Triton's, Part One

We make a brief stop in the Suite following our concierge reception. Brandon is the first back out the door, wanting to go to Shutters and see if any of his pictures with characters from earlier in the day are there.

This has been a great vacation day. I’ve done a whole lot, without actually doing much, if that makes sense. I mean, almost everything I’ve taken part in today has consisted of my sitting around while someone else either feeds me or entertains me. And that, my friends, is a vacation!

At ten till six, the rest of us head downstairs for dinner. The door to Triton’s is not yet open when we arrive, so we gather with the growing crowd on the steps leading to the entrance. Two crew members pass out sanitizing wipes as we wait, which is standard these days to avoid repeats of the shipboard illness-passing that has plagued some previous cruises.

Benjamin realizes that he left his “trading pins” in the Suite, so we let him go back on his own to retrieve them. I realize that he will be returning on one of the glass elevators that face us across the atrium, so I prepare to snap his picture as he returns. The doors to Triton’s open and the crowd begins to file in before he comes back, but I’m able to linger long enough to get the picture I want.

We are escorted to Table 55, which turns out to be the same table where we ate Triton’s dinner at on our last voyage – and breakfast on the morning of our departure. It’s kind of déjà vu-ish, but also cool to come full circle like this.

Sutas and Nino are in good spirits, already joking around with us as we arrive, and "ooo-ing" and "aah-ing" over our pin lanyards. It looks like this will be a fun meal again.

It sinks in a bit, as we are handed our menus, that we are not really in the mood to be thinking too much about food. It is mealtime and we didn’t stuff ourselves too much at the reception, so we are a little hungry. Maybe it’s just that “gourmet overload” we felt at lunch.

Bob orders a steak and baked potato off of the “Lighter Fare” portion of the menu. That speaks volumes about the richness of the food here, that a steak and potato are considered “lighter fare”! Linda handles the overload by just ordering the list of “Chef’s Selections” on the menu, so, as she says, she “doesn’t have to think.”

The past two times I’ve gotten the herb-crusted fish entrée. In 2003, it was sea bass, and melt-in-your-mouth wonderful, easily the best dish I ate on the entire vacation. In 2005 Triton’s had switched the fish – same recipe, but with sole instead of sea bass. The fish was much heavier and just didn’t work as well, though it was still good. I thought perhaps I’d try something else this time, but I see they’ve changed fish again. It’s now Herb-Encrusted Halibut on the menu. Hmmm. Okay, I’ll give it a try!