Kayla103

Thanks for the advice! I know most of what you've been saying, some is new to me. I just didn't know if there was a special marinade for the steak Chops cooks. I know some of the specialty restaurants have a special butter or something they put on the steak. So, I was just checking because I want to use the RCI cookbook to create the meal we had during our honeymoon for our anniversary. Obviously, will not be the same by any means ;)

Thanks again everyone! Keep sending the advice, I may know it, I may not. But heck, I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks all!

I tried googling it with no luck. I wasn't sure if there was a special marinade they did to the meat. Thank you for the help anyway :)

At least I have the cookbook that has the soup :p

I hope you've read through this thread because quit a bit has changed this the post you're quoting has posted. :eek:

Thanks for this. Now that I've read through....:eek:

Hey all,

I've been searching for this for a while, but does anyone know of a copycat recipe for the Chops Grille steak marinade?

When we took our honeymoon cruise two years ago my husband got it and to this day he STILL talks about how that was the best steak he's ever had. I'd like to try and replicate for our anniversary. Hopefully next year we will be having the real thing. ;)

Port schedules now confirm that the Empress of the Seas will offer sailings to Havana, Cuba from the 7th of January of 2017.

 

RCI have booked Empress at Key West all the way through April of 2019 at this time indicating a long term deployment.

 

The ship will sail every other Saturday from Miami, with a Sunday stop at Key West and continue on to Havana from Key West.

 

The ship also sails with some frequency on Mondays from Miami, with Tuesday calls at Key West and then on to Havana from there.

 

It is unclear if there is a third alternating itinerary that does not call on Key West.

 

Empress should continue with shorter sailings from Miami up until that week in January 2017. The ship calls every 14 days on Grand Cayman through the end of November 2016.

This is incredible!

I know that Enchantment still has the curtains.

Hey everyone!

Does anyone happen to have the Mushroom Soup recipe from Chops Grille?

I just bought the cookbook but I'm not sure it is the same one from my cruise, so I am hoping (fingers crossed) that someone here has it.

Thanks! :)

More random Day Two photos....

Once we got back to the ship we headed to the Windjammer for lunch. DH had some Mongolian beef and beans, which he raved about and then proceeded to say, “If you go hungry on a cruise it is your own fault.”He asked me to document the fact that he was eating more than cheeseburgers, pizza, and steak.

After lunch we headed to Chop’s to see if they had any reservations available for dinner that night. Luckily for us, they did! We got reservations for 6pm and then headed back to our room. We took our last naps of the trip (so I promise the rest of the trip isn’t quite as boring).

We headed down to Chop’s and were seated at a table that overlooked the water. It was beautiful. DH’s sister had purchased dinner at Chop’s for us from our Royal Caribbean Honeymoon Registry, so we made sure to note everything so that we could tell her all about it when we got back. We were started with pretzel bread with a mustard butter (which I could not get enough of).

Then I had a salad while DH had candied bacon (man food he called it). We both then had soup, but mine was way better than his. I ordered the Mushroom soup. I’m not much of a mushroom person but I figured I would try something different than what I normally go for. It was FANTASTIC! DH who HATES mushrooms even tried to steal the bowl from me because he loved it, haha!

After soup was our main course. I ordered a chicken dish (I can’t remember the name of) and he had steak. Now, he RAVED about his steak so much for the rest of the trip and he STILL talks about how that was the best steak he has ever had. He recently told me that we needed to go on another cruise just so he could go to Chop’s and get the steak. For dessert I had an amazing red velvet cake and DH had a chocolate mousse cake. Our waiter was kind enough to take our picture at this point as well. The couple sitting behind me heard him tell us congratulations as we left and then proceeded to ask him what we were celebrating. He told them it was our honeymoon and they called congratulations to us as we left. It was so nice of them.

We proceeded to roam the decks and walk around outside. We stopped by our room and got one of the cigars and then headed to Deck 5 for DH to try it. As he sat there with it, I was checking out a lightening storm that was taking place far to our right and ahead of us a bit. It was really cool to see! We then headed back to our room and passed out! How we could be so tired when we napped all afternoon I have no idea. But the next day was a full day in Nassau and I wanted to be well rested for the adventures we had planned!

