Oysters at Seafood Shack

[Megan_Strick]

I see it says raw but will they steam them too? Also, are they still $.50/each?

[wareaglefan444]

not sure about steaming them but they were $2.50 each last week on the Valor

[ShakyBeef]

I've never heard of raw oysters being $.50 each.  Is this what Carnival used to charge for them?  That sounds crazy cheap!  I have no experience with buying them onboard a ship.  I love oysters, but wouldn't bother buying them on a cruise ship since I can't imagine they could compare to our local varieties.  Around here, they are about $2 to $3.50 each, depending on the variety.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

I've tried them onboard a couple of times - and won't bother again. First off, good luck getting saltines and cocktail sauce. Second, good luck having them seem (even close to) fresh. Perhaps it was a couple of bad weeks we tried. I'll stick with land based places and, even then, I'm eating a lot fewer raw oysters than I did in the past, probably out of concern of the quality of the water they were harvested from.

 

Tom

[ShakyBeef]

4 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

I've tried them onboard a couple of times - and won't bother again. First off, good luck getting saltines and cocktail sauce. Second, good luck having them seem (even close to) fresh. Perhaps it was a couple of bad weeks we tried. I'll stick with land based places and, even then, I'm eating a lot fewer raw oysters than I did in the past, probably out of concern of the quality of the water they were harvested from.

 

Tom

 

I gotta ask, saltines?  Is this a regional thing?  Oysters aren't served with saltines on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  Cocktail sauce, yes; hot sauce, sometimes; vinegar (in the nicer establishments), yes; straight-up horseradish, sometimes; lemon wedges as well.  But saltines?  Never seen this.

 

ETA: Do you eat them on the cracker?  We just fix them up (or not) and slurp them out of the shell.😁

Edited January 26, 2023 by ShakyBeef

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

31 minutes ago, ShakyBeef said:

 

I gotta ask, saltines?  Is this a regional thing?  Oysters aren't served with saltines on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  Cocktail sauce, yes; hot sauce, sometimes; vinegar (in the nicer establishments), yes; straight-up horseradish, sometimes; lemon wedges as well.  But saltines?  Never seen this.

 

ETA: Do you eat them on the cracker?  We just fix them up (or not) and slurp them out of the shell.😁

 

Absolutely regional. I started my oyster eating days in the Florida panhandle. Every dive had the same gear. For me: 1 hot cocktail drenched oyster per cracker.  🙂

[mz-s]

I ate a raw oyster exactly one time and I poured it from the shell onto a saltine, hit it with some lemon juice, and ate it.

 

Once was enough for me!

[CaptG]

10 hours ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

Absolutely regional. I started my oyster eating days in the Florida panhandle. Every dive had the same gear. For me: 1 hot cocktail drenched oyster per cracker.  🙂

Same for me. Sometimes I doctor them up with a bit of horseradish too...yum yum lol

[EngIceDave]

I don't like them because I fear them.

How fresh can they be on a week long cruise? They have an oyster farm on board? 

Have to be a day or two once placed on board in a fridge in a tub.

[CaptG]

22 minutes ago, EngIceDave said:

I don't like them because I fear them.

How fresh can they be on a week long cruise? They have an oyster farm on board? 

Have to be a day or two once placed on board in a fridge in a tub.

 

They say to only eat oysters in months that have an "r" in them. I'm a big fan of oysters though I've never had them on board a cruise ship. We do buy them by the bushel sack occasionally and it may take a couple days to go through them but as long as they're kept cold they're fine.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

2 hours ago, CaptG said:

Same for me. Sometimes I doctor them up with a bit of horseradish too...yum yum lol

 

Yep !
 

When I said "hot cocktail (sauce) drenched", I probably should have said "extra horseradish added". We actually bring along our own horseradish for use on steaks/prime rib, and to jazz up the cocktail sauce which comes with shrimp cocktail.  🙂

 

 

Tom

[CaptG]

Years ago the Conquest Class ships had that included seafood spot in the aft section of the ship above the Lido deck. They had a few different offerings and one was fried oysters and they were delicious! Wish they still had that option. I had them several times on the Freedom and Glory and always enjoyed them.

[ShakyBeef]

2 minutes ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

Yep !
 

When I said "hot cocktail (sauce) drenched", I probably should have said "extra horseradish added". We actually bring along our own horseradish for use on steaks/prime rib, and to jazz up the cocktail sauce which comes with shrimp cocktail.  🙂

 

 

Tom

 

I've got wasabi on my packing list for this upcoming cruise to turn my mashed potatoes in the Steakhouse into the now-missing wasabi mashed potatoes.😁

[ShakyBeef]

18 minutes ago, CaptG said:

Years ago the Conquest Class ships had that included seafood spot in the aft section of the ship above the Lido deck. They had a few different offerings and one was fried oysters and they were delicious! Wish they still had that option. I had them several times on the Freedom and Glory and always enjoyed them.

Loved that place!  DH loved the bouillabaisse, DDs and I loved the ahi on watermelon and fish & chips.😋

Edited January 27, 2023 by ShakyBeef
left out word

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

6 minutes ago, CaptG said:

Years ago the Conquest Class ships had that included seafood spot in the aft section of the ship above the Lido deck. They had a few different offerings and one was fried oysters and they were delicious! Wish they still had that option. I had them several times on the Freedom and Glory and always enjoyed them.

