Crown Grill and Evening

I want to start by saying that since the internet signal is not very strong in our cabin I ventured down to the promenade and found a quiet area in the shore excursion office area.  But as I sat there I witnessed a lot of passengers coming in to ask questions of the staff behind the desk.  Now note this is a two day cruise, Vancouver to San Francisco.  There are no ports; therefore no shore excursions, and from what I gathered no shore excursions for San Francisco.  But this doesn’t stop passengers from coming and even lining up with their questions for the shore excursion staff.

What is so funny is as I sat there (for about 30 minutes) I witnessed passengers ask, I need more luggage tags, what can I do about my coffee card, where is the washroom, what time is breakfast, questions about their bill.  And for each person the staff treated each question as if it was the most important question they had heard that day.  Each question was answered to the best of their knowledge and if they didn’t have the answer the staff actually called the appropriate department to find an answer.  Now that is impressive and worth noting here.

 

Now back to my day.  I quickly changed into my workout clothes and headed upstairs.  Handed my cruise card to the spa staff behind the desk and was given a robe to use for the Thermal Suite, but first a workout in the gym is in order, need to stay on top of things.  The gym is relatively quiet, certainly much quieter than earlier.  The equipment is plentiful with treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, weight machines, an area for free weights. 

 

Have to say there is nothing better than running on a treadmill looking out at the ocean to keep you motivated.  The gym is kept clean and there are two crew members that area available to answer your questions, and if you want you can even arrange for a personalized workout session with a personal trainer. 

 

After an intense workout I am looking forward to the Thermal Spa again.  I go back to the locker room to change and put on the robe, at least today’s robe is in much better shape than yesterdays but!  It is HUGE, I mean really huge – more like for someone who is 300lbs.  I could actually wrap the robe around me twice!  Again the Thermal Suite is PACKED not a single heated bed is available.  Not even a hook to hang my robe is available.  I do go into the steam rooms finally and enjoy the experience along with all the others in there.  When I come out I am looking for towels and looks like they have run out, again probably because it is so darn busy.

 

This is my first experience with the Thermal Suite and I know that they supposedly sell only a limited number, but I have a feeling they sold a heck of a lot.  Perhaps on longer voyages fewer people buy the package making the experience so much more enjoyable.  But for myself my experience has not been a good one and I could never justify buying it for the entire trip.

 

Tonight we have a reservation at the Crown Grill Specialty Restaurant.  Fee for this venue is $25 and well worth it.  We are greeted as soon as we enter by the head waiter and shown to a lovely table looking out at the sunset.  I wish I could remember the head waiter’s name but all I can remember is from Romania, but he offered a suggestion for wine and we took him up on it and it was so yummy, yes yummy, the kind of wine that feels like you are sipping nectar.  The wine was a Merlot called Ferrari something (sorry I just can’t remember the second part of the name and as the night went on and the wine was consumed I am not surprised)  I will try and look it up and report back. 

 

I started with the lobster cake, then the black and blue onion soup and for dinner the 8 oz fillet mignon with potato and asparagus on the side.  Bernie had the scallops, then the black and blue onion soup, and for main the barramundi.  Both of us of course had the melted chocolate lava cake with a side of chocolate ice cream.  Also add a bit of the pink himilayan salt to the cake to enhance the flavors. 

 

We were honoured to have the Hotel General Manager join us for a glass of wine and to catch up with him and how he has been since we last sailed with him.  He in fact had retired, but he is currently back to assist with vacation relief.  We shared some wine and some laughs and catching up.