Family review of the Oasis

[Jen731]

By Day 6, two things were happening. Number one, while we loved being on the trip, the crowds were starting to get to us a bit. And number two, after two long days in the sun, I was a bit crisp and we were needing a day in the shade.

 

We started off with good intentions to go to the character breakfast, but my toddler was up for a couple hours in the night with a sore tummy. I don't know if it was motion sickness or too much saltwater, but she was miserable. And the older girls were exhausted too, so we all slept in until 9!!! We ran up to the windjammer to get some breakfast then started planning our day.

 

My 3 year old was begging to go to the carousel again, so we went after breakfast and saw they were also making balloon animals on the Boardwalk. She got a beautiful butterfly and we got to see kids getting their faces very elaborately painted. We are not big on face painting, so we skipped it. I saw quite a few kids still with spiderman or tiger face paint for formal night that night... <snicker>

 

My older daughters wanted to play shuffleboard, so they went behind the aquatheater to play for a bit while I took the 3 year old to AO to play in the toy room. My 12 year old was going to do the teen soccer tournament, but by the time she showed up they already had even teams (10 boys, 2 girls) and she didn't feel like "butting in". She is not a bold kid and I do with the teen staff had maybe recognized that and offered her a little encouragement, but by this time she was just over the teen stuff and was more focused on our last two days with familiy.

 

While in AO, we spotted my 7 year old niece in the AO talent show. She did gymnastics and got a medal, I thought that was really cute.

 

We decided to go to the promenade to stake out a place to stand for the parade. We got there around noon and people already had the chairs lined up, so we ened up in front of the cupcake shop. By dumb luck, that location ended up being completely awesome. We had great views of everything and had a lot of character dancing right in front of us and above up in the lounge areas. I LOVE parades. I am a huge Disney parade fan and I thought the Move It! Move It! parade was almost as high in production value as a Disney parade. There were so many people in that parade, I was amazed. The music got everyone dancing and the kids loved the characters and costumes. I was so sad we had missed the earlier parade that week.

 

After the parade, we went to the MDR for a light, late lunch. It was so nice and relaxing, a good variety of buffet, menu and salad. Finally, the toddler was about ready for a nap, so I took her back to the room. My husband and daughters had big plans for the afternoon. They stopped in for the Belly Flop competition, which they thought was hilarious, and then got their long pants on for some ice skating. Again, no reservations, they walked in and the rink wasn't busy.

 

Thursday was formal night again, so we got ready a little early and tried to do a photo of the kids before dinner. The other adults wanted to do Chops that night, but I wasn't in the mood to pay $70 for steaks, so we took the 4 oldest kids to the MDR and my nephew went to the nursery. We met for a photo in front of the white screen in the promenade, which didn't go too well since my nephew was not in the mood for pictures. I saw a lot of really good white screen pictures from other people that week, but I was not too happy with ours. Oh well. We went to the dining room for lobster night. My husband was very happy, but by Thursday, all I wanted was some plain pasta. My stomach was starting to get irritated from all the rich food.

 

After dinner, my daughter really wanted to do the Family Karaoke in the On Air club at 8, so we went straight from dinner. I think we walked in just a few minutes after 8 and there were only a few people signed up. Got her on the list and then watched the other people perform. I think the concept of "Family karaoke" was lost on a few people. We had some adults perform (and didn't seem to be there with their children, I think they just wandered in when they saw karaoke), we did have a couple father/daughter acts which were cute, a couple of girls my daughter's ages performed, but interspersed was an act from a family that had 3 boys. First the two older boys performed an LMFAO song that was not particularly family friendly. They added a lot of twerking which made it even more interesting. But the youngest was the kicker. I don't know LMFAO, but the song he picked had lyrics that were centered on the party in his pants and the mass quantities of alcohol he would be consuming. At one point, I was covering up my 10 year old's eyes. And his parents were loving it, videoing the whole thing. To each his own, but I wish the DJ in charge had asked them to choose another song. There were young kids in the room. My daughter sang Taylor Swift and did great, we were really proud.

 

After that, I made plans to hang in the casino with my brothers since I hadn't donated anything to the blackjack tables yet. First I watched my brothers play the 7 card poker table game, which was interesting but really confusing. Then I found the $10 blackjack table and actually was up quite a lot and played for a long time before hitting a bad streak and donated back my winnings. It was okay, I think it was the first time I left money at a blackjack table overall. Usually I win enough to at least pay my husband's bar bill. :)

 

Okay, one more day to recap!

