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The Genie Is Out of the Bottle – Our First Star Class Cruise – Oasis 9/20/2020


bossdog421

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This board has been a little light since everything has shut down. Since I wasn’t invited to the fake cruise, I figured I’d follow in @Lovetocruise2002  shoes and just start a blog a little early (I mean 5 months will be here in no time).

 

Sorry if this is a bit wordier than the usual. Writing about and planning vacations helps calm me. I have been under an extreme amount of stress at work and this is my mental getaway.

 

The basics!

A 7-night cruise on the recently amplified Oasis of the Seas in the in an Ultimate Panoramic Suite, a new stateroom on the ship!

 

The story!

 

First start class cruise!!!  I hear that it is hard to go back to anything else after going star. I can see that how that happens because I had that issue with suites already. I am ready for the genie and looking forward to some food comas!

 

For those that did not follow along with my last blog. I was on Harmony in January staying a Crown Loft for my 10 year anniversary. (might as well plug my blog from that one! https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/17626-we-still-do-%E2%80%93-vow-renewal-on-harmony-12620-%E2%80%93-2220/ ).  We had a blast and booked a next cruise on board. That next cruise isn’t this cruise (oh boy I might be addicted to Royal Caribbean, cruising seems to be my new preferred vacation type!). The cruise in January ended with a big scare, we were docked next to Anthem in San Juan and it was quarantined when it returned due to a Covid scare. Pretty sure@WAAAYTOOO   was affected by that delay. I got pretty sick about 2 weeks after that cruise, but testing was not very available at the time.  Seems fairly common to catch something on a cruise even if there isn’t a global pandemic happening.

 

I work in healthcare, so I’m no stranger to health issues. Every single day since I have been back has been nonstop and has gotten progressively more stressful. I am just completely exhausted and I need another vacation for sure… So I started looking at cruise! I was floored by how low some of the prices were… I mean it’s understandable that there is a lot of uncertainty right now, so booking vacations isn’t on a lot of people’s radar at the moment. I had my eye on a July cruise for a similarly great deal, while I am confident we will be more back to “normal” by then it’s just too close to take the chance. A September sailing provides us with a bit more peace of mind even though we will be pulling our daughter out of school again. September this year gives us another reason to celebrate to!  It is my wife’s birthday, and it is a big one! She preferred that I called it the 10th anniversary of her 30th birthday ?. We are going to celebrate my 40th on board too even though it is this week. My birthday is cancelled due to social distancing

 

This time things will be different. First, it’s just me, my wife, and my daughter. No in-laws or other friends coming with us. This is going to be a good and bad thing. The good side is we will be able to take advantage of our suite and star class perks more since we wont have to worry about our other travel mates that are in different cabin categories (no MDR this cruise!). I also don’t have to share my wife and kid, making memorable vacations with just the 3 of us is extremely important to me. The bad side is that our daughter won’t have any friends on board. We are really hoping that she takes to the kids club this time. Second difference is, we are leaving from Jersey! No flight, no hotel needed, just an Uber or a friend to drop us off and we are on board! Third, Star class baby!!! So excited for this! Nothing wrong with sky class at all, but yeah… STAR CLASS!

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Itinerary

Cape Liberty – Cruising – Port Canaveral - Perfect Day at CocoCay - Nassau – Cruising – Cape Liberty

 

So, there are 2 negatives with this itinerary. First, it is the exact same ports as the cruise we booked next year. Second, we have been to all the ports already too. Both are not deal breakers by any means though.

 

We used to live in Florida and the in-laws live there. We can still see them without them being there for the entire vacation! Win win! Still not sure what we are going to do in FL just yet, Space Coast or Disney most likely. Florida is somewhere we try to go every year, so this port makes a ton of sense. The stop at CocoCay may as well be an entirely new port to us. We had an overwater cabana when we were there Feb 1st and did not explore any other area outside of the beach club. Seems like the kind of place I wont mind going to multiple times, next year my daughter should be big enough to enjoy the waterpark too. Nassau is a different beast though. I did not enjoy it when we went before. We just walked to the straw market and I felt unsafe and harassed in a tourist trap. I think the plan this time is to do a day pass at Atlantis, my daughter will enjoy the aquariums and a resort is a more comfortable place to me. Being there next year could be an issue but we could always do a tour or something, plenty more to see.

