Phillyredhead

One more, since I can only include 6 pics per post.

Some of the photos that Greffin took:

Our original plan was to be married on St. Thomas at the Limetree Beach lawn via Island Bliss Weddings.

Well, due to a combination of a medical emergency onboard and a tropical storm off the coast of St. Thomas, our cruise ship did not dock at St. Thomas as planned, so we did not have our wedding through Island Bliss Weddings. It was a bit of scramble to get a hold of Island Bliss, as the phone number given to us as "emergency contact" in our itinerary email was that of Janelle, who was on vacation for the month of August. Got an auto-reply text to call a DIFFERENT number for Brittany, the assistant who was coordinating while Janelle is on vacation.

Basically told Brittany that we would not be docking at St. Thomas. She couldn't really do anything other than cancel our vendors for us -- she couldn't say how much (if any) money would might be able to get back. All she could do was tell us to contact Janelle when she gets back from vacation.

Brittany DID try to contact Royal Caribbean on our behalf to negotiate some sort of upgrade or perk to make up for the fact that we weren't docking at St. Thomas, but because she wasn't us or our travel agent, they wouldn't speak with her. But we appreciated her efforts.

Royal Caribbean couldn't do our legal ceremony instead, because the paperwork would take 3 months to process. They offered us a symbolic ceremony instead, which I didn't want (why put on the show, when it would have no legal meaning?), but the rest of our group wanted us to do it.

We worked with the ship's coordinator, Angel. She provided us with the "Just Us" Royal Romance package, which includes a non-denominational ceremony, a private venue (we had the option of the Jazz Club on Deck 4, or Dazzles on Deck 8 -- we chose Dazzles), 1 hour of photography (images/prints not included), champagne and chocolate covered strawberries, breakfast-in-bed on a morning of your choice, and a keepsake certificate.

She included flowers for free (since they were included in our Island Bliss Weddings package), and said she'd talk to the chefs about getting us a cake. They provided an 8-inch chocolate cake covered in fondant with gumpaste flowers. It was pretty and VERY tasty. There was also a DJ playing music (I walked down the aisle to that song from the Twilight movie, "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri, and he played the "I Want to Grow Old With You" song from The Wedding Singer movie during the cake-cutting, that's all I remember).

She also said she'd talk to the ship executives about other perks to make up for the money we'd lost on the wedding and the loss of our legal ceremony. They ended up comping our couples massage in the spa. They also provided a nice spread of hot appetizers after our ceremony in Dazzles. Both were very much appreciated.

Because we had the appetizers and cake after the ceremony, they sent the champagne and strawberries to our room that evening, and we had "breakfast in bed" delivered on the last day (an at-sea day) and ate it on our balcony. You have the option of eggs, French toast or pancakes, as well as a fruit plate, a cheese plate, a plate of assorted pastries, a mimosa or Bloody Mary, and coffee.

The photographer arrived 15 minutes prior to the ceremony to my stateroom to take photos of me with my father. Then he escorted us to Dazzles, taking a few photos along the way, and took some photos in Central Park with me and my parents before the ceremony started.

He took photos during the ceremony, and of the whole family during the appetizers and cake eating. Then the family left, and the photographer spent about another hour with us, going all over the ship taking photos.

We met with him the next morning to view the images. We LOVED them, Greffin did a fantastic job. He was fun to work with, too. He must have been up all night editing them! We bought all the images on CD, and he threw in at least a dozen 8x10 prints for free.

So, not what we had planned, but we made the best of it, and enjoyed the ceremony that the coordinator put together for us.

Creating a new thread for my update.

Also, as excited as my son seemed about the Adventure Ocean kids club, he spent MAYBE 2 minutes there. He wanted to be with his cousins, but they would have been placed in different age groups. So, we didn't really use that service, but we still got the itinerary each day, and the activities for the kids sounded fun.

My extended family of 12 just got back from the 8/20 Eastern Caribbean sailing on the Oasis of the Seas. The group included my parents; myself, my fiance and our 4.5-year-old son; my brother and sister-in-law; and my aunt/uncle and their three kids (18-year-old in a wheelchair, 12-year-old and 9-year-old).

Our scheduled stops included Naussau, Bahamas; Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas; and St. Kitts. My fiance and I planned to get married on St. Thomas through Island Bliss Weddings (not affiliated with Royal Caribbean).

