Railking55
Active Member
Amazing trip report Chuck
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Non-DCL trip report: Royal Caribbean through the Panama Canal
- Thread starter ChuckElias
- Start date
Thank you! I was away for the weekend, but I'm back and I'll have another entry up later today.
Day 7 -- At sea. Sunny, Low 80s
This was the first day that we did NOTHING in terms of ship's activities. We did our normal buffet breakfast and morning walk, but then we just relaxed in the room and on the balcony for the rest of the morning. We read, we had music on the tv, and we sorted laundry. We had lunch in Cascades, but the menu was uninspiring. I felt like the dinner offerings were almost always good (or at least interesting), but the lunch menus were almost always uninteresting.
After lunch, we went back to the room and watched the Masters golf tournament all afternoon. That was it.
Since I don't have any activities to tell you about, I'll briefly recount our laundry adventure. There are no washing machines for guests to use onboard, so if you want to wash your clothes, you have to use the ship's laundry service. Normally, you pay per piece of clothing washed. ($4 per polo shirt, $2 per pair of socks, etc.) But the app said there was a special running, where you could pay a flat fee and just fill a bag for $30. But this option was not listed on the laundry service "menu" that came to our room. So Kathryn asked our room steward about it. He had no idea. So she went to the the Guest Services desk. They had no idea. Guest Services called the laundry service. That guy had no idea. He had to ask a supervisor to get the information on how to take advantage of the flat fee, which we eventually did.
This was not a huge deal, but it illustrates why we felt the service onboard was good, but not great outside the main dining room; and definitely a step down from the service we received on the Celebrity Summit last year.
So, speaking of dining, we visited another of the ship's specialty restaurants for dinner. This time, we ate at Chop's, which is a steakhouse restaurant. The decor of the restaurant was pretty laid-back. No big theme or fancy design elements. Just a nice understated space for a nice meal. Our service was very good here, on a par with Alban and Ranjit in the main dining room. Our appetizers included the crab cake. It had a touch of spicy seasoning in the breading, but it was not bad at all. The sauce that came with it, however, was way too spicy to eat. Thankfully, the crab was fresh and tasty enough without needing any sauce. There was also a tuna tartar on a bed of avocado, which Kathryn loved. The Caesar salad was better than what was served in Cascades, but still wasn't great; and the mushroom soup was very good.
Kath and I both had the Filet Mignon and it was excellent. Cooked perfectly and served with a choice of peppercorn, béarnaise, or wine reduction sauces. My favorite was the wine reduction, and it was excellent. Like in Samba, the side dishes were served family-style. We got creamed spinach, gruyere tater tots, and truffle fries. Kathryn liked the spinach, I liked the tater tots, and the truffle fries were awful. They seemed like regular fries that had been sitting under a warming lamp for a half hour.
Our desserts were a warm apple pie a la mode and a Key Lime pie. Both were excellent!
And for reasons that escape me, I have NO pictures of dinner at all. Sorry!
After dinner, we settled in the main Atrium of the ship for a while. There was a band that played there every night and they were really good. They played a good variety of styles and they were tight on the arrangements. We would hear them every night as we walked to a show or a lounge, but this time we decided to stay and listen to a whole set, and I was glad that we did. I really liked them.
For a nightcap, Kath and I sat in Quill and Compass to hear the guitarist play and sing. He's obviously talented, but he doesn't really play a traditional set of songs. He starts a song and then gets the audience to sing the rest; or he stops in the middle of a song to tell a story that he "just remembered". He's more about hanging out with the crowd than performing a full show. It was ok, and was funny in parts, but we didn't love it. But it was kind of a "fun hang" for a half hour.
And then we called it a night. We were back in the room by 10. It was a great "do nothing" day, which we don't really do very often on a cruise.
This was the first day that we did NOTHING in terms of ship's activities. We did our normal buffet breakfast and morning walk, but then we just relaxed in the room and on the balcony for the rest of the morning. We read, we had music on the tv, and we sorted laundry. We had lunch in Cascades, but the menu was uninspiring. I felt like the dinner offerings were almost always good (or at least interesting), but the lunch menus were almost always uninteresting.
After lunch, we went back to the room and watched the Masters golf tournament all afternoon. That was it.
Since I don't have any activities to tell you about, I'll briefly recount our laundry adventure. There are no washing machines for guests to use onboard, so if you want to wash your clothes, you have to use the ship's laundry service. Normally, you pay per piece of clothing washed. ($4 per polo shirt, $2 per pair of socks, etc.) But the app said there was a special running, where you could pay a flat fee and just fill a bag for $30. But this option was not listed on the laundry service "menu" that came to our room. So Kathryn asked our room steward about it. He had no idea. So she went to the the Guest Services desk. They had no idea. Guest Services called the laundry service. That guy had no idea. He had to ask a supervisor to get the information on how to take advantage of the flat fee, which we eventually did.
This was not a huge deal, but it illustrates why we felt the service onboard was good, but not great outside the main dining room; and definitely a step down from the service we received on the Celebrity Summit last year.
So, speaking of dining, we visited another of the ship's specialty restaurants for dinner. This time, we ate at Chop's, which is a steakhouse restaurant. The decor of the restaurant was pretty laid-back. No big theme or fancy design elements. Just a nice understated space for a nice meal. Our service was very good here, on a par with Alban and Ranjit in the main dining room. Our appetizers included the crab cake. It had a touch of spicy seasoning in the breading, but it was not bad at all. The sauce that came with it, however, was way too spicy to eat. Thankfully, the crab was fresh and tasty enough without needing any sauce. There was also a tuna tartar on a bed of avocado, which Kathryn loved. The Caesar salad was better than what was served in Cascades, but still wasn't great; and the mushroom soup was very good.
