Back to Cruising - Oasis 5/29 - 6/5 Review!

[mattb31]

Back from Oasis of the Seas today and wanted to do a quick little review on our trip

 

Booking:

• 4V - Interior - $436pp
• Total Cost after pre-paid grats and taxes and fees for the both of us was $1386.26
• We won our Royal Up bid for a Central Park View Interior (great room) for $40pp

Addons

• 2 Pre-booked dinners at Izumi at $28pp - $136.80
• VOOM surf and stream - 2 device plan  - $230.93
• Deluxe Bev Package - $1007.44 ($60.99/day)

 

I'll start off by saying we had a great time! Our last cruise was in early 2019 on Symphony and Oasis literally was a clone with a few different restaurants and a different design in the rooms. Otherwise it felt very similar and honestly some of the public spaces were better on Oasis then on Symphony.

 

Pros

The first pro on this list is Playmakers. Royal Caribbean really perfected it on Oasis compared to Symphony. On SOTS, Playmakers is kind of weird because it is shared with an arcade. On OOTS the bar is smaller but the seating area is larger, there are more TVs, and it's just a great space to watch games. The Rangers are still going in the Stanley Cup Playoffs so during every game it was pretty crowded, the NBA Finals had also just started. Really a great place to watch a game. The Onion Ring tower is phenomenal too.

 

Another thing I noticed in regards to the sports bar is that the quality of the TV broadcasts was the best I've seen on a ship. ESPN and Sport 1 definitely came through in HD (same in staterooms) which meant watching games was that much better.

 

Second pro was the dining. The food every night was outstanding. We did MDR on 1 and 7, Izumi 2 and 6, Giovanni's on 4, and Windjammer on 5. We ate at Jamie's on Symphony and it was underwhelming. Giovanni's was really spectacular and I'd highly recommend it to anyone going on a ship that has it. Izumi I found to be a good value as well. For $28.99 you get Miso, and appetizer, 2 entrees, and a dessert. It was more food that either of us could eat. The Futomaki roll and Yaki Udon were my favorites here.

 

I wanted to try Portside BBQ, so I just got a single cut of meat one of the days while on the deck (think it was like $4), and it was great. This seemed to be a popular spot and the rest of the food there looked amazing. El Loco fresh was also so tasty. Windjammer was the only place that was slightly underwhelming. The selection was less than I remembered before, but we did go at almost 8pm.

 

Another pro I wanted to mention was the Port of Bayonne. As far as I could tell this cruise was over 100% capacity. We took the train from Philly to Newark and then Ubered to the port (cheaper than tolls + gas). We got to the port about 15 minutes prior to our 12pm check in time and were on the ship in no time. We used a COR + our positive PCR from April. Getting off this morning was also a breeze. We did self-assist, walked out of our room around 6:50am and by 7:05 we were through customs and waiting for our ride.

 

Cons

Smoking. I hate it. The smoke leeching out of the Casino was the worst I remember it in a long time. There were times when you could definitely smell it on the promenade. It stunk outside the MDR too. Since the casino was short staffed, they only had some of the tables open on the smoking side which was a huge disappointment. Same thing up on the pool deck where they allow smoking. It blows over to Lime and Coconut and the pools. I really wish they would segregate the smoking areas well away from other public areas.

 

Voom is my second con. It was atrocious. I wouldn't have been so mad if it was included in the fare, but considering we paid over $200 for it I was annoyed. So many timeouts on webpages and apps. Random disconnects as well. It worked completely fine on CocoCay and I've had VOOM on Anthem, Allure, and Symphony and it was great on those ships. This must just be an issue with Oasis because I found a few other posts on different sites mentioning the same thing.

 

MTD chaos was another con. It honestly wasn't too bad, but if you're going on the cruise I just recommend avoiding it the first night. For some reason there was a massive line the first night (for walk-ins AND reservations). We waited 30 minutes for our table and dinner took another 1.5 hours. We walked by every other night and there was no line and had no problem when we went on Day 7.

