Oasis of the Seas Review 4/18-4/25/15

[Hoopster95]

Never again will I sail with Royal Caribbean. They are amateur, unpolished, and couldn't care less. All I will remember from my experience is lines of people for everything. From the start at the port lines to get on the ship. Lines to go to the Windjammer, Park Café, Guest Services, Main Dining Room, towel station (both to pick up and to return towels), bars to get a drink or water. Seas of people everywhere. Packed elevators. Also their stupid elevators have a major glitch.... Absolute worst servers there and they need two full time servers instead of one. I blame the management and leadership in the company. Never once did I see managers or officers look at what was going on so they could coach their employees on how to do their jobs properly or add employees to the schedule. ..... They have pretty much ruined cruising for me. Maybe way way down the road I will give cruising another chance with a different company, but Royal Caribbean will not see another penny from me ever again.

 

I swear that I was reading a "Quantum" review.

[John&LaLa]

Only if we are leaving the ship at a port, and we are picking up towels on deck 1 near the gangway.

 

I don't mind that, it's the pool towels that shocked me

[Clarea]

I don't mind that, it's the pool towels that shocked me

Were they requiring you to swipe your SeaPass card when you were getting a towel on the pool deck on a sea day too?

[John&LaLa]

Yep, every time unless I was doing a wet for dry swap

[anijac1412]

I am currently on Oasis and am shocked by this negative review. Seems like OP is one of those people who can't just relax and enjoy their vacation, instead of constantly looking for something negative to complain about.

 

We have a pretty much sold out cruise (or so I heard) this week. Yes, it is more crowded than the last 2 times I've boarded this ship. Yes, there are lines for elevators. But it's not unbearable. The worst for elevators is probably getting off and on the ship on port days. But we usually take the stairs down, and come back way before departure time so we don't really have an issue.

 

There are lines for shows if you DONT have a reservation. Else, you can just walk right in. Walking out can be crowded but hey, no different than going to see a show back home!

 

And someone mentioned towels... yes, they do scan your card to "check out" towels both on port and sea days. But they are pretty darn quick with that hand scanner and i've never waited longer than 30 seconds!

 

As for Windjammer, i'll agree its not our fave spot and leave it at that.

 

Park Cafe? YUMMY breakfast sandwhiches!! Nice place to relax in the early morning. I haven't encountered any huge crouds there at all.

 

As someone else mentioned, they do a really great job at moving people around the ship. There is always 3-4 events/activities haappening at once on this ship!

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 using Tapatalk

[American Bear]

Never again will I sail with Royal Caribbean. They are amateur, unpolished, and couldn't care less. All I will remember from my experience is lines of people for everything. From the start at the port lines to get on the ship. Lines to go to the Windjammer, Park Café, Guest Services, Main Dining Room, towel station (both to pick up and to return towels), bars to get a drink or water. Seas of people everywhere. Packed elevators. Also their stupid elevators have a major glitch. We tried to go to the gangway and it would take us one or two decks away and then shoot back up to deck 16. It did this twice before we finally got off on deck 12 and took the stairs.

 

Park café needs to be 4 times bigger for as many people as they stuff on this ship. No seats to be found in Park Café. When there are available tables they are covered in the previous guests dishes and when I kindly asked a waiter to clear the table he told me one minute and then walked away not to be seen again. We just ate at the table with other peoples dirty dishes and glasses. Several food venues kept running out of silverware and coffee mugs.

 

They are short staffed at every bar and the bar servers are very unfriendly. The Vitality bar was the worst. Absolute worst servers there and they need two full time servers instead of one. I blame the management and leadership in the company. Never once did I see managers or officers look at what was going on so they could coach their employees on how to do their jobs properly or add employees to the schedule.

 

The food was lousy. I would rate it overall as a 3 out of 10. Windjammer food reminded me of really bad hospital food. We came across many things that were broken on the ship. The lockers in the men's locker room in the Vitality Spa are mostly all broken. The temperature controls for the showers in there are broken too. The showers would get scorching hot and I could not make them cooler.

