Regal Princess Baltic Cruise Day 12 - Disembarkation

 

We booked the Princess transfer to the airport as we feared that there wouldn't be much in the way of taxis and we had a 10AM flight. We were assigned the Navy 2 disembarkation group, one of 6 (Navy 1-4 and Silver 3-4) that was for passengers needing to get to the airport for flights before 12PM. They staggered our meeting times in the Symphony Dining Room every 10 minutes between 6:15AM and 7:05AM. We got there shortly before our 6:25AM meeting time and by what felt like barely 5 minutes later, we were being called to head downstairs for the buses. What was estimated to be a 45 minute to 1 hour drive in the packed bus to the airport only lasted about 35 minutes since there was barely any traffic at that hour. All of our luggage was left in rows by disembarkation group color and number outside across the street from the terminal in a tent. We had been warned prior to the trip from other cruisers that this action could be super time consuming and may make our timing tight for such an early flight. We soon spotted our luggage in minutes however and made our way thanks to the helpful Princess employees stationed along the road into the main terminal only to be super early to even check in for our flight as British Airways won't open their check in desks until at least 8AM. It soon became our new group sport as the whole lot of us standing in line over an hour waiting had to keep pointing out to newcomers that they weren't the only ones and to go find the end of the line. Love how people can just walk right past the whole crowd standing there and then turn around when it's pointed out looking like they have no idea where we all came from all of a sudden.

Three countries, three time zones, and one random extra search of about 16 of us including myself by British Airways' answer to TSA that delayed our departure from London to Baltimore later, we finally arrived back in Baltimore by 8PM ET. While I think I may have had my fill of long haul international flying for a while, I'd happily cruise Princess and the Regal again.

Thank you all for checking out my newest travel blog entries! It has been fun reliving the cruise with you all through my stories and pictures. I hope it has also brought you enjoyment whether you're a seasoned cruiser, looking forward to that first sailing, or just someone who wanted to check out some cruise food porn. Bon Voyage!

Regal Princess Baltic Cruise Day 11 - Sea Day

Today is our final full day of the cruise - a sea day to get us back to Copenhagen. Our day was filled with a mix of our usual sea day activities and activities required of the day before disembarkation. We bid goodbye to many of our new trivia friends as the bulk of them continued on for the full transatlantic voyage.

The captain seemed to be trying to make up for lost time or perhaps had entered into a race with a nearby ship because the whole day felt like we'd swapped one of Princess' largest cruise ships with a speed boat. We were sailing so fast that everyone was getting pitched around when trying to walk. We certainly felt it in our aft cabin. At one point when we were doing the dreaded last day packing session and moving around the cabin holding on to the furniture as we went, a loud thud and bump was heard. No clue whether it was a big wave from our increased speed or our neighbors on the deck above suddenly deciding to become sumo wrestlers.

As usual, we started this sea day with breakfast in Sabatini's. Finally got to where they stopped asking for our suite cabin number each day but still got asked about coffee. Service anywhere can be hit or miss, great on some days and worse on others even with the same exact wait staff and we had no issue this cruise that couldn't be fixed with an explanation and a kind no thank you. But it does add to the luxury of it all when you can walk in after the first couple days and the staff remembers your preferences. Ordered my eggs over medium this morning - so happy to finally have a way to describe exactly what I want. I've also taken to saying no midway through this cruise when "fresh pepper" is routinely offered.

After breakfast we headed to the Internet Café to check email and Dad needed to check and choose seats for our flights home exactly 24 hours in advance. The Internet Café was mobbed with people because a lot of passengers became desperate to change their flights home thanks to Hurricane Irma. I heard after being home for a couple weeks that by the time the Regal Princess finished its transatlantic portion, it was Hurricane Jose that caused them to miss some ports.

I left Dad to deal with the flights and joined my new friends for morning trivia. We managed to earn a perfect 20/20 score and Oskar gave us each the choice of prizes between notebooks, water bottles, backpacks, or the big foam "I'm a Winner" hand. Our group was evenly split between choosing water bottles and backpacks. I thought that foam hand was just a novelty prop when I first saw Marcus use it but I've now seen it on other cruiser's photos. Guess that's Princess' answer to new trivia prizes?