Kath and I both had the Filet Mignon and it was excellent. Cooked perfectly and served with a choice of peppercorn, béarnaise, or wine reduction sauces. My favorite was the wine reduction, and it was excellent. Like in Samba, the side dishes were served family-style. We got creamed spinach, gruyere tater tots, and truffle fries. Kathryn liked the spinach, I liked the tater tots, and the truffle fries were awful. They seemed like regular fries that had been sitting under a warming lamp for a half hour.
Our desserts were a warm apple pie a la mode and a Key Lime pie. Both were excellent!
And for reasons that escape me, I have NO pictures of dinner at all. Sorry!
After dinner, we settled in the main Atrium of the ship for a while. There was a band that played there every night and they were really good. They played a good variety of styles and they were tight on the arrangements. We would hear them every night as we walked to a show or a lounge, but this time we decided to stay and listen to a whole set, and I was glad that we did. I really liked them.
For a nightcap, Kath and I sat in Quill and Compass to hear the guitarist play and sing. He's obviously talented, but he doesn't really play a traditional set of songs. He starts a song and then gets the audience to sing the rest; or he stops in the middle of a song to tell a story that he "just remembered". He's more about hanging out with the crowd than performing a full show. It was ok, and was funny in parts, but we didn't love it. But it was kind of a "fun hang" for a half hour.
And then we called it a night. We were back in the room by 10. It was a great "do nothing" day, which we don't really do very often on a cruise.
MotherofaPrincessLover
Well-Known Member
There's no self serve laundry on a 2 week cruise?!
Correct
Day 8 -- At sea Mostly sunny 85°
Our morning was a continuation of Day 7. We did our usual Deck 12 walk, but then had no activities planned before lunch. We didn't bother going to Cascades for lunch. I just grabbed some pizza from Windjammer. The Hawaiian pizza was really good! After lunch, Kathryn spent the afternoon reading on our balcony. I participated in a Cabin Crawl.
It was the first time that I've done one of these. A bunch of people volunteer to let people see their cabins. Obviously, you need people from several different room categories if it's going to be any good. We saw a Junior Suite, a balcony just like ours, an Inside room, a porthole Ocean View, and two unusual balconies. One of the unusual balconies was elongated because it was where the ship extended out at midship (the Centrum Hump on the list below); the other was oddly-shaped because of its location.
This is just to show you that the Junior Suite has a bathtub instead of the tiny corner shower. And it also has nicer toiletries.
Unusual balconies. You can see that the dividers don't extend all the way to the balcony's railing.
The elongated balcony.
Pretty typical Ocean View porthole.
It was Asian Night at dinner. Appetizers were fried dumplings (very good) and spring rolls (just ok). For entrees, I had a teriyaki salmon (really good) and Kathryn had Pad Thai with shrimp (spicy, but not overwhelming; she liked it). For dessert, Kath had the Bahn Flan (pretty good) and I had the Lychee Tart (awesome!)
I can only put 10 pictures in one post, so you don't get to see the whole meal. Everybody knows what dumplings and spring rolls look like, so here's
My salmon
The awesome lychee tart
And the flan
After dinner, we went to "Big TV" trivia. It was a little deceiving. It was advertised as "Come and knock on our door for Big TV trivia". We expected it to be popular TV shows of the 70s and 80s. Instead, it was super hard questions about shows that none of us had ever seen. We only got 14 out of 40 questions. So it wasn't a lot of fun, to be honest. But it was a small comfort to know that we weren't the only ones who were frustrated. Several people near us made comments about not knowing the shows that were being used.
We went to the trivia instead of going to the evening show in the main theater. We'd had really bad luck with the main shows, so we decided to skip it. It was a married couple doing gymnastics/acrobatics. The next day, we heard from several people that it had been quite good, so we were disappointed that we'd passed on it; but there wasn't a second show, so we missed them entirely. We made up for it by getting a soft serve and walking the deck under the stars.
Our morning was a continuation of Day 7. We did our usual Deck 12 walk, but then had no activities planned before lunch. We didn't bother going to Cascades for lunch. I just grabbed some pizza from Windjammer. The Hawaiian pizza was really good! After lunch, Kathryn spent the afternoon reading on our balcony. I participated in a Cabin Crawl.
It was the first time that I've done one of these. A bunch of people volunteer to let people see their cabins. Obviously, you need people from several different room categories if it's going to be any good. We saw a Junior Suite, a balcony just like ours, an Inside room, a porthole Ocean View, and two unusual balconies. One of the unusual balconies was elongated because it was where the ship extended out at midship (the Centrum Hump on the list below); the other was oddly-shaped because of its location.
This is just to show you that the Junior Suite has a bathtub instead of the tiny corner shower. And it also has nicer toiletries.
Unusual balconies. You can see that the dividers don't extend all the way to the balcony's railing.
The elongated balcony.
Pretty typical Ocean View porthole.
It was Asian Night at dinner. Appetizers were fried dumplings (very good) and spring rolls (just ok). For entrees, I had a teriyaki salmon (really good) and Kathryn had Pad Thai with shrimp (spicy, but not overwhelming; she liked it). For dessert, Kath had the Bahn Flan (pretty good) and I had the Lychee Tart (awesome!)
I can only put 10 pictures in one post, so you don't get to see the whole meal. Everybody knows what dumplings and spring rolls look like, so here's
My salmon
The awesome lychee tart
And the flan
After dinner, we went to "Big TV" trivia. It was a little deceiving. It was advertised as "Come and knock on our door for Big TV trivia". We expected it to be popular TV shows of the 70s and 80s. Instead, it was super hard questions about shows that none of us had ever seen. We only got 14 out of 40 questions. So it wasn't a lot of fun, to be honest. But it was a small comfort to know that we weren't the only ones who were frustrated. Several people near us made comments about not knowing the shows that were being used.
