onedaysevening

On 2/4/2024 at 3:27 PM, VernRDH said:

DD is now 24 and Diamond in her own right. Never saw a kids menu. She always tried new things( still does) 

Mine also thought on land that extra entrees or apps were "included". Had to shut that down quickly😁

Man, I wish they were included on land...something I have to shut down for myself as well!! 😜

On 2/4/2024 at 8:55 AM, NanciRDH said:

My kids became adventurous eaters because of cruising, and even as toddlers rarely ordered off the kids menu.  I challenged them to try something new or prepared differently every day.  They didn't have to finish it if they truly disliked it, but more times than not they surprised themselves by liking it.  It did backfire on me, because at 8 yo in a land restaurant she was planning to order a 5 course meal like on vacation 😆 

Oh my goodness I can totally see this being her! For her home cooked birthday meals she already request lobster risotto, caviar is her favorite on Christmas Eve...I'm going to go broke! bahaha

1 minute ago, ecslady said:

Had no problem with my grandkids, ages 5 & 7, ordering off MDR menu on Oasis last summer. 

Perfect! Thank you!

We are travelling on the Adventure of the Seas in June. We were wondering if our 5 year old daughter will be able to order off of the regular dining menu?
She is an adventurous eater and having the same kid's menu all week will get old for her (and us). I know she'll love some risotto, lobster, hummus, tortellini and all the such and just want to be sure there won't be any issues with this.

It's a little pricey but we're using MEARS to take us from MCO to Cape Canaveral. We've used them before for Disney and have always loved their service since we have a little one as well and need something that's reliable and has an option for car seats.

Pre-Covid going to Alaska on the Eurodam we were pulling up to check-in at 11, and were in group A and were boarding at about 11:40 and started taking pictures on-board at 11:47. We will actually be on the same sailing as you, hopefully it's about the same!

Good Morning, could you please add us as well?

Eurodam - 23-Jun-18

7 day R/T Seattle Alaska

10 Year Anniversary (We were married on the Westerdam, same itinerary!!)

I think a lot of how people expect "dress" to be has more to do with them than just their age.

I am in my mid-30s, and I have always loved to dress up, my husband as well.

Not tuxes and gowns, bu on our last cruise on Royal Caribbean I wore a dress every night, and he wore slacks and a button up shirt every night (sometimes a tie, or a vest) and full suit, vest, tie, jacket for formal nights.

My thinking is, I'm sitting to a tablecloth, multi-course dinner and being served, I want to dress up.

However, I've seen on cruises, and in upscale restaurants locally, where there are some people wearing almost gym clothes, or dirty, ripped jeans and hats...all older than us....When the meal is costing 300+ for 2...I feel it's out of the ordinary to expect some higher dress standards.

Personally, for me the people dressed down don't bother me, it just seems out of place, and I don't give it too much attention since I'm there enjoying who I am with (we might be making judgy comments at our table though, hahaha).

Glad you enjoyed, this makes me excited, we're sailing on the Eurodam in June of this year (excited to say "this year" now!!)

I would think they would have checked to see what things might not be available since the ship wasn't originally expected.

Once before, on a different cruise line, we had a similar situation of changing ports. The concierge, (which thankfully we had access too), told us the atlantis things we wanted to do were already sold out by the ships that had already been planned in port.

Thankfully, he had knowledge of something we could do on our own, that would meet what we wanted to do.

I can't imagine what passengers that didn't have access to him got to end up doing. If it hadn't been for him we were already planning to just stay on the ship and be slightly frustrated.

Hopefully they can come up with a better way to handle things and share excursions that are actually available for purchase in the future.

Thank you!

I have a question, if the liquor is under $9, and you get it mixed with say, coke or seltzer, does that count as being under $9 or is there an upcharge for what it is mixed with, or does this cost include basic mixing options?

Thanks!

