LIVE - Oasis Eastern 11/28/15 with Chris and Family

Itinerary by cmong, on Flickr

Hi everyone! I’ve only done one or two “live” threads in the past, but those were fun … though the Internet speed did depend on how fast sea gulls could carry packets of bytes to and from the ship. I’m currently teaching an online class (so I need to buy an Internet package), so I thought … what the heck … it’s time to go live one more time.

Ship: Oasis of the Seas

Itinerary: Eastern Caribbean (Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Martin)

Sail Date: 11/28/2015

Cabin: Outside balcony on deck 6

C&A Status: D+

Previous times on Oasis-class: 2 (1 Oasis, 1 Allure – both before drydock)

Interest in seeing Cats: 3/10 (but the price is right and I’ll give it a shot)

New things to try: Sabor

Already sad about: Loss of concierge lounge breakfast and lunch for D+

Interest in onboard activities: Give me trivia or give me death

Stop where I may not get off the ship: Nassau

Looking forward to Oasis of the Seas: YES!

WOW

It's been awhile since I remember a live thread from Silent Bob.

And If I recall I still have one of yours in my favorite list:D!!!!! (Allure)

Great hearing from you again.

Looking forward to your journey.

Safe travels

Sea Ya

WOW

 

It's been awhile since I remember a live thread from Silent Bob.

 

Scars do take a while to heal. :cool:

Thanks! Good to be talking cruise again. :D

Looking forward to this. I always enjoy your reviews. Have a great time!

Thanksgiving – Travel Day

Traditionally the start of December can be a less expensive time to cruise. Of course, the cruise price does not matter a whole lot for us land-locked folks with a 20+ hour drive to southern Florida ports. Air prices around Thanksgiving are, logically, quite nuts. However, pricing on Thanksgiving day actually wasn’t too bad, making this cruise a reality. My parents are retired so timing wasn’t too hard on them, but having a real job occasionally does put a crimp on my cruising addiction. Thankfully I had already accrued a week of vacation, so green light.

View from Courtyard by cmong, on Flickr

My personal travel preference is to take early flights. While I do not enjoy waking up before 4 AM, I like some of the potential upsides that go along with having your plane already at the airport the night before your flight. We woke up very early on Thanksgiving morning to flights still listed as “ON TIME” … better than some other mornings. After an uneventful 45-minute ride to the Indianapolis airport, we arrived a little after 5 AM and waited in line for about 15 minutes or so at the Delta counter to drop our bags.

After grabbing a quick bite at the food court, we headed through security screening. My parents, I’m guessing because of their age and frequency of flying, were granted TSA Pre-check status. I had it too, though I paid for my status. For $85 (for 5 years) and some time one day to answer interview questions and get finger-printed, you can go through the “special” line now at more airports. The line is sometimes longer than the regular line, but the benefit is also that you don’t have to remove laptops, belts, or shoes. I figure if I take 2-3 roundtrips a year, I will get at least 20 uses out of the service which, at that point, seems worth it to me. On this Thanksgiving we skipped probably a 20 minute line and very quickly proceeded to wait at our gate. Luckily … free internet at IND, so it was time for some 6 AM online shopping. It felt sad, but the shopping list was reduced.

Winter in FLL by cmong, on Flickr

Boarding was uneventful on the whole but of course contained the battle royale of all those who milling about, trying to form zone lines early to hurry aboard and cram as many roll aboard bags and personal items as possible into the overhead bins. Two bags were ejected for being too big (which held up the line as stuff has trouble moving against flow) but in the end almost everyone was accommodated. Amazing. We were then subjected to Delta’s safety video that tried to be funny and failed spectacularly (at least at 7 AM pre-coffee for me). As we taxied out, the plane made a sudden, rounded turn … usually not good … and it wasn’t. Ground hold from ATL for 30 minutes “at this time”. Fun. We had about an hour and half layover in ATL (and were flying two days early) so my heart rate didn’t get too high (at least according to my fitbit). Amazingly, 30 minutes later the engines revved up and we took off. We ended up about 20 minutes late … not too bad, but it would make a 40-minute or less connection in ATL worrisome, especially if flying to a cruise day-of. There were no issues on our connection, though it was close enough we did not stop for early-lunch items as we had hoped to.