 

No cruise compass. You can get one if you ask, but I missed having it delivered each day. There's a hint and tips section on the app which kind of gives you a rundown but it's not the same as the cruise compass. They should just put a PDF of the cruise compass on the app.

 

Drink Package

There's been a ton of discussion about the drink package lately because the cost has gone up so much. I believe in 2019 on Symphony it was $49/day. I paid $60.99 a day on this cruise, and every other day in the cruise planner it was $70+ a day. That's alot. That being said, I tracked what I drank this cruise so I know where my breakeven is in the future. I don't drink a ton at home, I have a beer watching the game or a glass of wine with dinner sometimes or a few seltzers by the pool on a nice day.

 

Mixed Drinks are $10, Beer $7.50, Cocktails & Wine $13

 

Day 1:

3 Coke Zero

4 Water Bottles

Bud Light

1 Rum and Diet

1 Pinot Noir

$51.50

 

Day 2:

Iced Chai Latte

2 Coke Zero

8 Water Bottles

7 Rum and Coke Zero

Lava Flow

Spike Peach Tea from Portside

Margarita

$137.50

 

Day 3:

L Espresso

2 Coke Zero

3 Water Bottles

Miami Vice

Miller Light

Sake

$53

 

Day 4 (CocoCay):

L Espresso

5 Water Bottles

2 Rum and Diet

Pina Colada

2 Pinot Noir

Old Fashioned

$91.50

 

Day 5:

L espresso
4 water bottles
2 Coke Zero
Blue Hawaiian
3 Rum and Diet
Lime and Coconut
Old Fashioned
Lavender Daiquiri
Bionic Bar Drink

$117.65

 

Day 6:
2 water bottles
Mimosa
2 Blue Hawaiian
2 Coke Zero
Sake

$64

 

Day 7:

Apple Mint Fresh Squeezed from Vitality ($7)
4 bottles of water
Iced Chai Tea
Boston Iced tea party
Jack and Coke
2 Old Fashioned
Lavender Daiquiri
Merlot

$114.65

 

Total Drinks Consumed (excl. grats): $629.80

Total Drinks Consumed (excl. grats,  excl water bottles): $539.80

Drink Package Cost (excl. grats): $426.93

 

I think $60.99 is my limit for the package. If I couldn't get it at the price on a future cruise I would probably just forfeit alot of the drinks. I obviously made out on this one though. I didn't get 'hammered' or anything during the cruise. We just stayed on the ship for all ports except CocoCay, so we were able to take full advantage of the package. This would be different on a port intensive cruise.

 

One other interesting tidbit from the Captains Corner was that he mentioned that RCL is only going to make ships larger than Oasis class moving forward. Take that as you will.

 

Closing

It was great to be back cruising again! Oasis was a great time. In terms of staff, you could tell they were short staffed. If you are impatient or super picky about things I'd recommend staying home right now. They ran out of a few wines mid-cruise, but otherwise didn't notice much that was out of stock. There were definitely less waiters around the pool deck serving drinks, there were times where I had to wait 3-4 minutes to be attended to, but all of the workers were very nice and very helpful. A little patience goes a long way!

[sadiwest]

22 minutes ago, mattb31 said:

Back from Oasis of the Seas today and wanted to do a quick little review on our trip

 

Booking:

• 4V - Interior - $436pp
• Total Cost after pre-paid grats and taxes and fees for the both of us was $1386.26
• We won our Royal Up bid for a Central Park View Interior (great room) for $40pp

Addons

• 2 Pre-booked dinners at Izumi at $28pp - $136.80
• VOOM surf and stream - 2 device plan  - $230.93
• Deluxe Bev Package - $1007.44 ($60.99/day)

 

I'll start off by saying we had a great time! Our last cruise was in early 2019 on Symphony and Oasis literally was a clone with a few different restaurants and a different design in the rooms. Otherwise it felt very similar and honestly some of the public spaces were better on Oasis then on Symphony.

