FirstAnthem

Love your review so far!

Hi all,

Quick question—I’m going to write a review of our recent cruise on Oasis, but I don’t know how to add photos to my review. I know it’s probably easy to do, but I’m fairly inexperienced on this board and have never done it. Appreciate the help!

There were 3 other small boats at Creole Rock when we first got there. Each boat had about the same # of snorkelers as we did - so about 30 other people is all. Did not seem crowded and they all trickled out of there soon after we arrived.

Thank you!

Wondering if there are several boats snorkeling at once in the same spot? I read they limit the passengers on the Billy Bones tour, but if many boats of limited passengers are in the same spot it means for crowded water. We just did a snorkeling excursion in Mexico and there were about 100 people in a small area and it was not a great experience. Thanks for any input!

Hi Gatordad! I couldn’t wait for you to read my review! Yes, I believe that they are able to make pretty much anything you need. Maybe they are more limited the first day, but beyond that, yes. Actually, that first day in the windjammer, when the chef came out I asked him what she could have and he said “what would she like?” My daughter’s eyes lit up. It was such a successful trip. I would bring snacks and treats though, to supplement. My daughter likes Hershey bars and different candy that we weren't sure would be available on the ship. We brought GF Oreos, things like that. We brought a roller carry on full of food for her! lol Enough for an army, but it’s my worst nightmare to be somewhere and she wants or needs something and I don’t have anything, you know?

Trixie 21—as I think about it more, with your wife’s digestion issues and needing things like vegetables prepared a certain way (I understand—I’ve had similar digestion issues in the past!) I would bring these up to the maitre d on embarkation day and I bet they will get the head waiter, or make note of it, so dinner that night will involve less explaining.

Trixie 21—yes I believe if my daughter had wanted to make modifications with her order she could have. They were bending over backwards to help. They are quite accommodating!! On embarkation day, we went to the MDR and spoke to the maitre d and confirmed that our reservation was marked as celiac. The head waiter wasn’t around at that time. We discussed everything fully with our wait staff and head waiter that evening at dinner. Also, be sure to have your reservation marked as celiac/GF before your cruise, and email special needs at Royal Caribbean to make sure they know about your wife’s celiac/GF. That way they have enough GF food stocked for the cruise.

We are just back from our very first cruise on Oasis. Our daughter, age 13, has celiac disease. Vacationing can be a challenge, and whenever we do something for the first time, we are apprehensive. We have gone to Disney many times just so she can have a worry free eating experience! Well, we had NOTHING to worry about! Happily, she ate as well as we did on this cruise! I’ll review each dining venue we experienced....

Windjammer—I swore we would avoid the windjammer on embarkation day after reading the horror stories about the crowds. I also didn’t think the hectic-ness of embarkation day would be a good atmosphere to try to find a GF meal for our daughter. I packed stuff in my backpack for her to have for lunch (prepackaged things like crackers, shelf stable hummus, popcorn, granola bars, etc). But once we boarded, our son (age 11) made a beeline for the windjammer (his idea of heaven) and somehow we found ourselves in the middle of windjammer on embarkation day, the one thing I swore wouldn’t happen! And my daughter looked at me and so sweetly said “can I eat here, too?” I had to make it work. Well, it was absolutely FINE! We got there about 11:30 ish, and the crowds weren’t heavy yet. I asked for a chef, who came out and told her she could have anything she wanted! She ordered a burger and fries. We got our lunch, and she waited a little bit for hers, but the chef delivered it with a smile! WE WERE SO HAPPY. For the rest of the week in windjammer, we asked for a chef, who came out and took her order and it worked out great! Sometimes there was a little miscommunication (like she didn’t get fries one day, but instead got two turkey sandwiches) but it was fine. And if you let your headwaiter know you will be at windjammer the next morning or afternoon, they order your meal so when you go to the windjammer the next day, it’s easier and less of a wait.

Main Dining Room—a celiac’s dream! Our wait staff was TOP NOTCH. On the first night, my daughter ordered from the couple of GF choices labeled on the menu. But from that day forward, she ordered her meal for the next night, and when doing that, she could order anything she wanted, dessert included, and they made a GF version! She ordered from the regular adult menu. She ate wonderful meals for dinner every night. She couldn’t have been happier. For lunch in the MDR, she ordered the shrimp risotto off the menu every day, and that is labeled GF on the menu. If she had wanted to divert from that, we would have ordered her lunch for the next day with our head waiter at night.

