Live from ... Oasis of the Seas (Photos, First Impressions, Vignettes)

[Oasis of the Seas]

We've written a lot about the new stuff on the Royal Promenade (the neat sports car reproduction, the bustling Cupcake Cupboard), but in large part this is the neighborhood that feels the most like an old friend. Sure it's wider -- nearly twice that of the Freedom-class ships -- but the fan favorites are back, from the Cafe Promenade (serving up those tiny, tasty sandwiches and cookies nearly around the clock) to the pub (here, the Globe and Atlas).

 

During the press conference this weekend, Royal Caribbean execs said a third of Oasis is simply evolutionary, and indeed the Royal Promenade felt familiar among the new neighborhoods. Even though I relished exploring the new areas (the genuine seaside pier atmosphere of the Boardwalk continues to blow me away), I still gravitated back to the Royal Promenade several times a day, just to people-watch or snag a slice of pizza at Sorrento's. It may still be my favorite hangout ...

 

... and my take is that it will be for many people, especially after dark when things wind down on the Boardwalk and in Central Park. At 3 a.m. this morning, there were still folks chatting and chowing on the Royal Promenade. That's Royal Caribbean, to me.

 

--Melissa

[Dinotoll]

Hi ,does anyone knows if the sauna and steam in the spa area is free or how much you will be charged...?

[Oasis of the Seas]

Yes, if you bring your own laptop there is Wi-Fi in the cabins; there's also a keyboard attached to the TV for access that way.

 

I thought you could access the Internet from your cabin, on what is a sort of an all in one TV?

[axelskater]

Have you ever seen cruise ship elevators that don’t have carpet?

 

Cunard ships, including Queen Mary 2

[ToddinVA]

Here are a couple of the Solarium pools...

 

So is there no full size pool just for adults??

[LLindaC]

I think having the gym on deck 6 might be a great idea. My big complaint is that the gym is always too hot- there's lots of light streaming in generally. This is wasteful as well! Another big complaint is the irritating loud thumping "music" they play. They have headsets available now, the music is not needed.

[Brad1185]

The gym really does look like an afterthought. Ugliest I have seen yet on any ship.

 

Too bad they cut the steam and sauna rooms. Now you have to pay.

[avalon1025]

To me the spa/gym was a dissapointment. The vitality cafe was nice as was the salon (windowless I think) but the gym looks like it should be the crew gym, it's large, lots of great equipment, but feels like they ran out of money when it came to decor. Too bad, I expected more from this ship based on royal caribbeans other ships

[LLindaC]

I don't care about ugly as long as they have quality equipment in good working order, and plenty of it!

[Oasis of the Seas]

I was surprised by the spa and gym facilities onboard. Surprised maybe not in a good way. I get it that by moving the two areas to a lower deck frees up prime sundeck space for a solarium (and I loved the solarium, photos to follow). But the gym was kind of crowded and not terribly picturesque. And the spa, at least the top floor (it's a two deck spa) with the Vitality Cafe, well there wasn't much natural light and it felt a little bit old-fashioned.

 

I had a treatment (Fire & Ice pedicure) that was excellent but boy, do I hate the Steiner upsell. Steiner, the company that most cruise lines hire to manage their onboard spas, is a classic operator of k'ching cruising. When I inquired about pricing for pedicures, a staffer talked all about the specialty treatments (like Fire & Ice), which cost in the $70 range. I really had to push to get her to tell me how much a "basic" pedicure would cost (and gosh, now I don't remember, apologies). I wanted to treat myself and loved the Fire & Ice but hated the pressure.

 

And during the treatment, when I said "the suds you use in the pedi-bath smell good" the manicurist immediately went into "what types of products do you use at home" mode. The idea is to talk about pricey products from Elemis (a Steiner companY) and hopefully get you to buy some. But I didn't want to give up one minute of my $70 treatment for a hard sell.

 

The salon by the way is window-less, right sort of out in the entrance area of the spa (across from the Vitality cafe). It's sort of ... boring. Painted in white with lights really bright so, I assume, it won't feel dark. To me it felt...minor league.

