Oasis - 5/4 - 5/11

[kramonas]

Just back from the Oasis, awesome time. instead of a review (like there aren't 1000's of them), here are some of my notes and opinions.

 

1) Food

 

MDR

 

Food was excellent as was service. I know some of you are food critics, but for the average joe, it was excellent. If i ordered a steak medium, it might sometimes come med/rare, or med/well, but when your cooking for thousands, i'm sure these things will happen. 90% of the time,everything was cooked perfectly. Hell, at home, i'm lucky if i can get the wife to cook a frozen pizza all the way through, so the MDR was my favorite place. Enjoy it for what it is, a great experience. If you're going to be picky, stay off the cruise and go to NYC/LA for the $$$$$ restaurants.

 

Windjammer

 

Also an A+ experience for the same reasons as above. Was food 5 star gourmet perfect? no, was it a really a great buffet for the average joe, YES!

 

Solarium

 

This is like a health food buffet, if you're into turkey bacon and turkey sausage and other healthy foods, this is the place to be.. But not for me... tried turkey bacon for the first time, decided i REALLY didn't like it, so ditched it and went to windjammer for the REAL PORK bacon.

 

Coffee

 

Every ship i've ever been on, the coffee has been terrible.. sadly, the Oasis was no exception.

 

 

Diabetes

 

I am a diabetic. surprisingly, they had ALOT of sugar free foods, especially pastries. and they had to be the best i have ever had. I really miss it now, because being diabetic, you have to give up the sweets. These were not only sugar free, they were awesome. At night i raided the windjammer and brought some back to the room.

 

Also, if you are diabetic, keep some Splenda packets in your pocket. they are available in some places on the ship, but not all. Room service never brings any.

 

We ate most meals at the MDR, breakfasts are made to order, and the service was excellent. Highly recommend doing all meals there.

 

 

2) Ports

 

I didn't care for the ports.

 

I live in florida, so i've been to Nassau dozens of times. the ship was there for 6 hrs, which is about 5 hours more than you need. But bonus.. there is a Duncan Donuts in Nassau near the ship, load up on real coffee here!

 

ST Thomas - all thats there is alot of over-priced cheap Chinese jewelry. If you are really looking for this type of stuff, i recommend ebay/amazon, its alot cheaper.

 

St Maartin - same as above, but be careful to ask for the US price on things, they tell you the price in their currency which is 1.8X's lower than US.. so something they tell you costs $10, is really $18... make sure you get it in US dollars.. but again, its cheap stuff, signup for eBay/Amazon.

 

 

Not Cheap Jewelry.

 

For an example, i was looking for a Rolex Watch. (I currently have on i bought in st thomas 20 years ago).. The prices today over there have skyrocketed.. A particular watch i was looking for, costs $4700 here in the states.. best price in ST Thomas/Maartin was $8500. for the EXACT same one. 20 years ago, the watch i currently have was about 20% cheaper in St Thomas. Needless to say, ill buy it here at a local shop. Very disappointed.

 

 

4) Stores on the Ship.

 

Also a rip off, go to Ebay/Amazon.

 

For instance, they were selling "Gold" chains starting at $1/inch.. but if you read the fine print, its gold electroplate.. Cost on ebay/amazon about .01 an inch.

 

Watches - Really? $200 watches marked down to $10? ahhh no... Ebay you can buy them all day long for $5-$10. Fancy Chinese watches in a nice box, and presented as high end watches. Buyer Beware!

 

Coach

They had a day where they were offering 40% off selected coach products.. My wife is into Coach, so we are very well aware of the pricing.

 

Example - Coach wallet - marked retail price $219 ( should have been $199), marked down to $151. still not a bad deal EXCEPT for the fact it was a discontinued product. you can get the exact same one from a Coach Factory Outlet (store or online), for $99. all the other coach products had the same issue, old stuff, new price.

 

All i can say is Buyer Beware, know what you are buying. There were massive crowds around these sales, couldn't help buy feel sorry for them.

 

T-Shirts/Jackets/Other clothing

 

This i thought was fairly priced, tshirts $10, Jackets $40 etc. RCCL Gift shop was also reasonably priced.

 

Cigarettes

 

For those of you that smoke (I don't), smokes were 2 cartons for $57 (Marlboro). Here in florida, thats about 1/2 price. so buy them on ship.

 

 

5) Entertainment

 

BEST

 

Comedians were funny as hell. Rolled on the floor laughing.

Ice Show was also much better than i expected.

dive show, totally amazing.

 

OK

 

Other shows, like hairspray etc, were like on most other cruises. good entertainment, but nothing to write home about. entertaining none the less, the singers were all top notch.

 

6) all you can drink soda.

 

Didn't do this, and glad we didn't. Problem is you have to carry this cup around with you, and the machines are not all readily available. To be honest, Carnival has this down, they mark your SeaPass card as you have unlimited soda, and you just show it at any bar/lounge and get a soda.

 

7) Cruise Critic/RCCL Meetup

 

Absolutely do this. Consider it mandatory for 2 reasons.

 

1) they have a good raffle.

2) Most importantly, they had a cruise rep there (Sophia), who would help you reserve shows and stuff, on the spot, and get you in.. for instance, we had the comedy show booked for the midnight show, she moved it for us to the 9:00 pm show, no questions asked. Others had trouble booking, but she put them in on the spot.

 

Whatever you needed, she made it happen.. only for Cruise critic members who sign up and go to the party... This was worth its weight in gold.

 

8) Debarkation

 

you have the option at the end to self checkout. Carry your own luggage and all, you have to leave between 6:15 am and 7:30. absolutely do this. We were off and thru customs in 15 minutes.

 

 

This about wraps it up. Great time, would absolutely do it again.

[pasodancer]

Thank you for your review - sounds like it was a very memorable vacation for you!//Maria

[sonvoltken6]

Good points. One clarification on the sodas. They also mark your card and you can get the big 3 (coke diet and sprite) most anywhere. The cups are for the Freestyle machines which dispense about 100 flavors.

[prayfordaylight]

Just a note, you only need the soda cups to use the machines. RCI marks your Seapass cards as well and you can get a soda anywhere besides the machines. Never an issue.

[reney313]

 

7) Cruise Critic/RCCL Meetup

 

Absolutely do this. Consider it mandatory for 2 reasons.

 

1) they have a good raffle.

2) Most importantly, they had a cruise rep there (Sophia), who would help you reserve shows and stuff, on the spot, and get you in.. for instance, we had the comedy show booked for the midnight show, she moved it for us to the 9:00 pm show, no questions asked. Others had trouble booking, but she put them in on the spot.

 

Whatever you needed, she made it happen.. only for Cruise critic members who sign up and go to the party... This was worth its weight in gold.

 

That is great information. I love the raffles, but had never thought about asking the cruise rep on entertainment reservations...of course, I've only been on one RCI ship that even had reservations, although there were not nearly the number of offerings that Allure/Oasis have available.

 

I agree with you on all of the points about the shopping. I hate the shops in ports and therefore do my best to go somewhere that is far far away. The beaches are wonderful in St. Thomas/St. John as well as St. Martin. There are plenty of options for independent or ship sponsored excursions that can help you get more out of the ports than walking around the port area.

 

And, as others have noted, your seapass card is marked (either with a sticker if purchased onboard or embossed on the card if purchased online) for the fountain drinks. My boyfriend never carries around his coke cup (as a matter of fact, most of the time it is still in the wrapper coming home). This might change on our next cruise since they have the freestyle machines, but I suspect he'll only use it a few times. He drinks primarily coke or sprite and those are both available at all of the bars.