

Philly Cheesesteak - shredded striploin steak, provolone, sauteed onion, bell peppers, mushroom, and a toasted bun. Dad said he had to eat this like an open faced bunless sandwich because the bun was soaked through and too soggy to pick up.

My lunch from The Terrace Cafe on embarkation day. Such a zoo of people that I grabbed the quickest things I could and got out of the crowd. Table service with drink offerings was quick and plentiful throughout the cruise especially with water refills which I always appreciate. Another thing I would like to commend Oceania on is the multiple crew members who would step up and offer to carry the plate for you while you direct what and how much of anything you'd like to eat. I've seen crew members on other lines do that when asked or take the initiative to offer when they see someone who has mobility challenges but I've never been on a cruise where the crew members offered to help everyone they saw go by.

The only complaint I have from this meal is the odd service experience when I asked the crew member behind the counter to cut me some roast chicken. I waited for my turn behind a gentleman who was given whole slices like you would see laid out on a dining room plate that were as big as these slices of pizza. I stepped up next to request a few slices and was given these little chopped up end pieces. I tried asking for some more thinking it was just a small piece of meat he was cutting from but then he again only gave me the chopped up end pieces. Hence why I grabbed so much pizza to fill the plate.

Not included in the price of the cruise was the local treats I enjoyed in port like this variety box of truffles I brought back onboard from the Alaskan Fudge Company in Juneau - milk chocolate, dark chocolate, birthday cake, kahlua, tiramisu, and mint chocolate were the flavors I picked to fill the 9 box size. Dad and I split these enjoying a treat now and then throughout the cruise. 

Or the Klondike Doughboy from Skagway - a plate sized piece of fried dough coated in cinnamon sugar. The bees that will follow you after you get this are not included in the price.

And lastly, one of my two favorite things to enjoy in a Canadian port - this Coco Vanil flavored BeaverTail from our stop in Victoria, British Columbia. 

North to Alaska - but first to Seattle

Seattle, Washington is a city and a cruise port I had never visited. So when we were planning out a pre-cruise hotel stay, we decided to extend our pre-cruise visit by an extra night. We flew in on the Sunday afternoon before our Oceania cruise began on Tuesday. We stayed at the Hyatt Place Seattle/Downtown for two nights so that we could do a Seattle city tour on Monday. The hotel included a self-serve buffet breakfast but their onsite eatery for lunch and dinner was closed. This hotel is a couple blocks away from the Space Needle and has a cool view of it from their front door. Tragically, on this first night of our visit, deadly gunfire erupted at the Bite of Seattle Food Festival being held at Seattle Center (the plaza surrounding the Space Needle) resulting in three bystander deaths and several others wounded. It was scary and surreal watching the throng of hotel guests come running back down the street all at once to seek safe shelter. I was thankful that we had pivoted from plans to walk over there this night.

On happier notes, here's some information about the hotel's provided cruise shuttle and the view of the Space Needle.

For our Seattle city tour, we booked a small group tour with Customized Tours via Viator. Our previous tour in Ponta Delgada booked through Viator gave me a credit for reviewing the tour so I used it toward the cost to book this one. In turn, I've now reviewed this tour on Viator as well and got another credit to use on a future trip. The tour we used was called The Best of Seattle City Highlights Tour. Visit the link to view the tour description on the company's website where they are currently offering a 10% discount code. Here is the tour information as found on Viator where they are currently offering the tour at the same price minus the code. However, Viator is available if you use a cash back click through site like Rakuten or RetailMeNot for your online purchases. Always comparison shop and save where you can so you can travel more! The comfortable shuttle bus had plenty of seats left for the handful of us who wanted to spread out. The shuttle bus picked up from various hotels in the area giving each group booked a specific staggered time to be outside ready for pickup. We were one of the last to be picked up so it was nice to have that unique time messaged by the tour company so we weren't sitting outside on this windy morning until we needed to. The last couple to be picked up had just gotten to their hotel after disembarking their Alaska cruise on Royal Caribbean so it can also be a great way to spend time waiting for your hotel check in time if you're staying on post cruise.

There were a few steps to climb to get into the shuttle bus. No one on our tour had anything more than a cane but our guide was there ready to help everyone board and descend the steps safely. Water bottles were also plentiful and available for you to help yourself.

Our first stop on the tour inadvertently was to a really nice view of the Space Needle while the guide stopped for some guests who needed a restroom break. Originally, the plan was for this to only be a drive by viewing of the Space Needle.

And for all the FIFA World Cup fans:

Once we were back on the road, our next stop was a drive by of the building used for exterior shots in Grey's Anatomy. Fittingly, in reality, it's a TV studio. Unfortunately, no hot actors who play a doctor on TV were seen.

