Royal Caribbean- Oasis of the Seas

 Royal Caribbean Cruise- Oasis of the Seas

My family took a cruise on the Oasis of the Seas from Port Bayonne, NJ to the Bahamas.  The ship was massive but was filled with so many fun things for my family and our friends we were traveling with.  Our itinerary started in New Jersey, a sea day, Port Canaveral, Nassau, Perfect Day at Coco Cay, and two sea days back.

We had two rooms, one for us and one for the kids.  It is nice with the kids our age because it allows us to have two bathrooms.  We ask that the beds be split apart in the kids room and that the adjoining door be open.  If you have a balcony room, the balcony partition will be opened as well.  It is nice because it gives you a little more space.

The bathroom is small but works just fine!  We had a small shower stall.  The only thing I did not like was there was a nightlight on all night.  It was pretty bright and would shine above and below the door.  For someone like me who likes to sleep in pitch dark, I folded a towel up along the bottom of the door to help with that at night.

My favorite space on the ship was on the 8th deck.  It was Central Park.  You could sit there and listen to live music and you wouldn't even remember you were on a ship!  It was so peaceful!  There was chess in the park that the kids enjoyed playing.  Often, the girls went there for a little peace and quiet.  I think it really was one of the best places on the ship.

Shows 

The Oasis of the Seas has so much entertainment onboard.  Cats is the Broadway show they offer onboard.  There is also an ice skating show, a comedy show, a water show, and lots of different karaoke and dancing activities.  

Activities

You will never get bored on the Oasis of the Seas!  There is so much to do!  There is the Flow rider- where you surf.  The Abyss is a gigantic slide that goes from the 16th deck down to the 6th deck.  The Boardwalk has a carousel you can ride as well as a rock climbing wall.  There is also a zipline- which was a little scary at first, but I really loved it!  And of course, there is always a putt putt course for some family fun!

Nightlife

There are plenty of places to hang out in the evening on the ship.  My favorite was the Rising Tide Bar.  You could hop on at Deck 5 and ride it up to Deck 8 and end in Central Park.  It was a nice little ride and you could watch all going on below as you rode up.  We lucked out once and actually got stopped mid way up to watch the 70's disco party that started.  It was fun to get to see it from that view point.  There is a Solarium for adults only if you like a quiet place on the ship during the day and in the evening.  Blaze had the comedy show and was a fun adults only area.  Globe and Atlas was like an English Pub and had live guitar music at times.  A Casino can also be found on the ship and my son was excited to find that on this cruise, he could actually play the slot machines because it was 18 and up!

Perfect Day at Coco Cay

We enjoyed our day at Royal Caribbean's private island.  We decided to go in on a cabana because with the amount of people on our ship and the fact that another ship would be there that day as well, we wanted a guaranteed spot.  It was nice to have shade, waters in a cooler, lounge chairs, a fan, and a dedicated cabana host. 

 

Disney Cruise- The Final Night of Your Cruise

The final night of your cruise can be confusing if you have never cruised before.  Here are some tips to get you through the final night.

• You will get little envelopes for each person you will be charged gratuities for.  It will also have a slip of paper that shows what you are charged for each person.  These gratuities will automatically be charged to your onboard account if you did not prepay these prior to the cruise.  We always tear the slips of paper and put them in the corresponding envelope for each person and hand them to them.  We always put a little extra cash in there as well.  These people work so hard and when you see how they go above and beyond, we never felt like the gratuities we were automatically charged were enough.  Plus, I am sure it is nice for them to get a little extra cash!
• You will also have two choices for luggage.  You can choose to walk off with your bags the morning of the cruise or put your luggage out the last night of the cruise by 10pm.  
• If you choose to walk off the morning of the cruise with your bags, it is nice because you have all your stuff with you and don't have to figure out how to put your toiletries and clothes for the next morning into a carryon.  However, it is a pain to have to lug the bags to the elevators and all the way off the ship.  It can be quite a long way.
• If you put your bags out the last night by 10pm, you pack all your stuff up except for whatever you need that night and next morning.  Then you will want a carryon for that stuff so you can have a bag that morning for your stuff.  If you choose this option, by 10pm you place the luggage tags you will get the last night on your bags and place all your bags outside of your door.  We usually do this.  I always have my family change into their clothes they plan to wear off the ship or into pajamas if you are ready for bed by 9pm that evening.  Then there are less outfits to deal with in the morning.  That way each person has one outfit and a pair of pajamas to carry out the next morning in a carryon.

