Just Off Oasis- "Stream of Consciousness" Review

Just of Oasis yesterday and thought I would share mythoughts. Not so much a blow-by-blowtrip review, but more a stream of consciousness collection of observations. Feel free to throw any questions my way and I’llsee if I can answer them.

A little context: Traveled with a party of twelve. Myself and my wife in one oceanviewbalcony stateroom. Her four kids (age12-17), each with a friend the same age split between two boardwalk balconystaterooms across the hall. Her parentsin an ocean view stateroom two doors down.

A LOT of advanced planning (my OCD paid off!) made this tripsurprisingly easy with twelve people flying in from Boston the day prior.

Overall: FANTASTIC! This was my fourthtime on Oasis, but the first time in probably six years. It exceeded my expectationin just about every way!

I will share more details as replies.

Pre-Cruise: NonstopJetBlue Boston to Orlando the Saturday before sailing.

Four rooms at Courtyard by Marriott OrlandoAirport for the twelve of us made arrival easy. Grabbed bags and got three ubers curbside, at the hotel in less than tenminutes.

Clean, comfortable andeasy. Numerous restaurants within walkingdistance made managing twelve people a breeze.

Sunday morning, van pickup at 10:15, at the port by 11:00.

Cruise Terminal: Nicenew terminal. Arrived 11:00, curbsidesetup is great. They manage the variousarrival modalities (bus, van, taxi, private vehicle drop-off, private vehicleparking) better than anywhere I’ve been.

The terminal itself is nice, albeit a bit generic. I didn’t findit quite as clearly laid out as Ft. Lauderdale, just kind of a big room with alot of signs to various counters. Notbad, but just not quite as seamless.

The entire process curbside to ship was maybe 25 minutes,and that included checking in twelve people to four staterooms.

Interesting aside: Ihad put together an EXTRAORDINARY amount of documentation. After all, we hadfour adults in two rooms, and eight kids- four my wives’ (but different lastname), and four unrelated. I’d had a LOT of advice about making sure we had agood paper trail.

We had signednotarized permission agreements from parents, copies of driver licenses and evenconsent from the wife’s ex-husband. Ihad put together a binder, detailing everything we needed.

So, I get to check in…. They looked at NONEof it! :'):')I guess better to have it and notneed it, then need it and not have it!

It did come in handy on board to make a change in one of theteens permissions regarding teen club access (one friend was having a birthdayduring the week that transitioned them from one club to the next and they neededconsent to do it from the beginning). When we did have to show it, the crew was impressed with what we puttogether.

So, even though we didn’t needit to board, if anyone ever has any questions about consent paperwork, I’mhappy to present myself as a resident expert! LOL!

The SHIP:

Simply put,I was impressed. Pushing ten years old, Iwasn’t sure what to expect. I have seen some comments and reviews about Oasisshowing its age and I couldn’t DISAGREE more. She is in fantastic shape!

Arethere some carpets in the hallway showing some wear? Sure! But, heck, with thetraffic these hallways get, I think they showed wear the first time I was onher four months after her maiden voyage.

Public spaces are as beautiful as ever and I really couldn’t identify any “problem” areas, even looking with a critical eye.

The Stateroom:

Standardocean view balcony staterooms on deck 10 (10700 & 10704). Again, in good condition, no real wear andtear issues. Both bed by balcony, which Ialways assumed I preferred. But now I’m not so sure. I felt like the other half (by the closet)was a bit cooler (A/C vent is over that part of room and some radiant heat frombalcony came into play). Again, not toowarm in bed area, but not the coolest part of room.

I also think in hindsight, I would have beenmore inclined to sit on the sofa if it was by the slider. But stuck between the bed and closet it just feltlike an odd place to sit. This of courseis entirely subjective and was in no way a detraction. Just my two cents on a never-ending debate!