They do watch because on Glacier Bay day they called out a specific cabin on deck 7 for feeding the birds over the speakers. That would be funny if they had called out the cabin numbers of the smokers too. It is hard to hear the speakers from the balcony though so I am not sure if everyone can hear the announcements.

When we cruised Alaska way back in 2008, I was actually a nerd and called about the people feeding the seagulls. They were so close to us and honestly I don't want to see seagulls being fed right by me, I mean...seagulls? bah (sorry if that was any of you guys)

Anyways, the Conservation (maybe?) Officer actually ended up coming to our room, going out on our balcony and yelling at the people doing it.

It was a bit mortifying at that moment, but it solved the problem, and was totally funny later.

I think it really depends what you are wanting to get out of your cruise. We'll be sailing HAL next year and are in our mid-30s, and sailed HAL our first time in our mid-20s.

We really enjoyed it because we are going on the cruise to explore new places, enjoy our time together, and relax. Some of the things people complain about HAL not having (rock climbing walls, bellyflop contests, slides, mini-golf, dance clubs) are things my husband and I wouldn't be doing anyways, so for us we don't mind.

We're doing HAL again to recreate our honeymoon for our 10-year anniversary, but we had explored other cruise lines too before committing to HAL. We ultimately went with HAL for several reasons including relaxing experience, dates/itinerary, nostalgia, and cost (a BIG pull for me was the room size, we had an SS and for a higher price on another line you can get a balcony room that's smaller)

We are also really excited about the new musical entertainment they have on board, as that's something I think we can really enjoy.

From what I've seen from my researching the Dutch Cafe is just dutch inspired with Dutch goodies. I feel like I did see a picture with drop (black dutch candies), but I think you had to buy it, I would be surprised though if they had the dubbel zoute drop (my mom's favorite), but who knows! But if your going to any of the Dutch ports on the cruise (Curacao, Aruba, etc) you might find it there. I know we did at a candy shop in Curacao.

Explore the ports, the ship and if you feel you guys will enjoy it, then go for it.

It always hard to tell how you'll enjoy each cruise line until you do it, but thankfully there are a lot of ways to make any vacation what you want it to be no matter what cruise line you're on.

I've mixed sambal with Mayo too as a spread but also as a sauce (tossed hot shrimp in it, put it on salmon and bake in the oven).

Also, my husband's absolutely favorite salad is thin sliced Cucumber that's been sitting in Vinegar with some Sambal mixed it, we let it sit in the fridge for a bit, and it's really tasty.

And really just mixed with anything for a little spice, I use it in marinades all the time too.

Prime Beef Tenderloin: Smoked mashed potato, morel sauce

Chocolate Sabotage: Duo of Chocolate Mousse, Ganache, Cardamom Lava cake

Here's our point of view of the Chef beginning his presentation (There were a total of 8 of us)

We didn’t participate in many of the onboard activities, we swam in the adults only pool, I also went down the slides as well. I would recommend doing the slides first thing when they open for the day, we did this and our first round we barely waited and then got back in line and it was already growing. By the time we went down the slides our second time the line was getting long, and I was glad to check doing the slides off my list. The slides were very fun, and not too scary for me or my 7-year-old niece.

We did go to the ice show which we enjoyed. There was a comic-magician one night and we had a great time at his show. We also really liked the acrobatic show, I can’t remember the name, but the whole family enjoyed the acrobatics and music.

We enjoyed our ports of call, and didn’t mind too much when our itinerary changed because of Hurricane Earl. We did overhear people complaining about the change, but honestly our safety comes first and the day we were expected to be in Belize was the day the hurricane hit.

We ended up being in Cozumel on a different day as well, but that didn’t affect our shore excursions at all. In Cozumel we did swimming with the Dolphins at Dolphinaris, we really enjoyed it. We got ample time with the Dolphin, and then it included lunch and drinks as well.

