philliesphan

On our 2023 Westerdam circle cruise of Japan the menus had many of the familiar choices, but there were frequent dishes with oriental ingredients and flavors at most meals in the MDR and sometimes in the Lido. In addition, the Canaletto space hosted a Tamarind pop-up with a number of Asian influenced dishes from the regular Tamarind menu. It was held on seven of the fourteen nights. Also, the taco bar near the Dive In was converted to an Asian style noodle bar on several days. As others' have posted, for true authentic Japanese food (and other great food from around the world) there are great options in every port you visit. We also used our time in Japan before the trip in sample the local options. We had an amazing trip. Wishing you the same.

Yes. It is your choice if you want the staff to hold opened wine for you or take it for use in your cabin or another venue. Let your servers know of the gadget you want to use so they don't seal it with something else.

Not accurate unless you don't consider Oceania and Azamara to be American cruise lines. Both lines refitted older ships from other lines more recently than 2002, most recently in 2022.

I believe that during it's December, 2023 drydock Zuiderdam's Tasman Room was redone as a Library similar to the one on Westerdam.

Unfortunately, there is no authentic or authoritative definition of "Delmonico Steak". The term was first used around 1837 to refer to the featured steak at the Delmonico Restaurant. Unfortunately, there is no written documentation of what cut of meat was used for that steak. Delmonico's is still in business and on their menu a Delmonico steak is a boneless ribeye, and many places serving a "Delmonico" also use boneless ribeye. But not everyone does, sometimes using any beef from the rib, short loin, or even the chuck eye. A now long retired third generation butcher I bought from for years sold bone-in and boneless ribeye and a cut he called Delmonico. He claimed his father and grandfather taught him the technique and it was similar to what Delmonico's Restaurant used. His cut included only the main center muscle (ligmissimus dorsi) of the ribeye. He trimmed off the ribeye cap (spinalis dorsi), all connective material, and the larger pieces of external or intervening fat. This left a very tender steak that, because of the nice internal marbling, remained juicy and had great taste. I don't know if HAL or anyone else goes to this effort for their "Delmonico Steak", but the center piece of a ribeye is what I think of as a Delmonico.

Yes. On the recent Grand Africa they had both dressy and formal nights. I was curious as to the difference, but the updated Know Before You Go (KBYG) spells it out. Not sure if we will see "formal nights" on shorter cruises, but HAL seems to be thinking of having them on longer cruises, or at least the Grands.