Trip Itinerary

7-night Itinerary from Ft. Lauderdale, calling at St. Thomas, St. Maarten and Nassau

Oasis of the Seas!

In late November, our own George and Els Delanoy had a chance to sail on the Oasis of the Seas - the largest cruise ship ever built that has just entered service with Royal Caribbean.

She's such a unique and spectacular ship that we're sharing their comments from their trip:

First, a few facts about the "hardware":  The 220,000 ton, 5,400 passenger ship, is the widest and tallest ship afloat,   As a point of comparison, the Titanic was 46,000 tons and the previous record holder, RCI's Freedom of the Seas  is 154,000 tons.  There are 2,700 staterooms (37 different categories) and seven distinct, innovative "neighborhoods".

The news is not just the size, but the architectural design of the ship with a split superstructure, with cabins on each side and a wide, open "spine" in the center.  This enabled RCI to build the ship's most interesting and unique features, the Royal Promenade, the Boardwalk and Central Park outdoor "neighborhoods".

The Royal Promenade's most interesting feature is Rising Tide Bar, with cruisers sipping their drinks as their bar rises from deck 5 to deck 8.  You can virtually walk the entire length of the ship on the Promenade, with 24 elevators in 2 banks at each end.  As you exit the elevator a nice technological addition is a touch screen where you enter your cabin number and it provides directional arrows to direct you.

Central Park (with over 12,000 plants and trees - but no grass), offers winding stone walkways, ideal for couples sitting under the trees sipping coffee or a cocktail with lighting that matches the time of day.  Most of the ship's fancy restaurants are here, with both inside and outside tables.  Near the center is the Trellis Bar, for a post-dinner drink, Giovanni's Table and Vintages wine cellar, along with an upscale Coach store and the Oasis art gallery.

In stark contrast is the Boardwalk neighborhood, with Coney Island shops and inexpensive dining, but with the emphasis on entertaining activities:  There are two rock climbing walls (four decks high), a carousel, and the Aqua Theater with a cast of 20 acrobats, swimmers and high divers who do their thing to the accompaniment of 250 water jets (ala Bellagio in Las Vegas).  The 15 ft. deep performance pool has hydraulic lifts, allowing the pool to rise and fall for the needs of the performer.  The diving boards are at 10 and 18 meters.

Looking up from the Boardwalk you can see the zipliners on the top deck.  This neighborhood, the Pool and Sports zone on decks 16 and 17 includes a beach pool and regular pool, miniature golf course, 2 flowriders (surfing challenges), a full basketball court and the aforementioned zipline.