Best Cat Mom

Day 10 Lunch menu (we skipped this meal in Le Muse):

Different answer for me and BCD. The prawns were the typical Italian preparation, with all the body parts (head, tails, antennae, etc.), and BCD does not care for that. For me, it was the taste just wasn't all that. Both of us prefer more of a hearty garlic shrimp flavor -- we make a great scampi at home -- but these were a more bland preparation, maybe because the spices did not quite absorb through all the outside body. Not a big deal, as there are other menu choices that we know not to order because we don't like them. For instance, we do not eat Indian or Thai food. I do not eat any spicy food at all. This is just one of those menu items that I know better than to order now.

Day 10… Woke up to another beautiful sunrise this morning, again before the alarm, making a great start to our day. An extra hour of sleep last night was also a contributory factor to our happy morning. While we were enjoying our Baileys and coffee, we noticed that it was raining. Not sure when it started, but it stopped just before we headed out to breakfast at Le Muse around 8:30am. We opted for the outside walk on Deck 15 since the rain had stopped. It was quite wet outside, with lots of standing water between the wet loungers around the pool. The rain must have surprised the crew after the loungers were set up. The wet loungers did not stop people from enjoying the now shining sun. Looks like it will be a nice sea day after all. The glare off all the wet surfaces was pretty intense so we opted for an inside walk on Deck 7 back to YC. We had checked lunch and dinner menus for Le Muse and noticed that today's lunch has the one entrée that neither of us like -- grilled king prawns. This was an entrée we had tried on two previous occasions on two different ships and agreed that it was not for us. Before this cruise, we had said that the day this was on the lunch menu would be the day we would use our Diamond specialty meal at BC. Unfortunately, we had dinner reservations at BC and could only have brunch during the sea days. This would have been a great day for lunch instead. We stopped at the casino, but remembered that we never registered our credit card. This time we had not gotten a reminder either. I think in the past we would find a card on our bed with the other assorted papers given during turndown service. Wandered around that middle atrium area of this ship for a bit. We walked up the Swarovski stairs at one point and were amazed at how small they were, both in depth of each step and the width of the staircase. The stairs in YC are much bigger. We were really surprised since any images we've seen of the stairs in the atrium always looked the same as YC. As we wandered around, we marveled at few people we saw. We thought perhaps everyone was now at the pools? We encountered a BC representative at a display to sell specialty dining. Knowing we still had another meal to use at BC, we stopped to ask if lunch would be available later in the cruise, after all the sea days of the crossing. He told us that not every sea day was a brunch; on some days lunch was offered. And today was a lunch! We headed back to our cabin to grab a credit card to register at the kiosk by the YC concierge desk and to ask the concierge to verify that BC did have lunch today instead of brunch. We checked the schedule in the room first, and BC had lunch hours of 10am to 2pm for today -- which sounded more like brunch. We tried to remain optimistic as we asked Simone to check with BC for us. He also was doubtful because of the hours listed but a bit hopeful, given that a BC representative had told us. You would think this was a life-or-death matter with us holding our breath while he called the venue. And then we had a big sigh of relief to find out that today was indeed a lunch day! So our holiday was saved as we now had lunch reservations for 1pm today at BC and wouldn't have to eat prawns. LOL We went to TSL to celebrate. BCD resumed his line work and I oversaw manufacturing operations until lunch time. BCD also checked in at the One Pool Deck to see if the bar could contribute some more supplies to the cause. When the time came for lunch, we headed down to BC and were surprised to see only 3 other tables occupied. We thought perhaps the brunch vs. lunch "fiasco" <sarcasm> was the root cause. Regardless, we had a great meal, eating way too much and enjoying it all immensely. BCD loves the bread basket there and the two types of flavored butter. As usual, the bread was warm and the butter was just the right temperature to be easily spreadable. They had GF bread for me as well with regular butter. I had the roll with my meal and saved the chocolate croissant for dessert. BCD ordered the foie deviled eggs -- he absolutely loves them -- and I had the house chop salad. Then an 8 ounce filet for BCD with Brussel sprouts and double lamb chops with roasted cauliflower for me for our entrées. BCD had lava cake for dessert while I had the previously delivered GF chocolate croissant. We each had 4 glasses Malbec with our meals. We left pleasantly full. One thing to note about free or purchased "Dining Experience" meals at BC -- we've never received a check at the end to sign since the meal is already covered/prepaid. If you choose something not on the Dining Experience portion of the menu, you'll likely have a check to sign. We never have any cash, so if we don't get a check and yet feel that we had excellent service (as we have every single time in BC), we'll tip on the last day using an envelope from the YC concierge. And they will even look up the name of your server for you if you can't recall it or are not sure of the spelling. Then we headed back to TSL so BCD could get back to work. The lounge was completely empty so we sat at the bar. Many of the staff stopped by to admire and comment and BCD quickly used up all of his available supplies. Completion of the third car would have to wait for another production day. As we sat there, we realized just how big of a lunch we had. As dinnertime approached, we weren't even hungry. We thought that would change eventually so we went back to the room to relax until dinner. Around 8:15pm, we finally arrived at Le Muse for dinner, both thinking we'd eat light. We were surprised that the dinner menus differed from what was online. (I'll post both though.) Another surprise was that our regular server Glenn was "off" this evening. At first we were concerned since we've never seen anyone "off" before but his assistant Ryan said that he himself had been "off" for breakfast and Glenn was off for dinner. We later wondered if maybe on these long cruises they give people time off even if there is no port for them to visit. If so, I guess that is great for the crew, but I doubt they have the nice types of areas like we do to relax at sea for the time off. 😞 After 10 consecutive dinners of our regular server team, it was interesting to see the interaction between these two new partners. We could see that there was not as smooth of a handoff between them during service, making me think that it could seem that way with any new team. Then we thought that maybe this is what leads to some guests not having optimal dining experiences, the breaking-in period of a new server/assistant server team. And maybe some guests don't notice that new team awkwardness on the first night of a cruise because they are newly embarked? Maybe that's why there is a big discrepancy in reviews -- who notices and who does not and which of them are posting here? (And is this type of musing too deep? Am I just pondering these questions because this is my fifth of six sea days and I have nothing better to do?? My mind must be going back to management in my pre-retirement business life. I know -- another drink pronto to get back into holiday mode!) Since Ryan was very familiar with my GF-ness, he took the lead in making sure that I was still accommodated in the same safe manner. He even took my starter back and got me a completely new one when there was a component with gluten on the dish -- even though he could have simply removed that from the plate. For all of those reading who have allergies, you know how comforting it is to know that someone cares. There is a lot of stress in worrying every time you have meal made by others instead of making it yourself. We had champagne and then as starters BCD had dumplings and I had the sea scallops. (The sea scallops were the dish that Ryan corrected for me. When originally served, the papadum crisps listed on the menu were also on the plate. Instead of simply removing them from the plate, he brought me a new dish that never had the crisps on at all.) For entrées, BCD had prime rib, I had tuna, and we shared a risotto. As the food came, we realized that we were overstuffed just from the starters. We barely touched our entrées and our servers both noticed, asking if the protein was overdone or the risotto not al dente. We assured them it was us not them (LOL they did not know that phrase, thank goodness). We escaped after pushing our entrées around on our plates for 45 minutes or so. We did finish our wine, however. 😉 We stopped in TSL for a digestivo -- I had a limoncello and BCD had Jägermeister. When the musician finished his next set, we retreated to the cabin, finished our drinks and headed to bed quite early and still quite full. Day 11 tomorrow…

