Did the Chipmunk Survive? My Mini Review of Oasis May 14 - May 21 (Western)

[SesameStreetCruisers]

less chipmunk, more ship. :p

[MsSheryl]

Enjoying your review - looking forward to more!

[CruisinCons]

Thanks for the tip on the water show; I went back to my Cruise Planer to see what I had booked, and unfortunately I have it on day 2. But...it's the first time they are offering it. Night 1 has the ice show. Hope the weather and the seas are cooperative so I can see it!

[conandrob240]

less chipmunk, more ship. :p

 

Seriously!

[PrincessBelle39]

less chipmunk, more ship. :p

 

I like the chipmunk just as much as the review.

[jamon]

very interesting...

[dd likes to cruise]

Thanks for the tip on the water show; I went back to my Cruise Planer to see what I had booked, and unfortunately I have it on day 2. But...it's the first time they are offering it. Night 1 has the ice show. Hope the weather and the seas are cooperative so I can see it!

 

Don't worry, on our cruise in February, the only one cancelled was the first day. Technical problem - all others shows were fine.

[MrsKC08]

Hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day. Im spending time catching up on house responsibilities but I will be back tomorrow with more.

To those commenting "less chipmunk", you are free to skip those posts! This is, after all my review!

 

 

Lynn & Ken

[MrsKC08]

Don't worry, on our cruise in February, the only one cancelled was the first day. Technical problem - all others shows were fine.

 

 

Waters in February are also less rocky in February as we have found in our cruises. February has become our favorite month to cruise!

 

 

Lynn & Ken

[MrsKC08]

I hope everyone had a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. I spent most of my 3 days off trying to catch up on house work and laundry and those things that we always have to do when returning back from vacation.

 

Anyway...when I left we were finishing dinner on night 2 (Formal night) and heading to the Opal Theater for the showing of Cats.

 

During my months of preparation for this cruise, I had read countless comments from people saying that this was one show that you can miss. Many people stating that it wasn't good and it was a waste of 3 hours. I had also read about people leaving during intermission and that the second half was much better than the first half. I'm certain you have also read some of those same comments and reviews. Now, I'm not going to tell you NOT to see it because I don't think that would be right of anyone to give you that kind of advice. Everyone should treat their vacation as their own and do what they enjoy and use their time as they see fit. For me, I knew that this was a show that I wanted to see, and I knew Ken would tag along (you rarely see one of us without the other when we are on a cruise). I was a music major in college and I am a fan of musicals and Broadway shows and I'm also familiar with the story of Cats and the plot. I had warned Ken about what other reviewers had said and I told him that I was sure he would not enjoy it, but he was still happy to attend the show. After all, we have never seen a bad production show on any RCCL cruise we have been on.

 

The show....well, the performances were great and the costumes were purrrfect. :) But I honestly think that after seeing it (yes, we stayed past intermission) that it is just the wrong show for a cruise. First, it's LONNNGGG! The show does have a 15 minute intermission, but it is over 3 hours. That is a very long time to be in a show on a cruise. Second, it is mostly all singing with very little dialogue to go along with it. Third, it is a hard story to follow if you don't already know what it is about. Ken said that if he would have heard "Jellicle cats" one more time, he would have taken off his shoe and thrown it at the stage....:o:eek:

 

After the show it was off to the cabin for the evening.

 

Next...LABADEE

[MrsKC08]

LABADEE

 

It's hard to believe that in all our RCCL cruises that we had not been to Labadee before this cruise. Well, I should say that Ken was on a cruise that tendered at Labadee many years ago before there was even a dock, but it was nothing compared to what it is now. We enjoy the private island days, but love it so much more when we don't have to bother with a tender!

 

We were off the ship by about 8:15 and made our way over to Adrenaline Beach. On our way we found some pretty awesome dancers to entertain folks as they were coming to the island.

 

A nice man helped us to find the perfect place and brought us a couple lounge chairs. We tipped him accordingly for his help. Although we had some cloud cover, it still a little warm but not too bad that you were melting. The water was pretty chilly so after dipping my toes, I decided there would be no swimming today.

 

The zipline goes across the water here at Adrenaline Beach, so we watch as each group went down. Of course, we also counted how much $$ RCCL was making with each group. At just under $100 per person, they were really raking it in, as I'm sure they do with each day at Labadee.

