*Live* Rogueperson's Allure of the Seas December 1 - 8

[bobmacliberty]

8 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

My wife who has more of a musical inclination than I said they were hired to do Mama Mia and you can already tell who they’re going to play by their voices.  This is just their contractual obligation to do another broadway type show.

 

Thought the same thing several years ago with Blue Plant and Chicago.  The leads seemed to have been hired for Chicago (which was great) and did Blue Planet as a side gig.  Still, I enjoyed Blue Planet.  The tree, the trampolines, the underwater floating were all pretty cool.

[Island Beachdog]

6 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

I don’t know if it’s me, or I’m just unlucky.  The texting through the app works theoretically.  The key for effective texting is notifications.

 

 When you’re sitting in your room thinking your wife is in the bathroom when in reality she’s at the piano bar having a grand ole time and she texts “you gotta check this guy out, he’s amazing!!!“, notifications is what stands between you joining here or not.

 

I finally do join her but after i miss the piano guy pull off Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, and Guns n Rosé’s sweet child of mine in amazing fashion.  At least I caught Devil goes down to georgia and U2’s I still haven’t found what i’m looking for.  In short, this is the best Piano guy i’ve seen in 4 years.  He rivals the guy  who had an impromptu jam session with a headliner act and pulled of a excellent rendition of Bon Jovi in the Schooner Bar.

We will be on the Allure in a week.  Sounds like the Piano guy is definitely worth catching.  Did you catch his name or which venue is the piano bar?  Loving your live review!   Thanks

[matandbri]

1 hour ago, Island Beachdog said:

We will be on the Allure in a week.  Sounds like the Piano guy is definitely worth catching.  Did you catch his name or which venue is the piano bar?  Loving your live review!   Thanks

According to the cruise compass posted his name is Tom Wolf.  On Royal the Schooner Bar is the piano bar at night.  We will be on next week too and I am hoping for the same piano bar entertainment!  Can one of you check on that please!?  It’s been several cruises since I’ve been on a ship with good piano entertainment.  

[tcmagnum]

Sounds like a great cruise so far...

Have fun!!

[steelernation1]

Rogue: Following along. Thanks for the preview of our cruise next week.

[ThelovelyRach]

Is the cruise a Christmas theme?

[Rogueperson]

9 minutes ago, ThelovelyRach said:

Is the cruise a Christmas theme?

I hear the christmas decorations are out but we haven’t looked yet.  we woke up and rolled out to our tour.  It must’ve been put up last night.

[Rogueperson]

Welcome to Nassau.

 

 

A lot of people here on cruise critic and other places put down Nassau as a throwaway port.  Not sure why except for the fact that tourism of their mainstay economy.

 

Personally, I like it here.  There’s a lot beneath the surface.  I’ve been here many times and it’s getting difficult to find something unique.

 

 First thing I had to get was coffee.

 

 

 After that, it was off to the Tru Bahamian Food Tour.  Our first stop was the Bahamian Cooking Restaurant.

 

 

 Here we were given a sample of conch fritters, “steamed chicken” with cole slaw and rice and peas.

 

 They say each restaurant does their fritters slightly different.  This place blends the batter and conch into a slurry.  Then they add conch pieces and deep fried.  They add “gravy” to their chicken and the result is a seafood tasting sauce they call gravy.  They’re mac and cheese is more like a casserole than a dish. It was delicious.

 

 Before we left, we were given a home made limeade drink.  

 

 Next stop was the Greycliff Hotel and Restaurant.  I had never seen the inside before.  We’ve driven by many times and heard of their reputation.  The inside is beautiful.  

 

 

 

They also have an outside area too.

 

 

 

 

 The sample they gave us here...is chocolate.  Here we had a key lime white chocolate and the amazing dark chocolate caramel sea salt.

 

 

 I came back and bought a box.  Not cheap, but at the same time, not overpriced for the quality.

 

 

Next stop was Chillin. Here they gave us a cracked conch slider.  I love cracked conch and this did not disappoint.

 

 

 

 After that, we stopped at the Talking Stick at the Town Bottle Restaurant and Bar.  We were greeted by this guy who said Hello.

 

This is the Planters Punch.

 

 

Next stop was Athena Cafe & Bar.  I’d walk by this place so many times thinking “Why go in a greek restaurant in the Bahamas”.  Well they sell a conch soup which was delicious..

