andreaoutloud

I cant be sure but I believe they were still doing it by time slots because they DID ask what time we were (though no one ever looked at anything to confirm that I could tell) and guided us where to sit, so I assume so and then they came and grabbed our “group” when ready. We did have the earliest time slot for regular people though too (aka not suite or Key members) but I’m not positive how boarding went after that since when we got on there really still were not many people in the terminal!

Hey all— We had such a relaxing last day of our trip. It really was what we needed. We got up this morning and got a workout in before grabbing a quick breakfast (just did a driveby in the buffet). I got a mixture as usual. We then attempted to do the rock climbing wall (since we were already dressed for it with closed shoes etc) but it had just started raining (lightly) so they closed it for safety, we decided to just hang out on out balcony in our room for a bit. The weather cleared slightly so we went up to the pooldeck to get some sun- we have been preferring the upper deck (16) for the ocean views but we had pretty high winds so they cleared the chairs from up there. We decided to hit the solarium instead. The weather stayed fairly cloudy most of the day- we hit the park after that for some lunch and a different view. The last day is always bittersweet with having to pack up and go and say goodbye to staff, etc. We kept it casual tonight and hit the adult comedy show (at Blaze, the nightclub venue) before dinner. We couldnt get a reservation - it showed sold our, so we just hopped in the line and luckily no issues getting in. It was a great show. Dinner was good. In all honesty I think I was finally “fooded out.” I’ve eaten all the food and that was that. Dinner was still enjoyable though- Mel got the braised short rib and MS mudpie. I got the corn fritters (off the vegan menu- if you’re not aware there is a vegan menu on the app if I hadnt mentioned that yet), mushroom risotto, and the MS mudpie also. The risotto was fantastic. After that we did a last round to say “goodbye” to the ship and then headed back to the room. We are doing our luggage ourself as we are trying to disembark fairly early tomorrow since our flights leave MIA around 11:30. I plan to do a final detailed review once I’m home, so stay tuned.

Short update tonight—- In summary, I ate way too much today and the Aqua 80s show is amazing. That is all, good night. Kidding— but really, we snacked a little before dinner and then hit a comedy show (the family “clean” show) to kill some tome before dinner. Dinner was in the MDR of course and fabulous as it has been the while trip. I have to say our server Juan Julio has been amazing. NO pictures tonight, completely forgot besides dessert. I kept it simple with a salad, cheese tortellini, and a chocolate dessert with merengue on top. Then we had a drink and made our way to the Aqua theater for the show at 10:30. You guys, the Aqua 80s show was fantastic, it was just amazing and so entertaining. I wish I could have them send me that playlist, there were some amazing song mashups in there!

Mid-day catch up: Day 3 for us—- our only port day (Costa Maya, Mexico). We slept in a little today and decided to go to the MDR for breakfast, great service- food was pretty good, we were boring and just did french toast and fruit (no pictures). We headed back to our room to get ready for our trip off the ship. We got off around 9:45 and walked around the port for a bit since we didnt have to meet for our “excursion” until 10:45. We met up, hopped off the bus, and headed to the beach. You guys, we stayed 15 mins and then decided to get a taxi and headed back to the ship. I would say it just wasn’t our style. A lot of people crammed into a small area. The beach was fine, swimming area was pretty small, and the sand flies were swarming. It was semi what I was expecting. I like to give stuff a chance and have no regrets though. No biggy, went back to the ship and took advantage of the smaller crowds there today. We ended up hitting the WJ for lunch first —- fruit, potato salad (with no mayo, yay!), salad, a veggie frittata, grilled veggie sandwich, and a caprese. I have to say the WJ food has surprised me some. We sat by the pool for a while and also decided it would be a good day to do all the water slides and they were super fun. We came back to the room to just chillax on the balcony. Jewel of the Seas is in port with us today too so got to catch their pier runners We have our usual late dinner tonight in the MDR, we’ll probably watch some sort of live music beforehand and then we have the Aqua 80s show later.

