Let's Sail to...Bayonne? Review of Anthem of the Seas, November 16, 2019

[tomservo]

Day 3

 

Breakfast
We decided to try the MDR for breakfast this morning. We were joined by my sister, my cousin, and her family, and it was nice to have a meal with everyone. They prefer to eat in the buffet because it's easier for them since they have younger kids. Our kids are a little older, but we prefer a sit down meal so we make our kids deal with it. I had the french toast, my wife had an omlette with a side of grits, and my kids had french toast and pancakes. There were also servers walking around with juice and pastries (same ones from the buffet). Breakfast overall was decent, I liked it better than the buffet. I didn't get a chance to check it out for dinner but overall was not a fan of it for breakfast and lunch.

 

MDR Breakfast Menu

 

 

French Toast

 

Omelette

 

Grits

 

Pancakes

 

During breakfast the captain made the announcement about the final itinerary change and that we were headed to Coco Cay. The dining room applauded - people were definitely excited to finally go somewhere warm. We finally set sail around 11am.
We went up to the SeaPlex to play some foosball with the kids and watch the sailaway. We then headed back to the room to watch some of it from our balcony. We went back out and let the kids have some fun around the ship, stopping by the arcade, the kids club (the free play area, they did not enjoy being dropped off), and the SeaPlex. The theater was showing Secret Life of Pets, but our kids were not interested so we left. I was starting to feel a little sea sick so I put on my cruise patch.

By the time we were done we missed lunch at the MDR, which stops serving lunch earlier than I would expect (I think around 12:30). We stopped by the buffet for a late lunch. I walked around the whole buffet but didn't see anything that appealed to me. I ended up with a bowl of chili, which was fine because I had a late breakfast and an early dinner. We went back to the room and hung out in there for a bit while my wife and older son got ready for Northstar, they had a reservation with my cousin and sister. I stayed in the room with my younger son, who was too young to go. The seas were getting a bit rough, and even though I had the patch on for a few hours I was starting to feel worse.

[tomservo]

Day 3 (continued)

 

Dinner
We had reservations for 5:30 at Chops with my sister. I looked at the Coastal Kitchen menu prior to the cruise and for the nights where the menu didn't look appealing to either my wife or myself, I made reservations for specialty dining. The ship seemed to really be rocking now and I was not in a good place.

 

Chops Menu (from the RCCL site)

 

I ordered the shrimp cocktail and crab cake, my sister got the mushroom soup and tuna tartare (when she saw my shrimp cocktail she ordered one too), and my wife got the crispy goat cheese salad. The shrimp was huge and excellent, not rubbery, meaty and well cooked - much better than what I had in Coastal Kitchen. I wouldn't order the crab cake again, it was too bready, but the sauce and corn that came with it was good. My wife really enjoyed her salad.

 

Shrimp Cocktail

 

Tuna Tartare

 

Bread Cake (with a touch of crab)

 

Mushroom Soup

 

Crispy Goat Cheese Salad

 

When my wife told the server she was vegetarian (she was planning on just eating sides), he offered to get her a pasta dish from Jamie's, which she welcomed. The server was great as well, very accommodating and gave great service. I ordered the rib eye and my sister got the spicy jumbo shrimp. After I ordered my entree I went back to the room to lay down for a few, hoping it would alleviate some of the sea sickness. I was also worried about throwing up in the restaurant. It never came, but I felt close for a while. After 15 minutes, I tried going back to the restaurant to at least try some of my food. I can't remember the sides we got but I'm guessing the creamed spinach, the mac and cheese, and the mashed potatoes. I ordered it medium rare and it came out a little rarer than I liked. I got through a few chewy parts of gristle (the rest of the steak looked fine) but had to throw in the towel and went back to the room.

 

Bone-in Ribeye

 

Spicy Shrimp

 

My wife said her pasta dish was ok, I think it ended up being a pasta with red sauce, and my sister enjoyed her food. My wife got the key lime pie which she enjoyed after scraping off the meringue (she doesn't like it and it seems like cruise ships have an excessive amount of desserts with meringue, often in place of whipped cream). I stayed in the room and they met with my cousin to see The Gift, which they said was ok. I stayed in bed and we all went to sleep when they got back from the show.
 

[Homelines1977]

I find Coastal Kitchen to be meh, I have always compared the RCCL Suite product to NCL's Haven and I agree the Haven does win with food. There were many times I didn't dine in Coastal kitchen because I didn't care for the food.

