CntPAcruiser

Rum, maraschino, and pineapple is a classic combination, and the lime juice would turn it toward a more tropical drink, though I wonder if they use real lime or just sour mix. That would only make it sweeter and throw off the balance.

I hadn't noticed this one before when I've been on board, and it's actually one I might like. Most of their specialty cocktails have way too much sugar in them for me, and while this one has some sweet inclusions, it might be balanced by the juice, I'm hoping. Thanks for posting these!

If you have the app, you might be able to select a cruise and then view the bar menus there with pricing information.

And yet there are those who would say the sauce should not be cooked at all, but simply passatta, i.e., pureed tomato, with olive oil and seasonings. As for the cheese, some people who consider themselves purists would say only mozzarella should be used prior to going into the oven. I can agree that sausage, mushroom, and onion would make a great set of toppings for a good pizza.

One other detail is that you can get a "double" for two vouchers, or at least that's how it was done on Adventure on our last cruise. Specifically, this was for a double Cognac as an after-dinner drink.

I'm sure I will get heat for this, but I dislike the floppy giant slices of New York pizza. Where I live in Pennsylvania, we have a local family-run pizza restaurant that makes a lovely thin crust pizza that is golden and crispy all the way to the center. Strangest "pizza" I've ever had was in a small spa town in Germany. It was actually a calzone, I guess, with the crust folded over the toppings after a raw egg was cracked on top. After baking, it was served with a ladleful of tomato sauce over the top of it all. The egg wasn't completely cooked--I never found out if that was intentional or not. It tasted good, but was strange to eat.

Favorite pasta shapes are cavatappi for cut and bucatini for long. Favorite pasta dish, or at least the one I make most at home, is amatriciana.

I've not tried blood pudding or black sausage, but I would at least taste it. In Germany they have blood and tongue sausage, which is served cold, thinly sliced, usually on buttered bread. That I very much enjoy.

We have sailed in promenade cabins several times on Voyager-class ships, and have found that taking the highest deck and avoiding those with connecting doors results in a quiet enough cruise. You might hear some music on the nights they have special events on the promenade (like 70s night), but otherwise it is a great alternative to an inside cabin with no window or the expense of a balcony cabin if you're looking to economize. There's also less movement because these cabins are more central. We like the window seat and the view onto the promenade, and of course are sure to close our curtains when we don't want our across-the-way neighbors to see in.

We have seen guys on formal night using C&A pins as shirt studs on their tuxedo shirts!

That stateroom is "on the hump," or the curved part that bumps out from the ship looking from the top down. It will probably be slightly larger than the ones on the "flat" of the ship. That number seems very familiar, and I think we may have had that cabin on a cruise once. Adventure is probably our favorite, and we have very pleasant memories of cruising in that cabin, or one very much like it. It may have had a lounger on the balcony as well as a small table and two chairs, but it was some time ago, so I don't remember for sure.

It's usually the side of the ship that has seawater in the toilets.

I have a pair of Royal Caribbean footed hurricane glasses with an applied logo—glass, not plastic. Found them at a thrift store and had to have them. Not sure when they would date to, i.e., when they stopped giving out glass and switched to plastic.

The Oasis class ships have a poor setup for the thermal suite, and an awful location so far down in the ship. For the Freedom class and Voyager class ships that haven't already been ruined by the so-called amplification, it's so nice to be able to walk out of the fitness center, enjoy the whirlpools in the solarium, and cool off in the pool before heading back in to the complimentary sauna/steam facilities in the locker rooms. I suppose it's inevitable that they will "upgrade" the other ships as well, putting them out of the running for our future cruising enjoyment.

Growing up in northeastern Wisconsin it was either wieners or hot dogs. With the German, Belgian, and Polish immigrant influence, there were many delicious sausages to be had, and our local small grocery store included a butcher shop and smokehouse that made their own natural casing smoked wieners. We thought of hot dogs as the fake pink tubes of (hopefully) meat.

It is not something I have ever sampled, but there is a great story from the late Anthony Bourdain about Tête de Veau, or pressed calves head, that he tells in one of his books, I believe. The dish is made by deboning the calves head and gently cooking it until the skin becomes almost gelatinous. It's probably not something most Americans would care for because of the texture, much like pigs feet.