Sorrentos—she only went here once on the first night, but it was a great experience. No cross contamination, everything is separate. You do have to wait about 15 minutes for GF pizza, and you get the whole pizza, not just a slice, but it was fun for her to be able to get pizza too, and we brought it to our room and ate it on the balcony! It wasn’t her favorite GF pizza, but it was more the experience. She felt like everyone else.

Giovanni’s Table—we had dinner here one night. Their menu has SO MANY labeled GF choices! She had an amazing, delicious gluten free dinner. She was catered to. It was fantastic and we will definitely go back here on our next cruise. Again, she ordered off the adult menu. She had pork belly and grilled shrimp and potato purée and ate every bite.

We had a fantastic GF experience on Oasis. The staff was AMAZING. We brought snacks and some small desserts with us (all prepackaged). We definitely needed those things. So I would suggest doing that. Our daughter isn’t a big breakfast eater, but we could have ordered her a breakfast the night before with the headwaiter. We also could have gotten GF at Park Cafe, she just never ended up wanting to eat there. All we would have needed to do was to ask for the manager and they would have helped us. Maybe next time.

One additional thing—on port days we returned to the ship for lunch and ate at windjammer. If we had done an all day excursion, we would have packed her a lunch from the things I brought just in case. Having never cruised I had no idea how it would go. I brought crackers, shelf stable hummus, pouches of tuna and mayo packets, granola bars, popcorn, nuts, etc. but we ended up coming back to the ship—it was much easier to do that than I anticipated. We could have ordered her a GF meal for Labadee, our headwaiter offered that, but she wanted to come back to the ship, so we didn’t order that. The order for that happens the night before as well. Just so you know it’s an option.

If you have celiac, don’t worry at all about your cruise. They are highly capable to prepare safe GF food. And it’s delicious! My daughter didn’t get sick the entire cruise. It was truly wonderful.

Oh! Another tip! The two nights we were in FL before our cruise, we ate at a little restaurant called Mi Island restaurant in Merritt Island, less than 10 min from the port. They do GF right!!! The meals were fantastic, they completely understand cross contamination and safe GF cooking practices. It’s a casual place, great choices. We ate here both nights because our daughter (and the rest of us!) enjoyed it so much. I highly recommend it if you are in town before your cruise! Check out their reviews on Find Me Gluten Free online. You can’t go wrong here.

I hope I’ve helped. Please ask any questions!

Hi all—Just looking for suggestions for excursions in San Juan. We will be there (for the first time) in February 2019. We have two kids, ages 14 & 12. We will be there from 1pm—9pm. We’d like to see as much as possible! We are open to doing things independently or ship sponsored. Thank you!

Just at Labadee last Friday - we booked the aqua park and slide when we got there. Not a problem at all. It was in the morning but there were still a lot of spots available.

Super! Thank you!

Pending space availability, you can add activities while on Labadee. People in our group have done the zip line that way several times.

Great, thanks! We’ll likely leave our afternoon up to chance!

We are sailing on Oasis April 1-8, first cruise ever. We had the Amiga Island excursion scheduled for the afternoon when we are at Labadee, and just got an email saying it was canceled. We are doing the jet skis in the morning. Our plan is to leave things as is, do the jet skis, have lunch, and see how we feel. If the kids are up for more, then maybe do the inflatable aqua park or the coaster or water slide. My question is, can these things be scheduled last minute when we are on Labadee, or do they absolutely need to be scheduled before the cruise?

Following! Love detailed reviews like this! We set sail April 1 on Oasis...

Following! Looking forward to your review

Following. Great review so far!

Please do come back and report! We are taking our first family cruise the following month on Oasis with our daughter who is 5 with Celiac, so any tips you can share about the current options for GF kids would be tremendously appreciated! Have a fantastic trip!!!

I will absolutely come back and report. We are taking this cruise because friends of ours have a daughter with celiac as well, and we are both always looking for celiac friendly vacations! They had great success on Grandeur of the Seas, which inspired us to try a cruise. Disney World was getting much too expensive!! I’m excited to get onboard a week from today, and then come home and share everything we learned and experienced.

