Kidoctr's Progress Notes: Day 4 - Sea Day (was supposed to be Channel Islands) and Seth's Birthday

Our original plan was to take this day as a Sea Day because (1) it was Seth's birthday and (2) there really weren't any interesting excursions to take in this port. We did have a lunch reservation made near the cruise terminal but, as it turns out, the weather wasn't cooperating and the Captain decided that it wasn't safe to tender into St Peter Port so we continued on our way to Bordeaux and planned to arrive a little early – on Thursday evening instead of Friday morning. We ended up having to cancel our lunch reservations.

Unfortunately, because the weather was bad, the seas were very very choppy. We woke up and had breakfast that Ravin brought for us (that we had ordered the night before) to our cabin. The bacon on board the ship was absolutely delicious - thick and flavorful - and we enjoyed having breakfast in our robes. The eggs had yolks that were the most orange yolks I have ever seen. The problem was that with our suite at the front of the ship, the motion was pretty significant and I developed a pretty pounding headache by mid-morning. Ravin tried to help by bringing me some candied ginger, meclizine, and green apples. By lunch time, I was getting pretty nauseous so I skipped lunch and took a meclizine which knocked me out for a few hours as I lay on the couch watching tv.

Later in the afternoon, Seth suggested that I move out of our suite and go towards the middle/back of the ship where the motion wasn't as bad so I took my ipad and found a sofa seat on deck 4 near the middle of the ship by guest relations where the motion was definitely not as bad. I hung out here for a couple of hours and slowly my headache and nausea eased up.

I returned to our suite to change because our first Chef's Table dinner this evening was at 7 pm. Wade and Charlie wanted to meet for drinks at the Prime C bar before dinner so we met them there at about 6:30 pm. It was at this point that Seth finally remembered that he could try some acupressure to help out with my headache and nausea which really did help out quite a bit and allowed me to enjoy our Italian themed meal.

Seth, Charlie, and Wade

The long table for the Chef's Table dinner at the front of Prime C became a very familiar table to us and the number of wine glasses on the table was pretty crazy. We met our host for the evening which was Justin – the acupuncturist on board. Interestingly, Darko the sommelier as well as the maitre 'd of Prime C asked Seth to change out of his jeans because the ship's rules were that jeans were not allowed in any of the specialty restaurants or the main dining room. Seth, of course, was not happy about this and I have to agree, the “no jeans” rule is pretty old-fashioned. He was wearing very dressy jeans with a nice jacket and I was surprised that anyone even noticed his pants. So off to the cabin to change and then we were seated at the table for our Italian dinner.

Long table in Prime C for special dinners

A ton of wine glasses

The menu for each of the three Chef's Table dinners was similar – an salad, a soup, an appetizer, an entree, cheese course, and then a dessert. The excecutive chef, Iwan, came out to describe the menu for us and then Darko explained each of the wine pairings with our meal.

The salad was ok but the soup was awesome – creamy, buttery, and delicious. This was a trend that we noticed on Azamara - all the soups were really good.

Chilled Crab Panzanella Salad

Zuppa de Radice di Sedano

I had the halibut and didn't care too much for it and I was impressed that both the waiter and maitre d' were concerned that I didn't like it asking me to tell them what was wrong to which my only real answer was that I really didn't care for halibut – it's too “meaty” of a fish for me, I guess.

limoncello sorbet

Olive oil poached halibut

The cheese course was good as was the dessert – chocolate amaretto panna cotta.

Cheese course

Chocolate Amaretto Panna Cotta

We enjoyed our meal and didn't really interact much with the other guests at our table at this dinner. They did have a birthday cake for Seth with a candle and everyone sang happy birthday to him but we were way too full to eat the cake and asked for it to be brought up to our suite the next morning for breakfast.