Big Oasis of the Seas Review with Photos, Tips & What to Avoid

[LegallyBlondeCruiseLVR]

My husband and I sailed the 7 day Western Caribbean (Labadee, Falmouth, Cozumel) route on Oasis of the Seas two weeks ago. Overall, we had a great time, but in this review we tried to point out a view things to avoid in addition to the things we thought were can't-miss. We reviewed many of the restaurants and all of the islands individually as well. We also posted photos of our surprise stop in Grand Cayman due to a medical emergency & the issues created by Tropical Storm Erika. Here it is if you want to check it out - thanks!

 

http://ourbarbiedreamhouse.blogspot.com/2015/09/review-of-oasis-of-seas-versus-carnival.html

[mtm103]

Thank you for sharing! Really odd that your cruise was only 10% Americans (well I am British, and I have only done 1 Caribbean cruise on Disney), but to be fair, I hate rudeness and general lack of queueing!

[pk1959]

I really enjoyed reading your detailed review! Laughed out loud in a couple of places, especially your 'other cruisers' section. We have not sailed on the Oasis, but have on the Allure and found you to be spot on with some of our experiences as well. Made me realize that even after the entire 7 days, we never made it to the Solarium which looks beautiful!! We are booked on the Harmony for January 2017, so if they have a Solarium, I'm gonna find it!!!!

[Kynance103]

Hi,

 

Loved your review.

 

Thank you for taking the time to write it.[emoji4]

[BillOh]

My husband and I sailed the 7 day Western Caribbean (Labadee, Falmouth, Cozumel) route on Oasis of the Seas two weeks ago. Overall, we had a great time, but in this review we tried to point out a view things to avoid in addition to the things we thought were can't-miss. We reviewed many of the restaurants and all of the islands individually as well. We also posted photos of our surprise stop in Grand Cayman due to a medical emergency & the issues created by Tropical Storm Erika. Here it is if you want to check it out - thanks!

 

http://ourbarbiedreamhouse.blogspot.com/2015/09/review-of-oasis-of-seas-versus-carnival.html

 

Enjoyable, fair review. Though did you know Sorrento's serves a made to order personal pizza upon request? There usually is a sign about it there. It might have raised your Sorrento grade to B- ;)

[rilco33647]

Sailed Oasis last year and agree with a lot of your review especially the 'other cruisers' section!!! That is absolutely exactly how we felt the entire week at every single venue. Thanks for your honesty and saying what we were thinking! :D

[TBone2K]

I enjoyed your review, and agree with your positive points. Especially the part about communications. Although you have a few spelling mistakes and factual errors.

 

Wanted to ask though, you referred to the main dining room (MDR), but your description sounds like My Time Dining (MTD)?

 

As for the negatives, I feel the need to respond on a few items, since I feel that many of your "issues" were one-off scenarios and not indicative of what people may find in general.

 

To anyone reading and considering Oasis, I want to say if you want to see the ocean, get a room with an outside balcony. Your point about the focus being on the inside of the ship on Oasis is valid. However I can't think of any RC ship where you can see the ocean very well/at all from the pool or promenade/shops areas.

 

Your CD was Drew Devine if you would like to add that fact to your review. We like him, but that's just our opinion.

 

Second, they didn't design the closet door that way, it was probably broken. Ours didn't do that. If it did we would have called maintenance and maybe wedged something in the door so it didn't slide around.

 

There is a welcome back party, more than one in fact depending on your status. I'll bet since your CA coupons weren't working (and since you didn't bother to report it), they didn't know your status and therefore you didn't get the invite. Not that it helps now, but since it involved your coupons you could have gone to the Crown and Anchor desk on deck 7, or even called customer service if you wanted to avoid the "rude people".

 

I would respond to your comment about your fellow cruisers with the fact that we were on the cruise before you and the majority of the rude people we ran into were American. Including the ones that cut the line during debarkation and nearly started a fight.

 

Please don't judge others by your values. Cruising is a truly multicultural experience and many cultures have different traditions and values. Again, I'll add that most of the fashion faux pas I saw were on Americans.

[OHCruisin]

Great review. Just off Oasis this past Saturday. I have to agree with your "other cruisers" assessment. Ours was a very international crowd. But the rudeness was spread pretty evenly around.

 

I will say I did not experience poor service the way you did. Every crew member that walked by said good morning, good evening, how was your day. Several even stopped to chat for a few minutes. My room steward was a gem. The closest I came to bad service was actually really no service from the bartender in the suite sun deck area. Not personable at all.

