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A True Royal (Loft) Up-Odyssey of the Seas Star Class September 25, 2021


janetmojo

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Well it happened!  A much hoped for Royal Up from a casino comped Junior Suite to the Royal Loft Suite sailing this Saturday from Ft. Lauderdale.  4 Sea days (well 5 if you count Nassau-which I do) is the perfect cruise for this to happen.  I plan to live blog this trip and hope you will enjoy following along.  I wanted to go ahead and get started and do some test posting and photos before we leave since I haven't done a live blog on this site before.  I haven't seen any photos of this room on this ship so I will be happy to post photos and answer questions along the way.

A little about us-we are Janet and Leslie (a guy Leslie) married 5 years but together 20 and we currently live in Deland, FL.  We are from Metro Atlanta and moved to Florida last March right before Covid.   We previously owned a commercial construction business and right now we are enjoying traveling and our new Florida home.  We have 2 cat babies that my husband adores and will miss terribly while we are gone.   This is our second Star Class cruise, our first was a similar casino upgrade before the Royal Up plan was in place.

We are pretty low maintenance and not big snackers so some of the Star Class perks are a little lost on us.  I am a pretty big foodie and love to cook and critique other people's food 😉  so prepare for a lot of food photos.  Last night in anticipation of finding out about our room today I made a little sample dining schedule as well as giving myself a "Star Class" pedicure for good luck (thanks Color Street!)  See pedicure below...

 

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Congratulations, I am so happy for you! Okay, can you run down to Deck 9 for me and identify the Junior Suites that Danny walked through? I want the split bath WITH the tub, not the stand up shower! Thank you so much!! Am following and so looking forward to those pics, I just LOVE the STAR toes....You go girl, cheers and enjoy! 

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16 minutes ago, janetmojo said:

Hmm ok trying again for a trashy yet classy picture of my toes that isn't so big that it scares people...(ok folks how do I make my photos a little smaller when I post them?)

 

 

I use an app called Image Sizer (h/t @twangster) that does a nice job of squashing photos to a reasonable size for uploads.

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I guess we can consider this blog "live" but I'm not sure how to edit the title so oh well!  Countdown a little over 24 hours until we board Odyssey!  We have gotten an email from Israel, our Genie, with some very basic info (no long winded survey for us Royal Up folks.)  I noted we would like some Diet Cokes, waters and OJ in the fridge and hubby asked for some Coronas and limes.  I also asked that we maybe not get "snacks" or extra food unless we ask for it.  I hate seeing things so to waste and we plan on taking major advantage of the specialty restaurants and lunch and dinner with 4 sea days.

I made a quick list of possible dining options...ok that is a lie.  I made three drafts of dining possibilities being sure to utilize each venue an appropriate number of times for lunch and dinner and used a show schedule from a few weeks ago to try to align dinners with shows.  I then made an additional typed sheet with the possible options.  (I color code my grocery lists as well, it's just how I roll.)  Now that the OCD portion of the last minute planning is done I can start packing...well after I do laundry.  Shoot laundry!!  Off to swap loads and color code something else 🙂

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4 hours ago, wannabecruiseexpert said:

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit jealous of super organized people. I've tried, unsuccessfully many times.  Can't wait to hear how embarkation goes! 

 

This is me! Lol I have a novel prepared….the hubby? Not sure he would tell u the NAME of the ship we are going on 🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️

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Good Morning from Odyssey of the Seas!  Hubby asked if I was going to the gym and I said I had way more important things to do like update this blog!  

Let’s see, yesterday we left home about 7:45 and had a super uneventful drive down to Ft. Lauderdale.  Got parked at Park n Go around 11:20, and we got right on the shuttle to the ship.  They tried to take our bags (the regular porter) but the email from Israel said there would be a special porter at the Star Class flag/banner (at least that is how I read it) so we took them over there but the ladies at the banner said no to take them back to the regular porter so just FYI things are a little different these days with Star Class bags.   

Check in was a breeze.  Showed all our documentation a few times.  There wasn’t really a line to check in so we didn’t save much time really but once Israel arrived to escort us we were the first people onboard (well except the back to back folks-which he said I think there were only 9?). He walked us to the room.  I snapped a few photos.  I posted more in the Star Class boards on FB but if anyone wants a specific photo of anything please let me know.  I also plan on doing a video at some point and I’ll get that posted as well.

