Just back from Oasis cruise with 3 young kids and loved it!

[javma]

Thought I would post this here for any of you considering the Oasis with young kids. Absolutely sail this ship with children; I can't imagine one better. We just got off Oasis today--we were so sad to leave! We have 3 kids, ages 6, 3, and 11 months and we had an amazing family vacation. Loved it so much we are now rebooked for February. :D

 

A bit about us--we are pretty picky vacationers, having gone to very nice resorts with the kids (Four Seasons etc.), and we also have pretty high standards for the kids vacation programs. Not that we are snobby, but we always struggle with leaving our kids with people we don't know in programs we don't have experience with. Last year we brought our nanny to Hawaii with us, just so we could have some occasional adult time. We cruised the RC Navigator of the Seas a few years ago when we had just one kids and did not use the kids programs at all on that cruise as our daughter was not quite 3 and too young. Ths ship far surpassed the Navigator in every way.

 

We thought the kids programs on the Oasis were all wonderful; I can't speak to the older kids programs, but I have lots to say about the 6 and under age groups! We like to hang out with our kids on vacation, but we do like some adult time, so we used the kids programs some, but not every day. The entire Adventure Ocean area is just gorgeous; all of the rooms, and the activity areas, are state of the art and interesting.

 

Our two older kids begged to go to Adventure Ocean every day. As one example of the activities, our 6 year old spent Thursday afternoon in the kids center and the theme was Hairspray--the actress who played Tracy Turnblad came in full costume for a Q&A, taught the kids a song and dance, etc. My 6 year old was in heaven. Having seen the show earlier in the week, it was a real celebrity encounter for her. We actually showed up to get her just as Tracy arrived and she was leaping up and down with excitment...so we left and came back later to get her!

 

My 3 year old loved the program, too. Thursday evening we went to 150 CP and she refused to leave at 9:30 PM...this from a kid who is in bed at 8 every day and that day was totally exhaused from a day in the sun. And today she cried when she realized I had "forgotten" the stingray art project she made earlier in the week.

 

Both kids saw the Imaginocean black light puppet show Thursday at 7:30 and thought it was terrific (we were at 150 CP that night). I will try and get motivated to scan the Adventure Ocean Compasses, and when I do I will post a link...need to find them in our unpacking. Thursday seemed to be a great day activites-wise, but every day had something special happening.

 

We were thrilled with the Royal Babies program. Kind, compassionate, very well staffed care. Cost $8 per hour. One interesting thing--they give you a ship phone to use for the entire week when you register a child with the program. So, you can use it to call and check in on any of the kids in the kids center at any time (and my guess is that it also works with the WOW phones). Among other amenities, they have a Fisher Price toy lending program; you can get a different toy every day to take to your stateroom. They also give you a bag with your childs name on it (think reuseable shopping bag) when you register on the first day so you can bring diapers, food, etc. The staff was just so great with our 11 month old. Having the ability to have childcare for all 3 kids so we could go out to dinner or go to the spa was heavenly.

 

If you don't want to leave your young child in the nursery, the center of the Adventure Ocean complex features a play area where you can go and supervise the little ones so they can play in a safe environment.

 

Other things I really appreciated were the H20 Zone in the pool area; the baby splash area was not huge, but it is unusual to have a dedicated space for kids in diapers, and our son LOVED it. And the high chairs in every dining facility are the nice new Rubbermaid kinds with the removeable tray. The staff kep them sparking clean and although we had antibacterial wipes we used before putting our son in one, we were so relieved not to have to deal with the rickety wooden restarant high chiars. He is now totally self feeding, so having the tray is key!

 

We used in room sitting one night when we had a late dinner reservation. RCI sends 3 sitters to the room, but you only pay for one. They like knowing there are 2 people there. The sitters are staff people who want to pick up some extra $ by sitting. Both our sitters had kids themselves (one had grown kids and one had a 10 year old) so they were experienced parents.

