The night that we left Ilhabela we all had dinner at
Sabatinis. When I say all I mean us,
Barb and Craig and Debra and Danny who I met on line thru my Fan Page on
Facebook. The place is busier than most
nights – I would say there were about ten tables.
I had the calamari to start with, then the pasta and then
for my main entrée I had the shrimp dish and it all was very good. Bernie had the lobster three ways and said it
too was very good but did come across a large toothpick in the dish. I am sure it was to hold the tail in the
shell but they forgot to remove it.
I had the cheese selection for my dessert and was
disappointed that they didn’t bring the cart over for me to choose what I
wanted, and I missed not getting the date cake that I love.
Lots of things happening on these two days. The movies are popular (Gravity was popular –
Bernie saw it and his comment was it was not that great and wonder why the
women astronauts wore such short shorts and tank tops but they guys didn’t). Lots of trivia, gatherings, afternoon tea,
pub lunch, dance classes, pop choir, flash mob and so much more.
They delivered our mini bar the day before turn around and
it was exactly what we ordered.
We are still under red alert and I can say I am really tired
of it, but I can’t complain cause the crew must really be tired of it. They are working so very hard to take care of
removing this virus on the ship but the Captain every day comes on and says
that passengers still show up with the symptoms so they are staying under red
alert. Although I have not noticed as
many cabins getting their big sanitation as I wander around the decks. When we were first under the alert I noticed
quite a few sanitation crews sanitizing cabins, which I believe they do two
times a day.
Comments about the first leg and here is the Great, Good,
and Poor:
Great
The crew are amazing, working very very hard.
Bar staff are very friendly and helpful and are very happy
to just bring us water if we want.
Love the International Café and they are very busy, minus the
egg sandwich issue I had the other day.
The coffee servers are numerous and always around. I love that they have a queue line roped off
for us to get selfserve coffee too.
Entertainment Staff is very great too, love the morning
show. Sure have been numerous entertainment options and they have brought on many different acts too.
Love the Captain, he is quite funny, very informative, and
he can be seen around the ship quite often and passengers are able to approach
him.
Good
Cabin steward is quiet and very thorough and low key but
does a great job. He seems very
shy. But we love him and the job he is
doing. Linens were changed numerous
times, the shower curtain was changed throughout the trip too, always
replenishes wine/champagne glasses, always have ice and he cleans the balcony
glass often too.
Laundry service with our Elite service is good, or maybe
fair. Many items have been returned with
marks on them and we have had to wash by hand and the marks have come out. We are not surprised but feel I should warn
people cause they do a number on your clothes. But they still do a great job on 90% of the
items.
Food is good, not bad and not great. It seems to be hit and miss. We have given up trying to get breakfast in the
dining room or at least for a while.
Pancakes are never hot and eggs seems to be cold or warm and over
cooked.
Food seems salty for our taste
at least, but may be fine for others.
Often food is warm or even cold and since it takes so long to arrive I
don’t dare ask for a new plate. Room
service for breakfast has had issues every time with items missing often. Yesterday I ordered the egg sandwich with
ketchup ticked off on the card. When I
didn’t see it on the tray I asked and they said oh we brought you just
ketchup. He left and brought me one
right away and that one was hot and perfectly cooked.
Poor
Dinning service is still poor, to the point of bad. This has been going on since the beginning of
the voyage and the red alert hasn’t made it worse but really the same. Seems like the waiters are run off their feet
in some areas and dead with no tables in other areas. Those that are quiet are not directed to
assist those that are busy. Many waiters
have been moved from the dining room up to Horizon Court too making it even
harder in the dining room.
Of course the waiters/assistants have to serve everything
and this causes more issues too.
Dinner service takes at minimum two hours and that is when
we are dining at a table of four. Head
Waiters are in the dining room but I think we have seen a head waiter visit our
table maybe three times in the entire voyage.
They don’t seem to be directing the staff very well and certainly not
helping them when needed like we have seen on other voyages.
Final observation is that the first leg was great. We relaxed a lot, saw lots of places we have
not been to ever or have not been to in a long time.
We reconnected with friends and with past crew too.
We have enjoyed amazing meals with great wine and lots of
laughs.
We have really enjoyed three meals in the specialty
restaurants and can’t wait to go back.
The Princess Singers and Dancers are very good and loved
seeing “What a Swell Party” show for the first time.
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