We went to the trivia instead of going to the evening show in the main theater. We'd had really bad luck with the main shows, so we decided to skip it. It was a married couple doing gymnastics/acrobatics. The next day, we heard from several people that it had been quite good, so we were disappointed that we'd passed on it; but there wasn't a second show, so we missed them entirely. We made up for it by getting a soft serve and walking the deck under the stars.
Day 9 -- Puerto Quetzal Sunny, mid-80s
We got up early for breakfast because we had to be in the theater to meet our excursion group at 7:45. We got there on time, instead of early, this time. Even so, we sat in the theater for an hour and 40 minutes before being called to our excursion. It was honestly awful. Again.
We did a cultural tour in Antigua, which was about a 90 minute bus ride in each direction. Antigua is a 500-year-old colonial Spanish town, with many surviving historic buildings (and ruins), and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We walked through the Antigua Cathedral ruins. A lot of the building is still standing, but because of Antigua's frequent earthquakes, it's never been fully rebuilt. I intentionally used the phrase "walked through" because that's all we did. We were there for no more than 15 minutes, which was very disappointing. It seemed like a very interesting site and I would have liked to have learned a lot more about it.
We walked to the Iglesia de la Mersed (the "Yellow Church"). This was really interesting and had a nun's cloister attached to it. We were able to spend some time in the church and walk through the nuns' chambers. From there we walked to a museum that featured Mayan works placed next to contemporary works that they inspired. This was a great exhibit. I really liked it, and I felt the concept was simple but kind of brilliant. And the grounds around the art museum were gorgeous.
The Yellow Church:
The grounds of the Mayan art museum:
After the museum, we walked to a local restaurant where we had a somewhat disappointing lunch. It was dry chicken, dry rice, and refried beans that were more like a bean paste. It was not good. And the dessert was a sweet dumpling or something like that, but it was served in a disgusting liquid. It was worse than the bean paste.
Our last stop on the excursion was a visit to a jade museum (jademaya.com/pages/jade-museum), which featured a presentation from an archeologist who re-discovered the jade mines in Guatemala. Once again, I found this to be very interesting.
The archeologist who spoke to us:
Unfortunately, our particular tour group ran into a few logistical problems that took a lot of time to resolve and took away from time that we could've spent at the historical sites. We had one person get lost when she was separated from the group, and we had two elderly guests who simply could not do the walking that was required (even though the tour description was clear about walking and uneven street surfaces, etc.). So our tour guide was often distracted and at one point, we just stood on the side of the road for a half hour while she tried to get a taxi to take the old couple back to our bus. As a result of this, we spent some time on our ride back to the ship searching the internet for information on the sites that we visited. So my honest impression is that I loved Antigua and the historical sites that we saw, but I wasn't crazy about our excursion. If I were to do this again, I would want 4 or 5 hours in the town, and we only had about 3.
When we got back to the ship, we learned part of the reason for our ridiculously long wait-time in the theater earlier in the morning may have been because there were two cruise ships in port that day. This is apparently very unusual; and because there's only one slip at the cruise ship pier, our ship had to dock at the commercial pier. That seems to have triggered increased security measures, which is why nobody could leave the ship when we originally planned. So it may not have been Royal Caribbean's fault, but nobody communicated this to us while we were sitting there for over an hour and a half. They should've done better.
On the drive back to the ship, I started to not feel well. I think it was just due to the physical exertion in the hot sun all day. Thankfully, it wasn't anything serious, but just to be safe, I decided to skip dinner. So I don't have food pictures for this night. But Kathryn had a great Greek salad and a disappointing chicken picata.
The evening show was supposed to be a magician, but he couldn't get through Customs to board the ship in time to rehearse before his show time; so the performance was postponed until the next night. I can't be sure, but we guessed that his delay was also caused by being on the commercial side of the port.
Just to be sure that I didn't push myself too hard, I spent a quiet evening in the stateroom and was in bed by about 10. I'm so boring!
We got up early for breakfast because we had to be in the theater to meet our excursion group at 7:45. We got there on time, instead of early, this time. Even so, we sat in the theater for an hour and 40 minutes before being called to our excursion. It was honestly awful. Again.
We did a cultural tour in Antigua, which was about a 90 minute bus ride in each direction. Antigua is a 500-year-old colonial Spanish town, with many surviving historic buildings (and ruins), and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We walked through the Antigua Cathedral ruins. A lot of the building is still standing, but because of Antigua's frequent earthquakes, it's never been fully rebuilt. I intentionally used the phrase "walked through" because that's all we did. We were there for no more than 15 minutes, which was very disappointing. It seemed like a very interesting site and I would have liked to have learned a lot more about it.
We walked to the Iglesia de la Mersed (the "Yellow Church"). This was really interesting and had a nun's cloister attached to it. We were able to spend some time in the church and walk through the nuns' chambers. From there we walked to a museum that featured Mayan works placed next to contemporary works that they inspired. This was a great exhibit. I really liked it, and I felt the concept was simple but kind of brilliant. And the grounds around the art museum were gorgeous.
The Yellow Church:
The grounds of the Mayan art museum:
After the museum, we walked to a local restaurant where we had a somewhat disappointing lunch. It was dry chicken, dry rice, and refried beans that were more like a bean paste. It was not good. And the dessert was a sweet dumpling or something like that, but it was served in a disgusting liquid. It was worse than the bean paste.
Our last stop on the excursion was a visit to a jade museum (jademaya.com/pages/jade-museum), which featured a presentation from an archeologist who re-discovered the jade mines in Guatemala. Once again, I found this to be very interesting.
The archeologist who spoke to us:
Unfortunately, our particular tour group ran into a few logistical problems that took a lot of time to resolve and took away from time that we could've spent at the historical sites. We had one person get lost when she was separated from the group, and we had two elderly guests who simply could not do the walking that was required (even though the tour description was clear about walking and uneven street surfaces, etc.). So our tour guide was often distracted and at one point, we just stood on the side of the road for a half hour while she tried to get a taxi to take the old couple back to our bus. As a result of this, we spent some time on our ride back to the ship searching the internet for information on the sites that we visited. So my honest impression is that I loved Antigua and the historical sites that we saw, but I wasn't crazy about our excursion. If I were to do this again, I would want 4 or 5 hours in the town, and we only had about 3.