 

 

Once the bars opened (about 10am or so), it was time for us to try the famous Labadoozie.

 

FYI, these are already pre-made without alcohol in big coolers. If you want them with the liquor they simply add that on top and you mix it in. They were definitely good!

 

The buffet lunch opens at 11:30 at various locations around the area with your typical bbq type of food (burgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, mac n cheese, rib pieces). The lunch was just "ok" for us though. We found that the food wasn't really hot which was a bit of a bummer because it looked so good. Maybe we just got food from the wrong line, but it was a little disappointing.

 

I really wanted to walk around and look much more than we did, but we could tell that the rain clouds were coming toward us and the people around us were starting to get pretty loud. It wasn't really a big deal, but we were finding ourselves not being about to just veg and relax as we were hoping and for Ken...napping was not going to happen. So, we started to pack things up and make our way back toward the boat.

 

My grandpa would have loved this! I can almost see him napping there. This was also a prime photo opportunity place. People were lined up at these little boats to get photos taken.

 

Back to the boat we go. We enjoyed Labadee and hope to visit there again on another cruise.

[MrsKC08]

Once back on board it was time to hit the hot tub since we didn't have any water time at Labadee so we went straight to the Solarium. We were lucky enough to find a hot tub with no one in it. In fact, there wasn't very many people in the Solarium when we got there. I assume many were on the island which is always fine with us.

 

I had heard before we cruised that the hot tubs on the ship were very hot. We were always in the same one throughout the week and didn't seem to think it was too hot, but we are hot tub people and tend to like the temp to be around 102-104.

 

Dinner was in the MDR again this evening, and service was once again on point and the food was very good. Our MTD experience was certainly turning around and we were enjoying our wait staff. I was so surprised that even with MTD that we always seemed to be sitting by the same folks every night in the same area. I knew that we had made our request to be where we were after our first night issues, but it appeared that other my time dining folks were making the same requests.

[MrsKC08]

Luggage Valet

We had made the decision before we ever sailed that we would definitely look into the luggage valet service. We had thought about it when we sailed on Harmony in November, but decided against it since we were already doing the transfer with the cruiseline to get back to the FLL airport after that cruise. However, this time my dad was going to pick us up from the terminal and drop us off at the airport and since our return flight wasn't until 5pm I knew we would be exploring some before we were dropped off. I really didn't want luggage in my dads car.

According to the documentation we received about luggage valet, we needed to sign up for this by Wednesday of the cruise. With a few clicks on the remote I was able to get the needed information about the luggage valet and even sign up for it through our TV in our stateroom.

If you see on the left side of the screen, it states the cost is $20 per person. However everything I've seen online showed the cost at $25 per person. I don't know...at this point I am thinking that maybe I am getting some discount by signing up for it early? Either way, I enrolled and got the confirmation, which I snapped a photo of in case there was any issues.

 

Just an FYI, if you do this..it will show "enrolled" and not "Confirmed" until Saturday around lunch time. Don't fret, they have to wait until they receive information back from your airline.

[MrsKC08]

After dinner, we were back to the Opal Theater for our Headliner Show....

 

But first, a stop off at our favorite bar on the ship, On Air. Why was it our favorite? The staff here was just fantastic all week. There were times when we would have the place almost to ourselves when having a drink before dinner. But don't be fooled, this place gets packed out when there is Karaoke or some kind of event or game going on in here. People were bringing chairs from Sorentos and even Boleros.

 

Abbacadabra

This group was fantastic! They were really good at being in "character" for the people they were portraying. Their singing and stage show was just as you would have expected if you were seeing the actual band Abba.

 

 

After this show we just stayed put in our seats because one of the best shows at sea was happening at 10:30....THE LOVE AND MARRIAGE SHOW!

We have seen a lot of good couples on this game show over the years, but the "seasoned" couple on our cruise was the best we've seen. I think the entire cruise ship was ready to adopt them after this show. They of course won, and rightfully so. All I can say is that I hope I have as much fun when I'm their age! ;);p

 

Up next...JAMAICA!

[MrsKC08]

Falmouth, Jamaica

This was probably the one port that Ken was not looking forward to going to. He had been here before many years ago...long before me. I on the other hand, was looking forward to being somewhere I haven't been before. We have avoided cruises going to Jamaica mainly because of all the things we have read and heard about. I will definitely say that most of what you hear is true, and you have to be very aware of your surroundings and be safe here, but there is a lot of interesting history and beautiful areas around.

