Neaxan

Nice to see that they have changed the drink menu at Wonderland compared to the one on Harmony.  Can't wait to try it!  Thanks for posting.

Woa, we need more details on this!!! ?

Chops Grille
The steak house is a classic on a cruise ship – at least I’ve never been on a cruise ship that didn’t have one. With all your positive reviews about this restaurant in mind, we were quite excited to get to try this one, especially with all the drama around it. Story in short: a lot of people started to see their Chops lunch fees credited back without any notice. Their lunch was cancelled due to a pinnacle take over of Chops for lunch.
 
So let’s move on to the food: We started on Tuna Tartare for me and Charred Beef Carpaccio for hubby. Hubby was so gracious to additionally ordert he Jumbo Lump Crab Cake as he knew I was torn between it and the tartare. All three appetizers were exceptionally delicious, our favourite was the crab cake. You might remember that I already had crab cake in Hooked and the MDR – Chops‘ crab cake is by far the best one!



As a second course, we both chose soup. I went with the Wild Mushroom Soup (very good, just nothing special), hubby went with the Lobster Bisque. Unfortunately this wasn’t his cup of tea at all (tasted too much like fish) – he should have stuck with his first idea, the Crispy Goat Cheese Salad.


For entrees, hubby chose the Prime NY Strip Steak and I got the Petite Angus Filet Mignon. It’s a compromise for me as I’m not that much of a meat eater but I thought I shouldn’t go with fish in a steak house. Good choice, both meats were absolutely delicious! As sides we share Gruyère Cheese Tater Tots, Sauteée Mushrooms, Truffled French Fries and Salted Baked Potato – all very good and reasonably sized portions at last ☺️



Highlight of the evening (as always?) was dessert. Hubby chose the New York Cheesecake – verdict: best Cheesecake on board so far. I got the Warm Chocolate Cake, this was again a dessert to die for!


Overall verdict: our favourite restaurant up to now! On par with TUI’s steak house, maybe even a bit better. On our next cruise we’d likely do Chops twice – it just was that good! We were also very happy with our waiter Shadiek – Juan’s service was more personable, but his service fitted better in the more upscale atmosphere of Chops.

Chops Grille
The steak house is a classic on a cruise ship – at least I’ve never been on a cruise ship that didn’t have one. With all your positive reviews about this restaurant in mind, we were quite excited to get to try this one, especially with all the drama around it. Story in short: a lot of people started to see their Chops lunch fees credited back without any notice. Their lunch was cancelled due to a pinnacle take over of Chops for lunch.
 
So let’s move on to the food: We started on Tuna Tartare for me and Charred Beef Carpaccio for hubby. Hubby was so gracious to additionally ordert he Jumbo Lump Crab Cake as he knew I was torn between it and the tartare. All three appetizers were exceptionally delicious, our favourite was the crab cake. You might remember that I already had crab cake in Hooked and the MDR – Chops‘ crab cake is by far the best one!



As a second course, we both chose soup. I went with the Wild Mushroom Soup (very good, just nothing special), hubby went with the Lobster Bisque. Unfortunately this wasn’t his cup of tea at all (tasted too much like fish) – he should have stuck with his first idea, the Crispy Goat Cheese Salad.


For entrees, hubby chose the Prime NY Strip Steak and I got the Petite Angus Filet Mignon. It’s a compromise for me as I’m not that much of a meat eater but I thought I shouldn’t go with fish in a steak house. Good choice, both meats were absolutely delicious! As sides we share Gruyère Cheese Tater Tots, Sauteée Mushrooms, Truffled French Fries and Salted Baked Potato – all very good and reasonably sized portions at last ☺️



Highlight of the evening (as always?) was dessert. Hubby chose the New York Cheesecake – verdict: best Cheesecake on board so far. I got the Warm Chocolate Cake, this was again a dessert to die for!


Overall verdict: our favourite restaurant up to now! On par with TUI’s steak house, maybe even a bit better. On our next cruise we’d likely do Chops twice – it just was that good! We were also very happy with our waiter Shadiek – Juan’s service was more personable, but his service fitted better in the more upscale atmosphere of Chops.

My voice is too fragile to be the lead in a death metal band. If I'd done it I'd be voiceless. But don't you sing along with the songs you like? Well, I growl along ?

Day 5
Today we again took it upon ourselves to climb the stairs to Windjammer for breakfast. We found seats quite easily – only thing missing was the English Bacon ? Fortunately a staff member overheard hubby telling me that were was turkey bacon instead of English bacon – so he just got some English bacon fixed for us! Wow, that’s dedication and a service level we really don’t have in Germany. Robert, our cabin steward, was also exceptional this morning. As we kept the cabin on don’t disturb after the mayhem we left when preparing for Halloween, we didn’t get a towel animal. So instead of yesterday evening, we got our elephant this morning.

The rest of the morning was filled with our usual programme – morning trivia (didn’t win) and pop choir practice. Then it was up the stairs again, this time for some table tennis. We planned to have lunch in El Loco Fresh, but for whatever reason it was closed. So we decided to get some Hot Dogs. I went down the fast (well not really that fast) route – Ultimate Abyss – hubby had to take the stairs because he had the camera with him. We skipped 1pm trivia – let’s face it, we would’ve been quite useless at Game of Thrones trivia. Instead, we did the Royal Heist Puzzle Break in a multinational team (Brits, Belgians, Dutchmen and us). Fortunately, everyone was fluent in English so no language barriers here. I can proudly report that we managed to name the guilty party with about 4.5 minutes to spare. That meant 3rd place for us, although there were no prizes anyway. At least it was good practice for Escape the Rubicon and so much fun! Quite the contrary to progressive trivia, which really isn’t much fun. Riddles, tribands and dingbats are especially difficult when English isn’t your mothertongue and the theme of US-based questions did continue a bit. Pity we had to skip the pub crawl to attend this, but we couldn’t let down our team members. At least it was already part 2 of 3 – we won’t do the second progressive trivia.

