Best Bar on the Seven Seas

[cmalagngl]

My wife and I and several other adult family members recently cruised on the Carnival Glory. This was our tenth Carnival cruise and 23rd overall. We have sailed on RCCL, NCL, Princess, Windstar and the Paul Gauguin. Each line offers a different experience and we chose Carnival for this trip as the cost was a big factor for some or our traveling companions. We had not been on a Carnival cruise in four years and from reading the boards I was a little concerned. Boy was I surprised. The 2.0 upgrades were great but the highlight was the Alchemy Bar. We bought the drink package right after we boarded and we did a little better than breaking even. Primarily because we kept going back to the Alchemy Bar before and after dinner. I had read about the Alchemy prior to our cruise and wanted to try it out before our first dinner. One Hendricks Martini and I was hooked. Through the course of the cruise my family tried everything on the menu, not a loser in the mix. And, just tell your mixologist what you like and they will make it for you. Why was this bar so great? The quality of the drinks but more importantly the mixologists and servers. We were lucky to have Ioana, Aleksandra and Violeta as our mixoligists. Ioana became our personal mixologist and served us every day of the cruise. She is a genius when it comes to mixing high end cocktails and Aleksandra is just as skilled. Violeta always greeted us with a smile and did a fantastic job keeping the cocktails coming to those that had not nabbed a bar seat. I can’t say enough about how fantastic these three women were and how well they took care of us. Ioana even commented when we were a little late for our before dinner martini’s. Also, the price for the quality of these cocktails is right on. They are not $5 but they are also not $15. I thought they were fairly priced if I had not been on the all-inclusive program and would have had to pay for them. Will we sail on Carnival again, yes, but it will be on a ship with an Alchemy Bar!

[scgamecock]

I regret not trying Alchemy on Liberty and I'm looking forward to this bar on Sunshine. What was your favorite drink? What do you recommend?

[cmalagngl]

It really depends on what you like to begin with. I'm a traditional gin martini drinker, normally Bombay but they had Hendricks which I prefer but normally can't afford. So before dinner I stuck to the Hendricks. My wife and mother in law worked there way through the menu. There was a chocolate type martini that was fantastic, not a traditional chocolate martini it had a few different ingredients. Ioana made me two Makers Mark drinks that were out of this world but not on the menu. We just really enjoyed the experience and it really was the highlight of the cruise. Enjoy the Sunshine. We were on the Destiny a month after she launched in 1996 I think for the New Years cruise. I'm really glad to see they are fixing her up and re launching her as the Sunshine.

[StevenCruz]

It really depends on what you like to begin with. I'm a traditional gin martini drinker, normally Bombay but they had Hendricks which I prefer but normally can't afford. So before dinner I stuck to the Hendricks.

 

Two Questions:

1.) So the Hendricks Martini is below $10? If so, I'm having 15 a day :cool:

2.) Do they put some cucumber in it?

[bmckim]

Ioana and Alex are great. They are such great people. We had so much fun with them on our cruise. Glad you had fun too. We spent a lot of time at Alchemy. My drink of choice was the Old Fashioned.

[cmalagngl]

I can't remember for sure. I think the Hendrick's martini was between $10-$12. I had the drink package so I didn't care. I know I had one all seven days! A couple times I had two! If you want it with cucumber the mixologist will surely do that for you. We just had a blast in this bar and the quality of service from Ioana, Aleksandra and Violeta was outstanding. We went early around 7 PM every evening before the late seating and it was very quiet. As it got closer to dinner it got busy and after dinner it could be crazy busy. Hope you get to experience it yourself and enjoy those Hendrick's martini's.