Itchy&Scratchy

Caribbean night: Coconut shrimp was great! I had a DOUBLE garlic tiger shrimp, and this time it was amazing! It wasn't amazing on the Allure. Our waiter very wisely requested double the shrimp and only a single side. I also had the NY strip steak and it was good, as usual. Hubs ordered the Caribbean chicken and it was great! he also tried the tagliatelle pasta and liked it: we all liked a fluffy and light pineapple cake: not sure what's going on with the upside down pic. I even rotated it. and DH also had a carrot cake: portions are tiny.... The kid had a brownie and liked it.

forgot to post the cappuccino cake pic:

Third night - France: We ordered a caesar salad and the snails: While I don't usually like escargot, I try it out of curiosity once on every cruise, if offered. I did like it more than Princess' escargot, which surprised me. I think it's because RCI's version was simple garlic and butter, and Princess version had lots of different spices which I didn't like. Main courses: I had a tenderloin, which was tender and great: Hubs ordered the beef bourguinion, which he liked: the seafood linguine was wonderful: and so was Rogan Josh: We were disappointed in the apple cobbler and the creme brulee, but liked the cappuccino cake. DS got the cookies (great) and chocolate ice cream every day.

Second night We ordered carpaccio, polenta fries and arancini: Carpaccio was very good, melted in your mouth: Polenta fries were very hard, but tasted good with the sauce: Arancini was good: For main course we ordered NY strip steak which was good for those who are not into $50 steaks: my husband liked the mushroom risotto, which was very small: I didn't like it yet again. We also tried Lamb Kofta, which was beyond great. I guess I forgot to take a photo, but it was meatball shaped and super delish. We had tiramisu for dessert: it was great.

First night dinner We had the crispy crab cakes and spinach-artichoke dip (new): The dip was wonderful. The crab cakes were as usual - pretty good. Aromatic Chicken Saag was great (even for people who don't usually eat Indian food, like us): Pan roasted fish file was ok. Our kid ordered Spaghetti Marinara every day. It was great in his opinion. The prime rib was fine: I order my beef dishes without any sauce/gracy/au jus.

this. We were in an inside cabin, and all we got was a small round soap for hands, and a combo bottle in the shower. I bring our own toiletries.

onto the MDR food - it was good. I was worried because of all the recent changes to the menu and MDR procedures, but it was for not. 🙂 The food quality was just fine by RCI standards, although there were definite changes such as fewer choices and disappearance of favorites. Steaks were thinner. We had MTD and really liked our team on the first night (table 120). They advised us that we could reserve the same table for the rest of the week, which we did upon exiting the MDR on the first night. Good thing we did because on most nights we simply bypassed the line and went directly to our table (if it was empty). On one of the nights early traditional diners showed up super late and were on their main courses at 7 pm.... We got a nearby table with the same waiting team, who as I said before was great (Bhaskar and Ayan). During the first few nights they brought out one appetizer or entree at a time, but as the time went and they saw how fast we eat, they would sometimes bring a couple of them at a time. Fine by us. 🙂 They had no problem accommodating my request to have absolutely no sauces with beef dishes. No au jus, no gravy, no peppercorn sauce. I am ok with herbed butter on my steaks, but nothing else. Only one steak arrived well done, whereas I always requested medium. I ate it anyway. We also tried a whole bunch of Indian dishes, which we don't do ever. 🙂 We enjoyed all of them.

if the difference is only $150, I will definitely book the balcony. Unfortunately, most of the time the difference in price is staggering, so we have no choice but to book inside. Nothing wrong with it.

