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Oasis - Dec 4-11, 2016 Mini Review

poncho1973

By poncho1973,
in Royal Caribbean International

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poncho1973

poncho1973

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Just back from our second trip on the mega-ship Oasis and thought I'd post a few things. My reviews don't include pictures or a lot of jibber-jabber, but I try to cover the highlights.

 

This trip was the Western route (Labadee, Falmouth, Cozumel) and left from Port Canaveral.

 

 

You can see my mini review from the 1st Oasis trip here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2140386

 

You can see my extremely helpful (the help came from other posters, not me, but was so useful to us this trip) thread of questions/answers about JS here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2413813

 

 

The Port:

This trip confirmed that PC blows the doors off of PE.

 

We had no trouble parking (parked at Park Port Canaveral... ugh, they are almost as pricey as the actual port now... $12 a day PPC vs. $16 a day Port when you pre-pay) and getting on board. For only $4 a day difference, we'll probably go back to the port for the time/convenience factor. I saved $32, but spent an extra 60-90 minutes (both ends of the trip combined) and had to tip 2 guys (loader/un-loader) each direction... 2 bags x 2 guys x 2 trips... and a big chunk of that $32 saved has evaporated. That no longer seems worth it. When it was $5 a day, that rocked.

 

We parked about 11:30am and were on the ship about 12:30pm. This is pretty good. The security line was long, but wasn't crazy.

 

The check-in was the worst we've ever had since we have been coming to PC. They had a complete n00b directing people and he was (no fault of his own, I'm sure) sending people to all the wrong locations. This would be our last Emerald check-in, but he sent us to the handicapped line. We tried to head to the green balloons (thinking... EMERALD = GREEN???) and he kept insisting we needed to go to the end of the row. We did and the lady asked us what our disability was. I laughed and pointed to the poor guy sending people to the wrong location. She apologized and went to chat with him.

 

The line wasn't too long, but the lady who checked us in was fairly rude. She asked for my credit card and I handed her the wrong one. We only have 2 cards. I made a mental error. Instead of just saying "Didn't you do your paperwork with a different card, sir?" she decided to take the passive-aggressive route and (paraphrasing) say "Hrrrmmmppph. I'm never happy when people don't remember which card they used. Now I have to re-run everything on this booking! That's a pain. It shouldn't be this hard for me."

 

I literally was standing there with my wallet in my hand. I said "Oh, I'm sorry. Here is the correct card. My mistake." She said "No use now, I've already started the whole process over. You need to know which card you used, sir. It's a simple thing." She was snippy and a pain in the butt about it instead of just asking me for the correct card. It was MY mistake, but SHE made it worse instead of better. Then she was just grumpy and I believe attempted to punish us by slowing the entire process down. Longest check-in we've ever had.

 

We went up the ramp and up the ramp and up the last ramp to the ship. We boarded in the middle of the Promenade on Deck #5 and we were on the ship. Our room was almost ready. After a quick walk around to refresh our memories of the main section of the ship and grab a quick glass of water, we went to Deck #6. They had already dropped the gate and we walked straight to our JS room #6244 on the hump.

 

The Ship:

Still absolutely love it. We had the aforementioned JS outside balcony room Mid-ship/Port-side on Deck 6. It was an excellent location on the hump. We had the full wide balcony room, not the angled balcony. It is HANDS DOWN the best room I've ever stayed in on a ship. We are ruined. We're not as established in life and flowing in $$$ as many of the posters here who stay in JS every trip, but WOW... this was the life.

 

It should be noted that we got a call from the upgrade fairy about 3 days prior to sailing offering the Royal Suite for a mere $500 total more, but someone else had taken it when I called them back several hours later. I wanted to know more about what we'd get on top, because $500 divided by 2 people, divided by 7 days seemed like NOTHING to upgrade.

 

Our stateroom attendant, Dwight, was excellent and attentive. Note, I didn't wave a magic $20 at him when we boarded and he was still great. We did tip him extra after the cruise, but the magic $20 "get anything in the world you want on the ship the entire time you cruise" card wasn't played again. Much like any other cruise we've taken.

 

We ate in the MDR, the Windjammer, Wipe Out Café, Solarium Café, Sabor, Park Café, and best of all... COASTAL KITCHEN!!! We also ate at the chef's table on the first night of the cruise.

 

For the pay places:

Sabor was our favorite place to chill out and eat on the entire ship. My wife loves the tableside guac. I'm a fan of just hanging out there.

The Chef's Table experience was wonderful. It took us almost 4 hours to complete and it was great. We had Constantine as our sommelier and Garrett as our chef. They did a great job. We signed up after being offered a nice discount by the staff up there. It is normally $100 a person. We didn't pay that.

 

The free places:

The MDR on the 3rd deck is way nicer than upstairs. That was nice. We ate there one night and the new menu group wasn't extremely impressive. We looked at it every day and it seemed to match those posted here.

