Tag: balcony

Oasis of the Seas: Day 6 in Cozumel!

Our final stop on this cruise was in Cozumel, a port we’ve been to several times in the past. Normally we use this as a beach day and just grab a cab to one of the local resorts, but having already spent a day on the beach in Labadee this time, we decided to try a dune buggy excursion through a supplier we’ve used in the past for both clients and ourselves, ShoreTrips.

The ship docked pretty early, and started allowing people to get off at about 8:15. We weren’t scheduled to meet our tour guide until 11am ship time (10am local time), so we hung out and ate breakfast at the MDR before getting off to check out a few of the local shops. It was pretty humid, and none of us really had the patience to walk all of the port shops in that heat, so after picking a couple of things up, we grabbed a cab to the Hotel Cozumel and Resort where we were scheduled to meet our guides ($12 for 5 people for the cab ride).

On arrival, our guides Omar and Ronny from Cozumel Buggy greeted us and led us over to some seats in the lobby. Once we got all checked in with them and they went over what the tour entailed, they led us and the two other groups to our buggies. These things were pretty cool, just note that whoever is going to drive needs to be able to drive a stick, all of their buggies have 4-speed manual transmissions.

We started with a drive out of the city, following Omar all the way, and eventually ended up driving along the incredibly scenic coastline before stopping at a little resort for about 30min of beach time. Here you can order food and drink if you want, but you do have to pay for it. The guide carries water and soda in his buggy that’s included, so we didn’t choose to buy anything, we just hung out in the ocean for a while:

After the beach break, we got back in the buggy and drove down the coastline a little more before stopping at El Cedral for some Mayan history. The guide gave us a talk on the history of the town, and took us for a little traditional Mayan food. We also had the chance to take pictures next to a Mayan temple and purchase some items from local vendors.

Next up, we drove around the remainder of the island’s coastline and back to the hotel we started at. That brought us to the last parts of the excursion, snorkeling and lunch, in that order. The snorkeling itself was just okay, as you hop in the water from a pier across the street and swim out in to a rocky shoreline area. We did see some small fish and a couple of rays, but it was pretty choppy, and I think the three of us were pretty well spent by the time we got back to the pier and got out.

After getting out and dried off, it was time for lunch. We ate at the hotel’s buffet and were served fajitas, along with a few sides. They cooked up both beef or chicken, but ran out of chicken near the end of the line. I had the beef, which wasn’t bad, but the fries on the buffet were pretty cold. Oh well, for the most part I think everyone got filled up before we called it a day and grabbed cabs back to the boat.

We were all pretty worn out, and decided to skip dinner in the MDR, as nothing on the menu really seemed worth getting cleaned up and dressed up for. We had tickets to Come Fly With Me, the acrobatic show, so we hit that up at 8:30. It was a pretty good show, save for the singing.

After the show ended, we headed to Johnny Rockets. This isn’t free for lunch or dinner, but at dinner you pay a $6.95/pp cover charge and can eat whatever you want on the menu. Soda and water are included, but shakes and anything with alcohol is extra. I had the Route 66 burger while Bayley had the grilled cheese, and we both ordered the bacon cheese fries. Yummy… I have a lot of working out to do after we get home to burn all this off…

That about covers day 6. I’ll try and get my recap of our final day aboard the Oasis done tomorrow, with a post on our disembarkation experience and final thoughts a few days later after we’ve had some time to decompress and put our thoughts on the sailing together.

Oasis of the Seas: Day 5 at Sea!

Our second sea day was a mixed bag for me. I can’t really explain why, maybe it was the “alpha, alpha, alpha” call that happened just after 8am (medical emergency) that put a damper on my mood, but it took me quite a while to get in a “sea day” state of mind. The call happened as we were within sight of Grand Cayman, and we didn’t stop for any evac, so hopefully that means the person in question is okay.

We ate at the MDR for both breakfast and lunch, which turned out to be a pretty good choice. The breakfast menu had some chocolate -themed breakfast items on them. Bayley had the chocolate pancakes and loved them. One of the cool things about eating at the MDR for both meals is that in addition to the menu choices, there’s a buffet you can eat off of too.

