Cruise: Part 6 - Good Eatin'

One of the best parts about the cruise was the food. I'm a Kraft mac n' cheese kind of gal. But fine dining really agrees with me. So Heidi and I were always worried about what we had to pay for. We were scared we'd get our bill on the last day and have outrageous charges. Anyway, we weren't exactly sure what was included, so we only ate in the main dining area for the first part of the week, which is always a big ordeal. For breakfast, they serve like 3 courses. It took about an hour to eat breakfast, one and a half hours to eat lunch, and closer to 2 hours to eat dinner. Anyway, Wednesday at dinner, we found out that everything but one restaurant was included. So after that, we ate the buffet for breakfast and lunch. Even the wait staff commented on how much we must love the main dining restaurant, because we ate there so much. It was kind of a running joke with us. But seriously, everything was so good. You could literally eat 24 hours a day. Buffet lines, a grill area, the regular dining room, a sushi bar, room service. You really have to be careful, because the calories add up pretty fast. Heidi and I only ate at mealtimes, so we could have been much worse off.

This is us eating sushi our last night on the cruise.

Anyway, we ate dinner every night in the main seating area. This was a long affair as dinner was 5 courses. We sat at a table that seated 8. There were two 21-year-old girls at our table, and a really awesome couple named Mike and Gail. The 3rd couple we only met on Thursday, which was the only night they ate in the main dining room. I can't remember their names, but they were very odd. The lady was from Hungary and didn't say much. I'm pretty sure she was thinking to herself, "Hey, free food." The guy was from Florida and was very doting. He ordered for her, fed her bites, whispered things to her constantly, stroked her arm lovingly, kissed her all the time. It was pretty annoying. So the guy was telling us about how he met the girl. "I was at a dance club and from the moment I saw her, I thought, 'she's so beautiful, I have to meet her.' So we were introduced, and from that moment, we've been absolutely in love, inseparable. She means everything to me, the love of my life, my best friend." (That's the paraphrased version.) So I asked, "How long ago was that?" He answered, "3 months". So we're all trying not to laugh at him, because who goes on a cruise with someone they've known for 3 months. Anyway, he'd be sitting there, whispering to the love of his life and we'd all be talking. Then he'd interrupt and say things like, "Have you ever been to a Broadway play?" I'd say no. He'd say, "Me, neither." Or he'd ask, "Do you know who Will Ferrell is? What's that one movie where he plays a race car driver? Taledega nights. Yeah, that was a good movie." And then he'd go back to eating. He must have been about the most intelligent person. Val, we knew someone kind of like him back in college. Remember when we'd see him and say, "Doorknob"?

From left: Mike, Heidi, me, our assistant waiter, Gail, and our head waiter, Reygan.

Anyway, the other couple, Mike and Gail were just hilarious. We probably annoyed everyone in the whole dining room, because we spent the majority of each evening laughing so hard we cried. They were there for their 3rd anniversary and are close to our age. Every night in the dining room, the waiters would gather around to sing for special occasions. The majority of them were from Asia, mainly southeast Asia and their accents (which you had a hard time understanding in the first place), blended together in not-so-perfect harmony. They would sing songs like "Happy Birshday to you." "Happy Vershary to you", and our favorite, "Happy Happy to you." We could not figure out what Happy Happy was for awhile until we finally deduced that they were singing Happy Honeymoon. We laughed so hard every time they started up, at times it was difficult to eat our food. However, we managed to make it through our fits of laughter and get back to eating, and although we came close, we never sprayed water out of our mouths when laughing.

Anyway, the dining experience was definitely one of the top interesting and entertaining aspects of our trip. And the exciting thing is, even though I ate a ton, I still fit in all of my clothes!