abbydancer2003

Hello. My intention, when I boarded on Friday was to start a live from. However, because I have a class project to write, and other assignments, I decided instead to just do a thread where I'll post some observations, etc. And answe questions. But first, about this trip. My sister and I booked this 10 day Southern Caribbean a couple of years ago, when we realized the 2023 cruise we'd booked had a date conflict. (We ended up doing something different then). Our ports are St. Maarten, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Antigua and St. Kitts. Other than St. Maarten and sort of Barbados (right after they started sailing, so I couldn't really get past the terminal), they're all new. The other thing of note is that my sister (Beth) has two torn tendons on one ankle, so she's staying on the ship. We had tours booked in the new ports, and I've found a substitute. We're about 1/2 way through, and it's been very nice. We're in a Sky suite, so todays post will be about the butler service. We didn't meet our head butler until day 2, but he's been very visible since then. On day 3, we called him to bring us a continental breakfast, and he and a room service guy brought it. Starting the next day, we asked for a standing order of coffee and tea (no breakfast stuff) every day at 8:15. Yesterday, it didn't come, so we called the butler and it arrived around 8:30, Today, our dedicated room service person arrived on time. We're also getting daily potato chips so far. Yesterday, I ran into our last dedicated butler (Summit April 2023) - he's now an assistant waiter, but starting around the 2nd week of March, he'll have his butler job back. So, yes, in the next few months the sky suites are getting their butlers back, and it appears it will roll out from March to June. So we're overall happy. I'm up to about 6 staff members who I've sailed with before - Retreat manager (our concierge on the Silhouette), hotel manager (suite manager on Eclipse in 2019), assistant bar manager (our bartender and friend from Summit 2021), previously mentioned butler, and our waiter from both the Eclipse and Equinox, and one of the other butlers who recognised me. So far, so good.

I'm going to wrap this with some quick notes and pictures from our last 2 days of cruise, and trip home. After our two delightful sea days, we went to Cozumel. Our original plan was to go to a resort that Arie recommended, but there are serval ships here, and we figured it would be crowded, so we decided to just take a walk. We met around 10 am, after breakfast, and headed out. Once on shore, we found this in a courtyard. I love this sort of sign. Wandering through the area we found a small pyramid replica, with a small museum inside. And at the edge, the required sign. Following that, we found a store that sold coffee and chocolate. So we bought some whole bean coffee, vanilla for my sister, and a white chocolate bar. The store staff was very helpful with letting us taste the clocolate, and smell the coffee. It was good experience. On the way out of the area, we noticed a guy painting murals on the buildings. After that, we stopped at stall so Arie and Cheryl could buy some hats. We headed back to the ship, We agreed to meet Arie and Cheryl for lunch, where they had a Mexican buffet. Pretty good, but when I ask for Fajitas, they ended up pressing it into the tortilla, making it a fajita burrito. After that, we played Catan. The rest of the day was pretty much the same as others, we hung in our room, went to the Reflection Lounge, and hung out with them after their dinner. Dinner tonight was good, and Glen had the special creme brulee for dessert. I had a crepes suzette. Pretty good. After dinner, we went back to the room and watched a show on our Roku, which we connected. The next day was our last day. We didn't do much, except play Catan for the last time, go to the Reflection Lounge for last time, etc. After the reflection lounge, we packed until it was time to go to the show, which was Rock City. I've seen it a few times, but I still like it. After that, our last drink with Arie and Cheryl and then final dinner. The amuse bouce was a blue cheese macaroon, which may have been the best part of the dinner. For appitzers, we chose a cheese, which is a raw milk cheese, that was pretty yucky. We couldn't eat much. My main was an oxtail entree but with filet, I didn't like it and Glen didn't like his much either. We agreed that it was the worst meal we've ever had, and considering the grand total, they're not doing too badly. We went back put our bags out just a little after 10 and went to bed early as we're up early tomorrow. Some closing thoughts, last day, and a couple of answers late.

