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Oasis of the Seas Pre-Trip Report - 2 July 2016

bajadahl
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bajadahl

bajadahl

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One other important part about the Beignets at Huey's is the praline sauce that they serve with them for dipping. That is not to be missed!!

 

 

Good point about the praline sauce.... um yeah can we just start and IV with that stuff directly into my arm? That'd be great! lol

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bajadahl

bajadahl

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Good morning all -

 

Todays the day! We are up and getting ready, and yes, even with all this excitement the girls are still slowwwwww. However we are making progress towards heading to the port.

 

Yesterday was a travel day so not much interesting stuff to say. We did spend some time exploring Forsyth Park yesterday and drove across the boarder into South Carolina for some pictures at the state line sign.

 

 

We checked into the Hampton Inn North Airport location about 9pm last night. We immediately unloaded the rental car and I took it to gas it up and return it. I then caught the free shuttle back to the hotel.

 

This is more of the typical Hampton Inn I am used to - a slender rectangular building surrounded by a free parking lot! Anyway - They are very thoughtful here - or maybe I should say prepared. I went to the front desk this morning to see about getting some tape or staples for our luggage tags and they had a row of six staplers ready for customer use. Nice Touch!

 

For you newbies out there - you never want to attach you port tags too early. They are just paper and will almost certainly get damaged or lost in an airport.

 

Ok - I guess that's it for now.. Like I said fairly boring but it's about to get a whole lot more exciting!

 

Periscope at the port this morning (I hope) - find me @bajadahl

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stacynray

stacynray

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Our cruise is finally here!!! Oh wait, I mean your cruise. Your cruise is finally here. Following along so closely, I feel like I'm taking two cruises this month. Have a fun trip and will look for your periscope link.

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bajadahl

bajadahl

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We had a huge day yesterday and I didn't finish my daily report yet. Ok fine I haven't started it yet. But I will.

 

Here's a few tidbits about yesterday to wet you whistle this morning. We are at the meet n mingle right now. More later

 

Good morning ready on time

Über disaster.

At the port by 11

On board by 11:45. - could have been faster but my fault not RCCLs

Ate at windjammer got there early enough for fantastic seats.

After lunch rooms were ready. We love our room

 

Lots of fun yesterday and helped close the schooner bar at 1am. Crazy day!

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

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stacynray

stacynray

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I don't know about iphones but on an android smartphone you download the periscope app, create an account and "follow" bajadahl

 

Thanks Lessa. I found it, watched it, annoyed him and all others no doubt. Ahhhh....day is now complete.

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FireStation46

FireStation46

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Thanks Lessa. I found it, watched it, annoyed him and all others no doubt. Ahhhh....day is now complete.

 

There are a few periscopes in the App store for ipad and iphone. Which developer's program are you using? That will narrow my search for the right app.

 

Thanks

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stacynray

stacynray

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There are a few periscopes in the App store for ipad and iphone. Which developer's program are you using? That will narrow my search for the right app.

 

Thanks

 

I downloaded 'Periscope for Twitter' for both my Apple 6s plus and IMac.

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BLAMBKY

BLAMBKY

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Thanks for the kind remarks. Believe it or not mom and dad are still talking to each other. I guess that’s what 50 years of marriage buys you. I think dad used up a few get out of jail free cards yesterday.

 

Now I am beginning to think - How can I top the first day? I am afraid that I’ll bore you to tears with the more mundane stuff like the crazy times when everything just goes according to plan….. Anyway - Here goes the rest of day one (kinda boring) and day two… pretty much according to plan!

 

We landed in Fort Lauderdale a few minutes early at about 8:50 am EST.

 

We then collected our checked luggage and moved onto the Alamo Rental counter. I ended up renting a luggage cart due to the fact that the luggage carousel and the rental car counter are on different levels at the airport. Not the most efficient airport setup I have ever seen but not terrible.

 

We rented a minivan so that we could squeeze all our luggage in and still sit comfortably. I promise pictures later (yes I took pictures of the luggage) I am fairly weird like that.