You definitely do not have to eat MDR food if you are GF on MSC YC. I'm on a transatlantic crossing with MSC right now. My server regularly checks with the YC chef to determine what menu items are GF and how other ones can be altered to be GF. If there are times when the YC items don't "excite" me, they will give me the MDR GF menu -- if I want it. I usually prefer YC items since the quality is so much better. (According to the YC staff, the food supplies they use in YC are not the same as MDR, so that makes a difference in the final product.)

Hubert will still be here in February. In fact, he'll still be here when we come back in April. I have told him to prepare for you. 😉 I think he made the Zacapa a double, since he makes BCD doubles all the time. (Maybe I'm miscounting the drinks each night then?)

I had a Zacapa 23 yesterday afternoon. It was not for the faint-hearted.

Woodford is in the old fashioneds. Hennessey is indeed in the sidecars, sometimes Martelli. Hubert is your guy in TSL. I just told him you are asking. :)]

Aha! You picked an excellent hotel then. Kitties are very particular Or they have a rodent problem. And that is a well-fed kitty. But I'm betting it's the former in this case. 🙂

Day 9 Dinner menu:

Day 9 Lunch menu:

Day 9… Today was our third sea day of the six for the crossing. We've never had a cruise this long before and it's great to know that we are not even half way through the sea days yet, never mind the days of the cruise after then. Though there was not a time change last night, we were up before the alarm because the sunshine woke us up. We much prefer not to need an alarm and to have the natural sunrise wake us slowly. Baileys and coffee were delivered to our cabin and we enjoyed that while checking our position on a map. Due south of us was Antarctica with no other land masses in the path of our latitude at that time, though it is quite a bit away. At some point today, we will be west of the eastern most point of Brazil. As we saw that on the map, we were saying that Brazil needs to "get its elbow out of the Atlantic." LOL We headed to Le Muse for breakfast at around 8:45am. We had our usual mimosas and I had a cappuccino. BCD had some pineapple juice and waffles with cinnamon and a side of bacon. MSC's waffles have come a long way from where they started. I recall reading on the boards that back in ~2017-2018 that their waffles resembled frozen Eggo waffles and were not very good. They now appear less store bought and seem more popular. BCD enjoyed his. I decided to order 2 soft boiled eggs, something I haven't had since on a holiday in 2000. I usually make hard boiled eggs at home, as I am not fond of egg yolks. Someone had ordered soft boiled eggs on our last cruise and make me think that I should have them one day for a change. Today was the day. The menu says you can have them as 3-minute, 6-minute or 12-minute eggs. I figured 12 would be more like hard boiled so I chose 3. I chose wrong. The whites were still quite liquid-y. I had ordered a lightly-toasted GF roll, thinking I might need it for the yolk spillage. I abandoned my eggs, and asked for some Nutella. It was excellent on the roll. When people ask me what do I normally put Nutella on, my go-to answer is a spoon. (Why dilute it with food?) But the roll and Nutella was a special treat and made me forget about my user-error with the eggs. Perhaps another day I will try the 6-minute version and see if that is more to my liking. We were supposed to have BC for dinner tonight, but when we checked Le Muse's dinner menu and saw porcini risotto we knew we couldn't miss that and would have to change the BC reservations. We thought that we'd try to check this so-called brunch menu to see what was on that menu. Given that the hours listed in the paper (calendar, schedule, program, whatever it is called that is delivered to the cabin) are 10am to 2pm, we thought there might still be lamb and beef offered. Then, a brunch would fine for us. We chose to walk back the room via deck 7 so we could check BC's brunch menu. Unfortunately, it indeed looks to be only breakfast-y type items so we'll change dinner to tomorrow at 8pm and check Le Muse's dinner menu tomorrow morning to see if we need to postpone another day. We went back to the room to retrieve my devices and BCD's cork car supplies and past prototypes. Then we headed to TSL for a Bloody Mary and a cappuccino so BCD could begin the day's design and production activities. Around 10am, the YC Head Butler Rudy proudly presented BCD with a pair of needle-nosed pliers! The world is finally rotating properly on its 23.45 degrees axis, the drinks taste better, the sun is shining brighter and my world is calmer. It's always amazing how your own personal perspective changes your enjoyment of a cruise. LOL As we debated lunch, we decided that we did not want pool food today. It doesn't feel special to us, but sometimes we'll settle for it, like yesterday. We are not particularly fond of eating on plastic plates and drinking out of plastic glasses. I'm not a fan of eating outside in the wind of a sea day, either. We rarely eat like that at home, so why would we do that on a holiday where we're spending ~$750 per day? If we miss lunch in Le Muse or if the menu is especially unappealing, maybe. But it's just not really for us. Geesh, I think I've had French fries 3 times so far on this cruise -- and I cannot even recall the last time we made them at home. When BCD was at a good point to pause production, we went to Le Muse for lunch. We both had the seared beef for starters. It was excellent, similar to beef carpaccio, which is one of our favorites. For our entrées, BCD had veal cannelloni and I had the chicken supreme, which I was pleased to discover is GF. BCD had chianti and I had pinot noir. BCD also had a Mexican sundae since it sounded so good. After that big and filling lunch, we lumbered back to TSL so BCD could resume work on his cars. Pepe stopped in and when he saw the work in progress, he said he wants one for his office. So many people commented over the course of the day that I told BCD he'd better get busy finalizing his design and beginning mass production. I think he has 4 solid orders, with another 5 or so that would be nice to have on hard to offer to others. People are so nice too -- they keep telling us that they're ordering champagne to help the cause 😉 After a long day in the car factory, we returned to the cabin a bit earlier than usual to dress for dinner. We arrived at Le Muse at 7:45pm, early for us, but found it to be quite empty. I think we’re still not used to such a small YC population. We are on another Divina cruise in April and I hope that it's not too crowded then. Being spoiled now would make it seem even more full, just like people who sailed during the pandemic have said about now compared to the empty ships from then. Ryan brought us some champagne and some champagne remnants (supplies) for BCD for tomorrow's production. BCD shared the images of the different prototypes that he'd produced so far and Ryan's enthusiasm soared. I am quite optimistic that we will establish a strong strategic alliance with Ryan and that he will become a Tier One supplier for us and perhaps identify potential Tier Two suppliers elsewhere on the ship. We both ordered salmon tartare as starters. BCD chose the veal cordon bleu as his entrée and I chose the grilled salmon from the Always Available section of the menu. I requested extra vegetables and knew that the hollandaise would need to be omitted from my dish to keep it GF. We also shared the porcini risotto. We had an Italian merlot with our meal, a Forchir Mirie, one that was new to us. It had a nice earthy component to it, as many Italian merlots do, and even had some soft tannins. I think it could be our choice with a filet for an upcoming dinner. When Glenn asked if we wanted dessert, I pointed to the risotto. If we weren't so full, we would have readily dug into another portion! We headed back to TSL for a few -- okay, 5 -- rounds of sidecars and old fashioneds. Clocks are turning back tonight so staying up late was not a hardship. 🙂 Day 10 tomorrow…

