DISCruise 1.0 - 8/24-8/31/2013 Royal Caribbean Cruise Oasis of the Seas

[LionKingRules84]

For those of you who don't even know what to ask you should come to chat on Wednesday night.

It starts at 8PM in the Adventures by Disney chat room.

You can see what others ask and gain knowledge that way - it might even cause you think about something that you hadn't thought of - and you might come up with a question.

I'm putting a reminder for myself to make it to chat on Wednesday so I should be there!

 

[Disney Enabler]

Carol, I can't remember if you and Michael are DVC members, but if you're staying there on points be sure to visit the Top of the World lounge. Very nice picture of one of the original conceptual drawings of the DL monorail behind the bar. Its by John Hench I believe, but I understand Bob Gurr claims ownership.

Its also an interesting place to watch the MK fireworks from.

We are DVC and we have been to the Top of the World lounge for drinks. I agree it is alot of fun. Bob is such a character - he claims everything is his. We will be sure to ask him when we spend our day with him in October.

See you in a couple of weeks.

Carol
It's a great day to be alive!!!

 

[Wimpy]

What's the dress code in the main dining rooms? Do people dress up for dinner like on the Disney ships?

Sailing on a different cruise line is making me feel like a total newbie again!

I have seen anything from jeans to tuxes on formal nights. They don't allow hats or shorts at dinner and never swim wear. For casual nights I normally wear kaki's and a button down or polo. Semi formal nights its a sport coat and tie. Formal nights it is a suit.

They normally don't enforce the dress, it is "recommended." Also depends on the cruise. Alaska and Canada/NE tend to see fancier where Caribbean is less. Probably due to age to passengers.

My suggestion, wear clothes.

 

[LionKingRules84]

Just wondering if anyone knows how Disembarkation is on the Oasis and if there is anything to do between port and the airport(FLL). Our flight isn't until the evening(only early non-stop flight home was too early and the next isn't till about 6 which we took instead of doing a connection someplace else). We seem to have about 3 hours to kill before we might be allowed to wait in the airport for our flight and from research it seems there is little to do or even eat at the FLL. I'm mostly worried about my husband and I going hungry before we fly home(and I'm pretty sure they won't feed us on our flight). After breakfast on the ship we still need to worry about lunch and possible dinner before leaving for home and can't seem to find where they would let us go with our luggage(oh and have gluten free options for food). Add in the fact we have no car as well.

Any input on this dilemma would be helpful.

 

[mcd2745]

You can check into renting a day room at one of the many hotels in the area.

 

[mikelan6]

Just wondering if anyone knows how Disembarkation is on the Oasis and if there is anything to do between port and the airport(FLL). Our flight isn't until the evening(only early non-stop flight home was too early and the next isn't till about 6 which we took instead of doing a connection someplace else). We seem to have about 3 hours to kill before we might be allowed to wait in the airport for our flight and from research it seems there is little to do or even eat at the FLL. I'm mostly worried about my husband and I going hungry before we fly home(and I'm pretty sure they won't feed us on our flight). After breakfast on the ship we still need to worry about lunch and possible dinner before leaving for home and can't seem to find where they would let us go with our luggage(oh and have gluten free options for food). Add in the fact we have no car as well.

Any input on this dilemma would be helpful.

There is not much to do in the immediate vicinity of the port and airport.

The ideal thing would be for you to rent a car for the day and drive someplace you're interested in ... maybe Las Olas (on the street shopping with lots of nice restaurants), Sawgrass Mills mall (there's a WDW outlet store there), the beach, etc. You could keep your luggage with you. Note that the car rental companies are almost all located within the airport, so you'll probably get a car rental shuttle to the airport if that's the route you decide to take.

Another option with RCL is a service I have used with other cruise lines before where, for a fee, your luggage is taken directly off the ship and taken to your carrier. Kind of like what WDW does with DME. This would free you up from your luggage and you could take a taxi wherever you'd like to go - or still rent a car.

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/contentWithHero.do?pagename=luggage_valet_service

If you want to stay in the port/airport area, I guess you could go to Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World, which is just west of the airport. You could spend a few hours at their store - and dine at their Islamorada Fish Restaurant.

Personally, after a seven day cruise, I'd probably only eat a late lunch/early dinner anyway as there is so much food on board.

Please let me know if you have any more questions.

 

[CherylLuvDW]

Nice casual for most evenings. Dressier for special restaurants & dress up night.

 

[NitroStitch]

For those of you who've done RCCL before, I need excursion advice/reviews.

1. I'm contemplating either the St. Thomas Panoramic Drive or the St. Thomas Island Tour, and I'm not sure which of those might be better for me.

2. I'm also considering a St. Maarten Island Tour. Are tours of St. Thomas and St. Maarten different enough that I should try to do one of each, or is one island better to visit than another?

I've never been to either port, I live near the beach already, I'm not big on aquatics or extreme anything, and (due to too little money and too much stuff), I'm not doing much shopping these days. I like taking photos with my nice camera and would like the overall view of beauty and scenery and some history.

Any guidance would be very helpful!

 

[OKW Lover]

Disclaimer: We're not doing any of the port tours this cruise.

