OCSC Mike

So I was right about breakfast. Ran down to Park Cafe for croissants & a McMuffin. After that we got ready & were off the ship around 8:45. We’re here with Grandeur & some people were already in our usual area by the pool but still mostly empty with plenty of loungers. Breezy & cloudy but the sun keeps peaking out.

No, Nassau was yesterday, CocoCay today.

I have good news and bad news. The bad news is you didn’t see the Utopia version b/c ours had multiple versions of all that stuff. Not sure how much my wife got in her pics but stay tuned. The good news is you have another reason to try Utopia now.

If I was hungrier I’d go have breakfast on my own. The sleep aid my wife took combined with a poor night one sleep really has her knocked out. Might go check out Park Cafe if she doesn’t wake up soon. I haven’t seen the breakfast spread there yet. I have a feeling she’ll say she doesn’t need a buffet & just wants a croissant or something & I should probably just have a McMuffin or bagel to save room for snack shack & chill grill lunch. The salmon omelet was really good though & also not heavy. Decisions decisions…

Love the last minute savings. The CP closes tonight for the 2nd leg of our current B2B & the UDP is back to 40% off so others may want to check that too. I was tempted at one point pre-cruise but after 2 days of eating and having the Utopia seafood, we even cancelled a lunch for next leg so I definitely don’t need that. Happy shopping all!

Rain looks far less likely btw so we’ll probably get off whenever my wife is ready & depending on breakfast. I just had a croissant with my coffee & she may not want a big breakfast. May sound weird to others but cloudy & breezy is my ideal beach weather in the summer. We have enough sun & heat at home.

Just got back from a nice walk across deck 16 to the CL. It’s cloudy and breezy so no sunrise but cool and peaceful. Saw a few guests & several crew taking care of overnight rain that left puddles around the pool deck. No one in the CL at 6:30am except the two attendants. One was finishing up with the coffee machine & the other was almost done putting food out. That’s pretty early. I didn’t want to get in their way & didn’t need pastries yet but looked like same spread as yesterday… chocolate & almond croissants & the fancy fruit danish we didn’t see elsewhere. Only minor complaint is the coffee machine isn’t super hot. No big deal, I don’t need to burn myself, but I do take it back across the whole ship before I drink it. Probably should have stayed in the CL or found a random spot, wife is still fast asleep. She woke up for a few seconds as I was leaving & returning. I was too lazy to take pics, sorry. Maybe next time if it’s less cloudy. We’re floating towards CocoCay at a snail’s pace.

They’re garlic parm fries, garlic sauce & shredded parm on top so no need for ranch. Highly recommend even if it’s as a side to something else. Got some extra sauce & cheese for the ones at the bottom. Usually a pretty good amount of fries to go with a not small bacon cheeseburger with an onion ring. The extra jumbo onion ring on the side is the one I make my wife keep on her burger to give to me, lol. She eats her burgers completely naked except for ketchup., not even cheese. When we have the UDP next year and I’m exploding from food, I plan to go through the rest of menu with our daily $20 since we always get burgers as a dinner. More popular than I realized. Weird quirk I noticed over the years, some omelette stations have it as an option, some don’t, just depends on the ship. I even remember one omelet cook a long time ago telling me he’d make it if I brought him the salmon from the bagel area.

Recap of last night later, probably from CocoCay. Wife has some great Aqua80TOO pics to drop me. Short version (JMHO of course although my wife was on the same page)… Aqua80TOO = Next level amazing! All In = Terrible is being polite (the set also broke with 10 mins left so we didn’t even see the end) I’m up too early per usual but slept pretty well for 5 hours or so. Wife is sleeping much better so that’s good. Looks like a little rain is possible this morning but then just cloudy so not sure if we’ll get off the ship a bit later than usual but looks like an OK day since we’re not here for sun. Gangway down at 8am.

Waiting to see Aqua80TOO in the fancy schmancy D+ and up section… which is conveniently under the Abyss overhang b/c there’s a light rain with a breeze so we’re getting the slightest bit wet. A crew member came around with piles of pool towels for everyone in all sections. Very nice touch.

Playmakers dinner, goal post marg, amazing burgers as usual and (don’t hate us) the service was fine. Our server, Alvin, was really nice and there to refill our waters several times.