[DaniDanielle]

We only ate dinner in CK once on our 12 day.  We would have eaten on the first night as they had the same menu we  enjoyed the one time,  However, we were with others and didn’t want to ditch them the first night!

[beccaewert]

I’m enjoying your review! Thank you for taking the time and energy to write it! 

[tomservo]

On 1/16/2020 at 12:26 PM, Homelines1977 said:

I find Coastal Kitchen to be meh, I have always compared the RCCL Suite product to NCL's Haven and I agree the Haven does win with food. There were many times I didn't dine in Coastal kitchen because I didn't care for the food.

 

This! Food in the Haven was definitely better than the dinners I had in Coastal Kitchen. I honestly can't think of a single item I had in Coastal Kitchen that was better than what I've had in the Haven. I will say that the service in CK was nearly flawless, much better than what we've experienced in the Haven. Haven dinner service wasn't bad, just not exceptional.

[tomservo]

On 1/19/2020 at 10:12 PM, beccaewert said:

I’m enjoying your review! Thank you for taking the time and energy to write it! 

Thanks! You read them all the time on CC and it isn't until you actually write one that you realize how much work they are.

[tomservo]

I found a picture of my wife's dessert I left out of the last post, she had the lemon meringue pie. I guess it's more a meringue pie with a hint of lemon. Who's ever going to eat that much meringue??

 

[tomservo]

Day 4 - Sea Day

 

I felt fine in the morning, and pretty much for the rest of the cruise. I didn't want to take any chances, so even later on once we had our one port day and my patch fell off, I still put a 2nd one on. I don't know if it's an issue of it taking time to get my sea legs or if the patch takes 24 hours to work for me. I thought it was supposed to start working after the first few hours of having it on?

 

Breakfast

I don't have any pictures from breakfast (also writing this 3 months later doesn't help), but I think we ate at Cafe Two70 for breakfast. We had a nice breakfast sitting in Two70 in between trying to keep our kids from rubbing bacon grease all over the furniture. I had the Royal egg muffin sandwich, which I enjoyed.

 

We dropped our kids off at the kids club and went our late morning reservation for the escape room. We had a good group and it was a lot of fun (we've never done one before). We had an hour and I think we finished in 33 minutes or so. It wasn't the best time that week (22 minutes) but it was still pretty good, we heard some groups had trouble finishing it. They do give you hints from time to time to get it moving so you don't get stuck. I would definitely do one again.

 

Lunch

Again no pictures from lunch, but we ate at the WindJammer. I remember finding more things I liked, but still kept it light. We had a made to order pasta dish from the pasta station and some Indian food. We ate in the outside eating area in the aft of the ship, which was actually a great place to sit and eat and watch the wake of the ship. It was never busy out there and I'm surprised more people didn't take advantage of it. Maybe people just don't venture far out enough to discover it.

 

Dinner

We had a reservation for Jamie's tonight, and had the best meal of the cruise. It was much better than its NCL counterpart, La Cucina. I hear Jamie's is on its way out to be replaced with Giovanni's Table, which is sad because we really enjoyed it. It really is an excessive amount of food, so come hungry.

 

 

For appetizers, we ordered almost one of everything. Everything was very good. We did get the meat plank but I forgot to grab a pic.

 

Garlicky Prawns

 

Tomato Bruschetta

 

Black Truffle Arancini and Crispy Squid

 

I wanted to try as many different things as possible, so I got a relatively light entree which was also recommended by the server. I really wanted to try the lasagna but I knew it would be too heavy. I ordered the Lamb Chops and 2 small portions of the Truffle Tagliatelle and the Tagliatelle Bolognese. My wife got the Eggplant Parm, I think my sister got the Prawn Linguine, and my kids got spaghetti. The lamb was excellent and definitely worth the recommendation, and the truffle pasta was every bit as good as everyone says it is. The bolognese pasta was good as well, and my wife and sister enjoyed their entrees. It was an embarrassing amount of food.

 

Lamb Chops Scottadito

 

Eggplant Parm and Spaghetti

 

Prawn Linguine and Garlic Roll

 

Truffle Tagliatelle

 

Tagliatelle Bolognese

 

We ordered some sides as well, these were probably the only things we got that we didn't enjoy as much. The Funky Fries in particular were not good. I thought they would be normal size fries, or something like the Smash Fries from Smashburger, but they were super thick and kind of dry. The Polenta fries were decent, but definitely not chips in the US sense of the word. I didn't have any of the salad so I can't comment on it.

