Sea Dog's Harmony "As If Live" Review Pre & Post with Food, Whiskey & Key,, Oh My!

[rhuntington3]

I'm still waffling if I want to upgrade from my iPhone XR to the iPhone 11 Pro.

[Sea Dog]

3 hours ago, rhuntington3 said:

I'm still waffling if I want to upgrade from my iPhone XR to the iPhone 11 Pro.

That's a tough call. A lot of reviewers are saying stay put. It looks like you get some slightly better camera specs with the 3 array and most noticeably the difference from a LCD screen to the OLED Super Retina which looks gorgeous. It's slightly thinner and heavier. The battery strength is a brute. So far it's a great phone and U'm liking it a lot. Thanks for following along.

[Sea Dog]

"ONE CANNOT THINK WELL, LOVE WELL,SLEEP WELL, IF ONE HAS NOT DINED WELL" - VIRGINIA WOOLF

 

Dinner tonight will be at 150 Central Park but first let's have a pre cocktail at the Trellis Bar set amidst the tree-lined pathway of Central Park. Trellis Bar was perfect setting for a pre- or post-dinner drink.

 

 

Trellis bar only had the Four Roses Single barrel,  and Bulleit Bourbon (I wish they had their Rye here too. At first I though they did but it was in the orange label which is their bourbon. The Rye is in a green label bottle)  Trellis also had Crown Royal, Makers and

7 different scotches. No Whistle Pig or Templeton, Whiskey’s getting no love here.

  

 

Dinner we must. Warning more food porn ahead!

 

Very luxurious feeling I wore a sport coat felt like the right thing to do.

 

 

First brought out rolls that were to die for. Herb butter with thyme with poppy seeds.

 

Appetizer Menu. Everything looks delicious.

 

Decision time.

 

 

 

Have to get the world famous Cucumber Martini made table side/

 

Cucumber Martini. Sliced cucumber was muddled with basil. Then lemon grass syrup was added. Some sweet and sour mix was added. Grey Goose vodka was added. Ice was placed in martini glass to chill then ice added to muddle and liquids then "shaken not stirred "( a little James Bond humor thrown in )

 

This tastes amazing. Light and refreshing and has a wonderful taste. I have to try and make this at home.

 

On to Appetizers. Seared Honey-Glazed Scallops

 

Roasted Organic Beet Salad with goat cheese.

 

Braised Short Rib

 

 

 

Roasted Tenderloin for two

 

 

And I asked for and  got a second entree Lobster Thermidor

 

For dessert Fried Cheesecake ( I got a bad picture of it, sorry) and a Chocolate peanut butter torte

 

 

For an after dinner drink I love a good Cognac. They had Louis the XIII for $145 and I was so very tempted but settled on the Remy Martin XO which sells for over $200 a bottle so at $20 a glass it was a bargain. With my drink package  it was only $7.

 

Imagine my horror when my precious Remy XO came to like this

 

Are you kidding me. A total glassware fail. Never, Ever, and I mean Never-Ever serve a fine French Cognac like the Remy XO in a cocktail highball. All cognac should be served in a brandy snifter. Like these.

 

 

I could of sent them back to fix it but did not want the hassle. I was having a great dinner and did not want to spoil my evening making a big deal out of glassware, but someone should have known the difference. I did think it was rather funny.

 

Spent the rest of the evening down at Jazz on 4 listening to some of the singers from Grease doing Cabaret style Broadway songs and then hit the headliner show (already forgot his name)  in the Royal Theater who was an excellent ventriloquist. Very entertaining. Now back to the room to be entertained by a lovely towel animal courtesy of our stateroom attendant Dwight.

 

Goodnight to all. Tomorrow we will be in St. Maarten!

[parsec0298]

9 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

I went from the 6s also so it was a great upgrade. The first thing you will notice is the battery power. Mine never got a low battery indication after using it all day and taking ton's of pictures. The only I don't like is that it is very thin and even with a case and where the 3 lens camera array is, it's easy to get your fingers in the way. I may need to invest in hand held Osmo.