Day 2 recap: We sat in the sun for a few hours and then wandered down to Central Park at lunch for some snacks. Mel had the kumelwick (too lazy to find correct spelling) sandwich and a salad ; and I had a salad and a portobello, arugula, and humus sandwich (SO good). I had a bad sweet tooth today so I had some of this no sugar added chocolate fondant (that did not do the trick) so also ate some chocolate cake. I maaaaay have had a softserve froyo cone sometime in the afternoon too. We went and enjoyed our room balcony for a bit and headed back out for some sun around 3:30. It had cleared out a lot so we had a decent pick of seats. Fruity drinks were in order (pina colada and a Painkiller) which were good. Bars were backed up today, took a while to get drinks the couple times we went up (“a while” to me was 15+ minutes). We then made random plans that we would shower and get ready early so we could have first dinner - ha ha, but really our 8pm dinner is late for us so we have been, and probably will continue to, eat something in between lunch and dinner. I’ve never even looked at WJ at dinner but we figured it would be a good opportunity to check it out and get a snack. This was probably the most impressive I’ve seen the buffet honestly- there were a lot of good options and it was Caribbean night, so a lot of good things there. Since we were just there for snacks I made a little snack plate with some cheeses and different breads (and always fruit). We then attempted some shows at 7 to kill the hour before our real dinner. You guys, not gonna lie; huge dud. First, we tried the Music Hall to watch “The Humans” and the energy was LOW. They started off with a really slow song, so we gave it a chance just to see if it would pick up bit 3 songs in it was… sleepy. So we moved on to Frozen In Time (the ice skating show). We just hopped in there mid-show. But again, it was sleepy and sort of chaotic for lack of a better term? It just seemed random and again, I feel like this show could have been a lot better with different music. The talent, effects, and costumes were good, it was just sort of blah. Luckily by that time it was dinner- we headed down (actually up). I got excited again and forgot some pictures including my appetizer, which was the vegan zucchini fritters. They were so-so. Not bad but probably wouldnt get again. I got crazy and ordered 2 dinners — ricotta stuffed portobello with marinara (no picture- excited) and the vegan risotto. Both were great. Mel got the beef tenderloin with a baked potato and asparagus. Dessert for her was carrot cake and I did the apple blossom. After dinner we changed, headed to the casino (I am -$10), and then wandered a little to check out the massive dance party happening in the Promenade. Good vibes! I’ll check back in tomorrow— ciao!

Adrian Williams 30 min arms

Great start to the day today. We got up and headed down to the gym for a workout around 8:15ish. When we were done we wanted to eat (of course). The WJ line was insane so we thought about trying the MDR but it was 9:35 and MDR stops breakfast at 9:30 apparently so we waited it out and honestly the line was superficial because we waited barely 5 minutes so not a big deal. One observation I do have to say is the WJ is a complete cluster F inside- it gets congested because everyone just sort of congregates and attacks stations at once from every directyion. But we made it out of the battlefield. There were a decent amount of places to sit though and the food was actually good. I got a mixture - fruit, potatoes, french toast…. and also unpictured was half a bagel. We went back to the room to change and pack a bag to hit the pool deck. 11:00am report from the pool deck is I’d say it is busy but we didnt have an issue finding chairs (we wanted the upper deck) and weather is beautiful

A quick night”cap” : We wandered and enjoyed views, snacked, and talked about the rich people with yachts in Miami. Miami is definitely one of the “prettier” sail away ports I’ve bad. Our sailaway was delayed by an hour, not sure why (and don’t know that it matters much) but we left out at 6:30. We actually took it easy for a bit and then headed down to dinner at the MDR (we have 8:00 seating). I got a little wrapped up in dinner and forgot appetizer and dessert pictures but I managed to remember the main course. I had the wild mushroom soup, baked polenta with feta and veggies (it was a 9/10, fantastic), and the blueberry pear cobbler for dessert with a glass of pinot noir. Mel had the butternut squash soup, prime rib with broccoli and mashed potatoes, and the key lime pie. We called it a night after dinner since we’ve both been up since 4am so we wanted to get some rest for tomorrow.

We are boarded and it was a SMOOTH process. Our flights arrived on time and we were able to meet at the airport and hopped in a cab to the port (total with tip was like $43). We were super early, we arrived at the port around 10ish. Gave the porters our bags (we had 2 each) to “check” and went thru security (literally no lines). Hardly anyone was there yet. We were scheduled for 11:30 boarding slot so after the VIPs we were first to board and were on the ship before 11. we did our safety video and checked in at our muster station to get that out of the way- SO easy and a huge improvement over the “old” way. We wandered around and checked stuff out for a while before hitting the the Windjammer for lunch- again we were pretty early and there werent many people there yet. I wanted to eat light so I can snack later of course. A little caprese type sandwich, chickpea salad, and salad. Mel got a variety also including salmon dip. Our room was ready at 1:00 so we did head up to unpack. As we walked down our hallway we noticed our bags randomly spread out in front of different rooms- all four of our bags were placed in front of different rooms (and not our room haha) but we did get everything. We are doing a quick refresh in the room after traveling and then going to head back out to do some more walking and exploring and snacking until sail away.

