Oasis 4 day 12/18 Pre Christmas Cruise Quick Review

[Liljo22]

Just wanted to add a quick review of my cruise.  Wasn’t going to do a review but I am stuck at FLL waiting. 

 

My family of 4(kids 16 & 13) live in Houston but I am originally from South Florida.  We were coming back to spend Christmas with my family and I was checking cruises to see if we could fit a cruise in.  Was choosing between this cruise or a 5 day on the NCL Encore.  I am usually a minimum 5 day cruiser but have never done the Oasis class so picked this one.  My mother and my MIL joined us.

 

I booked this cruise at the end of October and at the time there were a ton of open rooms.  We booked 3 ocean view balconies on the 8th floor but there was space everywhere.  We usually book a middle deck and midship so this seemed like the perfect space.  It was an amazing location. Central Park is such a unique area. We could wake up and go to the Park Cafe for coffee/light breakfast and sit outside among the foliage and birds chirping.  It also doesn’t have any interior rooms so less people in the hall although we would just walk through the park if we were aft when going back to the room.

[Liljo22]

Embarkation

This could not go any smoother.  Family dropped us off at the front and we dropped our bags off with the porter.  Word of warning though.  Most of the porters are just wearing regular clothes(black T-shirt and athletic pants was the norm) so just confirm they have id.  We had an 11:30 time and got there a little before 11.  They made us wait only about 5 minutes before going inside.  Once inside, we went up the escalator and were met with a bunch of reps with iPads checking people on.  No waiting in line to go to a desk unless you need to.  Going through security was a breeze and then we were on board.

 

We had a light lunch at Park Cafe and then toured the ship.  For the muster procedure, you watch a video on the app, go to your station, check in and they show you how to put on the lifevest.  Really easy although they had to keep making announcements that we couldn’t leave until everyone did it.  Rooms were going to be ready by 1:30 and they were right on time.  
 

 

Edited December 26, 2022 by Liljo22

[Liljo22]

Cabin/Room Steward

We visited our room to drop off our carryon.  Rooms were nice and updated.  Bed was by the balcony with a couch on the bathroom side.  Bathroom is tiny and I hate the shower doors that don’t close all the way.  TV was able to moved to see from the bed and had all the standard cruise channels.  All your news stations, several ESPNs, a movie channel playing very strange movies and a station playing tv reruns. They also had on demand options which were $11.99 each.  We met our room steward but that was the last we would see of him.  I think he either got sick or was a close contact because he showed back up with a mask on at disembarkation to tear down beds.  Not sure who did our rooms the rest of our days but they were made up great twice a day and he even left a towel monkey one night.  
 

Breakfast/Lunch options

Buffet options are standard fare although they did have an Asian station.  Everything was good but it got very crowded at time.  They hold people at the entrance before the hand washing station and at busy times the line barely moved.  On the last sea day they had a seafood buffet that had lobster tails and crab legs so that was nice since there was not going to be lobster in the MDR for the short cruise.

 

El Loco Fresh always had a long line and was ok.  Being from TX, we are particular with Tex Mex.
 

We did not try the BBQ since it was not included.  
 

Sorrentos is a decent grab and go option especially late night but also had a long line almost always.  

Had Park Cafe breakfast and lunch at times and it was decent.  Very light options.
 

We didn’t do MDR breakfast or lunch.
 

I mentioned it before that when booking there were tons of rooms but they filled up fast.  We were told that there were 6500 guests on board.  

Edited December 26, 2022 by Liljo22

[Liljo22]

Dinner Options

We did My Time Dining which is always our preference.  We did the MDR on 3 of the 4 nights.  I read on here that you should make reservations a head of time because with a full ship, those with no reservations had to wait.  This was true the first night as at 7:30 the line for no reservations went down the hall.  The reservation line even had a 15 minute wait. The rest of the nights there was no line for either group.  How it worked was each had a line on either side of the deck 3 entrance but once in the door there was three lines for reservations and 1 for no reservations.  There is also a station for suite guests and groups of 8 or more.  Let the someone at the door if you are either of those and they will let you right in.

 

Food was ok.  In my group of 6, everyone agreed that nothing was a standout but nothing was bad.  As about as what you expect on the mass market lines.  Desserts were almost all not great.  We skipped dessert on one night and went to Sugar Rush so the kids could get ice cream.  
 

