Hawaii Cruise Day 4, Day at Sea

Another day at sea, with lots of things to do.  Yesterday I didn't have my camera with me and was too lazy to go grab it to take pictures of the sushi buffet that was laid out. Granted it was sitting out at 9:30 as I wandered back from the gym.  One little quibble is so far most of the dinner's have been "Princess Dinner's" as opposed to being themed as in the menus of old.  Supposedly these menu's are fusion of the old and the "Homestyle" menu's that Princess introduced in mid 2012.

However today I packed the camera along to grab some shots of the international buffet.

Assorted cold-cuts, cheeses, and a pasta salad

More Salad.... and chips

Chaffing dishes containing burger patties for the sliders, buffalo chicken wings and ribs.

Bunch of assorted desserts

Ultimately we passed on this and just ate at the Horizon Court Buffet instead as most of the items were available inside without the awful line that had formed.  Sliders were "always availible" at the grill and the wings looked soggy from sitting.  The ribs did not look very meaty and appeared to be tough.

Dinner Menu

Tomato Carpaccio with Pacific Northwestern-Style Crab Cake - Consistency and texture were great, in the past I have found the crab cake to be overly "fishy" but this go around the crab flavour was lacking.  My all time favorite is still the crab cakes from Morton's Steakhouse. 7.5/10

Frosted Strawberry Smoothie - Very very tasty and refreshing, so good that some of the folks at our table ordered seconds.  My only complaint was the round 1 version was not quite chilled enough.  The 2nd orders came in nice frosty glasses. 9/10

Seared Diver Scallops with Ginger-Lime Butter Sauce - The scallops were rather small in size at best I would say they are a 20/30 sized (20-30 pieces per pound, definitely not a U10 Scallop). As you can tell there is a severe lack of sear going on in the photo, but thankfully the scallops were not overcooked in fact they were closer to being under cooked. 6.5/10

Cowboy Steak with Tobacco Onions - Seasoning tonight was significantly better for the steaks and the sauce was tangy.  The cut of beef was quite a bit tougher and would not make the cut at a Keg steakhouse. 7.5/10

Mac'n'Cheese - Never seen this before as this is one of the "Homestyle" additions, was very nice to eat but arrived at the same time as my steak so was a little bit neglected, noodles were soft and it was very creamy. 8/10

Pecan Butterscotch Tart - Excellent dessert, lots of pecan flavour and not too sweet. 9/10

French Vanilla Bean Crème Brulee - In past cruises there was a distinct lack of sugar crust on the creme brulee's. Glad to say this time around it was much better great texture contrast between the soft creamy egg and the crispy sugar. The madeleines on the other hand were gross, cake like texture and when you squished them they bounced back up. 8.5/10 (would have been 10 if not for the madeleines)

Espresso Ice Cream - Very nice flavour but had a gum like texture to it. I would say you could almost pull it apart like dough if it didn't melt on you. 7/10