Winter to Summer - A Month in the Summer Hemisphere - South America and South Pacific - Sightseeing in Lima

So, after our surprise of arriving and just loving Miraflores, our Belmond Miraflores hotel, and eating world class cuisine, now was our chance to see the highlights of Lima.

At 9am sharp, Gustavo from Incas Expert Travel and his driver, were waiting for us when we finished our Belmond breakfast, ready to conquer the world.

Kicking it with our guide Gustavo

One of the things we'd already groked in Lima is that a GPS may get you from point to point, but in a city growing as fast and large as Lima (11 million citizens and growing), you only get from point to point efficiently if someone who knows where the traffic tie-ups are and how to avoid them, is driving you.

Our first stop after traveling through Miraflores and San Isidro districts was Huaca Pucilana.


Huaca Pucilana is re-work in progress.  Built back in the 4th century A.D. it is now being restored, one brick at a time as our picture shows.  The guy at the bottom of the picture has a pile of bricks, which he is tossing to the guy in the middle, who in turn is tossing them to the guy in the top of the picture.  Once they have enough to complete another course, they start to work re-laying the ancient bricks.  In the picture directly below, you can see the completed courses and the unrestored courses above.  There is a lot of work to go but it is obvious that they are taking care to get things put properly back together to preserve their heritage.

Throwing 1500 Year old bricks 

Finished Product

Lima is truly a city of old and new.  It was a city in the time of the Pre-Incan and Inca eras, reutilized by the Spanish when they arrived and found Cusco to too difficult to run an empire from.  Today it is a mix of ancient, modern, and new with a clear mandate to restore and preserve their heritage.  At the same time though, Lima is experiencing the growth pains many countries are facing today as one third of the country's populace is now living in the greater Lima area.  Government services, infrastructure, and city planning are being challenged as more and more folks move from the countryside to find jobs in the city.  In addition to Peruvians, refugees from Venezuela and Bolivia are being welcomed and add to the influx.

Perhaps we didn't see the really "bad" areas in Lima on our travels around the city and surrounding districts but I can honestly say that while we saw some areas that were clearly less affluent than Miraflores or San Isidro, I didn't see any of the truly heart wrenching areas I've seen in other global urban aggregates where large numbers of people moving from rural areas to the metropolis are living in cardboard boxes and shipping containers under highway overpasses.

Another impression that will remain with us is that the Peruvian people living in Lima are into fitness and being outdoors.  Whether it was the number of folks taking surfing lessons right off the beach, work out classes in the parks or on the beach, and the soccer (football) players working out around pylons on sandy fields, it seemed like everyone is trying to stay fit amidst the hustle and bustle of city life.

As we drove into the city center, we were impressed by the well groomed parks, clean streets, and good looking architecture.  Turns out that the Historic Center of the city is UNESCO recognized proving once again that funding provided by UNESCO is put to good use by countries across the globe to preserve and protect their heritage for future generations and to the benefit of visitors like us.

Central Government Bulding

Empty Building

Paseo in the Shopping District

 The beautiful empty building above has an interesting story related to us by our guide Gustavo.  As many may remember, Peru in the 1980's faced many challenges.  Inflation was running 7000 (yes, three zeros)%, the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerillas were terrorizing the countryside, and lack of economic opportunity was creating an atmosphere of desperation - things were really bad.  As things in the city center deteriorated, the well-to-do folks living in this building and a number of others just like it, moved away to create new suburbs in San Isidro and Miraflores, leaving these buildings that were originally a mix of professional offices and apartments, completely empty.  While we couldn't see what the insides of these beautiful buildings looked like, the exteriors as evidenced in this picture show no external evidence of "urban blight".

