Summer 2017...Disney, Universal, Carnival Liberty, and Disney!!!

Oasis Coolers

We then walked a few feet and stopped at what is listed on the receipt as Oasis Coolers.

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It was a bit more crowded in this area. The only table we could find was right in front of a family changing a large child on a table top...RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER FROM THE BATHROOM!!!! Skyler just about flipped!

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We decided on sharing a Beef Kabob Combo with cheddar sun chips.

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This was REALLY good...we should have gotten two! Skye snagged the Sun Chips and Cary and I shared most of the kabob...Tyler had a taste...he liked it too but i think he ate most of the chicken before.

This I would definitely order again!

Out total here was $13.31.


DDDP Credits used so far = 60 + 4 mug credits + 30 snack credits
DDDP value so far = $3037.04
Out of Pocket TOTAL so far= $910.15
TOTAL Cash Value so far = $3947.19
 
Starbucks

So we headed to Starbucks as it was really just about the only table service kind of place open for breakfast.

Cary ordered an Iced Caramel Macchiato...

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Skyler and I had the same kind of drinks. Hers was Mango something and mine was berry something...I forget what they were exactly and the receipt is of no help!

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Tyler had water from the room...he's not a Starbucks kinda guy. We were all pleased with our drinks.

Looking at the pictures and the receipt I am really confused...I think Tyler ordered an english muffin with just egg...

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Which he enjoyed but to me seems awfully dry. I think Cary actually ordered a regular sandwich but got the same thing Tyler ordered so went back to complain and was told to keep it but got his correct sandwich. Skyler ate the wrong one. I had a Crumb Cake...

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All of this took quite a while because it was really crowded in there. More of our traveling party arrived at Starbucks while we were there.

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This "meal" was what it needed to be but to tell you the truth, I can live without Starbucks and don't see the draw...

We paid $39.34 for a mediocre breakfast that we had to wait a while to get and then it was incorrect. We'd be back if we needed to but I would not plan to stop here again.


DDDP Credits used so far = 60 + 4 mug credits + 30 snack credits
DDDP value so far = $3037.04
Out of Pocket TOTAL so far= $949.49
TOTAL Cash Value so far = $4986.53
 
Cruising Day 1 Lunch Buffet

But we couldn't go to our room yet. It was still early. But food was out! So we had to find that deck. And we eventually did but it was chaos there. We found a small table to gather around and we took turns going to the buffet. It was huge but it repeated a lot of the same things. Only the buffet was open at this time, not the smaller windows. Cary and Tyler got the Bottomless Bubbles package so they could get pop. Skye and I were good with the free iced tea and lemonade and water. We were kinda shocked that the cups were small kid sized cups though. We each got some food.

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This much have been mine...salad bar , i have no idea what is next to it, fruit, cold pasta in red sauce, salami, a cake pop, and some other desserts.

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Same plates but showing the drink cup for the included drinks.

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This was Skye's plate...salad, cold pasta with red sauce (which she did not like), potatoes, and cheese.

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A close up of the desserts.

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I think this was Cary's...fruit, jello, don't know what is surrounded by jello, a chicken thing, potatoes, and carved beef.

All in all, not a great start. I remember my only other cruise having food that was out of this world. At this point I was really hoping this was just what they offered today...while in port...and it'd get better as we cruised. Unfortunately, the same food was offered for the buffet for the whole cruise. I'm gonna tell you right now, we were extremely disappointed and I am convinced we were on the K-Mart Blue Light Special of cruises. And if not, then cruises have changed a whole lot since my one and only other one and are definitely not for me!

 
Dinner Night 1

Our dining room (early seating) was at the back of the ship.

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Our table was right by the window and we were sharing with Kyra's group (who we were not quite getting along with at that point).

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Each table was set with a complimentary bottle of wine.

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And bread and butter...two different kinds of bread and everyone loved one of them and the other (the grainy one) only a few of us would eat.

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The menu had about four appetizers, four entrees plus to up-sell items, and four desserts to choose from that didn't change very much each night...a little bit not much.

For appetizers I had the springrolls...

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These were good but I don't do peanut sauce...

Skye ordered the caesar salad...

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It was small but she enjoyed it.

Cary ordered the Shrimp Cocktail...

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Which was three average to small sized shrimp...they tasted good but there was not much there.

Tyler ordered the calamari...

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Which was about five rings...he was gradually feeling worse and worse. Before entrees were served he ended up going back to the room and we had his boxed up to go. We figured it was a combination of motion sickness and heat since he was on the upper deck playing basketball sweating his butt off for hours. The waiter said the gift shop would have motion sickness meds to purchase.