 

Another area we differed was with the crowds and elevators. After the first day, the elevator situation was actually pretty good. And we didn't run into much crowding anywhere, except IN the pools. There were always open deck chairs around the pools and tons of open ones on the deck above the pool.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise overall.

[Luv my furbaby]

Wonderful review. Will be on the Oasis in November doing the Eadtern route. Like you, I usually choose my cruises for the itinerary but this time choose the ship. Can't wait to see the Oasis!

[birdlord]

I think maybe the excellent guacamole you were referring to is the fresh guac they make for you at Sabor - not at Wipeout Cafe or wherever you were looking for it (sorry, I can't remember where you mentioned). Thanks for your review. I'm hoping we don't experience the rudeness you have, but I'm afraid with that many people on a ship, it's inevitable to witness at least some jaw-dropping moments.

[LegallyBlondeCruiseLVR]

Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback! It was nice to hear from many of you that you had similar experiences, both good and bad.

 

PK - enjoy Harmony! I bet it will be amazing!

 

Bill - we didn't know about the custom pizza option & wish we had! My husband probably would have loved that.

 

TBone - aren't you pleasant? Were you on Oasis with us two weeks ago? We ate in one of the 3 MDRs (a physical location) through MTD (a program). They're not mutually exclusive and in fact are very inclusive. We were told at booking that in light of a recent policy change, the only way to eat in the MDR on Oasis now is through MTD. We were not allowed to choose a fixed time - we had to make reservations through MTD or show up without them to access the MDR at all, so I suggest you get your facts right.

 

Some of what we experienced may have been one off, but the biggest bummers to us (the lack of ocean views, the other cruisers, etc.) were pervasive. How would you even know if those things were indicative of our full cruise? You weren't there! Sure, we may have had a bad crowd that week that brought out the worst in the crew, but I didn't preface the review with "this was how our cruise was so I know yours will be exactly like this." We usually get balconies on Carnival but couldn't justify the extra $400 pp for one on Oasis. My husband and I could have afforded it if we really wanted it, but many people probably can't. To say that you have to have the spare cash and be willing to upgrade to deserve a peak at the ocean when you're in the MIDDLE of the Caribbean is pretty snobby. So a young couple with limited means, like my husband and I were 7 years ago before we finished our masters and doctorate degrees, doesn't deserve to see the ocean on Oasis because they can't afford it? Wow. Purchasing a ticket on a cruise ship should guarantee you as much ocean as you can stand to look at for 7 days. Period. You're right about other RC ships being designed similarly, especially with the internal Promenades which are a wonderful trade off, but that's not the case with many other cruise lines, including Carnival. It also doesn't excuse the design. Your opinion of Drew compared to mine was one of personal taste. I won't argue with you about that. He's probably a great guy, just came off very cheesy, used car salesman like and full of himself to me. I also thought he bashed Hugo too much. Having never sailed the Oasis, I didn't know the closet was broken. I apologize that that oversight offended you so much. My husband who has two engineering degrees took a look at it and didn't see anything wrong, but what does he know. Also, we called maintenance when our toilet stopped working. We were on hold at least 15 minutes and waited two hours for it to be fixed, so calling isn't that much better than going in person. They knew our past-cruiser status because it was reflected on our seapass cards and a pamphlet explaining the coupons were delivered to our room. There were no invitations to a party - we would have loved that and spent most of the cruise wondering where it was. Clearly you're better at communicating what RC has to offer than RC. I have no doubts that there were rude Americans on your cruise as I'm sure there were plenty of them on mine. To us, it seemed like there were plenty of rude people representing every continent. In fact, my husband and I may have been two of them by the end of the week because of the way we'd been treated. I encounter rude Americans everyday. We're nowhere close to perfect, but that doesn't denote how rude most of our company was on board. Yes, there are plenty of American fashion faux pas, but I don't think I saw any American butt holes on board. Did you? Plenty of folks on board and on CC have mentioned how rude Oasis guests were on their cruises, so I don't know why you feel the need to vilify me. I've cruised 9 times and always love the exposure to other cultures, particularly when talking with the crew about their backgrounds and homes. I know what cruising should and shouldn't be, and to me, regardless of where you're from you should treat others as you would like to be treated. It's the most basic tenet of countless religions and I have no qualms about judging those who treat others poorly... ever. I guess you missed all of the wonderful things I said about Oasis. Like I said, we'd rewind 3 weeks in an instant if we could. If it was a sponsored post or a commercial I would have only mentioned the positive, but I was trying to give an honest review of the good and bad to help others who are interested in what we experienced. Anything other than that isn't a review.