In fact, I mentioned to Gustavo that as Lima continues to prosper and traffic into and out of the city's center continues to grow, I expect these buildings, bought up by far seeing and canny investors, will form the basis for the kind of gentrification we have seen in so many cities in the US and across the world.  Young urban professionals in Lima are already building smaller families than a generation ago so the large, single family homes sprinkled throughout the affluent suburbs won't be needed and the commute times to the City's center from the suburbs will continue to get longer.  There aren't any subways in Lima and making space for them amidst the growing pains of a city that was 300,000 25 or 30 years ago to one that exceeds 10 million today will be problematic.  It will be very interesting to see what happens in central Lima over the next 5 or 10 years.

Lima Cathedral

Everything in the Plaza de Armas is looking spiffy

Presidential Palace in the background

 Historically, Lima's connections to its time as a colony of Spain are treasured as part of their rich and blended cultural heritage.  As Gustavo walked us through the Cathedral of Lima, he pointed out the grave of Francisco Pizarro and walked us through the Peruvian equivalent of "Who's buried in Grant's tomb".  Apparently, a body on display for more than 100 years and believed to be Pizarro's was found to be someone else when the real remains of Pizarro were found in a long forgotten crypt.  Now both gentlemen are interred in adjoining crypts within the Cathedral.  As we walked throughout the church, Gustavo continued to point out interesting facts about what we were seeing and things we were seeing, but wouldn't have understood without his help.

Pizarro's Crypt

First off, the original construction of the church was in the traditional stone you'd see throughout Europe.  In fact, the church was built using an existing Inca temple as part of its foundation.  But unlike much of Europe, Peru is prone to earthquakes, so the vaulted stone ceilings came crashing down and were replaced by wood construction that was able to flex during earthquakes.  If we hadn't known they were built of wood, we wouldn't have noticed any difference to the hundreds of churches we've seen throughout Europe.


Next, there were slight variations in church symbology contained within the altars and magnificent paintings we could see on the walls.  These variations were deliberately added by Mestizo (mixed Spanish and Andean blood) craftsmen who did the actual crafting of the church's decorations and dedications.  Two particular examples stick in my mind...

First, the main altar was a combination of silver and gold.  While gold is the traditional color you'd expect to see in a Catholic altar, the silver worked into the design is a symbol of one of the Andean deities.  So the parishioners were getting a double blessing if you will.

The second example was a very large painting of the Last Supper hanging on the cathedral's wall.  Contained within the traditional scene of Jesus and the Twelve disciples were two local modifications.  First, one of the disciples was brown and rather than looking at Jesus, is looking directly at you, and second, the meal in the centerpiece of the scene was actually a guinea pig, adding more local "flavor" if you will. I wish we had pictures but unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures in this part of the church.

While more than 80% of Peruvian people today are Catholic by religion, the heritage of Incan and Pre-Incan spiritual beliefs managed to survive 400+ years of missionary influence.  In fact, one of the reasons why everything looked especially spiffy and clean during our visit is that Pope Frances was visiting Peru the following week.  Ironically, as Gustavo pointed out, despite the fact that the Spanish sought to destroy all remnants of existing worship and beliefs (and did a pretty good job throughout Peru of doing so), they were also the best chroniclers of what they found when they arrived and encountered the empire of the Inca.  So much of what is known today of what existed when the Spanish arrived, was preserved in their journals.

What I took away from our visit to Huaca Pucilana, the Cathedral of Lima and later on, to the Convent of San Francisco is the seamless blending of beliefs and history between two very different peoples and cultures.  As evidenced in the people of Peru today, it is all part of their shared story not one that stopped 500+ years ago, nor one that reviles those that tore down existing temples and destroyed 1000 years of pre-existing civilization.  As related to us by Gustavo, school kids in Peru are taught their entire history, Pre-Inca, Incan, Colonial, and modern in one continuous thread since it is this history that flows in their blood today.

Winter to Summer - A Month in the Summer Hemisphere - South America and South Pacific - Staying in Lima

Day #1 

Let me start by saying that we hadn't set any expectations for our stay in Peru.  We were here to catch an amazing 18-day cruise and decided, with Rachel's help, to spend a week getting to know Lima, Cusco, and Machu Picchu.  Boy, are we glad we did...  We went from saying, "You know, we'll never be passing through these parts again, so better see all the highlights while we're here" to "When are we coming back next time?"  But I'm getting ahead of myself, what happened to change our mind?  Here we go...

