Cleveland's Beach Club in Freeport, Bahamas

 While on a cruise to Grand Bahamacruise to Grand Bahama, I rented a car in Freeport to explore more of the island. The guy at the car rental place told us to got to a place called Cleveland's Beach Club for lunch. A selling point to go to the restaurant was that they had pigs to swim with. According to the car rental guy, if we told Cleveland's that he sent us, we would be able to swim with the pigs for free. This wasn't the case. One of the people in my group almost paid for the pig swimming experience, but we were running short of time and decided against it.

We did get to see the pigs as they were taken for a walk past our table. Good enough for me. I wasn't there to swim with the pigs, I was there for the food.

I ordered their combo plate which came with lobster tail, fried fish, fried shrimp, and conch fritters. It was a little bit of overload of deep fried seafood. The two standouts was the lobster and the fish. Conch was a little tough. 

Food on the Margaritaville at Sea Paradise Cruise

I recently went on a cruise on the Margaritaville Paradise from Port of Palm Beach to Freeport in The Bahamas. Here's the food I ate on the ship:

There were some issues in the port where boarding the ship took longer than expected. Headed straight to the Port of Indecision Buffet for lunch as soon as I was on board. Unfortunately, they were clearing the buffet by the time I got there. I was able to pick some stragglers that were still there including some sort of vegetable curry, rice, a pig in a blanket, and a hot dog with no bun. Everything tasted like I got the leftovers just before it was thrown out.

Walked around the corner after getting some of the leftover buffet food to find the Cheeseburger in Paradise Burger Bar. They were still serving food. Got a cheeseburger and fries that tasted fresher than the buffet food.

That evening, I ate dinner in the Fins Dining Room. This was the fancy dining room that was included in the cruise. There was also a steakhouse, pizzeria, and coffee shop that were upcharges. My meal started with a bowl of Jamaican Pumpkin Soup:

This was followed by a Caprese Salad. Wasn't my favorite. Hunk of cheese, lots of arugula, and not much flavor.

I had the Antigua Shrimp Skewer for my main course. This was jumbo shrimp with mango salsa over jasmine rice. Broccoli was served as a vegetable. It was fine, but could have used a little more sauce for flavor. Everything on the plate lacked any distinct seasoning.

I ate the Key Lime Sponge Cake for dessert. I liked it, but the consensus among others at the table who ordered this was that they would have preferred regular key lime pie.

For breakfast the next morning, I went back to the Port of Indecision Buffet. They were serving food this time around. Besides the issue with the buffet closing when I boarded, breakfast was consistently the worst food on the ship. It was really bad. Eggs were cold. Certain items were still frozen. Scarfed it down so I'd have energy for the day, but I didn't enjoy it.

Left the ship and explored Freeport. When I got back on board the ship, I won a hula hoop contest where the prize was a free drink. I don't do alcohol, so I had a virgin pina colada. 

Also made it back to the Cheeseburger in Paradise Burger Bar for a late afternoon meal to hold me over until dinnertime. 

Back to the Fins Dining Room for dinner that night, my meal started with the Cajun Gumbo:

This was followed by a Caesar Salad. Pretty standard, but better than the caprise salad from the night before.

I had Shrimp & Grits as my main course. This was the best food item I had in Fins. It was really tasty.

I tried the Baked Florida for dessert. This was layers of ice cream with marshmallow meringue as an outer coating. Not my favorite.

Later I found myself back in Port of Indecision Buffet for a late night snack. They had Butter Chicken. This was really good. I had the chicken over rice with naan. Good flavors, good spice levels. I really enjoyed this. The desserts from the buffet, not so much...

For my final meal on the cruise, it was back to Port of Indecision Buffet for breakfast. Regular buffet food was just as bad as the previous breakfast, but waiting for the omelet bar was worth it. The omelet was really good. Weird how the ship has a good grasp on semi-decent food, but they can't figure out how to make breakfast well.

