Jump to content

Oasis 3/22-29/14, so, so writing, pretty good pictures, very pretty girls!


Recommended Posts

WOW, after reading the great review of Megacruiser, the totally awesome review of Gambee, and the fantastic reviews of Familygoboston, Cupcrazy, OCD Planner, Host Faith and Kans Cocoa (Middle Age Drama Queen) I hope I can, in a little way, pay back to the Cruise Critic community. I have learned so much from these reviews.

 

All I ask (like Megacruiser) is if you read this review and like it (even just a little) you give me a thumbs up with a post.

 

A little background on our trip. We went on this wonderful cruise with our very close friends and their two girls from Indiana (husband 50, wife 49 girls 16 and 19) My wife (1st and last, 25th wedding anniversary next month) (50 and turning 51 on the cruise) and me (62) (do the math....lucky me!!) and we live in Parkland, Florida. We have two sons who did not travel with us this time. My older son (23) graduated from Boston University in December and went to New Zealand to live with friends he worked with over the past summers in a summer camp in Maine. He left New Zealand while we were on this cruise and is now in Australia. He is going to dive the Great Barrier Reef and then go to Sidney. From Australia he plans to go to Hong Kong to visit his freshman roommate then on to England, Scotland, Italy and then to Switzerland. He has friends in all of these countries from working in the camp. He worked and saved all through his college years to pay for this trip! My younger son (20) a Jr. at University of Miami went on a Spring Break cruise with his friends.

 

The cruise was the idea of our Indiana friends and we just wanted to join them on this vacation. As a family we did the same Eastern Itinerary on the Allure in January 2013.

 

Pre-cruise planning - The cruise was booked in December 2013. We all booked our cruise through an online travel service, though we all did it by phone. We all received $100 OBC, two dinners in a specialty restaurant (expect for Chef's table and 150 Park), a spa service and pre-paid gratuities. We then booked our entertainment and shows as soon as they came online to reserve our times. Perhaps the most important part of pre-cruise planning is the anticipation of the increased calories consumed on a daily basis above what we eat while not on a cruise. So most people diet in anticipation of the increase weight gain. WRONG!!! What do marathon runners do prior to running in a marathon? Right, they run more to train themselves for the demand that a marathon places on the body. As a side note I do not know why anyone would choose to run 26.2 miles at one time, let alone in a lifetime!! As a great American hero Neil Armstrong once said when asked if he runs to stay in the great shape needed to be an astronaut replied "God gave me a finite amount of heartbeats and I waste none of them running"! MY HERO! SO, what someone should really do is start to eat more every day starting about two weeks prior to departure to acclimate the gastro-intestinal track for the increased demand placed on the digestive system while on a cruise!

 

And I read a lot of reviews on Cruise Critic! What a great resource of information.

 

That's about all I did, except arrange a private tour with Bernard's on St. Maarten and getting a day pass for the Ritz Carlton in St.Thomas. (Friend works for corporate Ritz and got me the day pass for our group).

 

One other thing. The day before leaving on this great cruise a friend in the gym told me about the ATT cruise deal. So here it is.... If you have an ATT mobile account you can buy phone time on the Oasis. I bought 50 minutes of phone time for $30. And it worked great. I was able to call my mother (89 years old) daily to check up on her. Worth every dollar!!

 

BREAKING NEWS.......BREAKING NEWS.....BREAKING NEWS......

UPGRADE! UPGRADE! UPGRADE!!

The day before departure I received a call that I got an upgrade to a Jr. Suite! How did this happen? Well I can not say, but what I can say is that I have a certain set of skills, skills that I have developed over my life that has become very good for me (wait, I think I have watched "Taken" to many times). But I did get that upgrade! (pictures of the Jr. Suite to follow)

 

 

What lies ahead in this review?

Here is a short daily activity list.

Day 1- Getting to the port (very important!)- 150 Central Park

Day 2 - Nassau - 1st Formal night and Hairspray

Day 3 - Sea day - Giovanni's, Love and Marriage Show, Frozen in Time

Day 4 - St. Thomas, Ritz Carlton beach, Chops, Oasis of Dreams Aqua Show, Headliner show and Quest

Day 5 - St. Maarten - Private all day tour with Bernard's -Solaris for dinner Comedy Show

Day 6 - At Sea, All Access Tour, 2nd Formal night/Chops, Come Fly with Me

Day 7 - Last day on Oasis, Sea Day, cry most of the day because we have to get off ship tomorrow, second dinner at 150 Central Park and part two of Hairspray.

 

I have the Cruise Compass for each day and will try and scan them and post each day with the review of the day.

 

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

 

This is a wonderful ship. Even though it is so large, it is well designed and with the numerous event and location finders on every deck you can find whatever you want in just a few "finger points".

 

All the show productions were wonderful with my favorite being Hairspray

 

 

FOOD:

Food. MDR – We only ate in the MDR for one full meal, that being the 1st formal night. It was very good on that night the highlight for me being the beef tenderloin. We had lunch in the MDR often, enjoying the Tutti Salad bar and some items from the menu. Hit or miss from the menu, the Tutti Salad bar is GREAT!! Breakfast as often as we could in MDR, fresh made omelets and fresh fruit from the buffet.

 

Food. Specialty restaurants. All wonderful. In order of preference:

1) 150 Central Park

2) Chops

3) Giovanni’s

4) Solarium Bistro

5) Izumi (only had lunch)

150 is a special dinning experience. Chops is clearly #2 and my wife would rate it #1. All the others are almost equal.

 

Favorite snack: Sunflower seed granola bar from Promenade Café

 

Most Underrated eating venue: Promenade Café, nice small sandwiches, treats, free regular coffee and people watching all in one place!

 

OUTSIDE SPACE:

Plenty of room everywhere on the ship. You can always find a lounge chair but it may not be in your first priority area. Sports area is fun and always activity there. Flow rider was so much fun.

 

SPA/GYM: Had a massage but did not use any other part of the Spa. the gym had all the cardio or weight training equipment that you would want. I used the elliptical trainer every day (except for day’s 6 and 7) and some weight training. Wanted to do spin classes as I did on the Allure but they changed the spin class and raised the price to $25/class from $15 last year on the Allure. They had an offer if you bought 3 you would get one free but the classes did not fit into my schedule to get to four classes.

 

BEST MEAL: 150 Central Park/Chops

BEST SHOW: Hairspray

BEST ENTREE: Filet Mignon at Chops (150 was a tasting menu and each item with one exception was amazing!

BEST DESERT: Tiramisu Giovanni’s

 

DAY ONE AND PICTURES TO FOLLOW TOMORROW

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pre-cruise planning - The cruise was booked in December 2013. We all booked our cruise through an online travel service, though we all did it by phone. We all received $100 OBC, two dinners in a specialty restaurant (expect for Chef's table and 150 Park), a spa service and pre-paid gratuities.

 

Sounds like the same travel service deal I have in May. Did you have any trouble receiving any of them? It seems strange that you don't get anything to prove you are entitled until you board ship. How are they handled? Does everything just appear on your account on checkin?

 

Keep up the good "work" with the review. I'm subscribed. Thanks.

 

DrB

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You got my attention with the "very pretty girls" reference in the title of your review. Thanks for the nice words about my review. I'm looking forward to my upcoming trips on Allure so I can write another one. That's why we do reviews, for people to read and hopefully help them out on their trips. I'm liking what I'm reading so far and am subscribing so I can read the rest...

MiLqEAMia.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Everyone,

I'm back. A lot of errands to do today with my wife. I know the 5 words you need for a successful and happy marriage, the first two was today, "Yes dear", the next three are as equally important, "It wasn't me!". It has worked very well as next month we celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

 

OK, back to the review..It is going to take me longer than I thought to complete the review, I plan on scanning all the Cruise Compasses, and other items of interest. Also it is going to take some time to get the photos done.

 

 

DAY ONE

We live about 35 minutes from the port. Our friends older daughter flew down on Friday from NYC where she lives and works so the three of us arrived at the port around 11:45 to meet up with our friends and their younger daughter who flew in from Indiana on Saturday morning.

 

almostpacktogo_zps3c36a868.jpg

 

Almost packed an ready to go!

 

We were on board in about 30 minutes!! As we were walking to Central Park we stopped by 150 Central Park. They have a special for the first night of 20% off the charge for dinning at 150 CP so we changed plans and got a reservation for the first night to dine at 150 Central Park. (I think Diamond Plus members can get "buy one get one free" for the first night). After making sure that our specialty dinning reservations were done for the week, were does one go almost as soon as you board the Oasis? Of course! Park Cafe for you guessed it, ROAST BEEF SANDWICH!

 

roastbeefsandwich_zps59c469cc.jpg

 

THE Roast Beef Sandwich (don't forget to ask for double beef!)

 

ParkCafesalad_zps6702aa4c.jpg

 

Fresh made salad to go with the Roast Beef

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for posting-- will subscribe to read all of it. We've taken the Allure twice but will be on the Oasis next year.

 

Thanks nednrom, hope you like the review

Caneguy

Edited by caneguy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So after I and my friend had our Roast Beef Sandwich, our wife's and the girls wanted to go to the Solarium for lunch, so off we went...

 

The Solarium has a very nice selection of items that are a bit more healthy (or so say the experts who have never tasted that Roast Beef Sandwich!).

 

SolariumLunch4_zpsd06ebd0d.jpg

 

SolariumLunch3_zpsb8eddb60.jpg

 

SolariumLunch2_zpsccbf57fe.jpg

 

SolariumLunch_zps4a8e0e28.jpg

 

The selections at the Solarium for lunch

 

So now I have bored you with some so, so writing, shown you some pretty good pictures (better ones to come, I promise) so here is the first picture of many of the pretty girls..

 

girlsatSolariumBistro_zps61e4b641.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...