Firefly

Hello Fellow Cruisers!
New to the discussion, but still remembering this cruise like it was yesterday! Sunrise in Cozumel before heading to a Mayan Pyramid climb! Me with my nieces in the Promenade on Oasis of the Seas...and Me left...and my wife (3rd from left) with our "Sea Dogs" and our best friends, Arthur and Kutabi aboard Oasis. All from April 2018. We had a blast with family and friends! 

Just a few...






 

Symphony, Symphony, Jewel, and Anthem

Loving all the pictures, can’t  choose just one favorite from our cruises last year. Sorry for the pic overload.
Our view from our balcony on the first morning on Allure was nothing short of spectacular. 

My sons and nephews had the best time cruising together on Allure.

We fell in love with the water in SXM

The stop in Old San Juan was way too short. Loved the culture and the resilience of the people we encountered there. So sad to see the mark Hurricane Marie left there.

Loved the viewof Allure from Columbus Cove in Labadee.

Time of our life snorkeling in St. Thomas on our Oasis cruise in December. Cannot wait to swim with the turtles again next year on our Symphony cruise.

Our second visit to SXM took us to Pinel Island. Love that place!

We absolutely loved Pinel Island and definitely plan on visiting again the next time we are in SXM. We visited in December as part of our all day boat tour with Coconut Reef. I think there is an official RCCL excursion there, but it’s a bit pricey. Our all day tour wasn’t much more and we got to visit Tintamarre Island, Creole Rock and Maho Beach as well. We never visited SXM before the hurricane, but Pinel Island is still beautiful even after the storm. Both restaurants have been rebuilt and the beaches are back to normal. If we ever stay in SXM for longer than a cruise visit we will definitely spend a whole day or more on Pinel Island.

Hard to pick a favorite so here's a few of Oasis and Grandeur
 

We absolutely loved Pinel Island and definitely plan on visiting again the next time we are in SXM. We visited in December as part of our all day boat tour with Coconut Reef. I think there is an official RCCL excursion there, but it’s a bit pricey. Our all day tour wasn’t much more and we got to visit Tintamarre Island, Creole Rock and Maho Beach as well. We never visited SXM before the hurricane, but Pinel Island is still beautiful even after the storm. Both restaurants have been rebuilt and the beaches are back to normal. If we ever stay in SXM for longer than a cruise visit we will definitely spend a whole day or more on Pinel Island.

We absolutely loved Pinel Island and definitely plan on visiting again the next time we are in SXM. We visited in December as part of our all day boat tour with Coconut Reef. I think there is an official RCCL excursion there, but it’s a bit pricey. Our all day tour wasn’t much more and we got to visit Tintamarre Island, Creole Rock and Maho Beach as well. We never visited SXM before the hurricane, but Pinel Island is still beautiful even after the storm. Both restaurants have been rebuilt and the beaches are back to normal. If we ever stay in SXM for longer than a cruise visit we will definitely spend a whole day or more on Pinel Island.

Oh, I love this post! Apparently we don't take many photos, but I love seeing everyone elses. Here's Maho beach, which I always think is fun and my beautiful girls at the alligator farm
 

Loving all the pictures, can’t  choose just one favorite from our cruises last year. Sorry for the pic overload.
Our view from our balcony on the first morning on Allure was nothing short of spectacular. 

My sons and nephews had the best time cruising together on Allure.

We fell in love with the water in SXM

The stop in Old San Juan was way too short. Loved the culture and the resilience of the people we encountered there. So sad to see the mark Hurricane Marie left there.

Loved the viewof Allure from Columbus Cove in Labadee.

Time of our life snorkeling in St. Thomas on our Oasis cruise in December. Cannot wait to swim with the turtles again next year on our Symphony cruise.

Our second visit to SXM took us to Pinel Island. Love that place!

