Sea Day

04-08: This will be our last Sea Day on this cruise. We had a relaxing morning with another Mexican Brunch. It was good. Shortly after that we headed to the premium wine tasting, also with Cellar Master Michelle. Another delightful time especially since we had Veuve Clicquot. Following the wine tasting we played cards with our friends. That brought us to dinner time. We all went our separate ways. We wanted Canaletto that we missed last night. Again, no early reservations, so we booked at 8p. We don’t mind eating later in the evening. We don’t think this Canaletto chef is as good as the Zaandam Canaletto chef, but of course it was delicious. We went to the casino both before and after dinner. Still holding our own with a little bit of profit! 

San Francisco

04-07: Today we have a lunch reserved at Palette Tea House. We researched Michelin Restaurants near us, but they have either closed, or only open for dinner. This place we are going is a Michelin Bib Gourmand. That means it is rated with delicious food at a reasonable price. We tried a lot of different things from the menu, everything we tried was delicious. It is a beautiful day here in SF, but there is a chill in the wind. We saw an abundant of Waygo vehicles. Some people even planned to ride in one for the experience. To me it is weird not having an actual driver. I’ll skip that altogether. Back onboard and to the cabin to relax. We had another future cruise consultation at 5:40p. After that we wanted dinner in Canaletto but no reservations were available. Instead, we went to Tamarind. Stuart had the sashimi plate, which was quite amazing. I had the chicken curry, I asked for mild and there was little curry taste. We greatly enjoyed the singers and dancers again tonight. They are better than any of the guest shows.

Good Morning San Francisco

04-06: We were scheduled to arrive at 1p but it was more like 11a. They did tell us that ahead of time. Today we are having the Easter Brunch. I guess they did not want to have it on a port day? When I booked it, I didn’t realize it was not actually on Easter. We kept the reservation anyway. It was a nice brunch with some different choices. They had what they called Red Velvet French Toast with orange butter. It was really Red Velvet cake with some sort of cream cheese frosting on top – REALLY good. The main we ordered was lobster eggs Benedict. It should have been called Eggs Benedict with a kiss of lobster. It was really delicious but had just a few tiny pieces of diced lobster. It was one of the best Eggs Benedict I have had. Dessert was cute with an Easter flare. I had Lemon Pavlova and Stuart had something chocolate. After that it was back to the cabin and catching up on laptop while here in port in San Francisco. I needed a day off of everything and felt very refreshed. We had dinner, just the two of us, in the dining room. After that we went to Rolling Stone Lounge and listened to music until midnight when it shut down.

Easter Sunday, Avalon (Catalina Island)

04-05: Today we are in Catalina. We didn’t get off for several reasons. We have both been here before. It is a tendered port, which always takes extra time. We are only here from 7a-2p, which means you must be back onboard by 1:30p. In addition, it is Easter Sunday! What will be open? Not much for sure. None of the excursions appealed to us so it was a good day to stay onboard. We had a late breakfast and played Rummikub up at Sea View. We ran into Michelle and she told us about the 1:45p wine tasting. We did not get an invitation until after we left our cabin. So, that was good news and we went to that. Don, Lisa, Paul, and Maureen all went as well. There was little time to relax before dinner as they all like to eat early. We met at Pinnacle Grill tonight. Another enjoyable dinner with friends. Some time at the casino finished off the evening.