The Verdict on Oasis: My Views (Rm 12729 ), Tips, Compass, and "Too Many" Pictures!

[APDMOM]

Great wait staff!

 

If you want excellent service in Grande, ask for Shadiek and Durrant. Reasons they were excellent:

1. They were very professional and personable at the same time.

2. They always had our water filled. We never waited!

3. They remembered our preferences from the beginning and always had chocolate milk for my mom and our son.

4. They poured our cheap wine without so much as a wince.

5. Shadiek had the menu memorized and his recommendations matched our tastes perfectly.

6. The food was always hot, which means they were well coordinated to get it from kitchen to table in no time.

7. Both of them seem to enjoy serving you and they are just likable people.

 

If this is the kind of experience you are looking for, they are your team!

 

My hat off to these wonderful people who serve with a smile despite running into frequent complaints and poor attitudes.

 

On to Silk:

 

The entrance and waiting area:

 

 

The dining room:

[APDMOM]

Two more tips regarding MDR:

1. If you plan to eat breakfast or lunch there, be sure to specify if you want to sit at a smaller table by asking, "Table for 4, please?", etc. They will honor your request if you do not want to sit with strangers.

2. If you do not have early debarkation, this is a great option for the last morning. You can sit in the calm of the dining room to enjoy your last breakfast, and totally avoid the chaos of the Windjammer. Just note that the MDR closes earlier on the last morning. We had to wait about 10 minutes to be seated, but got a table for 5 by the window. It was the perfect end to the week. We always give a dollar or 3 to each waiter in the MDR on the last morning.

 

The Windjammer:

We found early mornings were usually quiet. Also, we skipped the second formal night (lobster night) and they had delicious snowcrab legs and shrimp in the Windjammer!

 

 

 

 

 

The Windjammer from the outside. It is at the top level in this picture:

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Izumi

I may have to break my "no specialty restaurants" rule again next time to enjoy the Hibachi. We did not eat here, but got some pictures one day when the door stood open:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Café Promenade:

I enjoyed a latte and cappuccino from time to time here. These are the prices:

 

 

Our favorite sandwich: Mediterranean Muffaletta. This one is from our Freedom cruise because I forgot to take a picture this time:

 

What I did not like about the Café Promenade on Oasis vs. Freedom:

1. Oasis did not provide teaspoons and knives.

2. They did not have butter, which I love to put on the breakfast rolls.

[APDMOM]

Let's move on to some Food Pics I managed to grab before we devoured the meals:

 

TIPS:

1. At Park Café, you can get just a bag of potato chips for a snack later in your room or on the balcony. We did this to enjoy chips and wine on the balcony.

2. You can ask for the bread of the Kümmelweck Sandwich only. I liked getting a bowl of soup, the roll of the Kümmelweck, and then got butter from the salad station to put on the bread. Yum!

 

The Famous Kümmelweck:Although I enjoyed it, it was a bit too fatty for my taste.

 

Some of my favorite desserts in Park Café:

 

Park Café has excellent soup every day:

 

...And since I LOVE soup, I ordered the mushroom bisque as a main course in the dining room one night. TIP: You can order most appetizers as a main course. If you are not very hungry or nothing on the main menu stands out to you, you can even just order two appetizers and ask the waiter to bring one appetizer with the main courses of the rest of your group.

 

 

Some more food choices from the Main Dining Room: (I forgot to write down the names, but will try to remember)

 

Escargots was available:

 

TIP: You can get tortilla chips with sour cream and guacamole from the kids' menu every night. You do not have to be a kid! Our son had this every night. One night it was on the main menu with salsa in stead of guacamole:

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Like Mother, Like Daughter... My mom ordered two soups for an appetizer one night:

 

 

I don't remember the names, but I think this was the fried rice balls:

 

It's a mystery, but it was good:

 

 

Great Pavlova! I should have ordered 3...

 

The bread pudding is not quite as good as on Celebrity, but it is still a great choice:

 

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Some of my personal favorite dinner choices:

 

- Lamb Shank

- Artichoke Crepes

- Chicken Marsala

 

I really enjoyed each dinner this time and cannot say that I will not order anything from this past week again. I must have made all the right choices!

