iluvwineandtravel

I have heard really good things about Buccanos. You just pay a small admission fee and you get it back in food and beverage credit. https://www.buccanos.com/menus

Hi all, I blogged about my cruise here if you are interested in following. There were some new ports for us with Quebec city and Charlottetown. https://iluvwineandtravel.com/

I usually make dining reservations for each restaurant, but you can really walk up to any of the 4 whenever you are ready to eat. At high volume times you might receive a pager.

Yes. there are 4 to choose from, but this is only on the Edge class ships. We really love Solstice class too!

It is hard to see it that well in this picture, but I usually mostly take it to Cococay!

I haven't written a few days. .I got a cold and have been feeling a bit under the weather.. Saturday was Curacao. We walked across the bridge and around the town. It was incredibly hot out and we came back sweating. The cold towels were much appreciated getting back on the ship. Yesterday was new year's eve and formal night. They had lots of activities around the ship and several parties you could attend for new year's eve with the main party being on the pool deck. We had dinner at Cyprus. We got the blue cheese souffle and a lobster dish as appetizers and both got lobster for dinner. Since we weren't feeling well we went to dinner, and then had a low key night in our cabing streaming some movies and watching the countdown. Today is new year's day and our official last day of the cruise. It has been a very relaxing cruise and a great way to celebrate the holiday season. I feel blessed and very relaxed to start the new year. The ship itself is gorgeous and I liked the Beyond better than the Apex. Here are a few observations and reflections from the week and some of my favorite things! We spent more time at the World Class bar on this ship than on previous celebrity ships. I have become quite fond of the Manhatten on the rocks. It helps that they have a really big ice cube for the glass that has to be chiseled to fit. I am a fan of the pool on this class of ships and I also really like what they have done with the pool deck as a whole on this ship. I spent more time than expected in the pool just relaxing. I would get a porthole balcony again on an Edge class ship. I liked having a real balcony. The four restaurants on the Edge class help mix up the monotony even though essentially it creates my time dining for everyone. Despite this, you could go to the same restaurant at the same time every not if you want too, and I suspect they would put you with the same waiter. I saw many of the shows on this holiday sailing. I liked Arte and Elements which are two of the Celebrity Beyond production shows. I liked Chogogo a lot in Bonaire and would go back there the next time we are in Bonaire!

The past few days on the cruise have been busy. Yesterday we were in Aruba. I went to the pool in the morning and then we did an evening tour with Kukoo Kunuku last night. We wanted to do something different since we were in port until 11 pm. We don't get to experience the night life on these islands too often.. Apparently, we we were the first cruise passengers to ever do the Wine on down the road tour even though they have been doing this tour for at least 5 years now and despite the fact the Kukoo Kunuku is a partner to the cruise lines for some of their other tours like the beach excursion. The Kukoo wine bus picked us up at 5:35 beside diamonds international.. There were already 4 people on the bus and we picked up 7 more at the Renaissance so there were only about 11 people on the tour all together plus the Sommelier and the bus driver. The sommelier told us he got promoted to general manager so he doesn't do this tour himself anymore a whole lot these days. What was most impressive to us is how many people on this tour have come back and done it more than once. Most of the people on the tour with us had timeshares or houses in Aruba and come every year for Christmas and New year's. One lady had been on the tour 5 times. The first stop was downtown at the Que Pasa restaurant. We found our that the company that own's Le Petite Chef just bought this restaurant and own many other restaurants and bars in Aruba. They also are in the process of purchasing Kukoo Kunuku from the origonal owners within the next week. At Que Pasa we had 3 wines and 3 appetizers plus bread. The bread was served with prosecco. We than got a creamy tomato soup in a shot glass served with a white wine. I am not sure the name of the second appetizer, but they were spring roll style with cheese, I think. Finally, we had Chardonnay served with cod with a creamy rissoto dish.. The fish was very delicious and quite a big portion. The next restaurant was Nusa which was an Indonesian restaurant. We got some authenic Indonesian food served with Merlot. The chicken skewer was very good! Next we went towards Eagle Beach and went to an Italian resturant where we were served Chianti, an appetizer and a pasta dish. At this point, I was very full. It was after 9 by the time we left the third location. The 4th stop was half way around the island. We went there to drop the rest of the bus off for the dessert course, but we decided with the Sommelier that it was best for the driver to take us back to the port. We wanted to board by 10pm just to ensure we arrived back on time. They gave us wine openers as a parting gift. Overall, we really enjoyed this tour and experiencing some local restaurants and the Aruba nightlife. Today we are in Bonaire. We decided to spend the day at Chogogo hotel and beach resort. It was $15 for 2 of us to take a cab to Chogogo and $15 back. The beach pass is $25 per person and you get $10 back in food and beverage credits. The resort was really beautiful. We arrive just before 10, and it wasn't very crowded and we had a wide selection of beach chairs many with huts or umbrellas and a lot of shading. They had a really awesome zero entry pool that also has a pretty deep end and a jumping/driving off point. The pool never felt crowded and I was in it most of the day. We also tried the lazy river that goes around the resort. If you like to snorkel or dive, Chogogo is a perfect spot for it and we could see many catamarans parked out in the reef here. They had 3 restaurants outside at the resort. 2 were open while we were there. We used our $10 drink voucher to get Margaritas. We asked for them on the rocks so they were served martini style. We liked them. We enjoyed the resort until about 2pm and then decided to make our way back to the ship! I would definitely go back and recommend it as an affordable way to spend the day in Aruba!

