My View: First Semi-Live From Oasis - The Cruise that almost didn't happen!

Hi, Fellow CC addicts! We are on Oasis right now - a cruise that we enjoy with a new sense of appreciation.

The reason: DH had emergency surgery (burst appendix) 2 weeks ago, and until last Wednesday we thought this cruise was a "no go". We looked into options to rebook later this summer, and though Royal could not make any promises, they were willing to look at our case.

Thankfully, it did not come to that! After 9 days in the hospital, DH was cleared to cruise!

So, here we are!

I will post more pictures and details when we get back home, but I thought I would take a stab at my first "semi-live" review.

I will try to answer questions to the best of my ability, but invite others to participate in giving answers when I stay on vacation mode too long :D

I will follow up after the soon-to-start ice show with details of our boarding experience, as well as our first sea day.

Hope you will enjoy our voyage with us and learn from our experience.

Until later, here we are.... APDMOM and our Family of the Seas:

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Such good news about your husband's recovery! Enjoy your cruise. :)

So glad it worked out for you, have a great trip!

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Love your reviews. So glad your husband is ok and you made your cruise.

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APDMOM first, so glad everything worked out. Have a great cruise! I do have a really odd question. We are taking our family on Oasis in Oct. We are 6 adults and 5 children ages 6-12. My problem is that we have My Time Dining, and they'll only let me make a reservation for 10. If you get a chance, could you ask the MTD Dining room people if it's possible to just add one chair to make ours a table for 11 since we have 5 kids? Otherwise I'll have to try to change to Traditional Dining.

Anyway, have a great cruise!

Glad you made it! Hope your husband is fully recovered.

Looking forward to your updates.

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Glad ya'll made the cruise. If you are on eastern itinerary could you take a pic of the teen cruise compass? Much Thanks!

Thanks to all for the well wishes!

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APDMOM first, so glad everything worked out. Have a great cruise! I do have a really odd question. We are taking our family on Oasis in Oct. We are 6 adults and 5 children ages 6-12. My problem is that we have My Time Dining, and they'll only let me make a reservation for 10. If you get a chance, could you ask the MTD Dining room people if it's possible to just add one chair to make ours a table for 11 since we have 5 kids? Otherwise I'll have to try to change to Traditional Dining.

Anyway, have a great cruise!

I will ask when we go there later today :)

In case this helps others with specific requests for dining... About three weeks before our cruise, we contacted the dining coordinator to make our specific dinner request for a table for 3. This is the e-mail address we used, and they had it confirmed within 2 days! rcldining@rccl.com

Be sure to include all reservation numbers involved, as well as the ship name and cruise dates.

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Glad ya'll made the cruise. If you are on eastern itinerary could you take a pic of the teen cruise compass? Much Thanks!

We are on the Western itinerary, but I will post it anyway... it will probably be very similar.

One tip for travel with teens: bring your own glow sticks for the glow party! :)

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Those who are familiar with my reviews know I like to post many pictures. I don't currently have a way to transfer pictures from my Nikon to my iPhone/iPad, so I will post a majority of the review and pictures when we get home.

Pictures will therefore be limited to those taken with my phone for now.

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Embarkation day:

I think this was only the second time in 24 cruises that we drove to the port on the day of the cruise. We like to stay at the Radisson Resort at the Port to take advantage of their Park & Cruise special. The hotel requires about 2-3 days notice to cancel, so we had to cancel our reservation in order to avoid the $181+ charge, should we end up canceling the cruise.

We also canceled our parasailing excursion for Labadee and the wifi package.

Tip on the wifi package coming up...

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Wifi deal and diamond:

This is our first cruise as diamond, and what a great ship to experience this on!! More about that later, but let me just say... "I LOVE that cappuccino machine in the diamond lounge!"

As for wifi: We purchased the surf and stream package when it was on sale prior to the cruise. The price was $55.93 for one device at that time (30% off sale). Due to our uncertainty about the cruise, we canceled that package prior to the cruise to at least get that refund.

Onboard, we ended up spending less money due to our diamond discount. Note... we did not quite exchange apples for apples, as we purchased the "surf only" onboard. We don't really need 'stream', as we are able to do WhatsApp phone calls with stream only.