 

OH - thanks for your sweet words! I'm glad you had better service than we did. I got the feeling that there were plenty of good eggs on board, we just got unlucky with some bad ones. Even our absentee steward was actually kind of sweet when we got to know him toward the end of the week. Britney on the zip line was so sweet and Albert and Katherine in the MDR were some of the best cruise waitstaff we've ever had. Definitely some very positive exceptions to our general experience and I'm glad you were met with such great service. Also, I completely agree with you on deck chairs and will probably amend the blog to include that point. There were so many! On Carnival, those are what we've had to fight for (everyone marks them with towels by 9am it feels like!) but on Oasis we never, ever had any trouble finding a chair. You're so right. The crowds we experienced were mostly in Windjammer, Promenade and in transit between places. Not as bad as we thought it would be though and not bad for 6,200 people. Glad you enjoyed your cruise as well!

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

Nice review, and I agree with your positive comments.

 

However...

 

I've never heard your comment about there not being enough seating in the MDR. It appears you did My Time Dining. I find that traditional dining sometimes runs more smoothly, plus you don't have to make reservations for every night. Royal only pushes the specialty restaurants (no one is forcing you to go tho...) because they want the extra cash.

 

I was on the Oasis in May. Staff was amazing. Our room steward was great - best one yet. I didn't run into anyone who seemed to "hate their jobs". On our cruise, we didn't notice an excessive amount of foreigners, and we didn't experience many rude passengers. I think it just depends on the cruise.

 

One question - about your loyalty program comments. IMO, Royals program blows Carnival's out of the water. What level are you in the C&A Society?

 

Anyway, thanks for the review. I just wanted to add my thoughts, for anyone traveling on the Oasis anytime soon.

Edited September 14, 2015 by OfTheSeasCruiser

[wolfganghowell]

Agreed - the guac is at Sabor.

 

It is a consistent complaint about the MDR and bad and/or rude service. Royal HAS to know there is a problem there and I am surprised it never seems to change.

 

We cruised with Drew Devine years ago on Rhapsody and had a short one on one talk with him. Very nice guy - sorry he didn't come across that way to you. Although I would imagine being the CD on Oasis is a thankless job to say the least.

 

ranch dressing - :D Yes my fellow Texan I feel your pain. I wonder though if the Solarium dressing was some nasty fat free version since I've had the ranch many times on different ships and it tasted just like good old ranch!

 

I would suggest you give Royal a try out of Galveston. Liberty is coming and it has the flowrider, rock climbing, ice skating, Promenade and Solarium - all things you enjoy. The Solarium is a different design - open air and one of my fave places. And you still feel connected to the sea.

 

As for the passengers, yep it can happen. The passenger mix changes week to week so no way to tell how it will be. People sometimes become too easily offended when "we Americans" complain about other passengers. I've seen plenty of obnoxious Americans but they are vastly outnumbered by the pushiness and entitlement I've witnessed from various other nationalities on cruises. Most of it seems to involve taking over a particular venue so we just relocate. I, too, have noticed the line cutting seems to be prevalent with non Americans. Strange. Good manners are not simply excused away by "another culture." Excluding Canadians of course because they are the nicest group on the planet - and I am NOT being facetious. If you've been to Canada, you know they are the BEST at making people feel welcome. I agree about the weeny slings and banana hammocks. :eek: I know we Americans are known for being prudes about our bodies but dang me no one wants to see 75 year old junk! :D

 

Thanks for the review!

[BillOh]

Bill - we didn't know about the custom pizza option & wish we had! My husband probably would have loved that.

 

 

I don't know why they don't make a bigger deal of it. Its actually decent. It does require a 10 minute wait, but I usually have time for that.

 

[BillOh]

 

ranch dressing - :D Yes my fellow Texan I feel your pain. I wonder though if the Solarium dressing was some nasty fat free version since I've had the ranch many times on different ships and it tasted just like good old ranch!!

 

I'm pretty sure your right on this one. (I don't claim any expertise on ranch dressing. I am a world recognized Buffalo Wing expert, but that rarely gets called on here. :cool: The fat free dressing in the Solarium Bistro (based on my allure cruises) is as bad as the Turkey bacon, which I believe someone should be doing jail time for.

[Lionesss]

What a beautiful well prepared review.

 

I am impressed and really enjoyed reading it.

 

The pictures were very nice.

 

Thanks for taking the time to share your travels.

 

Sea Ya

[FLACRUISER99]

Thanks for the great review.

[rance]

Nice review thanks for writing.

 

I think the dining room staff are simply overworked. They do breakfast, work the buffets and then do 2 dining room services per day, everyday for 6 months.

