amybk27

We are out of Detroit too and are cruising harmony in February. Airfare was insane!!! We booked cruise without even looking. We did the same last year. What we do is fly down to fort Myers (last year) and this year Orlando. We fly spirit. Spirit sucks as we are huge Delta fans, but delta was almost $1000 per person and we are paying $350. For 4 that’s a huge difference. Plus we are extending our vacation. Just a thought. 

You get priority access to it all.  Also, I'm pretty sure our genie from the Oasis in August will be on the ovation then.  Her name was Hanna Smith and she was amazing!!!  Do you know who yours is yet?

Wow!  What a great experience.  We had a similar experience this past February when we were upgraded from a owner's suite to a star loft after getting on the ship.  We had no idea what to expect and our minds were blown and that was for only a star loft not the royal.  I hope you all had an amazing time.  It sounds like you received an amazing deal.

4 minutes ago, LB_NJ said:

 

Not  sure how they choose however, I assume that they do this to maximize profit (they are a business) and inventory control.  They will probably never offer it to everyone on a particular sailing. 

 

For example, if they have overbooked interior rooms (eg, through the use of guarantee rooms). Better for RCL if someone pays for an upgrade rather than giving it free to someone who has a guarantee cabin.  Then they will offer upgrade to ocean view from interior rooms.  They may offer balcony and above even if no rooms are available because as has been mentioned before, this is a means of getting additional income on last minute  cancellations. Even if they allow someone to put in a bid their chance of success may less than 1 in 10,000 (no last minute cancellations for the category you bid on, no upgrade).  While they may allow bids even with some online availability they will probably figure out fairly quickly that it does not make sense to award the room until online availability is completely gone. 

 

Hilton Hotels has been doing something like this for a while.  This is something like standby for a paid upgrade to first class on an airline.

 

In the end I assume the selection algorithm is designed to get the most income for the ship as a whole. And has ben said before the best outcome for RCL is that only a couple of interior cabins go unfilled on any cruise.

 

I am wondering if you get a suite cabin you get any of the perks that go with suites? 

 

 

We are looking at going from a crown loft to a star loft, so sky to star.  From what I read, you do get the perks.  If you didn't, there would be no way it is worth it.  

Just received our up email this am.  We book the Harmony for winter break (popular week) Feb. 17th.  When we book Monday, and I called again yesterday to check, there was no room higher than a crown loft so that is what we booked.  We asked to be put on a waiting list for the Star loft.  Well on the up email this am, they had the Star Loft, 1300, Villa Suite, 2100, 2 Bdr Aqua 500.  I put in a bid for Star and Aqua.  What I am wondering is did they purposely not sell these rooms in hopes of making more money?  I figured we wouldn't get an royalup email as there was nothing to move up to available.   

May I ask how much more you paid to go from the jr suite to the royal?

We just called and had it switched to 1746.  I will definitely miss the large balcony and view as we previously stayed in 1720 on Oasis and Allure which had giant balconies, but I think you are all right that you can't beat floor 17.  Thanks for your help!

Thanks so much.  Definitely has me thinking we might need to make a switch.

Hi!  We decided just now to book a cruise for this February on the Harmony.  This past year we were on the Oasis and the Allure in a Star Loft Suite and fell in love with the 17 floor and the view of the sports deck.  We like the people watching as well having 2 bathrooms.  Since we booked last minute, there were no Star Lofts available.  We went ahead and booked the aqua theater, but are back and forth between it and the crown loft.  We like the balcony better on the Aqua Theater (we do spend a lot of time out there), but like the 2 bathrooms and deck 17 of the crown loft.  Does anyone have any experience with either they can share.  It is between room 11330 and 1746.  Thanks!

Thank you amybk27 for checking back. How did your genie arrange/reserve spots for the parades? Was it with seats on the rising tide bar, or somewhere else?

On Allure it was seats in the rising tide and on Oasis it was seats at sorrentos

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Overall review of the Oasis of the Seas:

We all had an amazing time. The room was exactly like 1720 on the Allure, which we wanted because we loved it so much! Our genie Hannah was just as amazing as our last. She was constantly anticipating what me might want and doing things to make it an awesome vacation. She even made a comment once that we didn’t use her enough.

Embarkation:

Getting on was a total breeze and took no more than 10 min. We walked to the star desk and were escorted to our Genie. We took our pictures for our cards and were walked right on board. We got to go to our rooms early, before 12, and received our luggage right after we got to the room.

