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Was the salmon not available on Gala night? I had that one evening on our Bermuda cruise in May but it wasn’t on a Gala night.

Our server mentioned the "salmon is always available" only after we had already gone through the sole and the stuffed shells. At that point, I wasn't focused on the food that was available (as much as I was focused on my company [emoji7] ). Of course, I wouldn't have known how mediocre the sole and stuffed shells were until I had tried them... Chicken and egg (pardon the mixed metaphor). There was also a risotto available. If I was so inclined I probably would have tried that next.

 

UPDATED: I am reminded that my spouse actually had the salmon at lunch on embarkation day and it was, indeed, excellent.

 

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Frederick Sound

 

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A note about the Christian inspiration cruise group aboard Nieuw Amsterdam this week... While they are clearly here, we haven't noticed any impact on our cruise.

 

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With regard to seafood, I'll try to keep an eye out for other MDR menus this week but I have one here from late May and they had halibut as well as sole on the same night... And that wasn't a gala night. Sole is generally sold into less lucrative markets for a reason. It's considered to be a lesser fish than salmon, halibut, sea bass, etc. And it's preparation last night was so paradoxically poor as compared to the beef, lamb, and duck dishes on this silver gala menu that it just screams, "mistake," to me. I think the takeaway for me isn't that they can't do seafood but rather this specific (silver gala) menu is flawed.

 

Maybe the chef/buyer meant yellow fin tuna rather than yellow fin sole, but auto correct messed things up. :)

 

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We've seen some glimpses of what could someday be good vegetarian options. After trying to eat at the Lido for lunch yesterday and being unable to find a seat, we went down to the Neptune lounge. There I had a very nice orzo and lentil dish. Balanced, well-seasoned, and exactly what a vegetarian would be looking for for a light, summer lunch. In the Lido itself there were some small plates with grilled eggplant (and prosciutto, but let's say they replace that with a side of mozzarella); I didn't have a chance to taste but it sure looked good. And Indian options are available on request; I hope to have a chance to try that out.

 

 

 

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Chatham Strait

 

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The other offerings were, for folks who eat beef, lamb or duck. It seems to me that they are lagging with regard to what people prefer, favoring the older favorites even when more and more of their passengers have diverse tastes. There are signs that they are evolving to what we prefer, but the beige stage show and MDR menus still are somewhat stuck in the past.

 

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We went to the show tonight. They had me strung along until they started singing about how Mt. Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus over the Serengeti. In a show about 80s cheesy classics it might fit, but in a show ostensibly about the world, it's hard to overlook the combination of geographical corruption* and excessive beigeness. They managed to pull me back in with Imagine but I think they lost the rest of the audience. I think it is impossible to come up with entertainment that truly would appeal to a big enough swath of today's more diverse passengers.

 

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* Kilimanjaro is about 150 miles from the Serengeti. Even if view of it wasn't blocked by several other large mountains, it would still be over two times beyond the horizon.

The Pinnacle Grill has done a better job with that so far. Tamarind tomorrow.

 

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Are there one or two Gala nights on your cruise? I read a post the other day that said one night on a 7 or less night HAL cruise. Our Nieuw Amsterdam cruise will be in the Caribbean. DH and I don't plan to get very dressed up for Gala night. Please report back on what you observe with yours. When we took an Alaskan cruise, the passengers dressed very casual the entire cruise. I'd say that DH and I were some of the better dressed onboard that cruise. ;)

Just back from first gala. Second will be Wednesday.

 

Men wore 75% dark suits, 10% sport jackets and slacks, 15% no jacket no tie. I saw no one with tie but no jacket. I saw one tux. That was upstairs. Anytime dining, downstairs, was a bit more casual than that.

 

Food was disappointing. It was competently prepared I suppose but some really bad ideas. Sole (a bad choice to start with) was battered with a tasteless coating. No one could possibly think it was a good choice. I ate around it. My server noticed and convinced me to try the stuffed shells. Bleh. Stuffed shells and sole is what they think is on par with the meat-based gala options like rack of lamb, tenderloin and duck breast? Seems like someone doesn't like vegetarians and fish-eaters. :)

 

Also, everything was under-flavored, under-seasoned. They really need the America's Test Kitchen host to teach the chefs how to create flavor in their food. Of course, I am being facetious: They are under-flavoring the food deliberately, to appeal to pedestrian palates in the MDR.

