Text 2092, 119 rader
Skriven 2006-06-13 10:41:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: off on a cruise 803
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Sovereign of the Seas. This, I understand, was the largest
cruise ship afloat when it was built back in the dark ages,
i.e., 1988 (the statistics people apparently distinguish
between cruise ships and ocean liners such as the Queen
Mary, the classic ones of which which were about the same
size as ours, maybe a tad bigger); it is indeed enormous -
880 feet long, 12 decks (plus deck 14, the circular Viking
Crown Lounge in the aft of the ship). The tour around the
promenade deck is 1/3 of a mile.

Check-in was controlled chaos. The buses disgorged us onto
a long platform in the Florida mugginess, and after it being
determined that our checked bags were properly tagged, we
were let in to the terminal ... almost. We paraded through
an open, unattended door only to be shooed back out by
agitated guards - the ID checkers weren't in place yet, and
we had to have this procedure before screening. We waited
obediently outside for a couple minutes until they were
ready for us and started over. Security is similar to air
security, although they are supposed to check for booze as
well, which I think they don't, not carefully anyway. Then
on to the cavernous check-in area, where the wait was about
an hour. There's a priority line for suites and frequent
cruisers, which must be a major incentive to keep taking
trips with the same company.

I had done the express online check-in, wasting an hour
(what with negotiating the wretched Royal Caribbean website,
finding edit buttons that took me to the wrong place, and
wrestling with Carol's almost out-of-ink printer), but
having printed out boarding passes did not expedite
anything. There was no dedicated line and no time savings
once we got to the desk. Cynics in line said that there were
indeed time savings - for the cruise line, not for us.

Another ID check, cursory, on the way onto the gangway.

=

Our stateroom (what's the difference between a stateroom and
a cabin?) was a bit over 120 square feet, the smallest ocean
view room; hey, the price was right, what can I say. There
were two twin beds pushed together to make a queen that felt
as if it had a bundling board in the middle. A surprisingly
decent-sized bathroom, larger than that of some apartments
I have lived in. Clean and without a marine odor or the
stuffiness I associate with such confined spaces. The A/C
works well - perhaps too well, as even cranked down all the
way it still shot breezes cooler than we liked. A TV was on,
blaring the merits of the shore excursions and the onboard
shopping; there were several brochures and magazines in
eye-catching colors and locations extolling the same things.

=

We wandered about a bit before heading to the mandatory
company cocktail party at the Viking Crown, where we were
plied with numerous rum-fruit-coconut concoctions with
names like Bahama Mama and Yellowbird, munched snacks, and
listened to a little speech by the president of the company.

Snacks included smoked salmon canapes (with only a little
fish, which I thought a bad start, but which turned out not
to be indicative of their approach to food later on), weird
Swedishoid meat balls (kind of liked the oniony taste of
these, but the texture was mushy and peculiar), fried shrimp
(mediocre), shrimp cocktail canapes (okay), tuna salad puffs
(didn't try), fried cheese sticks (took a while for Carol to
figure out what these were; the texture was strangely both
spongy and fibrous, and there was no taste at all), and
wings (which I liked). And then, as though we hadn't eaten
enough, we were encouraged to go downstairs to the Illusions
dining room, where we dined fairly well.

Our waiter Gerland (I'm from India, said the placard on the
table) was attentive and pleasant but had apparently been
trained that the way to a diner's heart and to bigger tips
was to recommend dishes sometimes against the equally silly
chef's suggestions on the menu - we found in fact that his
recommendations were totally random (as were the chef's
suggestions). This was an advantage of sitting at a table
for 10 and, in fact, for prepaid tips.

None of the six or so main courses appealed to Carol, so
she went with three starters.

She had roast garlic soup (pretty good), antipasto (lots of
semi-grilled veggies and a slice of melon with ham), and a
scallop risotto that was nicely done but with no scallop
flavor; this was remedied by a garnish of two grilled
scallops that were also nicely done but with no scallop
flavor. I started with the scallop risotto and went on to
the feature of the day, an enormous lamb shank in a brown
sauce that tasted of carrots and canned broth but pretty
good. 

We started with an undistinguished semi-dry Vouvray from
Rene Something or Other: minerals, grapy, a bit sweet, but
with sufficient balancing acidity.

With my lamb I had The Jibe Pinot Noir (Marlborough) 03, a
bit musty and acidy but with some cooked fruit that went
well with the sauce's slightly sweet carrotiness.

Desserts were nothing special: many of us at table ordered
the flourless chocolate cake, which was coarse and sandy
and rather tasteless. I also tried the raspberry mousse of
another diner: it was in fact overprocessed, gelatiney, and
way too sweet.

As we were tired, it was good that our table was about 100
feet from our room, via a fire door.

The bed and the ship's rocking were surprisingly conducive
to sleep.

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