wednesday. Day 4. for lunch we had jamaican cholent.

Our alarm went off at 757 this morning.  Toooo early.

We were up by 815 and met Sheldon and Lisa for breakfast at the Park Cafe in Central Park, where I had bagels and cream cheese and lox, and Steph had yogurt and cereal and pastries.  Then we went to the gym and worked out for about 40 minutes.  I kind of feel like I'm in a sailboat and there's a 4 foot wide hole in the bottom of the boat, and I'm trying to get the water out using a dixie cup.

The boat docked at historic Falmouth, Jamaica around 10 and got off at 1015.  We signed up and paid for the Chukka Beach Break and Lunch.  It was a thing we bought through the ship, but it wasn't actually done by Royal Caribbean.  We were led into a small - thankfully air conditioned - mini bus.  Falmouth is, to put it in one word, disgusting.  In another word, old.  The driver took us on a tour around the town giving us a brief history.  First, Royal Caribbean actually built the port here, and is responsible for bringing any kind of tourism here.  It seems that the locals are very proud of how old this place is (1640, I think) and so our driver/guide kept pointing out all of the old buildings, all dilapidated and run down.  In America we either tear down or preserve our old buildings.  In Jamaica they apparently just leave them.  There may be some law against painting things too.  Its actually really interesting to see - its a great picture of a third world country.

Finally we got to the beach.  The beach isn't awful.  The sand is pretty soft and the water is warm.  There are beach chairs and we had to pay for umbrellas.  We swam and floated for a while.  It was nice because the water really wasn't very deep at all.  Then it was lunchtime...  Lunch was jerk chicken, red rice and beans, some sort of cabbage-fennel salad, and coconut dessert drops.  We figured we would just get the salad and rice, but I was pretty skeptical.  The kitchen where they were making and distributing the plates of food was something like you'd find in a New York apartment.  It was actually funny to see, a stove/oven, fridge and sink.  We told them we were vegetarians, and they said they had beans to give us instead of chicken.   Turns out they didn't have beans to give us, they were going to cook them.  On the stove in a little pot, the woman started cooking beans, chopping fresh carrots and vegetables.  Finally we got our food, a vegetable bean stew, which was actually delicious.  Lisa asked the woman how she cooked it, and I think the woman was really flattered.  We'd had enough of the beach so we packed up and rode the bus back to the dock and got back on the ship.  Lunch was good, but not so substantial, so we went up to the Windjammer Buffet.  I walked around and started taking everything I saw that didn't have meat, which ended up amounting to a plate full of pasta with cheese or cream sauce and one piece of salmon.  I hope to not go back to the buffet for lunch.  I felt disgusting after.  We then went to the pool, where we got a beer (it was half off all beers until 5pm), swam, laid in the shade and did the New York Magazine crossword puzzle.  After we went back to the room, where we watched the grand send off as we pulled out of port at 6pm.  Like I said, Royal Caribbean built the dock, and the entire port, so everyone working there works for Royal Caribbean, so they all came out onto the dock and waved and danced and played music.  It was really fun.  Then we went inside and changed for dinner.

Lisa and Sheldon had dinner reservations at 6pm at 150 Central Park, the nicest restaurant on the ship.  Our reservation was for 9pm.  It's supposed to be smart casual, so Steph wore a nice dress and I wore a suit and tie.  We left around 730 and walked for a while on the promenade and in the park, took some pictures and had a pre-dinner piece of coffee cake.  Around 840 we went to the restaurant.  The restaurant, which is in Central Park and actually in the dead center of the ship (150 meters from the front, 150 meters from the back) is really nice, lots of wood and crystal and supposed to look like a fancy New York restaurant.  In the middle of the room on either side of the place are a table for two with two huge golden suede chairs that are about 6 feet tall.  We requested, and thankfully got the chairs, which was important because I don't think we could’ve had the meal in regular chairs... We needed the comfort and cushions.  Shortly before we went in, the captain, Captain Johnny, went into the restaurant with a woman.  Also, when we sat down, Lisa and Sheldon were just finishing.  Yes, it was a three hour meal.  What follows is a description of one of the best dining experiences of our lives.

Our waiter was Oliver from Manchester, England.  We began with cocktails, a pomegranate cosmo for Steph and a cucumber-basil martini for me, the drink of the day.  Then he brought out a basket of break, regular sourdough and olive sourdough, as well as unsalted butter.  On the table was a dish of six different salts to put on the bread: a plain salt from France, a sea salt, a rose salt, a Hawaiian salt, a smoked salt from Washington state and an Indian salt, which actually tasted exactly like a hard boiled egg.  They were all amazing, especially the egg and the smoked salt.  The actual menu was a six course tasting menu, so there was no ordering and no substitutions, except to accommodate my nut allergy and our vegetarianism.  The six courses were: 1) cantaloupe with currants and Parmesan crisps; 2) corn soup topped with charred cheesy popcorn; 3) sea bass in hollandaise sauce, with cauliflower, trout roe caviar; 4) zucchini-herb ravioli in a curry emulsion with summer vegetables and a tempura squash blossom; 5) mashed potatoes, mushrooms and turnips in a cherry reduction; 6) coconut tres-leches cake with mango iced cream and diced mangos.  We ended with a cheese plate, tea and coffee.  Everything was unbelievable, delicious, fabulously prepared.  And, Steph ate everything.  She didn't love it all, but she liked everything and she ate everything including the sea bass and the creamy corn soup.  The service was also outstanding.  Our waiter explained every bit of information about the dishes, and gave us inside dirt about life on the ship, like scandals between crew, and how Captain Johnny has two different women...  We finished dinner at 1140pm.  That's 2 hours 50 minutes.  What an amazing experience.

At 1145 we met Lisa, Sheldon and Austin and went to The Quest, a show where the audience splits into teams, two representatives from each teams are on the stage, and the representatives (with the audiences help) has to do stuff.For example, the cruise director, who hosted it, would ask for 6 ladies bras, and everyone would throw their bras at the representative who'd have to bring it to the cruise director, all in a certain amount of time.When he asked for something fake, the woman representing our team showed her breasts...It was fun, and really funny, even though our team didn't win. Then it was 1am and we went to the room and went to sleep.