Oasis Review, Jun 4 2017 sailing

We've been on Oasis twice, once in Oct 2011 and then last week. There are lots of good Oasis reviews but maybe something in here will help someone. Four of us traveled, our kids are 9 and almost 3. I will focus on providing detail on things that I personally had questions on prior to sailing.

Embarkation

Parked in the garage at ~11AM. Security took a while- there was a queue just to get into the terminal and inside the terminal we looped around many times. The line did move constantly though. No questions asked on the wine we brought (one was actually a cider style drink and the other was a mango-wine-ish type thing, both from Trader Joes. After security it was quick, got our Sea Pass cards (they forgot the stickers for the soda package from our TA though) and then walked right on.

Stateroom

For this sailing (a big box TA's special deal type of thing) it was nearly the same price to get two ocean view balcony staterooms than it was to shove 4 of us in one room. Considering this one came with an almost unbelievable number of perks that now got multiplied by two, there was no comparison- two rooms were a far better deal. We were in 6662 and 6564 which were adjoining. We were directly outside the elevator lobby just one level up from the promenade but we never heard anything at night- I was amazed.

A warning: I would never consider getting a stateroom that adjoined with another unless you're getting both rooms. We heard almost everything even with the door shut. I would have thought that a shut door would be about the same as a solid wall but there was no comparison. You might luck out if the folks on the other side are super quiet but it seems like a really big risk to bank on that.

Staff

Overall the staff was good to great- friendly and helpful throughout the ship

We did experience on fellow that was sort of the doorman at the Opal Theater... he was borderline abrasive during the 3-D movie. He had a way he was supposed to run things, I guess, to make the 3-D experience "proper", e.g. balcony off limits, center lower section only, etc. However there were no signs anywhere explaining this, and if people ended up in one of these artifically "off limit" spots, he gave them hell! I actually got a chuckle out of it for some reason. BTW the 3-D movie was Boss Baby, which was sort of cool since it isn't out on disc yet.

Hard Sells

We didn't find this to be a major problem. (perhaps our youngest acts as a good deterrent, not sure.) A couple times someone visited our table in the Windjammer to ask about speciality dining, and starting on day 4 I was often asked about buying the 10-count beverage card when buying a drink. (All bartenders admitted it would be a poor choice for me as a beer drinker.)

Coffee Card

Perhaps the best buy that I made... this really does save money if you drink espresso beverages. I went down every morning and got a Latte for the wife and I and brought it back to our cabin. One punch per drink, no double punch nonsense as I've heard about on other ships. I was a little surprised they only had three iced beverages on the menu but I will say the coconut iced drink was really good.

Adventure Ocean

We only used this once (sadly.)

Our 9 year old previously had a great time with his 3-5 group back in 2011. He didn't want to go this time and the deal was ruined for good after the first visit.

This is just a pet peeve but when we checked in day one and returned to visit a couple days later, the staff never engaged him directly- not even so much as a "hey, ready to have fun"- it was like they were accepting a package delivery. While I was signing him in I already heard a staffer having to discipline a child and my son said it continued, kids in timeout, another was asked by the staff if "he was 2 yrs old or something", etc. I'm sure the children deserved it but I can't blame my son for not wanting to be around this on his vacation. Perhaps this is just the nature of the beast in this oldest 9-11 age group, not sure.

We also took our almost 3-year old to the nursery during the same visit. The staff here was much friendlier, but in the end we basically paid for her to sit and watch TV the entire time. She is potty trained and enjoys doing stimulating things but this is really geared for much younger children IMHO... many kids between 2-3 are ready for real stimulation/thoughtful activities/etc. Carnival continues to have a major, major advantage here for anyone with kids that are between 2-3.

Windjammer Food

Overall the quality was good, at least as good as the last time we sailed. Also, several good desserts which I mention since I know at times this has been a weak spot. Given our < 3yr old we ate here almost all the time, I will say that the menu got a bit tired by the end of the week as some portion (over half?) of the buffet is actually static from day to day and if you didn't care for the part that changed on a given night.

Sadly no Filipino food on the international station, but I wonder if they cater to the major minorities on board in a given week... many more folks from mainland Asia this week than the pacific islands.

Chops

Our TA included speciality dining which I learned upon arriving on the ship was good at only Chops or Giovannis. Service was very good and they kept it moving at a steady rate, no excessive waits between courses or anything. We both had the filet (medium.) My wife's "medium" was cooked all the way through, mine was cooked perfectly. With kids in the nursery/club we didn't make a big deal of it. The quality fell short of, say, Ruth's Chris in my opinion but it was still a decent steak and overall a nice dinner. One complaint, our table was uncomfortably close to another, we were against the back wall where one side is just a really long bench.

MTD

We only used this the very last night, maybe around 5:45 or so. We were promptly seated, service was very good. Food was good. By the time we left there were a lot of people waiting.

Drink Prices

I knew what to expect so we were prepared but yes things changed since 2011. We aren't big drinkers (a couple per day) so we made use of things like drink of the day, BOGO beer/wine for C&A (1 deal per guest), the wine we brought on board, beverage credit our TA gave us for Labadee, and drinks on shore in Cozumel. I only had one max-price drink, a $15 (including tip) coconut mojito that many talk about. Disappointing. In retrospect, not a good feeling spending $15 on a small, lackluster drink that seems like it was gone in a couple sips (small glass, tons of ice.)

Soda Package / Freestyle Machines

Our TA gave us soda packages. At least on this week, the Freestyle machines were a massive failure. They were never working properly- either completely out of order and shut down or "operational" but with no ice and/or almost no beverage choices/etc. This made the lines even longer- Promenade was the worse... often a several minute wait in line. Next time I will try to train myself to avoid these machines and go to a bar that isn't busy for soda. It is just so tempting to want to use the machines. Perhaps there is an opportunity for Coke to improve these machines for high volume locations (higher capacity, better reliability, simplified servicing, etc.); it seems they need a lot of attention.

Spa

My wife and I had separate free massages from our TA. We thought they were very good.

Labadee

Haven't been here since ~2000. With kids you definitely want to take the tram if you're headed to the end.

Our TA gave us waterslide, coaster, and water park tickets. All tickets left in our stateroom had someone else's name marked off with a sharpie. All tickets also had a specific time but it turns out the time doesn't matter for waterslide and coaster but *does* for the water park. (The water slide tickets actually said 7:45 AM which was before we even docked!) If buying these tickets, I think perhaps only the water park would have been of value to us- that was unique and pretty fun. Perhaps the coaster as well. The water slide was fine but nothing special at least for us living in FL where there are plenty of water parks and even resorts/hotels that have similar or better slides.

Return trams by early afternoon seemed harder to come by and were often full.

Other Ports

In Jamaica we just walked around the port complex. Meh... just a place to stretch the legs. In Cozumel we took a $15 cab ride to Paradise Beach, $3/person to get in (our youngest was free.) They ask that you spend $10/person but I'm not sure how they enforce it- but at any rate was happy to spend that on drinks and lunch. I'm very glad we did this- honestly at $3/person I thought this place would be a dump (we pay more than that to park here at beaches in FL) but man was I wrong, what a nice place! And Freddy and the "el Mojito Cart" is not to be missed.

Sanitation

The hand sanitizer stations and requirement to use them in some areas is a welcome change and I would have to imagine help quite a bit.

However, I wish they would introduce a station somewhere where one could wash his/her reusable soda tumbler with hot water and dishwashing liquid. For all the attention on cleanliness, it is not really possible to properly clean these tumblers in the small stateroom sink with no cleaning agent. Next time I would for sure bring a small container of dishwashing liquid.

Trolls

If your kids are into Trolls, they are onboard but appearances were made artificially scarce :) Poppy and Branch showed up on Thursday and Saturday.

This Place is Dead Anyways

Talking about Vintages... I don't think we saw anyone in there the entire cruise- and I'm talking of an evening, not at 8 AM. I'm not sure if this is true on all sailings.

Also, Sabor definitely seems to be suffering rom switch to fixed pricing... not a ton of activity in there and one busy night at Johny Rockets (free dinner from our TA) we were served by Sabor staff. We would have eaten in Sabor once or maybe even twice if it was al la carte but had trouble justifying fixed pricing. I did ask about using our second specialty dining credit in Sabor since that would have worked well with our kids in tow, but they said it could only be used in Chops or Giovannis, so that credit went unused.

Debarkation

We were in the 8:30 departure group so we had a stress free breakfast at the Windjammer and then walked right off. We used a porter and got through Customs in no time. No declaration needed now unless you truly have something to declare. I got the car while my wife and kids waited with the luggage- the car line was very slow/backed up. (Someone mentioned a vehicle was broken down but I didn't see this.) We only have 3 bags but I tipped our porter $20 (which I think is fair?) but became a bit disappointed siting in that carline forever watching other porters take luggage up the elevators so that those folks could drive right off. To do again I'd ask the porter upfront if he could take the luggage to our car.... I didn't expect this to be a big deal until I realized how bad the car line was.

That is all, happy to answer any questions if you have any.

Thank you, question, as many people claim their staterooms were too warm even set at the lowest setting, did you find at night your room to be warm?

IMHO... many kids between 2-3 are ready for real stimulation/thoughtful activities/etc. Carnival continues to have a major, major advantage here for anyone with kids that are between 2-3.

This is why we switched to Carnival last year. For children 2 - 3, Carnival is easily the best choice. Now that my youngest will be 3, switching back to Royal again.

Thank you, question, as many people claim their staterooms were too warm even set at the lowest setting, did you find at night your room to be warm?

Actually we found the opposite, ours were on the cool side and we were dialing back the thermostat to more of the middle position.

I will say that the room gets hot quick when the balcony is open. It is a two-fold thing, when the door is open you let all the "bought air" out (as my aunt used to say), but also the AC shuts off. A couple times we noticed it getting warm and the balcony door wasn't fully engaged and we had to fiddle with it a bit- looked like it was closed but wasn't.

This is why we switched to Carnival last year. For children 2 - 3, Carnival is easily the best choice. Now that my youngest will be 3, switching back to Royal again.

This will be as anecdotal as a comment could possibly be, but: our one Camp Carnival experience with a 2.5 yr old was fantastic. Not sure if this quality is fleet wide but the staff was so awesome and caring and every day he did something/made something special. I felt it was a (small) step down when he did the 3-5 group on Oasis the year following.

Thank you that is what I am hoping for a cool room so we can sleep, we always keep the balcony door locked in fact, I don't think we use it more than 25 minutes in the entire week cruise, glad you had a wonderful time and thank you.

Can you tell me who your TA was if I send out my email. I know you can't post it here

Sent from my SM-G900T using Forums mobile app

Nice review! Glad to hear you liked paradise beach. We are planning to go next month and will also be cruising on Oasis. $3/pp plus lunch or drinks seems like a steal!

Thank you for your review. We will be boarding two months today :D but who's counting!! First cruise for our grandsons (7&6). Of course our daughter and son in law will be with us too. They don't want to miss out on the fun.

This will be as anecdotal as a comment could possibly be, but: our one Camp Carnival experience with a 2.5 yr old was fantastic. Not sure if this quality is fleet wide but the staff was so awesome and caring and every day he did something/made something special. I felt it was a (small) step down when he did the 3-5 group on Oasis the year following.

Our experience was exactly the same. My 2 and 4 year sons LOVED going to Camp. Every day they did something new and fun. Face painting, craft projects, etc. They were always so excited to go to Camp - which was great as they didn't particularly love going to day care. I'm looking forward to trying Royals' 3 - 5 in October. But it's still an important note that ONLY Carnival seems to offer actual camp for 2 year olds.

Thank you, question, as many people claim their staterooms were too warm even set at the lowest setting, did you find at night your room to be warm?

FWIW, I was on the same cruise in 9612 (ocean view balcony) and our cabin was definitely on the warm side about 3-4 days. Not sure what made it cooler some days than others. We learned early on to keep the balcony curtains closed.

Is Sabor now fixed pricing all day, even at lunch? I used to love going in for just a drink and a couple appetizers but wouldn't typically sit down for a full meal.

Thank you for your well-organized review!

Is Sabor now fixed pricing all day, even at lunch? I used to love going in for just a drink and a couple appetizers but wouldn't typically sit down for a full meal.

Yes, the deal is done. $19/pp, any time, all the time, every time... unfortunately. It did seem to have an affect, it wasn't busy in there.

Great info thanks! We are going in October with DS, DIL and GD's (5 & 3) so I hope their activities are enjoyable.

Great review, we are on the same big box deal on our upcoming cruise so this was especially helpful for me!

How did they resolve your soda package issue? I'm a bit worried about the freestyle machines being out of order, I am caffeine free so that's the only place I can get my caffeine free Diet Coke!

Was it the iced coconut mocha macchiato they had? That's my new favorite drink so I'm thinking a coffee card might be in my future! I will have to find out if they have decaf espresso shots on board.

You've also made me a little nervous about AO because my 7 year old has autism and will just shut down in that kind of environment. I hope they have better trained staff in his group.

I booked my cruise with the same package/extra perks. Did you have to make the spa and specialty dining reservations onboard for the package?

Great info thanks! We are going in October with DS, DIL and GD's (5 & 3) so I hope their activities are enjoyable.

5 & 3, that is perfect, they'll be in the same age group, my son really enjoyed the program at that age :)

Great review, we are on the same big box deal on our upcoming cruise so this was especially helpful for me!

 

How did they resolve your soda package issue? I'm a bit worried about the freestyle machines being out of order, I am caffeine free so that's the only place I can get my caffeine free Diet Coke!

 

Was it the iced coconut mocha macchiato they had? That's my new favorite drink so I'm thinking a coffee card might be in my future! I will have to find out if they have decaf espresso shots on board.

 

You've also made me a little nervous about AO because my 7 year old has autism and will just shut down in that kind of environment. I hope they have better trained staff in his group.

I think it was an iced caribbean coconut- basically an iced latte with coconut flavor. Really good.

Our Sea Pass account def. had the soda package on it- the agent just forgot to get us stickers which are really only there for quick sight reference I think. (Some bars/restaurants didn't even ring up our Sea Pass, I guess seeing the sticker was enough.) I had to laugh a bit- I went to guest services about the sticker and didn't even have to wait in line- the agent roaming the entrance to the line asked what we needed and he just went and got us the stickers- didn't even check our sea pass account.

At 7 your child will be in a lower age group (which may help), and they did have several activities identified as autism friendly. Our sailing had an "autism on the seas" program going- it may have been a specific charter. I wouldn't stress over it, honestly the benefit to Oasis is there is so much more for families to do beyond the kids club if for some reason the kids club doesn't work out. Our sailing may have just had a rowdy bunch of 9-11 year olds.

I booked my cruise with the same package/extra perks. Did you have to make the spa and specialty dining reservations onboard for the package?

Yes we went the first day and made spa appointments. The Swedish massage was a full, real deal thing, $119 value! I *think* this had to be on a port day.

The dining was easy too, someone actually called our room and told us they knew we had a dining credit and asked if we wanted to make reservations! I can't remember whether this had to be on a port day or not.

Labadee activities came in the form of excursion tickets which you take onshore and exchange for wrist bands and such.

Labadee beverage credit to me looked just like a generic $25/stateroom credit, but just to be sure we drank our money's worth on shore... kids enjoyed a non-alchoholic labadoozie :)

Johnny Rockets free dining just involved presenting a small coupon we cut out from a coupon sheet that was in our stateroom.

Freestyle cups were in our room upon arrival.

Supposedly the big box gift card we were promised will arrive via mail now that the cruise is done.

We also have the same TA package. Ours has a Specialty Dining voucher with a set amount - was yours listed this way and if so, did you have to pay the difference? We were hoping to go to 150 Central Park and this would change our plans.

Thanks!

Yes we went the first day and made spa appointments. The Swedish massage was a full, real deal thing, $119 value! I *think* this had to be on a port day.

 

The dining was easy too, someone actually called our room and told us they knew we had a dining credit and asked if we wanted to make reservations! I can't remember whether this had to be on a port day or not.

 

Labadee activities came in the form of excursion tickets which you take onshore and exchange for wrist bands and such.

 

Labadee beverage credit to me looked just like a generic $25/stateroom credit, but just to be sure we drank our money's worth on shore... kids enjoyed a non-alchoholic labadoozie :)

 

Johnny Rockets free dining just involved presenting a small coupon we cut out from a coupon sheet that was in our stateroom.

 

Freestyle cups were in our room upon arrival.

 

Supposedly the big box gift card we were promised will arrive via mail now that the cruise is done.

Was it difficult to find an available time for the massage or dinning?

Also, can the Johnny Rockets dining be used for lunch instead of dinner?

We also have the same TA package. Ours has a Specialty Dining voucher with a set amount - was yours listed this way and if so, did you have to pay the difference? We were hoping to go to 150 Central Park and this would change our plans.

Thanks!

I just looked, our booking email from the TA originally said:

"USD 30 specialty dining voucher"

However on board there was no mention of the USD 30. Instead it was redefined as "specialty dining for 2 at Chops or Giovannis." So it is actually worth around $80 onboard; but it is a little more limiting since it can't be used anywhere else.

I believe it is definitely limited to those two restaurants. When I inquired at Sabor about using it there, they explained the way that it is all set up between RCCL and the TA- it isn't like OBC or anything but rather set up as credited meals at those two named restaurants.

Was it difficult to find an available time for the massage or dinning?

 

Also, can the Johnny Rockets dining be used for lunch instead of dinner?

We had no trouble finding an agreeable time, but we did use port days for both. I would just book them both sometime on the first day.

Johnny Rockets can be used for lunch also. If you're platinum (can't remember about gold) don't forget you should have a BOGO milkshake that you can use at the same time if you are so inclined.

I just looked, our booking email from the TA originally said:

"USD 30 specialty dining voucher"

 

However on board there was no mention of the USD 30. Instead it was redefined as "specialty dining for 2 at Chops or Giovannis." So it is actually worth around $80 onboard; but it is a little more limiting since it can't be used anywhere else.

 

I believe it is definitely limited to those two restaurants. When I inquired at Sabor about using it there, they explained the way that it is all set up between RCCL and the TA- it isn't like OBC or anything but rather set up as credited meals at those two named restaurants.

Thank you! This is very helpful and we'll plan accordingly.