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

[CruzCrazy]

I want to emphasize that organization on the part of RCI seemed to be a strong point all week, as everything (with the exception of My Time Dining) was very streamlined and organized. They just seem to have figured out a better way of doing just about everything, including finding your photos, which were organized in separate rotating “towers” based on an assigned tower number and folder number which were printed on the SeaPass cards. Whenever we had our photo taken at one of the photo stations (but not when debarking at the ports or any of the informal shots or in the dining room) they would ask for your SeaPass cards, so most of our photos were already in our folder when we went to look at them. Any photos taken without giving your SeaPass cards were lined up on the wall in the photo shop, but the organization they use certainly cuts down on the zoo-like feel of Carnival’s photo area, where people are always milling around in each other’s way, desperate to find all their photos.

 

There also seemed to be a little less pressure by the photographers on the Oasis, but maybe this was just because there is more room to maneuver around the photo backdrops if you’re not interested. It really is hard to walk down the promenade on most Carnival ships because the photographers are set up all along the way, and with people walking in both directions, sometimes you have to actually stop and let somebody pass before you can continue. I understand they make a lot of money on the photos, and we’re certainly guilty of posing for (and buying) too many, but it can be a pain if you’re not interested and just want to get to wherever it is you’re going. Here is one of my favorite photos taken on the Oasis:

 

 

Another thing hard to miss is the overall beauty of the interior of the Oasis. I was particularly taken with the materials, even down to the tile on the floors and the abundant padding under the carpets. The finishes were much more high-end than what I’ve experienced before. Speaking of finishes, it may seem silly but I raved about the shower doors instead of a curtain and the little bar in the shower to accommodate the ladies when shaving their legs ;)

 

 

 

They even make it easy to remember what day of the week it is, since all you have to do is look down at the elevator floors, where the day of the week is displayed. This also made me keenly aware of how fast the trip was passing by, and this ship just gave you the feeling you were somewhere you would like to spend more time than a mere 7 days….one of these days, a back-to-back ;)

Edited January 2, 2015 by CruzCrazy

[pirate4me2]

Oooo, a B2B on Oasis....now THAT sounds like a good idea!

[poohnpals]

Thank you for the great review. We've been considering the Oasis or Allure but haven't jumped the gun yet. So glad you didn't get hurt on that jet ski!

I love the idea of the 20's night, that sounds like lots of fun. Thanks again for sharing.

 

 

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[CruzCrazy]

Thank you for the great review. We've been considering the Oasis or Allure but haven't jumped the gun yet. So glad you didn't get hurt on that jet ski!

I love the idea of the 20's night, that sounds like lots of fun. Thanks again for sharing.

 

 

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Thanks...the jet ski incident could have turned out much worse, I'm sure.

 

We started with Carnival and didn't think we needed to fix what wasn't broken, but then all the stars aligned to make this Oasis trip come to fruition. We just had to try it!

[CruzCrazy]

Alas, it came to an end as scheduled on Saturday, December 13, and debarkation was just as smooth as embarkation (or would have been had I not left my customs paper in the cabin, which I only realized after we had been “dinged out”— :eek:). What followed was a comedy of errors, but suffice it to say that we finally had all the documentation we needed and headed to customs, which was uneventful, and soon we were on our way to FLL.

 

We had signed up for Luggage Valet for $20 per person since we had found a similar program to be a great benefit on previous Carnival cruises (look for a flyer in the Cruise Compass so you can sign up). Here again, Royal had it figured out just a little better. We weren’t required to meet with others who were using the service—we just left anytime we got ready between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., in our case at around 8:20. Because we lost a few minutes trying to remedy my error with the customs paper, we got behind a bunch of people who were scheduled to leave at 8:30, which slowed us down a bit, and we had to stand in line at customs for about 20 minutes. My plan had been to leave between the other scheduled departure times, which were posted all around the ship on the “What to Do Right Now” electronic boards (I loved these!), but you know what they say about plans. Anyway, our checked luggage had been sent ahead to the airport, and we picked them up at our final destination, so there was no time spent identifying and collecting luggage, and we could head straight for security check-in at the airport since we didn’t have any luggage to check. The $20 per person was charged to our SeaPass account (still having a hard time not using Carnival’s “Sail and Sign” lingo ;) Any luggage fees are added too, but we don’t have to pay for our 1st bag on US Air, so that didn’t apply to us. The form didn’t have a place to check our particular reason for not paying luggage fees on US Air (credit card holders don’t pay for their first checked bag now—they’ve recently changed their rules with the merger with American), but the gentleman at guest services said not to worry about it—the airline would know by our reservation number. We were only charged the $20 per person fees and nothing more. They give you all the luggage tags and airline boarding passes the night before in an envelope. We always say this is the best $40 we spend.

