harryfat1

The interesting thing about the Brunch menu (which I didn’t save from the app as I didn’t attend) is that they have the typical breakfast food items (pancakes/french toast/bacon) as well as your lunch items like burgers and fish on the same menu. So if you are the early riser in going there at 8:30 when they open, your stomach may not be in the mood for a burger or some sort of fish as you sip your morning coffee and drink your glass of orange juice. Yeah, you would have the entire tree area to yourself. No lines whatsoever. Thanks for the thought. The wind died down by late last night here in the Bay Area and today is clean-up and restoration time. Southern California is still going through it today and maybe tomorrow as well. My cousin in San Jose is still without power for almost 30 hours now. I have read reports of up to a million people in the state without power in the state at the height of the storm as our local utility is overwhelmed. I’m sure there will be some political backlash on their readiness for this as Californians are not used to big storms out here as on the east coast. Mudslide is something probably foreign to Florida residences as most of Florida is pretty flat but many homes in CA are built along the hills/mountains and when it rains, mudslides from the mountain can cause severe damage. Here are a few pictures from the news to show the mudslide damages:

CNN reporting 800,000 without power in the state https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/04/us/california-atmospheric-river-flooding/index.html

Desserts:

Main Course:

Here's us in our festive Christmas clothes as all of us have some sort of Santa theme outfit: My younger son has a Santa shirt while the older son has a Yoda Christmas t-shirt. My wife has a pink Santa hat and I have a Santa shirt and a Mickey Mouse Santa hat (harder to see the Mickey ears in this picture but trust me, I have Mickey ears on my Santa hat).

Appetizers/Starters: Mushroom soup Beef Carpaccio Jumbo-sized shrimp cocktail

If we had come that night (5 hours later), the price would have jumped from $18 to $99.99 as it was the special Holiday dinner pricing (and not part of any dining package). Sure, they will have a more fancy meal compared to ours with some champagne but chances are the meat could be from the same cow between lunch and dinner so call me cheap, but I wouldn’t pay the hefty premium for the Holiday dinner. Lunch is good enough for me. The bread is much more interesting than the basic ones at MDR at night time. Looks like a yam

Finally, the waiter showed up and we were presented with the lunch menu. No surprises here as we had already checked out the menu online before I even reserved the lunch.

I made a reservation at 1 PM for today as a special Christmas lunch. The restaurant is split into 2 parts and this section is pretty empty but our section was pretty full with lots of people already eating their meal by the time we sat down. Waited for 10 minutes and the waiter never showed up to present us with a menu so we just took pictures of ourselves. Actually, we didn't even know who was our waiter as he never introduced himself for the first ten minutes. Now I see why the app recommends we allocate 2 hours for the meal as everything was at a much slower pace compared to MDR. Some people might like that to linger but I don’t have the patience to just sit and not do much.

Anyway, lunch today is at Chops. This marks a momentous occasion as we have never opted for specialty dining on the previous cruises. As I posted previously, I decided to try Chops because of our anniversary and it was a Christmas cruise. As all of us are RCCL shareholders in our accounts, we have onboard credit (OBC) with the cruise line on every cruise and since I have already prepaid the tips (more on that later), one way to spend the OBC is to spend it on specialty dining. Of course, getting it at $18/pp for lunch during the BF sale helps to close the deal. CFKACD wouldn’t be paying $99.99 for Chops holiday dinner regardless of the occasion.

Yeah, it seems almost weird not to have the wind howling in the background. Hopefully, we have seen the worst of it from this storm in our area but I don't believe our friends down south are done yet

We just relaxed in the cabin until our lunch appointment at Chops. Nobody was in front of the Christmas tree anymore as it was Christmas afternoon already. If the tree has feelings, I wonder if it feels sad/unwanted in everyone who loves you up to Christmas morning and then blah, nothing after the presents are opened.

Onward with the trip report but I might be doing a shorter session as the weather-related issues require my attention. +++++++++ Back to the cabin at 12 something and the further we sailed south, the sunnier the weather, and the heat and humidity started to kick in. This is the Caribbean I remember. Unlike yesterday, the cabin attendant cleaned our cabin already by noon. As I said, no consistency in when she cleans our cabin. It happens whenever it happens. Message for the cabins in our area that the crew will be cleaning the balconies. Anything personal needs to be brought inside by the of the day. But it didn’t impact us as we barely used the balcony, let alone put anything outside. Oh, yeah, for those who like to sleep in the nude, close the curtains...

Unfortunately, many of us in the state are not out of the woods yet. Especially you folks down in Southern CA as the storm is now on top of you guys and will be there for the next few days. Better bolt down that extra trash bin or else it's going to your neighbors on the next block with the nasty wind.

Thanks for the well wishes. Yeah, I was watching some YouTube videos on MDR lunches thinking since we have so many sea days, we can try them. But sadly it didn't work out as we don't see lunch before they are closed. Ricky is like an Energizer Bunny on a caffeine high. I would be dead tired after doing what he does after 3 days...