In Nassau two from our group went diving and the rest of us took a short walk to the Hilton and got a day pass to use their pools and beach, it was pretty reasonable because it also included a food/beverage credit. We had considered Atlantis but the passes that we wanted were already sold out (since our ship wasn’t planned on being there).

All in all we really enjoyed our cruise.

The star dining experience of the cruise was doing the “Chef’s Table”. The experience was amazing, the food was delicious and the wine was great! The dining experience was $85 per person and was 6 courses with wine pairings and a glass of champagne before dinner as well.

We started by meeting at “Vintages” and were given a glass of champagne while we waited for the group to arrive and be escorted upstairs to the dining area. For the dinner, they closed off part of Windjammer, by Giovanni’s for our group. I was apprehensive of this at first, but it was very secluded and private for our evening. Everything was delicious, the chef did a great job explaining the process of making each dish, the sommelier then would explain our wine that was paired with it. Each dish was delicious, I was most surprised by how much I enjoyed the vegetables and sweet pea soup. The lobster, as expected was spectacular, and the dessert was amazing, the chocolate mousse in the little cup was remarkable, I raved about it so much they gave us an extra one to take back to our room.

Here is some of the food from the Chef's Table dinner:

Menu

Bread Service

Mille Feuilles of Vegetables "en vinaigrette" Tuiles of Parmesan and Fresh Basil Pesto

Sweet Pea Soup: Crisp of Prosciutto, extra virgin olive oil, garnished with poached quail eggs

Braised Short Rib Ravioli: Green & Liver sauce, Truffle perfumed gravy

Brandy Flambeed Lobster: sweet potato puree, capsicum coulis, lemon butter sauce

...

Liberty of the Seas – Royal Caribbean

July 31 – August 7, 2016

Booked Itinerary: Roatan, Belize, Cozumel

Actual Itinerary due to Hurricane Earl: Cozumel, Nassau

Cabin: Presidential Family Suite

Here’s my better late than never review. This was my second cruise, and we were travelling with 7 adults and 2 children to celebrate my in-laws 40th wedding anniversary. My review won’t be extensive, but I will be sharing things that I know I was searching for information on before our cruise.

Embarkation was a breeze for us, since we were in the Presidential Suite the concierge, Carlos, met us while we were checking in, and escorted us directly onto our ship, stopped by our room (which was still being cleaned) so we could see it and drop off our carry-ons and gave us a quick tour of the ship that ended in Giovanni’s restaurant where we could sit while getting food from the windjammer café.

We really enjoyed our time on the ship, there were visible signs of light wear and tear, but overall the ship was in great condition. We stayed in the Presidential family suite, which has 4 bedrooms, 2 master and 2 interior rooms. We slept in one of the interior rooms, and my SIL and BIL with their 2 kids (7 and 3) slept in the other interior room. We found the interior room to be enough space for us, just wish there had been more storage room. The rooms had a pull-down bed, which since my niece and nephew are young, they were able to share the space for sleeping, they were however kind of cramped in there with 4 people.

Thankfully the living area was very nice and spacious so we only really used the room for sleeping and changing.

The suite was very nice, we had breakfast several times out on the balcony, it was the only place we could all sit together. Our cabin was aft facing but has a big area behind it so we could not look directly down to the water, as you can see in the pictures. The “refrigerator” in the room is really just a cooler made to look like a fridge, so don’t count on that to keep a glass of milk cold.

Balcony View

Balcony

I personally did not like being in an aft cabin, the engines would wake me, especially when we were pulling into ports. I also did not like how dirty our balcony would get, our feet would be black from being out on the patio, and the children playing, goodness did they and their toys get sooty.

Service on the ship was great, since we were in a suite we got some nice perks. The suite lounge, which had just been updated, was very nice with great views, we spent a lot of time in there, especially during the evening when they were serving complimentary beverages. During the evening hours, before and after dinner there was a bar set up in the Suite Lounge. We had two bartenders, Ishmael (Ishi) and Hitesh, they were very personable and remembered your preferences. The bar set up was simple with a few options for Whiskey, Vodka, Rum, with sodas and juices for mixing, as well as beer (I think just one brand), and a house White and Red wine.

