Oasis of the Seas -- too many people?

[Ery]

The thing is on Oasis class ships you can since there are a number of places to get breakfast and lunch. They have boards (pretty sure they are still on Oasis) showing how crowded each place is. We only went once to the Windjammer, buffet, when we were on Allure. You can do Johnny Rockets, Park Cafe, Wipe out Cafe, etc. Lots of options.

 

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Also the American icon dining room was open for breakfast and lunch, there is a small "buffet" set up and also a menu to order from.

 

 

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[Ery]

But in all honesty, we don't like crowds and Oasis is our favorite ship. Love having a nearly empty infinity hot tub at midnight (or well any time) love all the dining options, all the shows, love Central Park . Live music in lounges. We've always had great staff.

 

 

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[TravelerThom]

I will keep that in mind. I guess you can hardly avoid the buffet at breakfast and lunch.

As stated elsewhere there are quite a number of alternatives (note that the Main Dining Room is open for lunch ONLY on Sea Days). With all the alternatives the buffet was not designed for everyone to go there, but most newbies to O-class don't realize that, hence it gets very crowded.

What's a B2B? Didn't understand your message. :rolleyes:

As Bob said two consecutive cruises - B2B is shorthand for Back-to-Back, but to confuse things RCI now uses the terminology Consecutive Cruises, sometimes abbreviated CC (also used for CruiseCritic).

 

There are a few times when crowds are unavoidable (muster drill is worst, leaving shows can be bad). This can be circumvented by just taking (staying in) a seat for 5-10 minutes and the crowd will go away. Then you can stroll out unimpeded.:)

 

I'm glad that you are not planning on cancelling and getting your money back, A mid-January cruise is in the 29-56 day before cruise window where you lose half your cruise fare.

 

I'll be on Oasis B2B starting 22 Jan. The cruises will be our 6th and 7th on O-class. With a small amount of effort to avoid the crowds we enjoy it - hope you do also.

 

Thom

[Jlrdajh]

When are you going? When we went last December, you could walk up to any show (other than maybe the comedy shows, we didn't attend those, so I'm not sure). The only time I felt crowded on Oasis was during embarkation in the Promenade area. The variety of activities means people are dispersed throughout the ship.

 

 

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Fantastic! It sounds like I have nothing to worry about. We are going on the January 15th through 22nd Western Caribbean cruise. We have just never done Royal Caribbean nor a megaship before. I had wondered before about the megaships if it just packed in more people to compete for goods and services. Now I'm getting excited about our trip.

[Jlrdajh]

But in all honesty, we don't like crowds and Oasis is our favorite ship. Love having a nearly empty infinity hot tub at midnight (or well any time) love all the dining options, all the shows, love Central Park . Live music in lounges. We've always had great staff.

 

 

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I'm starting to get excited about our trip. My frustration with the website and costumer service is fading.

[reallyitsmema]

Fantastic! It sounds like I have nothing to worry about. We are going on the January 15th through 22nd Western Caribbean cruise. We have just never done Royal Caribbean nor a megaship before. I had wondered before about the megaships if it just packed in more people to compete for goods and services. Now I'm getting excited about our trip.

 

We sailed Oasis in May and had made reservations for all the shows in advance. Once on board, we changed our mind as to when we wanted to go to certain shows and only used our reservations for CATS and the Comedy Club. We went standby for all the other shows and had absolutely no issues getting into any of the shows. We actually saw Oasis of Dreams twice with no reservations.

 

As far as food, we avoided the Windjammer buffet because of the poor layout. Park Cafe is a great place for made to order salads, sandwiches, soups, etc. Wipeout Cafe was our go to location for breakfast since they make cooked to order omelets there and cooked to order eggs. There is also a buffet with everything we needed for breakfast. We tried the free breakfast at Johnny Rockets (they are a fee restaurant rest of the day) and that was good too but we preferred Wipeout. Sorrentos pizza is ok but they also have a make your own option, where you choose everything you want on it and it is cooked to order. That pizza is significantly better than the premade pizza. Look at the compass for all the complimentary alternatives to the WJ, it is very easy to avoid the WJ, if you so choose.

 

A nice place to sit and read is at the rear of the ship, on the jogging track. There are nice chairs tucked along the railing overlooking the wake of the ship off the track that get you away from everyone. Central Park is a great place at night for sitting, listening to music, right near Park Cafe.

 

We loved Oasis and can't wait to go on Allure this coming May.:)

[Jlrdajh]

As stated elsewhere there are quite a number of alternatives (note that the Main Dining Room is open for lunch ONLY on Sea Days). With all the alternatives the buffet was not designed for everyone to go there, but most newbies to O-class don't realize that, hence it gets very crowded. As Bob said two consecutive cruises - B2B is shorthand for Back-to-Back, but to confuse things RCI now uses the terminology Consecutive Cruises, sometimes abbreviated CC (also used for CruiseCritic).

