CanadaCathi

Thanks for sharing your continuing adventures to find an Oasis in the sea. And just to do a little sports smack---GO HABS!!!!! As you like mexican Food, maybe next year look into Rock the Guaca or mexican Grill, both just a little further down N Atlantic.

Pfffft Habs, w/e. Tonight it's GO HEELS!

Thanks for the Mexican tip!

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On Freedom we had them before, but a few weeks ago on Oasis not til after.

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Not on Oasis last week; water, coffee, and danishes.

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Now you're making me think! We are bringing grandchildren (and their parents) next week and was thinking we would be able to take a banana or something for the toddler to tide him over till lunchtime but guess that's a no-no? Re-plan needed......:confused: Thanks OP for bringing this up!

Definitely not fresh produce, I saw a TON of confiscated bananas.

We took a few small things off ship; mini packaged Cheerios from the WJ, and crackers we'd brought from home that were individually packaged. The cereal and crackers were for snorkeling :-).

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Cathi, love your review. Do you know if the Royal IQ was working while you were on the Oasis? We are going in May and would love to have it to keep in touch with everyone in our group. Thanks

Linda

Hey Linda, I'd heard it STILL wasn't available so didn't even log in and check once onboard. Not sure if anyone else here has heard anything further? The last update I saw was the Royal was working on some sort of ship communication plan but that they didn't clarify whether it was an extension of IQ, or something new. This is one of the things that is done better on other lines.

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Oasis time(y)

 

Hi we are from Canada to and have just booked the Oasis for next Feb. Your excellent review and off the cuff humor made it a very enjoyable and informative read. Right down to the number of hangers in the closet. You also got great photos too. We will be booking the Radisson also our favorite hotel too. Thanks for all info and work you did . This will be our first on the Oasis class ship. Enjoy your next cruise and looking forward to that review. Till then HAPPY CRUISING.

 

JUST WAITING TO CRUISE.

 

kruise kat:D

So glad it's helpful, thank you!

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I like to take a magnetic sign (a Canadian flag, simple and tasteful), as a way to help quickly identify our room in the vast sea of hallway. It also is a nice conversation starter. Just a note on possible placement for a message board; our recent Oasis door had kind of a 'wavy' design, so it was hard to find an even spot for our thin (lightweight) magnet to stick. A message board might have been a problem. I think they're great when traveling with others.

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So funny! Loving your review. We're headed on Allure in about 3 weeks and we were going to do Sabor first night, but i've since cancelled it after reading how horrid it has become. Bummer.

Thank you. And keep in mind, it was great on Freedom, so maybe it was just an Oasis thing? Or maybe the kitchen had an off-day and were short on supplies? I hate to think of people missing out on an experience like the one we had on Freedom, because that one was sooooooooooo good.

Look how ridiculous this is, this is how much better the drinks looked on Freedom (because I know some of you are thinking, c'mon, really, it couldn't be THAT much different) -

Freedom

Oasis

Day 1 Dinner – Sabor Mexican Restaurant

Ok, now here’s one of those times when I’m going to remind you that I’m generally a very upbeat and positive person, and that this is just my opinion of my experience, and I’m sure lots of different factors contributed to it. I worked for many years as a waitress so I tend to be at least a little understanding of the challenges an eating establishment faces, as well as the waitstaff, and I tend to over tip because it’s a hard, thankless job. Jelly and I both LOVE Mexican food, it’s our favorite, and we had an AMAZING experience at Sabor on Freedom.

I did not have that same experience on Oasis.

<insert melancholy violin music, playing slowly>

If you loved Sabor on Oasis, you might want to just skip this part. Or if you think you WILL love Sabor and already have it booked for, like, tonight, then just jump ahead to my next happier post. Because beginning to end I had a bad experience.

Location – Sabor is located on Oasis on the Boardwalk, so right away it’s a much more casual atmosphere. I think they could do casual without sacrificing comfort. The TVs gave it almost a sports bar feel, which was NOT what I was looking for or expecting. Point lost. Sabor on Freedom is gorgeous.