The resolution on these is small but I didn’t want another giant foot incident type photo 😉

Next Up-Playmakers…

 

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Israel dropped us off at our room to explore and get our bearings while he went to get another couple.  Our bags arrived I would say less than 10 minutes after we walked in so even though they were given to the regular porter they did a nice job of expediting them up.    We checked over our paperwork and looked over the pre-cruise snacks left (the typical fruits and a tray of very…interesting appetizers.)  I thought it was interesting our normal Diamond Plus items (3 bottles of wine) were not in the room but I will check on those.  I know we have Star Class but I was planning on taking those home ha ha!  

Israel said he would be back in a bit to bring a little more paperwork and take us to Playmakers although it ended up we just walked there ourselves.  We really aren’t “escorted” type people and this ship is super empty (differing reports says between 500-800 passengers, not sure which is correct but basically there isn’t anyone onboard.). 

The Playmakers area is honestly fantastic.  It’s way up on 15/16 and has a lot to offer.  TONS of TVs, a large bar area and eating area.  Pool tables (2) a shuffle disc type game lots of arcade games ($) and lots of places to just hang out.  The views are good and the game court/bumper cars area is large.  Now to the food…ok well maybe let’s start with the drinks!  Here is a terrible selfie of us with a great jalapeño/pineapple margarita and my husband’s Bloody Mary.

 

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Now onto the food.  It was just ok.  I’m glad we tried it but it might be a one and done for us on this trip.  We started with the Poke Nachos (hubby LOVES anything with tuna so he was excited) they were a HUGE portion of wonton chips but not a lot of toppings. It tasted good though.  I also got us the Buffalo egg roll thing (ok I looked it up and it’s called the Buffalo Chicken Crunch Roll) it was served with blue cheese and buffalo sauce and was the best thing we ordered.  

Next up hubby tired a new IPA he wasn’t keen on but that is the point, try things that normally cost extra 🙂  He drinks Natural Ice at home, the cheapest beer for the buck.  (Did I mention we aren’t really classy people?).  Our main entrees arrived.  Jerk wings and fries for me (I asked for a small portion of wings) and the Truffle burger for Les.  I remembered reading in another blog maybe by @Tiffeven where her husband said the wings were not good and I remember thinking, it’s wings??  How can they screw that up?

They can.  It’s weird.  They were kind of squishy, not crispy and not much flavor.  Oh well.  Hubby’s burger looked impressive but the bacon on it was more like ham and the “mushrooms” was one large fried portobello mushroom.   We did not go hungry and service was good and we had a lovely view.  

On the way out we checked out some of the games, as in we looked at the games we would play if we wanted to spend even more money which we didn’t.  But I noticed this whole game full of Frozen characters.  I’m a huge Olaf fan (I need to photo our room sign) and I wanted to rescue them all.  Hubby told me they needed to go to other homes as we have enough Olafs at our house.  (We only have maybe 3-4 Olafs but one is a 14 ft tall Christmas inflatable.)  Sigh  no Olaf rescuing today.  (Maybe another day hee hee).

 

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It was around 2:30 by the time we finished and we spent some time exploring the ship.  We started at the top and worked our way down checking out the various venues.  We even ducked into the Windjammer and I noticed this lovely display of desserts.  We did our lifeboat drill/check in which takes about 1 minute.  Then we changed and went back up to the pool/hot tub area.  They have these cool infinity hot tubs (I’ll snap a photo today) and we enjoyed hanging out in one until some kids jumped in with us and started putting the water in their mouths and spitting it all over.  Not really very lovely in normal circumstances but especially in Covid times-ick.  I gently in my best non-mom voice (because I’m not one) told them maybe not to do that anymore?  Then we relocated to a pool without kids 😉  

We hung out until almost sail away and watched from our balcony.  There had been some off and on showers and I will say one downside to this specific room is the large back balcony isn’t covered so all the furniture was wet.  No biggie we had just come from the pool after all.  It was getting late though and we were woefully lacking in alcoholic beverages.  We had requested Coronas and limes for hubby in the room but there were only 3 so he burned through those pretty quickly and when the limes finally came around 6:45 (they brought lemons) we were out of beers.  So we headed downstairs to a very packed Boleros.  Just kidding we were the only people there. We enjoyed great service and enjoyed chatting with Michael from Jamaica and listened to some lovely acoustic guitar until it was time for dinner.

