Thanksgiving Side to Side: Brilliance to Oasis

[WAAAYTOOO]

I promised Sabrina that I would do this, so here goes.

First:  I am the worst live blogger EVER since I hate to take pix.  I DO realize that long, text review/live blogs are less effective b/c nobody wants to sit and read line after line of text.  I hate it myself !  So I am going to TRY and be brief-er than usual and TRY and incorporate photos, which are 2 things I am not very good at (brevity and photography).

Who:  Dan and I (Raye)

What:  S2S cruises on Brilliance and Oasis.

Where:  Tampa then Miami

When:  24 - 30 Nov (Brilliance out of Tampa) then 1 - 8 December (Oasis out of Miami)

Why:  Because we can...and this will be our first S2S

At home, writing this but leaving for the airport (DCA) at 2PM.  Uber, cost $81.56.  We have to have an XL due to luggage. Honestly, it's not that far to the airport.  We live about 20 miles south of DC so it's not more than 15-17 miles to the airport.  Kinda high, IMO but still cheaper than parking the car in Long Term Parking for 15 days. 

We will pass some time at the American Airlines Admiral's Club prior to boarding and then fly First Class to Tampa. Flight is at 5:00, arriving TPA at ~7:30PM.  Will Uber from airport to the hotel (Tampa Marriott Water Street); used rewards points for the hotel.  We could have used airline miles for the air but we're saving those reward points for a yet-to-be scheduled Alaska trip !!

One piece of luggage still missing as it is awaiting inevitable forgotten, last-minute items.

So looking forward to Brilliance.  #1, we have never sailed on Brilliance before and #2, it has been many years since we sailed on a Radiance class ship.

PS.  I am already having fits with just 1 pic.  I don't know how the rest of you do it !!  

More, later from the Admiral's Club !!

[twangster]

Woohoo!  Have great cruises!

[The Cruise Junkie]

Have Fun @WAAAYTOOO!! I Will Be Following This One

[WAAAYTOOO]

6 minutes ago, twangster said:

Woohoo!  Have great cruises!

Thanks, Twangbot.  See you on 12-1.

[WAAAYTOOO]

5 minutes ago, Jaymac Radio said:

Have Fun @WAAAYTOOO!! I Will Be Following This One

Thank you !!!  I know we will.

[SpeedNoodles]

Yay! Looking forward to this - I loved your last live blog. Have a fantastic time!

[WAAAYTOOO]

2 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Yay! Looking forward to this - I loved your last live blog. Have a fantastic time!

Thanks so much !  We're very excited about this one.

[Tiffeven]

Have fun and enjoy your trip!

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 minute ago, Tiffeven said:

Have fun and enjoy your trip!

Thanks so much !

[Guy Gadwa]

Following. 

[GregD]

Have a great cruise! I am looking forward to following along!

[heffy2]

Woohoo! Have a WONDERFUL cruise, and thanks for taking the time to blog.

[USCG Teacher]

Safe travels!  Looking forward to following along!   

[JohnK6404]

Have a great time Raye! We'll definitely be following!

[WAAAYTOOO]

So, here we sit at the Admirals Club.  First Uber ride I’ve ever taken where the driver never uttered a single word.  Wasn’t creepy b/c Dan was there but would have been very bizarre if I had been alone.

Nothing particularly striking about the Club.  Pretty standard stuff. For those familiar with AA Clubs, there is the obligatory avocado kiosk. Not quite sure why AA has put all its chips (pun intended) on avocados, but I have yet to enter an Admiral’s Club anywhere around the world where they don’t have someone serving avocados in some form.

Dan, intently pecking away on HIS iPad

Approximately 30 minutes before we have to board. According to the AA app, our plane is at the gate so no reason to believe we won’t depart on time.  Tampa, here we come !

[WAAAYTOOO]

12 minutes ago, JohnK6404 said:

Have a great time Raye! We'll definitely be following!

Thank you so much, John !

[WAAAYTOOO]

45 minutes ago, heffy2 said:

Woohoo! Have a WONDERFUL cruise, and thanks for taking the time to blog.

Thank you.  The time isn’t the issue.  It’s my patience that is short.  I have spent 20 minutes on these 2 pix from the AA Club.  What a nuisance !

[heffy2]

I was worried about the pics when I was on Anthem, but all I did was upload them from my iPhone. Maybe they weren't the beast quality, but it seemed to work.

[Lovetocruise2002]

4 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I promised Sabrina that I would do this, so here goes.

Aww...thank you!  Looking forward to it!  Don't forget to do some Star Class cabin recon.  So far not too impressed.  It does not appear that the cabins received much of an upgrade.  But I have not seen any pics of Star Class rooms yet.  Really looking forward to hear what you think of Joyce...

[Sweety]

I will be following. I like the idea of a S2S. Hubby is definitely going to hide his credit card.

[Fairlynew]

Thank you.   Sometimes I’d rather just read a post than scroll through endless pictures.  Both ways- lots of pics or lots of text-are interesting and fun

[Jax]

Have a great time @WAAAYTOOO  Will be following along. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

3 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Aww...thank you!  Looking forward to it!  Don't forget to do some Star Class cabin recon.  So far not too impressed.  It does not appear that the cabins received much of an upgrade.  But I have not seen any pics of Star Class rooms yet.  Really looking forward to hear what you think of Joyce...

I will do my best. Really can’t wait for Oasis.  Brilliance tomorrow.

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, Fairlynew said:

Thank you.   Sometimes I’d rather just read a post than scroll through endless pictures.  Both ways- lots of pics or lots of text-are interesting and fun

I agree with you about endless picture. I am going to try and find a happy medium. I repeat....I find dickin’ around with the pix to be a drag.  Maybe I’m doing it wrong...

