ACorgan

You can always reserve the right to change your mind. On my first Alaskan cruise, we only prebooked one excursion (in Victoria) and figured out the rest as we went along. At meals, we’d hear what our tables mates were planning to do and if something sounded fun we could usually find the option to buy a similar excursion right on the dock. This allowed us to wait and see how we were feeling that day and what the weather was like. It wouldn’t be the best plan if there was a particular activity you had your heart set on (in case it was sold out), but we were fortunate not to encounter that problem

When I booked mine, the PCC suggested bringing a printout of your original email offer, so that there’s no confusion/miscommunication regarding the amount of free play

Taste is of course very subjective, but for background, we tend towards more seasoned and well salted foods. In general, we found most of the HAL MDR dishes to be under seasoned (for our taste) and always added additional salt. The exception to this was whenever we ordered the club orange specials. We found these to have far more flavor and thought the seasoning/salt balance was much more aligned with our tastes. One dish that especially stood out was the jambalaya. I think it was my favorite thing we tried for a non-specialty restaurant dinner. Honorable mention for the CO special of spare ribs in a red wine sauce, which was also very tasty

In August when we had three adults in one cabin, only the two primary passengers had the signature beverage package (through HIA). The third adult, without the package, chose to purchase the soda-only package our first day on the ship from one of the bartenders

I’m positive this is probably discussed several places in this forum, but having trouble locating it, so just starting this thread. How is HAL currently handling drinks that are more expensive than what’s included in HIA? Last August, when we last cruised with HAL, anything that exceeded the package drink price was charged full price (eg, if limit was $11 and you ordered a $15 drink, you were charged the full $15). At our time of cruising, I remembered hearing that select sailings were doing a soft test of just charging the difference is price (eg, would have only paid $4 for that same drink). Did they end up rolling out the “just pay the difference in price” to the whole fleet or are more expensive drinks still charged full prices?

Leaving day came far too quickly 🥲 We’re heading straight to the Disneyland parks, so wanted to get off the ship as early as possible. When we got up at 6:30, we could see that we had already docked at the pier, so quickly finished getting ready and packing our last few things before heading down to Michael’s Club. A little before 7, the concierge walked us to the gangway and had us cut in front of many of the people lined up for disembarkation. It was a quick walk off the ship, down an elevator, and walk though customs/passport control (not sure which it was). Everything had Face ID, so didn’t even need to show our passports. The whole process only took a few min before we were done and outside. There weren’t any taxis yet, so grabbed an Uber that was only 5 min away. Overall, it was a wonderful trip and we will most likely sail Celebrity again

Our last night’s dinner was at Tuscan Grill and we really liked it. We were seated right at a back window, so had great views of the sail away from Ensenada As we were leaving dinner, several people came to talk with us including the ship’s head chef, the officer in charge of dinning, and someone else, that I’ve unfortunately forgotten already. We could honestly tell them that this trip was the best food that we’ve ever eaten on a cruise ship. We tried all of the specialty restaurants, Luminae, the gelato place, Michael’s Club, and room service. We would happily eat at any of them again

We had pre-booked a massage with Ensenada Massage based on a recommendation we had seen here in cruise critic. It worked out very well. They had a car waiting to pick us up right outside the port and were there when they said they would be (1pm). It was a short drive to the massage location. It’s a little more bare bones, in sort of a strip mall location near a busy street, but the prices were fantastic and the massage was good. As soon as the massage was over, they had a car ready to take me right back to the ship

Our last full day on the ship was in Ensenada. We did the food and wine walking tour in the morning, which took us to the Fish Market for a stop at a small restaurant to have shrimp tacos, a stop at a Mexican sweets shop to sample their treats, and ended at a tequila shop for some tastings. It was a good tour, but was a decent amount of walking and ended a good 20+ min walk from the ship, so would avoid this one if you have any mobility issues

Yesterday afternoon was mostly rinse and repeat of other days. Some more time at the casino, a few rounds of trivia, a little more work, and great food. We went back to Murano for a second night and thought it was as consistently good as the first evening. This time the amuse bouche was a beet soup, which was very divisive, depending on whether or not you like beets We went with the pork belly and the phyllo wrapped pear for apps. The pear was very good, but not at all what I was expecting. I had envisioned a whole half a pear, but it was more like a pear casserole with small pieces of chopped pear and cheese, encased in a phyllo shell. I liked it Mains were the lamb and the tubot Dessert was some frozen treats and a cheese plate. They mentioned that they used to come around with a cheese cart, but post-COVID, are platting all cheese in the kitchen It was a bit of a rough evening with quite a bit of ship motion (the announcement had said they expected 12-16 foot waves). One of the doors (guest bath door) doesn’t seem to latch properly, so was clanging around all night. We tried to cushion it with towels and pillows, but the ship was rocking so much that they didn’t stay in place for long

