Day to Day Trip Report (review) – Family of 10 on Oasis May 4, 2013

[justschuttme]

Love the elevator 'day' pics!!:D

 

Looking forward to more of your adventures!!

 

Tara

 

I was like OBSESSED with getting these everyday. To the point that my husband started taking them as soon as we got up just so I would quit "freaking out about it" (of course his opinion of my "freaking out" is much different than my opinion). It is cool to see them change each day. :)

[Brutus66]

 

 

:D:D:D

[NOLA3cruisers]

Great review so far! Still laughing over spilled sangria! Did you happen to notice if anyone had a "beer bag" while on your cruise? They are blue & yellow, purchased with 7 or 8 beers...at a cheaper price...and insulated...so your beers can stay iced down all day. Or for a couple hours til your husband needs more...whichever comes first! DH bought one on Allure last year, and I will pack it if it is possible to actually use it on Oasis!

[Brutus66]

I don't want to totally iterrupt your review...but I have a question/concern.

 

We want to go to Chops (the whole family). My wife and I have a reservation at 150 Central park. But we are woried about missing something good/fun in the MDR. Formal night. Something exciting. What nights were the best nights to not eat in the MDR and go to a speciality place?

[basketrn]

I am excited to read your review!! We have two boys (ages 4.5 and 16) and will be on the Oasis in 3 weeks.

[justschuttme]

Great review so far! Still laughing over spilled sangria! Did you happen to notice if anyone had a "beer bag" while on your cruise? They are blue & yellow, purchased with 7 or 8 beers...at a cheaper price...and insulated...so your beers can stay iced down all day. Or for a couple hours til your husband needs more...whichever comes first! DH bought one on Allure last year, and I will pack it if it is possible to actually use it on Oasis!

 

I did not notice one (only the beer buckets), BUT I just asked DH and he said he DID see the beer bag. So, throw it in and party like you are still in college! :D

[justschuttme]

I don't want to totally iterrupt your review...but I have a question/concern.

 

We want to go to Chops (the whole family). My wife and I have a reservation at 150 Central park. But we are woried about missing something good/fun in the MDR. Formal night. Something exciting. What nights were the best nights to not eat in the MDR and go to a speciality place?

 

This is a hard question to answer, as we were in the same perdiciment and our week ended with me missing out on some of the good MDR food. However, I will say that I am happy with ALL of the places we went to dinner each night. I will get into this later, but we went to Chops and 150 and thought they were both great! My FIL wasn't a huge fan of 150 (he's more of a "fill my plate" kind of guy) but everyone else LOVED it. I only enjoyed 2 courses at 150....DS2 comes into play here.....but again, that will come later.

 

I don't have pictures of the menus, but if you look up Russ Lomas's review he ate in the MDR all nights and has pictures of ALL menus. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1827154&highlight=oasis+review. I looked at them all prior to leaving, however our schedule would not allow for me to pick the nights in and out of the MDR. That is why I keep telling my husband that we need to go BACK TO BACK on the Oasis.........:D

[Familygoboston]

Really enjoying your review. We are headed out on the Oasis on June 15th with our 2 kids (12 & will turn 17 in a week). So older kids then yours but really like your writing style.

 

Can't wait to read more.

 

One note: although the AO staff has a list of all minors to age 17; but any kid over 12 doesn't have to have a muster station bracelet on. At those ages and up if you think your kid can read his seapass or show it to the crew and follow directions ( some older children with DD may not be able to) then they don't have to have a bracelet!

 

Also, yes, you kids will love it!! One thing- do your kids hang together? Because the age cut offs of the AO activities is strict, and you have an "ugly split"; 12 in one group, 13-17 in the other. Honestly, I'd be surprised if your 17 yo did many teen activities anyway- they seem to attract the 13-15 ( middle school) crowd. We had an ugly split too, 16 and 18, but the kids just found their own gang of mixed older teens and young adults. The sports deck, wipeout cafe and pizza place seem to be the main area to " find" kids.

