Oasis of The Seas with a Toddler Review May 21 - LONG with Pics!

[jubjubjulie]

Hi All,

 

Although this is not my first cruise, it is my first one on RCCL and first review on CC. I am a virgin no more! After months of combing the forums for reviews and tips which I found were so insightful, I figured I should post my experience along with some tips as well.

Travelling on the Oasis of the Seas were myself (37), hubby (41) and son (3). This was a birthday present from my husband booked back at the end of March for this May 21st sailing on the Western Caribbean Itinerary. YAY Happy Birthday to ME!!:D

 

Travelling/Embarkation:

We got up at 3:30am to travel to the airport for a 7:25 flight. Got to the airport at 5:00am and customs was slammed. We got to the gate right on time to board. We flew Air Transat from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale. I enrolled my son in their "Kids Club" which allows priority check in, boarding, luggage claim, seat selection & free snacks. For any parents out there that are bringing strollers/car seats to gate check, these items are not delivered at the gate upon landing. It goes to the baggage claim. They say they have "limo strollers" to borrow from the gate to baggage claim but there are only a few of them, we saw many parents struggling with their child/baby and carry on luggage. TIP Make sure you ask for priority tags for your stroller and car seat as well! When we got to FLL, our luggage was one of the first ones on the belt but we had to practically wait til all the luggage was on the belt before we even saw our stroller and car seat come out which made the whole priority luggage claim pointless. :(

 

We took a cab to the pier which the meter displayed $16 but we ended up giving $25 since we made the cabbie wait while we installed the car seat (the driver told us to just forego the car seat, but we didn't feel comfortable doing so) and arrived to a very busy terminal around noon. This is where I got the first encounter of RCCL staff being inconsistent with information. Once we checked in and made our way to the ship, I was stopped and told to go back and get a bracelet for my son identifying his evacuation station. I go to the station and they said he didn't need one, we walked back over and they said yes he does as he's 3 so we walked back over and they said oh. No apologies or anything, just handed it to me. By the time we boarded it was 1pm.

 

Ship/Room:

Let me just say WOW! the ship is beautiful! After we boarded, we made our way to our rooms since they were ready. We were surprised that majority of the luggage was waiting outside of staterooms at that time but ours wasn't there yet. We booked room 7710 which is an ocean view balcony. I found this location to be perfect. 1 floor above the boardwalk, spa and gym, 1 floor below Central Park and 2 floors above the Royal Promenade. Perfect for taking those stairs! The elevators were not all working until Day 6. Alot of the elevators would pass your floor and it was empty which left you waiting longer. If you can take the stairs, do it! I found our room to be a decent size although the bathroom was tiny. There are no outlets in the washroom and only 3 outlets on the vanity table so definitely bring a power bar. Oh yes and the hair dryer is horrific. Bring your own if you can! The TV displays any messages as well as your cruise planner where u can add/modify reservations and also shows a running tally of all expenses incurred for each passenger in the room. ‎I also purchased the soda package so my refillable souvenir cup was waiting in the stateroom. Once the pull out couch was opened, there was no room left to walk. My hard shell Suitcase did not fit under the bed so that went in the closet along with two backpacks and my cloth suitcase under the bed and car seat in the corner and stroller by the entrance. I noticed along the hall that ppl left their strollers outside of their stateroom for more room. I guess you can also put it out on the balcony but it rained some nights and we didn't want to get it wet. The ship was so large that we did not feel any movement except one night when we were on our way to Jamaica and it was raining. My husband gets motion sickness and did not have to take any Bonine/Gravol once! :)

Casino: I went to the casino most nights after my son went to sleep and left hubby in the room to watch movies. it is very smokey in there and i always came back smelling like an ash tray. But it was fun, and met some really wonderful people there! Hello FL, Georgia, Illinois & England! We were all very horrible with names so we identified by where they lived. you would hear shouts of HEY TORONTO, over here when I walked into the casino. I miss you all already. :)

 

Food/Drinks: Let me just start by saying we did not try any of the specialty restaurants. My 3 yr old has the attention span of a flea, and booking a specialty restaurant to have my son start fussing ruins not only our experience, but other passengers experience in fine dining or a quiet meal as well. We stuck with the Windjammer, Wipe Out Café, MDR, Park Café & Sorrentos.

