LIVE from the Edge - Alaska Dawes Glacier B2Bs May 24-June 7

[SerraG]

1 hour ago, Georgia_Peaches said:

 I’m glad I didn’t complain 😳 would have been embarrassing to learn the info was on the other side lol.

 

I just assumed you hadn't even been given the sample form at all.  Interestingly, I only saw the front side (with the instruction letter) at first, so I struggled to fill out the real form without an example.  Ross was like, "There is an example of how to do it," and showed me the back.  I am guessing a lot of people missed half the info because of the double-sided printing. lol. 

[SerraG]

Juneau Again

 

Since we didn’t have an excursion in Juneau this week, we decided to walk around downtown.  There is a tent set up at the top of the ramp from the ship with shuttles that run into town every 10-15 minutes.

 

 

It is a very quick ride to town, maybe 5 minutes.

 

 

 

We did not go in, but I took a photo of the Famous Red Dog Saloon.

 

 

We found a store selling post cards and then went into a little coffee shop for a bit so I could fill them out to send to people back home.  If you need to mail something from Juneau, there is a cute little store called Kindred Post on Franklin Street, which sells stamps and stationary, etc and will mail things out for you.

 

 

 

We thought this sign outside a bar was very funny.  Other people were stopping to take photos of it too. 

 

 

 

About this time, we decided to make our way to the original Tracy’s Crab Shack for a king crab leg.  There is a Tracy’s by the pier, but we had visited the original on our first trip to Juneau and we wanted to go back there.   It was about 10-15 minute walk from where the shuttle drops you off downtown.

 

 

 

Us at the original Tracy’s back in 2011:

 

 

 

We placed our order at one shack and then got a number.  We found a picnic table in a large tent and waited for someone to bring us our crab.  When the server brings an order into the tent, they yell out the name and home town of the person who ordered it. It's a lot of fun to hear where everyone is from.

 

 

 

 

There was a great view of the Edge from Tracy’s, too.

 

 

After our “snack”, we walked back through town stopping at Taku to buy a small assortment of canned and smoked salmon to bring to our family back in Kansas City.

 

 

 

We did not enjoy the menu at Luminae on this day last week, so we had a late dinner at the buffet after we came back from Juneau.

 

They had a special Ramen bar tonight.

 

 

 

And tasty looking cupcakes for dessert.

 

 

I ended up with Indian Food and a Caesar Salad, which is what I almost always end up getting at the buffet.  The Indian food is sooo good!

 

 

They used to have a Caesar Salad station where someone would make your salad for you, but this cruise it was “Make Your Own”.   I prefer when they make it for me because the too-small romaine lettuce bowl was almost always empty (or entirely missing) and frankly, it was just awkward to toss the salad with little tongs and serve it to myself while trying to balance my plate on the edge of the bar.

 

 

While Ross was filling his plate, a waiter came and asked me if I wanted a drink, so I ordered a sparkling water.  When Ross returned, another waiter came by and asked him what he would like.  He also asked for a sparkling water.  Then, unbeknownst to us,  Caio, our assistant waiter from Luminae, was working in the buffet and had spotted us.  He immediately brought us our usual order of sparkling waters with lime.  Of course all 3 waiters and 4 bottles of sparkling water arrived at the exact same time.  I was embarrassed, but Caio explained the situation to the other waiters and everyone had a good laugh.

 

 

I had a scoop of creamy and delicious chocolate chip cooking ice cream along with a very crispy (too crispy for my taste) peanut butter cookie.

 

 

Ross had a cream puff topped with crunchy caramel, which was good.

 

 

 

We headed back to Eden to watch the sun go down as we played Set and listened to some great live music.

 

 

 

 

Goodnight!

 

[Note:  Obviously I am a few days behind on finishing up this blog so it is not quite LIVE anymore.  I had a lot of trouble uploading photos at the start and then was without internet all day yesterday.  We are finally back home and I intended to post the rest of our trip over the next few days.  Thanks for your patience!]

 

 

 

Edited June 9 by SerraG

[Jim_Iain]

15 hours ago, Loucat said:

They do have a printed Kid's Menu in Luminae if you ask.   Also a Veterinarian Menu.

JIM-By-chance did-you mean vegetarian?

 

LOL...don't you love spell check.    Maybe they have one for Service Animals.

