Oasis 11/7 trip report, Periscope?, and 12203 photos

More of the 12203 photos

There are probably people out there wondering what kind of hookups the TV has in case they want to bring their Betamax along. Well, here is the back panel of the TV. Why show this? Well, some TV's have USB ports that can be used to charge your phone or other devices, but not these.

And the side panel just has an HDMI and more component connections. Maybe good to know for some people.

The Belkin in service with three device chargers and a night light. I always bring this little blue led night light that is not overpowering in the cabin. I like that they now have a low power night light in the bathroom, so you do not need one there. Oh, and there is a plug beneath the desk that I was using in this photo to charge my Nikon.

The typical spacious bath. Plenty of room on the shelves for all the bath items we brought.

And that big shower. I have either gotten thinner, or these seemed a little bigger than on some other ships.

More room photos to come.

Still more of the room photos.

But what if I want something from the mini bar? What is in it, and how much is it. Pop, water and snacks in the main part that is not even as cold as my garage this time of year.

The door has a couple of cans too.

And the price list.

But what is on the room service menu for breakfast you say.

Still more to come.

The view from the balcony

Next - trying to wrap this whole thing up.

The Cabin

What better place to start, than with the cabin. For this cruise, we booked the Central Park balcony on Deck 12, mainly because it was such a good deal and we received such a large OBC just for booking. We didn't cash in any of our Visa Card points to add to the OBC, because we will save those for either a free cruise (if we can ever use them for that again), or to apply on a longer cruise. In fact, our OBC remained in the black until the Black Friday sale. OBC paid for our VOOM internet, our gratuities, our bar bill for the week, our luggage valet, and a spa purchase. It was those t-shirts and Rum Cakes that put us over the edge.

Although on Deck 12, there were no rooms above since it was located beneath one of the pools. I don't know if all that water over our heads had anything to do with deadening sound, but the cabin was quiet at night. The balcony door also kept out most of the noise when it was closed. The room itself was not much different than a typical balcony room. There was adequate closet space, shelves and storage for all our stuff to keep it neat for the week. There were a few things that we found as negatives. First was the view from the balcony. We missed the view of the ocean from our balcony. Plus, we had to keep remembering to pull the curtains to keep the voyeurs on the Starboard side from seeing more than they bargained for. At times, the balcony was hot and lacked some airflow, and some of the music from the pool deck would echo on occasion. At other times, it was nice enough to sit on the balcony and read. Would we book a CP balcony again? Likely not. We enjoy the ocean view balconies much more. But that is not to say that if another good deal on one of these came along that we would pass it up. Any cabin on a cruise ship is better than none.

Next - drinks

Drinking and drink packages can be a hot topic here on CC, but it seems to have died down a little lately. DW and I do not drink a lot, so we did not purchase any drink package and opted for pay as you go. It just didn't make financial sense for us to get packages. Plus, we knew we would have drinks in Falmouth and Cozumel while off the ship. We probably had more drinks during the week than we would typically have at home, and if we felt like one, we would just get it. We probably did most during the pub crawl. Most of the beers ran 5.50 to 6.00 and the mud slides and daiquiris ran 10.00 plus the gratuities. If a drink package makes sense to you, by all means get it.

My favorite when cruising.

One of the things we did notice, was the lack of service related to drinks. By that, I mean, in the days before drink packages, there seemed to be a lot more servers walking around the pool areas taking drink orders and doing the hard sell. We didn't notice that this time. We did see them cleaning up empties, but not trying to make sales. Maybe that is because with the drink packages, the sale has already been made. We spent our pool time in the Solarium, so maybe it was different at the outdoor pools, but that was just our experience here. If we wanted a drink, we had to find a bar and order it. It was the same way in many lounges. Not once did we have a waiter come to the table. After waiting a while, we would go to the bar to order.

Thurston and Lovey certainly had their opinions about the drink package when they talked about seeing some people so drunk that one of the guys had to hold on to another one's shoulders just to stand up and walk. Evidently they didn't notice the white canes that should have clued them they were blind and not drunk.

Next - the shows

I am thoroughly enjoying your review and appreciate all the time you have spent on doing it. We are thinking of booking the Oasis for 2017 and you have been very helpful. Selfishly I am glad there haven't been too many followers. :roll eyes: I hate it when I am trying to read them and I have to wade through pages of comments. :D Great job and thank you! Best review I have read.

