Oasis of the Seas review 8/13/16

[thickerson555]

I have wanted to do a review of my cruises, but when I get back I never seem to find the time. This time we had some downtime each night so while the kids watched tv I would take a few notes. I typed all of this on my phone and it was random thoughts here and there so I apologize for the lack of structure, misspellings, and grammar errors. I really appreciate all the people who take their time to post and answer questions. Without you guys I don’t think my cruise would be near as enjoyable.

 

I have always wanted to try an oasis class ship. The locations and itineraries never just quite worked out. This time I decided I wanted to do either the Allure or the Oasis and would make it happen. We have to go in August because of the kids summer schedules and split custody. I liked the Allures ports better, but I didn’t want to leave from San Juan so the Oasis it was. I used a TA because they offered 150 OBC that I didn't see on RC website. That all went fine. I have about 3 TA that I have used. I wanted to use the one that lets me use my discover cash back, but they were closed when I was ready to book. I booked about a month out, It was a Saturday night and they weren’t open until Monday and I was afraid the price would change by the time I got to book so I used a different on. It only saves me 40 to use the discover cash back bonus.

 

After making the reservation I went to Royals website and did my cruise planner. I didn't like the reservation process for the shows. Not something I did before and it took a lot of time to plan out which days to do what stuff. I didn't know that they didn't have a different show every day. Some shows repeat multiple times. I spent the better part of one evening trying to figure everything out. If I remember right, there wasn’t a way to see all the shows dates and time in one place so I have to go back and forth on the cruise planner to organize things so it didn’t interfere with dinner and our excursions. I added more to this at the end of my review.

 

I got the royal replenish for the kids. They love the virgin pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris. I wasn’t exactly sure how much they would be on the ship. It was $19 per day for them and they definitely got their money’s worth. I got the soda package for me. I knew I couldn’t’ drink enough to pay for any drink package. The replenish included bottled water which was nice for them to grab a bottle each when they got off the ship. I filled my 40 oz vacuum insulated bottle with ice and water in the windjammer before we left the ship. We shared the bottle and filled it up with the water bottles and had nice cold water all day.

 

One thing about filling a water bottle on the ship… All the ice dispensers had labels that said don’t fill up your bottles. The only place that didn’t have those signs were the freestyle machines. That is where I would fill up my bottle on the ship. They didn’t have water that I could find on these machines like they do on land, so I would fill it up with ice. Then I would get 3 cups of ice water from the buffet and fill it up that way. I think this is all an effort to keep the Norwalk (or whatever its called) virus from getting passed around, but my plans to have ice cold water and carry my bottle around the ship didn’t work out very well. I saw several people filling up their water bottles at the park café ice / water dispenser even though there was a sign. The only other place I saw an ice water dispenser was the wipeout café and it was out of order all week. Most bars and the pizza place had empty cups and water you could get that was cold from a clear jug willed with ice and water with a spigot on it. They had signs on all these not to fill up bottles. I’d be curious how other people fill up water bottles.

I had 3 or 4 bud lights on the ship. They are the aluminum bottles and I was charged $8.20 for each of them. I also added a $1 tip each time so they ended up costing 9.20 apiece. Even at that price I wouldn’t drink enough to cover the cost for the drink package. I saw a couple of flyers at the bars where you could buy a 10 drink package. I think it was $70. (Im not sure if this included the 18% gratuity) With that you could get most drinks. You could spread them out over the whole week. It wouldn’t save much for beers if any but had I saw that earlier in the week I might have got it and had some margaritas. Those were about $13 apiece. There was a cooler thing you could buy also that included any 6 beers. I don’t recall the price on that, but I think you got them all at once.

 

The cruise line changed the itinerary about 2 weeks out and I had to change my outside reservations. This seemed to cause problems for the trip because there were shows re arranged after the start of the cruise and some things we missed because of how they did things that week on board the ship. The cruise planner didn’t update things to reflect the change in itinerary. They had me booked on excursions for Haiti on the wrong day. I figured they would fix this and didn’t want to mess anything up by trying to fix it myself and possibly losing my excursion. When I have booked the excursions at Haiti some of the times I wanted were not available.

