DDaley

Please plan to go back to Discovery Cove in 2028 so both Johnny AND Lydia can give you their best teenage-no-more-pictures-please faces!! 😂 

Sounds good , I suppose your thinking about Ovation.

Somewhat disappointed in our new [balcony] room.  It is significantly smaller than our balcony on the first leg.  It has only a love seat size couch (1 person) and the closet is half the size of the closet in the old room.   What’s really stunning about this room is that this room claims to have quad capacity !  There is a drop-down bed over the main bed and this half sofa definitely pulls out.   Why in the world would they take a SMALLER room and try and cram twice the number of people in there ?  Also, the bed frame is one of the old, low ones and our big suitcase will not fit under it, so it’s sitting in the corner blocking access to the balcony. Super disappointing.  At least the bed is by the balcony.  The only redeeming quality to this room is its location.  It is very close to the midship elevators and therefore less of a walk.  Oh well…it’s 5 nights.  We will survive.
B2B lunch was the standard B2 B menu (no Key steaks this time !).  I had scallops, short rib and cheesecake.  Dan had split pea soup, spaghetti and cheesecake.  Dinner tonite at Chops (thereby avoiding the crappy welcome aboard menu).

Based on previous releases, it should be available around 8-10pm ET tomorrow (Tuesday).
 
Unless they delay it yet again.

Please plan to go back to Discovery Cove in 2028 so both Johnny AND Lydia can give you their best teenage-no-more-pictures-please faces!! 😂 

Day Four - It's Cruise Day!
After breakfast, we called a Lyft to the port. It took about 10 minutes and cost just under $13 not including tip.
We arrived within our pre-booked time slot but there were some ladies ahead of us who asked if they could come in anyway even though their time was later and they were told yes. Just an FYI for those who may not be able to secure an earlier arrival time. 🙂
Boarding had already started and although I didn't time it, it probably took us about 20 minutes to get through security, check-in, photo stop and on to the ship.
After dealing with the muster drill, we grabbed a seat in Central Park (and a lemonade and some cookies) until it was time for our 1 pm lunch at Jamies. Actually, if I had been thinking straight at the time, I would have remembered about the Park Cafe and not bothered booking Jamies as that is really a strategy to avoid the WJ on boarding day.
The couple sitting next to us kindly agreed to take a pic for us. We're both hopeless at selfies. I'm so pleased with the one they took, I'm going to print it a frame it. 🥰

Lunch at Jamies:

Garlic buns. Very good.

Meat plank. Also very good.

Penne carbonara. DH said it was meh.

Super salmon. I loved this when I had it on Anthem and it was just as good here.

For dessert we split a banana split. I mentioned in another post on the boards that this was a big let-down. When I had it last, on Anthem, it had come with three large scoops of very high quality ice cream, but today it was three small scoops of normal ice cream. No pic as it did not deserve the space on my camera. ☹️
By this time, the rooms were open. We had booked a neighbourhood balcony guarantee and been assigned 11195, which we could actually see from our table in Jamies. This was our first time in this type of cabin and it was perfectly fine for us. We did find we missed the over-the-bed storage we had had on Anthem and Odyssey. I think a family with 3 or 4 people would struggle to find room for everyone's stuff. One nice thing was that there loads of hangers, some wooden and a lot of what looked like new plastic ones.
On this cruise, we used our balcony a bit more than we have done on previous trips. Comparing CP balcony, BW balcony and OV balcony, I think my favourite is the OV but DH said he really liked seeing CP and listening to the music that they often had playing there in the evening. We knew to keep our curtains closed and we were never bothered by noise so we were happy with our room.
The bed is by the door in this room:


 
Keep the curtains closed! 😳

The view by day:


And by night:


Given all of the horror stories I had read about My Time Dining on these bigger ships, we had opted for late traditional on this cruise. We were very disappointed with our table (381) which was stuck away in a hidden corner about as far from the beautiful central area as you could possibly get while still actually being in the same room. If I had remembered, I would have checked out the location ahead of time but having had MTD on all of our post-Covid cruises up till now I completely forgot.
The only redeeming factor and which stopped us for asking to change was our servers Sydney and Gendraj. They were just what we old hands expect of our dining room staff: friendly, helpful and attentive to all of our needs.
The Welcome Aboard dinner is one of the (IMHO) better ones of the cut-back menus:

We had the crab cake to start and it did not disappoint. I know it's not a "proper" Maryland crab cake (notice they've stopped calling it "Maryland style" in the menu?) but we like them.

