Oasis of the Seas TransAtlantic Voyage Through the Eyes of Art & Ellie

Depending on the access to the internet, I will be posting as often as possible our view of our trip on the westbound transatlantic sailing from Southampton to Fort Lauderdale. This is our first time on Royal Caribbean. I have been on lots of cruise over two dozen - but usually on smaller ships. However we have heard so many positive things from friends that we just had to try the Oasis, especially when it went outside of the Caribbean. So here goes:

Thankfully we had a very smooth flight nonstop from Los Angeles to London on Air New Zealand - one of my favorite airlines. We are staying at a marvelous hotel right in the middle of town The Hilton Trafalagar - right on Trafalgar Square. Unfortunately, the weather (and traffic) in London has not been so marvelous, but that is no surprise. We went to see a west end play last night - Shakespeare in Love and the food has been great. One more thing .. I have been extremely lucky at the casinos. I didn't know the British had such a love affair with roulette, my favorite game. Nearly all the casinos have a room just for roulette. I am not a big gambler, but winning is so much better than losing. LOL. Just looked outside as it is almost 9:00 AM in London - no rain -hooray. So overall this has been a nice prelude to our cruise.

We board in Southampton tomorrow. That in itself has been a challenging experience. Royal Caribbean apparently does not totally have its technology in order as people who are boarding in Southampton instead of Rotterdam could not make any pre-board arrangements on the web. We did manage to reserve what we wanted but it meant calling RCI every time.

Let's hope everything goes smoother once on board.

If you are interested in following our journey, we welcome your comments and input.

Thanks for doing the review, I will be interested to read your thoughts and opinion on the ship, especially given this is your first Royal Caribbean ship.

I hope that the internet allows you to post frequently!

Hi, glad you are having a great vacation, we are boarding tomorrow in Southampton too. We are in Wales and as I type its a very wet day here. safe travels.

Since we are still in London, I am able to upload and post photos. Don't know if that will be possible from the ship. I don't have time to edit them, but here is a link to some of our photos from London:

Looking forward to the review!

I'm looking forward to your review! My husband and I are excited to try Oasis next month.

Great Pictures

Yay! An almost live review! Jumping on the ship!

I'm looking forward to following along with your adventure. :)

Love London.. Love the Oasis.. Looking forward to your review.

I love your pictures of the Food hall at Harrods. One of my fav places in London. We have thought about doing a TransAtlantic Voyage but time is the problem. I would have to spend a week or more exploring on my own before getting on a ship. I am following you to see what you do get done. What are your stops before you head across the pond?

On the boat on Wenesday!

Thank you for posting this review! I am looking forward to following along with you.:)

Have a wonderful cruise, Ellie and Art, I'm just subscribing to this thread. I've sailed RCI several times (primarily from Baltimore), and will be on the Allure TA next year, for many of the same reasons as you. It will be my first time on the bigger ships.

Definitely wishing you better seas than we had on our Crystal Symphony transpacific.

Roy

See you on board tomorrow :D:)

I can't wait to follow you on this trip.

Have a great cruise :D looking forward to following along.

Hope the internet gives you lots of time to post lots of pictures!

Following along. Excited to see how things look.

I also will be following along. Very nice pictures of London.

Waiting anxiously for pictures of all the changes. Thanks, for doing this.

Am enjoying following along. We will be on the Oasis in January.

This from today's press release...

Any indication that O3b is live on Oasis now?

It is Wednesday morning and we are in Southampton. We read about all the problems people had boarding in Rotterdam. What a shame! I sure hope that the situation is not repeated here in Southampton.

Yesterday was a much more pleasant day of weather in London. We had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel. Let me once again say how much we enjoyed the Hilton Trafalgar. Not only is it located in the center of the action, but the rooms are large, the Internet is fast, and they have a brand new breakfast buffet that is superb and included with the price of the room. I highly recommend the hotel.

That afternoon, we had a very special treat. We spent it at the House of Lords, guest of one of the Members of Parliament. He also happens to be the author of the TV series, House of Cards. We had a "backstage" tour and high tea. What an experience and what a nice man!

Everything was wonderful until we tried to get a taxi to go to the Victoria Coach station, which is only a short distance from the hotel. We had a reservation for 7:30 PM and thought we had plenty of time to get there. We had NO IDEA it would be so difficult to get a taxi. It took us nearly 30 minutes and we just barely made the bus. OMG.

I did take a few more photos of London - this time at night and will be posting them shortly.

Just posted the photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30213465@N05/sets/72157646427704013.

They include our trip to Parliament and Trafalgar Square at night.

Great pictures! Thanks.