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Oasis Eastern Review - Nov 29 - Dec 6, 2014


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This is our 10th overall cruise and 5th on Royal Caribbean. Walt and I booked this cruise in January to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. Originally we booked a D5 on deck 8 mid-ship port side. In early October, after final payment, the Jr Suites dropped in price and I decided to splurge. So, we were in cabin 7236 deck 7 hump!

 

Here is a little bit about us. I am Lisa and traveling with me is the Wonderful Walt. I am 42 and Walt is 59. We are laid back and are up for just about anything. If you have read my past reviews, then you know we are not nit picky travelers.

 

This review was written every day on my iPad while we were traveling. Since there were so many live reviews on the Trans Atlantic, I decided to save some money and post this when we got home.

 

We drove down from Knoxville on Wednesday and Thursday with a stop in Palm Coast. We arrived mid afternoon on Thanksgiving at the Hilton Marina. We did get a nice upgrade from the villas to the tower. In room 1103 facing north. Very nice view and room. We hung out at the G Bar at the hotel for awhile and then went to Waxy O'Connors for dinner. I called it at night at 8pm since I was tired from the car ride...Walt watched the Lego movie...still shaking my head on that.

 

 

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Friday

We woke up to a beautiful sunny day and had breakfast at the hotel. I decided to do the water taxi today, so we caught the noon one and went downtown for lunch. After that we took it around for another hour. I love the water taxi because it's easy transportation and a nice site seeing tour.

 

Dinner was our first CC meetup at Bimini Boatyard. 14 of us met up for cocktails outdoors and then split up for dinner. Lynne and Murphy, also from the Knoxville area, had dinner inside with us. We had a great conversation and will meet up again at sail away. I really enjoy meeting CC'ers the night before the cruise. It's nice to recognize people on the ship. After dinner we called it a night, and headed back to the Hilton. It was packing time and to bed.

 

 

Lisa

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Saturday

I woke up at 6:30am super excited! We grabbed breakfast and went for a walk on the drawbridge to take some video and photos. After the cruise I will be editing the go pro video and posting a link to my vlog. It's my first time adding video to a review, so this will be interesting.

 

 

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The plan is to leave our hotel room at 10:30 and head to port. I am ignoring the texts, voice mails, and emails that state 12:30...I want on that ship!!!

 

We breezed through check in and were on the ship around 11:40. Our first stop was Deck 6's Sabor for lunch. We had guacamole, braised short ribs with mole sauce, pollito quesadillas, and yucca fries. Everything was wonderful, especially the short ribs. OMG, it fell apart! I love really good short ribs and these were amazing.

 

We were able to go to our cabin at 1pm and our suitcases were already there. We are in cabin 7236, a junior suite on the hump. This cabin is amazing. Tons of storage and room to move around. The balcony is huge...two loungers, a table and two chairs.

 

 

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We met our cabin steward, Wayne, and put in a few requests. Extra pillows, a blanket, and ice. Oh, and he contacted bar service to find out where our missing champagne was located...the bottle will come sometime tomorrow. As long as it gets sorted out, it is no big deal.

 

Lisa

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Saturday Continued

 

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We explored the ship until muster. After muster we went to the Deck 7 rockwall on the port side for sailaway. We hung out in Central Park for awhile until it was time to go to the Solarium Bistro for dinner. We have my time dining, but decided to do specialty all week. The bistro's atmosphere was very romantic and peaceful. The food was also great. I had the red snapper and Walt had the veal...both were cooked perfectly. We have booked it for a few more nights and are glad we did.

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Sailaway!

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Since it has been a long day, we are calling it quits for the night.

 

Lisa

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Hi Lisa! So happy to be reading your newest review on such a great ship. Your pix and commentary are great so far, will be waiting for more.:)

 

Ellen

Thanks! We are pretty beat from 2 days of driving, so I am calling it a night. I will post more tomorrow.

 

Lisa

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Great start! We are sailing Allure in January and have the dining room booked for one night and the rest specialty restaurants so I'm looking forward to your take on them, even though they are different ships I still like to know others opinions.

 

We will be in Fort Lauderdale for 2 days pre-cruise. We are thinking about going to Waxy O Connors one night. What did you think of it? There are so many places to choose from within walking distance of the hotel it's hard to pick what ones we want to try.

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Great review, subbing in!

 

Question: I am thinking of trying Sabor after we board, did you have a reservation, and/or how long did you have to wait? We will be boarding right about the same time you did....

 

Thanks! Enjoying the review so far!

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Great review so far! We will be sailing on Oasis January 31 and was wondering if Wonderland is open yet?

 

Thanks!

Hi, Wonderland was not open on our sailing, but it was open as a Concierge Lounge. Maybe one of the Diamond or Diamond Plus members can confirm what C&A level was allowed in there.

 

Lisa

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Great review, subbing in!

 

Question: I am thinking of trying Sabor after we board, did you have a reservation, and/or how long did you have to wait? We will be boarding right about the same time you did....

 

Thanks! Enjoying the review so far!

Hi, We did not have a reservation for lunch. We just walked up and were the first ones in the Sabor on embarkation day. We picked a few things to split and it worked out great. The guacamole was incredible and made fresh at the table. I did go into a little sticker shock at the price of the margaritas...$12 each! I am glad we did not get another round. Wow, those margaritas on the rocks were really pricey but still yummy.

 

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Lisa

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Sunday

I woke up at 6:30 this morning and was able to watch us back in to port in Nassau. After we docked we had coffee on the balcony and went to breakfast at the Wipe Out Cafe. It was really windy today, so we had to keep chasing our napkins. After breakfast we went to Deck 15 port side forward to the little nooks with loungers (before you get to the Solarium) to read for a bit. This was a very nice and quiet spot. Then we wandered into the Solarium for coffee and to read some more.

 

 

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Later on we went to the gym to work out. I am a rower, so I was thrilled to see a Concept 2 ERG (rowing machine) in the gym and that no one was using it. Woo Hoo, my winter indoor season goes uninterrupted on the ship.

Lunch was at the Park Cafe where we indulged in the roast beef sandwiches. We arrived before the crowd, so the line was quick. We ate at the Trellis Bar and had beers with lunch.

 

 

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I am really happy that we stayed on the ship today. It was so laid back onboard. This afternoon we started our Small Wonders exploration. We have made it from Deck 3 to Deck 7 finding 17 so far. We found 2 placards with missing wonders, so I guess we have found 19 locations. Some of them are hidden away and tricky to find. We will continue on decks 8-16 tomorrow.

We received an invitation to sailaway on the helipad, but it was too windy. We bumped into Lynne and Murphy and invited them to watch from our balcony. I was able to get a great video of the pilot boat bobbing in the water picking up the pilot.

At 3pm I hosted our roll call's Sailor's Cup at the mini golf course. It was a lot of fun and a great way to meet more people from the roll call. Sky616 was the winner with a score of 3 under par. He received a mini Appalachian broom from me for sweeping the competition.

 

 

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Lisa

 

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This review was written every day on my iPad while we were traveling. Since there were so many live reviews on the Trans Atlantic, I decided to save some money and post this when we got home.

 

 

Lisa

 

Lisa, great review so far, and nice pics! After trying the Allure last year, we'll be on the Oasis next October, then again in April 2016.

 

Bill

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Lisa, I'm loving reliving my cruise and reading about what might have been if we hadn't changed weeks! Thanks!:)

 

Hi, Wonderland was not open on our sailing, but it was open as a Concierge Lounge. Maybe one of the Diamond or Diamond Plus members can confirm what C&A level was allowed in there.

 

Lisa

 

I wandered into the Concierge Lounge when I was on one of my photo safaris. I was very politely told it was for Diamond Plus and Pinnacle members only, but I was free to use the DL on Deck 4 or the SL on Deck 17! I was told that the CL on Deck 11 will close permanently in late January in order for them to do the final construction to convert the lounge to Wonderland.

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Sunday Continued...

The next few hours we spent on our gigantic balcony. It was so windy I ended up changing to a long sleeve T-shirt and sweat pants. At 6 we decided to get ready for formal night...we are skipping formal wear this cruise, so it was easy peasy to get dressed. We went up to deck 8 and boarded the Rising Tide Bar at 6:30. I tried the Pomegranate Cosmopolitan and discovered that I like a regular cosmo better. After the 30 minute round trip we hopped off to enjoy the Central Park before our 7:30 reservation at Giovanni's.

 

 

Rising Tide

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Due to the wind in the Central Park, Giovanni's would not seat guests outside. Our preference was to be outside since it seemed really loud indoors. We were right, it was so loud with the group of 20 celebrating birthday next to our little table that we could not hear each other talk or our waitress half the time. So we rolled our eyes and made it through. Now, the food was outstanding. I had the veal osso bucco, and it was incredibly tender and flavorful. Walt had a chicken dish and seemed happy with it. We also had the penne pasta with shrimp and the ravioli. Both were great. And our waitress brought us a couple of scallops that were heavenly. We decided to get our dessert to go and have it back in the cabin. Did I mention it was really loud in there? My recommendation is to insist on a table outside if you want a romantic dinner for two. Dinner was not ruined by the noise, but it would have been nice to talk to Walt.

Oh, we decided to hit Starbucks for my Pumpkin Spice Latte with soy no whip to go along with the Chocolate Tort. Yum.

Monday

We woke up early and headed to the Promenade Cafe for coffee. At 8am we had breakfast at Johnny Rockets...inside since it was raining. After that we wandered to the upper level of the Solarium to read for a bit.

At 9:30 we did the Central Park Horticulture tour. Tom, the horticulturalist for the Oasis and Allure, did the tour. We found out all about the challenges of building the park and maintaining it. Also found out that there was an predatory owl onboard for a couple of weeks and an Osprey that hung out on an Aqua Suite balcony at one time. The story of the dive bombing small owls really cracked me up. We learned about the wind in the park and how on the Oasis 3 & 4 are designed to have less wind. Speaking of wind, the wind is 65mph on deck 16 today and they closed the deck...really windy in the Central Park too. The tour lasted an hour and fifteen minutes and was fantastic. We missed the meet and mingle because we did not want to leave the park. Tom also explained that the orchids growing on the tree trunks were an experiment of his. Really neat. Walt and I recommend doing this tour. It is done on the first and last sea days.

 

 

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Lisa

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Tuesday Continued...

 

We went to Izumi for lunch today, but arrived 15 minutes before they opened. So, we wandered to the lobby of The Grand and waited there. This spot was empty other than staff, so we sat down on a super comfy high back couch and read our kindles. There are secluded spots all over the ship, you just have to look for them. At Izumi we did a window table for two on the sushi side. The restaurant is split into the sushi and the hibachi sides. Edamame and Miso Soup are complimentary, we had those and split two rolls: Boxed Salmon & Crab and the Crunchy Spicy Tuna. Walt's not a huge sushi person, so I played it safe for him. Everything was fresh and well made. I liked the location of Izumi on deck 4 since the seas are really rough today. I would hate to see what it is like on deck 16 now...YIKES!

 

 

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After lunch we went to Cups and Scoops for a cupcake and then continued our small wonders hunt. Since it was raining, we skipped the Central Park (will go there later) and searched deck 8-12. We found 5 more, so the official count is 22 (24 if you count the placards with no wonders). We are having a blast doing this, seeing the entire ship, and getting some exercise. It's a win, win, win.

There is nothing on the schedule that we are interested in doing, and since it's raining outdoor activities are out. So, we decided to spend the afternoon reading (that would be me) and napping (that would be Walt).

Before dinner we went to the pub on the Promenade. I wanted to try new beers, so I had Boddington's and La Fin du Monde. La Fin du Monde is a Tripel...something I had never tried before so I figured why not. Walt and I split one and it was wonderful. This triple is brewed in Quebec and is a very strong beer. It's a golden hue with subtle malt and hops. I am glad we split it since I think one full tripel would have done me in.

 

 

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Ahh...La Fin Du Monde

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Definition of a Tripel Beer

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Dinner was once again at the Solarium Bistro. We lucked out and had Gregory from Jamaica as our waiter once again. He has a wonderful sense of humor and did a great job. I love dinner up there! It is quiet and peaceful all the time. I had the veal this time and it was delicious. Walt went with the pork tenderloin and thought it was over cooked. Oh well, they can't all be winners. After dinner we hung out in Solarium for a bit and then went back to the cabin.

The Aqua Theater show was canceled due to high winds, and they rescheduled us for Wednesday night at the same time. This will cause an issue with the Comedy Show, so we are going to see if we can catch the aqua show on Tuesday evening.

 

 

Lisa

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I mislabeled the last post...that was Monday...

 

Tuesday

This morning we had breakfast in the American Icon Restaurant. We were seated at a table for two and were in and out in 45 minutes. Our food came out hot and tasted good.

We docked at St Thomas at 10am and we decided to get off the ship. We caught a cab to downtown for $4 per person and then walked over to the Skyride. Looking back we should have taken a taxi to Havensight. Oh well, live and learn. The ride to the top was breath taking. We took lots of photos both up and down. Unfortunately the restaurant service was horrendous. We sat at a table for 20 minutes and never were waited on even though the waiter saw us and was taking care of other tables. We decided to move to the bar and it took 15 minutes for the bar tender to help us. He kept taking drink orders for people that arrived after us. We decided to have a beer and skip the food. After our beers we took the tram down and hopped a cab back to port.

 

 

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Back on the ship we went to the Windjammer (first time this cruise) and had lunch. I can definitely see that Windjammer is too small when it's not a port day. But, since we were in port we had no issue finding a table. I hit the Asian and Indian food and was very impressed with how spicy the food was. I love spicy, but normally can't find really spicy on a ship. Oh, and the ribs were awesome.

Later we wandered to the hot tubs outside the Solarium to relax for a bit. Then off to the cabin for a nap.

Dinner was at Chops tonight and was delicious as usual. There was an issue with the bill. Apparently when I switched our time (in person on the ship) from 8:30 to 6:00 they lost the fact that we paid for this online. So, they used our Thursday night's prepaid fee for tonight and are researching the "issue". Thursday night I plan to bring my iPad with me to prove that I paid for both. This is just another example of how pathetically bad Royal's IT system is. Back to the food...the jumbo shrimp cocktail is humungous! OMG, those were the biggest shrimp I have ever seen. Our filets were perfectly cooked and dessert, well mud pie is the bomb.

After dinner we made a B-line to deck 7 by the rock climbing wall to watch Oasis of Dreams. We arrived 5 minutes early and were able to get a prime spot on the railing next to the rock wall. The performance was outstanding. What more can I say than WOW!

 

 

 

For the remainder of the evening we sat in the Central Park listening to classical music. The violin and piano duo are wonderful.

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Lisa

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Wednesday

 

Today was our final port of call...St Martin! We had a nice breakfast in the main dining room again. A little slow to start, but once they realized no one was assigned to an area that they were seating people, then everything moved along nicely.

 

Since we backed in to port this morning, Walt and I decided to sit on Deck 5 aft on the jogging track. There are some chairs back there for people to enjoy the wake, and this morning we were the only ones out there. We were reading our kindles and watching the security lady on the pier blow her whistle at the offending passengers that crossed the yellow line and others that climbed the man made "rocks" and other things. Very entertaining.

 

 

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At 11am we decided to get off the ship to take some pictures and go to the The Belgium Chocolate Shop by the pier. Yup, that was it for us...buy lots of chocolate for Christmas gifts and get back on board. This cruise is about the ship.

 

 

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The afternoon was spent on the aft part of the jogging track reading, Johnny Rockets, and then on our balcony napping and reading. I was enjoying a peaceful nap up until the children 2 doors down ran onto their balcony screaming "mayday mayday!!!" That will wake you up quick. Oh, these are the same little boys that screwed up the plumbing yesterday afternoon...no toilets for awhile. Walt is doing a good job at keeping me from screaming obscenities at them. I am very laid back until you mess with my sleep or my toilet. Eek!

 

Since I was up, I decided to go back to Chops and see if the pre paid dinners had been found yet. I met with a very nice lady and after 15 minutes we figured out where the missing $$$ was located. In early October, after I booked one of the two nights at Chops, we upgraded to a junior suite. Our reservation payments stayed under our previous cabin 8172 even though we are in 7236. I have a difficult time understanding how or why this happens. It's all an IT issue and Adam Goldstein needs to address the epic failures of his IT department from the website to the onboard reservations. On that note, off to sailaway...Cheers!

 

Sailaway on the helipad is AWESOME! The P&O Ventura was sailing away when we were up there and all the Ventura passengers were singing "Hey Baby" at us. What fun! I did some go pro video of them and will be posting that later. We enjoyed some champagne and bumped into fellow cc'ers.

 

 

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Dinner was up at the Solarium Bistro and this time I had the lamb and Walt went with the veal again. It was rather empty up there and that made it even more intimate and romantic. Oh, I do love the romance of a quiet dinner.

 

We were rather tired, so we went back to the cabin and skipped the comedy show.

 

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Lisa

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Thursday

Today was the day of Walt finally getting to enjoy his birthday gift (his birthday was Nov 20). For his birthday I bought him the All Access Tour. The tour costs $150pp and we both did the tour. Absolutely incredible. We went all over the ship...down to deck zero and negative one. We saw the world's largest washing machine, the galley, the food storage areas, laundry & dry cleaning, the engine control room, the aqua theater, and the bridge. It was very informative and entertaining. We also saw the crew's dining room, their gym, and the crew disco. The tour lasted about 3 hours with 15 guests. We did get scanned by security twice on tour. Once before going to the engine room and the other before going to the bridge.

 

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We had lunch after the tour in the main dining room. I did the Tutti salad bar and had one of my Royal favorites, Tandoori Lamb Skewers. After lunch we went back to the cabin to read our kindles on the balcony and then take a nap. Splish Splash was canceled, so we ended up at the pub having a couple of beers.

Dinner was at Chops again and everything was straightened out and went smoothly. I had the veal chop...most excellent...and Walt had the braised rib. Yum on all the food, especially the mud pie.

Now we are heading off to watch the Dallas Cowboys at the aqua theater...good night.

 

 

Lisa

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