hollygtn

Congrats! We had honeymooners next door to us on 9 port side. We knew because of the sign on the door. But, we never saw them once. We laughed about that. I was hoping you'd say the room next to us so I could finally say congrats and hi! LOL.

I feel like I need a do-over as I missed out on trying bunches of things. Great review!

Yours Truly,

"The really nice woman"

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

There was a loud guy making his way through the solarium in a tank top and shorts hollering about having thought there was no charge to eat in there. I asked the waiter who seemed a little embarrassed. He replied that there is no charge if you have a reservation. So I don't know what to think.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

February 2014 was our first cruise that there was no ice sculpture and no fruit carvings. Our prior cruise was February 2013 so the change was somewhere in that period. I was very disappointed and thought it was specific to that ship. That first view of the fruit carvings in the Windjammer was my WOW moment when boarding. I was told by one of the chefs that the elimination of the carvings was due to staff cutbacks and there aren't enough hands in the kitchen now - he also said that it is not a food issue because almost all of the fruit was able to be used or consumed in some way.

There were fruit carvings one day in the windjammer last week that wowed my 11 year old.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Wow you just helped me work out my next dream Beach destination vacation. Throw in a day trip to St John and it seems divine! The vacation wish list is getting long.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

The people in our cab wanted to return at two separate times. They wanted to return at 3 and we wanted to return at 4. So, based on reviews I had read I was pretty certain that there would be other cabs there waiting to take people back. I was glad that was the case. In fact there were 3 or 4 vans sitting there waiting in the circle drive. The cabs who had returned for specific groups were waiting in the parking lot instead. It was a good thing because I had our driver's card and I could not get my phone to work even though my work turned on international calling for me.

Here is another view of Sapphire Beach. This time showing the walk up and view from land.

I also want to point out all the empty beach chairs. They were slotted for the official Oasis excursion. It seemed like they arrived an hour or more after us. So here is another vote for taking the cab instead.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

The zoo of towel animals!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Yes Bill's a great owner to work with.

 

We're considering a retirement cruise in January as we haven't cruised in a few years. We'd also like to return to Sapphire for a vacation after the cruise but we have to choose one or the other as we're spending the rest of the winter in our new home in Mexico.

 

But Sapphire is a gorgeous spot to stay, and being so close to the BVI makes splitting our time between Tortola and STT an easy trip!

What are the logistics for combining Tortola with St Thomas? I know St John is just a short Ferry ride.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Good to know about the Solarium we do have MTD . Love to take kids to Disney or universal but can't justify the cost for just one day. Going to take them to Disney springs the day before cruise and hang out at pool and lazy river at the hotel .

I understand! I had to save up airline miles for 3 years between family vacations. I don't know where you live but we are in Oklahoma. So we only take a vacation like this every 3 or so years. By the time you have invested to get somewhere like Orlando it is hard not to pack in everything you can. There is no way we could/would drive that distance.

I really second guessed Hollywood Studios. As we didn't get much sleep and it was sweltering hot it was a hard day. But the kids really appreciated it and were glad we squeezed it in.

They won't get another vacation quite like this till we take them to Hawaii, hopefully in 4 years. But we do plan on getting them up to Cedar Point in a year or two.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

LOL Mike. I was saving that for my write up and videos on St Martin. I wanted to do it justice so it gets its own post. But for the record you two were without a doubt the nicest people we met on the trip!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Was there a charge to eat in the solarium ? I have two girls aged 14 and 12 so really enjoyed your reveiw .

Also you mentioned Hollywood studios what is that ? I know of universal but not that in Orlando .

 

How much was chops for lunch ?

I caught a 1/2 price lunch deal for Chops. I think it was $19 for adults.

If you are on MTD there is no charge for Solarium. Apparently you have to mention MTD and have a reservation in order to get it free.

