What A Market

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The CD just announced that the seas were running too high for tendering and the Captain is moving the ship to a different location. He said we would try tendering again at 9:00am from the new location.

Bad photo shooting into the sun.

Thursday morning and it’s St. Barts. Partly cloudy with some light passing showers. The wind is up a bit from the previous couple of days. I see a Windstar ship in port with us along with the usual collection of super yachts. This is the only tender port we have for this cruise. With the wind up, it should make for some bumpy tendering. The Wi-Fi is alive this morning, but on life support. I will note that this has been pretty frustrating. Way worse than our September cruise on the Regatta and worse than I recall from previous cruises on the Riviera (and the Marina).

I get it ORV, I guess. I think a lot of people shared your opinion because the little guy stayed whole for the evening. But I like staring my food in the face, and say “I’m going to eat you!” 😜 He was tasty too!

Some amazing offerings in Terraces this evening for dinner. Whole suckling pig and a red snapper at the grill station.

I’m posting now in real time again. This morning we arrived in Roseau, Dominica. We’re on time having arrived at 8:00am. Weather is perfect, if a touch warm. No winds, no seas. I think I heard the CD report the high temp for the day would be 84 degrees. We have another ship’s excursion planned — River Tubing/Waterfalls. Looking forward to it.

I think we arrived at noon. They added 30 minutes to the departure time. I think we departed at 6:30pm. Our excursion was at 1:00pm, so not interrupted. As for St Vincent, I think we arrived at 11:00am.

Here’s the birthday photos. Thank you again Oceania.

Here’s another catch up post: Going back in time to the evening of the Super Bowl and dinner in Toscana. Like a lot of regular posters here on CC, I like thinking about which of the Specialty restaurants is my favorite. I’ve even participated in ranking them when someone does a poll. You know what I think now — my opinion (which is mostly worthless…..lol) varies from cruise to cruise, ship to ship, and sometimes even evening to evening when we double up on a Specialty restaurant on a cruise. But on to Toscana. I have a soft spot for Toscana because it is my daughter’s favorite. (If you’ve followed my posting from previous cruises going back many years, then you know about my daughter and our cruises together.) I ordered pretty much my standard fare for Toscana. I start with the beef carpaccio, followed by a starter sized portion of the lobster risotto, and then the veal piccata. I’ve always felt Oceania does a great job with beef carpaccio. I have the olive oil guy (yes, there’s an olive oil guy in Toscana) add just a touch of one of the peppery olive oils. The nit about the carpaccio tonight was the topping of chopped iceberg lettuce. WHAT?!? Where the heck is the arugula? Sheesh. I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to hear about Covid supply chain problems again. Ha! Onto the risotto. Ah, Oceania’s risottos. Toscana always seems to get it right with the risotto being al dente. Tonight was no exception. But guess what? It was only tepid, at best, temp-wise. I don’t like sending dishes back, but I sent this one back. I wanted them to take my wife’s dish back so we could eat our courses together like civilized people (can’t remember what she was having), but she laughed in my face. Anyway, bing bang boom out comes my risotto piping hot and full of lobster. Perfecto. Finally, the veal piccata limone. This dish can be somewhat hit or miss. Lots of things can go wrong with a veal piccata — the quality of the veal, how thinly it’s been pounded out, how lightly or heavily dusted with flour, is it over-cooked, and then the sauce being too thin or too thick. (Yes, I obsess about veal piccata.) Tonight’s verdict: Toscana hit on every count, except the sauce was a bit too thick. But it usually is so I give them allowance for this. Plus they always nail the potatoes served with this dish. I don’t have dessert at Toscana because I love the biscottis they serve at the end of the meal. A couple of espressos with my biscotti and finish off the Barolo — a great evening. Following this post I’m adding some photos of of the DD, Shannon. They come from this past September on our Pacific Coastal cruise on the Regatta. We had a chance to celebrate her birthday. I arranged for Toscana to bake a fully gluten-free cake for her. (Like mom, she is also Coeliac.) The bakers pulled out all the stops with this cake.

This is a posting from a couple of days ago. This restored on itself after the internet went down a couple of days ago. Ok, so posting regularly has fallen apart. I blame it on two factors too much wine the night before last, including a big Barolo at Toscana, and no internet all yesterday morning. The weird thing about the internet is there was announcement in Currents said there would be internet interference due to the island of St. Kitts. Huh??? Anyway, the internet came back up in the afternoon (while we were still in port). We did a ship’s excursion yesterday on St. Kitts — Caterman/Snorkeling tour. It was nicely done with a fun crew on the Cat. The trip out to the dive site was extra extra long because of the heavy winds, but the dive site was well sheltered so made the snorkeling part easy. Traveled back to ship under sail power which was a nice treat. Another ship’s excursion today for St. Vincent. More snorkeling with kayaking. I’ll get to posting more as best I can. I’ll definitely post on our meal at Toscana. Signing off from Baristas. Ciao

Now the Computer Center has flipped over to the other side of Baristas, and is now squeezed into an area before the start of the Library. Far fewer computers now.

Wow, looks like we have WiFi today! Have to get some work done, but I will try to get some Live posts going. Here’s one: This is a photo of the seating area next to Baristas. From memory, I recall this used to be the area for the Computer Center.

Still no internet, so I get the privilege of activating Verizon’s TravelPass for the second day in a row. Stupid work. And GRRRRR Oceania!

The tour included a rum punch. Sampled the local beer after the punch. (More scientific research, of course.

Let’s try to get a photo right side up. This is the beach we kayaked to for snorkeling. Some of Pirates of the Caribbean filmed here.

Can only post one photo at a time. and great, upside down.

Live posting on drive to kayak/snorkeling excursion. Quick bus stop for photos. Ship in harbor and me.

Second morning in a row that internet has been out. Up now but SLOW. Just arrived in St. Vincent. A bit late into port. We were a couple of hours late yesterday for St. Kitts.

Bucket of beer special for tonight’s game. Almost makes me think I’m on Carnival. Almost! 😜

Hi pinotlover Always love your posts on all things wine, food and drinks in general. I’m a passive investor in a group of restaurants in Scottsdale, so I think a little bit about the economics of the bar/hospitality business. (Not a business or an investment for amateurs!) Your comment here is spot on. I do think that first photo in the Casino Bar is distorted from a perspective stand point with me in the background.

That was the Casino Bar. For the sake of science, I tested a pour at Horizons. 😜

This is what a standard pour looks like for wine. Pretty consistent across all bars. When poured, the server has no idea of our drink package.

Pack dryer sheets if you use them. Although you will probably find the random one floating around in the laundry room.

Oops, forgot a major point for today’s festivities. The ship is hosting a Super Bowl party and showing the game in Horizons. You can also watch the game on the TV in your room. Several months ago, I booked my specialty restaurant reservations and ended booking Toscana for tonight. Oh well. The DW has zero interest in football. She will probably tolerate me watching the second half after dinner.