All ships of any size can be influenced by sea conditions.  If you felt it more on this sailing, it isn't because you were on an Oasis class ship, but because that it how the ocean was behaving on this sailing.
There is a lot more to it than just wind or waves.  The two are not always coming from the same direction and the direction and speed of the ship relative to wind and the sea conditions are factors in the perception of motion and how it feels on board.
It's possible to have wind and following seas (wind and waves coming from behind the ship) but a distant storm in a completely different direction is producing a swell that originates hundreds of miles away and produces a sea condition that causes the entire sea to rise and fall slowly in an almost imperceptible manner.  I call that a slow roller because it's like a very slow and gentle rise and fall of the sea but covering a much larger area compared to a smaller wind driven waves that may be present.  
When the whole sea is rising and falling even the largest ships rise and fall with it.  They aren't massive waves that are high and obvious rather just a slow and spread out swell.  
If the ship was heading perfectly straight into this swell, the motion would be of a porpoising like action where the front and back rise and fall at different times (pitch).  When the ship is moving in a direction at an angle relative to this swell it can cause the front and back of the ship to move at different times causing the subtle side to side feeling (roll).  
Captain Rob recorded some videos played on the Symphony TV system during the transatlantic sailing this past fall.  He explained the sea factors that can create a feeling of motion in this video starting around the 7:30 mark into the video:
I shot this next video as a time lapse.  Even though there were no waves to speak of (the sea looks quite calm) there was a swell coming from the remnants of Hurricane Oscar hundreds of miles away to our North West.  When played back in real time the time lapse makes it much easier to see the swell of the sea.  When viewed live and in person the swell is nearly undetectable.
As Captain Rob explained you might have one swell coming from the North and a second swell coming from a different storm hundreds of miles away to the South.  These "slow rollers" can create a feeling of motion and depending on the angle relative to the ship heading, it can cause a pitching movement (front to back) or a rolling movement (side to side).  
Bottom line - you felt it more on this Oasis sailing because of the sea conditions that you just happened to sail under compared to other cruises.  Any ship big or small is influenced by sea swell.  
 
 

On approach to Kings Wharf. The Norweigan Dawn is already there.

"Civil Twilight" in Alaska. This was around 10:30 PM.

Loving all the pictures, can’t  choose just one favorite from our cruises last year. Sorry for the pic overload.
Our view from our balcony on the first morning on Allure was nothing short of spectacular. 

My sons and nephews had the best time cruising together on Allure.

We fell in love with the water in SXM

The stop in Old San Juan was way too short. Loved the culture and the resilience of the people we encountered there. So sad to see the mark Hurricane Marie left there.

Loved the viewof Allure from Columbus Cove in Labadee.

Time of our life snorkeling in St. Thomas on our Oasis cruise in December. Cannot wait to swim with the turtles again next year on our Symphony cruise.

Our second visit to SXM took us to Pinel Island. Love that place!

Loving all the pictures, can’t  choose just one favorite from our cruises last year. Sorry for the pic overload.
Our view from our balcony on the first morning on Allure was nothing short of spectacular. 

My sons and nephews had the best time cruising together on Allure.

We fell in love with the water in SXM

The stop in Old San Juan was way too short. Loved the culture and the resilience of the people we encountered there. So sad to see the mark Hurricane Marie left there.

Loved the viewof Allure from Columbus Cove in Labadee.

Time of our life snorkeling in St. Thomas on our Oasis cruise in December. Cannot wait to swim with the turtles again next year on our Symphony cruise.

Our second visit to SXM took us to Pinel Island. Love that place!

Loving all the pictures, can’t  choose just one favorite from our cruises last year. Sorry for the pic overload.
Our view from our balcony on the first morning on Allure was nothing short of spectacular. 

My sons and nephews had the best time cruising together on Allure.

We fell in love with the water in SXM

The stop in Old San Juan was way too short. Loved the culture and the resilience of the people we encountered there. So sad to see the mark Hurricane Marie left there.

Loved the viewof Allure from Columbus Cove in Labadee.

Time of our life snorkeling in St. Thomas on our Oasis cruise in December. Cannot wait to swim with the turtles again next year on our Symphony cruise.

Our second visit to SXM took us to Pinel Island. Love that place!

Aruba a couple weeks ago. ❤️ 

I'll have to follow suit with our first ever cruise (Mariner back in '13 I believe.  Was her last tour in the US before heading out to Asia at the time.  Oh to be young and clean shaven once again lol
 




 
 

Here are my favorites from this past week on Mariner.  Yes,  one is just a chicken.  I was the one wandering the island desperately searching for wildlife.  I did manage to catch sight of the chickens (admit it, she's looking pretty sassy), I found an iguana, and I saw several pelicans roosting (yep, I'm THAT nerd).

These have to be some of my favorites. Something about the AquaTheater at night I love.
Allure


Symphony


 

Here’s a few from Harmony:

You said just for fun.

Mariner