It's here! The first day of what's to be an epic cruise!

My apologies for the live blog coming late, but here it is!

We stayed overnight at the Hyatt Regency Orlando International Airport, by far my favorite place to stay before a cruise out of Port Canaveral. We met up with the group before 9, and were en route aboard our private bus transfer by 9:30.

We made it to the pier about an hour later, and there she was: Lady O herself... the Oasis of the Seas. I couldn't believe what a massive ship she is. I thought Freedom and Anthem were big, but this is a whole new level of big.

The size being what it is, security and embarkation were smooth and well-executed, as I've become accustomed to with past cruises on Royal. They are wonderfully consistent.

We had lunch in the Windjammer, hand headed poolside to verify that our drink package was functional - my wonderful margarita confirmed this! I even managed to fit in a live stream on periscope here!

Then we explored a bit and found our way to Central Park, where we had another verification of our drink package (Margarita #2, the drink package officially works on all decks!).

Rooms were ready promptly by 1pm. My cousin Jen and I are in an ocean view balcony on deck 14 - definitely smaller than the room I had on Anthem but enough for the 2 of us to be comfortable and not tripping over each other.

Afternoon fun consisted of a gut-busting game of Cards Against Humanity while we relaxed in our room... I won't write specifics here, but let's just say we've come up with a truly tasteless idea for a musical that would even make Mel Brooks cringe.

Dinner was in The Grand, and was fine. We then explored a bit more, and found our way to a general knowledge trivia, that didn't go so well, then a Movie Themes trivia, where we did much better.

We ended the evening with karaoke in On Air, followed by an epic Eclipse-Day-Kickoff party on the Promenade. So fun.

Having a great time so far!

Be sure to tune in on Periscope for in-the-moment live video streams, and stay tuned for more fun from the Oasis of the Seas!

Stray Observations:

• The ship is big, but surprisingly easy to navigate. The abundance of signage everywhere really helps.
• Ship motion is very comfortable but felt more at the rear of the ship than anywhere else.
• Staterooms and some public spaces feel smaller than on other ships; On Air, Schooner Bar both felt larger on Freedom.
• Ship doesn't feel overly crowded, despite my concerns it's quite pleasant.