CntPAcruiser

Explorer was supposed to be "amplified" but that was canceled due to the pandemic, so thankfully for now she has been spared the refurb that has taken the excellent fitness center facilities and locker rooms from Voyager (I think), Navigator, and Freedom already. If they never get around to ruining Adventure and Explorer in the same way, or Liberty and Independence, I certainly wouldn't mind.

Enchantment was extended well before anyone was doing thermal suites. All there is, apparently, is a steam shower in the fitness center locker room.

I'm struggling to remember which ship we were on several years ago, where the diamond lounge was up in the crown, and they used the entirety for the overflow. The head bartender (I think) of that bar was jovial and very accommodating. Once we got to talking, he was happy to make drinks that were not on the standard Diamond menu of available liquors/mixers. I suggested some new ones he'd never had, and he made me a few of his own creations. It was a very pleasant time during the happy hour on that cruise. There are several lesser-known cocktails I enjoy that include grapefruit juice, and a few diamond lounge bar setups over the years would get in grapefruit juice on request. Not so on our last cruise pre-Covid (Grandeur--on that ship I couldn't even get a decent martini or scotch and soda). Now that we can use vouchers, I won't have that issue any longer where they "couldn't" accommodate. I haven't met a bartender yet who is familiar with the Woodward, which is 3 parts scotch and 1 part each dry vermouth and grapefruit juice, shaken and served up with no garnish. It's an excellent but largely unknown pre-dinner cocktail.

Hmm, my tonic contains water, sugar, citric acid, natural flavor, and quinine. I agree that with the amount of sugar (carbs), I wouldn't want to drink it all the time, but otherwise there's nothing that bothers me. Each to their own, but I like the quinine flavor in my gin and tonic.

Worst cruise we ever had was a four-day including the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm not sure if the parents or the hundreds of kids were the more obnoxious group, but we will never do a holiday cruise again.

After not getting the one we wanted and booking something different prior to the cruise, we were able to switch excursions once on board for four of us, but I believe it may have been because of a cancellation. It doesn't hurt to ask once on board.

For Proust it was nibbling on a Madeline. For me, it's proper muesli with fresh fruit on top. That immediately brings me back to my first student trip to Germany, staying with a family in Nuremburg. The mother made fresh muesli from scratch each night so we could have it for breakfast in the morning. The Oasis-class ships, when I sailed them, had good muesli in the solarium cafe, which I thoroughly enjoyed, including the assortment of fruits and nuts available to add on top.

What is it you object to--the quinine? That's what makes it tonic.

We absolutely love savory bites and always ask for them at dinner. They still have a chilled soup, even though they're not usually on the menu?

That sounds like a good menu for the fourth, especially the jello "salad" as a classic American accompaniment. We did not go traditional this year for our dinner for four, opting for veggies with dip and hummus and watermelon slices with chili-lime salt as appetizers along with mango margaritas, and then for dinner we had broccoli salad, rice pilaf, and Moroccan-style apricot chicken. Dessert was definitely in keeping with the fourth, though: blueberry buckle, with fresh blueberries from our own bushes, and whipped cream.

It used to be that on a longer sailing the menu didn't exactly repeat. You might see some dishes again here and there, but each night had different items overall. That was under the old menu scheme, so who knows what it may be like now, but I like the suggestion of checking the app.

Thanks. That is odd, and sounds more like laziness than anything. So many businesses stopped doing certain things doing the pandemic and haven't gone back to doing them. I guess they figure they can get away without these little services, since we made do without them for the duration.

Just as a footnote regarding Enchantment. My understanding is that Enchantment was built like the sister ships, but the sauna/steam facilities were removed when she was "stretched." Thankfully they didn't do that to any of the others of that class. So far, to my knowledge, Freedom and Navigator have had their sauna/steam facilities removed as part of the so-called "Amplification," which only amplified the number of cabins added, and took away amenities like the nicer fitness centers.

If this were my first time, I would probably choose Curacao. There's a broader spectrum of things to do and more shopping/dining. Unless you're looking for a different experience, in which case Bonaire would be the choice for a closer-to-nature, quieter day in port. I definitely second sailing on Woodwind if going to Bonaire.

