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Oasis of the Seas Trip Report with Pics from First Time Cruiser! Oct 3-10 2015

Dianka25

By Dianka25,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Dianka25

Dianka25

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After reading reviews on cruisecritic for months before my Oasis of the Seas cruise on Oct 3-10, I am sad to be back but happy to be posting my own review! :D

 

Pre Cruise

 

A little background… this was my first cruise EVER, and the second for my husband. His first cruise was on the “Big Red Boat” back when he was 17 years old though, so he doesn’t really even count it. We have vacationed many times at all inclusive resorts, and even got married at one back in 2013. I have been thinking about trying a cruise for a long time, but was worried about being seasick, and also considered all inclusives to be a “better deal” because all food and drink is included. Finally we bit the bullet this year and decided to try cruising this year. I really wanted to try the Quantum of the Seas, but it wasn’t doing a Caribbean itinerary, so we decided that the Oasis class looked just as amazing. I’m sad to say that initially I hoped to get on the Allure just to avoid the Cats show, but the Oasis itinerary was better for us. During our all inclusive trips we have seen Mexico and the Dominican Republic, so I was interested in cruising to the Virgin Islands since I know that wouldn’t be a place we would ever go for an all inclusive destination. Therefore…. Eastern Caribbean itinerary worked out perfectly!

 

Our itinerary was:

 

Day 1 Embarkation

Day 2 Nassau, Bahamas

Day 3 Sea Day

Day 4 St. Thomas

Day 5 St Maarten

Day 6 & 7 Sea Days

 

After reading some scary stuff about how dangerous the Bahamas are, I was a little ambivalent about whether we would get off the ship at that port. On the other hand, I have been to Mexico many times without issue and I know it has a similar “dangerous” reputation. So the jury was still out on that port.

 

I did some research about St. Thomas and St. Maarten and has a list of possible things to do there, but we didn’t book any excursions beforehand. Since this was our first time cruising, we weren’t sure how long we would want to be off the ship, if we would feel sick, etc, so we wanted to leave our options open. In hindsight this was a mistake, you will see why. Also, my husband did NO research about this trip beforehand, so I was the only one who really knew what to expect from the ship and ports, which was also a mistake… on his part haha.

 

I worked with a travel agent to book the trip (got the same price as I found online plus a $50 onboard credit, VIP checkin, champagne on arrival, and a voucher for a free dinner for 2). I would use an agent again because I think the perks were worth it. But I am slightly OCD so I wanted to book all the activities, dining, and entertainment myself. BTW the RCCL website is CRAP compared to the Disney site which I used a lot last year before we went there. I also cannot understand that there is no set date when the reservations open up. It took FOREVER for dining to open up for our sailing. Anyway, I did book all the shows except for Cats (we have seen it before) and also booked dining. I booked Giovanni’s Table, Sabor, and Izumi for dinner and also made reservations for My Time Dining for the other nights. I didn’t want to really do Izumi but it was the one request of my DH so how could I say no? I literally booked Giovanni’s for the tiramisu. I think I booked a few days after reservations opened up and I had no problem

booking anything for the dates and times I wanted.

 

We flew into Fort Lauderdale the day before our cruise to avoid getting stressed out by flights and such. We stayed at Hyatt Pier 66 and got the “Cruise and Snooze” package which provides breakfast and transportation to the cruise port. The hotel was nice but the reception staff did not give us the right vouchers that came with the package, or any information about logistics of how to arrange our transportation shuttle, etc, which annoyed me. We ate a great restaurant called Pelican Landing there though so I would recommend that for sure. We sat right on the pier next to a huge yacht owned by Steven Spielberg or somebody. Because Hurricane Joaquin was still hanging around I was happy we flew in the night before, but next time I would consider an early morning flight on cruise day. It was kind of this weird “pre vacation” day and we would have rather just gone right to the ship from the airport. But hey, we are ON VACATION so what is there to complain about!?! Weather is beautiful so far and HOT.

 

<a href=IMG_0710_zpsg41eojqs.jpg' alt='IMG_0710_

 

Me in front of the Hyatt hotel tower the day before our cruise!

 

 

Next up… embarkation day!!

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Dianka25

Dianka25

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Embarkation Day PART 1!

 

 

Cruise day excitement woke us up early. Our boarding time according to our seapass documents was 12:30, but I had planned to get there around 10 or 11. Because we got up so early, we ended by getting there by 9:30AM!!

