Oasis of the Seas Review
Oasis B2B - January 17 (west) and January 24 (east), 2015
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We were fortunate to do a B2B on Oasis for the weeks of 1/17/2015 (western) and 1/24/2015 (eastern). We originally booked Freedom of the Seas, but rebooked to Oasis when FOS had to go into dry dock. Having read many reviews, I was skeptical as to whether or not we would enjoy the huge Oasis, but simply chose to keep an open mind and form our own opinions. We are 50+ and were traveling by ourselves. In the end, we had a fabulous time and would not hesitate to book Oasis or Allure in the future, although we did book our next cruise on Freedom since we missed out this time.
We arrived in Ft. Lauderdale a day early and had an excellent experience at the nearby Marriott Residence Inn. On Saturday morning, we boarded a shuttle for the cruise port. As we drove in, you could not help but be wowed by the vision of Oasis towering over all others in the harbor! The longest wait in the terminal was to get through the security scanners. Even the line for suites was long. Once through that mess, we quickly moved through the terminal and obtained our seapass cards. Boarding had already begun, so we joined the line and quickly boarded the ship.
The entry area was crowded with many confused and awestruck travelers (including us!), but we decided to dodge the crowd and head toward our balcony stateroom on Deck 10. We were pleasantly surprised to find our room ready and waiting before 1 pm! The seapass card unlocked the door, and we headed in to drop off our carry-on luggage. We usually book a junior or grand suite, but this time we decided to try a balcony room to offset some of the cost of cruising B2B. It was definitely smaller than we were used to, but we managed just fine. We are balcony people, so the greatest impact to us was the smaller balcony. We frequently sit out there for coffee, breakfast, afternoon wine and enjoy watching the activities in all of the ports. Our outstanding stateroom attendant, Cora, took excellent care of us for the entire two weeks. It did not appear that she had any help, so I am not sure how she managed to provide such high level service.