Royal Caribbean cruise - Day 3

Today we started with room-service coffee - how nice! I think we'll do this from now on. When we'd gotten a good start on the day, we headed to level 3 for breakfast. The buffet side again, where I found good hash, mushrooms, and oh joy, chocolate croissants!

I also tried lychee, which was OK but I'm not likely to feast on it often. After breakfast our friends joined us in an effort to walk a little of it off, through Central Park, Boardwalk, and a turn around the walking path, which runs all the way around the ship. 

Next up for us was the Kitchen Tour. While waiting we met Jimmy and Donna Driscoll, members of a Corvette club. Gary would have enjoyed swapping tales with them! Our tour guide introduced herself as the only Brazilian in the restaurant staff, which was unusual. She led us up some narrow, steep stairs into the kitchen area, where she explained some of the logistics. I don't remember most of it, but she said that the staff must use one door if they have dirty dishes, and another door with clean dishes, to avoid them ever coming in contact with each other.  

It is obviously in the cruise lines' financial interest to waste as little as possible but of course it does happen. Unconsumed food is separated, pulverized, and released into the sea at approved locations to serve as fish food. Non-food items like paper and plastic are incinerated, and recyclable items like broken glass and plates are off-loaded at approved recycling centers in various locations. 

The fruit station operates 24 hours a day; now they were setting up fruit plates. 

This was also the location of fruit carving and, today, chocolate centerpieces for a special display. This was reminiscent of the old days when there was a midnight buffet every night!

The neck scarves indicate the status of the chef, identifying new hires, sou chefs, and executive chefs.  A red scarf indicates a chef in charge of one area, with sou chefs under him. 

Before each meal a sample of every item on the menu is plated and set out for the sou chef of that area to evaluate on taste and appearance. There are 30 dessert chefs for the whole ship. They have an allergy chef and an allergy kitchen, where nothing else is allowed to be prepared. I asked how they handle things like over-easy eggs. Our guide said everything is "a la minute", ie cooked on demand. Pretty amazing, considering the volume of eggs served. Randy stopped to talk to a couple of the chefs about how they prepare some of the dishes.

 In one section they were braising the tenderloins for tonight's dinner. 

And nearby were escargot plates, ready to be filled. Good thing there is a lot of these, they are one of the most popular items!

After the tour we were treated to another brunch, where I tried cranberry champaign - not bad. 

A little later I met Linda and went to the Broadway area see the parade, which celebrated several holidays. When it was over, the "floating bar" came back into service so we hopped on. It's a bar that moves up and down one deck level, and it moves very, very  s l o w l y. Linda had a couple of cookies and the bartender told us that wasn't allowed. We just smiled and he decided we could stay; he turned the menu away from the other tables and put the cookies behind it. We got a good giggle out of the whole thing. 

Afterwards we went shopping. Linda told me that Erin had found a lovely purse for a good price so I checked out the same vendor and found one I like. Good, now I have a purse for formal night!

We met up with our guys and went on deck, to watch Cuba on the horizon. The trip to Cuba was our last cruise. 

Time to eat! It's formal night tonight. For dinner Randy had salmon, while I had the pork shank and carrot cake. Later we all went to the Line Line water show. This was my favorite! The flooring is divided into sections which raise and lower through the water. The raised sections are where dancers perform, and there are synchronized swimmers in the lowered sections. There were even overhead performers, lowered and raised on rigging. They kept things moving and I it was wonderful.