 

 

Stateroom

The Ultimate Panoramic Suite - Stateroom# 14528 – A new star class suite that was added with the Oasis of the Seas amplification. It is a starboard side stateroom located in the forward section of the ship that offers amazing 200 degree panoramic views right from your bed. A 914 sqft stateroom is going to provide a ton of space to stretch our legs. We’ll also get plenty of exercise since its pretty far from the Suite Lounge and Coastal Kitchen… Hope our genie has been keeping in shape during the lock down because the 2  Ultimate Panoramic Suites are the only star class staterooms that aren’t in the Aft of the ship as far as I know.

 

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These suites are located directly above the bridge wings. Which is what gives them the panoramic views. There are not a lot of write ups on these suites, I’m excited to post of pictures and details of something that isn’t well documented yet! (I loved being one of the first people in an overwater cabana after they opened. I’d like to think I did a good job documenting that experience!)

 

Here is the floorplan of the suite from @Matt first look blog about the suite.

 

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https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2019/10/30/first-look-the-ultimate-panoramic-suite-oasis-of-the-seas

 

The unfortunate thing is there is no balcony. Good thing the suite deck is just a couple floors directly above us! It should be a fairly quite stateroom since there won’t be a lot above us, not sure if any of the solarium goes directly above this suite. It is kinda close to the kids club but not expecting a lot of noise there either.

 

So that’s it for the opening posts! Can’t wait to get the star class questionnaire! Not sure how much planning I want to leave to the genie… I think I already have my entire weeks specialty dining mapped out.

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18 minutes ago, bossdog421 said:

The good side is we will be able to take advantage of our suite and star class perks more since we wont have to worry about our other travel mates that are in different cabin categories (no MDR this cruise!).

Thank goodness for that!  Now don't forget the Filet in CK Night 1! ?

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Today is my quarantined 40th birthday... sad happy birthday GIF

 

Looking back it was 2 years ago on my birthday that we went on our first cruise. It was on Disney Dream. I have to say that vacation was the best vacation i ever had. Everything was perfect. Now I'm hooked on cruising.

 

I'm not going to blast this blog with pics from a different cruise but there is one picture from my birthday 2 years ago on the ship that stands out. My wife ordered one of those special ice cream things that had like 100 scopes and the concierge brought it up to the lounge.  It was great. here's a pic with our concierge and suite lounge bartender

 

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53 minutes ago, ellcee said:

@bossdog421 Aww! Happy Birthday! Hope your birthday can be special in some way. It's a family member's birthday and when she gets home from a 12.5 hour workday (works in hospital admin) we have basically planned to bomb her stoop (front steps) with cakes and trays of food and cheese platters.

I'm sure I'll still have a great day, just wish i could be doing something more for the big four zero. I usually take off work on my Birthday but can't this year.

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3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Happy Birthday, @bossdog421 !!!!

Thanks!

 

Kinda funny that i posted that gif about noone signing my birthday poster. Came home early today and there is a birthday poster on my front door that people are coming over to sign lol.

 

The wife also put 40s all over the house... just wait til her 10th anniversary of her 30th birthday happens...

 

 

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4 hours ago, coneyraven said:

We're on this one with you ...... Are you part of the Facebook Group we have formed?  If not, here's a link.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/434708310729694/

 

Hahahahaha. The second I saw this I thought what would happen if you had done the same on that “other” message board ?

giphy.gif

 

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36 minutes ago, Andrew72681 said:

Hahahahaha. The second I saw this I thought what would happen if you had done the same on that “other” message board ?

giphy.gif

 

I don't mess with that OTHER board.....the only thing I'll do in relation to them is sign up for the M & M

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On 4/26/2020 at 7:59 PM, Tiffeven said:

Happy late birthday!  We will be Star class (2 bedroom aquatheater suite) on this cruise as well.  How old is your daughter?  Our son is 10 and our daughters will be 8, 2, and 1.

 

On 4/27/2020 at 9:44 AM, coneyraven said:

We're on this one with you ...... Are you part of the Facebook Group we have formed?  If not, here's a link.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/434708310729694/

 

 

On 4/27/2020 at 10:11 AM, Shari3 said:

We are also on this cruise with you. I enjoyed reading your last blog especially about the Cococay Beach club area. I’ve already bought my admission to it for this cruise. Super excited!

