nfall2010

As I said, we have been on Brilliance of the Seas 3 times, and really enjoyed our cruises on there. We got to know both our dining staff and our cabin steward very well, and even had them more than once on different sailings (asked to sit in the same waiter's section on different cruises, etc.).

In my opinion, I think, for us, it was more about the size of the ship than the cruise line - there is a big difference between 1800 passengers and 5600 passengers, and I think that's what we were feeling.

Pampered is probably the wrong word choice - we felt more like a number on Oasis, vs. on Brilliance, we got to know and recognize the staff/crew, which we happen to like (the personal interaction/conversations).

I agree, on the Oasis, I think of it more as a "mass market" customer - but we didn't happen to feel that way on Brilliance - just our experience.

I think his name may be Dan Whitney. Despite what the other thread (updated current list of Cruise Directors) says - I'm sure his name was Dan. Maybe he was only on there for a short stint - not sure. But, for our sailing on 2/25/18, it wasn't Jimmy Rhodes.

On our sailing on 2/25/18, the cruise director was Dan (didn't catch his last name). He said lots of people call him Dan Dan. I think he said he lives in Tampa.

We thought he was a really good cruise director - very involved; not too many corny jokes; his team really worked hard throughout the cruise, we thought. And, he was very entertaining, and really got into the Disco party night himself!

We were on the Oasis of the Seas 2/25/18 sailing. Just a heads up to future guests. In my opinion, the 70's Night Party on the Promenade deck 5, which was held on Thursday night, was the most well attended group party on this sailing. The ENTIRE activities team seemed to be participating and dressed in theme, as well as some of the entertainment staff onboard, too. The cruise director and his team really worked hard to make this a fun and entertaining party/show for the guests, and everyone (guests and crew) seemed to have a blast. So, get to deck 5 early, to get a seat for the festivities - but by the time the show starts, you won't be sitting, you'll be standing, singing, dancing, taking pics, etc., etc.

A real highlight for us on the cruise.

(P.S. - the White Party the following night, same location, etc. really fell flat - so don't hold out for that night!)

Canada Rob -

If you have an enthusiastic group; if you are all into the theme/game/story of the evening (as it unfolds); if you know that you can look at the drink menu provided, and instead of accepting the drinks they offer you initially, you just begin the evening by asking to try whatever drink/drinks look good to you on the menu, etc., yes. I would also say that a good part of the evening focuses on dancing (not that I am anti-dancing; I just didn't want to be the only couple out there). And, don't expect much from the apps/food table.

By the way, there were more than gin drinks, there were rum and vodka drinks on the menu, too.

I still feel like $35/person is a bit steep for the 2 hour evening, but at least I would approach it differently, knowing what I know, now.

This was our first cruise on an Oasis class ship - we were on 2/25/18 sailing. We had been happy with RCI cruises in the past (all on Brilliance of the Seas) but wanted to try the big ship experience. We think maybe we are not mega ship cruisers. But, I will echo some of the points the original poster made about their experience a couple weeks before ours.

Although we had read things like "although it's a big ship, you never know there are over 5000 passengers" that was not our experience. We knew it all the time. I will say that the worst lines for us were getting through security on embarkation day.

Although we were fortunate enough to have reservations for all of the shows onboard (we booked our reservations on Cruise Planner basically on the day that they opened reservations for our sailing - 90-120 days ahead) we still arrived at every venue at least 45-60 minutes ahead of time, to ensure that we got (good) seats.

In general, we usually like the Solarium (adults only) pool area, but we found all of the pool areas on this ship a bit weird - no large pool anywhere - lots of smaller pools. Didn't even seem like a pool in the Solarium, but it was - just very small. And, because we didn't get up to the Solarium at the crack of dawn, we were never able to have 2 chairs together there. It always seemed crowded to me.