Some random photos from Day Two....

Photo of DH’s view from his hammock. :rolleyes:

After a while we took a walk around the island. We decided that today was going to be our no excursion, relaxing beach day. So nothing really exciting went on. We did meet a few of the “locals” though and found out that some people are idiots.

The locals were the wild iguanas and the idiots were the men who had too much to drink already trying to pick them up by their tails. :mad: I hoped we would witness the Iguana bite them, but no such luck. I was just happy that they didn’t actually pick the iguana up, not that they didn’t try.

After watching that, we headed to the main market area and to the main bar (which was PACKED). My advice don’t go there unless you have no other option (like in our case). It was the only bar open so everyone from our ship and the Freedom of the Seas were trying to crowd around it. We did end up getting two drinks and then walking around the market.

DH managed to find someone selling Cuban cigars. Whether or not they were real Cubans we will never truly know but he was happy to think they were. He bought two to smoke on the ship. He only smokes cigars in celebration of a wedding or large life event of our friends, in this case it was our wedding. I just made him promise to smoke downwind from me. We are both non-smokers so this is a rare occurrence for him.

After he bought his cigars we decided we would buy most of our souvenirs in Nassau the next day. We roamed the beaches and decided to head back to the ship when we saw threats of a storm brewing. I had also heard about the chaos the BBQ becomes on the island during lunch so we decided to avoid that mess and have lunch on the ship.

Day Two: CocoCay

The next morning we got up early and went to the Windjammer for breakfast. DH isn't much of a breakfast person but he went and had some anyway. We were on one of the first tenders to Cococay and it was a beautiful morning.

Here we are before heading out for the day.

The only time I had cruised before this it was the same itinerary but on Majesty of the Seas and we weren't able to visit Cococay due to high winds, so I was thrilled to be able to check it out (and it didn't suck that we could use our drink plans on the island).

So the DH took some photos as we went over to the island. He was amazed by how large our ship was in comparison to the tender. It was actually kind of neat to see. You sort of forget how large the ship is while you are on it.

Once we got to CocoCay we tried to rent snorkeling things but were told they were sold out. (My heeds to the DH of booking early didn't go well with his "go-with-the-flow" attitude. So, we walked to the far side of the island and found two empty hammocks right on the beach and conveniently next to a bar (which never opened).

I am glad I had found this board before we went because he and I probably would have followed the flow of the crowd and been stuck on a VERY crowded section of beach if I hadn't read the advice of you all. So thank you :)

We both had some issues getting in and out of the hammocks, especially since his had been a bit more worn than mine and he was dragging on the sand in it. He finally switched to a different one after he got fed up with it haha.

The only thing I really wanted to do while on this cruise was to have my toes touch the water. I never had the opportunity before and I was determined to get in the water!

To me it was awe-inspiring. Water that clear is just amazing to me. The pictures I'd seen just didn't do it justice. But, also having water that clear made it easy to spot jellyfish and move out of their way before they got too close. DH was content laying on his hammock. He did touch the water once with me before going to nap under a tree. He and I burn like no one's business so he was "hiding from the sun".

Photo of my fascination with the water.

Another one from the balcony

After disembarking we took a nap. It had been a long day and it was already 4:00pm. It wasn't a long nap though, because we had to make it to our 5:30 dining in the My Fair Lady dining room. Before the cruise I had requested to have a table for two. I did this because it was my husband's first cruise and I wasn't sure how he would feel about sitting with other people. Turns out I was way wrong and he was disappointed we weren't sitting with other people. But we did get a seat next a window. Our waiter was nice, but our assistant waiter was amazing! We nominated him for the MVP of the cruise. He went above and beyond, and not just for our table but for all the ones he was waiting on.

That is the view from our dining room table.

After dinner we got some drinks and roamed the decks. It was also the World Cup party on board so we caught some of that up by the pool.

Day one was a perfect start to our trip. DH was surprised at how much there was to do (even though I had been telling him for months :rolleyes:). Day 2 Coming Soon....

When we first arrived there was a letter waiting for us, inviting us to the Honeymooners Gathering. We actually met a really nice couple we hung out with a bit for the remainder of the cruise.

