Cabana na na na - Spend some time in the Sanctuary Club with us

While you can have a wonderful time in the Sanctuary Club simply lounging in a chair or cooling off in the pool for no more than the cost of booking a Sanctuary Collection cabin (and being 16 years or older), the Sun Princess offers those passengers the extra luxury of renting a cabana for $499. For that price, you get to come and go the entire day from 8AM until 5-6PM. Each cabana offers two loungers, a couch, dining table, TV (with headphones), flip flops, a bottle of champagne, a stocked mini fridge, snacks, an upgraded lunch menu, and attentive service offering to bring everything from drinks to ice to more towels. Those passengers who book Sky Suites get the use of one of these cabanas included for one day per cruise. We were able to pick the day pre-cruise and went with sea days on both weeks. 

We would like to thank Sanctuary Manager Ivan and Princess Cruises for gifting us a third day to use a Sanctuary Club Cabana to make up for some issues elsewhere onboard.

When you are ready to use your cabana, you check in at the Sanctuary Club desk. They will lead you to your assigned number cabana and get it all set up with towels on the loungers and ask if you want anything special for your mini bar. Otherwise it is stocked with the same options you'd find in your suite mini fridge like water bottles, soda cans, and the new canned cocktails. The Sanctuary Club crew will readily replenish anything you want more of from the mini bar as well as bring you whatever you like from the bar itself. 

I think someone is ready to get their lounge on! The cabanas are evenly split on each side of the ship with the pool in the center of the Sanctuary Club. Each cabana shares this open stacked box shaped partition with its neighbor but you can pull closed a sheer curtain behind the couch for privacy. 

They do have different sized flip flops and they usually go for a his and hers one big/one smaller size to start. These are the same flip flop/sandals left in your cabin. The pool deck in this area is just as hot and as slippery when wet as it would be by the main pool so please be careful and wear sturdy footwear. The water shoes Dad is wearing in the photo here are from WateLves (purchased from Amazon) and were great for those of us with larger and wider feet. The only drawback I found was that they took a while to dry in my bathroom after I rinsed the sand out from Princess Cay. If I had left them to sit on the balcony in the sun, they probably would have dried faster. We saw a couple people slip and fall while walking past the cabana so please watch your step.

The sun's glare can make it tough to watch TV. The TV has the same interactive system as your cabin TVs so you can watch a movie or live TV while sitting on the couch. There is a half wall between main pool loungers and the path in front of the cabanas. You will have people walking back and forth in front of your cabana. However, the half wall gives some privacy from those in the pool. Each cabana had a wooden board game on the counter to enjoy. Our two cabanas had Jenga and a dice rolling game but other cabanas had chess and chinese checkers. We also had a huge fresh bowl of fruit for us to enjoy. I missed having that bowl of fruit to nibble throughout the cruise in our cabin like we have had in the past. There is a curtain that pulls across the front of your cabana if you'd rather not have passers by peeking in. Just be wary of using your cabana on a windy day or those curtains might turn into dancing queens!

The two loungers face out to the ocean and the crew will immediately cover them with towels when you arrive. This is the only side of the cabana that doesn't have a curtain to close and is also open to the sun at the top. Take precautions for being exposed to the sun if you spend a lot of time in the loungers. The glass surrounding the ocean side of these cabanas is tinted blue and is as tall as the cabana but it doesn't hinder the view.

The mini fridge is tucked away inside the wooden cabinet by the TV.

The perspective from sitting on the couch in front of the larger dining table.

The cabanas have a completely level and accessible entrance as well as a nearby accessible shower to rinse off. There are ramps as well to move down from the Sanctuary Club entrances to the cabanas and pool area. 

The upgraded Cabana lunch menu - all items are included and you can order as much as you wish.

Disclaimer - all food pictured here was consumed over four different visits to the Sanctuary Club over our two weeks of cruising (with some repeated orders). We did not finish everything offered choosing instead to share and sample many items.

For comparison, here is the non cabana menu for the Sanctuary Club. Prince S is picking out his choice of the Chicken Tenders. There is also a small buffet offering of more healthier/gourmet snacks for everyone to help themselves. Our food delivery when not in the cabana did take a long time to arrive but our waiter did warn us about that in advance. 

Dad ordered the Chef's Classic Burger and a plain version of The New York Hotdog. These items were another casualty of "Oh did you want to get a picture first?" while he's on his last bite. I did notice that these two items were also available from the Lido Grill.