[raudacruise]

My favorite spell check surprise was “haggis”, I don’t remember what it replaced but really?!  Yep, Americans use “haggis” in everyday conversion.

 

Re caipirinhas, I discovered those on Equinox years ago.  Yummy.  Tracking down cachaça can be a challenge for the bartender and some bartenders have no idea what a caipirinha is.  Once I ordered one at the pool bar.  After confirming that the bartender knew how to make one, he asked if I wanted vodka, gin or rum.  After I pointed out the nearby cachaça bottle he took a tall glass and filled it with ice and straight cachaça.  Fail.

[SerraG]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SerraG]

Skagway Part Deux

 

We woke up to a sunny day in Skagway.

 

 

We didn’t have an excursion booked so we just headed into town to wander around.   There is a shuttle from the ships to the rail depot.  The train used to stop right in front of the cruise ships, but there was a landslide a couple of years ago and now the train stops farther back.  They do not allow anyone to walk next to the mountain.  It looked like they were still installing netting and a wall to try to mitigate the issue.

 

 

We had such a good meal at the Skagway Fish Co last week, that we stopped in again for lunch today.

 

 

The only available table was outside and we took it.  It was a gorgeous day and a gorgeous view of the mountains.

 

 

 

We split an appetizer of Sautéed Clams.

 

Great dish!  The clams themselves were tiny, but had a nice flavor.  The broth was garlicky and slightly spicy and was served with thin slices of crispy toast for dipping.   I did get a couple pieces of sand in the clams.

 

I got the Fried Halibut Fish and Chips.

 

 

It maybe doesn't look like much, but it was great - some of the best fried fish I’ve ever had from a restaurant!  (My dad's fried crappie is still better!)   The batter was slightly sweet and super crispy.  The halibut was hot and tender.  Perfectly cooked.  The fries were unremarkable.

 

Ross couldn’t resist the lure of another crab leg. lol.

 

 

 

He loved it.  We thought this crab seemed sweeter and a little less salty than that from Tracy’s yesterday.

 

After lunch, we took a walk around Skagway.  I think this may be the prettiest Alaskan port, or maybe we just keep lucking out with great weather here.

 

 

 

 

Pulled Creek Shoreline Park has a nice path through it and informative signs posted which discuss wildlife and the history of the town and gold rush.

 

 

 

All Aboard was pretty early in Skagway (5:30pm) so it wasn't too long before we headed back to the ship.   At every port, Celebrity has set up a hot cocoa station for guests when they return to the ship, which is a very nice touch.

 

 

 

We went to Eden to watch the sail away while we played an Escape Room In A Box that we had brought with us.

 

 

 

The not so comfortable chairs at least made for a fun photo frame.

 

 

Around this time, Captain Matt made his announcements and warned us that tomorrow would be quite rough starting around 5am.

 

Stunning View.  Sail Away from Ketchikan would be a very good evening to book dinner in Eden. 

 

 

 

 

 

[SerraG]

 

 

For dinner, we went to Luminae.  Last week we ate in Eden, so we hadn’t had this menu yet.

 

 

 

 

This was one of the first nights that it has been truly busy when we arrived at Luminae.  There were not a lot of tables available and we were seated in the middle of the larger back room.  This was a different and much worse experience than sitting near a window in a half-full restaurant.  I was seated back-to-back with a large and slightly rowdy group which made it very difficult for Ross and me to hold a conversation.  I am surprised Luminae hasn’t installed some sort of baffling between some of the tables in here to help dampen the sound.

 

As soon as we were seated, our sommelier, Melvin, came over and proudly announced that they had finally acquired the ingredients required to make the Ultraviolet cocktail that we had been requesting since we arrived.

 

 

It was really good, just sweet enough with a lovely violet floral note. [Cocktail Rating: 7.5/10]

 

The amuse bouche was a Pea Panna Cotta with Crab Topping.

 

 

Ross said, “This is what I imagine organic baby food would taste like.”  The pea panna cotta had a mealy texture and slightly bitter flavor.  The crab topping was good, but the ratio of pea mush to crab was much too high.

 

To start, we ordered a Ginger Crab Cake with Spicy Peanut Soy Sauce to share.