 

Arugula and Parmesan Salad

 

Polenta "Chips" and Funky Fries

 

We finally finished with the dessert plank. Overall decent, with my top 2 being the Lemon Meringue Cheesecake and the Tiramisu. The brownie was decent and the pavlova was ok but too sweet and definitely the least favorite of the table. The kids ate the sorbet and most of the ice cream.

 

Dessert Plank - Sorbet, Lemon Meringue Cheesecake, Raspberry Pavlova, Tiramisu, Homemade Brownie, Ice Cream

 

I'm not sure what we did the rest of the evening, but I think we called it an early night to get ready for Coco Cay in the morning. Llama with Glasses says goodnight!

Edited February 9, 2020 by tomservo

[tomservo]

Day 5 - Coco Cay at last

 

Breakfast

We had breakfast in the MDR again. We definitely prefer eating in a dining room to eating in the buffet most times, even if it's basically the same food. I know the buffet is quicker, but we enjoy the ritual of a sit down meal with family. Part of it is the experience of a paced, shared meal together, and another part is my wife and I just like the experience of eating out. Neither of us got to eat out at restaurants very often growing up, so I guess we're making up for lost time. After breakfast we went back to the room to get ready for Coco Cay.

Coco Cay

I was extremely impressed by Coco Cay, it is definitely worth the hype, especially if you have young children. We didn't book anything on the island, and were glad we didn't, because there was so much to do without having to spend a dime. The island wasn't too busy since we were sailing at reduced capacity. 

 

 

We started in one of the kids water play areas, Splashaway Bay. After spending an hour or so here, we went to one of the beach areas (I think Harbor Beach) and relaxed in some empty loungers while our kids played in the sand and water. I was surprised we were able to even find any shaded loungers at midday, it must have been because the island wasn't that busy.

 

 

We ate lunch in one of the Grill's, I think Chill Grill. Food was decent, about the same quality as the Windjammer. The taco bar was surprisingly decent, and the sandwiches were ok although a few dried out sitting in the warming trays for too long (I tried the ribeye and the cuban). I finally got to try the Chilla Thrilla beer - it was fine, a light, slightly fruity beach beer. I also learned something trying to order a soda - I ordered a Diet Coke, and they initially gave me a can, and when I told them I had the Refreshment Package, they took it back and gave me a plastic cup of flat soda out of a 2-liter bottle. Something to keep in mind when you're on the island. I also grabbed some food from the Snack Shack. The burger and chicken sandwich were both pretty good, about on par or a little better than good fast food quality. The mozzarella sticks were ok, their fatal flaw was they tasted baked instead of fried. I did not get to try the funnel cake, I ran out of hands.

 

We spent the remainder of the day in the Oasis Lagoon. There were more drink shenanigans - I ordered a virgin Coco Loco for myself and an alcoholic one for my wife from one of the wandering servers. Mine was fine but my wife's was chunky and separated, so I asked her to remake it (not trying to be difficult but I'm not paying 15 bucks for that). She didn't take the original but I figured she'd grab it when she got back. When she got back with the 2nd drink I went to sign the check but both drinks were on there. I had to explain what I meant by getting the drink remade, and eventually she did understand what I meant and was able to take the first drink off the check, but it was weird that I had to explain the concept to her. I guess they're just so used to everyone having the drink package that their default if someone doesn't like their drink is to put in another order. We like having the drink package on NCL since it's usually included in their promotions (plus a few hundred for gratuities), but there's no way we're drinking the 1k worth of drinks the package would have cost us, especially with young kids.

 

The Oasis Lagoon itself was awesome. It is HUGE. My older son and I spent probably 45 minutes just swimming all around it. We finally found my sister (who we hadn't seen since breakfast) at the swim up bar hanging out with a friend she made earlier in the cruise. She told us in the morning she had planned to spend most of the day there, so I figured I'd find her there. We headed back to the ship to get ready for dinner. My kids had a blast, they still talk about Coco Cay and keep asking when we're going back ("ask mom!" I tell them - I'm a much bigger fan of cruising than she is) 😀

[tomservo]

Day 5 - Continued

 

Wonderland

Edited February 9, 2020 by tomservo

[tomservo]

I had a whole long write-up about Wonderland that got lost and I can't bear to write it all again tonight. I was trying to delete a picture and hit the backspace key which instead invoked the Back button on the webpage. Normally CC is pretty good at caching a reply, but for some reason it was caching my previous post instead. I decided to keep the pictures and will rewrite the commentary on my next update. Lessons learned!

