I've had a couple of people ask about the accommodations and the meals on board so I thought I'd take some time today and write a bit about them. I know when I was looking for information about the trip these were things I was curious about. We have the owner's cabin on board, as it was the only one with two single beds. This gives us a lot of space and two separate rooms. The bedroom has the two beds, a dresser with a mirror and lots of storage space (including drawers under the bed). The bathroom goes off the bedroom with a good shower that has a handrail for the rough days. The living room has an L-shaped desk with more storage along the wall, including a big deep corner cupboard that took the suitcases. There's a television, CD/tape player, a DVD player and a satellite box for the TV. The satellite (so far) only worked in Europe with no English stations, so we're mainly stuck to the DVDs we brought. There's also a sectional couch, a coffee table fixed to the floor, an armchair and a small cupboard with a mini fridge. The cabin really is very well appointed and has been a good home away from home.
I'll break down the meals based on time of day. A fair bit of the offerings are constant and self serve. For example, there is always fruit juice, water, milk, cheese, cold cuts, seasonings, condiments, salad (lunch and dinner), salad dressings, and pickles on the rotating centrepiece on the table. There is always fruit on the sideboard along with jams and peanut butter (they go on the table for breakfast). Bread is added during lunch and dinner and sometimes the cook does some baking for the crew's afternoon coffee (bread, cake) and leaves a few pieces in our dining room. Coffee (and tea) is offered at all meals.
Breakfast (8am) - choice of eggs and meat of the day (bacon, sausage, ham) or scrambles (mexican, western) or omelette, cold cereal (not sure what type as nobody has ever taken them), hot cereal (porridge), and toast.
Lunch (12pm) - soup of the day (quite good), a hot dish (served with usually potatoes and a vegetable), fruit plate. Thursday and Sunday the fruit plate is replaced by ice cream (with chocolate sauce and whipped cream if so desired). The meats, cheeses, salad, and usually a nut bread (not sweet, likely a rye/pumpernickel blend) are another option if desired.
Dinner (6pm) - a hot dish with the addition of usually another type of cheese on the rotating centre table. No soup, no fruit plate, no ice cream.
It will be interesting to see if the meals change once our captain changes in Singapore. We'll be very sorry to see him go. We found out that the nice soups at lunch came about as a result of him telling the cook there were to be no canned soups. In Philadelphia the captain went ashore and bought the cook a recipe book with 1000 recipes in it. Up until that point the food had been okay, but not inspired. Since then the cooking has improved the offerings although I suspect this is with lots of studying at night. Although I did find out that he hadn't known that the ship carried passengers when he signed on. He would have likely brought some cookbooks with him if he'd known. Today we had a lovely chicken with feta and olives at lunch and will have beef with caper sauce (new to us) for dinner. The captain also brought aboard wine, cheese and a special Spanish ham while in Aviles. Our stop in Genoa added salami, mortadella, fresh parmesan, and even a panatone the first day out. I suspect these touches are very much captain specific so we'll see what the new captain brings. I was sitting in the dining room one night after dinner (my mother and I will remain and chat with the Captain and the Chief Engineer if they have a quiet even ahead) and they asked about how I found the food. I'm quite happy with it and said so. The Chief Engineer said it was quite good compared to most ships and mentioned that he'd been on some ships with some really bad food.
The one thing I didn't mention is that if you really don't find anything to your taste you are encouraged to ask the cook to make you something. When we first came aboard there was a fair amount of fish served. I myself don't eat most fish (although I'll take shrimp and calamari generally). The other passenger didn't eat any of it (as well I think as no lamb or duck, and I didn't quite catch it one night but I think nothing with cooked onions in it - she does seem to be exceptionally picky about food and some nights just eats cheese and crackers she's bought ashore, or peanut butter and bread). The nights that fish was on the menu I usually just asked what the crew was having. So I've also had oxtails and spaghetti on some nights. I've noticed that fish has slowly worked its way off the menu most of the time although I look forward to Sunday, which brings shrimp with feta and a pasta dish for supper. I've never bothered to ask for anything special (even though the cook himself has offered). One of the other passengers occasionally asks for something a little different and is accommodated. (i.e. a buckwurst-think german hotdog- and bread, some baked chicken)
Well, I think I've written enough about the meals. I haven't really mentioned the wine, which some nights adds just a little atmosphere to the after dinner conversations. It's funny, but it's to the point where I can predict the nights. It's never on a night a pilot is due, or during rough seas, or even the night before ports. It's usually on the nights that the seas are calm and we're effectively in the middle of nowhere. I suppose those are the evenings that the Captain and the Chief Engineer can relax a little bit.
That's enough typing for now. The sun is out so I think I'll check to see where we are (on the bridge) and then maybe go down to the main deck to see if I can find a sunny spot without much wind. I was outside earlier and the upper deck was sunny, but windy. The direction we're travelling today puts the windless section of the upper deck in the shade, so lower down might be a better idea.
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