 

On that note, it is time for me to start thinking about cooking dinner for my family. I will be back later with a wrap-up of the ship pictures.

[APDMOM]

The Pools: Starting with the H2O zone:

We always use the pools early in the morning - around 9 or 10 a.m. - to avoid too much sun.

 

Tips: 1.We never had trouble finding a chair by one of the pools. However, if you have al larger group, you may need to get there early to get seats together.

 

2. We do try to use most of the ship public areas when people are in port. This trip was for the ship, so we enjoyed the quiet pools, mini golf, etc. However, I was disappointed that many activities, like the Flowrider, Zipline, Carousel, and Rock Climbing wall are closed for a majority of the port day. So, plan accordingly.

 

I was happy to see that the pool in the H2O/Kids' zone was a reasonable depth on Oasis (2'5" to about 3'5"). It is much too deep on Freedom class ships.

 

 

H2O Zone hot tub:

 

 

 

 

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The Beach Pool:

TIP: This pool is a saltwater pool. The other pools are fresh.

 

 

 

 

 

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The Sports Pool:

TIP: Behind the hot tubs by the sports pool is a frozen yogurt machine. They often had an employee operating it during sea days.

 

The sports pool was also often less busy than the other two pools (Main and Beach Pool).

 

 

The Main Pool:

 

 

 

More Hot Tubs by the main pool:

 

[APDMOM]

The Cantilever hot tubs are just outside the Solarium, so children are allowed in this area:

 

The Solarium: Only ages 16 and up are allowed in the Solarium.

 

 

 

 

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A few more of the Solarium:

 

 

 

 

We never made it to the Solarium Bistro, but it is on our list for our next Oasis cruise. :)

 

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Sports deck and jogging track

 

We love mini golf and are disappointed to hear Harmony will not have it. I am very curious to see what they do on Harmony in this area...

 

 

 

There is even an area for the 'tiny' golfers:

 

 

Edited June 23, 2015 by APDMOM
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[APDMOM]

TIP: They have water fountains in various areas of the sports deck/Flowrider area. When the Wipe Out Café is open, it is an easy walk over to get some flavored water.

 

 

 

 

Entrance to the Zipline, and then the end of the Zipline:

 

Edited June 23, 2015 by APDMOM

[APDMOM]

Here is evidence of some forward thinking: Glass around the table tennis to shelter from the wind!

 

 

 

 

Here is one of only 2 places where I received poor service: The Wipe Out bar. The other was the Rising Tide bar. I ended up not buying from either location. It made me realize there is definitely truth to the complaints about poor bar service. We did not have a drink package and simply tried to find out if they still had a DOD. On a positive note, I got a DOD from the Opal Theater - my choice drink for a grand total of $10.03.

[APDMOM]

The Jogging Track

I went to the Fitness Center only one time, but forgot to take my camera to take pictures. TIP: You can enter the Fitness Center from Deck 6 Forward. There is a door to it from the jogging track on deck 5, but it does not open.

 

Distances on the jogging track:

 

 

As mentioned earlier in response to a question: The right lane is marked for walking and the left lane for jogging.

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Ah, the Promenade!

Royal Caribbean got it right with this promenade. I love how it is set up to create winding paths with great use of the space. It looks less like the "tunnel" on Freedom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A closer look at the Promenade Venues:

 

Guest Services Tip: If you need to resolve something, try to go before 9 a.m. There is always a long line later in the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More Promenade

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Champagne Bar

 

 

 

 

Boleros:

 

 

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On Air Unfortunately, Oasis does not have the karaoke booths where you can goof off as a family to record a song. They did have some fun Karaoke, but a lot of time was also spent on the NBA...

 

 

 

 

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Moving down to Deck 4: Most of these venues had their doors shut when there were no events, so I could not get pictures inside:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A few more of deck 4:

 

 

 

A view of the elevator shaft from deck 4:

 

The Casino:

 

 

Edited June 24, 2015 by APDMOM
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[APDMOM]

I don't have much info about the Casino... We only do one spin - the free ones from our C&A membership. To me, all these pictures look the same, but maybe they will be helpful for people who spend more time in the Casino...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Dazzles: