Oasis of the Seas Photo Review - March 9th-16th, 2013 Sailing

[Russ Lomas]

Hey, look on the dining room table....maybe it wasn't just me who got that complimentary bottle of wine:p

 

Just in case you get bored, you have a baby grand piano, movie library, and book library in your room. The Oasis is coming up on 5 years old now. Andrew mentioned that he picked up a couple of the books off of the shelves and opened them and could hear the spines of the books cracking open for the first time. Not surprising that they had never been opened before with all of the other amazing things to see and do on the Oasis.

 

Andrew's DS and my DD just chilling on the ottoman.

 

 

The shot I showed at work to trick my co-workers into believing this was a standard cabin on the Oasis and here is proof with us on "our" staircase.

[Russ Lomas]

I did see the sky diving on Quantum....my hubby said, no way, a wind would blow me right off the ship...he cracks me up but I would love to try it!

 

That could be just like the ejector seat in a James Bond car or Charlie Bucket and Grandpa Joe get sucked up towards the fan in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. What a thrill that could be!

[sprint180]

great review

[MomtoCCC]

Wow! That suite is amazing! Is that one of the Crown Loft Suites? or is it something different?

[johnbob7]

Wow! That suite is amazing! Is that one of the Crown Loft Suites? or is it something different?

 

I think that the grand piano and the balcony hot tub indicate it to be the Royal Loft suite.

 

bobj

[aalden13]

I love that you suprised you girls with Oasis! My dad would suprise me when I was a little girl with cruise once or twice a year! Your pictures are awesome & I love your point of view on things about the ship! Great review!

[A&L_Ont]

I think that the grand piano and the balcony hot tub indicate it to be the Royal Loft suite.

 

bobj

 

You are 100% correct. We were the lucky ones in the suite.:D

[Russ Lomas]

great review

Thanks so much for reading and enjoying. Lots more to come, keep coming back.

[gwcruzer]

Thanks so much for reading and enjoying. Lots more to come, keep coming back.

 

I love your review. I am checking in every day.

Gail

[Russ Lomas]

Wow! That suite is amazing! Is that one of the Crown Loft Suites? or is it something different?

After staying in "regular" cabins all my life, it was quite something to see this suite. Maybe one day:rolleyes:

[Russ Lomas]

I love that you suprised you girls with Oasis! My dad would suprise me when I was a little girl with cruise once or twice a year! Your pictures are awesome & I love your point of view on things about the ship! Great review!

I love surprises (when they are good ones). I cannot believe that I could keep that secret from everyone for an entire year. It was tough.

 

I can guess how your dad felt surprising you each time. That shows how much he loved seeing your reaction. I wish I could afford to take my family on two cruises per year every year. The Oasis is a fantastic ship and everyone who says differently is simply wrong IMO. I fully understand how some people like smaller ships and ships that have more of a "connection" with the sea, but everyone should try this class of ship once in a lifetime.

[Riverz]

Great review and amazing pictures as well!

 

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk 2

[IrishLassie]

LOVING your review & the pictures of the suite are UNBELIEVABLE! Hope some day we can stay in one of those. :D Looking forward to more of your review.

Can hardly wait till we're back on Oasis in Nov. to show our DS & DIL what a beautiful ship she is. :)

[Russ Lomas]

I have mixed feelings about the pool set-up on the Oasis. It is neat having a variety of pools, but it just felt a bit odd to me having the large gaping opening between them from one side of the ship to the other side because of the area open down the middle of the ship to Central Park. The nice thing I guess is that there is a pool for every use and age group.

 

We took a short dip in the pool in the Solarium area (photos coming soon for the Solarium), but I found that there was almost always nobody in this "pool". It was more like a dipping pool to refresh yourself.

 

I am assuming that some of the pools are fresh water and some are salt water. Some definitely tasted more of salt than others.

 

The Sports Pool was one pool I rarely visited. I has a few of those neat statues around for photos and they would hold some pool volleyball competitions here on some days.

 

The Main Pool was nice and usually quite busy. We had a dip in here a few times later in the day when it was not busy.

 

The Beach Pool was always crowded. People loved the sloped surface leading to the pool with the deck chairs sitting in the water. The only time it was not crowded was when I took the photo below.