Interesting that the various dates of the same ship have different brunch options. I thought it was based on if the ship has multiple lunch options so that not everyone only has Windjammer to go for lunch. Yeah, I know about your Bay Area connection on the @dani negreanu super-sized thread. Impressive how you folks can keep up the discussion for so many years. I listed the issues we have from the storm in the previous post. Check up on your son and grandson as many places in the Bay Area area have issues. Southern California will be getting the brunt of the storm in the next few days as they have many warnings down there.

Thanks for your concern. The state has been pelted by this storm and the governor has declared a state of emergency as a result. Our backyard awnings broke this morning as I was drinking my coffee at 9 AM and then heard a loud metallic banging sound against the house - that can't be good. Looked out and saw the wind had blown off the hinge that connects the metal frame of the awnings to the house. After breaking, the metal frame was slamming against the window of the dining room. My wife and I rushed outside in the wind and rain to disassemble the awning before the metal frame broke the window and then we would have to deal with a broken window on top of water damage from the rain. Good thing we were home as if we were on a cruise and come back home to broken windows and water damage wouldn't be fun... The latest news is over 70,000 people are without electricity. My cousin lives in San Jose and he said they lost power at 9 AM today and the latest news from the crappy electricity company (PG&E) is they won't have electricity restored until tomorrow before midnight. So that's at least 24+ hours without power. Here is the power outage map of the Bay Area as of a couple of hours ago. Each color area represents areas with no electricity from the store. Severity is color-coded such that red color means over 5,000+ people in that neighborhood without electricity. So far we have power but who knows how long that will last

I just checked the compass I uploaded for day 3. Brunch is 8:30 to 12:30 that day. There doesn't seem to be much consistency as to when it ends and which ships have them. Maybe any ships that have solarium bistro might have brunch as people can go there for lunch instead of Windjammer?

Yeah, the boys love him for his energy and humor and he has great dance moves every night in introducing the acts at the main theater. Here's Ricky (and the hair) with the Village People gang at the 70's dance party

I think this was their third and final rehearsal ahead of the big performance at the Royal Esplanade (Promenade) at 1:30 in the afternoon but we won’t have time to watch it live as we had lunch plans at 1 PM. Since not everyone attended the first two rehearsals, at times they weren't sure where to stand or dance but they all tried and having fun and that's what counts 20231225_114220.mp4

At 11 something Santa was done and they were using the 270 area for the Flash mob dance rehearsal so we sat and watched them practice. It was pretty funny to watch the worker trying to coordinate a bunch of non-dancers to perform a synchronized dance routine. It’s like watching someone trying to herd a bunch of cats. (Side note - I like the wake view from the side. This is my typical morning view when the ship is sailing - except this morning when the closed the curtains for the Santa event) Pick a seat. Any seat. As deck 6 is empty on our side of the ship The one and only Mariah Carey song most people know. But hey, she’s filthy rich from it as they play it every year during the holidays. 20231225_113215.mp4

Anyway, as we didn’t know about checking the photos via the app, we did it the old-school way and paid a visit to the uncle in prison to see how our pictures turned out from last night’s formal attire. For anyone planning to buy a package with lots of pictures, it’s best to check your pictures daily and tag the ones you like so that by day 8 of the cruise, it’s less overwhelming to look at 200+ pictures at once. As it's Christmas morning, not many people here to visit their uncles in prison

We were done with 270 and as we walked past Izumi they had a sushi-making class so I took a picture of the place. Not sure if this wasn’t my only picture of the place. I had thought about eating here as one of the 2 specialty lunches I had budgeted but given I’m from the Bay Area with a huge Asian population, I can get sushi easily from home. I don’t need to get it from a cruise. In looking at Google Maps and searching for “sushi near me”, I counted there were 20 sushi restaurants within a 10-mile drive from my home. I can tell you there are not 20 steak houses near me so I rather be spending money eating on I don’t normally have while at home. If I were to eat sushi on the ship, I would reserve the first or second day to have it. Assuming they have the fresh fish supply from Fort Lauderdale suppliers, wouldn’t it make more sense to eat that earlier on the cruise? So unless they got a fresh supply of sushi at Cuaraco or Aruba, I wouldn’t want to order sushi on day 8 of the cruise

Few more stragglers at 10:48 as you can see the workers started to pack up stuff in the back to clear out the space

After 10:30, the line to see Santa has pretty much died down and Santa is just chilling with the workers before they call it a morning I still see lots of presents in the back as some kids never made it to the 270 to collect their presents from Santa. Maybe they didn't know about the event? Not like anyone was off the ship as it was a sea day. Back in 2017, we were docked at St. Maarten on Christmas day so we had to grab the boys' presents way early at 8 AM and rushed off the ship for an excursion. Looks like Santa's helpers are visiting their uncles in prison that morning as well