Oceania Riviera Penthouse Suite Cabin Tour (Part 2)

Continuing on our walkthrough of the cabin - the rest of the cabin opens up like one big room with areas marked more by furniture than walls.

The sole thermostat to control the entire room was an old model dial that simply featured a varied blue line for cold/air conditioning and a varied red line for heat/warmth. The room varied throughout the voyage as to whether it felt too warm or too cold. It seemed that the extremes were felt more later in the afternoons and evenings. Some nights we slept on top of the covers where others were spent burrowed under them. We certainly could have called for it to be inspected but each time we'd be back in the cabin to experience it was when we wanted to crawl into bed and rest. 

First let's turn to the right along the wall shared by the walk in closet. The bulk of this wall was taken up by a desk/vanity/storage area. Ignore the combined clutter that is my tote bag worth of port shopping on the chair there. The farthest right is actually a cabinet where we kept extra cans of sodas for the mini fridge. The narrow drawer in front of the chair held lots of information about the ship and the cabin perks like the room service breakfast menu and the afternoon canape request form. You'll also find some business letter sized envelopes and stationery. We used that for leaving Lilanie notes and tips at the end of the cruise. Note the light up magnifying mirror for use plugged in at the vanity.

Vegetable Spring Rolls:

Basket of Crispy Corn Tortilla Chips with Homemade Guacamole and Mexican Salsa Cruda:

Akshay also brought us a tray of the chocolate dipped strawberries. I didn't get a picture of those but neither of us tried them. 

Breakfast Room Service Menu - We never actually ordered breakfast but we did order a few options for lunch one afternoon. The crew member who delivered them came with a white tablecloth ready to set up our dining table but we told him it wasn't necessary. One unique thing that was new in all of our other cruises is that just as we had finished eating, the crew member came knocking on our cabin door asking if we were done so that he could carry away the dishes. They must have a system for clocking food arrival so they know when 40 minutes to an hour have passed.

We tried three dishes from the All Day Room Service Menu -

Croque monsieur - Baked ham, emmental cheese, bechamel sauce, romaine lettuce. This was very dry and did not taste good at all.

Six pieces of Vegetable California Rolls - don't think I've ever had a California Roll with cantaloupe, honeydew melon, and asparagus tips inside. The fruit pieces were a little tough and having the mix of fruit juice sweet with savory filling was certainly a different taste sensation. Aside from the textures mixing, I did enjoy this dish.

Dad ordered the Black Angus Cheeseburger. A note under all the burgers states that they are "cooked to preference" but I guess they meant the chef's preference. His requested medium well to well done burger was severely undercooked and looked more like medium rare inside. Quite surprising since the slice of cheese was so melted on top of the patty that it looked painted on.

On top of the desk on day 1 was a nice branded Oceania Cruises pen continuing my tradition of bringing home a branded pen from each cruise. We overheard another cruiser talk about how he wished he could win a pen at the onboard games. Another passenger told him that there should be one left in everyone's cabin. He replied "I know, I want another one." Funny thing is, days later, we stopped by Guest Services to ask to borrow a pen so we could work on the Mensa Quiz while hanging out in the lobby. They happily handed me another pen identical to the ones in our cabins and would have gladly handed over more if I wanted. 

Now riddle me this - why does our cabin have two phones? Certainly not for our Alaskan whale calls. Is floating on water and calling underwater considered roaming? Dad suggested that the silver phone was some sort of direct line for calling the butler but couldn't figure out how to use it. He picked up the larger phone and called down to guest services to ask. The person that answered let Dad know that they'd page Akshay. When Akshay introduced himself late on day 1, we asked about how to use the silver phone. He told us to do exactly as Dad had earlier, call and ask that they page him. His beeper/phone will then go off with a cabin number. His procedure is then to call the cabin number and ask what is needed to see if it's something that can be handled over the phone or something for which he needs to come visit the cabin. So apparently this second phone is simply there to hold down the desk. 