The panama canal was a really neat experience yesterday. We entered the first lock at around 7:30. It felt like it took around 2 hours for the ship to go through all 3 locks. We then anchored in Gatun lake and those with excursions tendered off. I went back to the pool. The pool got really crowded yesterday because it was the hottest day yet! We sailed back through the locks in the afternoon. The magic carpet and sunset bar were both good places to watch. Dinner last night was at the Prime cut steakhouse. We really liked it. We got several appetizers to share: the aparagus salad with goat cheese, the bacon, and the crabcake. All were good. Hubby got the filet and I got the lobster tail which was served over ravioli. The ravioli itself wasn't that great, but the lobster was good and I tried some of the filet mignon. We got macoroni and cheese, the potato tots, and mushrooms as sides. We were both fans of the mac and cheese! We were too full for dessert. We asked if we could send back to our room. At first they said no, and then they decided they would send the cheesecake. I have not tried it yet, but it will be a nice treat today. This was the last of our specialty restaurants for the cruise although we may still add on raw on 5 which is a la carte. I enjoyed prime steak house, la voyage, and Eden. They were all great and I appreciated their differences.

I am sitting here on my balcony as we approach the first lock of the panama canal. I have coffee in hand from Caffe el Bacio and just had an almond croissant. Yesterday was Christmas day and it was really an amazing day. We did breakfast at Eden Cafe. I got the steak and egg bagel and then we sat in Eden and read for a while. Next, I called the room stewart. We wanted to use our Elite perks and send Greg's suit to be dry cleaned so I needed a second bag and paper so that I could send both his pants and jacket seperately (we each get 1 item dry cleaned). I decided to head back to the pool for the rest of the morning which I really enjoyed. Most of the chairs immediately surrounding the pool were already occupied, but I was planning to get in the pool with my float anyways. Everyone was jealous of my floating chair and drink holder. I got out at 11 to dry off and decided to get a mudslide. Ocean view cafe opened for lunch at 12. We were going to just go to the back and get pizza, but upon entering the ocean view we saw they had a special christmas lunch so we did not want to miss out on the prime rib they were serving. They also had some expanded cheesy breads, turkey and other dinner was at the Normandie restaurant. Normandie did not offer it's exclusive menu last night because of the holiday menu. For appetizers I got shrimp cocktail and a mushroom dish. For dinner my husband and I both got Chateaubriand which was delicious. After dinner we headed to the 7pm show in the main theatre. It was a special Christmas spectacular that incorporated all of the singers and performers in both the main theatre and Eden and also some of the guests performers.

It is Christmas morning. I am up early at 6:30 and sitting on the balcony while I write this. I am really enjoying the porthole balcony on Beyond because I like that it is a real balcony and not the Infinate Veranda. It feels like I am sitting in a cute little nook. Yesterday we were in Grand Cayman. It is a tender port. We decided to stay on board and enjoy the ship. We went to the Elite and above Captain's club coffee and breakfast at Le Grande Bistro. I enjoyed the setting and we were only 1 of 3 couples there and got a window seat. I ordered a Cappaccino and the Salmon, capers and bagel plate. The salmon was very fresh. Next we explored the ship. Eden Cafe and the dining room were both open that morning for breakfast only. We sat on the second floor of Eden for a while and read giving the guy time to clean our room. I decided to take advantage of the empty ship and go to the pool.. This was a great choice, I blew up my chair float and really enjoyed the rest of the morning. The Edge class pool was as great as I remembered it from Apex. There was one small child at the pool. I think her mom was having a hard time because Celebrity definately offers a lot less for small kids and youth to do in comparison to Royal Caribbean. There is a kids club, but I don't think Beyond currently offers a nursery option for children under 3. We like that, but we are sailing as a couple without children! Because of laws in Grand Cayman, Cafe el Bacio, and the pool bar were the only official bars allowed to be open while we were in port. We did lunch in the Ocean view Cafe and they did have a beer cart. In the afternoon, we ordered some Margaritas from the pool bar and took them back to our room. We had a pre-dinner drink at the World Class bar. I really like the setting of this bar on beyond..It is an upscale experience and is a nice place to go when the Martini bar and Craft social are crowded in the main Grand plaza area. Dinner was a Le Voyage. This was a new restaurant to us so we were very excited to be eating there on Christmas Eve. It was also Chic night so we dressed up and wore our santa hats last night. They offer a tasting menu and a regular menu like Eden. Since we had pre-booked our dining and also had the premium drink package we ordered off of the regular menu. I ordered a white white with the appetizer course and a red with the main course. For appetizers, hubby and I ordered the crab salad, the shrimp dish, and the salmon that came with mini pancake type breads. All were good. The crab salad was fresh, I liked the sauce with the shrimp, and the salmon was very fresh and had Caviar on top. For our main course, we both ordered the Filet medium rare. It was very good. For dessert I ordered teh Coupe Cafe'- Cardamom.. It was an ethipian ice cream, chocolate financier, and chocolate mousse! It was amazing! Greg ordered teh Sauerkirsche Black forest cake. It was very small and unique with great presentation.. I enjoyed trying both desserts. Next we went and grabbed the only seats we could find near any bar in the centrum area which ended up being at Craft social. The officers had christmas caroling at 8:10 and the centrum became quickly packed on all 3 levels. It was a fun experience. I enjoy the small perks from Celebrity on Chic night like the rose you get in your stateroom! We have a day at sea today for christmas. I have now watched the sunrise while writing this. I will go to the gym, but I want to get coffee first! Today will be laid back. I may do ornament making later this morning. We have dinner in Normandie. The chrismas day menu looks good! I will probably order the chateaubriand Birlland-Savarin and there is a Buche de Noel on the menu for dessert tonight! It looks to be another wonderful day.. Tomorrow we sail through the Panama canal which I am looking forward to!!

A few more pics

Today is Christmas Eve. I am up early at 6am. I left off yesterday at lunch. We ate in the Eden Cafe. I had the pork belly tacos and the spinach salad. The salad esp. was really good! We sat around the ship in the afternoon and read or listened to audio books. Hubby tried an expensive bourbon at the Eden bar. With the premium package you just have to pay the difference over $`17, but it was a nice opportunity for him to try it. We opened up the Martini bar at 2pm and then went to see a Beyond the Podium presentation on Caribbean cooking at 3pm in the Club. I usually like these talks, but this one was disappointing and only lasted 15 minutes. Dinner last night was at Cyprus. For appetizers, I started with Escargot and hubby got a Caesar salad. We decided to order all 3 exclusive entrees to Cyprus for the table so we had lamb, short rib, and Pappardale pasta. All 3 were good. We both agreed that we liked the combination of all 3 and enjoyed the experience of trying them all more than any 1 dish alone. I think I liked the lamb a little better than the short rib. The pappadale paired nicely with both. I got some kind of Cocoa creme thing for dessert. That was only meh!! The nice thing about dinner is we were done in an hour so we headed to get a spot at the 7pm show for Arte, one of Beyond's 3 exclusive production shows. I really liked it. I think I liked it more after we did the behind the stage tour for Elite guests yesterday morning with the lead singer. Here are a few pics! I am looking forward to the holiday events today!