The California Roll came in a bento box with spicy edamame and seaweed salad. The orangey/pink dipping sauce was supposed to be a sort of creamy chili sauce? The rolls stayed together well and were tasty. I noticed that while the cabana menu noted that the California Roll came as eight pieces, it did not list that on the main Sanctuary Club menu.

The Chicken Tenders with a honey mustard dipping sauce. Nothing tender about these pieces of chicken as they came out shrunken, burnt, and hard as a rock.

Everyone in the Sanctuary Club gets offered these little cups of Smize & Dream ice cream if you're there in the early afternoon. These cups are also available for purchase where you get those Premium Dessert sundaes onboard. While a sweet treat and easy way to enjoy a little taste, I found that they'd often be half melted by the time the crew walked around with the trays to offer. One thing I noticed as well is that each cup claimed to have a "prize" inside of a small bar that was a different flavor. It may be worth passing up if you have any food allergies since my bar disintegrated throughout the ice cream once I uncovered it.

Pictured next to my 12oz Diet Coke can for size comparison:

Little wooden spoon tucked into the underside of the lid. Grade school cafeteria line flashbacks.

The prize for the purple cookies & cream was a salted toffee caramel cookie

Our tray of snacks that each cabana receives was one of our favorite parts of the experience. Each of the tall martini glasses held a snack option that was to be paired with the little shot glasses of a dipping sauce. From the top left of the photo - Shrimp cocktail paired with cocktail sauce, a cup of berries and a cup of tropical fruit to be paired with a yogurt dip, and lastly a cup of raw veggies to dip into ranch.

The three square chip bowls held tortilla chips, prawn chips (amazingly good!), and classic potato chips. The four small cups in front held mixed nuts, pico de gallo, a corn salsa, and guacamole. 

Prince S heard the word prawn and jumped right in to commandeer them for himself!

With a full tummy it was off to take a nap on the lounge chair for him!

That is until our lunch order arrived and somebody got their second wind or should I say second appetite? 

Princess Signature Burger - gouda cheese, applewood smoked bacon, caramelized onions, chopped lettuce, tomato, brioche bun, and chef's sauce. The chef's sauce reminded me of a whipped up and pureed egg salad with relish. 

By our second visit, we asked about being able to get food that was a little less fancy and heavy. These turkey sandwiches from the OceanNow delivery are great!

The Sushi Sampler could have fed all of the cabanas from one dish! Only a couple flavors tasted a little spicy but several of the roll flavors were delicious!

Double Chocolate Tart with creme anglaise - Dad's dessert. After tossing off the fruit garnish like it was trying to bite him back, he polished off nearly the whole dish. The base was made out of some hard crust that looked like a mix of nuts and granola pressed together into a wafer.

My "Trio of Cheesecakes" listed as ricotta, marble, and creme brulee flavors with fresh strawberries. I think my trio just became a solo act. Didn't like the hard sugar disc that sat on top of the cheesecake but I loved that they left the strawberry drizzle around the plate giving me the option to add as much or as little as I wanted. So often it's more like you get a plate of strawberry sauce with a side of cheesecake garnish.

Are you really relaxing on a Princess cruise if you don't watch reruns of The Love Boat?

A special invitation to go Behind the Helm

For those staying in a Sky Suite, a not so widely publicized surprise you may experience is getting an invite to visit the ship's bridge. These visits are scheduled at the Captain and their officers discretion and timing so be prepared to rearrange your schedule if such an opportunity arises. Such a visit is always fascinating and can differ from ship to ship. Most often, your tour will be led by a bridge officer rather than the Captain but you still can learn a lot about what goes into driving a cruise ship.

Those who booked the Conjurer's Package for the Magic Castle Conjurer's Cruise also received a bridge invite. We received that letter in our cabin near the end of the cruise. We opted not to attend as we had already had our experience. We expected this visit to be more of a large group and appreciated our more private visit. After our tour, we ran into the other Sky Suite couple we'd met on embarkation day as they had been scheduled for the following hour. It was really nice to see that Princess had even split up the Sky Suite tours so they felt more personal.

We received a form letter signed by Captain Paolo Arrigo in our cabin inviting us to attend a bridge tour scheduled for the next morning at 9AM. The letter instructed us when and where to meet the security officers. Once there we signed in next to our names so they could keep track of who was visiting the bridge and when. We were allowed to bring still cameras/phones but not any bags, video cameras, food or drinks. The security officers called ahead to make sure the bridge was ready for us. Then they led our small group consisting of Dad and I, two travel agents who worked together, and the couple who seemed to be hired to document events during the Magic Conjurer's cruise, down the corridor to the bridge. 