On the second formal night, although we had booked on Cruise Planner a reservation for My Time Dining, when we went the previous day to the MDR on 3 to confirm the reservation time, the host suggested that they might be very busy on formal night, and we might prefer to eat in the Solarium Bistro that night for dinner - he said they would have lobster tail and prime rib (the featured items). We had not eaten there, and it didn't matter to us, so we said fine. As it turned out that evening, in the Solarium Bistro, they have sort of a Greek inspired menu, and it is also serve yourself buffet for apps, sides, and desserts. We didn't know this ahead of time. Yes, in addition to the standard Bistro menu, for formal night we could order either prime rib or lobster tail or both, but as it turned out, the lobster tail was barely warm by the time it got to us (not sure where it was prepared, upstairs or in MDR kitchens), and my lobster tail was tough. The salmon I ordered to go with it from the Bistro menu was so dry and tasteless that I didn't eat it. I didn't even see a dessert I was interested in trying up there, so we skipped dessert. We were really disappointed with our formal night dinner up there, and would not recommend it to others, unless you really like the Solarium Bistro dinner menu and format.

In general, we felt at all of the meals in the MDR, but especially at dinner, it seemed like the waitstaff were always rushing - they must be understaffed, although there were so many servers, just too many guests, I guess. As soon as someone left their table, they were there in an instant to reset the table for the next guests to be seated. And, I really don't like the idea of the waiter taking your full dinner order (app, entree, and dessert) all at the beginning of the meal. Again, that seems like a subtle way to rush you through your meal.

We ate at Giovanni's the first night (First Night Done Right deal) and the grilled shrimp that were advertised by the server as the size of prawns were really medium sized shrimp and so unsatisfactory that my husband ended up ordering a steak after he ate the 5 or so shrimp - it was more like an app size entree! I requested my steak be medium well, but it was more like well done. But, I actually liked the cut/preparation of that steak better than the steak we had later in the cruise in Chops. BUT, I will say that the service and food quality in Chops was the best on the whole ship. THAT was more like what we were used to on Brilliance. We were able to have some conversation with the server; the shrimp cocktail app really had shrimp the size of prawns - and tender! The steak there was also good, and the chocolate lava cake dessert was amazing. It was really an outstanding evening at Chops.

We did have a problem with the Old and New San Juan tour that we took in P.R. - we ended up leaving the tour early and walking around on our own, and got more out of it. In our case, when we went to the Shore Excursions desk the next day to discuss it, they were very fair in their treatment of the situation, and we were satisfied with their resolution for us.

We, too, did not receive our Meet & Mingle invite in our stateroom, so we missed that party. I later heard it wasn't much, but still didn't like that we were overlooked, as we had signed up months in advance.

Our stateroom attendant either had too many rooms to take care of, or just always seemed to get to our room last. In the past, on various cruises, it seemed to us like we could be out of the room just for a short time, and somehow the steward knew it, and had it all cleaned up by the time we returned. That never happened for us this time. It seemed more like the steward worked their way up one side of the hall, and back down the other side, in order, and we happened to be last on the list. Also, as the original poster mentioned, in the past, we've always had a rapport with our steward, and consequently have always left an additional cash gratuity for them at the end of the cruise. Not this time. The attendant got off on the wrong foot when we got to our room around 1:15 on embarkation day, and she wasn't done cleaning our room from the prior guests, and didn't look too happy about our arrival, either. When we asked for wine glasses, it seemed like it would be a problem, or just another thing they had to do, so they indicated we could order them ourselves from room service. On other cruises, an attendant would have fallen all over themselves to do that task - not recommended that the guest take care of it themselves. I did end up calling room service, and was on hold for 8 minutes before they picked up the phone...again, not a good start to the cruise on day 1.

My husband hit the nail on the head when he said he just didn't feel "pampered" on this ship - there's too many people for that. It felt to us more like fighting our way through Disney World crowds than being on a cruise...

To end on a positive note - we thought the entertainment and all of the shows onboard were excellent - even the comedians. We would highly recommend dinner at Chops Grille - especially if you can get it for free/reduced price (ours was a perk from our travel agent). AND, we found an excellent bartender in the Schooner Bar - ask for Franz. He will take good care of you!