 

Getting down low to show you it from "beach level."

 

 

Since we have young children, most of our pool time was spent at the H2O Zone. The kids loved the water features and the kids' pools (both the regular pool and the circular one where it rotates around like a "not-so lazy" river). The spraying water features were mainly turned off the first few days of the voyage. I assume this was due to the high winds blowing the water. I did feel a mist 5 stories below in Central Park at times, which I assume was coming from the kids' area above.

 

The circular kids' pool is in the back of this photo and covered kids' hot tub in the foreground.

 

 

The photo below was taken at that special time again when it was completely empty.

 

The hot tubs were always busy, especially the ones around the pool areas. The hot tubs in the Solarium were packed at times and empty at other times. I found the large hot tubs hanging out from over the side of the ship to be usually deserted. I love sitting here for sailaway from each port with a drink in hand.

 

The empty cantilevered hot tub can be seen in the image below.

 

Once again, here it is almost empty again. A couple was hiding behind the plant in the lower left corner.

[Russ Lomas]

I LOVED the Solarium area on the Oasis and wish that I could have spent more time here. It was my 2nd favourite area behind Central Park. I read reviews about how hot it got in there, but I never found that to be a problem in March. If it was hot, you could always move to one of the shaded chairs in the back of the area. This is the area I will miss the most when I sail on the Independence next year. The adult area on the Freedom class ships is far inferior in my mind. There was a nice assortment of padded chairs, tables, loungers, and clamshells available for seating in the area. It was very tough to get a clamshell, so grab one if you see one become available.

 

There is a free restaurant (pay for dinner) in the back of the area serving "healthy" food choices. I was on vacation...I never ate there once!

 

On the Freedom class ships you just get off the elevators and you are in the adult area. Kids walk though it all the time. On the Oasis class ships, it is isolated at the front of the ship. Just entering the area, you can tell that is a destination in itself. Classy.

 

The area is complimented by nice features like this fountain in the photo below.

 

This is typically how busy the pool was in the Solarium area. Not a solitary person in sight.

 

You have to see this area at night. RCCL has done a wonderful job lighting areas of the ship to make they appealing at night. Just look at the colours in this area. It was so serene and peaceful at night. Once again, notice the area has no people in it. It was open. The shot was taken around 10:30 at night.

 

Another night shot taken at the same time, this time of the hot tub. FINALLY, you can see two people enjoying the area.

[Russ Lomas]

One of my 4 year-old twins was pestering me all winter to take her skating. She had never tried it before, but thought it looked neat. I love how you bundle up locally where we are, go to an outdoor rink, pay to go skating in temperatures that are 20 degrees below freezing, pay for skate rentals...only to find out after 5 minutes that the child who wanted to go HATES skating and wants to go home.

 

My solution, wait until we are on the Oasis! Free helmet and skates. Free skating. Nice warm temperatures. Bored after 5 minutes...fine, let's go to the pool.

 

One thing we never got around to on the Liberty last year was trying the skating. It was just too short of a trip last year (only 5 days) to squeeze it in. It is one thing we said we would try this trip. UNFORTUNATELY (I use that word a lot), public skating just never appeared in the daily Cruise Compasses. I had seen ones from previous cruises and it was offered about 3 days of the cruise. Finally, it appeared on our last sea day. This was the only time it was offered the entire week. This may have been due to the rough seas that week, which caused them to postpone the ice skating shows until later in the week.

 

Entering Studio B - the ice arena. One would have no clue this is an ice rink approaching it.

 

The anticipation builds as the kids wait to go skating. Even though we are Canadian, contrary to popular belief, we do not come out of the womb wearing a parka and ice skates (boy that would be an extremely painful birth!) I rarely skate, my two eldest DDs took skating lessons for a couple of months and then had had enough of them. The 4 year-old twins had never tried it before. So far so good. Everyone is looking forward to this. You show up at Studio B, sign up for a 30 minute skating session (which is honestly just about the right amount of time - not too short, yet not too long). You sit in the studio and watch the group prior to your group. I really think that ice skating must be a new sport to about half of those who try it on the ship. Sometimes, it is like watching a comedy show. I feel like taking a drink and sitting back and having a good laugh.