 

 

 Last stop was the Tortuga Rum and cake factory.  I did not get a picture here as it wasn’t anything special.  Its cool that the cakes are baked here, but they are readily available in our home town.

 

Edited December 2, 2019 by Rogueperson

[Rogueperson]

Tonight’s dinner is brought to you by 150 Central Park.

 

 They have these chairs in here that are just huge.  I sat down in and i immediately wanted to say “ No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die”

 

 This is the menu.

 

 

 They gave us this focaccia bread that was pretty damn good.

 

 

 Unfortunately, it kind of started to go downhill after that.

 

For my first appetizer, I got the beet salad.  It was good and simple.  They do simple well.

 

 

 

 my wife got the Sunchoke Velote.  I had no idea what that was but apparently it was a creamy soup.

 

 

 Hmmm, this doesn’t look like a creamy soup.  It was actually the Roasted Spiced Pumpkin Bisque.  Not bad.  The waiter profusely apologized for the error.  No big deal, mistakes happen.

 

 Here is the right soup.  Again, only mediocre.

 

Next appetizers.  I ordered the port belly.  It was good but a little odd.  The far between the skin and the met was, for lack of a better word, slimy.  Kept sticking to the roof of my mouth.  Like I said, it was good.

 

 

 Wife ordered the sea scallops.  

 

A little background here.  My wife is allergic to legumes.  Peanuts are the worse for her and could hurt her.  Beans and peas will annoy her and she can tolerate it.  She loves beans but has to prepare for them.  Notice what’s under the scallops?  Chickpeas.  There is NO mention of chickpeas on the menu.  Fortunately, bean contamination will have little to no effect on her.  She picked off the scallops and ate it.  This was communicated to the waiter as soon as we sat down.  Apparently they didn’t know chickpeas were beans?!?!?  If the ingredient was listed on the menu she wouldn’t have gotten it or requested a modification.

 

 Entree, I ordered the duck.  

 

strike 3?  This duck could probably stop bullets, it was so tough.

 

 My wife got the recommended lobster dish.

 

I’ve had better lobster.  It has a weird aftertaste.  Not bad, but not that great either.  

 

My replacement was my 2nd choice, the lamb Wellington.  The Lamb was tender but ultimately a little lacking in seasoning, but the lamb was tender and tasty by itself fortunately.

 

 

 Dessert.  My wife was done at this point and wanted to cancel her dessert.  I told her that i’d like to try it.  

 

I got the chocolate peanut butter tart and she got the fried cheesecake.

 

 

 

 the sorbet on top of the tart was a black currant sorbet.  That was... odd.  It did not really go with the tart and the tart was only mediocre.

 

 My wife’s fried cheesecake on the other hand was perfect.  The batter they used was unusual, but this time, it worked in their favor.

 

 This place on its own charges 50/person.  They add tip on top of that now so it is closer to $58/person.  That’s a $116 meal *upcharge* for 2.  My impressions is that this place tries to be something its not.  I got the three meal plan which says i paid 33/person for this.  Even at that rate, I don’t think this place is worth it.  overall, the food is mediocre and the quality doesn’t stand as a “specialty”.

 

 Thus end our 150 Central park adventure.  Today was a long day.  I may turn in early.  

 

  I have two more specialty restaurants. PLUS chefs table.  

Edited December 3, 2019 by Rogueperson

[ThelovelyRach]

9 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

Tonight’s dinner is brought to you by 150 Central Park.

 

 They have these chairs in here that are just huge.  I sat down in and i immediately wanted to say “ No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die”

 

 This is the menu.

 

 

 They gave us this focaccia bread that was pretty damn good.

 

 

 Unfortunately, it kind of started to go downhill after that.

 

For my first appetizer, I got the beet salad.  It was good and simple.  They do simple well.

 

 

 

 my wife got the Sunchoke Velote.  I had no idea what that was but apparently it was a creamy soup.

 

 

 Hmmm, this doesn’t look like a creamy soup.  It was actually the Roasted Spiced Pumpkin Bisque.  Not bad.  The waiter profusely apologized for the error.  No big deal, mistakes happen.

 

 Here is the right soup.  Again, only mediocre.