Breakdown of how we saved... We used my free day on the first sea day. We waited until past midnight today, and paid ~$44 for the rest of the week, as we get $19.99 off any package with DH's diamond discount. (Before midnight it would have been $55... those who are familiar with my strict cruise budget will know how significant that is to me... LOL!)

TIP: So, if two of you are diamond and you absolutely want Surf & Stream, buy it while it is on sale prior to your cruise. Otherwise, use the free day for one person, and the $19.99 off for the other person. The packages get cheaper every day, but the $19.99 off does not change.

Hope that makes sense, as it is currently the middle of the night here on Oasis ;)

I will post a picture of the diamond benefits later.

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Just a couple of photos as we drove up to the port:

First glimpse of OASIS from 528:

A beautiful approach to the port! (Not to mention what an easy drive it was!)

Drop off and parking are clearly marked, and there are many port agents who assist you. Cost of port parking was $128. We opted for this (despite my strict cruise budget), as DH is still recovering from the surgery, and I wanted to make it easy for his sake.

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Well, I should probably get some more sleep before our Labadee fun later today... Much more to follow!

I keep a list of questions and requests, and will do my best to take pictures, post planners, and run up and down the stairs to get answers. :)

Until later...

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I will ask when we go there later today :)

 

In case this helps others with specific requests for dining... About three weeks before our cruise, we contacted the dining coordinator to make our specific dinner request for a table for 3. This is the e-mail address we used, and they had it confirmed within 2 days! rcldining@rccl.com

 

Be sure to include all reservation numbers involved, as well as the ship name and cruise dates.

 

 

 

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Thanks. I appreciate you asking. I contacted RCCLdining, they were rather non specific. Said to make two reservations then show up together but didn't indicate if we'd get one table or two together.

Well, I should probably get some more sleep before our Labadee fun later today... Much more to follow!

 

I keep a list of questions and requests, and will do my best to take pictures, post planners, and run up and down the stairs to get answers. :)

 

Until later...

 

 

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Thanks for the review posted. Just a question on arrival at parking garage. When you pulled into drop off area was there any long wait and what time did you arrive? How was checkin lines? Thanks for any info. Bob & nancy

Thanks for the review posted. Just a question on arrival at parking garage. When you pulled into drop off area was there any long wait and what time did you arrive? How was checkin lines? Thanks for any info. Bob & nancy

Hi, Bob & Nancy! We arrived at about 10:05. There was no line for drop off. We were through security and completely checked in by about 10:30. Diamond boarded around 11:05. :)

 

 

 

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Subscribing <Kidding ;) Great picture, it instantly made me miss that feeling going up the gangway at the beginning. I hope it continues well for your husband, so I will go up and subscribe

So glad your husband is recovering well and you all were able to make the cruise. We are boarding when you disembark. I'm glad to hear you had no trouble with dropping luggage and parking as we are driving down to the port as well and based on past experience on shuttles, the traffic into the port is just crazy.

Look forward to your posts! :D

could you let me know what day & time your meet & mingle is for

Subscribing <Kidding ;) Great picture, it instantly made me miss that feeling going up the gangway at the beginning. I hope it continues well for your husband, so I will go up and subscribe

Ha-ha!!!! Subscribing... You always make me laugh! We also thought about you yesterday, because when we went to look at our boarding pic, DH had one eye looking at the crowd boarding, the other almost straight... what he was doing, I don't know. He was probably worried that we were missing our chance to be first in Park Café :D

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So glad your husband is recovering well and you all were able to make the cruise. We are boarding when you disembark. I'm glad to hear you had no trouble with dropping luggage and parking as we are driving down to the port as well and based on past experience on shuttles, the traffic into the port is just crazy.

 

 

 

Look forward to your posts! :D

Enjoy! Hopefully it will be easy for you too. I don't know if the easy arrival is true for all Oasis cruises, but the terminal was very easy to navigate... from drop off, to parking, to security. We had no wait until we sat in the diamond waiting area.

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could you let me know what day & time your meet & mingle is for

It was on the first sea day (yesterday) at 9:30. We met in Jazz on 4. Will elaborate a bit on that later. :)

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I am not going to repeat all the tips I had on my previous OASIS review. If you have not seen that thread, it has many tips we found helpful, most of which we got right here on Cruise Critic. Link is posted here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2224751