Archive for the ‘Travel – Cruising’ Category
Mixing drinks in the middle of the ocean
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
On my recent transatlantic cruise from Florida to Rome, Italy, I was faced with the pleasure (and sometimes irritation) of a slew of sea days to start the trip before we hit our first port. There are endless things to do on a cruise ship floating over the waves in the centre of the Atlantic, and the staff are well versed in how to keep guest entertained.
A large part of cruising is the food and drink, and Holland America Line (HAL) knows its guests well enough to realize they had a captive audience lying in the sun with a drink in hand by the pool, and created the Mixology 101 class series. Taught in three sessions on longer cruises, shorter for some smaller voyages, the martini mixing classes take place at HAL’s poolside Ocean bar. Anyone is welcome to watch, but if you pay the $12 class fee you can sample all the cocktails and get some hands-on instruction (as well as a cheesy but cute ‘dipolma’ to take home). (more…)
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Snacking in Spain – Barcelona Tapas and Basque Pintxo
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
Spending two weeks visiting various cities along the Mediterranean coast of Spain in May, I ate a hell of a lot of tapas. In fact, many meals were skipped in favour of a plate filled with these small, appetiser-sized snacks.
There are plenty of places to experience tapas in Spain and chances are, if you’re holding a glass of wine or mug of beer, there’s sure to be a plate of tasty edibles sitting beside it. I tried every single one that was set in front of me or looked interesting on a menu throughout Spain. There were good tapas and bad tapas, greasy deep-fried tapas and weird mystery meat tapas, melt-in-your-mouth tapas and hide-in-your-napkin tapas. (more…)
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When cruise food tries too hard – Holland America’s Le Cirque Dining Experience
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
The way people eat (and expect to eat) on cruise ships has changed quite a bit in the past 15 years, but even the changes (multiple restaurants with different ethnic cuisine, upsold “Higher Quality” dining away from the crowded main dining rooms, etc.) become boring for repeat cruisers. This means that cruise lines are trying to outdo each other with out-of-the-box ways to lure passengers to pay an extra fee for dinner on an already all-inclusive vacation. (more…)
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Cruise Food: Fine Dining to Marathon Eating
Monday, December 14th, 2009
Searching out the tastiest food on a cruise ship? It’s as fun as it sounds.
When asked why they cruise, many people invariably say “The food” with a longing look in their eyes. But you wonder, how’s it possible to have a vacation so focused on food? Exactly what are you eating all day?
Yes, it’s true, a cruise vacation does involve a moderate to large amount of eating, depending only on how motivated you are to find the next opportunity to get snacking or sit down to yet another meal. From the ice cream sundae bar to afternoon cocktails and appetisers to the midnight themed buffet, you could feasibly spend every waking moment of your cruise vacation eating.
And some do. (more…)
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Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Not what I was looking for, but I’d still come back for more…
Waking up and walking out onto my balcony, I could instantly tell we were in Costa Rica. I’d never been there before, but looking across the water at the lush green jungle rising straight up from the ocean’s edge, it was obvious where we were. (more…)
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