Oasis of the Seas: June 10 - 17, 2018 20th Anniversary Cruise Review

Background: I amgoing to attempt to do a review of our 20th Anniversary Oasis of theSeas cruise. Hopefully this will beentertaining and informative in such a way to give back to all who provided mewith information. This cruise was bookedMarch 2017 for just the two of us. We arecelebrating our 20th Anniversary on June 13, 2018 so I thought thiswould be a good way to commemorate these years with a cruise since 22 years agowe met on a cruise ship (both of us were passengers). On the Cruise will be Me (Mike) and my wife (Carla). We are in our early 40's.

We have a 12 year old and a 10 year old who said they wouldrather spend 3 weeks with Grandma and Grandpa than go on a cruise with us. So with this information, I splurged for thebalcony. I scoured the internet andCruise Critic for all the information that I could gather for this cruise.

Ports of Call:Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten.

More Background: Wewere driving from Tennessee so just figuring out if we were going to start ourdrive to toward the port on Friday or Saturday morning. We chose the former and would start our driveon Friday. This was decided after I hadalready scored the Radisson for the Saturday before for what would be a fairlylow rate compared to a few people we talked with that also stayed there. The Radisson was all booked up for Friday sowe decided to drive to Orlando and stayed at a Fairfield near Universal. I booked this thru Hotels.com.

This is our 8th Cruise. This will be our 3rd RCL (First 2on Voyager of the Seas). We have done 2 Princess(Grand Princess/Golden Princess). Two onCarnival (Elation/Sensation). The 2Carnival cruises are the ones we took the kids on. We met on our first one Premier Big Red Boat backin 1996.

Friday June 8, 2018…

I got off work around 11am and we hit the road around1:30pm. Probably not the best timingsince we hit Atlanta rush hour/weekend traffic around 5pm. Yeah, we lost an hour on the drive on onethat if everything went well we would not arrive in Orlando until 11:30pm. After losing the hour, we didn’t hit any moretraffic but we did not arrive at the hotel until almost 1:00am and this wasafter a wrong turn where we ended up at the gate of Lockheed Martin. After the quick tour, I mean turnaround, wearrived at our hotel shortly after. Itwas late, wrong turn….things happen….lol. We checked into the hotel and fell asleep quickly after head hittingpillow.

Saturday June 9,2018…

I knew that the Radission was sold out the night before butI thought I would take a shot in the dark and see if we could check in earlierthan the 3pm suggested check in. No suchluck. Plan B…Let’s start the shopping andfun early and go to Disney Springs for a few hours. We went with the kids to Disney a few yearsago and ‘vacationed’ in the ‘Disney Bubble’ with the meal plan and all. So we go there and walk around for a fewhours and get around lunch time… here is where outside of the bubble comes in….Manit is expensive to dine at Disney. Wesearched and searched and couldn’t find anything reasonable for under $20 perplate….WOW. We finally found a pizza bythe slice and ordered a few other things and this was perfect for what we werelooking for. After lunch, we walkedaround for a little while longer and around 1:30ish we decided to make the 50minute or so ride over to the Radisson.

Radisson at The Port

We were able to check right in when we go there which was alittle bit before 3pm. Some otherswaiting around were not so lucky. Wealso opted to pay the $40 for the cruise parking for the week as well as thefree shuttle to and from the port. Thisis a huge saving compared to the port and I think it was money well saved. The earliest we could get on the shuttle was10:30 which was ok. Wished for anearlier one but 10:30 is good enough. Aftergoing to our room to put our stuff, we changed into our swim suits and went tothe beautiful pool. It was crowded withpeople relaxing and listening to the piped in music. It was a fun atmosphere. From hearing the conversations going onaround us in the pool, most appeared to be going on the cruise ships going outon Sunday. We had a few drinks by thepool and decided to just have dinner there as well. We ordered and ate right by the pool. Again, very relaxing. This was starting to feel like an extensionof our cruise which was nice. Most timeson vacation we are rushing to get to our destination so we never get to stopand enjoy before we get there. Wearrived here early enough to start to relax and be on vacation. I would definitely stay here again. We went up to our room and started to preparefor the next morning and went to bed fairly early.

