(Photo: ID 353609212 | Mai Tai © Bhofack2 | Dreamstime.com)
Some friends and others who have known me for a while think I’ve become a lush.
Well…not really, but I can drink more than I used to, with liquors harder than wine and beer. I attribute (blame?) that on my abundance of cruise travel over the last six years, when I started my Cruise Planners business. Before, I could have two drinks and feel tipsy. Now, I can have a couple more than that over the day and feel just fine most of the time.
Now, before you start judging, let me explain. With a standard cruise beverage package, you can have unlimited alcoholic drinks, juices, smoothies and coffee drinks at a maximum $15 price. If you want something more, pay the difference on our shipboard account. Building that tolerance is relatively easy when you want a wine or beer at lunch and dinner, a poolside afternoon cocktail, and a pre-dinner or nightcap drink.
On Harmony of the Seas, as with any cruise ship, there are plenty of places to drink. Some are more of a gimmick than anything. For instance, the Bionic Bar creates your cocktail by a robot. You order on a kiosk tablet, then watch your drink being made. Another is the Rising Tide. It looks like a regular venue, but its oval platform elevates from the Royal Promenade deck three floors above to Central Park, roughly every hour or so. We did not try any of these places.
I don’t like drinking any more than I usually have. But this opportunity has allowed me to learn about and appreciate different liquors and mixed drinks, and I have found I have my surprising favorites. Here are some of those I enjoyed on Harmony of the Seas.
Goombay Smash
I ordered this drink twice—once during the sailaway and once when it was the special of the day. Like roughly 70% of the cocktails on Royal, this mix has rum (coconut and black spiced), along with pineapple and orange juices. Thanks to the citrus base, this wasn’t too sweet, and it easily put me in vacation mode.
Rum Punch
If you’re looking for something with a little more strength, I would recommend this option. It takes nearly all of the ingredients of Planter’s Punch (see below) and adds another rum, guava and passion fruit syrups and a topper of black spiced rum. I recommend having this with some food; otherwise, it can literally punch you silly.
Planter’s Punch
One of two “punches” I tried onboard was this simple version: a mixture of dark rum, orange, pineapple, lime juices, and grenadine. Since I drank this on an excessively warm day, this quenched the thirst well without having that woozy feeling when you’ve had too much booze.
Painkiller
The nutmeg and coconut syrup touch distinguishes this rum cocktail from those I’ve mentioned before. It’s nearly identical to them, with pineapple and orange juice. But I don’t think this is aptly named. The version I drank barely killed any (physical) pain I had because it was quite watered down.
Mai Tai
This Hawaiian mixed drink can't be messed up, but Royal did just that. The best mai tais have an amber color and a balance between the two kinds of rum, curacao, syrup and lime juice. But this one was excessively orange, probably because they substituted some classic ingredients for too much orange juice.
Caribbean Mule/Mezcal Mule
I preferred these variations of the popular vodka cocktail over all the previous ones I’ve mentioned. The Caribbean mix had rum (naturally) and coconut syrup, along with the usual ginger beer and lime juice. At the same time, the mezcal replaced the vodka, added some tropical fruit syrups, and pineapple juice.
Classic Old Fashioned
When you’ve had too much of one kind of liquor (in this case, rum) in nearly all the mixed drinks you’ve enjoyed for a week, it’s good to return to the basics. This mix of whiskey, simple syrup, bitters and orange – the last cocktail I ordered on the cruise - fit the bill nicely.
