WinksCruises

At this point, double cruise points might be the category's only best perk.

4 hours ago, voljeep said:

and on our last cruise on the CB - we went straight to the crown grill, tried to book - nope - all booked for entire cruise ... we can get you into Sabatini's, but only for the first night.

That doesn't bode well for Premiere and Plus people hoping to take advantage of the specialty dining options built into the package they paid for.  What kind of scam is Princess running here!?

Someone in their group reported it's a medical emergency

In terms of the upcoming 2024 season, it's a case of whether your cruise line (not you) booked the itinerary before the referendum vote (ie Nov 8, 2022).  So if Royal Caribbean, for instance, had the paperwork for your cruise with a Bar Harbor stop "on the books" before that November 2022 vote, that ship's Bar Harbor stop would be grandfathered in.  If your cruise line (not you) booked the itinerary after Nov. 8, 2022, theoretically, you would be unable to stop there. 

 

And yes, any appeal by the plaintiffs would probably keep the cruise season open while it's worked out in the courts.

 

Some interesting insights on Sea Trade Cruise News including a quote from a Holland America rep saying all their 2024 cruises will go on as they were locked down before the town vote.

Has anyone attended a formal Princess book club lately?

(One where Princess selects the book title for that quarter and provides multiple copies of it in the ship libraries?)

 

I'm guessing from this notice on the main website it might be another program that's bit the dust.

 

 

49 minutes ago, njsmom said:

we need new carpet that we're saving for

Well no wonder you can't afford a 20k suite!

I can meet you at the port and play your grandchild for the week if you'd like! 😝

Thanks, very helpful review of the ship!

2 hours ago, shipgeeks said:

How do you plan to dispose of it once you've made your tea?  Where do you plan to make it? Other inquiries about making one's own coffee have led to a request to not put coffee grounds in the cabin trash unless enclosed in a disposal bag, as cabin stewards must separate everything. And, I would think, not down the toilet.

 

Thanks, good point.

 

Plans are to take my tea ball infuser to the Windjammer at breakfast and steep using their hot water. Discard the used leaves from the infuser into a napkin or a to-go cup and toss as normal buffet trash. No worse than disposing a tea bag. 

 

But you're right, I might want to enjoy  a cup on the balcony for which I'll need to employ a mindful disposal plan. (That is, if I didn't get denied boarding for contraband! 🙂 ) 

 

Thanks everyone for your thoughts on this.

 

Has anyone here ever tried to bring loose tea leaves onboard a Royal ship?

I would like to start the day with the tea I enjoy, rather than steeping the mass produced teabags available onboard, but fear being called down to the bad boy room suspected of being a pot smuggler!  Any experience with this. Serious replies only please! 😁

Ooops!  Mrs Winks just chided me. I failed to include a photo of the Washy-Washy greeter outside the entrance to the Windjammer.  Very friendly woman, but don't mess with her! (See those handcuffs!??  She's all business!)

 

 

 

It’s been a while since we’ve posted here, so you’ve probably forgotten that the whole purpose of this piddly 2-night voyage was to orchestrate a quarterback sneak across the goal line into the Diamond Plus (D+) end zone – all so we could embark on our next cruise equipped with one more drink ticket per happy hour and unrestricted access to the Concierge Lounge (contingent on it not already being overrun by “pesky Pinnacles”).

 

Admittedly, it would be a questionable point strategy during the best of times, but even less so given the world was crawling out of a pandemic and we would need to fly to Miami, stay in a hotel, and we weren’t currently carrying health insurance at the time!

 

 

Upon hearing about our goal (and learning we weren’t Floridians), some of you playfully mocked the pound-foolish extremes we were going to to reach a milestone of such dubious value. We have to agree. In the Winks playbook of cruise follies this ranks right up there with the time we decided to duck out of the safety of the cruise port and wander the streets of Falmouth, Jamaica in search of a post office to mail postcards using the country’s Bob Marley postage stamps. It wasn’t the smartest move!

 

 

But in our defense, we were anxious to get back to cruising and the novelty of taking a rare, 2-night Royal Caribbean sailing, and being able to offhandedly claim, to anyone who would listen, we only did it for the points, was just too appealing.

   

 

Well, faithful readers - and those who enjoy relishing in schadenfreude - prepare to heartily grin again. For since the time of our last posting to this thread, evidence has come to light that has rendered this entire 2-night voyage, and all the planning, work, and expense associated with it, totally “pointless”!

 

 

Why?  Well, it turns out, serendipitously, we’d lifted and shifted one of our Covid-cancelled cruises dang smack into a promotional booking window when Royal was offering double loyalty points for new bookings. Unbeknownst to even Mrs. Winks, who makes sport of schooling TAs, customer service reps, and their supervisors about the most obscure details of a fare’s fine print, the lift and shift constituted as a “new booking” and we’d be receiving a whopping 28 points for that cruise.  7-nights in a suite = x 2 points per-night (and then x2 again because of the special double-points promotion). Quadruple points for that cruise, in effect.

