frayedend

15 hours ago, RoundGuy2771 said:

 

I apologize. A scene just popped in my head where you are meticulously ordering a 6-ingredient drink to an overworked Filipino trainee who's never heard the term "egg-white". Meanwhile, there are 10 other people waiting to order a simple rum and Coke. It just made me giggle a bit.

 

And of course, a $10 bill included with your key card will undoubtedly speed up the process.

 

 

 

 

No need to apologize.  Honestly, if a bar is super busy I'll ask for a Titos and Soda.  If I'm sitting in a fairly quiet martini bar then I'll order something more specific or off the menu.  I'm sure the mojito bar menu will work for me.

13 minutes ago, RoundGuy2771 said:

 

 

I hope you're also planning to wait. 😄

 

 

Well, slowing down the rate it which I consume alcohol has never been a bad thing.  Nevertheless, I generally provide a generous cash tip when ordering my first drink.  I rarely wait very long.

On 6/21/2023 at 1:08 PM, RocketMan275 said:

Suggest you take a recipe book of several of your favorites.

for example a whisky sour is whiskey, simple syrup, and lemon juise.  Even if they want to use sour mix, you can show them the recipe of how you want it made.  

BTW, I've just found a recipe for a French Manhattan: cognac, sweet vermouth, orange liquor, and bitters.  

I don't need a book.  I can tell them the recipe.  Most of what I want is simple.  Rum, syrup, lime, or whiskey, syrup, lemon, or gin, syrup, lemon, mint leaves.

I am not a fan of vermouth for some reason.  I've never liked any drink with it, so I don't generally get Manhattans.  But an Old Fashioned, with the cognac, orange and bitters sounds good.

I make a riff on the old fashioned at home with Barbancourt 15 year rum, 1/4 oz maple syrup, and 4 dashes of black walnut bitters.  It's a tad on the sweet side and because of that goes down way too smooth.  A couple of real Luxardo Maraschino cherries and I'm in heaven (until the next morning).

I plan on being specific to a fault.  A whiskey sour with Old Forester 1910, lemon juice and simple syrup.  If they have egg whites and a few dashes of bitters even better. No sour mix please.  A daiquiri with XXX Rum (not sure what they have) lime juice and simple syrup, served Up).

I looked for a menu online for the martini bar on the Pearl but haven't found one.  If anyone has one to post I'd appreciate it.  But mostly I'd like to know if they know how to make classic cocktails.  I'm not into martinis, but these days anything served in a martini glass or coup seems to be called a martini.

So what I'm asking is basically, if I ask for a daiquiri will they know that it's not a frozen strawberry drink.  Or will they know what's in a gimlet (I'll specify the gin or vodka).  How about a whiskey sour?  I pray they will use lemon juice and not sour mix.  I could take or leave the egg whites.  

During Covid all I had to do was drink and learn cocktails so I became a bit of a cocktail snob.

7 minutes ago, Asawi said:

Basically an espresso and a lungo use the same amount of coffe powder (approx 5-7 gram), but a lungo water it out a little bit more. 5 g coffee in lungo size cup would still be pretty strong!

Dark or light is a matter of roast and should not be controlled with water amount. 

For a Capuccino you add steamed milk to espresso. 
(For European drip coffee we typically use 7 gram coffee/cup, same as USA. The difference is that European size "cup" is 125 ml and US cup is 225-250 ml. So we typically drink our coffe twice as strong as USA.)

Love this explanation and the exact grams.  I loved the coffee I had in France and Germany but haven't tried to replicate it yet.  The measurements will help.  

Thanks.  I have the Starbucks included drink package, so I'll just go there I guess.  Never liked those types of packets.

If we request a coffee machine is it a Nespresso machine or a standard type.  I'd love it if they had Nespresso.  I saw that in the haven rooms but not sure elsewhere.

15 hours ago, Liljo22 said:

What brand liquor do you like to drink?  The package covers any drink up to $15.  If the drink is more than $15, you only pay the difference plus 20% gratuity on the difference.  I only see it worth upgrading if you like high end whiskies or are very particular about wines.  Yes you can get Starbucks with the Plus but that is a lot of coffees to cover the costs to upgrade.

 Yeah, saw that list yesterday and knowing they have Old Forester on the bourbon list was an instant "yup I'm upgrading".  Love that stuff.  I also like higher end gin (although the Beefeater is satisfactory for most cocktails).  

Yeah, it seems "ultimate" is not used anymore (unless it's only when it's "free at sea").  But what a misnomer.  You'd think Ultimate is better than Premium Plus.  

Well, wife called while I posted and surprising got the answer before I got it answered here.  LOL. Apparently Unlimited and Ultimate are the same package.  Upgraded to the Premium Plus for about $487 total for 2 of us, 7 days.  Did we need it?  No idea.  But I'd rather Starbucks and not thinking about what drink we get.  

We have a few "free" amenities on our Boston-Bermuda Pearl cruise.  I found our amenity confirmation and it shows the Ultimate Beverage Package.  But no where on the website can I find a description.  Trying to see if I need to upgrade it, since we prefer real cocktails and good coffee.  Is there any source that tells what this package includes?