 

After suiting up with the free skates, helmets, and optional wrist guards, the family was ready to go. My eldest daughter did her one lap and had had enough (basically the same as each time she took a skating lesson 4 years ago). Off she went to play on her iPod (I don't think kids should be allowed to have those things when on vacation - too much else to do). My 9 year-old does not do great, but she is a trouper and lasts most of the 30 minute session. The twin who REALLY wanted to try skating is very outgoing and loves sports. She lasts for one lap and has had enough (and this is a small lap since the size of the rink is about the size of my basement). I am so glad that I did not waste all that time and money taking her to the outdoor rink back home in Canada. I manage to get her out for another 1/2 lap for a few photos before she wants the skates off. My other twin, who is usually very cautious and anxious, steps onto the ice and has a huge smile on her face. She lasts almost the entire session. I could never have predicted this coming with her. Thanks RCCL for giving me the opportunity to do this with my family.

 

The "happy" twin and mom doing one of their many laps in Studio B.

 

Probably one of the best moments of the session comes when everyone is told to vacate the ice at the end of the session. One man in his early 20s had been trying to show off the entire session. He was weaving and cutting around the little kids and almost knocking parents and grandparents on their keisters. Just as the last couple of people in the session are leaving the ice, he decides to skate as fast as possible towards the boards with the intention of stopping suddenly and spraying ice on all of those waiting in line for the next session. Just as he goes to jamb on the brakes, he catches both edges and flies headfirst towards the boards like superman. The sound of the THUD is deafening as his head and body ram the boards. Everyone thought he would have been seriously injured, but he hopped back up with likely a few bruises and a severely bruised ego. Thanks for the entertainment butthead - you were awesome! (kind of nice to see after basically knocking my kids to the ground for the past 20 minutes).

[brookmill18]

Of course now I can't find your particular post, but I thought you mentioned one time when your oldest daughters contacted you to say they were done with a particular activity?? My DS will be 12 on the next Oasis cruise and so will be signing himself in and out--I think I'd rather a way for him to get in touch with us and say I'm done in the teen area and coming to find you--but not sure how best to do that.

 

DId you try those RCL phones you can rent--did they work? Did you use walkie talkies? Did you use old fashioned wipe boards on the room door?? I'm not so much concerned about his safety (a bit though to be honest)--but more how do we connect.

 

Thanks!

[jpolm]

Of course now I can't find your particular post, but I thought you mentioned one time when your oldest daughters contacted you to say they were done with a particular activity?? My DS will be 12 on the next Oasis cruise and so will be signing himself in and out--I think I'd rather a way for him to get in touch with us and say I'm done in the teen area and coming to find you--but not sure how best to do that.

 

DId you try those RCL phones you can rent--did they work? Did you use walkie talkies? Did you use old fashioned wipe boards on the room door?? I'm not so much concerned about his safety (a bit though to be honest)--but more how do we connect.

 

Thanks!

 

I also have a 12 yr old ds same thing curious how that all works too as he will have some freedom , but also some rules

 

Also great review u had me laughing reading about the skating!

[Keith1010]

Great review and photos.

 

Keith

[Sinduf]

Really enjoying your review, can't wait to book a cruise on Oasis asap but alas will have to wait until next year. Loved your food porn review also, going on Liberty in June and I think I have pretty much already decided what I want to eat each night. DH and myself drooled over your photos last night.

[basketrn]

Of course now I can't find your particular post, but I thought you mentioned one time when your oldest daughters contacted you to say they were done with a particular activity?? My DS will be 12 on the next Oasis cruise and so will be signing himself in and out--I think I'd rather a way for him to get in touch with us and say I'm done in the teen area and coming to find you--but not sure how best to do that.

 

DId you try those RCL phones you can rent--did they work? Did you use walkie talkies? Did you use old fashioned wipe boards on the room door?? I'm not so much concerned about his safety (a bit though to be honest)--but more how do we connect.

 

Thanks!

 

Curious too...we have cruise a couple of Disney cruises and they have the wave phone that works great.

[Russ Lomas]

Really enjoying your review, can't wait to book a cruise on Oasis asap but alas will have to wait until next year.

