LIVE NOW (ish) food report - Eating our way across land and sea ~ including QSDP ~ September 2019

[Loobylou_82]

Looks a lovely ship. I have been on a few RC ships but would love to go on one of the mega ships. I think Allure of the Seas is sailing from Southampton next summer for the season.

[orlandoamber]

Great to see the cruise pics! We went to Cozumel earlier this year and did a snorkelling trip over Columbia reef, Palancar reef and El Cielo. It was one of the best things we’ve ever done. Look forward to hearing how you found it!

[Guest]

Fantastic trip report - for our upcoming trip, we’ve booked DXDDP but seeing your report for the QS plan would make me think twice next time as you looked like you had some incredible meals that weren’t just your standard burger and chips.

[4holibobs]

Originally Posted by Loobylou_82

Looks a lovely ship. I have been on a few RC ships but would love to go on one of the mega ships. I think Allure of the Seas is sailing from Southampton next summer for the season.

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We have now done Oasis, Allure and Harmony and this ship is by far the best out of the three. It’s like they have learnt from the Oasis and Allure and made the necessary changes on Harmony. I think the Allure may be going into dry dock before going from Southampton next year as they are advertising on our tv at the moment and there are some changes being made to it. We thought we loved the freedom class ships, but after sailing to mega ships we love them even more!

Originally Posted by orlandoamber

Great to see the cruise pics! We went to Cozumel earlier this year and did a snorkelling trip over Columbia reef, Palancar reef and El Cielo. It was one of the best things we’ve ever done. Look forward to hearing how you found it!

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We weren’t actually told the names of the reefs (or if we were I didn’t catch that announcement), but we had a great time! The sea was much clearer than in Costa Maya and I overheard someone who had snorkelled Australia say this was a very close second!

Originally Posted by xuntitledx

Fantastic trip report - for our upcoming trip, we’ve booked DXDDP but seeing your report for the QS plan would make me think twice next time as you looked like you had some incredible meals that weren’t just your standard burger and chips.

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Thanks so much, that’s a real compliment. We wanted to try and ensure we had as much variety of food as possible, it did mean we weren’t in the parks from dusk until dawn as some of the great options were at Springs, but this suited our plans. Have a great trip!

[4holibobs]

Cruise Day 4 - Costa Maya

Breakfast - Main Dining Room

Our alarms were set for 7.45am. We were told Mexico is a hour behind but we are the stay on ship time today docking in Costa Maya at 10am and all aboard is 6.30pm.

The was an alpha, alpha, alpha call at 6.15am this morning announcing on the starboard side, I think that might be a medical emergency.. it didn’t come on the tannoy in the room but we could hear it in the corridor.

Anyway, we chose a la carte again in the main dining room for breakfast.

We chose the same as the other day - more or less a Full English breakfast for DH and an omelette with mushroom and onion for me although this time I asked for two omelettes.

They were a little slower this morning bringing the food out, but it didn’t matter we had plenty of time and I went up to the buffet and picked up some fruit for myself and some yoghurt and musili for DH.

Drinks - on board the Catamaran

Massive fail as I didn’t take a photo of our beer and Diet Coke with the Caribbean Sea, palm trees and beach in the back ground, so you’ll just have to imagine what that looks like! It was as idyllic as it sounds.

We paid $71pp for the trip and after we had come back from snorkelling the bar opened and they offered bottles of water, cans of beer, Coke, Diet Coke, Fanta and sprite.

DH had two beers and I had one can of Diet Coke.

We had a good 50 minutes snorkelling on the water and we saw a baby stingray, star fish and other fish. It was a great trip, although the water wasn’t particularly clear and we have seen more fish on other trips.

Lunch - Windjammer

We got back on the ship around 2.50pm just enough time to head to the Windjammer before it closed at 3pm.

I would have loved to have some Mexican food on the pier but when we looked at a couple of menus it was around $30-$40pp for a main meal without drinks which we thought was pretty steep so decided to eat on the ship. The port area had lots going on with shops, a pool, bars and even a little area with some flamingos.

I didn’t take photos of the buffet today as they were preparing to pack things up, but DH had sweet and sour pork, Malaysian beef and stir fry veg. I had two half pittas, two pieces of chicken, some rice, red pepper, two potato wedges and some mayo. I made up some pittas which were nice.

For dessert I picked myself a strawberry mousse which was very sweet, some strawberry ice cream and some topping from a pear crumble. DH had pear crumble with one scoop of chocolate ice cream and one scoop of vanilla.

