Live from the oasis - 5/1 - 5/15!

[Jan_In_Maine]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Thanks for taking the time to write while on vacation. Jan

[BethV114]

Hi Harvey - Thanks so much for posting this live thread from the Oasis western itinerary. DH, DD and I are sailing on Allure's western itinerary for her inaugural in December and are wondering which side is best to be on when docked in port. We really enjoy facing the port and being able to watch what's going on from our balcony as we see enough ocean on the days at see. We also think it would be nice to have something to look at if we're spending some downtime on our balcony while DD (who will be 15 months at the time) is taking a nap in the cabin. So if you wouldn't mind posting which side of the ship is facing port along with all of your other helpful info, that would be wonderful. Thanks!:D

[Mack704]

Sharon and I both have birthday’s this month - Sharon’s is next week, and mine is the end of the month, but this cruise is actually my birthday present - for my 60th! This is our 10th cruise together (on four different lines - RCI, X, HAL and CCL) in the 7+ years we’ve known each other.

 

We’re not sun worshippers, we don’t drink (sound boring, don’t we?), but, we’re committed to having a great time on every cruise. We know little things are going to go wrong, we don’t care! We love cruising with each other!

 

This time, our destination was and is the ship. So far, it’s been great, as advertised!

 

For lunch yesterday, we did the MDR. They had a great variety, including a salad bar and a small (tiny) hot buffet, which we looked at after lunch, ‘cause we ordered off the menu. DW had the mushroom and leek quiche with a salad. She gave a good report, which I verified with my bite. I had the open-faced steak sandwich AND the Moroccan lamb pita. The steak was tasty, but the lamb pita was terrific! So good, I could eat it every day for lunch!

 

After lunch, walking through Central Park, I had to stop at the Park Café, just to get a couple slices of that luscious roast beef (did that yesterday too after lunch). No roll - just wanted a taste 2 days in a row! It’s chef-carved sirloin roast - really tasty!

 

After some relaxing time in the cabin, we had 5:00 reservations for the Ice Show - Frozen in Time. It was great, and the skaters were terrific! In the middle of the show, you may have read before, there was a sand artist - you’ve really got to see this to believe it - she was amazing!

 

Our dinner last night was in the MDR, and we had requested the same waiter from the night before. Andung again did NOT let us down, he was smiley and friendly (by the way, we saw him earlier, or I should say, HE saw US earlier in the dining room at lunch - he was staffing the buffet - and he called out to us by name - he already knew our names!) We will be requesting him every dinner in the MDR this week and next!

 

It was the first formal night. They called it the Captain’s Gala dinner. We saw a lot of gowns and tuxes - we dress up but not to that degree. I wore a coat and tie. DW wore an elegant-looking pants, top and wrap. We did see a few in the dining room in casual clothes - but it doesn’t bother us at all.

 

Sharon had shrimp cocktail and I had escargot - we shared both. Both were great. Dipping the bread in that garlicky butter is making my mouth water while I’m talking about it! For her main, Sharon had the sliced filet roast - she reported it peppery but good (she said it’s supposed to be peppery - it was in a green peppercorn sauce). I had the roasted duck, which was a little tough but tasty, however the seafood brochette was terrific! I gave Sharon the shrimp. The scallops and monkfish were right there! The green veggies were great - we love vegetables! Dessert was a sugar-free coconut cake - I almost asked for a second piece! Too full!

 

Spent a few minutes in the casino - put in the $25 voucher from the day before (in the poker machine) and on the last game, won the $25 back! Cashed in and got out of there! Big gambler am I! ;-} DW put $10 in, lost it quick, I gave her a $20, that one went the same way! She’s a big gambler too! ;-}

 

It was about time to walk down to the Comedy Club - same deck. We had reservations for the 10:30 show. I was ready to go back to the room before the show started, Sharon made us stay and watch the show. I’m glad we did! The MC and both comedians had us laughing out loud the whole time!

