May 2008 Cruise -- Day 3, Carnival Glory

Monday
At sea

We decided to have breakfast in the "formal" dining room this morning, the Platinum Restaurant. It is formal only because it has waiter-service and table linens. You can wear anything you want except cutoffs, tank tops and bare feet. Or wet swimsuits.

They were serving breakfast from 8:00 to 10:00. We got there a little before 9:00. The service was grudging and slow. The food was poorly cooked and the poached eggs were like hard rubber -- no runny yolks at all. Too hard to eat; too soft to play hockey with.

I wanted another croissant and noticed our waiters, a head waiter and his assistant, were clearing the breakfast service off tables in a far corner of the room and setting up for lunch. And ignoring waves from their customers. This was nearly an hour before the breakfast service was supposed to be over. It took 20 minutes to get another roll. We had breakfast at the buffet the rest of the cruise.

We each bought some minutes in the internet cafe -- 100 minutes for $59.00 plus some bonus minutes as an incentive. This is the same as on Princess ships. Oh well, you have to stay in touch.

Lunch in the Redsails buffet. Jack had fresh cooked chinese food from the wok station and Indian food from the buffet line. He said it was OK. I had hand-carved turkey breast from the buffet and it was the best slice of turkey I have ever had. The desserts and pastries on the buffet are better by far than what they serve in the formal dining room. Yes, better too than on Princess.

I spent some time reading in the ship's library. It's a very pleasant room. However, the bookcases were tiny and locked. The librarian was there for one hour in the morning and one in the late afternoon. No honor system for the library like they have on another cruise line I won't mention again for a while.

Dinner in the Golden Restaurant was better than the first night, they cooked Jack's steak this time and the cold cucumber soup was a hit. I had polenta with over-salted sauteed mushrooms and stringy spinach. Ice cream for dessert made us wish we were having Princess' ice cream.

This was waiting for us when we came back to the room Monday evening.