 

[CruzCrazy]

Overall, we had a great time and learned a lot about RCI and mega ships. We also met some great people on this cruise. Shout-out to Terry and Cindy and Harry and Joyce!

 

I’d heard the term “mega ship” a bunch before this cruise, but seeing her docked near other pretty big ships puts it all in perspective. Here she is docked next to Serenade of the Seas, followed by a different shot that shows Carnival Freedom:

 

 

 

 

 

I had joked beforehand that I was afraid I might try to board a ship with a whale tail just out of habit if we were docked next to one while at one of the ports, but luckily that didn’t happen.

 

DH is enthusiastic about either the Oasis again or the Allure, and I’m thinking the Allure since the shows will be different. Royal impressed us, and, yes, we were “WOWed,” although we haven’t completely written off Carnival (at least I haven’t). Carnival is a good value and for us provides a cruise that makes you feel like you’re on a cruise with lots of ocean views, a more relaxed vibe, and a greater variety of cabins without breaking the bank. One of our favorite things about Carnival’s Conquest-class ships is the fantastic 6K deluxe ocean view cabins, one of which we were lucky enough to snag on our cruise last year on Carnival Glory. These are hard to come by because there are only 2 per ship and only on select ships. The price per square foot of these cabins is hard to beat. Not that this is a review of the Carnival Glory, but I’m including just a few photos, just because these cabins are so sweet. They don’t really do it justice, but here goes:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I should add in all fairness that we have never sailed on the Breeze, which at this time is Carnival’s biggest/newest (until the Vista debuts), so my comparison between the 2 cruise lines isn’t exactly apples to apples. I/we have sailed, however, on Carnival Destiny, Triumph, Victory (twice), Valor, Miracle (3 times), Liberty, and Glory. As I said, we were all set to try the Breeze, but Royal won us over with a great discount. Maybe it was fate ;)

 

Now that we’re eligible for Royal’s Crown and Anchor loyalty program, we’re looking forward to what comes next. As of this writing, we are deciding between Allure of the Seas and Carnival Breeze for next December, although you know what they say about plans…

 

The review is almost done…

[NCteacherlovescruising]

We are going on the Oasis in August. It will be our first time trying anything other than Carnival. We were also debating between this and the Breeze when RC had a buy one get one 1/2 sale we took advantage of. Loved reading your review! Thank you!!

 

 

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[Tapi]

Great review. Like you, we had sailed exclusively on Carnival for almost 10 cruises straight when we pulled the trigger and sailed on the Allure. We were beyond wowed! The experience was absolutely amazing and nothing has ever compared, even remotely. With that said, we sailed on the Carnival Dream a few months after our cruise on the Allure and also had a great time, at a fraction of the price, so it is possible to "go back" to Carnival after sailing on these ships.

 

About the Boardwalk staterooms, that's what we had. Although the view from our stateroom was pretty cool, and we could see the Aquatheater, after a few days the never changing view started getting old and we missed not being able to fully see the ocean or where we were, so next time we will skip them in favor of a regular view.

 

Thanks again for your review. Makes me want to sail on the oasis ships again. :)

 

Oh, and one final note, for us Labadee was the highlight of the cruise. That place is pure heaven on earth.

 

 

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[nissach]

"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…"

 

Just curious; Do all of these extra activities cost money to participate in or are they included? Are there really long lines to wait for each activity??

Edited January 3, 2015 by nissach

[Tapi]

Just curious; Do all of these extra activities cost money to participate in or are they included? Are there really long lines to wait for each activity??

 

There's no extra cost, although some will argue that you're indirectly paying for these activities because of the higher cruise fare.

 

When we sailed on Allure, we didn't zip line, rock climb, or ice skate, yet we considered the higher price money well spent. There's SO much more to these ships than the gimmicky stuff. The entertainment alone is worth an upcharge. Heck, walking around the ship in awe with a dumb look on my face was well worth the up charge! :o

 

Saying that one would never sail on these ships because they don't care about zip lining, rock climbing, etc, is like me saying that I won't cruise on Carnival because I don't care about gambling, the piano bar, or the comedy club. As we all know, there's a lot more to a Carnival cruise than those things.

[CruzCrazy]

There's no extra cost, although some will argue that you're indirectly paying for these activities because of the higher cruise fare.

 

When we sailed on Allure, we didn't zip line, rock climb, or ice skate, yet we considered the higher price money well spent. There's SO much more to these ships than the gimmicky stuff. The entertainment alone is worth an upcharge. Heck, walking around the ship in awe with a dumb look on my face was well worth the up charge! :o

 

Saying that one would never sail on these ships because they don't care about zip lining, rock climbing, etc, is like me saying that I won't cruise on Carnival because I don't care about gambling, the piano bar, or the comedy club. As we all know, there's a lot more to a Carnival cruise than those things.