For us, a daily visit or two to the sauna/steam room is a big part of the cruise routine, so we generally go for the ships that still have complimentary facilities in the separate locker rooms. But we did want to check out Oasis and Allure back in the day, so we paid for the thermal suite pass. It was okay, different from what we were used to, in many ways not as good, though there were a few fun elements. If the Quantum thermal suite is similar to those on Oasis/Allure, then, as mentioned above, it will be relatively small and windowless, and have a small steam room and sauna, and maybe an aromatherapy room, which is another steam room that they squirt scent into. We were very amused to discover how low-tech it was. There may also be heated ceramic loungers, which were nice, and specialty showers, which on Oasis had features like thunderstorm, mist, waterfall, etc. Among the downsides of the thermal suites was that they were mixed-sex, so you had to wear a bathing suit, which is uncomfortable when you're sweating as you should be. It also meant that there were often chatty couples going on and on and disturbing the quiet. Since the areas were small, if you had more than a few people at a time, it got crowded and noisy, and you had to wait a long time to use the various features. The locker rooms on Oasis and Allure are not adjacent to the thermal suite, so you have to put on robe and walk down a hallway to get there. But if it's all there is on a ship, we'll probably still do it and hope for the best because we really enjoy the spa element of cruising. There was a good suggestion above to check it out once on board and make your decision from there. There may even be a couples' deal of some sort at that time.

As far as I understand, of the Freedom class ships, only Freedom has had the nice locker rooms with free sauna/steam facilities removed so far. Independence and Liberty are both still intact. With any luck they will stay that way, as will the other ships that escaped the so-called amplification that destroyed the nice fitness facilities.

I grew up eating pickled pigs feet and still like them. Maryland softshell crabs are the one thing I have tried, twice, but cannot stomach. Must be the innards. I like other shellfish, though, and I even eat tinned sardines.

My DH leaves his laptop and sometimes tablet out and charging at all times and we have never had a problem. It still worries me sometimes. I do recall a thread here on CC some time ago where someone claimed a small laptop or tablet (I forget which) was stolen from their room, they believe while the door was propped open for cleaning the cabin. It's a calculated risk, perhaps?

We had what passed for pizza at home from an early age, but it was the "kit" kind, definitely not real pizza. I first had real pizza in high school. But as for earliest, I think it was on my tenth or eleventh birthday when an aunt asked what I would like for dinner (she was buying takeout for our family), and much to my parents' chagrin, I asked for Chinese. My aunt ate a lot of Chinese takeout and I knew it, but I had never had it, and I was thrilled that she let me choose. I was in heaven, and the rest of the family, apart from my aunt, were probably lost (or starved).

I wonder if the bionic bar is something Royal leases or has a use agreement with the company that developed it, and they can't do promo drinks from it. Maybe that's why you can't use vouchers.

We had occasion to visit a "Greek" diner in Milwaukee that had an enormous menu of American, Italian, Mexican, etc., food, with a small section in an obscure part of the menu that promised "family recipes with a taste of Greece." Believe me, all their food tasted of grease! Another, more homey, restaurant in Milwaukee called "The Olde Dinner Bell" (we dubbed it the old dinner hell) had colorful descriptions on their menu, such as fried chicken, "with a hint of the south." Friends dining there with us one evening asked what was the hint of the south, and my husband shot back with, "Don't marry your sister." We were laughing so hard, other diners were staring. When I have time, I do enjoy cooking, and especially making dishes fresh and from scratch to the extent possible. And when I don't have time, or am just tired, then we fall back on the old favorites in town for excellent pizza, Italian, or diner fare, among others. One of the things I most enjoy about cruising is getting a break from either preparing a meal or having to figure out where to go out for dinner. And the plus for me is the availability of a wide variety of cuisines, since my DH isn't as fond as I am of, for example, Indian food.

We have a number of diners in our area. Most are the larger garish type with an enormous menu where not much is actually good. A few are those smaller, family-run types with a more limited menu and lots of good, homemade food. It took us some time to find the one of them that has the best club sandwich platter in town. They cook their own turkey breast for the turkey club, the fries are crisp, and it comes with a side of homemade coleslaw with just the right balance of sweet and sharp. The only thing it is missing is a pickle, strangely.

For purposes of CC, I think a foodie can be defined as someone with an interest in food, not as refined, necessarily, but as more than mere sustenance. Cruise Foodies is a fun place to talk about food topics that may or may not have to do with cruising. "Forum" is defined as a public meeting place for open discussion, so it won't be limited to those with refined tastes or interests. It's open, for better or worse, and anyone is free to post, read, or not read as they choose.