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Oasis of the Seas Pre-Trip Report - 2 July 2016

bajadahl
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kidlessatsea

kidlessatsea

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Just a side note for your coffee drinkers, Seattle's Best coffee is actually owned by Starbucks. It's considered more of a 'working class' coffee rather than Starbuck's 'upscale' coffee. Either way, I think they taste very similar so you shouldn't have complaints.

 

Also, we go on the Oasis in January and I'm super excited to read your review.

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TeamTrom

TeamTrom

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With my countdown for boarding Lady O currently just over 120 days I am getting pretty darn excited and your review has and will continue to get me amped!!! Thanks in advanced, I really enjoy hearing about the pre trip and you entire vacation and not just your cruise. With preparations underway for my vacation and my first ever cruise review myself I will use your as inspiration and help because I, too, will be doing my 11 day vacation and not just my voyage. Looking forward to this.

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kdiall5

kdiall5

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You certainly have my attention! I love the details - they all help me prepare for our Oasis trip. Flying in from Austin 7/8 and depart 7/9/16 with my DH, DS(15), DD(12) & DS(8). 1st RCL and only 2nd cruise. Thank you!!!

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bajadahl

bajadahl

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We are now 24 hours out and the flight gods have smiled upon us. It’s been a very long time since I received a very early boarding pass on a Southwest Airlines flight. I am the guy that won’t pay for early boarding but will get up at the exact 24 hour window to check in for the best possible boarding pass for a non-upgrade passenger.

 

Today’s result A29, 30, 31, and 32

 

If you don’t fly Southwest none of that will make any sense so let me briefly bring you up to speed. Southwest does’t sell assigned seats. This means once you board the plane you just pick the seat that you want of the available seats on the plane. This means the later you board the more likely you are to be squeezed between a sumo wrestler and a big biker (with a mom tattoo on his forearm) in the dreaded middle seat. And don’t get me started on the overhead bin space. Hint - Storage space becomes non-existent after about half the passengers have boarded.

 

Anyway - Southwest boards in this order:

A1 - A15 - These are business select customers or frequent flyers with some level of status. Us normal folk will never see one of these boarding numbers.

A16 - A30 - The rest of the frequent flyers and Early Bird Check customers normally take up these spots.

- I believe it’s around about here they do family boarding or assisted boarding for young families or disabled customers.

A30 -A60 - Normal low life’s

B1 - B30 - Almost normal low life’s

B31 - B60 - How did this happen to us but at least we’re not in the C boarding group

C1 - C30 - Look at all the low life's ahead of us who paid too much just to board the plane.

C31 - C60 - First time flyers who have no idea that they are going to spend the next 3 hours cuddling with a sumo and a biker with arm rest issues.

Finally - Last minute arrivals - These are normally frequent flyers who thought Southwest wouldn’t let anyone board until they showed up. “But I am supposed to board First! Why are all those low life's already on MY plane!”

 

I have a friend who was a gate agent for Southwest for 37 years (Just retired a couple of weeks ago) That last statement about last minute arrivals would be funny if it wasn’t true. He has really good stories about the insane things passengers will say or do. He should write a book. I am sure it would make for a great read while sitting in the terminal at the airport.

 

 

Wow - I typed all that just to show you how special it is to get an A29 - A32 set of boarding passes. Basically all it means is that I’m the only idiot on this flight willing to get up ridiculously early…. two days in a row!

 

 

On the Docket for today -

 

My last day of work, gather everyone’s luggage and check the weight, re-distribute as necessary, double check girls carry ons for contraband, take the dog to friends house, and try to get a few hours of sleep.

 

 

 

Two Side Notes

 

1. Yes I am the guy who will open up a piece of luggage at the terminal to remove a 4 ounce object so that my bag is under the 50 pound limit. However, I am also the thoughtful guy who doesn’t want to do this and hold up the line. At home I always weigh the bags. It’s usually coming home where I get burned if we don’t get the distribution just right. Some hotels have scales for precisely this purpose.

--Side note to the side note - I live with 3 women… Packing light is like a foreign language to them.

 

2. Contraband in the carry on - If you want to terrorize your children give them a harmonica and let them take it through security at an airport. TSA Agent holding up a pink and purple Dora the Explorer backpack, “Who’s is this?” And watching my daughters eyes get as big as saucers. Then feeling my eyes get as big as saucers when I realize they won’t be taking a 7 year old to jail. What in the H E double hockey sticks did you pack? So now we know that a Harmonica looks just like a 9mm ammunition clip. You can’t say you haven’t been warned!

Edited by bajadahl
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BillOh Holiday Sharing Rare

BillOh

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C31 - C60 - First time flyers who have no idea that they are going to spend the next 3 hours cuddling with a sumo and a biker with arm rest issues.!

 

Or in our case, death in the family booked the flight the same day :( My wife and I Ended up sitting in different seats for the first segment.

My favorite was the couple who Had A39 and A40 assumed they could line up anywhere in the 21-40 area. Of course they chose the very front. Being I was A21 and not going be sitting apart from my wife for a Baltimore to San Juan Segment, they heard about it. Still enjoy SWA most times.

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bajadahl

bajadahl

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This is the beginning -

 

Tuesday June 28th, 2016 - 12:01 AM -

 

Oh for the love of god, you’ve got to be kidding me….. Why is it the night before vacation I never get a good night sleep? Don’t answer that. I already know…

 

From the excitement of a new adventure to the thought of forgetting something critical to the success of our vacation, there’s a lot going through my head tonight. I am just a tiny bit OCD when it comes to planning vacations.

 

I have a list of things to pack in order of importance (let me know if you want me to share it) I’ll give you a hint… My list starts with Passports! (Apparently I need to share this list with my parents - more on that later)

 

Anyway, I couldn’t sleep so I decided to write a few lines for todays report. And Maybe a few ground rules.

 

Ground rules for me -

 

I intend for this review/report to read more like a story. It should be fun and at times funny. If it’s ever angry or sad…something went wrong. However, please don’t mistake sarcastic humor as anger. I thing sarcasm makes for a great read.

This report will encompass my entire trip. 28June - 11July If you’re only interested in cruise specific stuff then you will want to focus on the reports from 2July - 9July.

I will attempt to put in headers where appropriate for new subject material so that you can quickly scan ahead for more specific information.

I will take a ton of pictures and will share them all. I love looking at trip pictures. If there is something you want a picture of please post it as soon as possible. I will do my best to scan for questions during my trip. Just please realize, I’m just another average family guy on vacation so I might not see everything.

I will attempt to post “something” every day. I know what it feels like to wait for that little update from a thread you’re following. It’s like Christmas morning when you finally get a little update… ok maybe that’s just me….

 

 

Maybe I should just go pinch the girls so they wake up and we can head to the airport early.

 

Ok Guess not… It’s going to be a long travel day.

 

 

2:30 AM - OMG! The entire family was AIS (Bottom in Seat) on time! We think we have everything and we are driving to the airport!

 

2:50 AM - At Airport Curbside to drop off girls and the luggage. I then go park in long term parking. The first long term lot is open (score one for the Dahl Family) Find a close in long term spot. (Score again) And finally there’s already a shuttle waiting! (The Trifecta Score) As I walk up to the shuttle door he starts to drive away but sees me at the last second and stops. Whew! The bus is empty he was just planning to go gas up before the onslaught later this morning. He says to hop in and he’ll drop me on the way! My first tip of the trip. Thanks for not pretending he didn’t see me and just keep going) Total time to park the car 7 minutes!

 

 

I get back to curbside and the girls have finished putting ID tags on all the new luggage. Curb side checkin isn’t open so we wheel everything into the terminal and get in line at the Southwest Counter. (Not open) It’s a few minutes after 3am. I figure it will open about 3:10 based on the two hour rule. (Our flight leaves at 5:10am) It was actually 3:15am when it opened. We are about 10th in line.

 

While waiting for the counter to open my mom shows up. Dad’s parking the car. They are a little more frazzled than us. Dad forgot the charging cable to mom’s scooter so they are just leaving it in their car. This is going to slow her down a bit. I am already thinking of ways to fix this and ask them about buying another cable once we arrive in Florida. Mom doesn’t want to deal with figuring out what to buy or where to buy it. I am sure she is a little miffed at him but she’s doing a good job not showing it.

 

The girls and I get through the line and are all checked in and ready for security but dad still isn’t back from parking the car so I go help mom pull their luggage to the side of the line so people can get by and then we wait for dad. After a few minutes he shows up and I help them get their luggage checked in and we start to make our way to security. (There’s no line yet but I am feeling the hordes of people coming at any time now.) So I am trying to walk with a purpose.

 

Mom and Dad stop to get their boarding passes (that they printed at home) out of their travel folder. Where’s the travel folder? At home on the nightstand because dad got it out yesterday to put the boarding passes in and forgot to put it back in their carry-on.

 

Me “Ok- So you need new boarding passes- No Big deal! What else was in the folder?”

 

Mom “Everything!!! - Including our passports!”

 

Me “Oh bleep”

 

Mom “You go on ahead. We have to go home to get the passports. If we miss the flight we’ll catch a later flight and catch up.”

 

Me: (feeling a bit bad for them) “Ok - Try to hurry”

 

 

I get my family through security at 3:40am We go to gate 7 to wait the hour till boarding begins at 4:40am. My parents live about 20 minutes from the airport (assuming no traffic) So I start thinking to myself of what they will have to do in less than an hour an a half at most.

- Drive home

- Find the Travel folder

- Get the charger for the scooter (Nah skip that they don’t have time to unload the scooter now.

