Morning: The day began as I woke up and looked out our balcony windows to see the blue ocean swiftly moving past us. Not wanting to lose a moment of the day, I quickly got ready for the day and made my way towards the Lido Restaurant. I have become a huge fan of Holland America Line’s waffles recently, so I made sure I was line for the waffle station as quickly as possible. After finishing my waffle breakfast, it was almost time to meet up for the Dancing with Star’s Championship round 2. Today’s contestant’s would be narrowed down from 15 to 10, so we were excited to see if our favorites had moved on to the second round.
Afternoon: Just before the show started, we made our way down to the Showroom At Sea to grab our seats for the second championship show of Dancing with the Stars At Sea. The show began with a quick song from the show’s dancer’s and Jason, the show’s host, soon introduced the 15 finalists from the night before. He then, following the show’s style, announced each guest who would be moving onto round 2. The show quickly started and each guest was soon dancing across the stage with their professional partner. Each judge shared their thoughts, including our hilarious cruise director Eric. Judges then submitted their scores to the guests to determine who might be moving on to the next round. Once all of the dancers had performed their routines, it was time for the guest’s to judge. Each dancer was called forward from the stage and the audience’s applause level was recorded on a decibel measure. The audience’s decibel level was then added onto the dancer’s score from the judge’s. Now, the entire ship waits in suspense for the next round to see who will be moving onto the third championship round.
Early evening: The evening began with a brief cocktail reception for our press group in the Silk Den, one of the exclusive lounges only found on two ships in the Holland America Line fleet, Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam. After a few fun conversations and discussing our days at sea, we moved over to Tamarind, the ship’s pan Asian restaurant for our group dinner.
Evening: Tamarind is currently only found onboard the Eurodam and our ship, the Nieuw Amsterdam. The restaurant serves guests a wide menu of Asian dishes ranging from the traditional sushi to the not so traditional breaded shrimp with soy sauce. We entered the restaurant and were warmly greeted by the Tamarind staff, who showed us to our seats. We were presented our menu’s and our hostess explained the Tamarind philosophy and experience to us. After some time for contemplating, our orders were taken and the first dishes arrived soon after. I began my meal with the Jewels of the Sea, a soup filled with shrimp won-tons and steamed vegetables. Next, I enjoyed the Shrimp Tempura, which was large shrimp, battered and fried, with a delicious sweet garlic chili sauce. I skipped over the sushi course, as I am not the biggest fan of raw fish, and moved on to the main course. For my entree, I decided on the Scallops and Prawns, another soup with some of the largest scallops and prawns I have seen. The soup was completed with garlic, ginger, and chili sauces. I finished the meal with a cool and refreshing mango sorbet and cloud soufflet. Dining in Tamarind was truly a gratifying experience and I was sad to know the dining experience was over. Tamrind has moved up on my list of favorite specialty restaurants, but we will have to see how it compares to the Pinnacle Grill and Le Cirque later in this sailing.