Power outlets by the phones were limited to the one standard outlet but behind the water bottles you had more of a variety:

The mini fridge is the middle cabinet on the other side of the chair. It worked well for cooling Dad's medication, our sodas, plastic water bottles (bought in port), and the fudge I bought in port until we brought it home.The rest of the spaces under the desk were drawers of varying sizes so I kept my non hanging clothes here while Dad used the remaining drawers in the closet. That trash can became such a cat and mouse game because I'd push it against the desk so I wouldn't run into it but then Lilanie would put it back at the corner during cabin service so that it wouldn't block the cabinet door from opening. 

Inside the fridge - I did notice after several days that the cabinet and/or the desk space above it would feel warm to the touch. Our drinks still felt cold to the touch and that fudge stayed cold. We are also still working our way through those squares of Oceania Cruises branded dark chocolate that were left on our beds each night. Everytime we cruise on a line that still gives out turndown chocolates I know better than to try and enjoy any myself. Dad commandeers most all of them saving them in the fridge to enjoy post cruise. He's enjoying them so much that he's now forgotten he hated dark chocolate so much that he used to leave me to eat all the dark chocolate after he was done eating the other flavors in the Hershey's Miniatures variety pack. Or in my case, the not so variety pack. In this case, we make a good pair. He'd eat chocolate flavored chocolate if that were a thing and I usually have to give him any chocolate dish I get because I can't finish more than a couple bites.

Also in everyone's cabin is these reusable stainless steel water bottles with a fitted branded cozy. Dispensers are positioned throughout the ship for you to fill your bottles with still or sparkling water. You are encouraged to also use these on your excursions in port and take them home. I found it interesting with these left for everyone that they'd also be included as a prize for cashing in your "Big O" points. These however, don't fit so easily in your cabin fridge. 

One of the dispensers onboard where you can choose from chilled still water, chilled sparkling water, or room temperature water.

For routine drinking water in your cabin, aside from the classic fill your glass from the bathroom sink, Oceania chooses to go the reusable route and leave bottles of still and sparkling Vero water for filling your own glass in the cabin. Dad loves sparkling water and found that none of the bottles ever seemed to actually have sparkling water loaded into them. These bottles would be refilled each time the cabin was serviced. Lilanie was great about keeping our ice bucket full as well twice a day so I could down many glasses of ice water when I'd come back to the cabin. 

You could do many things on your cabin TV. There was a similar channel variety as on Celebrity Cruises with a Prime Movies and a Prime One TV channel where we watched a good amount of Superstore and NCIS reruns. Also your standard channel for the bridge cam, one for showing your voyage progress on a map, and one playing that day's morning show on repeat. Another channel was devoted to Culinary Programming a.k.a. Food Network shows. A small variety of TV shows and movies were also available to watch on demand versus catching a TV show on Prime One already halfway through when you decided to turn on the TV. 

I had hoped that the Entertainment and Enrichment section would feature recorded versions of onboard lectures but instead it was on demand educational and informational programming. We had a surprisingly little amount of onboard talks and lectures it seemed given the itinerary. Never saw a specific port talk unless you count the Tips & Tricks for insert port name here segment on the morning show. The most used features by us were to browse the Grand Dining Room & speciality menus and to check our onboard account. We did learn through tracking our account on the TV and confirming with Guest Services that our two passenger folio accounts do get merged by the end of the cruise, at least when they are both on the same credit card. It also gives a good specific breakdown on how much you have in non refundable versus refundable on board credit.

One other thing that happened in relation to our onboard account that we found unique was when we received a letter in our cabin near the end of the cruise. The letter informed us that we could either leave our refundable onboard credit on our account and wait around for a check to be sent to our home or we could visit Guest Services at any time before the end of the cruise and request the refundable credit be paid out in cash. We chose the latter. Keep in mind though that anything you charge to your onboard account after cashing out will now be a charge to your card on file. 