My husband was going to order a Drink Package when they had the 20% off sale, but they were having technical difficulties and then the prices went up so we didn’t get him a drink package and I only got the Royal Refreshment Plan. The 10 drink card for $79 came out on Day 4 which we purchased. My refillable cup stopped working on Day 3 and this was were problems with Royal Caribbean staff part 2 came into play. I first went to the Bar by the Kids Zone to exchange it. The bartender said no problem , we can swap it for you but I no longer have any of those cups, please try the other bar. I walked over to the other bar, and the bartender was rude and said he wouldn’t swap it out for me and would charge me $10 for a replacement cup. I asked why would I be charged for a replacement cup? This cup that was provided is no longer working, it wasn’t lost or damaged. The chip just no longer reads it says ERROR each time I put it under the machine and the other bar tender did not mention anything about a charge. The bartender said that other person I spoke with “doesn’t know what he is talking about”. There is a charge and that is that. I said forget it. Walked up to the Windjammer and spoke with the Drinks guy there and easy as pie, he swapped it out, no questions asked and apologized for the inconvenience.

Upon embarkation, what other reviewers tell you is true. AVOID the Windjammer! The line to get into the Windjammer wrapped around the 16th floor. Park Café was also a bust as the line was out the door. We ended up going to grab a few slices of pizza at Sorrento’s before exploring the ship. The pizza at Sorrento’s was meh.. hit the spot but wasn’t amazing. They only offer Ice Tea, water, and I believe Hot Tea there for free. They also have the Coke machines there to refill your souvenir cup.

Windjammer – The buffet was just ok in my opinion. They have a lot of international foods ranging from Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Jamaican, Mexican and Japanese. I did notice that some soup they offer in Park Café is available in the Windjammer & one of the Main Entrees at the MDR was in the Buffet as well. For breakfast, the scrambled eggs is disgusting! What other Reviewers said is true. The powdered eggs tasted rubbery, it was revolting! The desserts that they offer was mediocre. If you have any allergies, good luck finding desserts. My son has a severe Peanut allergy and when we spoke with the staff there, majority of the stuff was brought in by outside companies and they couldn’t confirm if there was peanuts in it or came in contact with it. They gave him a packaged soy cookie instead. Needless to say my son was not a happy camper seeing all these cookies and cakes that he could not have. He stuck with Jello & Ice Cream throughout our stay. TIP: take extra boxes of cereal during breakfast so your toddler can have a snack throughout the day by the pool or in port.

MDR – We had My Time Dining on the third floor (American Icon) which worked out for us. We like the flexibility of going earlier than 6pm or after 6pm depending on if it was a Port Day. If you had reservations you would line up to your left, no reservations, line to your right. We never had to wait for our seat possibly because we ate early either at 5:30 or 6pm. We ended up eating at the MDR during Formal Nights. We did see on formal nights that there were people who were in shorts and tshirts for dinner and the staff didn’t say anything. All of the food we had in the MDR was good. Service was also excellent there. The kids food however wasn’t very good. We always ended up going back to the Windjammer so my son could get some food. He ordered a Macaroni and Cheese and it was disgusting. They put a piece of processed cheese on top of macaroni and melted it. He was not a happy camper. We always left before dessert because my son just couldn’t sit still despite having the Ipad and some toys. During Lobster night, the waiter told us we can order any entrée and just add the lobster tail which is what we did. I had the prime rib and Lobster Tail which was excellent. Gave him a nice tip when we left. On the cruise planner, it normally says to allow 2 hours for dining experience but we didn’t find it took 2 hours.. only an hour tops. But I’m not sure if that was because we had a toddler with us that they expedited the food.

