DaKahuna

I was introduced to the Mexicali Martini last night at the Martini bar. They were quite delicious and I’ll have to go back for another - but ask them to add a little more Jalapeño as I think he only used two pieces and I think three would have been more to my tasting.

The Ghost Tequila is what Clifford, the evening bartender in the Retreat Lounge, used to make my spicy margarita’s on Cinco de Mayo. They were surprising delicious for a drink made with Blanco.

Just before lunch I received a call from the Luminae Sommelier informing us that our World Wine Tour scheduled for 2 PM this afternoon had been cancelled. Seems we were the only two that signed up for it. He indicated that he would be crediting our account for the cancellation and that he also had a “bottle of my favorite wine” as a consolation gift. I told him I would pick the wine up when we went to lunch. Lunch was in Luminae and was very good. The Sommelier dropped by and set a bottle on Conundrum on the table for me !! He’s getting a nice tip! My DW started with the tuna tartare And I had the Key West Salad from the MDR menu For her main course my wife chose the Pan Roasted Salmon, and the waiter removed the skin for her. And I went with the Mediterranean Turkey Club Sandwich I allowed the sommelier talk me into a white wine and he served me a nice Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. I usually do not drink white wines but made an exception since this is the second time he’s mentioned Sauvignon Blanc this cruise. For dessert my wife went with the Ricotta Cheesecake And I had two scoops of coffee gelato, creamy and smooth as always.

After breakfast I hung out in the lounge while my wife went window shopping. She did not buy anything but has her eye on a necklace she wants to get for our granddaughter who will be graduating from High School in just under two weeks. When she finished her window shopping she joined me in the lounge and when I finished my soda we came up to the room. Our Retreat Host was just finishing up cleaning and maintenance did some work on a faucet in the sink. Upon leaving our host presented us with documents regarding immigration tomorrow. So here goes… The Disembarkation Card for Foreigners is one per person. I spoke with the Retreat Concierge and he informed me that my wife, as a Japanese citizen, does not require one of these but I do need to include her on the Customs form. The Yellow Customs Declaration is one per family

Today’s Friday and our third of four sea days. We decided to sleep in today and went to the Elite Breakfast in Tuscan Grill. We shared the Ultimate Platter and my wife ordered the Freshly Baked Viennoiserie as well. I managed to snag a single bagel and a single almond croissant. Here is the menu The only thing out of the ordinary that has not been posted many times before is the mixed berry smoothie I had. Someone must have read my previous comments regarding the temperature as this was served cold and very much to my liking. We enjoyed the breakfast and the relaxed atmosphere very much.

For dinner last night we managed to get an 8 PM reservation in Tuscan Grill. I had mentioned in another live post that after our previous experience I doubted we would dine there again. However, others said to try it again as it varies with the chef and waitstaff. So glad we decided to try again, We had an excellent meal. Started with the Pizzetta Caprese And classic Caesar Salad My DW went with the spaghetti and meat balls And I had the filet, medium rare For sides we had garlic mashed potato and Broccolini Aglio E Olio I had a classic Chianti to go with my steak For dessert my wife chose the Fig Gelato And I had the Spumoni Donuts All in all a wonderful meal and very pleasant service. We did find Tuscan Grill to be a bit noisier than Luminae. This was due to a boisterous table of either close to where we were seated. Once they completed their meal, the atmosphere was significantly improved. 🤣

To pick up where I left off. Yesterday we had lunch at Sushi on 5. It was good. The gyoza seemed smaller than we recalled but the flavor was still there. I verified my favorite cocktail, the Gingertini, was no longer on the menu our and waiter had never even heard of it. We had standard maki rolls and the omakasi nigiri and I did not bother to take pictures as they have not changed since last year. We did share the sorbet and it was very good. After lunch we went up to our stateroom and relaxed until sail away. There was a group invited to the sail away on the Helipad but we were not a part of it so did not go up. Instead we watched it from our balcony. I have a 1:14 video of us going under the bridge on the way out of port. It’s too big to upload but even from deck 6 it looked impressive sailing under the bridge.

