Oasis of the Seas - July 10th log/review

[cmsjmu]

Day 0 - Friday July 9th

Arrive in Fort Lauderdale at 1PM. Stayed at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina. Awesome hotel adjacent to Port Everglades. Also, it is a stop on the water taxi. Took the water taxi to lunch at 15th street fisheries, nice seafood lunch. Hung out by the fabulous pool for a couple hours before dinner. This is a four star hotel, and the final price was under $150. That included a tower room, breakfast for two, two complimentary cocktails, taxes, and a can't-beat-it location. HIGHLY recommend!

Day 1 - Sat July 10th

Wake up and can see Oasis from the hotel. Check out of Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina at 10:45AM and catch a 4 min cab ride over to the Oasis of the Seas. Most of the 4 min was going through security in the cab. We had to show our passports...then we moved on to the ship drop off. Fastest check-in ever at this terminal! We were on the ship by 11:10AM. We couldn't get into our Boardwalk balcony room until 1PM. Off to Solarium Bistro for lunch. My wife loves the healthy food...she was very pleased. Hit Vintages and walked around until 1PM. At 1PM, we got in our room and I put on my swimsuit. The Flowriders also open at 1PM. (Thanks SSWAKE for the tip here) I went on the stand-up flowrider about 10 times over the next couple hours. I loved it. Closed again for muster drill at 4PM. After muster drill, I grabbed a quick taco at the wipeout cafe (average, but I was hungry)...then headed up to deck 15 with the rest of the passengers. We had a full ship and SAILAWAY ON DECK15 WAS THE ONLY TIME ALL WEEK IT SEEMED CROWDED! Amazing, never felt crowded again. We made MY TIME DINING reservations for 7PM. This was one of our 3 dinners in Opus. Had reservations for Hairspray at 9:30PM. Enjoyed it. My 1st time, but I talked to a couple from NY (who had seen Hairspray on Broadway) and they said it was as-good or better than Broadway. We saw every show over the week. Set up internet account on deck 14. Basically just swipe your card and make yourself a uid and password. 65 cents/min. Though I had a $10 credit from the crown and anchor coupon books for my wife and myself. Ipod touch worked great (be careful to bookmark the login page - you aren't logged out until you sign out). Killing the wifi DOES NOT sign you out. My method...you can type a message in advance (before logging in), then send once you log in. We were able to log-in, click "send/receive" in mail, and log out in 1 min. We did this all week...worked like a charm

---more to come later

[SpeedyMcD]

Can't wait to read more! Keep it coming! :)

[tright]

thanks for the e-mail tip. waiting to read more

[sebritish]

Thanks longing to hear more.... also who is the Cruise Director, heard it was Richard Spacey and if so will he still be on in October.

[Jan_In_Maine]

Thanks for writing, looking forward to the rest. Jan

[ahamill]

Hi!

Thanks for the review. We will be sailing Oasis on 3/26/11 and I can't wait! It seems like it is forever from now but am getting excited!

[cmsjmu]

Day 2 - Sun July 11th - Day at Sea

Wake up and hit Solarium Bistro for breakfast. After breakfast we got our suits on and hit the beach pool. No problem getting 2 chairs. Nice! Relaxed all morning swimming/sunning. For lunch we hit Park Cafe, had the Roast Beef sandwich. As good as advertised! Later wandered into the Rising Tide bar to have a beer while walking around in the afternoon. Randomly met a really nice family who we hung out with on-and-off throughout the rest of the week. Loved the Rising Tide! We had 5PM reservations for Frozen in Time in Studio B. Almost boring to say but...another top-notch show. It was great! Next we got cleaned up and into our formal clothes. We ventured up to deck 17 to the Viking Crown lounge. It is quiet/low key, and the view is spectacular! We are Viking Crown fans! Next it was on to The Promenade for the Captains Welcome reception. Had a few glasses of complimentary champagne. 8:15PM Opus reservations. Dinner at Opus was good, not great. My opinion here is...the Oasis is so incredible but the Main Dining room is just like all the other RCCL ships' Main Dining rooms. It doesn't "wow you" like the rest of the ship.

FYI...Richard Spacey is the cruise director. He is extremely talented/entertaining

 

--More to come later

[cmsjmu]