After trivia we managed to get in some laps on the running track. It’s much warmer now and less wet as the waves really improved over night. Dinner was at Chops Grille – this will be its own post. Had some interesting discussions with hubby while at dinner. When Oasis 5 comes out, we want to do the TA on her (if she moves to the US) – Matt, shouldn’t that be the 2021 group cruise ?? Post-cruise plan is Orlando with Disney and Universal (and whatever else we can manage there) – in 3 years we should easily be thin enough to do all the attractions. The other topic we discussed: we thought about skipping our reservation for the headliner show (Hector is Magic) and try to see 1977 again as we were SO impressed. Unfortunately, we kept our reservation and went there. The magician wasn’t really bad or anything, we just didn’t enjoy it too much. Not our cup of tea – we’ll know next time. We had some drinks at Schooner but called it an early night as Symphony was like a ghost town – probably the Halloween aftermath ?





Side notes:
11k steps
Pools still drained in the morning – rumor has it they were filled in the afternoon – will check tomorrow
 

Found it Matt, it was in the App. Will see if it is posted outside Hooked when I pass by tomorrow.

Day 5
Today we again took it upon ourselves to climb the stairs to Windjammer for breakfast. We found seats quite easily – only thing missing was the English Bacon ? Fortunately a staff member overheard hubby telling me that were was turkey bacon instead of English bacon – so he just got some English bacon fixed for us! Wow, that’s dedication and a service level we really don’t have in Germany. Robert, our cabin steward, was also exceptional this morning. As we kept the cabin on don’t disturb after the mayhem we left when preparing for Halloween, we didn’t get a towel animal. So instead of yesterday evening, we got our elephant this morning.

The rest of the morning was filled with our usual programme – morning trivia (didn’t win) and pop choir practice. Then it was up the stairs again, this time for some table tennis. We planned to have lunch in El Loco Fresh, but for whatever reason it was closed. So we decided to get some Hot Dogs. I went down the fast (well not really that fast) route – Ultimate Abyss – hubby had to take the stairs because he had the camera with him. We skipped 1pm trivia – let’s face it, we would’ve been quite useless at Game of Thrones trivia. Instead, we did the Royal Heist Puzzle Break in a multinational team (Brits, Belgians, Dutchmen and us). Fortunately, everyone was fluent in English so no language barriers here. I can proudly report that we managed to name the guilty party with about 4.5 minutes to spare. That meant 3rd place for us, although there were no prizes anyway. At least it was good practice for Escape the Rubicon and so much fun! Quite the contrary to progressive trivia, which really isn’t much fun. Riddles, tribands and dingbats are especially difficult when English isn’t your mothertongue and the theme of US-based questions did continue a bit. Pity we had to skip the pub crawl to attend this, but we couldn’t let down our team members. At least it was already part 2 of 3 – we won’t do the second progressive trivia.

After trivia we managed to get in some laps on the running track. It’s much warmer now and less wet as the waves really improved over night. Dinner was at Chops Grille – this will be its own post. Had some interesting discussions with hubby while at dinner. When Oasis 5 comes out, we want to do the TA on her (if she moves to the US) – Matt, shouldn’t that be the 2021 group cruise ?? Post-cruise plan is Orlando with Disney and Universal (and whatever else we can manage there) – in 3 years we should easily be thin enough to do all the attractions. The other topic we discussed: we thought about skipping our reservation for the headliner show (Hector is Magic) and try to see 1977 again as we were SO impressed. Unfortunately, we kept our reservation and went there. The magician wasn’t really bad or anything, we just didn’t enjoy it too much. Not our cup of tea – we’ll know next time. We had some drinks at Schooner but called it an early night as Symphony was like a ghost town – probably the Halloween aftermath ?





Side notes:
11k steps
Pools still drained in the morning – rumor has it they were filled in the afternoon – will check tomorrow
 

Laughed so hard at the PIT comment. I guess you're spot on on that. We saw a Pinnacle complaining that she had to drag her suitcases about 20 metres from taxi to porters in Barcelona. All this focus on status isn't for us but guess you have to take the bad things along with the good ones.

Day 4 – Halloween
Here it is, our first real Halloween – German ones don’t count as it is not really a thing. As we had so much food for dinner yesterday, we only needed a light breakfast at Park Café (is it evident that we like the venue?). We were up quite early (for us), so we made it to morning trivia in Schooner. Questions were all about Halloween, horror movies etc. – good for us. We won our first trivia and as it was only the two of us in the team, we got to win all the prizes. Guess I won’t need any more highlighters in the near or distant future ?

The next event on our list was pop choir class. Yeah, who’d have guessed? But I was in a choir at school and enjoyed so I thought why not. Admittingly, my voice was better before I wrecked it with years and years of Death Metal vocals – so no solo for me. To my utter surprise, hubby wanted to join in – learn something new about your spouse any day… We’re practising This is me from the Greatest Showman – no, didn’t know that one before. Session was only listening to the song a few times and getting some people to volunteer for solos.
 
Lunch today was in Sorrento’s – I knew I had to try the pizza when I read all the comments about how bad it was. Our verdict: it’s not the best pizza we ever had, but it’s good comfort food. Next stop: visual trivia Horror movies – didn’t win. If everything had gone to plan, we’d have gone to the Hairspray matinee then – but it was postponed due to the ship’s motion. The good news: because of that we could do progressive trivia. We formed a team with two Brits, while they could help with the language, we we’re all stumped on some more US-based questions. Well, it’s for the fun anyway.
 
Dinner was up next – quite early because we didn’t want to miss Halloween’s fun and games. We didn’t go in costume because we’d have been toothily challenged – no fun eating with vampire fangs. We'd reserved a table for 5.30 pm and even got our favourite waiter Baptiste. For starters, I took the Maryland Crab Cake that I already had in Hooked (only significant difference was the aioli mayonnaise – much better in Hooked), hubby chose Roasted Garlic Soup – just ok. For entrees I was torn between the Moroccan Spiced Ahi Tuna Steak and the Thai Chicken Breast. Baptiste warned me that the fish had a 50/50 chance of being overcooked, so I went with the safe option and was quite happy with it. Hubby chose Roasted Pork Chop and couldn’t complain either. Highlight of this dinner was my dessert, the Chocolate Molten Cake – that’s really one to die for. Hubby had No Sugar Added Pineapple Upside Down Cake – nothing to write home about. All in all, the food was better on our first visit, but service was much faster (although less personal). To be honest, the crew had much more to do on this occasion as the MDR was packed – last time it was noticeably less so. Overall verdict: food was significantly better last time and is now well below TUI Cruises – good thing we’ll have speciality dining mostly for the rest of the cruise (and yes, I can see Ultimate Dining Packages in our future).






