Just Back From Oasis Of the Seas

Just back from Oasis of the Seas and I would like to share some info for anyone planning an upcoming cruise on Oasis. Feel free to ask me questions.

Family of 5 with 3 children (10, 7, 5) Eastern Caribbean. Nassau, St. Thomas & St. Maarten. We had a family oceanview stateroom on deck 11. We loved the stateroom, felt like there was plenty of storage for our luggage. There were 2 big closets. My children loved the bunk beds with the privacy curtain and lights. The window was huge. The only complaint was the tiny shower. My children are used to baths not showers. We did notice 2 hooks for hanging swimsuits at the top of the shower. But we brought our own hooks also that I purchased at Bed Bath & Beyond. They came in handy for hanging wet swimsuits. Our stateroom attendant was great.

We had my time dining and I had made dining reservations ahead of time online. We requested each night the same table and waitress. We loved our waitress, table #358. One night my daughter was surprised with a complimentary birthday cake and candle plus the singing waiters. She loved it. We had told our travel agent ahead of time we were celebrating her birthday.

The food at the main dining room was great. We had dinner there each night. One night (after St. Thomas) we were running very late and had reservations for 5:30 pm but did not make it until 6:30 pm. They did not mind at all and we were seated immediately with no wait. The waitress had my children's fruit cup sent as soon as we sat down so they were never bored. She also had their dinner brought out when we were eating salads/soups/appetizers which was great.

Adventure Ocean kids club was FABULOUS. My oldest loved the Voyagers. They made slime and did a lot of fun activities. She begged to stay each night until 10 pm. She made many friends and saw them at the pool daily. My two youngest (7 and 5) were able to be together. We were so happy they allowed my 5 year old to join the big kids group :D(her birthday was the following week) They did gaga ball, tag, themed games, etc. There were several family science activities. We went to the family volcano activity and the family bingo. My son won a prize. The family bingo was on the last day. The pets at sea (make your own build a pet) was offered on the sea days. The last sea day there was a special buy 2 for $20. The last night the adventure ocean Voyagers (big kids) were able to vote on the movie to watch in the kids movie theater. They also had pj night. There was a troll themed night 7-10 pm for the Voyagers and they made troll hair, troll slime and troll games. Never saw any actual trolls on the ship though....

We attended the Dreamworks parade and my kids loved it. We also had reservations for the Dreamworks character breakfast. This was kind of a let down as there were only 3 characters (Gloria, Penguin and Kung Fu Panda). I would not book this again. My kids had hoped to meet Shrek and he did not attend. Same food as the Windjammer really.

The pool chairs did fill up quickly by 9 am on sea days. I always went to the Solarium by 9 am and I was able to get a chair. The big comfy circular couch like chairs were always filled up by 8 am. There were many saved seats by the pool and I sat for 3+ hours and never saw people come to the seats that had towels on them. :confused:

Crown and Anchor members get 3 free spin's in the casino-just go to the guest relations desk in casino and they swipe your card and give you the tokens. I won a free t shirt on the slot machine (no cash value just win prizes).

In St. Thomas we did the five star island tour thru Royal Caribbean. Loved it. My kids loved it. The open air bus was a hit. It did rain a little but we did not get wet on the bus even with windows open. The tour guide was great. Due to the rain and fog the view at Mountain Top was awful. But because of the lack of view the tour guide stopped at another look out point on the way down the mountain for us to take photos. We went to Magen's Bay. The beach was crowded. I would not return. The bathrooms were surprisingly clean though. :) We rented 1 chair and had to give a $5 deposit for the $7 chair and we had to drag the chair to our spot on the beach. They required us to drag the chair back to the chair storage area when we were done in order to get our ticket stamped for our deposit back. (Annoying :mad:). The people in the shop were rude too. No customer service here. :mad:

St. Maarten we just did our own thing. We purchased the ferry tickets for all day ($7 each person). We went to the beach in Phillipsburg and rented 2 chairs for $20. There was a fun water trampoline and it was $5/kid for all day use. Seemed like good deal. It rained though so we ended up leaving.

Did not get off ship in Nassau (enjoyed the ship--rock wall, kids pool, pineapple drinks by pool :D)

Thanks for the nice review- We love the Oasis

Sounds like you had a fabulous time! We go on Oasis for the first time 8/2018!

Thanks for your review. We will be on Oasis next month!

We did the character breakfast Friday morning and had Puss n Boots,Shrek and Feonia... I was also unimpressed but at least our characters were better.

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We did the character breakfast Friday morning and had Puss n Boots,Shrek and Feonia... I was also unimpressed but at least our characters were better.

 

 

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That is a better character lineup at least ;p We did the Saturday morning breakfast.

We considered the character breakfast on our upcoming Harmony cruise. Thank you for reaffirming that it's not worth the cost. I recall plenty of character meet/greets around the ship - so paying to eat in the otherwise complimentary MDR for a character greet doesn't make much sense.

Looks like Oasis didn't disappoint overall!

Thank you for the review! Glad to hear your 10 yr old like Voyagers. Our 9 1/2 yr old last visited the kids club on Oasis when he was in the 3-5 age group. He loved it then, but I was worried about whether the Voyager activities would resonate with him.

I was concerned about GaGa ball- if it is similar to dodgeball I'm not sure he will like it, he'd rather play basketball than get intentionally smacked hard by a ball. I assume maybe it is different though, I can't imagine the cruise line wanting the liability of a violent sport. (I've read the posts of GaGa ball but didn't come away understanding how they made it less violent- e.g. you're not throwing the ball but apparently batting/kicking/etc. the ball against someone else?)

thanks for posting, we can't wait!

Sounds like your kids your kids are younger but did you by chance snag a teen cruise compass?

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St. Martin was a rainout, indeed - we were booked for Maho Bay/Airport and the bus never left the terminal - we got a full refund that day. Our friends had an earlier excursion to Orient Beach, where the downpour started right after they arrived and they had to sit in a bar (horrors!) for two hours until the bus was ready to take them back. They were surprised when a refund appeared on their account the next day. We both tipped the staff on the excursion anyway, since they were losing out on their day's pay.

Sounds like your kids your kids are younger but did you by chance snag a teen cruise compass?

 

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I did not pick up the teen cruise compass, I do have Voyager and the 7-9 year old group (forgot name) compasses. I don't have access to a scanner though. I can take a photo of them if anyone is interested :)

Thanks for your review. Sounds like everyone enjoyed the cruise.

We did the character breakfast Friday morning and had Puss n Boots,Shrek and Feonia... I was also unimpressed but at least our characters were better.

 

 

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No way, love the Penguin

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Thank you for the review! Glad to hear your 10 yr old like Voyagers. Our 9 1/2 yr old last visited the kids club on Oasis when he was in the 3-5 age group. He loved it then, but I was worried about whether the Voyager activities would resonate with him.

 

I was concerned about GaGa ball- if it is similar to dodgeball I'm not sure he will like it, he'd rather play basketball than get intentionally smacked hard by a ball. I assume maybe it is different though, I can't imagine the cruise line wanting the liability of a violent sport. (I've read the posts of GaGa ball but didn't come away understanding how they made it less violent- e.g. you're not throwing the ball but apparently batting/kicking/etc. the ball against someone else?)

My Daughter is 20 years old now but her favorite memories of Cruising when she was younger is ga-ga-ball. Basically it is played in a big knee high octangle pit. All players have to hold onto the pit with one hand. A soft spongy ball is then thrown into the pit and the players hit the ball with there other hand. If the ball hits you from the knee down you are out. If you catch it the person who hit it is out. You can catch the ball but not throw it. You have to bounce then hit it. Last one left in the pit is the winner. Im not sure what the attraction is but kids love it. I dont think it ever gets too rough. Hope this helps have a great cruise.

Thank you for your review.

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Thank you for the review. Going on the Oasis for the first time September 2018.

Awesome review. We will be sailing in August. 9 of us, kids ranging in ages from 5-16. Do you happen to know the age group for the kids or teen club ? Your info is very helpful. Thanks :)

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Thanks for the review. We are taking GD (5 & 3) in October along with their parents. We held off from going last year so the youngest would be three and able to do the kids club with her sister.

My son is almost 19 now, and he used to LOVE gaga ball. As a previous poster said, it's not anything that would really hurt, like old-fashioned dodge ball. My son would NOT have wanted to play it when he was younger if that were the case. We used to have to plan our ship time around when gaga ball was going on! :D

All four of our children LOVED Gaga Ball.

All four grown up now.

Royal Caribbean, at that time, would charge $5 per child per hour after 10 PM to stay in Adventure Ocean.

Guess what time Gaga Ball started...

10 PM. Imagine that.

Very smart Royal Caribbean. Very smart.

Children were happy. Parents were happy. Royal Caribbean was happy.

Happy cruise :).

I did not pick up the teen cruise compass, I do have Voyager and the 7-9 year old group (forgot name) compasses. I don't have access to a scanner though. I can take a photo of them if anyone is interested :)

I am interested in the 7-9 group. Will be traveling the oasis for the first time on 10/2017. Thanks

thank you for the review

do you remember seeing an escape room to sign up for?

Just off the Oasis (5/14 - 5/21 Western) and it was a great trip. The crew was very friendly and the service was very good. MDR was hit or miss but never bad. We ate in the Solarium Bistro for three nights and that was quite nice. One thing to note is that there really is no dress code in the MDR any longer for dinner as shorts, backwards hats and sleeveless tee-shirts were seen. I asked one the the "boss dudes" on the way out if there still was a dress code and he admitted that there really was not. Whether that is a good thing or not has been debated endlessly. The fact is, short of swimming suits (maybe?), just about anything appears to be acceptable for dinner in the MDR.

I am interested in the 7-9 group. Will be traveling the oasis for the first time on 10/2017. Thanks

I will snap a photo of the cruise compasses this week and post them here for you! :)