betatke1480

If you find the soft pretzels, please let us know where.  My 11 year old loves them!  It will be his snack of choice when we are on in a few weeks.  In the ATS 9th floor-super excited!

Having not edited any of these photos, here we go.  
Dinner was in Izumi on the Sushi side.  There was only one other couple in the entire Sushi side.  Both hibachi tables were full.  Easy to tell that few people know about specialty dining on the first night.  
Smitha came by while we were at dinner and asked what we wanted for snacks to eat during the Aqua80s show.  We finished dinner early and made it back to the room to watch the 8:30 show.  When we came in off of the balcony we had our snacks of chips and nachos, plus more chocolate covered strawberries (up to 12 so far), and our drinks.  Even though we asked for hard liquor, Smitha had our drinks delivered for the show.  One let down was not getting soft pretzels.  Shane, our genie on Anthem, had them pulled from the pub.  We asked Smitha for them since Virginia is a huge fan, and she wasn't able to get any to our room.  We'd even asked about them pre-cruise, so that was kind of a bummer.  As soon as Virginia came back to the room from Adventure Ocean, she was immediately asking for soft pretzels, so it's a big time bummer around here on that front.  
The 8:30 show was very good.  They took a couple of elements out due to the wind.  Oasis is a ship that you can rarely feel any movement.  Not sure if it's because we are all the way aft, but the seas are definitely rocking tonight.  It's cold and windy on the balcony, and the ship is moving enough to rattle the hangers in the closet, which is quite a bit for Oasis.  
Random thoughts from the day:
AO check-in is super easy now, and Virginia loved the new set-up.
Izumi was fantastic, as usual.  
While we love the room, it is disappointing they didn't update the SC rooms during the dry dock.  After having been in SC on Anthem, Oasis just feels dated in styling.  Also, we loved the loft for the large amount of space it gave us, and miss having the two stories, but the private bedrooms and a true "living room" are really nice.  
The Aqua Theater show is amazing.  Having not seen Aqua80s before, it is a big upgrade from Oasis of Dreams.  Also, watching from our balcony gives you a completely different perspective of the talent and "guts" required to do some of the things they do.  Also known as a "big box of NOPE" from me on some of these things.  
I will say the noise is a little loud in the living room, but in the bedrooms it isn't too bad.
I did a room tour, but the file is too big to upload.  Perhaps I'll upload it on dry land.  

They are definitely in the splash zone, and it was quite windy and chilly last night. 

Having not edited any of these photos, here we go.  
Dinner was in Izumi on the Sushi side.  There was only one other couple in the entire Sushi side.  Both hibachi tables were full.  Easy to tell that few people know about specialty dining on the first night.  
Smitha came by while we were at dinner and asked what we wanted for snacks to eat during the Aqua80s show.  We finished dinner early and made it back to the room to watch the 8:30 show.  When we came in off of the balcony we had our snacks of chips and nachos, plus more chocolate covered strawberries (up to 12 so far), and our drinks.  Even though we asked for hard liquor, Smitha had our drinks delivered for the show.  One let down was not getting soft pretzels.  Shane, our genie on Anthem, had them pulled from the pub.  We asked Smitha for them since Virginia is a huge fan, and she wasn't able to get any to our room.  We'd even asked about them pre-cruise, so that was kind of a bummer.  As soon as Virginia came back to the room from Adventure Ocean, she was immediately asking for soft pretzels, so it's a big time bummer around here on that front.  
The 8:30 show was very good.  They took a couple of elements out due to the wind.  Oasis is a ship that you can rarely feel any movement.  Not sure if it's because we are all the way aft, but the seas are definitely rocking tonight.  It's cold and windy on the balcony, and the ship is moving enough to rattle the hangers in the closet, which is quite a bit for Oasis.  
Random thoughts from the day:
AO check-in is super easy now, and Virginia loved the new set-up.
Izumi was fantastic, as usual.  
While we love the room, it is disappointing they didn't update the SC rooms during the dry dock.  After having been in SC on Anthem, Oasis just feels dated in styling.  Also, we loved the loft for the large amount of space it gave us, and miss having the two stories, but the private bedrooms and a true "living room" are really nice.  
The Aqua Theater show is amazing.  Having not seen Aqua80s before, it is a big upgrade from Oasis of Dreams.  Also, watching from our balcony gives you a completely different perspective of the talent and "guts" required to do some of the things they do.  Also known as a "big box of NOPE" from me on some of these things.  
I will say the noise is a little loud in the living room, but in the bedrooms it isn't too bad.
I did a room tour, but the file is too big to upload.  Perhaps I'll upload it on dry land.  