 

 

In failing to account for the additional points we’d accrue on that next cruise because of this promotion, my Excel spreadsheets, bar graphs, and computer modelling for our Crown & Anchor grand tally was totally off the mark.  In the end, we really didn’t need this 2-Night cruise to leapfrog into Diamond+ territory at all. Our next cruise would comfortably ensconce us in that much-vaunted tier - and then some!  

 

 

 

So now, in retrospect, I consider this Freedom sailing a totally futile endeavor and one I’m not particularly proud of initiating, but Mrs. Winks is quick to counter that it takes us 4-points closer to the Pinnacle tier (a level we clearly despise and make fun of) so our efforts were not a complete waste of time in her assessment.  (Shhh… don’t tell her that, excluding a major Powerball win or two, I don’t see us ever achieving Pinnacle status in our lifetimes! Do you?)

 

 

Okay, so where were we?

 

 

Oh, yes, the morning of day two, our final day, with Freedom of the Seas slowly approaching CocoCay.

 

 

We woke up that morning to find our steward had already slipped green luggage tags, disembarkation instructions, and a tip envelope under our stateroom door overnight. Wait, what? Luggage tags for a cruise everyone brought overnight bags to? All of whom clearly intended to do self-assist once back in PortMiami? And a supplemental tip envelope?  For a cabin steward who hadn’t even turned our room over once yet?  What kind of upside down world was this?

 

 

As you can see, it was hard to grasp that we would need to pack and prepare to get off the ship so soon… but the sad reality was, after our 8-hours at CocoCay, the ship would head back to Miami for the next morning’s 7 am docking.   

 

 

To be honest, our day at CocoCay wasn’t exactly perfect.  For the most part, it was overcast with occasional downpours. That said, it was our first time ever visiting the island, so we got swept up in the novelty of exploring the various beach spots, rides, activities, and venues.

 

 

Because we were the only ship in port and cruising at less than half capacity, the island never felt crowded, and at times it actually felt a little spooky, like a bad Twilight Zone episode about being stuck in a deserted theme park.  We spent most of the morning at Chill Island where the sun started giving away to increasing clouds.

 

 

For lunch, we headed to Skipper’s Grill for what ended up being an okay BBQ buffet.  It’s here I saw firsthand why the attendants warned everyone, repeatedly, not to leave their picnic tables unattended. Time and again we saw plate after plate of burgers, fries, and pulled pork ravaged by marauding seagulls, all because someone left the table to go get a drink or locate someone from their party.

 

 

 

 

After lunch and a couple of more rain showers, the temperature took a nosedive and the island actually got a little chilly. We guessed it fell into the low 70s. Undaunted, Mrs. Winks set a course to CocoCay’s South Beach, the farthest recreation area from the ship. She was hoping to eek out a few more hours of sun, but the rays never really punched through the cloud cover, but I enjoyed the prospect of not getting burned!

 

 

During our travels, we passed the grounded Up, Up and Away balloon which was landlocked for the afternoon because the winds were gusting.  After hanging out at South Beach for a while, we caught a rather wild tram ride back to the arrivals area where spent a few minutes at Captain Jack’s bar, watching an acoustic guitarist play to a mostly empty pavilion.

 

Before we knew it, it was time to re-board Freedom - and with that our short cruise (for the points) began to wind down.

 

 

 

 

Back on board, we enjoyed our last stash of drink coupons as lowly Diamond tier members at several bars around the ship. After that, Mrs. Winks wanted to hit the casino to try to “win back the cruise costs”. Apparently, she wasn’t alone in that quest. Half the ship was in the casino and, realizing their cruise was coming to an abrupt end soon, most of them were making-up for lost time by indulging in a raucous final-night bender.  The passengers really amped it up now that we were headed back home.

 

 

One particularly inebriated fellow was hanging over the shoulder of his friend who was playing video poker at the crowded bank of only six available machines. Mrs. Winks was trying to play there too, but it quickly became obvious that the interloper wasn’t going to shut up, loudly detailing for his friend all his sexual conquests, the sexual conquests he thought his friend should be mounting, and speculating about the kind of sexual conquests Attila the Hun must have had.

 

 

It was all too much for Mrs. Winks, who bounded from the machines in disgust, cutting her losses at about $60. But just as she located me standing by the coin push machine - where I was thoroughly entranced by someone’s play - the theater show let out and we were swept up by a wave of thespian lovers headed for the main dining room to further critique the production.