 

 

The crab cake was cooked well with a crispy crust and fairly strong ginger flavor.   The peanut soy sauce was a good salty accompaniment.   Although not nearly as good as the giant “pile of crab” that is served as a crab cake at Eden, we enjoyed the Asian theme.

 

For my starter, I ordered the Korean Spicy Soft Tofu Stew.

 

 

The soup actually had a bit of spicy heat to it, with a recognizably Korean taste.  I liked it.  But!!  There was a raw egg in it.  (See yellow blob in the upper right side of the photo.)  A raw egg that didn’t really get cooked enough in the hot broth to make it not raw.  It just seems like this should have been mentioned in the description.

 

Ross ordered the Beetroot Cured Tuna Ingot with Roasted Beets and Ponzu Gel

 

 

We were surprised by how large this appetizer was.  There was maybe a 4 oz chunk of tuna on the plate.  It was a little stringy.  The flavor was good, but it probably would have been better if they had cured smaller pieces of fish.  It was so large that none of the beetroot flavor was really able to permeate through to the inside of the tuna.

 

For my main dish, I ordered the Seared Black with Asparagus and Shiitake Dumpling.

 

 

The bass was served with sugar snap peas instead of asparagus.  As stated there was only one small shiitake dumpling, which had a slightly sweet flavor and a nice thin wrapper.   The fish had a crisp skin, but a definite fish flavor.  It was served over a rich mushroom consommé

 

Roasted Lamb Loin with Sausage, Cucumber and Herb Yogurt

 

 

 

Ross thinks this lamb was one of the best things he had in Luminae.  It was cooked really well, very tender and juicy.

 

Right before dessert, there was a rumor of a whale sighting which sent some of the staff to the windows before the Maitre'd arrived and they scattered.  🙂

 

 

For dessert, Ross ordered the Vacherin with Orange Blossom Cream and Strawberry Sorbet

 

 

Both the cream and sorbet were good.  The meringue pieces added some nice texture but were very sweet.

 

I had the Raspberry Hibiscus with Yuzu, White Chocolate, Snow and Hibiscus Sorbet

 

 

The raspberry hibiscus disc in the center was a little too heavy on the gelatin for my taste, but the items along the side:  the yuzu(?) cubes, white chocolate cream, raspberries and merigue kisses, were fantastic.

 

And we split a Dark Chocolate Ganache with Short Bread, Cherry Foam and Mandarin Gel.

 

 

 

The chocolate ganache was chocolate ganache. Meh.  It was best eaten with some of the other items on the plate.  The cherry foam had a nice tart fruity flavor but was very solid, so probably high in gelatin and not really a foam at all.  The manderin gel was very tasty.

 

As we were getting ready to leave, Caio asked us if we were interested in a special Eden Seafood Lunch tomorrow.  We were not, but here is a photo of the menu:

 

 

 

After dinner, we wanted to try to get my favorite Marrakesh Mule from the Sunset Bar.  It was cold and the wind was whipping fiercely.

 

 

We just caught the bartenders as they were closing up.

 

 

 

 

We took our drink back to Eden to listen to some music.  The band, Acoustic Experience,  had the crowd on their feet!

 

 

Goodnight!

 

 

Edited June 10 by SerraG

[SerraG]

Celebrity Today and Schedule - DAY 6 | Wednesday, June 5th, 2024 | At Sea 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SerraG]

The seas were really rough this morning, by far the roughest we’ve had on either leg of the cruise.  I think the Captain said 14 foot swells, but it was hard to hear him.

 

 

 

Ross braved the rocking to get us lattes, but we mostly hung out in our cabin, reading and blogging.  Ross finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, which is such a great book, but perhaps not exactly the best reading material for a vacation. 😢

 

We did make it to Luminae for lunch.

 

 

Ross had the Baby Heirloom Tomato Salad with Basil Emulsion and Goat’s Cheese

 

 

The goat cheese and basil emulsion were very good, but the tomatoes were clearly plain old grape tomatoes. If tomatoes are supposed to be the star of a dish, then they really need to be great tasting tomatoes. 

 

There is an excessive amount of puffery on the menus which is okay, but the slightly annoying thing is that I’ve had this salad on previous cruises and it used to actually come with a variety of heirloom tomatoes.   So, they have changed the actual dish but not the menu description, which seems to be a common occurrence.

 

I started with the Chilled Pea and Mint Soup with Green Apple and Pickled Rhubarb.

 

 

This came with beets instead of pickled rhubarb, but I enjoyed it.  There was a little bit of a gritty texture, but it did have lovely subtle mint flavor.  Can one actually get pea soup smooth?  

 

For Ross’s entree, he ordered the Pan Roasted Bronzino with Smoked Potato Creme and Tomatoes.

 

 

Again, a nice fish dish.  We liked the peeled tomatoes and the sauce was especially smooth.

 

When I ordered the Butternut Squash Risotto, I was warned that it was “al denté” and I ordered it anyway.

 

 

No surprise, the texture would probably have been better described as undercooked rather than al denté.  The risotto did have a nice nutty flavor, but the chunks of squash and pancetta were very large.   I think if I served this to my family for dinner, I would have apologized when I placed it on the table, one of those, “Sorry, dinner didn’t turn out tonight but that’s what we have to eat,” sort of evenings. lol.

 

For dessert, Ross had the Apricot Basil Pain de Genes with Basil Cream.

 

 

I think Pain de Genes is supposed to be an almond cake, but this was like a piece of plain bread.  The apricots were okay, but everything else was bland, with no basil flavor.   It definitely looked better than it tasted. 

 

And the rice pudding tasted better than it looked!

 

.

 

They should have cooked the risotto rice as much as the rice pudding rice.  lol.  This was very good.  The tropical pineapple went great with the sweet coconut sorbet.  Could maybe be improved by some added spice like cinnamon or cardamom though.

 

After lunch we headed to Cafe al Baccio for some tea and to finish up our Escape Room game from yesterday.

 

 

There were a few  other tables of game players there, some playing Uno and one group playing a travel version of Settlers of Catan.

 

This ship was still rocking and rolling, so it was no surprise when Dominic, the cruise director, came on the announcements and said that they were canceling the production show, Kaleidoscope, for the evening.  It was being moved to tomorrow, but since that is both a port evening in Victoria and the night before disembarkation, I can’t imagine it will be well attended.

 

It was the second evening chic night, so we went back to the room to change and then thought we’d hang out in Eden.  It was fairly crowded, but we found a table.

 

 

We tried a few passed hor d’oevers.

 

 

Both the carrot sushi, and mozzarella-tomato bite were pretty good.  I originally thought the other piece was an olive tapenade, but it turned out to be a giant football of pureed fig.  It was like a mouthful of the innards from a Fig Newton atop a plain mini-wheat cereal biscuit.  I had trouble getting it down.

 

Eden was becoming uncharacteristically  loud so we headed up to the Retreat Lounge for little more sedate atmosphere before dinner.

 

[SerraG]

We made our way to Luminae for our last Chic Night dinner of the cruise.

 

I ordered another Ultraviolet and Ross ordered a Vanilla Mojito, but we didn’t think either of them were as good as normal because they weren’t as sweet as we like them.  It is interesting how different some of the cocktails have been depending on who made them.

 

For our amuse bouche, we were served a codfish mousse which we had had before.  

 

 

This week's was a lot more liquid than mousse. 

 

I knew I did not want the practically unseasoned Pig’s Foot Carpaccio that I’d had last week, so I tried the Chilled Corn Soup, which is one of the Daniel Boulud Signatures that is available every evening.

 

 

Wow!  I wish I had gotten this earlier.  It was great with a subtle-sweet corn flavor and very thinly cut strips of fried shallot as garnish.  It had really nicely developed layers of flavor.

 

For his starter, Ross ordered the Octopus Shell Pasta Salad with Salmon Roe.

 

 

This was okay, but a little boring.  We felt like if it would have been much better if it had actually had been topped with some plump salty salmon roe as advertised (instead of the teeny-tiny smelt roe).  (I will note that @Georgia_Peaches said she loved this in one of her posts.)

 

For my main, I ordered the Slow Roasted Cornish Hen with Wild Mushroom Purée.

 

 

I think the lattice object on top was made out of potato.  I had expected a whole (or half) game hen, but got three small pieces hidden under the potato fence: maybe a drumstick, a thigh and part of a the breast?  They were very small and ever so slightly dry, but had a nice flavor.  

 

Ross ordered the Seared Scallops with Salsify Purée and Black Truffles

 

 

These were great.  A really nicely composed dish, although I still think the scallops could have used more of a seared crust on them.