Food:

We ate all dinner at speciality restaurants. For breakfasts, we did Costal Kitchen 3 times, suite lounge 2 times, and the windjammer 2 times. For lunch, the first day we did Sabor, the second we did Johnny Rockets, and besides the lunch provided in Labadee, we had Sorrentos the rest of the days. All of my meals were amazing, minus my first dinner at Giovanni’s. My steak was over cooked and tough. On he Allure I had a bad experience at Chops, but on the Oasis, everything was amazing! At Izumi, while I loved it both times, our second chef was much more experienced and put on a better show and made better food. The windjammer was never super busy. We never had problems finding a seat and the food was decent. With a 7 year old, it was easy to find something she liked and quickly. Speciality restaurants take a lot of time, 1 1/2-2 hours, so we limited them to dinner. The one thing that I think most will agree on, is that Royal is not the best at desserts. Besides some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream at Cups and Scoops, we really didn’t enjoy any. Our Genie offered to have a chef make us something we liked, but we declined. We ate enough food!

Room:

Our room was just as we expected. We loved all the space and storage and especially he balcony! It is huge! My favorite thing was to sit on the lounger and read. The showers were great, though just like on the Allure they leaked. The bed upstairs is so comfortable. I will say room was pretty creaky compared to the Allure. You could also hear some noise from the sports deck until it closed at 11. It is a great location to the suite lounge and windjammer. It is opposite the kids club, which made for a lot of long walks, but I liked getting the steps in. 17 is a beautiful floor with a glass door that is key required to get in and wide hallways.

Service:

The one big difference I noticed between the Allure and Oasis was the service. I had heard they send the best staff to the newer ships, and I would have to say for the most part I found that to be true. Don’t get me wrong, we had some amazing servers, floor attendants, and genie, but overall, people were less friendly and seemed unhappy. Marva our attendant was just like everyone said, amazing. She was so kind. They do such and amazing job on our room and would set up things with towel animals and my daughters toys.

Shows:

We are big show lovers and make sure to see them all on cruises. I loved them all, minus the aqua show. It was boring to me and really was lacking in comparison to he Allure. However, we loved the ice show way more on the Oasis. We went to Cats and stuck it out. While I have no idea what was going on, it was an amazing show with amazingly talented singers and dancers. My 7 year old daughter loved it, especially when the cats came up to her. The comedians were both very funny and we loved them.

Ships overall appearance:

I know a lot of people talk about this lately. I saw some wear in tear on chairs in the windjammer and our patio furniture was a bit stained and dingy, but I really didn’t notice anything. It all looked great to me. I also had no problems with the aft elevators like I had heard about.

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Is everything at cups and scoops included? Did genie help with meeting dreamworks characters any? Thanks!

I don’t know about meeting the characters, but they are always around the ship for pictures. My daughter loved to see them on the Allure, but not Oasis. Our genie would arrange for special spots for the parades.

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We got our Star Loft on Harmony (march 2019) for a bit less...$12,375 for the 4 of us. But again, this includes KSF, star savings of $1000; and TA discounts.

 

 

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That’s an amazing deal!!!

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Please come back and tell us how the debarkation process worked.

Debarkation was different on the Oasis than on the Allure. On the Allure we arranged a time with our Genie. She came to our room at that set time with a porter. They put our luggage on and we walked off the ship with it.

On the Oasis, we arranged for a 7:45 debarkation. Hannah told us to put our luggage out at 6:45. We put it out and ate lunch at the suite lounge. We came back to our room to find coffee delivered for us without asking. We then met Hannah at the elevators and she walks you right off to meet the porter with you luggage and right to customs. We were off and at our shuttle in under 10 minutes.

I am going to post an overall review and comparison to Allure later tonight.

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When either of you Amy or mac went to the specialty restaurant did you tip the waiters?

 

 

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We always tipped extra. Depending on service tipped between $15-25. They really do go above and beyond at most places.

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If you had shots and champagne delivered, does that mean you can get mixed drinks and wine by the glass delivered?

 

Any miniatures in the fridge?

You can order one drink per person of age in the room. They also have the cart that comes around.

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Question; Did you have room service delivered from one of the Specialty Restaurants and how did that work out?

We had it from Giovanni’s last night. You just call your Genie with your order and give them a time you want it delivered. Then they come up and set the table either inside or outside. It’s so nice.

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Friday night

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Labadee was amazing yesterday. Hannah escorted us off the ship at 10:00. She walked us down the pier, room our picture, and took us on a golf cart to Barefoot a beach. My mom and brother decided they wanted to zip line so Hannah also set that up with the concierge at Barefoot Beach.

Barefoot Beach was so nice. The water is perfectly calm and the beach isn’t too rocky. We decided against getting a cabana as we knew we wouldn’t use it. We greatly enjoyed floating on a mat with a labadoozie in hand. They also had snorkel gear we used as well.

My mom and brother had a 12 o’clock zip line appointment. They needed to meet at 11:45 and didn’t finish and get back until 1. They had a blast though. After we relaxed some more and my daughter had fun at the splash pad while I shopped the market a little.