We booked airfare through the cruise line with transfers from the airport to the pier. We flew American Airlines, and had no issues. There was no closet on the flight down for my wedding dress, but we had planned to have it pressed on the ship no matter what, so I didn't mind having to put it in the overhead bin. It did count as my carry-on, so I had to "share" a carry-on with my son. The customer service crew was very helpful with getting my 18-year-old cousin with disabilities onto the plane before the flight and getting him off after. His chair went in the cargo hold, and they had it off the plane and waiting for him before he was even out of his plane seat.

We borrowed a CARES harness for my son's seat on the plane, which was really easy to use. He has a Kindle Fire, so we bought a movie, downloaded it to a micro SD card, and he watched it during the flight. He didn't make a peep the whole time.

We all had ocean-side staterooms on Deck 11. We had Room 11180, a Superior Ocean View Stateroom with a Balcony -- it has a king-size bed with a pull-out sofa for our son. My aunt/uncle had Room 11158, an Accessible Family Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony -- it had two beds plus a set of bunk beds. My parents had Room 11156 and my brother/SIL had 11154, both Superior Ocean View Staterooms with Balconies, no pull-out sofas.

We had issues with our air conditioner seemingly not working. Never really figured out what was up with that. I understand that the A/C turns off when no one is in the room, but it never cooled down when we returned to our stateroom. We had to call the Guest Services line quite a few times to have it kick back on. Otherwise, our room was clean, our attendant was very nice, and we were happy with the storage capacity -- I hardly needed the over-the-door shoe organizer I had brought for toiletries and such. There was a small hub on our desk area with two or three outlets, plus another outlet or two under the desk. We had brought a Belkin 3-Outlet SurgePlus Mini Travel Swivel Charger Surge Protector with Dual USB Ports, which was not confiscated, so between the plugs in our room, plus that, we had more than we needed.

The first day, we lounged by the pool with drinks during the sail-away, then spent most of the rest of the pre-dinner time making appointments in the salon/spa, and registering our son for the Adventure Ocean kids club. We were assigned to The Grande part of the Main Dining Room on Deck 4 at 6 p.m. for dinner. We had a long table alongside the windows. It made conversation difficult, I would have preferred a round table. There was also not a great amount of room to fit my cousin's motorized wheelchair that would also allow the tables around us to have adequate room to move their chairs back from their tables. But we dealt with it.

Our waiter and assistant waiters were fantastic. After the first night, they always had a plate of fruit waiting for my young son as soon as we sat down. They offered a kids' menu for him, which consisted of apps (fruit plate, raw veggies with dip, and something else I forget) and entrees (pasta, grilled cheese, a burger, minute steak, chicken tenders, pizza, and maybe a few other things). He could also order off the regular menu if he wanted.

The first night, I had the French onion soup and the aged prime rib. Creme brulee for dessert. After dinner the first night, we went straight to bed. We were all exhausted after traveling.

Day 2 (Sunday), we docked at Nassau early. We had breakfast delivered to our stateroom. The room service breakfast menu was very limited. The earliest you can have it delivered is the 7-7:30 time range, and we needed to be in the meeting area for our excursion at 7:30. Of course, breakfast arrived at about 7:20. Oh well. Our excursion was the Atlantis Aquaventure. The excursion staff helped arrange a special shuttle bus to accommodate my cousin's wheelchair. We arrived at Atlantis about 15 minutes before the first pool opened, and other attractions opened in 15-minute increments after that.

My son was REALLY excited about the water slides, but he was too small. He is 42 inches tall, and the minimum height is 48 inches. He was crushed, but we soon discovered the kids' climbing structure and mini water slides, and he had a ball there. Atlantis had life vests in three sizes for use, no charge. Make sure you bring a credit card, because aside from Starbucks and one other stand (which was closed that day), the food stands don't accept cash.

I took my 9-year-old cousin down one of the tube slides. It splashes down inside a clear tube that runs through the shark tank, which was pretty cool.

Our excursion was over at 1:30, and we went back to the ship. My son went straight to the ship's pool. I went back to our room to lay out my wedding dress and my fiance's pants/shirt/vest with the laundry form for pressing. Then I got a late lunch in the Solarium Bistro, and went to the pool around 4:30 to retrieve my son to get ready for dinner. That's when I found out that the ship had turned around to go back to Nassau for a medical emergency.

Got ready for dinner. I don't remember what I had, but each night, I thought my dinner was delicious. After dinner, we saw the diving show, Oasis of Dreams. It was a really impressive show, combining diving, high diving, synchronized diving, synchronized swimming, acrobatics, and aerialists. Highly recommend. Then the kids went on the carousel on the Boardwalk, and we got Ben and Jerry's from the ice cream/cupcake shop on the boardwalk.

Returned to our stateroom to find that they had turned down our room for bed, but had not taken our clothes to the laundry to be pressed!

