WeLoveCruising

Thanks for taking the time to share.

 

 

Personally, I wasn't a fan of the cheese plates as there are only certain cheeses I want/like and I hate wasting food, but I am keeping an open mind for March :)

This did cross my mind. I never met a cheese I didnt like, so it wasn't an issue for me, but I definitely thought about it.

We had a wonderful cruise on the Eurodam. Before this cruise, we were on the Oosterdam in 2015, but prior to that we hadn't sailed HAL since 2011.

My husband and I noticed a number of changes this cruise, some of which may be more recent than others. For fun, here is what we noticed.

Things Added / Improved:

-Wonderful, fresh salads from a new salad bar, served in big blue glass bowls, much better than the self-serve salad bar.

-Composed cheese plates, both at the Lido and the Neptune lounge. Each plate had a small sampling of 3-4 kinds of cheese, along with some fruits or veggies. These were much better than the old cheese blocks in the Lido years ago, and better than those rubbery cheese cubes.

-The Dive Inn Bar - I know this has been around a few years, vast improvement over the Terrace Grill, both in quality and selection. I also like the fact they will buzz you when ready so you dont have to stand there waiting.

-NY Pizza - so much better than Slice. These were "real" oven pizzas, also a great variety running from classic (Margherita) to creative (Elizabeth Faulkner cream sauce, sausage and fennel).

-The Lido has normal size glasses for iced tea. And they are glass! Much better than those small plastic ones.

-I liked the spa amenities in my Neptune suite - we had various Elemis eye creams, lotions, bath salts, etc. They were replaced daily.

-The large screen TV in our stateroom, and the "on demand" programming

-The local entertainers that came onboard in Cozumel (long time since I saw that on a 7-night cruise)

-The varied drink menu, lots of new choices, and not all frou-frou drinks

-Lincoln Center Stage strings

-Boardwalk Dual Piano area

-BB King club (I know this is a few years old already)

-The Gallery bar replacing Northern Lights

-On formal nights, they had stewards going around Decks 2 and 3 with trays of small desserts. Very classy, very nice touch. They were in all the clubs.

Things that seem to be cutback or disappeared:

-Wine stewards in MDR, very hard to get a timely drink

-Towels at gangplank for ports - you know have to sign for the 2 in your room

-There were more announcements

-There were more "pay as you go" activities - which I dont necessarily mind but please dont disguise them as educational, just advertise them for what they are.

-Bread pudding was behind the counter, and not always available (horrors)

I'm just off the Eurodam, and agree 100% with everything you said.

Those salads are wonderful, I also had the Sesame Asian one on a few different days. Everything was so fresh, and they had so many ingredients to choose from.

Those little composed cheese plates were a huge upgrade (they are also in the Neptune Lounge). And the pizza is vastly improved.

My husband and I disembarked this morning, and were talking on the drive home about how much improved we found the food to be on this cruise.

Day 6: At Sea

(Miscellaneous Stuff)

Art Tour

One of the things we always do ahead of time is download the ship's art tour from the HAL website. If you're not familiar with this, HAL does an audio tour that guides you through some of the more notable pieces of art on each ship. They're easy to download, and easy to follow once you're onboard. Most start in the Explorations Cafe, and tell you exactly where to pause, and where to walk to next.

Like the other ships in the fleet, Eurodam is full of little surprises. Most of these things I would have just passed by without much thought, so I appreciate the chance to learn more about them.

Here are some examples. Each stairwell onboard is considered a "Vertical Art Gallery". The forward, aft, and center stairs each have their own theme. The Aft staircase is full of paintings of international harbors from the 1600's (and we learned a story about the artist). The theme of the center stairway is Rembrandt, and the theme of the forward is paintings of HAL ships from Captain Card.

There are too many little things to mention, but another example is glass panels in the Lido to outline Canaletto. The glass panels all depict a different scene in Italy, and are made with a laser technique using 14K gold and glass.

Not a part of the official audio art tour, but something we've appreciated are the photography in the ship's passenger room hallways. There are photographs of cruising of day's past - today we got some iced tea and strolled around our Deck 7, looking at photos of passengers as far back as 1906 and as recent as the 1990's. The photos show suites, lounges, pools, and the dining room and really give a fun glimpse into old style cruising. Again, these are photos we would have walked by dozens of times without paying much attention. Once one caught our eye, we were hooked to go view them all.

I'm typing this up as we're getting ready to depart Key West and head back to FLL. It's been a wonderful cruise, and I'll summarize over the weekend some final thoughts, as well as share the list we had fun making, of all the changes we noted in the last 20 years.

Day 5: At Sea

Quick update today, because it was a day of more of the same.

