CntPAcruiser

For purposes of CC, I think a foodie can be defined as someone with an interest in food, not as refined, necessarily, but as more than mere sustenance. Cruise Foodies is a fun place to talk about food topics that may or may not have to do with cruising. "Forum" is defined as a public meeting place for open discussion, so it won't be limited to those with refined tastes or interests. It's open, for better or worse, and anyone is free to post, read, or not read as they choose.

I would be hard pressed to limit myself to one favorite. It's more likely that I would have a "today" or "right now" favorite, but might feel differently another day. That said, I saw a post somewhere asking if one could only have one food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My thought was a well-made quiche Lorraine, since it would have different textures, cheese, and bacon, so maybe that's my favorite food.

General favorite is a hot fudge sundae. Very specifically, from Leon's Frozen Custard on 27th Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin: butter pecan frozen custard with hot fudge and butter-toasted pecans, a double-gilded lily if ever there was one!

Favorite at home is well-crisped corned beef hash (preferably homemade) with two over-easy fried eggs and coffee or strong English tea with milk. Favorite on board is whole-grain bread with cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers, tea, and fruit. Royal used to have canned figs, which I liked very much. Not sure if those survived the cutbacks.

Best bet is to check as soon as you can after boarding with the shore excursions desk. We have had some success getting onto an excursion that was sold out online once we were on board. Not sure if it was because of cancellations or because they added more slots.

We typically give a $1 tip per drink for Diamond drinks, though I noticed on our last cruise (Adventure, NE/Canada, October 2022), all cash tips went into a bucket rather than the individual bartender's pocket. I didn't ask about how they were distributed, but I didn't really care for the idea. I'd rather the tip money go directly to the bartender who served me, especially since not all of them were giving the best service and I was purposely avoiding those bartenders. In the past, we have given at least an extra $20 to our table waiter and assistant waiter for late seating traditional dining, and $20-$30 to a cabin attendant, but now I'm on the fence about that. It may depend on what the service is actually like on our next cruise, but at the same time I hate to penalize the employees at that level for something beyond their control (i.e., the menu and cabin service cutbacks).

If halal would be handled similarly to kosher, they might use an outside provider that does frozen meals. I'm not as familiar with halal requirements for cooking and serving, but strict kosher doesn't permit contact with non-kosher surfaces, utensils, etc., so the meals come prepackaged with utensils and are heated and served sometimes still wrapped. Years ago I worked for a banquet facility, and we had an interfaith leaders' dinner once a month. A co-worker heated a frozen kosher meal for a rabbi and proceeded to replate it on one of our plates to make it look nicer. Sadly, he had to refuse it since it had touched a non-kosher plate. Instead, he had a fruit plate (which, apparently being a neutral food type, didn't matter if it was on one of our plates).

We were last on Vision in 2016 out of Tampa, and I really enjoyed the small ship atmosphere. My DH not as much, but as you mention, Baltimore as a port of departure is incredibly convenient, and for us it means we do not lose an extra day or two of vacation time traveling, nor do we have to pay for a flight to Florida. We'll be on Vision in October of this year and are looking forward to a relaxing cruise, hopefully with some good service, particularly from the bar. Thanks for your cruise report!

I gather this earlier post about how the food wasn't "right" when traveling was created by someone who goes all over the world only to dine at McDonalds and Pizza Hut. Yes, I'm a food snob (though I do sometimes eat at fast food places), but the whole point of traveling for most of us is to have new experiences. And, gasp!--that might include not using ketchup. How far should they go? I say not far, nor will they. Cruise lines may retool their menu and supplies slightly depending on where they are sailing to/from (for example, placing kettles in all the rooms and offering English bacon on UK cruises), but to install soft-serve machines, nope. Granted, keeping a case of bottles of Heinz ketchup in reserve wouldn't be difficult. But to expect major cultural changes to just be in place, like having butter for bread, sorry. That isn't required, and as was mentioned, it would be available on request, so what's the problem there anyway?

Morse code, a la Poseidon Adventure 😁

The issue we had with Diamond drinks and the MDR was apparently they weren't putting the drink charge through right away, and they weren't always getting it right with whose vouchers they used (mine or my spouse's). I can understand that--middle of service and you're busy. But the problem was, one evening after dinner, I went to get a pre-show drink at the theatre bar and was offered a double, using two vouchers. I said sure, because I knew I had two left. The next day when I checked the app, I had a single drink charge. Turns out the MDR server had charged my card at dinner, so I really only had one voucher left when I got the double, but their charge didn't show up until after the bartender in the theatre put my double on. In the end, with a lot of looking things up and explanation, guest services fixed it, since the MDR drink was supposed to have been on my spouse's card. After that, I made sure to be specific about whose voucher I was using for my wine at dinner, or got it beforehand on the way in.