The crumble wasn’t very good at all. It was hard and didn’t taste sweet. I enjoyed the ice cream but not the mousse as it was too sweet.

They have servers going around asking if you wanted any drinks so we had two strawberry kiwi juices.

Drinks - Schooner Bar

We headed down to the Schooner bar again for our usual pre-drinks before dinner.

I didn’t fancy any alcohol tonight so DH had a Blue moon and I had a virgin strawberry daiquiri. It came to $9 tonight which is more than other nights... ? DH went to the bar and didn’t query it!

Dinner - Main Dining Room

We were given a table in a different area tonight. The waiter wasn’t great, he didn’t introduce himself or give any recommendations about the menu, he didn’t even tell us what the fish of the day was.

DH ordered coconut shrimp, battered cod, pavlova.

He enjoyed the coconut shrimp, however, he was really disappointed with the battered cod. He said the batter was quite soggy, not his favourite at all. The pavlova was a meringue nest with some cream and a couple of pieces of fruit. The menu said it came with coulis but it actually came with honey which was really strong.

I had Lentil soup to start- this was probably my favourite starter of the whole week, it was lovely and really tasty. For my main meal I had vegetable korma - the poppadom was lovely and warm and crisp, unfortunately that was the best part, there wasn’t enough sauce with the curry and the naan was quite dry. The pavlova was ok - I could have made something just as nice at home.

The head waiter came over to chat to us and asked how we liked our meal, we said it was our least favourite of the week so far and mentioned that the batter to the cod was soggy and I hadn’t enjoyed the curry as much as the night before in the Windjammer. He apologised and left.

We headed up to the Boardwalk after picking up my aqua spirit jersey to watch the aqua show. I needn’t have needed my spirit jersey, the weather was lovely and warm. The show was good, they didn’t a mixture of dives, water stunts and tight rope walking. It must be very daunting to look down and dive into such a small pool but they are experts and are very good at their job.

Drinks - Boleros

Once the aqua show had finished we headed to Boleros where they had a live band playing some reggae and songs by bands like UB40.

We both had a frozen Virgin mojito. The colour matched my spirit jersey!

They were nice and less frozen than yesterday. We spent half an hour or so there before retiring to bed.

[OB1LukeLucas]

Wow the cruise ship looks amazing, we did a Mediterranean Cruise for our honeymoon many many years ago and our ship was a dinghy in comparison to your ship! I would love to take the girls on a Cruise but I don’t know where to start, it seems such a minefield now

[collybird]

The food on the ship looks really nice, I didn't rate the food on DCL, I felt like it was like school dinners haha. I'm still in shock over the drinks package prices, you are so right that you'd have to drink A LOT for them to be worth it.

[4holibobs]

Originally Posted by OB1LukeLucas

Wow the cruise ship looks amazing, we did a Mediterranean Cruise for our honeymoon many many years ago and our ship was a dinghy in comparison to your ship! I would love to take the girls on a Cruise but I don’t know where to start, it seems such a minefield now

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I have never been on a Disney cruise which usually gets good reviews (although see Collybird’s note below re the food), but I have been on Royal Caribbean, P&O, Princess, MSC and Celebrity and out of all of those we go back to Royal Caribbean time and time again. We just find that they offer the best variety of everything - staterooms, price, food and entertainment as well as having good ports of call. I would suggest though at least sailing on a Freedom class ship, if not a mega ship. My
Mother in law saw the photos of our cruise and subsequently booked a Thomson cruise expecting the same sort of facilities.. she was wholly disappointed and it has put her off cruising... definitely do research! If you have any questions I’d be happy to try and help you, just DM me

Originally Posted by collybird

The food on the ship looks really nice, I didn't rate the food on DCL, I felt like it was like school dinners haha. I'm still in shock over the drinks package prices, you are so right that you'd have to drink A LOT for them to be worth it.

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Yes overall the food has been great, and most importantly, mostly, piping hot which we did find an issue on our Oasis cruise in 2017. The package is expensive, but the other night we had two mojitos in the nightclub and they came to $30.. ouch! They weren’t even that great... it still wouldn’t be good value for us to have the package though. Not long for you now!

[4holibobs]

Cruise Day 5 - Cozumel

Breakfast - Windjammer

Our trip meeting time wasn’t until 12.45pm today and we were in port until 7.30pm so it gave us chance to sleep in and not rush around this morning.

We headed to Windjammer for breakfast and just made it in time before closing at 11am.