 

Day over - cabin - sleep time.

 

This morning, slept in ‘til 8:00 when the room service coffee wakeup call came. I was ready to get up - DW went back to sleep for a little while. We were already docked in Labadee. We had decided that there was nothing we wanted to do there, so we’re staying on the ship. Threw some clothes on, took all our jewelry off, and headed up to the Zip Line!

 

It opened at 9:00, we got there about 9:20 - maybe 5 people had zipped before us, and I must admit, it was the most exhilarating 5 seconds in any cruise we’ve been on! DW agrees! Did it once each - enough for us!

 

Headed to Johnny Rockets for breakfast. Not many tables inside, but we managed to snag one. It was cool inside - it’s supposed to be almost 100 today, but there was a nice breeze zipping through the Boardwalk. Sharon had the cheese omelet with a side of bacon, and I had a bacon and egg sandwich. Both were really good! We recommend Johnny Rockets for breakfast.

 

When we checked from our cabin how busy the breakfast venues were, it showed don’t even TRY to get in the Windjammer! Johnny Rockets had plenty of room and the breakfast was fine, although limited. We’re not going to fight the crowds in the Windjammer - there’s too many other places to eat.

 

Now some questions answered…

 

Yesterday we walked past the Cupcake Cupboard and we saw a class in there with about a half-dozen participants - they all looked like they were having fun! We haven’t taken the class, and probably won’t since we can’t eat the cupcakes, but DW wants to go back and buy some of the items they have for sale as gifts - mugs, little cupcake trinket boxes, magnets, etc.. You’ll have to decide for yourself if it’s worth it.

 

Like I said before, we don’t drink, so we’re not taking the drink mixing class - sorry nothing to report there.

 

DW would recommend that you buy a cheap pair of tennis shoes for the zip line - they seem to be pretty strict about what’s acceptable - you might be able to just wear socks, we read. If you wear your jewelry up there, or even glasses, they’ll make you take them off!

 

The formal nights on the Western itinerary are Sunday and Wednesday - according to the planner they gave us in the Port Terminal. Last night was the first, and the next is when we are in Costa Maya. We don’t plan on making it to the MDR for the second formal night because we won’t be back on the ship from our excursion until close to 7:00. We have 9:30 reservations for the show “Come Fly With Me”, so we’ll just grab a quick casual dinner after we change.

 

Under bed storage is quite adequate - in addition to our 4 large suitcases, there’s an extra comforter and pillows stored under there!

 

Is the ship worth the money? It’s a personal decision - it costs about twice as much as some other balcony cabins we’ve had. If not for the uniqueness of the Oasis itself, we’d never pay this much for a small balcony cabin…but, as I said before, the ship was our destination on this cruise, so it is worth it to us! And it is a true WOW!

 

As to the TVs over the hot tubs - we haven’t checked them out - sorry! We’ll give a report later in the week.

 

Our cabin is on the port side, and we are facing AWAY from the dock in Labadee - not sure about the other ports! Will report later in the week!

 

Every crew member we’ve encountered has been friendly and helpful. They seem to be continuously cleaning - there’s a crew member on our balcony right now cleaning the railings and partitions.

　

More later!

 

Harvey

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

[mondsd]

Thanks Harvey for your reports. Keep em Coming!!! :)

[BethV114]

Our cabin is on the port side, and we are facing AWAY from the dock in Labadee - not sure about the other ports! Will report later in the week!

 

　

 

Harvey - Sounds like you're having a fantastic cruise. Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. We love docking facing the port, so it really helps that you're willing to let us know how that goes!:D

[lvstitch]

This is great, thanks so much.

