Best Cat Mom

13 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

Wish me luck as I once again venture out beyond the confines of the YC. 

 

Stay safe! 😁

We like to start with champagne, then a few glasses of wine with starters, then a bottle with mains. We're usually at dinner for awhile! 🙂

46 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

Zacapa New Fashioned

Have you tried one at the Cocktail Bar yet? Go after dinner and see if you don't love Frederick's as much as I did. 

47 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

We have a great waiter, Suzette

Did she get her gold tie?? We told her as we were leaving Saturday that we looked forward to seeing her again soon but with a gold tie. She was moved up from host to black tie on our two Divina cruises last year.

59 minutes ago, steve thfc said:

Do they serve you by the glass or leave the whole bottle at the table

Both. Lunch is generally by the glass because they like to serve you. If you're drinking a white at dinner, same. They generally leave the reds on our table but I think that's because we'll drink a whole bottle with our main dishes.

7 minutes ago, chrisgp999 said:

I've found that a good porter will also move you to the front of the taxi lineup.  All you have to do is flash the cash.

We prefer Uber so we can choose nicer vehicles. Taxis can be hit or miss as far as cleanliness, etc.

The porter did ask what type of transportation so he was clearly prepared for either.

3 hours ago, Mommapadraig said:

Wonderful Concierge Raj

Raj was Head Concierge for us last year on Seaside. Totally agree -- he was great!

13 hours ago, MonsterJoe said:

I thought we were sharing coupon codes for Wisconsin cheese

Sent you a message. 😁

3 hours ago, MonsterJoe said:

You can do that in the Sports Bar?

You can do anything in slots in the Sports Bar that you can in the casino -- well, except smell like smoke.

It's great to be able to try new things! 🙂

12 minutes ago, ISABELLA said:

are all drinks in suite minifridge free?

Yes. And it will refilled with beverages as many times as you'd like. You can even say to fill it only with one type of beverage -- all Heineken or all Diet Coke or all orange juice. Or change what you want day to day. Or just call your butler when you want a drink and have it brought fresh.

@DaKahuna We really liked that red. However, Robin knew not bring us a Chardonnay. LOL

7 minutes ago, LorraineP said:

is there a way to private message me?

Unfortunately, CC has PM turned off for us members. I understand about not wanting to post an email here. Next cruise you're on, you should ask around. You could also search the internet for high-volume agencies and then compare what each offers. Good luck!

1 minute ago, LorraineP said:

Great OBC

We're not allowed to share that here, but if you give me your email address... 😁

5 minutes ago, Mommapadraig said:

We are on board the Meraviglia. Lovely lunch in YC.

Buon viaggio! Post some pictures if you can. We haven't had the pleasure of sailing Meraviglia... yet. 😉

@mnpurple I think that Miami one was the one we were on with you, where we couldn't dock at Ocean Cay because of wind, even though they tried 4 times. And there were non-YC bodies simply everywhere.

We have a transatlantic next month from Civitavecchia to Miami on Seaside. We're flying to Rome on 21 October and board on 27 October for 21 nights. It sounds crazy to say we're dying for a cruise, but we had to make our own coffee and breakfast today so...

3 minutes ago, erikb923 said:

Do they have an actual list of available wines in YC?

They usually do, but the sommelier will give you access to wines not necessarily on that list if you're working with them. We don't limit ourselves by asking for a list.

4 minutes ago, erikb923 said:

I prefer French Chardonnay, can you simply ask for something like that?  

Definitely! We've asked for a Napa this or an Australian that plenty of times. The somm will have a conversation with you and try to get what you want.

On 9/19/2024 at 8:58 AM, Georgia_Peaches said:

OMG...how did I not know this!!!  Thanks for the tip and for once again validating my time spent on CC

I feel like I should apologize here. This is always how we get our OBC back and since you're the one who recommend the travel agent who gives us so much OBC, I feel bad! We had $1,400 this past cruise and got it all out via slots in the non-smoking Sports Bar.

(We disembarked yesterday and now I'm catching up on older threads.)

.

Day 15 - Disembarkation Day

We had received luggage tags and disembarkation information in our room midday the previous day:

Our arrival time in Miami was scheduled for 7am, but since we were so close already at Ocean Cay, we arrived in the early hours of the morning. Before 8am, they were calling the first groups for disembarkation.

We made our way to the TS restaurant with our two carry on bags and one small roller suitcase, saying goodbye to Yogesh on the way and wishing him a good a group of guests on this next sailing. We were really impressed by his service and told him that we hope to see him as a Butler in the near future.