 

 

Getting caught up in that crowd left us feeling claustrophobic and gasping for air underneath our face masks, so we decided to dislodge from the drunken masses and call it a night. We even skipped the dining room, opting for room service instead. “We’re really just here for the points, anyway,” I reminded Mrs. Winks in consolation for the rather poor meal. “We don’t really need to actually enjoy this cruise.” 

 

 

“What cruise?” rebuked Mrs. Winks. “It’s already over.”

 

 

So that is the tale of our piddly 2-Night cruise on Freedom of the Seas. We woke in the morning to find the pool deck transformed into several concert venues, complete with lighting trusses, box amps, and stages as the ship prepared to welcome the Monsters of Rock charter cruise that would commence that afternoon. Alice Cooper was the headliner.

 

 

After a breakfast at the Windjammer, we self-assisted ourselves off the ship, submitted our mugs at Customs to the scary facial recognition machines, and caught a cab to the airport to head home, content that we had completed our mission - and oblivious to the fact we never really needed to take this cruise in the first place!

 

 

Thanks for your patient readership.  We will be back in a little bit with a complete 7-NIght Explorer of the Seas trip review - which we took a few weeks ago.  See you then!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the delay folks. Between work and gearing up for our next cruise  this weekend (it's the last one until fall), and despite some browbeating from Mrs. Winks about it, I haven't been able to work on the next installment.  Fear not.  Follow, and you'll get an alert when it posts... in the next day or two.

 

Thanks!

 

Sailing away from Miami

 

The next morning we woke up early, staggered out to the balcony half-asleep, miraculously avoided falling over the railing, just in time to see a Carnival ships pulling into the Port of Miami. We were hoping to catch a glimpse of our ship, Freedom of the Seas, docking - but the balcony angle wasn’t right for viewing Royal’s Terminal A so the whale tail had to do it for us as a pre-dawn tease.

 

 

Checking our phones back in the room, we found an unexpected surprise. Our air carrier had sent us emails apologizing for the previous day’s multiple flight-delays and issued us each a $100 credit for future air travel with them. That was a meaningful gesture that was much more appreciated than the pathetic meal-voucher (not good on cocktails?!) that they had pawned on us earlier (see our last installment). The airline credit would serve us well for flying to our next cruise, our first as entitlement deserving C & A Diamond Plussers!

 

 

Because we had arrived so late to the Marriott the day before, we still needed to tend to our pre-cruise “chores”. That meant undertaking a short walk to a nearby Publix to pick up travel sundries and our one 750ml wine bottle alcohol allotment (each)... though I seriously wondered if, on a two night cruise, we would actually end up having time to polish them both off. (Spoiler alert: We didn’t)   

 

 

Since it was such a short cruise, Mrs. Winks, who maritime authorities have officially branded as a Scofflaw of the Seven Seas (seriously…  her mug is on a Wanted Poster hanging in the guest lobby of the Coast Guard Academy), decided it would be in our best interest to board Freedom as soon as humanly possible. She boldly declared, shouting over the hair dryer from the vanity, that we were disregarding the 1:30 pm port arrival time printed on our Sail Away passes. “That’s just a suggestion, anyway,” she dismissively laughed, as she tossed her still hot curling wand, clothes iron, and surge-protected power strip into her suitcase. “Get the Uber! I’m ready to board, now!”  Mind you, it was still only 7:30 am.

 

 

It took some work to convince Mrs. Winks to wait ‘til we’d had breakfast at the hotel and at least give the previous sailing’s walk-offs a fair shot at clearing the ship before we barreled in.

 

A nearly empty baggage drop at Royal's Terminal A

 

 

A couple hours later (after luring the impatient Mrs. Winks into a nearby fashion mall to calm her down and kill some time), we checked out of the hotel, grabbed a Lyft to the pier, and handed the smallest carry-on sized luggage we have ever cruised with over to the porters. (I’ll spare you the expletives and gory details, but the entire car ride over to the port, Mrs. Winks and I hotly debated if we should reduce the porter’s tip amount since our bags were so light for this cruise, much to the visible discomfort of our Lyft driver!)

 

While it’s true we were still early for boarding (and hours before our scheduled time), it was still uncanny to see the terminal halls so vacant.  We later learned from the captain’s announcement that the ship sailed with approx. 1,900 hundred passengers, less than half Freedom’s full capacity.

 

The check-in process itself was a breeze. For all the angst we went through crossing our T’s and dotting our I’s filling out the requisite travel health forms, the shore staff only gave our vaccination cards and antigen test results cursory glances. It was kind of a letdown, to be honest. We jumped through endless hoops and sweated buckets of bullets to get to this point, you’d think the least they could do is put on a show for us and inspect the forms with some degree of scrutiny and wariness. But they just passed us along the chain of stations without a second thought.  And even more disappointing, absolutely no one called us out for totally disregarding our designated 1:30 pm board time!

