After our three stops in Alaska, we set sail for our voyage home. We are now spending the next 1 & 1/2 days at sea, stopping in Victoria, B.C. before we arrive back in Seattle on Sunday. Most of our day on Friday was spent relaxing, but there were a few highlights to share: the first of which being the Galley tour. The show started in the theater with the Executive Chef and the Maître d’, who hosted a cooking show where they prepared four different dishes. Normally I’m not a big fan of cooking shows, but these guys had a great chemistry and kept us entertained. I now have some culinary tricks that I’ll be trying at home.
After the show we were taken on a tour of one of the ship’s seven Galleys. With food being such a paramount part of the cruise experience, it was impressive to see how vast these kitchens are, and just how much work goes onto cook all of our meals. There were some interesting figures that we were given on the tour:
Each Day:
- 1,700 amount of fish are cooked
- 1,400lbs. of chicken are used
- 1,600 salads are made
- 13 gallons of mayonnaise are used
- 1,500lbs of flour are used in the bakery
- 470 gallons of coffee are consumed
- 70,000 dishes are washed
It’s crazy to see just how much effort goes behind feeding everybody on the ship – then to think how much of that is wasted when people send stuff back.
Afterward they took us through one of their seven Galleys for a walk through tour. It was amazing seeing the vastness of the kitchen and all of the prep stations. I found the stove range most intriguing.
Throughout the Galley tour they had various fruit carvings and ice an ice sculpture that we going to be on display during dinner, which also made for some interesting pictures.
The rest of the day was spent resting and relaxing, which included eating more meals, working out, and some time in the hot tub. We also managed to catch an impressive “British Invasion” show, a musical act paying tribute to all of the British artists over the last 60 years. We ended the night with a New Years-style balloon drop in the atrium.
While these days at sea don’t make for interesting blogging material, we definitely have appreciated the forced relaxation that these days offer. Sometimes it’s nice to not have things to go explore, having nothing better to do than take a nap!
Next Up: A brief stop in Victoria, B.C.