transam84

Did the cake taste as good as it looks?

Yes, it was quite good. It was chocolate cake with rasberry filling.

We just came back from a cruiese on Oasis that included both ports. We loved labadee. There is so much to do or nothing at all. We rented a canbana because we were with two elderly women. Loved the cabana. We went on a wave runner tour. There is a zipline, and the dragon's tail coaster. There are water toys. We loved fliating on the beach mats. We had water shoes so the shells at Barefoot Beach were a non issue. Check out my oasis march 1 -8 review for pictures. Also my son and his fiancee went on the bobsled and dunn's river falls excursion in Falmouth and loved it. The shopping area where the ship docks is very cute. Enjoy! We did.

And now Congratulations to the happy couple! Much happiness Rob and Amanda!

Chops

We love Chops. We always try to have a dinner at this restaurant when sailing Royal Caribbean. For tonight I pre-ordered a celebration cake to go along with the Romance Package. I was a little apprehensive since they told me the smallest cake served 20. But it worked out. I think 20 slices would have been really small pieces and took ½ back to our room. Dinner was very good as usual.

So I will start with a bit of food porn.

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In addition to the engagement celebration it was my mother-in-law’s birthday. So of course we had to celebrate that too.

So no review of Central Park would be complete without a comment on the famous roast beef sandwich from Park Cafe. OK, yes it is really good, IMO. And I am not a real beef eater. After the 3rd day we took to having one of these for lunch every day. Park Cafe in general is nice place to get lunch. The make your own salad station looked very good, although I must say I was too busy eating the roast beef to try it. I did try the Jerk pork wrap and it was pretty good. Not good like the roast beef :D but good.

So now on to the engagement celebration!

You asked for more...you got it!

Congratulations Rob and Amanda!

Prior to the cruise I made arrangement to have an announcement put in our compass. I also made reservations for Chops for the third night, anticipating the 2nd night engagement. We like food, but are not foodies. So, Chops seemed a better fit for us the 150 Central Park. As part of the Royal Romance package we received an hour of private photography. Since the photographers are not allowed in state rooms, we need to pick another location for the engagement photos. We thought Chops and Central Park would be perfect.

Central Park

So before I go into the celebration let me digress a bit and take you through Central Park. I think this is one of the most amazing features of the Oasis class ships. You forget you are on ship when in this neighborhood. And it is so peaceful and we never found it crowded.

So From the Top!

Now for a walk in the park!

Bye Bye Labadee. It was fun!

Tonight we go to dinner at Chops and celebrate the engagement!

Activities:

We reserved the wave runner tour for me, Tom, Rob and Amanda for 11AM. Rob and Amanda had the Dragon’s Breath Flight Line at 2PM.

Wave-runners: The wave-runners are accessed at Buccaneer’s Bay. It is a short walk from Barefoot beach. When we arrived we checked in. We had taken this tour many years ago and really enjoyed it. Tom and Rob were driving and me and Amanda passengers. We purchased lanyards for our sunglasses. If you take this tour be sure you wear sunglasses and they have a lanyard. We got a locker for our stuff. You can go barefoot or wear beach shoes. No flip flops, obviously. We got our life jackets and all riders had a vest with straps for passenger to hold on to. And this turned out to be very necessary, more in a minute. We had a short safety briefing/ movie. There were 10 wave runners per tour, a lead and chase vehicle. We were asked our experience. Both my son and husband have ridden many times. We have a house at the Jersey shore and a boat and my husband and I have boating licenses. I am telling you this for context. They then asked for volunteers to be in front and explained the front machines go the fastest. My husband and another woman volunteered for front. I was fine with this since we have ridden before and as noted we are boaters. The woman had her own wave runner and was very experienced (reckless is more the word) and so we went second. My son was 5th. Before we left he explained that we were free to go “full throttle”. Hmmm…that is interesting I thought, a tour that allows riders with potentially little experience to go “full throttle”. But I thought this is tour, we really can’t be going “full throttle”…. I was wrong…We all pushed off from the dock and were given numbers to take off. And take off we did at break neck speed. We had to cross of rough area with big waves to get to a calm shore and I was screaming and crying the whole way. I thought I was going to fall off I was being thrown so much. I was scared for Rob and Amanda, since Amanda had never ridden. We were going so fast and at one point we even lost sight of our lead and the woman in front. When we caught up at the half way pause point, my husband asked to switch positions because I was so scared. Others people were also a bit upset. It seemed only the woman who has a wave runner and thought it so funny she fell off the previous week was having fun. We were put in position 5, but this was only slightly better. I have never been on a “full throttle tour” that was not billed as one. I wanted a nice sightseeing tour and what I got was a crazy, full throttle race. I don’t mind going fast, but not full throttle the whole time. So please be advised if you book this tour you will be going fast, very, very fast, scary fast. Amanda told us after the tour that she was really scared and the woman in front of them almost fell off. So while it was a somewhat cool experience and we got some great pictures I don’t think I would book this tour again.