Day 3 - Mon July 12th - Labadee

In the morning, stepped onto the balcony for a look around. Saw the Johnny Rockets guys dancing on the boardwalk to "stayin alive". With that, my wife and I decided on Johnny Rockets for breakfast. One of two people inside. There is no charge for Johnny Rockets breakfast. Though we left a $5 tip. Good hearty breakfast...eggs/bacon/etc. Followed that up with splitting a boardwalk doughnut. Those are free. Next, suits on and headed off the ship to Labadee! This turned out to be our favorite stop of the week. I haven't been there in 8 years...and it is much improved and a lot more to do. We did the Dragons Tail Coaster. A well spent $15 for one ride. Riding it once was enough for us...though they do sell day-passes if you want. Waited in line about 30 min, so day-pass folks will spend a lot of their day in line is my guess. We thought is was fun...and had great views. The big zip line was sold out...so book in advance if you want to do this. I hear it was very cool....but $85 is a lot for the one zip down. At least that is what one fellow passenger told me. I may try it next time...and I'll book in advance. Hung out on the beach for a couple hours. The beach/water was fantastic!! Ate a hot dog at the lunch BBQ. Walked around and heard the dragon breathe...as I had seen on the Travel Channel. Pretty neat. Got back on the ship and got changed. We went up to Viking Crown and had a drink while we sailed away. Very cool. Next it was off to Chops for my wife's birthday dinner. 1 of 5 birthdays we saw in Chops that night. Top notch steak dinner, comparable to Mortons/Ruths Chris and well worth the $25/person charge. They bring out 4 sauces for the filets/steaks...the cabernet reduction was my favorite. We stuffed ourselves with dessert (they sang happy birthday as they brought it out). Next it was off to the Aqua Show Oasis of dreams. One bummer...we were a bit slow getting over to our reservation. 10 min prior to the show they open up the seats to non-reservations. It was packed when we got there 5 min before the show and we couldn't sit together. Oh well...my tip...get there early! We did really like the show...divers were amazing!! Last, we topped the night off at the Richard Spacey hosted "Love and Marriage" show. It was a lot of fun if you are married. The couple everyone was rooting for won...it was there 58th wedding anniversary that day. Best answer on the show..."14L". The husband in the winning couple had to guess her bra size. Too funny!

 

--more to come later

[sunor]

Had to laugh at the "14L". Enjoying your review, look forward to the rest.

 

Thanks for posting, we will be there in Oct on a b2b.

 

Suz

[CariBear]

Enjoying your review!! Looking forward to hearing more!

[bluehorizonlover123]

Excellent review. Keep it coming. Enjoying your week with you!

[Dall]

I am wondering about the Rising Tide Bar, how popular is it? Do people have to wait to get on? Thanks for taking the time to do this review.

[cmsjmu]

You can get on the Rising Tide anytime! It's not crowded, just like everything else on the ship.

[sailingawaysoon]

Loving your review. Can't wait to read the rest of it. Thanks for sharing your fun w/us!

[CruiseLover15]

Great review, looking forward to the rest.

[sealando]

Great review, will be boarding in December.

[scottishwee35]

I enjoyed to read your story and my deaf brother and his new wife with deaf couple were on that ship 10 July 2010....

 

Scottishwee35

[cmsjmu]

Day 4 - Tue July 13th - At Sea

 

Took an 8AM Flowrider lesson. It's $60 and each class has 8 people in it. This is a great way to get some extra time on the Flowrider. FYI...if money is no object, you can pay $480 (basically buying up all the 8 spots) and get an hour solo lesson. Next we decided to hit the Main Dining room for breakfast. We did a la cart as we felt like ordering off the menu. They also have a buffet set up in Opus if you prefer that. After breakfast we got our suits on and headed to the beach pool. Swim and sun all morning. Made another trip to Park Cafe for lunch. Loved the Roast Beef sandwich. Practiced a but more on the Flowrider after lunch. Mid afternoon we made what we felt was a liberating decision. Decided we were going skip the Main Dining room that night. Hence we could walk around, leave our casual clothes on and basically eat something low-key on the Promenade. This was a great relaxing evening! First we found "Happy Hour Karaoke" in the On Air Club. I sang a couple songs and had a great time! We went to Dazzles for a bit. Met some nice people and listened to live music. Moved on to Globe and Atlas on the Promenade and had a Boddingtons beer. Decided to have some nice sandwiches at Cafe Promenade for dinner. Great double chocolate brownies for dessert. We found we didn't miss Opus at all. Later at night we saw the Headliner show "Mario and Daniel". It's a comedy act...they are two brothers who usually do a Vegas show. They were really good! After that, we decided to call it a night. What a perfectly relaxing day at sea!!

 

--more to come later

[SailingDeanna]

Enjoying your posts!:D

[tright]

Loving your post! Can't wait for more! Thanks for taking the time.

[swwake]

I am really enjoying your review. Thanks for the shout out! Your days are really full! You were able to squeeze so much in. I think maybe we didn't b/c we were at the Flowrider so much. I think you've convinced me to skip one night of dinner in the MDR on our next cruise - especially if it's Oasis or Allure. Sounds like you had an amazing vacation! Can't wait to hear more.

