Oasis of the Seas Cruise Trip Report

[swwake]

We had a tour planned today with a local provider (not a ship’s excursion), and we were to meet the guide at 9am at the pier. But, Tuesday was a very late night for us, and before we went to bed, Chris and I decided that we would pass on the tour the next day and just sleep in.

It was about 9am when I woke up, and I went ahead and got ready, then asked Chris to try to reach the girls while I went to find out how to accomplish what I wanted to do that day.

I wanted to take the girls to Maho Beach and then just explore the town of Philipsburg. But without the tour, I wasn’t sure how to do this or how much time we needed. I read in the Cruise Compass that the Port & Shopping Guide would be available on the gangway from 8am to 10am, so I rushed down there to talk to someone about the best way to get to Maho.

Ok, much to my surprise, this is where the adventure began. The gangway was on Deck 3, and there is a narrow corridor with an escalator going down. There are no stairs, and no elevator that I could find. I went down the escalator and found an island map first, then I looked up and saw a lady in uniform, who I assumed was the “Port & Shopping Guide”.

Problem Number 1 – She was on the OTHER side of the kiosks where you scan your Seapass card on the way out. My problem was that I didn’t want to leave the ship at this time. So I called out to the lady and asked her to come over to me. And she did. And I asked her if we had time to get to Maho Beach and what’s the best and safest way to get there.

Problem Number 2 – Miss Port & Shopping Guide didn’t speak much English. So I don’t think she ever really understood exactly what I was asking. She eventually told me (it was close to 10am by now) that we had better hurry if we’re going because we may not make it back to the ship on time. She said it takes 45 minutes to get there and the same back and sometimes the traffic gets bad and someone almost missed the ship a few cruises ago and. And. And. So I turned to head back up to our cabin to round everyone up, and discovered…

Problem Number 3 – The only way onto and off of the ship was via the escalator. Yes, THAT escalator. The one in the narrow corridor that was presently only going DOWN. I looked around and assessed my dilemma. The men scanning Seapasses wouldn’t make eye contact with me. Miss P&S Guide was of no assistance. I couldn’t see any other doors that might lead to stairs or an elevator. And I didn’t want to leave the ship, just so I could come back on (assuming there was an entrance gangway somewhere else). There was a kind passenger standing near the stand with all the brochures for discount diamonds at the bottom of the escalator, so I asked her if she saw a way back up. Her reply was “no, and my husband couldn’t find one either, so he just ran backwards up the escalator to get something we forgot. Good luck with your flip flops.”

Lovely. I looked down at my feet and thought for a minute – which is less dangerous? Wearing flip flops, or trying this barefoot? Ultimately I decided my cushy flip flops would be more comfortable than bare feet hitting the sharp edges of the brand new escalator. So off I ran – UP the DOWN escalator. It was clicking at a pretty quick pace downward, and in order to make any forward progress, you have to run at least 2x if not 3x as fast up as it is going down. Luckily nobody was trying to come down, or I would have had to knock them over. So I trucked it up those escalators, finally reaching the top.

I stopped for a moment and caught my breath, then took the express elevator up to our cabin.

At this time, I was done. I had had my St Maarten adventure, and had gotten my workout in for the day. It was time for either a nap or a frosty beverage. But my crew had other plans…

 

[Curtis McCrea]

Loving the report. Can't wait for more!

 

[swwake]

Loving the report. Can't wait for more!

More on the way - with PHOTOS!

 

[swwake]

When I got back to the cabin, I filled Chris in on everything and told him I was going to still find a way to do this. I wanted to get more information, so I was headed to Guest Services. I told him to get the girls and meet me at the gangway at 10:30.

So I went to Guest Services, stood in line, and asked the best way to get to Maho Beach and whether it was feasible at this hour (the All Aboard time was 4:30pm for a 5pm departure). The lady there said she had no clue and that I should check with the person at the gangway. I told her that Miss P&S Guide was of little help, and I was not interested in running the escalators backwards again. She then directed me to the Explorations! Desk.

At that desk, I finally got an answer I felt was reasonable. The crew member told me that a taxi is the best way to get there, it takes about 20 minutes, there will be taxis available at Maho to bring us back at our leisure, and that we should have time to explore Philipsburg on the way back to the ship with plenty of time to spare. That was all good news.

I was hungry, and I knew the rest would be as well, so I quickly stopped by the Mondo Coffee Bar and picked up two chocolate éclairs for myself and the girls, and a tuna salad sandwich for Chris. I got to the gangway level at the same time as they did, and we all scarfed down our little snacks before heading down my favorite escalator.