[loubetti]

Jen, Jennifer, I guess that might be your name,

 

Really sorry about what happened to your mother, but thankfully (big time!) she had insurance.

 

You know, putting up a sign around a pool deck stating that decks are slippery when wet is nice, but...

 

I don't know what the pool deck is comprised of on the ship (it can't be Teak!), but there are coatings that can be used to give it more traction. Apparently a design error also, as the water should drain back into the pool or off to the sides and, again, there are coatings that can be used. I realize she slipped on a drain grate- but still...

 

Anyway, a most enjoyable and well written review, and I don't miss the photos!

 

I'm ready for your finale!

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Enjoying your review.

So sorry to hear about your Mom's accident and wish her a speedy recovery.

I notice a lot of ships have very slippery and hot decks - you would think they would do something about it to keep there customers safer:eek:.

[Crusinwithtots]

Hey Jen,

 

As luck would have it, I was on the June 14th sailing of the Oasis, and happened to get to the 15th deck just after your mom fell. My parents were sitting in the chairs along the side of the ship, just across from the splash zone, and watched the whole thing happen. They mentioned it was terrible. I really hope she's ok.

 

Right after she left, they placed a yellow "slippery when wet" sign, and about 30 minutes later, some RCI guy came and took a picture of the wooden floor drain in question and left.

 

Can't believe that happened.

[Katnwater]

So sorry about your mom! My oldest will be 12 for all of 3 weeks when we cruise Oasis. I am pondering asking the OA staff if we can move him down to the 9 -11 group. He has a younger brother who will be 9, and they are big buddies. Do you think your daughter would have been happier in the younger group?

 

Sent from my SM-T210R using Tapatalk

[Jen731]

Hey Jen,

 

As luck would have it, I was on the June 14th sailing of the Oasis, and happened to get to the 15th deck just after your mom fell. My parents were sitting in the chairs along the side of the ship, just across from the splash zone, and watched the whole thing happen. They mentioned it was terrible. I really hope she's ok.

 

Right after she left, they placed a yellow "slippery when wet" sign, and about 30 minutes later, some RCI guy came and took a picture of the wooden floor drain in question and left.

 

Can't believe that happened.

 

She is hopefully getting moved to a rehab hospital today to start pt to learn how to function for the next 3 months without bending her leg. It's going to be very difficult.

 

I saw the sign when we got back up and my dad took plenty of his own pictures. It was nice they put it up that day, but later in the week nothing was there again. I just pray it doesn't happen to anyone else.

 

I am so grateful to everyone that stopped and helped her that morning and those who stopped me the rest of the week to ask how she was and say they were so sorry for what happened. Funny that no one from Royal Caribbean asked us how she was or called to check on her back at home. Good God, they still don't even have their luggage!!!

[Jen731]

So sorry about your mom! My oldest will be 12 for all of 3 weeks when we cruise Oasis. I am pondering asking the OA staff if we can move him down to the 9 -11 group. He has a younger brother who will be 9, and they are big buddies. Do you think your daughter would have been happier in the younger group?

 

Sent from my SM-T210R using Tapatalk

 

Mine definitely would not have been. My 10 year old went to AO a couple of times but she was not overly impressed. The one night that she was so excited to go, she wanted to stay late and do the "competitive gaming". She said they spent half the time fussing at the kids to be quiet so they could explain the rules and everyone was so tired and punchy that no one would listen. She finally checked herself out and with shows the next two nights, decided she didn't have any great desire to go back.

 

My 12 year old would have hated hanging with the 9 year old kids, but that's her personality. I am sure that it all depends on the other kids and the personalities of the kids. We did a lot more of the kids club activities on our Alaskan cruise, but that boat also didn't have so many other offerings that were family friendly. And it wasn't exactly a pool friendly trip!

 

I know that when I registered mine, I listened as another mom asked to have her child moved up an age group and they told her he would have to go to the correct group to start and be evaluated to see if he would be a good fit to transfer. Since AO is not open the first night, have your 12 year old go to the teen meet and greet and see what he thinks, and then if he would rather try AO you can make your case. My 12 year old did really like the photo scavenger hunt they did through the teen club, mostly because nearly every picture involved finding and eating food. :)

[Susie51]

Thank you for the update on your mom's progress.

 

Have they called about their luggage?

[Jen731]

Isn't Day 7 the worst? You wake up knowing the real world is right around the corner again.