Park Café – Located in Central Park, they offer soups, salads and sandwiches. I found the Krummelwhich (roast Beef) sandwich was soooo yummy! And their salad bar was really good. We went back to Park Café 3 times during our stay. Only thing is they close early at 5:30pm. TIP: they also offer small bags of chips you can take back to your stateroom for a little snack or to port. :D

 

Adventure Ocean/H20 Zone: Upon embarkation we went to register my son for Adventure Ocean. As he is 3 years old, they will give you a ship phone to use when he is in the club. For Lunch Time, they will only serve the children Pizza and Fries at the Windjammer. The first day we were there he had lots of fun (probably because mom and dad were there). We were excited for him to try out Adventure Ocean but we weren’t sure how he would take to it. The following morning on Day 2, we attempted to bring my son to Adventure Ocean. He started to cry as soon as he found out that mommy and daddy were not staying. Once the tears came, this one staff member told me that my son could not stay if he was crying! I was like seriously?? This is a new environment for him, you are a stranger, and we just said that we aren’t staying with him. I’m sure he will calm down once we are gone. She was like No, sorry. We cannot allow him entry if he is upset as other kids will be upset. She said this to 3 other couples after us as well. So what could we do? We left. But that experience left a bad taste in my mouth and we never tried to put him back there if the staff was like that. :mad:They do have a baby/toddler room they can play in as long as the parents are there to supervise which we brought him to throughout our stay. I met another Mother there that told me the same thing happened to her with that staff member (I think she works mornings) but she tried again in the afternoon and another staff member took her daughter while her daughter was screaming but calmed down after 10 mins. She did mention, that the staff will call you to pick up your child if they do not calm down after 20 minutes. So I guess if the rude staff member turns your child away because they start to cry, try again in the afternoon? It would have been nice for him to go play with other kids so my hubby and I could have some quiet time but we were fine. He ended up staying at the kids pool and met other wonderful kids and families to play with. There is a small baby splash pad where your baby can wear swim diapers, water guns and sprinklers where kids run through and a warm pool that goes around in circles that my son loved. The kids pool is about 3 meters deep and they do have life vests you can use by the towel stations.

 

Shows: I prebooked all of our shows prior to sailing however we only made it to Oasis of Dreams & Frozen in Time.

Sail Away Party: was located in the Aqua Theatre and had Dreamwork characters come out and dance during sail away. There wasn’t too many people that attended but my son enjoyed that as well.

Day 1 we were booked with Oasis of Dreams at 7:30 & we found out that they moved our Cats reservations on Day 2 to Day 1 but I believe the time overlapped Oasis of Dreams. Well we didn’t make any shows on Day 1. After being up since 3:30am travelling, we were exhausted and my son just wanted to go back to the stateroom.

So, we ended up watching Oasis of Dreams Aqua Show another day on the 7th Deck. TIP: Walk all the way to the AFT section where room 7730 is (rock climbing wall) and you will see a small public balcony where there are chairs and you can see the entire show without reservations! It was a good show, my son enjoyed it and I was surprised he sat there quietly completely engaged with the performance and clapped and cheered at all the appropriate moments.

Frozen in Time: it was an alright ice capades show. I honestly thought it would be about Disney’s Frozen; buy hey never judge by the title right? Lots of amazing stunts performed by the skaters. My son enjoyed most of it but began to get bored before it was over so my husband took him back to the room. TIP: for any toddlers/children attending the shows, sit in an aisle seat, that way if you have to leave, you can do so without having everyone get up and move. Also during the show, there in the front row are reserved seats for children that want to be brought into the show.

Move It Move it Parade: this was our goodbye parade in the Royal Promenade. It was an amazing parade which my son loved and didn’t want to end. There are A LOT of people that attend this. I would say the best seats to watch is infront of Sorrentos. We unfortunately got there late but we did end up taking some chairs from the Pub and having front row seats ourselves! TIP: get there early or grab some chairs from the pub.

 

Ports of Call: I have been to both JA & MX many times so why did I chose this itinerary? Because I wanted to try the ship. Oasis was my destination. If they offer itineraries to southern Caribbean on this class of ship I woulda jumped on that quick fast!

Labadee, Haiti: It’s Beach Day!! Once docked, there was a mass exodus off the ship. It was a beautiful day out! With my son being so young, it’s difficult booking any excursions so we just play it by ear. He was excited to go to the beach and build sand castles. We made our way through the island (we did not bother waiting for the train to take us as the line was sooo long) so we just walked until we found a beach that we liked. There was a worker there that followed us as we went from beach to beach to provide us with loungers but no umbrellas as we wanted up close to the shore as possible so we can watch our belongings while playing in the sand/ocean. The loungers are free to use but workers expect a tip. The Clam shells are $35 bucks? We ended up tipping the worker $20 since we felt bad as he followed us around while looking for a spot. The beach is very rocky at least where we were. Sorry I don’t recall which beach we went to. We didn’t stay very long at this port. Only until lunch time and made our way back to the ship for lunch at Park Café as the buffet line at the beach was ridiculously long. You don’t need to bring any money unless you go to their Market, everything is charged onto your Seapass account.

