Itchy&Scratchy

2 weeks ago both MDR and WJ were scheduled to be open till 8:15. WJ was open past that for sure. Sorrento's didn't open till 11 am on any day. It no longer has any small items. It only serves pizza when it's open. Promenade cafe was really funky on disembarkation day: I tried to get a coffee, but the line barely moved, so I gave up after 10 minutes (only 4 people in front of me) and the food items were not in the displays.

2 weeks ago on Oasis we had one pictured above. And on 2022 Allure as well.

same here. I got OBC for my Silver level, but not my DH who is also Silver level (matching status). I am afraid to call. 🙂

why in the world didn't you get together with any one of these 14 people and get off the ship with them?

I wouldn't know about that. 🙂We usually get in late, leave by 10 am, and don't need to do anything besides getting a quick dinner.... And we only started getting in the day before after the pandemic, when all those airline messes started happening. And this time there was a freak winter storm and many people from the east and north didn't even make it to the cruise (even though they were flying in the day before). Some even boarded in PR...

Before the cruise I made reservations with SAS shuttle to take us from the port of Miami to FLL. We got off the ship around 9 and I called the shuttle people as instructed. The guy told me the shuttles were gone till about 10 and we were ok with that and actually knew that in advance. Our flight was leaving at 1:30, so we had time. There was another family with kids waiting for SAS as well. Their mom called them several times and so did I, because no shuttles showed up by 10:40. All the other passengers waiting for shuttles were gone. The SAS guy either didn't answer the phone, or gave all sorts of excuses why the shuttles weren't coming. A different shuttle company offered to take us and we took them up on the offer ($20 pp as opposed to SAS's $15 pp). It was quick and easy, and still saved us a lot of money - DH priced an uber and it was $150 from the port to FLL at the time. Yikes.

sorry, we did not have breakfast at all. We usually head straight to the buffet when we board the ship, so we don't usually want to have breakfast, unless we are flying in on the same day. Some rates include breakfast, but ours didn't. If we wanted breakfast, we would have probably walked over to Burger King, since I am a cheapskate. 🙂

not SAS shuttle. Ugh.

traffic was bad, but we still made it to the port by 11:30. Left the hotel about 11.

word of advice: the cruise line may have only one shuttle departure from the airport, say, around 11 am. You are cutting very close with the late arrival..... A lot of people didn't make it to our April cruise from northern and eastern states because of the freak storm... By the way, how did you book the MSC transfer? I looked for a long time today and couldn't find the option on their website.

wow. Is that just the cruise portion or everything combined??????? Doesn't make any sense. I wouldn't spend this kind of money on a cruise, unless it was for a bunch of people in some kind of a Royal Suite. But for an inside room on Carnival? Doesn't make any sense, unless you are including ALL the charges. We have just got off the $2,500 weeklong RCI cruise (inside for 3 ppl, but they don't have these prices anymore). Also booked a $2,300 MSC cruise for the fall school break (balcony for 3 ppl). Looking at booking a $2,000 MSC cruise for next spring break - balcony for 3 ppl.

none. My parents are dependent on us for off-the ship time, so they always come along to whatever we are doing in ports. On the ship, they have dinner with us and we go to all the shows together, of course, but other than that, they are free to explore on their own. We run into each other at food places or at the pool all the time. My kid is younger (just turned 12) but he doesn't do kid's club, so he is attached at the hip with us. My MIL is coming with us on the next cruise (most likely), so it will be a bit different, because my DH wants to show everything to his mom, whereas we are usually fine with just beach trips. My dad isn't mobile enough to see "everything"...

we stayed at EB hotel 2 weeks ago and absolutely loved it: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2930782-oasis-april-2-9-2023-a-wonderful-cruise/#comment-65200542 Hubs had a fish plate at the Pollo Tropical, and we had chicken. They have enough non-meat sides to make a full meal out of (fried plantains, rice, beans, fries, etc.). It's literally a one minute walk from the hotel.

we stayed at EB hotel 2 weeks ago and absolutely loved it: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2930782-oasis-april-2-9-2023-a-wonderful-cruise/#comment-65200542