Being done in about an hour gave us more time to get in costume – make up took most of the time even if it didn’t look like it. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures due to the make up, so please visit the great Twangster’s blog for impressions. Our first stop was the Attic (Haunted House) – entertainment and cruise director’s staff really went all out on this one. Most enjoyable was the couple that was right behind us -  so much fun watching them react to everything. Next stop: Playmakers – I know… again… but we’re still trying out craft beers and they actually showed German soccer (hubby’s team). After they won, we just hung out at the Promenade and watched other dressed up crazies. For us it was quite strange that so many people took part in the parade – especially with sub par costumes – I promised hubby that next time we’ll also register for it even though I’ll have to practise make up first. I can report that our favourite won the costume contest – it was the Addams Family and they really were spot on. When the party on the promende ended, we had our first snack at Cafe Promenade and went to bed afterwards (after removing the make up of course ?)..

And because we’re not bots, here’s proof of our Halloween efforts:


Side notes
16k steps
Yes, we’re fast becoming trivia addicts and we’re enjoying this cruise way too much – guess we’ll be back on Royal – not loyal to Royal because we’re way too focused on itineraries but I see us alternating between Royal and TUI. Or maybe switching to Royal completely once we’ve sailed all itinieraries on our bucket list (Norwegian Fjords, Alaska, Panama Canal, South America, Japan, Arctic – yes we know it’ll take us decades to cross them all off).
No Hairspray, no Solarium, no pools ?

Drinks in the MDR have never been a problem – quite the contrary. You couldn’t finish a glass without being asked if you’d like another one.
We love Halloween! Not a big surprise as we’re horror movie/novels types anyway.
Funny little European observation: really don’t want to generalize here, but we’ve encountered quite a few „entitled“ Americans. Complaining about creaking in the cabin (well, it’s a ship and we have pitching and rolling…), having to stand in the rain in Barcelona for about one minute while staff checked your documents to allow you into the terminal, slow service in the MDR (believe me, it wasn’t that slow), room steward not personable enough, staff who are not completely fluent in English… From our standpoint, it’s really minor things we would never dream to complain about, but these people apparently love to give hell to the crew.
Clocks changed tonight – 1 more hour of sleep is always welcome – gotta love westbound TAs!
Limp Bizkit quote of the day: keep rolling rolling rolling, keep rolling rolling rolling

Day 5
Today we again took it upon ourselves to climb the stairs to Windjammer for breakfast. We found seats quite easily – only thing missing was the English Bacon ? Fortunately a staff member overheard hubby telling me that were was turkey bacon instead of English bacon – so he just got some English bacon fixed for us! Wow, that’s dedication and a service level we really don’t have in Germany. Robert, our cabin steward, was also exceptional this morning. As we kept the cabin on don’t disturb after the mayhem we left when preparing for Halloween, we didn’t get a towel animal. So instead of yesterday evening, we got our elephant this morning.

The rest of the morning was filled with our usual programme – morning trivia (didn’t win) and pop choir practice. Then it was up the stairs again, this time for some table tennis. We planned to have lunch in El Loco Fresh, but for whatever reason it was closed. So we decided to get some Hot Dogs. I went down the fast (well not really that fast) route – Ultimate Abyss – hubby had to take the stairs because he had the camera with him. We skipped 1pm trivia – let’s face it, we would’ve been quite useless at Game of Thrones trivia. Instead, we did the Royal Heist Puzzle Break in a multinational team (Brits, Belgians, Dutchmen and us). Fortunately, everyone was fluent in English so no language barriers here. I can proudly report that we managed to name the guilty party with about 4.5 minutes to spare. That meant 3rd place for us, although there were no prizes anyway. At least it was good practice for Escape the Rubicon and so much fun! Quite the contrary to progressive trivia, which really isn’t much fun. Riddles, tribands and dingbats are especially difficult when English isn’t your mothertongue and the theme of US-based questions did continue a bit. Pity we had to skip the pub crawl to attend this, but we couldn’t let down our team members. At least it was already part 2 of 3 – we won’t do the second progressive trivia.

After trivia we managed to get in some laps on the running track. It’s much warmer now and less wet as the waves really improved over night. Dinner was at Chops Grille – this will be its own post. Had some interesting discussions with hubby while at dinner. When Oasis 5 comes out, we want to do the TA on her (if she moves to the US) – Matt, shouldn’t that be the 2021 group cruise ?? Post-cruise plan is Orlando with Disney and Universal (and whatever else we can manage there) – in 3 years we should easily be thin enough to do all the attractions. The other topic we discussed: we thought about skipping our reservation for the headliner show (Hector is Magic) and try to see 1977 again as we were SO impressed. Unfortunately, we kept our reservation and went there. The magician wasn’t really bad or anything, we just didn’t enjoy it too much. Not our cup of tea – we’ll know next time. We had some drinks at Schooner but called it an early night as Symphony was like a ghost town – probably the Halloween aftermath ?





Side notes:
11k steps
Pools still drained in the morning – rumor has it they were filled in the afternoon – will check tomorrow
 

So, when are you going to do a selfie? Your photos are superb, but, the gang here wants to see the guy behind the camera/smart phone! 

It was time to head to dinner and I always try to find an excuse to pass through Central Park.  Tonight was no different.

Finally a sunset worth taking pictures of.






What's better than a great sunset?  A great sunset the largest cruise ship in the world!

This is the busiest I have seen the Solarium.  With the new layout it does feel a little smaller than Harmony's Solarium.  In some ways it's more open yet seating seems less to me.  I'll have to sail Harmony again to compare ?.

The hard glass/plastic ceiling works better than's Harmony's vinyl ceiling.

The pool on the lower level has a glass front with rippling water flowing over the face of the base.


The Solarium Bar remains closed due to construction.

Day 4 – Halloween
Here it is, our first real Halloween – German ones don’t count as it is not really a thing. As we had so much food for dinner yesterday, we only needed a light breakfast at Park Café (is it evident that we like the venue?). We were up quite early (for us), so we made it to morning trivia in Schooner. Questions were all about Halloween, horror movies etc. – good for us. We won our first trivia and as it was only the two of us in the team, we got to win all the prizes. Guess I won’t need any more highlighters in the near or distant future ?