I had two scoops of ice cream in the OVC and they tasted fine to me. At lunch the other day I had the white chocolate macadamia nut cake with pistachio gelato and it tasted just fine. last night in Tuscan we shared the lemon sherbet and it did have ice in it but I think that is normal for sherbet - in any case it was very tasty! So if there have been supplier changes, they have not reached Millennium yet that I can tell.

Thank you for this information. We read on earlier live reviews about the immigration process and although we are in a Suite, we elected to do a sightseeing tour as neither of us have ever been to Hokkaido before. We have not seen anything regarding the immigration process that I have not shared but it is still early in the sea day before arriving.

We waited until after breakfast and left the ship about 1030. The queue from my earlier pictures were completely gone and there were two people walking ahead of us as we entered the terminal. Presented our passports, they scanned them, attached a sticker to them and we were on our way. We proceeded directly to a shuttle bus that dropped us off on the far side of the train station. We then proceeded to walk about 30 minutes to the edge of downtown to the Lotte Mall. My wife had an item she wanted to purchase, found one she liked, purchased it. We walked around the store a little more, including going down to the food market in the basement before exiting the store. We then walked back to the cruise ship shuttle bus stop, boarded the bus and it left as soon as we were seated. Came back aboard, stopping to fill out the Tax Rebate form for my wife’s purchase, showed our passports, and proceeded aboard. Since our bags were scanned ashore, they were not rescanned once we were onboard. Just presented our sea pass cards to the RFID reader and were pinged aboard. We then proceeded to our room and dropped off the items we were carrying and then went to Sushi on 5 for lunch. Lunch was excellent and I had two small glasses of unfiltered sake with my rolls. Found some information from our Retreat Concierge’s in our room upon our return.

I like them but they are usually room temperature so I ask them to add ice when making mine. The are not covered by the classic drink package but are covered under the premium drink package.

Alexandrea — Loving your pictures and dialog as always. Glad to see you and your mom enjoying yourselves. Others have commented about the ice cream being different. We’ve not tried it by itself so far, except for a scoop of butter pecan and a scoop of chocolate that I had in the buffet early in the cruise. We just had the uzupon sorbet in Sushi on 5 and it was delicious. I will try to remember to just ice cream as a desert with one meal and report back on how it was.

Good morning from Busan, Korea. We had a nice breakfast in Luminae and then stepped out on the port side to see how disembarkation was going. Not surprisingly there is a very long line to clear customs. On the way back we stopped by the Retreat Lounge and picked up some maps of Busan. Some pictures from the port side of the ship. And from the starboard side

@markb @NMTraveller I am finding that Pinot Noir is the most recommended wine by our sommelier as it pairs with almost everything. I only had the Conondrum last night because I wanted something other than a Pinot and was having beef. I also subscribe to the drink what you like with whatever club.

MAfter relaxing the in room and reading some this afternoon after the sake tasting it was time to get ready for dinner. Tonight was our second Evening Chic night and lobster was on the menu in Luminae. Our Amuse-bouche — no idea what the waiter said it was .. We both had the Coconut Sea Bass ceviche — I do not know where the coconut was but if I had not already ordered my entree I would have had a second order of this, it was delicious. My DW had her usual in addition to the ceviche For her entree she had the broiled lobster While i went with Surf & turff getting both the lobster and the “filet mignon”. I put this in quotes as those of us in the know understand that it is sliced similar to roast beef versus how a filet is normally served. Either way the lobster was sweet and tender and the filet was absolutely delicious .. Being a special night, each table received a “palate cleanser” And for desert my DW ordered the Lemon Mascarpone Cream While I had the Raspberry pistachio vacherin I wish some of my followers who are old time Celebrity Suite Cruisers would tell me when this dessert changed. A year ago I remember it being a rectangular shape and entirely different, or was I served something else when I thought I was getting this? Since I was having surf and turff my sommelier recommend a Pinot noir and I thought that was a good pairing but I’ve had Pinot noir multiple times and wanted to go with something a little bolder so I pushed back and ordered the Conondrum. It went really well with the filet and that was the focus of my meal despite having the ceviche as an appetizer and lobster with my filet. He did ask if I wanted a glass or the bottle and I told him glass. It makes not sense if you have the premium package to pay the bottle price vest the $2.00 and 20% surcharge per glass versus the 15% discount on the bottle price. The math for buying a bottle just does not work for me. After dinner we ventured into the casino to spend some of our OBC. Bottom line - my DW had a good time and I broke even for the day. I did not play as long as I wanted to play as a gentleman who had too much to drink was very disruptive and I decided to call it an early night.

