The Fun Researcher

Check out the pdf document from suzyluvs2cruise about 17 posts earlier. In blue text it describes the order of how the menu works for various lengths and types of cruises. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=1293247&key=1aee828bd76e357f70a532fe72b9b344 Dan

I think it's perfectly valid for the OP to be asking about potential changes to the Windjammer based on what's happened with Celebrity. Celebrity is owned by Royal Caribbean Group after all, so it stands to reason that these changes may end up being implemented corporate wide. I hope not, but I've been wondering the exact same thing as the OP. We have a Celebrity cruise booked on the Equinox the week before Christmas but fortunately the dinner buffet scale back won't impact us because we eat our dinners in the MDR. Dan

I don't like these changes at all. Much more has been removed than added, especially some of my favorites like grilled lamb chops, scallops, escargot each evening, and the fallback to a "strip steak" if needed. However, I'll "deal with it". They definitely cheapened the menu with lower cost proteins for sure. Having said that, there are still a great number of very good appetizers and mains so I'll make due but who wants negative changes like this? Not me. It won't cause me to stop sailing Royal right now, but I just hope they readjust and add some of the more costly items back on the menu when eventually we catch back up to the inflationary pressures. Dan

I'll be bringing two bottles on the Anthem in March even though I'm single occupancy. Dan

I don’t see any scallops appetizers now either. 😞

Looking at 7 night menus. Are the grilled lamb chops gone? I can't find them and they are one of my absolute favorites. I see Braised Lamb, but that's the shank right? I'm not as fond of this. I want the chop. Dan

Yes. Without a doubt. We started making sushi at home often after our first class about 5 to 7 years ago. It’s really not that difficult once you learn some basic steps.

Pretty much exactly what we plan to do. Our son and my mother-in-law are doing the class, and afterward my wife, father-in-law and I plan to join and help eat. 🙂 Dan

Thank you! 🥰 That's perfect. The Anthem is the ship we plan to do this on in a couple of months. Glad we can still eat the fruits of our labor, and the class is fun regardless.

The 2-3 times we've done this we've made rolls with shrimp tempura, a California roll, and I think a tuna roll. You also tend to make a shrimp or salmon nigiri. The picture in my first post is from the actual class. That is what we made one of the times that we took this class, and then we ate it. 🙂

We've done the sushi making class a few times over the years and have always been able to eat what we've made. Is that still the case? I just want to verify before we book again. It ends up being a decent amount of sushi. Thanks. -Dan

Yowza. That’s two huge ships at once! We ran into something similar like this summer with the Allure and the Mariner at once. Still not as bad as what you had. Same with you, all loungers gone at 10 AM we finally found a few at the very back of the island. Coco Cay is cool but like an amusement park moreso than a relaxing beach day. Personally we like their other private port better, Labadee. More laid back, but that’s just us. I did a poll a litttle while back and it was 60/40 in favor of Coco Cay. Probably depends a lot if you’re the only ship in port.

For dinner? I don’t think they touched the lunch buffet, it is the dinner buffet you need to check out.

Be aware that I believe Navigator has salt water pools or what it's worth. Hot tubs are fresh. LOVE the AMPED Navigator by the way. Such an amazing ship for a number of reasons. Dan

This

It’s all good. That was helpful for me also. I did not know about lifting you over the side or not depending on the length of your session. Dan

Thank you John. 👍🏼

Look in the post immediately before yours. I just asked the same thing. 🙂

Thank you, I appreciate all that excellent info. I did not realize the free one did not go over the side of the ship! Do you know the answer to my question regarding the ripcord?

Does Ripcord cost money? I see that I can prebook it for our March Anthem cruise for $29 right now, but wondering if it's complimentary if we waited until we board. Reason I ask is that I'm pretty sure your first reserved ride on the NorthStar is free, however I can prebook an extended session for $19.

Good points. Also just speaking from our personal perspective, Royal continuously asks us back to sail over and over again. I'm sure we are on the very low end of the spending on board. They keep asking us back despite the fact that our total folio across two cabins for our family of 5, is normally $300-$400. The only thing we purchase in advance are a couple of soda packages. Once every few cruises we'll do an excursion through the ship but normally book excursions direct with vendors. After 8 (soon to be 10) cruises with Royal you would thing they would stop asking us back if they weren't making enough profit off of us. Dan

How would you know this? I would assume the opposite. Dan

Sorry for your loss.

Yes, Anthem. Pretty good suggestion!

Agreed. About the only thing that can take excessive time in our experience.