S0ccerm0m3

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If I might ask, what deck were you on? We have a GS on deck 8 coming up on Allure. We passed on a higher deck after final payment because family told us it would be more convenient to things to do.

 

 

 

Hope we made the right choice.

We really loved being on the 14th deck but the mid level decks are really popular. It's just preference. We loved being right down the steps from the suite lounge. We were always there. We were also close to the teen lounge and sports deck. I would definitely pick that deck again. I'm sure deck 8 will be great. From what I heard, deck 8 is a good deck also.

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Great review!

 

I see that you posted the Cruise Compass from day 1. Do you have the others to post as well?

 

Thanks

Yes, I can post some more. Here is day 2

I'll try to get some more posted later today.

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Additional activities

Love the sports activities. The family did the flow rider and the rock wall almost everyday. They did tend to get busy so I recommend going when they first open or while in port. Kids did mini golf a few times. Ping pong everyday. Loved spending time on the boardwalk and aqua theater. They showed some football games on the big screens there and it was packed with fans. They also showed some nighttime movies there, in addition to 3D movies inside. I went to the pool a number of times with the 11 year old. We enjoyed the beach pool and never had trouble finding chairs. I enjoyed lounging on the suite sun deck when I was on my own. Seats were very comfy there and they offered nonalcoholic drinks and snacks. We did participate in the scavenger hunt and some other activities. The kids often played soccer on the sports court.

Tips

-on deck 14 you can go forward to an outside deck which has great views, but obviously very windy.

-use deck 7 to access rock walls., walk down cabin hall untill you get to the end and exit through the door

-if you carry your phone, snap a pic of the daily compass to have on you

More to come. I need to take a break......

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Entertainment and Shows

We did not go to all of the shows. We did go to the aqua show which I thought was great. It had an acrobatic/diving theme, but did have a theatrical storyline. We went to the Headliner Show, but it was not our cup of tea. He was entertaining, and people seemed to love it, but our age group didn't seem as excited about it. The other shows conflicted with activities we had planned so that's all we did.

The parade was focused on the dreamworks characters but I still found it to be entertaining. Try to arrive early and sit at Sorrentos. That spot is best for viewing. The only issue we had were with rude people blocking entrances and small kids. Really rude!!! That was the only time we experienced this on the ship other than a few "unsupervised children" incidents.

We did make it to the adult comedy show and it was hysterical. I actually debated about going back a second time since it was so good. If you don't want to be picked on, don't sit in the front.

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@S0ccerm0m3 - we're in a grand suite too for our September sailing. Do you get priorty diembarkation at the ports as a perk...or do suite members get on line with everyone else to get off the ship?

I'm not sure. I didn't see that offered while on the ship. We wouldn't have used it since we did not get off the ship right away when the ship docked. We always walked right on and off with no issue when we decided to go to port.

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Labadee

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Ports-Labadee, Falmouth and Cozumel

Labadee-Since we were in a suite, we had access to the Barefoot Beach Club. It was a short golf cart ride which would have taken about 4 minutes to walk. It took more time to find the golf cart pick up then it would have taken to walk-oh well! After showing our cards, we were directed to pick up some towels and went to find a chair. There were plenty of chairs and attendant was there to move it to whatever location you requested. They also offered free snorkel gear that my husband took advantage of. They also had water loungers available which my kids used in the water. It was very calm and the boys really enjoyed just pushing each other around. Snorkeling was a bit tough due to a low visibility but still enjoyable. There was a girl who got stung be a jellyfish while we were there, and they had a spray bottle prepared to take care of her. I had heard about some jellyfish there so be careful. The buffet was really good and included shrimp and salads. They also had non-alcoholic drinks for free. A pay bar was on site also. We enjoyed our time but didn't stay long. My boys are just not very into the beach. On the way back we walked on the beach that is accessible to everyone. That is where the zip line is located. The water was very rough and there were no swimming signs.

Jamaica

We opted to stay in the port area. We have been to Ochos Rios and knew that most of the good excursions would be a long distance from Falmouth. We walked around the shops and had lunch at Margaritaville. Just a heads up, the sales tax is 16% and they add 18% gratuity. That was an expensive appetizer lunch. Although expensive, the atmosphere was great and very entertaining. They have a pool that you can sit by and get served at. Not much more to say.

