Oasis of the Seas Memorial Day Cruise Review - 5/27 through 6/3 - Western Caribbean

[DonAntonio]

Background

My wife and I booked our trip on Oasis of the Seas in January. Our booking was for an oceanview balcony stateroom, and the cruise left on May 27th (the day before Memorial Day). The itinerary was a 7-night Western Caribbean cruise that included calls to Labadee, Jamaica, and Cozumel. I had done a lot of research and was confident in our selection of the ship and date, so we used the non-refundable deposit option.

 

A little bit about us, we're in our mid-20s and live the mid-Atlantic region, although we're originally from Georgia. We've cruised twice before, although this is our first time with Royal Caribbean (previous two times were with Carnival). We like a good variety of things to do on our cruises - doing active stuff like rock climbing, going to see shows and trivia, eating at a variety of restaurants, and relaxing in the sun. On the other hand, we don't really gamble, aren't huge drinkers (maybe one or two a day between us during the cruise), and don't really like the pool, so I won't be able to talk to those things too much.

 

One final note - this review will be primarily text. There may be pictures here or there, but they will be few and far between. Many sections may have a lot of description with very few pictures, so forgive me if I end up rambling or go into a bit too much detail!

 

Alright, on to the review!

 

Pre-embarkation

Our cruise left on a Sunday, and we flew down a day before into the Orlando Airport on JetBlue. We hadn't flown on that airline before, but it was a pleasant flight, at least as much as one can be. We got in late afternoon and were staying at the Hilton Garden Inn near the airport, which provided a shuttle from the airport. The hotel itself was nice and seemed to have been fairly recently updated. My only wish was that breakfast was included - I think it was something like $12 for a hot buffet - but considering they were less expensive than other nearby hotels, I'm not going to complain.

 

Once we got checked in to the hotel, we took an Uber over to the local Publix supermarket, bought our bottles of wine to bring aboard the ship, and Uber'd back to the hotel. For dinner, we walked to a nearby restaurant, Rock N Brews. If anyone is staying in that area, I would definitely recommend it; we had some awesome BBQ wings, as well as a really good chicken quesadilla and a solid bread pudding. It had gotten pretty late by that point, so we didn't do anything else.

 

The next morning, we ate the aforementioned breakfast in the hotel (nothing to write home about), checked out, and met our shuttle in front of the hotel. We used Cortrans shuttle service to get to the port from Orlando and back again after the cruise was over. It was pretty nice for a shuttle, although it was close enough in cost ($40 pp round trip) to an Uber that I don't know if I would do it again. It was raining, which I was worried about, although for most of the trip after the first night, the weather was really nice.

 

The ride to the port took about an hour and was incident free. We got to the port at around 12:15 and were dropped off right next to where the porters could take our bags. Once the bags were with the porter, we got ourselves ready for the line into the terminal, the first of many on this trip...

 

Day 1 - Embarkation and Sailaway

The first line we had to wait on stretched out of the terminal into the parking lot area. It was pretty well managed, though - the line remained orderly, and it didn't ever feel like people didn't know where to go.

 

While we were waiting in line, the woman in front of us turned around and said something like, "Just to let you guys know, we're a group of around 40 or 50 people." I was thinking she just meant she was cruising with a group of other people who we might see here or there on the ship and was a little confused why she was telling us. Soon enough, though, my wife and I found out what she meant, as people from a charter bus started joining her in the line in front of us - first one, then a few more, and ultimately several dozen in total; it looked like it was maybe a family reunion or something like that. We realized the woman hadn't been just trying to make small talk but was wanting to warn us (I guess) that a bunch of people would be getting in front of us in line (or maybe she was trying to gauge if we were the kind of people who would make an issue out of it, haha). It did bug me a little bit, but given there were hundreds of people in line, I decided an extra 50 or so wouldn't really make that much of a difference.

 

Once we got in the terminal, we realized the line we were waiting in was the security line. It seemed like it was a really long time to wait, although in reality I think it only took about 30 minutes or so from the time we got in line to when we were able to pass through the metal detectors. We had our wine bottles in a separate bag that we were carrying with us - we'd previously made the rookie mistake of leaving wine bottles in our suitcases handled by the porters.

 

After getting through security, check in was a breeze. We had almost no wait time to see an agent (less than five minutes), and while it was crowded at the check-in desk, there weren't any problems (I did get a "tsk tsk" from the agent because I had torn the white space off my SetSail Pass to make it easier to fit in my pocket - apparently you aren't supposed to do that?). We got our SeaPass cards, and also the specialty coffee card we had ordered for my wife, which is essentially a punch card with 15 uses for things like espresso, lattes, etc. With our SeaPass cards in hand, we were ready to get on the ship!

 

Embarkation is on Deck 5; you come in on the walking track and the staff directs into the ship after scanning your card. It was right around 1pm when we got on, so we decided to wait a minute for them to open up the doors to access the staterooms. After a very short wait, we were on our way over to our stateroom. We had booked room 6720, which was on Deck 6 on the starboard side of the ship in the aft section, with only a few rooms farther aft than ours. We had wanted something a bit closer to the elevator banks, but this was the last room in the class and we didn't mind walking a bit more in exchange for not spending more money.

 

The room itself was very nice. It seemed like a lot of though was put into maximizing storage space; there's a lot of shelves here and there that help with making use of the vertical space. The lighting is good too - there's your normal overhead lights, but there's also two lower-brightness lights right above the two paintings in the room, which are great for providing some illumination in the evening without the full brightness of the regular lights. Both sets of lights have switches at the door as well as next to the bed, and the bed also has personal reading lights on each side. I was also able to find an outlet under the bed, thanks to seeing it mentioned somewhere on these forums.

 

 

The bathroom is also nice; small, obviously, but follows the same pattern of providing a lot of shelf space as well as five hooks - two above the sink and three on the bathroom door. The shower is cozy in size but I liked it - it's enclosed in glass (or clear plastic, maybe), not the dreaded clingy curtain Carnival ships seem to largely employ.

 

 

After we got our first look around and dropped off our bags, we did notice a bit of a problem in the room having to do with wind noise. There was a gap between the gasket of the balcony door and the frame, causing a very audible whistling noise that would have definitely kept us up at night. One of the first things we did was put in a call to maintenance. Someone came by several hours later, and it appeared to fix the problem, but once the wind picked up, we noticed it again and put in another call. I think they came back and fully fixed it later when we weren't in the room, although it's possible that it just didn't get windy enough again for us to notice it. Either way, we're glad it didn't end up bothering us throughout the trip.

 

After we put in the initial maintenance call, we went out to explore the ship. The first thing we did was head over to Park Cafe. It's located in Central Park, the area of the ship with real plants that forms an outdoor garden. This whole area is beautiful and quite impressive, especially considering all the challenges with keeping live plants on a ship (water usage, climate, wind damage, etc.).

 

 

 

When we got to Park Cafe, I already knew what I wanted. I had heard a lot through the forums about the roast beef sandwiches they have there. I was thinking to myself, "I'm sure the sandwiches are fine, but I doubt that they're all they're cut out to be." Let me tell you right now, the hype...is entirely justified! You wouldn't think that something with such simple ingredients (kummelweck bun, two slices of thickly cut roast beef, and a spoonful of gravy/au jus) could be so delicious, but it was definitely one of my favorite food items on the ship. Even if you're a vegetarian, it's worth breaking it just this once for this sandwich!

 

Alright, enough gushing, on with the review. Most of the rest of our afternoon was spent exploring the ship as well as in the muster drill; although everyone would rather be someone else, the safety video was actually reasonably entertaining. At some point, we did spend a little bit of time in the line to get waiver armbands (for rock climbing, zip line, FlowRider, and ice skating), but after waiting for maybe 15 minutes and the line only moving two or three people out of around 20, we decided to come back the next day. We also did the spa tour, where they take you to several different stations and give you the whole spiel for facial rejuvenation or acupuncture therapy or whatever; it also included a "massage sample" that actually felt really good and convinced us to book a massage - more on that later. As for the actual spa facilities, they seemed pretty nice, especially the thermal suite, although I'm not sure if it was worth the asking price. We walked through a few other areas of the ship which I'll hopefully talk about in more detail later.