When we got back to the ship, we learned part of the reason for our ridiculously long wait-time in the theater earlier in the morning may have been because there were two cruise ships in port that day. This is apparently very unusual; and because there's only one slip at the cruise ship pier, our ship had to dock at the commercial pier. That seems to have triggered increased security measures, which is why nobody could leave the ship when we originally planned. So it may not have been Royal Caribbean's fault, but nobody communicated this to us while we were sitting there for over an hour and a half. They should've done better.
On the drive back to the ship, I started to not feel well. I think it was just due to the physical exertion in the hot sun all day. Thankfully, it wasn't anything serious, but just to be safe, I decided to skip dinner. So I don't have food pictures for this night. But Kathryn had a great Greek salad and a disappointing chicken picata.
The evening show was supposed to be a magician, but he couldn't get through Customs to board the ship in time to rehearse before his show time; so the performance was postponed until the next night. I can't be sure, but we guessed that his delay was also caused by being on the commercial side of the port.
Just to be sure that I didn't push myself too hard, I spent a quiet evening in the stateroom and was in bed by about 10. I'm so boring!
Last edited:
Day 10 -- At sea Mid 80s, sunny
I was still not feeling 100% after the previous day's excursion, so I didn't walk or work out. I took it very easy in the morning, eating just a little cereal for breakfast. I sat in the room, watching ESPN or sitting on the balcony. Around 11:30, I joined Kathryn in Cascades for lunch. On some days, they have a lunch menu, and on some days, it's a brunch menu. In my opinion, the brunch menu is not good. It has lots of breakfast choices and almost no lunch items. I honestly don't even remember what I ordered.
When we got back to the room after brunch, there was a letter on our door to tell us that a small but significant number of people had contracted the Norovirus. Because of this, the ship's crew would be implementing "enhanced sanitizing protocols". Additionally, we wouldn't be allowed to handle serving utensils in the buffet or any containers (including salt/pepper shakers) in the main dining room. The protocols were maintained throughout the remainder of our cruise. It was slightly inconvenient in Cascades, but it was barely noticeable in the buffet, because they had crew members to serve the food at each station.
In the afternoon, I finally played in the poker tournament that I signed up for the previous week. It was $100/$150 buy-in with a turbo structure and a HUGE rake to the casino. Definitely not as good as the games that I played in on our Celebrity cruise last year. Sadly, I didn't cash this time.
After busting out of the poker tournament, I hung out with Kath at the pool. On the way, I walked by the sports deck. There were lots of people playing pickleball. They had open court time for pickleball every day, and I think it was pretty well packed all the time. Spent most of the afternoon by the pool, although we just got our feet wet and then enjoyed the sunny day. In fact, I meant to play "Food around the World" trivia, but it was so gorgeous on deck that I completely forgot about it.
There was a lot of trivia on board, especially on the sea days, but it didn't seem to me that there were a lot of other activities. There were a few (one of which I'll talk about on Day 11). But honestly, if you didn't like trivia quizzes, there wasn't a ton else to do, in terms of organized activities.
Dinner was the "Return tot he Classics" menu. Basically, it was a "greatest hits" of what we'd already eaten earlier in the cruise. So there were no new options on the menu. So Kath and I both decided to try items that we hadn't had previously. Kath got a mildly spicy lamb rota, which she liked; and I got the herb-crusted salmon, which was very good.
Salmon:
Lamb:
The evening show was the "Misfit Magician" Ed Alonzo. He's kind of a goofy persona, but he was genuinely funny. He's been on lots of tv shows in bit parts, including Murphy Brown, which made me laugh. He played one of Murphy's assistants, and I had forgotten the running gag that she was constantly firing her assistants. In any case, his show was very good with lots of genuine laughs. There one "bathroom humor" bit that went on way too long, but he also brought a couple kids from the audience up on stage which was very cute. There was no "big magic", but it was very entertaining.
After the show, we just walked around the ship on Deck 5. We had the whole deck practically to ourselves. It was nice to walk without running into a ton of people like we would have if we'd been up on Deck 12. We made our way back to the room and I watched the NBA play-in games, before hitting the sack around midnight.
Here's a view from outside on Deck 5 into the elevator bank.
I was still not feeling 100% after the previous day's excursion, so I didn't walk or work out. I took it very easy in the morning, eating just a little cereal for breakfast. I sat in the room, watching ESPN or sitting on the balcony. Around 11:30, I joined Kathryn in Cascades for lunch. On some days, they have a lunch menu, and on some days, it's a brunch menu. In my opinion, the brunch menu is not good. It has lots of breakfast choices and almost no lunch items. I honestly don't even remember what I ordered.
When we got back to the room after brunch, there was a letter on our door to tell us that a small but significant number of people had contracted the Norovirus. Because of this, the ship's crew would be implementing "enhanced sanitizing protocols". Additionally, we wouldn't be allowed to handle serving utensils in the buffet or any containers (including salt/pepper shakers) in the main dining room. The protocols were maintained throughout the remainder of our cruise. It was slightly inconvenient in Cascades, but it was barely noticeable in the buffet, because they had crew members to serve the food at each station.
In the afternoon, I finally played in the poker tournament that I signed up for the previous week. It was $100/$150 buy-in with a turbo structure and a HUGE rake to the casino. Definitely not as good as the games that I played in on our Celebrity cruise last year. Sadly, I didn't cash this time.