Day 3 (Monday), at sea day. Spent the morning trying to get a hold of someone to find out why our clothes weren't taken to be pressed. They finally sent someone. During that time, our son got really hungry, and by the time we were finally ready to leave for breakfast, we had to deal with a tantrum. So, parent tip -- grab some boxes of cereal to keep in your room, and a few boxes of milk to keep in your room fridge. We finally got breakfast at Johnny Rockets in the Boardwalk neighborhood on Deck 6, which DS loved. The menu has an omelette, scrambled eggs, French toast or pancakes, with sides. No extra charge at breakfast, but lunch or dinner will be a nominal charge.

Went to the pool. For lunch most days, we usually sent two people down to Sorrentos on Deck 5 to get several slices of pizza and a few cups of water and iced tea and bring it back up to the pool, or we got burgers, hot dogs and fries from the Wipeout Cafe on Deck 15.

Mid-day, the captain made an announcement that due to the medical emergency PLUS a tropical storm off the coast of St. Thomas, we would be skipping St. Thomas AND St. Kitts altogether, and docking in San Juan and Labadee instead.

Spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get a hold of our St. Thomas wedding coordinator, canceling salon appointments, and just being miserable that our wedding would not take place. Tried to find out if there was any other way we could do it, but due to paperwork regulations, the only thing they could offer us was a symbolic ceremony. We initially did not want that (why put on the show when it doesn't mean anything legally?), but the rest of the family wanted us to do it.

Also watched my 12-year-old cousin do the Flow Rider -- she was really good! Got up on her knees and everything.

Dinner that night was formal night. Waited in line for portraits, only to find out, he wouldn't do groups larger than 6. I had the escargots (OMG, YUM) and the lamb chop (also delicious).

After dinner, my parents took our son to their stateroom (they took the bedding from our sofa bed and put it on their floor), while my fiance and I went to the theater to watch the Love and Marriage game show. Always a funny show to watch.

Day 4 (Tuesday), San Juan. We had breakfast in the Park Cafe in the Central Park neighborhood on Deck 8. It was a madhouse, because breakfast was nearly over. Then we went off the ship to shop in San Juan. We ran into a parade for the Olympic gold medal winner in tennis, Monica Puig. Fun to watch. We walked around for a while, then returned to the ship. We met with the ship's wedding coordinator, Angel, and decided on a symbolic ceremony that Thursday morning.

Then we went to the pool. We spent most of our time at the salt-water "beach" pool on Deck 15. It's on the same side as the kids' splash area. My son loved the small circular pool in the kids' area that had a current that pulled you around the circle. There was usually a line to get in (the attendant only let in a limited number of people at a time, and there was no time limit on how long you could stay in, even when the line grew to a 25-minute wait).

Poolside drink service note: we discovered that, with certain servers, unless you asked for a "real" drink, they would by default give you a non-alcoholic version of whatever you asked for. Kind of shady, I thought.

While the rest of our family ate dinner in the Main Dining Room, we had reservations at Chops Grille. We had a great server, and for apps, my fiance had the scallops and I had the shrimp-and-crab cake. Delicious. For entrees, we both had the 9-ounce filet mignon. It was perfectly cooked. For sides, we shared truffled French fries, grilled asparagus and sauteed spinach. Dessert was mud pie for him and molten chocolate lava cake for me.

The rest of the family saw the headliner show that night. They said my son loved the singing and dancing, and was dancing himself in the row in front of his seat.

Day 5 (Wednesday), at sea. Our couples massage was originally scheduled for our Thursday at-sea day, but with our itinerary change, Thursday was now a port day. They moved our couples massage to Wednesday, but we were never notified of it. I only found out because I asked to reschedule because it conflicted with our ceremony.

Anyway, we made it to our appointment. I didn't catch the names of the women who provided the service, but it was heavenly. It was a 50-minute head-to-toe massage with hot oil. After the service, we found out that the cruise line comped the massage to make up for the fact that our wedding was canceled due to the itinerary change.

Got some lunch at the Solarium Bistro, then went to find our family at the pool. My son has basically become a fish at this point. He would have spent all day, every day in the pool if we had let him. We had random, short showers at some point most of the days while we were in the pool, but we were already wet, so we didn't care. On this day, however, it started raining rather heavily, so we went down to our stateroom to relax before dinner.