We managed to catch the entire BB King show tonight - the fact that my husband got up to dance is a testament to both the quality of the band and the strength of the drinks, haha.

Our retreat cabana guys gave all of the guests a home-made gift - an individual craft item made for each cabana. Ours was a really cute little model of chairs and bistro table made from wine corks and bottle caps. They had our names labeled on it, and our cabana name and date. Other guests got similar but different personalized hand made gifts. I am sure this was of their own doing, vs a HAL sponsored gift. That, and the time they clearly put into it, was very special. I cant say enough good things about this team of young men who take care of us every day at the cabana.

One of our first cruises was out of Aruba also and it was in the early nineties. I wonder if it was the same cruise ship! Our was the Ocean Breeze and it was a small ship and we really liked it at the time.

Yes - that's the same one!

OceanBreeze on the old Dolphin Cruise line. We did a 7 night Aruba to Aruba itinerary for our honeymoon. We liked it very much, too. It was an older ship, but the food and service were very good.

I am looking forward to seeing the list of changes that you have noted.

I laughed when I read you mentioning about movies on airplanes. For the first time last year flying from San Diego to Pittsburgh, we were on such an old plane that there wasn't any movie.

That's an old plane! It reminds me of one of our first cruises, which left from Aruba. The cruise included free air, which was a charter flight out of Miami on an airline called Rich International. It was 1992, but the plane seemed at least 25-30 years old. It had wood paneling inside, and harvest gold / avocado seats. I cant believe we actually agreed to go ahead with the flight, other than we were pretty young and naive at the time.

Haven't caught up on all your posts yet but enjoying reading your reports.

Left the Eurodam on 14th after some very rough weather hope the seas are once more calm and your days ahead sunny.

The Eurodam was not our favourite ship but being in a regular balcony cabin and not having any of the suites luxury touches may have influenced our view of the ship. We ate too often in the lido buffet .. never a good idea just stress from start to finish. Do you have a restaurant allocated for lunch in a suite.

Presume your cabana is on the upper deck and not round the pool. Who would pay to be behind a curtain on the lido deck. Have you used the retreat on Princess for a comparison.

Yikes, I heard a few people talking about the rough weather on your cruise. I'm sorry that you had that experience.

There isn't a lunch specific restaurant for suite passengers, but sometimes the Pinnacle Grill and Tamarind are open (for a fee) to any passenger. I think the Main Dining room is also open on sea days. At least that is the way it once was, we've been eating lunch in the Lido for years. I'm sorry that it was stressful - I dont think HAL does a good job of providing instructions for those who havent sailed, or used the Lido much. The lines can be confusing, and on sea days it can be hard to find a table. We havent ever had any issues on port days, and on sea days we just eat a little early, or a little late - or grab pizza or a burger vs the main Lido line. I do wish they explained the layout and flow better.

Yes -our cabana is up top. Some people like the Lido cabanas near the pool, the ones you mention, because they're more in the action and they have a reserved spot for the week (vs people reserving chairs). I much prefer our area, though. We're a longer walk to the food area, but our cabana team will go to get us anything we want - to the point we feel lazy and guilty for asking them to do that (that's just me, of course they are eager to help).

I havent had a cabana on Princess, although I've seen some of the private cabana areas touring an NCL ship and they were quite nice.

Day 4: Cozumel

We were docked so close to the Carnival Paradise, that we could see from our verandah onto the Carnvial passenger’s verandah directly across from us. In fact, we were so close that we could shout hello to them. Being next to that ship prompted us to talk about the changes in cruising we’ve seen over the past two decades. My husband and I both remember well the Paradise inaugural in New York City. He was working for HAL at the time, we guess it was the late 1990’s, and we went to NYC to entertain agents onboard. The ship was advertised as entirely non-smoking, and they highlighted the fact that smoking wasn’t even allowed during construction of the ship. We noticed a few things right away: first of all, there were, by our visual estimate, less than 10% of staterooms with verandahs. That was a sharp contrast with RCI’s Freedom in the background, whose sides were stacked full of balconies. I think that has more to do with the era of the ship than Carnival itself. Secondly, there were some interesting contrasts between the Eurodam and the Paradise. Let’s start with our balcony. We had nice quality wood and resin furniture, with padded cushions. They had strappy lawn chairs. Up on our Lido deck, we had lots of open space – theirs was packed with chairs everywhere we looked. And the music? I’ll never again complain about the new age spa music played in The Retreat. Their reggae was blaring so loud we could hear it in our retreat cabana. There’s something for everyone, my husband reminds me, and tells me (as he always does) “that’s why Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors”.