 

 

 

 

Surprisingly, there was none of the usual penalty-box time for arriving early. Instead of a waiting room, we were welcomed by the ground staff to jut up the gangplank and board, but just as we were crossing onto the Promenade Deck, we unexpectedly waylaid by uniformed staff who, after looking at our SeaPass cards, pointed us to our muster station.

 

 

Once at our meeting spot on the other side of the ship, a crew person scanned our cards and proceeded to demonstrate putting on a life jacket. Familiar with the routine, even after several years of cruise pause, I reminded him to hold his nose before crossing his arms over the jacket and stepping off into the water, don’t jump!

 

 

With that, muster was complete and we calculated (for those of you that miss all the math) a total time from drop-off to sitting down at the pool deck with a Pina Cola was 18-minutes.

 

 

 

 

We sat with our carry-ons at the pool deck, enjoying the sunny day and watched as the number of people continued to increase.  Even so, the ship never felt crowded and the chair hogs were sadly disappointed that no one cared that were saving seats!

 

 

By about 1:30 pm the rooms were finally opened up and Mrs. Winks and I headed to our junior suite to see where we would be living for the next 36-hours and our final days as mere Diamonds.

 

 

The room surprised us. It was probably the best laid-out junior suite we’d ever stayed in. Light and well appointed. Furnishings and amenities that were logically placed. No service issues and a room steward who, despite it being a 2-Day cruise, made a point of introducing himself and greeting us when we met in the hall.

 

Our Junior Suite - Stateroom 9570 on Freedom of the Seas

 

 

The mini suite was of ample size and wider than we expected.  Our previous junior suite accommodations always felt like elongated balcony rooms.  

 

 

The walk-in closet here seemed bigger than the regular closets we’ve had in Grand Suites! Plenty of accessible floor-to-ceiling shelf-space and generous hanger room.  It was probably the first cruise were we didn’t have to slide our suitcases under the bed; we could easily store them in the back corner of this closet.

 

 

And there was a little surprise waiting for us in addition to a tray of fresh cookies and two bottles of water, a pair of Royal Caribbean branded face-masks!

 

 

 

 

The only slight disappointment was the balcony itself, mainly because we’ve become spoiled by deeper aft-facing balcony rooms that we habitually book.  While long, it was still as narrow as a typical balcony.

 

 

 

 

Our bags arrived in a timely manner and it was easy-peasy unpacking since we only had apparel for two nights (well, really more like four nights for Mrs. Winks, but that’s still less than our usual seven days’ worth).

 

 

Unpacked, and under no pressure to attend a lengthy in-person muster, we actually had time to enjoy the sail away, as a couple of Carnival ships pulled out ahead of us and then we finally left Miami at about 6 pm.

 

 

Carnival Conquest - What's with all these Monday afternoon sailings? Don't people work?

 

 

Opting for a late dinner, we made reservations for an early ice show (one of two that night). It was the usual spirited extravaganza, marked by two rough falls on separate skater’s parts (and on very smooth seas, I might add!) It wasn’t very crowded and most people honored social distancing while seating themselves.

 

 

 

 

After the show, we hit the casino for a little while, horrified to find there was only one bank of video poker machines, jammed into a corner, while behemoth slot machines with their whirling displays, bonus wheels, and oversized display monitors consumed the gaming floor’s prime real estate.

 

 

We then headed to the main dining room where we had a good first night dinner (sorry no food porn) and then it was off to bed because tomorrow would be the full day of our short voyage.

 

 

UP NEXT:  Our CocoCay Adventure.  Thanks for your readership.

 

 

 

Breaking Bad News:  We'll be hopping on a 7-night (phew!) Royal Caribbean cruise beginning this weekend. (Hopefully this piddly little review will be done by then!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, MJSailors said:

What happened,Mr.Winks?

Next installment will post in a few hours...  Sheepishly, even though we are Diamond +, I am embarrassed to admit we still actually have to work during the day to afford this lavish lifestyle!

 

 

 

Air travel these days is a nightmare. Service is at an all-time low.  Passengers are out of control. Everything’s expensive.  And because of the pandemic, planes don’t take-off on time.  It’s these pain points, and other forms of torture, that Mrs. Winks and I experience, firsthand, trying to get to Miami for our pathetic 2-night cruise on Freedom.

 

I was beginning to regret our grandiose points scheme already… but nonetheless, keeping my eyes on the prize, I kept repeating our now sacred mantra… Anything for the loyalty points. Anything for the points.