Cococay was as gorgeous as ever. This time I discovered a "secret" path from Chill Island to the South beach, and took it several times. It's so serene.... if you stop for a second, you will see little lizards in the bushes: The island is so beautiful and colorful: we ate at the Snack Shack like last time (Nov 2021), but I could swear - the food was much greasier this time. We had the same food: a chicken sammich, mozzarella sticks, funnel cake, grilled veggies. Seagulls were out of control this time. They descended upon the tables and loungers while people were still eating. And if you got up to get something else and left your food unattended for a second - whoa!!!! Madhouse. The water was cold again, despite it being April instead of November. But it was sunnier and a lot more pleasant this time. I took at look at the buffet when I got some hamburger buns to hand feed the fishes. Buffet food looked very good, especially compared to Princess Cay buffet food.

in St Maarten, we asked at the Tourist Kiosk about a beach to choose. I had some choices in advance, but still - nice to know local opinions. That's what we did last time and we went to Little bay. We liked it ok last time. Should have gone there this time as well. This time, the kiosk lady said - Great Bay... First, the land taxi (we didn't know about the water taxi) dropped us off in downtown, and we had to walk several blocks to the beach. Good thing my not so mobile dad wasn't with us. Then we had to walk down the very crowded (despite the rain and foul weather) beach before we found one spot that wasn't heavily populated. $20 for 2 loungers and an umbrella. The umbrella came in very handy when it poured down. We really didn't like this particular beach and will not come here again. Not pretty, too crowded even on a bad day, really bad wifi connection. A decent bathroom in a nearby restaurant, though. We got some trinkets on the way back (lots of stores and stands along the beach) and also took the water taxi back ($7 roundtrip, $5 one way). This was the highlight of our trip to St Maarten. When we got back to the ship, the weather improved vastly and I walked around the port area to look for some more souvenirs and take some pictures. beautiful fragrant flowers:

A little about our destinations... It was rainy in both San Juan and St Maarten, but it was much worse in St Maarten: thunder, lightening, cold wind, cold water. So, in San Juan we asked the taxi driver for a beach with amenities. He recommended Isla Verde. Well, definitely not my definition of a beautiful beach, but the kid was super happy jumping in the waves for hours, so I have nothing to complain about. As long as our kids are happy, right? There was a lot of construction around the beach. We paid a nominal fee for 3 loungers and an umbrella (I think $15 for the umbrella and $5 per chair?) and chose a place to set them up farther down the beach, with fewer people around. Water was very brown because of all the kicked up sand. We called the taxi driver to come pick us up hours later (he gave us his card), and he got there fairly quickly. His car didn't go in reverse (it was very old), so my hubs and some random dude had to help push it, so that the taxi could turn around in the parking lot. Fun times. 🙂

just for funsies: this sounded like a really interesting activity. I should have gone...

Other notes on the ship food: We had breakfast at the WJ daily. On some days it was impossible to find a table for the 3 of us, and they still let people in. Some diners were very obviously done with the breakfast, but kept lounging around on their phones, despite many loud speaker announcements that people were waiting for tables to become available and to please not linger after finishing breakfast. Some of the people were single diners occupying a round table for 5-6 people. Very inconsiderate. Breakfast food at WJ was very basic. However, guacamole and smoked salmon were served every day. If you don't like the guac toast they make (different toppings every day), you can simply ask for guacamole separately or on a plain toast. I love avocado, so I had it for breakfast every day. Omelettes were very good, and now they give you a buzzer. My kid's daily WJ breakfast: I only stopped by WJ for lunch once to look around - it was basic as well. We didn't stop by after MDR dinner like we do on Princess ships, though. Sorrento Pizza only had pizza, so no grilled veggies or anything else. Park Cafe no longer has bagged chips. They also no longer have hot sandwiches we had enjoyed on previous Oasis class cruises: chihuahua cheese quesadilla or three cheese panini. They had about 3 kinds of panini sandwiches in the glass display, but none that we wished to try. Salad toppings were very basic this time, unlike on our previous cruises. My hubs used to love a custom made fancy topping salads from Park Cafe - they are gone now. Desserts used to be fun, but not so much now.

