Two Delightfully Unfrugal Idiots sail our White Whale (Oasis OP, 9/24 -10/1/23)

[SweetPea]

10 minutes ago, FireFishII said:

I WON!!!  I WON!!!  What do I get?  A Walmark 12 underwear package? 

You can totally title my next blog in May. 

That or i can ship you 30 tagged ducks.

Your call.

[DDaley]

16 hours ago, SweetPea said:

First of all, do any of you know the effort it takes to live blog while sailing with your better half and only one of you knows about said blog? 

This was me!! I have never told my husband about any of my live blogs and he is prominently featured in them all. Every time you guys posted some funny comment I relayed back, I said it was from the FB group from our sailing. Don’t ask me why I didn’t tell him - easier not to??? I have no idea! haha There’s no way he’d mind! 

 

[ScottD]

1 minute ago, DDaley said:

This was me!! I have never told my husband about any of my live blogs and he is prominently featured in them all. Every time you guys posted some funny comment I relayed back, I said it was from the FB group from our sailing. Don’t ask me why I didn’t tell him - easier not to??? I have no idea! haha There’s no way he’d mind! 

 

I also plan on doing this, my wife will know I'm doing a little recap here and there, but no idea that I plan on give you all a pretty detailed run down of our trip. 

[OCSC Mike]

16 minutes ago, ScottD said:

I also plan on doing this, my wife will know I'm doing a little recap here and there, but no idea that I plan on give you all a pretty detailed run down of our trip. 

Now I feel like the oddball, which is not new for me and I'm cool with it, lol.

My wife knows all about my forum interactions although I normally don't actually live blog like I did in June. She'll likely help me take pics if I live blog in the future when we're back to being alone without extended family. I tend to compose/post my little write-ups while we're not actively doing anything (like lounging in the Solarium) and she's not super interested but she'll ask, "did you mention XYZ?"

She may have even been told "there's a guy from South Philly with a Gritty avatar who made fun of the Orlando City purple cheesesteak."

[Lovetocruise2002]

15 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Now I feel like the oddball, which is not new for me and I'm cool with it, lol.

My wife knows all about my forum interactions although I normally don't actually live blog like I did in June. She'll likely help me take pics if I live blog in the future when we're back to being alone without extended family. I tend to compose/post my little write-ups while we're not actively doing anything (like lounging in the Solarium) and she's not super interested but she'll ask, "did you mention XYZ?"

You're not the oddball. My whole family knows that I blog. Hubby takes most of my photos. However, none of them care to follow/read the blogs. 

[OCSC Mike]

9 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

You're not the oddball. My whole family knows that I blog. Hubby takes most of my photos. However, none of them care to follow/read the blogs. 

Another conclusion might be that WE'RE the oddballs, lol.

[SweetPea]

I'm still on the balcony, and i tried the "hot tub" today. 

It was freezing! I'm pretty sure that pellets of ice have clogged the jets.

Actually, this worked out for me well. I have complications related to hip dysplasia and sciatica.  My holistic doc recommends ice during flare ups. No better way to ice than to sit in a freezing tub of water and watch the ocean go by.

What i should have done was film Batman's face when he got in to join me. He expected warm water but failed to test the water before going in. I about cried laughing. I'm sorry i did. He'll never throw caution to the wind again. 

 

the culprit: 

[LandstromCruise]

I think Batman can blame @Matt and RCBlog for his lack of underpants on this cruise.  This article clearly doesn't say anything about making sure you have undies in your last minute things to do 

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2023/09/25/last-minute-things-do-before-your-cruise

[SweetPea]

Today's "snacks." Yes, that's right. After our chicken sandwiches and breakfast salad. And before dinner. 

Ethiopia is sending our room a Bat signal right about now. 

Pro tip: bring plenty of extra baggies, esp with limited late night feeding options. This delivery will go into baggies and into the cooler.