Cocktails – I was excited to start with my favorite cocktail trio, the margarita sampler. The waiter kind of made that ‘errrrrrrmmmmmm’ face and said they didn’t do that. I was like, what the (insert curse word), do you sell margaritas? (I didn't really swear at the poor waiter). He said they tended to offer that one at the little stand-alone Sabor bar. Which was 10 feet away from where I was sitting. I took a deep, calming breath, and asked if it was possible to get it from there. He said he’d ask. I eventually did get it, on a separate bill, but whyyyyyyyyy so hardddddd? Minus another point.

Appetizers – Jenny had enjoyed the calamari in the MDR, so ordered it here. It was not good. I asked if they had other salsas, or even -a- salsa, rather than the pico de gallo that they brought with the chips (I love the pico, but Jelly enjoyed the salsa on Freedom). Nope, didn’t have any. Gahhhhhh. The guacamole was nowhere near as good as Freedom’s, Jenny wouldn’t touch it after the first bite. She’s a tough customer though, I ate some.

Entrée – Jenny knew she didn’t like much else so didn’t order one, she just ate plain chips and was surly. I got the fish tacos, which were meh until I got a little piece of questionable tuna and then I was just done. Did you notice in the menu above they were listed as being served on warm flour tortillas? Sabor’s flour tortillas are normally heavenly. Do these look like freshly made, soft and lovely flour tortillas? No? No, they are slightly stale Kroger taco shells. I also thought the build-your-own was a little misleading. I DID NO BUILDING.

Dessert – Neither one of us wanted dessert.

There were only 2-3 other tables eating, a big difference from the Freedom restaurant which was full of happy people and music. Other than some chatter from the boardwalk and the TVs, it was silent. It was a sad, quiet, terrible meal, for which I paid extra, and NO I’M NOT BITTER, YOU’RE BITTER. Ok, I’m a little bitter. I would give it another chance on Symphony, but I’d check in advance on the margarita flight and salsa options and flour tortillas, because those are apparently a big deal to us. They probably wouldn’t be a big deal to other people, so you might love it and have a great time because you’re not sucky babies like we apparently are. So Freedom wins this round. I still haven’t decided how I want to share this feedback with Royal, because if they’re going to push the specialty dining so hard they need to know some of it ain’t great. This wasn’t our only bad specialty experience, sadly.

<violin music fades out, upbeat jazz music begins playing>

I had a reservation for the adult comedy show but was kind of meh about going, because I didn’t feel like laughing, so I decided to checkout the AquaTheater showing of La La Land. I LOVE movies; it’s something I very rarely get to do any more post-child because I’m too cheap to pay for the movie AND a babysitter. I love to be in a theater, and have the lights dim, and have a cold drink and warm buttery popcorn, and trailers and the surprise clips after the credits and everything about it. I once saw 4 movies in one theater in one day to see if I could do it. Yes, I paid for all of them and yes, I saw some really bad movies that day (omg Leo in ‘The Beach’, as if). So a new release of an ADULT movie is a rare treat for me. I’d heard very mixed reviews of LLL, and of course knew about the Oscars issue, and my mum had said she didn’t like it and she and I have pretty similar taste. If I’d seen it in a theater I know I wouldn’t have liked it as much, because I don’t like romances and I don’t like musicals, and that’s what this was. But under the stars, with a gentle breeze and the gentle swaying of the ship – magical. I was happy I had grabbed my sweatshirt to throw over me, I saw a lot of people piling towels on themselves to keep warm, so despite what others might say I DO recommend bringing a wrap or something for times like this. The chairs were VERY comfortable (shocking, right?!), and have cupholders, so be smarter than me and grab some chips and a beverage first.

The movie was showing from 9p-11p, so I used one of my Crown & Anchor coupons on an hour of babysitting in the kids club. Worth every penny. Bless those people who watch the children so we can do fun things.

And with that, it was time for bed. Jenny was delighted to see this guy welcoming us back to our cabin. Thanks, Michael.