 

 

Driving to NYC’s JFK airport at 5am, (outside air temp 13 degrees F), we get a text message from our carrier that the 7am flight we’re racing to catch has been delayed and is now a 10am flight. We thank them for the timely heads-up, noting that the lost 3-hours of extra sleep won’t be missed, too much.

 

 

Arriving at the off-site parking lot, the surprisingly chipper (given the hour) registration clerk chuckles as she checks us in. “You’re way too early for this flight, now,” she chortles, while insisting we take a cellphone picture of our claim check in front of her, because, quote: “You f-ing idiots always manage to lose the paper ones I give you.”

 

 

Our van driver is pretty cool and helpful, but he manages to strike every pot hole (doing 40mph) on his “secret” back-road shortcut to the terminal. Our spines are now firmly misaligned for our gratefully delayed flight, but we tip him anyway.

 

 

We arrive at the terminal and because Mrs. Winks travels a lot for work, so she’s a G.O.A.T at this particular NYC-based airline.  Seeing our flight was delayed, the Mosaic staff pull some strings to get us seated together on an earlier (but also delayed) flight.  Like fools, we jump at the opportunity to arrive in Miami half an hour sooner.  But ultimately, this “earlier” flight ends up taking off AFTER the one we were originally booked on. Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone? Well, it was just that kind of bad luck travel day we were having.

 

 

Sometime around noon, when our plane has finally arrived, has the requisite number of crew members, no one has Covid (that we know of), and we’re all about to board, the flight deck suddenly reports that the cooling fans that keep the flight computers operational have failed and are completely inoperative.  This forces another delay while a maintenance crew come to replace the faulty units.

 

 

In an attempt to head off passenger “flight rage”, the carrier quickly issues a $10 food credit to everybody hoping the assembled crowd will disperse from the gate to seek free lunch at one of the terminal’s overpriced commissaries - and not rip the flight agent’s head off.  Most will only return with what the voucher will cover - a cup of premium coffee or a day-old sandwich.

 

 

Mrs. Winks and I, of course, grab the voucher and head for the nearest bar. It’s only there that we discover our meal credits aren’t valid on the purchase of the only item we’re interested in… so it’s a total bust for us.  We end up giving away the vouchers to a couple from Phoenix whom we chat with at the bar and hope karma will come back to us in the form of 4 C&A loyalty points.

 

 

Fear and loathing – with worthless meal vouchers – at JFK’s Terminal 5

 

Sometime between 1 and 2pm, some 6 hours late, we do finally board a flight to our destination and the flight goes relatively smoothless. 

 

 

Despite all the hardships in securing air travel that day, Mrs. Winks and I end up in an empty Emergency Exit row with plenty of room to spread out.

 

 

As it turns out, it was a pretty bad day for everyone flying. In addition to the current staffing issues due to Covid, the northeast was still working out system-wide cancellations from a major storm earlier that weekend.

 

Empty Row But Flight Plan Woes Nonetheless

 

The day is a bit of a loss for us, but we do end up in Miami before sundown and our Lyft ride to the Marriott Key Biscayne is seamless and uneventful.

 

 

The hotel property leaves a little to be desired.  There is major façade construction going on and, as a result, the pool is closed and the scenic dining patio overlooking the picturesque marina is closed.

 

That said, we are pleased with our top floor location and great view of the bay, though the room is a bit small and showing its age.

 

 

But for the several hours we will be there, it is fine and reasonably inexpensive. And I keep telling myself, it’s all about the points.

 

 Marriott Key Biscayne - Not stellar, but it gets a pass from us... Notice the numerous window washer booms.

 

 

Just a quick mention about food. We sailed on a Princess cruise back in December where the cuisine was uncharacteristically horrid (it was on Caribbean Princess, if you’re curious. And we have a complete trip after disappointing meal, PTSD set in and we feared we’d never enjoy a travel meal ever again.

 

 

 That’s why we were so pleasantly surprised by the quality of meals we were served at the Marriott (of all places).  Both the dinner we had on our arrival night and the buffet breakfast the next morning were noteworthy, featuring authentic and enticing flavors. 

 

 

It was a precursor for what was to come, as both Mrs. Winks and I found our few meals on Freedom (and even CocoCay) to be above standard. So here’s a peak at some food porn; the bountiful Cobb Salad as served by Catch, the main restaurant at the Marriott Key Biscayne. (There’s a bed of lettuce underneath)

 

 Gratuitous Food Porn Shot

 

Okay, so enough of the pre-cruise banter. In our next installment, we’ll finally get onboard the Freedom of the Seas for our aforementioned 2-night cruise. Junior Suite photos, Ice Show pics, Empty pool decks, and more!

 

Don’t blink, ‘cause you might just miss it!

 

Stay tuned, more to come. If you like this kind of candid cruise review, please Follow and check out our other trip reports (or Mrs. Winks might divorce me!) Thanks!

