Oasis June 23, 2012 Review, long, with pictures

When we got home on Saturday about 4:00 PM, storms had knocked out phones, cable, internet. As of today, still no internet services.

Spent the good part of Sunday downloading photos, over 1,000, then categorizing them by embarkation, sail away, the ship, Labadee, Jamaica, and Cozumel.

The Beginning: We left Philadelphia on Friday morning June 22, arrived in Ft. Lauderdale about 10:30. Debbie, coming in from the Gulf, had decided to visit Florida also, dumping tons of rain for the upcoming week. It was looking questionable weatherwise.

Checked into the beach Sheraton. No complaints, nice place, but no balcony, which was somewhat disappointing, but, weather would not have really made a balcony useful, as it was raining off and on.

We did get a chance to get on the beach at about noon for a walk, but, Debbie was on the way, and by late afternoon, the rains had begun.

Luckily, we were headed East, Debbie went North, and we had absolutely perfect weather every day of the cruise. As for the cruise, everything was beyond perfect ...... well ...... except for my own stupidity. First thing I did was find the Solarium bar. At 1:00, went to our room, dropped off our carry ons, went back to the Solarium bar, knowing where it was, got off the elevator, went to Port side, exited, made a right hand turn, and ran right into a glass wall. Split my schnozolla open, went to the bar, got some towels and ice, and a Coors Light (not necessarily in that order), $6.04 for 16 ounce pounders. It would only get better.

We booked a Jr. Suite on Deck 8. Great location, as Central Park was right around the corner. It was open for breakfast and lunch (yes, the roast beef sandwiches were excellent). Incredibly convenient not having to use the elevators and go to Deck 16 or Deck 5 for coffee. As a matter of fact, Central Park, IMHO, was the most fantastic part of the ship. Restaurants, an outside bar, the Rising Tide bar (goes from Deck 5 to Deck 8), the Café, and other shops. We never did any of the restaurants or even entered any of the shops in Central Park, as the only place we visited was the Café and an outdoor bar. Just a beautiful part of the ship. I will post a lot of pictures in the next couple of days, provided I get my internet working.

Also, the Jr. Suite got us priority boarding with the Suite guests. We were on the ship at about 11:30.

As previously noted, the Solarium would be our hangout.

We had a pretty decent roll call, and Steve aka bajathree invited us to his Aqua Suite for sailaway. What an incredible suite. The balcony, without exaggeration could hold easily hold 50 people, as it is in the back on Deck 9, and wrapped around ocean side to the boardwalk. It even had a picnic table on it.

Hopefully, when I get home tonight, I will have internet, and can start beginning to put some pix up.

I will be happy to answer any questions throughout the review.

I'm looking forward to the full review and photos! Welcome back.

Eric

ready for pics

Looking forward to the rest of your review. We are on Oasis in January and the wait is killing me.

Looking forward to the rest of your review. We are on Oasis in January and the wait is killing me.

Before you know it' date=' it will be over.;)

One piece of advice I can give is to do your research. Join your roll call, review the deck plans. Check out all the reviews on CC.

Anyone that gets on this ship unprepared will be lost at sea, literally and figuratively. There is so much on this ship it is impossible to describe. Geez, there are 17 decks, dozens of bars and pools, entertainment everywhere.

Establish a beachhead, where you will be every day. We also agreed that on the half hours, we would meet or check in at the Pool Bar, as I was up and around the ship beginning at 5:00 AM while they slept to whenever. But, meeting at 11:30, noon, 12:30, worked well.

Can't to see pictures!! When I was on the Allure, I did a ton of research and I still missed so much. I think at some point I just gave up and decided that I would have to come back to see the stuff I missed lol;)

I hope you have your Internet up soon. Keep the review coming!

I hope you have your Internet up soon. Keep the review coming!

Hoping for it to be up by tonight when I get home from work.

Looks like I will break it down kinda in this order:

1. Embarkation

2. Sail Away

3. Ship photos

4. Labadee

5. Jamaica

6. Cozumel (America's Cup Yacht Race and East Coast tour)

7. Miscellaneous

Oooops.

Forgot one.

Cuban refugee raft encounter.

More please :D

ready for more

ready for more

I have not even started.

Well, hopefully I can get going on this tonight. Have a couple of things here at work, so let's test it out, here is the itinerary:

Here is the waiting area at the terminal, this area is for suite guests:

As I told everyone on our Roll Call, I would be the guy in the Philadelphia Phillies shirt, Nikon Camera in one hand, Coors Light in the other.

Steve, Captain of the Roll Call found me in the waiting area. Here is he is with daughter and her friend. Steve would be hosing the sail away later in his Aqua Suite.

We got on the ship before noon. Here is the aft of the ship, Aqua Theater, take a look at the top right.

Steve's Aqua Suite, 9th deck, ROLL TIDE!

So, you think you have been on a cruise ship balcony?

Dig this:

Nice way to start a cruise, Roll Call Sail Away Party in an Aqua Suite, thanks to Captain Steve.

I am now an Alabama fan:

One more of the sail away, hopefully tonight I have internet service and can get on to some ship photos.