Next: Embarkation Day

Embarkation Day (June10, 2018)…

The morning we have been waiting for well over 52 weeks. We woke up and started moving around 8 or8:30. We got all of our luggage to thelobby and car parked by about 9:30. Iknew we were early for our time slot but hoping to get lucky and get on anearlier shuttle. With a large weddingparty going over first, we were able to score seats on the shuttle that leftaround 10:15. We didn’t have to touchour luggage again until it was in our room. It went from the shuttle to the porter directly on the ship. That was nice. We found the entrance and began the journeytoward check in. Scanned our belongingsthrough security and we were off to find the check in line. The room was beginning to fill up and we were#3 in check in. Get our Sea Pass cardand handed group #4. Found a seat and by11:05 we were walking on the gangway toward our week vacation on the floatingcity. I have seen picture after pictureof this ship but it just does not do it justice unless you see it inperson.

By 11:15 we were at the Park Café eating salad and thekummelweck. Delicious. We then went exploring, played mini golf, hadlunch #2 at the Windjammer, then went to find a seat at the Solarium Pool. We changed into our bathing suits that wecarried on and went swimming for a while until we heard the magicalannouncement that rooms were ready. We went to our Room # 8318. Now, I could find out very little informationabout 8318. With the ship so big, somemay say having to walk a long way after getting off the elevator is a badthing. I didn’t so much mind it evenwhen we would come back at 1am. Therewere only about 10 cabins further down the hall from us so that meant less foottraffic coming this way. I thought thiswas a plus because less noise and less potential for door slamming. We were in the Aft so the dining rooms werebelow us or the windjammer was above us. And if we needed to get to the other side of the ship, we would take astroll thru Central Park which is breath taking to say the least. The fact that this was on a ship iscompletely mind blowing. When we got toour room, all of our luggage was at our door so we took the time to unpackeverything and start off our cruise right with all of our luggageunpacked. We were in the twilight timeof what can we do, nothing because the Life Boat Drill is in about 30 minutes. So we hung out in the room for a few minuteslonger and then headed down to the 5th Floor Dining Room (our musterlocation). Hands washing song/James BondFilm…. Yeah, that was, well, uh….entertaining? After that, watched sail awayand then ready for dinner. Our dinnerwas My Time Dining in the American Icon Dining Room located on the 3rdFloor and we had a 7:15 dinner reservation. There are two lines once you enter, one for Reservations and one forthose that don’t.

Ok My Time DiningTip... This may be wrong, completely offbase but based on our interaction later in the cruise this is what I gather tohopefully be true. Make a reservation. Even if you don’t know what time you maydine. Having a reservation for some timethe dining room is open is better than not having a reservation at all. We went a little earlier than ourreservations some nights and some nights we went a little later. Never once did they ask for our reservationtime just our room number. Later in thecruise after we met a couple that we wanted to dine with, we wanted to keep thesame wait staff and they made reservations for 8:30 with notes that we wantedto eat at 7:15/7:30 and they told us it was ok that there just needed to be areservation.

We sat at Table 131. Our Waiter was Christopher and AssistantWaiter was Rose. They werefabulous. Very informative. Kept our drink glasses full. Super nice. Dinner was good tonight for me and not so good for my wife. Both started out well with the appetizers buther steak was over cooked and they she barely touched the pork chop that wasbrought out. I had the salmon and Ithought it was very good. Both haddessert (Apple Pie and Cheesecake). Apple Pie was ok and the cheesecake was good. Not a great start food wise in the diningroom but this was by far the worst meal we had on the cruise. We had to get over the awkward part of beingsat at a table for two but 6 inches away was another table on either side. Do we talk to our table neighbors ornot? We broke the ice on both sides andhad good conversation throughout dinner. Does anyone else feel this awkwardness in the dining room? It is like you are not being sat with otherpeople but then again, you feel like you are because you are so close.

