Oasis November 15 -- A Little Late, I Hope it was Worth the Wait!

[Cindy]

Friday November 21 – At Sea: Friday started much like every day on our trip had -- sunny and warm, but there were some clouds on the horizon that we hadn't seen on other mornings.

 

 

 

We started the day at, you guessed it, Coastal Kitchen, then ventured over to the Zipline to be first in line. That plan would have worked great if Jim and I had understood where the start of the line was, but OOPS, we were wrong so we had a bit of a wait. I entertained myself by watching someone use their Boardwalk balcony to pack and watched the Flowriders while Jim was in line.

 

 

 

 

 

[Cindy]

Jim took his turn and then we swapped places – Jim took the stuff (camera, glasses, watch, etc.) and I got in line. All in all with the wait, the Zipline took both of us about an hour and 15 minutes, but I thought it was worth it because it’s so unique.

 

 

I thought it was interesting to see how many people stayed in line wearing their sandals despite the well-advertised and posted shoe requirements. The line moved fairly slowly, and the sandal-wearers spent a lot of time standing there just to reach the front and get turned away. I saw the same thing on Thursday before the All Access Tour...despite the dress requirements being given in writing when the tour was purchased, several people had to go back and change out of shorts and flip-flops. I couldn't help but wonder if they all thought the rules were for everybody else!:eek:

 

 

 

 

Edited December 10, 2014 by Cindy

[Cindy]

We enjoyed a delicious lunch and people watching at Sabor...

 

 

After lunch I turned my attention to packing. I guess we picked a lucky week because Friday afternoon was really the first time we didn’t have perfect weather. I never like packing to go home, but the ickiness outside made it a little less sad. We ended our last afternoon on the Oasis with Come Fly With Me which was AMAZING!

 

 

 

 

 

[Cindy]

We ended our week with drinks in the Suite Lounge and dinner at Coastal Kitchen. After dinner we walked around admiring the ship one last time, and waited for the casino raffle – of course we didn’t win anything which was in keeping with our week of gambling futility!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cindy]

Saturday November 22 – Disembarkation and Home: I woke up early and found we were just about back to Port Everglades, so I sat out on the balcony and watched us dock. I also had a "first look" at one of my future ships, the Liberty of the Seas.:)

 

 

 

We finished packing our carry-ons and grabbed a light breakfast in the Suite Lounge. We did Luggage Valet and could get off any time between 8:00 & 10:00, but decided to go ahead and get off early just in case things backed up later. We left the ship about 8:15. When we saw the line in the terminal it looked intimidating, but it was very organized and efficient…we were in a cab in a little under 30 minutes.

 

Since we used Luggage Valet we were already checked in and didn’t have bags to worry about. We were able to go straight through security with no line or fuss (thank you TSA Pre-Check). After a long wait in the United Club until it was time to board, we had a crowded and bumpy but uneventful and fast flight back to Houston. We landed 40 minutes early!

 

I thought we had it made in the shade and would be getting home earlier than we thought, but alas we were missing one suitcase. We were sure UAL lost it, and the tracking showed the bag was scanned but not loaded, so we filed a claim and went home to wait for our dirty clothes to catch up with us. Much to my surprise we got a call from Royal Caribbean Sunday morning saying my suitcase never left the pier.:eek::rolleyes: It arrived home Wednesday by FedEx Express, neatly boxed up and none the worse for wear for its adventure.

[kandj05]

Thanks so much for your review! I have not been on the Oasis yet as we prefer the smaller ships. Glad you enjoyed your cruise!

[dolphin27502]

Loved your review & your photos are fantastic!!

 

 

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[Cindy]

This & That – The Good, the Bad, and the Head Scratchers in No Particular Order:

 

We LOVED the ship. It is an absolute engineering marvel. Nobody pushes the envelope like Royal Caribbean when it comes to ship design and innovation. Our favorite place was Central Park…what a great concept! Sitting in Giovanni’s Table the first night and looking out at the lights of Central Park, we really could have been eating dinner in a nice restaurant in a resort, or in a beautiful town. We also really enjoyed the Rising Tide Bar, and thought the Aqua Theater was great. The shows were as much fun to watch from above as in the seats and loved the fountain shows.