 

Next appetizers.  I ordered the port belly.  It was good but a little odd.  The far between the skin and the met was, for lack of a better word, slimy.  Kept sticking to the roof of my mouth.  Like I said, it was good.

 

 

 Wife ordered the sea scallops.  

 

A little background here.  My wife is allergic to legumes.  Peanuts are the worse for her and could hurt her.  Beans and peas will annoy her and she can tolerate it.  She loves beans but has to prepare for them.  Notice what’s under the scallops?  Chickpeas.  There is NO mention of chickpeas on the menu.  Fortunately, bean contamination will have little to no effect on her.  She picked off the scallops and ate it.  This was communicated to the waiter as soon as we sat down.  Apparently they didn’t know chickpeas were beans?!?!?  If the ingredient was listed on the menu she wouldn’t have gotten it or requested a modification.

 

 Entree, I ordered the duck.  

 

strike 3?  This duck could probably stop bullets, it was so tough.

 

 My wife got the recommended lobster dish.

 

I’ve had better lobster.  It has a weird aftertaste.  Not bad, but not that great either.  

 

My replacement was my 2nd choice, the lamb Wellington.  The Lamb was tender but ultimately a little lacking in seasoning, but the lamb was tender and tasty by itself fortunately.

 

 

 Dessert.  My wife was done at this point and wanted to cancel her dessert.  I told her that i’d like to try it.  

 

I got the chocolate peanut butter tart and she got the fried cheesecake.

 

 

 

 the sorbet on top of the tart was a black currant sorbet.  That was... odd.  It did not really go with the tart and the tart was only mediocre.

 

 My wife’s fried cheesecake on the other hand was perfect.  The batter they used was unusual, but this time, it worked in their favor.

 

 This place on its own charges 50/person.  They add tip on top of that now so it is closer to $58/person.  That’s a $116 meal *upcharge* for 2.  My impressions is that this place tries to be something its not.  I got the three meal plan which says i paid 33/person for this.  Even at that rate, I don’t think this place is worth it.  overall, the food is mediocre and the quality doesn’t stand as a “specialty”.

 

 Thus end our 150 Central park adventure.  Today was a long day.  I may turn in early.  

 

  I have two more specialty restaurants. PLUS chefs table.  

Everything looks good too bad not as good as looks.Were a lot of people dress up for formal  night?

[Rogueperson]

37 minutes ago, ThelovelyRach said:

Everything looks good too bad not as good as looks.Were a lot of people dress up for formal  night?

 

A good number.  I would say a large proportion proportion of the passengers dressed up.

[Rogueperson]

After another misunderstanding wife, we ended up in Dazzles with a band called Great Ideas who did an 80s tribute night.

 

 

They were quite good and people were dancing up a storm. Dazzles is a great live music venue.

 

 I gotta say with 6000 people on board, theres always a good number of people who share your interests.

 

But with that, I’m done for the night.  No really I am...

 

 

[Biker19]

8 hours ago, ThelovelyRach said:

Everything looks good too bad not as good as looks.

Feel free to NOT quote lengthy posts - others reading the thread will appreciate it. 

[Rogueperson]

Good Morning from Cococay aka Little Stirrup Cay.  It is a cool 70 degrees today.  Its actually a *little* warmer than i prefer, but i like it cool.

 

 

I’m slow getting started this morning.  I missed breakfast at both Johnnie Rockets and MDR.  Yeah, I could go to the Windjammer, but i never enjoy myself there, it’s always a zoo.

 

As luck would have it, In on a Srarbucks stars rush this week, so if i visit Starbucks every day this week, I get bonus stars.  So this is Breakfast.

 

 

 Boardwalk Donuts.  Its just a fancy signage to get the free donuts onboard, but it works.  

 

I’m going to try and way ashore.  This is my first time here with a pier.  I used to call this Coco No.  Before the pier, i had a 33% visit rate .  more to come.

Edited December 3, 2019 by Rogueperson

[Rogueperson]

Oh hey!!  ping is below 200!!!!

 

 

Not sure if its because we’re at Cococay our something else.  We’ve been waffling between 350 and 500 throughout this trip so far.  This id the first time i’ve seen it below 300.