 

Pros

The first pro on this list is Playmakers. Royal Caribbean really perfected it on Oasis compared to Symphony. On SOTS, Playmakers is kind of weird because it is shared with an arcade. On OOTS the bar is smaller but the seating area is larger, there are more TVs, and it's just a great space to watch games. The Rangers are still going in the Stanley Cup Playoffs so during every game it was pretty crowded, the NBA Finals had also just started. Really a great place to watch a game. The Onion Ring tower is phenomenal too.

 

Another thing I noticed in regards to the sports bar is that the quality of the TV broadcasts was the best I've seen on a ship. ESPN and Sport 1 definitely came through in HD (same in staterooms) which meant watching games was that much better.

 

Second pro was the dining. The food every night was outstanding. We did MDR on 1 and 7, Izumi 2 and 6, Giovanni's on 4, and Windjammer on 5. We ate at Jamie's on Symphony and it was underwhelming. Giovanni's was really spectacular and I'd highly recommend it to anyone going on a ship that has it. Izumi I found to be a good value as well. For $28.99 you get Miso, and appetizer, 2 entrees, and a dessert. It was more food that either of us could eat. The Futomaki roll and Yaki Udon were my favorites here.

 

I wanted to try Portside BBQ, so I just got a single cut of meat one of the days while on the deck (think it was like $4), and it was great. This seemed to be a popular spot and the rest of the food there looked amazing. El Loco fresh was also so tasty. Windjammer was the only place that was slightly underwhelming. The selection was less than I remembered before, but we did go at almost 8pm.

 

Another pro I wanted to mention was the Port of Bayonne. As far as I could tell this cruise was over 100% capacity. We took the train from Philly to Newark and then Ubered to the port (cheaper than tolls + gas). We got to the port about 15 minutes prior to our 12pm check in time and were on the ship in no time. We used a COR + our positive PCR from April. Getting off this morning was also a breeze. We did self-assist, walked out of our room around 6:50am and by 7:05 we were through customs and waiting for our ride.

 

Cons

Smoking. I hate it. The smoke leeching out of the Casino was the worst I remember it in a long time. There were times when you could definitely smell it on the promenade. It stunk outside the MDR too. Since the casino was short staffed, they only had some of the tables open on the smoking side which was a huge disappointment. Same thing up on the pool deck where they allow smoking. It blows over to Lime and Coconut and the pools. I really wish they would segregate the smoking areas well away from other public areas.

 

Voom is my second con. It was atrocious. I wouldn't have been so mad if it was included in the fare, but considering we paid over $200 for it I was annoyed. So many timeouts on webpages and apps. Random disconnects as well. It worked completely fine on CocoCay and I've had VOOM on Anthem, Allure, and Symphony and it was great on those ships. This must just be an issue with Oasis because I found a few other posts on different sites mentioning the same thing.

 

MTD chaos was another con. It honestly wasn't too bad, but if you're going on the cruise I just recommend avoiding it the first night. For some reason there was a massive line the first night (for walk-ins AND reservations). We waited 30 minutes for our table and dinner took another 1.5 hours. We walked by every other night and there was no line and had no problem when we went on Day 7.

 

No cruise compass. You can get one if you ask, but I missed having it delivered each day. There's a hint and tips section on the app which kind of gives you a rundown but it's not the same as the cruise compass. They should just put a PDF of the cruise compass on the app.

 

Drink Package

There's been a ton of discussion about the drink package lately because the cost has gone up so much. I believe in 2019 on Symphony it was $49/day. I paid $60.99 a day on this cruise, and every other day in the cruise planner it was $70+ a day. That's alot. That being said, I tracked what I drank this cruise so I know where my breakeven is in the future. I don't drink a ton at home, I have a beer watching the game or a glass of wine with dinner sometimes or a few seltzers by the pool on a nice day.

 

Mixed Drinks are $10, Beer $7.50, Cocktails & Wine $13

 

Day 1:

3 Coke Zero

4 Water Bottles

Bud Light

1 Rum and Diet

1 Pinot Noir

$51.50

 

Day 2:

Iced Chai Latte

2 Coke Zero

8 Water Bottles

7 Rum and Coke Zero

Lava Flow

Spike Peach Tea from Portside

Margarita

$137.50

 

Day 3:

L Espresso

2 Coke Zero

3 Water Bottles

Miami Vice

Miller Light

Sake

$53

 

Day 4 (CocoCay):

L Espresso

5 Water Bottles

2 Rum and Diet

Pina Colada

2 Pinot Noir

Old Fashioned

$91.50

 

Day 5:

L espresso
4 water bottles
2 Coke Zero
Blue Hawaiian
3 Rum and Diet
Lime and Coconut
Old Fashioned
Lavender Daiquiri
Bionic Bar Drink

$117.65

 

Day 6:
2 water bottles
Mimosa
2 Blue Hawaiian
2 Coke Zero
Sake

$64

 

Day 7:

Apple Mint Fresh Squeezed from Vitality ($7)
4 bottles of water
Iced Chai Tea
Boston Iced tea party
Jack and Coke
2 Old Fashioned
Lavender Daiquiri
Merlot

$114.65

 

Total Drinks Consumed (excl. grats): $629.80

Total Drinks Consumed (excl. grats,  excl water bottles): $539.80

Drink Package Cost (excl. grats): $426.93

 

I think $60.99 is my limit for the package. If I couldn't get it at the price on a future cruise I would probably just forfeit alot of the drinks. I obviously made out on this one though. I didn't get 'hammered' or anything during the cruise. We just stayed on the ship for all ports except CocoCay, so we were able to take full advantage of the package. This would be different on a port intensive cruise.

 

One other interesting tidbit from the Captains Corner was that he mentioned that RCL is only going to make ships larger than Oasis class moving forward. Take that as you will.

 

Closing

It was great to be back cruising again! Oasis was a great time. In terms of staff, you could tell they were short staffed. If you are impatient or super picky about things I'd recommend staying home right now. They ran out of a few wines mid-cruise, but otherwise didn't notice much that was out of stock. There were definitely less waiters around the pool deck serving drinks, there were times where I had to wait 3-4 minutes to be attended to, but all of the workers were very nice and very helpful. A little patience goes a long way!

We were on the same trip but had a slightly different experience.   We're not drinkers, but had the refreshment package.  Dh was aggravated that the Freestyle machines rarely if ever had what he wanted (low/no sugar drinks beyond soda). 

 

In terms of service,  we never had an issue and never felt they were short staffed.  We had early seating (not My Time, because I heard the waits were terrible), and rarely ordered drinks from roaming waitstaff onboard.   I did occasionally hit a bar for a non alcoholic drink,  but usually only when I could walk right up. 

 

In general I felt like they did a great job, and are working their butts off. A great time. 

[maggieq]

2 hours ago, mattb31 said:

Back from Oasis of the Seas today and wanted to do a quick little review on our trip

 

Booking:

• 4V - Interior - $436pp
• Total Cost after pre-paid grats and taxes and fees for the both of us was $1386.26
• We won our Royal Up bid for a Central Park View Interior (great room) for $40pp

Addons

• 2 Pre-booked dinners at Izumi at $28pp - $136.80
• VOOM surf and stream - 2 device plan  - $230.93
• Deluxe Bev Package - $1007.44 ($60.99/day)

 

I'll start off by saying we had a great time! Our last cruise was in early 2019 on Symphony and Oasis literally was a clone with a few different restaurants and a different design in the rooms. Otherwise it felt very similar and honestly some of the public spaces were better on Oasis then on Symphony.

 

Pros

The first pro on this list is Playmakers. Royal Caribbean really perfected it on Oasis compared to Symphony. On SOTS, Playmakers is kind of weird because it is shared with an arcade. On OOTS the bar is smaller but the seating area is larger, there are more TVs, and it's just a great space to watch games. The Rangers are still going in the Stanley Cup Playoffs so during every game it was pretty crowded, the NBA Finals had also just started. Really a great place to watch a game. The Onion Ring tower is phenomenal too.

