After the surprise wore off I returned to my regularly scheduled programming and went off to ready myself for dinner. I was surprised to find waves in the bottom of the shower. I’m thinkin’ they were white caps.
The sea state had worsened a bit, the roll was more pronounced than previously and the frequency had increased.
As I was getting dressed I knew something was amiss as my leg went in the wrong hole in my slacks. I never do that so something was up.
Prior to putting on my shirt I went back out on the balcony to find the ocean was definitely more displeased than just 30 minutes ago. Cool. I love my Cove Balcony.
The position of our cabin was great. It was a short walk in either direction to the midships elevators or the aft elevators. The best way to the Scarlet was aft.
We were both getting a bit hungry but knew that the doors to the dining room should be open when we arrived as it was past 8:30. When the elevator doors opened we were greeted by a sea of humanity. We could barely squeeze out of the elevator and against the port wall. The doors were still closed and locked and only occasionally would a few early dining folks emerge from the venue. I guess that the late embark caused a delay in getting folks into the dining room so they extended the availability of the first seating.
Regardless of the cause the aft atrium was packed with passengers who had adopted an odd swaying motion. Most folks swayed pretty much in unison but there were those who swayed to a different drummer. Those folks were rapidly adopting a unique green tinge around the gills, as it were.
From the forward end of the Atrium some odd and unsettling noises erupted followed by similar odd and unsettling noises. It seems that those out of sync swayers were succumbing to the ways of the sea.
We were quite fortunate at our end of the Atrium. Those who felt that the end was near retreated as quickly as they could to the rest rooms positioned both port and starboard.
It was already 8:45 and those who were still swaying in unison were getting hungry and restless. I’m not sure what the purpose of it was but they began a countdown. I don’t know what they were counting down to but when the reached zero nothing happened. Odd…
About 8:50 the door swung open and the crowd surged forward as if they were afraid that the food might be gone if they were the last in the dining room.
The Scarlet is, well, its scarlet but scarlet in a calming sort of way, not an aggressive scarlet at all. It’s really rather elegant looking.
We were ushered toward our table, 401. With the ship being as full as it was we were looking forward to being seated at a large table full of talkative fellow passengers. Around a corner we went to arrive at a table for two. A little bit of the wind left my sails but it a table for two it was.
Our waiter was a bit atypical. Not young, not energetic but wonderfully efficient and good at his job. The menu was a hit featuring many of the dishes that one would normally find at Elegant Evening. Our eyes lit up when Escargot topped the list of openers.
We made the rest of our selections and settled back with our drinks for the moment. Did I mention that our waiter was efficient? Somewhere around 12 minutes later our Escargot made the scene. Lovely!
Not too long ago Stitch had never had the pleasure of experiencing Escargot. Now, she’s a snail lovin’ fiend! We savored the garlicy, buttery morsels. Scant minutes later a small dish of Pasta Maricosas arrived. It’s a rigate pasta with a slightly dry red sauce topping it along with a chiffonade of fresh basil. It was my least favorite dish of the evening. Not bad just not brimming with flavor like the rest of the items we had for dinner.
As unsatisfying as the pasta was the Chateaubriand was brilliant. I had ordered it rare and rare it was.
Perfectly prepared and, as the saying goes, tender enough to cut with a fork. It rode in atop a dollop of garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli spears making for not only an elegant presentation but a nice diversion from the richness of the beef.
As I am not a huge dessert eater I just ordered something to take a picture of and nibble at. Stitch, on the other hand, loves sweets and chocolate in particular. Those of you familiar with Carnival know what’s coming next… warm chocolate melting cake. Yep, the stuff that causes Stitch to produce slightly unnerving cooing and sexual sounds while she eats.
My dessert thingy was some flavor of cake. The presentation was very nice, indeed, and looked quite tempting.
I can tell you that it was very dense cake loaded with dark chocolate, not truly sweet but very, very chocolate. I ate perhaps a quarter of it when my chocolate overload light illuminated.
I indulged in an espresso to keep things chugging along as it had been quite a long day and there was more, much more, to see and do.