 

For dinner, we were planning to go to the main dining room. We had My Time Dining, where you go in whenever you want, but I had read that it's a good idea to get a reservation ahead of time. We went by the reservation desk a few hours before dinner (you can call from your stateroom as well, but we happened to be in the area of the MDR). We asked what times were available, but they only had options between 8pm and 9pm. That's way later than we usually eat, and plus, we had show reservations at 9. We told the person at the desk that, and she offered for us to eat in the Solarium Bistro instead, which is normally a for-fee restaurant for dinner, but she gave us a card that allowed us to eat there for free and also marked it on our accounts in her computer.

 

Dinner at the Solarium Bistro was pretty good. It's Mediterranean-themed and is sort of a hybrid between the buffet and a full-service. You can get appetizers and desserts from the buffet but order off the menu for entrees. I had the chicken kebab and my wife had the grilled shrimp. Both were good, as were the buffet selections (including some tasty hummus and pita bread). For dessert, I just had a few of the cookies, which I discovered were not what I was expecting from buffet cookies - rather than being hard and unpalatable, they were just the right level of softness and had a good taste. I would end up eating more cookies over the course of the cruise than I would care to admit!

 

We headed back to our stateroom before our show, and on the way, we checked the entryway to the MDR just to see what it was like. It was definitely pretty chaotic, so if you're sailing on Oasis, I'd recommend trying to find an alternative venue for the first night. Also, on the way back, I bumped into our stateroom attendant and asked for a corkscrew, which was waiting for us when we returned later than evening.

 

Our reservation for that night was at Comedy Live, the relatively small comedy venue on board. We got there pretty early - roughly 45 minutes before the start of the show - and they hadn't even opened the doors yet. It turned out our earliness probably wasn't necessary. We had reservations, and up until they let the standbys in about ten minutes before the show, it was not particularly crowded.

 

The comedians themselves were really funny. On our sailing, the comedians were Paul Ogata and Nery Saenz. I think I liked Paul a little better, at least partly because Nery spent a few minutes talking about his CDs/digital download cards he was selling after the show. There was a lot of picking on individual audience members, so if you're at one of these shows and sit in the front, or even in another seat that has a direct line of sight to the stage, prepare to be embarrassed. One poor guy in his late 30s, when asked what he did, told the comedian he worked "seasonally" for UPS, which the comedian had a hell of a time with!

 

After the show, we headed back to the stateroom and cracked open our bottles of wine. We tried sitting outside on our balcony for a bit, but it had been on and off raining all day which had continued into the evening, so even though the balcony is mostly covered, we didn't stay out for long. We realized were pretty tired after the show and decided to call it a night.

[DonAntonio]

Day 2 - At Sea

We woke up pretty early on day 2 (before 8am) and decided to get a light breakfast in the Windjammer. I had French toast with butter, which was...fine, and my wife had smoked salmon, which she really enjoyed. After breakfast, my wife decided to try out the cycling class they have on the ship for $20, which she said was fun but really intense. Several people seemed surprised by the intensity, and she said one person left in the middle because he couldn't finish. In the meantime, I went to get a waiver wristband, which still took about 10-20 minutes despite getting there right about when the desk opens at 9am. When I got my wristband, I went to try out the rock climbing; there wasn't anyone else there when I got there. I hadn't done rock climbing before - it's harder than it looks! I was able to get about two thirds of the way to the upper bell but just ran out of juice before I got the top.

 

Later that morning, at 11am, we had reservations for the guacamole making class at Sabor. Sabor is in the Boardwalk neighborhood, which is one of the most unique areas of the ship, along with Central Park. There's a carousel, funhouse mirrors, a couple of different shops - it just has a nice vibe to it. It opens up into the Aquatheater in the far aft of the ship.

 

The guacamole class was fun, although it was more of a demonstration than hands-on like I was expecting. Only two people (of the maybe 25) were selected as "helpers" and able to actually make the guacamole themselves; the rest of us just watched the whole process as the Sabor staff member (she called herself "mamacita") narrated/instructed. She was pretty high energy, so it was still entertaining to watch, even though we weren't participating.

 

After the demonstration was over, we got to sample some of the freshly made guacamole, and they brought out more from the kitchen for us to snack on. We got to order from the Sabor menu, and drinks from the cocktail menu were included as well. I got the Aztec Martini, I think it was, which was part chocolate. All I can say about it is that I wouldn't recommend it unless you really like chocolate. For food I got a quesadilla, which, while good, was not as good as what I had at Rock N Brews in Orlando the night before embarkation. I also had churros for dessert, which were also good, but not great. After the lunch was over, they gave out sheets with the guacamole recipe, which was the only picture I actually took during the class.

 

 

After lunch, I don't entirely remember what we did. I think we went back to the stateroom and took a nap - as I mentioned, we woke up pretty early and were tired. While we were in the stateroom, we tried to call into the MDR to get a reservation, but it was the same deal as Day 1 - the only times available were between 8pm and 9pm. However, the person I was talking to suggested we could still come as walk-ins, which we decided to do.

 

It was the first formal night, so we spent a while getting ready. Even so, we got to dinner on the earlier side, I think before 6. Turns out, having a reservation was unnecessary. There were only a handful of people in line for a table, and I doubt we had to wait more than five minutes. We got seated at table 127 with Maryna, who was excellent - she spent some time chatting with us, gave good menu recommendations, and on later nights, after we requested her again, she remembered what we had told her previous nights.

 

 

 

For dinner, I started with the beef carpaccio, then moved onto a seafood linguini. I thought the carpaccio was okay, maybe a bit lacking in flavor, although the seafood linguini was good. My wife had the lobster bisque and then got the Duck a L'Orange. Again, the appetizer was just alright, but the duck was good.

 

After dinner, we went to the Royal promenade to get our photos taken. The promenade is a nice indoor area that runs through the heart of the ship on Deck 5. It has a lot of shops, as well as is home to Sorrento's Pizza and Cafe Promenade, which offers regular and specialty coffee as well as quick bites like paninis and shrimp rolls. The lines for photos were quite long (a recurring theme on the ship); by the time we actually got our photos taken at the stations we wanted, it was getting on close to 8pm and the lines had started dying down. If you want to get professional photos taken, I'd recommended waiting until the tail end of the night to do so.

 

While we were standing in line for photos, our cruise director gave a short speech from the Rising Tide bar, and then turned it over to the captain for a "welcome" speech. That day happened to be Memorial Day, and the cruise director made a mention of military service members, which was the only time during the day I heard some recognition of the holiday. That's not intended as a knock on Royal Caribbean, just an observation.

 

After getting our photos taken, we went back to the stateroom. We had reservations at 9 for Cats, the Broadway show on board in the main theater, but my wife was worn out from being in heels the whole night, and I admit I was tired as well, even after our nap, so we decided to skip it. I hadn't heard great things about Cats anyway, so I didn't feel bad that I was missing it. I think that night was the first night we got a towel animal, a rabbit, if I recall correctly. BTW, our stateroom attendant did a good job. We didn't make any special requests other than the first night when we asked for a corkscrew, but our room was always made up on time, and he also asked me about the problem we had reported to maintenance on day 1, so I was pretty happy with the level of service there.

[DonAntonio]

Day 3 - Labadee, Haiti

I was up pretty early again today. My wife slept in a little, so I decided to go roam the ship. I went to one of the upper decks to watch the ship come in to Labadee. There's a nice observation on Deck 14 that stretches most of the bow of the ship; you can only get to it by going through the stateroom corridor of the port side of the ship. I got a few pictures and took in the beauty of the island, which is dominated by forested mountains.

 

 

I decided to go get a small breakfast. I went to the Windjammer by myself and just got a pastry and a hard-boiled egg (which you have to deshell yourself, for some reason), and I got some smoked salmon for my wife. I brought everything back to the room, and we ate together on our balcony, which had a good view of Labadee. Once we ate and got ready, we got off the ship. It was still pretty early, probably around 9am, I think.

