Oasis of the Seas 7/22-7/29

[Cruiseswithfamilyornot]

I just returned from Oasis of the Seas from July 22nd through the 29th.  I am a diamond plus member and have been on over 30 Royal ships, and also a frequent cruiser who has been on almost every cruise line once.  Though for full disclosure I will say when I go on a main stream line Royal has been our top choice over the years.  That said, I think I can be pretty objective.  I've been on well over 10 Oasis class ships, and the Oasis ship itself 3 times.    I do want to give one caveat here.   Service levels have been impacted everywhere due to Covid and problems with staffing.   So I think to judge Royal on that without taking that into consideration wouldn't be fair and so I did.   I travelled with a large group, there were 14 of us, adults(50s and 60s but all active) and grown children(20s) Here's what I would consider the "Good", the "Ok", the "Bad" and yes, I'll even include a few in what I'll call the "Awful", my opinion and others as well:

 

The Good:

 

1)  Having been on many cruise lines you can compare and contrast the activities on board.  Royal is consistently on the top in terms of the range and sheer amount of activities available.  I couldn't possibly list everything to do on this ship, but it's a huge selection and I'm not just talking about things built on the ship like mini golf, zip lining, flow rider, waterpark, laser tag, escape room, etc,,.  I'm speaking of everything from multiple daily trivias to even scrap booking.   It's all over the place and there is something for everyone.  They deserve huge kudos for this one, always a top of the list item for me for Royal especially on the Oasis class ships.  There is almost too much to do, you have to make choices all the time.

 

2)  We did Laser Tag and Escape Room.  Laser Tag is free but you better sign up the minute you get on.  It looks like nothing, but it's actually  alot of fun and I highly recommend it.  Their escape room has a fee and also sells out, but it's very well done.   The Aqua Show was also fantastic.  One of the best we've seen and we've seen many.

 

3)  The food.  Shockingly, to me, the food overall was actually very good.  There were hits and misses of course, but overall I would give it very good marks.  I've been more critical of the food on Royal on more recent cruises with them, so I was very happy to see this.   WIndjammer could still use some improving, but it was definitely better.  The Solarium Bistro was a nice place to go to avoid the overcrowding of the Windjammer, and it was overcrowded often.  The two standouts were the new BBQ restaurant where for a small fee you get very good(not great) bbq and a live singer(nice touch), and the free mexican place on deck 15.   Surprisingly good.   Central Park Cafe is always a big winner for me and my group, love that place and go multiple times.   Johnny Rockets and Playmakers both had very good comfort/horrible for you food.   Izumi was fantastic.   10/10.   The show and the food are even better I swear and they were great before.  We go to Hibachi all the time, and the show here is the best we've seen.  Kudos.

 

4)  CoCo Cay.  Their private island here is really amazing.  I've been half a dozen times and I think I'm going to try to book a cruise with two days there.  Yes, it's that good.  They try just to have one cruise ship in at a time(I'd  check the cruise map to make sure there aren't multiple ships in there at once, especially larger ones for your cruise).  There is so much to do here.  We splurged for an over the water cabana at Cabana Beach.  Amazing.  We had Donny as our attendant, he is fantastic, great personality.

 

5)   Suite Concierge.  The Suite Concierge on this ship was fantastic.  Once you got on board.   

 

6)   The little touches.  Towel animals in your room a number of times(new and inventive ones at that).   Some crew members who are extraordinarily outgoing and make sure to get to know you and make you feel special every day,  the entertainment staff and their personalities, it's hard to list them all, suffice it to say there are lots of them

 

7)  The neighborhoods on the ship.  Oasis class ships layout are exceptional.  Some don't like them as they are too large and you can't possibly do everything.  For me, I love all the options.   Central Park is very nice.  The boardwalk is fun, and enlarging Playmakers was a great idea. 

 

😎 Getting off the ship.  They have this down pat.  So easy and quick.   Fantastic.

