April 14, 2012 - On Board the Oasis of the Seas

After a long day of flying and circling Fort Lauderdale for 30 minutes waiting out a thunderstorm, we finally got to go to the ship.  We didn’t leave the Courtyard Marriott until about 12:15.  I had all our paperwork easily at hand as we entered the cruise terminal. 

Checking in was a breeze for us mainly, we think, because our cabin was on deck 12 one shy of the uppermost deck with one level cabins.  Yes, Oasis of the Seas has loft cabins with balconies.  Not sure I’d want to have to go up and down stairs in my stateroom.   Anyway, we were finally on board around 1:30 or 2.

We put our carry-on in the cabin, looked around and then went up to the Windjammer Café for lunch. It was crowded.  We ended up sitting on stools and eating.  That done it was back to the room for pictures.

We had a Junior Suite.  Ours was next door to a Royal Suite (which actually has a door bell.)  We never heard anything from the people next door though we know it was occupied.  They were coming in when we’d gone to lunch and a kid breezed right in and left Mom struggling to get a suitcase in the door.  John held the door for her and we got a quick glimpse of the suite – couldn’t tell much about it.

One reason we get a Junior Suite is because we like bathtubs, not showers most of the time.  The tub in our unit was huge!  I was longer than our tub at home which is 6 inches longer than standard and it was also at least 3 inches deeper than ours.  I could actually lay down enough to get hot water up to the top of my shoulders without having to bend my knees.  It wasn’t as wide as our one at home but that’s not a big deal.

Next was the closet.  Again, it was huge!  We could have stored all our suitcases as well as all our clothes in just the closet.  We even had empty drawers and empty shelves on the trip – unheard of!

Royal Caribbean does something really nice with their Junior Suites – they make them wider than the normal staterooms.  It may be less than a foot wider but it makes an amazing difference in how large the room feels – no more bumping your shins on the vanity stool as you skirt the bed.

We took pictures of the cabin, including the obligatory I’m taking a picture of John taking a picture of me.  His managed to get me front and back as I was standing in front of a mirror.

Our cabin was on the port side, just aft of midship.  That meant we never saw a dock from our ship.  When we boarded there was a smaller cruise ship docked across from us, Regent Cruise Line’s Navigator of the Seas.  She holds less than 500 people (Oasis holds more than 6100 with double occupancy and sometimes a third or fourth person on the sofa bed.)  I checked out the Navigator after we got home.  She’s a bit pricy but I may decided we’d like to take the Northeast cruise from New York to Montreal sometime.

We also got a picture looking forward on the ship from our balcony.  She is a HUGE ship.

Supplies used: Amy Martin Template (Lots of em Templates2-04), background paper - Brandy Buffington, Destination Anywhere, Borders - Amy Wolf - Paper Strips - #3.