February 23, 2020
The day is finally here! We are getting on our ship, Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas! Embarkation (I keep wanting to say boarding, but this is a ship not a plane) begins around 10:30, but the ship doesn’t pull out of the harbor until 4:30. I, of course, get there early as usual. I check out of my hotel and catch a Lyft to the port. I wasn’t sure how long the trip would take, so I leave plenty of time and arrive before 10:30. At that time of the morning, passengers were still deboarding from the previous cruise.
Embarkation
I check my luggage outside of the terminal and then head into the terminal. This is nice because I only have my carry-on with me from this point on. It was not very busy at all yet, and since I had purchased The Key package, I was able to board immediately and did not have to wait in the longer lines. That was worth the price right there! If you are not familiar with The Key package, I will do a review of it in a separate post. Once I made my way through security and check-in, it was super easy to board the ship!
On Board the Ship
Once I embark, I was in awe. It had been over 30 years since I had been on a cruise. The cruise ships are so much different and bigger than they were 30 years ago. When you enter through the gangway, you walk right into the Royal Promenade.
The Royal Promenade is like the center of a city. There are shops and restaurants and bars. From the promenade you can make your way to the Boardwalk or to Central Park. The ship is basically a whole city. And with 6000 passengers, it’s about the size of my small town.
The Key Special Lunch
Our staterooms would not be available until after 1 PM. However, since I had purchased The Key package, I had a reservation for a special lunch that was included with the package. I took this time to make my way to the main dining room, also known as the MDR, where the meal would be served, and also to start looking for some members of the Rudies. There would be somewhere around 120 Rudies’ members on the cruise for the week, and 10 of us met up for our special lunch. The menu for this lunch was the same menu they serve at the Chops Grille. It was delicious.
My Interior Stateroom
After our lunch, we all took our leave to find our way to our staterooms. Mine was on deck 7 and was an interior cabin. The stateroom was larger than I remembered from 30 years ago! There was a king sized bed, a couch, TV, a small desk area. I even had a refrigerator, which was great for leftovers after all of the huge cruise ship meals! The bathroom was small but had everything I needed. I chose an interior cabin for this cruise because of the price, but I do think that next time I would love to have a balcony or at the very least, a window. Take a look at the previous blog post for a video that shows a walk-through of the cabin.
My luggage had not yet been brought to the cabin, so I took a little time to relax and then headed out to explore the ship. The ship is huge and there is so much to see, I wasn’t sure how I could do it all in just 7 days. I wandered and explored and made my way up to the Lido Deck to watch as the ship sailed out of Miami harbor. What a beautiful sight!
Later that afternoon, I joined all the other Rudies for a welcome party. It was great to have so many friends onboard with me to enjoy the week! Then it was off to dinner in the Main Dining Room. The menus in the MDR are different every day, and always delicious. I knew this was going to be a great week!
Watch all of my YouTube Vlogs from the cruise:
