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

Before the cruise, we read the tip online about avoiding the Windjammer crowds and heading to a specialty restaurant open for lunch instead on embarkation day. Dad had the idea of choosing Sabor for this lunch as we wanted to try every place but the menu didn't offer enough to make it worth devoting one of our dinner choices to it. We asked Smitha pre-cruise to reserve it and she assigned a time of 11:30AM but pointed out that you don't really need reservations at lunch time. Good thing as we didn't even board until 30 minutes after our reservation time! It doesn't matter whether you dine for lunch or dinner in the specialty restaurants, it's still all included for Star Class passengers.

Once we finished chatting with Smitha and she left our cabin, we decided to freshen up and then head down to Sabor for lunch. I won't lie, it was a little fun to see the looks we got as we came out from behind the "can't go to your cabins until 1:30PM" door and spotted the small group of other passengers lying in wait to get to their cabins. Sabor seemed moderately busy but we still wanted to visit. We walked up to the podium at the entrance and proceeded to stand there waiting for what felt like ages as restaurant staff including someone in a white officer style uniform helping out continuously walked right past us. I tried to catch the attention of some of the crew standing by the bar as the line waiting to come in started to grow behind me. We were so ignored that the staff would even ask us to politely move aside so they could come and go out to the boardwalk. Perhaps if you actually seated the growing line of people at your door, no one would be in your way? By the time we would have walked out had this been a restaurant on land, the crew member in the white uniform finally came over to check us in.

We opted for a booth and was led to the second to last booth in the back. Another longer than should have been wait to see our waiter. As we were finally offered drinks, I noticed that our water was brought in cold bottles. I recall Celebrity once asked if we wanted Evian specifically and would always ask if we preferred sparkling or still water. Here it seemed if you wanted water around the ship it was a generic bottled brand but you got Evian if you asked for water in your cabin. A couple other tables nearby got bottles and I was wondering if that was just the way Oasis does things in their restaurants. That is, until I noticed that all the other tables got their water via an icy metal pitcher.

Most of the time we ate in restaurants they automatically brought us bottled water. I remember noticing toward the end of the cruise that once or twice they'd just bring over the pitcher which is fine too. I drink a ton of water so I'm never partial to where it comes from as long as it's wet and cold. Dad got his first beer of the trip with this lunch. He doesn't drink beer hardly ever at home but he was surprised to find that some venues would have the brand he asked for (ones you could find in any corner convenience store) and others wouldn't.

Another wait for service before our waiter finally came back to take our order. Expecting this to be our only visit to Sabor, between us we got a large variety of dishes. Our waiter automatically mentioned bringing out the famous guacamole so I guess it's now standard for everyone to get like the chips and salsa they first bring out. He had to come by our table again because he'd neglected to check whether we wanted mild or spicy guacamole. I can now confirm that yes, this guacamole is as good as everyone says it is!

The service waiting for our entrée delivery slowed to a crawl. So much so that we soon had our attention drawn to the long table next to us that just so happened to be full of our 2 BR ATS neighbors and now an extra part of their family with their own kids. Remember Smitha's foresight about kids not wanting to sit and wait when we first embarked? Sabor didn't get that message. The slower the service became, the more those kids naturally got restless and the poor parents spent their lunch constantly trying to keep their kids from running around, hitting each other, and throwing food. It was like the "before" segments of an episode of Supernanny. Some of my favorite highlights - one of the adults smacked one of the kids bottoms (he was kneeling on his chair) and admonished "We don't hit!" A couple margaritas were brought out for the adults and the guy on the end of the table was so preoccupied yelling at another child, the little boy next to him almost helped himself to his dad's drink. His dad noticed just in time and you could tell that little boy had no idea why his dad was so upset that he wanted to try the bright green frozen slushie? This was also the little boy who moments earlier had decided he didn't like a few particular tortilla chips out of their bowl and crushed them in his hand before he threw them onto the floor over his shoulder. At one point, I thought they'd left from the frustration but soon walked back in when the waiter finally showed up to their table.

While waiting for our food, I found that the floor underneath our booth seemed very slippery. Any time I'd try to rearrange how my legs were crossed, my feet would slide out away from me. Turns out it wasn't just under our booth as we watched all of the wait staff performing their own ice show as they did the penguin shuffle and the slide walk each time they moved between the tables delivering food. Sabor's main restaurant area is completely covered with open sides so I couldn't figure out why the floor was so slippery!? 

I'm the anomaly in my family in that I'm the only one who likes calamari. I get it whenever I see it in restaurants on land and sea. Tried calamari steak once a couple years back on a cruise and while it tasted okay, it reminded me of someone who tried to make fish and chips and forgot the breading. Everyone raves about Sabor's calamari so I had to try it. The sauce was a little spicy than usually goes with calamari but that's to be expected for a Mexican restaurant. The consistency and breading was good but I was a little surprised at how some of the pieces actually looked like they dumped the entire whole squid in the fryer rather than the usual little ring shapes. Reminded me of when you get served a fish in a restaurant and it's still looking back at you from the plate. 

For our main dishes - Dad got both the steak and the chicken quesadillas. I tried a bite of each and was pleasantly surprised that the steak was soft and tender, not like cut up fajita style strips you usually see. One of Dad's other food hatreds is mushrooms so it was up to me to order the other two quesadilla choices of three cheese and mushroom. There was a ton of thick cheese in each quesadilla to the point that I couldn't help but cut it up into separate pieces with a knife and fork. My verdict - all relatively tasty but wish I'd ordered the steak one instead.