Our shuttle dropped us off right at the porter area, where our bags were taken and sorted into big bins. Thanks to recommendations from readers, we did keep a carryon with us that included swimsuits, dinner clothes and other stuff we might need in case we didn’t see the rest of our luggage until later that night. My DH forgot to tip the porter (OOPS!) so we were nervous that our bags would not be getting to our room in a timely fashion! Would our bags ended up floating in the ocean instead?

 

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

 

 

We waited for quite a while, so I would NOT recommend getting to the port this early if you can help it. Around 10:30 they let us in and herded us into a huge check-in area with many roped off lines. It was slightly confusing because we had the “Priority Check-in” voucher through our travel agent and we weren’t sure where to go. However, since we were pretty much the first ones in line, we didn’t really need it anyway.

 

 

We breezed through security, got our pictures taken and our Seapass cards issued. I was struck by how friendly and truly happy all the staff seemed to be. They all welcomed us with a smile as if it was THEIR first cruise too! It made a great impression on us. After check-in... more waiting.

 

They lined us up in rows of chairs grouped by our “status”. We were nothing special, haha, so the Gold, Diamond, Platinum, etc came ahead of us. The area was comfy and there was excitement in the air, so we didn’t mind waiting. However, boarding didn’t start for another 2 hours (at 12:30, our original boarding time!), so we were really ready to go by that time. Luckily they have bathrooms there, a kids play area, free wifi and you are in A/C so it’s really not bad. It was also fun to people watch… some people were already dressed for the pool, and others had tuxedos and formal dresses on.

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

 

My DH getting comfortable in his chair in the waiting area... you can see we are some of the first people there... a good and bad thing at the same time!

 

The only criticism I have about this area was that toward the end it was very chaotic. We were sitting in a front row right next to a security guard, and we watched countless people approach him and ask where they should be seated and what to do. In the end, they seemed to run out of chairs and he told people to stand in the corner. There were several who ended up just sitting where they wanted and we watched them board ahead of us, which was frustrating but I tried to blow it off since we are in VACATION mode. I hate waiting more than anything. There was an announcement that some people didn’t get their pics taken when they checked in, so they had to get them done when they boarded, which was causing an unusual delay. Since this is our first cruise, I don’t know if this was the norm or not.

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

 

 

Next up… embarkation day Part 2!

 

PS- Let me know if photos are loading slowly or any other issues with viewing.

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Dianka25

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Embarkation Day Part 2

 

 

So we walked up the gangway and onto the Royal Promenade. At the time we had no idea where we were in relation to anything on the ship, and just stood there with our mouths agape. I admit I got a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye. The lights, music, and energy on the Promenade are indescribable.

 

We had not booked beverage packages beforehand, thinking we would wait a day or two and see how much we were actually drinking and what it was costing. However, once we got on the ship, the first thing to do (naturally) was buy a drink and celebrate! So we looked at each other and walked to the nearest beverage booth and bought a package for my DH. We chose the Premium package. There are several tables for buying beverage packages all around the Promenade… you can’t miss them because they have piles of the Cocacola drink cups on them. If there is a line, walk a few feet and you will find another one.

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

Pic of On Air Bar from a different day hence the wardrobe change

 

We had been told that our room would be ready around 1PM, so we only had about 30 minutes to kill. I wanted to avoid the Windjammer buffet lines, so we headed to the Solarium Bistro for lunch. It was crazy busy at the Solarium, but we found a shaded table and put down our stuff to save it. Despite the crowds no one tried to steal it while we were in line, which I appreciated. Although my DH was glaring at the table the whole time we were in line just in case so maybe that helped ha ha.

 

The line for the Solarium buffet was pretty long- it took about 10 minutes just to get to the plates! There were free drink areas with different Vitality juices available, and an iced tub of beers that no one seemed to be manning so we weren’t sure if we could just take one… we didn’t. As far as the food goes, they were out of chicken, the only non-seafood meat they offered, but everything was great! I had miso soup with shrimp, veggie wrap, chocolate cake and steamed veggies. Don’t expect to find a burger and fries here, though. If you really want to chow down, the Windjammer is for you. The area was warm, but tolerable, even for my DH, who is a big A/C fan.

