Day 2 Diamond Princess Alaska Cruise - Afternoon Tea, First Formal Night & Dance Show

Alaska Cruise . 2012 . Sep 16

Afternoon Tea at the Pacific Moon Dining Room

Afternoon Tea is served between 3:30-4:30pm only at the Pacific Moon Dining Room.  There isn't a menu for afternoon tea, but the waiter will bring trays of pastries to you for your selection.

Princess Cruises are really good with their breads and pastries, so be sure to attend the Afternoon Tea session at least once during your cruise. There's also a small quartet playing live in the dining room and it makes a great socializing event.  We shared a table of 8 with a couple from Australia, a Chinese couple who had migrated to Vancouver, and 2 elderly lone travellers.  And though we really didn't like socializing, the fabulous pasties more than made up for it.

Tip: You must try the chocolate and peanut coated nugget.  It's the best of the lot and the first one to run out on the tray!

Do you Wanna Dance?

Featuring the singers and dancers from Princess Cruises, this evening's show is full of lights and costume changes.  As with the first night, the Princess Theatre is full, even when there are 3 shows for the evening.

First Formal Night

For a cruise lasting for 7-10 days, there will usually be 2 nights of 'Formal' nights for dinner – meaning that the guys would have to turn up in a suit (jacket and tie) and the ladies, in evening gown or dress pants.   The other passengers really do take this seriously, so do prepare your formal wear for the cruise to avoid being the most under-dressed. 

This is also the time when the on-board photographer comes around to take your individual photographs while you are dressed at your finest and then try to sell it to you at an exorbitant price of USD$19.90 per piece.  To avoid paying a ransom for your pictures, ask your waiter to take a photo for you with your own camera.  He will be more than obliged to do it for you. ;)

Today, we are at the Vivaldi Dining Room for our Anytime dining.  The Vivaldi serves the first session of the Traditional Dining crowd and is available for Anytime dining only after 8pm.

It's Captain's Welcome Dinner today! So should be better food today..we thought.. :)

Check out the full menu here!
 
Here comes our daily dose of bread basket before our meals... :)

Our appetizer of Deep Fried Sushi and Applewood Smoked Duck Breast. The sushi was delightful, but the smoked duck was a mistake as we prefer our duck piping hot and done the asian way.

Creamy Asparagus Soup and French Onion Soup.  Both are yummy, but we prefer the Asparagus soup as it is less oily.

A small plate of Farfalle alla Rustica to try it out.  Rich and creamy and delightful.

My main course of Medallions of Beef Tenderloin.  This piece of steak is substantially better than what I had last evening.

In our Cruise Dining 101 article, we mentioned that each of the anytime dining room on board Princess Cruises has its own specialty dish. For tonight, Tommy ordered the specialty dish for Vivadi Dining Room, the "Oosso Buco".

Ossobuco or osso buco is Italian for "bone with a hole", a reference to the marrow hole at the center of the cross-cut veal shank. The dish is basically cross-cut veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine and broth. It is often garnished with gremolata and traditionally served with risotto alla milanese.

The veal shank was soft and tasty. Not too bad, we thought.

With a good appetitie today, we round it off with desserts and ice cream sorbets for a complete meal.

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