jenniferop

not that you asked - but MSC does allow you to use anything in the Mini bar fridges as part of their Beverage package! loved that feature for late night snacks and drinks - cabin steward would stock with your preference if you asked...

so if you no longer have a Hard copy card - maybe buy 1 more $25 card and make that one your primary...

I always keep 1 hard copy card (sometime I buy ecards) as my Primary card - that way I always have at least 1 card I can use at Disney for purchases - and this was I also always have a copy of the entire card #

DH and I both had the UDP on Symphony in April - we cruised with 3 other couples, none of them had the UDP. We ate at Playmakers 3 days for lunch (not always with the full 6 other people but different configurations) we always ordered the Wings and nachos (I ordered Nachos and wings, Hubby ordered Nachos and Wings). Our friends ate with us - we handed our cards to the waitress...we were never questioned nor billed. 

how long do they usually run new releases? We are on the Dream on 1/13/2020...wonder if it will still be playing a month later?

28 minutes ago, Bet_The_Field said:

Unless you want the mug for your collections it's not worth it IMO.  You get a few extra ounces of beer for the same price.

 

If you order a six pack for the room you will be paying about the same price as the bars.

Thank you this was the exact info I was looking for...I will not buy the mug but will buy the 6pk just so there is something in the cabin for dinner prep. Then in Nassau we will each pick up a 6 pk for hubby. All good!!

1 minute ago, sjb317 said:

That would be a pretty expensive pizza😂😂

 

Sherri🙂

probably true - luckily DH and I have Annual Passes - but we did decide one day we were in the mood - we are in JAX so 2.5 hours away - drove down had lunch and came home...Its good Pizza - well worth the tank of gas btu we're crazy like that...

On ‎10‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 8:50 AM, sjb317 said:

Where can you get decent pizza in Florida?  We live about 20 min south of Canaveral and I’ve had no luck so far.

 

Sherri🙂

Near you - Via Napoli inside Epcot in Italy! yum!!!

Yes - thank you!! I do know about bringing the bottles on with us - so I'll bring 2 and Hubby will bring 2 and then that's my drinks taken care of for the whole cruise.

I'll probably just buy ahead of time a 6 pack and the mug to be waiting in the cabin for him and then just pay for refills on the mug.

Thanks for verifying I can use the Gift Cards for onboard account - it's not much but I'd rather save 5$ than put money on a credit card - especially if they will reload the balance left over back to the card - then we will just use on a Disney trip.

Hello,

First time cruising Disney for Hubby and myself. We have been on many other lines but decided to top off Marathon week Jan 2020 with the Castaway Cay Challenge. So we are very excited to finally try Disney (we are annual passholders and love weekend getaways).

On all other lines we usually purchase the Beverage package so we don't worry about racking up a huge bar tab. We aren't alcoholics but we enjoy several drinks during the day while on vacation! I will bring a couple bottles of wine for myself so these questions are mainly for hubby.

My questions to you experts are; I see the refillable mug is an options - what is the savings between the 21oz pour of the mug and the 16ox price? Is it worth it to buy the mug?

Also, do you know the pricing of beer in general? I see the 6 pack of Bud light is $33.75pre-purchase to have in the cabin - is that cheaper than buying on the ship? Because if not then I won't bother. Having in the cabin is just convenient for a pre dinner drink and on other lines if you wait to order a drink while at the table it takes until almost to the end of dinner before they arrive. Is service quicker on Disney?

Final question I paid for the cruise (and our annual passes) with Disney Gift Cards bought at a 5% discount through Target - can I use gift cards for my Onboard account also?

TIA for any and all advice!!

I used this service in the Yacht Club on Fantasia Med cruise Oct 2018 - we broke it up over several requests during the week. Our Butler always hung everything back in our closet for us when ready - would do it again on any MSC cruise.

DH and I enjoy playing - EXCEPT when B2B cruisers or same ship numerous times cruisers - play just because they know all the answers...We did a cruise about a year ago and played a few times and noticed the same group was at every trivia session (winning every session too) finally about day 3 someone said  "man, you guys know a lot about a lot of different stuff'  - to which one guy replied "no, we just did this last week and know all the answers"

That didn't make it fun for the others...

