9/4 Oasis of the Seas - Long Review

[FreeWilly88]

Thanks to everyone's post about Oasis before we sailed her, and it was time for me to return the favor with our trip review! Enjoy.

 

We sailed on the Oasis on 9/4 with a group of 20 family and friends. I take my parents on cruises several times a year and we had a balcony cabin for the three of us (Cabin 12678). We just made Diamond status as this was our 11th cruise with RCCL. We've also been on a number of other cruises with CCL, Princess, Celebrity, NCL.

 

EMBARKATION

 

My parents live in the Ft. Lauderdale area, so it was a short drive to port. We arrived at the port around 11am. Security screening and check-in was a breeze with a very friendly RCCL team welcoming us. Once we got our SeaPass cards and welcome aboard photo, we were directed upstairs to a large waiting area to board the ship. They had cordoned off special waiting areas for Diamond Plus and Diamond members which was nice as they allowed us to board first before general boarding. We waited for about 15 minutes and they announced the ship was ready for us to board. Since our cabins weren't ready till 1pm, we all went to the Windjammer Marketplace to get some lunch.

 

DINING

 

My first impression walking into WJ was wow, this is such a small venue for such a large ship! Being one of the first to reach the WJ after boarding, it was practically empty, but the rate of other guests finding their way to WJ made it nearly impossible for other guests to find a seat about 30 mins later. It filled up rather quickly. The food was good, but it turns out for the remainder of the cruise, this was my one and only time I ever ate at the WJ.

 

As the cruise went on, it was clear that WJ was not the place for us to eat breakfast or lunch. We found the Solarium bistro and the Park Cafe great alternative venues for healthy breakfast. The only gripe is limited seating, but it seemed a bit less hectic than at WJ. We did try breakfast at Johnny Rockets which served the standard breakfast fare (eggs, bacon, sausage, toast). It was free for breakfast. We all loved the flavored water that was available at most of the dining venues.

 

For lunch, we primarily went to Park Cafe. The roast beef sandwiches are delicious! Along with the many other healthier options like make your own salad, panini's, fruit salad,... yum. We did go to the MDR for lunch a couple times to change it up a bit. Lunch was very fast with no waiting.

 

For dinner, we had early seating at the MDR and our wait staff, Dennis and his assistant Lucas, was super awesome. It turned out that the other tables they were responsible for never showed up for dinner, so we had a very attentive wait staff which was wonderful! Food in the MDR was great, and on lobster night, we each had two lobsters. It was probably the most delicious and meaty lobster I've had at sea. Desserts were equally delicious and had our fair share of it during the course of the cruise.

 

We had prebooked Central Park 150 for dinner on the last day of the cruise. While the food was good, the dining experience is intentionally very slow so you can enjoy the experience. For us, it was way too slow. After about 2.5 hours at the table, we were ready to leave and spend more time around the ship before our cruise was over.

 

We spent many midnights at Sorrento's pizza for a late snack and some dessert at Cafe Promenade.

 

ENTERTAINMENT

 

Remember to prebook all your shows before you board the ship. We had made reservations for all the shows and had no problems attending the shows.

 

Comedy Live was good. It's in a small, intimate venue, but the comedians were very funny.

 

We attended a late showing of Hairspray and it was fantastic. The production show rivaled land-based shows with a very talented cast. It's not too be missed!

 

We unfortunately missed out on Earl Turner headliner show, but hope to catch him on another sailing in the future.

 

Come Fly with Me is one of the best RCCL production shows we've seen. The aerial aspects and airplane prop was amazing.

 

Frozen in Time was Oasis' ice skating show and the most interesting part of the show had nothing to do with the skating. They featured a sand artist that was able to draw/animate a story line. It was very cool and almost everyone was intrigued by the talented artist. The skating aspect of the show was ok. We've seen the other ice skating shows on the Voyager and Freedom class ships - it was good nonetheless.

