Eating (at the) Salty Dog for lunch

With our bellies full from such a glamorous breakfast, we headed down to a new event I'd never seen held on Princess. It was listed on the Patter as "Welcome to Princess Event." What that turned out to be was a panel of Enchanted Princess' officers gathered in the Piazza and passengers asked them questions to ascertain what their titles were. If a passenger guessed correctly, each officer had a prize for them. Prizes ranged from On Board Credit (OBC), use of an upcharge item like internet or photos, and one woman won elite benefits for the rest of the cruise. 

While we hung out in the Piazza after running into some trivia friends, I got to meet one of Princess' newest celebrity faces, Stanley! In case you were wondering, he has really soft hands..err paws.

What better way to work off that breakfast than get dragged in by Jayson to participate in a round of Junk in the Trunk where we had to dance and bounce around in order to force ping pong balls out of a box with a small opening strapped around our waists. Thankfully there's no video proof of my performance. Then it was the adorable Jody's (incoming cruise director for the next sailing - check out her Instagram for some behind the scenes fun) turn to compete against a passenger. Let's just say I wish I was as flexible as Jody. That performance could have been dubbed Princess Piazza After Dark. When no one else chose to "volunteer, " Jayson and Cruise Director Marcus challenged each other. I'm pretty sure both Jody and I got an extra workout this morning laughing with each other at their efforts. Here's my perspective from our table:

I ended up becoming cameo famous as "girl in a green shirt also filming the fun" in Jody's video featured on the Princess Cruises' Entertainment Instagram account. I've submitted my work in Jody's video for consideration and will let you know when the award nominations start rolling in. ;P

After spending some time enjoying the games around the ship, we headed up to the pool deck and checked out the glass walkway featured on these Royal Class ships. It was interesting to see the change since the Regal Princess where on this ship, the walkway space was enclosed with a seating area in front of the windows. Could be good for some people watching in hopes of catching someone's reaction to walking on the glass. It is completely secure and makes for some cool photos. That was another first on the schedule for me, a time on the Patter devoted to Princess SeaWalk Photographs with the professional photographers on board. Who doesn't grab a photo proving that they stepped on the glass?

All that bouncing around for balls finally made us hungry for a late lunch. Perfect time to check out the Salty Dog Grill - the included poolside grill where you could have always gotten food easy to eat on a lounge chair like cheeseburgers, hot dogs, and fries. Princess recently upped the offerings while keeping the included price the same by adding a BLT Burger, Street Tacos, and a couple more upscale grilled sandwich options if beef wasn't your thing. There are also some vegetarian options such as a veggie burger, Chili Cheese Fries (made with house 3 bean chili), and a Sweet Potato-Green Chili street taco filled with smashed black beans, cheddar cheese, and maple syrup. I'm not sure if this option was no longer but one of the new items added was a Lobster Roll for an extra charge. Unfortunately, that was not listed on the menu for this sailing surprisingly enough for a New England cruise. I also no longer see it listed when you view the Salty Dog Grill's menu on Princess' website.

Despite the freezing cold temperatures on deck, we ordered a variety of items from the grill and ate al fresco. Or should I call it al frozeco. We both ordered a BLT Burger which is described as a beef patty, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and port wine onion marmalade. The crew seemed a little overwhelmed with our order so I'm pretty sure this port wine onion marmalade missing burger was meant for the woman in front of us who asked for it to be left off. I was glad to see that the burger was fully cooked through - sometimes a tough task when cooking en masse. Dad also ordered the "Salty" Dog which is their standard 100% all-beef hot dog. There was condiments available for self service and in pre-dispensed paper cups but if you wanted any other toppings, it was unclear whether we should ask the crew or serve ourselves since those bins were under the glass cover but reachable from our side. 

We shared an order of Bacon & Cheese fries which are described as nacho cheese sauce, bacon crumbles and shredded cheddar. I've seen other cruisers' pictures of getting fries with just cheese sauce but I'm not sure if that was a special request or something only available when ordered through the medallion app. I'm also not sure where the shredded cheddar was unless it gets melted into the nacho cheese because there was only one scoop of melted cheese on my order. Never been a fan of super crispy bacon and the larger chunks of it on here would have been better fitted for a salad than a basket of thin fries. Take off the bacon and add more even coverage in the cheese and I'm all for this option again.

Lastly, I tried the Grilled Chipotle-Lime Chicken tacos which are described as corn and black bean salsa, cilantro vinaigrette, and avocado lime cream. Not the greatest presentation. Not the easiest item to eat either because the contents made the taco shells disintegrate quickly. As I picked them up expecting to roll up the taco to eat, my fingers poked through the now wet shell and what would have become a mess on the table instead landed back into the parchment paper lined bowl. I picked at the contents best I could out of the bowl and was surprised to find the chicken pieces covered in cream to be the spiciest tasting of the whole dish.

Verdict - I'm interested in trying the Grilled Chicken and North Carolina BBQ sandwich options next time because I think those will fare better in terms of something to be taken away and eaten by hand poolside. They, along with the hot dogs, burgers, and fries would be more practical for items you can make and serve quickly but still stay fresh and easy to eat with your hands. 

After exploring the Concierge Lounge which was definitely busier with the addition of an evening cocktail hour, I stopped in the elevator bank to check out the game options on the interactive screens. It was cool to not only play but see how your score stacked up to an all time, daily, or weekly score of everyone else playing on board. I played tons of puzzle rounds and noticed that there was one name who had a monstrous amount of points at the top of the leaderboard. I thought by the picture that someone had used their child's photo as an avatar but then later saw a family intentionally going to the large screen in the corner by the Ocean Medallion display to let their kid spend time playing the games. Good idea if you have young ones with energy to burn.

I may have intentionally switched off the puzzle and card matching games to the more critical thinking required word scramble game so I'd have more of a chance to be in first on the leaderboard. Yes, I was the only player of this game but it still counts, right?

We once asked a cruise staff member why there wasn't more variety in the music themed trivias and events. There are passengers like myself who would just as soon participate in country music trivia as much as TV theme trivia, or Broadway songs trivia, or 80s songs trivia. We were told that it's the Cruise Director who makes the schedules and if he/she doesn't like/want to do a theme, it doesn't make it onto the schedule. I can count on one hand how many cruises we've sailed on any line that included country music in their themed trivias. I'd like to thank Cruise Director Marcus and his team for including all music representation during this sailing. For the record, the country music trivia was as well attended as the other themes.

After enjoying the country music themed trivia this evening, we weren't really hungry so decided to check the buffet options rather than a full meal in the dining room. Not finding much that appealed to us, we ventured down to the International Cafe hoping to recreate the wonderful late night paninis that hit the spot back in 2017. While there are still sandwiches available of multiple flavor combinations, the panini press seems to be a thing of the past. My caprese sandwich (left) and cuban sandwich were lightly heated in a small toaster oven. The thick crusty bread became rock hard and barely anything changed inside the sandwich. Unfortunately, I don't think this type of roll would have been any better untoasted. Turned my dinner into a low carb meal by eating just the contents of the sandwich. Please bring back the panini option!