1 minute ago, mrsmagoo1 said:

What is $49 vs $45?

1 protein vs 2 (a combination dinner)

We got the Lobster and Scallops - if you order just steak or just chicken or just shrimp - it's $45

We had many slices on Symphony last week - it was really good...I actually like it when the put a little more char (not in a bad way) on the crust and this was  perfect. Very convenient that it is right across from Copper and Kettle - go into C&K order a drink while waiting for said drink go over and grab a  few slices from Sorrento's - then camp out for an hour or so and people watch on the Promenade...

13 hours ago, Deseo1578 said:

I have a question about this plan.

 

So it says beverage are not included in the restaurants. So does my drink package would cover those? Or not.

 

Your Beverage Package will cover your drinks in the Spec Rests - they actually even covered the full $15 for the Martinis we ordered in 150 Central park and didn't change the difference from $13 covered under the package...

We did pay the food upcharge in Izumi Hibachi for the $49 meal ($4 each) - the $8 upcharge in Chops for my Lobster tail and the $18 upcharge in Chops of DH Dry Aged 20oz Porterhouse.

42 minutes ago, mrsmagoo1 said:

Thanks Jennifer, this is so helpful!

When you went to Izumi night 3 was it for hibachi or the a la carte menu?

Hibachi - I keep forgetting there are 2 options with the same name - on the Hibachi side the new Unlimited plan covered the $45 meals we paid the difference for the $49 meal - if we had gone to the Sushi side it would have given us a $35 credit towards a la carte

On ‎5‎/‎6‎/‎2019 at 4:56 PM, California_Cori said:

 “Computer glitch” took 90 min to board.  The whole process was really unorganized.  No room credits or anything for the inconvenience.  We got to port early also and yes there was a delay - I think if we had arrived at our normal "Noon" time we would have been after the delay.

The Wi-fi that the crew uses to ring up purchases kept going out so they had to hand write room charges and receipts.  Delayed everything. We didn't notice any delays when ordering?

The “smoking allowed spot” is PORT side, deck 15 or something like that.  I could smell it on deck 9, always.

 WAY too much Casino smoke.  Very poor air filtration. Agreed the smoking was strong on the deck near the casino and that seems the same with every ship - thank goodness RC puts the Casino somewhere you aren't forced to walk through (Like Carnival) but I just avoided the outside smoking section

      High speed internet. Not so much.  (Some days it worked well but other high traffic times was awful). didn't notice a slow speed

         Windjammer sucks: EVERYTHING was cold and ALWAYS crowded.  Lots of dirty dishes sitting on open tables. Can't offer an opinion - only ate there once and this was because I know I will not be happy with a buffet so I don't eat there

      Ship felt short staffed.  Had to cancel scrapbooking so the gal who was supposed to host it could go help run “the parade”.  A parade? Really? Can't offer an opinion other than we didn't notice any staff shortage

Many staff members don't know the "rules".  I have to go to guest services just to get a dinner reservation in Coastal Kitchen. - no Coastal Kitchen for us nonsuite people :(

Walls are thin. (And yes I had LOUD neighbors on one side) Luckily we did not have loud neighbors (one side of us was with people we were traveling with and they opened our balcony between all 4 of our cabins so we spent a good amount of time outside on the balcony.

Beds are hard. I AGREE A THOUSAND TIMES - I had our cabin attendant add a few extra comforters and that helped a tiny bit

Towels are scratchy. Luckily I didn't notice scratchy towels

 Room attendant was just okay. I asked for ice and never once had ice.  Also took the empty box of Kleenex but never put a full box back.  Service was very inconsistent.  One day we had 4 bath towels, then we had 2, then we had 3… just odd.  He also kept talking our washcloths, without replacing them. Our Cabin Steward was great - although I did not see him most days - our room was cleaned twice everyday. We asked the first day (with a note on the bed) to add the extra padding, keep us with 3 towel sets at all times (because I use 2 every shower) and I asked for a couple extra pillows - we had all these things all week and never had any issues - we didn't ask for ice.