Suite Lounge

Another perk was being able to eat at/in Giovanni’s restaurant during breakfast and lunch. During breakfast and lunch, you could order off a menu they had or get food from the Windjammer and bring it in to eat. The menu was pretty basic, I didn’t get a picture of it. At breakfast, they had many different egg preparations, pancakes, potatoes, fruit, etc. For lunch, they had a few items, grilled steak, salmon (I honestly can’t remember) with pasta as a side. We never ate at Giovanni’s for dinner, but we did have their pasta at lunch and it was amazing!

Also, having Carlos the concierge as a resource was great! He helped us with so many things, especially when our “Chef’s Table” dinner was in danger of being cancelled because for the date we wanted, we were the only ones signed up. He knew we preferred that date, not wanting to miss formal night with the family which was the other date option, so he talked the “Chef’s Table” up to some of the other suite guests and the dinner made the minimum! He also helped us find new activities to do when we had to get re-routed to Nassau when Hurricane Earl changed our itinerary.

For dining on the ship, I will say for the most part my husband and I were under whelmed. There were only few things I enjoyed from the Windjammer. I did enjoy the fresh made waffle at breakfast and one lunch I tried the eggplant parmesan and it was actually really good. However, when I had eggplant parmesan in the main dining it was not good at all, I only ate one bite of it. I found a lot of the food in the Windjammer to be overly salted, on the first day I got meatballs and they just tasted like a salt bomb in my mouth.

Main dining food was between decent and good. Other than the eggplant, there wasn’t any meal I did not enjoy in the main dining room. Our servers were great and our food was always prepared how we wanted it. They also did a great job catering to the kids.

Room service breakfast was a FIASCO! We did breakfast for our group of 9 serval times and not once did the correct/complete order arrive, it was very disappointing.

I think it really depends on their personalities. My first cruise was on HAL at 24, DH was 28, for our honeymoon and we LOVED it.

For us, we liked the elegant touches and more calm, relaxed, pampering atmosphere that we crave.

Last year, we went on a Royal Caribbean and even though we were in a high level suite, and had all sorts of perks, we felt it paled (for us) to HAL, we still enjoyed it a lot, but liked the onboard experience of HAL more.

We noticed how Royal did more PA announcements than we experienced on HAL. We loved being able to get the Hydropool/Thermal Suite pass, we went EVERY day and we missed having that option on Royal. We also felt the staff was super attentive, and went out of their way to make things special since they knew it was our honeymoon.

We are not the type to go out dancing, or go to musicals so that didn't even faze us.

I think really it all depends on what your son and soon to be daughter-in-law, will want/enjoy from different onboard experiences.

I know HAL gets a bad rap for being "old" but honestly, we really enjoyed our experience and are repeating it for our 10 year anniversary in '18.

The windows are frosted and you can't see in. Light gets through, though. The door is key card locked.

Awesome! Thanks!

Thank you so much for this amazing review, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I especially loved when you called the Koningsdam bar "Kevin", it would be fitting with my family, because saying "Kevin" means our wine glass is empty and needs refilling!

I do have a question about the Hydropool area, in some pictures I've seen the "walls" seem to be windows looking at the lido pool area, on your pictures they seem to have a design on them. I was wondering are the walls always more private like that now or are they sometimes see-through and sometimes tinted?

Thank you!!

There are two safes, one in each of the two larger bedrooms.

Thank you!!

My family and I will be travelling on Liberty in the Presidential Family Suite. I was curious about the in-room safe situation since it's a multi-room suite. Does anyone know if each room within the 1 suite has an in-room safe or if there is just 1 for the whole cabin?

Thanks in advance!

This will be my first time cruising with Royal Caribbean and I am getting so excited!!