[Merc]

Yay Harvey, thanks for the updates!!! your the best!!!!! Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

 

Debbie <your making being at work a little bit better>

[cappy09]

Since you are onboard maybe you can tell me who the headliner in on the first leg of your cruise and find out if they will still be onboard for the 2nd week. Thank you in advance for any help you can be

[nydoll1]

For the lady who wanted to know about the cupcake class, I did it in April with my 12 year old daughter. I have to say, didnt think it was worth the money. They give you a premade cupcake, vanilla, a bag of icing and the candy. We made the dog, took all of 5 minutes, and had soo much stuff on it that we shared one and the other sat in our room until we tossed it. On our cruise we got a kids chef hat, it was supposed to be an apron which I would have much preferred. I was told by the girls who worked there that they are going to try and change it a bit, maybe give a cookbook which would have been a better deal. I was also the only adult there, there was a kids birthday party as part of our group. That said, my daughter had a great time, it would have been better if we just paid for her to do it. Icing was yummy though, and fresh right out of the bag....

[dusky]

Are you certain about the second night for Formal at Costa Maya? Usually it's on a Thursday. I already made reservations for Giovanni's on Wednesday but perfer having dinner in the MDR for Formal nights. Now I'm wondering if I should and can cancel dinner at Giovanni's and make it for Thursday. Before I try this please let me know. Our cruise is the week of June 26th.

[TravelGirl10]

Thanks so much for all of the updates! Hope you are having fun! Can you try to save all the compasses for us to put up on the site when you get back? We leave in a few weeks and are looking forward to seeing the compasses for the new itinerary! Thanks!! :)

 

From one Clevelander to another wanted to say hello! I am actually leaving for this sailing on the 15th. Flying out a day early and looking forward to it. GO CAVS!

And Thank you Harvey for the Live Update!!! Keep up the great work and

Happy Birthday to you!

 

ALSO- We keep watching the Live Webcam onboard the Oasis ...SMILE

[Dremac373]

Thank you Harvey for sharing with us your daily events, like many others I really enjoy the daily reviews. Hope that you and your wife continue to enjoy your cruise

[bravostar]

Harvey,

You mentioned seeing the Comedy Show. Could you please tell me if this is suitable for Adults Only. If so, how racy. I am not a big fan of listening to a lot of four letter words.

 

Thanks so much for all of your great info.

[ktkcruisers]

Thank you for posting! We'll be sailing with you this Saturday and we can hardly wait!

Are they allowing power strips?

 

Thank you!

[Jmustang67]

Thanks for taking us along.

[denamo]

Harvey,

I am so enjoying your posts. Thanks for taking the time to do this "live" while you are on board. Can't wait to hear of your further Oasis adventures.

[golferfreddie]

Great live review. Keep it up with the MDR food reviews. We will be on the next Oasis Western Itenerary on 5/15 and trying to figure out which nights to do specialty restaurants since the nightly menus are going to be switched around for this sailing.

[Lauren225]

Looking for more info on the cupcake cupboard, is it worth the money for the class?

 

ALso what is the drink making class all about?

 

Thanks.

 

 

I sailed April 3-10 and did the cupcake class, so much fun... We made the puppy, not the burger. I would definitely do it again!

[Lv2Vacay]

Thank you for posting! We'll be sailing with you this Saturday and we can hardly wait!

Are they allowing power strips?

 

Thank you!

Just got off the Oasis on 5/1 and we took a power strip with us which had 6 places to plug things in. We had it out in plain sight and no one ever said anything to us about it. It was extremely useful as the power outlets are very limited in the cabins.

[Lv2Vacay]

Looking for more info on the cupcake cupboard, is it worth the money for the class?

 

ALso what is the drink making class all about?

 

Thanks.

