When room service delivery is our only option

We usually like to try out room service on a cruise at least once per sailing but this time when an onboard injury resulted in making several trips daily to the medical center for IV medication and bandage changes, we found ourselves eating more often in the cabin. The timing of our medical visits and the wait involved often coincided with the serving hours of Luminae. Several meals were made also from the late night section of the buffet which was mostly pizza and a make your own pasta bar. While our butler did offer to bring any item from Luminae's menu to the cabin, that offer was only doable while Luminae was open. If it was a time that Luminae was open, we would have gone down to the restaurant. Our butler Mary did deliver all of our room service orders so it was nice that she rushed them to us.

One of the small perks of being in any suite or The Retreat is the slightly enhanced room service menu - something I didn't realize was tucked in with the regular room service booklet all cabins receive. It mostly offered dishes that resembled the regular room service menu like instead of just caesar salad you could order chicken topped caesar salad. I liked the fact that we could ask for things to be swapped or left off any dish and room service accommodated all requests fully. For those traveling with kids, picky eaters, or kids at heart, there is a  kids menu side of the room service menu offering Roasted Chicken Sandwich with Fries, Grilled Hot Dog with Fries, and Cheese or Pepperoni Pizza. If you're sailing in a suite, the charge per room service order is waived. We still tip the crew member bringing the order however.

A good tip for any room service order is to make sure you mention when you want extra items like ketchup or sugar. Will always remember wandering the ship on my first cruise with my room service hot dog late one evening desperately trying to find some ketchup. Thankfully a kind crew member cleaning the closed buffet took pity on me and ducked behind the ropes to fill a little cup with ketchup.

We often made the best of the experience and had our room service meal al fresco. We did take the time afterwards to bring in and restack the dishes when done so there was less work for our steward and no chance of something blowing overboard. Not all the dishes featured in this post were ordered on the same day. We also repeated dishes a few times.

From the Desserts section:

Dark Chocolate Ganache Cake with Caramel Sauce - the caramel is in between the cake layers. Pretty ample slice provided. I've seen some that look like someone used cookie cutter shapes meant for those kids toys where they have to fit the wooden blocks into the holes. 

Assorted Cookies and Milk (Warm or Cold): We chose not to get the milk. I'm pretty sure all of these were chocolate chip. Dad said they were a little chewier than he prefers but otherwise tasty. This from the guy who finished off my bag of Chewy Chips Ahoy I picked up from the grocery store last week. Guess the picky eater personality doesn't interact with the not so hidden Cookie Monster personality.

Cheesecake with Blueberry Sauce - I requested no sauce. On the smaller slide for slices but I wasn't hungry for much once I got to dessert this day:

Soups and Starters and Salads section:

Chicken Skewers with Yogurt Sauce - Average grilled chicken that was a little dry. I picked this out for myself the first order and Dad ordered it for himself on the next order so he could top his Mixed Green Salad with chicken.

Mixed Green Salad (Dressing choices of Balsamic, Blue Cheese, Caesar, Italian Vinaigrette, or Ranch)

From The Retreat menu - Chicken Caesar Salad. Wished I had some of that yogurt sauce back from the chicken skewers to take away some of the dryness of the chicken. Otherwise the Caesar salad flavors were all there. 

From The Retreat menu - Shrimp Cocktail. Pretty decently sized shrimp and tasted fresh.

From The Retreat menu - Antipasti Platter. Probably our least liked dish we ordered.

Main Courses section:

Turkey Club Sandwich (Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato with Fries) - nothing like a club sandwich when you need some comfort food.

Celebrity Hamburger with Fries - Dad had the idea to ask if bacon could be added and room service granted our wish. It had some sort of orange/red spread on the underside of the top bun. Didn't really have a strong flavor to it so thankfully it didn't dissuade Mr. Picky Eater. He also appreciated that they left the pickles in the lettuce/tomato stack provided on the plate and not in contact with his burger. No worries - no pickle was wasted in the making of this blog post.