Itchy&Scratchy

Panda Express within a walking distance - like 5 minutes There was a ton of restaurants around. Just a matter of being able to walk for 5-20 minutes. Breakfast was nice, but there is NO space for everyone wanting to eat. Beware. 🙂 I had to take the food back to the room and then come back a couple of times. It was cheaper for us to take an uber to the port than the hotel shuttle: an xl uber (5 of us, 3 suitcases) for $27 plus tip. We liked the hotel and will stay there again this November. Here is my short review of the hotel:

we are just off Reflection and our flight was at 4:45 pm (and then delayed till after 6 pm). We got off the ship after 9:30. Stupid Spirit had the 4 hour limit on the luggage again.

unfortunately, I don't like the taste of alcohol... 😞 Which is probably fortunate, since my family has a few alcoholics in it.

Day 5 MDR Dinner From this day on, DS ordered a fruit salad for an appetizer every day. Except that the little stinker didn't eat any of it, so I ate it every day because I am not about to let fruit go to waste. And the fruit was actually great, very ripe and juicy. Yum! Quinoa salad was fantastic according to my hubs. DS took one bite of the margherita pizza and noped out. Got a burger instead. I ordered the Moroccan spiced lamb kebabs, and it was a mixed experience. They were supposed to be medium, but were more like rare, maybe, medium rare at best. I was chewing on raw meat and I wasn't exactly enjoying the sensation. Whatever grain bed they are on was inedible. I did finish all the kebabs... I don't even know why. Seabass was good. Mushroom Pappardelle was great! I feel that a lot of people may miss the menu items on the bottom left... Chicken roulade was good, but not something I'd order again. Fork for scale. Soo good! good This coffee creme pot was splendid! If you love coffee ice cream, you'll love this dessert!

Day 4 MDR dinner DS ordered a burger and mac'n'cheese from the kid's menu. Oddly enough, mac'n'cheese came with its own side order of fries. He liked the burger. We had to ask for some lettuce and tomatoes, because, apparently, they are not brought out or added to the burger by default. The bun was enormously tall. mac'n'cheese was really good (but very unsalted): Steak and chips was great! Sauce on the side (even though I didn't want it at all) Branzino was good. DH luuuurved this couscous cake! It was a main dish, not an appetizer. I tried a little and it WAS wonderful. Rigatoni was ok. Not spectacular. Someone really likes tiramisu. LOL DS didn't like kiwi sorbet, so I ate it for him. It was very good! Mmmmmm, creme brulee! I had one almost every evening. There was something magical about theirs - it was warm on the inside, just the right texture and sweetness, and a wonderfully crunchy burnt sugar crust. Yeap, it was amazing! Nobody liked this clafoutis. Strawberry angel food cake was delicate and lovely.

Day 3 MDR dinner While I don't usually care for escargots all that much, I couldn't get enough on this cruise. I don't like them on Princess - I don't care for the flavor, but both RCI and X have the same simple garlic and parsley flavored oil, and I really-really love it. Honestly, it's not the actual escargots I am after, but rather the flavored oil they are in. I soak some of it up with some bread after I am done eating the escargots. Asian consomme was ok - too gingery for me. I got these pork chops because of the polenta. I like polenta. 🙂 The meat was ok. Nom-nom - great steak. Trout was great. My DH loved these Fried Masala potatoes Spaghetti Bolognese from the kid's menu - outstanding, according to my kid. Chocolate Lava cake with coffee ice cream - super!

Day 2 MDR dinner Kid's menu: If I am not mentioning multiple appetizers, that means that the rest of the family got a caesar salar. Salmon tartare was wonderful! I had to methodically remove all the tiny red onion chunks, but the result was delish. Chilled pear and honey soup was ok. Too much cinnamon, but still good. Kiddo opted for the kid's menu... Grilled cheese. It looked bad to me (the cheese wasn't even melted), but he really liked it. Fries were excellent. No honey mustard, though, so if your family likes honey mustard, please bring your own. I got a wonderful dish of shrimp scampi - it was delicious, but the red pepper flakes and seeds made it a bit spicier than I would like. I also opted for the lamb t-bone steak. All meat dishes were served medium. The flavor was good, but it was very hard to cut off the bone. The meat wasn't tough, but I struggled to cut it. DH chose grilled cobia and it was ok. Dessert: Warm apple crumble was good (per my kid): I loved the chilled strawberry soup - a very interesting presentation.

Continuing with the food review. 🙂 As previously mentioned, we had all of our dinners at Opus MDR. I made the Any Time Dining reservations in advance through the app for 6 pm and 6:15 pm on different days. We really liked the location and the waiter team on the first night, so we asked the hostess to book the same table for us for the rest of the cruise. They were wonderful (Ruben and Aji). We liked pretty much all of the MDR food we ordered. There were some hits and misses which I will mention with my photos, but overall, we were pretty happy with the food. An interesting difference with other cruise lines was a trio of dipping sauces/butter served with bread. Different flavors of breadsticks and breads were served every night - we liked them all. We didn't like the blue cheese dipping sauce, but that's because we don't like blue cheese. I like steaks and shrimp, and I am not very picky. DH leans more towards fish dishes and loves salads. DS loves pasta (red sauce in particular) and Caesar salads. All of the shrimp cocktails were traditional and good: An apparently customary picture of the salt and pepper shaker. Don't know why. Don't ask. Our table: I had the mushroom soup which was very good: I was told not to get this, but I didn't listen. I should have listened. This Thai coconut soup was bad. DS loved his caesar salads. He had one almost every day... I didn't like the flavor, though. I had the prime rib and loved it: I get all beef without jus or gravy. I am fine with herbed butter, though. DH got the seared salmon and loved it: DS ordered the ravioli, but hated them. There was nothing wrong with them, but they were green and too mushy on the inside, so he balked at it. So, he got spaghetti marinara and loved it: They didn't have plain spaghetti marinara on the menu or the kid's menu, but they were serving Beef and Veal Spaghetti Marinara that evening, so I asked for the meatless version. DS does not eat veal and doesn't let us eat veal either. Dessert: DS ordered the apple pie and liked it: Chocolate cake was good: We didn't like the rum raisin ice cream - too much rum. I like Haagen Dazs version. Cherry Chocolate trifle was delicious! Cheesecake with passionfruit topping was very good:

we have a school aged kid who doesn't get PTO or vacation days from school... It's bad enough that we pull him out of school the day before the cruise... And for the upcoming cruise, we have a choice of a 10 am return flight or 7 pm return flight. Ugh. 7 pm wouldn't be so bad if Spirit didn't insist on letting us drop luggage off no earlier than 4 hours before the flight.

every time we go to Cococay, the water is freezing. No matter what month it is... But there was a ton of fish behind those rocks.

some of us do not have that luxury.

it could have been something your TA did for you, not Princess.

I would not get a Plus package for a teen. We will be traveling with a 13 yo in a month, and we are not getting him a Plus or a Premier package in addition to ours. His grats will be charged to our room. When he joins us in a specialty rest, his meal will also be charged to our room.

I believe it was open during regular breakfast. Sometimes I showed up right at 10 and they still made my eggs for me.

DH started feeling sick yesterday and by today he was full blown sick. I've just tested him and sure enough, he has covid. I feel like I am probably coming down with it as well. Great. Just great. Right in time for my birthday.... 😞 There were a lot of Typhoid Marys on the cruise. Adults were coughing into their hands and sometimes without even covering up. On the last night, there were two of them sitting behind us in the theater...

there were no sugar added desserts. I do not recall any sugar FREE ones.

Last ones

Day 8

Day 7

Day 6

Day 5

Day 4

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1, embarkation