 

Rising Tide Bar

 

 

 

Where I thought Oasis really shined was at night…the lighting on the ship is just beautiful and is always changing. I took dozens of night pictures, but I could have taken hundreds, and I literally never got tired of just walking around admiring my surroundings.

 

Royal Promenade at Night

 

 

 

We thought the food was very good. For dinners, we ate in the dining room once, Coastal Kitchen twice, and at Giovanni's Table, 150 Central Park, Chops, and Solarium Bistro. We enjoyed all our dinners, but I did think the MDR on Oasis was the loudest, most chaotic, and most crowded I've ever been in.

 

Coastal Kitchen and the Suite Lounge will be a big hit with people. The service in there was very attentive and eager to please, and the food was excellent. I think Royal Caribbean is committed to making the new concept a success, and they will be tweaking things for quite a while trying to get it right. I do think eventually they will need to have two dinner menus like they're going to do in the dining rooms on Oasis, and they seem undecided about what they want to do with their wine list. Coastal Kitchen opened for breakfast early in the week, and opened for lunch the next day. Food at those meals was also very good. We have definitely evolved in our cruise habits, and we now like to eat earlier than late traditional seating, and greatly prefer a smaller venue than the MDR. We loved BLU on Celebrity, and Coastal Kitchen filled much the same role. At least for right now it’s not expanding to any of the other classes of ships, but who knows what will happen down the road.

 

Coastal Kitchen at Dinner

 

 

 

The staff and crew were great...the only exception to that was IMO the cruise director (Drew) who was like the Phantom of the Seas. We never saw him! Our cabin attendant, Andrea Wilkinson McPhy was just delightful. She always had a smile and a laugh to share, and she was very eager to please and make sure we were comfortable. The staff seems to have settled back in to their regular routine, and the service problems from the Trans-Atlantic have been fixed.

 

I was blown away by the entertainment. Every performer was extremely talented, and we were in awe at the creativity and imagination of the shows. The aqua show and Come Fly With Me were both amazing. I thought the comedy show was "OK" -- the male comedian was very funny, but the second performer (the comedienne) was pretty bad.

 

Oasis of Dreams Aqua Show

 

 

 

Cpme Fly With Me

 

 

 

Come Fly With Me

[Cindy]

We loved CATS, but I think we're in the minority and the show in its current state is going to struggle. I get that...it just doesn't have the same mass appeal as something lighter with sing-a-long potential like Mamma Mia. I think it would help a lot if they would print a mini Playbill that lists the characters and has a brief synopsis. Knowing the story might help the people who were lost and confused.

 

The cast was fantastic, and I felt bad for them when they came back after intermission to a fairly empty theater. Still, two and a half hours is a long show anywhere, and particularly on a cruise ship. People who liked CATS in the theater will enjoy the show which I thought was just as good as the Broadway Touring Company production, but it’s not everybody’s cup of tea and I think ultimately Royal Caribbean’s going to have to go back to the drawing board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cindy]

We were lucky enough to grab an Aqua Theater Suite on a very inexpensive late upgrade.

 

Aqua Theater Suite 9730

 

 

 

It was incredible! I'm forever spoiled by that balcony! We loved the interior space, but our favorite part was definitely the balcony, where we could watch the ocean in complete privacy, watch the wake from the semi-privacy of our padded loungers, or belly up to the bar to watch the activity in the Aqua Theater.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cindy]

Granted, two bedrooms and two bathrooms is a bit of overkill for two people, but it was kind of nice for Jim to have a dressing room, his own closet, and his own bathroom! In addition to the two bedrooms and two bathrooms, the suite also had 3 full sized closets, one coat closet, three flat screen TV sets, a dining table, an outside dining table, three safes, two refrigerators, etc. We just loved it!

 

Master Bedroom

 

 

Second Bedroom -- Sleeps 4 with 2 Beds and 2 Pullmans

 

 

Living Room

 

 

Living Room

 

 

Living Room -- You can see the outside dining table (with seating for 6) on the balcony.

