Live Seascape YC (10/21-10/28): The one where we left the kid at home

[StonePayload]

We rejoin our intrepid Caribbean explorers as they awake bright and early, ready to take on the adventures that await at Ocean Cay. 

 

Not. 

 

We rolled out of bed around 9 am or so, after having slept in later than we thought we would.  Not having a 5 year old kid as an alarm clock does wonders for your sleep.  I also blame the time difference.  

 

This was the view off our balcony this morning:

 

We got up and got dressed for some breakfast at the buffet on the top deck.  Here is yet another example of us not being able to miss an omelet bar. (Omelet not pictured.  It was gone too fast)

 

 

We were treated to an excellent view of Ocean Cay from our seats on deck 20.

 

We went back to our room, and changed into swimsuits for the day, and headed out of the ship.  We did not get the butler escort off the ship, as we were late enough departing that there wasn’t a crowd at all. 

 

I love standing on the pier next to these giant ships.  The scale is always so amazing to me.

 

 

We found the white tent that would have allowed us to catch a cart to the yacht club section of the islands and also found a line of others waiting for the cart to arrive.  It was early in the day, and not too hot yet, so we decided just to walk to the beach instead.  It was a nice and easy walk for us over relatively flat terrain.  Couple pictures that we took along the way:

 

 

 

 

We got very lucky and say a family leaving just as we were arriving, and managed to snag a couple of loungers that were under a group of umbrellas.  Good shade for me!

 

While hanging on the beach, a couple of people kayaking by decided they were going to attempt to beach themselves.  The lifeguard quickly shoed them away.  I guess people are trying all kinds of different ways to get into the yacht club areas!

 

After sitting for a while, Kelly decided she wanted to give the full face snorkels that we purchased a try, and off she went!

 

 

i joined her shortly after.  Word of warning here - beach shoes or swim shoes are an absolute must for this beach.  Sand has been pulled away from the beach, and left a large number of rocks.  I think only 1 or 2 people that attempted to walk across these rocks without swim shoes made it.  

 

Snorkeling was nice.  We saw a couple fish.  After a little bit we took the snorkels off, and just hung out in the water for a while.  It was very pleasant.  After a little while I remembered that I left my wallet in my pocket.  Now everything was very soaked through.  Especially the AirTag that i keep in my wallet.  Electronics and sea water are a great mix.  I am sure that can only go well!

 

About 12:45 or so we headed up to lunch.  Being the elite blogger/reviewer that I am, I was absolutely sure to leave my phone (and therefore, camera) in the bag on the lounger.  Oops.  Hopefully Kelly will be willing to share the pictures of the food with you.  I have none.

 

We didn’t order any of the appetizers, and instead decided to split three entrees between the two of us.  We ordered the lobster roll, burger, and carne asada.  I thought the flavor of the lobster roll was good, but would have loved to have the roll stuffed just a little bit more.  Neither of us are huge fans of roast meet being served cold, so the carne asada was just ok.  The burger however, was amazing.  I really enjoyed the sauce they put on there.  Next time, I might try what others have suggested, and order the burger with the lobster roll topping on it.  That sounds excellent.  

 

After lunch, we went back to our chairs for a bit, and then decided to head back to the ship.  It was about 1:45 when we walked up to the area where the cart picks up for the ride back to the ship, and this was also the lone sore spot for our day at Ocean Cay.  They had one, very small, cart running people back to the ship.  Round trip took about 20 minutes.  There was no line organization at the pickup point, just a lot of very grumpy yacht club people waiting for a ride.  Every time a cart arrived, a lot of the people would just rush the cart and leap into the seats.  After about 45 minutes, I broke down and we did the same.  As I was sliding over to get allow Kelly into the cart as well, another lady misjudged her landing zone and ended up sitting in my lap.  She jumped out, and was able to sit next to the driver. 

 

MSC - you need to figure this one out.  More carts on the island, with designated routes.  And a better organized waiting area.  I was fully expecting this chaos to happen, and it was still very disappointing.

