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

[MountainHubby]

Day 4 - St. Thomas

Today we were at St. Thomas. There was a little rain that morning, but the rest of the day was clear.

We weren’t scheduled to be in port until 12, but somehow got slightly delayed and weren’t in until more like 12:30, and could get off at 1. we grabbed a quick lunch at El Loco Fresh before getting off. Definitely worth checking out! 
 

The port was nice, lots of iguanas sitting on the pier and rocks!  

It was definitely hot and humid, which wouldn’t have been bad except they wanted you to wear your mask all the time, even outdoors. We cheated a bit when no one was around but I talked to some other guests and that definitely discouraged them from staying on shore long. 

 

We caught an open air taxi to downtown ($4/person). They are some crazy drivers down here!  Wandered downtown for a bit and walked up the 99 steps. It’s not well marked, none of the streets are either, so have an idea of where it is before you’re on shore. We tried to go check out Black Beard’s castle but it was closed for repairs. 

There are lots of chickens everywhere!

The main street area is mostly jewelry/watch stores, but the people are nice (one lady let James try on a $7000 watch!). Without taking an excursion there wasn’t much else to do in the time we had (at least not that we knew of). All aboard was 6:30, but the sunsets at around 4:45 so we headed back early. 

 

There is some interesting architecture to look at and we stumbled upon a few neat things. Probably worth taking a tour if you’ve never been and actually want to see the island.
 

Dinner at the main dining again. More great food (we will do some food posts later).  James and I found the secret entrance to the teen club and he disappeared!  I wandered down and found the Jazz club (Jazz on 4). It’s tucked down with Blaze, and Studio B. If you get into the Casino you can go through the art gallery on the port side and it takes you there. Good music and intimate feel. I’m a lot younger than most who were there but have always been a jazz lover!

Edited November 16, 2021 by MountainHubby

[4everAfamily]

1 hour ago, MountainHubby said:

James and I found the secret entrance to the teen club and he disappeared!

That's great that James found the secret door. It's so cool!

[MountainHubby]

Day 5 - St. Maarten

 

Another beautiful day!  There were a few short rain showers, a couple in the morning and a couple in the evening, but otherwise it was lovely.
Hot!!  There were two other ships in port with us, Marella Discovery (which I learned is an old Royal Voyager class ship), and Royal’s Grandeur of the Seas.

 

We got off the ship around 11:30 headed out to do some snorkeling. We caught a taxi (go past the water taxi stand and take a right) to Little Bay Beach. There is a resort there, Divi Little Bay, which is where they dropped us off.  

The ride was $6/person. There is a place there to rent snorkeling equipment for pretty cheap (mask and snorkel $5, fins $5). They do warn you about fire coral and sea urchins. Don’t touch things if you don’t know what it is!  The water was warm and clear and we saw some fish and sea urchins. I read that there is a little snorkeling park there, with a sunken helicopter and things, but I think it was around the rock point to the left (if you are standing on the beach looking out) and J didn’t want to go explore that far with the little fins he had. 

We grabbed lunch at a place right there on the beach called The Shack. The food was great, decent portions, with some nice tables in the shade. Service was a little slow but we were just relaxing so it was ok!

We played in the beach a little more and then met our taxi driver. He was a nice guy and when I asked if it was easy to find a taxi back to the ship he said he would come pick us up and asked what time we wanted to meet. If anyone ever needs a taxi in St. Maarten you can give Claudius a call 1-721-554-8593, Taxi 149.  There were some nice views from the cab!

For any Star Wars fans out there, there is supposed to be an amazing museum that has been set up by one of the special effects artists from the original trilogy. I wish I had remembered it was there and we had gone, I guess it’s just awesome!

 

One thing of note, we got a message from Royal that there was some kind of “civil unrest” on the French side of the island and they recommended everyone stay on the Dutch side so that we were guaranteed to be able to return to the ship. Interesting. 

 

Back on the ship around 3:30. We went to the Park Cafe and got one of the kümmelweck sandwiches (fresh sliced roast beef, mustard, and they put some kind of au jus on the bun). Super tasty!  It’s a little hard to eat, might be smart to get a fork and knife but worth it. 

 

Some evening rain made worth it by beautiful rainbows!

Caught some of the evening flowriding and then went to the Solarium Bistro for dinner. It is one of the vaccinated guests only places, so you have to have you wrist band on. The service was a little different, they have a buffet style set up for salad bar, appetizers, and desserts and they cook your entrees to order. I got the salmon and James got the filet mignon.  Both were excellent!  Definitely try the hazelnut chocolate cake too!  We heard that the lamb is exceptional as well. Definitely a fun upscale dining experience. Not crowded at all!