After dinner was Frozen in Time. It is simply amazing what can be done on apostage stamp of an ice rink. Theskaters that night were amazing and hit every jump. After the show as grab a slice of pizza becauseit had been so long since we ate and then head to bed. We put out the ‘continental’ room servicemenu to be delivered between 6:30 and 7:00 because we were in port early atNassau, 8:00.

Next up Nassau…

Great start, looking forward to more.

Really enjoying your review so far. Thank you so much for sharing.

We will be back on Oasis for the second time next month and your review is keeping the excitement up!

Nassau, Bahamas (June11, 2018)

Woke up around 6:30 and 7:00 was getting near and still noknock or call from room service. 7:00came and went and still no call or knock from room service. We were just now entering in port and got tosee the Pilot jump on board to guide us in. We had to meet in the Opal Theater at 7:40 for our Blue Lagoon DeluxeBeach Break Excursion. Just as we lookedat each other around 7:10 to make alternate plans for breakfast we received thecall from room service that they will be up in the next 5 minutes. Around 7:15, they showed up and put the foodon our balcony so we could eat breakfast as we go into port. This part was very fun and relaxing to enjoythe changing scenery as we pull into port. In the past, we have mostly done excursions on our own but I got a reallygood deal on this excursion and we really weren’t sure what we wanted to do sowe just decided to go thru the ship. Itwas unorganized chaos from the very get go. All the Blue Lagoon excursions were on the top and Atlantis excursionswere on the bottom. We sat there for 40minutes, (it was now 8:30) and not one person informed us what was goingon. Tempers within families werestarting to flare as one mom slapped her teenage son senseless for disobeying her. Fun times. I must have heard the ‘F’ word about 100 times. I did not realize I signed up for the AdultRated shore excurision….lol. I wasreally disappointed at RCL for their lack of communication at this point andthe frustration would continue here in a minute. The captain had already cleared the ship togo ashore shortly after 8am so I am not sure what exactly we were waiting onbut at this point I knew we were not going to get anyone from the cruiseexcursion staff to tell us. So, wefinally get called to unorderly get off the ship. Once we finally exited, there must have been4,000 of the 6,500 guests on the pier. Itwas mass chaos again. So much so, youcouldn’t tell exactly where we were supposed to go. We finally saw a few people that lookedfamiliar so we moved over to that cattle area. We quickly realized that they had wrist bands on so I started thinkingmaybe that was just another reason they had wrist bands so my wife asked one. No, they said that we were supposed to gostand in another line to get our wrist bands and lunch voucher. Wow, that would have been really nice to knowahead of time and the only reason they knew is because they were right behindthe leaders and told to go over there. Not exactly sure why these wristbands and tickets could not have beenhanded out the 50 minutes we waited in the Opal Theater to exit but what do Iknow. So we finally start walking towardour tender boat to go to Blue Lagoon. Wegot close to the tender and my wife looked down at the grandparents behind usand their two grandchildren and realized they did not have wristbands on. The grandfather was struggling to walk as itwas when my wife was the one to bear the bad news that they needed thewristbands that were back outside the ship. I know they were frustrated and I was frustrated for them. At this time, I was wondering if this was thefirst excursion that RCL had ever run in the company’s history. 8 year olds could have had a better plan andbeen more organized than this. I reallytry to be the half glass full type of person but this was pretty bad.