 

We made it back pretty uneventfully, and headed up to our room to change into regular clothes.  It was now that we discovered that Ram had decorated our room for my birthday!  This was an amazing touch, and definitely made the day more special.  

 

We went to Top Sail to hang out for a while (it was deserted…), and watch the happenings on the island from the starboard side.  

 

 

After we departed around 5:00, we headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. Along the way, i stopped and snapped a quick picture of the menu in the yacht club restaurant for the night:

 

 

 

This time, getting ready was eventful.  I must have jinxed myself yesterday when I mentioned it.  While I was in the shower, suddenly the lights go out.  Pressure in the shower is still going, so I didn’t think the whole ship lost power.  Kelly had her hair dryer stop working, and she scrambled to look through the door peephole to see if there was power out there.  Turns out there was.  I finished up my shower in the dark.  After finishing, I discovered that Kelly’s key card was not seated properly in the room key card detector thing, and the room assumed that nobody was in the room, so turned all the lights off.  We replaced her card with mine, and everything came back on.  

 

We finished getting ready, and then headed for dinner.

[kelly94942]

3 hours ago, Keys Kathy said:

So, not worth the stomach space?

 

If you are opting for only one appetizer, my vote would definitely go to the dumplings on night 1!

[kelly94942]

3 minutes ago, StonePayload said:

Hopefully Kelly will be willing to share the pictures of the food with you.  I have none.

 

Let me save the day here…. After Geoff reminds me how to post pictures on CC 🙂. For dessert on Ocean Cay, he had the mango cheesecake, I had the chocolate cake.  Both were good, neither were amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

[StonePayload]

And now presenting… Butcher’s Cut!

 

Ram said that he would escort us down the night before, so I was all for waiting in the cabin for him to arrive and take us down.  My wife is not that patient, and she REALLY doesn’t like being late to things.  I figured, since we were yacht club they would wait for us.  She didn’t think that would be the case.  This means she won, and we left about 10 minutes before our reservation.  As we were rounding the corner to exit yacht club, Ram stepped off the elevator ready to escort us down to dinner.  It ended up being pretty good timing!

 

Ram took us down to the restaurant using the express elevator function.  I tried using this function on the way back up, but my card doesn’t seem to be able to do it.  Might have something to do with being immersed in seawater for an hour earlier in the day.

 

While we were waiting for our elevator, another couple approached Ram and asked if he could direct them to the Sports Bar on Deck 19.  Ram looked at them in a little bewilderment, and offered to escort them to the Sports Bar on deck 8.  They might have been a little lost. 

 

Down to our reservation we went, dropping the very lost people off on the way.  I hope they were able to make it back to their room later.

 

We were very quickly seated.  They offered us inside or outside, and since it was a pleasant evening, we opted for outside seating.  

 

 

I will say - it is odd being in your seats at a restaurant and having strangers walk right through.

 

 

By no means is this a dealbreaker for us, as we can still enjoy our evening.  Plus, we both love watching people.  It can be very entertaining, especially after a long day at the beach while drinking quite a bit.

 

Our dinner started with bread service

 

 

Before I could take the photo, Kelly stole the only bacon cheddar muffin out of the basket.  You will just have to use your imagination.

 

It was also this moment that made me panic a little.  I like to take photos while not being distracting to the other diners that are just trying to enjoy their evening.  Leaving a flash on to take pictures does the opposite of that.  

 

Here is a similar photo without flash.

 

 

I am actually quite impressed with the low light quality pictures from my iPhone.  We will see if that continues as it gets darker.

 

Our starters arrived shortly after.  We shared a Caesar salad.  I got the Foie Deviled eggs, and we split a Caesar salad.  Kelly will have to share the pic of her goat cheese tart.

 

 

 

The Caesar salad was nothing to write home about.  The dressing was a little thin, but the lettuce was fresh, and i enjoyed the croutons. 

 

The deviled eggs however, holy cow.  SO creamy and rich.  The sauce underneath was heavy with lemon, so it cut through the creaminess really well.  I loved them. 

 

Steaks and sides arrived shortly after.

 

We both got ribeyes, medium rare.  

