Oasis of the seas April 22 2018 "livish"

So I'm not sure if I'll keep up with this at all, but I thought I'd share my experience. I'm doing this from my phone so we'll let that be my excuse for bad spelling, grammar, or just about any other mistakes.

 

Short background. DW and I live in the Orlando Suburbs we are in our mid 30s and have two young boys. We are lucky to have family local so my SIL is watching the boys for us this week. We really needed a couples vacation. I work long hours out of town so my DW is home with the kids by herself a lot. We have taken a few cruises but this is our first in a big ship. Our last cruise was on the Empress so this is a good contrast.

 

We booked in January because we can't commit to anything too far out. We have a deck 12 starboard aft ocean view balcony. It is about twice the size of the interior cabin we had on Empress. We got what I felt was a very good deal. We have the deluxe beverage package, DW isn't a huge drinker but takes advantage of all of the other options such as coffee and smoothies in addition to a few alcoholic drinks throughout the day.

 

We also booked a 3 night speciality dining package.

 

More to follow....

 

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we sail on her next week (kid free) and I can not wait to here more of your review :)

Since we live close we just hopped in the truck and drove the hr to the port. We always use the port parking. I dislike dealing with shuttles and prefer to walk off the ship and right to my truck. I realize it costs more, but it's worth it to me.

 

We pulled up to the light at the terminal at 10:35. And then we waited and waited some more. Traffic did not move for at least 10 minutes. If I recall it was 25 minutes until we were walking into the terminal. We dropped the luggage with the porters and then parked. We do carryons for shorter trips and figured we could have done it for this one, but we didn't want to have to lug bags around for 3 hrs.

 

The line for security moved very quickly. Once we got upstairs and into the long line for check in I immediately noticed something odd. There were no CS agents at the desks. A few minutes later we heard the announcement that ship was undergoing a coast guard inspection and embarkation would be delayed. The waiting area was completely full so they were not processing anyone. I believe they must have stopped processing people through security shortly after we got through as only a few people joined our line after we did.

 

Somewhere around 1145 they started boarding which meant they started checking people in again. They checked in the suite and high level C&A guests and then our line finally started moving.

 

Once we were checked in we were immediately able to board. We dinged in at 12:28.

 

More to come....

 

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we sail on her next week (kid free) and I can not wait to here more of your review :)

I feel (a little) bad about not bringing the boys, but DW and I really needed the getaway. Enjoy your cruise! Let me know if you have any questions.

 

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The first thing we did was get our dining reservations. I would recommend doing this right away if you want the 7-730 time frame as they were already fairly booked up.

 

We were among some of the first on the ship.

 

Next stop was lunch, neither of us had much breakfast and it was about 1pm so we were hungry. We decided on park cafe. There was a line (this is somewhat of a theme thus far).

 

We each got a salad and a roast beef sandwhich. Definitely get the sandwich with horseradish. I thought the sandwich was very good.

 

We wandered around and then the rooms were ready by 2pm.

 

Neither of us could sleep the night before so we took a nap and didn't wake up until our room steward knocked on the door. He looks very young and seems new. So far so good though. We requested extra pillows, robes, and ice. All of which we received promptly.

 

Due to the rain our muster which was supposed to be in the aqua theatre was moved to the photo gallery. It was rather disorganized, but overall painless.

 

We headed to deck 5 aft for sailaway, but the weather cleared so we went up to the deck 14 sundeck.

 

I think we finally got our first drink after that.

 

Once we were at sea we hung out on the balcony until getting ready for dinner.

 

We did a little bar hoping before dinner.

 

I had reserved the solarium bistro for 730. It was not crowded at all. We love Greek food so the menu was great.

 

My steak was overcooked, but we both left full.

 

The atmosphere was very nice and we enjoyed the half buffet, half table service.

 

The seas were pretty rough in account of the weather and you could really feel it up in the solarium. DW gets sea sick easily but fortunately her medicine was working.

 

After dinner we just wandered around and bar hopped and did some people watching. We ended the night fairly early after listening to live music in Boleros.

 

Up next I'll give some general day 1 thoughts and observations.

 

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I have a few questions....... What movies were playing?

Do they serve pineapple or coconut drinks? Drinks IN the pineapple. Do you know if they are included in the drink package? Thanks so much. We board next Sunday and I am overly excited!!!!!

... Drinks IN the pineapple. Do you know if they are included in the drink package? ...

Drinks in the pineapple would be included, but you would have to pay extra for the pineapple.

Enjoying your review. We were onboard 2 weeks ago. We also had muster in the aqua theatre and we wondered what they do if it rains. Now I know

 

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I have a few questions....... What movies were playing?

Do they serve pineapple or coconut drinks? Drinks IN the pineapple. Do you know if they are included in the drink package? Thanks so much. We board next Sunday and I am overly excited!!!!!

Thor and cars3 are what I've seen thus far. Haven't paid too much attention. I'll look at the cruise compass later.

 

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Thanks for doing a semi-live report.

Ok, some general thoughts thus far.

 

I am going to preface this with the fact that I try not to nit-pick when I'm on vacation. I try not to worry about what anyone else is doing or minor issues.

 

My experience thus far is that it is a "classier" bunch then we've encountered on other ships. I contribute this partially to it being a week long cruise.