 

First order of business after getting the car was breakfast since nothing was open back in Austin. We wanted something truly unique to Florida… We settled for Chick-Fil-A :-) Actually for some reason the girls were craving Chicken Minis. So we had actually planned for this and I had mapped out a location early along our route to Savannah. I know - I really do know how just plain weird that sounds… But think to yourself - How many times have you gotten up in the morning and gone to a Chick-Fil-A for breakfast…. (It doesn’t count if you’re still in college) Average parents that live in the burbs don’t typically get up in the morning and take the kids to Chick-Fil-A. At least I don’t think they do. My kids get Chick-Fil-A for breakfast basically never… Or when we are traveling. And those Chicken Minis are addicting.

 

After Breakfast we started the long day of driving where we only stopped once in Daytona Beach for a few hours to have lunch and briefly enjoy the beach.

 

Lunch was another vacation staple for us - Bubba Gump’s - It’s a household name. If you don’t know Bubba Gump’s - It’s basically a chain sea food restaurant based on the movie Forrest Gump. My youngest love’s their shrimp. It’s average food at an average price. We like it but a foodie looking for an authentic or local experience should look elsewhere. I’ll sum it up this way…. It’s an entire experience based on a fictional story.

 

We spent a little time exploring the beach and then it was back on the road. If you really must know Daytona Beach is really almost perfectly half way between Fort Lauderdale and Savannah.

 

We arrived at the Hampton Inn in downtown Savannah at 8:03 PM. It’s a fantastic location close to everything but I have to say it’s the first Hampton Inn I’ve ever been to that has Valet Parking Only. $22 per day. The cheapskate in me hates valet parking. It also feels just a touch lazy. Anyway no big deal we are ready for dinner and a good nights sleep.

 

Up to this point we had driven through a couple little rain showers but nothing torrential. As we decide to walk the few blocks to dinner the skies decided to open up. The nice thing about Savannah are the sizes of a city block. They are quite small. If I’m in New York City and someone tells me a restaurant is 2 or 3 blocks away. I might get a taxi, or rent a car - if it’s 4 or 5 blocks I’m looking for flight possibilities. 2-3 blocks in Savannah is more like walking to the neighbors for a cup of sugar.

 

So when the front desk told us they recommended a restaurant that was only 2 or 3 blocks away we thought nothing about walking it even though it was “kind of raining.”

 

So after getting to the restaurant and going to the bathroom to Actually wring out my soaking wet shirt. We finally sat down to a nice meal. The Moon River Brewing Company was a nice restaurant and bar with your typical beer food. Burgers, Brats, and the like. It was a decent meal but I was soaking wet so what the heck do I know…..

 

The receipt for Moon River says 10:24pm I am guessing it was almost 11:00 by the time we closed out the check and made our way back to the hotel. Luckily the rain subsided long enough for us walk back.

 

I think we squeezed enough out of this day. Wow- I am exhausted.

 

 

Day 2 -

 

Like clock work I wake up at 6am… Oh wait that’s Austin time. It’s actually 7:00am I quickly got myself ready so at 7:03 I was ready to go out the door. Too bad I live with women. They are still going through luggage trying to figure out what to wear. I’m thinking to myself didn’t you just pack this like yesterday? Did you already forget what you brought? However, I am a smart man. I said none of that out loud. That’s what I have all of you for. Thank you cruise critic therapy team.

 

I decided to go down to the breakfast cafe and work a little more on my novel from our travel day while the rest of the family got ready.

 

On the docket for today were three main tasks:

Savannah River Boat Tour

Walking Tour through some of the famous squares of Savannah

Dinner at the Pirate House

 

After everyone had a little breakfast at the Cafe De Hampton Inn (That’s cheap American crap for those of you who don’t speak French) We headed down to the River Frontage shops. On our way out of the hotel the concierge desk heard me discussing the River Tour and offered to help me get the tickets in advance to avoid the lines. Hmmm - I thought to myself. While I do realize this is a tourist area it did not strike me as a travel mecca worthy of planning detail a concierge need offer. However, once he mentioned he could get the tickets cheaper I was sold.

 

“You had me at Cheaper!”

 

Sure I can laugh about it now but in all honesty this guy really helped me out. First let me get this out of the way. Everyone should know that a Hampton Inn is a middle of the road average hotel. I Never enter a Hampton Inn and “look” for a concierge desk. In my opinion it’s like looking for a ribeye at McDonalds. The more I think about it though I will say this. We use the Hilton family of Hotels frequently. Normally, Hampton Inn or Hilton Garden Inns while traveling for the one night quick stops. Then Hiltons for major cities like Chicago (Magnificent Mile or Hilton Anaheim) two that come to mind. Of course those quick stop rode side Hampton Inns aren’t going to have a concierge desk but maybe some of the ones in major cities do. We just hadn’t seen them because most of the time we are in a regular Hilton in the larger cities. Bottom line is that I am no expert in any of this just sharing what my experiences have been over the years.

