captain chairs for dining room

everybody this is bruce here to myyoutube channel traveling with bruce please subscribe tomy channel today i've become a key supporter of traveling with bruce byclicking the patreon link enjoy the video hey everybody how you doing it'sbruce here with traveling with bruce today i have a story for you it's aboutcruising and it's all about the food let's cut right to the chase it's notabout the life jacket it's not about the life boats it's not about the pool it'sabout the food cruising really is about the food andjust give it a little background i mean in 1962 i crossed the atlantic fromeurope to canada and i was on a

transatlantic voyage on a ship known asthe home wreck and we went from europe over to to montreal quebec and i think iwas about i was about 5 6 6 years old and i remember the food so i'm 62 nowand i remember the food on this ship in those days the deal was that breakfastwould be served at your appointed time so if you if you were in you knowwhatever deck number you were on you know decks 5 6 7 whatever it was youwere assigned an eating time a time to come to the main dining room for foodand i remember my parents they would make sure we we were up i was with mysister and my mom and dad and man it was military precision let me tell you wewoke up at whatever it was 8 o'clock and

by 9 o'clock we were headed for thereception area to enter the dining room and then the maitre d would take us inor one of the captains and we would be seated in our usual table and we wouldhave our waiter the same guy for the whole week and and then we would see thesame staff the busboys in sames the same section of the of the restaurant and itwas delicious i mean the menu would come out and you could order from severalpieces several items and as a kid oh man spoiled rotten thesethese staff members just took cared good carry and my parents loved it to lunchtime i don't remember a formal sitting for lunch i have a feeling that lunchwas a little more informal it may have

been somewhat i know if it was buffetlike but for some reason you know like a sandwich and and a drink was the was thenorm and i don't even know who was in the restaurant it doesn't ring a bellwith me i guess that's i've lost i've lost thati guess it wasn't that good but dinner i remember dinner i could still rememberthe bells going off and the the hallways like no that would be your that would bethe sound you're listening for to say another seating and dinner seating wasready and there was there were clocks stationed in the hallways so when theding ding dong sound went off you could look at the clock right beside the thewall there you can see oh it's 6 o'clock

or 7 o'clock whatever the time was andand that you're you're appointed seating time it was about you had about an hourto an hour and 15 minutes or something like that for dinner because they had tofeed the entire ship and i believe the home wreck could how is 1100 passengersin those days and i think they had two seatings so it was you know five to sixhundred people per seating was what the main dining room could handle and ofcourse the staff that worked there they had to clean the they had to clean therestaurant between seedings i mean the floors were quickly swept up in casethere's any droppings you know bread crumbs and like that thetables of course were spotless new

linens new dishes everything you knowyou can imagine the kitchen staff downstairs they were just haulin to getall the dishes washed from the first batch to the second batch becausethere's only so many dishes you're gonna have on a ship you're not gonna have3,000 place settings for 1,100 passengers no way so while you knowwhile the first passengers are having their dessert and coffee and filteringout the the staff downstairs is cranking the the dish washing machines and thestaff down there they're just hall and and of course in the linen departmentthey've they've they've got linens ready to go on wagons and coming up theservice elevators so the minute the

the room was emptying out tables rolledit being changed over for the next shift and then the evening batch of dinerswould come in and every night my dad would have a suit on every night my momwould had a beautiful dress on i had to i had to dress up to go to dinner in thecruise ship every night there was no you know no schlepping around in the maindining room and you could meet the captain it could be very likely that thecaptain might pop by and so you have to be presentable for that i mean after allgod forbid you didn't look good so i remember those days and the food wasfantastic the dinners were wonderful the the waiters and the maitre d's and thebusboys they were just great

we would get our photos taken by theship photography people they'd come by the the table and they'd have a phototaken of us and of course our waiter would be standing right beside us i meanthat was absolutely necessary no such thing is a photo of a family offour own on the cruise ship dinner table the waiter was there too and for years iremember my parents whenever alice's had come by you know the old photo albumswould come out and we would reminisce about the old days and i'd hear my momdad talking about the old days and then the the subject of the crossing wouldcome up the atlantic crossing this wasn't an annual thing this is aone-timer and my father by the way was

in the canadian army had been stationedin germany we went over on a ship we came back on a ship but i'll tell youthat this is this these photos have come out and they would show off the photo ofthe ship they would show off the photo of the of the dinner table where we'reseeing with our waiter and and there'd be stories and the stories were the foodman it was just fantastic so i wanted to talk today about food on a cruise shiptoday 2017-2018 here we are and the cruise ship companies have always knownthat passengers need to be fed and need to be fed well and if you've gotwell-fed passengers your complaints drop dramatically if you have not well fedpassengers oh are you gonna get it and

