Seamus6

104

I totally agree and that is the long term plan. We're trying HAL again this July and maybe it will be marginally better but plan to try Seabourn and Oceania soon.

most restaurants that I have seen that have it on the menu actually just serve a marinara or normal spaghetti sauce not a true Bolognese which isn't usually made with tomato sauce but most of the liquid is wine and milk with a touch of tomato paste. it is also usually meat heavy which makes it more expensive so less attractive to the bottom line. The best real Bolognese I ever had in Germany of all places. I make my own.

Cheeses of all kinds are some of my favorite foods. when just eating it by itself, I generally prefer it chilled and don't remember ever thinking there was a difference in flavor from the first piece off of chilled cheese plate and the last few that were surely room temp. Seems odd there would be rules about room temperature cheese when many are aged for years at room temp. I believe I was told that most cheese needs some sort of catalyst to actually spoil. I love love LOVE fondue and other hot preparations of cheese like grilled cheese, croque monsieur or monte cristo.

For Breakfast, my Eggs Benedict with a vinegar hollandaise. My last lunch would be something with cheese like the Croque Monsieur I made last weekend with ham inside. For dinner something with beef in a wine sauce like Julia's Boeuf bourguignon.

The funny thing is over the past 10 years my cooking skills have improved dramatically and the food on cruises has declined substantially so now on average, we generally enjoy better food at home than on cruises. It is very rare that I am surprised with a great dish on a cruise and when I am, I can generally reproduce it afterwards.

The quality of food will continue to decline yet the masses will continue to wolf it down. There may be some automation mostly as a gimmick but since foreign labor will probably continue to remain cheap, I doubt it will affect cruising much. if US laws mandate minimum wages even for foreign workers all the cruise lines will just move to other countries where laws are more favorable.

I do stay away from salads in Pennsylvania but I enjoy most of their country style rustic food. it's much better than Maryland restaurants

I used to get tin roof a lot, now maybe rocky road or coffee, maybe butter brickle/heath bar

The food on my 4 post-COVID RCI cruises was abysmal and AQSC was worse. I'm sailing soon on HAL so hoping for a little better but want to try upgrading to Oceania or Seabourn in the next few years.

anything with meat and cheese, then whatever veggies I have laying around. But I actually prefer frittatas to omelets 🙂

well I was unfortunately right. The food on the serenade was not any better than the other RC cruises post-COVID. I think I will avoid them for a while even though I have just made diamond. We have an Alaskan cruise on the HAL Noordam in July so I am hoping that will be better

We haven't sailed HAL since 2015 and I am hoping their food will be better than the last few RC cruises. the sample menus I have seen look decent so we'll see. I am hoping I can get them to do a cheese plate once in a while thought I don't see it listed anywhere

I have and would again eat meatloaf for lunch on a cruise but would be low on the list for dinner

well I think it must have grabbed my email from my apple account which is how I logged in. I still don't see it my profile anywhere but it processes my OBS both steps and says it's done though its been a few days and I don't see it in the HAL app. I guess it will show up. Thanks for the suggestions

105

how does it know where to send the confirmation email? it never asked me my email address on the set up

I don't like virtually ANY seafood and I have tasted lobster, fish, crab and shrimp multiple times hoping my tastes change...As Harters said, I find it underwhelming but dislike it less than other seafood.

I like ascribing ulterior motives to organizations as much as the next guy but salt bringing out other flavors is pretty well accepted. the same is true of MSG. My cooking group has even performed a number of experiments (not necessarily perfectly scientific but convincing). That being said, Most Americans overdo it on salt; myself included. I also enjoy lots of black pepper and fresh herbs from my garden. In the end, everyone has their owns tastes and I am glad you have found a pleasant way to enjoy your food 🙂

sounds close to our recipe sans the chil/bbq. we might have it once a month, usually when I need a break from cooking and DH cooks. He actually makes a better one than me. sometimes he has added applesauce to the mix or two whole hard boiled eggs. I prefer his original recipe.

Thanks for this very thorough review! looking forward to the rest as this (Alaska sea and land) will likely be our next cruise!

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Wow BB, that's about how far in advance I booked our Viking Christmas market river cruise a while back and it was sold out 3 months later. Enjoy! 9 days for me!

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I forgot the brand I usually get (they were out of it last time) but lately I have been using Tamari style soy sauce even though I am not gluten free. Most soy sauce is a blend based on soy and wheat where tamari is soy only. Even the kikoman tamari I have right now is pretty decent. As long as it isn't LaChoy...