Welcome to another episode of: What was i thinking? Two Brats in a 2BRATS (Symphony 5/31/24). What could go wrong?

[SweetPea]

Poll time. 

 

Based on this, would you be expecting a   or drink?

 

[Lovetocruise2002]

6 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

Poll time. 

 

Based on this, would you be expecting a   or drink?

 

Cold! But last time I ordered it, it was hot. I only took a sip. It wasn’t great.

[SweetPea]

Agree! And when i told our waiter i was expecting it to be cold, he looked at me like i had 7 heads!

 

 

[Jax]

28 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

Poll time. 

 

Based on this, would you be expecting a   or drink?

 although I don’t drink coffee .. the reference to cold espresso suggests cold 

[WAAAYTOOO]

I can’t really think of anything less appetizing than a cold espresso. It sounds repulsive. 

[Ampurp85]

HMmmmm I would think hot. My idea is they are telling me the espresso is cold and not freshly made. 

[CravingaCruise]

They should put a little next to it so people know!

[ScottD]

11 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

This week flew by. Exactly why the Alaskan cruise in Sept is my last 7 nights for the foreseeable future. I feel like by day 5 I am just in my groove. 

Ahhh...you guys are killing me. Our next one is 5 days and almost since we've booked it my wife has said "I hate that this one is only 5 days"  whenever I even think about trying Utopia or Wonder next year I just have to realize that 3 or 4 days is just a waste- even 5 is gonna feel like a tease.  The only thing making it ok is the fact that we have the two 7 day-ers booked for the next few months after.  

This one (and even @OCSC Mike's)  seem like they FLEW by.  

[ScottD]

Computer froze and i hit submit twice... DUPE DELETED

[OCSC Mike]

2 hours ago, ScottD said:

This one (and even @OCSC Mike's)  seem like they FLEW by.  

Agreed… but they all seem to.

[SweetPea]

Needless to say i didn't care that for drink. 

 

We're meeting Shane in 20 minutes to say goodbyes

Batman is still in his bathrobe. 

 

I've got my WOW band in my pocket. Wish me luck!!!

[asquared17]

i’ve specifically arranged for beautiful weather in NJ to usher you back home. 

you’re welcome.

[GregD]

10 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I can’t really think of anything less appetizing than a cold espresso. It sounds repulsive. 

There are plenty of delicious things that cold espresso it good for!

Espresso Martinis, tiramisu, poured over vanilla ice cream, added to a chocolate milkshake etc etc

But the way I drink my coffee matches my soul, cold and black

[asquared17]

i’m with @GregD on this one. 

before i switched to new orleans cold brew, i was a 4 espresso shots over ice with just a ~splash of cream type of gal  

rocket fuel. 

[SweetPea]

Hi, we're home and because I'm SUCH a genius, guess who forgot she ran the dishwasher before she left and completely forgot to unload it. Yuck. 

Spoiler: i do still have my WOW band since we didn't see our Stage 5 clingers. My evil plot failed to unfold and for this, i have deep regret.

I need a nap and then I'll polish this off with musings from iSkate and Chops and final thoughts. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

Home ?  

[GatorCruiser]

Since when does a cruise end on a Friday ?

[SweetPea]

1 minute ago, GatorCruiser said:

Since when does a cruise end on a Friday ?

IKR. Symphony is doing Fri-Fri, until they do the one 9-night in August and then it reverts to 7-nights that are Sun-Sun. 

[GatorCruiser]

Just now, SweetPea said:

IKR. Symphony is doing Fri-Fri, until they do the one 9-night in August and then it reverts to 7-nights that are Sun-Sun. 

No kidding ? Interesting. That’d be an odd set of days compared To what I am used to. Hope the cruise was a fun as the pics !

[SweetPea]

11 minutes ago, GatorCruiser said:

No kidding ? Interesting. That’d be an odd set of days compared To what I am used to. Hope the cruise was a fun as the pics !

Wanna come? I'm thinking of trying Deck 17 this time. 

[asquared17]

SWEET LORD. 

[GatorCruiser]

The best we can do of late is grand suites and that’s becoming tough sledding even 

[OCSC Mike]

2 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Wanna come?

If you’re buying, I’ll fetch you as many martinis as you want (and I’ll bring Batman anything he wants except underwear).

[calvink669]

20 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Redeemed and none too soon. 

 

This doesn't appear to be all that dirty......just saying  

[SMOKEY0202]

Lord if that rate isn't crazy....

Might as well book NCL Joy instead whether Batman likes it or not...he might huff and puff NOW but once on the ship he will be singing a different tune with those cocktails and hopefully packed underwear

[SweetPea]

Forgive me.  My favorite cousin's wife is having a huge 40th birthday party tomorrow. It's a Trailer Trash murder mystery.  Batman and i are getting our outfits together and studying our parts. Since Batman has a beer belt that holds 6 cans (he insists it completes his costume), guess who gets to drive.

Ok anyway! Back to last night...

I think we left off with us going to iSkate. Batman preferred it to 1977, i think because of the soundtrack. The Sound of Silence remake by Disturbed is one of my Top 3 favorite remakes so we were off to a good start. But eventually we got to Dueling Banjos which seemed a little incongruent. Raise your hand if you heard that during this show, looked at your travel mate, and said "squeal like a pig, boy!" at the same time. Oh, just us? Ok then! Anyway! Good tunes, good ice dancing, good times.  The end.  Definitely recommend. 

Next up was Chops. 

Batman went with the .... shrimp cocktail. Adventurous that one. 

I did the bacon, which is the closest you'll get to pork belly on Royal IMHO.

I come here for the goat cheese salad. Batman skipped this course. 