It's ridiculous that it is even legal. The cruise industry has to come up with a way to work their employees less. If it cost more to cruise so be it, but the service would improve. How many of us could actually be fast and friendly under these conditions everyday?

[ken_nyc]

Thank you for writing the review, I enjoyed the wonderfully written review!

[TBone2K]

Oh well. Just trying to make sure the facts are clear, as someone reading your review may think things are always a certain way based on what you said.

 

I meant to put this in, but for what it's worth based on your recommendation will definitely check out Playa de Corona next time we are in Cozumel.

[cruisinfanatic]

TBone - aren't you pleasant?

Was thinking the same. Geez

 

Liked the review. You probably had MTD as your only choice because regular seating was closed.

Oasis and Allure draw a very large international crowd compared with other ships. My favorite class Royal ship is Freedom class. Try one of those someday. I think you'll love it

[douknowme]

I was just on the Oasis in August, and I have to agree with you about the service. It was not up to par. This was my 14th cruise, having cruised on Carnival, Norweigan, Royal Caribbean and Disney. The last 3 cruises have been on Disney, then we decided to go on the Oasis. Overall, the experience was good, but the service, compared to Disney and previous Royal Caribbean ships, was not up to standards. I definitely reported the poor service on my survey to Royal Caribbean.

[flacplnj]

I enjoyed your review, and agree with your positive points. Especially the part about communications. Although you have a few spelling mistakes and factual errors.

 

Wanted to ask though, you referred to the main dining room (MDR), but your description sounds like My Time Dining (MTD)?

 

As for the negatives, I feel the need to respond on a few items, since I feel that many of your "issues" were one-off scenarios and not indicative of what people may find in general.

 

To anyone reading and considering Oasis, I want to say if you want to see the ocean, get a room with an outside balcony. Your point about the focus being on the inside of the ship on Oasis is valid. However I can't think of any RC ship where you can see the ocean very well/at all from the pool or promenade/shops areas.

 

Your CD was Drew Devine if you would like to add that fact to your review. We like him, but that's just our opinion.

 

Second, they didn't design the closet door that way, it was probably broken. Ours didn't do that. If it did we would have called maintenance and maybe wedged something in the door so it didn't slide around.

 

There is a welcome back party, more than one in fact depending on your status. I'll bet since your CA coupons weren't working (and since you didn't bother to report it), they didn't know your status and therefore you didn't get the invite. Not that it helps now, but since it involved your coupons you could have gone to the Crown and Anchor desk on deck 7, or even called customer service if you wanted to avoid the "rude people".

 

I would respond to your comment about your fellow cruisers with the fact that we were on the cruise before you and the majority of the rude people we ran into were American. Including the ones that cut the line during debarkation and nearly started a fight.

 

Please don't judge others by your values. Cruising is a truly multicultural experience and many cultures have different traditions and values. Again, I'll add that most of the fashion faux pas I saw were on Americans.

 

 

You are part of the group in CC I particularly don't care for. If someone has an experience or an opinion you don't like you automatically go into rude mode.

 

First you want to make sure that everyone is aware that there were a "few" spelling mistakes in the OP's review. Why? Everyone but you seemed to understand the words and or what was implied..

 

Did you take a poll of all the Americans and then make a decision that they were the most rude? According to you they were not only the rudest but Quote"I'll add that most of the fashion faux pas I saw were on Americans.

.

"

Do you just dislike Americans or people that don't agree with you in general?

 

Quote" Please don't judge others by your values. All I can say to that is please don't judge others by your values!! Get it?

 

P.S.

I left some grammatical errors for you to comment on.:)

[Charger2008]

My husband and I sailed the 7 day Western Caribbean (Labadee, Falmouth, Cozumel) route on Oasis of the Seas two weeks ago. Overall, we had a great time, but in this review we tried to point out a view things to avoid in addition to the things we thought were can't-miss. We reviewed many of the restaurants and all of the islands individually as well. We also posted photos of our surprise stop in Grand Cayman due to a medical emergency & the issues created by Tropical Storm Erika. Here it is if you want to check it out - thanks!

 

http://ourbarbiedreamhouse.blogspot.com/2015/09/review-of-oasis-of-seas-versus-carnival.html

 

Saw your blog, where in Houston did you build your house? Looks like north towards Woodlands or Conroe? We live in Summerwood :)

[SheehanDJ]

I wonder if the poor staff attitude you had was due to the number of non-Americans. As a culture, we tip, it is ingrained. That isn't the case around the world.

 

I imagine the staff on the Oasis class ships sailing out of the US are taking a major hit in the pocket book since it is drawing international passengers at such a great number.