rsharp83

I don't think that is a question any of us can answer definitively. It didn't appear to be going anywhere.

Should I say anything about food… I’ve been reading the constant horror stories about food, the new menus, etc. I was curious about what I would experience as far as food went. We ate a majority of our evening meals in the MDR. Yes, there are fewer choices than pre-pandemic. Yes, there were a few things we missed. I especially liked all the different cold soups they used to have. Those are gone. I believe we had French onion, butternut squash, potato, and leek and potato. But not a huge deal. The overall MDR food was fine. But some inconsistencies like the first night pan roasted fish dish was very good and the later in the week the pan-seared filet of sole was tasteless. There were 2 dishes that everyone who ordered them sent them back. The lobster Mac and cheese being the worst. I’m not sure what that was but it looked and smelled awful. There was also a portobello mushroom that no one would eat. But those were really the only ones that I would say were bad. The shrimp cocktail was never cold. On the plus side the lasagna was really good. Lamb gets a big thumbs up. Honey glazed chicken and the maple bourbon salmon got high marks. The desserts were generally better than before. Cake was actually CAKE and not spongelike gelatinous stuff. Although Jammer still has those. We did the Solarium Bistro for dinner (you need a reservation but there is no extra charge). With a group of 12, they put us in a side area that was separate from the rest of the dining room and it was like having our own private meal! Maybe they just wanted to keep us all away from the other guests. LOL. The food there is all Mediterranean and everything was very good. Not as many different selections as they used to have but that is really the case for all dining venues. And the desserts were all 3 very very good. We ate lunch in the MDR several times and found it to be much better than the Jammer. Also, breakfast in the MDR is a much better experience. We did Solarium Bistro for breakfast sometimes. The first morning the sausage in Bistro was horrendous. I mean inedible. The rest of the cruise it was fine. Not sure what happened with that. Warning about an item in Jammer. They had “Crispy Pork Belly” so we stood in line and got some. It may be one of the worst things I’ve ever eaten, or should I say tried to eat. Maybe it is a cultural dish for someone but I really don’t know how you would eat it. Maybe we just got the end pieces? But crispy and hard a diamonds are not the same. Then I bit though the outer crustation and hit the inner part. I expected a bit of juicy pork belly, what I got was like biting into a water balloon. Juices and grease squirted in every direction like an explosion. Just trust me, stay away. I am currently washing the shirt I was wearing that day, I hope it isn’t ruined. The narrower menu helps boost the quality of what’s served and reduces food waste exponentially. Only had one instance of cold food and that was cheese sticks at MDR lunch. They quickly brought us hot ones. But overall, we were fine with the food we had. There was always some choice to satisfy everyone. We did 2 specialty dinners: Wonderland and Jamie’s. We had 3 people who had never been to Wonderland. It was my second time. It’s fun, it’s an experience. The appetizers are where much of the “wired” food happens. If I go again, I’d ask for several of the shrimp and the veggies in “dirt”. The shrimp is by far the best appetizer. Maybe I’d get the cones. But I’d skip the rest. The smoked egg is ok but just not my deal. The main course has 2 big winners IMHO. The Pork-belly and the rib. The 2 fish dishes are good, but the chicken was blah and we actually sent it back in favor of the pork-belly. The chocolate globe is always a hit. But Jamie’s…I’ve eaten there before, and it was fine. This time it was excellent. Everything we had was really good. The Prawns appetizer is good but messy because you gotta rip off the head. The pastas were very good. Lamb good. The 2 big winners here were lasagna that just melted in your mouth and the short rib that might be the best short rib we’ve ever eaten. Given the choice, I’ll take the Jamie’s rib over Wonderland’s any time. The lemon meringue cheesecake is the best dessert we had. So a non-foodie, incomplete review of the food. Your mileage may vary.