We were welcomed onto the bridge by Bridge Officer Federica who was wonderfully kind and thorough in her explanations and answering everyone's questions. We were encouraged to take as many pictures as we wanted.

I loved seeing how many female officers were working on the bridge. The other officers also answered any questions when they could. When a question came up about having to sit for so long in their chairs, one officer demonstrated her love for a new motorized chair that can move around and change positions with the touch of a button.

Every ship bridge has a glass panel in the floor on the wing so the officer maneuvering the ship against the dock during a port arrival can look down and see where the side of the ship is relative to the dock.

Looking back at the ship from the bridge windows:

The Sun Princess bridge was designed with a separate glassed in room so that other officers not currently on watch can perform their duties such as monitoring routes, weather conditions, holding meetings etc without the distraction of any noise from the main bridge area. 

Federica went over each section of this huge bridge pointing out what all the computer systems and buttons do. She is a great asset to the Princess Cruises brand. She would be great as a mentor for upcoming future officers.

The ship has two horn buttons on the bridge. One for the standard horn you'll hear used on every cruise ship, and a separate button for when they want to play the Love Boat TV Show Theme horn. I resisted the urge to ask to press the button. 

And you thought your entertainment center had a lot of remotes:

Dad modeling our new Magic Castle Conjurer's Cruise T-shirts and Conjurer package lanyards in front of the Sun Princess logo on the bridge:

Thank you Princess Cruises, Federica, and all the Sun Princess bridge team for a wonderful and informative tour!

Pre-cruise experience and boarding day with a Sky Suite on the Sun Princess

Having sailed in a Sky Suite on Princess Cruises once before, I had a decent understanding of what perks we would have on these two back to back cruises and what the process leading up to and during the cruises would be like. However, with a new ship like the Sun Princess, very little was announced or confirmed when it came to what a Sky Suite passenger would get to enjoy on board for booking the top cabin on the ship. My hardworking travel agent and I went back and forth with Princess' customer service and social media team trying to find out what was included in this new Sanctuary concept. Plus now having four Sky Suites on a ship versus the original two cabins like on Enchanted Princess, it was quite unclear as to whether we'd still have any of the exclusive extras we enjoyed. Between Elite loyalty level perks, any Princess suite perks, Sky Suite perks, Princess Premier rate perks, and the Conjurer package perks during the Magic Conjurer's themed cruise our first week, you needed a PhD degree in organization to keep it all straight! There is a good bit of overlap but it can be surprising to learn what even a Sky Suite won't get if you don't have the other perks as well.

Many times the specific perks we'd ask about would come back with an answer of "No, that's not going to be included on the Sun Princess." As the old wise quote says, "Nonetheless, she persisted." I think a good bit of the issue was that Princess hadn't finalized the offerings yet with such a new Sanctuary concept and inclusion of all these non suite cabins. There was no official list so the inclination was to always say no. Eventually, through polite and persistent communication, we were pleased to finally get answers that lined up more with the perks that we enjoyed in the past. It made me feel a whole lot better about spending so much extra to upgrade to the Sky Suite. I appreciate that they were willing to listen to passenger feedback from me and the other suite passengers that shared their experiences and concerns allowing me to pass them along to Princess. 

Our first cruise of this back to back booking was from 11/9/24-11/16/24. On October 2, 2024, I received my first email relating to this cruise from the Pre-cruise Shoreside Concierge, Thor. This was the same gentleman who reached out to work with us for the Enchanted Princess cruise and we were glad to work with him again. The first correspondence we received was a general welcome email introducing himself and a list of Sky Suite perks that I recognized from the Princess website if you look at a Sky Suite on a ship like Enchanted Princess. When Princess originally updated the Sky Suite page for the Sun Princess, it read more like a hotel room amenities list. Thor's list included the older ship's perks like a Princess Cays bungalow and the Complimentary Ultimate Balcony Breakfast and Dinner. I had been concerned about still getting the bungalow since the excursions page showed them as all sold out. We were assured by Thor that we would receive one but he couldn't confirm whether it was on the main side or the "Sanctuary" side of the island. He also confirmed that we would get the upcharge lunch service that is different than the standard barbecue lunch offerings for all passengers.