 

Since it was lobster night, we split a plate of lobster too.  Ciara recommended that we have it plain with warm butter on the side so that’s what we did.

 

 

Reasonably sweet meat if a little bit mushy.  We much preferred this simple preparation with butter instead of on top of the quinoa and edamame from last week.

 

 

Ross had the “Luminae” Baked Alaska

 

 

Very good as usual.  I get the feeling this is one of the most popular desserts as I saw it all over the dining room.  Ross loves it

 

However, I actually prefer the Coconut Tapioca and ordered it again this week.

 

 

I just love the tart sorbet with the chewy coconut flavored tapioca.  Yum!

 

After dinner we went to see Monique Marvez’s adult (18+) comedy show.  She was very good and had some accurate insights about men and women and relationships, and a few heartfelt moments.   There were a couple of jokes that were repeats from her earlier (family friendly) show, but we still liked her show.

 

 

 

We hit the Martini bar and I got a Lavender Lemon Drop Martini and Ross got a Lemon Basil-Ade, which we took to Eden where we closed out the night listening to Acoustic Experience.

 

 

I saw a kid playing with one of the ducks I had hidden last week and it made me very happy.  🙂

 

There were several people still dancing in the Club when we peeked in on our way to bed around midnight.

 

 

 

Edited June 11 by SerraG

[Cruise a holic]

We sailed to Alaska in August- weather was perfect!  We also sailed out of Vancouver which was beautiful.  

[RK-NC]

8 hours ago, SerraG said:

I tried the Chilled Corn Soup, which is one of the Daniel Boulud Signatures that is available every evening.

 

Lots of cold soup in Luminae...they should serve hot soup in Alaska! I'm a pretty avid home cook and make a lot of (hot!) soups in the fall and winter. Have never understood chilled soup.

 

Yellow corn soup at Cosmopolitan was one of my favorites on Beyond in April.

 

 

[SerraG]

4 hours ago, RK-NC said:

Yellow corn soup at Cosmopolitan was one of my favorites on Beyond in April.

 

Was that version warm?

 

It didn't bother me that the Luminae version was chilled, but I see your point about serving warm soups in Alaska!  I'm sure the chilled versions are much easier to prepare ahead and serve.  

[RK-NC]

32 minutes ago, SerraG said:

Was that version warm?

 

Yes. I wonder if it could be the same soup served 2 different ways?  I really enjoyed the presentation with the popcorn/sesame seed "stick" on top. We had several different soups in various dining venues and all were very good! 

 

I am wondering about your food and writing background....I have enjoyed your descriptions. Do you do a lot of dining out? cooking? We both enjoying cooking, dining and trying new dishes but Luminae was just not our thing....just a bit too posh I guess.

[SerraG]

2 hours ago, RK-NC said:

Yes. I wonder if it could be the same soup served 2 different ways?  I really enjoyed the presentation with the popcorn/sesame seed "stick" on top. We had several different soups in various dining venues and all were very good! 

 

I am wondering about your food and writing background....I have enjoyed your descriptions. Do you do a lot of dining out? cooking? We both enjoying cooking, dining and trying new dishes but Luminae was just not our thing....just a bit too posh I guess.

 

 

That popcorn is a cute touch for a garnish on corn soup. lol.  I agree that, in general, Celebrity's soups are great.  The only one that I really felt wasn't good was the Borscht Short Rib Soup on the Luminae embarkation lunch menu.

 

As for writing, I like to blog about our family's travels and then turn that into books for us to look through later.  I've created several custom books (using shutterfly or mixbook) that way and it is so great to be able to look through them and remember our previous trips.  And for several years, I also ran a blog about educational activities to do with little kids.

 

Obviously we like food a lot.  We enjoy dining out, but don't really do it very much unless we are traveling.  We probably eat out 1-2 times per week, but that includes fast food / lunches, too.  We've lived in Chicago and Boston and I've eaten in some great restaurants while traveling, but Kansas City has a better food scene that you might expect for a smaller city. 🙂

 

I have always liked cooking so I make dinner for us almost every night.  And I like trying new things.  I subscibe to Cook's Illustrated and am always trying to perfect my own recipes, so I'm sure my food reviews are more critical than an average cruiser. lol.  

Edited June 11 by SerraG

[critic2023]

Thank you for all the updates! I have enjoyed following this thread.

