foggyphils

Background: I’ve been on Carnival (3) HAL (1) and now RCCL.

If you would of told me I was on carnival, I wouldn’t blink. I really don’t see any differentiation.

Food: Anywhere from poor to spectacular. MDR was hit and miss. Escargot is best out of all our cruises. Don’t get the coconut seafood soup or the mojo pork chop...dry chewy, and the sweet potatoes were raw like carrots. Next time in MDR, I’d stick with just appetizers. Desserts also left much to be desired. Best desserts easily goes to Carnival. The only edible dessert (outside specialty dining) on VOS was carrot cake and the oatmeal raisin cookies. The Tutti salad in MDR lunch is a must try. Overall, I think the “free” food is better on carnival and HAL. NB: there are slight difference on each side of the windjammer buffet. One side does not have hash browns and smoked salmon bagels were only on one side.

Room: inside 7625. It was like a tomb. Very quiet BUT we’ll likely never do inside again. This is likely our first and last inside. Other family members had balconies and enjoyed them. My husband who didn’t think he would care at all says OV is as low as he wants to go in the future. We would wake up at all kinds of random times with no idea what time it was!

Cruise director was a cross between Jack Nicholson and a drill sergeant. Very talented but I would of been scared to take that Thriller class. He was very intense to say the least.

Kids: I didn’t see many kids at all. I heard 2 separate families comment. One was disappointed there was nothing scheduled for the kids on the evening of a port day. The other was complaining the ship wasn’t kid friendly and wished they were on the ship next to us with a slide...I think it was carnival.

Casino: poorly layed out. Everything is all crammed together. Too many slot machines that no one was using, while tables were crammed with people. Smallest casino of any ships I’ve been on which makes being around all the smoke that much worse.

Shopping: they have a nice collection of clutch/cocktail purses on sale for $10 on formal day. NB: The intiva watches they have on sale for “75% off” can be had on amazon much cheaper.

Wi-if: We found it confusing. We still ended up with charges from the cell company for certain texts. Also, it would continually bump you off within minutes of use. So you had to be vigilant if you are expecting to receive a text and keep it turned on.

Highlights:

Martini Class- 3 full size martinis ($23 pp with tip). This was so much fun. The ingredients were all fresh (think fresh squeezed lime juice, watermelon, berries, basil, etc all muddled in front of you) The bartender is very knowledgeable. Saying that, he didn’t project too well so at times it was hard to hear. Usually it’s in a conference room, but the first responders cruise had taken all the rooms so we were in the centrum where it was sometimes loud. We did both martini classes with each having different martinis.

Fishing in Progreso with Emerald Coast Adventures. (5 miles from shore)We caught so many fish, they would sometimes take the bait before the weight hit the bottom! We caught a grouper, some kind of snapper fish, and catfish (bait stealers!). We then went snorkeling close to the ship. Homemade lunch, dessert, beer (superior cans), and strawberry margaritas were provided. Boat is 30ft, has a good amount of cover if you don’t want to be in the sun the whole time, and there is a head Cost: $550 for up to 6 people plus tip.

Cozumel we rented a couple of this VW coupe cars. Next time we would get a Jeep. Climbing in and out of those coupes got painful! Highlight was lunch at Chien Ria.

Specialty Dining: Chops Grille was the best meal we had. With Giavani’s a close second. Chop’s filets were the best we’ve had. My brother’s rib-eye was alright but didn’t compete with the filet. The crab cake app is excellent (and completely different than the one in MDR btw). We also got a seafood tower for $19 extra. It was top quality seafood BUT it was chilled. We are use to oyster roasts and frogmore stew where everything is steamed so the chilled thing threw us off a bit. The warm drawn butter helped though. The desserts were excellent as well. The only meh items were the sides..nothing special. Giavani’s was also really good, especially the appetizers. Most of us got a filet again and was a 9 out of 10, Chops being a 10 out of 10. The risotto pasta is a must try. The canoli dessert was disappointing. Don’t waste your calories on it. The tiramisu was excellent. The sushi restaurant was also good but the rolls are not as long as we get back home. I would definitely skip any of their recommended lobster rolls...small and tasteless and we didn’t care for the hot rocks items. (Not much bang for the buck to have to cook your own food.) We didn’t eat dessert here.

I highly recommend the BOGO promo for the first 2 nights for $40.

Deluxe Drink package: my husband had this. He easily drank around $100/day in beverages. I can’t convey how nice it is to not be adding up all the prices of drinks while cruising. Also, it allows you easily to just get a bottled water so that you can make sure you stay hydrated while drinking all those fun drinks and glasses of wine. He never was hungover.

That’s all I can think of right now! 5 days was just the right amount for our extended family cruise. We started to get a bit irritable at the end!

I’m looking at a non refundable in June 2019 for a NB Alaska Cruise. It’s $1049 pp for gty VH (balcony). The deposit is $350. Very tempting as I don’t think I’ve seen a balcony room that inexpensive in June for Alaska. But it’s sooo far away. I also wonder how all the bigger ships doing Alaska in 2019 will affect prices.

Awesome, just booked the 6 hr tour. Any other touring company have a discount this week?

Millers Landing

http://mailchi.mp/alaska/its-the-biggest-sale-of-the-season-folks?e=b6fbcd376f

I got an email from Miller’s landing in Seward.

http://mailchi.mp/alaska/its-the-biggest-sale-of-the-season-folks?e=b6fbcd376f