Next came the prime rib. Since they usually overcook this, we asked for medium rare. It came out still kicking and mooing on our plates and we had to send it back for medium. However, either way, it definitely wasn't as good as we remembered.


For dessert we had the Boston cream pie and the cheesecake. I wasn't quick enough with the camera here but suffice to say both were very nice.

After that and ONLY because I mentioned it to them, Sydney, Gendraj and the up until then completely MIA headwaiter, whose name I never did get because he was so rarely seen, brought me my birthday slice of cake with candle. This is a rather disappointing development on Royal's part. In the past, when we had a birthday or anniversary on board, we would always receive this treatment without prompting. I know it was specified on the booking because our lovely MEI agent @michelle put it on and I saw it on the invoice. But our servers didn't know, the HW never came to ask if anyone had a special occasion (someone at the next table also had a birthday during the week) and if I hadn't made a point of mentioning it it would have gone uncelebrated.
In comparison, our DD is currently working as a Guest Services agent on MSC and a member of her team is always tasked with ensuring that everyone celebrating a birthday on board gets a birthday card delivered to their room. It's only a very small gesture but it makes you feel special and I feel Royal have perhaps lost their way a bit in this regard, which is a pity.
That said, when we went to the casino after dinner and I tapped my card to get my free $6 play, the slot machine acknowledged the occasion by flashing up "Happy Birthday!" That did make me laugh. 😂 I still didn't win anything with my free play though.
And then it was time for our ritual bedtime tea and cookies from the Promenade Cafe before turning in for the night.
 
 
 

After the galley tour we picked our free photos, had a few drinks made by robots, and then headed back to the room. Lunch was some more genie magic.
Earlier in the week we were chatting with Berty and talking about the blogs. That's when he brought up @Matt being one of his guests. Berty mentioned that he didn't know about the blogs too much and was confused why all these random people were asking for photos with him. He also couldn't say enough nice things about him and his family. The topic of food came up, and how we really like Indian cuisine, and how Matt had asked for some. Berty asked if we would like an Indian lunch on our balcony and we happily said yes. 
So at noon, our lunch was delivered. 

From Top to bottom, there was Basmati rice, Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken 65, a lentil dish, papadum, and roti. The small bowls were a sweet dessert made with carrots and almonds. 
I have to say, this was my favorite meal that I have ever had on any of the ships. Everything tasted amazing. Berty said it was all made fresh, and not just grabbed from the crew mess. Going forward we will probably be talking to our genies about doing this again. While it doesn't look like a lot of food, it was too much for us, so we messaged Dan to see if they would like some, and they came down too to share. 
With full and happy bellies, we got ready for the bridge tour.

lol.  I love screwing with words that end in a vowel (particularly an “a”) sound.  I usually add an “er” to it.  E.g, Florider.  I have a sister (Rhonda) that my grandmother always called Rhonder.  I guess it just stuck with me !
We try not to change rooms w/a B2B but it was unavoidable this time. This cruise (5 night) was actually [a casino comp] booked first and then we added the first leg [also a casino comp] in front of it, later.  Our original room wasn’t available (drats !) so we had to book a different one.  I did put in a RU bid on this leg but it failed. 😢😢. This leg has been sold out for some time, probably b/c it’s a 5 night vs a 4 night.
Also, update on the SL/CL access drama.  Yesterday, Gavin (Suites Concierge) told me that b/c there are 46 Pinns on this sailing, CL/SL access would be limited to the top 20 Pinns.  Last night, Dan came back to the room with the news that they changed their minds (no explanation provided) that all Pinns would be welcome.  So it looks like we’re “on” again.
We had our b’fast in Chops and now we’re waiting in the CL/SL.  At 9:00 we have to move down to the MDR, deck 5, port side, for the B2B shenanigans to begin.  Our wonderful cabin attendant, Jonel, will move our things from our old room to our new room.  Woohoo !  So nice not to have lug that $hit around.