 

First Dale helped us secure tickets for the 1pm Savannah Riverboat Cruise. He saved me a $1 or $2 for each ticket. Nice but not really a big deal. He then asked if there was anything else he could help us with. We already have another tour scheduled for 4:30pm so I started to say no but then I mentioned and then we were planning dinner at the Pirate House. He said we should get reservations and offered to call for us. “Sure why not.” There was no answer so he took my information and told me he would text me when he got it setup.

(Skipping ahead to finish this story)

We went about our day and a few hours later I got my confirmation text from Dale for our 7pm reservation. We showed up at the Pirate House at 6:50pm to a 1 1/2 to 2 hour wait and were seated immediately. Oh thank you Dale. Us normal folk get really confused when things go that well.

(Back to the timeline)

 

So off we went to explore the shops at the river front.

Boring Shopping

More Boring Shopping

OMG - Boring shopping…..

Time to eat again - Yay -

 

Huey's (If you don't read anything else - Read this part)

 

The absolute Highlight of the day was lunch. So while my wife and kids are spending every freakin dime I make on crap they don’t need I was standing outside contemplating my existence as an ATM for their every desire when I overheard a women on a phone mention the words, “yeah we just had some great Beignets and….blah…blah….blah…..

 

“You had me at Beignets.”

 

So I began to follow her. Not in a creepy stalker sort of way…. More like a 007 on a mission sort of way… Ok fine I was stalking her… but I only wanted her for the Beignets! But I’m not rude so I’m waiting for this lady to get off the damn phone! By the time she hung up I think we were about three miles from where I first saw her. No no no….. That just sounds creepy awful.

 

Back to reality.

It was 30 seconds in the same store she was walking into when I overheard her. I did get the courage to say excuse me and quickly ask about the Beignets. You know as a normal guy we want to get over that awkward moment when you stop a complete stranger (a woman no less) to ask a question just as quickly as possible. No this isn’t a pickup line…Unless you’re the one making the beignets. And No I don’t need two dollars to get my mom out of prison… Just looking for a good lunch.

 

I am pretty sure I disarmed her with my dashing smile and quick wit. Of course it might have been the fact that her husband was standing only a few feet away. Either way she was quite friendly and told me about Huey’s then proceeded to take me back outside and point to the Awning about half a block away. By the way, her husband agreed the beignets were worth the interruption.

 

So around 11:40 - I started herding up the cats…. I mean girls to tell them we had lunch plans and off to Huey’s we went. Huey’s is a beautiful New Orleans style cafe nestled right in between some of the shops on the river front.

 

The food was nothing short of spectacular. This is the type of place you would write about and want people to find if ever in the area. I can’t say enough good things about Huey’s but I promise food porn pics later.

 

Thank you to my “stalkie" friend and her husband for the tip!

 

I timed lunch to end just in time for the River Cruise at 1pm. It’s a good thing I did that to. If I didn’t have other reservations I’d probably still be a Huey’s eating another helping of beignets.

 

We leave Huey’s just in time to head over and board the River Boat.

 

Savannah River Boat Tour

 

The Savannah River Queen. It was a very pleasant boat with a fun an informative captain. The only thing really worth noting here is that the sound system they used was Very good. I don’t have the best hearing, due to too many Rock Concerts as a teenager I imagine, but I had no trouble hearing his narration over the intercom.

 

Ok - one other brief comment for you ladies. If your going to take a tour where there is the possibility of windy conditions (such as the top of a river boat moving at 10 knots) don’t wear a short sun dress. These poor young ladies were doing their best Marilyn Monroe impersonations for pretty much the entire voyage. All three levels of the boat had air conditioned inside space to get out of the wind. Yet there were three (guessing college age) all in short dresses and not a single one of them thought…. Hmmm maybe we should go inside and rethink our clothing decisions for this ride.

 

After the cruise I asked my girls how they liked the cruise and they both said it was fantastic. “That’s great! This was much cheaper than a Royal Caribbean Cruise. Since you like this one so much we don’t have to go on the Oasis now. Right?”

