Trip Report: Oasis of the Seas 5/14-5/21...tons of pictures

[mr.jdm]

Intro

 

I know this is quite late but we had 32GB of pictures to go through but enough excuses...

 

Almost two years ago, November 2009, we boarded the Emerald Princess for an eastern caribbean cruise. The Oasis was docked in Port Everglades that day and I was in awe at how large the ship is so I told myself I'd cruise on her the following year or whenenver price come down. Luckily, the prices did go down and we were able to book.

 

Prior to Oasis, we did a shorter cruise on the Majesty (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1421661) and really enjoyed ourselves. We're in our late 20's from the westcoast and since we were flying from so far away, we decided to do two cruises in one go. We enjoy taking pictures so I will be posting tons of them.

 

Precruise

 

Our Majesty cruise ended on a Friday so we rentad a car from Miami and drove to Fort Lauderdale. In Fort Lauderdale, we stayed at the Westin Beach Resort. We got there early and our room wasn't ready so we decided to do laundry. We asked the bellman where the closest laundromat was and he said he didn't know and that he'd ask a colleague. We stuffed out beach bags with dirty clothes and locked our luggages for the hotel to hold until our room was ready. When the belman returned, in his hand was a printed google map of a laundromat a few blocks away. I thought this was nice as he went out of his way. He could have just told us what his colleague told him. This reminded me why we love staying at spg hotels.

 

We washed our clothes and as they were drying, we decided to have lunch. A few doors down from the laundraumat is Cafe Bluefish. We didn't want to go anywhere too far, so we went inside. There were about 4-5 patrons at the time so service was really fast and we were seated right away. I ordered the Fish Fry sandwich and boy, was that ever good! Huge portion and very very tasty!

 

 

After lunch and laundry, we went back to the hotel and the checked in. I asked if there was any complimentary upgrade and the lady that checked us in said that the next room category above ours were all booked but she'll upgrade us anyway. She placed us in a coastal view room.

 

 

For dinner, we drove to Texas holdem bbq and shared a brisket combo. The brisket was dry and the pulled pork was okay. It's a neat little restaurant where you can watch how they smoke their meats but I'll probably go elsewhere next time.

 

 

We walked on the beach after dinner and just people watched. Back to the hotel we went and called it a night.

[mr.jdm]

Day 1 - Embarkation

 

We checked out of the hotel around 10am and headed to the port. We thought we'd be the first ones in there but we weren't. A lot of cruisers from the sailing the week prior were just leaving the terminal. We went inside and checked in. As we were early, we probably waited in line for no more than 10 minutes. We took our embarkation pictures and went up the escalator to the waiting area. We were seated in the section right after getting off the escalator. The room got really full as time went by. Boarding got delayed as the crew had to go through a coast guard drill.

 

Before boarding, staff announced not to take pictures on the gangway as that would further delay our boarding. People still stopped and took pictures and boarding got delayed again and again as the gangway kept getting congested. Alas! it was our turn to board. We walked in getting anxious with every step. The first word we uttered once we set foot on the ship was 'WOW'

 

We hurridly went to Park Cafe to try the famous roast beef sandwich and everyone here on the board was right. Those were sooo good! There was a long lineup for both the roast beef sandwich and salad bar and people were not aware of which line was which. Some who wanted salad ended up lining up for the sandwich and others who wanted a sandwich ended in the salad bar lineup. Lineups were long and there were no free seats inside and outside of the cafe. We had to wait for a couple to finish eating before we were able to eat. Here are pictures of those mouth-watering sandwiches.

 

 

After lunch, we booked our specialty restaurants and explored the ship for a good hour. We were like kids in a candy store. We wanted to see everything and go everywhere. We walked the entire ship that afternoon..oh my poor feet..but we got great pictures.

 

MDR

 

Chops

 

We went to our cabin to see if our luggages were there. No luck. We booked an inside cabin on deck 10 (10139) because we figured we wouldn't be in the room much as there's tons of things to do. One complaint I have with this room was the loud rolling and then banging noises we heard throughout the night. It sounded like a trolly rolling and then banging onto a wall then rolling back and bang onto a wall again. This kept happening throughout the night and well into the morning. We complained and maintenance couldn't figure out what it was. At first they thought it was an unlocked trolly from the deck above but they couldn't find anything. They even heard it one night when they came to our room to check it out.

 

We then went up to the pool deck and just hung out and waited until the muster drill. Our muster station was in the theatre so yay for seats. After the drill, we headed to the pool deck to watch the the ship sail away.

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2011 by mr.jdm

[mr.jdm]

Sailaway

 

 

After sail away, we went back to our cabin and there waiting for us was our luggages. We unpacked and got orginized and got ready for dinner. We went to the main dining room for dinner to meet our waiters. We picked my time dining as we wanted to try out a few of the specialty restaurants. Dinner in the MDR on the first day was a mistake. I think there wasn't an empty seat in the dining room that night. Servers were running around scrambling to serve everyone. It was so busy! Our main waiter was drenched in sweat..poor guy. Kudos to him for still trying to make conversation with us inspite of how busy he was. Our appetizer and main course took over 2 hours. We skipped dessert as we had a show to catch.

