Cruising was myself, the over-planning mom, (35), my husband of 16 years (36), our 11 year old son, and our 7 year old daughter. We are a tight knit family that spends lots of time together. We have two cruises with Carnival and one Disney cruise under our belts, all short, 5 day or less cruises. So this was our first 7 day cruise, and first with Royal Caribbean. We booked this cruise in January of 2009 while Oasis was still being built, with an offer of ½ price deposit and $500 shipboard credit from the travel agency, we jumped on the deal. We booked an oceanview balcony stateroom on deck 9 port side—wishing for a family balcony or better but unwilling to pay the extra money. Cruising the "largest ship in the world" was a draw. The design of the ship was impressive and something we wanted to try. Along the way we almost cancelled—worrying about crowds, about the size of our stateroom, about coming off a magical Disney cruise and trying Royal Caribbean. We ultimately decided we'd never know until we tried. About a year away, we got the Royal Caribbean Visa Rewards card and was able to use the rewards to pay $150 down on the cruise, as well as receive an additional $300 shipboard credit, I'd highly recommend getting it if you've booked far in advance.

With so much onboard credit, I didn't really want to have to pay for booking excursions in advance. However, there were two that the kids just couldn't miss while in Nassau, so I went ahead and reserved them pre-cruise.

Embarkation was a breeze. We arrived at about 12:30 & hardly had to wait in line at all. About 15 minutes after we arrived curbside, we were sitting in the Park Cafe enjoying the famous roast beef sandwiches. (Yes, they are as good as advertised, we ate lunch there 5 of the 7 days!) The kids preferred the Wipeout Cafe, with its assortment of Tacos, Pizza, Burgers, Hot Dogs, and one of my favorites, the pretzel dogs. After this I was anxious to get the other shore excursions that I wanted booked, so I headed to customer service. That was the first mistake. After standing in line there for about 10 minutes, I was told I had to go the Explorations desk—an unmarked clock tower in the middle of the Royal Promenade. So I head over and stand around for another 10 minutes, only to be told that the excursion I wanted for St. Thomas was already sold out. Grrr. I was able to book the one for St. Maarten though. Read more