The World’s Longest Freedom Review: Part 11featured

by Nicole on May 6, 2010

Well, this one’s winding down…and not a moment too soon since we leave on Monday night!!! The Sunglasses and Umbrella Drinks Tumblr is up and running, so if you want to see pictures live from NYC, I’ll be posting those there while we’re in New York next week! And I’ll be posting some cruise pics up there on the drive home to give me something to do 😛 If you have a Tumblr, you can follow it at http://sunglassesandumbrelladrinks.tumblr.com (and if you don’t, you can bookmark it if you want to see the pics :)). That’s where I put my processed pics, so it’s a little different, but I think it adds a little something.

Really fast…someone left a comment about getting extra keys and I wanted to answer because Blogger alerts me to comments, but doesn’t tell me where they’re posted and I can’t find it. If you book your rooms based on the rate and need to switch and need extra keys, one person from each room just needs to go to the Purser and you just tell them you want keys to each others rooms. They print ’em up and done…very easy. We’ve never had a problem 🙂

So when we woke up this morning, the boat was still rocking very heavily. Outside of the last night of our Princess cruise where the boat listed more than slightly, these were the roughest seas we’d ever experienced and we were all feeling it. Mom and Stephanie had headaches and grandma and I wanted to sleep all the time.

Stephanie and I headed to the MDR for breakfast while Mom and grandma had room service delivered. She had a Belgian Waffle. I had my usual (Eggs Benedict). Both were fantastic. I really don’t know if I can go back to eating on the Lido for breakfast because the MDR has really spoiled me for future cruises. The selection and quality are just so much better. And not having to circle the area forever looking for a table? Added bonus.

Belgian Waffle

Eggs Benedict

After breakfast, we headed back to the room to change into our pool gear and we headed out to look for chairs. Despite the fact that the skies were overcast and it was windy, there were NO chairs anywhere. Main pool? Forget about it. Deck 10 near the stage? Nope. Adults-only aft pool? Nada. And get this: all the chairs were saved, but there were only TWO people in the pool (which was domed at the time). We’ve NEVER experienced problems with chair hogs to this extent before but now I understand the frustration I always read about. I really wish Carnival would do something about this.

We finally found two chairs in some odd place on deck 10 and right as we settled in, it started raining. Of course. That’s just kind of how our luck went with the weather on this cruise. We went down to the aft pool to wait it out and it passed within a half-hour or so. We found deck chairs on deck 10 starboard and laid out for a few hours.

Mom had left us a note in our room that she and grandma were going to grab lunch on the lido deck so we dropped our pool stuff off and headed off to find them. I finally tried the Tandoor for lunch and the food was alright (granted, I didn’t try much- I thought the hummus was just okay but that the roti bread was pretty good). I ended up grabbing a cheeseburger.

After lunch, we headed back to the room to shower and rest. We figured by showering before tea, it would give us more time to get ready for formal night. We took a lot of little breaks like this throughout the cruise and it really gave us a bit more stamina. As much as we’d like to go-go-go all the time, these trips are always just SO draining for me. I come home needing a vacation from my vacation most of the time.

Anyways.

Tea time was very crowded, but having it in such an open space (like the MDR) really helped. If we had been on the Miracle, the lounge would have been overpacked and loud and as it was, we just asked for a private table and we were in our own little tea bubble. There were increasing numbers of kids coming to afternoon tea and some were better behaved than others. There was a middle-school aged girl who pushed her way to the front of the line to get into tea time at the behest of her grandmother and was extremely loud and disruptive. There was a two-year-old at the table next to us having her first tea with her mom and she was ADORABLE and so well behaved. The wait staff doted on her and it was just so cute. My major gripe, though, from this tea time? No chamomile tea! I only drink chamomile tea when I’m doing tea on cruises, so it’s not like it’s some huge thing I’m into, but it’s part of the experience for me. They must have run out of it, so I think I had english breakfast or some other mild tea.

After tea, we split up again and Stephanie and I went out to the Serenity deck to sit out and relax for awhile. One of my favorite past times onboard is to just sit and watch the water. One of the reasons Royal Caribbean doesn’t really appeal to me is there isn’t many areas to do that onboard their ships if you don’t have a balcony. I like to watch the water and listen to the sounds of the ocean. If I don’t have a balcony, my favorite place to do this is usually on the promenade deck because there’s almost never anyone out there. This time, though, we settled for the comfy chairs at Serenity.

We headed back to the room to get into our elegant evening wear and get ready. Thankfully, it didn’t take us too long this time since we were already showered and our hair was already straightened. We met up with Mom and headed to the lobby to take some pictures before going to dinner.

Dinner tonight was excellent, as it had been most nights. I found myself really impressed with the quality of the MDR food this trip. Both breakfast and dinner (as well as afternoon tea) were just excellent all around. Food was great, service was amazing all around…we were just really satisfied with the overall experience all week long.

Mom started with her usuals- a caesar salad and a shrimp cocktail (except she had two this time) and as usual, they were good. It just occurred to me that Mom almost never orders an appetizer from the starters menu and I have no idea why. I’ll have to ask her.

Shrimp Cocktail x2

Caesar Salad

Stephanie started with Corn Chowder Maryland (creamy corn soup with potatoes and vegetables), which she’d never had before and she really liked it, despite the fact that between the corn, the potatoes and the cream, it was very heavy. She also had the Green Bean and Roma Tomatoes salad (garnished with tender greens, tossed in a vinaigrette dressing). Now, this salad used to have shrimp in it, but that was cut out when Carnival cut the proteins from their salads (the chicken kebob with the Greek Farmer Salad, for instance). Now, it seems, they cut the green beans and the tomatoes from the green bean and tomato salad because she didn’t find much of either in this salad. It was mostly greens and vinaigrette.

