March 2025 Treasure thoughts

[jalapeno_pretzel]

We were on the end of March/early April sailing, and I thought I would review a few aspects of our cruise. I love reading everyone's detailed reports, but I don't think I have the energy or focus to put one of those together. Plus one of our favorite things to do is hang out with a drink on the verandah, so my report would get boring pretty quickly!

First up, the MDR desserts (because I took pictures of most of these)

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

We ate at the MDRs each night. In order, I had:
Quantum key lime pie
Warm coconut tres leches
Warm cinnamon donut holes
Bananas in Paradise
Churros
Chocolate lava cake
Double blueberry cheesecake.

Other members of my party tried other desserts, including:
Chocolate decadence
Grapefruit cake
Mexican chocolate tart
Margarita lime cheesecake
Nano Dobos Torta
Blueberry lemon Bavarian cream
Caramel macadamia nut cheesecake tart

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

I had thought I was going to get the Pym doughnut sundae but at the last minute went for the Key Lime pie. I'm so glad I did, this was really good key lime pie!


The next evening, the Coconut Tres Leches cake. I'd read enough reviews of this I knew it was what I wanted, and I was not disappointed. The ice cream that came with it was a pretty melty on arrival, but that was the only minor issue, and was delicious regardless. Also obtained were the Lime cheesecake and the chocolate tart. The chocolate tart was too spicy for the person that ordered it, and had weird things on top. I tried both the cheesecake (very good) and the chocolate tart (just okay), but would probably stick with the Tres Leches cake if the opportunity comes up again.







The third night, the donut holes were amazing. These were probably my favorite dessert of the vacation, I could have eaten several orders of them. Also at our table was the Bavarian cream, also very good.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I must say, your pictures and reviews make me want to try them all!

I usually just skip desserts, too often I am disappointed.

 

[Skippyboo]

I had that Margarita cheesecake though it was very good. My favorite is the Fuji Apple Cheesecake from 1923. I had it on the Wish so when I was on the Treasure I was telling the people at my table it was like apple pie and cheesecake had a baby and it became a running joke at our table to call it the baby.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

For Pirate Night, I was on the fence if I was going to order dessert at all. I'd had the Caramel Macadamia tart on the Magic, and it was disappointing, and nothing else really appealed. At the last minute though I chose Bananas in Paradise, and wow it was really incredible! I loved it and was not really expecting to. The Macadamia tart was ordered by another at our table, and I tried a bite. What a difference between Magic and Treasure, it was like a different dessert. The one on the Magic was really hard ... like hard to cut through, hard to eat. The one on the Treasure was all soft and gooey caramel and really delicious. Amazing how different it was between the two ships.



I missed getting a picture of the churros, but they were really good. I especially loved the caramel dipping sauce, though another member of our party would have been pleased if they had offered chocolate with them as well.

The next night, the lava cake. I was going to go with the grapefruit cake, as the menu I'd been looking at pre-cruise didn't include the lava cake in the list. Having had the lava cake on Fantasy, I knew I wanted that again once I saw it was an option, and it was delicious. The grapefruit cake was ordered by another, and I had a bite - incredible. I think next time I'm going to have to pass up the lava cake in favor of the grapefruit.



Finally, the last night of our cruise, the only dessert that really was disappointing, the double blueberry cheesecake. This had good blueberry flavor, but texture was really bad. Really gelatinous, almost slimy. Didn't seem anything like normal cheesecake texture. I ate only a few bites. The Chocolate Decadence was also ordered this night, and also had a very odd gelatinous texture. It also went mostly uneaten. If I had it to do over, I think I would try the Peach Tart. I saw someone with that at another table and it looked good anyway!

 

[LDRaleigh]

I was on the week before you and tried many of the same desserts and agree almost completely with your review. I wish the tres leches came with more ice cream, but it was still awesome. The macadamia tart on the Treasure was the best version of that dessert I've had. The bananas in paradise was really good too. Our table also really enjoyed the Hector Riveras Sundae - I didn't see that one mentioned.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

MDR Appetizers / Salads / Soups

I had in order:
Dill and Meyer Lemon Marinated Shrimp
Heirloom Tomato Salad
Toasted Pumpkin Seed Garbanzo Bean Hummus
Spiced Ahi Tuna
Vegetable Samosa
Lime Marinated Shrimp
Hector's Sweet Shrimp Coctel
Guacamole
Chervil-Dill Marinated Shrimp
White Onion Soup
Ahi Tuna Poke
Dill-Lemon marinated shrimp salad

Others in the group had a variety of other things, but I'll spare you the list, and just mention a few specifically in the details.

For additional info, I'm pescetarian, so vegetarian + seafood only. I've often told people I find the vegetarian items on DCL far better than the seafood, and this time was no exception.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

OK, so I didn't take pictures of all of these. Or even most of these. I have the Dill and Meyer Shrimp pic, the pirate night lime marinated shrimp pic, and the Ahi tuna poke pictures. I don't know why I kept ordering the seafood apps. They weren't bad, just kind of bland though. On the first night, I saw the table next to us getting cocktail sauce for their shrimp, from their assistant server. Ours never offered it. And for three shrimp, I didn't want to sit there and wait to get his attention at almost 9pm in order to eat my appetizer. The lime shrimp was fine, not really memorable at all. The tuna poke was also nondescript. I didn't realize tuna poke could be bland, but this one was. Again, a neighboring table received soy sauce. It wasn't offered for me, and I didn't really want to wait. Of the seafood appetizers & salads, my favorites were probably the Spiced Ahi Tuna (1923), and Hectors Sweet Shrimp Coctel (Coco's), neither of which I have a picture of.




On pirate night, in addition to shrimp, I also had the samosa. It was great, but it was also identical to the samosa they served at Marceline Market at lunch time.


The final night, while I had the bland tuna poke bowl, others had the caprese salad and the porcini pasta. Everyone was happy with their caprese salads, though I didn't try them. I did try the porcini pasta, and they seemed very similar to the black truffle pasta at Animator's Palate. I would definitely order these if I were to do it again.



The highlights of this category were the hummus and guacamole from Coco's, and the White onion soup from 1923. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of any of these. The hummus was fantastic, served with some thick slices of cucumber, jicama, and bread. Guacamole was fantastic as well. The winner though was the white onion soup. We had stayed on deck past sunset, watching a movie, and I had gotten a little cold. I thought at the time I wanted soup. I was completely warmed back up by the time we got to dinner, but just by chance I decided to go ahead and get the white onion soup. OMG. Please order this if you are at all thinking about it. It was absolutely amazing, and now I'm on a quest to find how to replicate this. It was absolutely delicious.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

I must say, your pictures and reviews make me want to try them all!

I usually just skip desserts, too often I am disappointed.

I'm almost never a dessert person in the real world, but I guess on the cruise I go ahead since it's included. The previous trip on Magic I didn't care for many of them, but almost everything on Treasure was fantastic!!

I had that Margarita cheesecake though it was very good. My favorite is the Fuji Apple Cheesecake from 1923. I had it on the Wish so when I was on the Treasure I was telling the people at my table it was like apple pie and cheesecake had a baby and it became a running joke at our table to call it the baby.

That did look good to me, I will definitely have to try it if/when there is a next time!!

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Getting away from the food category, let's cover the Treasure rainforest room.

Though I've been on Dream, Fantasy, and Magic previously, my only rainforest room experience was on Fantasy. On Fantasy I was able to purchase two single day passes. On Treasure I went ahead and splurged for the length of cruise pass, knowing they don't usually offer the single day anymore. And, after checking back, those length of cruise passes were sold out, so I guess I am glad I got one.

It felt odd to go to deck 5 for the Treasure rainforest room. It seems so much more natural to access it from the pool area. Like after you've had some sun and floated in the adult pool, you just enter the rainforest area. Not so with the Treasure. But, entering that area, there seemed to be doors opened to the deck. There was an amazing sea breeze coming through. Locker room was fine. I used the showers there, but not the steam room.