We finally get on the tender and enjoy the 20-25 minute rideover. We are only in port until 2:30 andwe are just bording the tender at 9ish so our beach time is being cutshort. We finally get over to the lagoonand the water is absolutely beautiful. Theystopped at one pier to let the VIP beach breakers off. Only 6 got off. Then they said the rest of us would get offat the next stop. Looking around, I wasn’tquite sure where we were going to be going. I am not kidding you, they backed up the boat and drove maybe 25 feet toanother pier to let us off. Wow, what awaste of pier space. Could we not alljust get off and direct us where we need to go? Once off, we found two chairs together toward the left of where we exitedthe Tender. It filled up fast. We were one of 3 ships in port that day. The tender for us left at 1:15 and lunchstarted to be served at 10:30. I didn’tdo my research but there was another side of chairs in the open Atlantic thatwould have probably been a better place to be and maybe could have done some snorkelingon that side. The lagoon side was veryshallow. I am pretty short and it cameup a little past my knees in some areas and that was the deepest part. This place was perfect for parents withlittle kids. The water was refreshingand we enjoyed our time just relaxing and talking with other couples aroundus. It was very relaxing. Rain was in the forecast and I believe itrained at the port but we did not get any rain at Blue Lagoon. We went to get lunch a little after 11 and itwas cafeteria style where you walked through the line and could choose certainitems from each area. There was BBQchicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, a Caribbean play on dirty rice, corn on the cob,fruit, a cold corn salad, and a couple of different types of drinks. I actually thought the food was verygood. After lunch, we went back into thewater for a little while and then got our stuff and just walked around theisland a little bit. It was now that Irealized that there was another side to the island that may have been more conduciveto snorkeling. We found a few chairsunder the shaded palm tree area and relaxed here for a little while until thetender back to the ship started boarding. We boarded the tender and went back. We were dropped off outside of the port so we had an opportunity to gointo town to do some quick shopping. Wehad a little over an hour before we had to be all aboard. Time started getting close so we headedback. Well, so did the rest of theship. The line to get back on nowstretched back over half the pier. Therewas only one entry point that had the machines working but before that, you hadto go thru security and have all your bags checked. The good part about standing in line isgetting to talk with people around you and experience what they did on shoreand learn that things could always be worse. Like the one family that flew in Saturday evening and their luggagenever left the airport so they had nothing when they got here but the clotheson their back and their luggage would not be making the trip so they had to goshopping at a store that was closing in 10 minutes for everything includingluggage to bring it onboard. Yeah, notmatter how mad I was earlier that morning on the disorganized chaos, thisfamily had lived a nightmare a few days earlier and laughed as they told thestory. After almost 30 minutes to get thru,we made our way up to our room to watch the pier runners and sail away. After sail away, we went to the Wipeout Café tograb a snack and then went to the Solarium pool and then the hot tub.

Tonight was the first formal night. After reading all the ‘debates’ about dressduring formal nights, I was pleasantly surprised at how dressed up the shipwas. Keep in mind, the way someone elsechooses to dress has no bearing on my experience on the ship but it was nice tosee people dressed to the 9’s including the kids. Tonight, as was every night, My Time Diningon Deck 3 American Icon. We once againwere sat in Christopher and Rose’s section and again they were awesomewaiters. I had the Lobster Bisque andBeef Carpaccio for Appetizers, Roasted Beef Tenderloin for the main, and CarrotCake for dessert. My wife had ShrimpCocktail and Baked French Onion Soup for Appetizer, Pork Shank for main, and CrèmeBrulee for dessert. Both of our mealswere great. We had good conversationwith the couples on both sides of us. Tonight was the night that we met the couple we would end up at themiddle and end of the cruise do a lot of things with.

After dinner tonight was the Adult Comedy Show. For the life of me, I forget the both namesbut did like the first guy better than the second. Both were funny but the first guy wasbetter. I do feel sorry for the 18 yearold boy that was sitting up front and the 2 19 year old girls that were also upfront that became part of the second guys act. After the show, we did what we did most nights, made our way to thepromenade deck and had a snack before we retired to our room for the night.

Next Up….First Sea Day

Great Start so far!!!

Wow the start to your shore excursion makes me question booking one on the Oasis.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Wow the start to your shore excursion makes me question booking one on the Oasis.

 

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Janice, we also booked one in St. Thomas and it was very well run. I know Nassau is not a port that is in the frequent rotation so maybe they were just off but it was making me question at the time what our St. Thomas excursion was going to be like. Again, our St. Thomas excursion to St. John's was fine. The only hiccup we had was our own doing so RCL gets an A for this excursion. If I can find what I want to do cheaper, I will take that option whether on the ship or not. just do your research and I am sure everything will work out. Just remember, no matter what choice you make, don't let the little stuff ruin the good time you are about to have. Nothing is perfect but I did want to share my experience. You are certainly going to have a blast on the Oasis. :D

First Sea Day (June12, 2018)