 

No They didn’t think it was very funny either. Oh Well.

 

We started making our way back to the hotel for a brief break before our next tour. Unfortunately you have to walk past all the shops again to get back to the hotel. Well my family can’t just walk by the shops. Gotta stop in to see if they got anything new in stock in the last freaking hour!

 

We finally make it back to the hotel just in time to leave for our next tour.

 

Savannah Walking Tour

 

We found this tour called SavannahTourWalk online. The nice feature about this tour was that each of us was given an iPad for use during the tour. Daniel would walk to an area and talk about the history of that specific person, building, place, or monument and then show us pictures on the iPad of how it looked 50, 100, or maybe 200 years ago. Each picture was numbered so he could say go to picture 16 and everyone in the group could easily navigate to a given picture quickly and the tour flowed smoothly. The tour ran from 4:30 - until about 6:15. I would highly recommend this tour for anyone looking for a historically accurate tour. This tour coupled with the River Tour gave us a ton of fun accurate Savannah History.

 

Maybe tomorrow we’ll do one of the goofy ghost tours.

 

After we left Daniels tour we made a beeline for our appointment at the Pirate House for Dinner. The walk via my iPhone maps app took us off the beaten path a little over to Broad Street and then back towards the touristy area near Bay Street.

 

Dinner at the Pirate House -

Very mixed emotions here. I was really looking forward to this because I have a very unhealthy clinically weird love of all things piratey. I am the guy that built a 26 foot pirate ship in my yard for Halloween (more picture later)

 

I will break down the Pirate House in 4 parts.

 

1. The atmosphere - perfect - It was exactly what I expected. The decor was great. The location was authentic (kind of) There really are tunnels under the place that may have been used to kidnap unsuspecting sailers and force them to work on a ship.

 

2. The food - Gotta say average at best. I enjoyed mine ok…nothing to write home about. My parents shared a meal and hated it so bad they sent it back. Luckily they had appetizers so they decided they weren’t hungry enough to wait for something else. My oldest thought the ribs she order were too “tangy” I blame her for that. We’re from Texas. The first rule for Texan’s is: Don’t get BBQ somewhere else… You will be disappointed. My youngest like her Shrimp N grits… Well she liked the Shrimp part anyway. What the hell is a grit anyway! My wife ordered their famous fried chicken. She was left wondering why it was famous.

 

3. The tiny after tour - So they do have a few ladies dressed up in pirate outfits to give you a brief 10 minute tour of the place and our tour guide Ann Bonnie I believe was very friendly and a bit piratey. But she kind burst the pirate house bubble by talking about the fact that Savannah didn’t even exist as a settlement during the golden age of piracy. So much of the legend of the Pirate House is just good marketing… (Can I get my money back from dinner now?) Don’t get me wrong. There are some fun facts about the building and it was a place where sailers gathered. Just not a lot of real history known about the place.

 

 

4. Nice Gift Shop - To build on that great marketing scheme you gotta have a great gift shop. They don’t disappoint. Plenty of cool piratey stuff to spend money on. I bought a hat!

 

 

After dinner we walked the short distance back to our hotel. This time along the very touristy area of Bay Street. As I was sitting down to type this up my girls reminded me that I had promised them ice cream so it was one more quick trip down to the river front candy store where I had seen a little ice cream area earlier. A couple of scoops later we were headed back to the room. Both ate their ice cream, showered, and in bed. I look up and it 1:17am and I’m still typing. What in the heck is wrong with me.

 

Anyway today was a very fun filled day - More cool stuff tomorrow. Good Night!

 

Alan

 

 

 

[emoji23] Started dying here, when I read about the Chicken minis! My family "discovered them" on Murrel's inlet vacation. Good thing our discovery was the middle of our trip, we had them almost everyday! I get it!!!!! I do!!!!

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bajadahl

bajadahl

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I'm sorry crusin gator. It was this morning at 10am. You didn't miss much. Lots of friendly folks butt all we did was a few door prizes and then most moved on with their day.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

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stacynray

stacynray

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I'm sorry crusin gator. It was this morning at 10am. You didn't miss much. Lots of friendly folks butt all we did was a few door prizes and then most moved on with their day.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

I missed your live report. How do I get notified when you go live?

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