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

[Fortypluscruiser]

Yea, that was an odd statistic. It would be interesting if you can get that information

 

It looks like I stopped this thread cold with my prior post. Which was not my intent, but as promised here are the manifest numbers for this sail date: 81% US and Canada and 19% Foreign. The original comment about less than 10% of the passengers being American was just too egregious and irresponsible to let go. Happy cruising everyone!

[John&LaLa]

It looks like I stopped this thread cold with my prior post. Which was not my intent, but as promised here are the manifest numbers for this sail date: 81% US and Canada and 19% Foreign. The original comment about less than 10% of the passengers being American was just too egregious and irresponsible to let go. Happy cruising everyone!

 

Thanks for the 'facts'

You wouldn't happen to know the C&A tier breakdown would you

[Fortypluscruiser]

Thanks for the 'facts'

You wouldn't happen to know the C&A tier breakdown would you

 

For this particular sailing? No, and I don't have a good reason to request it.

[TheGinBoy]

LegallyBlondeCruiseLVR thanks for sharing your experience!

 

Whilst I've not cruised with a line other than Royal Caribbean I agree with you on the bad and the good points. I'd like to assure you that us British guests are very well behaved, expertly practiced in the art of queuing and being modest around the pool.

 

If you like the bells and whistles, but love the views of the sea, may I suggest you try one of the Freedom Class ships next? Our favourite is Liberty, but they're all great. You get the ice rink, royal promenade, flowrider etc etc - but you're closer to the sea and they feel less crowded, whilst still being a mega (154,000GT) ship. I think you'd love it.

[John&LaLa]

LegallyBlondeCruiseLVR thanks for sharing your experience!

 

Whilst I've not cruised with a line other than Royal Caribbean I agree with you on the bad and the good points. I'd like to assure you that us British guests are very well behaved, expertly practiced in the art of queuing and being modest around the pool.

 

If you like the bells and whistles, but love the views of the sea, may I suggest you try one of the Freedom Class ships next? Our favourite is Liberty, but they're all great. You get the ice rink, royal promenade, flowrider etc etc - but you're closer to the sea and they feel less crowded, whilst still being a mega (154,000GT) ship. I think you'd love it.

 

I thought Brits were fond of the Indy. It has kettles

[TheGinBoy]

I thought Brits were fond of the Indy. It has kettles

 

I don't care about making tea & coffee in my room, I can get better ones on room service ;)

[snorkelman]

It looks like I stopped this thread cold with my prior post. Which was not my intent, but as promised here are the manifest numbers for this sail date: 81% US and Canada and 19% Foreign. The original comment about less than 10% of the passengers being American was just too egregious and irresponsible to let go. Happy cruising everyone!

 

OP lives in North Carolina. Perhaps she is not used to the fact that us folks in south Florida know: those who live close to the port can cruise cheaper than those who have to fly in.

 

Yes south Florida has many foreign-looking and sounding people. Just because someone speaks Spanish doesn't mean they are not American.

[Fortypluscruiser]

I thought that the OP was from Houston. Maybe anyone without a Texan accent is considered not American? Or perhaps with Texas still having designs on seceding from the US, anyone not from Texas is considered a foreigner?

[John&LaLa]

I thought that the OP was from Houston. Maybe anyone without a Texan accent is considered not American? Or perhaps with Texas still having designs on seceding from the US, anyone not from Texas is considered a foreigner?

 

She moved to NC some time back. Just lax in updating profile. I think that's where the Barbie Dreamhouse is

Edited September 16, 2015 by John&LaLa

[wolfganghowell]

FortyPlus - I really hope you are attempting to be funny. I certainly don't find you funny, I find your posts on this thread to be deliberately incendiary. You can certainly disagree with a poster but making stupid derogatory comments about an entire state are a bit much. But heck, half of Texas is now inhabited by transplanted Californians. :rolleyes: They seem to prefer a thriving economy.

 

When you are surrounded on a cruise by people who do not speak English and do not seem to understand English, it is a reasonable assumption that there may be a higher % of non Americans onboard. I've been on a few where I felt most passengers were more international even though statistically, I could have been wrong. I don't believe anyone but you took it literally. You missed the point of her statement and she certainly was not trying to be prejudiced - only those that enjoy picking fights here would interpret it as such.