 

 

Foyer

[Cindy]

There are two things which would be negatives for some people. One would be the location for anybody who has limited mobility or doesn’t like to walk…it’s a LONG way back there! If you’re ever lucky enough to get one of these cabins, make a checklist before you leave your cabin. You don’t want to get all the way to the front of the ship and discover you forgot something!:p

 

The other complaint I’ve read is about the bathrooms, which are definitely more like JS or regular cabin bathrooms than suite bathrooms. They’re much smaller than most suite bathrooms, and not as luxurious, but they’re functional and more than adequate for their intended purpose!:rolleyes:

 

Master Bathroom with a Tub/Shower combo.

 

 

 

The second bathroom was accessible from the hallway, and it had a shower but no tub.

 

 

I didn’t have a problem with the bathrooms, and thought the other amenities of the suite MORE than made up for them, but for some that’s a deal breaker.

 

[Cindy]

A week wasn't enough time. If we do one of the big ships again, we'll do a B2B so we can take things at a slower pace and really enjoy what the ship has to offer. We never really had a day when we could just wander and see what struck our fancy, and we never had time to look over the Compass and try fun activities that sounded interesting. I feel like we missed a lot, and I also felt like there were times when we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off!

 

The Oasis needs to pay more attention to detail…grammatical errors and typos drive this retired principal crazy, and they were easy to find on the Oasis.:rolleyes: In Coastal Kitchen, they were offering Opus One for $89 a bottle!:eek: When I asked about it, of course I was told it was a typo, but they didn’t want to bother to reprint the wine list because it was only temporary. Also in Coastal Kitchen, a person could order Muesli for you breakfast. Things like that could be easily prevented with a little proofreading.

 

Other miscommunications or errors were we received no All Access Tour information despite purchasing it months in advance…we changed cabins on October 7, but the information was wrong on most of our specialty restaurant reservations…RCI left one of our suitcases on the pier – not sure how that happens if you have systems in place….we were told Izumi would remain closed all week when we tried to make a reservation, then found it open for business the next day. Are any of those things deal breakers? Absolutely not, but I do think they need to pay more attention to the small stuff.

 

Why do people sign up to show their cabin on a crawl and then just not show up? I know in the scheme of things it’s not the end of the world, but when I (or anyone who volunteers to set up an activity for their roll call) goes to the time and expense of printing things and making arrangements, it’s annoying to have a drop-out without notification. It’s not like people didn’t know my cabin number. OK, whining over!:o

 

I’m not sure about MTD on the Oasis…we only went once, and the reservations line was long. They walked us all the way down to Deck 3 to American Icon, but it was strange because we were a table of MTD seated about 6:45 in the traditional seating restaurant. I do think they need to greatly improve on their systems if Dynamic Dining is going to be a success. One of the reasons we like MTD on Royal Caribbean as opposed to Princess or HAL is that we can make all our reservations on-line ahead of the cruise. If they don’t have the capacity or the systems needed to honor reservations in a timely manner I can see it leading to a lot of frustration.

 

The Oasis had a much more diverse crowd than we’re used to, especially on our Caribbean cruises out of Galveston. We were both surprised by the number of Europeans and Asians on board.

 

Drink Package – We purchased the Ultimate Package long before we knew there would be a suite lounge serving alcohol 12+ hours a day. In a true case of overkill, we had the Ultimate Package, the Suite Lounge, the Diamond Lounge, BOGO coupons, and three drink vouchers per person per day! Was it worth it? I don’t know. I’m pretty sure we broke even at best, but I do love the convenience and I do love not having to sign and keep up with all those annoying slips! It’s not just about alcohol for us…we drink specialty coffee, lots of water, and like Pellegrino with meals. One thing I really loved was the Dasani flavored water in the Freestyle machines. I got in the habit of carrying my cup around and filling it with water every time I was near the machines.