Service was really bad though.  You can tell they are still short staffed.  All three dinners took about 2 hours.  We were suppose to go to the MDR on day 3 but we had a reservation for the early Aqua 80 and knew there was no shot to make it in the MDR.
 

 On one of the nights, I ordered a glass of wine and the assistant waiter asked what the number was.  I gave him the number above that was a bottle by accident.  When he brought the bottle out, I stopped him from opening it and let him know I only wanted something by the glass.  I must of made him angry because he refused to leave the kitchen the rest of the night.  You could see the waiter arguing with him at the wall to get out there and he wouldn’t.  We ended up having to ask the head waiter to refill our waters and take our plates because of it.  I went and found him before we left and apologized to him since it was my bad on giving the number but to act that way was unprofessional.  

 

 Two of the nights the waiter , unprompted, complained to us about how much they have to work.  The first one said that this is his third ship since July because they need senior crew in the room as most of the crew is new.  We mentioned that we were on the Liberty in June and he said that is his favorite class because they jam too many people in the MDR on the Oasis class.  He said that on the Liberty, each waiter gets their own station but on the Oasis six waiters share one station.  He also said they put more tables on the floor and you could barely walk between which I also noticed. 
 

The second one complained that they work 7 days a week and 10-12 hours a day.  Said that other waiters fall sick and they have to pick up more tables and are stretched thin.
 

I know staffing is an issue across all lines so wonder how it is on other lines in terms of service.  Only have done RCL since the restart.   
 

On the night we had the Aqua 80 reservations, we went to Playmakers since we figured it was right there.  Playmakers was pretty good and not pricey.  Just be aware that almost everything is deep fried. We had the Onion Ring tower which was great and the wings were pretty good.  They were slightly breaded and the sauce tasted good.  Beer wise, they didn’t have most of the draft beer that was listed.  

[Liljo22]

Entertainment/Shows

I was able to make show reservations about 30 days before the cruise.  I made reservations for all three main shows(Frozen in Time, Aqua 80 and Cats).  We ended up not making the skating show because it was a 10:30 show and we were having fun elsewhere.

 

We had the 8:15 show on day 3 for Aqua 80.  People were lining up early and they started to let people in just before 8.  Just after we sat down, a message showed up on the screen that both shows were cancelled due to poor weather conditions.  It was breeze and the boat was rocking some.  They made an announcement that there would be a shortened version at 10:45 and our reservation would still be good.  We were disappointed but showed up for the make up show.  Turns out they decided to run the whole show at 10:45.  The show is amazing.  Best show we have seen at sea.  Even more amazing when I was searching YouTube and found a performer with a channel showing back stage stuff.  Turns out this is a new crew and the previous cruise was their first performance.  We did sit a row back from the splash section and got pretty wet at times especially at the end when they do something purposefully to get people wet.  

I know Cats gets a bad rap but we all thought it was really good.  My wife and daughter are Cats fans.  They have seen the touring show and were expecting to be very critical of it.  They both said this show was better than the tour although they felt some of the cuts were songs that would have made more sense to the story than others that could have been cut.  The performers were all mostly great dancers and singers.  A lot of people did walk out which is a disservice to how good the performers are. I sort of get it because Cats is a very strange show you can’t follow the story easily.  

 

The guitarist at the Globe and Atlas was by far the best musician on the ship.  He could play anything that was requested and had his original stuff that was really good.  We closed down the bar with him on two of the nights and he went over time 15-20 minutes on both night.  Can’t remember his name though.  
 

We are big piano bar people and love hanging at the Schooner Bar. The performer was decent on the Oasis.  He played a lot of songs that are popular but not really piano bar songs that are interactive with the crowd.  On the Liberty, the performer was more interactive and actually had our son sitting on top of the piano singing along.  Great memory for him and he was hoping for something similar.  
 

The Latin band in Bolares is great.  My MIL is Cuban and wanted to be there every night.  
 

The cover band in the Music Hall was just ok.  They were great musically but didn’t play songs that fostered people getting up to dance.  I love Another Brick in the Wall but how do you dance to that.  They also didn’t interact with the crowd at all.

 

We surprisingly really liked the Silent Disco.  It was fun with good music(a lot of Flo Rida) and it was fun to take off the headset and listen to people singing with no music.
 

We are not big in watching stand up on cruises so we didn’t go to the comedy shows.   