Onto the actual rainforest room. There were three showers. It wasn't really intuitive what to do with them. On Fantasy you just pressed a button and got some kind of pre-programmed shower sequence. On Treasure there was a main dial, and three smaller ones. I started out just messing with the large one thinking it would set off some kind of program, but it seemed like I had to set each dial individually. Anyway, it was okay, water would come on and spray at me in varying temperatures, but I never really figured out how it all worked. Fantasy was so much better and easier.

For the saunas, I loved the Treasure dry sauna. I also really liked the cold room, but never used the steam sauna. I tried the saunas on Fantasy, but I don't remember much about them, other than that one had a nice ocean view. The outdoor area was nice on the Treasure, with hot tubs much larger than what was available on Fantasy. I really missed the sea view we get on Fantasy though.

The heated loungers were absolutely amazing. I only used them once though, on the first day. The other times they were all full.

Over the 7 days of the cruise I only used the rainforest room 3x, and pretty briefly each time. No one else in my party was eligible for or wanted one. I felt kind of bad abandoning everyone else to go use the amenities. I think on a future cruise, I would get a pass if doing a solo cruise, or if someone else in my party had a pass. But, I would not get a full length of cruise pass again, when going with a group where no one else wanted to or was able to use that area. Overall, I think I preferred the Fantasy rainforest room to that on the Treasure, though it may be in part because I felt better value being able to get single day passes on Fantasy.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Next up, MDR Entrees.

I had:
Shiitake and Tofu Udon
Butternut Squash Enchilada (others had the short rib and gemelli pasta this evening)
Moroccan Spiced roasted squash (others had Filet Mignon this evening)
Shanghai Noodle Stir Fry
Grilled Seafood and Tomato Rice
Pan Seared Barramundi
Plant Based Soba Noodle Bowl

I was a little worried about the Shiitake and Tofu Udon, because I'm really picky about tofu. It has to be cooked just right so it's soft and not rubbery. I can't cook it well myself, and I've had it from restaurants where it's great, and others where it's horrible. In general I avoid it because of the uncertainty. But I didn't want the gnocchi from this menu, and didn't feel like the tuna either. I'm so glad I tried this, it was one of my favorite entrees of the week! The tofu was cooked perfectly - soft and flavorful, great texture. The veggies, noodles, and broth were all so good. It came with little dishes of chili oil and chili flakes. I added some of this and it gave the dish a nice kick. This was really top notch. I would definitely order this again on a repeat cruise.


The next evening I tried the Butternut squash enchilada. This was really good, also probably one of the better entrees I had over the week. It could have used a bit more spice & heat for my taste though. I wouldn't be opposed to having this again, but I'd be more likely to try the Plant Based Tacos, just because those sound really good to me as well. Everyone else was really happy with their entrees this night also.



Next came 1923 and the Moroccan Spiced roasted squash. Maybe it doesn't have the prettiest presentation, but I think this one ranks as my very favorite entree for this trip! The couscous and squash had such a good flavor, and the harissa sauce just put it over the top. I would definitely get this again!

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Then we had Pirate night, where I ordered the Shanghai Noodle Stir Fry. This was also really good, but less memorable than some of the other dishes. Again, the tofu was cooked perfectly, so I was really happy about that. On another cruise, I would go with the falafel entree here, not because there was anything wrong with this dish, but the other sounds really good to me too, and I'd like to give it a try.


For our 2nd night at Coco, I was torn between the quinoa bowl and the poblano pepper, and then at the last second I surprised myself by going with the grilled seafood and tomato rice. I feel mixed about this item. It seemed pretty skimpy on the seafood .. 2 calamari rings, 2 shrimps, 2 scallops. The calamari seemed a bit tough, the shrimp were not memorable, but the scallops were the definite star of this plate. They were really good, cooked perfectly, nice flavor. I just could have used another 2-3 of them. Overall, I liked it a lot, but there is definitely some room for improvement here. I would try one of the vegetarian choices next time.