Finishing off this wall of the cabin is where we have a small dining table and two chairs. This is where I'd often park myself to do anything because it was the only comfortable spot unless you wanted to lay down and sleep. Most of the time it was a place to work on Mensa quizzes or to sort through my port stop backpack's contents, hence why it spent most of the time parked in the second seat as seen in this picture.

Onto the beds themselves. When we arrived on embarkation day, the two twin beds were put together as a single bed and the benches were pushed together to look like one longer bench in front of them. Not uncommon as that's the default and a quick mention to the steward would have them changed by bedtime the first night. At this point, we've made our own running joke about how often crew assume we are a married couple since most people travel with their spouse. We get addressed as Mr. & Mrs., we get correspondence in our cabin addressed to Mr. & Mrs., the list goes on. Then every once in a while, a letter or a crew member greeting us will go back to Mr. & Ms. and we joke to each other about how we finally got divorced from each other. Inevitably someone or something else will come along days later using Mr. & Mrs. and we joke about getting remarried. Hopefully by now, you dear reader, have picked up on my fluency in sarcasm and warped sense of humor. 

So this night when we made the request of separate beds to Lilanie the look of confusion on her face was priceless. You could just imagine the wheels turning in her mind trying to understand why Mr. & Mrs. would be asking for separate beds on day 1! When we returned to the cabin for bed, we found that her interpretation was to keep the beds physically together but make them up with separate sheets and blanket. This was also the first evening that I became thankful for double jointed flexibility and earned the rug burn marks on my elbows. Between the beds themselves moving at the slightest change in body position and the mattress topper sliding back and forth under the fitted sheet, I managed to fall out of bed twice over the cruise. 

This first time was when I ended up on the floor between the two beds as they were pushed together in the center. They were so pushed together that I couldn't move to get up from between them. My only recourse was to army crawl along on my elbows dragging the rest of my body forward until I got past the end of the beds. Then there was finally enough room to twist into a position where I could get up off the floor. The second time happened after we had asked to switch the nightstands together in the center and put the one bed up against the wall. Lilanie's interpretation of that was to put one nightstand between the beds so at least we now had room to shimmy out the next time my body wants to try defying gravity. The next time I ended up falling off the other side and crawled out from between the bed and wall. I woke up at one point in the middle of the night to find Dad having barely caught himself as he rolled out of bed. Another night, I woke up at the sound of him moving around and instinctively threw out my arm for him to grab just in time to stop him from falling off again. Our neighbors must have had some weird thoughts at how much the top of our beds would slam back into the wall whenever we tried to find a comfortable position to sleep. I got the greatest ab workout each night tightening my core every time I'd roll over and feel myself starting to tip over the side. Oceania is phasing out allowing children to cruise on their line but maybe we should have asked for some crib bumpers by voyage end!

The plug and light options by each "side" of the bed. Each set of light switches worked the same on the toggle system as the one by the main door. You had the option of turning off lights from the front door or waiting until you were "safely" in bed. Each set of bedside light switches also let you pick whether you wanted one over the bed lamp, both, or none turned on. Worked well for when one of us wanted to stay up a little longer. There is also a little book light right by the pillows if you really want as little light left on as possible.

The remainder of the inside of the cabin featured a small loveseat that Akshay said folded out into a bed. He then promptly advised us not to use it because it would take up the other half of the room. Dad used the couch and storage ottoman as more of a catchall than a place to relax. Note the silver champagne bucket that held a bottle of Prosecco when we first arrived. We also gave that bottle away and noticed that the champagne flutes left on the desk disappeared as well a couple days later. The champagne bucket remained for the whole cruise. I still remember when a Celebrity Cruises waiter put my Sprite can in the nearest chilling bucket they were using to keep the nearby table's wine bottle chilled. When I smiled in response, he announced that I deserve to have a cold drink too!