We woke up around 8am and got dressed to head to the diningroom for breakfast. Advice from ournightly waitstaff was to try out different locations on the ship for breakfastand lunch. As I will try in hit in thisreview, we did just that. There are twolines when you enter the dining room for breakfast, buffet or a la cart. If you chose a la cart, you can also chooseto visit the buffet as well. We chose ala cart side but we also visited the buffet. It is nice to be on vacation and have the option to both be served andhelp yourself at the buffet as well. Weboth ordered eggs benedict off the menu and then went to the buffet for a fewother things. There are many options on thebuffet and all was good. We only had thecoke package so we did not have any other drink options which was fine withus. We didn’t need freshly squeezedorange juice or specialty coffee. Coffeethroughout the ship, it was drinkable, not the best but one thing I noticed isthat most of the time it was luke warm or maybe a little warmer but certainlynot hot. I would have preferred thecoffee we got anywhere on the ship to be much hotter.

After breakfast, the wife wanted to go the port shopperstalk so we did this. It was informativebut not sure we would need to go to one of these talks in the future. She was wanting to get something nice for ouranniversary so we thought we would gather some ideas from her talk. We did go to their suggestion on one of thestores and I will highlight that in the St. Thomas and St. MaartenSection. After the talk we went theSolarium Pool to find chairs, which at 11:30 is quite the chore. We expected that but we were lucky to findtwo chairs to make camp so we did. TheSolarium pool was a nice place to escape the madness of the main pool and beingkid free this vacation, we tried to stay clear of areas with kids. There were a lot of kids and teenagers onthis cruise but they were all well behaved and very mindful. They kept in theirpacks and really appeared to be having a good time. Walking past the hot tubs in the main pool area,I did notice most of them were taken over by kids. The two that jet out by the Solarium poolappeared to adhere to the rules of no kids. For lunch, we ate at the Solarium Café. This was a hidden gem. We lovedthe variety of food that was offered here. After lunch, it was back to the pool area for more relaxing. My wife wanted to see if there was any additionalinformation she could gather at the gemstone talk that afternoon so she went tothat and I just explored more of the ship. After that, we met up and went to the hot tub for a little bit beforedinner. We headed to our room to getready for dinner. Tonight’s dinner wascasual dress. Dress how you want to andwhat makes you feel comfortable. You areon vacation and not there to please anyone else that you will probably neversee again. I wore khakis and a polo eachcasual night except the last and I wore shorts. Next cruise, I will probably be more on the dress shorts side ofthings. This was a special occasioncruise for us and we were by ourselves so I wanted to treat it as such but ifwe had kids, I would probably be a lot more casual on casual nights.

Tonight’s dining staff was different than what we had theprior two nights and boy did we notice the difference. We quickly discovered what great service islike and what service to just get by was like. Tonight’s waiters we not very engaging and certainly seem to just besurviving and not attentive to us. Tonight we certainly missed Christopher andRose but more importantly, we were thankful for how engaging they were tous. For tonight’s dinner we both had the Crab Cakeand Caesar Salad for appetizers, I got the Beef Strip Loin and she got the porkloin for the main and then we shared a taste of the Ravioli. For dessert weboth got the Grand Marnier Soufflé. Dinneragain was very tasty. As we left thedining room, we made sure that our reservations for the rest of the cruise werewith Christopher and Rose.

Prior to boarding, I made dinner reservations each night asI thought they would go with our day’s and evenings. I also made reservations for all of the showsprior to getting on the ship. Thingsthat I did not account for and did not really consider were the 2 parades that happenedduring our dinners as well as other activities. There were a few nights where there didn’t appear to be a lot of goingson and then others where even if cloned, we couldn’t have done it all. I guess that just means we have to bookanother cruise…lol.