Our arrival at the Belmond Miraflores started with "Wow" - no other way to describe the understated but obvious elegance of the hotel we'd chosen for our stay in Lima.  

Hotel Arrival

Beautiful Lobby

Andrea Denegri from Guest Relations checked us in and then made everything we needed or desired, happen.  This included getting us lunch reservations at Central - a top "5" in the world restaurant - for the following day, dinner reservations at Fiesta Chiclayo Gourmet for our first meal in Lima, and her own recommendations for dining in Cusco when we headed that direction.  After Andrea worked her magic, we were greeted by the hotel's general manager, Thomas Moons, who introduced us to his hotel and made our arrival at the Belmond Miraflores complete.  Well, almost complete, Thomas mentioned we'd been upgraded and then between he and Andrea, they arranged for the marine layer to recede just in time for our first sunset in Peru, overlooking the beautiful park full of joggers, lovers, and happy dogs...

Our beautiful corner room - #704 

Miraflores boardwalk

Mall Overlooking the Pacific

A drink with dinner perhaps?

Our first impressions of Miraflores were so positive...  We walked a short distance from the hotel to a nearby mall to find an ATM to get some Peruvian Soles for our visit.  On the short walk through the park fronting the Belmond, we passed so many happy people along the way from small classes of people learning Brazilian martial arts, to dog walkers with 6 or 8 dogs on their leashes out for an afternoon stroll.  After walking perhaps 3 or 4 hundred yards, we arrived at the mall - hustle and bustle of well dressed people of all ages - surrounded by stores we'd see back in the USA with restaurants of every cuisine, all with amazing views of the Pacific Ocean.  With a little help from a mall security guard we found the promised ATM and proceeded to get some Soles as planned.  The ATM had a choice of English or Spanish text so running through the normal sequence of selections was as easy as it is at home.  On second thought, perhaps I should start practicing at home using the Spanish option, and save the English option for the road, but I digress...

















In addition to the wonderful people hosting us at Belmond Miraflores, we were also fortunate to get tour of the entire hotel from Jorge Carrera from Sales and Marketing.  Jorge showed us rooms in both traditional and modern motif - both beautiful in their own way - and most importantly, the Club Floor.  The Club Floor hosts an Executive Club set up to provide for both business people (fully appointed conference room) or international travelers arriving or departing outside of normal check in/check out hours and wanting a nice place to shower, eat, or rest until their room is ready or their ride to the airport is leaving.

Club Floor Entrance

We also sampled both food and drink at the Belmond...  Andrea had given us the heads up that breakfast was not to be missed.  She was so right.  For $15 US each, we ate in one of the best breakfast environments we've ever visited.  The food was magnificent, fresh, and varied making this one of the best values ever.  And the view?  On one side was a disappearing edge pool and on the other, was a view of the park and a Catholic Cathedral.  

Disappearing edge pool overlooking the Pacific

Buffet Spread

Fresh honey with bee pollen

Breakfast View

So with breakfast well taken care of, what about dinner and drink?  On Thursday nights, Thomas and his staff host a Manager's Happy Hour.  Each of the guests attending the Happy Hour had the chance to meet and chat with hotel staff and in doing so, take a true measure of the hotel and its personality.  Andrea shared tips and restaurants about Cusco and Machu Picchu while Eric showed us around the restaurant, explaining each piece of art and the concept of changing the art through the restaurant several times each year.  Meanwhile Renzo the head bartender created our first Pisco Sours in Peru.  After Happy Hour, we had a great dinner served on the patio, capping a perfect day in Lima.

Happy Hour

Belmond Patio Dining

Renzo shaking a Pisco Sour

Inside Dining    

Our First Pisco Sour

 While many of the people who host you - whether in a hotel or on a cruise ship - are those you get to talk to and interact with - there are other folks who we don't always see who make their presence felt in other ways... 