[tomservo]

Ok, let's try this review of Wonderland again.

 

We had an early reservation for 5:30. The restaurant was pretty empty, just us (6) and another large group. We were all set to order when the server told us that he would take care of us and we would basically be able to sample all of the appetizers. This was not the case, as we were never brought the soup, the sashimi, or the risotto. I wasn't interested in the soup but was looking forward to the other 2. I'll go by picture number in reference to the prior post.

 

Appetizers/Small Plates
2) Bird's Nest
This was decent, it's just deviled eggs that were a touch spicy. No real smoke flavor, I think it's mostly there for presentation. I guess ours had left the nest since it was absent.

 

3) Crab Cones
Didn't get much crab here, but overall not bad.

 

4) Tomato Water
Didn't get anything out of this, the flavors of the water and foam were too light to really taste anything.

 

5) Caprese
I don't remember too much about this one, I guess it was interesting but not particularly memorable.

 

6) Vegetable Garden
I did appreciate the plating on this, but taste-wise was just fine, nothing spectacular.

 

9) Citrus Seas
This is a citrus sorbet with spicy tuna underneath. It comes with little crackers to eat the spicy tuna on. I liked it better than most but nothing to write home about.

 

Potted Shimp (not pictured)
This was excellent, I wish I had ordered more of these. Big shrimp wrapped with crispy noodles with an awesome spicy foam to dip in. Probably my favorite item of the night.

 

Liquid Lobster (not pictured)
This was not bad. It was served at room temp, I think I would have liked it better if it was warmer.

 

Entrees

10) Pork Belly
11) Chicken
12) Branzino
13) Short Rib
Halibut (not pictured)
14) Vegetarian entree
15) Kids Chicken
16) Kids Burger

We were going to order individual entrees when the server suggested that he could just bring out one of everything family-style for us to share, which we agreed to. Each was served with its own sauce. For most I think I liked the sauce better than the entree. Again, for some reason, all of the entrees were served lukewarm. Overall they were ok. Plating and presentation was very good and it was very fun to look at. But like the appetizers, everything just kind of tasted ok. Nothing was particularly flavorful. The standout was probably the Branzino. The Halibut was decent, and the Pork Belly and Chicken were ok. The Short Rib was probably the biggest disappointment. For one, it was a little soft, like more mushy than tender. I was really looking forward to the Terroir Beef, which many have said on here is one of the best dishes in the fleet, but its replacement was a real letdown. They did offer to make my wife a special vegetarian dish(14), which was really nice of them. They have been very accommodating of her diet on this cruise which is very much appreciated. She said it was decent. They also have some really fun kids meals, chicken strips that come with tempura vegetables, and mini-burger kabobs. The whimsy of each were lost on my kids, but I appreciated it.

 

Dessert

18) World
19) Forbidden Apple
20) Mushroom Garden

We all enjoyed the World dessert, although there definitely was not enough to go around, it's the perfect size for 2. The Apple had a fun reveal and tasted alright, and while the Mushroom Garden had great plating and presentation, it was still made of meringue. I'm not sure I know anyone who really enjoys meringue, and it went mostly uneaten but thoroughly admired.

 

Overall, Wonderland was a bit of a letdown. I had higher expectations and it fell short of them. The reoccurring theme of the night was items that were interesting with great presentation and were well plated, but the taste did not match the presentation. Everyone pretty much shared the same sentiment, and I think we all enjoyed Jamie's much more by comparison.

[tomservo]

The kids dessert was pretty fun too, it consisted of a big piece of cotton candy over a "bowl" of ice cream. The bowl was a chocolate shell.

 

[tomservo]

Ok, let's try to finish this up. Sorry this is taking so long. I'm just going to run through the highlights of the last 2 days.

 

Day 6

Lunch

We finally got around to having lunch at the MDR. The hours seemed really restrictive to us so we kept missing it. I had the pork belly appetizer, which was ok but the crispy skin was inedible because it was so hard. I also had the chilled peach soup, which was fine but a little too sweet for me. My wife had the caprese salad which was good (and had avocado for some reason). For the entree I had the salmon which was pretty good. The corn succotash and beans that came with it were good too. My wife had the risotto, which she said was ok - she's not a huge fan of risotto but it was the only vegetarian option. For dessert we shared the Napoleon - it was not good, just stale and hard.

