Dinner at the New Sabatinis and Ocean Medallion Update

taken from Princess website

Tonight we are celebrating my birthday by dinner at Sabatinis.  Our reservation is at 7:30.  We are greeted by the Supervisor Arthuro (will double check his spelling) from Mexico.  He directs us to a lovely table that looks out to the sea where we are in awe of the stunning sunset.

Here is a link to the new menu on the Caribbean Princess for Sabatinis 

https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/ships-and-experience/food-and-dining/sabatinis-trattoria/sabatinis-trattoria-main-menu.pdf

I love the new décor, very elegant, tastefully done.  Sadly I did not get any pictures of the décor as there were just too many people dining and did not want to invade their privacy but will try later when it is quieter.

Our waiter Lizeth and her assistant Karen, both from Peru blow us away with their amazing service.  In fact everyone here is very good and attentive.  This is the way a specialty meal should be!

We enjoy our champagne we brought and toast to me turning another year older!  Feel wonderful and it has been an amazing year and I feel very blessed.

Bread is served along with the balsamic and olive oil.  So darn good but we resist as we need to save room.

The starter arrives and it is small pizza bites with some prosciutto served with a roasted tomato and bell pepper puree.

For my appetizer I have the fried zucchini & yellow squash, smoked scamorza, toasted house made crostini.  So light and not greasy and the smoked cheese smells and tastes even better.

I then have the soup -- Grana Padano Fondue,  celery, foraged mushrooms, toasted hazelnuts which is quite yummy but very very rich and I can only have a few spoonful’s.

For the pasta course I have the Risotto -- vialone nano rice, beets dolce latte, gorgonzola, pistachios.  Again very yummy but I only have a few bites as again very rich and I want to save room.

The entre for me is the Scaloppine di Pollo, Salsa al Limoncello con Rosemarino seared chicken breast, sorrento lemon, asparagus, rosemary sauce, garlic, pine nuts, capers, olive oil & parsley mashed potatoes.  I loved it, but found the mashed potatoes to be so so and would of probably have preferred more flavour or a polenta served with it. 

Bernie had the Iseo-Style Lake Trout Rolls lemon, capers, extra virgin olive oil, rosemary polenta which he adored.

The crew come out and sing Happy Birthday to me – that never gets old and I feel honoured.

For dessert I had the sampler – again very good and thankfully we shared this dessert and even we did not finish it entirely.  My favorites in it were the tiramisu and the pana cotta. 

Of course we both had a Sicilian Kiss drink for our dessert too.

It was an amazing meal and Bernie is quite impressed with the menu and we both comment that we hope this menu rolls out fleet wide as we prefer it.  We are told it is going to happen.

We stroll around the Promenade deck and end up sitting at the bar in Vines drinking water and chatting with Dominique.

Back in the cabin at 11 pm and we turn on the Wake Show but end up turning it off as we can’t keep our eyes open.  Oh Love love love the tv system on board!

I turn on the sleep sounds which help you drift off to sleep and then it is the sounds of the ocean.  Just wish they sold this cd of this as I would definitely buy it.

Ocean Medallion on the Caribbean

This sailing is the start of Ocean Medallion; however it is not rolled out to the passengers yet.  We have been told it currently being tested by head office crew that are on board.

We see a lot of crew with the blue Ocean Medallion logo shirts on throughout the ship.

Each cabin has the new LCD screens and you touch the screen to open your door; although in the future the doors will unlock as you approach so all you have to do is open the door.

Here is our LCD screen.

Currently they are working with both systems and therefore we were required to take our boarding picture the old way with the handheld devices and then we had to take a picture with the new Ocean Medallion tablets.  They are going to be doing this for three sailings to ensure it is all up and running well.

When we arrived at our Muster Station we checked in with the handheld device and then they scanned our cards with the tablets too.

I am excited about Ocean Medallion but yes I am one that is rather disappointed that it has not been an easy roll out as I am sure the crew feel the same way.  I hope that it works out and stay tuned as I report on the progression of the roll out.