Up next – Day 3 – Labadee, Labadah, Labadoozie

Day 1 Lunch – Johnny Rockets – Just What I Want, a Chain Restaurant At Sea

Adventure Ocean – Open at 9a

Drink of the Day – Woo Hoo

Since it was 12p and we were just barely slightly maybe possibly considering being hungry, we figured we’d beat the crowd and head to Johnny Rockets. Now, for those of you who don’t know, Johnny Rockets is a diner-style chain restaurant that some people just adore. Usually people who went there as a kid and fondly reminisce about the singing waiters and thick milkshakes and days gone by. I’ve been to the JR in Myrtle Beach and I gotta admit, I wasn’t blown away. Give me Cook Out, or Five Guys, or Char Grill any day of the week. Our waiter was very nice, Leighton, but the service was painfully slow. Maybe all that singing? We sat out on the boardwalk, which I LOVED, so thumbs up for the location, and there were lots of umbrellas for shade, and people-watching for throwing shade. It did get VERY busy very quickly, so the ubiquitous ‘they’ usually recommend you try to avoid eating here on sea days. They aren’t the boss of me though. One thing I kind of want to do is try their breakfast, but apparently not enough to actually go and do it.

They start by bringing out a sampler of frings, which is an EXCESSIVE amount of food, and an incredible waste. Don’t shove food at me that I didn’t ask for! I guess other people are delighted by this, I dunno, because they seemed to do it at every table and other people seemed very happy about it. Don’t get me wrong, I ate every single one of those damn onion rings because I always forget they exist, and Jelly doesn’t like onions. But the majority of those fries went straight into the food chipper.

Since it’s right before lunch where I am, I’m going to be cruel and post pictures of the burgers.

You can tell Jelly didn’t like hers one bit. She insisted on a double, and after much heavy sighing and ‘yes, I know you’re on vacation’, I relented.

Mine wasn’t a whole lot smaller, and I made it through about half of it. It was pretty good, for ship fast food.

If dairy weren’t my mortal enemy I would have used my Crown & Anchor coupon for a milkshake of my own. I had a teensy kitty-like lick of Jenny’s and god, was it good. So I recommend you skip the food and just go for milkshakes and hanging out.

After lunch we mostly just felt like vegging out some more,so Jelly headed back to Adventure Ocean and I made a beeline for the Solarium.

Ahhhhhhhhh! Or, more accurately, 'woo hoo!'.

I didn’t have any issues finding a chair, but saw LOTS of chair hogging in action. My least favorite type of chair-hogging; people who reserve MULTIPLE chairs. What the fek is this?! You have one perfectly good chair, and then you hold a ‘maybe’ chair?! No. Just, no. I was there for an hour and just got madder and madder about this. Must learn to just breathe and worry about myself, which is what I’m always telling Jelly.

Yep, the Oasis definitely beats Freedom here, this area is just lovely. I want to go to there.

After that it was – you guessed it – time to eat again. Damn that too-early 6p reservation! Time for Sabor.

I don't know if its only the pool side rooms, but both times our beds were the Sleep number adjustable beds.

You can see the adjustment control in the bottom of this picture.

whaaaaa - ?!

Ok, now I have to go back immediately and check this.

Can you tell us phonetically how you pronouce the word "about" :evilsmile:

Oh, ha ha ha. The same way I mis-pronounce 'process'.

Let me tell you how quickly I stopped saying 'eh' when I moved to the South.

Meet & Mingle

I didn’t go to the meetup on the Disney ship because, well, let’s be honest, Disney cruisers are HARDCORE and a little bit crazy. They were a little too enthusiastic (one woman had made bracelets for like 75 people, ‘so we’d recognize each other easier!’ and that was just a little too much for me, although it was very sweet and from a place of love and possibly intense loneliness). Then last year I didn’t go to the Freedom meet & mingle because, well, I’d heard they were kind of lame. So this year I was like, fine, let’s try it and see what we think.

Hey, guess what, it was kind of lame.

The invites were in our cabin when we checked in, so we knew where to go and when.

