A and I both started with two appetizers. The first were the squid fritters, another appetizer from the "didja" section:
The squid fritters were supposed to be spicy and served on a "tropical tomato salsa." There was a tomato-based sauce, but the fritters were definitely not spicy. They didn't actually have much flavor at all and were kind of boring. It came with some fried onion straws and potato chips or something similar. On a 5 scale, I would give this a 2.5 and A would give this a 2.
We also got the black tiger shrimp cocktail:
On our launch day, I had been reading online about "shrimpgate" on Carnival cruises. Apparently, Carnival used to have shrimp cocktail as a menu option every day, but recently, in an attempt to cut costs, began offering it more sparingly. I like shrimp cocktail because it's one of the healthier options for appetizers, but if they're not going to offer it everyday, that's their choice (and it allows us to try more).
The shrimp was fine, although it was less "tiger shrimp" and more "these could have come out of the frozen shrimp bag at Costco" shrimp. It also came with a salad. It was odd that they put the salad on top of the cocktail sauce, so it soaked that up, not leaving a lot of cocktail sauce for the shrimp. On a 5 scale, I would give this a 3 and A would give it a 2.5.
I also got a Greek salad:
We love Greek salads. This one was supposed to be iceberg lettuce (prefer romaine), cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, black olives and feta cheese, tossed with vinaigrette. It was ok, but a little salty, and definitely not as good or as fresh as in Greece. This gets a 2.5 from me and a 2 from A.
For his first entree, A went with the "duet of broiled Maine lobster tail and grilled jumbo shrimp," as did most of the people in our group (and probably the dining room, although not me, as I don't like lobster enough to get it):
The lobster/shrimp duet came with some broccoli (also, not for me) with parmesan topping and mashed potatoes. A was pleasantly surprised by the lobster tail - it was cooked well, not overly chewy and had good flavor. A would give this a 4.
A also got the "tender roasted prime rib of American beef au jus" which was to be "cooked to perfection" (he ordered rare) and accompanied by a baked potato:
A was happy to see that at least half the prime rib was rare and bloody as he requested. The other half was closer to medium rare, which wasn't bad. A would also give the prime rib a 4, mostly because of the horseradish.
Onto the horseradish. Instead of the usual sauce, A asked for horseradish. They told us it would be about 5 minutes, which was fine, as he still had the lobster to eat, but neither of us expected this to arrive a few minutes later:
That horseradish dish is the size of my hand. That's a lot of horseradish!
I got the "martini braised basa fillet with tomato, chili and fennel":
It was to be served on a "sundried tomato, chive and potato gallete," and was the winning recipe from the Italian category of some cruise competition. I like fish and if this was award winning, I was going to try it! The fish itself was very good, as were the vegetables it came with (not sure what qualified as "chili"). I could have done without the potato gallete in favor of some regular potatoes, but it did come as described. I would give this a 3.5 or 4.
For dessert, we couldn't decide between the cherries jubilee and the pudding, so we got both. The cherries jubilee was just vanilla ice cream with dark cherries in sauce & flamed with cherry brandy:
I thought this was fine, but nothing special. A liked it but thought there were not enough cherries. (If not already expressed here, A loves cherries.) I would give it a 3 and A would give it a 3.5.
The pudding, called bitter and blanc, was much better. We imagined that it would be like a pudding cup, half white chocolate pudding and half dark chocolate pudding, since that's what the menu said. But that's not what came:
It was a dark and white chocolate bread pudding and we love bread pudding! This was really good. We give it a 4.5.
The waiter also brought out some fruit plates that we hadn't ordered but were much appreciated:
I guess the fruit plate is always the same, tropical or not.
My favorite items from dinner were the bitter and blanc, and I guess my fish. Outside of the appetizers, A thought the dinner was really good. He liked all of our entrees and desserts.
Our dinners on the Glory were already half over. The next day, it was time to explore Saint John!
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