Allensfan

Do you know when you are able to book a flowrider class prior to your cruise? We are 88 days out and I don't see that option available to book yet. Thanks in advance. Bill

Hi Bill. I have booked a few ways ahead of time. Where you can book dining/spa/activities...I have seen where you can also book flow rider times. Call the 800 number if you have trouble.

If you are a suite holder, I have email the concierge ahead of time and they have handled booking my flow rider for me as well.

It is fun and worth the expense in my opinion:)

Thanks for sharing. I did read your review and I have one question. Are reservations really necessary prior to boarding?

regarding reservations, depends on where you want to go and what you want to do.

For Chops, 150 Central Park, Izumi and especially Hibachi I would get reservations. For Costal Kitchen, just tell the concierge in the suite holder's lounge that you want to eat there that night and they will pen you in. No worries. For Sabor, it is unlikely they will be so busy that you will need a reservation. They were always a little busy but never too busy to fit you in. If you discover while on board you want to go to Chop's or 150 for example, work with the concierge to help you get a spot.

Hands down the hardest reservation for us was Hibachi.

For the comedy show, reservations are a must. Even with suite holders privileges, it is a tough one to get. I saw a huge line each night with people on 'stand by' trying to get in but waiting for hours.

Many of the other shows have rows just for suite holders making it much easier.

For me, the worry-wart-OCD-super planner, I planned everything I could in advance to save myself any grief. And please book ALL excursions prior to boarding. The lines of people waiting to try and book inside on beautiful sunny days...missing all the fun because they were in line for hours...seemed like a huge waste to me.

Our plan is pretty similar. We are planning on Izumi once, Sabor once (I would go twice if I can convince my group), Solarium Bistro and then CK 3-4. We've done Chops and Giovannis plenty and 150CP is just not our style. My mission is to avoid MDR and WJ. :D

I love Sabor! So some tips I put in my review for Sabor...

they don't offer jalapeños on the table-side guacamole but they will put them in if you ask them too. Spicy and worth asking about.

The sangria is a religious experience for me...and if you have the drink package, when the meal is done, ask for one to-go!

The offer short-ribs tacos and they offer chicken quesadillas...BUT have them make you a short-rib quesadilla. Pair that with a ice cold glass of sangria and you have a winning combo.

The portions are large, share and save some money and calories :D

I just posted this for Rocket man and may help you too.I posted a review here about my recent experience as a suite holder on Oasis and Coastal Kitchen.

For CK, when you board the ship you can head there for lunch. Avoid the windjammer if possible. You will find CK very relaxing, they will offer you a glass of wine and they will have a buffet for the first day boarding. Ours included Paella, Salmon, thin steaks and other goodies.

We ate there almost every morning for breakfast. I had the Baja eggs....so good and my SO always got two eggs with corned beef and my son liked the oatmeal.

Never ate lunch there and did have dinner one night. The scallops are good and so are the flatbreads. My review is more detailed and I have pictures. Maybe this link will work: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2245747

Hello Rocket...I too am an OCD planner so ask away!

Did you happen to read my review? I posted one here about my recent experience as a suite holder on Oasis.

For CK, when you board the ship you can head there for lunch. Avoid the windjammer if possible. You will find CK very relaxing, they will offer you a glass of wine and they will have a buffet for the first day boarding. Ours included Paella, Salmon, thin steaks and other goodies.

We ate there almost every morning for breakfast. I had the Baja eggs....so good and my SO always got two eggs with corned beef and my son liked the oatmeal.

Never ate lunch there and did have dinner one night. The scallops are good and so are the flatbreads. My review is more detailed and I have pictures. Maybe this link will work: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2245747

also, the vendors in the straw market; while kind, are extremely aggressive. Hard to blame them for trying to make a living and we did make purchases but it was very uncomfortable for me and my son. They hand you items over and over again, they will make it difficult to leave their booths and when you don't want to buy they tell you a sad story. I really struggled during my visit but maybe I just have a very tender heart

Your lunch will be provided and all your drinks you can use sea pass card. There are many locals and local shopping and you will need cash.

In fact, bring small bills because many of the items are very low cost and if you bring out a $20 or god forbid a $50.00 dollar bill they will not have change or raise the prices since they see you have money to spend. Bring lots of $1.00 and $5.00

We're retired but we're also vacation time limited. We have two rather large dogs (Ginger is a Great Dane and Doc is a Great Pyrenees) which we rescued and we prefer to limit the time they spend in the kennels. Therefore, we have limited ourselves to two seven day Caribbean cruises per year. Our vacation budget will cover these two cruises in a suite. It certainly would cover the drink packages too. It appears that a package just won't be a good value for us.

 

DW does not like flying so we drive (12 hours) to the port. We have plenty of space to bring along some very good wines. Two bottles won't last seven days though. But, I'm thinking that if we are satisfied with the complimentary cocktails, we can buy a few bottles of wine on board. That, almost certainly make more sense than two drink packages ($130 PD).