 

Another thing I noticed in regards to the sports bar is that the quality of the TV broadcasts was the best I've seen on a ship. ESPN and Sport 1 definitely came through in HD (same in staterooms) which meant watching games was that much better.

 

Second pro was the dining. The food every night was outstanding. We did MDR on 1 and 7, Izumi 2 and 6, Giovanni's on 4, and Windjammer on 5. We ate at Jamie's on Symphony and it was underwhelming. Giovanni's was really spectacular and I'd highly recommend it to anyone going on a ship that has it. Izumi I found to be a good value as well. For $28.99 you get Miso, and appetizer, 2 entrees, and a dessert. It was more food that either of us could eat. The Futomaki roll and Yaki Udon were my favorites here.

 

I wanted to try Portside BBQ, so I just got a single cut of meat one of the days while on the deck (think it was like $4), and it was great. This seemed to be a popular spot and the rest of the food there looked amazing. El Loco fresh was also so tasty. Windjammer was the only place that was slightly underwhelming. The selection was less than I remembered before, but we did go at almost 8pm.

 

Another pro I wanted to mention was the Port of Bayonne. As far as I could tell this cruise was over 100% capacity. We took the train from Philly to Newark and then Ubered to the port (cheaper than tolls + gas). We got to the port about 15 minutes prior to our 12pm check in time and were on the ship in no time. We used a COR + our positive PCR from April. Getting off this morning was also a breeze. We did self-assist, walked out of our room around 6:50am and by 7:05 we were through customs and waiting for our ride.

 

Cons

Smoking. I hate it. The smoke leeching out of the Casino was the worst I remember it in a long time. There were times when you could definitely smell it on the promenade. It stunk outside the MDR too. Since the casino was short staffed, they only had some of the tables open on the smoking side which was a huge disappointment. Same thing up on the pool deck where they allow smoking. It blows over to Lime and Coconut and the pools. I really wish they would segregate the smoking areas well away from other public areas.

 

Voom is my second con. It was atrocious. I wouldn't have been so mad if it was included in the fare, but considering we paid over $200 for it I was annoyed. So many timeouts on webpages and apps. Random disconnects as well. It worked completely fine on CocoCay and I've had VOOM on Anthem, Allure, and Symphony and it was great on those ships. This must just be an issue with Oasis because I found a few other posts on different sites mentioning the same thing.

 

MTD chaos was another con. It honestly wasn't too bad, but if you're going on the cruise I just recommend avoiding it the first night. For some reason there was a massive line the first night (for walk-ins AND reservations). We waited 30 minutes for our table and dinner took another 1.5 hours. We walked by every other night and there was no line and had no problem when we went on Day 7.

 

No cruise compass. You can get one if you ask, but I missed having it delivered each day. There's a hint and tips section on the app which kind of gives you a rundown but it's not the same as the cruise compass. They should just put a PDF of the cruise compass on the app.

 

Drink Package

There's been a ton of discussion about the drink package lately because the cost has gone up so much. I believe in 2019 on Symphony it was $49/day. I paid $60.99 a day on this cruise, and every other day in the cruise planner it was $70+ a day. That's alot. That being said, I tracked what I drank this cruise so I know where my breakeven is in the future. I don't drink a ton at home, I have a beer watching the game or a glass of wine with dinner sometimes or a few seltzers by the pool on a nice day.

