Expanded Oasis cruise review: February 18, 2018

I wrote a review and while it became very long, it did not include everything I would like. I am going to attempt a longer, more detailed review here. I may or may not include pictures. I am not sure how to upload them. We did take over 100 on our cell phones.

Who did I travel with?: My husband (43, software test engineer), myself (44, SLP), my parents (seniors, Papa is in a wheelchair on vacation, but can walk shirt distances), my daughter (15, artistic, intravert), my son (13, obsessed with programming and playing video games)

We live in Western NY and flew to MCO from BUF Friday night before our cruise due to paranoia over the weather. The flight was fine and we actually arrived early. We were out of the airport and at dinner at Cheddar's within an hour. No trouble picking up our car from Hertz (there will be more on this later).

We enjoyed Cheddar's for dinner (chosen because my Father, a notoriously picky eater, loves chicken pot pie. He said it was the best chicken pot pie he has ever eaten.) The rest of us also enjoyed our dinners.

We then drove to the Residence Inn Cape Canaveral without any difficulty and checked into a very nice 2 bedroom suite. Perfect for my extended family.

I’m very excited for your long review. Would love for you to add your pictures if you can. Nothing like a picture review. We don’t leave until November but already getting cited.

We woke up Saturday morning and had a nice, free breakfast at the hotel. I tried at this time to sign up for the shuttle, however were told we could not sign up for the cruise shuttle until mid afternoon. After breakfast, we eventually headed out for a round of mini golf followed by a nice lunch. We are lunch at A NY pizza house. Gluten free note: my husband had great gluten free pizza and they had many other gluten free options as well. We are NYS pizza snobs and the pizza was delicious. The portions are so big it became our dinner as well. After lunch, we dropped Papa and grandson off in the room and went to the front desk to sign up for the shuttle. We were now allowed to sign up for the shuttle. I was told there was only one shuttle option. They said the first shuttle goes to Disney, the second to Carnival, and the third to Royal Caribbean. We were signed up for an 11:30 shuttle much to our disappointment.

Nana, my husband, my daughter, and I then went to Wildlife Watersports to kayak. My mom and I rented a Craigcat, which are very cool, 2 persons, motorized cruisers. My daughter went out on a SUP and my husband in a kayak. We had to pay for 4 hours for the kayaks, but only stayed out for two. The craigcats are rented for two hours. They were very helpful in assisting my mother in and out of the boat. We had a lot of fun and even saw a dolphin.

On our way back to pick up Papa and my son, we stopped at the Key Lime Pie Factory and bought a key lime pie for with our leftovers. It was delicious!

We went to Jetty Park to watch the ships leave. It was a little more expensive than I anticipated: $15 since we were not from Brevard county. We had a lot of fun and it was very handicapped accessible. My kids walked on the beach a little and my daughter picked up shells.

We then returned to the hotel for our leftovers and some swimming (very nice pool and hot tub).

One addition and one correction to my first post:

We took over 1500 pictures

My husband is gluten free, so I will include information on gluten free dining whenever possible.

Just before dinner at the hotel, we experienced our first snafu of our cruise. We had rented from Hertz, adjacent to the hotel's parking lot, to minimize car rental stress (On a previous cruise into Montreal, I had rented a car a short walk from our hotel, however after miles of walking on the cruise, that short walk in an unfamiliar city felt like miles and took an hour.). I received a panicked call from my husband saying that the rental agency was closed. I called Hertz and was told we should have known better than to rent a car to be returned after the office closed. She informed me that we would need to go to the rental car office the following morning and we would be charged for a late return, although we had actually returned it early. She was very rude and actually hung up on me when I asked if there was anything we could do. She also told me that if there was any damage in the lot that night, it would be our fault. Our rental agreement said return at 7, the office closed at 4. We spent a restless night worrying about the extra cost. Turns out we did not need to worry. When we arrived at the rental office, they had already processed our car and told us they had seen on the security tape and since we turned it in early, our costs ended up being less than originally charged. They apologized that the MCO office did not tell us about the closing time or that it was OK to just drop off the car in the lot and the key drop box.

We were not happy with Hertz or the MCO office, however we would highly recommend the Cape Canaveral office.