Spent some more time at the casino and found some slot machines that were being nice to me. As a bonus, they had actual chairs with backs instead of the stools at most of the machines. Also did a complimentary slot tournament, where I ended up middle of the pack, so no prize for me 🎰 We tried out sushi on 5 for lunch today. I felt bad - there was a couple checking in right ahead of us and they requested a table next to the water, but we’re told “I’m sorry, but that’s reserved for our Penthouse guests dinning with us today” Luckily, they ended up finding them a different water-view table, so I didn’t have to feel too guilty. We shared a variety of different dishes. For apps, we went with the lobster & shrimp wontons, the Goyza, the Kobe beef ramen slider, and the miso soup. My favorite was the wontons and my table mate mostly enjoyed the Kobe slider For the mains, we went with a rainbow roll, tamaki trio, and some umami, all of which were delicious Dessert was mochi and yuzu sorbe

This morning, we were invited to tour the bridge, which was delightful. There were only about 9 of us, so it was a very manageable sized group. If you have a chance to do this on one of your upcoming cruises, I would highly recommend it. It was fairly quick, so wasn’t a large time commitment

Las night, we tried Le Petit Chef for dinner. It was the History/Art/Love/Technique menu. For history, we tried both the recommended dish (tomato tartlet) and the alternate (gazpacho with salmon). I though the tart was delightful with lots of salty olive flavor and my table mate thought the gazpacho was his best dish of the night. For Art, we both stuck with the shrimp and cucumber salad and it was decent History was the recommended short rib, which was good, but suffered in comparison with the phenomenal short rib we had at Blue Bayou right before the cruise, and the alternative branzino, which was MY favorite dish of the night Final course (Technique), we both stuck with the Napoleon. I’m not a huge fan of crusts, so it wasn’t my fav, but if you’re a pie crust person, this is your dish Over the food was good, the animated projections were amazing, and the service was phenomenal. There was one other dinner who spent all of dinner having a rather loud kerfuffle over the unfairness of the dress code policy, so that was a bit distracting. By the end of the meal he was out in the hallway screaming at some of the staff. No idea what it was all about, but looked very unpleasant to me

Will see what I can do later today 😉

The catamaran boat wasn’t what I had expected, but it worked well. They made everyone remove their shoes before climbing aboard and had us all sit in stadium style seats at the prow of the boat. I was worried about the lack of shade (I burn easily), but quickly applied some sunscreen and threw on a hat, so hopefully avoided sunburn They handed everyone a glass of mimosa as we boarded the boat and it sounds like they had a fairly wide selection of alcohol and mixers available (I just stuck with Fresca). There was also a bento box style lunch part way through, with meat and cheese skewers, caprese skewers, fried shrimp, grilled veggies skewers, and chocolate truffles. After leaving the dock, we started with a closer look at the arch Very soon after that we found a mama and a baby humpback whale. Our guide estimated the baby was about a week old. I didn’t take very good pics, but we had a great time watching the livery active baby playing around and slapping their tail. We also saw several adults further out. Overall, I was very happy with the excursion We also got some great views of our ship and the arch again as we came back towards the dock It looked like humongous lines to tender back to the ship, but we quickly discovered that’s because there were three lines: one for us, one for carnival, and one for princess. The carnival line was by far the longest and ours didn’t take long at all. Now we’re just relaxing on our deck again, enjoying the view of the sunset before we need to dress for dinner

We had a catamaran whale watching excursion booked today through Celebrity. The priority tender worked like a dream. We showed up at Michael’s club and just had time for the bartender to hand us both bottles of water for the road before we were escorted down to the tenders. It sounds like many people were frustrated by the tendor process. When we left the ship around 1:45, they were only up to tender group number 7. One women on our short trip to shore was bragging loundly about how she had tender ticket 24, but she refused to wait, so made them put her on the current tender 🙄 We were a little early for our shore excursion, so walked along the water for a bit and enjoyed the sunshine and the sea lions chattering away with one another

After all the food yesterday, we decided to forgo breakfast and just had a leisurely morning lounging about our suite deck enjoying the morning sunshine. Our butler dropped off some fresh fruit, so enjoyed nibbling on some grapes We grabbed a quick lunch at Luminae and watched the sail in to Cabo from there. Today, I had the chicken consomé and the Cobb salad and both were fantastic, as usual In Cabo, the ship was anchored in such a way that we had a great view right off of our balcony

Looking back through yesterday’s posts and realized that I forgot to include the pre-dinner evening reception at Michael’s Club. They had live music (a violin and cello), trays of drinks, apps, and some officers mingling.