The final morning:

• You will be assigned a breakfast time and it will be fairly early.  You may not have time to come back to your room after breakfast.  We always took our carry-ons with us to breakfast and then got off the ship from there.  
• Then you will disembark when your group is called.  If you had your bags picked up the night before, you will look for the corresponding character who was on your luggage tags the night before and find your luggage in that area.  You will have to go through customs.

If you are unsure of any of this, please send me an email and I will happily see if I can help!

 

Disney Cruise- We're Onboard! Now What?

 What to Expect as Soon as You Board

One of the best sounds is the cast member announcing your name as you board one of the Disney cruise ships!  Then you are in the main lobby and will be in awe by the ship's majesty.  But now what?

• First thing, they will probably be guiding you towards the buffet.  Most people will go there first and eat lunch.  Some people will bypass lunch and go straight to the pools.  You won't see your bags until way later, so if you want to swim, wear or take your suit in your carryon bag.
• After lunch, you can check out the ship.  The rooms will not be open until 1:30 at the very earliest, so there is no point in checking until after that time.  They will have the halls blocked off so you will not be able to walk those halls.  Your key will be outside of your door.
• Your Key to the World card is your room key as well as what you use to make charges to your room.  It will be outside your door.  I always use a lanyard so I have it on me at all times.  Most ships and sailings now allow you to use your My Disney Band+ now.  It only works with the Band+.  So if you already have one from Disney World, you can go into your DisneyCruise account and see if it is on there and linked and use it on the ship like you do at the park.  I had trouble getting mine connected for some reason but they were helpful at port and got it set up for me.  I honestly like just using the key card.
• You may also want to check out the kids clubs during this time.  They have open houses where you can walk through each of the clubs (kids club, tween, and teen clubs).  They are all really neat and worth checking out.
• A mandatory evacuation drill will take place sometime before the ship sales.  You will need to check in to your muster station and everyone in your party will need their Key to the World card.  This NOT OPTIONAL.  The ship will not sail until all people have been accounted for.  Your key to the World card will have a letter on it that shows where you muster station is.  Listen for announcements and be prepared to go when you hear it.  Cast members will help guide you to the proper place.  You will notice signs with letters around the ship.  I always find it is easiest to be in your room when they call for the muster drill so you know your exact evacuation route.  
• Make sure you have downloaded the Disney Cruise Line app on your phone.  You won't be able to access all the features in the app until you are onboard and connect to the ships wifi.  After that, you will be able to see the daily navigator, menus for the restaurants, ship deck plans, and you can use the chat feature to talk to other people in your party.  The daily navigator is so important because it is where you can see all the activities on the ship for the day.
• Bags- they will likely not be in your room when you get to your room.  They bring them up throughout the afternoon/early evening.  They will not all come at once, but they will get there.  This is why it is important to have anything important with you in your carryon when you get on the ship.

The most important thing is to go have fun and enjoy your cruise!

Disney Cruising- Get Ready For Your Cruise

 Things To Do To Prepare For Your Upcoming Cruise

1.  30 days before your trip, make sure to check in online!  You can start checking in at midnight.  At this point, you will need to input flight info, passport info, and a credit card for incidentals onboard so have that all handy when you begin the process.  This is when you will choose a port arrival time.  Once you have checked in, you will have a paper to print off to show at port arrival.

2.  Keep your eye out for your luggage tags.  You should receive mail from Disney Cruise Line about three weeks prior to your cruise.  It will have your luggage tags included.  You will want to make sure to take these with you on your trip.  You will attach these to your bag prior to boarding the ship that morning.  If you don't get them in time or you forget them at home, no worries!  You can get blank ones from the porters at the ship.