Connie Day 10 Sea day 4 - Sunday 2 Today is the second of two sea days before we get to Cozumel. For something new to do, we decided to go the continental breakfast at Michael’s Club. Once I got there, I realized that the only coffee they had was from the machine, meaning it was espresso roast, which I only like in lattes. I mentioned to Michelle, the server, that maybe if I went to Luminae, they’d give me a cup of brewed coffee to go. She said she’d call them. Soon a pot of brewed coffee appeared, and I got my good coffee! In the middle of this, we got a text from Arie about playing Splendor and Fluxx after the captains event in the theater at 11. We don’t eat lunch until after 1, so that should be fine. (Splendor plays faster than Catan) Soon after that there was an announcement from the cruise director about an “Over 18 only” show at 10:45. He announced that if you wanted to go, you have to have a “open mind”, at which point everyone in the Club cracked up. We met Arie & Cheryl around noon, and played. Arie won both games, and Splendor was close. We kind of let him win Fluxx because lunch was getting pretty close to ending. I started with the burrata salad, and had the main dining fried chicken for my main. It was 2 boneless pieces with Jonny Cakes (a little thicker than we make at home), fries, and a coleslaw that had too much onion for me. For dessert I had one of my favorites, key lime pie. After lunch I went back to the room to work on my class. Since tonight was our second formal night, we dressed before our Reflections lounge meet up. Tonight was Music and Mixology, an event we’ve been to once before. We enjoyed it, and started other people dancing after we did it. Following that there was a second Officers thing in Michael’s Club. Tonight we did meet the Captain, and we talked about his upcoming vacation home to Venice. Tonight’s show was The Chernov Brothers. They did their very own two person variety show. They are acrobats, clowns, swords etc. They were terrific and I’m not sure what they’re doing on a cruise ship, not touring the country. Since they are Ukrainian, they ran a film tribute to Stand with Ukraine. It was (and hopefully still is) gorgeous. We headed back to the room for a little while, and then went dinner. I had the “crunchy” asparagus, and then the rack of lamb. It was excellent as always. For dessert, we shared a coconut tapioca. I had most of it, and gave Glen the orange chocolate tulle, which is gone from the picture. The passionfruit sorbet was good, tapioca - OK> <6687> After dinner we went to the adult show. It was a little burlesque, and the costumes were a little risqué, but the story was pretty tame (evil witch enslaves sailors on her island, love triumphs. I'd have given it an R rating, Glen PG 13. It was about the same level of "adult" as the Rocky Horror Picture Show. In other words, not really, and you didn't need a terribly open mind for it. So that ended our nice sea day. Cozumel and one more sea day left.

Connie day 9 - Sea Day 3 - Saturday 2 We did manage to be up in time for breakfast, so we went, since we didn’t at all during the run of port days. As I was finishing, I got a text from Arie that they were on the pool deck waiting for officer vs guest “speed baggo”. It appeared tow however did the beanbag toss better, but we couldn’t really see it. We did figure out when to meet for Catan later. I had some things that needed to be done for the class I’m taking, so I went back to the room and worked out that until lunch. Lunch was at Luminae for the first time in several days. I had fried mushrooms from main, and then the Luminae Cobb salad without onions or eggs. For dessert, I had a scoop of mango sorbet. After lunch we met at Ocean View to play Catan. Today we were playing with a single 12 sided die (flashback to my very limited D&D days). That did change the game, because the odds of a particular roll became completely even). It was fun and Glen won today. I spent the rest of the afternoon continuing my class, and the we did our normal Reflections, Michaels, show. Tonights show was a broadway performer, apparently he’d been in Grease on both broadway and a touring show. The show could have been good, but was actually kind of boring since mostly he did old standards and not broadway. Once that was done, we met Arie & Cheryl at Cellar Masters for awhile, and then went to dinner. I started with corn soup, without the stuff they put in it. Still good. Both of us had the pork tenderloin, with mustard sauce. Sadly, it was pretty dry and the sauce didn’t cover that. For dessert, I had the brioche custard. It was rather deconstructioned, but pretty good. After dinner, back to the room for the night. *

I'm curious about the ice thing. I thought, in non-sute rooms, the room steward brings ice. Am I wrong?