Between the two meals, Jen and Bayley took in the “Splish Splash” show in the aqua theater, and came back pretty overheated. The downside of watching a show out there during the day is that you can endure quite a bit of sun any humidity. Good show, just too hot to watch from out there.

Somewhere in there, I went for a stroll on the sundeck, on 14 forward. As mentioned before, it’s a pretty cool place to hang out and enjoy the view. While I’d hate to book a cabin up there due to the additional traffic it draws when in use (port side access only), I really enjoy the serenity it offers:

After lunch, the girls were signed up for a cupcake decorating class in Cups & Scoops on the Boardwalk, so we headed down to get going. The class was pretty cool, and besides them there were a few kids in there enjoying the fun as well. The class lasted just over half an hour, and cost $22/pp. A little pricey, but I get it, they’d be overwhelmed with people wanting to do it for the free cupcakes if they didn’t charge. Regardless, they had a blast, and each made froggy cupcakes!

After a bit of a rest, we headed to the Opal theater for bingo. I expected this to be a letdown after the fun that was the Bingo Boys on the Divina, and wasn’t wrong. We didn’t even end up playing. After standing in a ridiculously slow moving (and poorly managed) line outside the theater for bingo cards, we discovered that the cheapest package was $44. Uh, what? We just wanted to play one card and have a little fun, but had no intention of spending that much, so we left.

We decided to get ready for dinner (our final formal night) a little early so we could make the 5pm round of general knowledge trivia. Sadly, no win this time. Following our trivia loss, we headed up to the sundeck to take a few pictures of Bayley up there in her formal night outfit. There was next to no wind, and the observation decks up there made for a perfect backdrop:

Dinner was once again quite delicious, as I had some tasty prime rib. The highlight of the menu, however, was the dessert, which included baked Alaska and grand marinier soufflé. The latter was incredibly good, to the point that Bayley and I wish that’s what we’d had for each course ;).

We capped off the night with a quick picture with Po from Kung Fu Panda, followed by the ice show, Frozen in Time. It was a pretty good show, especially the part with the sand painter. I’m always amazed when I see that done, as I find it to be an incredible art. The performer last night was incredibly talented, as were all of the ice skaters.

We were all pretty dead at that point, and with Cozumel on tap the next morning, decided to call it a night. Sadly, we’re entering the home stretch here, with only a couple of days before we have to return home. Keep an eye out for my next post though, our day in Cozumel promises to be really fun!

Oasis of the Seas: Day 4, Visiting Jamaica!

Going in to the cruise, I think we all were a bit apprehensive about stopping in Jamaica. Our only other visit to the island was 8 years ago on an NCL cruise, and it ended with a pretty serious injury to one of my daughter’s hands due to negligence on the part of the zip line operator. That was also the cruise where we saw that if you’re late coming back from a cruise line sponsored excursion, they will in fact wait for you. Due to the injury we were an hour late getting back to the ship, and obviously the last tender from shore before departure.

On this stop, things couldn’t have ended any differently. We booked an excursion through Royal that took us to Dunn’s River Falls for a climb up the falls, followed by a lunch stop at some resort, and ending with a 35-minute river tubing trip. There were a couple of lows, but overall we had a lot of fun!

After getting off the ship and meeting at the designated location for our tour, we were broken up into two groups of ~15 for the bus ride. It was nice not being packed into some large tour bus, the small groups were perfect. On departure, they told us they were changing the order, and that we’d do the falls first, so that we could avoid the larger crowds that show up later in the day. That was fine with us. After about an hour of riding in the bus, we arrived at the falls to a mostly-empty parking lot. There were a couple other small tours there, but the place never felt overcrowded.

After getting all checked in, we were assigned a guide and videographer and were led to the bottom of the falls. For those who have never done this, it’s really not that hard. They scrub the path every morning to keep it from getting slippery, and are always pointing out the best spots to step on the way up. Now, there are times that your group has to hold hands and form a human chain while climbing, but overall it was pretty easy to get around. The guide was great, and while the videographer did a good job of capturing everyone along the way, we chose not to pay the $40 for the DVD, as I had my GoPro with me.

After the climb, they lead you back to the bus through the little market place there, where you do encounter some pushy shop owners. This is one of my least favorite parts of Jamaica, as we all remembered it having some of the pushiest locals of any port we’ve stopped in, and this area was no exception. After a string on “no thank you” responses, we made our way back to the bus to head out for lunch.

