Trip Report! Oasis Of The Seas - 1/6-1/12 - Nurovirus Cruise

[SAHMof3]

He may be eating dinner. It’s dinner time down here in Ga.☺️

[maryjaden]

Great review so far.  Thank you! 

[Trinam2]

Still following 

[puppycanducruise]

Great food pictures!

Looks like a very tasty meal.

More please.

[FlorenceItaly]

Loving this review!  More, please :).

[MrFunInTheSun]

18 hours ago, ashezap said:

 

Yeah, we found out for some reason the specialty restaurants didn’t have a lunch menu. I swear I read somewhere that they have a different lunch menu but they were the same as dinner. We honestly weren’t hungry enough for the full menu and didn’t really want to repeat a menu twice. 

 

Here they are, will come in handy for your replacement cruise. 😀

 

Giovannis lunch menu

 

 

Chops lunch menu

 

[davelinde]

As noted above, things got "interesting" when we arrived in Jamaica.

The night we left Haiti my wife came to dinner and noted that her stomach was queasy, but the more she ate the better she felt.  That lasted until about 11pm when she got really ill.  After the first round of vomiting she said she felt much better and thought it must be food poisoning from something she ate on shore in Haiti.  However for the next 6 hours the symptoms kept returning.  However, my wife is determined... and we had a tour planned, so first thing in the morning she asked me to go get her a couple bagels as a "test".  She was able to eat one bagel and drink a lot of water, so after an hour we decided it had been food poisoning (not contagious) and we were going to go ashore.  I think this is when the cabin attendant dropped off the letter indicated other passengers were sick.

The day before a strange thing happened, I was in the cabin and got a call from security asking if my wife was with me.  I told them she was ashore and asked why they were checking.  They said that all aboard was in 10 minutes and this was a problem...  5 minutes later they called back to say my wife had just come aboard (they were taking hull shot selfies a hundred yards from the gangway).   We figured that this meant the ship times were really prompt (eg if 5 minutes early is considered late?) so we were going to hustle to be at the tour as early as possible.  In retrospect maybe the captain was in a hurry to get out of Haiti asap?

 

In any case,  we took the elevator to disembark and it would not take us to the lower level.  After getting out we heard an announcement asking us to wait on deck 5, or at the designated tour meeting place.  Well, our tour was meeting on the pier so we were stumped.  At this point my wife was having second thoughts about spending an hour on a tour bus (one way) and we went back to the room.  There was an announcement about getting an in cabin evaluation from a medical professional so we decided to call for that.  Line busy.  Eventually they answered and said they'd call back... they didn't.  My wife was dehydrated and exhausted so she went to sleep and we went to deck 5 to wait.  Eventually we decided we'd waited ourselves into being hungry again, and went to get lunch at the Park Cafe.  While we ate, they announced that there were problems entering Jamaica (obviously...) and there would be an update in 15 minutes.

Much later than 15 minutes they announced we leaving.  The explanation was that the shore authorities had demanded a detailed review of all medical records, that this was quite unusual, that Royal corporate was negotiating with the Jamaicans but that at this point there was not enough time remaining to make it worth continuing to try... we were leaving early and we would be getting one day of fares refunded as a room credit.  With my wife sick, this was actually more than we had hoped - not only did we get our shore excursion refunded, we were getting some extra compensation to boot.  The only thing I could have wished was that we knew earlier so we weren't in limbo about going ashore, taking a tour, or not - but given the circumstance Royal did keep us informed as best they could.  As we left they told us they had boarded additional medical staff and other staff.

This became apparent everywhere - nothing was self-service at any time, nothing.  All buffet were corded off and staffed with people who got your food/drink for you.   To their credit Royal had enough people everywhere so the lines were not bad at all.  There were people everywhere disinfecting everything, all the time.

The next morning the captain announced that unfortunately the number of reported cases was rising.  Ironically this did not include my wife - since each time she called medical they promised to call back, and didn't.  Though at this point she was free of all symptoms.  We are pretty sure she had food poisoning and pretty sure that it was in Haiti.  Later I overheard crew debating if Haiti was the common denominator, one of the waiters was telling another that the last time this happened to him it was leaving Haiti as well.  Hard to know.

