Tricia’s Travelogue

After unpacking yesterday, we enjoyed the loungers on our balcony, with a great view of smaller boats and jet skis zipping or sailing around.  After getting ready for an early dinner, we went up to the suites lounge in time for Happy Hour, which coincided with sailaway.  The view is great from the top deck. If you’re a long-time reader, you’ll be surprised to hear that we did Izumi Hibachi for dinner.  Our previous experiences here and here were less than satisfactory. But! Last night was different! First, there was just one other table of six besides ours, which included two other couples and us.  The noise level was MUCH lower than our previous experiences.  And our chef (from the Philippines) quipped that it was his first time, “but I watched TikTok last night.” He did a great job managing three older couples who were mostly there for the food.  Charlie enjoyed the lobster and scallop option, and I chose chicken. The portions were enough for three peop...

After arriving in Southampton yesterday morning, we took an Uber to our hotel, the same one as last year. (It was a Holiday Inn then, but has been refurbished and is now a Voco.) We stored our bags and headed out to a big mall nearby to shop a little. It was nice to know our way around this time.  I had to stop and admire these flowers growing next to a parking lot—both new to me. We had excellent smash burgers for lunch at the Dancing Man pub—recommended!  We also passed the Mayflower Memorial, commemorating all of the emigrants who departed from Southampton. When our room was ready, we left all our bags in storage except two small ones for overnight, to simplify getting downstairs the next day. The hotel has only two tiny elevators, and demand is high when everyone heads to board the ship! We walked to Ennio’s for dinner, where we tried the evening special appetizer of fried cod cheeks —yum! We had salad, and I chose lasagna while Charlie had seafood linguine.  Sorry, n...

Today’s post will be brief, as we were busy wrapping up the trip and packing for disembarkation tomorrow morning. We did add a British couple to our trivia team, and they supplied three answers we wouldn’t have known. The trivia hosts seem to have a thing for the periodic table, Michael Jackson, and British sit-coms. We checked out the photos the ship photographers took and bought three.  Alas, they revealed that I should stick to long sleeves henceforth!  Oh, well. They’re on a thumb drive, and we’re traveling with only iPads, so I can’t post them now. Here’s where the ship was this morning, but now we’re in the English Channel. For lunch, we both started with a very tasty (yet non-photogenic) corn and chicken soup. Then I tried the chicken quesadillas, which were very good, and a little taste of Texas. Charlie opted for the monkfish, which he enjoyed. Skipping ahead to dinner, I enjoyed a starter of roasted carrots with carrot hummus. A bit different and delicious. Charlie w...

Our morning went according to our shipboard routine—coffee and the internet, the gym, and Morning Trivia.  Today there were TWO soccer/football questions, which made us wish for Rob or Thomas. And do you know the only country named for a woman? We didn’t. Luckily, our scores won’t be on our Permanent Records. We are getting closer to our destination! Today we went to Lunch and Learn, an extra event to learn about wines.  It was held in the Verandah, the steakhouse on board.  Various sommeliers from different restaurants told us about each pair of wines.  Here’s the menu: The French wines were our favorites, but a couple of the others were also very good.  Here are the four courses: Gin and tonic salmon Grilled lemon sole Grilled beef tenderloin  Cheese course with date chutney  I was surprised to discover that the Swiss cheese (hiding behind the Brie), combined with the French wine, tasted like dark chocolate. Very tasty! After trying all those wines I...

There’s no time change today, so we’re still four hours ahead of Houston Time.  We slept until 7:00, late for us!   I didn’t get to the gym today, but Mr. Dutiful did.  Morning Trivia was fun, though we didn’t do especially well.  Our team didn’t know which country has the most pyramids, nor Queen Victoria’s first name at birth (among other questions). We did know the word for a sailor who hasn’t yet crossed the equator! I’ve been meaning to post about the amazing floral arrangements that are everywhere on the ship. The video gives you a quick glimpse of the amazing peacock arrangement that greeted us as we boarded the ship, and the next photo shows the arrangement that replaced it.   This one was at the entrance to the Princess Grill where we have our meals. All of the two-tops have sprigs of white orchids, and the round tables for six have centerpieces with multiple blooms. I wish they offered a tour of their conservatory or flower workshop! I also learned yes...

The sun is rising very early now, so we’ve begun closing our curtains at bedtime so we can sleep a bit later.  We went to the gym, which was much less busy than on the first day.  To continue our apparent routine, we met Al and Carol for Morning Trivia and enjoyed that, though we didn’t win. We really need a Brit and an Aussie on our team, as the questions always include some only they’d know. Charlie showed me the small casino on Deck 2, where the waves look much fiercer than on Deck 10. Then we went to check out the photos taken on the first night aboard and on Gala Night. There are a couple of good ones, so I’m sure we’ll buy some after the next Gala Night. Lunch was pretty good, starting with cheese grits-stuffed jalapenos.  I thought that was a clever pairing! Delicious! We each had a fairly pedestrian salad, but we needed some greenery.  Charlie had roast lamb with potatoes and Thai mint sauce, which he said was flavorful but not very tender.  I opted for ...

We had a leisurely morning before Charlie dutifully headed to the gym.  I opted to skip exercise to finish the blog post for yesterday. (You’re welcome.). At 10:00 we returned to the Carinthia Lounge for Morning Trivia, again joining Al and Carol.  They told us they were both retired middle school teachers, bless them.  And their granddaughter is also in a biomedical engineering masters program, at Georgia Tech!  We didn’t do as well today, and we wished we could have phoned Rob for the name of the tenth Doctor.   Just before noon (and another time change), the captain announced we’ve traveled 550 nautical miles with about 2200 to go. He also noted that we’ll pass the resting place of the Titanic at 10:30 p.m. tonight, while assuring us that we’re staying well south of any icebergs.  For lunch in the Princess Grill, I started with a vegetable antipasti that included some really good mozzarella, with mushrooms, olives, and peppers. Charlie had sweet potato-c...