Coastal Kitchen is open to JS people FOR DINNER ONLY if you make a reservation. We did and ate there 5 times. They only have 3 menus, though. However, this was like heaven. It's quiet. It's private. The service is a million miles over the MDR. They allowed us to order mixed drinks/cocktails/straight liquor from the suite bar without charge during dinner. Wine and beer were for charge. I'm not sure if they are on CC, I never asked, but we met the nicest Pinnacle couple (Jim & Dixie) and they showed us the ropes. They were beyond sweet to us. We were kind to our servers in the CK and left them a small extra tip each night because they handled us so well. Everyone treated us so well in there. It was like the old days of cruising!

 

We saw:

A show in the comedy club.

The L&M show in the Opal.

The ice show in Studio B.

A few jazz shows in the Jazz club.

Many nights dancing in Boleros with these wonderful older Spanish couples we met.

A big band in Dazzles... which wasn't as good as the band last time.

The big water show... which wasn't as good as the last time. The main girl was more distracting... she had a body full of weird tats and used a lot of odd mannerisms. Not like I'm anti-tat, I'm not at all... but the main actor in a cast shouldn't detract from the show, they should amplify the show.

The Quest in Studio B. Extremely short compared to usual and very bland.

We also saw the movie Trolls in 3d in the Opal. That was a much better movie than anticipated.

 

We hit all of the venues, even Blaze this time, which we never saw open on our first trip on this ship.

 

We didn't sign up for the M&M, so we didn't hit that.

 

We did go to the returning C&A party in the Aquatheater. It was uneventful and seemed shorter than usual.

 

We loved the zip line and were out on the outdoor deck a lot. The rock wall was much higher than the other ships, but great. Love doing that. We didn't do the Flow Rider, but we watched it a lot! We still have never done this.

 

The Solarium was AWESOME! Our favorite solarium, so far! The attendants were great with the towel chair hogs and keeping kids out. One lady tried FIVE TIMES to sneak her daughters in. I'm not sure why she was trying so hard. The girls were only like 6-8 years old. It's not like you couldn't see them from a mile away. Yet, she came back five times while we were there. The attendants were on them instantly. She pretended not to speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. She just would try to move to another pool or hot tub with them. I commended the attendants and when the woman who seemed to be their boss came by with a clipboard, I got her attention and commended them to her, as well.

 

Vintages and the Atlas & Globe were nice. We relaxed there several times.

 

The Ports:

Labadee. Honestly, I like Coco Cay better. However, since this ship can't go there, it was 100x better than Nassau. We have never been here, because of storm re-routing and political protests. It was nice to finally get here. It's nice enough, but the swimming is poor and it's just not as good as the other private ports we've visited. It was ok and if the zip line wasn't so expensive for a 2 minute ride, we'd have done it. I can't justify that. We did a ton of exploring and visited every place you are allowed to.

 

Falmouth. We're just not Jamaica fans. It's the scariest port we've ever been to. Too many drugs, too much crime, too many horror stories. I've got a close friend that is Jamaican and he keeps telling me that he'll hook me up with a good guide some visit. We just stayed in the port this time and stayed on the ship. The weather was supposed to STINK on this day, so we didn't pre-book with an outside group. We didn't book with the ship because everything seemed over-priced and under-interesting. I'd still like to visit the Blue Hole, but that may have to wait until we port in another city.

 

Cozumel. We've done Isla Passion, Mr. Sanchos, and other things here. Since we didn't do anything in Falmouth, we decided to spend a bit more and do the Dolphin Discovery. We'd read up and knew it would EASILY be twice the price of the posted cost because they don't allow cameras and you'd always be tempted to buy the photos (we did, but talked them down as advised in that thread) and got a beach massage for 2. It was a great time.

 

PLEASE KNOW THAT IF YOU DO THIS... DO NOT BANK ON THE WIFI PHONE DOWNLOAD. This did not work at all for either of us. We got the cd, so it didn't matter, but they push this app download and instant photo-to-phone thing. Read the reviews in the app store. Doesn't work at all. No bueno! This is a waste of effort.

 

Conclusion:

This was one of our favorite cruises ever. We had an amazing time. It was romantic, it was relaxing, and it was a bit more posh than usual for us.

 

This trip (being 14 points instead of the typical 7 because of the JS) pushed us well into Diamond and we'll undoubtedly get a whole fresh set of experiences on our next cruise because of that. We're excited about that and actually plan on trying a Celebrity cruise now that we've crossed that threshold and will get the nicer upgrades on them now, too.

 

Thanks for reading.

Edited by poncho1973
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poncho1973

poncho1973

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Drew Devine was the CD.

 

Margot AKA Margolicious was the AD.