Johnny Rockets closes for breakfast at 10am which is too early. IMHO - If we got around to breakfast after 10am we just waited for lunch

Playmakers was just so so. Service was slow. We ate here 3 days for lunch and never had a problem - friends ate here 1 day after a port trip and they said it was  little slow because so many people showed up at the same time

Offer drinks in Windjammer and only tell you after the fact that they will be charging you for them.  I should have known… NOTHING is free!! We had the drink plan so no concern about being charged for a drink - but I would never have thought a drink was free unless it was water, tea or lemonade. Why would they have a drink plan if they were just going to give out drinks in the buffet (the most crowded location on the ship)?

When we arrived at the room, there were NO keys outside the door.  Our room attendant locked keys in the room so had to go get duplicates from guest services just to get in.  Apparently we were told that our room attendant was supposed to be there to greet us and let us in the room.  He was MIA for most of the first day.  We didn’t meet him until day two. Our cards were outside out cabin so no opinion on this comment

Spend too little time in Ports. No real opinion - we did a tour in St Kitts and St Thomas through the ship and had plenty of time to do the tour and shop in port - Nassau was a short day (even though we arrived early and left late)but we still had time to walk on our own to the Queens Staircase and then wander slowly back to the ship and watch the poor couple get left behind after they were 35 minutes late to the ship after all aboard.

Copper Kettle waitress showed extreme displeasure that we didn't tip here MORE THAN the default 18% gratuity.- this I will disagree with - C&K was our home base hang out for our group all week - we loved Malcolm!! The female waitress waited on us a few time but I can't remember her name - we didn't tip until the last day but never once during the week did she give us attitude or seem unpleasant that we should be tipping??

All-inclusive food venues close at 6 except pizza. Kept pushing everyone to Windjammer We ate at every specialty restaurants and never had an issue getting food or finding something open or available?

Hotdog place closed very early as well. it was open when we ate there?

Spa is severely overpriced and the hard sell is VERY annoying. N/A for me - first time in many cruises I didn't go to the SPA - never had time too much other stuff to do but I was never approached with a sales pitch either - the while week.

Walking pathways suck, on many decks you have to walk down the room hallways to get past the hole in the middle of the ship by day 3 we knew which decks to use to get where we wanted to go.

Deck 5, 6, 7 ran out of water day 7 - Deck 10 also (our deck) but the water was only off for a few hours so we actually didn't notice until we were told it was off

Can’t preview pictures if the picture place is not open.  The pictures are on a computer… why can’t I see them? we did run into this problem also - weird that they don't keep the computers up while in port but we just came back later and viewed them

Laser tag was booked SOLID on the first day – for the WHOLE trip. So was the Escape Room which bummed us out - we had been looking forward to trying it - they should have more spots open

Show times were often changed or delayed. Only show I know that was cancelled and then rebooked for the last night was the 10:45pm of HIRO on night 4 because the seas were so choppy

The floor that covers the ice rink broke a few times.  They managed to get it moved, but it delayed the show. This I have no opinion on - I saw Skate2.0 on the 1st night and then 1977 on night 5 and neither were delayed.
THE GOOD

       ·         Chops excellent. Best service aside from Coastal Kitchen on the ship. first time we went it was great the second meal we had was not so much

·         Room service is even pretty damn good N/A for us

·         Starbucks is always good, although not included in the drink package.  If you have the beverage package just go to Promenade Café.  They have TAZO tea and make great coffee drinks. Café Promenade made so good coffee drinks and yes that is covered under the drink plan

·         1977 is awesome  - AGREED - Skate 2.0 was even better

·         Solarium is beautiful & quiet - too hot and humid for our taste but we are from Florida so we can get hot and humid quickly

·         Flight was good but had some moments that were boring. (For me) - we liked it

·         Hiro is good as well. Agreed

·         The App was nice to have for directions and times.  When the internet was working well. loved the app

·         Sorrento's is good and open until 3am - Pizza after drinking is a must

·         Restrooms all around the ship are very nice and clean - agreed

·         Forcing persons entering the buffet to wash their hands first is a very good thing!

       Love the Purell machines everywhere.  Even though Purell doesn't kill Norovirus, I loved it.

       ·         AC in room is great - agreed

·         Cans of Coke & Diet Coke available at the Promenade Café. we don't drink soda but someone in our party did an she loved being Able to get a  full can

·         Go see Henry in Wonderland bar (in 2 months when he is back from vaca).  Best bartender on the ship!! Malcolm in Copper and Kettle was awesome! we even requested to be FB friends with him

·         Mini golf was fun.  - yes it was

 

We were on this sailing also - we are not RC cheerleaders because we cruise with many other lines - but I will disagree with most of these comments...comments in Red

12 hours ago, PhilNDebbieAtSea said:

Thanks so much for sharing your experience! Sounds delicious! 

It was - only thing we would have changed in hindsight is not going to Chops twice but instead going to 150 Central Park twice so the others could experience the new menu.

17 hours ago, islandchicklet said:

 Thanks for such great information! I am thinking of doing this on our symphony cruise in October. Am I understanding it correctly that you cannot make reservations until you get on the ship?

Correct - you can not make reservations for the restaurants before the cruise - but you can book your shows...so in my Executive Admin OCD"ness" I made a spreadsheet with our Show times - went straight to a kiosk set up on Deck 5 when we got on the ship, handed my spreadsheet to a reservation person with the times and locations I wanted for the whole (minus changing Izumi a little later when we found out it wasn't covered under BOGO) and she booked everything exactly like I wanted it.

13 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

I think I see what the issue was with Izumi.

 

You referred to it as Izumi however you said entrees were $45 and $49 which leads me to believe that you actually dined at Izumi -Hibachi.

 

There is a difference between the two.  Izumi (Sushi)  would have been covered under the BOGO (up to $35 per person) which is why you were told that while Hibachi has never been covered.

 

Unfortunately a misunderstanding in the names of the restaurants and the responses that you received.

 

Great review, we had the Ultimate dining package last Christmas and will have the unlimited this Christmas, looking forward to Playmakers. 

You are probably right,  didn't think of that at the time, We just booked Izumi - Hibachi for night 3 and they paid for it...we never did Izumi - Sushi, because we had also booked the Sushi making class for the 2nd sea day (not covered under the plan) so we had our sushi for the week...the wings kept us coming back to Playmakers.

yes open everyday - and it was yummy! the nachos will feed 8 people as an app

This might be a little long - sorry but I detailed each night

Hello – we (DH, myself and 3 other couples) just got back from the 4/27-5/4 Symphony cruise.

DH and I had the new UNLIMITED Dining plan – the others had the BOGO and then bought Izumi and a Chops dinner.

First things first, the others bought the BOGO because they were told by Miami CS that they could use it for Izumi – once on the ship they were told they could not…so, they had to buy Izumi for the 3^rd night (Our TA bought the Chops on Night 6 for everyone – except us, I told her to save the money since we had UDP, it would be covered).

Night 1 - we all had Jamie’s Italian. The food was plentiful and pretty decent for mass market Italian – little better than Olive Garden. (The Charcuterie board was really good).

Night 2 - we all had Chops (originally wanted to do Izumi but was not covered under BOGO for the others in our group) this night service and food were excellent – night 6 not so much but more on that later.

Night 3 - we had Izumi – the others had to pay for this night, it was covered under our unlimited plan - but only for the $45 entrees – DH and I both got the $49 selection so we paid the difference.

Night 4 - DH and I separated from the group and did Hooked. I had the whole Maine Lobster and DH had the Blackened Halibut. My Lobster was on par with the thousands of Whole Lobsters I have eaten in my life and I had NO complaints, except with the sides – the cheesy crabmeat was NOT good and the caramelized butter was the weirdest thing I have ever tried. Hubby LOVED the Halibut – was cooked perfect and the seasoning was delicious (I tried it too). We had the Oysters and Mussels for the apps and they were both VERY good - we told our waiter we did not need the sides of Corn and fries but he brought them anyways.

