Best Cat Mom

Funny how each cruise has it's own "vibe" -- sometimes early dining is a zoo and sometimes late dining is. I'm kinda surprised that a US Holiday week was not busier in the earlier seating time. Glad that your last night worked out so well for you. Safe travels home!

This has never occurred with us, over our 9 YC cruises. I think you might want to include this in your survey, as it seems really wrong to me. 😞

Buon viaggio! I hope that you'll enjoy Seaside as much as we did. We're back on her in March and I know that while there will be some staff changes, some will still be on from our crossing. It helps to know what to expect, at least to a certain extent. I can definitely recommend Ajay as your server in the TS restaurant. I'm not sure if his assistant Alfredo with still be there, though.

@Georgia_Peaches I am (finally) catching up with your cruise! I was a bit worried after your first day or two of posts, but you seem to be settling in well. A few questions... Is Dani still the YC Director? He was very present during our cruise and constantly asking for feedback. When you mentioned service issues, I was thinking that you could let him know the next time he asked you about your trip. As for the restaurant, sounds like you don't have the same server team each dinner. Actually, it doesn't sound like you've had a "team" most evenings. I wonder if we've been fortunate with my gluten sensitivity giving us a little more hand-holding? I never thought that before, but with our sailings so close together, now I'm considering that. Is Marian still the restaurant manager? He was ever present during our sailing, visiting every table -- not just ours, but all of those around us -- every evening to check on things. Keshav, the Head Waiter, was also ever present and checking tables often. I like how you've seemed to make use of the whole ship, something we never do. I like seeing your pix, makes it seem like a new ship to us. LOL

Yes, this is exactly correct. When we were on Seascape in September, there were a few crew disembarking for their vacation, knowing that they would be going to World America when they came back. I don't recall exactly who told us -- one was Cassandra, the head bartender -- but I believe the names are all buried in my live thread from then. We had commented that Seascape could be in a world of hurt after losing so many wonderful people. Looks like this is true already. 😞

Depending on which YC staff are still on board in January, the recipe should be known to them. After the first few times we ordered Holiday Coffee, we did not have to tell them our recipe. 🙂

Day 22 - Disembarkation Day [Sorry for the delay here -- life gets in the way when we're back. 😞 ] Today we awoke and we were already at the Miami dock. It's rare for us not to wake up early on the last day, so I guess we stayed up late enough the night before to sleep right through sail in. We had coffee and Baileys in the room and BCD ate his last banana. We had told Eunice that we did not want any fruit except a banana day for BCD to have with his morning coffee. She had said that she'd do her best, but might have some difficulty finding "good" fruit during the crossing. Well, she succeeded! BCD had a banana every single morning with coffee in the cabin. We think that she swiped a few bananas from TSL that they keep on hand for drinks, as their supply was also gone this morning. We did not consume the Goodbye Treats that had been left in the room the night before. (They are now in our kitchen pantry with the same box from our Seascape cruise in September.) We dropped our carry on bags in TSL and went up to the One Pool deck for one last breakfast. We have been up there more on this cruise than ever before, mostly because the weather has been milder. We're not fans of the heat and most days on this cruise it's been bearable up there. See those clouds reflected on the table? That's gonna be hard to live without!! (I didn't crop the image as I do usually just to leave that beautiful sky visible.) After we finished, we bid Alfredo goodbye and waved to him behind the buffet as we went back down to TSL. We had two rounds of Holiday Coffee and awaited "last call" for disembarkation. A little after 9am, Eunice took us directly to the security exit. There was no line and we blended in with the non-YC guests and entered the gangway. The line moved continuously and we were soon at the YC luggage area. We retrieved our bags and walked through the customs area right to outside, as we did not need to go through screenings here because we already had in San Juan. We ordered an Uber as soon as we saw our luggage, around 9:45am, and we were in the Miami airport at 10:30am. A nice, easy disembarkation! We had a late flight and we knew from past experience that the airline lounges wouldn't let us enter for a bit. This is why we delayed our departure from the ship as long as possible. However, what we did not expect was that the airport would be so busy that they would not check our luggage at 10:30am either. So we needed to find a place to plant ourselves for a few hours outside of security. We managed to lug our 4 suitcases and 2 carry on bags around until we found a restaurant. Boy, did we miss butler service then! We hung out at the restaurant for several hours and tipped the server handsomely for taking up her table so long. It wasn't bad, but it was not TSL either. 😞 We finally were able to check our luggage and go through TSA. The traffic had settled down considerably and TSA was not nearly as busy as it was earlier. We made our way to Delta's Sky Club for a few hours' stay before it was time to board the flight for our first leg home. This is where our delay began -- there was a checked bag that had to be removed from the plane. We did not have a tight connection in Atlanta, but the bag took quite a while to remove. We were in First Class and many other of the passengers around us had concerns with connections. The flight attendant was excellent in checking everyone's flights and even was able to get Delta to hold a few flights for passengers that were in danger of missing connections. We were getting in to Atlanta so late that many of the connections were the last flights of the day. Delta did an admirable job of making this work for so many of us. This is one of the many reasons we'll spend extra points to fly in First Class (kinda like spending more for YC). We wound up being lucky, as we found out that our connecting flight was delayed getting into Atlanta, giving us an extra hour to make our connection and we did not have to worry as much as some people did. We had originally been scheduled to land in Cincinnati at 11:57pm and BCD was scheduled to work the next day. Between our delayed flight and one bag not making it to our destination, we did not make it home until 2am. The good news was that our bag arrived safely on our doorstep by noon and BCD stayed home with me. It was a nice outcome after all, but still not nearly as nice as spending the day on the ship. I have some closing thoughts that I'll post…