I was a little surprised at the design choice of this little secondary window with dual curtain beside the couch. Perhaps a way to let in a little more natural light on that half of the cabin? Both sections had a sheer curtain for some light muting and the thicker curtains to block out most all light. The thicker curtains were drawn during evening turndown service. 

How much light comes in when just the sheer curtain is pulled across:

Looking across the room with my back to the curtains:

Stay tuned for part 3 where we visit the balcony and take a trip down the hall to the Executive Lounge.

Oceania Riviera Penthouse Suite Cabin Tour (Part 1)

Welcome to the start of a new cruise blog series covering our 9-Day cruise to Alaska on the Oceania Riviera! This cruise took place between July 28th and August 6th. This closed loop cruise from Seattle, WA stopped in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Icy Strait Point, Wrangell, and Victoria, British Columbia. Unfortunately, this series will not have much to share about the ports as we only did one official excursion. Dad's walking limitations (for a different reason than before) required him to limit his walking. Most of our port time was spent on my own getting lots of steps in and enjoying a few local treats. Another frustrating flaw with our ports and my walking plans is that by being on an Oceania ship, we were allotted the least desirable docking spots in every port. I spent more time catching buses, shuttles, tenders, and walking up to where ships from Princess, Holland America, and Carnival got to dock than I did walking around the historic sites, landmarks, and natural scenic areas that are the highlights when visiting Alaska. 

Two helpful tips to start off this cruise blog series; one general and one related to the cabin tour. First, Oceania is a wholly owned subsidiary brand of Norwegian Cruise Line's parent company, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Ltd. Unlike those lines falling under the Carnival Corporation, any cruise line you sail under the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings brand allows you to status match for your upcoming cruise. You, or your travel agent, must submit your loyalty number from the sister line to Oceania and they will apply the match. In our case it was the one cruise we did on NCL so we started our first cruise on Oceania at the Bronze level. While it is a test in patience since they don't process these matches until a couple weeks before your cruise, it is worth it because our Bronze level gave us some extra On Board Credit (OBC) to use onboard. We also were left a bottle of wine in our cabin for Bronze level but we gave it away. Unfortunately, if you match versus get to that level by sailings alone, you are not going to receive the Oceania branded ball cap and membership pin that also comes with the Bronze loyalty level. The main two caveats about this tip is that it's only going to apply to that specific sailing so you'd have to resubmit the match if you cruised again plus it has to be submitted before your cruise is 10 days or less away. Two minutes of extra effort can literally pay off with OBC. 

The second tip, related to our cabin, was given to us by the cabin butler Akshay. A cabin butler is a crew position on some cruise lines like NCL and Celebrity, that is someone besides your stateroom steward who is assigned to help with questions, tasks, and little extras to those who have booked suite cabins. Unfortunately, other than this helpful tip and his late but informational visit to our cabin on day 1, we hardly saw him. To be fair, we didn't ask for much either. We've had previous butlers though that were more proactive stopping by the cabin or at least calling to ask if we need anything. 

Our Penthouse Suite on Oceania Riviera was 11048, a cabin located mostly midship on the 11th deck. This cabin is classified as a PH1 with options to book a PH1, PH2, or PH3 on this ship. From what I can tell, the only difference is location. As we were located midship, Akshay taught us a great way to remember which direction to turn when leaving our cabin depending on what we were planning to go do. This size ship only has the two elevator banks. Many of the food venues were located in the aft of the ship while the entertainment areas were located toward the front or middle. Each time we left our cabin we heard Akshay's mantra in our heads: Turn right for food and turn left for fun!

On to the cabin photo tour!

Oceania uses the standard cruise card (giving everyone a cute little leather wallet holder to carry it around in) that is read by the sensor on your cabin door handle. Each room number display outside the cabin doors is where you would place your room's card either showing the Privacy side or the Please Make Up My Room side. This is also where any notices are left. 

I've been on cruises where this card is a magnet, where this card is a door hanger, and where there's no card but instead something to change on the cabin number sign.