[Fortypluscruiser]

FortyPlus - I really hope you are attempting to be funny. I certainly don't find you funny, I find your posts on this thread to be deliberately incendiary. You can certainly disagree with a poster but making stupid derogatory comments about an entire state are a bit much. But heck, half of Texas is now inhabited by transplanted Californians. :rolleyes: They seem to prefer a thriving economy.

 

When you are surrounded on a cruise by people who do not speak English and do not seem to understand English, it is a reasonable assumption that there may be a higher % of non Americans onboard. I've been on a few where I felt most passengers were more international even though statistically, I could have been wrong. I don't believe anyone but you took it literally. You missed the point of her statement and she certainly was not trying to be prejudiced - only those that enjoy picking fights here would interpret it as such.

 

Yes, my recent post was attempting to be funny, but it was directed at the OP, not Texans in general. I happen to have a lot of friends (some transplanted Californians) who live in Texas.

 

I rarely post, but am cruising on the Oasis in December and decided to read the OP's review for fun and thought it was a very worthwhile read. However I also happen to own a cruise travel agency and have had to discontinue doing business with most of my Cruise Critic customers because they were constantly bombarding my customer service staff with misinformation and outright lies they read in this community. So when I saw the absurd "less than 10% were Americans" statement I felt the need to correct it with facts I was able to obtain from a Royal Caribbean contact, not pick a fight. And again, I was NOT directing my comments at Texans. And apparently not even a person who still lives there!

[wolfganghowell]

Forty - thanks for your clarification. I appreciate it.

 

I do think the OP was being sincere and was not trying to be inflammatory. I found her review very balanced. We can respectfully agree to disagree about that issue. Happy cruises to you and I wish your business well - we always book through a cruise travel agency and I appreciate the challenges your business faces these days.

[LegallyBlondeCruiseLVR]

Thanks for all the support Wolfgang and others! I'm glad most of you found the review helpful and didn't take anything too seriously. Seriously, it's a vacation post on a pink home design blog, what's there to take seriously? To those cruising on the Oasis soon, I'm jealous & wish I could jump in your shoes! I hope you'll post about your experiences when you get back so we can all compare notes (and so we can all live vicariously through you).

 

As to the percentage of non-Americans on board, without mentioning this thread to my husband I just asked him what percentage of our fellow cruisers were American. He shrugged and said "15%... max." I have an insanely difficult time believing the 81% statistic someone quoted. As I mentioned in the review, on the rare occasion we ran into an American there was a ton of mutual excitement. I don't think North Carolinians would be giddy about meeting people from Minnesota if 81% of the people on board were American. Minnesota is half a country away but felt like our backyard compared to all of the different cultures we saw represented on Oasis. Someone made a good point about many regions of the U.S., including south Florida, being home to folks who may have been born in other countries or speak other languages. That's a great point and could attribute to our estimate error (if there even was one). Our amazing dinner mates were first generation Americans of Egyptian descent who switched back and forth between English and their native language. Without getting to know them so well, we probably wouldn't have guessed they live in California - so great point there. With that being said, we didn't notice any nationality that seemed to be more represented than another (Americans definitely included in that statement - if anything, Americans may have been one of the few minorities it felt like). It actually felt like a really amazing blend of the world - that part was really neat - like a floating UN with all corners of the world pretty evenly represented... just many of the delegates from all around (America included) were jerks & everyone (myself included) was over eating. Someone mentioned that the crowds might bring out the worst in everyone - another good point that could explain a lot.