I am thoroughly enjoying your review and appreciate all the time you have spent on doing it. We are thinking of booking the Oasis for 2017 and you have been very helpful. Selfishly I am glad there haven't been too many followers. :roll eyes: I hate it when I am trying to read them and I have to wade through pages of comments. :D Great job and thank you! Best review I have read.

Thanks. I am glad you are enjoying it. It has been tough finding time to finish this up, since family is in to stay with us for Thanksgiving and the house is full. The next installment is on the way.

The shows.

Royal provides several shows throughout the cruise. Like the Allure, there are too many passengers to do a traditional early and late show based on dining arrangements. The venues would not hold that many without doing several shows during the week. There are some venues, such as the comedy club, that are so small that many will not be able to get in unless they book them early.

Reviewing prior compasses and trying to come up with a schedule to book the shows you want to see is the best advice I can give. Then, keep checking for show booking to open on your cruise planner and book show times that work for you. Hopefully, there will not be last minute changes to the show schedules after they are booked, like we encountered this cruise. I heard a few rumors why they were changed, but don't want to spread them here. When we sailed the Allure, the shows all went off as planned.

The comedy show is definitely the first show that should be booked. Even with all the performances, probably half of the passengers will not be able to see it. The comedians will change from one sailing to the next, and we have never seen a bad one in these venues. DW and I go to a comedy club once a week at home for some good standup, and you can occasionally get a bad one. Royal seems to do a good job at selecting comedians, and the two on our sailing did a great performance. We saw the family friendly show in Studio B, then the adult show the next night in the smaller comedy club. Once the comedians got off their prepared material and interacted off the cuff with the audience, the talent really shined. If you enjoy comedy, make this your top booking choice and work other things around it.

The headliner performer is also one of the shows that will change with sailings. Our headliner was Mo5aic, and they were great. With such a wide age range onboard, it is difficult to come up with an entertainer that would please everyone. For this show, maybe 20% of the audience left before it was over, but it could have been for any number of reasons. Their song choices may not have appealed to all, but we enjoyed them. If you want to know the particular entertainers for your sailing, contact web_reservations@rccl.com, and they will provide a list of the entertainers. We reviewed our entertainers online before booking the shows. The entertainers will usually have some kind of online presence.

Of the main productions shows that are repeated each week, we only saw Oasis of Dreams at the Aqua Theatre, and Frozen in Time in Studio B. The diving, acrobatics and skating were all entertaining. The shows are a step up from what you see on the smaller ships.

We didn't see the Come Fly with Me show or Cats, so I can't say how those shows were. Because of the schedule changes, we could not see Come Fly, and we chose not to go to Cats so we could enjoy the outdoors our last day. I guess it didn't break our hearts and ruin our cruise by not seeing these. There are just so many things to do, just choose something different.

One of the things Royal could do better would be in crowd control for the shows. Each venue will typically have two lines, one for the ticket holders and one for standby. Your show tickets will be loaded on your sea pass. The lines to the left on our cruise were ticket holder lines and standby was to the right.

The entrance to Studio B on Deck 4 was located directly opposite the entrance to the Opal Theatre, and the lines for the shows in these venues would intersect. Then, throw in the comedy club lines to the side between these two, and the six lines were chaos. Royal should consider opening the venues earlier to let people in to sit down. I see no point in keeping the doors closed till a half hour before the show to create this mass of humanity. With Studio B holding 775, the comedy show 120, and the main floor of Opal 1,380, it is just a lot of people to cram into lines before the shows.

What they look like without lines.

Next - the fitness center and sports deck

Fitness Center and Sports Deck

In addition to the running / walking track on Deck 5 which I have shown photos of, the fitness center on deck 6 is well equipped. The fitness center is accessed by going through Vitality at Sea and going to the left. There is also an entrance from the track on Deck 5. The gym does not open until 6:00, and it can get busy at times. Our normal schedule at home is to get to our gym between 5 and 5:30 in the morning for a pre-work workout. Wish Royal would open theirs earlier.

They have a good selection of treadmills, bikes, elipticals, and weight machines. They also have an open space for stretching and others classes. Some of the classes are free and some are pay. We did do one of the morning stretch classes, and it was not very intense.