We had been told that there would be an announcement when the rooms were ready, but it was after 1PM and we hadn’t heard anything. We decided to stop and see if our room was ready anyway.. and it was! I have to say I really LOVED the room and the bathroom. I will explain this love later. We had an inside room on deck 10. No sign of our suitcases yet, although we saw plenty of others already in the hallway. I gave my DH a “look” to remind him about tipping the porter lol.

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

Any room is made better by a bottle of champagne!

 

 

We explored our room a little bit and then walked over to Chop’s to make dinner reservations using our free dinner vouchers (we got them from our travel agent, and there were several limitations about when and how they good be used). We made a reservation for two days later at 6:30.

Next we headed to the Vitality Spa for a tour and to enter the raffle. We had big plans for massages during the cruise and though it would be a good chance to check out the facilities and maybe win something . Haha. It ended up being a big waste of time because the tour doesn’t really explain the packages we were interested in, and you had to come back at 4:30 for the raffle drawing and there was no way we were doing that since that’s sail away time! They did have some good promotions running, but you had to book the services for THAT day, and there was so much to see and do that we didn’t want to waste time on the massage table!

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

Nice view of the ship as we explored the pool decks.

 

Next up… muster drill and a rocky dinner! Embarkation Day Part 3.

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Dianka25

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Embarkation Day Part 3

 

As we unpacked there was an overhead announcement about the muster drill starting in 15 minutes. I was surprised that it was broadcast into the rooms but it was comforting to know that we wouldn’t miss really important notifications if we were napping or something. Throughout the week we heard other announcements, but I think this was the only time it was actually blaring in the room and not just the public areas.

 

A few minutes later, Ketut our attendant knocked on our door to ensure we were going, and I noticed that each room was being tagged when it was empty. We headed down to the Opal Theater, our muster station. We easily found seats and admired the beautiful theater. They played a short video about washing your hands (it’s the right thing to do), a life jacket demo, and a speech from the captain. It was very short and then we were on our way. The most entertaining part was that there was a leak from the ceiling that was dripping quite a lot onto tarp and some buckets in a few of the top rows of the theater. We didn’t notice the issue later in the week so they must have fixed it.

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

View from our seats during the muster drill

 

After that we headed to the Aquatheater for what I thought was the Sail-away party, but it ended up being a lame (sorry!) Dreamworks character performance for kids. So we headed to the pool deck and then the sundeck on deck 14. We saw the Helipad below but no one was allowed on it. Pulling away from port was awesome, at this point we couldn’t even feel the ship moving (but I will soon). So exciting to know we are heading out to open sea and our vacation is officially started!

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

One of the boats we saw as we pulled away. Not sure if it was the harbor pilot... I learned that there is a pilot at each port who comes aboard every ship of a certain size to pull it into or out of port. Who knew?

 

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

 

As we floated toward the Bahamas, my DH and I had drinks at the Rising Tide Bar before our main dining room reservation at 6:30. There was a short line to check in to the dining room. They asked, and we agreed to be seated with other people. We ended up at a table for 8 with 3 other couples of varying ages. Dinner was good but it didn’t blow us away- I had the eggplant tart, salmon, and carrot cake. It had the typical under-seasoned taste of food prepared in large quantities for tons of people. I didn’t believe it would, but dinner actually took 2 hours. This was only one of two times we ate at the main dining room, and the better experience (more on that later).

 

A bit about seasickness…. Our assigned MDR was on deck 3, and I don’t know if it was just because we were lower in the ship, but I actually felt the ship moving for the first time here. It was not a fun experience. I was really worried that I would need to get up and leave before the meal even started. I brought Bonine, ginger capsules, and seabands, but I had only taken ginger that morning. Luckily I got used to the movement and was able to eat without issue. I didn’t get sick or feel ill at all for the rest of the cruise. I took ginger every morning and that’s it. I felt the movement of the ship every single day in all places on the ship, some times more than others. But the movement really became something I was used to and it did not bother me at all. It was even kind of nice to fall asleep to… something others have commented on as well. Advice for others.. I would be prepared in case you do feel sick, but don’t dwell on it. I don’t know what it’s like on rough seas, but for us we had good weather and it was not a problem, but movement was noticeable.

 

We had reservations for the 8:30 Oasis of Dreams show that night, but unfortunately it was canceled due to wind I guess. It was a bummer because the rescheduled time was 5:30 on one of the port days so we missed it. We wandered around for a while after dinner but we were beat so we crashed early. First impressions of the ship… I was in awe of how clean it was and how modern and classy the décor was. Beautiful lighting, artwork, glass, everything. I have heard Disney is touted as the high quality cruiseline but I really did not see anything to complain about all week in terms of quality of the ship.