The next event on our list was pop choir class. Yeah, who’d have guessed? But I was in a choir at school and enjoyed so I thought why not. Admittingly, my voice was better before I wrecked it with years and years of Death Metal vocals – so no solo for me. To my utter surprise, hubby wanted to join in – learn something new about your spouse any day… We’re practising This is me from the Greatest Showman – no, didn’t know that one before. Session was only listening to the song a few times and getting some people to volunteer for solos.
 
Lunch today was in Sorrento’s – I knew I had to try the pizza when I read all the comments about how bad it was. Our verdict: it’s not the best pizza we ever had, but it’s good comfort food. Next stop: visual trivia Horror movies – didn’t win. If everything had gone to plan, we’d have gone to the Hairspray matinee then – but it was postponed due to the ship’s motion. The good news: because of that we could do progressive trivia. We formed a team with two Brits, while they could help with the language, we we’re all stumped on some more US-based questions. Well, it’s for the fun anyway.
 
Dinner was up next – quite early because we didn’t want to miss Halloween’s fun and games. We didn’t go in costume because we’d have been toothily challenged – no fun eating with vampire fangs. We'd reserved a table for 5.30 pm and even got our favourite waiter Baptiste. For starters, I took the Maryland Crab Cake that I already had in Hooked (only significant difference was the aioli mayonnaise – much better in Hooked), hubby chose Roasted Garlic Soup – just ok. For entrees I was torn between the Moroccan Spiced Ahi Tuna Steak and the Thai Chicken Breast. Baptiste warned me that the fish had a 50/50 chance of being overcooked, so I went with the safe option and was quite happy with it. Hubby chose Roasted Pork Chop and couldn’t complain either. Highlight of this dinner was my dessert, the Chocolate Molten Cake – that’s really one to die for. Hubby had No Sugar Added Pineapple Upside Down Cake – nothing to write home about. All in all, the food was better on our first visit, but service was much faster (although less personal). To be honest, the crew had much more to do on this occasion as the MDR was packed – last time it was noticeably less so. Overall verdict: food was significantly better last time and is now well below TUI Cruises – good thing we’ll have speciality dining mostly for the rest of the cruise (and yes, I can see Ultimate Dining Packages in our future).






Being done in about an hour gave us more time to get in costume – make up took most of the time even if it didn’t look like it. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures due to the make up, so please visit the great Twangster’s blog for impressions. Our first stop was the Attic (Haunted House) – entertainment and cruise director’s staff really went all out on this one. Most enjoyable was the couple that was right behind us -  so much fun watching them react to everything. Next stop: Playmakers – I know… again… but we’re still trying out craft beers and they actually showed German soccer (hubby’s team). After they won, we just hung out at the Promenade and watched other dressed up crazies. For us it was quite strange that so many people took part in the parade – especially with sub par costumes – I promised hubby that next time we’ll also register for it even though I’ll have to practise make up first. I can report that our favourite won the costume contest – it was the Addams Family and they really were spot on. When the party on the promende ended, we had our first snack at Cafe Promenade and went to bed afterwards (after removing the make up of course ?)..

And because we’re not bots, here’s proof of our Halloween efforts:


Side notes
16k steps
Yes, we’re fast becoming trivia addicts and we’re enjoying this cruise way too much – guess we’ll be back on Royal – not loyal to Royal because we’re way too focused on itineraries but I see us alternating between Royal and TUI. Or maybe switching to Royal completely once we’ve sailed all itinieraries on our bucket list (Norwegian Fjords, Alaska, Panama Canal, South America, Japan, Arctic – yes we know it’ll take us decades to cross them all off).
No Hairspray, no Solarium, no pools ?

Drinks in the MDR have never been a problem – quite the contrary. You couldn’t finish a glass without being asked if you’d like another one.
We love Halloween! Not a big surprise as we’re horror movie/novels types anyway.
Funny little European observation: really don’t want to generalize here, but we’ve encountered quite a few „entitled“ Americans. Complaining about creaking in the cabin (well, it’s a ship and we have pitching and rolling…), having to stand in the rain in Barcelona for about one minute while staff checked your documents to allow you into the terminal, slow service in the MDR (believe me, it wasn’t that slow), room steward not personable enough, staff who are not completely fluent in English… From our standpoint, it’s really minor things we would never dream to complain about, but these people apparently love to give hell to the crew.
Clocks changed tonight – 1 more hour of sleep is always welcome – gotta love westbound TAs!
Limp Bizkit quote of the day: keep rolling rolling rolling, keep rolling rolling rolling

Laughed so hard at the PIT comment. I guess you're spot on on that. We saw a Pinnacle complaining that she had to drag her suitcases about 20 metres from taxi to porters in Barcelona. All this focus on status isn't for us but guess you have to take the bad things along with the good ones.

Your costumes were great !  Very well done IMO
Laughed out loud about the highlighters. I couldn’t figure out what they were from the photo but then when I read the post it made sense.

Congratulations on a great trivia win!
On the second point, those would be the PIT (Pinnacle In Training a.k.a. Diamond Plus) and Pinnacles.  If they can't find something to complain about, they'll create something to complain about.  Having just done the Snowbird Migration cruise that was also a top heavy, I've grown an immunization to it. 
On Adventure in an elevator a few weeks ago - "This is the worst cruise ever!", "We had to wait 8 minutes in the terminal!".  Hmmm, I'm thinking this is one of the better cruises I've done and an eight minute wait?  Seriously?

Day 4 – Halloween
Here it is, our first real Halloween – German ones don’t count as it is not really a thing. As we had so much food for dinner yesterday, we only needed a light breakfast at Park Café (is it evident that we like the venue?). We were up quite early (for us), so we made it to morning trivia in Schooner. Questions were all about Halloween, horror movies etc. – good for us. We won our first trivia and as it was only the two of us in the team, we got to win all the prizes. Guess I won’t need any more highlighters in the near or distant future ?