 

Mixed Drinks are $10, Beer $7.50, Cocktails & Wine $13

 

Day 1:

3 Coke Zero

4 Water Bottles

Bud Light

1 Rum and Diet

1 Pinot Noir

$51.50

 

Day 2:

Iced Chai Latte

2 Coke Zero

8 Water Bottles

7 Rum and Coke Zero

Lava Flow

Spike Peach Tea from Portside

Margarita

$137.50

 

Day 3:

L Espresso

2 Coke Zero

3 Water Bottles

Miami Vice

Miller Light

Sake

$53

 

Day 4 (CocoCay):

L Espresso

5 Water Bottles

2 Rum and Diet

Pina Colada

2 Pinot Noir

Old Fashioned

$91.50

 

Day 5:

L espresso
4 water bottles
2 Coke Zero
Blue Hawaiian
3 Rum and Diet
Lime and Coconut
Old Fashioned
Lavender Daiquiri
Bionic Bar Drink

$117.65

 

Day 6:
2 water bottles
Mimosa
2 Blue Hawaiian
2 Coke Zero
Sake

$64

 

Day 7:

Apple Mint Fresh Squeezed from Vitality ($7)
4 bottles of water
Iced Chai Tea
Boston Iced tea party
Jack and Coke
2 Old Fashioned
Lavender Daiquiri
Merlot

$114.65

 

Total Drinks Consumed (excl. grats): $629.80

Total Drinks Consumed (excl. grats,  excl water bottles): $539.80

Drink Package Cost (excl. grats): $426.93

 

I think $60.99 is my limit for the package. If I couldn't get it at the price on a future cruise I would probably just forfeit alot of the drinks. I obviously made out on this one though. I didn't get 'hammered' or anything during the cruise. We just stayed on the ship for all ports except CocoCay, so we were able to take full advantage of the package. This would be different on a port intensive cruise.

 

One other interesting tidbit from the Captains Corner was that he mentioned that RCL is only going to make ships larger than Oasis class moving forward. Take that as you will.

 

Closing

It was great to be back cruising again! Oasis was a great time. In terms of staff, you could tell they were short staffed. If you are impatient or super picky about things I'd recommend staying home right now. They ran out of a few wines mid-cruise, but otherwise didn't notice much that was out of stock. There were definitely less waiters around the pool deck serving drinks, there were times where I had to wait 3-4 minutes to be attended to, but all of the workers were very nice and very helpful. A little patience goes a long way!

We were on the 5/22 sailing and I called it the #packyourpatience cruise.  We were lucky with amazing weather. Loved the aqua show!

[dolittle]

Thanks on the 6/17 sailing this review is helpful.

 

[Submariner]

• 4V - Interior - $436pp

 

Thats the big bonus right there! Thats cheap!  Wife and I are on the same trip in a few weeks. $1100 per person for an Interior. Nice score.

 

[Bound4Bermuda]

Thanks for sharing! Excited to board Oasis next month. You mentioned you like seltzers, but didn’t have any on your list. Barring supply chain issues wherein there’s no guarantee on what will actually be in stock onboard, did they have hard seltzers on the menu? White Claws (or similar) is my husband’s go-to.

[mattb31]

On 6/6/2022 at 7:51 AM, Bound4Bermuda said:

Thanks for sharing! Excited to board Oasis next month. You mentioned you like seltzers, but didn’t have any on your list. Barring supply chain issues wherein there’s no guarantee on what will actually be in stock onboard, did they have hard seltzers on the menu? White Claws (or similar) is my husband’s go-to.

Truly, which I don't like lol

[Jerseygirl1416]

On 6/5/2022 at 6:44 PM, Submariner said:

• 4V - Interior - $436pp

 

Thats the big bonus right there! Thats cheap!  Wife and I are on the same trip in a few weeks. $1100 per person for an Interior. Nice score.

 

I guess you’ve got the summer premium pricing. I’ve got an ocean view with large balcony for $669pp in Sept. 22 out of Bayonne.

[Merion_Mom]

On 6/5/2022 at 3:53 PM, mattb31 said:

 

Another pro I wanted to mention was the Port of Bayonne. As far as I could tell this cruise was over 100% capacity. 

 

 

No cruise compass. You can get one if you ask, but I missed having it delivered each day. There's a hint and tips section on the app which kind of gives you a rundown but it's not the same as the cruise compass. They should just put a PDF of the cruise compass on the app.

 

 

 

5,719

 

You can ask your cabin attendant, and s/he will leave you a Cruise Compass each night.

 

🙂