Sailed Oasis 14 March 2015 - Have an Issue - need to contact RCI

[Disney Sheep]

Had an amazing week on board the 14/3/15 Oasis cruise but returned home unbelievably sick with a cold/flu. Literally my family got us in our house last Saturday, and put me in bed and I have spent the entire week either in bed or on the couch in a zombie-like state! And no, me being sick is not my issue - after all, it has been a long winter in North America and colds and flus are running rampant.

 

My problem is that now that I am finally able to think coherently again, my DH and I went to complete the RCI cruise survey last night (that would be on the Sat following our cruise disembarkation) and it had disappeared! I recognize that they probably have availability limited to just a week in order to be able to finalize their reports, but we had the most amazing serving team on our trip of our server, Jayant, assistant server Wei and Head Server Gilbert and we would like to have them appropriately acknowledged.

 

This was cruise number 11 for our family, 7 on Disney, 2 on Princess, last year on Allure and now this trip on Oasis. Although in general we consider ourselves to be 'low maintenance', my kids and I are Celiacs and therefore have to be gluten free. Jayant, Wei and Gilbert provided us with outstanding service the entire week and would rate very near the top of the more than 11 dining teams we have had on our cruises.

 

I did check at Guest Services while we were on the cruise to be told that WOW cards have been discontinued. I would appreciate advice on the best way to contact RCI directly to ensure that this excellent serving team is acknowledged. TIA.

[Ourusualbeach]

https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/customersupport/contactUsOnline.do?ref=postcmnt

[Natmom]

I'm glad to hear you had such a positive experience. I have celiac and I am sailing on the oasis in 5 weeks. Your review has calmed my nerves :)

[Disney Sheep]

Ken, many thanks for the info, we will send a message to RCI on that link and hope that the right someone hears us.

 

 

Natmom, we had no problems with gluten either on this ship or on the Allure last year. Just be careful in Windjammer since it is a buffet. We were fine in there, but we took the approach that if something might have gluten then it probably did, so we just avoided things like sausages etc. Try to visit for the first time during an 'off peak' time if you can, and ask for a chef who will probably walk you around to let you know your options. On boarding day we headed straight for the Solarium Cafe which was not anywhere near as busy as we heard that Windjammer and/Central Park Cafe were, so we could pick and choose and aske questions as needed.

 

There are gluten free buns and breads available at the Windjammer (and other food venues) if you just ask - and they can toast them for you in a stand alone toaster.

 

At the Promenade Cafe they have Udi's individually packaged chocolate chip and Snickerdoodle cookies available if you ask - but they do run out, so plan ahead if you can. Warning though, the tea bags available on RCI are (IMHO) horrible!! We brought our own Tetley tea bags and Splenda since we knew this from our last trip, so it was not an issue for us, but I feel people should be warned!!

 

On Labadee we asked for GF buns and they provided us with individually packaged buns. My kids ate the hamburgers available with the GF buns and had no problems (that I heard about anyway).

 

The main dining room was the best. Assistant Server Wei had a basket of a couple different types of GF bread available for us each evening. We received a menu each night in order to pre-order our dinner for the next night. DD enjoyed GF pasta a couple of times. One night there was absolutely nothing on the menu that appealed to me for the next night, so I requested chicken cordon bleu (which was on the normal menu, but was not identified as a GF option), sure enough, the next night our chicken bleu was ready for us in GF form.

 

Note, the mashed potatoes on the menu are not GF, and we normally received baked potatoes as our standard option, but I am sure that if you request mashed specifically (or other items on the menu) they can be prepared for you, especially if you give them a day notice - and sometimes even if you don't :). Example one night I wanted the spinach dip with tortilla chips - when my kids saw what I received as my appetizer they tried to 'share' my food - our Server Jayant saw this and headed to the kitchen himself to bring extra helpings for my teenagers.

 

Each night when he took our order, Head Server Gilbert pointed out desserts that could be made GF even though it was not obviously id'd that way on the menu.

 

Gilbert also offered every night to have pancakes or waffles or French toast made for me for breakfast if we wanted it - we just needed to tell him when and where (I think even from room service), but we preferred to do breakfast on our own since DD is not a breakfast food kind of person.

 

And even though we had MTD we were served by Jayant, Wei and Gilbert each night. The best part, beyond just their helpful, kind and pleasant attitudes and efficient service, was that they did not make a big deal to us about us being Celiacs - they treated us as if we were (gasp) normal! BUT they were however extremely concentious about our requirement to be GF.