In this case it was a member of the Belmond's housekeeping staff who helpfully rearranged our toothbrushes and toothpaste while we were out to dinner.  This small kindness was emblematic of our stay - every thing and every one was perfect.  We couldn't imagine staying anywhere else the next time we visit Lima.

From a travel tip perspective, the Belmond was the first part of our baggage bread crumb plan.  We were packed for a 32 day trip with an 18 day cruise in the middle.  So we arranged our cruise clothes into our big bags and left everything we wouldn't need for our Cusco/Machu Picchu visit at the Belmond.  In Cusco, we left our two carry on rollers behind with everything we wouldn't need for our train trip to Aguas Calientes, tour of the Machu Picchu monument, and overnight stay in Aguas Calientes.  Our bread crumb plan worked perfectly as we picked up each piece we'd left behind in Cusco and then at the Belmond, greatly simplifying the task of luggage and "Trains, Planes, Ships, and Automobiles".

Next up, a transition from world class accommodations to world class dining --did you know Lima may be the world's new number one city for dining?

Winter to Summer - A Month in the Summer Hemisphere - South America and South Pacific - Departing Miami and Arriving in Lima Peru

We picked up our one way rental from Hertz — with pricing courtesy of Autoslash — as planned on the morning of our Naples departure.  Since we were flying out of Miami International (MIA) we drove east on Florida 41 (Tamiami Trail).  This time of year, it is a beautiful drive as our migratory birds flock to the Everglades through which 41 passed on the way to Miami.

After dropping Valerie at the Embassy Suites Miami Airport, I refueled the rental car (don’t do what I did and do it within sight of the airport — the gas prices are a dollar/gallon higher — than they are a mile or two away.  The other negative about refueling at the Shell is that you have to pull an “illegal” U-turn to get to the Rental Car return which is right across the street from the Shell station.

Once the car was returned, next up was figuring out how to get back to the Embassy Suites.  After asking the Hertz guy about it, he said the train station (Trirail) prevented this so he recommended going to the terminal and getting on the hotel shuttle, so onto the Rental Car Center to MIA Terminal people mover and down an escalator to reach the curb at Door 9 of Arrivals.  From here, I was able to text Embassy Suites and advise them where I was waiting for the Shuttle driver.  They let me know that he was on the way and sent me a link to an app that actually showed where the shuttle was in relation to each of the terminal locations — pretty cool actually.

The Embassy Suites at MIA is renovating with a really beautiful color scheme for the ground floor of their atrium. We loved the free happy hour which provided us two glasses of wine to celebrate the first stage of our trip.  We followed this with dinner in the hotel restaurant with both of us eating a very nice dish of pasta to help get us to sleep fast for our early wake up.  Our 5th floor room was nice sized but not conducive to sound sleep. Trirail trains passed throughout the night blowing their horns as they pulled into and out of the MIA station.  In addition to the trains, there was also a fair amount of jet noise on takeoff.  As a result, the short night was a little bit shorter...

Embassy Suites Miami Airport

Entrance to VIP Lounge

Up at 4:30 to catch the Hotel’s 5 am shuttle for a 6:57 flight located at MIA’s last gate - #31 (Copa).  With minimal early morning airport traffic, the Embassy Suite’s proximity to the airport allowed us to arrive at 5:15. Copa’s Priority Check-in process was smooth and efficient. TSA Pre-Check line was active and got us thru security in 5 minutes flat.  From there it was a short 3 minute walk to the VIP lounge across from our gate 4 Boarding gate. Hostess on second floor showed us into the Avianca lounge (Star Alliance and Premier Pass access).  The lounge was decently appointed with a free WiFi code handed out on entry.  

Inside the lounge

Our first segment was a smooth, three hour flight from MIA to Panama City (PTY) aboard a newish 737-800 configured with 4 rows of 2 x 2 seats in Business. Upon arrival, we headed to the lounge at PTY.  It was very busy but we managed to find two seats at the bar - the bar tender was one of those more experienced guys that’s seen everything at least once, a character you remember seeing…

Panama City on final approach

Our connecting flight from PTY to LIM (Lima) was on another Copa 737-800. Same 4 row 2 x2 seating configuration in this front cabin.  The food served was ok but nothing to write home about.  The best part was our flight attendant - she was just about the most bubbly flight attendant ever. 