Everything was covered at Playmakers for SC. 
 
probably not staying up for the balloon drop. 
 
after Muster Drill we grabbed a drink at Schooner Bar. We were delayed out of Miami due to an Alpha call and an ambulance needed. Now we’re going and beat the Norwegian Encore out of port since it had to turn around. Heading to Izumi for Sushi tonight and we can’t wait. Then watching the Aqua80s show from our balcony at 10:45. 
 
 

Left the hotel at around 10 and we were in our room by 10:35. We barely had time to snag a glance at the propellers in Terminal A. Smitha was waiting for us at the suite lounge, so we didn’t even have a chance to stop there. Sandwiches and desserts were brought to the room, as well as a birthday cake for Abby. 
 
we also celebrated with champagne on the room. Then it was off to explore the ship with my in-laws. Lunch at playmakers. The buffalo chicken crunch rolls were the best thing we had. The rest of the food was good, but those were the favorites. Had a Michelob Ultra. Then off to the New Adventure Ocean. We ran into a teacher that Virginia had on the Anthem GC last year. The teacher is in the 6-12 year old class and told Virginia if she wants to move up from 3-5 she can.  We are going to play it by ear and see what she wants. 
 
after registering for AO we walked the pool deck then grabbed the first Kraken Lava Flow before a trip down the Ultimate Abyss. Much slower than expected, but was fun. 
 
I’ll come back and add pictures later. Now back to get more to drink before Muster Drill. 

Hotel was great for the night, and the free breakfast this morning was good. They had an omelette bar, waffles, scrambled eggs, etc. having been up since 7 am, we are restlessly waiting to go to the port. If Virginia had her way we would have left the hotel at 7:30. She was going around to all four of us saying “come on and get going. We need to get our taxi to the ship.”
We will probably leave here around 10 am and get to the port around 10:30 ish. Already planning what we will eat for lunch and what my first drink will be. We are leaning Playmakers for lunch and I’ll probably get my Kraken Lava Flow so that I’ll really feel like I’m on vacation. 
 
Virginia is currently in her “pillow car” driving us to the port. 

As mentioned previously, the South Beach Food and Wine Festival is in Miami this weekend, so prices for hotels nearer to the cruise port were CRAZY expensive.  We flew into FLL via SWA and then Ubered to our hotel, the Hyatt House Miami Airport.  UberXL for 5 passengers and all of our bags was $80.  The Hyatt House is great.  We got a 2 Bedroom suite, so Abby and I are in one room, the in-laws in another, and Virginia is on the couch.  No pictures because we exploded our crap into the room, but you walk in and there's a full kitchen with a bar and 3 bar stools.  Then there is an "L"-shaped couch and TV.  On either side are the two bedrooms with en suite bathroom.  For all 5 of us the room was about $300, which for us all to be in one room is great, and we have a common area to share to watch TV.  
The hotel does have basic snacks in the bar downstairs, and is walking distance from a Publix, as an option for dinner or supplies pre-cruise.  There isn't a lot of restaurants nearby, but we used DoorDash for some Cuban sandwiches from Rincon Criollo, which were pretty tasty.  Tomorrow we have full breakfast included, so we're looking forward to taking advantage of that before we Uber over to the port.  
Landing was a bit dicey in FLL as there as a big wind shear right as we reached the runway, pilot on got the left side wheel down, and felt a little like we were about to flip and roll.  Luckily he saved it and we're alive to tell the story.  
I do have to remember to start taking pictures for the blog, and promise to do better once we start on our Voyage tomorrow!