they talked that passengers talk to eachother after a cruise and tell their friends how great or how bad the foodwas on a cruise in italia cruise lines just cannot afford to have bad reviewsfor the food and so we today are the are the recipients of decades of technologyand improvements in the food department so that we can now go on cruises andreally really feast like our parents and me as a seven-year-old could never havedreamed possible how we could feast now so for those of you who've never cruisedbefore and and this video sort of aimed at you for the newbies out there you'rethinking of going to cruise you never know before let me tell you you'reyou're going to i'm convinced you can

enjoy it if you go of course whetherdepending in that type of thing but the one thing you're probably not gonnareally complain about will be the food you'll probably be overwhelmed with thechoices because today on a modern cruise ship yes there are still the main diningrooms for the most part i know that if you're on holland america or are yougonna or norwegian cruise or princess cruise they still have large diningrooms in some cases these royal caribbean ships that are coming out nowthey have a three and four-story tall atrium style dining rooms where you knowyou're you're sitting on the third level and you can look and look down and youcan see two levels below you can look up

and across the roomi'll post pictures in this video about that it's a visual a stunning visualsight to see but the logistics behind it how do you have waiters and bus busboysbus girls to to to handle the logistics of getting food and clean dishes dirtydishes linens and everything up and down these levels behind the scenes work isstunning the logistics are something else these service elevators are hiddenfrom view for us from us we don't see it how they do it it's it'samazing getting a you know getting a medium-rare steak and a baked potato toyour table and it's still warm when it gets there where it came fromlogistically from the kitchens oh my god

quite amazing how its how it's all doneanyway so the dining room still exists and you can still make dining times ifyou're an eater you need to eat at five o'clock every day no matter whator six or seven or whatever your time is you can still reserve your table atthese at these restaurants on your entire cruise and enjoy absolutely andyou'll get a menu every day the menu is generally there about maybe 20 22 24 or25 items and maybe 15 of them are the standard fare every day same thing youcan have the you know same choices but then they'll add the sort of chef'screations and they'll have anywhere from four to six to eight chef's creationsfor this day only on the menu and you

definitely want to read him over and seewhat's going on so that's pretty cool but if you're you know if you're ameatloaf lover and you know you want to venture to maybe a steak and you mighthave oh you might have some you know mashed potatoes and gravy or fries andanise you know a caesar salad and and a very basic menu good drunk good on youand it'll be great every time you know you won't bedisappointed but if you're an adventurer and you like a lobster tail or you'reinto something a little more exotic you like some seafood or you what you wantto go for you know foods that you don't normally eat or favorite restaurant foodthat you have when you're at home you

won't be disappointed on the cruise shipnow to be a little more specific however if you are really into a say aporterhouse steak or you want some ribs or you want to you know you want to youwant a philomene y'all and you want some lobster tails and some some scampi orscratch or crab or prawns you're probably gonna have to end up going tothe steakhouse and here's the good news these cruise ships today have multitudesof specialty restaurants on board to to aim at everyone's palate and so ifyou're into you're into sushi i got good news for you there's sushi on board mostof these cruise ships now if you're into seafood you're into asian food italianyou want a pizza and i'm not talking

about you know a frozen kind of pizzayou buy at the grocery store that they slap together for you i'm talking aboutfreshly made onboard pizza while you're waiting you know 25 35 minutes herecomes this pizza right out of the oven and it wasand made from scratch on board and it'll taste that way it's fantastic you'regonna be happy but there's also the buffet and so we're talking the gamuthere so quickly to run through as quickly as i can anyway you run to atypical day for me when it's breakfast time i don't know what time i'm gonnawake up in the morning some mornings i wake up at 6 a.m. sometimes i wake up by8 o'clock it depends on the cruise it

depends wonder how much i did last nighthow am i feeling doesn't matter i always head to the buffet for breakfast anywayi love the fact that i can walk in there and there's like a hundred foot longcounter with food food food food food and i know i'm gonna find something tomeet and i find that i love eating muesli in the morning when i want tocruise ship i don't eat muesli at home i don't go to a restaurant in my hometownand by musli i only eat muesli on a cruise ship i don't know why it's justso delicious and all i had fruit to it if they offer me a little bowl besidethe muesli and it's too small a bowl it's okay i walk around the buffet untili find a larger bowl and i come back to

them usually with the larger empty bowland i put them usually in that it's my cruise i'm in church and they don't carewhat i eat it all sometimes i'll grab two small bowls of muesli if i can'tfind a larger bowl and you know i'll satisfy myself it's fine you can go backso many times you want doesn't matter just eat what you take is the modelreally but you know if i want to have an omelet with toast and just a coffee andi want some you know maybe some slices of peaches on the side or paired i canput this together but if i'm just an oatmeal guy or i'm at a bacon eggs guyyou'll find that to tell you for for men and women you know we all have ourpersonal tastes for breakfast and we eat