 

 

Next up Day 2… will we or won’t we get off the ship in the Bahamas?

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Lisa77064

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There was an announcement that some people didn’t get their pics taken when they checked in, so they had to get them done when they boarded, which was causing an unusual delay. Since this is our first cruise, I don’t know if this was the norm or not.

 

MY FAULT! I was on that cruise and the camera system went down immediately after my picture was taken. Yes, I broke the damn camera. They must have tried to take my sister's picture 5 different times on several different cameras before they realized it was system wide.

 

Sorry about that!

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PR Cruisers

PR Cruisers

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After reading reviews on cruisecritic for months before my Oasis of the Seas cruise on Oct 3-10, I am sad to be back but happy to be posting my own review! :D

 

 

 

Pre Cruise

 

 

 

A little background… this was my first cruise EVER, and the second for my husband. His first cruise was on the “Big Red Boat” back when he was 17 years old though, so he doesn’t really even count it. We have vacationed many times at all inclusive resorts, and even got married at one back in 2013. I have been thinking about trying a cruise for a long time, but was worried about being seasick, and also considered all inclusives to be a “better deal” because all food and drink is included. Finally we bit the bullet this year and decided to try cruising this year. I really wanted to try the Quantum of the Seas, but it wasn’t doing a Caribbean itinerary, so we decided that the Oasis class looked just as amazing. I’m sad to say that initially I hoped to get on the Allure just to avoid the Cats show, but the Oasis itinerary was better for us. During our all inclusive trips we have seen Mexico and the Dominican Republic, so I was interested in cruising to the Virgin Islands since I know that wouldn’t be a place we would ever go for an all inclusive destination. Therefore…. Eastern Caribbean itinerary worked out perfectly!

 

 

 

Our itinerary was:

 

 

 

Day 1 Embarkation

 

Day 2 Nassau, Bahamas

 

Day 3 Sea Day

 

Day 4 St. Thomas

 

Day 5 St Maarten

 

Day 6 & 7 Sea Days

 

 

 

After reading some scary stuff about how dangerous the Bahamas are, I was a little ambivalent about whether we would get off the ship at that port. On the other hand, I have been to Mexico many times without issue and I know it has a similar “dangerous” reputation. So the jury was still out on that port.

 

 

 

I did some research about St. Thomas and St. Maarten and has a list of possible things to do there, but we didn’t book any excursions beforehand. Since this was our first time cruising, we weren’t sure how long we would want to be off the ship, if we would feel sick, etc, so we wanted to leave our options open. In hindsight this was a mistake, you will see why. Also, my husband did NO research about this trip beforehand, so I was the only one who really knew what to expect from the ship and ports, which was also a mistake… on his part haha.

 

 

 

I worked with a travel agent to book the trip (got the same price as I found online plus a $50 onboard credit, VIP checkin, champagne on arrival, and a voucher for a free dinner for 2). I would use an agent again because I think the perks were worth it. But I am slightly OCD so I wanted to book all the activities, dining, and entertainment myself. BTW the RCCL website is CRAP compared to the Disney site which I used a lot last year before we went there. I also cannot understand that there is no set date when the reservations open up. It took FOREVER for dining to open up for our sailing. Anyway, I did book all the shows except for Cats (we have seen it before) and also booked dining. I booked Giovanni’s Table, Sabor, and Izumi for dinner and also made reservations for My Time Dining for the other nights. I didn’t want to really do Izumi but it was the one request of my DH so how could I say no? I literally booked Giovanni’s for the tiramisu. I think I booked a few days after reservations opened up and I had no problem

 

booking anything for the dates and times I wanted.

 

 

 

We flew into Fort Lauderdale the day before our cruise to avoid getting stressed out by flights and such. We stayed at Hyatt Pier 66 and got the “Cruise and Snooze” package which provides breakfast and transportation to the cruise port. The hotel was nice but the reception staff did not give us the right vouchers that came with the package, or any information about logistics of how to arrange our transportation shuttle, etc, which annoyed me. We ate a great restaurant called Pelican Landing there though so I would recommend that for sure. We sat right on the pier next to a huge yacht owned by Steven Spielberg or somebody. Because Hurricane Joaquin was still hanging around I was happy we flew in the night before, but next time I would consider an early morning flight on cruise day. It was kind of this weird “pre vacation” day and we would have rather just gone right to the ship from the airport. But hey, we are ON VACATION so what is there to complain about!?! Weather is beautiful so far and HOT.

 

 

 

<a href=IMG_0710_zpsg41eojqs.jpg' alt='IMG_0710_

 

 

 

Me in front of the Hyatt hotel tower the day before our cruise!

 

 

 

 

 

Next up… embarkation day!!

 

 

Do you stayed on a tower room? How was it?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Dianka25

Dianka25

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There was an announcement that some people didn’t get their pics taken when they checked in, so they had to get them done when they boarded, which was causing an unusual delay. Since this is our first cruise, I don’t know if this was the norm or not.

 

MY FAULT! I was on that cruise and the camera system went down immediately after my picture was taken. Yes, I broke the damn camera. They must have tried to take my sister's picture 5 different times on several different cameras before they realized it was system wide.

 

Sorry about that!

 

Ha that's hilarious! I'm just glad we got through the lines before then!

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Dianka25

Dianka25

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Do you stayed on a tower room? How was it?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

No we didn't. I hoped to get upgraded to one but they were full. The hotel itself was nice though. We had a balcony facing the marina in one of the standard rooms and I have nothing bad to say about it.

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garnetpalmetto

garnetpalmetto

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I'm having trouble quoting your post for some reason! I was on the same cruise as you were - the boat you have pictured there is a US Coast Guard response boat - usually used for port security. The guy at the very front of the boat has a .50 caliber machine gun. Definitely not the pilot boat! Those usually have PILOT in big letters on the boat itself.

 

We were also scheduled to see Oasis of Dreams that first night and couldn't have made the rescheduled date. However, we called the front desk and were able to get our reservations juggled around to see it on the fourth night.

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prekteacher

prekteacher

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Great start to your review! We will be going on Oasis for Thanksgiving. First time on Oasis but we've been on Allure and Freedom. This is getting me very excited that our day is really not too far away! Can't wait Looking forward to reading the rest of your first time thoughts. You are including great details.

Thank you!

 

Barb

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BillOh Holiday Sharing Rare

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Because Hurricane Joaquin was still hanging around I was happy we flew in the night before, but next time I would consider an early morning flight on cruise day. It was kind of this weird “pre vacation” day and we would have rather just gone right to the ship from the airport. But hey, we are ON VACATION so what is there to complain about!?! Weather is beautiful so far and HOT.

!

 

I read a lot of reviews and I find a great deal of value and enjoyment out of all of them and I can tell I will feel the same about this one. However, I'll beg to differ on this one point. My first 3 cruises I flew in the day of the cruise and my next 8 I flew in the day before. It is so much more stressful flying in the day of the cruise compared to the day before. Hurricane Jaoquin caused some ships to leave an hour earlier that weekend which would have added to that stress.

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Day 2- Bahamas

 

First timer tip: Plan to nap or at least relax in your room before dinner and the evening festivities if you want to stay up late with the cool kids (ps we are not the cool kids).

 

I wondered how sleeping would go without any windows in the room but it was no problemo. Since we went to bed so early last night, we woke up at 6:30AM READY TO GO! I wanted to sleep in more but the excitement of the day meant we were up for good.

 

Did I mention how much I loved in the room and bathroom? They are so well designed. Especially the shower. Even though my husband says it feels like you’re in a test tube, there is a little shelf space, a nice foot rest for shaving, and great water pressure. The showerhead is a handheld one and even has a “massage” setting for uh, massages, hehe. The bed was very comfortable and the temperature in the room was fine. We had it cranked down to the coolest setting and as I mentioned before, my DH likes A/C so I was worried it would be too warm. The first night we slept with the sheet only, but after that it cooled off nicely and we were always sleeping under all the covers without issue.

 

Last night at dinner the head waiter made a point to explain the breakfast options and times to us. It was all kind of a blur but I did catch that something would be open around 7:30AM. My husband voted for Johnny Rockets so that’s where we headed since it’s free for breakfast.

There were maybe 10-12 people there at this time and it must have rained overnight because they were mopping up the Boardwalk. Amazing how when you head through those doors and see the carousel you feel like you are so separated from the rest of the ship (in a good way). The Oasis neighborhood concept is really amazing.

 

They have your classic breakfast options available here, and my favorite… coffee. We got the Eggs Your (My?) Way, sausage, toast. The meal was great and eggs were cooked perfectly.

