Oasis of the Seas - November 21, 2021 (Thanksgiving cruise)

[spiralqueen]

Oh my god, ok so I was hesitant on starting a liveblog for this cruise because I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to commit to it and also part of me was thinking that this cruise isn't real since it's just been SO LONG since I last sailed. Pre-COVID our last sailing was another Thanksgiving cruise in 2019 on Grandeur. But I do enjoy having these live blogs as little snap shots to look back on. Also my girlfriend isn't able to join me on this sailing but I wanted to have a way for her to sort of follow along and I figured I might as well do it in this format so others can see things too! 

Pre-cruise report:

Sailing:  November 21-28, 2021, Oasis of the Seas, 7 Night Eastern Caribbean cruise

Sailing with:   Me (34), and my parents 

Flying from:  Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale. We had some credits for Spirit from our cancelled May 2020 cruise so wanted to get those used up and that's where it took us.  

Pre-cruise hotel:  Even though the sailing is out of Miami, we are flying into FLL and it's honestly cheaper to stay in Fort Lauderdale than downtown Miami so we are staying in the Holiday Inn Express on 17th Street we stayed in before. I love how walkable it is with a Walgreens and Total Wine right nearby. And the $5 parking vs 30+ doesn't hurt either. 

 

The itinerary is as follows:
Day 1 – Miami
Day 2  – Coco Cay
Day 3 – At Seas
Day 4 – St Thomas
Day 5 – St Martin
Day 6 and 7 – At Sea
Day 8 – Miami

But honestly....not too fussed about itinerary. Just excited to be cruising again! 

Cabin:  I think this is what I'm most excited about. When 2021 sailings were first released, I saw a post in the RCB FB group that there were great suite prices on Oasis. When I went to check on them, I was shocked what a steal some of them were. We were able to grab a 2 BR Grand Suite for only a couple hundred dollars more than the JS we had on Allure. So this is our first time sailing in Sky class and having full suite benefits. You can bet that you will be seeing a lot of Coastal Kitchen and the Suite Lounge in this blog. And I'm thinking a higher than average chance of me getting day wine tipsy at least once with the free wine and beer benefit in the lounge. 

Pre-purchases:  Not a ton pre-purchased to be honest. We didn't need to stalk internet prices because of the included suite wifi and I didn't want to bother with any drink package because of the suite lounge. My mom grabbed the refreshment package, but that is about it. Excursion wise, we are doing the Sky ride in St Thomas. Otherwise we plan on just getting off and wandering around. I kept keeping an eye on Beach Club prices for Coco Cay but I can't justify spending $160 pp when we are the only ship there and it's not at full capacity. So we will likely be rotating between the pool and Chill Island there. 

Random Pre-cruise thoughts:

• Please let me know if there is anything in particular you would like me to check out or take pictures of for you. I am open to requests.
• I will definitely be taking note of any special Thanksgiving menus. There were some mixed responses to whether or not Coastal Kitchen will have any Thanksgiving specials. 
• We heard from the suite Concierge exactly 10 days prior to sailing. We were able to get 5:30 reservations in CK every night which was our first choice due to waking up earlier and also leaving us more time for shows/other activities after dinner. 
• Forewarning that my idea of cruise fun is lounging and reading when on board so you won't catch a review of the rockwall from me! I do fully expect to burn through 5-8 books on my kindle though. So excited to make a dent in my "to read" list. 
• I promise future posts will have more pictures! 

[IRMO12HD]

I'm looking forward to your live blog, @spiralqueen!  My daughter and I will be on your same itinerary, two weeks later (December 5), albeit in an interior room on the 8th Deck (but just around the corner from Central Park, so we can pretend we're in an NYC apartment  ).  If you have the time, could you possibly take a picture of the Entertainment schedule and post it? I'm trying to figure out which shows are when, and they don't show up on the app.  Thanks in advance, and have a fantastic time!

[spiralqueen]

3 minutes ago, IRMO12HD said:

I'm looking forward to your live blog, @spiralqueen!  My daughter and I will be on your same itinerary, two weeks later (December 5), albeit in an interior room on the 8th Deck (but just around the corner from Central Park, so we can pretend we're in an NYC apartment  ).  If you have the time, could you possibly take a picture of the Entertainment schedule and post it? I'm trying to figure out which shows are when, and they don't show up on the app.  Thanks in advance, and have a fantastic time!

Absolutely! I have plans to post pictures of not only the entertainment schedule but of the cruise planner daily. 

[IRMO12HD]

5 minutes ago, spiralqueen said:

Absolutely! I have plans to post pictures of not only the entertainment schedule but of the cruise planner daily. 

Thank you!!!  BTW, I'm originally from West Chester

[spiralqueen]

6 minutes ago, IRMO12HD said:

Thank you!!!  BTW, I'm originally from West Chester

Of course! And omg what a small world!! I’m in KOP currently

[IRMO12HD]

3 minutes ago, spiralqueen said:

Of course! And omg what a small world!! I’m in KOP currently

KOP was the first mall I ever went to!

[spiralqueen]

Yaaaaay everyone in our traveling party has officially tested negative so the biggest anxiety is gone! We all had the at home test kits as back ups but I was able to get a super convenient time at CVS which is on my way home from work. So….it just seemed easier than worrying if I would have one of those faulty test kits. 

[wordell1]

1 hour ago, spiralqueen said:

Yaaaaay everyone in our traveling party has officially tested negative so the biggest anxiety is gone! We all had the at home test kits as back ups but I was able to get a super convenient time at CVS which is on my way home from work. So….it just seemed easier than worrying if I would have one of those faulty test kits. 

