Mympyl

Hi

We are interested in doing something similar on our cruise in December on Sapphire Princess. We would get off in Ho Chi Minh, do Angkor Wat and rejoin the ship in Bangkok.

Can you provide information regarding the tour company that you have used?

Thanks!!

We just returned home from the Amsterdam Xmas/New Year sailing from San Francisco through the Panama Canal. We ate MANY times at the Pinnacle Grill, trying various of the new additions and trying to explore the menu a bit. We usually choose to eat at the Pinnacle most nights for the more intimate setting and service.

Firstly, the Double R Ranch meat is TERRIBLE!! Maybe the brand is served at other restaurants and has been reported as good at those locations but I suspect they may be buying a higher quality of cuts. The quality of meat being served on HAL is truly a major downgrade in quality from the Sterling beef. Most of the cuts we tried, (except for the filet) were inedible. We ended up ordering the Filet less cooked than normal as it tended to dry out on the edges as it cooked more. It did also seem to have a strange livery type flavor but at least it could be cut with a knife and was edible.

There was still a veal chop being offered on the menu but I am not sure if it will only remain on the menu until the remaining stock is used up. My husband ordered that one night and enjoyed it....probably betting that didn't come from Double R Ranch!!!

My son ordered his usual favorite meal in the entire world....Pinnacle Grill bone-in rib eye. He almost cried......it was honestly inedible, fatty, chewy, sinewy. Cant begin to describe just how bad. We thought we had maybe gotten an unlucky bad piece but on the following night watched one of the singer's dine with his family and was unable to even cut through it. He eventually spoke to the PG manager and had it taken away. We had the same problem with the porterhouse.....chewy, dry!! so little of that giant steak was even able to be cut through let alone eaten.

Given that a lot of items on the menu have been removed, it is even more sad to see the quality of the meat reduced to such low levels! I guess my mother was right when she said "There's no such thing as a free lunch". All those free PG meals being given away have resulted in them serving food which is no better than in the dining room, perhaps even not worse. On a longer cruise like this (18 nights) it was tough to find any variation.

The "Special" has most certainly been removed from the specialty restaurant. The new soup is nothing like the old coconut soup, though it sounds a bit similar in name. It was like a plain tomato soup with long vermicelli noodles which were difficult to eat without splashing your clothing!! They added extra spice to our soup at our request as it was very bland and tasteless and that made it better but no where near as good as the old one.

Shrimp cocktails were still as good as before, large yummy shrimps as usual. They still offered the crème brulee and both vanilla and choc soufflés. Though for 2 nights in a row they were unable to bring out a vanilla soufflé which was any higher than 1/2 way up the soufflé dish. The choc ones came out fine and they then confessed that they were having problems with the oven and couldn't get the vanilla ones to rise. Apparently the choc ones are flourless...who knows!! We just stuck to the choc and stopped ordering the vanilla.

As for the crab legs, we bit the bullet and paid the additional $20 to give them a try. Now, there was a large plate of crab legs but they weren't really the giant red beauties I had imagined. They were smaller but lots of them. Vegas buffet style. Certainly not worth the $20 upcharge. I would have rather stuck to the previous lobster offering with no upcharge. The Cioppino was very fishy. My husband sent it back and ordered something else. Which if you knew him you would realize was a real shocker. I don't think in 25 years I have ever seen him send anything back!!

I know lots of people aren't fond of brussell sprouts but I am a LOVER of them!!! unfortunately, they are serving "frozen" brussell sprouts which are very heavy and waterlogged. They are served with bacon/pancetta but that is clearly just added as garnish after cooking. They were actually horrible and I didn't eat them. Tried them another night too but they were just plain bad. I just don't think that they should be serving frozen vegetables in there!!

Now, not to be a Debbie Downer, as we really did have a great cruise and met so many wonderful people, But..... bottom line is that they have upped the surcharge for Pinnacle to $29 along with lowering the quality of the food and limiting the selection!!! It was really sad to see, as we have always enjoyed the Pinnacle Grill so much. I will be curious to see where this all goes.... as right now it only seems to be going in one direction!!!