Our 2nd night in 1923, I was planning to get the ratatouille, but I wasn't excited about it. Honestly none of the entrees on this menu stood out to me as something I was interested in. In the end I went with the barramundi, and I would definitely not get this again. The fish was cooked very nicely and had pretty good flavor, but the broth and items that accompanied it were not very good. It seemed like a random mix of things that didn't necessarily go the best together, and really wasn't the best quality either. Honestly I kind of wondered if it came out of a can, and I had to re-read the description to figure out what some of the chunks were. A lot of it was left on my plate. Next time the ratatouille it will be!


Wrapping up the week, I went with the Soba Noodle Bowl. I was worried this would be too similar to the first night's udon noodle bowl, and surprise, it was! But the confusing thing is that even though they were so similar, this dish was nowhere near as good as the other. I can't really explain it. Maybe the different noodles were the reason. The flavor and textures just weren't as good here. I probably wouldn't get this again, though the other vegetarian entree on this menu doesn't sound good to me at all. I guess I'd go with the shrimp, or more likely the salmon.


All in all, I was really happy with most of these dishes. It felt unfortunate that the final two nights were kind of a let down after some other great meals, but I'm glad I got to try so many things! I'm always impressed how good most of their vegetarian selections are, and I usually choose those over seafood because of that. I do think one of their menus could use a good portabella mushroom entree. There was one on Dream that I had many years ago that was really wonderful. Another eggplant dish could be a nice addition as well - maybe eggplant parm, or else roasted and stuffed.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

I guess my review has been mostly about food! But now I'll mention the venues / bars / lounges / entertainment areas that we visited.

Our first stop for a beverage after we boarded was the adult pool area bar (I guess that's maybe part of Cove Cafe?). We quickly found Terrapin IPA, and that would become our beer of choice onboard. The adult area was small and underwhelming. It's location at the back of the ship meant that it was less convenient to get to, but also it meant there was no through traffic. It was weird that on the port side, the adult area just dead-ended. We got our drinks, sat down in the chairs, and I took a quick dip in the pool. Even though small, the pool water was refreshing and I enjoyed it. There were only a couple of others in the water. I was only in briefly, just long enough to cool off, and that was the only time I went in for the week. We were back in the adult area once or twice briefly through the week, but mostly didn't get much use out of it. It was okay, just not where we ended up spending time. It kind of felt like an afterthought. I definitely enjoyed the Magic adult area more, despite it being busier.

We went to Skipper Society for several things ... a craft, a trivia session, some live music, to play some cards one day. We had a glass of wine or two there during some of that. I really liked this venue! I know some reviews I read mentioned they felt like it was too open to the halls and people passing by, but I liked that about this area! It kind of felt like a cozier meeting space off the Grand Hall area. They had a nice variety of seating, and I liked the theming of the space.

We were in the Haunted Mansion Parlor a few times. I was really excited about this, but also had read it was going to be really crowded. The kids and I went in a couple of times early on to look around, and there were usually a couple of seats available, but we didn't really stay long enough that I wanted to order anything those times. It was mainly just to look. It seemed like a lot of people were doing the same. It was smaller than I expected! Later in the week DH and I grabbed a drink there, their on-tap beer - both of which were really good. We found seats without trouble, and enjoyed the setting. The "show" or whatever it's called when the voice comes on and the lights flicker and dim was fine. I didn't really exactly follow along with what was happening. It's interesting enough for hanging out for a drink or two, but I think the frequency of that show and the general busyness of the place makes it not as appealing for staying all that long. Which is maybe what they intended on anyway.

We tried to go to Scat Cat Lounge. Usually when we passed by it was closed for private tastings, or one time we tried to go for live music and it was standing room only with people spilling out the door.

We tried to go to Triton's Lounge. Usually when we passed by it was closed completely, closed for private tastings, and the other time we tried they had family karaoke going on, which we were not interested in. We never even saw inside this one.

We went to Sarabi twice, both for trivia. The way the chairs are set up didn't seem to make it conducive for playing trivia with a team. The first time was during the day, and we got a good seat with being there 15 minutes early. The 2nd time was evening, adult only, and we again got there early and had good seats, but this time it filled up so much people were standing in the hallway trying to fill out their sheets. I wanted to see the Indiana Jones thing, but honestly I'm not a late night person, and 10:30 was kind of pushing it after full days.