[Liljo22]

Activities

The Oasis class has so much to do that it’s hard to get everything done.  We didn’t get paper dailies in the room so relied on the app which worked fine. Speaking of the app, they have started to not charge for the chatting function which was night.  Still a little clunky though as some messages wouldn’t go through right away.

 

Water Slides were a lot of fun.  The racing slides can be slow at times if you are not in the right position.  The other one that we labeled the Toilet Bowl, was great.  It dumps you into a round part that you keep going around until you get sucked down the “drain”.

 

We did the abyss dry slide but felt it was too slow.

 

The Zip line was great.  Just know that you need shoes with laces and a shirt with sleeves.  If you are wearing socks and your shoes are not right, they will give you a pair of shoes that works.

 

We are big trivia and name that tune fans so we spent a lot of time at the Schooner Bar for this.  Some was challenging.  Some was really basic but it was a lot of fun.  
 

The pool deck was setup nicely.  A lot of pools and hot tubs plus a kids splash park. Activities were your standard cruise ship activities.  Caribbean band playing between the hot body contest, belly flop contest and any other shows that you find on other lines. 
 

We ended up not having time to do the Flowrider but it was nice having two.  Seemed like at most times they had one with the boogie board and another for three stand up board.  
 

I did the casino one night.  It was pretty full at the time.  Most tables were $10 minimum which was nice.  The roulette was strange though.  They were $2 minimum for straight up and $10 on the outside with a $10 minimum spread inside. That eliminated some of the hedging strategies I have.  I was signed up for the poker tournament for the last sea day but pulled out.  I won the tournament on my last cruise but didn’t feel comfortable with this one.  The last was $100 buy in plus $50 if you wanted to double the chips and they paid out top two with one table.  This one was $200 plus $100 to double still paying top two but now two tables.  Better payout but the risk was doubled.  
 

They also had a show on the promenade with all the entertainment staff that was fun.  Each staff had a boat and they would circle the promenade and perform a dance when they got to the center. You could tell that the normal performers were 100% and had fun with it.  

[Liljo22]

Labadee

This was our only stop.  It was beautiful with the mountains in the background.  There is a lot to do both free and for pay.  I didn’t purchase any excursions and was planning to just have a nice beach day.  The Black Friday sale had everything half off and I wished I jumped on it and did one of the activities though because my kids got bored pretty fast.  We went to Nellie beach which was nice but small so we ended up switch over to adrenaline beach across the way.  The beverage package works and they provide a standard lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs but bring cash with you even if you don’t plan on buying something.  I didn’t and when we got to the beach, the workers were moving chairs around for us and I wish I had money for a tip.  There are two trams to take you to different parts of the island although most of it you can just walk to.  There is also a town square that has a market and shops if you want to purchase souvenirs.  It was a nice stop.  
 

Power Outage

On the last night, we were hanging out in Boleros and Latin dancing.  All of a sudden the power went out except for the emergency lights.  It was out for about 90 seconds before coming back on.  I was at the bar and asked the bartender if this happens all the time.  He said it was the first time for him. My son was in the room with my mother and came running down to say there was smoke outside the balcony and that the ship stopped.   We walked outside by the lifeboats and sure enough the ship was not moving.  It lasted about 20 minutes before we started to move again. The venues all started back up after the lights came back on and no announcement was made.  My daughter started to panic but I reassured her that if there was an issue we would at least hear the crew announcements to get in place like they did with the drills.  We got into Miami around 4 am so it didn’t affect the timing much.  

[Liljo22]

Disembarkation 

We do self assist when disembarking.  We got our luggage and hung out on the promenade for a little bit. Starbucks was still open as was Cafe Promenade.  When we were ready, we got in line that routed through the theater.  There was also a table set up in the theater for coffee.  Line moved pretty quickly and was organized.  We scanned out sadly and headed for customs.  The line splits between those other passports and those with birth certificates once you get to the luggage area.  We all had passports so all we had to do was walk up to the facial recognition screen and get the green light.  No need to show your passport again.  Once out, it’s a little bit of a mad house.  You have everyone leaving and the. Next cruise coming in.  Getting out of Port Miami is easy if you follow the signs for the tunnel.  
 

 

[Liljo22]

Finale

Overall it was a great cruise.  Really needed one more day but preferably a 7 day cruise.  Felt just as we were hitting our stride we had to get off.  
 

I will say that service overall was just ok.  Usually we have 2-3 crew members that make the cruise extra special and really didn’t have that this time.  Don’t know if it was the amount of people they deal with on this class or if it’s because of the length.  The only bad service was in the MDR as mentioned above but they are so understaffed I don’t put it on them.  
 

