Just booked Oasis of the Seas!!

I am very excited because we just booked our first cruise on Royal Carribean. After our first cruise I was all about Carnival and loved the service we received. Since then, it has been declining every cruise and we were interested in trying a different line. A few months back my boyfriend and I watched a special on the Oasis and we were amazed at how big she was and all that the ship had to offer.

We have been looking for a while but decided to go ahead and book. We choose a superior ocean view balcony stateroom. OUR FIRST BALCONY!! This class of ship (there is also the Allure of the Seas) offers Central Park view and boardwalk view balconies as well which look over those areas inside the ship. 

We are doing the December 14 Eastern Caribbean sailing to Nassau, St Thomas, & St. Maarten. Yes, places we have already been. However, we didnt get to experience much in those places so we are very excited to revisit these islands. I am not thrilled with the time in Nassau and we may consider staying on board that day to see everything the ship has to offer us, with hopefully shorter lines. 

Our itinerary is

December 14- Fort Lauderdale

December 15- Nassau 7-2

December 16- Day at sea

December 17- St. Thomas 10-7

December 18- St. Maarten 8-5

December 19- day at sea

December 20- day at sea

December 21- Fort Lauderdale

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Upcoming Posts & Subscribing

Keep forgetting to check if From The Lido Deck has new posts? Subscribe by email so you stay current with my blog! Just add you email address to the box in the right column!

I will be out of town this weekend and will be posting a hotel review for anyone looking to sail out of Norfolk and stay pre or post cruise in VA Beach!

Also I will be doing a neat little giveaway post in the near future. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss a thing!

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Trip Advisor

Just wanted to do a short post today about Trip Advisor, which is an awesome site I use when planning all of my trips. There are great reviews from fellow travelers on hotels, restaurants and attractions. This is my go to site before I book anything.


An important part of this site is to go back and leave a review of your own. They send you an email if  someone finds your review helpful or likes your picture and lets you know how many people are reading your reviews on a quarterly basis. I got an amazing email from them last week that I wanted to share.

I encourage everyone to check out the site before your next trip. You may come across a bar that only the locals know or find a cool place to get a bite to eat that is a little off the beaten path. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think of trip advisor!

Check out my trip advisor profile :)
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Carnival Glory:Debarking & Final Thoughts

Hey Guys! I know it has been a while since this cruise but I wanted to finish up on this post.

We had our couple days at sea with rough weather, lots of rain, nothing but rocking and they announced that we would be coming home a day early. They said the port was closing sunday due to flood warnings and the next weeks cruise was canceled. Honestly, it was such a relief to hear. We were in the dining room when they made the announcement and everyone clapped. After dinner we roamed for quite a bit and then headed back to our room to pack and head to the disco. Debarking was pretty easy, we waited a while since we had driven to the port and then headed out.

A couple of things we learned from this cruise:

- Never ever take a cruise before it goes in to be refurbished, they were out of a lot of knick knack type souvenirs, the shop was pretty bare, they were short on some food, the crew seemed to be ready for a break and didnt seem to mind expressing that

-Although the weather made a huge impact, it was clearly evident that we do not like sea days. A transatlantic cruise has been removed from my bucket list for sure!

- I don't think we will ever ever cruise during hurricane season again- although we didn't get sick, our travel mates were quite sick and it was a very unpleasant experience. It seemed to make a lot of people agitated. The staff were great (except for the front desk people) so that was a real help.

- I am also not sure we will ever cruise with people we know again.  It is so nice to do whatever we want to do when we want and that makes it difficult when others want to do other things. Maybe it will be different with people who are seasoned cruisers, who knows.

Once we returned we were quickly refunded a days fare to the account used to purchase the cruise which was great. We were also given 20% off a future cruise to be used on a 2-6 day cruise which expires in October 2014. There are some destination exclusions but I am sure we will be able to find something to apply it to. We are hoping to use it towards a 7 day cruise, I have been in contact with Carnival so that we can try to work that out. I don't want all 7 days discounted, I would just like to have the 6 days of discount applied. Hopefully it works out, we prefer longer cruises.

Even before the weather we didnt get the same experience we received on previous cruises so we may try to branch out in the future and try a couple of different lines. Our first cruise was AMAZING and I am really wanting to have another great experience like that.


Sorry for the distance since the beginning of this post! Hope you enjoy!

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Towel Animals !!!

Hey guys! Just wanted to do a quick post on some of my favorite towel animals we have received on our cruises! Leave a comment and share your favorites!

                                                           We finally got the monkey!!

    My towel animal zoo from the Glory :)

Happy new year!!!

Hey guys!! Just wanted to make a quick post to thank you all for your support this year! I'm so thankful for the feedback I have received and hope that I have helped some of you with your cruise questions.  I wish you all nothing but the best for 2013!!!

Carnival Glory : Fun Day at Sea 2 & 3

It started pouring when we got back to the port to do some shopping so we hurried through that and waited in line to re board, in the freezing cold rain. We went back to our rooms to shower and get ready for dinner.  When we were in the dining room this evening, the ship suddenly moved pretty hard and a lot of dishes went tumbling. I believe the ship was turning but it was a shocker!

We were scheduled to visit Port Canaveral on Friday. They ended up announcing that our stop in PC was cancelled and we would remain at sea for the rest of our trip. Although I wasnt thrilled about a stop in PC, anything would have been better than being on a rocking rolling boat for 3 days in a row.

We were bound to make the best of the vaca so we spent our days at sea sleeping in, eating tons of good food and hanging out in the hot tubs. There were a lot of scheduled events that were cancelled due to the Lido being shut down.  It was open to walk across but the wind and wet floor made it quite dangerous. I slipped right onto my tush one night so for the most part we just went down a floor and up in the middle to the buffet. 

They offered some inside activities but mostly kept them in the tiny promenade area of the casino where there is little room. The casino was a good time, although I do not like to spend much so $10 and I am done.

Most of our time at night is spent in the disco. We usually just people watch but this time we did get up and dance and had a ball! The boat was rocking and rolling so people were going everywhere at some points. I will say that they could do a better job of the music selection. It seemed to be more of music from 10 or so years ago opposed to current. They also could make it more dance music. Some of the stuff you just can not dance to. It should be a clue when everyone walks off the dance floor but it happened every night.


They had two comedians on board this trip, the one we saw was Jorge Solano. We chose the adults show and it was very funny. He works with George Lopez and has been doing comedy for 20+ years.

Something else we had never done before this trip was the mini martini tasting. It is $18 for you to choose 4 out of 8 martinis. They come in 2 oz glasses each so it was a pretty good amount of alcohol.  The martini bar always seemed to have a lot of people there and the bartender was great.