After my hubby and I picked up our luggage from the terminal ramp at the airport, we proceeded outside to board a shuttle van to take us to Port Everglades where the cruise ships are docked. At our ship’s terminal, we used our room number to know which line to go into. From there, we registered as guests on the ship, presented our passports, had our photographs taken, and received our sea-pass cards. The sea-pass cards served as our room keys and our credit card for anything that we wanted to purchase while the ship. In addition, we also had to present the sea-pass cards when leaving and re-entering the ship during while at the ports-0f-call.

The check-in process was quite simple and we were on our way in just a matter of moments. We were now ready to board the ship by entering our sea-pass cards into the electronic kiosk. Finally we could board the ship and our adventures began on the Royal Promenade. The Royal Promenade is the main central gathering place for restaurants and shops. We were there only a few minutes and dancers came up out of the blue and started dancing in the streets.

Amazing!

The Royal Promenade on the Oasis of the Seas

After checking out the Royal Promenade for a bit, our next adventure was to find our room. We found our room without too much trouble. However remembering where it was at during the course of the next week would be a challenge. Check out the ocean view window that we had.

Our luggage had not arrived yet so we wanted to check out our ship leaving the port.

So my hubby and I set out to explore.  It was amazing to see so many people on this ship from all over the world. There were almost 6,000 passengers and over 2,000 workers on the cruise. There are 24 restaurants, numerous shops, a library, a zip line, a skating rink, a full-scale theater, a diving pool and areas devoted just for teens, youth, toddlers, and babies. There are sixteen levels of passenger rooms. After doing some exploring, we headed up to the 17th level where we watched the ship leave the port.  The photograph below is the view from the top deck. It was not like what you would see in the movies, no one waving bon-voyage. I suspect that is because security is much tighter these days.  Pretty view of the Fort Lauderdale, FL beach.  First stop tomorrow morning will be Nassau, Bahamas.

View from the 17th level (top of the deck)