 

Freedom of the Seas at CocoCay on February 8th, 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prologue

Remember back in the day, when taking a math test in high school, one of the questions would invariably read “be sure to show all your work”?

 

Well, think of this trip report like it’s one of those math problems. One in which we’re going to be showing you, our honorable teachers, all our work - without having to resort to the dreaded quadratic equation. Hopefully.

 

Our adventure takes place on a relatively rare cruise itinerary, a 2-night-only Freedom of the Seas sailing from Miami to CocoCay and back. No other ports, no days at sea, no formal nights, not even a chance to say hello to your cabin steward before he’s slapping the disembarkation baggage tags in your hands and telling you to get off “his ship”.

 

The sailing was from Monday - Feb 7th to Wednesday - Feb 9th, 2022... Which, as you can imagine, really made our bosses happy with us.

 

Ultimately, this was a relatively inexpensive cruise, booked last-minute and rather impetuously, with only one goal in mind: secure 4 Crown and Anchor cruise credit points so we could become Diamond Plus for the other cruises we had booked this year.

 

It would end up being the costliest points we have ever earned!

 

So Who Books a 2-Day Cruise?

 

The short answer? Desperate people lost in a hopeless loyalty points Ponzi scheme.

 

When we initially considered booking this unusual, 2-night, Freedom of the Seas cruise, I had to keep reminding Mrs. Winks, “This is a work trip, not a vacation.  It’s really all about the points.” She packed her flip-flops, bathing suits, and snorkel gear, anyway. I had to draw the line at bringing door art!

 

This trip was solely about the points. There really could be no other justification.  Especially because we live in New York where a sailing like this entails taking one of those live-proctored Covid tests, where you can’t hear what the off-shore instructor is telling you to do, only to wake up the next morning at some ungodly hour, to schlepp to the airport, braving sub-freezing temperatures, deal with TSA security lines, harried travelers and the whole mask thing, to take a flight (that gets delayed for 5 hours, btw), pay for a night in a Miami hotel – because perish the thought anyone fly in the day of the cruise – just so we could repeat the process, in reverse, less than 48-hours later. Utter madness!

 

So why did we do it?

 

Because having pulled several all-nighters running the numbers - using a slide rule, protractor, a compass, and eventually a rusting old T-square I luckily found hanging on the wall in the garage – Mrs. Winks and I calculated, with full-certainty, that we were just 3-points shy of becoming Diamond Plus members in Royal’s Crown & Anchor pyramid scheme.

 

Our D+ status was so close, we could almost taste that extra free drink ticket! So, by booking this piddly, 2-night cruise, in a Junior Suite, on Freedom, we could secure the 4 required loyalty-program points to toss us over the transom and into that rarified air savored by only Royal’s most deserving elites… the Diamond Plus aristocracy, the highest echelon of C&A status! (well, if you don’t count those pompous Pinnacles! Jeez, talk about needing to get a life!)

 

So, of course we went and booked it!

 

 

As a side note, this whole “business trip” (as I kept having to remind Mrs. Winks - who was treating this jaunt like it was about anything other than points acquisition on the cheap) was actually inspired by an anomalous Princess Cruise sailing that used to run out of Seattle. Have you heard about this one? More than a few Captain’s Club members on that line had figured out a way to game the Princess loyalty program system using a one-night cruise leg from Seattle to Vancouver, part of a larger itinerary to Alaska.

 

How did that work? (Sorry, it involves more math stuff). Unlike Royal Caribbean, Princess gives you one loyalty program point for every completed cruise, regardless of its duration. In the Princess program, you can get to their top tier (Elite) after amassing 15 points. So what Princess cruisers learned is that they could earn an entire cruise credit just for taking this one-night cruise out of Seattle. Point-wise, it was equivalent to taking a typical 5 or 7 or 10-day cruise, but without having to lay out all that scratch.

 

While not strictly an apples-to-apples comparison, this 2-night Freedom cruise was allotting Mrs. Winks and me the same opportunity. We would secure the requisite points to obtain Diamond Plus level, without having to pay for a longer cruise.  How gangsta be that?

 

Irrational and silly, I know. But, if it all worked out, we would enjoy our next two cruises this year (all pandemic Lift and Shifts) as D+’ers. Taunting Diamonds with our extra daily drink ticket and our free bag of laundry. And we relished in that thought. Capeesh?

 

Obviously, we were both completely mad.

 

 

Okay, so enough with all the loyalty program gaming and painfully boring math. The rest of this review will describe our adventures on the shortest cruise we’ve ever taken - essentially a trip to CocoCay and back. With Mrs. Winks thinking she’s on a full-blown cruise vacation - trying to squeeze 7-days’ worth of activities into 2, and me just hoping we complete the journey in one piece… simply for the points.