After busting out of the poker tournament, I hung out with Kath at the pool. On the way, I walked by the sports deck. There were lots of people playing pickleball. They had open court time for pickleball every day, and I think it was pretty well packed all the time. Spent most of the afternoon by the pool, although we just got our feet wet and then enjoyed the sunny day. In fact, I meant to play "Food around the World" trivia, but it was so gorgeous on deck that I completely forgot about it.
There was a lot of trivia on board, especially on the sea days, but it didn't seem to me that there were a lot of other activities. There were a few (one of which I'll talk about on Day 11). But honestly, if you didn't like trivia quizzes, there wasn't a ton else to do, in terms of organized activities.
Dinner was the "Return tot he Classics" menu. Basically, it was a "greatest hits" of what we'd already eaten earlier in the cruise. So there were no new options on the menu. So Kath and I both decided to try items that we hadn't had previously. Kath got a mildly spicy lamb rota, which she liked; and I got the herb-crusted salmon, which was very good.
Salmon:
Lamb:
The evening show was the "Misfit Magician" Ed Alonzo. He's kind of a goofy persona, but he was genuinely funny. He's been on lots of tv shows in bit parts, including Murphy Brown, which made me laugh. He played one of Murphy's assistants, and I had forgotten the running gag that she was constantly firing her assistants. In any case, his show was very good with lots of genuine laughs. There one "bathroom humor" bit that went on way too long, but he also brought a couple kids from the audience up on stage which was very cute. There was no "big magic", but it was very entertaining.
After the show, we just walked around the ship on Deck 5. We had the whole deck practically to ourselves. It was nice to walk without running into a ton of people like we would have if we'd been up on Deck 12. We made our way back to the room and I watched the NBA play-in games, before hitting the sack around midnight.
Here's a view from outside on Deck 5 into the elevator bank.
Sorry, I've let this slide a bit. I'm in Orlando for work (not Disney), and I have very little free time for the next 10 days or so. I'll continue this, but it's on a bit of a hiatus.
Day 11 - At Sea
Hazy morning, sunny afternoon. Mid 70s
We got back to our morning walking routine. After breakfast and our cooler-than-usual walk, I sat by the pool (and got burned, duh) while Kathryn went to a painting lesson. It was a free activity and she really enjoyed the experience. As it turns out, they were testing it on this cruise to gauge interest from guests. If they got a positive response (and they did), they will likely offer it for a fee on future sailings. Sometimes, it pays to be the guinea pig.
We went back to Cascades for lunch. They offered an actual lunch menu today. Kathryn had a smoked salmon salad, served on pears and strawberries and liked it a lot. I had the potato/chorizo soup and also thought it was very good. For entrées, I had the BBQ pulled pork sandwich. Kath's lamb pita was unusual. The lamb was shredded (almost like my pulled pork) and served with a tzatziki sauce that contained no garlic. We both felt that our meals were not terrible, but not particularly good. Kathryn said her lamb could've been pork, for all she could taste. We grabbed an ice cream at Windjammer and then I sat in Rita's Cantina for a couple hours to catch up on my notes.
I thought I had pictures of Rita's Cantina, but I don't seem to have any. The "Cantina" is just a seating area outside the Windjammer restaurant. It's partially open-air and has tables for people who can't find seating at the buffet. It's a nice place to sit because it was rarely crowded. It was a nice way to be outside, but out of the sun for the afternoon.
Dinner's menu was "a tribute to the UK". Fish and chips were on the menu, of course, but I didn't have it. Instead, we had the baby shrimp cocktail (fine) and a goat cheese tart with balsamic glaze that Kath liked very much. I also had the potato leek soup, which was ok, but I make a much better version at home. For entrées, I had a chicken/mushroom pie, which was good but not great. Kath had carved roast beef with yorkshire pudding, which she thought was very good. Dessert was an English trifle. This was nice and light, but didn't really have any distinct flavor. It was worth a try, but not good enough to finish. I felt exactly the same way about my toffee cake. It was basically a dry date cake with a caramel sauce. Not worth eating.
Goat cheese tart:
Shrimp cocktail
Roast beef
Chicken/mushroom pie
Trifle and toffee cake
The evening show was another song and dance, and we decided against going, considering our past impressions of the dance troupe. Instead we went to the Colony Club to attempt to solve. . . the Royal Mystery! (Dum, dum, dummmmm!) This was a fun event where we formed teams with other people in the lounge and tried to solve clues that were intended to lead us to solve a museum heist mystery. It was actually a lot of fun, if slightly confusing in the beginning. Our team was not able to solve the mystery in the time allotted. Only one team got the solution, but they told us that they just guessed. So, unfortunately nobody actually got the solution from the clues. But it was still a really fun way to spend an hour and meet with some new people. (One of those new people was with us on the excursion in Antigua, and she shared our frustration with the people who derailed the tour guide. )
After the mystery, I settled at the Quill and Compass to watch the NHL playoffs for the rest of the evening, and finally turned in around midnight.
Hazy morning, sunny afternoon. Mid 70s
We got back to our morning walking routine. After breakfast and our cooler-than-usual walk, I sat by the pool (and got burned, duh) while Kathryn went to a painting lesson. It was a free activity and she really enjoyed the experience. As it turns out, they were testing it on this cruise to gauge interest from guests. If they got a positive response (and they did), they will likely offer it for a fee on future sailings. Sometimes, it pays to be the guinea pig.
We went back to Cascades for lunch. They offered an actual lunch menu today. Kathryn had a smoked salmon salad, served on pears and strawberries and liked it a lot. I had the potato/chorizo soup and also thought it was very good. For entrées, I had the BBQ pulled pork sandwich. Kath's lamb pita was unusual. The lamb was shredded (almost like my pulled pork) and served with a tzatziki sauce that contained no garlic. We both felt that our meals were not terrible, but not particularly good. Kathryn said her lamb could've been pork, for all she could taste. We grabbed an ice cream at Windjammer and then I sat in Rita's Cantina for a couple hours to catch up on my notes.