Off the ship and ready for St Maarten

We made our way through the pier shops and out to the taxi stand. It took a few minutes for us to figure out which taxi we needed and how to get on it. There was a guide there, but very little communication. It was an $8 per person trip to Maho Beach. The drive was very nice and quite scenic.

We thought St Maarten was beautiful. All the colors blend well with the beautiful ocean.

As promised by Mr. Explorations!, we arrived at Maho Beach after only about 20 minutes. By this time, we were very hungry and decided to have our lunch at pretty much the only place out there – Sunset Bar and Grill.

I didn’t ask.

We didn’t take much video or many pictures when we first got there, because I kept thinking there would be more opportunities later, but unfortunately, those opportunities didn’t arise while we were there. More on that later.

Back to Sunset Bar and Grill. I had a hot dog and fries, as did Caitlin. I can’t remember what Chris had, but it was likely something overly healthy, like fish, and I don’t remember what Katie had either. All of us agreed that this food was surprisingly good. The food and drinks were overpriced, but when you’re the only game in town, you can do that. The service and atmosphere made up for that, though. The servers were very personable and attentive.

Maho Beach is famous because it is very close to and perpendicular to the only runway of the island’s only airport. We are talking less than a football field here. I would recommend that you look up Maho Beach on You Tube, then map it out on Google Maps and see the satellite image. It is unbelievable.

There are very prominent signs on the beach stating, in both words and pictures, that it is dangerous and you shouldn’t stand in the line of the jet blast. We watched as a jet took off and many people were standing on the beach watching. When the engines got going, the sand was blasted out into the ocean, and bodies were literally rolling down the beach. It is unbelievable that people would stand in this jet blast. I really wish we had gotten video of this. We talked about the fact that no beach like this in the US would ever allow people out on the beach, for fear of lawsuits.

While we ate our lunch, a cloud came over and a pretty heavy rainfall was there. We watched as planes on approach were diverted, and eventually there was no flight activity until the storm passed.

We did some serious multitasking while waiting for the little storm cell to pass. Foo was along for the ride.

As you can see, Foo was enjoying a Cloud 9, watching the rain pass over the beautiful ocean and beach, and watching the US defeat Algeria in the World Cup on the TVs around the restaurant. We didn’t mind the rain – it made for a very relaxing afternoon.

Once the rain stopped, we went out to the beach to watch some planes land. I do have some video, but have only uploaded one to my Facebook so far. Maybe you can see it if I link it. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=448210136787&saved#!/video/video.php?v=448210136787

Here is a shot of Katie getting a haircut.

They had a nice little gift shop with some pretty creative t-shirts, so we bought a couple before leaving. Then we hailed a taxi and headed to Philipsburg.

 

[Curtis McCrea]

Great photos.

 

[swwake]

A note about the taxis at Maho Beach – you need to plan for a bit of a wait here. Talk to the “guide” at Sunset Bar & Grill about hailing a cab for you. We waited 20-30 minutes for our cab.

For $7 per person, the cab (van) took us to downtown Philipsburg. We hopped off the cab and found our way to another outdoor market similar to St Thomas. The girls shopped for a few minutes, then we made our way into the town. I just loved how cute Philipsburg is, with the cobblestone streets.

This shot was along the beach.

It continued to rain off and on while we were in Philipsburg. It’s interesting that this didn’t dampen our spirits. I remember being in Barbados in the early 80s and it rained all day at that port and all I remember is the rain. The rain didn’t take away from St Maarten at all. We just thought it was very quaint and pretty.

We stopped in a shop and bought a couple of pretzels, which were really good. We noticed that the native currency was the “FL”. We asked about that, and the clerk said that is the “Floren”, or Dutch currency of the Netherland Antilles.

Here’s a photo of the beautiful Oasis from Philipsburg’s beach.

About the beach – I would say that this beach was very nice, so close to the ship. We had thought about going to Orient Beach, and I’m sure it’s beautiful, but I would say that if you’re looking for a beach, where there are other activities (shopping, local culture, bars) within reach, the beach right there near the pier is just fine.

Caitlin had promised to bring some Caribbean sand back to some friends, so she partially filled an Evian bottle with some sand, only to be confiscated and trashed when we went through security to board the ship. Not surprising, and I did warn her, but a word to the wise.

