TMatl

Which cruise/ship are you on? Surprised if they’re fully booked 4 months in advance.

Not sure which ports you’re going to but we found a store in St Maartens that sold liquor and found Blantons for $75. I bought a couple bottles since the ship didn’t have it this time around. We went to the beach bar and watched the planes come in then walked to the stores just beyond the beach. Did some shopping in the jewelry store then stopped in the liquor store which had a decent selection and good pricing. Pricing definitely wasn’t gouged.

WHOA!! So the Mason Jar has EH Taylor for $13 a drink? Wow, that’s Awesome. EH is head and shoulders better than any bourbon on that list. I have 13 bottles of EH and thankfully do as it’s become hard to find. There’s liquor stores near me where I can find Eagle Rare for $45-50. And not usually hard to find. Baker’s is another great bourbon and rather hard to find. EH and Bakers on a cruise? That is awesome, take advantage of those two bourbons. Don’t waste your time on the others. I went on Harmony just before Covid, the final cruise before they stopped. They had a big barrel cut open in the liquor shop and they filled it with bottles of Blantons—$80/bottle which is basically retail price. They were promoting they had every letter in stock (the letter on the cap by the horses back leg). There were over 30 bottles in/on the barrel. I have 6 bottles at home but grabbed 3 bottles while I had the chance. I went on Harmony again this year expecting to find the Blantons again and they didn’t have it on the ship. I’m guessing their supply chain got cut off or short.

We went on Harmony last year during Valentines Day. My gf, for some reason, claims Valentines Day is a real holiday . Anyway, we did the 3 meal dinner plan and signed up for the Fake holiday dinner at Chops separately. (It was $80 pp) The VD dinner was not part of the Specialty Dining plan. We could only get a normal reservation time by purchasing their VD dinner separately. Surprisingly Chops wasn’t full or overly busy and our reservations was at 7:30.

Make sure they add the Worcteshire and horse radish to the Bloody Mary. Gotta add some spice. Good Bloody Mary’s come w a piece of bacon as a garnish, along w the olive and the celery stalk.

We’ve always just used those really long straws so we can drink it straight from the bottle.

The bar.

If you have the UDP, once you get on board, can you go to one of the specialty restaurants and book all of your specialty dinners for the week, at all the other restaurants? Or do you have to go to each restaurant and make your reservation with them?

When the Solarium restaurant is open you can get the same buffet that’s served at the Windjammer. And it’s never been packed.

Which specialty dining restaurants are available for lunch on the day of departure, with the UDP? What are the options?

We’re on the Wonder next February and I received an email last week offering the UDP for $205pp?? I might be off by a dollar or two.

Thanks for all your feedback, advice, and updates.

And that's why we're leaning towards doing the UDP--Wonder has some great specialty dining options. And we have 5-6 restaurants on our list. Plus, upon looking at the MDR menu, it doesnt really stand out. We were a little disappointed at the weekly menu outside of the lobster dinner. And you mentioned Playmakers, we'll be there for Super Bowl Sunday, and we're all sports fans so we're glad to see a sports bar on the ship. And will be there a lot. So, if I am reading your message correctly, normally you'd have to pay for food from Johnny Rocket and/or Playmakers? But its covered in full with the UDP? Thanks for your feedback and recommendations.

Frank, from the looks of your last name, it appears you may be Italian. As I am. If you live in a city/town that has real Italian food then Jamie’s might be a bit of a let down. Jamie’s is good but you’ll never confuse it with with great, true Italian food. It’s great with a group bc they just basically bring any and everything you want to try. If you go as a couple, it’s more like a traditional restaurant in that they take your order, and what you order, that’s all they bring to the table. It isn’t a bad meal at all but it will not be confused with some of the great Italian restaurants you can find in NYC or the NE. Now, 150 Central Park is great. Go with the Lobster Thermidore and you can thank me when you get back from your cruise.

Great insight everyone, thanks for your replies. I agree with those who like and recommended 150 Central Park. We’re definitely going there, that’s a given. And my gf wants to go to Hooked as well. If we have the 3 meal specialty dining plan and have dinner at 2 restaurants but want to do the brunch at Mason Jar, can we do that? Does the meal plan cover brunch or is it only for dinners? We’re at the point of debating doing the UDP or the 3 meal plan. Too many places people want to eat at.

Were on the Wonder in Feb 23. Some in our group had some questions about the dining options hoping others who have been on Wonder can help with. Let me preface this by saying we had the 3 meal dining package on the Harmony 1) Does Giovannis Italian offer the full menu plan for a group if on the meal plan? On Harmony, we did a birthday dinner at Jamie's Italian Restaurant and because we had a group of 6, and the meal plan, they didnt take an order from each person. In fact, they told us not to bother with ordering, they were going to bring everything. And they did. Every app, every dinner anyone mentioned (as many as you wanted to order), every desert was brought out. It was great for a birthday dinner for a group. Does Giovanni's do this as well? 2) Wonderland is a restaurant of interest for a few of the group. Anyone who has eaten at Wonderland, what are your thoughts? 3) All the restaurants sound great on paper, look great in the videos and reviews. Any insight on the restaurants--were any better than you expected? Also, did any not live up to the hype or expectations? 4) The Mason Jar--OMG!-southern food and bbq? And great craft cocktails? And brunch? I could eat there every night but the group wont go for that. Did anyone go for brunch?

When in doubt, add the package (drink, dinner, alcohol, etc) to your shopping cart, go to check out and it will show the price. If youre happy with it continue with the check out. If you dont like the price then remove the item or just cancel the checkout.

The bold statement above isn’t correct. We went on the Harmony in February ‘22 and I used an old WOW band that I had from a previous cruise on Harmony. They were not issuing WOW bands on the Feb cruise, but, if you had a WOW band from a previous cruise you could get it programmed to use on this current cruise. I had countless people stop me, or come up to me and ask, where they could get a band. Guest Services said they weren’t issuing new ones for that cruise, that they would only program WOW bands for cruisers who brought from previous cruises.

Right. Just like flying—go fly in Business Elite, or First class, then see how much you like flying Coach the next time.

Where did you see 18 Crown Loft Suites still available?

Everything with Disney is a rip off. Their prices get elevated then they get elevated further to extreme levels based on their name.

They should’ve used their masks

Last couple days before our cruise we threw a bid in for an upgrade. A message came saying you can place a bid up to 3 hours before the cruises departure and you would receive an email to update you on the upgrade. It also mentioned that if you don’t receive a response in relation to your upgrade by 2 hours after the cruise departs then you did not get the upgrade.

We were on the final cruise before Covid shut things down. They made the announcement Thursday night that that would be the last cruise until further notice. So we were experiencing the effects of Covid on the sports world all week. It was the conference tourney week, not the big March Madness tourney. They were showing the games in the casino but then the announcements started coming out that this conference’s games were being canceled. Then you saw tickers on ESPN that the NBA games that night were canceled. The next day the ACC canceled their games, then more NBA games, until all the games were stopped. But, to start the week, the games were being shown in the casino.

We were on the Harmony recently. RC didn’t offer the WOW bands, but, if you brought one from. Previous cruise they could activate it for you to use. I can’t tell you how many people asked about the band and where to get one. I could’ve made some good money selling that band.