Yesterday was a good day. The lyft picked us up at the hotel at 10:30 am. It was $15 from the hotel to the port. This was cheaper than the hotel shuttle which was $15 per person. We got to the port around 10:50. There were 7 ships in port so there was a lot of traffic in the port area. We went through security and check in pretty quickly. Noone paid attention to our 12pm boarding time. They did not allow anyone to actually board the ship until around 11:20 so we had to wait about 20 minutes in the terminal area. Upon boarding, we dropped our bags in our room, and headed to our muster station which was by the Blu restaurant. We then went and changed the time on our dining reservations at Eden on night 1 to 6pm. We ate lunch at the Mast grill to avoid the crowd. My husband and I both got cheeseburger.. I got mushrooms on mine and a few fries on the side. The burger was really good and I liked the location of the Mast grill on this ship that was more enclosed and protected from wind and weather, esp. in comparison to Solstice test. We ordered our first drinks. I got a frozen mojito. Hubby got a margarita. Next stop was the sunset bar which is a great upgrade on Beyond in comparison to Apex! The bartender told us she really liked it because the actual bar itself is more protected from sun and weather than other ships she has worked on! Next we headed to our cabin to relax and unpack our backpacks and relax. A little bit later, I found our luggage in the hall and we unpacked and decorated our cabin and door with some lights we brought. Pre-dinner drinks were at the Martini bar. As I mentioned before, we always upgrade to the premium drink package pre-cruise. From experience we know this better fits our style and preferences. Apparently there were a lot of recent changes to the celebrity drink menus. We heard a lot of people complaining that the could no longer get some of the liquers in the classic package.. Many people upgraded on the ship which is more expensive to do. Another tip if you are Elite is to make sure you call Royal Caribbean to do the upgrade so you can get 15% up the upgrade. Lately, they have also offered flash sales for premium drinks and wifi in the app, but the drink package flash sale was not widely offered for this holiday sailing! We did notice a significant change in drinks and the menu at the Martini bar. I attemped to order some of my old favorites and found out quickly they were not available. We ended up sticking with a tried and true favorite the lemon drop Martini. We found out a later from one of the bartenders that they changed the whole menu because of the Royal Caribbean Company's new relationship with Ketel 1. They also now have the machine for the expresso martini's that I have also seen in Schooner bar on RCL ships. ' Dinner was at Eden which is tied with 150 Central Park as our favorite specialty restaurants. We each ordered the crab cake sinc we loved it so much on Apex, but we also got the beef tandori and the shrimp appetizers for the table. Both were fun to try. In hindsight, I wish we had ordered 1 crab cake to share. For our main course, I ordered the lobster casserole which did not dissapoint. Hubby got the filet and short rib wellington. We both got the Creme Brule for dessert which was amazing paired with coffee! This morning made it to my 7:30 time in the gym and then we got coffee and Caffe elBacio. My husband also got the banana bread. At 9:00 we had registered for the Elite backstage tour in the theatre where we got to tour the stage and behind the scenes of the production area. At 10:30 this morning the Captain's club celebration took place in Eden where we got Mimosa's, Kir Royale, Champagne, or non-alcoholic options. There were also musicians and a special performance by 2 members from the Eden Cast. We found out from Captain Leo that this will be the first sailing of the Beyond through the Panama canal so it is a very special cruise! See you all tomorrow! Enjoy some of the pics!