 

I heard that the Aqua Theater was out of commission for a few sailings prior to our cruise, but very pleased that the Aqua Theater was fully functional on our sailing (or at least the show was still on). The Oasis of Dreams show was great considering you're on a cruise ship, but can't compete with the larger production shows such as "O" or LeReve in Vegas. During the daytime, they featured several water fountain shows orchestrated to a number of songs. It was great to catch a glimpse while in the Boardwalk area. Overall, we enjoyed the show as no other cruise ship can offer the variety of shows that Oasis delivers.

 

As many other people have mentioned, Love and Marriage, and the Quest (adult scavenger hunt) are not to be missed! Richard Spacey was our CD and he is amazingly talented, funny, and loves to entertain the guests.

 

CASINO

 

The casino onboard the Oasis was the largest I've seen to date. They even designated one side of the casino as non-smoking, although you still smelled like smoke leaving the casino regardless of which side you play.

 

The casino has a dedicated poker "room" area where three electronic poker tables were stationed. The rake was 10% up to $15 which practically meant one guaranteed winner, the casino. I played poker the first night and was stuck about $200 in less than 30 mins. Luckily, I won it back and left the table up $15. I noticed the table was filled with more experienced players which makes it difficult for me to make any money with such a high rake. It was the first and last time I spent any time at the poker table (other than their poker tournament).

 

I ended up spending most of my time playing craps. The casino had two crap pits (one of each side of the casino) with $5 min / $300 max - the low limit was a plus. Unfortunately, they only offered single odds. The dealers were extremely friendly and fun to play with. Most of them knew us by first name after spending our first night at the casino.

 

The casino offered the other casino games including blackjack (and single deck with the horrible 6 to 5 payout on BJ), roulette, three card poker, and surprisingly baccarat.

 

PORTS

 

On the western itinerary, we stopped at Labadee, Costa Maya, and Cozumel. We're not big shore excursion people, so I'll have to defer reviews of these ports to the other Cruise Critics!

 

CABIN

 

We had an outside balcony cabin (12678) and it served our needs. The cabin is smaller than other RCCL ships -- they appear more narrow. After spending time looking at the cabin design, it appears that RCCL decided to reduce the cabin width by about 8 inches. They achieve this by narrowing the cabin's width where the sofa/tv is located. You get a bit more width where the bed is situated. As a result, RCCL is able to reduce cabin width and place more cabins along each deck. It's definitely a bit cramped with three people sharing a cabin -- but it's doable.

 

Our cabin was a bit warm even at the coldest setting, but our room steward quickly called maintenance to fix the situation. We were also reminded to not shut off the master switch as the a/c would be turned off and to close our balcony door to ensure we didn't lose a/c.

 

Overall, the cabin did what it was intended to do - provide comfortable place to rest.

 

INTERNET

 

Internet service was the standard dial-up access speed through their satellite link. Unlike all the other RCCL ships we've been on, they did not have a well designed "computer cluster" for accessing the internet. It appeared to be an afterthought and they set up a few machines in various locations. The most disappointing place to check internet was in the forward section on deck 7 (i believe?). It appeared they retrofitted an inside stateroom size cabin and taped signs to direct people to the cabin. We ended up not using it much.

 

DEBARKATION

 

They provided numbered tags ranging from (1 to 80?) to tag your luggage. Since we parked at the pier and had no time constraints, we chose late check out and was given tags numbered 42. Our number was called around 8am and we walked off the ship about five minutes later. It was very easy to find our bags given that each number was associated with a small number of bags (~50 bags). Once we picked up our bags, we spent about 20 mins to get cleared by customs before we were able to head to our car and drive back home.

 

GENERAL COMMENTS

 

We had a fantastic time on the Oasis. There are lots of choices and venues to choose from which is great. One consistent gripe is that venues tend to be smaller than the Freedom/Voyager class ships -- surprising since it holds 6000+ passengers. For example, On Air - karaoke spot was very small for the number of people that wanted to listen or sing.

 

Don't forget to check out the Rising Tide bar. We thought there was a cover charge to get in, but it turned out to be free! Great way to relax and have a drink.