Once inside the door, you'll find the standard deadbolt lock and cruise evacuation muster station information. The gold slot affixed to the wall is where your Privacy card gets stored when not in use. There are cabin light switches here to turn on/off your main lights and the bathroom light. The main light switch closest to the door is a toggle switch so you may have to tap it a few times to get to whichever degree of lighting you want at the time. The bathroom light switch is simply an on/off switch. There are also knobs for hanging items like my soaked raincoat from walking around Ketchikan on the left wall by the door.

One of the interesting things I found is that only the wall space in these square panels that had a slightly more fabric style texture were magnetic. I collected souvenir magnets from each of the ports on this itinerary and used them to test all the doors and walls. Panels like where the Privacy sign is stored is the only magnetic space. If you like to bring magnets with hooks for hanging items and keeping important papers together, just know that not every wall or door space in this cabin will support them.

Looking into the cabin facing with your back against the door, you see a door that locks with a step up on the left that leads to the bathroom. On your right is a sliding door with no lock and no step that leads into a walk in closet. There is a motion activated light in the walk in closet that we didn't easily find a way to turn off. The sliding door also had a tendency to move when the ship had a little more motion. I routinely used the closet area to change clothes, especially to avoid turning on the overhead lights while Dad was still asleep. The door would sometimes slide open in the middle of my changing or it would slide back while I was walking through it. We got used to that noise and the occasional noise from above since our cabin was right below the pool deck. 

The walk in closet had tons of hanging space but also held the safe, drawers, and cubby style storage above. In here is where we also found our robes, slippers, and umbrellas for use while onboard. The last day's schedule noted that our robes would be pulled from our cabins during the evening turndown but ours never were. Don't know if it was because we obviously hadn't bothered to use them or our steward Lilanie's choice. I did notice how many of our hangers had the skirt/pant clips and the rest were wooden hangers with a bottom piece that slips out and back in for you to slide folded pants onto the rod. A small gold metal clamp running the length of the rod held the pants in place. Simply slipping the folded pants over the bottom rod resulted in pants falling off onto the floor. There is only a single hanging rod but it was fine for our dress shirts, folded pants, and jackets. There were racks mounted on the inside wall but we never used them. There was plenty of room to stow our large suitcases in the corners of this closet. Those upper cubbies are fairly deep so if you're on the shorter side of average height like me, you might have a tougher time spotting or reaching anything that isn't kept up near the front.

The safe is code specific with instructions on setting it printed on the front of the safe. These shelves are where you'll also find spare blankets, beach/pool towels, and a slip for redeeming laundry pressing. Inside this walk in closet is also where you will find laundry bags and the itemized slips to fill out. Having a Penthouse suite on Oceania, we had three total bags of laundry included for our sailing. However, they also caution that each bag can take up to 3 days to return. I believe our butler also mentioned that they wouldn't even accept any bags within the last 2-3 days of the cruise. We had to be very strategic about when we put in each of our three bags on this 9 day sailing. We also made a point about getting out of our cabin by 9AM so that the laundry was sure to be picked up with that day's morning service. All of the laundry came back clean without issue but it made me miss the unlimited services a Princess suite includes with the priority of getting it back by the evening turndown of the next day. The top drawer pictured below also held a bag for shoe shine services or the brush to clean them yourself. The second drawer held the bag for the hairdryer.

Just outside of the closet on the wall next to the bathroom door is a large full length mirror. There also was a vanity mirror above the desk so several places to check outfits or do makeup/hair without having to be in the bathroom.

Speaking of the bathroom - this accordian style hinge where the door is attached was so annoying! It felt like it was as flimsy as particle board or cardboard. I bumped it every time I walked through this doorway resulting in a crumpling paper sound that had me thinking I'd steamrolled it. It always seemed to pop back out though and never tore.