 

Our kids slept in again, so we started the day at the Windjammer for breakfast. Oh well, didn't get to do the character breakfasts except one day, but that's alright. My sister in law took my niece and nephew to all of them and took pictures for us. :)

 

We decided to have one last day in the sun so met the family and spent the morning at the H2O zone with the kids. We ate lunch at the Wipeout Cafe again and enjoyed the day. My husband took my 12 year old daughter to climb the rock wall and my 10 year old stayed with her cousin at the pool a bit longer. The line for the rock wall was fairly long, I think they waited about 45 minutes, but apparently they got to see another belly flop contest while they waited so that helped.

 

When it was time for my 3 year old to sleep, my 12 year old and I went to go to the Flash Mob dance class. What was I thinking letting that girl talk me into that?? It was fun, but I haven't had to learn a dance routine in 25 years and it was a very high energy dance to learn. The lady who taught the class was awesome and one of the kid karaoke singers opened the number with a big gymnast run/flip. We found out the flash mob is the "surprise moment" in the promenade at 5:55. My daughter loved learning the dance and it was fun to think about.

 

We went back to the room so I could pack *waaaah*. My husband and daughters walked around the ship and, according to my 12 year old, "ate really delicious brownies at the Park Cafe". :)

 

We had tickets for the 5:00 Come Fly with Me show, so we all got dressed before the show and went down to get seats maybe around 4:30. Since this show was all over the theater, we sat in the first row of the second floor section and those were great seats, set back enough to really take in the whole show. The show was good, not my favorite but definitely had some interesting parts. It wasn't what I thought it was going to be, that's for sure. But all 3 kids enjoyed it. I really liked that some of the Hairspray performers were singing in the show.

 

We had to run out of the performance to make the flash mob. Told our family to get a drink in the Schooner Bar so they had great seats for the whole thing. My daughter remembered the dance better than I did, but there were a lot of RCI people in the crowd who were helping us remember the routine, so that was good. After we all just laughed and high fived everyone, and that made it worthwhile.

 

Our last dinner - Thanksgiving!! Turkey and one last big family meal. Said a sad goodbye to Ronald and Clapston who put up with us being 15 minutes late every dang night for dinner. (Sorry, Ronald!!) Got the 3rd or 4th walkthrough of the chefs... Everyone cheer, everyone make the speeches. You know, I don't mind at all showing appreciation to the chefs, but by the 3rd or 4th time, it does get tired. We always had the big interruption right as we were ordering dessert.

 

After dinner we went straight to the Opal Theater for the replay of Hairspray that got cancelled earlier in the week. There wasn't a chance to make reservations again, so I was happy to see the reservations held from the Monday show. The kids insisted on sitting in the first row. I tried to talk them out of it, but they were not to be dissuaded. Oh well, we got first row left and since we had time, I brought them playing cards and they played crazy 8's while we waited for the show.

 

PSA: Please, please if you are going to let your children go see a show in the theater (and this really holds true for any theater setting), please explain to them that it is completely obnoxious when they a) run back and forth from their seats to yours and b) slam their seats up and down each time they get up. Spiderman sitting next to us drove me CRAZY with the seat banging over and over while his parents sat in the row behind and didn't give a crap.

 

Anyway, we loved the show, loved it even more that they didn't have to stop in the middle, and loved it completely when Tracy's mom and dad broke character in the second act cracking up and started telling jokes about the show messing up Monday and the boat arriving late to St. Thomas. It was fun. And I thought it was a very professional and high quality production. The kids loved it, though my 7 year old niece was fully wiped by the end. I wish they could have started the show in the afternoon, but oh well.

 

Rushed out of the theater to go pick up our picture reprints and then got to the room in time to get the luggage out. We chose to do the Luggage Valet program and I highly suggest it if you are flying. More on that in the next day summary...

 

By now it was late and we were tired! Last night on the ship, we did go out on the balcony and enjoy the stars one more time and smell that fresh sea air.

[Jen731]

Thank you for the update on your mom's progress.

 

Have they called about their luggage?

 

Supposedly it was boxed up and taken to Fed Ex, but as of yesterday Fed Ex is not showing the tracking number with any shipping info. And there's the matter of my mom not being HOME to accept delivery and my dad at the office, so they don't exactly want 4 huge boxes sitting on their front porch all day. RCI is being consistently unhelpful in this regard. I know it's not really a priority for them, but it is for my parents!!!

[Jen731]

We woke up with dread. Back to the real world. :( We had checked 5 bags through luggage valet and kept one for clothes and toiletries. So we woke up around 7:45, got the last few things packed, said goodbye (and "please come home with us") to our stateroom attendant, and went up to the Windjammer for one last breakfast. Because our flight wasn't until 2 pm, we were in absolutely no hurry. On of my brother's is from Ft. Lauderdale, and he was going to meet us, but one look at the line out the door made him think it would be better just to hit the road. So we said goodbye and joined my other brother for breakfast. The line definitely looked bad, but within 5 minutes we were at a table and ready to load up one last meal. Enjoyed a big breakfast in anticipation of airport food for lunch and I got my first glimpse at the Flowriders and the mini golf course. Sat there dumbfounded thinking - there really are areas of the boat that we never even saw!!!

 

We didn't want to hog a table for too long, so we decided to go hang out in Central Park. My other brother is from Orlando, so they got a 10:30 debarkation. We sat in Central Park and took some pictures, then around 10 went to sit in On Air and wait for his number. My toddler remembered being in there for family karaoke, immediately rushed the stage, sang "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" at the top of her lungs, and bowed when we (and most of On Air) cheered for her. It was so cute.

 

On Air was a pretty good place to hang out while waiting with kids. There were tables and coloring pages, some beverage service, and we could have played cards or toys on the tables there.

 

Now, from the time the number was called until we got through airport security, it was a 2 hour process. For those who want to know "Can we make it?" I give that number. We got off the ship into the terminal and I had no idea we would have to wind through those ridiculous disney ropes forward and back, side to side, around and around to get to the customs agent. We were so, so happy that we had sent our luggage through to the airport! I felt terrible for the families that either had to wheel it themselves, or chat in line with a porter for 45 minutes. Made it through customs, said goodbye to my brother, and got in a taxi for the airport.

 

Unfortunately because we had kept that one last bag, we had to wait in line to get it tagged. Then got through security around 12:30. So we didn't end up with as much time hanging around the airport as we could have. We got some lunch and then got on the airplane (Jet Blue, which I thought was a great airplane, so much roomier than our Southwest flight) only to have a thunderstorm shut down the airport for 2 hours. But we were comfortable and the toddler was happy with her ipad, so we stayed on and just zoned out!! Made for a very late night getting home by the time we got everything and then drove another 2.5 hours home, but at last we were in our beds around 11:30 pm.

 

Next... some odds and ends and advice for Oasis.

[Jen731]

I wanted to say something about our room location. We were in 8150 and 8152, forward port on deck 8. The room location ended up being not ideal for us because everywhere we wanted to go was always aft with the exception of the theater. And because there are a few floors where you can't walk through the middle, we learned the hard way that it's no fun walking the entire length of the ship in the stateroom hallways. Luckily for us, because we were on Deck 8, we realized that we could easily walk through Central Park to get across and then take the elevators down from there. And I ended up finding that I loved those walks through Central Park. It really is a special thing.

 

One day my 3 year old and I were walking through in the morning and spotted one of the landscapers working. I told her to tell him thank for working on the pretty flowers and he snipped one off and gave it to her. It was really sweet. She clutched that flower like it was 14K gold (until her cousin decimated it with a karate chop... LOL) And at night they frequently had musicians out in Central Park. One night the classical guitarist was out and man, was he amazing. My husband and I sat out and enjoyed the last few minutes of his set. So relaxing and nice.

 

One thing I had to do early on was to teach my older girls how to navigate the ship and read the deck maps. They are very convenient next to each elevator and it did help them the few times they were going somewhere without us. I was really impressed that the first night back from Teen Club, my daughter said they gave them a big safety talk about not going into anyone's stateroom, not accepting drinks from anyone but a bartender, and not running through the halls or playing in the elevators. In fact, I never experienced a problem with kids misbehaving in the halls or elevators. I had actually brought earplugs just in case, but we must have had good neighbors.

 

The next time we go, I might do one thing different. Instead of packing everyone's clothes separately, I might pack the suitcases in chronological order. A Saturday/Sunday case, Monday/Tuesday case, etc and only take out clothes for maybe half the week at a time. There just wasn't enough storage for all the regular and dress clothes, even having two rooms. I wish we had kept half the clothes unpacked and just shoved the suitcase under the bed until those clothes were needed. It's probably not a perfect system...

 

Negotiation! Teach your kids negotiating skills if they are going to do any shopping. My 10 year old was a natural. Here was her negotiating for a Bahamas Bag in the straw market.

 

Kid: How much is the bag?

Store: $20, but I'll give it to you for $18.

Me: Did you want to pay $18 for this bag?

Kid: Nah, I'm good.

Store: Okay, I can do it for $15.

Kid: No, that's okay. (And she is serious!!)

Store: The lowest I can do is $13.

Kid: Hmmmm, okay.

 

Brilliant! :)

 

We never got to do some of the AO things I wanted to try, like family bingo, science at 12:15, or family art at 5:15. We just have to save those for the next time, I guess! We also didn't do mini golf or the flowriders. Mini golf had been on our list but I said no to the flowriders after my mom's accident. We have done them at Great Wolf Lodge, so it wasn't a huge disappointment to my kids. The ping pong tables were always really busy so we didn't get to try them. The ice skating rink is still what the kids talk about, they really enjoyed it.

 

We personally did not do any specialty restaurants and I am not one bit sorry. Found the MDR food to be good every night and plenty varied enough to keep us happy. My kids did a good job of trying different things and my brother did a good job of trying nearly everything. He and my SIL absolutely loved the broccoli and our waiter brought them a big plate every night. He also would bring us extra appetizers or desserts to try as a table if no one ordered them. So we got to see a lot of the food. The mojo pork chop was one of my favorites, the pumpkin bread was one of my husband's treats, and the kids loved the ice cream/cookie sundaes they got every night. I had to put them on sugar detox when we got home!! They got a little too used to dessert after practically every meal. My 12 year old daughter did get her Sorrento's fix a few times, but the pizza in the MDR kid's menu wasn't terrible (not like the NCL pizza was...). I do wish the kids menu would fluctuate just slightly, maybe alternating menus? But we ordered the toddlers food from the main menu a couple times so they weren't eating chicken strips every night.

 

I am sure I will think of some other things, but I think that just about wraps up my family review of the Oasis. I hope it was helpful to other families since not many reviews are written from families that stick together. I am blessed that I have children who are still happy to spend time with us. I don't have a problem with the kids club, but we just didn't end up using it very much. If anyone has any other questions, I'm happy to help!

 

A cruise is a treat for us, not a yearly thing, so it will probably be some time before we cruise again. In the end, we did like the Oasis, but we also said that 7 days was probably our limit just due to dealing with being on a boat with so many people and lines for things like elevators and getting on and off the boat. I had sort of started fantasizing about doing a BTB transatlantic, but I don't know that I would be happy for more than 7 days on the ship. I would still do a TA, but I think our next full family trip will be land based!! As for my little family, we really enjoyed the Caribbean, but we are more mountain people. So I think Colorado or Montana are next on our list. :)

[MANDMTRAVEL]

Do you know if Oasis has a 3D movie theater? Or is just Allure, and if yes, do you know what movies where they playing?

 

 

Thanks for the family review, very much appreciated!

[Julia’s Journey’s]

The next time we go, I might do one thing different. Instead of packing everyone's clothes separately, I might pack the suitcases in chronological order. A Saturday/Sunday case, Monday/Tuesday case, etc and only take out clothes for maybe half the week at a time. There just wasn't enough storage for all the regular and dress clothes, even having two rooms. I wish we had kept half the clothes unpacked and just shoved the suitcase under the bed until those clothes were needed. It's probably not a perfect system...

 

 

I bought myself packing cubes last year before my mom/daughter graduation cruise to Europe, we had a pre cruise stay in Venice and post cruise in both Barcelona and Paris - they worked awesome without having to pack and unpack the case over and over. DD didn't use hers and everytime she wanted something out her case it landed a mess and had to be repacked. I used them again on our TA in October and really makes packing easier. You can get a different color for each family member and different sizes.

[Jen731]

Do you know if Oasis has a 3D movie theater? Or is just Allure, and if yes, do you know what movies where they playing?

 

 

Thanks for the family review, very much appreciated!

 

I am afraid I don't know. They showed a few movies, I know they played Frozen in the aqua theater and I saw a few Barbie movies listed in the AO theater, but we had good weather and lots of other options so we weren't interested in the movies. Sorry.

[Jen731]

I bought myself packing cubes last year before my mom/daughter graduation cruise to Europe, we had a pre cruise stay in Venice and post cruise in both Barcelona and Paris - they worked awesome without having to pack and unpack the case over and over. DD didn't use hers and everytime she wanted something out her case it landed a mess and had to be repacked. I used them again on our TA in October and really makes packing easier. You can get a different color for each family member and different sizes.

 

My sister in law uses laundry bags (the mesh kind you would use for bras and delicates) for their clothes, which was clever. We have done the kids' clothes in ziplocks before as well, which keeps shirts and shorts together and is nice, but that was when their clothes were really small!! I will definitely look into the cubes. I know I've seen some at the dollar store.

[Susie51]

Thank you for your great review. The cube idea sounds like it is worth a try.