Blackduck59

I did that even with the upcharge. I wouldn't order it again even if it was part of the regular Pinnacle Grill lunch menu.

I stand corrected, my beef stroganoff has paprika, it adds a nice colour. Try it you'll like it (smoked paprika is even better) 😉

Well it's beginning to be a common theme of painfully slow service in the MDR, good thing we have good conversation or it would be very aggravating. Lynn missed a presentation she wanted to attend because of the long service. Now we have to go to the later presentation of both that an Cantare unfortunately she may not last through Cantare. I don't mind leisurely dinner but it shouldn't take more than an hour.

Let the debate begin. I'm firmly in the don't order lobster roll from Pinnacle Grill camp.

Indeed there are but I think you will find most have beef, mushrooms, onions paprika and sour cream. When something is missing most of those things, it's something else.

So we just finished our Pinnacle Lunch. We both started with the prawn bruschetta (Lynn had hers altered to delete the crustini and tomatoes) she got 4 prawn, mine were served as described on the menu I hot 3 prawns. I decided to try the lobster roll complete with an $8.00 surcharge it was definitely underwhelming and not worth the tariff. I did however also try the seafood chiapino, it was really very tasty, there was quite a spicy vibe to it, I heard several comments about the spiciness. Lynn chose the burger and those who sang it's praises were correct, she enjoyed it and she let me have a try. It was good. Lynn had the orange sorbet. I chose the fresh fruit with zaballon (did I spell that right?)

Yes I'm aware of that. I did do 2 mains on the second night. Dinner service has been a little slow so ordering another dish would slow things down even more. The meal served was okay just not "Stroganoff" that I was expecting.

You have a bit of a point, the drift came from talk if lobster, I'm sorry it was confusing for you. My threads do tend to wander.

They came around the other day, we declined. It is a $35.00 tariff. I'm sure others may have ordered it but we haven't had dinner in the Lido so far. We have had some excellent table mates at dinner these last 2 nights, choosing to share a table has been good for us. I think the meals have been good in the MDR unfortunately a couple of times I have thought "I should have ordered that" when looking at some of the other main dishes served around me. I think part of it is what I may think a dish should be as opposed to what is served. The idea of "Stroganoff" to me is a beef and mushroom base in a beefy sauce with paprika and sour cream, all served on buttered broad noodles. What was served as stroganoff last night didn't resemble that. I was prepared for the "braised short ribs" part so I expected the meat to be different than my thoughts as far the meat part goes. I didn't expect to find something served on a bed of linguini with no hint of paprika, sauce or sour cream. While it was okay, it was not "Stroganoff"

We keep meeting the nicest people just by saying hello. We sent 2 bags of laundry out last night and one was back when Lynn came back from breakfast. We like the laundry service.

Huh?

Just to you know, Mic is talking about crustaceans he enjoys from the land down under. I have seen the lobster that is served for an additional fee here on the ship. It was a whole Atlantic lobster and I hope the recipient enjoyed it.

But Mic we're in the wrong neighborhood for that 🤔

Well we seem to be doing a bit of rock and rolling so we're going to hit the rack and see if we can sleep through it.

If bar service is the drill then post that at the bar and don't put drink menus on the tables. That cuts down confusion and guests are less likely to feel like they are being ignored or invisible. Put the bar menus at the bar until happy hour then take the bar service only sign down and put the menus on the tables.

Enjoy your visit, hopefully the weather gods will cooperate with you. There are quite a few food kiosks in the area close to the Sackville. Unfortunately they don't bother to open in foul weather. The girls at Cows opened though and that ice cream is marvelous, we're looking forward to more ice cream in PEI. With Dave's lobster closed due to weather I guess the lobster roll thing is another lost opportunity. Oh well 🤔.

So we are under way from Halifax, unfortunately the weather gods were not kind to us it was a rainy blustery day. We did the long walk (over a kilometer) on the boardwalk to get to HMCS Sackville, the last of the WW2 Corvettes. It was worth the walk for me, I'm not sure Lynn would agree. Those interested in Naval history should have a look, admission by donation. The ship is very close to the Martime Museum which was quite interesting and the admission was quite inexpensive. There are several very nice "Builder's Models" of some famous ships, the most impressive is the Mauritania. There is also a small Titanic exhibit. We didn't get up to the Citadel perhaps someone else on the cruise can post about that. One of our table mates at dinner enjoyed her visit to the immigration museum.

Apparently they have trivia on now 2 sessions then at 2130 hrs it's game night, followed by dance to the hits at 2200 hrs. It looks like the piano player is finished in ocean bar now and the Ocean Band is off tonight. The Mix starts the pianos sets at 2030 hrs. Apparently the classical duo played in Explorer's Lounge but there is no time listed. They are on the world stage show tonight (BBC Earth...) we'll pass on that. Actually we did a lot of walking in the pouring rain today so I think we're in our cabin for the rest of the night. Of course we lose another 1/2 hrs over night 😟. It's a sea day tomorrow, lunch at Pinnacle Grill.

We are on our way to Newfoundland as I write this, we slipped Halifax about 15 minutes ago.

I think you could probably pay the additional tariff for lobster every night on a HAL cruise and still not come close to covering the cost difference between HAL and Oceania.

Frankly we just enjoyed the dance one show as a whole and I wasn't focused on any lyrics just the impression from the overall show. We happened to be in the Crow's Nest last night (the service was good then) and the trivia started. We were on the side away form the action but we could hear the whole thing (had we played we would have done very poorly). I think we missed the early port lecture yesterday because dinner service was slow (see earlier post). Then after dinner the piano bar was more interesting than a port lecture. As it turns out anything we may have thought to do from that lecture would have been rained out today.

So we just had a disappointing experience in the Crow's Nest, we sat down and no one even came to ask if we wanted anything. After 20 minutes I went up to the bar and asked if it was table service or not, he said there was table service. I said, well we've been here 20 minutes, I sat back down and the server just kept stocking glasses. We left. We're in the Ocean Bar now, we weren't here 10 seconds and the bartender took our orders. Then about 3 minutes later drinks on the table. I have to admit there are very few people here right now but it wasn't like the Crow's Nest had a steady stream of people flowing in.

We had planned on Dave's Lobster on the boardwalk here in Halifax. Apparently they are fair weather folk because the only food kiosk at the boardwalk was Cows Ice cream. Don't miss the ice cream.

Funny thing there was a lady at the Lido yesterday that asked for a lobster roll 🤔. The guy looked at her with that "excuse me what?" Look.

Cows was the only food kiosk open on the boardwalk and your darned right we got ice cream after walking more than a kilometer to get there.