breakfast in a certain way one word homeand when sometimes we breakfast in a different way when we're not at home andthe beauty of the buffet is iike probably satisfy people's needs sobreakfast at the buffet is the way to go i fine grab the hit for the coffeemachine and and and fill your first cup yourself orsit down and enjoy at the table with your food and the sweet stuff will comeby and they'll ask you would you like a coffee they'll get you one and you don'thave to even get up and do that same thing with apple juice or orange juiceor whatever now in some cases certain beverages you have to pay extra forbring your room cart with you and you do

that i have noticed some cruisers quitequite organized they first head to the cappuccino coffee bar it's like they'reonboard starbucks they'll head there first and they'll buy themselves theirlatte or their cappuccino or their monaco americano whatever they like inwhatever size they want and they'll bring that with them to the buffet sonow you got your really nice coffee from downstairs you're in the buffet you graba plate or something of whatever you want to eat and they're enjoying theirbreakfast the way they want again you're building your your cruise the way youwant and with food now this is this is the wonderful thing about it if howeveryou don't feel so well and you're not so

hot this morning or whatever you'retired are you not feeling - are you just lazy you you want to breakfast in yourroom order room service they'll bring you breakfast there's a menu in yourroom that you can order off of and they will bring food to your breakfast nowmost cruises offer room service at no extra charge some have a nominal chargeincluded in room service it's it's it's evolving and there's a limited number ofchoices for what you can order for for room service but nonetheless you knowbacon and eggs and you know toast and jam and peanut butter and cirtl for thekids they'll bring you food to your room and if you're on the balcony suite youcan have it on your balcony if you want

or you can eat you know inside your roomthey'll still set a table up for you when they when they deliver it sothere's always that okay so that's breakfast now let's talk about an hourand a half after breakfast cuz after all you know people have to eat all the timeit's called grazing so once you're out and about you'll find it if you're onthe deck in the pool area some of the pool areas have they have like a like alike a little grill going nonand as the morning turns into lunchtime and in the afternoon all day longthey've got the hot dogs gone they've got the burgers going they've gotbratwursts going they've got knockwursts

going they've got the pizza going in thepizza oven outside and the staff is just they're cranking it out and all you gotto do is just come up and get in line and they'll what would you like and youknow fries and a hot dog or fries in the cheeseburger hold the onionsthey'll make it any way you want and prepared for you right on the spotyou carry it to your to your lounger over there and or sit at a table outsidelooking out over the ocean 12 stories above the water 14 stories above thewater and you're having a burger and a hot dog you know around 11:00 in themorning or 12:00 in the morning whatever whatever time it is whenever you'rehungry there's no set time but if you're

really you know looking for a meal youcan head over to the buffet and they got the lunch menu go on there's the friedchicken and there's the the italian dishes and there's german dishes and youname it or you can head for one of the specialty restaurants you'll pay extrafor a specialty restaurant anywhere from about i'm gonna say ten dollars perpassenger per meal and up and it used to be that up until four or five years agomaybe twenty-five dollars was sort of the top extra charge but lately i'venoticed that some of these celebrity type chef for sort of specialtyrestaurants are starting to a beer cruise lines are always figuring outways to make more money and their ass

they're asking for 40 50 60 dollars aperson but you're now into some serious eand you may or may not want to do that for lunch time for lunch you may notwant to go into the specialty restaurant and have a steak the buffet might bejust fine or the main dining room which by the way you can also have forbreakfast i didn't mention that earlier you can go to the main dining room forbreakfast lunch and dinner and you know order off the menu and be served and notget off your chair the entire time just enjoy and they bring it all to you thenduring afternoon there's the ice cream bar most cruise ships have have a softice cream dispenser sometimes they let

you play with it other times they havestaff operating it behind a counter and you just line up and tell them you wantan ice cream cone or you want this treater that treat if youone little dessert during the day head for the cappuccino bar again thatstarbucks bar usually right beside it there's a dessert counter and most casesthe desserts beside the the coffee mart they're free so you might see some niceoh nice mousse a chocolate mousse or i see some nice cheesecake there it's allmade on board by the pastry chefs and you can have a slice of this no chargeenjoy you want the coffee pay extra for toffee if you don't just enjoy so that'sa nice little break and then it's dinner