The refreshments were water and coffee and some of your standard breakfast pastries, so nothing to write home about. It was interesting to see Dazzles, which we otherwise would never have set foot in, but as far as those hundred people that had signed up to attend? There weren’t more than two dozen people there. We each got a raffle ticket when we walked in, and they raffled off the following; a pen, a highlighter, a key chain, 30 minutes free Zoom, and four individual bottles of wine. I was very disappointed there were no RC bags or ball caps or, you know, anything I’d actually want. Jenny won the internet, of course, because she is the kind of kid who has won goldfish at the fair FOUR SEPARATE TIMES until I told her she wasn’t allowed to play that damn ping pong ball game anymore, and she was ecstatic, and our new friends $ail$-Away won the pen and a bottle of wine, so they gave the pen to Jelly and she liked that even more than the wifi. We mostly just talked to them because people weren’t really mingling. There weren’t name tags or anything, or any ‘hosting’ of the event other than the welcome and raffle, so basically it was exactly what I’d heard it was and we left after ½ an hour.

There were some interesting planned activities this day; sushi making, guacamole making, martini making, wine tasting, those kinds of things. But we mostly wanted some pool time. So we headed to the H2O Zone from 10a-10:45a. It rained a teensy bit from about 10:10-10:25a, but that just made it easier to get chairs J.

After we got dried off and changed, Jelly headed to the kid’s club for a brief visit, and I went to my scheduled NextCruise appointment at 11a. I had noticed that if you booked within the first three days of your cruise you received tickets for additional OBC, and mama loves the OBC. I knew I wanted the Symphony for March Break 2019, so went ahead and booked that, and held a room for my sister and her family as well in the hopes I’d be able to talk them into it. Jenny is very close to her only two cousins (one is a year older and one is a year younger, it’s perfect), but their dad doesn’t like to plan anything further out than about 2 months, so I’m still working on it. Since that trip was going to be sooooooooooo farrrrrrrrrrrrrr awayyyyyyyyy I also figured I’d throw in a Christmas cruise for next year, December 2018, but since the dates weren’t out yet I held something for this year. THAT was a mistake – now I want to keep that date! The Christmas cruises are a LOT more expensive, even on Freedom,which was what I held, and I just bought a car and am buying a house so I need to stop throwing money around like I have a sugar daddy. We’ll see. Oh, and I didn’t win that OBC, sadness, but hey, I have two cruises booked, so that’s ok!

Then it was time for lunch, and since it was a sea day, I had promised the young one Johnny Rockets.

Day 2 – At Sea

Temperature – 80 degrees

Good morning! It’s Monday, a bright and beautiful day on the ship.

It was VERY windy out on deck first thing this morning. I was glad I had brought a couple of cheap plastic clothespins to hold our towels to the chairs. They were like this - https://www.amazon.com/Daixers-Durable-Plastic-Clothespins-Clothes/dp/B01CCV8Q9G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490362398&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=plastic+clothespins&psc=1. I ended up using them a LOT; they were lightweight and didn’t take up too much room, so they were easy to throw in my beach bag, even when we went into port. Other things that are handy to have in your beach bag (other than the obvious suntan lotion, chapstick with SPF, sunglasses, etc); baggies and plastic bags.These were good for wet rashguards and water shoes, found treasures, cellphone, lots of things.

Breakfast – We headed to the Windjammer at 8am, which ended up being our routine for most of the week. I usually woke up early and sat out on the balcony to watch the sunrise, then Jenny would wake up (I know, cruel, the one opportunity to sleep in and I was always too excited!).

'Mom, CALM DOWN and turn off the brightness!'

That early the WJ wasn’t too terrible; we never had an issue finding a table beside the window, which was nice, but we’re also only two people, so that helps.

As mentioned I was able to get lactaid milk for my coffee from the dude behind the drink station, and then since I had the Royal Refreshment drink package I got fresh-squeezed OJ. Now, this was a little challenging; sometimes there was someone there, but most times I had to hunt someone down. Sometimes that person could work the machine, but sometimes other people had to be pulled in to assist. Sometimes there was juice already made and ready, but not very often. So this system needs to be better, but hey, fresh juice, and I wasn’t in a hurry and #firstworldproblems and all that.

