Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
— Mark Twain
Last day at sea
It’s a sad day to wake up and know it’s your last full day at sea. And this day was no different. But, we decided to make the best of the day, and enjoy the time we had left on Oasis of the Seas. We slept a bit later because we knew we’d be getting up early on Sunday to disembark the ship.
Windjammer instead of Johnny Rockets for breakfast
We started out at the Windjammer for breakfast. Not our favorite place, but we wanted more food than we’d get at Johnny Rockets. We had some friends eat at Johnny Rockets that morning, and they said the Johnny Rockets was very disorganized that morning.
Time to pack
We didn’t do a lot that last day, I roamed around to take pictures, and then I went to the cabin to pack. The night before we had gotten our disembarkation numbers to label our luggage with, and our number was 55. That would mean that we had to wait until 10:00 am to disembark the ship. With having to wait for the shuttle to pick us up, and then the long drive ahead, 10:00 am would not work.
So he went down to the service desk to try and exchange numbers. We could self-disembark between 6:45 and 7:45 am, but our luggage was way too heavy to try taking our luggage and our carry-ons off the ship ourselves. We knew the elevators would be filled full. At the service desk there was hardly a line in the exchange number line, so it didn’t take long, and he came back with number 4. Not a bad exchange. Now we’d be able to disembark close to 8:00 am.
Lunch at the Main Dining Room again
I got as much packed as I could, and then it was already lunch time. We decided to try the main dining room for lunch again, because our first experience was good. Getting there at noon, we were seated promptly, but there seemed to be some confusion and disorganization this day. The buffet was our choice again, since the first time it was so good, but I wasn’t really happy with the selection this time, and didn’t get much food.
He didn’t find much either, he tried to get a salad, but the line wasn’t moving, so he didn’t get that either. I did order the Strawberry Bisque off the menu because it was so good when I had it at dinner, and it did arrive fairly quickly. And it was delicious again. It’s like melted strawberry ice cream, but very good. Then I got a chocolate and white chocolate parfait, it wasn’t bad. It was like chocolate mousse and vanilla pudding. He got a huge slice of chocolate cake, we shared that.
Then we went back up to the windjammer to see if we could find a bit more to eat. And there came a parade of waiters all banging on pans. Glad they were having such fun. You could hear them
Getting ready for my interview
After that I went back to the room to prepare for my interview with the cruise director and he went to the Promenade to see what was going on. All I know is that he came back with two huge chocolate covered apples on a stick. Seems like they had cake and all kinds of goodies down there. And the kids had made all kinds of gingerbread houses that were displayed by the Starbucks. Really good work!
Tim Connor, Cruise Director
I went to the Starbucks at around 2:20 to wait for Tim Connor, the Cruise Director. He showed up right on time wearing a Santa cap, Christmas slacks, and a Christmas sweater. What a fun guy. This was my first interview as a blogger ever, and I was a bit nervous, but he put me right at ease. I really enjoyed interviewing him, and I’ll be doing a blog soon with his interview. You’ve got to try to sail on a ship with Tim as the cruise director. See my interview here.
Finishing up our packing
Finishing packing was next on the list. We always bring compression bags along to put our dirty laundry in. They’re the large ziplock type bags that you put clothing in, and then squeeze the air out to make them as flat as possible. We got ours at the dollar store. It really does save space in the luggage so that you can put the souvenirs in the luggage instead of having to carry them. We knew that we’d have to have our luggage out in the hallway with the numbered tag on them by 11:00 pm, so we packed as much as we could ahead of dinner. We looked outside, and we were in a thick fog bank and it was raining again, but I guess it didn’t matter since the cruise was nearly over.
Our last dinner on the ship
Dinner was a sad time. We’d gotten to know our table mates and our waiters, Lidia and Kadek. Dinner was good. I had the coconut shrimp, but that wasn’t as good as the coconut shrimp I’m used to getting at Red Lobster. For the main course I had the turkey with dressing. That was good, and the cornbread dressing was especially good. For dessert I had the mango cheesecake, good.
Then we had to say goodbye to our seatmates. We got pictures at the table. Then I gave Kadek a bit of an extra tip, and the same with Lidia, then I gave her a hug. I love meeting the people from all over the world that I meet on cruises, and it’s always sad to say goodbye. Hope they do well.
Christmas Carols on the Promenade
After dinner we went down to the Promenade deck to see the parade, and then sing Christmas Carols with the crew. Oasis has the Dreamworks characters for the kids, and the parade was all of those characters. We managed to find a spot behind people sitting at Sorrentos pizza restaurant, so we could see pretty good, and it was a great spot for the caroling, because the crew and Tim Connor, the Cruise Director, came down on the bar that moves up and down from the Promenade to Central Park, and stopped halfway between. We were right there and could see them well. That was a fun night of caroling, the crew seemed to be having fun. Hope that they can have fun some of the time like this.
And it’s a night
Then, since we had to get an early start the next morning and drive home, we decided to call it a night. We packed up the last of our things in our large suitcases, and stuck them out in the hallway. We were sure to keep what we needed for the next morning, including clothing, in the room, and we were very careful to keep our passports and ship card in the room. If we had packed those in the luggage in the hallway, we would have had a hard time finding them the next morning at customs. Then we called it a night.
Disembarkation Day
We got up at 6:45 am on disembarkation day, and got dressed. We were going to just run to the Park Cafe and get a breakfast sandwich to bring back to the cabin for breakfast. But when we walked outside, it was freezing and windy and there was a line to the Cafe. So, we decided that we had time to run to the Windjammer for one last good breakfast. It wasn’t too crowded, and we got a window seat. I got some eggs, toast, bacon, and some cereal.
We wanted to finish packing and get off of the ship, so we didn’t linger long. The rest of our items were loaded into our carry-ons, and then, after saying goodbye to our Steward, we went to the Opal Theater on Deck 5 for our number to be called. It took maybe 20 minutes and then they called numbers 1-3. It was only a few more minutes until they called #4.
Getting off the ship
We headed to the Sorrentos restaurant area, and got off the ship with no line at all. It’s quite a walk from the ship to the area where the luggage is, but at least in this terminal we didn’t have to take our carry-ons down the escalator, they had a long ramp instead.
I waited with the carry-ons while he found our luggage in the large area of luggage with the number 4 tags on them (they put all of the luggage with the same number in the same marked area so you can find them, it’s a good idea to put something on the handle of your luggage that makes them easier to find, such as a ribbon.) Then after he found our luggage, we went towards the customs area. It took almost no time at all in customs for us to get through since we had our passports ready.
We got out of the terminal. Park Port Canaveral, had told us to meet them at parking spot 12 and 13, so we headed there. Their personnel told us where to wait, and not 10 minutes later our shuttle bus pulled up and loaded us. They loaded our luggage for us, then we were on our way. That particular parking lot is less than 5 minutes away. The driver pulled up at our car to unload us. From the time we got off of our ship until we were back on the road was 40 minutes. Not bad.
And now it’s back to reality time….. and time to start planning our next cruise!
The Quiet Cruiser 