 

We chose a cruiseline sponsored excursion for this port because of security and safety and even still, Ken's head was on a swivel most of the day. I chose the Historic Falmouth and Ocho Rios Highlights tour and it was just perfect for us. It was a full day tour (about 5 hours) and included a lunch on the beach. Our tour guide, Richard, was a delight and very informative and welcoming to many questions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are Almond Trees....and they grow wild all over Jamaica. Theo would have loved for me to bring some of these home, but I don't think I would have gotten very far with them.

[MrsKC08]

After our tour of Jamaica we headed back to the ship. It was a rainy day at port, by the signs of the puddles and wet people and vendors. We were lucky though, as we just had a few sprinkles while on our tour.

I will mention, that they excursion to Blue Hole was cancelled by Royal due to heavy rain that the island had the prior day (schools were even closed the day before we arrived).

 

We were back on board by about 5 and to our room to rest. Our dinner reservations were for 7:30 this evening and then late night comedy at 10:30 so the little rest was much needed after a full day of exploring Jamaica. Once again, dinner was very good this night. My notes say that I had a seafood cake and caesar salad along with Chicken Cordon Bleu. It was probably one of the best I have ever had. It was so good!

 

Comedy Show (Adult)

Our cruise featured two comedians. I'd have to go back and look at my compasses (which I still have) to see what their names were. They were both very funny and definitely adult topics. The only complaint I would even have about this was the venue. It is very small and almost seems like an after thought for the design of the ship. The seating is strange and uncomfortable and there is no bar located in this venue (unlike the comedy club on Harmony), although they did have servers to get your cocktails prior to the show starting.

 

There were always big lines on the "standby" line for the comedy shows all week. One thing to note, make your reservations for this BEFORE you cruise. Because of the small venue, these fill up quickly and they don't make reservations or even changes to reservations once you are onboard.

 

Day 5-Sea Day

Like our previous sea day, we started off in the Solarium and had our breakfast in the solarium bistro. There is a very limited offering in there, but it will do for breakfast. We aren't big breakfast eaters anyway so it was fine for us. Again, the scrambled eggs are not edible in my opinion but my sweet husband was fine eating them.

 

We weren't moving very sailing very fast this day so there was absolutely NO wind coming through the solarium and it was starting to get pretty hot about 10am. We hung out for a while, but I was starting to sweat and feel like I was baking, so we eventually left our cozy spot in the clam chair and wandered the ship. By lunch time we had found our way to Central Park and had our lunch at Park Cafe. After lunch, it was time for the always funny Belly Flop competition at the Aqua Theater. This show really brought out the crowd. There was nowhere to sit so we planted ourselves at the Sabor bar.

 

This was our second formal night and we had early dinner again because we had show reservations at 7:30 for Come Fly with Me.

 

The show was very good and featured the gymnasts and acrobats from the aqua show. There was also a silk aerialist couple who performed throughout the show. TIP: sit in the back raised lower level on deck 4 or the balcony deck 5. There will be people flying overhead and if you are down low, you will have to constantly be looking over your head.

 

Once the show was over, we made our way to the Promenade for the 70s dance party which is always fun. We found a seat in front of the pub and watched people go by until it was time for the party and it was fun. I love seeing the entertainment staff all dressed in 70s/disco garb and dancing those old disco moves. The only thing I kept asking myself was..."where is our cruise director?" I remember on our first ever Freedom cruise, our CD came out as the Indian of the Village People and really got the party started. Of course in all our cruises, he was the best cruise director ever.....Richard Spacey. He has since moved on to Celebrity cruises.

 

Anyway, we kept the party going after the street party and made our way to Dazzles (first time of the cruise) to listen to more 70s music and hopefully get some dancing in.

[hucifer]

I am enjoying your review, even the chipmunk parts. ;)

[MrsKC08]

Day 6 - Cozumel aka "The Best Day of the Week"

The last time we were in Cozumel was the first time I had ever been there and also coincidentally my first cruise back in 2008. I don't remember much of the time spent in Cozumel back then other than Margaritaville, Carlos and Charlies and Senior Frogs. Seriously, my husband is not quite sure how I made it back to the ship back then. But of course, back then I didn't realize that the tequila is a little different there than it is in the US.

