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Oasis of the Seas - Semi-Live - Nov 7th, 2021

MountainHubby
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MountainHubby

MountainHubby

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Hey everyone!  My son and I are in Miami getting set to sail out on Oasis today!  Super excited!  This was a birthday trip for his that has been booked for 2+ years now!  We wanted to do a review for everyone to get excited again about cruising. We are going to do this together and will try to have some fun and give you lots of info. 

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MountainHubby

MountainHubby

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Pre-cruise

A few thoughts and experiences leading up to this cruise. My wife and son were booked on this cruise for last year and obviously couldn’t go. As we got close this year and knew it was likely to happen she was awesome and told me I should take him (best wife ever!). We had no problem with Royal getting the names changed in the reservation. 
 

I have to say this was one of the most stressful lead-ups to a vacation ever!  With all of the Covid stuff going on, airline strikes, vaccinations, testing, etc. I didn’t really start relaxing until I was sitting in the plane yesterday!  Our small town didn’t really have the Covid testing available that we needed for the cruise, with a reliable turnaround time, so we ended up purchasing the at home tests that Royal Caribbean recommends. We got the 3 pack since I had read a couple reviews where people had issues and needed an extra test. The extra cost was worth the peace of mind for me. We didn’t have any problems though!  It took about 30 min start to finish for each test, was super simple, and we got the negative test reports emailed to us within 5 min of completing the tests. You also get the results in the NAVICA app. One hurdle down!

 

We booked a room at the La Quinta Miami Airport East and we’re not impressed. I thought it would be just a place to sleep, good rates, close to the airport and the cruise terminal, free airport and cruise shuttles, blah, blah, blah.  Sounds good right?  Not so much. The shuttle took forever!  We waited for about 40 min before I finally called the hotel and they said they would tell the shuttle driver where we were. He showed up about 10 min later. If you stay here call as soon as you get outside. Pretty sure I saw the shuttle driver sitting around at the hotel later so I don’t think they are just making continuous runs. The hotel is definitely a bit outdated and not super clean. We found out when we got here that they are not running a cruise terminal shuttle now. 🤦‍♂️ They are starting one with a third party on Monday (a lot of good that does us), and it will run $15/person. They also said that they sold out of the room type we had reserved and we had to take another type. They do allow pets, which can be nice, but obviously not a requirement when cruising. Thankfully we didn’t hear any barking dogs but the walls are super thin so you definitely hear your neighbors. Breakfast was super basic, bread, bagels, cereal, oatmeal, juice and coffee, some fruit, hard boiled eggs. 
 

There is nothing near the hotel that you can walk to, and no sidewalks even if you wanted to try!  We tried walking down to a burger place called BT’s near the river. Turns out, BT’s stands for Booby Trap!  Not sure how the food was because, needless to say, we did not go in.  I’m all for educating our kids in the ways of the world, but 13 might be a bit young for that kind of “education”!  We ended up taking an Uber (~$20) to the Brickell Key area and ate at a place called BurgerLove. Great food!  It’s a little hole-in-the-wall spot that has an interesting menu with lots of things that sounded good. We ended up just getting a couple burgers. Hand-made patties and fresh fries for the win!  If the guy tries to tell you the bbq sauce is hot, don’t believe him. I think he expected me to be a typical white guy and not have any spicy food tolerance!

We did get to see the drawbridges open up to let a sailboat through while we were down there. Besides the annoying traffic delay it caused, it was something fun to see!  Lots of scooters for rent everywhere down there too!

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MountainHubby

MountainHubby

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Here we go!  So I broke down and got the Wi-Fi plan. Mostly so I could talk to my wonderful wife back home, but you all get the bonus of a more “live” report. 
 

We had a boarding time of 2:30, but with nothing to do around our hotel decided to try and get there a little early. We headed down to the port ($23 Uber ride) at about 11:45 and arrived down near Terminal F at just after 12. Our plan was to stop at the Seaman’s Cafe for a quick lunch, but it was closed. Thank goodness for backup granola bars!  We decided to just walk the length of the pier (about a 25 min walk). It was a hike for sure, but we got to check out all the ships in port, including Virgin’s Scarlet Lady!

