So, I just got back from a four day cruise with Royal Caribbean. It was a great time. Excellent food and entertainment. Fine facilities and for the most part warm and competent staff. The boat is an absolute wonder. A small city on the seas that seems like it would be unfazed no matter the weather. This was my first cruise experience, and I thought it was great. I enjoyed it very much...except for one thing.
Around the two day mark, after drinking "deals of the day" and other assorted fruity concoctions, margaritas, martinis, and some lagers, I realized how much I missed craft beer. Especially hops. From memory, here was the long and the short of the beer availability on board:
Bud, Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Light, Singa, Kirin Ichiban, Kirin Light, Red Stripe, Heineken (bottle AND draft), Foster's, and, of course, Corona.
When you went to the 'Two Poets Pub" the list expanded just a little bit to include Newcastle Brown, Boddington's Pub Ale, Blue Moon, and Guiness.
Notice anything? I did up front of course. This is the standard macrolager fare. In offering this "variety" of beers, Royal Caribbean is essentially offering the same beer...with 15 different labels. Sorry for painting with such a broad brush, but macrolager is macrolager. Yes Guiness, Newcastle, and Boddington's, and Blue Moon are all different in their own way, but the rest? Might as well be interchangeable. It's bullshit, but it's standard at this point.
The wine list on this boat was not entirely populated with Sauvginon Blanc or Pinot Grigio. So why is the entire beer menu populated with fizzy yellow adjunct-filled water? Would it really kill Royal Caribbean to have some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale? I'm not talking about having DFH Palo Santo Marron on tap, but something ANYTHING with some hop character would've been much appreciated.
Back to the beginning of this story, around day two I started realizing that I really was craving hops in a bad way. I was literally jonesing for some cascade hops. A Green Flash West Coast IPA would've sent me over the edge of happiness. But it wasn't to be. I had to wait to get home and have a Sierra Nevada Torpedo. I'm much happier now, but was it really necessary to make me wait four days? I guess it was since the prevailing opinion is that Bud Light and Miller Light taste different enough that something that ACTUALLY tastes different doesn't need to be included. Maybe next time I go on a cruise that'll change.
Cheers,
Bill
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