Yes—it took me to a page that had me sign in with our cruise details, and I signed in and our waivers came up and I completed them. We sail April 1, so our cruise is close, too. Sorry it’s not working for you! (Also, I don’t know how to quote someone’s post in my reply—sorry about that too! Lol)

I just did our waivers the other day. I couldn’t find them on the website either. So I just googled something like “filling out waivers online Royal Caribbean” and the link for the page for the waivers came up and I got all our waivers done! I don’t know why Royal Caribbean doesn’t make things like that easier.

We sail next Sunday and are also stopping in Falmouth. Our daughter (age 13) also has celiac. We are not having her eat anything off the ship—way too much risk of cross contamination and miscommunication. We are going to eat a good breakfast on the ship, packing factory sealed snacks to get her through the excursions (none are full day) then having a good dinner on the ship. I think this will work out fine. We’ve never cruised before, and vacationing somewhere new with celiac always presents challenges, but once you do it once you learn so much. We are doing river tubing and the adventure park at Good Hope Estate in Falmouth. I think your kids are too young for that though. I think the minimum age was 6 if I’m not mistaken. I plan on doing a full review of our cruise and a full review of our celiac/gluten free experience on this trip, so keep your eyes peeled. I hope I’ll have a lot of advice to send your way! Have a great cruise!

We are taking our first family cruise next week! Our daughter (age 13) has celiac. I am equally concerned about her eating off the ship—with celiac I just can’t trust that there won’t be cross contamination of some kind. Our plan is to have a good breakfast before excursions and pack factory sealed snacks (granola bars, chips, snack bags of crackers or popcorn, for example) to get her through until we are back on the ship. Only one of our excursions is a full day, so I think we can make it through. Then she’ll have a good dinner on the ship. It’s hard to vacation with celiac disease sometimes, and it’s a huge learning curve. Once we cruise once it will be so much easier because we will know what it’s like and you learn from experience. We will be stopping in Falmouth as well. We have a three hour excursion planned to Good Hope Estate for river tubing. I think your kids might be too young for that. Once we are back from our cruise I plan on doing a thorough review of the cruise, and also a thorough review of our gluten free/celiac on a cruise experience, so keep your eye out for it! Our cruise is April 1-8. :)

Actually, since I posted these questions I have made some progress on the dining reservations. I emailed RCLDining@rccl.com and requested the early traditional dining because of my daughter’s needs and heard back within a day that I was put into early traditional dining per my request. I emailed this request to special needs about a month ago and made no progress. I just kept getting general responses that had nothing to do with my questions. So if anyone has specific questions or requests, email RCLDining@rccl.com!

Thank you! We’ve decided to book an excursion based on the positive words we’ve heard from experienced cruisers on here! We are looking forward to enjoying every port!

So we decided to book a Jamaica excursion! We are really excited. Thanks for everyone’s replies and the advice for the excursions to Good Hope Estate (cruzeluver). We booked the River Tubing and Adventure Falls at Good Hope. The description on Royal’s website says transportation back leaves every 30 minutes and guests can decide to do more activities for a fee. Hopefully this means that if the kids are having a blast at adventure falls that we can stay over the three hours allotted? I guess we will see when we are there. I really appreciate all the advice. We have never cruised, never even been out of the country! So we have no sense of any of this. All I know is what I read, and when I see things about all the crime, etc., it makes me nervous, but I’m so glad you all chimed in with positive words. It made me not want to miss out on any port, and I know I won’t regret going for it!

Thank you, cruzeluver. I’m seeing that there’s another excursion, same place, but it’s only river tubing and the adventure falls. It’s a 3 hour excursion. Do you think the kids would have time at adventure falls if we did this one?

Thank you for all the replies. Yes, cruzeluver, you are correct—it includes the river tubing and zip lining and the pool with the waterfalls and slide. This excursion is at Hope Plantation (I believe that’s what it’s called!) Thank you for sharing your experience—I was wondering about the time frame allotted as well. My kids are most interested in the waterfall and slide into the pool! So we’d be disappointed if we missed out on time in that area.