Connie - Porto Limon - Friday 2 Today is our 4th port day in a row, and we’re in Costa Rica. We were on the Pacific side on our very first cruise and now it’s the Atlantic side. Arie had booked us with a guide he knows, who was gracious enough to give us a price break when we couldn’t drum up more people. We did get a 5th person last week. We got up early and thought we’d have time for Al Baccio, However by the time we got there it was almost time to leave, so I got a latte and drank it on the way to the gangway. We also met Vicky, who was the person joining us. Walking off the pier we were serenaded by a reggae band singing a “Welcome to Costa Rica” song. It was rather catchy, actually. Between the pier and the street was a craft market. A nice sign We met Charlie, our guide, just outside the port. Our plan was to go to the Sloth Sanctuary and then a national park, but Charlie suggested we visit some hanging bridges. Along the way, we encountered a lot of traffic due to road work. We left the main road and head up a hill to a jungle area with a restaurant. Once we got up there one of the guys, Kennedy became our guide up to the bridges,. We walked uphill for a while, He pointed out varies plants and a few creatures. Our favorite was the tiny poisonous frog. A bit elusive, but here’s a orange/reddish one. After about 20-30 minutes, Cheryl and I gave up, since it didn’t look like we were going anywhere except up, so Cheryl and I bailed, and walked back to the restaurant. We had a nice time talking to Charlie, watching monkeys, and enjoying some fruit. This is a monkey (hanging from the tree), but they are hard to see. It took them about an hour to return. We saw them crossing a bridge to get to the restaurant, but then they veered off. We later learned that Glen and Arie were ready to head back, but the other lady wanted to see everything. In retrospect, maybe we should have left her there and she could spend the day as she wanted. By the time they were done, it was too late to do the planned stops, and by this time none of us wanted to spend a lot of time in his van. So he suggested that instead, we go to a nearby canal for a boat tour. We’ll likely see wildlife. That sounded good. We headed to the cancel and had a private boat with both a driver and a spotter. We saw lots of birds. We also saw a crocodile under some plants. Look closely. We did see a few sloth and monkeys, so it was a good ride. Next up we went to visit a beach. No swimming for us, as the weather wasn’t that great, but it was nice. We walked through a restaurant to get there. Gotta love the iguanas at the restaurant. We then drove up a hill to get a good overview of Purto Limon. I think you can see the ship on the left side of the picture. Following that, we went to a grocery store, so that Arie could get some coffee. We thought we would too, but when we got there, we noticed at all the coffee that Charlie recommended as good was only sold as ground coffee. I’ve noticed that in the grocery stores in the Caribbean, coffee is only sold as ground. We decided to pass. That turned out to be our last stop. We’d deviated greatly from the planned itinerary, but since Charlie was well short of the number of people he needed, we were OK with that. We decided to stop in the craft market. Arie and Cheryl wanted shirts, and I wanted to take a look. I did find a refrigerator magnet (with sloths) and and a small bag of whole bean coffee from the brand that Charlie liked. I also got another local coffee. For some reason the guy kept telling me they ship to Massachusetts. Maybe I’m supposed to infer that hey can ship anywhere in the US? We headed to lunch at the buffet since we were back in time for it. It wasn’t crowded and the were carving top round, so I had some of that. After lunch we went back to the room until 5pm, when we met Arie and Cheryl at the Reflections lounge for our nightly drink. After hanging out in Michaels for a while we went to Soundtrack, the first production show. It was OK. Following the show, we met Arie and Cheryl for our later drink, but this time at the OceanView Cafe bar, since the loud band was in Rendezvous. The bar was busy, but not as loud as Rondezvous. At about 8:30, we headed to dinner. Tonight I had a mushroom vol au vent and the chateaubriand from main. The vol au vent was made right and tasted good. I think this is pineapple upside down cake. That was a then a wrap for us. Tomorrow is a sea day, so no plans.

As I recall not much near the pier. There is a large duty free shopping area, but you have to take a cab or something there. There's not much in the pier area, maybe a couple of shops.

Yup. I stopped getting the Gelato a long time ago, as I've had better. Most, now that I think about it.

