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Afternoon snack. Big fan of the $10 Izumi in the Park credit since I don’t get much sushi at home & it’s not exactly a heavy snack. Wife might try a bubble cone later tonight with hers.

Boooo… love bacon cheeseburgers with an egg. I’m gonna be pushing 50 in the not so distant future and I still feel weird drinking anything from a martini glass, lol. I’m definitely more casual big kid than sophisticated adult & I don’t see that changing.

The mac n cheese looks good to me! Sad it was a disappointment. I am loving all of your food pics! The chicken parm looks soooo good. My bestie and husband loved the espresso martinis at Schooner on Wonder! It's too bad it was closed for a few days at the beginning of our cruise as they were redoing the floors. Egg on pizza... hmmmmmmmmm, no. I can't even do egg on burgers.

Sweet! I look forward to it. I am a fitness nut. Does it include the crew gym?

That’s a new one, lol. Not exactly a complicated dish. It wasn’t THAT bad at Chops, just bad in the context of eating a nice steak with really good potato sides, somewhat upscale apps, etc. We used to go to Fleming’s (fairly pricey steakhouse chain, dunno how national it is) for special occasions & they had a spicy mac baked with breadcrumbs that was one of my favorites. Speaking of mac n cheese, my wife is looking forward to trying the mac n cheese nuggets from the Hooked kids menu tonight and they do have lobster mac…

The Beach Club should just be looked at as an independent excursion, not an extension of the ship like Coco Cay.

I can eat almost any Mac and cheese but my wife is a Mac snob, if it's not baked with a little crust on top, she's not loving it. I also laugh at the inconsistencies on the ships... have you ever seen the kids menu version? One time it looks like Kraft, another time it's literally elbow noodles with a slice of American cheese barely melted across the top.

I didn’t think it was anything special. But so far the food has not been great. The restaurant at Denali Cabins where we stayed the first night was pretty bad and then we went over to the Princess resort last night and it wasn’t great either. Hopefully better tonight in Talkeetna.

I purchased this package on a previous cruise. I keep waiting for it to again be offered on upcoming cruises, and while it's not reappeared, the ala carte prices keep going up.

Thank you JohnK for confirming Im not imagining things! I know there’s no way to know if it will be offered again but just for info sake, may I ask how much it was?

I find that I just can't eat the udp and drink the dbp. Too much, and I'd feel compelled. Maybe on a really long one that I get to do someday (dang work), but right now 3 is pretty good, and half the time by day 6 we are windjammering because even mdr is too much! Jane

Yes, it does exist. We purchased the combo Refreshment Package + VOOM for our May sailing on Allure this year. The deal combos seem to come and go... I believe we purchased it during last year's BF/CM sale.

i stand corrected

We all have our priorities.

We’ll be on the week before you !

As are we. And I am secretly, well maybe not so secretly, hoping Labadee or Puerto Rico is cancelled and we can go to D.R. And to better answer the OP... The first time we visited Labadee was in 2016. I have since seen no changes in the atmosphere. .

Please correct me if I’m wrong! We’re sailing Star of the Seas 12/14-12/21/25, so I get notifications every time there’s a new discount being offered on the bev pkg. The other day I took a look and I swear honest to God I saw a quick reference to a combo bev pkg with Voom internet/wifi and it was almost pay for drink pkg and get Voom free. Then the screen changed and I haven’t been able to retrieve it since. Also, I was never offered this deal. If I was, I would have grabbed it! So, am I crazy? Does this deal exist? Did it ever exist? Or am I certifiable? Please be kind.

I am on that Oasis sailing and the one after. Both go to Labadee and I expect them to let us know the changes when check-in opens or probably around the 1st of August.

That and new bars are most appealing to me but you already knew that +1 to all of that. I love that our first Mason Jar brunch was on a family cruise & we ordered 75% of the menu. I’ve got my favorites now but I would have needed a few meals to narrow it down otherwise.

It slowly filled up and was fairly busy by 1:00 or so. There were also quite a few crew members having lunch there. We decided to keep our plans as-is, btw. View from the outdoor terrace Rolls Caprese salad (figured I would stick with the salad theme since it worked last night & is lighter than meatballs or fried calamari or whatever & glad I did) Half truffle/egg, half plain pizza (it was different & I enjoyed it but will probably go back to the Giovanni pizza next time) Chicken parm (wife wanted to try it again b/c she didn’t love it last time she ordered it. she liked it, just too heavy for lunch but we knew that. they should really have lunch portions for some items.) Carbonara (still good, still heavy, I was good and didn’t even try to finish it) Chocolate ravioli (still my wife’s favorite dessert) Go bananas

I've finally gotten to that point with using all my drink vouchers, too. I try super hard to find people to give them away to, but they still end up going to waste when I'm not cruising with a group. For me now the dining package just gives me more variety which is refreshing with how often I cruise. I wouldn't even mind the ships having more paid ala carte options just to break up the monotony. I will give credit to Icon class, because there are a lot of new complimentary dining options that give you something different. That's one ship class I think is a waste to get the UDP on. That's why I like buffet and family style meals. I like so many things and I want a taste of everything but I'm not usually dining in a large group where I'd have the chance. I waste so much food at specialty dining with three courses and sides that it hurts my frugal heart. +1 Still on a quest to find mac n cheese that doesn't suck onboard.

That is surprising that they are often closed, and it doesn't take much to store a blender! We had an aft balcony on Voyager, and I laughed that I needed a bar closer! This will be the same! I'm starting to look at the compass... It's finally almost all lucky on the app, and pub didn't seem to have much music. This explains why. My first cruise was on vision and I remember a very rainy day with a book as one of my favorite vacation moments. I really don't like schooner on the Oasis class, and I'm guessing I won't on icon next spring. But it looks amazing on radiance! I was going to ask about viking crown, so that's disappointing to hear as well. Seems a match to hang there and watch scenery!!! Thank you so much for all your insights! This week needs to go faster and reading these keeps me patient! Jane

Schooner is often really jam packed on the larger ships. This Schooner is good sized on Radiance and being a smaller ship it seemed easier to find seating in the evenings. I was surprised how the bars aren’t open as much as Caribbean sailings. The english pub was closed A LOT. The bar behind Windjammer was often closed, especially when heavy traffic time of Windjammer had passed. This is too bad as the al fresco seating at the back of the ship is our favorite spot because, a) we’re outdoors people, and b) you could see the sights from both port and starboard sides. The bar here was often closed and we had to run off to the pool bar or another bar and bring drinks back. Another oddity was only about half of the bars had functioning blenders. My wife often orders a frozen drink but on both of these B2B sailings she had to order a different drink or make a long walk to a bar with a functioning blender. We have never experienced this before on Royal. Also, we were surprised how often the “Starquest / Viking” lounge on 13 was booked with either a private event or art sale / art auction events. This is a location we typically like, especially during poor weather. It was unavailable quite a bit. The captain was super. He does a talk one of the evenings with Q&A that is very interesting and worth the time. The ports, fjords, and passages are a bit unique in Alaska and the captain shares a lot of interesting ship, pilot, and navigation details.

Please add me! July 25-Aug 1 2025 radiance of the seas (northbound Alaska) March 28-April 24, 2026 Icon of the seas (Eastern Caribbean) Thanks! Jane

Thank you! Schooner is our favorite and the last ones on Voyager and navigator were meh. I wonder why the difference in kids since both are off school anyway. I teach preschool married to a high school teacher, so we don't care either way, but it's interesting! Jane