Another Meal

I was excited to go to the dining room. The Lido had not enthralled me. I was even more leery of it after the fiasco with the horrible Mexican theme.

Tonight was lobster night. I like lobster. I’m just not willing to pay lobster prices. It amuses me that something that was once considered vile, peasant food has become a mainline dish. I had ever plan to consume the lobster that was part of my cruise price.

It was also elegant night. I had gotten a dress for this occasion. It is a cocktail tress I am told. I don’t know. Tim liked it. I thought I looked like an idiot, but I always feel that I look like an idiot when I dress up. The ship brochure was filled with urgings to go and get your photo taken at the photo opportunities while dressed your best. There were also long lines at the laundry rooms for people to iron their stuff. We had wrinkle-less fabric and I’m a slob I guess becuase a few wrinkles wouldn’t bother me a bit.

We ate late this night. We wanted to make it to the comedy show that started at 1000hours. This put us at dinner right around eight. It was right before the timed seating started and the place was a zoo. We wound up getting a pager and we had to go and wait to sit down. Our wait was about fifteen minutes. We went into the Oak Room and attempted to do a crossword puzzle. We learned that we suck at crossword puzzles.

Once we were seated, we again got a table that was a half booth. I got to sit on the booth side. The goal had been for us to trade the view each day. We forgot that it was already dark when we sat down. Whoops. I also forget how unreasonable wearing a dress is. Ahh well, it was kinda fun (even if I look the fool) and the husband so rarely sees me dressed up.

The room was buzzing. The first night had been calm. I figured that people were still getting their bearings. Tonight was a bit crazy. The servers moved at about five thousand miles an hour. Everything took a bit longer then it had the previous night but it was also packed with a line of people waiting. At one point our server stopped and apologized for the wait and length of time things were taking. “It’s lobster night,” he said. “We normally serve ninety percent of the ship these nights.”

Wow.

This is where the night started to get amusing.

We noticed that to the aft, beside us was the same couple from the previous night. They were wearing jeans. The male part had on a t-shirt and the female part had on a nice top. My husband noticed me looking and he chuckled at me. I could not help but feel amused. I thought of Cruise Critic and the massive arguments over what people wore in the dining room. Then I noticed that they both had on flip flops and I had to bite back giggles.

Then I watched the male half lean over and pick up a water bottle and pour it into his glass. He then closed it and placed it back down beside him. It was the big, liter bottle of water you can buy in your cabin. The previous night he had not liked the taste of the water. I guess this was his fix.

For the food.

Appetizer wise, I started out with the ‘Didja ever’ and tried the crocodile balls. When we were heading down to Florida I had told the husband that I wanted to hunt down crocodile. It is as if Carnival heard me. I also had the fruit plate.

From Bahamas - 2011

From Bahamas - 2011

The husband had the mushrooms.

From Bahamas - 2011

Next I had the lobster. It was properly done, soft and succulent. I should have ordered two.

From Bahamas - 2011

The husband does not eat crustations of any type. He had the prime rib cooked closer to well done.

From Bahamas - 2011

Desert I had the souffle. The waiter dropped it off and then suddenly, to my surprise he stabs it with a spoon (it was not violent but I was not expecting my cake thing to be stabbed) and pours a creamy sauce onto it. He then said, “Is that enough?” and I said, “I don’t know? Is it?” he chuckled and said, “Some people like it extra sweet” to which I replied, “Whatever you think is right.” I often eat things with the sauce separated from the cake but I figured I’d go with the flow. I am so glad that I did. I should have ordered two. I will order two next time. It was divine. I still have dreams about it. It was a Grand Mariner Orange something or other little souffle of bliss. Wow. It was also quite hot and stayed that way as I consumed it like I hadn’t been gorging all day. Wow, it tasted so good.

From Bahamas - 2011

The husband had a chocolate and cream pie. I let him have a small nibble of my souffle and he said he wishes he had gotten it. Next time he will order two as well.

From Bahamas - 2011

On the other side of us from the grumpy couple that we began to call Jeans Guy and Grumpy Girl, there was a young couple. They seemed to be having a very nice time. Halfway through their meal, they had a friend approach. I looked at her and realized that she was extremely intoxicated. She held her liquor well.

She was holding a table for them at the comedy show and she wanted them to know that they needed to get to it. She staggered away and the male half says, “Shes been at it,” and the girl goes, “Yeah but shes done for the night.”

About ten minutes later she comes back. This time she has a large glass that she hands to the female friend and goes, “Is that to strong? I’ve been trying to dilute it but it has a lot of rum in it.” The girl tastes it and goes, “It’s pretty strong.” Yeah. She tells them not to have the souffle. It was ‘so so and not that great’ and staggers off.’

This is when I comment to my husband that a cruise ship is a rather good place for people who are that wasted. No walking in the streets or driving cars.

Then she comes back again right as desert is served. Now she is holding her shoes, her hair is wild and her eyes are glazed. It seems that she had taken her shoes off and gotten chased out of the dance club. She was cut off at the bar. She was to drunk to find the comedy club becuase she had been at the wrong place. The other two finished their food and herded her out.

It made for an amusing meal. We finished up and hurried out. There was only about ten minutes before the comedy show was to start.