GregD

So funny story about "pineapples".  The friends we made from across the hall would wear matching outfits most nights. Now spy the shirts on either side of Johnny who is hiding behind the towel.

Notice all the pineapples? So those are our new friends, and they had NO IDEA, about the "other meaning" Of course we had to have some fun with it. We are all walking around the ship with The Boss chatting up Brian, and I'm walking along with Danielle, and the kids and Julie in tow all looking very friendly We were all joking about how many heads we may have been turning that night....

@SweetPea, you followed my blog closely, so you know where we ate. My sister and I agree that the caprese at Giovannis was probably our favorite thing all week. I personally probably would skip the sushi.

Chops - You can't go wrong with any of the steaks, and the rack of lamb was outstanding.

Giovannis - GET THE CAPRESE!! Avoid the carbonara and the seafood linguini. Their filet was good, as well as the bolognese. The piccata, while not exactly traditional was still very good. Did I mention, eat the caprese, over and over again. 

150 - Their Tenderloin is probably my favorite of all the filets that they serve on the ship. You would have to go to last years Oasis blog to read about that. 

@BethGR The Atlantis Aquaventure is adjacent to the beach, so yes you can get to the beach if you want. Last time I was there, they basically drop you at the door to the resort, you are given a wristband, and you essentially have access to wander the property. 

I like Johnny Rockets too, their burgers are good, and I really like the bacon cheese fries. If you have a DX package, ask for an Adult milkshake!!

3 hours ago, belle809 said:

Thank goodness I am an early riser. Any suggestions on the best way to get to the airport should I chance the shuttle bus or take a cab?

 

We just got off Oasis. Like others have said, I would make sure to have a passport. The facial recognition side takes seconds. Carry your own luggage off the ship and do so early. If you can muscle it down the stairs you will be better off than trying to get an elevator. You can pre-book and Uber too if you want which allows you to set a time that it arrives. 

3 hours ago, Rags1 said:

Great blog!  You know how to tell a story. Thanks for taking us all along!

Thank You!!

20 minutes ago, asquared17 said:

 

and once again, johnny knows where it’s at!!! i’m telling you, he is GOING places!

I agree, this kid is super smart, very analytical, and even at 9 knows how to play the long game. I’m doomed

16 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

When the article said she ran up a 22k$ tab on other people's cards in the ship, my first thought was ... i wonder if Derick was her Genie too

I too thought when I saw that number was that she was in a suite, but I don’t ever remember seeing her in CK or any of the other specialty restaurants. While I didn’t meet every star class family, we did see most of them, and I’m pretty sure her group was not one of them.

@Ampurp85 We did not see cats. The Boss and Lydia did go last year, but for them it’s a one and done. 
 

Ugh, I keep remembering things Derick did have the star class wristbands for us but we never used them. No mention of WOW bands, and I didn’t ask either because we didn’t really like them way back when on Anthem.
 

We went down the abyss slide I think once, and when we got there, there wasn’t a line so we didn’t need to flash the purple card. We aren’t flowrider people, so no need for that. We were offered ice skating, but was busy with other things. We did just barely manage to play one round of laser tag, which was a lot of fun. I came in third. 

Other random things that I am remembering.

I did make it to the Diamond Lounge, when we walked in it was empty, now I can cross that off the list of things to do. 
 

Funny loyalty story time:

As mentioned, we are now at Diamond status. Julie, who has cruised less is at emerald, well one day during the cruise we had pins delivered. Julie got one for Emerald, and The Boss??…..?? Got a platinum pin delivered……better late then never I guess 

Personally we don’t care about the pins, so we never sought them out. Johnny though, likes those sort of things and now that he knew they existed just HAD to go to the Ambassador desk to get all the correct ones. She happily obliged him, much to his delight and he promptly attached all of them to the plastic pouch on his lanyard that holds his seapass card. He talks every day about eventually becoming a pinnacle member and getting his pin, we’ve created a monster

Finally getting caught up here. I’m so glad you made it on the ship. I have such fond memories of those loft suites. 
 