Zipline: At 1:30PM Rob and Amanda went over to the zip line. It turns out that the weight limit was reduced to 160lbs because it was windy. Didn’t seem that windy to us, and even our attendant was surprised but apparently on the mountain it was windy. So my son could not go. Please be aware that they change the weight limit according to conditions and they are very careful about it being windy which it often is. At least they got to zip line on the ship : )

Cabana B2:

It was a beach cabana as noted. When we arrived at 9 am I was a little concerned because it seemed to be in full shade and I like the sun on the deck. But by late afternoon the deck was in the sun. This cabana was in a good location. It was on the beach but very close to the water. I like the location very much. It faced the ship and the view was amazing. We had a chest with 4 large bottles of water and he brought us more later in the day. We ended with so much water, I brought 4 large bottles back to the ship. There are nice furnishing and a fan. We had a very nice attendant and he brought us beach mats and offered us snorkel equipment. There were plenty of towels in the cabana. We were on a tour when lunch opened and our attendant brought the mom’s each a plate of food and desserts from the buffet. We ate in our cabana. The cabin was the only thing made this beach possible for the moms and I would do it again in heartbeat. Bravo Royal Caribbean! Bravo Israel Sanchez!

To give you some idea of proximity to water. I am standing very close to the edge of water to take this picture.

The interior

The Deck

Our Neighbors

Barefoot Beach:

We were taken to barefoot beach by a cart. As you know it is private access. We had gold wristbands. We were taken to our cabana. As noted we needed the beach chairs and had to carry the wheel chairs. B2 cabana is not accessed by a walkway, so if you have it and a wheel chair, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Barefoot beach is nice; there is plenty of shade and lots of chairs if you don’t have a cabana. The entry into the water is full of shells so I would recommend beach shoes. I am glad we brought them along. The water is lovely and calm and clear though. We floated on beach mats for quite a while and it was very enjoyable.

Entryway:

It has been quite a long time since we last visit Labadee and it sure has grown. So much to do!

Welcome Ashore!

After a nice breakfast on the balcony, Tom and I headed out with the moms around 9 AM, and Amanda and Rob met us a bit later.

For Labadee, as mentioned I contacted Israel ahead of time and he arranged for Barefoot Beach, Beach Cabana B2 for us. There was bit of confusion about taking our transport chairs on island. We originally thought we would get the beach wheel chairs but when exiting the ship, we were told we should take our own transport chairs. Turns out we should have utilized the beach chairs. We ended up bringing our chairs to the cabana but then storing them and using the beach chairs. Israel was so help he came out to the island to check on us. He is so attentive. He even stayed with my mom, when we had to leave for a tour.

Good Morning Labadee!

March 3 dawned a bit windy and overcast and I was worried. We ordered room service and ate on the balcony. It was nice but windy. I was a bit concerned since this was our beach day. But by the time we fully docked and the wave runners came to greet it was sunny and warming up nicely.