 

I spent a lot of money for this cruise vacation and I came away extremely disappointed. They are making way too many cut backs. They need to improve the quality of the food and add additional staff all over the ship. They also need to cap the number of guests. They just can't keep up with or accommodate 6,000 plus guests. I was expecting great food. I was expecting Hilton/Marriot caliber service and what I got was Motel 6 level service and hospital food. They got me once, but they will never see me again. Eventually people will get wise to them and stop sailing with them. They have pretty much ruined cruising for me. Maybe way way down the road I will give cruising another chance with a different company, but Royal Caribbean will not see another penny from me ever again.

 

 

Bird,,,

Don't let a negative experience on the Oasis turn you away from cruising.

 

We were invited balcony guests (free cruise) on one of the first Allure cruises full of all the RCL corporate types checking out their new ship, so we entered the ship in a 'positive mood', but from the start we felt the ship was too crowded for our tastes. (grateful we had that balcony)

 

We felt the buffet, the theater, the water show, the pools, the casino, and some bars, were always crowded. (The crowded muster in the MDR, can't believe that was legal?)

All of it really brought out the darker side(rude, impatience) of some cruisers we oldsters just as soon not be around!:eek:

 

2 areas we found some crowd relief (beyond our Balcony) was the Carousel Boardwalk area, and Central Park during the day, (because I think it was too hot for most cruisers).

 

Getting away from the terrible Sorrentos/Cafe Promenade garbage (worst sandwiches and pizza of any cruise line), the bad buffet food(although fried cod the first day was good), or the average cruise food in the MDR, we decided to try 'Samba's', a Brazilian style restaurant where waiters brought all different types of meat on skewers to your tables, both my wife and I loved it!:D

 

To be fair, we really enjoyed the shows, Chicago, Blue, and the dragon ice show were top notch. Thankfully we didn't have to wait in the lines we saw at every show, but it did seem most got in by showtime.

You know Bird, a really good place to have some entertainment on an Oasis class is the 'wipe out bar' near the flowriders. Watching them kids wipe out on the flowriders after we had a few cocktails always gave us a smile!:D

 

To summarize, anyone who doesn't like crowded shopping malls won't like this class of ship, they're very big, they hold a lot of people, and there will be lines.

I never felt I needed any extra exercise after the lengthy walk from the MDR to the theater on a Freedom/Oasis Class ship!:D

These ships get any longer, they're going to have to put in mini subways like you see at some airports now!:D (think they call them 'Plane Train' at Atlanta airport)

There are people who love crowded malls, love shopping in crowded malls at Christmas, etc., they will love this class of ship. Its just not for us.

 

Bird, let me suggest a smaller RCL ship class for you to try before you turn away completely, the 'Radiance class' ship .

The RCL Radiance class ships are 'CLASS' in capital letters!

Think of the old days of cruising, and you'll feel it in the Radiance Class!

Beautiful wood interiors, and a lot of good ocean viewing areas for us folks not into 'zip lines', and 'flowridwers'!:D (instead of flowriders, they got mini golf)

Leave the jumbo shopping mall ships to the younger cruisers, or people who like crowded shopping malls.

 

PS we felt the same a year later on the Oasis!

[American Bear]

Could possibly be a "troll" especially posting something like this negative thread and not come back to at least discuss. :rolleyes:

 

 

Liberty, some people think different, we tend to agree with a lot of what the OP said, cause the Oasis Class isn't our cup of tea either. We'd rank it 4th in our list of favorite RCL classes.

We also have stated the Radiance Class is our favorite RCL class, and I'm sure many would disagree.

 

You'll notice we've also stated in other threads we're RCL stockholders who've cut our RCL cruising from 6-8 a year to maybe 1, because we don't like the direction the company is going, at least in what we want from a cruise.

We obviously have little complaint in the stock price, but feel it may be short term gains for overcharging/cutbacks in other areas!(service/drink prices/cruise prices/C&A benes.)

We were proud RCL cruisers in years past, but more changed in recent years at RCL then just building shopping mall ships, and we've cruised RCL long enough to see it.

We're moving to Celebrity, and MSC in hopes of finding what we feel has been lost over the years on RCL ships(service, customer loyalty, a fair price for what you get). So far our tastes of these new cruise lines for us has been very good.

And we think many of our former RCL shipmates will be joining us.

