Did the Chipmunk Survive? My Mini Review of Oasis May 14 - May 21 (Western)

Well, we are back from our cruise vacation on the Oasis! Unlike my "live" review from our Harmony cruise in November, this is just going to be a brief summary/review of our thoughts and opinions on this cruise.

First...let me give you the 411 on who we are!

My name is Lynn and my husband is Ken. We currently live in Music City USA. For those who are not familiar with that term, that means Nashville, TN! We do not have any children, but we do have 2 fur babies, Savannah and Sadie and a chipmunk, Theo! Yes, I have a domesticated Chipmunk that actually lives IN our home. But I'll get to that later!

Savannah is our white Multipoo and Sadie is our brown Shih-Pom puppy (she will be 6 months in 2 days)

And this was Theo when he first came into our lives (his eyes weren't even open yet)

Theo has grown up since then and is such entertainment for us. The above photo was taken the day before we sailed out on the Oasis. I'm gonna miss that little guy!

We cruise as often as we can. Sometimes it's once a year but many times we try to do twice, once in Spring and the other in Fall. I have sailed Carnival, Princess and Royal Caribbean. Ken has sailed just about everything except Disney. At present, Royal is our favorite! Before booking this cruise, and even after sailing the Harmony, Freedom was our favorite class on RCCL. Would that remain the case after sailing on Oasis?

Why this cruise?

During our Harmony cruise, we met many people who told us that we really should sail on Oasis if we liked Harmony. It seemed that so many people said that Oasis was much better than Harmony. There were many reasons why (in their opinions of course) why Oasis was better. The number one reason was that everyone said it was more organized. Makes sense, after all it has been cruising for 7 years and was the first of this class. The second main reason, according to CC was the pool in the Solarium (Harmony has no pool in the Solarium). Granted, neither of these two things had any bearing on why we decided to book Oasis really. In December, I got a nice bonus here at work and we decided to book a spring cruise. After all, even though we had cruised just the month prior, that cruise was the first one in over 2 years due to moving from North Carolina to Tennessee and all that goes into relocating which kept our finances tight on things other than travel. We initially looked at a March cruise since my birthday is in March. Then we quickly remembered that we have done that in the past and did not want to get caught up in the Spring Break crowds. So, in looking further into the end of April and early May we settled on this cruise. Even with all the cruises I have done, I had not been to Jamaica and only once to Cozumel on my first cruise (which I don't remember much of thanks to Senior Frogs and Carlos n Charlies)! :o:')

Looking forward to your review. Love Theo he is too cute!

Following! We sailed Harmony last summer and will sail Oasis in 5 weeks! Can't wait to hear what you thought! Theo is adorable!

The cruise is booked, now time to plan!

Once I had the cruise booked, it was time to start planning. First and foremost was trying to find flights at the best rate. When I started to look, the flights arriving Saturday (the day prior to sailing) were extremely high. Saturday flights are always pretty pricey, but it was kind of a shocker to me. I did some playing with the dates and found that I could actually fly in the morning of embarkation for almost $400 less. I struggled with this for a few days because I didn't want the stress or worry of making the ship, but ultimately I booked the 6am (central time) flight on Southwest to Orlando. The flight was nonstop and scheduled to arrive in Orlando just before 9am eastern time. Ken wasn't concerned, but I have to admit that I was a little nervous when thinking about the "what ifs". I have to say that I wouldn't recommend doing this, but if you have to do it for one reason or another...just be smart about it! There will be people that say "absolutely don't do it". I was one of those people! However, as mentioned...I got the first flight out of Nashville in the morning. It wasn't winter season, so less chance of any delay. And it was a non-stop flight so no worry of a delayed connecting flight.

I work in downtown Nashville and park in my company secured parking lot. So, originally I had planned on parking my car there and taking an Uber to the Airport. This would have been a great plan, however since we had such an early flight and knew we'd have to be at the airport by 4:30 or so, I didn't want to risk getting an Uber so early. I did some checking and found a Park n Fly location and was able to pre-book and pre-pay for about $60 for the entire week. Since they offer 24 hour shuttle service to and from the airport, this was a no-brainer. It was easy, secure and the price was good. I would do it again next time!