Lots of fellow posters on my cruise!

 

@Shari3 Thanks for reading my last blog. You are going to have a great time in the Beach Club! The food was amazing, and it was a great quiet upscale area!

 

@coneyraven Yup I'm in that "other board". Only posted a few times there so far. I like it here better!

 

@Tiffeven A fellow Star on this cruise! My daughter is 9, I'd say they should meet up in the kids club but i think now that shes 9 shes in a new group. Not sure if that grouping depends on how many  kids are signed up or not? Last sailing we had some people sailing with us and we still couldn't get them in the kids club. Hoping she takes to it this time so me and the wife can have some grown up fun around the ship.

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57 minutes ago, bossdog421 said:

 

@Tiffeven A fellow Star on this cruise! My daughter is 9, I'd say they should meet up in the kids club but i think now that shes 9 shes in a new group. Not sure if that grouping depends on how many  kids are signed up or not? Last sailing we had some people sailing with us and we still couldn't get them in the kids club. Hoping she takes to it this time so me and the wife can have some grown up fun around the ship.

Oasis is doing free play now (similar to Disney's Oceaneer club), so she should be in the same area as our 8 and 10 year olds.  They love Adventure Ocean and we have to practically drag them out; so if she is there, I'm sure she'll bump into them.  There's some videos of the new Adventure Ocean area on youtube.  If you haven't seen it, you should check it out.  Our son can not wait to try out the gaga ball arena.  He loves gaga ball so much that our last genie surprised him with a VIP gaga ball family tournament in our room and even gave everyone medals. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/10/2020 at 7:39 PM, ReadEatRead said:

I really appreciated your previous live blog featuring the cabana at Coco beach club. We were supposed to go in March but obviously that cruise was cancelled. We are currently booked on Oasis the week before you, in a decidedly less glamorous accommodations. ?

Thanks for reading last time!

 

I'm still fairly confident in September Cruising. The next week or so is going to be very informational on helping to open up the NY and NJ. -

 

--------

 

Pre cruise update - I looked down and realized that i never lost the cruise weight... and i might have found a couple other people weight since then too. Then I looked back at the video of me going down the slide at the overwater cabana and realized i didn't get in shape for the last cruise either ... so i never lost the weight from my 2018 cruise... whoops! I have 132 days to lose about 30 pounds to be close to the weight i was in 2018. Started my crazy diet today.

 

Good thing my house isnt filled with junk food... /sigh... I can do this, I'm going to get back in shape!

 

 

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Week 1 of my diet is complete. Down 8 pounds already! First week is the easiest and hardest part of this diet. The weight loss is going to slow down now as i reintroduce small amounts of carbs.  Time to start working out to keep up the fat burning!

 

Is it cruise time yet???  Nope 125 days to go!

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Congratulations!!! (read:  omg, men are so annoying).

Yeah yeah, my wife says that too ?

It just drops quick because I was getting really chunky lol... That and this diet is pretty strict. Only thing that really sucks is the weight can come back really fast once you eat "normally" again. Much easier to gain the weight... especially on a cruise.

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With all this dieting all i can think about is food. I know i'll have a genie and they can do all of the meal planning but i'm a bit of a plan freak. I have the entire cruise mapped out for where / when i want to eat already. We enjoy going to the venues so i doubt there will be much in room dining except for breakfast. We'll play that by ear once we see how much room there is for dining in the suite.

 

Food plan -

Day 1 - Leaving Jersey

Lunch - Special Star Class lunch? Chops?

Dinner - CK Filet night? Will move if its a different night

 

Day 2 Sea Day -

Breakfast - CK

Lunch - Playmakers

Dinner - Giovanni's

 

Day 3 - Port Canaveral

Breakfast - In room

Lunch - With inlaws somewhere in FL. Cuban sandwich??? For those that read my last blog i like me a cuban sandwich. lol

Dinner - Izumi Hibachi

 

Day 4 - Coco Cay

Breakfast - Johnny Rockets

Lunch - Snack shack Chicken Sandwich. Maybe Captain Jacks for some wings. Is that included with star class?

Dinner - Chops

 

Day 5 - Nassau

Breakfast - In room or CK

Lunch - Something at Atlantis - Maybe Playmakers

Dinner - 150 Central Park. This is the only one i'm not sure of. The menu doesn't seem great to the 3 of us. Might skip this one and just go to CK.

