Jax

Afternoon snack.

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

That’s what makes it so good. Lol (and also why I always order ribeye steak) 
These became Lindsay’s go to drink last cruise. He had a milestone birthday this year so I planned a martini bar for his surprise birthday party 🥳.  They are surprisingly easy to make and were a big hit.  

It slowly filled up and was fairly busy by 1:00 or so. There were also quite a few crew members having lunch there. We decided to keep our plans as-is, btw.
View from the outdoor terrace

Rolls

Caprese salad (figured I would stick with the salad theme since it worked last night & is lighter than meatballs or fried calamari or whatever & glad I did)

Half truffle/egg, half plain pizza (it was different & I enjoyed it but will probably go back to the Giovanni pizza next time)

Chicken parm (wife wanted to try it again b/c she didn’t love it last time she ordered it. she liked it, just too heavy for lunch but we knew that. they should really have lunch portions for some items.)

Carbonara (still good, still heavy, I was good and didn’t even try to finish it)

Chocolate ravioli (still my wife’s favorite dessert)

Go bananas

That’s what makes it so good. Lol (and also why I always order ribeye steak) 
These became Lindsay’s go to drink last cruise. He had a milestone birthday this year so I planned a martini bar for his surprise birthday party 🥳.  They are surprisingly easy to make and were a big hit.  

That’s what makes it so good. Lol (and also why I always order ribeye steak) 
These became Lindsay’s go to drink last cruise. He had a milestone birthday this year so I planned a martini bar for his surprise birthday party 🥳.  They are surprisingly easy to make and were a big hit.  

That’s what makes it so good. Lol (and also why I always order ribeye steak) 
These became Lindsay’s go to drink last cruise. He had a milestone birthday this year so I planned a martini bar for his surprise birthday party 🥳.  They are surprisingly easy to make and were a big hit.  

Chops dinner
We really enjoyed Chops. Nothing against the steak which was very good but I think I liked some of the other items more just for the uniqueness.
We both loved the pretzel bread.

Caesar salad

Fried goat cheese salad (really enjoyed this and I almost never order salad in restaurants unless it comes with the meal)

Pepper bacon (interesting and unique to me; I liked it except for the part that was all fat)

Filet

Bone-in ribeye 

Gruyere tots (really liked these, filling was like mashed potatoes)

Mashed potatoes (we both loved them & my wife is a mashed potato expert, lol)

Truffle fries (wife wanted to try them; I’d eat them with the burger if we ever had lunch but not worth it for dinner over the other potatoes IMO)

Mac n cheese (only thing we didn’t like)

 
The Truffle (I don’t generally order anything like an espresso martini even though I’m a coffee drinker but we had vouchers to burn and this was very good)

Warm chocolate cake (wife liked it but didn’t think it was special)

Red velvet cake (this was good but pretty heavy with the thick cream cheese icing. I wanted to try the key lime pie too but there was no way I was eating two desserts after seeing how large the slices were as others ordered dessert around us)

We’re going to recommend a 2nd dinner at Chops for the family cruise in March since we need a couple repeats due to skipping certain restaurants for one reason or another.

No truer words have ever been spoken (written).  It is a VERY hard mental fixation to overcome.  I blame Star Class.  🤣

I have food fatigue already from all these photos! 
It took a long time to get over the FOMO with having the UDP and giving up all the food credits daily. Honestly for me if it didn't take so long to eat at the specialty restaurants I'd probably enjoy the dining package more. I love the idea of the Izumi window and I wish there were other to go options like that. Playmakers and Johnny Rockets will do to go orders if you ask.
PS: Don't forget there's a late night menu at Mason Jar Bar that you can use your UDP on as well 😅 Although, I don't think there's anything special on the menu that you can't get during the normal meals.

I don’t want to butcher the CL concierge’s name. He’s from China, like Jen, but doesn’t use an Americanized name. Very nice guy. Told us the CL is so quiet & boring. We brought him some chocolate bars (he did give us the magic dots after all but my wife brought extra just to give to whomever).
It wasn’t a bribe & not sure we’ll use them this leg but we’re special again, lol.

Docked at Nassau an hour early. Too lazy for beach club pics & I just took some 4 days ago anyway.
Putting off Chops pics so here’s some other stuff.
Izumi in the Park sushi to go. Each takeout box is $10 (exact amount of the UDP daily credit). Decent amount IMO. I asked for all nigiri but I’m fine with rolls too. CP is insanely loud during sail away from the pool deck. Could barely hear the Izumi guy when ordering (through the window like 3 feet apart) so I don’t fault him. We asked him how he can stand it & he just kinda smiled (I think he wanted to say how awful it is).

