OCSC Mike

6 minutes ago, GatorCruiser said:

I say yes to all the foods and beverages. I’m an any port in the storm type of eater. 

+1 to that. My "will not eat" list is very short... as is my wife's "will eat" list.

6 minutes ago, Cactus527 said:

no to poke bowls

Never had poke but I love nigiri & have had sashimi so I’m sure I’d like it.

Just now, SweetPea said:

Ok, maybe not #TeamMike'sWife! But Batman is! If I'm going BBQ, chicken is a waste! Give me dry rubbed ribs! But BBQ chicken is Batman's fave. 

I agree with the general avoidance of chicken sentiment. Nothing wrong with chicken... but everything else is better, lol.

Just now, SweetPea said:

Ah, so you made a decision! Nice! 

#TeamMike'sWife well, at least i think. I don't like BBQ sauce at all.

She'll eat BBQ sauce but only grilled chicken breast. No dark meat chicken, no ribs, no pork, no brisket... you get the idea.

2 minutes ago, asquared17 said:

i’m going to need a moment to recover that your wife — who is very particular about her food choices (which i fully understand) — eats a tuna poke bowl. 

WILD. 

That was @GatorCruiser's wife, lol. This is kind of a joint blog.

You'll love this part... my wife only eats one seafood item on the planet... tuna salad!

3 minutes ago, GatorCruiser said:

Doesn’t like bbq? She must not be southern. 

No, we're originally from the Philly 'burbs... but she's just extremely picky. I'll anything anything but you could have already guessed that.

7 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I have to say that Portside does bbq better. Everything else at Mason Jar was good but the brisket left a lot to be desired. Meanwhile I could eat Portside brisket for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

Since I've never had Portside nor MJ dinner, I'll let you guys fight it out.

I have heard some complaints about the BBQ at MJ (I see Gator posted his as I was typing this). We were going to try dinner but my wife doesn't really eat BBQ so she'd order the same savory stuff she does at brunch and I like the brunch items so much, it made sense for us to stick with brunch. The 40% off Black Friday sale on lunch/brunch didn't hurt either.

On 3/15/2024 at 3:18 PM, GatorCruiser said:

I didn’t , I will make sure to look for it. Thanks for the heads up! 

No problem. I can see the fire and smoke trail from my house if the sky is clear but it's not all that exciting (especially after the 100th launch). Still haven't seen one close up. There was one scheduled for like 12:30pm the day we boarded Wonder in June but it was scrubbed... we were pretty disappointed. Thought it would be cool to see from up on deck.

3 minutes ago, Jax said:

You are not alone! Just catching up now.  

What am I, chopped liver? Since you did excellent recon work at Paradise Beach for me... I'll let it slide.

Hey @GatorCruiser, if you didn't know, a Starlink launch was scrubbed last night and is now scheduled for 6:39pm tonight.

2 more days! Today's exciting updates...

Ummm... my wife's Spring Break started today so she's of course doing school work b/c teaching sucks and she wants to get as much done for post-break as she can. She mentioned gathering stuff to pack later today.

I have a little work to do; not much else planned. Packing doesn't involve very much prep for me. I'll just need to iron a few polos at some point (that's as dressy as I get).

Besides the cup holders (which I'm still not sure we need) I made one small Bezos purchase earlier this week. The little plastic waterproof thingy that holds cards and cash I've been using for years finally ceased to be waterproof so it has been replaced by a waterproof wallet of sorts. It's a little bigger so I won't have to cram in folded up cash along with sea passes and ID's when we do a water-based excursion but it's flat so I don't even think I'll notice it in the pocket of my swim trunks. It's also less likely to fall out while lying in a hammock like the old one did on CocoCay a few cruises back. Fortunately I thought to go back and look in the hammock and found it.

The FB page for this cruise continues to be unbearable. I woke up to a flame war between a woman whose 85 year-old father wanted to bring walkie-talkies b/c they don't want to pay for 7 people to have internet and he's concerned about losing touch with them. She was basically attacked by a guy telling her they are not permitted. I just don't get people. You have nothing better to do days before a cruise? Much like the guys who sat next to @Lovetocruise2002 and started fighting at that show... I don't even understand what they were fighting about. Other people were already sharing stories of travel shenanigans. There was a big snow storm in Colorado apparently and some people wound up driving to Texas to fly out of there. I also saw mention of tornadoes around Ohio. I'm definitely not Florida's biggest fan but I fully appreciate the one hour drive to PC.