There really are lots of options available, something for everyone really.

I had a veg omelette, 3 chicken sausages, some breakfast ham and some potatoes.

DH made himself an English breakfast (except with American bacon and ham) and was thrilled when I found some HP sauce by the condiments. It said it was the best breakfast he had had in a while.

Drinks - Cafe Promenade

We got ready and headed down to Cafe Promenade for a drink before heading off the ship. This really was just to get out of the cabin half an hour early to allow our steward in to clean it.

Drinks - on board the snorkel boat

We had a great time on the three reef snorkel trip. The water was much clearer than it was on yesterday’s trip and therefore we saw more fish. I’ll try and put in a couple of photos of photos took on our underwater camera although I’m not sure how clear they will be. The trip was $54pp and we were given a bottle of water each and after we had snorkelled the second reef we were given some juice which tasted like black currents, it was nice.

Dinner - Senior Frogs in Cozumel

I’d overheard someone saying last night that they had eaten the best guacamole ever at Senior Frogs in Cozumel and after fancying some Mexican food yesterday and not having any, we got back to the ship after the trip, got changed and picked up some more cash and headed back down to the port to Senior Frogs.

It was pretty busy in there and a lot of people I think just go for a good time and to basically get drunk. Lots of people were wearing hats made of balloons and two ladies kept coming around with shots - 2 for $5 and she didn’t take no for an answer from some people.

We asked for a table on the outer edge and were firm when they came around with the shots saying no so they didn’t come back to our table... we must have come across really miserable! DH ordered a beer and I asked about Daiquiris. He told me yes, strawberry, mango, banana were available. I asked for the smallest size strawberry possible.

These are the drinks that came out...

Let’s just say that after I had drank the daiquiri that came I was a little worse for wear. I think it must have been half filled with rum. DH tried it (as the drinker out of us two) and couldn’t drink it!

Luckily our food (guacamole and chips, chicken quesadillas and chicken burrito) came out quite quickly so I could try and soak it up a little!

The food wasn’t great, it was ok - it wasn’t the best guacamole, quesadilla or burrito I’ve ever eaten (in fact DH said the nachos at the Polynesian were better!), but we had a nice time sitting in the port area overlooking the ship and listening to some music.

The prices were all in Mexican pesos with the exchange rate at 18 - 1USD.

When the bill came we left $75 having been warned by an American woman on her way out that they were very pushy for tips... I think as we didn’t have any ‘extras’ - I didn’t need a blow up balloon hat in my life - we were fine.

Feeling a little worse for wear I had a sleep when I got back to the room and by the time we got ready and left the cabin it was 9.15pm and we had missed dinner in both the main dining room and the buffet!

Drinks - Boleros

There was a 90’s dance party on the Promenade when we got down there which was right up my street being an 80’s baby!

It was great fun and we stopped and joined in the dancing and singing for half an hour before heading to Boleros to pick up a strawberry daiquiri (seems I hadn’t learnt my lesson!) and a mojito which came to $28.31.

We took our drinks into the theatre as at 10.30pm there was a love and marriage game show. They had a couple who had been married for 6 days, 26 years and 50 years. It was great fun and we always try and catch the show.

We came out of the theatre at 11.45pm and had seen they had a silent disco on in the night club which we wanted to try.

Drinks - The attic comedy and night club

We were given a set of headphones each and there were two DJ’s, you could switch between the DJ’s and change the volume of the headsets.

They didn’t sell frozen drinks in the attic so we ordered two mojitos which came to an eye watering $30.68! This is where the Ultimate drinks package would come in handy, but we can’t justify the cost based on maybe fancying a cocktail or two a night.

We had a great time dancing and was something we have heard about but hadn’t tried before.

Snack - Sorrentos

We came out around 1am and fancied something to eat, there were two options, Cafe Promenade or Sorrentos.

We checked both out, and in the end went for a slice of pizza from Sorrentos.

This was the choice at Cafe Promenade-

And Sorrentos-

had a piece with chicken and veg on it and not much cheese (the first photo above), it was really good. They had lots of pizzas in the oven and kept piling loads of pepperoni out especially. They had 4 choices - veg, cheese, pepperoni and the chicken one I had.

It hit the spot and we went to bed happy.

[4holibobs]

Day 6 - at sea

Breakfast - Windjammer

We went to the Windjammer again for breakfast and I had the same as the other day, vegetable omelette, potatos, chicken sausages but this this I also had some corn beef hash. It wasn’t overly hot today, but it was nice enough. I also had some fruit and two small pieces of the fruit bread which I love but haven’t had this cruise.

