The Cruise Edition

Cruise Line:  Royal Caribbean International
Ship:  Oasis of the Seas
Sail Date:  September 8, 2012
Return Date:  September 15, 2012
Ports:  Ft. Lauderdale, Nassau, St. Thomas USVI, St. Maarten

Statistics for Oasis of the Seas:
225,282 gross tons
1,187 feet long
208 feet wide
213 feet high, from the water line
30 foot draft
6,296 guest capacity
2,165 crew members, from over 71 countries
8,461 people aboard a full ship
2,706 staterooms
24 dining options
24 elevators
21 pools and hot tubs
16 guest decks
7 neighborhoods
3 theaters
2 rock climbing walls
2 flow riders
1 zip line
1 carousel
1 casino
Uncountable bars, nightclubs, activities, parades, shows, classes, and things you can't even guess.

Two things you need to know about me, if you don't already, are that I have social anxiety, (bordering on agoraphobia.), and I have an unbelievable fear of deep, dark water.  I know what you're saying.  Why in the world would we choose to go on vacation on the worlds biggest cruise ship, over deep, dark water, and with over 8,000 people???  You're partially right.  It was a pretty stupid idea.  I spent the week in varying degrees of fear, and nervousness.  Beyond that, (and in my 39 years of dealing with excessive fear and nervousness I have become pretty good at looking beyond it to experience other things), it was a BRILLIANT idea to go on a cruise!  The problem I had was that it took me three days to calm down enough to really start enjoying everything.  Therefore, it would have been nice to have an extra three days on the ship!  We missed quite a bit of what that ship had to offer, because we didn't start paying attention to what it had to offer right from the beginning.  That had less to do with my phobias, and more to do with us being novices with this type of thing.  For example, we were unaware of all of the classes, seminars, games, sports, parades, and other activities always going on in various parts of the ship until the last couple of days!  I now understand why they have people on board to book your next cruise even before you're finished with your first one!  I also understand why people choose to extend their cruise an extra week, instead of disembarking with the rest of us at the end!  If we had had the freedom and funds to do that, we would have.

We saw the most fantastic shows that week!  The first night we were on board, we saw comedians Al Romas, and John Campanaro on stage at Comedy Live, in the Entertainment Place neighborhood.  That was a great way to end the first day on the ship.  Laughing our heads off!  When we left that show, my cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing so much!
We saw the ice show, Frozen in Time, the next evening.  We were awed by the skaters and by the sets and costumes!  We left that show feeling like we were little kids again!  So much excitement!
The following day, we were at sea all day, so we saw two shows.  In the afternoon, we saw Hairspray in the Opal Theater.  Steve doesn't like Hairspray.  He's seen it on stage, and on screen, and he just doesn't like it.  He wasn't looking forward to seeing it on the ship.  Well guess what??  He LOVED it!!  He had such a good time at that show!  It was fabulous!!!  And again, the sets and costumes were amazing as well as the acting, singing, and dancing!  That evening, we headed to the aqua theater to watch Oasis of Dreams.  The diving, dancing, acrobatics, and synchronized swimming in that show were phenomenal!!!  (And of course, so were the costumes!) 
On our fifth day, we saw Scott Record in the Headliner Showtime.  I'd never heard of Scott Record before that day.  I'll tell you what, that man is EXTREMELY talented!!  Another incredible show!  You know a show is good when it ends, and you are sad that it's over!  All of these shows were like that!  We didn't want them to end!  They were so good!
Our sixth night was our formal night.  I spent all afternoon in the spa, getting gorgeous, and Steve put on his tux, and we had a three course meal in the main dining room.  Then we walked around the Royal Promenade, and Central Park, and got our picture professionally taken in several locations.  We rode the Rising Tide bar up and down a couple of times, while sipping on drinks.  Then we saw our final show, Come Fly With Me.  It had acrobatics, dancing, trapeze artists, flying, and singing.  The singing was done by the same performers that were in Hairspray, the ones we loved so much.  They just didn't nail this show like they nailed Hairspray.  Come Fly With Me would have been so much better if it had just been the acrobats and trapeze artists!  They were incredible!!

The Rising Tide bar was the only bar we went to all week.  We never went to any of the night clubs on board either.  Next time, we will check those places out.  We feel like we were busy, busy, busy the entire time we were on board, and we didn't even do half the stuff the ship has to offer!  It wouldn't be over doing it to say that you really need two full weeks on this ship in order to experience everything on it! 

Below is the link to the pictures on Flickr.  I didn't talk about the shore excursions, because the pictures talk about them better than I can.  Click on the link, and choose the sets at the right hand side, instead of looking at the pictures in the photostream, or slideshow.  To get from one set to the other, click on my name, next to my little face, in the upper right of the screen.  That will take you back to the photostream, and you can then choose the next set to look at. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/animagusthree/

Even if you have hang ups about boats, or water, sea sickness, or whatever, I would encourage you to take a cruise, if you have the opportunity.  There is just so much to do and experience that you don't get with any other type of vacation.  Steve and I will definitely do it again, the first chance we have!  Yes, it was that good!!