GadgetGod

On 1/20/2023 at 6:15 PM, Two Wheels Only said:

Bed near balcony on Joy...

 

9376, 9378, 9976

 

 

Bed near closet on Joy...

 

9380, 9978

 

 

Thank you very much! 

On the Joy, with an aft balcony room, is there any way to tell if the bed is located on the balcony or closet side? for example, on Deck 9 how can you tell between 9376/9378/9380 or 9976/9978 which has the (more desirable to me) bed by the window set up?

thanks in advance

matt 

Sorry. I will finish this review. I came home to a pile of work and have put in three weeks of 68-72 hour weeks. :(

Should be better after this week and I will finish it.

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I am SOOOO jealous. I love Hamilton - well the Original Cast Recording anyway as I have yet to see it. We were in NYC for one night last month but could not score tickets. I hope it is as amazing live!

I am super psyched. Honestly the pre-sale availability from amex makes the annual fee worth it this year.

FYI - my continued review is still forthcoming. I came back to a pile of work and I am taking tomorrow off to go to the City and see Hamilton for the wife's birthday.

Sorry for the delay.

How did you add 2 nights, if I may ask? I see it now as $0 but it only allows me to add once

 

Thanks

I added one night, and after a day or two (thinking it was a good deal) I went back in the system and just added another.

Sorry to interject but Magic Marvin was the assistant Director or as they say activities manager. The cruise director was Jimmy Rhodes.

Thanks, he was the only one I ever saw or heard from. I just assumed he was the CD.

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Magic Marvin

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Glad you enjoyed your cruise! My fave was SB also. I could have just had the buffet with all the hummus..yum. I am curious how you would compare the steak in MDR and Chops to restaurants on land. Hopefully I lowered your expectations enough that you were not terribly disappointed!~

The prime rib in the MDR was decent, well seasoned and cooked medium rare. The steak, I don't think would order a steak again on RC. The one in the MDR was not great, thin and a little dry. I am sure it had been sitting under a light for a while. It was not up to outback quality, either in cut or preparation. Like we said before, I have never been to a Golden Corral but I think you nailed the relative level of the steak. I did not finish it and had something to eat a little later(Pizza I think).

Chops was a disappointment. I ordered my steak (the NY Strip) "red and warm" and he confirmed that as medium rare (a good sign). The appetizers were OK, The shrimp were decent but nothing to write home about, kinda rubbery, I think it was defrosted too quickly. The waiter brought several orders of the bacon, it was very under-cooked and fatty. I would say 75% stayed on the table uneaten. We had a table of 10 and they brought the sides family style. I'm sure that works with a table of 4 but with 10 half the items were totally out of reach and were served in hot dishes which could not be passed. So the options was either passing your plate with your entree around the table or standing up to get some items. It was kinda a pain. My first steak came out well done, I cut into it before the waiter had left the table and sent it back (it was gray not even a shade of pink). The next steak was at best medium. since my family was half way done with their meals, I ate it like that. I would not go back to Chops on a future cruise.

BTW the lamb shank in the MDR was very good, one of the better meals served there.

When we got off Oasis on April 2, it was suppose to start that day.

 

 

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Just off Oasis, they had the new menu (and fee).

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Also think food has changed on all lines - enjoying your review - not trying to be critical, but 10+ years ago everything was different on RC too.

100% agree. I have a feeling that the food 10 years ago on carnival was better than the food on HAL now. It's a shame that is also magnified by the fact that as I get old my tastes are more refined and the quality is dropping. So the two points are moving away from each other.

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First Sea day

Cruise is off to a great start. After the meet & greet (see below) I grabbed a quick solo breakfast, since I skipped breakfast to go to the M&G. I went to the windjammer. It was your standard buffet breakfast. I was able to get a bagel and smoked salmon (was able to find smoked salmon every morning, which was nice post I had read made me think i would not) the salmon was not great (but not bad), but our standards are high since we live in a town with a large kosher grocery store and a very good selection of lox. Really I think the difference is we normally eat nova lox and this is run of the mill smoked salmon, but better than nothing. The cream cheese was philly, which was fine.

My wife and daughter (and the SIL’s) went to the pool. It was very crowded. I went up to join them after breakfast. My daughter was swimming and they were watching her. They had two chairs for the 4 people, as most were claimed at that point. During the 3 hours they were at the pool, the 4 chairs next to their two, were never occupied. Made my wife a little upset.

I did some exploring, checking back periodically. At lunch time we all went back to the room, changed and grabbed lunch at the park cafe.