It’s been said before, and it’s pretty much moot at this point, but I’ve gotten the same statement from all my genies about possibly waiting for them if they are escorting another family. Both Oasis cruises we had to wait a few minutes for Derick to board. When disembarking, we walked off with another family as well. 
 

You had better luck than us in the casino.

Those towel animals are amazing. 

25 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

Oh my mistake, it DOES list Oasis in the first article. BUT, i think you need to go through your pics to look for her in the background now. Maybe she photobombed you

Not in any of mine. I’ll check through the rest of the families pictures though and report back!

A few other things to note:

Ketut was talking with us and did confirm what we all know about them dropping to once daily stateroom service. They will still keep with twice daily service for suites. He is worried because along with this change, they will also be reducing the number of staff that they will be having, and since he has been with RC for 10 years, he will be cut for newer cheaper workers. 
 

We got invited to a workshop with the entertainment staff of the ship. It included the cruise director, technical director, principal for cats and the other singers, musicians, the Aqua Captain and the Ice Captain. This was a fun little discussion to see how some of the shows are put together. One thing I remember from last years blog I remarked about how interesting the job postings would be for the divers etc. The captain actually said that the divers and synchronized swimmers are all professional level, some even national champions from their countries, and RC sends staff to these competitions and shows and activity recruits for these positions, whereas the dancers etc send audition tapes to RC headquarters. Just thought that was a neat aspect of the process 

19 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

Well now it doesn't say she was on the Oasis in this article (i archive them before posting to stop annoying pop up ads), but i did just see a YouTube video that confirmed that she was. 

Looks like you had some excitement on disembarkation day! Thinking this may not be one of the life long friends you made this trip ... 🫢

 

https://archive.ph/mAJuD

 

Holy crap!!!! So I of course I had to do some more digging. I saw another article that said what time she was taken into custody, which was long after I was off the ship. Another article shared a photo, but I don’t think I ran into her on the cruise. 

28 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

And don’t forget you picked up another one with your friendly Canadian neighbours! can’t wait! 

Same here! 

Overall, this was a great cruise. We made some great new friends, and precious memories. We got to visit new ports, and continue to have a great time at old ones. We recharged our batteries and had fun with raspberries. I honestly have no Idea what I am doing in this picture

It going to be a long 355 days until our next one on Harmony.

Thank you all for reading along! Now that I'm done, I need to spend time getting caught up on all the others that I have missed!!

Monday morning, we woke up really early and headed back to the airport. Our flight out was at 7:15. Even with TSA precheck security took about 30 minutes. They have added clear at Miami Airport, but there were a number of people who had clear, but not precheck, and the "ambassadors" were escorting the clear people to the same scanner as the precheck line, so we were still waiting for people to take off shoes and belts etc etc, so that really held things up for us. 

Our flight was uneventful and we made it back to BWI. We hopped in our car for the drive home and we made decent time, and thankfully got home before the snowstorm hit. 

Reality had set in that night when we had to make our own dinner plans. 

Tuesday morning I woke up, and there was no coffee delivery, and I had to do this...

This guy was happy I was home though

After spending some time getting cooled off in the hotel and relaxing, we headed off to dinner. We went to The Boiling Crab for some tasty sea bugs (crab and shrimp) This is a place the The Boss and I have been to before, but Julie hasn't. The food is really good. It's made in a cajun boil style. If you ever go, I recommend the snow crab and shrimp, in "The Whole Sea-bang which is a blend of Cajun, garlic sauce and lemon pepper. If you like it spicy, go for medium. Add some corn and potatoes and get ready to get messy. Bibs are provided.

How it started, look at The Boss being all proper with gloves on, while Julie and I were savages just going at it unprotected...

The aftermath....

After dinner it was back to the hotel. We had to be up early for our flights back home. 