Cozumel

Now for my favorite port, Cozumel. We were worried since we booked really late and had limited options, but went with the Fury Catamaran snorkel and beach day since it started at 12:30 and we could have some flowrider time in the morning. Best choice ever. They offered sodas, beer and margaritas during the boat ride. We stopped for 40 minutes of snorkeling that was amazing. Then went to a beach area that had water inflatable slides, beach chairs, hammocks and cabana beds. Free drinks were still available and they offered lunch for $8/$11 (hot dog or hamburger with sides). After I think 2 hrs there, we headed back on the boat. Lots of dancing on the way back. The crew was wonderful.

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Kids Club

I was really impressed when I first saw the kids club. It's he largest I've seen on any ship. They have their own section on deck 14 in the front of the ship. There are multiple rooms that contain different age groups. My son was a voyager which was 9-11. Unfortunately, being 11, he is at the older end. Being the youngest of 3 boys, he's a little more on the mature side. He's very academic and plays premier soccer so he even takes his play time more serious. For him, he didn't enjoy it. He went a couple of times and only lasted an hour. He thought the activities were boring and repetitive. Every time I looked in, they were just throwing balls at each other. The kids seemed to be having fun, but not mine. We met other 10/11 yr olds and most of them did not go to kids club.

Teens-

If you have teens, they must go to the first night meet and greet. It is really important because that's when they make their clicks. By night 2, they seem to establish the group they will hang out with. There were activities planned, by the kids generally just use the facility to hang with friends. My kids spent a ton of time there and used it as a meet up point with their new friends. Once they met up, they would usually wonder as a group. The younger group tends to do more of the activities than the older kids. Some of the activities are together and some are separate. They also have reserved time on the sports court for specific activities, and on the flow rider. The flow rider was once in the evening for an hour and was pretty crowded. My kids were bummed that there was no reserved soccer time, although they did play in between bball all of the time. Just no full court time. They had an adult time once but you had to be 18. Only 6 adults showed up for that with about 8 15-17 year olds begging to join. They would not let them even though the adults said they could. They should have more sports time set aside for the teens.

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The JR suites are part of the sea perks.

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A bit busy today so I will add some more tomorrow. What topic do you want to hear about next?

Ports

Entertainment/shows

Kids

Suite/perks

Ship Activities

?????????????

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Can't find a printed definitive answer as to whether in a GS on Oasis we have to make reservations for the shows(other than comedy show). Just shoot up early with a gold card for reserved seating? Anyone with experience. Thanx.

You do not need reservations. Just show them your card. I believe you have until 10 minutes prior to showtime before they release the seats to those waiting. You can reserve the comedy show with the concierge. We just got off th oasis and had a grand suite. Have fun!

Awesome, thank you! It sounds like he will be completely entertained;) Now if I may ask adult questions ...drinking ;) Did you get the drink package, if so were you able to get any drink that was listed on the bar menu without getting stuck with any extra fees and by chances did you take any pics of the bar menus? I'm hoping for my Key Lime Pie Martini that I had a few years back when I went on a RCI cruise :D

We did not do the drink package. Since we were in a suite, we had free drinks in the lounge although I did get some frozen drinks here and there. Maybe there is another reader here who can help out with this.

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More food

Izumi

My kids love hibachi, so we picked this as our pay restaurant for the week. With the Coastal Kitchen, we didn't feel the need to go anywhere more (except sabor for lunch). When you make a reservation, make sure you have the right part of the restaurant. We accidentally booked with the sushi side when we made the reservation. They called to confirm and that's when we learned of our error. After some issues with management, more than I want to get into, they had an opening a couple of nights later so we went. Although we didn't care for the management in Izumi, the hibachi staff was wonderful. The food was excellent, service perfect, and the waiters were very personable. The chef was very entertaining. I'm glad we went.

*dont wait until the last minute to make reservations at any of the restaurants, they fill up fast (I think especially once people experience the not so great food and service at MDR)

Coastal Kitchen

Now my favorite. The Coastal Kitchen is in the suite lounge and it is only accessible to suite guests and Pinnacle members. The food was very good and so was service. The staff is very personable and immediately remembered what we preferred. It is the only place you can get filet without an up charge like in the MDR. Keep in mind that there are 3 menus during the week so meals repeat. The lobster wasn't on the menu but we were able to order it when they served it in the MDR. My kids loved the chicken. They said it was the best ever and got it most nights. Drinks are n/c since you are in the suite area. Wine, beer and soda are available 11-11 (I think) and mix drinks in the evening in the suite lounge. Btw, they had no issue with us taking drinks out of there. We did it the entire cruise[emoji106]. Water, juice and espresso are available self-serve 24/7. We popped up there for the continental breakfast a couple of times for munchies and they also do an ala cart breakfast and lunch.