One thing we noted about Copa is that they take good care of their priority customers - you aren’t fighting to get aboard and your bags actually come off first at your final destination.  Customs and Immigration on arrival to Jose Martin International in Lima (Callao - pronounced Kay-yow) was super fast - apparently, arriving internationally around 3pm is a very good thing and in sharp contrast to the 1:45 minute wait we'd experienced in San Jose, Costa Rica last year,

We were met by our host Rachel Walker from Incas Expert Travel (rachel@incas.expert)  - the lady who arranged all transfers and tours for our trip.  Even travel agents use travel experts when you are planning a complicated itinerary to a place you’ve never been to before.  We were quickly spirited to our driver and van and headed off from the airport located in Callao to our hotel in Miraflores.  The trip took about 45 minutes with Rachel narrating details about our trip and the things we were seeing along the way.  Lima’s traffic and driving environment weren’t the worst I’ve seen but I was sure glad I wasn’t contending with the crazy drivers on the way to a place I’d never been.

Once we got to the hotel, Rachel sat down with us and walked us through each day’s itinerary, providing emergency contact numbers in case something untoward occurred.  She had also prepared a list of recommended restaurants in Lima for our dining pleasure, including the secret places to get the best gelato in all of Peru. 

Thanking Rachel for her hard work

We had a very general outline of when we were arriving, the hotels we were going to stay in, and how long we’d be in Peru.  With this bare outline, Rachel crafted an itinerary of private tours in each recommended location with the connecting transfers that hit all the highlights during our 7 day stay.  Based on our experience over the next 7 days, I don’t think we could have chosen a better travel company for our time in Peru.  There is something comforting about seeing someone with a sign in each airport, hotel lobby or train station.  At the end of the day, from our arrival in Lima to our sail away from Lima, everything was flawlessly planned and executed.  As a result we’re very happy to recommend Incas Expert Travel and Rachel Walker should you be thinking about visiting Peru.  Over the  7 1/2 months we were planning and refining our trip, Rachel was always responsive, able to accommodate modifications we asked for, and dealt with a major procedural change for visits to the Machu Picchu sanctuary with aplomb.  Two thumbs up for Rachel and Incas Expert Travel - https://www.incas.expert/

Next up, Accommodations and Dining in Lima...

New York to Miami - Eating and Drinking aboard Oceania Insignia

Having someone else doing the shopping and cooking everyday is a key feature of cruising so the quality, tastiness, and variety of what you eat and drink aboard is an important consideration.

This was our first experience on Oceania Cruise Lines and we were very excited to try a product positioned as a "cut above" aboard Insignia.

In summary, we were pretty much blown away...  The quality and variety of food is clearly a cut above that we've experienced on our previous cruises.  Generally we cruise on medium to large sized ships (2000-5500 passengers) but have done several river cruises (~100 passengers) and a Windstar cruise (~200 passengers).  So like Goldilocks, we'd tried both sides but found the middle choice to be the perfect alternative.

So what were the things that blew us away?  Fish - first and foremost - we consistently had amazing fish of all types aboard Insignia - of particular excellence were the several banana leaf wrapped fish dishes that Valerie ordered.

Banana Leaf wrapped Sea Bass (note the little clothes pin that tied the wrap around the fish)

Fresh cooked Tuna

We also had a fresh tuna night - our Executive Chef Michael went shopping in St Lucia at the fishing boat docks and brought back just caught tuna that he and an assistant chef personally grilled to order for each customer on the Terrace Grill patio.

Exec Chef Michael cooking our tuna

The other "new to us" experiences were being able to order grilled to order lobster each night in the Terrace and being able to get freshly cooked to order pasta or risotto most lunches and dinners in Terrace.  After the first time, having a complete roast suckling pig on the Terrace buffet carving table was just "Ho Hum" - really?

