Th "Beast", the "Wow"...Just Some of Its Few Nicknames

Back to reality! That's right, we just got home from the most amazing and enjoyable cruise. We have taken so many cruises in the past but the Oasis of the Seas tops them all. We did not want to leave. AJ was crying as we got off the gigantic ship. This is the first cruise where I did not bother signing for internet while cruising. There was just so much to do and see that I did not have time even to check my emails.

Below is the view from our balcony looking to the left. The picture below on the right shows the aqua theater. We could watch the divers rehearse and perform right from our cabin balcony. Do you see the 2 very tall white platforms on each side of the blue Royal Caribbean logo? The divers jumped all the way from there. It was spectacular! The aqua theater was convertible into a stage and very deep water.

Let me share the pink Cupcake Cupboard for Pink Saturday. I thought it was just the cutest shop, like in a doll house. Beverly of http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/ also wants us share some Christmas memories with you. I shared my childhood memories when I was small while still living in the Philippines last week. Today, I would like to share what we used to do as a grown up when I lived in Ill.

We used to live in Waukegan, IL and actively belonged to the Fil-Am Association. Weeks before Christmas, we would take everyone in an RV that we used to own, and we would go to different houses to go caroling. I would be playing the guitar and singing with the group and we had so much fun, in spite of the snow and extremely cold weather outside. Of course, we were let in and sang indoors. After we sang, we were given donations for the association and in addition to that, quite a food spread was served for us. After 5 or 6 houses per evening, you can just imagine how our tummies would be bursting from fullness. It was truly a lot of fun and the spirit of Christmas was really felt all throughout the holidays.

For more Christmas memories and wonderful pink and red photos, go visit Beverly and her other participants.

Now, let's go back to the Oasis, which I might say, is a true oasis. There is so much to share that I will post the trip probably on at least 3 different Sightseeing Saturdays. Below are pictures of the cupcake shop, which is located in the Promenade on deck 5. On the left right of the mosaic below, you will see AJ enjoying the ride of the rising bar. Yep, the bar rose all the way from the 5th to the 8th deck, up and down......up and down. It was awesome! You can see the Cupcake Cupboard in the background.

Here is the "Beast" as our bus shuttle driver called it. It is gigantic, 17 floors all in all and very long and deep that we could hardly feel it move while sailing. It is amazing, stunning, extravagant, incredible, beautiful using state of the art electronic advance technologies all throughout. And I swear they took their best personnel and stuck them all in this maiden voyage. The ship smelled so good too since it is brand new. It was very hard to take a whole picture but luckily, while in St, Maarten, it was situated in an angle that it made it possible for me to take a few shots. Isn't she just gorgeous? Just look at the size compared to the 3 other cruise ships, which mind you, are not that small either. The port of calls had to build new ports to be able to accomodate it.
Below is our cabin that John and I shared with AJ. My sister and her hubby also cruised with us and you can see Fe here in our balcony checking out the view. Their cabin was an indoor one but they had a picture window overlooking the Promenade so it was pretty cool checking out the activites going on out there from the cabin. She also celebrated her birthday while we were sailing and you wouldn't believe the best birthday present she could ever receive. Being a Diamond member (meaning they have sailed at least 10 times on Royal Caribbean), she and her hubby were given a complimentary Bingo card each. And would you believe that the husband's card won a cruise for 2 on the maiden Voyage for Allure of the Seas, which is just like the Oasis, and is scheduled to set sail for the first time on Dec. 12, 2010? Lucky, lucky! And to think that he did not even want to go and play, she had to force him, lol.

This is AJ's bed.

Below is the view of the Boardwalk from our balcony looking down and to the right. We were on the 10th floor and the Boardwalk is on 6th. You will see the carousel on the right side which greets you as you enter. There is a Seafood restaurant on the right and Johnny Rockets on the left and many different stores. Every morning, still in my pj's, I would look down from the balcony and it would seem like I was living in a circus. LOL!