 

I think having the gym on deck 6 might be a great idea. My big complaint is that the gym is always too hot- there's lots of light streaming in generally. This is wasteful as well! Another big complaint is the irritating loud thumping "music" they play. They have headsets available now, the music is not needed.

[Oasis of the Seas]

Overheard, after a guy, making his virgin FlowRider effort, stood up on the board for a few minutes, wiped out spectacularly (head over heels), shook it off and came over to the bleachers, just juiced:

 

"I could stay here for a week." I'm not sure if he was referring to the FlowRider specifically -- or Oasis of the Seas in general!

[Oasis of the Seas]

You captured the feeling I had about the gym perfectly: Gym seemed like an after thought.

 

Carolyn

 

 

 

Hi Ernie, just off the ship. Gym seemed like an after thought. In the bow, no real views. There is a small for fee thermal suite but no steam or sauna. Also only maybe 4 showers and 20 lockers in a small Mens locker room. When we asked we were told the space was reallocated to more treatment rooms...more revenue. Most of the gym has no windows. there is a slippery glass staircase that looks like an accident waiting to happen. Equipment is good! Overall reminded my of the older ships with the spa and gym in the bowels of the ship

[Oasis of the Seas]

I just want to point something out. When it comes to dining, it's misleading to say that "it's free" to go to Johnny Rocket's for breakfast or the buffet or whatever. You've paid for that food with your cruise fare. Prefer to say there's no extra charge to dine at various spots.

 

 

 

Thanks for the handy chart ... which is accurate according to crew onboard. So Johnny Rockets is FREE for breakfast, and $4.95 for lunch/dinner. Secondly, the Seafood Shack is $8.95 for both lunch and dinner (closed for breakfast).

[Oasis of the Seas]

A heads up on the Loft Suites: those at the aft end of the ship do get that great back-of-ship view (and presumably are able to peek down at the Aquatheater) but it can be somewhat noisy there during the day when the FlowRider, the music, and the basketball games, are all going full force. There's also not a lot of privacy on the balcony -- and maybe even inside. People seemed to keep at least the net curtains closed.

[Oasis of the Seas]

Nope. Most definitely not free :)

 

Even though I like Royal's coffee already, what a great surprise they added Starbucks!:) I'm guessing it is not for free??

[Oasis of the Seas]

Hey, Keith -- just off Oasis (love your photos, thanks for posting). I dont' think they're going to do comment cards for a mini-cruise like the ones we were on. It's too soon. Trust me, they'll be monitoring sites like Cruise Critic and journalist reports, though....

 

That's weird about your card. We kept ours....

 

Great point about counter space in bathroom -- not much there. I've seen worse (but I've seen more generous, too). Just pack accordingly.

 

We didn't get an invoice either and I put a couple of things that weren't included over the weekend (cupcake -- oh my god, it was delicious -- and spa treatment). I think they still charged us :) -- and I'm sure passengers on revenue cruises will get invoices starting Dec. 1.

 

Carolyn

 

 

I am hoping that we get comment cards about our experiences. Whereas the ship is amazing, there are some little tweaks that the powers that be need to know about. We found it extremely odd that we weren't allowed to keep our SetSail cards where we usually keep them for souvenirs. Another thing was that we never received a final statement for our purchases onboard. Thirdly, the counter space in the bathroom in the Balcony cabins was virtually non-existant. There were a few others, but I don't want to continue blasting when the experience overall was very good.

[cruisinmomster]

Thanks to all of you for your post...I hope RCI reads your reviews and makes the few tweaks needed to make it great for everyone....

[catlady27]

Here are a couple of the Solarium pools...

 

We also have a couple of the Comedy Club that don't show the entire club, as well as Schooner Bar. The ones in Schooner Bar are a little dim because it seemed they turned all the lights down on the boat at night. We do have a few of the Spa and Fitness as well.

