Evening update

It’s funny how some things come back to you.  So far for lunch I had eaten every day in the buffet or on the pool deck.  It has been very nice, especially because I was able to sit out with the nice weather.  But today, the outside tables were full so I decided to try the main dining room for lunch.  For food and overall dining experience, you can’t compare the buffet vs a nice sit-down restaurant.  For lunch today I had the grilled eggplant stack with soft buffalo mozz and shave radicchio followed by a nice veggie pasta with olive oil, pine nuts, fresh grated parm, served nice and hot - exactly what I was in the mood for.  When I have gone to the buffet for lunch, I try to take food at a buffet that will go well together, for example yesterday was the veggoe Thai green curry and some rice noodle salad.  It was fine but today’s lunch was a better match.  Add to that the included wine (today a couple glasses of a nice white chard from California), a nice view of the water, and it was a very pleasant meal.  It made me wonder why I had rushed through the buffet in previous days.  Part of it, I think, is due to traveling alone.  “Let’s get some food in me and get back to it.” To what exactly I’m not sure.  But the point is it really is nice to have a slow(er) sit down lunch.  I think I had come to the same conclusion last year, about this point in the voyage.  I have not yet done the buffet for dinner and now hereby pledge that I will not do that on this trip!

I may not have mentioned this before, but Azamara does not have any formal nights.  I sometimes like to dress up for dinner but the casual atmosphere works our very well in many ways.  While you do get some who dress casually, most do dress up a little for dinner, though you won’t see many suits.  But I also think it makes for a nicer atmosphere with the crew.  You find most tables interacting with the crew, asking them where they are from and so on.  On a formal night on Cunard, with everyone in their black tie best, it wasn’t happening.  I believe the crew appreciate being treated like that and, in turn, provide better service.  I could be wrong but the service is very good here but it doesn’t feel forced.

Tonight I tried one of the specialty restaurants, Prime C, the steak house.  Yes I know, why would you go to a steakhouse. Well, there are two restaurants on board in addition to the main dining room.  One is a French/seafood restaurant called “Aqualina” and the other Prime C.  Both, however, offer vegetarian options.  Despite an extra $25 I tought Prime C was worth a try. I liked the menu and the room was really nice, dark woods and very relaxing.  The food was very good, I especially liked the spicey butternet squash soup and the stilton bread soufflé (which was a side dish).

I left stuffed and went to caberet show, a musical called Café Amore.  It was, indeed , a bit cheesy but they did a nice job for young entertainers.

Oh and as I was having a pre-dinner glass of wine in the Looking Glass Lounge, they started music trivia.  I don’t play right?  Well the first two were so easy I got a card and played along.  The winner got 34 out of a possible 40 points, I had 29 1/2.  Not bad but I don’t think I will be playing again….but who knows!

It’s now after 9 pm and the ship is starting to hit the weather we’ve been hearing so much about.  They have completely emptied the pool which I take as a bad sign.  The captain even said something to the effect of “don’t worry we have options, I wouldn’t want to put the ship in undue harm.”   Huh?  But at the moment, you can tell the seas are a bit rough but the ship seems to be doing fairly well.   I’ve also heard from the crew that he’s quite conservative as a captain.  I’ll strap myself to the bed tonight just in case!