XBGuy

No Ruby Slippers?

These sound most interesting. Can you come back after them and give a brief report. Cruise Critic is available Night and Day. 😉

WOW. That Greek salad looks awesome.

Like, I assume, many here It would never occur to me to mix grapes with flank steak. Thanks to the diligent work of @0106 multiple recipes have been forwarded to Mrs. XBGuy. I made a run to Trader Joe's, yesterday, and, coincidentally, I did grab a small flank steak (which, lately, has been my favorite cut of beef). However, I did not grab either table grapes or blue cheese 🙁 Next time. Many years ago (heck, decades ago) Mrs. XBGuy found a recipe called "Vineyard Chicken." Conceptually, it is very similar to the first of the recipes that @0106 presented, replacing the flank steak with chicken breasts--we've done it both with boneless/skinless and bone-in and I can't imagine why it couldn't be done with thighs. A white wine reduction sauce is made and a cup of halved table grapes is added to the sauce at the end. Here is the really cool part. Regular Daily readers know that I am a wine geek. Many may also know that I do not endorse many of what I refer to as "wine mythologies." Specifically in this case, I do not obsess over wine/food pairings. More often than not I will drink a red wine with fish. Mrs. XBGuy is happy to drink Chardonnay with anything. More than once I have advised people to drink the wine you like to drink with the food you like to eat. I am now going to talk out of the other side of my mouth. Vineyard Chicken is an absolutely amazing match with Riesling. However, not a dry Riesling. It has to be one with a touch of sweetness. A German Spatlese or. even, an Auslese would be excellent. To me, the Flank Steak with Grapes would be great with a robust Zinfandel. Mrs. XBGuy would order up a Chardonnay.

OP indicates that she is traveling on the Enchanted Princess. I have personally seen service dogs (multiple) on various Princess cruises. An overview of Princess policies regarding service animals can be found at the Princess web site under "Accessible Cruising." Here is the link https://www.princess.com/learn/faq/pre-cruise/prepare-for-your-cruise/?accordion=accessible-cruising Presumably, OP has already read that and has posted here asking for others' experiences. Her question regarding ports is interesting. It might be helpful if she would come back and summarize the itinerary for her November cruise. If she is traveling to the Caribbean, information regarding Greek ports may not be as helpful.

I have never been a big fan of Brussel Sprouts, but Mrs. XBGuy, who loves them, is winning me over. We usually prepare them in one of two ways, neither of which seems to stink up the kitchen. The first way is to not prepare them in the kitchen. Cook them on the outdoor grill. Cut the Brussel Sprouts into halves, and put them in an aluminum foil pan. Pour a bit of oil over them and season to your liking. If you want to put other vegetables in the pan--carrots, onions, peppers, potatoes--then go for it. Set the pan on the grill and when they look good to you, they're done. A neat benefit of using this aluminum pan idea is that it is not necessary to clean the grill afterwards, 😁 The second idea is to nuke them in the microwave. Again, slice the Brussel Sprouts in half, Put them in a microwavable dish and add a few tablespoons of water. Cover the dish--we use plastic wrap and poke a few holes in it--and pop it into the microwave. Blast it for a minute or two--we like them crunchy--and they're done. And, as you can see, I would have never made it as a professional recipe writer.

I mentioned three fairly common pathogens in my first post (# 20).

I am bald but, definitely, not free. Some may call me cheap. Fair enough. Mrs. XBGuy is the best. And she is endearing. She does view things a bit differently, She once told me she had difficult spelling "desert" (hot arid place) and "dessert" (sweet thing) until she realized that "desert" has one ess and "dessert" has two esses. Since she likes desserts more than she likes deserts, it is obvious which one has more esses. It was a bagel and cream cheese breakfast for me today. The World Egg Day celebration will have to wait.

From my two years in Mrs. Jerauld's Spanish classes I translate that to "Black Market." I guess they much more open about those activities in Ensenada than they are here in Alta California. I have made a handful of cruise stops in Ensenada, and I do enjoy walking around the town, but I can't recall ever seeing that sign.

🤣🤣🤣 Autocorrect strikes again. Or was it voice-to-text?

Doesn't that say more about the travelers than the port?

Some (typically, smaller) wineries sell all or most of their production only Direct to Consumer (DTC). So, I am on the mailing list of multiple wineries. I will get an email notification notifying me of a new release, A new release will generally be of multiple wines. Depending on the winery, I will get one, two or three notifications per year. I can pick and choose the wines that I want. Generally, there is a limit (as little as one bottle) on the amount that I can buy. However, there is no obligation. I have seen some DTC wines in retail stores, but it really rare. My guess is that these were less popular bottlings. The maker "dumps" them for cash or storage reasons. So, if there is a wine that I really want, I order it when the email notification arrives because there is no guarantee that I will find it in a store that I happen to visit. I also belong to one "winery club." The difference here is that twice a year they send me four bottles of wine. I have no choice, here. I accept what they send. This is another small winery that I like--they are good people and they make great wine--but it is very rare that I find their wines in a retail store. I do get a 20% discount on the winery price on the wines that they ship and on any other wines that I buy from them. (BTW, buying from the winery is generally more expensive than buying the exact same wine in a retail store.)i Over the years I have belonged to a handful of winery clubs. Each has their own policy regarding the number of shipments per year and the number of wines per shipment. It is easy to drop out of them. This is my hobby.

This is reasonable I'm not sure I agree with this part.

