Being from Houston, we're used to the convenience being 30 minutes from the port of Galveston. However, destinations and ship choices from there are rather limited. Thus we accepted extra airline travel and decided on Oasis of the Seas from Fort Lauderdale with an Eastern Caribbean route to Saint Maarten, San Juan, and Labadie. With less stops, we could relax more or have more time for all of the amenities on this huge ship.

Trying to avoid hassle of flight delay affecting embarkation, we flew into Fort Lauderdale 3 days early. Spent a day in the Keys, a day in South Beach, and a day in Hollywood beach. It was great the morning of cruise as I woke up early and was able to see Oasis arriving in darkness and knew it was coming to "pick us up"!!! We usually want to get on board early so that we can be on the ship as much as possible so scheduled shuttle bus from Marriott Hollywood at 10am. While the port was only 10-15 minutes away, there was extra traffic of people still disembarking so drop off area was extra crowded. At Galveston, this time frame would have been practically empty. Check in luggage drop off was right where the driver let us off so no dragging bags around looking for porters. I'd say we walked in the terminal building around 10:30am. No line for X-ray and taking 2 bottles of wine was no issue. Checking in to get ship ID card took a little extra as we booked 2 rooms with 1 parent with each kid but the kid not in the room with the prime booking parent didn't allow him to be pre-checked in online.

Then it was off to the waiting area where there were 300 or so people already there. Area was sectioned off for by Crown & Anchor levels. The left (facing the ship) was Emerald, Gold, and first timers in the back. The right side was Diamonds, Platinum, and first timers. This is my first complaint. There are 2 gangways to board this ship. The right side door was opened first for Diamonds around 11:10am but the first timers followed and were boarded before the left side door opened. Being Gold, we were last to board. Not a giant deal but just being not organized. We set foot on the ship around 11:30am, not too bad. Read more