Carnival Lover Tries Oasis - A Review and Comparison

[A&L_Ont]

Hello there Crystal and Darren.

 

I see you are sick of winter in Ohio too. We had snow and freezing rain here today. I wish we were back on Oasis enjoying the warm weather. Maybe a deliciouss buckeye would warm me up. :) I am enjoying the review and can't wait to read more.

 

Andrew

[coolnrj]

I've been on Carnival four times also but I maintain - I'm Loyal to Royal.. I've also been on Oasis and am booked again for August 2015. I'm enjoying your review. It's nice to see people put in other perspectives, experiences and comments.

[bucks724]

Please write fadter, this is soooo interesting.

 

LOL - it's all written already. I just don't want to post everything all at once and keep bumping this post to the top and seem like a post hog! :)

[bucks724]

Hello there Crystal and Darren.

 

I see you are sick of winter in Ohio too. We had snow and freezing rain here today. I wish we were back on Oasis enjoying the warm weather. Maybe a deliciouss buckeye would warm me up. :) I am enjoying the review and can't wait to read more.

 

Andrew

 

Hey there, friend! I've been sick of winter since before it started - I know you have it worse though! Your cabin will be making a little debut here soon in my review! If you need more Buckeyes, PM me your address. I can send them up any time! :)

 

They are better homemade, if you DARLING wife would want to spend a day in the kitchen rolling and dipping. haha.

[Midwestgal]

Enjoying your review. We sailed Breeze this past May and are now booked on Allure for next year. The one thing I have to say I don't think you can compare Oasis or Allure to Breeze or any other ship on any cruise line for that matter, their in a class all to themselves .

I do look foward to reading the rest of your review .

[jonbgd]

As far as steak houses, Breeze wins, hands down. I’m glad we only paid $35 for two of us to eat at Chops. Any more than that and I would have been disappointed.

 

Carnival steakhouse has prime steaks where RCCL only has choice

 

The only great steak, I have had on RCCL, was at Capt table

[CruiserTK]

LOL - it's all written already. I just don't want to post everything all at once and keep bumping this post to the top and seem like a post hog! :)

 

Just do it! We anxiously await your posts.

[bucks724]

Day Two: Cabin Crawl and Meet & Greet

 

Since this wasn’t a family cruise, we were basically on our own as far as making friends and finding people to hang out with. It was cool. We signed up for a cabin crawl through the Roll Call and met some fabulous people, and even got to see the different types of rooms.

 

We met at Jazz on 4, where we had a little giveaway frenzy with some coffee and tea, and then those of us participating in the Cabin Crawl headed out to look at the other types of cabins.

 

On this crawl, we saw an Aqua Theatre suite, Boardwalk Balcony (ours), Grand Suite, Central Park Balcony, Owner’s Suite, Oceanview Balcony (3, with the balcony dividers opened), Junior Suite, Crown Loft Suite, and Sky Loft Suite. I snapped pictures but tried to not invade anyone’s privacy, so I am only posting one per room.

 

Here is the Crown Loft Suite:

 

 

The Owner’s Suite:

 

 

The Sky Loft Suite (my fave, maybe one day!):

 

 

And my favorite balcony belongs to the Aqua Theatre Suite (seriously, this balcony is awesome!):

 

 

Another thing our roll call did was a slot pull. $15 per person, max bet on a $5 per spin machine. We won NOTHING, but had a lot of fun doing it!

 

** added in **

 

As you saw above on the Royal board, Andrew mentioned Buckeyes. I thought it would be cute to bring a little bit of home to share with the cabin crawl peeps, so I brought Buckeyes since we live in Columbus and I went to Ohio State. I should have taken the rest of the bucket to Andrew’s suite before we left the ship!

[bucks724]

Carnival steakhouse has prime steaks where RCCL only has choice

 

The only great steak, I have had on RCCL, was at Capt table

 

Explains a lot!

 

Just do it! We anxiously await your posts.

 

Haha. There is a limit to how fast I can post and I'm posting in two places and sitting in bed sick. I'll go as fast as I can before I go to sleep tonight! :)

[bucks724]

Enjoying your review. We sailed Breeze this past May and are now booked on Allure for next year. The one thing I have to say I don't think you can compare Oasis or Allure to Breeze or any other ship on any cruise line for that matter, their in a class all to themselves .

I do look foward to reading the rest of your review .

 

Oasis and Allure are definitely in their own class. Oasis and Breeze are definitely both great ships, just in their own ways!

[#55worktoplay]

Enjoying this review, don't worry about being a hog!

 

I have sailed both Carnival and Royal and agree with others some things are better on one vs the other but I find them both more similar than not.