 

Anyway, I was looking forward to being back there and had hoped to relive a "little" of the past but more importantly I was looking forward to our excursion in this port. We were doing the dolphin experience at Dolphinaris. Much more on that in a moment.

 

When we got off the ship, the first thing I noticed was that it seemed different. I mean, I know it was 9 years ago and that things change and that I was a little inebriated but still...it was definitely different.

 

This was what I remembered of Senior Frogs from my first trip...

And I recall that it was practically next door to Carlos and Charlies.

 

This was the Senior Frogs we saw in Cozumel..

 

The Margaritaville was also different than what we remembered. The shopping area was also different than what we remembered, but this area looked like it hadn't been there but a few years. By the time the day was over, we were convinced that we docked at a different area than we did when we were there in 2008. But I must admit that it was really messing with my head. Maybe someone can confirm that who has cruised there a time or two.

 

We booked our excursion through the cruiseline instead of Dolphinaris directly. I had checked with them a couple times and even called and did the online chat. There was one thing that kept me from booking directly with them, and that was the cancellation policy. If you book directly with Dolphinaris and you cancel OR even if your ship misses the port and doesn't dock (trust me, it can happen), you don't get your monies back. They will give you a credit but it needs to be used within 12 months. Chances are, most people are not going to return to Cozumel within 12 months.

 

About 6 weeks before our sailing, Royal was offering some good discounts on excursions. Even though I had already booked and paid for both our excursions, I was able to cancel and rebook at the cheaper rate saving quite a bit of money (30%). WIN!

[MrsKC08]

Dolphinaris

We met at our designated area just at the end of the pier near the open area of Margaritaville. It was already hot and there were a ton of people waiting around for their excursions. It is here where we met some wonderful new friends, Janet and Tom. The four of us hit it off right away and I knew we would have fun together with the dolphins.

 

A short cab ride and we were there. As a high school student, I spent my spring time and summers working at Sea World and have always had a love for these creatures. Even though I have been up close and touched them before, I've never had the opportunity to be in the water with them, and this was something that I was most looking forward to.

 

 

 

 

They do offer good sized lockers for you to put your stuff in for $14. I know, it is pricey, but we wanted a secure place to put our things since you can't take phones, cameras, jewelry, etc into the dolphin area. They do have some public covered areas by the different areas where the groups set up for their experience, but again...it is not secure. You can choose to leave your stuff there though if you wish. After a quick rinse to get my sunblock off, we went to an area to be grouped into smaller groups and then in a line to get our life vests. Then it was time to get to our area of the "pool". We were given some brief instructions and then into the water we went. We decided to keep our swim shoes on, but many people took theirs off. Again, your choice to wear them or leave them. If they are regular shoes or sandals (including flip flops) they will ask that you take them off before getting into the water.

 

The 40 minutes we were with our dolphin was wonderful. I would do it again in a heartbeat. We learned so much, and she was just so gentle. You could tell that these animals are very well cared for and the facility is pristine. I even asked how they get their dolphins (all the backlash that has been spouted over the many years) and he joked "Amazon". Funny, as much time and money that I spend on Amazon I've never seen dolphins for sale. Ha! But in all seriousness, he did say that they get them there locally, they are after all right there at the ocean! He said that they are supported by their government and do a lot of research and scientific things with not only their animals but wild animals in the ocean. They go out regularly and take blood samples from other sea life and test them. They bring local school children once per month and educate them on sea life and the dolphins and so forth. I wish my field trips were that cool when I was in school.

 

After our time with the dolphins we went back to our locker and changed into dry clothes to be able to enjoy the rest of our time there. The included lunch was just "ok", but it was included so we ate. You have options of some mexican dishes like rice, beans and tacos and you also have american foods like hot dogs, burgers and fries. Drinks, included alcoholic drinks are also included. We had a couple margartias, but they were not very strong. No worries, again...included!

