JLMoran

So small gripe. The picture guy came and took our pictures at the table before food came which was great.  However, then he comes back trying to sell the pictures while we have only gotten our appetizers. I asked if the pictures were available at the photo desk and part of the photo package as I bought a 100 package, and he said those photos weren’t part of the package. Seems dumb that they wouldn’t be. However, the pictures were really good and we had all dressed up for white night so we wanted the pictures. It was $35 for to get both the couple picture and then the group picture. So now we are sitting with photos while having to finish our meal. Seems like that part should have been done at the end. 🤷‍♂️

Since we had a large group the server said he would just bring out all the appetizers. The rest of the people in my party didn’t quite understand what was happening. It was quite funny watching the confused look on their faces. Here’s the appetizer picks. 

My favorite view ❤️

A few pictures of the silent dance party and fireworks forgot to post earlier. 

After dinner last night we went to see The Book. Got there a few minutes late because dinner ran over. But it was pretty cool. The talent of the dancers is just amazing. 
 
 

Dinner tonight was Teppanyaki. It was amazing!  Sorry I did a bad job with the food porn pictures, I will try to get better as the cruise goes along. But my wife did get a few. Had a table facing the ocean, but unfortunately it was dark so that didn’t do us any good. Chef said the food was made with love! 

Rooms ready right at 1pm. Balcony room for us on deck 10, port side, aft. 7 ships in port today!  Celebrity Apex being one of them. Think we had a couple famous people from this sight getting off there today. 

Got on ship about 11:15. Got reservations for the 3 night dining made right away. Doing Hibachi tonight at 7pm. Giovanni’s tomorrow at 5:15 and Chops day 6 at 5. Night 3 and 7 are formal night so will do MDR those nights. Will decide later what to do the other nights. After that came straight to solarium bistro for lunch.  I’m usually not very adventurous with food but tried some lamb and loved it.  Selection seems a little smaller at this solarium than on Symphony, but food taste pretty good. 

A couple pictures of the ship as we pulled up. 

We were supposed to be on that inaugural Odyssey sailing too! 😪
I totally support this! lol
This was the case for our sailing a month after you as well. I grabbed a few places the day they released but none of them were good deals, and nothing has dropped. Even the Holiday Inn Express on 17th St. was way more than usual.
Do Giovanni's Kitchen! We love it there. The pizza is thin and there are some really interesting flavours.

Sounds like a win-win to me. 🤩

After I told her the situation, she said that we'll use some of our OBC ($225 on this Odyssey sailing, thanks to a promo when I booked) to eat at one specialty venue. And then she'll pay for dinner at another venue of my choice. So definitely still getting something good for B-Day. I'm thinking we'll use the OBC for teppanyaki at Izumi, and the one she covers will be dinner at Giovanni's. (I've heard the new Giovanni's is way better than Jamie's Italian ever was, and it's even better than the original Giovanni's Italian Kitchen on ships like Freedom)

Was pretty great on Wonder last week.
MDR - I've never been a big MDR fan and I even enjoyed most of my items there.
WJ - Slightly less variety but good Indian food as usual and some surprisingly good items like ribs and grilled shrimp. Picky wife thought the burgers were better than they used to be. Hand scooped ice cream at lunch and dinner.
Solarium Bistro - Mostly a repeat of WJ with a few unique items. Love their breakfast smoothies and the woman running the omelet station made very large and well made omelets.
El Loco Fresh - Ate there almost everyday. I can always go for tacos and the quesadillas were fine too.
Park Cafe - Still enjoy their breakfast sandwiches, didn't have a kummelweck (too many afternoon trips to ELF), enjoyed the pre-packaged to-go wraps to keep in our cabin fridge as a snack.
Mason Jar brunch - My new favorite specialty restaurant.
Playmakers - Big fan of their burgers and garlic parm fries.
Sorrento's - Still mostly just a place to grab pizza when everything else is closed but I find it to be improved over the past 9 months. Much crispier and less soggy.
I gained my usual 10+ pounds on a 7N cruise and enjoyed doing so.