We may disagree with those happy with today's current RCL product/price, but we'll always value their opinion.

Hapy cruising, (its still the best vacation)!:D

[royal girl]

WOW!!! :eek: We were on the same cruise as you and everything you say is the exact opposite of our experience!

 

We had an awesome cruise and found no lines anywhere, including checking in and getting off the ship, empty elevators, never had problems finding chairs at the pool or tables at any eating venue.

 

It sounds like we were on two different cruises! I would go back on the Oasis in a second!

 

Sorry you didn't have a good time, but we sure did! Sorry you won't sail on Royal again... We already booked a cruise for 2016. :p

 

ps: I posted my review on the member review section. it might take a couple of days.

Edited April 29, 2015 by royal girl

[Bird82]

This seems to be an ongoing theme....someone will post about a awful cruise experience and then a bunch of others ....some that were actually on the same cruise do not have the same problems. what gives? I wonder if some of these people actually even went on the cruise! they are probably fans of another cruiseline and enjoy saying bad things about other ones.

 

I did go on this cruise and no I am not a fan of any other cruise line as this was my first cruise. I don't enjoy saying bad or negative things. I am just giving an honest review of my experience. I had high expectations for this cruise and for what I paid, rightfully so. Had my experience been what I was hoping I would be the first one to write a positive glowing review.

 

The most shocking thing of all was the food. Forever I have heard people rave about the food on cruise ships. Oh you gain so much weight and the food is so good. I was shocked when I tasted the food. It was awful. Stale chips for the spinach dip in the main dining room. Tiny portions in the main dining room. Everything was the same consistency in the Windjammer, mush. We ate in 150 Central Park and that was a decent meal, but I was expecting that level of food for the MDR and 150 Central Park to be about 2 notches above that.

 

The other thing that surprised me was how crowded the ship was. Not every time, but about half the time we would have to cram into the elevators like sardines. Not every time was Park Café over filled above capacity, but about half of the time we went. Sure if I had gone to the Windjammer for lunch right at 11:30am when they opened there would not be lines and I could find a table, but not everyday was I ready to eat at 11:30am. I didn't realize that if I wanted to eat at say 1pm I would have to wait in line and walk around for 5 minutes to find a table in the far corner.

 

The whole experience was just not what I was expecting and not worth half the money that I paid for it. I am happy for whoever has a different experience than me and loves the Oasis. It just wasn't for me. Maybe all ships and cruise lines are like this and cruising just isn't for me. I can't say for sure as this was my first cruise.

 

The cruise as a whole wasn't horrible, it wasn't awful, it just wasn't good and was not worth the money for the product and service I received. There were positives too. CATS was fantastic. The comedy show was funny. I came across five employees on the cruise who were excellent and I named them by name in the post cruise survey. The thermal suite was relaxing and nice although I already mentioned the troubles with the lockers and showers down there.

 

The second to last night I watched the departure video they request you to watch. The "departure officer" didn't even know when self assist departure ended (she said 7:30am and it is actually 8am) and she didn't know when you must settle cash accounts by the night before. She literally was on this video looking over her notes for 2 minutes while cruise director Drew said "well lets just say 10pm. (It's actually 11pm and I knew that, but the departure officer of the ship didn't). This is not a big deal but it's just one example of why I say Royal Caribbean is not polished.

 

Their system for ringing up drinks is too slow. They need a faster system and need to go paperless. They need more servers at most if not all of the bars. The Vitality Café one day I just had two people in front of me. The problem is, is that they both wanted smoothies and it takes them about 3-4 minutes to make one smoothie. Then it takes them another minute or two to ring them up. So here I have to wait 8-10 minutes to get a bottle of water so I can go to the gym to workout. There is no excuse not to have two servers there all day. They pay these servers next to nothing anyways. One time at the Vitality Café there was a line of about three people and it was moving very slowly. Another Royal Caribbean employee came over to the front of the bar and I thought to myself oh great they are bringing in more help. Wrong, this Royal Caribbean employee was just coming over to get her coffee. The server stopped what he was doing for the guest and gave the employee her coffee. No excuse for stuff like that. Where are the managers watching this? There is no management. They are just trying to be as cheap as possible and if they think it doesn't effect service and if they think the guest can't tell that difference, they are gravely mistaken.