They are definitely in the splash zone, and it was quite windy and chilly last night. 

Having not edited any of these photos, here we go.  
Dinner was in Izumi on the Sushi side.  There was only one other couple in the entire Sushi side.  Both hibachi tables were full.  Easy to tell that few people know about specialty dining on the first night.  
Smitha came by while we were at dinner and asked what we wanted for snacks to eat during the Aqua80s show.  We finished dinner early and made it back to the room to watch the 8:30 show.  When we came in off of the balcony we had our snacks of chips and nachos, plus more chocolate covered strawberries (up to 12 so far), and our drinks.  Even though we asked for hard liquor, Smitha had our drinks delivered for the show.  One let down was not getting soft pretzels.  Shane, our genie on Anthem, had them pulled from the pub.  We asked Smitha for them since Virginia is a huge fan, and she wasn't able to get any to our room.  We'd even asked about them pre-cruise, so that was kind of a bummer.  As soon as Virginia came back to the room from Adventure Ocean, she was immediately asking for soft pretzels, so it's a big time bummer around here on that front.  
The 8:30 show was very good.  They took a couple of elements out due to the wind.  Oasis is a ship that you can rarely feel any movement.  Not sure if it's because we are all the way aft, but the seas are definitely rocking tonight.  It's cold and windy on the balcony, and the ship is moving enough to rattle the hangers in the closet, which is quite a bit for Oasis.  
Random thoughts from the day:
AO check-in is super easy now, and Virginia loved the new set-up.
Izumi was fantastic, as usual.  
While we love the room, it is disappointing they didn't update the SC rooms during the dry dock.  After having been in SC on Anthem, Oasis just feels dated in styling.  Also, we loved the loft for the large amount of space it gave us, and miss having the two stories, but the private bedrooms and a true "living room" are really nice.  
The Aqua Theater show is amazing.  Having not seen Aqua80s before, it is a big upgrade from Oasis of Dreams.  Also, watching from our balcony gives you a completely different perspective of the talent and "guts" required to do some of the things they do.  Also known as a "big box of NOPE" from me on some of these things.  
I will say the noise is a little loud in the living room, but in the bedrooms it isn't too bad.
I did a room tour, but the file is too big to upload.  Perhaps I'll upload it on dry land.  

Everything was covered at Playmakers for SC. 
 
probably not staying up for the balloon drop. 
 
after Muster Drill we grabbed a drink at Schooner Bar. We were delayed out of Miami due to an Alpha call and an ambulance needed. Now we’re going and beat the Norwegian Encore out of port since it had to turn around. Heading to Izumi for Sushi tonight and we can’t wait. Then watching the Aqua80s show from our balcony at 10:45. 
 
 

Having not edited any of these photos, here we go.  
Dinner was in Izumi on the Sushi side.  There was only one other couple in the entire Sushi side.  Both hibachi tables were full.  Easy to tell that few people know about specialty dining on the first night.  
Smitha came by while we were at dinner and asked what we wanted for snacks to eat during the Aqua80s show.  We finished dinner early and made it back to the room to watch the 8:30 show.  When we came in off of the balcony we had our snacks of chips and nachos, plus more chocolate covered strawberries (up to 12 so far), and our drinks.  Even though we asked for hard liquor, Smitha had our drinks delivered for the show.  One let down was not getting soft pretzels.  Shane, our genie on Anthem, had them pulled from the pub.  We asked Smitha for them since Virginia is a huge fan, and she wasn't able to get any to our room.  We'd even asked about them pre-cruise, so that was kind of a bummer.  As soon as Virginia came back to the room from Adventure Ocean, she was immediately asking for soft pretzels, so it's a big time bummer around here on that front.  
The 8:30 show was very good.  They took a couple of elements out due to the wind.  Oasis is a ship that you can rarely feel any movement.  Not sure if it's because we are all the way aft, but the seas are definitely rocking tonight.  It's cold and windy on the balcony, and the ship is moving enough to rattle the hangers in the closet, which is quite a bit for Oasis.  
Random thoughts from the day:
AO check-in is super easy now, and Virginia loved the new set-up.
Izumi was fantastic, as usual.  
While we love the room, it is disappointing they didn't update the SC rooms during the dry dock.  After having been in SC on Anthem, Oasis just feels dated in styling.  Also, we loved the loft for the large amount of space it gave us, and miss having the two stories, but the private bedrooms and a true "living room" are really nice.  
The Aqua Theater show is amazing.  Having not seen Aqua80s before, it is a big upgrade from Oasis of Dreams.  Also, watching from our balcony gives you a completely different perspective of the talent and "guts" required to do some of the things they do.  Also known as a "big box of NOPE" from me on some of these things.  
I will say the noise is a little loud in the living room, but in the bedrooms it isn't too bad.
I did a room tour, but the file is too big to upload.  Perhaps I'll upload it on dry land.  