 

Be sure to Follow this review if you’d like to hear more about the longest travel-day ever, our brief hotel stay at the Marriott Key Biscayne in Miami, sneaking onto the ship as early as possible, a tour of our Junior Suite accommodations, our thoughts on CocoCay – remarkably, our first time ever being there - and sailing on this ship at half passenger capacity.  And did we mention The Monsters of Rock?  More to come....

 

Freedom docked at CocoCay on February 8, 2022.

 

 

Perhaps a glimmer of hope... We were on the Caribbean Princess a couple of weeks ago (12/21) and I was surprised to find their library stocked (a little bit, anyway) with some relatively new titles. And multiple copies of certain bestsellers for use by book-clubs at sea.  That's just like heaven for me.

 

(That said, it's clear too many people don't return the books, so it's a genuine loss of revenue across the fleet, so why bother?  Crooks, Covid, and Kindle are convenient scapegoats for ceasing the service). Sad, because I love stumbling on a new title to read while there.

 

And there's still a shelf where people just donate their finished paperbacks for others to enjoy.

 

 

I know a few of you have questions about the availability of Club Class dining. 

 

Fortunately, while browsing through Mrs. Winks' camera roll I found this shot she snapped at the dining room entrance.  We'll let you draw your own conclusions!

 

2 hours ago, memoak said:

have never seems on CC mini or suite guest allowed in club class dining.

Not sure what you are saying here, but we were definitely invited to Club Class as Suite guests. It was listed as one of the  benefits on our welcoming letter. And their appeared to be tons of other guests (more than the number of suites) in attendance, which is how it was explained to us - you could purchase your way in.

 

2 hours ago, memoak said:

Princess has not had printouts for several years on slots

Last time we cruised Princess, which was just before the pandemic, they still had printouts on the ship we were on.  The casino host on this cruise told us, oh we got rid of those for safety reasons.

 

 

2 hours ago, memoak said:

Perhaps you were referring to some lesser cruise line

If you're expecting hard facts in THIS trip review, you probably need a lesser blog post! 😉

 

1 hour ago, phonejock said:

I am very sorry you had a bad experience

Thanks! Overall, it wasn't a "bad" experience.  More of just a wonderment... And we certainly need to account for the current "situation". So yes, probably restarting aberrations.

1 hour ago, chamima said:

the small round dish on the left is the Panna Cotta we received in CC on the CAribbean last week

Now that's what Panna Cotta should look like! Glad to see they have figured out the recipe - and didn't serve it drowning fresh berries!

A buffet server guards the cookie tray 24/7 from passing dirty hand grabs...

 

We covered food quality in an earlier installment, criticizing both the ins-and-outs of the crew-served buffet experiment gone horribly wrong (above) and the general hit-or-miss delectability of the entrees featured in the main dining room. So what’s the sense in flogging a dead horse you might ask? (Which, btw, is a particularly fitting analogy here since we’re talking about the Caribbean Princess’s food quality, IMHO!).

 

 

Well, the reason to regurgitate this bitter-tasting morsel is because Mrs. Winks reminded me that we failed to talk about the two other specialty restaurants onboard and our bizarre first encounter with Club Class Dining.  So please, forgive us the indulgence and consider this one of those palate-cleansing after-dinner mints. Bon appetite!

 

 

In researching the ship prior to cruising, we were excited to see two new (for us anyway) dining options available: Steamers Seafood and Planks BBQ.  Sure, they were upcharge specialty restaurants, but we were thrilled to see alternatives to the main dining room for nights we were feeling a bit more free-wheeling (by now, you know what that’s “code” for 🥂 ). 

 

 

Let’s just say, our initial thrill was very short-lived.  Soon after boarding the ship, we discovered that both Steamers and Planks venues were closed for the voyage, probably due to our 40% passenger capacity or crew member shortage. Our back-up options would be limited to burgers at the Salty Dog Grille, poolside pizza slices, or sardine sandwiches down at the World Fresh Marketplace. Yum.

 

 

One small consolation, we thought, was that as Suite guests, we could take advantage of Club Class Dining, Princess’s thinly veiled campaign to further inject the caste system into modern day cruising. Okay, let me tell you, there’s nothing “exclusive” about Club Class Dining. It’s all smoke and mirrors. Apparently, everybody and their brother (and some people they met during karaoke at the Crooners bar) can crash “the club” and dine amongst us elites if they have enough OBC!

 

 

While irksome, that really didn’t bother us, just as long as we weren’t forced to sit with any of them!  What really bothered us about Club Class Dining was the non-existent little extras we were promised.  Allegedly, as part of Club Class, your party will be able to chose from special off-menu items that include select dishes not available to the commoners chowing-down over in steerage.