Also, there are inexpensive water taxis (I think $6 per person for all-day round-trips) to and from the ship and Philipsburg. We didn’t choose to take the water taxi, as we preferred to walk and explore.

We walked back to the pier. It’s scenic and just a nice stroll.

Near the pier, after the point where you have to show your ship’s room key (in this case, Carnival or RCI), there are lots of nice, modern shops. There was also a pavilion with a steel drum band, which I stopped to watch for a bit. I just love steel drums.

Next up – back onboard – Flowrider again(?) and evening activities

 

[Curtis McCrea]

Can't wait till the next part!

Curtis

 

[swwake]

Back at the beautiful Oasis

From our balcony – isn’t St Maarten gorgeous?

Here is one more, and you can tell we were a little behind the first hump – this photo looking toward aft.

Unfortunately, we didn’t choose to ride the Flowrider this afternoon. I think it was about 4:30 when we got back onboard.

Since we didn’t do the Flowrider, two days in a row, we decided we wanted to do another group lesson. We went to sign up, and they were sold out for the rest of the cruise. So we put 1-2 of us on a waiting list and they told us to check in at the sports desk any time we were up that way.

I can’t remember what we did before dinner. After dinner, we had reservations for the ice show, Frozen in Time. I don’t have any pics. I think maybe they didn’t allow photography, but I’m not sure. The show was pretty good. It was a tribute to Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales. I believe there were 6 or 7 of them depicted. I remember the Snow Queen, the Red Shoes, Little Mermaid and Ugly Duckling. The skating was impressive, but there were quite a few bobbles and falls. The costumes were great. I think the music was pre-recorded.

Everyone mentions the sand artist. Before the cruise, I thought maybe this was someone who built sand castles on the ice or something. But it’s actually a lady who uses her hands to “draw” artwork on a glass or acrylic window/table. It looks like there is a light projected on the table from below, and a camera projects this onto a big screen for the audience to see what she is doing. She is very talented and moves very quickly. It is truly amazing what she can do.

I should also mention that in Studio B there is a bar along one of the back walls. So, for those who would like a cocktail during the show (or Quest), it’s available.

There are sections of the Frozen in Time show where the skaters actually come up into the aisles in the audience, and at one point they pull some kids from the audience. I’m sure this is a very cool experience for the kids.

After the Frozen in Time show, we walked through the Royal Promedade and caught part of the 70s dance party. A few photos.

There’s Cruise Director Richard Spacey as the Indian from the Village People.

And again as Austin Powers

The dance party was lots of fun, with great music and a fun vibe. We stood at Sorrento’s and had a great view, but this was one of the few times we felt it was crowded on the ship.

Next – late night on Oasis, and Thursday At Sea

 

[mumom95]

Still love the trip report!!

 

[Seahunt]

Well, only one couple on our taxi elected Coki Beach, and when we pulled in there (the first beach stop), it looked dirty and run-down from the outside, and there were police officers all around for some reason.

Hmmm, wonder if that's resulting from this death of a 14 year old Carnival Cruise passenger heading to Coki in a safari bus:

A 14-year-old cruise ship passenger was killed Monday during a visit to St. Thomas when she reportedly was caught in the middle of a shootout between warring gangs. The Associated Press reports the girl, Lizmarie Perez Chapparro, was struck by a bullet as she rode with her family on a "safari bus" that ferries tourists across the popular island destination.

The girl and her family arrived in St. Thomas aboard the 2,758-passenger Carnival Victory, which sails out of San Juan. Another cruise ship passenger sustained a minor injury during the shootout, the Associated Press reports.

The tourist bus was hit by gunfire as it was traveling to Coki Point Beach, one of the island's most popular beaches.

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/...st-thomas-killed-during-gang-shootout/99670/1

Ugh. I can't imagine how horrible this would be for all involved.

Cruisemates also shows that the NCL Epic cancelled all it's inagural Coki Beach excursions:

The brand new Norwegian Epic, making its first call to St. Thomas, cancelled all shore excursions going through the Coki Beach area and also offered refunds to any passengers who chose not to go on any shore tour on St. Thomas.

http://www.cruisemates.com/forum/ca...ng-st-thomas-killed-during-gang-shootout.html

I love cruising and reading your great cruise report, and this just makes me remember we all to be aware of safety while cruising too - sometimes on vacation I have taken risks that I probably shouldn't have. For example, using a private taxi in Ocho Rios and the driver would not take us back to the ship until he took us to a shopping place first. Guess he got a kickback from bringing customers there to look at the carved art and other items they had for sale, but it was pretty scary to say no, we didn't want to go and still have him continue on to this remote place like he couldn't hear/didn't understand us.