We had better service on that second 4-day part even without tipping after the 7-day. We were a known quantity and the newer people were not. I think it was easier to stick with the known. 😉 Example: When the head concierge was about to address the new folks in TSL, he walked by us sitting at the bar and said something like, "I hope you do not mind that I will be disturbing you by giving a short speech." LOL

I have this: There are 152 YC staterooms on World Europa which translate to 304 people at double occupancy. The Seascape has 131 (262), the Virtuosa has 103 (206), and the Divina 69 (138) from this message thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2915516-liveish-from-world-europa-yc-owners-suite-by-a-star-class-cruiser/#comment-64827072

Divina has a sushi restaurant as the other specialty option besides Butcher's Cut. I can't imagine that you will have any issue getting sticky rice. I have always loved Chinese food over that white rice (I'm born and bred in NYC) though my choices are limited now that I'm GF.

Do you mean with all the different flavors that change nightly for risotto? That sounds complex. But just as a plain rice side disk? I haven't noticed it as a side dish, but it does seem like it would be an easy special request for them to fulfill.

Day 8 Dinner menu:

Day 8 Lunch menu:

Day 8… Another sea day after another extra hour of sleep since we changed the clocks back an hour last night. One of the main reasons we booked this specific transatlantic cruise was that going from Europe to the US would allow us to gain an hour each time the clocks were changed. The idea of going in the other direction and losing an hour for multiple days seemed a depressing prospect on a vacation. We are definitely enjoying each of our 25 hour days. We had our Baileys and coffee in the room and arrived at Le Muse for breakfast around 8:30am. We each had 2 mimosas and 1 cappuccino. BCD had the MSC Express with extra hash browns. I had an egg white omelet with bacon and cheese and a GF chocolate chip muffin. We headed to TSL afterwards for a round of Holiday Coffee. This is our own concoction from weekend breakfasts at home. We've shared the recipe with bartenders on every MSC cruise we've taken. If it winds up on a menu someday, I don't know if we'll be proud or feel like someone stole our masterpiece. 😉 Over ice in a highball glass, add 1 shot of espresso, 1 shot of Kahlua, 1 shot of Baileys and 1 shot of coconut rum (Bacardi Coconut preferred). Stir and enjoy! We finished our coffees and headed up to the One Deck around 11am so BCD could work on his cork car creation. At one point, I counted ~30 people up there which was nearly half of YC. The weather was much warmer than yesterday and people were enjoying the nearly full sun. BCD garnered more attention as he toiled over his creation than yesterday. He had ideas to improve yesterday's model and so began a new version today. With 8 more days left to cruise, I hope we don't need a bigger cabin to hold all the prototypes. Our butler Elvin came looking for us to discuss our Butcher's Cut lunch reservation tomorrow. He said that BC is having a brunch, not a lunch, for all the sea days and wanted to see if maybe we'd want to switch to a dinner. We had never known BC to have a brunch for sea days and he said he hadn't ever heard of that either. We decided to switch to dinner tomorrow instead, knowing that we'd be able to see the menu early in the day and could reschedule if Le Muse had something on their menu that we did not want to miss. We saw our server team of Glenn and Ryan up at the One Pool Deck. They had told us that they'd be up there for breakfast and lunch all the 6 sea days since it was expected to be so busy outside compared to Le Muse. Ryan has been one of BCD's best "suppliers" of corks and wires and he was admiring BCD's efforts so far. We opted to eat lunch there since nothing on Le Muse's menu seemed to be drawing us to them. The buffet had grilled pork chops, beef skewers, swordfish, mashed potatoes and a curry dish that I did not recognize, plus a bunch of salad items, cold cuts and cheeses. BCD had a few beef skewers and mashed potatoes, plus tuna and salad, with some fruit for dessert. I had the pork, a little beef and some French fries. BCD drank a few glasses of Coke Zero and I had champagne. BCD completed the latest version of his cork car creation and then we headed down to TSL around 4pm, as the temperature had started to drop and there was even a little rain. We had some drinks and some admirers stopped by to comment on BCD's newest creation. After a little while, we headed back to the room to change for dinner. Tonight was the second Gala menu and the suggested dress was Elegant. We arrived around 8:30pm to a quite empty Le Muse. Apparently, most people had dined early. Supplies from Ryan accompanied our menus, with our champagne delivered shortly after a brief discussion of design ideas. For starters, BCD ordered the eggplant (aubergine) and I ordered the pear and bleu cheese salad. We continued with champagne and switched to chianti in anticipation of entrees: truffle filet for BCD and (what else?) lamb shank for me. I ordered a GF roll for the wonderful chianti sauce with the lamb. And we also ordered the saffron risotto to share. And also… no, that was definitely enough for entrées. After we devoured our food -- well, we left a little, but did eat more that I thought we could -- we considered dessert. BCD ordered the apple strudel and I had a little brie with what was left of my bread. We managed to get back to TSL, even though we thought we were too full to walk. We were happily sleepy from all that great food and there was no clock change tonight so we only had 1 sidecar and old fashioned and then retired for the night to rest up for another busy sea day tomorrow. Day 9 will be next…