 

 

Kelly got onion rings.  She will have to share that picture.

 

Other sides that we got to share are:

 

Roasted Cauliflower

 

Jalapeño creamed corn:

 

 

And Mac and cheese:

 

 

The low light performance appears to be dwindling. 

 

Personally, i enjoyed all of these things.  The steak was cooked to the correct temperature, and it was seasoned well.  It was a good steak. I also enjoyed the sides.  The cauliflower was also seasoned well, and had some good color from the roast.  It was very tender.  The Jalapeño creamed corn had good spice that wasn’t overwhelming, and was creamy and sweet from the corn.  The Mac and cheese had great flavor.  They had definitely used some more robust cheeses.  I do think the sauce was a little thin on it, so it lacked that real creaminess you would hope for out of a Mac and cheese.  The bread crumbs provided a good crunch.

 

For dessert, I had the peanut butter chocolate chip cookie with ice cream. 

 

 

Again with the vertical picture…. Definitely because of the phone.  For sure it’s not user error in some way.

 

Really good cookie here too.  The outside edges were crispy, and the middle was gooey.  The vanilla ice cream was also excellent, and seemed to be the same as the night before.

 

Overall, I thought this was a very good meal, and was very happy to have dined here.  A word of caution - I think the prices must have gone up.  it was definitely in line with a high end steakhouse on land.  We both also enjoyed wine by the glass that was covered by our beverage package.

 

After dinner, Kelly and I walked through a bit more of the ship, exploring the different areas.  The Teppanyaki place sounded like quite the party!  We headed back to Top Sail for a drink or two before retiring to our room at about 11pm.  I think Monday Night Football was just finishing up.

 

Next up - a day at sea!

[kelly94942]

3 minutes ago, StonePayload said:

Kelly will have to share the pic of her goat cheese tart.

 

The second I bit into this thing I knew it had been a mistake to order two steaks.  Thankfully, we were able to take steak and sides to go and are assured the YC concierge can reheat them for us.  This tart was the star of the evening for me.  I paired it with a merlot the sommelier recommended - I never would have picked a merlot to go with this but it worked well.

 

The first onion ring was piping hot, crispy, and delicious.  By the time I got to the second one, it tasted like something from the state fair.  I only ended up eating about 1.5.  My recommendation here is that if you order these, eat them first.

 

The sauces were good, I tried each of them but a didn’t go back for more on any.  I’m not a big sauce-with-steak kind of person, myself.  Geoff really enjoyed the mushroom one (second from left) and peppercorn (third from left).

 

The lava cake was EXCELLENT.  Piping hot and fudgy, paired with that vanilla ice cream (gelato?) Geoff has been raving about.  I paired it with a glass of port.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 10/22/2023 at 5:57 PM, kelly94942 said:

Having everyone going up and down the stairs at the same time is hot and crowded.

I wonder what MSC does for limited mobility people in steerage class. That'd be my dad.

[Falckon]

5 hours ago, StonePayload said:

 

 

We got very lucky and say a family leaving just as we were arriving, and managed to snag a couple of loungers that were under a group of umbrellas.  Good shade for me!

 

 

Thank you for you review. Your comments are extremely helpful for our planning of our upcoming cruise. I can't help to notice how few umbrellas there are on the YC beach. I realize that you found some that were left by others. Do you know if they were rented by the original occupants or were they free? Were there enough loungers available for everyone? Are there towels available at the YC area or do you need to bring them from the ship? Finally, would you feel safe leaving your belongings on your loungers while you went snorkeling or to lunch?

[awatt]

53 minutes ago, Falckon said:

Thank you for you review. Your comments are extremely helpful for our planning of our upcoming cruise. I can't help to notice how few umbrellas there are on the YC beach. I realize that you found some that were left by others. Do you know if they were rented by the original occupants or were they free? Were there enough loungers available for everyone? Are there towels available at the YC area or do you need to bring them from the ship? Finally, would you feel safe leaving your belongings on your loungers while you went snorkeling or to lunch?

That picture is not the YC beach, might be the lagoon beach across the way. Lots of umbrellas in place at YC beach two weeks ago . They provide towels there. It's all very easy. Bring some type of water shoes if you want to swim.