We've done tours on both islands on past cruises. Most recently on St. Thomas in January. Less recently, St. Martin about 15 years ago.

The St. Thomas tour was pretty spectacular. Lots of great scenery and an opportunity to get off in downtown for shopping. Not sure which of the offered tours is better though. An added complication at this port is that there is usually an excursion that goes to St. John. That's also a very nice island and the excursion probably spends some time at a very nice beach with an underwater snorkeling trail.

St. Martin island tour was less impressive. It is unique since the island is owned by two different countries and has two capitals. It might be a good opportunity to set foot in the Netherlands and France on the same day. Shopping is usually better on the Dutch side, except for any French goods which are better in Margot, on the French side.

 

[LionKingRules84]

Thank you for the help everyone! My husband did some research and it seems RCCL is good at helping passengers who have late flights and there are actually Fort Lauderdale excursions we can take that end at the airport around 2 or 3 in the afternoon which is when we want to be there. We will probably wait till we get on the ship and ask guest services what we can do. We still haven't a clue when we are going to be booted off the ship though it seems to change monthly but it's sounding like we will be off the ship sometime around 9 a.m. that morning which means we have a bit of day to kill till our flight. Apparently he also found out there is a boardwalk somewhere that has shopping not sure if anyone else has heard of this?

NitroStitch asked about excursions I reserved the Schooner excursion for St Thomas since I know my husband likes boats/boating and even though I don't it does end at a secluded beach which sounds like fun and the excursion it's self has gotten some decent reviews online, it also wasn't too terribly expensive. I haven't a clue what to do on St Maarten myself and I'm staying on the ship at Nassau, which is actually a good thing since my Flow Rider lessons reservation got bumped to that morning instead of the next.
St Thomas seems like the better of the 3 ports as far as excursion offerings and sight seeing. I've never cruised before but that's what I got from research at least, I guess I will find out when we get there if I'm right.
What I've been doing is looking at an excursion that sounds interesting and doing a search for reviews. One excursion on St Maarten I was able to find video of someone's experience and deemed it not something I wanted to do, mostly because of the time of year we are going(it will be either hot, wet or both).

 

[mcd2745]

Something to keep an eye on? Tropical Storm Erin has formed off the coast of Africa and could possibly be in the area of the eastern Caribbean late next week.

 

[OKW Lover]

Something to keep an eye on? Tropical Storm Erin has formed off the coast of Africa and could possibly be in the area of the eastern Caribbean late next week.

The National Weather Service Hurricane Center is a good site for non-sensationalized reports on tropical activity.

As my friend Alfred always said; "What, me worry?"

 

[NitroStitch]

It's good to keep our eyes open, but way too early in the forecast to know where that storm will go or how much of a storm it will be by the time it affects land (or ships in the Caribbean). Meanwhile, I'm threatening the storm not to mess with us! I already had a trip derailed by a Hurricane Erin years ago. It didn't do a ton of damage, but was quite a nuisance.

If we have to have any involvement with tropical weather, I would rather it forced us to stay away from the real world a bit longer...

 

[mcd2745]

Perhaps I'm the jinx. We always vacation the last week of August. The kids' summer camp ends next week and school starts after labor day - so we have that week "gap" to fill anyway.Two years ago, we had to fly around Hurrican Irene on the way down to WDW. It didn't directly impact us once at WDW, but we for the first day and a half, we had to worry about the house back home. Last year, on the Dream, we had to deal with Tropical Storm Issac, which made our sea day pretty much a complete washout.

 

[OKW Lover]

For those wondering about the cost of laundry services on board: http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/en_US/pdf/LaundryPriceList.pdf

 

[mcd2745]

For those wondering about the cost of laundry services on board: http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/en_US/pdf/LaundryPriceList.pdf

Thanks. We were definitely spoiled last year on the Dream as our stateroom was a 5-10 second walk to the laundry room. It was so convenient to just go over there and quickly iron something.

 

[NitroStitch]

The latest conundrum...

If you get the Central Park Dining package it's $70 and includes Giovanni's, Chops and 150 Central Park. Basically, Giovanni's is free with the package. I want to eat at both Chops and 150 Central Park, and we are doing Giovanni's as a group. To package or not to package... My brain hurts. It's a good problem to have.

 

[WebmasterJohn]

The latest conundrum...

If you get the Central Park Dining package it's $70 and includes Giovanni's, Chops and 150 Central Park. Basically, Giovanni's is free with the package. I want to eat at both Chops and 150 Central Park, and we are doing Giovanni's as a group. To package or not to package... My brain hurts. It's a good problem to have.

You will not regret eating at Giovani's Table twice in one cruise

 

[mcd2745]

You will not regret eating at Giovani's Table twice in one cruise

Do we all have the same time for Giovanni's (if, so do we know what it is yet)? Or will we all have different times?



On the weather front, the latest from the NHC on Erin is all very god news. As per their 11am update, she will stay very weak (below tropical storm strength) and drift well north of the islands.

 

[NitroStitch]

You will not regret eating at Giovani's Table twice in one cruise

From every review I've read, I thought that would be highly likely.