 

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Night one dinner-Coastal Kitchen filet night.

I’m going to start by mentioning Coastal Kitchen as a venue.  We have dined in Coastal Kitchen but only on Oasis Class ships (Allure and Oasis).  On those ships it is a big open two story kind of loud area attached to both the Chef’s table and the suite lounge.  On Odyssey it’s a much more intimate area up by the Windjammer.  It has dark colors an is a single story.  It’s a very inviting space.  I’ll let you know about the views when we dine in the daylight as it was dark last night.  Our service was very good and our food was most very good as well.  

They dropped off a very lovely bread basket and 3 different spreads to the table.  We started with the Burrata (a HUGE portion) for me and Shrimp Cocktail for Les.  Both great, he said the shrimp reminded him of the large ones from Chops not the tiny ones often found in the Main Dining Room.  Then we each had the Crispy Pork Belly which I had remembered being excellent previously so I didn’t want to share and we each got one.  Focus on the word crispy.  Very crispy.  Afraid I would break a tooth crispy (hubby just had two crowns.). So we didn’t finish it.  Great taste just didn’t want to visit a Nassau dentist.  

We both ordered the filet and they were delicious.  Cooked to perfection and melt in your mouth.  Way too much food as I tend to eat smaller dinners at home and bigger lunches.  We finished with just a piece of Royal Chocolate Cake for hubby and some vanilla ice cream. Not very exciting but it’s his favorite 🙂  

We managed to stay awake to go to our reserved seats for the comedian (about the 7th row) we didn’t want to be in the front.  He was just ok. I giggled a few times but no out loud laughing.  The cruise director Mike from Canada was actually funnier than the comedian and he was pretty enjoyable to listen to. He did a little breakdown of the different nationalities of the guests onboard and had them yell out if they were from that country.  Was very interesting and would have been even more fun with a full house of guests.  

Well that wraps up day one and I have successfully avoided going to the gym.  Thanks for that and more to come!!

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On 9/24/2021 at 10:42 AM, janetmojo said:

I made a quick list of possible dining options...ok that is a lie.  I made three drafts of dining possibilities being sure to utilize each venue an appropriate number of times for lunch and dinner and used a show schedule from a few weeks ago to try to align dinners with shows.  I then made an additional typed sheet with the possible options.  (I color code my grocery lists as well, it's just how I roll.)  Now that the OCD portion of the last minute planning is done I can start packing...well after I do laundry.  Shoot laundry!!  Off to swap loads and color code something else 🙂

LOL!  I love your style!  My Excel spreadsheet is complete with packing, schedule, activities ranked in order of importance, etc.  We're also fellow foodies, so I'm excited to be following your blog.  I hope you have a fabulous time!

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I’m an Oasis, Allure  Harmony, Symphony raised Diamond. I’ve been so excited to read an Odyssey blog! Your pictures of Odyssey on FB have inspired me to make the Quantum leap on this new ship! 

Unthinkable that there were only 3 beers. I hope your fridge and counter are woven flowing by now😉. Going to the bar to have a drink sb optional lol—although an empty Boleros must’ve been a novelty and a treat😀.  Btw, imho drink quality and selection are better in the Coastal Kitchen than some of the other watering holes.  I’m not a huge fan of playmakers either (maybe a genie order to the room).  There’s so many other venues for genie to insure you’ll have good food and a better experience!  Looking forward to you enjoying a Star Classy cruise🌟

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Before I continue with the daily food report (ha ha) I have a couple interesting tips and quirks about this room.  Despite being the newest ship in the fleet there is not an outlet on each side of the bed which surprises me.  There is a regular outlet on the left side of the bed and then on the right side there is no outlet on the wall but there is a phone and a lamp both plugged in.  Since that is “my” side of the bed I started moving furniture around yesterday to figure out where to plug my phone in at night since i use it as a clock.  After kind of unsuccessfully looking for the outlet (the bed really doesn’t move and the nightstand which I thought did move turns out is supposed to be kind of built in and a piece fell off.  Oops.) Well it turns out I finally figured out there is a small hidden USB port ON the phone that is sitting on the nightstand. You’re welcome 😉  The downstairs bedroom is another story.  No outlets or USB that I can find on either side of the bed.  I did find a pair of shorts that are not ours though on our search for one.