I don't think we're going to have a big dinner at 150CP, so these will come in handy if we get caught in another shot situation like we did last night ....

Oh, i failed to mention the shots? Imagine that. 

[OCSC Mike]

4 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

Pro tip: bring plenty of extra baggies

Been bringing a stack of gallon ziploc bags as long as I can remember.

[Ampurp85]

First you guys look good, I was honestly expecting the worst based on your earlier description

Second even not in star class I bring the baggies......mainly for ranger cookies and those delectable fruity pebble rice treats.

But only my brother knows I live blog. The vintages would read it and get their feelings hurt. Even though I am honest with them in real life I have a soft face that makes the harsh truths go easier. 

How crowded has the ship felt? It was sort of bananas when we were on there in Jan. The only time Playmakers was semi empty was port days during lunch.

[SweetPea]

28 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

How crowded has the ship felt? It was sort of bananas when we were on there in Jan. The only time Playmakers was semi empty was port days during lunch.

Well i can only tell you what I've seen from the balcony when people watching at the pool.  It was totally packed.  And we made friends with another couple that are Sky Class and they couldn't get their 5:45/6pm CK dinner any day. They could only get 8pm.

Last night we actually made the balloon drop and of course that was a madhouse, but that's expected on any cruise. 

 

30 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

First you guys look good, I was honestly expecting the worst based on your earlier description

You are kind. I hesitated a lot and then said screw it. They know I'm old and not happy that I'm not at my fighting weight. We're all cruise family here so who cares!

[SweetPea]

CP150: IDK who will see this on time. I know about the bread. Is this where I'm supposed to order their featured drink, the Urban Garden?

[asquared17]

scuze me yall are lookin GOOD  

also im living for the charcoal pills AS LONG AS YOU HYDRATE. YOU KNOW THIS. I KNOW THIS. do not forget this PLS. 

also, i too, am afraid of dna tests. so i guess we’ll just go with the understanding that we are, in fact, related. 

this cooler (and baggie) trend intrigues me…

[AlmondFarmer]

Yes. They are awesome. Often made table side. Ask it to be shaken lightly as the ice can bruise the vodka. 

[OCSC Mike]

1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

Second even not in star class I bring the baggies......mainly for ranger cookies and those delectable fruity pebble rice treats.

I originally brought them for the cookies... as time went on, we started bringing more for random items.

[SweetPea]

2 minutes ago, asquared17 said:

AS LONG AS YOU HYDRATE. YOU KNOW THIS. I KNOW THIS. do not forget this PLS. 

Yes, mom! i could be your mom. 

Kidding! I know we sound like lushes, but we are expert hydraters. We even brought electrolytes. 

[Ampurp85]

CP........ the bread and the urban garden drink, also I actually enjoy the lamb wellington and the lobster thermidor will taste like sausage pizza. As a NJ native you will understand what I mean. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

2 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

delectable fruity pebble rice treats

BTW, I haven’t seen any of these (also my favorite) in about 6 months.  Disappointed…

[ScottD]

Oh the wife knows I'm always on here and she'll know what I'm doing when I'm tapping away on the balcony or taking way too many pics of ordinary things, but she'll never actually see any if it. She's not much of a blog person so I don't have to worry much about what I write,lol. I also brought baggies last time but never used them because I felt weird but this time I taking some damn goodies back to the room!

[Lovetocruise2002]

10 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

BTW, I haven’t seen any of these (also my favorite) in about 6 months.  Disappointed…

If you ask, sometimes they will make them 

Hubby loves those things. I love the peanut butter rice krispies square things with chocolate on top. They have made both of those for us when we asked.

[Lovetocruise2002]

@SweetPea Yay for coming out hiding! You and Batman look great!

[Ampurp85]

28 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

BTW, I haven’t seen any of these (also my favorite) in about 6 months.  Disappointed…

I had them in the DL on Freedom in April every day. I would take most and put them in my baggies for casino snacks. 

