Grandeur of the Seas - Embarkation Day (Part 3)

I don't normally get steak at home so I was looking forward to eating my way through the Chops Grille menu on this sailing. I also don't normally have the appetite to eat a full large steak which is silly when you think about how a plate of pasta in front of me could be here today gone 15 minutes later. When we arrived at Chops tonight, we were seated at a table for 2 by the window. I always got a kick out of whenever someone walked by outside on the open deck below us because it almost looks like from your vantage point that they are walking on the outside of the ship itself. I also playfully fantasized about popping open a window and dropping something on them. Yes I hope you have noticed by now that I have a weird sense of humor. Our peaceful table for two was soon disrupted however by a table of 4 who was seated behind Dad and then proceeded to yell across to each other like they were 5 decks away in a windstorm. I'm pretty sure the medical center on deck 1 was wondering what that weird noise was. We asked the waiter to be moved and he put us instead at the end table in the back where one person sits on the bench that lines the back wall. I actually somewhat prefer these tables because it's more comfortable. Minor drawback as while quieter, it put us out of sight and our waiter kept having to remember we were back there.

Click here to view the menu for Chops Grille. A big thank you to RCL's PR department for sending me the specialty restaurant menus and another thank you to the Hotel Director on the Grandeur, Zoe, for sending me a pack of our sailing's main dining room menus. I will be scanning them in and making a separate post at the end. 

Our waiter this first night was Dmytro and we would end up seeing him quite often during the cruise since he also worked the suite/Pinnacle breakfast and sea day lunch in Chops.

Love me a Caesar salad and even got Dad to try some and get out of his blue cheese rut.

The 12 oz Prime New York Strip Steak cooked medium well

We each ordered different steaks and also ordered fries, mashed potatoes, and a baked potato under the "shareable sides" section of the menu. These sides come in little pots of their own so anyone can partake but I find it funny how some of the items are certainly not enough for sharing unless you take super tiny portions. Regardless of us having the dining package, we still had to follow the same rules when ordering. You can order as many appetizers as you want, as many sides as you want, and as many desserts as you want, but only one entrée. If both you and your tablemate wants mashed potatoes, I'd suggest both of you ordering it. While some may consider it food waste, I'm all for ordering something you just want to try and see if you like it. The wait staff in any of the restaurants will happily bring you more of or an entirely different dish of anything if it's something you didn't like. This ultimate dining package gave us a great chance to eat our way around every restaurant's menu without having to do it all in one evening.

Dmytro brought our steaks and they were perfectly cooked to order - a rarity we've found. However, he next brought us the baked potato and mushrooms as our sides. We told him that we'd ordered mashed potatoes and fries but not mushrooms and he quickly swapped out the mushrooms for the fries. We didn't get the mashed potatoes until Dad asked for it again when Dmytro came back to check on us.

Notice I didn't say he brought us the baked potato and toppings - it wasn't until I was almost through with my entrée and had put the baked potato (served to us as a cut in half already potato that was supposed to be shareable) onto my plate for cutting up that he asked if I wanted toppings. I said yes and he dumped a huge spoonful of butter that was almost as big as the potato half and then dumped a small spoonful of sour cream next to the butter. I shoved the butter aside after lightly coating the potato and tried a couple bites.

I'm guessing the other end of this potato became the buffet's potato salad

Possibly because of our back corner exile, it also took a while to get drink refills which is a huge aggravation for us since we drink a lot of water at meals. At one point, poor Dmytro was so stressed, he started pouring water into Dad's glass of Sprite until we corrected him.

The restaurant staff everywhere on board is great about asking for allergies or dietary restrictions. Make sure it is also noted on your reservation and by contacting the same special needs department where Dad requested his distilled water. That way the ship can plan ahead of time if needed as far as food prep or supplies as well as making sure you are given the opportunity to plan your choices from the next day's menu in the main dining room. You can also make special requests for other restaurant's food as we overheard another table being offered pasta from Giovanni's tonight when one of their tablemates didn't eat meat. I also was able to do a little mix and match of sorts getting to try a select few items from the dining room menu while I was in a specialty restaurant. Never hurts to ask and more often than not, the crew will happily honor any reasonable request.

I'm not normally into sweet treats unlike Dad who was sad to learn that the Ben and Jerry's counter on board never had Rocky Road. It didn't change much at all except Dad says one day they swapped out regular chocolate and vanilla for other flavors. His version of trying new foods on this cruise was to eat his way through the cake choices on the dessert menu. The one dessert I do love though is cheesecake and starting tonight I ended up having a lot of cheesecake throughout this cruise. It was nice to see that the fruit topping was simply a raspberry on top and not the compote saturating the entire dish.

As we sat in the back, we noticed the restaurant staff making a big fuss over the bench table at the opposite end from us until finally two senior crew blue blazer wearing crew members came in to dine there. The head chef even came out from the kitchen to sit and chat with them for a bit. With so many Pinnacles on this cruise, we noticed several tables in specialty restaurants filled by one or two cruisers dining with a blue blazered crew officer as one of their perks. Great thing to offer your most loyal of passengers, no argument there. I just wish everyone else's tables didn't experience a decrease in service while that table was tended to. It would make more sense to allocate one waiter solely to that table for prompt service until those diners left so that no other tables were left waiting. 

One of the things we learned about having a dining package of any kind is that even though you don't get charged anything to your onboard account like you would if you decided to just book this one meal once onboard, they still want to scan the cruise card of one person in your party so that it gives them the credit and shows a tally of your using the package. From what I understood of the explanation our waiter gave, it helps add to the restaurant's usage numbers plus it gives RCL a good idea of who is spending the extra money to get dining packages. Not to mention by getting a receipt in the first place, there's the opportunity to write in an extra tip for your waiter if so deserving. By the end of the cruise, we had so many $0 total dining receipts I could have made my own hand fan.

If you've read my blog posts before, you'll know of my ability to end up getting an injury or bruise on every trip. Tonight I made the mistake of sliding out of the bench seat toward the window and neglected to stand up when I ran out of bench. Once I realized I was now sitting on air, my legs buckled and I slammed my thigh into the edge of the bench seat. Lesson learned and from then on, I exited every bench seat in the opposite direction. I also turned at the wrong time later this evening while walking through the open part of deck 8 and bumped my arm and forehead into one of the large art frames they have hanging along the walls. I can't count how many times I've knocked off those stupid little cards they had nestled in the painting frames.