Jax

Good morning.  I am a little late o review day 1 because I had a little too much fun Saturday night!  I was chocolatly wasted on Chocolate martinis!  Boy, did I pay the price.  
 
Embarkation was so smooth.  We arrived about 10:45 and took us about 15 minutes to find a parking spot.  We found the Star Class banner pretty easily.  We were whisked away inside the lounge while we waited for our luggage to go through security.  Everyone made a bathroom break and then Lisa took us away.  I told her we have been on several Oasis Class ships so no tour was necessary.  She mentioned our room was ready so off we went.  This ROOM is amazing.  If anyone is thinking about securing the Villa, do think...just do it!!  I will post some pictures soon of the Suite.  Once inside the suite Lisa went over our schedule and some ins and outs.  We got all of our phones set up on voom.  

It was time for lunch at Jamie’s.  This one was a huge surprise.  I am a big fan of Giovanni’s so it had big shoes to fill.  It was quite tasty.  We tried the meat plank, aranaci, Calamari, the garlic bread and shrimp.  Star Class food coma is commencing.  For mains we had the salmon, smaller pasta portions, lasagna, and my dad had chicken.  ALL of it was exceptional.  Somehow we managed to have room for dessert.  So she made us a dessert plank.  We left and most of us took a nap!  

Cami is amazing!  We were lucky to have her as our suite attendant the first time we were on deck 17 and have requested her every time since.

Pro tip:  Use any excuse that you can think of!  ?

All of the main sewer lines on the NCL ship I worked on went above our version of I-95, the main crew walkway. When they broke, which happened from time to time, it was like an environmental hazard. My first contract I was in housekeeping, so guess who got to help clean it up...?. I hope they get the pluming fixed quickly! Loving your review @WAAAYTOOO

When we are in Falmouth, my family visits. I get a chance to see nieces, nephews and cousins. The young people like coming to see me. TeTe always have something from the States to give them. 

2 weeks and we are ? to NYC! Lots of last minute stuff to do. I have piles everywhere ... It seems I have begun staging. This morning was spent wrapping ?. We often travel over a Christmas and each year I challenge myself to get the smallest most travel friendly gifts for Reyd that he will ❤️ and be able to use on our trip.  I did not disappoint again this year! I always wrap the gifts and put them in our checked luggage to avoid possible hassles at security if in my carry-on.  
Meet Reyd our only child who recently turned 14 ? Here he is getting his suit altered this past weekend. You will be seeing more of Reyd I hope  (as he usually lifts the no picture embargo on trips). Plus he is going to help with the trip videos. We bought him the Osmo handheld as an early Christmas present so he could familiarize himself with it.  I can’t wait to see what he does! So far he isn’t telling me much! 
Haven't heard from our Genie Andres in a few days but I have no doubt he is using this time to plan dining, activities and any requests we had. From what I hear we will for sure hear from him again 7 days out.  
Be sure to pass along your questions and once we are on-board I will do my best to get answers. 
 

 

2 weeks and we are ? to NYC! Lots of last minute stuff to do. I have piles everywhere ... It seems I have begun staging. This morning was spent wrapping ?. We often travel over a Christmas and each year I challenge myself to get the smallest most travel friendly gifts for Reyd that he will ❤️ and be able to use on our trip.  I did not disappoint again this year! I always wrap the gifts and put them in our checked luggage to avoid possible hassles at security if in my carry-on.  
Meet Reyd our only child who recently turned 14 ? Here he is getting his suit altered this past weekend. You will be seeing more of Reyd I hope  (as he usually lifts the no picture embargo on trips). Plus he is going to help with the trip videos. We bought him the Osmo handheld as an early Christmas present so he could familiarize himself with it.  I can’t wait to see what he does! So far he isn’t telling me much! 
Haven't heard from our Genie Andres in a few days but I have no doubt he is using this time to plan dining, activities and any requests we had. From what I hear we will for sure hear from him again 7 days out.  
Be sure to pass along your questions and once we are on-board I will do my best to get answers. 
 

 

2 weeks and we are ? to NYC! Lots of last minute stuff to do. I have piles everywhere ... It seems I have begun staging. This morning was spent wrapping ?. We often travel over a Christmas and each year I challenge myself to get the smallest most travel friendly gifts for Reyd that he will ❤️ and be able to use on our trip.  I did not disappoint again this year! I always wrap the gifts and put them in our checked luggage to avoid possible hassles at security if in my carry-on.  
Meet Reyd our only child who recently turned 14 ? Here he is getting his suit altered this past weekend. You will be seeing more of Reyd I hope  (as he usually lifts the no picture embargo on trips). Plus he is going to help with the trip videos. We bought him the Osmo handheld as an early Christmas present so he could familiarize himself with it.  I can’t wait to see what he does! So far he isn’t telling me much! 
Haven't heard from our Genie Andres in a few days but I have no doubt he is using this time to plan dining, activities and any requests we had. From what I hear we will for sure hear from him again 7 days out.  
Be sure to pass along your questions and once we are on-board I will do my best to get answers. 
 

