Oasis of the Seas, Western Carib May 9th

This will be a multi-part review, please feel free to ask any questions.

A quick bit of information about the reviewers, I am Robert a 26-year-old Logistics Consultant, my travel companion was my wife Emma, a 24-year-old HR professional. This was our first real vacation that we “floated” the bill on since being married in late 2013. With that being said I believe I am entitled to my words.

We arrived in FLL, Friday May 8th around 1:00pm. We took a cab to Marriott’s Renaissance Hotel at the Port, the cab fare was $18.00. I am a Silver Elite member with Marriott, so I was not expecting much, other than free Wi-Fi during my stay. Upon check in I was given a suite on the Concierge Level on the top floor with great views of the Port, this was certainly a great perk for only paying the $129.00 advanced purchase rate. We had worked up an appetite and walked across the parking lot to the Bimini Boatyard for lunch. Having grown up in a coastal town, I understand charging a small premium for waterfront views, but this place took it over the edge. While the food was excellent, I believe a blackened fish sandwich should not cost $18. The rest of our afternoon was spent at the very nice resort style pool at the Renaissance. I cannot say enough good things about this hotel; it truly went above and beyond my highest expectations. As a boating enthusiast, I felt obligated to rent a boat and go around the ICW and canals in Fort Lauderdale, I believe this is a must do if you arrive early the day before a cruise. We opted for a quick dinner at Shula’s Burger, also across the parking lot from the Renaissance. Dinner was good, followed by an ice cream at Coldstone next door. Our vacation was off to a great start.

Random Photos from Day One

Looking forward to your review

Looking forward to more of your review, but you will have to write it pretty fast because we are sailing in two days! Woohoo!

What was the area around the ports like to walk at night? Would you recommend the area for a woman travelling alone? I'm looking forward to the rest of your review

Following, as we were on this same cruise and I would like to get someone else's opinion on this cruise. I thought it was fabulous !!

To the question posted concerning safety: We were not really at port during evening hours. It is safe to walk around the ports by yourself, just stay within the port barriers, these are very easy to distinguish. A word of note be ready to say "no thank you" quite frequently.

Saturday started earlier than wished for me, a super soft mattress kept me up most of the night, but I will not hold that against the hotel. I believe these things are a personal problem. The small bout of Insomnia did allow me to get a great shot of the Oasis pulling into the port around 5:00am. Another perk of the Renaissance is the Starbucks/Einstein Bagels across the parking lot, so I went out and brought breakfast back to the wife, who had no issues with insomnia.

Around 10:00am we went down stairs and took a cab to the terminal. The cab fare was $8.00, the hotel offered a shuttle for $6.00 per person, but you had to be in the lobby at a certain time to sign up. The cab was more economical and convenient. Another piece of information, for cruisers that may of left an item, there is a Walgreens across the street from the hotel.

We arrived at the Port around 10:30am ignoring the previous notices requesting us to arrive at 12:30pm. Again I chalked this up as personal problem and blamed my ignorance, while other older cruisers, were seen complaining about the waiting. This was the first of many occasions, we encountered whining and moaning from advanced tier (Emerald, Diamond and so on..) cruisers. There are things these statuses can grant, but they don’t put you above US Government Protocol, in this instance the Coast Guard Inspection.

We were on the ship a little after 11:45am, and went straight to sign up for the Premium Drink Package (I will share my thoughts on this later). Then it was on to the Park Café for lunch. It was the first and only line we experienced for dining all week. The Roast Beef sandwiches are as a good as advertised, but do try the other Panini sandwiches and salads. The rest of the afternoon was spent around the pool or on the Flowrider. We had dinner at Chops Grille the first night. It was a fantastic value, as we received 50% off. The food is by far the best on the ship, but the steak is not at the quality of a Del Friscos or Palm steak you would find in the states. After dinner we had reservations to see the Oasis of Dreams show in the AquaTheatre. I will say the performers are very talented, but the show was boring, with no plot. The night ended on a hot streak in the casino.

We decided in the end to downgrade and stay in the Central Park View stateroom. This was a very poor decision on my part. In my mind, when the ship is rocking, you need to be looking out at the ocean, and not at trees. The room itself was nice and spacious, the beds are very soft, I prefer a firmer mattress, but oh well.