 

9)  The Mudslide Cookies.  Everyone has their favorite.  That is mine.  I'm a total addict and I love them.   Royal frequenters all now they are the bomb and seek out their favorites.  We will travel to multiple places on the ship to find them.  It's like a scavenger hunt, with an incredible prize.  

 

10)  The Jazz Club/live music all over the ship.     I'm surprised it's still there as there's never a lot of people there, but it's always very entertaining and the group there on this cruise was very good.   THe live music all over the ship is always a nice surprise, including in Central Park and the Boardwalk, by the pool, the list goes on.

 

The Ok:

 

1)  Windjammer.   It's really too small of a venue for the ship size and is overcrowded all the time.  You have to wait on line to get in.  However, the food was pretty good here, and I was surprised that they had people walking around offering you drinks which I thought was a very nice touch.

 

2)  Service levels.  Again, in fairness, some short staffed so understandable.   But definitely a mixed bag.   Guest Services the long was always too long.  The first four days people waited for hours some times.    At the end of the cruise too.  Just wrong.

 

3)  Stabilization.   To be honest on this one, I had no problems.  But I never do.  There were members in my party who swore the stabilization on this ship was much worse than the other Oasis class ships, and I will admit I felt the ship more than I did on other Oasis class ships, including the Harmony that I was on three months prior so the memories were fresh.

 

The Bad:

 

1)  The Ice Skating Show.   In fairness, I have LOVED the Ice Skating shows on other Royal ships I've been on.   They had drones, special effects, and were spectacular.  This one had none of that and so was a huge let down to all of us who cruise.  If we werent comparing it would probably be what we expected from an ice show, but when you've seen all the whistles and bells, hard not to compare.

 

2)  The Maitre D' in the Coastal Kitchen.  It's not like me to slam someone like this, but this one is unfortunately deserved.  We had one suite and all others were in junior suites so we could eat dinner in Coastal Kitchen.  This guy just messed with us continually, was rude to members of our group, and a pain in the butt to deal with.   He gave away our tables and told us we made a reservation for later that night(not true).   Looked right at some of the kids whose cards weren't opening the door and refused to let them in, the list goes on.   We ate the last few dinners at different specialty restaurants due to him.  I feel like I should send him the bill.  Never have I experienced something like that, especially in a suite area.

 

3)  Giovanni's.  It pains me to write this.  The service there was very good.  The Maitre D' there was everything the Coastal Kitchen guy wasn't with a fantastic personality to boot. We usually love the food there.  But here it just wasn't good.   Our worst dinner of the cruise sad to say.   No we didn't say anything, because there were 14 of us and we all got different things and nobody liked their food.  And the service was too excellent, we felt bad lol.  But I wouldn't go there on this ship.

 

4)  Royal does a great job with Trivia's but Schooner simply isn't big enough.  They have a number of venues that for the size of the ship aren't big enough for the crowds they atttract(eg-----The Karoake room which wasn't big enough before they redid it, and Dazzles redone into the Music Hall is not nearly large enough either.  Blaze is not used much during the day and is substantially bigger than Schooner, why not have some things there?  There are other rooms, or rooms to make bigger.

 

5)  The Internet.  Just not as good as on the newer ships.  Drops frequently, and I connection wasn't strong enough so I couldn't do something all week for work.  Very frustrating.   

 

6)  The ports.  We left from NJ.  We didn't get to Cape Canaveral until the afternoon, and then Bahamas until the afternoon too.  So we basically had one full day(Coco Cay, amazing) and two half days in ports.   So two port days on a seven day cruise.  Why didn't we have a full day in the bahamas?  Cape Canaveral is such a toss away, anyone who has been there once rarely gets off the ship.