Another addition to my original post: My parents, husband and myself have been on 4 cruises previously. All of ours were on Holland America. My parents first cruise was on Princess. The remainder of their cruises were with us on HAL. My children have cruised with us on our last 3 cruises. We travel with my parents to the Adirondacks every year and we have done WDW trips in alternate years. Our last cruise was on the Maasdam to Canada. The adults loved it, our then preteens were bored. We sailed on OASIS this time at our children's request. As adults, we enjoyed the cruise, but would go back to HAL. If we sail with the kids, we would do OASIS again. This will likely be my parents last cruise. We did buy trip insurance, because we were not sure they would be able to go when my booked a year ago. Papa has Parkinson's and Nana is a cancer survivor. We were very happy they were able to go. It was a hard trip, but still fun.

Embarcation Day: Yay, finally. I am a planner and I had planned this trip for months. The long awaited trip was finally here.

We got up early and then tried to fill time until our shuttle. We were bored so we went down early. I was so glad we did, because it turned out there was a Royal Caribbean shuttle before the time they had given me. We were on a shuttle by 10:40.

Problem #2 and cautionary tale for anyone traveling with disabled family members.:

Embarcation was very stressful and our biggest complaint with the cruise. Staff at the port would not allow us to stay with my handicapped parents through the security line. We were told we could meet them on the other side of security. After waiting in line, we went through security. My parents were nowhere to be seen. They would not allow us to linger in the security area and were told that they had already gone ahead. We progressed to the boarding area, asking multiple times about my parents. We were told they had already boarded the ship. We insisted they would not have boarded without us and asked them to check that their cards had been scanned in. They refused and told us we needed to continue on to the ship. We refused and my husband went back to look for them. He was told he would need to go through security again. At this point 30 minutes had passed. Just before he left the boarding room, he met up with them arriving in the boarding room. They had just left security. Security had put my older, disabled parents through hell, including searches, removing all labeled medications, etc from their bags, and accusing them of hiding a bomb in their nebulizer which had an md script attached to it. Stressed and exhausted, we finally boarded the ship.

Like everyone else has said, our first view of Oasis was awe-inspiring. It has hard to believe that Promenade is on a cruise ship. My son went on the ship spoiler free and he walked into the promenade and stopped in place staring.

I had originally planned to eat lunch at the Park Cafe, but my the time my parents finally made it through security, we decided we might be better off going to the Solarium.

We never ended up eating lunch at the Park cafe. I would have liked to try their version of beef on wick being a Western New York, the home of beef on wick, but we never made it there for lunch. Nana, my son, and I had many pre-breakfasts there. We decided it was not the best place to eat for someone who is gluten free. They probably had gluten fee options, but my husband preferred other locations.

The Solarium for lunch was not overcrowded when we arrived around 12:45 and we were able to get a table for 6. My mom and I really enjoyed the gazpacho and salads. My dad and husband were able to find plenty. My children were not happy with the options. We did not eat there again all week.

Through the remainder of the afternoon, we went swimming and checked in at teen club. My teens were very disappointed that there were over 1000 teens and that they would be divided into 2 separate groups. I was not surprised as we were sailing over February break week.

We went down and checked out our rooms. On our way to our rooms, we found 5/6 pieces of luggage (more on that later). We were in 3 boardwalk view rooms on deck 8. We were halfway back. I am glad we were not any further back as the walk was long especially pushing a wheelchair. The rooms were clean and in good condition. My children immediately separated their own beds. Our beds were by the closet. My children had beds by the balcony. I much preferred our room layout. We had plenty of storage space. Based on suggestions I read here, I brought magnet hooks and clips for the walls and my parents had a battery push light with a magnet that they used at night. They loved it. The hooks were great for drying swimsuits. I was worried about claustrophobia in the shower, but I was fine.

We headed to our muster station about a half hour early. We were glad we had with the crowds and issues we later encountered with the elevators. We even had some trouble getting on a half hour early. Our muster location for boardwalk balconies deck 8 was the deck 5 main dining room. We were able to sit just inside the doors with my Dad.

After muster, my kids and I scooted out the side doors to the track and went straight to the back of the ship to grab some chairs. Everyone else eventually joined us pushing through the crowds. My husband left to get sunscreen and by the time he made it back, we had already sailed away. We would have liked to go to Deck 14, but I did not figure, we would ever make it with the crowds and a wheelchair. Deck 5 aft was a good alternative. We sat there until it was time to get ready for dinner.

Before dinner we met our cabin steward and requested opening the connecting door and the balcony dividers. It was done by the time we returned from dinner. Ice buckets and our free coke glasses took much longer and multiple requests. We had free bottles of champagne from our travel agent in every room, including the kids. It was dry and just so-so. We are wine drinkers from the Finger Lakes and we only drank 2/3. Not being able to get it really cold with the cooler not a fridge and no ice bucket until day 3 was part of the problem. Our ice buckets then disappeared the morning of day 6. Our room steward was Isaac. We were very pleased with his work, even dealing with my messy children who rarely left their room in the mornings. We had towel animals nights 2-5.

Dinner: Before our cruise, I had requested a table for 6 on Deck 3 or 5. We had fixed seating at 5:30. I had tried to go check on our table mid afternoon, but was unable to. Our table was all the way in the back of the dining room and on the side. I thought about asking to move our table as it was impossible to get to with the wheelchair and required a circuitous, tight walk for my father. However, we loved IMade and Maryna so much that we did not ask to change. In fact, we loved the MDR so much, we cancelled two other dinner reservations. We only ate anywhere else one night. The service was great and the food was good.

Every night, they asked my husband what he would like for dinner the next night. The menus also had existing gluten free options marked. They were also able to change most of the other entrees if requested. They also brought him a plate of gluten free bread. He felt all his meals and the bread were very good. The last two nights, the waiter brought him a special, extra gluten free dessert that was not on the menu. He enjoyed both but we do not know what they were. One was a chocolate cake of some sort. They also brought special rolls for my children as they are allergic to nuts and the bread basket breads were not but free. My mother enjoyed some decent sugar free desserts. My picky dad and son had steaks every night. They were very variable in quality. My daughter enjoyed trying new foods nightly, but by the end of the cruise was desperately craving junk food.

Every night Maryna helped my Dad with his wheelchair at the end of the night. We had no complaints about the MDR.

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Enjoying this and following along.

Keith

Following along and enjoying this.

Thank you for taking your time to do a review. Enjoying it.

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Thank you for the feedback. I am still trying to figure out pictures. The app says my pictures are too big. I will try it on my computer next.

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Really enjoying your detailed review so far. Hope you can get your photos to post...would love to see them.

After dinner my parents and I went to the ice show while the kids went to the teen club mixer and my husband went to ding his suitcase.

My parents were worried that his suitcase was missing because of them. They had put my dad’s tens unit in his suitcase. My husband later told us that room steward called and his luggage was not in the holding room. Then my husband was sent to customer service. After waiting in line, they sent him down to the holding room. As already stated, it was not there. While walking through the halls on that deck, he found it just sitting in the hallway still labeled.

We were all relieved when he made it to the show in time.

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Thanks for posting! Following along!!

My mom and I are huge ice skating fans and travel locally to see skating shows when they come into our area. We felt that, for the size of the ice, the Frozen in Time show was great. I would have gone more than once, but timing never worked out. We especially enjoyed the pairs team and the sand artist in the middle. It was well worth our time. We were in the middle section, 4th row up. We were there 45 minutes before show time and only had a short wait before we entered studio B.

On a skating related note, we were unable to find nay Olympic coverage on the cruise. While I would not have spent a lot of time watching it, I did miss not seeing updates.

After the show, my husband and I went to try the solarium overhanging whirlpools. There were very few people in them that night and we enjoyed relaxing.

Our kids returned to our rooms shortly after we did and said they had an ok time at teen club. They made friends their first night at Teen club. There were over 1000 teens on the cruise. My two children were upset they divided teen club into two groups. My 15 year old daughter would meet friends outside of the teen club. My 13 year old son, ended up going to teen club multiple times, participating in activities and playing video games.

We slept fairly well in our rooms. The beds were a little hard, but not too bad. There was not too much noise from the Boardwalk by the time we went to bed.

Love the review,we are thinking of doing the oasis next year.

We will probably do WDW and the oasis.

Some good information about getting to PC ,we will hire a car.

great review. So sorry you had so much trouble with security. I haven't sailed out of PC yet so praying we don't have problems as you did.

I'm enjoying your review. I was supposed to be on that sailing with my own introverted artistic 15 year old daughter. But we had to cancel.