Connie - Day 7 Colon Panama - Thursday 2 Our arrival to Colon Panama was scheduled for 9:00 am, and we’d decided to join Arie and Cheryl for a ship tour of the new Locks visitors center and a visit to the Unisco World Hertitage town of Portobelo. The description said that it was an hour drive to Portobelo. Because Arie’d read that Colon was not a safe city, it seemed like a good idea. We decided to go to the Elite coffee breakfast, since that’s open later than the restaurant, and we didn’t need to be anywhere until after 10am. We went, and while I asked for regular coffee, it was dark enough that I’m pretty sure it was an espresso roast. (That’s been an ongoing thing - coffee in Luminae, for example, is only truly brewed at breakfast). We shared a fruit plate and a pastry plate, and had some OJ. At about 9:55 we decided to go get our stuff for our ship tour today. We met Arie and Cheryl outside the theater, and headed in to get our numbers for our tour. We got them, sat for a few minutes, and then headed out to our bus. Decorations in the terminal We found our bus and were the first on board, so we had the front row. I did watch as the rest of the people boarded, and no-one seemed to need the front row so we stayed there. Our first stop was at the Visitors Center for the new Locks. These were authorized by Panama in a 2006 vote, and 10 years later, roughly, the new locks were ready for business. The new locks are wider and deeper, so allow for bigger ships (I did read that some ships still can’t do a full transit because they won’t clear the bridge on the Pacific side). On the way to the Visitors Center, we saw various military areas. The visitors center gives you a full view of the first set of locks. Once we arrived, we were told that we had 90 minutes, and could see a film about the locks. First thing was posters listing what the different sets of locks were. We’re visiting the Auga Clara locks. The new locks on the Pacific are the Cocoli Locks. Too far away for today. The visitors center has a gift shop, a theater and viewing platforms fo the locks. I headed to the viewing platform and discovered a container ship was in the first lock. We watched the water drain out to lower the ship. Eventually, we watched it sail out of the first lock, into the second. We could see what appears to be the control tower for the locks. There was also a good view of the bridge that crosses the Atlantic set of locks. Once that was done, I went to the gift shop and bought a magnet to commemorate my visit. I also shared some of the plantain chips that Arie had purchased. After that it was time to watch the movie about the building of the canal (both times). It only ran about 9 minutes, so not very detailed. David McCullough’s book is in my future. (The Path between the Seas, I think). After the movie we waited for our bus. Our group loaded quickly, so we had time to drive across the bridge to see the old locks, too. Once back across the bridge, it was time to head to the UNESCO site of the pirate town of Portobelo. Our tour description said it was an hour drive. That was problem one - it was a little over 90 minutes of driving. The part along the coast was nice, but we drove through towns with mountains of trash by the side of the road. I’m not sure why. We eventually arrived in Portobelo, It turns out it’s a small town with a 3 forts in ruins, a couple of old churches (the current one from the 17th century is apparently a shrine to the “black Jesus”. Wikipedia says that the statue in the church is venerated in Panama, and people make pilgrimages to it, walking from all over Panama to it. We aslo went to a small slave museum in the old custom house. Small but nicely done. Custom house as seen from the ruined fort next door. We had about 40 minutes there so we wandered around. The town square is nice. We saw nothing about the promised “pirate village”. We stopped in a minimart, but didn’t see anything interesting, so we got back on the bus. It was slightly shorter back, but still close to an hour and half. Once back at the port, we were dropped closer to the entrance, and a bit further walk back to the ship. On the whole the excursion was a mix. The Locks were good, but the trip to Portobelo was too long and the village seemed like a small impoverished town with a couple of interesting things to see. Not worth it. By this tie, it was close to 5 , and all we’d had to eat was the fruit and pastry at 9:30. Arie and Cheryl decided to go get ready for dinner, as their dinner was at 6. We headed to the buffet and grabbed so pizza. I took me a little while to find some water, as they’re still serving everything. I’m generally OK with served food, but drinks should be self service. We went to Michaels for a bit afterward, and then back to the room until dinner. For dinner, I had the Roasted Carrot Salad, and grilled chicken breast. The chicken was good , but the black garlic emulsion on the veggies was only OK. For dessert, main had Cherries Jubilee, and I love those so I finished with that. After dinner back to the room for a while and a reasonably early night since we have an early start tomorrow. Fortunately, the clocks go back an hour.

