We have sailed with Royal for 7 years on the smallest ship (Majesty) and the Largest (Oasis and Allure). This was our second sailing on Oasis. We found that Royal has upgraded the food and service in the MDR compared to our Allure sailing in 2014. The quality and selection was much better. Additionally, Royal has added a mixologist to the bar staff overseeing all the bartenders so there was a quality and consistency to every drink in every bar. We were very lucky in that we had perfect weather, no wind and no even mildly rough seas. We did not get off the ship at Nassau given we arrived at 7:00 am and had a 2:00 pm departure. But, being on the ship with so many people off was a real pleasure in that there were no crowds at the pools. IF you have been at some of the ports and want a relaxing day I would recommend staying on the ship. We did excursions at St. Thomas and St. Martin (Marteen). Both were island tours as we had a family member with us who had difficulty walking. The St. Thomas excursion was poorly organized, started late and was not very interesting. The St. Martin excursion was a similar tour but was very well organized and provided extremely interesting facts about the island. As with Allure the embarkation and debarkation were very easy. We used the luggage valet service on our the Oasis sailing (you need to have a later flight) and it makes getting off the ship very easy.
We stayed on the ship at Nassau given we arrived at 7:00 am and had a departure at 2:00 pm. It was great being on the ship with so many people on shore, there were no problems in getting a chair in the Solarium and trying one of the restaraunts.
We arrived in Fort Lauderdale the day before the cruise and stayed at the Embassy Suites (booked through Royal). Most of the cruise hotels are within 15 minutes of the cruise port so there are no issues in getting to the ship.