The next day, October 3, 2024, I received an email from Thor asking to schedule a phone conference to go over the suite perks and our preferences. We held that call the following Monday on October 7, 2024. The phone conference went very well. Thor went through all of the suite and Sky Suite perks and answered all of my questions. We'd been having issues with the Ocean Medallion app making dining reservations (showing nothing available to book and adding ones we never made) and Thor not only went through each restaurant option and day of the cruise with us but he gave us carte blanche to choose dates and times for any restaurant even if it was showing as booked up on the app. The app also linked both weeks together but then wouldn't let us book excursions or dining for the second week. We went over allergies and preferences for stocking the cabin fridge. We also were sent a list of full size liquor bottles we could choose to have in the cabin. Sky Suites get two bottles per cruise and we confirmed that we could pick four with two separate bookings. We were fine with waiting for week two to get the other two bottles, especially since we never opened any of them! I believe there was also a wine list but we didn't expect to like any wine choices.

Thor also confirmed that we would get included access to the Enclave, one of the perks we were originally told would not be included. A new surprise to us since this ship had the Sanctuary Club is that we got one day on each cruise to use a poolside cabana without paying the extra $499 cost that any other Sanctuary passenger would have to pay. We also greatly appreciated finding out that our Suite Experience Manager on board, known as Sanctuary Manager on the Sun Princess, would continue to reserve seats for us in the Princess Arena. This was a great perk because with Princess Premier, the reserve seats are only in a set aside section and only during production shows. With the Sky Suite, we could request anywhere in the theater we wanted like the aisle seats that Dad finds more comfortable. Side note - what is up with the narrower theater seats on Sun Princess? I've had my share of tight theater seats as a fluffy lady but these were noticeably narrower. Several people of all shapes and sizes shared how they had to sit sideways to fit in the seats. On the plus side, I commend Princess for taking advantage of their in the round arena design to include more handicapped seating at the floor level as well as above in the tiered seating. The only thing that trumped Sanctuary Manager Ivan's seating reservations was when our Conjurer package meant we could sit in the folding chairs on the arena floor directly in front of the stage for the shows that were magic presentations. Ivan could only reserve the fold down theater seats in the stands. 

It was nice to see that Princess assigned crew members to check for whether the passenger had the right magic and/or Premier rate package before allowing any passenger to choose those seats. My heart went out to the crew for having to deal with the multiple people I witnessed lashing out at them for not being allowed to sit in priority seating without having paid for a package. One so called gentleman expected the crew to magically make seats appear or make others already seated move because he had to have his entire party of six sitting together. For the record, Princess did open up the remaining reserved seating for anyone to use when it was within 5-10 minutes of showtime. I also applaud Princess for marking off which theater seats would make for a bad sightline to certain activities and had crew redirecting those passengers to better options.

Thor noticed that our second week had been upgraded to the new Premier 90 and told us he would go ahead and do the same for week one. We sent our liquor choices on the same evening as the phone call but I was surprised to not have any sort of confirmation from Thor. I emailed Thor on October 18th to get a written list of our dining reservations so I could have it in writing to refer back to since the app never did reflect his reservations and to follow up on the change to Premier 90 for week one. He replied with the reservation list that matched my notes on October 19th but then claimed that we weren't going to get upgraded to Premier 90 on week one after all "because of the promotion that you have." That response even baffled my travel agent who had no idea what promotion he meant. In the end we had Premier 90 for both weeks showing on our accounts by the time we boarded even though Thor maintained that we weren't getting it. 

Here is the dining reservations list that Thor sent that matched what we had asked him to arrange during our phone call:

9 November: Crown Grill 6pm

11 November: Sabatini’s 630pm

13 November: Teppanyaki 7pm

15 November: Crown Grill 530pm for Allan

15 November: Butchers Block  530pm for Danielle

18 November: Teppanyaki 7pm

20 November: Catch 610pm

21November: Hot Pot 6pm

Other than an email sharing a heads up about Conjurer package events and asking if we want to change any dining reservations on October 19th and answers about the Spellbound dinner on October 23rd, we did not hear from Thor again for a couple weeks.

During the phone call with Thor, he offered us the opportunity to visit the Sanctuary Lounge - a space used by Princess Cruises in Fort Lauderdale to invite suite guests to have a nicer place to wait for embarkation. It was described as a place to make any reservations, enjoy refreshments, take fun photos, and ask questions. Then we'd be transferred over to the port in Sprinter vans bypassing the lines. We accepted the invitation while on the phone. On October 30th, I received an email that came from Alexiss, who listed her title as the Sanctuary Lounge Concierge. The email said it was a formal invite to use the Sanctuary Lounge and briefly reiterated Thor's description. I didn't realize she was expecting a response confirming we plan to attend until she called me on November 1st. We confirmed that we would attend and asked her to confirm whether we had to show up right at 8AM or could come anytime within the 8AM to 1PM hours the lounge is open. Alexis says that we can show up at anytime within those hours. Looking back now at her invite email, I see that it also includes a line suggesting an arrival between 9AM and 12PM. 