And here is myself and my DH on our balcony before we disembarked.

During disembarking we decided to stay on our balcony and check out the views. We are glad we did, because we could look down in the water and see stingrays swimming near the ship. I found this to be really cool! Below are some random pictures from port and disembarkation.

(View of the Norwegian Gem)

Now, I was really have to see this view of the NASA building from the top deck on Day 1. There was supposed to be a launch that night but it was actually cancelled a few times until after we left to go back home.

Port

View from our balcony as we left.

June 16th Voyage on the Enchantment of the Seas

Pre-Day 1

On June 14, 2014 my husband and I got married (YAY! :)). I talked him into going on a cruise for our honeymoon. He had never been out of the country before so this required him to get a passport. DH was resistant to the idea but finally caved.

So, like the good packer I am, I packed for the honeymoon while I was packing for our wedding (which we had about an hour and half away from where we live). And like the procrastinator my husband is, he did it the night before (the day after our wedding).

I passed out in the throws of him packing (photo below). So that whole mess is his packing (and we have random odds and ends in there as well).

We had a 7 am flight so we had to be up at 3:30am and out the door no later than 4am. (He wasn't too happy about this).

DAY 1

We woke up super early and headed to the airport. My mom was nice enough to drop us off so we didn't have to pay for parking.

Caught our flight to Orlando and then we picked up our rental car and drove to Cape Canaveral. We then took the shuttle from the car rental place to the port.

When we got on board it was about noon. So we had an hour to kill until we could get into our room. We decided to get a balcony room since he had never cruised before and I had once years before and stayed in an interior room. (Honeymoon meant splurging a bit for us).

So when we got on board we purchased our drink package (which we got the highest one, since we didn't want to have to worry about how much each drink would cost us). And what do you do when you get your drink package? You go get a drink!

I don't remember what were in these but they were called the Flirtini. I know champagne was in it. And since we didn't get a chance to drink at the wedding, we were having way too much fun we didn't even think about it, we toasted with these.

We went to the bar in the Centrum which was very nice.

About 10 minutes before 1pm they announced that we can get into our rooms. So we lingered and finished our drinks and headed to our room.

We were on the 7th deck in cabin 7634. We had a non-obstructed view and it was very nicely set up. And that is my DH asleep before the muster drill.

Hi all!

So, back in June (yes, 6 months ago) my husband took our honeymoon on the Enchantment of the Seas! I will submit a review and pictures today. I haven't had time (sadly) to post this until now.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE! :)

My husband and I bought this on our honeymoon (we got the highest one, cause we love our Starbucks) and we found it to be worth it. Especially since we didn't have to worry about what our bill would be like. My dear husband enjoyed getting himself all kinds of drinks with it haha.:rolleyes:

Can't wait to sail on her in a few weeks! It'll be my first review too! So we will see how this goes. It will be my second cruise and my fiance (then husband's) first!

I got them as a surprise for my wife on our honeymoon. She liked them. And yes they are up before you get to the room and there is a sign on the door. I do believe it does say celebrate love now instead of just married but i didn't let that bother me. I also always get her the chocolate covered strawberries that she loves and those come later i believe after the muster drill. They are kind of plastic and drape from the ceiling and are held up by double sided tape.

Would love to see pictures of the "Celebrate Love" ones. I am trying to decide whether to surprise my fiance with them on our honeymoon too.

Love the review!

Your son is also too cute!

That is great idea with the shower curtain as the divider. I would have never thought of that

yes

Thank you!

Thanks for the review! Like it so far! And that is awesome about the unexpected upgrade! :)

I rented a car from Budget to drive from the Orlando Airport to the Budget lot in Cape Canaveral. Does anyone know if there is a shuttle that will take you to the ships?

Thanks!

No problem. I should have added that you may have to go to a bar om Coco Cay because the roving bar servers are usually carrying drinks in souvenir cups, which are not included in the package.

Good to know! Thank you :)

Can't wait to hear all about it. I'm on Enchantment in June!

Yes.

You just made my decision haha! Sold! :p

And I just realized this was already answered! Thanks for repeating for this bonehead haha