djvcr

Just back from a week on Oasis. Overall had a good time but it was packed. I don't usually sail during the spring and forgot how crowded it can feel with a lot of kids on board. Here are some observations about recent changes and some experiences.. Overall new main dining room menu's weren't that bad. Did Chops + 1 to fill in gap on the two nights I didn't care for what was in dining room. If you order more than 1 entrée they will not serve two plates at same time. Wanted to share the chicken parm and they had to wait for one of us to finish before they could put the plate on the table and take one plate away. Same thing with lobster night, the tables on both sides wanted surf and turf so they ordered both steak and lobster but could only be served one at a time. The lobster is not much bigger than the old lobster, certainly not worth 16.95 if you want a second one. Line for El Loco Fresh was 45 min on both sea days. 1/2 the options are grab and go... the bottleneck is the nachos, people take forever on that step and there is nobody making their tacos to their left which holds up the line. Waiter spilled a soda on my back one night and the section manager gave me a laundry coupon for two items. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't finish dinner and mostly dried before I left. They never offer coffee with desert and just serve the desert. Did ask one night for coffee but was done with desert before coffee arrived. I ordered lemonade the first night and one night both head and assistant brought me 2 each along with a club soda and a mixed drink I ordered. I had more than enough to drink that night 🙂 It was very difficult to get anything except for milk for coffee in dining room at breakfast/dinner or at specialty restaurant. When we order my partner says he wants milk for his coffee and I want cream or half and half. The waiter will say ok and come back with one container. We will ask what it is and they will say either milk or cream. We then would ask for the other one and they would say that is what it is or they would say it's milk. I would then ask again and say is there any other options for creamer other than milk and they will say they will go to the room service kitchen and ask. Yet if you go to the Cafe in the promenade, windjammer or even Park Cafe they have Milk, Skim and Cream out for the coffee. Park Cafe - No more egg in the "Royal Breakfast Sandwich", it is now just ham and cheese on an English muffin. I suspect the price of eggs has to do with this decision. Also they stopped giving out bags of chips at lunch time. For those missing the old Royal Breakfast Sandwich, we did Johnny Rockets twice for breakfast and it was pretty good and they serve a breakfast sandwich that you can customize. Both times it wasn't very busy and nice alternative to dining room. Elevators were either all 5+ floors above or 5+ floors above your location. How many can be on 15 at the same time even at the most random times. Once a day housekeeping - Had a Jr. Suite, he still did 2x per day but if we were in the room at 5pm he would knock every day and ask when we were leaving. On last night we told him 6pm and actually left at 6:15 but he never did the cabin. was told by Regalia Watches that they are no longer allowed to send "mail" to guests so they couldn't send out a notice for an event due to the change in schedule for housekeeping. Overall casino was super tight, there are a lot of new games onboard since I sailed in Sept. Since there were a lot more families on board the casino was pretty dead during the day and not very busy at night. On some sailings it is impossible to get on any machines in the evening. I feel like this is why I didn't do so well, not as much turnover in the slots. It still amazes me how many families will drag their kids through the smoking side of the casino to get to the theater. The new non-smoking casino opened on Thursday for the first time in old Jazz on 4. There are 2 table games (roulette and blackjack I think) as well as slots and a small casino cage in the corner. Overall the room is not that large but all the slots are new. Sailed in a Jr. Suite for the first time. Super impressed with the size and how much room there is to walk around and not bump into furniture. Wish the bathroom was a little bigger but the strangest part of the room is there is a nice curtain to block off the sofa bed area but there is no separate light control for that part of the room. The switches only operated the entire room and could not turn a light on just at the sofa area. We have been sailing in Grand Suites for the past few cruises and almost like the layout of the Jr. Better, I always find the "bar" in the Grand Suite to be a ton of wasted space but the bathroom is far better in the GS. They still haven't brought back their second aqua show or their other theater show. Not sure if we will see either come back at this point. Went to diamond lounge twice around 6pm and it was not very busy either night, likely again due to families. The 4 drinks for diamond at any bar really is a great perk. The weather was perfect all week, not a drop of rain and temps mostly in the upper 70s to low 80s and not super humid. I was expecting it to be much more humid than it was. On the private island the sun got very strong but there was a nice breeze to offset it. Did walk off at about 7am and was at airport by 7:40 (even though my taxi driver drove the wrong way on a 1 way road to leave the port and got lots of honks from oncoming traffic). Fare was $46.00 to MIA. This post is not meant to be complaining, just highlighting some stuff that changed between my Sept 22 and March 23 sailing. Any cruise is better than a week at work and overall none of the above ruined the cruise in any way.

It's still there, under the in-stateroom services, 1 free bag on 5+ day for D+ and P.

I don't think I have seen that in a long time. As for offers, some have free-play some don't. You also don't have to the take the cabin type on the offer and can upgrade to whatever you want. You basically just have to pay the price difference between the offered cabin and the one you want. I have not heard of them giving free-play instead of a comp room if you already have something booked. Good luck, let us know what their response is.

Embassy Suites near the airport is decent. They offer a shuttle to the cruise port too, either $10 or $15 per person. Its about a 20 min ride if I remember since it is not in downtown. I don't think there is a lot near it but there is an on site restaurant and free breakfast.

On Allure in June, the MDR lobster tails were free flowing in CK on lobster night. We saw others getting the full tail vs the lobster dish on the CK menu and asked for that. We were both served two tails and every plate coming out seemed to have two tails. Each ship and even each crew change on a ship have different rules, so hit or miss.

Last year I wasn't seeing any offers and talked to my host. If you have existing casino bookings and the new offer overlaps with your booking (for example you are booked on a ship/sailing included in the offer they exclude you from the offer even if there are a ton of other dates on the offer). They said they were trying this out because they had a lot of people constantly rebooking cruises during the pandemic times when they would sweeten the deals from time to time. Not sure if they are still doing this because I have 2 casino bookings and I still have offers in my account now.