The next thing I needed to set up was pet boarding. When we booked this cruise, we just had our 2 fur babies to reserve stay for. I really hate to board them, and have been lucky in the past to have either a friend stop in a few times a day to check on them and feed and walk them or my dad has come and stayed at our house while we traveled. He did this over Thanksgiving and it works out so much better. One thing I have found since living in Nashville is that I really need to open up a boarding kennel. I mean these people make a killing! Some of the places I called wanted upwards to $40 or more a night...PER DOG! Heck, for that I could have booked them their own cabin on the cruise. The most economical option I found was boarding them at our own Veterinarian office, but even that was going to be $50/day for both dogs! OUCH!

And then Theo showed up on our patio...literally! But let me back up just a tad.

A week before this little chipmunk appeared, Ken had come across a rabbit nest in our yard while mowing for the first time this season. First there was just one baby bunny...and then there were 2 more! Long story short, we found the evidence that something had gotten the mother (not the lawnmower) so we knew these little babies were orphans.

Now, before I go any further, let me give this pubic service announcement: We live in the country and there are many predators around that would have made a snack out of these babies had they been left outside. I also have over 9 years of veterinary experience under my belt and knew that they needed some assistance and rehabilitation in order to survive and have a chance.

With that being said, and to make a long story short...we brought the three babies in and for a week I cared for them and made sure that they were getting what they needed.

The day before we released them, Ken came home and found the chipmunk on our patio. He was barely breathing, his eyes were not even open yet...

By my calculations, the little guy was between 2-3 weeks old. I knew that he would need a lot more work and dedication than the 3 bunnies but we knew we couldn't just leave him out to the elements and the dangers. So, here we are!

In the first couple weeks we had him, he was small enough and not very mobile yet so we were able to keep him in a tote, but it wasn't long before we knew he would need something more and so Ken built this...

You have a WHAT?

Those who follow me on Facebook and Instagram thought it was so funny that we went from bunnies to a chipmunk, but those who have been life long friends were not surprised at all. Many people think I have some unusual way with animals. I guess at my age now, I am starting to believe it more than I ever did.

I should also mention, that about a week after Theo arrived, we noticed we were having a squirrel issue. They had made themselves at home in one of our upstairs dormer windows and we had to have a wildlife company come out. Do any of you know how expensive that is? Let's just say that I could have booked another cruise and had some good spending money with what I paid them! Grrrr

As the weeks progressed, it was becoming evident that we were not going to be able to release Theo back into the wild. He had become very domesticated and tame. He would never survive on his own. So, now what? Surprisingly, it was Ken who suggested that we keep him for as long as he's around. At the time, we still weren't sure how long that could be. But since we knew that we had a cruise coming up, I had to start planning on what I was going to do with him while we were gone. I could board the dogs, but I knew the vet would not take Theo. After a few calls around, I located a boarding kennel that was happy to board our little guy. We visited the place, and it was suitable for what we needed...but did I really want to take him to a place and put him through that stress? Decisions decisions!

In the end, we decided to not board him and leave him in his own big aviary. Was it better for him? How much anxiety can you have over a little chipmunk? Trust me....you'd be surprised! Ha :p

Following. We do this cruise in 130 days![emoji2]

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Booking shows and My Time Dining

I think I checked a couple times a day to check on shows opening up for reservations. I didn't want to reserve dining until I had my shows set up. For our Harmony cruise I think they opened up about 100 days prior to sail (I'd have to go back and check my notes), but I've also noticed in reading these boards that there is really no rhyme or reason as to when they release the shows for booking. It's just something that you have to keep a watch on. I don't even think you get an email notification to let you know that they are open for booking. Of course, maybe you do and I just always had them booked before my email was queued.

One thing I learned from our Harmony cruise, and a tip that I am passing on to you. Book your aqua show on the first night! I know it can be a long day, and you probably want to use the first night to get the "lay of the land" so to speak or to even go to bed early...but trust me....book it on your first night. The reason I say this is because if the water gets rough due to weather or even from the speed the ship is sailing (to get to a further port distance), the show will be canceled. Genuinely, the first night is a little calmer and better chance to get to see the show!

Currently the shows on the Oasis are:

Oasis of Dreams (Aqua Show): This show was good, but I think the one on Harmony was much better.

Cats (Broadway Show): First let me say that I love musicals. I was a music major in college and appreciate all types of music performance. I've always loved the story of Cats, even though I have never seen the true Broadway play. This however, is not the right production for a cruise ship. The performers were great, the costume and set was fantastic...but it's long and mostly ALL singing. And if you don't understand the story of Cats you will be completely bored out of your mind (from Ken's mouth). In the first 15 minutes many people left, by intermission more than half the theater was empty. Ken tried to stick it out with me as long as he could....but he couldn't take one more "Jellicle cat" lyric or he was going to throw something. Ha. It's long, too long for a cruise ship show. Our show started at 8pm and it was well over 3 hours long. Now, the show on Harmony....Grease...that was phenomenal!!!!

Headliner (ours was the Abba tribute band): This group was very good. We really enjoyed their show. It's almost like they stepped right into the characters of each band member they were portraying. I'm not sure how long they will be on the ship, but if they are on your sailing make sure to check it out!

Comedy Show: Comedians change from sailing to sailing so it's kind of pointless for me to comment on the ones we saw because you most likely will have a different comedian on your ship. Our two guys were funny and definitely adult comedians. If you are easily offended, don't go to this show. Then again, if you are easily offended you probably don't have a funny bone in your body. LOL If you don't make any other show reservations for your cruise, make a reservation for the comedy show. They DO NOT do reservations for this show once on board, and you can't even change the reservation you already made once on board. There were often many people in standby lines during the week, but by the end of the week it seemed like most of the people standing in line were standby and not reservation people. I will say that this venue seems like an after thought. If you've been on Harmony and not on Oasis yet, you will be disappointed in this venue. We loved the comedy club venue on Harmony...but this one is much smaller and the seating is so weird and uncomfortable. Oh, and there is no bar in the comedy venue but there is bar service.

Come Fly with Me (Production show): We really enjoyed this show. This has some acrobatics (the people who do the aqua show) and they have a silk aerialist couple who were great! I recommend not sitting on the main flow because people fly over your heads and you will be looking up a lot. I would sit in the raised section on deck 4 or the balcony on deck 5.

Frozen in Time (Ice show): The ice shows are always one of my favorites. It just amazes me that they can do that on such a small rink on a moving ship. The theme for this show is stories from Hans Christian Anderson (Little Mermaid, Emperors New Clothes, Red Shoes, Ugly Duckling and Snow Queen). They also have a feature artist who does the sand artistry and he is amazing!

Great start to your review!!!! We LOVED Oasis!!!!

Cannot wait to read your thoughts!!!!

Love THEO!!!!! He's SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute!!!!

Congrats on taking care of wild animals, as well as your fur babies.

Patiently waiting for more.

:)

keep it up

This will definitely be an interesting thread. Will be following along.

Hi Lynn, we will be on Oasis next week. While you were gone the Predators took care of business and are in their first ever Stanley Cup! Smashville is going nuts! Since we will be on the ship for the first 3 games, do you know where they might be shown? Can't wait for your next Theo update!

Thanks for joining along everyone. I'll be back at it later today, once I get some things under control here at the office.

Hi Lynn, we will be on Oasis next week. While you were gone the Predators took care of business and are in their first ever Stanley Cup! Smashville is going nuts! Since we will be on the ship for the first 3 games, do you know where they might be shown? Can't wait for your next Theo update!

YES! Our Predators have taken care of business for sure! This town really loves our Preds and can't wait to support them through the Stanley Cup games.

As for where you can catch the game, your best bet would be either at the On Air bar (as long as there is no Karaoke or event taking place) or the Globe and Atlas Pub.

My Time Dining

This was our first time every trying MTD and we weren’t sure how we would like it. Normally, we always choose late traditional and would request a table for 2 via email about 3 weeks prior to sailing. With MTD we were able to make our dining reservations through our cruise planner the same time I made our show reservations. At the time,cruise compasses for the Western itinerary were hard to come by, especially if I wanted anything from 2017! For me, I like to plan and looking at the compass helps me to schedule those things that we knew we needed a reservation for.

For our first night I had to schedule dinner very early because we had booked the 7:30pm Aqua show and although we knew it wouldn’t take us 2 hours to eat, the cruise planner won’t let you schedule dinner within 2 hours of your show reservations. This meant we had to have dinner reserved for 5:15. Ken was a little concerned about this time because we always enjoy being up on deck for sail away, even if we have a balcony room. We both like to be up with everyone when it comes time to sail away from port on that first day! With sail away scheduled for 4:30 and seeing that there were previous sailings that left a little later than that, we thought we would be rushed getting down to the dining room and miss the magic of watching the port get further and further away. BUT, since we were in Canaveral and Oasis is basically already at the entry to the channel we were good on time. We would have never done this if we have been sailing out of Lauderdale.

Our dining was on deck 3 in the American Icon dining room.They have lines with stanchions set up indicating where to go if you don’t have reservations, if you do have reservations and a line for larger parties. When we arrived for night one, we gave our room number and requested a table for 2. There was no wait and we were taken right to a table. This was a good start that quickly went downhill.

Before I go any further, let me say that we cruise enough to know that the first night is always crazy and somewhat a mass chaos. I totally understand that and never really let it bother me, after all…the dining room staff really does work extremely hard and working in the service industry is not an easy job. Now, with that being said, this first MTD experience was quickly turning into a disappointing start to our vacation. We were seated for about 20 minutes or more before anyone came to get our order. Now, we had been acknowledged prior to that, and someone brought the bread basket around (it only circulated once this evening)…but no one seemed too concerned with getting our dinner order. Our waiter never introduced himself to us, I only heard his name from someone at another table. Then the kicker…at one point I spilled my water and I had to use my napkin to clean it up as best I could. Water got into my salad and ice all over the table. No one offered to even help. That really didn’t bother me so much in that no one offered me another napkin or more water or even to replace my salad. Our food that night, and every night for that matter was very good, but the service was truly lacking.

The first night, and every night of our cruise, they passed out these little comment type cards asking for feedback on the dining experience. One thing about me is that I am honest, and although I don’t complain, I don’t lie either. So, when I filled out my card I simply marked the sad face :( for service and the happy face for food:D. I put my cabin number on it but no other comments. I dropped it in the box as we left the dining room and didn’t think anything else about it.

It was time to make our way to the Aqua Theater for show time.

The Oasis of Dreams show was very good. I mean it is an amazing act to see them do the things they do on this ship. The acrobatics and high dives are pretty amazing. This is a show not to be missed. I will say though, we thought that the show on the Harmony was a bit better (even though we had to see that during the day time).

Once our show was over, we made our way to the cabin. After all, it had been a long day and we were ready for some sleep.

I'll mention now that our cabin was on deck 8. We found this to be a perfect deck for us. As many will state on here, with Central Park centrally located on deck 8 it's such a nice place to walk from one end of the ship to the other instead of the long hallways. There are also a lot of nice little quiet spots and areas to sit and relax or read a book. Not to mention that Park Cafe is a great place to pick up breakfast or lunch.

I just loved Central Park at night!

Tip for those who are new to the Oasis class ships and the way the shows and reservation system works. The show venues open up about 45 minutes prior to show time. Some shows people started lining up about an hour before hand. You must have your sea pass card because it will be scanned when entering the venue. We kept hearing all week that only 1 seapass card per cabin was needed, but we always had both our cards scanned. There will be a line for those who are in standby with no reservations. Those people will be allowed to enter the venue 15 minutes prior to show time. So...just because you have a reservation, if you are not in a seat 15 minutes prior to the show starting there is a chance you might not get in. I tell you this because we saw this happen on more than one occasion, especially at the comedy club. Many people just don't seem to know that, so consider yourself warned. You will notice on your reservations in the cruise planner that your start time is actually 15 minutes prior to when the show starts because of that 15 minute standby rule.

Day 2 was our first Sea Day of the cruise, which is our favorite days of the week. We love to relax and just lounge around. We were up and out of the room by 7am (mainly because we went to sleep so early the night before). We made our way to the Solarium and found what would become our favorite morning spot of the week.

For those who have not been on the Oasis, but have looked at photos like I did, you might notice something different about that photo of our clam chair. On many Solarium photos I've seen, the clam chairs had the shade cover on them (they have them on Harmony or at least they did when we sailed)...

At 7:30 the Solarium Bistro opened for breakfast, so we placed our towels and sunscreen on our chair and made our way to breakfast. On the Harmony, they served fried/over medium eggs in the Solarium Bistro for breakfast, and actually a very good buffet. I was so disappointed when I saw that the eggs were just the powder scrambled eggs that you find all over the ship. Ken had no problem eating them, but after one bite that was it for me. I had a bowl of cereal and some fruit.

Now, I don't know how the chair hogs do it. We were away from our chair for no more than 30 minutes and I constantly felt the need to check on our chair. The anxiety I had for claiming a chair and not sitting in it was driving me nuts. Mainly because one of my biggest pet peeves are the chair hogs. It drives me crazy and I hate that people put towels on chairs and are gone....FOR HOURS! It's inconsiderate and just plain rude! There, I said it. If you are offended, I'm sorry...but I know there are many many other people who feel the same way I do. It's one thing to leave to go get something to eat or something you may need back in your cabin, but please PLEASE.....DON'T LEAVE YOUR CHAIR UNUSED FOR AN EXCESSIVE AMOUNT OF TIME.

Royal Caribbean has a 30 minute rule when it comes to reserving chairs, and I've heard that they have gotten pretty good at monitoring and enforcing this but I didn't witness any of it during our week. Maybe it's different on the main deck areas, but we spent most of our deck lounging time in the Solarium.

One thing I constantly heard back before we sailed on Harmony was the disappointment from folks about not having a pool in the Solarium. I even read posts where people who had booked a cruise on Harmony before it was completed had canceled their cruise once they found out there was no pool. I thought this was so silly. We absolutely loved the Solarium on the Harmony, and because we hadn't sailed an Oasis class ship before, we didn't really know what we were missing. So, one of the first things I wanted to check out in the Oasis solarium was the pool.

Then I saw it...and honestly we had the biggest chuckle.

This is seriously what people are missing on the Harmony? You've got to be kidding, right? This is not what we consider a pool, but everyone has their likes and needs I guess. For us, we never used it. Matter of fact, there were many times it was closed off. I can tell you that the photos online make it look much more glamorous than it really is.

All in all, we enjoyed the Solarium on the Harmony better. This one was just too hot if there was no breeze blowing.

I agree that reservations for Oasis of Dreams should be made on the first night if possible. We had made ours for the third night, but since we finished dinner a bit early, we went to check out the show on Night 1. It was amazing. So good, in fact, that we went back on night 3 for our reserved show. Sorry about your MTD experience. Ours was great. I will say, however, that we did not do the MDR on the first night. We chose First Night Done Right and we were not disappointed. We were assigned to Chops and it was fabulous.

This is seriously what people are missing on the Harmony? You've got to be kidding, right? This is not what we consider a pool, but everyone has their likes and needs I guess. For us, we never used it. Matter of fact, there were many times it was closed off. I can tell you that the photos online make it look much more glamorous than it really is.

 

All in all, we enjoyed the Solarium on the Harmony better. This one was just too hot if there was no breeze blowing.

And that is exactly why we want one! Too hot. It gets so hot in Solarium you need a cold water pool/tub whatever you want to call it. I loved just walking down one stairway into the cool of the sprinklers and out the other side. Just to cool off. I am also a fan of the little tiled creek that runs through Allure. There are birds living in the shrubs etc. I refuse to do Harmony for that reason. Note: they are putting it back on Symphany and we have already booked an April 2019 cruise on her. Different strokes for different folks.

Oh, and we have missed Abbacadabra since we first saw them way back on Voyager. Love them!

And that is exactly why we want one! Too hot. It gets so hot in Solarium you need a cold water pool/tub whatever you want to call it. I loved just walking down one stairway into the cool of the sprinklers and out the other side. Just to cool off. I am also a fan of the little tiled creek that runs through Allure. There are birds living in the shrubs etc. I refuse to do Harmony for that reason. Note: they are putting it back on Symphany and we have already booked an April 2019 cruise on her. Different strokes for different folks.

 

Oh, and we have missed Abbacadabra since we first saw them way back on Voyager. Love them!

Well, I will tell you the solarium on Harmony got no where near as hot as it did on Oasis. The structure is different and doesn't retain all that heat. As for cooling off on the Harmony, they have misters that do the same thing as your sprinkles from the pool. Actually, I don't even remember seeing the fountains going on the pool on Oasis last week.

I will say that we liked the fountains and the water sounds in the Solarium but we enjoyed the Solarium on Harmony more.

You are right though, different strokes. This review is my opinions after all. ;)

Lynn & Ken

I'm pretttty sure I saw you spill that water the first night:)

I'm pretttty sure I saw you spill that water the first night:)

Oh yes, lol!

Lynn & Ken

If Theo is preventing you from posting more, than put him to bed and proceed in your review.

Thanks ahead of time.

Safe travels.

I'll be back today with more. Last week has been crazy with work and catch up. Thanks for hanging in!

Lynn & Ken

I love your review so far! We go on Oasis in about 7 weeks! For some reason my computer isn't loading your pictures, so I'll need to check it out on my iPad. I understand the worry about a pet! For the first time ever, we're not boarding our dog who will be 6 next week. I'm so nervous to have someone come take care of her at home. She has a terrible disease that she's recovering well from (IMHA) and can no longer be boarded or have immunizations. Thank goodness we have a neighbor college student who used to be my kids' babysitter who will come take care of her and spend the night if necessary (if she gets anxious or weird while we're away). It makes me nervous though! This will be our first vacation doing this and it's a long one! We're SO excited to go on the Oasis though! We went on the Independence last year (kids first cruise).

Sorry that I didn't get around to posting yesterday. With being out for our cruise, and having a holiday coming Monday I was pretty busy Friday getting things wrapped up that were on my desk. Then it was off to the Opry to work the Friday night Grand Ole Opry show.

Anyway, as I sat down to start back on my review I started to hear some noise coming from Theo's habitat and find this...

Anyway, as mentioned, we started out our sea day up in the Solarium. We stayed there until about 10:30 and decided that we wanted to try lunch in the MDR. Lunches in the MDR are only done on sea days and are in the American Icon dining room on Deck 3.

Lunch in the dining room can be either selections from a menu or the buffet. I chose the potato soup on the menu and the buffet. Ken got a salad from the buffet and ordered steak frittas from the menu. It took forever for his lunch to arrive. Matter of fact, I was already done eating by the time his arrived. He asked for his steak to be medium but it was cooked more well done. Other than that, he said it was good.

The remainder of the day was spent mostly relaxing, after all it was a sea day. We did catch the sexiest man competition at the aqua theater and that was fun. The winner was showing his patriotic pride with an American flag speedo and tank top. I wish I could have got a photo.

Remember the dining room comment card that I had filled out on night 1? Well, I'm here to tell you that they check those things regularly, which really surprised me. I thought that maybe at the end of the cruise or midway through the cruise they would look at them. I was surprised to get a call from the manager of the dining room asking me to tell her more about our experience the first night. I told her our experience, just as I mentioned in my earlier post. I explained that we have been on several cruises, especially with Royal and never had any issues. She assured me that she was going to take care of it and that we would be put with one of her best waiters for dinner that night. She said she would send her card to out cabin and to show it to the host when we arrived for our reservation.

Our dining reservations for night 2 were for 6pm. It was formal night #1 of the cruise, which means Captains Cocktail gala. Yes, we do dress up for formal nights. This is one of the things we love about cruising. We enjoy getting dressed up and making a night of formal night on a cruise. I love seeing other people dressed up as well. I know that there is a lot of talk on CC about how to dress for formal nights and what do the majority do. Well, I'm here to say that it is your vacation, and you should dress how you want to dress. I certainly don't expect anyone to tell me how to dress while I'm on MY vacation. However, with that being said, you should plan on eating in a different venue other than the MDR if you plan on wearing shorts and flip flops. There are plenty of other places on this ship where you can do that. We never observed anyone wearing shorts in the dining room on formal night, but I know it gets talked about a lot on here. I will also say that it appeared that many MANY people were dressed up for both formal nights ranging from suits and ties to tuxes. I some very very elegant dresses as well.

When we arrived in the dining room and I gave our room number, we were quickly escorted to a different part of the dining room and introduced to our waiter, Emanuel from the Philippines.

For dinner, we both had the same thing, Corn Fritters, Caesar salad and beef tenderloin. Everything was very good and our service was fantastic. Oh, and for dessert I ordered from the kids menu. Brownie with ice cream!

When we left the dining room I stopped at the host stand and made the request that we would have Emanuel for the remainder of the week. They made the note, with the standard "we can't guarantee, but we'll do our best."

Up Next....Cats!