 

I always fly down the night before just in case. I try to stay close to the port. We flew out on Friday at 1 and things went so well picking the kids up from their mom and at the Airport we were at the gate 2 hours early. We live about 2 hours from the airport so I had plenty of extra time in there just in case.

 

I used Hotwire and had a lot of success with it. I choose a 3 star with shuttle service and breakfast in the area. It was the Roadway Inn and Suites in FLL. I hadn't heard of this hotel before but according to the website it sounded like it would work well. The airport was crowded so I used uber rather than call and arrange for the airport hotel shuttle. When we got there to check in there were 4 ladies behind the counter and the manager. No other guests were waiting. After a few min they stopped visiting and came over and asked what they could do. I told her I had a reservation and she asked for a name. She spent several min on the computer and then told me she couldn't find the reservation. She said I needed to call Hotwire. I showed her the printout showing both the Hotwire conformation and then the hotel conformation number. She complained how we should have booked through them instead of Hotwire because that wasn't their conformation number. She told me to call Hotwire. I was on hold with Hotwire for about 5 min when she said she found our reservation. She said she has to check all these different places for reservations in their system and she finally found it. Seemed like a crazy system for a hotel. After that she started collecting information from me. Name address phone email a photo copy of my credit card and driver’s license. She was typing a lot in between each new piece of information. Going to the other office off and on to make copies of the stuff. Typically, with hotwire I show my driver’s license and credit card and that’s it. Finally, after another 10 min she says we are checked in but they don't have any rooms available now. She will have one ready in about 15 min. This is 8 pm at night. She makes some calls and asks us to wait in the lobby till the room is ready. Another lady showed up after us and asked for her room they told her that they thought she didn't want it and had cancelled it. She told her she paid for it already and she wanted a room. She asked to see the manager and the manager says something like we don't have your room and the lady gets upset and the manager walks away. She says she wants either a room or her money back and she is standing at the counter and all 3 of the hotel employees are ignoring her. She says I'm not leaving and I'm staying here till I get a room or my money. Finally, a lady comes up and starts helping her. Not really talking to her but typing on the computer. After our 15 min wait the First Lady comes up and gives us our keys for the room. And she apologizes for the first time for the trouble and gives me a coupon for a free drink. The room was not a 3 star. It was a 2 star. The bath tub had no plug for the drain the tile and furnishing were 1980s model. The sheets were clean but very old and worn. Everything in the room was old. It reminded me of a very old days inn. The door wouldn't shut unless you gave it a hard shove. The breakfast buffet was a lady making waffles and hey had bagels and toast and juices. The hotel brags on their website about shuttle service to the port so I thought we would use it. At breakfast at 10 they were loading up a shuttle and calling for passengers. I went up and talked to him and he said this is the last free shuttle. Free service was only till 1030. I said if we are back with our bags by 1030 can we get a ride. He said sure. We came back before 1030 and he was gone and so was the shuttle. I wasn't sure how long it would take for them to get back and at $5 per person I knew an uber would be cheaper so I called for one. We left the hotel at 1045 and the shuttle guy still hadn't returned. They also charged is a $6 "resort fee". I have never had this with Hotwire before. I don’t recall seeing anything about a $5 charge for the shuttle on their website and the check in process was a real disappointment. I was very glad we were only there for one night. On their website they say they can also take you from the cruise to the airport and after all the other experiences I figured I would either use uber or a cab.