 

My plan after getting off the ship was to head to Columbus Cove, which is the farthest beach from the ship, but also seems to be the most recommended (probably in part because of the distance, causing the beach to be less crowded). We didn't have any excursions booked, like the zipline or one of the sandbar islands. I would have done the zipline if it weren't so damn expensive! Anyway, I was planning to take the one-way ferry over to Columbus Cove, but it wasn't on our side when we got off the ship, so we just took the tractor-pulled shuttle instead. The last stop on the shuttle didn't quite go to the beach, so we had to walk through the Haitian market village (or whatever it's called) - basically a bunch of stands set up with guys selling souvenirs of all varieties. It's the kind of thing where they'll try to start a conversation with you to lure you over to their shops, so you kind of have to just keep on walking.

 

We got to the beach as a lot of people were still getting situated. There are racks of beach loungers you can go take from over to where you want to sit. They had locals who would grab the loungers for you, but there weren't any in the area where we wanted to sit, and besides, I didn't feel like digging out a couple bucks for the inevitable expected tip, so I just grabbed a pair of loungers myself and parked them under a small tree.

 

The beach itself was quite nice. The water was not too cold, the sand was smooth and not rocky at all, and while it was no aquarium, there were several varieties of small fish that could be seen swimming around in the crystal-clear water. My wife and I aren't huge beach-goers, but we had a lot of fun and were able to relax in the sun as well.

 

 

 

I also go to try the famous Labadoozie - I ordered it from one of the bars rather than the roving guys walking around who sell it also. To create the drink, the bartender added in the rum and then added the cocktail slush from a big cooler on top of the rum without really mixing it. I didn't realize this and didn't mix it myself, which made my first sip through the straw quite a surprise! After I mixed it up, it tasted pretty good, although I don't really see what all the hype is about - it tasted pretty similar to a piña colada or other similar, sweet frozen drinks.

 

We decided to head back to the ship for lunch. It was actually before lunch had been served on Labadee, so I think it was probably just before 11am when we headed back. So probably a little under two hours on the beach for us, but as I said, we're not big beach people. We didn't go straight back to the ship, though, we stopped in at the Haitian Market, which is different than the Haitian Village in that the Market is one single building that contains rows of goods and is more akin to traditional shopping, whereas the Village are individual shops with different shopkeepers. My wife bought some wood-carved wine glasses, a necklace, and a shawl-thing. I, as the stereotypical husband, did not buy anything, but just stood around impatiently waiting for my wife to finish doing her thing :D

 

After our shopping, we walked the rest of the way back to the ship. We took a side route that afforded some nice views of the ship as well as short cliffs that look down onto crystal clear water.

 

 

 

We got back on as a lot of people were still getting off. I would guess we boarded at around 11:30 or so. We went to the Windjammer for lunch, which wasn't super crowded, as could be expected. I think I got a burger, which was good, although certainly not on the same level as Guy's Burger Joint on Carnival ships (probably not a fair comparison, though). My wife got something as well, but I can't remember what it was.

[DonAntonio]

Day 3 Continued

 

After lunch, we decided to head over to the spa. I mentioned that the tour we took on Day 1 included a massage "sampler", which is what got us interested. We've both had massages before, especially me, but I wasn't planning to get one on the ship due to the waaay inflated prices compared to even a high-end land-based spa. The sampler, plus the "screw it, I'm on vacation" mentality, was what did it for us; I guess that makes me a sucker, haha. Anyway, we went over to see if they could take us that afternoon. Because we were in port, their services were offered at their "value" rates, 10% cheaper than normal rates (but still super expensive). We booked a couple’s massage for 3:30pm, which would overlap with the ship's departure from the island, but that didn't really bother me or my wife (perhaps it should have, as I'll expand on later). My wife and I wanted different services - she wanted to try the heated stone massage while I just wanted a Swedish massage. They were able to accommodate that by charging separately for each service but still putting us in the same room.

 

Before our massage, my wife decided to go off and do her own thing, while I lounged around on the upper decks and was able to get a few more pictures of Labadee.

 

 

 

We met back up a while later and headed to the spa for our appointment. We showed up about 20 minutes early, and they had us wait in the "relaxation room", a circular room just behind the check-in desk with tea and water. The massage started normally enough, I chatted with the therapist (I don't know if that's the correct term - I'm assuming they're licensed, although I didn't ask) about what I wanted while my wife did the same, then the therapists left and my wife and I undressed and lied face down. The therapists came back in and started doing their thing. We had booked for 75 minutes, which includes a full body massage (as opposed to just back, for example). The massage itself was...okay. She used a LOT of oil, whereas other massages I've had, they only use enough to ensure their hands can move smoothly. Her technique seemed fine, although the level of pressure was a little inconsistent - not quite hard enough to relieve muscle tension but not quite light enough to be extremely relaxing. At one point I asked her to back off on the pressure because it was causing some pain, so it was a bit better after that. I'll say the overall experience wasn't bad, but also not the best massage I've ever had, and certainly not worth the price we paid, IMHO. It's really my only regret of the cruise.

 

The most interesting part of the massage wasn't actually the massage itself, though, but what happened during as the ship departed from Labadee. See, something you need to know about Oasis is that it has engines on the front of the ship. The Vitality Spa is also on the front of the ship! What this meant for us is that right around halfway into the massage, we start hearing these robotic sounds like giant servos moving things into place. This wasn't some distant sound you had to strain to hear, either; it sounded like it was just outside the room, almost. This went on for several minutes, and at one point (I'm assuming when the engines cut on), the room actually started shaking; it felt like what I imagine the inside of a washing machine feels like! Okay, okay, I'm exaggerating, a bit, but it certainly wasn't the most relaxing experience. I actually wasn't really annoyed by it, mostly just amused that the therapists were trying to pretend like nothing out of the ordinary was happening. It does seem like something we should have been warned about when we were booking though, as I could definitely see someone getting upset by this.

 

After our so-so massage, it was getting pretty close to dinner time. We had reservations at Izumi, the Japanese teppanyaki/sushi restaurant on board. We were doing the a la carte sushi section, rather than the hibachi section, which seemed crazy overpriced to me - $45 pp compared to ~$25 pp for a similar restaurant on land; I guess it's just popular enough that they can jack up the price like that. Anyway, the restaurant is pretty small, and I thought it was a bit barebones in decor, other than the cool samurai statue they have at the entrance. We took our time reviewing the menu, and eventually ordered two appetizers, some miso soup, a raw tuna dish, and two specialty rolls, one with crab and the other with lobster. We were looking forward to the "hot rock" dishes as well based on advanced research, but apparently that's not on this class of ship. Everything was very good, although if I were to go back again, I would probably order more sushi and less of the other stuff, although my wife was crazy about the tuna.

 

My wife ended up still being a bit hungry after dinner, so we went up the Windjammer and she got a bit more food while I grabbed some dessert. After dinner pt. 2, we had reservations to see the headliner, which this week was Rookie. Rookie is a classic rock cover band from Toronto, and when I say classic rock, I do mean classic, as in 50s and 60s. My wife and I like classic rock, but this music was a bit dated even for our tastes! Plus, we live around DC, where there's a lot of musical talent we can go see anytime, so after a few minutes, we decided to skip the rest of the show.

 

Instead, we went to "Who Wants to Feel Like a Millionaire". After a few minutes of technical difficulties (the one constant in life), they got the show going. It ended up being pretty entertaining, mostly because of the host, (Jacob, I think, from the Cruise Director's Staff), but also because of the first contestant, who was funny and quick on his feet. After the game show thing, we got back to the room to get some sleep before our day of active excursions in Falmouth.

[DonAntonio]

Day 4 - Falmouth, Jamaica

We woke up to another nice today. I forgot to mention it so far, but other than the rain we had on Day 1, it was pretty nice weather the whole time, a few cloudy days here or there, but we managed to avoid the rain almost entirely.

 

We decided to try something different for breakfast and went to Johnny Rockets, which charges a fee for lunch but is free for breakfast. My wife ordered an egg and cheese omelet and bacon, and I wanted a breakfast sandwich, sausage, egg, and cheese on an English muffin. It wasn't on the menu, and the waiter seemed a bit confused and told me they could bring out the things I asked for separately, but I would have to make the sandwich myself, which was fine. When the food came out, it was in fact in sandwich form, but the interesting thing was that instead of a sausage patty, they used a burger patty! I wasn't entirely sure that's what it was at first, but a bite into confirmed it. I decided to eat it anyway - I mean, why not, right? I'll just say that I think there's a reason that burger patties are not used in breakfast dishes. Next time, I think I'll just order each item separately and put the sandwich together myself (which is what I thought the waiter was suggesting in the first place). On the plus side though (kind of), getting to try the burger made me feel like I wasn't missing out on anything not trying JR's for lunch. The burger wasn't anything better than what I could get in the Windjammer, and it fact was cooked more what I usually like. Of course, maybe this was just because they don't usually cook burgers for breakfast, but even so, I don't feel bad that I skipped out on it for lunch.