 

I have been on Oasis in the Aqua Theatre Suite (yes awesome balcony) but I have not been on the Breeze but do want to try it in the near future.

 

Anxiously awaiting your next posts..

 

Thanks for taking the time to do this.

[bucks724]

More Food Talk. I promise, it’s almost over…

 

The Breeze has two other pay venues that we tried, Bonsai Sushi (EXCELLENT!) and Cucina del Capitano. Cucina is free for lunch, which is the only time we dined there, but Bonsai is a la carte all the time. We ate at Bonsai several times during our cruise. My pocketbook, scale and my arteries are thankful that we tried Fahrenheit 555 on the last night, because we would certainly have gone at least one more time, if not two or three!

 

Oasis has several free and pay venues to choose from, including Johnny Rockets ($5.95 cover charge for all you can eat), Boardwalk Dog House (free hot dogs and brats, etc.), Café Promenade (free), Park Café (free), Windjammer (free), etc., etc., etc. There is food EVERYWHERE on this ship!

 

Our favorite was Sabor, which we tried Sabor on the second day after the Cabin Crawl (while Chaya rocked the Johnny Rocket’s takeout that she brought into Sabor!).

 

 

Sabor is a la carte on Oasis, though I’ve heard that there is a flat fee on other ships. The best way to enjoy Sabor is to go with a friend or two and get this

 

 

For $20, you get fresh guacamole (ask for it extra spicy), a small plate, a taco/quesadilla, a main course, side and dessert. For our first visit, we chose the Pollito Quesadilla, Chicken Stuffed Jalapenos, Chicken and Roasted Corn Empanadas, Yucca Barrel Fries with Mango Habanero Dipping Sauce (not spicy!), and the dessert.

 

 

[bucks724]

Food, food, food.

 

Our next venture into pay venues was Izumi. It was VERY difficult to get a reservation for the teppanyaki side, although you could just about walk into the sushi side any time without a reservation. I suggest that you get a reservation ahead of time, as there are only a few tables and the meal takes a while to get through, so there are limited spots available. The first time we tried to get a seating, we were told they had no openings for any meal time during the rest of the cruise, but to keep checking. I checked again as I was walking around on Thursday and there was a cancellation for Friday at lunch.

 

Izumi is $20 per person, or $25 for a combo meal, and there is PLENTY of food for that amount. You get steamed edamame, soup or salad, a protein (or two if you get the combo), fried rice, veggies and sauces.

 

 

Bonsai seemed to always be empty on the Breeze, and only had sushi, which was fine. We often shared a tempura or California roll as a little snack and sat around and chatted while watching everyone on the promenade.

 

The Breeze has Guy’s Burgers (I definitely missed these!), Blue Iguana (another thing I missed) and the Mongolian Wok. Let’s not forget Jimmy’s on sea days and the hot dog stand.

 

When it comes to specialty restaurants, I would be inclined to give Breeze and Oasis a tie. I don’t mind paying extra for good food (I would rather pay a little bit for good food than eat mediocre food that is included), so we weren’t shy about grabbing food at pay venues when the mood struck. We never went hungry on either ship for those reasons.

[bucks724]

Buffet (last post about food – promise!)

 

On the Breeze, the buffet is on the Lido Deck and is called the Lido Marketplace. On Oasis, it’s called the Windjammer.

 

Lido has cafeteria-like lines that cause a lot of butting in, etc., and they mirror one another. Lido feels crowded and not set up very well, in my opinion.

 

The windjammer, in contrast, has my heart. Upon entrance, there is a line during busy times where they will seat you at a table based on party size. Throughout the Windjammer, there are little islands, and everything is available in multiple places. There is a wide variety of cuisines to choose from. Everything we had was quite good, including the seafood night choices and the BBQ foods.

 

Organization is key here. Windjammer has pre-poured drinks, and there are servers to bring you drinks to the table, including wine! Need I go on?

 

 

On the Breeze, the buffet food was just – we chose pizza (which is excellent), salad and paninis most of the time. There are Purell stations set up at the ends of the buffets, but on Oasis, there is a person whose JOB it is to squirt your hands with Purell when you enter (an ongoing joke all week for us, because it doesn’t even feel optional).

 

As far as the buffet area goes, the Oasis wins ten times over.

 

The other places we frequented on the Oasis were the Café Promenade, Sorrento’s Pizza and the Park Café.

 

Café Promenade was good for a quick bite to eat – the curried chicken salad wrap and shrimp boat were frequently requested by both of us (Chaya eats NOTHING but chicken nuggets, cheese pizza, pasta, grilled cheese, plain cheeseburgers, and a few other choice finger foods).