I just hugged FGB and said farewell to Mr. FGB. Then I watched them try to jam a month’s worth of luggage in to a Tesla Uber. It took some doing but they finally got away. We all had a wonderful day exploring Stanley Park and other areas of Vancouver. Thanks for reading all our ramblings and thoughts. R#

2:15 am on Quantum of the Seas 2,738 miles

Lion’s Gate Bridge

Lions Gate Bridge Vancouver, Canada IMG_5471.MOV IMG_5471.MOV

What’s this trip been like? Well the Hawaii days were like a normal port intensive cruise. Up early to get off the ship and land based activities all day. Then back to clean up, rinse, eat, sleep and repeat. With our pre-cruise stuff we had seven straight days of go go go. Some in the group had more, nobody had more Hawaii than FGB. So when we sailed away from the Big Island we were all ready to switch gears. I really didn’t know what to expect from 6 straight sea days. And the thought of coming from Brisbane to Vancouver—well that just seems like an eternity. The most consecutive sea days any of us have ever done is 2. I’m happy to report that the days at sea were great. Many activities to chose from each day. Solid entertainment. And time to, relax. To sit in the music hall long after the trivia game is over surrounded by friends. Lots of people playing games of all kinds. People reading. Or just laying in the sun. Or swimming in the very cold pool. I’m not sure I’d want to do this without some friends along for the journey. Sometimes we were together and other times we were all over the ship. It really worked out great.

Finishing up my duties here on Quantum of the Seas.

Poker Face It’s too good a story not to tell even though it isn’t something applicable to anyone else’s cruise. After trivia this afternoon I decided to walk through the casino… I noticed a crowd of about 20 people all huddled around the poker table. There was a Texas Hold’em tournament in progress. There are 9 available slots the and buy in is $100. Top two players split the pot 70/30. I’d watched a game earlier in the week. The blinds raised every 10 minutes and the game was very fast paced. The table was friendly and the players had fun. Exactly what these low stakes hold’em tournaments are supposed to be. Fun for a bit of money. That is not what today’s tournament was— today’s tournament was a war of mind games. As I approached there were 7 players left, 6 men and one woman. Turns out the woman was married to one of the other players. (This matters) There were angry people, pointing fingers, heated words being exchanged and the pit boss was trying and not succeeding in keeping everyone calm. It quickly became apparent that this game was a 6 vs 1 affair. And the one, well he was a complete a-hole, and he knew it and pushed the envelope on every hand. He was a completely disruptive player who wanted to cause chaos on every play. He constantly screwed up his bets. Raising improperly, never putting out the right amount of chips, wanting to know how much the whole bet amount was instead of just what he needed to call. He never was ready for his turn. Many times he hadn’t even looked at his cards in advance of his turn. He had an old iPod player and he messed around with it all the time. One earphone in one out, then switch them, scrolling through songs every 45 seconds. Adjusting his sun glasses, messing with his chips. Muttering insults under his breath and then denying he said anything. He walked away from the table several times and was demanding that he would be served another drink or he wouldn’t play. I could go on and on about all the things he did. It was perversely mesmerizing. But here’s the deal…he was KILLING the table. Totally dominating play. He was the big stack so I assume he’s the one that took out the first 2 players. But instead of pushing the action he played passively and broke almost every rule of strategy there is. But he won every major hand. Every one. Guy goes all in on pocket Queens. He has pocket Kings and trips them. Guy has a high pair, he gets the nut flush. You got Aces with the flop? He has an ace too, with a king kicker. He took out every player until only the woman remained. She was seated next to him and had been talking the brunt of his antics. She was constantly having to call for the clock on his deliberate slow play. Or tell the dealer the bet was wrong. The dealer was completely rattled even mis-dealing a hand. The pit boss was hiding from the table. She had to call him over multiple times and he would always flee as soon as he could. The tension was off the charts. But, she could play poker. And she slowly began to chip away at his stack as the blinds escalated forcing him to bet. Every time she won a hand the crowd cheered. Then he accused her of cheating. Saying her husband was seeing his hole cards and somehow tipping her off. So the pit boss had to clear some of the crowd out. By now she’s shaking like a leaf on every bet. Fighting to keep herself under control and focused. She went all in and he called her. She had suited Ace 4, he had a King. The first flop card was a King giving him the pair. Don’t remember what the other card was but it didn’t matter. The third card was a 3. Turn card a 2. River card…a 5. She straighted. The crowd erupted. Their stacks were now roughly even. She immediately stood up and called for the pit boss. “Chop!” She looked at the guy and motioned as she again called for the chop. (50/50 split of the cash prize. $450 each). She looked at the pit boss and said “I’m done! Chop! I’m not going to continue.” The guy looks around at the crowd and says, “Why are you all against me! I haven’t done anything.” She again glared at him, “Chop.” He finally agreed then demanded his winnings in cash at the table instead of chips. The pit boss finally stood up to him and said no. He took his chips and walked off. She collapsed into her chair and said, “I need a drink!” Then told the pit boss, “This was a horrible experience.” I looked at the young woman who had been the dealer and said, “You need a drink too.” She smiled and shook her head in agreement. Never seen anything like that. I’ve seen some annoying players and behavior but nothing on this level. He’d have never gotten away with this in Vegas. Crazy drama for about 40 minutes. Better than any reality TV show. I got a lot of entertainment in the casino, and I didn’t spend a penny.

Art House I’m not an art critic. I’d never be buying paintings on the ship. I know people who spend insane money on art onboard, but that’s not me. And I’ll let you decide how much of a scam/ripoff vs legit art investment opportunity you believe the onboard art shows are. I do however enjoy looking at the art throughout the ship. Taking different routes, taking the stairs, just trying to be aware that these ships are floating art galleries. Haven’t been overly impressed by this ship’s art. Seems to be a lot of “motivational poster” kinds of things. Just not my style, everyone has their own preferences. There are several pieces that incorporate video that are interesting. Here are some very poor photos of some of the art. Again, very poor quality photos, I was on the fly.

Random thoughts Just some random things about the ship and the transpacific voyage here on Quantum of the Seas. I wasn’t sure what kinds of entertainment we’d have over six sea days. But each night at sea has been a different headliner act. I can’t comment on the port days in Hawaii because, hey we were in Hawaii and I had better things to do. During the days at sea there’s been a lot of activities to choose from. Lots of various trivia, meditation, lectures on science and rock music, games of various sorts, etc. Yesterday the activities director said they had provided 23 hours of entertainment on the previous sea day. Staff have been busy. Normally, I’d not be attending a lecture on astrophysics while cruising. But with so many days and so much time, why not. And yes, the Two70 was full of people for that lecture. I’ve done a lot of things I would normally not take the time to do. I’m sitting in the solarium right now reading a book. Don’t typically do much of that. In fact I was in the solarium for 5 hours — beating my previous record of solarium time by 4 1/2 hours! The other day the back part of the solarium was blaring music. Way to loud and annoying. Today I’m up front and the hot tub seems to be drowning out the music. I seem to remember a quieter solarium, am I just imagining that? Maybe I have it confused with tranquil music they play in the Bellagio in Vegas. And speaking of the solarium, how early do you have to get here to get a clamshell? Not sure, but it’s earlier than 6:15 am. I did get a front row bow seat. Which is kinda cool. The sun is finally out and the solarium is warming up. It was pretty chilly at 6:15. Many of us are still in denial about the fact we aren’t in the South Pacific anymore. Or, we just didn’t pack enough warm clothes. Maybe both.

I spent 5 hours in the solarium today. I’m trying to relax. Bono was along for the ride.