 

After breakfast, we still had a bit of time before we had to meet for our excursion, so we went to the observation deck again to watch the ship come in.

 

 

 

 

At 9:45, we headed to the main theater to meet for our excursion. Our excursion for the day was to Green Grotto Caves and Dunn's River Falls. I'm not really sure why the meeting point was in the theater. They had probably dozens of excursions there encompassing hundreds of passengers, and it just created a huge bottleneck with everyone trying to get out once the ship is cleared. Maybe it's so people don't congregate around the gangway? There was supposedly someone leading us out, but I don't know if we got lost in the chaos or what, because once we got off the ship, we had to find our own way.

 

We got over to the shore excursion area, and they led us to a bus. Our guide introduced herself - she was a local Jamaican and told our group there were no stupid questions, which she may have come to regret (more on that in a bit). She gave us some information about the area and a bit of history on our way to the first excursion. Once we got to Green Grotto Caves, we were handed off to a tour guide at the caves. The caves themselves were really cool - interesting geological formations and underground water areas (no swimming) - and the guide gave us a lot of interesting history. Once we got through, there were glasses of much appreciated punch waiting for us.

 

 

 

 

We got back on the bus and headed for our next destination, Dunn's River Falls. This is a natural waterfall formation several hundred feet in height. It covers at least the same distance horizontally, so it's not like it's a sheer face or anything, which is actually why it's such an attraction - it can be climbed without significant danger. This is a popular attraction, and there's a lot built up around it, almost like a mini-theme park. The popularity also means something familiar to any Oasis-goer: lines. We waited for probably about 15 minutes to get introduced to our falls guide, and then waited another 10 or so minutes for him to pull more people into his group.

 

Finally, once we got going, it was sloooow. We would move a step or two, then wait, then move another step or two, etc. There were a lot of people on the falls, multiple groups going in parallel which sometimes had to converge at choke points. However, once we got past the initial, say, 5 or 10 minutes, it got going a little faster. The falls themselves were really cool - fast at times, with section where the water gets a little deeper and you have to wade through. I didn't take my phone off the bus with me, or I would have gotten some pictures. You don't have to be super fit to do the climbing; we were with a group of little old Asian ladies, some of whom had to be at least 60, but they were following along like troopers.

 

Even though going up the falls was cool, I still got the impression sometimes that we were like sheep being herded rather than actually getting to explore the falls. If anyone got too far off the route the guide wanted them to take, they'd get an "AY AY AY AY AY" directed their way. I get that it's partially about safety, but I also kind of get the feeling it's to make sure everyone stays together so that they can get asked for tips at the end. The guide was really pushy about tips. When we reached the summit, the first thing he said was "What have you got for me?" I didn't bring any cash off the bus with me, which I told him, as did a few other guests, and he said he would follow us back to the bus, which he proceeded to do, and waited around while people went into the bus to get him something. I did end up giving him a tip, but it left a sour taste in my mouth.

 

The bus ride back was pretty uneventful. The main interesting thing was this girl sitting across from us who kept asking the most facepalm-y type questions. She was doing it on the way over too, but since the trip back took longer, she had a lot more chances to get questions in. Highlights include, "Why are the houses different colors from each other?", "Are there a lot of accidents from people driving on the wrong side of the road?", and my personal favorite, "The ground looks like it's wet. Did it rain here?" I don't normally make fun of people for dumb questions or mistakes - hey, it happens to all of us now and then - but some of her questions made me and my wife cringe a bit.

 

Once we got back to port, we tipped our guide and driver, and then we did a bit of shopping (read, my wife did a bit of shopping while I waited outside getting sand out of my aqua shoes, which are required for Dunn's River Falls, btw).

[DonAntonio]

Day 4 Continued

 

By the time we got back on the ship, I think it was around 4pm ship's time. We hadn't eaten since breakfast, but since it was so close to dinner time, we decided just to wait.

 

We went to the MDR before departure and requested a table with Maryna again. They seated in the same table we had on Day 2, and we were helped right away. I don't quire remember what I had...I think it was the escargot? I know I had that one night, I just don't know if it was that night. At any rate, the escargot was good - nice and garlicky and cheesy. I don't remember what I had for an entree at all, unfortunately. I guess it wasn't very memorable, haha. I think my wife started with a shrimp cocktail and had a chicken dish for her main. She though the chicken was kind of dry and was actually better in the Windjammer. Overall, not the best night in the MDR, although still not terrible. It was partially saved (for me) by the crème brûlée, which was great, and I actually ended up asking for a second one (or rather, responding "yes" when our waiter offered, haha). My wife had some no-sugar-added dessert (she was trying to maintain some semblance of a diet on the cruise), but I don't remember what it was on that or some of the other nights.

 

The show we had reserved for this night was Oasis of Dreams, located at the Aquatheater in the Boardwalk neighborhood.

 

 

 

Y'all, this show blew my socks off. It was absolutely amazing. Maybe it's just because I've never seen a diving show in person before, but this show kept me engaged the whole time. At no point was I checking my watching to see how much longer is left, which I do sometimes even with shows I like. I would have gladly paid to see this show in Vegas, and the fact that it's included in the cruise fare is awesome to me, and certainly blows Carnival's "entertainment" out of the water (pun intended). If you don't see any other show on Oasis, see this one.

 

 

After the show, we headed back to the stateroom, and the rest of our evening was pretty uneventful. I think this was another night we had a towel animal. I think it was some sort of crane...thing? Maybe with a baby crane next to it? I wish I had taken a picture so I could ask for other opinions. Oh well.

[DonAntonio]

Day 5 - At Sea

Day 5 was another day at sea. We continued our trend of waking up fairly early - I don't think I slept in past 8 or maybe 8:30 on any day, even though I would have liked to. I guess months of waking up for work is a habit hard to break. We had a view of what I later determined to be the Cayman Islands off our balcony, although it's kind of hard to see in the picture.

 

 

I was still pretty full from dinner the night before, so I don't think I got any breakfast. I may have grabbed a pastry or something from Cafe Promenade. After we were up and about, my wife went to another cycling class while I gave another go at the rock climbing wall. It was definitely more crowded than the first time I went, and I did have to wait in a short line, but it moves pretty quick and I was able to try after just a few minutes of waiting. I still wasn't able to quite make it to the top, but it'll give me something to shoot for next time!

 

Later in the morning, we went to Star Wars trivia, which was hosted by Jacob, who I mentioned earlier. We (meaning mostly me, as my wife isn't much of a Star Wars nerd, haha) did okay, getting 10 out of the 15 or 16 questions. One group ("Empire Did Nothing Wrong") got all questions correct and won the grand prize of...Royal Caribbean pens! If you want a perfect score, you have to be a serious Star Wars geek, as there are some Extended Universe questions on there in additional to all the expected movie stuff.

 

For lunch that day, I returned to Park Cafe to have another pair of the amazing roast beef on weck sandwiches. My wife wasn't hungry at the time, but soon after we left Central Park, she did end up getting a hankering for something, so we headed over to Boardwalk so she could try out the Dog House.

 

There actually wasn't anyone behind the counter when we got there. Someone else who was waiting eventually went to knock on the door to the kitchen, and someone came out and helped us. When he came out, he was carrying a try of hot dogs, so I'm assuming that he was preparing food in the back. After getting food for my wife and the other person waiting, he proceeded to head right back to the kitchen, leaving the counter unattended yet again! We ate at the tables across the way, and during that time, I saw several people come up, stand around for a minute, and leave, probably assuming the Dog House was just closed. If it is the case that they have the same guy preparing as well as serving the food, that seems like a really knuckleheaded decision on the part of RC, even to save costs. Maybe there's another explanation - perhaps the normal counter server was on break or something.