The crazy thing is, the 11 pros are thicker than the 6s.  The added slipperyness is due to the glass back and the polished metal sides.  I’ve heard people refer to them as bars of soap more than once.  Apple’s silicon and leather cases add much needed gripiness.

[Wolfhunt]

30 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Appetizer Menu. Everything looks delicious.

 

 

 

I’ll take one of everything except the ceaser salad please! We really liked this place on the Allure, can’t wait to go back. Got the unlimited dining plan and plan on taking advantage of it.

[Sea Dog]

22 minutes ago, parsec0298 said:

The crazy thing is, the 11 pros are thicker than the 6s.

I had the otter box on the 6s so from going from that to 11 pro with a slimmer silicon case seems thinner. I may go back and get an otter box case for the 11 Pro. They are not pretty but indestructible had have a wider grip.

[Sea Dog]

1 minute ago, Wolfhunt said:

can’t wait to go back. Got the unlimited dining plan and plan on taking advantage of it.

This was my favorite restaurant in the whole ship. It would of been the best meal also but stay tuned for an amazing experience.

[Coralc]

You have a lot of pillows! 

[Ukigirl]

Just took a screenshot of cucumber martini, will be recreating it at home! Great memories.

[rhuntington3]

That dinner looks fantastic!

[perfect match]

Great job on your review, Sea Dog! We are just back from a land based getaway, so I’m glad to be back on the beautiful Harmony with you! I’m really enjoying the journey! 😃🛳

[cruisegirl1]

Greg,  I am enjoying your review. Many of the CC “ live” reviews are from passengers with lots of cruises and there’s a bit of “been there done that” in their reviews.  You have such a fresh perspective!  I am enjoying the cruise through your eyes.

m

[bobert]

Hi Greg, I wanted to thank you for the review, it is excellant. I will be on Allure next week and am trying to stay focused until till then and this is a wonderful distraction. Your style and content are just what I was looking, thanks.

[Sea Dog]

2 hours ago, cruisegirl1 said:

Greg,  I am enjoying your review. Many of the CC “ live” reviews are from passengers with lots of cruises and there’s a bit of “been there done that” in their reviews.  You have such a fresh perspective!  I am enjoying the cruise through your eyes.

m

@cruisegirl 1 Thank you so much! That is exactly the perspective that I wanted to give. With only two cruises under my belt I wanted to give out information that both the novice cruiser, but some things hopefully the expert cruiser could appreciate. I wanted to do a whiskey review mainly because I don't think it's been done before. And far as a lot of pictures, everyone likes looking at pictures. Again thank you for following along and noticing my intent to be a worthwhile contributor to CC.

[jk04]

I'm enjoying your posts as well.  Getting me excited for our cruise in December aboard the Symphony.  Really liking the booze reviews.  Hubs is hoping to find a nice bottle of something during the cruise.  Not exactly sure what he is looking for this time.  He picked up a nice bottle of Remy when we were on the Allure for our Anniversary cruise.

Edited October 27, 2019 by jk04

[Sea Dog]

IT'S THURSDAY AND IT'S TIME FOR SAINT MARTIN . . . OR SINT MAARTEN...OR SAINT MAARTEN... EITHER WAY IT'S BEAUTIFUL!!!!

 

 

 

St. Maarten was love at first site. I’ve heard other complain about what a dump St. Thomas is and I didn’t think about it till I saw St. Martin. The Dutch do it right. The brightly colored buildings and the cobblestone Front Street reminded me of my time spent in Amsterdam. 

 

Our excursion was the Great Bay Beach Escape purchased through Royal Caribbean. I later will find out this was totally unnecessary and I will explain why later.

 

Once off the ship we had to make our way over to the water taxis that would take us over to Great bay Beach. I noticed that technically there was a straight shot walking ahead us to the taxis that would be shorter, but they made you walk all around through a shopping area. I get it but it sure was a lot more steps.