Almost forgot to introduce my Henry to yours -mine was from the Navigator of the Seas. It was funny to us because we were cruising with friends and his name was Henry too

 

[4nana]

Want you to know I am still following your exciting cruise journey, all your fun adventures and your incredible photos are the next best thing to being there! Your DD is beautiful and so lucky to be given such a wonderful graduation gift! Looks like such a fun vacation for all included!

St Thomas and St Marteen bring back so many great memories of our Disney family C'mas cruise 7 years ago on Magic and also our Liberty of Seas 45th annv cruise last year. Megan's Bay, Coki, Sapphire, and Orient beaches, all so very beautiful . We had a wonderful time at Coki beach, swimming, picnicing, the grands loved adjoining Coral World underwater tank and our men enjoyed parasailing there. Good times and happy memories for sure! It was so very nice and peaceful, so sorry to hear it's gone down hill and a young girl died, hard to believe gangs are in that area now. What's this world coming to

 

[swwake]

Still love the trip report!!

Thanks for sticking with me. I am slowly but surely getting to the end...

Hmmm, wonder if that's resulting from this death of a 14 year old Carnival Cruise passenger heading to Coki in a safari bus:

Ugh. I can't imagine how horrible this would be for all involved.

Cruisemates also shows that the NCL Epic cancelled all it's inagural Coki Beach excursions:

I love cruising and reading your great cruise report, and this just makes me remember we all to be aware of safety while cruising too - sometimes on vacation I have taken risks that I probably shouldn't have. For example, using a private taxi in Ocho Rios and the driver would not take us back to the ship until he took us to a shopping place first. Guess he got a kickback from bringing customers there to look at the carved art and other items they had for sale, but it was pretty scary to say no, we didn't want to go and still have him continue on to this remote place like he couldn't hear/didn't understand us.

Almost forgot to introduce my Henry to yours -mine was from the Navigator of the Seas. It was funny to us because we were cruising with friends and his name was Henry too

I heard and ron the cruise a few weeks after our cruise. But it did remind me that the area was rough and we were wondering about the police presence. I thought they may just have been checking for drugs, or monitoring against illegal sale of drugs.

That story is so sad. The girl was a Puerto Rico native, and her ship sailed from it's PR home port. She was on her quinciniera vacation with her family, and would turn 15 on the cruise. I cannot even fathom what that family is going through.

The owner of the tour we took is on Facebook and he is traumatized over this. People are canceling tours with him. He will no longer stop at Coki Beach. Also, Royal Caribbean has suspended all Coki stops and tours.

Oh, and on a lighter note - thanks for introducing your Henry!!

Want you to know I am still following your exciting cruise journey, all your fun adventures and your incredible photos are the next best thing to being there! Your DD is beautiful and so lucky to be given such a wonderful graduation gift! Looks like such a fun vacation for all included!

St Thomas and St Marteen bring back so many great memories of our Disney family C'mas cruise 7 years ago on Magic and also our Liberty of Seas 45th annv cruise last year. Megan's Bay, Coki, Sapphire, and Orient beaches, all so very beautiful . We had a wonderful time at Coki beach, swimming, picnicing, the grands loved adjoining Coral World underwater tank and our men enjoyed parasailing there. Good times and happy memories for sure! It was so very nice and peaceful, so sorry to hear it's gone down hill and a young girl died, hard to believe gangs are in that area now. What's this world coming to

Thanks for following and thanks for the compliments on my Katie. I'm biased but I think she's beautiful. She is an only child and knows and appreciates how lucky she is.

Sounds like you have had some wonderful vacations to St Thomas and St Maarten! I want to go back!

 

[swwake]

After the 70s party, we went to Dazzles for awhile. We found the drinks there to be pretty good. We were early getting there, but within just a few minutes, it started getting crowded. The 70s music and party continued late into the night. Dazzles was good for us because they did not limit the age, and Caitlin, at 17, could get in.

Dazzles is 3 stories high, but only the first two floors have seating. The bar is on the first level. Behind the bandstand is a huge window that looks out over the boardwalk. The dance floor is color-changing acrylic squares. Here is a photo.

The next day, Day 6, was a day at sea. If you can remember WAY back at the beginning of this report, I was pretty upset on Day 3 when, for our first day at sea, the Flowrider times were limited due to filming a commercial for Allure. At that time, I had been told that the filming might continue on Thursday, Day 6. But, to my delight, when I received my Cruise Compass the night before, I saw that both Flowriders were open all day Thursday. I was pretty excited.

