Oasis Review, 12/06/14, with comparison to Carnival

[CruzCrazy]

Hello all. I'll be posting this review on both the Carnival and RCI boards since it is being done as kind of a comparison between the two.

 

This was our 1st cruise with Royal Caribbean after 10 on Carnival (mostly on the Spirit class and Conquest class). We sometimes take 2 cruises a year, sometimes just one in December for our anniversary. We had every intention of booking the Carnival Breeze for December, but on a whim I checked the Royal Caribbean website just to price a cruise on the Oasis for the same week. I was shocked to find that the Oasis would actually be cheaper by a few hundred dollars, and came with some OBC. I had checked all the boxes for special rates that we qualified for, and we got a fantastic discount since DH is an EMT (he’s a volunteer, but it’s like a 2nd full-time job since he puts so many hours into it). We took a couple of days to pull the trigger on the Oasis, weighing all the pros and cons. The Breeze was 8 days, while the Oasis cruise was only 7 days, and we preferred the Eastern itinerary that the Breeze was doing as opposed to the Western on the Oasis during the week we had in mind. Of course, we could book Breeze under the Early Saver fare and realized the price would probably drop a little somewhere along the way, but in the end, we decided that it was time to try something different, and, with what I thought was a really good price, we went ahead and booked the Oasis. We made the reservation in January 2014, so now we had to wait 11 months…

 

I kept an eye on the prices before final payment, but I never found a lower price on our ocean-view balcony category (D5).

 

The time to fly south finally came, and it’s always a busy time around here getting ready for a cruise. It’s right after the Thanksgiving holiday, and then the Christmas preparations begin. I try to get as much of the Christmas preparation done before the cruise as possible since the holidays will be almost upon us by the time we get back home. I usually wear myself out with shopping and decorating and cleaning and packing, but it’s worth it.

 

We flew in the day prior, as usual, and stayed at Holiday Inn Express on 17th. It was clean and convenient, and we used points, so that was a plus. We used their shuttle service to the pier, and everything went very smoothly.

 

I thought I had prepared myself to be “wowed” by the huge (2nd largest in the world at time of sailing—bested only by her sister ship, the Allure, by a couple of inches in length), but I was wrong. I was not prepared. Pictures had not done her justice. The enormity of this ship was beyond belief, and I mean that in a good way. First impression: This ship is huge! She holds more than 6000 passengers and more than 2000 crew members, but only on a couple of occasions did it feel crowded.

 

Embarkation was very smooth. We were “dinged in” for the cruise at about 12:16 p.m., which was not bad, about 45 minutes later than what we have become used to on Carnival as platinum cruisers, but still not bad, especially considering how many people they have to get off and then how many to get on. Organization seemed to be the key, with each deck being checked in separately. Here is the obligatory boarding photo:

 

 

Edited December 31, 2014 by CruzCrazy

[pirate4me2]

Oh, I can't wait for more! I have been on the fence as to whether to try RCI and either Oasis or Allure or not. I am just not sure how I feel about that size of a ship. Can't wait for more of your review!

[jjmsbu09]

Subscribed and looking forward to it ;)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[monkida]

Looking forward to what you think. We did the Oasis last February and are back to Carnival again. It was a beautiful ship with great shows, but we just have more fun on Carnival! Not to mention, the prices are usually better...sounds like you got a great price!

[soccersharon]

Looking forward to your review. Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[mollymyers15]

Eeek! So excited for this. I've said, my next cruise might be a different line and, if I went Royal, I'd go Oasis or Allure.

[cmitch9999]

we were on the same sailing of the Oasis and enjoyed the week tremendously. We have 16 cruises on Carnival .12 on Royal so we are happy on either line. Interested in hearing more about your week and comparisons to Carnival.

[CruzCrazy]

Thanks for following along. To continue:

 

The cabins weren’t ready yet, as expected, so we went to get a bite of lunch, schlepping our carry-ons with us. I had pre-planned to grab a quick bite in the Park Café and avoid the Windjammer because I knew it would be swamped on the first afternoon, but somehow my plan didn’t work out. DH was interested in going upstairs right away and getting the lay of the land, so up we went, and since we were already up on deck 15, we decided just to go on up to the Windjammer for lunch.