3. When packing- don't forget to pack your passports, your print out from when you checked in online, prescription medication, and anything else that you need to keep with you in your carryon bag.  When you get to the ship, your bags will be taken by the porters and you won't see them until sometime later that day.  We usually haven't gotten ours until around 5pm, so if you are wanting to lay out around the pool, you might consider wearing your swimsuit under your clothes or packing it in your carryon.  You can also bring bottled water onboard, but you have to have it in your carryon.  2 bottles of wine or a six pack of beer are allowed to brough onboard with Disney, but you have to consume them in your room, and you have to bring them on in your carryon.

4. Before your cruise, make sure to download the Disney Cruise Line app on your phone.  You will use it a lot on the ship!  It is where you will find the navigator which lists all the activities for the day, the port for the day, drink of the day, and food menus.  You can also use it to message each other on the ship (I didn't feel like this worked super great, but maybe it has improved!)

5.  Make sure to have cash on hand because you will want to tip people handling your bags.   Also remember that if you did not prepay your gratuities, they will be added on at the end of the cruise.  We always found we liked to tip a little more than automatically charged because these people are AMAZING and they deserved more.  We always took extra money for the tip envelopes as well.

6.  Make sure you remember to book any transportation to and from the port beforehand.  We were getting ready to board one time and realized that we didn't have transportation booked to the airport when we got off the ship.  There are always plenty of taxis but I did learn from that experience to not forget to book transportation both ways before and after the cruise.

7. If you think you might get motion sick, make sure to purchase things for that prior to the trip.  You can buy Dramamine before or get patches to put behind your ears.  I also really like the Sea Bands.  I swear by them!  I usually am fine on the ship, but the day I get off the ship, my body is swaying!

8. Enjoy EVERY minute of the trip.  You will have so much fun and make so many memories as a family!  

Alaskan Cruise

 Alaskan Cruise- Royal Caribbean

Our cruise was sailing out of Seattle, Washington so we headed there a day early to get a chance to walk around the city.  We stayed at a really neat hotel called The Inn at Pike Place.  This was the view right outside the hotel.  We walked around the Public Market, ate pizza for lunch at the Alibi Room, right by the gum wall, and watched the sunset from the rooftop of our hotel.  The next morning we got up early and got an Uber to the port.  It was a quick 15 minute ride from the hotel.

We added The Key on so we got to be one of the first to board the ship.  We were able to have a nice sit down restaurant lunch from the Chops Grille menu (a Key perk) and also give our carryon bags to the crew to send to our rooms.  The Key was not cheap but it was nice to avoid the crowds at the Windjammer since that is where everyone else goes.  Another perk of The Key is that you will have a letter in your room welcoming you and showing times for activities around the ship (Flowrider, North Star, etc...) that are hour increments that are only for Key holders.

Once finished with lunch, it was time to explore the ship.  This is a picture of my kids and I on the ship deck with Seattle behind us.

We also got to try out the North Star.  It goes us and give you a wonderful, high up view of whatever place you are in.  We did this while still docked at Seattle, but in hindsight, I wish I had gotten to do this the day we were near the Glacier.  I tend to get a little claustrophobic and was worried I would stress out in here, but I actually really enjoyed it!

    

Here is a picture of my kids' room.  We had two adjoining rooms.  I loved it because that meant two bathrooms!  I also loved how our balconies connected so we were able to take the divider down and have one bigger balcony.  You can have the two beds apart, like in this picture, or pushed together to make one bigger bed.  Some rooms also have a sofa couch which would allow for one more bed.

Our ship, Quantum of the Seas, had so many fun things to do on board.  There was a Flowrider, where you could learn to surf.  The iFly was an air tube where it simulated sky diving.  All four of us did that activity and enjoyed it.  There were pool tables, Bingo, a Casino, Scavenger Hunts, a skating rink, foosball, air hockey, games, and so much more!

Max and Dave playing pool

Emma getting ready to roller skate!

Cruising in Alaska was incredibly beautiful.  Pictures do not even do justice to how it was in person.  This is on deck overlooking the water.  When you cruise in the straits, there are huge ice capped mountains on either side of the ship.  The blue chunks of ice are so colorful and we saw whales breaching several times.