Thanks everyone! Glad you are enjoying the review. When I it I did not plan on it being this long but having such fun remembering events it keeps expanding and as long as people are not bored I will keep writing. :D

This suite is really all about the view! Here are pictures of the show from our balcony.

So now it is time to turn in, it was a wonderful and exciting day. Tomorrow, Day 3, March 3, we are in Labadee. Stay tuned for Barefoot Beach, Cabanas, wave runners and beach fun!

So after the proposal we went to main dining room. We were on deck 3, in the center next to the captain's table. This was not the best location for two women in wheel chairs. The dining room is much too tight. The tables are so close in this area the waiters can barely get through. It was a challenge. We had to leave the wheelchairs by the space near the captain's table every night we ate there. The moms had to walk into the room. We managed but it was not the best arrangement. The food in the main dining room was good, considering they are serving such a massive amount of people at once. It is good quality banquet food. Our waiters were attentive and the food tasted fresh and was well prepared.

After dinner we went back to the room to watch the aqua show.

So after we took a bunch of pictures, we waited in Boleros for the Captain's welcome.

While we were waiting, my Rob started to get anxious. The plan was to wait for after dinner to have Rob make an excuse to go back to the room with Amanda. But he wanted to give her the ring before dinner. So my husband Tom went back to the room to see if they had finished. We figured if they were done we could miss the captain's welcome this once. :) Tom returned and said they were done. So Rob turns to Amanda's and exclaimed, oh I am missing one of my diamond earings (really?!, they are from the dollar store), I need to go back to the room and look for it. She bought it. Oh my.

And here is what she found!

Congratulations Rob and Amanda!!!!

Yes, she cried and said yes!

So now that we all had lots of fun on the first sea day, we get to the big event, the first formal night and the big proposal. As mentioned we had met with our on board coordinator on the previous day. We needed to be out of the room by 7pm so they could start set up. This worked out because we planned on taking formal pictures and going to the Captain’s welcome on the Royal Promenade. So after we were all dressed up pretty we left. I have been on many cruises and I still love getting dressed up. I know many people like to relax and be casual and that is fine too, whatever lights your wick. But for me I love the dress up still. And this cruise was special since tonight was a special occasion.

Some formal night pictures

Soon were taking our Embarkation photos. I got the unlimited photo package and was very happy with it. This was a special family cruise so I decided to splurge. I got the disk for $309 and then purchased all the prints at a discount for $50. So I got 109 pictures on disc and hard copy for a little over $350. I think that was quite a bargain.

QUOTE]

 

I'm going on the Oasis in June. We have people in 3 different rooms, how does it work with the picture package? Also when did you purchase the package? (on board or pre cruise)

 

Great Review so Far!

 

Here is the how the picture package officially works...You buy the unlimited disk for one room, as long as you give your card you will get the picture on your disk for all people. So for example if you buy the package for room x but not y and z, you can still get group photos with everyone from x, y and z. But you can't get photos from y and z alone. You can however buy packages for all 3 rooms with the 2nd and 3rd discounted. You will have a folio number on your sea pass and your prints will go in the folio. They do facial recognition though and all pictures do not necessarily end up in folio so you may have to hunt and peck on the walls and in piles of pictures to be sure you get all your pictures. The photo shop is a bit of a mess. Be persistent and ask for what you want. When I explained about the moms being in a separate room, and said they really won't be taking many pictures alone, they actually just linked both rooms so I got two packages for the price of one. Also, I think the $50 print deal is a bargain. It was supposed to only include prints from first 3 days, but in end they just gave them all to me, so I got 109 prints for $50. Since individually prints were about $15 I feel like I got $1500 worth of pictures for $50. When you buy the package, I found they thrown you a lot of bonuses that are not "advertised".

 

I pre-purchased the package but you can buy it on board. I think the price was the same. I thought it would be cheaper, but from what I remember it was $309 either way.

And if all the water sports and zip lining is not enough there is always basketball, mini golf or rock climbing.

Basketball court

Mini Golf

There are two rock climbing walls on either side of the Boardwalk. More on Boardwalk later. One was right outside our balcony and it was fun watching the climbers. I was impressed at some of the kids making it to the top.

There were also shows almost daily in the aquatheater. Another fun thing to watch from our balcony. Pictures of the Aquashow later. Or if you like you could do nothing at all.

Next up...first formal night and the big proposal!

In addition to the pools there are two flow riders on this ship. None of us had the nerve to try them, but was fun to watch. One side if for boogie boarding and the other is for stand up. One man was really good at stand up, I was impressed. Everyone cheered when he came off.

Boogie Boarding

Stand up

Oops

And another fun activity for the adventurous is the zip line. Amanda and Rob did this one!

Amanda looks a little aprehensive

Rob has no fear.

Of the 4 main outdoor pools the zero entry beach was my favorite. Loved the mesh chairs rather than the strap ones.

RCCL did a very good job of crowd control with the neighborhoods and many different pool areas. Although the pools did get crowded on sea days there were always chairs to be found somewhere. I did notice that we had a very respectful group on this cruise. Most people used their chairs for their bodies rather than towels and I even saw people offering chairs that were not immediately being used. Below is the beach pool on a sea day.

Across the great divide from the beach pool was the main pool. I did spend one sea day here and it was fine.

Here is the sports pool

And the Children's pool. Looks like fun. I really wanted to try the current pool.

Finally finished with Day 1, wow, that was a busy day! Now on to Day 2, March 2. Since the activities on most sea days is the same I will cover pools and outdoor activies for Days 2, 5 and 7 all in one section.

All my sea days started with a café mocha from Café Promenade. In my opinion they had the best coffee on the ship in this place. I had the Royal Replenish so I never tried Starbucks, there was no need. Got great specialty coffee from this place. This is the only place open early too. I would get up at 6 and this is the only place open. Fine with me. Would get my coffee and go to the solarium or on deck to watch sunrise

There are 5 pool areas on Oasis, The main pool, sports pool, beach pool, kids pool and adult only solarium. The solarium was my favorite early morning place. Just outside the solarium are the two large cantilever hot tubs.

My happy place every morning, watching the sunrise with my cup of cafe mocha

The Solarium

Cantilever Hot Tub

After dinner on Day 1 we had reservations for Hairspray. Although I had made all my reservations in advance, it did not seem like we needed them, except for the comedy show . They just waved us in and we just walked right in. Because my son requested late seating, we ended up missing many shows because we were too tired by 10:30. I know, I know, so boring we are. But with the moms in wheelchairs and the stress of the engagement with all its planning, we were just exhausted. There is so much do on this ship, there is no way to accomplish it all in a week and there is no sense stressing over it. We figure we just have to come back : ) Another item of note is that the wheelchair sections in the theater and most venues is in the back and is not the best viewing. For Hairspray we ended up in the upper tier all the way in the back with a partially obstructed view. It was still an excellent production. We also saw the Aquashow from our balcony, the ice show and my husband Tom saw the comedy show. Pictures of the Aquashow to follow. The ice show was very good as usual and Tom said the comedy show was ok, just funny enough to qualify as a comedy show. There was special reserved seating for suite guests but you have to ask. I saw a roped area at the ice show in the front and asked what it was. The attendant stuck up his nose at me and said in a rather nasty tone “That area is for suite guests only.” I which point I just flashed my gold card. He was rather embarrassed and said, “oh right this way”. Moral of the story. Be careful when you respond, you never know who you are talking to. I am very low key and hate being pretentious. I hate people who feel entitled and I certainly don’t. I am just grateful for what good things I have. So I am always polite and respectful to whoever I am speaking to. Sorry for the digressing, but I don’t like snooty people. One other item of note about reservations, for my sailing they opened up very early. I was glad that I follow cruise critic because I would have missed the boat (pun intended) if not for the heads up by fellow members that they had opened for my sailing. So keep following cruise critic for the most up to date cruise information : )

Now on to the sea days!