They said that? Hmmmm, I did see the chip go in.

The Reflection was my second X cruise and DH’s first. I’m looking forward to reading this, although I’ll probably get behind, as I leave in 24 hours for 5 days in Alabama and then 10 in the Beyond.

Once again, I haven't abandoned this. I'll do a post now, and then finish it tomorrow (the day before I leave for the next one). Here goes: Connie - Day 6 - Cartagena Day 2 - Wednesday 2 Today we have another TBL tour, this time the secret food tour. Brian, another cruise critic friend, is joining us for this one. Since a little after 9 worked yesterday, we agreed to meet him at Al Baccio. For breakfast, we decided to just go to Al Baccio early for coffee and pastries. We had about 20 minutes, which I thought would be enough, but we barely finished. We met Brian and as we were leaving the ship Dan, our guide, started texting. We ended up leaving at 9:05. On the way out, we saw a peacock strutting his stuff. Once again, our guide was easy to find. I figured we’d get a cab, and then he’d put us in a cab back, but it turned out he had a driver who took us to the old city and dropped us off. We were to have 5 stops for local food. Our first stop was at an open stand for Apepa - a fried corn bread filled with beef and egg, similar to an empanada I think. We are also going to get fried plantains there, but they weren’t ready yet. However, Dan showed us one of the raw plantains. Since the plantains were not close to ready, we went to our next stop which was a cooking stand at the edge of a high rise, for seafood salads. We had our choice of shrimp or the bomb (bomb had other seafood, including octopus). Glen and Brian chose the bomb, but I went for shrimp, since that’s about the only thing from the sea I eat. I think it was somewhere between a ceviche and a cocktail. It was very good in any case. Apparently the stand has been there for many years. Next we stopped for a fruit juice. We all picked a local fruit. The juice was just juice and it was good. Then it was back to the first stop for what we were told were the best fried plantains in Cartagena. Our final stop was a cafe for Columbian coffee. Both Glen and Brian ordered a double espresso, but I opted for a latte. Apparently they both needed do add some sugar. I did not, and enjoyed my drink as ordered. Dan also gave us passionfruit cheesecake to share. It was all delicious. He then called his driver to meet us and take us back to the ship. We’d got a text from Arie that they were about 15 minutes ahead of us. Their ship tour didn’t take them back to the ship but to the entrance of the port area. I guess the want you to shop. He mentioned that the coffee they bought at the store yesterday was about twice the price at the port store. We met them at the buffet, which was rather a zoo. Fortunately, we weren’t particularly hungry so we had a drink with them. The plan for the afternoon was that at around 4, they’d come to our room to watch the end of sailaway and drink our wine. I’d asked our head butler for some snacks, in part to see if we could still get them even without a dedicated butler. After the buffet we went back to the room. I sent my printout the e concierges, and then called X to change rooms on a future cruise. I did some work on this until Tony and our rooms service guy showed up with shrimp, fruit, a cheese plate and potato chips. We also got a big ice bucket for the wine, which we will keep for water, since our refrigerator is actually a cooler that doesn’t work. Arie and Cheryl soon showed up and we enjoyed watching a sailaway from Cartagena. The mandatory fort at end of harbor picture. Looks like a resort at the edge of Columbia. They left and then a little while later we went to the Reflections Lounge for the second returned Captain’s Club happy hour. Food there still hasn’t returned. When they left for dinner we got ready for dinner and headed to Michael’s Club for. A drink. They are making me excellent sangrias every night. We decided to go to the show, which tonight is a Neil Diamond tribute performer. He was good, but did do a lot of self promotion. After, there was a 5.00 free slot play, so I went to that. I ended up with 3.45. I then played 10.00 and ended up with 3.55, so 7.00 on 10 spent. I did better later. Arie and Cheryl were there finishing off their roulette money so I watched them and Glen joined me. Most interesting thing was when Arie dumped a chip in his drink. They did not refund it. Once they finished, we went to dinner. I started with an asparagus starter, which was pretty good. It’s new and one of the few changes I liked. For my main, I had turkey from the main dining, and some day I’ll figure out how to get good pictures. Glen ordered the sirloin, and once again was not happy (it’s more like a roast and doesn’t work), so he met with the chef. He also switched to a seafood pasta. Dessert was the raspberry licorice cream. It does come with chocolate ice cream, but I left that off. This was a whole lot better than it looks. Glen had the Chocolate Caramel Custard. And a random picture of Glen with our fabulous server Nolan. Today was also our dating anniversary (27 I think) and they gave us a little chocolate cake. After dinner, we went back to the room and found this. And this. That was very sweet of our room team. There was another cake under the plate cover. We’ll give the wine to Arie and Cheryl later. It was a very nice day and we felt very well taken care of!

