Live-ish. Indy Thanksgiving with my “sea family”

Hello all. It’s time for my annual Thanksgiving weekend cruise. On Indy for the 3rd year in a row.

I live here so no problems getting to port.

For those of you who don’t know, they are tearing Pier 25 down to make a brand new spanking to coincide with the new celebrity edge ship. So we were at Pier 29.

I had heard horror stories of 29, but they didn’t actually prove to be true. In fact it really wasn’t bad, but it is a much smaller terminal and if you don’t time yourself correctly you will find yourself waiting outside where there is very little coverage from sun or rain.

Outside the terminal, there is only one priority line for suites and pinnacle members. Everybody else is in the same line for security. Once inside you have the standard array of check-in lines split up by Crown and anchor status.

By the way, I am using voice dictation to write this. So please excuse any weird spellings, capitalization, etc.

Once on board, very happy to connect with my 11 cruise friends. And this year we’re growing by another three since two of us were on the previous weeks cruise and have added to our group.

I bought the beverage package on board, because it’s 30% off for D+. So it was $55 a day plus tip. The same price as online on the cruise planner. With my 30% off for the four days it worked out to about $180. We also have the BOGO dining package, and the onshore dining department was good enough to figure out how to get us all together at one table for chops tonight and Giovanni‘s tomorrow night. Certainly have no complaints so far.

A passing thunderstorm sent the sail away party down to the Royal promenade. But the rain stopped so we’re still up at the sky bar.

Now that cruise planner has the ability to book so many spa treatments ahead of time, it is very difficult to book an appointment on board. I had a lot of trouble finding availability for the treatments I wanted at reasonable times of the day. Something to think about if you love the spa.

I’ve got some basic pictures to post. Coming up.

Hump Balcony cabin on deck seven. I was expecting a little bit bigger balcony because of the home. Not really.

Matt-What cabin on Deck 7 are you in?

I always enjoy your reviews Matt. :D(subscribing this way since CC is broken:o)

I’m in 7346. I’m liking being between The royal promenade and the upper decks. You actually have an opportunity to use the stairs if you need to when there are crowds.

I’m realizing I did a review last year on this ship for the same weekend, and there is a link to it in my signature block. So there probably won’t be as many ship pictures as last year because I’ve already done them :-) Now last year I was taken off by ambulance when we arrived in Port Everglades. I felt blessed that my medical emergency waited until the last night of the cruise, and more blessed that I was well taken care of by the medical staff on the ship. It turned out to be nothing majorly permanent. Also a blessing. But I’m hoping this year will not be a repeat medical emergency. LOL

The ship is completely sold out and I’m not the only one complaining about not being able to book spa treatments. And both specialty restaurants are completely booked for the cruise.

There are a lot of diamond plus members on board and they are doing overflow for the diamond lounge on both sides of the Viking crown. Our good friend and the efficient Bartender Victoria, who we have met many times, is in Olive or twist, so we’ve decided to camp out in the main area and forgoe the crowds of the lounge.

Here are the “special” toiletries that I received. I’m guessing these are a diamond plus benefit.

And here are tonight’s snacks. A plate of cookies. I miss the lemony cookies that were in the bag. But these are fine.

I am one of those strange people that would actually prefer that our mini bar was stocked when we get in the cabin. I like having the option, even if nothing is included in the drink package, and also to have the snacks for late at night. But now your refrigerator will be empty and you get this card. So you can order your beverages. But there’s no place to order snacks. So for me, not the greatest.

Finally, there is the room service menu. I know a lot of people complain about the service charge but it is personally not something that would bother me. I also have not ordered room service in about 15 cruises. LOL

Matt-Thanks for the cabin info. Staying in 7340 Saturday on the Freedom. Glad you liked the location. Can't wait to try "the hump"!!

Victoria from Paraguay? We love Victoria. :D

Thanks for the menu scans Matt.:)

Hey Matt!! Enjoy your cruise. We will be on Indy with our kids Jan 4. Was hoping for a black Friday sale on drink packages, but does not appear to be one for our date. I still think the D+ discount is the best deal for us. Happy Thanksgiving!

Before I forget. This is the worst Internet connection on a royal ship that I have experienced in number of years. It takes so many attempts to even connect that it gets very frustrating. I’ve been on this ship four times now and this is the worst I’ve experienced it. Now, with my D+ discount, four days of surf and stream is about $32. That part I cannot complain about.

Random thoughts:

That great bacon appetizer in Chops no longer has that maple glaze. So now it is more savory. It was very satisfying, but I miss the maple glaze. Overall dinner in chops was excellent. They accommodated 14 of us in a corner and our waiter shamus was spectacular.

I will miss the current nightclub set up when they revitalize the ship and turn that space on decks 3 and 4 into cabins or whatever they do. Nightclubs in the Viking crown are never as good as the space here.

Here’s some late night promenade shots

Off to bed. Spa appointment at 1 tomorrow

Matt terrific posts and photos.

That voice recognition worked very well.

May I ask what device you used it on?