At the end of the building, are 2 rock climbing walls on each side. AJ really enjoyed the climb and made it all the way to the top. Do you see her ringing the bell at the very top?

Here you will see the attendant helping her with her gear and the right photo shows her coming down. AJ spotted this Water Park on Deck 14 right away while we were eating lunch in Windjammer Marketplace. Of course, John and she could not wait to put on their swimsuits to swim right after lunch.

Hopefully, this panorama will give you an idea of how the Boardwalk is set up.

Do you see the Peacock seat on the carousel? I had to wait until it was available for John and I to sit on it and ride. They must have made it just for me, lol.

More pictures while exploring the Boardwalk.

Johnny Rockets crew performing to rock and roll music.

AJ built 2 bears and named them "Rocky" for her making it all the way up on the rock wall and "Romina", after the sales girl who helped her build her.

I hope you enjoyed the first tour of the Oasis of the Seas. I cannot wait to show you more next week. I am saving the best for last so stay tuned. Next week, I will show you photos of Central Park and maybe some shows. OMG! I could not believe how lucky I was to see the Nelson Brothers perform. You probably don't know them but I am Ricky Nelson's #1 fan and the Nelsons are his twin sons who did a tribute to him, so they sang mostly Ricky's songs. I told my kids that if we went on the stinkiest ship and the Nelsons were there, it would have been still worth it for me, LOL! I will tell you more next week.

Thanks for coming by. I can't say I missed you a lot cause I was having so much fun but I did miss you somewhat, LOL!

A Birthday Party Aboard the Oasis

I am excited to join Foodie Friday again. FF is hosted by our most talented Michael. To see more scrumptious post, go visit her at http://designsbygollum.blogspot.com/ While we were aboard the Oasis, my sister celebrated her 72nd birthday. I don't think she minds me mentioning her age here because she kept revealing it to everyone on the ship, lol. Besides, I don't think she looks her age anyway.

To celebrate with her, she treated us to dinner in an exclusive restaurant in Central Park, not in Manhattan but on the ship. We had to eat early, 6 PM, because kids were not allowed to eat in this particular restaurant. They made an exception for AJ after my sister's pleading but we had to take an early reservation.

I thought this wall art is pretty cool. The discs and flowers look like Italian glass.

The menus were so fancy. And what a beautiful presentation of the food! I really like the round menu. Chef Keriann Von Raesfeld did a good job preparing the food. Enlarge the mosaic to read her accomplishments.

The whole party: the celebrant, Fe, and her hubby are on the first picture.

The appetizer, Seared Sea Scallop, won first prize in appetizer category somewhere. Sorry I could not remember what the waiter told us, lol.

The second pic is a butter container and I like the soup cup with its dome. And do you see how the Trio of Beet Salad was presented? Cute egg shaped bowls!

The main entrees: a cube of Halibut and Wagyu Strip steak, a Kobe beef, which came all the way from Japan.

Everything was so delicious! Happy birthday again, sis! Thanks for the nice treat and the wonderful time.

Thanks, Michael, for hosting another fun event and thank you all for visiting!

It's Pink and it's green!

This week is going really fast. It's already Thursday, only 1 more week till Christmas eve. I am sure a lot of people will be posting wonderful yuletide tablescapes so make it a point to visit Susan at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ .

I have 3 sets of Christmas dinnerware but I decided to create a pink and green tablescape instead. Our dining room tree adorned with peacocks and pink and green balls and the pink and green table runner I just brought from St. Maarten, served as my inspirations. I love the ruched pink ends of the runner and the raised flowers. Usually, I use this Emma's Garland Spode dinnerware set in the spring but I thought the colors would be perfect for what I had in mind.
Don't you just love those flowers? They are created out of thin silk ribbons and fuschia jewels.
I used green goblets and pink wine glasses. Both have gold scrolls on them.

I moved my etched crystal cloche filled with a gold cherub and a pink and green ball from the kitchen table.