Jenny was happy they had grits, because she will always be a Southern girl at heart, and I had a very tasty veggie omelet, and for once remembered not to go crazy and eat a totally stupid amount of food (NO DONUTS FOR ME!). I love breakfast and have issues with loading up on greasy hash browns and a pound of bacon and then feeling terrible, so I had to slap my own hand whenever I found myself reaching for that stuff. Becasue yes, I'm a child.

After breakfast we killed some time walking around, and then at 9:30a it was time for the Meet & Mingle.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do all this! We're on Oasis B2B on 7 May and now know we're in a 'right is right' Cabin! Enjoying your cruise with you!!!

Isn't that just so cool to know?! So envious of your B2B! One day...

Loving your trip report and photos! I'm sailing on Oasis in May (1st time) and have a few q's....Mostly about Adventure Ocean. Did the characters visit while your daughter was in kids club? Did you see any of the DW Trolls?

Yes, there were a couple character visits while she was there; Puss 'n Boots led the Pirate Parade (pics/details to come), and there was something with Fiona, and I heard there were a few others that she missed. I saw lots of Madagascar characters, usually around the Promenade, but none of the trolls, but I heard there were a few walking around so I must have just missed them.

Sailing Oasis of the seas in August. Really appreciate this thread :)

Great! I found this forum so handy when I was planning my cruises, hopefully I can help some folks out in return.

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I did not know your room number gives you a hint on bed placement. Can you elaborate on how you know if it is door or balcony? Thank you and love our review. This is my favorite ship of all the RCCL and other cruise line ships I have had the good fortune to cruise on. Can't wait to be back on her in November.

Thanks! Yep, if you go back one page I shared a link to another thread that explains it. Apparently it's only for Oasis-class ships though.

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Enjoying the review. We sail May 21 - experienced RCCL cruiser but first time on Oasis. Sailing was my favorite single parent vacation. My daughter is now 21 and still loves to sail with me.

 

Trust me before you know it your DD will be your drink partner on the rising tide bar.

 

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That's a good day to sail - it's my daughter's 9th birthday :-).

Cruising is really an ideal vacation for single parents, I keep trying to tell people that. Where else do you get to truly RELAX?! That's great that your daughter still enjoys it!

OK - I didn't realize this was specific to Oasis class ships. Thanks anyway - at least I'l know if I ever book an Oasis class. :)

Ah, yep, sorry.

Ok, small pause here - everything ok? Anyone need a refill? More pics? Less pics? Questions on anything?

Man, we’re still on Day 1? I’m wordy! Let's get Day 1 put to bed.

I had made reservations every night for dinner, either for MTD or for one of the specialty restaurants. We are impatient and fall to pieces if we wait more than 7 seconds for anything, especially anything related to food. One thing I always forget, every cruise – because we’re snacking all day long, and eating lunch at weird times – we’re NEVER in the mood for dinner at, say, 5:30p or 6p. Jelly goes to bed at 8p on school nights so we usually eat at 6p on the nose at home, so it’s very foreign to me to book dinner at 7p, but that’s when we usually felt like eating. Plus on the ship she was up later anyhow. So I’ll try to remember that next time. However, you have to plan your entertainment schedule around your dining reservations, so it usually resorts in a lot of shuffling. And don't forget to check what time you leave port that day; if you have a later excursion, that might bump things out.

We got to the restaurant, on deck 3, and I could feel more ship movement and was like whooooooaaahhhhh, forget about the shorts and t-shirts, I’m going to blow chunks in here and that’s going to be REALLY embarrassing. So not only was I not very hungry to begin with (cough cough kummelweck), I was a little queasy. I’m going to be a sucky baby and admit I didn’t like the new menus; I thought the old ones with the illustrations were more friendly. And I oddly enough didn’t find anything super-appealing any night we were there. Night one was the Salmon/Prime Rib/Pork Chop night. Jelly started with the calamari, which was actually pretty tasty, and had a Caesar salad and chicken fingers (she likes to put the fingers on her salad for a chicken Caesar salad, because god forbid we do anything the easy way).

