Culinary Delights of Curacao

[rae]

We are interested in this excursion offered through Celebrity in Curacao. Has anyone done this and if so - what did you think? We thought it sounded fun and it would be neat to cook "Caribbean style" for our friends and family when we get home. Thanks for all your help!

Muriel

[Lois R]

Hi,:) I was looking at this Excursion as well......wonder if anyone

has ever taken it?:eek:

[Bargeo]

We are also interested in this.........anyone????????????????

[ninnie]

Hmmmm...we are also interested. My husband cooks and I don't...might be a great learning experience! I hope someone can give feedback????

[Lois R]

Ninnie, I sail on the cruise before yours...not sure what I am going

to do yet (excursion wise)....no way for me to tell you how good

this one is..you will be boarding as I am disembarking.

 

Looks like quite a few of us like the food excursions:D

[rae]

I have looked for reviews on this particular excursion and can't find anything. We are booked on it so we will give it a try. It sounded like it would be fun. We are on the March 17th cruise on the Galaxy.

Bye for now

Muriel

[tessa_59]

We sail February 25th and I am also interested in this excursion. I can't seem to find anyone that has taken it. I would be interested in knowing what you cook. It seems all the ships are offering this as I am sailing with RCI and they have it as well. For $95 - I would want to be sure this is a good one. Plus - it is 4 hours and that is most the day that we are in port.

 

Might be interesting to do something a little different and take a break from beaches and snorkeling. :)

[Donnaluv2cruise]

That looks pretty interesting. Don't know if I'd get my other half into it, though. :rolleyes:

[Lois R]

That looks pretty interesting. Don't know if I'd get my other half into it, though. :rolleyes:

 

Hi Donna, I am probably going to do it. Would you and Tom do

different things that day? It sounds fun. I have done a couple

of culinary excursions in the past. One was FANTASTIC:D and

the other so-so.

Hopefully this would be on the fantastic end;)

[Donnaluv2cruise]

Lois,

 

Tom and I will probably go snorkeling here since it's supposed to be pretty good at this stop. The excursion sounds really interesting though, and you know how much I love to cook.

 

Donna

[Cheerysmom]

Hi - We have just booked this tour for our Jan 13 cruise ... There will be 4 of us wild and crazy women traveling together - and we all love to cook. So this will be a hoot! I will let you know how it is when we get back ...

 

Till then, Happy Sailing!

Paula

[Lois R]

Hi - We have just booked this tour for our Jan 13 cruise ... There will be 4 of us wild and crazy women traveling together - and we all love to cook. So this will be a hoot! I will let you know how it is when we get back ...

 

Till then, Happy Sailing!

Paula

 

Hi, THANK YOU:) Hope you have a wonderful time and I look

forward to reading what you have to say about this excursion:D

[tessa_59]

I am looking forward to hearing about this. DH asked me today if I would like to do it as we have not made a plan for Curacao as yet. I am keeping that slot open until we hear all about it.

 

Have a great trip!:D

 

T

[cmhcruiser]

We took this excursion two weeks ago and had a great time. Cabs took us from the dock to the house with the cooking school. We were in an excursion group of 20. The house is very nice. We ate on a covered patio outside. THere was plenty of room in the kitchen. Although new to cruise lines they have been teaching the class for locals for a number of years. We had fun cooking. We were divided in groups of 4 and given different assignments. Wine, beer and water were served. Meal was ready shortly after noon. We were done at 1:30. Our guide then walked us into town. We then enjoyed the rest of Williamstead.

 

It was different and a good time. :)

[Lois R]

We took this excursion two weeks ago and had a great time. Cabs took us from the dock to the house with the cooking school. We were in an excursion group of 20. The house is very nice. We ate on a covered patio outside. THere was plenty of room in the kitchen. Although new to cruise lines they have been teaching the class for locals for a number of years. We had fun cooking. We were divided in groups of 4 and given different assignments. Wine, beer and water were served. Meal was ready shortly after noon. We were done at 1:30. Our guide then walked us into town. We then enjoyed the rest of Williamstead.

 

It was different and a good time. :)

 

Oh they had you go in cabs? Through the cruiseline? That is different!

I sail solo..hopefully there will be a slot for me!;) :)

Glad you had a good time and thanks for the reply:)

[tessa_59]

I am curious about what you cooked? This sounds like an interesting way to spend an afternoon - I am just that picky food person :o

 

Thanks

T

[Lois R]

I am curious about what you cooked? This sounds like an interesting way to spend an afternoon - I am just that picky food person :o

 

Thanks

T

 

Hi T:) And I am just the opposite.....I will try anything once:D

and I love culinary excursions! I took one in Cozumel back in 2005 and

it was fantastic......we made a seafood dish with a mango salsa,

stuffed peppers and rice pudding! That particular excursion

was held at resort located on the beach and included all the

beverages you want (included adult ones too!). It was one

the best excursions I have ever done:)

[rae]

cmhcruiser

Thanks for responding to this thread. We have had this excursion booked for quite a while but couldn't find much for reviews on it. This really helps!!!:) We are really looking forward to it. I also like the fact that we will still have time to look around Williamstead.

