OCSC Mike

Afternoon snack. Big fan of the $10 Izumi in the Park credit since I don’t get much sushi at home & it’s not exactly a heavy snack. Wife might try a bubble cone later tonight with hers.

Boooo… love bacon cheeseburgers with an egg. I’m gonna be pushing 50 in the not so distant future and I still feel weird drinking anything from a martini glass, lol. I’m definitely more casual big kid than sophisticated adult & I don’t see that changing.

That’s a new one, lol. Not exactly a complicated dish. It wasn’t THAT bad at Chops, just bad in the context of eating a nice steak with really good potato sides, somewhat upscale apps, etc. We used to go to Fleming’s (fairly pricey steakhouse chain, dunno how national it is) for special occasions & they had a spicy mac baked with breadcrumbs that was one of my favorites. Speaking of mac n cheese, my wife is looking forward to trying the mac n cheese nuggets from the Hooked kids menu tonight and they do have lobster mac…

We all have our priorities.

That and new bars are most appealing to me but you already knew that +1 to all of that. I love that our first Mason Jar brunch was on a family cruise & we ordered 75% of the menu. I’ve got my favorites now but I would have needed a few meals to narrow it down otherwise.

It slowly filled up and was fairly busy by 1:00 or so. There were also quite a few crew members having lunch there. We decided to keep our plans as-is, btw. View from the outdoor terrace Rolls Caprese salad (figured I would stick with the salad theme since it worked last night & is lighter than meatballs or fried calamari or whatever & glad I did) Half truffle/egg, half plain pizza (it was different & I enjoyed it but will probably go back to the Giovanni pizza next time) Chicken parm (wife wanted to try it again b/c she didn’t love it last time she ordered it. she liked it, just too heavy for lunch but we knew that. they should really have lunch portions for some items.) Carbonara (still good, still heavy, I was good and didn’t even try to finish it) Chocolate ravioli (still my wife’s favorite dessert) Go bananas

Got to GK for lunch 5 minutes early (or 20 mins, can’t tell with the reservation issue and my wife’s app notification said 12:15 while mine said 12:00, lol). Anyway, we’re all alone in here. We’re also considering changing dinner plans for tomorrow night. More on that later.

The problem for us, if you haven’t noticed, is that there is very little overlap in what like & order. We shared the Chops sides (although my wife said she will not be sharing the mashed potatoes next time, lol) but we order completely different stuff at Mason Jar. We can’t even share fried chicken there b/c she only eats chicken breast from the sandwich, lol.

What happens when stuff is new & you like tons of different items in general? This is clearly a learn as you go situation but the forum input is helping. At least I'm too busy with sushi for these but I’ll try it when my wife finally orders one.

Chops dinner We really enjoyed Chops. Nothing against the steak which was very good but I think I liked some of the other items more just for the uniqueness. We both loved the pretzel bread. Caesar salad Fried goat cheese salad (really enjoyed this and I almost never order salad in restaurants unless it comes with the meal) Pepper bacon (interesting and unique to me; I liked it except for the part that was all fat) Filet Bone-in ribeye Gruyere tots (really liked these, filling was like mashed potatoes) Mashed potatoes (we both loved them & my wife is a mashed potato expert, lol) Truffle fries (wife wanted to try them; I’d eat them with the burger if we ever had lunch but not worth it for dinner over the other potatoes IMO) Mac n cheese (only thing we didn’t like) The Truffle (I don’t generally order anything like an espresso martini even though I’m a coffee drinker but we had vouchers to burn and this was very good) Warm chocolate cake (wife liked it but didn’t think it was special) Red velvet cake (this was good but pretty heavy with the thick cream cheese icing. I wanted to try the key lime pie too but there was no way I was eating two desserts after seeing how large the slices were as others ordered dessert around us) We’re going to recommend a 2nd dinner at Chops for the family cruise in March since we need a couple repeats due to skipping certain restaurants for one reason or another.

Forgot to share this non-IT shenanigan that was in our cabin yesterday.

WJ & MDR have free hard ice cream (at least on Wonder & Utopia).

With the caveat that entertainment is subjective & I'm not a big show guy, my wife & I hated it. We also saw it with my wife’s parents as well as my teen/tween nieces at the time… and no one liked it. It’s essentially all random singing with some video screen stuff in the background. I’d see anything once but if you’re short on time, hard pass. Just to end on a positive note… Wonder has my favorite ice show.