Tonight’s show was both El Gaucho and Oasis of Dreams, the watershow. We were able to watch the firsthalf of El Gaucho before heading to the water show. He was very entertaining. Some people thought his off color jokes werea little inappropriate for children’s ears and I guess they may have a pointbut in life we can find something to complain about every second if we try. Now, across the ship to the AquaTheater. I have read peoples reviewsabout this show and trying to follow the story. Forget the story, there may or may not be one but one thing is for sure,this show is simply amazing and baffling what they can do in such a smallplace. On the very high dives, that ‘pool’has to look more like a bath tub than a pool. We were one row back from the ‘splash zone’ and the divers really,really enjoyed getting people wet. Again, the show is spectacular and if there was a theme to show, I couldcare less because I was in awe of what I just witnessed. To think on about a handful of other shipsaround the world have the ability to do what I just witnessed, is mindboggling.

After the aqua show, the Love and Marriage Show. As most now, this is more about the 3 coupleson stage than the actual show itself. The competition to get to be one of the couples on stage was equally asentertaining. The show did notdisappoint as the contestants were very funny in answering theirquestions.

After the shows, walked around, got a snack, and then off tobed. Late night snacks and late to bedbecame a nightly pattern for us. We arenot night owls at home but we certainly were kept entertained each night tokeep us out of our room and around the ship.

Tomorrow…. St. Thomas (St. John’s) and our 20thAnniversary.

St. Thomas/St. Johnsand Our 20th Anniversary (June 13, 2018)

We woke up about 8:30 this morning and got dressed to go tothe dining room again for breakfast. Wewere scheduled to be in St. Thomas about 10:00ish. Our St. John’s excursion was this afternoonat 1:10 so we had the morning to do some jewelry shopping. We went to breakfast and then we went back toour room to watch us sail into port. Itnever gets old watch a massive ship roll into port and see a different island/country. Once cleared by customs, we took an open airtax to town to begin shopping. We wentto Diamonds International where we were told that they would work within ourbudget. They show us some really nicepieces of jewelry. Then comes the pricepoint and I about fell out of my chair. Keep in mind we had already been there for about 45 minutes and wereshown all these pieces then the price was not even in the same stratosphere ofour budget. Then, they start saying theycould work on payment terms. We didn’twant that. When it got uncomfortable andwe were about to leave, the lady salesperson go real snippy with our questionsso we just left. It was all nice untilwe realized what they were showing us was outrageously priced, then it gotuncomfortable really quick. We left andwent to Ballerina’s Jewelry which was recommended to us by a couple we sat nextto at breakfast that morning. Theyfrequent there and were actually going to be there that morning. We went over there, picked out a nice ringand we feel like we got a good deal on, and my wife was happy. That is what matters, her being happy.

Our excursion was going to start boarding at 1:10 and it wasnow 1:05. We stepped right outsideBallerina’s and a taxi was there waiting to take us back to the ship. We got there just as they were boarding whenI thought we left the camera at the jewelry store. Panic set in. My wife quickly took our receipt with the number on it and was going tohave one of the cab drivers call then I looked in a secret pocket in thebackpack and found the camera. Crisisaverted and on the tender we go. It is a45 minute tender to St. John’s and the water was a quite bit choppy. We were on top of the tender and about halfway in, my wife gets queasy. Thedeckhands help her downstairs and she was much better after that. The view on the way there is beautiful andone of the crew narrated as we were going over there. He was telling us how hard hit they were by thehurricanes and they seemed truly appreciative that we continued with our plansto come on the cruise. Two of the majorresorts that hold over 500 occupants each, were not due to open back untilearly late 2019 or early 2020. Thehurricane that damaged Puerto Rico diverted all aid that was heading to St.Thomas to Puerto Rico so aid was slow to come to them. This was our first time to St. John’s and theride over did not disappoint with its beauty. Our excursion only included the tender over and we were on our own onceover there. Lost in my research was thefact that I wanted to go to Trunk Bay and I did not realize that was a taxiride over from where we docked the tender. There were a few of us in the same situation so we all got in one taxiwhile the masses that had all this included got in their taxis. We were told that there was not food once weleft the dock so we bought a few hotdogs and water before going over from the tender. Once over there, Abba, our cab driver,assured us that he would be back at 4:10 to pick us up. Once over there we had about an 1hr 20minutes to enjoy the beach at Trunk Bay. It was a little windy but the water was breathe taking, refreshing, andrelaxing. I bought my own snorkeling equipment and snorkeled around. Not a whole lot to see this day but did see afew stingrays and quite a few large schools of fish. We ate our ‘lunch/snack’ relaxed a bit andheaded back to the changing/bathroom area to get ready to leave. The beach says it closes at 4:30 but theywere pushing people out of the bathrooms and locking things up just after4. We had to be back at the dock tocatch the tender back at 4:30 and it was 4:10 and no sign of our Taxidriver. 4:15 came and everyone in themain excursion was getting in their taxi. I was starting to get nervous as us few are standing there not knowinghow we were going to get to the tender. I walked up to one of the cab drivers to see if he had a cab or room forus 4 and luckily he did. We pulled outaround 4:20 and there was our cab driver just pulling in. For a minute there, we thought we were goingto become residents of St. John’s and find out if our tour guide was right andif Kenny Chesney really does have a house on St. John’s. We got back on thetender, sat in the back and shade and my wife was much better on the rideback. The couple we sat next to on thetender were also celebrating their anniversary that day. What are the odds? Cab ride over to Trunk Bay was $6/ personeach way so total it was $24 for both of us round trip. The right back was awesome as well. Just in awe of the beauty of those islandsand water. We got back to the port andhad time to browse in the shops at the port before boarding. After we got back on board, we went to ourroom to get ready for dinner. Dinner wascasual again tonight but we decided to dress up since it was ouranniversary. I had debated to book a specialtyrestaurant for that evening but the dining room food was so good, we just didn’tsee the need to spend the extra money. Aswe were getting ready, we were pulling out of port so that was nice tosee. We strolled along Central Parktaking pictures before we went to dinner.

