Hutcha

Makes sense. That being said, don't ever show up at my house, in the dead of winter, with a clam risotto 🤣

I forgot to mention my embarkation lunch. They knocked it out of the park and set my expectations high for the remainder of the cruise. The cobb salad was fresh, crisp and delicious. The rockfish stew was very good and I would not pass on it. The trio desert was fantastic. It had the best tiramisu offered for the week. All a solid 5 out of 5!!

I'm sorry if I'm painting with a negative brush. That is not my intent. I'm not loyal to any brand, so I make sure not to sugarcoat things. I've done 4 suites, on three cruise lines, in the past 18 months. This one was the cheapest, and by far my favorite. Royal's star class was great, but it's expensive and they haven't caught on to the "ship within a ship" concept. NCL is getting there, but they still have things that could be improved (alcohol in cabin, service on the sun deck, including all drinks in the Haven). We didn't book this cruise for the butler, and had I not done so much research, into how good the butlers "can" be, we would have not known what we were missing and would have been fine. Hearing stories of how other people's butler wowed them left us disappointed in our butler, but left us hopeful for our future cruise. Also, this is all just my opinion. You may love the things I did not and hate the things I loved.

Today is Ocean Cay. First, we are going up to the YC buffet for breakfast. This would be our go to for the week. I was very happy with the selection of food laid out and the cook to order options. Some more fresh fruit would have been good. After breakfast, we head down to the island for the wave runner excursion. The excursion is well worth the price. We were a little worried, at the start, because there was a lot of waiting around in the sun. Once we got to the actual watercraft, we were assigned a number based on if we were comfortable going fast or not. Slow pokes in the back! It was almost an hour of going full throttle, zig zagging back and forth, as we made our way to three different spots around the island. At one stop, we could jump off and spend some time in waist deep water. You did have to stay in line, but there was usually 50-100 yards between each other. After the excursion, we headed to Ocean house for lunch. The service and the food were top notch. The Ocean Cay salad was very good. I put some lobster salad on it too (not pictured) 4/5 As a lover of ceviche, this was a little disappointing. It was more like a crab salad than ceviche. 3/5 The lobster roll was good, but Caribbean lobster is a little chewy and there was a lot of mayo in this. 4/5 The carne asada was excellent. 5/5 After lunch, we made our way down to the YC beach. They had a place to pick up towels, and cold water and cans of beer. Do not take the reports of a rocky beach too lightly. It is almost unbearable to walk into the water without water shoes. You have to walk across about 30 feet of large rocks (golf ball to softball sized) before making it into waist deep water, where you're able to stand comfortably. We didn't stay long before heading out to find another beach. The transportation between the restaurant and ship was pretty lacking. They only had 2 carts that could hold 7 total. It took about 25-30 mins to get a ride. We wound up on Bimini Beach. It's between the ship and lighthouse. No rocks, just crushed shells. It wasn't overly crowded.

After dinner we went to the show in the main theater. Tonight was Imagine Ocean. It was both our favorite and least favorite of the cruise. In other words, it was the only production show we saw. I knew what to expect going into this cruise. Singing and dancing, with an implied story line. This isn't our cup of tea, but we gave it a try. The male lead was a great singer. The female lead was good. The acrobats were entertaining. The cast members running through the audience, dress in unitards and carrying fish puppets, was a bit over the top. The show was fine, it just didn't inspire us to make sure we made a different show later in the week. I'm not sure where the Yacht Club seating was. Would have been nice to have someone to point that out to us.

Pics from the embarkation lunch buffet.

The daily from the first day Daily 0910.pdf

No bacon. There was a finely chopped mushroom filling. They were smart in the prep of it. Normally, you would layer the pastry, mushrooms and then prosciutto. Then role the filet up in this. This method requires a perfect baking technique to get the temp of the steak right. Here, they cooked the pastry and mushroom separate, carefully sliced the pastry, and wrapped the cooked filet in it. No prosciutto, that I noticed.

Why is it you think it's a valid charge?

I think they would be glad to not give your TA credit. I would definitely ask.

Looks like 9.

Just booked while onboard. We were told $200 per cabin for the YC booking and $50pp for the loyalty bonus (though not future cruise specific).

Lots of chatter on the FB group for our sailing that just finished. Reports of screams, security running through the hallway, the hallway being blocked off with yellow tape, and people told to return to their rooms. One cruiser said they couldn't get to their room, and when they finally did, there was blood splattered onto their balcony. A B2Ber said that when they reboarded, they were notified that the sports bar would be closed for the week (not sure if it's connected).

I'd rather not out him totally here. He was pretty young, so he probably is on the newer side. If I didn't have my expectations set high, from so many great reviews like yours, I probably would have been content. We did hear one family, in the hallway, telling him how wonderful he was. I also could have pulled him aside, on day 2 or 3, and told him he wasn't meeting my expectations. I will say that I was on 16, port side. It's been a long travel day. I'll try to knock out some more tomorrow.