Edited October 25, 2023 by awatt

[flaca0604]

Hi Kelly.  Thank you for the review.  Looking forward to our sailing during Thanksgiving week.  One question, is the cabin door magnetic?  We love to decorate our door and want to make sure it is magnetic.

 

 

[Keys Kathy]

Would you please ask in the Yacht Club how many staff are assigned there? I want to bring them some Halloween Candy. Asked them to include their kitchen staff.

[mizzoufinal4]

Also on this cruise in thenYacht Club. Enjoying the cruise so far but a few observations that’s someone who has not sailed YC probably wouldn’t even notice. First there are no YC wrist bands this cruise, was told there was a “technical issue” and they weren’t being used this cruise, I really miss them as it is so much easier not having to always have your key card on you. Second there are not snacks rotating 20 hours a day in the YC lounge, they will bring you a small tray of snacks while you are sitting there but it is nothing compared to what they use to have, before dinner t they give you a small tray with about 4 finger sandwiches and after dinner they give you a tray with potato chips and nuts and sometimes a small tray with a few pieces of chocolate, really miss the multitude of snacks offered in the lounge. And lastly the elevators are as bad as everyone says! Lol oh well we are still throughly enjoying our cruise just wish they would quit cutting back on things. First time we sailed YC back in 2018 compared to now is like night and day. Still love it but it could be better because we know it use to be better!

[Essiesmom]

57 minutes ago, mizzoufinal4 said:

Also on this cruise in thenYacht Club. Enjoying the cruise so far but a few observations that’s someone who has not sailed YC probably wouldn’t even notice. First there are no YC wrist bands this cruise, was told there was a “technical issue” and they weren’t being used this cruise, I really miss them as it is so much easier not having to always have your key card on you. Second there are not snacks rotating 20 hours a day in the YC lounge, they will bring you a small tray of snacks while you are sitting there but it is nothing compared to what they use to have, before dinner t they give you a small tray with about 4 finger sandwiches and after dinner they give you a tray with potato chips and nuts and sometimes a small tray with a few pieces of chocolate, really miss the multitude of snacks offered in the lounge. And lastly the elevators are as bad as everyone says! Lol oh well we are still throughly enjoying our cruise just wish they would quit cutting back on things. First time we sailed YC back in 2018 compared to now is like night and day. Still love it but it could be better because we know it use to be better!

If you have sailed in the YC before on the same ship, take your previous bracelet along.  It can be re-programmed for the new cruise.  The bracelet does have muster station printed on it, but I imagine all YC uses the same muster station.  I did a B2B on Seaside, not in YC, and changed cabins for the second cruise.  They just reprogrammed the bracelet.  EM

[Homosassa]

On 10/23/2023 at 5:18 PM, StonePayload said:

Continuing on!

 

Getting ready for dinner was uneventful.  I don’t know what would make it eventful, and don’t really want to find out. 

 

There was a thread here on the MSC several years ago written by a woman about her family's travail in getting ready for dinner on the last night. They were in a balcony cabin.

 

They had a reservation the last night in a specialty restaurant and were going all out to gussy up.

 

Because the daughter's dress was wrinkled, the husband hung the dress from a ceiling sensor and proceeded to use a smuggled clothes steamer to steam the dress.

 

The steam up by the sensor turned on the cabin fire suppression sprinklers and an alarm sounded.

 

Cabin was flooded and was not habitable for the last night. Family had to move to an inside cabin on a low deck for the night.

 

Electronics laying on the bed for packing were damaged.

 

By the time the fire crew left and security was finished, the restaurant was closed and so was the MDR.

 

The woman posting was angry.  She felt that the problem was MSC's fault and was demanding compensation in the form of one day's cruise fare for the loss of the last night in her balcony cabin, compensation for the electronics and and other clothing items destroy by the water, and an offer of a discount on a future cruise.

 

She also felt that the family should not have  had late night food in the buffet as their only food option.  She felt that she have been offered the specialty restaurant menu in the buffet at no charge.