Thursday morning, I got up and headed on to the Flowrider. I grabbed a banana somewhere along the way (maybe Park Café?). It was about 9:30 by the time I got to the Flowrider, if I remember right. Chris ended up joining me a little later. The girls (all three of them) slept in.

At about 1:00, Kellye found us at the Flowrider and said that she had promised the girls we would meet for lunch at Johnny Rockets at 1:30. So, off we went.

I don’t know if Johnny Rockets takes reservations, but there was a 20-minute wait when we got there. We looked up and saw many tables outside and asked about them, and the hostess said “oh, you want to sit outside? We can seat you now.” I thought that was a little weird. It was hot out there, but there were umbrellas and it wasn’t unbearable.

While waiting for the others to meet us, Kellye and I ordered 2-for-1 milkshakes using our Crown & Anchor coupons. They also brought out all-you-can-eat fries and onion rings.

The food was pretty good, and a nice change from the Wipe Out Café we’d been eating most of the week for lunch. The atmosphere was vibrant, although they didn’t sing and dance outside – only inside. But we could see them through the windows. Also, we were eating at the same time that the Belly Flop contest was happening at the Aqua Theater, so it was loud, and we could see some of the action on the big screens.

After lunch, I went back to the Flowrider, of course. Chris was going to go to the gym because he thought he had lost his Mojo at the Flow, but I talked him into coming back to surf with me. Kellye hit the pool, and the girls went ice skating.

It was sometime on Thursday that one of the readers of my live report on Cruise Critic contacted me and asked if I had seen her son, who is in the Oasis of Dreams show. After some back-and-forth, we figured out that it was Jesse (stage name Mowgli), who is her son. I told her (Barbi) that my girls had a crush on him after seeing him in the show.

So Barbi talked to Jesse and he arranged to meet us just to say hi, and maybe take a photo with the girls. Our first attempt was at 2:45pm at the Aqua Theater, during a practice for the new Splish Splash comedy show. The girls got all dressed up and pretty, and we went to the Aqua Theater to look for Mowgli. We watched a lot of the practice and direction (which was pretty cool as we got to see the director really putting together and fine-tuning the show). But we never saw Jesse.

Here’s one of the huge screens at the theater.

I went to the library real quick (since it was closer to the stern of the ship than our stateroom) and logged in to check the email again. It turns out that we had gotten confused and Jesse was to meet us at 3:45pm. So back we went. (It was getting pretty comical by now.)

Well, we got to watch more of the practice, but later learned that Jesse had to put more time into rehearsal that day than he had expected, and couldn’t break to meet us. I did take a couple of pics of him in practice to send to his mom. Here is just one.

Katie said I was “Creepy Stalker Mom” for taking pictures to send to Jesse’s mom. I thought, if it were my son and he was halfway around the world, I’d want someone to do the same for me.

Here are a couple more pictures around the ship that I got from Kellye’s camera.

Next – Comedy show and "twenty"

 

[swwake]

Thursday night we went to see the comedy show. We got there quite early, about 30 minutes before the 10:30 showtime. Now, we had some other business to attend to. A couple of us needed to run to the restroom. Kellye had to take care of something I can’t remember, and Chris wanted to enter the James Bond trivia contest at the casino, and the entries had to be turned in by 10:30pm. So we showed up on time, with our reservations, and found our seats.

Two of us at a time stayed in our seats, while the others ran the necessary errands. Then we would rotate out. Well, I must admit I got a little frustrated with one of the Cruise Staff when she told me I couldn’t save seats. I told her that I wasn’t saving seats. All 5 of our party had arrived in advance of being on time, and we had a reservation. Each just had something they had to take care of. I don’t consider this saving seats. I think it’s rude and people are “saving seats” when only one in the party shows up and takes up an entire row of prime seating, then the rest of the party shows up right at showtime.

Maybe I was wrong here, and I won’t mind if you let me know you think I was wrong. If so, I certainly want to learn so I won’t be considered rude in the future. Maybe there is a fine line here. Others around us did not have a problem with it and even told me they didn’t understand the cruise staff fussing at me. There was a long standby line, and I got the impression that not everyone was able to be admitted, but again, I had made reservations weeks ahead of time, and we were all present and accounted for 30 minutes before show time. I just think that if there is going to be a policy, it should be clearly communicated somewhere somehow. The only policy we heard/read was to be there 15 minutes before showtime to have our seapass cards scanned or risk losing our seats when they let the standby crowd in 10 minutes before showtime.

Anyway, rant over. Just a minor nuisance and it didn’t ruin our vacation. The show was great. It is rated 18+, and anyone under 18 is welcome, but must be with someone over 18. We enjoyed the show, but it was on par with any local comedy club show we have seen in Austin. But the girls just loved it. I think it may have been their first time to hear adult humor and audience heckling.

Thursday night was the “twenty” party in the Solarium. Chris and I went with Kellye and it was really neat. I remembered the “hourglass” girls from the Liberty of the Seas. These are really cool costumes with hoops at the top and bottom that the girls manipulate around. They pose and stand still for long times. Their entire bodies are covered in a white leotard (including heads and faces). Very hard to describe, and I’m sorry I don’t have pictures of this. But very cool. At “twenty”, they also serve drinks in glowing glasses.

It was warm in the Solarium (and it was raining, so we couldn’t spread out much), and it got very crowded. They had a good DJ from the Scratch DJ Academy, and we had a good time.

Soon enough, it was time for bed. Chris and I wanted to get up early for the advanced stand-up Flowrider on our last day.

Word to the wise – there is a curfew for those under 18 on the ship. Katie and Caitlin were on the Royal Promenade late Thursday night (after 1am), and they were stopped by security. Caitlin was told that she had to go back to her cabin. Even though the rules in the Compass say that those under 18 must be accompanied by an adult after 1am, they wouldn’t allow Katie to be that adult. Again, I think there were miscommunicated rules here. Or mis-enforced. Regardless, Caitlin was happy to head back to the cabin with Katie late that night.

Next – our last day at sea: Will we ever meet Mowgli? And will we get into another Flowrider group lesson?

 

[Irin997]

I've been in the Outer Banks the past week so I just got caught up. Your pics are fabulous and makes me want to go back to St. Maarten. I loved it there!

That should be a fun itinerary. Labadee had changed a lot since we were there in 2007. I saw that they added a pier and even a roller coaster! Cozumel is very fun and has lots of options. I don't know much about Costa Maya. Hope you'll have a great trip! I'm sure you will.

This will be my first Royal Caribbean cruise as the last (and only) cruise I went on was Carnival. My parents love Labadee and are excited to see the changes. In Costa Maya I think I will take DD9 to one of the ruins there. And I think in Cozumel we are swimming with dolphins while the guys play golf.

 

[swwake]

This will be my first Royal Caribbean cruise as the last (and only) cruise I went on was Carnival. My parents love Labadee and are excited to see the changes. In Costa Maya I think I will take DD9 to one of the ruins there. And I think in Cozumel we are swimming with dolphins while the guys play golf.

You'll have to let me know how the cruise goes. I'm sure it will be a wonderful vacation!

 

[swwake]

When we went to bed Thursday night, we had made the decision that we would get up for the “advanced” stand-up surfing at the Flowrider Friday morning. And so we did. We were up before 8am and at the Flowrider, having had a light snack, by 8:15am. All “the regulars” were there. There was a family who we had met earlier in the week who were at the Flowrider most of the time. There were 22- and 20-year-old brothers, along with their cousins, a 15- and a 10-year-old brother/sister. These guys were awesome and very fluid on the Flowrider. Megan had to be the best carver we saw all week. This was only her second cruise to be tall enough for stand-up. She’s just a natural.

That morning, during Advanced, the instructors were interviewing and placing the contestants for the afternoon’s “Best of the Best” competition. All four from this family were participating.

We got some great time in between 8:15 and about 9:45, when the crowds started arriving. We kept checking back at the Sports Desk about the waiting list for lessons, but they were still booked and we were still third on the list. Chris and I ended up just hanging out at the Flowrider all day, leaving only for snacks and restroom breaks.

A couple of times during the day, I checked email, and Barbi was still trying to connect us with Mowgli (Jesse). At one point, we even got a voice message from him in our stateroom (oh, the girls listened to that “sexy Australian voice” two or three times!). But we just weren’t sure how or when we could connect. Jesse was busy working.

During the day, the lines got increasingly long, as everyone on the ship suddenly realized it was their last day and they hadn’t tried the Flowrider. We watched as the same thing happened on the Zip Line.

The contest was held at 4pm, so that is when all public stand-up riding stopped FOR THE WEEK! I was lucky to be the very last rider before the contest. I had my personal best run that day.