We enjoyed meeting you guys on Saturday and hope you have a wonderful time on this second leg! Pretty sad.. just getting around to responding.
You have no worry of me hijacking your blog and always enjoy following along.(even on the same ship). You do a good job of capturing lots of good stuff!
We had a great time. Spent a lot of early morning (and evening) time just enjoying the balcony and the beautiful weather. Few random pics below. The Atlantic was like a lake on Sunday. It made for a nice ride home.
We were some of those early risers. No real line…Off in the first group, headed home, stopped by Publix, and working by 7:50.. have to help pay for that next cruise and save vacation days (for more cruises)
Safe travels!
Jim&Sher

Not much difference between the 6-6:30am CL walk & the 7:30am version. The sun is up & I saw maybe 3 dozen people instead of almost none. Having coffee with the hippos while wife went walking. Still deciding what small breakfast to have. Will probably just grab pastries from SB with my 2nd cup of coffee. Highly doubt my wife will eat anything except maybe fruit. She felt really full last night. Don’t think it’s as easy for her to go from eating healthy at home to a big lunch & dinner.

Chops pics & thoughts still to come as well as some other pics.
Not a whole lot else to share about last night. We went to 5pm trivia (general knowledge) for the heck of it & failed (I need a theme), took photos, talked with the CL concierge for a bit after my wife checked for krispie treats, then got pretty full from dinner & wound up crashing early instead of going to Perfect Couple (which was much funnier on Wonder anyway). We also briefly considered watching some of Back to the Future in the aqua theater (subliminal advertisement for Star I think).
My wife was stuffed from Chops & sadly I lacked the motivation to go all the way to Playmakers alone just b/c I had my credit so I feel like we’re already failing at the UDP, lol. I did get sushi at Izumi in the Park so there’s that. If we had watched Back to the Future I’m sure I would have gotten something since we would have already been on the Boardwalk. Oh well, current plan is 8:30 aqua show tonight so hopefully after that.

I am so excited to try MJ for brunch and dinner. Everything looks so 😋 

I am so excited to try MJ for brunch and dinner. Everything looks so 😋 

Mason Jar brunch…
1st Moonlight

Deviled eggs

Johnny cakes with pulled pork

Chicken n waffles

Fried chicken breast n tots

Moonlight #2 (no more mason jars)

Bread pudding

Gone bananas

Chocolate shake to go

Now the app shows double reservations for every meal, the originals I booked & the ones she made. As long as I don’t get charged (which would easily get fixed anyway), we’ll survive.

Standard Royal IT shenanigans…
We showed up at Mason Jar for brunch & the manager we got friendly with said almost all of our UDP reservations disappeared… yet they were all still showing in the app.
She went down the list and had to re-book them for us. Some are now 15 minutes off but whatever, no biggie.
Unsurprisingly she said issues like that keep happening and it’s a pain in the 🍑 (not her words of course).

Happy turnaround day.  LET THE EATING BEGIN !!!

Back onboard by 9:35am this time. Muster wasn’t set up yet so we’re relaxing in an empty Solarium with no music, just the sound of the hot tub bubbles, very peaceful. We also reclaimed the side with the hippos.




Happily chilling & making some plans for this leg.

Promenade fire door shut as we left the ship. Waiting in line in the terminal now. Sounded like a few idiots hadn’t gotten off yet. Hopefully it’s a quick turnaround. The PC terminal is always freezing.

Wife decided to go walking on deck 16 b/c gym is closed & waking track on 5 is blocked by disembarking passengers.
I went to CL to get her croissants for the cabin (and see her on deck 16), dropped them off, got a bagel at Park Cafe (only quiet place on disembarkation day), then brought it down to get iced coffee at Cafe Promenade. There was a line of course but not crazy. NOW it’s crazy. Maybe 12-15 people deep.
If it goes down I might get back in line for vitamin water or Powerade (or a 3rd coffee).
One complaint… last time I got my coffee and went to sit outside the pub to get away from the chaos. This morning they took all the chairs & tables from the pub & Sorrento’s that are normally out front & shoved them inside so you can’t sit there. No biggie, I got a table inside Cafe Promenade, but it’s kinda nuts in here.

Turnaround day. Slept a little later. Not sure if my wife wants breakfast & we have Mason Jar brunch (not til 11:45 though) so not sure I want to eat much this morning anyway. I was good and didn’t have a big snack after the ice show last night.
May use some last morning disappearing vouchers on iced coffee from Cafe Promenade instead of going to the CL like I did last B2B. Not feeling very motivated to get up at the moment though.
Same B2B procedure, meet at MDR deck 5 at 8:45am.

Forgot another random story. Cabin attendant Mike stopped us in the hall earlier & asked if it was OK if he changed out my wife’s mattress. It wasn’t b/c she found it too hard, of course, but kind of an odd coincidence. He said even though Utopia is pretty new, some of the mattresses are “bad”, whatever that means. Anyway, she now has a new mattress.