 

Sorrento’s custom pizzas were pretty decent. Thicker crust than the ready-to-eat stuff. Not the best – one step up from frozen, unlike Carnival’s, which is fresh made and AWESOME.

 

Park Café is known for its Kummelweck sandwich – which is basically fatty, rare roast beef on a salted weck bun. I don’t like roast beef, and don’t like anything below medium rare, and only then on a steak, but I felt like I had to try it. I asked for a more “cooked” slice of beef, and got it. I got mustard on it. It was good. Not good enough that I craved more, but good enough that I ate the whole thing.

 

We also enjoyed egg sandwiches from Park Café each morning. Chaya enjoyed their bagels. We never had Windjammer breakfast since we were on the same level as Park Café, so I can’t speak to their breakfast selections. However, I would give Oasis an edge for breakfast, since Lido Marketplace and Blue Iguana are the only places to eat breakfast that we tried.

 

As far as the MDR goes, we only ate there once on Oasis. It was the first formal night, which Chaya likes to go to. The choices weren’t very good. I had seafood ravioli. I got 4 raviolis in a bowl with bland sauce. On Breeze (and other Carnival ships), you can get surf and turf, etc. Based on the limited experience in the MDR on Oasis, compared to a lot of meals in Carnivals MDR, I give Carnival’s MDR a thumbs up over Oasis. Service was faster, food was more plentiful and better tasting, and it was just better in general.

 

The other food venues on Oasis were not tried (Giovanni’s, etc.) so I can’t vote on those.

[bucks724]

Entertainment:

 

This is where Royal Caribbean definitely shines. As I said before, I am a planner. I also don’t like waiting for things – I hate lines! So how happy was I when I saw that on RCCL cruises, there are RESERVATIONS! You can RESERVE your showtimes. This means no standing in hot hallways, rushing through meals in the MDR that can run over, no getting in late and seeing more of the pole than the show… Just reserve online, remember where you need to be and when, and show up about 15-20 minutes early with a drink in your hand, get your card scanned and find a seat you like. Then wait for the people who don’t reserve to file in and for the show to start!

 

When we booked our cruise, Chicago was the Broadway show offered onboard. Funny enough, it was the reason I chose Oasis over Allure – I had visited some of the ports on the Eastern itinerary so it really came down to the “differences”, and Chicago won out over Mamma Mia. As plans sometimes do, this one backfired, because following the dry dock, Cats was the new show. We had Chicago reservations, which were canceled when it changed to Cats, and we did not rebook.

 

We had reservations for the Headliner show (Abba-based musical), Comedy show, and Aqua Theatre show. Our reserved Aqua Theatre show was canceled due to high winds, and we were rebooked automatically, but our rebooked time interfered with the comedy show (which is harder to get into), so we decided to do the standy-by line for the Aqua Theatre.

 

 

 

First, let me say. The Aqua Theatre in itself is AMAZING – the back of the ship is open – fresh air, sunshine (and rain, too!), just amazing! The whole Boardwalk area is just awesome. But the Aqua Theatre show – OMGoodness! The show takes place all around you – behind you, above you, in front of you, etc. Since we were in the standby line, the first place we found 3 seats together were – you guessed it – in the front row. Yes, I realize that most people would covet a front row seat. BUT – the first three or so rows are considered the “splash zone”. We didn’t get TOO wet, but we got some water splashed on us – sometimes intentionally by the performers.

 

Our next show was Come Fly With Me. It was an awesome sing and dance production. LOVED it. Real singing and dancing.

 

Frozen in Time, however, was second only to the Aqua Theatre show. A-maz-ing! The performers were perfectly timed, the sets were adorable, and the sand art intermission was so cool. I wish I could have taken a ton of pictures, but it was dark and difficult without using flash since we were sitting in a darker area.

 

If I were basing entertainment solely on these the above shows, I would say Royal wins hands down. BUT there was the comedy show.

 

It was funny. We laughed. We giggled. But we found it to be a little generic. The routine of the first performer consisted of picking out people in the front rows and making crude jokes about them. The next performer’s routine mainly consisted of jokes about himself and being black. They both seemed to have gone on stage and just winged it, with a lot of curse words thrown in for good measure.

 

On Carnival, our performer had a larger venue (although neither was extremely large) and he was funnier.

 

In the end, the fact that we had RESERVATIONS to the shows and three out of four were excellent stands out to me. So Royal wins again.

[maureencruiser]

Can't wait to read more! :D:D

[dh464]

Great review so far,can't wait to read the rest. We are booked for the thanksgiving 2015 oasis.Thinking of changing it up a bit since we have done both oasis eastern and allure western.to the carnival breeze which include a few ports we have not done yet!

[Ocean Boy]

Entertainment:

 

When we booked our cruise, Chicago was the Broadway show offered onboard. Funny enough, it was the reason I chose Oasis over Allure – I had visited some of the ports on the Eastern itinerary so it really came down to the “differences”, and Chicago won out over Mamma Mia. As plans sometimes do, this one backfired, because following the dry dock, Cats was the new show. We had Chicago reservations, which were canceled when it changed to Cats, and we did not rebook.

 

 

Chicago has actually never played on Oasis, it is on Allure. Hairspray was on Oasis and was replaced with Cats. I agree with you about the Aqua Theater. I think it is amazing.

[bucks724]

Great review so far,can't wait to read the rest. We are booked for the thanksgiving 2015 oasis.Thinking of changing it up a bit since we have done both oasis eastern and allure western.to the carnival breeze which include a few ports we have not done yet!

 

If I remember correctly, the only reason we didn't do Breeze over Oasis (since the price difference was so large) is that it was the exact same cruise as the last one we took - I loved the ports, but I thought back to back identical cruises would be silly when there are so many other ports and ships out there!

 

Chicago has actually never played on Oasis, it is on Allure. Hairspray was on Oasis and was replaced with Cats. I agree with you about the Aqua Theater. I think it is amazing.

 

You're right, I am sick and my mind is jumbled. Chicago is on Epic, which is another "dream ship" I look at often. Hairspray is definitely what was on there that I wanted to see! Thanks for catching my flub! :)

[bucks724]

Ship Amenities:

 

Breeze is a beautiful ship, and like most others, has the obligatory casino, buffet, reading room, bars, promenade, atrium, etc.

 

Oasis is billed as having “seven distinct neighborhoods”. I didn’t really “get” what that meant when I first started looking into this ship. For anyone who doesn’t know, here’s the explanation:

 

1. Entertainment Place. This is where you will find Jazz on 4, the Comedy Club, ice skating rink, Blaze (teenager club), Opal Theatre, etc. I don’t really have interesting pictures of these places since I took pictures while they were closed, so all you can see are the doors!

 

 

 

 

Breeze definitely had cool areas like this – piano bar, comedy club, theatre, live entertainment along the promenade, etc. The thing that sold me about Entertainment Place was the ice rink alone. Something struck me as just cool about being in the middle of the Caribbean and going ice skating – on a ship. It’s obviously the little things for me!

[Laurin612]

Thanks for the great, objective review so far. I, too, am a Carmival lover but my next cruise is on RCI Adventure of the Seas. It's been 17 years since DH and I sailed on RCI, so we are very interested in seeing comparison reviews like yours.

[Dave85]

Ship Amenities:

 

 

 

Breeze is a beautiful ship, and like most others, has the obligatory casino, buffet, reading room, bars, promenade, atrium, etc.

 

 

 

Oasis is billed as having “seven distinct neighborhoods”. I didn’t really “get” what that meant when I first started looking into this ship. For anyone who doesn’t know, here’s the explanation:

 

 

 

1. Entertainment Place. This is where you will find Jazz on 4, the Comedy Club, ice skating rink, Blaze (teenager club), Opal Theatre, etc. I don’t really have interesting pictures of these places since I took pictures while they were closed, so all you can see are the doors!

 

 

 

Breeze definitely had cool areas like this – piano bar, comedy club, theatre, live entertainment along the promenade, etc. The thing that sold me about Entertainment Place was the ice rink alone. Something struck me as just cool about being in the middle of the Caribbean and going ice skating – on a ship. It’s obviously the little things for me!

 

 

Loving your review. Just wanted to clarify that Blaze is indeed the adult (18+) nightclub, except for one night where they hand it over to the teens during one of the solarium parties. The teen club is somewhere upstairs, I believe deck 16 (correct me if I'm wrong on the precise location).

 

Looking forward to the rest of the review!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

[A&L_Ont]

Loving your review. Just wanted to clarify that Blaze is indeed the adult (18+) nightclub, except for one night where they hand it over to the teens during one of the solarium parties. The teen club is somewhere upstairs, I believe deck 16 (correct me if I'm wrong on the precise location).

 

Looking forward to the rest of the review!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

 

Deck 15, port side is where the teen club is.

[Dave85]

Deck 15, port side is where the teen club is.

 

 

Thanks Andrew, knew I could count on you! ;)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

[anamanxs]

Loving your review, also a Carnival lover but doing RCCL next month. I have not been on the larger CCL or RCCL ships. The last 2RCCL cruises turned us away for awhile so looking forward to trying again. Going on the Explorer of the Seas. Again, love the way u r comparing the options of each ship. Thanks