I have a small offset stainless steel spatula that I use constantly. Spreading butter, separating slices of bacon or cheese that don't want to peel apart, getting a bit of mustard out of the jar, fishing out a cherry or olive to garnish a drink, stirring said drink. I use it for a lot more than spreading!

Did they give any reason for not allowing use of the lockers?

Some folks refer to Grandeur as "Stinky of the Seas" due to the occasional wafting of an unpleasant sewer smell in various public areas of the ship. We always go with late seating traditional dining, and you never know how service will be--slow or timely--but we enjoy the company of fellow cruisers and having servers throughout the cruise who know our preferences.

We very much enjoy steak tartare, but rarely order unless we are quite sure of the restaurant. Our biggest disappointment was at a favorite restaurant of ours near home where they dosed the tartare so liberally with anchovy that it tasted like nothing but. Carpaccio is another favorite, and the versions Royal has on their menu are not bad. We typically order more than one as an appetizer when it's available. On a different side of the topic, we once dined at a small Italian restaurant in Frankfurt, Germany, and the server checked with me to make sure I knew that "Fruits de Mer" was seafood and not fruit, and then confirmed that I knew "pepperoni" on my pizza meant peppers. I did know, but obviously there had been enough confusion in the past that they felt the need to check. In Germany, if you want something akin to pepperoni pizza, you order "Pizza Salame."

Thanks for posting this--quite interesting! And the whole aspic thing, very French, and very odd by today's standards. Apparently Typhoid Mary, who was a cook, specialized in gelatin desserts, which doomed several families she worked for.

We were on Oasis not long after she was launched, but were not Diamond at that point. I'm sure it was lovely. I enjoyed the variety of food in general on Oasis and Allure, and the entertainment (the aqua theater is amazing!), but when we were on those ships, the service was stretched rather thin. It may be working out better now. My last cruise was on Grandeur, pre-pandemic, and the diamond lounge snacks and bar service were distinctly below average. Even speaking with the food & beverage manager resulted in no improvement. There was something funny about the bars on Grandeur at that time--we had a difficult time getting a well-made cocktail at almost any bar on board.

This is an excellent idea! I have bought fillable tea bags from Simpson & Vail, which has excellent loose tea, both straight varietals and blends. Highly recommended.

People bring their own wine on board and drink it in the dining room, and no one considers that snobbery. Each to their own, and in any event the OP never said they were doing this in the dining room. They said "start the day," so they could be brewing tea in their cabin or at the cafe, just like the many folks who bring their own coffee to brew fresh. And the used tea leaves can easily be disposed of in plastic bags in a way that will not inconvenience the cabin attendant. Heck, I've brought on board little travel bottles of cocktail bitters to supplement my Diamond drinks, since they rarely have anything but Angostura's, and you can't make a good Highland Fling or Affinity cocktail without orange bitters. Fussy? Yes, but everyone likes to enjoy what they like, and to the extent they like, and if it's not hurting or bothering anyone else, then what's the problem?

The tea selection can vary greatly from ship to ship, so I always bring my own since I also need to drink decaf. If you like iced tea, my tip is to brew double-strength tea from decaf teabags of your choice in the Promenade cafe with hot water from the urn, and get ice from the service counter or from a freestyle soda machine (if available) to ice down the tea once brewed.

A few years ago, a friend gave me a lovely travel set for tea that includes 4 tins and a brewing vessel, all in a lined zip kit. I've used it a few times for travel and have never had any issues. On board Royal's ships, you can get boiling water from the urn in the Promenade cafe, or perhaps elsewhere, or if you have a a junior suite and up, the kettle in your room (unless someone has used it to heat coffee, which ruins it for tea. I also bring teabags for extra convenience, but properly brewed loose tea is always better.

Thanks for your review! We're doing a New England/Canada cruise in October on Adventure, and she was our first and has been our favorite ship. It's nice to see the variety is back at the Promenade Cafe, and the depicted offerings in the diamond lounge far exceed what we had on our last couple of cruises (which were on smaller ships, but that's no excuse--in fact, it should be easy to be just as good or better).