We had lots of port time in Cozumel – the Eurodam didn’t leave until 11pm. I wish I could tell you we got off the ship and I could report back on shoreside activities, but that wouldn’t be true. We spent the day in our cabana, with breaks for iced tea (him), cocktails (me), and laps around the Promenade deck (3 laps equal one mile). I’ve finished 3 novels from my Kindle library so far on this cruise, and plan to read at least 2-3 more.

Dinner time was fun! The Eurodam had a mariachi band and dancers from Mexico come onboard to entertain us in the Lido from 5-8pm. This was more than a typical (cheesy?) band you’d see in a Mexican restaurant at home – they seemed authentic, and were quite good. The Lido was packed – in a good way – it was nice to interact with other passengers. We shared a few martinis with the ship’s priest of all people (HAL cruises all have a priest onboard), and even shared contact information with promises to keep in touch.

Believe it or not, we made our first appearance in the MDR for dinner, along with regrets we hadn’t ventured in sooner. The food (prime rib for both of us ) and service were quite good – certainly as good or better than any MDR meal in recent memory. We thought about the 4 meals we already had (2 Tamarind, 1 Pinnacle and 1 Le Cirque) and unanimously voted we should have eliminated 1 Tamarind for a MDR). In fact, we may cancel Canaletto tonight and go the MDR instead. Our service team was a delight. I had no problem ordering my wines by the glass to pair with each course (still loving the Elite package).

The ship was quiet at night because we were in port for so long. The ship’s show was a BBC Frozen Earth. We peeked in, and saw a movie of penguins being accompanied by a live orchestra. The crowd vacillated between oohing and aahing, and laughing. It made me wish I knew more about the show, and saw it from the beginning. Hubby and I both like nature / animal shows and this seemed like a unique presentation. Oh well….all reasons to rebook.

Speaking of rebooking, we plan to sit with the Future Cruise Consultant and pick our 25th wedding anniversary cruise for later this year. Our eye has been on the South America, or the Baltic cruise (the one that goes up to the Arctic Circle). We both admitted to each other that we have to throw a 14 night back to back Signature class Caribbean in the mix for choices. It might not seem “25th worthy” compared to the other choices – they seem more “once in a lifetime” kind of experiences, but we both admitted to loving this cruise, and the time together doing nothing. The longest we can take is about 14 nights. We don’t want to wish our lives away, but we very much look forward to retirement and the longer cruises that will be possible then. Hubby reminds me, we don’t have to wish our lives away, we just need to wish for quick lottery winnings .

Back in our stateroom, we took advantage of the big TV and watched a movie (Sully). I like that HAL finally leaped into 2009 (that’s sarcasm) and upped the technology. On our stateroom TV we have a selection of TV shows and movies (think of choices similar to an airplane). We can also see the restaurant menus, including the daily MDR menu. We can book specialty restaurants, and check our onboard account (but I don’t want to see that yet!).

The TV is just one change of the many we’re noting. In fact, we’re making a list of observations, all of the changes we’ve seen over the years. Some are instantly apparent, and others seem to have slowly evolved. We’ve been playing a game, imaging ourselves time traveling from the Maasdam in 1997 to the Eurodam in 2017. What changes do we see? I’ll post more about that as we wrap up the week.

Thanks. I managed to find an updated Tamarind menu here and it does show the Duck Bulgagi. It sounds good to me, so either the preparation was poor, or it just wasn't to your husband's liking.

 

As for red curry chicken, I like that, but if I'm going to pay a $25 surcharge I'd like to get something fancier.

 

Have you been to the MDR yet to check on A/B menus? :)

Hi Bill

We definitely have the B menus, and the Le Cirque dinner. Hope that helps.

Choosing itinerary over cruise line.

Thanks for all the great info.

 

Were you able to find out what kind of pillows are in the Neptune Suite?

So, what is advertised is an "assortment of soft, medium, and firm" pillows. I asked if we had choices and they told me there are different types in the room. If we want more of one type vs another we could request them. We do have (I'm counting them now) 6 bed pillows in pillow cases on our bed. Sure enough some are soft, some firm, and some medium (feeling a little bit like Goldilocks as I write this).

Between all of them, both hubby and I have no problem finding the right combination for each of us.

Great reports. Thank you. I'm concerned that maybe we're over selling the cabanas. :D

You're right!

They are horrible!

Worst waste of money I've ever spent onboard!

(Shh....I hope that did it, and we're safe now to find availability for our next cruises!)

Day 3: Grand Cayman

We decided to stay onboard today, which is our typical thing to do on a Caribbean cruise. We counted 6 big ships anchored at Grand Cayman with us today, and wondered how busy it was pier-side for tender service.