Having not edited any of these photos, here we go.  
Dinner was in Izumi on the Sushi side.  There was only one other couple in the entire Sushi side.  Both hibachi tables were full.  Easy to tell that few people know about specialty dining on the first night.  
Smitha came by while we were at dinner and asked what we wanted for snacks to eat during the Aqua80s show.  We finished dinner early and made it back to the room to watch the 8:30 show.  When we came in off of the balcony we had our snacks of chips and nachos, plus more chocolate covered strawberries (up to 12 so far), and our drinks.  Even though we asked for hard liquor, Smitha had our drinks delivered for the show.  One let down was not getting soft pretzels.  Shane, our genie on Anthem, had them pulled from the pub.  We asked Smitha for them since Virginia is a huge fan, and she wasn't able to get any to our room.  We'd even asked about them pre-cruise, so that was kind of a bummer.  As soon as Virginia came back to the room from Adventure Ocean, she was immediately asking for soft pretzels, so it's a big time bummer around here on that front.  
The 8:30 show was very good.  They took a couple of elements out due to the wind.  Oasis is a ship that you can rarely feel any movement.  Not sure if it's because we are all the way aft, but the seas are definitely rocking tonight.  It's cold and windy on the balcony, and the ship is moving enough to rattle the hangers in the closet, which is quite a bit for Oasis.  
Random thoughts from the day:
AO check-in is super easy now, and Virginia loved the new set-up.
Izumi was fantastic, as usual.  
While we love the room, it is disappointing they didn't update the SC rooms during the dry dock.  After having been in SC on Anthem, Oasis just feels dated in styling.  Also, we loved the loft for the large amount of space it gave us, and miss having the two stories, but the private bedrooms and a true "living room" are really nice.  
The Aqua Theater show is amazing.  Having not seen Aqua80s before, it is a big upgrade from Oasis of Dreams.  Also, watching from our balcony gives you a completely different perspective of the talent and "guts" required to do some of the things they do.  Also known as a "big box of NOPE" from me on some of these things.  
I will say the noise is a little loud in the living room, but in the bedrooms it isn't too bad.
I did a room tour, but the file is too big to upload.  Perhaps I'll upload it on dry land.  

Hotel was great for the night, and the free breakfast this morning was good. They had an omelette bar, waffles, scrambled eggs, etc. having been up since 7 am, we are restlessly waiting to go to the port. If Virginia had her way we would have left the hotel at 7:30. She was going around to all four of us saying “come on and get going. We need to get our taxi to the ship.”
We will probably leave here around 10 am and get to the port around 10:30 ish. Already planning what we will eat for lunch and what my first drink will be. We are leaning Playmakers for lunch and I’ll probably get my Kraken Lava Flow so that I’ll really feel like I’m on vacation. 
 
Virginia is currently in her “pillow car” driving us to the port. 