I have a matching vase and tea set in the same Emma's Garland pattern so I used them also. In addition to them, I added my peacock figure which was sitting on the bookshelf and added a green and pink Lladro Christmas bells.

Doesn't the table match the tree?

Silver salt cellars which I will use to serve pepper and the little green and pink ceramic salt cellars for salt

I only have 4 plate chargers in the same pattern so I alternated them with my plain green glittery glass plate chargers. I dug through my linen cabinet and found 8 of these napkins. I thought they match perfectly.

Christmas ball place card holders

I hope you liked my not too traditional holiday table. Thank you for coming. I really appreciate your visits and comments.

Thank you, Susan for this fun event.

Sailing on a Maiden Voyage

I am so glad to be able to participate in Outdoor Wednesday again. Susan of http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com/ is making it possible for us all to share our outdoor photos so to see more, go visit her and her participants.

As most of you know, we just returned from an incredible and amazing maiden voyage aboard Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas. We sailed off from the port of Fort Lauderdale. and stayed at Marriott's the night before to be sure we do not miss the embarkation, in case of any flight delays. These 2 photos is the view from our hotel balcony.

That's Florida alright, lots of palm trees.

I took the next 2 pics while in the shuttle bus as we left for the port and there is the "Beast", according to the bus driver, LOL! Oasis of the Seas is the biggest ship in the world. She is truly majestic!

It is fun to sail on a maiden voyage. Not only is the ship sparkling clean but presents such as hats, bags, photo albums, recipe book, etc. are always awaiting on our bed everytime we go back to the cabin after dinner.
Since this is Outdoor Wed, I would just like to show you the ship's Solarium. It was John's favorite place. It has a big jacuzzi pool with 2 big TV screens on the Sports channel, in addition to a pool and 2 more smaller jacuzzis. It also has a cafeteria so that you can snack or eat your meals there if you want to. They served healthy food here so AJ and I did not really like it and so we did not eat here. LOL! But we tried it once. Can you see how much bigger the Oasis is compared to the other ships? But oh, you can't really see the Oasis, can you? I am taking the picture from one of its solarium's windows, but you get the idea of how high I am shooting the pic from. The oasis has 17 deck floors and I was shooting from deck 15.


They have cabana chairs that rotate and AJ was just enjoying the spin while John turns it for her. Then we just sat there and relaxed while looking out. Not really a nice view cause we have not moved yet and we were facing the parking lot. Exploring the ship was a lot of fun. You meet everybody with cameras.

Hope you enjoyed my little introduction to the most amazing cruise that we have taken. I am posting more pictures for Sightseeing Saturday this weekend so please come back.

Deck the Halls or Rather, The Peacock Room

It's the second week of Susan's Deck the Halls party at http://thoughtsfromovertherainbow.blogspot.com/ . Mary is also hosting Mosaic Monday at http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/. Lets have fun, get some decorating ideas, and visit them both and all their participants!

I am taking you today to our dining room. We have a bold wallpaper there with birds. I call them birds of paradise but some say they are peacocks. Anyway, it started my peacock obsession since I did not really want to take the time to peel off the wallpaper and replace it. Here's a smaller green tree with green lights.
I adorned it with a few peacock ornaments.
and inserted peacock feathers in it

You probably have seen my snowman ice cream shop keeper on Pink Saturday. I kept it on the dining room buffet with a bigger snowman. Doesn't he look like he is the supervisor with a whip? LOL! That little snowman better do his job right!

Thank you Mary and Susan, for hosting these 2 great parties!

Thank you all for visiting. Please forgive me if I do not respond to comments right away. I am sailing on the Caribbean sea aboard the biggest ship in the world, the new Oasis of the Seas enjoying its maiden voyage! Check out the ship at http://oasisoftheseas.com/, it's huge! If placed vertically, it is higher than the Empire State building; it is larger than Queen Mary 2, it has a
Central Park place, a boardwalk complete with a carousel, 2 rock climbing, zip line, water skiing, 25 shops, etc.

I am posting this in advance. See you soon!