Hello morning – which is far quieter than nighttime here at the Ashley Brooke.  At least we have our full pot of coffee to sip on while we prepare for the day!  We took a long walk along the beach promenade, then came back to the hotel to freshen up and finalize our packing for the ship.  All handled and completed by 10 – we left, found a quick stop at a Dunkin Donuts for more coffee then easily made it to the airport to drop off the car.  Pretty seamless.

Found our Lyft driver easily too, and we were whisked off the pier in no time, arriving well before our suggested noon time embarkation.  Ah well, no worries.  We checked in and were shown upstairs to the Priority waiting area, along with about 150 others.  There are a lot of people here for this early hour – it isn’t even 11am!  Not that we can talk, of course, but still.  We actually boarded early, at 11:30, made our rounds to Guest Relations for some billing adjustments, then plopped ourselves outside on the back Lido deck for lunch as the cabins aren’t ready yet.

After a lovely first lunch aboard, we hit the Lido bar for a drink to wait out the cabins.  But we soon realize we must have missed the go ahead for the cabins because there are tons of people with their cards already.   Ok – we’re off to our great Neptune Suite on deck 6.  These cabins are the best.  Truly some of our favorite we’ve ever had.  This one is right by the glass elevators though, which concerned us in terms of privacy on the balcony – but to be honest, it isn’t anywhere near as bad as we thought.  Especially when we sit in the chairs and not the table – you can barely see the elevator or the people inside.  Perfect!

Now it is time to wander and figure out what they did during drydock.  We can already see the new carpet and furniture in the stateroom – as well as a new picture window with shims still in place.  There is all new furniture in the Lido restaurant, as well as new serving areas – most now with plexiglass protectors in front of all the food ensuring passengers can’t serve themselves, i.e., touch everything and put it back!  Staff now serves virtually everything, which is good and bad: good from a hygiene perspective; bad from an overworked crew/slow, picky passenger perspective.  Also, the Nacho bar is gone from in front of the Dive In burger window, which is a bummer as that used to be our midday or late afternoon snacks with beverages.  Oh, and PS, they did not change those pretty but awfully uncomfortable bar stools at the Lido bar.  Bummer.

Next we head to the gym for an early afternoon exercise session – before the raffle is held.  Here literally everything is brand spanking new.  All the machines, the carpet, the accessories, everything.  Really nice and really well done.  Back in the cabin, the bags have arrived, meaning the rest of the afternoon is all about unpacking and organizing – easy to do in this huge cabin with tons and tons of closet and drawer space. 

We tried to hit the sail away party on the aft Lido deck to see if they have really started the new “revamped” sail away experience that was just announced on Friday (yesterday) with locality themed appetizers and Taittinger champagne.  But once up there we realize it is just way too cruisy for us – crowded, blaring music, line dancing, yes, passed appetizers, but do we really care?  Nope – it looks like meatballs and maybe a little glass of shrimp?  If we want snacks, we can go to the Neptune lounge.  Which is actually what we did, meeting the 2 concierge staff – Aiko and her male side kick (whose name we didn’t quite catch) – grabbing a drink and some nibblies before heading back to the cabin balcony for sail away.

Dinner in the restaurant later, nice, not too terribly crazy yet – plus we have Club Orange and priority seating, so we don’t have to stand in the crazy, long line for open seating.  Then to the show, Doug Funk, a comedian, who is cutesy and funny – but horrors!  They have done some updating in the World Stage too, beyond just the sound system and electronics (which we knew).  They changed the seating at the back of Deck 3, eliminating our stool seats and counter, replacing it with a tall row of bench seating.  Yikes!  Whatever will we do?  It totally stinks because there is no where to put a drink except the table like surface at the end of the row – fine except that I have to lean over Ed to get my wine – of bother him to get it for me during the show.  Looking around, there aren’t any other seats anywhere on this level with tables or shelves.  The only tables are on the floor of the theater right in front of the stage.  Oh well – it is what it is for the next 24 or so days.

Afterward we grab a drink from Ocean Bar and hit the balcony to end our first day aboard the refreshed Oosterdam.  Seven days at sea coming up!