POA1

The Mariner Delft tiles were delivered today. They come with a "certificate of authenticity." (Have they always?) That should cut down on the rampant Mariner tile counterfeiting operations.

Check both the Dive In and the Gelato place. They're next to one another.

Keep trying until they taste right. We're adding liquor to ours to sanitize them in case there are germs.

FWIW, neither of us recall seeing anything about a charge for a second appetizer. However, we only had a starter and an entrée. We did, however, have a glass of wine with each course.

Here is the Pinnacle Lunch menu as images for the rest of you researchers doing peer review.

My pleasure! It's the least I can do after all reference material you've provided over the years. pinnacle_grill_lunch_menu_winter_2023_en_v2_-_de_lijn_1_(1).pdf

We had lunch in the Retreat Area today. I ran to the Crow's Nest for drinks. Michelle had a Lagunitas IPA, or as she calls it, "the puppy beer." I ordered the Trader Vic's Mai Tai, with the Myers dark rum floater. My drink was filled to the brim. I had to take a sip so I could carry it without spilling. That sip? The floater. Michelle repeated yesterday's salad from New York Pizza and Deli: The Motown substitute Caesar dressing. I had the Pastrami sandwich. The pastrami was really good. I should have ordered double meat. Nice rye bread within a light toasting. As you can see in the photo above, the cabana guys brought an extra bowl of potato chips. We didn't even ask for them. Thank you, Bubble of Awesome!

I think the shirt is perfect as is. Why would you want to upgrade it? Longer sleeves? A hood? Drink holder pocket? 😉

I'll try to remain optimistic, about HMC, but the City of Fort Lauderdale keeps calling with weather warnings. (We have wifi calling through T-Mobile. This allows our nap to be interrupted anywhere in the world.)

Possible washout for HMC tomorrow. We both got calls from the city of Fort Lauderdale warning of flooding with up to 8 inches of rain through tomorrow night. Rain & 30 mph winds expected for Little San Salvador in the Bahamas. I feel bad for first timers because it's a beautiful stop. We've always considered HMC to be a crap shoot this early in the season, so I am not surprised. Guess we'll have to find something else to do. I was going to sign up for Adult Coloring, but I found out that they do not actually let you draw on adults with markers. It's all paper and crayons.

The master is Henk Draper who rolls his Rs delightfully.

Does anyone happen to know if the specialty gelato shakes like Nutella Bailey's or Tiramisu have booze in them? Asking for a friend who wants to know if we need to get the shakes, add a floater and then get the Dutch Cafe fries or if the shake is already primed and ready to go. Thanks!

Sometimes your research hypothesis hits a dead end. It did in this case. There is no master list for distribution. If this were a longer cruise, I'd happily run around the ship and scan all the special drink menus from the various venues. Unfortunately our research grant only covers seven days of time in the field.

I'll see if I can scare up a liquor list. I'm interested myself. It's been five years since we last cruised. My knowledge of what is new is not going to be much help m

Oh, no! They put that thing over my eyes. 👀 I can't see! I'll be bumping into things all the time now.

Will do!

Some thoughts on Sel de Mer - The food was impressive. If the Chef Rudi's death cult is wrong, we will probably eat there again. The restaurant looks like it's been booked quite full most every night. The least full night was embarkation day. The manager, Radqmir, does a good job. I think that the restaurant would benefit from a few extra assistant waiters though. There is nothing wrong with the service, but it's not as snappy as it could be. One thing that was really odd was the number of people ordering their filets butterflied and well done. Our proteins came out out right on temp, but a fair number of people sent theirs back. (We are a medium rare people.)

We are doing our traditional caviar tonight at 5:00 in the Pinnacle Grill. Dinner will be in Club Orange, but Tudor, the PG manager hooked us up with a time slot. It will be our Christmas gift to one another. We don't have to wrap it and we already have everything we need. It's a gorgeous day up in the Retreat Area and I'm trying to keep awake. I rarely have carbs for breakfast, so the banana bread has made me sleepy.

Previously in the Club Orange dining room... Michelle had the buttermilk pancakes with the ginger butter from the buckwheat cakes. She added a side of two eggs, over easy. I had the banana bread French toast with a side of corned beef hash, hold the pico de gallo. I had them "crisp" the banana bread. It's the little touches that one finds in the Bubble.

Poohby Joe is celebrating the season in his Christmas shirt.

Tonight's dinner menu. Since it's a formal night, both Club Orange and the MDR will be running on the same menu, the Gold Gala.

It's our second and final sea day. Just another reason to dislike these 7 day sailings! We have important business to take care of today. We haven't had any gelato yet. Heck. we haven't even been in the Lido. Michelle wants to try the chocolate espresso martini from the Royal Dutch Cafe. She also thinks a milkshake, paired with the fries from the Royal Dutch Cafe would be good together. It's this kind of innovative thinking that makes her such a valuable research scientist.

Bloody Mary for Ma'am Michelle. Chateau Ste. Michelle Brut for Sir Brian. Bloody Mary. You can't drink all day if you don't get an early start! "Deconstructed" Mimosa - I don't like my champagne adulterated.

Club Orange dining room is pretty quiet at 8:00 AM. Perhaps the HAL Orange Party crowd was raging late last night? Who am I kidding? It's the last sea day. People sleep in. Not these people. We do, however, nap.

To push the high top table chairs in the NS Club Orange dining room back, or pull them in, use your foot, while standing, and "loop" it under the bottom cross bar. You can pull or push down below the center of gravity.