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When we got to Terminal A there was already a decent line. They have 4 lines for the various boarding time (1-1:30, 2-2:30, etc.). The back of the line kind of morphed into one long line and then people started splitting apart in the middle. 
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12:35 Arrived in line

1:45 Through first screening (vaccination cards and Covid test results)

1:57 Through second checkpoint (last showing of vaccination/test results, passport, got wrist bands. If you didn’t upload a photo in the online checkin they will take one here)

2:00 In line for metal detectors

2:14 Boarding!

2:15 In our room (deck 6 room 278, right behind Playmakers)

 

Unobstructed water view!  That’s all I need!

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Walked around a little to get our bearings (and most importantly, find the flow riders!).  

The muster check in was super easy. That said, there were still people that took nearly until sail away to complete it!  We hit the flow rider at about 3 and had an hour on the boogie board side almost to ourselves!  The instructors can’t hold your hands to help anymore but they give great instructions and had both of us doing spins in no time!

 

After sail away, with the obligatory soft serve, we grabbed a quick bite at the WindJammer so J could get the the Teen Club meet and greet. 


(James)

The teen club meet and greet was pretty cool. Twin juke boxes,one for outside and one for inside. There was a pretty wide selection of music. There were a ton of cool things to play around with, including two table top game consoles, 3 PS4 and I think 3 Nintendo Switches? Decently wide selection of games, Need for Speed, Super Smash, and tons others. Besides the video games there is a fooseball table, and ping pong. Don’t play pool on the first day when the ship is rocking, the balls roll around and it’s REALLY annoying.

 

Ran into some decent waves in the Straights of Florida and you could definitely feel the ship rocking!

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Merion_Mom

Merion_Mom

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6 minutes ago, Cruise a holic said:

We board in 7 weeks-  I am trying to book entertainment and it isn't available yet.  Did you book in advance on line?

 

Txs

Right now, in The Covid Era, you can only book your entertainment once you are on board.

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MountainHubby

MountainHubby

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10 hours ago, 4everAfamily said:

Hi MountainHubby,

Did your DS tell you about the secret door to the Teen Club? It’s cool. 

He mentioned something about it yesterday but we haven’t found it yet. We will have to do some exploring today. Thanks!

 

8 hours ago, kmorg1234 said:

Have you asked the crew about next week’s charter cruise?  Would love to hear their comments.

 

I heard about it from one of the guests that is going to be on it!  I haven’t asked any of the crew, but I’ll see if I can today. Should be interesting!

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moonltnite

moonltnite

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49 minutes ago, MountainHubby said:

He mentioned something about it yesterday but we haven’t found it yet. We will have to do some exploring today. Thanks!

 

I heard about it from one of the guests that is going to be on it!  I haven’t asked any of the crew, but I’ll see if I can today. Should be interesting!

I found it on this site:  http://www.blisscruise.com/Our_Cruises/Oasis_Nov_2021

They're doing the Eastern Caribbean itinerary. It says St. Kitts was changed to St. Maarten.  It's a fully-vaccinated cruise. They also have a requirement that cabins be double occupancy with "one male one female".  I checked into it further - and it's a "swingers" cruise.  

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kmorg1234

kmorg1234

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3 hours ago, moonltnite said:

I found it on this site:  http://www.blisscruise.com/Our_Cruises/Oasis_Nov_2021

They're doing the Eastern Caribbean itinerary. It says St. Kitts was changed to St. Maarten.  It's a fully-vaccinated cruise. They also have a requirement that cabins be double occupancy with "one male one female".  I checked into it further - and it's a "swingers" cruise.  

That much I knew, but I want to hear what the crew thinks about it!

 

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tlund

tlund

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If you still have Day 2's Compass, would you mind posting.  Trying to plan entertainment/dining for our upcoming cruise.  I see you posted Day 1 and Day 3, but not Day 2.  Thanks for posting all the good information. 

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