 

Our kids loved the carousel on the Boardwalk and made a point to ride it at least 5 times a day! I think the 2 older ones had each ridden every animal at least once by the time the cruise was over.

 

There is so much to do all around the ship; kids (and their parents) will never be bored.

 

I can't say enough good things about the staff throughout the ship. Everyone we met could not have been kinder to our kids, more attentive, smiling, etc. As one example, our head waiter from the MDR spotted me with the baby one afternoon in the Windjammer, and came over with big bunch of seedless red grapes for him. Now the grapes are something that the wait staff saw he loved the first night at dinner as they are in the kids fruit cup; every night after that a fruit plate of kiwi, grapes, etc. was on our table when we arrived at dinner. The grapes are not generally available in the Windjammer, but that afternoon our waiter went and got some for us, without being asked, just because he knew our son liked grapes.

 

I have tried to hit the highlights but there is so much more--happy to answer any questions.

 

We can't wait to get back next year!

[boulders]

Thank you for the review!

 

I just booked Allure of the Seas a couple of days ago. I had been looking for reviews of the Oasis with young kids but couldn't find any. I've been looking for justification that the price difference between Freedom and Allure was worth it. It sounds like it is!

[crusinmama06]

Jealous! :p

 

I am probably waiting for Allure too, like boulders. {great minds ;)}

 

Which cabin did you choose? That has been my greatest challenge -- choosing the cabin. My original booking on Oasis - I chose Deck 14 -- Ocean Balcony so I could be close to Adventure Ocean. I had to cancel the sailing (scheduling conflict :(}

 

So which cabin did you sail in?

 

And do you have the AO compasses?

[javma]

We had two adjoining aft ocean balcony cabins--11310 and 11312. Perfect for us, especially the 2 baths! Glad we chose this arrangement over the Grand Suite as having the two baths was really key.

 

One correction to the original post--RC send 2 sitters, not 3, to in-room babysitting. You pay one and RC pays the other.

 

I have all of the AO compasses and will work on scanning and posting in the next week or so. Right now I am buried in laundry! Going back to work tomorrow will be painful...

[crusinmama06]

Two bathrooms would have been nice!

 

Thanks for scanning those. I'll check back. Or if you can email them - I'll throw them into the Family Board collection at photobucket...

crusinmama06@comcast.net

 

Thanks!

[CariBear]

Thanks for the review! My daughter ( 8 years old in August) is very excited as she has been on 2 previous cruises and cannot wait until November. Now my son (3 years old in July) gets excited when we tell him he will get to go on a big ship....but he will not potty train. Maybe I'm just not used to potty training a boy....but he has no interest whatsoever to go on the potty. We try and try and try again....but he yells "No Potty!" Oh well.....

 

Glad you had such an awsome cruise!!!

[Julienatul]

Thanks for the review, I too was interested in the perspective with young kids and havent heard very many reviews yet. Did the nursery have certain hours or was it open all day? We are looking into Oasis for next year, DS would be 2.5 then and DD 5.

[rolloman]

Good question about the hours the nursery is open. Another question I have is, are they still only allowing 12 hours total usage per sailing in the nursery?

 

One thing that gets me mad is they charge for the under 3 yet the 3 year old and above usage is a part of the cruise fare. Thanks for the nice review!

[tropiclvrs]

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experience. We are sailing on 5/8 and I hadn't seen many review with young kids. We have a 3 & 5 year old that I am hoping will love the Adventure Ocan as much as your kids did :)

 

I have one question...Did you do regular dining or MTD? We are signed up for MTD which is what we did last summer and love it, but was wondeirng how it was on Oasis. I didn't make any reservations, so I'm hoping we won't have to wait too long if we go on the earlier side.

[javma]

Happy to answer the questions!

