Dinner in the Beach House
There was a queue to enter the Beach House (Verona) on Deck 15. They were hardly any empty tables as we made our way to where we were sitting at the back of the restaurant. We were seated three rows of tables away from the windows and were next to the main passage for the kitchen. Our table was also by one of the service stations.
After a few minutes of being seated we were asked for our food order. This was before we had even had a chance to order any wine. This was our first indication of how much had changed since we last ate at this restaurant on Azura.
There was only one wine waiter in the restaurant and he was clearly rushed off his feet. After we’d ordered a bottle of Malbec we were again asked to order food which we again declined. Our wine arrived 15 minutes later and we were again pounced on for our food order.
Finally we could relax
This evening it was the Menu B so there were no potato skins on offer. I asked how many prawns were included in the new prawn starter.
Linda ordered the buffalo wings and a six ounce lava steak. I stuck with the new prawn starter and an 8 ounce lava steak. Our starters arrived literally only a few moments later. The wings were not as crispy as before but were wings simply covered in sauce. My shrimp on a cold slab with a decorative pineapple. The downside was that all four prawns were luke-warm. But they were nevertheless very tasty.
Almost as we ate our last mouthful of our starters and the main courses arrived. No more large mushrooms but just two small button mushrooms with two small onion rings and a half tomato.
By now a water glasses had been empty for over 15 minutes and a quick plea to the server delivering the mains brought us a top up from the nearby station.
The meal was delicious and we each cooked our steaks in our chosen way. I left mine as one large piece and sliced off each portion to cook separately. I ate the mushrooms, onions and tomato and that left me to concentrate on the chips and the meat.
Even busier
All the while we could see the servers looking after ship’s officers at the back of the restaurant. Once the officers left the the servers appeared to have more time for everyone else. Then we watched tables being pushed together for parties of six, eight and perhaps more just at the side of us.
We took our a time to finish and asked for a break before ordering our deserts. Soon all the tables between us and the windows were full again. Behind us the tables between us in the kitchen were now all full.
Desert was Philadelphia carrot cake and this certainly was a large slice of cake. We’d noticed everyone around us getting up and leaving after desert. We asked if coffee or tea was no longer available. We were told that tea was available from the Buffet. After a short discussion we had our tea delivered to the table.
I signed the bill for the meal. We never received a bill for the wine and the busy wine waiter had not visited our table since delivering the wine. I hoped that his bill would be put onto our account anyway regardless of no signature.
We went down to the Atrium and sat in the Blue Bar to watch the evening dance session before retiring early at 10.30 pm.
The tropical depression was now throwing lots of rain against our cabin door and we were treated to a lightning display along with the rain.
From the Captain’s Log
At Sea (Noon Posn: 28° 56.8’N, 046° 22.1’W)
At 02:00 Azura retarded her clocks by 60 minutes, bringing ships time to GMT -2. On Friday morning at around 03:00 Azura found herself over the centre of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the depth under the keel decreased by 2.5 km as we passed over what is the largest mountain range in the world. The ridge runs from a position north east of Greenland in the North Atlantic right down to Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic. Although most of the ridge is underwater it surfaces at various points throughout the ocean, most notably at the island of Iceland in the northern hemisphere and Ascension and St Helena in the southern hemisphere. The ridge represents the boundary between the Eurasian and African tectonic plates and their counterparts in the Americas.
Weather: Overcast throughout the day, dry conditions
Temperature: 25 °C
Wind: South Easteriy, Force 8