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mattb31

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  1. Back from Oasis of the Seas today and wanted to do a quick little review on our trip Booking: 4V - Interior - $436pp Total Cost after pre-paid grats and taxes and fees for the both of us was $1386.26 We won our Royal Up bid for a Central Park View Interior (great room) for $40pp Addons 2 Pre-booked dinners at Izumi at $28pp - $136.80 VOOM surf and stream - 2 device plan - $230.93 Deluxe Bev Package - $1007.44 ($60.99/day) I'll start off by saying we had a great time! Our last cruise was in early 2019 on Symphony and Oasis literally was a clone with a few different restaurants and a different design in the rooms. Otherwise it felt very similar and honestly some of the public spaces were better on Oasis then on Symphony. Pros The first pro on this list is Playmakers. Royal Caribbean really perfected it on Oasis compared to Symphony. On SOTS, Playmakers is kind of weird because it is shared with an arcade. On OOTS the bar is smaller but the seating area is larger, there are more TVs, and it's just a great space to watch games. The Rangers are still going in the Stanley Cup Playoffs so during every game it was pretty crowded, the NBA Finals had also just started. Really a great place to watch a game. The Onion Ring tower is phenomenal too. Another thing I noticed in regards to the sports bar is that the quality of the TV broadcasts was the best I've seen on a ship. ESPN and Sport 1 definitely came through in HD (same in staterooms) which meant watching games was that much better. Second pro was the dining. The food every night was outstanding. We did MDR on 1 and 7, Izumi 2 and 6, Giovanni's on 4, and Windjammer on 5. We ate at Jamie's on Symphony and it was underwhelming. Giovanni's was really spectacular and I'd highly recommend it to anyone going on a ship that has it. Izumi I found to be a good value as well. For $28.99 you get Miso, and appetizer, 2 entrees, and a dessert. It was more food that either of us could eat. The Futomaki roll and Yaki Udon were my favorites here. I wanted to try Portside BBQ, so I just got a single cut of meat one of the days while on the deck (think it was like $4), and it was great. This seemed to be a popular spot and the rest of the food there looked amazing. El Loco fresh was also so tasty. Windjammer was the only place that was slightly underwhelming. The selection was less than I remembered before, but we did go at almost 8pm. Another pro I wanted to mention was the Port of Bayonne. As far as I could tell this cruise was over 100% capacity. We took the train from Philly to Newark and then Ubered to the port (cheaper than tolls + gas). We got to the port about 15 minutes prior to our 12pm check in time and were on the ship in no time. We used a COR + our positive PCR from April. Getting off this morning was also a breeze. We did self-assist, walked out of our room around 6:50am and by 7:05 we were through customs and waiting for our ride. Cons Smoking. I hate it. The smoke leeching out of the Casino was the worst I remember it in a long time. There were times when you could definitely smell it on the promenade. It stunk outside the MDR too. Since the casino was short staffed, they only had some of the tables open on the smoking side which was a huge disappointment. Same thing up on the pool deck where they allow smoking. It blows over to Lime and Coconut and the pools. I really wish they would segregate the smoking areas well away from other public areas. Voom is my second con. It was atrocious. I wouldn't have been so mad if it was included in the fare, but considering we paid over $200 for it I was annoyed. So many timeouts on webpages and apps. Random disconnects as well. It worked completely fine on CocoCay and I've had VOOM on Anthem, Allure, and Symphony and it was great on those ships. This must just be an issue with Oasis because I found a few other posts on different sites mentioning the same thing. MTD chaos was another con. It honestly wasn't too bad, but if you're going on the cruise I just recommend avoiding it the first night. For some reason there was a massive line the first night (for walk-ins AND reservations). We waited 30 minutes for our table and dinner took another 1.5 hours. We walked by every other night and there was no line and had no problem when we went on Day 7. No cruise compass. You can get one if you ask, but I missed having it delivered each day. There's a hint and tips section on the app which kind of gives you a rundown but it's not the same as the cruise compass. They should just put a PDF of the cruise compass on the app. Drink Package There's been a ton of discussion about the drink package lately because the cost has gone up so much. I believe in 2019 on Symphony it was $49/day. I paid $60.99 a day on this cruise, and every other day in the cruise planner it was $70+ a day. That's alot. That being said, I tracked what I drank this cruise so I know where my breakeven is in the future. I don't drink a ton at home, I have a beer watching the game or a glass of wine with dinner sometimes or a few seltzers by the pool on a nice day. Mixed Drinks are $10, Beer $7.50, Cocktails & Wine $13 Day 1: 3 Coke Zero 4 Water Bottles Bud Light 1 Rum and Diet 1 Pinot Noir $51.50 Day 2: Iced Chai Latte 2 Coke Zero 8 Water Bottles 7 Rum and Coke Zero Lava Flow Spike Peach Tea from Portside Margarita $137.50 Day 3: L Espresso 2 Coke Zero 3 Water Bottles Miami Vice Miller Light Sake $53 Day 4 (CocoCay): L Espresso 5 Water Bottles 2 Rum and Diet Pina Colada 2 Pinot Noir Old Fashioned $91.50 Day 5: L espresso 4 water bottles 2 Coke Zero Blue Hawaiian 3 Rum and Diet Lime and Coconut Old Fashioned Lavender Daiquiri Bionic Bar Drink $117.65 Day 6: 2 water bottles Mimosa 2 Blue Hawaiian 2 Coke Zero Sake $64 Day 7: Apple Mint Fresh Squeezed from Vitality ($7) 4 bottles of water Iced Chai Tea Boston Iced tea party Jack and Coke 2 Old Fashioned Lavender Daiquiri Merlot $114.65 Total Drinks Consumed (excl. grats): $629.80 Total Drinks Consumed (excl. grats, excl water bottles): $539.80 Drink Package Cost (excl. grats): $426.93 I think $60.99 is my limit for the package. If I couldn't get it at the price on a future cruise I would probably just forfeit alot of the drinks. I obviously made out on this one though. I didn't get 'hammered' or anything during the cruise. We just stayed on the ship for all ports except CocoCay, so we were able to take full advantage of the package. This would be different on a port intensive cruise. One other interesting tidbit from the Captains Corner was that he mentioned that RCL is only going to make ships larger than Oasis class moving forward. Take that as you will. Closing It was great to be back cruising again! Oasis was a great time. In terms of staff, you could tell they were short staffed. If you are impatient or super picky about things I'd recommend staying home right now. They ran out of a few wines mid-cruise, but otherwise didn't notice much that was out of stock. There were definitely less waiters around the pool deck serving drinks, there were times where I had to wait 3-4 minutes to be attended to, but all of the workers were very nice and very helpful. A little patience goes a long way!