Really want to take another Oasis class on a 7 day cruise.  Preference is to sail from Galveston so we may wait until the Harmony ports there since the Allure is not amplified yet.  

[ReRe71]

Thanks for your review, we actually disembarked on 12/18. We loved the silent disco! 

[JamesEM]

Thanks for the review. 

[Georgeny]

Thanks for the review!😃

 

George in NY

[cruisin from florida]

We had a similar experience on the same sailing, except most of our party was isolating due to Covid on Wednesday. Terrible MDR service, with wait staff clearly overburdened. We had an amazing cabin steward.

On the Covid side, it was pretty surprising that communication and processes weren't clearer after all the time. Probably another staffing issue. 

The ship is amazing, and we would do another big family trip again. I just hope they can address their staffing issues. 

[Liljo22]

3 hours ago, cruisin from florida said:

We had a similar experience on the same sailing, except most of our party was isolating due to Covid on Wednesday. Terrible MDR service, with wait staff clearly overburdened. We had an amazing cabin steward.

On the Covid side, it was pretty surprising that communication and processes weren't clearer after all the time. Probably another staffing issue. 

The ship is amazing, and we would do another big family trip again. I just hope they can address their staffing issues. 

Sorry to hear most of your party got hit with Covid.  

[midwife1021]

On 12/26/2022 at 12:26 PM, Liljo22 said:

 

 Two of the nights the waiter , unprompted, complained to us about how much they have to work.  The first one said that this is his third ship since July because they need senior crew in the room as most of the crew is new.  
 

The second one complained that they work 7 days a week and 10-12 hours a day.  Said that other waiters fall sick and they have to pick up more tables and are stretched thin.

 

We were in MDR on deck 4, table 520.  Igede and Siddharth were lovely.  Prompt, attentive service and they were both really nice and helpful.  We only did 2 nights in MDR and the rest in Coastal Kitchen.  I felt guilty leaving MDR dining to go to Coastal Kitchen.  

 

In Coastal Kitchen, the staff were beyond amazing.  They arranged for a special treat of Sinigang (the BEST sinigang my in-laws had ever eaten, and my mother-in-law makes delicious sinigang) and lechon for my in-laws who were celebrating their Golden wedding anniversary.

 

I agree that Loco Fresh was OK, but that QUEUE!  

We avoided WIndjammer because it was always so crowded.  I was sitting at a 4-top with husband and my in-laws while they went back for extra plates.  A couple tried to come sit down with me sitting right there and my mother in-law's cane resting against her seat.  They seemed unhappy with me when I said that the seats were all taken.  

 

 

[denamo]

How easy it is to get an Uber, Lyft, or taxi after disembarking from the Oasis to go to the airport?

[D4]

56 minutes ago, denamo said:

How easy it is to get an Uber, Lyft, or taxi after disembarking from the Oasis to go to the airport?

When Oasis is at the Port of Miami, there a taxi line justt outside the terminal.  

[D4]

On 12/27/2022 at 8:29 AM, cruisin from florida said:

We had a similar experience on the same sailing, except most of our party was isolating due to Covid on Wednesday. Terrible MDR service, with wait staff clearly overburdened. We had an amazing cabin steward.

On the Covid side, it was pretty surprising that communication and processes weren't clearer after all the time. Probably another staffing issue. 

The ship is amazing, and we would do another big family trip again. I just hope they can address their staffing issues. 

I'm sorry most of your group had covid, especially on such a short cruise.

 

We are going on Oasis soon.  Would you mind sharing some details about how they handled Covid for your group?  Did they feel sick and get tested?  Were they moved to other cabins?  Did they test all of you since you might have been close contacts?

 

It's terrible that the cruise lines don't have standard procedures for handling covid.  They certainly have enough experience with it.

[cruisin from florida]

6 hours ago, D4 said:

I'm sorry most of your group had covid, especially on such a short cruise.

 

We are going on Oasis soon.  Would you mind sharing some details about how they handled Covid for your group?  Did they feel sick and get tested?  Were they moved to other cabins?  Did they test all of you since you might have been close contacts?

 

It's terrible that the cruise lines don't have standard procedures for handling covid.  They certainly have enough experience with it.