[WAAAYTOOO]

52 minutes ago, Jax said:

Have a great time @WAAAYTOOO  Will be following along. 

Right back atcha. Following along with you, too !

[WAAAYTOOO]

So, we made it to Tampa. No-issue flight.  Right on time.  Good deal.

The hotel (Tampa Marriott Water Street), has a shuttle from the airport but we decided just to get an Uber.  They were charging $12 PP plus it probably would have taken them forEVER to come get us.  The Uber was $19.07 and it took her 3 minutes to get to us.  

I think the hotel is probably lovely. It was dark when we got here so it could be a dump for all I know.  We are on the Concierge floor (24) and I feel our room is very - meh.

Happy Dan. That’s his nickname.  

I was extremely disappointed in the Concierge lounge. Hopefully breakfast will be better than our evening tidbits.

The Uber driver told us that the cruise ships are less than a mile from the hotel (yippee !!) so we should have a short trip tomorrow morning.

Calling it a night soon.  Flying just wears my arse out !

[JohnK6404]

As my mother used to say when I was a child... pleasant dreams, sweet dreams! 

[Big Tule]

Have a deep sleep because tomorrow the fun begins

[DanielB]

Enjoying your report.  Have fun!

[ellcee]

Yay!! Happy you're doing a blog. Enjoy!

[WAAAYTOOO]

Good morning !

<clap><sway> Oh, Happy Day <clap><sway>. It’s cruise day !!

Concierge Club recon

I will say that breakfast was a site better than last night’s evening festivities.  Nothing special but at least the usual suspects - eggs, bacon, bread, juice. All Continental.  Nothing made-to-order.

Beautiful morning, here in Tampa. I awoke to the sound of a ship’s horn...not sure which ship or where, exactly.  My view does not include any cruise ships.

We plan on leaving here at 10:00 AM.  Will call on Uber again.

A bit of disappointing news from Joyce, our Oasis Genie.  Beginning yesterday, Nov 24, Chops is no longer open on embarkation day (we had asked for lunch rezzies there on boarding day).  She stated, in her email 3 different times that Chops was closed....not that Chops was not available.  I thought, perhaps, that they were restricting Chops just to Key people, but I don’t think that is the case.  It appears, as far as I can determine, that Chops will not open at all on embarkation day for lunch.  We chose Giovannis as our second choice.  We’re going to CK for dinner that night, anyway, so we will get our filet !  Of course, Giovannis has an awesome steak, too...but we will save our steak lust for CK.

Next up - boarding Brilliance of the Seas !

 

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, DanielB said:

Enjoying your report.  Have fun!

Thank you, Daniel !

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, ellcee said:

Yay!! Happy you're doing a blog. Enjoy!

Thanks, ellcee.  I hope I can keep up.

[Lovetocruise2002]

I wonder if Chops being closed has to do with the fact that they now open Playmakers and Portside BBQ on embarkation day?

We are planning to do Playmakers on boarding day in March. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

13 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I wonder if Chops being closed has to do with the fact that they now open Playmakers and Portside BBQ on embarkation day?

We are planning to do Playmakers on boarding day in March. 

Quite possibly, Sabrina. Here is the list of options that Joyce sent for lunch

[RandyH]

Following closely as we are on the 12/19 sailing of Brilliance. We are also staying at the same Mariott as you. Have a great cruise and thank you for doing this blog!

[WannaCruise]

Excited to see your review (text , pictures, whatever you decide to post is great).  I love the big ships (and DH prefers mid size ships), but there is something about Brilliance that has caught DH and my eye....so it's on our bucket list someday.  And any Oasis class is great....and the changes look amazing.  So how great, that you are both one after the other.  Have an amazing cruise (or two).

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, RandyH said:

Following closely as we are on the 12/19 sailing of Brilliance. We are also staying at the same Mariott as you. Have a great cruise and thank you for doing this blog!

My pleasure.  I have to say, this ship seems completely unfamiliar to me, it’s been so long since I sailed on a Radiance class ship. It’s actually a good thing to be a bit unfamiliar. It’s a whole new experience and I haven’t had a new experience on a cruise ship on a while !

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 hour ago, WannaCruise said:

Excited to see your review (text , pictures, whatever you decide to post is great).  I love the big ships (and DH prefers mid size ships), but there is something about Brilliance that has caught DH and my eye....so it's on our bucket list someday.  And any Oasis class is great....and the changes look amazing.  So how great, that you are both one after the other.  Have an amazing cruise (or two).

Thank you so much !

[WAAAYTOOO]

Boarding was absolutely amazing.  We left the hotel a bit before 10 AM. We had intended to get an Uber but there was a guy with a van waiting to pick up a fare.  When we told him we were going to the Port he said, “$5 each” so we jumped right in.  We were the only 2 and it was a quick ride over.  We got out of the van, dropped our big luggage with the porters and noticed that the escalator going up to the check-in area was blocked off.  Rats !  At that same moment, a guy came out of the elevator with a luggage cart.  We sauntered right into that open elevator like we knew what we were doing and rode right up to the second floor.  We were first in line to check in after which we were directed to a suites waiting area.  Of course, I failed to take any pix (I am falling back into my “old ways”).  After maybe 5 minutes we saw what were obviously B2B cruisers walking onto the ship.  Moments later they called Pinnies and within 10 minutes total, they called suites.  We were on the ship well before 10:30.  As Happy Dan always says, “I’d rather be lucky than smart”.

As soon as we got on the ship I realized I was in unfamiliar territory.  Even though we’ve sailed on radiance class ships many times, it’s been a while. I seemed all turned around. We bumbled our way to Cafe Latitude (I think ) got coffee and sat down.  We decided to find the Concierge Lounge to get our internet working, and so here we sit.