Live From Discovery New Year's Cruise 12/28 - 1/7/22 10 day Sea of Cortez and Mexican Riviera

[CruiseRookieSteve]

On 12/31/2022 at 3:23 PM, startedwithamouse said:

They used to always serve in the theater.  Do other cruise lines currently do this?

This is the only cruise ship that I can remember that there wasn't a bar in the theater and servers wandering around taking drink orders. I was just on the Carnival Panorama about a month ago and they had a lot of servers wandering around the main theater taking drink orders. They also had drink holders in the arm of every seat in the theater.

[CruiseRookieSteve]

1 hour ago, nini said:

We loved Good Spirits on the Grand.

My wife commented that the "Good Spirits" bar is probably as close as this ship comes to the missing "Vines Wine Bar". The bar menu shows a lot of wines including most of the premium wines. A lot of bars on this ship list a lot of wines that they don't actually have available, but I saw "Good Spirits" has a large number of open bottles of wines that they serve by the glass. They also seem to have a lot of bottles of spirits, regular and top shelf, that seem to be missing from a lot of other bars around the ship. This is going to be my new "go to" place to order a drink and take to wherever I plan to sit.

[iamaqt2]

Today the ships wifi has been absolute trash.  And running a speedtest at midnight while people are sleeping, it hasn't improved.  Will post updates tomorrow while in port on my mobile data.

[shellbeachjim]

10 minutes ago, iamaqt2 said:

Today the ships wifi has been absolute trash.  And running a speedtest at midnight while people are sleeping, it hasn't improved.  Will post updates tomorrow while in port on my mobile data.

Our numbers are much worse than yours. I just tested from our cabin. 

[iamaqt2]

4 hours ago, shellbeachjim said:

Our numbers are much worse than yours. I just tested from our cabin. 

Yikes.  I must be camped on a router lol.

[CruiseRookieSteve]

3 hours ago, iamaqt2 said:

Yikes.  I must be camped on a router lol.

[that]

Anyone enjoy the 360 Experience?

[LACruiser88]

8 minutes ago, that said:

Anyone enjoy the 360 Experience?

We were sworn to secrecy....🤫

[c-boy]

10 hours ago, iamaqt2 said:

Today the ships wifi has been absolute trash.  And running a speedtest at midnight while people are sleeping, it hasn't improved.  Will post updates tomorrow while in port on my mobile data.

😲 no bueno

[XBGuy]

19 hours ago, CruiseRookieSteve said:

If you click on the inage I think you can read the labels. It is a 7MB image.

 

18 hours ago, CruiseRookieSteve said:

I just found on my mobile phone I can click on the image in Cruise Critic, then click again on the image it brings up, and then have a full resolution image that I can expand with 2 fingers enough to clearly read the labels.

 

Well, the clicking thing did not really work on my PC.  I could magnify, but the labels were still illegible.

 

I went to the Shafer site and looked at their offerings.  From the bottle shape, and the position of some of the verbiage on the label, I think that wine in your tasting was the Red Shoulder Ranch Cardonnay.  Certainly a very good wine, but I would have been over the moon if it had been the Relentless Syrah.

 

The phone idea was better, but still not good enough for my eyes.  Thanks,

[LACruiser88]

Killer Coconut Margaritas at Pipi’s!🍹

[mjceditor]

Margaritas at Pipi’s 

 

 

[iamaqt2]

January 1, Sea Day

Recovery Day

 

 

Basically this was a do nothing, lay by the pool, and take a nap kind of day

Drink service from the app by the Retreat Pool stunk.  Waited an hour then went to hunt down my missing drink.  Bartender gave me attitude and said I must have sent it to my room,  and one of the Sanctuary servers pointed out my missing drinks sitting in the queue on the tablet next to the bar.  Thank you Honeymade for not letting him gaslight me.

 

Marginally cleaned up for dinner in MDR, and called it a night after that.

 

 

Had the beef satay, Caesar salad, fruit salad,  and lamb shanks which were delicious.  Dessert we asked to try the new Love Boat Dream.  It's really awful.  Bring back the old version please Princess.

 

 

 

 

Beautiful to look at, nasty to eat.

 

[Purple Gallinule]

18 hours ago, CruiseRookieSteve said:

This is the only cruise ship that I can remember that there wasn't a bar in the theater and servers wandering around taking drink orders. I was just on the Carnival Panorama about a month ago and they had a lot of servers wandering around the main theater taking drink orders. They also had drink holders in the arm of every seat in the theater.

We have not seen any servers taking drink orders in the theater on any cruise since the restart after COVID. 

[nini]

1 hour ago, iamaqt2 said:

January 1, Sea Day

Recovery Day

 

 

Basically this was a do nothing, lay by the pool, and take a nap kind of day

Drink service from the app by the Retreat Pool stunk.  Waited an hour then went to hunt down my missing drink.  Bartender gave me attitude and said I must have sent it to my room,  and one of the Sanctuary servers pointed out my missing drinks sitting in the queue on the tablet next to the bar.  Thank you Honeymade for not letting him gaslight me.