Alllure-two weeks ago:
Didn’t eat at every option. So here’s our breakdown of what we did try. 

Couple trips to WJ and it was decent. Selection was good and nothing looked “stale”. Got cook out plates (burgers and dogs) and it was good. 
Chops- steak was good but also the worst of the cruise. Tender but the seasoning was “off”. Lobster was good. No complaints on sides but shrimp cocktail was rather small compared to the “before” times. 
 
Giovanni’s- not sure how to do this one because they made me chicken Alfredo so I’ll use the rest of the party’s meal. Steaks were amazing. Sides and apps were good. Eggplant parm was a disaster (pg-13 version of her comment). 
 
Izumi- just amazing. Mic drop. 
 
150 Central Park- best overall meal of the trip followed closely by Izumi. Staff were amazing. Prob the best filet I’ve had in a long time. Lobster thermador was amazing but I feel could be better….🤔. 
 
Vintages- tapas- quality depended upon the time of the evening you ordered. The earlier the better. 
 
Dog house- only had brats. Worried about fresh bread. Bread was fine. Kraut was generic but good. Overall, good for free but I wouldn’t pay. 
 
Chefs table- I’m mixed on this as it’s nothing really original or frankly awesome food-wise. Don’t get me wrong it was good. The pairings make the meal imo was well as having an awesome sommelier. We’re about 50/50 on doing it again. 
 
room service or star class food coma enablers- we never ordered it except for breakfast. We didn’t have anything that was complaint worthy but I’m also not sure where exactly the food was coming from (mdr, speciality, etc). Overall good rating. 
 
overall, I came into this trip expecting average at best food. I’d give it an overall above average to good rating. My best example is that my FIL who is an extremely picky eater actually got out and tried some new things and was happy. 

We just got off Odyssey and the minimum Craps bet was $10.  My beef is that every time I ventured into the Casino, the Craps table was closed.  They opened it when we were enjoying dinner or shows and after the shows, I was usually too tired to hit the casino.  The one time, I did go in there and the Craps table was open, it was packed and I couldn't get a spot at the table. 

My local casino only has 25, 50 and $100 craps table Its Crazy.  If you play a $50 table and have the Pass line, Odds. the 6 & 8 covered its a $240.00 minimum  😲

Exactly! When this was originally a thing, the point was that it gave their head chef a chance to flex their creativity and serve something unique and unlike anything else available on the ship. Combined with the wine pairings, that made it well worth the cover charge.
Now? I’ve had those individual items in Coastal Kitchen and various specialty restaurants, and they’re all clearly standards on the menu. So I guess my wife will be saving herself a couple hundred bucks since she was offering to take me to that as a birthday gift.

I was looking at the dining options on my Odyssey sailing for next year, and saw that they were offering it on Day 1 and nothing else. I realize that might well be because they just haven't opened up more evenings yet because it's still far off, so I'm not worried there. But what did worry me was the menu I saw listed. It was exactly the same menu as I had in 2018 on Freedom of the Seas -- scallops carpaccio, smoked tomato soup, lobster salad with hearts of palm, branzino or filet, and The World for dessert.
Please tell me that's just a sample menu and they vary it up a bit. If they are still serving the exact same menu for the past 6 years, across the fleet, I will not book that no matter how much I enjoyed it back then.

We’ve booked with “Bernard’s Tours” before and enjoyed a great time. Numerous stops on both sides of the island. We wouldn’t hesitate to book with them, again.  

Maybe she can find something nice for you to do in one of your ports instead 😊

Same menu every time we have been since 2019.

Same on our Canada & Maine cruise on Voyager in Oct 2022. 
While the same menu wouldn't be exciting to repeat, the 6 glasses of wine they poured for us would make me care less about what they served. 🤣 🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🍷🤪 
 

Same exact menu as I’ve had in the past several years

Yes, the only items that change are the various wines that are pared with each course. Its up to the sommelier to pick the wines.
 

Same menu served on Allure two weeks ago.