We spent the day in our retreat cabana, and are thrilled with our choice to book it. I noticed twice, two different people in the Neptune Lounge trying to book one and being told they were sold out for the week.

I should take a moment and talk about the Lido, which is where we’ve been having our lunch all week. As POA said in his post, had I not noticed they rebranded it “Marketplace”, I wouldn’t have noticed much of a difference. The other ships also have different lines for each station (Asian, pasta, sandwiches, etc). I noticed, though, an improvement in the food. Salads now are tossed to order, and served in big blue bowls. I had an Asian tossed salad yesterday with fresh seared tuna (the real kind, not canned), orange segments, bean sprouts, Romaine and spinach, and a bunch of other fresh stuff I cant remember. You could equally as easily make a Cobb salad (the menu suggested both my Asian and that), or a tossed garden salad with dozens of ingredients. The NY Pizza is much improved over what always tasted like frozen mass made pizza to me prior to this. The Dive-In appeared a year or two ago on HAL ships and is a big improvement over the old Terrace Grill. I had a hot dog a few days ago….which I do maybe every few years (?)..but wasn’t able to resist it when I saw it topped with sauerkraut, crispy onions, and bacon. I was glad to indulge.

We didn’t do any activities during the day, other than read and go for a few walks. I’m enjoying the drinks at the Explorations Café. This is a minor…minor…complaint. They went to a computerized menu on a TV monitor. The menu is supposed to self-scroll, but it’s so, so slow. Like slow enough that I could be in line with 2-3 people ahead of me, and it will never move off it’s current screen. Since it rotates through hot drinks, cold drinks, alcoholic drinks, etc, you really should get to see your category. I asked for a printed menu and they just point at the screen. I’m defaulting to my safe plain Latte as to not hold up the line, but I know there are more creative things available.

Dinner tonight was a highlight, a real treat. We both agree our meal at Le Cirque was among the best at sea we can remember….ever. The quality of the ingredients was top notch, from the lobster salad to the Chateaubriand (me), and lamb (hubby). We have a good pace going with the Pinnacle wine steward, who brings us glasses of wine to pair with our courses, each fitting in the $15 limit of our Elite Beverage package. It was a nice touch to come back to Le Cirque chocolates on our bed.

I wish I could post more on the entertainment. We catch glimpses of the shows and bands as we walk through the ship. We stopped in on BB King's a few times, which we've enjoyed on the Oosterdam as well last year. We talk about getting a table and seeing a whole show, which we hope to do still. The other venues - Lincoln Center Stage, Billboard online, are all well attended and look fun. I promise we're not the party poopers we seem to be with our bypassing all the great stuff! We're tired, it's been a rough few years between losing our son to cancer, relocating across states buying and selling a home, changing jobs, and a very busy work travel schedule. What I like about a cruise is you can have the experience you want....doing as much or as little as you want. This trip, we're doing the "little" end of the spectrum.

Tomorrow is Cozumel, the weather has been great, and we’re likely to spend the day in our retreat cabana again. Yup, vacation with little to nothing to do is exactly what we needed.

Great review.

Glad to hear that they are getting the larger crab legs back in the Pinnacle.

When we were on the Eurodam 1 1/2 years ago, they were very tiny and the Pinnacle chef would not serve them for an entrée.

Yes, that was definitely my prior experience as well. I told my husband when I ordered them, I was skeptical the menu said King Crab legs, because I had always gotten small snow crab. But no, they were big legs, and I had more than I could possibly eat.

How is your suite verandah? Are there loungers out there?

Yes. Ouur verandah has a table and two chairs, as well as two lounge chairs. I like that the chairs a resin with a nice padded cushion, as opposed to the cheap strappy kind I've seen on other lines at times.

Day 2: At Sea

Our second day was spent at sea, and we had absolutely gorgeous weather. Sunny and low 80’s, just the way I like it. We met several couples who are on week 2 of a back to back, and heard the weather last week was really bad – strong winds and rain. We were told this was the first day of sun in over 10 days. When we booked this cruise, we had to choose between going last week and this week, and feel lucky we went with this one.

There are things I love about sea days, and things I don’t love so much. Best of all, I like the feeling of complete relaxation, not needing to be anywhere by any time…..sleeping in, and doing whatever it is we feel like doing. What I don’t like, is that there are 2,000 or so other people doing the same thing. When the ship’s at capacity, the Lido, the pool area...the crowd level all peaks. It makes it difficult, but not impossible, to find tables for lunch, or chairs by the pool. While the popular spots are crowded, the crowds tend to be in the same predictable places.…while certain areas can be packed, I guarantee I can find a spot somewhere less crowded. I just have to remind myself to eat at off-peak times, and where to go to find a quiet spot.