 

There are a few times when crowds are unavoidable (muster drill is worst, leaving shows can be bad). This can be circumvented by just taking (staying in) a seat for 5-10 minutes and the crowd will go away. Then you can stroll out unimpeded.:)

 

I'll be on Oasis B2B starting 22 Jan. The cruises will be our 6th and 7th on O-class. With a small amount of effort to avoid the crowds we enjoy it - hope you do also.

 

Thom

 

Great advice all around. I'm making a list of the complimentary food areas scattered around the ship and located them on the map. Our cruise gets back on the 22nd and we will just be missing you. Too bad we can't do a B2B/CC this year!

[sunsetbeachgal]

We were on the Oasis the week of Thanksgiving. We made our reservations in advance since we were traveling with a family and had traditional dining so less flexibility when we did the shows. It looked to me like the only shows where capacity was an issue was the ice show, and I would think if you tried to make reservations on board you could do it. The diving show has a limited capacity too, but you can always stand at the back or sit at the high top tables and watch it.

 

We enjoyed eating our breakfast at the Solarium Bistro or main dining room. For lunch we loved the Park café. I personally did not care for the Windjammer buffet, the week we were on there was not adequate seating for the amount of people on board, it was not kept very clean and I was not impressed with the quality or variety of foods. My prior two Royal Caribbean cruises had been on the Freedom and I remember liking the Windjammer on that ship. But holiday weeks are a whole different ball game, maybe other weeks the Windjammer is better. There are plenty of other very good options!!

Edited December 4, 2016 by sunsetbeachgal

[Jlrdajh]

We sailed Oasis in May and had made reservations for all the shows in advance. Once on board, we changed our mind as to when we wanted to go to certain shows and only used our reservations for CATS and the Comedy Club. We went standby for all the other shows and had absolutely no issues getting into any of the shows. We actually saw Oasis of Dreams twice with no reservations.

 

As far as food, we avoided the Windjammer buffet because of the poor layout. Park Cafe is a great place for made to order salads, sandwiches, soups, etc. Wipeout Cafe was our go to location for breakfast since they make cooked to order omelets there and cooked to order eggs. There is also a buffet with everything we needed for breakfast. We tried the free breakfast at Johnny Rockets (they are a fee restaurant rest of the day) and that was good too but we preferred Wipeout. Sorrentos pizza is ok but they also have a make your own option, where you choose everything you want on it and it is cooked to order. That pizza is significantly better than the premade pizza. Look at the compass for all the complimentary alternatives to the WJ, it is very easy to avoid the WJ, if you so choose.

 

A nice place to sit and read is at the rear of the ship, on the jogging track. There are nice chairs tucked along the railing overlooking the wake of the ship off the track that get you away from everyone. Central Park is a great place at night for sitting, listening to music, right near Park Cafe.

 

We loved Oasis and can't wait to go on Allure this coming May.:)

Thanks for the great advice. We will definitely be avoiding Windjammer Cafe if there are better alternatives. Hate it when there isn't even anyplace to sit.

 

I will check out that great place to sit and read!

Thanks.

[Jlrdajh]

SunsetBeachGal (was unable to reply with quote) -- thanks for your response and advice!

[sunsetbeachgal]

SunsetBeachGal (was unable to reply with quote) -- thanks for your response and advice!

 

 

Definitely check out Solarium Bistro for breakfast. It is a lovely buffet in a quiet atmosphere with lots of Windows. Everyone in our group loved it!

 

 

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[Pipo]

I've been on Oasis Class three time, and believe me, there is ALWAYS room for more people on entertainment activities. The real challenge are specialty restaurants on non-formal nights.

[wampuscat7]

We were on the Oasis the week of Thanksgiving. We made our reservations in advance since we were traveling with a family and had traditional dining so less flexibility when we did the shows. It looked to me like the only shows where capacity was an issue was the ice show, and I would think if you tried to make reservations on board you could do it. The diving show has a limited capacity too, but you can always stand at the back or sit at the high top tables and watch it.

 

We enjoyed eating our breakfast at the Solarium Bistro or main dining room. For lunch we loved the Park café. I personally did not care for the Windjammer buffet, the week we were on there was not adequate seating for the amount of people on board, it was not kept very clean and I was not impressed with the quality or variety of foods. My prior two Royal Caribbean cruises had been on the Freedom and I remember liking the Windjammer on that ship. But holiday weeks are a whole different ball game, maybe other weeks the Windjammer is better. There are plenty of other very good options!!