 

It was an entertaining thread to say the least.

 

 

[kelly94942]

18 hours ago, CarolnLarry said:

Does Ram also have suites 19039 and 19041 as his responsibility?  We have those cabins on the Dec 2 cruise.

 

We asked Ram about this this morning - he indeed has those cabins (he has through 43) and will be here until June!  He said he has some guests returning that will be on deck 16, and he’s going to be their butler as well.  I told him that’s a lot of work, and he said it’s only 2 floors!

[StonePayload]

33 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

Cabin was flooded and was not habitable for the last night. Family had to move to an inside cabin on a low deck for the night.

 

Oh my word!  This would definitely qualify as eventful. I am glad that we avoided the same fate. 

[kelly94942]

12 hours ago, Falckon said:

Do you know if they were rented by the original occupants or were they free? Were there enough loungers available for everyone? Are there towels available at the YC area or do you need to bring them from the ship? Finally, would you feel safe leaving your belongings on your loungers while you went snorkeling or to lunch?

 

I know that awatt has already answered at least some of these questions, but I’ll add my two cents as well.  As far as I know, the loungers & umbrellas for YC guests on Ocean Cay are free (on the Ocean House / YC beach).  I believe there is a fee for umbrellas on other parts of the island.  There are towels available at the YC area (there is a tent staffed by butlers with towels and cold water).  We did in fact leave all of our belongings on our loungers (really just cruise cards and phones) while we snorkeled and ate lunch, and had no issues whatsoever.  You have to show your YC card to get into that area - not that all YC-ers are necessarily upstanding citizens, but it does significantly reduce the number of people in that area.

[StonePayload]

11 hours ago, Falckon said:

Thank you for you review. Your comments are extremely helpful for our planning of our upcoming cruise. I can't help to notice how few umbrellas there are on the YC beach. I realize that you found some that were left by others. Do you know if they were rented by the original occupants or were they free? Were there enough loungers available for everyone? Are there towels available at the YC area or do you need to bring them from the ship? Finally, would you feel safe leaving your belongings on your loungers while you went snorkeling or to lunch?

There are quite a few umbrellas on the yacht club beach.  There are also quite a few loungers.  This is the best I have for a picture of the yacht club beach.

 

All umbrellas are free on this beach.  There is a white tent that has coolers filled with water and bottled beer.  That tent also has a very large stack of towels.  Butlers are roaming the beach to bring you drinks as well as towels.  There were quite a few loungers.  I would definitely say enough for everyone. 
 

I think it’s safe enough to leave things behind.  We left our phones in our beach bag on the loungers through snorkeling.  I thought my wallet was in there, but turned out it wanted to go swimming too.  I did leave my phone during lunch as well

[Keys Kathy]

38 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

There was a thread here on the MSC several years ago written by a woman about her family's travail in getting ready for dinner on the last night. They were in a balcony cabin.

 

They had a reservation the last night in a specialty restaurant and were going all out to gussy up.

 

Because the daughter's dress was wrinkled, the husband hung the dress from a ceiling sensor and proceeded to use a smuggled clothes steamer to steam the dress.

 

The steam up by the sensor turned on the cabin fire suppression sprinklers and an alarm sounded.

 

Cabin was flooded and was not habitable for the last night. Family had to move to an inside cabin on a low deck for the night.

 

Electronics laying on the bed for packing were damaged.

 

By the time the fire crew left and security was finished, the restaurant was closed and so was the MDR.

 

The woman posting was angry.  She felt that the problem was MSC's fault and was demanding compensation in the form of one day's cruise fare for the loss of the last night in her balcony cabin, compensation for the electronics and and other clothing items destroy by the water, and an offer of a discount on a future cruise.

 

She also felt that the family should not have  had late night food in the buffet as their only food option.  She felt that she have been offered the specialty restaurant menu in the buffet at no charge.

 

It was an entertaining thread to say the least.

 

 

Don't you love it when they break the rules and expect the cruise line to compensate them when the cruise line has the extra cost of repairing all the mess in the cabin? I wonder if the next cruises were able to use the cabin.