 

I will dig out my AO Compasses (have not done so yet...still buried in laundry!), but IIRC the nursery was open very extended hours. The only time they seemed not to be open was from 4 - 6, but they opened early (between 7 and 9 depending on the day) and took kids after dinner until 10 PM. They have cribs so they can put the little ones to sleep for naps or at bedtime, or if you prefer (as we did), the baby napped in the stroller, so he was mobile if we needed to get him while he was sleeping. We did have all 3 kids in AO one night from 7:00 until 9:30 while we went to 150 Central Park for dinner.

 

For the nursery, you can sign up for a max of 20 hours when you arrive on board. You don't have to specify dates/times at that point, although they do ask you to call as soon as you know your plans for the day to reserve a spot, so they can ensure that there is space available when you want to come. After the first day, once they see how many babies are interested in using the nursery, they will then take all of the unallocated hours and make them available to those who may want more than 20 hours. We could have gotten pretty much as many hours as we wanted, as there were not that many babies sailing our week. The staff seemed to indicate to us that getting hours beyond 20 is generally not an issue, presuming they have the space available, which they typically do. The most we ever saw were 3 babies (including ours) in there at one time.

 

We did regular MDR dining at the early seating (6:00 PM). I can't comment on MTD...sorry! They do have a program where they will "express feed" the kids in the MDR in 40 minutes with the family, and then the Adventure Ocean staff does a pick up so parents can hang out and have a more relaxed adults-only meal (I think this was only available during the early seating). You need to sign up for this. You can also have them attend the program during lunch and/or dinner, and the staff will take them to the Windjammer. This was not available every day, but seemed to be available most days. We did not use either option, but saw it in the AO Compass and commented on how both were good options!

 

Happy to answer any other questions. Can't wait to sail the Oasis again in February...Western Caribbean here we come!

[tigger917]

Wow what a great review! Thank you so much for all the information. We just had a baby in March, and we are brainstorming on a cruise next year with the baby, who will then be 1 year old at least. I am so glad to hear that the Oasis offers so much more for the kiddies under 3.

I just want to make sure I'm reading correctly...the Royal Babies program was open all day or just in the evening?

I'm not surprised to hear the staff worked really well with kids. RCI has never been a disappointment in that department...kids or no kids! On the Explorer our waiter recognized us during the day outside of the dining room and if he didn't see my (older) son with us, he asked where he was! It feels so nice to be recognized and remembered!

[labs8]

Hi, we have been deciding between Freedom, Oasis, and Eclipse. After asking many RC agents, and other folks who have been on Freedom and Oasis, we think we are going to go on Oasis. Did you consider a Celebrity ship? I read some reviews about a lot of areas being smokey. Did you find this to be a problem? I just read how Celebrity has smoke free policies. Not really sure where folks smoke on that ship. We have two children the same age as yours, 6 and a 3.5 year old. We reserved two Ocean Balcony rooms too, on 11. Did yours have the larger balconies or standard? Were you happy with the floor, i.e. quiet? We are not sure if this will be the only cruise we take, but figured if it is, we might as well go on this incredible ship. Were the Adventure programs really crowded? Do you recall the ratio of children to counselors? We might want to get a babysitter for a few nights and hope that we are able to get one. Did you hear if that was a problem? We are sailing the second week in February. Also, did you bring all of the children when you went to the ports? Did you bring strollers? Thanks so much.

[javma]

Thanks for all of the positive feedback on our review--glad it has been helpful! We just loved our trip so much, I am still telling everyone who will listen what a great family vacation the Oasis is, and we have been back for a few weeks. Only 9 months to go until we sail the Oasis again!

 

Tigger917, the Royal Babies program is open all day from mornings into the evening (10PM). One day we had a drop off at 2, and they let us know that they were closing at 4 for two hours, to, open back up at 6. I don't know if 4 - 6 is their break every day, or just this day, but the hours in general were great.