it was 100% worth it. We never do specialty dining but this was special, and all three of us wanted to try it, despite the extra cost. 🙂 Although kind of hard to find a time when you are actually hungry, between huge breakfasts and huge dinners. Most of the time we didn't even have lunch. We went to the Portside bbq on a sea day after purposefully having a small breakfast. It was great! Pictured here are two combos, which came to $30 total including grats and which were shared by 3 people (one of whom is a preteen who eats like a bird, and two adults who eat like gluttons on their last day on Earth): the one at the top is $9.99 plus grats and included 2 sides, 1 dessert, and one choice of Chef's favorites. I chose smoked wings, coleslaw and fries, and brookies for dessert. We had a beloved dog named Brookie, so I would always choose a brookie over a banana pudding dessert. Our kid looooved the brookie. I thought it was good, especially if you like both cookies and brownies. The wings were fantastic, and both sides were liked by all three of us. Fries were just regular fries, but I liked this coleslaw very much. You couldn't choose one of the Pitmaster Favorites (meats) as a part of the 2 or 3 item Signature combo described below. That's why I chose to have a separate entree, because I wanted the wings. At the bottom you see a 3 Item Signature combo with St Louis style ribs, burnt ends and brisket, with 2 sides - mac and cheese and corn on the cob. My husband found the burnt ends to be too fatty, but the flavor was great. He hates fat on his food. I loved the ribs. Brisket was good. We all loved the corn, and mac and cheese was pretty good as well. Also at the top you will find Portside Spiked Palmer, the cheapest alcoholic drink we found onboard. $11 before gratuities, $13 after. I didn't like it - it was not sweet enough for me.

Make sure to make all the possible show reservations in advance. Make the other ones as soon as you get onboard (like laser tag). Public skating was a bust - they scheduled the registration for it at 2:45 on skating days, but by 2 pm all the time slots were "sold out". Our kid didn't get to skate... We went to the adult comedy on the first night, while our kid enjoyed laser tag galore over and over again. I didn't realize that the comedians change throughout the cruise since I was only able to make one reservation for one show. If you want to see other comedians, show up when they start letting people without reservations in. The ice skating show was good, with the Sand Guy (during the Ice show) being the definite highlight of the show. I am not spoiling it for you. Show up and see for yourself. Aqua80 was great. I walked out of Cats about 30 minutes in. My boys stuck around (which surprised me because they don't even like musicals) for another 15-20 minutes until I came and got them. People were walking out A LOT in the middle of the show. I must admit - it was boring, with every song sounding exactly like the one before it. I love musicals, I really do. But this one was boring. I walked out of Cats to go see Queen Tribute at Schooners, but in my opinion, the guy wasn't very good. It's very subjective... So, I walked out of that as well. The app doesn't show everything. We forgot to request the paper Compass....and missed some activities because of that. Not a big deal. Bolero's is the worst venue for dance classes. It's packed, and the stage is tiny. Maryna the guitar player was pretty good. We loved listening to her in the Central Park. We didn't go to the Music Hall (unfortunately), and sometimes the entertainment greatly overlapped with our dinner time. This was very unfortunate. I tried attending the guitar and vocal entertainment at the Atlas bar, but it was very loud for such a small venue, and I couldn't enjoy it. The ventriloquist show was superb!!!! We all loved it! I forgot to snap a photo of the entertainment schedule.

Hello, all, It's time for me to post some pics and observations of our Oasis cruise. There will be mostly food and menu pics and opinions, but I'll make sure to mention other things as well. To start off, we had a wonderful cruise. I was afraid that Oasis would be even more tired looking than Allure, but found that Oasis is in great shape after being amped. Everything looked fresh and new, except for the sofa in our inside room. That was the only thing that was definitely showing its age. We flew to MIA and stayed at the EB hotel the night before. A lot of people north of Atlanta had awful weather and a whole lot of flights were cancelled. Some didn't even make it to the ship.... We were lucky. EB Hotel was wonderful and I heartily recommend it for those who are picky and want great customer service and new, well appointed rooms. We were thrilled with this hotel, its location, the customer service, and everything in between. It's right next to a Pollo Tropical and Burger King. It offers complementary bottled water and tea and coffee pods for a Keurig coffee maker in the room. The room itself was gorgeous and spacious. And the bathroom has a motion activated night light! Hotel shuttle came very quickly. The following morning we took an uber plus ($25) to the port. I have never seen such a chaotic embarkation before.... Our boarding time was 11:30, and we showed up at exactly that time, only to find a queue of people stretching waaaaaaay out for this arrival time slot. It was crazy. We usually show up at our designated time and get in immediately (not any kind of a diamond or key or anything), so waiting in this long line was annoying. The lines for 12 pm, 12:30, and later arrivals were about 1/4 as long as ours. By the time we made it to the terminal slowly shuffling forward, all the other lines were let in at the same time with us. What the heck? After that, a long line split up into a whole bunch of shorter ones for check-in and xray machines, and it wasn't too bad after that. We picked up a tumbler for my soda package and headed to the buffet. The WJ buffet was very basic, but satisfactory. Our cabin was ready right after 1:30 pm, and our luggage was at the door a little while later. We had a regular inside cabin for 3, deck 8, forward, 8439. double sleeper sofa: To my surprise, Oasis had a built-in night light in the bathroom, which Allure didn't. It was very welcome. I brought our own, but we didn't need to use it. Our attendant Ravi showed up right away and explained the once a day service. In practice, it was still 2 times a day, because he had to clean in the morning and then set the sofa bed up for us in the evening (when he also tidied up a bit). He left towel animals for us several times. Oh, he also gave me some more hangers since our cabin had very few of them in the closet.

Just off the Oasis. Here is what it looks like. It is my understanding (4 times on Oasis class) that this class doesn't have any cabins for 3-4 people with pullman beds. My kid loves pullman beds.... Pictured on the sofa bed is a 5'3, 120# child:

the problem with the NCL Free at Sea package is that you can't tuck it on the lowest rate (Sail Away). Hence, the difference between the lowest rate that you would pay without the "free" stuff and the rate you must choose in order to add the free stuff is a lot more than only the gratuities you think you are paying. And did you notice how most of the POM cruises have the Sail Away rate sold out for over a year in advance? even for 2025. How convenient. Just to push you to buy a higher rate with "free" stuff. But if you do find a sailing with the Sail Away rate, here is an illustration to what I am talking about: you can't have "free" stuff if you pay $829 pp. You must pay $909 pp first, and then add gratuities. You will say - oh, it's less than a hundred bucks pp. Yes, it is for THIS cruise, but my point is that it's in addition to the $153 you said it costs.

well, that's the thing. I am spending $2.5K for the three of us for the basic cruise fare (with food, lodging, fun activities/entertainment, and gratuities included), not $10K. Would be even cheaper if it weren't during a spring break cruise. If i could spend $10K on just the cabins, then - what's $3K more for drinks, internet and specialty dining for 5 people? Besides, if I spend $2.5K on cabins, then adding $3K for all of the unnecessary stuff will still keep me under $10K. 🙂 I, for one, would rethink spending $3K on stuff we don't really need to enjoy a cruise rather than completely cancelling the whole cruise for 5 people. But if that's what your family wants - cancel away! Mine would rather cruise without internet or an alcohol package for a week.

Promenade cafe should be open as well. My kid loves Sorrento's pepperoni pizza.

yes, driving with kids always takes longer. Plus, you have to account for all sorts of traffic delays/accidents/road work...

I would leave a lot earlier than that.

it's just unreasonable to me. I can only imagine how upset my family would be if I were to cancel our cruise (mind you, we only cruise twice a year) because the optional drink package was too expensive. Heck, I'd be mad at myself. We cruise just fine without it, and we pay as we go for an occasional alcoholic drink.

first, you are paying a much higher rate for the cabin to begin with compared to their "no frills rate." And then it's "only $153" in gratuities tucked on. So, no, it's not "only $153 pp for a week."

duplicate glitch

that's just crazy to me. We cruise, but we don't get any packages or internet, other than an occasional soda package for the kid. And we don't cancel because of the drink package prices. Can you not cruise without adding thousands of dollars in drink, food or internet packages? These are OPTIONAL charges. It can be done, you know. And it's still super enjoyable.

where? can you give a link?

so, it wasn't a picture of YOU? just your work logo? Why even bother?

just the passport numbers, expiration dates, credit card numbers. A photo is easy to upload. I took pics of us against a beige wall in the house and that's what I've used for a couple of years now. I use the app to choose the arrival time - first thing, but I like to type all the other data in on a regular keyboard later, when I have time for it - I am not good at using the phone's keyboard. . I am sure the credit card number can be changed at boarding.