Falmouth, Jamaica: We’ve been to Jamaica numerous times already and I have family there so Falmouth was really just another stop for us. The weather wasn’t great either so we were glad we didn’t book a resort for the day. We just walked around the pier and went back to the Ship and enjoyed a quiet ship day! Hey the Oasis, is a port in itself! We considered booking the Iberostar Rose Hall for $99USD pp via resort for a day but glad we didn’t as it rained.

Cozumel, Mexico: Another Beach Day! Ah Mexico! How I love you! I love you so much that we’ve been to your country 16 times in the past 10 years. Docking in the International Pier, two other carnival ships were in port. When you see the Oasis class of ships by them, it really shows just how large the Oasis is. We took a cab $8 bucks Downtown to shop around. My son broke my husband’s sunglasses and he was in dire need of a cheapy pair and I broke my Flip Flops (the HORROR) From there, we took another cab for $14 bucks to Paradise Beach (it’s more expensive to cab from the pier as opposed to DT or outside of the Pier). Paradise Beach is $3 entrance fee per person which gives you access to their heated pool or beach, but they didn’t charge for my son. They request that you spend $10 minimum on food and drinks per person there. The beach was a bit rocky but they had an inflatable water park in the ocean (if you want to use them it costs $18 per person) We did not pay the $18 fee but we did go on one of their floaties.. We saw a lot of ppl going on the waterpark without paying and no one was enforcing it (you can use this information any way you want). We did order lunch and drinks there which were really good but a bit pricey. $40USD got us a beer, coke, steak and cheese burrito and Beef Hardshell tacos which we all shared and didn’t finish.

 

Disembarkation:

Well it was a sad day to leave as it meant being back to reality and going back to work. We did Express Departure and was concerned with the elevator situation and most of the time it was filled to capacity due to some not working. Recall earlier in my post, not all elevators were functioning until Day 6.

So to all those parents out there cruising with toddlers/babies. Yes, it is possible to do Express Departure! We came with an umbrella stroller, a HEAVY as HELL Diono Car seat, two luggages and two backpacks as carryons. How did we accomplish this? TIP: The Car Seat was strapped to our Maclaren Stroller using bungee cords and son buckled in on the car seat. I didn’t take a picture but I will post an example picture for you to see. Back packs on our backs and hubby navigated two luggages that had the spinner wheels. Easy Breezy. We did not struggle at all. We got up at 6am went for breakfast at the WJ and came back to pack up the rest of our belongings and headed to the elevators. We had to take separate elevators as it was pretty full but we made it on. We figured if we had to take the stairs, I would collapse the stroller and carry the carseat as a back pack and walk my toddler down the stairs and wait for my hubby as he carried one luggage down and go back up to get the other one (that is why we chose a lower floor). But we didn’t have to take the stairs so no problems there. There was no line up at 7:20am we walked off the ship, straight through to customs and waited in line at customs for about 15 mins and were at the airport through security and at our gate by 8:35am.

 

Overall Service & Experience:

I’m fairly new to cruising, so I haven’t gotten to experience one line that I will remain loyal to. Booking with Royal Caribbean online was an ok experience overall. There were some hiccups when trying to book drink packages which ultimately led me not to book an alcohol package even though it was noted on my file and I have an email from Royal saying they will honor the original price that was listed but they never did put it through. We did book a soda package and the Vroom with Stream package with their 30% promo. I did notice on day 3, they started offering this package for $17.99 per day? Correct me if I’m wrong. I just found the Service I received didn’t live up to my expectations on such a grand ship. I’ve encountered a lot of misinformation and rude staff but I have also met a lot of happy staff that provided excellent service. Our favourite bar was the Sabor Bar on the Boardwalk. The bartender gave us some free drinks as we always went to him and even made my son a free virgin strawberry daiquiri.. We gave him a hefty tip at the end. Our stateroom attendant was really nice as well although sometimes she did forget to empty our garbage/Plates/Beer Bottles. I just found with RCCL, I felt like everything was a cash grab or these so called “sales” are truly just a marketing ploy. Not sure if it’s because it is such a large ship with so many passengers that the workers are overworked, but hey would it kill you to be polite or smile? I’m not being rude to you so why are you being rude to me? I’ve cruised Norwegian in the past and I found that their service was excellent compared to Royal. Would I cruise Royal again? Most definitely I would. I do enjoy the big ships and I’m not letting some rude people ruin my vacation. To top things off I was double billed from the Oasis and billed incorrectly. I requested for my On Board account to be billed in USD, but they ended up converting it anyways. The exchange rate they used was 1.3440 but hey what can you do? When I called, it was said that the additional charges was because of mini bar services which I said no, no! We had our stateroom attendant remove them and we did not touch anything. They credited me back but told me to contact my Credit Card company regarding the double billing.

We’ve met such wonderful travellers from all across the US, England & France (thanks Frenchie for the debate over Parisian French is proper whereas Quebecois French is slang – hey Tomato, Tomaato, right?) which truly made our vacation even more enjoyable. I try not to let the small things get to me because we are all on vacation. So don’t be a Debbie Downer even though there were a lot of those on board as well and just try to have a positive attitude and go with the flow.

Well Royal, I don’t know when I will be back but I definitely will! Go Big or Go home, right?

 

Well folks, thanks for reading my long winded review! I hope this review can help some the way other reviews I have read have helped me! Enjoy!

[KGSB11]

Thank you for posting your review.

 

We are cruising with our 1 and 4 year old in two weeks and are curious as to how the Adventure Ocean programs will be for our 4yr old.

[Duke Mazer]

Hello from Toronto too. As a dad of a 4 year old, I would say look into Nexus it's a godsend. Made the airport customs a breeze and you get TSA pre which is so amazing if you have a kid(strollers).

 

Our little one had completely different experience at Adventure ocean. When she was 3 she had an amazing time and was begging to go back. This year same thing could not get enough and would get upset when I took her out. I don't like keeping her there long as I wanted a family vacation, but she loved it there.

They would put on a Pirate show, or Tigers and Butterflies that she loved and kept talking about. She was crying to go back and wanted to make sure we were there to see her Pirate show.

She even made a friend from Detroit and the two girls and came and told the parents, "Daddy we need to do facetime when we get home" (so cute).

Sounds like a you go a bad crew member as it is not the norm I've experienced nor does it match the other reviews I've read.

[champagne123]

What a great review and pics. Brings back wonderful memories. Thank you for sharing.:):):)

[jubjubjulie]

Thank you for posting your review.

 

We are cruising with our 1 and 4 year old in two weeks and are curious as to how the Adventure Ocean programs will be for our 4yr old.

 

Your 4year old will be with the 3-5yr old group. Once you register for adventure ocean, they will give you a daily kids compass in your stateroom to see what activities will be happening for you to decide. :)

[jubjubjulie]

Hello from Toronto too. As a dad of a 4 year old, I would say look into Nexus it's a godsend. Made the airport customs a breeze and you get TSA pre which is so amazing if you have a kid(strollers).

 

Our little one had completely different experience at Adventure ocean. When she was 3 she had an amazing time and was begging to go back. This year same thing could not get enough and would get upset when I took her out. I don't like keeping her there long as I wanted a family vacation, but she loved it there.

They would put on a Pirate show, or Tigers and Butterflies that she loved and kept talking about. She was crying to go back and wanted to make sure we were there to see her Pirate show.

She even made a friend from Detroit and the two girls and came and told the parents, "Daddy we need to do facetime when we get home" (so cute).

Sounds like a you go a bad crew member as it is not the norm I've experienced nor does it match the other reviews I've read.

 

Yes! I will definitely look into a nexxus pass for next time! I think you are right about the staff member as other families I have spoken too didn't have issues during afternoon or some evening sessions. I just didn't bother to go back after that incident as we met other families by the kids pool that my son played with. :)

[jubjubjulie]

What a great review and pics. Brings back wonderful memories. Thank you for sharing.:):):)

 

Thanks! I miss it already! :(