After hanging out in the Concierge Lounge listening to the broken coffee machine randomly squirt out steam and water without ever being touched for a little while, we headed down to noon trivia. We only missed one answer, a question asking for the name of the river Tweed.

Dad and our new trivia friend Howard wanted to go listen to the Navigation talk so Priscilla and I broke off from our respective fellows to have lunch together in the buffet. We soon found quite the long line at one station and it turns out the reason was because they were handing out lobster tails and shrimp cocktail. These lobster tails definitely looked like they were from the bottom of the proverbial barrel and one of mine didn't even have meat I could pull away from the shell. They were limiting each person to two tails and I did witness them not even bother to answer a guy in front of me in line who asked for more than two.

The highlight of the lunch buffet though was the addition of several large cake varieties and news of their arrival soon spread. Priscilla and I made our way back through the buffet to sample the already dwindling supply of cake. Once we'd had our own little wedding cake tasting session, I grabbed a couple of the more chocolate on chocolate on chocolate based cakes so Dad wouldn't miss out on one of his favorite desserts. It turns out we ran into our guys halfway to where they'd been listening to the talk. We each headed back to our own cabins to relax and let Dad eat his cake.

After a packed afternoon trivia because of the cold weather outside, we walked away with more backpacks. Dad returned to the cabin to take a shower. In the process of reaching up to get something off the little shower shelf, Dad noticed it was loose just in time for it to come cleanly off the mounts. Thankfully he was able to catch the glass shelf before it dropped and left it sitting out on the bathroom sink counter while he finished his shower.

We reported the issue to Ronaldo and when we came back after evening turndown tonight, he'd left a note that the issue had been reported to maintenance. I suppose it's a fitting way to end our cruise considering we started it on embarkation day with a tray falling resulting in a shower of beer and orange soda.

We headed down for our final evening of our first club class dining experience. Tons of passengers had the same idea at the same time as the place was packed more than I'd seen it all cruise. We didn't get our usual bench seat table for two this time because they'd already made those 2 top tables into 4 top tables. Instead, we took one of the 3 sets of 2 top tables in the middle and were soon joined by a foursome who had the other two 2 top tables pushed together. It's true when a lot of people refer to a 2 top table for just themselves not being all that private since there's usually several two top tables within inches of each other. You get used to sitting so close, just like how it can come with the territory on crowded bus ship excursions or the plane ride to get to the cruise itself.

I guess Princess decided the last night wasn't worth being fancy in their toppings. Is it wrong though that it made me seriously consider this option tonight even more?

Notice the classic last night menu offering of "All-American Meatloaf." We've made this mistake once or twice. "All-American" translates to "Here's all the leftover meat we had from previous night's beef dishes." An amalgam of beef, what could be wrong with that? When mushed together it loses all flavor it may have had in its original dishes. Not even ketchup can save this one!

Not really finding much in the choices of appetizers all that enticing, we both went with the standby of Princess' Fettucine Alfredo. Classic but simple to appeal to every palette. Still don't know why they seemed to have automatically added pepper to the pasta on this trip but it wasn't enough to alter the taste. I routinely find that I'd be happy with a lot of menu choices if only they didn't add some extra item (i.e. Watermelon and Feta Cheese, yay, toasted pumpkin seeds, no thanks) or combine it with something else (i.e. Pan Roasted Filet of Kingflip, okay, with Mild Curry Sauce, no thanks). 

Dad would joke throughout this cruise that we kept picking the same items, an oddity when I'd happily take almost anything with seafood and/or pasta and if it doesn't have some sort of meat, he doesn't believe it should exist on the menu. Tonight fit the bill as we both chose the Grilled New York Cut Strip Steak. Every once in a blue moon, I do desire some red meat. I know, stop the presses, but it's true! But wait you say, you haven't told us what Chef July's "told to cook seafood" special dish is for tonight. Hold on to your keyboards readers because tonight's special dish is...drum roll please...a different sauce for your steak than the green peppercorn sauce listed. I don't even remember what it was but we both chose it since I didn't expect to like green peppercorn sauce. 

Shout out here to Royal Caribbean who would always put these little stuffed tomatoes as garnish on our dinner plates too! Kind of a let down that the great special dish was "other sauce" but it was tasty and the steak was cooked perfectly.

