A bit of background--this was a cruise for my son (24) and I. We were celebrating his recent graduation from college and he wanted to go on a cruise. He wanted to go on Oasis for the experience of a big ship. I usually like to cruise for the ports so we had different ideas of what makes a great vacation. I have been on 8 cruises before; but we do like RCCL over most other cruise lines.
We flew to FLL the evening before the cruise and stayed at Riverside Hotel on Las Olas. A nice smaller hotel with charm. Wish we would have gotten in earlier so we could have enjoyed it more, but ate a quick bite at Cheesecake Factory located next door and went to bed so we could get up early.
We woke up and walked around a bit before heading to the port. We walked over the the CVS which is about a 1/2 mile away for a few last minute items. Wouldn't have been bad except it was a bit hot. The hotel arranged for a driver ($25) to the port. We arrived at 11:45. No lines and we were headed on the ship within 10 minutes of arriving for check-in.
I would book as close to mid-ship as possible next time due to the large size of the ship. I still prefer rooms more aft as most of the activities we seem to do are located on the aft portion of the ship!