Then the last shoe dropped and the captain announced that in an abundance of caution they had made the difficult decision to skip port in Mexico and return a day early.  My wife said she saw crew visibly quite upset about this since I'm sure they lose tips for that day.  Our cabin attendant was also sincerely upset, but my sense was that she was more sympathetic for us having been sick and having the trip cut short.  She apologized, quite sincerely, every day at least twice a day for the rest of the trip.  For us there was little down side.   We wanted to see Jamaica but Mexico is not big deal and we drive to port so we had nothing to rebook to get home.  Royal promised a refund (haven't seen it yet) so all I really wonder is if we get Crown and Anchor days for this (we are close to diamond so it matters a little more).
 

When we arrived in Canaveral I heard ambulance taking people off the ship.  Also waiting in a line I heard passengers discussing their symptoms - longer and more severe than what my wife had.  One guy said the ship medical gave him an IV during the ordeal.  So others may have had a rough time, we got off easy.

 

The public bathrooms had a sign posted with an informative web site.  Check this out
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp

 

quite informative.   It seems this happens about a dozen times a year and Royal is NOT a frequent offender.  It has happened to Disney!  And check the list yourself... there are a few cruise lines with a clear issue of being repeatedly hit.

To miss lines we stayed on the ship until almost everyone had left and saw the sanitizing begin.  All cabins had checklists posted for decontamination and the rooms were being stripped down very bare then all surfaces washed down.  There were crew on all the balconies hosing down everything and crew in all the common areas stripping all cushions and wiping down all surfaces.  The Oasis is surely now the cleanest ship anyone could have boarded this week.

[FionaMG]

18 hours ago, ashezap said:

 

 

 

 

The only thing I had to remove was the cilantro because I am one of those weirdos with genetic aversion to cilantro... it tastes like straight up hand soap to me! If you don’t like cilantro, look it up... it can literally taste completely different to two different people!

Me too! The first time I ever tasted it was at an Indian restaurant not long after I moved to Portugal. I had never even heard of it before then and thought it was chopped parsley that they'd sprinkled over the dish. I couldn't get it out of my mouth fast enough!

 

Thanks for sharing your cruise, by the way. I've been eagerly following along. 

[gatour]

2 hours ago, davelinde said:

My wife said she saw crew visibly quite upset about this since I'm sure they lose tips for that day.  Our cabin attendant was also sincerely upset, but my sense was that she was more sympathetic for us having been sick and having the trip cut short.  She apologized, quite sincerely, every day at least twice a day for the rest of the trip.

Thanks for your report.  It was well thought out

 

However, to say that the crew were upset because they would be be losing tips for that day, is a jump to a conclusion that may not be warranted.  To do a deep clean it is an all hands on decks and everything needs to be wiped down.  All linens including the bedspreads, need to be washed down or otherwise treated.  This is a very labor intensive process, so it makes for a long day for everyone involved.

[davelinde]

4 minutes ago, gatour said:

 to say that the crew were upset because they would be be losing tips for that day, is a jump to a conclusion that may not be warranted.  To do a deep clean it is an all hands on decks and everything needs to be wiped down.

 

You make a good point.  My wife just saw the one bartender react and we were only guessing about what could cause the reaction.  To be clear, our waiter, headwaiter and room attendant all went out of their way to apologize to us for OUR inconvenience and none of them gave any indication of the impact on them personally (tips or otherwise).  Although the 7th day tip was refunded we trued that up (and then a little more) for our staff.

 

The room attendant did  tell us (when asked) that this has happened to her before, but only in her prior Pacific routes and that she has never seen a ship denied a port.  She also noted that if it impacts too many crew there are more problems, eg that in addition to the captain taking steps to minimize passenger impact (for the obvious reason) he is also responsible for crew and must keep them healthy (for the less obvious secondary impacts there).  Per the CDC report, only 17 crew (of 2150+) were impacted.  Also because they brought on more crew I never saw anything short staffed.

 

For sure as we left it looked like a lot of people were doing a lot of work (including entertainers running food service), so I can see how a bartender might well understand that he was about to put in a terrible long weekend cleaning...  Thanks for pointing that out.

[Nangelina]

We sailed on the Serenade of the Seas on January 2 to the 11th out of Ft Lauderdale.  Upon arrival and check in we were told our cabins would not be ready until after 4:30 pm.  Apparently there was an outbreak on the previous cruise and they were disinfecting the ship.  We all boarded and ate lunch. The crew was wearing gloves and hand spooned each passengers portioned to their plates in the windjammer. You could not serve yourself.  According to CDC protocol this was to go on for 72 hours and it did!  A letter on RCCL letter head was delivered in our cruise compass that night stating about the previous illness aboard the Serenade.  It seems to me Royal handled it very well.  The crew was working 14 hour shifts during the protocol 72 hours.  Kudos to them!

[ashezap]

Day 5

 

At sea seeing sick 

 

I forgot to mention that on the evening of Day 4, we decided to fill out the hang tag for the special breakfast that came with the “classic romance” package. So this morning we were woken up with breakfast. We both ordered the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs with hashbrowns and baked tomato and our breakfast was suppose to come with danishes and fresh baked bread, a fruit and cheese plate, and a mimosa and Bloody Mary. What we ended up with was cold scrambled eggs, a McDonald’s type fried hash brown, half a raw tomato and no smoked salmon, danishes, bread or fruit. .. they did bring the jam though.. ???!?!  I did get a Bloody Mary which was just tomato juice and vodka with no seasoning... so basically the classic romance breakfast was a bust. This was strange considering the great reviews I read in the special breakfast that comes with this package.  We also would never receive our evening canapés which came with the package. 

 

Oh well. I felt like these folks were dealing with enough and I wasn’t hungry enough to complain so I let it go. 

 

About that time the captain made a ship wide announcement to give us an update on our “situation”. He said over night the count of passengers with gastrointestinal illness had increased from around 120 to 300 and that our planned visit to Cozumel would be cancelled. They decided it would be best to end our cruise a day early in Port Canaveral where we should plan on disembarking on Saturday. They would assist those without flights or hotels in changing their plans and provide compensation. Additionally, each guest on board would be getting refunded for the additional 6 days of cruise fare in about two weeks. (in addition to one day we had already been refunded as a cruise credit due to our situation in Jamaica) they apologized again and then it went into a translation into Portuguese. 

 

Wow! That’s when I knew things were serious. 

 

I looked over at Matt and he put his hand over his face and groaned. You see, Cozumel was basically what made us book this cruise! I have been going on and on about Xcaret since my first (and only) visit to Cozumel years ago around 2008. If you aren’t familiar with this excursion, it’s actually an ecological park in Costa Maya with trails through the jungle, lots of animal experiences, Mayan ruins and a river through cenotes that you get to float through in and out of “Indiana Jones” type caves. It was easily one of the most beautiful and interesting places I’ve been and I hyped it up so much that now that we couldn’t go, it was quite a disappointment. 

 

We were very disappointed but I was also impressed ... and I bit frightened at the fact they were giving everyone a refund! When a vacation conglomerate like RCL gives you money back something is going down! 

 

We both discussed and thought that neither of us were feeling the best and all though it’s disappointing, maybe it’s better to visit Xcaret when we are feeling better and maybe we could make it its own vacation. After all, The all inclusive Hotel Xcaret has recently opened to more than rave reviews and the the Xcaret park has expanded into multiple parks, experiences, and tours around Costa Maya... this very well might be our next vacation! 

 

But as strange as this one was, it wasn’t over yet. So, we decided to go downstairs and do a little shopping. I always have to get a souvenir ship on a cruise for my collection and I went out to look for a model of the oasis. The first thing I noticed when I stepped into the hallway was today the crew was out in full force. Literally disinfecting everything constantly on my way from the room to the promenade I must have seen 2 dozen people cleaning. I’ve never seen anything like it

 

 

Upon getting to the ships store, I found my model ship. but it looks so cheesy! I don’t think I could put this next to my other models as it would look silly! It looks like a bath toy! I opted for a smaller sized oasis ornament instead that looked a little bit classier.

 

 

Also I should mention that this shop had me going claustrophobic!! It’s so tiny for such a big ship and the crowds were literally pushing each other through the store. They make it worse by blocking off the entrance to one side so everyone has to walk through the liquor part of the store.  They could easily have put another similar store out on the boardwalk but decided that the designer shops were more important. Weird. Not a pleasurable shopping experience. They were also out of my beloved Tortuga rum cake sampler which I was sad I missed an opportunity to grab in port, but this kid doesn’t need anymore cake anyway. (Spoiler: I found it later!! Nom nom nom!) 

 

We then went to look for the backstage tour of the Opal Theatre which was really the only thing on the cruise compass I was interested in... but it was canceled as the folks involved were dispatched to sanitizing it serving food in the windjammer.

 

 

Many of those designer shops I talked about were closed as well with similar signage. 

 

So we waited a while and decided we might as well play bingo. The line to buy bingo cards was pretty long: 

 

 

I bought the biggest package hoping to turn this day around but no go... 

 

 

We went up to the top deck again to look for a nice place to relax but still no go. The solarium was full and  the hot tubs were completely full and just thinking of being in a big bowl of warm people soup with all this sickness going around gives me the heebeejeebees anyway. We really wanted a hot tub so we discussed doing the couples bath later.

 

One thing I noticed every day, but especially this day, was that there were unattended children everywhere . Like as young as 5 or so running all over the place. We finally found a place to stop and lay on the lounges for a minute near the windjammer and looking out at the ocean and we had a group of three kids come over (much too close for comfort) and stop and just stare over us. I asked “can I help you?” And they laughed and just kept staring. I finally said “please go away” and they said “ that was rude man” and ran off... yeah okay, your parents are rude for letting their offspring run around and annoy people! But that’s just my opinion. 

 

anyway, we had enough of that so we went to the room and changed for dinner at Chops. The food was good. 

 

I had the mushroom soup as an appetizer as reccomended by our server. It was very nice classic mushroom soup 

 

 

The crispy goat cheese salad was really good. Maybe my second favorite thing I had at Chops. 

 

 

I had another filet with bordelaise and bernaise. It was fine but I think I had enough filet by that point (if that’s even possible) and the ones at the chefs table and 150 Central Park were better. 

 

 

Matt had salmon with a mustard sauce.

 

 

 

We shared the spicy shrimp which were okay.

 

 

But the crowned jewel of the meal was the warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and berries. This cake was so rich and velvety. It was like an emotional experience. It’s simple, elegant, and delicious. I liked it even more that the fancy dessert from the chefs table. It’s just a simple sexy dessert! Lol 

 

 

Our next order of operations was to go see “Come Fly With Me” which we actually enjoyed. I wouldn’t say it’s the best thing we ever saw, but it was entertaining and the performers did a great job. It was a little corny but it featured some interesting creative choices that I thought were clever. The aerialists were impressive and the singers were, for the most part, on point. 

 

 

I just love these “disco stones” down in the entertainment place. 

 

We then stopped and listened to a few songs by some of the cats singers in the jazz club which was very nice. The gentleman who plays old duetoronomy was just amazing. 

 

 

 and went up to the 70’s Disco Inferno in the promenade which is just... well... not our thing. 

 

So we walked back to the room avoiding the many crew members scrubbing and sanitizing everything on the way. I reflected on how things suddenly felt (and smelled) like a bizarre floating hospital. Better to be healthy though I suppose. 

 

Once back in the stateroom, I wanted to try the room service. I called and a man who seemed super annoyed picked up. I ordered chicken fingers, a burger, and hot wings for us to share. The chicken fingers were cold and served with ketchup (ew) even though the menu said honey mustard, the buffalo wings ended up being some other strange flavor, and the burger was well done, hockey puck style.... so that’s a no go on Royal’s new room service for me.

 

Still we had a day to go now. So we better make the best of it! More coming soon! 

[ashezap]

21 hours ago, SAHMof3 said:

He may be eating dinner. It’s dinner time down here in Ga.☺️

Haha! It was dinner time, but I live in Orlando now for about 10 years. Just posted a new day. 😉

[ashezap]

46 minutes ago, Nangelina said:

We sailed on the Serenade of the Seas on January 2 to the 11th out of Ft Lauderdale.  Upon arrival and check in we were told our cabins would not be ready until after 4:30 pm.  Apparently there was an outbreak on the previous cruise and they were disinfecting the ship.  We all boarded and ate lunch. The crew was wearing gloves and hand spooned each passengers portioned to their plates in the windjammer. You could not serve yourself.  According to CDC protocol this was to go on for 72 hours and it did!  A letter on RCCL letter head was delivered in our cruise compass that night stating about the previous illness aboard the Serenade.  It seems to me Royal handled it very well.  The crew was working 14 hour shifts during the protocol 72 hours.  Kudos to them!

This exact thing happened to me when we tried to board the Celebrity Solstice in Miami several years ago. They took all the books out of the library, salt and pepper shakers etc. it makes for a weird environment. 

[ashezap]

Day 6

 

Sadly At Sea

 

This morning we both woke up with our respective colds and muscle cramps... gosh we are getting old! Lol... and decided to go upstairs to the solarium one last time to see what we could find. It was still packed but some chairs were available... but not really. They were all “saved” and like this much coveted lounger had towels thrown over it and bags nearby etc.... I thought this wasn’t allowed?!? It’s obviously not enforced if so. Oh well... 

 

 

We noticed that all the electronic signage still said we were in Cozumel, as well as the Royal App. 

 

 

We decided instead to go down and check out what was happening on the promenade. The Guest Services line was crazy long! I’d like to know more about this refund I’m getting, but not if I have to stand in that line! Yikes! 

 

 

 

We stopped back by the shop which was even more packed somehow... seriously this shop is too small. At least  I found my precious Tortuga Rum Cakes. 

 

 

We had lunch at Izumi today which I was really excited about because I love Japanese food and also because I really needed some hot soup to help out this wicked head cold. 

 

We started by sharing two sushi rolls

 

 

The Izumi Ryu Futomaki - assorted sashimi with chopped scallion , spicy aioli, cream cheese, Wakame salad over tempura fried crab and ginger dressing

 

 

And The Truffle Creamy Lobster Tempura - Kanpachi, salmon, and asparagus topped with lobster tempura chunks tossed in ponzu with spicy mayo and scallions with truffle oil 

 

I will certainly say that this was some of the best sushi I’ve ever had. This stuff was really delicious and so artfully presented. I am a fan! 

 

Matt also had Udon Yaki 

 

 

I had Spicy Miso soup with charshu pork. Yum! this was really good and I could tell all of the ingredients (even the noodles) were fresh.

 

 

I could probably eat at this restaurant the entire cruise and not get bored. We left completely stuffed and happy 

 

However, during lunch the captain made another announcement and shared that the media was very interested in the illness onboard and that he was given permission to share with us that nearly 470 people onboard were now ill. Yikes! At that point I appreciated the captains call to get us off the ship and back home. We were pretty worried about getting another kind of sick as we already were not feeling great. We went to the room and I hung out on the balcony for the most of the rest of the day before packing and putting our bags outside. 

 

 

We did do one extra thing. We purchased the couples bath because we wanted some time to relax privately in a hot tub instead of being up in the crowded solarium. It was around $80 and super nice. We sat in the spas relaxation room for a bit 

 

 

And then we had our own room with twinkling stars, mood lighting and our own hot tub for an hour. It was great. 

 

We had reservations that evening at Giovanni’s which we didn’t really love so we tried to switch to 150 Central Park but the had already tried to accommodate their guests who wouldn’t be dining with them on the last night. We were both curious about dining in the main dining room for dinner so we decided to give it a go. 

 

 

I had a French onion soup that was okay. The cheese had become leathery on-top and the broth was not flavorful. 

 

 

I also had New York strip loin which I had never seen served sliced like prime rib before. It was fine. No issues with it but I wouldn’t rave over it. 

 

 

We also shared the spaghetti bolgenese which was very good. It was a nice comforting, well executed dish and I actually enjoyed it more than the beef. 

 

 

For dessert I tried the Grand Mariner Soufflé. Soufflé shouldn’t be chewy but somehow this one was. Weird. More like a custard to me. 

 

 

I also sampled the creme brûlée which had no taste of vanilla. Just milk and sugar. Such a shame. 

 

 

When all is said and done, I didn’t hate it, but I’m glad I purchased the dining package as I feel like we were happy with it. As far as the beverage package goes... it was partially due to us not feeling great on this cruise, but I seriously think I would have fared better getting the refreshment package and paying for the few interesting drinks and my occasional old fashioned that I ordered.  

 

We ended the day with the big comedy show that they moved into Studio B. Nora and Joe were both great again and we went up to bed. 

 

Debarkation 

 

This went pretty smoothly. We had a paper notification that told us our luggage tag number would disembark at 9:45 and we had a knock on the door at about 8:45 from our stateroom attendant asking us to leave the room. This was a bit annoying because I don’t think we were ever told what time to leave the room, only what time we could actually get off. 

 

We gathered our things, I took a shower and we went to wait in the opal theatre until we finally got off the ship and went through customs. I finally got back to the car, sat back down where all this started, and said out loud to myself. What the hell just happened?!? 😂

 

My final thoughts on the cruise was that it was a really cool ship, I really appreciated the amount of things to do and the options you are presented with. but, I just don’t think I want to cruise with that many people again. I’ve gotten to a point in my life (probably due to my career choices) where I don’t like lines and crowds of people. I’ve experienced it for myself and can say that the oasis does indeed feel crowded in allot of areas... maybe because our sailing was booked to capacity. The solarium did not seem as relaxing as it did on my last cruise on the solstice and I really missed the big thermal suite. I missed the elegance of celebrity and the old school ocean liner vibe of Disney. The food was delicious, especially Izumi and 150 Central Park. And the entertainment was ok. I could do without the hoards of unattended children running about (worse than Disney) The best thing I experienced was the friendliness of many of the crew. There were several folks I encountered that seemed to genuinely enjoy their jobs and that runs directly into the guests experience. Happy Crew, Happy You! 

 

It’s unfortunate what happened on this sailing but I think Royals decision to refund us was a really good one. If I had just been refunded for one day after being worried about getting sick, only seeing one port etc. I would still probably be annoyed. But now, I’ve just lost time... granted it’s time that’s very difficult for both of to get off and only usually happens once a year, but it’s better than time and lots of money. Plus after the beverage package, dining package, chefs table etc. onboard they still got at least $1500 out of me lol 

 

Im grateful I got to experience the Oasis class at least once. I have no regrets but the experience just helps me plan and shape other trips in the future... and I’m patiently waiting on my refund. 😁

 

Thanks for reading everyone! 

 

[Ocean Boy]

Great write-up. Thanks!

[Shattered__minds]

Awesome review thank you

[Croozin Soozin]

Really enjoyed reading your review!  Thank you for being so honest and thorough!

[NouCruzer]

Seems that you made the best of a difficult situation.  And you've got a chance to do it all over again with the refund.  I wouldn't judge the Oasis class by this experience alone; my wife and I have taken several cruises (mostly in Nov) without many of the issues that you mention.  Don't give up on the mega-class just yet.  That said, we also really enjoyed a 4-day on Enchantment last July despite the poor reviews for recent cruises recently.  Vive la'difference!

[lazydayz]

Thank you for your review.  It was fair and balanced.  Sorry the cruise was so weird, but at least you have a very interesting story to tell. Hope you get to Costa Maya soon!  And happy belated birthday to both of you.

[Trinam2]

Thanks for the review. Quick question, I haven’t heard of the couples bath but I’m intrigued. Did you book onboard? Was it worth it? Tia

[silversneakers]

4 hours ago, gatour said:

Thanks for your report.  It was well thought out

 

However, to say that the crew were upset because they would be be losing tips for that day, is a jump to a conclusion that may not be warranted.  To do a deep clean it is an all hands on decks and everything needs to be wiped down.  All linens including the bedspreads, need to be washed down or otherwise treated.  This is a very labor intensive process, so it makes for a long day for everyone involved.

I don't believe it was the tips but the enormous amount of sanitizing that is required before the CDC allows the ship to sail. 

[staceydm]

Really enjoyed your review!  Thanks for taking the time. 🙂

[alexkrn46]

Thanks for the honest review.

[maryjaden]

Thank you so much for your review.  You are an articulate writer.  I had never heard of Xcaret before and now after some research,  we would like to go there.