 

I appreciate everyone's feedback, but Royal Caribbean is just not for me. I would consider trying Norwegian, Carnival, Princess, or Disney in the future, but I finish the way I started.......I will never sail Royal Caribbean ever again.

[Bird82]

Could possibly be a "troll" especially posting something like this negative thread and not come back to at least discuss. :rolleyes:

 

I am not a troll. I have just been busy with work and I am happy to discuss any details of my review.

[Bird82]

If you look at all of their previous posts you'll see this has been planned on and looked forward to so I don't believe them to be a troll. It's simply a first time cruiser that apparently had thoughts of it being a week of being catered to and that's just not going to happen on one of the largest cruise ships in the world;)

 

I don't necessarily enjoy being catered to. Just hand me my beer, or water, or food and I am a happy camper. I was just expecting better food, faster bar service, and much much less people all over the ship. For what I paid I don't believe my expectations were out of line.

[Bird82]

I am currently on Oasis and am shocked by this negative review. Seems like OP is one of those people who can't just relax and enjoy their vacation, instead of constantly looking for something negative to complain about.

 

We have a pretty much sold out cruise (or so I heard) this week. Yes, it is more crowded than the last 2 times I've boarded this ship. Yes, there are lines for elevators. But it's not unbearable. The worst for elevators is probably getting off and on the ship on port days. But we usually take the stairs down, and come back way before departure time so we don't really have an issue.

 

There are lines for shows if you DONT have a reservation. Else, you can just walk right in. Walking out can be crowded but hey, no different than going to see a show back home!

 

And someone mentioned towels... yes, they do scan your card to "check out" towels both on port and sea days. But they are pretty darn quick with that hand scanner and i've never waited longer than 30 seconds!

 

As for Windjammer, i'll agree its not our fave spot and leave it at that.

 

Park Cafe? YUMMY breakfast sandwhiches!! Nice place to relax in the early morning. I haven't encountered any huge crouds there at all.

 

As someone else mentioned, they do a really great job at moving people around the ship. There is always 3-4 events/activities haappening at once on this ship!

 

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

I am very happy for you that your experience is much different than mine. Maybe cruising just isn't for me. I hope you have a wonderful vacation.

[Bird82]

Bird,,,

Don't let a negative experience on the Oasis turn you away from cruising.

 

We were invited balcony guests (free cruise) on one of the first Allure cruises full of all the RCL corporate types checking out their new ship, so we entered the ship in a 'positive mood', but from the start we felt the ship was too crowded for our tastes. (grateful we had that balcony)

 

We felt the buffet, the theater, the water show, the pools, the casino, and some bars, were always crowded. (The crowded muster in the MDR, can't believe that was legal?)

All of it really brought out the darker side(rude, impatience) of some cruisers we oldsters just as soon not be around!:eek:

 

2 areas we found some crowd relief (beyond our Balcony) was the Carousel Boardwalk area, and Central Park during the day, (because I think it was too hot for most cruisers).

 

Getting away from the terrible Sorrentos/Cafe Promenade garbage (worst sandwiches and pizza of any cruise line), the bad buffet food(although fried cod the first day was good), or the average cruise food in the MDR, we decided to try 'Samba's', a Brazilian style restaurant where waiters brought all different types of meat on skewers to your tables, both my wife and I loved it!:D

 

To be fair, we really enjoyed the shows, Chicago, Blue, and the dragon ice show were top notch. Thankfully we didn't have to wait in the lines we saw at every show, but it did seem most got in by showtime.

You know Bird, a really good place to have some entertainment on an Oasis class is the 'wipe out bar' near the flowriders. Watching them kids wipe out on the flowriders after we had a few cocktails always gave us a smile!:D

 

To summarize, anyone who doesn't like crowded shopping malls won't like this class of ship, they're very big, they hold a lot of people, and there will be lines.

I never felt I needed any extra exercise after the lengthy walk from the MDR to the theater on a Freedom/Oasis Class ship!:D

These ships get any longer, they're going to have to put in mini subways like you see at some airports now!:D (think they call them 'Plane Train' at Atlanta airport)

There are people who love crowded malls, love shopping in crowded malls at Christmas, etc., they will love this class of ship. Its just not for us.