1 hour ago, asquared17 said:

i'm telling you, he knows where it's at!!

i wonder if we can get him on the truffle wavelength next, and then we can really be kindred (food) spirits siblings from other parents, that sort of thing

He has tried truffle fries, but wasn't a fan. We can give it some time and a few more tries. Hopefully he comes around. 

16 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

So wait, you had to put out your luggage the night before like everyone else? Oh please let that be wrong because if it's right, I'm going to have to pay one of you to break that to Batman ..... he may no longer see the "value" in SC (and let's face it, I'm already downplaying the level of escalating fares as it is 🫠)

 

We chose to put it out the night before so that we wouldn't have to bring it with us to breakfast etc. It just made it easier for us that morning. 

Following the retrieval of the rental car, we headed off to the Miami Seaquarium. This was a great little place to visit. It's not too big to be overwhelming, and not too small to be a waste of time. When we entered the park, we were greeted by these guys. There was also a small touch pool with nurse sharks.

You enter a large central aquarium that has large fish and small tanks around it. We saw sharks, previous nights dinner (lobster) Nemo and Dory, groupers, shrimps, and other assorted feeeeeshes.

As we went further into the park, we saw a sea lion show.

There were manatees. They are ones that were injured in boat strikes and unable to be returned to the wild. I asked the guide, who said they go through 200lbs of lettuce a day. Julie joked...All I eat is salad all day and I still can't lose weight.

These shall now forever be known as penwings thanks to Benedict Cumberbatch

Johnny also got to pet some rays, then we saw a dolphin show.

We ended our time in the park looking at some more sharks, and sea turtles who were rescued. This guy was named flaps.

On the way out of the park, we met a keeper who had brought out a juvenile tortoise who was named Rosie. Of course we had to go say hi!

At this point we were all out of fun, and the Miami heat had us feeling drained so we headed back to the hotel for some showers and relaxing.

We woke up the next morning, and the elevators reminded us that it was the worst day ever.

The view from the balcony confirmed my worst fear, we were back in Miami

We met Derick outside coastal kitchen after breakfast and he used his magic genie card and brought us down to the promenade for disembarkation. He brought us to a door behind guest services, and we sadly scanned off the ship. We exchanged hugs and goodbyes at the elevator in the terminal where he turned us over to shoreside staff. I felt bad for him because you could feel his sense of urgency to get back to the ship and ready for his next set of guests. I hope all those events he has to plan for this week go off smoothly.

Shoreside staff brought us right to our luggage, which was easy to find, and since we had passports we were able to do the facial scanners. I took all of 5 minutes from leaving coastal kitchen to being outside. 

Since there was a large group of us, I had booked with Uber premier to make sure we were picked up in a large vehicle. Our ride was right on time and soon we were off to our hotel. We were staying in Miami and extra day. We booked the same hotel as the one we used when we came down, so it was a short ride there. We dropped our luggage at the hotel. I had reserved a rental car from the airport to use for the day. Everything went super smooth. Total time from leaving Coastal Kitchen to calling an Uber to go get the rental was 45 minutes. 

I had planned on going to the airport to get the car myself to limit the craziness that the kids can sometimes cause when they have to wait in a line. When they heard that the uber coming to get me was a Tesla, they just had to come, to say that they got to ride in a Tesla. Our driver was cool, he was originally from NY and had some soft Jazz music playing in the car. He was really helpful too by letting us know how to get around the rental car center, and what to expect/where to go when we return the car the next day. 

Our final dinner on the ship was back at Giovanni's. of course we had more caprese and the meat and cheese board. I had the filet, which was really good. The Boss and Julie had the seafood linguine. They both said it was just okay. @asquared17Johnny again had the pasta with butter and cheese. 

When it came time for dessert, we ordered the tiramisu again. I noticed that each time the portion got smaller and smaller. We discussed many hypothetical reasons for this, was it they were running out of ingredients? Gradually going smaller to cut costs? Had sympathy to our waistlines? Regardless, I again forgot to take a picture. Whatever the reason, I actually thought the smallest size was actually perfect. It was still big enough that I was satisfied, but not so big that I left feeling stuffed and hyperglycemic. 