Hollywood Studios is Disney's version of Universal Studios. There are really only 4 good rides. Versus at Universal there are 10 or 11 rides we enjoyed. We did all 4 Disney parks 3 years ago. I probably should have done one Universal park before and one after as we had not been to either. Next time....as we love coasters and the Universal park we did not visit has more. But, we LOVED the "experience" rides at the Universal Studios park we did visit. And, we paid for unlimited express passes. That doubled the cost of our tickets. But we were able to fit in 17 rides and to us it was totally worth it. You can't buy such a pass at Disney parks. But, the app worked great for us and I think we did get to use a total of about 6-7 passes.

Glad you liked the review! Your girls will have a blast. My 14 yo daughter kissed me goodnight last night at home and said "Thanks for the Epic vacation." My 11 yo daughter wrote an email to her teacher w/ an entire write up of her impressions of the trip. I should have her forward it to me and post it on this thread. It was really great to get her perspective on it.

Hollygtn, thanks for the review - we're going on Oasis for the first time in September and are collecting information.

 

Can you tell us where the lazy river style pool is - or is it just for kids? I really enjoy lazy rivers, but I haven't been a kid for a long time.

 

Thanks.

 

Margy

Sorry, it isn't really a lazy river. It is more like an oversized hot-tub w/ a circular current and pool water (not hot.) The kids liked it. It is in the kids pool area.

I wanted to edit my post and can't find the edit button. So, I'll just add it in a reply.

I forgot to mention that we ate in the Solarium twice for dinner and I loved it. I loved that you have a buffet for appetizers. I love Mediterranean food so it was like eye candy. I think the smaller food venues are better able to serve entrees hot. My family enjoyed it too and they are not Mediterranean foodies. I think the only way to improve on the Solarium is to possibly offer a nightly special that differs from night to night.

Since the rest of the family did not share in my food disappointment I probably would still lean toward placing our budget on "fun" not "food" for the next cruise.

My youngest wishes their school cafeteria was the Wind Jammer.

I would not mind staying at your condo one bit Bill!!! Unfortunately we don't get to do these vacations as often as I'd like. Retirement is only 10 years away though!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

We did have to swim around a lot to find the things we saw. And the waves rolling into the beach make for a bit of work to swim against. If I was alone it would be a breeze. My 11 year old got scared because of the urchins when we got into the easy shallower water where there was more to see. So we spent more time further out in deeper water. I honestly would have enjoyed it, would have seen more, and it would have been easier without the kids. But it was totally worth the effort. They loved it.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

A little background on our previous cruise experience. This was my third cruise. I went on a Carnival cruise in 1999 to Cayman, Cozumel and I think Cancun with my family the summer before meeting my husband. And DH and I went on the NCL cruise to Hawaii in 2007 for my 40th BDay and we chose the Oasis for my 50th BDay. We are going to begin planning an Alaska Cruise for 2019 next. And in 2021 our hope would be to do the Hawaii cruise again.

My criteria was a beach vacation for the family, we brought our girls 11 and 14, who had never been to the ocean before as we live landlocked in Oklahoma. We wanted to use SW Airlines mileage for airfare and I wanted to be able to snorkel. I narrowed it down to Key West, Atlantis, or a cruise, with a cruise really being the only option I wanted, so I just had to convince DH on the idea of a cruise.

We loved our Hawaii cruise for the number of ports and excursions, we packed in 2 activities a day. But the idea of cruise vacation itself was not that much of a draw for DH. I had shown him videos of the Breakaway and his comment was that the kids could do a "ropes course" at the Main Event in our town. He resisted the idea of three days at sea because he found the NCL Pride of America to be claustrophobic and boxed in. But, when I found the RCL Oasis class ship with the open concept Boardwalk/Central Park and tons of kid friendly activities he agreed to give it a try.

• The ship and staff was exactly what we had hoped. DH is 6'6" so maybe that is why he is sensitive to the idea of close quarters. But he had no complaints and only positive things to say about the ship.
  
• We loved the room, 9th floor adjoining Boardwalk rooms. This is in contrast to in inside room on the NCL ship which was tiny. We barely had room for the two of us and could not imagine having a family of four. I think we could manage 4 people in a balcony room on this ship as the rooms are bigger but two rooms was heaven. A complaint on our NCL room is that the bathroom always stunk. This time the room always smelled great, we brought an air freshener and didn't even need it. Also, the bathroom was much bigger. DH could actually fit/maneuver in the shower and get under the shower head! We are wondering if the smell of the bathroom depends on how low you are on the ship? We took a walk down a lower floor (maybe 4?) when we found ourselves on the wrong end of the ship, it literally stunk from one end of the ship to the other. The 9th floor didn't stink at all.
  
• The only negative on the room, is that heavier people really need box springs on the bed. After about three days DH started waking up 2-3 times a night with back pain. I was worried about the softness of the bed but, the bed was not hard at all, so I was happy. I'm glad I didn't lug an egg crate on board.
  
• The room was made up multiple times a day. Even the days we drug sand in from the beach he had it all vacuumed up when we got back from dinner. The kids were thrilled with the zoo of towel animals we accumulated by the end of the week.
  
• We liked the Boardwalk balcony and used it quite a few times. The noise in the evenings was noticeable the day of St. Thomas when we wanted to go to bed early and recoup before St. Martin. And, really irritating for me on the last night. I think there was a party going on very late. And we were trying to sleep so we could self-disembark and make it to Disney by rope drop. Finally after midnight, I turned on the TV to drown out all the partying. We were not sure we could relax with the girls having access to an ocean balcony, but when they are older we'd probably choose that instead. We just are not comfortable w/ them across the hall. So, the ships w/ inside rooms adjoining to balconies seem ideal, though apparently scarce.
  
• We have not been fans of all the onboard entertainment on previous cruises. But the entire family LOVED the shows, Come Fly with Me, Oasis of Dreams, and Frozen in Time. We also liked the dance show put on by the dance studio from Australia who auditioned an won the opportunity to perform. We had tickets to the headliner, comedy shows, and CATS but opted to let the girls enjoy the ship playing putt-putt/ping pong, etc during those evenings instead.
  
• We didn't have as much time to spend on the Flow Rider, Zip Line, Rock Walls, and Sports Court as I had imagined we would. I was a little disappointed that it seemed the men commandeered the sports court for the majority of the time. I guess I'm happy they had fun! The one time that I was aware the 12-15 year olds officially had the court there were some men that literally would not get off the court until the minute it was officially the kids slot. Even when it was strongly hinted by the staff that it was their time slot coming up. Just an irritation. I think if the cruise line could find room to put another sports court on for kids it would be good. Although I have to admit it was HOT and even if we had access to such an area we'd be most likely to use it in the evenings.
  
• The girls loved the Flow Rider, Zip Line, and Rock Walls, although my 11 year old was 5 lbs short of going on the zip line (75 lbs req.) The staff was so sweet when she was weighed and didn't qualify, I think she could see the tears welling up and she gave her a big hug saying she was sorry.
  
• The pools were VERY crowded and the kids commented that they wondered why all the partying adults didn't go to the adult pool. My kids were kind of too old for the kiddie pool area (they liked the lazy river style pool though). We were able to get wet though and were thankful that the ship has as many pools as it does. I can't imagine being on a ship with less! Maybe they should have areas w/ misters on the decks?
  
• The food. I guess it is unfortunate that I am a bit of a foodie. I wanted to spend all my money on "fun" not food, since I figure I've already paid for the food and don't want to pay extra. It is the principle of the matter. I was very disappointed, and figured well at least I was not going to pack on the lbs eating. Most of the food is lukewarm. If it could be HOT I'd be way more able to call it "good enough." The rest of my family was ok with it, they just are not as particular. And, honestly the kids loved the Windjammer. They could eat every meal in there and be happy. DH and I ate lunch at Chops the last day. DH had a great sirloin burger with beautiful presentation, prettiest burger I've ever seen. My filet was way too salty, not just a salty crust, but all the way through the meat. I was happy to see the mashed potatoes were a normal color, not orange or bright yellow like in dining room and Wind Jammer. But unfortunately they were watery at Chops. The fries were delicious, as was the asparagus. I don't understand why some cruise lines can get the food right and others can't. Seems to be an easy thing for them to fix with HUGE payoff if people would leave raving about the food. But maybe I just have too high of standards.
  
• We paid to go to the waterpark in Nassau. As I've always wanted to go there I decided to pay to go. I guess I'm glad I did, but if you don't have a burning desire to experience Atlantis, and you only have a half day, I'd say don't bother. The lines were really long and after only a couple of rides we decided we have been to plenty of water parks that are just as good, albeit w/out the scenery. So, we took the kids to see the beach for the first time. They loved it. Our biggest complaint was the process of getting off the ship and onto the bus. It would not take a process genius to clean up that process and make it better. More shade, megaphones for communication, distribute waivers in advance so people can bring them and hand them in, etc.
  
• My 11 year old was able to join her 14 year old w/ the teens. I just had to sign a waiver and agree that if she didn't act mature and behave that she could not come back. They only went to two activities, one of which was the "prom". They had fun at the prom but they said almost all the kids had "coupled up" and went as "dates". They had fun the last dance was kind of a line dance that they knew. They should probably consider doing one or two more of those to draw the "single" kids in a little more.
  
• We went to Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas. Loved it. Already posted separate about that.
  
• We went with Captain Bob for an all day boat ride around St. Martin on a 2014 Scarab. It was truly the highlight of the trip. I will post separate about it w/ video in the next week.
  
• We went to Universal the day before the cruise and Hollywood studios the day after the cruise. That was our back up plan in case the girls hated the ocean. Ha! They loved it all. A final note about self dis-embark. It was a BREEZE! We had to wait at the elevator for one w/ enough room. Got downstairs at 6:40. It seriously took us no longer than 15 minutes to get off the ship and through customs! Our cab driver took us to the hotel to drop our bags and we were in line at the park by 8:25 for a 9:00 park opening.
  

I tried to tell you the good w/ the bad. Don't mean to sound negative at all. We absolutely loved our vacation and the Oasis did not disappoint!

We selected Sapphire Beach for our outing today. Number one criteria was great snorkeling, but didn't want to trek over to St. John. And, DH was not keen on a beach with a lot of vendors which ruled out Coki Beach. If we had time we were going to at least check it out but we were having too much fun at Sapphire.

We ate lunch at the grill. I had the blackened Mahi sandwich and devoured it. I worked up an appetite swimming against the surf and it was downright tasty. Plus it was hot! After a few days of lukewarm main dining room dishes it was mouth watering good.

Here is a VERY rough clip I threw together from our snorkeling today. We think the school of funny looking fish was actually squid. Hubby thought he saw the tentacles, but I didn't see them.

There were enough fish to give my girls a great first snorkeling experience so it was a good beach for us. After our first go-around we rented the rafts for $5 each 1 hour or $8 each two hours. It really helped because we were spending so much time helping with masks, etc. While it is shallow for quite a ways we quickly got to depths that even my 6'7' husband couldn't stand in while helping the girls work things out.

Ok in case anyone else is wondering I answered my own question. Their website says no metal buckles. Kids' Chacos are plastic and I think my Keens are too.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Hi again,

 

 

 

FWIW, ours was hard as a rock last month (which I love but obviously some people do not). My SIL got extra foam egg crate toppers from the cabin attendant to soften theirs. I'm sure it's possible different cabins have different mattresses but figured I'd share. This was ocean view balcony 9612 for the record.

 

 

 

Do what you gotta do, we need your husband to help keep stuff dry on the swim/wade into the beach for lunch Thursday and we don't want him to have a bad back or be in a bad mood. :)

LOL. I'm worried about his back and my mood. Do you think the beds pushed together are more of a queen or a king? It is *only* $40 to bring a queen eggshell. But honestly if they will bring a topper it might be better and less hassle.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Have not heard anyone talk about beds lately. How hard was your bed? Considering bringing a topper.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Have not heard anyone talk about beds lately. How hard was your bed? Considering bringing a topper.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Excellent! Glad you supported your local dive shop too!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

A little off topic---do you know if you can wear chaco and keens style shoes on rides?

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Does Oasis not do this. I finished check in and don't remember anything about photos.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums