Wooo! 9/1 & 9/8 B2B Oasis Review w/ pics!

[lisa e]

I can barely contain myself! So excited to share the details of our fantastic cruise vacation on Oasis of the Seas. We got home on Sunday but we took SOOOOOOO many pictures that it seems they will never finish uploading. But... I can wait no longer so I'll start with what we have. I will try to do this in order but for some things I will compare both weeks on the same post. Hopefully, this will be easy to follow and not sound all confusing and things...

 

 

So here we are; Shon and Suzie (and a fuzzy friend). This is my 22nd cruise and Shon's 20th (haha! I'm winning!) We are 40 (eek!!!) and celebrating 20 wonderful years together. I swear we're still 30 but then again, we need naps now and our knees and hips ache occassionally so maybe we are really this old...

 

Shon and I cruise each year on Labor Day week for our anniversary. For the past few years we've done Carnival with friends but this year we were determined to use our "next cruise" certificate AND sail the Oasis! We had the friends and family onboard credit certificate for the lucky friends/family we could convince to sail with us. We couldn't convince everyone but we convinced our road dogs Cece and Gary (who we met years ago on CC and have cruised a few times with) to jump onto Royal for the first time. Then the planning began.

 

 

One of the most difficult things for us when booking Oasis was the cabin types. TOO MANY CHOICES for us. Pros, Cons, blah, blah, blah. But after reading millions of reviews and viewing millions of pictures, we decided the Boardwalk balconies- as close as possible to the Aquatheater- would be most fun for us. (Well, the Aqua Suite would have really been the most fun but clearly we couldn't afford that!! Lol) We do not regret our choice. It was fun but we sure missed our ocean view balconies. There is just something about the serenity of laying in bed staring out at an endless sheet of peaceful water that makes our hearts happy. In the Boardwalk balcony, we could see the ocean and waves but it took a little effort. If we layed in bed and stared out we saw people's swim suits drying on balconies :rolleyes:. If we sat up in bed we could see the ocean (and Aquatheater). But I must say, it was cooler than we thought it would be with a nice breeze out there most of the time.

For week 1 (9/1) we had cabin 11727. For week 2 (9/8) we had cabin 11723. Both of these cabins had the bed by the balcony. I had hoped that one would have the bed by the closet and one would have it by the balcony but it didn't work out that way. We did check out some of our neighbors' cabins and much prefered the layout of the bed by the closet. No biggie though.

 

 

What a wonderful review!!!

I just booked a Boardwalk Balcony on the Allure. I have two 9 year olds. Do you think this would be better than an OV Balcony? I thought it would be nice they could see the shows. I agree I like the OV it is so relaxing. Oh I cannot make up my mind.

Thanks again for taking the time to post this review, and your family is beautiful!

[JamesEM]

Thanks for sharing, great pics.

[jodyndavid2004]

thank you love the pictures we are staying 11727 on 10/13

[shonandsuzie]

Suzie...thanks for such a thorough review thus far; I'm really enjoying it! I'll be on Oasis this coming weekend with DH and two other couples, and your pictures are REALLY getting me pumped!!!

Speaking of the pool....are there any DJs that work the pool deck occasionally and play good dance music? :confused: How about during the late-night buffet (if there even IS one)? I love the Calypso bands, but every now and then I like a good DJ at poolside. If there was none, then I guess hubby and I will need to get our "dance fix" on at one of the clubs in the evening!

Wow you leave Saturday!!!!

 

There was a DJ at certain times by the pool. The times were posted in the compass schedule. Also, they play pretty good (up to date and lively) music by the pools when the band is not there.

They have these evening Deck parties now too. I think they just started. There would be tons of people out looking like a Miami Beach club.

This is the sign for them:

 

 

About 11729. One of our roll call people had that cabin, too. So we saw it. Very nice. I liked it better than our's because the couch was near the balcony. It looked like a huge sitting room because the balcony looked like part of the space.

Also, she could open her hall door and walk right out onto that "secret" balcony which faced the ocean. We could too. Very nice because it seemed like we have a front door balcony and a slider balcony. Enjoy!!! And Jenny, the cabin steward is really good. Nice and friendly but also very thorough. She really deep cleaned all of her balconies each and every day. You'll see.

 

Have a great cruise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[shonandsuzie]

What a wonderful review!!!

I just booked a Boardwalk Balcony on the Allure. I have two 9 year olds. Do you think this would be better than an OV Balcony? I thought it would be nice they could see the shows. I agree I like the OV it is so relaxing. Oh I cannot make up my mind.

Thanks again for taking the time to post this review, and your family is beautiful!

I think kids qwould love the Boardwalk balcony more than the ocean view. They can see the merry go round and the character shows right from the room. They play cartoon movies each day too which would be nice for them.

thank you love the pictures we are staying 11727 on 10/13

Oh wow! That's cool. If that slider is hard to open make sure you call them to fix it because I swear 11723's door was WAY different. Easier and it sealed to make the room quieter than 11727.

Enjoy!!!

[shonandsuzie]

OK happy and caught up...sooo nice,,,thanks and rest up too now...Sarah

Glad you found it!!! :)

Welcome back Suzie, you were missed! I almost started a new thread titled "Suzie where are you?" :D.

LOL! I know. Today will be even worse because I have a staff meeting all morning at work so I wont be able to post. Then I have client appointments at 1,1:30, 2 and 3. After that I'm bustin' out of work as fast as lightening for my WEEKEND!

......so unless someone "no-shows" on me again, I wont be able to post more until I get home :eek::eek: Good thing I got up early to post before I get ready for work.

[shonandsuzie]

Just curious, taking so many photos, you must transfer them to your computor...how do you take care of your computor while on board since there is no possibility of hiding it in the safe.

I just left mine out. I always do on cruises. It is password protected so I dont worry about anyone getting into it. I guess there is a slight risk that someone walking by would go in and take it when the steward is cleaning but not likely. I used to leave it in my computer bag but after a few cruises I got more comfortable leaving it out.

Loving your review and photos....Have a question about the wrist bands for the kiddies,,,you said they are in the terminal before we board,,that's a great idea,,our family with grandaughter who is 4 will be coming with us on the Jan.19th cruise,,I remember on the FOS they were putting the wrist bands on the kids as soon as they boarded..

Anxious for all you input for the little ones as my DD is a nervous wreck leaving her DD in the kid zone,,,I keep telling her not to worry, but it runs in the family....Thanks in advance for all you can tell me...:D

They were putting them on them before the ship on Oasis. They were really friendly and fun. I think you can still get them onboard too though. I know one family in our roll call had a little girl who turned 2 on our cruise. She didn't like staying in the kid zone but she's a little young. Most people that I talked to around the ship said their kids loved it. We went in and toured each age group's rooms and they are set up well. I would think most kids would love it.

We saw a few kids club events. They were really interactive with the kids which made me feel good.

The coolest thing I saw was the Power Wheels on the basketball courts! They have a bunch of Power Wheel vehicles and the little kids are driving them all around! CUTE. There are set times for that listed in the cruise compass.

The junior mini golf is super duper cute too. Its right next to the adult mini golf course. A 4 year old would love it! They had bean bag toss at the kiddie golf course too. We grown ups had fun with that one day!!! (Shon and I beat Cece and Gary at our match!!!:p)

[goouchjac]

I just left mine out. I always do on cruises. It is password protected so I dont worry about anyone getting into it. I guess there is a slight risk that someone walking by would go in and take it when the steward is cleaning but not likely. I used to leave it in my computer bag but after a few cruises I got more comfortable leaving it out.

 

They were putting them on them before the ship on Oasis. They were really friendly and fun. I think you can still get them onboard too though. I know one family in our roll call had a little girl who turned 2 on our cruise. She didn't like staying in the kid zone but she's a little young. Most people that I talked to around the ship said their kids loved it. We went in and toured each age group's rooms and they are set up well. I would think most kids would love it.

We saw a few kids club events. They were really interactive with the kids which made me feel good.

The coolest thing I saw was the Power Wheels on the basketball courts! They have a bunch of Power Wheel vehicles and the little kids are driving them all around! CUTE. There are set times for that listed in the cruise compass.