The next event on our list was pop choir class. Yeah, who’d have guessed? But I was in a choir at school and enjoyed so I thought why not. Admittingly, my voice was better before I wrecked it with years and years of Death Metal vocals – so no solo for me. To my utter surprise, hubby wanted to join in – learn something new about your spouse any day… We’re practising This is me from the Greatest Showman – no, didn’t know that one before. Session was only listening to the song a few times and getting some people to volunteer for solos.
 
Lunch today was in Sorrento’s – I knew I had to try the pizza when I read all the comments about how bad it was. Our verdict: it’s not the best pizza we ever had, but it’s good comfort food. Next stop: visual trivia Horror movies – didn’t win. If everything had gone to plan, we’d have gone to the Hairspray matinee then – but it was postponed due to the ship’s motion. The good news: because of that we could do progressive trivia. We formed a team with two Brits, while they could help with the language, we we’re all stumped on some more US-based questions. Well, it’s for the fun anyway.
 
Dinner was up next – quite early because we didn’t want to miss Halloween’s fun and games. We didn’t go in costume because we’d have been toothily challenged – no fun eating with vampire fangs. We'd reserved a table for 5.30 pm and even got our favourite waiter Baptiste. For starters, I took the Maryland Crab Cake that I already had in Hooked (only significant difference was the aioli mayonnaise – much better in Hooked), hubby chose Roasted Garlic Soup – just ok. For entrees I was torn between the Moroccan Spiced Ahi Tuna Steak and the Thai Chicken Breast. Baptiste warned me that the fish had a 50/50 chance of being overcooked, so I went with the safe option and was quite happy with it. Hubby chose Roasted Pork Chop and couldn’t complain either. Highlight of this dinner was my dessert, the Chocolate Molten Cake – that’s really one to die for. Hubby had No Sugar Added Pineapple Upside Down Cake – nothing to write home about. All in all, the food was better on our first visit, but service was much faster (although less personal). To be honest, the crew had much more to do on this occasion as the MDR was packed – last time it was noticeably less so. Overall verdict: food was significantly better last time and is now well below TUI Cruises – good thing we’ll have speciality dining mostly for the rest of the cruise (and yes, I can see Ultimate Dining Packages in our future).






Being done in about an hour gave us more time to get in costume – make up took most of the time even if it didn’t look like it. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures due to the make up, so please visit the great Twangster’s blog for impressions. Our first stop was the Attic (Haunted House) – entertainment and cruise director’s staff really went all out on this one. Most enjoyable was the couple that was right behind us -  so much fun watching them react to everything. Next stop: Playmakers – I know… again… but we’re still trying out craft beers and they actually showed German soccer (hubby’s team). After they won, we just hung out at the Promenade and watched other dressed up crazies. For us it was quite strange that so many people took part in the parade – especially with sub par costumes – I promised hubby that next time we’ll also register for it even though I’ll have to practise make up first. I can report that our favourite won the costume contest – it was the Addams Family and they really were spot on. When the party on the promende ended, we had our first snack at Cafe Promenade and went to bed afterwards (after removing the make up of course ?)..

And because we’re not bots, here’s proof of our Halloween efforts:


Side notes
16k steps
Yes, we’re fast becoming trivia addicts and we’re enjoying this cruise way too much – guess we’ll be back on Royal – not loyal to Royal because we’re way too focused on itineraries but I see us alternating between Royal and TUI. Or maybe switching to Royal completely once we’ve sailed all itinieraries on our bucket list (Norwegian Fjords, Alaska, Panama Canal, South America, Japan, Arctic – yes we know it’ll take us decades to cross them all off).
No Hairspray, no Solarium, no pools ?

Drinks in the MDR have never been a problem – quite the contrary. You couldn’t finish a glass without being asked if you’d like another one.
We love Halloween! Not a big surprise as we’re horror movie/novels types anyway.
Funny little European observation: really don’t want to generalize here, but we’ve encountered quite a few „entitled“ Americans. Complaining about creaking in the cabin (well, it’s a ship and we have pitching and rolling…), having to stand in the rain in Barcelona for about one minute while staff checked your documents to allow you into the terminal, slow service in the MDR (believe me, it wasn’t that slow), room steward not personable enough, staff who are not completely fluent in English… From our standpoint, it’s really minor things we would never dream to complain about, but these people apparently love to give hell to the crew.
Clocks changed tonight – 1 more hour of sleep is always welcome – gotta love westbound TAs!
Limp Bizkit quote of the day: keep rolling rolling rolling, keep rolling rolling rolling

Day 4 – Halloween
Here it is, our first real Halloween – German ones don’t count as it is not really a thing. As we had so much food for dinner yesterday, we only needed a light breakfast at Park Café (is it evident that we like the venue?). We were up quite early (for us), so we made it to morning trivia in Schooner. Questions were all about Halloween, horror movies etc. – good for us. We won our first trivia and as it was only the two of us in the team, we got to win all the prizes. Guess I won’t need any more highlighters in the near or distant future ?

The next event on our list was pop choir class. Yeah, who’d have guessed? But I was in a choir at school and enjoyed so I thought why not. Admittingly, my voice was better before I wrecked it with years and years of Death Metal vocals – so no solo for me. To my utter surprise, hubby wanted to join in – learn something new about your spouse any day… We’re practising This is me from the Greatest Showman – no, didn’t know that one before. Session was only listening to the song a few times and getting some people to volunteer for solos.
 
Lunch today was in Sorrento’s – I knew I had to try the pizza when I read all the comments about how bad it was. Our verdict: it’s not the best pizza we ever had, but it’s good comfort food. Next stop: visual trivia Horror movies – didn’t win. If everything had gone to plan, we’d have gone to the Hairspray matinee then – but it was postponed due to the ship’s motion. The good news: because of that we could do progressive trivia. We formed a team with two Brits, while they could help with the language, we we’re all stumped on some more US-based questions. Well, it’s for the fun anyway.
 