We were sat in Christopher and Rose’s section this eveningand for the life of me I cannot remember what we had. I do remember taking the recommendation ofChristopher and sharing the Mushroom Risotto and it was fabulous. I know the rest of our food was good. The same couple from night two also sat nextto us tonight as well and we started hanging out with them. It is fun to make friends on the ship. The waitstaff had a piece of cheesecake witha lighted candle and sang happy anniversary to us. I thought this was a really nice touch. I think we may have mentioned this to them onthe very first evening for the reason of our cruising so to remember that,pretty impressive. After we atecheesecake and I believe tonight was the chocolate cookie cake dessert thing,we rolled out of the dining room to the Opal Theater to watch the entire act ofEl Gaucho. Most of what we saw from afew nights ago was the same but still enjoyable. After this, I believe was battle of the sexesin Dazzles. Here is a frowny face forscheduling/venue for RCL. Dazzles is ahorrible place for any type of show other than a band playing music. It is a small narrow space with awkwardfacing chairs. If was very clunky andjust appeared to not work. I say that tosay, we went there, and there were no seats available, top or bottom and weleft. We ended up coming to Dazzles foranother event and it just didn’t work and we ended up leaving that too. We walked around a bit, had a midnight snack,then off to bed. One thing I forgot tomention in the prior days review, we had towel animals each night except thefirst and last night. So tonight’sanimal were two love birds kissing. Verysweet. Ann Marie was a room steward andshe was very sweet. We didn’t see hermuch which is what you want but she did a great job keeping our roomclean. A very busy day but a wonderful anniversaryday it was.

Tomorrow…. St. Maarten

looking forward to reading the rest of your review. this is our exact itinerary in August. Love the tips!

St. Maarten (June 14,2018)….

This is the one day that we really didn’t have anythingplanned so we weren’t in a hurry to leave the ship. We slept in to about 8:30 and when we got upwe were already in port. We go ourbathing suits on and ventured to the Park Café for breakfast. I really like this place. It was quaint and if you could be luckyenough to get a seat outside, the scenery is relaxing. Still amazed a space like this exists on acruise ship. They have bagels with 3 or4 types of spread to go on the bagel. Then there were a few types of egg sandwiches. Also Parfaits, grits, and a few other breakfastfoods.