For entrees Skyler had the chicken with potatoes and broccoli.

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It was fine. Bland. Boring. It was just as it is pictures...three broccoli florets, three pieces of potato and a piece of chicken breast. It was food and for her bland is ok...but it was really not the food I expected to be eating on a cruise!

I ordered the Salmon.

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Yep, three chunks of potatoes, two broccoil florets, and three pieces of carrots. Yep. That's it. The salmon was a little better seasoned but I think Salmon has more flavor to begin with than chicken breast.

Cary and Tyler had ordered the Steak with a baked potato and three pieces of broccoli.

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This actually came with a sauce which they both had on the side. They enjoyed this enough but it was still lacking in flavor. At least they had the sauce to dip in. The waiter came around with the fixins for the baked potato (sour cream, cheese, bacon bits) so that was something. Tyler's never got eaten.

This is the view from our table...

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For dessert Cary and Tyler got the chocolate cake thing with vanilla ice cream...

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This was pretty good.

I had some sort of strawberry cheesecake thingy...

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Again, it was good.

Skye just had vanilla ice cream because nothing else appealed to her.

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It was ice cream. All in all, dessert, although small, was probably the best course. We were very disappointed with the choices and the actual presentation and the taste...boring would be the best description.
 


Breakfast Buffet Morning #1

And then headed for breakfast.

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Skye got two hard boiled eggs, hashbrown coins, a pancake, two sausages, and scrambled eggs. I had lucky charms with milk, chocolate milk, a banana, sausage, ham, hashbrown coins, french toast, scrambled eggs, and an eggs benedict.

Then we went for seconds.

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Which added a bowl of fruit, a banana for Skye, ham, Belgium waffles, and a bagel with chream cheese and maybe a piece of cold cut ham???

Breakfast was the best meal of the day from the buffet I think...but it is hard to ruin breakfast.

Cary and Tyler made it upstairs and ate too but I know Tyler took it easy this morning. He was feeling better with the Meclizine in his system but didn't want to push it.

 
Dinner #2

So we hung out in the sun all day relaxing and eating until it was time to get ready for dinner.

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This was the entrance to our dining room. There was a Gold (I think) dining room but I don't know if that was for the later seating or if there were different packages you could have purchased to get better options or not. We didn't have any choice in these kinds of things (if there was any) since we were a group.

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Dinner time coincided with leaving port.

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I do have to say, we had a great table placement for dining since we were right by the windows.

I guess each night at dinner there was a theme...it was not overly displayed or stressed though and it was certainly not represented in the food.

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The same bread and butter...

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For appetizers Skye had the Caesar Salad again...

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...which was the same as yesterday.

I had the scallops...

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Which was mightily disappointing...with three very small scallops and not even an ice cream scoop of grits. It tasted good but was such a tease.

Tyler and Cary ordered the Shrimp Cocktail...

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...which was the same as yesterday.

For entrees Cary ordered the ribs...

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...served with a cornbread muffin and a small bowl of baked beans. He enjoyed these but again, he was happy he would be able to hit a buffet or a hamburger window in the near future.

I had the prime rib...

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...with two onion rings and a baked potato. Again, the waiter came around with the fixins for the potato. It was good but too done for prime rib.


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Tyler has the same steak that he ordered (but didn't eat) the night before. It was exactly the same.

Skyler had the salmon I had the night before. It was exactly the same.


For desserts Cary and I had creme brulee...

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It was a bit watery but had an ok flavor.

Skye and Ty ordered the chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream again...

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Which was the same as the day before.

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All in all, we were disappointed in the food but we didn't have a lot of choice at this point (literally).

 
Dinner #3


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Skye had her same Caesar salad again...

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It as the same.

Tyler had a sausage flatbread...

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It was little but after he took all the greens off of it he said it was good.

I had the Shrimp Cocktail (the first time for me but not the first time for our family)...

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It was the same.

Cary had the meatballs...

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Which he really liked and could have done with a few more for his meal.

Skyler ordered the salmon again...

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And it was the same as before.

Tyler had the spaghetti...

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Which was plain but for him, that was ok.

I ordered the fish...I don't remember what it was though.

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I don't know what the veggies were but it looks like zucchini and squash and onions maybe??? I cannot tell what's inthe little bowl nor does anything make sense to be in that sized bowl but it looks like maybe rice??? The fish was ok..nothing fancy, just kinda safe.