Dinner was up next – quite early because we didn’t want to miss Halloween’s fun and games. We didn’t go in costume because we’d have been toothily challenged – no fun eating with vampire fangs. We'd reserved a table for 5.30 pm and even got our favourite waiter Baptiste. For starters, I took the Maryland Crab Cake that I already had in Hooked (only significant difference was the aioli mayonnaise – much better in Hooked), hubby chose Roasted Garlic Soup – just ok. For entrees I was torn between the Moroccan Spiced Ahi Tuna Steak and the Thai Chicken Breast. Baptiste warned me that the fish had a 50/50 chance of being overcooked, so I went with the safe option and was quite happy with it. Hubby chose Roasted Pork Chop and couldn’t complain either. Highlight of this dinner was my dessert, the Chocolate Molten Cake – that’s really one to die for. Hubby had No Sugar Added Pineapple Upside Down Cake – nothing to write home about. All in all, the food was better on our first visit, but service was much faster (although less personal). To be honest, the crew had much more to do on this occasion as the MDR was packed – last time it was noticeably less so. Overall verdict: food was significantly better last time and is now well below TUI Cruises – good thing we’ll have speciality dining mostly for the rest of the cruise (and yes, I can see Ultimate Dining Packages in our future).






Being done in about an hour gave us more time to get in costume – make up took most of the time even if it didn’t look like it. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures due to the make up, so please visit the great Twangster’s blog for impressions. Our first stop was the Attic (Haunted House) – entertainment and cruise director’s staff really went all out on this one. Most enjoyable was the couple that was right behind us -  so much fun watching them react to everything. Next stop: Playmakers – I know… again… but we’re still trying out craft beers and they actually showed German soccer (hubby’s team). After they won, we just hung out at the Promenade and watched other dressed up crazies. For us it was quite strange that so many people took part in the parade – especially with sub par costumes – I promised hubby that next time we’ll also register for it even though I’ll have to practise make up first. I can report that our favourite won the costume contest – it was the Addams Family and they really were spot on. When the party on the promende ended, we had our first snack at Cafe Promenade and went to bed afterwards (after removing the make up of course ?)..

And because we’re not bots, here’s proof of our Halloween efforts:


Side notes
16k steps
Yes, we’re fast becoming trivia addicts and we’re enjoying this cruise way too much – guess we’ll be back on Royal – not loyal to Royal because we’re way too focused on itineraries but I see us alternating between Royal and TUI. Or maybe switching to Royal completely once we’ve sailed all itinieraries on our bucket list (Norwegian Fjords, Alaska, Panama Canal, South America, Japan, Arctic – yes we know it’ll take us decades to cross them all off).
No Hairspray, no Solarium, no pools ?

Drinks in the MDR have never been a problem – quite the contrary. You couldn’t finish a glass without being asked if you’d like another one.
We love Halloween! Not a big surprise as we’re horror movie/novels types anyway.
Funny little European observation: really don’t want to generalize here, but we’ve encountered quite a few „entitled“ Americans. Complaining about creaking in the cabin (well, it’s a ship and we have pitching and rolling…), having to stand in the rain in Barcelona for about one minute while staff checked your documents to allow you into the terminal, slow service in the MDR (believe me, it wasn’t that slow), room steward not personable enough, staff who are not completely fluent in English… From our standpoint, it’s really minor things we would never dream to complain about, but these people apparently love to give hell to the crew.
Clocks changed tonight – 1 more hour of sleep is always welcome – gotta love westbound TAs!
Limp Bizkit quote of the day: keep rolling rolling rolling, keep rolling rolling rolling

Day 4 – Halloween
Here it is, our first real Halloween – German ones don’t count as it is not really a thing. As we had so much food for dinner yesterday, we only needed a light breakfast at Park Café (is it evident that we like the venue?). We were up quite early (for us), so we made it to morning trivia in Schooner. Questions were all about Halloween, horror movies etc. – good for us. We won our first trivia and as it was only the two of us in the team, we got to win all the prizes. Guess I won’t need any more highlighters in the near or distant future ?

The next event on our list was pop choir class. Yeah, who’d have guessed? But I was in a choir at school and enjoyed so I thought why not. Admittingly, my voice was better before I wrecked it with years and years of Death Metal vocals – so no solo for me. To my utter surprise, hubby wanted to join in – learn something new about your spouse any day… We’re practising This is me from the Greatest Showman – no, didn’t know that one before. Session was only listening to the song a few times and getting some people to volunteer for solos.
 
Lunch today was in Sorrento’s – I knew I had to try the pizza when I read all the comments about how bad it was. Our verdict: it’s not the best pizza we ever had, but it’s good comfort food. Next stop: visual trivia Horror movies – didn’t win. If everything had gone to plan, we’d have gone to the Hairspray matinee then – but it was postponed due to the ship’s motion. The good news: because of that we could do progressive trivia. We formed a team with two Brits, while they could help with the language, we we’re all stumped on some more US-based questions. Well, it’s for the fun anyway.
 
Dinner was up next – quite early because we didn’t want to miss Halloween’s fun and games. We didn’t go in costume because we’d have been toothily challenged – no fun eating with vampire fangs. We'd reserved a table for 5.30 pm and even got our favourite waiter Baptiste. For starters, I took the Maryland Crab Cake that I already had in Hooked (only significant difference was the aioli mayonnaise – much better in Hooked), hubby chose Roasted Garlic Soup – just ok. For entrees I was torn between the Moroccan Spiced Ahi Tuna Steak and the Thai Chicken Breast. Baptiste warned me that the fish had a 50/50 chance of being overcooked, so I went with the safe option and was quite happy with it. Hubby chose Roasted Pork Chop and couldn’t complain either. Highlight of this dinner was my dessert, the Chocolate Molten Cake – that’s really one to die for. Hubby had No Sugar Added Pineapple Upside Down Cake – nothing to write home about. All in all, the food was better on our first visit, but service was much faster (although less personal). To be honest, the crew had much more to do on this occasion as the MDR was packed – last time it was noticeably less so. Overall verdict: food was significantly better last time and is now well below TUI Cruises – good thing we’ll have speciality dining mostly for the rest of the cruise (and yes, I can see Ultimate Dining Packages in our future).






Being done in about an hour gave us more time to get in costume – make up took most of the time even if it didn’t look like it. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures due to the make up, so please visit the great Twangster’s blog for impressions. Our first stop was the Attic (Haunted House) – entertainment and cruise director’s staff really went all out on this one. Most enjoyable was the couple that was right behind us -  so much fun watching them react to everything. Next stop: Playmakers – I know… again… but we’re still trying out craft beers and they actually showed German soccer (hubby’s team). After they won, we just hung out at the Promenade and watched other dressed up crazies. For us it was quite strange that so many people took part in the parade – especially with sub par costumes – I promised hubby that next time we’ll also register for it even though I’ll have to practise make up first. I can report that our favourite won the costume contest – it was the Addams Family and they really were spot on. When the party on the promende ended, we had our first snack at Cafe Promenade and went to bed afterwards (after removing the make up of course ?)..