Being the nerd that I am, I started checking to see if any ships might be joining us on CocoCay Monday that were previously scheduled to go to Labadee. I know a couple got switched to CocoCay later next week but I *think* we're still going to be there alone.

That's all I got for now. Reading back, there wasn't much reason to post all that, lol, but I feel the need to post something since I started this so early.

5 hours ago, ScottD said:

Did anyone watch the tv show 911 last night? All about a cruise ship being taken over by hostages... part 2 and 3 the next few weeks. This has nothing to do with this situation, but I figured since we were talking about movies..

We'll be watching it at some point today. Gotta clear out shows before the cruise.

1 hour ago, Jamesszy94 said:

Dinner was UK themed... the Fettucine Alfredo was very good

I was expecting to see UK food, lol. Glad it was good though.

1 hour ago, Cactus527 said:

It's sad that this cruise is done!

Said every cruiser ever unless you have a B2B and it's only the 1st leg, lol.

Thanks for the blog and safe travels!

19 minutes ago, Cactus527 said:

chicken burrito

I guess I'll have to re-try this along with the quesadilla next week. They were both so bad on Wonder in June I gave up and only made tacos.

25 minutes ago, Gilley said:

Will they let me use my husband’s WOW band to get his drinks or should I use his sea card?  He will have the DBP so I wanna use all his vouchers.

I use my wife's sea pass card all the time. I don't see why a WOW band would be any different but that's just my assumption.

6 minutes ago, Gilley said:

I’m around the Penn & Drexel campuses.

Ha, I went to Wharton undergrad. It was 100% the wrong school for me but I was there. Had a few friends that went to Drexel. Small world.

I followed my now wife down here after college a long time ago. She grew up in the 'burbs too but a little farther out.

2 minutes ago, Gilley said:

I love the way you cruise.   I’m taking notes.  Only thing I’m a solo cruiser most of the time.  Cruising only out of Jersey to save as I live in Philly.  Take the train for about 30-40 round trip.   Will be Diamond in May on Icon (family trip).  Looking forward to my drink vouchers and using my hubby’s. He got the DBP.

I'm flattered. Not sure I've ever heard someone say they were taking notes on my posts, lol, but glad I could help. I like how I cruise too.

Congrats in advance on turning Diamond! It was a big deal to me and I'm looking forward to D+ after next week's cruise but the jump to D is the big one, IMO.

I grew up in the Philly 'burbs btw if you've never seen me mention that.

16 minutes ago, GatorCruiser said:

Actually the concierges are Kenny and Norman. 

Nice. Kenny is a good guy. He took care of the usual stuff then mid-cruise randomly invited our family of 8 on a bridge tour which I had never done before.

18 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

All the may-oct 2025 itineraries are missing all of a sudden 

That's... ummm... odd.

Have you looked for an independent excursion through a site like TripAdvisor/Viator?

If you're not comfortable, that's fine, but you'll likely find many more options with better prices.

8 minutes ago, GatorCruiser said:

our SL concierge

Any chance one of the concierges is Kenny? He was who we mostly dealt with in June. The other concierge we had is now on Icon.

10 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

Driving to the port is the BEST, and that doesn't make a blog boring!

I just meant I wouldn't have much to share during the week before.

11 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

And i loved Capt Bob's! Have so much fun!

One trip there was about 30 of us or so and one of my friends got Capt Bob to dedicate two of his boats, just for us. And she negotiated both boats have rum punch as well as beer, soda, and water.

That's great! When I was e-mailing Bob I asked about the rum I saw people mention in recent TripAdvisor reviews. He said they have it aboard now but nothing mixed (I guess it's rum & coke or shots). I'd prefer rum punch but not a big deal. In 2017 it was just beer and soft drinks. I still remember being tossed a can while floating in the ocean.

32 minutes ago, Cactus527 said:

"Whoa, how much can you bench, bro?" "15 lbs, but I can do 8 crepes in one sitting."

That's me... 100%.

26 minutes ago, Cactus527 said:

This one felt more like it was designed to be snack size

That just means you have 2 (or 3), no worries.