TABLE FOR 7 PLEASE.

Not reported in the previous post was the trip Lenny and Chucky made right after lunch to the Maitre d’ at My Time Dining to secure a nice table and insure we had the same team throughout the cruise.

Ricardo promised to do his best which they acknowledged with a FIRM “full” hand shake that thanked him for his future efforts.

Mark had also secured the name of the Head Waiter from a friend who sang his praises from a previous cruise.

And so, our hearty entourage marched up to Ricardo’s desk on Night One, and he expressed confidently that they would enjoy the table and team.  We’ll see.

Ricardo had paged head waiter Radoćlav to escort them to the table manned by Wayan and Vijay with the instructions “They are Family, be good to them.”

If what followed was how family was treated in Rado’s neighborhood, we'll let’s just say, not a neighborhood we would choose to live in.

Wayan dropped off menus, made a few recommendations and promptly disappeared.

When he finally reappeared, he took all the orders including trying to solicit the dessert at the same time.  Seriously?

From the time we were seated until the appetizers appeared was 1 hour.

3 of us ordered escargot which came 10 minutes after all the other appetizers and were cold and had to be sent back.  The replacements were not much better.

30 minutes later Vijay brought out the entrees, which sat on the transport cart for another 10 minutes until Wayan showed up to serve them.

Prime Rib was the recommendation and came out cold, tough and nested on 2 raw carrot medallions, draped over cold mashed potatoes.  What would you expect with it sitting on the side stand that long? 

Mark’s fish of the day was passable and the other items were unremarkable

But the joke of the night, was the, what else… Crème Brule.  While this particular dessert has been the subject of previous pain, this incarnation was truly hilarious.  Crème Brule is traditionally served in a shallow half-tart dish to insure a light layer of custard topped with a light toasting of caramelized sugar.  What appeared was a small, deep sauce ramekin with over cooked custard and burnt sugar topping.

The Hazelnut, fudge “something or other” as Dragon Chic described was bitter and dry. Also served in an inappropriate ceramic ramekin.

The rest weren’t worth mentioning, we think you get the picture.

By the time coffee was served and Rado was summoned for a recounting of the evening, 3 tables – one of 6, one of 12 and one of 4 had arrived after our entourage and departed 30 minutes before.

Lenny led off the list of errors and as Rado looked at Chucky for comment on the timeliness, he was advised, that:

“My Grandmother was slow… but she was old, This evening made her look like Usain Bolt.”

Rado did his best to apologize and SWORE that given one more chance, we would be pleasantly surprised at how good they would do tomorrow.

We'll see.

Now they had just enough time for the unhappy 7 to hustle over to the pre-reserved 10:30 Ice Show for a wonderful performance by an international cast of a fantasy “1887 Journey in Time”. The costumes and the skater were spot on.

By then they were all pretty much wiped out from a very eventful day and headed to Nonny-Nonny Land post haste.

It was particularly hard on the Tevini’s as they are usually in bed by 9.

Dragon Chick and Lydia arranged to meet at the Gym at 8am for a quick work out, the Boys elected to sleep in.

Tomorrow is NASSAU, where if the weather holds, a shore side stroll might be in order, then again, since they all had been there several times, maybe not.

Alas, there’s NOWAT’s to write thus the meeting with Mr. Dewar and his progeny had to be postponed, much to Chucky’s dismay, but his bed was calling.

Ciao 4 Now

Uncle Chuck & The ready to work off dessert,

Dragon Lady