- Drive back to the airport

- Park, get in the terminal, and get through security, and arrive at gate 7.

 

No freakin’ way. So I start think about the contingency plan. Next available flight out isn’t until 3:10pm with arrival at 8:25pm in Fort Lauderdale and there’s still a 7 hour drive to Savannah after that. That just won’t work. Mom calls me from the car… Dad’s speeding (mental note to ask him how it finally feels to drive over 30 mph) Won’t tease him about that until the pain of this day has passed. She’s looking for alternate flights but is seeing the same thing I see. I warn her about her checked luggage. I thought they pulled luggage off the plane if the passenger doesn’t end up boarding. She decided to call Southwest.

 

Southwest tells her the luggage will not be pulled from the plane (At this point she is not asking them to cancel her flight) So I’m not sure what they would have said if she told them to cancel altogether at that time.

 

Mom calls me back to ask me to pickup their luggage if they end up missing the flight. I’m thinking to myself (That’s a mighty big IF you have there)

She also tells me that if they miss the flight they are just going to leave immediately and drive to Savannah…. (My brain explodes) Well I guess it makes sense. The Austin airport is on the eastside of town. You’re practically half way there!

 

Truth is - If they drive they can be in Savannah around midday tomorrow. Not ideal but it’s going to half to do. Our first scheduled tour isn’t until 4:30 PM tomorrow.

 

30 minutes to go and they call to say they are headed back.

 

At 4:40am I am standing in my beautiful A29 spot waiting to board the plane. The gate agent starts making all the normal announcements and I now know there is no way they are making the flight.

 

Mom calls - “We are parking now” I say “Hurry we haven’t started boarding but it is imminent”

We hang up and boarding begins.

 

We board and grab two rows about halfway back just behind the wings so the girls will have a good view. Denise and Ashlyn in one. Lindsay and I in the other. We both save a middle seat for mom and dad. That was very optimistic.

 

The plane is now fully boarded and I notice many empty seats. We never even had to defend our middle seats.

 

I don’t want to call mom because I don’t want to slow them down but I am dying to know if they are close. The flight attendants begin to make their normal announcements about the flight and I know the doors are closing. Dang it!

 

And here come mom and dad! I stand and get the entire plane to clap for them! Then I look at my phone 5:06am They made it!

 

There were enough empty seats that they didn’t even make it back to us before finding a row with two seats.

 

I send a message to mom. So glad you made it, I guess you didn’t have time to get your scooter though?

 

She looked back a few seconds later- “I got the scooter”

 

Wow - It’s going to be a good trip.

 

 

The rest of our travel day was rather uneventful but I will have a few more things to say later. Right now we are finishing breakfast and about to go catch some of the sites of Savannah.

 

 

More Later - Please excuse the typos. Trying to get it all in and quickly!

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JessandLevi

JessandLevi

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Wow sounds eventful but so glad your mom and dad made it back in the Nick of time!

 

I'll admit you had me on the edge of my seat waiting to read if they made it in time.

 

Hope you have a great few days in Savannah! Can't wait to read more.

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stacynray

stacynray

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Wow, what an exciting read! I'm so glad your parents made the plane. I was on pins and needles there for a minute. It's good they ended up flying, though, because that scooter trip down to Savannah would've been rough. :rolleyes:

 

~ I̶m̶p̶a̶t̶i̶e̶n̶t̶l̶y̶ Patiently waiting for updates~

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BillOh Holiday Sharing Rare

BillOh

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Oh my! This is turning into an adventure novel! Amazed your parents made it back in time - I was on the edge of my seat!!

 

I've long been in the fly in the day before the cruise camp, but I think I am now in the don't travel in a large group camp :eek: Another couple we regularly cruise with took their extended family (12 people) on a cruise out of Miami from Columbus. There 6am flight the day before the cruise was canceled because of equipment failure. It wasn't canceled till nearly 4pm that afternoon and the best they could do was get a flight to Orlando and rent a 15 passenger van and arrive in Miami at 3am. sleep a few hours then board!

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BLAMBKY

BLAMBKY

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I've long been in the fly in the day before the cruise camp, but I think I am now in the don't travel in a large group camp :eek: Another couple we regularly cruise with took their extended family (12 people) on a cruise out of Miami from Columbus. There 6am flight the day before the cruise was canceled because of equipment failure. It wasn't canceled till nearly 4pm that afternoon and the best they could do was get a flight to Orlando and rent a 15 passenger van and arrive in Miami at 3am. sleep a few hours then board!

 

 

 

Eakkkkkk! [emoji14] Where do I register for your camp?

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Lessa123

Lessa123

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Oh my word! What a way to start vacation. Glad they managed to make the flight.

 

We have traveled with my in-laws who were denied boarding because of expired passports. Luckily it was not a cruise and they joined us after they got the passports rushed. It was a costly lesson for them.

 

Enjoy the rest of the trip!

Edited by Lessa123
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