Grandeur of the Seas - Day 10 - Sea Day (Part 2)

Returning to the Schooner Bar, we were interested in checking out the Who in the World Challenge. Due to being down one cruise activities staff member with Melissa being gone, Katrina came to run the trivia herself. Except that when she arrived, she announced that the trivia was candy themed. She read clues like "chuckles to one self" and the answer was Snickers. It was a fun trivia and a walk down memory lane as several of the candy answers were ones we haven't seen since childhood. Dad thought it was the best trivia of the whole trip but I think his judgement was based more on the candy aspect than the fun of the challenge. Despite many passenger requests, candy was not one of the prizes either. The Troublemakers team won but gave us the prizes as second place.

During this trivia time, a passenger spotted a whale breaching through the large bar windows. Several of us turned to stare out the windows trying to see it for ourselves. Nothing turns cruisers into little kids on Christmas morning like spotting marine life from the ship. The game playing was put on hold while we all watched this whale breach a few more times as the creature moved further in the opposite direction of the ship. One of those unexpected moments that you cherish.

When someone asked about the Who in the World Challenge, Katrina realized her mistake and offered to run this trivia as a bonus. This trivia required little slips of paper and numbered teams where you had to have someone run your team's paper slip back up to Katrina to be checked. You got the most points if your answer was correct after the first clue, slightly less if you need the second clue to get it right, etc. Spending the extra time at this bonus trivia had us sitting there already when it was time for the usual 4PM trivia which Bitty came back to host.

Back to the cabin to change for happy hour and dinner and discovered that we'd already been delivered the prize package from John and Katrina - a wonderful treat bag full of 2 backpacks, 2 pens, 2 highlighters, 2 water bottles, 2 hats and 2 keychains. Thank you to the Blairs for your continued kindness and generosity.

Our suite treat plate of the day was a repeat of our embarkation day fruit plate. I think the brilliant minds that come up with these daily plates could use a new think tank.

Up to the packed Concierge lounge and more fun with Pinnacles. I decided this time since we were able to get cans of soda and bottles of water when up here versus fountain sodas at bars, that I'd ask about getting root beer. Who knew such a request would thoroughly confuse so many. Tonight's bar waitress responded by asking if I wanted wine? No, I'd like a root beer please. Oh you want a beer? No, a root beer, like the soda. Oh you want soda, we have coke, sprite... No I meant that root beer is another kind of soda. Do you know the brand name because we have O'Doul's? The root beer brand is Barq's (not my favorite but it's Coke's root beer brand so I figured that's what they'd have.) She still couldn't understand and asked me to write it down on a napkin so she could show it to the bartender. I wrote out "Barq's Root Beer" on the napkin and she took it before moving on to get other people's orders. She came back a few minutes later and reported that they don't have any but could bring me ginger beer. I threw in the proverbial towel at that point and changed my order to Fanta. Another point in favor of Princess - root beer is the only soda they have that is not in the fountain guns so they will give you the can poured into a glass when you have the soda package.

Fancy snacks tonight with spring rolls and some sort of strip steak bites

Tonight's dinner was at Chops and it was like everybody and their brother and their second cousin twice removed's long lost relatives' next door neighbors picked this restaurant to dine in. They did have more staff than usual to accommodate the busy time but they still were seriously lacking in keeping up with demand. After enjoying Alberto's level of service, Dad asked to have him be our waiter tonight as we were seated. The employee who seated us said that was fine and he'd go get him. A short time passes and another waiter notices that we haven't been tended to so he steps up. He asks if we'd been to Chops before and even though we said yes, he proceeded to go on this long winded explanation of the menu options and what courses we can order. He fills our water glasses but then leaves. So we sit, and sit, and sit. Next our old friend Dmytro comes over announcing that he's our waiter tonight and takes our order. I had been hesitant to try the Crispy Goat Cheese Salad because it had walnuts and cranberries but when I asked, Dmytro said I could get it without those ingredients. We both ordered the 16 oz Prime Bone-In Ribeye, the only steak I hadn't yet tried. Dmytro rushes off to put in our order and tend to his other tables. So we sit, and sit, and sit. At this point we haven't gotten bread yet, our water glasses need to be refilled, and we normally would have had our appetizers by now. I tried to wave over a manager when he came nearby but he responded by directing a totally different waiter to come to our table. All I was able to say to the new waiter was that we haven't gotten any bread yet before he announces "I'll get your waiter" and runs off. Good luck with that sir, let me know when you figure out which one it is.

A minute later, a plate of bread and the anchovy butter arrives at our table but it's different than the nice semi soft bread we usually get so I don't eat any. I guess they couldn't keep up with the Chops specific bread loaf baking. Dmytro returns with my salad and while it doesn't have the items I specifically asked to have without, it also looks like they're re-using the same lettuce from day 1.

I tried a few bites but it tasted as bad as it looked. I fell in love with goat cheese during Princess' version of happy hour but this goat cheese just tasted off. Dmytro did offer to bring me something else but I said no because I had such a big steak coming.

Both our ribeye steaks come out and Dad's is cooked medium rare when he asked for medium to medium well. Dmytro takes it back to be "cooked for a couple more minutes." It comes back and it is only slightly better. Dad agrees to eat the steak as is but the further into it he gets, the more obviously medium rare it gets. He ends up leaving about half the steak on the plate. Mine came cooked to order but after eating about 1/3rd, it started looking off and I was finding a ton of fat. I too left a good portion of the entrée on my plate uneaten. 

This steak gave monster size Chops fork a run for its money

Dmytro again offered to get something else but we didn't want to wait even more asking to move on to dessert. I asked to have the Royal Chocolate Cake from the dining room as I'd had my fill of Chops desserts at this point. Of course we can do that says Dmytro and off he goes. And we sit, and we sit. Dmytro comes back to tell me that our dessert is going to take some extra time because it is coming from the dining room. I could have gone downstairs, got the cake, and brought it back 3 times over in the time it took him to bring us Dad's ice cream and my cake. 

I think the Royal Chocolate Cake lost some weight in the time it took to arrive from the dining room. No wonder they put it down in front of you as the above picture and not as below.

When he comes back to get our cruise card, I point out how the table next to us hasn't been approached at all even though they've been sitting there for 2/3rds of our meal. I felt so frustrated for them watching them trying to signal to any waiter that walked by only to get ignored. Dmytro rushed right over to take their order and Dad joked that my courtesy is going to now cost us time since it delayed him scanning our card. The other table thanked me for sending a waiter their way as they were beginning to think they'd never get service. I had planned to speak to the manager on the way out about the poor service but by then even he was running around serving tables to help with the crowd.