We really like the Fantasia-class ships too. We're back on Divina in April and happy that most of the YC crew we've come to know will be too. 🙂

Day 7 Dinner menu:

Day 7 Lunch menu:

Day 7 continues… Somehow the thought of lunchtime had escaped us and we found ourselves rushing to Le Muse at 1:28pm. The door was closed when we arrived, and there was another couple behind us who were also late. Mehmet was kind enough to allow the 4 of us in even though it was our own fault we were late. BCD and I only wanted starters -- he ordered the Parma ham and I ordered niçoise salad. He had a chianti and I had a sauvignon blanc. We had already talked about having the next course at the One Deck buffet. We were quick to finish -- well, quick for us. 😉 We headed up to the One Deck buffet where BCD had some tuna with mayonnaise, tomatoes and cucumbers and I ordered a plate of French fries. I had 3 glasses of chianti and BCD had 2 Heineken and a nice looking double chocolate chip cookie. BCD also began work on a project this afternoon that he had planned for this cruise after I showed him some images from the most recent Observations from the Poop Deck thread by @morpheusofthesea (https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2975181-observations-from-the-poop-deck-seascape-nov-2023/ -- see posts #151 and #160). BCD is an automotive engineer and could not resist a challenge to replicate and improve on these two impressive uses of champagne/sparkling wine corks, wires, etc. BCD had already been collecting "supplies" from the crew and by today had finally had enough to begin assembly. The loss of his Leatherman tool, however, made this undertaking much more difficult. He is currently working with nail clippers, scissors and the back end of a knife (as a hammer to pound out some of the kinks in the wires from around the cork). The weather changed to very cool so we returned to TSL for drinks until it was time to dress for dinner, after I convinced the engineer to halt production for the day. He agreed provided that he could consider design improvements with adult beverages for inspiration. When the current iteration of the design and analysis phases was complete, we returned to the cabin to change for dinner. We arrived at Le Muse about 8:15pm and checked out the menu with some champagne. Mehmet came by our table to greet us while we were still deciding what to order and recommended the baked island shrimp and the almond-crusted salmon. The engineer formerly known as BCD (TEFKABCD -- hope that's funny for at least a few people) had the shrimp as a starter, while I had the summer salad -- after our server said that the shrimp was not completely GF per the chef. I ordered the almond-crusted salmon after being reassured that it was GF and BCD opted for the rib eye. We finished our champagne with the starters and BCD moved to a dolcetto and I to a pinot noir. When Glenn and Ryan brought our entrées, they also brought risotto -- which we did not order. I had told Glenn that we would skip the risotto since we thought cuttlefish was a black ink dish like squid. It wasn't so he brought it anyway, knowing how much we liked the risotto. I definitely think we have a great server team this cruise. 🙂 We liked all of our meal, but I now have a new dish to add to my favorites list. The almond-crusted salmon was fantastic! I doubt it's a new offering so I must have always chosen something else I thought I wanted more when it appeared on the menu. Now I know not to miss it when I see it. We looked at the dessert menu, to be polite as usual -- or so I thought. I did not feel like dessert but BCD ordered me a coconut ice cream with a shot of Kahlua and the caramel Bavarian cake for himself. Guess who ate both? I think automobile design makes one quite hungry. LOL Back to TSL and since we were changing clocks back another hour tonight, 5 sidecars and old fashioneds before heading to bed. Day 8 coming next…

