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Oasis - October 15-22 - Mini-Review


masonpips

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I have to confess I copied my same format from last year's Freedom review and am cutting/pasting in Oasis info!

 

Saturday

 

Weather in FLL was WINDY and overcast for most of the day including sail away. We left the Westin Beach Resort at 10:00, arrived at port and were out of the taxi quickly and seated in the Diamond waiting area at 10:25. AMAZING check-in! I know you've read it before, but Port Everglades and RCCL have this DOWN. Awesome.

 

We sat and chatted, very few Diamonds waiting at this point. 1 or 2 couples in the Diamond Plus and Pinnacle area. A lot of Gold/Emerald. VERY good communication re: how they would board, etc. Boarding started at 11:03 I believe.

 

We walked in on Promenade and headed upwards, checking out Diamond Lounge on 6 first. Stopped in theater and workout facility for photos. Lunch in Park Cafe. Loved the roast beef. I think we ate lunch there 4 days?

 

We wandered ship, throwing our bags in our rooms at 1. We were in adjoining boardwalk balconies 12711/12713 (bed by window/bed by closet). Asked for kid's beds to be moved apart (gave them bed by closet room, it felt cramped but dh and I felt ours was more spacious). Rooms definitely more tiny than on other ships. A/C worked well all week, view from balcony was good, Boardwalk below, could see Aqua Theater and the sea, not enough to watch the shows, but good enough (we were in exact middle of Boardwalk)

 

Given the weather, we simply wandered about all afternoon and our muster was in the dining room. We discovered our DD was not ON the ship (they had had an issue at check-in, but re-took her photo). For some reason they were trying to solve this DURING muster (insanity) and DH finally said "Listen, she is ON the ship, WITH us and we will go to Guest Services later" and they let us sit down.

 

Had all of our luggage after muster and we sent our formal wear and a few other things off for pressing. We met some from our Meet n Mingle group at sail away and I believe we left on time.

 

Dinner that night was pre-reserved MTD at 8. We had Vien who was OUTSTANDING and his assistant was Leslie, both from India. Head waiter was Sorin and he was the best we've ever had! Food was good (Prime Rib).

 

Food in dining room was good to great most nights. We ate there Nights 1, 2, 5 & 7 (opting for Giovanni's on Night 3, Izumi on Night 4 and WJ on Night 6). We had breakfast in JRockets, WJ, Diamond Lounge and Park Cafe. All ~ok~ to me, it's all basic buffet food (Park Cafe burrito was probably the best). We ate lunch at JRockets, Park Cafe and WJ.

 

We visited the Diamond Lounge (moved to Blaze after first nights) most nights before dinner and Kristin (bartender) was outstanding. The hostess (Charmaine?) was great too, she was VERY personable and chatty. We don't really use any "services" there except the cocktail hour! I did have cappuccinos there most mornings too.

 

We ended up watching Oasis of Dreams from Deck 12 aft and never went to our assigned "show" after that (the next night). It did rain a bit at that point too but nothing horrible

 

Sunday

The weather at sea started AWFUL (black clouds - our son had a FloRider lesson at 8 and I was thinking "oh no" but it cleared up and was gorgeous after that) was good until mid-afternoon. Most people DID dress up for Formal Night and the filet was good! We had requested Vien again but he didn't have an open table so they sat us near him and Sorin added our table to his schedule. I think MTD still has kinks to work out and I always feel like there are lulls (for the record our times varied from 7:45 to 8:15 and that doesn't seem like too big of a variation to cause completely full stations)

 

For a sea day the pool was NOT busy at all. We had a large group of older folks on the cruise and not very many kids so I think the combination helped to keep the pool craziness to a minimum.

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Monday was Labadee.

 

We got off the island and walked around - TONS of improvements from our last visit. The sidewalks are great and it seems very capable of handling such a large ship. Our DD worked with DH and got her a giraffe from the vendors and we took photos. After that we returned to the ship and the pool (no sand for me! LOL)

 

We had seen the invitation on the tv to visit the helipad for sail away and we LOVED that! Drinks were served and King Julian came out for photos. It was a great way to end a beautiful day!