The uber lady we had take us to terminal was very nice. She was at the hotel within a few minute of booking it on the app. This was my first times of using uber and I really enjoyed it. I liked knowing how much I was going to pay ahead of time and being able to see your driver’s car on a map you know when they are close. I had gone to RCL’s website to get the address for the terminal and used that for uber she followed the directions. I thought she knew where to go, but she got us to the wrong terminal. I was that it was at terminal 18 on one of the signs and we followed the signs to the ship. The drop off line was moving slow, but I think she was in the taxi waiting line for a while. Once we got in the right lane it went much faster. I think we were on the ship about 11. Everything went really fast. Check in security and the lone on the ship took maybe 20 min. The kids got virgin frozen drinks right away and we went up to the pools and mini golf area. They had lots of people trying to sell drink packages as soon as we got on the ship. The rooms were open at 1pm and everything was great there. We explored the ship played mini golf and did the boogie board on the flow rider twice on the first day. After the first day the boogie board flow rider was split in the middle so they could have two people going at once.

 

We were on the 9th floor near the front with a balcony. It was a nice room. It's me and 2 kids and they never seem to have the room configured right. This time we had the beds together and a drop down bed and a sofa bed it worked out ok. Except at night when we lost the couch and a lot of floor space. In hindsight I think I would ask for them to split the beds and use the drop down bed. That way we would always have the couch to sit on. The room was never quite cold enough for me. We kept it set on cold the entire time. It was tolerable but I wish it would of been a little colder. The bathroom shower drain was pretty slow. It wasn't a big deal because there was another drain in the bathroom but after one of my showers the whole bathroom had about 1/2" of water. The lights in the room were not intuitive. One master switch that controlled all the lights then about 6 other switches that controlled the bathroom overhead and accent lights. The bathroom had a light that was on all the time. A pretty bright one. So we had to keep the door shut at night and there was a big gap on the top and bottom of the door so it put light in the room at night. The tv cut out several times one night saying bad signal. The dream works channel was nice with good movies but they played the same shows a lot. The kids liked to wind down by watching tv at night but after a while they had seen all the movies. There were a lot of promo channels.

 

The windjammer had lines to be seated but people walked by and it was crowded everyone we had breakfast. The food was pretty good. I loved the over easy eggs and toast. I had never seen that before. Sometimes they will cook eggs to order at an omlet station but the over easy eggs were two to a plate and you could walk up and grab them. They were moving fast so they were always fresh. They had crispy bacon and regular bacon. The kids were sad there were no doughnuts. We loved sabor Johnny Rockets and the park cafe roast beef. The pizza was just ok and I never had the hot dogs. I wish there was more airflow on the decks of the ship. Back at the aqua theater it was never a breeze and it was pretty hot. The two flow riders were busy but if you wanted to do it you could if you didn't mind waiting 15 min. We tried different times but it was always busy except for the first day. We went rock climbing twice and it wasn't busy. Two times they changed schedules on us and it messed things up. We missed the headliner show completely and I was not happy about that. Another time we skipped out on having A decent lunch and grabbed some quick pizza and rushed to the theater to watch a 3d movie find the doors shut. About 10 min later someone finally told us and the waiting crowd that it was rescheduled to when we were at Cozumel.

 

The screens outside at the aqua deck and messed up sections. On was covering a big section I the middle the other wasn't as bad but it was bad for the movies. They only showed the movie on one screen I think because of the big missing section on the one tv. I think they need to fix it. We tried to watch jungle book one afternoon but it was dark and hard to see during the dark scenes of the movie. The elevators were only bad after a show or dinner. The boardwalks and Central Park were cool. I’d consider a cabin looking at that as long as it was high enough to see the ocean too.

 

Ranking the things, we saw from favorite to least favorite

The diving show

ice show.

Love and marriage

Quest

Come fly with me.

The funny dive show. This was a little odd but fun to watch the divers in action

Sexy man competition

Belly flop competition

Cats

They pushed bingo before the love and marriage but that was the only time.

Dining rooms were typical.

 

There seemed to be a lot of shuffling tables around. Several nights we watched people come to their table and someone else would be there. The head waiter or said it was an issue with my time dining. I didn’t quite understand him but I think he was saying they changed the size of the my time dining area and they didn’t have enough room for them. They would put them in tables they thought people weren’t going to show up that night. The problem was that sometimes the people who had the assigned table would show up late and someone was at their table. That happened to two or three of the tables around us. Then the service would get off as they tried to deal with the misplaced people and also wait on the new people at the table. The service on the last night was pretty sad. There were lots of problems with tables around us and we sat for probably 20 min after eating dinner with plates in front of us. before we saw our wait staff. We didn't even get to talk to our head waiter. He was dealing with some other guest issues and on the phone when he passed our table a few times. I was going to give him a small tip, but I couldn’t find him to give it to him. It was like watching musical chairs. People would come up to their table and someone would already be in it. Then they would set them at another table and then those people would come in and the process would repeat again.

 

The theater was full of bells and whistles. The lifts were used a lot in come fly with me. It’s definitely a sight to watch all the things the theater can do. There was a strong breeze on the front rows and felt cold. The shows seemed a little less entertaining than previous cruises.

 

I had to choose between the comedy show and quest. Well I should of been able to see both but quest went 15 min long and i couldn't make it to the comedy show. I wish they would do comedy differently. The shows were cats, headliner, come fly with me. The ice show and dive show. The headliner I missed and come fly with me was an odd mix of singing and trapeze acts. I really missed the juggler’s comedy and that type of show. On all my past cruises they have had a comedian at least one night in the main theater. They sometimes had something like a juggler or other type gymnast talent. I always enjoy those type of shows so I missed them on this cruise.

 

The pools weren't too bad and neither were the hot tubs. I thought with the number of people on board the pool and hot tubs would be packed. They weren’t empty by any means, but it was actually better than it has been on other cruises. There were 4 pools and at least one was salt water and at least one was freshwater. I didn’t get in the pools on the kids zone side so I don’t know if they are fresh or salt water. The salt water pool had a huge wading area where there were chairs setting in a few inches of water. It was a neat pool

 

They wanted the towels back the same day. If you kept them overnight they said they would charge you $25. My room steward told me to make sure and turn it in before they closed the towel station or I would be charged.

 

I wish they kept the flow rider and rock climbing open later. It was closed at 6 or 7 every night. They had 5 ping pong tables and were played several times. Most of the time all were being played on but if you waited about 10 min you could get a table. One night we went to play and there was several people waiting so we did something else. They had two shuffleboards tucked away behind the aqua theater movie screens. They were blocked off during shows an practices. We managed to play a few games of that also.

 

The captain made and announcement in all rooms at 6 am. Actually 3 different announcements about a missing 15-year-old. He went on about the missing kid for a while and then said his name and asked him to call. Then he made a second announcement repeating the kids name because some people called uncertain of the name he called. The third announcement was that they found the kid.

 

I wouldn’t like to go back to Labadee Haiti and the private island thing really limits your choices. The line for food was terrible. We basically skipped eating lunch till almost 2. Then there wasn't some food they were out of and they didn't have any ice for drinks. The chicken was really good. The roller coaster was neat. I would probably buy and all day pass for it. The water slide didn't look very fun. Zip line was fun too but it took 2 hours to do and you have to do it with a group of 40 so wait in line to get vests on with 40 people. Do the test flight with 40 people 5 at a time. Then ride the shuttle to the top and wait your turn with 40 other people. The water park was fun but I don't like the hour limit on time. we didn't go to any other beach than the water park one but none of them looked that great. To do the activities at Haiti I spend almost 500. A lot more than we did everywhere else and it was the least favorite port.

 

Zip line on the ship was very short but still a neat experience. The line to ride it went quick. The activities people at the flow rider zip line and rock climbing were all very nice. The rock climbing wall went very fast too. We did it twice. Once we were the only ones there. The other we were behind about 5 people. I did the both the easy and the medium I could only make it half way up. They have automatic catch devices vs having someone hold you. It worked fine but leaning back and letting go took some courage lol.