As mentioned previously, the South Beach Food and Wine Festival is in Miami this weekend, so prices for hotels nearer to the cruise port were CRAZY expensive.  We flew into FLL via SWA and then Ubered to our hotel, the Hyatt House Miami Airport.  UberXL for 5 passengers and all of our bags was $80.  The Hyatt House is great.  We got a 2 Bedroom suite, so Abby and I are in one room, the in-laws in another, and Virginia is on the couch.  No pictures because we exploded our crap into the room, but you walk in and there's a full kitchen with a bar and 3 bar stools.  Then there is an "L"-shaped couch and TV.  On either side are the two bedrooms with en suite bathroom.  For all 5 of us the room was about $300, which for us all to be in one room is great, and we have a common area to share to watch TV.  
The hotel does have basic snacks in the bar downstairs, and is walking distance from a Publix, as an option for dinner or supplies pre-cruise.  There isn't a lot of restaurants nearby, but we used DoorDash for some Cuban sandwiches from Rincon Criollo, which were pretty tasty.  Tomorrow we have full breakfast included, so we're looking forward to taking advantage of that before we Uber over to the port.  
Landing was a bit dicey in FLL as there as a big wind shear right as we reached the runway, pilot on got the left side wheel down, and felt a little like we were about to flip and roll.  Luckily he saved it and we're alive to tell the story.  
I do have to remember to start taking pictures for the blog, and promise to do better once we start on our Voyage tomorrow!

I recall seeing pretzel twisted breads in Windjammer for lunch on the Oasis..so there may be hope.  Not sure where else they have soft pretzels on the ship!

Long shot of memories from Symphony in May... Recall Chops at lunch having pretzel sticks/bread in the bread basket. Same with Mariner at lunch. Can't find any dinner bread offering photos.
No clue if Oasis might do the same. Worth a shot.
Ones on the left and right were the pretzel offerings at Chops on Mariner

Having not edited any of these photos, here we go.  
Dinner was in Izumi on the Sushi side.  There was only one other couple in the entire Sushi side.  Both hibachi tables were full.  Easy to tell that few people know about specialty dining on the first night.  
Smitha came by while we were at dinner and asked what we wanted for snacks to eat during the Aqua80s show.  We finished dinner early and made it back to the room to watch the 8:30 show.  When we came in off of the balcony we had our snacks of chips and nachos, plus more chocolate covered strawberries (up to 12 so far), and our drinks.  Even though we asked for hard liquor, Smitha had our drinks delivered for the show.  One let down was not getting soft pretzels.  Shane, our genie on Anthem, had them pulled from the pub.  We asked Smitha for them since Virginia is a huge fan, and she wasn't able to get any to our room.  We'd even asked about them pre-cruise, so that was kind of a bummer.  As soon as Virginia came back to the room from Adventure Ocean, she was immediately asking for soft pretzels, so it's a big time bummer around here on that front.  
The 8:30 show was very good.  They took a couple of elements out due to the wind.  Oasis is a ship that you can rarely feel any movement.  Not sure if it's because we are all the way aft, but the seas are definitely rocking tonight.  It's cold and windy on the balcony, and the ship is moving enough to rattle the hangers in the closet, which is quite a bit for Oasis.  
Random thoughts from the day:
AO check-in is super easy now, and Virginia loved the new set-up.
Izumi was fantastic, as usual.  
While we love the room, it is disappointing they didn't update the SC rooms during the dry dock.  After having been in SC on Anthem, Oasis just feels dated in styling.  Also, we loved the loft for the large amount of space it gave us, and miss having the two stories, but the private bedrooms and a true "living room" are really nice.  
The Aqua Theater show is amazing.  Having not seen Aqua80s before, it is a big upgrade from Oasis of Dreams.  Also, watching from our balcony gives you a completely different perspective of the talent and "guts" required to do some of the things they do.  Also known as a "big box of NOPE" from me on some of these things.  
I will say the noise is a little loud in the living room, but in the bedrooms it isn't too bad.
I did a room tour, but the file is too big to upload.  Perhaps I'll upload it on dry land.  

While I agree the CK Filet is the best filet, I'm not a huge beef fan, so we were totally in on Izumi.  

Everything was covered at Playmakers for SC. 
 
probably not staying up for the balloon drop. 
 
after Muster Drill we grabbed a drink at Schooner Bar. We were delayed out of Miami due to an Alpha call and an ambulance needed. Now we’re going and beat the Norwegian Encore out of port since it had to turn around. Heading to Izumi for Sushi tonight and we can’t wait. Then watching the Aqua80s show from our balcony at 10:45. 
 