 

 

Both were fine. Both didn't detract in any way from the cruise. We talked to Margo once and she was a pretty sweet person. We'd sailed with Drew multiple times on multiple ships and he's the same dude every time.

 

We're not big into CD/AD as a deciding factor, as long as they aren't obnoxious (I'M LOOKING AT YOU BECKY THOMPSON!!! Even though she isn't on ships any longer) and these two are just fine.

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sunsetbeachgal

sunsetbeachgal

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Thanks for the review- We have friends that boarded this past Sunday and they also had a very long and bad embarkation.

 

 

 

We will be boarding this Sunday. Hope it gets better-

 

 

We boarded the Sunday before Thanksgiving and while the security line was long it was extremely orderly, moved along, was covered and there were restrooms. Once past security the process was quick. Honestly with this many people you need to set your expectations accordingly. We did and thought it was just fine, considering!

 

 

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poncho1973

poncho1973

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Bob,

 

It was a bit odd. My wife asked about wine, they brought her a menu with prices. She asked if there were any wines included like the mixed drinks and he said no.

 

I believe the cheapest wine on that list was still close to $20 a glass.

 

It seemed odd, but he specifically said "it doesn't include wine or beer."

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poncho1973

poncho1973

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I did forget to mention that we also saw the headline show of Mo5iac (noted on the compass as "Moasic" repeatedly) the acapella group.

 

My wife LOVED them. She's a 90s kid that was really big into 90s R&B groups like Bel Biv DeVoe, Boys II Men, En Vogue, Whitney, Color Me Badd, TLC, etc. etc. etc. They did a ton of songs from many eras, but seemed to favor the 90s R&B sounds.

 

It was a good show and they were very entertaining. They were also informative and explained their processes & techniques. It was a positive and happy show. I wasn't such a fan of the songs, but appreciated the show for what it was.

 

 

 

 

On an unrelated note... we actually stood with these 5 guys out on the sports deck for a long time watching people participate in the toys. I asked my wife if the "goofball in the neon blue man-bun" might qualify as the ultimate hipster. Said guy turned out to be the most talented and hilarious member of the band. At the time, we thought they were just buds on a cruise. Turned out they were the headline entertainer.

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bobkat12

bobkat12

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Thanks for the report. Odd that they allowed cocktails in Coastal Kitchen, but not wine.

 

 

We had a GS on Oasis, and as diamond members at the time, I had free glasses of wine while dining in the CK, as well as the diamond lounge prior.

 

 

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troykahack

troykahack

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Thanks for the report. Odd that they allowed cocktails in Coastal Kitchen, but not wine.

 

Ask Bob...

 

We are in GS, if one eats in Coastal Kitchen during the SL cocktail hours, are all drinks on the list complimentary?

 

We both get DP but looking at this..... we get Complimentary drinks in the Casino and SL..... might be better off without package (hope Royal is not reading)

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bobkat12

bobkat12

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Ask Bob...

 

 

 

We are in GS, if one eats in Coastal Kitchen during the SL cocktail hours, are all drinks on the list complimentary?

 

 

 

We both get DP but looking at this..... we get Complimentary drinks in the Casino and SL..... might be better off without package (hope Royal is not reading)

 

 

Free

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bertrande

bertrande

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Thanks for the review. We sail the same itinerary one year from now and it will also be the cruise that pushes up to Diamond. We are based in the Far East so a Caribbean cruise is a once in a lifetime trip involving lots of travelling and other logistics so we are glad the ship is wonderful even if the itinerary can be improved.

 

 

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poncho1973

poncho1973

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I need to report that there were NO PEPPER GRINDERS in the MDR. I asked and was told they didn't have them any more. They couldn't even pull one out from their station.

 

There were pepper grinders on EVERY SINGLE TABLE in the Coastal Kitchen. That alone should get you to get a suite room. :p

 

 

 

 

The ship also ran completely out of bananas. This is not a joke. OUT OF BANANAS. I checked near any and all condiments. I checked near the other fruit. I asked a waiter. "Sir, we are out of bananas."

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poncho1973

poncho1973

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One of the funniest overheard comments...

 

*Guy in his 50s?? walking down the hall in front of me with a couple in the late 20s/early 30s?? on the last night of the cruise*

 

"Never, ever, ever set your bags in the hallway like these fools. It's ridiculous that people do it. Every single cruise, dozens and dozens of bags are stolen because of it. You look out in the hallway in the early evening and there are bags. They don't even stop to think that they won't be picked up until around midnight. But boom! The bags are gone! Royal's people aren't the ones picking them up!"

 

"How does the ship let that happen?"

 

"CAVEAT EMPTOR MAN! CAVEAT EMPTOR!!! LET THE BUYER BEWARE! It literally happens over and over each sailing."

 

"That's horrible."

 

"People are stupid and you can't fix stupid. Don't be stupid."

 

 

 

 

Indeed, sir. Indeed.

Edited by poncho1973
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