Room service

We only did it once, and we ordered breakfast for a 7:30-8 delivery. They called at 7:15 to let us know it was coming. Unfortunately we were still sleeping so it woke us up. Very efficient but we decided that we preferred to sleep in and get food on our own when we were up.

Sorrentos

This was our late night stop off. The pizza was good, not great, but better than other ships. Try to get it when it comes right out of the oven. My son is gluten free and they made a pie for him fresh and he said it was great.

Cups and Scoops

Yummy! The cupcakes come in 2 sizes and are priced reasonably.

Overall view

Even though the MDR had its issues, there were so many options that I wouldn't consider the food an issue. It is my opinion that with all of the "for fee" options on all ships, the focus is going away from MDR. It just doesn't seem like they are putting much effort into making it special anymore and it seems like the staff has way too many passengers to take care of (we saw our food just sitting waiting for the waiter to get back to it to serve us). Oh well, we ate well so that's what matters.

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That is ok, it is still very helpful, I'm sure they are doing close to the same things. Do you know if the 12-14 where mixed in with the 15-17? Was there a lot of kids n the cruise or just a few in that age group? We are going on Dec 11 ;) Did they get to play xbox or things like that in the kids hang out?

Since it was thanksgiving week, it was pretty full. My boys said a lot of kids showed up to the meet and greet. It seems as if the kids are more interested in hanging out together in the kids lounge than participating in the planned activities. They did say that the younger group participated a bit more than the older kids. Some of the activities are together. There are wii consoles and I know my kids watched the Ohio state vs Michigan game in there.

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Food Time

Let me start with the fact that I have always enjoyed the MDR. I like the connection with the dining staff and the fun atmosphere. Over the past few cruises (on various cruise lines) I have seen a decline in quality. After reading some reviews, I was determined to stay positive and still looked forward to the food.

MDR:

So let's start with the MDR. Not much to say here since we were only there once We went the first night for dinner (minus the 2 older boys who had a meet and greet at the same time). We waited for a while before anyone came over. Our waiter was not super friendly. We gave our drink and food order at the same time but he missed asking 2 people for drinks. No one ever came for bar service. My DH and I both ordered calamari. It came out cold (not even room temperature) and the sauce looked unappealing. Taste was ok so I didn't say anything. My salmon was ok, nothing special. Then the creme brûlée. It came out watery-uncooked. I showed our waiter and he took it to get a new one. After 15 minutes I got the same one that he tried to cook more. Didn't work, so I opted for the chocolate cake. That was really good. With all the options on the ship, and the coastal kitchen, we were one and done for dinner at MDR.

We did try breakfast there once. The buffet looked tasty, but again it was cold. The trays were all open and if you put your hand over them, there was no heat. I ordered the salmon plate which was good, and service was better, but I liked the windjammer more for breakfast. Better options and it was always hot (more on that later).

Windjammer buffet:

We went almost everyday for breakfast. It was an easy walk up 2 flights. I guess we went on the off time, because we always found a table. Sometimes, right near the door. I always got the precooked veggie omelet, potatoes, bacon and pineapples. Everything was hot and I occasionally had someone bring me more juice. I would pick up my coffee in the suite lounge before breakfast. They had an espresso machine for no charge and I would use the paper cups. Yummy latte macchiatto[emoji4].

The buffet had multiple stations and they were the same on the opposite side. It didn't seem that big and I didn't care to try it for lunch or dinner. Too many other yummy options, but more than enough for lunch.

Park Cafe-central park

I heard a ton of great reviews about the roast beef sandwiches and they were right. I got them 3x during the week. This is the best place for embarkment. Everyone seems to go to the buffet. I also enjoyed the salads. They make them up for you and the ingredients look really fresh and there are yummy dressing options. They also have some other sandwiches, desserts and chips. Not to mention the atmosphere is perfect.

Boardwalk dog house

We had hot dogs for a sea day lunch. The hot dogs were good and I enjoyed the toppings. Nothing special, but a good lunch option

Sabor

We went for a sea day lunch. We've heard a lot about the guacamole but no guac fans in this house, although it looked good. We did really enjoy the salsa. We all enjoyed the tacos and quesadillas but my son's barbacoa taco was better than my chicken taco. A [emoji106]for lunch at Sabor.