Upon arrival at FLL, we headed downstairs to collect our bags. I had downloaded a few ridesharing apps to try them out as they have recently been made legal again in the Miami area. We’ve had some not-great taxi experiences in FLL, so I figured it couldn’t hurt. I ended up going with Lyft Plus because a) they offer a $10 discount for each of the first 5 rides and b) we wanted to make sure we got a vehicle big enough for the three of us with our 3 bags (which we often have trouble with in standard taxis). A driver quickly accepted our fare and we headed out to the pick-up area. It was a bit of a pain to talk with the driver on the phone outside in all of the noise of the traffic area, but the in-app photo of the driver/vehicle helped a bunch an we were picked up a few minutes later. The driver loaded our bags into his large SUV and he had me put our desired destination into his phone for mapping. In the end, it was a great experience. The driver played nice music and made sure we were OK with it. The car was very clean and had water if we wanted. The fare to our FLL Beach hotel was $22 (not including the $10 discount) which felt in-line with previous rides out on the A-1A. Everything was paid through the app (driver does not receive any personal information) including optional tipping after the driver pulled away. It was a very good experience.

Say WINDY! by cmong, on Flickr

Our hotel for this trip is the Courtyard Marriott Fort Lauderdale Beach. It is right across the road from the beach and has lots of restaurants and bars around it. The beach wasn’t too busy on Thanksgiving as it was very, very windy. After checking in, we went up to our King Suite which sounds a bit more luxurious than it is. It is a slightly larger room that has sliding doors separating a king bed and TV from a couch/sofabed and TV. It’s not huge, but adequate.

We were a bit worried about being able to find food on Thanksgiving, however there were several beach restaurants open. We ended up walking a block and eating at The Quarterdeck. It was OK … definitely not great or a place I would wish to return to real soon. The service was fine, but the food was just mediocre … probably typical for a “beach” restaurant. After lunch we walked around a bit but didn’t feel like doing much since we had woken up so early. The wind. Wow. We watched the Independence of the Seas (I think) pull out into the ocean while trying to ignore the sandblasting our skin was receiving.

Exit Independence by cmong, on Flickr

Like the partiers we are, we collapsed about 8 PM. We made it to Florida. Mission accomplished.

Will be sailing with you....can't wait to read the review

Can't wait for your review! We leave in 2 weeks.

Great start looking forward to the rest.

Will you please report back what, if any, Christmas decorations are up? We are sailing the Harmony on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend next year, 2016, and we are hoping it is decorated for Christmas. Thank you!

Following along, looking forward to your reports and photos.

Looking forwards to following along!

Friday, 11/27 - Food porn post

Windy morning by cmong, on Flickr

After crashing early, we slept in until about 7 AM. We had a discussion about what we wanted to do for breakfast. I had seen on Google Maps that there is a French bakery nearby, but it turns out it won’t open until next Monday. Darn! Not really wanting to grab bakery items at the 7-11, we instead decided to just go to one of the beach places on the street. We ended up at the St. Bart’s Café. It was … OK. The food was mediocre and the coffee … well … let’s just say my dad and I both compared it to free “ship” coffee which generally isn’t a good comparison.

Breakfast bagel at St. Bart's Cafe by cmong, on Flickr

 



Eggs and bacon at St. Bart's Cafe by cmong, on Flickr

After breakfast and a walk, we headed back to our hotel room. Now the highlight of the trip … I sat down and graded papers for a couple of hours.

With grading nearly done, there was a knock on the door … housekeeping had arrived to make up our room. It was almost 11:30 by this point, so we just decided to head out and grab lunch. We went across the street (behind the hotel) to Coconuts, one of my favorite places to eat in Ft. Lauderdale. We were a tad early, but were seated and given menus while we waited for the server meeting to end. I like Coconuts because they tend to have good food and you can’t beat sitting out on their deck overhanging part of the canal. We started with some snow crab scoobies (their signature appetizer) which were a handful of partially shelled crab claws cooked in butter, garlic, and other seasoning. For our entrees, I ordered the crab cake dinner with mac and cheese while my mom ordered coconut shrimp and my dad ordered jambalaya. All of the food was quite good. The crab cakes were almost all crab with little filler and the coconut shrimp were very large. We ended the meal with key lime pie which was nice and tart.

Crabcakes at Coconuts by cmong, on Flickr

 



Coconut shrimp at Coconuts by cmong, on Flickr

The rest of the day was filled with randomness ... walks, reading, people watching on the beach. Dinner after our large lunch was just a quick stop at Jimmy John's right beside our hotel.

15 seconds of sun and wind by cmong, on Flickr

 



Getting pulled along by cmong, on Flickr

 



Palm tree breeze by cmong, on Flickr

 



Birds! Mine! Mine! Mine! by cmong, on Flickr

Enjoying your review so far. :)

Saturday 11/18 - Boarding Day!

Oasis waiting by cmong, on Flickr

Time I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep: 6:30 AM

Time I wanted to wake up: 8 AM

Nights on a comfortable sofa bed so far: 0

Song of the morning: The Waiting by Tom Petty

Plans for breakfast this morning: Still in the air

Thoughts on arriving 2 days early: Glad I'm not still in the air

Wind: Yes

Room with a view by cmong, on Flickr

Well we decided to head down to the hotel bistro for breakfast ... I didn't stay long but my parents may still be there. Hot breakfast items were $9+ (breakfast sandwich) to $13 (French toast). The buffet (which looked like what a Holiday Inn Express or Residence Inn would give for free) was $16.50. I know I know. Hotel food. When they've got you, they've got you. I just went across the street and got a milk and a couple of danishes from the 7-11 ... $5 and will hold me over until we board the ship.

Switching into ship mode ....

Boarding day! by cmong, on Flickr

Love your shirt.

Thanks for the live review. We'll be doing same itinerary on sister ship Allure in the spring. Look forward to following along. Enjoy your cruise.

Just started following your post. Wow that looks windy, hope it calms down.

Enjoy your cruise and I will be following you.

We are sitting in our hotel room alternating between reading and staring at each other ... must be about time to head to the ship.

We will be on the oasis when you get back on the 5th, so, ill be reading this thread all week. what stateroom do you have? Have a great cruise!

EDIT: never mind, I see you have a balcony on deck 6

We are sitting in our hotel room alternating between reading and staring at each other ... must be about time to head to the ship.

LOL.. sounds like our family. This looks fun, I'm following along :)

We headed downstairs and I flagged for a Lyft Plus driver using the app. He arrived about 15 minutes later (you can track progress of driver on the app) and we headed to the port. It was a quick ride to get to the port, but the turn into Terminal 18 and the Oasis was very backed up and took about 15 minutes to navigate. We thanked our driver ($19 with a $5 tip not including the $10 new rider discount) and headed into the building. There was a 5 minute wait to get through the metal detectors, then we headed to the deck 6 priority line. By 10:50 or so we were checked in and waiting to board on the second level if the terminal.

A little after 11, I saw what I assumed were the B2B guests coming out of a set of stairs and walking to the dingers to get back on. Next followed the suite and Pinnacle passengers. The staff up on the second floor lost contain and the anxious D+ guests started slipping into the suite and pinnacle guests. A staff member came to contain the leak and the D+ were held until the staff member just walked away. No announcements were made that I could hear, but we filed onboard with the less-pushy D+.

Onboard!