We both decided to get the Premium Drink Package ($50 per day). This was the best decision we made the entire vacation. The total cost for two people for the whole cruise was $808.34. We figured the total price of our drinks had we paid for them without the package would be around $1400.00. Again we are a young couple just out of college and this may not be the best option for everyone. For those wondering this package includes all liquors, except for Johnnie Walker Blue Label and Grand Platinum Patron.

Great review so far. We leave on 6/6. We also got the drink package this time. Did not get it last year.

Happy to hear about chops 50 percent off on day one. That is my plan as well. Were any other places offering discounts during the week.

Would love to see any pics you might have.

Looking forward to hearing more

Yes the Drink Package is the way the to go for sure. I believe i was drinking between $120 and $150 dollars each day (except for Cozumel), but at no point was a overly intoxicated.

For the restaurants, 150 CP and Gios were advertising 50% off, they had hosts walking around CP asking about dinner plans. This was not the case for Chops, I walked into the restaurant to make a reservation and was given no indication it would be 50% off. Our waiter, Edison, who is fantastic and highly recommended, told us "he" had given us 50% off. I am pretty confident this was not his decision, but rewarded him with a large tip because I was expecting to pay $80 but only ended up being charged $40.

Great. It's my plan to check as soon as we board to see what the resturant specials are.

Do you ever have to pay the difference on any drinks that you ordered.

We never paid any differences between drink costs, but when ordering off the menu we ordered drinks at $12 or under. Once they see the package, they do not really care about the cost of the drink.

Thanks for taking the time to write a review. I am finally considering an Oasis class cruise!

Subscribed. Can't wait for the rest of the review

Following...our Oasis cruise is for December and, although I love summer, December just cannot get here soon enough :-)

Keep it coming.

VERY informative so far!

We will be getting the Premium Drink Package as well......

Thank you for writing this. I'm looking forward to reading more and my own adventure on the Oasis in February 2016.... oh so far away!

where have you gone????? more!

where have you gone????? more!

Exactly....I want more as well!

Cruising on Oasis for the first time in October and am interested in the drinks, Giovanni's and how crowded the pub and the main pool was.

I was on this sailing as well and had a GREAT time! This was my 1st Royal Caribbean cruise and I couldn't have asked for anything better. I can't wait to read more of your review.

I am still interested in reading your review if you are able to provide it for us. Thank you.

Day 2 we were at Sea. We started with breakfast at the Windjammer, it was your typical mass produced food quality. We opted for other breakfast venues the rest of the week. I will circle back on this later, but the servers/attendants at the Windjammer during breakfast were great. We did come back and have lunch here later in the afternoon and the food quality was much better. Besides our two meals at the Windjammer our day was spent around the pool. We ate dinner at Izumi, and really enjoyed the Sushi. After dinner we saw the Ice Show. Again the performers are very talented; this show is easier to follow along because it is broken down into short sequences. After the show we watched Karaoke, which was both impressive and hysterical at the same time.

Going back to the Windjammer. There was never a problem finding something decent to eat. The mass-produced foods (eggs, bacon in the morning, hamburgers, hot dogs during lunch) lacked quality and were avoided all week. Service was the bigger question involving the Windjammer. Service was outstanding for Breakfast/Lunch shifts. During the evening hours it was by far the worst customer service I experienced on the ship. Tables were left dirty, it was impossible to get a drink, and they were generally rude. Over the course of the week; we went to the Windjammer a total of three times. This was a more of a testament to the other options on board.

On Day 2, I had my one and only experience with Guest Services. The horror stories that are generally associated with Guest Services cannot be blamed on the people working behind the desks. From what I saw the blame would be on fellow passengers, most elderly, that were unable to figure out the newer technology. For instance I had a lady in front of me making dinner reservations. This could have been done close to 5 other ways, including picking up the stateroom phone and hitting the Dining Reservation button, not much technology in that. Another cruiser was breaking a $100 bill so they could go play in the casino, geezz. For those that care my issue was that my SeaPass card was taken in the “Gale” force winds right off the boat; YES this was pretty stupid on my part. This issue was taken care of quickly and without any questions from the staff.