Oasis review 4/15/18

Hello,

Sorry this took long but I came down with the noro virus on the day we got off the ship, according to a few of our friends who are workers on the ship there were 47 known cases of the noro onboard on day 6.

We were a family of 5 adults, my elderly father in law 79, my other half and I are 55 and my sister 51 and brother in law 50.

Embarkation: We are emerald members and after this cruise turn to diamond. We had two JS staterooms which we boarded the ship in the suites area and my sister/brother in law boarded in emerald area. We arrived by 10:45 and were quickly checked in and waiting to board, we boarded at 11am sharp. I headed to the specialty restaurants and made all our dining arrangements then we head up to the windjammer to find a table and get something to eat. We were able to get in our rooms at 1pm.

We had a JS on deck 7, Room 7242 the largest hump in that section. I tell you, I don't know if I can go back to having a standard balcony room, the extra room was so nice and roomy. There was a very large balcony with two chaise lounges, two chairs and a table that was high to eat on it. The closet was huge, too huge, I thought why not have half the size which is more than enough even for 4 people and make the room even more larger but the closet alone has so much space that you can have 6 people using it and be enough room. There were extra drawers and the regular shelf closet where you find a safe, but if you have the standard size IPAD it did not fit in this safe. There were two outlets at the desk and there was another under the bed, perhaps there were two more under the bed, I can't recall. There was so much storage we didn't even use 65% of it. The bathroom had a nice deep tub and the water pressure was perfect. I am so glad my next cruise on the Oasis in October I have another JS and so thankful because I think I got spoiled, do I need it no, but it sure was nice to have all that room and two ac ceiling units. The ac was nice and cool and never got warm like it does in all the Oceanview staterooms.

My sister and brother in law had a boardwalk balcony, they had no choice as they booked up last minute two weeks before the cruise but they said never again will they get this stateroom. They were far aft I believe 6th from the aft and on deck 11, my brother in law had quadruple bypass two years ago and on alot of medications which makes him tired and he needs to take a couple naps daily, but the music and noise in the boardwalk prevented him from sleeping. They said it was noisey from 9:30am to 10pm daily and got sick of hearing the same merry go round music over and over again. They did get the complimentary JR tickets which they never used and the soda package which they didn't need as they also had the Ultimate Drink Package, but they said no wonder you get these items free because its to make up for the noise they heard. They said their room at night could be warmer and surrounding neighbors on the Oceanview staterooms were complaining it was too warm for them, my BIL mentioned about the master switch but they all knew not to turn that off.

Lifeboat Drill: We were at the pub on the promenade and my sister/brother in law at the aqua theatre...it was fast but they need to get rid of that stupid 007 movie, its so old and so annoying!

We had the Ultimate Dining Package and sister/brother in law had it for 5 nights. Sister/BIL ate two evenings at the MDR and said it was fine, in fact, they would do it again, which makes me want to try the MDR twice on our next cruise. We did not use the Coastal Kitchen on. this cruise and will try it on the next cruise in October.

150 Central Park- Always fabulous, an overall excellent meals, we dined here four evenings and asked for the same servers who was remarkable! It is always our most favorite specialty restaurant.

Giovanni's- We dined here twice and had an excellent waiter who actually made the meal...food was good but the service made it excellent, happened to be in the next couple of cruises he is being promoted in charge of the Windjammer and I do understand why he was the one chosen for this job. Food didn't stick out much but it was good and no real complaints but if we didn't get the same waiter, we probably been back to 150 and not do the second evening here.

Chops- This is the weakest (next to Jaimie's Italian on the Harmony) specialty restaurant. Our overall experience was just horrible and I will outline the reasons why:

1- Waiter was friendly but so quick, he totally rushed us and we told him we like the service to slow down but it never did

2- Our drinks and seafood tower came the same time, right away! We could not even sip our drink and enjoy it before the food came out.

3- My father in law had a difficult time cracking the crab and asked for a crab cracker and the waiter told him "use your hands" and walked away, we were stunned to hear that

4- We needed toilettes or wet clothes after eating the seafood towner with our hands to get the fishy smell off our hands and asked the waiter, he handed my father in law a half wet napkin and told us to pass it around and immediately walked away!