Keith

Matt terrific posts and photos.

 

That voice recognition worked very well.

 

May I ask what device you used it on?

 

Keith

I am on an Apple iPhone X.

A couple of more shots of the Royal promenade before I go to bed. They’ve turned on the lights because they want everyone to go home LOL.

Tomorrow is a sea day and they are doing a “Black Friday“ sale on the promenade. It should be interesting to see what that really is.

Matt, thanks for the information. That is perfect. I will give it a try next time we travel.

Beautiful photos too.

Keith

Following along, thank you for sharing your thoughts! I"ll be getting on board shortly after you disembark.

Excellent photos!:)

Subscribing. Great review so far.

Here are the “special” toiletries that I received. I’m guessing these are a diamond plus benefit.

 

Nope, I think just about anyone who asks nicely can get those.;)

Matt, if you pop in to Dog and Badger would you let me know if any of Victoria, Nick and Adrian are still around?

Enjoy your cruise.

Matt, if you pop in to Dog and Badger would you let me know if any of Victoria, Nick and Adrian are still around?

 

 

 

Enjoy your cruise.

Jarmo, Victoria is now in the Viking Crown. Alternating between Diamond Lounge and Olive or Twist. I’m not sure I’ve seen Nick or Adrian. Yesterday it was all women.

More thoughts:

Because there ended up being 14 of us, we tried to make it easy on our Chops waiter Shaymus from Turkey. He did the starters family style (and the sides) and we each ordered our main meal.

Everything was good. But the bacon appetizer is different. I always remember it having a sweeter glaze. It doesn’t anymore. Still good though, but preferred the old glaze. My 6 oz filet was cooked perfectly, and the truffle fries are tasty.

Today we had a little drama. Giovanni’s lost our reservation for tonight. Jacqui the diamond lounge concierge is great and really tried to fix it. But they have no tables tonight. And for some reason our MDR tables aren’t linked even though we all were linked before hand. Finally 6 of us were put together in MDR and they’re trying to get another table nearby.

We have a letter confirming our Gios rez tonight. So the maitre d’ is trying to do something for us the last night.

I excused myself from the drama and went and got a massage :)

I forgot to add - none of us wanted to try the sea food tower.

I had heard complaints about them starting to add a gratuity to specialty restaurant bills. They weren’t doing that here.

This surprised me - lifeguards at Solarium pool. I thought that was only a kids pool thing. But there are 2 life guards at every pool.

One truly annoying thing - now when you check out a towel, they don’t just scan your card, they also ask for your cabin number. One guy for the entire pool area. That’s insane. And my friends on the B2B said it was the same getting off in Cozumel. One guy for all passengers going ashore. How many ratty blue towels were guests actually stealing?

Jarmo, Victoria is now in the Viking Crown. Alternating between Diamond Lounge and Olive or Twist. I’m not sure I’ve seen Nick or Adrian. Yesterday it was all women.

Awesome, thanks.

Today’s treats. I ate the cheesecake square before I remembered to take the pic.

And what? No napkin and silverware anymore? Odd place to cut back.

Well, our group of 14 is in 3 different parts of the dining room. 3 different decks too.

They’re still trying to fix our issue. Oh well.

Tonight is formal night and it’s the Jasmine menu.

I think this is one of my favorite towel animals ever:



Have to say dinner in the MDR was fairly disappointing. And I usually don’t have a problem with dinner in the MDR. The food was OK. The onion soup had good flavor. But one of my table mates had the beef sliders, which is one of their staples, and the bun truly could’ve broken a window if you threw it at it, and the french fries were inedible. I’ve never experienced that.

Another table mate reported that the lobster tail was not well cooked. And of course gone are the days when the head waiter would walk around and separate the lobster meat from the tail for the guest, to earn his tip. Another casualty for profit I suppose. We did not have a drinks waiter. Our assistant waiter had to fill-in and she knew nothing about alcohol. She wasn’t even sure we would want ice in our drinks. And even on two attempts she could not get the drinks correct.

But the worst part is to sit there and watch every table around you getting their food in a timely manner and you’re still sitting there with your one roll. We did not get our first appetizer until about 9:10, or about 40 minutes after sitting. The second appetizer was about 20 minutes later. And the main course did not come until about 10 PM. Our waiter had three tables, one of which was empty. Suffice it to say we were not happy. We were never offered another roll and no one refilled our waters. I know from my many past experiences this is not usually how it goes. But considering how much they screwed up our dinner reservations already, it was just icing on the cake. We skipped dessert and hightailed it out of there.

We won’t be going back to the dining room. Tomorrow night will be in Windjammer, and then hopefully the reservation we were supposed to have at Giovanni’s will come through for Sunday night.

On the plus side, since I’ve now been on the ship four times in three years, it truly is special when crewmembers remember you from past trips and want to give you a hug and say hello. It is one of those special things about Royal and about being a repeat cruiser that makes it worthwhile.

A couple of random shots from the seventh floor balcony from the elevator area overlooking formal night earlier.