Alas, here comes the last night's dinner - Mediterranean. The tapas medley was very average. I like flavorful tzatziki sauce with dill, but this one tasted like plain sour cream. I've had better tzatziki sauce from a grocery store jar. The seafood cake, on the other hand, was really yummy, and DH ordered two of them. Unfortunately, both cakes of his cakes were served on the same plate with just one smear of sauce, so there wasn't enough sauce to go with two cakes. I ordered one seafood cake and the amount of sauce was perfect for just one serving. IMHO, you have to have the sauce to truly appreciate the taste of this cake. I ordered the steak, plain, no chimichurri sauce, and it was perfectly medium. The true HIGHLIGHT of my husband's MDR journey on this cruise: pecan crusted salmon. According to my husband, this was the best dish on this cruise. THE BEST. That truly says a lot, because my husband is not like me and doesn't often get excited about food. It was served with a creamy light horseradish sauce, and was flaky and tender. The flavor was superb, according to my hubs. The desserts were amazing as well: light and fluffy peach trifle which we loved on previous cruises as well (I think it may have been called peach shortcake before) Super rich brownie: DS loved it. and a chocolate cherry tart. To be fair, DS didn't like his, so I ended up eating both of them myself - good thing I really liked them. That's whipped cream, not ice cream. I believe we also ordered crema catalana, but it was just the creme brulee from one of the previous nights, and it was just as disappointing.

I have more!!! We were in a hurry to see Cats later that night, so we asked our waiters to speed up the service. They happily obliged, despite it being a formal and very busy night. They brought all of the entrees at the same time. We didn't have time to try the Indian dish this time - I am sure we would have liked it. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a pic of the menu that night, so you get to enjoy screen prints from my phone instead: We started off with a fruit salad for DS ( he ordered one with every meal): and a delicious citrus, avocado and melon salad for me: DH had an onion tart as usual and liked it as much as usual: Cheese tortellini were once again a HUGE hit with our family, just like last time: the sauce is super rich and delicious! Both our son and I ordered one. Surprisingly, DS expressed a wish to try a lobster, so I ordered one for him and one for myself. Unsurprisingly, he changed his mind the moment he saw it brought out. He doesn't even like shrimp, so... Everyone probably thought that I wanted both lobsters for myself - no, not really. One is enough for me. 🙂 It was good - for someone who doesn't really care for them but usually orders them because they are fancy food. The desserts were good, especially the chocolate cake and the strawberry cake:

thank you, yes, I am comparing the food to our June 2022 Allure cruise and Nov 2021 Harmony sailing. Some items are the same, some are new, and overall MDR food (and only MDR food) was pretty good. Some items are gone or offered on a limited basis (like the daily favorites). Some dishes were better than on our Allure sailing. We were somewhat disappointed in food on the Allure overall because some of our favorite dishes compared unfavorably to the good old times (literally 7 months prior). But at least there were not cutbacks at other venues. There were definite cutbacks on this sailing... But overall, MDR food was as expected, good quality and quantity, with some pleasant surprises and some "meh...." reactions.

I think - show up on time, so you are not standing in that long line even longer.

we didn't check Playmakers out, but we loved Portside BBQ: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2930782-oasis-april-2-9-2023-a-wonderful-cruise/#comment-65201562 Soooo much food.... That said, I am not quite sure it was open for dinner on our cruise - do check the schedule. We tried it on a sea day for lunch.

The Taste of Mexico! Instead of trying out the Taste of Mexico people seemed to dislike very much we wanted to try the Solarium bistro. I even made the reservations.... but hubs and kiddo vetoed my decision, so we went to the MDR again. 🙂 soooo, the corn cakes were NOT anything we expected. I guess we thought they'd be more like crab cakes, but made with corn. They were not. More like tiny pancakes. They were ok. Hubs loved the poblano pepper soup, and I thought it was good, but a little too spicy for me personally: I chose the enchilada and it was good and flavorful: Kiddo once again chose spaghetti marinara. I swear - he ate nothing but baked potatoes and spaghetti on this cruise. 🙂 Hubs went with the butter chicken, which was great: The desserts were good: