Day 4 Luminae Breakfast -
Scrambled eggs can be quite polarizing among cruisers. Especially when trying them in the buffet. You might hear an experienced cruiser refer to the use of powdered eggs which can result in a separation when reconstituted.Turned down the scrambled eggs in the buffet a couple times later in the cruise because they looked like floating clumps of scramble in an egg soup. Thankfully, MDR and Luminae scrambled eggs looked much better. They had a creamy texture which resulted in a little bit of runniness but still tasted good.
The edible decor appeared on my plate again this morning. I'm not sure though whether these fingerling potatoes are more aptly named because they always came out looking like fingers smashed in a car door.
We did mention it to our server when we ordered the potatoes as a side but got the customary "sorry, want something else?" reply. Perhaps more of a chef based issue as the same potatoes we had in another venue were like night and day.
Day 7 Luminae Breakfast -
I went down for breakfast alone this day with the expectation that Dad would join me after he was done with a check in at the medical center. He wasn't able to join me but our butler Mary was kind enough to arrange a delivery of fruit and bagel with lox to the cabin for him. I rarely get good pancakes at home so I always try them on cruises. Today's order was banana pancakes. I like putting banana slices through the leftover maple syrup so I cut out the middle step. I was a little surprised when the server asked if it was okay to put the bananas in the pancakes. I said yes but ended up with a plate both ways.
Not sure if that was a thin caramel, honey, or diluted orange marmalade that was drizzled over the banana on the side but it was super sweet. The pancakes were quite tasty and fluffy in texture. I found that having the bananas in the pancakes made for a burst of extra sweetness which I didn't care for. If you have a major sweet tooth then this might have been your perfect breakfast. In the future I will go for plain pancakes and fruit on the side.
Day 9 - Snack at Cafe al Bacio
Hot chocolate and a slice of vanilla pound cake. Unlike the International Cafe (IC) on Princess, Cafe al Bacio's food offerings are more for the dessert or pastry variety. Fancy a muffin with your morning coffee? This is the place to visit as just like the IC, the food is always free! Any drinks however both iced and hot coffee varieties do cost extra. These drinks are included if you have a drink package as we did for being in The Retreat categories of cabins.
Day 12 - Dinner in Luminae
This was not only our last night of the cruise but our first chance to return to Luminae for dinnertime. Time to amuse our bouches. I think this was some sort of artichoke or perhaps a tiny gecko being strangled by carrot shavings?
Due to Dad's injury and subsequent repeated treatments, we had yet to return to Luminae during lunch hours to get the famous Luminae burger. Mary did offer to bring us lunch from Luminae to the cabin one day but we would have had to wait until lunchtime hours. We had missed breakfast that morning and were too hungry to wait. At tonight's dinner Dad asked if he could put in a special order to have the burger now. The server took a moment to double check but it was deemed okay. In our exhaustion, I had mistakenly mixed up MDR menu days in the app and ordered an appetizer from a previous evening. After being gone for a while, our server came back to the table to apologize as they couldn't find what I'd ordered on the menu. I pulled it up to show him and realized that I had accidentally tapped another numbered night at the bottom of the app. The server offered to have me choose from tonight's menu but I didn't care for any of the choices. He apologized again and I apologized insisting that this was completely my mistake.
Service this night slowed to a crawl and it became very frustrating. Yes, we'd just been through an extra stressful week so our patience was thin. However, this was like our table had been forgotten. Watched the servers, sommelier, manager, and hostess fawn over other tables chatting with passengers. I get that this was typical for the final night as we've had many cruises where we'd love the chance to thank and lament the need to say goodbye to our servers. But to do so at the expense of other passengers to the point that we weren't even getting water refills is too much.
Unfortunately, as is the case in most restaurants, they were holding my order until both were ready. We weren't getting checked on at all by our server so I couldn't even attempt to ask for my entree much less order something else I'd spotted after finding the right evening menu. I tried calling the manager over but the sommelier came rushing over thinking we wanted to order wine. We explained that we were wanting to talk to the manager and the sommelier directed him to our table. Without a chance to utter a word from us, the manager went right over to Dad and declared that because of his special order it was being made from scratch and he will just have to understand that it would take longer. I literally sat there with my mouth hanging open because I had started to explain before being cut off while the manager turned his back on me to lecture Dad. Since Dad had the manager's attention, he explained for me and our server was quickly sent to get my dish. Another crew member was sent over to refill our water glasses in the meantime.
From the Luminae entree menu - Fresh Homemade Fettucine with baby calamari, shrimp, roasted red pepper, and extra virgin olive oil. After all that wait, my first bites of this dish were rubbery and tough. I was able to get our server's attention this time and ordered the Gnocchi from the MDR menu as a replacement. Our server quickly whisked this dish away and I noticed the manager stop him to question why it was being sent back. The server told him that I'd asked for gnocchi instead and rushed back to the kitchen.
The gnocchi was the dish I was going to ask be brought in lieu of an appetizer. While the manager hung back watching our table from across the room, service did pick up briefly with my replacement entree coming quickly. Dad's burger soon arrived after that and we ended up having our entrees at the same time anyway. The gnocchi had good texture, was properly warm, and had a great taste. Dad loved his burger and I'm glad one of us finally got the chance to try it this cruise.
Once we were "appeased" with our entree delivery, service became non existent again. We decided rather than go another round with the manager that we would skip dessert. For how long we were ignored, it's amazing how fast our server made it to our table when he saw us gathering our things to leave. He acted concerned about our dessert refusal and we chalked it up to being tired. His response to this that really left a bad taste on our final night of such bad service was to launch into an extended plea to have us give the Luminae wait staff all 10 scores on the post cruise survey. I'm pretty sure he repeated his plea a couple times over as if he was trying to keep us from walking out and being questioned by the manager again. We've been on many cruises and have heard from many crew members who have gotten good reviews and commendations from us in post cruise surveys that tell us how it helped them get promoted, get a bonus, or get extra time off. This moment however was poorly timed and gave a horrible final impression to our time in Luminae.
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