 

Bird, let me suggest a smaller RCL ship class for you to try before you turn away completely, the 'Radiance class' ship .

The RCL Radiance class ships are 'CLASS' in capital letters!

Think of the old days of cruising, and you'll feel it in the Radiance Class!

Beautiful wood interiors, and a lot of good ocean viewing areas for us folks not into 'zip lines', and 'flowridwers'!:D (instead of flowriders, they got mini golf)

Leave the jumbo shopping mall ships to the younger cruisers, or people who like crowded shopping malls.

 

PS we felt the same a year later on the Oasis!

 

I really appreciate your feedback. With Royal Caribbean making record profits there is no reason to have the bars short staffed the way they are. There is no reason to use inferior ingredients in the food. They are just being cheap and seeing what they can get away with. They are a business and that is their right, but they will not snooker me again. I may try another cruise line in the future, but Royal Caribbean had their chance to "WOW" me and they wowed me the wrong way.

[7leagueboots]

Never again will I sail with Royal Caribbean. They are amateur, unpolished, and couldn't care less. All I will remember from my experience is lines of people for everything. From the start at the port lines to get on the ship. Lines to go to the Windjammer, Park Café, Guest Services, Main Dining Room, towel station (both to pick up and to return towels), bars to get a drink or water. Seas of people everywhere. Packed elevators. Also their stupid elevators have a major glitch. We tried to go to the gangway and it would take us one or two decks away and then shoot back up to deck 16. It did this twice before we finally got off on deck 12 and took the stairs.

 

Park café needs to be 4 times bigger for as many people as they stuff on this ship. No seats to be found in Park Café. When there are available tables they are covered in the previous guests dishes and when I kindly asked a waiter to clear the table he told me one minute and then walked away not to be seen again. We just ate at the table with other peoples dirty dishes and glasses. Several food venues kept running out of silverware and coffee mugs.

 

They are short staffed at every bar and the bar servers are very unfriendly. The Vitality bar was the worst. Absolute worst servers there and they need two full time servers instead of one. I blame the management and leadership in the company. Never once did I see managers or officers look at what was going on so they could coach their employees on how to do their jobs properly or add employees to the schedule.

 

The food was lousy. I would rate it overall as a 3 out of 10. Windjammer food reminded me of really bad hospital food. We came across many things that were broken on the ship. The lockers in the men's locker room in the Vitality Spa are mostly all broken. The temperature controls for the showers in there are broken too. The showers would get scorching hot and I could not make them cooler.

 

I spent a lot of money for this cruise vacation and I came away extremely disappointed. They are making way too many cut backs. They need to improve the quality of the food and add additional staff all over the ship. They also need to cap the number of guests. They just can't keep up with or accommodate 6,000 plus guests. I was expecting great food. I was expecting Hilton/Marriot caliber service and what I got was Motel 6 level service and hospital food. They got me once, but they will never see me again. Eventually people will get wise to them and stop sailing with them. They have pretty much ruined cruising for me. Maybe way way down the road I will give cruising another chance with a different company, but Royal Caribbean will not see another penny from me ever again.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post about your experience. It is always good to hear about cruise experiences - both pro and con.

[setsail]

How did this work out for you?

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=45493723#post45493723

[Cindy]

I appreciate everyone's feedback, but Royal Caribbean is just not for me. I would consider trying Norwegian, Carnival, Princess, or Disney in the future, but I finish the way I started.......I will never sail Royal Caribbean ever again.

 

Fair enough. I can understand why you wouldn't want to give Royal Caribbean another chance. Out of the lines you listed, it seems like Princess would probably be the best fit. You might want to look at Celebrity also. If you thought Oasis was crowded, don't step foot on Carnival -- ever.

 

I'm honestly not sure if the kind of food and service you're looking for exists on any of the mass market lines any more. For that you have to step up to a premium line, and be willing to pay the price.

[Bird82]

How did this work out for you?

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=45493723#post45493723

 

It worked out really well. My $200.00 Canon digital camera took much better pictures and 1080p video than I was expecting. We didn't use the ships photographers at all.

