Oasis LIVE (one month later!) Review

[CRUIS4ME]

NIce review - First time I saw a pic of the "secret balconies" spaces. Interesting...Will try to find them on the Allure next month.

[Familygoboston]

Wonderful review! Can’t wait for the rest:)!

Thanks!! Can you tell its my first? Finally figured out how to get the photos lined up;)

Loving the review and your writing style:D

 

I'm reliving my trip vicariously through you...I sailed the week after you in a D1 hump (14602) and agree completely about the extra balcony space! Our cabin attendant was able to snag a lounge chair; nothing like having coffee in the morning watching the world go by in a comfy lounger:)

We did enjoy that big balcony, but probably not as much as on another ship or itinerary where you might have more scenic views. We are taking a regular ocean view next time because we are taking the kids and they have Boardwalk Balc booked. Im fiduring we will have less time to linger romantically on our big balcony, and we will probably use both balconies so all 4 of us can enjoy whatever is going on i.e. sailaway or runners on our OVB and the action in the Aquatheater from their BB. Im sure I'll miss it!

 

NIce review - First time I saw a pic of the "secret balconies" spaces. Interesting...Will try to find them on the Allure next month.

Yes, It was hard for me to picture in my head what they would look like...you can tell the two that are suites 'cause they have the fancy furniture! The public one has the plain old loungers!:p It think its nice that such prime real estate is public when you look at the dough those suites pull in! :eek: We spent more time than I expected on them, even with our own balcony.

 

Thanks everyone for your encouragement! I have a busy afternoon, but will defiantely get back to it around 3 ish or 4.

[BillOh]

Thanks everyone, I see from your signatures, that you all are planning to Cruise Oasis...think you will love it! I really loved reading reviews before our crusie, and I got so many good ideas and really " learned" the ship. Hope it's the same for you!

Bogos, we did do excursions, and we have more photos of those than other things, so I will definately be posting them! More tomorrow after work!

 

Love the opening post, I think I like you and your husband already. I get something out of every review, but I think I'm going to like your tone. Looking forward to the rest.

[joand452]

Enjoying your review and looking forward to more! Have you figured out how to post your spreadsheet? I do one, too, but I'd love to take a look at yours. If you can, please send it to goingcruisin at yahoo dot com.

 

We've already been on Allure, now can't wait for Oasis!

[longwood]

Great review and I love your sense of humor.

[Animal Rescue]

I am enjoying reading this detailed review and am anxiously waiting for more. Thanks for the honesty about the disappointing Rainbow Reef Snorkel Tour. That was a possibility for us, but now it's scratched off the list. Also, we have no desire to view mansions and have all that excess thrown in our face.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Animal Rescue

[Familygoboston]

Enjoying your review and looking forward to more! Have you figured out how to post your spreadsheet? I do one, too, but I'd love to take a look at yours. If you can, please send it to goingcruisin at yahoo dot com.

We've already been on Allure, now can't wait for Oasis!

 

Thank you! I did scan it...I had planned to post it up at the end - a before and after photo, because it's honestly hysterical. The before is full of such hope, so clean and tidy and the after...well, that has arrows and scribbles and I guess I have to be glad that we had a good time no matter how the schedule ended up:p

I will email an attachment of the MS Excel spreadsheet to you since you are interested.

 

Great review and I love your sense of humor.

Thank you! Most people think its just whacky, but my husband shares it so we laugh all the time and luckily my kids inherited the same whacked SOH, so once they outgrow the eye rolling stage, :rolleyes:they will laugh with us too!

 

I am enjoying reading this detailed review and am anxiously waiting for more. Thanks for the honesty about the disappointing Rainbow Reef Snorkel Tour. That was a possibility for us, but now it's scratched off the list. Also, we have no desire to view mansions and have all that excess thrown in our face.

 

I hate to have anyone make rash judgments, it just wasn't for us, and Im sure the weather affected my judgment, but if I were going back I'd try something else. Many have mentioned a private small boat charter. If your group is big enough the price would be comparable but the experience would be much better!

[Familygoboston]

Love the opening post, I think I like you and your husband already. I get something out of every review, but I think I'm going to like your tone. Looking forward to the rest.

 

Thanks Bill...that means a lot, because I thought I was the only person who reads reviews and thinks.."Oh i'd like to meet that person...hope they are on my Roll Call one day!" You are one of those folks whose good advice has helped me out in the past!!

[yarlenna]

I am looking forward to more!