Next weird thing, I can’t find any kind of nightlight upstairs or a light switch that controls the lights ON the stairs.  I’ve been blocking off the stairs with a huge stack of the grossly unnecessary pile of pillows we have in the room to try to discourage my husband from sleepwalking down the stairs.  Always a concern for us when we have a room with stairs.  There is a nightlight in the downstairs bathroom and I have just been leaving the light on in the upstairs toilet room propped slightly open for a little light.  Since the bathroom upstairs is wide open to the bedroom there doesn’t seem to be a super easy solution if you want just a little light in the room to keep from tripping or anything.

Finally the really odd thing.  Since both showers have HUGE windows I assumed there would be some kind of curtain in case you were parked next to another ship or something.  Since no curtains were to be found we went outside both bathrooms to see if maybe there was a coating or anything to prevent people from being able to see in.  There isn’t.  I asked the room steward what happens if you want a shower and you are parked next to another ship and his reply was “it doesn’t happen very often”.   Hmm my showering or parking next to another ship lol.  So yesterday evening I waved as a small boat full of people drove right past the window as I was in the shower in Nassau.  Shower takers beware.  

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Saturday night we had a very violent lightning storm around 4am that woke us both up.  Super loud thunder and lighting.  We were rewarded with beautiful views of the sunrise with the storms still around us about 6:45am.  (I am working on a better fox for my photos maybe by the end of the week I will master the perfect resolution for posting but obviously I haven’t yet figured it out.).    We finished the morning with a rainbow.  

Also some nice person on the Odyssey FB group posted this cool picture of us on our balcony at Sailaway, super nice of them.  Taken from shore.

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Yesterday was a pretty chill day for us.  I kept wanting to do things and being pulled to stay in the room and enjoy what it had to offer.  I updated the blog while hubby went to the gym (which he says is empty) and I finally pulled myself free of the suite to hit our 11am appointment for the North Star.  The views were nice but it was raining so the photos through the glass didn’t come out very well.  (We are headed back up today on the Sea day but I prefer it in port when you can see more.). I enjoyed checking out the Edge as we spent two weeks on it in July and I wished I had thought ahead to email some of my favorite crew members so we could yell hi.

Lunch was Coastal Kitchen.  I have been SUPER impressed with both the food and service there so far.  Makes me wish we were eating more meals there but I hate not to take advantage of the unlimited specialty dining.  

We started with the sausage flatbread for me (which was the one slight letdown of this meal).  It wasn’t “flat” at all and wasn’t great.  It was very big and Kind of doughy.  Flavor was ok but I only ate some of it.  Hubby got the mozzarella sticks and Caesar salad both very tasty and I especially liked the Parmesan crisp on top of the salad.  The bread basket was lovely but somehow I missed a photo.

Entrees were the crab crusted flounder which was EXCELLENT.  Hubby is more of a meat and potatoes guy so I was proud of his choice ha ha.  I had the roasted chicken which was very juicy and had nice crisp skin.  We also polished off a bottle of wine.  #vacation.    I finished with the caramel creme  brûlée which is a personal favorite and hubby had a basic bowl of chocolate ice cream.  I think we counted about 10 people eating lunch in there.  

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We spent the afternoon debating important things like if the carpet in the hall should have been laid the other direction (we are based in the construction industry and we never lay carpet or tile in this fashion because it looks like you are climbing a ladder when you are walking down the hall.). Also to note there is motion sensor lighting in the hallways of the ship in cabin areas.  The lights dim if no one has been walking in the hallways for awhile.  Also there are cameras EVERYWHERE on this ship.  A crew member said over 1700 which sounds like a lot but I might believe it.  

We also spent time in our hot tub, sat on the balcony, ordered drinks from the genie and watched some football.  A highly successful day in my opinion.

I was wondering if any of our diamond plus amenities were going to be delivered to the room since I hadn’t seen them yet but wine and cheese and fruit arrived around 5pm.  Still waiting on two more bottles of wine I plan on taking home 😉

We finally dragged ourselves out in time for a drink before dinner back at Boleros and dinner at 7ish.

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Dinner tonight was at Giovanni’s Kitchen.  I’m a pasta lover so I was looking forward to it.