If your neighbors are making a lot of noise, that might just be me and my family. We are in 12648. I have almost the exact story about getting a great price on the 2br grand suite, incredible for a holiday cruise.

I'm sure we will cross paths in the suite lounge! 

 

[Ampurp85]

I am looking forward to reading a Thanksgiving blog in a suite. I can tell we got by on the suite lounge drinks. I had the refresher package but since I spent quite a bit of time in the lounge reading, eating dinner in CK and or ordering room service..... I didn't use it much. 

[cruisellama]

On 11/19/2021 at 5:46 PM, spiralqueen said:

Oh my god, ok so I was hesitant on starting a liveblog for this cruise because I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to commit to it and also part of me was thinking that this cruise isn't real since it's just been SO LONG since I last sailed. Pre-COVID our last sailing was another Thanksgiving cruise in 2019 on Grandeur. But I do enjoy having these live blogs as little snap shots to look back on. Also my girlfriend isn't able to join me on this sailing but I wanted to have a way for her to sort of follow along and I figured I might as well do it in this format so others can see things too! 

Pre-cruise report:

Sailing:  November 21-28, 2021, Oasis of the Seas, 7 Night Eastern Caribbean cruise

Sailing with:   Me (34), and my parents 

Flying from:  Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale. We had some credits for Spirit from our cancelled May 2020 cruise so wanted to get those used up and that's where it took us.  

Pre-cruise hotel:  Even though the sailing is out of Miami, we are flying into FLL and it's honestly cheaper to stay in Fort Lauderdale than downtown Miami so we are staying in the Holiday Inn Express on 17th Street we stayed in before. I love how walkable it is with a Walgreens and Total Wine right nearby. And the $5 parking vs 30+ doesn't hurt either. 

 

The itinerary is as follows:
Day 1 – Miami
Day 2  – Coco Cay
Day 3 – At Seas
Day 4 – St Thomas
Day 5 – St Martin
Day 6 and 7 – At Sea
Day 8 – Miami

But honestly....not too fussed about itinerary. Just excited to be cruising again! 

Cabin:  I think this is what I'm most excited about. When 2021 sailings were first released, I saw a post in the RCB FB group that there were great suite prices on Oasis. When I went to check on them, I was shocked what a steal some of them were. We were able to grab a 2 BR Grand Suite for only a couple hundred dollars more than the JS we had on Allure. So this is our first time sailing in Sky class and having full suite benefits. You can bet that you will be seeing a lot of Coastal Kitchen and the Suite Lounge in this blog. And I'm thinking a higher than average chance of me getting day wine tipsy at least once with the free wine and beer benefit in the lounge. 

Pre-purchases:  Not a ton pre-purchased to be honest. We didn't need to stalk internet prices because of the included suite wifi and I didn't want to bother with any drink package because of the suite lounge. My mom grabbed the refreshment package, but that is about it. Excursion wise, we are doing the Sky ride in St Thomas. Otherwise we plan on just getting off and wandering around. I kept keeping an eye on Beach Club prices for Coco Cay but I can't justify spending $160 pp when we are the only ship there and it's not at full capacity. So we will likely be rotating between the pool and Chill Island there. 

Random Pre-cruise thoughts:

• Please let me know if there is anything in particular you would like me to check out or take pictures of for you. I am open to requests.
• I will definitely be taking note of any special Thanksgiving menus. There were some mixed responses to whether or not Coastal Kitchen will have any Thanksgiving specials. 
• We heard from the suite Concierge exactly 10 days prior to sailing. We were able to get 5:30 reservations in CK every night which was our first choice due to waking up earlier and also leaving us more time for shows/other activities after dinner. 
• Forewarning that my idea of cruise fun is lounging and reading when on board so you won't catch a review of the rockwall from me! I do fully expect to burn through 5-8 books on my kindle though. So excited to make a dent in my "to read" list. 
• I promise future posts will have more pictures! 

Maybe see u onboard

[spiralqueen]

Currently on board! Check in was beyond a breeze but I’ll back up and go over yesterday a bit. 
 

So our flight yesterday was at 7am which meant between driving and security it was a 4am wake up. This is my face to that. 

 

BUT. The flight left mostly on time and it was relatively uneventful. We landed around 9:50-10ish and went to go pick up our car from Avis. There was some weirdness with the app saying they didn’t have a car for me and to wait in line but after about 10 mins in line I checked again and there was a car assigned to us so we were on our way! 
 

As I mentioned before, we stayed in the Holiday Inn express on 17th street. We got there around 11 I think and were told that our room would be ready by 1 at the earliest. I know they have a room for storing luggge, but we just kept it in the car. It was only $5 to park there and it was super easy to deal with. It’s self park wherever you want in the lot or parking garage and they give you a slip of paper to put on the windshield to show you are authorized to park there. 
 

While we waited for the room, we went to the NY Marina Deli again in the Harbor shops across the street. I went with the bacon and cheese omelette again and it came with home fries and a drink of choice. 
 

Look how much filling is in that! Omg 

When our room was ready, I went back and played on my phone and took a nap because to me, the day before the cruise is recharging and rest day. Also my nap ended up being longer than my “sleep” so there that. 

 

Around 5:30 or 6 we started looking for somewhere to grab dinner that wasn’t crazy heavy. We ended up wanting to try Waxy’s Irish pub which was surprisingly great for dinner. I went with wings and fries and the fries had SUCH good crunch. I asked for them well done and they did a great job. Not everyone listens to that request. 
 

 

Then it was back to the room for the last pre-cruise sleep!