Food was good everywhere. Some things were better than others. It’s been 3 years since my last RCL cruise, but I remember the food being a bit better than it was this time. We ate in the main dining room every night. I had prime rib, lamb shank, pork loin, steak Diane, and another beef like prime rib. I am forgetting a couple of them. I enjoyed the entrees more than the starters. They had 3 or 4 things that were on the menu every night, and then 3 or 4 that they changed up. The desserts were pretty good too. Although one of the best desserts I had were the white chocolate cookies in the park café. Every time I went in there they had different cookies. I went back to get some more of the white chocolate chip cookies but they had switched to another type.

 

They had two ice cream machines. On was in the whiteout and wasn't open very later. The pool one had a long line a lot. They had strawberry ice cream several days with vanilla and chocolate every day. I love the strawberry ice cream. I wish lunch they had one in the windjammer too.

I wasn't clear about all the places to eat and their cost. Some things I didn’t know if they were free or not… Cookies at Starbucks Another Pastry shop. I wish they made that more clear. I loved the park cafe and the food they offered. The roast beef is good the cookies there were the best on the ship. Everything there was free. The salad area looked good too but I never tried it. I walked through the solarium once. The hot tub in there was more crowded than the outside one. The little pool was pretty crowded too. It looked more like a hot tub than a pool.

 

We had Johnny rockets. The food was good but service went really slow even though it wasn’t very busy. It took a while to get our order taken and the kids got floats pretty quickly but my milkshake took a while.

Ship movement was light but noticeable room was very quiet. Tv was quirky it would lock up sometimes and you couldn’t change anything. After a few min it would go back to normal. There were lots of shelves and places to sit stuff. The closet had several hangers although i bring some with me and needed more than they had. The closet doors were a hassle. They had two sliding doors and with the shelves on one side and the night stand on the other it was hard to get what you needed out of it. The balcony was nice and the room darkening curtains worked well. There were several small holes in the room darkening curtain that let light in. The phone in the room has a clock on it. The tv had messages and account info on it. Check the messages. That is how they told us about a headliner show being moved. However, I didn’t look at the messages every day because the first several were about trying to sell something. I'd advise printing out your schedule of shows and port times before you get on the ship. They didn't make any announcements in the room other than the missing boy one.

With the drink package they bring a receipt for you to sign every time. Since we already tipped 18% I didn't think we should tip every time the kids order a drink. At the same time when we went to a show and used the bar service I added a $1 tip Most of the bartenders were polite but not overly friendly. Sometimes they gave the kids receipts for the drinks on the packages and made them sign for a 0 total. I'm guessing that was to get a tip because about half the time they didn't make them sign anything.

Sabor had a 1/2 off coupon the first day. They handed it out when we walked in the ship. I think it included drinks too but I didn't ask or order any. It wasn't crowded and we enjoyed that. The guac was made at the tables and was pretty good. We ate there one other time. We had the same waiter and he recognized us and was friendly.

 

We choose late dining because some port days were after 6 plus I like that the pools and sports equipment dies down about then and you don't have to wait in line. I don't recall what time the windjammer used to close but I thought you could go there after dinner if there was something you wanted to try or maybe get a different dessert but by the time dinner was over the windjammer was closed.

 

I liked the way they did photos with the photo album it was so much easier than spending hours looking through photos. Our card had a tower number and folder number. You went to that tower and pulled out your folder and it had all the pictures. There were a couple that didn't show up on our screen or in our folder so that was a little disappointing. I bought the 10 photo cd it was in our folder in the morning of departure and I didn't have to wait in any lines. We took several photos in the ship. They lines weren't too bad most of the time. Formal night on the promenade had several long lines. The choices of backgrounds seemed odd to me. Some strange patterns that looked like wallpaper from my grandma’s house . And lots with the ship in the background at strange angles like looking down at the ship. There was one that had Coke logos and anchors??