We arrived and we were greeting by Dean and served by Mary (they both did a wonderful job and it was nice chatting with them.). The views here are either of the lifeboats, the people walking by (which there aren’t really any people) or of the pizza making area.  We like to watch food prep so we were happy with being seated with a view of the pizza area.  (Although no one ordered pizza the whole time we were there.)

We started with soup and salad.  The soup was tasty, I especially liked the kale and pesto and cheese on top.  The bowl was huge and I could only make a dent in it knowing what more was coming.  Hubby had the house salad which was also large and had tasty prosciutto and olives on it (if you are an olive fan there is no shortage of them here onboard.). They also brought some garlic rolls (cold) and more olives and some marinara for dipping.  We also wanted the meat and cheese plank but I asked if we could have a small amount knowing we just couldn’t eat that much.  They brought a big one and I felt bad as once again we didn’t make a dent in it.  (If you are looking for something to order to your room for a snack, I’d HIGHLY recommend this platter.). For entrees we had the linguine with clams (me) and filet (Les).  Both were good.  Hubby said filet was better than Coastal bc it wasn’t as salty.  My pasta was a little more than al dente (as in a little undercooked) but it was still good with a decent number of clams.  They had asked if I also wanted shrimp in it but I knew my stomach’s limits.  We finished with a shared chocolate ravioli (are you seeing a trend in my husband’s dessert preferences?)   They were good, I only had a bite but a cross between a chocolate cookie and a brownie with chocolate sauce.  I wanted to try the tiramisu but we are coming back for lunch another day.

I thought overall this meal was good but not amazing.  I don’t think I would pay $50.  It’s a more casual experience and even though the food was good and service was good it just wasn’t an upscale add on to us.  

We played a little while in the casino (maybe 20 mins) and I got a certificate for a free cruise based on my play on our last cruise two weeks ago.  I like this new system but won’t be booking onboard as our schedule for travel is just too crazy and I need to consult my master calendar.  

We went to the show (Peter Grant) at 9:45 barely staying awake from our food coma.  Hubby is a good sport, this is definitely not his cup of tea for entertainment but he was a good vocalist (kind of in the style of Michael Buble.).  They also featured the orchestra and they are excellent.  

Another day wraps up and next up a sea day full of activity…or not 😉

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36 minutes ago, janetmojo said:

I was wondering if any of our diamond plus amenities were going to be delivered to the room since I hadn’t seen them yet but wine and cheese and fruit arrived around 5pm.  Still waiting on two more bottles of wine I plan on taking home

Sometimes when you RoyalUp they don't get the message and the Diamond amenities end up going to your original room.  Ask Israel to help track them down for you!

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Yesterday was another great day onboard!  I awoke early (again) to another pretty sunrise.  Not quite as stunning as the day before but the balcony off the master bedroom (the one with the jacuzzi on it) is a great place to watch the sunrise on the side of the ship since we are currently sailing south.

I got up and updated this blog again foregoing breakfast and the gym to keep you lovely folks informed on my adventures.  I did hit the top tier event around 10:15 to check out how many folks were on the ship (728 guests and 1510 crew) and see Super Mario of course and there was a very good singer who sang a few songs along with the orchestra.  It was a nice event.  I’m glad to see things like this slowly return.

We did the ifly (I have no pictures only videos taken by Israel for us which was super nice of him.)  I did really well this time, I previously tried it on Anthem but that was 4 years ago.  I think I am a little better shape these days and I was more relaxed.  Because they limit it to 4 people per session (we only had 3 people) we each got to fly twice.  I’ve never done any actual skydiving even though we live in the city that is the skydiving capital of the world (Deland, FL) but I wonder if it actually feels similar.  I never wanted to do it because I hate to feel like I am falling but when you do this you don’t feel like you are falling at all (I guess because you aren’t) anyways…

After iFly we stopped to check on our favorite art install of the ship, the giant cat made of roses.  I wonder who brainstormed that up?   “Hey let’s add a giant cat made of pink roses to the side of the ship?”  What exactly was that person smoking that day?  But we like it.  I bet it looks cool when other ships pass as well.

Lunch was at noon at the Teppanyaki restaurant.  It is located up next to the Windjammer on 14 and has beautiful views.  We were the only people in the entire restaurant and I will say it was one of the better times we have done this onboard a ship.  Due to a little confusion on our part we ended up not getting the soup and salad and honestly I was so glad.  We could enjoy our food a lot more not filling up on useless starters 🙂  Steak and lobster for hubby and steak and scallops for me.  Not always the best meal for photos but we enjoyed every bite and look forward to coming back for dinner later in the week.