Quick review of Samba Grill.  It was ok, not great, not terrible.  We used a BOGO so it was a good value.  No WAY would I ever pay full price for it ($39.99 + 18% grat.).  We already knew to skip the first few “courses” (chicken, sausage, pork etc) and skip str8 to the pinaha and filet.  The sides were very lame and the “buffet” was pretty pathetic.  The pinaha and filet were very good but not “melt-in-your-mouth” good like they used to be on Allure at the beginning. Dan also had lamb chops, which he enjoyed.  As I have always maintained about any Brazilian steak house, if you’re not a big meat eater, (as I am not), this is not the place for you.  I left full but not stuffed.  We will not be going back on the next leg and as far as I know, the Samba Grill on both Allure and Radiance will be replaced during their upcoming dry docks.  I think they’re both going bye-bye.  That’s my impression, anyway.
Today is day 4, so tomorrow is back to Tamper for turnaround day.  The next leg is 5 nights and will be going back to COZ with an additional stop in Costa Maya, which one of our favorite ports of call.  We’re going to Mahahual to get massages on the beach !
Dan is going to the casino to spend his points.  If I have any points, it would be too few to worry with so I’m staying in the room to pack up for our room change tomorrow.

The pulled pork “enchilada” (Dan insists that it’s a chimichanga.  I claim it’s a burrito.  In any case, it is NOT an enchilada) was surprisingly good tonite.  It’s usually a bit dry and tough but tonite it was moist and not too chewy.  Dan had his usual carne asada.  Both of us were happy with our meals.  In addition, I ordered a second entree (fried tofu “taco” which certainly was not a taco.  Go figure…).  I usually enjoy dishes with tofu but this was as tasteless as anything I’ve ever tried.  My point in even mentioning this is that they brought all of our entrees at the same time without a question, so I think the prohibition against multiple entrees at the same time has been lifted.  I predicted this from the very beginning.  I must be psycho…I mean psychic.
The internet has returned to its awesome self now that we are back at sea.  I was a bit apprehensive about the internet on this older, smaller ship but my concerns were unfounded - with the exception our of time in port…and I don’t blame the ship for that crappy reception.  I seem to recall some technical explanation as to why port reception, in general, sucks.  Back up and running and surprisingly dependable.
Dan decided to saunter up to the SL to catch the tail end of Happy Hour.  I wasn’t feeling it so I came back to the room.  He is now back after downing a shot of Avion, some new and wonderful tequila that the “court” was raving about last night.  I had a life-changing encounter with tequila years ago and learned a powerful (and painful) lesson.  I steer clear.  Had a similar encounter with some limoncello in Italy a number of years ago and avoid that as well. 😵😵‍💫
So, we’re on our way back to Tamper, where we will turn around for another go.  Sea day tomorrow.

Love seeing Livi having a good time!! My first ever cruise was on Sovereign of the Seas out of Miami in summer 1997, I went with my best friend’s family as their grandmother was a huge cruiser and paid for everyone to join her. Not only was I away from my family, but I was all the way across the country (BFF from Massachusetts, but we were living in San Diego) at 11! I remember absolutely loving it and her family and I still have inside jokes from that cruise. Best of which is a little ditty we made up about Jacques Cousteau spending all his time on the Cal-yp-so! 😆

Love seeing Livi having a good time!! My first ever cruise was on Sovereign of the Seas out of Miami in summer 1997, I went with my best friend’s family as their grandmother was a huge cruiser and paid for everyone to join her. Not only was I away from my family, but I was all the way across the country (BFF from Massachusetts, but we were living in San Diego) at 11! I remember absolutely loving it and her family and I still have inside jokes from that cruise. Best of which is a little ditty we made up about Jacques Cousteau spending all his time on the Cal-yp-so! 😆