 

Finally to Water Taxis which you can buy tickets for round trip for $7 per person unlimited trips. That's a good deal.

Now for the short ride over to Great Bay (How about let's test that new iPhone Time lapse feature again. Hold it steady Greg and watch out for my stupid finger)

 

 

Our resting sport on the Beach- "The Blue ***** Bar- A Fun Place to Chill When You're In Heat"

You know I'm going to buy a tee-shirt from this place.

 

A lounger and umbrella were included in the price. They had a great drink menu with servers that would come to you. They also had a good looking food menu but we decided to skip lunch as we knew we were going to have a huge fantastic dinner. Now time to get wet.

 

 

 

How this for clear water?

 

Wow!

 

The boardwalk has some great bars, shops,  restaurants and hotels. our neighbors.

 

And the fabulous Holland House where I have heard @John&LaLa and others rave about and I see why. In the future I will not book a ship sponsored excursion here but do it on my own. I was paying for just the water taxi and some beach chairs and umbrella at the Blue ***** Bar. Now that know I would of paid for the water taxis ($7 per person) and got a space at the beautiful Holland House where you get two loungers and umbrella with free use of showers and wi-fi. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved the Blue ***** Bar. They had free wi-fi, loungers and umbrella thrown in. You had to pay for food and drink but you got a 10% discount on food through the excursion. The Holland House was just a real classy place to spend time at.

 

Damn finger but you get the idea.

 

Time to explore Front Street and the downtown.

 

They had a train you hop on

 

 

 

 

 I however was on a mission. What I was really doing on Front Street, after doing my research was finding this!

 

Would it be whiskey paradise? Gulmohar's Whiskey Paradise which was recommended to me was a place that would  have a very good selection of whiskeys and bourbon. I had already bought the Blanton’s on board at the duty free shop. Gulmohar's interestingly had all the Blanton series. They had the Gold and Special Reserve as well as the single barrel. I forgot the prices but they were over a $100 . I wanted to take some pictures of it but the sales guy did not want any pictures figuring I would price match somewhere else. I should of bought some but I knew I had no place to pack it without throwing some clothes overboard....oh wait you can’t do that.... I guess I could donate them to the trash bins. Gulmohar's  basically had everything I could get in the states for about the same price or a little more but they point out “it’s duty free.” While there I did find a couple of bottles of the holy grail of bourbon. OMG it's here !!!!!!!

 

The Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 20 year, which is virtually impossible to get unless through a lottery system had a price tag of a whopping $2500. Retail is only $200

And then there was the  Pappy Van Winkle Family reserve 15 year  for only $2000 with retail only being $120 bucks. I did talk the sales guy into taking a picture. I guess I'll continue  to play the lottery system to get a bottle. Oh well a man can dream right?

 

Time to get back on the ship. Taxi??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2019 by Sea Dog

[Sea Dog]

Just now, jk04 said:

He picked up a nice bottle of Remy

The duty free shop on board has a great selection of Cognacs, including the Remy VSOP, XO and the big dog Louis XIII.

[Sea Dog]

Sorry once again for the duplicate photos. Hey Bob some help here. I posted pics then lost my page, after re-doing, the extra pictures so up. I go to edit after saving and try to delete them but they still show up. Got any ideas?

[Sea Dog]

MEANWHILE BACK ON THE SHIP

 Back on the ship time to get ready for dinner because it's going to be a great one. First hang up swimsuits with the magnetic hooks we got. These things are great and must have for every cruiser.

 

 

Saw Dwight our Cabin Steward. These guys work there tails off. I will take care of him I hope all of you do too.

 

Beautiful Night

 

I hate taking pictures of myself but for history's sake "The Sea Dog"

 

Lovely Linda

 

Sunset

 

 

Time for dinner!