The Main Stages As I’m writing this I haven’t seen FGBs post tonight. In fact, we haven’t talked since our last trivia victory this afternoon. The group went several different directions tonight. So I’m going to write a bit about the 2 production shows on Quantum: Starwater and Sonic Odyssey. I’ll start with Starwater, I know FGB has given you her thoughts on this show. The first 10 (yes I timed it) minutes of the show are incredibly annoying. They’ve taken a show segment that should be 3 minutes max and needlessly turned it into 10 minutes of cringe worthy content. I won’t give anything away but, they took one song that all of you know and clipped about 30 seconds of it out. Not even the best 30 seconds. And they’ve cut it up and they repeat it. Again and again and again. Interspersed with another song segment that you’ll probably know played at a very low volume. The dancers are doing minimal stuff throughout this part of the show. It’s awful. One music geek note. Listen closely and you’ll hear the opening of Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” dropped in which I thought was kind of cool. But it foreshadows the second song which uses the “In Your Eyes” music with different words. The show gets better after the opening, it really couldn’t get worse. It’s very performance dance driven and most of it is not especially upbeat until the end. It’s certainly worth seeing if for nothing else the incredible technology of the Two Seventy venue. Probably the most versatile area I’ve ever seen on a ship. Or anywhere else really. SONIC ODYSSEY I’ll lead with the conclusion, Sonic Odyssey is the best stage production show I’ve seen on Royal. Hands down. (This does not count the Aqua Theater shows — if we’re counting those then the Harmony’s Fine Line is number 1). This show is staged like Cirque du Soleil without the circus acts. The dancing, costumes and music arrangements reminded me of Cirque. Throw in some of the funky musical instruments from Blue Man Group. And then mix up an eclectic group of songs both contemporary and classical and turn them on their heads. The central instrument spreads across the entire theater. I saw this same instrument on an even larger scale played at the Coachella Music Festival several years ago. Visually and sonically there’s nothing else like it. If we hadn’t had dinner reservations at Wonderland I’d have turned right around and watched the 9 pm performance. Bravo on this one Royal.

A little more Astrophysics. Because I KNOW that these are the pictures you all are dying to see.

This happened today.

Workin’ for a Livin’ Over on that other social media platform, you know the one run by Mark Z, we’ve had a running gag going. So we decided I should share it here. Seems I was a bit short on cash leading up to the cruise. And now I need daily gratuities. Because I’m resourceful I took to doing odd jobs around the islands and the ship to make some quick cash. And here they are:

Flight Time Our morning was up in the air today, literally. We signed up for Rip Cord. The iFly experience. If you are wondering what iFly is — basically indoor skydiving. Big clear tube with giant fans pushing air up the tube. They can regulate the air flow depending on the size and experience of the person in the tube. And on Royal Caribbean iFly, size matters. More than 5 but less than 10 years ago we had a group of friends celebrate my wife’s 50th with an iFly outing. Now at that iFly size didn’t matter. We had several that exceeded the posted weight limit and it was no problem. We all flew. But here in Rip Cord on the high seas, there are not exceptions. If you are under 6 feet tall the max weight is 230 pounds. Yes, you have to step on the scale before being allowed to enter. The scale is thankfully set to metric so no Americans will have a clue what your weight is but the staff will know. I knew going in that I wouldn’t get to fly and since I’ve done it before it wasn’t a big deal. But A# easily clears the weight limit so she could pass through the doors while I was banished to the outside observation area. Behind the doors you watch an instructional video. Then staff ensure that you remove everything that’s not essential— clothing is essential. Thank god. But earrings, jewelry, eyeglasses, etc. all have to go in a storage locker. You must have good fitting shoes. You get goggles, jumpsuit and ear plugs. It’s LOUD in the tube area. You come out with the instructor and one by one enter the tube for your flight. Each person gets 2 one minute flights. The instructor helps to balance and guide each flyer. After your group session the instructor does some demonstration flying, otherwise known as showing off. He flips and spins, runs up the side of the tube. It’s fun to watch, those guys can do some really cool things. Then you are all returned to civilian clothing. Of course there are a multitude of pictures for sale. Your non flyer friends and relatives can take pics and videos but they will likely have some glare from the tube. As a free experience the iFly is great. We paid a lot of money for a somewhat longer experience. But the Rip Cord is worth your time. I’m sure FGB will post as well. They flew too.