There is so much to do, my kids had an absolute ball, yours will too! A white board on our door helped us to keep notes about where wed be, and we could issue " summons" like "be home to pack at 4" " dress for dinner at 6" etc.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[drarill]

delete!!

[drarill]

While we were at lunch, we assume there was an announcement that the rooms were ready (we did not hear it on the Boardwalk) but since we knew that rooms open at 1p (again based on reading CC like crazy people) we went ahead and went to the rooms. I actually went to Guest Services while everyone else went to the rooms.

 

Guest services in located on the Promenade deck and is where you can do just about anything needed while on the ship. The lines were not organized and I waited 5 minutes but only b/c I was actually waiting in a line and not just walking up like most people were on the other side. I had to go add DS2’s 2nd birthday (5/7/13) to the cruise compass and book the birthday party at the ice-cream parlor (we had seen it online and thought all the kiddies would like it but you could not book online for a party of 10 and when we called they said the times we would want were booked). The guy looked at me like I was a crazy person (most would say that I am, but in this case knew it was something they offered). He went in the back and confirmed that they in fact did NOT offer. Um, okaaaay. I went ahead and did the cruise compass, which costs $25 BTW, and then went to talk to the GS guy directing people. He told me to go to the ice-cream parlor and they can book it (I had stopped by there on my way out of the Boardwalk and she told me to go to GS) so when I told him that he said to call “0” on my phone once in my room and they should be able to help me. Well, ok I will do that.

 

So, I just have to include this on here. As I am standing waiting for the guy to come back and essentially that “I am crazy, you have imagined an ice-cream birthday party for sale…” I look over and see this beautiful blonde lady in some very small clothing. I think, “wow, that is a short skirt and even shorter shirt….but hey, you look like that….” And then I see her friend! Her shorts could not have been wider than 12 inches and longer then 5 inches (total). THEN, they have these zippers down the sides to make them even more….. I am now thinking, “wow, am I glad I do not have teenagers who are with me” you know with their awkward no holds barred starting… So, what did I do you ask? Well, I took as good a picture as I could to share with the gentlemen of our party. I knew I could not adequately describe and thought “what the heck, they might as well enjoy it (in picture form) at least.” She affectionately became known as “zipper shorts” to our family (very original, I know). So, now…a feast for the eyes:

 

Note the shoes too, she could rival Lady Gaga!!:p

 

Loving your review!! Can you imagine walking on those heels with bad weather... well, with any weather!!

[tarajean1962]

:eek: Oh my gosh to those shorts!! But still, you are right-if you got it flaunt it! Unless! You happen to be my daughter!:D

 

 

Tara

 

Great review so far. You are very entertaining!!:D

[NanciRDH]

Enjoying the review so far, cant wait for more! :D

[Brutus66]

One note: although the AO staff has a list of all minors to age 17; but any kid over 12 doesn't have to have a muster station bracelet on. At those ages and up if you think your kid can read his seapass or show it to the crew and follow directions ( some older children with DD may not be able to) then they don't have to have a bracelet!

 

Also, yes, you kids will love it!! One thing- do your kids hang together? Because the age cut offs of the AO activities is strict, and you have an "ugly split"; 12 in one group, 13-17 in the other. Honestly, I'd be surprised if your 17 yo did many teen activities anyway- they seem to attract the 13-15 ( middle school) crowd. We had an ugly split too, 16 and 18, but the kids just found their own gang of mixed older teens and young adults. The sports deck, wipeout cafe and pizza place seem to be the main area to " find" kids.

There is so much to do, my kids had an absolute ball, yours will too! A white board on our door helped us to keep notes about where wed be, and we could issue " summons" like "be home to pack at 4" " dress for dinner at 6" etc.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

I would say at home they DON'T hang together, but on vacation (yearly Hilton Head people) they do but that's more due to lack of other options. My 12 year old daughter will talk to a chair...she will know the history of every person on the ship by mid week! She turns 13 the week after we get back. My son will probably take longer to warm up but he is excited about all the food and room service.

 

The message board on the door is an AWESOME idea... I'm stealing it from you.

[prayfordaylight]

I don't want to totally iterrupt your review...but I have a question/concern.