In all my cruises, I've never had the stars align in such a way to be having dinner in the main dining room when the Baked Alaska parade starts. That is, until this trip! I must admit that I've been on cruises with momentary power issues so when I saw the lights dim tonight my thoughts went right to that instead. It was fun to watch the parade and how much the wait staff really gets into it. And yes, they did weave their way through the club class section so you won't miss it if you're dining in that area. We in turn had a great front row view having been randomly seated at the outside end of the center row of tables.

I did enjoy Princess' Baked Alaska better than Celebrity's Baked Alaska as theirs tasted more like somebody piled a bunch of Easter Peeps on top of ice cream. This one had a much more balanced flavor throughout. 

I also wanted to try the Deep Dish Apple Pie as it's the dessert I would have chosen from the list if it wasn't Baked Alaska night. Surprisingly disappointing and it gave me the impression that they didn't expect anyone to not choose the Baked Alaska for dessert. I gave up after a couple bites but happily polished off the Baked Alaska.

After dinner we headed to our favorite activity - trivia and/or gameshows! Tonight's schedule featured the Buzzword Family Gameshow and Are You Smarter than the Cruise Staff. There was some debate during Buzzword about whether some answers should have counted which would have tied us for the win. We didn't feel bad for long though since the winning team not only won shampoo, oh I mean champagne, but they immediately came over and tried to give the prize to us instead!

After the latter game, we wandered around for our usual evening snack to take back to the cabin and finished packing the last of our things. It was a little sad walking down the hall noticing that most cabins had a regular Patter in their mailboxes and only a few of us had the "Thanks for coming, don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya!" log of the cruise end Patter. I sat up for another hour or so making notes and drinking the last of our minibar sodas. I remember on our British Isles cruise being so enamored that the Coke Lights in our minibar were labeled as a product of Denmark. And now here I sit several years later finishing a dream cruise roundtrip from Copenhagen drinking our last Sprite can with a label written in Danish:

Regal Princess Baltic Cruise Day 10 - Stockholm (Nynashamn)

Today's Patter was a first for us as we noticed upon receiving it in our cabin mailbox the night before, the front page had an announcement saying that everyone on an excursion was to actually arrive at their meeting places 15 minutes after the time it says to on the tour tickets we got back on the first day of the cruise. We soon deduced that it was because they were going to be able to use the special retractable dock! This dock was built to entice more cruise passengers and if the weather and water conditions align correctly, they can omit the need for tenders. It makes for a much smoother time getting off and back on throughout the time in port. 

No time for breakfast this morning as we had booked the Stockholm City Drive and Vasa Museum ship excursion. Read lots of reports from fellow cruisers who said get out early and go to the Vasa Museum on your own because once the tours get there, it's a madhouse. They weren't kidding as the madhouse crowds started before we ever left the ship. Our tour filled 9 buses! Moments of confusion as we sat packed in the theater because they stuck our group 8 in the same row as group 7. No one at the end of our row in group 8 wanted to listen when we said they needed to move because they'd only called group 7 until we pointed out that the people breathing down my neck now stuck at the inside end of this row belonged to group 7. Got led outside to our bus and for someone reason it was the only one with solely upper level seating. It was such an effort getting two older gentlemen with disabilities up those stairs that they opted out of actually going into the Vasa Museum fearing that they wouldn't be able to get back up the stairs again. The guide kept insisting that they could help the gentlemen but they weren't comfortable taking the chance. There was at least a couple parking lots full of buses when we got to the museum after a 45 minute ride listening to our guide try and figure out how not to yell into the bus' microphone. 

The guide did not seem very organized as she'd tell us before entering to go through the ticket line past her and wait so that the guy at the ticket counter could count us. First handful of us did as we were told but then she stopped the rest of the group having changed her own directions. Several times as we moved about the museum she'd start to mention that we were free to explore with a time to meet back but then yell at anyone who started to walk away from the group. At one point, we tried to hang back against the wall in sight of the display she was explaining and she yelled at us for not being close enough to her. 

Come, no, go, no stay! 

We finally were able to sneak away and check out the exhibits despite the massive crowd. Ran into new trivia friends Priscilla and Howard on their own tour and we teased each other about getting in the way of our respective camera shots. After a while we grew tired of the chaos and made our way to the meeting spot of the gift shop thinking there would be water for purchase. Alas, no drinks and the only food was so called local delicacies like fudge and jam. 