DH also had the same as the other day, as close to an English breakfast as possible.

We hit the $10 sale, buy 4 items get 1 free and picked up a couple of bags and watches.

Then we went back to our cabin to play jenga with our bags. We have succeeded and have around 15kg of weight with some clothes, shoes and toiletries left to pack we will easily be in our limits.

Lunch - Windjammer

We headed to the buffet at 1.30pm for lunch.

I fancied something spicy but the closest thing available was beef goulash. I had that with 4 potato wedges, some rice and peppers. The beef was really tender, and the potatoes were spiced with paprika.

DH had some fish and pasta.

For dessert I had a mini trifle and some strawberry ice cream and I surprised DH with an eclair and some coffee ice cream. The eclair had a crem patt filling which DH enjoyed.

Drinks - juice bar and boot and bonnet

I went up to the gym to weigh myself and ive managed to lose 1lbs which considering what I’ve been eating and drinking I’m pleased about. Whilst I was in the gym DH picked up a flu fighter from the juice bar outside the gym - this was included in our drinks package.

We then headed down and sat outside the pub the boot and bonnet and I had a Diet Coke whilst we watched the world go by.

Dinner - Main Dining Room

We were once again sat in a different area tonight and there was quite a queue to check in even though we had a reservation.

My guess is that it was busier tonight though as I couldn’t get a 7.30pm reservation only 7.45pm.

The wait staff seemed more attentive tonight, and took more time to explain things to us.

DH ordered the Onion tart, the New York strip with lobster tail (which was a separate choice on the menu but no issue ordering it) and molten chocolate cake.

He enjoyed the tart and said it tasted like quiche. When his main came the waiter didn’t offer to dissect his lobster tail, so he fiddled about with it himself. He enjoyed it, and said the steak was especially nice. He also enjoyed the chocolate cake, but said it was very rich.

I ordered the French onion soup again, the chicken breast again with a baked potato and carrots, and the sugar free pineapple upside down cake.

The French Onion soup tonight was HOT! I burnt my mouth on it a little and it took me ages to eat it. Once again I took the cheese from the top as I didn’t want to eat too much. It was nice soup.

The chicken breast was quite thin and therefore a little dry. I had some sour cream with my baked potato tonight and it was lovely. There were plenty of carrots being the only veg I wanted tonight, they were quite al dante but I do like them like that.

The pineapple upside down cake was probably the best dessert of the week for me. It was light and sweet and I was amazed how it could he sugar free. It was really good.

When we got to the table tonight there was a sign saying to celebrate Royal Caribbean’s 50th Birthday we would all be given a 50th birthday cake.

It came out in an individual size with a chocolate coin and lollipop and some edible confetti around the edge. It was a lovely looking cake, but we were too full to eat it so asked for a cover for it and took it back to the room with us.

Drinks - Dazzles

We headed to dazzles after dropping the cake off and getting changed (it had been formal night and I wanted to get out of my heels).

Dazzles is a two tiered bar with live singing. We found a spot on the top layer. No waiters came around for around 5 minutes so DH went to pick us up a drink.

He got me a Virgin strawberry daiquiri and got himself a Virgin frozen mojito.

We enjoyed sitting somewhere different and the live music was great. We flicked through some of our holiday photos reminiscing about the trip until around 10pm when we made our way down to the ice rink in Studio B.

Tonight the game show Quest was on. It’s 18+ and an adult scavenger hunt. The room is split into teams and you have two captains. It gets more raucous as the game goes on. We got there just after 10pm and didn’t realise there was a battle of the sexes first at 10.15pm. This was great as it warmed the crowd up ready for quest. If you ever sail on Royal Caribbean I would urge you to watch Quest, it’s great fun!

We didn’t have any more food or drinks, so there’s nothing else to report from today (yesterday).

I she written up our last day (today) and will post it tomorrow.

We dock back in Port Canaveral tomorrow morning and pick up a hire car for the day dropping it back off at Orlando International. We fly out of MCO at 5pm landing into Manchester at 6.05am on Monday morning.

It feels like we have been away for ages but now we are getting ready to go home I just want to do it all again!

Thanks to everyone who has followed along and everyone who has commented, it’s made doing the report worthwhile.

I’ll update hopefully tomorrow and then later on Monday to wrap up the report.

Thanks for reading