 

For those of you who have no idea what that means, your internet at home will have a ping off ohh 5ms.  Its the time it takes to get a response from the net for your request, I think.  Im not an IT professional, but i play one on tv.   Someone with more technical knowledge can chime in here.  So 200 ms, in my experience is good for the new O3B system.  600ms is good for the old system which these ships will use if they can’t use the new O3B system.  I found that out the hard way on my last cruise on Ruby Princess.  It was reported the week before with speed consistent with the new system (someone posted a speed test) but when i cruised, my speeds were not.

 

 So far, I haven’t been hearing the internet as much as other cruises.

Edited December 3, 2019 by Rogueperson

[Rogueperson]

Before i forget, here are the cruise compass for today.

[Rogueperson]

Sorry, I’m not fully awake.  I posted yesterday’s cruise compass by mistake.  Here’s the correct one

[tcmagnum]

17 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

Sorry, I’m not fully awake.  I posted yesterday’s cruise compass by mistake.  Here’s the correct one

Lol...

That's when you know you are having a good cruise!!

Enjoy the rest of your trip...

 

[Rogueperson]

Coco Cay is not for us.  We’re not beach people although today is probably the one day if i were to go to the beach, I would go.

 

 

 

 

 Surprisingly, there i’d wifi on the island, though it appears to be on the same system.

 

The improvements are impressive, but for me, its not worth the price for what you get.  The water park is like 84 bucks for maybe 8 hours (full day). We are here between 8:30 and 4:30.  Maybe Royal Caribbean is trying to recoup their investment, but its not for me.  I like water slides, but i have to be in the mood for them.  The one improvement i like odd that they now have umbrellas and chairs everywhere complimentary.  Last time I was here, you had to pay 15 or 20 bucks for an umbrella rental. I don’t know about you, not some places, i can rent a car for that same price.

[Biker19]

4 hours ago, Rogueperson said:

Not sure if its because we’re at Cococay our something else.

Was that on the island or the ship?  Others have reported good pings but much higher speeds on the island. 

[Rogueperson]

I came back out to wander and explore a little more.  I honestly don’t recognize it from the last time i was here in 2017, which was the first time i visited this island.

 

 Through a friend of mine, he directed me to try the tacos here.  It was a mediocre taco as the tortilla was a little stale, but the pork filling was good.  Avoid the guacamole, it is not so good.

 

 

Also through him, he directed me to the snack shack where they had the fried chicken sandwich. This was surprisingly good. Almost popeyes good without the fights.  

 

 

After i was done, i was walking away when i saw this gem.  
 

 

Yes, Royal Caribbean offers FUNNEL CAKE!!!

 

I saw this the when i was out earlier on the tram.  I should mention that they have both trams from ship to shore as well as trams to different stops on the island.  
 

 

Its a pool.  I was wondering why you would hang out at the pool on this island full of beaches.  But upon seeing this thing. its actually pretty awesome especially when you take into account that there is a wade up bar!

 

 

 

 

 

 After eating, I wandered around the shops.  I’m pleasantly surprised they were not as aggressive this time around.  Last time I was here, they seemed to be confined to a certain area and were trying to lure unsuspecting tourists.  They just sell the normal tourist souvenirs.  Right outside the market, i found a spot to chill.  Fortunately for me, no one saw me struggle to get on this thing.

 

[Rogueperson]

5 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Was that on the island or the ship?  Others have reported good pings but much higher speeds on the island. 

 

I was on the ship at the time i posted that.

 

 This is in a hammock on shore.

 

 

 

No real difference, though lower pings than when we’re at sea, it’s terrible if you compare it to land based systems.

[Biker19]

5 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

This is in a hammock on shore.

This may mean RCI has limited BW on land - we had reports of 25+Mbps as recently as two months ago. 

[Rogueperson]

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

This may mean RCI has limited BW on land - we had reports of 25+Mbps as recently as two months ago. 

Its my fault.  They saw me coming and turned it off, just like they did on the Ruby Princess

[Rogueperson]

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

This may mean RCI has limited BW on land - we had reports of 25+Mbps as recently as two months ago. 

Also, there’s no switching wifi sources.  Its a seamless connection.

 

Also, last year on the navigator, they gave me a code to put in to access the wifi.  This time, its create a username and password and that password has that many devices you purchased.  Not sure if its persistent out of its hope you would log in in future cruises for wifi.