 

We rode the water slides for a bit tonight. They are nothing like on Coco Cay, but they are pretty fun!  Two tips; the joints on the clear sections of the slide seem to pinch a little so wearing a swim shirt is nice (it’s not awful, just noticeable), and you definitely go underwater at the bottom!  We soaked in the hot tubs a while and James swam some in the salt water pool. It was a nice end to the day. 

 

There was a piano guy set up by the aft elevators on deck 6, just inside from the Boardwalk. He was good!

James spent some more time at the teen club and I wandered the decks for a while enjoying to warm night and then went back down to the jazz club. There was a good horn group (alto and tenor saxes, trumpet, piano, guitar, and set). 

[MountainHubby]

Day 6 - Sea Day

The Promenade was deserted this morning around 8.  I think everyone had a lot of fun, and a lot of sun yesterday!

 

Our morning routine has been to grab coffee and a light breakfast (pastry and the yogurt parfaits are pretty good) from Cafe Promenade then head up to the flowriders. Then we grab a second breakfast or early lunch somewhere. There is always less line in the morning. 

 

We mostly just spent the day wandering between flowriding, eating, and wandering the ship. It was a nice day!

 

Grabbed dinner at the Pork Side BBQ. This is a must for anyone that likes BBQ!!  A 2 or 3 cut meat platter can easily be shared by two people (we got a 3 cut meat and couldn’t finish it between the two of us!).  Definitely get the ribs and the turkey!  I heard the burnt ends are pretty tasty too.  Tonight was formal night and lobster tails in the main dining. 

 

Tonight we lucked into a private one hour flowrider session with Rey and Nico. A friend that James made invited us to join them (so nice!).  The boys had a blast and were getting some pretty good tricks! 

Playing in the flowriders and watching a gorgeous sunset. Does it get much better?

After that James went to the teen club again. I had reservations for the Adult Comedy show. They were fun!  If you sit in front you definitely risk being used and abused for everyone’s entertainment!  They certainly like picking on Carnival Cruises. 🤣

 

I was able to get a seat at the Aqua show again. Still good the second time!  If you can get seats in the center section. They have taken out every other row of seats so you don’t have anyones head in your view.  If you can’t sit in the center, try not to be under the overhangs at the back. There are some things you might miss up high. They did have to stop the show for 5-10 minutes for “unforeseen difficulties”.  We were guessing it was because of the rocking of the boat. The dives and gymnastics they are doing are hard enough on a stable surface, I can’t imagine doing it on a rocking ship!

 

We had a cute elephant waiting for us back in our room!

[Another_Critic]

1 hour ago, MountainHubby said:

Day 5 - St. Maarten

 

Hot!!  There were two other ships in port with us, Marella Discovery (which I learned is an old Royal Voyager class ship), and Royal’s Grandeur of the Seas.

 

That is the former Splendour of the Seas (a Vision class ship).

 

Edited November 18, 2021 by Another_Critic

[h20skibum]

4 hours ago, MountainHubby said:

For any Star Wars fans out there, there is supposed to be an amazing museum that has been set up by one of the special effects artists from the original trilogy. I wish I had remembered it was there and we had gone, I guess it’s just awesome!

Toured it in 2018.  It is called The Yoda Guy Movie Exhibit.  Nick Maley, a key contributor to the development of the Yoda character runs a movie exhibit museum with his wife, in Phillipsburg. The published information says he has worked on characters and animatronics for over 50 movies. 

    We did a quick tour of the museum, and met both Nick and his wife. 

 

     
 

     
 

     
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Edited November 18, 2021 by h20skibum

[#55worktoplay]

Thanks for your great review.

 

Your wife was very generous sending you instead of her going.

 

I am sure you will both always have special memories of this father and son cruise. 
 

Great job!

[bourbon52]

On 11/8/2021 at 8:35 PM, MountainHubby said:

Day 1 Daily

This is great, I will be sailing on Oasis next year!

[GreenLite]

Thanks for the review!  I'll looking forward to being on the Oasis in January and am now planning flights.  How was the disembark process and what time were most people off?  Was there a walk off option and if so, at what time?  I'm just off the Edge today and walk-off was earlier (7/20 meet, off by 8a) than I remembered.

 

[relaxatsea]

Thanks for your great review and pictures!