NCL's The Breakaway 1/2024 Dining Dilemma

or .... Cruising with No Chompers!

I was prepared to deny myself the pleasure of delicious food aplenty on the Norwegian Cruise lines The Breakaway. I had even gone so far as to order meal replacement shakes from Walmart to be delivered the day before we cruised, to our hotel. After all, they do weigh a lot and my luggage was sure to be at the limit already. I started the online order to Walmart about a week before we left home to head to New Orleans. Over the week I added stuff like adhesive to attach a poster to our cabin door, Hair Conditioner and Band-Aids. When we arrived to our hotel (way later than planned), there were four bags of goodies waiting for me! We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn near the cruise terminal. My suitcases were able to hold the 12 containers of liquid nutrition. I shoved them into any suitcase crevasse available. My gratitude was great regarding my suitcases ability to roll as though it were empty! Thank you Level8! I am so glad that there are no weight limits to the luggage that we bring onboard the cruise ship.

Upon boarding the ship, we had the great fortune of running into a man in white. It was one Lloyd Johnson, Executive Chef. He was from Jamaica and he was so darn nice. Being such a shy wallflower that I am, I just was going to shake his hand, smile, and let him go on his way as I am certain he was very busy. Rob, my husband, so an opportunity to share my business with this awesome man. Rob begins to explain that I have an issue chewing, as in, I cannot chew! My face must have been so red!

I can imagine thoughts like,

"Wow, she doesn't look like she has suffered a missed meal due to this.."

or

"Well sir, it appears you both could go with missing a few meals!".

Unfortunately that is just the way my thought processes roll. Well, this Lloyd Johnson was just awesome. He considered the issue and told us to discuss this with the maître D at our restaurant where we choose to eat. He said that there was no reason why they couldn't chop whatever I chose into tiny pieces. Lloyd said that the Maître D would ensure that my dietary needs were met without a lot of fuss. Enter Mahendra! ( More on him later)

To end our conversation on a topic other than myself, I told Lloyd about our son who also wants to become a professional chef. In hindsight, I can't believe that the didn't roll his eyes, not even once! I'm certain that he must have ben busier than we could ever imagine. That said, he was so warm and welcoming as though he was sent to personally welcome us! By now, you surely are nodding in agreement that yes indeed he sounds like a great human being as well you should.

But there is more! Lo and behold much to our surprise and gratitude, he had three separate gifts sent to our cabin! These were edibles! No not THOSE kind of edibles, but rather the chocolate, fruit and cookie kind of edibles.

I've posted a picture of the third one that he sent. The second is on Robs phone and the first one of just artfully cut fruit may not have been photographed as I fell on that and consumed most before thinking about taking a picture. The kiwi hit the spot! There was papaya, cantaloupe, watermelon, pineapple and kiwi. Pardon me while I wipe up my drool....

I cannot convey in words to you how this kindness by Lloyd made us feel. To be seen and heard is one thing. To have kindness showered upon you for no other reason than one man who is just inherently kind. Whelp, I don't have the words, it was above and beyond kind. We were basking in this indescribable feeling for the entire cruise! Trust me, it isn't that we have never received gifts in our room, usually from a travel agent or something like that. I think we received chocolate dipped strawberries and champagne once or twice. We were moved to say, "Oh how nice and that is cool".. but these were different.

Our second delivery of yummies came to us while we were in the room. Rob took the delivery and said, "Oh Wow!, Sheryl you have got to see this, from Lloyd!" I came out of the bathroom to lay my eyes upon my greatest weakness artfully displayed in all sorts of variety! CHOCOLATES! I am not ashamed to report that I went to bed and brought that platter. At first, it was laying between Rob and I. See? I do know how to share! However, Rob fell asleep right away. Being considerate (as I am sometimes) I thought he may need more room to move around and that the platter may hinder his movement. So, I moved the sacred platter. I placed it upon my chest. Ah, the sacrifices that I make!

As I watched TV, I ate every last one of those beautiful chocolates! I was a bit nauseous but it was so worth it. I am now ruined for the average chocolate candy by the way! It has been over a week or more now and my mouth still waters at the memory of the chocolates that were handmade and OH so delicious. I thought that I was set in my chocolate intake for at least a year...

Then the third one came! I was able to set it aside until after we packed our luggage for departure the next day. I even waited until after we had dinner to finish the chocolates off. I considered this to be a great example of my stamina in self-denial. I did discover that one is NEVER EVER maxed out on how much chocolate they can take! You just have to pace yourself <lol> Thank you Lloyd Johnson, you are the most awesome Human Being!!! We will never forget your acts of kindness. I imagine we will remember your name for a while which is funny because I often cant remember my own address or phone number!!

Back to my toothless journey. We chose "Taste" as our common dining area. The Buffett was insane and I have just about had enough of clamoring to get a seat anywhere on the ship. I'm weird and it is so stressful first wondering if you will find seating and secondly if the seating you manage to find will be desirable or crappy. Who needs that on vacation? We are grateful to be on vacation, that's a given. But this is my whine about what happened, so deal with it... We have to settle for seating with no view or speak of or the most back breaking things that I hesitate to even call seating! So, we went to "Taste", one of the main dining rooms. This is where we met the assistant Maître D, Mahendra. My Mothers heart spoke right away, "I bet his Mam is so proud of him!" He appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties. He was tall and seemed super confident. He didn't show any stress or of how he was juggling a dozen things at once! At one point I did ask his age because I was dying to know if I guessed right. He is 32! I guessed 28 or 32 <LOL>. I felt that was pretty young to have such responsibility. I have never met a Maître' D so young on any other ship. I felt somewhat like a stalker watching him work. I was just me being a proud Mom on behalf of his!

Mahendra, from India, ensured that each mean was able to be consumed by me and my toothless gob! You should have seen my turkey burger and fries! You would have been hard pressed to identify either item. I can't remember, but I hope that I took a picture with maybe Robs phone. For the most part, I stuck to the fish dishes. I was able to work bites with my tongue and the roof of my mouth. I had upper dentures altered for this trip. They are just placeholders and are unable to be used for biting or chewing (in case you wondered). Anyway, I do subtly smash food that way. I don't do it with my gob wide open, just in case you wondered that too. hehe

My favorite solid (Other than the chocolates!) is the morning pastries. I'm not so subtle then I discovered as I put a small piece in my mouth then take a drink of tea and so on.. If the pastry is so super yummy, I gobble/drink so many times that I realized it must look odd. That was me gobbling food.. stuff/drink, stuff drink...

In case you have a warped imagination, which I'm certain most of you do cause you are reading this! Let me give you a clearer picture. I order either tea or coffee and it proceeds like this. I pink off a piece of small pastry, plot it in my mouth in a way that prohibits it from falling out. Then, I take a sip or beverage. The dry piece of pastry sucks up the liquid and goes down like a dream! Ahhh, I wrote this paragraph while sitting in the pouring rain on Paradise Beach and the yearning for hot tea was real!

So, to summon up and weed out my off topic wanderings....

• Speak to the Maître D upon arrival. He will make a notation on your account. (Be clear how you want your food, not liquifies, but chopped find.. or hey, if you want liquify by all means.....) If a meal is to your liking and requires modification for you, he or she will ensure that it happens for you. (Our Mahendra was so attentive that I was embarrassed by my inability to remain unseen. That's not on him, but on me.) Chicken, Steak... anything can be cut up to the consistency of ground beef or even tuna fish which worked well for me.

• Be Excited! It is exciting having the knowledge that no food has to be withheld if you desire it!

After all that, my situation was a little different as my gut prohibits a lot of stuff like lettuce, beef and so on. If not for that, I would have had a whole lot of salad and steak. I did have salad minus the lettuce. It was delish!

On Day 6, Two things were perfectly clear

1. I would be donating some meal replacement shakes to the room steward.

2. My body weights downward trend had ceased to be!

Don't worry, I'll have eating utensils back in my mouth come June! I started the process of getting Dental Implants in November 2022. Due to my oh so special mouth, this process will take a bit longer.. All good things, all good things!