Caribbean Adventure

November 2015


I went on a cruise this November with my cousin Samantha.  We have had a rollercoaster friendship but the last year we have really become best friends and this was how we capped off our epic year as besties.  We travelled Royal Caribbean and were aboard Oasis of the Seas. 
We flew to Ft. Lauderdale a day early so that we could see a bit of Florida and also to avoid an travel hassels. 
We stayed in a great little resort called The Best Florida Resort(http://www.thebestfloridaresort.com/)
The rooms were tiny but it had a beautiful courtyard and was only a block from the beach and only a short walk to Lauderdale by the sea, the boardwalk and some great restaurants.  We started our evening by having dinner at The Village Grill and checking out the Atlantic Ocean.  On Saturday we woke up and walked down to the pier and found the BEST pancakes ever at a place called the Beach Café (http://www.anglinsbeachcafe.com/index.php)  their food was some of the best we had our entire trip.  If you are EVER in ft. Lauderdale check them out.  We checked out some of the shops, listened to music and took another stroll down the beach to pack up and head for our ship. 
The bus was not our friend.  We waited over an hour for a bus and they dropped us off on the opposite side of the pier from where our ship was.  This left two girls to treck a mile to our ship with all of our luggage.  Thank goodness we are fairly light packers.  Next time: take a taxi!!  But we made it.  The ship was massive and daunting and so exciting all at the same time.  This was my third cruise with royal Caribbean and I couldn't have been more excited. 
Oasis has so much to offer and I won't bore you with every single activity we did but there was an ice skating rink, several swimming pools and hot tubs, multiple dance clubs, broadway, ice and aqua shows, a rock climbing wall, a wave simulator called the flowrider, a carousel and a whole towns worth of shopping. There was a bar that floated to the sky and more food places than I can name.  Johnny Rockets had an amazing breakfast selection and the dining room was to die for for dinner.  Windjammer by far had the nicest staff members.  Oasis was not my favorite of the ships I have travelled on.  We had a flowrider instructor named Ryan that was friendly and great but he seemed to be one of the few people we met that were excited to be there.  It seemed that the staff was overworked and there were entirely too many people.  The lines were long and the places were over crowded a lot of the time.  Don't get me wrong it was an amazing experience, I think from now on I'll just stick to the smaller ships.
In Nassau we went to Blue Lagoon Dolphin Enounters where we were able to play with, pet, kiss and feed a dolphin.  It was one of the most amazing experiences I have had in my life and I'm not sure i'll ever really be able to top it.  We had such a great time there and we had fun exploring Nassau when we got back to town as well. 
In St. Thomas we had a hard time getting to town to check things out but we took a ferry called "The Island Girl" to St. John's for a snorkeling adventure.  I had never been snorkeling before and it was so phenomenal.  I could never have expected how fun it would be.  We say mantarays and fish of all sorts as well as coral and just the most beautiful water and scenery I could imagine.  I loved every minute of it. 
In St. Maarten we went to Loterie Farms for a zipline tour (http://loteriefarm.com/activities/fly-zone/) again this ended up being a phenomenal adventure.  We had so much fun.  Our only complaint was that there wasn't enough time.  I could have done the obstacle course another time for sure if they'd have let me. 
There were so many great adventures on this trip.  Things I would change would be to not book ourselves with as many excursions.  We didn't have much time in st. Thomas or st. martin to really explore much of these locations and I love to be in a place longer.  But I wouldn't trade what we did for anything.  For pictures check out my facebook album (https://www.facebook.com/kate.gladstone.16/media_set?set=a.10208230274416874.1073741833.1302930023&type=3)