Corn Chowder Maryland

Green Bean and Roma Tomatoes

I started with the Chilled Creamy Bing Cherry Soup and while I enjoyed it, it wasn’t as good as the Strawberry Bisque. Maybe it’s because it’s heavier and a bit more tart or maybe because it’s more one-dimensional in flavor since there’s no herb or seasoning to enhance the flavor (the Strawberry Bisque has a bit of mint in it whereas the cherry soup is basically cherries and cream). I also had a new starter that I’d never seen on the menu before- the Baked Eggplant with Mozzarella Cheese (served on Romesco sauce and green pea fondue). I have to be honest- I really didn’t like this. It was quite spicy (and this is coming from the girl who bought every gas station in Indiana that we stopped at out of spicy peanuts on this trip) and I couldn’t figure out where the heat was coming from since romesco sauce isn’t typically hot (it’s traditionally a tomato sauce with garlic, red bell pepper, olive oil and pine nuts) and there was only a dollop of it on the plate. And the eggplant was overdone to the point of sogginess. It wasn’t what I expected from the description and I’m not sure I’d order it again.

Chilled Creamy Bing Cherry Soup

Baked Eggplant with Mozzarella Cheese

Stephanie ordered the Charred Half Spring Chicken (roasted cauliflower, seasoned with green pepper corn chimichurri) as her entree. She really liked it and thought it tasted really “interesting,” but she wished she had ordered the Chateaubriand instead.

Charred Half Spring Chicken

Mom and I both ordered the Chateaubriand with Sauce Bearnaise (sliced grilled beef shoulder tender) and it was probably the best thing I ate in the MDR all week. It always is and I’ll probably order two the next time even if I’m not hungry just because it’s *that* good. My mouth waters thinking about it. The beef is so soft and tender and the beef jus and bearnaise dollops on the plate make for the perfect accompaniment. I don’t even care for the potatoes on the side (though I’ll keep the peas LOL)- just give me the beef and the sauces.

Chateaubriand with Sauce Bearnaise

We all had the Baked Alaska (vanilla sponge with assorted ice cream and baked with meringue) and it honestly wasn’t the best we’ve ever had (the sponge was either dry or stale), but it’s always a fun dessert. I also ordered a cheese plate to split with Stephanie.

Baked Alaska

Cheese Plate

After dinner, we went into some of the shops and walked along the public areas. Someone offered to take our picture and we kindly returned the favor for them before heading back to the rooms. I changed my shoes and then we went up with Mom to take grandma to dinner.

We headed down to the Victoriana for trivia before the Legends show. First was 50/50 Interactive Trivia, where basically to participate, you have to stand, close your eyes and do these gesticulations as your answer (cover your eyes for A, your ears for B, your mouth for C and put your arm up for D…something along those lines). I came in second place for that one because I didn’t know who the US bought the USVI from. Oops.

After that was game show mania (you know…the fun one with the Jeopardy-like contestant booths and cool buzzers). I wanted to do this one BAD but Little John never seemed to choose me! I finally got chosen for the last round though and that was super fun! A lot of the questions were from before my time (aka pre-1985), which is probably why I wasn’t chosen at first- they usually choose older contestants because the questions are things people my age probably wouldn’t know. But I held my own! If you’re going to ask a question about a song about the island off the Florida Keys, I will answer before you even finish the question (the answer was Kokomo, by the way LOL). I didn’t win, but I did get a super fun medal.

While they were doing Bingo, I ran to the patisserie to buy some chocolate covered strawberries since I had a craving for them. The girl there gave me one free because she liked me. Probably since I was a nicer customer than the person before me, who was driving her crazy. A little kindness and a reassuring smile goes a long way. If nothing else, you’ve made someone’s day a little easier and a little brighter.

We all shared the strawberries (which were yummy, but getting smaller as the week went on and they were running out of the big ones) with our drinks (which Stephanie ordered while I was at the patisserie). Miami Vice for me, Kiss on the Lips for her. I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but when in the world did the drinks get so expensive? Geez. They were at least a few dollars more expensive than they were the last time I was onboard!

The lounge quickly filled to the brim for the Legends show (which, by the way, was not held on the last night…which was a kind of odd feeling for me since I’m always rushing out to pack). I don’t know…this show gets progressively worse on each cruise. Or maybe I’m just sick of the same songs and the same “funny” routines from the staff. Time to change it up. New legends, new songs, new skits. This is also the most effort put fourth by the entertainment staff all week which, all things considered, wasn’t saying much.

After dinner, we headed back to the room. Stephanie ordered room service for herself and I fell asleep before it even arrived. The seas were heavily rocking again and it was a long day. We also figured out why grandma was sleeping so much- Mom had her wear a patch in case she had motion sickness, but since grandma isn’t motion sickness prone, it had a different affect and made her drowsy. Once we figured it out and got it off of her, she was much perkier, but let that be a lesson to you: if you aren’t motion sickness prone, don’t take motion sickness meds, as they’ll make you drowsy. Stephanie always tells me I should take Bonine or wear a patch because the rocking makes me sleepy and thus, she considers it a form of motion sickness, but all of these motion sickness meds come with drowsiness warnings and at that point, what is the point? Taking meds that could make me drowsy to combat…drowsiness? Yeah, no. I’ll take my heavy slumber, thanks. But with that, the seas lulled me to sleep. We had one more day at sea ahead of us and I planned to enjoy it to the max.

Today’s Lido lunch menus