starvenger
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2015
Day 7 - At Sea
I think that for a lot of us, the last day is “do everything we wanted to do, but didn’t” day, because we realize that there’s just one full day left on the ship. And yet you still want to relax. It’s hard to do with only 2 days at sea.
(spoiler alert: we didn't come close to doing everything we wanted to do, but didn't)
We ate breakfast, once again, in the MDR. I think it just worked best for us to eat here. After breakfast, the kids went up to Adventure Ocean, and we took a stroll around the ship. Promenade had a sale going on, and it looked like a feeding frenzy. I’m still not sure what exactly was being sold, but as Geddy Lee once said, “10 bucks is 10 bucks”. I will say that if anyone ever told you that they didn’t like the Promenade because it was almost impossible to walk through, this would be their Exhibit A.
After walking around decks 15 and 16, we found a shaded, breezy spot near the pool band and relaxed for a bit.
I haven’t mentioned the band but they’d been playing on the pool deck all week. They do reggae-style music and are pretty good. The singer sounds similar to Maxi Priest - not a bad thing. I also liked that they’re a proper band. Cruise lines seem to be trending towards solo singers or duos + iPad, and while it’s cost-friendly and makes sense for the small bars and pubs, it’s just not the same as hearing a full backing band.
For lunch, we got to have our Central Park Balcony “free” lunch at Giovanni’s. In quotes because it’s free for only two people per stateroom. We had the kids eat with us, and it cost $10 for kids aged 6 and up. Good thing I won that $40, I guess. I think the kids were supposed to order from the kids menu, but our waiter (a wonderful young lady from the Ukraine) wasn’t exactly enforcing that.
As you can see from the menu, the “free” lunch is a prix fixe affair, which sucks if there’s only two of you and want to try different things. And yet, they gave us some of the listed meat planks to start, which didn’t count as part of the prix fixe.
O ordered from the kids menu. She got a cheese bread as an appetizer. It was a rather large appy for a kid.
I got the salad and Bucatini. The salad was a salad. The Bolognese was probably better than what they have in the MDR. It could be the exact same sauce, but I suspect that Giovanni’s makes theirs separately, and that it isn’t sitting in a giant vat in the kitchen (it’s probably a medium-sized vat). Or it could be that the bucatini (aka spaghetti with a hole in the middle) just absorbs the sauce better. Either way, I’d no reason to complain.
The linguine had mussels, shrimp, and some teeny, tiny bay scallops that practically got lost in the white sauce. Eggplant was not bad - a large portion that was fried very nicely.
Originally, we were going to try and make Ice Games, but no one was really feeling it, so that got missed. We also had Blue Planet for the afternoon, but the kids wanted to play in the pool instead. I honestly have the worst luck trying to see Blue Planet. The first time on Allure, we got to see it from the very side of the theatre, so it wasn’t the best of views. I’ve been hoping to see it again, but alas, it’s not to be.
Once again I’ve failed you readers and do not have a photo of the day 7 menu. I know I had a vol au vent and prime rib, but don’t remember what else was on the menu. After dinner we chatted a bit with our waiters and gave them an extra gratuity. I think they worked hard to earn it.
And then, it was packing time. Interestingly, we weren’t given a sheet to fill out regarding our departure times, etc. I suppose that they stuck with whatever we’d filled out during the check-in process. We originally had group #25, but I switched with J (who was staying an extra day and driving to Miami to watch a Jays game) so ended up with 60. We figured that we had a 1:45pm flight, so why rush to get off?
(note: foreshadowing)
Anyway, I got my rum back (yay!), immediately packed it away (boo!) and we stuck our bags outside (sniff!). After the kids went to sleep we went down to have one last slice at Sorrentos (seriously, why was the Sorrentos on Harmony so much worse?) and went up to the card room to play another card game - Exploding Kittens. After that, it was time to get that one last sleep before leaving the ship.
Next: Debarkation day
I think that for a lot of us, the last day is “do everything we wanted to do, but didn’t” day, because we realize that there’s just one full day left on the ship. And yet you still want to relax. It’s hard to do with only 2 days at sea.
(spoiler alert: we didn't come close to doing everything we wanted to do, but didn't)
We ate breakfast, once again, in the MDR. I think it just worked best for us to eat here. After breakfast, the kids went up to Adventure Ocean, and we took a stroll around the ship. Promenade had a sale going on, and it looked like a feeding frenzy. I’m still not sure what exactly was being sold, but as Geddy Lee once said, “10 bucks is 10 bucks”. I will say that if anyone ever told you that they didn’t like the Promenade because it was almost impossible to walk through, this would be their Exhibit A.
After walking around decks 15 and 16, we found a shaded, breezy spot near the pool band and relaxed for a bit.
I haven’t mentioned the band but they’d been playing on the pool deck all week. They do reggae-style music and are pretty good. The singer sounds similar to Maxi Priest - not a bad thing. I also liked that they’re a proper band. Cruise lines seem to be trending towards solo singers or duos + iPad, and while it’s cost-friendly and makes sense for the small bars and pubs, it’s just not the same as hearing a full backing band.
For lunch, we got to have our Central Park Balcony “free” lunch at Giovanni’s. In quotes because it’s free for only two people per stateroom. We had the kids eat with us, and it cost $10 for kids aged 6 and up. Good thing I won that $40, I guess. I think the kids were supposed to order from the kids menu, but our waiter (a wonderful young lady from the Ukraine) wasn’t exactly enforcing that.
As you can see from the menu, the “free” lunch is a prix fixe affair, which sucks if there’s only two of you and want to try different things. And yet, they gave us some of the listed meat planks to start, which didn’t count as part of the prix fixe.
O ordered from the kids menu. She got a cheese bread as an appetizer. It was a rather large appy for a kid.
I got the salad and Bucatini. The salad was a salad. The Bolognese was probably better than what they have in the MDR. It could be the exact same sauce, but I suspect that Giovanni’s makes theirs separately, and that it isn’t sitting in a giant vat in the kitchen (it’s probably a medium-sized vat). Or it could be that the bucatini (aka spaghetti with a hole in the middle) just absorbs the sauce better. Either way, I’d no reason to complain.
The linguine had mussels, shrimp, and some teeny, tiny bay scallops that practically got lost in the white sauce. Eggplant was not bad - a large portion that was fried very nicely.
Originally, we were going to try and make Ice Games, but no one was really feeling it, so that got missed. We also had Blue Planet for the afternoon, but the kids wanted to play in the pool instead. I honestly have the worst luck trying to see Blue Planet. The first time on Allure, we got to see it from the very side of the theatre, so it wasn’t the best of views. I’ve been hoping to see it again, but alas, it’s not to be.
Once again I’ve failed you readers and do not have a photo of the day 7 menu. I know I had a vol au vent and prime rib, but don’t remember what else was on the menu. After dinner we chatted a bit with our waiters and gave them an extra gratuity. I think they worked hard to earn it.
And then, it was packing time. Interestingly, we weren’t given a sheet to fill out regarding our departure times, etc. I suppose that they stuck with whatever we’d filled out during the check-in process. We originally had group #25, but I switched with J (who was staying an extra day and driving to Miami to watch a Jays game) so ended up with 60. We figured that we had a 1:45pm flight, so why rush to get off?
(note: foreshadowing)
Anyway, I got my rum back (yay!), immediately packed it away (boo!) and we stuck our bags outside (sniff!). After the kids went to sleep we went down to have one last slice at Sorrentos (seriously, why was the Sorrentos on Harmony so much worse?) and went up to the card room to play another card game - Exploding Kittens. After that, it was time to get that one last sleep before leaving the ship.
Next: Debarkation day