 

Yes, it was crowded, but that brings me to my 2nd point: Royal Caribbean is very good when it comes to crowd control. The Windjammer (buffet) was crowded on the first couple of days, especially for lunch the 1st day and breakfast the 2nd day, but instead of letting passengers fend for themselves, they had a waiting line and escorted you to an open table as soon as it was available and then actually brought you drinks! What a novel idea to keep people from swarming around trying to find a drink. Also, the layout of the buffet was very nice—arranged in round “islands” as opposed to a long cafeteria-style line. This helped by enabling people to walk up to the item they were after rather than stand in a long line for 15 minutes when all you want is 1 of 2 items. Each morning I made my way to the waffles at one “island” and then moved to another “island” for yogurt. Done in less than 2 minutes and enjoying my breakfast. The variety at breakfast was very good, too, and DH enjoyed biscuits and gravy, bacon, toast, and eggs cooked more or less “over medium” every morning.

 

 

After lunch, it was just about 1:30 p.m., so we headed down to deck 8 and cabin 8590, mid deck on starboard side, and our checked luggage was already sitting outside our doors! I chose this cabin because it was at the beginning of the “hump” and had a slightly larger ocean-view balcony than the other cabins in that category. I had already determined that the bed would be next to the closet, so that was no surprise, but this didn’t cause us any difficulty at all, and it left the balcony door free of obstruction from the bed. I know many prefer the opposite configuration, but we didn’t find it a problem with the bed next to the closet. The closet doors slide from side to side, after all. The cabin seemed fresh and well organized, although not as big by a few square feet as those balcony cabins on Carnival and nothing like the spectacular 6K deluxe ocean view we had on our last cruise on Carnival Glory (which is huge with floor-to-ceiling windows with views just like what the captain sees since it located above the bridge), but on the plus side the “king” bed was outfitted with a topper that disguised the “crack” between the 2 twin beds.

 

 

 

I slept better on this cruise than any other. You could barely feel the ship move! The seas were calm most days, but, still, sometimes I would actually forget I was on a cruise ship unless I went out onto our balcony or was up on decks 15 or 16. Our cabin steward, Ronnie, was very good, although we noticed a difference in that there were little cards to put in your key slot that indicated you either didn’t want to be disturbed or would like your cabin made up. We obliged him by using these, but we began to wonder how in the world the cabin stewards on Carnival figure all of this out without the benefit of those little cards. We’ve always kind of joked that they were mind readers or had a crystal ball, but now we are actually wondering how they do it so seamlessly. We tipped Ronnie a little extra for all of his hard work, even though he didn’t have his crystal ball all shined up ;) By the way, if you love your nightly towel animal, you will be disappointed on the Oasis because we only got them a few times during the week. Also no pillow chocolates and no robes to use in a balcony cabin. I found I really missed my robe for having breakfast on the balcony or lounging in after my shower or while putting on my makeup and doing my hair. Plus one for Carnival.

 

After unpacking, we went back up to the open decks for sail-away. I remember feeling the atmosphere was kind of subdued, but everyone seemed relaxed.

 

[CruzCrazy]

We had a medical emergency not long after sailing, and the captain returned to Ft. Lauderdale. We heard later that one of the passengers passed away, and we got a glimpse of the passenger’s family as they left the ship. It was so sad, but the staff seemed to be very supportive. I think we lost about 7 hours with the turn back to port and the time it took to facilitate matters regarding the death, but the captain announced he could make the time up and not to be concerned about missing our first stop in Labadee. That was the furthest thing from my mind, although I thought it was nice that they kept the passengers informed about what was going on, without invading the privacy of those directly affected by the tragic loss.

 

By this time, it was almost time for dinner. We had chosen My Time Dining, and as a result we had to pre-pay our gratuities. No big deal, just different than on Carnival. I must mention what I thought to be the only real problem we had all week on this cruise—the horrible setup for My Time Dining. Having had good success with Carnival’s Anytime Dining, we decided to opt for Royal’s equivalent. However, 2 things jumped out right away that were different, even before stepping foot on the ship. First, Royal asks you for a reservation time for each evening. No big deal, I thought, although in my mind one of the big bonuses of choosing this style of dining is so that you aren’t locked into any particular time. Even so, I went online a few weeks prior to the cruise and obliged by just selecting 6:15 p.m. for every evening. That would give us time to get ready for dinner without being rushed but also leave us plenty of time after dinner for shows, casino, and fun.

 

Fast forward to the 1st night of the cruise, when we show up to the assigned Silk dining room at 6:05 p.m. for our 6:15 reservation and find 2 long lines, one on the left for passengers with reservations and one on the right for those without a reservation. Hmmm….did all of these people in line on the left in front of us have 6:15 reservations? No way to know without asking, which we didn’t think was appropriate, since this was our first RCI experience and maybe we didn’t understand the system. Maybe we had done something wrong? Maybe we were in the wrong place? Finally, after waiting for about 15 minutes, I approached a gentleman who appeared to be in charge, either the maître d’ or the assistant maître d’, and asked. What followed blew my mind. Yes, we were in the right place. He couldn’t tell me what time any of the people in line ahead of us (or behind us, for that matter) had reservations for, and yes, the dining room was currently full, so we would just have to stand in line and wait. Seriously? It hit me like a ton of bricks that the 6:15 reservation was not a table reservation but merely a desired time to stand in line. We were finally seated at around 6:50 p.m. It’s just really busy on the first night, we thought, and that’s what we were led to believe by the maître d’. It was no better on night 2. Since we obviously couldn’t beat “them,” I shudder to say that we joined them and began coming to the dining room at 5:30-5:45 p.m. so we could actually be seated by 6:15 p.m. This was a black mark on the cruise as far as we were concerned, but we finally just let it go and concentrated on what was very good about the cruise—and there was a lot that was very good.

 

We did find the dining room service to be adequate, though maybe just a little on the stuffy side. We did find one server, Alana, who would have been a good match for us, but every attempt after night 3 to sit in her section was fruitless, as her section was consistently full, so we just took the luck of the draw for waiters. We never received poor service, but we did miss the interaction with one wait team that we had become accustomed to on Carnival, which they excel at, even in Anytime Dining. We understand that the renaming of the 3 levels of the main dining room is in preparation for the new concept of “dynamic dining” coming to the Oasis (originally scheduled for March 2015 but just recently announced to be postponed until later in 2015). The 3rd level on deck 5 was dubbed “Silk,” in preparation for the dynamic dining concept. By the way, we didn’t try any of the specialty restaurants. This being our 1st RCI cruise, we decided to stick with the main dining room and perhaps branch out and try some other restaurants next time. Chops Grille’s menu looked very good, though, as we took the time to glance at it during one stroll through Central Park.

 

I had some trepidation about the main dining room food, but my concern was soon put to rest. Although some selections certainly could not be dubbed gourmet, I found something suitable to eat every night. The chicken cordon bleu was my least favorite, but it was at least edible. The desserts were passable, but I did find myself missing the obligatory warm chocolate melting cake from Carnival. We ordered baked Alaska the night it was available, and it was presented in a different fashion than what I’d been used to, with lots of meringue on top and without any cake to speak of.

 

After dinner, we started exploring the ship a little more, but we honestly didn’t have a lot of time before we needed to be at the Opal Theater for CATS. I had reserved this online prior to the cruise (good tip to take care of the show reservations ahead of time). We made it to intermission, at which point we decided to politely exit and not return, though we heard from a couple from our roll call (thanks Harry and Joyce) that the 2nd half of the show was much better. After we left the show, we explored some more. Central Park was enchanting, but we didn’t really spend a lot of time there, even though our stateroom was on deck 8. We did have lunch at the Park Café on 2 afternoons. Once I had the 3-cheese panini and once the obligatory roast beef sandwich. The panini was just okay, and the roast beef was good. It was nice to have that café as a place to pick up a quick bite after shore excursions, etc., but I personally thought it was a bit overhyped, or at least I had built it up in my mind to be more than it actually was.

 

Here is a photo in Central Park of the Rising Tide bar, which moves slowly up from deck 5 to deck 8 at scheduled times through the day:

 

[boaterette]

I am enjoying your review. The large pictures are great or looking at but for some reason I am having to scroll a lot to read the text. Looking forward to more.

[navyvet8395]

Great review so far. But try to make the pics somewhat smaller. They make the page so big you have to scrow back and forth side to side to read the text and see the whole pic. That is using a wide screen 24 inch monitor..

[mollymyers15]

 

Here is a photo in Central Park of the Rising Tide bar, which moves slowly up from deck 5 to deck 8 at scheduled times through the day:

 

 

Wait a second. The entire BAR slowly moves up to different floors throughout the day? :eek: How does that work!?

[mrpayroll]

Wait a second. The entire BAR slowly moves up to different floors throughout the day? :eek: How does that work!?

 

Yes the entire goes up and down.

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoying your report and photo's, looking forward to more of the review.

[CruzCrazy]

Sorry about the size of the photos...for some reason when I copy them from Facebook they're coming out really big. I've copied from FB before without this issue. I don't use any of the other photo hosting sites like Webshots, etc., so I'm not sure how to resize them (?)

[CruzCrazy]

Happy New Year everybody! Continuing with the review and trying something different with the photos to see if resizing them in Photoshop and reloading to FB helps...

 

I won’t bore you with a day-by-day breakdown, but let’s just say that we settled in and picked out what we wanted to do and what we would wait to do until next time. I realized there was really no way to get it all done in a week’s time. I knew there’d be stuff I wish I had tried, but vacations should be relaxing, too.

 

Anyway, during the week we spent a lot of time on the royal promenade on deck 5 and enjoyed the parade on one afternoon.

 

 

I took a liking to one of the bartenders in On Air (the karaoke bar on the promenade) and wish I could remember his name. We took in all the various shows and had one scheduled every evening except the last night. I’ll just group all of those here.

 

The Oasis of Dreams show (in the Aquatheater) was great, and the ice show was enchanting and well done. Abbacadabra was the headliner show, and they did a good job and had the crowd really going, mixing hits from Abba with a little humor. The official comedy show had 2 comedians who were good, and I liked the fact that they played in a small venue, although it meant you’d better have reservations and you’d better show up in plenty of time before they opened it up for those without reservations on a first-come, first-serve basis. In fact, we found that even though we had reservations to every show, we still needed to be at the venue a good 20 to even 30 minutes ahead of time in order to get a prime seat, unless you happen to be a Diamond level Crown and Anchor member, that is. We saw seats roped off just for them, and I guess they’ve earned that perk. Come Fly with Me was held in the main theater, the Opal, and this was probably my favorite show of the week, although it would be hard to pick a favorite, since they all were very good with the exception of CATS (just our opinion).

 

We also booked the Prohibition Party, which was held on Thursday night in the Jazz on 4 club, and we are so glad we did. We had a ball and had taken along “costumes” just for the event. We met 2 couples from within 60 miles of our home and another couple from our state whom we had drinks with the next night and hope to keep in touch with. The event itself was more or less scripted but almost transported you to another era, and it was fun to see how each couple interpreted the theme with their costumes. The drinks were served in tea cups, adding to the atmosphere. I had heard that sometimes the party is “raided,” but the coppers didn’t invade our particular party. Oh, well, it was fun nonetheless. DH won the musical hat contest and received a ball cap. There was a costume contest as well, which we didn’t win, but it was fun to dress up anyway. A few people asked to take our picture while on the promenade beforehand, and someone was overheard to wonder whether we “dressed this way all the time.” Hardly, LOL, which brings me to another point about the Prohibition event--I felt they could have advertised it better, as the turnout was low, and many people who saw us dressed up had no idea that there was anything of the kind being offered. I heard about it (where else?) on Cruise Critic, but I still had trouble finding out how to book it online. It was actually listed under activities, I believe, in the same place where you could sign your activity waivers for the FlowRider, etc. online. This is us on the promenade on our way to the Prohibition Party:

 

[tncap]

Really enjoying your comparison review!

 

For those who don't want to scroll to read the text, I've just been copying and pasting it into MS Word then going back to the thread to view the pictures.

[mickide]

Loving your review. And this is random, but I love your top in your embarkation photo! Super cute!

[CruzCrazy]

Loving your review. And this is random, but I love your top in your embarkation photo! Super cute!

 

Thank you!!

[CruzCrazy]

Working on this review is a nice way to spend New Year's Day (although I'm working today, so that's why it's coming in drips)...

 

Outside of the shows, there seemed to be endless things to do on the ship, from rock climbing (no way!) to ice skating (never have and never will—although DH used to play hockey but decided to leave skating as a memory), FlowRider (are you kidding me?), and the zip line. I gave serious consideration to trying the zip line, but DH talked me out of it, so I guess we were spectators of all the action. Looked like a lot of fun…

 

 

[CruzCrazy]

Okay, I'm resizing these photos to be even smaller before posting to FB, so maybe this time they'll be better (fingers crossed).

 

As for the ports, I chose this cruise for the ship and not so much for the ports, as we usually prefer the Eastern and Southern Caribbean itineraries. Labadee, Haiti, was the 1st stop, and we had planned to spend a few hours on the beach, but when push came to shove, we decided we were perfectly comfortable by the beach pool and Sand Bar on deck 15 and couldn’t make ourselves actually leave the ship, LOL. It looked beautiful from our vantage point, though.

 

 

Falmouth, Jamaica, was next, and we just got off and bought a magnet and went directly back to the ship. It seemed to be a pretty nice little shopping area, but, as I had known beforehand, it was a trip to do much else, and we had done the falls at Ocho Rios before and didn’t feel like venturing out to Montego Bay, etc., so back to the ship and the pool again.

 

 

Incidentally, there was almost always plenty of room at the various pools, with the possible exception of the solarium on a sea day. I tried the solarium but decided it was too stuffy in there for me. You could open some of the windows and let the sea breeze in, but I soon realized I preferred the beach pool. They do have nice loungers in the Solarium. The children’s pool was outfitted with lots of fountains/play area, and it was nice that they had their own dedicated spot. The other main pool on deck 15 seemed nice, too, and the solarium had its own (though small) pool, and very large cantilevered hot tubs. Things above decks were just spread out more than on any ship I’ve ever been on, which also lessened the feeling that you were traveling with 6000 other people. With a ship this large, of course, they have more room to work with. Still, it was amazing that I could go up to the pool in mid morning and find a chair. I’ve had to be in a chair at 7 a.m. before on other cruises, so this was a very nice change. This is the beach pool area:

 

 

We had one more port stop remaining, but that was so eventful that it deserves to be highlighted in a separate post….stay tuned ;)

[mickide]

Okay, I'm resizing these photos to be even smaller before posting to FB, so maybe this time they'll be better (fingers crossed).

 

Looks great! Thank you!

[janetz]

Okay, I'm resizing these photos to be even smaller before posting to FB, so maybe this time they'll be better (fingers crossed).

 

As for the ports, I chose this cruise for the ship and not so much for the ports, as we usually prefer the Eastern and Southern Caribbean itineraries. Labadee, Haiti, was the 1st stop, and we had planned to spend a few hours on the beach, but when push came to shove, we decided we were perfectly comfortable by the beach pool and Sand Bar on deck 15 and couldn’t make ourselves actually leave the ship, LOL. It looked beautiful from our vantage point, though.

 

 

Falmouth, Jamaica, was next, and we just got off and bought a magnet and went directly back to the ship. It seemed to be a pretty nice little shopping area, but, as I had known beforehand, it was a trip to do much else, and we had done the falls at Ocho Rios before and didn’t feel like venturing out to Montego Bay, etc., so back to the ship and the pool again.

 

 

Incidentally, there was almost always plenty of room at the various pools, with the possible exception of the solarium on a sea day. I tried the solarium but decided it was too stuffy in there for me. You could open some of the windows and let the sea breeze in, but I soon realized I preferred the beach pool. They do have nice loungers in the Solarium. The children’s pool was outfitted with lots of fountains/play area, and it was nice that they had their own dedicated spot. The other main pool on deck 15 seemed nice, too, and the solarium had its own (though small) pool, and very large cantilevered hot tubs. Things above decks were just spread out more than on any ship I’ve ever been on, which also lessened the feeling that you were traveling with 6000 other people. With a ship this large, of course, they have more room to work with. Still, it was amazing that I could go up to the pool in mid morning and find a chair. I’ve had to be in a chair at 7 a.m. before on other cruises, so this was a very nice change. This is the beach pool area:

 

 

We had one more port stop remaining, but that was so eventful that it deserves to be highlighted in a separate post….stay tuned ;)

 

Great pictures! :)Love the beach pool. You don't need ports of call when you sail the Oasis and Allure. They are a destination on their own. ;)

Edited January 1, 2015 by janetz

[CruzCrazy]

Okay, so our last stop was in Cozumel.

 

Here we are getting off the ship before grabbing a taxi over to Paradise Beach, which is about a 15-minute ride and cost $15 plus tip. DH gave the driver a $20 and he barely grunted. Incidentally, on the way back, a different driver only charged us $14 and couldn’t believe he could keep the change when DH handed him a $20. What a difference in attitude!

 

 

DH and I went to Paradise Beach on our first cruise together 10 years ago, as an engaged couple, and we were looking forward to returning. We had decided to replicate what we did on that first cruise to Cozumel, so we took a taxi to Paradise Beach. The place had grown up a little in the intervening years, but it was nice, and it had free wi-fi.

 

 

We rented 2 chairs, and DH ordered a bucket of beer to satisfy the requirement to spend a set amount (can’t remember exactly, but it wasn’t hard to do, LOL). Then we rented a jet ski, just as we had 10 years before. We have done it several times since then in St. Martin and always enjoy it. As usual, DH drove, and I just rode on the same machine behind him. This was the actual day of our anniversary, and I had it all built up in my mind as being so romantic, doing what we had done as an engaged couple years before on our first cruise together, and it WAS romantic, until we had a little incident…

 

There was a speed boat zigging and zagging out in the water (and plenty of other jet skis and other watercraft, too). We had been out about 20 minutes (of a 30-minute ride for $65 in case anyone is wondering), when the speed boat crossed in front of us just a little too close for comfort, considering their speed and our speed. At the time, I had been looking behind us at the giant plume of water that the jet ski was emitting, and when DH suddenly slowed, I turned around to face front. We never really came close to colliding with the speed boat, but we had to cross some of the wake that the boat left, and the choppy water caused me to be lifted off the jet ski vertically (not unusual), but with our decreased speed and the fact that I had been looking backwards, I didn’t come back down onto the seat exactly right. I came down a little too far to the right, and just then DH was turning the jet ski to the left and away from all the congestion. Bad combination of factors! The next thing I knew, DH was saying, “We’re going over,” and then we did. It all happened in a matter of seconds, and there we were, swimming in the ocean. It’s funny now, but there were a couple of scary moments because of all the watercraft out there. Of course, we had on life vests, but I was swimming around trying to retrieve one of DH’s flip-flops that was floating on the water and trying to keep my own flip-flops from falling off. I hadn’t tightened the straps on my life vest as much as I should have, so it was coming up over my head and face. I finally turned over on my back, got the flip-flop, and turned to see that DH had already hoisted himself back onto the jet ski. I thought it would be easy to get back on myself, but not so much….I tried, but the combination of the life vest being too loose, my flip-flops dangling from my feet, and my less-than-stellar upper body strength made it next to impossible. DH, of course, tried to pull me up, but the jet ski started wobbling, so I just decided to wait for the guys who rented us the jet skis to ride to my rescue, which by this time they were already doing. One of them came out and pulled me to safety onto his jet ski, and we were more than happy to head to shore. Our time was up by this time anyway. It was more excitement than we had bargained for, but we were happy to be safe and sound, and we’ll never forget what we did on our 10th anniversary ;) DH tipped my savior a little extra, and we went back to have a couple of beers (much needed at this point!) and dry off before heading back to the ship. DH joked that I had planned to kill him on our anniversary and make it look like an accident, and he’s getting a lot of mileage out of that story.

[CruzCrazy]

After the excitement at Paradise Beach, we went back to the ship and freshened up and realized this was the night for the Prohibition Party, so we ate dinner in Silk as usual and then hurriedly went to change into our “costumes,” which you saw earlier.

 

We were sailing again by now, so it seems like a good time to talk about how sometimes I forgot we were actually sailing on a ship. I found this to be both good and bad. I actually missed not being able to see ocean views in the dining room and when walking on the promenade. No big deal, and I was aware of this going in, but I was a little surprised to find how much I missed a nice ocean view while being below decks. Thank goodness for our ocean-view balcony. If you look carefully at the photo below, you can kind of tell that starting about halfway across, the balcony rail juts out past 90 degrees. This is the little extra balcony space you get with these D5's (on all decks that have balconies, 6-14, both port and starboard), since they are at the beginning of the "hump."

 

 

 

That being said, DH said he thinks he might enjoy a boardwalk-view balcony, and we may give one of those a try next time…or maybe a junior suite, which I got a quick look at it on the last morning before debarkation, as invited by one of the neighboring cabin stewards, who had already cleaned it. The walk-in closet put a gleam in my eye ;) No, no, no suites. Sorry, I started drifting there. Now where was I? Oh, yes, I was talking about boardwalk balconies... so here is a photo of the exterior of some of the boardwalk balconies as taken from an upper deck:

 

 

The jury is still out about whether to switch to a boardwalk balcony next time. I love the ocean view. DH thinks being further aft and being close to the action on the boardwalk and the Aqua Theater would be nice, but I noticed that the aroma from Sabor was pretty strong, and I'm not sure if you could smell it in those boardwalk balcony cabins (maybe less so on the port side?) I don't think I'd like smelling Mexican food from my cabin. I'm sure somebody can advise whether they have been bothered by food odors in their boardwalk balcony. I do like that you get a partial ocean view from some of those cabins closer to the Aqua Theater. Decisions, decisions...