Quantum & Ovation Plus - 30 Day Live (hopefully)

[bobmacliberty]

Just now, Tree_skier said:

I have travelled all over Canada and the United States and still feel like my old home, Vancouver, is the most beautiful and picturesque city in all on North America. I'll admit to a little bias but I stand by my opinion. 🙂 

You’re not alone with that opinion. A city with both water and mountains alone is unusual, but when you add in Vancouver’s focus on green space, biking and pedestrian lanes, it’s a beautiful place. We will definitely be back, maybe even for a pure land trip visit. 

[bobmacliberty]

Just now, Jimbo said:

and how many days before the next stop?

Three more sea days after today. Then 2 days at Maui (Lahaina). 

[helen haywood]

John Grantham is your CD?  We LOVE him.  He was on a Celebrity ship we sailed several times.  He did a hilarious Rock ‘N’ Roll Ultimate Trivia show that was great.  He also gave a talk in the theater about his days in TV…very funny.  

[Sea Dog]

44 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

Every bar has been a crap shoot as to what it has and doesn’t have. We can find just about everything somewhere, but often in only one place. Flexibility with what we want is key.

That’s a shame. On Symphony I was amazed how some bars had everything and others had limited supplies.

[crzndeb]

1 hour ago, bobmacliberty said:

Me: Is there anywhere else on the ship with draft beer?
 

Bartender: No sir there isn’t. 

I know in May, they had draft downstairs at the bar in Music Hall

[Tree_skier]

8 minutes ago, crzndeb said:

I know in May, they had draft downstairs at the bar in Music Hall

They had draft Strongbow as well.  

[bobmacliberty]

3 hours ago, helen haywood said:

John Grantham is your CD?  We LOVE him.  He was on a Celebrity ship we sailed several times.  He did a hilarious Rock ‘N’ Roll Ultimate Trivia show that was great.  He also gave a talk in the theater about his days in TV…very funny.  

Yes John is the CD. I thought he might have been on Celebrity because he accidentally called the Royal Theater the Celebrity Theater. Oops. He’s doing his talk about his days in TV tomorrow. Looking forward to it. 

[bobmacliberty]

2 hours ago, crzndeb said:

I know in May, they had draft downstairs at the bar in Music Hall

 

2 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

They had draft Strongbow as well.  

Good to know. We’ve been in the Music Hall several times but never at the bar. I’m usually disappointed in Royal’s beer selection but it’s good to hear that they have draft beer in more than just the pub. 

[bobmacliberty]

Disappointing finish to tonight. We had 9:00 reservations for Pixel’s Cabaret in the Two70 Theater and got there early to get good seats. The ship is shimmying pretty good. Not just a gentle roll but a quick shift to the left, then a quick shift to the right. Lots of passengers drunk walking. 
 

Understandably, they had to cancel the show for the safety of the performers. There are 2 shows

left on day 6 but they’re likely booked. They’re going to try to reschedule. Pixel’s Cabaret is the only show that requires reservations. Time to ask the Suite Concierge to perform some magic for us. 

[bobmacliberty]

Turning back the clocks another hour tonight. That’s 3 nights in a row and will put us on Hawaii time tomorrow. I would have preferred if they spread it out a little since we still have 3 days to go. Do they always do time changes on consecutive nights during crossings?

[bobmacliberty]

Tonight’s towel animal. This one’s easy. 

[Biker19]

5 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

Do they always do time changes on consecutive nights during crossings?

Kinda up to the Captain but yes, that is sorta normal.

[scottygirl]

11 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

We were sitting in our room reading. 
Me to Micheline:  I’m going to run down to the pub to get a draft beer. Want anything?

 

Micheline:  Yes. Please get me a Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc. 
 

I hop on the elevator down to deck 4 and fight the Esplanade crowd to get to the pub, which is packed for Karaoke. I wiggle my way to the bar. 
 

Me: What kind of beer do you have on tap?

 

Bartender:  I’m sorry sir but our beer taps are not working someone is fixing them now. 
 

Me:  How long will that take?

 

Bartender:  I don’t know sir. 
 

Me: Is there anywhere else on the ship with draft beer?
 

Bartender: No sir there isn’t. 
 

Me: Sigh. OK. I’ll have a Stone IPA and a Kim Crawford SB

 

Bartender disappears for 30 seconds and reappears with a bottle of Robert Mondavi SB: Is this OK?

 

Me: You don’t have any Kim Crawford?

 

Bartender: No sir. 
 

Me: Sigh. OK, then I guess it’s the Robert Mondavi. 
 

Every bar has been a crap shoot as to what it has and doesn’t have. We can find just about everything somewhere, but often in only one place. Flexibility with what we want is key. 

Ugh, in no way shape or form is Robert Mondavi SB an acceptable substitution for Kim Crawford SB or any NZ SB!  I'll be on The Ovation in January cruising to NZ and I hope they can find an acceptable substitution by then. 🤪

Edited October 4, 2022 by scottygirl

[Sandy Shores997]

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Kinda up to the Captain but yes, that is sorta normal.

Welcome to CC

[DaKahuna]

15 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Bartender:  I’m sorry sir but our beer taps are not working someone is fixing them now. 
 

Me:  How long will that take?

 

Bartender:  I don’t know sir. 
 

Me: Is there anywhere else on the ship with draft beer?
 

Bartender: No sir there isn’t. 

 

 

 I went to Hooter's with friends last Friday for dinner after attending 'The Nation's  Gun Show' and was told they were out of draft beer.  Additionally they were out of almost any beer that was not some form of mass produced 'lite' beer.  

 

The cause of there being no draft beer or fountain drinks - a world wide shortage in co2.  Hopefully that is not the case here but for it to affect every bar, something is suspicious.  