We had some issues getting WhatsApp to work with my phone number so we ended up asking Thor to give Ivan Dad's phone number for communication on the ship. Thor did confirm this on November 5th.

On the evening of November 7th, we got the Bon Voyage email from Thor. He repeated the information about the Sanctuary Lounge but listed the hours as 8AM to 2PM. He also included information about meeting Ivan for a priority boarding escort outside once at the terminal claiming that Ivan would be sending us the embarkation details via cell phone. That pre-cruise contact from Ivan never came like it did from April prior to boarding Enchanted Princess. According to Ivan, they are no longer allowed to step outside the terminal to retrieve passengers. 

Another issue with this Bon Voyage email is that the final dining reservation list Thor sent us had different times for some dinners, a restaurant reservation for two that was only supposed to be for Dad, and Butcher's Block was completely dropped off the list. That Butcher's Block reservation would end up sticking to us like all that red meat to our arteries throughout the cruise, starting with a reservation for both of us appearing on the app without either of us requesting it.

I replied to Thor that same evening asking him to put Butcher's Block back but now make it for both of us and to add another reservation Dad decided he wanted after the phone call. No response ever came from Thor.

On the morning of embarkation day, November 9th, we decided to partake of the included breakfast at our hotel and called for an Uber driver to drive us over to the Sanctuary Lounge around 9:30. The ride there was quick since we were staying at a hotel down the street. There was a security guard at the entrance and she helped direct us where to leave our luggage in the front entryway. We headed inside expecting to be greeted by someone and check in. After waiting at the desk for a while, I noticed Alexis chatting with a couple of passengers. She noticed us but continued to chat. We finally felt the need to interrupt and ask what we should be doing. She took our passports to check us in and told us to go find a seat while she went back to chatting. 

We walked around checking out the small photo prop area and the plentitude of drinks and snacks. There were several desks set in small cubicle spaces with business cards revealing names of other concierges but no one was working at their desk. 

Prince S wanted to check out all the cool ship models on one of the desks. He felt like a giant towering over the tiny ships! 

Prince S was ready to start enjoying the fact that cruise calories don't count and went straight for the pastry selection.

I appreciated seeing how the perishable food items were offered on ice to keep them fresh. Underneath this counter was coolers for you to help yourself with cold drinks.

I loved the fact that they had a charging station for multiple devices. 

Using digital photo frames to display a picture of the lounge's wi-fi code was a clever touch but it gave me a good chuckle to notice that the frame was displaying an error message saying that the network connection had failed. 

We ended up randomly sitting with and having a lovely chat with a couple also in a Sky Suite that I'd been chatting with on Cruise Critic. After we'd been chatting for a while, Alexis came over to the other couple to ask them about something. They in turn asked her about when the vans would start running us over to the port. She told them that she'd call Ivan right now and make sure he's ready. She came back within minutes to lead them out to the vans. 

Alexis soon brought us back our passports and I asked her to check whether Thor had made the changes we requested. My intent was that if he hadn't had the chance, then we had been told Alexis could take care of it for us as well as making any new reservations in any of the departments on board. Alexis seemed put off by such a request but begrudgingly came back a short while later to let me know that nothing had been done by Thor. I asked her then to make the dining changes and I'm pretty sure the neighbors could have heard her sigh of annoyance. The fastest response we got from her the entire time in the lounge was when she came back within minutes to claim that she couldn't make the reservations because it was "too close to embarkation." Now that was a real head scratcher for us - being told the Embarkation Lounge couldn't make reservations like we'd been told they would because it was too close to embarkation! Alexis claimed she sent an email to the ship asking them to apply the reservations. I feel like we should have been on the Maury Povich show getting lie detector results because Ivan later told us that no email had been sent.

As we sat there killing time, we started noticing more and more of the other passengers being escorted by Alexis to the vans. There certainly wasn't any sort of Sky Suite versus other suite priority given the amount of people being escorted out. We wondered whether it was an issue of us not having told her we were ready to head to the ship. Her response was "Okay but I have to wait until Ivan lets me know he's ready. He likes to talk and get the previous group settled." We understood and went back to our seats. 