They might; I didn’t even ask about it. Cars were so scarce then that I was just glad to have a reservation at all and was worried it might get cancelled for any small reason, so didn’t want to push anything. Hopefully rental cars will be more plentiful next summer

Post-dinner entertainment last night included playing at the casino during their hot-seat promo (won $15 free play), the evening pub trivia (lost by 1 pt), and the late night comedy show with Chris Strait. I was a little unsure whether I wanted to attend the comedy show, since they kept stressing it was “adult” and no one under 18 should attend. I’m glad I went though, because, other than a few jokes about his vasectomy, it was mostly very tasteful and funny. Tried a few more martinis from the martini bar and, while they were all good, the candied apple is still the clear winner Cherry Lane Peartini Lychee Martini

Luminae for dinner tonight. Amuse buche was a cauliflower purée with white chocolate and smoked salmon. It sounds off-putting, but worked out surprisingly well together We both had the lobster salad for a starter. I think it had a little mustard in the sauce, so it was a no for me (I hate mustard with a passion), but my traveling companion enjoyed it For mains, we went with the steak and the halibut. I really enjoyed the halibut and thought the sticky rice was the perfect consistency. I also went with a “Fresh from Tokyo” cocktail and thought it was decent They provided several “sweets” before dessert, so we skipped ordering a full dessert plate

I’ll try to catch it another night at dinner time. I missed it today, but popped up for the late night menu. Looks like they had ice cream, a salad bar, pizza, and/or pasta for late night

I went to the Deal or No Deal game show this afternoon and it was much more entertaining than I had anticipated. I had 3 cards, so was worried about keeping up with the audience participation part, but they scroll through all the winners names at the end of each round, so ended up being very low stress. The first on-the-stage contestant did very well (ended up with more than $400) and the second one was sadder to watch (only took home $30). Someone did win the free cruise at the very end, so was nice to end on a high note. We did very well on today’s Harty Potter trivia, but unfortunately for us, so did everyone else 😂 The two winning teams both had 19/20 correct answers. We stopped by the afternoon tea at the Michael’s club. Hadn’t realized it was a more formal sit-down affair. We were still very full from lunch, so didn’t stay very long, but I enjoyed my cup of tea and all the food and desserts looked very tempting I stopped by the martini bar on the way back up to the room, since I hadn’t been there yet. They had just opened and were discovering that someone had “decorated” the ice bar with some mildly obscene pictures and phrases. The team was trying to erase the graffiti in between serving drinks and patrons at the bar were joking about the “Zamboni” coming around. Someone on here had suggested I try the Candied Apple Martini and I offer profuse thanks to that person as it was the most delectable drink I’ve had thus far on the cruise. I brought it upstairs to enjoy on our deck We seem to be paralleling another cruise ship. It looks like it’s a Carnival one; not sure if they’re heading to a port day in Cabo tomorrow, too?

Day 2 (sea day): I had a lovely night’s sleep. I woke up a few times and was disoriented that the room appeared to be moving, but once I remembered that I was on a cruise ship and it wasn’t an earthquake, I was able to drift off again. Had thought about doing room service breakfast, but was fairly wide awake this morning, so enjoyed a sit down meal at Luminae, instead. I had the eggs Benedict with smoked salmon and it was delicious. Next time, I might see if I could get a half order, since I only made it through about half of it (my table mate handily took care of the other half for me). So far, I’ve been very impressed with the seasoning levels of the food on this ship. I know it’s very subjective, but for me, the salt levels have been spot-on After breakfast, I got ready for the day and then joined the officers vs guests morning trivia. The questions were surprisingly challenging and I think most were stumped by “What color is the ‘Ex’ in the FedEx ground logo?” The team of officers took the win for the day, but the whole event was very entertaining. I took a brief break from vacation to spend a few hrs dealing with post-holiday work fires and then jumped back into vacay mode in time for lunch at Luminae. I had the parsnip soup, the hamburger, and a vanilla mojito. The consistency of the hamburger was a little different than I was used to, so only had half, but the bacon jam on it was great. The cream of parsnip soup was amazing; so far all of the soups have been stealing the show for me at the meals. The mojito had an overwhelming amount of vanilla at first sip, but was more balanced after a quick stir