If only we could find some water to put in this handy drink pouch from the gift shop!

Our guide soon arrived and Dad asked her about being able to purchase a drink. He really had to hold in his temper when she matter of factly replied "Oh there was a café at the back of the museum." We decided to remove ourselves and headed out of the museum toward the bus. On the way, we passed a small café just before the street level and waited in a semi long line for people who wanted cookies and tea. Dad chose the first water bottle he saw and a cinnamon bun to keep from having to get change. Unfortunately, it turned out to be lemon flavored sparkling water and the one sip I tried made me nauseous. Thankfully I had thought to tuck some mints in my pocket before we left the ship this morning. I always try to pack a baggie full of the individually wrapped Lifesavers mints on trips as they are great in a pinch for an upset stomach, scratchy throat, low blood sugar, or dry mouth when water supplies are few and far between.

The wives of the men who stayed onboard the bus also had ducked away after telling the guide in order to bring their husbands back some soup and one of these cinnamon buns. 

Half of the ride back into town was useless because anything she pointed out to the right, no one riding above could see since the window was completely obscured by dirt:

We pointed it out once she stopped the bus for a photo stop but she just said "Hmm, okay" and went back to pointing things out from that same side. We made it up an alleyway a little further once some other buses moved on and our guide jumped ship, err, bus rather. She left us alone with just the bus driver to take us back to the ship so she wouldn't have to make the trip back from our ship in Nynashamn. 

Once back on board we decided to see if the pizza would be any better and managed to arrive just as a new pepperoni pizza was being baked. Another plus for having the drink package as I was so parched I downed two root beers waiting on that pizza. The fresh pepperoni pizza was definitely tastier but for some reason the pepperonis themselves were chewy and halfway through I got tired of sawing through the crust. I've never minded Princess' pizza, except when you can tell it's been sitting there a while, but I must say Carnival's Quatro Formaggio is still the best cruise pizza I've had!

After some afternoon trivia, we grabbed a couple sandwiches from the International Café and returned to the cabin to watch another movie. It ended just in time for our sailaway and I rushed upstairs to watch them pull back in the retractable dock. 

No pier runners here! You'd have to become pier swimmers!

Dad enjoys the magic shows and we both enjoy the comedians on cruises so when we saw tonight's show was a ventriloquist, we put off dinner and headed to the theater. It appeared that several others were also glad to see something besides the same singers as the theater soon became full. We've had our fair share of encounters with seat savers but it was surprising to me how shocked a family was when they came in because we offered to move over so they'd have enough seats to sit together. 

This ventriloquist incorporated singing into the joke routines he performed with the puppets and enjoyed messing with people in the audience. Those spontaneous bits were funny but his scripted jokes fell flat. We chose to leave the show early in order to make the evening's activity of a Spelling Bee. First time I've seen such an activity offered on a cruise and just had to check it out. A definition was displayed on the screen with blanks for the letters and our host Kim would recite the word we had to spell. For one of the words, having the blanks there is the only way I knew how to correctly spell it since it told me that there was a double letter thanks to that extra blank. The activity wasn't highly attended and I noticed after going first and winning a water bottle that the words got harder and the rules got more relaxed the later in the game you went. As each further person would start to say the wrong letter, Kim would stop them and say to try again. The prizes were based on whether you wanted to chance going for 10 words (water bottle) or stop at 5 (notebook). If you made it to 10 you could pick either a water bottle or the bottle of champagne they were still desperately trying to give away. Only one other passenger made it to 10 after being pressured to participate by his friends after wandering in and happily took the champagne!

Since I wanted to attend the music trivia that followed in Princess Live, Dad and I rushed upstairs to the buffet to wolf down a few bites. It was now too late for dinner in the main dining room but here's what was on the menu.

Dad chose to go to the casino to use up the last of his chips at the craps table while I headed to trivia. Unfortunately, the two musically inclined ladies I'd enjoyed playing these trivia games with chose not to attend and I really could have used their expertise. I then headed down the casino myself to give it one more go at the slot machines before cashing out. I tried to head back to the buffet for something to take back to the room since I hadn't eaten much for "dinner" but they were already closed up. Grabbed a small dessert at the International Café and returned to the cabin where Dad had long since headed to bed.