Grilled Lobster from the buffet

The food was accompanied by excellent, "high touch" service - lots of waiters and assistants - and even very nice "you'd be happy to have it on your own dinner table" place settings.  We were also delighted to have several very nice discussions with our executive chef Michael (from Poland) - one discussion centered on the secrets of preparing risotto we'd seen him demonstrate during a cooking class on board.  Just really fun to be able to learn about cooking when you're not having to do it yourself...

Executive Chef Michael (right) and his Assistant in our cooking demonstration class

Another thing we found different aboard Insignia was actually looking forward to eating lunch or dinner in the buffet (Terrace) - we generally alternate between indoor and outdoor venues - if we ate lunch outdoors on the Terrace patio, we'd eat dinner in the Grand Dining Room and vice versa.

Terrace during Lunch

The view from the Terrace at night

A general observation aboard Insignia is that you can be as formal or country club casual as you'd like -- there were no designated "Formal Nights" - we tended to dress up for the Grand Dining Room or Specialty evenings and were more casual attired in Terrace.

The final general observation is that all of your dining is included in your cruise fare - Specialty and In Cabin course by course dining are not extra cost options.

Yes - safe to say we are now pretty much spoiled for anything less...  Here's a more detailed look at eating aboard Insignia.

Eating on Oceania Insignia
There are four dining areas aboard Insignia - the Terrace Cafe (Buffet), Waves (Burgers and Dogs), the Grand Dining Room, and the Polo Grill.  We'd managed to eat in each by the time we'd spent our first night docked in St George, Bermuda - nothing like eating your way across the Atlantic...  Here are our impressions and experiences.

The Grand Dining Room (the main dining room) is set up with for couples with each table a window set up for twosomes.

Window Table for 2

Elegant Table Setting in Grand Dining Room

Table in our favorite waiter Min's Section

Lunch in Grand Dining Room

I should preface discussion of the food we had in the Grand Dining Room by stating - for the record - we never ate breakfast in the Grand Dining Room.  But we did eat lunch there about every other day and found that lunch is just as delicious as dinner with varied menus of cuisine from around the world.  We quickly got used to being able to order sparkling water (Perrier, Pelegrino, and something fizzy in a big green plastic bottle) to accompany each meal (water is an included amenity for dining and in your room).  Another thing we loved was being able to get our favorite spicy sauce - Sambal Oelek - in both the Grand Dining Room and Terrace.  Our waiters loved bringing it our to us and Budi (from Bali) was even jazzing it up for us with specially chopped up peppers in the kitchen before he brought it to our table.

One of our highlights in the Grand Dining Room was their Gnocchi - Valerie has been searching, unsuccessfully, for the past 20+ years to replicate the Gnocchi she ate at an Italian Restaurant in Paris.  She had Gnocchi twice on our cruise that took her right back to Paris, which, considering the fact we lived in Italia for two years and now live in Naples, FL (Italian restaurants on every block almost...), says how good the Gnocchi was aboard Insignia.

We had several "Tastes of ..." samplers at lunch -- they were all yummy - this was Taste of Scandanavia

Standard Grand Dining Room fare - Wow!

Our favorite waiters - Budi (from Bali) and Min (from Myanmar)

Toscana experience

Toscana was our first Oceania specialty dining experience.  By the time we ate in Toscana, we'd already experienced the high quality Italian cuisine being prepared by our kitchen in the Grand Dining Room and Terrace Grill.  So we expected and experienced very good Italian food in Toscana.  Our best individual dish was a bone-in Veal chop with porcini cream sauce.  An unexpected treat was getting real buffalo mozzarella in our Caprese appetizer.  We live in a city (Naples, FL) that prides itself on Italian cuisine -- in general the taste and quality of what we got aboard Insignia was better than any of the Italian restaurants we frequent in Naples.  The experience was upscale as well with an olive oil and balsamic cart to accompany our fresh baked bread plate.