We had a quick breakfast of omelettes, along with 2 mimosas and 2 cappuccinos. If we did not order those, I'm sure there would have been many crew stopping by our table to see if we were feeling well. 😉

We then headed down to TSL to seek out Mr. and Mrs. @DaKahuna. We chatted with them for a bit then reluctantly realized that we should start our trip to the airport. Hugs were exchanged and we wished them well for their turnaround logistics and next week on board. We knew exactly how they felt, as we had be in their place just one week ago when we bid Mr. and Mrs. @morpheusofthesea goodbye. BCD commented to DaKahuna as we left, "Thanks for being normal!"

We had a 12:15pm flight, with a plane change in Atlanta so we were not in a rush, but did want to have lunch in the Delta lounge before boarding our first flight.

We were escorted from TSL at 9:15am to a YC-only security line exit. Then we merged with a line of other passengers exiting the ship as we entered the gangway. The line of people flowed quickly, never stopping until we reached the areas where the luggage could be retrieved. We continued through the rooms to the YC luggage area, which is closest to the customs area. We immediately spotted our bags there and a porter was on hand to offer assistance. We had learned from past cruises -- and from Morph -- that a porter escort is the key to not having to wait in the customs line. The porter piled our 4 rolling suitcases onto his trolley, he asked what type of transportation we had and led us to the 'special' customs line, where port personnel opened the retractable belts to allow us to walk right up to a customs facial recognition machine and breeze through. He then led us outside to the Uber area, found an area close to the curb and unloaded all the bags for us. BCD tipped him as I checked the status of our Uber. Our driver was only a few steps away, loaded our bags and we pulled away from the curb at 9:38am.

We arrived at the airport, walked right up the Delta counter and checked our bags through to Cincinnati. There was no line at Clear or Pre-Check, so we went through Clear and security very quickly. We were seated in the Delta Sky Club by 10:10am. Total time from TS lounge to Delta lounge was 55 minutes. Really nice!!

For those of you who are Delta customers, I'll share an update on the Miami lounge. We were last there in April and they have expanded since then. There is a new section in the back, with its own beverage stations. The food area has also expanded into a U-shaped buffet line.

I grabbed some beef and broccoli before our flight and it was quite good -- but a stark difference compared to YC!

We boarded and ordered vodka/cranberry and rum/orange juice for our PDBs and began our journey home:

We arrived home at 9:30pm and were in bed just before 10:30pm, a few minutes after DaKahuna texted us to say he was in TSL for a nightcap. If only…

I'll add some closing thoughts in one more post. If anyone has questions, please ask away! We're so happy to help everyone have a great time like we did.

Oops, forgot these!

Day 14 Dinner menu...

6 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

I highly doubt you got it wrong.  More of me going by memory than my notes.

Well, now you are ahead of where we were on the same day for the envelopes. LOL

23 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

'You can call me Ray, or you can call me Ray Jay, or you can call me R.J., or you can call me R.J. Junior, or you can call me R.J.J...."

Loved those commercials! Those and the "Pittsburgh's perfect Pete" for Fedex.

32 minutes ago, lahlah57 said:

Felt the same way about the mexican place.......meh

We never even thought about sushi because I am not a seaweed fan. We only tried the Mexican place because I thought I could at least try some food that I've never had. I did, and except for the spicy ones and ones with coriander or avocado, I did fine. And the $17.99 price at the Mexican place did not feel like I was wasting my money. We're happy we tried. And now we know Butcher's Cut is the right place for us.

35 minutes ago, cellfree said:

When we were on Seashore in April it was the Waitstaff who brought the wine to our table, I remember simply being asked what we preferred whether red or white etc. Do I/should I request the Sommelier our first dinner expecting that he/she would then help us throughout the cruise with various Pairings?

We have sailed on Divina many times and there is usually no sommelier there because it is a smaller YC. I think when we were on Seaside, we asked about a specific grape -- a less common one, like maybe a Primitivo or Malbec -- and they said that they would send the sommelier over. If you indicate that you know more about wine than just "red or white," you should be able to get the attention of the sommelier. If that does not work, then yes, just ask for the somm to come to your table.

We spent quite a few minutes chatting with Rodin the first few nights and that was good because it helped him to understand our palettes. We also encouraged him to bring us things we'd never tried because, well, why not? Enjoy!

3 hours ago, lahlah57 said:

Sorry about that Da he was out for the count by 8:00pm

We are light weights

He has plenty more nights to become a middle- to heavy-weight. It does take practice. @DaKahuna will be a great trainer, if needed. 😁