[Ourusualbeach]

I'm glad to hear you had such a positive experience. I have celiac and I am sailing on the oasis in 5 weeks. Your review has calmed my nerves :)

 

One thing that we founded out on our most recent cruise in talking with the executive sous chef was the importance of creating an AVO (no idea what it stands for) every night for the next evenings meals in the MDR or even if you will be dining at a specialty restaurant.

 

This AVO will ensure that your meals are prepared separately and that those little extra things are done as opposed to just taking what is on the menu and modifying it to meet your needs.

 

My DW has a dairy allergy and what we found was that without doing this they would just eliminate the sauces and serve her a plain protein. With making sure that the AVO was done a day ahead they would ensure that a dairy free sauce was prepared.

[Natmom]

Ken, many thanks for the info, we will send a message to RCI on that link and hope that the right someone hears us.

 

 

 

 

 

Natmom, we had no problems with gluten either on this ship or on the Allure last year. Just be careful in Windjammer since it is a buffet. We were fine in there, but we took the approach that if something might have gluten then it probably did, so we just avoided things like sausages etc. Try to visit for the first time during an 'off peak' time if you can, and ask for a chef who will probably walk you around to let you know your options. On boarding day we headed straight for the Solarium Cafe which was not anywhere near as busy as we heard that Windjammer and/Central Park Cafe were, so we could pick and choose and aske questions as needed.

 

 

 

There are gluten free buns and breads available at the Windjammer (and other food venues) if you just ask - and they can toast them for you in a stand alone toaster.

 

 

 

At the Promenade Cafe they have Udi's individually packaged chocolate chip and Snickerdoodle cookies available if you ask - but they do run out, so plan ahead if you can. Warning though, the tea bags available on RCI are (IMHO) horrible!! We brought our own Tetley tea bags and Splenda since we knew this from our last trip, so it was not an issue for us, but I feel people should be warned!!

 

 

 

On Labadee we asked for GF buns and they provided us with individually packaged buns. My kids ate the hamburgers available with the GF buns and had no problems (that I heard about anyway).

 

 

 

The main dining room was the best. Assistant Server Wei had a basket of a couple different types of GF bread available for us each evening. We received a menu each night in order to pre-order our dinner for the next night. DD enjoyed GF pasta a couple of times. One night there was absolutely nothing on the menu that appealed to me for the next night, so I requested chicken cordon bleu (which was on the normal menu, but was not identified as a GF option), sure enough, the next night our chicken bleu was ready for us in GF form.

 

 

 

Note, the mashed potatoes on the menu are not GF, and we normally received baked potatoes as our standard option, but I am sure that if you request mashed specifically (or other items on the menu) they can be prepared for you, especially if you give them a day notice - and sometimes even if you don't :). Example one night I wanted the spinach dip with tortilla chips - when my kids saw what I received as my appetizer they tried to 'share' my food - our Server Jayant saw this and headed to the kitchen himself to bring extra helpings for my teenagers.

 

 

 

Each night when he took our order, Head Server Gilbert pointed out desserts that could be made GF even though it was not obviously id'd that way on the menu.

 

 

 

Gilbert also offered every night to have pancakes or waffles or French toast made for me for breakfast if we wanted it - we just needed to tell him when and where (I think even from room service), but we preferred to do breakfast on our own since DD is not a breakfast food kind of person.

 

 

 

And even though we had MTD we were served by Jayant, Wei and Gilbert each night. The best part, beyond just their helpful, kind and pleasant attitudes and efficient service, was that they did not make a big deal to us about us being Celiacs - they treated us as if we were (gasp) normal! BUT they were however extremely concentious about our requirement to be GF.

 

 

Wow, thank you for all the valuable information !!

[Natmom]

One thing that we founded out on our most recent cruise in talking with the executive sous chef was the importance of creating an AVO (no idea what it stands for) every night for the next evenings meals in the MDR or even if you will be dining at a specialty restaurant.

 

 

 

This AVO will ensure that your meals are prepared separately and that those little extra things are done as opposed to just taking what is on the menu and modifying it to meet your needs.

 

 

 

My DW has a dairy allergy and what we found was that without doing this they would just eliminate the sauces and serve her a plain protein. With making sure that the AVO was done a day ahead they would ensure that a dairy free sauce was prepared.

 

 

Very good to know!

[KansasK]

We got off the Oasis on March 7. They do seem to have a deadline for filling out the survey. With just getting back and stepping into real life, our first week was busy. We got another e-mail reminding us to the do the survey, so I stopped and did it, but I do think they could give everyone a few more days to do it.