 

2 weeks and we are ? to NYC! Lots of last minute stuff to do. I have piles everywhere ... It seems I have begun staging. This morning was spent wrapping ?. We often travel over a Christmas and each year I challenge myself to get the smallest most travel friendly gifts for Reyd that he will ❤️ and be able to use on our trip.  I did not disappoint again this year! I always wrap the gifts and put them in our checked luggage to avoid possible hassles at security if in my carry-on.  
Meet Reyd our only child who recently turned 14 ? Here he is getting his suit altered this past weekend. You will be seeing more of Reyd I hope  (as he usually lifts the no picture embargo on trips). Plus he is going to help with the trip videos. We bought him the Osmo handheld as an early Christmas present so he could familiarize himself with it.  I can’t wait to see what he does! So far he isn’t telling me much! 
Haven't heard from our Genie Andres in a few days but I have no doubt he is using this time to plan dining, activities and any requests we had. From what I hear we will for sure hear from him again 7 days out.  
Be sure to pass along your questions and once we are on-board I will do my best to get answers. 
 

 

Just in case any of you thought I might be embellishing my story, I provide photographic evidence of the seriousness of the plumbing debacle. They are working both inside 


and, out in the hallway and overhead in the crawl space

Sorry for the quality of the hallway photo  I was trying to be unobtrusive and take a quick shot.  Didn’t want the worker(s) to think I was spying on them !
Our water is on but we didn’t dare try and use the other toilet.  Dan dashed gown to 15 to find an available public toilet.  It was funny for a while.  Now it’s becoming a real nuisance  
 
 
 
 

It seems we are having maintenance issues AGAIN.  When we returned after b’fast at JR we found our suite attendant (Cami (Camelia)) overseeing a delicate plumbing procedure in the “guest” bathroom.  I haven’t yet expounded on the virtues of our excellent cabin attendant. She is, hands down, the best we’ve ever had. But this topic deserves its own post, so I will get back to the issue-at-hand. 
It seems the toilet(s) is clogged again. <hands up and backpedaling> I DIDN’T DO IT !  I have been red-faced guilty of said crime many, many times (Dan claims I am a world class toilet paper abuser and I admit that I am) but not this time !  Whatever happened, it is serious. They had the whole freakin’ toilet bowl removed and untold lengths of plumbing snakes deployed.  I’m sure they think I’m guilty of some unspeakable toilet violation.  I could tell by the look on their face when we walked in. How do you defend yourself against this kind of bias ?  Perhaps it’s just deflection on my part b/c I know I have been guilty of similar sins in the past.  Oh well....Best to just let them work their magic and carry on as if nothing happened.  If I get a scolding from Cami I will know that we were unmasked by the workers.  Such an injustice !
Dan has gone to investigate.  I’m waiting out on the balcony to minimize the chance of being confronted directly.  He’s braver than I am. 

We have arrived in Falmouth.  This is among my least favorite ports of call but I will say that it is among my favorites in regards to the ease of disembarking and proximity to the port compound.  It is RIGHT there as soon as you get off the ship. No pier to walk down at all. BOOM- you’re right there at the compound. 


Ugh. You got the finger (on the lens).  Sorry about that.  Twangbot would never let that happen !

Mere moments later, something happened that I don’t recall Seeing at Falmouth before...

We were joined by another ship !  And even more unusual, it was the NCL Dawn.  I didn't think NCL used the port at Falmouth.  The Dawn is often our companion when docked in Bermuda.  We sailed on the Dawn many years ago. It was our one and only casino comp through NCL

Just to prove that we DO leave our fortress from time-to-time, I managed to get some shots of the newly decorated Promenade. 



 

Breakfast this morning at Johnny Rockets. We had missed doing this on our last few Oasis class ships and decided NOT to miss it this time.  It was unremarkable but we did it !



Dan had some kind of breakfast sandwich and I had <cold> pancakes.  As Dan’s grandfather used to say, “it’ll make a turd”.  
Beautiful morning to eat outside at JR though.  No sun and no wind.  Glad we did it.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Christmas decorations update :  there aren’t any.   Nothin’, nada, nunca. 
 