The junior mini golf is super duper cute too. Its right next to the adult mini golf course. A 4 year old would love it! They had bean bag toss at the kiddie golf course too. We grown ups had fun with that one day!!! (Shon and I beat Cece and Gary at our match!!!:p)

 

Thanks Suzie,,will pass the info onto my DD,,Sounds like alot of fun for the kiddies..:D

[Let'sGo!]

About 11729. One of our roll call people had that cabin, too. So we saw it. Very nice. I liked it better than our's because the couch was near the balcony. It looked like a huge sitting room because the balcony looked like part of the space.

Also, she could open her hall door and walk right out onto that "secret" balcony which faced the ocean. We could too. Very nice because it seemed like we have a front door balcony and a slider balcony. Enjoy!!! And Jenny, the cabin steward is really good. Nice and friendly but also very thorough. She really deep cleaned all of her balconies each and every day. You'll see.

 

Have a great cruise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks so much for that insight. This will be the first cruise in 10 that my hubby actually picked out the cabin. He will be so pleased to know he did good!

 

Ann

[shonandsuzie]

 

The Solarium area was so cool, it deserves another post. I wanted to show pictures of the open air parts of the "ceiling". When the ship was sitting still, it would get really hot in there but when the ship was moving, there was pretty good air flow. You would definately tan well in there too.

One night we sat in one of the Solarium hot tubs and watched the sun set. That was near perfect.

 

 

 

 

[shonandsuzie]

Speaking of sunsets.. these are from our balcony. The 11723 one.

 

 

 

 

 

[shonandsuzie]

Some Aqua theater shots:

 

 

 

This one is crazy!!!! Look how high they are diving from...on a moving ship?!?!?!

 

 

Everyone said the shows were better in the dark and I have to agree. If you cant get good seats, go to those aft decks because you can see the shows great from there. It gives another perspective so maybe seeing them once from the stands and once from above on the aft decks would be best. The shows were really exciting!

[shonandsuzie]

You are best reserving yoru show times before you leave so that all of the best times aren't used up. For us, this is problematic because our plans on vacation can change so much from hour to hour. We dont like being all scheduled up. You can reserve show seats from your cabin but they do go fast. The comedy show tickets are about impossible to get once you are onboard though.

 

The t.v. in the cabin was great to check show times, see your daily schedules, make reservations for dinner, see menus, order room service and get excursions. Dont forget to check your accounts on there too!

 

 

Our tv was really slow though. And turning in on was tricky. Maybe we were doing something wrong but we'd have to hit the power button 100 times to actually turn it on. Cece and Gary had the same issue so I dont think it was just the battery on the remote...

[Lauriebean]

Love the review!

[shonandsuzie]

Our debarkation on the 15th was seemless. We waited in our cabin until 9 and then went to the dining room to wait until our tag was called. We then walked right off the ship and to our luggage. We had a little issue when we got on the free rental car shuttle which took us to the wrong office (near the cruiseship instead of at the airport). There would have been a $120 drop off fee to rent one way from there, whereas it was $40 total with no drop off fee from the airport.

 

 

Pre and Post cruise:

 

We flew into Orlando for this cruise because the tickets were DIRT cheap. We rented a car and drove down to Fort Lauderdale the Thursday before the cruise. That is a simple 3 hour drive down I-95. We stayed at Embassy Suites on 17th street in Fort Lauderdale. We never stayed there before because we usually "priceline" our rooms pre/post cruise. This time we planned to meet up with friends so we didnt want to end up at different hotels. The Embassy Suites is very nice and the service was good. There was a strip mall behind it and a strip mall across the street. What I did miss, though, was water. When I go to Florida I like to be on the beach! We have always liked Embassy Suites for the free cocktails in the evening and free cooked to order breakfast in the mornings. This hotel had a fabulous pool area. Similar to the one in San Juan if you've ever been there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As Gary said earlier, There was a big fire across the street while we were there. He and Cece called up to our room and said, look out of the window. We were like, Holy Crap!!!!

 

 

Cece and I went shopping at the Galleria mall while Gary and SHon watched Football on Friday. Last time I went there, I found a BUNCH of swim suits and cover ups on clearance. Here in Michigan, we dont have the extensive swim suit selection. That time I found suits for $8.00! Cece needed a swimsuit this time so we drove there and low and behold, prices weren't nearly as low. She did get a great deal on 2 suits but I know she was thinking... where the heck is the $8 swimwear!!!!!

 

After the cruise Shon and I drove back to Orlando and stopped on the way at some Outlet stores which were right off of the highway. Bonus!!! Got a sweet swimsuit and coverup for our next cruise, too! We stayed at a boring airport hotel that we scored on Hotwire for $50. It was nice but nothing to post pictures of... The next morning we got up, returned the rental car and weighed our luggage. Vacation was officially over. Boo Hoo.

 

 

I guess that's it.

 

 

I will add:

• Lounge chairs at each pool were always available.
  
• If I could change anything I would have switched room types for the second week to an Oceanview. Because even though it was fun to have view of the Aquatheater, it did get old after the first week.
  
• The only problem that we had was the turn around day (Saturday) of the back to back. That was handled horribly and of course I wrote all about it on our survey. They also emailed me a survey where I expanded on it.
  
• We bought a NEXT CRUISE certificate and plan to probably do Liberty of the Seas in early February.
  

[Robo1098]

Our tv was really slow though. And turning in on was tricky. Maybe we were doing something wrong but we'd have to hit the power button 100 times to actually turn it on. Cece and Gary had the same issue so I dont think it was just the battery on the remote...

 

I think it just takes a few seconds to turn on. I took me a bit to figure that out. Hit power then wait for some tones and it comes on like turning on a computer. If you keep hitting the button I think it is turning on and off the whole time.

[JamesEM]

Great photos, what kind of camera were you using?

[sjn911]

Thanks sooo much finished tonight,,,so happy and excited for you guys and cruising again, so special you guys are a super, super, info and photos and joy in you..it spills over to all who follow your posts and reviews no doubt..so glad to have found you..great weekend to you...sarah

[Just The 3 Of Us]

Fantastic - so enjoyed your review!!!!

[shonandsuzie]

Great photos, what kind of camera were you using?

Thank you.

I was actually displeased with how most of the photos turned out. Each year for the past few years, we've had to buy a new camera. We really wanted an Exilim this time but we were in Myrtle Beach when we bought it (on vacation) needed a camera and couldnt find the Exilim. Best Buy said this would be most similar so we bought it.

We like to only spend about $100 on them because we tear them up so fast. This is an Olympus VG 140. This camera does seem to have some good features and we used the "magic" setting for some of the water shots. Probably if we took the time to learn how to really use it we'd like it more. Our son has an Exilim and we used that one time and our pictures were amazing. Of course, it could have been that he had pre-set the settings better too.

 

Wow, that was a long answer, huh? I guess I'm pretty conversational this morning. Lol.

______________________________________________________________

 

 

 

By the way, like I said, I took hundreds and hundreds of photos so if someone wants to see something specific, let me know. It's the weekend now and poor Shon has to work so I will probably be on this darn computer A LOT. :)

I am in the process of putting all of the pictures on Webshots so you can get to them through our signature soon too.

[villauk]

We have just booked Oasis for next year so your review has been great to read, thanks. I wonder if you minded clarifying about the hire car. We also will be flying into Orlando, spending a few days in Universal and then driving down to FL. We then have to drive back to Cape Canarveral after Oasis to board Enchantment. Did you off hire the car at the airport in FL and then shuttle back to the ship? I only ask as you mentioned it was cheaper if you didn't do a one way drop off to the port :confused:.

[shonandsuzie]

We have just booked Oasis for next year so your review has been great to read, thanks. I wonder if you minded clarifying about the hire car. We also will be flying into Orlando, spending a few days in Universal and then driving down to FL. We then have to drive back to Cape Canarveral after Oasis to board Enchantment. Did you off hire the car at the airport in FL and then shuttle back to the ship? I only ask as you mentioned it was cheaper if you didn't do a one way drop off to the port :confused:.

Yes. We rented a one way rental from the airport in Orlando to the airport in fort lauderdale. we rented one for the way back too. Some car rental centers have a "drop off fee" if you do a one way rental but the airports usually dont.

We have done one way rentals to port canaveral too and did not have to pay a drop off fee. The car rental centers often have free shuttle to the ports.

 

In Fort Lauderdale, the company that we rented from did not have a free shuttle from the FLL airport so we had to take a cab. If we had thought fast enough, we would have just said we rented the car from a different company that did have the free shuttle. We rented from Thrifty. Hertz, National had huge shuttle buses. After the cruise we saw a free Thrifty shuttle and assumed it was going to the airport bc we werent even aware there was a different Thrifty car rental nearby....

 

By the way, we got a discount code off of the Florida boards here on cruisecritic that gave us such a cheap rate on the car rental. Cruisecritic people always save us money!!!!!:)

[Familygoboston]

What a wonderful review!!!

I just booked a Boardwalk Balcony on the Allure. I have two 9 year olds. Do you think this would be better than an OV Balcony? I thought it would be nice they could see the shows. I agree I like the OV it is so relaxing. Oh I cannot make up my mind.

Thanks again for taking the time to post this review, and your family is beautiful!

 

Suze, do you mind if I hi jack with some advice for Lisa?

I would take a BW balcony as close to the aft end in deck 10, 11. There is a very large public deck overlooking the ocean on one side and the Aquatheater on the other. This way you have the BW view in your room for the boys to enjoy while you are getting cleaned up for dinner , packing etc. Its safe for them to hang out on alone and will give them a diversion. But when you want an ocean view,( sail always, in port) it's only a few steps away, to the door at the endd of the hall and you'll be watching the boys the whole time. ( it's unlikely 9 yo boys could go over, but with 9 yo boys who wants to test it!:eek:)

You've booked early enough, hopefully some of those BW balconies near the end are still available. Anything within 1-8 cabins from the end is still really close! (I think you will notice Shon is in his robe on it one day in Suzes pics;))

[villauk]

Yes. We rented a one way rental from the airport in Orlando to the airport in fort lauderdale. we rented one for the way back too. Some car rental centers have a "drop off fee" if you do a one way rental but the airports usually dont.

We have done one way rentals to port canaveral too and did not have to pay a drop off fee. The car rental centers often have free shuttle to the ports.

 

In Fort Lauderdale, the company that we rented from did not have a free shuttle from the FLL airport so we had to take a cab. If we had thought fast enough, we would have just said we rented the car from a different company that did have the free shuttle. We rented from Thrifty. Hertz, National had huge shuttle buses. After the cruise we saw a free Thrifty shuttle and assumed it was going to the airport bc we werent even aware there was a different Thrifty car rental nearby....

 

By the way, we got a discount code off of the Florida boards here on cruisecritic that gave us such a cheap rate on the car rental. Cruisecritic people always save us money!!!!!:)

 

Thanks everso for the information. I'll definitely compare the prices for drop off at the airport as opposed to the port one way. I know it takes around 3 hours to drive down so we deliberating whether to drive down early in the morning of embarkation or late the night before.

 

I hope I've booked the right cabins. I'm a little nervous as we usually have an ocean view balcony, but this time we decided to take 2 interconnecting Central Park balcony cabins. There have been very mixed comments on the boards about C1 cabins, however we prefer a quiet area to retreat back to at night and the kids having their own cabin gives us 2 bathrooms. What did you think of them when you did your cabin crawl? I'm thinking we can use the 'secret' balconies at the end of deck 11 should we want our views and we also have a balcony on Enchantment the following week. Best of both worlds or a mistake?

[SnappyNappi]

Suzie,

DH and I will be on the Oasis (Western) in November of this year and I totally enjoyed reading your review and thoughts of both the Eastern and Western Itineraries. I'd love to do a B2B, and on the Oasis must have been a dream. So glad that you enjoyed it and even happier that I was able to follow along as you relived it in your review and pictures. Thanks for sharing!