Cary had the steak again.

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And it was the same.

Skye had sorbet for dessert.

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I don't remember what they were though...but it's hard to not like sorbet.

I had some kind of strawberry cake...I can't remember what it was exactly...I believe it got eaten and I was happy to have a different choice.

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And the guys got the chocolate cake and ice cream again...

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ANd it was all they had grown to expect it to be...LOL
 


Wow the meals on the cruise look depressing. I've never cruised before but have one booked for November. It's not a Celebrity cruise so I'm hoping for better choices than what you were given. That's very disappointing but i hope the rest of the cruise made up for it.
 
Sorry...I do have to finish this but life, again, gets in the way...

Yesterday was Skyler's last day of 8th grade and she graduated Monday afternoon! She is so excited for high school. She made the JV Cheer Squad for freshman year so GymTyme starts Wednesday for an hour throughout the summer and she gets to tumble with the Varsity team because she is this close to throwing a back tuck! Which is what she needed to make Varsity. Cheer practice is Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the summer too. She also has AP and Honors class boot camps various weeks throughout the summer.

But back to the reasons I have been away so long...

COMPETITION mostly. So Skyler competed two solos this year. On the Recreational Circuit, she performed one at each of four competitions except once when she did both. She was always placing first in category but hadn't hit the overall high point she was used to...until STATE! Where her Jazz solo was the OVERALL HIGH POINT winner!!! She had a love-hate relationship with that dance...she loved it because it was cool and difficult and sassy but she hated it because it was probably her most difficult dance to date.

Then the "real" competitions started. You know, the ones that the actual dance schools go to...ya, those! First up as Rainbow...both her solos tied each other for Double Platinum but at this competition only one solo will place in Overalls so her Lyrical (to Turning Page from Breaking Dawn 2) took 5th OVERALL. Her Jazz solo was then chosen to receive an invite to an invite only Convention trip to New York in the summer!!!! Oh she was so excited!!!! New York is her presumed "happy place"...although she has never been there! But it was a huge honor.

At Showstoppers her Lyrical and Jazz both took Platinum. Jazz was first in category and Lyrical was second in category. Not too bad for a little park district trained dancer!

Dancefest at Great America is tomorrow, Graduation is Monday, Cheer starts Wednesday, they do a little kid dance school's recital Thursday, AP Human Geography boot camp is in a couple of weeks, and then in July is Starbound...and she can only do the preliminary competition because Nationals is at the same time as Cheer camp in Wisconsin for three days.

And as of Monday I am a WORK AT HOME employee so less driving and more time to do other things...like finishing this dining report!
 
Congratulations to Skyler on her accomplishments, that’s so exciting!!!!!
Congrats to you for being able to work from home! I wish I could do the same, my commute is awful! LOL
 
Loving the report so far, especially the Disney portion. I have to say that I have been on many Carnival cruises and you unfortunately made had all the wrong food choices. :duck::laughing: :crazy2: They really do have some great food, but not what you chose. I agree that it looked depressing!
 
Loving the report so far, especially the Disney portion. I have to say that I have been on many Carnival cruises and you unfortunately made had all the wrong food choices. :duck::laughing: :crazy2: They really do have some great food, but not what you chose. I agree that it looked depressing!

Over the course of each meal we had just about all of the menu choices...some of them multiple times. Sure, there were items that cost an additional fee but I already paid to be on the cruise, I wasn't up to paying more! But it wasn't even just that the items were bad tasting (some were better than others but none were inedible) but the choices were few and only one or two items changed every night and they were really tiny portions. They were not presented in a fun way...just plop the food on a plate nd serve.

Maybe I'm spoiled by signature dining at Disney. Maybe a lot has changed since the last cruise I took 20 years ago. But this cruise was sad as far as food goes. And it does make me hesitant (among other things) to cruise again.

I don't know what else we could have ordered that would have been better.
 
And it's officially 1 year from the start of this trip...this time a year ago we were on Carousel of Progress anticipating our first lunch at Skipper Canteen...wish we were there now...or at least had a trip on the near horizon...better get this TR and DR finished soon though!
 
So continuing on July 2, 2017...

After we arrived we were hungry and our room was not ready so we headed to the food court. I have to say, I liked the old decor much better. I think Disney in general is taking everything in a similar direction where everything is mainstream and things are all very plain. That is what I think happened to Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory. But we headed in to get some lunch.