 

 

 

The Awful:

 

1)  Cats.   I mean seriously.   I cannot understand why the contract for this bad show was renewed.  Even the comedians make fun of it.   Repeatedly.   Other staff members laugh over how much the guests hate it.  The theaters aren't full and people walk out.   I will say the cast was good the lady who sang Memories was shockingly good.  But is that enough to watch a painful 90 minute show?   Royal has great shows on every other ship, they have the same shows on some ships(eg..Grease), I just don't get it.  And to boot, they didn't bring back their special effects show yet which is the second show the Royal Singers and Dancers do.  The ship was sold out, why is that show not back and all we get is Cats?  Why do these poor performers have to sing multiple songs about Jellical cats, and not get a chance to showcase their talent in any other way?  My heart goes out to them.   Yuck.

 

2)  Pre Cruise everything and boarding.  Awful.  Really truly awful.   You reserve a time then you get to the pier and wait on a huge line.   What was the point of reserving a time exactly?  How can getting off the ship be so good, and getting on be so bad?  I could go on about this one.  Then you get on the ship, four of the rooms had the wrong names on the card keys.  Each one was told "That never happens".  Yet it happened four times to our group.    You cannot pre book entertainment on the ship, the first day was a bit of hysteria as everyone was running around trying to get things done.  Talk about a zoo.  I could go on about this, but this left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths.   Royal needs to do better on this.

 

3)  We got off the ship and some of us got Covid the day we left.  Unbeknownst to us, the captain had gotten Covid and some others had as well.   I realize it was our choice that we did not wear masks everywhere, but I do think better communication on this would have made us wear masks as while Covid is not the death sentence it was before who wants that?   This one is probably more in the bad category than awful, but someone is very sick from it, so I need to put it in awful.

 

4) The photo place.  I've always had a love/hate relationship but this time what was a "misunderstanding" really pissed me off.  And I'm not the kind of guy who gets easily pissed off.  Someone called us and said you have a photo package and you haven't taken many shots, how about we come to your cabanas at coco cay(we had two as a large group) and take some pics for you?  We said sure and were excited.   We took 50 pics or so, and I had bought a package for 100+ digital pics or some such.   They told us to come down and look at our pic.....they ran late and we waited 45 minutes for them...literally sat there and waited for 45 minutes only to hear that no if wanted THOSE pictures we have to pay extra because it was a private session.  We corrected them we didn't book anything, they called us, referenced our photo package, etc,,.  Bottom line, if we wanted the pics they took that day we would be charged $499 for digitals, and $299 for just one pic and going up from there.  I kid you not.  I was shocked and couldn't believe it.  I even asked if we could meet in the middle, which I felt I was suckered into doing, from what I paid and what they asked for(499) and was told no!!!   So maybe this one is on me cause we didn't ask enough questions, but honestly I don't think so and if you saw how it all played out there was a lot of misrepresentation going on here.  If we had any idea that's what it would have been, we would have said no and would have taken our own pics.  Instead we liked the pics they took and so took none of our own, and ended up with no pictures from our day at CocoCay but sitting and waiting for this info for 45 minutes.

 

Overall, I thought the cruise was very good and I would said with Royal again.  They are not without their faults(as everyone has), but

[PhillyFan33579]

Enjoyed reading your review. Two things I strongly agree with you. First, Coco Cay is incredible. I have been to the “new” Coco Cay 15 times and every time I see something new there that I hadn’t noticed previously. I also don’t understand why they do trivia so often in the Schooner Bar on Oasis class ships. I have cruised on Harmony twice in the last two months and it was crazy how crowded It was in there for trivia.  

[psac]

Mudslide cookies???  😳

[Biker19]

8 hours ago, Cruiseswithfamilyornot said:

 

5)  The Internet.  Just not as good as on the newer ships.  Drops frequently, and I connection wasn't strong enough so I couldn't do something all week for work.  Very frustrating.   

It’s the same exact O3B as the newer ships. The variable is location, weather and perhaps some other unique temporary issue. 

[OCSC Mike]

Very solid, even-toned, well-written review!

 

Sorry to hear about your negatives, mostly because we also have always loved Giovanni's and it was as good as ever on Indy this month. Filet was delicious as was the carbonara (I always get the same things) and someone on Indy just before me loved their osso buco. Similarly, back on Harmony 5/29, not only was the CK Maitre D' friendly and helpful, but the manager, Rodrigo, was amazing! Personable, hilarious, chatted and joked with our table at nearly every meal, etc. One of those crew members you won't forget.

 

Given your attitude, I don't think you'd let these experiences deter you from either venue in the future, but figured I'd share that your experiences are definitely not fleet-wide.

 

P.S. 1st world problems but I really wish Harmony had El Loco Fresh as Mini Bites on Harmony is one of the only included food venues I found virtually worthless and since my wife won't eat mexican, I likely would have popped in there to grab something in between meals quite a bit.

 

P.S.S. Could not agree more about Cococay. We had an OTW cabana in May and it was an amazing experience. Then we did a 3 and 4-night B2B earlier this month so we could go there twice like you mentioned and also had an amazing time without spending a penny (besides tipping for D drinks).

Edited July 30, 2022 by OCSC Mike

[Parentcruiser]

Helpful!!!!  Are lunches at Giovanni's decent or similar to Dinner?

[Cruiseswithfamilyornot]

I completely agree with you @OCSC Mike.   We have had many good meals at Giovanni which is why this one surprised me.  I have found Chops to be the one that varies more ship to ship, but this time it was Giovanni's.  It will not deter me from trying on another ship as we have really enjoyed it on many ships(including Harmony where I met the same people you mentioned and couldn't agree with you more).   THere are different menus for lunch at both Giovanni's and Chops, though some repeats as I recall @Parentcruiser

[Parentcruiser]

1 minute ago, Cruiseswithfamilyornot said:

I completely agree with you @OCSC Mike.   We have had many good meals at Giovanni which is why this one surprised me.  I have found Chops to be the one that varies more ship to ship, but this time it was Giovanni's.  It will not deter me from trying on another ship as we have really enjoyed it on many ships(including Harmony where I met the same people you mentioned and couldn't agree with you more).   THere are different menus for lunch at both Giovanni's and Chops, though some repeats as I recall @Parentcruiser

Thks... do they ever post the Shows Schedule flyer anywhere on the net?

[OCSC Mike]

Never had Giovanni's lunch, but I have requested the fried calamari appetizer from the lunch menu at dinner before (sometimes they accommodate the request, sometimes not) and have enjoyed it.

 

Yes, it's a different menu with some overlap.

[Parentcruiser]

15 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Never had Giovanni's lunch, but I have requested the fried calamari appetizer from the lunch menu at dinner before (sometimes they accommodate the request, sometimes not) and have enjoyed it.

 

Yes, it's a different menu with some overlap.

thks

[Cruiseswithfamilyornot]

22 minutes ago, Parentcruiser said:

Thks... do they ever post the Shows Schedule flyer anywhere on the net?

Yes, I found the one from the cruise shortly before ours on someone's live cruise posting.  It was also in the Royal app a few days before the sailing I believe, might have been further back.

[Parentcruiser]

1 minute ago, Cruiseswithfamilyornot said:

Yes, I found the one from the cruise shortly before ours on someone's live cruise posting.  It was also in the Royal app a few days before the sailing I believe, might have been further back.

do u have one from yours?

[ALKID]

I wonder if the photo shop is a concession. 

[mac_tlc]

We did the Oasis in May and are scheduled again in September. We wholeheartedly agree on the venue selection for many activities. This was one item I mentioned in detail in the post cruise comments, not that I truly think they would change it (obviously they haven’t yet). 
 

Also agree about internet, sketchy at best.
 

We enjoyed our dinner at Giovannis, wonder if the chef changed ? 
 

Our May cruise and our September cruise leaves on a Sunday. The port order is different and you do have more time in Nassau. During June and July when Oasis leaves on a Friday, you lose time in Nassau. 
 