The lunch stop was some little resort along the way where you get access to a buffet with some mediocre eats. Things like jerk chicken, rice, beans, salad, and assorted deserts. One thing to note here, on the way in they give you a very small glass of rum punch. That’s the only free drink you get here. Period. Bring water… Also, a very pushy gentleman will take your families picture on the way in, and try to get you to buy it on the way out for $10. He’s a pretty bad photographer, as a few pics were blurry, and ours was fogged over. Yea, no thanks.

After leaving the resort, we took a short drive to the starting point for the river tubing. This was an absolute blast. The last time we did something like this was in Belize, cave tubing, and we were highly disappointed. That wasn’t what I consider tubing, as they pulled us down the river the entire way, there was zero current. Here, there was plenty of current, with a few small drops along the way. Nothing to fear though, it was really, really fun!

After tubing, we all loaded up in the bus for the long ride back. As we were leaving, it started raining pretty hard, which made the drive back even slower. On arriving back at the port (around 4:30pm ship’s time, if I recall), it wasn’t raining there yet, but was about to start. We walked through a couple of shops and picked up a few small items before heading to the ship right as it started pouring. One nice thing about the enclosed shopping area at the port, the store owners aren’t pushy like they are everywhere else.

Even though we got back pretty close to dinner time and were soaked and tired, we managed to get ready and make it on time, and enjoyed another tasty meal with more excellent service from our wait staff.

After dinner, we headed over to Dazzle for Battle of the Sexes, but the best we could do seating-wise was an upstairs section against the center glass, and even with that view, couldn’t really see a thing. A lot of people seemed to be really unhappy with the views in there, and a number of others left without being able to find a seat. That was a pretty popular game show that was held in a really horrible venue. I think we stuck it out for 10 minutes before we decided to head to the boardwalk so Bayley could take picture with the penguins from Madagascar:

That pretty much did it for the night. Bayley went hunting for a snack, but with some very limited options at 9:30pm (basically Sorrentos and the half a dozen items in the promenade café), chose to skip it. We’re still really surprised at how limited late night snacking is on a ship this size.

Oasis of the Seas: Our Day 3 Stop in Labadee!

Two ports down, one to go! For this post, I’ll focus on day 3, which saw us spending time in Labadee, Haiti. This stop was a first for us. We’d stopped at a Royal-owned private island in the past, Great Stirrup Cay, which we had fun at, but Labadee blew that out of the water.

For this stop, we’d booked spots for the 11:30 zipline time, and planned to just hang out on the beach the rest of the day. After getting off the ship, we headed over to the zipline desk to check in (which you should do right away no matter how late your scheduled time is). After getting the waivers filled out and getting our “flight time” wristbands, we walked over to Columbus Cove to set up camp. We chose this based on other reviews indicating that it’s the least busy of the beach areas due to distance, and were glad we did. It’s a pretty short walk over there if you take the correct path, and when we arrived, one of the attendants arranged some beach chairs beneath a couple of palm trees just a couple of feet from the water for us.

We spent some time hanging out in the water, which was the perfect temperature, and resting on our chairs before heading over to the zipline for our scheduled time. Side note: When we left Columbus Cove, we did leave some of our stuff on our chairs, since we planned on coming back, and nothing was touched while we were gone. Arriving at the zipline area, we did get a locker to store the two bags we carried with us from the beach, and that locker cost $8. Granted, you get access to it for the whole day, but we only used it while we were on the zipline.

Once everyone on your tour arrives, they get you set up with your harness and give a quick talk about what’s going to happen before they lead you over to the practice course. This short run gives you a chance to see how the harness works, what the two positions for flight are (torpedo and sitting up) and how the braking at the end of the run will feel. That part’s a rush in itself due to how fast you stop when you hit the end. Once everyone finishes the practice run, it’s time to load up in the trucks and head up the hill to the top of the real zipline. That’s where the fun really begins 🙂

On arrival, you walk up to the platform area and they split the group in to two sides. You do get to ride with the people in your group/family, as the 5 of us all got to ride at the same time. Just like the practice run, they give you the instructions on how to launch, whether or not you need to change positions in mid-flight (based on weight and the wind speed, you may or may not need to be in “torpedo” the whole way down). Once that’s out of the way, it’s time to fly. I have to say, I’m not a huge fan of heights, but this never once bothered me. Maybe it’s the nature of the harness, or maybe because you have no control over your launch, but this was far more fun than a traditional multi-traverse zipline to me, and standing on and launching off of that big platform didn’t bother me a bit. See for yourself!