The back of the bathroom door had two knobs for hanging items. Worked great this time to hang up my nightgown and my travel hair towel. To the left as you walk in - two decent sized towels hung on racks. A corner unit provided lots more storage than we needed with a cabinet, countertop, and drawers. Inside the cabinet was a shower cap and small container of cotton balls.

Facing center is a lighted mirror and single sink. We were provided with bar soap for hand washing and a bottle of lotion mounted to the wall by the sink. Two open glass shelves lined the wall beside the mirror perfect for us to each keep daily use items in easy reach. I also used the second drawer under the sink for hair brushes etc. The top drawer is a fake facade where hand towels are hanging. I was especially pleased to see that we had a whole stack of washcloths as well as spare hand towels stacked on the shelves between the toilet and sink. The best find was that the towels on the open shelf under the sink were fluffy friendly! The square looking towel sitting in the middle of the floor was what they used as a thin bath mat. It stayed there whether or not you were showering so we just moved it closer to the shower door when we needed to shower. That bit of blue light in the corner between the sink and shower is the bathroom nightlight that is always on. We chose to leave the bathroom light on all the time at night and just shut the door itself.

I loved having the plentiful shelving within easy reach of both the sink and the commode so we didn't have to take up valuable counter space for things like feminine hygiene products.

The sink's right edge butts up against the glass of the shower enclosure but it doesn't block using the shower door. I also loved the use of regular glassware in the bathroom.

The shower enclosure is quite spacious taking up the entire inner wall. There is a step over required to enter. The shower door opens both outward and inward. The shower did a good job draining and there were no leaks or spill out onto the floor. There are two shallow shelves along the back wall for product storage and a grab bar along the inner wall for safety. There is a pull out as needed clothesline typical of cruise cabin showers mounted by the shower head. The shower head had a fixed rainshower version and a handheld wand. Two different knobs controlled temperature versus on/off and rainshower/handheld choices. 

Pictured here is the shower chair requested on day 1 but not provided until nearly day 3. Dad said it worked well and provided the security he needed for showering while the ship is in motion. When I wanted to shower, I moved the chair out to the bathroom floor before I started running any water. When I was done, I put it back in place inside the shower so it wasn't in the way of using the bathroom itself. I probably could have left it in place and still reached the shelves on the wall above it but knowing me I'd end up stubbing all my toes and tripping over it trying to walk around in the shower. I'm just that talented and usually have plenty of bruises to prove it by the end of a trip.

With the door swung outward in front of the bathroom door.

The end to hook the clothesline into can be seen above the shallow shelves.

The start of the clothesline, the two knob system, a small bar at the bottom for leg shaving, and the handheld shower wand. That rectangle in the floor below the showerhead is where the water drains. 

A better view of the rainshower shower head above. The two faults I found with this shower were height based and temperature based. From the moment I stepped into this bathroom, I felt comically like a tall giant because my 5'7" head almost graced the ceiling. Once in the shower, I had to slightly duck to put my head under this showerhead. The odd thing about the temperature is that while I never changed the settings on the dial, I'd have these 15-30 second bursts of cool water and then it would go back to the warm water I started with for my shower. Thank goodness it was never ice cold! Maybe it was a subtle warning to get out like when they flick the lights at a bar's last call. 

Our suite had all Aquamar branded products. The only thing not in these mounted squeeze bottles was the Aquamar branded bar soap. The shower offered separate bottles for body wash, shampoo, and conditioner. These bottles must be the bane of the steward's daily tasks. The way they are mounted in these wall brackets -a circle base and a clamp to go around the neck of each bottle- makes it very tough to depress the short pump mechanism and get the contents to go anywhere other than running down the top of the bottle. Putting anything in between like a loofah or washcloth left no room for the pump to go down and dispense. I made do a lot with squeezing some out on a couple fingers and then using my loofah or washcloth to work up a lather. At one point Dad figured out how to get the bottles loose and left them sitting on the shower floor. Next room clean they were snapped back into place.