 

Jamaica we went diving. There didn't really have much we wanted to do. I considered duns river falls but I didn't want to feel like cattle being herded through something and it seemed like that would be the case if we went there. Falmouth seems to be a bad location to really do anything. Most of the stuff to do was closer to the other ports. The guy we did scuba with said royal owns the ports and all the shops the locals don't like it because they don't see any revenue. He took us to his dive shop at an all-inclusive resort. It was a small operation. The dive spot was real close to the hotel. It was a wall dive and we went down about 60 feet. There was one part where we dove between two walls. It was a neat experience. The second dive was a small reef and we went down about 30 feet. My kids were recently certified and we just happened to book with one other family from the cruise that also had two newly certified kid divers. Overall it was a great experience. They provided all the transportation in the owner’s SUV. The name of the place was Scuba Jamaica and the owner was Christian.

When we got back and got out of his car we bought something at one of the local merchant tents and when we started walking back to the ship they started coming up to us and pressuring us to go to their stores. One big Jamaican guy started laying a big guilt trip. He was telling me to be a real man and a good person and help a person out. How we spent a lot of money on our cruise and the least we could do would be to buy a red stripe. I was going to walk through the rest of the shops but we turned around and walked the other way. I have had people at Mexico try and get us in their shops but never anything like that. I talked to another couple on board who had a bad experience with merchants. I have heard they were pushy before, but hadn’t experienced anything like that. We looked around the shops inside the port shops and they didn't pressure us too much. The prices were high.

 

At Cozumel we went diving at Pro Dive at the Hotel Allegro. We also went to playa Mia and to downtown shops. The last time I was here I thought it was 10 to playa Mia and this time it was 17. On the way there they filled a mini van with my 3 and two other groups. They charged all of us for the ride. I think they charged a group of 4 over 20 but I didn't see it for sure. We left playa Mia and went diving at allegro hotel. The taxi there was very short and cost 7. From allegro to downtown shops was 26. Those were just for us. Cozumel gift shops were ridiculous overpriced. My son picked out a Hawaiian shirt and they wanted $50 for it.

 

Something I never had an issue with before was making arrangements on the cruise ship posted schedule and excursions I planned. The times given on the schedule were ships time. So when I told the dive guy the schedule he thought it was local time so we couldn't do our second dive without risking running late getting back to the ship. That is something I will keep in mind in the future.

 

 

The comedy show lady said did any of you see the family comedy show but I didn't see any billed as kid’s comedy. They were showing it in the opal theater on the last day which was nice since i couldn't see it any other night.

 

Cats wasn't my cup of tea. We left at intermission. There was a lot of dancing acts in the first half and nothing pulled me into the plot or anything. Also we were all freezing from the strong breeze blowing right on us. Some people brought beach towels and used them as jackets. If I had a jacket, I would of brought it to shows in the theater. I like plays and have seen several. I'm not sure why it's so popular. There were several other people leaving at intermission and some around us left before then. I’d be curious how other cruises feel about cats and how with a 2.5 hour show they can’t do a different show every night.

I like hot tubs and liked that there were still several open late. On other cruises I recall having all the hot tubs closed at night some times.

The arcade on the boardwalk was in sad shape. My kids like to play and there were several games out of order including were you buy cards at. The big arcade had several games that were broke as well. The big arcade had a freestyle Coke machine too and it was out of most of the drinks when I tried to fill my cup.

 

The photo gallery had several viewing machines that didn't work. I would also advise going early before the last day. The lines on the last day were crazy.

 

The crown and anchor cupons are a joke. We are platinum and the biggest savings we had was a free milkshake at Johnny Rockets with the purchase of another one. I remember last time I sailed we got a free Johnny Rockets visit for each person and I was just gold then. I understand they can't give out huge things because the prices would just be higher but at this point they have reduced them to a useless level. We bought something at the gift shop for 20 and I tried to use my 10% off coupon and they said it had to be 25. That stuff was so overpriced already a 10% off is a joke. It looked like pinnacle and suite guests had some nice bonuses. Hey had reserved seating for shows and their own area at Haiti that didn't have the crazy long lines for food. So in 20 years I'll be enjoying those benefits. In the meantime, I'll keep getting the free milkshakes ;)