Oddly, I don't mind pea soup -- I like the one that MSC offers us at lunch occasionally. But whole peas = yuck for us. 😉

Day 21 concludes… After tea, we went back to our cabin to perform the ritual of labeling and stuffing tip envelopes, with a jaunt or two to the concierge desk for changing our bills into smaller denominations. We spent time on the balcony a few minutes here and there all afternoon, knowing that we'd be missing it soon (and we are, we definitely are!): Then we set out looking for "our people" which always feels like a scavenger hunt. The crew does seem to be out and about more on the last evening to make this easier for all of us. We were mildly successful before dinner and then headed back to do some packing. After we filled our garment bag, we were out to hunt down -- er, locate -- more of our recipients. We might have stopped for a few rounds of drinks in TSL to drown our sorrows and give crew more time to emerge. Finally, we went back to the cabin to finish packing and then change for our (gasp!) last dinner. Tonight was Italian night but casual dress, so it was easy to get ready with the few clothes we had not yet packed. We gathered our restaurant envelopes, along with one last car, and presented ourselves at the host stand (another envelope delivered!). We were seated with menus and champagne (another two envelopes handed out!): We both chose carpaccio to start: And then we "needed" the caprese to share: Alfredo again brought us the Carmenere, which was an excellent choice for our entire meal, since it had little tannins yet was quite full-bodied: For his entrée, BCD chose lasagna: I had the -- no surprise here -- lamb: And we shared the Osso Bucco (green beans substituted for peas -- we both detest peas to the point that we don't want to look at them and question their mere existence): We did not order the risotto, as we're not asparagus fans, and where would it fit on the table anyway? During service, BCD presented Dishay with a rare silver car (and another envelope was delivered) for his excellent service the entire cruise. I was never glutened and he was the biggest part of that. I even stopped worrying about food a few days, which is very unusual for me. We finished our dinner and chatted with all the staff as much as possible, before heading down to TSL for one last night (say it isn't so!!) of nightcaps. We spent quite a bit of time with the 3 other couples who are booked with us on the Divina transatlantic from Europe to Miami next year. It's nice to know that we get to see them again. Then we trudged back to the cabin. 😞 Day 22 is next…

Great choices! I know that Oberon is a fan favorite, right @DaKahuna?

@Georgia_Peaches Did you get both white and red with your lunch? We always get Malbec, just curious of the white you had with that lovely seafood starter.

There are indeed doors on both sides of TSL on Divina to make an easy exit to the cabin corridor.

Day 21 - Sea Day (and our last full day of cruising -- bummer!) We set the clocks back an hour last night, for the last time on this cruise: They had originally announced the clock change for the previous night and left a notice to tell everyone of the new date: Not sure why the different night, since both days were sea days so it did not seem to matter which night before had an extra hour. BCD enjoyed the last night of treats with our coffee and Baileys: Does everyone else think that each thing is the "last time we'll…" the way we do at the end of a cruise? We passed the Celebrity Beyond in the morning as she was heading south and we were heading north: Look at that gorgeous ocean! Look at it now, because we need to remember it for months is what we told ourselves... We had breakfast on the One Pool deck: We had been given our disembarkation information the evening before so we knew what to do with our luggage this evening and what to expect tomorrow -- sob! We made our way to the casino to cash out our vouchers, then stopped at the concierge desk for envelopes. We asked for 20 this time, lower than usual especially for such a long sailing. We found that we had a smaller circle of YC crew that interacted with us mostly due to breakfast and lunch. We were with our server for most breakfasts and lunches in the TS restaurant and our assistant server Alfredo was with us on the pool deck for most breakfasts and lunches there. We had lunch (for the last time, boo-hoo) on the pool deck. Dishay, the head waiter, was again making a fresh pasta and made sure to have some GF pasta on hand for me. The preparation was spaghetti aglio e olio, a simple yet tasty preparation using garlic and olive oil typical of Napoli/Naples. For you culinary aficionados, read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_aglio_e_olio. One of the couples with whom we became fast friends on this cruise requested this particular dish of Dishay, and he was happy to comply. If you're on a sailing where there is fresh pasta daily for lunch at the One Pool, don’t be shy about making a request. If they have the ingredients, they will be happy to comply! BCD could not get a good picture of the making of the dish, mostly because so many people were milling around Dishay. 😞 There were fresh jumbo shrimp and calamari on the buffet, so we added that to the dish on our own: Here is the beverage cart that circulated to keep us all happy and not-so-well-hydrated: After lunch, gelato was again passed out to any and all that would accept -- all four of us did, surprise: After lunch, we retired to TSL where they were setting up for tea: We partook because we were there, with me still thinking, "Who likes this stuff?" But I dared not say anything aloud. Day 21 (sadly) concludes next…

Day 21 Daily Program...

That's great -- hope you have a wonderful cruise! Buon Viaggio!! Might you be doing a Live Thread? We are in severe withdrawal right now so that would help us so much. LOL