 

Yep - they've replaced that now with the BBQ place. The BBQ place is hit or miss. I did prefer the fish-n-chips and fried oysters much more.

 

Tom

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

4 minutes ago, ShakyBeef said:

 

I've got wasabi on my packing list for this upcoming cruise to turn my mashed potatoes in the Steakhouse into the now-missing wasabi mashed potatoes.😁

 

We ate there all 4 nights of our Christmas sailing, and I asked if they could add the wasabi to mine - it wasn't a problem. Perhaps if enough people made that request, it could at least return as an option... I have no interest in the mashed potatoes without it (I consider mashed potatoes "filler", but not when they're jazzed up!!)

 

Tom

[Megan_Strick]

19 hours ago, ShakyBeef said:

I've never heard of raw oysters being $.50 each.  Is this what Carnival used to charge for them?  That sounds crazy cheap!  I have no experience with buying them onboard a ship.  I love oysters, but wouldn't bother buying them on a cruise ship since I can't imagine they could compare to our local varieties.  Around here, they are about $2 to $3.50 each, depending on the variety.

Maybe so. I saw it somewhere. Probably an old price

[Megan_Strick]

14 hours ago, ShakyBeef said:

 

I gotta ask, saltines?  Is this a regional thing?  Oysters aren't served with saltines on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  Cocktail sauce, yes; hot sauce, sometimes; vinegar (in the nicer establishments), yes; straight-up horseradish, sometimes; lemon wedges as well.  But saltines?  Never seen this.

 

ETA: Do you eat them on the cracker?  We just fix them up (or not) and slurp them out of the shell.😁

I live in South Georgia. We eat them with Saltines and hot sauce. Yum

[ShakyBeef]

1 minute ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

We ate there all 4 nights of our Christmas sailing, and I asked if they could add the wasabi to mine - it wasn't a problem. Perhaps if enough people made that request, it could at least return as an option... I have no interest in the mashed potatoes without it (I consider mashed potatoes "filler", but not when they're jazzed up!!)

 

Tom

 

It's good to hear that they were willing and able to add it for you.  I'll ask them to do so before I resort to whipping my own out of my evening bag.  Even when the mashed potatoes were wasabi mash, I usually had to request extra wasabi after the first bite, because the wasabi flavour was so weak as to be practically undetectable.

 

 

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

6 minutes ago, Megan_Strick said:

I live in South Georgia. We eat them with Saltines and hot sauce. Yum

 

Yeppers !!  

 

I'd guess within a certain radius of Apalachicola Bay - that's just the way you grew up!

 

Tom

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

4 minutes ago, ShakyBeef said:

 

It's good to hear that they were willing and able to add it for you.  I'll ask them to do so before I resort to whipping my own out of my evening bag.  Even when the mashed potatoes were wasabi mash, I usually had to request extra wasabi after the first bite, because the wasabi flavour was so weak as to be practically undetectable.

 

 

 

Bingo ! We'd always order the potatoes with "extra wasabi on the side"... and proceed to pour that entire little boat load into the potatoes. Have you ever heard the term "I stubbed my toe"? That applies in this case sometimes, or when you've added too much horseradish to something and flame torch your sinuses !

 

Agreed, I'd bring it along just in case! (wasabi). I was also saddened to see the bone marrow removed from the menu! 😞 

 

Tom

[Riles34]

This is the first I have ever heard about saltines! I have had them on the ships and thought they were great. Oysters last about 7 days in a dark cool fridge. Are they as fresh as walking onto the Wellfleet Mass beach? Nope. But still a nice snack on the first day! 

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

1 minute ago, Riles34 said:

This is the first I have ever heard about saltines! I have had them on the ships and thought they were great. Oysters last about 7 days in a dark cool fridge. Are they as fresh as walking onto the Wellfleet Mass beach? Nope. But still a nice snack on the first day! 

 

That was my initial thought as well, but of course that's assuming they are not trying to run through their unused inventory from the prior sailing... yikes. 

 

Now... I hope that the oysters in the steakhouse are handled differently, as I'm still going to get those periodically (Cheryl does every sailing). But, no more Seafood Shack raw oysters for me! Perhaps I'm just fooling myself!

 

Tom

[Riles34]

1 minute ago, Tom-n-Cheryl said:

 

That was my initial thought as well, but of course that's assuming they are not trying to run through their unused inventory from the prior sailing... yikes. 

 

Now... I hope that the oysters in the steakhouse are handled differently, as I'm still going to get those periodically (Cheryl does every sailing). But, no more Seafood Shack raw oysters for me! Perhaps I'm just fooling myself!

 

Tom

Fooling yourself! I have never had an issue but know you have me thinking about Day 1 leftovers....lol

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

Oh, I thought it quite funny that Cheryl sent me an image that evening (girls night out - Rusty's at Pt. Canaveral):

 

 

Looks like Saltines are "a thing" in Central Florida as well 🙂

 

Tom