After the zipline, we hopped the tram back over to Columbus Cove. On the way there, we got a taste of why that beach is a better option than the ones closer to the ship. When we passed the first set of beaches on the truck up to the zipline and again on this tram, we saw a couple of really long lines for the buffet at that location. Arriving at our beach, there was no wait to get food, and we had no issues getting a picnic table. Seriously, this beach is like a 6-8min walk from the ship if the tram’s not available, and it’s worth it. Far less crowded than the ones right along the main area closer to the ship.

Anyway, we enjoyed the bbq, all provided at no additional cost. Since we have soda packages, we were also able to refill our soda cups at no charge while there. My package includes all non-alcoholic beverages, so I got a virgin Labadoozee for Jen, and purchased one with rum for me. Good stuff!

After lunch, we spent a couple more hours both in the water and laying on our chairs before deciding to call it a day. I have to say, Royal really knows how to get people on and off these large ships. We had no wait to get off right when disembarkation started in the morning, and even though quite a few people were getting on at the same time as us, we got through security fast, and were back in our room in a short matter of time.

Side note – The soda cup that came with my drink package went missing while we were on the beach here, and since I really wanted to keep using the Freestyle machines, I went to guest services to get a replacement. They sent me to the café, where I had to purchase another one for ~$10. I get it, they have no way to know who really lost it/had it stolen vs who’s trying to get an extra soda cup without paying for the whole package, but having to pay another $10 for a replacement didn’t sit that well with me. An easy fix would be to actually tie the chip in the cup to the guest, so if it’s lost it could be deactivated. Then charge a smaller fee if one absolutely has to be charged. Obviously that would mean having to set all bars up with chip readers to be sure cups they’re handed are valid, but still, it seems like a better solution to me.

Anyway, dinner tonight was delicious. It was Italian night, which for me meant some antipasti and lasagna. Both delicious! The sticky bread pudding that accompanied it for dessert wasn’t too shabby either. I have to say, the food and service in the MDR have been outstanding thus far. Can’t say enough good stuff about our waiter Gerson and his assistant Rydon.

We were all pretty tired after a day on the beach, but somehow managed to stay up for “Who wants to feel like a millionaire” and the “Love and Marriage” show. The former was just okay, and since it was held in a bar that was showing game 4 of the NBA finals, there were several ticked off patrons when they turned the game off at the end of the first quarter for the game show, but it happened anyway. The “Love and Marriage” show was pretty funny, and is one of our favorites on any sailing.

That pretty much ended day 3 for us. Next up, my recap of day 4’s stop in Jamaica!

Oasis Of The Seas: Day 2 Is In The Books!

Our first sea day here aboard the Oasis was both fun and frustrating at times. If I’ve learned one thing that needs to be passed on, it’s that anyone sailing a ship in this class needs to ensure they bring a large amount of patience. Between the elevator waits, buffet lines, and overall crowds in some areas, there are times where you really see the downsides of being on such a large ship. So how did the day go? Let’s take a look!

As usual, I woke up early, getting out of bed at 7am, throwing some clothes on, and heading to Windjammer for breakfast. At this point, not many people were up, so the buffet was pretty dead, and I was able to get a good seat:

I was a bit disappointed in the quality of breakfast up here, as the bacon and pancakes were both pretty soft (the pancakes a bit under-cooked). I didn’t even bother with the waffles, as they were way too soft for my liking. This seems to be a common theme with cruise ship buffet waffles, and while I get that it’s hard to cook for this many people, would it kill a line to cook at least one batch of waffles long enough for them to be golden brown?

Regardless, I decided to head for the Promenade to fill my soda cup, as the Freestyle machines in Windjammer were in bad shape (all out of ice, one totally unresponsive to touch). Arriving at the machines outside of Sorrentos, I found one out of both ice and low/no calorie soda, which brings up my next gripe. I understand all too well how these work, so I know they can be problematic, but keeping it full of ice shouldn’t be a big deal (the same one was still out of the same two items at 11am), and as it happens, the machines are set up to electronically inform someone when a soda cartridge is almost empty, so unless they’re not set up right, someone should be pretty aware that servicing is needed. The other machine was fully operational, so I grabbed a Pibb Zero (with ice) and decided to check out the walking/running track on deck 5. Pretty cool use for the space, as I’ve found the equivalent deck on the last couple of ships we were on to be totally dead most of the time. There were quite a few people out there making use of it, too.

After walking it once and strolling around a few other areas, I headed back to the room, where the girls were starting to wake up. After getting ready, they wanted some food, so I walked back up to Windjammer with them. As soon as we arrived, we turned right back around. Yea, if you want to eat at the buffet, get there early. The line of people waiting for a table was pretty long, and considering it was something like 10:30 by now, there’s no way all of them got in before it was switched over to lunch. In our opinion, the Windjammer is way too small for a ship with 6200+ passengers. It’s the smallest buffet of any ship we’ve been on in the last 5 years, which seems really odd considering the passenger count.

The buffet plan thwarted, we headed to the café in Central Park, which turned out to be a good call. There was hardly anyone there, and we were all able to get something pretty quick. It’s not a full buffet, but does offer enough selection to be a decent substitute for waiting in some other line. I ended up getting a bacon egg and cheese biscuit, which wasn’t too bad.

Our lunch over, we did a bit more walking around, including passing back through the Promenade as some “sales” were happening. Wow, the crowd…

At that point we headed up to the zip line area to see if we could get a run on it in, but the line for waivers was ridiculously long, and the zip line had already closed for the morning. Side note here, you’re supposed to be able to sign the waivers electronically on the TV in your room, but it fails every time once you get past the general waiver, at least for us. Oops. Anyway, knowing we’d have to wait in that line to sign up to ride it after it opened back up, we decided to wait on the waivers, too. We were just past the start of lunch at that point, so we headed to the Solarium Café to check out the eats there. All in all, not bad, just more limited choices than what you’d see in Windjammer. Following lunch, we headed to the room to rest up for a bit. We had a few things on tap starting at 2, so getting in a little break sounded good to all of us.

Our schedule this afternoon had us in the Schooner Bar for a couple of hours enjoying some trivia. First up was the progressive, and while we don’t know what score we have currently, felt like we did okay. Following that was brain-teaser trivia, and we ended up being declared co-winners of it after tying another team with a perfect score, followed by both of us getting his only tie-breaker correct. The prizes included highlighters, zipper pulls, and even a backpack/water bottle. In our final round, the cartoon music trivia, we didn’t fare as well, but really weren’t too far off of the winning score (I think we lost by two). Not a bad afternoon, but I will say that we all agree the trivia sessions on the Divina were a lot more fun and lively.

After everything in the Schooner was over, we headed for the boardwalk, where the Daily Planner indicated we’d find some pirate themed stuff going on. Nope. The staff had some kids activities going on, and the performers were practicing in the Aqua Theater, but no pirates were found anywhere. Oh well, we hung out and watched the diving practice. They really are amazing. I have no doubt it takes a lot of guts to jump off those high platforms…

Next on tap was dinner, so we headed back to the room to change. Tonight was the first formal night, too. Dinner itself was good once again, with the highlight for me being the beef tenderloin and the bittersweet chocolate soufflé. Oh, and the birthday cake, which was finally delivered to the table tonight, complete with a round of singing. I have to say, the chocolate celebration cake on Royal’s gift site is absolutely delicious!

After a quick trip to the room to change in to more comfortable clothes, we headed to 4 so Bayley could get a pic with Alex the Lion from Madagascar. Yea, even at 20, she loves character pics! That pretty much capped the night for me, as I was feeling pretty tired. The girls participated in Majority Rules (which they said was “just okay”, again, not as good as on the Divina), and walked around a bit before calling it a night.

Day 3 brings our first stop, Labadee, Haiti, which is Royal’s private island. We’ve got the zip line booked, and plan to enjoy the beach the rest of the day! More to come!