We went to Periscope Pub once. It was pretty packed, but we squeezed into a corner. It was one of my kids and I, and we played a couple of rounds of cards. Someone came and took my drink order, but then 20 minutes passed and it never arrived. We got tired of how crowded it was, and left. I think they forgot about me, because others were receiving drinks from the same server, who had ordered after I did. And it was only a beer, nothing fancy to make. I would have liked to look around in more detail, but again it was just too crowded.

We tried to go to the Neverland theater. We wanted to see Captain America. We got there about 5 minutes before it started, and saw a line trying to get in and people turning around. We got a quick glimpse of a completely full and very small theater. I don't know what the capacity was, but it looked ridiculous for that size of a ship. I have no idea why their movie theaters are so much smaller than on the other ships. We had Captain America, Snow White, and Moana 2 on the list of possible shows we wanted to see, but we didn't try again after seeing how small it was. We didn't want to see them enough to arrive early enough to get seats.

We didn't try and go to any shows in the Walt Disney Theater. In general we're not super into those, and for the main ones, we saw people lining up over an hour early, and that was enough for us to decide against it. The only 2 shows we've gone to on our other Disney cruises, a kid threw up about 2 rows ahead of us in the aisle way for one of them, and the other was after it had become evident there was a covid surge on our ship (all the crew started wearing masks), and there was so much coughing going on in the audience that I couldn't enjoy it. So anyway, not really our thing.

We tried watching the Jungle Cruise choose your own adventure in the Grand Hall. It was crowded, and quickly seemed uninteresting to us. Maybe if we'd stuck it out a few more minutes it would have gotten better?

So anyway, it sounds like I didn't do that much! (I mentioned earlier we really like sitting on the verandah with our drinks). I felt very busy a lot of the time though! We saw some of the other places (hei hei cafe, jade cricket cafe), but never stopped in for a drink. We also didn't go to the Rose (I think that's what it's called?). Our main drink location became the Lookout which is next to the soft serve ice cream place, and then we'd have those up on the pool deck, or else bring them back to the room.

 

[MickeyD]

Thank you for your report. You mentioned several times about the crowds and that is one reason I am so hesitant to book the Treasure. It also sounds like the entertainment is quite as interesting. If the food is just so so, that is another black mark on booking this ship. I can't see for the price they are charging it would be worth it. We like to sit on our verandah and enjoy a drink as well, but for $6000+ I bet I can do that elsewhere. Guess I am just more of a Fantasy-class fan than the new mega ships, but I do appreciate your insight on those aspects that were definitely giving me pause in booking. Good confirmation!

 

[asgur5]

Sounds like they should make a rule that you can only go into the haunted mansion bar if you buy a drink. Whats the point of making an atmospheric themed bar if its full of people not drinking and taking photos ruining the atmosphere.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Sounds like they should make a rule that you can only go into the haunted mansion bar if you buy a drink. Whats the point of making an atmospheric themed bar if its full of people not drinking and taking photos ruining the atmosphere.

I don't know, haunted mansion is such a familiar attraction loved by so many, I wouldn't ever think of denying someone and their kids the option to look through it if they wanted. It's not like there was ever a line out the door trying to get in with no room to maneuver inside (like there was at Scat Cat Lounge the time we tried to go see live music). My kids and I were in and out pretty quickly, and there were seats available while we were there. And when I was there longer with my DH for an actual drink, people coming in to look or taking pictures didn't ruin anything for me. I imagine it might be less crowded with less of the sightseeing going on in the evening hours when they close it to kids, but we only went during the daytime.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

I guess I'll mention the pool deck food and Marceline Market next ... no pictures of any of it though.

The line for Goofy's Grill was usually the longest of all the options. I had wanted an impossible burger at some point, but I just never got around to it (not related to the line length, I just ate other things and didn't need to add a burger on top of that). I can get fake meat burgers plenty of other places though, so it wasn't a big deal. One of the kids had several burgers, hot dogs, and fries from there though. He liked it all very much, and I swiped several of his fries. Those fries are awesome! Goofy's was also the venue that was usually open a bit later after the other deck food had closed at 6pm (which I think is way too early).