We had a direct flight from Cincinnati yesterday morning. The flight went smoothly and we got into Fort Lauderdale around 11 am. We called the Hyatt for their free shuttle and met them at the hotel pickup spot to the right of the terminal. Our room wasn't ready yet so we stored our bags and walked to Cooper's Hawk for a wine tasting. I am a member of Coopers Hawk's wine club so I get 2 free wine tastings a month. Greg and I both did the regular tasting. Another great benefit is you can add on one of their chocolate truffles to the tasting for $1 each. I got white chocolate and DH got the dark peppermint. After the wine tasting we decided we would stay and have lunch. We were enticed by the short rib grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup so we got that to share. I also really like their pretzel bread. I had birthday money on my account too so it pretty much paid for most of the mean. Another benefit of the wine club is that you can get any of your wine club bottles in the restaurant without any additional cost or corkage fee so that was a win! I could not drink all of the wine so we took the rest of the bottle back to the room with us stopping by the Nike outlet on the way. We checked into our room. We had a nice kitchen area and dishes in the room. We decided to have a low key evening in the room. I walked to Sprout's market and picked up a 6 pack of beer and some snacks for dinner and we watched some movies on Amazon prime. We are up early this morning and plan to head to terminal 25 at around 10:30! So excited to board the Beyond today! I like that Celebrity let's you drop you luggage at your room and explore the ship without having to wait until the rooms are ready! We will do that, get our muster out of the way, and try to change my dining reservations for Eden. I have an 8 o'clock reservation for tonight, but I want to go earlier. Entertainment is now available in the app. Given that this is a longer holiday sailing, it looks like their are a lot of different guest performers on board this cruise in comparison to the standard shows on the Beyond! I have noticed the Edge class also tends to feature a lot artist and showcases of their work. The resident artist on today is Lenier Martinez. She will be showcasing at two times today in the Grand Plaza. Tonight's performer is Leslie McDonel who has a history on broadway and film. Her show tonight will feature the female musical pioneers celebrating the legendary women of rock! Showtimes are 7 and 9 pm. There is also a game show tonight in the Club, "True or False" Will post updates tomorrow!

We are staying at Hyatt house in Dania point which has a free shuttle from the airport. There is also a shuttle to the cruise terminal. We prefer to just take uber/lyft to the port most of the time vs. a hotel shuttle. We have not stayed in Dania point before. I love that it is surrounded by a shopping are and restuarants that are in walking distance. We are also planning to visit 3 sons brewing Thursday afternoon. I have been trying to get back into a more regimented workout schedule so I am bringing my peleton shoes on this cruise. On previous celebrity cruises, I just used the toe clips, but I don't like the experience as much. On previous sailings you had to reserve times on the bikes at the registration desk during spa working hours. The bikes are first come first serve in the early hours before the spa opens. I am mostly packed with a few finishing touches to throw in the suitcase on wednesday. One of my favorite elite status benefits on celebrity (transferred over from my diamond status) is the 1 bag per person of free laundry. That will be great since this is an 11 night cruise. Each person also gets an item complimentary dry cleaned so we usually do my husband's suit with each of us sending 1 piece! You can also get 2 items pressed if you would like. I also like to sign up for the complimentary wine tasting for the captain's club. Even though i have a drink package on this cruise, the event itself is usually fun with some entertainment. You need to sign up for the wine tasting and some of the events on embarkation day.. On cruises with lots of elite guests some of the events fill up. I also enjoyed some of the new events like Music and Mixology. Another one of my favorite events is the morning coffeehouse perk esp. on the solstice class where you get to enjoy it at the back of the ship in the tuscan grill. This was wonderful sailing back from the Glacier in Alaska!! I usually get coffee at Caffe al Bacio which is also a favorite on celebrity ships and I am excited to see the changes to the venue on Beyond! The morning coffee house included in the Elite perks is a fun alternative to the windmammer for breakfast also.. I enjoy the bagel plates with salmon, cream cheese, and capers. They also serve mimosas if you want those... The daily event was in on of the 4 main dining rooms on Apex so I did not like the setting as much. I have heard they have moved it on Beyond? We shall see. I also enjoy the free scoop of gelato perk. The Edge class has 4 main dining rooms. For the classic and signature dishes, they are the same across all 4 dining rooms, but each of the 4 also has some exclusive items to those restaurants. I pro tip is that you can order off of the menu at any of the 4 restaurants no matter which one you are in. I went through the app and wrote down signature dishes that I would like to try from each restaurant. I really enjoyed the Saganaki appatizer on Apex in Cyprus so I was disappointed not to see in on the menu in the app? It will be fun to spend both christmas and new year's on the ship. I got to see the tree on Apex as they put it up on Black friday before we embarked so this will be a fun experience on Beyond. I do have some battery powered lights I am taking for the room and the cabin door.