As cruise lovers, we booked the Western Caribbean swing on Oasis just to experience the ship. I wanted to see the architecture while the DW worried about all of the people. Following advice from Cruise Critic, I booked all of the entertainment and dining options prior, which, I will admit, took a lot of the fun out of it. We love cruising because of the worry-free nature of it; go to the dinner, go to the show, it all works. Planning how to get this show in with that dinner just made it more stressful than I would have liked. That said, all the research paid off. We ate where we wanted and saw all of the shows without a problem.
We dropped the rental car off at FLL only to find out that the free shuttle service to the port no longer ran. No problem as a cab was immediately available, and cost only $15 with tip. Arrived at the port at 11:30 and were on board within ten minutes. Everyone I've talk to feared check in and it was actually the fastest and easiest in our experience. We walked around to take in the sights and learn what was what. As usual, the rooms were available at 1:00. As is well documented, the ship is beautiful, stunning in places, well-designed and exceeded our already lofty expectations. Yes, the Windjammer is too small, but that led us to discover the Solarium Bistro which ended up as our favorite place to eat. The setting is most attractive and calming and the food was tasty and healthy, words that frequently don't go together.
The cabin (10202) on the 10th deck was the typical balcony layout, but felt slightly larger than usual because of how the closet and desk were designed. If you moved the coffee table to side and used it as an end table, it seemed positively roomy. Even the shower had an extra little bump out in the back which afforded just enough space to allow one to bend over and pick up the soap that you dropped. There was even a bar to raise your foot while washing you leg. We had picked this room in particular because it was on the "bump-out" an architectural feature that made the balcony about twice as large as usual. However, while plenty big enough for lounge chairs, it was only equipped with two standard chairs and a small table. We pleaded with the steward and his supervisor, but they wouldn't change it (as we had on a previous RCI cruise with a similar situation). It made sitting on our balcony uncomfortable for long term reading and thus a waste on the extra money for that particular room. However, this proved to be really the only negative of the cruise.
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