I thought I had pictures of Rita's Cantina, but I don't seem to have any. The "Cantina" is just a seating area outside the Windjammer restaurant. It's partially open-air and has tables for people who can't find seating at the buffet. It's a nice place to sit because it was rarely crowded. It was a nice way to be outside, but out of the sun for the afternoon.
Dinner's menu was "a tribute to the UK". Fish and chips were on the menu, of course, but I didn't have it. Instead, we had the baby shrimp cocktail (fine) and a goat cheese tart with balsamic glaze that Kath liked very much. I also had the potato leek soup, which was ok, but I make a much better version at home. For entrées, I had a chicken/mushroom pie, which was good but not great. Kath had carved roast beef with yorkshire pudding, which she thought was very good. Dessert was an English trifle. This was nice and light, but didn't really have any distinct flavor. It was worth a try, but not good enough to finish. I felt exactly the same way about my toffee cake. It was basically a dry date cake with a caramel sauce. Not worth eating.
Goat cheese tart:
Shrimp cocktail
Roast beef
Chicken/mushroom pie
Trifle and toffee cake
The evening show was another song and dance, and we decided against going, considering our past impressions of the dance troupe. Instead we went to the Colony Club to attempt to solve. . . the Royal Mystery! (Dum, dum, dummmmm!) This was a fun event where we formed teams with other people in the lounge and tried to solve clues that were intended to lead us to solve a museum heist mystery. It was actually a lot of fun, if slightly confusing in the beginning. Our team was not able to solve the mystery in the time allotted. Only one team got the solution, but they told us that they just guessed. So, unfortunately nobody actually got the solution from the clues. But it was still a really fun way to spend an hour and meet with some new people. (One of those new people was with us on the excursion in Antigua, and she shared our frustration with the people who derailed the tour guide. )
After the mystery, I settled at the Quill and Compass to watch the NHL playoffs for the rest of the evening, and finally turned in around midnight.
ljester0524
New Member
Oh no, I was enjoying reading your posts! We're going on the Brilliance of the Seas 14 night Panama Canal cruise in September. How many formal nights were there and do you remember where they fall?
I'm so sorry. I've been very lazy about getting this finished up. I'll get it done this week. I don't remember the number of formal nights. I looked through my pictures, but I guess I didn't take any pictures of us all dressed up.
Day 12 -- Puerta Vallarta
Cool morning, 65°. Warm afternoon, 85°.
We took it easy to start our day. We did our normal walk, and got a small breakfast at the buffet, but didn't rush at all because we didn't have an excursion booked for Puerta Vallarta. We'd been here before on a Disney Cruise, although it had been more than 10 years earlier, and seen quite a bit of the area. To be fair, the area immediately surrounding the dock has changed quite a bit, so an excursion might have been interesting, but there weren't any tour options that really grabbed our attention.
So instead, we got off the ship around 10am and walked around the portside shopping district. There was also a complimentary shuttle that would have taken us, but it was a gorgeous day, so we walked. There was a lot of typical merchandise, but also several very interesting locally-owned shops. There were actually two separate shopping areas; one was like a mall, the other was more like an outdoor flea market with lots of booths. I actually liked walking through both areas. Additionally, there was free WiFi. So I found a shady spot and checked my emails for a while.
That's our ship in the background, but it's a terrible picture!
As we walked back to the Radiance, the Nieuw Amsterdam (Holland America) was just docking. You probably don't remember, but this was the ship that we followed through the Canal. (I actually got yelled at for standing on the pier to take this picture as the ship approached.)
We got back to the ship a little after noon and went to the buffet for lunch. I had pizza as usual, but also a really good beef stew. And of course, I can't leave Windjammer without a soft serve ice cream. . .
We spent the afternoon by the Solarium pool. It was very relaxing to be in the pool and just relax. Kathryn just napped. (Please don't tell her I shared that!
) We did nothing until dinner time. So relaxing.
Dinner was a Mexican theme. Kathryn had the Roasted Poblano Pepper Soup with chorizo, which she liked very much. I had the Grilled Sweet Corn Cakes, which I also thought were very good. For entrees, I had the Pulled Pork Enchillada, with a guajillo pepper sauce. The presentation was not awesome, but it was ok. Kathryn had the Carne Asada with a chimichurri sauce. We both felt that this was not really a carne asada. It seemed more like a slice of roast beef with some sauce on it. It was ok, but Kath didn't love it. She did, however, really enjoy the flan with caramel sauce for dessert!
See what I mean about the presentation?
Dessert
Cool morning, 65°. Warm afternoon, 85°.
We took it easy to start our day. We did our normal walk, and got a small breakfast at the buffet, but didn't rush at all because we didn't have an excursion booked for Puerta Vallarta. We'd been here before on a Disney Cruise, although it had been more than 10 years earlier, and seen quite a bit of the area. To be fair, the area immediately surrounding the dock has changed quite a bit, so an excursion might have been interesting, but there weren't any tour options that really grabbed our attention.
So instead, we got off the ship around 10am and walked around the portside shopping district. There was also a complimentary shuttle that would have taken us, but it was a gorgeous day, so we walked. There was a lot of typical merchandise, but also several very interesting locally-owned shops. There were actually two separate shopping areas; one was like a mall, the other was more like an outdoor flea market with lots of booths. I actually liked walking through both areas. Additionally, there was free WiFi. So I found a shady spot and checked my emails for a while.
That's our ship in the background, but it's a terrible picture!
As we walked back to the Radiance, the Nieuw Amsterdam (Holland America) was just docking. You probably don't remember, but this was the ship that we followed through the Canal. (I actually got yelled at for standing on the pier to take this picture as the ship approached.)
We got back to the ship a little after noon and went to the buffet for lunch. I had pizza as usual, but also a really good beef stew. And of course, I can't leave Windjammer without a soft serve ice cream. . .