 

 

Thanks for the pictures but I have a question, is that the solarium hot tob or the actual pool? I LOVE the adult pool on the Freedom and was hoping the Oasis had the same set up. It seems, after reading some reviews, that the Oasis is lacking in certain perks that the Freedom class has :( We are really looking forward to our cruise in Sept. 2010 but I am beginning to think that we might be back to the Freedom class after our one trip on the Oasis.

[flagger]

We didn't get an invoice either and I put a couple of things that weren't included over the weekend (cupcake -- oh my god, it was delicious -- and spa treatment).

I think it is the funniest thing they are charging for the cupcakes on the preview cruises yet giving away alcohol. Did they have to shut off the bars during press conference times like on previous previews to get people to attend?

[kwokpot]

Hi Ernie, just off the ship. Gym seemed like an after thought. In the bow, no real views. There is a small for fee thermal suite but no steam or sauna. Also only maybe 4 showers and 20 lockers in a small Mens locker room. When we asked we were told the space was reallocated to more treatment rooms...more revenue. Most of the gym has no windows. there is a slippery glass staircase that looks like an accident waiting to happen. Equipment is good! Overall reminded my of the older ships with the spa and gym in the bowels of the ship

 

Hmmm, a state-of-the-art ship with a spa and gym that doesn't have a steam or saunas, not even CO-ED ones? I can't understand that.

Seems like RCL dropped the ball on that one. NCL new builds have EXCELLENT gym/spas, and even though the spas cost money to use, they are worth the surcharge. Considering EVERY cruise I've taken (20 to date) the spa/gym areas are always popular, I can't understand the decisions behind the Oasis facilities.

[mafig]

I thought most TAs were invited to attend one of these sailings. Guess not.

[Oasis of the Seas]

So we're in the process of editing our Central Park page (http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=1042) and I took a look at the graphic we're using. It's so old! Notice that the Central Park in this rendering is all about grassy, park-like areas, not flora and fauna. That's because the original plan for Oasis' park was to have lawn areas like Celebrity Solstice and Equinox. But then it was figured out that the lawn areas would only receive about three hours direct sunlight per day -- and the lawns would die. The idea was tweaked to focus on shade-loving plants.

 

More to come on Central Park but just a little insight.

 

Carolyn

[cps10]

So is there no full size pool just for adults??

 

 

No full size pool that I saw. That was the one that they directed me to that was called the Solarium pool.

[cps10]

Hey, Keith -- just off Oasis (love your photos, thanks for posting). I dont' think they're going to do comment cards for a mini-cruise like the ones we were on. It's too soon. Trust me, they'll be monitoring sites like Cruise Critic and journalist reports, though....

 

That's weird about your card. We kept ours....

 

Great point about counter space in bathroom -- not much there. I've seen worse (but I've seen more generous, too). Just pack accordingly.

 

We didn't get an invoice either and I put a couple of things that weren't included over the weekend (cupcake -- oh my god, it was delicious -- and spa treatment). I think they still charged us :) -- and I'm sure passengers on revenue cruises will get invoices starting Dec. 1.

 

Carolyn

 

Hi Carolyn - I hope you had a good time on there. It was certainly a good experience! I had some other beefs with the mini-cruise that are probably better to talk to them directly over, since it's most likely that they won't apply to your typical cruiser.

 

We didn't get the invoice, but we did get charged. I like to be more prepared for the charges I made before I get off the ship. The in-room account review didn't work in our cabin either.

 

And I am a little miffed about the cards - no card, no invoice, no evidence of being there! haha outside of the Oasis hat that I bought and the coffee mug that Theresa bought.

[cps10]

I thought most TAs were invited to attend one of these sailings. Guess not.

 

We were invited because my wife, who is the travel agent in the family (I just write!), met an incentive back in January in order to be invited. Originally, they were to have a 2-night cruise, but in August or so, were told that they were moved to a 1-night cruise instead. That is an entirely different can of worms that probably shouldn't be opened. RCCL wanted to make sure that the TA's worked towards getting on the ship rather than having way too many inaugurals. I thought that was a fair enough incentive. I anticipate that the same will happen this year for Allure, unless RCCL can get those who weren't on Oasis to be able to see Allure for sure. Haven't heard about that yet.