 

Anyway, after lunch, we didn't really do too much. We had a few things highlighted on the Cruise Compass, but decided just to take it easy, I think I was just reading on one of the upper decks or something like that. We did decide to swing by the photo area to look at our formal night photos. They have digital machines where you can pull up your photos (it uses facial recognition software), and they also have the traditional binders where you can view your photo prints. We ended up buying one of the prints, which was $20. I would have preferred to just buy a digital copy, but you can't do that unless you buy a package, the cheapest of which was six photos for (I think) $100. Ah well. I just ended up scanning the print when I got home.

 

That night was the second formal night, which we attended in the main dining room. For a starter, I had the French onion soup while my wife had both the tomato soup as well as a Vidalia onion tart. My French onion soup was hot - like, burn your mouth hot - and it stayed that way for a long time. I don't know if the cheese and bread were acting as insulators or what, but it was hard to eat even minutes later. When I wasn't burning my mouth, I thought it was very good though :D My wife's appetizers were both good as well.

 

For our mains, I ordered both the prime rib (medium-rare) as well as the cheese tortelloni. My wife got the lobster. My steak was good, although not quite as rare as I'd like; with prime rib, though, it can be kind of hard to tell, as you won't always have that red center like you do with, say, ribeye (at least in my experience). The tortelloni was also fairly good, although it came in a blue cheese sauce that gave it kind of a weird flavor. I wish I had asked for it with alfredo or marinara. My wife's first lobster was pretty good, although a little small. She was on the fence about getting another one, although I encouraged her to, and when Maryna saw her hesitation, she said she would bring another one out. The second lobster wasn't quite as good. It was very soft, too soft, and had almost a corn meal-like texture to it, which was pretty off-putting. Still, since my wife hadn't been entirely sure that she had wanted it anyway, we didn't ask for a replacement.

 

For dessert, I had the cheesecake, while my wife tried the artisanal cheese plate. The cheesecake was good, although not quite as good for me as the crème brûlée. The cheese plate was also good, although the variety of cheeses was pretty predictable - brie, swiss, cheddar, etc.

 

After dinner, we thought about getting more pictures taken but decided against it after seeing the lines in the Royal Promenade. Instead, we went back to our rooms and changed before our show. That night, it was Frozen in Time at the ice rink (Studio B). This was another show that I thought was really cool and held my attention. I also don't think I've seen an ice show in person before, and it was definitely a memorable experience. Another cool thing was that they had a "guest artist" who performed (?) about halfway through the ice show. She did sand art, where she had a bunch of sand on a lit surface that was projected onto the rear wall of the studio, and she used her hands to manipulate the sand in such a way that it created different images. I know it sounds kind of weird, but look up "sand art" on YouTube and you'll see what I'm talking about. She used the sand-images to tell the story of The Princess and the Pea - the ice show was themed around Hans Cristian Anderson. Both her and the ice skating were all amazing, and another show that I would have paid to see.

 

 

The only other thing we did before we headed back to the stateroom was head over to Central Park, where a duo of a pianist and a violist played classical jazz music. I hadn't ever heard a violin in a jazz piece before, which was interesting, and it was nice and relaxing sitting there listening to the music at night surround by all the plants.

[DonAntonio]

Day 6 - Cozumel, Mexico

The ship got in to port pretty early, at around 7, so I wasn't up quite early enough to see it come in. For breakfast, we shook it up a little and ate at Park Cafe. Although the selection of food isn't anything like what you'd find in the Windjammer, they do have a variety of breakfast sandwiches and other items that would be difficult to find elsewhere on the ship. I got an egg and cheese sandwich on a muffin, while my wife got a sandwich as well as a breakfast taco, also egg and cheese but wrapped up in a tortilla instead. It didn't blow me away, but it was good food and it was nice getting to eat in Central Park.

 

We took our time getting off the ship. We had a reservation at Mr. Sancho's, one of the all-inclusive beach resorts on Cozumel island, but it didn't even open until 8am local time (an hour behind ship's time), and we didn't want to be there right when it opened. I think it was around 9:30 or 10 ship's time when we got off, and we walked through the port straight to the taxis without stopping at any of the shops (although they make you walk by enough of them). The taxi ride over was a short 15 minutes and $17 (I just gave the driver a $20 to cover tip).

 

When we got to Mr. Sancho's, we were guided to the check-in desk. The lady couldn't find our reservation when I gave her my name, so I pulled out the reservation confirmation on my phone, which I had pre-downloaded at the airport before we left. After I showed her the reservation, she found it without issue and charged us the rest of the amount past the deposit.

 

We had booked the "Romantic Day on the Beach" package, or something like that, which included all the stuff the regular reservation does - unlimited food, drink, access to the pool and beach, and kayak rentals - but also includes a cabana and two 30-minute massages, one for each person. I think if we were doing it again, we would have just booked the regular package. The massages were nice - I'd even go so far to say they were more relaxing than on the ship - but were just 30 minutes, so only included our backs. Plus, our backs ended up covered in oil, which made sitting on the plastic chairs at the table for the rest of the day less comfortable, at least for me. The cabana was nice, but we didn't end up using it nearly enough to justify the cost (I think the whole packages is over twice the price of a regular booking).

 

 

The food and drinks were just alright. I guess I wasn't really expecting authentic Mexican food, but to be honest, I actually found that I enjoy the food a lot better at Uncle Julio's, one of the Tex-Mex chains around where we live. The drinks were good but pretty small, served in plastic cups. I mostly ordered fruity drinks, like piña coladas, and I couldn't taste the alcohol, although I wasn't sure if that was because they were skimping or just because you aren't supposed to taste it in drinks like that. I didn't really feel the effects even after a few drinks. My wife on the other hand, at one point ordered a long island iced tea, and they definitely were not skimping on that one, let me tell you!

 

We tried the beach a bit, but it wasn't as nice as in Labadee, and the water seemed colder as well, although perhaps that was because the day was a bit cooler. We had rain forecast, and it was definitely cloudy all day, but the rain thankfully didn't really materialize. We also did the kayak rental, which was fun, although the area you're allowed to go in is pretty confined. We would have enjoyed it more if we could go a bit farther out to sea, although that was where the people who rented jet skis were riding.

 

We ended up heading back to the ship at around 2pm. It was still fairly early in the day, but we wanted a bit of time to relax on the ship, and also, my wife wanted to do some shopping in port. After another short taxi ride back, we got to the port, and my wife went in a few of the shops. She ended up buying a leather belt and tasting some tequila; after three or four shops, I told her I was going back on the ship, with the intention of letting her continue shopping. She considered it, but ultimately decided just to come get back on the ship with me.

 

As we were walking down the pier back towards the ship, the wind picked up a bit, and actually flung my wife's lanyard so that her SeaPass card and driver's license flew out behind her! Fortunately, she was able to pick them up, with the help of a few people that were behind us, but it definitely raised the blood pressure for a moment or two!

 

Back on the ship, we hung out for a bit. My wife debated going back out to shop some more but again decided against it, and I think she ended up taking a quick nap. As we got near the time the ship was scheduled to depart, we headed to the upper decks (15 or 16). I got some soft-serve ice cream from one of the stations - there's on in the Wipeout Cafe, and one each behind the Pool Bar and the Sand Bar. After that, we headed up to look of the starboard side of the ship to see if anyone would miss the ship. There wasn't any show for us, though, as it looked like everyone got back on by about 10 minutes before the ship was supposed to leave (which is still 20 minutes after all-aboard, but you know how some people are). I also got a few pictures.

 

 

 

By this time, it was getting to be around dinnertime, so we went again to Deck 3 for our last dinner in the MDR. Maryna's tables were all taken, but the host staff spoke to her via radio, and she agreed to serve us even though we were seated outside of her usual tables, which I really appreciated. The service was a bit slower than previous nights, but we weren't in a huge hurry, at least at first, so it was okay.

 

For food, I had Asian-style pork tacos, followed by tagliatelle, with tres leches for dessert. The pork taco was really good, although notice I used the singular - the dish only comes with one. I probably would have ordered more, but I actually wasn't too hungry, still being pretty full from Mr. Sancho's earlier in the day. The tagliatelle was also good, with garlic and mushrooms in a pesto-based sauce. I think I actually preferred it over a tagliatelle carbonara I ordered at Giovanni's the next day. The tres leches was fine, although I didn't enjoy as much as the crème brûlée or cheesecake.