 

I read here on the board that this onion tart is a must eat =]

 

perfect..so perfect

 

the sauce was very rich and creamy

[mr.jdm]

The nights show was Oasis of dreams. We went up to deck 11 to that 'hidden' spot to watch. Here are some pictures of our view. It was quite fun to see where the swimmers went and how after diving they don't come back up the water.

 

 

 

We walked around the ship after the show. Surprisingly, even with tons of passengers and crew, the ship didn't feel packed.

 

Promenade

 

 

Dazzles

 

Boardwalk entrance

[lhall85917]

Great start, I anxiously await the rest of your review! Also, your pictures are exceptional - very professional looking!

Edited June 5, 2011 by lhall85917
Fix spelling - dang iPad!

[Shaney3401]

I'm loving it!!!! Keep it coming!!!

[riclop]

Love your review and the pictures are great, cant wait for more!

[lardan]

These are some exceptional pictures. I was on the ship the first part of April, and while I didn't find it over-crowded, I was rarely able to get pictures of the ship without others in it. How you did that amazes me.

 

I look forward to seeing the rest of your pictures

[will773]

Wow, this is a great review! Your pictures are fantastic!

[mr.jdm]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I'll try to finish everything today so enjoy.

 

Day 2 - Sea Day

 

We woke up bright and early and got ready for breakfast. We checked our tv to see which venues were open for breakfast and which were at capacity. Windjammer was almost at capacity and so was cafe promenade so we decided on Johnny Rockets.

 

 

 

We lazed around the pool deck most of the morning and before lunch, decided to walk around the ship again. Here are some pictures from our trek.

 

 

 

 

Studio B

[mr.jdm]

Never ending hallway

 

This was taken early in the day while everyone were still eating breakfast

 

 

A man ziplining..I'm afraid of heights so I never tried this. I'd probably die halfway =P

 

[Jan_In_Maine]

Thanks for the review and pictures ... can't wait for the rest! Jan

[janetz]

Your review is great and so are your pictures. You make me want to sail the ship again. LOVED IT! :D

[mr.jdm]

For lunch we went to Giovanni's table. For $10pp, can't go wrong. I didn't care for the flat bread but the fried seafood and my striploin steak was good! We skipped the pasta because we didn't want to be too full. We kind of get lazy when we get full..hehe

 

Focaccia della Casa

 

Frittura Mista

 

The name on the menu is so long but it's Striploin steak with Gorgonzola butter

 

Grilled shrimp

 

The dessert was neat. They rolled a trolley over and we pointed to which one we wanted.

 

Zuppa Inglese

 

Cannoli Alla Giovanni

 

We barely drink alcohol and found the cannoli had a strong alcohol taste but overall, a good lunch. It's a quiet place if you want to get away from all the hustle and bustle of the mdr and windjammer. We canceled our dinner reservation at Giovanni's though, because the lunch and dinner menu were quite similar so opted to try something else.

Edited June 5, 2011 by mr.jdm

[LABCHICK]

Love your review. Will be on the Oasis in Dec. What beautiful pictures you have.

 

Judi :)

[mr.jdm]

As we were finishing lunch, we saw Princess Fiona outside. When we booked our Oasis sailing, only Allure had the characters so I was quite happy when I saw Fiona.

 

 

We lazed around and took more pictures before our meet and mingle

 

Aqua Theatre

 

 

 

 

Then off to the meet and mingle we went.

[mr.jdm]

We then watched people at the Flow Rider. It was quite fun watching people learn. It looked so difficult and wiping out looked painful! A word of warning to those that would like to try it, the water pressure from that thing is crazy so wear proper attire. Put on board shorts and a rash guard or something.

 

ouch

 

pro

 

We then went for a walk to get more pictures

 

 

 

 

man, she is huge!

[mr.jdm]

Tonights show was Frozen in Time. I suggest to reserve this show early as I saw a long lineup outside Studio B on my way in. Go in at least half an hour early to get good seats. The show was superb and for me, this was the best production I saw on board and we watched all the shows.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mr.jdm]

 

 

 

 

 

[mr.jdm]

Day 3 - Labadee, Haiti

 

The day prior, we got a message that there are cabanas available to rent in Labadee. We signed up for one and told the concierge we'd visit her to get all the information we needed. 10 minutes after calling concierge, there was a knock on our door. It was Natalia, the concierge we spoke to. She gave us a pamphlet about Labadee and explained what services were available for us.

 

Good morning Labadee

 

 

 

We had a light breakfast at the windjammer and left the ship right away. When we got to the island, we were told to take a golf cart to our cabana. When we got there, we were escorted to our cabana and were told where we'd find our water, etc.

 

 

Included with cabana rental are bottles of water, bbq lunch, floater mats and snorkeling gear.

 

 

[Clamett]

Those ice show pictures are superb. What setting did you use on your camera?

[mr.jdm]

The beach was rocky and water shoes would have been great. We floated around on our mats most of the time and met a few people from cruise critic.

 

 

 

 

Our lunch

 

 

We explored the the island for a little bit and walked to the artisan market then back to the water we went. It started getting dark and it looked like it was about to rain so we packed up and headed back to the ship. What a great relaxing day.

[mr.jdm]

Those ice show pictures are superb. What setting did you use on your camera?

 

Hi Clamett, the ice show pictures were taken using manual setting.

[sherilyn70]

Hi Clamett, the ice show pictures were taken using manual setting.

 

With which camera?

[Clamett]

Thanks .

Edited June 5, 2011 by Clamett