Sailed on the Oasis 4/24-5/1. I took the mohito (?sp.) making class which was offered on the Thurs. we were at sea. IT WAS A BLAST! The class was listed in the Compass and began at 12:30 in Bolero. The bartenders were fun and entertaining. They were surprised that 14 people showed up for the class that day as they said they usually have only about 8 people. The cost is $15.00 but you will learn how to make four different cocktails and get to taste all 4 and you take home a souvenir sloozie glass. The class normally lasts only about 45 mins. to an hour but maybe because of how large a group we were, our class lasted a little less than two hours. I went by myself because my husband had to do some e-mails for work but had a great time meeting people in the class. Ahhh, wish I was there right now :)

[tracyanns]

Sailed on the Oasis 4/24-5/1. I took the mohito (?sp.) making class which was offered on the Thurs. we were at sea. IT WAS A BLAST! The class was listed in the Compass and began at 12:30 in Bolero. The bartenders were fun and entertaining. They were surprised that 14 people showed up for the class that day as they said they usually have only about 8 people. The cost is $15.00 but you will learn how to make four different cocktails and get to taste all 4 and you take home a souvenir sloozie glass. The class normally lasts only about 45 mins. to an hour but maybe because of how large a group we were, our class lasted a little less than two hours. I went by myself because my husband had to do some e-mails for work but had a great time meeting people in the class. Ahhh, wish I was there right now :)

 

That is what I was looking for info on, the Mojito class...do you remember which 4 kinds of mojitos you made?

[Mack704]

Hi everybody! Before I continue the travelogue, I want to address the question about the second formal night.

 

It seems as if the chef made the switch to Wednesday night on a lark for this Western itinerary. Not sure why, both Wednesday and Thursday are port days, and we’ll be docked at the respective ports until 8:00 both nights. The crew members seem to be a little confused…one of the restaurant hosts I asked even had to call someone to find out!

 

In total, I asked 2 restaurant hosts and 2 guest services staffers, and was assured that the original daily planner WAS correct, that the second formal night is, in fact, Day 5, Wednesday night, AND the lobster is ALWAYS served on the second formal night!

 

Like I said, they all seemed a little confused, so I’ll give you a first-hand report later in the week.

 

We had lunch yesterday at the Seafood Shack. For appetizers, we had coconut shrimp, chicken drumettes and crab cakes. The shrimp was tasty, made the way it was supposed to be, and came with fries. I thought the wings were terrific - they had kind of a barbeque buffalo sauce - REAL good! We’re from Baltimore - trust me, we know crab cakes, and a couple of years ago, we vacationed in San Francisco where we tried Dungeness crab. These crab cakes were made with Dungeness crab - they were OK, but not even CLOSE to a Maryland crab cake.

 

The sauces were good! The blue cheese with the wings was good, the tarter sauce with the shrimp was good, and the remoulade sauce with the crab cakes was GOOD! For our mains, DW had a hamburger, which gets a thumbs down, she says (we know it has to be well done, but it was WELL DONE PLUS!), and I had ribs with cole slaw and beans. The ribs get about 7.5, the beans were not good, no flavor, and the cole slaw was ok. We ARE going to go back and try some fish!

 

On Monday morning, we bought their book “Live the Oasis”. It’s full of facts, trivia and statistics, and it has a little scavenger hunt, which we thought might be fun. So yesterday afternoon, we got out the book, and started the hunt! There are six sections, and we did section 1 yesterday. It took us back and forth through the top 3 or 4 decks, and it was fun! Except…it was close to 100 yesterday, so after the first section, we were done!

 

I’m not sure what I expected, but the “Come Fly with Me” show in the main theater was typical cruise fare, kicked up several notches. There were 4 main singers, 2 men, 2 women; they sang familiar pop songs. There were acrobats, Cirque de Soleil-like performers, aerial artists and the Royal Caribbean dancers. There seemed to be a lot of performers flying around - you’d have to see it yourself to know what I mean!

 

There was piped-in music, as well as the live band chiming in. On a scale of 1-10, it was at least a 12! The performances were great, the singers were terrific, the sets were spectacular, and the dancers were the cream of the crop! Several of these performers are going to be in 2 other shows that we haven’t seen yet, but have booked. Looking forward to these shows!