That being said, this week we have a real treat – a Retreat Cabana. Boy oh boy we are loving our Retreat Cabana. Ours overlooks the top of the Lido pool, vs the side as some do. By that, I mean we still are in the Retreat (vs Lido) section. Our cabana, Naples, faces the front of the ship vs the side. I would be happy with any of the cabanas in the Retreat section, there is no bad choice. We can sit in our cabana when we want some shade, and sit outside on the very comfortable loungers when we want sun. And we have two friendly Cabana guys bringing us drinks, food…whatever we want. The quality of the towels and robes is super. The only small change I would make….and this is small….is that the music they play is spa music (think new age spa stuff), vs…oh just about any other genre which is what I would prefer. I think they’re trying to create a sanctuary, a spa like retreat. I can deal with that (and use my iPod and earphones to listen to my cruise mix playlist, which is exactly what I did). Again, small issue and if others like the new agey spa stuff, I’ll take my Jimmy Buffett / Harry Belafonte / Michael Franti / mixed with the best summer songs of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s via my earphones.

We joke about our cabana, calling it our “Day Bed”. As in, “I think it’s time to leave our night bed for our day bed.” We’re having that kind of relaxing vacation, which is exactly what we wanted to do. I’m a bad person to ask about the activities (or ports for that matter), because going from my Night Bed to my Day Bed, catching up on my reading, and mixing in some meals, walks, and cocktails, is about all I have on my agenda for the week. We tend to think of our vacations in two different categories – touring and relaxing. For example, when we go to Rome, we tour. We’re up early and walk miles and miles to see things. When we do a Caribbean cruise, we relax and do just what we’re doing now. On a different cruise itinerary, for example South America or Europe, we’d be more in a tour mode. We’re in relax mode on a Caribbean cruise. Truth be told, we’ve done up to 14 nights without leaving the ship. I tell my husband that the sun is the same on the back of the boat as the beach on whatever island we’re visiting, and on the ship I have my Lido lunch, clean bathroom, and whatever I want. Remember, my perspective on this is having visited every place dozens of times. When we were young, I wanted to be first off the ship and last back on, soaking up every bit of what there was to do on the islands. Today, I feel very differently.

We returned to Tamarind for dinner. After our mixed review on the first night of the cruise…at least regarding the food….the service was always good. I have to say tonight was wonderful. I ordered differently, and probably just chose better. Thai Red Curry Chicken from the Fire section. They can tone down the spice, mine was mild but still carried a kick. It was delicious, and had tons of good quality white meat chicken, and lots of fresh snow peas, eggplant, peppers…it was so flavorful and fresh. I might have to have it again before the week ends.

I also had a “Snow Tiger” cocktail for dessert (thank you Elite beverage package, for giving me the courage to order outside my comfort zone). It was basically an adult chocolate milk, and there’s nothing wrong with that (smile).

After dinner we had some formal photos taken. On all the prior cruises we’ve done, I was the lady hiding from the photographer. I used to find them annoying and do whatever I could to avoid them. Something changed on our last cruise, my husband told me he really wanted some nice photos of us. We decided to seek out the photographers (the ones who do the portrait style photos on formal night, not the ones dressed as pirates wielding a fake sword in the dining room). We ended up buying the photo package last cruise, something I never thought I’d do. We’re having some portraits done on this cruise as well, and I’ll see how they turn out.

Sorry to hear you did not enjoy Tamarind that much. I have a question about the duck. Was it a normal half duck with bones, or a duck breast? In POA1's thread, there was a picture of the menu screen outside the restaurant and I noticed it said duck breast and was a different preparation than what is listed on the Tamarind menus that I have seen posted in the past. I am a big fan of duck breast, especially if it's cooked properly (I don't want to get into that discussion in yet another thread). Thanks!

I'm just about to update that we tried Tamarind again last night, and liked our choices much better.

On our first night, my husband had the duck that the menu referred to as "duck bulgogi". It was sliced duck breast, no bones. I may have a photo, I've taken many and will post when we return.

On our second night in Tamarind, he had Peking duck as an appetizer. The duck that came with that was shredded duck breast (to roll up in the pancake like wrappers).

Pinnacle Grill

Ah, what’s there not to like about Pinnacle Grill? OK, I don’t necessarily like that we have to pay extra for it. We get 50% off with our 4-star Mariner status, so for us it’s an easy value. Over the years I have noticed some people in the camp of “it’s inconsistent, and the MDR food is decent and free. It’s not worth the extra money”. And I see another camp of people who say “it’s the best $35 steak dinner you’ll ever have”. I lean more to the latter than the former. I guess everyone needs to make their own decision if it’s worth it for them. After being too stuffed from Tamarind last night, we decided to order more conservatively. I had the Ceasar salad, followed by crab legs. The salad is tossed table side, so you can customize the dressing to Romaine to cheese to crouton ratio, and opt in or out of the anchovies. It is a classic Ceasar, no surprises, which I like. No one loves crab legs more than I do, and I wasn’t able to finish my portion. They split open the legs for you, and I counted 17, yes 17, halves of legs. And this was king crab (albeit smallish), and not snow crab. I skipped dessert, because truth be told there’s nothing I like more than crab legs, and if I had that plate as appetizer, entrée, and dessert I would have been perfectly happy. The little tray of truffles they bring at the end of the meal was just enough sweet ending for me. In terms of service, the wine steward did a good job of coordinating glasses with each course for us. We typically buy a bottle of wine, but with the elite package we’re enjoying a glass to go with each course, followed by port at the end.

And thank you all for the nice comments, and thanks for the great sail away photos!

There isn't an unlimited internet package, and I have to use lots of my minutes to keep up at my job. Please forgive any typos from my rushing, and delays in posting. I'm glad to answer any questions, if not onboard, definitely when we return.

My clothes start going into my suitcase tomorrow.

 

DH are sailing on the Eurodam on 1/21-1/28. And yes, I agree that 7 nights are not enough! But I have worked around it by extending our vacation by flying down a few days early and staying a week later, renting a car and driving around FL/visiting friends and relatives.

 

Look forward to seeing your reports. We like to hang out in the Crows Nest...can you give us the bartender's name so we can walk in there on embarkation and greet him like we know him already?!

I think sometimes they rotate location from week to week, but if he's there you cant go wrong with Juvy.

Day 1 – Half Moon Cay

One of the Neptune Suite perks we most like is having breakfast in the Pinnacle Grill. My husband had perfectly cooked Eggs Benedict, and I had pancakes. The service was so good, that we requested the same team for our dinner this evening. After breakfast, the first tender was promptly ready at 8:30 to bring people to HMC.

We rented the Yellow Cabana, which is #12. My husband and I both wish they would just refer to the cabanas by numbers vs color. It was difficult to book by color (do you mean violet or light purple or mauve?). This was the furthest we had ever been down the beach, and we liked it immensely – best cabana location we’ve had in recent memory – at least since the addition of all new buildings. In fact we took a further walk out past the Red Cabana (and rows of chairs), and it was almost like being in HMC 1998. We were the only ship there, and it wasn’t crowded at all. That made it especially weird when some young couple sat right outside our cabana with their boom box type radio. They turned up their own music, and if it wasn’t so funny we would have been more annoyed. The “music” was unlike any genre of music we’ve ever heard. My husband and I took turns making up the weird combination of sounds we thought it was. The winner was the soundtrack from Disney’s Haunted Mansion, combined with laser guns from Star Wars, a train whistle, and monks chanting at a funeral. It was 100% that odd. It lasted about an hour until they left for lunch and didn’t come back.

Speaking of lunch, I noticed the side salads greatly improved. I had a potato salad that was very fresh, I would have been happy to buy it at my local gourmet store. I also had a carrot raisin salad that was really good. Hubby had a cheeseburger and ribs.

There were also small changes to the cabana. A blackboard inside welcomed me by name (wondering if this helps prevent squatters?). And while we had the usual chips and salsa, fruit and veggies, we also got shrimp cocktail (two big shrimp each), and plantain chips with mango salsa. It also seemed like more people came by to check on us and offer refills more frequently than we were used to.

The water at HMC this time of year can be chilly, and it definitely was, but we had to go in at least once. I think lots of families have their silly traditions (at least that’s what I keep telling my husband), and when my son was small I started this thing of a family circle bounce on HMC. Our family would stand in a circle holding hands in the water, bouncing around in a circle. The first time we did that, my son had to be 5-6 years old and we had a blast. So much so, that we started a silly thing of doing it every single cruise….for the past 20 years. We lost my son in 2015, at age 26, to cancer. My husband and I had to get in that cold water and circle bounce. We did.

While the weather started out fantastic – sunny and warm, after lunch the clouds rolled in. We noted them packing things up, and around 2pm we had to make the judgement call of risking rain, or heading back. We had a number of electronics with us (iPad, phone, camera), and were far from the pier, so decided to play it safe. We will look forward to our next time.

Back on board, we decided to try our Retreat Cabana. We met our Cabana team, both so friendly and helpful. Brian ran down to get my husband a pizza from NY Pizza (and I have to say, much, much improved over the pizza we had on the Vista ships). This was a pizza you’d be thrilled to get in any Italian restaurant, it was that good. We’re looking forward to the rest of the week in the Cabana club.

Dinner tonight is at the Pinnacle….looking forward to it

Day 0: Embarkation and Settling In

Years ago I used to write a lot more, and read a lot more, on Embarkation – it was always a big deal. I can remember waiting in that crowded room for our boarding number to be called. I can remember boarding the ship without cabins being ready. I think a combination of HAL’s boarding procedures (which aren’t that new any more), our 4-star / Neptune priority status, and just good timing helped us sail right through. Really, we arrived at 1pm and were on the ship at maybe 1:15 at the latest. By the 3:15pm life boat drill, we had received and unpacked our luggage, found our retreat cabana, ate lunch, saw every public room, and had a glass of champagne in the Neptune lounge. It was that easy.

Wow, the ship looks great! Our stateroom reminds us more of a Westin than a HAL ship. Dark wood tones, the large screen TV, and the Elemis spa amenities are all really nice. In addition to the shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and shower gel that have always been here, I notice the following new things: eye gel, temple relaxation cream, lip balm, and bath oil.

I like the recent renovations. The Billboard area with dual pianos, really opens up that old piano bar and sports bar area. There are multiple more seats around both pianos than in the old piano bar. The Gallery Bar area seems like it will be used much more than Northern Lights ever was.

We booked dinner on our first night out at Tamarind. It was nearly empty. Our dinner started with a drink in the Tamarind Bar. We decided to buy the Elite drink package this cruise. It’s our first drink package. I know the break even point is 6-7-8 drinks depending on the price, and truth be told we barely drink that much a day. But I did this for a few reasons. First, when we don’t cruise, we like to go to an all-inclusive resort. There’s something to be said about not having to think about the price of everything we buy. It’s freeing. There’s something to be said about that freeing feeling, forcing you outside your comfort zone – when I pay $8 for a drink, I tend to default to the ones I know I like. With a package, I know I’ll try many more things. Even if we don’t do a package next time, I’m bound to discover new favorites, and eliminate others. That free feeling, and the experimentation, are worth something to me. While I know I risk paying more than if we just paid a la carte, it’s not that much more than our usual bar bill. And I chose Elite instead of the Signature package because we like wine with dinner. This gives us a lot more flexibility in choices. I'm looking forward to starting our meals with champagne (I know, sparkling wine), and then having a white, red, and even finishing with port or dessert wine. This isn't as easy to do with the Signature limit of $8 per drink.

Back to Tamarind, with our new drink package I tried a Sake Cruz in one of those two part martini glasses with the ice on the bottom. My husband had some frozen blue coconut thing (don’t judge). We both picked the right drink for us. My husband likes the sweet umbrella drinks (don’t judge), and I like the more boozy drinks. In fact I’ll drink an Old Fashioned or a Manhattan, and he wont touch them. More than once (or dozens of times), cocktails waiters mix our drinks on delivery. In his defense, he does drink Scotch, and was thrilled to see McCallen 12 under $15 and therefore in our package.

Dinner at Tamarind was a definite A+ on service and ambience, however the food was hit or miss. The portions were huge. We both started with soup, and they came in a huge bowl that would have been a meal. I had the Indonesian Laska - a creamy, curry soup, and would have loved it as my entrée. My husband had the Thai chicken and rice which was also good. The second courses (Shanghai Ribs, and satay) were the misses. My ribs were almost inedible. They had a Chinese 5-spice flavor, which I usually like, but they were so bland and fatty I couldn’t eat them. The satays were average. At this point we were really full, I think it impacted the enjoyment of our entrees. I had the wasabi crusted filet, and hubby had duck. The filet was, in quality, somewhere between the MDR and the Pinnacle, closer to the MDR filet.. I should have waited and had it in the Pinnacle. Hubby liked his duck ok. We took dessert to go. Realizing they’re meant to be plated and eaten there, and don’t travel well, it wouldn’t be fair to judge them – but when we tore into them at 2am in our cabin, they were good 

Our nightly routine is to do several laps on the Promenade deck. Regardless of weather, wind, whatever – we will do as many laps as we can. It’s good exercise, and we just love being outside. It’s also quite romantic, as we’re typically the only ones out there.

Pre-Cruise

Living in Central Florida, we’re a 3-hour drive to Port Everglades. Since I’m the first person to show up at a work meeting, and the person who’s waiting at the airport gate at least an hour before any flight, I like to go in the night before. This time, for the second cruise in a row, we chose the Fort Lauderdale Ritz Carlton. It’s pricey – but as a frequent business traveler I cashed in some of my Marriott Rewards points for the stay. In that respect, it was only a few points more than Marriott Harbor Beach (which we also like, but cant compare to the Ritz). We had a wonderful dinner at Burlock Coast, the hotel restaurant, which has tables street side, facing the ocean. The warm weather and view of the beach did wonders to get us in the cruising mood. We even got to see the (Rotterdam?) sail away over cocktails.

