My experience on Oasis of the Seas w.toddler

[KJENN]

We just got back from sailing on the Oasis and it was a great cruise. My son turned 17 months on the cruise, so thought i'd share a bit for anyone looking for reviews ( I know I was!)

 

CABIN:We had an inside cabin and it was fine- I thought I would really miss a window/balcony but i'm glad we didn't spend the $ to upgrade. We didn't spend a ton of time in the room, when DS was napping DH went back with him to nap too, I laid out :) The room was pretty tight though, we turned the couch around instead of having a crib or pack n play. It worked well, though we'd normally let him fall asleep on the bed and then move him. He HATED the shower, and a blow up tub would have been nice but we managed without scarring him for life :)

 

ROYAL BABIES NURSERY: We used this 3 nights on the cruise and loved it. The people who ran it were very professional, and the place impeccably clean and organized. I didn't know this, but you can rent strollers from the nursery if you don't have your own, they looked like Maclaren Triumphs,but not sure. I think it was $6 day or something. You can reserve time up to 20 hrs, I also found out that even if you book 7-12, but come back at 10, you only get charged for the time you were there. You can bring food, or they get lunch /dinner delivered (dinner around 6-6.30). There is also a huge circular playroom filled with tons of FP toys, and some pads and ride on toys- its unsupervised and you can bring your kid anytime to play. We did this daily and he loved it.

 

DINING- We took him to the main dining room, my time dining and he did great. They have a kids menu or you can order off the menu. They served us pretty quickly. Loved the mytime dining, and never had to wait more than 5 mins for a table. For lunch we did Windjammer mostly - it was a bit crowded at times but we always found a seat. Great views over the sports court and the ocean too. The Park Cafe was awesome, but tended to get crowded. Loved the made to order salads, and the roast beef sandwiches. We did Chops and it was very good, great quality steak but to be honest I liked the "Chops" rest. on Carnival Valor better- it was more of an event. But the food was excellent here.

 

POOLS- For diaper babies, the pool is really tiny, maybe 10'x10' with some spray things. It was fine on most days, but there wernt' a lot of babies on the cruise, might get crowded if there were. They were very strict about diapered kids in any other part of the splash area- we saw someone fighting with the guy almost every day. People were screaming at the poor pool attendant daily! He just called the manager over. People were really mad over it though. The solarium area was really nice if you have time off without the kids.

 

SHOWS:

We took him to Oasis of Dreams, Come fly w/ me, Frozen in Time- only had to leave come fly w me early, he was getting cranky.

 

STROLLER:

I agonized over which stroller to take. I took my Britax Blink (similar to a Maclaren Triumph reclining umbrella) and I wished the whole time I had brought my Baby Jogger City Mini stroller. There was plenty of room with the exception of maybe carts in the hall or having to fold it in the room. I think he would have been more comfy and love the fact that it doesn't tip when you hang bags on the back (Britax does). Saw a few city minis and even a city mini double.

 

PORTS (Western):

Labadee was beautiful. We went to the beach on the far right (near the inflatable things)and it seemed to be the calmest for swimming, almost a cove. There was a food bbq there too. On a side note, while eating, we were looking into the woods above the fence and saw a group of 8 or so kids (around 7 or 8 yrs old) trying to get peoples attention and rubbing their stomachs, trying to get food. It was horrible and I felt so bad for them. The vendors were really agressive - we shopped in the big building were they don't haggle and prices were fixed, very reasonable.

 

Falmouth- it looks like it will be a very nice port, but still a lot of construction going on. We didn't leave the gates, it looked a bit chaotic and we didn't feel comfortable with our baby. We had so much to do on the ship that we just enjoyed an uncrowded day.

 

Cozumel- We planned on Paradise beach, but it was a fairly cloudy rainy day, so we just got off and walked thorough the pier shops and picked up some souveniers. We had been to Coz. a few times before, so I didn't feel like I was missing anything.

 

OTHER:

-He LOVED the carousel, we rode it probably close to 50 times over the week! They also have a boat thing with a wheel and a ramp that he liked to run up and down.

-The boardwalk was pretty uncrowded most of the time and a good place to run free. During the day, when we had to get from one end to the other, we'd try to take a cabin hallway and let him run/walk all the way down-- it really tired him out and there were no detours for a curious toddler to take!

-For Whole Milk, the promenade cafe had a big dispenser set up,so we'd normally go there. Windjammer also had the small cartons, so we'd grab a few to take to the room after breakfast. They also have boxes of cheerios, fruit loops etc. We took a couple of boxes to keep in the room for snacks.

-We also brought on some snacks for the baby to keep in the room which helped a lot (cereal bars, baby food "pouches", some other stuff) when we didn't want to leave the room for food.

-Character breakfast was fun, it was on Wed/Friday morning in the main dining room- we saw Shrek, Puss in Boots, and Fiona- my kid had no idea who any of them were before the cruise but knows them now! They also had lots of meet n greets and other things to see the characters.

- Bring bendable straws! They didn't have cups with lids and we didn't want to wash a cup constantly and he did great using a bendable straw while we held the glass- otherwise with the size of the glasses and the big straw he couldn't drink right.

- The staff was amazing and loved our son- almost everyone we passed went out of their way to talk/play with him--most had kids they hadn't seen in a long time so it was a bit sad.

- The stateroom had a really good amount of storage- they did a good job squeezing in storage units where they could- I was impressed. Didn't even use the shoe holder and we brought a ton of stuff.

- We ordered diapers, wipes, a bucket/shovel, and a bunch of other baby stuff (snacks), from Diapers.com and added in toiletries from Soap.com (sister site) with free shipping >$25-- had it delivered to our FT. Lauderdale hotel the night before and saved a ton of luggage room. Slapped a luggage tag on it and it was delivered right to our room!

 

I 'll try and check back to answer any questions, or feel free to email kjbortle@aol.com too. Happy cruising!

[beffiegirl]

Great review for moms like me. Do you have any pictures of the baby pool?? I was wondering if it was the same size as the one on Freedom of the seas. My DS is now 23 mos. and will be 29 mos when we go on oasis. I think the baby pool might be to dinky for him and he won't be fully potty trained for the other area.... I don't know what to do. I was thinking about switching our cruise to Carnival Dream. So he can run around in the splash area??

[KJENN]

I think I have some and will try and post tonight. I'm not sure of the baby area on the dream, so I can't compare. It was big enough for my son, but he's 17m, I think it might be a little small for a 2 year old, but maybe not. My view was that its better than nothing, which is what most of other cruise ships had for babies :) I do think with Carnival he might be able to go to Camp Carnival at 2 (no charge) where at RCI he'd still be in the royal babies and tots if you wanted to put him into care. just a thought!

[sandytoes03]

Thanks for the review! How late and what did you guys do on the nights that you didn't use the nursery?

[KJENN]

I can't figure out how to add pictures, but will keep trying!

 

The nights we didn't do daycare, we would walk around, usually hit the boardwalk and do the carousel a few times, one night went to Come Fly with Me, other times just walked around Central Park, etc.... we were pretty beat, so were back to the room by 9-10ish or so.

[jlrn366419]

Thanks for the review, puts my mind at ease about a lot of things. Love that you can rent a stroller!

[justcruisin31]

Great post, thanks.

About to head on my first cruise with two kids-21 months, and 3 years.

Based on what you wrote, diapers are not able to be purchased on-board?

What about laundry facilities-is there anything available on board?

[IttaBit]

Anything you didn't bring with you that wish you had?

[kellylw]

I'm getting ready for a cruise in december on the Allure with my (then) 13 month old. Your review was so helpful, thank you!