 

Dinner was 8:30 at Chops. Got there right on time, and had to wait about 5 minutes to be seated - there seemed to be a problem with a couple in front of us, but after that, we were shown to our table. The waiter was Cosmo from Romania - he was real good. At the end of the dinner, he told us a story about his father, who was really sick, so…we left him a good tip. While he was telling his story, he mentioned that he loves waiting on Americans - we tip well! He said Canadians and Brits - blah!

 

The first thing they brought out was a whole loaf of incredibly tasting bread - hot and delicious! Had to be careful not to fill up on bread!

For appetizers, I had a cured fish trio, and DW had crab and shrimp cake. DW reported not so great - my bite agreed with her. The fish, however, we both liked. Next, we had soup - I had cheese and onion soup, which was delicious and rich, and DW had Forest Mushroom soup, which was fabulous! I had a Caesar salad, which was just the way steakhouses make it - a couple of Romaine hearts, intact, with a lot of shredded parmesan, croutons and a tasty dressing. That was a hit with me!

 

DW had a filet, Cosmo advised her to get the 10 oz. instead of the 7 oz. - same price. She ended up eating only 2/3 of it anyway! I got a bone-in rib eye (my favorite steak), which tasted good, but it was a little tough. The meat itself was delicious, just a little tough. DW loved her filet - we might go there again next week…we’ll see. Onion rings were not good steakhouse quality, but the green vegetables were terrific!

 

The Love and Marriage show was coming up at 10:30 - we probably could have made it, but we knew it would be on the TV over and over and over again….so we could watch it at our leisure. So…we skipped it.

 

Headed back to the room, both very full and content.

 

Day over.

 

This morning we slept in (hey, we’re on vacation!). Our coffee wakeup call came at 8:30, and we VERY slowly got ready to go eat something. Our plan was the MDR for lunch. Went down to the casino first - gambled away $20 - broke my heart - and went to lunch!

 

The menu was the same as lunch on Sunday, so I again got the Moroccan lamb pita, and DW again got the mushroom and leek quiche. This time, we did the salad bar for our app - there must be 35 different items on that salad bar. The vegetables seemed fresh and crisp - DW remarked that next time she’d make the salad bar her whole lunch! No dessert today, so we took off to get back to the Live the Oasis scavenger hunt.

 

We did 2 more sections before the heat was too much for me. I hope I’ll be OK on our excursion tomorrow - I can tough it out, I’ll be OK.

 

After a brief rest stop, we went to visit some shops on the Promenade, and the Guest Services to find out about which night is formal! It’s Wednesday, dammit, they all told me! At some point, DW and I got iced coffee at the Mondo Café - delicious!

 

Then we headed to the Boardwalk and had to try one of the famous corn dogs. Like a McDonald’s burger, it was greasy (too greasy for DW), but good! Went into the children’s shop to look for gifts for the grandkids - we’ll go back there another time to buy for them.

 

In our travels today, we toured the ship just about top to bottom. It’s a marvel…it’s a WOW! If you’re debating with yourself whether to book this ship or not, or whether it’s worth it - it’s worth it to us! It really is something! Book it!

 

About the Comedy show. We saw the 10:30 show - and it was racy - big time. R/X rated. If four-letter words offend you - DON’T GO! Funny as hell, but filthy.

 

More later!

 

Harvey

　

　

[FMcruiser]

First let me start by thanking you for your live review of the cruise. I 'll be on the Oasis on the 15 of May, so reading about the itinerary we'll be doing is very interesting to me.

Now for the favor. If you ever have a few minutes to spare, can you please check out the location of cabin # 12624? By looking at the deck plan for that floor, it shows as NOT facing any cabins! I so hope it is in a good location!

Thanks in advance Harvey.

Filomena

[islandbound1day]

Loving your review. Thanks for clarification on the second formal night.

[bravostar]

Harvey,

Thanks so much for your candid information.

I am really looking forward to all your reviews and

 

Happy 60th!!!!