This past weekend, we took advantage of the last days of the Dine About Town promotion and took my mom on a brunch cruise aboard the California Hornblower.
The Hornblower's Sunday Brunch is usually $59/person (not including tax or tip). That seems like an outrageous price to me, but at $22/person ($28 including tax & tip), it was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours. The views were spectacular, and it was fun to circumnavigate Alcatraz.
Boarding was efficient, and service was really wonderful throughout the cruise. The only thing that really annoyed me was the "wedding singer" who serenaded us with Stevie Wonder covers and her own little version of "Happy Birthday" (which included referring to me as the "mystery girl in the pink with lovely hair" because I wouldn't give her my name. I'm a party-pooper like that).
The food, while unremarkable, was mostly satisfactory. The ham was juicy and not too salty. The herb-crusted sirloin was pretty moist and flavorful. C said the eggs were "very good for buffet fare", and the waffles "tasty, especially with whipped cream and strawberries".
The pastries were, on the whole, exceptionally good, and we ate a lot of them. The lemon bars, petit fours (especially the marzipan), and something else I can't remember were particularly good. Coffee was Tully's, and really, really good. Extremely smooth, and properly brewed.
The best part about the cruise, though, had to be the chocolate-dipped strawberries. The chocolate was actually bittersweet and very good... the strawberries were sweet and ultra-juicy... Honestly, I know I ate no fewer than 10 of them, and my mom & C polished off at least another half-dozen.
Would I take this cruise again? Probably not... but it was a really nice way to spend a Sunday morning, and was worth every penny of the $28/person we spent.