Good night Love Boat lovers!

Regal Princess Baltic Cruise Day 9 - Helsinki

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Today's port was just a stone's throw away from St. Petersburg as it only took us about 12 hours to arrive at Helsinki, Finland. Each cruising region of the world is going to feature the same core group of excursions meaning you could be doing the same type of tour just in a different city. In the Caribbean, there's always going to be beach day or snorkeling tours. In Alaska, you could probably find a visit to a glacier and a dog sled race in every town. When it comes to Europe, especially the British Isles, you could spend the entire voyage going from one church or castle tour to the next. When it comes to the Baltic, the same applies with the addition that there's probably going to be a Viking ship museum mixed in. So when we saw amongst the same ole choices in Helsinki a shining standout excursion known as the "Highlights and Fazer Chocolate Visitor Centre" whose description ended with "free samples to take home at the end of the tour" we pounced on the chance to do something fun and different.

This morning we planned it out to make it to Sabatini's for breakfast shortly before they closed so that we could put something more substantial than chocolate in our bellies to start the day. We got seated right away but then sat for ages waiting for someone to come take our order. Finally, the shining star of the wait staff, Christine, came over and remembered our preference for orange juice instead of coffee. Soon after delivering it, she took our order. It wasn't until she walked away and verbally relayed the order to another waiter that we realized Christine wasn't supposed to be the one to wait on our table today.

Breakfast took a turn for the better as they had my powdered custard filled donuts I'd been waiting all year to enjoy:

To keep things quick and simple given our slow service today, I ordered scrambled eggs and a bagel with cream cheese. What I expected was a moderate pile of scrambled eggs. Instead I get this little structure:

At home, I like to use ketchup on my scrambled eggs or omelets. I'm also the one who puts ketchup on their macaroni and cheese. I'll pause here for the collective gasp of grossness that comes from most people's reactions when they learn that fact about me. I do draw the line though on putting ketchup on my mashed potatoes like a high school friend would. She'd always explain, "you put ketchup on your fries don't you? And what are fries made out of?" So when you ask for ketchup from someone who took the time to pile your eggs into a tower form, you don't just get handed the Heinz bottle. No that's not fancy enough: 

And a bagel with cream cheese balls so dainty they added a garnish:

After breakfast, we headed off to our tour. Our guide spent his days not just working for the tour company providing our tour today but he travels the world being a tour guide for group trips. He was very nice and it was interesting to hear about his upcoming trips. Since part of this tour included city highlights, we first went to a square and parked the bus next to the prime minister's office. In Helsinki, it's actually a soldier's job to guard the prime minister's car as it sits parked outside. 

It was interesting to see a statue nearby that not only has bullet holes in it from the Cold War but to learn that they intentionally leave it that way as a reminder of their history even if it wasn't the happiest of times. There are loads of monuments and statues all over this world that memorialize a time or a person who looking back now wasn't the greatest. A great wise quote says "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it." Please take the time to learn and educate yourselves so that we can all go forth in our lives and make this crazy and sometimes scary world a better place.

With a relatively small group who signed up for this tour today, everyone pretty much followed our guide's time limits and made it to the bus in time to spare. We had to travel a little bit out of town to get to the Fazer Chocolate Centre but the time passed quickly. Once we arrived and got to partake of a pit stop, our guide made sure our tour with the Fazer employee started right away so we'd have optimal time at the end. Our tour started in a freestanding biodome right inside the center where they grow their own ingredients: 

This giant bunny sculpture and the little egg behind him were to showcase the hollow chocolate eggs filled with small toys that Fazer only puts out around Easter time. 

We enjoyed a short video explaining the life story of Karl Fazer, the man who started the company. The center had water stations throughout the area inviting you to fill little cups from their filtered tap water and that was definitely a welcome relief.

Our Fazer guide told us about how the company has branched out to include healthier foods and works with the community to provide school lunches. They also offer a culinary program and showed us some things the program participants made from Fazer products: 

After checking out a hands on interactive display about how they braid dough to make breads and pastries, we were invited to use virtual reality goggles to view the factory itself. 

We also could walk amongst several stands holding the various ingredients used at the factory. Air holes were punched into the top so you could lean over and smell them. 