We dropped my daughter off at the Adventure Ocean, for the afternoon session. She enjoyed it, but never did it again the rest of the cruise. She was happier swimming in the pool, riding the carousel, and seeing the shows. The wife and I hung out at central park, one of our favorite areas of the ship, and one that we kept forgetting to go to when we had a moment.

After that I watched a movie and read some on the balcony. We picked up my daughter and got ready for dinner, first formal night.

The Wait staff was excellent. The food was passable, like you would get at your cheap cousin’s wedding. I think that is the best way to describe the food in the MDR. It has high expectations, and is simple made in too great of quantity to ever be great. On the plus side, my meat was cooked closer to my order then my meat at chops. Garfield and Demetri were working so hard, that I did not complain and I knew if I did not finish or left hungry there was other food available elsewhere.

I have decided that I am not going to talk about each meal in detail, just will mention the stand outs (either good or bad). The summary is, at least in my experience with the meals we were served, is that the food is for the most part average and underwhelming. Nothing that was so bad I could not eat it, nothing that was so good I would recommend it.

By far, the best meals we had were at the solarium bistro. About a week before the cruise, it showed as $0.00 so we booked two nights, figuring we could cancel or not go if the plans changed. I wish we booked there for every night. It was not a la carte. There was no up charge for lamb or anything else. The service was top notch, and the food was the best we had on the ship. While not like eating at a high end restaurant, it was like having a meal at a country club. Decent food, made to order, with attentive personal service.

I did not want to delay, since the diving show started at 7:30, and I had read that getting seats could be hard. So we left around 7pm, since my daughter was very excited for the show. The diving show was excellent.

First formal night.

So, some thoughts on dress code, but I am not intending to sidetrack my review. When we were on our HAL cruise, it was notably more formal. Of course, besides being 10 years ago, it was an 18 day Mediterranean cruise, on a more upscale line all of which are factors (the three L’s) that point to more formal (length, location and line) . But I really get the feeling that that the quality of the food is also a driving factor as to the dress in the MDR. When I sat down to a meal on the HAL cruise, the quality and presentation of the food almost demanded a more formal dress. I would have felt out of place without a jacket on, so I wore one every night I was not wearing a tux. Even on Carnival (12 or so years ago) the food felt like a dress up experience, and seemed to deserve a more formal attitude and I changed every night for dinner.

Not so with any meal I have been served on this cruise. Ok, I wear a suit on most days and at least a tie and jacket every day to work (a tie for a lawyer is like the white coat of a doctor - people just expect it and I would never meet with a client without it) I have met the family at times right after work, still in a suit, at what I would call budget / family dining (Cheesecake factory, Chili’s, Ruby Tuesday) and frankly it is a little uncomfortable being overdressed. Not because I am uncomfortable in a suit, I spend 12+ hours a day in one. Not because I am one of the only ones wearing a tie (there are other there in, what I can assume, a similar circumstance as I am coming straight from work) and I am used to being the only one in a room with a tie, but because it feels wrong. Just like the highway establishes a comfortable driving speed based on the the conditions, the MDR, in setting the quality of the food, has also, unintentionally driven down the formalness of the room. The quality of the food just is not “dress up” food. That is the feeling I get on the cruise. While it’s enjoyable (just like the food at the above named restaurants is enjoyable) It feels like polo and khaki food, not tie and jacket. I packed a suit, and a couple of jackets (left the tux at home, it cost too much to risk it getting lost in transit) Not sure I would bring a suit again and I am very glad I decided not to bring my tux.

Being brought up in a classic New England manner, I cannot recall going to any inside (so clam shacks, beach huts, and lobster stands don’t count) land based restaurant in the last 25 years without a collared shirt (but nice short have been worn when I was in warmer climates), and will continue to do so. We will dress nice for the formal nights, and enjoy ourselves. In the future I will likely bring a few dress shirts and a jacket. I will pack a tie, but likely not wear it. But I still get the feeling that the food is somewhat to blame in the decline of the dress on-board. Just my 2 cents, not trying to open a can of worms.

Meet and Greet

The meet and greet was not at all what I expected. People for the most part, came in entered the raffle and left. On the plus side I won a bottle of wine, so that was nice. There was very little meeting and greeting. This was very different from the M&G we did on HAL, we ended up being friendly with many of the people we met most of the cruise.

