Mexican Riviera Cruise, Oosterdam Cruise Review, Food Review

Day 1 - April 14, 2007 (Saturday)

What an exhausting day! As there are 10 people in our family group of cruisers, just the herding of everyone was difficult - but not impossible! Most of the family flew to San Diego on Alaska Airlines. My brother and his wife, Jerry and Laura Stewart, drove from Tucson, Arizona to San Diego.

Photos of our ship, the Oosterdam, at port in San Diego. Doesn't she look big and beautiful?

We had arranged to have two electric scooters available on the ship for our two elderly mothers (the "Moms) traveling with us. Both "Moms" are in their 80s. As there is so much walking around the ship, I wished, at times, that I also had this means of transportation available for me. Hopefully, all the exercise will keep me from gaining too much weight during the cruise.

Once our family was on the ship and all settled in our rooms, we had lunch in the Lido Restaurant (where a sumptuous buffet-style lunch was laid out). This is a buffet-style restaurant with stations for different types of food (such as Italian, pizza, deli, Chinese, salad bar, ice cream, etc.). If you want, you can get breakfast, lunch, and dinner here. After lunch, our luggage arrived in our room.

Photo of our Deluxe Verandah Staterooms on the Rotterdam Deck (Deck 7). All our rooms were grouped together on the ship. The rooms were nice, but if I take another cruise, I will definitely upgrade to a larger room.

The mandatory lifeboat drill was held at 4:15 p.m. on Deck 3, with everyone wearing their life preservers.

Our ship departed San Diego at 5:00 p.m.

Photo of San Diego as we left port.

This photo is of the captain, Olav van der Waard, looking out of the crow's nest as we left San Diego.

Dinner - Our first dinner on board was disappointing! First off, we had made reservations in advance for a table large enough for our family group of ten people. Were assured by our travel agent that this would happen. Well, it didn't. Were were assigned two tables for our group. No one was happy about this, as were were traveling together and especially wanted to dine at dinner as a group. We were assured that tomorrow night we would have a larger table!

Every main entree served, excluding the appetizers and desserts, was overcooked! I was very surprised by this. This ship was supposed to be known for its great food. Oh well, with all the walking and the not-to-great food, maybe I'll actually lose weight instead of gaining!

Italian Prosciutto Ham
Thinly shaved air-dried Parma ham with a ripe honeydew melon fan.

Avocado, Tomato and Crab Salad
The sweet meat of Alaskan crab with diced ripe avocado and fresh tomatoes, gently combined with truffle oil-perfumed creme fraiche.

Roast Rack of Pork with Caramelized Apples
Tender loin rolled in fresh herbs and served with spiced apple chutney, steamed broccoli, baby carrots and home-style potato mash.

Black Pepper Crusted New York Sirloin Steak
Served with a full-bodied red wine shallot sauce, golden-grilled yellow and green zucchini and creamy twice-baked potato.

Grilled Mahi Mahi with Roasted Corn Salsa and Plantains
Served alongside orange-infused black bean rice with fresh corn coulis and cilantro.

Pastry Chef's Signature Chocolate Cake
A richly intense chocolate sponge cake with layers of chocolate ganache and bittersweet orange marmalade.

Viennese Apple Strudel
The Austrian classic, made with fragrant cinnamon-scented apples and raisins, rolled in a flaky phyllo pastry and served with warm vanilla sauce.

Coconut Blanc-Manger
Light and airy coconut mousse with tropical fruit salsa.

Each night, we came back to our stateroom with our bed turned down (with chocolates!) and a different towel-animal waiting for us.

The photo on the rights shows one of the many towel creations on our bed every evening.