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Tyler decided on the Grilled Chicken Sandwich - with mushrooms, onions, swiss cheese, and red pepper aioli and choice of two: french fries, coleslaw, potato chips, and macaroni salad. But he had it with just lettuce and creole sauce on the side. The current menu option might actually be a different sandwich all together though. The receipt says "Sand Grl Chkn P2M" and I think I remember it actually being a buffalo style chicken sandwich but I could be wrong. He also just got fries for his sides.

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He enjoyed it. You cant see the chicken through all the lettuce but it was a decent sized piece of chicken.

Cary ordered the Bacon Cheeseburger - House-smoked Bacon and Cheddar Cheese on a Broiche Bun and choice of two: french fries, coleslaw, potato chips, and macaroni salad...with fries and macaroni salad. The macaroni salad was different than the one at Pop on the first part of our trip. It was more mayo based but it was still good.

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Skyler and I decided on the Create Your Own Pasta. Skyler had the fettuccine
noodles with Alfredo sauce and Parmesan cheese.

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She loved it and it was a ton of pasta. They have boxes available for people who need to take away and she was able to box up about half of hers to eat later.

I had the Penne Pasta with shrimp, marinara sauce, and Parmesan cheese.

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These are made to order while you point out what you want from a pretty large variety of options. THere were different kinds of noodles, sauces, meats, veggies and cheese.

We also got Mardi Gras King Cake for Tyler and it ended up being the last one. It is actually a cinnamon roll. He thought it was realy good...not as good as the ones at Gaston's bit better than the normal, average cinnamon roll. We were unable to find another one the rest of our stay!

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And an order of three Beignets.

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What's to say about beignets??? Fried dough with powdered sugar on them...what more could you ask for???

Our mugs were still activated so we were able to use them for drinks.

Over all we enjoyed our meal. It felt like we were eating in a large warehouse though. I was not thrilled with the venue decor (I loved it the old way!). We also thought there were not many options. SO it you are someone who eats at the food court at your hotel often, this could get old real fast. For our first meal, we were please though.

In all, our bill here was $60.11.

DDDP Credits used so far = 60 + 4 mug credits + 30 snack credits
DDDP value so far = $3037.04
Out of Pocket TOTAL so far= $1009.60
TOTAL Cash Value so far = $5046.64
 
Late to the party here but I am doing the same cruise that you did in October of this year. I am kind of worried about the dining in the main area now with your pics. I know there is other options to eat throughout the trip. Do you recommend doing those and skipping the main dining area?
 
Late to the party here but I am doing the same cruise that you did in October of this year. I am kind of worried about the dining in the main area now with your pics. I know there is other options to eat throughout the trip. Do you recommend doing those and skipping the main dining area?

No, I would not skip dinner in the dining room. None of the options were that great...especially everyday, all day. The buffet is pretty much the same thing everyday of the cruise ... except they seem the run out towards the end of some things. The hamburger place is decent...but to me, I can get a decent hamburger at home and I don’t want to eat it for every meal. The taco place was good but had a long line a lot o of the time. We didn’t l try the sushi place because it cost extra and at that point, we spent enough! LOL...even the desserts were not stand out and usually, Skye would be all over that...never ending soft serve machines were her go to!

Food, in general, this is a boring cruise. Edible, yes...but compared to the one other cruise I was on twenty some years ago, no where near the same quality.

Skye and Cary are pushing for another cruise but I am afraid I would need to book a higher class to get the food service I want and I’m not sure I’m willing to give up a land vacation to float around in a boat for a few days.
 
No, I would not skip dinner in the dining room. None of the options were that great...especially everyday, all day. The buffet is pretty much the same thing everyday of the cruise ... except they seem the run out towards the end of some things. The hamburger place is decent...but to me, I can get a decent hamburger at home and I don’t want to eat it for every meal. The taco place was good but had a long line a lot o of the time. We didn’t l try the sushi place because it cost extra and at that point, we spent enough! LOL...even the desserts were not stand out and usually, Skye would be all over that...never ending soft serve machines were her go to!

Food, in general, this is a boring cruise. Edible, yes...but compared to the one other cruise I was on twenty some years ago, no where near the same quality.

Skye and Cary are pushing for another cruise but I am afraid I would need to book a higher class to get the food service I want and I’m not sure I’m willing to give up a land vacation to float around in a boat for a few days.

Thank you for the feedback. When I read your report your eating style and taste are pretty similar to mine (I love Olive Garden) so this worries me a little bit. I wonder if its a Carnival thing and I should go to a better cruise line next time.
 

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