We found out last-minute that the dinner recommended dress changed from casual to formal to accommodate the itinerary change. My aunt/uncle and brother and SIL scrambled to change their Chops reservations so they could attend the second formal night -- lobster tail night. All the guys at our table ordered the sirloin steak and a lobster tail, while all the women just got lobster. The waiter gave each of us ladies an extra lobster tail :D

After dinner, my parents took my son for a sleepover again (confused our poor stateroom attendant, when he showed up the next morning to find no sofa bedding, LOL). My fiance and I changed into our bathing suits and sat in the hot tub for about an hour. Very relaxing.

Day 6 (Thursday), I got up early and had breakfast alone in the Solarium Bistro (it ended up being my favorite place for breakfast. No matter what time we went, it was never very crowded. Sat by the pool for most of the morning and afternoon), then went to the salon for hair and makeup. Makeup isn't always offered in the salon, you have to hope that there's someone there who offers the service. Anyway, he did a great job with my hair. My makeup, I felt was a bit heavy and .... orange. But I didn't have enough time to ask for a re-do.

Went back to our stateroom to kick out my fiance and son so I could get dressed. The ship provided a silk bouquet of white flowers. The coordinator sent a photographer, Greffin, to my stateroom to get a few "private moment" shots with my dad, then he escorted us to Dazzles at 11 a.m., a lounge that offers music and dancing in the evening.

It was a short ceremony performed by the wedding coordinator, Angel, and was non-religious, which was perfect for us, as we are not religious at all. We processed out after the ceremony to spend about five minutes together, then we were "announced" back into the room, where they had a spread of hot appetizers for us as a surprise, as well as an 8-inch chocolate wedding cake, covered in fondant and gumpaste flowers. We had the room until 12:30, socializing and eating and taking photos with the photographer. Then the family left and we went around the ship with the photographer for another hour taking photos all over the ship. We agreed to meet at 10 a.m. in the photo gallery the next morning to view the photos.

My now-fake-husband stayed on the ship (he was feeling sea sick) while I put my swimsuit on and left the ship to visit Labadee. My family was already in the aqua park area -- my dad took my son and my two younger cousins on the inflatable equipment in the bay area. They had a blast exhausting my poor dad.

Back to the ship to shower and relax before dinner. After dinner, we saw "Come Fly With Me" in the theater. Covers of popular songs with dancing, acrobatics and aerialists. It was a good show, but we got there last-minute and had seats in the very last row, under the balcony and missed some of the aerial moves.

We had reservations for the comedy show that night, but we were too exhausted to go.

Day 7 (Friday), woke up, and the wedding coordinator had breakfast in bed delivered to our stateroom. Eggs for him, French toast for me, a fruit plate each AND a cheese plate each, plus coffee, a mimosa for me and a Bloody Mary for him. Then met with the photographer to see our photos -- they all turned out gorgeous. He did a GREAT job. We bought all the images on CD, and he threw in at least a dozen free prints, 8-x-10 size. Then joined the family at the pool.

Spent most of the time before dinner packing. My mom had everybody sign up for the luggage valet service. For $25 per person, they take your luggage from outside your stateroom the night before departure day, check you in for your flight, transport your luggage to the airport, and check it for you. You don't see it again until you arrive at your destination airport. BEST MONEY EVER SPENT.

Got ready for dinner (escargots and lamb shank). It was just my parents, all the kids, my fake husband and me -- the rest had their rescheduled Chops reservations. After dinner, we watched the DreamWorks parade on the Royal Promenade. My son hasn't seen any DreamWorks movies (good luck getting him to watch ANYTHING other than Cars or Minions), but he still enjoyed getting high-fives from the characters.

Then we went back to our room to put out our luggage and go to sleep.

Departure morning, woke up at 6:45. Got breakfast in the main dining room, which was mostly empty but still took forever (probably because they were simultaneously serving breakfast and preparing for the next cruise). We walked off the ship around 8:30 a.m., went through customs, got on a shuttle to the airport, and flew home.

We're sailing on the Oasis of the Seas, and having our wedding on St. Thomas (not through Royal Caribbean). It's on Tuesday, 8/23 (five days to go!!) so I will post a review when we get back.

I plan on making an appointment to have my hair done in Oasis' salon the morning of my wedding on St. Thomas.

In looking at the salon/spa appointment options, I don't see anything about makeup services. Is that available? I'm not comfortable with my ability to do it myself.

Hi! ::waves::

We are sailing on RCCL's Oasis of the Seas on 8/20. We are getting married 8/23 in port at St. Thomas, not through RCCL. We are using Island Bliss Weddings.

Twelve of us are sailing (me, FI, our 4 yrs old son, my parents, my brother/SIL, my aunt/uncle and their 3 kids). FI's dad and step-mom may fly straight to St. Thomas.

I'm so excited!