 

My wife had salmon tartare, tiger shrimp, and NSA cherries jubilee. She was crazy about the salmon tartare, which I thought was gross, but to each their own. The tiger shrimp was good, as was the cherries jubilee (for a no-sugar-added dish).

 

Because the service took so long, we actually ended up cutting it close for our 8pm show. Still even after we finished eating, I waited around for a bit so we could say bye to Maryna. She apologized for the slow service, but I told her not to worry about it, and we thanked her for being so great all week (she told us she was actually heading home two weeks after our cruise, so hopefully she'll be enjoying the time off soon!)

 

Our 8pm show was Come Fly With Me, which featured a mix of traditional singing/dancing set pieces as well as some acrobatic stunt work, like rope dancers and what I would describe as synchronized bungee trapeze artists. The singing and dancing was very much take it or leave it for me; it reminded me a lot of Carnival's shows, most of which I skipped out on. The acrobatic acts were pretty cool though. Unlike the diving and ice skating shows, this one is probably not something I would have paid much to see, but it was still a good way to spend the better part of an hour. (Sorry for the poor picture quality)

 

 

After the show, I think we just headed back to the stateroom. I considered going to the Quest gameshow, but it wasn't until 11pm, which was after the time we were going to sleep most nights. I turned on the TV to see if they were broadcasting it; I don't think they were, but they did have a replay of the Love and Marriage Game Show, which we caught the tail-end of. It was funny at time, but somewhat diminished by the cruise director who was running it - Dan-Dan was his name, I guess? He didn't really know when to let certain jokes go, and it made it more cringy than it needed to be. I am a bit regretful we missed Quest, although maybe a bit less so after seeing the cruise director in action (sorry to any Dan Dan Fans out there!)

 

We also had our last towel animal of the voyage, a monkey hanging from the ceiling. It was pretty cute, but had a face that my wife thought made it look kind of creepy.

 

[DonAntonio]

Day 7 - At Sea

For our last day at sea, we ended up doing quite a bit of activities throughout the ship. My wife considered doing another cycling class, but didn't end up waking up quite in time for it. I meanwhile wanted to check out the Central Park walking tour. I initially thought it started at 9:30am rather than 9, so I ended up being 5-10 minutes late, but I didn't miss too much, thankfully. Our guide was the chief gardener (I didn't catch his official title), and he told us about many of the different plants, as well as all the work that went into and continues to go into installing and maintaining the various plants. I say "installing" because it turns out that each plant is in a separate pot, even the trees. They grew the plants elsewhere and then took all the plants on to the ship - they actually had to use cranes to lift in most of the trees! Our guide also showed us pictures of what Central Park looked like before all the plants were put in, which was quite interesting as well. If you and up being awake for it (I know some people like to sleep in on their vacations), I would highly recommend going on the tour yourself if you're on the ship.

 

For most of the rest of the morning, we didn't have too much planned. We got some views of Cuba as we sailed north towards Florida. I got a picture, but it's even harder to make out than the one of the Cayman Islands, so I won't bother posting it. We ate our final lunch in the Windjammer, although I don't really remember what I got. I remember one day - maybe it was this one - I got a leg of fried chicken that didn't end up being very good (it was no Zaxby's). I also got a burger, I think.

 

Anyway, after lunch, we headed over to Boardwalk. I didn't tell my wife why, but she saw when we got their and gave me the look of annoyance she's been honing since we got together. The reason? SHREK!!! Royal Caribbean has a deal I guess with DreamWorks, so all the characters from Shrek, Madagascar, and probably a few other movies were on the ship. I somehow convinced my wife to agree to be in a picture with her, me, and Shrek, which was taken by a staff member. Afterwards, we went on the carousel (another activity that needed some cajoling to get her to agree).

 

We headed over to the Aquatheater to sit for a moment, and my wife considered doing rock climbing, since she hadn't tried it yet. However, one look at the line convinced her otherwise. It stretched down the stairs leading up to the rock wall equipment desk. This is actually a complaint of mine - never once during the cruise did I see them open the second rock climbing wall, even when the line got quite long. Maybe this is another cost-saving measure, but I think it's kind of silly to install two rock climbing walls on your ship but only ever have one open at a time.

 

Later in the afternoon, we had a choice between trying to catch the start of another showing of Cats or going to a Harry Potter trivia. Given all the things I've heard about Cats, we decided to try out Harry Potter trivia instead. It was in the Schooner Bar, which is pretty generic, but has a few nautical-themed decor here and there.

 

 

The trivia session itself was packed. My wife and I were there 10 minutes before it started, I think, and we ended up having to share a seat at the bar. We did slightly worse at this one than at Star Wars, still getting 10 points even though there were more questions. Without giving too much away, I'll say that there may be bonus points in it for you if you're an avid reader of JK Rowling's blog (Jacob ran the trivia again, and I definitely get the sense he's a huge nerd, which I intend as a compliment).

 

After trivia, we decided to head over to the theater to give Cats a try after all. Even though we were about 30 minutes later, I don't feel that we missed too much, just because there's not that much to miss. There is almost no dialogue outside the music, and the play I think must require you to have some prior knowledge, unless you already have a pretty solid handle on what a "jellicle ball" and "rumpleteazer" are. Technically, the show was great - cool set, interesting costumes, good choreography - I think the problem is just that the selected show doesn't really make sense for a casual, cruise audience. I would love to see something like Spamalot or The Book of Mormon on the ship, although I doubt we'd ever see the latter due to its R-rated content.

 

 

We left Cats at intermission, about 30 to 45 minutes after we showed up. We decided to go to general knowledge trivia, which was also in the Schooner Bar but wasn't nearly as crowded as Harry Potter trivia. It was run by a different guy than Jacob, who wasn't nearly as funny although he seemed to think

that he was. The questions were pretty hard - as an example, one question was something like, "What's the name of the horizontal support across the top of a door or window?" ("Lintel", if you're wondering). We only ended up getting 6 right out of 20, and even the winning group only got like 12 or 13.

 

For dinner, we had a 6pm reservation at Giovanni's Table, the specialty Italian restaurant on board. We got there a bit early, maybe by 10 minutes, and were seated right away at an outside table (which we requested). Our waiter came by quickly and introduced himself and poured us olive oil for our bread, which wasn't actually at the table yet. After he left, he took a loooong time getting back to the table, which was especially surprising considering that they didn't seem particular busy.

 

Once our waiter finally came back to the table, we gave our orders. We did eventually get bread, although it took quite a while. My wife also ordered a cocktail, a lavender daiquiri - yes, lavender - which confused our waiter (and earned her an eye roll from me). The waiter checked with the bartender though and was able to bring it out after a while. I tried it and have to admit I actually thought it was pretty good - really sweet, almost candy-like.

 

For our starters, we had beef carpaccio, tuna crudo, and grilled octopus. The carpaccio seemed kind of bland to me, although I don't eat a lot of carpaccio, so maybe that's how it's supposed to taste. My wife enjoyed her tuna, and we both really like the octopus - it wasn't too chewy like you might think of if you've had octopus before.

 

For the mains, I ordered a half portion each of gnocchi and tagliatelle alla carbonara. My wife ordered veal ossobuco on the recommendation of the waiter. He also brought out an order of bucatini alla bolognese, for no particular reason as far as I could tell (not that we were complaining). The gnocchi was very good - nice consistency and flavor. My wife also liked the ossobuco, although it was a lot of somewhat heavy food and she kind of wished she had gotten the shrimp dish instead. The carbonara, on the other hand, wasn't too great. The sauce it came with was way too liquidy for that kind of dish, leaving it almost soupy. Fortunately, I thought the bucatini was pretty good, so that kind of made up for it. Maybe that's why he brought it out, haha.

 

For dessert, my wife was too full, but I tried out a double order of cannoli (two cannoli per order for four total). I come from an Italian family, so the cannoli weren't the best I've had, but they were alright.

 

Overall, I don't know that the meal was worth the $30 a head that we paid. The pasta didn't seem that much better than what we got in the MDR, although my wife feels that the quality of her food was better, if a little inconsistent. The service was also slower than what I'd expect at a for-fee restaurant. All-in-all, the only specialty restaurant I think I'd return to is Izumi. Sabor had good guacamole, but the other items I ordered there don't really justify a return visit. I know, though, there are some people who are in love with Sabor, so again, to each his own.