There are other options for you Rocket....once on board, on the main promenade, you will see a table set up and they will be selling the wine package. It is not accessible on line but you can get 7 to 20 bottles for a discounted rate. You pay a flat fee for how many bottles you want to purchase and you can order any bottle off the menu and they deduct the bottle off your package.

I loved this before because every night at dinner I could select any bottle off the menu and have it with dinner. We got the 10 bottle package for 7 days and found it useful. And let's say you have a bottle at dinner and then open a second bottle the same night but can only finish 1/2 of it....they will re-cork it and you can take it to your room or have them save what is left for the next night at dinner.

You also can remember that if you have the drink package there are many excellent wines in vintages and other places on the ship and they are included! For example one of the best glasses we got was $14.00 a glass but with the drink package we only paid $2.00 and sometimes they would let the upcharge slide.

Hope this helps. For us the drink package was not as much about saving a ton of money as it was about the ease of drinking what ever we wanted and not paying each time or having an unexpected bill at the end of the trip.

So they did give me a $200.00 on board credit and then they charged my sea pass card $200.00 to hold the reservation. So it was a wash. Nice to hold for $200 but they made it seem like the buy one get one at 50% was a special deal but you can get the same deal on the website.

Thanks for the information. Just another reason why we probably won't buy a drink package. Even if the wine is not of the highest quality, as one poster observed, it gets better after a couple martinis.

 

 

 

There have been a lot of "sour grapes" comments.

Don't let it get you down...Wolf came to my rescue many times while I was planning my vacation along with many other kind folks. :D

I love the suite and feel it is worth the expense. We use the room, we love the ship but I like relaxing in my room too. I love the coastal kitchen and suite holders lounge. I also really enjoyed the drink package...I look forward to hearing about your trip.

Maggie

Clarification, please. Is Hibachi a separate or is it a section of Izumi restaurant. If that is the case that means there are 2 sets of prices--a la carte and fixed at $35 per. Also, my middle granddaughter loves Japanese noodles cooked in soy/terriyaki sauce--is it on the menu and included in the Hibachi dinners?

My apologies, I wasn't clear. When you walk into Izumi you are standing at the check in desk. To your right is the 3 (seats 8) Hibachi tables and to your left is the sushi bar with tables. All the same place and if you didn't know to go to Izumi, there is no were signs outside the restaurant that says Hibachi.

Regarding The Japanese noodles...they serve Udon noodles there but I am unsure if sitting in the Hibachi because we all got rice served as part of the meal. Given you are on a Royal ship I am sure they could make sure your granddaughter gets noodles if that is what she wants. In Hibachi we had full access to the Izumi menu.

Hope that helps

IZUMI is a-la-cart. You can purchase sushi and they have the hot stone for cooking meats. At Hibachi, they will also bring you a full sushi menu so you can have it in addition to your dinner. Many people ordered some sushi for a starter. I can't stress enough the sheer quantity of food at the hibachi so if we had gotten sushi too we would have been miserably full.

Next time we will try Izumi and get the hot stones, looks delicious and fun.

We did have traditional dining. We had a seating at 6:00 each night and did 3 nights of specialty dining. One night we did eat at Coastal Kitchen for dinner. I was less enchanted with the dining room this trip.

Hello all...as a follow up we booked another cruise on board the ship...Allure to Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Kitts. Although it felt like we were getting a good value, I didn't see any perks to booking on board.

Also if anyone has any fishing ideas for the stop in Bahamas, I am all ears. We don't love the Bahamas and thought fishing could be a fun activity.

Hi Rocket man,

First of all I see no reason not to post a question in more than one spot. Sometimes you don't feel as if you got the information you needed or the trail goes cold. Ask away!

I was in a suite on Oasis last month...and I DID get the drink package.

I am not a big drinker at home (wine with dinner and such) but on vacation we want all the freedom we can get. And I hated feeling trapped to walk up to the suite holders lounge just to get a free beverage. I loved the sangria while we ate a Mexican lunch, beer by the pool and cocktails in the casino. We used the package a lot. We got drinks with lunch and wine with dinner (not in costal kitchen) and drinks at the clubs and vintages.

For us it is a can't miss and we will buy it again.

Cheers!

So below is the official list of perks for Sky Class suites, which is what the Crown Loft Suites fall under. I've gone through the list of perks RCL lists for it's traditional Enhanced Program for Suite Guests and highlighted the new/changed items.

 

 

 

In a nutshell, it looks like you would be gaining free internet, bottled water, and a welcome amenity really. (I don't know if the current reservations done by Concierge are priority or not.)

 

Anyway hope that helps!