[kelly94942]

2 hours ago, mizzoufinal4 said:

Also on this cruise in thenYacht Club. Enjoying the cruise so far but a few observations that’s someone who has not sailed YC probably wouldn’t even notice. First there are no YC wrist bands this cruise, was told there was a “technical issue” and they weren’t being used this cruise, I really miss them as it is so much easier not having to always have your key card on you. Second there are not snacks rotating 20 hours a day in the YC lounge, they will bring you a small tray of snacks while you are sitting there but it is nothing compared to what they use to have, before dinner t they give you a small tray with about 4 finger sandwiches and after dinner they give you a tray with potato chips and nuts and sometimes a small tray with a few pieces of chocolate, really miss the multitude of snacks offered in the lounge. And lastly the elevators are as bad as everyone says! Lol oh well we are still throughly enjoying our cruise just wish they would quit cutting back on things. First time we sailed YC back in 2018 compared to now is like night and day. Still love it but it could be better because we know it use to be better!

Thank you so much for your comments!  Feel free to say hello if you see us around the YC.  😀

 

We also asked Ram about the wrist bands on embarkation day and he said the same thing about a technical issue.  I personally don’t mind it because I don’t like wearing wrist bands for some reason, but I can see why it would be convenient.  I feel bad for the poor bar staff, they have a printed list of pictures of everyone under 21 in YC so they know not to serve them alcohol!  That must be hard and a little nerve-racking to keep track of.  

 

Interesting about the snacks!  I’ve checked for the snacks 2 or 3 times because I knew they were supposed to be there, but I just assumed I must have been looking at the wrong times.  I had forgotten about the 20 hours a day thing.  We have received, as you mention, sandwiches around tea time (3:30ish?), nuts and chips at multiple times a day, and chocolates after dinner.  I LOVE chips, and they’ve had 2 of my favorite kinds - salt & pepper Kettle chips and cheddar & sour cream Ruffles.  Are these people reading my mind?  So I’m probably a happier campier with the chips than the other snack offerings they would have, but I imagine I’m in the minority there!  Oh, we also had some mid-afternoon cookies that I forgot about until I went to add pictures. 🙂 One of these photos is obviously a saved Snapchat but the real photo isn’t wanting to load.

 

 

 

 

 

[DaKahuna]

2 hours ago, mizzoufinal4 said:

 Second there are not snacks rotating 20 hours a day in the YC lounge, they will bring you a small tray of snacks while you are sitting there but it is nothing compared to what they use to have, before dinner t they give you a small tray with about 4 finger sandwiches and after dinner they give you a tray with potato chips and nuts and sometimes a small tray with a few pieces of chocolate, really miss the multitude of snacks offered in the lounge.

 

 Have you asked about why the change in the snacks.  One of the well advertised perks of the YC has been the snacks and I would be curious as to any explanation they may have for not providing them.  Even more curious whether or not this is going to be common going forward across the entire MSC fleet of cruise ships. I could see how this could be done to reduce cost and food waste but I was looking forward to having a wide selection to choose from when I just wanted a quick snack. 

 

[DaKahuna]

1 hour ago, Homosassa said:

 

 

It was an entertaining thread to say the least.

 

 

 

So bottom line, she did not feel obligated to take any responsibility for having smuggled an unauthorized item on the ship that cause the issue?  

 

[Essiesmom]

9 minutes ago, DaKahuna said:

 

So bottom line, she did not feel obligated to take any responsibility for having smuggled an unauthorized item on the ship that cause the issue?  

 

And hanging the dress from the sprinkler?  EM

[StonePayload]

Another day, another update after sleeping in.

 

Day 3 was a sea day, where we frankly didn’t do much of anything at all.  We made it to the buffet to eat breakfast in the morning, and then hung out on deck 20 for quite some time.  Enough time for lunch to start in fact.  I was typing up the review from Ocean Cay, and Kelly was doing the games from the newspaper (we chose USA Today).  

 

At some point lunch started.  It was pretty good.  Kelly had a hot dog (which on MSC is actually 2 hot dogs in one bun).  I had some suckling pig and other sides.

 

I did decide I was going to take a walk around the ship to see how busy the top deck got on a sea day.

 

Starting with the Yacht Club pool:

 

 

Then we move to the Top 19 Solarium.  I realize these aren’t the best pictures, but I think we all realize at this point that I have no idea what I am doing.

 

 

 

Now, the Jungle pool:

 

 

 

 

Those hot tubs be crowded.  

 

Pirates cove.  This place looks amazing.  I know my daughter would absolutely love it.

 

 

And now, the main pool:

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is no chance of finding a lounger at that main pool.

 

Hey look - Cuba!

 

 

When I got back, it had started to rain.  So we cleared out our sensitive electronics, and moved down to  Top Sail.  The officer of the deck came on shortly after - “Over the next few hours we will be passing through an area of frequent showers.  Please mind the decks as they can be slippery.”

 

You can see the rain coming here:

 

 

A few of the servers in Top Sail went outside, and gathered all the cushions off of the chairs, and brought them in.  Shortly after we started getting a bunch of rain.  Some (my mother-in-law specifically) might call it a gullywasher.

 

We enjoyed watching the rain from our dry seat in Top Sail for a while longer.  We spent quite a bit of time reading and doing the puzzles in the newspaper. 

 

Eventually our minds turned to dinner.  We had noticed that the sushi was all you can eat that day, and so decided to make reservations.  We were told they only had reservations at 6:30 pm or 9pm, so picked up the 6:30, and headed back to the room to change about 5:45. 

 

Uneventful getting ready this time.  No power losses, or room floods.

 

We made it down to the sushi restaurant and were shown to our seats.  The main problem with this format is that it is impossible for non-regular sushi eaters to figure out what everything is.  There is no menu or guide.  I pulled up the menu that is normally used on my phone, but on all you can eat days, the plates are not color coded.  They just put whatever they want on the plates.  

 

 

Also, given the unavailability of reservations, i was expecting it to be absolutely packed.  At some point - we were the only ones in the restaurant.  This causes a bit of a problem for a sushi train, because you have to pull stuff off of the belt to eat in order to have new stuff put on.  Since it was just the two of us on one giant belt, we saw the same roasted/glazed eel nigiri go by about 5 times.  Eventually the waiters took pity on us, and asked what we wanted.  They ran to the chefs and grabbed a few plates of everything.

 

When we left, there was nobody on our side of the restaurant.  I was very confused why 7pm reservations weren’t available in a very empty restaurant at 7:15. 

 

This was a fun experience, but not one I need to repeat.  It would have been better if there were more people in there with us, because I feel like we would have gotten more variety. The sushi was good quality, though.

 

We decided against dessert here, and headed toward Venchi to see about some dessert.  After perusing their options, we instead decided to head up to the Yacht Club restaurant.  They were happy to accommodate a table for us just for dessert. It was Gala night, which was a ton of fun to see everyone dressed up. 

 

Kelly had a royal chocolate cake (she will provide a pic of that), and I had Crepes Suzette, which was excellent.

 

 

After a stop in Top Sail for some espresso martinis, and other drinks, we headed off for bed. 

 

Next stop, Jamaica!

Edited October 25, 2023 by StonePayload
Fixing some grammar issues.

[StonePayload]

I forgot to mention- yesterday I asked for a glass of chocolate milk.  My family understands that I am a big kid that loves the stuff, and I had a craving. I had run back to the room, so my wife tried to order it for me.  For the first attempt, I got a glass of hot chocolate with some ice cubes in it.  This was a bit odd, but ok.  For the second attempt, I went up to the bar to explain how to make it.  Turned out pretty good actually!  It’s nice having access to the full bar, because I got to add Bailey’s to it.  That was pretty awesome.

[mizzoufinal4]

My daughter got charged for soft serve ice cream yesterday from the jungle pool.  I went to the concierge to ask about it because I thought it was a mistake and was told that the soft serve is not included and it depends on who is working, That some workers will give it to you for free if they see you are in YC some will not. Again not a big deal but once again another cut back.