 

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Missed the early shift for lunch today so thought we would go a 1:30, just a half hour before they close many of the lunch stations. Not a single table to be had. Luckily, we were able to graze a little on the tidbits laid out in the Neptune lounge. No idea what others would have done.

 

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Really entertaining and informative demo this morning using local, wild salmon.

 

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After losing many post on CC, I now click Copy on any long post before submitting. That way I can start over and just hit Paste. ;)

In my case Android crashed without warning. :(

 

 

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How much might they discount PG for PCCs to help fill it on first nights? (The place was mostly empty when we arrived and left.)

 

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There is very little priority in the embarkation process. Everyone is put in together, and there is only one spot where we had a separate line, at check in itself. Since we were early it didn't provide any advantage since there were non priority check in status waiting for guests at the time.

 

We checked in at 9:30am when they opened and then had a half hour wait before security opened. We ended up waiting down by security. Bad idea. It's frenetic down there with people disembarking, and there is a lot of car exhaust.

 

Once security opened at 10:00 we went straight through. Again starting early meant no lines. From there we ended up going from one waiting area to a second waiting area. We were aboard by about 11:10 or so.

 

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Did the post you lost contain the check-in process and room impressions?

Yes.

 

We stayed overnight in the Pan Pacific. It's a typical touristy faux-luxury hotel, playing off its location to exact a high premium and then follow up with loads of high cost extras. Nothing surprising about it for the well informed.

 

We had breakfast at Oceans 999 about 8am. Nice spread! Pricey, of course, but again nothing surprising about that.

 

The Holland America rep took her place in the lobby by 8:30. She's there until 10:30 to take people's room numbers and number of checked bags for the included porterage service. After that she would escort us all down to the port.

 

We decided to take ourselves down to the port though. (More)

 

 

 

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Current location.

 

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Though crappy quality, this tablet can take some photos.

 

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Our PCC gifted us with dinner at the Pinnacle Grill last night. It was quite nice. They seated us by a window and we were ably served. (I am not impressed though with the choice to put the nicest restaurant so low on the ship where the windows are always dirty with sea schmutz.)

 

The amuse bouche was creative, if not especially good. Nice try! The crab cakes appetizer was good; lots of crab and very little breading and binder. They didn't hold together, but who cares? I do wish they hadn't waterlogged them though. My spouse had the lobster bisque and enjoyed it quite a bit.

 

We both had King crab for our mains. It is likely my only crab of the trip so worthwhile despite other choices available. It was well done and hit the spot. I think meat eaters though would want to make some other choice. There are better options for crab along this journey.

 

For dessert I had the souffle. Really good! Creamy and just sweet enough.

 

All in all a good meal but we're still very much looking forward to our two upcoming meals at Tamarind.

 

Sorry no photos. There are so much food porn out there that we've decided to leave the camera behind while eating. Also, I cannot seem to get photos from camera to tablet so I'll have to think about other approaches to post photos.

 

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It took a while yesterday to get our stateroom attendant's attention, which is rather concerning as we are relying heavily on our Neptune suite unlimited dry cleaning and laundry privileges to make it through the week with less carried aboard. We ended up going back to the Neptune lounge and leaving a note with the concierges.

 

It seems strange though. Even they don't seem too focused. They seem to do things together so there was a wait to get some assistance from them both times we tried. Why have two if they don't split up to help two passengers?

 

Regardless, our heavily wrinkled gala wear is now in the hands of the crew. Let's hope they get back in time.

 

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I am collecting up all the paper distributed and will scan and post when I get home. Having said that the internet packages offered are the packages that have been offered on Westerdam. The internet was down until about 5pm for them to make the switchover from the old packages.

 

Also, note that travel routers work.

 

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Sorry but I just lost a pretty long post. I'll try again tomorrow.

 

Btw: Internet just switched to the unlimited three tier arrangement but the warnings people have posted about how crippled the service is did not do the problems justice.

 

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Pleasantly surprised... Our bags were picked up from our room at 9:10, before we even checked out.

 

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So far the embarkation morning process has been well organized. There is a woman seated at a Holland America desk across the lobby from the front desk. She takes your room number and number of bags to be transferred, so threat bell services can collect them and get them onto the ship. She will be here from 8:30 until 10:30 after which she will walk us all down to the port. Alternatively, we could walk ourselves down to the port at 9:30.

 

There are three ships in port; check-in is separate but US immigration and customs is combined.

 

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She has arrived!

 

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