Very helpful Rob, thanks. If the upgrade to the next suite level was about 2k, it would be worth it just for the perks. But I think for me the price difference is $5k. Not worth the cost

Thanks so much for doing this review! Great info and only makes us more excited for our Oasis cruise in a few weeks! Can't wait to see CK, as it's been a couple years since we were last on Oasis. Have Chops booked for 2 nights (our favorite place too!) and thinking about the Hibachi experience as well. Will do Giovanni's, Sabor, and CK for other meals. First cruise without one meal in MDR...never thought that would happen!!

Hibachi is nice but man what a plate of food. I wonder if you can share one plate :rolleyes:. Like you I found so many choices that maybe I won't do the dining room. I can't say enough good things about Sabor...really yummy. Tip for you....they have quesadillas and they have short-rib tacos. I asked for them to make me a short-rib quesadilla and it was a home run! CK is great for breakfast, never tried it for lunch and dinner is good but Sabor was better. :)

Yes thank you! That is very helpful. I will do that so I am not running around when I board trying to do reservations. Thank you for the heads up about filling out the waivers in advance. I went ahead and decided to fill out our passport information since I was already there. I discovered that my husband's passport was expired! Not a huge deal, if I had not caught it we could have sailed without it but we like to travel with our passports even on cruises. I am happy to say that was one headache we avoided. The application is in the mail!

Oh thank goodness...whew!!! That would be a fear of mine, getting to the gate to find out my pass port has expired. Glad you filled out the waivers, you will actually get complimented by every sports zone person at how much it helps them!! :)

we had booked a JS on the Anthem transatlantic, for short money we got a crown loft suite on the Oasis, after reading your review I know I made the right decision.

 

How was the internet connection in the loft? On the sun deck are there any shaded areas?

 

Thanks for the great review.

Forgot to answer that we found the internet connect excellent on the ship. Oasis I have heard is better than others and I have also heard if you have poor connection, they will refund part of your package.

We just returned from Oasis and I enjoyed being in the casino much more than I thought I would. We played wheel of fortune slots for $1.00. But a full spin costs $3.00. So we would each put $100.00 per play. Sometimes we won, sometimes we didn't. On the first day I hit $600.00 which was awesome. On the last day I hit $1,000. $360.00 and $500.00 on the same $100.00 'investment....so I walked away with $1800.00. I wish I had kept track of all the money we put in the machines and how much we won....but I didn't.

Over all I think you have better odds of controlling your destiny with black jack than with slots but I thought the bells and lights on the slots were so much fun.

Regarding Chops. I think the criticism was based on unfavorable changes in the menu as well as the increase in price. They reduced the size of the large filet, they discontinued several of the most popular sides and eliminated and/or changed the recipe on the most popular desserts. The food is still great, but people were bothered by the changes and the feeling of "paying more for less."

Sounds reasonable that any changes make people feel unsettled. You go in expecting everything to be exactly the same and the change throws off your night.

In all fairness, my tenderloin was huge and a full 9-10 oz. How big was it before? All the portions were large....who can really eat all that anyway? I got amazing scallops that were served as a starter that could have been a meal in itself. I also got the tater tots, corn and creamed spinach. Then of course a huge cheesecake for desert. Hard to think anyone could leave there hungry! :rolleyes:

Thanks Rob! Just glad a few people found my review helpful!

I can't tell about the new suite upgrades. Maybe given you are in an aqua suite...which by the way sounds amazing! Since I will be in a crown loft suite I think that the perks appear to be able the same. I was excited about the drink package included and the dining but that appears only for the highest tier suites.

Can you spot any new changes that will impact people in crown loft suites?

As for Chops, I almost canceled it due to the terrible press it got on the boards. I can't understand it at all. It was the best meal of the trip for us! LOL.

If I am reading this right, in our Crown Loft Suite for 2016 on Oasis we will get drink package and specialty dining included. Does everyone else read that correctly?? If that is the case that will be a huge saving for us. We spent almost 1000.00 on the drink package and over $500.00 on dining

Thank you for posting this. Very helpful for our cruise in 2016

We are thinking of booking Oasis for next year and the new stop will be St. Kitts.

I don't know anything about this new stop. Anyone have something to share?

Thanks

Thank you and I enjoyed your review. Before your cruise I followed many of your threads with questions and glad to see that all turned out well. I also am glad you enjoyed Chops. We are going to try it along with Izumi hibachi if we can get a table. We want to wait to get onboard to book. I have a lot of onboard credit and don't want to fuss with paying in advance. We have a suite so I hope that will help us out getting a reservation. If not we will just go to Benihana when we get back home, lol.

Thanks!:) The concierge was very helpful once on board but you can ask them to book it for you before hand via email. I emailed with Nadia on Oasis before we boarded and she held the reservations and then you can pay once on board to use your onboard credits. She also booked my cabana for me but I was not actually charged until I boarded the ship and it went on my sea pass. Just can idea. And they have the concierge email addresses on this board. Hope this helps