I don't know if it's just my warped mind but this particular ingredient seems more fitted for an episode of Law & Order: SVU:

Once we'd had our fill of virtual reality and sniffing, we were invited to have however much we wanted to try from their sample area. The only caveat was much like wealth - you can't take it with you. This structure of many small fishbowl style dishes held small individually wrapped candies of every kind you can imagine. Ones with mint, ones with marmalade, ones with nuts, ones with coffee, and even ones with chili peppers! It was a good thing we had our knowledgeable guide though as if you weren't a regular consumer, you couldn't tell what each flavor was just by looking at these little pieces. Something to watch out for if you're allergic to anything.

Like a kid who knew about "that house" on Halloween that gave out full size candy bars, you could also partake of these huge bins of normal size bars. Several of us took to these larger bins in hopes of finding one that would tell us what we just ate in the tiny versions but they didn't always have the same looking label.

A Princess photographer came along on our excursion today and helped himself to a chocolate bar with chili peppers. Too bad I wasn't taking video as his reaction was worthy of America's Funniest Home Videos. Or would that be Finland's Funniest Home Videos?

We bid our goodbyes and thanks to the Fazer tour guide and entered the gift shop after a quick return to the water station. Even our regular tour guide, who comes to this center frequently during the Baltic season, walked around the gift shop with arms loaded of candy he wanted to purchase. Curious to know what kind of dental plan the Fazer company offers! The gift shop had the usual packages put together as pre-wrapped gifts like box sets and shrink wrapped mugs full of the smaller candies. The bulk of the shop was filled with the company's products in all shapes and sizes whether you wanted a small sampler box, a large box, or even chocolate bars as big and long as your arm!

Several of the candy flavors were unique like this one made to look like firewood:

A little touch of the USA, a taste of Miami by way of Helsinki:

For the more adult palette:

While the kids could enjoy Fazer's partnership with Rovio's Angry Birds:

Fazer's answer to Oreos - the chocolate wafer is a little softer but the crème inside was lighter.

And you could also purchase your fill of the non candy products like biscuit baking loaves and bread infused with vegetables into the dough:

With the help of our guide who enlisted the help of a Fazer shop employee, Dad found a package of plain black licorice he wanted to try. While I'm not usually a chocolate lover, there are two combinations that will get me every time, chocolate mint and the pairing of white and milk chocolate. Found a slightly bigger box for sharing of the chocolate mint variety I enjoyed in the samples and spotted what we'd probably call "king size" here in the USA at the last minute of a bar that had white chocolate as a top layer and milk chocolate on the bottom. With a bottle of flavored water to split, it all cost us around $9. And since I was chocolate-d out by the time we got back to the ship, it didn't cost me any poundage either on the scale once back home!

After we'd made our purchases at the gift shop, our Fazer guide met us at the door to hand over our free samples to take home. When I read the free sample note in the description, I pictured a little bag of a couple miniature pieces or even just one "fun size" bar. We were very pleasantly surprised when the guide handed us a full shopping bag containing a loaf of the vegetable bread, a pack of the chiclet style gum, a king size bar of their signature chocolate and almonds flavor, a box of the Domino cookies, and a bag of sour alphabet labeled marshmallows. One of the perks of traveling with someone - Dad happily accepted my chocolate with almonds bar in exchange for his sour marshmallow candy. 

The atmosphere on the bus as we left the center was much more subdued as everyone was sugar crashing by then. We took the scenic route back which included a drive by of the currently being renovated Olympic stadium. It's become almost a thing for me while cruising to keep encountering things that are Olympic related wherever we are visiting. One last quick photo stop was given at the Sibelius monument.

The woman who won the contest to design the monument was made to include the composer in her design so she added a metal version of his face off to the side after the fact. Guess Sibelius was upset that he didn't get any chocolate?

Once back at the port, we walked through the large tent of shops in hopes of satisfying Dad's quest to find reindeer jerky. He'd remembered being served it on a flight many moons ago and enjoyed it. While most of the shops focused on clothing and furs, one shop had a small selection of local eats. We purchased the closest to reindeer jerky we've found thus far - Reindeer meat made into potato chips. I didn't want to try it but Dad said it wasn't good.