Both kids got a few slices of Daisy's Pizza. It didn't look appealing at all to me. They didn't mention anything either positive or negative about it.

One kid and I had Donald's Cantina for lunch one day, and ordered bowls. I loaded mine up with rice, pinto beans, fajita vegetables, corn, lettuce, pico, guacamole, cheese, and then I added some of the serve your own salsa for good measure. Kid was more hesitant and just had rice, pico, and guacamole. I was really excited about this place because I love this type of food. It was fine, just not as good as I had hoped for. Maybe I should have added more salsa, or put in some hot sauce. It was overall just a bit bland. I also feel like it was screaming out to have some tortilla chips along with it, so I could scoop the rice and beans mixture out of the bowl with those. I would get this again if I find myself on Treasure, but I would try and spice it up a bit. Maybe I'd even carry on a bag of tortilla chips to put with this!

The BBQ place ... DH had ribs, brisket, pulled pork. He was mostly happy with this. Good flavor on the brisket crust especially. Some ribs were fall off the bone tender and others were tough. We have a lot of good BBQ where we're from, so I don't think Disney was going to quite compete with that, but I think overall it was good. He tried and liked the mac & cheese from here as well, along with the potato salad. I tried his potato salad, and it was pretty good, but I'm not a fan of hardboiled egg in my potato salad. I like hardboiled egg, just not in the potato salad. It could have used some salt also. I was glad to try the sweet potato fries, the macaroni salad, and the corn salad. The fries were good, but not great. I love sweet potato fries and almost always order them when it's an option. I felt like maybe these were not popular and had possibly been sitting a little too long. The corn salad was not good at all, somehow it was tough and chewy. The macaroni salad though, that was the real winner here. I loved the macaroni salad. It was just the right amount of tangy, delicious. This ended up being what I'd get several times in the late afternoon as a little snack before the late dinner.

The kids had ice cream most days, usually just vanilla, chocolate, or twist. I tried the mango and blueberry (not togther), and liked both. Mango loving kid did not like the mango ice cream. One day I saw green soft serve, and I was so hoping it was key lime, but found out it was mint (not my thing). I did like that this is not self serve on Treasure. I felt like on the other ships, they'd run out of cones frequently and the whole area became a bit of a mess with so many people handling it. There were lines for this, but they moved really quickly.

I guess I sound a little negative on the pool deck food, but if I could transport right there now I'd be super happy to have some ... maybe I'd get around to the impossible burger with the wonderful (regular) fries, and add a side of macaroni salad. Overall I felt like most things were good but could be improved, and a couple of things I really loved. I missed Daisy Delites where I could get fruit or a small little wrap for a late afternoon pre-dinner snack.

The main issue we found with the pool deck dining though was lack of tables to sit and eat the food, at least during lunchtime. They have areas where you can stand up and put your tray on a bar kind of thing, and that's how we ate the one time we were all up there during lunchtime. It seemed like the people who got tables would have one person sitting there reserving the table while others got their food, and then trade. There were also people there who were not getting food at all, and were just using the table as a base for all of their pool things ... cover ups, towels, books, water bottles, sunscreen. So we're standing up eating while tables have no people at them but are covered by their stuff. I think I only had lunch 1x from the deck food, and the rest of it was snacking for me. Later in the afternoon we could usually find a place to sit. Sometimes the kids would get food from the deck and bring it back to the room, because of the lack of tables. And once, 3 of us ate at Marceline Market for lunch and the other brought pool deck food in there to join us (which was not an issue at all). I don't remember finding an outside table to be an issue at all on the other ships.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Marceline Market ...