 

There was an overhead announcement to notify us that the gangway was open in Nassau. The captain explained where to go and what you need to bring- we went to the 2nd floor gangway at 8:30 and with no line we were quickly in the Bahamas. I figured we at least had to step foot on the soil (or sand?) of the place since we are there, and DH pretended to agree, although I think he would have been happy to explore the bars on the ship some more.

 

Majesty of the Seas and NCL Sky were also docked and I wouldn’t say no to cruising on either of those ships either… Oasis definitely stood out though. I must say I was really happy that we did not have to tender at all during this cruise… I have heard that can be a real pain and take forever.

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

Walkway in the Bahamas leading up into the shopping area

 

 

Once we walked down the colorful path to the entrance of the shopping area, with cheerful music playing the whole way, we were pretty much hounded by locals asking if we needed a taxi, a tour, a hair braid, etc, etc. My DH takes the approach of glaring at them or ignoring them, but I tried to be friendly and politely say no. I did not get the impression that these people were happy to be there… I felt like I saw hostility in their eyes… like they were offering us a taxi ride, but they didn’t really want to give us a taxi ride, you know what I mean? This was pretty sad because I have been to Mexico and Dominican Republic and have never experienced that quite to this extent.

We walked to the Straw Market, which was still closed, and then followed the signs past Senor Frogs to Junkanoo Beach.

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

Tiki Bikini Hut at Junkanoo Beach

 

p><p><img src=[/img]

I took this pic because the sandbags in the corner were the only sign that there had been a recent hurricane nearby. No other damage or flooding seen by me in Nassau.

 

On the way back to the ship we were stopped and lectured by this taxi driver about how we should see more of the Bahamas and not just the port area etc etc etc. I felt like saying, even if he did change our minds, we wouldn’t pay him to take us anywhere after that lecture!

 

Two things I had on my list of options for the Bahamas were the John Watlings Distillery and the Gray Cliff House for a chocolate tour. We didn’t see either, and I have to say that if we ever went back I would probably go to Atlantis instead.

 

We were back on the ship by 9:30. More people were awake now and headed ashore. At each port we had to go through a little security building right near the ship to scan our bags and go through a metal detector. We needed a photo ID with our seapass card at some ports, but just the seapass card at others. We always brought our passports with us though, because I am paranoid about having a “Locked UP Abroad” situation HA.

Back on the ship, we headed to the pool deck, which was deserted. Only bad news is that the bars weren’t open yet. We got some prime spots under an umbrella and relaxed there for a couple hours.

 

After that we headed to the Vitality Spa to book our massages. We were able to get them booked for later that afternoon at 1:30. I got the 50 minute and my DH got the longer one (70 min?), both Deep Tissue. I also booked a pedicure.

 

We grabbed a small lunch at Park Café in Central Park. I HAD to try the roast beef sandwich of course. It was ok, but my meat was really fatty so that turned me off. The bread was delicious goodness though. I also had the onion soup (a fave of mine), which was ok. It didn’t have onions, it was just a broth which I thought was weird. We never went back to Park Café, but I wish I had tried the salads because they looked yummy. My DH got a panini which he said was “fine”.

 

After another quick stop at the room we went for our massages. Two things I wish were different: 1. Have a locker area where we can change into robes ahead of time. 2. Have a shower area where we can shower before and/or after the massage. This makes the spa experience so much better. That being said, I was escorted into a little relaxation area for a few minutes and then taken in for my massage. I had to fill out a standard health form while I waited, which also asked what I thought my “problem areas” are. Leave this part blank unless you want a 10 minute lecture about weight loss or whatever you picked before your massage. I even got a diagram of how fluid encircles fat cells… as I looked longingly at the massage table. ANYWAY, the massage itself was fantastic. The only thing was that we were pulling away from the Bahamas during this time and I could hear the engines starting up LOUDLY during my massage. It didn’t really bother me, but I would keep this in mind when you are booking a time. I wonder if this is why some other ships have the spa on higher decks? My pedicure was great too. They have the massage chairs and everything. I didn’t tip beyond the auto gratuity for either service. The auto gratuity was clearly listed on the receipt.

 

After our massages, we continued our zen experience by checking out the ocean views from deck 14. We were back in our room by 3PM for our afternoon nap before the night time fun!

 

Next up… Day 2 Night time extravaganza

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