Tricia’s Travelogue

Yesterday we tried the suites lounge again about 4:30, and it was jam-packed, with no seating. We got drinks from the bar and returned to our cabin. The ship clearly isn’t able to accommodate so many Pinnacles along with us suite people!  We had an excellent dinner at 150 Central Park, definitely the best meal on a ship in a while. We tried their signature cocktail, the Urban Garden, involving vodka, lemon grass, basil, and cucumber, and it was very refreshing.  Note that we got the “throne” chairs!  (They often feature in Royal Caribbean YouTube vlogs.) For appetizers, I had a great beet salad with balls of goat cheese rolled in herbs, crispy prosciutto, and candied walnuts. Charlie chose the crispy pork belly. Beet salad  Crispy pork belly My main dish was pan-seared halibut with warm potato salad and truffle hollandaise. Charlie opted for the lobster Thermidor. Lobster Thermidor  Halibut And for dessert, we both had to get the famous fried cheesecake, which i...

 Today’s the first day of our 16-day transatlantic cruise from Galveston to Barcelona.  We managed to pack our stuff into two suitcases and two small duffels. (The striped tote held two bottles of champagne and snacks.) Half of my suitcase held clothes, and the other half was for toiletries, chargers, hats, and shoes. By mid-April, we will be heartily sick of the few outfits we brought, I’m sure! A strong cold front arrived in Houston overnight, so it was in the mid-40s, with 29 mph winds! Yesterday’s high was 84. Our favorite driver Rafee drove us to the port and dropped us off at the door, where baggage handlers took all our bags. We rode an escalator to the suites and Pinnacles check-in, which was already crowded. We’ve heard that there are a LOT of Pinnacles on this cruise. We arrived at 10:00, and got checked in quickly, but it was 11:00 before we got to board, because the staff’s tablets weren’t working for that process. After checking in at our muster station, we reacti...