Once back on board we hit the buffet for a quick lunch before heading down to afternoon trivia. Stopped into the Internet Café to check email and had the perfect view of several pier runners getting back at the last minute. 

Tonight was another formal night and we decided to give the other side of the Club Class dining room a second chance in hopes of improvement. Unfortunately, we still had super slow service again tonight and vowed to always ask to sit on the side by the entrance for the rest of the cruise. 

Dad went with his usual melon plate for an appetizer and I decided to try escargot for the first time. I know it's a dish that most cruisers rave about and I try to have at least one dish I'd otherwise never try each cruise. 

I thought there was at least a soft breadstick that came with this to help soak up the sauce? I was pleasantly surprised that the escargot did not taste slimy or crunchy but I felt it could have used some more flavoring.

I also tried what they called the Tian of Crab, Scallop, and Shrimp:

This instead was like I expected for the escargot - cold and slimy! Gave up after a couple bites.

Dad chose the Red Wine Braised Beef Short Ribs for his entrée but what came was basically a bowl of fat and gristle. Chef July noticed Dad picking at the meat and offered to get the Filet of Beef Wellington instead. Dad agreed and we watched Chef July instruct our assistant waiter to take the ribs dish back and get a medium cooked Beef Wellington. The assistant waiter soon comes back with the Beef Wellington but when Dad cuts into it, it's rare! Chef July turned back after greeting another table, took one look at Dad's dish, muttered no, no, no, and took it back to the kitchen himself. After a while, he finally returns and brings Dad a perfectly cooked to order medium Beef Wellington. I suppose if you want something done right, do it yourself even applies on cruise ships!

I decided to go with the chef special tonight described as a Lobster Thermidor thinking that finally I'd get the nice big lobster! 

Nope, turns out it was just a fancy way of saying "we cut up the same ole lobster tail's meat and left it swimming in butter spooned back into the shell." Tasty and Chef July did offer to make me another but by now with the slow service I didn't want to bother waiting. Our wait staff was so lacking tonight that Chef July himself finally had to step up and take our dessert order for us. Thankfully he relayed it to one of the new waiters they'd pulled over to deal with the busier dining time and this waiter was back quickly with the right orders.

This is the dessert drinks menu that was on the left side of every dessert menu.

The Floating Islands in Vanilla Sauce may have to go down in the history books as the weirdest dessert item from Princess Cruises. I ordered it for the first time last cruise and it was like someone took a big bowl and let 4 of those marshmallow peeps melt under a heat lamp. 

Dad went with the Chocolate Journeys dessert choice - Chocolate Pistachio Dome with Almond and Pistachio Nougatine. He said it was good.

While tempted to try the Volcano from the children's menu - an ice cream sundae with the works - I was a little tired of the sweet foods for today and opted for the regular Create Your Own Sundae option. A scoop each of vanilla and chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup:

The wavy lines where most of the chocolate sauce landed is piped out whipped cream and it seems the rest of the chocolate syrup meant for the whole ship was poured into my personal bowl. By now we were running close to being late for our evening plans thanks to tonight's slow service so after a couple icy bites I gave up trying to eat anymore.

After checking out the sparsely attended "Body Language" (aka charades) game, we hit up the Wheelhouse Bar in hopes of finding a better quality of our favorite virgin mixed drinks. I ordered a virgin mudslide and Dad went with a virgin dirty banana so the bartender joked "So basically two chocolate milkshakes just one has banana?" While the bartender made our drinks, which turned out so much better, we chatted up Deputy Cruise Director Marcus while he downed what he claimed was a virgin martini at the bar. 

Ended our evening back in Princess Live with our drinks watching Marcus, Fab, and Veronica participate in the Liars Club. Since we had drinks, we chose the seats in the back that feature bar seating. Because of this, we ended up sitting next to Fab's dad who could not have laughed harder at watching his son dance around trying to put on pantyhose for his definition of one of the words. Told Fab later that his Dad had claimed not to know him and Fab just nodded and said "yeah that sounds like my dad." I know a lot of people are baffled when cruisers care about following what ships their favorite cruise directors or activity staff move around to but to a lot of us, it's like seeing old friends you didn't expect to run into ever again when you find someone you knew from a previous cruise. I've been fortunate to see Armando twice (Grand Med and Panama Canal) and now Fab from one of my very first Princess cruises.