Joyce said that she’s never seen a ship not start decorating by this time. Not sure what’s going on. Maybe they have all new amplified Christmas decorations that will be on boarded when we debark
#disappointed

For those of you who might care, I took photos of the bar menu in the Suites Lounge. 

This is the Happy Hour menu available daily from 4:40-8 PM
I have the full service menu as well but need to clarify some info on this one and will publish it later 

We just got out of One Sky.  My opinion...?
It wasn’t terrible and it didn’t help that I knew virtually none of the music. 

Dinner tonite at 150 Central Park. Joyce took a pic for us 

Today was another non-stop barrage of loud live band music.  Now....that did not stop Dan and I from taking a heavenly long nap but it never stopped all afternoon.  In fact, the music is still going strong but it’s piped music and not a live band.  Maybe they’re just on break.
Who says only Twangbot can take a great sunset shot !  Happy Dan got this one out our window.

So we did the BBQ. It was good but not great. For ship’s BBQ it was decent. The mac’n cheese was awful.  They use some kind of cheese whiz or something.  Yuck.  The nanner puddin’ thing was ok. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t do it again.
I had the pulled pork and Dan had the brisket.  Ashley is right-the brisket wasn’t presauced. 
 
Ones thing’s for sure - they don’t skimp on the portions. It doesn’t look it from the pictures but those sandwiches are huge !
 
Having it delivered to the room was sweet !

Joyce just brought us a hard copy Portside BBQ menu and she is going to place the order to be delivered in the suite.
She also confirmed tonite’s schedule.  150 Central Park at 6:00,  One Sky at 8:15 (show at 8:30) and Phoenix at 10:30 (show at 11:00).
 
Yesterday she said she was ordering Izumi to be delivered this afternoon but we asked her to please cancel that.  It’s just waaay too much food.  We still have food here from yesterday !  If we have BBQ now I’m already worried I won’t be hungry for dinner.  There’s no way we could sneak afternoon sushi in there, too ! I know Matt would disagree but there’s NOT always room for sushi !
???
#starclassfoodcomaisreal
 

Dan is on a walkabout in search of Mario’s “office”. No luck so far.  I am hiding in the shade out on the pool deck. 
 
This is our suite from the pool deck

So, if you are concerned about privacy on your balcony (meager though it is) this might not be the suite for you.  Personally, I couldn’t care less.  If someone wants to watch what I’m doing on the balcony, they are more than welcome.  I’m not that exciting.  The privacy shades (and 2 sets of drapes) keep prying eyes away from the interior.  You can see to the right of the balcony that the privacy shades are up on the bedroom.   I already shut the drapes in the bedroom, too, to keep hell’s fire  out.  The solar loading caused by the sun coming through all that glass is unbearable.  Soon I will have to close the ones in the living room as well.
We missed the CC  Meet & Mingle (9:30) but still have time to make the cattle call (Top tier event).  Not sure whether we will bother with that or not.  I did alert our Genie that we would be eligible for a crystal block on this cruise but they don’t award those in person on the big ships so not really any reason to go.  I’ll bet the Twangbot will be there !

The din finally died down last night about 6:00. I was relieved. It was really loud and I thought “this going to be a long cruise” if this is going to be a regular thing.  But apparently it’s not. We have had peace and quiet (from outside, at least) since. 
 
Breakfast in CK. I love love love the CK on the O class ships and I like some others, I love the setup on Allure and Oasis best b/c of the bar. 

The bar overlooks Splashaway Bay instead of looking at a blank, boring wall


 

It's so lovely! ?
We will find ourselves stepping out of the "gated community" this March to try the ATS...wonder how that will go? lol

Sorry. I should have mentioned it. I almost exclusively play Ultimate Texas Hold’Em.  It’s basically a table version of Texas Hold’Em poker where you play only against the dealer.  I had 2 3’s in my hand and the flip had the other 2 3’s.  The table minimum on Oasis is $15 which means that the least you can possibly wager is $45 and $60 if you play the hand all the way to the end. That big money for me and I almost didn’t even sit down.  The upside (for the casino) with a $15 table minimum is they collect more money from you when you fold or lose but the upside for the player when they have a $15 minimum is that when you WIN a big hand, it’s quite a nice haul. That win paid 10:1 on the blind bet ($150) and 20:1 on the trips bet ($300).  Along with the other mandatory bets I won $495 on that hand.  A $10 minimum would have netted me $330.  So, for that single moment, I was glad they had a higher minimum !
The casino was a madhouse last night and I expect it to be like that the whole week.  This cruise was on the “complimentary” list for a very long time.  Many gamblers (including me) are on this cruise on a comp.