Day 7 begins… We were thrilled to have a one hour time change backwards, allowing us to sleep a little later. We also decided that we'd like to have breakfast at the One Pool Deck, which closes an hour later than Le Muse -- giving us two more hours total. Awesome! We arrived at One Deck around 9am. We knew that they prepare eggs to order so we could have some omelets just like in Le Muse. BCD ordered an omelet with ham, cheese, mushrooms and onions while I ordered an egg white omelet with bacon and cheese. We grabbed some more bacon and some potatoes from the buffet. We also had our usual mimosas and cappuccinos. After eating and simply enjoying the view for a little bit, BCD ordered a Malibu rum (coconut rum) with orange juice and I asked for a cappuccino and a GF chocolate chip muffin. Then we saw Pepe, Mehmet and a few other officers roaming around the One Deck. The captain came on the public address system and announced that we would be turning around back towards Tenerife shortly to accommodate a medical evacuation. He explained that it was not an emergency but the person decided that they'd rather evacuate now and not risk anything more serious during the 6-day crossing where it would be much more difficult (if not impossible) to evacuate. He went on to explain that the open decks would need to be cleared for the helicopter evacuation. When the captain concluded his address, Pepe and Mehmet circulated on the One Pool Deck to speak with each table individually, explaining again the situation with profuse apologies. We had not received our order yet, but it was ready so the butler said that he would take it down to TSL for us. We met him down there and he had already transferred everything from the plastic used on 18 to glass and china as used in TSL. We hung out in TSL, waiting for the time that we could go back to the One Deck. Pepe was checking in with tables in TSL and we thought it was about the medical evacuation. When he came to our table, he said that he wanted to make up for the disappointing lamb shank last night in Le Muse and would be giving us a complimentary meal in Butcher's Cut for a reservation date/time of our choice. We typically like dinners in Le Muse, so thought maybe lunch tomorrow. Pepe said that the second Gala Night was tomorrow, which made us think that we wouldn't want a big lunch, so we chose Day 9 lunch instead. Pepe moved on to another table and Simone, the head concierge, called BC to secure our reservation. We hadn't realized that people were that upset about their lamb shanks -- or maybe Pepe was the one more upset and wanted to be extra generous to be sure that no one felt slighted. Either way, we felt that it more than made up for an average meal in Le Muse, especially one that was only experienced by one person at our table. Eventually, the captain announced an estimated time for the medical evacuation and we discovered that the helicopter was hovering off the port side of the the ship, which was the same side as our room. We happened to go back to the our cabin just then and watched the whole operation from our balcony. It was quite a procedure to see. A helicopter hovered over the pool deck of the ship, dropped a rope down to the pool deck, a helicopter crew member rappelled down the rope, an empty basket was lowered to the ship, the basket was lifted back to the helicopter with a passenger in the basket, another passenger was tethered to the helicopter crew member and both of them were lifted into the helicopter, a bag of some sort was lifted into the helicopter, the rope was reeled back into the helicopter and the helicopter flew away to a presumably good outcome for the patient and their traveling companion. We returned to TSL around 12:45pm as the ship was beginning to turn around to resume our westward crossing. The captain had assured us that we'd have no issue making up lost time over the remaining 5.5 days left in our crossing. Day 7 continues...

Yes, on regular nights that is still the case. This was Mediterranean Night (aka Italian Night) so we expected the Italian flag colors but only got the muted green.

YES!! When we were on Seaside just this past September, the bar outside of YC near the specialty restaurants had a great bartender named Frederick. He made an awesome rum old fashioned with Zacapa 23. I hadn't asked Hubert for one of those, but maybe that's a good idea for me later today.