When we got back we quickly had to meet Hannah to ice skate again. By he time all was done we were pooped and decided instead of going to Giovanni’s we would have it delivered. I called Hannah up and placed our order for 6:45. At 6:44 dinner was delivered and we ate it on our balcony. . We then headed off for Come Fly with Me and finished off the night with some Ben and Jerry’s from Cups and Scoops.

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we normally really dislike WJ , is there a difference in WJ on Oasis compared to other ships

No. It’s the same. We just like the ability to get in and out and choose from a variety. Costal kitchen is nice and higher quality, but I don’t like wasting a ton of time waiting for food and eating. Dinners at speciality restaurants take around 1 1/2 hours.

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Can you verify if the Rock Wall has the weighted lines (belay systems) that help you get up better or are they stand alone climbs without any aid.

It’s belay

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Well I fell behind. We have been to St Maarten and San Juan. Weather was amazing at both. Both days we had Hannah escort us of the ship. We meet her at the elevators on deck 17 and she uses her card to go straight down to the gangway and we can avoid the lines.

In St Maarten we had. I thing planned. We ended up just taking a water taxi and ended up at the beach where they drop you off. It was perfect for my daughter. The water was nice and smooth and calm. We had nice beach chairs. There wasn’t much beach, but we spent most of the time in the water.

We also did a little shopping and then headed back to the ship. We had 5:30 reservations at Izumi so we had to rush.

Izumi was yummy, but not at good as in the Allure. We are going back tomorrow and will see if a different chef makes the difference. My filet was amazing, but the fried rice was lacking flavor. My mom and brother had the spicy tuna roll, which they loved.

That night we saw the headliner, Lou Gazzara from American Idol. He was amazing. Hannah met us and walked us to the first row. We were so close he came down and kissed our hands. My daughter would have loved that, but she HAD to be in kids club. She would live there if she could.

Yesterday we were in San Juan. We had a light breakfast in the suite lounge since we were getting off early. Unfortunately stores don’t open until 10 we walked around and ended up going to the Chocobar, somewhere we had intended to go later in the day. We grabbed a table and had got chocolate, frozen chocolate, and churros. All were amazing. I highly recommend. We also picked up some truffles for Hannah and home. I didn’t try them, but they looked great.

After a couple hours of shopping we went back on the ship. We went up to the suite deck. There was a new bartender I hadn’t seen before and was appalled by the way he treated a preteen. I had never seen anything like it. He was so offensive and rude, making the poor girl so uncomfortable. He told me he was new to cruising and while talking I continued to see him give attitude to others. I have never seen a staff me ever on a cruise ship like that before. Hopefully he was just having a bad day.

At night we had dinner at 150 Central Park again. We had an amazing server, Leonardo. Our food was again amazing. The tenderloin was cooked to perfection. We then went to the late night Comedy show. Both comedians were funny. When taking to Hannah we mentioned how the desserts are lacking on Royal Caribbean. She then asked what kinds of things I like, and said she will have someone prepare something for us. They really do go above and beyond for star class. We turned that down, but did ask for more macaroons they provided on the first day. By the time we got back to our room they were already delivered!

We are now docked in Labadee and about to head off to Barefoot Beach.

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Day 3 was another nice and relaxing day. We went to windjammer for breakfast, which all of us preferred over coastal kitchen. We are early risers, so we never have to wait or feel crowded. Following breakfast we decided to do putt putt and rock climbing. After a couple of holes of putt putt, the winds became too strong and we had to give up. At this point the rock climbing wall was open so we headed that way.

Before going to rock climb, we got our wrist bands from the sports deck. There they gave us a special green wrist bad that said star class. This band allowed us to cut to the front of the line when we got to the rock climbing wall. We told them it was alright and we would just wait our turn, but they insisted.

After our adventurous morning, we headed off to the suite deck. It was very windy, but still nice. Up there they come around with fruit and have bags of chips and a bar.

After awhile I headed to the pool with my daughter. Again it was nice to see some pool chairs here and there. Much nicer than February.

For dinner we went to 150 Central Park. Just like on the Allure, this was a fabulous meal. I will also say it was the first time we had an amazing server. Service also took the longest here at 1 hr and 45 minutes. This is the veal bolognese agnolotti. I really enjoy it as I don’t like seafood. My brother liked it more than the lobster gnocchi.

We had to quickly race off to meet Hannah for our headliner show. We sat and chit chatted with her for awhile. She shared she has only been a genie since May. We absolutely adore her and think she is doing an amazing job. She asked if we wanted to be escorted off the ship in St Maarten, but we turned that down. We have no plan today and are just winging it, so we don’t feel rushed getting off. We will probably miss the crowds since we won’t be getting off to make and excursion.

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nice review. Any chance you can keep posting the Coastal Kitchen dinner menu's. PLEASE AND THANK YOU!

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Another vote for WJ over the CK.

This morning my daughter asked to go to the windjammer instead and we all agreed. We enjoyed it much more.

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