Keeping in mind it’s only the night of day 2 and we cruise in our bubble (we were in the Solarium for half the day today)… the crowd feels no different than a 7N June cruise that we’d normally be on right now. There are plenty of kids & a wide range of ages. If anything changes I’ll definitely comment but right now slightly louder music on the Promenade has been the only difference for us between Utopia & any other ship.

Yes, it’s a pretty much identical on Utopia.

Oasis class is about all I sail & it’s not crowded at all if you go early. Boarded Utopia early yesterday & peacefully had a bunch of lobster & shrimp when WJ opened. It actually takes longer than many people think to get busy. Not everyone boards first thing, new cruisers are exploring, getting lost, not knowing to go there asap, etc. We prefer Solarium Bistro for breakfast but WJ isn’t bad at all if you go early.

I posted those pics with the monkeys & sloths last summer. I’m not completely incognito online… just mostly, lol.

Dodged some rain drops & went to Park Cafe before they closed at 5. Would have tried a Cuban sandwich if we weren’t going to Playmakers. Will eat there more after today along with ELF.

Depends how many my wife has eaten. Think she has 3 in a ziploc bag. They were smaller than usual.

Wing Zinger from Pesky Parrot. Frozen, fruity, a little sour, has Red Bull yellow to wake you up… not the most amazing drink but I liked it. Wife took a sip & made a face like she bit into a lemon, lol. I don’t think it’s THAT sour. We’re just pulling away from Nassau & it was raining lightly when I went to get that drink & check out the Promenade. Looks like Cafe Promenade doesn’t switch sandwiches… so stay away, @asquared17, no tuna on Utopia unless “tuna spread” in WJ counts. They have egg salad, Italian beef (tried that & one of the meats ruined it for me even though I love Italian hoagies/subs), and jerk chicken wraps. May go check Park Cafe for snacks if the rain has stopped. Gonna take pics, use our casino free play, and eventually make it to Playmakers after that. 8:30 Aqua show still on for now.

When you have 10 vouchers/day and your wife only uses one on average… I’m hoping she ups her game to at least two now that she can get banana daiquiris. Speaking of, we’re not doing very well today. Even if I have one at dinner & one per show we’ll still have like four left. I’ll have to go get something when she takes that nap. Switching topics, our shower is fixed. Have always had good experiences with maintenance quickly fixing minor issues.

We called an audible & cancelled our GK lunch for Friday (turnaround day). My wife said she really didn’t need it and I’m content just eating more embarkation day seafood. Also decided to go to Playmakers tonight before Aqua80TOO & All In. Not much planned between now & then. Wife might take a nap. I’d normally grab a snack but with the late start & Playmakers, will probably just use up a voucher or two. Oh yeah, the rubber seal on the bottom of our shower door partially broke off so the door doesn’t close. Maintenance should have fixed it by now but haven’t been back to the cabin in a while. Hopefully no more Internet or maintenance shenanigans after this.

NCL, MSC, and Disney ships here with us. Photo by my wife. Beach club in progress. Just one tiny section, would need many pics to capture it all & I’m too lazy for that.

Lunch part one - chicken chettinad from WJ. Indian food is always good. This was fairly spicy by WJ standards. Wife had chicken tenders again but with sweet n sour sauce this time. Part two - tried the chipotle chicken sandwich from Spare Tire & got another chimichanga. Sandwich tasted like very meh chicken salad with too much roll. Grabbed a lime & coconut on the way back to the Solarium too. Pleasantly cool in here but has gotten pretty crowded as people probably got back from port. It’s a bit louder but not bothersome.

Anything coffee works for me too, that’s why I wanted to try the real one. I’ll get to the frozen drinks next time we’re lounging onboard, probably day 4. That’s what I was planning to try this morning.

The crew has it so rough doing the short cruises they needed to hit Pesky Parrot. Lame joke, they were doing some sort of drill. We were waiting to fail at dingbats, like a word/logic puzzle type thing that I used to be good at. Must be getting old. After that I was going to try some frozen Pesky Parrot drinks but my wife decided to modify the Monkey Business by losing the coffee liqueur & adding chocolate syrup. While watching the bartender make it I realized they had banana daiquiri mix (the one flavor Wonder never had that my wife loves). She thought it was OK then predictably gave it to me to finish & ordered a virgin banana daiquiri with chocolate syrup. Every bar has banana on Utopia apparently so my wife is happy. Her modified Monkey Business tasted like chocolate milk with a little rum & banana but I drank it. I may try the real version at some point but later at night.