 

That night, we decided to go to the comedy show in the main theater. It was the same comedians that had been on all week, but they had new material for that night. We didn't need reservations and got a seat close to the front (but not too close - they do interact with audience members in this show too). The first show we went to was the family friendly show, which was funny, although I think I could at times that the comedians were holding back. After the show, we went up to Central Park to enjoy more music by the string/keyboard duo we listened to on Day 5. After a few minutes of that, we decided to go to the second comedy show as well at 10:30pm, which was also different material and well worth it.

 

When we got pack to the stateroom, we packed up as much stuff as we could and then got ready for our last night. We were doing a self-assisted debarkation (aka "carry your own damn bags"), so we didn't have to worry about getting our bags outside the stateroom or anything like that.

[DonAntonio]

Debarkation and Travel Home

We woke up just before our alarms at 7:15am on the final day. The ship was already docked by the time we woke, and we had a view out of our balcony that was just lovely.

 

 

There was already a guy out there taking off the dividers between the balconies, I'm assuming so they could do some maintenance before the next crop of guests arrived.

 

After getting up, my wife was kind of in a rush, but I took my time getting ready. We went over to Cafe Promenade to get a final breakfast snack and a coffee (or hot chocolate in my case, as I'm not a coffee drinker). We went back to our rooms, grabbed our bags, and then left the stateroom for the last time. We headed to Deck 5, port side, which is where the debarkation instruction sheet said to go, although this was bad info as debarkation actually ended up being on the starboard side.

 

The line to get off the ship was very short, and we only waited a minute or two. We got down to the cruise terminal building, where the line to get through customs was a bit longer. Even so, I doubt we waited for more than 20 minutes. It's expedited because apparently the rules have changed where you don't have to fill out a declarations card unless you're over an allowance (I think it's more than $800 worth of goods or something like that).

 

By the time we got through customs, it was about 8:15. Our Cortrans shuttle back to the airport was scheduled for 9am, but they actually were able to get us on a shuttle that left right about when we exited the terminal, which was nice.

 

The Orlando airport and flight back were pretty uneventful, other than a mishap where we went to the airport lounge in one concourse, but didn't realize that when you leave the concourse, you have to go through security again to get to a different one (where our gate was). Luckily, we have TSA Precheck, so it only took us five minutes to get through security. The flight back was quite loud. It was with United and was on an older plane, I think; of course, every airline has older planes in their fleet, but given United's recent problems with customer relation gaffes, it didn't exactly improve my mental image of them. Still, the flight got back without incident, and we were able to get home and sleep in our own bed again, which is always nice, even after a cruise.

 

Random Tidbits and Final Thoughts

A few things I forgot to mention in my review or didn't fit elsewhere:

 

First, I wanted to mention our drink packages. We didn't do the alcohol package (we only ended up drinking ~$100 worth of alcohol, so it definitely would not have been worth it). However, I am a big Coke drinker and did end up getting the soda package. At $8/day, I feel like it was worth it, at least for me. If I had tallied up every soda I ordered, I think I may have come out slightly ahead or maybe just broken even, but to me the bigger value is in the convenience - not having to have a waiter or bartender take your card every time you want to order a $3 soda. Getting the soda package is also the only way you can use the Coca Cola freestyle machines located in the Windjammer, next to Sorrento's, and in the arcade, which is a nice perk. They give you special cups, and the machines will only dispense sodas into the cups. You can keep them at the end of the cruise, and they make a nice souvenir.

 

As I briefly mentioned earlier, my wife got the specialty coffee card, which is like a punch card for espresso, lattes, etc. I think it's fairly new that you can buy these ahead of the cruise on Cruise Planner, because our check-in agent said that she had never seen one before. The main place my wife used this card was at the Cafe Promenade, although I think you can also use it at restaurants as well. It can be shared, so if you're a couple who both like specialty coffee enough to have one each a day, I think it would be well worth it. As is, I think it was just barely worth it for us - we did end up using 13 of the 15 punches (mostly my wife, although I got two or three freshly-brewed hot chocolates), but my wife sometimes felt like she was ordering something just to use the card rather because she actually wanted to. Worst case, though, it's only like 30 bucks, so it's not like you're taking a huge loss either way.

 

One thing that happened in the middle of the cruise, I don't remember exactly when, maybe Day 4 or 5, is that we got a call from Guest Services asking if we would be willing to move staterooms so that they could do some maintenance in the room. I asked the staff member to clarify, and he said it was just routine maintenance, that nothing was broken or anything like that. He also said it was up to our preference whether we were willing to move or not. I was initially hesitant, so he said he would give us some form of compensation, like a free dinner or something like that. I asked him to hold on and talked it over with my wife, and we decided that it was too much of a hassle to move, even if we got something out of it. I told the staff member, and he said that was fine and to contact him if we changed our minds (we didn't).

 

I mentioned the lines on the ship a couple of times. I know that this is just a part of life on a big ship, just like going to a theme park in summer, but I wish they would take some steps to mitigate them. In a few places, the solution is just better staffing (waiver desk, rock climbing wall, Dog House). In other places I feel like they could reduce the lines with a ticket-based system: take a ticket, come back in X minutes, present your ticket, get in a much shorter line. I know it'll probably never happen, but I feel like they could do a better job with this somehow.

 

One thing I forgot to mention is that we took advantage of the card room on the ship. Yes, there is a card room! This room is...weird. Rather, the room itself is pretty normal - it's a bunch of tables of various sizes, with a cabinet you can borrow various board games and jigsaw puzzles from, and also a set of desktop computers for those who bought the internet package but need to access it on a desktop, for some reason (I don't think there were printers, although I wasn't looking that hard). No, the weird part about the room is the variety of its patrons. The first time we got there, there was a group of 20- or 30-somethings playing Dungeons and Dragons in the back, an old couple doing a puzzle, a few kids playing a casual game of checkers, and what looked like a guy and maybe his dad playing Mahjong. That in itself isn't too weird, I guess, but you throw in the AA meeting that started up a few minutes after we got in, and the room gets kind on an odd vibe to it, with people's heart wrenching stories punctuated by goblin-slaying and mahjong tiles being shuffled. Still, I'm glad the room exists, and it's one that I'm guessing on newer ships has been replaced by some specialty restaurant or bar, similar to the library on Deck 11, which we saw but never went into. Although I didn't take any pictures of the card room, I did get a quick hallway picture of the library. You can see it has a few chairs but no tables.

 

 

Alright, that's all the random thoughts I can think of at the moment. Overall, what do I think of the cruise? I thought it was a really awesome vacation! The activities on the ship were fun, though sometimes marred by long lines. The food I though was pretty high quality, other than consistency issues here or there, and I thought it was about on par with Carnival (although I will give Carnival credit in that they have more good venues that are not an extra fee). The ports of call were nice, and I think Labadee in particular was more fun than I was expecting. Finally, the entertainment just blew me away, and not just once either, but show after show. I'm really happy we tried out Royal Caribbean and tried out Oasis, and my only regret is that I feel we may have spoiled the other ships in the fleet for ourselves (with maybe the exception of the Quantum-class ships). Altogether, a great way to spend a week. Thanks for sticking with me through this whole review! If you have any questions, feel free to ask, and I'll try to answer within a day or so.

[kathylynnt]

Thanks for a wonderful review. We are going in a few weeks. Can't wait! :)

[JamesEM]

Thanks for your review......

[whitshel]

Great review! We were on her this past January, had a great time. You can check out my live review I did on her in my signature when the post cruise depression kicks in :)

[cynt]

Thanks for the review. I love the oasis class ships. My husband has tried 2 carnival ships so far. His 3rd ship will be the allure in October. I'm Hoping he loves it! [emoji16][emoji16][emoji16]

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Forums mobile app

[3happykids!]

Wonderful review. THanks!

[perfect match]

Thank you for your review! I enjoyed going on vacation with you and your wife. :D

 

DH and I are back on Oasis in just over 90 days and we can't wait to get back aboard! :cool:

[wendyam76]

Thank you so much for such a comprehensive review! We are thinking of taking Cortrans shuttle too and wondered what time they picked you up? We would prefer to be at the ship earlier than 12.15.