timeokay let's talk dinner time it's five o'clock 5:30 6:00 6:30 7:00 and youwon't have dinner again you've got all the special e restaurants you can go toyou can go to the main dining room you can go to the buffet and this is wherethe specially restaurants really shine now some of the cruise ship lines like ibelieve its royal caribbean they have a johnny rockets on most of their cruiseships and that's you know burger fries in the shake and it's a straightstraight charge it might be five or ten bucks a person straight chair eat allyou want and they'll give you the johnny rockets experience great if you get kidsbut otherwise you know head for the

buffet and check it out and you walkthrough the buffet first before you commit to doing anything and that's whati always do i go from one end of the buffet to the other end of the buffetand i double-check both sides of the ship on the buffet because the buffetsare you the food is in the middle the tables were on the outside andespecially into the back of the ship they'll have it all going around the endi walked both sides of the buffet because sometimes there are items on theone side of the buffet that aren't available on the other side of thebuffet and god forbid you miss you know what you really want to have so i'll dothat if i find any in the buffet that

really turns me on then i might decideto go to the main dining room and eat there i'll check the menu during the dayi'll have walked by the main dining rooms a lobby area where the menu forthe evening is posted and i'll see what tonight's chefs creations are and imight find that old man he's got he or she has got prawns with you know in aspecial sauce or there might be something italian special or whateverthe dishes and it just i'm looking at my wife and wife's look at me we're goingyeah we're going to that we're going to the special go to the dining roomtonight and we'll eat that you know if you don't have a special time let's sayyou don't have a 5:30

time reserved you're on anytime dinerwhich more and more cruise ships allow by the way by now because of all thespecialty restaurants your 3,000 passengers your 4,000 passengers are allover the place every day you can still show up in the main dining roomunannounced without a reservation go up to the the captain of the maitre d thereand ask for a table for two and they may ask you a question that might be wellwould you mind sharing a table with another party if you say no i just wanta table for two we don't want to share with anybody you want to be on our ownnot a problem they might have to take your name down and ask you to wait 15-20minutes that's fair enough on the other

hand if you're willing to share a tableyou might end up at a table with ten people and it's a big round table andyou know there's four seats that are open six seats are occupied now there'seight seats occupied and i find that i enjoy that from time to time becauseyou're meeting people you you'll never meet anywhere else and everybody has astory and the story is how did you end up on this cruise ship where are youfrom have you cruised before and you know and then it just goes on and onwhat are your doing what are your what did you do today what do you like aboutthe screws and then some folks have some really interesting stories and tips foryou on the cruise so keep an open mind

about that i've heard where people willwill come the first night we will be sat down at a table of eight or ten peopleand the they have so much fun at that table that they make a pact that everynight at seven o'clock we're gonna meet here and next thing you know you've gotpals and you might share shore excursions with them together it mightbe like four of you or six of you that just get along famously and next thingyou know you're exchanging emails and you've got lifelong friends if this hashappened to friends of mine you just never know other times thoughyou can be sat at the table of you know to others for others six others andnobody gets along with anybody and

there's there's there's people that youwouldn't be caught dead with it so you know you have one meal with them and yousay you get nights and goodbyes and the next day you come to the restaurant youask to sit at a you know at a table for just two or or equal tried differenttime and you sit at a table six or eight at a different time and youmeet other people you never know how close anyway food on a cruise ship neverending the best thing about the cruise it's the thing everybody asks about whenyou're done with the cruise your relatives want to know your friends wantto know how was it your co-workers what was the food like and it's something youcan talk to with anyone of any age about

and you all got something in commonbecause for some reason we're all addicted to it we have to eat almostevery day and cruise ship food is a great experience and you will find whatit is you will you know enjoy you're on a floating resort and it's a five-starresort in most cases and you should be just fine all the bread on board isbaked onboard all the pastries are made onboard the statistics on how many eggsthey go through and how many pounds of sugar and butter and everything it's allposted it's available for you you can find that out on on the cruise by theway it's staggering the staff downstairs in those kitchens hundreds and hundredsof these people they're working

tirelessly out of sight you almost youalmost don't think about it and it's amazing how they crank this stuff outbeen doing it for wow gosh yeah a hundred years now i guess since theearly 1900s but like i said i still remember the food from 1962 crossing theatlantic so yeah cruising is all about eating and you'll enjoy so if you everget to go on a cruise enjoy it you'll you'll have a great time and like i sayit makes for great memories thanks for watching this unbelievably long video ofmine talking about a food on a cruise shipit's bruce with traveling with bruce if you like the video give me a thumbs upif you like the way i do these videos or

you like my stories subscribe to mychannel and you'll be notified every time a new video is coming up and thenyou can catch my next story if you've got the time and if you would like tosupport my channel on patreon be my guestpop on over to my patreon page and make a donation anyway thanks again forjoining me and we'll talk to you next time take care bye bye

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