At dinner, we mentioned to the maître d, Arthur, that we had not yet seen our butler. He said he would call him right away. Still didn't see him so we stopped at the concierge after dinner to ask. They called and told us to have a seat. After a few minutes, he showed up. We went to our room with him to ask about a couple of things. Pillows, our bottle of alcohol, and the mini fridge. We tipped him $50 right there, hopping to set the expectation that good service for the week would be rewarded. This was my first time tipping someone ahead of time. Excluding running into him randomly in the topsail lounge or up at the pool, we saw him 2 other times during the week. Once when he dropped our laundry off, and another when he was looking for us, because he thought we left our excursion tickets in the room. We're not high maintenance, but we did expect him to at least make his services known to us. What he could do, how to reach him, and so on. Once, in the topsail, we were looking to be escorted to the tender. They asked who our butler was, and then called him. We left after about 10 mins and made it on our own. My wife is convinced that he still does not know that she is in one of his rooms. He'll look at her and smile, but never engages when they pass each other.

You are correct. If you go to the back, it is not as crowded. It is still the worst that I have seen. For us, it's normal to have to seek out a table, however that's just the beginning. If one holds a table, while the other grabs their plate, by the time the second is back with their food, the first is finished.

We watched the sail away from the infinity pools, at the back of the ship. They were not too crowded. I think most were probably at the marina pool for the sail away party. 20230910_175041.mp4 After taking a break in our room, we got ready for dinner at the YC. The YC seems smaller than I had imagined from the pictures and video. The lounge was never crowded, but the restaurant was usually pretty full and noisy. Normally not a tomato soup fan. Followed the previous reviews, and it was a 5/5 These were just ok. A little dry. 3/5 Risotto with clams. Too fishy for us. One bite and done. 2/5 Filet 5/5 Veal chop 5/5 Coconut pasticcio dacquoise 5/5. Carrot cake consistency.

First impressions.... This is the week after Labor Day, so school is back in session. All of the rooms are booked on the ship, and there are 4800 passengers on board. There may be a few hundred kids on board. Most are under six. In YC, I see maybe 5 or 6 families with minors in the YC. If I had to guess, I'd say that 50% of the passengers are from international destinations (mostly Europe), 30% are US, and 15% are Canadian. The ship is beautiful, but the layout is difficult to navigate. Lots of dead ends, where you'd think traffic would normally flow. Weird flows, like walking from the main atrium, on 5 where guest reception is, through the photo area, only to come to an area where you are forced to take the stairs up to 6. If you want to stay on 5, you have go from reception down a long hallway of cabins, to make it to the front. I'd hate to have one of those cabins. There are a lot of pools, and even more hot tubs. The bad part is that they all close down by 10 or 11 at night. They really need to leave some hot tubs open for the late night crowd. The main buffet. The crowds are real. Not only do you need to wait for a table, at peak times, you then have to wait in line at the different stations. It gets very congested. The selection of food is probably the best that I've seen. Lots of choices, and definitely geared towards an international crowd. There is no need to leave YC. I could spend the entire week in the enclave, and be happy.

No, I was nervous about that, but they just deleted the extra. I still need to check on the service charge.

Hi all. I debated whether or not to do a "live" review, but in the end decided that I didn't want to take time away from the cruise. I'm taking this cruise with my beautiful wife Carly @Hutchswife and our 21 year old son. This is a delayed HS graduation present (covid) and 21st B-day present. He had a friend coming along, but they couldn't make it, so they were a no show. We are in a YC Deluxe suite, and our son is in a YC Interior. Post Covid, this will be our 5th cruise in 18 months. In order, a NCL Haven (wife and I), a RCL Star class (family of 7), a Celebrity balcony (wife and another couple), another RCL Star (family of 7), and now this one. We have a OV balcony coming up in March, on the Icon, and (spoiler alert) will probably book two more MSC cruise. One in 24 and 25. I plan on doing another post on the differences in the "luxury" offerings of the different lines, so I'll stay away from that here. Starting with embarkation. We got to the port at 10:30, and found the Yacht Club tent as soon as we entered the drop off area. Dropped our bags and were escorted to the YC check in area. Check-in was quick, but we sat there for about 30 mins before being moved to a roped off area in the main terminal. Once there, we were served beverages and snacks. Non YC guests were seated right across from us, and it was a little uncomfortable as they stared at us while we were being served. We sat there for about another 15-20 mins and were then escorted up to the Topsail lounge. After about 30 mins there, we were told that our room was ready and we were escorted there. We settled into our room, took a quick look around the ship, and then proceeded to go to the YC restaurant for lunch.

It was a perfect med rare inside

I asked Arthur if they could do a beef wellington on the first night. They made extra yesterday. It was delicious!! He said they did six of them. We took three.

I'm in Yacht club next week, and I don't have any packages offered.

Yeah, so why not give the YC interior a more attractive offer? Take $960 from both upgrades. At least lower the min bids. Then they can decide what the best combo is.