Oasis of the Seas - Day 2 - Embarkation Day (Part 3)

Our first dinner at Chops this evening spoiled us for the rest of the cruise! The host Fred greeted us immediately and had us seated right away. Our waitress tonight was Angelica and she was delightful! Dad played it safe ordering his go to cocktail of a rum and coke. During the early part of our meal, the lights in the restaurant dimmed drastically causing several nearby tables to look up questioningly. I joked that it was mood lighting and even Angelica laughed with us. The table next to us laughed as they commented that a power failure was more like it. I ordered the lobster bisque and when it tasted too spicy, she offered to bring something else.

Dad was considering trying the famous Grilled Black Pepper Bacon again because he likes bacon but hated it on Grandeur. Angelica confirmed that it was going to be just as fatty as it was the first time we tried it so Dad instead got The Wedge salad. I asked how spicy the "Spicy Jumbo Shrimp" entrée was and she offered to amend the dish to be more mild. It turned out perfectly!

I ordered the Broiled 1 1/4 lb. Maine Lobster which is listed as an upcharge on the menu for $21 and there was never a caution or question from the staff about ordering an upcharge item or what was technically a 2nd entrée that some have reported being an extra cost. I just noticed looking at the menu now, this dish was supposed to have drawn butter in addition to the fresh lemon pictured. I remember thinking how odd that it wasn't included but didn't realize at the time that it should have been.

And after the assistant waiter offered to remove the meat for me - definitely a lot less meat than I would have expected and certainly not the whole full bodied lobster you (and I) might have pictured:

Dad ordered a steak and suggested they butterfly it for faster cooking; a tip a waiter gave us at the Crown Grill steakhouse on Princess many cruises ago. In the interest of this review and my taste buds, we ordered the Gruyere Cheese Tater Tots, Yukon Gold Mashed Potatoes (Dad ate all of these), Mac & Cheese, Sautéed Mushrooms, and Truffled French Fries. 

All sides come as these shareable pots but they'll happily oblige if you ask for more. No need to try and figure out how to split 4 tater tots amongst your party of 8-12 people. Our verdict - high marks for the mashed potatoes and truffled French fries. And that's not just because I went on this cruise with Mr. Meat and Potatoes. Tater tots were okay. I'd use the phrase, "nothing to write home about," but that's essentially what I'm doing here for this review. Mushrooms probably would have been better more as a topping falling over a hot juicy steak rather than a side dish and I didn't think that the mac and cheese was cooked as long as it should have been. That or they decided to ration the cheese half of the dish. Maybe RCL should next partner with Velveeta?

Dad decided that for dessert he'd try the Key Lime Cheesecake since he wasn't sure if he liked key lime. He likes key lime flavored water but I don't think he's ever tried the true key lime pie dessert. We both tried it (I'm not a fan of lime or lemon flavors but love orange juice and sour things. Go figure!) and agreed that it was too concentrated in lime flavor and didn't like it. Angelica happily swapped it out for his favorite chocolate cake. And in case you hadn't guessed what I chose from the start:

As we were enjoying our desserts, Fred comes rushing over to our table because he's just noticed that we ordered seafood tonight. As you'll recall, Smitha had put in the dislike of nuts and seafood as allergies to our account and Fred panicked when he saw what we had ordered. While his timing was a bit off for such a warning since I'd already happily wolfed down that lobster, we appreciated that he was diligent enough to double check. I could understand if it was something like not realizing that bits of crab were an ingredient in a salad but if one of us was truly allergic, I don't think we'd have ordered something with seafood as the main feature for every part of the meal. We did explain to him that it was more of a dislike than an allergy and the one who disliked it was obviously not the one who joined the clean plate club tonight. We also had to scan a card and sign a $0 receipt. This time though we wrote in a substantial tip for Angelica's good service. I noticed later that our account showed it as a charge on Dad's account, then a credit and the same amount charged to my account. Thought it might be that they somehow knew it was Dad's card they scanned but me adding the tip and signing the receipt for him but that was the same way they billed us for every time we tipped at the restaurants. Best I can surmise is that it was because I was the primary name on the cabin and listed him as having charging privileges on the credit card I assigned to my account.