I guess our only plan was to peruse the shops at the portthen take the $7 water taxi into town and set up camp at one of thechairs/umbrellas at the beach in town. So for either $20 or $25, we got a few drinks, 2 chairs, and anumbrella. The water was beautiful andvery refreshing. This was definitely wasour hottest and most humid day we had but with water and a refreshing drink, wecan handle anything. My wife went to therestaurant and ordered a sampler of appetizers and was actually prettygood. I think it was onion rings, jalapenos,and cheese sticks. We would relax under the shade of the umbrella for a littlewhile then go into the water to cool off. We stayed here for at least 2 hours. Then we went shopping in the town shops. You got the sense that the locals were appreciative of us being there asthey are still recovering from the hurricane damage. We were the only ship in port that day. As wewalked around town, the locals definitely try to sell you their stuff or try toget you to come into their shops. If youdon’t want to go in or buy something, a polite no thank you worked and they wouldleave you alone. After a couple of hoursof shopping/walking around the town, we headed back to the ship. We took the water taxi back to the ship. Once back on the ship, we went back to ourroom to drop off our purchases, went to get a snack at the Wipeout Café, thenfound the hot tub that jets out from the ship calling our names so we watchedsail away from there. Very relaxingday.

Tonight was the 70’s party so my wife had the brilliant planto buy outfits to wear. We both had wigsand 70’s style clothing and we wore this to dinner. The night before we went to the reservationdesk to set up reservations for us and the couple we met to eat dinner togetherfor the rest of the cruise. They werevery accommodating and we certainly wanted to keep our wait staff. As we check in, they had a table in the samesection so that was a win. As I saidearlier, it appears that having a reservation is key, doesn’t really matter thetime you have a reservation for and what time you actually show up. They made the reservation for 8:30 but madenotes that we were going to be showing up at 7:15/7:30 and when we showed up,there was a table ready. We had peoplestaring at us with our 70’s attire on but had people giving us high fives andthought it was a cool idea. It escapesme again what we had for dinner but as with each evening, the meals were goodto very good.

After dinner, the 70’s party was on the Promenade Deck. This was a lot of fun. We got the attention of the cruise directorand he gave us a high five. The stagethat rolls out in the air and goes halfway across the Promenade is verycool. There is dancing and singing goingon from a few different areas including the stage on the Promenade. This was one of the nights that after the 70’sparty there wasn’t a whole lot going on. So we walked around, had a snack and back to the room to our towelanimal, The Bat.

Next…Sea Day

Janice, we also booked one in St. Thomas and it was very well run. I know Nassau is not a port that is in the frequent rotation so maybe they were just off but it was making me question at the time what our St. Thomas excursion was going to be like. Again, our St. Thomas excursion to St. John's was fine. The only hiccup we had was our own doing so RCL gets an A for this excursion. If I can find what I want to do cheaper, I will take that option whether on the ship or not. just do your research and I am sure everything will work out. Just remember, no matter what choice you make, don't let the little stuff ruin the good time you are about to have. Nothing is perfect but I did want to share my experience. You are certainly going to have a blast on the Oasis. :D

Thanks so much for sharing your experience!

Janice B, You are welcome. The only bad thing about this is that I am now wishing we were back on the ship...lol. I guess we will just have to book another one. This time we will bring the kids.

Thank you so much for the review! We are going on the Oasis in August for our anniversary so this proved very helpful!

Thanks, enjoyed reading your review! Hubby and I will be doing this itinerary in February. I was thinking about doing the VIP (Adults Only) Blue Lagoon With Lunch but, after reading about the chaos you had, now I'm not sure, especially since there will be 5 other ships besides the Oasis in Nassau that day!

Was the adults only VIP section separated from the rest of the excursion, beach less crowded, and a separate buffet or was everything pretty much together, so that it didn't matter which excursion was purchased?

Silky Sal, the beach was much less crowded. It was the first stop and there did not appear to be many people on it at the time and only 3 people got off the tender I was on to go there. So that part, yeah, it would be less crowded. As for the buffet, I think there was only one buffet that everyone used. Hope this info helps. We had been to the Hilton about 8 years ago when our kids were small, I was wishing we had done that again this year. But this is just my opinion of what I saw and observed.