New York is Thatta Way, Man: Just Another SaUD Miracle Review- May, 2010 (Part 11)featured
After three days in port, I was ready for our last two days at sea. As we’re looking at cruises, days at sea seem to be something we take into consideration. While port days used to be a priority to us, days at sea have kind of crept up in importance. They’re so relaxing and so much fun. I love relaxing under the sun. I love exploring the ship. And tea time! I love tea time.
So after three port days, we had two days at sea left before disembarking in New York. Wanting to get an early start to the day, we woke up bright and early at 8:30 am (I don’t even wake up this early at home! I’m firmly a late to bed, late to rise kind of girl) and headed up to the Lido deck for breakfast. Today’s newest item on the line? Spanokopita. I opted for the omelet line. If you’re not feeling like scrambled eggs of the powdered variety, you might want to check out the omelet line, where they make omelets made-to-order with a bunch of different vegetable, meat and cheese options. And if you’re not an omelet person, you can have your eggs made-to-order. In my case? Sunny-side up, please!
After breakfast, Stephanie and I went out back to the adults-only Lido area to find chairs. We found two pretty quickly, but they weren’t in an ideal spot and the area was overcrowding pretty quickly (I guess people have caught onto our little secret place!), so we headed up to deck 10, where it was empty, grabbed two chairs and laid out for a few hours. The area quickly filled up (deck 10 is always the last to fill up, though, so if you’re up at a decent hour, it’s always easy to find good spots up there), but it was still so peaceful up there. The seas were as smooth as glass, the sky was clear and I kind of drifted off to the tunes coming off my iPod.
We decided earlier to meet up with Mom and grandma and head to the MDR for lunch, so when we had our fill of sun time, we headed back to the room to change and we all headed to lunch together. We’ll try to do lunch in the MDR once or so a cruise. The food is hit or miss sometimes if you’re a picky eater like me, but it’s a much more calm, leisurely experience than the bustle up on the Lido deck. Stephanie started with the Old Fashioned German Lentil Soup and found it very flavorful. Mom and grandma both started with the Medley of Garden and Field Greens and thought it was unremarkable (and that they’d be more satisfied with a visit to the salad bar up on the Lido deck). I started with the Chilled Orange Sory (chilled orange soup with tapioca pearls) and it was really fantastic. It tastes like melted orange sherbet with little, tiny tapioca bits and it’s just really nice and refreshing to start with.
Old Fashioned German Lentil Soup
Medley of Garden and Field Greens
Chilled Orange Sory
We all had favorable things to say about our main courses. Stephanie had the Hay and Straw (egg fettuccine and spinach fettuccine tossed in tomato sauce with sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and basil) and thought while delicious, was entirely too heavy for lunch and didn’t make much of a dent in it. Mom had a Create Your Own Burger, which was just as tasty as the hamburgers served up at the grill but with many more topping options. Grandma and I both had the Chinese Pepper Steak (stir-fried lean beef, peppers, onions and pineapples, sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds and served with steamed rice) and both of us nearly cleared our plates. This was delicious! The beef was soft and tender and the onions were nice and sweet. With the added sweetness of the pineapple, it was a really delicious mix of flavors.
Hay and Straw
Create Your Own Burger
Chinese Pepper Steak
We all had the Chocolate Sundae for dessert and while very yummy, it made me realize that the sundae bar they used to put out on sea days on the Miracle was gone and I missed it! It made for a great snack and was really a nice perk of sailing on the Miracle. Oh cutbacks. You’re cramping my dining style.
Chocolate Sundae
After lunch, we went walking around the ship, taking it all in. I wanted to take pictures of all the public areas for a little project I’m going to work on. And then we split up again, with Stephanie and I going back to the room to shower and rest for awhile.
I must have fallen asleep after I did my hair because before I knew it, Mom was waking me up to get ready for tea time. On the way to tea, I began to notice some trash around the ship. Come on, guys. The ship isn’t your trash can. If you finish your can of coke, throw the can out in your room or leave it at the bar. If you grab a cup of ice cream, don’t leave the empty bowl in the elevator bank, leave it at a bus station or outside your room. It’s my ship to enjoy, too. I don’t want to be stepping over the trash you were too lazy to put in it’s correct place.
Tea time, as always, was relaxing and delicious. I really love the live music and relaxing to it as I stare out the window into the open seas while I sip my chamomile tea. They served an absolutely scrumptious mocha cake today, and had these delicious cream-filled scones. I was, however, getting kind of grossed out that they use the same tongs to serve *everything*. As in the same tongs that are picking up Mom’s smoked salmon sandwiches are serving me my scones. This brings a potentially dangerous cross-contamination issue that I hope Carnival will soon realize and correct. Please use separate tongs for the seafood options than you use for the dessert options.
After tea, Stephanie and I wanted to go to the shops so we split up from Mom and grandma again. What do I find in the shops? MORE TRASH. Come on, people! Of ALL the places to leave your empty mug, you’re going to leave it in the SHOPS?.
Stephanie and I found bottles of Absolut Tropics that caught our eyes in the gift shop
and decided to go back tomorrow and purchase them). We perused the shops a bit more (I’ve found that while the stores are smaller on the Miracle, they have a better selection than the bigger shops on bigger ships) before heading back to the room to rest, watch some Avatar and then get ready for our final elegant evening.
Dinner tonight was really, really delicious and it’s probably one of my favorite menus they offer all week. Everything I ate, top to bottom, was just delicious. Mom started with the Baked Eggplant with Mozzarella Cheese (served with Romesco sauce and green pea fondue) and while Mom typically loves eggplant dishes, she really didn’t like this (and couldn’t put her finger on why). She also had a Caesar salad, which was as good as it is every night. Stephanie started with the Cream of Garden Fresh Broccoli (enhanced with aged Wisconsin cheddar) and thought it was nice and rich, and then she also had the Green Bean and Roma Tomatoes (garnished with tender greens, tossed in vinaigrette dressing). I have no idea why they don’t just call this salad with green beans and tomatoes since there’s not many green beans and like one piece of tomato in it (it also used to have shrimp in it, but those were cut when they cut the proteins out of all the salad offerings), but Stephanie seemed to enjoy the salad nonetheless. I started with the Chilled Creamy Bing Cherry Soup, which was nice and creamy with a slight tartness from the cherry bits in the soup, and then I had the starter portion of the Penne Siciliana (Durham wheat pasta tossed with a sauce of eggplant, zucchini, plum tomatoes, cream and Pecorino cheese with Italian herbs). It was a heavy portion and a really rich sauce, but it’s such a flavorful dish. The pasta was perfectly al dente and the sauce was nice and dense.
Baked Eggplant with Mozzarella Cheese
Caesar Salad
Cream of Garden Fresh Broccoli
Green Bean and Roma Tomatoes
Chilled Creamy Bing Cherry Soup
Penne Siciliana
We all went for the same entree for dinner- the Chateaubriand with Sauce Bearnaise (sliced, grilled beef shoulder tender). I contemplated ordering two because I typically love this dish but I went with just one. I should have ordered two. Let’s get the not-so-good out of the way: aside from Mom’s (who can never get her beef well done enough), mine and Stephanie’s Chateaubriand were overcooked. Okay. That done. This was SOOOOOOOO good. That bearnaise. That au jus. I will eat nearly anything drenched in that combination of flavors. My mouth waters at the thought of it. No lie. The peas served with dried cranberries were delicious and I don’t remember the potatoes but I’m sure they were good, too. But man, that Chateaubriand. It’s the best beef dish they serve in the MDR. Try it. I can’t recommend it enough.
Chateaubriand with Sauce Bearnaise
And on Chateaubriand night, there’s only one option we all ever order at dessert: the Baked Alaska (vanilla sponge with assorted ice cream and baked with meringue). I miss when it was Baked Alaska on parade and they were carried (lit) out of the kitchen and everyone got a slice, but it’s still so good. I could go without the sprinkle of fruits they put on top (this time, they put blackberries on top, too). They’re an unnecessary distraction and I push ’em off my plate (I ate the blackberries. I love me some berries). Oh, and I had a cheese plate to go with my nightly after-dinner cuppa joe. Delish as always.
Baked Alaska
Cheese plate
Mom went upstairs to take grandma up to the Lido deck for dinner and Stephanie and I went off onto the promenade to watch the sunset. We did this nearly nightly and it became one of my favorite things we did. There’s something so beautiful and poetic about watching the sun disappear into the never-ending sea.
We met back up with Mom and grandma on the Lido deck. They were serving steaks as an option for dinner but we found they were pretty undercooked (even the medium-well steaks were more like medium-rare. I don’t want to know what the medium-rare ones were like!), but the cooks on Lido had no problem preparing one for grandma that was more well-done. I noticed they had sushi out during dinner hours and that many people would stop by and grab some in passing, as they had different offerings than the sushi bar was offering downstairs. I also noticed a surprising number of people grabbing things with their hands instead of using tongs (rolls, fruit, random pieces of food, etc). For the love of sailing, USE THE TONGS- IT’S WHAT THEY’RE THERE FOR.
Stephanie, Mom and grandma went to the atrium after we left the Lido and I went back to the room to change out of my dress. They came back (somehow, grandma’s leg got cut…I never got the full story…and she was bleeding quite a bit for awhile before Mom got it under control and all bandaged up) and we all did some light packing. We debated whether or not to go see Singing with the Big Band with Christopher Alan Graves. We’ve seen his show a million times and it never changes. Ultimately, Stephanie and I decided to go see it for lack of other things to do. We ordered some drinks and sat back for the show.
While Mr. Graves is a very talented man, there’s something so inherently self-indulgent about his show. Maybe it’s how he superimposes pictures of himself in a photo montage of Rat Pack singers or his supreme self-confidence. He’s good, but he’s no Sammy Davis Jr.
Since the Madhatter was next to the Phantom Lounge, we decided to go watch some karaoke, but it was SO insanely crowded and rowdy down there. I couldn’t decide if I stepped into a frat party or an episode of Jersey Shore. And somehow amongst all of that, it just wasn’t as entertaining as it had been when KaraoKay had been running it last year.
From karaoke, we hit up the sports bar for a bit for some ticker watching, we did some walking around the ship (always fun at night when you’re sailing with a lively bunch) and then we went up to the Lido deck for a midnight snack.
We headed back to the room to pack a little more. Stephanie watched more Avatar. I put some Glee on my laptop and watched that before settling in to write my journal for the day and go to sleep. The boat began rocking a bit during dinner and was really rolling around by the time we were heading to sleep. What did that mean for me? A good night of solid sleep.
Today’s Lido lunch menus
Today’s Lido dinner menu
