Alaska Trip: Food

Well, you know I love food, so I have to include a post about that, of course! I did refrain from taking pictures of every single thing we ate, and a good thing, too, because we ate a lot! Mark and I were trying to be reasonable, though, and not get totally out of control, so I think we managed to keep some balance.

One thing to keep in mind if you ever travel to Alaska is that seafood is the highlight on nearly every menu. For our group, that worked well--we could have had different types of seafood for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (and sometimes did!) However, if seafood isn't your thing, just be prepared to overlook a large portion of each menu. Of course, there are lots of other options (chicken, steak, pasta, etc.), but the seafood is the star of the show.

Our first meal together was dinner in Anchorage at a nice restaurant called Sacks Cafe. I think everything we tried here was delicious, and look how pretty it is!

Once we left Anchorage, we stayed at two different Princess Lodges, each with a few restaurant choices. We had some good meals at these places, too, but sometimes the service was slow.

We ate here a lot. 

At the other lodge.

A tasty calzone.

We also went to a dinner theater one night. It was family style food, and the servers were also the performers. The show was really cute (but no photos allowed).

On the cruise, of course, there were tons of food options, mostly included. Some things, like drinks other than water, tea, and lemonade, had to be purchased. There were also 3 specialty restaurants that had a per-person cover charge. After the first morning having breakfast in one of the dining rooms, we decided to have our other morning meals in the buffet, which had a wide range of choices (including some of the very same things on the restaurant menu) and was more efficient. We tended to have breakfast on our own (not gathering our group of 6 together).

Mark's eggs with salmon--our first breakfast on board.

My blueberry pancakes.

We usually met up with everyone for lunch and dinner, though, occasionally at the buffet, but more often in one of the restaurants. The presentation was usually very good. Here are a few things we ate:

mussels

some kind of Asian-flavors soup

fruit plate

cobb salad

turnover (maybe apple walnut?)

a fancy side salad

sorbet

some white fish with mashed potatoes and veggies

steak with cheese & onion tart and veggies

A special dessert to celebrate Princess' 50th anniversary.

surf 'n turf

One of the best meals we had: crab legs.

caprese salad

more fish!

pear salad

Mark's escargot

lobster and shrimp

more fish :-)

chocolate dessert

This appetizer had some of the best octopus I've ever had.

bacon cheeseburger

mussels

Baked Alaska

To celebrate my birthday and Grandma's birthday (both in late June), Mom and Dad made reservations for us and the Crown Grill, one of the specialty restaurants. The server was better than average (we'd really had a mixed bag in terms of servers at the regular dining rooms), but Julie's meal came out way late, and everyone had cold baked potatoes. Grandma and I did get surprise birthday cakes with candles, though, so that was fun! I had also ordered the beautiful dessert sampler. This was one of my favorite desserts (a lot of things we tried, especially from the buffet, had some weird texture issues).

Really tasty scallops!

raw salmon appetizer

side salad

mushroom soup?

fish

steak

Birthday cake

dessert sampler

peanut butter bar

Mark and I also tried a few slices of pizza here and there when we needed a snack, and it was always excellent. They had cheese and pepperoni every day, plus a daily special, which is usually what tempted me the most.

Another fun treat was the afternoon tea on board, which we were able to enjoy on days at sea. They had an impressive array of tea sandwiches, desserts, and cookies, plus the tea, of course. The waiter who served the fresh, hot scones was certainly the most enthusiastic server we had the whole time (a bit goofy, but we liked him).

Overall, the food won't be the first thing we think of when we remember this trip (I think that would be the breathtaking views we saw all over the place), but we did have some really great meals and treats. If Mark and I go on another cruise in the future, we'll have to keep fine-tuning our ability to indulge and enjoy while also keeping on track for the sake of our health, though--it is a lot of temptation (and it's constant! and the servers are pushy!).