 

Lab8, we never felt the Oasis was smokey at all. The only place we ever smelled it was the evening we walked through the smoking side of the Casino--other than that, no problems, and I cannot stand cigarette smoke so I assure you I would have noticed if it were an issue! Although Celebrity ship are lovely, we did not consider a Celebrity ship because we felt there simply would not be enough going on for the kids (although if it were just hubby and me I bet we would like Celebrity).

 

We were on the 11th floor and it was totally quiet; we liked it there so much we re-booked the same rooms for our next sailing. In the aft portion we were a bit out of the mainstream, which was fine with us, but I know some people like to be closer to the common areas. We had standard balconies and they were not huge, but big enough, and with the divider open between our two balconies it was nice. Not sure the larger balconies would have been worth the $ for us as we spent far more time outside our room.

 

I can't comment on the true ratio of kids to counselors, as kids come and go from the program all day long, so somtimes it was 1:1 if only a few kids were there, other times it was more like 7:1. There were always a few counselors in each program. The kids programs can get busy (especially at night), but I never once felt they were crowded; more often, I thought that fewer kids were in the center than one might think for a ship that size. We booked a sitter a few days in advance right at guest services and it was no problem at all. With advance planning it is fine, and they assured us we would have no problem getting a sitter; might be a different story if you did a same day reservation.

 

We brought a stroller for the baby (a Maclaren Quest that folds down to umbrella sized). Handy for him as he often fell asleep in it, and we could recline the seat and let him nap. If it had just been the 2 older kids we would not have bothered with the stroller, as our 3 year old is not used to a stroller at this point, so it was not an issue for us (she was happy to run everywhere!). We took all 3 kids to the ports in St. Thomas and St. Maarten, to the beach, etc.--we didn't get off the ship in Nassau as we have been there a few times, and the port stop is short.

 

Hope this is helpful. I promise I will get to scanning those AO Compasses one of these days!

[luvmylilangels]

Love this thread! Can't wait for the compass. Subscribing! :)

[md10074]

It sounds great! Hopefully I can talk hubby into doing the Oasis for our next cruise. I think my kids would love it.

[labs8]

Your posts are extremely helpful, especially for a first time cruiser and one with lots of questions. What is the "compass?" that is referred to in the post?

I spoke with another RC agent who said he thought our cabin was in a great location, middle of the ship, not too close to the elevator and not too far. So glad we decided against staying on 7 with the larger balcony. I might have some other questions, if you don't mind. Take care.

[labs8]

Hi, I just read someone's post that RC now requires two babysitters at a time in the cabin and that it is more expensive. Is that correct? I am curious about the price. None of the agents mentioned this to me. It isn't a big deal but just prefer to not be surprised. Thanks.

[rolloman]

Hi, I just read someone's post that RC now requires two babysitters at a time in the cabin and that it is more expensive. Is that correct? I am curious about the price. None of the agents mentioned this to me. It isn't a big deal but just prefer to not be surprised. Thanks.

 

Yes they require 2 babysitters at a time, and no they do not charge your for both of them. You pay one of them and the company pays the other. I just went through this a couple of weeks ago onboard Independence of the Seas.

[cbowler]

Hi - what a great review! Thanks so much for all of the information. I've been trying to compare the kids programs for various lines and ships and it's overwhelming. We have a 4 year old and a 2.5 year old (at time of sailing) and I'm most concerned/unsure about kids programming for the 2.5 year old.

 

On the Oasis, he would be in the Royal Tots/Babies program, correct? If I understand correctly, we could sign up for a maximum of 20 hours at first at a rate of $8/hr.

 

A few questions about the Royal Tots/Babies program:

 

1) Do they change diapers?

2) Is it a completely separate space from where our 4 year old would be?

 

Also, are the kids programs available on port days if my DH and I wanted to do an adult excursion?

 

And to confirm, there IS a water/splash area for non-potty trained kids, but no actual pool for them to swim in, correct?

 

Thanks!

[javma]

Glad the review has been helpful to so many and cbowler, I think that the Oasis would be a great choice for your family with 2 young kids.

