Kids Clubs/Kids Activities Oasis of the Seas

[retire2cruise55]

Almost finished....we go back and forth between Disney and RCI as the kids are getting older and the mouse is less impressive these days.

[LuCruise]

zymurgy1999, thank you for your review. It feels a little discouraging for me for our Allure cruise, as we're taking this vacation as a family. I'm happy to have our kids go to the club if they'd like, but hopefully not all the time. Guess it depends on the kids though and if the cruise activates interest them (e.g. H20 zone, ice skating, rock wall) as well as the shows...as I don't see a reason why we can't do these together. Good to hear though that the ship didn't feel crowded, but sorry to hear that RCL didn't attend to your wife's allergies, which is surprising.

[Duke Mazer]

Thank you zymurgy1999. We went the cheap route and picked Oasis over Disney and I kept thinking we made a mistake. Sounds like Disney is way better, but for the cost? For us Disney was quoted $1300 more for same Eastern cruise. Will my DD have a good time? Would she have a $1300 better experience on Disney? Hard to tell. If little one and DW like cruising we may try it next time.

[drb116]

I was on the same Oasis cruise last week after taking 7 Disney cruises and would agree with most things Zymurgy1999 said, but wanted to add a few thoughts.

 

First, we love Disney and were a little skeptical going into the Oasis cruise, however we all had a great time and my two boys, age 6 and 4 both said they liked the Oasis over Disney. My wife and I also enjoyed it, but the cruise was very different than Disney cruises, like Z said, because of the family involvement.

 

I would not say that Oasis didn't have family activities, but I would say they were not as good as Disney. For example, on the Oasis, each day they had a family arts and crafts, family science, and family carnival on the boardwalk, including ballon animals and face painting. Disney has similar activities, but as an example, on Disney they have Super Sloppy Science where a cast member dresses up and talks goofy and the kids make flubbed. On the Oasis, we went to one and the staff spent 15 minutes talking about germs and how to wash your hands before making a somewhat unrelated craft.

 

Where Oasis really shines over Disney from a family perspective is the pools. Our kids love to hang out at the pools and there was considerable more pool space as well as the pools were a better depth. On Disney, one pool is too shallow to swim and the other pool is too deep for kids to stand. On Oasis, they have a great splash park and a pool that is connected on about 3.5 feet deep. The only thing close on Disney is the new pool area on the Magic, but even that pool is too shallow to swim.

 

I agree with the shows and would add that they are hard to get to. The times often conflicted with dinner and you had to have tickets (although you could usually just go without a ticket as many people skipped the shows). The one show my kids did like was the family dive show (not the Oasis of Dresms show).

 

We also really liked all the different spaces. For example, every morning we had breakfast at Johnny Rockets (no charge for breakfast) and it was a great change of pace over the crowded buffets.

 

For us, Disney was getting very routine and this was a great change of pace. Both my wife and I agreed that dollar for dollar, Disney would be our choice, but if Disney was even slightly more expensive, we would have no problem with the Oasis.

[LuCruise]

Thank you zymurgy1999. We went the cheap route and picked Oasis over Disney and I kept thinking we made a mistake. Sounds like Disney is way better, but for the cost? For us Disney was quoted $1300 more for same Eastern cruise. Will my DD have a good time? Would she have a $1300 better experience on Disney? Hard to tell. If little one and DW like cruising we may try it next time.

 

We found the same thing with even $2000 difference (comparing...same date/fantasy to allure/both eastern caribbean and similar rooms). That's a lot of money! I did a lot of research to see if Allure (the sister ship of Oasis) was kid friendly with things to do or if Disney was the right decision. And what did I find? Yes, absolutely Allure/Oasis is for kids. First off, the club gets great ratings and people even say that its even better than Disneys. (My only personal concern is tht they split the kids up by age...meaning that our kids will be in different groups). Then there are tons of things we can do together...splash zone, swimming, parades, ice skating, rock climbing, cup cake making, shows (2 ice shows, dreamWorks things, Aqua shows), DreamWorks character meal plus meet and greets, and even just explore the ship and walk around Central Park and promenade. Who knows...maybe i'll treat my little one to the spa. To us, this IS a real family vacation. We've been on Disney, and yes, it is amazing for kids and geared to kids...but we found when the kids were occupied, DH and I were bored (on the Magic). What I would suggest is search on YouTube...there is this great documentary on the Allure that is about 55 minutes long and watch. I think you'll see. I know it got me pretty excited for our cruise and let me feel better that RCL knows how to do things for kids too. (PS - Our kids will be 10 and 6)

