Winter Break 2023. Day 6. Beyond Deck 3 Lies the Medical Center.
Last night I slept okay until Tzvi’s alarm went off at 715am, which was really 615am since we’d switched the clock and lost an hour of sleep. So thanks.
Apparently, Madeleine fell out of bed a couple of times during the night, but thank you Inbar for dealing with that and letting us sleep.
We went to breakfast, which lasted about 5 minutes before we had to run to the 1030am Captain’s Club reception at Eden. Isn’t it amazing how we are up at 7:15 but can’t manage to be on time for a 10:30 event? Of course, by the time we got there all of the seats were already taken so we ended up standing near the front of the room. That actually worked out well, as Captain Kate did a little welcome and actually shouted out Hallie because we were right near her. She came over and asked her name, how old she was, and how many cruises she’s been on. Then there was a performer from the show last night. He was very good and did all of these acrobatic movements, all while wearing jeans. It really could’ve been an advertisement for those jeans. Hallie really wanted to meet Captain Kate but she rushed off during the performance. We’ll have to find her somewhere else. After that we got a delicious chocolate bar at the La Maison du Chocolat which I’m pretty sure cost about $25.
Captain Kate made her daily announcement. The answer to yesterday’s riddle (Two people are born at exactly the same moment but have different birthdays. How is that possible?): they are born in different time zones.
Today’s riddle: you see a boat full of bodies, but there’s not a single person on board. How?
Hallie didn’t want to go to the kids club and told Tzvi she wanted to get a cocktail and go in the hot tub. Then they got the cocktail, but she didn’t want to go in the hot tub. She said wanted to go back inside, so we dumped her with Sherry and Tzvi laid out while I took Madeleine for lunch.
Then we had the incident.
Madeleine was in the elevator and her hand got stuck in the elevator door as it was opening. It was bad. I had to pull it out. She was upset. I was upset. There was another man in the elevator who was also probably upset. We didn’t know what to do. [Tzvi: I had been on the phone with Steph at the time, and all I heard was ‘oh my God, Madeleine!” and then crying for about 30 seconds straight.] We found my parents eating lunch at Eden and had them look at the finger. Meanwhile I ordered a tuna sandwich on toasted bread, and ten minutes later was presented with a scoop of tuna stuffed into a cold mini-pita pocket. Awesome. Way to kick me when I’m down, Eden sandwich man. My father then went and ordered the exact same sandwich and got exactly what I wanted.
We went to guest relations and found out the ship’s doctor wasn’t open until 4pm, unless it was an emergency, which it wasn’t. Madeleine was just so sad and so upset, but eventually she fell asleep in the stroller. While I was walking her I actually ran into Captain Kate. That was exciting and I said the kids would be so jealous, but she assured me that she’d be around again.
Hallie went for pizza with Sherry, and then went to hang out with my mom, which somehow turned into my mother calling patients and Hallie watching tv on her tablet. Tzvi went for lunch with his mom at the sushi restaurant and I joined at the end and had a baked salmon roll. They couldn’t really figure out how to do that though, so they made an avocado roll with pieces of baked salmon on top. It was actually delicious, but I had no idea you had to pay extra for it.
We left the kids with Inbar and Tzvi and I went to the spa for our massages. Really great massages. When we got back we found that Ismail had sent chocolate strawberries to our room, which was so nice of him.
Inbar took the kids to camp, but Hallie was scarred from yesterday so she would only play on the toddler side with Madeleine to make sure she didn’t get left again. I went to gym for 40 minutes while Tzvi laid out, and then it was time to take Madeleine to the doctor.
It was a long wait. There were two people waiting there (I think they were cousins) who we had seen at the sushi restaurant at lunch. He had an allergic reaction to something, and she told me how she was trying to adopt a baby but apparently, it’s really hard to get a baby in this country, though she said everyone is saying that it is going to get a lot easier as the crazy abortion laws go into effect. We discussed foster care but she said that wouldn’t work because you aren’t allowed to take the child out of the city (or something) and she travels all the time. She was in Dubai for the month of December and now she’s on this cruise. What a life. Anyway, I wish her all the best.
Anyway, the doctor looked at Madeleine’s finger and took an x-ray, which was super cute. They had this portable machine that they wheeled into the room. It was pretty cool. Then we called my dad to come down and look at the x-ray. Thankfully the finger’s not broken, just swollen. He then asked the Doctor if she had ever seen a some kind of terrible finding on board, and she said that in her 7 years of being a ship doctor she thankfully hadn’t. No idea what that was or why he asked. Cheerful conversation.
We were all doing dinner separately tonight. My parents had a reservation at the steakhouse, we took the kids to the buffet, and then Tzvi and I had a reservation later at Le Voyage. We got pasta for Madeleine but had to wait a long time for parmesan cheese and when they finally came back with it they had a 2 gallon size bag of parmesan cheese.
While I changed for dinner Tzvi and Inbar tried to take the girls to the show, but they only lasted one song and ended up at the café where Hallie got hot chocolate and Madeleine, along with another three year old girl from Florida named Holland, chased each other up and down the halls. The other passengers must have loved that.
Eventually the girls went to bed and we went to dinner. Hallie had specifically requested time alone with Inbar to “relax” on the balcony after Madeleine went to bed. It’s tough being a big sister.
Dinner was at Le Voyage, which is under the direction of Michelin starred chef Daniel Boulud. The doors are almost hidden, and when you step inside you can’t hear the grand plaza right outside and feel like you’ve been transported into a Michelin starred restaurant in the middle of New York City.
We started with an amuse bouche of babaganoush, which Tzvi said was very good. Then they brought the bread. There was a sourdough, which was great, and a little buttery brioche that was incredible. I don’t remember if we ate two or three of them. I could have ended the meal right then and been satisfied, but alas, we continued.
For the first course, I had roasted cauliflower with lentil ragout and Tzvi had tuna crudo. Then we waited for our second course. And waited and waited and waited. Once again, service was really great, it was just slow. They kept coming to check on us, just without any food. For the second course Tzvi had ordered the vidalia onion tarte and I a roasted beet and carrot salad, but I think they felt bad it took so long so they brought us an extra onion tarte for me. The problem was the onion tart was filled with a cheese foam (yes, a cheese foam). I tried to eat the onion that wasn’t touching the foam. I also felt like I was in the The Menu, but that just happens to me every time I eat fancy food now. For the main course we both had seabass. Tzvi loved it, and I actually ate several bites despite the fact that it wasn’t salmon, so that’s really saying something. It came with “Israeli cous cous,” which once again was really ptitim.
For desserts one, two, three and four of the night we had a chocolate thing with coffee ice cream that they poured hot chocolate over to make melt, rice pudding, a berry merengue thing and a mille feuille. They were all pretty good. The berry merengue was stunning.
After dinner we went to our coffee spot for our fifth and sixth dessert of the evening. We got a financier and tiramisu and a khalua and cream.
Stressful day.
Hopefully tomorrow is more relaxing.