One of the debates from previous Star Class cruisers is whether or not the specialty restaurants still insist on scanning your card and having you sign a receipt with your $0 balance. We found that every single restaurant and bar asked to scan our cards, including Starbucks. I enjoyed watching our collection of $0 receipts growing as I piled them up on one of the spare shelves in my bedroom each day. I joked to Dad that I'd end up making my own paper bouquet out of them by the end of the trip.

In addition to the Cruise Critic roll call, I had also been actively chatting with fellow cruisers in a Facebook roll call. The woman who started the Facebook roll call planned a meetup at the Sabor bar starting at 2PM. Thank you Susan, it was great to meet you and your family! We soon headed back to our cabin to take advantage of the time before muster to unpack. Our luggage was in our cabin essentially as fast as we were but we decided food was more important. As we worked to unpack, the winds picked up and a heavy rain moved in. We counted our blessings at having stepped away from the Sabor bar meetup moments before as the wind got so intense, our balcony furniture started toppling and sliding around.

Our steward Ann Marie stopped by as we were unpacking to officially introduce herself. I appreciated how many crew members we met that handed us their personal business cards as part of their greeting. Great touch for a reviewer like myself to help remember names especially for the post cruise survey. We asked about whether they had an alternate plan for muster or if we needed to break out the ponchos. Ann Marie assured us that they'd arrange to hold muster somewhere under cover. Smitha had to show us when we first arrived where the laundry bags were stored (living room wardrobe closet) and told us to tell the steward when we had some to be picked up. We mentioned to Ann Marie that we'd already made up a laundry bag and that we noticed one of the bedside lamps in the smaller bedroom had been twisted out of place.

We'd been told by Smitha that we could specifically request to have our laundry back by a certain time but for the most part we were fine with leaving it to be picked up before the morning cabin cleaning and getting it back by the evening cabin cleaning the next night. We purposely packed only a few days worth of regular clothes so we put out a bag worth of laundry 2-3 times during the week. The only drawback was that Dad put his dress clothes in to be pressed and was concerned that he'd have to go dinner this first night in his jeans. We're not one of those stuffy people who believe if it's dinnertime, you must be dressed in your finest suits and evening gowns but will take the time to at least change into dress slacks and a nice top. It's a personal preference and serves as a way of mentally shifting gears to experience a nice sit down meal with service. Dad needn't have worried though as we saw everything from jeans to slacks to shorts.

Muster drill did turn out to be moved from the Aqua Theater to the small section of the boardwalk that is under cover by the Doghouse. Two different muster stations were directed here and we were left to stand on each side in rows facing each other so that the crew could be seen in the middle displaying how to put on their life vests. No movie themed safety video for us and they were actually still trying to move everyone around while the captain gave his usual speech over the intercom system. Most everyone put up with this necessary effort without complaint but it was a little confusing being left standing there after the drill seemed to be complete. The crew standing with us had made the announcement that children of a certain age needed to get wristbands and a lot of people took that to mean that if they didn't have kids, they could leave. The crew's response to that was to block the doors leading to the elevators. Once they let everyone out to the elevators, it was of course a mob scene so we stepped away from the crowds and took seats at the small extension of the Schooner Bar just outside of the NextCruise office that overlooks the promenade.

Once some of the mob had thinned out, we decided to instead head in the opposite direction and check out the suite lounge. The lounge had some finger food style snacks and the usual dispensers of water and iced tea. I appreciated that they not only had a Purell dispenser but also a full sink for washing hands before proceeding along the food choices. Dad grabbed a small plate of snacks to try and I simply enjoyed a few glasses of cold water as by now that muster left us feeling like we'd been out in the sun all day. Dad didn't care for some of the snacks he'd picked to try and had the hardest time getting the attention of a bar waiter to get a soda. They'd either walk right past our table to help someone else or they'd walk away as soon as Dad walked over to the bar. It's one thing to say maybe they didn't realize we wanted a drink at the table but to walk away when Dad walked up to them at the bar? Finally he gave up and got a glass of water from the dispensers to finish his snack. 

Back to the cabin we headed to relax as it was now only about an hour or so before our first dinner reservation at Chops. With an uneven amount of days, Smitha had bookended our schedule with dinner at Chops the first and the last night. We'd tried Chops on the Grandeur and wasn't impressed so in the back of our minds that first day we were already thinking about switching that last night's plans. Once back in the cabin, Smitha stopped by to check in. She asked if we had gotten some lunch and we told her about our experience at Sabor. We weren't doing so to complain but wanted to report honestly since she asked. It turns out the other family had called her to report the bad service so she wanted to know if we'd had the same issues. Her advice was that in the future to use the magic phrase "Please call my genie" should we have any other service issues around the ship and it would light the proverbial fire under the crew to get better service. This at the time was one of those moments where it felt weird and too elitist. Yes, we paid extra for the perks and the star class service level but 1) they knew we were star class from check in, and 2) every passenger there should have gotten a better level of service than we witnessed regardless of cabin category. Smitha kept apologizing and offering to "make it up to us" but we didn't feel anything further was necessary since it didn't cost anything extra to eat there and the food was good when we finally got it.

Being on the subject of food, Dad asked about having snacks in the cabin since we hadn't yet seen anything other than the candy and some small berries presumably to go with the wine bottle they offered for our cabin. Smitha explained that she'd arranged for a 4PM and a 9:30PM delivery daily from room service. She had the foresight to expect that passengers would want some variety during the week and suggested cheesecake. Dad asked instead to have chocolate cake and I had to speak up and vote for keeping my favorite dessert of cheesecake. Once Smitha left, we watched the Aqua Theater show members practice from our balcony and checked in online letting everyone know we were officially on the ship now.