Oasis of the Seas Review
Good Cruise – Sailing with 3 Year Old Toddler; Aquanuts Review Included
Rating by category
Additional details
No matter what I say in this review, let me start by saying that I only want to sail on the Oasis from now on. This was my first time on this ship and had an overall good vacation. I sailed out on 09-17-2016 from Fort Lauderdale for the Easter Caribbean. I did not experience crowding like others claim to be. One time there was line for the Windjammer on the very first day of boarding but other than that, I did not see lines for anything. Maybe because I have realistic expectations being on a ship with 5,000 other people.
Embarking/Disembarking:
I never had any problems so I don’t understand the other reviews. This was the first time that I did the express check out because we had a flight back to NYC at 11:30am. I could not risk disembarkation lines, custom lines, searching for my luggage, etc. on such a tight timeline so I just dragged my stuff off and took a cab to the airport. I recommend it if you can stand being kicked off the ship by 8:00a.m.
Cabin Review
Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony
See my full review for opinion on cabin
Port Reviews
Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades)
We stood at the Hampton Inn & Suites Ft. Lauderdale Airport/South Cruise Port. It was very mediocre.
Nassau
I did not schedule any kind of excursion because I felt it was a rip off considering that we had to be back on the ship by 1:30p.m. I wanted to go back to the British Colonial Hilton Nassau but again, the way my family runs, we would have been only there an hour and a half and its just not worth it. So we just walked around the port and hopped back on the ship for a nap.
St. Thomas
I decided to wing it and take a taxi to Magens Bay. The taxi was $8pp and then there is an entrance fee to the beach of $5pp. The beach is beautiful and family friendly. Here is the thing, you can rent beach chairs for around $12 each from the concession stand store. Then you have to step outside to where the beach chairs are stored. The guys will help you moving the chairs but they will let you know that they work for tips (fair enough). There is NO UMBRELLAS so everyone is fighting for a tree spot. This is the one drawback about the beach. They also have bathrooms and changing areas but there is only three stalls each! Ugh. It takes a while to get all that wet stuff off and the dry stuff on. The lines for the bathrooms was out the door. But the ocean was wonderful and clear of seaweed. So go but plan accordingly.
St. Maarten
My daughter was under the weather so we didn't do much except take the water taxi to the shopping areas. And we couldn't walk around as much as we wanted because there was a downpour. So St. Maarten was just okay this time around.