And because we’re not bots, here’s proof of our Halloween efforts:


Side notes
16k steps
Yes, we’re fast becoming trivia addicts and we’re enjoying this cruise way too much – guess we’ll be back on Royal – not loyal to Royal because we’re way too focused on itineraries but I see us alternating between Royal and TUI. Or maybe switching to Royal completely once we’ve sailed all itinieraries on our bucket list (Norwegian Fjords, Alaska, Panama Canal, South America, Japan, Arctic – yes we know it’ll take us decades to cross them all off).
No Hairspray, no Solarium, no pools ?

Drinks in the MDR have never been a problem – quite the contrary. You couldn’t finish a glass without being asked if you’d like another one.
We love Halloween! Not a big surprise as we’re horror movie/novels types anyway.
Funny little European observation: really don’t want to generalize here, but we’ve encountered quite a few „entitled“ Americans. Complaining about creaking in the cabin (well, it’s a ship and we have pitching and rolling…), having to stand in the rain in Barcelona for about one minute while staff checked your documents to allow you into the terminal, slow service in the MDR (believe me, it wasn’t that slow), room steward not personable enough, staff who are not completely fluent in English… From our standpoint, it’s really minor things we would never dream to complain about, but these people apparently love to give hell to the crew.
Clocks changed tonight – 1 more hour of sleep is always welcome – gotta love westbound TAs!
Limp Bizkit quote of the day: keep rolling rolling rolling, keep rolling rolling rolling

Day 5 - Sea Day
Time change this morning (and for the next four nights).  
I awoke and wanting to check the time I found the ship time in Royal app had the right time but the itinerary channel on RCTV was still on the old time.
Seas have calmed a bit.  Temperature warmer at 66°F. 
Sunrise was nothing special. 

I needed to kill some time before Johnny Rockets opened for breakfast so I walked the track on deck 5.


Like Harmony there are two viewing areas forward of the life boats.
One has shuffle board

The other has ping pong tables.

Needing to wait a few more minutes before JR opened I found an empty Promenade.


On each Oasis sister this artwork is a little different:



Dazzles was empty.


With that it was time for breakfast.

Day 4 – Halloween
Here it is, our first real Halloween – German ones don’t count as it is not really a thing. As we had so much food for dinner yesterday, we only needed a light breakfast at Park Café (is it evident that we like the venue?). We were up quite early (for us), so we made it to morning trivia in Schooner. Questions were all about Halloween, horror movies etc. – good for us. We won our first trivia and as it was only the two of us in the team, we got to win all the prizes. Guess I won’t need any more highlighters in the near or distant future ?

The next event on our list was pop choir class. Yeah, who’d have guessed? But I was in a choir at school and enjoyed so I thought why not. Admittingly, my voice was better before I wrecked it with years and years of Death Metal vocals – so no solo for me. To my utter surprise, hubby wanted to join in – learn something new about your spouse any day… We’re practising This is me from the Greatest Showman – no, didn’t know that one before. Session was only listening to the song a few times and getting some people to volunteer for solos.
 
Lunch today was in Sorrento’s – I knew I had to try the pizza when I read all the comments about how bad it was. Our verdict: it’s not the best pizza we ever had, but it’s good comfort food. Next stop: visual trivia Horror movies – didn’t win. If everything had gone to plan, we’d have gone to the Hairspray matinee then – but it was postponed due to the ship’s motion. The good news: because of that we could do progressive trivia. We formed a team with two Brits, while they could help with the language, we we’re all stumped on some more US-based questions. Well, it’s for the fun anyway.
 
Dinner was up next – quite early because we didn’t want to miss Halloween’s fun and games. We didn’t go in costume because we’d have been toothily challenged – no fun eating with vampire fangs. We'd reserved a table for 5.30 pm and even got our favourite waiter Baptiste. For starters, I took the Maryland Crab Cake that I already had in Hooked (only significant difference was the aioli mayonnaise – much better in Hooked), hubby chose Roasted Garlic Soup – just ok. For entrees I was torn between the Moroccan Spiced Ahi Tuna Steak and the Thai Chicken Breast. Baptiste warned me that the fish had a 50/50 chance of being overcooked, so I went with the safe option and was quite happy with it. Hubby chose Roasted Pork Chop and couldn’t complain either. Highlight of this dinner was my dessert, the Chocolate Molten Cake – that’s really one to die for. Hubby had No Sugar Added Pineapple Upside Down Cake – nothing to write home about. All in all, the food was better on our first visit, but service was much faster (although less personal). To be honest, the crew had much more to do on this occasion as the MDR was packed – last time it was noticeably less so. Overall verdict: food was significantly better last time and is now well below TUI Cruises – good thing we’ll have speciality dining mostly for the rest of the cruise (and yes, I can see Ultimate Dining Packages in our future).






Being done in about an hour gave us more time to get in costume – make up took most of the time even if it didn’t look like it. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures due to the make up, so please visit the great Twangster’s blog for impressions. Our first stop was the Attic (Haunted House) – entertainment and cruise director’s staff really went all out on this one. Most enjoyable was the couple that was right behind us -  so much fun watching them react to everything. Next stop: Playmakers – I know… again… but we’re still trying out craft beers and they actually showed German soccer (hubby’s team). After they won, we just hung out at the Promenade and watched other dressed up crazies. For us it was quite strange that so many people took part in the parade – especially with sub par costumes – I promised hubby that next time we’ll also register for it even though I’ll have to practise make up first. I can report that our favourite won the costume contest – it was the Addams Family and they really were spot on. When the party on the promende ended, we had our first snack at Cafe Promenade and went to bed afterwards (after removing the make up of course ?)..