Next stop gave us a chance to stretch our legs and our selfie arms with a visit to the Kerry Park Viewpoint. Our guide pointed out various sites we'd just driven past, answered questions, and happily obliged anyone who wanted their photo taken in front of the view.

Note the flag flying above the Space Needle is at half staff honoring those who lost their lives the night before.

And for my fellow ship nerds - we got views of cruise ships in port while we continued on the drive. There was a much smaller ship docked on the other side of Anthem of the Seas.

Another overlook stop where our guide pointed out the channel that our cruise ship would be taking. We also stood around long enough to watch a couple seaplanes come in and land.

Our next stop took us to Fremont and some photo opportunities with the Fremont Troll. 

Looking back along the underside of the bridge

On our way out of the Fremont area, we passed by the 16 foot bronze sculpture of Vladimir Lenin. Sculptor Emil Venkov created this sculpture in Czechoslovakia in 1988 but it was toppled during the Velvet Revolution. An American teacher found the statue in a scrapyard and brought it to Washington state in 1993. The statue is still privately owned by the teacher's family and sits on privately owned land The hands of the statue are frequently painted red by protestors and locals symbolizing Lenin's violent legacy.

Our next stop was to the Seattle Fishermen's Memorial at the Fisherman's terminal. Some of our group chose to spend this stop picking up some nearby fish and chips or sandwiches recommended by our guide.

While several of us were admiring the many rows of boats docked here, our guide pointed out one of the more notable dock users - The Wizard - a 156 foot commercial crab fishing vessel featured on the Discovery Channel's reality series' Deadliest Catch. I guess you could say that I saw a TV star today after all!

We next visited the Ballard (Hiram M. Chittenden) Locks where we got an impromptu tour from the outside of the boat tour operator explaining their process to their own tour members as they progressed through the locks. We also got to do some air snorkeling as we watched the fish and the seals looking for their own fish and chips lunch in the open lock next to the tour boat. 

When our guide saw that I was more interested in watching the wildlife rather than the boat tour, he suggested we head down to the fish viewing room to watch them swim past the windows. We sat for a little while watching the windows but didn't see much activity. We met the rest of the group being led by our guide into the viewing room while we took our time walking back up to street level. Thankfully there were benches every so often and loads of time because it was a bit of a trek to walk back up. 

Our last stop was to Pike's Place and the Public Market Center. Unfortunately, this is the only stop that felt like we had way too little time to experience it fully. Our guide said his company had a reserved place to park the bus and had to gently encourage someone to move their car out of their spot at the top of the street. Once parked, our guide had us all chase after him as he turned the corner and walked the few blocks down to the bottom of the street where it dead ends in front of the famous Public Market Center sign. 

We stood in the middle of this seemingly pedestrian only square while our guide gave a long talk about the history of the place. He pointed out the stall known for throwing fish but said that now instead of timed presentations, they only do the fish throwing if they feel like it. Then he spent the next 10-15 minutes pointing out where certain recommended food stalls were located for us to seek and pay for our own lunch. By the time he finished talking, he announced that we now had 15 minutes to get that lunch. Someone in the group protested and our guide agreed to 30 minutes. A few times during the talk and while we scrambled to find food, cars legally and slowly made their way through the crowds of pedestrians. Why if cars could come down and drive through, was the shuttle bus not allowed to at least drop us off at the bottom before returning to the top to park?

Every spot our guide recommended had a line out the door and down the street. We eventually settled on a pop up stand that was selling grilled cheese. You would have thought I was a track star in a former life the way I fought past the throngs of people on the sidewalk until I found an ice cream shop that also sold drinks. In my speed walking I spotted the original Starbucks location but there was no time to stop for pictures.

Back to Dad where we poorly set up our grilled cheese picnic leaning against the back railing of another venue and wolfed down the sandwiches. I tried suggesting we take the sandwiches to go and work our way back to the bus. When Dad didn't seem to understand the rush, I shared my concern that our 30 minute time was dwindling. I must have been speaking a sort of martian language because Dad was still unphased. Once we'd eaten our fill and disposed of our trash, we did the best we could walking back up the multiblock hill with Dad having to stop and rest whenever there was a clear corner to lean on. By the time we turned the last corner and saw the bus, our guide was rushing over to hurry us back onto the bus. It turns out we were the last two to return. Once back on the bus, Dad was surprised to see that we were the last to return and insists he never knew we only had 30 minutes of free time here. 

Given that the facilities around the Seattle Center were locked and closed when we first started the tour, we decided it wasn't worth going back out after this tour just to see if the Space Needle was open to visitors. Instead we ordered in dinner from a restaurant we hadn't been back to since we moved and enjoyed a relaxing evening watching TV.