BTW, our daughter and son-in-law were on the cruise prior to yours and both tested positive 2 days later. Then their kids did…… So we are analyzing the calendar and counting days since we are all scheduled to go on Harmony on 8/14 in Star class in the 4 bedroom Villa suite. Would suck to miss that one. Scheduling PCR’s, COR’s, proctored tests,………… 

 

mac_tlc

[DaniDanielle]

May I ask what time your checkin time was for Cape liberty?

 

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, DaniDanielle said:

May I ask what time your checkin time was for Cape liberty?

 

If you want to notify someone, use the @Cruiseswithfamilyornot call out. 

[DaniDanielle]

I figured the OP would know I was asking them.  Thanks for the info.

[Biker19]

9 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

I figured the OP would know I was asking them.

It was not obvious you were asking them - the post right above your also mentioned going on the ship. Some posters list their review and may not return without a notification- simply posting in their thread may not be enough. 

[Cruiseswithfamilyornot]

@DaniDanielle Our check in time was 11 am.   THey do allow 10 am and I was told that was better, but still not great.   I didn't keep a copy of the entertainment schedule I'm sorry as I found so many on line before the cruise.

 

So sorry to hear about your experience with Covid too @mac_tlc.  Hope everyone stays negative.   Unfortunately, I bought tickets for a baseball game which those of us who are positive will not be able to go to. FIrst world issues though lol.

Edited July 30, 2022 by Cruiseswithfamilyornot

[cruise4fam]

I agree with you 100% on the Maitre D in Coastal Kitchen he was down right rude. We were in a jr suite and went at 11:30am for a reservation that night. He told me it's not possible since they are fully booked. I know the jr suite is subject to availability but at 11:30 to have nothing is crazy. I always cruise in a jr suite and have never had an issue. I asked to speak to a manager and he said none will come here to go to guest services. I was like wow never have I had that experience with Coastal Kitchen. I did go to guest services and talked to a head Maitre D and he told me no worries go at 6-6:15. I also let him know what I was told and how rude the Maitre D was. He said no that is not the way we treat customers at all. We went back at 6 and the Coastal Kitchen was empty. The Maitre D did say oh we had cancellations. Sorry your experience wasn't much better.

[OCSC Mike]

27 minutes ago, cruise4fam said:

I agree with you 100% on the Maitre D in Coastal Kitchen he was down right rude. We were in a jr suite and went at 11:30am for a reservation that night. He told me it's not possible since they are fully booked. I know the jr suite is subject to availability but at 11:30 to have nothing is crazy. I always cruise in a jr suite and have never had an issue. I asked to speak to a manager and he said none will come here to go to guest services. I was like wow never have I had that experience with Coastal Kitchen. I did go to guest services and talked to a head Maitre D and he told me no worries go at 6-6:15. I also let him know what I was told and how rude the Maitre D was. He said no that is not the way we treat customers at all. We went back at 6 and the Coastal Kitchen was empty. The Maitre D did say oh we had cancellations. Sorry your experience wasn't much better.

 

Wow! Never experienced anything remotely like that on any cruise from any crew member.

 

Glad you got it rectified!

[Roybthered]

Mudslide cookies  @Cruiseswithfamilyornot What are these? As they do sound very nice.

[mets123]

1 hour ago, OCSC Mike said:

 

Wow! Never experienced anything remotely like that on any cruise from any crew member.

 

Glad you got it rectified!

Was the person you were dealing with Raja? I've had problems with him on the Oasis when we were on in both May and June.

[Cruiseswithfamilyornot]

1 hour ago, Roybthered said:

Mudslide cookies  @Cruiseswithfamilyornot What are these? As they do sound very nice.

 

They are for chocolate lovers, they've had them for years.  Chocolate cookies, with multiple types of chocolate chips(white and dark) and other things in them.  If you're a chocolate lover they will probably be for you.   

[Cruiseswithfamilyornot]

47 minutes ago, mets123 said:

Was the person you were dealing with Raja? I've had problems with him on the Oasis when we were on in both May and June.

 

Honestly I don't remember his name, wiped it from my memory, but could very well have been,