Packing

On a Med cruise about 5 years ago, Delta airlines lost our luggage on the way to Rome. You might think you could do a lot worse in life than being forced to buy clothes in Rome, but trust me, it wasn’t all that much fun. We had 3 strikes working against us: 1) The port for Rome is Civitavecchia, which is at least 45 minutes from the airport, so we couldn't easily go there to check on it. 2) The day we arrived was an Italian holiday and every store was closed, and 3) we were sailing on Windstar, which are small sailing ships. The attraction of those ships is the intimate small size and out of the way ports. But trust me, when you have no luggage that attraction works against you. Intimate size means no real onboard shops, and small ports means no real shopping in port either.

Our luggage literally followed us from one small Mediterranean island to the next….but all a day behind. If we were in Corsica on Monday, our luggage was there on Tuesday. We were in Lipari on Tuesday, our luggage on Wednesday. This lasted until Day 6 of our 7 day cruise, when our luggage met us in Sicily.

Windstar took great care of us on that trip. We boarded with barely more than the clothes on our backs. They made a deal with us that whatever we had in the laundry bag hung outside our cabin door by midnight, they would wash and return by 6am. We wore the same clothes every day, but at least they were clean clothes. On a ship that only holds 148 passengers, you tend to stand out when you’re wearing the same Boston Red Sox T-shirt every day (my husband), or flowered blue sundress (me).

I’m sharing that story because it taught me that I can get by on a cruise with much less than I think I need. One day I might even follow my own advice . For now, I have a packing list. Years ago I found my key to successful packing. I keep an Excel spreadsheet called “Vacation” packing, and the list has four different columns. Column 1 is a list of the basics – what I need no matter where I go. Column 2 is Warm Weather stuff, Column 3 is Cold Weather stuff, and Column 4 is Cruise specific stuff (ie formal wear, etc). When it comes time to pack, I just mark off the right columns. A Caribbean cruise would be Column 1, 2, and 4. It sounds complicated, but it works for me.

The one lesson I learned which I actually do follow, is to put a complete outfit in my carry-on (including unmentionables). I’ve never had to use it, but on that Windstar cruise it would have doubled my wardrobe.

I thought I’d share some of the unique items in my “cruise” packing column.

• Kindle (the online lending library is paltry these days)

• Brand new USB drive (if you purchase photos onboard, they’ll put them on your own USB, but it has to be brand new and in packaging to prevent virus)

• Bottle of hand soap (don’t get me started….the steward fills the Elemis dispenser in the shower, but there isn’t soap at the sink in most staterooms. I gave up asking and just take a bottle of Dial)

• Tums (for when we over-indulge)

• Work-out-clothes (same reason)

• LED travel clock (I hate waking up in the dark and not knowing what time it is. The Neptune suites have clocks on the wall but they’re analog clocks you cant see in the dark. As far as I recall most other categories don’t have clocks).

• Earphones (I like to listen to music on our deck, but don’t assume my neighbors want to hear it).

• Post it notes to leave notes to cabin steward

• Plenty of $5’s and $1’s for tips.

• A lanyard for wearing my ID card/key around my neck at the pool (all the cool kids are wearing them, or at least that’s what I tell myself).

• A second bathing suit (so I always have a dry one).

• Starbucks Via packets (I make my own coffee. The machine in the Neptune is good for lattes, but I don’t like the onboard coffee. The Via’s make a really good hot or iced coffee).

• Reader sunglasses…(my reading glasses aren’t sunglasses, and my sunglasses aren’t readers. This $20 invention I purchased on Amazon.com revolutionized my cruise reading. Seriously!

• The iPod Art Tour - if you haven’t done this, you should give it a try. Each ship has its own audio tour of the art onboard. It’s a great way to spend an hour, and I’ve learned so much by doing these. It gives me a whole new appreciation of the ship.

• Cruise Playlist – I make a mix up of tropical vacation tunes to play in our stateroom.

• Small purse – Leaving our stateroom at night, I don’t really want to carry my purse (especially if we go out dancing), but I also need to carry a few small items like my room key, cell phone, etc. I have a collection of small evening purses I like to bring, even beyond formal…ooops…gala…night.

Since laundry is included with our Neptune suite, I’m inclined to bring a few less things. While I wouldn’t trust any of my nicer clothes to the onboard laundry, I think they do a fine job at my casual daytime stuff.

One more sleep, and we leave in the morning for Fort Lauderdale!