 

Day 6 - Sea day

Breakfast - CK

Lunch - Johnny Rockets

Dinner - Port Side BBQ (maybe in room)

 

Day 7 ?

Breakfast in room

 

Lets see how well i stick to this in a couple months.

 

Great now i'm hungry.   emma stone crying GIF

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2 hours ago, bossdog421 said:

Lunch - Special Star Class lunch? Chops?

Chops is usually the only specialty open during lunch.  They don't have any special Star Class lunch.  Portside and Playmakers are open that first day and don't tend to be crowded either if you want options.

2 hours ago, bossdog421 said:

Lunch - Snack shack Chicken Sandwich. Maybe Captain Jacks for some wings. Is that included with star class?

Nope..CJs isn't covered on Coco Cay.  Not sure why..but alas.

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18 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

Chops is usually the only specialty open during lunch.  They don't have any special Star Class lunch.  Portside and Playmakers are open that first day and don't tend to be crowded either if you want options.

Nope..CJs isn't covered on Coco Cay.  Not sure why..but alas.

The lunch menu at portside seems to be lacking some key items i like for BBQ. It is an option though, I'd probably side with Chops or picking around the suite lounge offerings.

 

Boy Star Class  magic really doesn't have any powers on Coco Cay huh? CJ not being included seems silly. It's wings and fries.?‍♀️. Snack shack it is then!

 

Thanks for the info!

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Remember...it is unlikely that Chops will be open on Oasis on boarding day.  When we were in a Star Class last December, we had to choose a different restaurant for embarkation lunch b/c Chops was closed.  It worked out fine though as I didn’t want filet twice in 1 day anyway.  I certainly realize there are other menu choices besides the filet at Chops but that’s usually what we order.  Since the CK filet is better (IMO) than at Chops, we just waited and had the CK filet on the first night.  I think we ended up eating lunch at Giovannis on embarkation day.

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Yeah day 1 one I will play by ear.

 

I do plan on trying the filet at both ck and chops. I'm a bigger fan of ribeyes luckily my daughter loves steak so I'll have her get the filet at chops and ill get a ribeye and just try hers.

 

Everyone says the filet is better at ck, so I have to try both to compare for myself!

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21 hours ago, bossdog421 said:

With all this dieting all i can think about is food. I know i'll have a genie and they can do all of the meal planning but i'm a bit of a plan freak. I have the entire cruise mapped out for where / when i want to eat already. We enjoy going to the venues so i doubt there will be much in room dining except for breakfast. We'll play that by ear once we see how much room there is for dining in the suite.

Day 3 - Port Canaveral

Breakfast - In room

Lunch - With inlaws somewhere in FL. Cuban sandwich??? For those that read my last blog i like me a cuban sandwich

 

 

Interesting Day 3 plan .... Ours is somewhat similar ..... my mother & sister will be driving over from St. Cloud and we'll all go and have a nice meal.  One of out favorite places is Squid Lips - Over Water Grill (not to be confused with FishLips) --- it's located on A1A on the south side of Cocoa Beach (below FL 520).  Not sure if they have Cubans, wouldn't surprise me if they do.

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5 minutes ago, coneyraven said:

Interesting Day 3 plan .... Ours is somewhat similar ..... my mother & sister will be driving over from St. Cloud and we'll all go and have a nice meal.  One of out favorite places is Squid Lips - Over Water Grill (not to be confused with FishLips) --- it's located on A1A on the south side of Cocoa Beach (below FL 520).  Not sure if they have Cubans, wouldn't surprise me if they do.

I loath seafood. So I typically avoid places that have names with anything sea related as the entire place usually smells of fish. There was a place in Coco Beach that I was going to try earlier this year but I inlaws brought me a sandwich from one of my favorite places in the Tampa area so we skipped it. I'll probably try and get us to go there this time.

 

The Florida plans are still up in the  air. Not sure if we are just hitting the beach or driving up to the space center just yet. Its probably going to depend how much is open. I'm a huge Disney fan but we already decided we were not going there, just not enough time at the port for us. We like to have a full week when we go to Disney. I do miss the days of having annual passes and just going for a couple hours whenever we wanted.