[dominicr]

Man how could you not of bought the blantons gold and sftb?   That’s a straight up sin.   I’m trying to talk the wife into taking a quick cruise that stops in st marteen just to buy some.  

[Sea Dog]

CHEF'S TABLE -  AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE IN SIGHT, SMELL, TASTE AND TEXTURE

Who wouldn't love a 6 course meal and wine pairing by a incredible chef at a intimate table for 20. Chefs Table. The Solarium location could have been better if it was closed from the main restaurant. There was a simple curtain that separated us and we could hear the noise and chatter from the Solarium restaurant.

 

We arrive Our wine steward and host Jestent or “Just One” as he called himself. Kind of hard to hear with the noise from the adjacent Solarium dining area.

 

The Menu

 

Soon these will be filled with some great wine.

 

First Course Scallop Carpaccio

 

Linda does not seafood so the chef made substitutes. Tomato and cheese

 

Second Course Smoked Tomato Soup. This smelled and tasted outstanding

Before the soup was added.

Chef Shewn describes the soup. Chef Shewn from Jamaica was great and answered all of our questions . The duo of Chef Shewn and Wine Steward "Just One" made it fun and entertaining. It was not as stuffy as our last Chef’s table on Adventure of the Seas. Jestent would say “Yeow Man” after the Chef described each dish. So much fun!

 

The soup is added

 

Third Course-Maine Lobster Salad

 

For Linda Stuffed Red Peppers

 

 

Fourth Course Roasted Branzino - European Sea Bass. This was absolutely amazing. best course of the evening.

 

Linda's substitute was a spicy chicken. She said it was awesome.

 

 

Fifth Course - Grilled Filet of Mignon. Cooked to perfection

 

Medium Rare. Perfect center with a char on the edges. I'm in meat heaven!

 

Time to wake up with Salted Caramel Espresso Martini

 

And the finale, The best dessert I have ever had in my life. "The World." Peanut Butter Ganache with Valrhona Chocolate Mousse and Salted Caramel Gelato poured over.

Le't be presented first.

Lets look one more time at this beauty.

 

And now the reveal !!

 

All I can say is WOW!

[Sea Dog]

7 minutes ago, dominicr said:

Man how could you not of bought the blantons gold and sftb?   That’s a straight up sin.   I’m trying to talk the wife into taking a quick cruise that stops in st marteen just to buy some.  

I know I could kill myself now but at the time I did not know how I could pack it all for the trip back home.

[jk04]

10 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

And the finale, The best dessert I have ever had in my life. "The World." Peanut Butter Ganache with Valrhona Chocolate Mousse and Salted Caramel Gelato poured over.

 

We are going to do Wonderland on Symphony.  Some of the menu looks kind of out there and not sure if we will like it.  But, I'll order four of these to make up for it if I have to!  It looks divine 😋

[Sea Dog]

FROM CHEF'S TO CHIEFS......"LETS PLAY SOME FOOTBALL"

 

After the Chef’s table we decided to relax and watch our home team the Kansas City Chiefs play on the big screens in the Aqua Theater. If your going to watch sports on a cruise why not on a big screen out in the middle of the Caribbean!!

 

 

 

 

 

Later after the game, we were out when we heard "alpha alpha alpha" at  Central Park 150. I hate to hear that call as we knew it was a medical emergency.  Later sometime in the middle of night my wife heard a helicopter and saw it as it was going to land on the helipad. Not sure if they ever landed or the person was placed in the basket. Fast forward- Update after I attended the Captain’s corner, Captain Johnny said the Helicopter never landed and that a basket was lowered to helipad for the patient. My thoughts and prayers are hoping that person will be ok.

 

Time to call it a night. I am stuffed and in my happy place.

 

[DustFSU]

I got on this site for apple updates and tips, try to look through this when you can for tips on the new camera on the 11

 

http://www.iphonehacks.com/2019/10/iphone-11-pro-max-camera-settings-know.html