 

Short answer is "yes" to all of your questions! They definitely change diapers (you provide the diapers, wipes, etc. but they change them as needed). The Royal Babies/Tots area is a totally separate room from the Aquanauts area (ages 3 - 5). Aquanauts even has a clubhouse and a slide in the room! The entire center is open during port times and there is definetly a splash area for the little ones who are still in swim diapers, but no swimming pool.

 

And really, I will get those AO compasses scanned one of these days...I have not forgotten...

[shellito1012]

I have a question about the baby sitting....you said it was just staff members wanting to pick up extra money. I was considering the baby sitting service UNTIL you said that part. I was previously told tha the sitters had degrees in child development, etc. I wouldn't want, for instance, the bartendar at the pool deck to be my babysitter if you know what I mean....so just wondering!

[javma]

The Adventure Ocean center is definitely staffed with college educated, many with degrees in early childhood education, certified staff. However, the babysitters can be any staff member; not necessarly an Adventure Ocean staff member. Now before you panic, here is what I will tell you--we met our sitters a few days before they cared for the kids as both worked at Guest Services where I booked the sitter. Both of them were moms themselves--one with 2 grown kids, and the other with an 11 year old son at home that she clearly missed very much. They were both absolutely wonderful with our kids. You can definitely know who your sitters are before they show up at your room, and meet them/learn about them so you can decide if you are comfortable having them stay with your kids.

[Ren4l]

Thanks for all the information in this thread. I am insprired to actually reserve our cruise for 2012 (my youngest will be 3 then).

[lawyerboy5555]

Thanks for the info - I do have another question. We are going on Oasis in September and I was wondering what type of Toddler crib they use. Is it just a standard pack and play? I've heard they just use regular sheets instead of true pack and play sheets. Our daughter will be 18 months old when we go, and just didn't know. Also, was there a long line to register the kids for the Aqua Babies/Aqua Tots program the first day? Any other inside scoop you can offer about specific stuff on board that your 11month old and 3 year old loved, or any other scoop like that about Oasis? Our daughter is very, very shy, so we do have that as a concern. Thanks for all of your help and insight!

[javma]

Lawyerboy, sorry for the delay, just saw this! It has been a busy last few weeks. :)

 

The Oasis uses the standard Graco Pack-and-Play. BRING YOUR OWN SHEET. They don't have the sheets specific to the P&P; they use a regular sheet as you have described. Also bring diapers, and any other kid supplies (band aids, tylenol, etc.) you might need. The selection is extremley limited, and incredibly expensive on board (I seem to recall diapers in the shop only went to size 3).

 

When we went to Aqua Babies/Tots there was no line at all to register...we wandered up after lunch, and it was quick and easy. Don't miss the black light puppet show (was near the end, Thursday I think) as the kids love it.

 

Speaking of lunch--the first day we made reservations at Giovanni's for noon. It was terrific, and it saved us the hassle of fighting through the buffet lines at the Windjammer with our kids and luggage while waiting for our room to be ready. Definite tip for going with kids! We are cruising the Oasis again in April 2011 and we will absolutely repeat this.

 

The high chairs on board are great; Rubbermaid with the removeable tray. They keep them incredibly clean, but definitely bring a package of the antibacterial wipes to clean them with before eating. THe Table Toppers would also probably work. The kids menu has a fair amount of variety, and they will basically bring you anything else you want from the menu in kid portions.

 

Our kids loved, loved, loved the carousel. Hours of enjoyment. They also loved the pool, and mini golf. We never did this, but you can "check out" a variety of age appropriate Fisher Price toys from the Aqua Babies/Tots area to bring to your room. They also have parent and child play times in Aqua Babies/Tots--opportunity to interact with other kids (and adults) without dropping off at the kids center. Honestly, they were so fascinated by the ship that they were pretty much entertained all the time.

 

Your trip is right around the corner! Have a great cruise!