 

Dh and I went to Giovanni's for dinner and LOVED it. We shared 2 appetizers, 2 pastas and both had filet. Excellent meal, service and atmosphere!

 

After dinner we went to Love & Marriage and took our DD (12) and our DS (13 for the last 2 days) went w/some friends he had made. HILARIOUS. It lasted forever (90 minutes) but was excellent and we had a great time.

 

Tuesday was Falmouth.

We left the ship to walk around the shops and headed back (lol). Side note: when we booked this cruise, we kind of chose Western as the ports are "ok" to us and we wanted to have the ship be the destination. This worked out GREAT for us this cruise and we all felt like it was a LONGER than normal 7 day cruise as we rarely left the ship. Actually was a great idea for the Oasis (or Allure) as there is SO much to do/see.

 

Dh and I had dinner at Izumi, loved it! Hit the Comedy Show afterward (LOVED it). This is such a spot-on/popular thing that I really thing they should have a couple of comedians on each cruise and offer more of this as a cruise line!

 

Wednesday was at sea and our son's 14th bday. We had lunch at Johnny Rockets and they crew did an OUTSTANDING job singing and embarrassing him to death. Kudos! 2nd formal night (and lobster). Son ditched us for the Teen Club and the 3 of us enjoyed dinner. I had come down w/either an allergy issue or the start of a head cold so I felt a little out of it (and we skipped the headliner - Beatles thing because of it). A VERY nice fellow passenger gave me a package of Mucinex DM and I am 1,000 percent better because of him. God Bless him!

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Thursday was Cozumel. We really debated leaving the ship and ended up staying onboard again. Dh and I had just been there in February and the kids were happy doing FloRider, Ziplining, etc.

 

We decided this was to be totally casual day/night so we stayed on deck through sail away and ate in Wind Jammer. It was ~ok~ but not as good as on Freedom/Liberty for dinner (in my opinion). Very casual/buffet like versus feeling like another dining option. Food was SOME of the menu options but not as many as we've had in the past when we've done the same.

 

Friday was at sea, our last day. Weather was FANTASTIC again. We had had a little rain early on in the week but overall it was a great week of weather once we left port! LOL. We managed to do the Rising Tide Bar ride before dinner and saw the penguins show on our way down.

 

We bought a few souvenirs and really that's the time we saw the biggest crowds ($10 sale! 50% off t-shirts, etc.). We had pre-purchased the Photo CD ($199 online and $249 on ship). We took 164 photos (OMG) in the first 5 nights. This is the time we take photos each year so our kids are great about it and we have awesome shots. HUGE disappointment in that we were RE-CHARGED on the ship (after the woman told us we wouldn't be) and it didn't show up until Friday so of course the lines were HORRENDOUS. Dh dealt w/them and made it known it was ridiculous to spend your last day having to deal with their inefficiency.

 

In addition, we were double charged (the cover charge at Izumi) and had to go back to get that fixed. WHY, if I MUST pay for a reservation at the time of booking (MONTHS in advance) can RCCL NOT figure out how to communicate that (or the photo CD) to the ship? This has happened to us on EVERY cruise (the restaurant part).

 

Leaving the ship was a bit chaotic. We were in no hurry given we were spending the night in FLL. We got the 2nd to last group which originally said 9-9:30. The night before that changed to 8:30. We got up at 7:30, left the room by 8, went to WJ and ate. We went to the 4th floor dining room Diamond area and sat.

 

They had a huge issue at Customs and were weren't called off until 9:40. The line for US citizens flew, but the ship had at least 2/3 rds international folks and I think that caused the bottleneck. From walking off the ship to getting in the taxi was 17 minutes for us.

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Overall thoughts:

We enjoyed the cruise a lot. I'm glad we tried Oasis class. Do I have to do it again? Not for a premium honestly. If the prices were the same, yes I'd go again. If Freedom or Voyager class is not as pricey, we'll chose that (booked Freedom for next year). The ship is gorgeous and well laid out. The pool areas are beautiful and segregated well. The solarium is gorgeous! But unless you have an oceanview balcony you DO have to search for the ocean!

 

Except for leaving Cozumel we couldn't tell we were on a ship. I kind of like the rocking honestly (lol) and miss the feeling of getting off the ship and still rocking!

 

Service was VERY good to excellent. Staff was friendly and helpful. Food was good to excellent. The towel attendant was AWESOME. I loved him. We had no issues w/towel charges or turn-ins, etc. It's a PITA but was handled the best I've seen on Oasis.

 

The captain was great. We went to the Welcome Back party (I think there were either 1,400 or 1,800 repeat cruisers, that was IT! Out of 6,000, so there were a ton of newbies roaming around, I can't imagine trying to navigate that ship without being used to the other RCCL ships!). Richard Spacey was awesome. Loved him!

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Sounds like you had a great time. Can you please tell me the hours for the Diamond Nightly Event and roughly what drinks & appetizers were served.

 

I believe the hours were 5-8:30 (we usually went about 6:45-7 and stayed until dinner). The drink options were pretty good. Dh wanted a Bloody Mary but they didn't have those, but pretty much anything "standard" (soft drinks w/spirits, wine, beer) was available and Kristin (not sure how to spell his name, I know he mentioned many people think he's a woman if they only see his name first) made a Kick-A$$ cosmo. He also had many of the men drinking Lemon Drops (a different type of martini but served in a glass so the men would feel manly, lol).

 

Hot food included: meatballs, chicken meatballs (not sure what they were but that was pretty much how they tasted), some puffed pastry things, shrimp (once), chicken wings, hot dogs (once) cut up and browned, etc. Cold stuff was the canapes on bread pieces - they weren't as appealing to me. There was PLENTY of food (3 huge servers each night) and drinks were readily available and plenty of those too!

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Masonpips,

 

Thanks for the review. I have a question about the photo CD, even after reading a lot about it. Can you tell me, if a photographer took a picture of one of your children, say on the FlowRider, or at dinner, or at the pool, and they were the only one in the picture, did that picture make it on your CD? We are traveling with three kids and we will all be in the embarkation photo, but I hear the CD is really per cabin. So I am confused how that works.

 

Also, if photos are not showing up at the kiosk after swiping your seapass card, but they are showing up in the folder of prints, will they add it to the CD if you ask them? I am not even sure this would happen as I assume if photos are in your folder on the shelf then they would come up at the kiosk as well.

 

I guess in the end I want to make sure that all our photos make it to the CD, e.g. my wife and I, me or my wife with one of the kids, kids alone, etc, before committing to prepay for the CD.

 

Thanks for any insight you have!

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Great review! I also love the Freedom class so am anxious to see what I will prefer! I have booked Chops and Giovanni's, did you see the Bistro at night? Might want to ''splurge'' and do that one the last night...

 

We are going with a couple who have only cruised with Royal in the past, we are Diamonds, any chance we can ask if they can join us in the Diamond Lounge, I would think not....

 

newlu

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Masonpips,

 

Thanks for the review. I have a question about the photo CD, even after reading a lot about it. Can you tell me, if a photographer took a picture of one of your children, say on the FlowRider, or at dinner, or at the pool, and they were the only one in the picture, did that picture make it on your CD? We are traveling with three kids and we will all be in the embarkation photo, but I hear the CD is really per cabin. So I am confused how that works. .

 

Thanks for any insight you have!

 

As we had the adjoining cabins and traveling as a "family" all of the photos we took were linked (as I think yours will be) between the two cabins. The kids had photos taken on the Zipline and you put your number in afterwards and in theory they should show up. Ours did not, but we just gathered them from the Zipline area and gave them to the attendant working and they were added to the CD. The next time they rode, the camera wasn't on so we didn't get any pics :-(

 

No Florider photographers that we saw either. Overall, we LOVE the CD and are very happy we got it. The kids had MANY photos taken by themselves (but we typically scanned our card) as these are the ones I really want (in addition to some family shots) and we got great memories on that CD. They also printed out a thumbnail page (actually 3 since we had so many) to verify what was on the CD.

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Great review! I also love the Freedom class so am anxious to see what I will prefer! I have booked Chops and Giovanni's, did you see the Bistro at night? Might want to ''splurge'' and do that one the last night...

 

We are going with a couple who have only cruised with Royal in the past, we are Diamonds, any chance we can ask if they can join us in the Diamond Lounge, I would think not....

 

newlu

 

I doubt it - we were moved to Blaze after night 1 due to people crashing the lounge and no way for them to manage it (the door was held open). They checked SeaPass cards the next night (and knew us after that, lol)

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Thanks for the great review. We will be sailing on the Oasis on November 5th with our DD (12) and DS (13). Any recommendations or must-do's your kid's would like to share?

 

I was on the fence about the photo CD, but now will order one for sure!

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Thanks for the review. We sailed Oasis last month (eastern) and your review of the ship brought back nice memories. Agree with your comments. Will get an oceanview next time as want to see the the ocean moore due to the size of the ship and lack of outside viewing. We sailed late September as the price is was much cheaper. Always sail in May each year and with the Oasis/Allure price being higher in May, will do Freedom/Voyager/Radiance class then as the prices are less and book Oasis/Allure late Sept/early Oct when the price is lower. Comment: With the ships being moved out of the carribean in May, will not have (I think) but one choice for a 7 day and that will be the ship sailing out of Port Canaveral for the carribean. May have to do a Europe/Med option.

 

Dave

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Thanks for the great review. We will be sailing on the Oasis on November 5th with our DD (12) and DS (13). Any recommendations or must-do's your kid's would like to share?

 

I was on the fence about the photo CD, but now will order one for sure!

 

FloRider! Zipline! Ice-skating - my son went w/some friends from the teen club and wore his dress slacks (I was at the pool). He had the BEST time w/kids he had met through our Meet n Mingle. DD had more of an issue "linking up" w/folks. There were only 200 kids (not sure if this was the 12-17 age range) on board and there were a TON of boys. She is shy to begin with so she didn't spend much time in Teen area. Have you DD go early and see if you can link both kids up w/buddies.

 

Take them on the Rising Tide bar before dinner (it is adults only after a certain point). Have them try the Virgin frozen drinks ($4) - mine LOVED these. We golfed together and hung in Central Park one evening too

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So it seems the embarkation photo with the family is the key to linking the faces to the CD? And since we have staterooms that are linked reservations all photos show up?

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I think so. But actually the photo the check-in agent takes I think. It seemed very easy/seamless to us to have everything linked together and on the CD

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Thanks for the great review. We will be sailing on the Oasis on November 5th with our DD (12) and DS (13). Any recommendations or must-do's your kid's would like to share?

 

 

Also, have a night where you don't "do" anything. It's SO relaxing. We had plans Sat/Sun/Mon/Tues/Wed and took ALL of our photos those days. When we got to Thursday (in Cozumel) we didn't do a thing. We didn't shower (shhh), our hair, get dressed up, etc. We put on shorts and t-shirts and went to WindJammer for dinner. Since we knew we had so many great photos at this point and didn't "have to" go to dinner anywhere, it was a VERY relaxing day/night.

 

We learned this many years ago and try to have one day planned like this per cruise!

 

The black/white plain backgrounds are the best for family/casual (or formal) photos. I will go to my facebook album and create a public version to share here. The photos on the staircase by Cupcake Cupboard and by the car turned out good too! Will add the link soon.

 

Came back to just add the "public" link to the pics: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2509762391899.231053.1488278395&type=1&l=c08cbe06cc

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thanks for the great review. You mentioned flow rider and zip line. Are these open while the ship is in port? I thought that would be a great time to do those activities and the rock climbing.

 

The times vary but yes, most times for at least awhile. I remember one of the port days FloRider was open 8-11 a.m. and then 4-7 p.m. - I think this was Cozumel where we were there from 8:30 - 6:30. Lines were definitely shorter those days!

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HEY there RE the photo disk, for $199. when we get the disk can you then take it to walmart or were ever and print them out your self? Or on your own printer?

 

Steve and Allison

tormedic@gmail.com

 

We've bought photos on disc before (not on Oasis, but its the same) and my husband was able to open them with photo software (photoshop, explorer) and print them on our own printer. Or you could take the whole dics to a photo processer (Walmart) Also you can use the photos on FB, or on a photo website that creates photo cards or calendars. It's just like they came off your own memory card. Thats' why its $$, it's like getting the copyrights to those photos.

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