For our entrees, Batman went with the chicken.  Obviously he grew weary of the pics and i had to sneak one when he wasn't looking ...

I opted for the lobster. I have no idea if i was charged or not as i never got a final folio statement.

 

The sides are obviously asparagus and tater tots. I didn't like the tots because it was like mashed potatoes in a crust. If you guessed that Batman didn't eat any asparagus, you'd be 100% correct. 

I wanted to drink my dessert. I assumed based on the description this would be more like an espresso martini, but we all know how that turned out.

We ordered a couple more drinks to take back to our balcony to enjoy. We were treated to lightning but it was impossible to time a pic so enjoy this best effort.

This was our final turndown gift.  They seem to line up the gifts with the port (like the aloe came on the night we had been at PDCC).

And then came what we call "the walk of shame." We opted for an 8am vacate of our cabin this morning and were waiting for our car service outside at 8:12. If you can get off the ship early, i def recommend early as it is one huge CLUSTER otherwise. Plus i was pondering why incoming cruisers arrive so early when people are trying to leave. Batman they're the crazies who opt to fly into our armpit the morning of their cruise. 

Also Batman actually took a pic of this because he wanted me to see what he looked at every time he used the restroom outside of Coastal Kitchen. Priorities ....

[Lovetocruise2002]

Thank you @SweetPea for another hilarious live blog and for keeping us entertained all week. I have loved checking in with your blog and @OCSC Mike's blog all week long!

[asquared17]

THAT LIGHTNING SHOT THOUGH

[OCSC Mike]

6 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Thank you @SweetPea for another hilarious live blog and for keeping us entertained all week. I have loved checking in with your blog and @OCSC Mike's blog all week long!

+1. I just wish they hadn’t overlapped. Keeping up with an entertaining blog while cruising & blogging yourself is rough.

[SweetPea]

5 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

+1. I just wish they hadn’t overlapped. Keeping up with an entertaining blog while cruising & blogging yourself is rough.

I'm behind on your blog!!! It is rough!

Next time, have your mom call my mom so we don't plan overlapping cruises next time. I still think we should have shared a single blog .... not that i didn't try

[ScottD]

Thank you for another fun and entertaining blog. Love following along with you and batman. I think you should open the blog and leave it up on the screen and see if he starts reading it like- HEY....this sounds JUST like our trip!! 

[SweetPea]

1 minute ago, ScottD said:

Thank you for another fun and entertaining blog. Love following along with you and batman. I think you should open the blog and leave it up on the screen and see if he starts reading it like- HEY....this sounds JUST like our trip!! 

I will admit ... at one point he asked if i were having an affair

I told him only on Royal cruises, never on Norwegian

[CravingaCruise]

So much fun reading and following along. It was hard as a spectator reading both blogs at the same time. Let alone cruising/blogging/reading. You and @OCSC Mike kept us quite entertained all week!  I’ve gotten to the point that I’ve just started reading them aloud because otherwise he sits across from me and says “Fomo” every time I laugh out loud!  Which was a lot this week!

Because of you both hubby and I are in process of booking another!  Thanks for the fun entertainment and another cruise!  Now I know how to get another cruise without a lot of persuasion!  You all will be seeing me a lot from now on!

[Sweety]

Thank you for the wonderful pictures of food and your entertainment of words.

[SMOKEY0202]

It would be interesting just one time if you would blog your NCL cruise for us to get some inside of their brand.  Way rates continue to skyrocket, if we all want to continue to sail high seas, one has to weigh all options or stay in dry dock way too long

YOLO book NCL Joy for August 

[SweetPea]

@SMOKEY0202, i may be able to book that cruise with enough liquid enforcement, but i can't imagine many would want to hear about it here on a Royal/Celebrity board  

Unless i do a fake and title it "Joy of the Seas" to clickbait everyone into thinking i have an inside scoop on Royal's new ship.

 

 

 

[Jax]

Dare I ask about the disembarkation process and luggage cutoff times. 

[SweetPea]

13 hours ago, Jax said:

Dare I ask about the disembarkation process and luggage cutoff times. 

Sure! They wanted us out of the suite by 8am, but that was our original plan anyway. Luggage had to be out by 11p the night before. We were packed by 5, so NDB for us, but i got the impression that if we were late, it'd not have been an issue. 

We were told that SC luggage would be waiting for us in the terminal by 7:15a. 

We met Shane at our elevators at 8am, and got our luggage immediately. Simple face recognition, and we were curbside with our luggage by 8:12.

Next time we will vacate by 7:30 as traffic picked up substantially. Our car service was supposed to arrive at 8:30 but got caught in traffic and it was more like 8:45. An 8:15 pick up would've been MUCH better!

Chatted with Shane about this.  I told him this was very nice but certainly not as nice when we first cruised SC in 2019 when a porter showed up at your door! I do believe that not only is CBP involved because they limit the amount of crew coming ashore (i believe this is the company official answer). However, a small slip leads me to believe this is also a housekeeping issue, with their smaller staff, more rooms to clean, etc. 

 

[SweetPea]

Just an update to say that i finally got a copy of my folio and i was NOT charged the upcharge for the lobster in Chops (i think it was $21). I'm not sure if this is a Star Class thing or UDP thing. I'm guessing Star Class. 

 

Now, going forward, would i order the lobster if it was not covered? No. I don't think so. 

[Jax]

40 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

Just an update to say that i finally got a copy of my folio and i was NOT charged the upcharge for the lobster in Chops (i think it was $21). I'm not sure if this is a Star Class thing or UDP thing. I'm guessing Star Class. 

 

Now, going forward, would i order the lobster if it was not covered? No. I don't think so. 

Yes upcharge for lobster is included for star class. Those with UDP pay the upcharge.