 

We want to go to Chops (the whole family). My wife and I have a reservation at 150 Central park. But we are woried about missing something good/fun in the MDR. Formal night. Something exciting. What nights were the best nights to not eat in the MDR and go to a speciality place?

 

We looked at the menus for each night and if the menu didn't sound that appetizing, that's when we skipped. We also aren't fans of formal night so we did specialty places those nights because you don't have to dress up as much. We also skipped one night to make an activity (that we couldn't have made with the standard 2 hr MDR dinner) and because we figured they'd have the things we'd order anyway in the WJ so we could eat faster. Truthfully, I don't find anything about the dining room that exciting and didnt miss it at all the nights we skipped.

[NanciRDH]

 

The message board on the door is an AWESOME idea... I'm stealing it from you.

 

This is a good idea I need to remember too! We're always leaving notes, but sometimes the steward tidies up and hides the note! :p. We started leaving them stuck to the wall, everything is metal and we got free magnets one cruise, that workd pretty well too.

[NOLA3cruisers]

I did not notice one (only the beer buckets), BUT I just asked DH and he said he DID see the beer bag. So, throw it in and party like you are still in college! :D

 

LOL! I will pack the beer bag! But it is for my husband...I get one pina colada (in a pineapple-with the cute little umbrella) per cruise...that's about my limit! I rather save the calories for dessert every night! I sure wish I could EAT like I was still in college! Calories...ugh :p

[justschuttme]

Once I found the family, I wanted to go check out our rooms. We were just down the hall in 14611 and 14613, connecting Central Park Balcony’s. My first impression……these are nice and will do for us this week. They are not HUGE, but we 100% enough space and separation for my family of 4. We had both DS’s in one room and us in the other. We chose 14613 for the kids as it had the layout where the bed was closer to the closet and not the balcony (this would give them more floor space to play and be easier to set up the PIP for DS2). Plus, that gave us the couch near the closet for us which made it easier to get to the hanging clothes (there was no issue with the other, however we only used the ample shelves in the boys closest so I can’t really give you a good feel). There were plenty of hangers for our clothes and we didn’t need the extras we brought. There was enough space in the closets and vanity areas were more than enough for us. The bathroom, while not a lot of space, was just fine to do your business and such. I am glad we did not spend more money on a bigger room, simply for space (now, if someone wants to give me say an Owner's Suite or an Aqua Suite for free....PACK MY BAGS BABY!!!!).

 

All but one of our bags were waiting for us, so I started unpacking the kids stuff in case we could actually get DS2 down for a nap that day (no go in the room, of course). Then the others called and wanted to head down to Adventure Ocean to check it out and to sign the kids up. Since we were on 14, we just walked down the hall and were right there (this was nice, but not a deal breaker by any means if we were further). I must say that the kid areas on this ship are GREAT! Here are the pictures I took on that first day (the only day you would be able to get a good look and most likely take pictures since they are not open on embarkation day and there would be kids there at other times).

 

3-5 year olds

 

 

 

Crayola Art Room

Science Lab (only the 8 year old did anything in here, as far as we know)

 

 

6-9 year olds

 

 

Fisher Price Room (this is where you can bring babies to play, you stay with them)

 

 

Finish up with more, next post......

[justschuttme]

We headed over to the kids theatre, this is where you sign up which is not apparent and we were wandering around like lost puppies for a bit. There is a form you must fill out with all of the information you would assume they would ask for. There is a section where you can list all the people you allow your children to be checked out with but note you will need their room numbers when you list them on this form. The process was easy and we were done in about 5 minutes (once we figured out where we were supposed to go, that is).

 

Kids Theatre (our kids were never brought here for anything during their time at kids club, but does look nice)

 

 

 

DH, during this time, had gone over to the nursery where DS2 would be staying from time to time. He had read several different things that they do some formula based on the number of babies 6-36 months old and would inform you as to how many hours you were able to book for the first 3 days and then you come back on the 3rd day and sign up for your allotment of hours for the remaining days. When he asked how many hours he could sign up for, she said we are open tomorrow through the entire cruise from this time to that time…… Basically after they were talking in circles for about 5 minutes, we were able to sign him up for whatever time we wanted and for however long we wanted (ok, 7a until 9p every day!!!!! JUST KIDDING). We did three blocks of time ranging from 1 hour to 3 hours. You are then given a phone that is yours throughout the whole week for them to call you when your child is there and is upset or needs something (note, this will come into play during our lovely 150 dinner later in the cruise). It lists what the number for the phone you have as well as the number to the nursery. Unfortunately we didn’t use the phone throughout the cruise to locate each other since we didn’t think about it until the last sea day (anyone can call the phone if they have the number….). It would have been nice if we were using our brains, oh well.

 

After that DS1 went off with Nana and Papa while DH, DS2 and I walked around. We wanted to keep moving so he would possibly fall asleep in the stroller (this was the first day EVER he hadn’t had a nap in his crib, in the carseat, etc.). He was READY and was down for the count in about 2 minutes. We just walked around and took everything in. It was nice to see everything in person that we had seen and read online.

 

We then met back up with the PA Schutt’s, who now had our other child, and we got ready to head to the muster stations. We were in Studio B, which was a great place as there was seating for everyone and we were comfortable the entire time. It was pretty quick and painless, but told you what you needed to know without being too dramatic and scaring the kiddies that we were going to hit an iceburg and sink to the depths of the ocean. It was over in under 30 minutes. It was crazy trying to make it back to the elevator (which we had to take due to the stroller), but that didn’t take a long as we thought. All-in-all, it wasn’t bad and pretty quick.

 

We made our way back to the in-law’s Owner’s Suite where we were going to be for sail-away.

 

I will post pictures of our rooms tomorrow, after I upload from our SLR camera. Phew.....:)

[Cupcrazy]

Great review! Thanks for posting. I'm loving "Zipper Shorts".

[Rcarper4001]

Great review, We are going in August

[brookmill18]

I bought some for our last cruise, but they never stayed on the doors!! The magnets weren't strong enough and I think the door wasn't completely flat so it was hard to get it to stay on. I may have gotten them at the dollar store--maybe that was it? Any tips? Thanks!

[justschuttme]

Here are the pictures we took of our rooms. I tried to find how the rooms connected before we left, but couldn’t. It was convenient and loved that they had the big magnet to hold the door open so it wouldn’t flop around (but LOVED that it CLOSED even more so we didn't have to call it a night and sit in the dark at 8 every night!!!) . The PA Schutt’s were down the hall in connecting Ocean view balconies, 14670 and 14672. Before we got on the cruise my SIL was worried about the space of the cabin’s, however she said that she was glad they did not spend more money on a bigger/fancier room as they were perfectly happy with what they got. Now, it was the same for them that we spent a lot of “hang out” time in the in-law’s Owner's Suite so that would impact our opinions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[justschuttme]

Anyway, it was very nice to sit on the OS balcony for sail away. We were on the side of the port but regardless, it was neat to see how they maneuver out and take off. We hung out there until we were in open water and then headed back to our rooms to get ready for dinner. I unpacked the rest of our stuff and we all got ready.

 

Now on to some more food…I will say that with very few exceptions, all the food on board is at least good…ranging to PHENOMENAL our FIRST! For dinner this first night we had MDR (My-Time Dining) at 5:45 and were seated right away.. Note, as other people have said there are two queues when you walk up to the dining room on Deck 5, the one on the right is for NO RESERVATIONS and the one of the left is FOR RESERVATIONS. We walked up, gave our room number and were taken to our table. It was a big round table against the glass just inside the dining room. It overlooked the other decks, it was a nice spot. Being near the main traffic path was not a problem. We were seated here all three times we ate in the MDR (with the same waiter, assistant waiter and bar service waiter). It was table 712, our waiter was Moises and our assistant waiter was Prabaharan and both were great.

 

I warned the family that these meals were a marathon and not a sprint, our service was good but slowly paced which was fine as the kids were entertained and behaving!!! Moises was great with the kids and asked if he could bring fruit for them, this became habit for each visit. It was a good assortment of fruit and the kids liked to get something soon after we sat down. He also brought two (identical) cheese plates for the adults. The cheese was good, not the best cheese we have had but very good. The assortment of rolls/breads Prabaharan brought around were GREAT (but I am a HUGE bread person and usually am satisfied if it eatable and in large quantities, I fill up on bread and HATE myself every time since I can’t finish my dinner…yet still have room for dessert, hmmmmm…).

 

The kids menu is very good, however I never thought to get a picture of it….DANG! It had the usual fare: Grilled chicken, Tenders, mac and cheese, pizza, etc. with several choices of sides. Our kids got a lot of grilled chicken and pizza (I think DS1 had pizza at least once a day EVERY SINGLE DAY!). The quality of the kids food was on par with ours, no one complained and they left full each meal.

 

Tonight was prime rib, and of course we just had to order it. I got the Caesar salad to start, Prime-rib (med rare) and the chocolate almond cake for dessert. The Caesar was good, not too much dressing that I find is so common these days. The prime rib was actually very good, not the best but better than most. It was tender and the perfect temp of medium rare. The Au jus was thicker than normal and on the plate itself, but it too was good. Now, MIL got the same but asked for it Medium, it comes in Med Rare and Med Well. He said he would get it as close to Medium as possible. Hers came and it was closer to Med (or between Med and Med Well) but it was very near the end cut. It was quite tough and she did not care for it as much as we liked ours. She didn't send it back and when asked she still said it was fine. The sides we all got, were the typical sides…they do come around with sour and such for the baked potatoes. The chocolate almond cake was decent, not out of this world but good enough to eat. It wasn’t my favorite, so I had a few bites and said to myself, “self, don’t eat more so you can go get another treat somewhere else…” So, what did it do? I kept taking bites to where by the time we left, there was not much left and STILL got something else later (hey, don’t judge, I’m not vacation and prepped for week of glutton leading up to it!!!). ;) So, that was dinner on night one. Very happy lady!

 

Kids Fruit (each night)

 

 

 

 

Our cheese plate (again each night)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Med Rare Prime Rin (YUM)

 

 

Chocolate Almond Cake

[justschuttme]

After dinner we went back to (you guessed it) the in-laws OS so the kids could play together. It really was such a nice place where we could all be together and not want to kill each other (most of the time). It really was money well spent (by my FIL, that is :p). We then made it back to our rooms and finished getting everything ready for the boys to go down as well as hung out on the balcony, which the boys LOVED. We put them down after teeth, books, you know the whole shebang. DS2 out within 2 minutes and DS1 was out in about 5! So, what to do what to do? Read and call it a night? Heck no, call Papa and see if he will come watch TV in our room while us youngins go explore some more! What a nice Papa. So, DH and I just walked around and ended up on the Promenade deck and we got ourselves these (ok, so I got both on the pretense that they were for both DH and I....he had a bite of each, that's still sharing in my book):

 

 

 

The chocolate chip scone was not good, and I like me some scones. The chocolate brownie, however was DEVINE!!! :D I had quite a few of these babies throughout the week (as did DS2 :p). Plus the fact that they were always there and free, oh my. They have various time appropriate snacks and sandwiches at the Café Promenade 24 hours a day. It is wonderful. They also have coffee, tea and ice water available there so can get yourself a cup o something while you enjoy your treat/snack.

 

So, after my snack we walked around a bit more. You really could just walk around half the time and enjoy yourself. We went through the Solarium and let me tell you, I promised myself that I would spend at least a few minutes in there at some point that week….did I, NO but I will get into that later. It was just such a nice area and it was the first time that I thought “oh, if we were on this cruise just the two of us……THIS is where I would park my big butt ALL week!”

 

We then went back to release Papa and climbed into bed and read for about 2.5 minutes and fell asleep. What a great first day to our much anticipated Oasis vacation! Oh, how I wish I were still there……:rolleyes:

[Kimahri]

I am so getting the prime rib on the first night. Yum:D