Portable movie server in room

I also usually travel with a travel router, currently either a RavPower Filehub or a HooToo TripMate Elite Wireless Router. These are both decent travel routers since they not only can do the travel router stuff including acting as a wireless bridge, they can be used a private server for media (flash drive or hard drive or microSD with the RavPower) and have a battery that they can run off of (private server on a plane) or be used to charge devices. They are both made by the same company and run nearly identical software. The Rav is much smaller and has the SD slot. The HooToo has a built in plug and two USB including one for higher amp charging. With a small 1TB drive attached, I can have a ton of movies, tv shows, and music that we can all access on a plane, in a car, or hotel room. I do not get a lot of time to watch TV or movie during the workweek, so I am looking forward to have the time to watch a few movies on vacation.

So, I set up the HooToo in the room with the hard drive attached. I was able to log the HooToo in to the ship internet, and stream or surf from several devices at the same time while in the room. I then logged the chromecast into the HooToo and was able to cast from my phone or ipad to the TV in the room. I tried casting both local movies (from the attached hard drive) and netflix. Both worked fine. With the server set up in the room, I was able to watch movies on the balcony, or in the adjoining room.

Also as an FYI, I had no problems with either the fitbit or apple watch. Since the ship stayed on Eastern time the whole trip, I turned off the auto adjust in settings. On my watch I set the screen to show the local time in the corner of the display.

First impressions

This is a big, beautiful ship. The initial impression is very good. Lot’s of stuff to do and see. Surprised at how ‘inward’ everything looks. A lot of the time you do not get the we are on a ship feeling.

We were assigned a nice table for 10 in the Grande DR. Both the waiter and assistance (Garfield and Demetri) are very nice. He remembered all our names, and every night after the first one our drink was waiting for us when we arrived.

The big questions my wife and I keep asking ourselves is “are we cruise people?” I will address that more below, and the answer seems to change depending on the time of day and location. I can tell you the answer is always no after the room has been converted to sleep three at night. The room feels very small with the couch made up as a bed. I am sure that many people just go hang out in other parts of the ship. I really was hoping to relax on the balcony, but squeezing past the extra bed is hard, and it is very loud on the boardwalk until around midnight. The door is good at blocking most of the noise, but if you open it, you really risk waking a sleeping child. Also, unlike our balcony on HAL, there is no light on the balcony. I tried to use the laptop out there, and could not, just too dark.

There is a lot to do. We took the suggestion to bring highlighters and highlight activities, but even with that help, we missed several things we wanted to do. By the time we went to the skating rink, all times were booked (not just for that session, but for the whole day). The timing for some events turned out to be awkward, with shows sometimes starting before we could finish dinner. That being said, I think our favorite thing about the ship was the shows. We went to all of them, but left the headliner show after 10 minutes (ABBA).

Sorry. All is fine. Was just too hard to complete live. I have notes from each day and will write a review over the next few days.

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Setting up a Fire Stick on the room TV

With the unlimited internet, my goal is to set up a Amazon fire stick in the in room TV. I travel with a fire stick because of the availability of a proxy screen which allows you to use it in hotel rooms that have splash screen prompts (like the requirement to enter your last name, room number, rewards #, etc.). I also brought a cheap universal remote if I need it. Here’s how that setup went.

I had a little trouble at first, the cheap universal remote i took, did not play well with the tv. I was able to get it to power up the tv and control the volume, but not the source control. I think is due to cheap nature and age of the remote, not the inability to control the tv.

Switching to plan two I unplugged the HDMI that RC was using and plugged in the amazon fire stick. Set up was the same as any hotel, just follow the screens like you would on your phone or computer when getting online. Within 5 minutes, I was able to stream movies. So on to the next test, movie server and chromecast.

Technology

I am a big fan of technology. When I travel I always carry at least some tech with me. In the months leading up to my cruise, there was a thread or two about people having problems syncing their apple watch or fitbits, and wondering about the use of chromecast/fire stick/roku on the ship. I suspect that the syncing issue had to do with people switching into airplane mode, and then forgetting to turn the Bluetooth and wifi radios back on. I am traveling with an apple watch, my wife wears a fitbit, and I always travel with an Amazon fire stick for TV. I will also play with a travel router to see if I can link the fire stick through the router, since that setup would be the same as you would use for a chromecast or Roku. So I will monitor and report on any syncing issues on the BT devices and also report on the use and setup of the travel router and Fire Stick.

BTW, the port security metal detector must be cranked up to high, I go through metal detectors with some regularity with travel and court visits. I have the procedure down, and I tripped it at the port. First I figured it was the Amex, since it's metal. Nope, and back through I go, turns out it was my wallet, which has a RFID blocking layer built in. I have had that wallet in my pocket with dozens of scans, this was the first time it set off the detector.