5- We were told the sides were family style, and were only given 4 tiny tator tots for 5 of us!

6- The baked potato was huge we ordered one for three of us and asked for it to be cut in 3's and the waiter told us to cut it with the knife ourselves.

7- Before the entree came out the waiter came to the table and said "you don't need the bread any longer" and took it away!

8- My brother in law ordered the filet medium, it came out rare and he said to us at the table that he could not eat it, the waiter did hear him say this, took it away and said he make him another, what came back we had no idea what type of piece of meat it was but it was 1/4 inch thick, certainly not a filet!

Before leaving the table, I cancelled our second dining reservation here, this is when a chef came out to speak to us....he said he is starting "tomorrow" he took down notes of everything that went wrong and by the way, he certainly is not starting in the middle of the cruise, we are sure he is new but was the chef.

Lets just say our most horrible overall meal in 10 years we NEVER will go back.

We became friends with a couple on board and they also said when they went to Chops, the service was great but most of the items they ordered were not given to them, they were given wrong items and said the food was just ok, they won't be going back either.

FOOD BUFFET: I be honest, for breakfast and lunch there are an abundant of items. Breakfast I found eggs six ways, two already made omelets, packed eggs, fried eggs, hard boiled eggs and scrambled eggs...ham, bacon, sausage, lox..honestly, the question is what was missing nothing! You can get grits at the Park Cafe! Lunch always had a chicken/turkey, meat carving, seafood, fish, pork, goulash, chicken pot pie, ribs, chicken marsala,Shepards pie, burgers, hot dogs, chicken patties, veggie patties, nice decent salad bar and lots of sides....the list goes on and on and in other words so many choices, all the food was very good and tasty, no wonder when you travel RC you don't see all the waste on people's plates as there are in Carnival ha! Oh by the way, the last day right outside the windjammer where the elevators are, they had a huge huge cake that said thank you for cursing with us, the cake was so good get a piece!

SERVICE BUFFET: Always found tables no problems, for those who had problems just keep walking around you find tables. Service was excellent, dirty dishes always taken away and you. always found workers cleaning the tables, no problem!

Park Cafe- always the usual very good, we don't eat here as I prefer the many other choices of the windjammer but you can get bags of chips to go which is a nice touch especially when your drinking and can't get any snacks at the bar. You will find in the am fruit cups, egg sandwiches, egg burritos, grits, yogurt, oatmeal and such for breakfast and lunch, panini's, sandwiches, chefs salad, fruit cups, soup, salad bar, chicken salad, and there are many items that are served in take out containers that you can bring somewhere else to eat. I tried those so called roast beef sandwiches that everybody raves about never thought it was special, BIL also tried them and said its the typical usual plain roast beef sandwich, nothing special....I just don't get why people rave about these?

Solarium Bistro- Went there once for breakfast and lunch ended up leaving, smaller variety and selection of foods we prefer the windjammer for the assortments of foods but the last day the Solarium had a huge huge pan of seafood paella that looked wonderful.

WIPEOUT CAFE: Omelets made to order for breakfast....pizza, hot dogs, burgers, fries and such for lunch...didn't care much about what was served here.

JOHNNY ROCKETS: BIL ate breakfast here one morning said it was very good, it closes at 9:30 am so never made it. We wanted to have lunch here but the day we were going had a very long line and wait time so decided to pass.

Worst food- Worst food definitely was Chops by a mile, but the only other problem we encountered was the last day at the windjammer they had a seafood buffet (crawfish, tons of shrimp, mussels, fish, etc) and most of the seafood was soft and mushy, it was not good, they need to put those items out sooner in the cruise to ensure the freshness of the seafood, but perhaps thats their way of getting rid of the seafood who knows?

Hot Dog Cart- We don't really eat hot dogs but we love the dogs here!

SORRENTOS: I call it the late night snack after drinking, doughy kind of raw ok pizza, and edible.

CAFE PROMENADE: Always tasty sandwiches, cookies and pastries offered 24/7 and specialty coffees here that are included with the Ultimate Beverage Package.

SERVICE: Excellent everywhere with the huge exception of Chops which was horrible.

SHOWS: Sister/BIL went to most of the shows and enjoyed each one of them. Dazzles had nightly music and was very nice.

BARS: Love the champagne bar, nice and quaint and met another couple here that we became friends with, great wonderful service and drinks. Schooner Bar was excellent, the pool bar was fast and made some yummy drinks, Rise n Tide Bar always love and we even went to On Air a couple of times and had excellent service. I have to say each bar we had wonderful excellent service, never any issues! The casino bar had extremely friendly and hard working bartenders and were always there when our glasses were empty asking us what else we would like, service here was remarkable!

CASINO: I do have to admit the most smoke I encountered on this ship (we been on her in October and was not half this bad), but we do know casinos all have smokings surely there is a smoking and non-smoking side which helps but the first couple of days we noticed it and after these two days it was not as bad, perhaps they had trouble with their filters?

My other half came home with $$$$.$$ and again, he received a complimentary balcony stateroom, the list that he received are for cruises up until the second week of December but we already have another casino offer for a JS on the Oasis booked for October. You now need 4800 points for a balcony cabin. The casino sent goodies to our cabin daily (chocolate covered strawberries, wine, champagne, fruit, etc) and they treated us very well. I also came home with all the money I went with! Casino treated my other half wonderfully and gave him the drinks sticker on his card immediately. Were coming back to our favorite casino at sea, RC!

DISEMBARKATION: We were in no rush to get off the ship as we were only two hours away from the port, we got off around 9:15am it was fast getting off the ship, but as others mentioned there were long lines which were due to the customs.

SHIP OVERALL: The ship was clean and found no issues and problems as some other posters have reported. I am going back in October which tells you the ship is clean and fine.

The Oasis next May will be going to Europe and the Harmony will be coming to Port Canaveral, I love the Harmony as its a newer ship and can't wait to get back on the Harmony in May, 2019!

Thanks for the review. Lots of good information.

Thanks for the feedback.

How did you like the stateroom temperature?

I had my thermometer....daytime averaged at coldest setting and curtain drawn to 71 and at night there were times it went down to 68 averaged 69! Slept like a baby.

I had my thermometer....daytime averaged at coldest setting and curtain drawn to 71 and at night there were times it went down to 68 averaged 69! Slept like a baby.

Not bad, you must have had considerate neighbors who kept their balcony door closed.:)

Hi Bob, I guess I did and was very lucky, or the two ac vents in the room help get more cool air?

Thank you for your review! I am leaving on Sunday. Concerned about the noro virus, though....

You be fine, heard the cruise before us at the end had cases, when we got off the ship there were workers with huge buckets of cleaning supplies. Don't you worry about it, the number of cases are small it should all be good when you go. Don't eat romain lettuce, huge huge recall everywhere, 16 states including the mass supplier that is in Arizona.

I asked for a request the last evening for Caesar salad, so not sure if it was from the romaine....bon voyage!

What did you end up doing when you got to the port? You were very concerned prior to your cruise about your mobility issues and your FIL. What did you guys end up doing? Did you get wheelchair assistance for your FIL?

I did order wheelchair assistance and confirmed it days before the cruise and when we got there they said they didn't have any record of it but my other half just said he help him on the ramp onto the ship and I walked on myself also. The ramp was alot more stable than the one we had in October, it didn't move very sturdy so there wasen't any problems. They also didn't have the tub chair or the toilet seat/railings in the cabin but dad was determined to just deal without them and he did just fine. Call it real good therapy I guess !

We did not get off the ship, I didn't want to chance being pushed or even taking a fall and we just had a nice time sitting around the pool area and as well other places it was very relaxing.

Thanks for doing a review!

Great review, thanks. I do however wonder if there is a link between the ‘mushy’ seafood on the last day and your Noro. Maybe you had food poisoning instead from the seafood?? Just a thought.