Wendy

[liberiben]

We also were on that week. I almost booked Mr Sanchos, but kept debating if we’d enjoy it. Glad we skipped it. As for the rock wall issue, the sport staff were down by 5 employees that week. Too many had contracts that ended and not enough new contracts came. So they were spread very thin. I’m pretty sure they didn’t have enough employees for both, just a guess.

[ricka47]

We were on this sailing as well and had a good time. However, this was our third Oasis sailing in about four years and the decline of the quality in the MDR since the "new" menus were introduced was really noticeable to us in the last two sailings. In fact, about half-way through the cruse we just stopped going completely.

 

I remember driving home from a Christmas cruise on the Oasis in 2014 and saying, "that was the closest that you could come to a perfect cruise." We were in the MDR every night for that one. When we sailed on the Oasis in 2017 and then in 2018, we didn't have that same discussion.

 

We are Diamond members and have been loyal to Royal over the years. But, the MDR food has declined so much in our opinion that we will consider other options in the future knowing full well that cost containment is important to all of the mainstream cruise lines. So, we're not hopeful that we'll see much of an improvement without having to move up to one of the luxury lines.

[cruzeluver]

Really enjoyed your review. Thank you so much for sharing! We were on Oasis last Fall and will be back on board next month!

 

I was surprised you were told that even with anytime dining that there is normally a charge for Solarium Bistro at dinner. That was not the case last Fall. Can anyone confirm is that is now the case? We have a 5 night dining package booked but planned to do Solarium Bistro for the other two nights, and we have anytime dining.

[ricka47]

Really enjoyed your review. Thank you so much for sharing! We were on Oasis last Fall and will be back on board next month!

 

I was surprised you were told that even with anytime dining that there is normally a charge for Solarium Bistro at dinner. That was not the case last Fall. Can anyone confirm is that is now the case? We have a 5 night dining package booked but planned to do Solarium Bistro for the other two nights, and we have anytime dining.

 

We were booked twice at the Solarium Bistro and it was complimentary and good!

[liberiben]

We no longer step foot into the MDR. We just pay for the dining package. Sure, the quality has gone down there significantly too, but’s it’s about on par with the food 10+ years ago served in the MDR. We too are Diamond,and we have sailed every other non-luxury line. RCI is still our favorite, unfortunately decline is service is everywhere I think.

[ricka47]

We no longer step foot into the MDR. We just pay for the dining package. Sure, the quality has gone down there significantly too, but’s it’s about on par with the food 10+ years ago served in the MDR. We too are Diamond,and we have sailed every other non-luxury line. RCI is still our favorite, unfortunately decline is service is everywhere I think.

 

 

 

Right - we may have to go that route as well and face the fact that what we used to enjoy in MDR is long gone. If you book the dining packages, it’s not that much of an extra cost.

 

 

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[vpat48]

Thanks for the great review. I was also on the same sailing and we were directly above you on the 10th floor. I definitely was right behind you in the checkin line and was not so thrilled when what seems like 100 people jumped in.

 

Labadee was very good, and Columbus Cove was the best of the unrestricted ones. Great views of the ship. We walked over to adrenaline beach & the waves were too big for my liking. I was able to snag a great sale price on the Zip line, so i did that solo and it was quite fun even though it only lasts about 45 seconds.

 

We did a private tour to Dunn Falls & Blue Hole and it was actually relief that we could climb the falls at our pace and take pictures whenever we wanted. Cozumel is always a blah for me and next time i might not get off the ship. I honestly don't enjoy the beaches there.

 

Signed---The not so interesting 2nd contestant on Who Wants to be a Millionaire :)

[pajazz28]

Day 3 Continued

 

After lunch, we decided to head over to the spa. I mentioned that the tour we took on Day 1 included a massage "sampler", which is what got us interested. We've both had massages before, especially me, but I wasn't planning to get one on the ship due to the waaay inflated prices compared to even a high-end land-based spa. The sampler, plus the "screw it, I'm on vacation" mentality, was what did it for us; I guess that makes me a sucker, haha. Anyway, we went over to see if they could take us that afternoon. Because we were in port, their services were offered at their "value" rates, 10% cheaper than normal rates (but still super expensive). We booked a couple’s massage for 3:30pm, which would overlap with the ship's departure from the island, but that didn't really bother me or my wife (perhaps it should have, as I'll expand on later). My wife and I wanted different services - she wanted to try the heated stone massage while I just wanted a Swedish massage. They were able to accommodate that by charging separately for each service but still putting us in the same room.

 

Before our massage, my wife decided to go off and do her own thing, while I lounged around on the upper decks and was able to get a few more pictures of Labadee.

 

 

 

We met back up a while later and headed to the spa for our appointment. We showed up about 20 minutes early, and they had us wait in the "relaxation room", a circular room just behind the check-in desk with tea and water. The massage started normally enough, I chatted with the therapist (I don't know if that's the correct term - I'm assuming they're licensed, although I didn't ask) about what I wanted while my wife did the same, then the therapists left and my wife and I undressed and lied face down. The therapists came back in and started doing their thing. We had booked for 75 minutes, which includes a full body massage (as opposed to just back, for example). The massage itself was...okay. She used a LOT of oil, whereas other massages I've had, they only use enough to ensure their hands can move smoothly. Her technique seemed fine, although the level of pressure was a little inconsistent - not quite hard enough to relieve muscle tension but not quite light enough to be extremely relaxing. At one point I asked her to back off on the pressure because it was causing some pain, so it was a bit better after that. I'll say the overall experience wasn't bad, but also not the best massage I've ever had, and certainly not worth the price we paid, IMHO. It's really my only regret of the cruise.

 

The most interesting part of the massage wasn't actually the massage itself, though, but what happened during as the ship departed from Labadee. See, something you need to know about Oasis is that it has engines on the front of the ship. The Vitality Spa is also on the front of the ship! What this meant for us is that right around halfway into the massage, we start hearing these robotic sounds like giant servos moving things into place. This wasn't some distant sound you had to strain to hear, either; it sounded like it was just outside the room, almost. This went on for several minutes, and at one point (I'm assuming when the engines cut on), the room actually started shaking; it felt like what I imagine the inside of a washing machine feels like! Okay, okay, I'm exaggerating, a bit, but it certainly wasn't the most relaxing experience. I actually wasn't really annoyed by it, mostly just amused that the therapists were trying to pretend like nothing out of the ordinary was happening. It does seem like something we should have been warned about when we were booking though, as I could definitely see someone getting upset by this.

 

After our so-so massage, it was getting pretty close to dinner time. We had reservations at Izumi, the Japanese teppanyaki/sushi restaurant on board. We were doing the a la carte sushi section, rather than the hibachi section, which seemed crazy overpriced to me - $45 pp compared to ~$25 pp for a similar restaurant on land; I guess it's just popular enough that they can jack up the price like that. Anyway, the restaurant is pretty small, and I thought it was a bit barebones in decor, other than the cool samurai statue they have at the entrance. We took our time reviewing the menu, and eventually ordered two appetizers, some miso soup, a raw tuna dish, and two specialty rolls, one with crab and the other with lobster. We were looking forward to the "hot rock" dishes as well based on advanced research, but apparently that's not on this class of ship. Everything was very good, although if I were to go back again, I would probably order more sushi and less of the other stuff, although my wife was crazy about the tuna.

 

My wife ended up still being a bit hungry after dinner, so we went up the Windjammer and she got a bit more food while I grabbed some dessert. After dinner pt. 2, we had reservations to see the headliner, which this week was Rookie. Rookie is a classic rock cover band from Toronto, and when I say classic rock, I do mean classic, as in 50s and 60s. My wife and I like classic rock, but this music was a bit dated even for our tastes! Plus, we live around DC, where there's a lot of musical talent we can go see anytime, so after a few minutes, we decided to skip the rest of the show.

 

Instead, we went to "Who Wants to Feel Like a Millionaire". After a few minutes of technical difficulties (the one constant in life), they got the show going. It ended up being pretty entertaining, mostly because of the host, (Jacob, I think, from the Cruise Director's Staff), but also because of the first contestant, who was funny and quick on his feet. After the game show thing, we got back to the room to get some sleep before our day of active excursions in Falmouth.

 

Great Review.