I actually wasn’t sure I could but that menu isn’t too exciting to me or else it’s something too big like a burger/chicken sandwich. It does have my wife’s favorite dessert though. I’ll be perfectly content with afternoon sushi & late night Playmakers as long as I can stay hungry & motivated if we’re not already near Playmakers.

Agree with all of that. I wish GK Wine Bar had takeout all day. Could grab a pizza to split or maybe just one of the apps or a dessert in the afternoon as a snack. The sushi window is great. Seems like most places will one way or another but good to know. My younger niece lives on JR hot dogs, lol. I plan to eat at PM after the aqua show tonight since it won’t be late and we’ll already be there but if I’m grabbing a snack at 10:30 or whatever when we’re not staying up late I’d likely take stuff to go like I normally do with Sorrento’s.

I don’t want to butcher the CL concierge’s name. He’s from China, like Jen, but doesn’t use an Americanized name. Very nice guy. Told us the CL is so quiet & boring. We brought him some chocolate bars (he did give us the magic dots after all but my wife brought extra just to give to whomever). It wasn’t a bribe & not sure we’ll use them this leg but we’re special again, lol.

Docked at Nassau an hour early. Too lazy for beach club pics & I just took some 4 days ago anyway. Putting off Chops pics so here’s some other stuff. Izumi in the Park sushi to go. Each takeout box is $10 (exact amount of the UDP daily credit). Decent amount IMO. I asked for all nigiri but I’m fine with rolls too. CP is insanely loud during sail away from the pool deck. Could barely hear the Izumi guy when ordering (through the window like 3 feet apart) so I don’t fault him. We asked him how he can stand it & he just kinda smiled (I think he wanted to say how awful it is).

Nice meeting you as well. No worries responding. Thanks, I’m just going to accept the compliments even though I still feel like I mostly just post food pics with some less than exciting details about our days. Glad others enjoy them though. Yeah, it got crazy on the promenade after you got off. I like iced coffee as a break from my usual CL hot coffee but not sure it was worth it that morning, lol.

Yeah, that was the plan pre-cruise (Playmakers late night). I absolutely love their burgers but wanted to try other stuff b/c most would be new to me & more of a snack (buffalo crunch roll, poppers, onion rings, wings, etc.) Also figured my wife will want to try the cookie, even if she just has a few bites. We have GK lunch & Hooked dinner today but I definitely plan to get to Playmakers tonight. Will also continue to grab sushi in CP (nice addition to Utopia). Not only do I like it but I rarely eat it at home & it’s not heavy.

Not much difference between the 6-6:30am CL walk & the 7:30am version. The sun is up & I saw maybe 3 dozen people instead of almost none. Having coffee with the hippos while wife went walking. Still deciding what small breakfast to have. Will probably just grab pastries from SB with my 2nd cup of coffee. Highly doubt my wife will eat anything except maybe fruit. She felt really full last night. Don’t think it’s as easy for her to go from eating healthy at home to a big lunch & dinner.

Chops pics & thoughts still to come as well as some other pics. Not a whole lot else to share about last night. We went to 5pm trivia (general knowledge) for the heck of it & failed (I need a theme), took photos, talked with the CL concierge for a bit after my wife checked for krispie treats, then got pretty full from dinner & wound up crashing early instead of going to Perfect Couple (which was much funnier on Wonder anyway). We also briefly considered watching some of Back to the Future in the aqua theater (subliminal advertisement for Star I think). My wife was stuffed from Chops & sadly I lacked the motivation to go all the way to Playmakers alone just b/c I had my credit so I feel like we’re already failing at the UDP, lol. I did get sushi at Izumi in the Park so there’s that. If we had watched Back to the Future I’m sure I would have gotten something since we would have already been on the Boardwalk. Oh well, current plan is 8:30 aqua show tonight so hopefully after that.

Didn’t really think you were, just putting a semi-positive spin on it? Hope you get less busy & if not you have more summer cruises coming at least.

That was actually my wife’s. She drank about half of it & I had a sip. I know you were joking but FWIW it’s actually been pretty cold on the ship in most of the inside areas.

Pre-cruise diet is important.

We changed after brunch, went in the hot tub for a bit, then returned to our spot by the hippos. I reminded my wife we have credits for Izumi in the Park & Playmakers (didn’t even mention GK Wine Bar). I’d translate her response as “are you kidding me?” TBH, I’m kinda feeling the same way. If nothing else, this is gonna be interesting.