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Oasis Review (Aug. 31-Sep.7) WARNING: LONG, DO NOT READ

Yorkvillain

By Yorkvillain,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Yorkvillain

Yorkvillain

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I think this cruise will forever be known as the cruise that I 'officially' became an old guy. If any of you sat thru my long and drawn-out preview that I posted before this cruise, you would have read that we like to stay up late and sleep late while on vacation. If you have nothing better to do and want to fully absorb what I was shooting my mouth off about, here is the link to the preview:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1906254

 

 

If you don't feel like reading the preview (can't blame you), here are the cliff notes:

 

-the players are: me - Tim (43/M) and GF - Courtney (37/F)

-It is our 10th cruise together and 3rd on Oasis class

-I had a kidney stone the last time I was on the Oasis

-oh yeah, we like to stay up late & then sleep late. I didn't mention that yet, right?

 

All of the planning for this trip went very smoothly and we owe a HUGE thank you to RevSmith for tipping us off on the W Guarantee offer that enabled us to secure a Junior Suite hump balcony for the price of a regular balcony room. Thank you again Rev!

 

 

PRE-CRUISE (Thursday edition)

 

One of my favorite moments on any vacation is the actual moment when you get up from your desk and leave work on the last day before vacation. And like every vacation I performed my last day of work tradition of taunting my co-workers, dropping my pants and mooning them on the way out the door and then holding my arm up and pointing and chanting "I'm #1, I'm #1, see ya in a week, losers!".

 

 

PRE-CRUISE (Friday edition)

 

Friday? Not so smooth. Here is what I posted in my preview at 3pm, the day before the cruise:

 

I slept from 2am- 4am on Thursday night and then had a hectic morning getting to FLL but all is good now.

 

1-A friend of mine was supposed to pick us up at 5:30 am for our 7:05 flight, however he overslept and didn't get to us until 6 am. We were at the airport at 6:30 and almost didn't make it on. Thankfully a porter rushed our luggage downstairs and we sprinted to the gate. Whew.

 

2- This one is my fault and only a bit scary. I was so busy at work yesterday that I forgot to print the boarding passes. Well actually, the boarding passes were never emailed to me. That is the first time I didn't receive my boarding passes via email. Anyway, I log onto United's website and it says we have no reservation! Well a simple phone call to United cleared that up. They said it was a computer problem. This was all happening as I was waiting for my friend to pick us up. Whew#2

 

3- Only 3 of our 4 pieces of luggage arrived. The 4th one was put on a later flight. United said they would deliver it to my hotel today. I hope so, it is my garment bag with my suit and all my pants and button down shirts.

 

4- Another minor one but now it seems that someone was out to mess with me. I get to Avis and look at the preferred board however my reservation is not there. Come on, what is going on here? When I booked the car months ago it was with my old Royal Caribbean Visa which has now been replaced so I had to go to the counter and give them the new card.

 

Now I'm in my room at the Hyatt Pier 66 and we have a great view of the cruise ship terminal. (Edit: the missing bag arrived minutes later).

I drove Courtney to her friend Cathy's house so she could spent the day with her and go out with her at night while I go to the Hard Rock Hollywood Casino to play poker. After purchasing a case of water and 2 bottles of wine for the trip, I made my way over to Primanti Brothers for lunch. A few years ago I did a road trip to Pittsburgh for a Giants-Steelers game and became instantly addicted to these carnivorous concotions. The South Florida locations are obviously not as good as the originals (and last I checked there are no Caribbean cruises leaving out of Pittsburgh) however they get the job done. I ordered the Pitts-burgher AND the Ham and Cheese. Half of the Pitts-burgher had to go in a doggy-bag which came in handy at 3am after a long poker session.

 

IMG_0480_zps592e012d.jpg

 

Pitts-burgher on the left, ham & cheese on the right

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Pitts-burgher

IMG_0477_zps9edc19ad.jpg

 

Ham & Cheese

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1 or 2 (or 3) Iron City beers is a good way to cleanse the palate after abusing your body with all this food.

 

IMG_0479_zps8f647c50.jpg

 

After this 'light' lunch, I made my way back to the hotel. Once I was finally able to breathe again after consuming the entire Ham and Cheese sandwich and half of the Pitts-burgher, I made my way down to the pool at the Hyatt for a few hours and then later that night (after suprisingly skipping dinner) I logged a nice little profit at the Hard Rock after playing poker for a few hours.

 

Because we had such a great view of the cruise ship terminal and I was already up, I decided to stay up a few hours longer and watch the Oasis arrive at 5:30 AM from my balcony at the Hyatt Pier 66. After being awake for 26 straight hours it was now time to catch a couple of ZZZZZ's. I mean after all, I have a ship to catch in a few hours.

 

Can you spot the Oasis?

69807bea-e576-412a-93e6-9ca341f91937_zpsab389ea6.jpg

 

 

Next up: Day 1 and a last minute trip to CVS to purchase (female) deodorant.

Edited by Yorkvillain
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Yorkvillain

Yorkvillain

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DAY 1

 

I'm an extremely organized person. I have a cruise pack list document that I constantly update (don't judge me) and I'm always prepared for each and every cruise. The last few years on the Oasis and Allure have been the same routine. Rent a car at Avis at FLL, stay at Hyatt Pier 66 where there is an Avis right at the hotel, return the car right at the hotel the morning of the cruise around 10 am and then jump on the Avis shuttle to the cruise ship terminal. Well this year I was about to return the car when Courtney dropped a bombshell on this neat and organized planner. "I forgot to pack deodorant". Come again?

 

It was true. She forgot to bring deodorant. Not sunscreen, not aloe, not a wine opener, not her beach bag but deodorant. You know, something that most people use each and every day.

 

Me: "Can't you just buy it on the ship?"

Her: "How do I know they have the kind I like?"

Me "Ok, let's go".

 

We were successful in our deodorant scavenger hunt but then she hit me with "I have to go to the ATM too." Ugh.

 

So after loading up on deodorant and getting her cash for a cash-less cruise nonetheless, I dropped the car off at Avis and hopped on the shuttle at 12:25 PM. We arrived at the pier, went thru security, checked in and were on the ship at 12:50! 6000 people and it only took 25 minutes from our hotel to the Royal Promenade. And incredibly our room was ready and we dropped off our carry-ons at 12:55. Beef on weck time!

 

My first 2 of the trip.

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After

IMG_0502_zps081223a9.jpg

 

After lunch we went to the Solarium to take advantage of an empty Solarium pool. I really wish the Solarium wasn't so hot because I love it in there. It is so well-designed and peaceful. However sometimes it feels like you are in a greenhouse. We ended up spending most of our time at the Main, Beach and Sports pools where it is not as hot.

 

After the muster drill we went on our balcony for sailaway and then soon after that we got ready for dinner.

 

 

IMG_0500_zps241a5b40.jpg

 

LOVE the two lounge chairs on the Junior Suite balconies.

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As we were getting ready we realized that our shower had a pretty bad clog in it so taking a shower felt like you were standing in a marsh. We let our stateroom attendant know about the issue, he made a call and a plumber came minutes later. He didn't completely fix it but it was good enough as long as you didn't take your sweet a** time in there. We also had an issue with the remote where the left and down arrows didn't work so the stateroom attendant had it replaced. Wow, two complaints on day one. He must hate us. I don't think I have ever complained about anything before on a cruise so this was unusual. Or maybe I was getting old and cranky? Unfortunately our replacement remote's "OK" button (which you pretty much have to use for everything) barely worked. I could get it to work but only after I put my entire body weight with another 2600 lbs. of gym weights on it. Since we had already complained twice, I decided to stop being a Negative Nancy and just go with this one for the rest of the trip.

 

 

IMG_0579_zpsde25b651.jpg

 

For the second straight cruise we didn't receive our welcome aboard gift from Crown & Anchor. We were Emerald on this trip and are now Diamond. I let my stateroom attendant know about this (OMG, a 3rd complaint!). He made a call but nothing ever happened. I even mentioned it one time at Guest Services one day when I had a question about the Wifi. The person behind the desk made a call but again nothing ever happened. No big deal, I wasn't salivating over those little cookies, trail mix and 2 bottles of water.

 

Before dinner was our first trivia contest of the week. We like to go to the "dumb people trivia" i.e. music trivia, movie trivia, etc. If we have a bigger group then we will go to the "smart people" trivia. However with just the two of us, we are too stupid for the smart people trivia. Tonight's trivia was movie tunes trivia where we did not do very good.

 

 

IMG_0576_zpsdf5f8468.jpg

 

What's that? What does our team name mean? Rocky and Jaime were a couple on their honeymoon that we met on the Explorer in March. They were our tablemates and we had a blast with them and stayed out pretty late on most nights. They couldn't make this trip however there is a good chance that we will all be on the Explorer together this March. Fingers crossed.

 

After trivia, we went to dinner where for the first time ever we had a table for two. We were shocked. We have always had great luck with tablemates in the past so we were pretty bummed and were worried that we would not make any friends this week. However I have to say with a table for two, the service was so fast and we were out of the dining room pretty quickly every night we were there.

 

With full tummies, we wobbled back to the stateroom where incredibly we ended up crashing and not going out for the rest of the night. I collapsed on the balcony lounge chair and as Radio would say "watched the news for a few hours". It was so relaxing and not that hot. I thought about sleeping out there all night and based on my snoring history, Courtney agreed that I should sleep out there. Anyway, this was not like us to go to bed so early. Maybe it was just because we were tired from flying in so early the day before and staying up late last night. That has to be it, right?

 

NEXT UP: Day 2 and fun with thongs & speedos

Edited by Yorkvillain
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ariawoman

ariawoman

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Lovin' the review! Will be on the Oasis on 12/7. I too enjoy your style of photography, and your writing style. My favorite line so far " I could get it to work but only after I put my entire body weight with another 2600 lbs. of gym weights on it."

 

:-)

 

Can't wait for more! Subscribing!

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