Today’s sake tasting went very well in my opinion. Michael, the Cellar Master onboard, was our host. He explaineds the reason why most Americans, and possibly other non-Japanese, believe sake should be served warm. Apparently this is something that started during WWII as result of the sacristy of rice. The rice used was not good quality and as a result the new sake’s brewed during that time were not the quality of older sakes and serving them warm made them taste better. Anyway, we had one sake warm and the others were chilled. Each was paired with a different food but we found that most would go with just about anything. My favorite was the unfiltered (2nd bottle from the left), and my DW’s was the second bottle from the right. Here is a better picture of the one my DW liked

Speaking of useful information, here’s some for tomorrow’s visit to Busan.

I realize that it’s a bit early but thought I would share something my oldest friend just sent to me regarding departing at Narita and Haneda airports. Apparently they have a facial recognition system that makes the whole process super easy. This is for Narita This is Haneda https://tokyo-haneda.com/en/flight/int/dep_step.html And here is a PDF in English describing the process. how_to_use_Face_Express_en.pdf I hope some of you find this useful.

My favorite MDR appetizer is coming up on Day 9 for us, the Spiced Louisiana Gumbo. I am once more going to see if I can order 5-gallons to go. So far I have been told NO every time but they cannot say yes if I do not ask 🙂

@scorfman Did you do anything in Hiroshima?

I was up on the Helipad for a short while as well. It was a little breezy and I left before we sailed away. I went back to our cabin and our balcony was on the starboard side aft so we could hear but not see the Taiko players. We kept waiting and finally did see the gangway brought in and then saw it put back out again. The three people, appeared to be three ladies, one of which was in a wheel chair, walked up and boarded the ship and the gangway was pulled in and they started singling up the mooring lines. It was then time for us to get to dinner and we were having dinner when the ship finally sailed away.

@markeb @NMTraveller We have been getting excellent service on our current cruise, especially with wine selection. Our sommelier in Luminae has been point on with his recommendations and so far only wine has not been at or below the premium pacakage price and that was a nice Columbia Valley merlot we had last night. When he recommended it I was tempted to ask if he had the Benziger or Robert Mondavi but it tased so well and went with the short rib that I just went with the flow. Today I had a nice Pinot noir, the Kendal Jackson, and was very happy with it. I have been please with just telling the Sommelier what I am having for my entree and going with his recommendations. Tonight is lobster night and I plan to have surf and turf so I am thinking either Conundrum or the Elegance. Will see what he says first.

@Norwaylady I looked at the menu’s … the Mediterranean Seafood Orzo was served on evening 5 on our cruise. I missed it. Noted for any next sailing we may do.

Lunch in the Luminae was delicious - My wife started with the beet salad And I had the lobster bisque We both had the Cobb Salad. (before the dressing) After the dressing And we both had the White Chocolate Macadamia Cake Everything was delicious .. the salad was quite large and neither of us cleaned our plates. We are now relaxing in the room with a cup of green tea while relaxing before we journey to the MDR on deck 5 for our Sake Tasting ..

Today is a sea day and we decided to “sleep in” .. I finished reading the second part of a three part book series I am reading and then cleaned up and went to the Elite breakfast in Tuscan Grill, since it was after 9 AM and I had not been there yet. I guess there are no where near as many Elite and above on this cruise as there was on our Panama Canal transit last year as the Elite breakfast is served rather than a buffet. Here is the menu I had an orange juice, black coffee, mini-bage with cream cheese, meat plate and fruit plate. I got a fruit plate to go for my wife. It was good but I was surprised at how few people were there. Before lunch we attended a Future cruise presentation in the Retreat Lounge. It was very interesting to see how many different itineraries Celebrity has for the 2025 - April 2026 season. We are still trying to decide if another cruise is in the works for us or not. We have a few days to discuss and be able to take advantage of the onboard booking benefits. I do missing the prepaid gratuities and additional suite OBC of last year.