First Family Cruise part 1

Back in February, we embarked on our first cruise as a family of three, along with my (Abby's) parents.  We went on the Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas for a 7-night cruise visiting Labadee (in Haiti; private resort/beach area owned by Royal Caribbean or RCCL), Jamaica, and Cozumel.  We left from Fort Lauderdale.

We booked this cruise back in June 2012, so it was a long time coming!  My parents had booked it even earlier than that and snagged a great balcony cabin.  We chose to stick with a large interior cabin with a king-size bed and small sofa.  RCCL provides pack-n-play cribs.  The Oasis of the Seas is one of two of RCCL's largest and innovated ships.  Our cabin was on the 8th deck, which also had the Central Park area. This was an amazing area--although you couldn't see the ocean it was like a massive garden with boutiques,  restaurants, and cafes.  Eliza loved this area, and we did, too!  We were very happy with this location.

Gary has already shared pictures of Eliza's most favorite location--the Carousel!  This was in the Boardwalk area at the back of one deck.  In addition to the Boardwalk, there was an indoor Promenade that also had multiple shops, restaurants, bars, the casino, and the Cupcake Cupboard, which gave decorating lessons.  There were also multiple pools including a baby splash area, and a dedicated adults-only Solarium with a healthy dining restaurant that we frequented.

The ship also had an ice-skating rink, two Flow-Rider surfing simulators, a miniature golf course, a basketball court, a sports pool, zip-lining, and two rock climbing walls.  Additionally, there were amazing children's/youth/teen centers.  Gary and I joked that we wished we had access to the teen club!

As you can probably tell, there was so.much. on this cruise that we could do.  We didn't get to do everything we had planned, but still felt like we did a full vacation's worth!

On to the specifics and some pictures!

We left on Friday morning to fly into Fort Lauderdale, where we were picked up by my parents and met at the hotel by my two sisters.

Sleepy girl!  We lucked out and got an extra seat.

Aunt April keeping Eliza entertained at the hotel.

We had an amazing pizza dinner at Anthony's in FL, and then boarded the cruise the next day, on Saturday.  After first checking out RCCL iPhones--they rent them for the week and you can call ship phone numbers and other phones, so we got two--we headed for lunch at the health-oriented Solarium Buffet.  It was great!

First lunch on board at the Solarium

The guys

The grown-up gals

Then we explored the ship some, including our room.

In our sailor-gear

Entering our room for the first time!

Family photo

Checking out the toddler play area.  This was FUN!

Our first dinner was at the specialty Italian restaurant Giovanni's, which serves food family style.  It was really yummy and a great start to our cruise.

Walking to dinner with Grandpa

Concentrating on my coloring!

Heading back to bed after a fun-filled yummy dinner!

 After dinner we called it an early night (well, not too early, really, and Eliza had been up nearly all day!).

Us in our room after a long first day!

 We'll be sharing more days on the cruise in the future posts!