Love seeing Livi having a good time!! My first ever cruise was on Sovereign of the Seas out of Miami in summer 1997, I went with my best friend’s family as their grandmother was a huge cruiser and paid for everyone to join her. Not only was I away from my family, but I was all the way across the country (BFF from Massachusetts, but we were living in San Diego) at 11! I remember absolutely loving it and her family and I still have inside jokes from that cruise. Best of which is a little ditty we made up about Jacques Cousteau spending all his time on the Cal-yp-so! 😆

Love seeing Livi having a good time!! My first ever cruise was on Sovereign of the Seas out of Miami in summer 1997, I went with my best friend’s family as their grandmother was a huge cruiser and paid for everyone to join her. Not only was I away from my family, but I was all the way across the country (BFF from Massachusetts, but we were living in San Diego) at 11! I remember absolutely loving it and her family and I still have inside jokes from that cruise. Best of which is a little ditty we made up about Jacques Cousteau spending all his time on the Cal-yp-so! 😆

After returning to the port, we took the obligatory “we were here” photo.
 

Once back on board, were again met by “light snacks” from Berty.

 
 

Love seeing Livi having a good time!! My first ever cruise was on Sovereign of the Seas out of Miami in summer 1997, I went with my best friend’s family as their grandmother was a huge cruiser and paid for everyone to join her. Not only was I away from my family, but I was all the way across the country (BFF from Massachusetts, but we were living in San Diego) at 11! I remember absolutely loving it and her family and I still have inside jokes from that cruise. Best of which is a little ditty we made up about Jacques Cousteau spending all his time on the Cal-yp-so! 😆

Some group needs to build a something fabulous and family in Ensenada.  The city has great weather, super friendly folks, and a relatively good infrastructure.  Giant pool, aviary, nice shopping, and a kiddie pool with slides would do it.  Extra points for beach access!  They have a very nice park with great pools and a ropes course, but it is a long drive from the port in very bad traffic.

Can't wait!  With the addition of some 6-8 night sailings, I wonder if they might visit some different ports (other than the standard Ensenada, Catalina, Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta)??  I love Navigator of the Seas and I cruise on her all of the time (since I live just 13 minutes away from the pier in San Pedro).   Frankly, I would cruise on ANY Royal Caribbean ship docked in San Pedro. But, I welcome the addition of Quantum of the Seas!

I looked further into the port schedule than what's shown with the article. Quantum starts in October with some 3- and 4-night cruises, but it also has a healthy mix of 5-6 night cruises too. Most of the Quantum cruises also list Cabo San Lucas as a port destination, something I'm very excited for.
Navigator appears to have an 8-night cruise in mid-November 2025 - that sounds great too.
 
(where I am finding this? https://www.portsamerica.com/our-services/cruise-los-angeles-terminal-schedule)

Is anyone else super excited that LA is potentially getting another ship?!?!?!?? 
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2024/02/21/spotted-royal-caribbean-will-add-second-cruise-ship-los-angeles
 
I swear I'm not dancing 

Love seeing Livi having a good time!! My first ever cruise was on Sovereign of the Seas out of Miami in summer 1997, I went with my best friend’s family as their grandmother was a huge cruiser and paid for everyone to join her. Not only was I away from my family, but I was all the way across the country (BFF from Massachusetts, but we were living in San Diego) at 11! I remember absolutely loving it and her family and I still have inside jokes from that cruise. Best of which is a little ditty we made up about Jacques Cousteau spending all his time on the Cal-yp-so! 😆

We have wrestled with trying this place but we have one in our traveling party who has issues with garlic and onions, but only sometimes, so Italian is always dangerous. It's even more dangerous when it is more than two steps away from the hotel front door 😆

Day Two - Miami
We started the day with the Hampton's usual included breakfast. The last time we stayed here (pre-Covid), they had a wonderful fruit salad at breakfast but, sadly, that was missing this time around. That did not stop us from enjoying fuelling up, though. The coffee was very good. They had a dark roast and a light roast as well as decaf, so we took full advantage of it, knowing that we would be unlikely to get any decent coffee on board the ship. There are all the usual continental items, with cold meats and cheeses, cereal, fresh fruit and various types of bread. Plus hot items that change daily; DH said his omelette was very good. I looked for them the next day and it was scrambled eggs instead, so I missed out. And there is a make-your-own waffle station too.
Just in case it matters to anyone, the plates and cutlery are the disposable type.