We returned to our room to find out there was some monkey business that had gone on. Our attendant Ketut, left us with a cute note. 

Brian, Danielle and their kids came over too and we spent the evening together. We cracked our bottle of Prosecco and toasted to a great cruise and new friends. No that's not pee in that 5th glass

Sadly, it eventually became time to call it a night. Bags needed to be packed, kids put to bed, and preparations made to head back to our homes in the morning. 

Final day on the ship and we were at PDCC. I woke up earlier than everyone else and took a stroll along deck 16. I walked into the solarium of the ship for I think the first ever time too.....It's pretty nice in there.I never even made it there last year. Wile walking around I got this nice shot. Freedom was already docked.

We booked a water park cabana because now that both kids are big enough to do all the slides they are really into that sort of thing. We also like cabanas because it's an easier "home base" and we don't have to worry about finding chairs, and having someone bring our food and drinks to us is nice too. While we loved the Beach Club experience last year, the cabanas were going for 2k for a beach one and 3k for an over the water one, that was a price that I just don't see the value in. 

In another FB group a question was asked about what water park cabana to get. One that was recommended was #43. I asked Derick about this in pre cruise communication and he said he would see what he could do. It turns out with Freedom there, some were assigned to Oasis, and others assigned to Freedom. It turns out that 43 was assigned to Freedom, so he said he was able to get us 44. These cabanas are right by the exit of the Red/blue slides. Based on the map, it looks like 43 and 44 are tucked back in the corner.

It turns out, that the numbers are reversed, and 43 is the one all the way right. We were the second one in. (where it says 47)

We were too excited about the day, so I'm sorry to let all of you people down, we completely forgot to take pictures. I can say that there is some privacy, because there is some flowers and vegetation that separates the slide exits. We did have a couple people sitting in our chairs at one or two points waiting for their friends to come down the slides. This was easily solved by placing towels on those chairs. Other than that, I had no complaints about the location. It was fun watching people come down off the slides, especially the tall red one. Our cabana was tucked back enough that we didn't feel like we were completely on display, and our attendant was always there when we needed him. It also afforded easy access to all of the slides, activities and most importantly...the bathrooms!

If you want total privacy, the ones by the wave pool are completely isolated, but you are far away from everything. 

Our friends we made from across the hall,  Brian, Danielle and their kids also had water park tickets, so they found chairs right behind our cabana. Johnny was thrilled that he had a friend to do the slides with etc, and they were off. Lydia also got to hang out with a really sweet girl she had made friends with on our St Thomas excursion. We spend the whole day in and out of the cabana. We ended up inviting Brian and Danielle to hang out with us in in the Cabana. We approached the attendant about the maximum number of people we could have. He mentioned that the most he could serve was 6, so with the kids off all the time it never was  an issue. We also made sure to not make it an issue either, and didn't abuse our privileges. We got some crispy chicken sandwiches and showed Brian and Danielle the mozzarella stick hack, much to their delight. 

We spent the whole day laughing and going down slides. I went down the red one, the drop slides, spent time in the wave pool and raced the kids on the mat slides, ate some great food and had some yummy drinks. At the end of the day, after getting off the last slide, Julie brought out her inner Clark Griswold and probably summed up what all of us adults were thinking when she exclaimed...HOLY SHIT!! WHERE'S THE TYLENOL?!!?

I know it sounds so cliche, but it really was a perfect day.

We headed back to the ship at the nearly the last possible moment. We had some time to kill and the kids were originally were going to do the slides on the ship. Instead, we needed up hanging out in the room prior to dinner just spending more time talking. Making new cruise friends is so great. The Boss and Danielle are already plotting our next adventures together!

13 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

You took an extra day post cruise? Or did you have travel delays?

We took an extra day in Miami

We have made it home today after our early morning flight and drive. We got home around dinner time, and actually had to make our own dinner plans etc. I hate it already.