[Familygoboston]

After Oasis of Dreams, it was back to the cabin for a nap before getting cleaned up for formal night and hosting DC and her DH on our balcony for nibbles and drinks. Although the nibbles arrived late, the showers ended and we thoroughly enjoyed entertaining on our larger balcony, it was a touch windy on the hairdo's, but having the sand chairs was great because we had seating for all four of us. (remember those chairs? I'm sorry to tell you we never got a photo of them) We didn't linger for long though because we were off to dinner for a 6:30 reservation. Here we are in our finery

 

( photo of formal night)

 

 

This was our first night in the MDR, but they sat us with the wait team my cousins had the previous evening, Markland and Christopher, who were superb all week. We were able to have them all week (except one day), and whether we dined pas duex or with my cousins at a 4 top, they were always able to seat us at one of 2 tables in Markland's section.

 

I adore MTD...it saved me from bailing on Royal Caribbean. Several years ago we sailed Grandeur, before MTD was instituted. While we enjoyed our varied table mates, we longed for the occasional romantic meal to celebrate my DH's birthday, which always falls during our December cruise. (Its today actually, Dec 4...Happy Birthday, Hubby...one month later) So we were prepared to look into Princess or Norwegian, where we or friends had experienced open dining, when low and behold, RCI announced...My Time Dining. And since then we have become very loyal to Royal.

 

MTD just worked perfectly for our group; some days we dined together and some days DH and I had dinner alone, half the time we ate early (before 7) and half the time we ate late (after 7:30) and every time we were seated within 5 minutes of arriving. Sometimes there was a healthy looking line, but it always moved very quickly and the hostesses, even when looking harried, were always very polite!

 

My opinion of MDR food- if you are interested, if not skip right along! It seems people complain about the decline in MDR food on Royal Caribbean. I'm not sure how far back their memories go, but we've been cruising RCI since 1993, and frankly, I never found it to be great, therefore it's my opinion that it has not "declined". Good, edible, what you expect from a mass market cruise ship trying to prepare thousands of hot meals at once, without access to fresh ingredients daily, but never excellent.

If anything, I have noticed a major improvement in the variety of food available. As a vegetarian (I do eat fish) there was little for me to eat in the 90's, now there are more than 2 or 3 selections I would be happy to try. Also I think there is more ethnic variety than there was 20 years ago ( Oh Gosh, that makes me sound old, did I mention I was cruising in diapers? No?)

 

This brings me to another opinion about the food on RCI; I'm a little bored. I'm not even Diamond yet, but after an annual cruise for the last 4 years, I find it boring that the same meals are offered on every cruise on every ship we've been on. I'm not sure how those who cruise 20 or more nights a year deal with the sameness. Of course at home I eat the same 10 meals all the time, so I guess it's just like home for those folks, but that's just speculation on my part!

 

I accept the sameness as part of what makes this cruise a "value", being able to be entertained, housed and fed on less than $200 per day requires some economies of scale, so I accept the food for what it is and thoroughly enjoy my meals and dining on RCI. I should add that my DH does not take photos of food, so unfortunately, my review won't have any. I also won't post the menus since they vary so little (and of course DH doesn't take photos of menus either...remember all that crankiness until actual food is ingested? And you really don't want to see the plates after we've eaten).

 

After dinner, we went to the Boardwalk because we had promised our children (remember all those teens and one 7 yo we left behind?) that we would wave to the webcam on the Boardwalk at 8PM. This was really fun for them, my daughter took a couple of screen shots and it made her very happy to "see" us. We pre selected the Boardwalk and the time based on how dark it would be that time of night and because although the Promenade was brighter, the camera was a bit obscured by the snowflake decorations up for the holidays. At the appointed time we smiled and waved wildly, and we had to do this for five minutes since the webcam only uploads every minute, and we never knew exactly when the cam was "live" so we looked pretty hysterical waving to an empty balcony on the Boardwalk for 5 minutes. The ladies in the ice cream shop came out to see what the heck we were waving at. The folks on the carousel were warning their kids to stay far, far away from us. But my DC found out via Facebook later that all cousins had seen us on the webcam and there was much excited FB chatter between them about how completely dorky we looked! (scan of screen shot...pretty tough to see!)

 

 

After providing entertainment for the entire Boardwalk, we sat and chatted in the Adirondack chairs in front of the Seafood Shack again (which was completely empty). These chairs are so comfy and the Boardwalk is a fun place to sit, so we did this occasionally. We never seemed to take space they needed for patrons, because we almost never saw anyone dining there. It looked like April on Cape Cod.

 

By now it was about 8:30 PM and we decided to head down to the Entertainment Place to catch our Comedy Show.

 

(photos of Entertainment Place and the Comedy Club)

 

 

 

In the photo you can see one of the video screens. These are wonderful, they are positioned around the ship and in most elevator halls (on the wall). It allowed you to navigate with a touch screen and look at what activities are available, where you are, how to get to another place, and how busy each of the dining venues is with a color bar. These are like the TSA security alerts except that green means: go get that RB sandwich!, yellow: you'll have to circle the parking lot for a table and red: if you don't want to wait you'd better head to the Solarium cafe instead. We used these occasionally, but I generally used a little hand gel or washed right after because it is a touch spot for multiple passengers. I also never held the handrails on stairs to avoid germs, which required so much extra effort, I decided I really did not need to go to the health club today, well that and the snorkeling...very hard work!

 

The club was open when we arrived and we found perfectly delightful seats 4 rows back toward the left side, we chose not to sit front and center to avoid being picked on! There really aren't any bad seats in this venue, its very intimate and another example of a space that felt cozy and private even though I was on a ship with thousands. The show was great; the Comedy host warmed us up and then Mike Wilson and Eric Lydon entertained the crowd. Unfortunately, this was the early show and the crowd was a bit umm...subdued. I was surprised at how little people laughed, other than a small section of us. The comedians kept joking about it being the early show and " this is not that joke for this crowd". We laughed till our sides hurt, but clearly, some folks there either didn't get it or didn't understand English. My recommendation (and my plan for Allure) is to hit the later Comedy show, where I expect the crowd might be a bit more lively. After the Comedy Show, we were ready for bed; I think the some of other patrons were ready for bed BEFORE the Comedy Show!

 

Day 2 Compass

 

More to Come tomorrow, Day 3: The Day or our First (and Last) Workout

Edited January 4, 2012 by Familygoboston

[Shooraq]

Thanks everyone, I see from your signatures, that you all are planning to Cruise Oasis...think you will love it! I really loved reading reviews before our crusie, and I got so many good ideas and really " learned" the ship. Hope it's the same for you!

Bogos, we did do excursions, and we have more photos of those than other things, so I will definately be posting them! More tomorrow after work!

 

I'm glad you did this, I just haven't been able to find the time yet to write a full review of this week. I will still need to for my blog, but it seems you got it covered for Cruise Critic. I did just post my photos. I also have a D7000 and was mostly using my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, along with my Tamron 70-300mm, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 and my Tamron 90mm macro. Love photography!!

[BDMom]

Do you know much about snorkeling in general in Nassau? We have snorkeled at many top notch spots and will be in Nassau on Oasis in November. I'm wondering if we would be better skipping snorkeling in Nassau. I know you can't speak for the weather, but I have not found a lot of snorkeling that wows me. Not interested at all in a large group, we usually find something private for an small group.

 

I really like your report.

[Familygoboston]

I'm glad you did this, I just haven't been able to find the time yet to write a full review of this week. I will still need to for my blog, but it seems you got it covered for Cruise Critic. I did just post my photos. I also have a D7000 and was mostly using my Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8, along with my Tamron 70-300mm, Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 and my Tamron 90mm macro. Love photography!!

 

Hey Robyn! I would LOVE to see you photos because I know for certain yours are different... because I never saw you once on this cruise!:eek:;) It is one of my regrets, I so enjoyed your company on the roll call! Just you watch, one day you will be at the grocery store here in MA, and suddenly you will hear..."Shooraq..is that YOU!"

 

I'm sure you got some great shots! I'd love to see them. Hope you do get to post a review or a link to your blog!

[Familygoboston]

Do you know much about snorkeling in general in Nassau? We have snorkeled at many top notch spots and will be in Nassau on Oasis in November. I'm wondering if we would be better skipping snorkeling in Nassau. I know you can't speak for the weather, but I have not found a lot of snorkeling that wows me. Not interested at all in a large group, we usually find something private for an small group.

 

I really like your report.

 

Thanks BDmom...I feel I have been blessed to snorkel in some pretty cool places...Bonaire for one, St John, Cozumel; Galapagos and Bora Bora coming up, so I know I'm a tough customer too. I guess what I would say is that the areas that usually have great snorkeling, don't have "great beaches". It's kind of at cross purposes. Either its a place with a big 'ol reef and therefore not so much sand, or a lovely sandy beach and no toe eating reefs. So what I found is most of the cruise lines can't practically get you to a great reef in the amount of time they are docked, since they like to choose places where pax can enjoy the beaches.

I would say that Grand Cayman and Cozumel are exceptions to this, and I've found the snorkeling there and in St John excellent too. I'm sure there are some excellent reefs in the whole archipelago of the Bahamas, but it's the practicality of getting to them.

If you are doing Eastern, how about snorkeling in St John? Also St Thomas is one of those places where people mention the private sailboat snorkel excursions. Good luck with your planning!

Edited January 4, 2012 by Familygoboston

[cruisemama1]

Thanks for doing this for all of us. You gave me a good idea on Day 1: go to Giovannis for lunch instead of the Windjammer. Did you have to reserve it in advance or just show up? This review is tops!

[Familygoboston]

Thanks for doing this for all of us. You gave me a good idea on Day 1: go to Giovannis for lunch instead of the Windjammer. Did you have to reserve it in advance or just show up? This review is tops!

 

And I cribbed this idea from someone else's review, so I'm just paying it forward!;)

I think it's an excellent idea. We did make reservations, because even if you cancel you can get a refund. Don't know if this happens all the time but, while it did not seem that crowded there, we did notice several officers/senior crew eating there with family (possibly visiting for the day?) and also there was a large group of day visitors, who appeared to be some kind of travel professionals (we kept hearing announcements about "day visitors need to leave" and saw them in groups with big "day passes" on etc). Several of those folks were taking advantage of the venue too, so it might be a good idea to reserve even though most of the actual pax might wait till later in the week.

It was a delightful way to start our cruise!

[OhioCruiserDude]

Loving this review. I cant wait till I can take my DW on this beauty in Sept 2013 over a year and a half way:(

[emmy]

 

We joined our Roll Call group on the public deck on 11 aft (see my pre review for the list of secret SHH! public places) for a pre meet at sail away. Moira and Brittany from Australia were hanging onto their Australian flag for dear life for the webcam, and we met Jeff and Rene's daughter, and a FL couple who were very nice, but their names are escaping me right now!

The FLL sail away is fun, there are lots of condos, and the folks blow air horns wave and cheer from their balconies as we go by (hey, its Saturday, they are blowing off some steam!). Then there are the folks on the point and the beach all waving, the pilot boat was using the PA to say "Oasis, make some noise". No kidding, who knew our Coast Guard were cheerleaders!?

Then you pass many seaside estates, which are something to see. Be sure to check out the house with the Flowrider in the side yard, really, he had a full size regulation Flowrider, which he was surfing on as we went by (he probably saw it on the passing ship one day and just ordered it from the Billionaire Catalogue, but that's speculation on my part)

 

 

I did watch you on the http://www.portevergladeswebcam.com on sail away day. :D:DI recall the Australian flag.

 

You can watch your sail away again if you like not sure if you know it is available on http://www.portfever.com in the archive section ~ sail away replay.

 

Have sailed on Oasis and Allure a few times so will have to watch & listen for the coast guard saying 'make some noise' Have not experienced that.

 

Enjoying the review..thanks for doing this and sharing your experience :)

Edited January 4, 2012 by emmy

[Ocean Boy]

 

(look, the "Sea is Calling" in this one!)

 

 

 

Very cute!:D

[MissCruising1]

This is such a fun review and definitely makes me want to sail away on Oasis! :D

[Cotswold Eagle]

Just wanted to say how much I am enjoying your review - it's exactly the style I enjoy (and try to write!) And your DH's photos are sensational - I have had some nice comments about mine in my recent Enchantment review, but this is a whole different level. Guess I'll just have to take another cruise (can you persuade me onto Oasis?!) and try harder. Oh, well!

 

I have also just seen your shipmate shooraq's photos as well - wow, this must be the best recorded cruise in history :)

[Familygoboston]

Loving this review. I cant wait till I can take my DW on this beauty in Sept 2013 over a year and a half way:(

It will go by sooo much more quickly than you think!..i love having a trip to look forward to! Hoep you and DW enjoy sailing!

 

I did watch you on the http://www.portevergladeswebcam.com on sail away day. :D:DI recall the Australian flag.

 

You can watch your sail away again if you like not sure if you know it is available on http://www.portfever.com in the archive section ~ sail away replay. :)

This is what I am talking about...I did not know that...now I do! Ive learned so much on this board..its' just plain fun!:D Thanks! Im going to look it up now!

 

This is such a fun review and definitely makes me want to sail away on Oasis! :D

Thank you! It is a really fun cruise, so it's easy to write a fun review. Plus I love details, its just not enough for me to hear it was great...why, what how I want to know (and conversely, what wasn't great!)

[will773]

Still loving it! :D

 

Thanks Will! Hows the project coming?

 

I don't want to talk about it...I might get suspended from the boards again.... :rolleyes: Thanks for remembering though! :)

Edited January 5, 2012 by will773

[Familygoboston]

Very cute!:D

 

Ya know...he took this photo before we learned about the "shell a phone", ads but my DH saw the photo afterwards and thought of it immediately.

[Familygoboston]

Still loving it! :D

 

 

 

I don't want to talk about it...I might get suspended from the boards again.... :rolleyes: Thanks for remembering though! :)

 

Uh Oh! :(Sorry I asked! Good luck anyway;)