Semi live trip report b2b Oasis.

[swemto]

05:14:59am

 

BEEP BEEP BEEP … BEEP BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP BEEP … BEEP BEEP BEEP

BEEP BEEP BEEP … BEEP BEEP BEEP

The most annoying sound in the world wake us up but it´s ok, It's Saturday morning, and the vacation starts right now.

Boring bit:

The opinions I may express here is my own, and may not reflect someone else opinion. I am not a professional writer, and I like to share my experience with other fellow travelers. If the number of posts is declining during the weeks, we probably have a lot of fun.  I'll try to keep adding posts and answer any questions you may have. You lovely lot, have probably already seen hours of footage from Oasis OTS and hundreds of photos. So please excuse me if you see, another picture of roast beef in a kummelweck roll for the 356th time. It reflects my trip and a way to keep me from the casino. 

 

This is meant to be an ongoing travel report and not a full-blown review. I'll try to write this report in my best possible English, English is not my native language. What I learned was in elementary school ages ago. So please bear in mind that the use of grammar and spelling may be completely batty sometimes.

 

 Who are we?

I am Mikael, and I am traveling with my wife, Kerstin. We are in our early fifties.  We are seasoned travelers, mostly in Europe, and the USA. We work to be able to travel as much as we can. We live in a middle-sized suburb about 21 km northwest of Stockholm Sweden. I work as a field service engineer with IT, and my wife works as a nurse.

 

Background and booking:

After our first cruise Feb 2016 on NCL Getaway we fell in love with the cruising holiday concept. On Cyber Monday back in 2017, I found this cheap cruise with Oasis of the seas. It was only 495 USD included tax and gratuities per person in a guarantee cabin. At this point, we were already booked on the NCL bliss for about the same date. But that cost was 2500 USD for one week. So we canceled the NCL booking and went for a B2B with Oasis. So for less than 2000 USD, we get to cruise for two weeks. We got assigned a cabin rather quick for both cruises, at that this point it looked like we needed to change cabin for the second week.  One quick call later to the RCL office found us a cabin that was available for both weeks. We got assigned an inside at the front of the ship on deck 8. Its one of the smallest cabin on the ship and its located on the port side next to a balcony, but its an inside cabin. 

I will get post more about the cabin later.

 

When I researched the options to get to the cruise, I had three choices, direct flight to MCO (ORLANDO) with the low-cost carrier Norweigan. That did not work out for us. No departures on a Saturday and the prices are not that low. And there were restrictions on luggage allowance, and you have to pay for food and drinks. Not for us. Next was a cheap flight with BA (British Airways)$275. This flight was from ARN to London and a layover and then to Mia. That would mean that we needed to drive direct to Orlando after landing or on the morning of the cruise, too stressful. Next was quite a few options with layovers, to Orlando. Our choice fell on a flight with Lufthansa. We are flying from ARN (Stockholm - Sweden) to FRA (Frankfurt-Germany) with a two-hour layover. And from Frankfurt direct to Orlando on a 10hrs flight. First flight out is at 09:15 am local time. (Translates to 03:15 am EDT)

This time we are flying economy because we are cheap. The price for the price was 300 USD return. We could not turn that down. We also have a rental from my favorite company Alamo, and I never had a bad experience with Alamo at MIA. I am hoping for the same experience at MCO. It's a oneway rental with drop off at Port Canaveral. We have pre-booked a hotel a short drive from the airport. The hotel is in an area called Millenia. I had some loyalty points to redeem, so I booked SpringHill Suites by Marriott at Millenia. The total cost including points was 50 USD.

 

We would like to cruise more, but the prices for the flight and pre-cruise hotels is eating a hole in the travel budget. And the Mediterranean cruises, do not have the same appeal and are about double the price. We have also visited quite a few of the ports and islands and attractions in the Mediterranean and Scandinavia.

 

Pre-cruise travel Itinerary:

December 1st

CEST 09:15 - CEST 11:25 ARN - FRA

CEST 13-40 - EDT 17:55 FRA - MCO

EDT 18:50 pickup rental car at Alamo

EDT 19:30 SpringHill Suites by Marriott Orlando at Millenia

EDT 20:00 Dominos Pizza arrives

EDT 20:05 One or two beers at the hotel. 

December 2nd

EDT 08:00 Last minute shopping

EDT 11:50 Return car at Port Canaveral

EDT 12:00 Alamo courtesy bus to Port

EDT 13:00 Raid the buffet and get that bar tab going

 

Diagnosis :D

Grumpy middle age man.

I love planning the holidays as much as I enjoy traveling on them. I am using lots of tools to help stay organized, my favorite tool for this is tripit.com. I also have a binder to keep all documents and a few bits and pieces. I sure there is a proper diagnosis for that behavior.

 

Let's start this progressive travel report.