Room Review.

Though our cruise history is short, we have stayed in a wide range of rooms. On Carnival, we had an inside room, and spent little time in the room. On our HAL Transatlantic we had a suite, and enjoyed time on the balcony (we had breakfast on the balcony almost every day.) It has been long enough since our HAL cruise, so I don’t have the “I can never not get a suite again” feeling.

I have high hopes for the Boardwalk Balcony. It is fairly far aft (third in from the end) and has a decent view of the aqua theater and water. My SIL are on one side, and my MIL is on the other. We had the dividers opened between the balconies. The balconies are fairly small, smaller than I thought they were in my mind.

We got the ‘bed next to closet’ layout. I see what people mean, accessing the closet is a little hard. On the plus side, we are using the couch, so it is nice to have the “extra” room around the couch at least during the day.

The room is in decent shape, no complaints as to the condition, But the room is small for 3 people, with the couch made up there is no room. Very hard to move around at all, tried to write in bed, but no go. RIght now I am on the balcony writing in the semi dark on my daughters laptop, the keys do not light up so typing is a little hard. Squeezing between the desk and the couch to get outside was near impossible, I will give it a chance as we progress but my initial impression is I think we will need a bigger room in the future,

The cabin steward is great, Gave him $50 when I introduced myself and family. He has been very helpful, Extra pillows, wine glasses, ice, wine opener, etc. BTW he was able to open up the dividers between the balconies.

Bathroom

The bathroom is fine, limited storage, Glad I brought an over the door shoe holder for storage.

Storage

Room storage is limited. Not many drawer. We may have over packed. Lots of hangers which helped. Could use at least double the closet space.

Mattress

The Mattress is great, no complaints at all.

Boarding

So boarding was not as easy as it could have been. Got to the port around 11 am. Contrans was great, on time, comfortable, hassle free. I highly recommend them. We got in line and waited to board, it was about 75 minutes to get through security and another 30 minutes in the check-in line. We got on the gangway to board, and no movement, it was about 45 minutes from check in to get on the ship. Not sure why, my sister in law who was right with us up until they split us up so we could get the kids wrist band, was in her room before we were on the ship.

So we got on around 1:30 and went to the room, dropped off our carry-on bags and got lunch Park Cafe. Very good roast beef sandwich and the wife was very happy with her salad,

The night before - Airport Hotel

We were delayed with our flight and took off about an hour late.rough flight. We got our luggage and called for the hotel shuttle. Got to the hotel around midnight. I had already checked in on the Hilton app, selected our room and etc. I am gold level at Hilton, but at Embassy that does not mean much. Some free soda and chips. The shuttle tomorrow is scheduled for 10am. Not much to report. Decent hotel, hoping breakfast is up to normal Embassy standards. I like that they do made to order as opposed to the standard warming tray and muffins.

Alright, will try to bring you up to date.

Travel from Connecticut to Orlando

Airfare at the 6 month mark was crazy high. $600+ RT/PP. I was checking Hartford and Providence, RI (under 90 minutes away). I was also checking Boston and New York (both about 2 - 2.5 hours or so away but also with a higher cost for parking, etc) I was hoping for sub $400/pp. As of 60 days out, I still had not purchased tickets, and I started to get worried, so just in case I reserved a rental car one way, as I figured that could be fun, and at only $250 a relative bargain. The rental car route we would still fly home. (driving down is more like vacation, driving home is no fun). But it turns out, at about 50 days out, the price of airfare dropped to $410 out of Providence and we were all set. We are using Jetblue down, and Southwest back. A week later, Southwest had a sale, so I canceled the return trip (on SW) and rebooked, savings another $40 per person, down to a final cost of $370/pp. Sweet. The Jetblue fare was the one bag included level (flex plus) so we can have 3 checked back down, and 6 back. I will pack a duffel for the return trip so we have more room coming home, and my garment bag is carry-on size.

So we met one final time with the house/pet sitter and showed her how to use house tech, alarm, AV, etc. Drove to Providence and did the standard park, shuttle, check in routine. The extra hassle of the longer drive is offset by just how easy this airport is. I have never had to wait more than a few minutes in security.

Quick update. On the ship! In the room. FYI the new room service menu is in the room.

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Got to the port at 11 am. Still in line ( now on the gangway)

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Thanks all- update forthcoming. Late night last night, flight was delayed and did not get to the hotel until close to midnight. Just heading to breakfast and meeting the shuttle.

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