 

I completely agree with this.

[cruizinisthebest]

This is a nice review. Good job. We just booked our first Royal cruise. Spring break 2016. Excited to give them a try. I was just doing my usual addicted search for cruises and ran up on a deal to good to pass. Looking forward to it.

 

I totally agree with you about Carnival's 6k cabins. Stayed in one. By far the best cabin on any ship that has them when you factor in price, square footage, and that gorgeous sweeping view.

[CruzCrazy]

To summarize, I wanted to do a breakdown of our subjective comparison between RCI (Oasis) and Carnival (10 cruises/7 ships), by topic:

 

• Embarkation: RCI wins, although if you are Platinum on Carnival, this evens out.

 

• Receipt of luggage on the first day: RCI wins, although if you are Platinum or buy Faster to the Fun on Carnival, this evens out. Also on Carnival if you are Platinum or buy Faster to the Fun, your cabin will be ready when you board instead of having to schlep your carry-on around until 1:30 p.m.

 

• Safety/muster drill: Royal wins. You don’t have to stand outside and get crammed together like sardines. It was done inside in an assigned lounge, and the briefing was via video.

 

• Beauty/materials/finishes/activities/layout of the ship: RCI wins hands down, although we haven’t yet sailed on Carnival Breeze, which admittedly would have put Carnival at least in the ballpark. I did miss the ocean views when below decks on Oasis, but I realize other classes of RCI ships do have this.

 

• Organization/crowd control: RCI wins in a landslide. From embarkation, to the photos, to debarkation at the ports, to the safety drill (where you are assigned an inside venue and the safety information is by video), to the buffet area, to the Luggage Valet program and debarkation after the cruise, RCI was just more organized and efficient. The only hurdle we dealt with was the main dining room for My Time Dining, where RCI could use improvement, although I guess this will be a moot point when Dynamic Dining comes into play.

 

• Service: This was a wash, although I think I personally would give the nod to Carnival for its fun, laid-back style. I found I actually missed the dancing waiters (shhh). The dining room service on RCI was certainly professional. The bar service was a draw, and so the was the stateroom service. Didn’t use room service on Oasis, but Carnival’s is great.

 

• Entertainment: RCI wins, of course. Carnival doesn’t even come close to all of the shows that were available on the Oasis, and they don’t pretend to. Of course, Carnival now offers headliner concerts on some cruises, at a cost, but I don’t think we would choose a cruise just because of a concert. I do applaud them for this, however, as I think they needed to do something to beef up their entertainment lineup, which has certainly gone downhill over the last few years.

 

• Live music: This is hard for me to compare directly, just because we found we didn’t have time to fit in any of the live music venues because we were so busy doing everything else. One week is not enough time on these mega ships! Dazzles had live music on most nights, and there was the jazz club, where we had the Prohibition Party, where they had a small jazz group. I didn’t see any of the solo guitarists or duos that I have become accustomed to on Carnival. We will have to make a point of looking for more live music venues next time.

 

• Food: Carnival gets the slight nod here, in our opinion, especially when it comes to desserts. Also, if it’s important to you, you can get soft-service ice cream or frozen yogurt 24 hours a day on Carnival, whereas on RCI I believe this stops at around 10 p.m. On the other hand, I didn’t go hungry on the Oasis, and there are lots of alternative places to get a quick bite or a more upscale meal, and I was pleasantly surprised at the overall quality of the food since I had heard that the food was supposedly not all that good. Oasis had more variety at their buffet restaurant, the Windjammer. We didn’t try room service on Oasis, so I can’t comment on that, although there was a service fee for using room service after hours/late night, while Carnival still maintains a “free” room service. We did in fact miss Guy’s Burgers. We tried the Wipeout Café on Oasis, but that food does not compare to a Guy’s burger, IMO. Of course, Carnival doesn’t really have an answer to the Park Café.

 

• Cabins: Slight edge to Carnival (comparing balcony cabins to balcony cabins). Carnival’s are just a little bigger, and you get a nice robe to use in every cabin. On the other hand, I loved the shower doors on Oasis instead of a curtain and found the sliding balcony doors to be better than the kind that open out on Carnival, simply because you don’t have to listen to them slam all the time!

 

• Drink packages: This is hard to compare because, although DH bought the “Ultimate” drinks package on Oasis, neither of us has ever bought an alcohol package on Carnival. DH did enjoy the convenience of the drink package, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t “break even” financially. He only drinks beer when it comes to alcohol, and only domestic beer at that. He does drink a lot of bottled water and Diet Coke, and the freestyle Coke machines were a plus as far as he was concerned. The souvenir fountain cup was a little bit of a pain to have to keep with you, and it became my job to rinse the cup out every morning, but he enjoyed it. He has bought the soda package on Carnival, and he preferred Royal’s version because of the fountain drinks and the fact that you could get a Diet Coke any time you wanted without having to go to a bar. I didn’t buy a package because I was on medication and couldn’t drink any alcohol for the first 2 days. I just paid as I went later during the week, and not that much since they don’t carry my brand of liqueur (neither does Carnival, BTW).

 

• Cruise directors: Now, I know this is very subjective, and it’s hard to get people to agree on which cruise directors are the best or even if a cruise director is important. I didn’t use to think they made that much difference, and then we experienced Karl with a K on Carnival Liberty and Matt Mitcham on Carnival Glory. Both of those guys were great and added so much to our cruise experience. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Ricky Matthews on Oasis was so visible. He seemed to be everywhere all at once! This guy has great energy and keeps everybody upbeat. We stopped in on Quest on the last night and thought we would die laughing. He kept it moving for sure. There weren’t a lot of intercom announcements, which was fine by me. The cruise directors on these mega ships have a big job, and we thought Ricky was top notch. From a limited sample, I’ll call this a draw.

 

• Christmas atmosphere: Carnival wins. I realize this is specific to cruises during the Christmas season and may be dependent upon the cruise director, but on Carnival Glory last year, they had Santa “flown in” one night in the atrium with a big production and Christmas music, and the kids all seemed to love it, and the adults, too. I’m making it sound way cornier than it was. We thought it was a nice touch. Maybe it’s not politically correct these days, but if you didn’t want your kids there, you could always skip it. Oasis did have a gigantic Christmas tree on the promenade, and the ship was decorated for Christmas in a subdued sort of way, but we were never keenly made aware that it was just a couple of weeks before Christmas. I’m wondering whether Oasis had more festivities in the subsequent 2 weeks as it got closer to Christmas, but on our week it seemed like mostly business as usual.

 

• Emphasis on hand hygiene: RCI wins! Although by day 6, I think we all got the idea: “Wash your hands!” That little ditty may be in my head forever ;)

 

Well, that’s all I can think of. We’ve never had a bad cruise, but our most recent on the Oasis was one of the best and maybe the best so far. She’ll always hold a soft spot in our hearts. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading as much as I’ve enjoyed writing this and reliving the vacation.

 

I can’t wait until our next cruise so I can have a view like this again:

 

 

 

Coming up next, to finish things off, I'll share just a few random photos from our fantastic Oasis cruise.

[CruzCrazy]

This is a nice review. Good job. We just booked our first Royal cruise. Spring break 2016. Excited to give them a try. I was just doing my usual addicted search for cruises and ran up on a deal to good to pass. Looking forward to it.

 

I totally agree with you about Carnival's 6k cabins. Stayed in one. By far the best cabin on any ship that has them when you factor in price, square footage, and that gorgeous sweeping view.

 

Hope you enjoy your Royal cruise!

[CruzCrazy]

 

 

 

[CruzCrazy]

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for coming along on our adventure!

[Karebear98]

Thank you very much for taking time to post this!!! After watching dream cruises I was wowed lol & your review is also very intriguing I'm on the fence about what line to book for a family cruise...

Again thanks :)

 

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[dogbert's mom]

Thank you so much for a very fair comparison review. My husband and I sailed on the Allure in the beginning of Nov.

 

We had a different experience in the fact that we had rainy and windy weather which forced people to be inside. This made the promenade deck feel crowded and I really missed the ocean views.

 

Our cabin was a Central Park balcony on Deck 10. Even with bad weather the cruise was very smooth and we missed the feeling of being at sea. If we ever sail on another Oasis class ship again, we would have an ocean view balcony. In the morning we would go out on the balcony and if it wasn't raining you would have to lean out and look up at the top of the ship to determine what the weather was at that time.

 

The shows were all great but we found out that we don't really cruise for the shows but for the connection to the ocean. We also had difficulty bonding with the staff. The bar staff all seemed over worked and slightly unfriendly accept for the bar staff in the Champagne and Martini Bar.

 

Dogbert's Mom

[arby70]

We sailed the Allure of the Seas in 2011 and absolutely loved it. Beautiful ship, never felt crowded, and tons to do. Our cabin was on the Boardwalk level and it was very quiet and comfy. One of the best cruises ever. You can never be prepared for the size of these 2 ships...they are quite a bit bigger than the others out there.

 

I am retired now, and must watch my travel dollars, so am more likely to sail Carnival (which I am pretty much happy with). We like our balconies, and Carnival seems to have the best prices with a decent product.

[Big_G]

Very fair and balanced review. We sail for those ocean views too but we also loved our experiences on Oasis and Allure. It's a different cruise experience that we thought was a nice change.

 

 

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