maglib

harry - thanks for the badlands pics. am going to forward (or something) to my husband. he will like them as will my sister-in-law.

oasis was amazing but give me sf cool weather almost any time. husband went on zipline. i wanted less scary adventures like ice skating and pee wee golf. kids area was really cool and seeing a movie in ocean adventure theatre was fun (couldn't get into origami folding). we left early (6:45am) and are spending time in miami. getting lost mostly, but luckily, my husband doesn't mind and just sleeps. will return rental car on wed morning in fort lauderdale and then fly home =< so much for the vacation!

thanks again for the tips, they really helped. oasis still has "secret" balcony seats just over aqua theatre. (we did a cabin crawl and saw a loft suite. super nice and super super expensive. went to a comedy show where someone has been on allure 28 times and oasis 38 times staying in expensive suites over a 3-4 year period. wish i had his money!)

harry - thank you for your report. my husband and i leave for oasis cruise this saturday and your allure report gave me added info. if it wasn't for my sister-in-law's email about your report, i probably would have missed it.

we got a good deal i thought on a central park balcony that i couldn't refuse. (i'm the cheap one of the two of us) oasis class was never on my list of cruises. we went on a celebrity cruise in 2010 and followed it with a royal caribbean cruise. i swore off royal caribbean (too many kids, sorry) and vowed to only cruise celebrity. then this offer came up. so even though the itinerary is western caribbean, i am thinking the ship is the destination, not the ports. however, looking at your photos, i may have to re-evaluate my opinion. shore excursions for sure seem too expensive for what you get. maybe my husband and i can just walk the area for a bit.

since my kids are grown (33 & 35), guess we can cruise however we want. also have a crystal cruise planned for next year (another good deal! and ship destination vs port destination)

have fun on your driving trip. my husband's next vacation is suppose to be a driving one to the national parks in western US. (figure you must be in south bay since there is no grass here in sf.)