She didn’t like any of the dessert options that night so passed on that. She got a chocolate milk for dinner each night, a special treat. I had the shrimp cocktail, which I feel like had more shrimp than the one on Freedom but I might be crazy. No, wait, I’m not, I just went back and looked at the pics, and Freedom gave you four while Oasis gives you six. So, go Oasis. I also got the least offensive of the entrée options, the NY Strip, which was mostly cold but not terrible. Ok, I’ll admit I ate four damn cheese rolls, so I guess I wasn’t in that bad of shape. I can never change cruise lines solely because of those rolls, I don’t know if they sprinkle them with meth or what, they’re so freaking good.

I didn’t get a cocktail to start (I actually had the drink of the day earlier – it was a 'Caribbean Sling', it was pretty good), but I got a pretty nice Chilean red wine from their ‘adventurous wines’ section that was what I commonly drink at home, Casillero. We only saw one of our servers during dinner, and as mentioned she wasn’t super friendly, so we didn’t build the same kind of rapport with her like we have with others in the past in the MDR.

I didn’t get dessert either because sugar seldom tempts me and dairy hurts me.

After dinner we went for a stroll in the park, and took a ride in the Rising Tide bar.

The bar would be fun with, you know, another grown up. And a drink.

Just. So. Damn. Beautiful.

After dinner I walked Jenny to the kid’s club, which was only open from 8p-10p that first night (for free), and then got my swimsuit and headed to the Solarium. It started raining just a little bit, but it was lovely in the hot tub, which was partially covered. The next day’s Compass had been dropped off to the room while we were at dinner, so I poured over that for a little while.

And then, we were cooked. Fried. Done. So very, very wornout. So around 9:30p we headed back to the room and crawled into those cozy beds.

Day 1 was done!

Side note on the in-room safe –

I’ve seen lots of questions about how big they are and what you can fit into it. Here’s what I kept in there; our passport books, my travel wallet, my envelope of extra cash, and my tablet. Plenty of room.

Up Next - Day 2 - At Sea

Gee, this is news to me (one of the only times, I guess, that I'll be part of the "1%" ;p). Can someone please explain???

Thank you for making me feel better.

Good explanation here - in summary, 'right is always right' if you like the bed by the balcony.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1516781&highlight=oasis+bed+placement&page=2

Our Room

And there it is – home, sweet home. Or as we like to call it, home away from home.

We don’t have cable (I’m not a hippie, I just did the math and realized I could have a cleaning lady once a month for the same $), so Jelly made a beeline for the TV and would have happily stayed there for the entire cruise if I’d let her. *sigh* kids these days, with their interwebs and constant Dreamworks movies.

For those of you with young 'uns - yep, there's a channel that plays stuff like Sofia the First and Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Doc McStuffins AD NAUSEUM. And there's a channel that shows nonstop DW movies (Monsters vs Aliens, Puss N Boots, Shrek, Kung Fu Panda). And then there are all the channels you'll never get to watch.

Now, here’s something I never realized that probably 99% of you already know but I’M A SLOW LEARNER; your room number will tell you whether your bed is beside the window, or the door. I KNOW, right?! So for example, on Freedom we had the opposite setup to this (beds by window), which I greatly preferred. As chance would have it, our Symphony room will be the beds-by-window, thankfully (see my Symphony name-dropping there? FYI Symphony is now finally showing up in the Cruise Planner, if you hadn’t heard all the screaming already). So yeah, I just find that the room feels a little closed off when you walk in the door and BAM THERE’S A BED. Plus it’s closer to the door so in my head you hear more hallway noise, although really, I hardly heard anything other than people occasionally letting their doors slam. Just catch it behind you, people, it’s really not that hard.