We finished our dinner earlier than expected (but still was out of the cabin for 1-2 hours) so we returned to the cabin for a pit stop before our first reserved show courtesy of Smitha, Frozen in Time. We were disappointed to find that Ann Marie had yet to do the evening cleaning of our cabin despite her asking us what time we planned to head out for dinner when we first met this afternoon. After noticing this to be the case more than just on the busy embarkation day, I did take the time when I next saw Smitha to ask that our cabin be done first as we routinely want to come back and relax in between activities. She assured us it was an acceptable request and the only further issues we had were when we had to run back to the cabin for something shortly after leaving for breakfast and ran right back out so Ann Marie could finish her work.

Upon arriving at Studio B for the Frozen in Time ice show and learning to hold our breath whenever we had to walk through the smoky casino, we bypassed the line waiting at the door and had our cards scanned by the young lady who was calling people over who had reservations. We soon spotted the crew members standing guard at the reserved front row seating and identified ourselves to the female crew member in front of our seats. The seats reserved by the genies have the red drape across the top that says "Reserved for Star Class" and then laminated signs listing each cabin number left where you'd have to see it and move it in order to sit down. They do a great job of preventing anyone from sitting there claiming they didn't see it was reserved. Smitha had arranged per our request to have an aisle seat for Dad, a seat in the middle to be left open, and then a 3rd seat for me. The crew member monitoring the row questioned us at first because there were 3 seats and only 2 people but gave up when we said they were all for us.

 

We did notice that another genie who had a family with kids had also arranged their seating so the kids could sit at the end of the first row next to the ice entrance. This turned out to be because their genie had arranged for them to ride in the giant swans during the show. It was sweet watching them staring wide eyed and open mouthed at the entire show. They beamed and threw in some pageant waves as they were paraded around on the ice. I guess no one on the other side of the stage had a genie to help because it took an extra minute or two for the skaters to coax a little girl from several rows up to come jump in the other giant swan. At first Smitha had suggested we sit front row center but we soon saw the surprise that befalls that specific seat holder.

Still not a bad view:

Smitha caught up with us just before the show started to make sure we were happy with our dinner and our seats at the show. She offered to have drinks and popcorn retrieved but we had full bellies. We made sure to share how great our dinner went at Chops after the service disappointment earlier of Sabor. One thing I'd noticed though is that we had yet to see any invitation to the Cruise Critic Meet & Mingle left in our cabin. I didn't want to miss it since I knew it was most likely scheduled for one of the first sea days. I asked Smitha as we were waiting for the show to begin and she hopped right on her phone to ask someone for me. Glad I had asked because it was scheduled for the very next morning. 

Being so close to the ice, we got to see the skaters up close and personal when they step out to line the steps while another skater does their solo segment of the show. Dad really enjoyed the sand art portion of the show and talked about it for the rest of the cruise. 

Once the show was over, we were ready to retire for the night and returned to the cabin. Thankfully by now Ann Marie had been by to clean our cabin. Dad instinctively put the Do Not Disturb notice on our door like we always do when we're in for the night. Within a couple minutes we got a phone call reporting that they'd tried to deliver our 9:30PM room service order but discovered our DND sign. We assured them it was okay to deliver and momentarily pulled off the sign. Tonight's bedtime snack choices were plain cheesecake, popcorn, cookies, brownies (with chocolate chips - like the ones the pizza delivery companies added to their menus), and cartons of milk. And of course even more rolled up napkins with silverware. Four rolls of silverware sets and the only thing we got to use them on was 2 slices of cheesecake. I guess we were supposed to eat with a fork in each hand?

Dad had chosen the smaller interior bedroom because he likes to sleep in total darkness and quiet. However, once the thicker brown curtain was drawn across my balcony door & window and the door shut, my bedroom was pitch black as well. We did have some rough seas this night and I spent the night trying to ignore the hangers in my closet banging together. You do feel the ship motion the further aft you stay but I felt it more in certain venues around the ship than I did in our cabin.