Ship - Oasis of the Seas

Deck - 9

Stateroom # - 9229

Stateroom Category – Central Park VIEW

Starboard or Port Side - Port

Quiet Stateroom? (With comments on problems) – The stateroom is midship, but is right next to the hallway/closet/service room that the stewards use each day, morning & night, to bring up laundry, glasses for the bathrooms, carts, etc. So, I would not say it is quiet. We heard nothing from above, and we heard little noise from the Central Park area below on 8 (which is pretty quiet), but when the music was loud up on the pool deck, depending on the wind, we could sometimes hear that music wafting down. This cabin, 9229, is often advertised as being larger than other cabins (229 suffix) and that may be true, but in the case of a Central Park VIEW stateroom, rather than a Central Park Balcony, I am not sure this made much difference, and the noise from the service room/hall next door probably outweighs any size benefit there may be.

Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - No

Balcony View - Give comments on view, noting if location of any obstructions was an issue. – This is a Central Park View room. It has a large window that juts out above the Trellis Bar below on 8, I believe. Since it is a View (window) not a balcony, they have put in a huge window seat abutting the window. I figured out on about day 5 that this window seat is an excellent place to put your large suitcases, side by side, and be able to access your clothing, etc. directly from your suitcases, if you like. The view was fine, fairly quiet to the Central Park area below. But, of course you have other guests directly across Central Park from you, so you have to keep the drapes closed if you are changing or sleeping in the cabin - people can see right in the window with no problem.

Balcony Size? Normal or oversized for class? - N/A

Was wind a problem? - N/A

If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - N/A

Any specific problems with this cabin? - See above. Also, the shower light was out (if there was supposed to be one; it looked like there was; the water leaked substantially from the shower head connection to the hose - didn't affect the water pressure, but was a little annoying; and the closet doors did not have a guide on the floor, so on our last evening, when there were some rough seas, in the middle of the night, we heard some banging in the closet area, and it took us about 2 hours to figure out it wasn't the safe door; it wasn't the wooden hangers; it was the two closet doors banging against each other near the floor. Had to stick a handtowel in between the two doors to make it stop. Personally, I thought the bathroom was pretty small, and I thought the drawer space was very limited for a 1 week cruise (two usable drawers in the desk, and about 6 open shelves in the closet - plus lots of hanging space in the closet).

Any other comments? - Would not select this cabin, or any cabin next to a service corridor, again.

After reading some reviews of the private Prohibition Party on Oasis of the Seas, we decided to give it a try, and even brought along some basic 30's style clothes to wear. I would say about 75% of the attendees dressed up for the party. Just a note - the party (I think we signed up on the Cruise Planner) costs $35/person. It is about a 2 hour party in the Jazz on 4 club. We were excited for the speakeasy atmosphere, but unfortunately, on our cruise, it turned out to be a bit of a dud. There is some entertainment by the 4 piece jazz group onboard. They do provide some EXTREMELY limited hor d'oeuvres. This event was held on a Thursday night, I think, around 10:30 pm. Honestly, I didn't even try the food; it didn't look good to me. They start off by serving you drinks in coffee cups (prohibition style), which was OK. The event was at least partly sponsored by Tanqueray Gin, I think, because the first few drinks were gin-based, which was fine. The problem was, there was a menu of about 8-10 drinks, but the servers didn't ask what they could bring you; they just brought two of each (even if you didn't like the first, they brought you a second), instead of taking your order, based off the drink menu.

The activities team had 2 people there who were fully dressed in costume, and they were there to kind of get the party rolling, get you into the 1930's theme, help act out the story, etc. They even got both the men and the women dancing, at one point, as groups, kind of showing how to do the Charleston, etc. The problem was, it seemed like they felt a little bit silly leading the guests, and they also seemed like they didn't quite get the whole plot of the evening (they were VERY young, and were not from the US, so not sure they really "got it", and there was a bit of a language barrier in the presentation, too). There is a story and a game to the evening, and if it's executed well, I think it could be fun, with the right people. Unfortunately, the night we were there it missed the mark. We definitely didn't feel like our $70 was well spent (apps were bad, and the lack of taking specific drink orders). I think there were under 40 people there on our night, so it was a little sparsely attended, too.

Wish I could be more postive on this one. Maybe if you had a large group you were traveling with, and you all wanted to go and get into the spirit, maybe it might work out better.

.

Thank you!

Sorry - what does FNDR stand for?

I have read other reviews that mention getting the Chops fiket in Giovanni's, and how great the food in Giovanni's is. So glad you had a good experience, too!