Edited January 6, 2015 by LuCruise

[spazzyjanet]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! We will be doing our first family cruise with kids of similar ages on next year's New Years cruise. We have never done Disney, so none of us will have that as a basis of comparison and that's probably a good thing. They will just be excited to be on their first cruise.

 

I'm very happy to hear that your kids loved the kids clubs. My kids are very social and will want to make friends versus hanging out with us all day- especially since we will have 3 days in FLL pre-cruise hanging out as a family. At home when we go out to social activities at their schools they usually want to run off with their friends (even ones they just met, lol) so it would be foolish to expect this to be different.

 

My oldest rock climbs and we are just now getting the middle child into it, so I expect they will want to do that in the mornings as well. We are even staying on deck 7 so this will be easy for them.

 

I'm also very glad to hear that the ship didn't feel crowded despite being full and being a holiday sailing. How was the ship on New Years' Eve? What, if anything did you do as a family to celebrate? Were the kids successful in staying up?

[zymurgy1999]

Although my review was long it was not intended to "bash" the Oasis in any way, other than the allergies issue that we had. I was just stating my opinion.

 

A couple of points:

 

(1) regarding cost, we are Florida residents and we typically cruise with Disney when they offer great rates that bring the cost of the cruise BELOW RC, so I have never had to make that call, however, I do feel, maybe wrongly, that more is included in Disney and that I could have easily bridged the gap in prices if I attempted to replicate what I received at no cost on Disney (bringing alcohol on Disney is one example, though I am not a heavy drinker);

 

(2) regarding family activities, a typical day with Disney would involve going to see a few characters (it was so bizarre seeing the characters on the Oasis walking around with no one caring or even stopping to take a picture), going to a game show like "Who Wants to Be A Mousekateer" or "Wonder Quest", which is tons of fun, going to see a first run movie like Guardians of the Galaxy (it opened the weekend that we were on the ship), going to watch a "Diaper Dash" where they get kids in diapers to race across the floor and then off to dinner. Then at night we would all go to the show and then they would go to the club until they wanted to leave.

 

(3) Pools, no comparison unless you factor in the Aquaduck, which our kids loved. Oasis' pools are far superior, but we have a pool at our house and swimming is not a novelty for our kids, so again, personal opinion comes into play here. One last point, we did hear of the 4 year old that drowned on the Oasis the day that we got off. Disney has lifeguards EVERYWHERE. I do not want to say that this kind of horrible accident could not happen anywhere, but it was always comforting to me the lifeguard at the top of a water slide, at the bottom of the water slide and another watching the kids in the pool.

 

Overall, I would have no problem getting back on this ship, however, my personal preference is that I feel much better on Disney.

[reallyitsmema]

Did you contact special needs prior to your cruise so they were aware of your wife's allergies? They would have told you who to speak to in the MDR. Typically, if someone has food allergies, they are shown the menu for the next night and choose what they want so it can be prepared just for them in the gluten free kitchen that is on ever ship.

 

If you didn't contact special needs, all you needed to do was speak to your head waiter so he could make sure your wife could order according to her needs.

 

As far as chicken fingers and mac and cheese, they are on every kids menu I have ever seen on a ship. I have also seen adults request them so I am not sure why you were not able to get them, did you ask your waiter? We have a semi picky eater who asks for things fixed his way on every cruise and has never been denied a simple request as a sauce change or an item left off a dish.

[zymurgy1999]

Did you contact special needs prior to your cruise so they were aware of your wife's allergies? They would have told you who to speak to in the MDR. Typically, if someone has food allergies, they are shown the menu for the next night and choose what they want so it can be prepared just for them in the gluten free kitchen that is on ever ship.

 

If you didn't contact special needs, all you needed to do was speak to your head waiter so he could make sure your wife could order according to her needs.

 

Yes we did and it was in our reservation. They gave my wife a menu every night and told her to preorder. The problem was that she had two choices for apps, every night, shrimp (without the cocktail sauce for some reason) or salad. For a main meal it was gluten free pasta with tomato sauce out of a can (they would not prepare any special sauces for her) or steak with steamed veggies and a baked potato. She asked if they could bring her steak fries from the buffet but they said they would not allow any food from anywhere else in the ship into the MDR. For dessert it was some horrible cornmeal porridge with sugar. When she asked for a different dessert they brought her the same exact dessert the next night, but added cocoa powder so that it was "chocolate". I tasted it, it was horrible. 7 nights of the same food.

[reallyitsmema]

Here is a link to the menus for the MDR.

 

http://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/press-kit/9/culinary-press-kit/

 

If you look at the menus, there are symbols for gluten free and lactose free beside all the dishes that can be prepared both gluten free and lactose free. There is much more available than what you have described. Desserts are difficult but if you search this forum, you will find many threads from people who had special things made for them by one of the chefs in the dining room and were also able to enjoy meals at the specialty restaurants.

[Grandma Dazzles]

Although my review was long it was not intended to "bash" the Oasis in any way, other than the allergies issue that we had. I was just stating my opinion.

 

A couple of points:

 

(1) regarding cost, we are Florida residents and we typically cruise with Disney when they offer great rates that bring the cost of the cruise BELOW RC, so I have never had to make that call, however, I do feel, maybe wrongly, that more is included in Disney and that I could have easily bridged the gap in prices if I attempted to replicate what I received at no cost on Disney (bringing alcohol on Disney is one example, though I am not a heavy drinker);

 

(2) regarding family activities, a typical day with Disney would involve going to see a few characters (it was so bizarre seeing the characters on the Oasis walking around with no one caring or even stopping to take a picture), going to a game show like "Who Wants to Be A Mousekateer" or "Wonder Quest", which is tons of fun, going to see a first run movie like Guardians of the Galaxy (it opened the weekend that we were on the ship), going to watch a "Diaper Dash" where they get kids in diapers to race across the floor and then off to dinner. Then at night we would all go to the show and then they would go to the club until they wanted to leave.

 

(3) Pools, no comparison unless you factor in the Aquaduck, which our kids loved. Oasis' pools are far superior, but we have a pool at our house and swimming is not a novelty for our kids, so again, personal opinion comes into play here. One last point, we did hear of the 4 year old that drowned on the Oasis the day that we got off. Disney has lifeguards EVERYWHERE. I do not want to say that this kind of horrible accident could not happen anywhere, but it was always comforting to me the lifeguard at the top of a water slide, at the bottom of the water slide and another watching the kids in the pool.

 

Overall, I would have no problem getting back on this ship, however, my personal preference is that I feel much better on Disney.

 

Thanks for coming back especially to explain what you consider family activities.

 

I just had a hard time understanding that you did not participate/enjoy things like mini golf, shuffleboard, ping pong, sports court, rock climbing, ice skating and so on. Understand that living in Florida that swimming might not be a big novelty; but so many other activities! Sorry, my family would not want to go see a movie - even first run - that is something available anywhere, any time, and we don't particularly do on vacation.

 

Also loved the shows on Oasis and Allure, especially aqua show and ice show.

 

I did not take your review as negativer to RC - just different strokes for different folks - both lines have a lot to offer. I think other posters have addressed your dining room issues - our kids definitely loved the kid's menu plus many specialty things that the waiter managed to find - think sugar cookie for dessert instead of what was on the menu!