Oasis of the Seas BigReport - 06 Apr 13:55
The largest cruise ship on the planet.
by Vlad Popov.
The first thing I wanted to do when I boarded the largest cruise-liner on the planet was to explore the entire ship in an hour and jump in a pool to cool off. With just over 6,000 passengers at full capacity, I soon realized my idea was far from original. So I grabbed a Starbucks and a NY-style pizza slice (totally free) and headed to deck 16 to watch this massive hotel-on-water drift past Fort Lauderdale into the Atlantic. As the sun set over Florida, it dawned on me the cruise only lasts 7 days — 4 sea days and 3 port days — at which point I frantically started booking Broadway-style productions and black-tie affairs while jotting my name down for basketball tournaments and rock-climbing contests, and scheduling in art auctions and outdoor movie screenings.
On sea days I was determined to treat my expedition as a holiday. I worked on my tan, jogged on the running track which lines the circumference of the ship on deck 6, played ping-pong and dazed into the horizon. On port days I was up and out early for jet-ski and zip-line adventures in Labadee, beaching and parasailing in Cozumel, old-school T-shirt hunting in St. Thomas, and sipping a Cuba Libre in St. Maarten (the Dutch southern part of the island) after exploring St. Martin (the French northern part) in a Wrangler.
Back on the ship, Swiss railroad-style clocks ticked-and-tocked and got paid little attention. Days of the week and times of the day didn?t apply on board as they do back on shore. Carefree romance was in fast-forward and almost all initial filters were ignored. Just a friendly smile aimed at a stranger sometimes lead to all-night partying and late jacuzzi dipping on deck 16. Nights never anti-climaxed. They just rolled over into the following day with your only guidance being the metal-embossed plate indicating the day of the week on the floor of each elevator.
by Vlad Popov.
The first thing I wanted to do when I boarded the largest cruise-liner on the planet was to explore the entire ship in an hour and jump in a pool to cool off. With just over 6,000 passengers at full capacity, I soon realized my idea was far from original. So I grabbed a Starbucks and a NY-style pizza slice (totally free) and headed to deck 16 to watch this massive hotel-on-water drift past Fort Lauderdale into the Atlantic. As the sun set over Florida, it dawned on me the cruise only lasts 7 days — 4 sea days and 3 port days — at which point I frantically started booking Broadway-style productions and black-tie affairs while jotting my name down for basketball tournaments and rock-climbing contests, and scheduling in art auctions and outdoor movie screenings.
On sea days I was determined to treat my expedition as a holiday. I worked on my tan, jogged on the running track which lines the circumference of the ship on deck 6, played ping-pong and dazed into the horizon. On port days I was up and out early for jet-ski and zip-line adventures in Labadee, beaching and parasailing in Cozumel, old-school T-shirt hunting in St. Thomas, and sipping a Cuba Libre in St. Maarten (the Dutch southern part of the island) after exploring St. Martin (the French northern part) in a Wrangler.
Back on the ship, Swiss railroad-style clocks ticked-and-tocked and got paid little attention. Days of the week and times of the day didn?t apply on board as they do back on shore. Carefree romance was in fast-forward and almost all initial filters were ignored. Just a friendly smile aimed at a stranger sometimes lead to all-night partying and late jacuzzi dipping on deck 16. Nights never anti-climaxed. They just rolled over into the following day with your only guidance being the metal-embossed plate indicating the day of the week on the floor of each elevator.
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