Boarded and off to Miami we go

Officially packed. #teamcarryononly Hard-side suitcase (carryon size) and weekend tote for the flight and then once I land in Miami I will pull out my handy dandy fold-up-backpack and transfer a few things to that for embarkation day walk around and essentials. And I never travel without my leak free water bottle. I have to leave my house at 4:45 tomorrow morn (enter barf emoji ) to do the 1 hour and 15 minish drive to the Charlotte airport, so it will be early to bed for me tonight.

Okay I am basically packed Yes, to be continued….

Yessss!

Covid tests done We were both negative, (if not this would have been a short blog). So yeah, we win! We both opted to do the proctored at-home test (the Abbott BinaxNOW purchased thru Optum). This was my first time doing an at-home proctored test and I have to say, it was pretty convenient. I just used my iPad. I was worried I would just have to sit there like a dummy the whole 15 mins while the test is “processing” so I was thankful to hear you can get up to do other things and come back- just have to leave your test sample in cameras view (no switcherooing). Be back tomorrow to share some packing stuff (because yes, we are last minute packers).

Hey all! I thought it would be fun to do a live blog for a short trip on the Oasis this coming week. Quick summary and intros are in order: About us and pre-cruise: It will be myself and best friend Mel, just 2 girls in our early 30s. This was a fairly “last minute” trip as far as cruises go; we booked it a little more than a month ago (mid March) after a quick convo about how we both wanted a short getaway. (^ that’s us in Alaska last summer - fun tidbit, that’s where we are from) I live in central NC now so I will be doing a direct flight from Charlotte to Miami; and Mel will be coming from Atlanta so will be doing a direct from ATL to Miami. We coordinated our flights where we both land around 9-930am Sunday morning to meet at the Miami airport— yeeeep, the morning of. I know all the seasoned cruisers are gasping in anxiousness for us but yes, fingers crossed everything goes as planned. We got the earliest ship boarding at 11:30. This is my 4th cruise ever, my most recent was actually also Oasis in Feb 2019. Mel has been on 7+ but this is her first ever Royal Caribbean (mostly Carnival previously) so I’m really excited for her to experience this ship! I know it has had a revamp since I was on it last. I should also note that this is our first time cruising together. Stateroom, extras, etc: We are average Joes’ and will be staying in an ocean balcony room (deck 7, forward). As far as “add ons;” all we did were internet packages. Went back and forth on the drink package as we both do drink some [alcohol] but the math didn’t really make sense for us (we don’t drink soda or anything other than water really either) so we were okay just paying as we go. FOOD, glorious food: We both LOVE food. I should mention that I am a vegetarian incase that interests anyone else following along. We opted for the late traditional dining (8:00). We chose that over the early 5:30 seating (too early for us) or the My Time Dining because we agreed we like the traditional with same waiter each night and eating late allows us to get in more snacks throughout the day (haha). No major plans for specialty dining ahead of time but we may end up doing something once we are on board if it looks/sounds good and of course based on availability for reservations. Plans, excursions, fun, etc: Neither of us are huge scheduled people while traveling so we are very much along for the ride. In this case, the trip is more about the ship for us. We’ve both been to Costa Maya and it wasnt anything super exciting to us, but we do plan to get off the ship. USUALLY when I’ve cruised I’m with my boyfriend or a smaller group and we go explore on our own or book private tours (outside the cruise company); but being somewhere we aren’t as excited about and being just two girls in our 30s we aren’t feeling as brave so we decided on just paying the $55ish to do a trip to the beach thru Royal as we felt it was simpler and safe that way. We didn’t do a ton of research (again, wignin’ it) and it just sounded simple. Give us sand and beautiful water! As far as fun/entertainment we are interested in catching the Aqua 80s show and then we will see when we’re onboard what other things we may want to check out like comedy shows, etc. We plan to get lots of relaxing time (and hopefully sun) on the pool deck. I hope you all enjoy following along. We are pretty easy going and I plan to share info along the way about packing, the embarkation process, capacity, food, fun, service etc (including pictures of course).