My vacation photos are slowly uploading... where to start? I headed out Friday morning to take the girls to camp and to get to the burgh where I met up with Slips and headed to the airport. There isn't much to say about transport other than it sure makes for a long day and is surprisingly tiring, but I guess I'm not telling the world anything they don't already know. We got into FLL late that evening and wiped out at the hotel.

Sept 25
Up bright and shiny on Saturday we readied ourselves and headed to the port. There she was, impossible to miss. Words don't express the size of Oasis of the Seas, she's more than an eyeful. There is the standard exploring of the ship, grubbing in the windjammer, muster, and checking out the room of course. These standards included wandering about a bit like a tourist in awe and finding surprise that I picked nicely on the room.

Our deck 11 Central Park balcony turned out to have an extra large balcony! No room on one side as a result, instead a storage area, which did incur some noise, but nothing unbearable or late. I think we heard more coming from up on deck 15 and from the crazy ass bag pipes down in the park... oh and the crazy asses that were having WAY too much fun at an obscene hour one night.

While we wandered about we took the time to ride the carousel. Our booked show for that evening was at the Aqua Theatre and was quite enjoyable combining acrobatics, gymnastics, and diving.

Sept 26 - Nassau
I've been there a couple times before and it was a short day in port so we didn't do much. We had tossed around the idea of heading to local gardens but nixed the idea and instead wandered the shops around the port. Nothing major to report here.

Before dinner we went to the ice skating show, which was different from the one on Explorer, thank goodness, and quite good. Best of it was the sand artist that was featured between acts. Just amazing.

Sept 27 - at sea
Today we hit Hairspray and the comedy show. While there isn't a huge nightly show onboard Oasis there are lots of smaller venues that make the ship seem more personal and cozy. The comedians were okay, but didn't knock my socks off. I did enjoy Hairspray and the roles were nicely filled.

Sept 28 - St. Thomas
We took a trip around the island with a stop at Sapphire beach, which was lovely and quiet. I walked the beach and then laid down on the included beach chair for some sun and snoozing. Got a little sun, but not as bad as I have in the past. Either way, I still had minimal tan lines from the April trip, so I have maintained a tan for most of a year.

There were pelicans and egrets flying around, but I didn't catch a photo of either, unfortunately. When we headed back to town and did some shopping... I found a beauty. I guess I should take a picture of the cognac/red and white diamond ring I couldn't resist, but I suspect a photo wouldn't do it much justice. Before dinner we took a whirl on the rising tide bar. After dinner Slips had a massage and I hit the headliner show. I hate to say it, the guy was entertaining, but it wasn't my thing.

Sept 29 - St. Maarten / St. Martin
This stop had us on a tour to the French side for a brief stop. Gladly it wasn't longer as the shopping there sucked. Back to the Dutch side and we had a good time wandering the main shopping area and along the port/beach. No major buys here, just a cute shirt from del sol and some freebies thanks to the port and shopping guides/coupons.

Sept 30 - at sea
Actually slept in pretty nicely today. We had a late evening show called Come Fly with Me which featured even more acrobatics and some nifty technologies to make the whole thing flow like a huge movie. Quite enjoyable.

Oct 1 - at sea
Today was the day to conquer. This included heading up to the pool deck for the Flowriders and hitting the zip line. I managed the zip line without the guy needing to push me out, so that's good but I still squealed. Heights still bite me in the butt. Now, the flowriders I really enjoyed. I think if we had explored this earlier I would have spent a lot more time up there. I did the boogie boarding one a couple times and even gave the stand up surfing one a (brief) (very very brief) try.

Oct 2 - headed home... yet another long ass day of travel.

Other comments:

• Richard Spacey is by far the best cruise director I've seen thus far. The link here is to his "evolution of dance in 5 minutes" as performed when he was on Freedom. He was a complete freak... lots of in stateroom videos of his wackiness too. Good stuff.
  
• The donut shop on the boardwalk sucked. Seriously seriously disappointed.
  
• Red velvet cupcake from the cupcake shack... ok, red food coloring with vanilla cake doth not a red velvet make. Shame shame. At least the icing was spot on.
  
• Still loving the mojitos and lemon drops onboard.
  

While I truly enjoyed my time away I have to admit, one of the best moments I have to report was the joy I got from my babies when I picked them up. Even Vixen was happy to see me for a brief shining moment before she started demanding to get home and get some breakfast. Saffy immediately jumped up and gave me a big hug. My girls!