[cmsjmu]

Day 5 - Wed July 14th - Costa Maya

 

Woke up and hit Windjammer for breakfast. Enjoyed it and glad we hadn't over-visited Windjammer at this point in the trip. We did some more pool and Flowrider in the morning. Took videos this time. Made one mistake...got on the Flowrider with my prescription Oakley sunglasses on. Not a good idea. You'll know why when you ride. Luckily I found them up top after wiping out. Arriving at Costa Maya, we went up to deck 14 forward port side to watch us pull in. Great viewing point in front of ship. It's not obvious how to get to the deck 14 viewing...but you should check it out. There is basically not much to do in Costa Maya. We didn't do a tour, and I wish I had. The group originally wanted to go to a close by beach (mentioned on this board) but wimped out. Decided to hang out by the shops/pool in Costa Maya. Swam and Drank some Dos XX's. It was nice, but would have preferred to leave the port area. There is a short (1 hour drive) Ruins tour that many did...that sold out. The further (2 hours away) Ruins tour never sold out. We passed on this as we had no interest in sitting on a bus for 4 hours. Guess many agreed. Eventually got back on the ship and had a Pizza at Sorrentos. I like the build-your-own Pizzas. Dinner was lobster night. Good stuff and our last dinner trip to Opus for this cruise. They had my favorite RCI dessert hidden on the menu this night...but I lucked into it. The "dessert sampler" has 3 small items, one of which is the FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE! The waiter told us they stopped serving it as a full dessert as most thought it was too rich and didn't finish. I disagree, but oh well, they had it! After dinner we hit the Comedy show at Comedy Live. The 1st guy picked on me, but it was all good. Next it was off to the Rising Tide bar to watch the Promenade 70's party. We stayed on Rising Tide the whole time...and Richard Spacey and the dancers finish up on the Rising Tide. The party ends as we rise out of the Promenade and up to Central Park. Got some photos with Richard (Austin Powers) and the Village People on the Rising Tide. Time to call it a night!

 

--more to come later

[bug18]

I'm enjoying your review as I was on the same cruise. We weren't sure what we wanted to do in Costa Maya either but in the end took a taxi to Majahual and went to the beach. We had a great day there and really enjoyed it.

[cmsjmu]

Day 6 - Thu July 15th - Cozumel

 

We woke up in Cozumel and it was overcast outside. Decided to go for a good/healthy meal in the Solarium Bistro for breakfast. I was excited as today we had booked THE SEGWAY AND SNORKEL tour, as was done by Samantha Brown (Travel Channel) in Cozumel. This was by far the best excursion I've ever done on any cruise. First they bus you to the office to watch a video. Next, we practiced on their test track at the office. Seemed difficult for about 30 seconds and then everyone got the hang of it. Top notch/friendly staff. The Segway is such a fun machine. We all (18 people) rode segways in line down the coast to the Fiesta Americana resort. Once there, we got changed for the snorkeling. Logistics, they have you put your bags in a van and the van rides with the Segway group. Hence you don't have to carry your bags. We avoided a couple of thunderstorms and were able to do the whole tour. Snorkeling was great, as is the norm for Cozumel. After snorkeling, we rode segways along the coast back to the main office. I would love to buy a Segway (isn't happening, but I wish). Can't say enough good things about this tour! Highly recommend!!! Got back on the ship for lunch. Park Cafe again! Then we got changed and headed into town to the famous "Carlos and Charlies". Wild crowd there...shots/dancing...Carnival Elation, Carnival Inspiration, and Grandeur of the Seas were also in Cozumel that day. Carlos and Charlies is not my wife's scene though so we just had a beer, bought two t-shirts, and headed back to the ship. More Flowrider time. On to the evening...we had originally thought we would eat in Opus that night, but decided to call Giovanni's Table and see if they had any openings. Made a 7PM reservation, as they fit us in. Back to Viking Crown before dinner for a couple glasses of wine. Carried our wine down to Central Park and headed to dinner. We loved Giovanni's Table. As with Chops, we felt is was well worth the cover of $15. The menu is pretty diverse with the meat/pasta dishes and I would actually go twice on a future cruise to try different things. We shared an antipasto appetizer. Also we shared a pasta dish with meat sauce. For our entree I had pepper crusted tuna and my wife had salmon I believe. All very tasty! We missed Italian night in Opus when we were at Chops, so I missed Tiramisu that night. Well, I got to have it in Giovanni's and it was great! Totally stuffed after this meal! Well, walked around a bit before we were on to our 10:45 reservation for Come Fly With Me. We got there and...uh-oh..."No Reservation". "What?" Well, I had made a mistake as we actually had a 9PM reservation. Confusion here, as I had us at Opus originally that night. Tried to walk in...but now it was packed...no seats! Luckily there was a 2:30PM show the next afternoon. So no worries in the end, as we were tired anyway! Made our reservation for the afternoon show right there...and decided to call it a night on a full stomach.

 

--more to come later

[cmsjmu]

Bug18, "Majahual" is the beach we were thinking of going to in Costa Maya. I wish we would have been there too!