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After lunch we had another session with the North Star.  Something about being 300 feet above the sea instead of the land is actually a little scarier.  I had no issues when we did it over land but I held onto the railing this time.  

After that I wanted to drop by the casino just for a little while.  Normally we spend a good bit of time down there but since we paid for the upgrade to the room and we have a good many more cruises coming up in the next year we decided we weren’t going to play this trip.  Buuuuut we decided maybe just a few hands of Ultimate Texas Hold Em would be fun.  Since we were being super conservative we only had the minimum bid down and I didn’t even bring my phone down since we were not staying long…well what do you know.  I hit the Royal Flush on the second hand of play.  Doh!  Never complain about a win like that but i sure wish I had been betting my more normal amount.  Play stopped for the table while they figured all that out and we played a little more, ok we played for a couple hours.  Luckily we left with my winnings intact!  

I headed to a pirate themed meet up at the Ale and Compass bar that was organized on Facebook and met a few new folks.  After that it was back to the room for some wine and to get ready for formal night.  Well at least shower up and put on clean clothes.

We hit Boleros for our pre-dinner cocktail and to listen once again to the acoustic guitar player who must be getting tired of playing for just us and the bar staff?

Next up Chops dinner.

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3 minutes ago, janetmojo said:

well what do you know.  I hit the Royal Flush on the second hand of play.

 

WOW !  That's very exciting.  Congratulations.  I have only done this once and, like you, I only had the minimum bet on the bonus...ugh.  But it was still pretty sweet.  It took a while for play to resume at the table b/c they had to go to the "bank" to pay me out.  

Things like that always seem to happen when you least expect it.

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Chops is probably our favorite place to eat onboard.  I know it is for my husband and it is quickly becoming my favorite as well.  We started with some wine and the best bread on the ship (French onion rolls and pretzel rolls.). Then hubby ordered beef carpaccio (I convinced him to only order one as we have plans to return here a couple times) and we both had the giant shrimp cocktail.  They were so big I passed my last one off to hubby.  We also split the goat cheese salad which has a HUGE piece of fried goat cheese on it.  It’s tasty but can be a little strong so you have to grab a little bite of goat cheese with each big bite of salad.  

At this point I was starting to feel like I was in a Star Class food coma but we pushed on 😉  We each ordered the lobster and hubby ordered the ribeye (his favorite cut of steak).  The lobster was ok.  I do like that it is served fairly plain with butter and lemon and no weird heavy sauces.  Mine was a little mushy, that can just happen sometimes but I also noshed on the ribeye so I was great.  The steak was cooked perfectly and had a nice char on the outside but was perfectly medium rare inside.

We managed to choke down a little dessert.  Key lime pie for me and chocolate cake for Leslie.  (Remember his thing about chocolate dessert?). 

At that point hubby was done, done.  The cocktails started back during poker at 2pm so I walked him back to bed and headed to the show where Israel had a seat waiting for me.  Honestly on this ship things are so empty it really isn’t necessary but it does make you feel special.  

The show started off brilliantly.  Very upbeat songs and dance, fantastic costumes and very talented singers.  But ten minutes into the show the music and microphones cut out sharply and I heard the dreaded “Alpha Alpha Alpha”.  Oh no.  Even worse it was backstage on deck three right in the middle of the show.  At first the singer kept singing (even with no music) but they then stopped the show saying it would be just a couple minutes but eventually the lights came up and the cruise director ran out and told us one of the main performers had fallen down some stairs and hit his head 😞  The show could not go on.  

Thankfully we JUST got an update that after a few stitches he is ok and they will reschedule the show for later in the week.  I’m so glad but that really was a scary moment.  There was a large number of crew and I think performers from The Book in the audience last night and they were all deeply concerned.

So all in all another great day and I look forward to catching the show again next time!

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20 hours ago, janetmojo said:

After lunch we had another session with the North Star.  Something about being 300 feet above the sea instead of the land is actually a little scarier.  I had no issues when we did it over land but I held onto the railing this time.  