 

The ship appears to be in great condition. I have seen several reports that's have stated otherwise. Sure there is minor rust or missing paint. But it's in a salt water environment with 6k guests on it every week. I haven't seen anything that is unexpected. My balcony door is squeaky, I could probably have then grease it if it were to bother me too much.

 

Crowds... ok, so this may be my biggest gripe. Everywhere you go there us just so many people. This is the most crowded of a ship that I've ever been on. You might say, well duh.... There are 6k guests, what were you expecting. I mistakenly thought with as many public spaces as there are the crowds may disperse a little better. There is essentially a line for everything. I am very glad that we got a balcony because there is little to no quiet places in the ship.

 

So far the food has been very good. Nearly all of the staff have been very friendly, only exception was at lunch today in the MDR.

 

Bar service. I know this is a big question essentially with all the drink packages they sell. Let me tell you, if you want a drink you won't go thirsty. There is pretty much a bar everywhere you go. They even have pop-up bars in popular areas. There are tons of bartenders and drink servers.

 

I can report what everyone else has, the upsell is everywhere. We have been approached multiple times for dining packages and drink packages.

 

As far as features go, this ship has many features we won't use, though watching people on the flowrider has proved entertaining.

 

Last for now, I am going to go out on a limb and say that my first impression is that the ship is too big. You constantly have to go up and down back and forth to get to things and they are always on the opposite side if the ship. I love exploring but I can also be kind of lazy, especially on vacation. That being said the benefit of the size is the huge walking/running track, which is great to burn off those extra drinks and desserts.

 

One more last thing, the Wi-Fi is ok, not great. Here is a screen shot of the speed test I did by the flowrider.

 

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Cool Trip report..

Cool Trip report..

Thanks!

 

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Thanks for doing a semi-live report.

Glad you are enjoying it!

 

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DW is getting ready for our dinner at 150CP tonight while I sit on the balcony so I figured I'd do another installment.

 

I did some quick math and despite not drinking a lot we still got our monies worth yesterday considering we bought the package at $45. As I sit right now we are a few dollars shy of breaking even and we are just about to go into prime drinking time.

 

We slept in this morning all the way to 6:45. I normally get up at 5am and DW is usually up at 6am with the kids so this was a real accomplishment. The bed was firm but comfortable. I found a date written on the mattress, I'm not sure which way they write the date so it was either installed in 12 or 16. I would have liked the room a little cooler but got a great night sleep none the less.

 

First order of business was fancy coffee at cafe promenade, I normally drink Folgers black but opted for a cappuccino. DW and I managed 5 laps of the jogging track (walking) with a stop for a smoothie halfway through (because obviously with that amount of exertion you have to take a break midway through). Once we completed the 2+ miles we went to Johnny Rockets for breakfast. We were first in the door, we chose to sit outside. The food was warm and fresh. I had French toast and DW had pancakes. Nothing too fancy.

 

The rest of the morning was spent lounging, reading, exploring.

 

The upper decks were closed due to wind.

 

I will note that throughout the day the seas have gotten much calmer and the ship is moving less. The weather got very nice this afternoon.

 

We opted for the dining room for lunch due to the crowds elsewhere. Our server was not friendly in the least, we felt like our presence was a bother. That didn't stop us from enjoying our lunch. The salad bar was great. I highly recommend the key lime pie and vanilla mousse.

 

I forgot to mention before lunch I got a beer cocktail at the pub, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. I will definitely get another one of those.

 

After lunch we had champagne cocktails and then headed to the cabin for a nap. We are seeing Cats after 150CP and wanted to be well rested. 2 hours later we finally woke up.

 

We basically wandered the ship and enjoyed our balcony until now.

 

I think I am caught up. I will leave you with this awesome view.

 

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Great review so far. Nice to get away as a couple.

 

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Enjoying your review. We are excited to be sailing at the end of May. I am hoping to find ways to avoid the crowd bottlenecks. Will spend some time exploring the huge ship the first day or so, but glad to have that OV balcony, if it gets too crowded!

we sail on her next week (kid free) and I can not wait to here more of your review :)

 

It is really bothering me that I can't edit my post LOL. I do know the difference between "hear" and "here":p

Looking forward to reading more. Enjoy the cruise. We sail in August.

Thanks for the review! Have a great time!

Really liking your review! Let us know how 150 was and if it has the new menu, please.

 

 

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Really liking your review! Let us know how 150 was and if it has the new menu, please.

 

 

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Glad you are enjoying it!

It is the old CP menu. I'll share some more details later on once I've gotten some coffee in me, moving a little slow this morning...

 

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Enjoying your review. We are excited to be sailing at the end of May. I am hoping to find ways to avoid the crowd bottlenecks. Will spend some time exploring the huge ship the first day or so, but glad to have that OV balcony, if it gets too crowded!

Avoid the promenade during any "sale". Also it seems the windjammer has a line quite often, still have not eaten there. I don't want to make it sound like a cattleherd all the time, but there is just a lot of people around. The most frustrating is those who are in groups and are very slow moving that take up the entire walkway. Fortunately there is often an alternate route.

 

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I took a picture of the main dining room lunch menu yesterday but forgot to post it.

 

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Thor and cars3 are what I've seen thus far. Haven't paid too much attention. I'll look at the cruise compass later.

 

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Thanks so much!! I was bringing Thor to watch on the plane so I'll grab another option just in case!! LOL