My family and i were on this cruise also. We had a great time!!! very friendly staff, ship looked great, state room attendants always had our two rooms 7430 & 7432 looking great and were supper friendly.

we only had two issues the whole cruise, the first one was room service. we ordered breakfast for our nassau stop. the breakfast was cold and the kids wouldn't eat it. that brings us to issue two

we had to order room service because we needed to be off the ship for an excursion before any of the places that serve breakfast were open. maybe i missed something being open (its a big ship) but the cruise compass has the times of the restaurants opening at 7:30 am while we had to be at our groups meeting area for the shore excursion at 7:15 am.

but those two issues were not about to get us down. had a great time and would definitely sail on this monster of a ship again!!

My family and i were on this cruise also. We had a great time!!! very friendly staff, ship looked great, state room attendants always had our two rooms 7430 & 7432 looking great and were supper friendly.

 

we only had two issues the whole cruise, the first one was room service. we ordered breakfast for our nassau stop. the breakfast was cold and the kids wouldn't eat it. that brings us to issue two

 

we had to order room service because we needed to be off the ship for an excursion before any of the places that serve breakfast were open. maybe i missed something being open (its a big ship) but the cruise compass has the times of the restaurants opening at 7:30 am while we had to be at our groups meeting area for the shore excursion at 7:15 am.

 

but those two issues were not about to get us down. had a great time and would definitely sail on this monster of a ship again!!

I never tried room service, but I have never had a great experience with it in the past, so this is not surprising. I didn't notice that in Nassau, but we also didn't need to be off that early. It does seem like poor planning. Have to wonder if Windjammer maybe had some limited early offerings (cereal, fruit, pastry, etc...). But this is just speculation.

The Food:

Okay, I am comingto terms with the fact that I have now officially switched camps. For years, I have been in the “specialty isthe only way to go” camp. I am a self- professedfood fanatic (I hate the term “foodie”!) and I never hesitate to spend more fora great meal. I felt for a long timethat the specialty dining product was far superior to the main diningroom.

An additional factor may also be in HOW I cruised. I used to frequently cruise either solo, orwith one other person. I always feltthat dining solo or at a table for two in the MDR was a less than idealexperience. Two top tables tend to be squeezedtogether, service always felt either disjointed or rushed.

Now, with a group of twelve, I wasn’t interested in shellingout for specialty dining every night. Wehad MTD reservations at 7:30 every night, made in advance. You can’t book that many together, so at thebehest of my TA, I made two reservations and went to the dining room uponboarding. They linked them and never missed a beat. We were twelve people most of the nights.There were several nights when 2-6 of the teenagers opted to do something else.They were told to let me know by 3:30 and I just contacted dining reservationsand reduced the number, no problem.

As far as the service goes, I do believe larger parties havean advantage. The service was outstandingoverall. They were friendly and efficientand on top of everything.

The food itself Exceeded my expectations. There were acouple dishes that were a “miss”. But in hindsight, they were the wrongchoices. When selecting items, I always wentfor things that lend themselves to large batch cooking (prime rib, soups, lambshank, lasagna, etc.…) The “misses” werethings that in hindsight are always better made a plate at a time (seafoodpasta for example). However, if anyonewas ever on the fence about an item, the staff would encourage us to ordermultiple appetizers or entrees and they were happy to provide. No one ever left dinner disappointed.

Food (continnued):

Even having had this better-than-expected experience, on one evening, when weshrank down to six (the four adults and the two 17-year olds), I decided to goto Chops instead. What a HUGE disappointment! The steaks were marginally better than the NYStrip or nightly beef options in the MDR. But that was about it. The sidesare served with such silly abundance (“we will bring you ALL the sides”) whichonly underscores that this was nothing special and they were just cranking outpiles of sides in the back just like the MDR. I found the sides no more impressive and possibly less interesting intheir variety than what was offered in the MDR. I left there thinking, that was good, but I honestly would have enjoyedthe MDR more for free!

Hit Sabor for lunch one day. That was good. Maybe a bit steep at $20 per person, but certainlyenjoyable. And if I’m not blowing $$ fordinner in specialty, I wouldn’t hesitate to spend the $20 again.

Breakfast, either at Johnny Rockets or Solarium every morning. Wife and I are early risers, so most morningswe were sitting at the Beach Pool by 6:30 and would just wander over to Solariumat 7:30 or so. Kids and her folds wentto Windjammer a lot and had no complaints.

Lunch, other than the one day at Sabor, we went toWindjammer once (not bad, but you couldn’t pay me to go there between noon andone. Too many less crazy options, butafter 1:00, it’s fine), Park Café once (roast beef still excellent), andwipeout café one day (okay, but could definitely use an upgrade). This is one area I still give the edge toCelebrity and Carnival (albeit this is a second-hand report from friends I havetraveled with). The deck grill onCelebrity has far better burgers, and I get the same report from Carnival. Wipeout café is a little too cafeteria-like. Again, not terrible, but room forimprovement.

Thanks for the info. I'm going with my kids and grandkids in February on the Oasis.

Is breakfast free at Johnny Rockets?

Is breakfast free at Johnny Rockets?

Yes, and it's quite good!

Food again....

OMG, Guys! GUYS!!!!! I almost forgot!!!!! So, we went to Sorrento's. The pizza? It was..... GOOD!!!!!!! No seriously, I was SHOCKED!

I'm not sure if it's a new recipe, or they finally got someone who was willing to put some effort into it. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't going to put any New York pizzeria to shame, but it's a big step up from past trips where it had the consistency of something I get from my freezer via the microwave!

Nice crust that was chewy with a bit of crunch, good cheese sauce and toppings.

A total WIN!!!!!

Fab review. Really helpful comments. I'm on Oasis next May and can't wait !

Service: Overall,excellent. Room steward was great andattentive. I told him on day one I liketo have ice in the room (they do not normally stock the rooms with the icebuckets anymore), he had ice the first evening and the ice bucket was neverempty for seven days.

Bar service. Overall,great. Sometimes staffing was a bit off,but I think it was bad luck. Pool baropens at 9am and is very quiet until 10:00 or so. So usually one person on ituntil then. That’s fine except for thehandful of times when three people would show up at once and they were a littleburied.

Odd observation: Oneof the biggest bottlenecks in bar service is the archaic POS system theyuse. I watched bartenders make drinks inliterally a quarter the time it took them to ring up the transaction. We had the premium beverage package and itwas 50:50 if we signed a chit or not. Some bartenders claimed that it was arbitrary whether is spit one out. I’mnot sure I believe this, as I think it might be about fishing for tips. Either way, even if you don’t have a package,this whole system is clearly far from cutting edge.

Additional drink observation. Possibly the single weakest link in the MDRis drink service. There is a dedicatedbar in the galley. If you’ve been on the tour, you’ve seen it. Sadly, getting a drink from it is still an unreasonablyslow process.

Inexplicably the entire POS system still involves thewaiters or staff to write down and then manually enter everything. In an environment where speed and efficiency areking, I must believe it’s only a matter of time before they are using anelectronic handheld system that will streamline the entire process. This is for both food and drink.

Food again....

 

 

 

OMG, Guys! GUYS!!!!! I almost forgot!!!!! So, we went to Sorrento's. The pizza? It was..... GOOD!!!!!!! No seriously, I was SHOCKED!

 

 

 

I'm not sure if it's a new recipe, or they finally got someone who was willing to put some effort into it. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't going to put any New York pizzeria to shame, but it's a big step up from past trips where it had the consistency of something I get from my freezer via the microwave!

 

 

 

Nice crust that was chewy with a bit of crunch, good cheese sauce and toppings.

 

 

 

A total WIN!!!!!

Thanks for this info. Last March I got pizza from Sorrento’s on Freedom. I thought it tasted okay for what it was. I have to avoid gluten and at Sorento’s they will make a gluten free pizza when ordered. I enjoyed it with GF beer from the pub!

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Thank you for sharing such detail with us.

Thanks for the post! I was supposed to be on this cruise, but my little man fractured his arm just before the cruise. Glad to hear such a positive review. We'll be on Oasis next month! Woo hoo!

Thanks for the review and good info. We sail next month!

The Stateroom:

 

 

Standardocean view balcony staterooms on deck 10 (10700 & 10704). Again, in good condition, no real wear andtear issues. Both bed by balcony, which Ialways assumed I preferred. But now I’m not so sure. I felt like the other half (by the closet)was a bit cooler (A/C vent is over that part of room and some radiant heat frombalcony came into play). Again, not toowarm in bed area, but not the coolest part of room.

 

Hi,

Thank you so much 😊. Especially this info about the Balcony Cabin layout.

Do any of our Hosts here know if this is the set up of the Large Ocean View Balcony on Deck 10/HUMP??

:) Bobbi

We sail the 26th :hearteyes: !!!

Thanks for your report! We will be on Oasis in a few weeks! I can hardly wait! :cool:

Do any of our Hosts here know if this is the set up of the Large Ocean View Balcony on Deck 10/HUMP??

:) Bobbi

We sail the 26th :hearteyes: !!!

I would start by searching your cabin number here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1223724

I believe there are other references to bed configuration. Generally it alternates, but I don't think that is 100% consistent.

Food again....

 

OMG, Guys! GUYS!!!!! I almost forgot!!!!! So, we went to Sorrento's. The pizza? It was..... GOOD!!!!!!! No seriously, I was SHOCKED!

 

I'm not sure if it's a new recipe, or they finally got someone who was willing to put some effort into it. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't going to put any New York pizzeria to shame, but it's a big step up from past trips where it had the consistency of something I get from my freezer via the microwave!

 

Nice crust that was chewy with a bit of crunch, good cheese sauce and toppings.

 

A total WIN!!!!!

Yeah, I forgot to mention this in my review as well. We were on the Oasis in 2017 and just went on it a couple of weeks ago. I definitely noticed the difference in the pizza. This year was much better. Agreed - it's not going to win against New York or Chicago (you can all argue about that), but it was significantly improved over just one year ago.

Pool Deck:

As Imentioned, the wife and I are early risers and love our time in the sun. As such, we were usually poolside by6:30. The pool attendants were VERYattentive early in the morning on watching for “squatters” Come by, drop two towels and leave, they werekeeping an eye on it. They regularlycleared chairs of belongings if unattended. As a result, I was pleased to see a great deal of open, unclaimed chairsas late as 9:30.

And maybe it was this sailing,but I was surprised to see the pool deck also take so long to fill on a seaday. I feel like on other cruises, but 10:00 it was a full house. That wasn’t the case until 11:30 or so.

Pool deck rant!!!!

The towel signs out system is the biggest piece of nonsense I have EVER seen in cruising. And once there is aLINE, and I need to stand in a LINE to obtain or return a towel, I get verycranky. And IF you don’t get your countright, a $25 per towel charge. Give me abreak!

I’m guessing those towels cost Royalmaybe five bucks bought in bulk. Here’sa suggestion: Jack every single cruisefair by $12 and don’t waste my time with this nonsense again! Okay, I feel much better now.

Food again....

 

OMG, Guys! GUYS!!!!! I almost forgot!!!!! So, we went to Sorrento's. The pizza? It was..... GOOD!!!!!!! No seriously, I was SHOCKED!

 

I'm not sure if it's a new recipe, or they finally got someone who was willing to put some effort into it. Now don't get me wrong, this isn't going to put any New York pizzeria to shame, but it's a big step up from past trips where it had the consistency of something I get from my freezer via the microwave!

 

Nice crust that was chewy with a bit of crunch, good cheese sauce and toppings.

 

A total WIN!!!!!

Agree 100%! the pizza was very good and way better then any of the chain stores ( Papa Johns, Dominos...ect ect)