 

Lunch Menu

Crispy Pork Belly

Chilled Honey Roasted Peach Soup

Caprese Salad

King Salmon A La Plancha

Butternut Squash Risotto

French Napoleon

Dinner

 

Since it was lobster night, we made reservations for the entire family, 9 of us in total. It was nice to dress up and have dinner with everyone. This was my only meal in the MDR, and the food was decent overall, even though service was slow and our meal took a long time. It is understandable since the MDR was completely packed. The kids split an order of the cheese tortelloni, my wife had the caprese salad and tomato soup, and I had onion tart and caesar salad - apps were decent. For dinner I had lobster tails and prime rib - they really seem to encourage you to get both, which I appreciated, it didn't feel like I was being pressured to limit what I ordered. When the tails came out they acutally took them out of the shell for me which I appreciated and was not expecting. The prime rib was ok - next time less prime rib and more lobster tails. For dessert we ordered the lava cake, the cheesecake, and the apple pie. The desserts were fine too, although any lava in the cake had since solidified. Overall it was solid banquet food.

 

Cheese Tortelloni

Insalata Caprese

Caesar Salad

Roasted Tomato Soup

Vidalia Onion Tart

Broiled Lobster Tail

Slow Roasted Prime Rib

Chocolate Molten Cake

Royal Cheesecake

 

Apple Pie a la Mode

Celebration Cake

Dinner 2

It's lobster night! And I'm in a JR Suite! Of course I have 9pm reservations (for one) at Coastal Kitchen so I can eat more lobster. I went extremely light on the apps because I was ordering 3 entrees. Also I had previously eaten dinner. 2 of them were seafood and the portions are pretty small, so it was a reasonable amount of food. It would have been better if they brought them out one at a time so that my table wasn't crowded with 3 entree sized plates, but I didn't mind since it sped up dinner. For the entree I had the salmon sashimi which was good. For entrees I had the scallops, lobster, and lamb. Everything was pretty good, although as others have said I would recommend getting the sauce for the lobster on the side, or replaced with drawn butter altogether. I skipped dessert.

 

Coastal Kitchen Menu

 

Salmon Sashimi

Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb

Seared Scallops

Butter Poached Lobster

 

I promise I'll finish tomorrow!

Edited March 6, 2020 by tomservo

[tomservo]

Day 7

It was starting to get cool as we headed back to NJ, but the pools and water play areas were still open.

My sister and son signed up for iFly, we were a few minutes late getting to the simulator where we thought we had to check in, but the check in desk was actually the next deck down and we ended up being about 7 minutes late. They told us we missed the video and that we were too late to participate. I asked if they could squeeze us into the next class but they said they were completely booked, so I asked if we could wait around in case there were any no shows, and they said that was fine. Make sure you are on-time for your reservation and make sure you find the right place to check in. They finally gave us the ok and we sat and watched the training video. I helped my son suit up (I didn't participate) and we went into the waiting area. I couldn't go in but I stood outside and watched - he had a blast. We went to the main theater to watch cast of We Will Rock You perform pop songs. It was a good cast and the show itself was great, I highly recommend it. We ate in Two70 for lunch. The scone was not good, and the salad would have been much better without the noodles - they were terrible and tasted like plastic. My son and I played the augmented reality game Expedition Two70, which was fun, but people were watching a movie in there so our adventuring was kept to a minimum.

 

Raisin Scone

 

Thai Chicken Noodle Salad

 

Dinner

We had dinner in the Solarium Bistro with my sister. When we checked in they asked us if we had a reservation, we said no, and they said it was fine. I'm not sure why we would need one, it was mostly empty for the whole trip. I think they treat it like a specialty restaurant but the quality is on par with the MDR - some things were better, some were worse, it was mostly just different food. The buffet in the Bistro had a decent selection of Mediterranean food, and we ordered the chicken skewers and the skirt steak. The chicken was dry and looked like it had been steamed in the oven (instead of roasted or cooked on a grill) and the steak was ok but it was a very tiny portion, maybe 1/3 of the size of the prime rib I had the night before. It was also cut up into very tiny pieces which was weird. Our kids ate some of the chicken and beef and we picked at a few things in the buffet. Some of the desserts looked good, but quality again was buffet level. I think I also tried the Galatoboureko and Baklava, and I think those were decent. We were mostly here because I wanted to get a chance to try it out before we disembarked. We then got ready for our actual dinner.

 

Chicken Skewer

Chocolate Nocciola and Raspberry Tart

Dessert Section

 

Actual Dinner

We had reservations again in Coastal Kitchen for the last night. Service was once again exceptional and we left a tip for our waiter at the end of the night. I didn't have any cash on me so I spoke to the maitre d and he told me he would print a check and could write the tip in there. I also saw some people tipping the maitre d as well, which I wasn't expecting. I think they were Pinnacles who appreciated the service.

 

It's a shame that the food wasn't as good as the service, and in the Haven the service wasn't as good as the food. Haven restaurant service is very good, but like someone said in a recent review on the NCL boards it's more like a Stepford Wives thing, whereas here the staff felt genuinely warm and they really made an effort to try to get to know you without being obnoxious or obtrusive. I know they are coached to do that, it's not out of the goodness of their heart, but the point is I think RCCL does a better job coaching their CK staff on interacting with patrons. I just wished the food matched the service. A lot of the other guests there were Pinnacles, so I think a lot of the service is geared towards them as well. Compared to NCL, I think RCCL does a much better job of taking care of past cruisers, which is why there are so many more Pinnacles than there are NCL Ambassadors. They're really cultivated the whole "Loyal to Royal" mantra.

 

One hiccup I ran into that I wanted to mention - when we went up for dinner the 2nd night, I asked the host at Coastal Kitchen if we could try it out for breakfast the next morning. I know we were lowly JR suites guests, but I thought it was worth asking especially since the ship was half full. He said that he was sorry but we could not, which was fine. On the way out after dinner, he stopped us and told me that we would be able to enjoy breakfast and lunch in CK, and said that we didn't have to bother eating in the buffet anymore. He referred to us as VIP's, and I thought it was a really nice touch to make the exception even though I just asked to try it once. I thought to myself that maybe they are trying to convince us to book a full suite next time, and it really did make me consider it. When we showed up the next day for breakfast, he told us there was a mix up and apologized profusely. Turns out we're not VIPs and he was so sorry but we could not eat at Coastal Kitchen for breakfast or lunch. I was surprised that they didn't even let us eat there once since we were there and it was his error, but I didn't press the issue. I was very disappointed and so was my wife, who was also looking forward to trying it out and was initially impressed with the "VIP treatment". His error was that he was looking at the wrong person in the room, the room had also listed the couple who were previously in the room, and they were casino VIPs - this is what he meant by being VIPs. They won an upgrade to another room and we won an upgrade to their room, but they were still listed on our room. Royal really needs to fix the upgrade process - I pre-ordered a few things for the room (alcohol, a stuffed animal for my kids) and none of it showed up in the new room. When I asked about it the staff asked me if I checked our original room. Not sure I want to barge into someone else's room "looking for my stuff". Regardless the whole experience with the host's mistake left a bad taste, and he didn't make any attempt to make up for it except for apologizing. Back to dinner.

 

My wife had the Pizette, which was decent and she enjoyed it. I had my usual shrimp cocktail and the Hamachi Crudo, which was also good. For entrees we had the Sesame Crusted Tuna and the Cauliflower Fried Rice. The tuna itself was a little soft but good, and as some have suggested I should have gotten it over the Cauliflower Fried Rice. I really was in the mood for coconut rice and I thought it would go well with the tuna, but the rice itself was not good, just hard and not well cooked. BE WARNED! The Cauliflower Fried Rice was not made with Cauliflower Rice, for anyone doing keto. It is just regular fried rice, and honestly my wife isn't sure if it even had any cauliflower in it at all. It was good, just not what we were expecting. For dessert they made a special sundae for our kids which they loved. I had the Matcha Cake - normally I like green tea and green tea flavored things (ice cream, etc), but this was not good. I'm not sure why, but it was just not good. I didn't want to waste my dessert on it so I sent it back. The server tried to warn me not to get it and I should have listened. I don't recall the replacement.

 

Menu (from another site)

Pizette

Hamachi Crudo

Sesame Crusted Tuna

Cauliflower? Fried Rice

Kids Sundae

Matcha Cake

 

Finally I grabbed some pics of our JR Suite.

 

Bathtub in Bathroom 1

 

Bathroom 2

 

Room

 

Balcony

 

Embarkation
We choose to carry our own luggage for walk off embarkation, and we ate in the MDR for breakfast. The food was fine, it was a little rushed and hectic but expected since they're getting ready for the next cruise. After breakfast we went to the embarkation deck (I think deck 5?). Embarkation was pretty quick, we were off the ship and through customs in about 20 minutes.

 

In my final post I will list my overall thoughts and some comparisons to NCL.

Edited March 6, 2020 by tomservo