[CP3o]

I really appreciate your feedback. With Royal Caribbean making record profits there is no reason to have the bars short staffed the way they are. There is no reason to use inferior ingredients in the food. They are just being cheap and seeing what they can get away with. They are a business and that is their right, but they will not snooker me again. I may try another cruise line in the future, but Royal Caribbean had their chance to "WOW" me and they wowed me the wrong way.

 

I think the OP hits on many things others have noted regarding declines in food and service and isn't able to look past as much of it b/c isn't a repeat cruiser with perks and the ability to get the best price by monitoring rates. It IS a different experience than 10 years ago and maybe even on the Allure/Oasis class, different than 3 years ago as they add more cabins and have the same food and staff cutbacks as other ships (instead of being the newest and held to higher standard).

 

I do think the staffing issues related to bar service could be because of DRINK packages, it is NOW better for their bottom line to have waits and slow service as they are doling out product (expenses) on goods already paid for. Before they wanted to push drinks, for tip money for servers and for profits for RCCL, and that led to good service for those wanting to buy drinks.

[Bird82]

Fair enough. I can understand why you wouldn't want to give Royal Caribbean another chance. Out of the lines you listed, it seems like Princess would probably be the best fit. You might want to look at Celebrity also. If you thought Oasis was crowded, don't step foot on Carnival -- ever.

 

I'm honestly not sure if the kind of food and service you're looking for exists on any of the mass market lines any more. For that you have to step up to a premium line, and be willing to pay the price.

 

We met a couple on St. Maarten who were sailing on the Royal Princess I believe and they were raving about the food and how much fun they were having. It looked like a nice ship too. Everyone raves about the food on these ships and maybe my expectations were too high. I went to culinary school and worked as a chef for a number of years. Maybe I know too much about food and I expected too much. I am a foodie. I didn't think I was that picky when it came to food, but maybe I am. Maybe I expect too high of quality when it comes to food. And service.

 

If Carnival is more crowded than the Oasis then forget it. Maybe cruising really isn't for me. If a cruise line can't provide prompt service, decent food, and a little more elbow room to relax then I will have to stick with land vacations. To each their own.

Edited April 29, 2015 by Bird82

[Grandma Dazzles]

We met a couple on St. Maarten who were sailing on the Royal Princess I believe and they were raving about the food and how much fun they were having. It looked like a nice ship too. Everyone raves about the food on these ships and maybe my expectations were too high. I went to culinary school and worked as a chef for a number of years. Maybe I know too much about food and I expected too much. I am a foodie. I didn't think I was that picky when it came to food, but maybe I am. Maybe I expect too high of quality when it comes to food. And service.

 

 

.[/fQUOTE]

[maggieq]

In less than 3 weeks we will be on the oasis for the 5th time. Is every cruise the best experience, no. I haven't been in ncl new ships but I think you would be hard pressed to find better entertainment and activities.

[Grandma Dazzles]

We met a couple on St. Maarten who were sailing on the Royal Princess I believe and they were raving about the food and how much fun they were having. It looked like a nice ship too. Everyone raves about the food on these ships and maybe my expectations were too high. I went to culinary school and worked as a chef for a number of years. Maybe I know too much about food and I expected too much. I am a foodie. I didn't think I was that picky when it came to food, but maybe I am. Maybe I expect too high of quality when it comes to food. And service.

 

 

.[/fQUOTE]

 

 

Food is so subjective. You could easily have met a couple in St. Maarten who were raving about the food you were having!

 

Perhaps you need to consider a luxury cruise and not a main stream, mass market line. You will find complaints/raves about food on all the boards.

 

Less people, better more individual service, higher quality, etc. comes with a price.

[John&LaLa]

Absolutely right on food being subjective. The wife of a coworker was on Princess this spring and hated the food.

 

We were on Oasis 2 weeks ago and did MTD on day 2. Bad experience, so we went to Coastal Kitchen rest of week and loved it. Best food since chef's table on Legend

[AnnaNY]

Is coastal kitchen just for suite guests?

[John&LaLa]

Junior Suites allowed at dinner. We even were allowed to bring guests. Key card won't open door though. You have to knock.