We usually eat pretty late, so I can use talk to the restaurant or concierge and get a reservation.

Thanks. I started switching things out (mostly filet instead of their odd roasted steaks, and chicken for other poultry) when on the Apex. I'm meeting my picky eater sister in a couple of days, so maybe we'll look at the current cruise menus and pick the nights we'll use our package.

I'd like the same thing, since we have a 3 night dining package, and want to decide what are the best nights to skip. Thank you

We were in 10101 on Apex, the obstruction is the bridge right in front of you. Friends further back in a not obstructed room said that they couldn't see much forward either.

I was able to order from main dining and Blu on the Apex recently - they did say it might not be hot and might take a while, but both times were fine. I also switched out a lot of proteins - in general I changed their roasted steaks for a filet a few times.

Yes. The pastries are free, the drinks are not.

Thank you both. I called, and she said she sent an email to loyalty(?) to have the points added. I did ask if it's because DH and I have different last names, and the primary is not always the same. She couldn't really answer that as to being the cause, but she did confirm that I should probably check that it's there on the first day.

To Captain's Club? Thanks

That's what usually happens for us. I do Go Green on every cruise, but on this one I got double the regular points, but NOT the additional night worth for Go Green. It was a 12 night cruise, I got credit for 24 nights (ie double the 12) but not the 25th for Go Green. I don't need a thread on what it is, or how it's awarded on double points. I need to know what to do when they weren't awarded. I did do a Go Green search, but nothing on that particular problem. I figure since this is the points expert thread, maybe someone here knows.

I booked my October Galapagos last May, but found out yesterday I have a date conflict (wedding to go to, election to maybe work), so I called today to move it to December. Just under the wire.

Yes I know that, but neither is Gelato, or Regent. I figured this was as good a place as any to ask about missing points.

I've been out for a few days, being on the Connie for 12 days, followed by 3 full days of training to be a poll worker, and then a bit of time with my visiting sister. She left today, so I've had some time to think about this. My experience on both the Apex and Connie with the "team" approach was good. On Apex, the head butler introduced himself as we dropped off our bags, and was generally around. He arranged for coffee every morning and helped us set up our Roku when I called him. He also confirmed that laundry would take 2 days. On the Connie, our head butler Tony was always around, set up a party for us, and on mornings that we wanted coffee, he had the same room service guy deliver it (and he plated and poured). He also offered to bring us drinks during the day, but we didn't need that. So if it was like that on every ship, it would have probably worked, but we talked to a couple of guys who said they had no butler type service on the Equinox at all. A random musing here ... if they say by June, my guess it it will be rolling. By ship? By category of Sky suite (ie, AS, SS, S1). Or maybe on June xx they'll all join their ships. No one seems to know. The retreat manager on Connie said she thinks it would be a team approach but with a dedicated butler. I have no idea what she meant, and I'm not sure she did either. I guess we'll see. I'm hoping that soon there will reports here of dedicated butlers here.

Here's a new question that's probably not new. I just got my points for the cruise ending last Wednesday. The good news - I had a double point offer, and the points were doubled. What I didn't get was my "go green" night of points. Should I contact someone? Should I have confirmed on the ship? DH and I have different last names, and sometimes he's first on the booking and sometimes I am. Could that be why? Will it matter down the road? I have no idea. Thanks!