Glad you are enjoying the review. We did the Liberty, then stepped it up to the Oasis this year. I found the food much better on the Oasis than the Liberty. That being said, it was a new menu, so that could be part of it as well. We are heading back to the Freedom class of ships next year. You will love it if have never been on one before.

 

Loved your food porn review also, going on Liberty in June and I think I have pretty much already decided what I want to eat each night.

Glad I could be of help. Just remember that the Liberty is not a 7 day cruise, so 2 of those menus will not be offered. Which ones, I do not know.

 

DH and myself drooled over your photos last night.

Drooling over the keyboard is never a good thing to do. My DW did not like me taking all the food photos, but I felt it was my CruiseCritic duty to report on the new menu. I was very happy with the MDR food on this last cruise and I hope that you enjoy your food on your upcoming trip as much as we did.

[Russ Lomas]

Of course now I can't find your particular post, but I thought you mentioned one time when your oldest daughters contacted you to say they were done with a particular activity?? My DS will be 12 on the next Oasis cruise and so will be signing himself in and out--I think I'd rather a way for him to get in touch with us and say I'm done in the teen area and coming to find you--but not sure how best to do that.

 

We asked my DW to either go back to the room or to pick up any of the house phones around the ship, call our cabin and leave a voice message for us to tell us where she would be. If she changed her mind or was done doing what she was going to do, we asked her to call and leave an updated message.

 

DId you try those RCL phones you can rent--did they work? Did you use walkie talkies? Did you use old fashioned wipe boards on the room door?? I'm not so much concerned about his safety (a bit though to be honest)--but more how do we connect.

I had read about these, but I did not see them on board (but I did not look for them either, but I never saw them in my strolls around the ship). I did not want to leave them around the pool area if swimming because you are on the hook for them if they go missing.

 

I was planning on doing the walkie talkie thing, but when I went to charge them the night before our trip, I noticed that one of the battery packs had exploded and leaked. I did not have time to replace it before our trip.

 

We put full trust in our DD for this trip and she responded beautifully to having the freedom to choose what she wanted to do. Having the threat that if any issues were reported to us about her by anybody meant she would be losing signing in and out privileges from the kids program could have helped her keep herself on the straight and narrow as well.

[Russ Lomas]

I was floored by the Promenade last year on the Liberty, having never seen anything like that on a cruise ship before. The one on the Oasis is even better in many respects. The thing I liked much more about this one was that it did not seem as dark inside. The glass skylights above from Central Park let some natural light in during daylight hours.

 

There is a wide variety of stores, bars, and restaurants in the Promenade. I had so many other things to do on the ship, that I never really had time to look in ANY of the stores. I did a quick peek in the RCCL logo store on the last evening, but found there to be far less RCCL logo wear in it compared to what I had seen on previous ships. I had no interest in purchasing alcohol, jewellery, or perfume, so most of the shops would not appeal to me anyways.

 

Looking down the Promenade from the bow, you can see Starbucks right there front and centre. I had paid $55 per day for the premium beverage package, so I did not intend to pay any more for any coffee beverages that RCCL does not include in the beverage package. I chose to drink other beverages that the package did cover. I do not drink coffee regularly at home, but if it had been included in the package, I definitely would have had a few on the ship (pity it is not - please fix this one RCCL). Starbucks seemed to have a steady line of 5 or 6 people every morning, but not like you would see at a Tim Horton's drive-thru back in Canada any morning (those in most of the States can not relate to this reference, but it is only a matter of time before Timmys makes it way to your state and you will know the meaning of addiction if you do not already).

 

Boleros sits off to one side of Starbucks. It looked nice, but I never made my way in there because the smell of smoke was too strong for me.

 

To the other side is the On Air club. It looked neat from the outside with the cycling messages above it.

I stopped here quite often for a beverage and found them to be well-made overall. There was rarely a wait to get served here if you went to the bar directly. Karaoke happened here some times...a great reason for me to steer far clear of this place when the "singers" (and I use that term very loosely) were doing their thing. I had to attend once when the kids did a children's version of Karaoke (cute, but I did not witness any future stars). As shown in the photo below, 3 of my girls enjoyed checking out the future talent.

 

Not only were there shops on the sides of the Promenade, there was a constant array of displays set up in the middle of the Promenade trying to entire people to buy things. This really messed up the traffic flow there and made it difficult to get by at times. This is just another reason that I almost always would go through Central Park to go between the front and rear of the ship (unless of course I was on my way to the Globe and Atlas Pub for a beverage;)).

 

Below is a photo of the sign advertising a "one day sale." It appears that every sale is a one day sale, just with different items. Once again, notice how beautifully RCCL has done with the overhead lighting at night in this area.

[Russ Lomas]

An interesting view of the Promenade through some of the artwork hanging by the elevators from our viewpoint on deck 7.

 

Walking down the Promenade, you come to a seating area beside Sorrento's. I do not think I ever saw a single person sitting in here other than when a parade was taking place in the Promenade.

 

Sorrento's can be seen in the background of the photo above. On the Liberty of the Seas, there were always 10 or 15 people in line for pizza at Sorrento's. On the Oasis, I rarely saw more than 1 or 2 in line at a time. That does not mean that there were no lines there, I just never witnessed them because on the Liberty, I walked through the Promenade 20-30 times per day, on the Oasis I only did it 2 or 3 times per day since I always used Central Park. I also believe that having other venues like Central Park to eat in for free means that a lot less people go to eat in Sorrento's on the Oasis due to the larger number of free choice on this class of ship.

 

This Sorrento's offers the chance to choose your own pizza toppings, something that they did not do on the Liberty of the Seas. The toppings to select seem to be constantly changing. When my DD went there to make her own they had a variety of unusual toppings like goat cheese, olives, banana peppers, etc. (no pepperoni or other more familiar toppings which she desired), so she did not get a pizza. The crusts on the pizzas from Sorrento's on the Oasis looked much better than they were on the Liberty. People I talked to really enjoyed these pizzas. I did not get a single slice the entire week (Central Park Cafe was my stomping ground). The comedians on the ship always joke about how Sorrento's puts absolutely no sauce on their pizzas. I cannot tell you if this is true or not, but from the audience's responses at the shows, I would guess that the lack of sauce is a true fact.

 

There is a small bar service area in Sorrento's as well. No blended drinks offered in this location however (not offered on the Rising Tide Bar either).

 

I loved the Globe and Atlas Pub. It had a great variety of beers to sample from throughout the world (far more than any other location on this ship). I stopped by there several times per day and tried some excellent beers I would have never tried without having the unlimited beverage package. This is the one feature I loved about that package. Try a beer, and if you do not like it, put it down and order a different one after only a few sips. I found the service at this bar slow very often unless you went up to the bar directly and then the bartenders got to you very quickly. The crowds in this bar were huge at night for the singer (I do not remember his name), but he was excellent. This is also the only bar on board that I found the BBC (Bailey's Banana Colada) drink in the menu. That does not mean that it is not offered elsewhere, but it is actually on the menu there. Once I tried one, I was here every day for more. My favourite new find on the beverage side of things.

 

One thing I found odd...even though the premium beverage package clearly states ALL BEERS are included in the package, the menu in this pub has an asterisk beside several beers, such as Guinness, saying that they are not included in the package. RCCL needs to either fix their misleading advertising or fix their menus to be consistent. They also have some beer cocktails available without the asterisk on the menu. I asked for one of the cocktails without the asterisk and was told that it was not included in my package...HMMM. I asked for a Guinness, which was clearly noted as not being included in the package and I was given it right away...HMMM.

 

The Cupcake Cupboard is located beside the Pub. It did not seem as busy as on the Liberty. I do not see the point of paying for a cupcake when there are so many great free choices on the ship, so I never ate here either.

 

Love that replica car in the Promenade for photos (so did the ship's photographers). On any of the formal nights, they roped off the car and you were not permitted near it to take a photo of it with yourself. They would happily take one and sell it to you. A few people were annoyed at this. Even when nobody was being photographed by the ship's photographer and he was standing around doing nothing, he would shoo passengers away from the car if they tried to take a photo near it. Not impressed with the ship's photographers (the same thing happened when I tried to take a photo of Po with my DD. The ship's photographer took one and then 2 ship employees were quite rude to me when I tried to take a photo of my daughter with Po using my own camera. You can see an entrance to the Casino in the far left of the photo.