Sailing Like a Celebrity -- Day 2
Published Saturday, December 23rd 2023 - Updated Saturday, December 23rd 2023Day 2 -- Newport, RI
Sunny, low 70s
The morning started out very chilly, so we decided to forgo the balcony for breakfast. Instead, we went up to the Oceanview Cafe, which is the buffet restaurant. There's a lot of what you would expect: scrambled eggs, bacon, ham, corned beef hash, pancakes, etc. But there's also fresh frittatas, there's a station that serves traditional English breakfast items (steamed tomatoes, baked beans, etc). There's a yogurt/muesli station, a cheese counter, an omelet station. And all the baked good like muffins and croissants are baked fresh onboard every day. So there's plenty of options and most of them were very good.
After breakfast, they started tendering people to shore. We had a relaxed morning and headed to the tender around 10 am. The tender wouldn't accommodate Dale's scooter, so when we got to gangway, the crew gave us a wheelchair to use on shore. That was a huge help to us, as she would not have been able to walk very long without some sort of transportation.
We decided not to go heavy on shore excursions on this cruise. I personally like exploring on foot, when possible, and just getting a feel for the port that we're in. So we spent 4 or 5 hours just wandering through Newport. Kathryn really loved some of the small shops that we found, and I really loved the historic buildings throughout the port area and slightly outside. Dale got souvenirs for the grandkids. We grabbed some snacks, since we were missing lunch on the ship, and eventually got back on the tender around 2:30.
The buffet was still serving lunch when we got back, so we grabbed something a little more substantial. They have pizza every day, of course, and the dough is made fresh. Unfortunately, the crust was consistently undercooked, so that every piece of pizza I got drooped when you tried to pick it up. But other than that, there was always a cheese pizza, a pepperoni, and a veggie; and then each day there was a "special" pizza of the day. The rest of the buffet has an Asian counter, a Mexican station (but the fajitas were insanely spicy), a meat carving station, a salad bar, etc. There were usually several good options to choose from. No soda machine, though, for people who appreciate free soda. Everything comes in cans from the bar.
I also wanted to mention that there are lots of activities planned on board, even during port days. There was trivia and live music in the lounges. On many cruises I've been on, almost all the onboard activities disappear because they expect people to go ashore.
After all the walking on shore, I decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in the Solarium. That's an enclosed pool area. There's also an outdoor pool, but there's often music out there, which may be a little loud. And the Solarium is a quieter venue. Also, the Solarium pool is heated, while the outdoor pool is not. That's a bonus for me. The Solarium tended to get pretty crowded later in the cruise. Especially on cool days, people wanted to be indoors and seats got saved and hoarded. (There was some grumbling among our Facebook group.) Lots of people chose it as a spot to nap during the day. (I may or may not have dozed off once or twice.)
But on this day, I was able to find a seat pretty easily and spend several hours there with a book. The Solarium:
There's no set table assignments for dinner, but because we had reservations at the same time every night, they were able to give us the same table and serving staff for the entire sailing. This was a huge bonus to us, as we had a great serving team, and we didn't have to have a different waiter every night.
My appetizer was called a beef roulade, but it was NOT a roulade. It was more like beef with gravy in a sauce. It had a very odd consistency, but tasted good. I don't think I would get it again. It was just kind of weird. Kathryn loved the escargot appetizer. She and Dale both got the Mediterranean Seafood Medley entrée. This had scallops, shrimp, and mussels in a tomato broth. The seafood was cooked perfectly, but it was very spicy. In fact, Dale couldn't eat it, so requested the trout entrée instead. This turned out to be fantastic and she liked it so much better. Cooked perfectly. I ordered the veal on polenta and loved it. This was an excellent meal. For some people, it might have been slightly overcooked, but I enjoyed it very much.
For desserts, Dale got the cherries jubilee, which was good. I got the lava cake, which was very tasty, but not what I would call a lava cake. Maybe I'm way off, but when I hear "lava cake", I kind of expect gooey chocolate to come out of the middle of the cake like lava. This was not like that. It was just a solid -- and delicious -- piece of chocolate cake. Kathryn got the crème brûlée and did not like it. The crème was more like whipped cream, and just didn't right. The fruit on top was good, but it just seem like a good crème brûlée.
Does this look like a roulade to you??? I'm telling you -- weird.
Escargot:
Seafood Medley:
Veal on polenta:
Trout:
Cherries Jubilee:
Lava cake, sans lava:
Crème brûlée:
After dinner, we made our way to the Rendezvous Lounge to listen to one of the house bands perform 60s music. They were a traditional rock/pop band with a female lead. They called themselves The Seagulls. The lead singer is from Ukraine. They performed multiple times on the cruise in different locations. We liked them a lot, but when they performed at the pool, I felt it was a little too loud. (I know, that just means I'm getting old.) But when I'm relaxing by the pool, I want to relax. I want background music. I'm not even blaming them. They're performing their normal set. I just didn't think it fit poolside. But in the lounge at night, they were really good.
At 11, Kath and I went up to the Sky Lounge for the 80s game show. This was EXTREMELY silly. They had two volunteers do a lip sync battle, then two other volunteers had a dance-off. We had to vote for the winners by cheering. It was judged a tie, so the tie-breaker was determined by which side of the room danced better to the next song. The whole goofy thing was just an excuse to start the late night dance party. It was very funny, but so silly. I'm not really a dance party kind of guy (remember, I'm old now), so we left to go back to the room at about 11:30.
Our departure from Newport was delayed for a long time. We didn't leave port until well after 9 pm. We found out later that this was because of two separate medical situations. In one case, an elderly woman passed away that afternoon. She'd been traveling with family and her grandson confirmed to me that she had passed. Very sad for the family.
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