 

Marginally cleaned up for dinner in MDR, and called it a night after that.

 

 

Had the beef satay, Caesar salad, fruit salad,  and lamb shanks which were delicious.  Dessert we asked to try the new Love Boat Dream.  It's really awful.  Bring back the old version please Princess.

 

 

 

 

Beautiful to look at, nasty to eat.

 

 

Agreed... the new dream is a nightmare. We loved the original version.

[CruiseRookieSteve]

3 hours ago, Purple Gallinule said:

We have not seen any servers taking drink orders in the theater on any cruise since the restart after COVID. 

They were definitely taking drink orders in the main theater of the Carnival Panorama that we were on in late November 2022. There were a lot of servers wandering about in the theater taking and delivering orders. But there is a lot more room between many of the rows of seats and there are drink holders at every seat.  I don't remember if they were taking drink orders in the main theater of the Sky Princess that we were on in February 2022 for a TransAtlantic cruise.

[CruiseRookieSteve]

7 hours ago, XBGuy said:

 

 

Well, the clicking thing did not really work on my PC.  I could magnify, but the labels were still illegible.

 

I went to the Shafer site and looked at their offerings.  From the bottle shape, and the position of some of the verbiage on the label, I think that wine in your tasting was the Red Shoulder Ranch Cardonnay.  Certainly a very good wine, but I would have been over the moon if it had been the Relentless Syrah.

 

The phone idea was better, but still not good enough for my eyes.  Thanks,

You are right, it was the Chardonnay. Here is the list:

Wine #1: (Wine-Searcher.com Retail $34)
Nicolas Feuillate Brut Reserve Champagne, France
Wine #2: (Wine-Searcher.com Retail: $30)
Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand
Wine #3: (Wine-Searcher.com Retail: $55)
2016 Shafer Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnay, California, US
Wine #4: (Wine-Searcher.com Retail: $19)
2018 Masi Campofiorin, Veneto, Italy
Wine #5: (Wine-Searcher Retail: $60)
2019 CARO, Mendoza, Argentina
Wine #6: (Wine-Searcher Retail: $74)
2020 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon, California, US

[sirclean]

Please take a trip to the Beline Bar (which I can not spell ) and say "howdy' to Mikee and Jaquine.  They are GREAT bartenders!  If you have a hankerin, please order a Toasted Almond and tell them that

'Gene from the Thanksgiving cruise said Howdy!
 

[KarmaCruisers]

Haha id take 1Mbps download speed on a cruise ship all day err day!

my average speed has been literally 100Kbps! (So 10x slower)

[KarmaCruisers]

1 hour ago, CruiseRookieSteve said:

They were definitely taking drink orders in the main theater of the Carnival Panorama that we were on in late November 2022. There were a lot of servers wandering about in the theater taking and delivering orders. But there is a lot more room between many of the rows of seats and there are drink holders at every seat.  I don't remember if they were taking drink orders in the main theater of the Sky Princess that we were on in February 2022 for a TransAtlantic cruise.

Princess doesn’t have a bar in any of their main theatres (IIRC) that’s a “carnival” thing. (And only on the new/rebuilt main theaters..they actually made their main threaters much smaller, by putting in a bar..so that goes to show you the demographic of carnival)

[mjceditor]

19 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

Killer Coconut Margaritas at Pipi’s!🍹

Reviewing my pictures I see we were seated behind you guys.

[LACruiser88]

1 minute ago, mjceditor said:

Reviewing my pictures I see we were seated behind you guys.

How funny!  We could have said hello!

[c-boy]

20 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

Killer Coconut Margaritas at Pipi’s!🍹

👍 for the fedora 

[that]

17 hours ago, nini said:

 

Agreed... the new dream is a nightmare. We loved the original version.

So agree

[CruiseRookieSteve]

15 hours ago, KarmaCruisers said:

Princess doesn’t have a bar in any of their main theatres (IIRC) that’s a “carnival” thing. (And only on the new/rebuilt main theaters..they actually made their main threaters much smaller, by putting in a bar..so that goes to show you the demographic of carnival)

Thanks for that info, but not sure about inserting a bar in the main theater reduced its capacity by that much. The theater on the newest Carnival class of ships seemed quite huge with a double level of theater seating with balconies. The Vista Class ships of the Carnival Vista, the Carnival Horizon, and the Carnival Panorama (docked in front of us in Mazatlan) have a passenger capacity of 5,146 guests and the newest Carnival Mardi Gras and Carnival Celebration have a passenger capacity of 6,465 guests. Personally I do prefer the somewhat smaller capacity of even the largest Princess ships like our Discover Princess of 3,660 passengers. I especially love the way all the venues are arranged around the Piazza where you can listen to the music no matter which bar or restaurant you are sitting in around the Piazza regardless of if the music is in the main Piazza or Crooner's Bar. Also love the amount of music events all around the ship every evening. The Princess ships always have seemed much less crowded than the Carnival ships despite their smaller size.