Food to be continued......

*Just let me know if you have any question that I missed

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this is the beginning of a fabulous review! thanks so much for doing this. hubby and I will be on Oasis for the first time in 2017, so we're doing as much "research" as possible. :D:D

Just let me know if you specific questions. I know there were things I couldn't find before my trip.

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Sorry, I just realized that this is only the 15-17. Guess I don't have the 12-14.

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Hi, thanks for the review, enjoying it! Do you by chance have any of the teen compasses, on what they got to do during the day and evenings? We have our 12 year old son going with us and wanted to see what cool things they had for him to do with groups ;) Thanks!

It is the most important that your son attends the day 1 meet and greet. That's when they meet the kids they will hang out with for the week.

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Cruise compass day 1

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Forgot to mention cabin location-perfect!

-heard no noise from the pool deck at night while sleeping, didn't notice much of anything during day

-we were right near staircase which made it easy to get to things.

-1 flight up to teen lounge

-2 flights up to wind jammer (only used for breakfast)

-3 flights up to suite lounge (or fast elevator ride up). That's where we got most of our beverages (more to come)

-1 flight up to sports court and pool which we used often

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Suite 14660 pics

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We are on the ship!

So we got on the ship at 11:25. Where do we go? I read a lot about Park Cafe and decided to head there. Our wheelchair attendant helped get my FIL to a seat by Park Cafe and left us with the wheelchair. The scooter we ordered would be waiting in the cabin, but we had to access to it until the cabins were open. No big deal. We could ask for help to push the wheelchair to the cabin or do it ourselves. We did it ourselves. We had a great table in Central Park with the birds flying around our table. We loved the salad and roast beef sandwiches. They were just as good as described. It was not crowded and it was very peaceful.

The kids and I walked around the ship while my DH and FIL hung out with our stuff. At exactly 1pm the staterooms were open and we headed to see our suite. Beyond satisfied with our Grand Suite #14660. It was beautiful!!! We had plenty of room for all 5 of us although it got tight at night. My DH and I obviously had the king bed, the 11 and 15 year olds on the sofa bed and the 17 year old on a roll away. The older one gets restless and no one likes to sleep with him. He is very laid back, so he didn't mind (although his feet hung off the bed). We spoke to Ary, our suite attendant and he was wonderful. He said he would set up the rollaway during dinner and have it out in the morning, and he did that through the entire week. Thank you!!!

We packed a lot of stuff (me especially). There was plenty of space everywhere. The huge closet with shelves, 3 drawers in kitchen area, 3 more drawers in living room, 6 more smaller drawers by desk and plenty of room under the bed to shove our empty suitcases. We use those to collect dirty laundry through the week. We even had empty drawers-wow! The bathroom was large and had a ton of counter space and 3 more drawers. Oh forgot, we also had night stands by the bed for more room. The balcony was twice the size of a regular balcony with a table and 2 chairs, and 2 padded loungers.

Negative: not many. As mentioned before, it was tight with the roll away, but we were only in there with the beds open when we were sleeping. We would flip up the roll away while getting ready for breakfast and we could get around. By the time we came back, the room was made back up. The only other issue was the tv. We couldn't really adjust the angle without the signal going out. No big deal. We could all see it fine.

Shower-amazing! Tons of space and water pressure was the best we've ever had on a ship. Only issue was my DH. He was a bit too tall to enjoy it but that always seems to be the case on ships.

For the rest of the review I will group categories together rather than go chronologically. Next I will review our restaurant experience.

Till then.....

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I was on the same cruise and cabin class however on Deck 8. We will have a hard time going on a cruise at a lower cabin class. It was a good amount of space and the perks were quite good. The staff in the suite lounge were great also.

 

I had my daughter with us and she enjoyed herself.

 

I will say the embarkation and debarkation was handled quite well.

We loved everyone in the suite lounge, especially the bar staff and Mark the waiter.

I just got off oasis and i inquired about this with congierge and sports manager. You are correct about no early access, and they also told me about priority in line (did not like that idea). I asked the sports manager and they told me that they couldn't do the 15 minute thing because the staff is coming and going from other areas. I also never saw anyone ever jumping line due to priority. They did say that if you are star class there is some kind of special time you can set aside. The only option I was given was to pay for semi-private lessons. I think it was $69 per hr/person with 4 minimum. That is open to anyone. I didn't do it. Just plan on getting there at opening when lines are smaller.