And because we’re not bots, here’s proof of our Halloween efforts:


Side notes
16k steps
Yes, we’re fast becoming trivia addicts and we’re enjoying this cruise way too much – guess we’ll be back on Royal – not loyal to Royal because we’re way too focused on itineraries but I see us alternating between Royal and TUI. Or maybe switching to Royal completely once we’ve sailed all itinieraries on our bucket list (Norwegian Fjords, Alaska, Panama Canal, South America, Japan, Arctic – yes we know it’ll take us decades to cross them all off).
No Hairspray, no Solarium, no pools ?

Drinks in the MDR have never been a problem – quite the contrary. You couldn’t finish a glass without being asked if you’d like another one.
We love Halloween! Not a big surprise as we’re horror movie/novels types anyway.
Funny little European observation: really don’t want to generalize here, but we’ve encountered quite a few „entitled“ Americans. Complaining about creaking in the cabin (well, it’s a ship and we have pitching and rolling…), having to stand in the rain in Barcelona for about one minute while staff checked your documents to allow you into the terminal, slow service in the MDR (believe me, it wasn’t that slow), room steward not personable enough, staff who are not completely fluent in English… From our standpoint, it’s really minor things we would never dream to complain about, but these people apparently love to give hell to the crew.
Clocks changed tonight – 1 more hour of sleep is always welcome – gotta love westbound TAs!
Limp Bizkit quote of the day: keep rolling rolling rolling, keep rolling rolling rolling

Day 4 – Halloween
Here it is, our first real Halloween – German ones don’t count as it is not really a thing. As we had so much food for dinner yesterday, we only needed a light breakfast at Park Café (is it evident that we like the venue?). We were up quite early (for us), so we made it to morning trivia in Schooner. Questions were all about Halloween, horror movies etc. – good for us. We won our first trivia and as it was only the two of us in the team, we got to win all the prizes. Guess I won’t need any more highlighters in the near or distant future ?

The next event on our list was pop choir class. Yeah, who’d have guessed? But I was in a choir at school and enjoyed so I thought why not. Admittingly, my voice was better before I wrecked it with years and years of Death Metal vocals – so no solo for me. To my utter surprise, hubby wanted to join in – learn something new about your spouse any day… We’re practising This is me from the Greatest Showman – no, didn’t know that one before. Session was only listening to the song a few times and getting some people to volunteer for solos.
 
Lunch today was in Sorrento’s – I knew I had to try the pizza when I read all the comments about how bad it was. Our verdict: it’s not the best pizza we ever had, but it’s good comfort food. Next stop: visual trivia Horror movies – didn’t win. If everything had gone to plan, we’d have gone to the Hairspray matinee then – but it was postponed due to the ship’s motion. The good news: because of that we could do progressive trivia. We formed a team with two Brits, while they could help with the language, we we’re all stumped on some more US-based questions. Well, it’s for the fun anyway.
 
Dinner was up next – quite early because we didn’t want to miss Halloween’s fun and games. We didn’t go in costume because we’d have been toothily challenged – no fun eating with vampire fangs. We'd reserved a table for 5.30 pm and even got our favourite waiter Baptiste. For starters, I took the Maryland Crab Cake that I already had in Hooked (only significant difference was the aioli mayonnaise – much better in Hooked), hubby chose Roasted Garlic Soup – just ok. For entrees I was torn between the Moroccan Spiced Ahi Tuna Steak and the Thai Chicken Breast. Baptiste warned me that the fish had a 50/50 chance of being overcooked, so I went with the safe option and was quite happy with it. Hubby chose Roasted Pork Chop and couldn’t complain either. Highlight of this dinner was my dessert, the Chocolate Molten Cake – that’s really one to die for. Hubby had No Sugar Added Pineapple Upside Down Cake – nothing to write home about. All in all, the food was better on our first visit, but service was much faster (although less personal). To be honest, the crew had much more to do on this occasion as the MDR was packed – last time it was noticeably less so. Overall verdict: food was significantly better last time and is now well below TUI Cruises – good thing we’ll have speciality dining mostly for the rest of the cruise (and yes, I can see Ultimate Dining Packages in our future).






Being done in about an hour gave us more time to get in costume – make up took most of the time even if it didn’t look like it. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures due to the make up, so please visit the great Twangster’s blog for impressions. Our first stop was the Attic (Haunted House) – entertainment and cruise director’s staff really went all out on this one. Most enjoyable was the couple that was right behind us -  so much fun watching them react to everything. Next stop: Playmakers – I know… again… but we’re still trying out craft beers and they actually showed German soccer (hubby’s team). After they won, we just hung out at the Promenade and watched other dressed up crazies. For us it was quite strange that so many people took part in the parade – especially with sub par costumes – I promised hubby that next time we’ll also register for it even though I’ll have to practise make up first. I can report that our favourite won the costume contest – it was the Addams Family and they really were spot on. When the party on the promende ended, we had our first snack at Cafe Promenade and went to bed afterwards (after removing the make up of course ?)..

And because we’re not bots, here’s proof of our Halloween efforts:


Side notes
16k steps
Yes, we’re fast becoming trivia addicts and we’re enjoying this cruise way too much – guess we’ll be back on Royal – not loyal to Royal because we’re way too focused on itineraries but I see us alternating between Royal and TUI. Or maybe switching to Royal completely once we’ve sailed all itinieraries on our bucket list (Norwegian Fjords, Alaska, Panama Canal, South America, Japan, Arctic – yes we know it’ll take us decades to cross them all off).
No Hairspray, no Solarium, no pools ?

Drinks in the MDR have never been a problem – quite the contrary. You couldn’t finish a glass without being asked if you’d like another one.
We love Halloween! Not a big surprise as we’re horror movie/novels types anyway.
Funny little European observation: really don’t want to generalize here, but we’ve encountered quite a few „entitled“ Americans. Complaining about creaking in the cabin (well, it’s a ship and we have pitching and rolling…), having to stand in the rain in Barcelona for about one minute while staff checked your documents to allow you into the terminal, slow service in the MDR (believe me, it wasn’t that slow), room steward not personable enough, staff who are not completely fluent in English… From our standpoint, it’s really minor things we would never dream to complain about, but these people apparently love to give hell to the crew.
Clocks changed tonight – 1 more hour of sleep is always welcome – gotta love westbound TAs!
Limp Bizkit quote of the day: keep rolling rolling rolling, keep rolling rolling rolling