DublinFC

I have no August sailings....yet

We are booked on Brilliance for April 2021 with a stop in Cozumel.  I wouldn't mind getting switched to Perfect Day.

Oasis will be sailing out of Fort Lauderdale in December 2020.  I am on 6 Dec.  It is out of Port Everglades.

Cats staying on the ship has to be the most disappointing aspect to the Amped news.  I won't be wasting my time dealing with it that's for sure.

I'm right there with you, Galveston is my only "Drivable" port and it is still a 9 hour drive, plan is to take Grandson #2 on Liberty in 2021 assuming she is still home ported in Galveston, Grandson #1 warned me Grandson #2 couldn't go on Oasis because Grandson #1 "only" got to go on Liberty in 2018, sibling rivalry, got to love it. 

Unlikely they'll change existing home ports. 
When she returns from Europe in November 2019 she sails to Miami.  All December sailings in 2019 through to May 2020 are based in Miami. 
In May 2020 she leaves for a summer in Bayonne (close to New York city).  
In October 2020 she leaves Bayonne and sails to Ft. Lauderdale where she spends the 2020/2021 winter.  
The truth is Ft. Lauderdale and Miami are ~ 25 miles apart.  I often fly in Ft. Lauderdale when sailing from Miami for the cheaper domestic airfare.  Not that I think they would ever change her home port for booked cruises, but even if they did it would not be an issue.

This is what I'm seeing also. At some time in the future she may go someplace else, one rumor is Galveston, but I think we are all going to have to wait until Oasis 5 comes out and her home port is announced.

I booked us for the Grand Tour with Thenford.  My wife is a little nervous with the idea of booking a tour through a 3rd party.  With all the good reviews I'm not worried about it.

I booked us for the Grand Tour with Thenford.  My wife is a little nervous with the idea of booking a tour through a 3rd party.  With all the good reviews I'm not worried about it.

Me and my family just returned from Allure (May 12-19) and had a phenomenal time. The only blemish was the excursion we bought (through RC). I want to know if this is their usual way of handling excursions on RC.
The Dolphin Encounter was from 12-5pm. We were corralled into Amber Theatre at 11:15pm to await for the gangway to open, which was fine. They sat us down by excursion type. But we sat there for 45min and didn't get off the ship till 12:15pm. Once we were off, there was a huge crowd waiting around not knowing where to go. We just blindly followed a moving line that had the same sticker as us. We waited in the hot sun for another 45min before we got onto the ferry. My two young kids were over heated. Our dolphin time was for 1:15pm and we didn't get to the island until 1:30pm. Thank God we were able to do the dolphin encounter right away and it was the most fun activity we've ever done. But then we were told to line up for the last ferry at 3:45pm as it'd leave at 4pm. So after a quick lunch and photo selection, we didn't have time to even walk into the turquoise water never mind enjoy the beautiful beach.  So our 5 hr excursion turned out to be 2.5 hour.
Is this normal for RC excursions?  Does it take 1.5 hours every time to just get off the ship? We have another cruise booked and if this is a norm then I might consider booking a third party excursion instead.
 

Well, yes and no.  The excursion times from RCI always includes the transportation time which can be significant depending on what you are doing.  Based on your description I would say your excursion was approximately 12-5pm with a bit of buffer in case something happens (which includes waiting for those inevitable people who don't show up on time).  A third party version of the excursion might have said meet our ferry at 1PM at this dock and it would have been up to you to figure out how long it would take to get there.
My excursion experiences fall into one of two categories:
1) Meet on the dock and find the person holding up the Name/Number of the excursion to get your sticker/wrist band.  Once everyone is there, the group heads off to the bus/ferry/etc as needed.  If it's a large excursion, sometimes one person repeatedly takes smaller groups to the transportation while another waits for more people to get off the ship.  In this case, how long you wait depends on the capacity of the gangway and whether your fellow excursion guests are on time.
2) Meet somewhere on the ship but otherwise similar procedure but they do have to stagger when the different excursions leave or there will be chaos on the stairs/gangway.  However, there's no real need to meet early.  Just swing by a few minutes before the departure time, grab your sticker and join the line of people already streaming out of the ice rink, theater, etc.  So in your example, I wouldn't have gone to the theater until 11:50AM.  Worst case, the whole line is already gone and you just catch up on the dock.  They'll be waiting for you.

This is why I never book RC excursions.  We were at a beach resort in Cozumel a full hour before the RC excursion showed up and they left 45 minutes before us.  We were still back on the ship 2 hours before all aboard time and paid significantly less.  

The Embassy Suites by Hilton Fort Lauderdale 17th Street is highly recommended.
Park at Port Everglades for the convenience factor.

I'm still hoping they will change their minds.

Cats = 3 hours of free time for something else! Anything. 

I asked Royal Caribbean PR and they said no changes to Cats.

Same! March 2020 for us!

i am booked on Oasis already. I can't wait.

I’m happy about there water slides and laser tag. 

I forgot about Hooked, I would have liked to have eaten there too.  My wife and I are both BBQ fans so we are going to hit up the new BBQ joint a few times on our sailing.   Also, I'm not sold on the idea of the Bionic Bar.  A friend of mine was on a sailing with it and it was a side show that ran its course quickly.  I want to get a drink from it since its going to be there just to say I did.  I read about Wonderland and I just did not get excited about it so I guess its a good thing, but maybe a bummer for those who were hoping it was coming to the ship. 
Overall I am happy with the news and I am even more excited for our cruise!
 

My guess is Portside BBQ will be forward deck 16 where the solarium bar is. This is where Hooked is on Symphony and the renderings for Portside show curved railings and sea views. Also, there will be a fee for Portside BBQ (https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-dining/portside-bbq). 

El Loco Fresh will likely be where wipe out cafe was (deck 15 aft near the sports deck) as that's where it is on Symphony. 

Renders sure make Music Hall look like Dazzles location. The window behind the stage is a giveaway. 

I think the Karaoke club will replace On-Air and Bionic will replace Champagne. 
With the kid's club revamp that's where they'll put the escape room as well (deck 14). That's how it is on Symphony. 

Can't wait for March 2020!  Looks like great upgrades!
@Matt any word on Cats leaving?

Portside BBQ will be an up-charge restaurant 

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/cruise-dining/portside-bbq

There we go - https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2019/05/21/royal-caribbean-announces-oasis-of-the-seas-165-million-amplification-details