In addition to the zip line and flow riders, the sports deck also has a basketball court and a mini-golf course to keep you entertained. When the lines get long at the flow riders, they install a bumper down the middle to double the capacity. There are usually some entertaining wipeouts, but the area is well padded. Give it a try sometime if you can get that old guy off there. Like the shirt I saw, "I may grow old, but I won't grow up":)

Next - Dining

But what is on the room service menu for breakfast you say.

 

Still more to come.

I don't see prices for the hot breakfast items. Are these included (no fee) on Oasis? Thanks! Our extended family sails together with adjoining balconies and we like to meet on the balconies in our PJs in the AM and enjoy "first breakfast" via room service together while the ocean passes us by. Just want to know what is included on Oasis' room service. Thanks for all the great info and entertainment in your review!

I don't see prices for the hot breakfast items. Are these included (no fee) on Oasis? Thanks! Our extended family sails together with adjoining balconies and we like to meet on the balconies in our PJs in the AM and enjoy "first breakfast" via room service together while the ocean passes us by. Just want to know what is included on Oasis' room service. Thanks for all the great info and entertainment in your review!

Room service is free, except between midnight and 5 am, when they will tack on a 3.95 service charge.

A great way to start the morning. Enjoy the cruise.

Dining.

We have yet to book any of the pay restaurants on any of the cruises we have been on, but that may need to change for us. We ate most of our dinner meals at the main dining room and had the traditional early seating. We enjoy this format, and have met many this way that we have kept in touch with after the cruise is long over. We started cruising 35 years ago when main dining early and late seating were the only options. We have seen the quality of the food in the main dining rooms decline over the years, but for the most part, they still have good variety.

I understand the need for the cruise lines to adapt to keep things affordable. In fact, I paid more for that first cruise 35 years ago than I just spent on this one, so cruising is more of a bargain now. Things had to change to make them within reach of the family vacationers they are now trying to appeal to. The MDR menus continue to be tweaked, and the offerings have changed from what is in the printed online menus. One of the evenings, nothing on the menu was to our liking and we ended up at the Windjammer. Once onboard, you can check all of the MDR menus for the week on the stateroom TV. I recommend doing this to plan if you want to make other arrangements during the week.

Our choice for breakfast each day was the Wipe Out Cafe. It opened at different times each day, but it was a great place to get made to order omelets, fruit and coffee. A plus for us was the outdoor seating. We always like outdoor seating whenever available. The Wipe Out was never as busy as you may find in a place like Windjammers.

The Solarium Bistro had good lunch choices, and we would end up here or at Park Cafe where you could get fresh made to order salads.

We tended to stay away from Windjammers buffet style food. We typically don't do those places at home, and try to avoid them when away. The one dinner and the disembark day breakfast we had was enough here. It would be nice if they had servers to dish out the food in these places like they have had on some ships we have sailed. It may cut down on waste and the mess you typically get with buffet style.

The Boardwalk dog house had good dogs, but no offering of chili as a topping. Our one trip to Johnny Rockets was for a piece of apple pie which was very good. Hey, we didn't deprive ourselves of good stuff this week.

As far as other options, didn't go and don't know. I just know that we didn't go hungry.

The midnight buffet. Ha ha, those are long gone, and I don't believe Oasis or Allure ever had them. I feel sorry that new cruisers will never experience them, but I guess if they never saw one of the elaborate layouts, they don't know what they missed. I know the cruise lines dropped these, because they were such a colossal waste of food. Most people went to them, took photos and maybe had a few things to eat, and the leftovers were thrown away. But they were really something to see.

Photos from the gone, but not forgotten days (You won't find this on Oasis):(

Ahh, just me remembering some of the things I miss.

Next - Central Park

More of the 12203 photos

 

There are probably people out there wondering what kind of hookups the TV has in case they want to bring their Betamax along. Well, here is the back panel of the TV. Why show this? Well, some TV's have USB ports that can be used to charge your phone or other devices, but not these.

 

Service will charge USB :)

Central Park is just such a nice, quiet place to relax. Most of the time, not many here, except when the dining venues are open. Even then, many of the pay dining venues appeared to have empty tables. I would imagine you should be able to get into one of them if you really wanted.

As long as we were moving through the area or eating at Park Cafe, we didn't notice it being hot. Only on the balcony with full sun did we notice it. Sometimes, it can be very peaceful there.

And yes, there were people inside Park Cafe that you can see if you look closely.

Next - Boardwalk

What a wonderful review. Thank you so much for sharing. I hope one day to go on RCL and really want to go on one of the bigger ships.

What a wonderful review. Thank you so much for sharing. I hope one day to go on RCL and really want to go on one of the bigger ships.

They are such big ships with so much to do, you can't go wrong. We were actually looking at a couple Celebrity sailings for our next cruise. May have to do some serious planning over Thanksgiving. I hate not having a cruise booked to look forward to.

Boardwalk

Okay, this will probably be the last installment on this trip report, other than to try to do a wrap up summary. Not much to say about the Boardwalk area, other than to show a few photos of the area, and some of them actually have people in them.

We did walk through the stores, but made no purchases in the ones in the Boardwalk area. As for the other areas, we missed riding on the carousel (although I did that on the Allure in my tux with DW in her cocktail dress). We did have some drinks at the Sabor bar during our pub crawl.

We also had a couple of dogs from the Boardwalk Dog House and took them to Johnny Rockets. The only time we visited JR was one afternoon when DW craved a piece of apple pie. Although they typically have a cover charge for anything after breakfast, they didn't charge it because we were only there for pie. We would have been okay with the charge, and told them so, but they waived it which was nice of them.

So here are a few photos, then on to the summary.

Next - A final summary

A final summary.

Well, where to begin. It seems like everything has already been said in my previous posts. A couple others from our sailing also did reviews. One was from the aspect of sailing in a suite with the suite perks, and another one or two offered their experience in sailing with kids. It didn't appear anyone had a horrible time or wouldn't want to do it again, and that goes for us too.

We have sailed the Allure, and that experience swayed us when the deal for the Oasis presented itself. I don't think anyone can go wrong in booking either of these ships. We really didn't notice crowds, other than during events in the Royal Promenade, or congregating at the elevators. Since we never use the elevators, that is a non-issue for us. If you find a place too crowded, just move to another venue.

I have only attempted one other review prior to this one, and it was for our Panama Canal Sailing last year. I typically try to do a travelogue or photo book from each of our cruises, so this may form a good basis for this sailing.

Thanks for following along. It has helped to keep the experience alive for a little longer. I hope you have found something useful in the report.

Now, on to my search for that perfect Cuban sandwich. And, time to get serious about booking the next one.

Smooth sailing to all.

Thanks for your review and photos.

Thanks for your review and photos.

Thanks for following along.

Cuban update. So, in my never ending quest to find a good Cuban, I thought I may find one, in of all places, the Blue Line Grill across from Consol Energy Center Pittsburgh. In checking out their menu online, there it was, The Scarface Cuban.

So plans were made to visit there before the Pens / Blues game on Thanksgiving eve. We walk in to a sea of Pens fans, get a table and open the menu. what, no Cuban on the menu. I am beginning to think I am jinxed. But hope still lives. I am thinking maybe they altered the menu because of the hundreds of Pens fans packing the place.

So I ask the waitress, "Can I still get a Cuban?"

"Sorry, we have new owners, and this is just a temporary menu until December. No Cuban sandwich."

So after settling for a couple of chicken wraps and beers that you could get anywhere, off we head to the game, disappointed once again. At least the game had a better outcome. Pens 4, Blues 3 in OT.

The search continues. In the meantime, I have one of the new maps from Labadee to post.

Here is one of the new maps of Labadee.

Great review, thanks for sharing! My wife and I are booked for the Harmony of the seas and I love reading reviews of the other oasis ships to get a feel for what to expect. Thanks again :-)

Great review, thanks for sharing! My wife and I are booked for the Harmony of the seas and I love reading reviews of the other oasis ships to get a feel for what to expect. Thanks again :-)

Glad you enjoyed and and hope you found some useful info.

I always read lots of reviews prior to sailing to get a feel for how things are on each ship.

Enjoy your cruise.

Great review!! Thank you for posting the cruise compasses and the showtime schedules. We'll be on Oasis in 19 days and this review is just what I needed.:)

I also know those two people in the pool, we met them on our last cruise. Fun, fun, fun people!:D

Thank you so much for taking the time to post such an amazing review! We are sailing in March and you've helped me get through some of the waiting period!!!

Take care and have a wonderful Christmas!!!:)