Stay tuned for the second installment to see where we slept, relaxed, and caught the views. Also to come is a tour of the exclusive place we got to use onboard for booking a Penthouse suite or above.

Menus and food onboard the American Pioneer (Part 4)

 

Cinnamon and Vanilla French Toast served with maple syrup and pork sausage:

I regret not trying that Lobster Hash & Eggs option. It was a really nice surprise to see so much lobster included on several menus in so many different ways.

Plain Buttermilk Pancakes with pork sausage

Sausage omelet with bacon and breakfast potatoes

Italian Wedding Soup

Braised Patuxent Farms Short Ribs of Beef topped with a cabernet braising jus. Served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, and sauteed cauliflower and broccoli florets.

Caribbean Spiny Lobster Tail Pasta - Spiny Lobster Tail with bow tie pasta, blistered heirloom tomatoes, basil & shaved parmesan caviar in a creamy butter sauce.

Amaretto Chocolate Mousse

Our final dinner onboard:

After taking a napkin folding class the crew put together to fill time when our schedule changed, I noticed and appreciated the tablescape greeting us as we sat down to dinner this final night. I learned that this pictured example is known as "the envelope fold."

Creamy Burrata Salad - Heirloom tomatoes, basil pine nut pesto, pecorino romano cheese and aged balsamic reduction over mixed greens.

Creamy Lobster Bisque

Tonight's entrees featured an option to have surf and turf or just turf.

Farm Raised Seared Beef Tenderloin - Seared with brandy peppercorn sauce, roasted fingerling potatoes, and lemon zest dusted asparagus.

The Surf & Turf - Beef Tenderloin with Shrimp and Crab Stuffed Lobster Tail. Served with brandy peppercorn sauce, baked potato, lemon zest dusted asparagus, and drawn butter. Looks like by choosing the surf with my turf, I got less turf than Dad did choosing the turf only option. When I asked the waiter about why I didn't receive the mentioned baked potato, he revealed that they had run out. Plenty of lobster, shrimp, and crab to go around but apparently there was a run on baked potatoes.

White Chocolate Kahlua Creme Brulee

After completing a cruise around the Florida Keys that had to be altered due to high winds and rough seas, we thought it only fitting that our flight home to Georgia ended up being cancelled due to snow! Delta helped us rebook for a later afternoon flight. By then all of the dusting of snow had melted but was such a shock for this area in the moment that they weren't allowing flights into Atlanta. Thanks to modern technology, being still in the US, and ACL's good included internet, we sat onboard the ship and booked a day room at a Hilton hotel in Tampa through ResortPass.com. We used ACL's transfer to take us back to the airport and then got the hotel shuttle to pick us up from there. The only drawback was that our hotel room air conditioning seemed to be stuck on the Antarctica setting and it was uncharacteristically wet and freezing outside already. It was worth it to have a comfortable space to relax, a TV to pass the time, and a private bathroom. We made a brunch out of hotel convenience store snacks then took the hotel shuttle back to the airport a few hours later. Overall a great first experience using ResortPass.com for the first time. Use my link provided to get $20 off your first day room booking as well! After we used them, I completed their emailed survey about the stay and got a code for a future discount. 

Plus while we shivered, we got to warm up with laughter at how my name was misspelled on the TV when we made it into the room. 

I'd like to take a moment at the conclusion of our last food photo post from this cruise to share how proud I am of my Dad. He has been working with a trainer here not only to improve his balance, strength, and flexibility but her guidance has inspired him to try many foods he wouldn't ever try before. He has now tried several new to him fruits, vegetables, and seafood. He tried shrimp cocktail, a cruise menu standard, and told me he's kicking himself for not having tried it sooner. 

Stay tuned for the next cruise post series featuring said shrimp cocktail and many other dishes from our first Oceania cruise! They even let me do some of the cooking! Did the suite life (with a butler) and the food live up to the hype or sink like a stone in the Ocean (ia)?