 

 

On the pre cruise documentation I had to fill out our outgoing flight info. Our flight left out at 11:55 AM. The luggage tag we were assigned to was the second to last to get off the ship at 10:55. Rather than ask for another tag I choose to do express checkout. Checkout went really fast. We did express checkout and left out room at 720. We didn't have any long lines and were in a taxi before 8. It was $17 fare. When we used uber to our hotel from the airport it was 12. The line at the delta to check our bags to the longest about 20 min and we were at the gate about 830. Our flight left at 1155 so we had a bit of a wait. I think it would have taken longer to wait for the luggage tag process because there would of been a lot more people. They also didn't let you do express check out after 8.

 

 

I liked so many things about the Oasis. One thing I don't know is if all the other ships are doing the show reservation thing. I don't like having to spend all the time I did before the cruise making reservations for each show trying to make it so it didn't interfere with dinner in the dining room and also scheduling them so we had something most nights. Since the reservations didn't include the love and marriage show or the quest game show I was hoping they didn't interfere. I booked the dive show for the first night and we had to rush through desserts to make it to the show and we missed the first 10 min and had to stand through it to see. One night we had dinner and had to rush through dessert again to make it to the show. Then straight from the show to quest and then I was going to have the comedy show but couldn't make it. I feel like if I need to plan out the trip to see the stuff I want I wish they would give me the full schedule for the entire week. On past crises first seating dinner had a show time and second seating dinner had a show time and the other stuff like quest ice show and love and marriage didn't interfere with either show or dinner. I enjoy that structure and didn't enjoy having to try and plan things out. If I did it again I would make sure and print out the show schedule and have them with me. This time I only had what I had reserved and with the cruise compass you only had one day’s worth of info available to you.

I have been on 9 cruises most with Royal. I tried Disney last time, and have also sailed with Carnival a couple times and Norwegian once. It will be a tough decision for which ship to cruise on next. I will have to find out how they are doing shows on the Freedom class ships before deciding. After reading over my review it sounds more negative than I intended. It was a great vacation.

 

If anyone has any questions about what I covered here or questions I will try and answer them as best I can.

[Nayola]

Thank you for your review. I'll be sailing Oasis of the Seas in September, and reading reviews like yours makes me that much more excited for my vacation to start.

[saintsfan777]

Thanks for the great review!

[S.S.Oceanlover]

I have wanted to do a review of my cruises, but when I get back I never seem to find the time. This time we had some downtime each night so while the kids watched tv I would take a few notes. I typed all of this on my phone and it was random thoughts here and there so I apologize for the lack of structure, misspellings, and grammar errors. I really appreciate all the people who take their time to post and answer questions. Without you guys I don’t think my cruise would be near as enjoyable.

 

 

If anyone has any questions about what I covered here or questions I will try and answer them as best I can.

 

I agree with you about CATS. We left at intermission too as I was falling asleep. lol

 

Sounds it was a mess in the MDR> That's very unusual. I wonder why it was like that.

 

I didn't understand why you couldn't sail on the Allure this week since you liked it's itinerary better that the Oasis'?

 

Didn't the Allure sail from Fort Lauderdale?:confused:

 

Thanks for the review.

 

Appreciate you taking the time to write it.:)

 

Bill

[PTAngel]

Thanks for doing this review. We are sailing next month & I get a lot of information & tips on these reviews. Can't you catch Quest & Love & Marriage on TV if you can't make it due to reservations? I planned out times by using a previous review posting Compasses & Daily Planners. I have made reservations for every night but thought we could catch those shows on TV in our cabin with room service.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the report.

[thickerson555]

Bill,

 

If I remember right the allure itinerary I liked left from San Juan. I didn't want to try and do something like that.

 

As far as the dining room the head waiter said they had made a change to how they were doing my time dining. I couldn't understand him exactly but I thought he said usually the dedicated the 3rd floor to my time but now this cruise they had made a change.