 

That's unfortunate. We ate dinner in Windjammer 3 of the 4 nights, including on formal night, because our toddler had a hard time with the long dinners in the main dining room. We also ate there for lunch once or twice. We didn't have any trouble at all finding places to sit. The only time I saw it packed was on debarkation day, which is going to happen on any ship.

 

OP, if you don't mind spending a little on a specialty restaurant, Sabor was by far the best food we had on our trip. (BTW, we also ate at Sabor and at the Italian restaurant without reservations. We just walked up and asked if they had room. The teppenyaki place also said they could accommodate us, but we decided against it. That said, we did go to dinner early, since we had a little one, so perhaps we missed the rush? Or maybe we just cruised at a slow time of year.)

Edited December 6, 2016 by wampuscat7

[rajju077]

Promenade will feel crowded, unless its after midnight or early morning.

[akcruz]

Promenade will feel crowded, unless its after midnight or early morning.

We never found that unless there was a parade or $10 sale going on. Too many other places around the ship to go which spreads out the people.

 

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[Ery]

We never found that unless there was a parade or $10 sale going on. Too many other places around the ship to go which spreads out the people.

 

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I agree akcruz, aside from a sale, the first day or the parade the only "busy" time on the Promenade was just before dinner because if all the photo areas set up, but that's any ship on any line near the dining room.

 

 

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[rajju077]

We never found that unless there was a parade or $10 sale going on. Too many other places around the ship to go which spreads out the people.

 

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Perhaps our sailings were different.

 

Promenade was always crowded for us. During sales, it was even crazier.

[reallyitsmema]

We did not find the Royal Promenade crowded all the time either. During parades, sales and the 70's party it was an absolutely zoo. Other times of the day, it wasn't bad, even when they were filming that teen series thing that they show on the cabin tvs, it was only crowded near the venue they had taken over to film.

[EatonDoolittle]

Perhaps our sailings were different.

 

Promenade was always crowded for us. During sales, it was even crazier.

 

Yes, I believe it depends on the demographic. It was always crowded on the second sailing from PC last month.

 

More senior folks seem to enjoy spending the day sitting inside the mall there, just staring at people. I noticed it on the Explorer OS also out of Port Canaveral twice last year.

 

More kids and younger active people will indeed be out taking advantage of other offerings.

[akcruz]

Yes, I believe it depends on the demographic. It was always crowded on the second sailing from PC last month.

 

More senior folks seem to enjoy spending the day sitting inside the mall there, just staring at people. I noticed it on the Explorer OS also out of Port Canaveral twice last year.

 

More kids and younger active people will indeed be out taking advantage of other offerings.

Could be, we have usually sailed during the summer months when lots of families are onboard. Have also had great weather so the outside venues were all open. This applies to all ships with promenade areas.

 

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[ashleyxmarie]

I will keep that in mind. I guess you can hardly avoid the buffet at breakfast and lunch.

 

Also note, the Solarium breakfast buffet (as an alternative to the Windjammer) is a lot quieter and less crowded. They tend to have "healthier" options (to an extent), and we ate there every morning. It was very pleasant so give that a try to avoid people!

[north29]

As a long time RC cruiser, if I now have to worry about seeing shows, dining, maybe my Cruising days are coming to an end, at least with RC and BIG SHIPS. Maybe, It might be a good time for me to try some other cruise lines, many of them are offering the PPG's and drink package as perks.

[rajju077]

As a long time RC cruiser, if I now have to worry about seeing shows, dining, maybe my Cruising days are coming to an end, at least with RC and BIG SHIPS. Maybe, It might be a good time for me to try some other cruise lines, many of them are offering the PPG's and drink package as perks.

 

As more cruisers become loyalists, and more loyalists cruise RC, I am guessing there will be concerns about reserving shows, dining etc.

On our cruise on Oasis last month, I had booked all our shows way in advance only to get them cancelled 1 day before sailing.

Still got to see them by standing in the line. Missed out on dining reservations as well.

 

However, these things needed to be considered and should not necessarily tarnish the cruise experience. You should always consider plans falling through and then dredge up Plan Bs or Cs.

[BDCC]

On our cruise on Oasis last month, I had booked all our shows way in advance only to get them cancelled 1 day before sailing.

Still got to see them by standing in the line. Missed out on dining reservations as well.

 

Just curious, did you find out how your show reservations all got cancelled?

[rajju077]

Just curious, did you find out how your show reservations all got cancelled?

 

Aqua theater stuff got cancelled due to bad weather, and then in the middle of the show due to some technical issues.

CATs, no idea why our reservations got cancelled.