After that I wanted to drop by the casino just for a little while.  Normally we spend a good bit of time down there but since we paid for the upgrade to the room and we have a good many more cruises coming up in the next year we decided we weren’t going to play this trip.  Buuuuut we decided maybe just a few hands of Ultimate Texas Hold Em would be fun.  Since we were being super conservative we only had the minimum bid down and I didn’t even bring my phone down since we were not staying long…well what do you know.  I hit the Royal Flush on the second hand of play.  Doh!  Never complain about a win like that but i sure wish I had been betting my more normal amount.  Play stopped for the table while they figured all that out and we played a little more, ok we played for a couple hours.  Luckily we left with my winnings intact!  

I headed to a pirate themed meet up at the Ale and Compass bar that was organized on Facebook and met a few new folks.  After that it was back to the room for some wine and to get ready for formal night.  Well at least shower up and put on clean clothes.

We hit Boleros for our pre-dinner cocktail and to listen once again to the acoustic guitar player who must be getting tired of playing for just us and the bar staff?

Next up Chops dinner.

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WOW that picture of the pool deck from the North Star is AMAZING!!! Gorgeous day!

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On 9/26/2021 at 8:43 AM, janetmojo said:

Next up hubby tired a new IPA he wasn’t keen on but that is the point, try things that normally cost extra 🙂  He drinks Natural Ice at home, the cheapest beer for the buck.  (Did I mention we aren’t really classy people?).  Our main entrees arrived.  Jerk wings and fries for me (I asked for a small portion of wings) and the Truffle burger for Les.  I remembered reading in another blog maybe by @Tiffeven where her husband said the wings were not good and I remember thinking, it’s wings??  How can they screw that up?

They can.  It’s weird.  They were kind of squishy, not crispy and not much flavor.  Oh well.  Hubby’s burger looked impressive but the bacon on it was more like ham and the “mushrooms” was one large fried portobello mushroom.  

Sorry, Playmakers didn't live up to the hype.  I was hoping we were the only ones that weren't fans, so that maybe it was just a bad batch.  I plan on giving them another chance on Oasis in November, but I'll probably just order them to the room this time.  We are enjoying your blog.  Have a fantastic trip!

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Well I’m back, sorry for the delay but I have lost the ability to airdrop pics from phone to my ipad which makes this more complicated that it already was 🙂  So now I’ll do the typing on my ipad keyboard then upload from my phone (roll eyes).  I’m just not a tech savvy person.

So last we left our heroine she was leaving the cancelled Showgirls show.  Luckily fairly early the next morning they announced that the performer was ok, stitches in the head and resting.  They are going to reschedule the show for a matinee the last day of the cruise.

Tuesday morning was another beautiful morning and after my daily 6:30am walk to Starbucks I settled in to work on the blog and once again avoid the gym but the internet was down briefly so around 8am I forced myself to go have my first breakfast of the trip.  I will say that Coastal Kitchen has been excellent.  The food has been piping hot and the service fantastic. Pancakes on a cruise ship are usually extremely disappointing but these were hot and freshly made just for me.  I enjoyed my solo breakfast while hubby was getting his “gym” on.  At this point I may have completely abandoned the idea of going to the gym.  Way more important to update the blog right?

We hung out in the amazing room until it was time to meet Israel at the Zone Zero Virtual Reality game, which he had really been hyping up.  (I think he really enjoys doing it)  Well it was broken.  In fact it has remained broken the entire trip 😞  Oh well something to do next time right?  We played a little archery instead.  I will let you know if you don’t do it right you can get a pretty good bruise on the inside of your forearm.  Three other ladies and I were comparing bruises later in the week.  Chalk that up to just something I don’t excel at…maybe if I spent more time in the gym?

Next up was sushi lunch at Izumi.  Hubby had especially been looking forward to this.  We ordered what I thought was maybe not enough food.  One miso soup to share, the included edemame, a little snack from the chef, the firecracker roll app, a plate of nigiri, and two roll.  This would have been similar if not a little less food than is included in the $35 pre fix menu which looking back is a pretty good deal and a LOT of food.  All of it was excellent, we were stuffed and starting to hit the dreaded Star Class food wall.  There was a also wine.  A decent amount of lunch wine which is normally not a thing I do but it was so tasty 🙂

So next up…a nap.  I napped hard.  I told hubby to wake me in 30 mins…2 hours later I stumbled around trying to figure out if it was night or day.  It was around 4pm and I had time to shower and pull myself together to go to the bumper cars…

Thankfully Israel told us a couple tricks and to avoid getting our knees knocked by the steering wheel (so I only managed to do that once.). I probably would have ridden more than once, it was pretty fun and the line was short but some folks were driving kind of violent and I knew it was only a matter of time before I injured myself so it was a one and done.

