FionaMG

Western omelet & blueberry smoothie from Solarium Bistro.

Waiting for chocolate croissants in the CL. Almost 7am, no one here but me.
Weather looks beautiful through the virtual window. We’ll be gone most of the day on Captain Bob’s speedboat snorkel excursion.

Picky person pizza…

Hello! Just wanted to update on this.
When it got cancelled I sent them one email, and Later when I did not hear anything I sent a new one. 
About a month after cancellation i got a final NO from RC Norwegian customer service on refund for my flight, even if KLM and travel insurance said RC should refund me. I was not happy but I put it away, however 2 weeks ago the US customer service replied to my 2nd email, and confirmed that they had talked to KLM and that RC would refund me 3900kr (380$) for my flight, and today I got the refund. I must say (sorry If I am prejudiced) that I never thought US customer service would be more pro customer than the Norwegian one, taking in regard we have one of the worlds strictest customer protection acts, however they proved me wrong. And this has definitely made me view RC in a totally different light, and made me look forward to my upcoming cruise with Oasis a lot more than I did, and I am sure I will spend way more than what it cost them to refund me in the future, and ofcourse talk good of them to followers, customers etc. so It will definitely be worth it for them. So a happy ending to a sad story! 

Just think... next cruise, you'll be included in the D+ figures! 🥳
Is it today or was it yesterday that you hit the big 175?

If that's the 12th of April, Coco Cay already has Icon and Mariner, so you definitely wouldn't be going there. 😕

If that's the 12th of April, Coco Cay already has Icon and Mariner, so you definitely wouldn't be going there. 😕

I’ve been to NOLA every few years since 2012 and always stay in the quarter at the Hotel Monteleone (family tradition passed down from my parents). It’s a gorgeous, historical hotel and is home to the famous carousel bar! The quarter during daylight hours is just as grimy as it’s always been but I tend to do my sightseeing by day so we only do the rounds after dinner for entertainment purposes. Frenchmen St is the best for live music! 
If you’re gonna traipse out to a plantation, make sure it’s Whitney, as it’s the only former plantation site in Louisiana that is presented from the perspective of the enslaved people, not the slave owners. May I also suggest the 1850 House Museum off of Jackson Square. I think it’s only $5 admission but the house remains set up as it would’ve been in 1850! Super cool.

Just think... next cruise, you'll be included in the D+ figures! 🥳
Is it today or was it yesterday that you hit the big 175?

Mason Jar Brunch
Another Mississippi Moonlight

Chicken from the sandwich minus the bread with mashed potatoes & a biscuit

Peanut butter stuffed French toast

Chicken n waffles

Blueberry johnnycakes with pulled pork

Chicken pot pie

Bread pudding

Go Bananas

Fried oreo

 

If you haven't seen it already, you might like to take a look at my recent recap blog from our Symphony cruise last month. I cover our evening meals in there, with pics. I hope it helps and you have a wonderful cruise. 😊
 
 
 

Yesterday. 🎉 Thanks for remembering.
Mason Jar pics coming later. My wife took over (she has a better phone & takes better photos than I do) so I have to get them from her & I’m too stuffed right now.

Just think... next cruise, you'll be included in the D+ figures! 🥳
Is it today or was it yesterday that you hit the big 175?

Just think... next cruise, you'll be included in the D+ figures! 🥳
Is it today or was it yesterday that you hit the big 175?

Just think... next cruise, you'll be included in the D+ figures! 🥳
Is it today or was it yesterday that you hit the big 175?

Have a wonderful and beautiful memory cruise. I have said many times before, this blog is expensive. Now I have Symphony on my list for 2026.

If you haven't seen it already, you might like to take a look at my recent recap blog from our Symphony cruise last month. I cover our evening meals in there, with pics. I hope it helps and you have a wonderful cruise. 😊
 
 
 

Breakfast this am. Windjammer special brought back to enjoy on balcony. Food was fine but view was sublime 

Got my first sea day T-shirt ready for action. 
 

Glad to see you've got your appetite back. 😋
But does this mean you didn't get 🍦 and chocolate chip 🍪 at Coco Cay??? 😭

Hi Fiona,
I read your live blog and found your photos and ratings very helpful, thank you for that! I actually posted my question with your post in mind, to see if other people may have tried different dishes.

My wife did but the pic is on her phone. She added a piece of brownie too.
 

Hooked tonight. 
apps: oysters Rockefeller and raw oysters 

me: blackened captains platter 
Wife: surf 🏄‍♂️ and turf 
interestingly the filet here was better than Chops 
 

Might have been heat stroke. I have no  explanation.
MDR Italian night was unexpectedly good. Arancini (forgot a pic) was crispy & tasty, lasagna actually had meat & wasn’t mushy, & even my wife loved the chocolate hazelnut cake. Neither of us tasted any hazelnut. It was very similar to the molten chocolate cake which she loved on Allure. Thanks for the recommendation @FionaMG !

Apologies for the missing bites.
Waiting for Name That Tune: 80’s and trying a “Metalliquor”

Day Five - (Cruise Day Two) - At Sea.
Today was a hugely significant day for us. This was the day we accumulated our 175th C&A point. After several anxious days of constantly refreshing my account page, the points have finally posted and we have now made it to the eagerly awaited milestone of D+. Woohoo! 😀 We were among those who really benefited from the post-pandemic double points promo; without it, we would still have been 22 points adrift of D+ at the present moment in time.

We really like when our first full day on a cruise is a sea day because you have time to explore the ship at leisure, so that is what we did, especially since it was our first sailing on Symphony.
We had breakfast in the Windjammer. I am not usually a fan, preferring the MDR, but DH likes the WJ because he can see what's on offer rather than having to imagine it from a description on the menu. And to be fair, on this cruise, we never found the WJ to be the seething mass of humanity we were expecting. Perhaps it was because we usually managed to go at off-peak times but we never had to really hunt for a table and we never once heard the recorded message asking people to leave to make room for others.
On the whole, we enjoyed pretty much everything we ate in the WJ, which was all but one breakfast and most lunches. I don't remember either of us disliking anything that we tried. I meant to make myself a  DIY chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream like @OCSC Mike suggested, but I forgot. I am kicking myself over this and will have to remedy the oversight on a future cruise! 😂
First WJ breakfast. All subsequent WJ breakfasts were pretty much identical so I won't be boring you with any more pics of them. And, in fact, I didn't take any pics of our WJ lunches.

As you can tell from the breakfast pic, it was a sunny day but there was a very strong wind and this would be a constant throughout much of the cruise, making sunbathing not such a pleasant pastime unless you were lucky enough to be able to find a sunbed in a sheltered spot. That did not stop many of our fellow cruisers from catching some rays.


Although it does look quite busy we never had any real difficulty finding a spot to sit in. That said, we don't mind not being right beside the pool and we actually prefer the seats over the loungers.
There were a few takers for some of the casitas that can be seen in the pics. I was less than impressed with these. Because the sides are slatted, the wind blew right through them. Also, as the sun moved so did the shade. I did see some of them occupied, though, so clearly some people found value in them. The loungers did have nice, thick padded cushions on them, so I'm sure they were far more comfortable than the normal ones.
Given the weather, the solarium was very busy. I somehow managed not to take any pics of the solarium, which was very remiss of me, but we noticed that it had openings in the ceiling that let the air (and the wind!) in and because the wind was so strong on these days, it was whistling very loudly through those openings. I think that noise would have got to me after a bit. We don't usually spend much time in the solarium anyway but I would have to say I preferred the ones on Odyssey and Anthem, precisely because of that, although I imagine it wouldn't be an issue on a calm day.
There was a parade called "Anchors Aweigh" in the promenade today (it would subsequently be repeated on the last sea day, presumably to ensure more people had a chance to see it). It lasted about 15 minutes and was a lot of fun. Lots of folks staked out their spots well in advance, taking advantage of the chairs at Sorrento's, the pub and the Café. If you don't mind standing, the overlook at Focus, the photo place, affords a great view. Again, you do need to get there early to secure your spot.

Today was Super Bowl and the game was shown in a number of venues. We popped into the theatre just as they were playing the US national anthem and the atmosphere was electric. It was also shown in the Aqua Theatre, which was packed, and at Playmakers. The tables in Playmakers were all roped off; I think you had to book if you wanted to sit there as it said something about it in the app and there was a dollar sign.
Because of the event, tonight was not formal night as would normally be expected and the dinner menu was not the usual French menu. Instead it was a casual night and the dinner menu was the Italian menu.

Minestrone soup:

DH hated this and only ate a couple of spoonsful. He said it had a strong acidic taste to it. I reckon that would have been from the tomatoes. Any time I'm making sauces or soups with tomatoes I throw in some sugar to counteract the acidity. Anyway, since his tummy had been acting up a bit today, he decided just to have a cheese plate and leave it at that.
I had the arancini, which I really enjoyed:

The sole, which was fine, nothing to write home about.

And the Italian chocolate-hazelnut cake, which was better than I had been expecting, having been disappointed with it on a couple of previous cruises:

After dinner, we went to see the ice show, which was very good. We were too busy actually watching it to get much in the way of pictures but it is definitely a not-to-be-missed entertainment item.

This was followed by a few minutes (literally all the time it took!) in the casino for DH to make his nightly contribution and we then retired exhausted from our long day of doing not a lot and needing to rest up in preparation for repeating it all again the following day. 😂