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3 minutes ago, bossdog421 said:

I loath seafood. So I typically avoid places that have names with anything sea related as the entire place usually smells of fish. There was a place in Coco Beach that I was going to try earlier this year but I inlaws brought me a sandwich from one of my favorite places in the Tampa area so we skipped it. I'll probably try and get us to go there this time.

 

The Florida plans are still up in the  air. Not sure if we are just hitting the beach or driving up to the space center just yet. Its probably going to depend how much is open. I'm a huge Disney fan but we already decided we were not going there, just not enough time at the port for us. We like to have a full week when we go to Disney. I do miss the days of having annual passes and just going for a couple hours whenever we wanted.

Yeah, you're like me, we both know the area well enough that, even though we're not locals, tourists we are not.  We really know how far Disney is, how much it costs, etc..... and considering the time we're in port, is it really worth the effort? ..... no matter how bad I want to ride Soarin over in Epcot (still kills me that Illuminations, Reflections of the Earth is gone).

The fact that they refer to the port as Orlando, can be really misleading, plus people have no idea travel time, and what a nightmare I-4 and Fl 417 can be.  One wrong turn and you're on the turnpike headed south, lol.

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1 hour ago, coneyraven said:

Yeah, you're like me, we both know the area well enough that, even though we're not locals, tourists we are not.  We really know how far Disney is, how much it costs, etc..... and considering the time we're in port, is it really worth the effort? ..... no matter how bad I want to ride Soarin over in Epcot (still kills me that Illuminations, Reflections of the Earth is gone).

The fact that they refer to the port as Orlando, can be really misleading, plus people have no idea travel time, and what a nightmare I-4 and Fl 417 can be.  One wrong turn and you're on the turnpike headed south, lol.

Yeah in confident it could be done with out much hassle it just wouldnt be enough and i want to focus on the cruise.

 

I'm pretty sad i havent been to disney in like 4 years. There was a point were we were going at least once a month (before we even had kids lol). Then we moved to jersey and we going once a year for a while... then we started cruising.  I have magic kingdom down to a science. I draw up map routes based off of fast pass times I can do the entire park before 2pm as long as you are there for the rope drop and that's with stops for food and characters.

 

A lot has changed and there is a ton of other new stuff happening so i can't want to get back. Now I need a good 5 days at a resort (poly please!) to fully enjoy myself there. 3-4 park days a resort day and some time at disney springs. Still havent seen the avatar or star wars areas. We are going to need to go in the next year or 2 because a lot of the "magic" is going to fade when our daughter hits teen years. I know she'd still have fun, its just not the same as they get older. I mean look at this... Sword in the Stone. I have been to Disney HUNDREDS of times. This is something i will never forget... Watching the act, I getting called up,  the sword doesn't budge... Oh i tried... I was gonna break that damn latch holding it in for all i cared. Then my daughter gets called up. I about shat myself. The look on her face and how she felt after pulling it out was just pure magic... i cant describe the feeling any other way.

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I view my vacations as a time to build unforgettable memories for my daughter. Disney did a great job of that but cruising seems to be a good transition into less kiddie trips. Hard to give up that stage... but its coming whether i like it or not.

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As an Orlandoan who looked at the space center for years with side-eye and scorn, I recommend it highly. 

We went last fall with on a 6th grade field trip, and wow.  As you are someone who is about my age and understands the shuttle era in the 80s, the entry fee is worth it just to walk around and stare at the shuttle Atlantis.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you don't mind me asking, did you get crazy-good pricing on the Ultimate Panoramic Suite?  I booked the exact same suite for an Oasis April 2022 cruise the same day they released it for booking.  The price on this Star Class cabin was ~$100 more than an L1 Sky Class loft, which was insanely good.  Now the price seems comparable to any other Star Class cabin.

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1 hour ago, mk-ultra said:

If you don't mind me asking, did you get crazy-good pricing on the Ultimate Panoramic Suite?  I booked the exact same suite for a Oasis April 2022 cruise the same day they released the it for booking.  The price on this Star Class cabin was ~$100 more than an L1 Sky Class loft, which was insanely good.  Now the price seems comparable to any other Star Class cabin.

Those weird pricing quirks never made sense to me. For our Oasis sailing this November the 1BR grand suites and 2 BR grand suites as the exact same amount. 

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