We had a full day today in Miami and we had decided to do the ho-ho bus to try and see some stuff we hadn't got round to or had only had a fleeting glance at on our previous visit, most notably Wynwood Walls and Little Havana.
The weather was looking rather unfriendly first thing in the morning and someone (hint: wasn't me!) thought he should dress for a cooler day... By the time we arrived at Bayside, the sun was out and it was pretty warm and that someone realised he hadn't made the best of wardrobe choices! 😂

In the interests of comfort, given that he had a thick long-sleeved t-shirt on underneath all that stuff, we ended up going back to the hotel so he could change. We reckoned this would cost us maybe 45 minutes tops. Wrong. This was where we fell foul of the changes in the metromover schedule. By the time we'd figured out what was going on, changed trains twice and waited for a then delayed inner loop train, it was 90 minutes before we got back to Bayside and onto the bus. This would subsequently impact the rest of the day.
First stop was Miami Beach where we had a nice wander with a few rest stops in shady spots, eventually followed by an instantly forgettable hot dog with fries that were UNforgettable, not to mention inedible, because of how salty they were. The place was called Redhead Burger. I wouldn't recommend it.
Rest stop with the beach gym equipment. I did not use it, other than as a backdrop.

After lunch we headed back to the bus. The traffic was horrendous and we realised we weren't going to be able to make it to both Wynwood Walls and Little Havana, so we opted to leave Wynwood for a future visit because at least we could see some of the street murals from the bus as we were driving through the area. I think next time I will book us a hotel in the Wynwood area to make sure we don't miss out again.
We enjoyed wandering up and down the main street in Little Havana, cheekily popped into the domino club to use their bathrooms and then indulged in an ice cream from the place with a giant ice cream cone on the wall outside. It was too early for dinner (for us, anyway) so we headed back to the hotel for a pre-dinner rest.
I posted recently here on the boards about restaurants near the Hampton Inn Brickell but I'll just add the information here too, in case it might be useful to anyone who didn't see that thread.
There are several restaurants in immediate walking distance even if you are not very mobile. Turn right out of the main door and there is a Vietnamese place right next door, although it looked like a kind of fast-food place, then there is Sergio's Cuban, the Batch Gastro Pub that @AshleyDillo likes and, on the corner, a place called Alma Rosa which, from the menu, might have been Mexican or Peruvian. It looked quite nice. Just past there was where we ended up, an Italian place called Piola. 
The pizzas were good and reasonably priced but they were too big for us. We could have shared one with a side salad and that would have been the perfect amount. We sat outside on the covered terrace and it was very pleasant. There was a saxophonist playing for part of the time we were there. We were at the far end of the terrace from him so the music wasn't too loud, but it wasn't gentle either; I think if we'd been closer to him, it might have been uncomfortable. At least he played well!

Capricciosa pizza:

And Como pizza:

For information's sake, there are also some eating places if you turn left out of the hotel: Coyotaco and an upscale-looking place with valet parking called Marion. Just beyond that there was another (I think Mexican) whose name escapes me and a 7/11 store for last-minute essentials.
By now, jet-lag and the day's exploring had taken their toll so like the well-behaved pre-vintages that we are, we toddled off back to the hotel for another night's rest before moving to Fort Lauderdale the next day for our final pre-cruise night.

No gambling required. It may affect future offers if you don't, but anecdotal evidence is hit or miss on that. 

Love seeing Livi having a good time!! My first ever cruise was on Sovereign of the Seas out of Miami in summer 1997, I went with my best friend’s family as their grandmother was a huge cruiser and paid for everyone to join her. Not only was I away from my family, but I was all the way across the country (BFF from Massachusetts, but we were living in San Diego) at 11! I remember absolutely loving it and her family and I still have inside jokes from that cruise. Best of which is a little ditty we made up about Jacques Cousteau spending all his time on the Cal-yp-so! 😆