I have been on Princess ships both with and without wash basins in the buffet area. My observation is that for the first two days there is an attendant encouraging people to use it. There is a reasonable amount of compliance, but nothing near 100%. After Day 2, there is no attendant and compliance dwindles to miniscule. Here is another thing. Watch people who get up from their table and go back to the buffet for seconds or for dessert. I have never seen anybody wash their hands when making their second (or third) trip to the buffet. I also feel that I am not washing my hands as much to protect myself as I am trying to protect others. If I have norovirus, or coronavirus, or e coli on my hands, I am already exposed, and my fate is determined. However, washing my hands is an excellent action that I can take to mitigate my spreading these to others.

Sadly, not fast enough.

Ah, yes, we are clearly in wine delivery season. I have received two deliveries this week. Today's arrived at 10:05. Usually, UPS does not arrive in our neighborhood before 12:30, and, more often than not, it is after 2:30. Only by good fortune I had returned a tad early from my morning coffee/bagel and was here to accept it. Interestingly, last week, two other wineries sent notice that they felt it was still too warm for them to ship, and, so, their deliveries scheduled for this week would be postponed. I guess I would describe that as erring on the side of caution. No big deal. I am quite a ways from running out of wine.

Well, I'm out of ideas.

🤣🤣🤣 And you can feel free to scrape any kale off of your plate on to mine.

I feel the same way about beets. 😉 Apparently. however, I am in the minority. On our very first Princess cruise--Sapphire Princess in 2011--we ordered the Caesar salad on all our visits to Sterling Steakhouse. The headwaiter would prepare the salad tableside. Yes, we want an egg. Yes, we want Worcestershire sauce. Yes, we want anchovies, and, yes, we want more anchovies. That was the last time we saw tableside preparation of Caesar salad. ☹️

Regarding the Caesar Salads, I have to wonder if sufficient amounts of certain ingredients were not loaded onto the ship prior to embarkation. It happens. On one cruise I had reason to meet with the Room Service Manager on embarkation day to plan out an Ultimate Balcony Dinner that we had booked. In making small talk after we had finished, he mentioned that no liquor had been delivered to him that day. The exacerbating factor was that there were 800 Elite Level passengers boarding, and he had quite a few cabin minibars to fill. The galley is dependent on purveyors delivering provisions to the dock. Stuff happens. Instead of getting X heads of lettuce, they received half of X. What to do? They do the same thing that housewives have done since the beginning of time. They look at their stock and ask, "How can I make a meal out of that?" There isn't enough romaine lettuce. Supplement what we do have with something else that is green and leafy. Adding garbanzo beans seems a tad unusual, but I guess that desperate times yield desperate measures. I would be very surprised if there are more Caesargate reports on subsequent cruises.

The Trident Grill on the Lido Deck is our regular embarkation day lunch destination--burgers and fries, grab a table and watch as excited cruisers bustle around. However, Mrs. XBGuy would dispute the claim that the best fries on the ship are from the Trident Grill. She loves the Garlic Fries served in Crown Grill. (From the picture of the menu, above, I see that these are also available at the Sterling Steakhouse.) I am inclined to agree with her. Whenever we dine at Crown Grill, she regularly orders the Garlic Fries as her appetizer. Invariably, the server gives her a double take and, then, takes her order. Garlic Fries are presented to here when my appetizer course is presented to me. The very good thing as far as I am concerned is that she cannot eat all of them. So, I get to reach over and poach some as often as I want during our meal. 😁 Thank you for your excellent reports.

Beer and wine (bottle or by the glass) are also available.

Maybe I am being naive, but I have never understood why I have to be concerned about these credit card holds. Let's take the OP's example where a $1300 hold is placed on my credit card. Let's say that over course of the cruise my wife and I accumulate $1175 in shipboard expenses. At the end of the cruise line charges $1175 to my credit card. When I get my next statement I see the $1175 correctly charged to my account. I don't see any of the "behind the scenes" hold activity. The only possible problem that I can see is if that hold amount brings a person's account very close to the credit limit. Then that card might possibly be declined if it is presented for payment, for example, at a port stop. If that happened to me, I would offer a different card. I can't be the only person who has more than one credit card in my wallet. Am I missing anything?

Attention: Math geeks who are into music Music geeks who are into mathematics My wife sent this one to me because I suppose I fall into the first of the two above groups I chuckled, and then I thought that as a math geek I should be appalled by the suggestion that ∞ is a number. I thought that the joke would be more appealing to mathematicians if the ∞ was replaced by e. Now, that is hilarious. I had breakfast with one of my brothers, this morning, and showed him this joke. (I have two brothers. If you ranked us by intelligence, they would be tied for first, and I would be a v e r y distant third.) Of course, he had a better idea--instead of replacing ∞ with e, replace it with i. ROFL

I am really enjoying your reports Clay. Thank you very much. With all due respect, the King Crab the we occasionally buy at our local Costco is nowhere near as good as what we have had at Tracy's. Also, I am pretty sure that the price per pound these days is way more than $30. I am very envious of @Blackduck59's access to fresh King Crab. Also, I don't know if you have plans to return to Juneau, but we have now made it a point to stop by Deckhand Dave's on every visit. Absolutely terrific fish tacos and fries makes for a much less expensive lunch, I do not normally eat lunch--regardless of whether or not we are on a cruise--but I eat lunch in Juneau every visit. And, yes on one or two occasions we have had lunch at Dave's and dinner at Tracy's. Poi? Nope, I've never tried it, but I do look forward to your report. 😁