Muriel

[marle7]

I took this tour while on Brilliance over the Christmas sailing. A few thoughts, from one who cooks. :)

 

The ladies who do this are very enthusiastic amateurs. They will tell you up front this is their hobby, not their profession. The owner of the house, Angelica, is actually a pharmacist.

 

There were about 30 in my group. There were no waivers to sign, somewhat surprisingly as there were (supposedly) sharp knives and hot surfaces being used.

 

There is a lovely outside patio where we began with juice and a short introduction. We then moved inside while Angelica demonstrated some of the things we'd be making. Our group was mixed with people who do cook and some who don't. This beginning time could have been better spent discussing some safety tips for holding knives etc.

 

We were divided up into groups of 5 and each of us prepared one of the dishes on the menu. I have the menu in front of me, and it went like this:

 

Tomato Cucumber Salsa

Hidden Sardines

Angelica's Plantation Soup

Jerk Chicken

Rice

Spicy Onion Dressing

Pumpkin Pancakes with Curacao Liqueur Sauce.

 

Most of the knives could have used a little more sharpening, and that's concerning, because you can cut yourself with a dull knife a lot faster than with a really sharp one. They weren't chef's knives, but she produced one for me when I asked for one.

 

We were using thin, flexible plastic cutting mats. This stuff slips when you cut on it. I suggested that we should be placing wet paper towels underneath the mats so they wouldn't slip.

 

It was a fun time, although I think a little more supervision is called for when people are handling knives. Once we got started, our group was basically on their own, and one young man (about 10) burned himself.

 

Our group made the salsa and everyone snacked on that with tortilla chips (um cheese flavoured, which no one could quite figure out why), and when all the other courses were ready, we all sat down. Wine and juice and water were served. There may have been beer, but I didn't notice. The wine was pretty good, although I can't recall what it was.

 

Everyone gets a copy of the recipes to take back with them.

 

The tour indicates you walk over and back. We were also taken over in cabs, and the tour operator was supposed to walk us back. She only took us part way, and another lady, her daughter and I ended up getting lost.

 

I like the concept of this tour, as it offers something unique and different from the usual shopping/beach/jeep excursions and I think it has great potential.

 

I chatted with Angelica afterwards for a couple of minutes and suggested a few things, (like the towels under the placemats) and we had a lovely chat. She loves to cook, and hey I'm only a skilled amateur myself! :)

 

I noted the pros and cons in a letter to RC so hopefully some things will be changed and they will keep this tour and offer more like it.

[Lois R]

Marle, thanks for such a detailed review.:)

 

It sounds a bit disorganized to me. The culinary excursion I took

in Cozumel was sooooo good.:D It was at a resort on the beach

and we had teachers who cooked for a living.

 

I appreciate the time you took to post so much information!

I think I will continue to look and find something else that

says "buy me";).

[marle7]

Thanks! I think this does have a lot of potential, and everyone seemed to have fun. The issues to address aren't insurmountable, and hey, I teach cooking, and I'm not a formally trained chef. :)

 

I was a lot more unhappy with the tour operator abandoning us partway back to the ship.

[Lois R]

Thanks! I think this does have a lot of potential, and everyone seemed to have fun. The issues to address aren't insurmountable, and hey, I teach cooking, and I'm not a formally trained chef. :)

 

I was a lot more unhappy with the tour operator abandoning us partway back to the ship.

 

Hi, that tour was almost 100.00 though.....not a good thing

to have been abandoned:eek:!

 

I gotcha..I am not formally trained either;) but for 100.00 you would

think it might have been a bit better. I don't mean to sound harsh

but that is quite a bit of $$(to me anyway).

[marle7]

I agree. I'm hoping they get the kinks worked out or can offer a comparable tour. I quite like the idea!

[Cheerysmom]

Hi there,

I also went on this excursion last week. I have the exact same comments to make as Marle had. Instead of the jerk Chicken, we made salt cod stew. I was amazed at how much salt was in all of the recipies! The stew was so salty that I had a hard time eating it. but the salsa was delicious. The pumpkin pancakes were very good. I really enjoyed the class - and enjoyed watching the goup dynamics of 40 (yes there were 40 in my class) strangers. There is always a "know-it-all" in the group - very annoying!

 

The woman who walked us back after the cooking class abandoned us, too. It is quite a long walk - and the 3 ladies I was with stopped to take a picture. When we turned around the guide was gone and we got lost. The description calls it a "short walk" - it was not short - probably a 1/2 mile???? On a very hot day . . with one of the people who had a knee brace. We would have hailed a taxi but there were none around at the mansion.

 

We had a good time, but as Marle stated, there could be a few improvements.

[Angelica's Kitchen]

Hello everyone,

 

my name is Angelique Schoop of Angelica's Kitchen.

Someone of the Curacao Tourist Board pointed out to me the posts on the Culinary Delights excursion offered now by Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and Princess cruises.

The excursion comes to my home, where I entertain guests in my Angelica's Kitchen.

I have been reading your questions and remarks.

 

Thank you for constructive comments; we seek to continually improve our service and value to our guests and will incorporate your recommendations into our program.

In fact, we just sharpened our knives this morning.

 

Thanks again.

 

The team of Angelica's Kitchen

Angelique/Angelica Schoop

Clarita, Annette, Magali, ChiChi