Here's some video I took of the food on the ship:

Cruise Ship Food Aboard the Norwegian Bliss

I recently went on a cruise aboard the Norwegian Bliss from Seattle to various ports in Alaska and British Columbia. While I did eat off the boat, this post will focus on food aboard the ship.

Garden Cafe:

This is the main buffet on the Norwegian Bliss. While the Garden Cafe did a good job with their food for the most part, sometimes certain foods were hit or miss. I found the breakfast buffet got repetitive with the same several items repeating themselves over and over again with certain items that they could never get right (good luck finding a piece of crispy bacon on this buffet). Breakfast also seemed to lack certain items which seemed standard on every other cruise I've been on (lox/smoked salmon at breakfast). Lunch and dinner buffets had a nice selection with a good number of items that changed from day to day. There was an after hours buffet in the Garden Cafe which was quite sad. Seemed like hamburgers, hot dogs, and a few select leftover items from dinner.

Various Breakfast Foods:

There were certain genres of food that the Garden Cafe did consistently well. For example, they always had really good Indian food. I'd rank the Indian food at Garden Cafe up there with some of my favorite Indian restaurant lunch buffets!

Tried some of the items when Garden Cafe had a seafood themed dinner buffet. Fish cakes, seafood casserole, and salmon bisque.

There was also an Asian noodle soup station which I enjoyed. There seemed to be some daily variation here in terms of broth and noodles. I saw udon, ramen, and pho.

Desserts:

The Local:

This was the only restaurant serving food 24 hours a day on the Bliss. I enjoyed almost everything I ate at The Local with one exception.

Rachel Sandwich and Pretzel Bites.

Caesar Salad

Watermelon Greek Salad and Turkey Pot Pie

Fish & Chips. This was the only meal from The Local that I didn't enjoy. The batter on the fish was thicker than the fish itself and was soggy rather than crispy. The french fries were also on the soggy side.

Taco Salad. Beef, beans, salsa, guacamole, and cilantro served over rice, all in a taco bowl.

Watermelon Greek Salad. This was one of my favorite salads I had on the Norwegian Bliss. The sweet watermelon mixed with the salty feta, kalamata olives, and vinegar was very nice.

Carrot Cake

The Manhattan, Taste, and Savor:

These were the three main dining rooms on the Norwegian Bliss. These were the fanciest restaurants on the boat which didn't have an upcharge. Each location had a different name, but each had the exact same menu for each day. Like the Garden Cafe, some foods at these restaurants were hit or miss.

Breakfast was consistently better at Taste and Savor compared to the Garden Cafe. You got service, presentation, and items that didn't make it to a buffet.

French toast:

Bagel with lox.

Eggs Benedict.

Strawberry Yogurt Parfait.

Smoked Salmon and Dill Spinach Pancakes. This was my favorite breakfast aboard the ship. I am a big fan of savory pancakes, and this combination of spinach-green tinted pancakes, salty fish, and sour cream topping was delicious.

Breakfast Casserole. This seemed like an interesting variation on an English breakfast. Baked beans and sausage topped with a poached egg. Not my favorite, but it was interesting regardless. 

I think I preferred breakfast in these restaurants a bit more than dinner. Dinners weren't necessary bad, they just had the feel of mass-produced convention center type food. I had an appetizer with every meal in these restaurants at dinnertime. Here's some of them:

Scallops:

Fig and Goat Cheese Flatbread:

Baked Brie:

Matzo Ball Soup (I question the Kosherness of this soup):

Stuffed Mushrooms:

Tostadas - I think nachos would be a more appropriate name since these were basically tortilla chips topped with stuff:

Spring Rolls:

Vegetable Tempura Rolls:

Here's some of the dinner entrees I ate:

Lamb Shank:

Salmon:

Shrimp and Grits:

Eggplant Parmesan:

Pad Thai:

Various desserts from Taste, Savor, and The Manhattan:

Overall, the food on the Norwegian Bliss was decent. There were definitely some hits and misses when it came to menu items, especially at dinners in the dining rooms. Definitely better food compared to what I've had on Carnival ships.