 

I'm embarrassed that we've spent this much time debating cruisers' countries of origins, because that was such a trivial part of the review and something that should vary tremendously each sailing (whether it does or not, I don't know). What was much more of a takeaway to me was that many of our fellow cruisers, regardless of country of origin, were what I would consider rude, mostly in terms of the aggressive shoving in and through crowds, cutting in line and cutting people off in foot traffic. That's it. Not sure if those behaviors are linked to any specific countries or cultures, I just didn't like those behaviors. Countless people in this thread and the other where I posted this review have agreed with me. One woman who cruised two weeks before us on Oasis linked to her own earlier review and it focused on the exact same rude behaviors (she and I also liked the same salads on board, so I'm feeling pretty validated right now). She was far more upset about it than I was... I really don't think I'm exaggerating here. There are rude Americans and rude people from other places on this planet - no one can argue with that. All I was trying to say was that the particular Oasis sailing we were on had a lot of non-American cruisers (no problem to us) and a lot of rude cruisers (big problem to us). ONE crew member claimed a relationship between Oasis's international appeal and the number of international guests on board - that's it. I'm not a sociologist and am not trying to draw any major causation or correlation between those statements about our cruise... just explaining what we experienced. If you read the review, you'll also see that it was the coolest cruise ship we've ever sailed, embarkation was amazing, the shows were the best we'd ever seen (on land or sea) and the on board shopping was unbeatable.

 

I'd much rather move this discussion to the ship's design and all of the great food we and past Oasis cruisers ate on board rather than a cultural debate.

[jes Scott]

They quit doing that a while ago.

 

 

We booked recently and when we chose MTD, it DID charge the gratuity.

[John&LaLa]

We booked recently and when we chose MTD, it DID charge the gratuity.

 

Bummer, not supposed to any more. Change happened during the great Dynamic Dining Debacle

[Biker19]

However I also happen to own a cruise travel agency and have had to discontinue doing business with most of my Cruise Critic customers because they were constantly bombarding my customer service staff with misinformation and outright lies they read in this community.

 

To be fair, if you limit your information intake to the truly knowledgeable crowd here at CC, you'll be better informed than many TAs and RCI reps.

[caseymorgan]

I wonder if the "81% American" meant that 81% were booked through the RCL USA web page and or an American travel agent. That's quite different than country of origin or nationality.

[John&LaLa]

I wonder if the "81% American" meant that 81% were booked through the RCL USA web page and or an American travel agent. That's quite different than country of origin or nationality.

 

It was actually 81% American and Canadian

[Fortypluscruiser]

To be fair, if you limit your information intake to the truly knowledgeable crowd here at CC, you'll be better informed than many TAs and RCI reps.

 

Fair???????? You mean if I have access to information directly from the company hierarchy, I'll be "better informed" reading posts here than relying on actual facts? Question for all of you: how do you tell the difference between fact and fiction here? Because I know that a lot of what is written here is opinion presented as fact. I limit my posts to subjects I know as opposed to what I think is true.

 

As for the 81% question, Royal's manifest is based on citizenship data. So if you consider that many folks living in the US are foreign citizens, the 81% number will not fully reflect the % of passengers onboard who live in the US.

[ATG]

I am on Oasis now and there are quite a few other nationalities I have seen, heard or talked to. But, the vast majority are US or Canada. I haven't noticed any difference in behaviors. It does seem like some groups are multi-generational but it is fun to watch Grandpa or Grandma with the little ones. Both seem so happy to have the other.

 

The ship does not seem crowded. Elevators can be crowded right after a show, but not bad. All in all, this has been a great cruise.

[CaribSailor]

All I took from this thread was a blog promotion.

[Thetrail]

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

to write your review. Sorry to hear about your small issues. Have been on Oasis 4 times and can honestly say they were one of the most friendly and happy crew we have ever sailed with!.....K.O....:)

[TheGinBoy]

Some of you people are so petty, small minded, and rude. We all have our own opinions of what makes a good

holiday and these are the poster's.

 

I thought it was a well thought out and structured post, with some interesting points and nice photos.

 

Goodness me, has no one ever taught you that if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all.

[LuCruise]

Great review and pictures. Am sorry you found the other passengers rude for the most part. How frustrating too with the lack of communication prior to the cruise concerning the hurricane.

[peppersjap]

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!

 

Thank you for the great review. I am going to try the Oasis next summer after only cruising on Disney with my 14 year old daughter. You answered so many of my questions and I really appreciate that you gave us both the good and the bad!