 

 

Stuff-shirted snobs that we are, Mrs. Winks and I couldn’t wait to savor these culinary extras, knowing that, even if we hated them, at least they would be exclusively ours to hate.

 

 

But here’s the upshot; we never saw any of these special Club Class dishes, even when we ordered them! On the first night, for instance, the waiter was all giddy describing the delectable charcuterie board the chef himself had arranged for our table.  It never materialized. A few nights later, there was also another exclusive dish that never was presented!  Was it just incompetence of our wait staff, or was the whole CC thing a sham?

 

 

The Mystery of the Unavailable Cruise Items

 

Another bizarre thing happened to us while seated in Club Class Dining.  One night, I couldn’t decide between two dessert choices - panna cotta or a bowl of (seasonal) mixed berries – so I asked the waiter for his recommendation. “Why don’t I bring you both?” he said, grabbing the dessert menu and clapping it shut.

 

 

Minutes later, he returned with a bowl of small berries smothered in what he claimed was panna cotta.  But it wasn’t the gelatin mold, substantive, panna cotta I’m familiar with. This was very runny, almost like a vanilla soup!

 

 

To be honest, it wasn’t bad, but I felt it was pretty presumptuous of them to combine the two dishes like that. The presentation was horrid and really not up to Club Class standards.

 

 

We can probably blame this all on a very green crew, this being only the fourth voyage since the Caribbean Princess began sailing again. Still, I’m not sure Club Class is worth the extra cost if they offer it on your sailing. There really didn’t seem anything special about it.

 

My Panna Cotta soup w/berries!

 

 

One other area that took some adjusting to was playing slots in the Grand Casino.  Of course they blame Covid as the reason they no longer offer paper vouchers when you “cash out” from a slot machine. Post-pause, your winnings are transferred to your virtual casino bank. 

 

 

That’s a little unnerving, not having a physical print-out to represent your winnings.  It also makes cashing-out a bigger hassle, as you have to visit the casino cage, swipe your Medallion, and enter your pin to claim your winnings. Let’s face it, it gets embarrassing, standing in front of the cashier, as she counts out your last remaining $5 – and she asks you if you want it in big bills or small? Smirking!  So what are you much more likely to do? Spend down your balance til it’s zilch, of course! Which I’m sure many people (read: Mrs. Winks) did!

 

 

Call me old fashion, I still want to walk around the casino floor with a plastic bucket of filthy quarters! In fact, I was so annoyed about the new paperless payouts, every night I made a conscience effort to walk away from the video poker machine whenever I was ahead. In the end, that came out to a whopping $24 dollars profit by the end of the cruise. A psychological win - rather than a monetary one.  Mrs. Winks, sadly, didn’t share that discipline and now the kitties are going to go hungry!

 

Paperless cash out = The newest house "edge"

 

So that’s about “all she wrote” from this cruise.  Disembarkation was a little nail-biting as we had an 11:00 am flight to catch, but we managed to get off the ship right after the walk-offs, gather our luggage, and get to FLL airport by 9 am. Plenty of time to sit on the horrendous bag-check and security lines.  Truth be told, we both felt the most vulnerable to Covid exposure at the airport, not the cruise itself!

 

 

As for the future, and against my better judgement, we are embarking on another cruise in late February 2022.  You’ll have to jump over to the Royal Caribbean boards to follow that adventure, so keep an eye out of us.  Something about Puerto Rico, Explorer of the Seas, and the ABC-ovid Islands. Should be even a bigger mess than this was!

 

 

The easiest way to keep up with WinksCruises is to follow us on our Instagram accounts:

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/winkscruises/

https://www.instagram.com/mrswinkscruises/

 

 

Thanks for your readership and happy sailing!

 

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Mrs. Winks said:

It is a standard Vista Suite.

And it was, in fact, called The St. Thomas Suite and had it's own space on the room directional sign when you entered the hallway from the elevators. Something I was stupidly giddy over.

 

Oh, and because of the steel support beam running through the balcony (see Mrs. Winks' pictures above)  it's actually classified as an "obstructed view" suite!

19 hours ago, mellon1 said:

 Who is the Maitre D?

I believe it was Oscar Perego. At least that was the dining room "official" who had a bottle of wine sent to our stateroom after we showed up to Club Class dining one evening and there was no table available. Apparently that is unheard of and was considered a major faux pas. We were happy to wait, but the dining room staff began flipping out! After a brief hullabaloo and whirlwind of waitstaff flying about, apologies abounded, and a bottle of wine was proffered. And we ended up seated in a different section from that point on, which was fine with us. 

 

This reminds me, we still need to write about the sham Club Class dining is...  Thanks!