 

After lunch, we went to look at our photos from our experience. Photo prices are pretty high. Single prints are $29 each on a disk, or you can get 3 for $75. They also had larger packages as well. I thought there would be some wiggle room and the ability to negotiate, but there was not. I did hear one of the workers say that if they didn't have as many ships in port that day then the prices would be more flexible, but the place was packed and they weren't hurting for people buying photos. We decided on just 2 photos (1 of each of us). We were delighted to see that on our disk of photos, they added 5 other photos as well of various shots of the facility and the dolphins. I also want to mention that our new friends, Janet and Tom had neglected to bring their cash or credit cards with them on the excursion and left them back on the ship. They talked to a person there at Dolphinaris and they agreed to send them an email with their photos that they could purchase once they got home. I thought that was very kind of Dolphinaris to offer that for them. Of course, I would have never thought to even ask if they would do that.

 

TIP: If you cannot swim, do NOT book this excursion. We were surprised to find out that there were a couple people in our large group that purchased the excursion and couldn't swim so they had to sit out. However, they did not get a refund.

 

TIP2: If you plan to be an observer, you must purchase the excursion as an observer. You cannot just ride the taxi to the facility and watch. Again, we were surprised to find a party of 8 people who were in our original large group and only 3 were going to do the actual swim, the rest just wanted to watch! Again, you have to purchase the "observer" ticket before you try to get in the taxi to head to the facility.

 

[Simmons11781]

I agree that reservations for Oasis of Dreams should be made on the first night if possible. We had made ours for the third night, but since we finished dinner a bit early, we went to check out the show on Night 1. It was amazing. So good, in fact, that we went back on night 3 for our reserved show. Sorry about your MTD experience. Ours was great. I will say, however, that we did not do the MDR on the first night. We chose First Night Done Right and we were not disappointed. We were assigned to Chops and it was fabulous.

 

What is first night done right? Sounds interesting!

[MrsKC08]

What is first night done right? Sounds interesting!

 

 

FNDR or First night done right is $15 per person and they will select your specialty dining restaurant for the first night of the cruise. You will find out when you get to your cabin which restaurant you have reservations for and I've heard some have been able to switch to a different specialty restaurant should they prefer al alternative.

 

 

Lynn & Ken

[nyllrap]

What a fabulous review! I will be sailing on the Oasis to the Western Caribbean in September. Thanks so much for offering your review.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[MrsKC08]

Cozumel Continued...

With our excursion we could have most likely stayed the entire day, even though they say 4 hours. When you are ready to head back to the ship or to the shopping just let them know at the front counter and they will have a taxi pick you up and take you back. It really couldn't have been any easier and stress free. We didn't even have to ask, we just noticed a taxi pulling up to get some folks and there was plenty of room in the van so we hopped on and headed back to do a little souvenir shopping.

Believe it or not, up to this point of our cruise I had not purchased anything. Not even items on the ship. Matter of fact, I purposely avoided all of their little sales they held on the promenade. Back in November on the Harmony, I shopped a couple of these sales and it was a nightmare. I'm telling you that some of those women act like it is Black Friday and go absolutely crazy over $10 stuff. I just didn't want any part of that this cruise, and I truly didn't feel like I missed anything!

Anyway, I always get a little something for the admin girls in my office. I've done that for every trip and since this was my last chance, I knew I had to find something for them. There are 8 that I have to buy for and I always like to be fair and get the same type of item for each. In years past it has either been a glass nail file (these are the BEST nail files around), a necklace, a magnet or key chain. Something fairly inexpensive but not cheap. This trip I decided to get some small bottles of vanilla extract. Cozumel is known for two things....silver and vanilla. Obviously I couldn't swing buying 8 pieces of silver jewelry so I started to seek out the vanilla. This was not hard to do because all most 90% of the shops near the ship all had vanilla extract. I was able to snag 4.4oz bottles for $2.50 each. WIN!

 

Once our shopping was done we headed back to the ship for another one of our afternoon siestas. I've been back home for 12 days now and I sure do miss those afternoon naps!

 

[MrsKC08]

Quest

This is a show that we do not miss on our Royal Caribbean cruises. If you have not been on a RCCL cruise, or even if you have but have not been to one of these shows, I highly recommend that you go! This is definitely an adults only game, hence the reason that it is at 11pm in the evening. Another reason to take a nap in the afternoon so you can make it to then! :) There are several videos on YouTube if you do a simple search, but here is a snip from our show. This is the best part of the show as well...

 

 

Our team came in 2nd place I believe. Oh, and the old couple from our Love and Marriage Show were also on our team. I'm serious, I'm ready to adopt them!

 

 

Once our show was over, it was time to head back to the cabin for bed. But the best way to get there is always through Central Park.