Day 10 An Entertaining Dinner

Today was sea day, which means that we spent the entire day at sea. I say this as background for the comment that from time to time it seems an adventurous notion to sail around the world on a sail boat. After eyeing the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean for hours on end without any sight of land or anything but water for that matter, the romance of sailing great distances in a small sail boat is quickly vanquished. Admittedly, sitting on deck with a drink in hand and a steward occasionally offering a cool moist towel does tend to exaggerate the difference between our experience and what we expect the small boat experience would be like.

I am developing a profound respect for the Polynesians as sailors and adventurers. What would entice these people to leave one of these island paradises and strike out in a small craft in hopes of finding another island that they did not know would even exist, is well beyond my understanding. One of the things that is clear is that most of the islands of any size can provide all of the basic necessities of food, fresh water and housing materials.

Tonight we had dinner with two of the four singers on board. They are a lovely young English couple that have been on the ship from the start of the world cruise and will remain on board until the start of May. Occasionally, guests like us are invited to dine with the entertainers. Our first experience was to have dinner with the magician that was on board. Tonight's dinner was special for us since we met this couple the evening we left Kauai. We invited them to join us for dinner and struck up an interesting conversation. Obviously, they were very kind to include us in tonight's dinner. The other dinner guests include a Japanese man, a lady from Luxembourg, an actress from LA and a Canadian couple from Ottawa. Both are aspiring musical theatre performers and are quite talented. With Stephan's career and experiences it is nice to have such common ground to share thought and experiences.

While we were in Oahu we picked up some traditional Hawaiian entertainers. You will notice them standing in the picture behind me.

Chris...Now let's talk food! There are some great dining spots on the ship. Paul is sitting in our favorite (above) as it's an indoor/outdoor restaurant (Colonnade) that serves all meals. It has both a buffet and table service for breakfast and lunch and only table service for dinner. There is a formal dining room (The Restaurant) serving all meals, a very high end gourmet restaurant (Restaurant 2) and a grill by the pool that serves lunch, snacks and dinner. Then there's always room service that can be served on our veranda (see pic). The food is amazing! They have been voted best food in the cruise industry by travel magazines. It's mostly gourmet in all the restaurants but the grill and room service. They serve more "classic" meals like steaks, burgers, pizza, pasta, and fish. All the restaurants have a "classic" menu available every night with steaks, fish, chicken and pastas (thank goodness). The Colonnade has ethnic theme nights every night and they always provide the menu the night before for all the restaurants so you can plan where you eat. The Restaurant's menu has things like...Foie Gras Torchon, Carrot Velcoute, Island Snapper Grenobloise (wrapped in bick dough, truffle accented cauliflower puree, sauce grenobloise) and Crisp Duck Breast & Heirloom Apples (red cabbage, soft rosemary gnocchi)....SAY WHAT??????????????? Then there's the high end restaurant with Lime Kissed Duck Presse (Soba Pasta, Shitake Bok Choy, Grilled Chili Balls) and Spiced Halibut (Crisp Foie Gras, Roasted Pineapple Chutney) for example. Of course this is all served with endless wine. Where does a girl get nachos and chips & salsa?