Here's the website that has "Unlimited" and Premium" but no Ultimate.

https://www.ncl.com/onboard-packages/beverage-packages

Great!  Thanks for the super fast replies!

Wow it's been a long time since I've been here.  Anyhow, we are going on the Pearl for an easy Boston-Bermuda cruise.  We have our friends also going in a different cabin.  Part of the promotion we have includes 2 free specialty restaurant dining for each of us.  When booking our reservations we decided the best thing to do was for each of us to reserve a restaurant, with 4 people.  So we booked Cagney's and our friend's booked the other (I forget which).  

Is there any reason I need to link the cabins so there isn't an issue with us all getting the free meal.  I'm guessing/hoping they just ask for the cabin card/# at the restaurant and we will be charged accordingly.  But I like to be prepared. I don't want to wait in line at the service desk for any silly thing.

3 minutes ago, Paulxyz2004 said:

 

Well it´s a one sided Mirror. On the other side it´s the womens room and they can watch while sitting on the loo.

LOL, so that's why they were all buying me drinks in the On Air bar after I left the men's room.  😄

Wonder if anyone else has noticed this.  The men's room near the main theater has a mirror in front of the urinal at stomach height.  It spans both urinals.  Look forward and you have no choice but to see your own junk and the junk of the dude next to you.  WTH.  😄    Luckily I noticed this when no one else was using the urinal.  

I cruise next Sunday on Harmony.  Tonight I was looking at my Set Sail pass and I was going to print them and the luggage tags.  Then I decided to check the app.  The app had only 3 or my reservations noted.  It did have my Set Sail Pass.  Then I went back to the website.  The Set Sail Pass link now says "Check in paused" and won't let me do anything.  

Then there is the calendar.  It has all my shows.  But even though My Time Dining reservations were made, the List view still says "at your leisure".  I have to click each individual day to see the times I scheduled.  I just don't get all the inconsistencies.  They really need to work on this stuff.

They had a BOGO sale a few weekends ago and we saved at least 2K on the Harmony cruise we had been looking at.  But we are cruising in January.  In any case, sometimes the sales are real savings so keep an eye out for them.  We had already been searching before the sale so we know the price came down significantly.  

I loved the Marriot in San Juan.  The water is very wavy where it is, if that's a concern.  But it was a great hotel.  Also the cab fares are regulated so you don't necessarily need Uber.  They weren't that expensive from airport to pier and hotels in between.

Interesting thread. To the OP, your first post was short on detail and confusing. Often posts like yours turn out to not be very accurate and that is why people questioned it.  But after some research apparently the Yeshiva week cruise can be an issue.  I got a bit nervous  researching because I'm going on Harmony that exact week, no Sunday to Sunday with sea day on Saturday.  All that lines up with the Yeshiva week cruise.  But it's not necessarily the Anthem.  I found that this year there is a deal for the Allure.  A few of the posts I've seen mention leaving from NY or NJ.  I'm sure that has more families as they don't need to fly to Florida (I'm guessing more schools have that week off in NY and NJ?).   A good search will find a few Yeshiva week cruise deals.  I don't think we are allowed to post links to other travel agent sites so I'll refrain. 

1 hour ago, A&L_Ont said:

 

LOL, leave it to the opinionated Bostonite to correct the uninformed. 🤣 (to be read in joke font)

 

 

ROFL!!!  We are an opinionated bunch.  Not as bad an NY perhaps.  😄   I did find it hilarious that someone might have a wicked pissa.   I'm thinking I should invent a drink called that.  

To the OP, loving this thread.  Going on Harmony in January.  Thank you!

12 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

 

🤔

 

Live now. Equal amount of Boston and LA fans watching.

 

You can hear the Boston fans talking, that after the win they are headed to the pub for a rippah and a wicket pissa. 

 

Thanks to Maureencruiser I speak some Boston. 

 

 

I think you must have heard wrong.  LOL.  Wicked Pissa, an adverb/adjective.  The game was wicked pissa.   Never heard anyone say "a rippah" either.  But then I've been out of town for a few years living in the suburbs.

18 hours ago, broberts said:

 

Yes. But many, if not most Caribbean islands have different rules for cruise passengers than tourists arriving for a longer stay.

When you say yes do you mean Labadee also requires 6 months?  Online search I found that nothing is needed in Labadee to get on or off, other than ship card.

Just recalled my last Carnival cruise with my 17 and 15 year old sons.  I ordered a pitcher of some special drink in the comedy club (to save myself money as it was cheaper than 2 drinks).  The waiter asked how many many glasses.  My kids were clearly underage and I even sort of told him that by saying something about the kids.  He just shrugged.  I got 3 glasses no problem.  I just let the kids taste it but I was surprised.  He basically condoned giving the kids some booze.

So Haiti says 6 months on their website.  But does Labadee count if it's owned by Royal Caribbean?

ETA:  A quick search answered my question.  Seems neither passport nor birth cert is needed on Labadee, no immigration or anything because it's segregated from the rest of Haiti.