So after the somewhat breakneck pace of the Hawaiian islands portion of our trip we are now out to sea, for longer than I’ve ever been out to sea. And I’m currently sitting on our balcony and not attending the Adult Dodgeball game that’s on my Royal App calendar. Because I’m attempting to…relax. Tough concept for me. I'm not a relax vacation kind of guy. My wife A# (I’m R#) tends to go either way. She’s a go go vacation gal up to a point. That point was reached yesterday about 8 hours into the marathon volcano tour when we pulled into a small fishing area so our driver could yak with his old fishing buddies while we looked at some dilapidated boats. At that point we still had over an hour and a half of driving left to do. I knew that it was probably a good thing that we were done with excursions. No amount of macadamia nuts or candy store samples would bring her around. So now that we are somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean I’m going to try to shift into relax mode. But I’m already antsy so I’ll go do the Flow Rider tomorrow and fall on my butt a few times. Oh, and if anyone on Ovation is following us in a few days look for A#’s brand new aloha hat that blew overboard this morning.

Here are some more hiking pics, because you can never have enough pictures!

The Day 2 Hike in Maui I posted above that I was a bit apprehensive about the ship sponsored rainforest hike in Maui. As our group rounded the corner and headed to the parking lot, there it was, the van from Hike Maui — so yes, we got to go with the tour company I wanted from the jump. I was probably a bit too excited about this turn of events. Lol. We headed up to the Twin Falls near Haiku. There’s a public accessible area here that is popular but, lucky for us, Hike Maui has arrangements with the 4 farms that are adjacent so we got to go where other groups cannot. This kind of arrangement is a huge bonus when looking for hiking trips on Maui. We had some excitement right out of the gate. The water was raging because of some unusually heavy rainfall over the past few days. Therefore, the waterfalls were massive torrents compared to the usual flow. We had a local man out on the edge of the falls, he’d been drinking and was determined to dive in. Nothing was stopping him. We watched as our guide Mirna got out her rescue throw line. She was clearly worried. In the end he did jump. He surfaced and did make his way out. Our guide was eager to move on and get us to the private hiking area. Once back on the trail we were surrounded by flora and fauna. The trail was wide and well maintained. Mirna found some Inga edulis, known as ice-cream bean fruit. We all got a taste of the sweet fruit and yes, it tastes like ice cream. We eventually forded a stream and spent time at the base of one of the falls. Again, much higher flow rates than normal. We hiked up a more difficult set of paths to see more waterfalls and have our provided lunch. Complete with Apple Bananas, which are soooooooo good. This hike isn’t flat trails. We were confronted with lots of tree roots, rocks, etc. You must constantly pay attention to where you are stepping or you’ll go down. Twisted ankles and other minor injuries are certainly possible. One guy in the other hike group showed up in flip flops! The guide wasn’t happy about that! All the Hike Maui guides are super informative and interesting. It’s one of the standout memories from my hike with them from over 20 years ago. We got a constant narrative on the trip up and throughout the hike itself. Good guides can make or break your experience. They also provided all the essentials we needed: backpack, water, bug spray, food, etc. It was a great day and once again, the RIGHT kind of tour provider makes a huge difference.

Today is day #2 and our first Maui day. Many years ago my wife and I came to Maui for our 10th anniversary. And I hooked up with a group called Hike Maui. We spent all day off the beaten path in the Hana region, hiking to waterfalls, and every other sort of attraction. The guide was fantastic and fed us delicious organically grown fruit the whole day. It ended with he and I jumping into various water holes off of cliffs for 45 minutes at the end of the hike. To this day, it’s probably the best excursion I’ve ever done. So I was eager to book it again, and show my friends what a great experience this company provides. However, it was not to be. They were booked and even if they weren’t, we couldn’t have made the tour time with the tenders. So we did what I typically never do, booked a ship sponsored tour. We are headed to the rainforest to look at waterfalls etc. crossing my fingers…

Meanwhile, this is the best picture I’ve taken.

Rsharp here. Yeah this is my crew of 14 cruisers. (In 2019 we had 54). But this is a smaller closer group. But a group that is obviously read for adventure. I started this day with a huge rainstorm that looked to thwart our plan for a 6am Diamond Head hike. But somehow the clouds broke in time so up the volcano we climbed. I wrote this post in a swirl of sleep deprivation and cursing at Elon Musk for failure of Starlink Then finally dropped the phone in mid sentence and succumbed to sleep… I’ll try to do better. R#