 

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We were supposed to go to Wonderland on Tuesday night but honestly I was still full from sushi and I knew hubby wasn’t looking forward to Wonderland, we have done it before and let’s just say it “isn’t his favorite”. So I asked if he would rather just go back to Chops knowing I wouldn’t eat much and that way he could order “his kind” of food.  So a quick text to Israel and we were lined up to head back to Chops. 

We listened to some music in Boleros and had a few cocktails before our 7pm dinner.  I’d post more food pictures but we ordered almost the same thing as the night before so here is a photo my hubby with his giant shrimp cocktail in his Tiger King shirt (which ironically came from WalMart.). 

After dinner we both went to see Hector the magician.  Again magicians are usually not my thing but he was really enjoyable.  You can tell he’s got a really good personality to go with the magic tricks.  He had some cute videos that were kind of Instagram-y if that makes sense and I thought overall it was an excellent show for all ages.  

Hubby gave up at that point but since I had had the giant power nap (otherwise known as sushi and wine induced sleep of the dead) I went ahead to the 10:45 showing of The Book in Two70.  I had asked a technician a couple days previously about the “broken” robots but apparently it isn’t the robots that are broken but the platform they are attached to.  So the platform can’t raise or lower.  The robots still work but you can’t see the screen behind them very well.  It’s a warranty issue with this new ship and getting someone to fix it apparently isn’t so easy.  

I thought The Book was very good, talented performers.  It was a little “out there” and I knew my husband probably wouldn’t like it so it was good that he didn’t try to stay up.  I was in a great seat near the front but if I saw it again I might go one floor up to get a better all around view of everything.  One note, this venue is right under our room.  We can hear music and such from this venue very late at night.  Probably not enough to keep people awake if sleeping in the upstairs room but maybe in the downstairs room.  

I took a few pictures on the way to the Two70 at 10:30 to show you how dead the ship is…

 

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On 9/28/2021 at 10:02 AM, janetmojo said:

Yesterday was another great day onboard!  I awoke early (again) to another pretty sunrise.  Not quite as stunning as the day before but the balcony off the master bedroom (the one with the jacuzzi on it) is a great place to watch the sunrise on the side of the ship since we are currently sailing south.

I got up and updated this blog again foregoing breakfast and the gym to keep you lovely folks informed on my adventures.

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 I did hit the top tier event around 10:15 to check out how many folks were on the ship (728 guests and 1510 crew)

and see Super Mario of course and there was a very good singer who sang a few songs along with the orchestra.  It was a nice event.  I’m glad to see things like this slowly return.

We did the ifly (I have no pictures only videos taken by Israel for us which was super nice of him.)  I did really well this time, I previously tried it on Anthem but that was 4 years ago.  I think I am a little better shape these days and I was more relaxed.  Because they limit it to 4 people per session (we only had 3 people) we each got to fly twice.  I’ve never done any actual skydiving even though we live in the city that is the skydiving capital of the world (Deland, FL) but I wonder if it actually feels similar.  I never wanted to do it because I hate to feel like I am falling but when you do this you don’t feel like you are falling at all (I guess because you aren’t) anyways…

After iFly we stopped to check on our favorite art install of the ship, the giant cat made of roses.  I wonder who brainstormed that up?   “Hey let’s add a giant cat made of pink roses to the side of the ship?”  What exactly was that person smoking that day?  But we like it.  I bet it looks cool when other ships pass as well.

Lunch was at noon at the Teppanyaki restaurant.  It is located up next to the Windjammer on 14 and has beautiful views.  We were the only people in the entire restaurant and I will say it was one of the better times we have done this onboard a ship.  Due to a little confusion on our part we ended up not getting the soup and salad and honestly I was so glad.  We could enjoy our food a lot more not filling up on useless starters 🙂  Steak and lobster for hubby and steak and scallops for me.  Not always the best meal for photos but we enjoyed every bite and look forward to coming back for dinner later in the week.

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Thanks for the updates! Was that the passenger count for the whole cruise? 728? 

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