Adventure doesn't have a thermal suite. The men's and women's locker rooms have very nice free sauna/steam facilities that have not yet been destroyed by the so-called amplification. Enjoy them while you can! There are no heated loungers.

Small soft pretzels dipped in powdered salt served during the snack period at the German secondary school I attended in Nuremburg. Fat-bellied lye pretzels made at a German-run bakery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, served split open with chunks of unsalted butter tucked inside. These are distant memories of the best. I do also like pretzel sticks and am not fussy about the brand (dipped in sour cream onion dip).

I have confirmed from a post on another board that they did not change or remove the locker rooms in the fitness center, and the steam/sauna facilities are still there.

Excellent news--thanks for confirming! Before COVID, we were supposed to sail on Explorer and had to cancel, and that would've been the last time before the "amp," so I was sad. If one good thing came out of the pandemic, it was the (temporary?) halt to removing these facilities from some of the ships. Too bad Freedom wasn't spared. She was probably our favorite. Now, we'll pass her over in favor of others that still have theirs.

Navigator and Mariner being the last two built, presumably these are the more open ones.

On the earlier ships, when they started doing balconies, they were basically a cutout like this, and later versions developed a more open approach.

Not honestly sure if it's truly a Thai dish, but every Thai restaurant I've been to has a pineapple fried rice that I usually like. The best, though, are Thai soups, with or without coconut milk, with lemongrass. They are just so flavorful and bright.

I think that it was due to a lot of new crew and a lack of training. However, the management were not helpful at all when issues were brought to their attention. Somewhere up the chain, there was something different about bar service in general and very specifically in the Diamond lounge on this ship/sailing. This was also the first time I had encountered a Diamond lounge where you could not order from the bartender and let them know (or make sure they understood) what you were asking for. All drink orders were taken by servers, which added to the problem because of communication issues.

There can be a great deal of variance among the bars and lounges on board a ship. Not all of them have the same setup and range of spirits. Not all bartenders are as well trained or experienced. I've found that you have to experiment and find the better ones, or at least the ones that suit you. Our worst experience with Diamond drinks was in the lounge on Grandeur some time back, very slow, poor quality (not using the specified spirits), and outright awful mistakes. For example, I ordered a scotch and soda and got scotch with sprite. Ack! From that point on I ordered only from the bars, where I could watch my drinks being made, and even then it was no guarantee of a good cocktail. Some of the bartenders must have been very new, or didn't care, and were sloppy about making drinks. There was one in particular who went out of his way to ruin my drink once when I asked for a slight variation (gin martini with a little extra vermouth--it was almost an upside-down martini the way he made it). I gave up on that ship. On our most recent cruise on Adventure, the bar outside the Diamond lounge was providing the drinks, and they were a great bunch of guys. One had less training, but he was learning. The other two were very open to trying out new cocktails on request. So you just have to hope the staff are good and find the right lounge/server/bartender for you.

We did this years ago, not the one with the beach break, but the one that includes a lunch. It was rather rushed once we did get to the ruins. There's more time spent traveling than actually seeing anything, but it was the only way we were going to see it, so for us it was ok as a one-time thing. Afterwards, once we finally made it back to the ship, late, we were completely exhausted.

For now, yes, but stay tuned. If Royal goes back to doing the full "amplification" like they did to Freedom, Voyager, and Navigator, they would be removing the nice fitness center and replacing it with yet more cabins, and putting a smaller fitness center elsewhere with no locker rooms.

They have done major cutbacks in the variety of items served, both on the buffets and the main dining room menus. I'm guessing they did some analysis of what items were actually selected by diners and made the choice of what to drop from the menu based on this. The cold soups probably didn't have the metrics to be saved from the cut.

I think it's more about the amount of current that heat-producing appliances draw than whether they could instigate a fire. They could cause an overload, which might start an electrical fire. If there's an electrical expert out there who can concur, or correct me, please chime in (and I'm sure someone will).

Land-based response, but this is in Germany. Check out the Hotel Hohenlohe in Schwäbisch Hall. The area was known for the salt trade, and the hotel has an extensive sauna garden and indoor water feature area, including salt and therapeutic pools. It's also an interesting area to visit, albeit off the normal path for most American tourists.