[OCSC Mike]

3 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

fruity pebble rice treats.

Good example of why I refer to her as “picky wife” so often. She loves krispie treats… but they have to be plain. She used to get plain ones a long time ago. I remember getting them at Cafe Promenade. Then they disappeared and morphed into the other varieties. She was not happy.

[WAAAYTOOO]

45 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I had them in the DL on Freedom in April every day. I would take most and put them in my baggies for casino snacks. 

Yeah, I haven’t been to the WJ but once and that was on embarkation day.  I mostly was talking about the plate of goodies that they deliver to your room.  I probably could find them in the WJ if I looked.

[OCSC Mike]

17 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

 I probably could find them in the WJ if I loo

Wonder had a kids section set up in WJ with stuff like that… krispie treats, cake pops, cookies, etc. Needless to say, kids weren’t the only ones visiting that area.  

[asquared17]

3 hours ago, SweetPea said:

we are expert hydraters. We even brought electrolytes. 

i recently switched from liquid IV packets to waterboy packets and WHOO BOY 17/10 would recommend!!!

 

[SweetPea]

Back from 150CP. And it was freaking amazing. More to follow. Also more to follow: Sherman is top 2. We met our assistant Abdul tonight also. He's completely redeemed.

I begrudgingly brought 5 ducks with me on our way to 150CP. They were all found by the time we were done with dinner. 

Here's to Sweet Leticia .  If you recall, we neglected to fill out our survey.  Instead, once we heard from her, i wrote her a quick Word doc. I explained our food and scheduling idiosyncrasies. 

When i ordered the short ribs tonight ... they knew: no polenta, no cooked carrots. They asked if it was ok to serve the truffle bread (no mushrooms). Leticia had warned every restaurant. She also made the rounds to tell everyone who mattered we're not to be disturbed prior to 11am. She is amazing!!

Somehow that didn't post before.

We're also back from AQUA80. Highlights: doing the Carlton during Karma Chameleon.  I was so pumped for the How Soon is Now/ In the Air Tonight mash up, but that was way too short-lived. For my Philly natives, how do you skip The Dead Milkmen during an 80s show? (Going in the comment card!). 

Yeah, fine. If you're googling The Dead Milkmen, i forgive you. 

[SweetPea]

Update, Batman just announced he wants to find the night club. The last time he wanted to find the night club?

He woke up sore the next morning. 

"Why am i so sore?"

"IDK, probably from all the dancing you did last night?"

"We went dancing?????"

I'll leave this here and make no further promises, but I'll fill you in on 150CP and our room steward in the morning...

[Ampurp85]

2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Yeah, I haven’t been to the WJ but once and that was on embarkation day.  I mostly was talking about the plate of goodies that they deliver to your room.  I probably could find them in the WJ if I looked.

I hardly go to the WJ, don't know if the treats are there. I usually get mine in the DL during happy hour. 

[Ampurp85]

I also don't think I have done the night club on a cruise. I can't dance at all, I lack the rhythm that one half of my people are naturally born with. 

[Robert M]

omg The Dead Milkmen, actually saw them here in Rochester NY back in the 80's lol.

[LandstromCruise]

10 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Update, Batman just announced he wants to find the night club. The last time he wanted to find the night club?

He woke up sore the next morning. 

"Why am i so sore?"

"IDK, probably from all the dancing you did last night?"

"We went dancing?????"

I'll leave this here and make no further promises, but I'll fill you in on 150CP and our room steward in the morning...

I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m sure hoping there is video evidence of this nightclub visit 

[SweetPea]

Let me back track here a moment, because Batman completely disagrees with me when it came to the How Soon is Now/ In the Air Tonight mash up. 

He feels that How Soon is Now is perfect as is and mashing that up with anything is the equivalent of trying to cover Stairway to Heaven. 

I have a lot to catch you all up on, but I'm waiting for cover to continue ...

[SweetPea]

I mentioned this earlier, but IDK if Leticia gets enough of the she fully deserves.