Where was I? Oh, yes, but the beds closer to the door are convenient for late night bathroom breaks. And sitting and getting dressed and being practically inside the closet.

Noobs – You can request (or ask your TA to request) the beds together or apart. Don’t say to yourself, ‘eh, I’ll worry about it when I get on the ship’, because last year I was like that and the beds were together and then they ran out of bedding and I had a crap blanket for the whole trip. So heeeeeeeeeed my warrrrnnnnnnning!

Side note on room temperature – I like it COLD for sleeping.I think it’s because I grew up in a drafty farmhouse in Northern Ontario with baseboard heaters and I swear one morning I had snow on my bed (not really). I kept the AC on max and kept the balcony door closed (although I forgot about the curtains, which would have helped), and the room was an ok temp, but there was definitely no snow. Nights we both usually ended up kicking off even the sheet. Keep in mind we have extra body padding and are warm-blooded, so if you’re a scrawny little thing who’s always cold, you might need the heat. I never thought ‘I wish I’d brought a fan’, because that seems excessive and would mean less shoes, but if you have hot flashes or are a sweat-er, keep your balcony door closed and your curtains closed as much as you can.

Additional note on sleeping – Look what I took a picture of for all y’all!

This bed was C O M F O R T A B L E. I’m a very light sleeper and have trouble falling asleep, and this thing was like Tylenol PM with a side of Xanax. Man, did I sleep great. I have a white noise app that I love (‘WhiteNoiseHD’),and between that and this bed – zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I didn’t have to request it, it was already on there. Michael – still thinking about you. Smooches.

There were lots of little nooks and crannies around the desk, plus the drawers, that ended up being totally fine for all of Jenny’s stuff, so that was super convenient, because I got the whole closet. I even counted the hangers for you guys – 30 of ‘em, which was more than enough for me.

I thought this bathroom was gorgeous. I am one of the few people who doesn’t like the Disney split bathrooms, and I’m a tiny bit claustrophobic, but I was totally fine in this…

There were two bars of soap in the shower, as well as an el cheapo shampoo dispenser (just bring your own, you’re going to be doing so much damage to your hair), plus two plastic hooks which were great for wet bathing suits. There was one bar of soap for the sink. I’m a bit of a cheater here; I snag the extra soaps from the hotel the night before we leave, they’re usually slightly better quality and at least better smelling usually. But I bring my own travel shampoo and conditioner and face wash. The kid has to use the cheap stuff because she’s a second-class citizen.

There were also a few hooks on the bathroom wall near the towel bar.

I had a pretty enormous suitcase (but just one! So proud!), but it fit under the bed no problem. I also tested fitting it in the closet, and it made it, but just barely. No need, under the bed was fine. The minifridge was empty and ready for the few spare bottled waters we had brought (in our suitcases). Go ahead and wet a washcloth and stick it in there when you first get in, you’ll thank me later in the trip when you have an icy cloth for your warm skin or face. Also, don’t forget a small tube or container of aloe – put that in there as well. I also throw some face wipes in there. So yeah, not a lot of food, but lots of things to help us recover from long, hot days in port. Jamaica, I’m glaring at you.

Our luggage came LATE this time – while we were at dinner. So be prepared for that. I know people hate to see SHORTS and T-SHIRTS in the MDR, heavens to Betsy, but I think people (me) should be comfortable on vacation. I sure as heck ain’t packing spanx or heels. If I’m going to go to the WJ it’s because I want to, not because I feel shamed into it. So yeah, we ate in American Icon like the sweaty slobs we are.

Lastly, our muster station – we were in the Promenade, which seemed strange, but at least it wasn’t standing out on deck or wearing a life jacket. We accidentally ended up right beside where the dude makes the announcement, so Jelly got to wrap things up and tell people to enjoy their cruise.

Up Next – My Time Dining at 6p in the American Icon Grill, Deck 3

Limited to Star class suites.

Omfg you guys are killing me.

But you know the hookers would be all, "So, do you have any fine dining reservations yet? Have you had a chance to look at the great deals on watches?".