 

My remedy however was to order a long island ice tea instead of some watered down beer. 

 

[bobmacliberty]

3 hours ago, scottygirl said:

Ugh, in no way shape or form is Robert Mondavi SB an acceptable substitution for Kim Crawford SB or any NZ SB!  I'll be on The Ovation in January cruising to NZ and I hope they can find an acceptable substitution by then. 🤪

To be clear, Kim Crawford is available in several places, just not the pub. 🤷🏼‍♂️  Micheline also likes Whispering Angel rose. She can get it at Vintages and the Two70 bar, but not Schooner or Music Hall. Again 🤷🏼‍♂️

[bobmacliberty]

Good morning from somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean…again. The little dot on the screen is slowly moving closer to Hawaii.

 

I’m guessing that we a little more than halfway there and are at least 1,000 miles from land in any direction. 

[scottygirl]

3 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

To be clear, Kim Crawford is available in several places, just not the pub. 🤷🏼‍♂️  Micheline also likes Whispering Angel rose. She can get it at Vintages and the Two70 bar, but not Schooner or Music Hall. Again 🤷🏼‍♂️

Micheline has great taste in wine.

[bobmacliberty]

Just now, scottygirl said:

Micheline has great taste in wine.

She learned about Whispering Angel at Vintages on Harmony last spring. She’s not usually a rose fan because it’s too sweet. She prefers dry. The Vintages bartender gave her a taste of WA and told her that French rose is much drier than American rose. One taste and she was sold. It apparently became popular in the US after Brad and Angelina served it at their wedding, at least according to the bartender. 
 

Anyone know how to type the letter e with an acute accent mark over it on CC?  On my computer at home, I recall CC autocorrecting words like cafe to include the accent mark. Doesn’t seem to work on my phone and the perfectionist in me hates typing rose without the accent over the e. 

[bobmacliberty]

1 hour ago, singinalot said:

note to self: bring my own KC this weekend as that’s all I drink

Give the Whispering Angel a try. You might like it. It’s an extra $1 if you have vouchers or the drink package. 

[sgmn]

3 hours ago, scottygirl said:

Micheline has great taste in wine.

Second this, love a dry rose

[bobmacliberty]

So…sea days. Lots of them. We generally are not big sea day fans.  We prefer going to ports and seeing/doing something. We are fortunate to live walking distance from the beach in Florida and belong to a club with a nice beach/pool/ocean clubhouse area with great food and drink. We can have a nice beach/pool day almost any time for most of the year. We don’t cruise for that type

of experience. I know that many people love sea days. The world would be a boring place if we were all the same. Our biggest concern about doing an ocean crossing is what we would do all day for many days in a row. 
 

So far, it’s been a little boring, but not as bad as we expected. Don’t get me wrong…there is a lot to do on the ship. Every morning is filled with various stretching/yoga/exercise type classes. We don’t do that on vacation (and barely do that enough at home). There are trivia events several times a day. We’ve done a few of those. They’re a good way to enjoy 30 minutes, but we can only

take so much trivia. There are constant health and fitness type seminars, design to sell spa services (IMO), constant jewelry seminars, designed to sell jewelry (IMO), and constant art seminars, designed to sell art (you guessed it…IMO). I’m sure many of these seminars are educational and not really just a sales pitch, but they haven’t really attracted us. There’s Bingo most days, which we might eventually try, but $50 for a bunch of bingo cards isn’t my kind of gambling. I’d rather go to a craps table, which we also haven’t yet done but likely will. 
 

We’ve gone to a couple of interesting lecture from a woman named Louis Riofrio. She’s an astrophysicist and former NASA scientist who lives on the Big Island. Her talks are an interesting mix of volcanoes, black holes, Hawaiian history, and things to do in Hawaii.
 

Yesterday, we went to a cake decorating contest between the Hotel Director and the F&B Director. Each had a passenger helping them. The F&B Director’s helper was a woman with some sort

of degree in cooking who has a catering business that specializes in cake decorating. 😳. The F&B Director took a more serious route and designed a pretty nice looking cake. The HD took a more comical route and designed a pretty outrageous looking cake. There was some fun interplay between the officers stealing each other’s toppings and the CD did a good job of narrating and keeping things funny. It was an enjoyable event. 
 

For the most part during the day, we’ve just relaxed and read our books. Micheline has several books loaded into her Nook, and I have the same for the Nook app on my iPad mini  (which makes for a great ebook). I just finished reading a good Brad Meltzer book called The Escape Artist, and started reading the latest Jack Reacher book called Better Off Dead. 
 

Evenings are filled with various shows, musical artists, and occasional passenger competitions. We’ve had no problem filling our evenings with fun activities. 
 

I can’t remember who asked, but Northstar has been running the entire cruise. Same for RipCord

by iFly. 

Edited October 4, 2022 by bobmacliberty

[Sea Dog]

4 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

One taste and she was sold. It apparently became popular in the US after Brad and Angelina served it at their wedding, at least according to the bartender. 

 

And they serve a lot of it on the Below Deck series. I never heard of it until I started watching the series.

[bobmacliberty]

Just now, Sea Dog said:

 

And they serve a lot of it on the Below Deck series. I never heard of it until I started watching the series.

I wouldn’t know. 🤣🤣🤣

[bobmacliberty]

Misc. ship thoughts:

 

Windjammers with outdoor seating > Windjammers with no outdoor seating

 

Music Hall on Quantum class >>>> Music Hall / Dazzles on Oasis class

 

Diamond lounge on Quantum class >> Diamond lounge on Oasis class, but still mostly a waste of space for us (especially when the coffee machine isn’t working)

 

Two70 Lounge is the best lounge in the Royal fleet.