As soon as we met, we hugged it out and she thanked me for the WORD doc i sent her. It was a short intro with a list of our musts and must nots to help her "Genie up our trip." She's mentioned it a few times now so i think she genuinely found it helpful.  I've seen letters some people write their butlers that can border on obnoxious so i was hesitant to write it at first. I kept it short and pithy and only mentioned dealbreakers.

Leticia gets us totally. She really took my letter to heart and is absolutely on point.  As i mentioned, she took that note one step further than i imagined.  She speaks to the restaurant before each meal, advising them of our food won'ts. I didn't figure this out till last night. 

This. This is how you eat short ribs, people! Civilized people do not eat short ribs with polenta and carrots (i kid. Sort of.), and i wasn't made to feel an idiot asking to pare it down. This is how mine came without asking and they were PERFECT!

So perfect Batman said he'd have the short ribs for his appetizer, main course, and dessert. 

Batman had the pork belly. Listen, we're the equivalent of D+ on Norwegian and i know many of you here hate NCL and will never consider it. Or tried it once and won't be back. That's totally fair and i fully support you in that. But there are certain things that NCL objectively does better than Royal. Nobody pork bellies like Norwegian. These were a complete disappointment. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

Can’t agree more re: Royals pork belly.  I have tried a number of times but they are simply - repulsive.  I tried again this week on Adventure.  Ugh.  I haven’t tried NCL (I am not an NCL-hater) but I do agree that Royal is doing SOMEthing wrong.

[Ampurp85]

I actually had pork belly on my one and only NCL so I get it.

I don't mind NCL but when I cruised them it was a long time ago and I was a smidge turned off by their all-inclusive aspect. Now it's like I rank with Royal and the pricing/ itn offerings are meh. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 hour ago, SweetPea said:

These were a complete disappointment. 

I have not really had a good pork belly in 150CP. However, most CK that I have been in have done a decent job, IMO. 

[SweetPea]

There is so so much to catch you up on. But I'm not in much of a position to elaborate at the moment, if you know what i mean. 

Our room steward Sherman and i are now BFFs.

Last night, we came back to the room right quick after dinner. Sherman was in there and we came home to this;

I met our assistant room steward, Abdul, and immediately thought that it was he who crafted that. 

So after exchanging pleasantries, i told him i had something for him. I gave him a whole bunch of craft eyes, if you will,for towel animals.  As previously mentioned, some of which glow in the dark. Really. 

He immediately said, oh these must be for Sherman then. 

As it turns out, Sherman was thrilled to get them.  I was skeptical as i always am when giving a gift other than cash (do they have room, are they just being polite, etc).

Sherman saw my skepticism and said, no, you don't believe me. Here, I'll show you.  I'm running out! Look! I was just about to order more!

So we had a good laugh over that. We tried to tell him that we're fine with only turn down service, but he's having none of it. Now he just comes while we're sitting on the balcony  knocking to say a big hello. 

We got a very stern lecture, reminding us we're not to go home with any dirty laundry.

And today he escorted us to the suite sun deck, calling us crazy without calling us crazy, asking what's wrong with our own balcony. Just order some cocktails and enjoy the hot tub (you Idiots ... that part was implied). 

He's right. The suite sun deck needs a water feature. It's really not all that.

Honestly, I'm just working myself up to decide if i want to reveal just how far the great underpants caper has gone.  There's been a development, and I'm working my guts up to share it, at the risk of ending my happy marriage if I'm ever breached....

I'm WAY too sober yet though. 

Stay tuned.

[OCSC Mike]

2 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

The suite sun deck needs a water feature.

Sounds like you need a Wonder suite. Great prices for the UNFRUGAL still available for the 4 cruises I have booked if you'd like to join!

I'll be the one wearing the "Philly vs. All Youse Guys!" t-shirt in old school Phillies font and colors (light blue and burgundy).