We ate here all breakfasts except one (when we got early room service since we were in port and needed to be off early), and we ate 2 lunches here. Food was all fine, similar to our Cabana's experiences. I think the Cabana's aft outdoor seating area is bigger, and in the mornings that option was always blocked off on Treasure. At first I thought it was because the first few days were really windy, but then it was blocked off even when it was calmer. This was kind of a bummer, because we always enjoyed eating breakfast outside looking back at the water. But, we found a table that became our regular, and we enjoyed the views out of there anyway.




For breakfast it was only ever DH and I. The kids slept in, and after we ate our meals we would make up plates for them and bring it back to the room. The first morning, I tried to find plant based 'meat', and asked at the counter where they had all of the bacon, sausage, etc. The person didn't know, had to go find a supervisor, then the supervisor was not sure, then they determined that I could have some specially made, and also if I could let them know the day before I would want it. I didn't want to deal with finding the specific people each morning who would know about my plant meat order from the previous day, and told them to just not worry about it. Later I saw that the omelet station mentioned plant based meat, so I don't know if I could have just gone there and gotten some whenever I had wanted. (I don't do omelets, so it took me awhile to notice this, and by then I just didn't care about it enough to pursue it). It would have been nice if the original people I had asked could have just pointed me in that direction.

I had a variety of things on different days, from hash browns, mickey waffles, oatmeal, yogurt berry parfaits, veggie fried rice, sauteed mushrooms, potatoes, fresh fruit, grilled tomatoes. I especially liked the fried rice and mushrooms, the oatmeal (loaded up with their topping options!), and the yogurt parfait. I didn't like that the strawberry compote for the waffles now comes in tiny cups and is more of a puree. There were no big chunks of strawberries in a sauce where I could ladle as much of it as I wanted on my waffles! I had loved that sauce. What they have now still has good flavor, but it's not the same.

For one lunch I had veggie korma, rice, samosa (identical to pirate night samosa), and carrot salad. For another I had stir fried noodles (quite similar to the Shanghai noodles on pirate night menu), calamari, shrimp, fries. I think there was a chocolate mousse dessert in there one day. Overall, the food was quite good, and seemed like a nice variety. I would have liked to have another lunch meal or two here. We didn't eat lunch on embarkation day on the ship - we had that on shore before our 12:45 PAT, because we didn't want to come on board hangry, didn't want to deal with first day crowds, and wanted to go right to our stateroom with our carry-on items. In retrospect I would have planned our CC day differently and had lunch on board rather than at Cookies, as that has never been all that great IMO.

We never found this location to be overly crowded, but for breakfast we were almost always there right at opening, and I think the same for lunch. I don't know what it would have looked like during mid morning. I would love if this would open a little earlier for breakfast. 6am would be great, we are early risers.

I wish I was back at Marceline Market now with some of the fried rice at breakfast, looking out at that view, browsing the app to plan out my day!

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Thank you for your report. You mentioned several times about the crowds and that is one reason I am so hesitant to book the Treasure. It also sounds like the entertainment is quite as interesting. If the food is just so so, that is another black mark on booking this ship. I can't see for the price they are charging it would be worth it. We like to sit on our verandah and enjoy a drink as well, but for $6000+ I bet I can do that elsewhere. Guess I am just more of a Fantasy-class fan than the new mega ships, but I do appreciate your insight on those aspects that were definitely giving me pause in booking. Good confirmation!

To be honest, I don't know that it felt much more crowded than our 2023 cruise on Magic. Both were spring break trips, so I think that's part of the reason. We were lucky to do our first 2 cruises ever (Dream and Fantasy) at times when school is in session for most, and wow, what a difference that made.

I feel like the entertainment areas, shows, theaters, were more crowded on Treasure. But on Magic, the food lines seemed worse. We were usually seated at the Treasure MDRs so much faster than on Magic. And, while we always get to the morning buffet early, I never noticed lines spilling out from Marceline Market later on in the morning like I saw outside of Cabanas on Magic ... at 9am it went out the hallway, into the aft stairway landing, and then snaked down a flight or two of stairs!

I think character lines felt similar on both ... and on both we almost always got there early to be in the first few.

Embark/debark crowds felt better with Treasure, though we were also there a bit later, and it was out of Port Canaveral vs. New Orleans.