Here’s a shot of Chris on the Flowrider.

We stayed and watched the comp and cheered our new friends on. They did lots of very cool tricks like shove-its, switching boards, 360s and beyond, etc. One also was able to balance a cup of water on the front of the board as he rode, and he could also ride blindfolded. The winner was voted by crowd applause. In the end, it was Megan who won. She was simply awesome.

During the contest, Katie mentioned to me that the one regret she had about her vacation was not riding the Flowrider more. And now it was too late…

After the Flowrider closed, we didn’t have much to do (on the OASIS???), and Caitlin wanted to ride the Zip Line, so she and I changed to dry clothes and stood in line. The Zip Line doesn’t require reservations. Your waiver is attached to your Seapass card, so they just swipe it at the front of the line. You are required to wear closed-toed shoes and 100% dry clothes. If you don’t have shoes, you can bring socks, and they will provide shoes.

We were in line for about 90 minutes! While in line, we made plans for the evening. Our plan was to pack up our bags (which had to be out by 11pm, because we were using Luggage Valet), go check out our photos at Focus and buy the ones we wanted, shower, see Come Fly With Me (our 7:30pm reservation) and have dinner at 9. Then we would relax and enjoy our last evening on the Oasis.

My how things can change in an instant!

While we were in the line, about 6pm, an announcement came over the intercom that a whole group Flowrider lesson had just been cancelled and they were calling the waiting list. If you were not in your stateroom, too bad, they were taking walk-ups. So, I jumped out of line (wearing my harness! I must have looked quite silly.) and went to the desk and signed up Chris, Katie, Caitlin and myself. Our group lesson was set for 10pm and I was beyond elated!

Now Katie wouldn’t have to regret not riding the Flowrider. Now, Chris could work on his Flow Mojo.

Now, we had to rearrange our entire evening! Ugh!

Next: A Chaotic Evening, and Mowgli, Where are you??

 

[swwake]

With our group Flowrider lesson scheduled, Caitlin and I were at the front of the line for the Zip Line. When you get up to the front, you are already harnessed, checked, double-checked and triple-checked. They give you a helmet here, and some easy instructions of how to stand, hold on, and land.

Caitlin went first, and Kellye and Katie were on the other end, taking pictures.

Next, it was my turn. I have done the zip lines in Jamaica twice, so I know pretty much how it works. The difference on Oasis is that the way you hold on with your hands is to a “trolley”. It’s a handle with grips like a bicycle, and it hangs from the zip line. This is different from the canopy tours, where you wear gloves with one hand loosely holding on in front and the back hand serving as your “brake”. I knew it would be a piece of cake, and I’m not afraid of heights or speed, so I was ready.

What I wasn’t ready for was my sweaty hands, which had trouble keeping the grip. I worried about this a little bit on the way down, but the ride is so fast, there’s not much time for worry. The other issue I had was that my abs were sore. You see, riding the Flowrider requires a TON of core work, even if you don’t realize it. Any board- or balance-related sport really requires a strong core. So I didn’t realize how sore my abs were after a week of surfing. Well, as soon as I stepped off the platform and was holding on just with my hands, pulling my knees up to my waist as directed, I realized quickly how sore my abs were. So sore that I couldn’t even concentrate on this amazing float over the Boardwalk. All I could think about was how quickly could I land! So, there’s another caution to you all. Do the Zip Line early in your cruse for two reasons: 1 - the lines are shorter, and 2 – if your abs are sore from Flowrider, it will make it a little painful.

Regardless, it was a great experience and lots of fun, and I can now say I have done a Zip Line at sea on the Oasis!

When we go back on Oasis or on Allure, I will surely do the Zip Line again.

Here is another cool photo from the sports deck, overlooking the Boardwalk.

After the Zip Line, we had business to take care of. So we all went to my stateroom to meet Chris, who was coming back from the gym. When I told him we had gotten the group lesson, he was very excited! So we all had to group together and make a plan. This meant we wouldn’t have time for both dinner and the Come Fly With Me show, so we decided to skip the show. Our plan was to take care of all of our errands and packing and have dinner in the Windjammer together.