 

Where we struggled with the package was with the wine-by-the-glass selection. There were very few wines by the glass we liked on the lists that didn’t require an upcharge, and we found the same problem on Celebrity. Coastal Kitchen didn’t even offer good wines by the glass – they had to have them sent up from one of the other specialty restaurants. The sommelier seemed to think we should just purchase a bottle, but to me that defeats the purpose of having a very expensive “all-inclusive” beverage package.

 

One thing I love about having a drink package is trying all different kinds of "frou frou" martinis!

 

 

That’s all I can think of, but if you have questions feel free to ask! I’m happy to relive my cruise while I wait for the next one.:) We’ll be on the Serenade in March, and it will be another new class of ship for us, and the smallest RCI ship we’ve been on since our first Royal Caribbean cruise on the Rhapsody in 2002. Goody! Another new (to me) ship and photo op!:D Until then, smooth sailing!

Edited December 10, 2014 by Cindy

[killtheump]

Cindy once again Great Review! My wife and I had a great cruise that week. Thanks for letting me relive our week on The Oasis!:)

[RedHeadTexan]

 

Other miscommunications or errors were we received no All Access Tour information despite purchasing it months in advance…we changed cabins on October 7, but the information was wrong on most of our specialty restaurant reservations…

We had the same issues on our sailing. We upgraded in early October and everything was under the old cabin number. It was annoying and I am still wondering why they can't keep it straight.

 

Oh, and your master bathroom was identical to our junior suite bathroom. I was surprised by that.

 

Great Review!

 

Lisa

[CruiseFavorite247]

Great review, Cindy. Thank you for doing this. We'll be on Oasis 2/7. :) We've cruised Oasis before and am anxious to see changes. My concern has been with MTD and am meeting with our friends this weekend.

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[cruisexlife]

Thanks for the review! Enjoyed it! :D

[CruiserTK]

Enjoyed your review and photos. Which settings did you use on your camera to take the nighttime shots and the photos of the performances?

[jesron1269]

Absolutely WONDERFUL trip report! Thanks!

[JamesEM]

Great review and photos, and I agree 100% about RCCL's lack of attention to the small stuff.

[nacdcruiser]

Thank you so much, Cindy! Awesome review -

[Freedale]

A wonderful review, great photos. Do you have any idea as to how many people were on board? I worry about the large numbers, i was wondering, did you feel that the public areas were crowded? I accept the need for queuing for things like Zipline, it's the promenades and bars I'm thinking of. We loved Serenade -that is our cruise ship benchmark. Diane

 

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[MisterBill99]

A wonderful review, great photos. Do you have any idea as to how many people were on board?

The capacity is around 6000, isn't it? I doubt they sail with much less than full capacity.

 

Great reviews and pictures, although I was a little disappointed that you didn't post pictures of the food (I guess you're not into taking pictures of your food like I am). What kind of camera did you use? They were excellent.

 

We'll be on Oasis in March, also for the first time.

Edited December 16, 2014 by MisterBill99

[Cindy]

A wonderful review, great photos. Do you have any idea as to how many people were on board? I worry about the large numbers, i was wondering, did you feel that the public areas were crowded? I accept the need for queuing for things like Zipline, it's the promenades and bars I'm thinking of. We loved Serenade -that is our cruise ship benchmark. Diane

 

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For some reason the number 5,900 sticks in my head. I never felt crowded at all, except for the times when you would on any ship -- if anything, the size helped spread people out. Please note that we never even set foot in the Windjammer!:D

 

 

Great reviews and pictures, although I was a little disappointed that you didn't post pictures of the food (I guess you're not into taking pictures of your food like I am). What kind of camera did you use? They were excellent.

 

We'll be on Oasis in March, also for the first time.

 

 

Sorry, I just didn't feel like taking all the food porn pictures this time.:confused: Everything seems to be a cocktail or a glass of wine!:eek::o:eek:

 

Most of my pictures were taken with a Canon 70D with a 15-85mm lens. I also use a Canon G1X Mark ii when I don't feel like toting my DSLR around. A lot of the night shots of the ship interiors were taken with my smaller camera. I took my DSLR to the shows and on excursions.

[Lionesss]

Very well thought out and organized review. And, the pictures made it complete.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

Looking forward to future threads.

 

Sea Ya