sidwich

To add to everyone, the fitness center is very casual. The one caveat I would add thought is if you're using the stationary/indoor cycling bikes, I think you're supposed to wear sneakers or some kind of exercise shoes. (The fitness directors sometimes ask me about my shoes when I'm on the bike. Apparently, they're not used to seeing actual cycling shoes being used! LOL).

Pretty much. Full disclosure: I have not been on NC yet, but yes, it's pretty simple I would go up to the spa reception desk, and say I wanted to use a locker and the facilities. The desk would give me a key for a locker, and ask for my room card, and off I would go to use the locker room and whatever else. When I was done, I'd hand back the key and they would give me my room card back. Easy peasy. This is actually what I usually do on embarkation day. This does involve planning a little to bring your gym clothes in hand carry, but after lunch and whatever first day errands (adjusting specialty reservations, library, etc.), I usually get a locker, change, workout, and then steam/sauna/shower. By then, cabin and luggage are always ready!

Seriously. I had to go to Destination Services regarding an excursion I had booked which I discovered had substantial changes (as in, 75-80% of the tour was going to be changed from its original description). So I went to the Destination Services desk to inquire about what the changes were going to be, and the young man at the desk printed me up the description of the tour. It was the ORIGINAL description of the tour. Which didn't include the changes. I asked him to try again. He takes a closer look and goes, "Oh, you're going to this museum," and points at the name of a museum on a sheet of paper. The name of the museum is in JAPANESE. I tried again. "Do you know what's at this museum?" He finally looked up the museum which as it turned out, had nothing to do with the original topic of the tour. I ended switching to another tour (which was very nice). We also had another incident on an Oceania excursion. At Okinawa, there was an announcement that morning that the ship was going to be leaving earlier than originally planned. Well, no one mentioned it to the local tour guide, who had it in his planned itinerary to return us back to the ship at a time that was going to be after the ship left now. He had to be constantly reminded (by us, his excursion-goers) to get us back in time!

On a related topic, having just gotten off Insignia, my strong advice is to read the excursion booklet given to you when you board your cruise because it will contain the excursion additions, deletions, and modifications. Having booked and confirmed our excursions ahead of time, we didn't realize we needed to take a look through this booklet. Halfway through the cruise, I happened to be idly flipping through the booklet, and discovered that one of the excursions we had booked was changed SUBSTANTIALLY. As in 80% of the excursion was changed, and no, I don't consider a visit to the Kamikaze museum the same as the sand bath originally promised. We managed to cancel the tour 10 mins before the deadline (and later re-booked a different excursion which was very nice), but whoah... that was a surprise.

I can see that happening, though. Good bread can be the product of flour, water, yeast, and fermentation, so as long as the baker has time and a place to cold store the dough for a few days to allow the flavors to develop as it ferments, delicious bread can be made with very cheap ingredients. Most cookies take butter, though, so if costs are being cut in ingredients... it's hard to get around for good results.

I've tried the cookies in Baristas and the croissants in Terrace. If they're using butter (let alone French butter), they're cutting it with a much cheaper fat. This may also be the problem with the scones at tea which are crumbly (the steam from the butter in the baking should be giving the scones the tenderness which scones are known for which these are definitely not). If I'm able, I will try to upload the picture of the inside of one of the almond croissants so you can see the flatness and lack of flakiness which shows that they're almost certainly not using enough butter. I don't really eat the cookies at the Terrace, but I've found my favorite dessert onboard is definitely whatever is in the cups on the dessert table at lunch time, usually some kind of cream something which does taste like it's been made with cream (e.g. coconut creme brulee). That is usually lovely.

From a cooking perspective, salting underseasoned food /= properly salting during the cooking process. Properly salting during the cooking process brings out the flavor of food because it draws out water, for example when you sweat aromatics like onions. Salting underseasoned food at the table just makes bland food salty, but doesn't fix the underlying issue which is often a sign of an inexperienced cook. That being said, cookies are something that I've not had much problem cutting back the salt on. The Insignia cookies taste like they're either not using butter or cutting the butter with a cheaper fat. Perhaps a cheaper shortening? The croissants have very little taste as well. Generally, I just think that Oceania is cheaping out on ingredients at this point. Last night on Insignia, the wiener schnitzel had clearly not been cooked in butter (probably a much cheaper oil), beef with brandy sauce at been listed on the Terrace menu but turkey was a last minute substitute at the carving station, and Dottie was hyping the fact that we were getting "chicken fajitas on the grill!!!" like it was somehow the second culinary coming.

I second that the Insignia cookies from yesterday were better. I still don't think that they're using best quality butter, but they made up for it with copious amounts of good quality chocolate and the texture was improved for some reason. (I know this is a personal preference thing, but I like a moist and chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie and that was the style yesterday). Besides better butter, I'd probably also suggest using more brown sugar vs white sugar in their recipe, but yes, the cookie was definitely much improved yesterday.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has noticed that the scones are off. Currently on Insignia, and the scones have a very odd, dry and crumbly texture and are strangely tasteless. I adore a good scone, and am pretty open to interpretations: round, triangular, plain, raisin, flavored, whatever. But these are just not very good. In fairness to Oceania, the raisin cookies in Barista have been excellent, though.

Lard can make for good cookies, both in flavor and texture. It's actually a key ingredient in Chinese almond cookies.