Yes - you will eat bread...

Balsamic and Olive Oil cart

Bone in Veal Chop with Porcini Mushroom Sauce - best Val's ever had

The Polo Grill experience

The Polo Grill is the "Steak and Chop House" aboard Insignia -- and of the two Specialty Restaurants on Insignia -- by far the busier.  Like Toscana, we had two included reservations for dinner in the Polo Grill and tried something different each evening.  Our best dish in Polo was Valerie's perfectly cooked Rib Eye on our second evening in Polo

A Wonderful Beet Appetizer in Polo

Perfect Rib Eye

The Terrace Cafe - A key reason for eating in Terrace is location, location, location...  Terrace on 9 deck aft occupies indoor and outdoor buffet dining which gives you the option of eating outdoors on beautiful Caribbean nights.

But it's not just the location - the food in the Terrace Cafe is the best buffet dining option we've ever experienced - better even than aboard River cruises in Europe and Asia.  On an average evening, you can get cook to order lamb chops, lobster, filet mignon, freshly prepared sushi, and cook to order pasta offered alongside the evening's special focus (e.g. Cuban night, Tuna night, Asian night...)

Service in the Terrace Cafe is just as good as the service in the Grand Dining Room and we actually saw our executive chef more frequently prowling the buffet line and talking with customers in Terrace than we saw him in the Grand Dining Room.  Clearly, buffet dining aboard Insignia is a point of pride and it shows in the product.

Nightly Sushi fare in Terrace

Cook to Order Pasta in Terrace

Waves

Waves is the other outdoor dining option aboard Insignia offering gourmet burgers, hot dogs, and fish items.  We ate in Waves before golfing in Bermuda - Waygyu burger with truffle sauce, really?  Also can't fail to mention that the adjacent Ice Cream counter offers Shakes, Malts, Cones, and Cups of ice cream made aboard this ship - these are included in your fare.

Specialty Coffee
Genuine Italian coffee ala Illy is offered in the coffee bar on 5 deck aft (just outside the Grand Dining Room entrance).  We quickly got into the habit of having "cafe" each afternoon - sometimes falling prey to the freshly baked cookies offered with your coffee.  Specialty coffee is included in your fare.

In Suite Dining

We regularly enjoyed coffee delivered by our butler Rony each morning.  We also sampled the offered canapés (included) on several afternoons.  They were actually more interesting than most we've tried on other cruise lines.  The best part of in suite dining on Insignia was being able to order off of the Specialty Dining menus (Toscano or Polo Grill) and have it served in your cabin.  I had the best individual piece of tuna I've ever eaten in our cabin that night.  So why eat in your cabin?  In our case, we had spent all day out on the golf course and didn't feel like getting cleaned up and re-dressed for dinner.  In Suite Dining, served course by course,  is a wonderful option...

Afternoon Canapes

Drink Packages

There are two different Beverage packages offered on board:
1) House Select - $39.95 per person/day and provides wine and beer by the glass at lunch and dinner meals - in restaurants or in your suite
2) Prestige Select - $59.95 per person/day and provides liquor, wine, and beer during all bar hours.

In addition to the Beverage packages, there is also a Wine by the Bottle package which starts at 7 bottles for $47.50/bottle.

We selected House Select (wine by the glass with lunch and dinner) and were pretty happy (drinkable choices but nothing really tasty) with the wines available by the glass.  From a value perspective, we feel we got good value for our money.  Our favorites from the available "by the glass" menu were a Bogle Chardonnay, a Noble Merlot, and a Woodbridge Cabernet.

In addition to these choices, we were also treated - thank you American Express - to a free wine tasting (and bottle of wine) and were delighted to find we also got to enjoy a Champagne breakfast in our cabin.  This was our only breakfast while onboard and have to say the scrambled eggs were amazing.

Happy Hour is available each evening in the ship's bars - Early - 4:30 - 6pm  and Late - 10-11pm -  with 2 for 1 drinks offered.