pepperandchips

Lord help. I thought my husband had it bad with high schoolers. No amount of money in the world can compensate you for the hormones of middle school! Thank you for what you do!

@matt we know your name is Matt Hochberg, you say it every show! ? “Blurred out Matt, international man of mystery”

I am partial to the BBC - Bailey’s banana colada. It’s not something I’ve ever seen anywhere else so it just suggests “cruise” to me!

Thanks for the awesome live blog, Matt! I liked this format too. I am super excited about our upcoming sailing on Brilliance. Four weeks from today!!!

Wow, what an amazing dream to have come true and you are so close to departure! I will be here reading along!!!

Yikes! Maybe I should lower my expectations. Personally I have yet to meet a lasagna I didn't like, but my husband's family is Italian so the bar is a bit higher with him. I do like meatloaf though... haha.

April 1 - Husband is a teacher so we are on the spring break schedule. I see you are sailing later in the month and a historical fan of the Grandeur. We are looking forward to trying a smaller ship as our prior sailing on Freedom felt like she was "too big" and now they are ordering tons of huge ships!!! We of course already have Nachi Cocom booked as well, that was the selling point on this itinerary for me. I loved it when we went in 2015! Our other port is Key West.

Thank you, Matt! I blame you and Michael Poole for the sudden burning desire to try Giovanni's lasagna ? The most recent Brilliance Cruise Compass for our itinerary (October 15, 2018) doesn't show Giovanni's serving lunch even on sea days. Nor do the September 17, 2018 Compass or the December 17, 2017 Compass. I know you love sailing on her for the long weekend 4 nighters - do you recall if Giovanni's has been open for lunch even when it's not listed in the Cruise Compass? I am planning to use your strategy of booking all our dining immediately upon embarkation so I'd like to have an idea of what to ask for! And thank you for putting in all the work of hosting those Cruise Compasses. They are invaluable for a planning nerd like me.

To answer my own question, I see that the Izumi thing is a pre-cruise booking "special". If anyone else stumbles across this thread, here's Matt's post: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/11/26/royal-caribbean-offering-fixed-price-pre-cruise-menu-option-izumi

I have not done anything like this myself, but I've been catching up on older episodes of the Podcast and Matt recommended going to the restaurant the day before your reservation and letting them know of your special request so that the chef can prepare it or arrange it for you, if it is within possibility. He was specifically getting a lunch menu item at dinner but I think it would relieve some of the embarrassment if you were able to stop by at a quiet time instead of having to "spring it on" your server at dinner. I hope you get your soup!!

That's good to hear! I will keep my hopes up in that case.

Hi everyone! I'm a newbie with only one sailing behind me, but so excited to be headed on board Brilliance in April for a 5 night sailing. In my cruise planner, Giovanni's isn't listed as serving lunch, and recent Cruise Compass copies from Brilliance don't show Giovanni's available for lunch either. We were looking forward to Lasagna. Anyone have recent experience and can confirm? Also it looks like they are offering a prepaid meal at Izumi for $49.99 with a fixed menu - one starter, one nigiri or sashimi, one roll/ramen, and dessert. We are planning on doing the Ultimate Dining Package so it's not a big deal to me if they've changed the price but I know my husband was looking forward to trying a few different sushi rolls. Anyone know what's up? Is the cruise planner wrong or did they make a change? Thanks in advance!!!

Woo hoo! I hope you are right. I would love that!

You guys are such a wealth of knowledge. Anyone know what to expect for turkey day on the seas? We're cruising Freedom Nov 22 (Western) and it looks like Thanksgiving would have been formal #2. Should I expect that menu or something turkey-centric? Should I instead ask for an Indian dish a la Hochberg? Just kidding, turkey tikka masala is for Easter only. In all seriousness, I think some of our party will be disappointed if we're not offered the lobster (usually served on the Jasmine menu which would fall on Thanksgiving). Any advice appreciated! (Matt you should totally do a holidays at sea podcast. Just a suggestion but 'tis the season after last week's email about when the decorations get put up...) Thanks again! Melinda

Cruising Freedom Nov 22. Definitely going to check this out!

You guys are awesome. I had a sneaking suspicion that if it comes through "automatically" that it would appear as a credit to each stateroom. I appreciate all the advice!

Calling all experts! I am planning to take advantage of the discounted specialty dining by prebooking 3 dinners for my upcoming Freedom cruise. I was only planning two, but the discount makes one of the meals only $8.00, so I think it will be worthwhile to try all 3 restaurants. That being said, I'm planning to prebook all of the meals for my cabin as well as my mother's cabin. Will the 20% onboard credit for the dining purchases be applied to my cabin only or will each cabin receive the OBC allotted for the value of those meals? I think it works out to $34.00 per cabin, so I am wondering if my cabin will receive $68 OBC or each will receive $34.00. I know this is an incredibly specific question so I was wondering if anyone here had any experience! Thanks very much, Melinda