We spent the afternoon by the Solarium pool. It was very relaxing to be in the pool and just relax. Kathryn just napped. (Please don't tell her I shared that!
) We did nothing until dinner time. So relaxing.Dinner was a Mexican theme. Kathryn had the Roasted Poblano Pepper Soup with chorizo, which she liked very much. I had the Grilled Sweet Corn Cakes, which I also thought were very good. For entrees, I had the Pulled Pork Enchillada, with a guajillo pepper sauce. The presentation was not awesome, but it was ok. Kathryn had the Carne Asada with a chimichurri sauce. We both felt that this was not really a carne asada. It seemed more like a slice of roast beef with some sauce on it. It was ok, but Kath didn't love it. She did, however, really enjoy the flan with caramel sauce for dessert!
See what I mean about the presentation?
Dessert
Day 12 -- continued
After dinner, we once again skipped the evening performance and instead we took part in Harry Potter trivia! Does it surprise anyone that we tied for the win??? (If I could have remembered "thestrals", we would've won!! But I blanked. How embarrassing.)
The trivia was very fun, and it finished early enough that we were able to be on deck as we sailed away from port. We walked around Deck 12 and had spectacular views of the mountains and the sunset. It was a wonderful end to our relaxing day.
Yes, that's a Sam's Club directly across the street from where we docked.
After dinner, we once again skipped the evening performance and instead we took part in Harry Potter trivia! Does it surprise anyone that we tied for the win??? (If I could have remembered "thestrals", we would've won!! But I blanked. How embarrassing.)
The trivia was very fun, and it finished early enough that we were able to be on deck as we sailed away from port. We walked around Deck 12 and had spectacular views of the mountains and the sunset. It was a wonderful end to our relaxing day.
Yes, that's a Sam's Club directly across the street from where we docked.
Day 13 -- At Sea
60° am, 70° afternoon. Sunny
The last two days of our voyage were days at sea, so the Captain had our speed back up to about 20 knots for the sprint back to LA. Add 30 mph winds to that, and walking outdoors on Deck 12 became cold and difficult. We chose to get our steps in by using the Fitness Center's treadmills on this morning. After walking and then our normal buffet breakfast, we started strategizing with our traveling companions about our debarkation process. (We were flying back to the East Coast on the red-eye, so we were trying to decide on whether to try to see Los Angeles.)
For lunch, we went to Cascades and were seated with a group of very friendly European guests. I don't always enjoy dining with strangers, but these folks were funny and they were all traveling together. They told us about their plans to drive from LA up to San Francisco after the cruise and we actually enjoyed our time with them a lot. Kathryn had the heirloom tomato salad. This was more like diced tomatoes with goat cheese. She enjoyed, but I'm not a fan of goat cheese, so I didn't like it. But I did like the shrimp risotto appetizer. It was a very good starter. Both of us felt that our entrees were just ok. Kathryn had the seafood salad sandwich (fried fish and shrimp on a bun with lettuce and cole slaw) and I had the beef quesadilla.
It was a little too windy and chilly to spend a lot of time on deck at the pool, and (once again) there were no ship activities that we wanted to do. So our afternoon was spent hanging out in the room and on our balcony. I watched the NBA playoffs and Kath enjoyed the golf on the stateroom TV. For me, this is one of the great things about a balcony stateroom. I get to enjoy the air and the ocean view without being in a crowd of people by the pool, and it's easy to go back and forth to the room.
60° am, 70° afternoon. Sunny
The last two days of our voyage were days at sea, so the Captain had our speed back up to about 20 knots for the sprint back to LA. Add 30 mph winds to that, and walking outdoors on Deck 12 became cold and difficult. We chose to get our steps in by using the Fitness Center's treadmills on this morning. After walking and then our normal buffet breakfast, we started strategizing with our traveling companions about our debarkation process. (We were flying back to the East Coast on the red-eye, so we were trying to decide on whether to try to see Los Angeles.)
For lunch, we went to Cascades and were seated with a group of very friendly European guests. I don't always enjoy dining with strangers, but these folks were funny and they were all traveling together. They told us about their plans to drive from LA up to San Francisco after the cruise and we actually enjoyed our time with them a lot. Kathryn had the heirloom tomato salad. This was more like diced tomatoes with goat cheese. She enjoyed, but I'm not a fan of goat cheese, so I didn't like it. But I did like the shrimp risotto appetizer. It was a very good starter. Both of us felt that our entrees were just ok. Kathryn had the seafood salad sandwich (fried fish and shrimp on a bun with lettuce and cole slaw) and I had the beef quesadilla.
It was a little too windy and chilly to spend a lot of time on deck at the pool, and (once again) there were no ship activities that we wanted to do. So our afternoon was spent hanging out in the room and on our balcony. I watched the NBA playoffs and Kath enjoyed the golf on the stateroom TV. For me, this is one of the great things about a balcony stateroom. I get to enjoy the air and the ocean view without being in a crowd of people by the pool, and it's easy to go back and forth to the room.
Day 13 -- continued
After a very relaxing afternoon, we had scheduled the last of our three specialty restaurants. We went to Giovanni's, which is the Italian restaurant onboard. The decor is pretty typical, but nice. We had a lovely table for two next to a window. We were excited to try the Italian menu. Our experience in the other two specialty restaurants had been very good to excellent. Unfortunately, this was definitely not the case at Giovanni's.
Inside Giovanni's:
One of my expectations in a specialty restaurant is that both the food and the service will be a higher quality than what I receive in the main complimentary dining room. Otherwise, why exactly am I paying extra for it? Giovanni's failed us on both counts. Our server was simply not prepared for an upscale restaurant. She was not familiar with the menu. She brought us the wrong wine and tried to overcharge us for it. After getting the correct wine, she never offered to refill Kathryn's glass. She brought our entrees and then did not return to the table until she brought our bill, never asking if we wanted coffee or anything else at the end of our meal.