Local time 06:45 am

This morning makes a cruise in the Caribbean looked like the right choice, there is sleet falling from the sky, and the temperature is about 32F (0)c.

We are dragging our big suitcases to the car to steer to the airport. 

 

There are other options to get to the airport, but this is at the beginning of the flu season, and public transportation is like a boiling petri dish. The biggest concern is the transatlantic flight, enclosed with four hundred fellow passengers in an aluminum tube for 10 hrs. I read an article about planes and the dirtiest spot on the plane is the tray table. So let's pack those Clorox wipes and keep that personal surfaces clean.

We have booked an indoor parking space for the 17 days that we are on this trip. This is not the cheaper option, but it sure beats an outdoor parking space with the risk for iced windows and 10 inches of snow surrounding the car when we return.

The drive to the airport was smooth even in the sleet, I have studded winter tires on the SUV, and we arrived after about 35 minutes, driving on a more or less an empty highway to the airport.  We pulled up to the indoor parking space and the park on the 3rd floor with access direct to terminal 2. Our flight leaves from terminal 5. All terminals on Arlanda airport is connected, and its an easy, smooth walk for about 15 minutes.  The biggest problem was handling the big and small roller suitcase that we both have. After that rather long walk, we arrived at the star alliance area of the terminal 5. We used the self-service terminals and the bag drop. That was a small wait for about 10 minutes , now off to the airport security. The line moved on quickly without any problems. 

 

Now we need to find our gate for the flight to Frankfurt.   

Plane to Frankfurt is leaving form gate 9, in the old part of terminal 5. This is the schengen area of the airport. It’s looks like the flight will depart on time. So making the connection at Frankfurt would be a breeze. Boarding will start around 09:00

[EeyoreRN]

Following!  Your English is amazing, better than most of us English as first language people.  Thanks for doing a live report!  Safe travels!

[FMZ]

Following, I can already tell I'm going to enjoy this trip report! Happy travels!! 

[bradleyk]

Get the ship warmed up for! 

[swemto]

Boarding was like a black Friday sale, people where is your manner's. I am sure that everybody that has a ticket will get a seat. We are on a flight where you are assigned a seat. So why mad rush people. Captain says the flight time is 1hr 45 minutes to Frankfurt. Push back on time. We are flying an excellent a320 model 100. This legroom for this short flight is quite lovely. I am 6'2 and have no problem with the legroom.  But the seats, horrible I am glad it's a short flight.
At 09:25 we are ready for taking off from heading R19. I wonder if the captain is an old fighter pilot, he isn't wasting any time. One of the fastest takeoff ever. Now I am looking forward to some drink and a snack. 
The plane is almost full, a few empty seats. I have never seen a short flight with 15 rows of business. Business class is full. An economy is filled to about 85 percent. 

I found some interesting fact in the in-flight magazine. Wine and beer to anyone of the age of 16. Hard liquor you need to be 18. I love culture anomalies. 

Inflight service offers was a sandwich with cheese, and arugula creme and free drinks. Ok for an economy fare ticket. I opted for a glass of Coke Zero.  
At 10:32 we are starting our descent to Frankfurt airport. Our planned arrival time is 11:14, but the captain must found a shortcut as we are landing ahead of schedule.  At Frankfurt, we have a 2 hr layover. As the plane is one time, it would be no stress to pass security and find the new gate. Maybe even do some shopping, why not a bottle of real champagne for our 25th anniversary the 4th. We have the drink package for the first week of this b2b adventure. The excellent stuff is so overpriced on the ship. One glass of champagne would cost as a whole bottle. We like to drink more than one glass. 
Gate change at Frankfurt was no problem at all. We stopped for a preflight burger at the golden arches and a beer. Yes, you may have a beer at McDonald's in Germany.
Now we are soon boarding the flight to orlando. So no more updates untill 7 pm. That if the jetlag is kind to me. 
Next update in about  12 hours.
See ya

[swemto]

Frankfurt airport is huge. I think we walk for 20 minutes before we reached the gate z66. Boarding started about 20 minutes late, but the flight time was reduced from 10 hours 20 minutes to 9 hours and 45 minutes. So I guess we will make it in time to Orlando. Flight attendants handed out some little saltines, and we were offered a free drink for the drink cart. I got my self a German beer. 
The flight is almost full. We are in the middle seats in really old 747; the plane is nearly 21 years old. 
Meal service is about to start I suppose, the crew went around and handed out warm towels. That is a nice touch. On the plane, you can use wifi for the whole duration of the flight for 15 Euro or 5000 points. I selected the points; I never get any status anyway, I can spend them onboard. We have ordered a specialty meal service. On Lufthansa, you can pre-order an Ala Carte meal for a fee. I ordered the beef tenderloin meal, and for my wife ordered the catch of the day. 
I have not told my wife about this, and it's a surprise to happen.
The meal was indeed worth the 35 Euro we paid per person. My beef was a bit of overcooked. Lunch was served with some string beans, pommes Anna and some peppercorn jus. For dessert a small bowl of Bavarian creme with raspberry sauce. Ohh I almost forgot the starter, a fennel and orange salad with dill in all a fantastic meal service. Only eight hours to go, and I am bored as bored can be.
Right now we only have 4132 miles to Orlando, so we will be there in a jiffy or NOT.
The chairs on this flight are incredibly firm; I believe that there are rocks that are more comfortable than the chairs on this 20 years old 747.

[LuCruise]

Enjoying your report so far.  Have a great cruise!

[cruise wizard]

We are on Oasis right now heading to Port Canaveral...............the ship is all decorated for the Holidays and Christmas music is playing 24/7 to get everyone in the spirit (and spend more $$$$). Hope to see you on board Sunday. Enjoy some nice sunny weather when you land.

[myolite]

Loving it! Thanks for sharing 🙂

[swemto]

Are we there yet..... The chairs on this bird are horrible. The flight is quite uneventful, and that's a good thing another surprise was a warm meal served about one hour before landing. This time the choices were pasta with marinara sauce or a German-styled meatball with mash and red cabbage and mustard jus.
We both took the meatball dish, and there was no complaint from us. It reminded me about Swedish Christmas food, and red cabbage is a staple at Christmas dinner.
When I am writing this, we are landing within 10 minutes. No awaits to see if the bags are on this flight. We also need to pass the immigration officers inspection. This usually is not a problem as we are a frequent flyer to us, and have pre-authorization of the E.S.T.A. Sweden is one of the countries in the visa waiver program.
I know the time here is 6 pm, our body clock is midnight. We have been on the road for almost 19 hours with the layover. I think we are skipping the pizza tonight and only go for the beer. Anyhow, we will wake up something like 0430 craving breakfast and coffee. 

[swemto]

Saturday morning we left our hotel at 0830 in the morning after waking up a 3:15 am. The timezone difference for the first night hit hard. 
I woke up with a terrible headache, in need of coffee.
At 03:45 I found the coffee maker in the room. 
Soon the pleasant aroma of freshly brewed coffee spread in the room. Breakfast started at 0700. Breakfast was surprisingly good, lots of choices, clean fresh. Served was a typical American style of breakfast. After the meal, we loaded the bags in the car and steered to a Walmart. Some last minute shopping was scheduled. That shopping trip was interesting; I did not know that girl need that may face brushes, that selection is staggering after leaving the store with a variety of face brushes that would make  Leonardo Davinci envious. It's time to steer to the port and drop off the rental at Alamo's business partner Enterprise. A fantastic day to drive to the port, traffic was flowing nicely. In about an hour we arrived at the rental car office. And in about 15 minutes later we were on the courtesy shuttle to the port, excitement as the holiday is starting for real.
After arriving at the Port, the excitement levels dropped rather quickly. Look at that line, a mile long!
After the initial shock, we found the end of the line. At this time around 11:15 the line grow fast. The line was not moving at all, due to some government inspection.  After about 20 minutes without the line moving at all, suddenly we moving forward at a nice pace. I took us about an hour to be lead in the main terminal building to enter a cattle fencing, that zigzags round inside before facing the security officers. I don't know if they were stressed about the number of people in line. But they did not even look at our bottles of wine in a carry-on. Next up check-in, absolutely no problem here. No queues went directly to counter and were assigned boarding group 17, that was boarding right away. After almost 1 hour and 45 minutes, we entered the gangway to board the ship. Lady O is gorgeous. Our chosen location for lunch, the solarium was not crowded at all. Food was ok, nothing to write home about but filling. After the dinner, we got down to deck 8 to find the cabin. Located in the front the of the ship. It's small inside cabin, entirely adequate for our needs. Our stateroom was clean and in good shape.
As we had booked FNDR, as promised, they had made a reservation for us at Giovanni Table. We went for dinner at 0630. Food was amazing. We had carpaccio for an appetizer and as the entree a beef filet and pasta ragu Bolognese. More or less the same food we had at MSC divina last year, and royal Caribbean versions are miles ahead. After some wine and beer, there was no room for dessert. Next up was comedy show a 9 pm. We canceled that and went to bed totally exhausted after the long haul flight on Saturday, early morning and cattle fencing situation.
 

[swemto]

[firemanswife2]

Thanks for the posts. Looking forward to hearing more. 

[FMZ]

Sounds exhausting!! Hopefully today finds you rested! Great review so far. 

[KmomChicago]

Enjoying your review. It brings back memories of our wonderful voyage. We also had an inside guarantee room, that looked, well, exactly like the photo you posted, though we were up on deck 10.  We felt it was well-designed with a lot of extra little storage areas, and we slept very well as it was super quiet. We travelled during a busy time due to having a school aged child, so unfortunately we can't get such an incredible cheap fare. Well done!

 

We also had our first lunch in the Solarium bistro and it was my kind of place. Had many more meals there throughout the cruise.  I agree the ship is beautiful; I could have spent weeks on her if only time and money would allow.  I hope your deep sleep in your cave like room has reset your clock and cured your jet lag. Have a great time!

[vanelli56]

Great review so far... please keep it up. My wife and I will be on Oasis in 40 days.... and the day by day posts really keep the excitement up!

 

Have fun and enjoy the rest of your week!

[KmomChicago]

You probably already figured this out, but the little light fixture over your painting on the left hand wall creates a nice ambiance in the cabin!

Edited December 5, 2018 by KmomChicago

[Biker19]

On 12/3/2018 at 3:50 PM, swemto said:

 

 

 

 

Is that some rum next to the Cokes? How did you get that?

[swemto]

Biker19 you are correct, this was a gift from our son. It's an onboard delivery, ordered via royal gifts problem. Just Google royal Caribbean gifts. And may I congratulate you on the eagle eye vision

Edited December 5, 2018 by swemto
Edit

[retiredgram]

Thank you for sharing your cruise.  Looking forward to the adventure. 

[swemto]

It's official cats sucks. And this was the headliner version sort of best off. But there no good bits of cats. We left before the show ended, cats have not aged well. Monday on the eastern Caribbean is Nassau. We did not have any plans for this stop. So went ashore and explored a little. Nassau port area is tired, and people are pushy but will accept a no. After an hour's walk early in the morning, we returned to the ship to have a quiet day onboard. Quiet it was not, this was a crew training day. Constant PA calls to the crew. The emergency signal going off and so on. I know they have to train for our safety, it was a bit annoying. We had our lunch at Windjammer, packed with guest returned after the excisions and exploring.
It's was the first formal night.
After departure, there was an alpha-alpha announced over the PA system. A passenger that was so ill that the captain decided to return to Nassau. So they can have medical care. This makes a late arrival at our next stop. But I am glad that they take safety measures, before a schedule. Felt like I overdressed. I wore a blue tuxedo and a bow tie. As we have an early dinner time, we went down to the royal promenade to mingle. At that time we were overdressed as people still was wearing both beachwear. Did change as the dinner time come closer. This was the first night in the main dining for us. And we got placed at table 629 in restaurant American Icon grill on level 3. Also known as the naughty corner. It was hot and no airflow — a horrible place for dinner. The table is cramped in between a pillar and the kitchen station, with one person sitting close to extruding wall. And the other with the support pillar just behind there's back, also the main route for the servers. Food was excellent, waiters lovely but the whole experience for dinner was a letdown. After dinner, we went for a stroll down the royal promenade. Now almost everybody was dressed in formal clothes.  
After a few drinks, it was time for the turd in punchbowl, sorry Cats. And after we escaped cats, we went back to our room an fell asleep in a jiffy.

[Biker19]

Cats is an acquired taste.

[KmomChicago]

You look great in your blue tuxedo - very spiffy for formal night.  I don't like Nassau much either, but I do enjoy seeing the other cruise ships since there are always several others there at the same time. I wish there was an excursion that is a tour of the other ships in port with you! 

 

To my surprise, my husband loved Cats onboard Oasis, after absolutely hating it when our local community theatre tried to pull it off. If he's happy on vacation, I'm happy, so we returned later in the cruise to see the second act again.  I thought the performers were world class and extremely talented, but the show is of course silly, nearly pointless, and goes on and on with more or less the same thing happening over and over.

[swemto]

As woke up, the ship just pulled in to the berth. Today we are going at our own pace, and we decided to wind down and do what we like. So after a slow breakfast in Windjammer. We decided to find the gangway and visit the port area. Philipsburg are our favorite port in the Caribbean. In the port, there is a booth that sells tickets for the water taxi. Prices are 7 USD per person for a return ticket to town. After a short trip, the boat pulled up to jetty at the main beach street in Philipsburg. The beach in the city is fantastic. We rented two chairs and an umbrella for 20 USD. If you use the scalpers by the jetty, you will pay a much higher price. I heard like 25 -30 dollars. We chose the location just to the left of the dock. They had an offering of 5 beers in a bucket for 10 dollars, mix, and match. Even if the time was just 11 am, I cracked open the first beer Carbi, realizing that is 5 pm at, so I am good. Fantastic value, if you consider the prices onboard. it was our favorite day so far, relaxing in the sun, warm sea, and nice people. After a few hours on the beach, wife went shopping for some custom jewelry in the flee market. My self-went back to ship for a shower and a snack. We continue the day and the rest of the evening we a few drinks and beers. No, we couldn’t tell if the ship was rocking or not

 

Pictures in next post