  2. Yeah I agree. This sailing hit $60.99 once and I snagged it. Otherwise it was $75-$85 a day. At that price I wouldn't be buying anymore either.
  3. I think so too! I actually heard Royal is working on a new program for Icon where you just tap your card while you're standing at the urinal and it dispenses a shot right into your mouth! Can't miss a beat!!!
  4. Lol. I didn't hide gratuities. I didn't add them to the drink costs on board or my total package price so it's a wash. I don't feel like lugging an entire pack of coke zero on the ship nor do I feel like constantly returning to my cabin for a glass of wine. And you still have to pay a $15 corkage fee at the restaurants. It sounds like it isn't a good value for you. You can nitpick the package all you want. At 60.99 a day it's still a really good value for most people including myself.
  5. Just ordered another rum and diet which would have been $10. Add that in and take out the $72 in water bottles and I'm sitting at an average of $61.40 a day, which is still beating the $60.99 I paid. I'm sure that will go up even more if I have a glass of wine with dinner and an old fashioned before bed again.
  6. I'm on Oasis now, figured I'd track for the first time since this ridiculous thread started the day before we left. Gonna assume water bottles are $3 and sodas are $3. I didn't differentiate between filling my soda cup and getting a can Day 1: 3 Coke Zero 4 Water Bottles Bud Light 1 Rum and Diet 1 Pinot Noir $51.50 Day 2: Iced Chai Latte 2 Coke Zero 8 Water Bottles 7 Rum and Coke Zero Lava Flow Spike Peach Tea from Portside Margherita $137.50 Day 3: L Espresso 2 Coke Zero 3 Water Bottles Miami Vice Miller Light Sake $53 Day 4 (CocoCay): L Espresso 5 Water Bottles 2 Rum and Diet Pina Colada 2 Pinot Noir Old Fashioned $91.50 Day 5 (In Progress): L Espresso Blue Hawaiian 2 Coke Zero 4 Water Bottles $35.50 Was slightly buzzed by the pool on the second day, but never once felt drunk or sick or whatever. I paid $60.99 a day pre cruise which is $426.93 before gratuities. Had I bought these drinks without the package I'd be up to $369 with 2.5 days to go. Easy value for me. Only got off the ship at Cococay.
  7. Yes, our initial PCR in April. I was negative on an antigen I took at home about a week before the cruise, but there was no reason to risk a positive coming up by chance before we left. The COR was easy to get and copay for telehealth was cheaper than the proctored tests. Plus, like I mentioned, I saw plenty of stories where people had to go to the medical center and were tested for COVID. If that happened and we had our COR it's no big deal. Without it I'm sure quarantining is a risk. At this point it's just better to travel with documentation of recovery if you can.
  8. On Oasis now. We both boarded with the letter of recovery and was very easy. Check in agent just had to clear it with someone else. Maybe added 2 minutes to check in. We got it from our PCP who just set up a telelhealth with us after we completed our quarantine to make sure we were symptom free. We wanted this because if for ANY reason we had to take a PCR while on board, we had proof we had already recovered.
  9. MTD was a fiasco last night. Had an 815 reservation, didn't get seated till 840ish, wasn't done till almost 10. There were 0 lines for the set time dining. Other than that the ship is fine. El Loco fresh waits around peak times at lunch were maybe 10 minutes. All of the staff has been fantastic and personally the food for me has been better than pre pandemic. I can't speak to the Windjammer as I haven't been there yet. All of the bar service has been excellent as well. No issues there. Everytime I found myself getting upset about waiting in a line I just step back and realize I'm on vacation and the world is short staffed right now.
  10. I got it at 60.99 per day which is still decent. Anything above that and my bottle of wine allowance will become a bottle of wine filled with vodka allowance
  11. There was an actual sale for my Oasis sailing at the beginning of April. Drink package was on sale for $60.99 a day which is about the most I would pay. Haven't seen it back to that price since, it's at $72.99 a day now.
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