The food was better, but not great. The beef carpaccio was just ok, but the rest of the appetizers were good to very good. We got a caprese salad, a mushroom risotto (very cheesy), and a pasta bolognese. The pasta was made in the restaurant and you could tell it was fresh.
Caprese salad:
Mushroom risotto:
Pasta bolognese:
We definitely enjoyed our appetizers, but the entrees were mediocre, at best. I ordered the filet mignon. To the chef's credit, it was cooked exactly the way I ordered it. The steak was fine, but to be honest, I enjoyed my steak at Chops better. Kathryn's Osso Buco was, unfortunately, terrible. It was served off-the-bone, which is interesting, I guess. Definitely not the normal presentation. But it was salted to the point that it was inedible. There was an orange zest on it, but it couldn't cut through the salt. It was just not good.
Our desserts were -- again -- just ok. We got a cannoli and a hazelnut cake. The cannoli was better than the cake (pretty dry, with no real hazelnut flavor), but at that point, we honestly just wanted to be done.
Nobody came to the table to ask how the food was. Nobody thanked us for coming as we left the restaurant. If I sail on the Radiance in the future, I will definitely NOT be paying to dine at Giovanni's again. Or, at best, I'll order a bunch of appetizers "to go".
After dinner, we went to the evening show. It was an a capella singing group called ReVoiced. They were made up of 5 or 6 guys. One of the guys did all of the rhythm parts by beat-boxing and the other guys all had really good voices with great range. They didn't do any original songs, but they did some great versions of songs that you'd know from different eras. They did a really good show. The other thing that I liked a lot about them is that they do fund-raising shows for public school music departments. I just thought that was a really cool thing to do as part of your career mission. This was one of the few evening shows that was 100% worth seeing and staying for.
After the show, we walked through the casino and the shops and just sort of took our time wandering, as we only had one more day onboard. We ended up back in the Schooner Bar to listen to a guitarist/violist duo. They were really good, too. I was sorry that we only discovered them late in the cruise.
And that's essentially the end of the report. Day 14 was basically the same as Day 13 in terms of just relaxing and not doing any activities. We had to pack up and get ready to leave, of course, and I walked the entire ship to get pictures of all the stairwell art. But other than that, there wasn't much to report. So thank you for following along and I will add a bunch of pictures of the art and public spaces that I haven't included yet in the next few days!
After a very relaxing afternoon, we had scheduled the last of our three specialty restaurants. We went to Giovanni's, which is the Italian restaurant onboard. The decor is pretty typical, but nice. We had a lovely table for two next to a window. We were excited to try the Italian menu. Our experience in the other two specialty restaurants had been very good to excellent. Unfortunately, this was definitely not the case at Giovanni's.
Inside Giovanni's:
One of my expectations in a specialty restaurant is that both the food and the service will be a higher quality than what I receive in the main complimentary dining room. Otherwise, why exactly am I paying extra for it? Giovanni's failed us on both counts. Our server was simply not prepared for an upscale restaurant. She was not familiar with the menu. She brought us the wrong wine and tried to overcharge us for it. After getting the correct wine, she never offered to refill Kathryn's glass. She brought our entrees and then did not return to the table until she brought our bill, never asking if we wanted coffee or anything else at the end of our meal.
The food was better, but not great. The beef carpaccio was just ok, but the rest of the appetizers were good to very good. We got a caprese salad, a mushroom risotto (very cheesy), and a pasta bolognese. The pasta was made in the restaurant and you could tell it was fresh.
Caprese salad:
Mushroom risotto:
Pasta bolognese:
We definitely enjoyed our appetizers, but the entrees were mediocre, at best. I ordered the filet mignon. To the chef's credit, it was cooked exactly the way I ordered it. The steak was fine, but to be honest, I enjoyed my steak at Chops better. Kathryn's Osso Buco was, unfortunately, terrible. It was served off-the-bone, which is interesting, I guess. Definitely not the normal presentation. But it was salted to the point that it was inedible. There was an orange zest on it, but it couldn't cut through the salt. It was just not good.
Our desserts were -- again -- just ok. We got a cannoli and a hazelnut cake. The cannoli was better than the cake (pretty dry, with no real hazelnut flavor), but at that point, we honestly just wanted to be done.
Nobody came to the table to ask how the food was. Nobody thanked us for coming as we left the restaurant. If I sail on the Radiance in the future, I will definitely NOT be paying to dine at Giovanni's again. Or, at best, I'll order a bunch of appetizers "to go".
After dinner, we went to the evening show. It was an a capella singing group called ReVoiced. They were made up of 5 or 6 guys. One of the guys did all of the rhythm parts by beat-boxing and the other guys all had really good voices with great range. They didn't do any original songs, but they did some great versions of songs that you'd know from different eras. They did a really good show. The other thing that I liked a lot about them is that they do fund-raising shows for public school music departments. I just thought that was a really cool thing to do as part of your career mission. This was one of the few evening shows that was 100% worth seeing and staying for.
After the show, we walked through the casino and the shops and just sort of took our time wandering, as we only had one more day onboard. We ended up back in the Schooner Bar to listen to a guitarist/violist duo. They were really good, too. I was sorry that we only discovered them late in the cruise.
And that's essentially the end of the report. Day 14 was basically the same as Day 13 in terms of just relaxing and not doing any activities. We had to pack up and get ready to leave, of course, and I walked the entire ship to get pictures of all the stairwell art. But other than that, there wasn't much to report. So thank you for following along and I will add a bunch of pictures of the art and public spaces that I haven't included yet in the next few days!
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Thanks for a great TR! I think most of us like Non Disney TRs to get a feel for what else is out there. As always you did a great job of covering the feel of the cruise and added key details.
A few pics that I haven't shared yet
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