I got on the computer to check the status of a possible Mowgli Meet-Up. Unfortunately, I had a message from Barbi with the subject line “Too Late?” Basically, she had been in touch with Jesse and we had all figured out that meeting was practically hopeless, due to all of our busy schedules (including Jesse’s rehearsals and training). So I popped her a quick reply that we would be at the Flowrider from 10 to 11 if he had a chance to stop by there. Again, unfortunately, due to the time difference, Barbi was surely asleep by now in Australia. Oh well, at least we got to see Jesse performing and rehearsing earlier in the week. Maybe we will have to book another cruise to meet him in the future…

In the next couple of hours, we packed our bags, sorted out our gratuity vouchers and any extra gratuities (for Katie’s stateroom attendant and our assistant waiter), and went to Focus to go through our pictures.

Focus is very cool. If you are going on Oasis or Allure, you need to know about this. On Day 1, after check-in and before you board the ship, there are booths for the Bon Voyage photo with your group. Even if you don’t want this photo, be sure you take the picture. Take a picture with your entire group, and give the photographer a Seapass card for each stateroom of your party. With this photo, face recognition software is used to save your picture and associate you with your party and your stateroom.

Now, on your Seapass card, there is a “Photo #”. Ours was 17-71 and the girls’ number was different. When you stop by Focus, any time during the cruise, you will find these tall rotating bookcases with binders in them. In our case, our binder was in Bookcase #17 and binder #21. We could pull our binder and all of our party’s photos were filed inside. There are pockets in the front and back of the binder. The way we organized, was we left any photos we didn’t want in the right side pocket. For photos we thought we might want to purchase, we moved them to the left side pocket. Then at the end of the cruise, we could sort through those photos and make our final decisions.

There are some photos that the face recognition software didn’t automatically sort, so they still have the stands along the walls where you can look over them to find yours. You’ll need to do this a couple of times during the week, pull the photos and put them in your binder.

Also, there are several kiosks around Focus (which are usually very busy) where you can insert your Seapass card and view your photos. I found this a little more cumbersome than going through the binder, but maybe I didn’t take the time to really learn how it worked.

As far as purchases, there are a couple of specials. There is a book that you can buy for $99. It is a special Inaugural Season Oasis book and has pages with different categories for various Neighborhoods on the ship, as well as the ports of call. There are some default pictures in the book, and then placeholders for your own personal pictures. The catch here is that you need to have photos in each of the neighborhoods and ports, as they won’t let you substitute. It’s a neat book, in hardback, and thin. A cool keepsake. We did not buy it, though, because we didn’t have pictures taken in all of the different Neighborhoods. If you plan ahead and get your pictures taken during the week, this is very cool.

Another option is the CD offered for $349. This CD will include ALL of your photos in digital form. With 8x10s at $19.99 and 5x7s at $9.99, it doesn’t take long to add up to a total close to $349, so if you are buying lots of photos, this is a bargain. We did not buy that many, however, and because I’m also a Disney fan, I didn’t find this to be much of a bargain. You see, in Disney World, you can buy a Photo Pass for $99 if you purchase in advance. Then you get a CD with all of your photos of your group for that price. Also, before the CD is finalized, you can go online and edit your photos, change them to B&W or Sepia, add borders and captions, etc. I find that much more flexible and affordable than the RCCL option. But I digress.

Here’s one of the photos we bought. Katie says it’s the best picture we’ve ever taken together.

Anyway, we finished choosing and purchasing our photos and moved on to other errands. At some point during the day, there had been a table set out by the pool with a T-shirt sale – 2 for $20 for RCI logo shirts. I bought 4 of these as souvenir gifts for family back home. We also went by the shop on the Royal Promenade and Chris bought a t-shirt and we bought an ornament for ourselves and one for my Mom, who collects the gold ornaments. We always buy the miniature ship ornament for each cruise we take, but unfortunately, they were sold out of the Oasis ones ☹ Another reason I guess we’ll have to go back!

Another purchase we made was in the Star Pier shop down on the Boardwalk. I bought a “Surf the Oasis” t-shirt there. This is a surf shop with board shorts and rash guards, etc. It was the only place I could find a shirt that had any reference to the Flowrider.

Next: Our last evening on the Oasis and Impressions of Windjammer

 

[Tikitoi]

Nice report to read. It makes me even more excited for our upcoming Oasis Cruise. We are going in Oct this year and got a BW Balcony!

 

[swwake]

Nice report to read. It makes me even more excited for our upcoming Oasis Cruise. We are going in Oct this year and got a BW Balcony!

You will LOVE it! Are you going Eastern or Western? We are hitting Liberty for the 3-night also in October!

I think those BW Balcony rooms are pretty awesome. I can't wait to hear how you liked it.