 

Left the hotel at around 10 and we were in our room by 10:35. We barely had time to snag a glance at the propellers in Terminal A. Smitha was waiting for us at the suite lounge, so we didn’t even have a chance to stop there. Sandwiches and desserts were brought to the room, as well as a birthday cake for Abby. 
 
we also celebrated with champagne on the room. Then it was off to explore the ship with my in-laws. Lunch at playmakers. The buffalo chicken crunch rolls were the best thing we had. The rest of the food was good, but those were the favorites. Had a Michelob Ultra. Then off to the New Adventure Ocean. We ran into a teacher that Virginia had on the Anthem GC last year. The teacher is in the 6-12 year old class and told Virginia if she wants to move up from 3-5 she can.  We are going to play it by ear and see what she wants. 
 
after registering for AO we walked the pool deck then grabbed the first Kraken Lava Flow before a trip down the Ultimate Abyss. Much slower than expected, but was fun. 
 
I’ll come back and add pictures later. Now back to get more to drink before Muster Drill. 

Definitely the diciest landing I’ve had. Pilots were standing on the jetway as we got off and several people were congratulating them on getting us down safely. 

Hotel was great for the night, and the free breakfast this morning was good. They had an omelette bar, waffles, scrambled eggs, etc. having been up since 7 am, we are restlessly waiting to go to the port. If Virginia had her way we would have left the hotel at 7:30. She was going around to all four of us saying “come on and get going. We need to get our taxi to the ship.”
We will probably leave here around 10 am and get to the port around 10:30 ish. Already planning what we will eat for lunch and what my first drink will be. We are leaning Playmakers for lunch and I’ll probably get my Kraken Lava Flow so that I’ll really feel like I’m on vacation. 
 
Virginia is currently in her “pillow car” driving us to the port. 

Having not edited any of these photos, here we go.  
Dinner was in Izumi on the Sushi side.  There was only one other couple in the entire Sushi side.  Both hibachi tables were full.  Easy to tell that few people know about specialty dining on the first night.  
Smitha came by while we were at dinner and asked what we wanted for snacks to eat during the Aqua80s show.  We finished dinner early and made it back to the room to watch the 8:30 show.  When we came in off of the balcony we had our snacks of chips and nachos, plus more chocolate covered strawberries (up to 12 so far), and our drinks.  Even though we asked for hard liquor, Smitha had our drinks delivered for the show.  One let down was not getting soft pretzels.  Shane, our genie on Anthem, had them pulled from the pub.  We asked Smitha for them since Virginia is a huge fan, and she wasn't able to get any to our room.  We'd even asked about them pre-cruise, so that was kind of a bummer.  As soon as Virginia came back to the room from Adventure Ocean, she was immediately asking for soft pretzels, so it's a big time bummer around here on that front.  
The 8:30 show was very good.  They took a couple of elements out due to the wind.  Oasis is a ship that you can rarely feel any movement.  Not sure if it's because we are all the way aft, but the seas are definitely rocking tonight.  It's cold and windy on the balcony, and the ship is moving enough to rattle the hangers in the closet, which is quite a bit for Oasis.  
Random thoughts from the day:
AO check-in is super easy now, and Virginia loved the new set-up.
Izumi was fantastic, as usual.  
While we love the room, it is disappointing they didn't update the SC rooms during the dry dock.  After having been in SC on Anthem, Oasis just feels dated in styling.  Also, we loved the loft for the large amount of space it gave us, and miss having the two stories, but the private bedrooms and a true "living room" are really nice.  
The Aqua Theater show is amazing.  Having not seen Aqua80s before, it is a big upgrade from Oasis of Dreams.  Also, watching from our balcony gives you a completely different perspective of the talent and "guts" required to do some of the things they do.  Also known as a "big box of NOPE" from me on some of these things.  
I will say the noise is a little loud in the living room, but in the bedrooms it isn't too bad.
I did a room tour, but the file is too big to upload.  Perhaps I'll upload it on dry land.  

While I agree the CK Filet is the best filet, I'm not a huge beef fan, so we were totally in on Izumi.