Andddddddd we’re cruising!!
It’s my first cruise and I’m here with my friend from college, Karie. Since it’s my first cruise, we’ve decided to splurge a little and we’ve gone in for the UNLIMITED DINING PACKAGE which comes as multiple entrees and multiple specialty restaurant visits every night of sailing, lunch at specialty restaurants on sea days plus discounts on wine at dinner. I’m not really a drinker but food is the reason for vacation so I’m all in. There are 3 specialty restaurants on the FREEDOM OF THE SEAS ship that we’re sailing on for our 4 night cruise so we can hit them all plus a CHEF’S TABLE dinner (for an extra $50 but more on that to come).
I’m so excited. We made our trip’s worth of dinner reservations as soon as we got settled onto the ship. We can still check out the buffet at breakfast tomorrow but let’s see what these specialty restaurants have in store.
Tonight is night 1 and we’ve decided on going to GIOVANNI’S ITALIAN KITCHEN and get filled with carbs to fuel our day at Coco Cay tomorrow. We got seated right away in the second room closer to the pizza oven and we were the only one in that dining area so it felt like a fun private dinner for most of the night. Our server, Clinton, was super sweet and was very chatty since he didn’t have too many tables. He told us that night 1 is usually quieter because people are still getting settled so it’s a fun night to eat because we get more attention from the staff and I’m so happy about it because Clinton was amazing. I want to go back there just to see him again. In terms of food, it was pretty basic Italian, nothing to write home about, but you really can’t go wrong.
Every meal is started off with their signature AMORE DELLA CUCINA which was the garlic cheese knots topped with parm. It came with pesto, tomato basil ragout and herb marinated olives. You can’t go wrong with garlic knots and they were so warm and soft. A great start to the meal.
Karie wanted to split the ASSORTED MEAT & CHEESE PLATTER which I was fine with but it honestly felt more like basic deli meat and felt kinda meh. It was supposed to be mortadella, porchetta, prosciutto, salame, ham, gorgonzola, mozzarella, olives, breadsticks, and focaccia. The focaccia was a letdown because it was just a toasted piece of whatever bread but the mozzarella helped it out at least. Overall, not a great option.
For our main, we both got the LINGUINE CON LE VONGLE which was just linguine, fresh clams, olive oil, parsley, and white wine. The portion looked small on the plate but it was actually filling (as an overall meal) and I finished all of the pasta and felt comfortably full. There was just enough clams to balance well with the amount of pasta and I was pretty happy with the choice.
I wanted to share one dessert but Karie ordered TIRAMISU CLASSICO AND PANNA COTTA ALLA ROMANA which was a pistachio panna cotta topped with blueberries and basil. Both were good, the panna cotta tasted odd but we figured it tasted like it was made with coconut milk. It was still a good balance to the coffee in the tiramisu though.
So, overall, this was a pretty good meal. Nothing amazing, but it didn’t disappoint (aside from the deli-meat-like board) and was perfectly filling. Clinton pushed it over the top with his great service and fun conversation the whole night and if I had to pick, I would go back just for him.