 

I posted a separate topic on this, but I figured I'd ask here as well since you're on the ship - how has the wifi been? I bought the premium package and need to attend a Zoom call at some point while we're at sea. I've had good luck with premium wifi on Celebrity before but I know it can be spotty in some locations.

[RK-NC]

@SerraG Maybe a future in food writing?!? I also enjoy America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated - I like their technique and science focused approach to cooking. 

[cruisetonowhere10]

4 minutes ago, RK-NC said:

@SerraG Maybe a future in food writing?!? I also enjoy America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated - I like their technique and science focused approach to cooking. 

Me too!  If you like to cook it’s sometimes hard to eat out.  I find sometimes I say, “Well, I could’ve done that better for far less.” That being said, sometimes I just need a break from the breakfast/lunch/dinner cooking scene. 😂

[SerraG]

2 hours ago, critic2023 said:

I posted a separate topic on this, but I figured I'd ask here as well since you're on the ship - how has the wifi been? I bought the premium package and need to attend a Zoom call at some point while we're at sea. I've had good luck with premium wifi on Celebrity before but I know it can be spotty in some locations.

 

Most of the time, the wi-fi was excellent.  At the beginning, I was trying to upload a bunch of full sized photos from my iPhone and it felt like I got throttled.  Not sure if the wi-fi was actually the issue.  I started transferring the photos from my phone to my laptop and down-sizing them before uploading to cruise critic and that seemed to solve it.

 

My husband took a voice call over teams in the middle of our sea day.  He received video but was not sending any.  It went fairly well, but he did get told he was breaking up a couple of times.  

 

Hope that helps!

[SerraG]

DAY 7 | Thursday, June 6th, 2024 | Victoria, British Columbia 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SerraG]

This was our last cruise day before disembarkation, which always makes the day a little bitter-sweet.  The ship still had a bit of motion, but the seas had definitely calmed down significantly.  The weather was lovely.

 

 

 

We puttered around a bit this morning, having lattes for breakfast and discussing what we wanted to do.  We decided that we’d like go to Le Grand Bistro again for lunch since they had lamb shank on special today.  I checked the Celebrity app, but there were no reservations available.  Since we’d had a little trouble with our reservations last week, I wasn’t sure if there really weren’t any seats left or if the app just wasn’t showing them.

 

We discussed just waiting until Le Bistro opened and going down to talk to the Maitre’d, but - and this is where I think being in a suite really came in handy -  I texted Push, our butler, and asked if he could make the reservations for us.   After a few moments Push replied that there were no tables left, but there was going to be a special Rooftop Garden Grill lunch menu being served in Fine Cut today if we wanted to go there instead.  I declined and thanked him for trying.

 

Not 5 minutes later, our phone rang.  Push had managed to get us a table after all.  The only issue was that we had to eat at 1pm and there was going to be a group of children coming into the restaurant at 1:30pm.  “No problem!”

 

 

 

Here is a view of Le Grand Bistro’s menu board and display case full of pastries.  You can order these items “to go” during their open hours (about 12-1:30pm) which isn’t very long.

 

 

 

 

This time, we got a lovely window seat.

 

 

Ross ordered a L’Aperitif.

 

 

It was nice and light, mildly bubbly.  A great drink. [Cocktail Rating: 7.5/10]

 

I ordered the Lemonade Provençal that they hadn’t been able to make last week.

 

 

This tasted like straight lemon juice and gin.  There was definitely no lavender flavor.  Maybe it was made incorrectly?  The ingredients list doesn’t say simple syrup or sugar, but with the word “lemonade” in the title, I would have expected a modicum of sweetness. [Cocktail Rating: 2/10]

 

I started with the Pâté de Campagne which is a pork terrine served with mustard, chutney and pickles.

 

 

I liked this a lot, but it might be an acquired taste.  I generally like smoother pâtés, but I’ve learned that the Pâté de Campagne has a chunkier texture.  The homemade broccoli chutney was excellent, with just the right amount of sourness to complement the pâté.

 

Ross ordered the Chévre Crêpe, which is a crepe filled with goat cheese.

 

 

Ross liked this.  He thought the actual crêpe was very thin and the goat cheese filling was appropriately tangy and went well with the tomato coulis.

 

I ordered the Baby Arugula Salad.