 

 

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[thickerson555]

PTAngel,

 

You can watch the love and marriage on the tv as well as the belly flop and sexiest man. However the atmosphere isn't the same and you can't hear the crowd reaction. Also with love and marriage you miss the couple selection part of the show. For the middle of the road couple There were several couples trying out. One was a guy who looked like Santa Claus and he was really trying to get chosen. The audience started chanting Santa Santa Santa and the host said should we stop trying to pick a couple and just go with Santa and the whole audience screamed yes. It was hilarious and when we watched it on tv I don't recall seeing anything but the questions and answers.

 

I didn't see the quest on tv and I don't suspect they would show it. Those people do some crazy stuff. I love that show and I'm always amazed how far people are willing to go for the sake of competition. This year was no different. I laughed my butt off during that show.

 

That's a good idea to get all the compasses. Keep an eye out for changes though. I'm not sure why they changed things around during my cruise but like I said in my review the headliner show got moved during the cruise. Was your itinerary switched around about 3 or 4 weeks ago like mine?

 

 

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[aubreyc1988]

Thanks for the review. Last year I actually did the same thing as you on Hotwire and got rodeway inn. I looked at tripadvisor reviews and photos, and decided not to stay their and just forfeit the 50.00 I spent on it, and booked a Westin hotel instead. According to your review, looks like I made the right call! I bet they were glad I didn't show up that night since they appeared to have a shortage of rooms when you were there!

 

Uber is so awesome most of the time! So friendly and affordable, I always use to when getting around in Fort Lauderdale! So much better than waiting around for a shuttle anyhow

 

 

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[PTAngel]

Thickerson555, no changes yet. I'm getting close though. I double checked my spreadsheet & it looks like my only 2 issues might be Day 3 with CATS at 8:45 & Majority Rules at 9 & Day 4 with the Headliner Show at 8:30 & Who Wants to Feel Like a Millionaire at 9:00. I do a lot of researching & I'm a HUGE fan of planning & spreadsheets. I've gotten a lot of ideas from people doing reviews.

Edited August 15, 2016 by PTAngel

[S.S.Oceanlover]

Bill,

 

If I remember right the allure itinerary I liked left from San Juan. I didn't want to try and do something like that.

 

As far as the dining room the head waiter said they had made a change to how they were doing my time dining. I couldn't understand him exactly but I thought he said usually the dedicated the 3rd floor to my time but now this cruise they had made a change.

 

 

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Thank you for the clarification.

 

Bill

[Snit13]

Bill,

 

If I remember right the allure itinerary I liked left from San Juan. I didn't want to try and do something like that.

 

As far as the dining room the head waiter said they had made a change to how they were doing my time dining. I couldn't understand him exactly but I thought he said usually the dedicated the 3rd floor to my time but now this cruise they had made a change.

 

 

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I have never heard of the Allure or the Oasis sailing from any port except Ft. Lauderdale. I see them in port on web can every Saturday and Sunday. Happy the Oasis is moving to Port Canaveral.

[easyboy]

Thanks for the review.

[Cruiseathoning]

for society in general. It is not meant to be enjoyed without being absorbed. You have to show up in a mindset to literally, evolve as a person and take a life lesson from it.

 

It is an enormously touching, moving, and though provoking show in the right setting but the atmosphere of a cruise ship is probably not the right setting. That is why I think Mamma Mia, on Allure, makes more sense.

[thickerson555]

Crruiseathoning,

 

I had my kids with me and it was our last day on the ship and we were wanting to make the most of it. So that probably played into everything. I just saw mama Mia a month ago and think everyone in my group would of enjoyed that more. When I usually go see a play I don't have all the other activities calling my name that were there on the oasis.

 

They can put plays on the ship but I want it in addition to the typical shows not reducing the number of shows as drastically as cats did on the oasis. They only had 3 shows in the theater the week I was on board. Cats, A singing group, and come fly with me.

 

 

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