Night 5 – DH and I had 150 Central Park. We have never eaten here before but we were told they have recently ended their partnership with a "Celebrity Chef" and have a new Menu. I had heard the old format was a 6 course tasting menu – this was not and it was EXCELLENT. We had the Tenderloin for 2. Service was wonderful, food was the best we had all week.

Night 6 – back to Chops, it was bought before the cruise by our TA. Tonight we had a different waiter who was little slower than the one we had night 2.  We all tried something different on the menu – I had the Filet and Lobster tail on Night 2 and that was good. I had the Ribeye on this night and it was not as good a Ribeye that I can get at Texas Roadhouse here at home…Hubby had several pieces of Ribeye that he could not chew L. Another in our party had to send back his Filet as it was not cooked properly. Sides are served family style and they were really good.

Night 7 – we saved the best (most entertaining) for last…WONDERLAND. DH and I had been watching YouTube videos leading up to the cruise and we were really looking forward to this meal. The introduction to the meal from our waiter was a little confusing, he could have explained the process a little better but it may have also been a language/ accent barrier that we just did not understand what he was telling us. We got our menu and painted them to reveal our options but then our waiter asked for any dislikes or allergies when we said we had none and we like everything – he just told us what he was bringing us and did not give us a chance to request something. Now to be fair to him – everything he brought was wonderful but we also did not try a few things we had thought looked interesting on the menu. We ended up being very happy with the whole meal!! The Mad Hatter was just silly and sassy enough – not over the top but not understated.

So, for the first cruise EVER – we NEVER ate in the main dining room – not once. We had breakfast most days from the Vitality Café in the gym. Hubby would grab a few mini focaccia sandwiches and a cappuccino (VERY good). Once we ate at Johnny Rockets and had pancakes and once we ate in the Solarium Bistro and then the last morning we ate in the Windjammer (should have just grabbed sandwiches from the Vitality Café.)

Also included in the new UDP was Playmakers (we ate here 3 days for wings and nachos), plus we ate at Johnny Rockets and Hooked for lunch once each (also covered). So for $199 per person – we got our money worth and would buy it again!! I know tipping is a controversial topic but just to add more info for you – we tipped at every restaurant (yes, I know it is added at time of purchase but we left extra anyways).

Happy to answer any questions.

13 hours ago, FLHugh said:

I just sailed the Allure from Miami last week,  4/7 to 4/14 and we parked at the terminal.  Let me tell you, that was the best $22 bucks a day we spent.  Drive into the garage and up to the 3rd floor, stop and the porters take your luggage.  You won't see it again until it is outside your cabin.  Park you car, take evevator to the first floor, up the escalator.  Go thru TSA Screen, show your SeaPass and walk onto the ship.  Maybe 20 Minutes.  Now getting off of the ship is even easier.  Disembark when your Luggage Tag number is called.  Your luggage is in a group of about 50 bags, easy to find.  For 6 people, you probably need 2 porters.  They load your luggage onto their cart, take you to Customs, you look at the Blue screen, It says OK, your porter takes you thru the Mad House (Taxis, private cars, shuttles, ubers, lyfts and about a thousand people)  at the outside curb and to the elevator,  He/She takes you to your car and loads your luggage, you pay your $22 per day and leave.  Maybe 20 minutes from when you walked off the ship.  

Greta info for Allure - does anyone have experience with the new terminal for Symphony - do they have porters waiting in the garage? If we (2 cars - 8 people) can drive right into the garage and not go to the drop off area first that would be so convenient.

how much and when are the tours? usually? Ball park? Hubby saw a You Tube Video on Symphony and really wants to do one.

15 minutes ago, birdie16 said:

 At this point we would almost rather walk away from the cruise and take our loss.  I find myself feeling like I would rather stay home.  For those of you that want to know, our cabin assignment is 6222, fully obstructed.  

That seems a little like cutting off your nose to spite your face? Any day at sea is better than staying home even if I have to look at a life boat outside my cabin...Hopefully the fun time had will out weigh the view.

well I guess we will see when we board what they are going with that week? Our TA called and was told it was included with BOGO? DH and I will just pay out of pocket and keep the UDP

I am a planner and when no one knows - it drives my Type A personality crazy...