With the wi-fi being intermittent and cellular loading slow, we had to resort to entertaining ourselves with nature. We spent way too long watching this iguana make its way up and down the tree outside the window.

Time passes and passes and passes until we are the only passengers left in the lounge. We ask Alexis again and she repeats her claim that she has to wait for Ivan. By this point, Ivan must know the previous group's life history given how long it had been since they left. Finally at just before 1PM, we ran out of patience and felt like we'd been forgotten sitting around the corner while she sat at her desk. Only after we mentioned calling Princess to ask what is going on did Alexis finally stop the latest van from leaving in order to let us on. She rode over with us so she could be the one escorting us (and the rest of the van) past the check in lines to board the ship. While every suite gets priority boarding, only the Sky Suites should have had this personal escort by Ivan so it was hard to believe where the breakdown and delay occurred. 

When we finally got our way through security and got handed over to Ivan, he was shocked to learn that we'd been waiting at the lounge since 9:45AM. He told us that Alexis gave him a much later time of our arrival so he had no idea we'd been waiting so long. Ivan also revealed that their procedure pays no regard to Sky Suite level priority, it is simply a first in to the lounge, first into the van order for the transfers. The couple we had been talking to got off another cruise so they arrived at the lounge just before it opened for the day. They were headed to the ship by 10:30AM. We finally officially boarded around 2PM and were led around by Ivan with a very detailed tour of all the Sanctuary Collection areas. He tried to get our Muster Drill out of the way while we were passing our muster station but the line to check in was several people deep. Since by now we had totally missed the window to have lunch in the Sanctuary restaurant, at 3PM we asked to head to our cabin and drop off our carry on bags. Ivan showed us a bit around the cabin while profusely apologizing for the embarkation delays. He left us to relax and watch the muster drill video while he took care of checking us in at the muster station. 

Due to the issues with boarding the ship, we missed out on the embarkation terminal check in experience everyone else had as part of the Magic Conjurer's theme cruise with special gifts and roaming magicians. It took nearly the whole cruise for Ivan to track down the gifts because they had been mistakenly stored with items from the shops. I also noted that about halfway through the cruise, the other items we did find in our cabin as being part of the Conjurer's Package, was being sold in the shops for any passenger to buy. So thankful to have had the luxury of asking him to do all that legwork.

Prince S (and me) wandered among the new outdoor food stations on Deck 17 and settled on a bowl of chicken taco meat and toppings. I'm not a fan of hard shell tacos so they made up a bowl of nacho toppings without the tortilla chip base. Great alternative if you're trying to eat low carb/keto or have a corn or gluten allergy. After all, taco salad is still technically a salad right?

After we'd had the chance to find something for a late lunch, we returned to the cabin to find dining reservation cards for later in the cruise that were for the Butcher's Block reservation I noticed appeared without our approval on the app. Now that we were onboard, I expected our medallion app to update with the proper dining reservations we had made with Thor but it never did. We reached out to Ivan and he ended up sitting at the dining table in the cabin with us spending nearly an hour straightening out all of the reservations we thought we had arranged with Thor and adding the new changes. Thankfully there was no issue changing back to our original times and dates. It was disappointing to hear that while we loved our pre-cruise experience with Thor before Enchanted Princess, we were not the first people to report having issues with him for their recent cruises.

To cap off a frustrating start to the cruise, we headed over to the Crown Grill just before our 6PM reservation to kick off our cruise with our tradition of a specialty steakhouse dinner. The host at the podium insisted that we didn't have any such reservation for tonight. She looked us up in the system and read our whole schedule of reservations as she knew it. I recognized that it included the mistaken Butcher's Block reservation and suggested that their system might not have updated with Ivan's fixes. The host momentarily stepped away saying she had to check with her manager. While she was gone, I messaged Ivan and he sent me screenshots of our account on his computer proving that he'd made the reservation for tonight. He next offered to come down and speak to the manager for us. By that time, the host started to walk back toward the podium with the manager in tow. She pointed in our direction and he gave us his literal nod of approval before disappearing inside the restaurant again. We were seated quickly after that. The restaurant was about 2/3rds full but there was plenty of available tables. Despite the busyness of the restaurant which is not typical for an embarkation night, we had attentive service and a good meal. Since we tried out so many specialty dining meals between these two weeks, I'll make each restaurant's review and food porn pictures into their own posts. 

While we didn't have any more issues the rest of the cruise with restaurants claiming we didn't have a reservation, we did end up getting several cards delivered to our cabin randomly over several days confirming reservations we didn't make at Butcher's Block.