Day 05 - DInner at Pacific Rim

March 29,2019 - The great thing about a cruise is that there are so many choices of things to do. And, one of those choices is to do nothing at all. That is pretty much how we decided to spend today, relaxing and just taking it easy.

For lunch today, I decided I would try a burger at the Pool Grill. There is a wide variety of burgers available, but I wanted to keep it simple and just try the Classic Black Angus Cheeseburger.

The burger arrived in a reasonable amount of time and was quite good. I wish they offered onion rings here but, as with many cruise lines, they do not. When my Diet Coke arrived, I noticed the ecologically-correct paper straws are being used now. I have not seen one of these in 50 years.

After an abysmal performance at Team Trivia today, we watched as Seven Seas Explorer sailed away from Bermuda.

From our balcony, we could see a tugboat using a rope to pull Seven Seas Explorer away from the dock. There are very high winds today so it most likely took the ship's aft thrusters, along with the tug, to pull away from the pier. But soon, the ship was turning to port and heading out to sea on her way to the Azores.

We chose to have our pre-dinner drink tonight in Meridian Lounge on Deck 5. It is the closest lounge to Pacific Rim (Deck 5 aft). Meridian is a bit brighter than the other lounges, with white leather seats. There is a dance floor and stage for musical acts.

At 6pm, a waiter offered us a choice of canapes to enjoy with our drinks. This is a nice touch, and one that you typically only find on luxury cruise lines.

We arrived at Pacific Rim at 6:30 for our reservation. Pacific Rim is the ship's Pan Asian restaurant.

Our waitress brought use an amuse bouche of papadum and sweet chili sauce which was very good. The menu is quite extensive with a wide variety of Asian offerings. We will go into more detail on the menu in our final review of Pacific Rim.

We chose to order three appetizers to share, which turned out to be much more food than we were expecting. My favorite was the Pork and Shrimp Shu Mai dumplings topped with black truffle.

The Assorted Sushi Platter had two Salmon Avacado Rolls, Two Spicy Tuna Rolls and Two Shrimp Tempura Rolls.

The Crispy Duck Spring Rolls were served with a smoked Hoisin Miso sauce

I thought all of the appetizers were quite good, with my favorite being the Shu Mai. For our main courses, Rickee had the Miso Black Cod (below) which was cooked perfectly and delicious, although, she was left wanting for more of the delicious Miso sauce.

My main course was a Thai Chicken Green Curry that was fragrant, spicy and excellent. I ordered it extra spicy, and even with the cautious hand of a cruise ship chef (always afraid to over spice), it had enough of a kick to make things interesting. Both main courses were accompanied by bowls of Regent Fried Rice and Jasmine Rice.

We were so stuffed after dinner, there was no way we could try any of the delicious-sounding desserts. We will know better next time not to order so many starters.

Tomorrow is a day at sea as we sail toward the Azores.