#a weird shock when I thought I’d be eating yogurt for breakfast and had dessert instead

[hobblt]

I’m in Italy with Covid and the food I bought that I thought was yogurt is actually rice pudding lol

[3monthsineurope]

January 15, 2020

Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands, was on Wednesday! Emily and I slept in until 9ish and got ready in the room. This was our last port of the trip. We had breakfast at the buffet on the Lido deck, then headed out for the day.

St. Kitts the day before had a huge port with tons of shops. Tortola on the other hand was smaller, but then as still developed nicely. Martinique was much smaller than Tortola. There just wasn’t many souvenir shops—it was more high end jewelry. We went through the few shops there, then left the port area. We found a “craft village” and explored those shops for a bit. A lot of the shops had similar things, and they weren’t made super well. All the shops were vibrantly colored, which I did really like. It started raining again! We took shelter in a shop, then wandered around, trying to find a cafe.

We found one and had some yummy coffee. This island was definitely one of the more expensive ones: my small iced mocha was $6! I haven’t mentioned but everyone on the ship thinks Emily and I are sisters! Seriously, we get asked all the time by the staff. We had our coffee and used the WiFi, then decided to head back to the port area.

We ran into Kurt and Carol (the one bitten by a shark that we met in Grand Turk!), which was nice. We’ve met so many nice people this cruise! Earlier that morning we ran into Cynthia and her husband. Her husband had really badly stubbed his toe on the pier, what a bummer! We went back into the port and got some things shopping. We decided to have a drink, so we sat down at a bar. I chatted with some super nice cousins who were on the boat next to us, the Celebrity Edge. They have this cut out of one of their family members, Tony. They gave me one to bring on my trip to India, which is super funny! They were really nice and encouraged me to keep on traveling! Emily was chatting to two guys next to us, who actually worked for the cruise. Dariel plays guitar and Martin plays the piano. They both are solo acts. Dariel has seen us around the ship but hadn’t got up the nerve to say hi to us. He was definitely crushing on Emily. Coincidentally, I had seen Martin the night before for the first time.

We hung out with the boys for a few hours. It was really interesting hearing some “crew secrets”. Dariel actually bought Emily and I a couple drinks, which was really nice. We hung out with the guy who did our caricature, too. After a bit, the four of us wandered over to this one store, where Emily and I bought some hibiscus infused gin. We had had a few drinks made with it at the bar and they were sooooo tasty! We decided to call it a day in Tortola, so all four of us headed to the ship. I wanted to take a nap, but once we got to our room I realized we were missing our souvenirs bag.

Oh gosh! Emily had put the bag by our feet at the bar and we had left without it. We were supposed to be back in the boat in fifteen minutes. I wanted to try to get it, so we ran down to the disembarking area. They told me not to run, but I was frantic. Emily stayed near the boat, in case they tried to leave without me and I ran down the pier. I made it to the bar, but the bag was gone. The bartender hadn’t seen it. I went to where we bought the gin, the police, the information area, and the security for getting back on the ship. No one had it. I was so sad that someone had stolen my bag. I had postcards, a magnet, a really pretty Christmas ornament for Mom, and mug for Haley, and a hot sauce for Ingvar in it. I was just so bummed. I never put things by my feet like that, because I’ll forget it. I was frustrated that Emily had put it there, but obviously it wasn’t her fault. It was just such a bummer because this island was expensive, so I spent the most there, compared to the other islands.

I was crying, walking back to the ship—I just couldn’t help it. Emily tried to console me, but I was really upset. I video called Ingvar after I bought WiFi, back in our room. It was so nice to see him! I really do miss him. It made me feel a lot better to talk with him. There was a lot of snow at home! I calmed down after chatting with him and called Mom and Haley in LA. They both said it was okay that their gifts were stolen, but I was still sad about it.

Around five, it was time to get ready for my Chef’s Table experience! I was actually so excited! My make up didn’t run off when I had cried, so I just had to do my hair. I straightened it and dressed in a dress with wedges. I met Holly and Betty (from our dinner table) in the Atrium and checked with guest services. No one had turned in my bag, sadly.

The Chef’s Table was absolutely amazing! It started out with the sous chef of the entire cruise boat taking us into the kitchen for a champagne toast and three amus busches ____. We saw Ari, one of our waiters, and waved at him. We had a two little bites and some mushroom tea. It sounds weird, but it was like really flavorful broth. It was so good! A woman named Francine helped the chef make the batter for the famous Carnival melting cake, which we would have later.

The chef then took us to our table. It was situated in the Beauties nightclub, where we had danced just the night before! Hahah! I sat next to Betty and Holly, and Francine and her husband Joseph. They were celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. Have I mentioned that Emily had cancelled her ticket to the chef’s table? She decided she didn’t want to spend the money. I was fine doing it without her. I was really looking forward to it! The chef had nine cooks and servers for the thirteen of us eating that night. It was the fanciest meal I’d ever had in my life! The chef would come to the head of the table for each course and explain what was in front of us.

Our first course at the table was a fresh parmesan bread with honey butter. They served us each water, a red wine, and a white wine. Betty got her and I some of my favorite wine, Riesling from Chateau St. Michelle! The next course was a three parter: yogurt, raspberry, and green apple, an olive oil sponge with foam, and pork belly with kimchi. Dang, I was gonna have to pace myself! I tried everything, but if I didn’t love it, I wouldn’t eat it all, because there was a lot more coming for us!

Next up was probably my favorite course, duck! It was so tasty, I ate every bite. It was served with plum and a parsnip purée. Next is was the “surf and turf”. It was a super fancy, flavorful soup. I really enjoyed the soup. A lot of the courses were interactive. For example, for the soup, we were given some additional spices and we stirred that into the soup with our vegetable spoon, and “popped” the lobster cream at the bottom of the bowl and mixing it into the soup.

Next up was sea bass. I don’t know if I’d had sea bass before, but it was a nice and mild fish. Everything was plated so perfectly! For a break, a magician came around and did a few tricks for us. I’ll never know how they do their tricks, haha! Lamb was next. It was served three ways. I tried it all three ways, but definitely couldn’t finish this course! Our final savory course was veal. I don’t think I’d had veal before. When I think about veal it makes me a little sad, with veal being from baby cows. The veal was served with sweet potato mash and milk chips. The milk chips was like nothing I’d had before! It was tasty, but I was ready for dessert.

They served us tea and port wine with dessert. The first dessert course was a trio. There was a peanut brittle, oat cookie, dark chocolate ganache, parmesan cream, and a coffee custard. It was amazing! The next dessert was another trio. This one had a small creme brûlée, a raspberry jelly, and a dark chocolate cake, served on coffee beans. And finally, was the melting cake dessert that we had helped make in the beginning. We sang happy birthday to two of the attendees and heard a speech from the chef about the team who had helped us that night. It was an amazing experience that lasted more than three hours! I am not kidding when I say that it was one of the best meals of my life. They gave us a photo of the group, which I thought was a nice extra touch.

After the Chef’s Table, I went up to the Alchemy Bar. Emily was there with Keke and David, watching Dariel and Martin do a set together. It’s really nice to listen to live music. Their music was nice, but I was basically in a food coma, so I decided to call it a night. I wasn’t feeling like socializing. I went up to the room and relaxed. I watched some Food Network and wished I could take a bath, but alas, I showered instead. Emily came back to the room around midnight, she was shocked that I was awake, hahah. We watched a bit of TV, then headed to bed. It was a pretty eventful day, and I was ready for bed. :]