Steak and a Parade! On a ship!
After chatting for at least an hour with my new found friends, we went to make our dinner plans. We had chosen My Time Dining, which means that instead of the traditional set dinner time seating typical on a cruise ship, we get to eat at what ever time we pick. This worked very well for us throughout the cruise. We'd make reservations either in the morning before leaving for the day, or when we'd get back on board, but tonight we wanted to try Chops, the Steak House. We made reservations and went back to our cabins to get ready. Normally I’m not a huge meat eater, but at steak restaurants, I’m all for it!
Keith doesn’t eat steak at all, but found their seafood selections to be good. We all had the filet with various sauces. Since we were a larger party, 6 in all, they brought all of the side dishes and served them family style. They also brought out all of the sauces and let us choose which we wanted after the filet were brought to the table. We could pick more than one if we wanted. Keith had the Barramundi fish and enjoyed it. We each had various appetizers and soups and salads.
I had their signature cucumber martini that I did find refreshing, but my dad didn’t like it. I was far too stuffed for dessert, but had a taste of someone’s crème brulee. It was good. And it was served flambéed.
We enjoyed Chops very much and found it to be as good as, if not better than any Steak House we’ve been to. Our server was delightful and very attentive. We were however overcharged, by quite a lot, for a bottle of wine. When brought to her attention she was very apologetic and corrected it immediately. I’m sure it was just an oversight. I would recommend Chops. Oh, I forgot to mention, Keith is a chef, and is often a bit hard to please when out to eat. It’s not so much that he’s critical, and he’s definitely not a food snob, but he knows a bit too much about how food it prepared and what goes into food costs. Being in the business for a long time sometimes makes him a bit jaded. He really enjoyed his meal at Chops and thought the service was excellent.
After our meal, everyone went back to their cabins, but Alex and I went back out. He needed sunglasses – make a note, count the pairs of sunglasses this boy goes through on this trip! This would be pair number 2! I got him a pair before we left. That pair was left on the van we were in when we transferred from Rome to the ship. AGH! So, we found a decent, relatively inexpensive pair at the RCL souvenir shop. Then the two of us went to the arcade. It was a decent arcade! A good mix of games for the “old timers” like me! Meaning games from the 80s! Like Ms Pac Man, Millipede, Galaga….I’m a girl who grew up playing arcade games for sure! And then there were all the newer arcade games too. He and I had a lot of fun. A definite mother son bonding time! Of course he killed me in Air Hockey several times. I blame it on the camera hanging around my neck! He didn’t buy it, he just said I’m too slow, poor reaction time! Really?
After spending my limit of $10 on my Sea Pass card we decided to move on. By the way, I forgot to mention that we chose to NOT allow either kid to be able to charge on their Sea Pass cards – far too dangerous with the arcade!
We made our way down to the Promenade for the Sail Away Parade. We weren’t sure what to expect, but here we were. Staking out a spot, just like any other parade. We bumped into a new friend from cruise critic and we were set.
The parade was unique for sure! The crew was all dressed up, it was colorful, fun and odd all at the same time. You couldn’t help but smile and feel festive. At the end confetti was flying.
We gathered up a big handful and brought it back to the cabin and threw it all over Megan so she could have some “parade” too, since she missed it. As late as it was, Alex, Megan and I went up to deck 12 to see the stars…..there weren’t as many as we’d hoped.
Off to bed. Tomorrow….Sicily!
Keith doesn’t eat steak at all, but found their seafood selections to be good. We all had the filet with various sauces. Since we were a larger party, 6 in all, they brought all of the side dishes and served them family style. They also brought out all of the sauces and let us choose which we wanted after the filet were brought to the table. We could pick more than one if we wanted. Keith had the Barramundi fish and enjoyed it. We each had various appetizers and soups and salads.
I had their signature cucumber martini that I did find refreshing, but my dad didn’t like it. I was far too stuffed for dessert, but had a taste of someone’s crème brulee. It was good. And it was served flambéed.
We enjoyed Chops very much and found it to be as good as, if not better than any Steak House we’ve been to. Our server was delightful and very attentive. We were however overcharged, by quite a lot, for a bottle of wine. When brought to her attention she was very apologetic and corrected it immediately. I’m sure it was just an oversight. I would recommend Chops. Oh, I forgot to mention, Keith is a chef, and is often a bit hard to please when out to eat. It’s not so much that he’s critical, and he’s definitely not a food snob, but he knows a bit too much about how food it prepared and what goes into food costs. Being in the business for a long time sometimes makes him a bit jaded. He really enjoyed his meal at Chops and thought the service was excellent.
After our meal, everyone went back to their cabins, but Alex and I went back out. He needed sunglasses – make a note, count the pairs of sunglasses this boy goes through on this trip! This would be pair number 2! I got him a pair before we left. That pair was left on the van we were in when we transferred from Rome to the ship. AGH! So, we found a decent, relatively inexpensive pair at the RCL souvenir shop. Then the two of us went to the arcade. It was a decent arcade! A good mix of games for the “old timers” like me! Meaning games from the 80s! Like Ms Pac Man, Millipede, Galaga….I’m a girl who grew up playing arcade games for sure! And then there were all the newer arcade games too. He and I had a lot of fun. A definite mother son bonding time! Of course he killed me in Air Hockey several times. I blame it on the camera hanging around my neck! He didn’t buy it, he just said I’m too slow, poor reaction time! Really?
We made our way down to the Promenade for the Sail Away Parade. We weren’t sure what to expect, but here we were. Staking out a spot, just like any other parade. We bumped into a new friend from cruise critic and we were set.
The parade was unique for sure! The crew was all dressed up, it was colorful, fun and odd all at the same time. You couldn’t help but smile and feel festive. At the end confetti was flying.
We gathered up a big handful and brought it back to the cabin and threw it all over Megan so she could have some “parade” too, since she missed it. As late as it was, Alex, Megan and I went up to deck 12 to see the stars…..there weren’t as many as we’d hoped.
Off to bed. Tomorrow….Sicily!
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