Our 4 year old grandson started running a high fever on Tuesday night. It came down with meds, and we tested him for Covid on Wednesday morning with a test we had brought with us. He was positive. My son called medical, and after waiting an hour or so was told to bring their whole cabin (Cabin 1) to medical. No escort, no isolation on the way down, although we all masked. (I went along to help with the two littles... given that I had been reading to the four year old in bed the night before, I figured additional masked exposure was not going to make anything worse. I'm Cabin 2).

After a little trouble finding the correct entrance we were put in a room and a nurse came in after a while and got the info, then tested each family member about 5-10 minutes apart. They did not test me, although it was obvious I was a close contact.

Only the grandson was positive. He was examined by the doctor, given some OTC meds, and we were told to wait. We were also told that we'd be the last off the ship the next day.

After another wait, we were escorted through service accesses and elevators back to their cabin. They were told to isolate and that guest services would be in contact.

I'm not going to detail the guest services communications timeline, but it was slow, confusing, and at times contradictory.

Meanwhile, family members in Cabins 3 and 4 tested positive, called medical, and were eventually called down. Cabin 3 DIL tested negative in medical, and was told she wasn't officially considered to have Covid by Oasis, but to isolate. Cabin 4 DIL tested positive and was escorted back to her cabin, etc..

Both positive cabins were offered an inside cabin for the negative passengers, but the offer came pretty late and was vague. The family of 4 had an ultraspacious Oceanview, and mama didn't want to be in an inside alone with the baby who knows where on the ship. I don't know how cabin 4 decided to not take the additional cabin, but I'm sure it was in part due to it's being the afternoon of the last day of the cruise.

When we hadn't heard from guest services for a while, I called room service to confirm that the isolated could order from the MDR menu.

Eventually Guest Services called and said that Cabins 1 and 4 would be the first off the ship, and to keep their bags with them. (This was after repeated calls to get information on debarkation.) We repeatedly asked for a luggage trolley (family of 4 with a sick child, a stroller, and lots of luggage) and were finally told one would be provided. (I eventually asked the Diamond Concierge to help clarify what was going on.)

When the guy showed up at 7:20, there was no trolley, and he had heard nothing about it. He was told the situation and asked for a trolley. At this point Cabins 2 and 3 left for self-assist debarkation, since we weren't allowed to help the sick folks. We had planned for formal pictures, so everyone had extra luggage plus a stroller for the little in cabin 3. Oh, well. Off we went.

There was a delay for the covid folk just before the gangway to figure out who would get the trolley off the ship and back on again. Eventually the whole party met up in the car pickup area and we loaded up and drove home.

By Thursday evening 6 out of 11 of us had tested positive. By Friday morning it was 9, with the other two testing negative but having some other crud 

Hubby and I started on Paxlovid right away, and tested negative yesterday.

Everyone else is much better, still testing positive.

 

Love the ship, knew the risks we were taking. Staff shortages are showing in guest services with stuff like this.

[denamo]

13 hours ago, D4 said:

When Oasis is at the Port of Miami, there a taxi line justt outside the terminal.  

Thank you for your response.  We did a Royal transport the last time we were in Miami.  What a fiasco.  Totally disorganized.  Never asked if we actually had a transfer. We could have simply just gotten on the bus. Nope, won't do that again.  We have a noon flight, so we need to get off the ship and to the airport much quicker than happened through Royal.

[D4]

@cruisin from floridaThanks for all the details.  There is no excuse for them to not have a process to follow for Covid cases.  And it doesn’t make sense that they didn’t test you.  I hope everyone in your family is feeling better now.

 

Does Guest Services still give out masks upon request?  I brought a huge quantity of masks when we sailed on Oasis for 2 weeks earlier this year and discovered onboard that nice individually packaged masks were free.

 

If they still give them out, I won’t bring near as many this time.  We still have 2 flights each way and fly in 2 days early.

[cruisin from florida]

48 minutes ago, D4 said:

@cruisin from floridaThanks for all the details.  There is no excuse for them to not have a process to follow for Covid cases.  And it doesn’t make sense that they didn’t test you.  I hope everyone in your family is feeling better now.

 

Does Guest Services still give out masks upon request?  I brought a huge quantity of masks when we sailed on Oasis for 2 weeks earlier this year and discovered onboard that nice individually packaged masks were free.

 

If they still give them out, I won’t bring near as many this time.  We still have 2 flights each way and fly in 2 days early.

You can still get masks from guest services, but they don't leave them in your cabin anymore. I prefer the kn95s.