Train in Skagway

Our ports were Icy Strait, Skagway, Juno, and Victoria (British Columbia).  Our first full day was a day at sea and around noon the captain announced there was a medical emergency and asked for blood donors.  Around 4pm, he came back over the intercom and announced that we had to go back towards British Columbia because a passenger had to be airlifted off the ship.  Because of this, we lost time and were not able to port at Icy Strait.  It was interesting watching a helicopter circle above the ship as they airlifted the passenger off.  This is why I will ALWAYS cruise with a passport.  Generally, on closed looped cruises when you originally leave from a US port and end your sailing at the same US port, you can use a birth certificate.  However, if there are any issues in other countries you are visiting, you would be in a world of trouble.  I HIGHLY recommend a passport whenever cruising.

Cruising the straits, ice chunks in the water.

Musher Camp in Juneau

The town of Skagway

Totem Pole in Victoria

We absolutely loved our Alaskan Cruise and plan to cruise again with Royal Caribbean soon.  We are HUGE Disney Cruise Line travelers, but we did enjoy trying out a Royal Caribbean ship.  Though it doesn't have all the magic Disney does, it still was a solid choice when cruising with teenagers!  There was so much for them to do and see.  

Aulani

 Aulani is located on Oahu.  It is a gorgeous property, located on the west side of the island in Ko Olina.  There is so much to do at the resort.  There is a beautiful pool complex with a winding river, infinity adult's only pool, and lounge chairs galore.  You just never know which Disney characters might stop by and say hi in their pool gear.  There is also the Rainbow Reef, which is where you can snorkel on property.  There is a lagoon with plenty of beach chairs and umbrellas if you want to be by the ocean.  If you want a dole whip... you've got it!  

This would be the kids' reaction when we pulled up.  After a day of long flights, they were so happy to finally be there!

This is the pool area.  You can see that there are two towers with rooms that overlook the pool on one side.  The higher up you are, the more likely you are to see the ocean from your balcony.

A view from our balcony.  It overlooked the pool.

The lagoon is the beach area at Aulani.  It doesn't have good snorkeling but it is perfect for the littles.  Sunsets are incredible in Hawaii.  The colors can't even be captured for their full beauty.  

Another view of the lagoon during the day.  You can see the chairs and umbrellas in the background.

The lazy river was one of my favorite things to relax in.  This is my husband and daughter floating through it.  Notice in the background the Mickey is waving!

You just never know who you are going to run into.  I was lounging in a chair and suddenly Goofy walked by.  Of course I had to get a picture with him!

Dinner at Ama Ama's.  This is an air open restaurant.  The food was fantastic but the view was even better.  I just could not get over the colors of the sky while in Hawaii.

The sunset there was one of my favorite things at Aulani.  It was so beautiful and peaceful.  This is definitely a place I plan to return some day.  

While you are in Oahu, you can plan to tour Pearl Harbor, the Dole Plantation, Waikiki, Diamond Head, or just drive around the island.  

Contemporary Resort

 Disney's Contemporary Resort is one of my favorite resorts to stay at.  It is so convenient- you can walk to the Magic Kingdom or you can hitch a ride on the monorail.  It is also one of the original resorts which makes it feel extra special.  

If you choose a Main Tower Theme Park view, this is what you get to look out at!  I could have just sat on my balcony all day and looked at the view.  It is great for viewing the fireworks as well.

This is the view when you walk in the room.  It has been recently renovated and feels very clean and spacious.  

Our room had two queen beds.  The room configurations can be either a King and a daybed, or two queens and a daybed.  

This is the couch that turns into a bed.  It's a nice sitting area.

This is the closet.  It has a safe in it as well.  The Incredibles theming is adorable!

This is the hall to the door with the closets on one side and the bathroom across from it.  I love the little area with the Keurig.  Again, the theming is very cute.  There is a refrigerator in the cabinet under the Keurig.

The bathroom is beautiful and large.  It has a nice shower with and double sink.  

If you are interested in staying at the Contemporary, you have a couple options.  There are two types of Main Tower rooms.  One is the theme park view and the other is a view of Bay Lake.  If you want to stay at the Contemporary and keep the cost a little cheaper, you can stay in the Garden Wing.  It is a little behind the main tower.  These rooms are just as spacious and a little quieter since they aren't in the main tower.