First Dinner

I was excited to eat. The buffet was featuring Italian that night. Tim changed into long pants and we went to find our dining room. We had chosen any time dining and we decided to eat around 7:00. We had assumed that we would eat later, but after unpacking our things we where excited and hungry and very, very tired.

We were assigned to the Fantasy Dining Room. There are two dining rooms. The second is called the Ecstasy Dining Room. The names make me giggle.

From Bahamas - 2011

Outside a show girl in full costume was there for people to take photographs with her. I'll discuss pictures during another post.

They are elegant places with lots of glass and brass, wood chairs and table cloths every where. The seating arrangement seems to be that assigned dining gets seated in the center. The center of the room is a raised platform. The any time diners eat on the sides. There are tables of four and tables for two. They will combine them for larger parties but you get to eat privately.

Now privately sitting is not a cuddly booth for two. For the most part the tables look like this.

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One side is a booth and one a seat. There is an average of eighteen inches between the tables. Its enough room to slide in and out but it is not secluded. The booth side faces the windows. The tables are narrow but somewhat long. When they seat you they pull the chair out for the woman and place her napkin on her lap. I hate this. I can pull out my own chair. I can also put my napkin where I want to. I tended to sit on the other side of where they pulled the chair out becuase I had no idea they where pulling the chair out for me. My automatic reaction is to avoid them so it made for some awkward seating situations until I caught on. This type of thing is an interesting divergence point between Tim and I. I shy away from people giving me services that I ca do on my own. They don't bother him and bit and in fact he enjoys the attention.

When you sit down you get fresh bread and butter. They make all the bread on ship and they do an excellent job of it. Its crusty and soft. Your water glass is filled and then the drink waiter comes around and tries to convince you to spend some money on alcohol or soda. Tim didn’t care for the taste of the water. It had a bit of a metallic flavor. He asked for some lemon and that cleared it up. He kept offering me lemon and I kept saying no. The flavor did not bug me.


Because I have been reading forums about cruising I knew that I could order whatever I wanted. This was a good thing because the menu looked pretty good. There is a section called Didja (As in Did You Ever) and it features an exotic selection that you might have wanted to try but did not want to risk.

The first day it was Escargot. I’ve always wanted to try it but not enough to pay for it. So this was a great option for me. I’m pretty adventurous with exotic food. I won’t eat things with mayonnaise on them but I’ll try snails.

I didn’t take photographs of the menus. They are pretty wide ranging. There is a daily menu with staples such as a flat iron steak, a burger, spinach dip and a Caesar salad. There is a daily comfort food section with things like meatloaf and fried chicken.

I stuck to the ritzy side. The first day I wound up with the duck appetizer, a Caesar salad, and the escargot. The waiter came up and asked, "What would you like?" and I answered, "A lot of things" and rattled off my list feeling giddy and wicked at the same time. It was fantastic.

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The duck. It was on a spicy rice noodle and they were delicious. I’ve been learning to cook rice noodles becuase I love the texture. They are a bit slippery. Tim also got the duck but he did not care for the rice noodles under it.

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The escargot. It was chewy and buttery. A lot of oil on the dish. The toasted piece of bread helped to absorb the oil and give it a flavor more then an oiliness. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t super great either.

I didn’t get a photograph of the Caesar salad. I ordered a fancy named chicken dish that was basically a piece of chicken coated and cooked in fresh herbs on a tomato cream pasta. The pasta needed more sauce and the herb thing had a bit of a blandly bitter undertone. The piece of chicken was cooked to perfection and was succulent and moist.

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Tim got a pork chop type thing that he said was very good.

From Bahamas - 2011

And then for desert. Tim ordered coffee and I ordered tea. The desert menu has about 10 selections on it. They have two main deserts, a low calorie deserts, ice cream, sorbets, and then alcoholic drinks. I had heard a lot about the warm chocolate melting cake so I decided to try it.

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My first impression was that it was a chocolate lava cake. But then I realized that it did not have a liquid center. It was really, really, very rich. Its tasty and a nice dark chocolate flavor. Its super sweet and the ice cream helps to tone it down. I ate about half of it and then I was chocolated out. My husband tried it. His eyes lit up and he started to drool a bit as he consumed the rest of it.
I can see why people like it. However, it was not unique in my opinion. I tried the other, more exotic deserts for the rest of the trip.

I liked Tim's key lime pie a lot more the the chocolate cake. It was very creamy.

From Bahamas - 2011

There was another interesting thing. The couple next to us saw us get the plate of lemon slices and did the same. We would come to see them multiple times through the rest of the cruise. Two thousand people are a lot of people but you start to see the same people over and over again. The girl seemed a bit grumpy and the man uninterested in what she had to say.

I noticed them becuase they where some of the only people in the dining room wearing shorts and t-shirts. I was reminded of the heated arguments on Cruise Critic about dress in the dining room.

I had to chuckle a bit inside.