 

 

I was surprised by the fried goat cheese croquettes on it, which weren't mentioned in the menu description.  They were large but tasty.  A very nice salad.

 

Ross ordered the Lobster Bisque with Puff Pastry.

 

 

This is a really spectacular soup, but it was a little difficult to eat.   Are you supposed to remove the puff pastry to a plate first?  The puff pastry was flaky and delicious, but the star was definitely the soup, which had tons of rich lobster flavor, a hint of tarragon, maybe some sherry?   It was not overly creamy like a lot of bisques can be.  Definitely get this if you like lobster bisque.

 

For my main, I couldn’t resist getting the Wild Mushroom Tart again.

 

 

This is really one of my favorite things on the ship.  So savory and creamy in its crispy crust.  Perfection.

 

Ross ordered the Thursday special of Lamb Shank Bourguignon in a Red Wine Jus with Potatoes, Leeks and Mushrooms.

 

 

Ross has declared this his favorite dish of the cruise.   The meat was fall apart tender and had a great (not-too-strong) lamb flavor.  The sauce had a distinct red wine essence, which was so much better than the generic “brown sauce” many of the dishes in Luminae seemed to be served with.

 

 

We ordered lattes to go with our dessert and they were beautiful. 

 

 

Neither of us loved our desserts last week (Creme brûlée and Profiteroles) so both got something new this time.  Ross ordered the Floating Island which is a mound of meringue in a creme anglaise sauce.

 

 

Very good.  I would have liked to drink a little cup of that créme Anglaise, so sweet and vanilla-y.   

 

I ordered the Apple Tartin which was great.  The apples were exactly the right tartness and the caramel sauce was delicious - if only there would have been a bit more of the sauce to go with all those apples!

 

 

As we were leaving, it looked like waiters were setting the tables for a showing of Le Petit Chef and we noticed about 15 children and their parents gathered around the entrance to Le Grand Bistro.  It was approaching 2:30pm when we left so I think there may have been some confusion about what time the children were actually going to eat.  I still don't know if it was a Kid's Club activity or maybe someone's birthday party?

 

Overall, I think Le Grand Bistro might be our favorite specialty restaurant, especially for the price, which I think was about $30 per person.  If you want to go somewhere a little extra special for lunch, this is a great option. 

Edited June 12 by SerraG

[Brentm77]

Do you mind if I ask, on the last sea day, would I miss good scenery if I do a ship tour at 10:00 am, or is it in open ocean and/or areas that aren't a place you would sit and enjoy the view for long periods?  I have always wanted to do the behind the scenes ship tour, but would prioritizing seeing more on this unique cruise. 

[SerraG]

46 minutes ago, Brentm77 said:

Do you mind if I ask, on the last sea day, would I miss good scenery if I do a ship tour at 10:00 am, or is it in open ocean and/or areas that aren't a place you would sit and enjoy the view for long periods?  I have always wanted to do the behind the scenes ship tour, but would prioritizing seeing more on this unique cruise. 

 

IIRC, the last sea day is mostly just ocean.  I don't think you will miss much scenery if you do a ship tour.  In my opinion, the very best views were during evening we sailed away from Skagway, but the beautiful weather might have played a role in that.

 

[Risuena]

It's been great reading your blog. We were on the cruise with you for the first week (May 24 to 31) with 2 adult sons, their wives, and a four-year - old grandson. We loved the cruise. However, unfortunately, our grandson developed croup the 4th day (great help from the onboard doctor) and four of the seven of us tested positive for Covid the day after disembarking. We were wondering if anyone else on that sailing did as well? We have sailed 70+ days over the last 18 months, but this was the largest ship and first time getting Covid. It hasn't deterred us though! We are B2B on the Eclipse in November. Happy sailings to all! 

[SerraG]

2 hours ago, Risuena said:

However, unfortunately, our grandson developed croup the 4th day (great help from the onboard doctor) and four of the seven of us tested positive for Covid the day after disembarking. We were wondering if anyone else on that sailing did as well?

 

Coincidentally (or maybe not coincidentally), I just tested positive for Covid.  I started feeling a little sniffly on Saturday, the day after we got home, so not sure if I would have picked it up during that first week. I am not feeling too badly, but wanted to test before I went to visit my elderly parents. 

Edited June 13 by SerraG