Day 14 Royal Caribbean Explorer of the seas Cheekyricho cruise holiday Richo's Birthday

It's Richo'sBirthday, our cabin stewart made a low calorie Birthday Cake and cake slice out of towels, complete with candle and set the spotlights onto it. It was so perfect it was a shame to move it.

So Richo Blew out the candle and we thanked him profusely. He is such a humble polite man, he was thrilled with our reaction. He placed a sign on our door and had been looking for us all morning. To wish him Happy Birthday.

We went to the midday movie to see the Intern with Robert Di Niro, it was lovely movie. Lunch upstairs and back to the room for a nap. It's a Formal night tonight but we just went smart casual. 

I had crab salad with a prawn .

Richo had his old faithful Prawn Cocktail, he loves the sauce & its spicy. I Am Winning the chilli war 😉

We shared a Smoked Duck and Duck Pâté salad entree because I loved the sound of it.

We opted for the Giant prawn on crab mash with a lobster bisque sauce with spinach and roasted mushrooms.

Richo's first mouthful was full of sand. The prawn still had the digestive tract intact and it was full of black greasy sandy grit. The mash gave me a good idea to try at home when the crabs are on but mine will be amazing. Richo thought his sense of taste and smell must have been having the day off. I assured him that the sauce indeed had no flavour. It was very disappointing because I thought it may have been a celebration dinner. We had a bottle of French White wine we bought in Noumea as a toast to him commemorating another year. 

This is Baked Alaska, neopolitan  icecream covered with Swiss meringue then torched. I will let you be the judge. We both feel the meals have dropped off since the beginning of the cruise and hope when they restock in Hawaii that the same level of food quality and variety will return. I can usually find something interesting to try but today's lunch was a sous vide meatloaf, a beef and mushroom stew that ran out so I didn't get to try it. Some grilled fish, Indonesian rice meal, burgers and hot dogs, salads, cold cuts and sandwich fillings.

I have rarely dined in the dining room this trip in fact the greatest proportion of my meals have either been missed altogether or taken in my cabin with Richo making a selection of things I might like to try. He obtained a tray from somewhere and it is a coveted item. It attracts many comments. We have been limiting our carbs at home in the interest of eating more healthily. One Meal Richo got had mashed potato, chips and a whole baked potato accompanying a salad and slice of roast beef it was carb city but they make the best mashed potato on board with lashings of butter, a scoop of gravy over the top and the chips and I had a party. One day  he brought me taccos, I was so excited, I could smell and taste them for the first time in over a week I wanted to eat food and they were taccos. What a wonderful bonus. He brought me little tubs of yoghurt for the tablets I'm taking, honey for my cold and single serve cereal boxes with tetra packs of milk in case I need to eat something. He has been peeling me oranges and bananas, slicing apples and doting on me, he reckons I don't eat enough fruit but I eat salad and veges with most meals. I have chocolate but have hardly touched it. Chocolate has never survived this long in the same room as me.