 

Everyone needs to go on Oasis at least once in their lifetime! For us, we're definitely going back to Oasis and her sister ship Allure in the near future.

[bionicman97]

Thanks for the review. Very informative.

[CVU]

Thank you for the Oasis review. We are on her in less than 3 weeks!:D

[FreeWilly88]

Thank you for the Oasis review. We are on her in less than 3 weeks!:D

We took great care of Oasis for you! :)

 

Hope you have a wonderful cruise CVU!

[Louise34]

Very informative review...and I took notes. We are sailing in April, 2011 and your review really helps narrow down all the choices we will be having on that amazing ship. Thanks.

[QTMichele]

Thanks for taking the time to share this with us. A quick question about the comedy - is there a different comedian/same show every night?

[FreeWilly88]

Thanks for taking the time to share this with us. A quick question about the comedy - is there a different comedian/same show every night?

My pleasure... It's the same comedians every night.

[jjb415]

Thanks OP, it was great reading about your sailing on Oasis. It was interesting to hear the disembarkation was from numbers 1 through 80 !! :eek:

[CariBear]

Thanks so much for the review! Glad to hear you had a wonderful cruise!!

[janetz]

Great review. Next week...our turn! :D FINALLY

[emerald777]

Thank you for a great review!! We're in FLL right now waiting to board!

[cruisinfanatic]

Anyone know how long the rising tide bar takes to go up and how many levels.

[mation101]

The tide bar is slow you wouldnt even know you were moving if the scenery didnt change. It seemed like it was less than 10 mins from bottom to top, then there is a pause while they wait for more people, then back down. You can come and go as you please, we went up and waited to go back down, and had plenty of time to down a cocktail. I am really glad we rode it, but once is enough.

[CruiseLover15]

Great review, thanks. I was on the same cruise and did catch the Earl Turner show and it was fantastic. We enjoyed it more than any of the other shows.

[funat55]

Thank you for your review. I try to read them all. No matter how many reviews you see, each one has its own personal perspective and helpful insight.

 

I was just wondering, has the price come down on the thermal suites? Since the Oasis doesn't have a free steam room and sauna I thought that you had to pay for a thermal suite package? Any ideas on the price??

[Merion_Mom]

Thank you for a great review!! We're in FLL right now waiting to board!

 

Enjoy that huge suite! Remember, we want to see pictures! :)

[DonnaK]

Flavored water? What are some of the flavors, and is there a charge for them?

[Poorplaya]

Great review, thanks for all the info, I hope they have the lower limit craps on my next cruise, thats where I plan on spending most of my casino time.

[FreeWilly88]

Anyone know how long the rising tide bar takes to go up and how many levels.

It takes about 10 mins and departs every 30 mins. It goes from deck 5 (royal promenade) to deck 8 (central park).

[FreeWilly88]

Flavored water? What are some of the flavors, and is there a charge for them?

They had kiwi strawberry and some other fruit flavor. It's free and very refreshing!

[dzboss1]

The Earl Turner show was INCREDIBLE!!! Sorry the OP missed it.

Re: the sand artist....no way to describe what she does. You watched in amazement and disbelief. She stole the show for sure!!!

[SailingDeanna]

Thanks for your review. I enjoyed it!

[Caribbean Fun]

Is the Park Cafe free?

 

I see a lot of reviews saying that the Windjammer is too crowded however I'm seeing a commonality in all the reviews with that statement. They say they went there when they first boarded, judged it to be too crowded and never went back. Could that be the case or is it really just too crowded?

 

Can't wait to see the Oasis at the end of the month! I'm getting really exited. Thanks for the review, excellent job!

[bug18]

I found the Windjammer most crowded on the first day. After that I went for breakfast and never had a problem although I've read on the board that many have. I went for lunch one day and it was crowded but not enough to be bothersome.

[bbfgator]

We sail in April so enjoy all reviews of Oasis :).

But really wanted to say how nice it is of you to take your parents...we

do that for ours - they are in their 80's now - and cruising is perfect

for them/us.